Not too shabby...

I thought it would be fun to try something new and have joined in on the Style Lounge reader's challenges over at the Aussie Scrap Source blog. The first style in the challenge was Shabby Chic inspired by the beautiful work of Janine Koczwara. This is often the type of style that I love to ohh and ahh over but hardly ever try - mainly due to the fact that I have 3 boys, so it was nice to play with some flowers and try something pretty :)

I still used soft shades of blue, but teamed these up with warm and creamy creamy neuatrals, along with a touch of green, and if you look close you might notice that I snuck in a little pink.

I tried to build up some interesting layers and focused on adding a few shabby details and was very happy to have this gorgeous selection of goodies to play with, which I was wrapped to win a few months ago from this lovely lady.

Overall I am really happy with how this page turned out and look forward to trying out this week's 'Playful' style!

Thanks for stopping by...please don't be shy and let me know you were here ;)
Aga xx 

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Super cutie ♥

I was creating the page for a challenge but just realised that it was infact due in yesterday o.0
Oh well, I've been wanting to scrap these pics of Cayden in his superman outfit for a while and so I used the theme of his outfit as my inspiration and created a superhero scene to match.

I wanted the page to have a bit of a comic book feel and love the way the blue Crate Paper border works as a backdrop to my cityscape which was made from simple layered shapes of black and grey cardstock. I also created my own sunburst sky using a few different shades of yellow.

and because I didn't want the photos to get lost on the busy background, I decided to keep the colour palette pretty simple and drew inspiration from the outfit and used just a few pops of red and yellow to accent the page.

Thanks for stopping by
Aga xx

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Easter Decorating...

I was feeling a bit 'Martha' inspired this Easter and took on a few decorating projects for the occasion. To begin with I gathered a collection of twigs and and other bits and pieces and built myself a nest :)

I decided to fill my nest with speckled eggs after seeing these little beauties {not by Martha...but still so pretty} To make my eggs I sponged on layers of acrylic paints in shades of blue onto blown eggs, allowing each layer to dry in between. I then watered down a little brown acrylic and used an old toothbrush to flick on the speckles. I skipped the painting stage for the brown eggs but did add the speckles as well as a few sprays of iridescent glimmer mist for a bit of shine and it's a good thing that I made a few spares because some little guy (Cayden ) broke a few when he tried to eat them ;)

On Saturday we had an Easter lunch at my mum's place and I created a few cute napkin bunnies to dress up her table using this tutorial.

I was very inspired by this gorgeous Martha cake, and used the same concept to decorate my layered chocolate and cream cake with a nest made of shaved chocolate.

I also got the idea of making a cake border from here but changed it up a bit and drew up my own template onto plain paper then traced the design onto a sheet of long of cardboard (the type you get at the newsagents) and used a craft knife to cut out my design.

I went with a simple grass design and added a few bunnies and chicks along with some scattered eggs amongst the grass and love how it turned out. The cake lost a bit of it's icing during the drive but here's the other side of the border ;)

I'd love to hear your thoughts... perhaps you made something creative too that you'd like to share?
Aga xx

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Baskets...

I thought it would be nice to get a few projects in before the Easter weekend, and decided that the ScrapzBiz 'basket' challenge would be a good place to start. I went with an Easter theme and made a little woven basket from strips of cardstock.

I pre-inked the edges of each strip before forming the basket and curved it a bit before attaching it in place for added dimension, then dressed it up with a handle made of twine, a cute little chick, a few embellished flowers and a printed sentiment stuck on a toothpick.

For the layout I scrapped about our traditional blessing of the basket on Easter Saturday.

The challenge was to use some non traditional scrapbook papers so I used a strip of paper doily layered over some tissue paper, and some more weaving - this time through the border strip.

Speaking of Easter, I have also been busy blowing out some eggs and have gathered a stack of twigs... can you guess what I'm making?

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More Easter crafting...

