This is a long one with lots to share......

I have had extra creating time so have been doing a few layouts for various challenges, design team layouts and even one layout just for fun.

There is a new challenge site called Puzzle sketches where you get pieces of "puzzle " and you have to create a layout using those bits. The prize is done on a vote system - you can vote go look at the site in my challenges links. Heres mine :



products used:
Fancy Pants about a boy paper
Kaisercraft paper
7 Gypsies chipboard
basic grey and American crafts alphas
Jenni Bowlin journal spot
buttons

I have also done a challenge finally for white with one - I started a few weeks ago but got stuck on a title and journalling - I had initially started to try get on their design team but then decided not to. The photos on this are nearly eight years old so good to get them scrapped.



products used
Cant remember the patterned paper
textured paper and corrugated card
kb chipboard car
Shabby Chic Journalling card
Heidi swapp, mm and kaisercraft flowers
chipboard circle and crown
provocraft alphas again!
button

Scrapbooking by design has a quickfire challenge this weekend - to do a layout in 30 minutes in an Ali Edwards style using decorative scissors and buttons. Great way to scrap these photos of Brendan ( he is the baby in the previous layout now almost eight).



Products used
Basic grey, jenni bowlin and dream street papers
7 Gypsies tag
buttons
provocraft, scenic route and carolees alphas


The sketchbook has a celebrity challenge from Susan Weinroth using speech bubbles in your layout and this is the layout I did for it.



Products used
Prima paper
Kaisercraft Gems
Scenic route and crate paper speech bubbles
7 Gypsies chipboard
felt man
butterfly charms
Basic grey, craft matters and carolee alphas


And last but not least a layout which was started months ago but not completed until this morning. It was initially started as a layout for a challenge at SBBD and for me is a simple layout and lots of white space. Check back on Wednesday/Thursday this week for my design team layouts (yes I did two as once I did one I found another piece of paper which I thought was perfect for the sketch). Have a great week.



Products used
basic grey and Kaisercraft paper
ribbons
kaisercraft and Hambly rubons
provocraft alphas
buttons

Little Shop of Sketches - Sketch 15

Wow we are up to Sketch 15 here's the new sketch at Little Shop of Sketches



And here's my layout - using some bits I have used on other recent layouts.



Products used
basic grey paper
unknown textured paper
Bazzill in stitch template and DMC thread
K and co leaf diecuts and chipboard alphas
October afternoon sticker and journal tag
chipboard bird
american craft alphas
mesh material

Scrapbook Dreams sketch challenge

The challenge was a sketch and you had to do doodling on your layout. So to follow on with my fairyland theme from the first challenge at the Olympics I have doodled a castle and scallops. I had fun with this one!!



products used
pink and white cardstock
stemma fairy paper
cloud and green paper -unknown -sorry
fancy pants flourish
pink paislee scallop border diecut
K and Co stickers
October afternoon flower sticker
Jenni bowlin tag
paint and glitter
provocraft letters (my fav at moment by the looks of things)

Olympics Week One - Cycling

Week ones challenge at the Olympics was to use dot/circle paper and have circle embellishments on your layout. I loved the mushroom paper from K and co from when I first saw it in cyberland and managed to find it last week.

Here is my layout:



products used
K and Co and kaisercraft paper
cardstock
Scenic route journal spot
Shabby Chic Mushroom spot
K and co dimensional stickers
other paper almost like cardboard for tree and circles
K and co leaves
bubble stickers
dmc thread
provocraft letters
Pebbles inc and crafters workshop words
white paint

Whoo Hoot Wednesday

Well its whoo hoot wednesday again. Hi Janine

A couple of things to whoo hoot about:

Rediscovering my love of reading recently - I was a real book worm as a child/teenager loved my books to an extent that I would be totally engrossed and not notice the time or if people talked to me. I love fantasy books (Eragon) and historical books (like the Boleyn series) - an alternative escape to scrapping. I know its in the young adults section but the next set of books I am going to read is a Jonathan Stroud trilogy.

I'm really enjoying doing my layouts for Little shop of sketches and I loved how my layout came out for the olympics at sketchbook. I'm really grateful that I have the creativity to do layout that is not simple in under an hour as my scrapping place gets cold (its in the garage)- though my idea for the first challenge might take a bit longer as I am planning to do some experimenting.

