NZ Papercrafters February 2014 Challenge

Hi from an overcast Blenheim - a perfect day for scrapbooking, but hey, when isn't it a perfect day for scrapbooking.

Guess what - my layout was drawn out as the winning layout in the January challenge for NZ Papercrafters.  My prize, a cute packet of Bo Bunny stamps.  Perfect on several levels as I don't own many stamps and I just love Bo Bunny.  Thanks so much Beth Barnes, they will definitely be appearing on a layout soon.

This month, being February, Valentines and all, the topic is LOVE.  I had these cute photos of Kaycee and decided to use him as the subject for my layout.

"We still don't know where you came from.
You just arrived in our garage and made yourself at home,
but we are so glad you chose us for your family."

The idea was scraplifted but I forgot to take a note of where I first saw it, so my apologies to the original designer. 

The background paper was created with paint, gesso, ink, pen, and washi before being sealed with Mod Podge.  This helps hold the washi on as some tapes tend to lift.  The bricks are texture paste through a stencil and there are little silver sequins randomly placed across the page.  Most of the flowers are from Prima and the leaves I made myself.  They are simple leaf graphics, printed, cut out and then "Dimensional Magic" spread over the top to give them that glossy look.  As they dry, they curl which adds to the dimensional effect.  The metal embellishments have been given a coat of copper mixative from the Tim Holtz range of alcohol inks - I just love what it does.

The polaroid look frames were cut from chipboard, painted, stamped and distressed.  They were very simple to make and I love them.

Nothing on this page was purchased especially for this project.  We are on a tight budget so everything you see here was from our stash.  I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Happy scrapping.  See ya.

From Hamilton ... to Blenheim ...

As you will have seen from my previous post we are now living in Blenheim. How did this happen?

Very good question!!!  Two days before Jan and I left to go to Scrapfest last year I was given notice from my job at Paperzone in Hamilton.  I was not surprised when it came as I had a feeling that 2013 was going to be a year of changes but I certainly did not expect what was coming next.  Anyway, I am racing ahead a little.  

The following day I was vacuuming the floor at the shop, as I often did, when I found a white feather near the front door.  Nothing unusual in that you might say, but it was the first time I had ever seen one there and white feathers have some significance for Jan and I.  I went home and told her I thought it was a sign and that all would be okay.  

We were determined not to let the news spoil our trip to Scrapfest as we had been looking forward to it for so long.  We had an interesting road trip south to Nelson, plenty of time to talk about what our options were, mull over some ideas, but generally just enjoy the scenery.  

Mount Ruapehu

We were about two and a half hours into our trip when all of a sudden the car radio came on - by itself.  Jan was driving and I was just gazing out the window at the scenery - I thought her mobile phone was ringing only it wasn't, and the radio had been switched off before we left Hamilton, so it was definitely a little spooky.  We both looked at each other and said "Ann".  Ann was Jan's close friend who had just passed away and we were imagining her playing little tricks on us as we traveled.  The words of the song that was playing were along the lines of "this is not where you are meant to be" - it is a song I had never heard before nor since - another sign perhaps.  

That was not the end of the 'spooky' events however as when we entered the Marlborough Sounds a man tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out the most beautiful rainbow - both ends were in the sea.  When I turned to talk to the man he had disappeared - it was a big deck and I had not turned away from him for very long so I am left wondering if he was ever there.  For me, rainbows are definitely a sign - usually of something good - maybe this was where we were meant to be.  

Our 'welcome' to the South Island

Anyway, Scrapfest was fantastic - superbly organised, fabulous venue at Monaco Resort, and we are still buzzing almost six months later.   We learnt a lot, met some fabulous people and I remember having a conversation with one of the organisers and telling her that I had been feeling that Scrapfest was going to be a turning point for Jan and I and that was why it was so important that we be there.  Boy, I was not wrong.

Monaco Resort, Nelson

We had been hassled by one of the attendees, Beth (nicely of course), about coming from the North Island and she told us that we needed to have a passport to go to the South Island so we had made up pretend passports ready to be stamped.  Unfortunately Beth forgot to bring her stamp so she suggested she take our passports, stamp them and post them to us.  We agreed but later got a text from her inviting us to stop off in Blenheim for coffee, which we did - at the lovely Raupo Cafe.  We had a really enjoyable time and thought Blenheim was a lovely place.

