Exhausted

Hi all,

Christmas is coming near now, hope you are all prepared? Our last challenge this year at Pinspirational has this inspirational photo:

Lots of things to choose from; the theme, the colour scheme, the stockings, lace, rosettes.......I chose to use the colour scheme and the lace in my layout this time; these are two pictures before and after my daughter's 30 mins swimming lesson. As you can tell, that half hour took a lot out of her, so tired! But it was fun :)

Join us for one last challenge in 2016, we will be back in January with new challenges, but in the mean time will take some time off to celebrate the holidays with our families. See you on the other side in 2017!

Challenges:
* Lasting Memories (AG with photos from 2016)
* Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends (AG)
* Inspiration Destination (AG)

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Birthday card for Dad

Hi all,

Back again to share a card I made for my FIL, whose birthday is at the end of December. I have had the Graphic 45 Typography paperpad for a long time and have hardly ever used it. I don't really know why I bought it, since it really is not my style, but for some reason for a while there Graphic 45 must have been hypnotising me with their products as I constantly wanted to buy more. Thankfully I resisted mostly, as that stuff was/is expensive! Therefore, I didn't just want to purge it and not use it, so I thought it would really well for a birthday card for an "older gentleman".

I used several papers from the pad and teamed it with a party person wood veneer (I realise now that I really didn't need that many party people as come in a pack, I have had this forever too!) and some really ancient word stickers. Some gold thread stitching along the sides of the banner completed the project. I think it worked out quite well and some more paper leaves my craft room :)

Challenges:
* Crafty Creations (Masculine)
* The Male Room (Christmas/December Celebrations/Winter Wishes) Winter Birthday
* Paper Shelter (Birthday Card)
* Paper Play Sketches (Sketch)
* Get Creative (Birthday)

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The Cutest Easter Bunny

Hello all,

Can you feel that? It's Christmas that is approaching! Oh lord, give me strength......let's just say I am not the fondest of the holiday season, but now that we have a little sweet pea it's actually getting more and more fun. It's just so stressful, this time before we have our time off, everything needs to happen at the last moment of course. However, on the up-side.....lounging in my jammies all day! Now that is a holiday tradition I can get behind ;)

Our challenge this week at Pinspirational Challenges focuses on this picture:

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Ow, how adorable and lovely Christmassy! So guess what I did with it:

Funny how different the project looks from the inspiration picture, but I assure you I started out with the colour scheme in mind and went through my stash. I was hoping to find some tartan paper in either blue, green of red, but couldn't find any, so selected the red floral background instead. I don't know about you, but flowers are not really what I associate with Christmas (bar the Christmas roses of course). So I decided to keep using the colour scheme, but veer towards a more spring-like topic, like.....yeah, like Easter of course. Bear with me, people....That meant I had to soften the colours a little bit to match the theme, I added a little pink and a splash of yellow to make it match elements in the photos and hey presto: a project was completed, Let's call it artistic licence ;)

So perhaps you will be able to stick to the photo more, or perhaps you also like to make a cross-over project. Regardless, come and share and tell your story behind your work! Sponsor this time around is the Cutting Cafe, a great reason to play along. Hope to see you sharing your work with us!

Challenges:
* Crafty Cardmakers (Anything but a Card)
* Paper Nest Dolls (Anything Goes)
* Use Your Stuff (Layers, using papers, enamel dots, (letter) stickers and chipboard to layer)
* Creates and Makes (Anything Goes, optional Red, Green and Gold)

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First Smiles

Hi all,

There's still time to play along with the current Pinspirational Challenge. This is the photo we are taking our inspiration from this time:

A lovely winter scene, but I used it for a different kind of project:

I let myself be inspired by the colours and textures; using the blue from the cups, stars, wood from the background and branch-style stitching. Once I did that, I felt it was a little too much samey in colour (I love working with contrasts). I came across the awesome chipboard piece that fitted perfectly between the branches I had already stitched and it really went from there! This was our little girl in January, when she just started to smile. I can't believe she turned1 last week, what a milestone! Happy birthday, sweetheart :)

Hope you can join use this fortnight, our sponsors this time are A Random Fan and Sherri Baldy. In the meantime, I am off to the little wean's birthday party!

Challenges:
* CRAFT Challenge (Not a Card) 30/11
* Crafty Boots (Trees) 5/12
* Crafty Cardmakers (Anything but a Card) 12/12
* Glitter 'n Sparkle (Blue and White) 5/12
* Pile It On (Two Patterned Papers) 11/12

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Vintage Scene

Hello all!

This time at the Pinspirational Challenge, we have such a lovely inspirational photo, you can go so many ways with this!



