My Girls

Hi everyone and thanks for stopping by.

Today I'm sharing an older layout that I did for a very special lady which I hope you can grab a little inspiration from.

I haven't had time to do a lot of crafting lately, why?? because I am  in the middle of relocating my little scrapbook shop into a bigger and hopefully better premises. We are planning to be open in the New Year so as you can imagine I am very busy. 

Enough about that lets get back to the layout.
 

I have no story of the photo as I did do this for a friend for her wall.

The paper is an older one from 49&Market as are the flowers. I used some lace and doilies in the back ground too. A little stamping to finish off the page and this was a very simple layout for me.

The lady that this was for was over the moon with the finished page with her gorgeous grandchildren in the photograph.

Cheers and till next time

thanks for stopping by

Carol

My Book of Family

Hello all and welcome to my little blog.

Today I have something a little different than my usual scrap booking. 

 I am sharing with you an altered book that I did with one of my favourite photographs of myself and my children. 

A few years ago we did a photo shoot which was a gift for me for Mother's Day from these special humans. Its was the best day, us girls got our hair and make up professionally done. The photographer came up with some fun poses which in the end has us all in stitches.

 Taking an old hardcover book and altering it to create a beautiful keepsake was just so much fun. Adhering all the pages so that they fall just the way I wanted them to look. Adding the flowers, metal trinkets and chipboard pieces. These are great projects to use all those bits and pieces that you have lying around in your craft room.

Next I covered everything with Gesso. I added the colours using Prima sprays. 

 Finished it with some extra flowers.

 

Now to find a stand for it. 

 

Thanks for stopping by

 

Cheers 

 

Carol x

Summer

 Its Monday Creations time again.

This week has gone by so quickly and I realised that its not long now till Christmas. I wonder how many of you ave got all or some of your Christmas shopping done. I know I have only got a couple of gift so far.

Today I am sharing a photograph of myself and my eldest granddaughter Emelia aka Milly with you. My daughter, myself and my 2 granddaughters went on a trip for a couple of days to Norah Head lighthouse on the Central Coast of NSW. We had a fabulous time exploring the beach and taking some great photographs.

The papers used for this layout are from Maja Designs    

I've used chipboard from Dusty Attic, WOW, 2Crafty and Kaisercraft. The flowers are from 49&Market and Prima.

 

Some close-ups and further details....

 

 

 

The chipboard has been covered with crackle paste to give it a lovely crackle effect. I love using the Stamperia one because it crackles beautifully when you heat dry it.

                                             Love the seagulls from Dusty Attic.

Prills and Finnabair Art Stones always finish a layout beautifully. The title and some of the chipboard leaves were inked with Stamperia leather spray and the blue is Perfect pearls in Patina Blue.

 

Thanks for stopping by

Cheers

Carol x

Having the Time of our Lives

 Hello everyone and welcome to my

                           Monday Creation.

Today I went a little different with a darker look to my layout. I think its important to be always pushing your boundaries, trying new styles as you would try new techniques. I usually go with a contrast or very soft colours so I hope you like this one.

 I love this photograph of Poppy and Eliza (middle granddaughter) taken a few years ago now. Eliza was and still is fascinated with doing hair. Maybe hairdressing is in her future. Although Poppy doesn't have much to play with he was still a great sport sitting and allowing her to try.

The papers are from a very old 49 &Market range that Ive been saving for who know what. Don't we all do that. Finnabair stencil is one of my favourites and I used some gold Icing paste to add texture to the background. 2Crafty chipboard heart frame, Finnabair metal embellishments and the gorgeous 49 &Markets flowers are just perfect to finish it off. 

There are lots of layers in this one and I will explain some of them in the closeups.

Prills (the small stone like balls) would have to be my all time favourite embellishment to use and here I have added them to the background but also took a piece of brown wire stem, added some 3D adhesive to the end and rolled it in the prills. I love this effect. Finnabairs metal grungy hearts are just a stunning add the finish it off.

The cogs are a great way to add a little masculinity to a feminine layout. Black Gesso and then some Vintage Gold and Copper wax from Finnabair.

The Dusty Attic leaf chipboard was coloured with Prima spray and then I embossed randomly up the centre of each of them,

I die cut some leaves and chicken wire to add some extra texture to the layers but went for a contrast colour. The doilies were inked with Prima spray.

 
 Thanks for stopping by

till next time, keep safe

 Carol x 

Love

Hello and welcome back to my little blog and my " Monday Creation "

I know I am a little late but sometimes life just gets in the way.

This is a photograph of my hubby (Pat) and myself that we had done with a professional photographer in a National Park near where we live. I love the natural look of the photo.

 I love using Blue Fern Studios papers and this one is Jane's Memoirs. Isn't it just gorgeous paper?  I have used an aall and create stencil lightly on the background with modeling paste. Lots of paper layers behind the photo.

I used a couple of 49& Market frames, some very old square chipboard pieces I found in my stash, 2Crafty chipboard, Dusty Attic chipboard and of course gorgeous flowers from 49 & Market to finish it all off. 

I coloured the gauze with Prima spray and added some Art Stones to finish off the layout. I have fallen in love with Ranger's Perfect Pearls mica powders to add a little colour to the background to bring the whole layout together. 

Thanks for stopping by

and please leave a little love

Cheers

Carol xx

Moment

 Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by to have a look at my 

                       Monday Creation.  

 This is a special photo of my daughter and hubby at my son's wedding several years ago. Wedding are so much fun and you can definitely see the love and happiness on their faces.

 I absolutely love Blue Fern papers. They are so nice to work with and the textures in the papers are divine. Ive used several of their papers for the background and the layers. Lace, flowers finished the layout.

Close ups and some extra details....... 

 I love to add words to the clusters, It's a fantastic way to add extra meaning to your story.

I started off putting down some clear crackle paste (Stamperia) on the background paper, I love how it crackles with the heat gun. All the chipboard pieces were covered in white crackle paste and left to dry. Once dry I coloured them with several different inks.

The title was left flat and painted with Ceramcoat paint which is my favourite. I die cut some small leaves and added Art stones to finish it off.

You can see the beautiful crackle in this picture and I added a Prima Mica powder with water to add colour to the background.

Thank you all for stopping by

I hope you are able to grab a little inspiration from my creation

Till next week

Cheers

Carol xx

Me and My Mum

 Hi everyone and thanks for stopping by. Today I am so happy to share with you all my Monday's Creation Post.

This was the last one for the collage of scrapbook pages that I have been working on but I'm not happy with one of the layout the I completed earlier. I love the layout but It just doesn't match the rest of the 6 layouts. So next Monday I will create another one.

 This layout is my daughter " Kyra" and her 2 daughters, Emelia and Eliza taken at a family wedding where the girls were flower girls. Its is one of my favourite photographs of them. 

 

Ive used beautiful Blue Fern Studio  papers for the background with some ScrapBoys

papers for the layers. Some stenciling with crackle paste on the background. I love to use Stamperia crackle paste when I create as I have found it's the only one that " fine " crackles with a heat gun. I used the same on all the leaves and flourishes. The flowers are from my stash, 49&Market, Prima and Green Tara.

 

You can see that really "fine" crackle on the leaves here. Lots of gorgeous layers. Rather than butterflies I went for these very cute little dragonflies.

 

 

The heart chipboard that I used for the frames was coloured with Finnabair's wax in Rose Gold. The trellis was embossed with copper embossing powder. To bring it all together I have inked with Perfect Pearls ink sprays. I had forgotten how much I love their shimmery colours and will definitely be using them more often.

Thanks again for stopping by

and 

I hope you take a little inspiration from my creation

Cheers

Carol

Happy Moments

 Hello everyone and welcome back to my Happy Monday Creation.

Yes I have decided to call these "My Happy Monday Creation" The reason why, I have Monday's off so I spend the day creating in my craft room. No shop work, no class requirements, no using anything in particular, just creating. Letting my projects come to life, evolve as I add a little of this and a little of that.

I am creating a series of layouts to add to a wall in my home. This is number and its my son Wade and daughter in-law Kelsey.  The series will have every one of my immediate family in them.

I hope you like this one as much as I do.

               For the papers I have used the new Maja Design papers, Miles Apart. I just love the softness of Maja's papers and they are beautiful to work with. The chipboard pieces are bits and pieces from my personal stash. Flowers are from Prima I love Prima flowers and these are just stunning. Ive used  stencils by  Finnabair to add some texture to the background first. 

                                         Some Close-ups

                            I've embossed the title to make it stand out a bit more.

               I have coloured the Art Stones with some dark red paint to add a little pop. I made the heart out of resin, added some lace, stamping and some dark green ink from Color Blooms to bring it all together.

I hope I have inspired you a little with this layout and I look forward to next Monday to bring you another creation.

