Morning Coffee, Purple Lips....

How much fun I had making this layout.....
This was a real pleasure to make and a real lesson in make do and use what is already in your stash.

 Messy and sticky and drippy and painty and fun, lots of fun.
And Purple, how I have a hard time working with purple but this was a breeze.

All of the pattern paper is off cuts and pocket page cards on this layout, I was so inspired from the Love this city layout that I decided to get messy again and I loved the idea of actually using up and cutting into all those scraps I keep.

The purple water coloured bits behind the photo are just watered down acrylic paint mixed into three different shades of purple and the stencil that I used with texture paste was just a piece of scrap cardstock punched with a hole punch and then thrown away when I was finished.  

The misted droplet bits....just leftover from the painted section and I made a splatter ink in grey to go along too. 

How awesome is that Studio Calico font in the alphas...I am in awe of these ones.

It amazes me that most of the time I am wanting all the new stuff and I sometimes get bothered by the fact that I don't get to buy all the scrappy things I would like to have and then I can make a layout that is so different from my usual style and get so creative with nothing but what I already have and a bit of creativity....mind boggling stuff that.

Well that took a while....

I am not going to lie....I am a slow scrapper but these have been a long time in making.

I started both of these layouts in September.....2012.

When I started these layouts I was house sitting for a friend and took a scrapbook kit I made from my stash but then I kind of got stumped on the both of them, one was finding the right alpha stickers and the other was more of an embellishment issue.

 

Nosey Norah.
I Just loved this American Crafts paper when I first laid eyes on it but it has proven to be very difficult to actually use, finally I found the perfect photo but the busy pattern made it hard to work with and then place any kind of title but time was my friend and then finally Thickers to the rescue, once I found the bigger of the fonts it was easy to match something else in and that was the black typewriter alpha that is an early 2000's Pebbles, how I love finding uses for my vintage stash.  Another notable old stash appearance is from those glorious Sassafras Lass corner stickers and that green leaf which I believe is Green Tara from the pre 2005.

Make a note of this moment.
This one proved the most difficult to finish off as I just could not find the right embellishments to finish, and as much as I love the papers that I used they are very different from the colour palette that I would normally use.  The best part of this layouts though is that gold dot vellum peeking out from behind the photos, I totally missed out on that most coveted Dear Lizzy vellum when it made its rounds in the scrapbooking world but I figured that with a stamp I already owned and some gold embossing powder I too could have a comparable product....winnning.

DCWV Sweet Tangerine

It has been one of my greatest bug bears that in Australia our access to DCWV stacks is nominal to non existent.....I have been waiting at least five years for Nanna's Kitchen people, five long years.

Anyways about two years ago Big W who was the main supplier in Australia just kind of stopped stocking the stacks and it seemed that the limited online offering was our only option. 

Step up to the plate good guy Spotlight to save the day.  I was rather excited when I first saw the fabric and chalkboard stacks in store and I had my fingers crossed that they would start bringing in a bigger selection.  This last catalogue my hopes were answered when they had four new DCWV stacks and I have since found another four in store.

Sooooo purrrrty.   I went in to buy sky's the limit or Freshly Picked but I ended up falling in love with Sweet Tangerine.  DCWV have really upped the game in the Patterns they are using, I can remember years and years ago that I would bypass 90% of their offerings but now they are all really good and have some really beautiful designs.  So ono what was in the stack....

This is one of the two things that bothers me about this stack, the hole punch on the pattern and the smell.  The hole seems to not affect the size as I just did a quick comparison between a  trimmed down DCWV with a piece of Bazzill and they are the same size but it did irk me a bit when I opened it.  And the smell, not overpowering or offensive in any way but some of the stacks have a certain odour that bothers some people.  Neither of these things are enough to deter me from buying more stacks I love the fact that they are cheap, have pretty coordinating designs and you get two of each design.

30...

Last weekend J turned the big 30.  Seeing as we only got married a few months ago a not so big fuss was made of his birthday just a teeny tiny group of very close friends, a few helium balloons, pizza and a Nigella approved chocolate fudge cake.  Normally I would go all out and do lots of handmade decorations  and make all the invitations and food, not so this year as I feel like I am still recovering from the wedding and I have a big birthday for Teela coming up and a Hens night to help plan, he did however get a card.

  (Paper: DCWV- The Green Stack, Bazzill, Grant Studios, Kraft Base)

(Other: Glossy Accents, Kaisercraft Jewels, Assorted Punches, Cricut) 

I don't own all that many stamps especially sentiments and I just could not get anything that I did own to work so, I fiddled around in Microsoft publisher till I had a design that I liked and I printed the Happy Birthday onto the die cut scallop, it takes a little bit of mucking around but it is worth it as I got an image that I was happy with rather than just using what stamps I had that may not have gone as well.

Stash friendly cards....

I am generally pretty good when it comes to purchasing scrapbooking supplies and I do try to keep the spending and the amount of product that I have to a sensible minimum.  I have been a tad naughty in the last few weeks buying a few little bits and pieces here and there and seeing as I am trying to lower the amount of supplies that I buy till after we move and I have not actually crafted all that much lately I took it upon my self to use something from the stash.

