Friday, September 30, 2011

Just an Ordinary Day

Hello - another week done and dusted and it has been another busy one.

I did manage to get three layouts completed last weekend though so was pleased with that.  They all took longer than they should have though - far too much procrastinating.  I finally got a photo of this one taken this morning as today is the deadline for the Dusty Attic September Sketch Challenge.  See the sketch here.

This photo has been floating around waiting for the right moment for some time now and when I found the gorgeous MME Lost and Found range at Scrapping Patch Spring Retreat I knew they were the ones for the photo.  The photo is of my Grandfather and his sister on a bicycle outing circa 1927.  In those days it was nothing for them to bike out to the river some 10 miles away for a picnic.  I love their baggage - the basket and leather bag.  Obviously they are holding the photographer's bike also.  Here is my take.
 I added a little bike trinket to the hidden tag where the journaling will go.

 The Title tag is also from the Lost and Found Collection.  The frame is a DA Garden Frame Set DA0606. 
Dusty Attic cogs glimmer misted with gold and a Websters Pages embroidered bird were added.
String and brads created the cris-crossed effect and a necklace happened to break that day so I recycled the chain to hold a little bicycle trinket and also used the chain in the top photo down the right side of the photo.

Thank you for visiting my blog - it is truly appreciated but I would love to know who is visiting so feel free to leave a comment.

Have a wonderful weekend whatever you may be doing.  My agenda includes mowing lots of lawns but that is good productive exercise so I don't mind.  Then hopefully some scrap room time.

Take care.  Until next time....

Dianne

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Dress Up Fun

Today I post another Raincliff layout, a double page lo, "Dress Up Fun" created with those lovely Bo Bunny papers.  This is a layout going back to the 80's and 90's.  Our girls have loved dressing up from an early age and we have always had dress up boxes (suitcases) which had a regular outing at Birthdays when they played "Musical Dressups" (something we did as children too).  These photos though are of random dress up times with neighbours and relatives. I wanted to include as many photos as possible on the page.
The Raincliff challenges included using stamps so I used a couple of Kaiser Stamps on the layout.  The Bo Bunny paper was flipped for the 2nd page to balance it.
This weekend is South Canterbury is a long day as we have Anniversary Day on Monday - yay - my kind of weekend (3 days).  I haven't managed to get to the scrap room yet but am aiming for a Sunday Scrap Day as the weather isn't supposed to be flash tomorrow.  The house work and final unpacking of kitchen boxes beckoned today and tonight I might tackle the recipe drawer. 

Today I also took my M & D on a short trip to meet their latest Great Grandson - a lovely wee chap just three weeks old.  We also enjoyed seeing another two Great Grand daughters and Great Grandson having fun playing together.

Well that is all for today and I think that this layout is the end of my recent ones so I hope my mojo is active tomorrow or it could be a while before any more.

Have a great weekend....
Until next time ....
Dianne

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Steph Devlin's Classes

Steph Devlin has posted about her NZ trip and classes at Scrapping Patch here.  ...So today I will share the OTP class and also the self paced kit.  The other class will be posted at a later date as we have to wait until the papers are available in the shops for publishing it.

First is the OTP Canvas created with Imaginarium Designs Chipboard and Websters Pages Product.  Steph named it the 'Pink Project'.
Of course the frame required painting and paintbrushes and me don't go that well together so I used a little foam roller to paint mine and it gave it more of a smooth stipple finish.  I often use a roller for a smooth finish - it probably takes more paint but it is worth it. 
 We had to cut a WP doily in half (that was hard) but looking at the bright side the other half will be able to be used on another project sometime. 

Next the 'Love You Forever' Layout using Pink Paislee PP and Imaginarium Designs Chipboard.  I used photos of my daughter's wedding day for both projects.

 The green vine was coated with Glimmer Glam and while wet coated with Martha Stewart Coarse Glitter.  I hadn't covered mine quite enough so ended up spraying with Glimmer mist and re-coating with glitter.  The 'Love You' words were painted with gesso and I finished them off with white chalk ink. 
 Lots of lovely punches were used.  I would love to find the Vintage Floral punch to buy for myself. 

To date I still haven't achieved any more scrapping on the home front - things keep getting in the way however hopefully tonight when Scrap group is at my place that may get me going again.

Hope your week is going well. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Until next time.....
Dianne

Monday, September 19, 2011

Prima BAP September

Today my muscles are recovering from the lawn mowing efforts at the working bee yesterday - it is obvious I haven't used some muscles in a while lol.

Never mind - I managed to complete the Prima BAP for September while at Glentui last weekend.
The sketch -
and my take
 I used the lovely pastel Pixie-Glen papers together with a felt gate, Winter branches Grape vine, flowers and leaves. 

some lace, punched music paper border and a little Prima Locket were included.

It was nice to get back to some Heritage scrapping with a photo of my Great Great Grandmother Ekin and her daughter. It is a photo that I have been trying to use for some time but the colour I printed the photo turned out to be restrictive however I liked it on the light background. I will include their names in the box at the top right when I hunt them out.

Thanks for visiting.  Have a great week.

