My frou frou layout

I don’t do many 1 photo layouts. I am very much a multiple photos and usually double page layout kind of girl. But I had the picture of my daughter from last December (VERY recent by my scrapping standards LOL), that would be a one picture photo. And I actually didn’t want the photo to be too big, because she had a doozy of a bruise on her forehead that had faded to that nice yellow that looks more like a dirty mark. But this was a special moment, we had finally found a tutu for her beloved doll and they were both dressed up together to dance. I have embraced the glitter, and used Atomic Cupcake’s new glitter edge action on the circle, the papers are from Vicki’s Sophie kit (one of her very early ones), with the buckle and tag from Fizzy Pop, one of her more recent ones. The template is Denise (NeeCeeBee Designs) Template 1, tipped on its side.
We had a gardening day today (we are redoing our front yard after having a very big drain put in), and I have also refreshed the plants on our front porch. I also had the gruelling task of directing hubby about how he needs to dig out the area for the new front path LOL. Have some more textures to share tomorrow. Didn’t get time to bundle and upload tonight and I have some ironing that needs doing.
Hope you are having a great weekend,
Erika

The expanded layout.

I flipped Denise’s super template and did the other pictures I tried to get that day LOL to make a 2 page LO. You have to know when you are beaten, the best picture is on its own. Denise has another fabby template up in response to a request from Alyson P, for a monthly summary page. Boy is she fast, and good ! Her own layout with it is just gorgeous, makes me want to play with the So Sunny kit, but first we have to sweep out under the house and garage. I am motivated to work fast this morning LOL.
Best wishes, Erika

A great template, and my layout !

On Ikea Goddess this morning I spotted this amazing template by NeeCeeBee Designs, that I snagged immediately. I had some photos I had tried to take of my kids and two of their cousins from when they were visiting us last year. We have this gorgeous park down the road from us on the river bank with a boat theme and a little boat that the kids can play in. Perfect for a photo right ? Yeah try getting two (then) three year olds, a 6 month old, and a righteous 6 year old (telling the cheeky three year olds to behave please), to all even just look at the camera normally, never mind smiles. LOL. It didn’t work, but I still wanted to capture the moment because it was such a good laugh. So this is the layout, using the NeeCeeBee Designs template, and Ellie Lash’s gorgeous Scatter Sunshine Kit. I L-O-V-E this kit (learnt from Brooke at Ahhh Scraps to spell it out for emphasis LOL). Check out Brooke's blog for a great CU freebie also. I am going to flip the template to the other side of the page where I tried to get them all sitting under one of the big fig trees (some people just don’t learn LOL).
Oh and the noisy woisy boy-sy actually took the news of no soccer better than expected, but I still made them chocolate pancakes for breaky – I am such a bad mummy. Now we just have to explain to hubby why we didn’t save any for when he gets back from diving – I am such a bad wife LOL.
Off to do some washing (it seems to multiply overnight !)
Erika

Layout for the Sunshine Studios Challenge

Like everyone else I was having fun on the hunt for clues in Scrap Orchard and the Sunshine Studio Scraps today and picking up that gorgeous kit. In addition to the amazing freebee (how generous are those ladies) I grabbed two of Ellie Lash’s kits, and one of Lliellas. I had seen these two kits on Ellie’s blog, whilst admiring a gorgeous layout of her boys.
I’ve had a set of photos I took of my daughter at 3 months old (yes that is well over 3.5 years ago LOL), that I have been waiting to scrap. You know that photo that is so “perfect” that you are almost intimidated to scrap it, or you get a form of paralysis because it becomes too important. Well this photo was like that. What made it worse was there is a strong yellow in the background of the photo that needed the right papers and elements to go with it. As soon as I saw Ellie’s Star Gazing kit, the light bulb went on and I thought of this photo. I also grabbed her Scatter Sunshine kit, which is just fantastic, to scrap some other piccies I have been stumped by. I decided to make the layout with the word art for their challenge this week because it just fitted the photo perfectly. Aaahh serendipity LOL, sometimes you just have to be patient LOL (3.5 years patient !). Anyway, here is the layout I came up with (I know very boring to lots, but I am a conservative scrapper). Now I just have to figure out how to upload it to the gallery ROTFL.
Best wishes,
Erika

