Monday 29 June 2015

" Living the Dream "


Hi there, 
today I'm pleased to be able to share a
 D-lish Scraps design team layout with you all.

 I was at a retreat in the beautiful beautiful Hunter Valley recently when I created this layout for D-lish for the DT.
This is a photo of a friends daughter and  isn't that that gorgeous gold dress just stunning.
I loved the backdrop of the old rusty car with the iron roof so much that I wanted to try and make this page with a reel rustic feel.


First I wanted to replicate the rusty car and the corrugated iron, so I went to work on the corrugated board. I think I used about 10 different colours of paint. Slowly adding colour by colour till I got the effect that I was after. Once I had the colours tight I smudged some gold and bronze distress ink randomly over the whole board.




I just adore this paper and use it alot on my backgrounds. I added some brick work and then not liking the plain look slowly painted each brick with gold texture paste.  A bit of green and blue ink sprayed around the brick work. The gold flairs just were a great little extra.




I tore a strip across the bottom and then across the top and just t show that wonderful corrugated board I tore the triangle piece out. Everything is edged in bronze distress ink, The trees and chippy pieces are all painted in that beautiful dark green,



You can see all the flowers and layers that I added to the layout. I had the gold flowers in my stash but the blue ones I had to paint to get the right colour blue. I love the effect of adding the punchinella to this rustic layout and yes I had to change its colour from silver to gold.


I am loving the Scrap FX chipboard and this title is just an example of their wonderful range. 
I used their tree and cogs on the page too.  I have a new love of the gold corners that I used on this photo and I think you could use them on so many different styles.


Well how many of us have those brads sitting in our stash and if your like me you just don't use them. Well I think on thi layout they look amazing. I covered the rivets that were printed on the paper.


Thanks for stopping by 
and till next time

keep on scrapping 

Carol xx

Sunday 28 June 2015

" Love Us"

Hi everyone....
Well I have been so busy and realised that I am so behind in my blog posts.
Blogging is one of those things that you either love or hate and I think I'm somewhere in the middle. 
Sometimes I love it and sometimes I just find it hard to get into and procrastinate way to much.

So I am challenging myself to get in front with all my bloggings lol lol
Yep I have given myself 2 weeks so hold onto your hats there are some pages coming over the next 2 weeks. 


So here we go, this is the start of my challenge and I'm starting with a 
CSI (Color, Stories and Inspiration) Case File.
This is case file no 168.


I really challenge myself  bright primary colours  come up in a case file or any other challenge for that matter.
This is a photo of my youngest son Wade and his girlfriend Kelsey about the time they first got together. 
WOW !! that is such along time ago now. 
They have grown their relationship from a cute high school romance into the most amazing love story.
I love these guys so much and couldn't imagine them not together.
Because their relationship is fun and vibrant that's how I wanted the page to be, a real reflection of their journey.



CASE FILE ELEMENTS:
The Scheme: dark gray/blue, Light gray/blue, Bright yellow, Red and white. All colours here.
The Evidence: I used stripes, grid pattern, other animals, cursive font, balloons, use a pair of something and puffy stickers.
The Testimony: I scattered my journalling on 3 tags which are behind the layers with the inspirational words; 
tag 1..Wade and Kelsey, I have watched you grow from the dorky couple into the hottest couple around town.
tag 2... Two of you together are always happy with each others company
tag 3.. What ever and wherever you journey takes you I hope you will always find happiness together.

NOW FOR SOME CLOSE UPS.....

For the background I used the bubble stencil and added the 2 different gray/blue colours to some texture paste. 
You can see that the chipboard numbers have been painted with black Crackle paint


I am loving the cursive font on the stickers to use as my titles especially with a funky page like this one.
Some black grid stamping and layers and layers.

Yes I fussy cut out all the little balloons and edged them with ink. The little birds, flowers , flairs and the white star are just the best embellies for this page.

The edge of the page was only trimmed on 2 sides. I punched and inked them. 
Then with a black pen I decided to doodle all wound the edges.

CSI have some great Aussie companies for sponsors this month
Scrapmatts

A Flair for buttons

Funky Flairs



CASE FILE 168


Some of the items used;
Plain cardstock
Color Vibes " Snap " papers
Impasto
Gesso
Texture paste
scraps of pattern paper
Petaloo flowers
'Enthaily flowers
JoJo's handmade birds
D-lish flairs
D-lish star
2Crafty chipboard

Thanks for stopping by
and till next time
Keep on scrapping

Carol xx

Saturday 27 June 2015

"The Confetti Box "


Hello all and welcome to this very exciting post.
This is the post that I have been working on for a while now as it has taken some time to finish my new Girls Shed.. 
I started off my scrapping obsession on a trestle table which I quickly outgrew. Then I overtook a spare room and then most of the built-in wardrobe of that room. Having out grown that space my hubby suggested re-purposing an underutilized shed just off the side of our back deck.
Well of course I jumped at that.
So now  I can finally post all my pictures to show you my new craft space called
 " The Confetti Box"
So grab a cuppa because there are quiet a few photos and some storage ideas. 
Some mine some I've seen on the net.....


This is the old space. It was  games/bar room off our deck but quickly 
developed into a storage dumping area.


This is the same space cleaned out. 
This is facing to the eastern end.


My new space is born.
Insulated and lined with pine boards.
This is looking to the western end.
This is looking to the eastern end with the double french doors which I decided to keep.
We added a small window to utilise the easterly breezes in
 the afternoon. ( the joy of living near the beach)
That's where the coffee station and fridge is ( see later photo's).
         
Yeah !!!!
The floor has finally dried and now 
the storage can be put into place. 




Yes this is the other end, the end facing east. 
More storage, a girl can't have to much storage.
It is so big and has so much room.



Starting from the western end I will try to work my way around the room, sharing as I go.


These are my paper racks that my hubby built for me. 
We bought some cube storage from Bunnings and then he added all the shelves, 
9 in each square.




These are for all my patterned paper so I now have a total of 
"160"
shelves for all my patterned papers WOW !!
You can see that I am using all my old metal paper stand just for my plain cardstock. 
It makes it so much easier to find the colours.



"My New Inking Station"

This is an old TV unit that I re purposed when my father-in-law bought a new one. It was painted and my hubby added the light and the bits of timber to stop the sprays from falling out. A small rack to hold gloves, spray water bottle and paper towel.
I love that I can keep all my sprays, paints in the one spot close to where I'm using them.


This was a lost little corner so it hides my tripod. I found the drying thing in Ikea and its fantastic to hold all my smaller stencils. I used some rings to hang the stencils on the peg them up. So easy to find the stencil that I after.
On the side of the inking station door you can see my bigger stencils hanging on a hook.


My trolleys sit her when I'm not using them but I have changed what I am storing in the white plastic trolley. You will see just a little further down the post.


The green storage cubes are also from Bunnings and fit perfectly into the cube storage unit. I keep all sorts of bits and bobs in the 8 on the left... string, doilies, hessian, all my laces...
 In plastic trays I keep all my inks, Gelatos, Big Brushes, washi tapes, silk paints.... I can just turn around and find the ink pad that I'm after.
On the top of the unit I have 2 small display units which in 1 my bottles of stickles are all stored upside down and in the other my Micro beads and and sequins are stored. 


The other 8 cubes store my stamps and other bits and pieces that i might not use quiet as often.
 In the 8 green storage boxes on the right are all my loose flowers. You know when you open a packet and just have a couple left well that were I put all mine. So easy when doing a page, just pull out the appropriate box and I can usually find another flower to add to my page.
I hung some of my favorite layouts around the top of the room, just for a bit of inspiration.
A clock because time does just fly when I'm n here.



This is " My Office" in the corner, you can see my computer and printer, my cork board for all those important messages, and of course my TV, love a little white noise when I'm working on a page. I do have a stereo in the room with the speakers mounted in the ceiling so I can use either.
A couple of sets of draws to hold printer paper and other paperwork. 
You cant see them but on the side of the inking station I have some vertical document shelves that hold all the upcoming challenges for the Design Team I'm on. : )

The Big Picture and a couple of other ideas...
The plastic draws at the right end of the cubes hold all my photos. I have ay totes that I use for retreats are stored next to the too. The florescent light are " daylight" tubes and all 3 are independent of each other.
Your can also see that we had some power-points attached to the roof over my work station. This was one of the best ideas as now I don't have leads lying across my pages as I work.


This is where my baby sleeps whilst I play.
In this photo you can see my new chairs that my hubby bought me from Ikea.
They are so colorful and just suit my room.


Love these chairs, so comfy and so bright..
This is how I'm using my white trolley for now, my paints in the top basket. In the next basket I keep Gesso, Impasto, Texture paste and all those mediums.
On the bottom basket is my heat gun and glue and my Crop- A- Dile and the trimmer just sits on one of the baskets.




Now we are heading towards the Eastern End.....


