Cooking anyone?

At Christmastime my niece asked me to alter a cover for a recipe book for her...
She orignally wanted blues and purples but I couldn't find something that would go with cooking, so after a bit of discussion back and forth, this is what I've come up with...

Red and white and black and hints of blue and yellow and green....
I've used a piece of Kaisercraft Pickled Pear for the background of the cover (I do love that paper!). The detail at the top and bottom have been handcut from a piece of Websters Pages Farmers Market and I've used stickers from Bo Bunny.
I think it all works very well together.

It's going to get a fair bit of use so I wanted to keep the front fairly simple so have only added the title (a sticker) with a label holder and a wooden knive and fork from Kaisercraft.
The back is covered in the same piece of Pickled Pear, though for the inside I used a red spotted paper.

Hopefully my niece will love it... if not it might just have to return home to me!

Out of control

I get the feeling that this is as normal as it gets in this house. I keep waiting for things to slow down and have a chance to relax and I keep thinking that after this I will...
For some reason every time I get past one thing, there's always something else...
At the moment I'm organising the kids for back to school next week (I'm sorry but where did the school holidays go?), Nicholas is off to Victoria for fire brigade championships (and that's been interesting to organise as the only way he was going was if he was flying) and that same week I'm off to Perth.
I keep thinking that once that's all done, we'll be right and there's nothing more and I'll be able to relax for while, but I'm certain something will raise it's head.
I mean Nicholas see's the orthodontist Monday regarding his braces, and I'm sure they'll be off soon, and then there's Easter coming up fast, and the boys want their rooms redecorated...

But amongst all that has been happening I've kept up with the Photo a Day. I have just 1 more to take tomorrow and I can say I've completed a full month!

I think I will be continuing, maybe not a photo a day, but along similar lines. I might make it a treasure hunt once a week or if we have something special happening I might use the photo prompts to take photos of a different perspective.
The options are endless I think!

Life is like a Piano

Another mixed media page.
After I saw this quote it inspired me to create this page. This is a good way of recording quotes I like I think...

I drew the piano keys down the edge of the paper (yes I need work on my drawing!) and the words life and create music using a permanent marker.
I then used a template to draw some white flowers in the background with a white chromograph pencil (it's meant to be impervious...) and then using acrylic paints watered down, painted the blue and green int he background.
I then stamped the greenery downt he bottom of the page using staz-on ink, and added in the rest of the quote, music notes and finally some white rubons.
I do like the effect of the background!

January Cybercrop

There's a cybercrop on this week over at Chook Scraps if you're looking for a kickstart into creating.
There's 4 challenges - 3 layouts and 1 card. The themes for this year is going to be sport, so to kickstart the year we have tennis (only because there's so much tennis being played right now!)

So I had the fun of creating samples...

Challenge 1

Challenge 2

Challenge 3

and the Card

If you want to know what the criteria was, you'll have to head over the Chooks and participate!

Mixed Media

I've started to play a little with mixed media, and of course I needed a journal cover so I made one from scratch!

I cut a piece of bookboard to the size I wanted, then added a title in chipboard letters.
Once I had that in place, I added random chipboard letters over the rest of the bookboard. Once I was happy with them I glued them into place, and then painted a white base over it.
Naughty me then tore some pages out of a dictionary, tore them and glued them into the 2 corners moulding them over the letters.

Now this is where the fun came in. I glued down flowers and embellishments, then sprayed it all with Ranger Colourwashes. It ended up that I wasn't happy with it, so pulled off all the embellishments and then ran the cover under the tap. I figured it was only chipboard so if I ruined it I could start again.
But wonder of wonders, it did what I wanted and lightened the intensity of the colours, without ruining the look.
Then I played again with some more spray, added the embellishments, painted, swiped and generally had some fun and this is the end result...

I love the blend of colours...

Then I covered the inside and the back cover with pieces of dictionary pages, then coloured them with the colourwash, stamped an image with stazon ink on the back.

and on the inside front cover I painted a stencil of a tree and added some text.

Overall I love the way it came out... very different to anything I've done before!

New Year, New Look, New Beginnings

Well with the start of a new year there's been a few new projects on my desktop and I've also decided to give my blog a makeover starting off with a new banner. Like it??? I think it's come up very well!

I also had some big news in that Lorraine at Chook Scraps Scrapbooking has asked me to be a member of her Design Team!
Having been a member of her site for years and being a WA store, I couldn't say no. So far it's been a lot of fun and a very relaxing start which has helped to jumpstart my creativity!

2013 has also seen me start a Photo-a-Day project. I really didn't take many photos last year, so looking forward to taking a lot more. I've only taken them on my phone, but it's enough for a record.
So far, I'm going to stick with doing January, and then see what happens from there. I might change things so that I'm taking photos once a week. We'll see what happens.

But I thought I would share the first  12 days of photos....

 It's been an interesting journey so far. I'm also going to work on a Year-in-Review album which is actually already made up, so I just have to fill in each month when it's finished.
Sounds easy so hopefully it will be.

This year I'm also going to start playing with a bit of mixed media. This is more to learn the effects of different mediums like inks, mists, stains and paints. I really don't know how to use them to their full potential so this year I plan on rectifying this and learning some new techniques along the way.

I've made the cover for the journal and will share later....

And along with that, I might start sharing more projects and also some how-to's... I will see how I go so no promises.

Another year gone...

Well nearly, and I've been busy so haven't posted anything on my blog for 2 months... yes I've neglected the poor thing.

So, thought I would try to a recap of 2012 before lots of new exciting things start for 2013!
These are not going to be in any particular order... just as I remember them.

So...

~In June I finished my time on the Design Team for Kaisercraft. A very exciting year it was and very full on! I've been enjoying the quiet time since and haven't done a lot of creating, but there's big things happening in 2013!

~ Nicholas and his team mates received the 2012 Sports Star Team of the Year Award, and the team won the State Championships in Perth again in October, with the sub-junior team also winning the State Championship, therefore Esperance were the top team!!! Well done boys.

~ Kristofer was elected Student Councillor for 2013. Very proud moment for us and such an achievement for him!

~ Jonathan worked very hard at school and received the class award at the end of the year. Well done.

~ I finally got my scrap room properly floored and am loving the set-up. It's my own little place where I can go for time out when I need to. Love sitting in there creating, or just reading.

~ We used the caravan for the first time with a holiday in Albany in October. Seems like only yesterday but really was 3 months ago!

~Nicholas had his first trip over the Nullabor to the Victorian Fire Brigade Championships. That's further than I've ever been!

~ Nicholas has been doing well in Year 11 and also got his Learner's Permit. That was a drama in itself... did you know you need more identification to get a learner's permit to drive than you need for either a passport OR to get a tax file number!

~ The Esperance Show was a success for all of us with a few wins and places, especially for the boys and their photographs.

~ We had a wedding and a new baby, with 2 more babies expected over the next couple of weeks! (and no definately not me, but dh's nieces!)

~ I started to get organised with the housework and this has free'd me up a bit more on the weekends so I'm looking forward to continuing in the new year and having it all fall into place!

I really only have 1 regret for the year... I didn't take enough photos so I'm looking at rectifying that in the new year!

So on that note, I hope everyone has a happy new year, and have few regrets as they look back on 2012.