October "Scrap the Boys"

Hi friends. Today I'm popping in quickly to show a page inspired by this lovely mood board from Scrap the Boys:

And here it is . . .

Although I did add a touch of red for contrast, I think you can see how I was inspired by the colours, the timber and the arrows.

Thanks for visiting, I hope I'll see you back here soon!

September Counterfeit Kit - killed it!

How "dead" do you like to get your kits (Counterfeit or otherwise) before you consider them killed? My September Counterfeit Kit(s) were absolutely massive, and I decided I wanted to use as much as possible before packing them away or creating another kit.

Here's a quick reminder of the pages I've already posted over the last month or so . . . feel free to scroll back through my posts to see close-ups or find out what challenges they were for.

Then there's a few other fairly quick pages . . .

and on some I challenged myself to use those Crate Paper cut-aparts . . .

Some pages were just plain fun . . .

So that's it, a massive 24 pages!

 I managed to use heaps of the frames, die-cuts and cut-aparts that I had pulled, and while I didn't use them all, I did pull others from my stash. I also pulled things like wood veneers, diy flair and washi tape.  I was especially pleased with how many of the rhinestones I used, they are currently my favourite embellishment and I wish I had them in more colours! Although I wasn't too worried whether my alphas were from my kit, my stash or my Silhouette, I was pleased with how much use the white chipboard one saw.

I used all but 3 of the 26 patterned papers I had chosen, but pulled more than that from my stash throughout the month, as well as plenty of cardstock, and it's all about using your stash, right?

The orange paper will eventually end up on a birthday page, I'm sure, the blue ledger paper will certainly be used for a school page, but the doily paper I tried numerous times to use without success . . . any suggestion?

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and don't forget to stop and let me know what your strategies for kit killing are!

When you're not so "stuck!?"

Hi and welcome! I'm back again playing with the second "Stuck!?" sketch for the month . . .

I followed  their last sketch very closely. This time I took a slightly more relaxed approach . . .

Much as I loved the giant star in the sketch, on this occasion I substituted it for a not-quite-so-giant vellum doily.

This page is about my daughter's birthday party last  year.  Sadly, I only took a couple of photos, and they're not great.  But a birthday party must be documented!

I'm still working on using up my September Counterfeit kit, and was pleased with how much I included on this page, including some Basic Grey rub-ons, Crate Paper cut-aparts and especially those gold rhinestones. After sitting in my stash untouched for so long, I've got maybe a quarter of a pack left, and I'll be sad to see them gone!

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope you'll stop and let me know whether you've fallen back in love with any old supplies lately?

Play With Me

Why hello there! Today I'm playing along with Scrap Our Stash, using this lovely sketch:

I found some photos of our dog Hamish, from when he was a puppy, and they fit the sketch perfectly!

I really enjoyed making this page, but I almost forgot the "stash" element of the challenge, which was to use some metal - and that was nearly my undoing. I couldn't find anything in my small metal stash that would go with the gold elements I had already included on my page, and I was loath to take them off.  Eventually though, I settled on the yellow star paper clip, and it turned out to be the perfect finishing touch!

When you're "Stuck?!"

In my last post I mentioned that using a sketch is a great way to push through a creative block.

The strong diagonal elements on this sketch from Stuck!? sketches is something a bit different for me . . .

But I decided to go with it . . .

Right down to the stitching and the stars!

Oh, and the notebook paper, which handily holds my journaling.

And because I don't always need a sketch, here's another page I created, using some of the same elements. . . .

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll stop and take the time to say hi!

Scraptoberfest

Many times on this blog in the past I've talked about how I love sketch and colour challenges as a way of focussing on using my stash instead of spending money building up my stash. (like here) I've proven this to be true over the last month as I've forced encouraged myself to partake in a number of challenges, instead of spending all my spare time on Youtube, which invariably leads to me looking for particular supplies on my favourite internet Scrapbooking sites.
But I've got another reason to add why I love these challenges so much . . . they can really help when your creativity is low.  A sketch is the perfect solution when you feel like you've gone to your "go to" designs to death, and a colour challenge is a great help when you can't see past the fact that your daughter is wearing (yet again!!!) pink, and you don't want your page to mimic the Barbie isle at Kmart.

This month, I've come across not just a sketch AND a colour challenge, but a chance to participate in 4 challenges AT ONCE!!! If you're visiting from any of the sites involved in Scraptoberfest, you know about this already, but if not, here's all the challenges:

The Memory Nest has this sketch:

My Scraps and More has this colour palette:

Scrap our Stash asks us to use 2 different types of washi tape.

And finally, Challenge YOUrself asks us to "include yourself in the photo".

The option is to do any or all of these challenges individually, but I took the combined option of all 4!
Here it is . . .

I had a photo of myself ready to scrap (tick!), with neutral-enough colours that I could use the colour palette (tick!).  By using two of the three photos from the morning, I was able to easily use the sketch (tick!) and the royal blue and pink washi tapes complete the final challenge (tick, tick, tick, tick!)

 I decided to scrap the final photo from the morning separately, as I had a story I wanted to document but didn't have a specific photo to go with it . . .

. . . about how I worked my childcare magic on my niece that weekend, who's always been really shy with us.  To the amusement of all my family, she now loves her "Uncle Julie".

I'm still working with my September Counterfeit Kit, and both pages use those "Best of" Crate Paper papers, which makes me very happy!

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to let me know you've stopped by.  I'd love to hear what your favourite type of challenge is!