There is a Pink Elephant Coming Home

I am using more and more patterned papers for my backgrounds. I love the added texture it gives to a layout!!! This one I created for a challenge over at ScrapFit which is exactly that - to use a patterned paper as a background. I've had this banner paper for ages and decided to use it FINALLY!!!

Thanks for Looking!

Zest for Life

This layout I made for the June challenge over at Sarah's Cards blog. I find keeping different parts of the page separate with white space in the middle very difficult to work with. So for this sketch I kept the basic design but I just pushed it together so that all the elements from the sketch form a cluster in the middle of the page. From then I was able to create I page which I was able to work with!

I used vellum from Dear Lizzy and attached it to the card stock using washi tape. I love this technique! I then just kept layering and adding things here and there. I used a SC mask which I bought at the shop to create a home for my title. I tried to keep with a circular, polka dot theme throughout in line with my photo of my daughter have a ball in a ball pit!!! I also chose stars and repeated them throughout my layout. I added some sparkle elements as well: a heart, the word zest and a sparkle paperclip (which I also bought at the shop!). I then finished off with some Basic Grey flowers. I kept the journalling inside a pocket as I had quite a lot to say.

Thanks for looking!

Let's Draw!

I am subscribing to this great scrappy magazine Scrap365 a new Uk scrappy magazine. At a time when scrappy magazines and companies are closing down I felt relieved and excited to see a new magazine being published in the UK! We needed it!!!!
I love the layouts published and they have a great online competition
Last month I did one but did not submit it in time
This month I am submitting one in the last day before closing!!

For this I used bits from one of my Studio Calico kits but most came from my stash. I also used some really really old Crate Paper here (the orange one). I feel so much better when I make use of papers which have been feeling unloved in my stash for years. As the paper supply is never ending, I really enjoy mixing in older papers sometimes.

The challenge called for 4 pictures, however; I used a SMASH pocket and a little drawing my daughter did of a mommy pig and  a baby pig. She loves to draw so I wanted to include a pocket with some of her drawings and this one of the little piggies as I love it.  I did a confetti style rainbow at the top since my daughters favourite thing to draw are rainbows. I used a mix of brads, sequins and pearls. I love playing with this sketch! I found it a really fun sketch so I will most likely be using it again

thanks for looking!

Thank you

I am loving the new blog over at Merly Impressions. THey are a great super shop and the customer service is amazing and super super fast! Whenever I buy stuff from there it arrives really quickly! The best purchase I made was the 12x12 Kaisercraft paper holders! I have 4 of them and I think when I move I will need to buy some more!

I saw this challenge over at their blog and at first I was really not sure I was going to like this sketch! I never put pictures at the top and also I never really leave a lot of space at the bottom.  However, one of the reasons I like challenges is that they do push your creativity and make you think out of the box

I then decided to give this sketch a go and I am so pleased I did as I love the dreamy effect created by putting a picture at the top. I am definitely going to try this sketch again. I chose this picture of my daughter and I which was taken last week.  I hardly ever scrap current pictures because by the time I print them and file them it's like 2-3 months down the line. However, I am so loving instagram and with that application printing is a breeze.

The challenge can be found here:  http://www.merlyimpressions.co.uk/blog/category/challenge/

Since I don't tend to leave a lot of white space as to me it feels trapped somehow I punched a few bits and added bits here and there. I added some stickers, Hero Arts pearls, some Websters embellishments and also some Studio Calico stickers and wood shapes.

Cute

I love misting!! I love that it adds colour and dimension all at once!!! I had these pictures of my baby taken for his first passport. These were the leftovers. I loved them so much I want to scrap them all!!!

For this challenge I first used my Martha Stewart anywhere punch to punch out hearts from card stock. I then misted the hearts in different colours using a combination of Glimmer Mists, Mr. Hueys and October Afternoon. I had to carefully cover the hearts that were not being sprayed to avoid mixing the colours. It was a fun layout to make and different too! I then mated his pictures using a few different materials and textures. This was for  a challenge over at ScrapFit!

