Final page of my 100 page spending freeze!

As promised, I thought that the final page of my 100-page spending freeze was deserving of a video.

For inspiration, I took the mood board from Scrapbooking Top 50 this month:

So cute!

Here's my video . . .

. . . and some photos . . .

This page tells the story of how I broke my foot at the start of this year!
Not only is it the story of an accident, but it is a page on which a few accidents happened.  We want all our pages (and process videos!) to be perfect, but that's just not real life, is it?  I'm glad I persevered  with this page - I'm happy with how it turned out, and mistakes are how we learn, right?

Thanks for visiting, and let me know if a short series on doing a scrapbook spending freeze is something you'd be interested in watching?

Two challenges with June Counterfeit Kit

I had high hopes for finishing my spending freeze this month, starting about 5 pages on the long weekend,  but then life got in the way! 
I have a drawer full of photos waiting to be scrapped and it is in a woeful state! I started this month by going through an envelope of photos and making up little page kits from my June Counterfeit Kit, mostly just paper and cardstock.  I did pull some more supplies as needed - this doesn't bother me at all!  I see a kit as a starting point and have no problem pulling out extra stash.

This first page has a process video and is for Scrapbooking Top 50's challenge for the month:

The photo I chose to scrap isn't the most non-perfect photo - it's really just the bad lighting, but the story is definitely "real not perfect", telling about an attempt to make a pavlova with stevia instead of sugar, early on in my sugar-free days.

I had some white rub-ons in my kit, and I decided to rub them onto my background and then do my gelatos over the top. I love how that turned out!

Next up I used this sketch from Stuck!?:

This was the perfect opportunity to make sure I used some of the Stampin Up butterflies I included in my kit!

I had more photos from the same day so I made a companion page to go with it:

May Scrapbooking Top 50

 Friends, before we get onto the crafty business at hand, I'd like to let you know that I will be participating in the Act For Peace Ration Challenge during Refugee Week.  From 18-25 June I will be eating the same rations as a Syrian refugee - just a small amount of rice, lentils, chick pease, sardines, oil and kidney beans.  That's it - no meat, coffee or alcohol.  (And between you and me the hardest bit of all that is the no coffee!!!)
Sponsorship in this challenge will help provide urgently needed food rations, healthcare and education to Syrian refugees.  If you are interested in donating, or just want to know a little bit more, please visit my sponsorship page:

I am taking the Act for Peace Ration Challenge during Refugee Week and opening my eyes to what it's like for refugees to survive on rations. From 18-25 June I will be eating the same rations as a Syrian refugee - just a small amount of rice, lentils, chick peas, sardines, oil and kidney beans. That's it. No meat, coffee or alcohol. - See more at: https://actforpeace.rationchallenge.org.au/fundraisers/juliehearn#sthash.gzdFbM4L.dpuf

I am taking the Act for Peace Ration Challenge during Refugee Week and opening my eyes to what it's like for refugees to survive on rations. From 18-25 June I will be eating the same rations as a Syrian refugee - just a small amount of rice, lentils, chick peas, sardines, oil and kidney beans. That's it. No meat, coffee or alcohol. - See more at: https://actforpeace.rationchallenge.org.au/fundraisers/juliehearn#sthash.gzdFbM4L.dpuf

I am taking the Act for Peace Ration Challenge during Refugee Week and opening my eyes to what it's like for refugees to survive on rations. From 18-25 June I will be eating the same rations as a Syrian refugee - just a small amount of rice, lentils, chick peas, sardines, oil and kidney beans. That's it. No meat, coffee or alcohol. - See more at: https://actforpeace.rationchallenge.org.au/fundraisers/juliehearn#sthash.gzdFbM4L.dpuf

 https://actforpeace.rationchallenge.org.au/fundraisers/juliehearn

And now we return to regularly shecduled programming . . .

After completing 18 school photos, production-line style (which you can read about in my previous post) I was ready for something a bit different! A challenge, perhaps?

I chose this month's sketch from Scrapbooking Top 50:

How cute is that!

here's my entry:

I ended up binge die-cutting for  this one - creating whole pages of leaf fronds, flowers and butterflies, which I think took longer than the rest of the page put together!

So happy with how this one turned out!  This page also marks the three-quarter mark of my 100-page spending freeze, so that's exciting! 

Thanks for visiting and I hope to see you again soon!

A trio of Aussie challenges.

1. Scrapbook Boutique

Here's this month's mood board:

I decided to dig into my stash of packaging strips for this one . . . and attempt another process video!

Here are the photos:

 

2. Next up, Scrapbooking Top 50

Here's the lovely colour challenge:

And my take on it . . .

I hadn't realised it initially, but this one worked perfectly with my Counterfeit Kit for this month!

3. Last but not least, the sketch this month from Shop and Crop:

This one's a combination of the last two in the sense that it combines both packaging strips from my stash and elements from my Counterfeit Kit.

 The mixed media background was so much fun I don't know why I don't do it all the time!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you're finding time to challenge yourself too!

February Counterfeit Kit - first two pages.

So my February kit "Lilac Dreams" has been a bit challenging to get started.  How did purple, and all it's shades, go from a colour I used to love so much (and still do, to be honest) to a colour I find so hard to use!?!

My first tip, to both myself and to you, is my old stand-by . . . when you're scrapping with older supplies, use older photos!  So here we go with my first two pages, created with photos from 2010 and the help of two different sketch challenges:

First up, it's the challenge at Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia:

and here's my page -

I'm loving playing with what I think of as "beginner mixed media" - smooshing on my gelatos, a bit of stamping and flicking a bit of mist around.  I was so pleased to find the stamp with the lady holding up her skirt and dancing - she deserved to be brought forward on the page!

This next page uses a sketch from Stuck?!

I used this sketch a bit less literally.  I took the row of three photos with the large element behind and rotated it 90 degrees . . .

Then I added a scattering of elements in a diagonal line, to support my story. 

Now, I have scrapped these photos before, in traditional "autumn colours" and while I wouldn't say I was unhappy with the finished result, the pages stick out in my albums as they aren't colours I ever use.  What I did do, though, was sneak in a hint of "winter colours" through the use of  white glitter thickers, sequins and diamontes.

Thanks for visiting! What stories will you be telling in your scrapbooks this month?

Be Happy, be Bright, be YOU!

So you'd think with a broken foot, a spending freeze until I've completed 100 pages and a fun new kit to play with (see previous post), I would have spent a lot of time in the craft room in the last 3 weeks . . .
well I kind of did, but most of it was spent in assembling flat packs and rearranging things, getting my new look craft room ready!

I'm hoping to do a room tour video, but there's a bit more fine tuning and another trip to Ikea to do first!  (I'm pretty sure Murphy's Law states that the further away you live from your local Ikea, the more likely you are to make mistakes and buy the wrong stuff! Luckily there's a new Ikea in Canberra, and while this is certainly not our closest store, it is only a couple of suburbs away from my mother-in-law, who we visit multiple times a year.)

Anyway, I finally broke my new craft desk in with the current challenge from Scrapbooking Top 50, to use the quote "be happy, be bright, be you"

 The words "happy" and "bright" were both in the "Free Spirit" embellishment pack, making this challenge the perfect first choice to break open my kit.

As you can probably tell, I had a lot of fun with the stamping on this page! It took a bit of experimenting working out what colours to use with the Altenew layered stamps, but I'm glad I made the effort.

Thanks for stopping by, hopefully I'll be back soon.