Scrap the Boys

Ooh I nearly forgot! This year is going way too fast, I didn't realise the end of the month was upon me!
I actually got another challenge done this month, I know, amazing! ;-)

I thought I'd pretty well done all my kids school photos except for this years but no, I found more. I'm glad I still have some great schooly looking papers. Here's the page I did for Scrap the Boys July Challenge.

This Month's Challenge is...

School Photos

Here's my youngest son looking super cute on school photo day. I have used October Afternoon papers which are great. They have that soft vintage look and his school colours (yellow & blue) and his favourite colour, green. I kept it pretty simple, I also did his class shot on the same paper and added a very similar embellishment cluster on that (just to cover up the photographer information because that bothers me!). There is a funny story behind this photo but I'll wait to share it with the photo I took the next day.

I haven't forgotten my "Waste Not Challenge". I was away last weekend and am going away scrapping this weekend. Too many things to do! I'll post on it soon, I promise.

Keep blossoming xx

123 Challenge

When I started scrapbooking I found challenges really helpful. Since I had years worth of photos I wanted to scrap, the challenges would give me somewhere to start. I decided to have a break from them earlier this year because I had done a couple of pages that I just didn't like much but they had fit the requirement of the challenge at the time. I started to think what was the point if I didn't like the end result!

I recently felt like I wanted the challenge of challenge again (LOL) so I went online to see what I could find.
I found 123 Challenge. I've not done one of their challenges before but they had me at PURPLE! I love purple. The July Challenge is:-

WORD: MY

COLOUR: PURPLE

TECHNIQUE: USE CHEVRON!

 So here is my first ever 123 Challenge

One of the teachers at my kid's school took this beautiful photo of my daughter. Her eyes almost look purple in it! She was a Vase of Violets for a Letterland day. I've used Prima "Sweet Fairy" papers and some of the matching Prima flowers. I've also used some Prima and Doodlebug sticker Alphas for the title.

I decided to sew my chevron on as I had no other chevron papers or anything with chevrons on that went with it. It was a bit tricky at first, measuring it all out. But for the second bit I used a scrap piece of paper and poked the holes through so I got a copy of the first sewing. Then I was able to use that as a template for the other side.

There is something very relaxing about fussy cutting, I enjoyed sitting cutting out the flowers!

If you like a challenge, pop over to 123 Challenge and see the amazing layouts others have come up with.  Keep blossoming!

Waste not again....

We're finally over all our school holiday bugs and have been enjoying the fine (yet freezing!!!) Winter weather. In between that I've had a big clean up and rearranged of some of my Scrapping stuff and realised how many bits and pieces I've bought thinking "that will look great on a layout" and have NEVER used them them. Some things I've never looked at since I got them, others have been sitting there taunting me saying "you said you would use me and I'm just sitting here wasted in this mess". Yes I know I appear to be losing it :-)

So I've decided to challenge myself to use some of these items. I came up with a list of 10 items I've got in my scrap stash and not used. Feel free to join in the challenge! I'd love to hear from you if you do.

I'll let you know the first item soon!

*This is not my room, but no judgement, it's been like this!*

Keep blossoming!

Waste not....

I try really hard not to be wasteful, not in a sad hoarders kind of way but to be responsible with what I have. When it comes to scrapbooking, I found myself hanging on to every little scrap telling myself I'd use them for something. Just recently I did a couple of layouts using My Mind's Eye "Lost & Found 2" Range. I didn't but many papers from the range (because they were sold out) but over the last year I think I ended up with 4 from The 'Blush' papers & 1 die cut tag, 3 from 'Breeze' & 1 tag and 2 from 'Rosy'.

I was pleased with the 2 pages I did so decided to see how many pages I could do out of these 9 papers and 2 die cut tags. I've done 5 so far, I think I can do 2 more.

The results of my Waste Not Challenge so far....

I did this earlier this year at a Scrapaway in WA Retreat. This is one of my all time favourite photos of my oldest son. He had severe jaundice from his second day and he was just too sleepy to feed and presented us with this gorgeous drunk face after just the smallest feed. 

I love the 'Breeze' papers with this, the teals match in with the photo background perfectly! I used a Basic Grey page for the background, fussy cut some of the elements of the 'Breeze, Dream' page and punched some strips from some other 'Breeze' papers. I used a Dusty Attic doily chipboard and added a couple of Kaisercraft mini paper roses.