A few years ago I won a competition from Scrapbooking Memories and the prize was a huge pack of Avery stickers, there was so many packs in that prize that there was no way I would ever be able to use them all so I kept what I thought I would use and I donated and gave away the rest.  That was three or four years ago and I have still hardly used a thing from what I kept, I decided that I was time to use something from my Avery stash.  

I Picked a pack of glittered flower stickers

 (Paper: Kraft base, DCWV, Bazzill, Unknown)

(Stamps: Creating Keepsakes KOTM, Melissa Framces)

(Other: Avery sticker, Grant Rub on,, ranger inks)

 (Paper: Card Base, DCWV, Bazzill, Grant, Unknown)

(Stamps: Kaisercraft, Melissa Frances, Fiskers)

(Other: Avery Sticker, Kaiser brads, Distress ink)

(Paper: Card Base, Grant, Bazzill)

(Stamps: Melissa Frances, Kaisercraft)

(Other: Avery Sticker, Grant Rub on, American Crafts ribbon, Paper Mania Glitter, Brilliance Ink)

I was so happy with the way that the first card turned out that I decided to keep going with the same look and until the whole pack of stickers was gone.  Goal achieved, used up one whole pack of the Avery stickers. 

Long forgotten scrapping....

I have been meaning to get on here and post a few layouts that I have done recently within the last few months and longer and have just not got around to posting them.

(Paper: Bazzill, Grant, Fiskers, Lexel)

(Other: Rubons: Love Elsie - Heidi Grace, Stickers: Ek Success, Stamp: Kelly Panacci) 

This was my most recent layout, I don't scrap all that many layouts of J and I, it always seems that we are behind the camera and we don't really like having our photos taken all that much.  I used a great mixture of new and old products in this layout, both rub ons I have had for years and the ticket stickers I have had for ever, the I love you title is a  sillhouette file. 

 (Paper: Echo Park, DCWV, Scenic Route, Mica paper & flocked paper- unknown)

(Other: Stickers: Heidi Grace alphas - Echo Park, Craft Affair, Stamp: Autumn Leaves, Distress Ink)  

This was the first of two layouts that I did in fairly neutral colours.  I have always loved bright colours and most of my scrapbooking and cards are a testament to that but occasionally you get photos or a theme to scrap that does not lend itself to the bright colours or overly busy papers, it was nice to mix things up a bit.  As usual I used a good mix of new and older products, the green/khaki flocked paper and the mica paper are seriously old and are from the very early days of this hobby.  

 (Paper: Bazzill, DCWV, Grant, Love Elsie, Handmade - unknown source)

(Other: Stickers: Cloud 9 - Chatterbox felt, Stamps: Kelly Panacci, Distress Ink, Buttons, Glossy Accents, Embroidery Thread) 

  I have been holding onto the DCWV Green stack paper for so long now waiting for the right type of layouts for its use, I am so glad that my kids are at the age now where it seems appropriate to use this paper. 

(Paper: Creative Imaginations, Grant, Bazzill, corrugated paper)

(Other: Ribbon, SVG files for Cricut)

I love this page, in fact it up there with some of my favourites but apart from the colours and just the way that it all came together the thing that I love the most about this layout is the fact that all it is is paper and a bit of ribbon, sure I got some help with the Cricut and some punches but once upon a time I would have hand cut all that.  I also believe that I scraplifted this from a layout that I saw somewhere, sadly it has been a few months since I made this layout and I can't for the life of me remember where I got the inspiration or who the creater was. 

 When I first started scrapbooking there was not the over abundance of pre made goodies to use in fact there was very little to choose from unless you were into Suzie's Zoo or Mrs Grossman so you had to make your own embellishments, and sometimes that meant cutting out for hours.  I just love the fact that it shows that you don't need expensive and pre made embellishments to make a good layout.

(Paper: Grant, Kaisercraft, Corrugated Card)

(Other: Sticker: Craft Affair, Stickles, Twine, Cricut)

This one is OLD, really, really old in fact I think it could even be two years old, I have no idea how it slipped past me documenting it.  Not exactly the nicest of experiences to document but lets face it anyone who  has kids had felt the dreaded tanty and I try to document our lives the good and the bad. 

Blog version 2.0

So sometime last year I decided to delete the old blog and start again.  I just had the realisation that I wanted a bit of a change plus I felt that I had outgrown the old blog which I had been merrily contributing to for the past four years, bit of a big decision for me but one that feels right. 

I have taken a few months off from blogging after I deleted the old one as the reality is that I really have not had the time to dedicate to a blog.  The last few months have been a whirlwind of planning a wedding (which is pretty much almost here, eeep), working and running a household with two small children and just general life responsibilities.

So what have I been up to in the last few months?  Here are some projects that I have been working on:

So there is, a few months of creating right there.  I actually wish that there was more to show but another thing that suffered during the past few months was my creativity which is silly really as I was working in a shop environment that sold pretty papers & embellishments.

TFL, Erin