#1 Creepy Crawly!

Once again, it's been longer than ever between blog posts.  I feel sorry for anyone who may be checking this blog regularly as they must be bored out of their brains!!!  Hopefully that's about to end.  I'm getting my creative mojo back and I impressed myself yesterday when I created a whole double layout in the one day.

For those of you who are snake-phobic - like me! - you may want to stop reading now, or maybe just pretend the photos aren't there.  I am absolutely petrified of snakes, but this one was such a stunning colour that I had to get his photo.  I felt very proud of myself as I bravely stood fairly close (on the other side of a chainlink fence) from this snake and took photo after photo.

OK, so I raided the store for the materials for this....literally....I think I may have had the ric-rac and the fragment charm already, but that's about it.  I even took a roll of 1/8" roll of wondertape to stick down the ric-rac...now's as good a time as any to say that it is PERFECT for ric-rac. 

The papers used are from Making Memories Toil & Trouble range.  I wanted to make something with Halloween paper to show that you don't have to be into Halloween to have fun with it.  I don't believe in Halloween in Australia as it's not our tradition, but it's becoming more popular so who am I to complain.

I used a total of 4 sheets of paper for the 2 pages - 2 sheets of Pumpkins, 1 of Spider Web and 1 of Playing Cards.  I really like how the cut out playing cards embellish the page!  I've also used Core'dinations Black Magic with a yellow core. 

On the left hand page the Core'dinations was scrunched, sanded and the edges distressed...how fun is that when you can totally destroy a piece of card, including unintentionally ripping it, and then think it's a work of art???  The Core'dination piece on the right behind the large photo has had the edges ripped and then using the Tim Holtz Retractable Craft Scratcher I scratched around the inside edges.  The Craft Scratcher was also used to distress the headshot of the snake that was cut using Nestabilities dies into an octagon.  Another piece of Core'dinations was used as a mat for the photo (aren't Nestabilities great how you can just go up a size to create the same shape mat?).

The word "Creepy" is using the Jillibean Soup Corrugated Alphas.  I also rubbed metalic rubons (available soon in the store) across the ridges of the alphas to enhance them and make them sparkle a little.  the word "Crawly" is using Fancy Pants Road Show Alphas (sorry, I used the last sheet in stock, but other varieties are available!).  The torn strips of paper have had the edges distressed with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and then to finish off I gave sprayed Glimmermist Hulla Hoop over both pages.  I thought it was a suitably evil colour for a snake!

On the left page, I've added 2 Dream Street Superstition die cuts.  I thought the saying "forget the ghosts...beware of me" was very fitting for a snake!  "You're BOO-tiful" has been mounted on a Fragment Charm which has been coloured with alcohol inks and the diecut has been covered in Glossy Accents.   The final touch was to use a remaining piece of Black Magic Core'dinations, wrong-side up, which has been cut out using Nestabilities and a couple of brads.

That's it!  I'm amazed at how much I did use on this layout.  It looks so simple until you write it all down.  I hope you like it and I hope the subject didn't scare you too much....

I see that in my previous blog (in March) that I promised some blog candy.  I'll see what I can scrounge from the shop and put something up soon!  Keep checking back and I hope I can fulfil my promise of more regular blogging.

Exciting Times!

Well, I'm really shocked how time has flown and I haven't done a blog since the beginning of December.  Serves me right for nagging at my friend Amy when she got a bit behind with blogging.  Now the shoe's on the other foot and she's loving it!!! 

I do have a small excuse though....I have temporarily gone insane and started an online shop!  It's something I've been wanting to do for ages and now it's done.  I tell you though, I think it would have been a whole lot less painful if I had paid someone to set the website up for me and I just come along at the end and manage it from there, but I stubbornly wanted to "do it myself" so that if I had problems or if I wanted to change the look or design then I could do it.  It's been a great learning curve and I can now re-install the whole thing in a matter of a couple of hours from scratch.  Thanks to the free software from Zen-Cart and lots of googling for answers, most of which have already been asked on the Zen-Cart forum.

