Halloween Hijinkx

I've never had much time for Halloween, I've always considered it to be an American thing. My friend Char is a Halloween freak, she loves it. She invited us to her Halloween BBQ - so we figured why not? We even got into the dressing up. Chas went as a pirate - even not shaving for three days to achieve some piratey stubble. A frilly shirt, some belts from the op shop and some piratey bits from the junk shop and he was almost complete. A quick trip to Big W in search of a parrot found us putting a patch and skull and cross bones to the weirdest looking penguin you've ever seen to sit in his shoulder and he was done. Me - I was going as a witch, black wig, spooky makeup, a witches hat and some cute striped socks and I too was complete. We had a really good time, Char had some games for the kids to play - my fave was making a mummy. 3 adults, 10 kids and a pallet of toilet paper kept us all amused. Even the weather didn't dampen the Halloween spirit. The kids did plenty of tricks to earn their candy and a good time was had by all unfortunately the pirate came home as a drunken sailor.

Relay For Life Echuca

Saturday night saw hundreds of people give up their time and nice warm beds to Relay around the Moama Sports grounds. It was awesome to see so many people dedicated to the cause. I was there supervising a team of 13 year old girls - on the night shift - who decided they wanted to put in a team. These kids are awesome - they managed to con their mothers and a few others like me to participate and raised more than their very realistic target of $600. They organized a walking roster and not once did they miss their time to walk. The event was very well organized Kudos to the committee - my only complaint was the coffee man went at one am - very glad to see him  back at five am and it was VERY cold. I went prepared and put a new layer on every hour - Cass was sure I'd look like an igloo with a head when she got up in the morning. All in all a fun night had by all.

 Ty recently went to the snow. He had such a great time tobogganing and talked about it for days afterwards.
The snow flakes are from Twiddly-bits and have been embossed and then smooched. The center denim strip is an old scrap I've had for ever and I tarted it up with my new Martha Stewart Doily punch. Papers and transparency is from the Fancy Pants Christmas Magic range.

Chas and I take Ty to Fryerstown Antiques Fair every Australia Day. It was a hot day so Ty and I headed to the cafe area for an icypole. I looked around and here he was oblivious to the crowd playing happily amongst the feet in the dirt. The Cogs are cut from grunge using the Sizzix Big Shot. Dirt Magnet title is Scrap FX and both have been painted then inked. I used the EK Success notebook punch and I used assorted Kaiser papers.

Halloween in Wonderland  papers by Graphic 45 were perfect for this wacky  photo of me in Sydney, I've been trying to scrap for ages. I used Kaiser mini alphas for the title which reads "sometimes I wonder if we go through life not playing with a full deck".

This one is using the Pink Paislee Starlight Collection and was really fun to do. I used tons of  Kaiser Pearls and the coordinating stickers were perfect for these pics of Alex playing on his jeep.
 

 Another Starlight layout of Chas and Snow, this time using the I Rock for bling. I used the coordinating stickers and alpha sheets

This layout is one we did in class, Karen did the sample so I grabbed a kit because it was perfect for these pics of Alex crawling on the lawn on our Lazy ass Sunday a  few weeks ago. Using the Big shot and Cuttlebug, some inked Kaiser wooden leaves and loads of circles it was really good fun to create.

Happy Scrapping H

Yay - I made a stamp!!!!

I finally got five minutes to make a stamp using my Theresa Collins Stamp-maker last night. I was surprised at just how easy it was. In less than 10 minutes I had a gorgeous snowflake stamp.It's little dodgy but if I hold my tongue the right way it works fine.
The things I learnt along the way -

1. make sure you really press the plates down so they are flat.
2. make sure you spend extra time washing out - use plenty of soap and warm water and make sure every bit of the residue is gone.
3. make sure you use a timer, your watch is not quite accurate enough
4. even if you think the design isn't too fine, follow the instructions for fine designs. 

If you have one have fun playing if you don't put it in your Christmas list.

Substitution - scrappers best friend, check out my weekend layouts

I was cruising the scrapbook.com gallery the other night and came across a couple of gorgeous layouts that I couldn't resist scrap-lifting. Now the trick with a good scrap-lift is having the products used on hand, or being an expert in substitution. Being a designer and preparing kits for classes makes you an expert in substitution. I design at home so often when we decide which layouts we will use for a class we may not have what we need in stock, invariably we will need to substitute something to make up the kits. It's a very handy skill to have, when you see a layout that you like the design of but hate the colours - substitute with your own colour way. Scrap-lifting also includes taking elements from other people's designs, how they rolled that paper, altered that flower etc etc. So blessed with a rare six days off after a month of very long weeks at work I decided to unwind and recover with a scrap-lift weekend.

My first challenge was this gorgeous layout by Tarra Orr at scrapbook.com.

I love the colours and the concept in this, she did it as a no patterned paper challenge so she has created the background paper.
Here's my interpretation of Tarra's gorgeous design ....