Until next time .....
Dianne

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Spring Garden - New Life

Where did Saturday go?  It was my first Saturday home in a month and I found it hard to get motivated.  However I did take the time to smell the flowers so to speak, enjoy the garden and take some photos but I cannot take the credit for the garden.  Thanks to two special people who help us with our garden it is looking lovely.  The 1000's of daffodils have been flowering for a few weeks but this week the magnolia is blooming as are all the blossom trees.  It is a real spring garden, since scrap booking took over, as the 100's of annuals I used to plant doesn't happen any more. I had another play with the panoramic setting on the camera and still need more practice.  The East garden is on a slope (as you will see by the photo) and of course everything looks much better in the flesh.  This photo was taken at ground level so if the opportunity arises again I will have another go at house level (the sun is too bright right now).
and a couple of closeups

 My Dad made the stone sculpture
We have an exciting time ahead as we are to become 1st time grandparents in December and so far I am keeping up to date with the photos lol.  I have been using the lovely Bo Bunny Gabrielle collection to record the scan photos.  The first two layouts were created at the Dunedin Crop in June.
     
 The scan pics were very delicate so I had put them in photo protectors thus difficult to photograph but you get the general idea. 
 
 And the next one, started at Glentui last weekend, was finished yesterday the 20 wk scan.  The title is from Imaginarium Designs and butterflies - Cheery Lynn Designs
 
 Hope the radiologist got it right or that will be another story lol.  I have included a blank tag for C to write her own personal journalling on.

It is another lovely day today so we are off to M & D's batch for a working bee and then hopefully I will have some more Scrap room time later. Must away and make some muffins to take.  Baking in my new oven is still a novelty. 

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Until next time......
Dianne

Friday, September 16, 2011

The dawning day

Another week has whizzed by and I just don't seem to get to my scrap room at nights these days. .... to tired most nights. So today I am going back three weeks to some creations made at Raincliff at the Embellish It Crop.

Tania had included lots of challenges over the weekend including supplying us with a Kaiser Kit to create with.  I opted for a layout with the lovely bright papers.  Another challenge was to include sewing on the page so I stitched some leaves onto the layout with the templates and cotton which was also given to us from a sponsor.  We were very spoilt.

I used a Martha Stewart flower punch for a border. 
A closeup of the stitching.
Another challenge was an altered background.  This was really going outside my comfort zone as while I consider myself creative I find altered backgrounds usually require artiness (which is challenging for me). However with only 2 hours left to go until the challenges closed I had no time to ponder and just had to 'DO IT'.  I took a newly purchased Dusty Attic border and used it as a mask and sprayed some plain card stock with Glimmermist.  It ended up my quickest page to date at 1 hour 20 minutes.  I used the back of the DA template so will be able to use it on another project. 
The photo was taken from our laundry door (and is the ever changing view we have most days from our Kitchen window).  I was playing around with the landscape setting on the camera which knitted three shots together.  The punch is my favourite EKSuccess one and the leaf flourish is "Flourish with a Bling" available from Embellish It. The black alpha are Tim Holtz.

Another challenge was to include a beach or snow photo.  This was the closest to a beach photo that I had with me.

While most will probably be settling into watching the big game tonight I think I will take a look in the scrap room and try and get inspired to finish a couple of projects planned last weekend.

Thank you for visiting my blog and for the comments received this week.  They are truly appreciated.

Until next time......    Have a great weekend.
Dianne

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

New Baby Welcome

We had an addition to our extended family 13 days ago with the birth of my great-nephew.  I was lucky enough to meet him on the way home from Glentui on Sunday and have a cuddle for 20 minutes or so.  He is very cute and doing well.  Here is what I made to welcome him.


 A couple of cloth roses added.
 Just love this cute little toy.
And the card with a Lili of the Valley image.
and the inside above.  I used rubons on the corners.

Just a short post today.  Hope your week is going well.

Until next time....
Dianne

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Has it really been that long?

'A' said to me last week that the last time I updated my blog was 20 August ... Has it really been that long?  ...Yes it has.  It is not that I haven't been doing anything or creating anything but there just aren't enough hours in the days.  

I have just returned home from a third weekend in a row away.  Two weeks ago I attended the Embellish It Crop at Raincliff.  Another great weekend with lots of challenges, good company, food and fun.  Last weekend was in Dunedin to see my girls and my Dad who had an op but is fine now... and it was Father's Day.  This weekend Jo and I headed off to Glentui (near Oxford in North Canterbury) for the Scrapping Patch Spring Retreat which featured Australian Scrap Designer Steph Devlin who tutored two classes - we thoroughly enjoyed Steph's classes and it was a nice venue where we were well catered for by the owners.  Thanks Adrienne for organising the great weekend.    Steph is a wonderful friendly tutor who designed some amazing projects for us.  It was also nice to meet Anne, and Michelle in person after having made contact through Inspire and Scrapbook. com forums, and Francine who's name appears on the Prima BAP list and also catch up with the girls from down south - Dunedin and Balclutha.    Apart from the sandflies who decided to hide in the car as we packed it to come home it was an event well worth attending.

So while I achieved four layouts and two cards at Raincliff and one OTP class, two Steph Devlin layouts and a further layout and card this weekend today I will just share the two cards from Raincliff.

First up is Fathers Day (not a great photo though).  It was a Bo Bunny Weekend as they seemed to suit every project I tackled at Raincliff. 
Next up is a birthday card for a friend.  Once again with the lovely Bo Bunny pp. 

 I made an easel card and used a cute Martha Stewart flower punch. 
 Flowers from Wild Orchids and the little green leaves were left over from a 'Stamping Up' Card class.  They are made from leaves punched from cardstock and then put through an embossing folder. 
 The flower centres were finished with little pearls but after I had done this I saw someone else's project where they had used liquid pearls and they looked equally as nice.

Well that is all for today.  One  very weary camper needs to go to bed.

Spring is here - have a great week.

Until next time......
Dianne