Weekend Cyber Crop

Good morning lovelies,
We had a long weekend this past one for ANZAC day, a day to reflect, honour and give thanks to our service men and women.
So much to be thankful to them for and so lucky to live in this wonderful and very proud country.

Long weekends will usually see a cyber crop happening somewhere and I was lucky enough to participate in one this weekend, although I only got two challenges done due to having a photo shoot and a BBQ with friends on the Saturday night.

This first page I did was for a 5,4,3,2,1 challenge.
5 large embellishments
4 patterned papers
3 mists or inks
2 word title 1 photo

Here is my entry:

There is lots of dimension in this layout without it being too bulky simply by building up the background with stencils, mists, gesso, machine stitching and washi tapes.
It's amazing that just by using these products how unique and dimensional your page will turn out.

The second challenge I entered was a colour challenge. The colour combo was orange, yellow, black and white.

On first impressions the combo reminded me of a sunny summer day but then I came across this photo of my husband that i just love and decided to go with that.
I used a darker, more burnt orange than a brighter tone.
Lots of machine stitching on this one as well...which I'm loving again at the moment.

Why not break out your sewing machine and try adding texture and dimension to your next project with some machine stitching?
You'll be surprised at just how cool it looks!

Chat again soon,
Sharryn
xx

Holding my own Easter Retreat

Hi everyone,
Hope you're having a relaxing Easter break wherever you are in the world.
This year we stayed home for the Easter holidays and it's been pretty quiet so far so I declared an impromptu Easter Retreat @ home, just with me LOL
Our kids are all coming over tomorrow for lunch and I'm pretty much all organised for that so what better way to spend the days than scrapping?

So far I've completed 2 pages in between what housework I have (and there's always lots to do here!!) and cooking meals for those of us at home.

I finished this page first...this is a 'just for me' layout:

I found the photo of my little grandson and his mummy walking along the beach in the ridiculous amount of photos I have of him when I was off on Retreat a few weeks back. I absolutely LOVE it and couldn't wait to scrap it.

I think I must be one of the biggest procrastinators when it comes to starting a page so I set myself a challenge on this one to just 'stick it down' without worrying about it too much and I'm really, really happy with it. 

I've used a stencil, texture paste, Gelatos and Glimmer Mist to create the background and lots of lovely layering with clusters of embellishments to finish the design.

Here's a close up of the layering and embellishments:

I just love clusters and tiny details...I really think they add the finishing touches on a layout.

That tiny little anchor you see there? I must have had that in my stash for about 6-7 years. Originally it was a sweet little gold metal charm but to make it suit my page I painted it with Gesso and then coloured it with Gelatos. 

This next page I did for the April Scrap the Boys challenge which is to use flowers on a boys layout.

To be honest I struggle with doing this, especially as my boys are all grown up but by using chipboard flowers layered with felt ones I got it to work perfectly:

 

I love this photo of my husband and little grandson who was helping our son move house on this day. Little man was so tired at this stage and was quite happy to sit in the cart moving plant pots with his grandpa. Look at his little elbow resting on the back of the cart...sooo cute.

It's been a while since I used lots of patterned paper on a page but love this Jillibean Soup kit and these papers suited the photo perfectly. Lots of distressing and layering went on here finished off with the cute stickers in the kit:

 

That's it so far but I'm about to print off a sketch and play along over at Once upon a...Sketch for the very first time. I'm loving these challenge blogs lately, they are the perfect way to get that mojo flowing.

What challenge sites will you be visiting over the break?

Have a wonderful day tomorrow and I hope the Easter bunny brings you lots of yummy eggs.

Bye for now,

Sharryn xx

Scrapping winner!

Hey everyone :)
Hope this post finds you well and DRY...as it's still raining here!!
We did need it but I wish it would fall where it's needed the most and give some much needed relief to our drought stricken farmers who are doing it really tough at the moment.

Last post I shared this layout I'd created for the March Scrap The Boys challenge and I'm excited to say I won a prize! YAY...LOL

I must admit the Scrap The Boys challenge site has a special place in my heart. Did you know I started that site many moons ago?
It started out as a place just to share layouts of BOYS for inspiration to other scrappers but sadly I couldn't keep it going after returning to work. I handed it over to the very talented Susan Longman who turned it into a challenge site and the rest, as they say, is history. Right now, Susan's sister Wendy is looking after it. Just a little bit of trivia I thought you might be interested in LOL

I also mentioned last post that I was heading off on a Retreat that weekend. The Retreat was organised by Lisa Warren of Inspired Blueprints and was held at The Tops Conference Centre in Stanwell Tops. I've never been to a retreat there but I can tell you it certainly won't be the last!
Such a beautiful place, the staff were great and the food was amazing...all the little things that make up a great weekend away for scrapping with the girls.
As for the girls...I had an absolute blast with not only my retreat partner in crime, Chrissy, but a few others as well. I think I'm to blame yet again for a very late night...or should I say early morning on the Saturday. 5.00 a.m bedtime. Oops ;P

Lisa had arranged a few challenges to be done over the weekend so I entered them to keep the mojo flowing. I ended up getting 4 done (I know right? I need to stop chatting and start scrapping on Retreat!). 2 of those pages I don't consider finished properly yet so I'll get on to them before I share.

This one I did for a challenge at Scrapbook Savvy (owned by the lovely Sar Ward) who was having her own Cyber Crop on the same weekend.
I misread this colour challenge and thought it was pink and blue. Thought I had it in the bag when I re-read...also GREEN! Arrgghhh...this threw me back HOURS as I just couldn't see where or how I was going to put some green. Really, really LOVE how this turned out though.

I did a beach photo shoot back in February of a friends' gorgeous daughters who are dancers and I've been busting to scrap the photos. One down...about a million to go...hehe.

The second page I actually finished wasn't part of a challenge but I bought a couple of new stencils at Retreat and wanted to have a play with them.
They were both really cool, grungy stencils (and let me tell you BOTH got a massive workout over the weekend from everyone).
One was just perfect for this photo of my son and his trainers at his last Muay Thai fight:

Such a cool, grungy boys page.

Right now I'm working on a mini canvas to put in my scrap room. I'm loving texture paste with stencils and Gelatos with gesso at the moment and the way they all seem to blend together.
Beautiful mixed media.

Well I'm off to cook dinner and hopefully have a little play at the scrap desk tonight.
Chat again soon,
Sharryn xx