At last some scrapping!

Hi Scrappers, seems like ages since I posted a scrapbooking layout so I looked to a sketch to kickstart my mojo at Handmade by Suzanne. I'm just loving the sketches on this site, particularly the one for this month:

I made a few changes - masked a star using Glimmer Mist on a kraft background and outlined it in black paint to make it pop a bit, added a few lines of journalling (oops - forgot a date!) and did my own version of bunting with a cuttlebug die and some thread. It came together pretty quickly - you can probably tell! This is the first layout I've done using Kraft as the base and I really like how it's turned out.

So I'm hoping my mojo has had a good kicking and that I can get back into scrapping mode. There's nothing more frustrating than looking at a blank piece of paper and not knowing where to start. Here's hoping that July will be a scrappier (and not crappier) month!

Cheers for stopping by,
Claire xx

It's that time again

Happy Sunday everyone!

I'm beginning to wonder why I call myself a scrapbooker as I seem to be spending most of the time making cards at the moment. I'd love to have done the scrap sketch on the MME blog this month but since we've had a house full of visitors for over a week I only had time for a card. The theme for this month was 'Song Lyrics'. Here's the sketch...

...and here's my version

Star Spangled Banner are the lyrics that have inspired this. With July 4th just round the corner it's my tribute to all things American so what could be more appropriate than using red, white and blue! I mainly used MME's Alphabet Soup for this one and a few red brads I had laying around in my stash. Not sure why I thought this would be quicker than a layout - those flags took forever!

And just to finish - a huge congrats to Kerryn Lawson and Geli Duncan who won Scrapbooking Memories 'Express Yourself' competition (traditional section.) Make sure you check out their blogs to see their beautiful creations.

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx

Green Tara

Hi there Happy Scrappers!
What do you do when a scrapbooking/card company are just down the road from you? Ring them up and ask if you can go and see them of course! How convenient that Green Tara, who import beautiful ribbons, skeleton leaves and other goodies,are based about 2km down the road from me. I met the owners last year at our local preschool where I was selling my cards and, since some of them had Green Tara products on, they very kindly bought a couple and put them up on their blog.

So I popped over last week with the intention of just getting a packet of skeleton leaves (little did I know!) They had lots of gorgeous new products, some of which aren't even in the shops yet. Here's a sneaky peeky at what I bought and how I've used it on a couple of cards I made...

Check out those striped ribbons..perfect for a boy layout or card and the pink, frilled ribbon is just beautiful. I also got some paper string in 4 different colours and of course the skeleton leaves which I've been using for ages.

And here's the cards -

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx

Copic Crazy

Hi fellow scrap addicts!
What a crazy couple of weeks it's been - the preschool fair (where I volunteered to go on the garden stall - pretty dumb when you consider that every plant I've ever owned has died), a kids birthday party, a 40th party and countless kid stuff inbetween. Not much time for scrapping unfortunately!
Its been a while since I went to a card making class but I've been meaning to take a lesson in Copic Markers for months. I bought some of them last year but hadn't a clue how to use them - to me, they just looked like normal markers. I've seen so many beautiful coloured, stamped images on various blogs that I decided to take a lesson so off I went to my local craft shop and had a practice with some cute stamps, supplied by the store. My first attempt was nothing short of pathetic - I completely overdid the colour and saturated the paper but eventually I managed something passable! I've only completed one card so far and it's very simple. But to be honest, I think the images are so vibrant, that not much else is needed.

Anyway, this is my first attempt at colouring with Copics. I've never been a huge stamper but I reckon I could become a little Copic crazy if I'm not careful!

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx