Just Add Ink Challenge #9 - Sketch Challenge

I thought I'd use this week's Just Add Ink challenge to inspire some scrapbooking because I have been waaaay slack when it comes to my scrapbooking. This week the challenge was a sketch challenge:

Now, I've gone way out on a limb here, in terms of adhering to the sketch...but I think that you can see that I have the same elements, but they are teensy weensy bit different. Screw your eyes up when you look at my page...it might help some ;-)

List of Ingredients:

Cardstock: Real Red, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black and Whisper White
Stamps: Choo Choo
Inks: Kiwi Kiss, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red and Basic Black Classic Ink and Whisper White Craft Ink
Accessories: Right on Track Standard Wheel, Hoppy Memories Simply Scrappin Kit, On Board Timeless Type, Crystal Effects, Basic Black Marker, Star Designer Brads, Styled Silver Hodgepodge, Creative Memories silver numbers, Cuttlebug Diamond Plate Embossing Folder, Dimensionals, Sticky Strip and SNAIL Adhesive.

This is a close up of the photo that I have used on the page:

The original of this photo is here:

In Photoshop I cropped it down,  cloned out the electrical wires in the sky and some of the person down the platform (sorry person!). I then ran Pioneerwoman's B & W action...tinkered with the light layer, then ran the quick edge burn and reduced the opacity some. I was pretty pleased with the end result.

I have blogged about this steam train trip before, here.

Thanks for visiting today :-).

Blogged to: Bridal Train - The Waifs and Take On Me - a-ha).

Dinotopia...

... Last night I sat down to make a scrap page. Since I've had dinosaur punch art on my mind of late, I decided it would be a 12 x 12 dinosaur-themed page.

It didn't come out on paper nearly as groovy as it looked in my head (funny that ;-). I don't think that photo is the right one for the page....not at all. But anyway...I'm posting it here, because it took FOREVAH to make, and I like how the punch art turned out! I'll ponder the photo and re-jig if I figure out how to fix it.

I've blotted out a little poem (using Photoshop) that I composed and wrote around the edge of the page (on the Chocolate Chip frame) in White Gel Pen, its for our eyes only.

The photo is one of our son, aged two, and with food all over his face. Nothing to do with dinosaurs, but it looked like he was kinda surprised and possibly about to scream...which I thought fitted the dinosaur theme. I found that I don't have any decent photos of him playing with his dinosaurs, and he wouldn't consent to an impromptu sitting. Maybe once I rectify that situation I'll have something better to put there.

I'm going to leave it at that. Its too hot to be thinking this hard.

(Blogged to: Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen).

I Heart U....

...I am still thinking about the fun Just Add Ink challenge - Just Add Hearts here. So this afternoon I sat down and made the following 6 x 6 scrapbook page:

... made using the Love Sparkles Simply Scrappin' Kit.

I also made the following little card..because all the stuff was already out, and the colours are so yummy looking, they were beckoning to me!

Well, Grey's Anatomy is about to start...so I've gotta run!

:-)

(Blogged to: My Kitchen Rules).

PS. In my rush to get to Grey's last night I forgot to mention that I have run a bunch of Pioneer Woman Photoshop actions on the scrap layout photo of hubby. The original photo is in colour, and was taken with my Christmas present, which was a little Canon PowerShot D10 (which is waterproof to 10m...and I was standing in water when I took the photo...but not in 10m of it ;-). But I digress...I think the actions were: Old West, followed by Soft and Faded, with some Quick Edge Burn thrown in for good measure...but then mostly cropped off.

A Picture Perfect Day in Canberra

As the title says, today is a picture perfect day in our Nation's Capital. The sky is blue, the temperature is mild (23 degrees celcius), the birds are singing, the bees are buzzing. I have a cold...still, but it'll go away...eventually.