The Revised Snow Layout

I've just realised that the left hand side of this has been trimmed so bare that in mind. So I got asked to share and this is the revised (but still awp) version of the first snow layout. I reduced the clear frosted snowflakes and made a cluster (as suggested) to "draw the eye across the page" LOL - that's just something I've read in a scrapping mag. I reduced the red felt in the bottom left so it doesn't go to the border (as suggested) and added the white stiching. I made and added my foil stars using Atomic Cupcake's new foil action (www.atomiccupcake.com). Because I can get too "boxy" at times, I did uneven journalling strips and attached them with a little red felt brad I made from that red felt mat.

I still sort of want to put something in the bottom left hand corner of that piccie of my son on the left hand side. I tried putting the snow flakes down there but it didn't work. I am going to finish the journalling and then not look at it for a week, and if I am happy then it stays. Something I am coming to realise is that the layout will never be perfect, you could always change something and it would not necessarily be better, just different. So I am not obsessing about these, but focussing on getting as caught up as I can whilst I have some time.
For lvmommy - what do I do for a living that I work with a computer, fly on planes and think maths is cool LOL. I work as a consultant. I am blessed to work from home it means I can drop my kids off to the class room and pick them up from the classroom. My postgrad degrees are in HR and Demography. I do statistical modelling and design system simulations and decision support systems, this is what my PhD is in. Are your eyes rolling yet LOL. It is so boring to anyone else. The flying on planes is because a lot of the work I do is for clients who are all over the country so I will fly in fly out for a meeting or a couple of days for briefs, presentations and the like.
Its funny when I was a child my father would be away every other week with work, and I thought it was just so glamorous and exciting to travel on planes and stay in hotels. And then you do it as a grown up and you realise it is tiring and boring and staying in hotels is awful. Even if you catch up with friends for dinner, you still go back to an empty hotel room at some stage and that is just not fun compared to home. Its one of the reasons I loved making the switch to digi scrapping, now when I go away overnight I take my little external drive with me and sit in my hotel scrapping on my laptop. I don't miss home quite so much.
Bet you're sorry you asked LOL. And on that note its getting late so I am off to bed.
Best wishes,
Erika

A Layout, A Story and Some Freebie Add Ons for Skip and Jump

Well I put my time to better use and scrapped the pictures of my daughter’s self inflicted hair cut. This happened last winter. My M-I-L was up to look after the kids because hubby was away on exercise and I was going somewhere to see a client. Anyway on this day my daughter had said she would like to get her fringe cut, and I said I would make an appointment. She headed off to play in the play room and my M-I-L and I grabbed a coffee. I heard my daughter go through to our bedroom, and figured she was just playing with my shoes (she had a shoe fetish since she started walking). A short while later she came out and I noticed her fringe (it was GONE), so I called her over and as I stroked her head great clumps of hair came falling out. Not only had she cut the fringe but great chunks around her ears. Thank goodness for whatever angel was watching over her that day because she could easily have done damage with the scissors. It turned out my husband had left a pair of scissors in with his clippers that she had found. She had totally tidied up after herself though, all that beautiful hair, all those gorgeous curls were neatly in the bin in our ensuite. I phoned my hair dresser who said to bring her straight in and they “salvaged” a cute pixie cut from the horrid mullet she had given herself. We emailed a picture of the scissors to my husband first, and the story of what had happened. The funniest part of this is that when we picked up my son from school and asked if there was anything different about his sister, he looked then stated “she is wearing gloves”. As I said at the time, hair will grow back, but male blindness is forever. SIGH. Anyway I had to scrap these pictures, and thought I would jump out of my comfort zone with Vicki’s Citrus Berry, and the alpha is from her dandelion dreams kit. I have put together some of the items I have been making over the last few days for layouts here, there are a couple of extra things in there I forgot to put on the preview.
Have a great day,
Erika

Pam's Super Duper New Stuff Layout

How exciting and amazing are Pam's new parts to the ABC kits. I was like a kid on Christmas morning today when I saw all the lovely stuff she had been toiling away on. Faster than you can say American Express I was in the Digitreats shop and making some purchases. The felt flowers are PERFECT for some photos from when my daughter was a baby. I was able to compliment the flower on her headband. So the layout above is with Pam's new felt flowers and alpha, the patterned paper is from the original Skip release, the ribbon is from the new kit she released today, and the velvet paper and embroidery I did myself with Atomic Cupcakes super actions.

