Scrapbook Retreat

I spent last weekend in a sprawling house at Phillip Island with 7 like minded scrappy ladies - there was lots of food, lots of laughter and to my surprise lots of scrapping.

Photo taken at The Purple Hen winery on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Sharlene is missing since she stayed up all night Friday scrapping and needed a nanna nap.

Here are a few of my creations from the weekend.

First up we were set a challenge by the lovely Leesa to decorate a pillow box that Sharlene die-cut for us. Although its not what I would normally work with I went about it in my usual manner and crafted a little flower using Nestabilities dies, some calico and glimmermist.

To add some sparkle a dropped clear seed beads into my dimensional magic while it was still wet and was very happy with the outcome. In the right light it looks like little drops of dew have fallen onto the leaves (in my head anyway!).

Pillow box challenge

Aren't we clever? Every pillow box was decorated differently, with a little bit of each personality shining through.

I got busy scrapping some layouts and to my surprise I finished quite a few. This is unusual for me, since I can start a layout at home and simply push papers around for the whole weekend. Come Sunday night I'm sick of the sight of it all and just stick it all down, wherever it may have ended up.

In addition to completing my layouts for Kraft it up and Scrapbook Savvy sketch with a twist challenges I managed to finish some layouts just for me.

The kids' first day back at school for the year is always a momentous occasion and in response to Connor's cries of "Mum, didn't you take this photo last year?", I grabbed out camera and started snapping away. In grades 3 and 4 this year they won't let me walk them into their new classrooms so I clicked madly before we left for school.

This is the resulting layout - First day back @ school

In a challenge to myself I am going to scrap a layout for each month of the year. January was crazy busy for us; we managed to fit in a Queensland holiday, Australia Day celebrations, Chinese New Year celebrations, a birthday (love you Scottie) and the usual day to day comings and goings.

With so many photos you would have thought it would be easy to create a dynamic and exciting layout showcasing all of our fun? Correct? Far from it. Yes, I have met the requirements of my challenge, but really hope I can do a better job of presenting it next month.

January

I'm feeling pretty good about my Australia Zoo layouts. Since I like to mix up the page sizes in my album I used a smaller layout size as a kind of 'cover' page for our adventures. I tried to keep some continuity in the pages that follow by using the same patterned papers (by Bo Bunny Zoology) and lots of textural elements.

Saturday morning on retreat some of us ladies sought out the local haunts looking for a bargain. Lucky for me I picked up some hessian place-mats, an old curtain remnant and doilies at the op shop (plus some great CDs to listen to in the car on the way home at the garage sale). We had a coffee at the Cobra Lily florist and cafe at San Remo and they sold me some cool floristry mesh that was almost Khaki green - a tribute to Steve Irwin himself.

My op shop finds were quickly chopped up on our arrival back at the house, and I had instant tactile, frayed, outdoors-ish lollipop flowers ready to go. I was so glad I kept the badges we got on the bus trip there, they scrapped up a treat.

Australia Zoo

Thanks ladies for a really nice break away from the ordinary. It was great fun to share ideas, tools and products, meals, bunk-beds and lots of laughs.

I learnt that Skinny Milk does not come from the cows who run to the milking shed and that you haven't had too much to drink while you can still fussy cut.

Bring on Retreat 2012 Part II.

More February Challenges...

Show us your stuff - use the sketch and include paper dolls for extra chances to win

You create art

I made this layout because I have a very 'arty farty' little girl who likes to create all the time. We have boxes of her pictures, sculptures, mini books and other little projects. I may need to go through them and store them digitally since there is so much art, using the originals for gift wrap.



I have used the bonus technique to make some pretty little paper girls holding hands at both the top and bottom of my layout. I also made my own flower stamp by recycling some styrofoam. I simply sketched a shape I liked and cut out around it with my craft knife. I stamped with Versamark ink and used clear embossing powder. When I spritzed the image with my Glimmermist it added a little more embellishment.

At the bottom of my layout I have inserted the definition of ARTIST in my scrapware circle grid.

