It's another CC

CC weekend over at Chooks this weekend (though entries don't close until end of next weekend) so lots of challenges and fun to be had!!!

This month's theme is Rugby League... a sport I have absolutely no idea about!!!

But the challenges were fun.

Here are my samples...

There's also a card challenge but I never got a chance to get the sample done!

But I did manage to get the DT challenge done...
This month they gave us texture, blue or maroon (I went blue), 2 photos and an oval!

So now I'm off to cover some boxes for my little ink pads. I really needed them sorted into colours, so decided the little gift boxes were ideal!

I might need to take some updated pics of my studio now as I have redone the wet area as I added a few Distress stains, and I'm getting some distress markers next week... shhhhhh......

April CC

Told you I've been slack. I haven't even shared with you the layouts for the April Cybercrop for Chooks and this week we have May's Cybercrop.

But never late than never as they say...

These were all the samples for the challenges and this one below was for the DT challenge.

It's been a busy weekend with the hockey season starting, and I have Nicholas playing U17s and seniors, Kristofer U17s and Juniors and Jonathan in Juniors. Nicholas and Kristofer are both playing in the same U17s team which will be the first and last time as this is Nicholas' last year in U17s.
Makes for a busy day, but they all did well and all of them won their first games.

Also Gryfn has been quite sick this weekend and we've discovered it was his teeth, so he was into the vets this morning to get them cleaned up. So much for the Maine Coon biscuits which were meant to help prevent this from happening. He's very sore and sorry for himself and I'm still trying to get him to eat something.

Heritage box

I actually did some 'just because' scrapping recently, decorating this 'writing desk' from Kaisercraft.
I never had a set idea on what I wanted to use it for, but just felt like making it pretty.
I ended up using a range of Bo Bunny papers that I had bought just because they were pretty... I seem to do that a lot and I think I needed to use some of them up!!!

So from the top...

and the obligatory detail shots...

The flowers I've used are some Prima ones and they've all got a gold highlight to them, and I've coloured the lace and the paper doilies with a range of glimmer mists... my new favourites Burlap and Kraft. The colours do come up well!!!
The butterflies are all handcut from one of the Bo Bunny papers.
The whole top of the box has then been sprayed with a gold glimmermist so it has a very pretty sheen to it!

Now from the front...

Again the lace has all been coloured with the glimmermist again.
The textured corners have been created using a mix of texture paste, gauze, and then sprayed with the glimmermists again. Not quite what I was going for, but I'm happy with the effect at any rate!
I haven't done this to the back corners and am wondering if I need, but I think it will be too much. anyway the lace is there!

The inside of the box...

I found the jade paper I used for the sides was a bit on the bright side, so I added some more glimmermist. That toned it right down to match in with the outside.

And finally the inside of the lid...

More flowers, butterflies, doilies and glimmermist!
I think I used half a bottle of glimmermist on this project alone! I'm going to have to find the bigger bottles of Burlap and Kraft... !

I love the way this box came out... it's pretty enough that I can use it for anything from heritage, to maybe some old letters... or even storing some of my stash...

Changes afoot...

With all that's happening lately I was beginning to wonder whether or not to continue my blog.
Considering that I've only been uploading scrapbooking projects, I was considering whether or not to continue and just post the projects on Pinterest.
After some considering I've decided I will continue to blog, but I'm going to change a few things I post.
One thing I've tried to do is the Photo a Day, but it just keeps falling by the wayside and I never get the photos taken. I run out of time, it's too dark or I simply forget, and it's like that rolling stone... once it starts it just continues.
So after a lot of soul searching and thinking about what I'm doing, I'm going to try to reorganise a few things. I tried after my last lot of holidays and some things have stuck like the washing. That's working a treat! So I'm going to try to apply that concept to a lot of other things.

So the changes... I'm going to try to blog once a week at least... I might spend 5 minutes drafting a post and adding to it during the week. This post could contain everything from the dramas of the week, scrapbooking projects or even photos... it's going to be a mix of a few things.
Maybe doing it this way I might actually post regularly... what do you think?
I guess I could just give it a try and maybe get things back on track and get my head above water for a change instead of feeling like I'm drowning in things!

So I guess we're really up for a big catch up... I've had a few things going on from the high school ball, Anzac Day march, U17 hockey, braces off, school holidays (not that the 2 younger boys did anything!), work, scrapbooking... I guess just life in general!

So we'll start with Anzac Day!
Kristofer did me very proud! As part of the school council, he and his fellow student councillors ran the school assembly for the Anzac Day Service. Unfortunately due to work I couldn't be there but I did have someone who could take photos for me (thanks Dave).
Especially as Kristofer had the honour of laying the wreath and from what I was told he did a very good job!

And following on from that the councillors then marched on Anzac Day.

Also at the end of last term we had the ESHS School Ball for 2013, and Nicholas being in Year 12, this year he attended.

 I think he looked very handsome dressed up in his suit... My baby boy is all growed up!!!

So how's that for a quick catch ... there's still more to come with hockey, braces and also there's the scrapbooking too!

I'm a little lost...

Well not really, but I want to scrap, but I don't...
And I have all these ideas rolling around in my mind....
It's just I don't have the motivation to actually scrap!
I've been like this for a little while now so I think I'm still a little burnt out after Kaisercraft. That was a lot of work!
So any ideas on how I get back into it...
I'm thinking of doing some online tutorials, and learning some new stuff....

Who's up for a holiday?

Well at Chooks we're having a Chook's Run Around Australia!!!
We're starting our run off in Collie and will be heading off to several towns and states!!!

The criteria is being kept very simple due to the quick turnaround we'll be having, but if you're interested head on over and check it out!!!!

Here's my sample layout for the first challenge....

Best I get the rest of my samples done up too, as I'm preparing the stopovers for everyone!!!
Come and join in the fun... we're travelling first class!!!!

Keep Calm & Create

We all need a good quote in our studio I believe, and I loved this one!!!
So out came an old canvas which was then painted, papered, sprayed stamped and embellished and this is what was produced...

I committed sacrilege with an Oxford Dictionary giving up many pages to create the background! What a sacrifice....
I then cut up a piece of Websters Pages paper for the roses....
I then wanted to gesso it, but due to the fact it was Easter, and the shops were closed so I couldn't get any gesso, I had to make do with what I had which was a cheap white acrylic paint. At least I didn't have to water it down... :)
Add some texture paste, gold netting and muslin for some texture...
From there I then played around with some of my Ranger Colorwashes, watering them down to get the pale yellow, pink and green that I wanted and then sprayed the whole background!!! Very subtle, but very pretty I think!
When it all dried, I then ran a black ink pad over the top to pick up the texture and add some shadow.

All of the chipboard around the edges of the canvas have been painted with a pearl paint and then sprayed with the Colorwashes. I used the same colours I sprayed the background with, but these ones weren't watered down. Because I used the pearl paint, the chipboard all shimmer...

The words were all painted with pearl paint, but they weren't going to stand out on the background, so I then painted them black and sanded them back, finishing with a coating of dimensional magic.
I tried several different techniques on the 'create' but nothing worked, so I painted them black with the higlight of the pearl, followed by dimensional magic.
That worked!!!

From there it was a case of deciding on placement of flowers (after I sprayed them with gold mist!) and glueing everything down...

Overall I'm very happy with it... the only problem is the frame of the canvas is a bit skew-iff... so the words look crooked, and they might not be quite centre ... damn!
I'm sure something will come to me to fix that as I doubt very much I can pull the letters off and restick them.
I'm also not sure if it needs something on the left hand side... any ideas?