I should be hanging washing, but I'm not (yesterday I had an email from a friend who told me she was doing the ironing...to which I thought, I wonder if we still have one of those here? ;-). I am being a bit of a slacker, but you know what? I don't care. I've been inspired to do a CASE of a scrapbook page. My inspiration was the layout on page 4 of the current Stampin' Up! Spring Mini Catalogue. I have been meaning to make this page for a while now, but after recently seeing more lovely renditions of it, on Rachel Capps' blog here, and by Keryn Campbell on the NZSUblog here....finally last night I got to it.

and so....I have just finished, and now I have craft STUFF littered from one end of the house to the other. My efforts are often a bit uncoordinated. I kind of start in one place, run out of room, move to another...decide I need to do some printing...move there, shuffle different types of glossy paper all over the place, decide I need some thread so rather than bringing it to my work...I take the work to the thread...I have opened packets of rub-ons scattered here and there, unrolled rolls of ribbon adorning the dining table, my camera is on the bedroom floor, my house is CHAOS! But I'm pretty darn chuffed with the way the page turned out:

List of Ingredients (all from Stampin' Up!):

Cardstock: Baja Breeze and Basic Gray Textured, Whisper White plain
Stamps: Great Friend
Ink: Baja Breeze Classic Ink
Accessories: Walk in the Park DSP, Summer Love Rub-ons, Baja Breeze Corduroy Buttons, Baja Breeze 1 Inch Double-Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, White Taffeta Ribbon, Eyelet Border Punch, Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Sanding Block, White Thread, Mini Glue Dots, Sticky Strip and SNAIL Adhesive.

While I was trimming the photo down to size I accidently managed to scratch some of the ink off the edges....never one to waste the glossy photo paper (it costs a bomb) I pulled out my Stampin' Up! Sanding Block and scratched up all the edges for a purposeful-looking distressed look. Obviously, I mean't to do that!

Guess I'd better go do some tidying up now.....SIGH!
Have a wonderful day :-)
Sam.

PS. Thanks for the lovely comments on my busy bee photos. I can't take all the credit for those. My macro lens is the true champion. It is a beauty. I started out with a tripod and remote shutter release, but those little bees are very, very tricksy and tres quick, and the tripod was just slowing me down...so I lay down on the ground and basically climbed on into the lavender bush and started shooting. I might add that for the handful of decent shots I got, I have about 40 near useless ones. What on earth did I ever do without a digital camera and super huge compact flash card? Frankly, I am amazed I even managed to get out of bed in the morning ;-).

PPS. I thought you might like to see the photo that I used in the above page, before, during and after my tinkering with Pioneerwoman Photoshop Actions:

This is it in the beginning, I have cropped it a little, and cloned out some stray hair across the face...it was annoying me.

...with Pioneerwoman Boost and Define and Sharpen actions applied (sounds like a new bra!)

...with Pioneerwoman Seventies action applied

...with a Pioneerwoman B & W Beauty action applied, then erased out the eyes so that the colour could show through from the background layer.

I love them all, but thought that the black and white worked best with the colours on the layout.

PPPS. More gardeny goodness:

Traveler's Inspiration Challenge: {three}

Well, its that time of the week again, time for Tina's Traveler's Inspiration Challenge. This week, the beautiful inspiration photo is supplied by Amy, at Tethered 2 Home:


I have been looking forward to Friday night all week, and not just because it is the start of the weekend! Tina's challenge comes online on our Friday night, and it is the perfect wind-down from a long week. I get to sit down, and think about what I am going to do, and then get up early on Saturday morning and have a play with my craft goodies. What a perfect start to the weekend!

So last night I made a sketch, and this morning I put together this 12 x 12 scrapbook page:


List of Ingredients (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted, stamped images © Stampin' Up!):

Cardstock: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red and Brilliant Blue textured cardstock, Brilliant Blue, Yoyo Yellow and Summer Sun smooth cardstock
Ink: Real Red and Yoyo Yellow Classic ink
Stamps: Nursery Necessities
Accessories: Hoppy Memories Simply Scrappin' kit, Petals & Paisleys DSP, Jersey Shore DSP, On Board Timeless Type, White Gesso by Plaid, stipple brush, yellow embroidery thread by DMC, yellow button by Bazzill Basics Paper, 3/4" circle punch, scallop edge punch, crimper, mini glue dots, SNAIL adhesive and sticky strip.