I had to share, I love this so much. Will be back to share some freebies after I have read with the kids - we are getting towards the end of Roald Dahl's BFG - the bit where Sophie and the BFG are about to have breaky with the Queen.

Best wishes,
Erika

My Entry to Vicki's Challenge

This is my entry for Vicki’s challenge,. I ended up not using many of the elements, I wanted it to be clean and keep the focus on the photos. I have decided that I am going to try and do more challenges to help me get those memories captured, to stretch me from my comfort zone by trying new things, and not to mention all the lovely bonuses you can get ! These pictures were taken of my darling daughter as a baby. It is quite funny because I despaired that she would EVER grow hair, peach fuzz until she was nearly two. Now at four she has the most beautiful auburn ringlets, and that is despite a self inflicted hair cut last July that took it nearly ALL off. Actually I must scrap those pics, if only to remind her if she is ever tempted again LOL.
Best wishes,Erika

Layout

I am right into that white space thing. Have just done this layout tonight from our move home to Brisbane back in Dec 04. I love the piccie of the kids precision sleeping team LOL. I kept the stamped word home and also a clear inked yellow sun I did but decided I preferred Stephanie's sun brush (Obsidian Dawn), so if anyone wants them let me know. It is getting late, hubby is nearly ready to turn in, so I think I am done scrapping for tonight.

Best wishes,

Erika

Layout and a comment on those very clever designers

I am delving into the backlog again to do some photos from New Year's Day 05. The pics are from a visit to The Big Pineapple (I am obsessed with oversized fibreglass tourist attractions but that is another story LOL). I have been putting these photos to one side over the last couple of years because I could never get the right paper, match the right colours. I just don't have an "eye" for colour the way people like Vicki (A Work in Progress) or Pam (Digitreats) or countless other wonderful designers do. Each morning I check to see what Vicki has posted and ooh and aah at what she has created, but also at her ability to put colours together. And the more I look at the schemes Pam chose for the ABC kits the more I see those choices as being truly inspired. They are so versatile. One of the things I love about digi scrapping is the ability to make that ideal paper or element when you need it. I decided to do a striped paper that I took from the stripes on the awning of the train, but when I sampled the green from the train it didn't go with the stripes. So I tried the colours from Pam's Jump kit, and they worked because they go so well together. This is why I have so much admiration and respect for the designers, it is not just about the things they make, it is about the vision of the colours.

Let me know if anyone would like the striped paper (it is jump colours), or the word art saying "The Big Pineapple" LOL, more than happy to share, I just wasn't sure if any would use it ROTFL - how many oversized pineapples are there ?. I had fun making that title using Atomic Cupcake's action that I used on the clear elements for the Piggies layout. I love taking one of these actions and pushing to see how far I can test it, and what it can do.

Best wishes,
Erika

Layout and Freebies

I was very good today and rested my ankle lots. I also managed to do some scrapping and that is always a good thing. I re-did a layout of my daughter from January. With the backlog I have you would wonder why redo one, but I really didn’t like the original and it is the first pages in her new album. I was using the Jump palette, but the pink on the fabric strip is a bit light, I didn’t adjust it properly to be a true Jump pink, but the flower is a Jump blue. I loved the alpha that Vicki (http://vicki20.blogspot.com/) did the other week for Dandelion Dreams (not to mention the soccer one LOL), and I so I did some elements in a similar style and with a “girlier” font. I am right into this white space (or in this case green space) at the moment. I have always been an uncluttered not fussy type of scrapbooker, and was really happy with this page. Since it was all stuff I had made myself (button from the button tin give aways) I thought I would turn it into a quickpage also. Hope you like it and you can download the elements and the QP here. I have to say I love the names of some of the cities people are from. Some really intrigue me and others give me itchy feet to come and see it, especially when the names suggest beautiful natural scenery.
Rug rats will be home soon, homework to supervise, dinner to cook, so I am off. I have some more greyscale fabric stuff I will post tonight or tomorrow.
Erika

Boys RUN Pony Stuff

I know most of you are heading into spring, but it is autumn here, and winter will soon be upon us. Except where I live the only change between the seasons is the speed the grass grows at. It really doesn’t get cold, no gorgeous autumn colours. Where I travel to a lot for work it does ! In winter I absolutely adore argyle, argyle jumpers, argyle vests, argyle diamonds (subtle hint in case hubby has a peek), and I have had a few goes whilst laid up with this ankle at creating an argyle pattern but not been happy with it. I am finally a little happier with this one. I have spent way too much time staring at jumpers and vests LOL at all the different variations, and this is one of them. These pages I did last night were for my son’s first pony ride at a friend’s birthday party last year. Her oldest sister is a keen rider and so they brought some ponies in to the yard to give the kids some pony rides. The boys weren’t as excited as the girls BUT the noisy woisy boy-zy still had a go. Unfortunately on that winter day it was overcast and the light was a pain so a lot of my photos didn’t turn out well. It was a lovely party and my friend even had some extra fertiliser for her roses at the end of it ! A couple of add ons I created are available for you here. There is the argyle paper in a cord texture, a half page of it with an embroidered edge, the edge on its own, a letter A monogram, an @ rub on, some photo corners, and the horse tag. I also threw in a paper and frame I was playing with using Rachel Stutts commercial use patterns. More colouring in for grown ups. Ankle is still painful today but there is so much I need to do around the house, very frustrating.
Have a great day,
Erika

Skip -ping with Ponies ? LOL

Yesterday our gorgeous but not so clever spoodle ran out the gate onto the road in front of our house, and yours truly did what came instinctively and tried to run after him to keep him safe. Not a good idea one week on from spraining my ankle, and judging by the very sharp pain I felt then and since, it was not my most clever moment. So I am back to sitting down resting today. Always a silver lining, got to do some scrapping. Our school fete is coming up and we were talking about the pony rides last year and how much my daughter enjoyed them. I decided to get the photos out to scrap. As always I was a bit indecisive, played with a couple of things until it was how I liked it. I am hoping that the lovely, wonderful, kind and generous Pam (enough grovelling ?) will do some Skip pockets (HINT HINT HINT), like the amazing ones she did for Run (you know the “undies” ones LOL). So I made a temporary one whilst I wait for the next skip elements instalment. Anything I made (with the exception of the temporary pocket) is included in the download. I did pink corduroy paper, a stitched daisy, some felt cut out border strips, leather (yes groan leather again LOL) pony tags , felt flowers and a monogram P. The leather horse tag is in two versions and a pewter because the pewter and the first tag didn’t feel right (but I didn’t delete them), and the buttons and stitches/knots are all from previous freebies I have given out. Grab them Here whilst I add the journaling to my layout. For those with boys, I will be doing a horsey one next for my son’s first pony ride so stand by for some in the run colours. I can’t get over how much she has changed in a year. Sob, whimper, my baby’s growing up too fast.
Best wishes,
Erika with one fat colourful ankle !

Update - I changed the layout. I put my daughter's monogram because the P for Pony Rides was not working for a title and I added the felt title at the top.

JUMP ing Bits and Some "wordart"

