Scrappy Kea

Another fabulous sketch from Let's Get Sketchy is behind this layout.  It's a double page for in my 'Everyday Life' album so each page is 6 x 8 inches and will pop into the page protectors for this album. I have used some Rustic Fundamentals with a bit of Swan Lake.  Lettering and grey heart was cut with the Cricut.  

Had another go at one of the Let's Get Sketchy Sketches.  Took a while to post on my blog as the official 'Blogger' app crashes every time I use it.  Trying out 'blogit' instead. This page is 6x8 inches- for in my Everyday Life album and uses mostly Adventure Fundamentals papers with a fun photo of my daughter on a recent trip to Australia. Because of the size of the page I had to adjust the proportions of the sketch.  

In need of inspiration once more for creating some pages, I made use of Let's Get Sketchy' s current sketch as the foundation for this page of my friends boys: Materials Jeepers Creepers Paper Packet White Daisy Cardstock Peacock Cardstock Confetti Stars Embossing Folder Cricut Explore Air 

Using Sketches is a fabulous way to re-inject some creativity into your pages or to challenge yourself to try something different.  I used this weeks sketch from 'Let's Get Sketchy' as the foundation for the design of this page: Being who I am...I couldn't just copy it as it was but instead I shrunk down the cool square and triangle piece, centred it, stitched around it before adding my 'photo tag' and a little journaling sticker under the title. It was fun seeing this page come together.  I used Close To My Heart's Swan Lake papers and complements , making it very easy to co-ordinate my page! Smiles, Lara

An order from Close To My Heart arrived on Friday.  I played with the paints on Friday night to make these: A bit of layering with a vellum paper softened the paints nicely and the Cricut Artbooking Collection added the title and embellishments.  Super simple page. A day with the youth at Mt Dobson on Saturday and Church on Sunday morning meant I couldn't play with my supplies till Sunday afternoon when I created these: These are probably my favourite pages from this weekends creating as they use Everyday Life pages as the bases.  I love this way of documenting life because the pages are small and there seems to be less pressure to create stunning pages. I couldn't resist the opportunity to include watercolour paints on these either!

Love these two paper collections together, kind of like nature with a pop of colour!  Both paper sets are from the new 2016-2017 Annual Inspirations.  These pages were also an opportunity to play with the CTMH Artsitry Cricut Cartridge...its been great to use my Cricut again with renewed enthusiasm. A layout about my oldest daughter growing into a young lady. Young Lady Materials White Daisy Cardstock  1385 Rustic Home Fundamentals  Z3262 Adventure Fundamentals  Z3253 Rustic Home Ribbon Pack  Z3292 White Twine  Z3216 Exclusive Ink: Black  Z2805 Cricut Artistry  Z3167 What is it about boys, sticks and finding things?  Great that he can entertain himself though. Lake Play Materials White Daisy Cardstock  1385 Rustic Home Fundamentals  Z3262 Adventure Fundamentals  Z3253 White Twine  Z3216 Cricut Artistry  Z3167

We had a bit of an impromptu photo shoot last weekend.  While my husband was getting some work stuff done Alicia and I took photos of Katya.  While I was away being a leader at a CYC camp my Close To My Heart order arrived.  I signed up as an Independent Consultant after liking what I saw in one of their Idea Books. Signing up this month meant I also got the choice of some of the new paper and Complements packs. I chose the 'Adventure and Good Life' pack.  There's still time if you are interested in signing up and taking advantage of this opportunity too - Early Bird Sign-Up Special . I like the bright colours and gold transparency pieces and used these on my 'Be Happy' layout (list of materials at the end of this post). In creating this layout I made use of my new toy... Canon Selphy 1200 It has become very costly buying inks for the family printer so I'm hoping this will be less expensive to use.  It's nice and fast...portable too! ...

The Cricut.  Used for the last couple of years to cut out lettering for my classroom. Today I have been finding out about updates and changes and how to use 'Cricut Craftroom' to link my cartridges and arrange cuts.  It works s bit like Design Studio did...but it's free.   Our internet connection drops out regularly making the new 'Cricut Explore' out of the question though I would like a larger cutting platform (12 inch width rather than 6 inch)...might need to look out for Cricut expressions. Linking the cartridges to my Cricut account is taking ages, hopefully it will be worth it when it's all set up...

Had a great time making stuff, talking, meeting new people and exploring new creative stuff last weekend.  I didn't do any 12x12 layouts.  I am a 'prolific scrapper' and would usually churn out heaps of pages.  This time was different...and I liked it. I started the weekend doing some stuff in my art journal, played with layers and paints before opening up a smash book that had been waiting in my cupboard for some time (3-4 years?).  I had printed a few photos before leaving home and made a start with these.  No order to how they went in (same event photos together) but I treated each spread as either a double layout or single pages.  The size of this book will make storage and the collecting of photos and memories into pages simpler.   While I enjoyed this relaxed process, it's not to say I will never do more 12x12 pages, in fact, I will be more selective about the photos and memories that become 12x12 pages. The smash books were great as they already...