Raupo Cafe, Blenheim

Our road trip home was uneventful and the following day I took Jan to Auckland so she could fly down and spend time with Michael, Anna and Ellie.  I spent the time at home catching up with a few jobs and then it was time to go and pick Jan up from Auckland.  When she went back to work there was a letter on her desk advising her that the company was going to restructure and seven people were going to lose their jobs.  Funnily enough this didn't faze either of us.  We just knew she was going to be one of them and we set about thinking what our next move was.  The process for choosing who would stay and who would go was put in place and, after what seemed an eternity, she received notice that she too was being made redundant.  A quick trip to the bank and the decision was made to put the house on the market and move to Blenheim.  The house sold with three weeks and then we had to quickly find somewhere to live.  If ever there was a sign that something was meant to be - this was it.

 

Borman Road, Hamilton

Another road trip and we had secured a new home and then back to Hamilton to pack up all our worldly goods.  

Weld Street, Blenheim

Oh my, it all happened so fast.  A month later and the entire contents of our house had been packed into a truck, the two cats and ourselves were packed into the car, and we were all on our way to a new life, in a new town, in a new island, doing goodness knows what.  But watch this space ...

January 2014 Layout Challenge

Well, here we are, it's a new year and so much has happened in the last couple of months.  More about that in the next post - suffice to say that we now live in Blenheim.  Since moving here we have joined NZ Papercrafters and Marlborough Papercrafters, both Facebook groups which we are excited to be a part of.

NZ Papercrafters set a challenge to use a layout from http://blog.scrapfriends.com.au/ as the basis for creating one of our own.  Here is my take on the challenge.

With plain white card as the base (actually the insert from a photo album) I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Stains in "Chipped Sapphire" and "Faded Jeans" to create the watery background.  This was left to dry and then India Ink was trailed randomly around the page from an eye dropper with a few drops splattered across the page to finish.  Again, that was left to dry before stamping the Kaisercraft "Script" stamp onto the background in a couple of places.  The strips of red chevron washi tape were added followed by the 4 frames using yellow, red & blue chevron and lime green polka dot washi tapes.  As washi has a tendency to lift, I put a thin coat of Mod Podge over the taped areas.  I found some red and white bakers twine in my stash and attached that using a trail of liquid adhesive.  I found a small wooden heart which I painted and added my title, inked the edges and sealed with Glossy Accents before adding a tiny bow made from the remnant of the bakers twine.  I found a plain white paper clip and added little spots of red paint to give the illusion of stripes and topped it with a flower charm to complete.  This was clipped over the photo and attached with a pop dot to add extra dimension.

The photo was taken on Boxing Day (2013).  Ellie was being held by her dad but I just loved her expression so decided to zoom in and focus on her face.  Removing the colour from the photo was easy and really emphasized her beautiful eyes and cute little mouth.  She was dressed in red and white and this has been reflected in the use of red and white as the dominant colour for the embellishments.  I love this little pic of her and even have it on my phone.

Ellie Matilda Gatehouse

I have been really neglectful in not posting some pics of my little step-granddaughter, Ellie.  She was born on 9 August 2013 at 5:04am weighing in at a healthy 8lb 12ozs.  Her dad, Michael (Jan's son) and mum, Anna, had to go down to Invercargill for her birth (from their home in Te Anau) and were then transferred to Tuatapere when she was only a few hours old.  She is 8 weeks old today, my how the time has flown.  Here are some pics -

As you can see she is a happy wee dot.  Nana Jan has already been down for a few days and had cuddles - I am waiting patiently ... not.  I suspect she is going to be spoilt by her grandparents and Aunty Sarah and why not, she's a little cutie pie.

Cat family layout

My blog has been neglected yet again, and apologies to those of you who keep coming back only to find there is nothing new.  Life has been rather hectic of late - in the last few months we have 'lost' our dear friends Shane and Robyn, my bosses adored husband Gary, my cousins dad Bob, Jan's mum Naomi, and most recently Jan's much loved friend Ann.  We also had to have our wee Mac put down.  On a happier note we have been to Scrapfest and had an awesome time (more posts about that) and we have also welcomed wee Ellie into our family (more about her in another post).

Anyway, I wanted to share with you my latest layout about a little cat family who made a big impact on my life many years ago.

