Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A perfect day

Ever have one of those days - one where everything makes you feel good... well I got to spend a rare day with my friend Annie and we decided to check out a couple of scrapbook shops neither of us had been to (shock horror gasp). So off we drove and after a few minor detours found the first and had a lovely time,  I even got to say hi to someone I haven't seen for a while.

We then decided we needed some sustenance and just pulled up in front of this amazing cafe. It was part bookshop, part cafe, part lounge and just pure eye candy to me. This is a shot of one of the walls and this is why my camera goes everywhere with me.


The bonus was the food - we had bacon & eggs for lunch - it was just that kind of a day - sigh.

With a bit of reluctance we set off to find the next store and again had a lovely time looking (and yes spending a little money). Set off home and got back in time to have a cuppa before Annie had to pick up her son from school - so we felt we had achieved a lot in the perfect amount of time.

I wish there were more days like that.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

All that Glitters

you know the saying...... well it's true. Green Tara's silver sprays are sooooooo lovely, I just can't  seem to get enough of them. They certainly don't have to be just used for wedding things - Renee used them as decorations on Christmas gift boxes, but this is another example of how special they are.


I teamed them with white petals (which I sprayed with old lace glimmer mist as the dress is a bit creamy) with white pearl garland ribbon, white lace, white diamante flowers, silver swirl mulberry paper and silver ribbon. All the embellishments are Green Tara - the rest is just black & white card stock. I glimmer misted the white card stock with frost using a KI Memories die cut sheet as a mask to get the swirly pattern and EK Success border punch on the black card stock to mimic the curve of the dress.

Here is a close up...


Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Thinking Happy Thoughts

I have been flat out this week with my "real" job, so not had time to play, but did manage to on the weekend and made a few cards with a friend. I have always loved stamping and while I love the clear stamps because you can see where you are stamping, there is really nothing to compare to rubber for detail- so love the fact that you can cling rubber to your clear blocks. I am after all a huge fan of versatility....


so this card was made with Darkroom Door Harlequin backgrouund stamp and an assortment of g design & scrappy cat clear stamps and the beautiful rust flower and teeny white flower are from Green Tara. So now I'm thinking happy thoughts about my next free day to scrap & stamp.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Just for fun

I had so much fun just playing with this layout - it is a departure from my normal "style"....and it's all about me (another thing I rarely do).


I am loving the Jute ribbon from Green Tara - it comes in 3 widths and I tried printing on it, with some success. It is not a clean print as you would on a more dense weave of ribbon, but certainly went with the whole look I had going, so I was happy with it. I also used the Suede Leave ribbon in beige and made a flower out of it with the Suede Leaf ribbon in green as leaves with hand stitched veins. the other flowers were  Green Tara Daisies in taupe & lilac. The additional embellishments were K&Co Ephemera and the metal winged heart was from Autumn Leaves.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Bayberry Cottage

I just finished teaching a class today at Joyful Scraps using the Pink Paislee Bayberry Cottage range. The layout was inspired by one I did with Becky Fleck at SIA, but tweaked into a double page spread.

The add on for this class was a set of cards which I just love- so very cool and my girls are fighting over who gets to give them away, so more might have to be made ;-)


Sunday, September 12, 2010

Seriously Spring

Ok - September comes rolling around and with it comes the urge to purge and clean...so that's just what I've been up to. I get a great sense of satisfaction seeing clean surfaces and things neatly put where they belong (and STAYING THAT WAY) - sorry that was aimed at my family.

Yesterday was a novelty for us - NO sport for the kids - Netball has ended for the year and cricket starts up in a few weeks (well for the girls, for my hubby it started yesterday) which prompted me to clean out the office. Scott has been holed up in there for what seems like weeks with various committees that he is on as well as work and it was beginning to look like a tip and I was sure no one could find anything. So off he went & in I went. He now has neat pile of various things and I can see desk (and floor) and there were no complaints about it when he got home. That got me looking for the next room to tackle - think it will be the laundry.

Another great thing about spring is the lovely early mornings and even though it was still technically winter when I took this shot, it shows the stillness of the early morn before everyone got up at the Joyful Scraps weekend.







Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Dream

Today I taught a really great class that unfortunately I can't claim as my own design. It was designed by  one of the talented designers at Fancy Pants Designs and was one of the great classes I got to experience at Creative Block earlier this year. I did however, design this add on -


A single page layout also using FPD Roadshow range. I cut into the mitering of the frame and scored near the frame edges and then laid foam tape along the back of the frame section to raise it up. This creates dimension and could quite easily be hung on the wall. It is a simple technique, but very effective.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Check It Out

Green Tara has a great competition running at the moment so you have from now till the 30th Sept to create a layout, OR a card OR even an off the page project. just has long as it has Green Tara's products on the design. Check out the Green Tara blog (see link at side bar) for all the details, but the winner will receive a basket of  Green Tara product and their entry  will be displayed on the blog. So good luck and have lots of fun - can't wait to see the entries.


This frame was made with the GT Jute, silver sprays, batik vintage asters and beige petals, but check out Joyful Scraps for more gorgeous Green Tara products.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Memory Lane

I taught this layout 2 weeks ago at Joyful Scraps and the ladies had a lot of fun playing with the different techniques.



We created the background using Glimmer Mists and Darkroom Door products. The border was made by enamelling parts of the Art De Fleur Montage with UTEE, cracking it and staining the cracks with Distress inks. We stamped  cream cardstock with Art De Fleur stamps in 3 different colours. The photo mat papers are Fancy Pants Designs Roadshow range Cards & French Press - also glimmer misted and edge distressed. Viva La Flora wordstrips finish the whole layout off, giving it a romantic old world look with Gemstone Ruby Red cardstock as the backing.

Friday, September 3, 2010

A peek at yesterday

A few weeks ago, Joyful Scraps hosted a weekend of scrapbooking classes. This epic weekend was a great deal of fun, exhausting and very fulfilling. The layout in yesterday's post is an add on from one of the classes that I taught, using Tattered Angels glimmer mists, Tim Holtz masks & diecuts and Green Tara flowers . The flattering photo was taken by the very talented Karina Honyi last year.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting some of the other projects that were taught and maybe even some of the after hours photos (like this one).
 

Thursday, September 2, 2010

This is me

I have been a scrapper for 10 years now and enjoy not only the actual scrapping but also the amazing people I have met along the way. So many friendships and bonds forged. I have been lucky enough to teach classes for the past five years and am on the design teams for Joyful Scraps and Green Tara. My style is quite clean & linear, but every now & then I shake it up with some shabby or grunge. I have a love affair with product - ribbon, flowers, bling, stamps, inks, chipboard - basically everything to do with scrapbooking.

My two main subjects would be my gorgeous girls, but my woosy cat and various family and friends make it in there too. I even scrap me sometimes. I love photography (my own & others) and the links and memories to the past that this wonderful tool provides.

I hope you enjoy my musings on all things scrapping and the photos and layouts that I can't wait to share with you.

Just Remember to Breathe