flying horses 2012

My layout for the CSI Case File #30. I always loved "watching horses" at the local agricultural shows and later on TV anything equestrian - but mainly 3D event or Showjumping. I can't get too near a horse - I am allergic - but when they're in the open air there is not as much a problem as indoors.
Indoor arenas are a no no for me. I've done them (three times - each time I ended up at the hospital). The last time was well worth it - I went to an Arabian horse / partbred liberty event (the horse is let to run free in the arena to music). It was fantastic.. but I just couldn't breathe after one hour.

Anyhoo, I obviously can't ride or own a horse, but I can look and paint them and photograph them when I have a chance! I staked out this jump at the show with my camera and took all the horses going over it. It was afew years ago now. I came across the pics by accident the other day and I thought, you know, I could scrap those! I love the courses for 3 Day event - the cross country and the fancy amazing decorations at Olympic showjumping, and the really hard combinations.

I used to watch whatever was on the TV, and one of the English comps the showjumpers got to top 4 and then everyone switched horses, each rider riding each of the horses, and then the scores and times were added together. It was amazing - who would think that the rider (or the horse) would make such a different. one year I remember a girl won it against three guys, and no one picked her to win because her horse was very green as was she, but the three fellows poppped a rail each on her horse, so she won.

The spills are part of thrills. I remember in the early 1990s Andrew Hoy coming a cropper at the water jump; his horse just stopped, and he bounced along its neck, over its head and splash into the water!!

I always seem to barrack for the underdog, though just someone battling against the odds will do it!

I made my own background with scraping on paint, and then did some stamping and paper rips.

Flying Horses 2012

a close up

Inspired me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKWXFoLqYeg

Faun. Part 1 - In the Spirit of Diaghilev Choreographer : Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

I saw this on the ABC a couple of weekends ago and have been searching for it ever since. I'm not normally into this kind of thing, but I do seem to have a weak spot for brilliant choreography mixed with music and visual cues, which just sent me into raptures on this piece. When I watch the dance shows, the pieces that really push my buttons are the interruptive dances.

I love how in the beginning of the piece the faun is very inhuman, and even the girl is also almost fairy like, but as they come together the forest opens out and it becomes something so much more! I also love the constant spiralling movements; only a couple of times (in error I think) do the dancers pause or break that spiralling.

It's moment like this I wish I could do choreography, even though I know nothing about dance!

It also recalled to me a performance that has stuck in my head from (I think) the Think You Can Dance series in the USA - which I also managed to find on the internet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuefUAK_FYI

wish no 1 : capturing birds (on film!)

One day I would love to have a camera where I could capture birds - not just take pics or all the species or anything - I want to show what I see of birds when I go birding - their humour, their beauty, and the once off times when I am totally in awe. My current little camera is just not good enough. I'm at the right place at the right time - but my camera lets me down.

One day I want to have a camera that will enable me to do things like this amazing couple (from Taiwan) at Flicker that I found by chance the other day :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnfish/with/5120556811/#photo_5120556811

Currently the best I can do is :




Red Wattlebird

 

Pacific Heron





Silver Gulls (fighting!)

 



Wedge Tailed Eagle

 



Black Faced Cormorant

 




Tawney Headed Honeyeater (rare bird)

  



golden headed cisticola (very wee bird)

 

1st biscuits 2012

I know I'm really old to have made my first biscuits, but its true. I finally bit the bullet, yanked out a recipe from Nan's little book, and made biscuits. It was really, really hard. I make alot of packet cakes of late, but not anything from recipes. At the moment, its difficult for me to concentrate on recipes - and this one was a doozy. It was all in old measurements, and then I found I didn't have a scale - so I had to convert everything to cups. Later, Mum told me I could have used my tablespoon as a measuring device, darn it. 

The biscuits had castor sugar, self raising flour, butter, vanilla essence and 1 egg, which sounded easy. The best bit was rolling out the little balls on the trays. And no instructions on time or heat in the oven - I had to guess that - it just said 'until golden brown'. So I had to keep opening the oven to check.

But they seem to have worked. The first batch was a bit uneven, but the rest were uniform (except for the square one!) and they taste great (a bit too sweet though - if I do it again I'll cut the sugar in half). They are hard when you tap them on their side on the bench, but not too hard when you bite into them. I'm not big on biscuits that break your teeth.
I feel so proud...

The layout is for the Scrapboxx Fortnightly Challenge (Leanne A) - Lime, aqua and orange and my current journal - book of me.