The background was created using some of my washi tape collection.  I have had no end of hassling about how many rolls I have so I thought I'd better start showing that I do in fact use it and it is not solely for decoration.  I've used a little bit of mulberry paper as a matt for the journaling and mother cat has been matted on chipboard and inked around the edges.  The filmstrip was cut on my eClips from a template I created - this allows me to scale it up or down to the size I want/need.  My wee girl, Chi, was such a little princess and had such a short wee life that I felt it only appropriate to give her a princess crown.  Our Kaycee is almost the spitting image of Chi.  The paper clip was made using a 'paw' brad I had in my stash and a black paper clip very kindly 'left' in my package of washi tape from Lowri McNabb @ Papervine.  The twine was adhered using Glossy Accents.

Scrapfest by the Sea ... mini album

I'm loving being part of the Scrapfest family - what a great group of ladies.  The other day we had a wordfind challenge - hilarious.  There were supposed to be 12 words related to scrapbooking but people kept finding more and more words, some very loosely attributed to the craft such as vino, and box (we're going to need big ones), bad (sounds like some are planning to be) and so on.  I found about 35 words all up - heaps of fun.

The next challenge was for everyone to use the same photo in whatever way they wanted to create a layout, card, mini album etc.  The photo that was chosen was of the venue and here is the front cover of the mini album I've created.

Two weeks ago I was fortunate to be able to attend some wonderful workshops at Creative Adventure Downunder (CAD) - the tutors being Heidi Swapp, Teresa Collins, Donna Downey and Maggie Armstrong.  What a talented group and I learnt heaps from these awesome ladies and over the next little while I will slowly post some of the projects I made.  But for now ... the first workshop I did with Heidi involved making a mini album to go in a shadow box. 

I've used the same principles to create my Scrapfest album.  I've used cardstock to create the cover and pages for my album.  On the front I have stamped, punched, cut, glued and taped bits and pieces from Prima's Engraver and Almanac Collections and the Tim Holtz French Industrial Collection.  The bunting uses little tickets from the Almanac Collection, some bakers twine and little Christmas lights from my stash.  The piano keyboards are cut from the same collection and attached using pop dots to add dimension.  The pocket watch, from the Engraver collection, has been jazzed up using dimensional magic - just over the watch face.  I used a piece of clear packaging to stamp on a postmark from the Kaisercraft Pack Your Bags collection and adhered that under the keyboard on the left and then added three little roses from my stash to complete the cover. 

The finished album is going to evolve between now and Scrapfest and will be interactive with lots of things to open, pull out, lift up and so on.  There will be space for people to sign and write messages plus I hope to add lots of photos afterwards.

Cya.

Oh blog ... how I have neglected you

Oh my goodness, it has been so long.  I have been so busy creating that I have not been posting anything of what I have done over the past few weeks.  I must start putting that right, so here goes with a post to at least update my Art Journal.

There are four pages missing - that's over four weeks of not writing.  Tut tut!!!

After preparing the base I added texture paste through a piece of mesh and then melted wax crayons randomly on the page - interesting technique, but - note to self ... don't try and dry any additional layers - the heat make the crayons melt again LOL!!! 

This page came from a period of questioning myself, what I was doing,where I was going.  The text added reflects that - "In life we do things, some we wish we had never done, some we wish we could replay a million times in our heads, but they all make us who we are; and in the end they shape every detail about us.  If we were to reverse any of them we wouldn't be the person we are, so just live, make mistakes, have wonderful memories, but never ever second guess who you are, where you have been, and most importantly, where it is you're going.  Believe in yourself and your feelings.  Trust yourself to do what your heart is guiding you to do.  Your intuition is powerful.  Trust it.

Playing with new products - am loving my new Silks.  You can't see it here but there is sheet music underneath the dots.  I loved the quote that "It's not what you see, but how you see it" as what you see in this photo is only the surface - there is so much more hiding beneath.

I got a new book the other day about different surface treatments for creating art.  It is providing inspiration and ideas which I intend to trial in my journal before taking the ones I like onto canvas. 

I started this page by using textured wallpaper and then adding a resist using vaseline (petroleum jelly).  Once you paint over the page you can wipe the vaseline off with a baby wipe and it exposes the underneath colour/s.  The technique can be repeated as often as you like to add more and more layers and depth to your background.  Once I had finished adding the layers I wanted, I lightly sanded the surface to expose the paper underneath.

The quote for this should actually read "where words fail; art speaks" but I wanted the emphasis on the word "art".   The script on the right is about art and has been applied using gel medium through a The Crafters Workshop template.  I used a Donna Downey template underneath and sponged pan pastels through it. 

That's it for this post - more to come on other projects ...watch this space.