I am very happy with the way this page turned out. I was scribbling away last night and my husband says to me...'are you making a list of things to buy?'. I laughed and showed him the sketch...the relief on his face was obvious!

I painted the chipboard letters with white gesso, then added the Yoyo Yellow classic ink with the stipple brush. I dried the letters off using the heat tool. Also, there are red boats stamped all over the red strip on the left hand side of the page...some have been stamped off, and don't show up well in the photo.

This was the first time we took our little 6m trailer sailer out on Lake Burley Griffin, and we had the dinghy attached. The kids loved every minute of this day. We went swimming, riding in the dinghy, had lunch, bought ice creams at the National Museum of Australia (which has a jetty where we were able to tie up) and generally had fun. The dinghy got stolen from the lake shore one night not so long after this photo was taken, which is a bit of a shame...but we still have the sail boat and we use an inflatable dinghy now instead.

Thanks so much for the inspiration Amy and Tina. Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Sweet Sunday and undercooked cupcakes...

It has shaped up to be a beautiful day here in Canberra. After a foggy start the sky is now a lovely shade of blue and there is some snow on the ranges. Pretty!

Yesterday I decided to participate in Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #26, and this is the sketch:


I decided to go with a 6 x 6 scrapbok page, and to use up a piece of background cardstock where I had trialled the wax paper technique (see the details on Splitcoaststampers here):


Ingredient List (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherise noted):

Cardstock: Pacific Point textured and plain cardstock, Whisper White plain cardstock and Glossy white cardstock
Ink: Baja Breeze classic ink and Whisper White craft ink
Accessories: Waxed paper from Black and Gold, iron, brayer, paper piercer, sticky lettering from Creative Memories, white embossing powder, heat tool, photo corners punch, On Board Timeless Type, Styled Silver Hodge Podge, Pacific Point striped grosgrain, SNAIL adhesive, mini glue dots and dimensionals.

As you can see, the wax paper technique worked well, and I love the shot of hubby and Mr2 (YES...despite the shoulder length hair that IS a MR under there ;-). This page falls down though with the colour of the sticker letters I have used. The orange is completely lost on the striped ribbon...you can hardly read what it says. I am contemplating lifting them off and using black instead...but am fretting over the waste of lettering that will be! What do you think...how would you fix it?

One of the reasons I like blogging, apart from the social networking and sharing of ideas, is that I really like pretty pictures, and one of my blog-goals is to be a place of pretty pictures...to this end, I give you...MORE NAUGHTY FOOD PICTURES!


Before you leave any comments about my cooking, I thought it fair that you know that these cupcakes are waaaaay undercooked and taste like egg and flour! Also, because I am no MasterChef I manged to curdle the butter/sugar/egg mix while I was making them.

I had to go online and see what causes the batter to curdle like that and I came up with this list:
1/ ingredients not at room temperature
2/ insufficient creaming of the butter and sugar
3/ adding the eggs too quickly
I am guilty of all three, so no wonder my batter looked icky by the time I was finished. I was looking around for Miss Muffet to come eat her curds and whey! But the photo looks pretty...so that's why its here. I like to show you the pretty stuff, and I try not to think about the mistakes :-).

Sweet Slumber Calendar

The other day I found this great tutorial for a 12 x 12 calendar page on Tina's blog Travelingmama. Her beautiful work inspired me to make my own calendar page:


Ingredients used for this page (all from Stampin' Up! unless otheriwse noted, and Images © Stampin' Up!):

Cardstock: So Saffron plain and Baja Breeze textured
Ink: Whisper White Craft ink, Baja Breeze Classic ink and Tuxedo Black Momento ink by Tsukineko
Stamps: Calendar Alphabet and Numbers
Accessories: Sweet Slumber Specialty Designer Series Paper, On Board Timeless Type and On Board So Tweet, White embossing powder, heat tool, scallop edge and 1 3/8" square punches, sponge daubers, SNAIL adhesive and mini glue dots.

