Water Dragon - Purple Pumpkin

Hello everyone.

How are we today? What is the weather like in your part of the world? Sydney has been windy and horrible for 3 days now making the kids and I stir crazy but scraping some happy summer photos that bit extra pleasing.

I finally have another layout to add to the 'My Mr Man' series about Jayce. Taking the total to only 3 but plenty more in planning. You can view the other two here and here. 

My Mr Water Dragon Man

This kid LOVES the water. Jumps in any chance he gets whether it be shower, bath, pool or puddle. He got this super cute swimming outfit from my mother for Christmas so I HAD to snap a few shots the first time he wore it (and everytime since)

The layout of the page was inspired by the current sketch challenge over at Purple Pumpkin, a super cute embellishment shop. Can you see the resemblance? 

Like my previous page, this one also uses only Simple Stories 'Good Day Sunshine' collection. I was actually working on them both at the same time to ensure I didn't use something on one page I wanted for the other.

I LOVE the colours in this collection. So bright and happy. Plus like any SS collection there are plenty for embellishments to match! I have used a bunch of the brads on this page, two of which hold the twine banner.

There is absolutely no glue involved in this banner. The 'flag' pieces were fussy cut from the blah blah paper then two tiny holes punched and twine threaded. I then wrapped the twine around the brads a few times and tied the ends together, job done. This way it looks naturally placed and a bit different each time.

The photos are much more important then the title here, so I backed them with white and used flat alpha stickers. I tried to blend the My Mr Man part into the background colour to make the main part of the title stand out. The 'g' in dragon was actually blue but I coloured it with a yellow marker to make it match.

XoXoX Nicole

Edit: I am also linking this layout up at Paper Issues for their current Issue: Gettin' the Scoop on the Sweet Days of Summer link party. A great spot to get some extra summery inspiration from other scrappers.

Bloomin' Lovely - SATW

G'Day.

Today I am sharing with you a layout that has been playing on my mind since the start of June and the photos have been hanging around my crafty areas since August 2013. 

Bloomin' Lovely

The photos are of Chloe in my mothers backyard while it was full of bright yellow flowers (it doesn't matter that they are technically weeds, its still pretty) She had HEAPS of fun running like a maniac back and forth. I love how kids find fun and happiness in everything!

The page was inspired by the June Challenge at Scrap Around The World. It's a real good one!

I LOVE this mood board! I was instantly inspired by the flowers, the LOVE and all the yellow. Originally I began creating a grungy/messy/more mixed media page but I just couldn't stop thinking about these photos. I mean seriously, look back at the mood board and tell me you don't think about them!?! ... LIES.

This layout uses only Simple Stories, mostly from the latest 'Good Day Sunshine' collection and also a few stickers from the DIY range. I even managed to feature a bike with a bunch of flowers in the front like the top right picture in the mood board.

I thought having such a large focus photo would make the embellishing easier, boy was I wrong! But after LOTS of struggling the DIY stickers words 4x6 helped save the day.
I also fought with the right title for the page, I had so many ideas but none seemed quite right or wouldn't fit in the space I' left after looking back at the mood board I found my solution.

I am quietly pleased with how this layout finished up, I think there will be more super large photo pages in my future.
What do you guys think? Any big picture tips?
XoXoX Nicole

Yay Me!

Hey Hi Hello Blogosphere Friends!
I'm just popping in to let you guys know one I've my layout is going to be featured in the Bella Buzz Newsletter released tomorrow on the Bella Blvd Blog.
Here's a quick sneak peak:

And in case you missed the last Bella Blvd Newsletter I just so happened to be in that one too! Go check it out here.

Two in a row! It feels good.
Thanks for your support guys and girls!
XoXoX Nicole

it's a hard life - Creative Scrappers 270

I find it soo frustrating having so much inspiration and soo many scrappy ideas/pages in mind but just not enough time to get them done. I spend the start of the month thinking/planning/hoping to get something created until about mid way through I finally steal some time but often can't decide which one to work on...
Anyway. On to the page that made the house work wait for this mid-month session.

it's a hard life

Another case of FINALLY scrapping some photos that have been floating around my scrap space for a long time. In fact almost exactly one year. These are a few snaps of Jayce at 6 days old just chilling.

The page design came from sketch #270 from Creative Scrappers. Once I saw the sketch I knew the perfect photos for it and didn't use much (or any) imagination, how you see it is how I used it.

Each square is a different colour and pattern with one matching embellishment while every piece of paper is backed with black cardstock. I did an absolute terrible job when cutting my so called "squares" so please don't look too closely.

As always I am extremely disappointed by the appearance of my own hand writing, it never looks the way I imagine it.