You can use theme or colour scheme, you can take it very literal or just use the concept.....I loved working with it! My only problem was picking what I would take from the photo. Eventually, I spotted some postcard paper and a postage-themed stamp set, so decided to take the vintage theme for a birthday card for my dad, who is celebrating his 80th birthday on Boxing Day. Unbelievable....time flies!

I tried to really make it look like a postcard, with the stamps in the right place (I was also careful not to cover up the word Post-Card in any way), and it feel like I pulled it off ok. So how will you interpret this photo for your own project? Come on and join the fun! Our sponsors this fortnight are Elizabeth Bell and Kitty Bee, so why not take a change and try for a win?

Challenges:
* Dream Valley (Winter Birthday)
* Get Creative (AG)
* House of Cards (Lots of Layers and/or Colours)
* Ooh La La (Vintage)
* Scrap 'n Challenge (Autumn Colours)

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Black and Orange.....but not Spooky!

Hi all!

Today my project is another lay-out, using traditional Halloween colours....but it's not about Halloween! I've used this great colour combo to scrap about my daughter's love for all things bouncy, she is just happy as a clam sitting on the see-saw in the playground or on my old rocking horse at home. I'm pretty happy with how this came out, combining one large photo and several smaller ones.

The black and white background paper was a little damaged in the upper right corner. I tried to fix it by adding layers, but it looked messy and distracting to me. Then I just tore the corner off and put a little yellow paper scrap behind that and liked it much better :)

My project fits well with our new challenge over at the Pinspirational Challenge, where we have this inspirational photo to work with:



It suits Halloween projects, but also projects about cats or scrappy pages about making pumpkin pie, or.....well, I'm sure you can come up with even better ideas! I used the colour scheme and the outside theme.

Our sponsor this fortnight is Digital Delights.

Hope you can join us! Remember, you can share any crafty project, it doesn't have to be a scrappy page or a card.

I am submitting to these challenges:
* Craft Your Passion (Always Anything Goes)
* Dream Valley (One for the Girls)
* Get Creative (Black and Orange)
* Love to Scrap (Anything Goes)
* Simon Says Stamp (Autumn)

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Autumnal Birthday Card

Oh, how the weather has changed! One minute I was barefoot and rolling around in the grass with my little one, next thing I know I am desperately craving gloves and a hat on the bike this morning! Change of season also dictates a change of crafty style for me this week. Over at the Pinspirational Challenge Blog, we have the following inspirational picture:

Again, lots to take from this picture! I took the colour scheme, the plaid/tartan pattern, the leaves and the country feel. I used all of that for a birthday card.

Sponsor this fortnight is Fred She Said, prize is a 10 dollar certificate for their shop.Check out the challenge blog for more inspiration from my fellow teamies and all the crafters that will be playing along!  Hope to see you all there!

Challenges:
- Animal Friends Challenge (Fall/Halloween with an animal)
- Let's Craft and Create (Halloween/Autumn/Fall)
- Pink & Main Challenges (Fall/Halloween)
- Scribbles Designs (Woodland Creatures)
- Crafty Cardmakers (Birthdays)
- Critters and Creatures (AG with a critter or creature)

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I´m back on a DT!

Hi all,

Yes, I am back in the DT swing of things, the Pinspirational Challenge girls asked me to join their ranks after I put myself forward and of course I said yes! If you are not aware of the challenge blog, there is a new challenge up every fortnight and all you have to do if let the (p)inspiration image start up your mojo! We welcome every type of craft in the challenge. Let us know how the image inspired you, always fun to see other crafter's take on the same challenge!

Check out the image for the new challenge @ the Challenge blog!

Lots of things to be inspired by in this image! Once I saw it, I knew right away I wanted to scrap the story of our little girl's first toy, which was a Miffy rattle (we call her Nijntje in the Netherlands). Here's the result, it's a 6x8 page, which I will tuck in between 12x12s in her first year book.

I used the blue and script lettering from the image on the wall, the wood grain and I tried to go with neutral colours (but had to throw in some shockingly bright enamel dots in the end!).

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Blue and Green should never be seen......not according to me!

I tend to lean towards wood papers and such when I scrap outdoor photos, but I challenge myself today to use the characteristally blue-green combo that many scrapbookers use with these kinds of photo's (just not me). I'm quite pleased with the result!

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Those pesky frames!

I love chipboard frames, but have a real problem actually using them. I never really like the LO's where I include them, but this one might be the one where I can actually see how to incorporate them in my style!

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Precious stash

I've actually done it, I cut into this lovely Studio Calico houses paper and used it on a layout! I have the collection pack, but there was only one paper with the houses on. It became a little bit special when every time I came across it, I thought: no, I have to have a really special story for this. Rubbish of course and so I included it in the mood board kit from last weekend and just cut into it. There is still plenty left for at least two more layouts, so I think I will still ration it a bit (also because it's such a busy paper), but at least it's not special anymore!