You might note that some of the numbers are a bit wonky....I was having a bit of a brain malfunction, and forgot that Stampin' Up!'s Calendar Alphabet and Numbers set actually comes with complete numbers right up to 31 (they were sitting right in front of me the entire time)...but I went and created all my numbers using the digits 1 - 9. You would think I would have cottoned on when I had to use the 'o' from the alphabet to make 10, 20 and 30 (because there is no zero...but I didn't! DOH!).

The groovy thing about this page is that once the month is over, you can print out a few favourite pics of the things you did, and punch them out and stick them into some of the days and then put the page in your scrap album.

Also, the other day I saw this lovely box on Debbie's blog and I was inspired to make my own box to go with a card I made some time ago:


I used the instructions by Laurie Schmidlin on Splitcoaststampers here, and you can see the original post for the little birdie card here.

The box, which measures 6 x 6 x 3 inches, is now filled with beautiful Paddington Chocolates, as part of a birthday gift. I won't show you those because you might throw cyber-tomatoes at me (too many naughty goodies popping up on here eh?).

Thanks so much for the inspiration Tina and Debbie!
Have a great day everyone.

Urban Garden Flowers

I think I have described my scrapbooking process before. My pages take a long time to come together. This page has been out on my dining room table for almost two weeks. This is how it started...a quick sketch, made one night during ad breaks while watching NCIS the week before last:


After a week of umming and ahhhing, trying colours and then changing them, moving the flowers, moving the leaves, moving the butterflies, moving the photos...this is the final product:


I LOVE how the bottom two thirds of the page came together (it feels like a secret garden), but I think I've missed the mark in the top third. The photos are cute, but I'm not at all convinced that the layout of the photos matches the rest of the page (the fact that they are stuck on crooked probably does not help my analysis here ;-). Aside from this, I'm feeling pleased. It was definitely worth the time and effort, and I had FUN!! I have blurred some personal text from under the four images (that is the black dotty stuff). The images are of my daughter at 1 week, 1 year, 3 years and 5 years old. I used colour images, and applied Pioneer Woman's (aka Ree Drummond) 'B&W Beauty' Photoshop Action from Action Set 1 (scroll to the bottom of the post HERE for a link to these actions).

List of Ingredients (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Basic Gray and Not Quite Navy plain cardstock, Whisper White textured cardstock
Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly and Inspired by Nature
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze and Basic Gray Classic Ink
Accessories: Urban Garden DSP, On Board Lots of Letters, On Board Batch of Blooms, Flower Designer Brads, Button Bouquet Designer Buttons, Hemp Twine, Kaiser Clear Rhinestones (you could also use the SU Clear Rhinestone brads, as brads or with the rhinestone removed from its setting), White Vellum Cardstock, crystal effects, edge distresser, dimensionals, glue dots, sticky strip and SNAIL adhesive.

I have another 12 x 12 sketch here...so hopefully I'll get to work on that one soon too. I am pleased to be back on the scrapbooking track...it means a lot to me, and my husband loves looking at the pages, which is very nice.

Another www.allposters.com moment:


Amalfi Coast, Coastal View and Village, Positano, Campania, Italy

Have a great week.
Sam.

Once Upon A Time...

...there was a beautiful little princess who loved to dress up...and so the journalling goes.

This is the page I made using the photoshopped image from here:


I am very pleased with how it turned out. It was a lot of fun to make, and has inspired me to do more scrapbooking.

There is a journalling panel hidden behind the photo. The finished version also has some name and date text written down the right hand side of the photo, on the Baja Blue background, using a white gel pen.

Ingredients:

Cardstock: Baja Breeze and Close to Cocoa textured cardstock, Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango and Whisper White cardstock.
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine tango and Close to Cocoa Classic Ink
Stamps: Once Upon a Time
Accessories: On Board So Tweet, clear rhinestone brads, Stampin Sponges, Haikou and Kiwi Kiss Patterns Designer Series Papers, white DMC embroidery thread, sanding block, round tab punch, white gel pen, mini glue dots, SNAIL adhesive and sticky strip.

Hope you are having a fun day!
Sam.

PS. Edward says to say hi from sunny Canberra!

So Tweet Scrap Class

Hello!