Hard to believe these photos are JUST over one year ago. Crazy.

XoXoX Nicole

1st Face Paint - Annas Craft Cupboard & Sassy Scrappers

Last day of May! Wow! I do remember saying "I wont let this year fly by like all the others" direct quote! And woops my bad! Where did it go?!?
I have another layout of Chloe to share with you today! Which came together very quickly!

Talk about inspiration de-railing plans. Everyone in this house hold feel asleep surprisingly early last night and I was cruising through the internet when I came across:

This sketch for May over at Annas Craft Cupboard and

This mood board for May from Sassy Scrappers. I put them together and this layout was done in record time!
It is a little different to my norm.

I have used two pieces of chipboard from WOW both painted and for the first time I used some embossing powder on the butterflies.

I created a little banner from the Kaisercraft Enchanted Garden Collectables pack, in fact the entire layout is Kaisercraft Enchanted Garden including the paper and rubons.

For an extra bit of sparkle I stuck down some sequins after a quick spray with glimmer mist. To add interest I used a toilet paper roll and cue tip to put on some paint circles.
I'm off to enjoy my weekend, hope you do too!
XoXoX Nicole

Up Up & Away - PageMaps

I have interrupted my Jayce layout catch-up to FINALLY do a layout which has been waiting a long long time. With the last page I posted here, I shared the story about my cloud paper collection and thought it was probably about time I scrapped the photos I intended on scrapping with them...

Up Up & Away

And you will notice I only used one piece of cloud paper... 

The theme of the page is about taking flight as the pictures are of Chloe learning to crawl, the first time I saw her on all fours. She rocked back and forth for a bit then fell and got cranky. It wasn't much longer until she was racing around.

I have used exclusively the Echo Park Everyday Eclectic and did LOTS of fussy cutting! It took me a long time to be happy with the balloon arrangement. I fiddled and changed and moved them around for days!! I also fussy cut some clouds from a strip of the background paper that I saved and layered them on the balloons to help blend them in a little bit. Eventually I got sick of fussing over it and starting just sticking.

I have used dimension a lot on this page. The photos 'step' up in line with the photos again adding to the 'up' theme.

Oh by the way. The design was based on a sketch in the PageMaps archive from April 2013, the middle bottom sketch, I rotated the sketch and took a few little liberties such as moving the title. Happy 8th Anniversary PageMaps.

Thanks dropping in.

XoXoX Nicole

My Scrap Space - Version 1

I LOVE to get a glimpse into other peoples scrap spaces. Not sure which part of it I like most. Finding storage tips/tricks. Seeing what supplies they put closest to their work space.  The jealousy of wishing I had a space even remotely like that... Its totally all of the above!

For these reasons I have decided to do one of my own. 

Note this is version one! These photos were taken in February and things look a little different now...

Welcome to my scrap space.

Yes. That is our dining room table. 

Yes. This is where I do my scrapbooking. 

Yes. We eat here almost every night.
No. It doesn't usually look like that...

If you follow me on instagram here you would have seen these pics above of what it looks like mid-project.

I insist on eating dinner at the table as a family and hence have to pack-up what I'm doing every night. As you can imagine this is extremely frustrating.

As for my scrappy supplies, if you turn around from where this photo was taken you will be in our lounge room and find this along the back wall.

A bookshelf-desk-bookshelf arrangement which houses, among other things, my scrappiness. 

As indicated by the two rugrats that crept into the photos, my space needs to be child friendly and baby-safe. Thankfully Chloe is a pretty good kid as long as you explain things to her, so she knows the bottom to shelves are hers the others are mummies. As for Jayce, he can't reach yet. When he can we are going to need taller bookshelves. That kid is such a boy!

The first bookshelf holds the majority of it (the second one just holds the albums and other random odds and ends that don't get used much, other then the printer on top).

The top of the unit features a little purple accordion folder that holds my pre-printed photos, each to be page has its own sections sometimes with embellishments I plan to use with them. A little wooden box from the reject shop houses my mists/sprays/paints (although I think I may be about to out grow it). Three cropper hopper paper holders, these are a recent addition which I am extremely happy about, due to funds I didn't buy any dividers and instead use manila folders with the company written on the top which sits above the papers. This works great as inside the folders doubles as off-cut/scraps holder.

The top shelf has a thin wire basket for my sticky stuff that fits nicely in front of what should be a waste bin that contains my thickers/alphabet stickers. Two black baskets also from the reject shop hold a bunch of my embellishments in no real order, you just kinda gotta flick through until you find what your after (or anything else that tickles your fancy). And a little wooden box that was given to me years ago sits under one with inks in it.

