Happy to be me

Holly took some photos of me on a recent walk, she was amazed when I scrapped them so quickly as there are very few pages of me in any of our scrapbooks as I am generally the photographer. I got to use another of my Stampin Up Christmas presents, the white crocheted doily. I had previously had a go at doing them myself (the larger pink one) but had never got around to incorporating them into any layout.
Here is a close up, I sewed a button(Doodlebug) on to the white doily and used a brad further up the stem. The felt flowers are from here, the paper flowers are all from Prima

The blue patterned paper is from Graphic 45 all the rest is Basic Grey.

Leaf stem- Kaiser craft, available here

This one is for you Judy

My friend Judy gave me a beautiful pack of white paper with embossed designs on by Stampin Up for part of my Christmas present along with a gold smooch spritz spray and this is what I have come up with. I traced lightly around where I wanted the tag (Basic Grey) and decorated chipboard shape, removed them and then spritzed more heavily around the edge of the tracing line and then lightly as I worked away from the line. I then dusted close to the line with gold shimmer chalk by Dovecraft and covered the rest of the page in a light dusting of coloured chalks to pick up the colours in the tag. I added the photo and a small tag with the date on and stamped "love is like a butterfly" on to the decorated chipboard. Using a cut and emboss die from Stampin Up I produced all the different sized butterflies and the adhered them to the page. In this photo you can't really see how it shimmers or the subtlety of the lighter chalking.
Here you can see a close up of the design showing through the spritzing and chalks. I had a great time working on the project and loved how you could alter the depth of the design by the heavy/light application of the chalks.

One of six - Just for you Christine

Here are the last of my Basic Grey Origins layouts. I still have paper left though, so you never know!

When out with friends last night I foolishly mentioned that having not blogged for so long I would upload six in quick succession, hence the title. I had a great time, stamping (not much) chatting ( a lot) and eating (more than I should have)...yes you have guessed it - chocolate goodies. We had a new addition to our regular little band, Christine's son Ethan, who is a delight. He quietly got on with his own cardmaking and the inking of his own arms - very attractive, and then gave us a little show and tell of all the cards he had made over the last few days, what a prolific little creative talent he is. That boy and his charm will go far.

More school layouts

Here are the other two Origin's layouts I promised you. To answer your question Christine, yes I did use most of it, so I went out and bought more!!
During her junior years Lauren's reports were peppered with comment like "must learn to moderate her views in light of discussion", "needs to be more appreciative of the contribution of others". Lauren always saw things in black and white and it was her way or the highway. As I said in the previous post she was always loud, she was also forthright, she did learn that others sometimes have something valueable to add but she didn't suffer fools gladly and her inability to hold back on her own views did lead to her have the unenviable title in her year book when leaving secondary school as - Person with least tact. It makes a mother proud!!!

The double layout is of my younger daughter Holly when she left her junior school in England to move here. This layout uses the PaperTrey Ink stamp set - Friends til the end. Holly was a much more easy going character who didn't make waves, which made the end of year reports a little less "interesting" to read.

School Days

Here are a few school layouts of Lauren, the papers in both are from Basic Grey's Origins line, which I absolutely love. I was round at Claire's for a stamp night and she showed us this fab paper and the layouts she had done with it and that was it, the day after next I was at the shop buying it all up, unfortunately the shop had sold out of lots of the smaller embellishments, not that that deterred me, I tracked down what I wanted elsewhere. It all just matched perfectly with the not particularly flattering school uniform colours. I have done two other school layouts for years 4 and 6 which I will put up later. Lauren is at Uni now so these are a bit of a blast from the past. Don't be fooled by the innocent looking unsure face in the year 1 layout, Lauren was brim full of confidence and so competitive, always had to be first to finish her work (even if it meant it was rushed) always first to get in line ( the teacher knew this and would often lead the line out from the rear, much toLauren's annoyance) or the first to volunteer when the teacher asked. It was a good school though where they nurtured her talents and directed her competitiveness into her work. She was full of life and for the most part loud. I had to laugh when her Head teacher was chatting to me one day he said"I never need to ask where Lauren is, I can always hear her"Only as she progressed through High School did she quieten down.

The big top is down and it is on it's way

This is my final Circle Circus offering before I return the stamp set this week. A rather bold and bright little number, I am sure you will agree. I took the colours and the daisy theme from the clothes my daughter is wearing. At her old junior school, they had a summer fete every year and the kids all dressed up and performed songs, a play and sometimes dancing for the parents. This year was a hippy theme. I stamped the images onto green cards stock in a dark pink ink, punched them out and then topped them with a circle frame (cut with cuttlebug dies). The background on the pink paper was stamped with a large flourish stamp using a multicolour ink pad.

Ingredients
Paper: Bo Bunny
Dies: Daisy - Sizzix, Mini Letters - Sizzix, Circle frames - Cuttlebug
Chipboard Letters: Heidi Swapp
Letter Stickers: My little shoebox (available from http://www.scrapinthebox.com.au/)
Stamps: Butterfly - Basic Grey ( also from Scrap in the box) Flourish - Stampin Up Baroque Motifs set

Sunday's offerings

Saw this from my driveway on Sunday morning. Wow, I bet they were cold up there!! We often see one or two but I have never seen four together.

The layout "We are family" were old photos from about 16/17 years ago, when we lived in England and the children were small, the little baby boy is our darling son Joshua, who died when he was 5 from cancer. Not a day goes by that we don't think of him and how our lives would be if he were still with us.

Ingredients
Paper, journalling etc: Bo Bunny
Chipboard Family: $2 shop
Letter stickers: Large -Basic grey, Small-unknown
Border punch: Christine Re

The other layout is of our oldest daughter Lauren, when she was around four, with her cousin Matthew, who recently came to visit us from England (he is now 29) so just a bit bigger than in the photo. Isn't the paper gorgeous? Note the "lovely" gold curtains in the background, they were my Mum's, I know, what on earth possessed her!!
Ingredients
Paper: Hot of the press
Flowers: Prima
Pearls: Kaisercraft
Punches: Leone Em

Well that is all I did this Sunday, oh apart from buying and planting some new fruit trees. Nectarine, orange, lime, avocado and peach.

Two more layouts

Can anyone help me with my photography? When ever I take double pages layouts and sometimes single page ones, it doesn't matter how carefully I line them up, when I process the photo they always come out a bit banana shaped, looking like the layout isn't straight. Any ideas where I am going wrong?

Layout 1 - Australia day at Rosebud, Vic

Ingredients
Paper: Stampin Up DSP Rainbow Sherbet (now retired I think)
Letters: Orange Stickers - Basic Grey
Embellishments: Circles - I think they are Sweetwater, others from $2 shop. Thongs/flipflops - Jesse James Buttons

Layout 2 - Oldest daughter when just a year old in my Mum's garden in England.

Ingredients
Paper and stickers: Stampin Up Simply Scrappin kit - Petal party
Grass: Sizzix border die
Stamp set: Stampin Up - Enjoy Every Moment, others Creative Cafe