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Sketchabilities #96

I cannot believe how fast July has flown before we know it Christmas will be here!!!

Today I want to share my latest layout for the new Sketchabilities Sketch this one is a lot of fun and also a great way to use up scraps for the stips behind the picture.
 Here is my take:
I don't usually work with this colour palette but I thought that it worked really well with the photo. 

This layout is about a cafe I always go to in Ubud, Bali. I first went there 15 years ago on my first trip and have eaten there ever since. The food is fabulous and the staff are really friendly. 

Now to the prize, this month you could win a $50 voucher from Scraptown Lady! All you have to is follow the rafflecopter link. 

Also make sure you link up your project over at Sketchabilities to be considered for our Featured Designer. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Scrap Our Stash: Sketch & Bling

Have you played along with the latest Scrap Our Stash Challenge? For the second challenge this month we have a sketch to use and you need to dig into your stash to find some bling to add.

I am hopeless with sketches that feature a circle, I am not sure why I have such a hard time with them, they just stump me. So when I want to do a sketch that has a circle I first work out a way I can recreate the shape, for this one I used hexagons from patterned paper and then I stitched around them to give them some definition for the background paper. 
To add the bling I just used some little adhesive rhinestones and mixed them with the ink dots on my background to add a little bit of sparkle and dimension.
I have to share a close up of the photo because it is just too funny. I was taking some photos of layouts in the courtyard of my old flat an Axel came along to watch (he was my neighbours cat, but pretty much thought he owned all the flats in the complex and did whatever he liked hence there was a lot of Axel everywhere you looked), so I decided to take a picture of him and caught him mid yawn.

There is still plenty of time to play along and there is a great prize this month so head over to the Scrap Our Stash blog and link up your projects.

Thanks so much for stopping by,



Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday Challenge: The Great Outdoors

This week at Frosted Designs we are challenging you to do a project about the Great Outdoors, this is a really fun theme because it can be anything - days at the beach, hiking, camping, skiing, picnic, ball games - the options are endless!

I recently found some old family photo's and there is one of my first trip to the beach so I just had to do a page about it using my current favourite collection - Crate Paper The Pier.
I want to give the page lots of texture so I after I fussy cut the blue wave paper I scrunched some vellum and put behind to give the look of waves. I also fussy cut the doily paper and added some watercolour to the edges to highlight it a bit.
I had the fabulous embellishment pack so I took bits and pieces and layered them to make the little tag at the bottom.

Now it is your turn, head over to the Frosted Designs blog and link up your Great Outdoors project for a chance to win a great prize from one of two fabulous sponsors (that means two chances to win!).
Hope you all had a great weekend and got some scrappy time in,

Life.Paper.Scrapbook. July Colour Challenge

Today I am going to share my DT layout for the LPS July Colour Challenge.
This is one of my favourite colour combo's and not only was I inspired by the colours for this layout, I was also inspired by the triangles.
As you can see I kept my layout fairly clean and simple to reflect the inspiration image. The Uncharted Waters Collection from Glitz was perfect for this challenge and I had been waiting for just the right layout to use those Freckled Fawn wood veneer Umbrellas - they are just too cute! And there is nothing like a bit of Glitter to brighten a cold winters day so I added a touch with these Dear Lizzy Thickers
Now you have seen what I made be sure to go over to the Life.Paper.Scrapbook. blog and see lots of inspiration from the rest of the team and some great guest designers too. 
Have a beautiful day, 


Christmas In July Blog Hop


Welcome to my blog, hopefully you have just hopped over from Cat. If this is your first stop then you can go back to the start HEREThe aim of this hop is to inspire you to get out your christmas stash and use it before all the new collections are introduced this month. Join the fun and create something too, use the hashtag #scrapbookchristmas in twitter, facebook or instagram.