Thanks for stopping by and please leave a little love 

Craft to make you heart smile

Cheers

Carol xx
 

Fabulous

 Hi everyone and thanks for stopping by. Its Monday and here and my day off from my Scrapbook shop.

So what do we all do on our day off? Craft of course.

As I have each Monday off I have been doing some scrapping just for me. No class layouts, no constraints just a free flowing scrapbooking.

This photograph of myself and my daughter was taken about 4 years ago at my son's wedding and is one of my favourites of us.

I have a challenge site The Confetti Box Gallery

Each month we have a new challenge and this months is Hello Spring. I used the colours, the flowers and of course the little bird as my inspiration for this layout. 

                                      Septembers Challenge
 

I hope you get some inspiration from the layout or maybe come play at The Confetti Box Gallery

 

Ive used some older Blue Fern paper in this layout. Teamed it with 49&Market flowers, 2Crafty Chipboard, Finnabairs stencils, Tim Holtz Dies, Bo Bunny Dies and lots of gorgeous little embellishments from my stash.

A couple of close ups for you

 

Hello little birdie

 Thanks for stopping by

till next time

" do what makes your heart happy "

Cheers

Carol

 

XOXO

Hi and thanks for stopping by.

Today I am so happy to be able to sharing my latest layout with you all. Having a craft shop that is open 6 days a week doesn't give me many days off so to have a day to myself to just create is so precious to me. 

 I decided not to create for a class but rather to create just for me to have fun and push my boundaries of what I would normally do. So this is the end result and I am over the moon happy with the result.  I am so happy with this layout that I can see me taking my creating this way in the future.

This is a special photograph of myself and hubby on our wedding day some 12 years ago now. It was a very hot day in Queensland and our beautiful old car had no air conditioning, just all windows down, we melted.

I loved the colours in this photo and used the colours in the bouquet as my inspiration. 

 

Ive used very old Blue Fern papers for the backgound. Tearing and punching the edges before placing them down. A little bit of stenciling with crackle paste. Lots of pieces and embellishments on this layout are old and I hunted through my personal stash to complete it.

 

                                      You can see that there are many layers to this page
Ive used Stamperia crackle paste on the chippy and I love how this crackles even when using a heat gun. 49&Market, Green Tara and Prima flowers, 2Crafty chipboard, Dusty Attic chipboard. The wire bud stem is that old I can't remember where I got it from.

                         I just love flowers and they are on nearly every layout that I do.

So many beautiful embellishments from the Finnabair Art stones, Melange pebbles, Bud stems from Green Tara, bits of old lace, gauze, hand made resin angels (which are hard to spot) so many little hidden gems.

I then finished it off with Couture Creations Mica powders which are my new fav thing to play with, The shimmer in them is just fantastic.

Well thats about all I can share with you today and I hope I have brought a little inspiration to you. So till next time, keep crafting and I will see you all again when I have something special to share.

Cheers

Carol xx

Just Me

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all keeping safe in this troubling time.

Today I am sharing a pretty layout I did awhile ago for a class in my shop. I don't do a lot of soft pastel layouts and especially not blue so I always like to challenge myself. Then to bring it all together I used a recent photograph of myself.

I love Stamperia papers and in this one that is what I have used. The beautiful blues and brown of New England papers were perfect for this photo. Lots of torn layers a little lace in the layers and the numerous tags just make a stunning background.

Dusty Attic chipboard inked in brown. In the little frame I added an image from the paper and covered it with Glossy Accents to give it a glassy finish.

I hope you like this one and take some inspiration from it.

Till next time

Be happy

Carol x

Captured

Hi everyone, I hope you and your families are all keeping safe and healthy. I can't believe that we are July already, where has this year gone?

Its been so busy for us and I just don't seem to get enough time to craft these days.

Today I am sharing a pretty special layout for me. This is a photo of my hubby and I in the Hunter Valley on a hot air balloon ride. We were so lucky to have been able to go up as it rained the day before and they were expecting storms on the day. Lucky for us it held off. The view wasn't the greatest as there was a large amount of smoke from all the bush fires in the area. However we had the best time in the peace and quiet up there and it is something we would definitely do again.

For this layout I have used Stamperia papers which I absolutely love working with. Tearing and layering them vertically the page rather than horizontally.  Flowers are from 49&Market and chipboard is from 2Crafty which has been embossed with Ranger Mixed Media powder. I love this as you leave it thick an it gives your chipboard a finish like real enamel with flecks of metal through it. The ivy leaves were die cut from a Sizzix die. Finishing it off with a few art stones scattered around.

thanks for stopping by

and till next time

keep safe

Carol xx

Captured Moments

Hi everyone and I hope you and all your family is keep safe and well during this very stressful time for all of us.