I made a pea and ham soup on Saturday in the crockpot without a recipe and it was really tasty combined with a lovely loaf of yeast free sourdough bread - yumm and the kids ate all of theirs.

Yay NZ has medals Yippee and the All Blacks won whoo hoo

That's me for tonight - have a great week

Little Shop of Sketches - sketch 14

The new sketch is up at Little Shop of Sketches. Here is the sketch



and here is my take



Products used
Cardstock - white and light blue
October Afternoon paper and little adhesive bird
Crafters Choice brads
bazzill,memory garden, green tara and prima flowers
fancy pants chipboard flourishes
pink paislee journal spot (office lingo Line)
Provocraft and american craft alphas
kaisercraft gems
love charm
leather string

Have fun with the sketch and upload at Stampin' Scrap and you could win a RAK at the end of the month.

Scrapbook dreams Challenges to share

Here is two layouts for Scrapbook Dreams challenges - first one for the weekly challenge from last week (which was just using the sketch) and second one is for the August challenge (a sketch as well but you have to include at least one stamped image.



Products used
Bazzill cardstock - pink and white
basic grey paper for journalling
Chipboard flourish
Heidi swapp, MM and green tara flowers
ribbon
canary paint
provocraft letters
buttons



products used
pink cardstock
sassafarass Lass Paper
belle chipboard
Provocraft chipboard Number 2
pink paislee letters
shabby chic journal spot
fancy pants stamps
paint and glitter
(the teddy bear is a photo of the cake I made)

THE OLYMPICS IS ON.....

Well of course it is you say its all over the news and TV One but this is no regular Olympics it is the scrapping Olympics over at The Sketchbook. It is running for six weeks and has great prizes and you get to do a challenge a week. The Olympics started on Friday with a warm up challenge to be done by tomorrow night at midnight. the warm up challenge was to chose a country's flag and only use the colours on the flag to do a layout of YOURSELF. I chose Estonia and the colours on the flag are teal, black and white awesome colour combo. Here is my layout:



products used:

Cardstock teal, white and black
bumpy teal paper unknown brand
Bird cut out from tinkering ink paper
circle from Urban lily paper
Owl and journal spot from Shabby Chic
Cosmo cricket butterflies
Kaisercraft gems and pearls
Crafters choice Brads
Green Tara flowers
Fancy pants stamp
American crafts Vinyl poolside lettering
Scrapworks shimmer letter M
Provocraft letter e
Hambly grid transparency

Little Shop of Sketches

The new weekly sketch is up at Litte shop of sketches Go check out the layouts created by the other Designers they are awesome. Here is the sketch:



and here is my take



Products used
Stemma paper
Chipboard Journal spot
Provocraft and American craft alphas
Kaisercraft Rhinestones
white paint
To submit your layouts you will need to register in the gallery and forum at Stampin' Scrap and you will go into the monthly RAK at the end of the month - Have Fun !

Whoo Hoot Wednesday

Just a little whoo hoot Wednesday
Got my happy mail today from Shabby Chic Crafts in the USA from winning NZ dare 49 (rock the pipecleaners) - I was sent 52 journal cards/embellishments and they are awesome - one of my favourite things to use at the moment . I love journal cards even though I'm not much of a journaller! Some of the cards ie the apple ones go perfectly with Paper Pestos August kit which I got yesterday. Here's a pic of what I got from Shabby Chic crafts :



My sister Kim has had her first layout published in Scrapbook Creations and the magazine is out in OZ now and she has a full page of another layout (the title page in one of the galleries) in Scrapbook Memories current magazine (not out in NZ yet) - WTG my little sister. Check out Kim's blog for heaps of scrapping info and her stunning layouts.

I'm getting some more happy mail from Shell at Scrapbook dreams as my layout - "I said cuddle not throttle" got drawn out of the hat for this weeks RAK ! Speaking of that I have also completed my "inchies" and almost finished my ATC's for the swaps at Scrapbook Dreams will share once the swaps are complete. ( I must remember to take a photo of the ATC's this time).

Watching the opening ceremony and having a middle of the night feast with the kids was great even though they got a bit bored and restless - maybe next summer Olympics they will enjoy it more.