I have a tonne of Christmas supplies, this is because each year I decide to do a December Daily and then end up stopping around day 10. Even though I can predict I am not going to finish it I buy Christmas lines, lets say it is some kind of sickness. Anyway for this hop I gathered together all my xmas stash and took a photo to show you what I started with - but I didn't have the SD card in so you are just going to have to imagine what that huge pile looked like!
When I started out I knew that I wanted to do two things with this page. First use a coveted piece of Crate Paper Sleigh Ride paper that I had been hoarding and secondly for the page to have nothing to do with Christmas. 
I loved this map paper so much and I desperately wanted to use it for a travel layout but as I went to Bali this year for my holidays a North Pole map wasn't really going to fit with the theme of those photo's but I did take one photo of my passport for my mini album so I decided to use that. 
For my layering I used the CP Sleigh Ride 6x6 pad and I also cut up one of the little cut apart sheets that was in that. I had and also lots of bits and pieces I had collected over the past two years, you can see some tags from last years SC DD kit, October Afternoon die cuts from Holiday Style Collection, a memo card from Lily Bees Christmas Cheer line. I have also used my AC Christmas Date Stamp and the arrow on the photo? Well that is SC wood veneer christmas tree with the top lopped off. The brad is from Echo Parks last christmas collection. Because I challenged myself to ONLY use my christmas paper stash, I had a bit of an issue at the top of the layers where it was missing something. So I took an airmail envelope that I got a card in last year (it was in the famed December Daily collection box) and cut it up.
So now for the cheating bits - clearly I added airmail twine that would never be in my xmas box but the red and white bakers twine I had wasn't in good shape so I chucked it and went with the red, blue and white to match the envelope. I didn't have any specific christmas letters, because I usually plan on using what I have in my stash so the OA mini market stickers and Amy Tangerine Thickers were added in.
If you have tonnes of left over thickers after you have used most of the vowels, then airport codes are an awesome way to use them up! I couldn't list all the places I have been but I got a good mix of places down using the thickers I had which I then added gold Mister Huey to.

So that is my non-christmas, christmas in July page. Thanks so much for stopping by next on the hop is Madeleine - http://senoritaml.wordpress.com/


In case you get lost at any point, here is the list all the blogs
Manda - http://www.mandalikadesigns.com/ <<<<<<< YOU ARE HERE
Sue - http://themakingtable.blogspot.com.au/
Julie - http://plywthpper.blogspot.com/

Sketchabilities #95

It's the 15th and that means it's time for the first of the Sketchabilities reveals for the month. 
And here is my take on the sketch:

I used the Here and Now Collection from Echo Park, I love the bright colours and the graphic patterns.
I fussy cut one of the chevron papers to make the border and I have to tell you it wasn't one of my best ideas, very time consuming and fiddly on such a small print.
This months sponsor is Boys Rule Scrapbooking Kits if you have boys you might want to check this one out as all the kits are geared towards product perfect for scrapping the little (and big) men in your life. To play along head over to the Sketchabilities website and link up your project, and while you are there make sure you check out all the other DT inspiration, as always it is awesome! 

Scrap Our Stash - Red, White and Blue

I am so excited to be part of the new team at Scrap Our Stash because I get to work with a group of fantastic ladies AND it challenges me (and hopefully you) to get stuck into that huge stash I have.

The first challenge for July is Red, White and Blue with three different kinds of star embellishments, which is great for a 4th of July patriotic layout - except I am not from the US BUT I do have my trusty stack of B&W New York pictures on my desk so this theme was perfect.
I have kept this layout really clean to match the other pages I have done with these pictures. The navy blue polka dot paper is from October Afternoon and I have had it for over two years so it really had to be included in a scrap our stash page because I think it had been stashed long enough. 
The other pieces are some off cuts I had in my basket so they are a little more recent. I wanted to give the page a bit of texture so for the three star embellishments I used different type so glossy stickers from a JBS alpha sheet, silver star brads and some glitter stars from Freckled Fawn and mixed them with the ink splats which appear on each page of the series.
So now I am going to challenge you to play along - simply make a layout that is Red, White & Blue and include three different types of star embellishments then head over to the Scrap Our Stash blog and link your project up for a chance to win a great prize from Echo Park.

