Lets Get Shabby Challenge # 47

The new challenge is up at Lets Get Shabby. Choose a piece of china and create a page, card or otp. project that has been inspired by your chosen cup, saucer, plate, vase etc. Head on over to the Lets Get Shabby blog HERE to get all the details on how to play along.

It's pretty obvious how the above image has inspired me. I've used an olive green and pink colour scheme, used doilies, birds and bird cage images. The birds and cages suggest a theme of "freedom", or lack of it, so have included a beautiful quote from Nelson Mandela. 

This page started out as a piece of grey chipboard.It's then been gessoed, painted, papered, gessoed again, painted again, stamped, inked, masked, embossed and sprayed. Finally the images were added, the resin embellishments and doilies and finally ( as is my way) lots of cut out flowers.

Thank you for visiting today. I love and appreciate hearing from you. ( unless you are one of those creepy anonymous people ) and may you find some "free time"in what's left of this week to pursue what ever makes you happy.

Golden Paint Journal Page

I love using paints and inks on my pages. Last weekend I did some experimenting in my journal with different brands of paint, and Golden Artist Colors are now my favourite. I really love the intensity of colour they provide.

Also played with lots of masks, some paste, some stamps and as is my way, I had to add some "cut out" flowers.

Thanks so much for visiting. Have a great week.

Pure Beauty

A short and random post today.

This morning I woke with the radio news telling me the horrific number of lives now lost in Syria: the financial woes of a once great and proud country that was Greece and the pathetic, nasty bickering that dominates our own politics here in Australia.

Indeed, it is a cold, wet, bleak and dreary Friday.

I then saw this pre view of a collaborative work with the Sydney Dance Company and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

It's called "Project Rameau"

There is still so much beauty in this world. It is always found in the 'arts'.

The music, the movement, the skill, the creativity.

Oh, how I love Rafael Bonachela and this brilliant dance company.

Thanks so much for dropping by. Wishing you a great weekend, and hoping that you can all find 'beauty' some where in your life.

Instagram "nerd"

I am a self-confessed Instagram "nerd". I'm not so much obsessed with taking lots of daily photos; I am selective of WHAT I photograph; but I am addicted to "editing". I can't stop!

I have 19 different editing apps. on my phone and I play with every single one of them. I take a photo and then I have this urge to alter it, until, sometimes it's unrecognisable. I realise that this is probably not a good thing...socially I am excluded from conversations, my meals go cold, I get left behind on walks and people think I'm being rude, (which I probably am).

Is it crazy to take a perfectly good photo, a beautiful photo even, and turn it into something, that when shown to my (usually supportive family and friends), has them all asking, "what the hell is it"?

Any way, loved this YouTube clip sending up Instagram users. Sadly, it so relates to me. 

Here is the link to the video.

http://youtu.be/Nn-dD-QKYN4

This little collage of edited Instagram images was of course made on one of my many, simple, photo editing apps.

P.S. For all you scrapbookers, the very creative Rhonna Farrer of rhonna designs is about to release a photo editing app. that will include fonts, frames, stickers, backgrounds, filters and masks. So exciting.

Thanks for dropping by today. Am I the only 'pathetic' that loves the immediate, personal, gratification of sharing what I perceive as interesting or beautiful on Instagram ? I'd love to know your thoughts.

Scrap Around The World #2 June Challenge

Scrap Around The Worlds next wonderfully inspiring challenge is up !! We were so excited last month to receive such a fantastic response with so many people creating and sending in truly beautiful, creative and artistic pages.

We present you with an eclectic, retro mood board from amazing Design Team member 
Anupama Choudary, 
together with a happy & whimsical sketch from our resident sketch artist 
Julianne McKenna-De Lumen.

 All you need to do is be inspired by the mood board 
(in ANY way) & use our sketch as your starting point.  

(No need to tell us HOW the board inspired you if it is OBVIOUS, 
otherwise please let us know 
- a couple of lines explanation is all that is vital for us).

**The above image MUST appear on the blog post containing your challenge 

entry -you also need to mention that you are playing along with the current 

challenge at Scrap Around The World &  LINK UP TO IT please.**

(not to your entire blog)

How to use our sketches

As you would any other sketch.  We would like to see that it definitely inspired you & was your 'starting point' 
but you can 'make it your own' by flipping it, turning it, inverting it & moving things about if you like.  
You can also change the photo orientation and number of photos to be as few or as many as you like.

How to use our mood boards

Our mood boards are for your INSPIRATION only.  You can be inspired by one of the images, 
all of the images, or any number of them, or even parts thereof.

This is my mood board and sketch interpretation. The bottom right hand image of the mood board was the main influence for my page. I loved the vintage look and the washed out bluey green background. I turned the sketch once to the right & emphasised the vertical and horizontal strips with  my main embellishments simply being photo frames. I used the banner idea for hand-writing my text/journaling in an unusual way & used the word 'Smile' as that's the first word that comes to mind when anyone has a camera pointing in their direction. Papers used are from 7Dots and Meg's Garden.

The photo is difficult to make out. It is my young daughter taking a photo of me with the camera on the tripod one day, when we were actually doing a photo shoot of her in her ballet tutu. I feel a little bit like "Whistler's Mother".

Onto our prizes & sponsors for this challenge!