My Favourite Photo

I love using doilies on my layouts. I love the work from Stephanie Howell and she often uses doilies and inspires me to use them in new and innovative ways. I saw a layout she did recently where she misted a doily which i wanted to try. When I saw the challenge over at Scrap Fit I thought it was the perfect opportunity!
For this layout I misted a few doilies and tucked them under for a different look. I wanted to go for a homespun feel following the ruffles and colours in my daughters dress

A Granny's Kiss

I love the challenge blog The Creative Type. They have had some really cool layouts and really cool designers recently- Tina Azmus and Rahel Menign are two scrappers I follow. The challenge this months is really cool. Its to scrap a layout inspired by one of your favourite designers. There are soooo many talented people out there it is so difficult to pick one person only. I could spend all the day looking at peoples blogs and it would still not be enough!

However, I do love Stephanie Howell not only because I love her style but also because I love her blog. It is really exciting that now she works for My Minds Eye and is their blog coordinator. Check it out! She is super fun! Anyway, her signature product is a dollie! She loves them and she originally inspired me to use them. I also have a huge tendency to scrap with either a cream, white or kraft background (I guess that is my style). She loves to use a flowery and girly (she has 4 girls herself) background paper. When I saw this beautiful paper by October Afternoon I bought two. One I chopped up and used the flowers. The other one I did something daring.....I used it as a background paper! It is really daring for me because it is not only not white but its also a busy paper. To break that up I used tissue paper which softened it a bit and also a dollie. Since the layout is about my mom's relationship with my daughter I felt I wanted to add a homespun feel to the layout which I did through the paper and dollie. The picture was taken on an October afternoon so I used the manufacturers branding from the bottom.

The rest I kept very simple and I did a first as well - I put my journalling at the back of the layout!

Campbells est 2008

I created this layout for a challenge over at Sarahs Cards. The challenge is to scrap your work or work space - something work related. However, as a SAHM I feel my work space is either my home or my buggy. I did consider scrapping my buggy but then I thought about it for longer and although I will eventually scrap my beloved buggy (Bugaboo Donkey -it holds 3 kids!) I also thought that for the past 4 years I have been on a roller coaster of 3 pregnancies and breastfeeding. I feel that is my job now! Being pregnant and breastfeeding!

I thought about scrapping the details of my 3 labours like: Estimated due date, length of labour, cravings, location of birth, length of pregnancy, others (like I had a shoulder dystocia and one back to back) etc.... I bought a Studio Elle Kit in February and I loved it! It is every 2 months and it came full of exclusive goodies like exclusive stamps and tags. I highly recommend their kits! So I used loads of bits from that kit. I also used some Amy Tangerine and Crate brads to illustrate that I had 2 girls and a boy. I also luckily found the number sticker at the bottom. I love the touch it gives. I added it up to 9 months and added a Studio Elle tag saying "love this" because I love being pregnant. I will miss it now that our Campbell family is complete! At the bottom of each picture I put some more exclusive Studio Elle tags with the names of each child in order of their birth. I also added one red, one pink and one blue pin at the side as a little embellishment also to symbolise their genders.

I am happy how this layout came about and thanks Sarahs Cards for the great inspiration! Funny how a little inspiration can mean so many different things to different people!

And the Oscar goes to....

Desde crianca sonhava em um dia visitar Los Angeles na epoca do Oscar. Queria ser uma daquelas pessoas que fica do lado de fora do teatro dias antes da festa para garantir o lugar como bystander. Antes de morrer eu quero fazer isso! Acho que vai ser o maximo. Foi super coincidencia que eu fiz este layout na epoca do Oscar! Neste layout usei o meu Cuttlebug para cortar o film strip e coloquei o Oscar dentro dele. Cortei umas estrelas e coloquei glitter. Usei material para simbolizar o carpet vermelho. E coloquei umas estrelas do Maya Road em cima

O layout e super differente do meu estilo normal mas porque o OScar e uma cerimonia formal resolvi que o layout iria seguir a mesma regra com linhas retas e mais estrutura do que e o meu normal

SInce I was a young child I have always wanted to go to LA during Oscar time. Then when a challenge came over at Scrap Playground to scrap something you want to do before you die I knew I had to do this. It was pure coincidence that it happened during Oscar season! I drifted away from my style to do this one as I kept it in line with Oscar's formality. I kept my layout quite structured and linear. I put some felt material to symbolise the red carpet, Maya road stars, embossed stars and I used my Cuttlebug to cut the film strip

You will be in my Heart

This one is over for the challenge at Bird is the Word. Not my typical style but I went for it as I wanted to document the song and lyrics from Phi Collins' "You'll be in my heart" as when I was taking the pregnancy test this song was playing so I will forever associate this song with my first born.

