Resist Technique Take 1

For the Lily Pad Technique Challenge my first take is to use this new Agapanthus stamp from Stampendous and a Hero Arts' favourite sentiment. Stamped and embossed, then used milled lavender, dusty concord, stormy sky and faded jeans distress ink. 

Last Words

Almost finished the album. All the LHS are done (except for an embellishment or two on the last page). This has been a gift to myself. So enjoyed doing it, and found it so meaningful. A rainbow of reflections . . .

And here are some of the double page spreads . . . most of papers and embellishments are left overs from other projects.

OLW : Baby Card - Twins

My next door neighbour just had twins, so this was a timely challenge for me! The OLW challenge at Styles Ink this week is to make a card with a baby theme and there is a scrumptious assortment giveaway from A.Muse Studio.

Thanks to Judy, I found I could enter it for the Less is More (32) challenge of seeing double too!

And packets for the prezzies too . . . .

And close-ups . . . 

Class Venue in Paradise!

I was giving a class to the "Calender Girls" of Black River today. Just look at this venue . . . paradise!

The beginning . . . table all tidy still.

I was enjoying myself so much, I forgot to take pictures of the ladies' mini albums.

Words, Paint and Gremlins

I signed up for the Big Picture Big Idea Festival and the theme was Words {to live by}. I was way behind as I was away for the first week, so I played catch-up yesterday. I prepped and played with my Silhouette Studio in the afternoon plotting and planning my pages. So happy. Then I waltzed into my studio around 9:00pm to cut, print and glue. Thought it would be a cinch. But the gremlins got there first and attacked my silhouette. It would NOT load the media! OK, so on to plan B  . . . the good old fashioned way with some adjustments . . . cut, punch, dig in the stash for replacements.


I took my inspiration from Kelly's inspiration on Hero Arts Friday Blog (just loved those tags in rainbow colours) and Sally's video on paint splattering, also at Hero Arts Blog. Such inspiring ideas.

For the cover, I decided to use the Hero Arts Word Pops as it went so well with the theme. And it had to be colourful!

So I used a rainbow of colours for my album : each page is one colour . . . paint splatters on white, with a coloured tag, a strip of patterned paper to match, some stamping on the background and a black line around the page. Here are the first 6 left hand side pages (the right hand side will have photos . . . still to be printed!) The last 4 will be posted as and when they're done. OK?!

A fun little 6" x 6"album. 

Thanks Scrap RDV

I want to thank Scrap RDV for inviting me to play with some tags. I so enjoy their blog and gain much inspiration and many ideas from the talented Virginie, Alexandra and Pascale.


Here's a sneak peak

and

and go here to see the 2 layouts and 6 cards.

Brotherly Blogs

So excited to find my youngest brother join the blog world with exactly one dash. Wish I could find that wonderful photo of him as he dressed up to serve us a delicious middle eastern dinner about 10 years ago! 


As he puts it so well in his "about" . . . 
  "variably employed actor, part-time amateur cook, full-time father, husband and sports fan. soft spot for shoes, hats and polonecks. but this is not about shoes, hats and polonecks, it is more about food and putting different kinds of it together. in a way that isn’t too strict or anything.

it also might be about other stuff. like funny stories or free thinking. or saving the planet or theatre, or both. or possibly about sport or south africa or MAYBE polonecks and other things i like. but mostly food i think.

because i never record or remember whatever recipe i’ve just created or amalgamated or botched. so this is a space for those discoveries, variations and schoolboy errors. i am not very good at measuring things out. i am a big fan of the pinch, the splash, the sprinkle. the trusty handful. the mighty dollop. the relaxed improvisation in cooking, or the fearless experiments and adaptations means no meal is ever exactly the same as it was before. like theatre. i’ve always enjoyed scouting a range of recipes, and then absorbing various elements i like into something new. preferably always with good, fresh ingredients. but i’m no chef. this is not ballroom cooking. it is dancing on your own to van morrison singing into a wooden spoon cooking. sort of thing. it is not being afraid to look a bit stupid cooking. ideally with shoes you can dance in, a hat and a poloneck."

So perhaps I will try my hand (with a dash and dollop here and there) with his first recipe of Harira!

Celebrating and Giveaway

Vera is celebrating her 300th follower with a generous giveaway! Join in at Ling's Design Studio.

Electronic mayhem!

Haven't been posting much lately as I'm in electronic mayhem . . . first converting my laptop from Windows Vista (been a nightmare of an operating system!) to Windows 7, and that will be for my kids . . . and then getting myself a mac. A whole new learning curve and issues to be resolved. Like the fact that my trusty, faithful, economical printer cannot be connected to the mac as there is no driver for it! So need to look for a new printer too.


I haven't got my files from my Dell to my mac, so feeling quite discombobulated! Hope to get things together before school starts (and my marathon of scrapping).

Why I Scrap

I need to get back scrapping more pages (my kids want their pages done!) and I'm doing lots of cards as they are so much quicker. So I have enrolled at the mother load of scrapping classes at Big Picture Scrapbooking. 


We are in training for 8 weeks before starting the marathon of 26 layouts in 26 days. Will be interesting.


So week 1 we look at why we scrapbook, and I came up with this layout which I decided to do in an altered book.

Since one of the reasons I like to scrap is to use my stamps, I had to use them on the page . . . from Club Scrap, Stampin' Up, and Hero Arts. Love browns and blues, butterflies, dots!