Whisked Away

Thanks for stopping by again. Firstly my apologies for not posting last week, I will explain in a minute and it is the reason for the title today. First however, 2 weeks ago I posted a sketch challenge. Tracey sent through her interpretation, thanks Tracey and below is her layout. What a great memory to have. We have just booked to go to Seaworld so hopefully in a few weeks I will also be able to scrap the polar bears :) As promised Tracey I will send a little goodie pack your way, so keep your eye on the post.

Now for 'Whisked Away'

Last week my husband surprised me with a weekend away in the Hunter Valley. Not only is this one of my absolutely favourite places to go and chill out it is where we were engaged 10 years ago on Anzac Day. This is why the surprise. My fabulous husband organised for us to stay in the same guesthouse, in the same room as 10 years ago. We spent 3 nights there, relaxed, ate great food and wine tasted. Generally just enjoying the peace and quiet of the Hunter Valley. As a result I was packing and not blogging last Thursday night (I thought you wouldn't mind).

Below is a layout I scrapped recently about the Hunter Valley (before I knew of the surprise). The layout came from Cathy Zielske's design your life course and it is one of the few layouts I have scrapped that is not about my children :)

Enjoy your week and next week I hope to have found a little more time to scrap some new layouts and had a play with some new patterned papers we have in stock (look out for them in next weeks newsletter).

A lasercut, a layout and a sketch challenge

This week is a bit of this and a bit of that. My printer is not working properly and I still haven't managed to find time to have photos printed. So I have a painted lasercut to share, a layout that was inspired by a Cathy Zielske layout in her book Clean and Simple Scrapbooking and for the long weekend - a sketch challenge. None of these things are related, but all things I wanted to share with you this week.

So please read on and then let me know you stopped by to visit. Leaving a comment (even just to say hi) is simple, look for the comment button at the end of the blog entry and if you do not have a Google account, just leave your comment as anonymous. I would also love to know who stops by on a regular basis so make sure you add yourself as a follower. Thanks in advance this week :)

Firstly a laser cut I painted recently. I used Making Memories paints and of course Glossy Accents to finish it off. I painted it without a layout in mind, but this week I took a photo of my daughter that I think will go nicely with it, so I will definately need to find time to print some photos this week and share the lasercut next week on a layout.

The layout below was one I scrapped at the getaway. I was looking for some inspiration and for me the best place to start is always Cathy Zielske. I found an 8.5 x 11" layout in her first book Clean & Simple Scrapbooking which inspired me. I adjusted the dimensions to fit a 12 x 12 layout, moved the title and used my own colours. I was pleased with how it turned out and I am always grateful to Cathy for her inspiration.

Lastly this week, another long weekend is here so I thought everyone may have a little free time to scrap :) Below is a sketch challenge for you. It was always my intention with the blog to hopefully offer a little inspiration for you, but also to start to create a bit of community between the regular Remember When shoppers and blog readers. I know that lots of people are often hesitant to share their layouts or comment, but please as a scrapper who scraps mostly on my own, I love seeing what other people are scrapping and am sure that others do to. Since I have blog readers and newsletter readers all over Australia feel free to join in discussions and challenges. If you feel more comfortable doing this anonymously you are more than welcome to do this also.

So... this sketch challenge came from .. my head, sorry, but sometimes I just have images pop into my head - usually when I lie down to go to sleep at night :) I have not tried it out yet, so I am keen to see how other people can make it work as well. Email your layout to me by next Thursday and I will share them in the next blog. I will also randomly choose 1 layout to send a small goodie package to, just to say thank you for your efforts and sharing. Feel free to use the sketch as is or as a starting point and feel free to scrap in 12 x 12 or 8.5 x 11.
Happy creating, have a wonderful long weekend, and I am going to cross my fingers and wait to see what people come up with this week. Thanks for stopping by - Oh and please, don't forget to take 2 seconds to vote before closing the blog this week - Ta :)

Mini Album

Before I start my blog this week, I have had a bit of feedback about the painted lasercuts I posted last week. Some people have shared they think these look great, but they wouldn't have the time or patience. So I thought I would pop a poll onto the blog this week to see if people would like to see some painted lasercuts available for purchase (saving you the work, if you wanted this look, but didn't feel like painting). Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks

While we were away on the getaway a few weeks ago, one of the workshops was creating a mini album. I thought I would share this with you today. The idea behind it was to scrap a little more about ourselves. If you are anything like most of the scrappers I know, we all scrap about other people and not ourselves. In scrapbooking magazines and blogs there is always lots of ideas to scrap about ourselves, but I still rarely do. So, as the weekend was a no children weekend I thought it would be a good time to make a mini album focusing on 'Me'

I titled it 'a week as me' and as I like simple, kept the album very basic. You will probably notice that the photo on the cover is not me and I have yet to replace Jaime with me. I ran out of time prior to the getaway to find a photo of me to put on the front (something else that is very lacking in my scrap booking), so I used Jaime's for an example - lol

The album is 6" x 6" and has a chipboard cover which I covered in Bazzill cardstock.

