Saturday, August 20, 2011

Better late than Never - Purple layout

 I hope everyone survived the snow and cold last week.  Lovely to see the sun and blue skies again. 

I have finally finished the layout for Week 5 of the Colour Class at Big Picture. (Class now finished) 
On the layout I used the Aubergine fabric from my daughter's dress on the layout and also made flowers from the fabric.
The title are Basic Grey alpha painted with Twinkling H2Os and mounted on a  'Flourish with a Bling' flourish (available at Embellish It)


 The leaves below are from a Stamping Up and punched after the cardstock was put through an embossing folder - very effective.  Found this technique at one of Deb McRobie's classes recently.
 I made the flower from the ball dress fabric by cutting out with the Tim Holtz diecut and layering up, securing in the middle and then applying heat from a heat gun to curl the petals up.  (Thanks Tania for this tip) Glass beads were added for the stamens.
Finished off with some Prima flowers, bling and leaves together with Wild Orchid flowers.
I have a scrappy time ahead with the Embellish It Raincliff Retreat next weekend and then in 3 weeks the Scrapping Patch Spring Retreat at Glentui Meadows with Steph Devlin the guest tutor.  I am looking forward to both but have a bit of organising to do with photos etc.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Until next time.....
Dianne



Until next time

Monday, August 15, 2011

Catching UP

Where has the last week gone?  I hope everyone is managing to keep warm during this polar blast.  My girls and s-i-l came to visit on Saturday but made a hasty retreat back to Dunedin yesterday morning and luckily made it through.  They felt that had they been another half an hour later they wouldn't have got through.  

We have had a mixed weather bag today - sunshine, snow, wind, hail, rain and a day at home from work although I did work at home.  I was relieved that School was closed today as from past experience it is not a good idea to open in a town where snow is a novelty - the wet floors are hazardous with children slipping over and hurting themselves, many do not dress for the conditions and are crying with cold and parents of those who do attend are anxious wondering when and if they will be required to pick up children due to changes in the conditions.  Besides all that they cannot concentrate when looking out the window at the snow.   Better at home for all!! ... except for the parents who still have to go to work I suppose.

So much for getting  my purple page done and posted the weekend before last  - it is still on the table in bits.  However I have caught up and finished the colour cards, made a cover and bound them in a book.   The Colour Class has now finished.   I had already completed the black colour card before the polar blast.  It is another retro photo taken in Central Otago many years ago.  Even though it is white snow I chose to use it on the black page due to the neutral colours in the photo and it reminds me of the black snowy sky that we have been experiencing periodically today.
 I used packaging for the black part of the page and then liquid pearls which depict snow flakes.  The punch is a Martha Stewart one.
  For the white page, although it also contains black I chose this for the 'cleanliness & crispness' of the white shirts and I suppose you could also take purity and innocence from the photo too lol. 
The punch is EK Success.. Pic is my sister and I in our Girls Brigade Uniforms.  Not the best photos as I forgot to take them before mounting in the book.
Week six of the Colour class gave a handout and video on making a cover.  I decided to bind mine using the concertina type method - mainly figured out as I went.  A few pics.



Well that is it for today.

It is snowing again as I write this - if this keeps up will we make it to work tomorrow? - I will have to try anyway - a few deadlines looming.

Until next time KEEP WARM...........


Dianne


Friday, August 5, 2011

Purple and Roses

While on the colour purple I recently created this quick card with a Lili of the Valley image.  I love the purple and green together.  This week at Lili of the Valley their Challenge is ROSES, requiring roses to be included somewhere on the card. 
Created with Wild Orchids flowers and lace.  
and Prima PP (Green).
 
Thanks for visiting.

Until next time.....
Dianne

P.S.  Didn't expect to be back so soon. lol.

