Time Flies... and blog awards

Well here I am, finally back to chat to you after a whole month away from my blog - terrible blogging, my apologies. I have been flat out making things I can't share with you - gifts for my secret sister, I can't show you those until we have the "big reveal"later this month and swaps for Stampin' Up! convention in Sydney in a couple of weeks. However, it seems you love me still even when I neglect you for so long... In my inbox this week I have been delighted to receive not one but TWO blog awards - how excitement! But before I talk about those, I should probably show you the one thing I have made lately that is NOT a secret.

This is a photo of my little guy when he was about 18 months. We had some pics taken by a professional photographer who was looking for images for greeting cards. I loved this one, and it has only taken me 10 years to scrap it! The layout is a pagemaps sketch a wonderful source of inspiration, and the whole thing came together really quickly at the girls scrap night I try to get to each month (thanks for the inspiration lovely ladies!) I had trouble getting a good pic of it but hopefully you get the idea.


In this layout I have used a combination of the Urban Oasis, Sweet Slumber and Washington Apple Designer Series Papers, I also used the Very Vintage Jumbo Wheel and the Life Definitions stamp set. It's a really simple layout but I am thrilled with how it came together - as I say, the photo does not really do it justice. But I hope you like it.

Now onto the blog awards. The first one I received was a Beautiful Blog award


from my upline Mae Collins - thanks Mae. In accepting this award I need to nominate 10 other beautiful blogs and tell you ten things about myself. OK so here are 10 of my fave blogs to stalk for inspiration:

Tanya Kitto - Stamp n' Chat
Marelle Taylor
Nicole Derendorf - Stamping Down Under
Kirrily Matthews - KM Designs
Gardenia Pepworth - A Little Less Useless
Stamping with Steph
Rainbows by Robin
Bronwyn Eastley - addINKtive designs
Creating Cards with Andrea
Lynda Moss - StampINKins

Phew! That list took a while to compile. Now 10 things about myself hmmm

1. I am married to a chef I met whilst travelling in the UK
2. I have one brother.
3. I have one son.
4. My fave things to do include having lunch with my girlfriends, craft time with girlfriends and having lunch and/or crafting with my mum!
5. I LOVE elephants!
6. My husband thinks my elephant collection may eventually overrun the house and leave us nowhere to sit/sleep/etc (lol!)
7. The best thing about joining Stampin' Up! for me has been the wonderful people I have met both face to face and on line.
8. I am going to my first Stampin' Up! convention in 2 weeks!
9. I spent several months of my 20's backpacking overland from Kathmandu to London.
   
10. I have a pet dog called Snoopy.

Now the other award I received was from the lovely Leah click on her name to check out her gorgeous blog.

I need to nominate some recipients for this blog too - and link to their blogs so here we go:

Andrea Lowcock - EnchantInk
Stampin with Sonia
Susan Hogan - Time to Play
Ann Wills - Crafty Squirrel

Leonie Schroder - Stamp A Latte

Thanks to all of those listed above for the wonderful inspiration they share on their blogs. When my mojo a- go-gos, these are the places I head to so my creative ideas start to flow again!

Hopefully it won't be so long between posts this time - but I'm not promising!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Claire

Two for you ...

Hey there everybody. Too busy for Kristina's colour challenge this week. We had our first Christmas Club on Friday night. It was a great success, really fun and casual, everyone went home with four cards they were very pleased with. We still have a couple of spots remaining, so if you live in southern Tassie, and you would like to come along each 3rd Friday of the month to hang out with a great bunch of ladies and make some gorgeous projects - email me. candpharrison@activ8.net.au

The first thing I have to share today is the first scrapping layout I have done in a *very* long time. I just seem to be caught up in making cards all the time these days, since I became an SU demo. So, in a bid to revive my scrapping mojo I have embarked on an online journalling course. Awesome, amazing and incredibly inspirational would be the words I would use to describe it, four weeks in. The course is called Journalling 101, if you would like to check it out, go here.

Here is my layout for the week 1 assignment, a bit late, but - better late than never! We were challenged to create a layout that told the story of a regular event, the ordinary story. I chose to scrap my little guy's 10th birthday, which happened recently.

Project recipe:

Stamps: Non SU Foam Alphabet Stamps, Short and Sweet

Inks: Real Red

Cardstock: Brilliant Blue 12x12 textured, East Coast Prep DSP, Real Red, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi and More Mustard

Accessories: On Board Lots of Letters, Sponges, Stamp & Write Journaller. Markers, Star Punches, 1/4 " circle punch, Eastern Blooms rub-ons (retired) other rubons.

The second project I have to share was inspired by a tutorial by Michelle Zindorf - you can try the tutorial yourself here . I love my Voila stamp set, but it hasn't seen ink for a while. I went back to Michelle's tutorials to refresh myself on another technique and saw her card. I just *had* to make one! Here's my version;

Project recipe:

Stamps: Voila and Voila a la carte

Inks: Basic Black, So Saffron, Old Olive, Always Artichoke

Cardstock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Pumkin Pie

Accessories: sponges, brayer, markers, ribbon, brads

Techniques: Masking

Thanks so much for dropping by. Please leave a comment, it is so nice to know who has visited.

Claire