----------

Scrapbooking top 50 Australia - February Cyber Crop - A novel approach - Vicki's Genre Challenge

Fright Night

I love how this layout turned out! Lots of eyelts so my big bite came in handy, and some simple honest journalling.

No, I didn't finish it in time to upload (Feb 26 deadline) and now that I read fineprint I didn't even follow the instructions properly, but still I am very happy with my little witch and zombie. They were very frightening indeed!

February Challenges

OMG! What an incredible month the Design Teams are having in February. Myself and fellow scrappers are really inspired by the creations that are popping up on all of the challenge sites, and the mojo is flowing!

White with 1 - white + lemon + 3 photos

Splash

This is definately one of my least fav layouts in a while, but its another moment scrapped and in the album.

The photos are of Savannah having a great time at Wet'n Wild on the Gold Coast, where we holidayed over Summer.

I have used Echo Park patterned paper (a popular pick from my stash lately), done some swirly embossing, added tuelle for texture and randomly stitched some sparkly crystal beads onto my layout.

The photography is poor but I promise to keep practising.

----------

Scrap the girls - Love in the title, turquoise as the dominant colour and chipboard

Right now you love

Once I got my head around the very strict criteria for this month I loved, loved, loved what I ended up with.

 I found a beautiful Prima bloom in my stash that was just the right colour, had some chipboard flourishes (yuk, they must have come in a kit) and got to work with the vintage music paper. Since I can't read music I have absolutely no problem in ripping it up for a collage, and in case you don't see the theme developing, I LOVE glimmermist. I used it to paint the flourish and to spritz my background.

Just conincidentally I took these photos of my lovely when she asked me to listen to her sing. Yes, it was Katy Perry and then Lady Gaga.

----------

Kraft it up - include Love and pink

Promise, Cherish, Forever

My hubby and I are fast coming up to our 13th wedding anniversary and it dawned on me that I have NEVER scrapped a wedding photo. So without further ado, here's my take on this months' challenge.

I am really enjoying using my We R Memory keepers divided page protectors at the moment, they are particularly great for using up scraps. I've included an old LYB transperancy (I think I've had them for 5 years or more), a cute doily my friend Di picked up at a garage sale and a bookplate I found when cleaning out the drawers. Told you I used lots of scraps!

I finished this layout on retreat with some like-minded lovely scrappers. Again, my photography is pretty dodgy, but its definately a much more pale pink cardstock than in the picture.

----------

123 Challenge - use the word 'fresh' or 'free', the colour fuschia and fraying or frills

Farm Fresh

I love how this layout turned out. I have incorporated FRESH in my title, since life here in rural Gippsland really is farm fresh, the colour fuscia with my glimmermisting of cardstock, fabric and book pages and fraying and frills were created with my little ruffle.

These photos are of the little golden pumpkins we grew in our vegie patch last season and my goat Souva (Souvalaki by name only!) and her beautiful little billy kid born at the start of January. I will have to take some more pictures of this layout, they really don't do it justice.

My lollipop flower was admired by many on our recent retreat, what I didn't tell them was just how easy it was to make using an old dictionary, some felt and random glimmermist colors.

Another new technique I have been using lately is to take a journal block and stitch.

This one was from MAMBI and was cute to start with but now I think its even cuter! Again my Dymo labeller has come in handy for strip journalling (I'm sure I have used it more for scrapping than school labelling).

----------

Scrapbook Savvy - sketch with a twist

Play

At 8 years old I still have to push her on the swings, but you see the joy in their eyes when they feel like they are flying and its definatley worth it.

Another retreat layout!

This itty bitty 8" x 8" page size was ideal for the smaller photos in the sketch, and I find by mixing up page sizes in my albums I can utilize all the little bits and pieces I would otherwise throw away (....gasp I hear you say, but who really, honestly uses all that they put away for a rainy day?)

The Fancy Pants Lilac House line has been a good 'go-to' for my pretty little girl layouts and many vintage projects that I have worked on. And my cabbage rose? This is the last of a big batch of satin flowers I made up some time ago. Its good to know they have all found homes in and amongst my creations, but now I need to hop to it and make some more! Love, love, love all the Prima resin shapes, including this fancy corner sconce.