A New Year Sketch

I don't make resolutions. From experience I know there is no point, it just doesn't work. Now intentions are a different matter. I have a few intentions. One is to blog more regularly. Not that it's working so far, here we are at the start of week 3. But on the other hand, that's a good thing - still 49 lovely untouched weeks to play in and make good in :-)

Let's start the year (it's still at the start) with a nice boy sketch. I made it a couple of weeks ago in a quiet moment, but forgot to put it up. I hope you find some time soon to have a play with it. If you do, please send me a link so I can go have a look at what you've done. I LOVE seeing how everyone interprets my sketches, it's so diverse! You all come up with such different pages from that one spark of an idea. Love it! There's lots of room in this one for some creative stuff on the background page, or maybe use one of those wonderful corner-print pages. Then layer up and add some pretties.

Love Heather x

If you can't stand the mess, get out of the scraproom!

December Dance

I told you I was off my game... I was really sick for the whole of November. Well really, from the last Thursday in October to the last Thursday (strangely) in November. I ended up with some sort of virus in the stomach and liver - I wouldn't recommend it ;-) And consequently, I haven't done anything creative, except some Christmas cards on my better days.

They were pretty much all made from scraps, bits and pieces I already had, and lots of white cardstock. I put some new dies to use, too, and made a pile of bits with scraps to use. I still have a few little bags of bits for more... but maybe next year. Now it's time to write all those greetings and messages of love and hope.

love Heather x

Be filled with wonder. Be touched by peace.

A New Sketch

I have been off my game this last month, not terribly well and not feeling creative either, sadly. But today I felt a bit better, and I've made you a sketch :-)

Challenging Pages

In amongst the doctors visits, the clutter clearing exercises, and the normal weekly tasks, I managed to scrap two pages this week. I made a few cards as well from a not-loved paper. All these from challenges on facebook sites. I like scrapping to challenges. It's like that little set of instructions brings out the creative flow and you have to go in directions you probably wouldn't have thought to go in, without the challenge.

My husband particularly likes this one, and he hardly ever says anything other than, "Mmm, nice," or some other not-really-committing kind of comment. It's not that he doesn't like them, it's just an "Oh yeah, there she goes again doing her stuff," kind of thing. He expects it of me. But now and then one will leap out at him and he pays more attention. Like this one:

It's a black and white photo, taken by my son's girlfriend, of us all on a walk one day last year. Nice job Shanae :-) Perfect for this challenge from Scrapping Good Time, which was to create a completely black and white page, no other colours allowed (except the photo could be colour).

I used my new Martha Stewart punch set to make the background layer - I'm having so much fun with those punches! Everything else came from stash, already cut or made, except the pearl flourish, which I bought last week at the Kaiser shop. The stamped flowers I must have done about 3 years ago, and just came across them again recently. The large flowers were cut with my sister's new flower die set from MFTstamps which I love (it's on my list!). I just pinched up the petals and layered them. The brad centres were also from about 3 years ago. Love that chicken wire stencil and I find I want to use it a lot. Even on flowery pages it looks good and on this page I think it added a bit of needed visual texture.

My second page this week was a challenge I set on Home & Scrapped, to use inked or painted circles in the background. We have some lovely pages coming in from this challenge, all really quite different. Here's what I did:

Just felt like documenting how the inner journey makes me feel. I used a variety of scraps here, from Kaiser and MME mostly, and again, flowers and other things from my, uhhh... he-hemm... large stash.

I don't know why I feel guilty having such piles of goodies to use. I do actually use them. I am surrounded by abundance and nowhere is it made clearer to me than when I need something crafty - I look, and there it is, just waiting to be used. Lucky me :-)

Anyway, back to the page. I used a glass and the lid of a couple of containers dipped in ink and gesso to make my circles, then inked the edges of the background paper in two shades, and then glimmer misted it in two shades, and then stamped it too, for good measure. The word GLAD came from an alpha my friend Jewels sent me years ago, which I am slowly disappearing, the flowers came from my niece Elissa's die set, the little bling flowers are beads given to me by my friend Jemma, the red spotty washi tape from another friend, Josie and the swiggly leaves came from my sister Karen. You have to just LOVE having scrappy friends and family! It's so nice to be able to scrap with such things, it brings out all sorts of memories, other than the ones you are actually scrapping. Pages with layers of feeling: excellent! Oh and don't you just love my little cat? That is my latest purchase from ebay, a sweet set of dies with real cat poses from Impression Obsession, and a great size for cards and little accents. So cute!

I have another page on my desk as well, but I also have a very busy week ahead, with visitors, several very early mornings, repair men, child minding tasks, doctor and chiropractic appointments, etc, etc. It might not be scrapped very fast - or maybe it will, in a frenzy of craft-aholic need, lol.

Have a very happy scrappy week, love Heather.

One For The Boys

Most of us have boys to scrap: sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles, friends, heroes. They can be a little harder to scrap though, because there are fewer embellishments around, and we can find ourselves with a more limited colour range that feels right. It's pretty easy to scrap a girl page, just fling a few flowers at it and it instantly looks fab (oh... that could just be me, lol).

There are some wonderful blogs for boy scrapping though, sooo much wonderful inspiration and brilliant ideas. I love Scrap The Boys in particular, for taking our masculine pages out of the closet and giving them such a great lease of zing and life! The definitely expand our boundaries, bless them. And some of the die companies are finally getting it together and bringing us some fun new dies with a more masculine flavour.

We love our boys and we want to celebrate their lives with great pages.

