Once Upon a Sketch - Sept Challenge

Hi Ladies,
I have this month's challenge for you at Once Upon a Sketch to share with you.  The theme for the month is:

Journalling Theme: "Lucky"

Click on the link HERE to be inspired by the gorgeous creations from our talented Design Team and Guest Designer and while you're there check out the fabulous prizes from our wonderful sponsors.

Forever Love

My paper selection on this LO was inspired by the colours in my husband's shirt. I have used some mixed media techniques on the lovely Kaisercraft lacy diecut which I have tried to capture in the closeups. The texture was created using Shimmerz Texturez paste and a flourish stamp.  I kept this LO pretty close to the sketch, but substituted a piece of Kaisercraft paper for one of the photos, and topped it with an Imaginarium Designs chipboard word which was cut from a title piece.  I covered the chipboard in Shimmerz Texturez paste then sprayed with Glimmermist.  To get the right shade of blue I mixed the Sapphire glimmermist which some Tattered Angels white chalkboard mist.  The beautiful blue pp's are from Maja Designs... love how they incorporate a matching strip on the bottom of their papers.. how cute are those hearts.  I have made 2 tags from the paper for my hidden journalling and topped them with one of my fav pearl embellishments from Craft Queen. 

Materials Used:  Maja Designs, Kaisercraft, K and Co and LYB pp's Imaginarium Designs chipboard, Kaisercraft and Pink Paislee stamps, Prima flowers, Craft Queen pearl embellishments, vintage lace, Glimmermist sapphire and scarlet, Tattered Angels white chalkboard mist, Shimmerz Textures tidy widy, Adornit tiny alpha stickers, Tim Holtz black distress ink.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Scrap The Boys - Aug Challenge

Hi Ladies,

I saw this month's challenge at Scrap the Boys and thought I would give it a go.

***AUGUST CHALLENGE***

-Monochromatic layout (one colour), twine and chipboard

Enjoy the Everyday

 
I find monochromatic LO's a bit of a challenge, as it's difficult for me to use just one colour... it took all my willpower not to add more black for some contrast.  I love red on masculine LO's and thought it would be easy to work with, but I struggled a little with it at first.  Once I was OK with my paper selection, it came together nicely and I was quite happy with the end product.

The background was created with a funky Artistcellar map stencil and some brick wall Shimmerz Texturez paste... love the grainy texture of this product.  I layered various strips of papers, trims and elements with foam tape to add some depth, and grunged up the edges with random punching and stamping, torn washi tape and softened it all with some gesso.

For the other criteria of this challenge I have used a chipboard label which I backed with a Simple Stories 24/7 sticker and grunged up with some gesso and  also wrapped some jute twine around my camera charm.

List of Materials:  Kaisercraft, Basic Grey, LYB and Simple Stories pp's, Artistcellar stencil, Echo Park chipboard label, Basic Grey diecut stickers, Simple Stories stickers, Shimmerz Textures brick wall, Martha Stewart punch, Bo Bunny mesh stamp, Craft Queen ribbon, twine and wahsi tape, mesh, camera charm, Tim Holtz distress ink, gesso, Silhouette arrow diecut

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Scrap The Girls August Challenge - Guest Designer

Hi Ladies,
As the winner of May's Challenge at Scrap The Girls, I was invited as a Guest Designer for this month's recipe challenge.  Here are the details.

All entries must use:

flowers
masking
doodling and
chipboard or wood veneers

Find Your Wings and Fly

Had fun with this challenge, but I have to admit, doodling isn't something you see very often on my LO's, as I'm not very confident in this area.  I was inspired by Leanne Pearce's recent LO's where I noticed her fabulous arrow doodles.  Incorporating flowers was easy as you will always find them on my feminine LO's, and masking is one of my favourite techniques atm.  Lastly, the chipboard.  I have used some sweet little chipboard butterflies and chipboard alphas in my title.

Hope you join in this month.  Click on the link HERE for some gorgeous examples from the new and returning Design Team and check out the fabulous prizes up for grabs while you're there.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Once Upon a Sketch - July Challenge - GROW

Hi Ladies,
I have the new challenge details for this month at Once Upon a Sketch which are:

Journalling Theme: "Grow"

Your layout must incorporate this theme and the sketch below. 

Please make sure that we see some sort of journalling on your layouts and please tell us where your journalling is . You are allowed to journal in any language but please tell us where on your page we will find your journalling. Remember journalling has to be a bit more than a title, or a generic comment. Hidden journalling is perfectly fine.

Click on the link HERE to see all the gorgeous creations from out amazing Design Team and Guest Designers and while you're there check out all the fabulous prizes from our generous sponsors.  

We have a new sponsor at OUAS this month, along with their Design Team, the wonderful Swedish manufacturer Inkido

Here is my take on this month's theme.  I have used the quote "A daughter is a little girl who grows up to be a wonderful friend." to go with this photo of my beautiful Brittany and me... not so beautiful, but at least I am smiling.  My journaling is hidden in a pocket on the back of my LO.

I am loving the Prima Lyric range, so gorgeously feminine!!  The weatherboard background paper was altered around the edges with some gesso, layered Prima and Stampendous stamps and a few randomly placed punched border pieces.  The strips under the silhouetted photo were leftover scraps layered together with some beautiful lace, a little bit of washi tape and a few more punched border pieces.  I softened the background layers with a bit of gesso to tie in with the outside edges of the background.

Imaginarium chipboard hearts

Craft Queen washi tape and rosette trim

   

List of Materials:  Imaginarium chipboard hearts, Prima Lyric and K and Co pp's, Craft Queen rosette trim and washi tape, Manor House Creations flower, 7 Gypsies velvet leaves, Lace, metal charms, recycled bling, Kaisercraft sparklets, Martha Stewart punch, Cheery Lynn butterfly die, Prima, Stampendous and MME stamps, Lindy's Stamp Gang mist, gesso, Brilliance and Prima inks, Adornit tiny alpha stickers.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

OUAS June Challenge - Guilty Pleasures

Hi Ladies,
You still have time to enter this month's challenge at Once Upon a Sketch which ends midnight June 25th (Australian Eastern Standard Time).  Click on the link above and prepare to be inspired by all the gorgerous creations from our Design Team and this month's Guest Designers, and while you're there check out all the fabulous prizes up for grabs from our wonderful sponsors.

Theme: What's your guilty pleasure?

Oh yes! We all get some sort of pleasure from something we really shouldn't. What's yours?

Ideas for journalling: scrapping, time alone, food, going to a concert, a T.V show, time in the garden, playing, Facebook, your iphone, shopping, bags, shoes, computer time, designing, creating etc etc

Your layout must incorporate this theme and the sketch below.

Please make sure that we see some sort of journalling on your layouts and please tell us where your journalling is. You are allowed to journal in any language but please tell us where on your page we will find your journalling. Remember journalling has to be a bit more than a title, or a generic comment. 

Hidden journalling is perfectly fine.

The Sweet Life
My guilty pleasure is to indulge in a good cup of coffee and a deliciously decadent piece of cake every once in a while.  If I'm feeling especially naughty it will be a piece of cheesecake, but one of my other favs is orange and almond cake.  As I didn't have an appropriate photo, I downloaded one from the net.

List of Materials:  Prima Lyric and Sunrise Sunset pp's, Prima flowers, MME diecut doily stickers, Basic Grey Serenade Snippets, vintage lace, paper blossoms, metal butterfly, Lindy's Stamp Gang mist, Anna Griffin lace stamp, Tim Holtz distress ink.

Bird is the Word Challenge - Moment

Hi Ladies,

I thought I would try something totally different whilst creating this LO.  Normally, I start creating with a photo in mind, then choose papers which I think will suit the photo I have selected and let my ideas flow from there.  This time around I started with one piece of pp and decided to just have fun playing with some mixed media on my background, then introduced another pp and layered a bit more mixed media.  Once I was happy with the background, I chose a photo, a few more pp's and some embellishments and trims from Craft Queen.

I checked out the current challenge at Bird is the Word and saw that this fortnight's word was Moment... a nice and easy word to incorporate into my LO.  On the bottom of my banner is the quote "Everything beautiful has its moment".

The mixed media background was created with a piece of MME pp which has a overall tiny blossom pattern.  I used some pva glue to adhere some tissue paper and paper doilies over the top of the pp.  Next, I spritzed and dripped some blue mist over the tissue layer.  When it was dry I fussy cut some Bo Bunny hexagon pp on the corners and smudged some gesso around the edges to soften.  Masks are one of my most favourite things to use at the moment.  I used a Crafter's workshop chicken wire mask randomly placed around the edges with some green ink and I have a new Christy Tomlinson doily mask which I have been dying to use, so I added another layer with the mask and some gesso, then applied the gesso around the edges of the paper with a few smudges here and there.  To finish off my background I splattered some glimmermist in lime and blue.  I really enjoyed the process of building up all the different mixed media layers... drying time takes a while, but it is totally worth it!!

Everything Beautiful Has Its Moment

Craft Queen Product:  white satin seam binding, turquoise check washi tape, white lge flower pearl trim, ivory narrow pearl ribbon, Pink Paislee doily mask, Chicken wire mask,  EK success abstract flower punch, Martha Stewart doily lace punch, Ranger gesso,

Other product used:  Bo Bunny, MME pp, paper doily, tissue paper, MME tag, Prima lace and flowers, Kaisercraft rubon quote, Tim Holtz butterfly stamp, Stampendous flower stamp, black Stazon ink, acetate, LYB canvas diecuts, Fancy That leaf flourish die, lime glimmermist, Lindys Stamp Gang blue mist, Versamagic tea leaves ink.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

OUAS May Challenge

Hi Ladies,

I have the new challenge for Once Upon A Sketch which is:

Theme: Numbers!!!

This month, we ask you to include a number , ANY number, on your layout. It has to be VISIBLE on your layout and it can be in your title or part of your journalling. It can be a date, an age, a house number, an anniversary, the number of children you have, the number of pets ....anything you like. But please make sure that there is some explanation through your journalling, somewhere on your page or blog about what this number means to you.

Your layout must incorporate this theme and the sketch below.

Please make sure that we see some sort of journalling on your layouts and please tell us where your journalling is . You are allowed to journal in any language but please tell us where on your page we will find your journalling. Remember journalling has to be a bit more than a title, or a generic comment. Hidden journalling is perfectly fine.

Check out the link HERE for Rules on how to enter, our gorgeous Design Team and Guest Design Team LO's and to see the fabulous prizes from our sponsors.

15-11-12 - Cherish the Moment

For the the numbers take on this month's challenge I decided to use the date of my daughter's Year 12 Formal.  I drew on the photo for my inspiration using the blue and silver of her partner's jacket and Brittany's lovely white dress.  The mixed media background was created using a Crafter's Workshop stencil with gesso.  While the gesso was still wet I sprinkled some glitter glass... love this stuff it has glass, micro beads and extra fine glitter all mixed together.  I then lightly misted and splattered with sapphire glimmer mist.

The lovely chipboard butterfly is from our wonderful sponsors Imaginarium Designs.  I just coated with gesso and added a pretty pearl embellishment from Craft Queen.  

Materials Used:  Kaisercraft, Basic Grey and Little Yellow Bicycle pp's, Imaginarium Designs chipboard butterfly, Prima resin frame, white blossoms and blue metallic flowers, Dusty Attic flowers, Crafter's Workshop stencil, glitter glass, Glimmer Mist, Martha Stewart border punch, Heidi Swapp sticker, Craft Queen pearl and velvet ric rac, lace, K and Co tag, October Afternoon alpha stickers, gesso

Thanks so much for stopping by.
Cathy♥

GDT The Scrapbook Store - Authentique Lovely

Hi Ladies,
I was so excited to be invited by the lovely Suzanne from The Scrapbook Store to be a Guest Designer for the month of February.  This month I get to play with the new Authentique "Lovely" range and some yummy embellishments, so keep an eye out as I will be creating several LO's and cards with these gorgeous papers.  Click on the link above to check out all the new CHA goodies which are in stock.

For my 1st LO I have used this month's Challenge sketch created by the super talented Nadia Cannizzo to inspire me.  It is definitely worth entering as the Challenge prize is a $40 voucher with free postage... how fab is that!!
Love Looks Not With the Eyes But With the Mind

The Scrapbook Store Feb. Sketch Challenge designed by Nadia Cannizzo

Authentique "Lovely" range

All materials are linked and available from The Scrapbook Store.

For the background on my LO I trimmed down the Authentique Lovely - Greetings pp pink side facing up.   I often use my chipboard as a mask so that I get double the value for my money.  Here I used the new Dusty Attic Marrakesh Trellis small chipboard with some opaque white Studio Calico mist, then sprinkled with Mel's Dinner Glimmer Mist.  I randomly punched the edges of the paper with the Martha Stewart Around the Page Swirling Lace punch and used some olive and pink floral washi tape in between the punched edges.  I layered my background on top of the Authentique Lovely - Dainty pp cream side facing up.

From the Authentique Lovely - Fancy pp I cut a circle and used the corner punch from the Martha Stewart  Swirling Lace around the page set to create a doily effect.  The pretty TSS mulberry soft pink paper roses were altered with some WOW extra fine gold glitter.  I also used the glitter on TSS chipboard butterfly.

I layered a large paper doily with my punched circle, punched a strip with the Martha Stewart deep edge embroidery punch from the cream paper to tuck under the photo, then arranged the flowers, stamped flowers from Kaisercraft Charlotte's Dream stamp set, TSS chipboard heart sprays and Authentique Lovely diecut sticker on the right hand side of the photo.

Dusty Attic Marrakesh Trellis small chipboard  

  TSS mulberry soft pink paper roses

Martha Stewart Around the Page Swirling Lace Punch

Thanks so much for stopping by.

OUAS Feb Challenge - Love

"Do All Things With Love"

This month at Once Upon a Sketch the theme is LOVE as February is the month we celebrate St Valentine's Day here in Australia and in many parts of the world.  Love takes on many forms..relationship love, parental love etc etc. So let's think about what the above quote can mean and how you can interpret it on a layout. You are free to scrap about any kind of love you wish however you like based on the following sketch.

Ideas for journalling:  love for your partner, family, parents ,siblings, children, work, students, craft, music, extra curricular activities.  Whatever it is that you connect LOVE with.

Your layout must incorporate this theme and the sketch below.

Please make sure that we see some sort of journalling on your layouts and please tell us where your journalling is . You are allowed to journal in any language but please tell us where on your page we will find your journalling. Remember journalling has to be a bit more than a title, or a generic comment. Hidden journalling is perfectly fine.

Love You With All My Heart

Even though it is Team B's reveal at OUAS, I decided to create a LO for this month's challenge.  Imaginarium Designs is one of our sponsors and the Design Team were sent a parcel of gorgeous chippies to play with.  I have used some beautiful butterflies and mini peacock feathers which I altered with metallic inks and Viva Precious Metals.

I have also used some pretty organza and gingham ribbons from one of our other sponsors  Scrapbook Fantasies.

Materials Used:  Imaginarium Designs Chipboard, Scrapbook Fantasies ribbon, Websters and MME pp's, paper doilies, Prima Resin emb., Prima mask, Kaisercraft Pearls and Wooden word, October Afternoon alpha stickers, Viva Decor modelling paste and precious metal colour, gesso, paint.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Zeus and Zoe "Believe"

Hi everyone,
I'm here to share my LO created for this month's challenge at Zeus and Zoe... which is to create a project using your chosen word for 2013. Details on how to enter as well as a look at the fabulous prize pack on offer from this month's sponsor Maja Designs are HERE.

My word for 2013 is "BELIEVE".  I have always struggled with self confidence and seem to be forever doubting myself.  So this year I have decided  to believe in myself,  try to put away the negative thoughts and feelings,  and muster up the courage to venture out of my comfort zone and just jump in the deep end.

I usually overthink when I create a LO as I am such a perfectionist, so on this page I decided to let go and play with some mixed media, using gesso, layering various masks, and some splatters and drips with glimmer mist and Viva Decor precious metal over the top of the masking.  I was very happy with the outcome... I might need to let go a bit more often!!

The items I have used  from my Zeus and Zoe vintage kit supplied by Marivic from her Etsy Store are a sheet of patterned paper, vintage buttons, crochet doily, Manor House Creations cream flower, and a some vintage ephemera. 

vintage button, MHC cream flower, teal crochet doily

vintage button altered with turquoise Viva Decor precious metal, an a vintage letter and KandCo pp

Additional materials used:  OA and Kaisercraft pp, Prima flowers, wooden embellishments and notecards,  Green Tara velvet leaves, Kaisercraft wooden berry branch and collectables, vintage paper doily, Prima and Creative Imaginations stencils, gesso, Viva precious metal turquoise, glimmermist crushed shells, chocolat and patina, Pin Paislee stamp, Cuttlebug tags, EK Success border punch, Tim Holtz distress ink tea dye.

This month our fabulous prize pack is sponsored by Maja Design.

Maja Design Corp is situated in Uddevalla, Sweden. We are dedicated to create unique and high quality vintage inspired patterned paper for scrapbooking and crafts. Maja Design was founded in November 2007, and since then been growing over 70 retailers in Sweden and 90 all over the world. Founder Marie Jansson says : "In the fall of 2004, a dear friend asked me to join her to a scrapbooking course. from that moment, i became totally amazed and thrilled by all the beautiful papers and decorations in the art of scrapbooking. After some time as a captivated scrapper, I got curious to create my own patterns. I have always have had a devotion for colour and form, as well as I had great printing facilities close, as I worked at a printers office. Since 2007, I have been blessed to be able to work with my great passion - to design and create coloured coordinated paper".  Please visit us at www.majadesign.nu

Zeus and Zoe DT Call
Don't forget you still have until the 27th of this month to apply for the Zeus and Zoe Design Team Call.. Full Details HERE... come on, give it a go, you won't know unless you try!!

Have a fabulous week and thanks so much for stopping by.

Cathy