Shield Your Eyes Everyone...

...there's some really bad photos coming up on this next layout! Scrapbook Savvy had its monthly Cybercrop this week - I love cybercrops but I haven't done one for ages as a lot of the scrappy sites seem to have switched to monthly challenges.

I found some absolutely horrendous passport photos recently but thought they'd make an interesting layout. (My family would probably disagree!) Now, my theory is that only one kind of person looks good in their passport photo and that's a supermodel. At best, the rest of us look like we're in dire need of a makeover. At worst, it looks like we should be doing 20 years hard time in Goulburn prison.

Anthea's challenge was to use circles, ribbon, dimension and chipboard on our layout - I managed to get all of them on there, although I found it quite difficult as I had absolutely nothing that matched with the papers I picked. Talk about improvisation!

My lovely hubbie commented that it was no wonder I was single when this photo was taken. Charming as ever. Let's face it, unless they allow soft focus and photoshop, it's highly unlikely that any of will look like that supermodel!

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx

A Wordy Challenge

Hi Scrappers,

Could the weather in Sydney get any worse? We've had constant downpours for the last 3 days and it doesn't show any sign of leaving. Kind of reminds me why I live in Australia as it brings back memories of damp, dreary Summers in the UK!

Not to worry - perfect weather for scrapping so here is my entry into Scrapbook Savvy's Wordy Challenge this month. The challenge is to use your subject's name in the title -

As you can see, my son went from a smartly dressed little man in his own little suit and tie, to a bloodied mess in the space of about 3 seconds. I'd worried for months about all kinds of things that could potentially go wrong...kids ruining the ceremony, getting the brides dress dirty with sticky hands and generally running wild like 4 and 2 year olds do. I didn't anticipate spending most of the wedding in the local hospital Emergency Room!

Anyway, makes for a good scrapping story so there's always a silver lining eh?

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx

Going dotty

Hi Scrappers,

Playing with those MME papers for the Scraptherapy challenge reminded me to have a go at this months MME challenge. The rule? Use the colour brown. Now I have heaps of old papers with brown on but unfortunately none of them seem to match anything else so I've had to improvise a little and use an MME lace border stamp with some brown ink. Here's the sketch -

- and the card -

As you can see I did manage to find a few scraps of brown paper in the depths of my MME stash so it's all looking a little bit dotty. I've covered some raw chipboard with the paper, wrapped some ribbon around it and added a few bits of bling to the lace stamping.

That's all for now - it's such a wet and miserable day in Sydney today - I might just have to cheer myself up by scrapping with some bright, happy colours tonight!

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx

Scraptherapy card challenge

Hi Scrappers,

I don't feel as though I've done a card for ages so what better way to kickstart that mojo than by doing Julie's sketch challenge over at Scraptherapy. You can do a layout or a card from the following sketch but you must have at least one stamped image on the card and use beads -

Here we go...

I'm hoping that only using one bead is acceptable! I made a couple of paper beads out of Japanese Yuzen paper and used them for the butterfly bodies. The paper's My Minds Eye and the butterfly stamp is from Papertrey Ink. Here's a close up of one of the butterflies so you can see the beads more clearly -

Well, just a quick post tonight...too much scrapping to do and too much chardy to drink (but never at the same time)

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx

Studio Calico Challenge

Hi Scrappers,

Hope you are all having a good Saturday! I did a page last night for the the latest Studio Calico sketch. I've been wanting to have a play with my new stash of goodies for a while so thought I'd play along with the Sunday Sketch -

I managed to get some good pics of the kids playing on their new water slide in the garden yesterday. They loved it but apparently you're meant to put soap on it to make it really slippy...oops - think I may have reduced the fun factor a bit! Here's what I came up with -

The page came together really quickly as I had a few bits and pieces from the same collection. I covered the foam Thickers in Dimensional Magic and added a few drops of Glimmer Mist, then swirled them around with a cocktail stick. Thought it kind of made the letters look 'watery' (or maybe not!)

Well I'm all scrapped out now so might have a go at the new Scraptherapy card challenge that went up last night.

Happy scrapping and thanks for stopping by,
Cheers,
Claire xx

Life Before Kids

Hi Scrappers,

Do you remember what life was like before marriage, kids and and a whopping great big mortgage? Way back in the dark ages I used to work in the travel industry so I wanted to do a page on some of the trips I made. Unfortunately I didn't have a digital camera at the time so a lot of my photos are either lost, back in the UK or are simply too bad to scrapbook!

I managed to scrape together a few decent shots and for once I've done a double page - very rare for me. I didn't have much travel themed stuff, so, since my old passport had a lot of stamps in it I decided to scan it and copy it on to some cardstock. I couldn't do that with my current passport - there's nothing in it!

So here it is...

Not quite sure what that expression on my face is on one of the photos - I don't look that happy considering I'm meant to be in the most romantic city in the world. Maybe I'd just had a row with my man!

Hopefully one day the exotic travels will start again - maybe with the kids in tow. I'd better go and buy a lottery ticket I think...

Happy scrapping and thanks for stopping by,
Claire xx

Time for a card

Hi Scrappers,

Just a short post this time (in case you're wondering, the length of post is normally determined by the number of glasses of wine I've had. Ie. short - none. Long - way too many.)

It feels like ages since I had go at a card challenge so thought I'd have a go at this months challenge at Card and a Half. I love the simplicity of this sketch -

Here's what I did with it using some gorgeous Cosmo Cricket papers we were given at this years LSBS retreat -

I've used some Versamark ink again on the flower but it never shows up in the photos which is a shame.

Told you it would be short,

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,
Claire x