A sketch and showing off a freebie

Had one of those bizarro, twilight zone experiences (ok maybe not so spooky but enough to make me laugh) yesterday. Three days ago I had never heard of Em Stafrace until Lizzy mentioned that she had a cool freebie to give away. Saw it and fell in love. Then her name popped up again in an blog post at one of my fav designers, Sahlin studios. And I know, this was all mentioned in yesterdays post.

And who should drop by, via the so far completely unrelated site of Bird is the word but Em Stafrace herself. All serendipitous enough to make me sit down last night and today and play with her kit.

With a few bits from Sahlin Studio thrown in. man I love chevrons at the moment (yep I know, me and everyone else in the craft world!). Isn't the little boy image just wonderful, there is an equally splendiferous dog to go with him.

And then a more mixed Lo. using the July sketch from Get Creative

and some more wooden paper from Sahlin Studio-

Had lots of fun with this.

So go on over to Em's site, Just a Girl with ideas, and grab the freebie. You are going to see the chevron stamp alot in the future...

Oh and Lizzy, you were right about needing stitching or doodles on the lo, to be honest, I was going to do stitching on it but I was way too lazy to get the machine out and the LO suffered for it. Meaghan has stolen it now so it will remain unfinished...

And now just to keep Lizzy entertained on her train trips-
 My old fall back- a good knitted patten and a man with a moustache they go hand in hand -

wear more Robin Hood based vests I say!!

                                             

or for those health conscience men in your lives, an ideal Christmas pressie, start knitting - Now!! (although I am glad they showed the trunks version and not the briefs - too much exciement in one day is not good for you...)

                  

And this one just freaked me out a little - so I thought I should share it.... ahh 80's exercise fashion...

 Have a good one... xx

Same, Same but different

You hear this constantly in SE Asia, when one stall holder is trying to convince you to buy from her instead of the identical stall next door.

My same, same is the same photo - two Lo's, two challenge sites but essentially the same challenge.

Black and white with one colour.

The photo is one I borrowed off facebook, with permission, form Meaghan of her and two of her closest friends. (on a side note, one of my LO's of her and her friend has been accepted for publication and they are so excited and keep asking when it will be out - they have a fair wait - not until Nov..)

The first interpretation is a paper LO, for Scrap the Girls -

Still not confident of my paper scrapping LO's yet - lacks something... (and let's face it, pink and flowers are not my strong points!)

And then next is my digi Lo for Lasting Memories - ok, I really like this Lo-

Isn't that the best photo as well, they are beautiful girls.

There is an interesting post on Sahlin Studio's site by the very talented Emma Stafrace about digi and paper Lo's, she has done near identical Lo's, one digi , one paper and you cannot tell which is which - pretty cool. (go check out her blog, Just a Girl with Ideas for one of the best digi freebies i have seen, am looking forward to playing with this lot, thanks Lizzy for putting me onto her).

Onto boring news, more delays and our old house is freezing us out, downstairs refuses to warm up, our heating bill is going to be hideously expensive. Geoff is working from home and has taken to wearing a beanie all day - I had to resort to cooking in my puffer vest last night as the heating was  accidentally turned off and forgot about until way too late in the day - Looking forward to double glazing instead of great big gaps between door frames and outside.

Please let spring come soon...

I am in love with wooden themed papers

I can't get enough of them. Both in the paper form and the digi form (advantage to digi as I can use them over and over..). Very versatile.

I've had this photo printed for a while but we'll you know my paper scrapping output has been less than spectacular..

This is for Frosted Designs latest challenge, use only patterned paper - no card stock - suits me as I love patterned paper.

Just to show you some more wood papers in digi form,

And using the same bleached wood  paper -

This is using a freebie template from Sahlin Studios here...

  And I have just purchased this set from the Lilypad - can't wait to use them

Kids are back at school today, happy for quiet time but getting out of bed early was very tricky this morning...

Big term ahead, Meaghan's semi formal, she is already to go so unusually for us no last minute shopping required, Henry has his first camp, Matt begins term 2 of uni and we should be moving house (I know I've said that before!).

Hope you have a great week. xx

Literary ramblings

Quick Friday evening LO. And another sketch, there are a lot floating around the challenge world at the moment, my very fav type of challenge - although my end is usually a bit different from the original - but that's part of the fun.

Here's the sketch from Scrap Africa (in honour of my friend Lizzy being named as a guest DT there - even if she doesn't like Spandau Ballet - humph!!-)

and here is my version - and yes, you are not mistaken it is another paper LO. yay. And it looks like the sketch if you squint... This took a while but I actually enjoyed the process. Paint, stamps, inks and not much paper really.

This is Meaghan looking the part on her yr 10 camp - love the eye camouflage...

Confession time  - of the literary kind.

I will read just about anything, from biographies through to chic lit. I had heard about the Shades of Grey series but hadn't bothered to find out what it was actually about. I grabbed a cheap copy and thought the main characters big secret was probably supernatural - aren't all popular books about that now?? OK, my eyes just about popped out when I got down to reading it. And I did manage to finish it pretty quickly I have to say...

And went and bought the next one...

And quickly passed it on to a close friend.

But to be honest they aren't that well written and I haven't rushed out to buy the third, IT was getting a touch unbelievable, a touch boring and more than a touch repetitive by the end. One day I will finish them off but not now.

I had to read some serious stuff to balance them or my brain would have imploded so I have since read 'We need to talk about Kevin' which I loved and "The Road" which was hard work and reminded me alot of 1980's literature. Not bad but hard to recommend.

And have just finished reading 'A Discovery of Witches" - more Vampires, witches and daemons but at least it is well written and a great story - sort of derivative of The Historian also a cracking read, and I would completely recommend both of them.