Anyway, pop on over and have a look.  It's "getting there" I guess is the best word for it.  There are so many great products out there and it's amazing how when you're buying to start-up, money just doesn't go far at all.  Buying from Australian Wholesalers also makes prices higher so although my first few batches of products have come from Australian Wholesalers, I am searching for US Wholesalers and have set-up accounts with many of the paper manufacturers to try and reduce costs.  Importing's not that hard and it's amazing how a parcel from Illinois which left on Friday last week arrived the same day as a parcel that left Brisbane on Thursday last week.  Both parcels arrived on Tuesday this week - quick isn't the word.  The US parcel was great because it contained heaps of Tim Holtz products.  I just love his stuff and while I'm writing this I'm trying to work out what I want to make. 

I haven't made anything for ages and I want to make something using his techniques.  I've been making Recipe Cards and I'm thinking about doing some more of them.  They're easier than scrapbook pages because they're smaller, you don't have to match colours to photos and you can do insteresting techniques really quickly.  A bit like Tim's tags I guess, except I don't do quite so many techniques on one page.

Anyway, sorry to be so slack and I'm now going off to "explore" my cupboard and see what I can make.

I know it's not Christmas, but here's a picture of my Christmas Elf, usually known as Sprite.

Watch this space and spread the word as I'm going to run some more Blog Candy soon.  I'll go and have a raid on the "shop" and see what I can come up with.  Don't forget to pop on over to Wild About Scrap and check out some of the specials we have instore.  Check the prices as I'm trying to get products at the cheapest price so that I can pass on the savings to you.

Guess Who

I haven't done a double layout for a long time and I'm going to have to do more because they're really fun to do.    Don't forget to click on the pictures to see increased sizes.

These photos are of my 2 sisters and were taken on the morning of my brother's wedding while we were sitting around our accommodation on Bribie Island.  I'd just finished cleaning the camera and was playing with the AV (aperature)  mode and got some great morning faces.  By the way, it's amazing how early the sun comes up in Brisbane compared to where we are near Mareeba.  The sun was getting up somewhere between 5.30 and 6 at home and down there it was broad daylight at 5.

I used Stampin' Up cardstock as the base and the paper is from Fancy Pants.  I tore strips from 3 different papers for the layering on the left and used a bit torn from a 4th paper for the journalling. 

I did go a bit overboard on the tearing with this layout, but it's so much fun (except when it doesn't tear how you want it).  The centre piece is a sheet of core'dinations that has been torn around the edges and then scrunched up and sanded to reveal the core. 

The flower on the left is from Buzz and Bloom and has been painited with Making Memories paints and I used Kindy Glitz on the flower to add a bit of glitz.

The title and the arrows have been painted with Tim Holtz Ranger Crackle Paints.  The title was then distressed with Ranger Distress Ink while I left the arrows un-distressed.

The crackle paints are the best investment I've made to date.  I just love the look. 

I finished the layout off with a few green tara flowers, basic grey buttons and the 2 birdie charms.

Blog Candy Winner!

and the winner is........KARENB.....congratulations! 

Sorry everyone else, but I'll be running more blog candy in the future so keep checking back.  Thanks everyone for supporting my new blog and hope to see you back again soon.

For interest, all names were were put into a glass which was shaken (not stirred!) madly and the name pulled out.  I was surprised to see it went to a fellow Aussie as I've had entrants from the US and Ukraine and Russia (I think) and I was sure I'd be posting it overseas.

Look back again in a couple of days as I've suddenly been inspired to scrap and am very excited about the layout of  my sisters that I've been working on this week. 

Twiddleybitz Advent House

I have had an extremely busy week, inbetween work, running our nursery and the usual household stuff, making this Twiddleybitz Advent House.    As I have found out the hard way, it's not a project for the faint hearted!  I hope you like it.

