Saturday, March 26, 2011

Time for a change!

There is a really good feeling that comes with change!
I mentioned some time ago that I was going to be scaling back on some of my dt commitments...well, this month sees that comment come to fruition.  I have recently finished up my guest spot for Scrapville, I have one more card post for Cardabilities and this post will also share my last project for Tessa over at Precocious Paper

I thought I would be sad by letting so many fun things go, but the relief I am feeling tells me this is very much the right decision.  For a while now, I've felt like I was in a bit of a creative rut and was very much designing around calendar dates....all the while trying to juggle family/ work and study. I love the idea of being able to sit and play!  I'm not a quick scrapper by any means, so having more time to play is very appealing. 

I've also felt like the juggle of time meant the kids were not always getting the best of my time and that just didn't sit well with me.  SO, it was time for some changes to be made.

That said....here is my final project for Tessa over at Precocious paper.
To say I enjoyed creating this is an understatement!  This is my first dip into the world of mixed media creation and I loved it..hehe...

Here is my canvas ...which can I say, took me a couple of days to create..(lol)


Now I know the techniques are not exact and I certainly have a long way to go, but I think it's okay for my first go.  I've used lots of Tessa's gorgeous sewing petal flowers and combined them with some Cosmo cricket to create the flowers.  Some I scrunched, some I misted and others I just layered. Along with Tessa's cupcake poppies, these were amongst my favourites.


I had a go at layering the background of my canvas first and then added detail and texture with paint, stamping, ink, doodling and rubons.


My work space was an absolute mess, but this was seriously the most fun I've had creating in some time.  My beautiful friend Tanya said to me the other day..."you should do what you're passionate about..it always shows in your work when you love it" and she is so right. 

So I think for the immediate future...I am going to just take my time and play!  I want to experiment more with paint and ink and stamping and texture...lol....and colour and chipboard and canvas.....
hehehe..I think you get my drift.  I will still be actively involved in Get Picky and am still designing for the magazine...Australian Scrapbook Ideas....but for the rest of time...I'm just going to create because!

If you're still here..thanks for reading :)  I hope whatever you're creating at the moment takes you to a happy place.....I think I'm on the way to finding mine again :)
Thanks for stopping by xxx

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Cardabilities

Welcome to the first of this month's sketches over at Cardabilities...
Here is the fantastic sketch I got to play with...
and below is my card. 
For this card I used some of Tessa's gorgeous "sweet spots" (Precocious Paper).  I substituted the squares on the sketch for the little circles.  It's hard to see from the pic, but they are made of felt with gorgeous little embellishments on each one.  I also used some of my SRM stickers too.
I created the large flower using my Tim Holtz die - some calico, felt and tulle, with a sweet spot centre.

Be sure to pop over to the Cardabilities blog and take a peek at the other stunning card creations.  Link up your own to be in the running for this month's fantastic prize.

Thanks for stopping by
xxx

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Get Picky Sketch #6

We were so very excited to have the fantastically talented Becky Fleck as our Guest Designer this month and also to be able to use one of her fantastic sketches.  Here is this month's sketch...


We were also very fortunate and extremely grateful for the amazing sponsorship this month from SRM Stickers.  They very generously provided our entire team with some of their sticker goodness to play with and also sponsored our sketch winner prize!

Here is my take on our sketch.


You have to excuse my dodgy photography....I'm going to blame the paper being bumpy due to the paint/ ink/ and mist rather than my lack of  great photographing ability...lol... I used some more of my gorgeous photos of Missy Belle.  I stuck to the sketch in its design elements and decided to create a woven strip background as a matt for my photos.  The SRM stickers were so easy to use and I decided to substitute them for journalling.  I also used some as rope for the top of my bunting and for stems on the flowers.


 Be sure to pop over to the Get Picky site to check out the dt's stunning layouts and also link up your own before the 28th to be in the running for the fantastic SRM sticker prize.

Take care everyone!!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Scrapville March Pack

Here are some pics of the scrumptious March pack now out at Scrapville...



Pasta Fagioli by Jillibean Soup

2 x Cardstock

4 x Double sided Patterned Papers

1 x Cosmo Cricket Yellow Tiny Type Alphas

1 x Chipboard rectangle

1 x Coloured Clip

1 x Adhesive paper strip - doublesided

1 x Dictionary Page

2 x lengths of Jillibean Bakers Twine

And......in the Booster we have:


1 x Kraft Cardstock

1 x Double sided Patterned Paper

1 x Jillibean Alpha Cardstock stickers

1 x Mulberry paper piece

1 x strip Green Tara webbing

1 x Jillibean beaded pick

As soon as I saw these papers...I was drawn to the gorgeous bright flowers and bold patterns in this pack. Here is what I've created using the little memo board ...

and some close up details of the bunting, twine, some doodling, the alpha stickers and my little rolled flowers and leaves.
I love how this has come together.  The colour combination makes me smile :)
Thanks for stopping by and for all the lovely comments I've been receiving lately.  It really does make my day :)  Take care everyone xx

Friday, March 4, 2011

Get Picky Inspiration Prompt #5

Here is the pic for our Inspiration Prompt this month....


.....now as much as I would like it to be so, I have never walked into a room that has been so thoughtfully and romantically decorated!  After almost 14 years of marriage...I am more than happy to get the card that Stef has taken the time to write his own personal message in.  
Although I don't think I would be sad if he did go to that much trouble either...lol....

Anyway, here is my layout...





I loved creating this!  I know I say that often, but I think I enjoy creating those layouts where I could have a bit of a play :)  The pics are of my sister and her first born bubba Missy Itiyah!  I remember this Mother's day so well, as it was my first one with Isabelle and Liza's second.  We took these pics outside in Mum and Dad's garden.  As I said , I played lots with this one....lots of misting, fabric, ribbon..... I may even be a good sister and give it to her next time I see her :)

And finally, a little up dated pic of Stef and I from our niece's 21st. 


 It's the first time I've realised....(LOL) that Stef and I are getting older!!!  Surrounded by these little 20 somethings...we were feeling our age :)  We managed to keep up until about 12:00 till Mum and Dad called us home for one of the cherubs...YEP, the party days are a bit of a distant memory me thinks...

Thanks for stopping by xxx

Cardabilities Sketch #26

Welcome to our second sketch for this month over at Cardabilities...
Here is our sketch and my card creation..


 

I've used some MME glitter papers and the flowers are from Prima.  Well they were in their original form, but the bllo was too big for what I wanted, so I separated the individual petals and added a button centre to create my own!
The prize for the winner this months comes from Paper Makeup Stamps!
Paper Makeup Stamps is a little company started by professional make-up artist Katie Cotton. An endeavor to bring her love of beauty, paper and card making together resulted in a company that prides itself on offering un-mounted deeply etched red rubber stamps that can be ordered the way you like!
Paper Makeup Stamps offers various styles of stamps from numerous artists to suit your taste. They also offer a wide array of unique quotes and sentiments in various sizes.
Paper Makeup Stamps will be providing one lucky card maker a gift certificate to their online store and all you need to do is complete this sketch and link using Mr Linky no later then March 13th! its that easy!

Be sure to pop by the blog for all the details and a look at the dt's gorgeous card creations.