Have just started 'The Eyre Affair" by Jasper FForde, should be fun.

Did I mention I love reading??

And that my housework and crafting come a far second if there is good book around...


Ok enough from me, xxx

Gold!!

An inspired Lo today - Lasting Memories has a gold theme happening this week - so I had to look up the Spandau Ballet version - sigh...

May have been distracted by the 80's wonderfulness - and I have to say, they hold up pretty well over the ages.

And my Lo sadly has nothing to do with Spandau Ballet or the 80's. But slowly getting through holiday photos. Luang Prabang in Laos is renowned for it's abundance of Buddhist Temples and of course the colour that dominates is gold - everywhere.

One of the most astonishing temples that we visited was in the grounds of the old kings palace. The temple was very, gloriously over the top esp when compared to the actual palace which seemed fairly modest.

of course the most famous temple in the capital of Laos is this modest little temple - found on their National flag and everywhere really. Seen in the late afternoon it is one of the more astonishing (and a little blinding) things I have seen.

Again, please visit Laos if the opportunity arises - such a wonderful country... (ok I just love the pancakes made on one of the street stalls, would kill for one now).

Ok, I have actually started on another real paper Lo, must continue on - another messy one I think.

see you soon. xx

Sketch time

Middle of the school hols at the moment. In my spare moments that the children let me on the computer, I realise that my internet sites aren't working. The kids had download something that left me with a bizarre home page and when Geoff removed it, all  my old sites had been blocked. Turns out the computer had gotten a bit confused somewhere along the track and it is all fixed now. I wish my problems were all that easy to fix...

So back in the unreal world again - yay!

In my absence, Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge has put on the second challenge for the month. A sketch to interpret anyway you want to.

 And here is mine -

 

 Go check out the many and varied interpretations of the sketch on our challenge site - how I love sketches!!!

And one of the challenges this month over at Child's Play is to use the game rush hour as the inspiration for a LO.  Last time we were in Hanoi (sounds like we travel there often - we've been twice..) we noticed that the traffic had increased in both size and power over the three years since we had first visited. Vietnam is becoming economically stronger with each passing year, the motorbikes which are ubiquitous are becoming faster, making crossing the road even more perilous, as the regard for traffic rules are somewhat flexible... Travelling on their main highway at night is the most terrifying experience I have been through. The photo of us in taken in the middle of one of the main intersections near the old quarter, getting half way across is an achievement, the rest of the way was easier.

On the home front, we think the public notification process may finish today so we are again house hunting with a more firm time table in mind. we have chosen all our colours, tiles, taps etc. Only carpet and one wall colour to go which can be chosen when the house is mostly up. Relived that bit is over. Just dealing with banks now.

Have  a great day - looking forward to seeing your take on the sketch. xx

Paper scrapping again....

Ok, finally gotten back to glue and paper, I did go a bit overboard I'll admit but it was fun!! how could I resist the latest sketch from Scrap Friends. My friend Lizzy is on the DT over there and I knew as soon as I saw the sketch, it was something I had to do...

 

isn't it wonderful?? Esp combined with the latest challenge at Scrapfit, requiring a long title.

and here's my much awaited (am I overselling it??) return to paper scrapping, pretty messy -

 

 This was a quote form Henry to Matt  after some very mild, if persistent, taunting  on his behalf towards his beloved big brother...

Short post today, first day of the hols and I am coming down with something, very cold and headachy. Geoff has taken Henry and Meaghan bowling, lots of fun but I'm happy to curl up under a rug for a while.
have a great day, I have some happy news for later in the week, hopefully more scrapping to come.

PS -Happy Birthday to my newest bestie, Mia, go check out her new blog -Trophy Wife, not scrapping but I think it will appeal to one or two of you with slightly tilted looks at the world - we''ll do movies soon. xx

Another New Challenge and me being sooky...

Another Freaking Scrappy challenge has it's newest challenge up.

The challenge for the first of July is to scrap about YOUR COUNTRY or ethnic group – what it means to you, you dressed in traditional garments, you celebrating the national day for your country, or something else along these lines. As Canada has it's National Day and America is about to celebrate July 4, there should be plenty of inspiration about.  

I struggle with red, white and blue, not colours that I'm comfortable with but I gave it a whirl.

This was taken at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. We took Matt along and he was stopped constantly by Chinese visitors who were very taken with him, I was obviously not a scrapper back then because I have so few photos of the event. We got to watch the hockey (very hot) and were lucky enough to get tickets to the athletics at night. The atmosphere was unlike anything I had experienced before. Jumping Jai came second in the long jump, the decathlon was very dull but the running events were amazing. We got to sing the national anthem when Louise Savage won the wheelchair final. Wow, talk about spine tingling. Highly recommended. Meaghan is still filthy we left her behind (she was 4).

I am also linking this one up for the Red, white and Blue challenge at Lasting Memories. 


And not for my sooky part. It is really cold here at the moment, we've had two frosty -6C in a row. Lame I know, it's not snowing, there is no wind and the days are sunny, so I should stop whinging. But I seriously hate mornings and the frost is not helping AT ALL... (esp when friends have just headed off to Europe for the month. 

 So I braved the cold yesterday and took some photos and scrapped them for the latest Bird is the Word Challenge (BEYOND being the word)

  

 the poor birds had a bit of an icy bath to play in. I think they avoided it for the morning...

     

Henry is home with asthma this morning so he is finally getting to watch Lord of the Rings. He loves it so much. He read The Hobbit at last year and is counting the days until it comes out in the movies. I'm looking for to it because Richard Armitage is in it (sigh) - he makes the best baddie/goodie mix (Guy of Gisbon was far more interesting than namby pamby Robin Hood...).

 

Have a good day. xx