One Lucky Scrapper

Hi Scrappers,

Yesterday I had a lovely surprise in the post when a prize came from Helen and Melinda at Card and a Half. There was heaps of Imaginisce products in the box including an i-rock - I shouldn't have to go shopping for a long time. HUGE thanks to Melinda Spinks for organising such a generous prize.

But before I get my sticky mitts on all those new products, here's my attempt at the Scrap the Boys challenge for this month. The challenge was to use any household/family ephemera on your layout. Can you spot what I used? It's the red frame around the photos - anyone who has an Orchard Toys kids game will probably have seen one of these. The games have different cards in them which have to be popped out of these white frames before they can be used. Instead of chucking the frames in the bin I thought I'd see if they could be used on a page. They're the perfect size for 6 x 6cm photos so I've painted mine red and covered it with Dimensional Magic.

Image courtesy of LSBS


Amazing what you can do with leftover packaging eh? Makes me look at old bits of rubbish in a whole new light...
Well that's it for September challenges - hope you are enjoying the school holidays and haven't gone crazy yet. I'm bracing myself for the Smurfs movie tomorrow.

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx

Once Upon A Sketch

Hi Scrappers,

Happy Monday! Thought I'd try my hand at a different challenge site this time - Once Upon a Sketch is a sketch challenge blog with a focus on journaling. Here's the sketch -

And here's my take on it -

Image courtesy of Little Scrapbook Shop


The journaling challenge is to write 2 lines of journaling on the photo - yes, I realise there's a few more but counting never was one of my strong points. I love great journaling and there's been many a layout that has made me a bit teary when reading the words. When it comes to my own journaling the only tears are of frustration when I find that I can't actually fit any on the page!

So thanks to Once Upon a Sketch for making me have a go...even if there is room for improvement!

Have a great week,
Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx

Pink for a change

Hi Scrappers,

Hope you're having a productive weekend.

Well I so enjoyed using my Crate Paper scraps the other day that I decided to keep going with the pink theme and did a layout using photos taken at my brother in laws wedding last year. It's very appropriate as tomorrow will be their first wedding anniversary. (Happy Anniversary Nick and Isla - see, I haven't forgotten!)

Now, I used to loathe the colour pink but with two little boys in the house (3 if you count hubbie) I sometimes yearn to see a few touches of feminine pink around the place! I think the photos are absolutely beautiful so I kept it all very simple and barely used any embellishments at all.

One year on and the beautiful bride can no longer fit into her wedding dress but is certainly just as beautiful, as she's expecting her first bub in a few weeks time. The great news for me is that I'll be using pink a lot more in the future - yay!

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx

Colour Challenge

Hi Scrappers,

2 posts within 24 hours - not bad for a hard days scrapping! Actually I seem to be wearing my card hat at the moment. Whilst flicking through some blogs last night I noticed Crate Paper's colour challenge. The challenge? To make a card, OTP or layout using the following colours:

Since these are from one of my all time favourite paper collections (Pink Plum) I thought I'd have a go at making a card. Whilst at the LSBS retreat I was given some gorgeous Crate Paper rubons from their Prudence collection. I've cut one of these into three and used it on each of my square panels -

I thought of adding some bling to the flowers but the rubons and papers are so pretty I didn't think anything else was needed.

Ok, I really think I'd better go and do some cleaning now - this obsession really does have to stop somewhere!

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx

Make a friend happy

Hi Scrappers,

This months My MInds Eye challenge is to make a card from this sketch and use the theme 'friendship.'

I don't know what it is with MME sketches but I always think they are deceptively simple! For the first time ever my red hair got the better of me whilst crafting and I got completely frustrated and chucked the first card in the bin! It just looked...wrong. I knew I wanted to use an old Stamping Up rubon I've had forever but the size of it just wouldn't fit with a C5 card so I flipped the sketch and used a square base. Anyway, here's the result -

Hard to believe there are patterned papers and embellishments from 5 different MME collections. Of course now I just have to figure out how I'm going to fit it into an envelope!

Happy Scrapping!
Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx

Mojo's back

Hi Scrappers,

So a little break goes a long way when your scrap mojo's gone and what better way to get it back than by doing a challenge. This months challenge at Kraft it Up is to use fabric and stitching on your layout -

Can you spot the fabric? I'm afraid it's a little lame as my sewing skills are pretty much like my painting skills. Ie non-existent! I've used a piece of felt to mat the patterned papers. There's loads of stitching on there though, so I guess I've sort of redeemed myself! I've hand stitched a kind of flourish on there - hint: make sure you do this before you stick everything onto the card stock otherwise it will take about 3 hours and you'll have RSI in your fingers! I've also stitched a border around the October Afternoon paper and I've done a heap of faux stitching around the edge.

So I'm all stitched out now - but at least I'm happy with the layout, unlike the last few!
Happy scrapping!

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx

All scrapped out

Hi Scrappers,

Just a quick post tonight - my mojo's still gone walkabout so I'll have to share a layout I did last weekend at the retreat. Things have got so desperate I've resorted to making my Christmas cards 4 months early!
This was about the only attempt at scrapbooking made using my challenge kit last week at the LSBS retreat.

Luckily the colours of the paper went perfectly with William's preschool photos so at least something went right!

Here's hoping I can get an original thought in my head in the next few days...

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx