Scary Fairytales 2013

Yes- the title is correct. Did you ever sit down as an adult and actually read all of the beloved Fairytales from your childhood? Rapunzel - given away as a baby as payment for stolen vegetables and locked away in a tall tall castle. Snow White - attempted murder by her stepmother via poison, Hansel & Gretel - conned by something too good to be true and locked in a cage ready to be eaten, Little Red Riding Hood - her grandmother eaten by a wolf, and herself nearly as well. The wolf also blew down the little pigs houses, and attempted to murder the Billy Goats Gruff. Cinderella - Evil Stepmother, Sleeping Beauty - evil fairy. The only problem was that I was told as a kid they were 'just fairytales' so I never even thought that these things could happen in real life. Talk to strangers - no problem - the fact that Pinnochio turned into a donkey because he did was totally lost on me!

I did a card as well as a page, as per my promise to myself recently. Hopefully this will get me back to the REAL scrapping table quicker. Both the card and the page are quite dark. I loved the little crooked house at Archiscraps, and the colours at The Color Room for palette #146 (I love grey).

The page and card are a little too digital for my liking but I got out what I needed to. The sky picture is one I took at the coast at Pambula, NSW. Neat huh? I love fluffy cloud shots. I also recently purchased my first lots of digi stuff from IRL paper suppliers - American Crafts and Basic Grey - and used some of that here. Hope to use alot more of it. American Crafts has always been a favourite of mine.

Oh, and that IS me with my teddy in the page!




Card 2013 - hello with tulips and crooked house - for The Color Room
Palette #146 and Archiscraps Fairytale comp



2013 Scary Fairytales - for The Color Room Palette #146 and Archiscraps Fairytale comp

http://www.thecolorrooms.com/1/post/2013/03/palette-release-146-and-a-special-edition-palette.html

http://archiscraps.blogspot.com.au/

Missing my Nan at Easter

I was a bit sad coming into this Easter without my Nan. It hit me all of a sudden. But after talking to a few people at work and with the counselor, and talking to my Nan every day about what I am doing and why as though she were here, seems to have helped things to settle back down.

It's hard to explain my Nan to other people. She wasn't the fun loving, outgoing, nice grandmother that I've heard so many of you talk of fondly. She was tough, didn't really care for children or minding them, and called a spade a spade out loud and often to her detriment. She could be really cruel on occasion, but really generous and asked lots of questions about family as well. She suffered from depression often, often over medicated before she was in the higher grade homes, and had really believed that because her mother had been a tyrant to her that now she was old she could be a tryant to everyone else and they would put up with it. It was like secret pay back. Of course, that didn't work out too well for her, alienating most of the family away from her, and her telling whopper lies about exactly why that was meant that no one came back.

For all that my Nan was, of all my family, I always felt most connected with her. I liked that she was strong willed and unbending and down the line on what she liked and didn't like, because I just wasn't like that. And I liked that even when the dementia took a hold, that part of Nan did not disappear.
And I loved hearing stories of Nan's childhood, which she remembered up to when she was 93. She would tell me all her regrets, particularly around education and being a farmers daughter, the second youngest of eight, and the lack of opportunities for her. And she told me other things, things that kind of explained quite alot about her for me.

She made me crocheted rug after rug (often forgetting that the last one she had given me), all from memory, but I refused every attempt at pushing money my way. My Nan gave money with expectations and strings attached later on, and I never wanted to go through that with her, so I put my foot down about that.

Even though she was a mix of good (and alot of bad) I really did love her and enjoy spending time with her (though on the evil Nan days I would just leave early if all she was going to do was badmouth my parents or me) even after the dementia came in and she couldn't remember things much anymore. She still remembered faces and she wasn't ever violent.

I just miss her.

blue vases 2013 digi page

I saw this 13arts Mar 2013 comp at The Color Room, and though I haven't visited there for a while, I was mesmermised by these colours. I thought, wow, I'd love to that. But its one thing to mix paints on a page... its a completely different thing to replicate it digitally. I flipped through dozens of patterned paper sheets, but nothing really inspired me. So I made my own using Photoshop and the paintbrushes and then a few "Wave" filters later I had what I was kind of thinking of. I also used blur a bit. i didn't quite get the texture I wanted (I really need to train myself in masks.. its a void in my skills) but I was happy with this.

My Mum has these Blue Vases currently. They used to sit either side of the mantlepiece in Nan and Pa's house for as long as I could remember. They came from Pa's side of the family (McKenzie). That's really all we know. Presume they were a wedding present at some stage, way back. they are glass (quite huge - about a foot and a bit tall) with enamel flowers hand painted on and quite raised on the surface.

Blue Vases 2013 - TCR 13Art march 2013 comp

Will come back later and pop in all the ingredients!

I also did this card using the same comp! I've made an agreement with myself that from now on, not only will I create a page for each comp, I'll also create a card using the same criteria.

A special card for a special person 2013 TCR 13@rts palette Frosted Life

Seeking Digi Ra Doo

I have turned my digi quest from the 100% digi offerings both free and buyable to finding paper based suppliers with Digi Stores.

I must admit, I thought this would be easy in these modern times, but it has been a struggle.

Basic Grey was the easy one - from their main website its easy to locate their Digi store http://www.basicgrey.com/digital where you can buy very neat overlays and patterned paper and some of their embellies such as fabric buttons. They are quite expensive, but then, being a market leader I guess that's not surprising.

Websters Pages http://www.websterspages.com/digital/digital/freebies was also easy to locate their digi stuff and purchase from their main website. Their pricing was similar to Basic Grey, a tad cheaper in some regards. But not very creative in their embellies which IRL are quite distinctive.

I then tried a few others, but struggled to find any digi content.

Eventually, after quite a struggle, I managed to source American Crafts digi supplies - not from their main website - not even mentioned there. It was a lucky break by visiting each of their satelite sites; their facebook page had some kind of mention and a link a fair way in, and it took me to AC Digitals http://www.acdigitals.com/. YAY - a world of digital and finally some decent patterned papers. The pricing was also very reasonable.

I had no luck at all at Prima headquarters or any of their 'sides'. No sign of digi there. Of course, it may exist, but its not mentioned from their homepages.

Will tackle Kaisercraft and some of the others this week and see how I go. I long for real patterned paper. Some of the Digi stuff is nice, but it comes with a heck of alot I just delete because I know I will never use it.

Lucky Me 2013 digi layout

I got all creative with this layout. This is the kind of thing I admire when I see it in graphics magazines or online, but I've never really been able to do anything like it myself. I was going for a nature-loving me.

This is for the CSI comp #64.

2013 Lucky Me - CSI comp #64

click to go to CSI website

Evidence : bird, stamps, words as embellishments, jewels, circles, fabric (green roses), leaves, silhouette, stencils
Testimony – use words from the scene, document what you love about you
Ingredients : material roses and flowers Grand Revival Tanya Whelan (changed to green), freebies Far Far Hill vintage ornaments kit 006 (black silouhette), Armina I Wanna Be ‘Gems’ (brooch), A-liya_Because Of You patterned paper #7 (background), DB Designs Love Birds – stamp, CSI Coordinates #17 – Swallow mask, CSI Coordinates #43 branch of leaves, CSI Coordinates #64 background words, circular journaling block, cut letters of title from pages, retro rectangles in background (created myself). Created in Adobe Fireworks 8.

Richard is playing the piano for me

I am being serenaded to this morning.

My brother Scott sent me a music CD in the mail from London - Richard Clayderman 'Romantique' 2013. I've got his first two albums on cassette tape back from god knows when! This is so refined in comparison!
Still there is some lovely music on it, I'm particularly drawn to Le Onde which I must look up and see where that comes from.

My brother is very thoughtful when it comes to gifts; he rarely misses the mark.

Never need to buy anything, ever again, well, almost

I have joined up with Pinterest. I've seen it around now and then, but never understood it, or the attraction of it. It just seemed weird.

But its hitting the mark on so many levels I am suprised!!! I can create a "board" (like a gallery) on a particular subject and then go out into Pinterest world and add items to it. I can even go outside into Internet Land if I can't find what I'm looking for - impossible I thought at first - but actually, there are lots of my side interests that are poorly pinned or have no pins at all!

I can come into Pinterest any time and view my little 'collections' and it is just like owning these items - without actually paying any money or having them in the house! It's brilliant. Plus I get to see a whole lot more of what I really like.

It's fixed my need to buy things like glass, themed nick nacks and paintings. I feel like I have them, without actually having them. It's weird, but I really like it.

I couldn't find the name I wanted, but I ended up with Seeking Rainbows which seems to fit somehow. So its http://pinterest.com/seekingrainbows/ if you want to take a look. But most of my interests in here I've never scrapped about. Strange, but there it is.

I don't think it will replace my need to scrap and buy scrap stuff (even if it is only digital), and if I stop buying food I will starve, but hey, it really has increased my love of things, without having to own them!

Spotted Gum 2013

I did this page for the Orange Papiere March 2013 comp - which required hexagons and stamping.

I was really challenged by this!  Oddly enough, Adobe Fireworks has lots of pentagons, but no hexagons, so I had to get the shape from Microsoft Publisher's Shapes and then edit it inside Adobe Fireworks.

I used the bubblewrap 'stamp', even though the whole layout is digital.

I took this pic at Christmas, but I've lots of pics of Spotted Gums, which are prolific in the Merimbula NSW area. In Summer their bark peels off in spots, hence their name. The photo is done in Landscape mode to get the full sense of height of the tree. There is another photo on the page of the tree's bark up close.

The colours of the page I took from the close up shot of the bark!

2013 Spotted Gum - Orange Papiere March 2013

Ingredients : CSI #75 digital giveaway – brown button, far far hill freebies kit romantic frames 005, [PrelestnayaP Design Because Of You elements_el43 (bubblewrap stamping), el24a (leaf), el19 (flower), el16 branch] sweetly scrapped butterfly 4140339 (edited), Microsoft Publisher Shapes – Hexagon, far far hill freebies kit lace kit 006 (ring of lace), Spotted Ribbon (craft queen) scanned and changed to shades of blue, Jasmin Olya Designs CU Rope Elements Vol 2 – 03 (rope bow).

easter... with card/s 2013

It's really hard for me at the moment to think about Easter. I'm so far behind in so much, and my emotions are still not quite right.

Oh well, have decided to push that aside and do some scrapping this weekend, which includes this card I made during the week :

It's Easter Time 2013 card digi

Will come back and put in the ingredients. I been very slack about that of late.

raspberry tea cake 2013 digi layout

I made this cake last week. Very proud.

Raspberry Tea Cake 2013 - not for any comp. Wanted to use this kit and show off my cake!

ingredients : Armina I Wanna Be kit

Back to scrap....

I really want to get out there the next few months and scrap my heart out like I used to at other sites (other than my beloved CSI). I have been scrapping, and I just want to do lots more, because I've pile of pics on my camera now that are getting impatient about not being on a page.

I did this page to help with my grief and weird emotions around my grandmother passing away.

Goodbye Nan 2013 (inspired by Mucha) CSI comp #61 http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/

Ingredients : too sad to list them at this stage.