Hope you are having a great weekend,


Framework

Today I wanted to share a layout I made that was inspired by this video by Jill Sprott from the Scrap Your Stash series over at Two Peas. This week's topic was frames which I have tonnes of so it seemed perfect. Jill did her layout about her family and I did the same topic because I liked the idea that even if everyone who took the challenge did the same topic in the same style we would still have no two layouts alike because families are kind of like finger prints - no two are exactly the same.
My family is just my mum, dad and me but I am "mama" to two kitties and I guess you could say Q is my sister LOL
Because I was using frames my beloved Crate Paper The Pier Frames were brought out again and they are still going strong! Not sure how many times I have used them now but there is still quite a few left, with 27 in the pack they are fantastic value.
Sometimes when I am looking through my stash I instantly associate frames as being something that go around photos on my page and of course there are no rules in scrapbooking so they are great to use to highlight bits of paper you like or embellishments.
Thanks so much for stopping by, 



Project Life Week 27

Today I thought I would share one of my rare Project Life spreads. I don't seem to ever get around to doing them and I know this for sure now as I went to place my Week 27 layout in my album and realised that it is going in after week four!!!! (I know I did another in recent memory, I even blogged about it but it seems to have gone walkabout in the move).


My pages are really just little every day moments (which is what PL is all about I guess). As you know I am single and I don't have kids so of course my cats feature heavily in my pages - I am a self confessed crazy cat lady and you just need to look at me in my wombat beanie to know that the crazy part is true LOL




Also today I am drawing the winner of the SC Stamp set from the Frosted Designs Blog Hop is:
Congratulations Kimberly I will be in touch soon. 

Hope you all had a great weekend, 


Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday

It's time for another Fabulous Friday at Frosted Designs and this week we are challenging you to use washi, ribbon or twine on a layout, the catch? You need to use two (or all three).

This challenge was perfect for me because I am a washi lover, at last count there were well over 100 rolls and I will never use it all and yet I keep buying it, I cannot give it up!
 I decided to do a layout about my love of washi and make my own background "paper" by using strips of tape. There wasn't a real thought process to how the colours were done, I just put colours I thought looked good next to each other.
I have lots and lots of rolls of ribbon from American Crafts packs but I never know what to do with them, I always find ribbon on a layout a bit of a challenge. So I decided to layer it under the edge of the photo for a bit of texture and dimension.  The title of course was obvious - I am a washi addict! 





Life.Paper.Scrapbook. July Sketch Challenge

It's the first friday of the month and that means it's time for a new sketch challenge over at LPS.
This month it is a tricky one (and I kept asking myself why did I make it so hard!) but the Design Team have done and awesome job so make sure you check it out HERE. And below is my take: 
 As you can see I flipped the sketch so I could line up the direction that each of the cats were looking.

Even though I made it a bit tricky it is still worth playing along as one winner will be randomly drawn to win this month prize a gift voucher for $30.00 to spend in the Paper Issues store. The store has everything a scrapbooker could wish for and with their brand new website and online store, you will feel like being in scrapbook heaven!
To all my friends in the USA, I hope you had an awesome 4th July holiday.
Thanks for stopping by,




About Me...

Today I wanted to share a layout I made that was inspired by the 213 in 2013 prompts over at 2Ps. I really liked the prompts this week and they inspired me to do a layout almost straight away. This weeks prompts were:
1. Start with colors you love.
2. Try out arrows.
3. Scrapbook about yourself.
4. Play with fun paperclips.
I only chose to do three of them (although there is a paper clip so I guess I touched on the fourth) but changed the first a little, instead of my favourite colour, I used my favourite papers at the moment which are from Crate Paper's The Pier Collection. 
I decided to bring out the typewriter to do my journalling on velum. It was a bit of a disaster, I kept messing up the text and having to start again. I am not sure I like the typewriter, I am thinking about selling it because I just got a new printer and there are lots of typewriter fonts available and I think it is less trouble. I'll see.

Before I go I just wanted to let you all know that my first reveal at Scrap Our Stash will be coming up on the 14 of this month and the challenge is Red, White & Blue plus stars. The challenge is open already and you can find all the details HERE. Here is a little sneak of what I made.
Thanks so much for stopping by, hope you are all having a fantastic week.