Sorry for being MIA for so long. My computer died last week. Well, hubby said the powerboard died...he actually said it was smoking. I must have given it a real run for its money eh?

Anyway, now I'm personal 'puter-less. I've been using hubby's machine, but none of my stuff is on it. All my site passwords were stored on the other machine. All my photos, templates, my calendar - my life (BOO HOO) etc...and besides, he is always wanting this one back at inopportune times...so I'm feeling kinda adrift, IYKWIM? On the bright side, I have read a number of books in the mean time. I'm getting to be quite the Clive Cussler fan. But I digress...

I just wanted to let you know about a Scrapbooking class that I will be holding at my place soon. Here are the details:

SO TWEET SCRAP CLASS

DATE: Saturday 20th June
TIME: 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm
WHERE: Canberra (southside) - my place
WHAT: A class where we will make one 12 x 12 scrapbook page, using techniques such as: applying DSP and ink to chipboard, stitching, tearing, and paper piecing. The page will have room for one 6 x 4 (or smaller) portrait orientation photograph which you can attach after the class. There will also be space for journalling on a concealed slider panel.
COST: $16 per person covers all materials, including SNAIL adhesive and afternoon tea.

If you are interested drop me a line on navarino@yahoo.com and I'll save you a seat. The image at the top of the post is a little look at what you'll be doing.

Ok...gotta run.

Hope you are well...and staying warm.....BBBBBBBrrrrrrrrr its cold here today.
Sam.

Mademoiselle Butterfly

Just another 'because' scrapbook page!



* Because I really like the photo - what a cute dreamy look;
* Because I've had a bit of a thing about embroidery recently;
* Because I've been thinking about how pretty butterflies are;
* Because I can!

So I sat down in front of the telly last night and did some embroidery on this page. It was lucky I had something to put my mind to because even Josh Duhamel's fine form couldn't save last night's movie from being just plain bad! I would have been better of watching some Olympics.......those Jamaican boys can really RUN!

Anyway, back to the page: The colours are Elegant Eggplant, Pink Passion, Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White. The stamp set is Stampin' Up!'s simply beautiful 'Bold Butterfly'. I have highlighted the butterflies with Crystal Effects...which you can probably see a bit better in this shot:



The mademoiselle is my beautiful pixie girl!

Have a great weekend!
Sam.

PS. Go Libby, Go Grant, Go Michael!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Celebrate ...You

Recently Shelli Gardner, CEO and Co-Founder of Stampin' Up!, started her own blog. You can find it here. On it she has announced her first Creative Challenge, for any project - using the word 'Celebrate'.

I decided that my entry would be a 12 x 12 Scrapbook page...and here it is:



All materials I have used are available from Stampin' Up! The background cardstock is Certainly Celery textured 12x12 cardstock. The next layer is Pretty in Pink cardstock and has been faux stitched around the edges using a paper piercer and white gel pen. The next layer is a piece of Spring Fling DSP. There is also a strip of Whisper White textured cardstock across the centre, and the photo frame is So Saffron cardstock. the 'celebrate ...you' sentiment has been made using On Board Lots of Letters Chipboard - coloured white using white Embossing Powder (three layers) and then Heat and Stick powder and Dazzling Diamonds.



The three flowers are from the On Board Blossoms and Basics Chipboard and have been covered in Spring Fling and Spring Showers DSP. The flower centres are decorative silver brads from the Styled Silver Hodge Podge set available in the current Stampin' Up! Spring Mini Catalogue. The flower stems and leaves are Certainly Celery Grosgrain Ribbon.

I have pierced the So Saffron layer using a paper piercer and have also sponged the edges in So Saffron Classic Ink, and mounted the whole thing up on Dimensionals. The embellishment on the bottom left hand corner of the photo is an Aluminium Edge tag and has covered piece of On Board Blossoms and Basics Chipboard on it. Again, the DSP is Spring Fling. The beautiful girl is my daughter :-).




The Challenge is open to anyone...so if you'd like to participate...start creating! This challenge closes on 31st August...plenty of time left, and you need to leave a comment on Shelli's blog so she knows you've particpated.

All the best,
Sam.