Inside the front cover I wrote a small page on "I am ..." and filled this in with thoughts about what I do now and what I like to do etc. The page to the right of this was the first day of the week. I took some random photos throughout the day, printed them small and then cut them down with a 1 1/4" circle punch. How many photos you use does not matter. I used a minimum of three on each page and then filled in the other spaces with plain bazzill and patterned papers.

Behind each day of the week I made a pocket, so that I could slip a journalling card in. On this card I jotted quick notes about what I had done each day. Very simple things, but things that show what my week had been like. I did one for each day of the week and then stuck Sunday onto the back chipboard cover to finish off the mini album.

Hopefully it will be something fun to look back on in years to come, or for the children to flip through when they are a bit older :) It was quick and easy and since every page followed the same format very little thinking was required.

As we put these together on the getaway it was great to see how everyone adapted my basic layout to suit their own scrapping style.

Have a great week

Getaway, layout and lasercuts

This week has been an odd week and therefore lots and bits and pieces going on. Hence my blog this week. Beware before you keep reading there are a few pictures this week. To start with I thought I would share a couple more photos from the getaway (now that the girls have consented to me sharing them - lol). So.. a bit of scrapping, some relaxing and of course back to scrapping :)

As I shared last week, after returning from the getaway I have a new love for glossy accents (dimensional magic) and I have included a layout this week using a lasercut that I inked and then coated with glossy accents. I love the way it adds shine and a finishing touch to the lasercut.

Due to my excitement with 'glossy accents' (dimensional magic) I felt inspired this week to grab a few lasercuts and have a play. I went to the local craft store and found the finest paint brush they had. At the time I thought I was going a little overboard, but when I started painting I was glad I had made the decision to stick with the smallest I could find. So paintbrush in hand and a few colours of Making Memories paint I sat down to see what I could come up with. Below are some of the lasercuts I finished. I actually found this a very calming time and looked forward to a few spare moments each day to paint. Definately something I will be doing more of :) Of course I coated them to finish and I am really pleased with how they came up.

This week I need to head to the photo store to print some photos and hopefully next week some of them will be on layouts to share with you. Underneath each lasercut I have written the name of the set it comes from. Oh and I decided to get the glitter out too and see how it would come up, so the butterfly has some glitter added as well (before I glossed it)

Mushroom Set 2
mini filigree butterflies
Patchwork of Birds
Funky Xmas Tree Set

So not much scrapping this week, but lots of fun with the lasercuts. Next week I will share some more layouts and have a sketch challenge for you too.

Have a great weekend

Getaway

The getaway was last weekend and it was great. It started Friday afternoon and ran through until Sunday afternoon. It was located at a fabulous conference centre on the Central Coast of NSW - Noonaweena. While they have 2 houses on the property to cater for different groups you would never know there were people in the other house. We do not share the house we are in with any one over the weekend which is great. There are plenty of places to escape to if you need time to yourself or some peace and quiet (the spa included). All rooms have their own ensuite so plenty of privacy as well :).

I loved meeting new people and seeing all the different ideas everyone had to share over the weekend. This time I found the weekend particularly inspiring as people scrapped layout pages and off the page projects. With permission, next week I will share some with you. Everyone joined in the workshops and aside from scrapping enjoyed the spa and generally relaxing in the gorgeous surroundings and peaceful atmosphere that Noonaweena has to offer.

There was certainly a lot of laughing over the weekend I look forward to sharing future getaways with the new friends I made this weekend and also others who would like to join us. Below are just 4 photos from the weekend. I have left out any of people just yet until I make sure everyone in them is happy for me to share them with all of you.

During one of the workshops on the weekend we talked about using magazines to find inspiration and layouts and how one layout can be used over and over again. Below are 3 pages I scrapped from the original layout. The first one directly uses the layout with all the spaces being the same as the original. In the second and third I combined some of the spaces to make larger areas for photos, paper or journalling. The first two pages started out as 8.5 x 11" pages and I mounted them on black cardstock to make it a 12 x 12" layout for my children's albums. The third I changed the dimensions of the original layout to make it a 12 x 12" page.

On the second two layouts I have used lasercuts for the titles. Over the weekend being with others and scrapping you inevitably learn new things. Sometimes, being the mother of 2 young children I can live with my head in the sand and this was one of those times. The girls shared 'Dimensional Magic' with me and I just love it. It has been around for some time now, but somehow I missed it. So... the lasercuts have been inked and then had Dimensional Magic put over the top to make them glossy and add an extra dimension. I am sure that I will be back next week with more layouts using it :) (Now that I have my own!!) and no - for the girls away with me I didn't make my husband stop on the way home (trailer and all) to get it, I went out on Monday.

Please stop by next week and I will share the mini album we made over the weekend.

Have a great week and if you would like to join me for the next getaway in July - email me or reserve your place through the website by ordering the getaway.

Happy Easter and I hope you all enjoy the Easter weekend.