Our design team votes on all entries, thus selecting a winner & 3 features.

A random winner is also drawn. 

There will always be a prize for the Merit Winner & the Random Winner.

If we get lucky there will be prizes for the featured layouts too!
This month we are again blessed with 5 PRIZES!!

We have prizes for the Merit & Random winner AND for all 3 features!!!

AS WELL as winning our first prize,
 the winner will be invited back as Guest Designer for the next challenge.

Our challenges are open to everyone, anywhere in the world

 & all this month's prizes include FREE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING!!

This month our merit winner will receive this HUGE pack of papers
 (the new 'Faces of Spring' Collection) PLUS mixed media goodies from
 our generous Polish sponsor, 13arts, owned by our wonderful & kind friend
 Aida Domisiewicz who is a highly talented mixed media artist herself.

Just look at all of this!  I wish that I could win it myself!!
What a HUGE and generous prize & shipping is included!

2nd place will receive a complete paper collection 'Home Sweet Home' 
from another awesome Polish company - Studio 75 - shipping included!
Check out their online store too HERE.

3rd place will receive a $25 chipboard prize-pack from Scrapmatts Chipboard
 in Australia,containing a selection of their latest releases - shipping included!

Australian Made Laser Cut Chipboard to compliment your scrapbook pages, 

cards & papercrafting projects. Scrapmatts has a ning site that showcases an 

amazing talented international design team who post daily on the blog there, 

a Gallery, customer challenges & an online store. Come join in the fun here!

4th place will receive 3 packs of Flairs OF YOUR CHOICE from
 A Piece of Cake Designs in Australia, including free shipping!

  

Our random winner will receive this prize pack of The Crafter's Workshop 12x12 Templates kindly donated by Anupama herself.

The deadline for this challenge is midnight EST Tuesday 25th June 2013. Thanks for dropping by today. I hope after visiting the SATW blog HERE you will be inspired to join in with this fantastic challenge. Have a great week everyone. 

LetsGet Shabby..........Challenge #46

There is a new challenge up at Lets Get Shabby and it's a colour challenge. I always find these tricky.....to match up what you see on your computer screen to what you have in front of you is always difficult. I can get close but never EXACT and I find it really frustrating. Apart from using paper, ribbon, flowers and other embellishments, you can also use all the wonderful mixed media that is so readily available now, such as inks, stains, paints, mists, crayons, pens etc. to try and find the right colours to use on your project.

This is my little "shabby" card. For all the details on how to play along and to check out the other beautiful DT projects go HERE. We'd love to see how you can use this beautiful colour palette.

Where has this year gone ?! If you're doing fun things this week I hope it goes slowly for you. If it's all work and no play, then I hope it goes quickly.

A Peek at Paris.

When I realised that we are almost half way through this year, first I  wondered where on earth has the time gone and secondly I thought it is definitely time to add some more Paris photos. I took many, many photos of the Louvre, inside and out, but here is just a peek. 

The Louvre, viewed through the glass Louvre Pyramid which serves as the museum's main entrance and contrasts so beautifully with it's glass and steel construction.

Ceiling in the Louvre. My photos come no where near capturing the size, the richness of colour, the technical detail and the immense beauty of these ceilings, they are truly awesome.

Inside the Louvre looking out: still more beauty to be seen.

Lani and bronze street sculpture.

Me and Christmas macaroons.

Thanks for visiting me today. I hope your week is a happy, productive one.

Music-to make housework easier...........a song

I love to visit Czekoczyna ( Kasia Krzyminska ) and be inspired by her delicate, artsy pages. She,  and some of her very creative friends, visit HERE to check out who they are, get together once a month and create a work inspired by a favourite song. Music is a massive part of my life; my blog is partly named after a hip-hop, rap band, so pages influenced by music and lyrics very much appeal to me. They call their challenge "Music-to make housework easier" and their pages are of course amazing and inspirational. This month the song they chose is one that has a very personal significance for me. I tend not to share too much personal stuff on my blog, I don't like to get too 'heavy', I like to keep it bright and breezy, but we all have things go on in our lives that cause our hearts to break and our heads to be troubled.

Two and a half years ago my youngest daughter was not in a good place. Since then she has shown incredible strength and determination to overcome some personal battles and has grown and matured into a wise, empathetic, beautiful young woman with a clear focus on what she wants her future to be, and how she can achieve it. So proud of her. This song by Sia is a reminder of her lost, darker days.

Thanks for visiting today. May the music in your week be either touching or toe tapping, just as long as it's good.

A Page For Meg's Garden.

This is a page I made for Meg's Garden a few weeks ago using all her beautiful papers, and in particular this one called; "The Rose Garden Collection - Pale Blue Roses". I found it was perfect for using with other mixed media...gesso, inks and texture paste.

Other papers used from Meg's Garden are:

"Ode To A Summer's Day Collection - Summer beauty"

Elements Collection - "Old World Time" and "Old Writing"

Vintage Ornate Tags Sheet

Transparency Sheet - "Butterflies"

Also used Melissa Francis Vintage Embellishments, Prima Resist Canvas, Crafters Workshop Mask, Prima Clear Stamp.

If you would like to see this range of paper from Meg's Garden and all her other beautiful scrapbook and card making supplies, visit her online store HERE. Thanks for dropping by today. May your weekend be full of fun and colour.