Summer Holidays Jul 2017

Well clearly, being an Aussie, Summer Holidays do not take place in July! My Summer Holidays coincide with Christmas break, which means a trip to Mum and Dad's for the silly season. Yes - that does mean the coast, but I prefer to spend time with the folks, family and friends and rarely end up with enough time to lay about the beach or swim in the ocean. That's what this page is about.

I think I was imaging the page to be something different - crispy white and lots of bold patterns. It didn't quite work out that way. But I did feel inspired by the CSI challenge #234.

Summer Holidays Jul 2017 CSI #234 challenge

The Scheme - check, Evidence : clouds, check pattern, flowers, transportation, animals, jar, transparent stuff, triangle, sun. Testimony: document a summer getaway, make your story meander around.

Ingredients :

Frou Frou Crafts The Bright Side no 8 (background patterned paper), American Crafts Digital Enchanted Pattern Paper - Tortoise (check), Tiramisu Designs Poppy Smell - Element 26 (frame), empty jar (internet), American Crafts Digital City Park EP - Details - Sun (felt),  Helly Designs Leave This World Behind - Flower4 (blue flower), Lara’s Digital World ‘For Lara’ - Paperflower white, orange paper flower sprig (scanned), Scrappers Garden - pink leaves (scanned), Scrappers Garden - berry sprigs (scanned), ValC Designs Fly With Me - BalloonHeart no 2, Fayette Designs Happy Families - Cloud1, We R Memory Keepers 72 and Sunny Collection - cardstock stickers - squirrel (scanned), Just Because Studios- Fresh Love - Sticker21 (journal label block), Adobe Fireworks.

It's a duck thing... July 2017

I admit it. I love ducks! Sure, I like bird watching in general - the thrill of the chase, the rare something, and of course Raptors that rule the skies, but ducks have always been my favourite and I am best at identifying them no matter how dismal the day or poor the light. Hardheads, Grey Teal, Pacific Black Duck, Musk Duck, Pink Eared Duck, Wood Duck, Chestnut Teal, and Australian Shovellers are all found in my local area, if you can weedle them out.

So, when I saw The Studio Challenges "No People" challenge for July - I thought great - finally I can scrap some of my duck photos!

Shoveler July 2017 digi scrapbooking page - The Studio Challenges - 'no people'

I will come back and list my ingredients.

Small - July 2017

It's one thing to look back at childhood photos and remember places, events and people, but its another thing to look back at photos where I was so small I just don't remember, and to come across such photos or movies in my 40s after so many years is quite amazing.

I'm sure I've seen Dad's home movies many time over the years. As kids we begged him to bring out the film projector and the amazing screen which glistened like diamonds, and we'd watch us as little kids and be totally embarrassed (as Dad occasionally swore when the reel went wrong), and the time before when Dad was a bit of a movie buff making cigarettes pop out of their packets and filming friends and family puffing ciggies like models at the local golf course, occasionally in technicolor.

But as time passed, and the movie camera and projector packed it in, the screen made it across as movie shifted to slides, but even they all disappeared after a bit for photographs.

So when Dad presented me with a CD a few years ago with the surviving home movie footage I watched in amazement and most of which I had forgotten altogether. Unfortunately, with no video software, I used screen grabs or camera shots at the screen to get photos, and then used a number of these in scrapbooking.

And I continually ask myself when I look at these photos, was I ever this small?

Was I Ever This Small? Jul 2017 digi layout - Artastic July challenge

Artastic July 2017 challenge + pen

For the Artastic challenge I loved all the busy angles and colours and linework in the background so I focused on that and reproduced it as minimally as I could to give it that child-like feel. I used my own handwriting as the title. The text reads : "Apparently this is me in 1969 having my first bath which my Dad filmed with his movie camera which was converted to CD a few years ago. I screengrabbed these pics from it."

I really enjoyed the colours and doodles. Not something I do very often.