Journey of our Friendship

I just finished completing this layout for a challenge over at Bird is the Word using the word Journey. I created this layout about my friendship with one of my best friends who I have known since birth! We shared the same crib so we have been friends forever. I kept my messy handwriting at the back this time.

Since this layout was going to be extra special I dedicated more time than usual to it. I painted the background with a mixture of PVA glue and these art mosaic pieces. They are small pieces of shattered glass. Then I sprayed with some fine glitter mist. I then got a piece of cardboard which came with a toy and painted it with a mixture of silver and pink Stickles. I then wrapped this in a fine pink mesh and placed the picture on top with foam adhesive. It is very dimensional this layout but then I did want to create something special.

I then took 3 chipboard butterflies and embossed them with shiny pink embossing powder. I used hardly any patterned paper. Just a few pieces here and there to ground these little Jenni Bowlin embellishments. I then used some Perfect Pearls to add some details to the butterflies

Took me about 2-3 hours to complete this one so actually it did not take me that long

I have also taken loads of pictures of my scrappy room to add here as I don't know about you but I am always interested in how people organise their stuff!!!

Ballet Shoes

Sarahs Cards is where I get most of my scrappy products in the UK. I can't wait to see what they have in store for the new CHA products!!! They have also got a fab loyalty program! Their challenges are great. This one is for the movie challenge. To take inspiration from a film since it is Oscar month!

I love the film Ballet Shoes as it reminds me of when I took ballet as a young child. So I finally scrapped this picture of my daughter at my friend's ballet shop back in 2010. I kept the layout quite pink and feminine. I was eager to try this new banner style as well. Again I am so loving my idea of using an older paper and combining it with a newer collection. This time I used an older MME background paper from the Oh La la collection (!) and the newer October Afternoon Sidewalks collection. I am so trying to get through the older October Afternoon collections as the new ones that are coming out this first quarter as soooo cute!!!

Team Edward

I am so loving the challenge over at Creative Type! I hardly ever scrap myself or my likes/ dislikes. I really really enjoyed this challenge of scrapping a Celeb Crush! It was a bit of a contest between Bradley Copper and Robert Pattinson....but in the end Rob Patz won. After doing this now I am going to do more layouts like this . I am think have foods, fave shops, music, etc.... I think it will be really interesting for my kids to know who I fancied! I am also scrapping my hubbies celeb crush - Scarllett Johansson!

For this layout I used some Amy Tangerine stuff - I am trying to use it up so that I can hoard her next collection! I am also finished with sorting some papers by colour so here I dug out some old Cosmo Cricket paper to add a bit of red to my layout. I am loving using new collections but then finding maybe just one older paper to use. It makes me feel good that I am going through my older stash whilst I get to play with a newer collection as well! I think I am going to keep that up. Also the paper I used as a background is an older Bo Bunny one too. So far keeping my papers organised my collection, theme and the rest by colour is working really well for me!

You are my Rainbow

Speaking of rainbows ( I am yet to have a rainbow birthday one day!) ...here is a layout I created for another challenge over at Punky Scraps. This time the theme was rainbow. I decided to go cutsey with this one - creating a scene. Similar to the one I won the prize for in the magazine but keeping it a bit different. Its a picture of my daughter I love getting soaking wet at Disney last year. It was soooo much fun!!! I used some old Crate Paper I have lying around - from the Season Collection. I really need to tackle my old stacks of paper as my shopping list for CHA 2012 is wayyyy to long!!

I am also in the process of going through - what I think are a couple thousand- papers and sorting them out by colour. I am trying this out now and see where it takes me. I always wonder how people organise their papers as its such a difficult thing to organise. I have it organised now by theme (xmas, easter, cooking, Disney, baby, travel, home, fairies/pricess, dinosaurs/ pirates etc...) Its a long list. I keep these in large boxes with all the themed embellishments as well. Then I also organise by collections in the Cropper Hopper Paper Envelopes with all the embellishments too. I also keep my kits that I subscribe that way too. Then whatever was leftover I used to keep in these large 12x12 expandable folders. I kept them there by manufacturer, but that was not working for me as I never used them. So I got 4 12x12 Kaisercraft paper stack storage - they are amazing to put them all in. So every evening I tackle a few papers and slot them in there organising them by colour. It has worked so far as I found these old Crate Papers ones!

