Yay Its A Blog Hop!!

We are off on our Blog Hop and I am the first Stop!

To get to know us all a little better we have decided to answer a few fun questions whilst showing a LO or 2 that is typical of our individual style using the "fab" (showing my age there) Scrap FX Chippies and stencils. I do have a tendency to "prattle on" so apologies in advance. I shall try to keep my wordage (is that even a word) down to a minimum but will show some details of my LOs in between questions to relieve the boredom and keep you interested!!!

 So lets get to it shall we?

What is your scrapbook "Kryptonite"? (what style/colour/etc will people never see on your creations because you cannot deal with it???)

Ok, most people that are familiar with me & my style, would probably predict my answer to this question straight away....... no surprises here........ pink, purple and flowers! These totally kill my "Mojo". That is not to say I do not admire others that seem to effortlessly throw flowers on a page, scatter some pinky, purpleness and totally rock the whole pretty thing!!! I love the gorgeousness of it all, but I have to be content just gazing longingly!

What do you listen to or watch while your scrap and WHY?
I love music when I scrap, and listen to a wide variety of artists. However, too many times I have been guilty of missing school pick ups or training ETC ETC because I have been totally absorbed in my little girl cave! So to try and combat that, I have had to make a compromise, so I now listen to the radio instead, so that at regular intervals a strangers' voice will yell the time at me at get me moving!

Do you snack or drink while scrapping? What?
I have been known to completely forget to eat whilst I am on a roll..... yes I do loose myself to the creativity constantly ( or is it that I am very slow at what I do??)!!!
I have been known to keep a sugar stash (Choc covered licorice, any chocolate treat, starburst jelly babies or sour straps) in my room, but do not tell the kids that! The rest of my family (or is it a boy/man thing) seem to go into my room and become disorientated with all the stuff and cannot distinguish edible from craft!! Oh and you will always find a coffee cup and a bottle of water on my desk!!

How do you jump start your creativity when you find that it is missing?
I usually play around with paint/ink or stamps on a few tags/cards or do a page in my art journal, to wake the creative beast within!!

What is your favorite technique(s) to use right now and why?
At the moment I love making my own original backgrounds using all sorts of mediums, inks and paint, not really a technique as such but it is so much fun to splash stuff around to see what happens! The 2 pages I am showing you today are examples of the mess I have been making!




What are some tried and true techniques you love to use?
I would have to say apart from using chipboard, every one of my pages will have stamps and or stencils used on them somewhere. It seems no creation is complete without them!

At what time of day are you most creative, or do you prefer to create?
I am a day time creator! I love natural light and seem to struggle if I need to turn a light on. That is not to say that I do not get anything done at night though as I often have a lightning bolt moment at anytime and have to act on it before I forget it! I have been known to be pleasantly surprised at my nocturnal creations when I revisit them the next morning!!!

What makes your heart race?

Now this is a curly question !!..... made me stop and think........ I am going to have to go with a totally mushy answer and say my Hubby! Even after knowing each other for so long (we met when we were 16) he still rocks my world, do not know what kind of a life it would be without him in it! Yes I am one of the lucky ones who found my soul mate! Yep I here you, Blah Blah Blah!!

Get on with it!

If you were to describe one emotion while scrapbooking, what would it be?

Complete and utter contentment.......scrapping always puts me in my happy place, unless of coarse I am battling with my Mojo then it is the most frustrating place in the world!!!! Growls will be emanating from my girl cave then my family will know to steer clear!

What are you afraid of?
I am going to be terribly truthful here. I have been battling with my confidence for most of my life in everything I do( I am sure I am not the only one). My number one fear is the feeling that I am not "good"enough! This year I have made concrete efforts to combat those feelings and by doing that I have come to realize just how crippling those feelings can be! With my creativeness, I know my "work" is not to everyones' taste nor do I try to compete to be "the Best"! I do my stuff to make me happy and record family moments. I share in the hope of inspiring others and motivate them to do the same! If that means I put myself out there on a limb, however fragile, so be it!!

If you could choose a talent/gift what would it be?
Ok this time I am going with a not so serious "super power" because the last question freaked me out a little with its seriousness! I would choose........ the ability to fly, to soar like an Eagle, to feel that sense of freedom would be amazing!!

So that is the quick quiz done, hope you have enjoyed a little insight!

Now for my latest pages using Scrap FX goodies:

These are the latest school photos of my boys. 

Usually, I stay well away from the school photo thing, but I really liked this lot, and they went with the latest release of chippies so it was meant to be!

I used the graphic circle frame in both pages and combined it with other bits and pieces, 

I hope you like!!

My eldest Kodey, growing up too quick!!! A year 10 fella'!

 And now another page featuring that awesome circle frame:

My youngest Bayley, this is his first year in high school! He loves it, perhaps a little too much?

Now, before you go why not leave a little love to show you have been here? I have a little something to give away to one of my lucky commenters/followers so please let me know you have been! Sorry, no photos yet as the weather has been just too bleak ... not a well lit spot to be had anywhere. If the sun ever shines again I will get a shot together and put my little prize up here. I promise it is a good package.... trust me!!

As I wave you all goodbye be sure you head on back to the Scrap FX Blog blog at the end to leave a little love or head to the Facebook page Scrap FX Australia and like us, or do both to cover all bases!!!! Then you are in the running to win the awesome major prize below!!

You are now headed for the lovely Adrienne where I am sure you will be amazed with her incredible style ( yes I may have a scrap crush!!).

In case you get lost here is the complete list of awesomeness!!

Scrap FX Blog

MICHELLE L

Adrienne

Amy Lynne

Anita

Cindy

Claire

Elisabeth

Maria

Michelle H

Misty

Rachelle

Renata

Scarlett
Scrap FX Blog
or
Scrap FX Australia

Thanks for dropping by, now run along and have some fun!!