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Embossing Elements

New challenge: Dust off those embossing folders and use them! I used an stars embossing folder on a PL card and cut it in half to stretch it further on the page.

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Daddy's First Day

I loved working on this page, such a fun memory! I used some square and camera dies that needed dusting off and used some new supplies as well.

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On Defence

I've never really had a problem with combining portrait and landscape oriented pictures on one layout, but for others it's a real challenge. So, today's challenge dealt with this conundrum. I used some pictures f on my PhD defense, I recently came across them and had never scrapped any of the pictures. I used a paper that I got as part of a sale pack, as I would never have bought it myself. This has to do with all the stuff already printed on the paper, I tend to enjoy starting from a blank canvas almost, so I have endless possibilities. I think I made it work, though. In hindsight, I think I would have us d a grey journaling pen instead of brown, it feels too heavy now. I'll try grey next time!

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Pinterfail?

Oh Pinterest, why so addictive? I have spent hours on Pinterest pinning other people's creations and sketches, thinking: I should try that, that looks really cool. However, I've never actually used my pins for LOs. What a waste! So I have a fair bit of pins on my board, but I settled for the first sketch/idea with one photo that I liked (https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/44191640072310745/, it's a sketch by Lanette Erickson). 

I made a little sketch on a bit of scrap paper and left that next to my LO in progress. The background paper has been in my stash forever, I can't bring myself to purge good quality paper (the flimsy stuff went out recently), even though the front design is way too bold and big for my taste. I can't tell you how often I picked this up and thought: I really want to do something with this, I really like the pattern! Yes, in theory, but it never seemed to work with what I was scrapping. However, when I flipped it around.......this is perfect for my style! Lesson learned :)

Oh yeah, with regard to the sketch: I really only used it as inspiration, as you can see I switched up the title and an embellishment cluster and I journaled straight on the page instead of on strips. It really feels like my layout, even though the original idea might have come from someone else.

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New Years Eve

Challange 5: Use a colour wheel to choose your colour combination. I had actually never used a colour wheel before, so it was quite fun using this approach. I used the Colour Wizard website and started with the colour I wanted to use for my background; a buttery yellow. The website then shows you different colour combinations based on the colour wheel. I used the triadic combination, which was yellow, purple and teal. I would have never thought of this combination myself, but I think it works quite well!

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Cop Out!

We're on day 4 and today's challenge is to use those stamps that you have bought and then squirreled away. Oh yes, this is such a good versatile set, I will bound to use it! Ring any bells? ;) Just like everyone else, I also have some stamps and other stash that I have never used. Sometimes when I come across it, I think: oh yeah, why haven't I used this yet? With this stamp set, I now realize why I didn't; its just to a very vearsatile stamp set! There are no sentiments, just images, and the style just does it appeal to me. So I had the most difficult of times with this challenge and only managed to use one of the stamps in the lower corner. Oh well, I tried and it's better not to commit to the challenge but end up with a page in your album you actually like, right?

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Using ink in different ways

Day three and we´re talking ink, I usually use ink to edge my papers and to stamp, but I had never used it with stencils. Also, I hardly ever use stencils, but still love buying them, so I killed two birds with one stone ;) Relatively old pictures this time, they had been in my scrappy photo stack for so long and I just didn't really know what to do with them. Turns out, it really wasn't that hard, just go out and do it!

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Day 2: Title variation

Next challenge! This challenge is all about changing up the way I normally make titles on my pages. I usually use thickers and flat alphabet stickers, but this time I painted my title with distress spray. The colour really matched my papers really well, happy accident! Love that I also got to use up some of my stash of Shimelle's first collection, making room for new stuff, like her new travel collection :)

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Still alive....and scrapbooking!

Oh my, I haven't been here in a very long time! A lot has happened since the last time I was here and my life has changed dramatically. I am now a mum to the most wonderful 8 month old girl and I have moved on craftywise too, from cardmaking to scrapbooking.

Last week, I started a new scrapbooking course by Shimelle Laine, which is called the 20 project. For 20 weekdays, we will be working on scrap pages based on a daily prompt or challenge. I didn't think I would be able to keep up with the challenges, but so far I have completed three out of three challenges and am chomping at the bit for the next one!

As I have so enjoyed the course so far, I wanted to go back to my old and much neglected blog and share my creations with you. Just for the joy of it, I just feel the need to share.

The first challenge was to check your current family album and look for gaps in my stories. It was blatantly obvious that there were quite a few gaps to be filled, you possibly can imagine I take a lot of pictures these days, but what I missed the most was a current story beyond my monthly week in the life spread. It's not a big story, but it was a great afternoon and why not document that?

 

Hope you enjoy, any questions you might have I will be happy to answer of course. I will be back to share more project with you as I make them!

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