Signature Accent Challenge

This was a special challenge for me. For two reasons. First off - my signature accent - American Craft Thickers. I just love them. And I love pretty much all scrapbooking products. But Thickers. Loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Thickers. I may hate a layout, but pop on a few Thickers, and then, for me, it's transformed! I could have uploaded about 98% of my layouts and they would have qualified for the signature accent challenge :)

The second reason that this was a special challenge for me? Well, I was away when Shimelle was running her weekend crop, so I had to play catch up when I returned. I didn't have time to do all the challenges, so I had to pick and choose. And I choose this one because of the prize. Sure, I would love to win the prize, but that's not the reason. It was more specifically because it is Lilly Bee who are sponsoring it. Because my daughter, the subject of this layout, is called Lily Bea! Though I have been scrapbooking for about four years now I hadn't come across this company before a month or so ago when I started following Shimelle's blog more closely. I was absolutely tickled to discover I'd accidentally named her after a scrapbooking range. And I took it as a sign of my scrapbooking devotion. I'm looking forward to when I get a chance to scrap my pretty Lily Bea with the pretty Lily Bee papers :)

I'll have to go back and rename the rest of the kids with scrapbooking names - I might get away with Cosmo or Prima, but doubt any of them would fancy being called Basic Grey! Lol :)

Challenge Link

Half Page Challenge

I think (or rather, I know) that I creep a little into the top half of this 'Half Page Challenge', but you know, all the important stuff is all in the bottom half!

The challenge link

Three Is a Magic Number Challenge

I was delighted to find a picture I wanted to scrap of my daughter on her third birthday for this layout. Three is the theme for her third birthday :) So, if you look closely, there are lots of threes throughout the page.

Challenge Link

Grid It Up Challenge

Surprised myself by loving this page. It's all dull colours. It uses a photo I was going to throw away. It's not very embellished or fancy. But, for some reason, I am really happy with it! Go figure...

Challenge Link

Chop Your Paper Challenge

Okay, here we go, challenge two, Chop Your Paper Challenge.

All embellishments made/cut out from the paper itself.

Challenge Link

Starting Point Challenge

It's nearly deadline time at Shimelle.com! I have till midnight to post the links to the challenges I took part in for her cyber crop last weekend. Having had a mad crazy week I haven't had the chance to do it until now. So, I have a marathon of uploading to do. I best get to it then :)

To begin with - Starting Point Challenge

 

Challenge Link

Shimelle And Holidays

Here is my layout for Shimelle's sketch this week. I've been trying to kick my Kraft paper addiction - I reckon when I'm over it I'll look back at all my layouts and be a bit annoyed that I didn't use a bit more variety. But, I tried using a patterned paper with this layout and I hated it. So, out came the knife, I cut away the blue patterned paper I'd been using and (hurrah!) back with the Kraft paper :) So, for the moment, my obsession with Kraft continues!

 Some close ups...

The photo quality isn't great, don't know what exactly was wrong, but am under time pressure today, so I guess they'll just have to do..

I haven't updated my blog since the last Shimelle sketch, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy... in fact, it's just been scrap, scrap, scrap lately. I have nearly finished our holidays from 2009 and 2010 ( I got horribly behind at one stage) So here is the fruits of my last fortnights labour...

She'll be so cross at this pic when she's older :)

 

Going for a simple layout

Another!

Still more :)

I do actually have a few more done, but I don't want to over excite you all. I'll save them for next time :)

Windmill

I wasn't sure when I saw Shimelle's sketch this week - it's a lovely simple layout, but I wondered if this simplicity would make it hard to create my own original interpretation. Yes, these are the things that keep me awake at night. Forget the recession and banking crisis it is scrapping dilemmas that get me worked up!

Anyway, after staring at her layout for an age, I finally had inspiration :)

Shimelle's Sketch and her layout

I felt that the placement of the orange paper on her layout reminded me of a pinwheel/windmill. Once I had this I was off! I know it's cheating a little to get my inspiration from her layout, rather than from the sketch itself. But hey, the scrapping police might just let me off with a caution this time...

So, here we are...

Am I allowed use the Americanism of 'bangs' instead of fringe? Sounds a lot better for my title!

Some close ups - 

 

Sketch Crazy

I don't get out much. It's all to do with having four very poorly behaved children. When I am forced - so very much against my will - to herd the cats and leave the house, I try to do everything and more in one go. So, when I saw that we needed multiple photos for this weeks Shimelle Sketch of the Week - I decided to get loads printed out and see which combination worked best.

And in the end, I used them all! I did three layouts based on the sketch. I tried a little something different with each of them, so that I didn't necessarily have three identical layouts in my album.

