Patchwork Inspired...

A couple of weeks ago I spent the weekend doing some challenges for the Scrapz Biz Life is a Patchwork Virtual Crop filled with loads of great patchwork inspired creativity.

First up was a fun virtual class held by the lovely Sheree Forcier. I loved that there was lots of hand and machine stitching in the class, and a great excuse to dig out my sewing machine there was lots of

next up was a What's Cooking challenge where the ingredients were fabric, buttons and stitching

the Scrap it Blind challenges have quickly become one of my favourites, and I was very happy to finally use up some old papers that I've never really knew what to do with before

and finally the Noteworthy challenge had me creating this very patchwork inspired card

I didn't manage to get all the challenges completed, but it was fun to spent the weekend scrapping and an added bonus to win some great prizes along the way :) ... Scrapz Biz also holds awesome weekly challenges, so if you're in the need of some inspiration from a fabulous and friendly team you should definitely join in!

Thanks for stopping by

Aga xx

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style lounge continues...

I'm a bit behind with getting my layouts up, but what can I say... there just aren't enough hours in the day!!! Anyway week 6 of the Style Lounge Reader's challenge at Aussie Scrap Source blog, the theme was Detailed Whimsy and the inspiration came from the beautiful work of Iris Babao Uy and this is what I came up with...

 

I was inspired by Iris' use of misting, pretty details and bright happy colours

Suzan Doyle was the inspiration for week 7's challenge with her wonderfully Graphic Colour Blocked style.

I focused on using nice clean lines and tried to recreate Suzan's sense of everything being in it's place

I've got plenty more uploads to catch up on, so I hope you'll be back soon :)

Aga xx

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Customer pick...

Just letting you know that you can pick up this customer-pick bundle of warm neutral papers paired with a pack of craft tags that was part of my recent order at Blue Bazaar for just $2.47!

If you follow the Blue Bazaar blog then you would have seen that Louise puts together some fun little bundles of products based on what customers are ordering and offers these at 15% off the normal price. Blue Bazaar always has loads of awesome products at fabulous prices, and as an added incentive to shop if some of the products you order get selected for a bundle you'll get a $5.00 credit to your account... thanks Lou :)

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Clean and simple...

that was the theme for the last Style Lounge Readers Challenge over at the Aussie Scrap Source blog. The inspiration came from Caroline McLachlan and the brief was to use clean lines, minimal embellishments with a focus on the photo and journalling. Here's what I came up with...

Journalling reads: I never want to forget the time that little Cameron, who was about 3 years old at the time freaked out while he was on the toilet, screaming at the top of his lungs that there was an animal in there!!! I ran in to find him looking terrified and practically standing on the bowl pointing at the ground... I started laughing so much because the animal that had frightened him so much turned out to be a little ant crawling along the bathroom tiles. For some reason ants were a bit scary for him and he would do his best to avoid them, so who would have thought that the little boy who was terrified of ants would grow up loving to catch lizards and play with all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures.

I have to admit that I don't normally add a lot of journalling to my pages, so it was nice to scrap a page using this style so I could record some of the memories that might otherwise be forgotten, and I am very excited to say that my layout won the clean and simple challenge :)

Have a fabulous week
Aga xx

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Freestyle whimsy...

I'm still playing along with the Style Lounge challenges on the Aussie Scrap Source blog, and absolutely loved last week's 'freestyle whimsy' style. The inspiration came from the very talented Danielle Quarmby and the brief was to use some of the key elements that Danielle uses when creating her signature style.

I focused on using colour to set the mood, hand cut embellishments, book paper and whimsical elements, using song lyrics for my title as well as adding a small floral background.

What do you think?

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Do you Pinterest?

I am absolutely loving this site, and have to admit that lately I have been spending most of my computer time on Pinterest! ... incase you haven't been there before it's basically an online pin board where you can create collections of all the things you love and then share them with friends and follow the boards of other people with great taste.

What I like most about Pinterest is how easy it is to access all the great finds you have pinned along the way, because I don't know about you but normally when I found something I liked online I would either save a pic of it or add the page to my favourites folder, but then always struggle to find the source when I wanted to go back to it - but on Pinterest you have not only a picture of what it is you like but also a link straight to the site where you found it all in one. Brilliant!

There are so many inspiring ideas and awesome tutorials, and here's just a small sample of some of the things I've been pinning...

here's a link to my boards, feel free to have a browse or add anything you like...or if you are already on board leave me a link, because as they say - it's more fun with friends :)
Aga xx

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Catching up with layouts...

I've been doing a bit of scrapping... but because of my slight obsession with Pinterest I haven't had time to update my blog for a while ;) So first up is another layout for the Style Lounge challenges at Aussie Scrap Source blog. The challenge was to create a layout based on the awesome 'Artsy Grunge' style of Leanne Pearce. I really liked playing with this style and am thinking that it will definitely be something I want to try again!

I also completed a few pages for the Desperate Housewives theme over at ScrapzBiz. This page is about just some of the things I would rather be doing than housework, because let's face it... it will still be there in the morning!

and the next one is about my least favourite chore - the dreaded ironing and my recent revelation that sometimes it is OK to go out into the world with a few wrinkles ;)

I had also planned to complete 30 layouts for Blue Bazaar's Crop Bootcamp, but I left it a bit late to get started and in the end only managed to upload 2 layouts.... a long way off I know, but hey it is better than none, and I did manage to organise a lot of my paper into mini kits in the process!

*also just realised that I totally forgot to add my journalling for this one...oops

Thanks for stopping by
Aga xx

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Playful fun...

I'm a bit late in getting this up, but here is my layout for week 2 of the Style Lounge reader's challenges over at Aussie Scrap Source blog. This time we were challenged to get 'Playful' with the gorgeous style of Kathie Link. I'm already a big fan of Kathie's work and love her great use of colour and the whimsical backdrops she pieces together and really enjoyed having a go at her playful style.

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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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