Ingredients: Rouge de garance patterned paper, Bazzill Artesian pool, orange uniball pen, Anita's lacey stickers, Anita's butterfly, Doodlebug daisy flower sticker, selection of Brads from Basic Grey & My Minds Eye, Adorn it letter stickers, DeLish letter rub ons, etc

1st Biscuits 2012

In the navy... My Teddy Bear 2012

I've alway wanted to do a 'navy' page, but its so dark and white is so stark against it, I've never had the courage to keep trying until I got something that worked. This is my entry for Orange Paperie & Co (OPC) - scrap something that reminds me of my childhood - well, this pic is it. I am lucky that my Auntie had a colour camera in the 1970s, so for her visits I have a number of colour pics instead of just black and white. Although you can't see much of my teddy in this shot (there are three shots altogether that were taken) I thought this one depicted more of the "mine" - "my teddy bear"!

I doodled the background - inspired by my retro dress, but with a hint of heritage as this memory is the past and sometimes it feels like 100 years ago!

My Teddy Bear 2012 "This is one of my fav pics of me and my teddy bear 'Big Ted' in the early 1970's. I've had my teddy since birth and he is still a part of my life, though with a little less hair!. July 2012"

Close up 1 - white gel pen and gold pen freehand doodling (used pencil for circle of dots around the flowers)

Close up 2

Close up 3 - I punched out the lighter blue circles, and then decorated them to get my flowers and buds.

I ripped these out of magazines to give me inspiration for this page.

My Patterned Paper Shuffle

I'm using my older patterned papers less and less - preferring what is on the scrap table or on the floor because I can see it!! My older patterned papers are in plastic consatina folders (from K Mart!) alphabetically by supplier. Although this worked when I had a love affair with certain suppliers, nowadays I'll use just about anything if I like it or can find a use for it. And although I have a catalogue of swatches of all those patterned papers in a booklet to refer to, I really can't be buggered any more going to that each time I want patterned paper.

So, I'm going to take one plastic folder, pull everything out, and put them into colours! (I don't know what I'm thinking- this is a HUGE job). I'll also put in the swatch folder which colour I've put it against (for those that are double sided or multicoloured in case I can remember what the paper looks like but don't know which colour I've file it under).

I don't know if this will help or not, but I've got to do something. I use the Bazzill still and its in colours.

I'll start small and see what happens!


My bazzill is currently in colour co-ord folders, but not my patterned paper.



example page of my swatch book - a square of the paper and listing what it is

example of a patterned paper folder currently (alphabetical by brand)



storage of my clear stamps

You know how sometimes you presume that because you do something, everyone does it that way too? Scrapbooking has taught me that we're not all the same, we don't like all the same things, and we all have different tastes and ways to do things, ways to store things, and sometimes, by sharing what we do as individuals, it may help others to get ideas or inspiration.

So, I'm thinking clear stamps...  Because I came from card making originally into scrapbooking I already had a bucket load of mounted wooden stamps - and these I stored in stackable plastic containers.

Experimenting - that didn't work for me!
But when clear stamps came out, they didn't do so well in those. I experimented first with empty CD covers (took out all the pastic) and then stuck the clear stamps inside. Well, trust me - don't do that!!! Although it worked, it helped the stamps to lose their stick much quicker!

Experimenting - measuring / getting rid of the packaging/getting my folders
I started to measure the clear stamps packaging that I had purchased - once I took the paper/packaging away and there was just the stamps, the backing sheet, and the front stamped sheet (I used a permanent marker to write on the name of the collection and the brand in case I ever needed it), 99.9% fitted into an A5 folder. So that's what I went looking for first. Kaisercraft and Making Memories both had folders at that time (a couple of years ago now) but they were so expensive!! So, I just went to my local Office Works and bought five white two-ring A5 binders and paid a third of what the scrap suppliers were asking.

Plastic Pockets - the zippy was the key for me
Then I saw Kaisercraft and Making Memories start to put out plastic pockets (only lately has the plastic pocket been included as the packaging). The Making Memories didn't work so well for me - they are open at the top, which meant that if the folder fell off the scrap table or I accidentally stacked it upsidedown, all the inards fell out. There were quite a few zippy options on the market - but I liked the Kaisercraft the best because the zippy bit goes the full length on the right hand side; much easier to get things in and out. Some of the others only had a short piece with the zip or top-opening. The little A5 folders also have a clear pocket on the inside cover and back cover - this is great for those one offs that come my way through comps n packs.

Using clear stamps
The best bit for me about this storage option, is that I use the clear stamps a good deal. Almost all my journaling blocks are from my clear stamps, and all the scrolls that I stamp on pages. I love that I can see where I am stamping. Since I organised them into the folders, I use them way more now.