The Advent House came as a kit which has been painted in Kaiser Olive paint and then assembled.  This wasn't too hard, but there was a fair bit of gluing involved and heaps of pieces to slot together only to discover I'd painted the wrong side of the roof! Oh well, practice makes perfect!  The hardest part was that each of the 24 boxes had to be cut out of card using the Twiddleybitz box template.  It wasn't so hard, but it definitely took quite a few hours tracing each of those boxes, cutting them out, scoring the folds and assembling them.  Let's say I watched the new Harry Potter movie twice as well as a few Doctor Who episodes while doing it!

Each of the boxes has been decorated individually.  Most have been covered with Kaiser "Belle" paper.  I decided to use a mixture of numbering styles so I've used Kaiser Rub-ons, Twiddley Bitz and Heidi Swapp Chipboard as well as stamps.  Some of the chipboards have been painted with Making Memories paints while others were painted with Ranger Crackle Paints.

I added embellishments to each of the boxes - either Christmas charms, Christmas embellishments, ribbons, Kaiser rhinestones and rub-ons.  A couple of the boxes, e.g. "12" have been painted with Ranger Rock Candy Crackle - it gives a gorgeous effect!

The roof top has been painted with Picket Fence crackle and then I've glued "snow" AKA Flowersoft Polar White along the edges and in patches over the roof.  I know we don't have snow in Australia for Christmas and never where I live, but I couldn't resist for this house.  The front of the roof has been painted over with Making Memories Red Glitter Glaze and the filigree has been painted with Ranger Pewter Crackle Paint.  I really love the crackle paint.  It's so easy to use and cracks beautifully!

The santa and sleigh are also from Twiddleybitz and have been painted with Making Memories paint and the Santa himself has been painted with Ranger Fired Brick Crackle Paint.  This has been mounted with doublesided foam tape to lift it from the edge a bit.  The Christmas Tree has been heat embossed with Christmas Tree embossing glitter and the Angel has been heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  For the first time I used Ranger Embossing Stamp Pad to adhere the embossing powders to the images and I'm really impressed with how good it is.  It stays really moist and sticky for ages after you've put it on so you don't have to rush to get the embossing powder on.

I will add that this has been the messiest project I have ever made!  I had EVERYTHING out and all over my table - paints, rubons, chipboard, paper, embellishments, ribbon, etc. - and the flowersoft went all over the place.  It absolutely refused to land on my mat and although I have a large Stampin' Up Embossing Tray, the house was too large for it.  Overall it was fantastic to make, but I'm glad it's now done.  I'm looking forward to doing something easier next week!

REMINDER:  BLOG CANDY ends Tuesday 1st December (Australia Time)  Don't forget to spread the word or leave a comment at the post below to be in the running!

There's a FAIRY in my garden!

Ok, so it's not a real fairy, but she's still pretty cute.  This is Sprite (again!) playing dress-ups as a fairy.  Sprite LOVES to play dress-ups, although she wasn't too keen on the wings flapping about, which is why she's the star of my scrapbooking pages.

I made this with Core'dinations cardstock, which has been sanded around the edges, Kaisercraft "Airy Fairy" papers and heaps of Kindyglitz.  The chipboard wings and the rubons are from Paper Inklings.  The chipboard has been painted with Kaiser paint and then had Kindyglitz and Doodlebug Sugar Glitter sprinkled strategically before the Kindyglitz has dried.

I had heaps of fun making this layout.  I don't usually have the opportunity to use such girly colours and papers and it was way out of my usual style.  I definitely overdosed on the glitter!

I finished the layout with a journalling stamp and squiggles of Kindyglitz around the edges of the 3 photos at the bottom of the page.

Blog Candy - Reminder!

Reminder - don't forget blog candy closes next Tuesday (1st)!   You've gotta be in it to win it.  Leave a comment against the blog candy post down below and you could win the goodies on offer.