Wednesday 28 September 2016

Scrappy Camp: The Inside Story...

Why do we call it CAMP? There are no tents (ughhh!) or fires (double ughh!) involved.
Only air con, & for SOME of us, King beds (NOT shared. Hmmmff!) & en-suite bathrooms...
While Bec & I 'slummed it' in this room (winks!!)... & had to go down the hall to the loo.. Oh! The Hardship, giggles....
And it was hardly a "Retreat" in the sense of someone else organising it & we paying a pile of money to attend, either.
I dunno what to call it. But it was gooooood.

Mary, Cheryl, Bec, Jo & I gathered from the far flung corners of NSW at Leura in the Blue Mountains from Friday through Monday. Then dragged ourselves back to Real Life...
Would have preferred this for a tad longer:
Yummies!
I travelled lightly by train, but luckily the girls came bearing gifts of food, linen & scrap supplies.
The person who brought her SEWING MACHINE (but not the kitchen sink) shall remain nameless...
I didn't say FACELESS!!!
We could 'share' a technique, idea etc. I shared how I created a canvas, which Cheryl (Ooops.... not nameless now...) is doing here. It warmed up enough one morning to get outside & create.
Bec hard at it...
Mary & Jo...
We learnt a pop up card technique- which may have taken a wrong turn...
Set up 'sad' photos are such fun! We also learnt how to make felt. MORE FUN!
You get this combed wool & rub it with detergent between netting until all the fibres 'meld' & basically that's it!!
Cool, huh?
I hope Cheryl doesn't mind me sharing.... She die cut her felt & created these:
Amazing, eh?
Mary thoughtfully brought her selfie stick which we surprisingly quickly (sort of) mastered:
Took me over an hour to photograph the 19 pages, 3 cards & 1 (unfinished!) canvas I completed. Now to edit them. GROOOAN.
Meanwhile, since I arrived early at Leura & they have SPRING FLOWERS & BEES up there ( that's the only down side of coastal living)...
...I flitted from one side of the road to t'other walking to our accommodation madly ooh-ing & aah-ing & taking photos.
Then I had time for lunch.
Before anyone else arrived:
Typical Aussie 'pub'- The Alexandra...
Love my lemon, lime & bitters!
And I 'found' a waterfall the other side of Leura, after walking past these:
Dunno the name? Way pretty...
Spot the bee!!!!
Pretty houses & magnolia tree..
Blossom everywhere gave way to this:
Bit more rugged!
Steeper than they looked!
Babies @ the Waterfall!!!
So, sadly it was hello & goodbye from Leura.
And the footwear we basically lived in:
[I'm the fluffy reddish ones!!!]
Some of our bits...
Need I say more?
Hard at it!
Of course, there was Secret Santa!
Yup! Even the Old Fella made an appearance;)
Cheers for now & Happy Scrapping ~ Lizzy xo

Sunday 25 September 2016

While the Cat's Away....

.... there's a scheduled post! Giggles. With no mice in sight. I hope. Goodness knows
what sort of a mess the DH is making in the kitchen while I'm not home.
The mice MIGHT come out to eat!!
But of course, I DON'T CARE!!!!
Besides, I suspect I'll be making a slight [cough!] SCRAPPY mess myself.
I won't list what I managed to fit into one bag for the train to the Blue Mountains.
Put it this way, my scrappy mates who drove have provided me with linen and food.
Because, as we all know - it's MUCH more important to pack SCRAP SUPPLIES!!!!!!

Anyways, I digress.
Onto a previously unsighted page. Photos in no particular order
[actually, it's how Blogger downloaded them!]:
 This was taken when my DIL & son & family went over to NZ. They went camping.
 And since I'm on 'scrap camp', I figured this was appropriate!!!
As usual, old papers, ancient flair mixed with punched hearts & newer puffy stickers!
 Hmmmn....if THIS photo had popped up first it would've saved me a few words!!!
 The gold doily was from K-Mart. They have some cool stuff - you've just gotta keep
 a check on it. Bit like the Reject Shop!
 Little off cuts of pp make great 'backing' for clusters!
Didn't bother with a title....sometimes I think when I journal, that's the place a title
might go, but if it's one or t'other....then journaling will win. There's no 'rule' to say
you must have a title, is there??!!!!
Please note the VERY busy bg patterned paper.
That's why the rest of this page is relatively 'simple'.
And that's because ....well...keep reading!

For scrap retreat, I made up 20 kits. Yes, TWENTY! Goodness knows if I'll scrap them
all. But I can do the rest at home. This means, as above, I'm scratching at the
bottom of the pile, so to speak. What pile? This one:
Top L is all the patterned paper I have left. Top R is a small pile as well.
That's IT! NO OTHER PP in my stash
The cardboard stock - 2nd shelf down on
 the R is healthy enough.
This is now my aim. I'm going to start on the cardstock.
LOOK OUT....I'm going to
make 'coloured' bg's popular again, giggles.......
AND for pp, I'm going to start using
up my 6x6 paper pads. We'll see how we go, eh??!!!!!!
And if you look down to the bottom R ink sprays shelf, I should be able to make my OWN
bg designs for a whiles anyways!!!
And if you're a real 'sticky beak' like me, on top of this cupboard, you'll see the flowers?
That, my friends, is my COMPLETE flower stash.
Shock? Horror? Applause??!!!!
On that note....bye!
Hope you're having as good a weekend as I intend having!!!
EXCITED MUUUUUUUCH....
Blessings ~ Lizzy ♥♥♥