Here he is a little older! 

Again I fussy cut the tag element from the 'Breeze' paper. I used a 'Rosy' page as the background and used a few strips of different papers from the range. I backed the photo in cardstock and also cut the circle from another scrap of cardstock. I added a couple of Prima and Green Tara flowers.

And now a girly page! 

I found this banner die cut on sale and thought it was part of the "Lost & Found 2"range but it's actually "Lost & Found 1". The pinks still toned in well but it had a brown glitter border that didn't so I cut it off. I used the border from "Blush, Beautiful" page and used card stock for the background. I used the different papers to make the banners, some Breeze & Blush, with a couple of other scraps. I used some more scraps to make the pinwheels and added some sequins & antique buttons.

By now the idea to do as many layouts as possible with this range had struck so I came up with this one. It's got a plain cardstock background which I flicked with Glimmermist and then I layered up with the left over scraps. I added a tag I painted with Tim Holtz Distress Stains and a banner tag from the "Breeze" range. I had to add a couple of scraps from other projects and some wash tape also. I love it. This is my youngest son (so my oldest won't have too many of the same paper in his album!).

I saw a layout someone else had done ages ago using this paper and I bought it but 

promptly forgot how they used it!

 I loved it as the background for this photo but had to add a bit of lightness to brighten it up. I used a doily behind the photo to start added some lightness. I painted a large chipboard flourish with white gesso, then inked it and embossed it. I also added a little Stickles to give it some sparkle. It didn't come out quite how I hoped but I'm happy with it. I also gessoed a chipboard butterfly and inked it. I finished it off with Glossy Accents. I added some more lightness with a Kaisercraft Pearl Flourish and some brightness with lots of Prima flowers.  The last "Lost & Found 2" banner tag was great for my title.

I still have plenty of paper left over, so I'm looking forward to seeing how many other pages I can do. I recently heard that a well known, published scrapbooker has stopped scrapping because she got bored with it. I find that sad, she did do the same style for pretty well every layout so I can understand she got bored. I think even with hobbies we need to continue to evolve and challenge ourselves so it doesn't become a chore. I hope to challenge myself more in the near future.

Keep blossoming!

Winter blahs...

We've been a household full of sick people lately, not all at the same time thankfully! Colds & flus have laid us low and now my youngest son has picked up a tummy bug. Poor little thing is thin enough, a day without eating he looks skeletal!

Since I haven't been doing much else, I've scrapped 10 layouts with my kids Tee-ball team photos, which I won't share here for privacy reasons but I will share a couple of others I've done. Hopefully I'll still like all my pages when I'm feeling better. Some I've done when I'm sick or tired, I've looked back and thought what was I thinking!!!

Here they are anyway ;-)

Here's my little man on his birthday. He got into Lego this year which I'm really happy about. He's always been one of those kids who just wants to play with his brother & sister, or whatever they're playing with. He's never really been into toys (except for his cuddly toy frogs), I've found Christmas & birthdays sooo hard because he doesn't really want anything, and let's face it by kid No. 3 you seem to have so much anyway! So he developed a love of Star Wars Lego, so we had to have everything Lego. I found this great paper at Scrapbook Secrets (sorry I can't remember who makes it). I used gesso and yellow paint on the background. I also sprayed it with "Radiant Rain Shimmer Mist" by Luminarte in Ocean Wave. I traced some numbers from an old stencil on it and added some painted & glossy accented chipboard stars. Finished it off with journalling and some Doodlebug letters.

Here's a layout with my oldest son & daughter when she was less than a month old. We took this photo to give our parents for Christmas. This page came about because I was sitting looking through a pile of die cut sayings I have. When I started scrapbooking I kept finding these and falling in love with them, now I have a pile of them that I still haven't used! So I was determined to challenge myself to use one. Originally I thought I'd use this one on a page with my 2 boys, but I liked the teal tone with this photo and thought it would go with the Kaisercraft "Hummingbird" Range. I'm really pleased with the end result. I love the Hummingbird range, such pretty papers! I've added some Prima flowers and a chipboard bird (think it's Dusty Attic) that I inked and embossed. My scrap partner in crime lent me some of her punches, thanks SP!

School holidays are nearly here, hoping I can scrap a little. I might need to for sanity's sake!

Keep blossoming!