Post 250 - Who wants candy?

Finally the milestone is reached... blog post number 250!!!

Lots to share with you...
Firstly thank you for reading and following my blog. It's really been a pleasure sharing my crafting with you. Everyone who reads my humble blog continues to inspire me to keep creating, keep experimenting and keep sharing and I am truly grateful to each and every one of you for that. It doesn't matter if you are a dedicated follower or you just happen to stumble on by some random hand of fate, I really do appreciate that you've taken time out of your busy day to spend some time here... thank you one and all.

I really can't believe I've reached this milestone. I know there are patches of irregular blog posting and then I have my patches of dedicated daily posting - especially during my annual Christmas Craft Challenge. My life seems to rarely run smoothly and my blog, like my life, needs to be flexible and able to move with the ebb and flow of reality, but I made it this far and I am so damned proud of myself for sticking with this, when so many others try and give up.

Anyway...
Firstly, or really secondly after patting myself on the back, I want to share the results of the classes I taught up at the Caz Dezign Scrap Retreat. I created a sample page... the original blog posting is here... but knew that I wanted to create something a little different on the day. Even though the classes were themed "Halloween", as it's a holiday we don't really celebrate here in New Zealand, I wanted to show that the same page layout could be used for any theme because really the classes were all about the techniques and sharing my love of some totally cool tools, which I need to create a "My Favourite Tools" post about.

Both the tag and layout were all about using Tim Holtz Distress Inks, which I totally love and how versatile these inks really are. One of the reasons I love them so much is that you can create totally unique, personalised backgrounds for your photos without too much effort. I also love the intensity of the colours that can be achieved as this is something truly dear to my heart. I've said it before and I will say it again... I'm NOT a pastel person. Sorry if you are... I'm just not. I love my colours to be big and bold and bright and intense and stand out and just say I'M HERE!!! (A bit like me at times!!).

Anyway...
I am also a HUGE True Blood Fan. I've seen every episode of every season of the HBO show. I've read each of the True Blood books that Charlaine Harris has written at least four times (and there are a dozen or so books). The wallpaper on my laptop is True Blood, I own the first three season on DVD (soon to buy season four)... so yes I am a fan!!

I decided a while ago that I wanted to scrap some pages, purely for my own indulgence of my favourite show and it's characters. So every now and then I look for photos from the show and download them for later use. On one of these googling sessions, I found an incredible wallpaper/photograph on the HBO official website of the the main character Sookie Stackhouse (played by the adorable Anna Paquin) surrounded by three hotties... the three men in her life in the show - Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard), Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) and Alcide Herveaux (Joe Manganiello). I just knew this photo would be in my fantasy album!! This was the photo I took along to scrap for the class as I knew the techniques I was going to demonstrate would be perfect for the photo in question.

So here is the end result...

 Completed layout

 Embellishment grouping - flowers and rosettes created using Sizzix Tim Holtz dies.

The tag created in the first class and added to the layout in the second class.

I really think this layout turned out better than I had hoped for. The colours are amazing and despite the intensity, still allow the photo to stand out itself.

Here are the original and the one created in class...

And now for the good bit...

To celebrate this milestone blog - post number 250 - I am going to give away some blog candy. 

I will be adding some more goodies to the stash, but for now, hopefully that grabs your interest.

In order to go into the draw you need to do the following:

1. Follow my blog - just simply click on follow on the right hand side of the blog if you are not already a follower.
2. Like me on Facebook - Scrap FX
3. Leave a comment on this post to let me know you have entered the draw.

I will draw a name at random on Saturday 20th October 2012 and post the winner's name. Good luck and thank you for joining me for this celebration.

I love you all xxooxx