Challenge Entries

OK... I'm fulfilling two completely separate challenges here because I can.


The first is a "Three-Way Challenge" between myself and two very good scrapping friends of mine. It's an idea I came up with based on a similar challenge I have seen in Scrapbooking Magazines where you are all given the same photo and told to scrap it. We went one step further and the three of us each printed three copies of one or two photos, then we traded the photos so that we each ended up with three different sets of photos. We then brought them home to scrapbook. We have until early March to get them done when we will trade back the completed pages.


The second challenge is the Scrapdango Sketch Contest on the Page Maps Blog.
I have scrapped all three pages using the same sketch, both to enter into the contest and also to prove how versatile one sketch can be, even when used by the same scrapper.


The sketch I worked from (including the prize for the contest above the sketch):

Here are the layouts:


"Mum"

This is my good friend Glenna's mother. The journalling reads "Beach Front Photo Shoot".


"Princess Grumpy"

This is my good friend Tania's niece Brooke on her third birthday. The journalling reads "Brooke really wasn't happy about having her photo taken on her 3rd birthday, despite looking like a beautiful Fairy Princess." I love the way the patterned paper looks like an extension of her fairy wings from the placement of the photo.


"Those 70's Sisters"

This was one of my photos (I didn't use the second photo because I loved this one too much on its own.) Having seen the other ladies' photos I would have preferred printing my one a little larger, but knew I had to stick with what I had as that was all the others had to utilise.
The journalling reads "Circa 1973/4. Photo by Granddad Wilson. Digitised from slide by Uncle Bill Wilson. Scrapbooked 19.20.2010"
The title was stickers and rub-ons on a hand cut transparency journal block.


Aside from the sketch I also wanted to utilise some other commonalities across all three layouts. These were:

1. Use of hand stitching - a personal favourite technique of mine
2. Use of ribbons in particular as right hand edge for photo - because both my friends love ribbons but most especially Tania
3. Use of flowers as Glenna is definitely a flower lady and I love the way she uses flowers on her layouts

Valentine's Cards

As the finances are a lot tight at the moment and because I am a crafter (Hello) I made all the family Valentine's Cards this year. 
Except for the card bases everything was from my scraps or leftover embellishments (don't tell them that though and they'll never know).

Be Mine - for DH Pete
Valentine Babe - for Grand Daughter Sonia Marie
Love - for Step Son Kurt
Hearts - for Step Daughter Alysha
All My Love - For Step Daughter Lavinia


Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. I hope you have a wonderful day and you get to spend some time with those you love and care about the most.


Paula
xoxoxox

Birthday Cards

Ok so I missed a couple of birthdays already this year but I have finally started into the card making process. One of these two is for a belated gift for my nephew Jordan and the other is for his younger brother Dallas who is a leap day baby. I'm just waiting for their presents to arrive then I will post everything away.


Jordan's card has a removable double-sided skull & cross bones that he can hang on his wall or from a hook or the like. Dallas is a little young (he's just about to turn 2) but I have a year to think of a really cool card for him ;-)

The other side of the skull & cross bones.

First Digi-Scrapping Competition

OK.. so its been a while since I visited and even longer since I posted, but I have been busy... I just can't show you everything that I have been working on YET!!!

I am in a Kiwiana charm swap with some of my scrapping girlfriends and as I know they look at my blog, I am under threat of death for posting pictures before the charms are handed over. Suffice it to say, they are SOOOOO CUUUUUUTE!!

Sorry but you will have to wait.

What I can show you though is my first entry into Round 1 of the goDigitalScrapbooking.com "Supreme Team IX Contest". We were all given the kit Sew Chic which you can buy through the GDS shop at http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&cPath=29_132&products_id=6019 to create a single 12" x 12" layout, using only the kit and our digi-scrapping software and the default tools it includes.

I have just posted my entry in their gallery and you can check out my competition at GDS Gallery.

Here is my entry anyway - "Million Dollar Baby"

I used the kit "Sew Chic" - no extras allowed.
Software:
For photos - Photoscape (Freeware)
For Digi-Scrapping - Paint.NET (Freeware)


I used three of the patterned papers in the kit layered on top of each other. The bottom was left as it came, the second was placed as an overlay, the third an overlay with a slight colour burn to enhance brownish tones.


I created a double layer of the photo, the bottom layer in sepia tones, then removed the bits other than the purple flowers to give me a colour highlighted photo. 


For the background I added a frame and then blended it into the background as well as changing the opacity of the photo so it became like a transparency.


I enlarge the frame, rotated it and added it to the main photo, then later added a facet gemstone which I had recoloured to match the flowers.


I added the various elements to which I: rotated, resized, changed tone, adjusted brightness & contrast, recoloured, adjusted hue, saturation and light, erased bits to make some elements look like they were behind others (especially the flowers and leaves behind the tape measure).


I then added the title (Font - Adler) in two colours, with the top colour slightly offset from the bottom colour.


Yes it took absolutely ages, but then I have to admit that 90% - 95% of the techniques I tried with this, I HAD NEVER DONE BEFORE... and it was only after I looked to see what other's had done (checked out the competition) that I decided some serious experimentation was in order.


First time for me:

• Using layers
• Recolouring
• Adjusting anything such as hue, tone, brightness - other than to correct colour in a photo
• First time using overlays & colour burns (still not 100% what this really is but I loved the effect so kept it)
• Erasing
• Using a kit from a digital scrapbook shop (Other than freebies and TLC's Lifetimes supplied papers etc).
• Flattening pages

Yes I have loved every minute of it.