UK's Scrapbooker of the Year competition!!!

Amongst all the chaos of having a newborn baby I decided back in November to enter the UK's National Scrapbooker of the Year Competition. One can imagine my real delight when I was one of the Top Ten finalists!! The best part was getting a HUGE box of free scrappy stuff!!! That really made my day!!! I won it for the below layout.

ELA

Acabei de terminar este layout para um desafio no site Scrap Playground. A muito tempo tinha esta foto da minha filha. Eu adoro ela so que ate agora eu nao sabia o que fazer com esta foto. Quando vi este desafio no site de incluir o numero 12 pensei em usar ela finalmente! E tambem o meu kit do Studio Calico chegou e resolvi usar ele tambem. O desenho do layout eu tirei inspiracao de uma layout da designer Stephanie Howell - que eu adoro porque os layouts dela sao super suaveis e femininos!

I have just finished this layout for a challenge over at a Brazilian blog called Scrap Playground which called for the use of the number 12. I had this picture of my daughter for ages just waiting for the right time, right setting, right papers etc.. you get the picture? When I stumbled across this challenge it was a EUREKA moment so I went for it and finally scrapped this treasured picture. I took inspiration from Stephanie Howell for the design. I love her style as its so feminine and light. thanks for looking!

Simon Says Stamp

So here I am again with another layout this time for a challenge over at Sarahs Cards. I love the challenges over there and the best part is that the prize is a voucher!!! They are the best Scrappy shop in the UK and with all the latests CHA products coming it's good to have a go at this challenge!

This challenge had to do with creative resolutions for 2012. My resolution is definitely to use more of the stamps that I seem to hoard. I have an unhealthy obsession with buying stamps but I never ever seem to use them. I took a picture of only a few of them as there are 2 more baskets which are so hidden away that I couldn't even access them for this picture! THat really needs to change. I was looking at all my stamps today and I really need to get them out and onto those pages. I used a background butterfly stamp which just arrived today through the post. I subscribe to Unity Stamps and that was one of the stamps this month. I have been subscribing with them for like 7 months but I really have only ever used 2-3 of their stamps. Its that bad!

I used Jenni Bowlin ink pads and stamped the butterflies in the different colours. The name of the layout is Simon Says Stamp! I also used some washi tape (I also hoard this but I have no problems using these babies...I love them) and bits and pieces from my Boardwalk SC kit. I am still trying to get it all used up before Reveal Night on Friday as I want to get all the add ons. Last month I missed 2 add ons as I logged on 4 hours after and they were all gone. Not this month though!! I am gonna be on the computer come 17 and buying all those babies straightaway. It will be the quickest shop in history!!!

Journey of a Lifetime - Brincadeira #19

Layout que fiz para o blog Scrap Playground com o tema deste mes sendo uma viagem especial. A minha viagem especial foi para o Japao em 2007 com o meu marido. Ela foi especial por varios motivos. A primeira porque sempre quis conhecer este pais lindo e conhecer tb a cultura que me interesa muito! A comida e uma outra razao!!! Adoro comida japonesa! Esta viagem e muito especial tambem porque foi a nossa ultima viagem antes dos nossos 3 filhotes aparecerem nas nossas vidas. Foi tipo uma despedida de solteiro!!!!!!! Agora e so Disney, Disney!!!!!!!

Twenty

Another layout completed for a challenge over at ScrapFit
The challenge is to use numbers.
I made this one for my daughter called twenty because at 2 years old she could already count to twenty. I added lots of owls for wisdom!

Rocking the Bears

I haven't had anytime to scrap with my newborn baby!

However, I did have this one for a challenge over at Scrap Fit where the journalling must go around the page. I hardly ever do this but after completing this LO I am going to use this more as it saves space on the page and keeps my messy handwritting away!
Again I used some old Basic Grey papers. I have so much paper that I think I would need to live to 100, have a dozen children and scrap everyday to use it all up. I am starting to run out of space so hence why I am using the older ones more.... I made some grass with a die and used some Unity tree stamps to create some trees. The clouds were created using my Fiskars cloud punch which I looooove!!!