Last night I made a layout with photos from when we brought home one of our “fur babies”. Monty is our lilac point Burmese, and we got him before my daughter was born and I am only just scrapping those photos LOL. The big fluffy cat in the photo is Jasper our Ragdoll. We had him before we had children, and when my daughter was about 9months old we realised she was allergic to him. We were incredibly blessed that one of my mother in law’s friends who adored him, could offer him a home. He has his own double bed and is spoilt rotten. At the time we got Monty we weren’t sure how Jasper would react to him, but he was great, they settled very well together and were always cuddling somewhere. The photos were taken when we were living in Canberra and I feel cold just looking at them LOL.
I was not sure what I wanted to do with this layout. I was going to use pewter stuff, so made the quote and photo corners in pewter, then I abandoned that idea and stuck with the simple clean, white space look. It must be all those templates I saw at the Scrap Orchard challenge last week LOL. (I have to add the journalling yet !) But the photos were so clear and suited that more than a fussy layout. So I re-made the quote in tooled leather (I can hear you groaning – not leather AGAIN). I also made some photo corners in the leather, and a chipboard monogram letter M. The leather frame I used was from Pam (these are the ones that got me started on this leather thing) and that is one of her eyelets on the M. I also threw in to the download two “word art” pewter tags I have made in the last week. I love the one about being 4 it is for a layout about my daughter . The other one is actually a song title by an amazing Australian song writer Paul Kelly, the song is fantastic – From Little Things Big Things Grow. It is a great song (in true story telling fashion) about the Gurindji Strike, but has become a bit of an anthem about positive change that slowly grows a voice. I added tags to thread it on a ribbon and without the ribbon I think it looks like a tray. LOL. They are here for you to download. I think the wordart for from little things also applies nicely to family type layouts. I did the cat quote in brass for anyone who has a tortoiseshell cat !
Have a great day,
Erika

RUN -ning with the Dinosaurs !

Happy Mother’s Day to any Mum’s . I am having a very quiet one, hubby is off interstate visiting with his Mum and as my sister in law has realised the benefit of sending them home to Mum is uninterrupted scrap time ! I had a lovely brunch with the kids, a girlfriend and her daughter, and my two have been told they must have some rest time if they want to watch Gladiators tonight. Last night I got some scrapping done and did a page for a piccie of the noisy woisy boy-zy from Book Week a couple of years ago. Thankfully his favourite books at the time were Harry and his bucket full of dinosaurs and that was a relief to this Mum. I got off easy, ordinary clothes, and a plastic bucket with his favourite dinosaur figurines in it. This is the layout I did for it. I have used Pam’s gorgeous folded ribbon , buttons from my button tin freebies, the chain is from the boot camp alpha I did, and some other pieces I made for this layout.
The noisy woisy boy-zy has been distracted in helping with this so only provided “supervision and approval” of the dinosaurs I made for him. But any of the things I made are included in this download. Hope you have a great weekend.
Best wishes,
Erika

Vicki's Soccer Alpha and Layout !

Well this morning’s email call really put a big smile on my face. Aside from the Irish Lottery I have now won and the person who is concerned I have lost my credit card and will fix it if I send them all the details, I got a lovely email from the totally gorgeous and generous Vicki who has done this fabby soccer alpha for us soccer Mum’s and soccer widows.
If you haven’t already grabbed it you can get it from Vicki’s blog. Vicki’s Sports Mini Kit is what actually got my son set on the topic of doing a special scrapbook just about his soccer. He is going to be so excited to see this when he gets home today. I think Miranda might even be altering her layout (see below) to the new letters.
I also got an email from LJ at Bella Memorie with a layout using the sand background I did for Bargara. Her kids are so photogenic, I think she is going to be one busy scrapper.
I love that shot of the crocs on the sand. They are the details I sometimes miss but really capture a moment. I am layed up with a sprained ankle – I think I have “caught” Vicki’s accident prone tendencies. I did it outside my son’s school at pick up time with the dog and my daughter in tow, needless to say dignity went out the window. Will pack, upload and post the extra bits for that poor neglected caterpillar today. Yesterday afternoon was spent horizontal with a lot of ice around my left ankle and right knee.
Best wishes,
Erika

Lovely Layouts that made me smile !

How exciting is this. I am really honoured that two people have used the stuff I have made to do layouts and shared them with me. I remember the total thrill I got when Bella Memories emailed me the gorgeous layout of her little boy with some papers I had made, and I have to say I am just as excited this time. The first layout is from Mysty and she is going to make some QPs out of this and other layouts, because I didn’t use any actions in Bargara. I love the pictures in her layouts (I have only posted one because I am having probs uploading piccies this morning). So you can grab her QP here. The second on is from Miranda, using the soccer stuff, along with (if I am not mistaken) Vicki’s alpha from Dandelion Dreams and Pam’s G page overlay ?)
I think I am happy with some elements for that poor neglected, starving caterpillar. Will give them another check later today and post. Also I need to correct my spelling in one of the Dutch friends words. Thank you so much to Masja for letting me know. Spelling is important and I was pretty sure I must have got at least one mistake in all those words. I will fix it and post it later today.
We have finally located free and useable templates to make some dinosaur stuff so stay tuned for that over the next few days. Also I have another couple of metal alphas to share this week.
And THANK YOU again to all those fantastic ladies who left Thomas a message. He is doing it for his show and tell tomorrow and is going to show his class the blog entry and all the lovely messages people left him. He is so proud of his fruity buttons. And I am so thankful for people like Atomic Cupcake for making these actions so user friendly that my son can make things and get that sense of achievement.
Off to stop the dog from chasing the cats around the house – it sounds like stampeding elephants on our timber floors LOL.
Best wishes,
Erika