It has been a busy time for us in the shop so I have been missing for awhile. Then I had an emergency appendectomy this week so I am now on total rest for a few weeks. So looking on the positive side I now have heaps of time to catch up on all my paperwork.

Enough of that, today I want to share my latest class that I am currently teaching at my shop in Swansea.

This is my son and granddaughter at dusk contemplating life. I changed the photo to a black and white as the colours were not great. I must say it's one of my favourite photos of them.

I used Finnabair Impasto paints to get gorgeous textures on the background with a stencil that I use more than another, bubbles by Prima. Dylusions stamp for all the little animals and then fussy cut them all out. All the chippy from 2Crafty was inked with a black ink pad. The stars from Dusty Attic were painted with Impasto Paint that I watered down slightly to give a more painty texture.

Some black stamping to finish it off and I just love this layout.

I hope you like it too and thank you for stopping by

till next time

Cheers

Carol

Love

Hello everyone and welcome back,
 I hope you and your family are all keeping safe during this very scary time for all of us all.
I created this layout for a challenge on my shops inspirational page The Confetti Box Gallery. 
 I decided that as so many crafters were isolating in their homes and starting to get a little cabin fever, I would create a gorgeous mood board for everyone to play along with and have a chance to win some prizes. Feel free to take a peek and join in.

 

In this layout I have used papers from Scrapboys and 49&Market. All the fussy cut pieces are from Scrapboys gorgeous Victorian Home range, I just love the butterflies form this range. Ive used Celebr8 wooden title and heart cluster and the clock  is from 2Crafty.

Flowers and the bubbles are form 49&Market. The little heart strips are from the strip on the bottom of the paper that has the makers bar code on it. I always check them out to see if there are any images that I may be able to use.

All the chippy and wood pieces were coloured with Finnabair's Wax in Vintage Gold.

Aprils Mood Board  - " ISO in Pink "

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by
 please stay safe
Carol xx 

I love You

Hello everyone and I do hope that this post find you all happy and well at this very scary time we are all living in.
Thinking of all the things that are precious to us all at the moment was why I wanted to share this older but one of my all time favourite layouts. This is my Mum and my Aunty many many years ago at a work function.

 For this one I have used a couple of different ranges for the papers from 49&Market and Kaisercraft.
I struggled with the flowers getting the colours just right so rather than stressing over colour, I have used Nuvo Embossing Mousse "Old Navy"and a water brush and coloured them to suit. The chipboard frame, flourishes and title from 2Crafty were coloured the same way. I just love the metallic finish to these gorgeous waxes. Some of the flowers I left in the white colour for a little contrast.
 Finishing touches are the clocks that I fussy cut out and added to the layers, string bows, filigree doilies, some die cut leaves and fussy cut flower clusters.

thanks for stopping by
till next time
stay safe
Carol x 

Today is a Magical Day

Hi everyone,
today I want to share a layout I created after a trip to the "Red Centre" of Australia with my girlfriend Michelle. For those that do not know what that is, Uluru, NT formally known as Ayers Rock.
 This is my friend and I sitting waiting for the plane to take off. For those that don't kn meow, I am not a good flyer so this was a huge leap of faith for me.

 This paper range is an older Kaisercraft one. I love using woodgrain for my backgrounds. I added some script stenciling to the background. The chipboard was all painted with white paint. 49&Market flowers were just perfect and the wire embellishments that are in the packet go just so well.
I used Kaisercraft little wooden frames and painted them with Nuvo metallic pastes and added some script wording tp match the stenciled background. Lace and gauze give a lovely softness to the background. 

thanks for taking the time
to stop by
Carol x

Breathtaking

Well this year really is flying past.
We are into March already, WOW!!
I said at the beginning of the year I wanted to keep my little blog as current as possible and still work my scrapbook shop 6 days a week and so far so good.
Here is a layout that I really like as it was something a little different for me being that it is done with very soft colours. I always do stronger colours with lots of contrast but not with this one, I do hope you all like it.
 

 49&Market paper a little stenciling, teamed with Prima flowers, Dusty Attic Chipboard, lace, butterflies fussy cut and all finished with Prima Mica powders, LOVE IT !!!