Hi again, I almost forgot to share a card set I made last week. I was planning on making just one card but couldn't decide between the egg and bunny designs so decided to do both.... then I started thinking that chicks would be cute and one card quickly turned into a set of three :)

The cards were really simple to make once I found images to use as templates, and just incase you'd like to make your own I found cute bunny templates here, here and here, some cheeky little chicks here and here and well there were eggs everywhere but I used mine from here.

To make the cards I scaled the templates down to the size I wanted then printed them in reverse on the back of white cardstock and used a craft knife to cut out the design. I added a little stitching a few simple embellishments before backing the cutouts with some matching paper and the cards were done... which left me plenty of time to whip up some pretty envelopes to match.

Happy Easter and thanks for stopping by!

Aga xx

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Chocolate...

I've really been enjoying the Scrapz Biz weekly challenges and couldn't resist playing along with the chocolate theme! I took up the blind scrapping challenge and scrapped about our little guy being busted eating nutella straight from the jar after he raided one of our cupboards while we weren't looking :)

I used some of these cute fabric covered buttons which I which I was lucky enough to win from Little Red Rocket in a previous giveaway.... good news is that they are having another fantastic giveaway one on their blog right now so check it out!!!Aga xx

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Leaves...

Hi, I've got a few layouts to share all with a 'leaves' theme for one of the weekly challenges over at Scrapz Biz, where I was one of the challenge winners :) The first leafy challenge was to create handmade leaves (not using patterened paper) so I used layers of cellophane and organza to make my leaves for the birhouse and added a few smaller leaves from a piece of trim to my hand cut tree. The next one was for a sketch challenge and I had a play with some For the Record papers by Echo Park {love this range}

I paired up some LYB leaf pins with handmade flowersNext up was a colour challenge using this lovely combo...The leaves were hand cut from a sheet of Prima paper And lastly was my first attempt at blind scrapping, and I went for an Autumn theme.Oh and this is what I won for playing along - an adorable set of Social Club Butterflies & Doilies :) Thanks for the visit and don't be shy to leave me a comment ;)

Aga xx

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Rainbows...

I still had rainbows on my mind after Cayden's birthday when I created this happy rainbow card for a Scrapz Biz 'Melancholy' challenge.

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Playing catch up...

Catching up with a couple of layouts I completed a while ago for a Scrapz Biz challenge. Love these pics of my little guy being cheeky for the camera :)

here's some of the details...This next one is about packing up 7.5 years of memories when we had to move house. I included some hidden journalling to tell the story and a photo of the truck all packed up as it drove awayI've got more layouts to upload... so until then thanks for stopping by!

Aga xx

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Cayden's 1st Birthday ♥

Hi :) just wanted to share some pics from Cayden's first Birthday, which we celebrated last weekend with a family picnic at the river. It's hard to believe a whole year has passed since this little bundle of joy came into our lives.... but time flies and our baby is growing up fast!

Cayden had a wonderful day, and as you can see we went with a rainbow theme for the decorations and Christian spent hours blowing up water bombs to make a super cute rainbow arch for his little brother :) I also made lots of bright and happy treats which included my first attempt at cake pops (they were so yummy) rainbow jelly cups, mini cupcakes topped with colourful frosting and adorable personalised flags - you can download the free pdf here!!

We also set up a mini lolly buffet which was very popular... even with the big kids ;) and to finish off the theme I also made a big layered rainbow cake with fluffy meringue frosting. I somehow forgot to get a photo of the cake, but you can see Cayden enjoying his piece below!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back soon with some scrapping.... yep I have actually done some LOL

Aga xx

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Papertrey Button Challenge...

I was feeling a bit crafty tonight and knew I found the perfect project when I stumbled across a fun button challenge on this awesome blog...

I decided to make a card featuring some fabulous chipboard buttons that I was lucky enough to be sent to play with by the lovely Michelle Jamieson of Chelley Bean Designs.

The buttons are such a great size to work with and made perfect centres for these Maya Road Kraft Doilies {which I adore} and the rest of the card just seemed to come together after that :)

You can check out these buttons and all the other gorgeous handmade goodies over at Michelle's Etsy store.

Have a great weekend

Aga xx

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