Wednesday 21 September 2016

FUNKY FLAIRS September EXTRA ~ My Boy:

Well...not really MY boy. My Grand Boy #2. Sleeping.
Gotta love that!
Sharing with you my FUNKY FLAIRS STUDIO mid month inspiration:

I was tickled pink with the way this LO turned out! Once again, I've used the plastic
shopping bag I got when I was doing my Kaiser Craft shopping in January! I've sewn
it onto a backing of vellum before attaching to my page.
Sometimes it's nice to do something a bit 'different'!
I've also punched out some vellum for behind that yummy metallic 'love' Funky Flair.
The other flair is up the top of the page, with another bit of cut up plastic bag:
Cool flair, eh? LOOOVE the softness of the gold and the 'distressed' design :)
Oh! And these papers are all Kaiser Craft too.....
The other Funky Flairs product I used were the word stickers:
 The 'nap time' was done on the photo editing program 'Little Moments' that I use.
The 'I love you' is Funky Flairs. The 'cutie' a Kaiser Craft sticker.
I think the silver clear backed stickers are my faves. Magical!
So, that's it from me. VERY happy to have this cute photo scrapped!
Thanks for checking it out, & as always ~ Happy Scrapping!!!
Lizzy ♥♥♥

Sunday 18 September 2016

Catch up....

Oh MY! Amazing how much LESS one blogs when one doesn't have a myriad
of Challenges to load up!
Strangely, I actually won a couple that I just found out about. Over at 1,2,3 Challenge
& at White with One. Might be what you call going out with a 'bang'??!!
It's been raining here today. Great weather to start packing. I'm off to the Blue
Mountains with 4 other scrappy friends for a Long Weekend of Scrapping, starting
Friday. CAN'T WAIT. And yes, I SHOUTED that. Did you hear??!!!
We figured this was a cheaper option & so we've hired a house & I for one am WAAAAY
excited!
Meanwhile, here's one I scrapped a whiles ago & haven't shared:
Getting multiple photos on a page can be  tricky..... especially when they're different sizes!
I thought I'd use a stencil on the bg on the left hand side to 'mimic' the design of the paper
on the right hand side. To tie it in. I reckon it worked!
And who said you can't use a touch of red with pink?!!! Lots of 'bits' here, including
bg stamping as well. This is our wee Great Grand Girl. Is she not GORGEOUS??!!!
That 'tab' is from Studio Fourteen 40. CUTE!!!
 I'm not 'good' at using tags, so challenged myself to get a couple on this page.
And I had a heap of journaling, but wanted to break it up....
I've coloured the wood bits with my Pitt Artist's Big Brush pen... LOVE it!
The edges of the photos have been marked with my black Copic marker. I didn't
back them with pp. It's busy enough as it is! That little word sticker 'trust' seemed
appropriate here!

One other thing, FUNKY FLAIR STUDIO is having a NEW FLAIR & KIT release
tomorrow at 7pm [Australian time]..... here's a sneak of the
BOYS KIT...1st one Evie has ever done!
The kit is full of goodies including hand designed paper, stencil, frames, die cuts & flair.
There are only 20 available at the release!
And my fave new flairs are these:
Just soooo 'on trend'. Love 'em!!!
Anyways, hope to see you at FUNKY FLAIR STUDIOS at 7pm!
Cheers for now...hope you have a lovely scrappy week ~ Lizzy ♥♥♥

Tuesday 13 September 2016

Blogging for the sake of blogging....

Now there's a different post title!!!
You see, something's happening with my scrapping...
[ I challenged myself to use paper I did NOT like here!]

...I've spoken to a few scrappy mates about it now, & it seems a bit odd....
but I'm not getting the same 'buzz' from joining in challenges these days.
Oddly, I'm doing LOs for challenges. But forget, or simply don't get around to 
joining them up...
[And I'm really trying to use all those small embellies that I've somehow acquired & that are so popular at the moment!]

...Consequently I've quite the pile of pages that haven't been 'aired' here.
My solution?
Blog 'em for the sake of blogging.
Since the challenges have long closed.....
Like this one! [I actually have a LO with a very similar photo from this same day
published in the latest Scrapbooking Memories magazine!]
[ I think this paper actually SCARED me, with so much patterning. And that's why I hadn't
used it. Using a big frame around the photo, & a plainer ripped sheet
across the page breaks up that busy-ness!]

I really enjoyed using those square die cut bits [the black ones] - they're from Lizzie Crust,
& I've cut them up to make them 'go further'!
 And of course, how can you JOURNAL on such busy paper? By adding MORE layers!
And one must journal. Well, THIS 'one' must journal. Even if it's the bare bones such
as the peeps, date & occasion.
[ I find tags really difficult to use, so was please to get one onto my page here. And BRADS!
Remember them? Bet there's some lurking in your scrap stash! ]

It's funny how trends come and go. At one stage EVERY page HAD to have some wood
veneers on them. Now, I hardly use them. The ones above I've inked up with my Faber Castell
Pitt Artist's Big Brush Pen [now there's a mouthful!].
I think the touches of black on this page 'ground it' amongst so much else going on.
There's some raw wood ones in there as well.
So, there you have it.
A LO for no reason at all except I scrapped it and wanted to share that those difficult papers
can be conquered!!!
Do you mind? Do you expect me to only share challenge & DT entries?
Seems quite odd to be writing a post like this.
And it's not even scheduled. That is even MORE bizarre.
All my posts are scheduled these days!!!
Anyways ~ HAPPY SCRAPPING~~~~
Lizzy ♥♥♥