Its time for a Scrap FX Blog Hop!

 Yes... we are having a BLOG HOP!!!!!!

Be sure to get back to us later in the week to join in the fun…. 

we guarantee an inspirational, insightful and creative good time!!!

Want to get to know a little more about our fantabulous Design Team?

Want a chance to win an awesome product pack of Scrap FX goodies to try out?

If you have answered a big yes to either one of these questions, you simply must come and join in the fun!

Just by visiting truly inspirational Blogs and learning what makes our Designers tick,

 you could have the chance to get your hands on the Scrap FX products that they have been having fun with!

The hop starts 9am Friday 17th May and runs through till Midnight Monday 20th (Eastern Australian Time),

plenty of time to relax and enjoy the ride!

Hope to see you all then!!!

"New Scrap FX Playthings"

So I have been playing with the new releases from Scrap FX, and loved every minute of it!
I have also been doing a little cleaning up around here as we move our youngest form his small bed room to the larger spare room. In the process have found a heap of stuff that I am reluctant to throw! So I have decided to experiment a little, and share the successes here.

My first grand experiment was using a bottle of miracle bubbles found under a pile of old kinder stuff! What to do?...... what to do?
Blow bubbles of course! This is messy, but the the fun and results were worth it!!
I created a background I really like and my room now smells of bubblegum.... sweet!
Here is the page I created:

So how do bubbles become coloured?

You spray some mist into it thats how, just 1 or 2 squirts will give you enough for the pastel look I have created here. For more intense colour add a few more squirts. I put a little bubble mix into several small bowls and mixed away. For this LO I used Dylusions and a Tattered Angels spray as a comparison and both sprays work really well, so I would say you could use whatever you have on hand.

However I highly recommend you do this outside as it can be messy as the bubbles burst beyond all control!!

Just dip the wand in the bubble mix, stand over your page and blow. Do not worry about the drips or the burst bubbles, they add to the effect. I found if you want really defined, round shapes you have to use the miracle bubble mix, it is thicker and the bubble will hold its shape better and longer.

For this page I used the sprays with stencils to add to my background.

I used embossing powder on the chipboard then more of the coloured bubble mix blown and dripped onto it for a coordinated effect!

So that is my experiment, what have you tried? Would love to see what others do when they get their hands on everyday things!
Thanks for dropping by and hope this inspires you all to play!!

Scrapfriends Sketch Challenge #12

Back again!
This time with my take on this fab sketch over at ScrapFriends. Just love doing their sketches!!

So here is my effort:

My Boy Kodey taken this summer.

A few details for you:

I also used a new release from ScrapFX (the corner chippie) and their totally awesome urban stencil again!!!!
Thanks for calling in!

123 April Challenge

It has been a while since I have done a 123 challenge, so after stumbling back onto the site I had to give it a go!
 Here is the challenge: use Duck egg blue, the word "today" and the technique "white wash".

To me this challenge screamed beach!!

 I used a load of embellishments that were metal, plastic and chipboard, when you do this sort of technique try to disregard the colour, go for the texture and shape that the embellishment will add!
I took the whole "white wash" thing very literally, coating my whole page in Gesso then applying the colour till I was happy with it!

After adding the colour with mists I then went back over pieces with the Gesso to highlight, but it still needed something more, so I used a silver metallic rub on in places to bring out the texture.

I used embossing powder on the Title then threw a few liquid pearls around! The teal tape on the photo is from Sawyers Place, it almost looks like a Dymo label!
All the large shells are from Scrap FX and so is the chipboard alpha and speech bubble!
Thanks for stopping by!

A Recycled Art Journal

I have been working on altering this old book I bought from a market a few weeks ago. It is actually a home improvement manual from the 60's and I really do not know why I grabbed it originally. I guess I liked the size and some of the illustrations and colours!
Anyway, I have had a play, inside and out, and thought I would share what has been taking up so much of my time!

This is the front cover:

Here is the back cover, I got a little messy with the binding but I thought it will only get worse once I start using it anyway!

And now the first page done!!!

 Really liked how it turned out really, loads of paint and love how that arrow on the tissue looks like it is coming out of the building, purely coincidental!!

    

The second page did not flow as well as the first! Lost my Mojo half way through!

It was fun to create even though I am not overly happy with it..... move on!!

      

There you have it been very messy around here!!!

Thanks so much for dropping by!!

"A Quick Share!"

Hi all!
April already? The year is going just so quick, it makes my head spin just thinking about it! So I just will not think from now on and live in my own happy place!
I have not been ignoring you all I have been enjoying some family time and as a result have a ton of photos, so more scrappin' will have to be done, YAY:)
I just thought I would do a quick catch up on some stuff that I have done but did not have much time to "blog it". So here goes:

I did this page for Scrap FX, using the new scribbles range. Totally adore so many of these I am sure will be showing more in the coming weeks after I have "bonded" a little more. The large heart here I just fell in love with and had to use straight away. This was one of my fastest pages ever, but I think I ruined it a little with my hasty journalling!!! DOH! I still kinda like it though.

Now this next one was done as a total experiment, did not really turn out the way I pictured it in my head but hey, as I said, I have to stop thinking!

Used a load of paint and mist on this one, and unlike the one before, this one took a while. Found out it is really hard to cluster things with no regard for the colours just the textures and shapes!!!! Once I refine this technique a little more I may even do a little tutorial if anyone is interested..... if I can remember to take step by step photos!!!
That is about it for the moment will be back very soon with some shots of my journal I am working on, I am recycling!!!!! Intrigued? Drop back in sometime and see!
Hugs to all,