Thanks for stopping by
till next time

Cheers
Carol x

Memory of You

Welcome to another post.
Today I want to share my latest class page I will be teaching at my Scrapbook Shop in beautiful Swansea, NSW

This photograph is of my mother-in-law in her younger years. Have you ever come across an old family photo that gives you heaps of questions? Well this one threw a few questions up, like who are the children? When and where was this taken? How old was she in this photo?
My mother-in-law passed along time ago and unfortunately these questions will never be answered. I think this is a perfect example of why many say journaling is so important. What do you think?

 Ive used an older Celebr8 range to create this multi layered shabby chic page. Teamed with doilies and the most gorgeous  flowers from 49andMarket
After fussy cutting out feathers, flowers and the bird from the papers, I arranged them to enhance the photograph.I decided to die cut a few skeleton leaves from Tim Holtz's Sizzix dies. This die is one of my all time favorite dies to use. 
Dusty Attic chipboard embossed with Rangers Mixed Media embossing powder in Bone and the title embossed in a copper embossing powder.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by
and check out my creation.

Till next time, have a great day
Carol x
 
 

Love

Hi everyone,
I have another pretty layout to share with you all. This is a layout that I am currently teaching at my scrapbook shop in Swansea NSW.
Yes, I am so lucky to be able to teach so that I may  pass on some of my knowledge to others that love to scrap photos just like I do.
For this layout I was playing around with some pretty Prima paper and created the fan in the background. Sometimes that's all it takes.
These gorgeous people are my son and daughter in-law at a couple of recent weddings they attended.

 I added some lace to the edge of the fan. Stenciling hearts n the background with Stamperia Glossy paste (my fav) I just love how it stays so white and glossy when its dry.
The oversized bow it another feature of the page. 
2Crafty scribbly heart to frame the photos and of course Prima flowers, a few feathers and butterflies finish the layout perfectly.

thanks for stopping by

Carol x 

Today's Memories

Hello everyone, 
today I'm sharing a layout I created after my youngest granddaughter  " Charlotte's " christening. 
This is one of my favourite photographs and just so special to me. I like many don't like having my photo taken but this one as snapped without me knowing.

Ive used  older Kaisercraft papers to create the layered background for this layout. The  2Crafty chipboard frames have a layer of crackle paste which I allowed to dry, then I added gold paste to give it a vintage feel. The title was just coloured with Wax in Rose Gold.
Gorgeous flowers, muslin and vellum flourishes cascade down winding through the 2 frames. 

Bits of lace, some doilies and touches of pearls finish of this special layout.

Thanks for stopping by

Carol x 

You Got This Girl

Hi and welcome back. 

Today I am sharing  layout that I created awhile ago and totally forgot to share.

 It isn't very often that I will add 4 photographs to one layout but then I do like to push myself out of my own comfort zones sometimes.

This one is my youngest granddaughter "Charlotte" 

It shows the many sweet faces of this little one.

 

 

For the background I used  Nuvo Embossing mousse for the colour. All the chipboard was coloured with Old Navy in the mousse, the same colour as the background. The frames were covered with papers from Kaisercraft. I like to match my papers with the background colours or a colour from the photographs. Loved the tag paper from this range and used a few here.

Don't be afraid to turn the frames in their sides or upside down for a different effect. String makes a great cheap embellishment, either around photos or in this case frames or tied int small bows.

Flowers are from Green Tara and the colour was a perfect match.

Thanks for stopping by 
Cheers
Carol x

Cherished Families

Hi all,
Today I'm posting a layout that I created based on a mood board.  It's been a long time since I have competed in online challenges as I just don't have a lot of time with the shop and creating classes for the shop.
 So the challenge has to grab me and this months one by Dusty Attic did just that. 
This is my eldest and her gorgeous family. The colours of the photo are just perfect for the colours of the moodboard.

  There are lots of layers in this page. I have used 49&Markets new stitched frames in the background and must say I am a real fan of these. The paper is also from 49&Market. I love the quality of their papers, so easy to work with.

                                                            Dusty Attic Blog Moodboard
  

                                  Using chipboard from Dusty Attic I added some Art Stones and painted them with the softness of blue paints. The Dusty Attic chipboard corner I coloured with Nuvo embellishment mousses and placed them at the side of the photo.

I love to add flowers to all my layouts and this one is no different. I have used a couple of different brands today. Prima has some stunning new ones from their new Mosiac range and thats where the blue ones come from. The beige coloured ones are from Little Birdie.


Thanks for having a look
till next time

Cheers
Carol x