51

 What a strange old year its been, none more so than my 51st birthday when Mum & Dad and my Auntie were finally able to get out and come and see me after 8-12 months. Last year for my 50's my brother also came for my birthday from London, but not this year - nor christmas - he'll be stuck in the UK.

So I asked him to email me a recent selfie and I edited it and popped it into a group shot so it feels like he was there in spirit.

The December 2020 challenge from Archiscraps was challenging as usual. I fought with the colours for a bit and in the end had to create my own scallops - either that or use the only ones I possess in my digi kit YET AGAIN which felt tired. 

So I'm happy - not thrilled - with the page.

51 - digital scrapbooking page - Archiscraps Dec 2020 challenge 'use scallops in an unusual way'

I've been so busy with my new interest of nature walking and nature photography that i'm a bit out of practise for scrapbooking pages. But i've plenty of material to use for pages.

If I'd Lived 100 Years Ago....

Digital scrapbooking page I created for the November 2020 challenge for Artastic. 

Text reads : What if I'd been born in 1869 instead of 1969? With my father being an Accountant I'd be part of middle class society in the time of Queen Victoria. My brother would inherit an properly or estates inherited by my father. My mother probably would have seen to our upbringing with Nanny and then a Governess. I would have enjoyedp ressing flowers from the garden, stitching, reading and drawing. I probably would have enjoyed playing a piano if we had one of those in the house. I would have married a man in my class, unless I fell for someone in a class below me, and gone and lived with him and/or his family. I would not have enjoyed wearing a corset or other gadgets, but with little access to cocolate I probably would have had a nice waist. Four children, and a room for Mama after Father died, and my brother and his wife took over the family home/estate such as it was. Life would have been tough in Australia but I wouldn't have been doing it as tough as x-convicts or those of much lower classes. I would have seen or heard of federation in 1901 in my 30's. I may have survived through the Boer War, World War I and Wold War II, seen the railway engines and birth of the motorcar, though only my Aunt would be well off enough to own one. I think I would have enjoyed the challenge. But I'm glad I was born in 1969 and not 1869.

Getting to Know Grasses

 CSI 335 challenge was really hard though it looked so pretty. Khaki greens and dull blue are clearly not my colours. But I managed to do another GorillaGram page for October 2020 for my auntie who isn't. Over the past two months I've just got into nature even more than before - before it was just birds - now I've joined a group and I'm learning about grasses, weeds, wildflowers, and other naturalised creatures.

Its a huge learning curve.

Getting to know Grasses OCT 2020 - csi 335 challenge - digi scrapbooking page

When September comes....

 I haven't done a challenge from CSI for a bit, but now I remember what I've been missing! Use of my complete stash - not just my favourites. And thinking outside the box a bit, getting my creative juices flowing again. aaaahh.. CSI case file 331 digital scrapbooking page done!

I was inspired by : the colours, stars, dragonfly, a stack (of monkeys!), light globe, books, jar.

Another page for my Gorillagram for September 2020. Another project I'm working on to keep focused and busy - and something I really need!

ingredients : homemade daffodils, Cilenia Curtis Tags - Tag2b, Armina Designs I Wanna Be ' Patterned paper 1 (love hearts), Far Far Hills Winter Kiss - Dec9 (sun burst), Far Far Hills Freebies Kit Tags Alpha, etc

I am continuing to create several pages a month so I can make a booklet and send it to my Auntie who isn't, my Auntie in Melbourne and my mum and dad in NSW. Not everyone gets exactly the same, but I'm making the effort to record what I am doing and/or thinking and continue on as normal during these strange times. 

The Lego And Me page I was really happy with and is not for any comp. I bought two lego kits at Kmart after the Lego Masters TV show (the only two left on the shelf!) and have been teaching myself the modern day Lego. When I feel like it, I sit down and make something - usually just out of my head. Its a little like doing a jigsaw; takes much patience, brain power, and hand - eye coordination. I feel really good after making something.

Ingredients : American Crafts Amy Tangerine Patterned paper 3 - sign on the dotted line (grid pattern), BH Colbalt Edition page 3 (stripes),  Akizo Designs WAH talk bubble 1 (journal block), JY Family Fun Night - Flower 7, Fayette Designs Happy Families Swirl Skyglitter, etc

Where is this dome?