Thats my whoo hoots for this week - have a great week

Challenge at Sketchbook

I have done a minibook about my "roles" for the challenge at Sketchbook which was put up this weekend and finishes tomorrow night at midnight. You can either do a layout or minibook. I had received this chipboard album as a RAK from Sketchbook and came up with this:

Front Cover (love how this photo came out - didnt notice the sun beams until the photo was on my computer)



Page 2 and 3



page 4 and 5



back cover



products used
Majestical Memories chipboard album
3 Bugs in a rug paper
Kaisercraft pearls and journal stamp
Prima,green tara and memory garden flowers
queen and co felt flowers,flower brad, chick and eggs
Imaginese bird stamp
Stazon black ink
versacube umber ink
MM sunflower paint
ribbons

A Productive Friday

I had a long day yesterday - awake at 6am and back to bed 4am today but is was very productive. Kaitlyn had four hours of kindy and then had lunch and slept for almost two. They have been having 'Olympics practice" at kindy for their Olympics the next two weeks and she was a bit worn out. So I had the morning to clean house , catch up with the washing finally and did a layout in the morning and while she was asleep did another (see two previous posts) and caught up with blogland. We then had the normal pick up from school , dinner and getting the kids to bed. I then had another four hours to do some scrapping (layouts later). We then woke the kids up and watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics and had a midnight feast of chicken nibbles, chips and other goodies including a batch of peanut brownies baked at 2:30am - something different and a bit of fun.

Here's the layouts created last night:

Cherish - Girls Night in Challenge at Stampin' Scrap



products used
Basic grey paper and tag
American Craft alphas
lace trim
Heidi swapp alphas
Kaisercraft Pearls
Chipboard Butterfly

Stay close - Scrapbox NZ August Sketch Challenge




Products used
Prima paper and tag
Kindy Glitz
Kaisercraft Gems and flower
American craft alphas
basic grey chipboard heart


Programmed to play - Scrapbooking by Designs August Sketch




products used
two busy moms, cosmo cricket paper and prima paper
brads
basic grey tag

Boys TV Addicts - Scrap Savvy Ad Challenge




Products Used
Kaisercraft superhero, Scenic Route and Cosmo cricket Paper
Carolees creations mini alphas
fancy pants stamps
whisper ink

Sketchbook Fortnightly Sketch Challenge

This was put up a little later this week but I have done mine in under an hour and I think its one of my favourite layouts - pretty stoked with it actually. Here it is:



Products used( mainly from a Paper Pesto Kit)
Heidi Swapp, Creative Imaginations and Deja Views paper
Hambly studios Transparency
Cosmo cricket and other chipboard
Provocraft Alphas
Jenni Bowlin Journal Sticker
Brad (unknown brand)
chalk
black stazon ink

Scrappin' Patch challenge

This challenge ends next Friday - a sketch challenge. Here's my layout -




Products used:

Scenic route and kaisercraft paper
Scenic route Journal Diecut
Belle , Bazzil and lil davis chipboard
Heidi Swapp Buttons and heart pins
Kaisercraft dew drops
Queen and co photo turns and brads
My minds eye memories tag
Carolees Creations alphas

Little Shop Of Sketches

Here is the sketch for this week



And here is my take - I have used four smaller photos instead of one large one which I find is a good way to record events when the photos that were taken are not great quality and are to fuzzy to increase their size.



products used
My minds eye and scenic route paper
Queen and co felt fusion
American crafts and provocraft alphas
Junkitz and Beutron buttons
Jenni Bowlin journal spot
K and Co epoxy buttons

Have a go at the sketch and upload at Stampin' Scrap Gallery by the end of August and be in to win a rak at the end of the month. If you are not already a forum member you will have to register on the forum and in the gallery before uploading.

Whoo Hoot Wednesday

Its Whoo Hoot Wednesday again didn't do one last week as was waiting to include my first whoo hoot for this week.

Whoo Hoots for this week

I'm a designer !! Tanya Leigh chose me to be one of the designers for the Little Shop Of Sketches for the next six months which I'm really excited about - so you will see a layout from me every week using the current sketch.

The boys had there parent teacher interviews and they are doing really well - Brendan teacher thinks he is a delight and Christopher other then some mischief and toilet talk is progressing well.