A Great Week One!, and Purple

Last Monday I started a new job back in a Primary School as Office Manager.  What a lovely week I have had - The staff, students and parents have been so welcoming.  I have had emails, welcomes over the phone, cards and today a lovely parent brought in a cyclamen in a lovely textured fabric basket to welcome me.  The children are delightful and so helpful and independent.  They have even been trained to get their own plasters and ice cubes for minor injuries which is fantastic.  My mind is packed full, coming to grips with all the tasks involved but I am loving my new job and am even keen to get there in the mornings (not usually a good morning person lol).  ... so all in all a GREAT WEEK.  One morning though I hadn't slept well in the night and must have gone back into a deep sleep, waking at 7.57am for an 8.30am start.  Amazingly I made it by 8.30.

Consequently I have been on a work high instead of a scrapping high and haven't got anything done since last weekend.  Still have the purple layout to do and now Week 6  which are the neutrals.  Today I will share the purple colour card from last week. 
Another Retro photo circa 1965.  My sister's birthday party where the popular colour was purple.  Recognise anyone?  Along with the popular colour was border anglaise lace which I have included on my page. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will be back with my purple layout. 

We are still without a kitchen and dined, once again, in the caravan tonight - very cosy and quite alright.  Tomorrow is the day that the kitchen is installed so hopefully without too many hitches.  By this time next week we may be back to normal????  but lots of work before then though, both for the installer and putting everything back.  Another task tomorrow  though is being the 'good wife' and that means because DH is working and it is mating season for the pigeons I have to make half hourly trips down to the pigeon loft to  let one pair out of their compartment at a time - every half hour?#@?&^ - the things we do???  I have a map of the order in which to carry out the task lol.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog.  Have a wonderful weekend.

Bye for now....
Dianne

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The Fox

For Prima's BAP for July I decided to use the Prima Moulin Rouge collection which I was lucky enough to win at an Embellish It Crop a while back.  In fact I won again last Saturday but as I had already won twice in the last 6 months I drew another name out and it happened to be another Diane who won.

Back to the layout which is of DD#3 dressed up in her late grandmother's fox for a fancy dress party. Very brave -  I can't stand touching it at all.  I felt the papers were made for the photo.  The Prima sketch...
Here is my take.
Oops I hadn't noticed that the alpha had moved when I photographed it. 
 I sliced and manipulated strips of punched paper around the circle and covered the join with the trim. 
 The crocheted flour was a bit creamy so I sprayed it with gold glimmer mist and that helped it blend in better and match the chipboard tags on the right of the page.  . 
 A Dusty Attic flourish was added - inked and the edges distressed with gold. 
and to finish off some seam binding ribbon. 

Monday saw my first day at a new job and I really enjoyed it.  Lots to learn, lots to remember but loving the variety, the nice light bright office and friendly welcoming staff so far. 

Thank you so much for visiting my blog.  Your visits are appreciated.

Until next time.....
Dianne

Monday, August 1, 2011

Catching Up

It's been a while since I updated due to a week away so now I am playing 'Catch Up' with the Colour ,or is it Color Class!  Week 4 was the colour BLUE.  I found another perfect retro photo for the blue  colour card - for blue the following words are mentioned and when I look at the photo I see it all - peace, tranquility, calm, relaxation, reliability & trust (tyre), serene, refreshing, cleanliness.   

 My 'build it' layout is to Nic's sketch and colouring on her example. 
A very linear design for me but another layout done for my daughter's album and a good way to record a sequence of events.  It would have been nice to printed the journalling directly onto the paper but after one, almost disastrous, attempt I went for the vellum option.  The paper got caught in the printer and it had to be the orange colour which I didn't have any more of so had to straighten it out and think again.  

We are without our kitchen at the moment so no dinner to cook tonight.  My lovely sister is feeding us today so we still haven't had to resort to takeaways. 

Well that is all for now......
Thank you for stopping by.  Back next time with my entry in the Prima BAP for July - done in the nick of time.

Keep warm, it looks like another clear frosty night tonight.
Dianne