Layout

I did this layout of our fluffiest family member, our spoodle (spaniel / poodle cross). He is a total darling ! The photo was taken last year when he had been to what we call "the poodle parlour" for a clip. I picked him up with the kids and he had a bow in his fur. My son was most unimpressed - "boys don't have bows". My husband was away on exercise at the time so we sent an email with the title "look what they do to your dog when you go away for a few months". The bow didn't even last until we got home.

The kit is Vicki's Cinnamon Toast - see blinkie on your right to get there. The title though I did myself to play with the fur action from atomic cupcake. My son and I made a yeti with it today using the paper dolls.

Best wishes,

Erika

Layout and Freebies

I absolutely love this photo I got of the kids on Anzac Day morning. But I was a little unsure how to scrap it. There were SO many colours in it - when will my kids learn to dress in more "scrappable" coordinating outfits LOL. I didn't want to make the piccie B&W because I love all the colours and I wanted my Grandad's medals to show properly. Add the complication that I wanted some sense of the Australian colours (green and gold). So - I adapted the colour block paper I made, and used the fantastic button action from http://www.atomiccupcake.com/ to make buttons out of the papers I had made for the jump add on. I thought the stripe would help bring out the medals. I made the tan strap to practice some dodge and burn techniques to make it look wrapped around the metal. It isn't supposed to be a belt just decorative LOL. Finally I scanned in my hubby's rising sun from his slouch hat. That was a nightmare to tidy up and not helped by the fact my dd had used my nice black cloth for scanning and photographing to wrap around both our lilac burmese cat and our white dog. SIGH. Anyway, I aged the photo a bit because the kids sitting there reminds me of two old mates on a bench. I used Gunhild's fantastic curled edges - they really are a great set and they are FREE http://www.storeide.se/gunhild/index.htm, and Obsidian Dawn's (http://www.brushes.obsidiandawn.com/index.htm) watermark brushes to stain it a bit on the edge. The screw is from escrapper http://www.escrappers.com/. So the bits I made (not the rising sun badge though) are available for you. I used the jump palette so people can get use out of them. Grab them here:

http://www.4shared.com/file/45858691/c4c771b7/CWTG_-_Jump_-_Anzac_Add_On.html

Best wishes,

Erika

Layout with Skip Stuff

Thought I would share a layout from the add ons I have posted. This is my beautiful daughter running up the beach with her spunky Daddy at Bargara at Easter. The buttons, ribbon and tag are from the amazing Pam, who created this wonderful kit and has sent out so much good karma, I think it was elements 4 (? happy to be corrected). The paper is the one I did. This lot of photos is why I made the footprints paper LOL. The flowers are ones I just re-coloured tonight. It is a flower I had greyscaled, and was trying out another colouring tutorial from the fabulous Shauna at Pineapple Plantation - see link on side bar. Anyway, I will post the flower (it is different to the others I posted today) in the skip colours that I did at some point tomorrow (after ballet lessons, board meetings and football training) it could be another late night. I have some other ideas brewing in my mind, but they will have to wait for the weekend. I am so grateful to Pam for letting me play with these palettes - shame the housework is piling up LOL. Oh, the sand on the layout is the overlay I made, I love using it and just erasing the bits I don't want.
I am off to bed, thanks to all for the really lovely comments. I will post the empty hopscotch board fro MM over the weekend - as a PNG file, plus the two variations others have requested for that paper.
Best wishes,
Erika