 You know how you buy or see things and wonder, 'I wonder where this comes from?'. Well, when I saw the dome challenge for Archiscraps June 2020 (ran out of time to enter it !) which had include a dome, I thought of this purchase of two rural scenes that have glass on the front of them, and I've always wondered where they are actually from.

So that is what I constructed my page on. I used the greys in the inspiration photo and constructed my page.

'Where is this dome?' digital scrapbooking page archiscraps aug 2020 challenge

The Gorilla Gram Project

 Over the past few months I have been working on a few pages a month to print into a little booklet and post to my Auntie (who isn't) through the mail, to give her something to have in her hand about our telephone conversations. Sometimes its things I've been doing, or things people have said, or things she has told me. She has partial dementia but I still enjoy our chat a week on the phone, as since the borders closed I have not been able to visit her.

Frank Aug 2020 - digital scrapbooking page 

How Long? I hid a little gorilla on each page of the GorillaGram series just for fun

I add a different cover each month with a similar template

Bird Watching July 2020 gorilla gram

Winter - July 2020 what out in my garden - gorilla gram page

Autumn is here... pandemic is here still.... May 2020

I find it really difficult to do an upbeat page ATM. The Artastic May challenge was no exception but the autumn scene was refreshing and I tried my best to make an autumn page. I had already taken some Autumn scenes as the colour is so good this year having a very hot summer followed by a very wet late summer/autumn. The larger picture is just down the road from my house, where a really big hill is in the background of the trees on the flat near the creek. Gum trees don't have autumn colour, so I have to reply on the spread of English trees like poplars or willows, or pinoaks and maples.

In Isolation May 2020 digi scrapbooking layout Artastic May 2020

Artastic May 2020 inspiration

Free Spirits April 2020

I saw the inspiration and the colours and I just thought of my adventurous cousinettes Vi and Olive, both into sports and the great outdoors.It took a while to get the composition quite right; their spirits soaring. The background is more like looking down onto a beach. Really happy with this.

Artastic April 2020 - digi scrapbooking - Free Spirits 

Take That Coronavirus April 2020

The Coronavirus challenge at Kraft+ was so interesting I just had to give it a go. Answering the set questions in some way and making a page of my responses was my main goal, but also to project what I feel at the moment; and that mainly is proud and grateful. I am proud of myself, proud of the majority of others, those working, those not working, those retired, those in health care, etc. I'm hopeful that slowly we will all get there.. out the other side. But for now I'm one of the lucky ones.

I used my own cross stitched butterflies and bee (from 20 years ago when I had better eye sight!) and was a little suprised how up beat and positive the page turned out!

Take That Coronavirus April 2020 digi scrapbooking page Kraft+ Challenge

Kraft+ Coronavirus challenge April 2020

Fashion Alert!

The Kraft+ challenge for April 2020 was difficult for me; I am not fashion-conscious in many spheres at all. I own three pairs of shoes and one hand bag. I am interested in fashion and artists who create things, and I admire movie stars of the past who modelled wears for several well known fashion houses like Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Doris Day, etc. I think there is a part of me that wishes I had the money to be fashionable.

So I found it difficult to find a subject for this page. Until I thought about those fashion conscious people in my family and the fashions of by-gone eras. So that was what I centred my page on.

Text on page says "I am not fashionable. I’m not into clothes, make up or fancy shoes or handbags. I admire fashion and colour trends tody but I can’t afford to follow it. I love the glamour of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly and looking back at fashions past. And what better way to do that than to look back at my own family. Dad in 1948 in his trenchcoat (like a spy), Auntie Ros in the 1950’s in what to me looks like a lampshade hat, my Mum in the 1960’s the casual carefree look, my Auntie Lauraine in 1967 looking like Jackie Kennedy, and my Auntie Ros (same year) with matching coloured gloves, handbag and shoes like a model. APR 2020"

Fashion Alert! digi scrapbooking page Kraft+ Challenge April 2020

Kraft+ April 2020 challenge

Make your own stamps... who would have thought?

