Colour Challenge anyone???

Last weekend, I completed the third monthly challenge over at Scrapbooking from Scratch - Donna's Colour Challenge. This was the colour palette she challenged us with was this:

Of course, I took the colours in a totally different direction and eliminated two of them and came up with this:

I am actually quite happy with how this has panned out, especially the splashes of colour. A bit darker than the shades from the inspiration pic but works for me ;)
And some closeups: 

I am loving clustering at the moment. Here I have used a combination of October Afternoon, Elle's Studio, My Mind's Eye and Studio Calico. 

I am thinking that I will save the colour palette and try it using some girly pictures.  I would love to see your take on the challenge - feel free to leave a comment with a link :)
S xoxoxox

Big Shoes to Fill

I used the March Sketch Challenge over at Scrapbooking from Scratch as the inspiration for another layout for Mitchell's album. The sketch looked like this:

And, as per usual, I have flipped it and left things out to come up with this: 

The title refers to the fact that Mitchell needed Size 8 Men's shoes at the start of this year. Size 8 and he is only 10??!! Now his foot is officially bigger than both of his grandmother's and he is well on the way to being able to fit into my shoes.  In the journalling, I have pondered the question of just how big his feet will be in 5 years time. I have a sneaking suspicion I am going to kept poor buying shoes for our biggest little man ;) The background paper is from an older October Afternoon line and I found the text quite distracting. My solution was to smear a thin layout of paint over it using an old plastic card. I then used mist over the top but that went a bit haywire. Lucky for me a baby wipe cleared most of it off. Take two worked much better.

When I printed the photo, I knew I wanted to feature the number '8' somewhere on the layout but didn't want to make it a focal point. This numbered grid paper from the B Side of an older Echo Park collection was perfect for making a record of Mitch's shoe size. 

I really loved this sketch and will definitely be using it again.
S xoxo

Every Summer has a Story ...

was the quote that we had to use for this month's Scrapbooking from Scratch (SFS) Quote Challenge. In our house summer is full of different stories, and almost all of them involve swimming. Rather do yet another layout of swimming carnivals or training, I decided to use some photos from Mitchell's birthday party last December.

And some close-ups: 

I will be back tomorrow with more shares from some of the other challenges over at  SFS.

S xoxoxo

Getting my Challenge On

In between the mundane routine that is a typical weekend, I set time aside to complete a few scrapping challenges.  I managed to complete 4 layouts over the last two days which is not bad considering the amount of distractions I had with Tony and the boys still busy with the harvest. My first share is the March Savvy Sketch with a Twist challenge using this sketch:

I flipped it, moved the title and hid the journalling behind the photo to come up with this:

On afternoon earlier this year, the boys and I were talking about what it mean to have a goal. Mitchell asked if he was allowed to choose a goal for the 2013 school year. Of course, I was interested to hear what he had to say so I let him think about it and choose a few different ones. At the top of his list was his plan to get an 'A' for behaviour on both report cards this year. So far, he is well on his way to achieving this goal. Not to be outdone, Lachlan quickly set some goals of his own - the most important one being his plan to improve reading. I was pretty pleased to hear him say this as reading is one of the biggest things he struggled with last year.  I love that both boys are so keen to be responsible for their learning and behaviour at school. Let's hope it continues for the rest of their time at school.

And a close-up: 

Totally loving matching all of the different shades of green that have been slowly making their way into my stash. The ones on this layout are from Heidi Swapp, October Afternoon and lovely, lovely new chevron vellum from Dear Lizzy for American Crafts.

Stay tuned for some more shares throughout the week.

S xoxoxo

Stuck?! Again

The second sketch challenge for Stuck?! Sketches was posted on their blog earlier over the past weekend. As always, it is a very versatile sketch:

The whole two small photos on a layout is really appealing to me at the moment but I decided to mix it up a bit this time and not scrap the boys - shock horror! Here is what I came up with:

And some close-ups:

I think I am finally starting to get the hang of layering ;) 

In other news, I have finally managed to clear my desk of the mountain of marking that has been parked there over the last fortnight and there are just enough days left in the month to see what other challenges are out there ... off to search the web I go.
Thanks for stopping by
S xoxoxo

More swimming

Just when I thought I couldn't scrap anymore swimming photos (who am I kidding, I have a stack waiting to be scrapped), I decided to scrap some more of Lachie using the Scrap the Boys criteria again to see if I could come up with something totally different to my official entry.

And some close-ups: 

 Now I am second guessing myself and I am seriously thinking that I should have used this as the entry for Scrap the Boys this month. Oh well, what matters most is that it is another layout for the album.
Thanks for stopping by.
S xoxo

Scrap the Boys

The criteria for Scrap the Boys this month asked us to use 2 photos (6x4 or smaller), chipboard, washi tape, and mists/paints.  I decided to use some more photos of Lachlan from his time playing in the flood waters earlier this year. Here is what I came up with:

 And some closeups:

The 'love' here is from a sizzix die. It was cut using chipboard and I painted over it using one of the mists I used to created the splattered background with - from memory it is Tattered Angels 'Coffee Shoppe'. In this closeup you can also see some of the Pink Paislee mistable chipboard shapes which I have left unmisted/uninked.

I found an old October Afternoon chipboard in my stash and cut it in half to tuck in behind each of the photos on the layout. There is also another one of the Pink Paislee mistable shapes, although I inked it this time.

Another chipboard frame with yet another Pink Paislee chipboard mistable heart. 
Think I have the got the whole chipboard criteria-thing taken care of with this layout ;) As for the rest of the criteria: 2 photos - check; washi tape - check (used Pink Paislee and October Afternoon here); paint/mist - check.
Thanks for stopping by.
S xoxoxo