Now I'm not saying this is a great page, lol, but I do like the sketch I started with. I hope you do too. I left lots of space for things like masking or misting on the background, so go have some messy fun.

And here is my red page. Just a plain red cs background, with some masking done with a stencil from The Crafters Workshop and some modelling paste, the glass I just had my peach tea from (earlier, when it was clean) with gesso, and a cotton reel dipped in ink. 

I tore the washi tape accidentally while I was tearing a bit off... um... I mean it tore down the length of the tape rather than across. I can't tell you how indignant I felt, or how reluctant I was to ditch the torn bits! So funny when I think about it. Hellooo, it's a small piece of tape! Where is my sense of proportion? LOL. Anyway, at the time, I had the offending strips in my fingers and decided they needed to go on the edges of the page. Thrilled with how that worked out. (Yes, I'm very easy to please.) 

I must say the effect of this page reminds me of the state my son's bedroom gets in! 

(Ooops, just realised I haven't done my journaling yet. Must need coffee... )

You might like to see some other pages I have done recently. I haven't scrapped as much as I would have liked this year, but I am happy with what I have managed and I have a whole lot of new photos to play with now too - good things coming :-) So here is a selection of the pages I've done this year. Most of my pages use stuff from stash - some of it quite old now - things I've made and also little pretties gifted to me by my lovely scrappy friends. I am not a scrap snob - I'll use anything I like, as long as it's scrapbook friendly, so there is a wide eclectic variety on all my pages, of new, old, bought and made, and usually, lots of flowers. I like it like that, it suits me.

 These lovely photos of my daughter were taken by her friend when they were out and about one day, on her phone. Love this glimpse of her.

 My darling children, chunks of my heart and soul.

Enjoying a walk on the riverside in Brisbane. Twinchies made by a friend, with real shells.

Remember the page I made of my Dad on the balcony? This is the companion page, of my Mum, sitting with him.

 My daughter, with her new best boy. These two are lovely together.

 A true scrap-fest going on here, using lots of lovely little bits lurking in my stash files, and a few different techniques too.

 The first page of a double, using twinchies made from various little finds in my stash, including some gifted and swapped items.

The second page of my double. Love these photos of my beloved, taken when we went out for our traditional Boxing Day lunch. And together: 

The words around the hearts are all meaningful little things to us - words of love, bits of song or memories. That was a fun thing to do.

The girls in my family all got together in February to have a weekend away. It was so much fun and we will definitely be doing it again some time soon. I'll have a few more pages to go with this one in the next few weeks. This page is this month's sketch at Home & Scrapped, my facebook group.

I hope you've enjoyed my little bit of scrap fun. I'm off now to play with more paper. Have a great week.

love Heather x

"We didn't realise we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun."

The Last of August

The last day of August, the last day of Winter here in Australia, three quarters of the way through the year. I am convinced the years are speeding up, despite my very logical husband assuring me that it's not so. Pffft, don't try and bamboozle me with logic, I know it's going faster! ;-) I need to do something substantial in the next few months, so that I have something to show for the year. Let's see... game plan... eh... Oh, I know, recover the sofabed! It's been on The List for a long time now, so maybe it's time to cross that one off, and that would definitely make me feel as if I had achieved something. I'll keep you posted.

Apart from that, I will be doing more scrapping. I recently had 300 odd photos printed, so I have to. Here's one I did today, in between making a delicious dinner for guests, going shopping, and cropping photos for my flower sale. More on that later... first the page:

This is my Dad. I don't have many photos of him for some reason, but I like this one. He looks nice and relaxed, and he was. I was staying with them for a few days and we were having the regular afternoon balcony time. This page is for the Step By Step Challenge on the Home & Scrapped facebook group for August, by Julie, who was challenging us to step outside our normal limits and get busy with patterned papers. I used a mixture of old and new papers from my stash, and some items from a swap I did online with some fellow scrappers last year. I like it for a change to my usual white background pages.

If you are interested I happen to know that Home & Scrapped is happy to have new scrappy friends join them and play along, so come and check out our happy little group.

For the last few weeks I have been busy making flowers in my spare moments (and my stolen moments), and I am finally ready to share my creations with you. I am having a sale, starting on 1st September, on my facebook page Heather's Handmade Flowers. I have all sorts of shapes and colours available, so happy with them! I am going to love seeing them on pages and cards here and there. Here are a few of my sets:

Now I may be biased (ya think?) but I think they're rather yummy. Go on, you know you need some :-) 

Here's another few, just for fun. 

 Don't you just love that piece of driftwood I photographed all the flowers on? I found it on a beach walk recently and just had to bring it home. It's an old piece of fence wood I think, not very big, but so deliciously worn and textured.

Have a wonderful scrappy week, love Heather x

One of the happiest moments in life is when you find the courage to let go of the things you can't change.

August Sketch

To celebrate starting my new blog (which still needs a lot of work, but I will get to that this week), I have made this sketch to tempt you to spend some time scrapping this week. This sketch would work well for a single 4x6 inch photo too, and there is heaps of background space there for some creative play if you like that sort of thing, or maybe use one of those lovely background pages with fancy corner designs. I hope you like my newest sketch and find it useful.

And here is my page, that I just put together today, using the sketch. 

The people are my lovely nephew Jacob and his beautiful new fiance Paris (though in the photo we were all still waiting for him to pop the question) at my mother's 80th birthday party. I used my new mini punches to make the banner pieces, and crumpled them to give them a little life. The flowers are all my own handmade ones, from various dies and punches. The rest is just stuff from stash, some of it gifted to me by my scrapping friends. 

love Heather x

Live like someone left the gate open.