The March 2020 Kraft + challenge was to create your own stamps. Instead of using traditional potatoes or rubber, I just lifted imprints from items in my craft room - mostly paint or varnish bottles and pens.

I inked these onto cardboard with black ink, scanned them into my computer, and then opened my trusty Fireworks app and cut and pasted each in, changed their colour, and created a digi scrapbooking page with them. It was mega fun. I never would have thought half of those things would look like that when inked.

Arty Farty - digi scrapbooking page using my homemade 'stamps'

triangular ones = rip cord from the soya sauce bottle
block lines = wooden pegs from art canvases
look like screws = rubber end on a pencil with a cross cut into it
small circles with white centres - plastic thumb tack head
circles around photos = JoSonya varnish bottle base
pink and white scrape marks at back = old bits of balsa wood inked and dragged across page
bar code/bars close together = Betadine lid rolled on its side

some of the items inked in black on cardboard

some more of items inked in black on cardboard

Frank - A Man for All Seasons

My uncle who isn't, my second dad, my movie buff, my cat lover, and my very good friend, Frank, died late last year, having battled many illnesses in his life, but going peacefully in the end, when we all least expected it.

Its hard to be sad for long - Frank was one of those people that things happened to, and he had a brilliant memory and was able to tell a great story. I did many scrapbooking pages on or around Frank, and I have tonnes of wonderful memories. He is not gone; not really - his laugh, the moments I shared with him, are as strong as they ever were. I'm sure the first thing he did in passing was whip over to the US to visit Hollywood - not the current one, but the one of the 1940's where his wealth of knowledge could have made him a tour guide on the spot.

Frank - A Man For All Seasons - digi scrapbooking - Kraft+ Challenge Feb 2020 Guest Designer

Inspiration:

Kraft+ Feb 2020 challenge

The Adventure Continues....

I really enjoyed getting my teeth into the Jan 2020 Kraft + challenge. I loved the colours, and edtied some asian papers I got for christmas to fit in with them. My Christmas holidays were great until New Year when the fires broke out across the state, and after getting home had more local fires to deal with. The uncertainty of going to bed and not sure if you'll be awake for a fire evacuation notice was daunting. But in the end, all my family is safe, as was I.

So it was hard to produce a happy looking page after all that kind of sapped my creativity. But I enjoyed constructing the page, using my cross stitch flowers from my late 20's and fasioning a page together. Its not my greatest page, but it helped to get my creative juices running again.

The Adventure Continues (digi scrapbooking page) Kraft + Jan 2020 challenge

inspiration:

Kraft+ January 2020 Challenge

Proteas are not Australian Native Flowers

There really is no explanation for this, but slowly creeping over the past twenty years or so, more and more artists and interior designers are including Australian plants into their designs, however none more so than the very structural Protea. Which is not an Australian native. Yes- they do very well in most Australian gardens and are in the florist trade extensively as are their cousins Leucodendrons but both are native to South Africa and do not grow wild in Australia.

Wattles, bottlebrushes, hakeas, banksias, tea trees, gum trees, etc are Australian natives - but not those darn Proteas!

So when I saw another protea in amongst a group of Australian natives - that's what I did my digital scrapbooking page on.  I've really enjoyed going 'back' to kraft and different ways of using it. The buttons remind me of gumnut seeds.

Proteas ARE NOT Australian 2019 Dec

It also seemed to inspire my latest painting - Banksias for Tiffany (aka Mr Tiffany of Tiffany Studios New York 1890's - 1930's.) which I painted on paper with acrylics. I've never painted a banksia before.

the day the sky turned orange and it went dark

I didn't see any flames, and I wasn't in direct danger at any point, but I saw things I've never seen before. I saw panic. I saw skies turn dark in the middle of the day. I saw a strange orange glow across the smoke filled skies cast down upon the ground below making everyone and everything look orangey. I saw burnt leaves and burnt ash flit past like tiny insects on windy days. I sensed the unpredictability of the fire fronts and I praised and was so thankful to all those in emergency services for providing protection and calm amongst chaos.

I don't seem quite able to move forward properly, so I have created this scrap page which I hope will help shift things within me, as I have many more friends and associates directly caught up in the fires and have been incredibly lucky.

Exodus 2020 - digital scrapbooking page