My first challenge was to create the background, I chose to use my Ezy shade, using a blue / green combination my result was a lot softer than Tara's but I was happy with it. Next was the embossing down the centre I chose my new craft concepts flutterby plate to emboss some paper loft paper I had left over from a couple of years ago. Then I used perfect pearls kiwi to highlight the embossed areas. I used kaiser lace for the sides purely because I had it on hand and it worked quite well.
My next challenge was the stamp Tara used for the grasses, nothing close to be found so I grabbed my journal pen and drew them in, I was delighted with the result.Next challenge Tara's frame - ok into the scrapfx box of goodies, some swirls and doodads substituted very well. I altered them with Tim Holtz's frayed burlap distress inks, cut the ends off a couple to make them work and voila perfect frame.

Next the photo, I knew I had this shot of Eliza in Chas's hat from a few years ago I altered it to sepia, played with the hue to brown it up - and off to Echuca Camera House, Trista as usual printed it for me straight away - great service guys.
I chose a more peachy shade of flower because it worked best with my softer tones and pink pearl swirls  rather than white as it was what I had on hand, I used Kaiser white pearls on the frame and some flourish with a bling vines to finish off. I am delighted with the result and it's much prettier in real life.

My next challenge was also a Tara Orr design

I had to substitute everything but the centre circle for my design.

I had the paper for the centre but had used my Crate Paper Dear Prudence circle so I substituted with the Lemon Grass circle instead, I chose a darker background than Tara.
My biggest challenge was the vine and balls, after scouring Hobbysew the only ones I could find were  gold, so I hit them with some beige paint and they were perfect. The vines were from scrap ware and painted antique white and beige were perfect. I chose not to put the corners on to the background page. I substituted the hessian with some bone sinamay which I have had for ever.My tags were left over Pink Paislee Queen Bee range. I used my Irock white glam-rocks around the scallop.

I don't know who this layout belongs to, when I went back to find it I couldn't, so I'm sorry if it's yours but I loved the concept - didn't like the colours so substituted everything except the design.

I had some gorgeous river shots that I wanted to highlight and this design was perfect. I changed the colours to neutral browns and greens and this is what I came up with.

I chose the kaiser up up and away range of papers. I used my Friskers scallop border punch, and some chocolate brown cardstock to frame the photos.
I wanted to do some thing special to the Scrapfx bull rushes and have been wanting to play with flower soft for ages. I inked then smooched the stems, then used the flower soft to cover the rush heads, I was delighted with the results.

Next I found some tiny dragon flies in a scrapware sample pack I picked up somewhere and inked them black, I used black hotrocks and my Irock to make the dragon fly swirls.I found an old skeleton leaf from years ago, so I spritzed it with spun sugar and placed a flower over the base of the stem.Then I used my Kaiser tag stamp to create a tag to journal on.

I really had fun and found it quite challenging working out what I could use to substitute. I found I used a lot of stash that I have had for ages in these layouts which is always good and proves nothing goes to waste in scrapping.

Happy scrapping H

Steam punk debutante G45

I love working with these papers, they are really fun. I love the richness of the colours.

I used  paper tole techniques to give the roses dimension, used an old lock and key and an old hinge with hot rocks as the screws, popped up couple of butterflies and I had this funky baby page. 

This is my favorite out of the range, I inked the cogs, used some bling and some string to make this layout to compliment this gorgeous photo of Amelia.

CHA here we come

January 2011 will see Karen and I  jetting off  to Los Angeles and San Fransisco for 10 days to attend CHA.
CHA is America's Craft and Hobby Association's 4 day trade show. We will get to see new release products, have the opportunity to attend classes and well just have lots of fun. We've been talking about going for about two years now and decided life is too short we were going! We have booked our flights and accommodation and I think the next four months will just fly by.

Wonderful Weekend in Healseville and Marysville

I had a fantastic weekend away in the Yara Valley and am feeling very chilled. We stayed in an awesome 4 bedroom house in Healesville - country charm and nick knacks EVERYWHERE. Along with the charm of the house it had the most comfy beds and came with a 4 legged security alarm / alarm clock - Jasper the donkey. He greeted us loudly as we got out of the car just on dark - well 4 women near dropped their luggage in fright.

My room

Country Kitchen

Jedda House

it even came with games

and a pool table

and a piano - the candle sticks were freaky

gorgeous gardens

We spent Saturday wandering the streets of Healesville and Yarra Glen and all managed to buy something special to remember the weekend by.
The afternoon was spent at a couple of wineries tasting a mix of really nice to screw your face up and spit wines. I actually managed to find 2 at Innocent Bystander that I really loved.

Tasting Champagne at Chandon

Stunning views

Sunday saw us heading home via Marysville - still very moving and hard to comprehend the damage and devastation.

signs of the fires are still everywhere

there are signs of recovery

once lined with shops and homes

 

The local post office still operates out of a container

We visited the lolly shop - still in a container and with the most amazing selection of lollys from our childhood .... Fry's bars, Choo Choo bars, honey bears, apple lollypops and wine gums in a roll ....yum yum yum! We had a quick coffee then headed to Bruno's sculpture garden. Devastated on Black Saturday Bruno has restored much of the garden - while rebuilding his home - lost in the fires.

photos of the devastation of the gardens

I loved the toolman

the drunken man

along the entrance path after the fires

she looks gorgeous on the creek

The piano man

one of the many restored sculpture

there is still a lot to smile at