The second shelf also has two black baskets, one for stamps and one for newer embellishments and another wooden box which holds my chipboard. While the black photo box gives a home to my small amount of flowers. 

The desk here holds many scrapy bits and bobs, scissors and pens and buttons and stuff. Although is manly for my laptop and dumping stuff (it is never this neat). I did try to scrap here for a little while but it is just not deep enough and then there was no safe place near power for my laptop.

Above the desk two pieces of dwell rest between the bookshelves on which I have alot of ribbon considering I very rarely use it and another wire basket full to the brim with washi tape. Also from the desk side of the second bookshelf hangs a portable tools thingo that I put random tools in.

I hope you have enjoyed a look through my back-dated scrap space! And hopefully version 2 won't be too far behind.

XoXoX Nicole

100th Post!

WooHoo! This is my 100th blog post!

Yay! Only took me almost exactly 2 years!

First ever blog post here on 19th of May 2012.

That is all. For now.

XoXoX Nicole.

Dream Big - Creative Scrappers

I'm currently playing scrappy-catch-up for photos of my son, Jayce. This next layout features a sweet photo my mum took of him sleeping at just over 4 weeks old.
The layout is probably a lot softer then my usual page, but then again I have never claimed to have a single set style anyway and tend to let the photos feel guide me.

Dream Big... To The Moon

For as long as I have been scrapbooking (on and off for about 2.5 years now) I have brought every cloud pattern paper I have come across. And I have no idea why anymore. Where did it start? I think the idea was to do a page about Chloe learning to crawl (which I still haven't done...) and call it 'up up and away'.
Fast forward to now and I have ALOT of cloud papers and have never used any of them. As soon as I recently saw this photo at my mums I knew they'd finally have a purpose.

The layout design was inspired by 1 of the 12 birthday sketches over at Creative Scrappers. I haven't played along with one of their sketches since before my crafty break while pregnant and what better challenge to jump back in with. Hopefully I don't need to tell you it is the top right sketch that I have used.

The above photo looks down the layout in an attempt to show you all the layers. Each cloud paper has been cut into a straight line but all clouds on said line fussy cut around. Each stripe has only been attached at the bottom end so they can lift slightly.

The white cardstock is actually a 'frame' foam dotted above the clouds and the 'love you' is attached to it so that it also sits above. I stitched around the frame to add a little bit of interest to it, but my have been a bit too keen considering it was only the second time using the sewing machine and rounding a corner smoothly proved to be very tricky!

This 'Dream Big' journal card comes with the new Hello World collection pack from Websters Pages and pulls out on this layout to reveal my journalling which says "1st July 2013. Jayce at 4 weeks old, this is currently a very rare sight" 

I have again kept the embellishments to a minimum as the background is quite busy, only adding a few extra clouds here and there plus the obvious stating cricut baby boy.
Thanks for coming by. Leave some love (or hate whatever works for you)
XoXoX Nicole

Problem Contained - Scrap The Boys

So it seems I tend to scrap about Chloe quite a bit more then Jayce. Its not a favourites thing. I just find it easier. I'm not used to scrapping for a boy. Plus she is older and does more scrap-worthy things.
Anyway. I hope to correct this beginning today.
Hence. A Jayce layout to share.

Problem Contained

Now what better way to try and scrap more boy layouts then to play along with Scrap The Boys. A challenge blog all about doing just that. This months challenge is to get 'Grungy/Messy'! Something that looks great but I don't often do due to lack of personal scrap space!

And I sure got messy!! I experimented with paint and ink and even thread.
I created the colour splats in the background using a technique I learnt watching Mr Maker with Chloe (I used to like the show because it kept her occupied for about 15 mins but now I watch it too!) Simply water down your paint a little, cut up a sponge into smaller bits, soak up paint and then whack with a spatula. Not only does it create a great look, its lots of fun and stress re-leaving!

If you have read my blog for a lil while you may recall me mentioning MANY times that I would love to stitch on my layouts. Well my super wonderful, absolutely amazing Aunty has been kind enough to let me permanently-borrow her sewing machine! YAY! Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU!
And what better layout to experiment on! It was so much fun and adds a great touch. I think I will be doing alot more of it!

I have added a number of small embellishments around the photo but kept them to a minimum. The 'capture' flair from APOCD was perfect for this page, as were the speech bubbles cut from an old Bella Blvd Making The Team paper, plus a few wooden bits here and there.

Finally, considering the photo is of my son being put in a box, I couldn't resist finishing the page with the Bella Blvd 'p.s. i love you sticker'
Hope you like it. I sure liked getting messy! Will try to do more.
XoXoX Nicole