To kick off - the sketch...

So, here is my first attempt -

Whimsical Lily

 And the second one -

 With the first one I used about a half a ton of paper, so with the second I went minimalist. I love them both, actually delighted with them for once.

The third layout isn't actually finished. My printer is dead and I wanted to print out the journaling. My handwriting is worse than a doctors, so I do like to have it printed out a lot of the time so that future generation will be able to actually read it...

Anyways, it's late on Tuesday, I better go upload this or it won't count!

Sketch

Okay, here we are - my interpretation of Shimelle's Sketch of the Week.

I was getting concerned as to where the line is between working from a sketch and just scraplifting the layout - I suspect it's like on X Factor when Simon Cowell either likes someones interpretation of a song or calls them a cheap karaoke singer! So, hopefully I've made it through to boot camp with this layout  :)

This was the sketch -

And here's my take...

Hope you like it!

Layout Crazy...

Well I've been in the zone. I got my glue. I got my photos. I got my pretty paper. And amazingly, I've got a bit of time.

And it's great what you can come up with when you ban yourself from printing out any new photo's till you use all the ones you have already. The 'Casino' layout below uses some photo's that I really wasn't crazy about (don't ask me why I printed them). But I'm delighted with the finished product. Wouldn't have happened if I hadn't made myself use them.


The other layouts use photos I love, but tomorrow I'll be posting my Shimelle Sketch of the Week layout, and that uses pics that I had in desperation printed out for a workshop crop. Once they were printed I wasn't that delighted with them and ended up never using them. But, just like the 'Casino' layout, having trimmed and snipped them, I actually quite pleased!

So, here we are...

 CASINO

The pics really weren't up to much, but I really like them in the layout

Completely delighted with how the 'bricks' came out.

Ru and Nanny

I just love this Basic Grey Sugar Rush paper.

Waga Baba

Drat. Spelling mistake in my journaling. Anyone got any tips how make it better?

 

Afternoon delight...

I'm on a bit of a scrapping binge at the moment. It's always either feast or famine here with me. And I experienced the rarest of the rare today - daytime scrapping! The baba - aka The Enemy of Scrapbooking - decided she had actually worn herself out, and was going to sleep for four hours. Sure, I should have done the laundry (actually I tried, but the machine broke down) and perhaps I could have done some much needed gardening but, but, I wanted really to stick patterned paper to other patterned paper...


... and anyway, it's Tuesday and I hadn't finished my Shimelle's sketch of the week. This would be a very skinny blog if it wasn't for Shimelle...

Anyways - here's her sketch -

And here is my layout...

I had a complete disaster with some over eager application of glimmer mist, so when I was nearly finished I had to perform a partial scrapectomy and remove the whole middle section and adhere it to a new backing! Thankfully, I think I prefer what I ended up with... Mental note - do some practice with glimmer mists.

Anyway, back to the binge, am going to start my third layout of the day now. Its handy actually, I'm using up a lot of older pictures which I printed out with excitement, but am a little bored of now. I have banned myself from getting any new pics printed out until these ones are all done. I'll be uploading lots soon.

Till then!

A Latte Layout

It's that time again -  Shimelle's Sketch of the Week. 

I'm not as happy with the result as I was last time, but at least it got me scrapping. And a rare one of myself. Not too many of them in my albums.

I'm really trying to get more scrapping done. The baby is six months old now, so there are no excuses. My challenge for this week is to finish at least one layout before Shimelle's next Sketch. Baby steps :)

Thanks Shimelle

I think the most mentioned word in my scrapping blog at the moment is 'Shimelle'! But I'm going to ad to it by saying, thanks Shimelle!

Thanks for picking my layout as one of your faves from the Sketch of the Week for last week. It made my day :) And so encouraged, I'm off to try this weeks one!

Shimelle's Sketch of the Week

I was inspired to do Shimelle's sketch of the week when I saw some of the layouts other people had produced. I haven't been doing much scrapbooking lately as the baby has sapped all my energy (- how is she going to feature in her own layouts if she keeps me so exhausted! - ) but it felt good to get down to some pretty papers :)

 

 

I just enjoyed myself thoroughly as I generally find this sort of layout difficult to do - but it's also the type of layout I want to do the most. So, thanks Shimelle!

Back Again

Okay, it's been a while. The photos are still rubbish. But hey, maybe if I keep posting I'll get the knack of taking good photos!

Hoping I've cracked the use of flowers on this layout! I'm never sure I get it right...

I enjoyed this layout in particular as I had fun making my little shed and wheel barrow embellishments :)