I like keeping the clear stamps on their backing sheet/front stamped sheet. This made it heaps easier to find stamps and use them. I grouped them into folders that suited my kind of purchases; Flight (I seem to accumulate birds n butterflies and wings), Journaling blocks, Scrolls, etc. This works best for me.

Stamps losing their stick
This is the main problem I find with clear stamps. I don't have a solution. I sometimes use double sided tape to make them stick for what I am doing and then remove it. It's only on the stamps that I have used a gozillian times. My favourites! Like the little blue bird or the bunny in October Afternoon Woodland set, or the Autumn Leaves Rhoda Farrer scrolls, and the same Journalling blocks.

A5 folder two-ring with a Kaisercraft plastic pocket (bought folder at Office Works)

The folders on the shelf - easy to see what is in each, stand up nicely.

Several pockets fit in each folder. It doesn't matter if stamps have lost their stick - they are still safe in the zipped up pocket.

My Inner Woodland Fairy 2012

This is another layout for CSI - case file #27. It really made me think about Woodlands. It called for Woodland animals and I immediately began to look at the CSI supplied critters and my own stash for squirrels, deer, etc but then I stopped. I thought about my own woodlands. I live in Australia in the country, in town. There are unnatural woodlands of council planted "green zones" and acre gardens that butt up against them. And in them, there are no bears, squirrels, chipmunks or deer.
So I got out my bird book and I drew out three of my common woodland birds (there are tonnes - I am very lucky to see quite a few species regularly) - I picked my common as mud honeyeater - the white plumed honeyeater - a small bird but vicious in protecting its territory from other birds of any size, the Crested Shrike Tit - a bird mesmerized by its own reflection and if often found on car doors looking at itself in the rear view mirror or against windows, which hangs upsidedown on eaves to grab out pupa from wasp nests, and the Varied Sitella - a tiny bird, which on the coldest of days can be found in a group playing (which are very obvious from the colour under their wings). I get two possums - the brush tail and the ring tail - but the brush tail has more childhood memories of its screeching and running along the tiled roof top with its toenails, and crashing down thru the canopy at night. We had a resident female. We fed her apple at dusk. She lived in Dad's shed. Anytime I'm out at a natural woodland site, I can run into a Brown Wallaby. They have a cute little head.
I used a picture from a friend's garden with a monsterous Silver Birch, because all of the birds around home use both gum and foreign trees for shelter, food, and fun. Christmas Beetles are everywhere at Christmas time - they are totally harmless and easy to pick up (which you feel you must do when you see them struggling on their backs) and put them right again. They have odd legs like grass beetles. They are not here now, but I wanted to include an insect. The fungi is a European import. It is only found with Elms and English trees. But you often see them out in woodlands where a stray Elm is located, in Autumn.
I'm having alot of fun with my Coptic markers. I bought a set to try them out. I made myself a fairy, but I couldn't find a pic that really suited the lightness of the layout.

My Inner Woodland Fairy 2012

I'm really enjoying CSI

I don't know what it is - but I'm having lots of fun at Color Stories Inspiration scrap blog CSI. I've always preferred colour palettes to sketches, and tend to get alot of inspiration from photos, so maybe that has something to do with it, but having to read and include the other requirements seems to be giving me a bit of a buzz at the moment. I've only done two pages so far, and I know I won't always be in the mood for this kind of comp, but I'm really happy with the pages I've turned out so far.
The latest one is below - "Still Going Strong" about my Mum. I love this older pic of her (she often says she hates it because it was in the paper).It was challenging to paint and detail the Dusty Attic chipboard and use the CSI patterned paper - which I think's a great idea!

Still Going Strong (My Mum) 2012 CSI Case File 26

doodling

I loved palette #117 from the Color Room but I couldn't rub two sticks together for it. I tried glimmermist (got a mess), paint (more mess) and bazzill (just not right) so in the end I got sick of it and doodled my way out - freehand. It took about an hour. I've never done that before. Luckily I had an orange and a pink pen!

Zing me a song... Zing 2012

i'm so excited!

My page "Bird's Eye View" has just won two comps - one at my local store, and the other online at my first go at a CSI case file http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/ (top 5) shock.. horror.. Everything just felt right with that page, though I did have to draw turrets (a first for me!).

Want to see the page? http://iambloggerimpaired.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/heres-some-pages.html

Here's some pages...

I've gotten behind in here! So sorry blogger... Here are some pages...
My latest misting effort 'Jigsaw Challenge', and 'Bird's Eye View' kind of fairytale style for CSI (I've just discovered that place) and my local store comp...

Oh, and this is my zygote cactus which I grew from
a tiny bit that fell off some plants I bought for my mum