The 2 wires racks under the trestle table are on rollers and they hold all my left over bits of card stock and patterned paper. I've sorted them into colours so when I working on a page I can hunt through these for an extra layer or die cut. I think I have saved myself heaps of cardstock by using this method. Before I would have just cut into a new piece.


This old buffet has been " hanging " around so I decided to finally do something with it. Painted and it now has a permanent home in The Confetti Box. It hold my sewing machine, punches and the stereo. I also keep spare cups for friends who come to scrap.


The is the coffee station with a small bar fridge. In the afternoon I get a lovely sea breeze trough this window. I had all these small punches in a box and located in my stash this hanging gizmo. Perfect for all those tiny punches.
The wooden boxes on the floor hold corrugated board and backgrounds that I have started but never used. 

The long view to the east




Along this wall I have all my " power tools". To start with I have my Brother Cut and Scan, the my electric distresser, another heat gun for embossing and my Big Shot. In the wire baskets under the power tools are the corresponding equipment. You can see some little containers under the shelf, these have embossing powder in them. We screwed the lids to the shelf and that way I only have to unscrew the bottom part.
In the jars you can see I store all my ribbons and buttons. 




My Big Shot and die folders. This is how I store my die's. 
You can see it better in the next photo.
The 2 cupboards on the wall I will open and show you what I keep in those in a couple of photo's further down the post. My beautiful son Wade made these cupboards for me.


Yes these are 4 ring folders  with plastic document sleeves with magnetic sheets in them. 
You can buy the magnetic sheets from Office works and the clear plastic sleeves.  Just be warned they get very heavy if you have to many sleeves in one folder.

SEE FURTHER DOWN - I HAVE A NEW WAY TO STORE DIES


My Special Cupboards made by my son Wade


As you can see this side holds all my chipboard pieces. The cupboard is as deep as the medicine cupboard that we all have in our bathrooms. I added the hooks and voila !!


This side holds all my packets of flowers. Having them in the cupboard makes it so much easier to see what colours I have and what styles. Remember I still have the loose one on the other side of the room in the green cubes. Yes this is my obsession.. My Flowers !!



Just some spare shelves near my office. These boxes are empty at the moments.
I have a lot of empty spaces now just waiting to be filled.


Anita from Facebook sent me this idea and I have implemented in The Confetti Box. Love it and what a great way to store your dies. I must say I do use more of my dies now.






My new scrap space
"The Confetti Box"
named by my son Wade.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my beautiful hubby Pat and my son Wade  for creating this amazing space for me to immerse myself in my obsession.





Thank you for stopping by
I hope you enjoyed the journey into my new space
The Confetti Box.

till next time
keep on scrapping

Carol xx










Saturday 13 June 2015

" I Cross my Heart "

Hello all, I hope you are all having a great day. 
This is my design team layout for case file 167 at CSI- Color, Stories and Inspiration

I love the soft colours in this case file and decided to do another one of our wedding photos for the album. The flowers in my bouquet were the exact same colour as in the case file. 
How perfect is that?
The title of the layout "I Cross my Heart" is the song that we were married to.


This layout is all thing girly. I tore strips off the ends of the top paper and then added some other papers and in the middle of the ;layers I added a couple of different types of lace. As I had te sewing machine out I stitched across the edges.

The case file elements;
The Scheme;denim blue,plum purple,wisteria,white and lime green
The Evidence; I used music elements,circles,birds,transportation elements,metal,key
The Testimony; I used a song (George Strait) as my title and on the rear of the layout I journalled a personal (sorry) letter to my hubby that included the inspirational words Harmony,Diversity and Key.

I love adding these fresin frames with quotes in them.
 You can see all the layers that I have added to this page.
Lace, doilies,stitching, and the pop of green in the foliage.

The dove is made of resin and something I have had in my stash for the longest time.

Im so happy with all the flower clusters on the page.
I threaded some cotton through the clusters for some extra dimension.

You can see I added texture to the background with Impasto and a music stencil.


Clear cabochons and Perlen-pen. I "hung" some Scrap FX hearts down
either side of the photo. I painted then added glitter the just the hearts.

A spray of roses across the bottom of the photo which match my flowers in the photo.

Some of the products used; Papers
Blue Fern Studio " Charlottes Dream"
Scrap papers
plain cardstock
lace
Music stencil
resin frame
Gelatos
Cabochons
Pearl-pen
Scrap FX chipboard
Prima flowers
Enthaily Flowers
D-lish flowers
glitter
Jo Sonja paints


Thanks for stopping by
Have a great day
Carol xx