Ingredients : L Grier Disasterspace 1 - paintstroke 6 & 8, Basic Grey Digital Hello Luscious Flourishes no 8 (border scribble),  Lorie M Designs Cherish - Doodle 2,  Lorie M Doodle Borders no 12 (love hearts), Mommyish Cabochon Flowers No 3 - flower 1 (white polymer flower), LouCee Creations Little Flower Beads no 5 (pink polymer flower), Aliya Designs Because of You - Element 52 (photo frame)

A Rose Is A Rose Jul 2017

I don't know if I've done many pages on my love of films - particularly older ones (1930 - 1969 - I always extend to 1969 to get in movies like The Sound of Music and some later Audrey Hepburn films, but consider personally anything after Jaws as a modern film!) but when I saw the Kraft challenge 'Roses Three Ways' july 2017 all I could think about was the 1952 movie Singing In the Rain and the song Moses Supposes or A Rose Is a Rose. Being winter here, I've watched a spate of my old films on the cold nights in front of the heater, and it just reminded me of the musicals I do love.  I like some musicals, but far from all, so I do not consider myself a Musical Buff. Musicals with too much singing and not enough story bore me to death.

To get the 'roses three ways' was actually a challenge. I used photos of real roses, then some petals I pressed and scanned that were from flowers at my Nan's funeral, a black mask of a rose and a leaf, an old vintage rose which I turned into a 'tattoo' on my face, some patterned paper with roses on it, and the wording from the Moses Supposes song. I also used rose twice in my title. So way more, in the end, than the three ways!

A Rose Is A Rose digi Jul 2017 - Kraft challenge

Ingredients: Chip Chop Shop doily white and red (scanned), Tiramisu Des Vintage Patterned Papers Vol 6 no 9 (roses), Alexis Design Studio Decadence Alpha (round letters), Angie Young Get Crafty Collage Sheet no 25 (journal block), Free Vintage Clipart - pink roses cascade (tattoo’d on my face!), Basic Grey Hello Luscious Flourishes no 1 (black rose) and no 4 (leaf) (, Vero CU Roses Volume 153 red rose 1, 2, 5, red rose petals (pressed and scanned from flowers from my Nan’s funeral), Moses Supposes lyrics from Singing in the Rain movie, fonts : courier new, Blackadder ITC, Far Far Hills Freebies Kit Shabby Clock 007,  background: Photo Textures Vol 1 Sarahh Graphics - Text Beige.

Pastel July 2017

What are the odds of two comps turning up with pastel colours in the one period? Pastel! Artastic AND Double D? Not my favourite style. Its so soft, so dainty, so very girly that its not a style I use that often. So it was a challenge.

I have done cross stitching and small stitching work most of my life. I got cross stitching. I can't knit or crochet - my grandmother and mother gave up trying when I was young because I was the only left handed person in the family. And most of my female family member didn't use a pattern - they did stuff from memory. But I enjoyed following cross stitch patterns and eventually, made some of my own.

But its been a while since I did anything in the last few years, until I came across these Zentangle stitching projects. Its a black line work thing on a cheap piece of cloth with a selection of threads thrown in. And you can stitch it any way you please. Plus, the tight weave of the cloth and whiteness of it, makes it possible to use a black pen and draw in extra bits, thus making it more your work. I've been using a long-stitch type effect and just going for it. Its not finished. I've been doing it almost 12 months. But I LOVE it.

So I took a photo of my work so far and used that in the pastel page even though it is not pastel coloured. It's always a challenge for me as a digi scrapper to get some items to 'go pastel' when they are bold colours originally - for some it just doesn't work and for others it just takes more time than usual to get them to that state - like the ribbon and the paper flower.

Stitch Me - I Dare U - digi Jul 2017 -  Double D July

Although I initially had this page in the Artastic July comp - I don't qualify for it - I accidentally used it for another comp which was not a sketch. oops. So I created another page for the Artastic July comp - see Small.
The stitching shaped text run says "I love my Zentangle stitching challenge - I can do it how I like, add my own bits and pieces, and use whatever colours I like . It's like painting - but its stitching." Artastic also required use of a pen on the page - so I used my own scanned handwriting for the "i dare u" title text.