Yes I was surprised at how long it took me, but much of that was familiarizing myself with the software and self-teaching how to use the thing. It will get easier as I get more familiar with it.

No digital scrapbooking doesn't have to be expensive - you can do it all completely with FREEBIES - including the software you use to create your pages as well as the patterned paper & elements etc that you use "on" your page.

Will I do it again YES.

Will I convert from paper to digi-scrapping, NO - I still love the feel of paper and smell of glue and the feel of stuff stuck to my fingers and inks and embellishments and brads and..... ALL OF IT!!!!

Watch this space for news - good and bad - of how round one goes. There are four rounds in total so fingers crossed it may be a busy digi-scrapping month for me.

Crafting Over Christmas

Hi all,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, allbeit a bit late now.

Well I have recovered from the Christmas Craft Challenge for 2009 and although I haven't actually started planning it yet I am happy to say that I have convinced myself (and hopefully one or two others) to repeat it all again this year for Christmas 2010 only this year we will NOT leaving the planning until the two weeks before December.

I had a very nice Christmas break. We went away camping, limited cellphone reception and no internet access so it was a complete technology break (except for my ipod which I did take, though don't recall actually listening to) however I did manage to get some scrapbooking done even by the light of the old faithful gas lamp on a couple of occassions. 

I pre-prepared some layouts that I wanted to do some handsewing on, then took my needle and thread and just relaxed as I sewed my heart out. Here are the projects I managed to complete while camping in a tent in a camping ground with hundreds of other people.

Baby's First Christmas: Sonia-Marie pre-Christmas preparations including her first visit to get a photograph taken with Santa and dressing the Christmas Tree.

My First Toothbrush: At eight months Sonia-Marie already has six teeth and I couldn't resist taking pictures of her "cleaning" her teeth (even though it looks more like she is just eating the toothbrush lol).

Beer Babes Hic:
My nephews Jordan and Dallas and the incriminating evidence that will no doubt turn up on their 21st birthdays showing them "drinking" at an early age.

No Man Is An Island:
Kurt in the middle of the bay at Wenderholm Park

Relaxing Southern Style:

Pete relaxing during a visit to my parents in Christchurch.

Christmas Craft Challenge - Day 24

At last we are here. It is the day of Christmas Eve and I have just put the finishing touches on my final craft items. This has been somewhat of an emotional 24 hours for me as these have turned out to be quite poignant for me. It is something I have wanted to do for a long time but either run out of time or just had no idea what or how I wanted to do it, so if nothing else, this Christmas Craft Challenge has at least inspired me to finally do something about it.

I have mentioned in a previous blog about this being a time to remember those who can't be with us on this the most family orientated day of the year. We can't always be with the ones we love maybe due to distance or circumstance and some we will never be able to share the joys of Christmas again as they have passd on. I think that Christmas is certainly one of the times when memories of past times seem to flood back and overwhelm us and we miss those gone from us even more.

I wanted to create something to remind us of the people we have lost who were so dear to us that we could put up on our Christmas Tree so they could share in the Christmas spirit with the rest of the family. So I have created a set of memorial heart ornaments. It's not complete, it is missing four that I know of, that unfortunately I didn't get photos of in time - my paternal grandparents Eric & Rachel Swanston and Eric's second wife Holly and my cousin Blair, who I never had the opportunity to meet. Hopefully they will join our tree for next Christmas.

For this year I share the following family members who will be on our tree (very shortly).

Granny Anne Lake - she was my step-children's maternal Great Grandmother, who passed away only a couple of years ago.

Sonia-Ann Sumbler-Lynne, Pete's first wife and mother of his three children, Lavinia, Alysha & Kurt

 













Peter Russell Lynne (known as Russell), Lucy's second husband and Pete's father. Poppa to my step children.

Lillian Mary Wilson (nee Walker) my maternal grandmother.

I was probably about 25 or so when she told me she had never been given a soft toy as a present as they had not been around when she was younger. So every year from then until her passing I gave her a Farmer's Santa Bear for Christmas.

Graham Barraclough Wilson, my maternal Grandfather. He was a carpenter by trade and was known to spantaneously burst into song at any stage. He loved photography and I am truly grateful to have been given all his camera gear which I hope to restore with some TLC.

I cried a lot while making these (and while writing this blog) remembering how special these people were to me in one way or another. They have all played an important part in my life whether they know it or not and I am grateful to them for the gifts they have bestowed upon me.

Finally I would like to thank everyone who participated in the Christmas Craft Challenge as well as those who just popped by to read my blog as well as anyone else's. It has been an interesting challenge, perhaps a bit more than I thought it would require but I have loved every minute of it.

I have gone back to the roots of my crafting, lots of glue and paint and foam and felt rather than just patterned paper and adhesive. At times I have felt like a kid again and I have enjoyed that immensely, just as I have enjoyed some of the more grown-up and sophisticated creations.

I'm already thinking about next year's Christmas Craft Challenge - NO I didn't learn my lesson, YES I am doing it again, only this time we ALL have 12 months to plan our creations and perhaps start them a little bit earlier this year lol.

I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas with your family and friends. I look forward to seeing more of your creations in the New Year, but for now it is goodbye I'm off to set up my tent in a craft-free zone, though I think I will take some magazines for some research.

Paula xxxxx

Christmas Craft Challenge - Day 23

Today it was another item that I saw and just loved. What made it even nicer was that I was able to use up some of the scraps from an earlier challenge item so that this coordinates quite nicely as well.

Candle, Cardstock, Patterned Paper, Double Sided Tape, Flowers, Rhinestone Heart & Word