Cutting it fine

There is nothing like a last minute piece of inspiration and a looming deadline to get the scrap juices flowing.  I honestly didn't think I would get any more challenges done for the month of August but, thanks to a major meltdown by my youngest son late this afternoon, I found the inspiration for a last minute attempt at a layout for the August challenge at Scrap the Boys.
This month the challenge was to create a layout with a monochromatic colour scheme as well as using chipboard and twine. Tick all three boxes with this:

I raided my stash and found some chipboard circles and arrows that I completely forget I even had - blame it on my more recent love of anything wood veneer ;) I covered the circles with off cuts of the patterned papers used behind the photo.  
And some close ups of the details:

And some close-ups:

I pulled out my trust old typewriter to do the journalling. You also get a closer look at the chipboard circles too:

And of course, a layout wouldn't be complete without splatters of mist and My Mind's Eye Enamel Dots.

So that's it. Told you I was cutting it fine - deadline is midnight.

S xoxoxo

I Love a Good Challenge

And what better way to challenge myself than pay a visit to Scrapbooking From Scratch to see what mischief and mayhem Peta and the girls are up to this month. Each month there are three challenges to play with - a quote challenge, a sketch challenge and a colour challenge. I decided to tackle Donna's quote challenge first which asked us to use this quote: 'A smile is the prettiest thing you can wear'.
When I first saw the quote I was a bit 'hmmmmmmmmm' as I wasn't sure if I could make it work with boy photos but it didn't take me long to get something sorted ... even if I did twist up the quote a bit ;)

And some close ups:

My twist on the journalling:

Now I have this challenge done, I am off to check out what's next.
Catch you soon.
S xoxoxox

Switching it Up

Project Life is the buzz of the scrapping world these days. It seems everywhere you look a large percentage of scrapping manufacturers are bringing out their own 'PL' style products. When I first started reading about PL I was not really taken in by it. It seemed to be something that you had to do every day and that was an immediate turn off for me as there are times that I don't touch my camera for weeks. We recently bought an off-read camping trailer and went on our first big trip. Needless to say, I took LOTS of photos which meant that I needed to switch up how I would scrap them. After lots of deliberation, I finally decided to give the PL thing a go, even if I was putting my own little spin on it. I am making slow progress but eventually, the plan is to have at least one 12x12 PL-style layout for each day of our trip.  So far I have completed Days One, Two and Three.
Day One

 A pretty simple start. I didn't take many photos on the first day of our trip as most of it was spent in the car.

 In one of the inserts, I included a map of Queensland that I printed off the internet. The heart is over my home town and the wood veneer stars represent every town that we camped at during our trip. I thought it would be a different way of making a note of all the places visited.
Day Two was spent in the town of Mitchell. One of the things the town is most famous for is the Artesian Spa. Underneath most of inland Australia is a vast body of water which is referred to as the Great Artesian Basin. The water that is pumped directly from the basin in warm so Mitchell has made the most of this by creating a swimming complex with the water flowing directly from a pipe into a pool. The boys spent hours relaxing in the warm water.

 A close up of Day Two:

Day Three was one of our biggest days of driving and as you can see on the photo we covered 614kms which represented almost 8 1/2 hours in the car. Luckily the boys have their own iPods so they kept themselves occupied playing games, making videos of their trip and listening to music.  

A closeup of of Day Three - love the white alpha stickers from Basic Grey.

A look at Days Two and Three as they will appear in the album:

So that's my attempt at PL so far. Lots of thinking and planning to do over the coming layouts as I am going to need multiple pages for the one day.

Thanks for stopping by

S xoxoxox

Challenge Yourself with SFS

Peta and her very talented design team have some awesome challenges going this month. First up is Donna's Sketch Challenge:

I flipped the sketch and added another layer or two to come up with this:

Next up was Anita's challenge where we had to use the following quote: Family ... where life begins and love never ends. I used a photo from our recent holiday where we spent a few days in Rockhampton with my brother, sister-in-law and their children. Mitch and Lachie LOVED catching up with their cousins.

My final SFS challenge for the month was Charm's Colour Challenge where we had to use the following colours: aqua, teal, robin's egg blue, white with splashes of brown or black also allowed. I am really happy with how this layout turned out. I was flicking through Mercy Tiara's blog and came across a post where she talked about 'deconstructed' layouts - basically it means spreading the patterned paper around the layout instead of creating layers.

Yay, that is me all caught up ... for now. I might have to see what other challenges are floating around out there in cyberland and give them a go ;)
Take care
S xoxox

Just for the Fun of It

Sometimes, I love nothing better than forgetting about all the 'real' work that needs to be done and the fact that I need a decent sleep (always helps if you want to function in class the next day). These days will find me at my desk surrounded by papers and embellishments well into the night. Sometimes, I need to play with pretty paper just to forget about life, sometimes I need to play with pretty paper just to relax and sometimes I need to play with pretty paper just for the fun of it.  Today I want to share three 'just for the fun of it' layouts.
Layout One: So Totally You

Yep this is our Lachlan alright. Nothing else to say really.
Layout Two: Rear View Mirror

Just quietly, this is one of my favourite layouts from the last few months ;)
Layout Three: Love this Smile

Definitely one of my favourite pictures of Mitchell so far this year and I decided to use it for my take on this month's challenge over at Scrap the Boys.
Til next time.
S xoxoxo

An 'Extraordinary' Challenge

This month over at the 1, 2, 3 Challenge blog scrappers were asked to use the colour navy, the word extraordinary and the technique denim. I have only just realised that navy doesn't really make much of an appearance on my layout - not sure where I went wrong with that.

One of the very few patches of navy ;)

Thanks for stopping by.
S xoxo

Catching Up

Now that exams and report card writing is out of the way for another semester, I have finally found time to update my very neglected blog. The last month has been filled with a mountain of marking, report card writing, a caravan trip and getting re-settled into another semester of school. In all of the business, I found snippets of time to scrap which means that I have a bit of show and tell. There are too many to share in one layout, so forgive me for inundating your blog feed this week ;)
Layout One: Spending Time with You

It's no secret that the boys love spending time with Tony around the farm. Between school work and their various sporting activities, they don't get to spend much time with him during the school week, but as soon as weekend sport is done they are out the door quicker than anything. I love the bond the three of them have.

Layout Two: So Happy Together

Lachie is going through a 'I want to be just like Daddy' phase at the moment - well if truth be told, both boys want to be just like their father. I don't think there is any doubt that both of them will end up farming in some shape of form in the future.

Layout Three: Adorable You

I will be honest with you, I am not totally happy with this layout as it didn't turn out like I imagined it. Not to worry though, that happens sometimes.

Ok, that is the first lot of shares done. I will be back again soon.

Have a great day,

S xoxo