The colours and shapes in the Double D inspiration inspired me to use the paper flowers, ribbon, and rounded shapes in the background like the balloons in the photo.

Double D Pastel challenge

Ingredients: Cilenia Curtis ValC Designs Fly With Me (balloon shapes),  Akizo WAH [Paint 1 and 2, doole (stars), Flower 3 (paper flower), Foliage 3 (leaf)], Geld Changes Paint Splotch, Far Far Hills Feast Love Skimersan 0011 (ribbon),  Feli Designs Gentle Spring - Stitches (around photo), Traci Reed Designs Bad Sewing Machine no 18, set 6 white (border)

Chomping Card 2017 digi

I'm really enjoying these Card 4 Guyz challenges. It's great to be able to just create any card based on a theme and just either make the stuff up myself or put bits together to go with that theme. When I saw the Beside The Sea challenge, all I could think about was SHARKS. Yes - sharks sharks sharks. One of my favourite fishes. But, of course, don't have any bought shark digis so I drew up my own, and gave the card a humorous edge.

It was mega fun!

Shark Card - Card 4 Guyz 'Beside the Sea' digi

Ingredients: shark I drew up myself, rest is from Fayette Designs Beach Therapy kit (fish, waves, background paper).

Buttons 2 ... July 2017

I loved the 'cute as a button' theme from Diane in the design team The Sisterhood of Crafters so my first card I went with that and used my little Chinese Panda that my Auntie bought back for me after a recent visit (fridge magnet!). The design I used from one of my other digi scrapbooking pages.

You're as Cute as a Button card digi - Sisterhood of Crafters Jul 2017

I love buttons! Even digi ones, though I do scan a number of my own in to use as well.

Buttons... July 2017

The Sisterhood challenge for a card with buttons reminded me of all my button memories from childhood to more recent times. I love buttons - and even when I went across to the digi scrapbooking I was still buying digi buttons and scanning my own buttons in so I could use them on pages or cards.

I came up with two cards for the challenge - one more simple, and one more detailed.



This card I used scanned corrugated cardboard and paper doiley plus digi items to make a little love card. I wanted a simple palette but with a bit of texture.

Sisterhood Challenge with buttons - digi Card <3 U

It's All In the Detail July 2017

I've really been going to town with my new camera and taking lots of birds - most of which I thought I knew really well, only to discover that I really don't! I'm seeing details I never knew existed by reviewing my pics and really studying them.

Its amazing  - especially as I have been bird watching now for over 10 years.

So I thought the challenging Archiscraps July comp would be a good chance to get one of my bird photos into a scrapbooking page. I've spent most of my time over the past few months editing, reviewing and deleting bird photos from various outings rather than actually getting time to put the photos into layouts or on cards.

I've used a photograph of a White Throated Treecreeper - a little bird that goes up trees and pokes its beak into crevices to get grubs out. It is quite common in my area and I've seen lots of them over the years, but never up this close and personal. I really loved the challenge - it forced me to use colours I wouldn't normally put together and use the inspiration from the photo to create a landscape for my bird photo.

It's All In the Detail - digi scrap page - Archiscraps July 2017

This was the inspiration (and to use stucco effect) :

I will come back and put the ingredients in.

ArchiScraps May 2017 Winner - Thank you Scrappers Garden

I got this wonderful bundle of flowers and leaves (and two journal cards) from Scrappers Garden in the mail after being joint winner of the May ArchiScraps comp. So I thought I should do a little thank you card. The best bit was those 'sprig sticks' of tiny buds - they are really different and I've not seen them before. But all the flowers and leaves will make it easy to make a card. I put the items together and made this quick digi card to say thank u.

Scrappers Garden flowers / leaves and Corbett Creations Wood Veneers leaves