My lovely Hubby sent me off on Saturday to have a break as I had a rough week with the kids and go to the movies on my own while he looked after the kids. I didn't see the first Narnia at the movies and so decided to see Prince Caspian and really enjoyed it - cool special effects. Thanks Andrew -love ya.

Scrapbook essentials has a sale 50% off almost everything and I got two sets of Fancy pants 12 x 12 stamps and today a set of their chipboard things that I would not normally buy as outside of my budget when full price - this sale goes on for three weeks - whoo hoo for sales!!

have a great week everyone - watch out for the new sketch and my layout soon!!

Kiwi Jack me up

The layout to Jack was chosen by Adele and is a layout by Yvette aka spagetti. I have used my new stamps again along with fancy pants paper and a touch of prima.

Scrapbook Dreams weekly sketch

The sketch this week was a multi photo one with lots of buttons. I have used a stamp from my new set of stamps from Scrapbookers Delight (see previous post) - it is from a Fancy pants 12 X 12 set that I thought I would never buy due to the price but they were half price at under $40 - I ended up getting two sets - the mod set and the garden set which I'm really happy about - now I have to extend my knowledge on stamping.

Here is the layout:

Scrapbookers Delight sale 50% off almost everything

Awesome sale here's the details:

Scrapbookers’ Delight Spring Fair Sale
The sale starts today and finishing in three weeks time, culminating into the start of spring.

50% off all goods, yes you heard right. Since Mt Eden store moved in, they are abundantly stocked with stock which is stopping their growth for new stock. This means you guys can capitailise on stock below cost price.

Items not on special sale include:
Already discounted or special items
Cricut and cuttlebug machines and accessories
Magazines
Bazzill card stock
Consumables (e.g. glues, adhesives and tapes)
New stock: Crafty Secrets Chipboard and Acrylic Stamps, Simply Swank Soldering materials

Sketchbook Friday Night Challenge

This weeks challenge was from a suprise Guest - Lusi Austin (I love her creations). The challenge was to use the following items -
A enlarged photo ie bigger then 6 X 4
Patterned paper
diecuts or punchies
handwritten Journalling
doodling
The twist was to do a layout in 15 minutes.

So I got a few things together - I already had a photo and started to go ahead but had to stop straight away as my glue got clogged up grrh. Started the timer and finished of my doodles as it went off.

here is my layout:



Products Used
Pink Paislee paper and diecuts - spring fling collection
Scenic route journal block (large one)
Kaisercraft and dream street papers for title

I'm so excited !!

I found out on Tuesday that I am one of the new designers at The Little Shop of Sketches and being bursting to tell but had to wait until it was announced (about a half an hour ago) on The Little Shop of Sketches blog.
I'm going to be working with lovely talented ladies - Tanya Leigh, Vicki and the other new designer Joanne Rasmussen for the next six months and I'm so excited - I've been haunting the Stampin' Scrap forum a bit waiting for it to announced.

The new sketch for the week is up and you have until the end of the month to upload it to be in the chance to win a RAK. It is here

Here is my take and was one of my entries to be Designer



amended1/8/08
list of products used for Pirate Princess
-Basic grey background paper
-Fancy Pants double sided paper
-Prima journalling Block
-cardboard
-Grungeboard skull and crown inked and glimmermisted
- Scenic route journal spot and pirate alphas
- american crafts alphas
-belle chipboard
- MM Brads
- Bazzill bling, Tara road, memory garden and kaisercraft flowers
- stamped brackets

Here is my other layout I submitted



amended 1/08/08:
list of products used in Splash layout
Fancy pants about a boy patterned paper as the base.
-KI Memories lace cardstock
-Basic Grey paper that had numbers on as the mat for the photo
-The ruler is Junkitz school days paper
-the little arrows are also cut from Fancy pants paper ( freebies from a promotional evening)
-the little circles and Journalling spots are from Make it Personal bought from Spotlight (whole sheet for 20cents)
-splash alphas by Pink Paislee
-beutron buttons from Spotlight
-the tags are market tags by Pebbles Inc which have been in my stuff for ages and bought off trade me
-the little smiley faces are a sticker sheet from the two dollar shop
transparent sticker domes around the word Splash ( I dont know who made them as I threw the packaging away a while ago)