Monday, February 27, 2012

10 years ago.....

This is the theme for Challenge Me Happy challenge #17.  I really had to think about what I was doing 10 years ago.  When you think about it 2002 just seems so long ago.....but it's not really. 

There's been a project that I've been wanting to work on for a long time and this challenge really conincided with it.  Ten years ago I returned back to NZ after being in London for 4 years.  Prior to landing back on the shores I spent 5 months travelling around Europe with my husband to be.  And what a time we had !! 

I kept a travel diary and it's full of bits and pieces of 'stuff' that I collected on our journey.  Which is invaluable, and I'm so grateful that I kept this journal (as this was back in the day when digital cameras were starting to make their mark) as I double exposed a roll of film.  I still to this day have no idea how it happened as I took ALOT of photos and had ALOT of film, and they turned out all ok.  So for the first couple of "film" that I used I don't really have any photos BUT I do have my journal. 

To kick start my project of our adventures I began at the beginning with our first stop - Biarritz. It really did bring the memories back.  I used Scrapbookcircle's "remember this" kit full of new products by My Mind's Eye and Rhonna Farrer - LOVE this product. 


Sorry that the photo quality isn't the best - it's been a week of grey and dismal weather.

Thanks for looking.

Friday, February 24, 2012

What a View

The sketch challenge from Once Upon a Sketch for Feb 15th I just had to do.  The theme was holiday/vacations and I've had a few in my time.  And it got me thinking about all the places that we had visited but in the end there's nothing quite like home.  This is made even more poignant when you live abroad and your young children are growing up in a completely different environment to what they would have had they stayed in NZ.  So it made me take another look at it and I realised that when we visit NZ, to them it really is just another holiday destination.  And the other realisation I had was that when we do visit we see the country, and cities we visit, through their eyes.  And that isn't really a bad thing!


For this layout I used Scrapbook Circle's Note to Self kit.  This is one I've really enjoying using - especially playing with the corrugated chipboard. There are a few extra emblishments but the majority come from the kit.  I also sprayed the background with some Glimmer mist to give it abit more interest. 

Thanks for looking.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Gotta love HK Trams

Get Picky's Challenge #17 was another fab sketch.  There were a number of photos that would work fantastically with this sketch but I decided on using 3 Instagram photos for it.  I just love this photos of the trams and how with the filters used and the blurring they really make these HK icons stand out.  We do use these trams to get around and I just love them.  They really do make you just sit and watch the world go by - the speed with which they go by probably also has something to do with it!

This is my take on the sketch for this challenge.


I love October Afternoon's Boarding Pass collection.  They've used the names of major cities as the paper names so I thought it would be really fun to use the "Hong Kong" paper as my base paper.  The epoxy circle stickers are from the new Dear Lizzy collection and I found some other emblishments that I thought worked really well.  I especially love the wording on the Admit One ticket...and so very apt!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

The ANZAC Spirit

Get Picky's challenge #16  was one that I thought about for a while.  I've had so many marvellous and fantastic holidays at places all over the world (yes, I've been very fortunate and privileged to be able to do this and to do still do it) that it was hard to pick a favourite.  I wrote down a list of places that we had been to - some as a family, some as just the two of us and some that I've done on my own - to help me narrow down my selection.  That didn't really help as there's always a story to go with the photos plus they're all rememberable.  I think picked up a packet of photos and started to look through them.

These photos were a small part of one holiday that my husband (not at the time) and I had been on.  Turkey is a country that we have visited more than a few times and it is a favoured destination - there is just so much to love about this country!  The photos that I decided to scrap for this challenge was of one particular place in Turkey that has such huge significance to us as New Zealanders and that's Canakkale, where the Battle of Gallilpoli took place.

Since I had to use at least 4 photos I thought I would create a double layout.  As I was laying it out, I wanted to try and record as much as I could of our time here.  I created a journal tag and placed it behind the vertical photo - not so much as to hide the journalling but this was the only place where it fit.  I used foam dots to create dimension and it slid perfectly in there.  Both sides of the tag got used - one side was my thoughts and the other was my husbands.  I thought it was a great touch to include his impressions of our time there.   




I used LilyBee's This & That collection with a few extra bits that I thought worked.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

An Angel and the Innkeeper

This photo has to be one of my favourites.  It is of my daughter with one of her special mates, Cameron, waiting for their school Christmas nativity play to begin.  The photo is actually from a group photo that had their whole class in it but I loved the expression on their faces - they both look so proud and chuffed to be there.  And amazingly enough they were both looking at the camera at the same time - that has to be a bonus!!  I used Instagram to capture just the two of them.  And love how the photo turned out!

When I saw this week's Studio Calico Sunday Sketch I immediately thought of this photo and knew that it would be perfect for it.  I pulled out my Country Fair kit and paired it up with items from other SC kits and found the perfect combo for it.  I love how the browns and gold really make the two little people stand out. 


It came together just as I'd hoped and I love how it turned out. 

Sunday, February 5, 2012

A Recipe for Friendship

The January challenge has come to an end.  There were some fantastic layouts.  I loved how we all had a different take on this challenge - finding a recipe and making that the focus.

This challenge had me stumped for a little while as wasn't quite sure how to approach it.  I'd come up with a few ideas but nothing really grabbed me.  I was in the process of sorting out my printed photos and I came across this photo.  It's me with three of my good friends out for dinner (all three of them now no longer live in HK and they are very much missed) and it envoked some wonderful memories.  It got me thinking about friendship and that surely there must be a recipe out there for that.  I did a search and found this fabulous poem to go with my photo.


I used Scrapbook Circle's Grandma's Kit for this layout.  This kit was full of Emma's Shoppe collection from Crate Paper which I love.  The tones and colours helped me give the tone I was trying to achieve - abit of light hearted fun!

What 1 wears out!

Challenge Me Happy has their new Challenge #16 up.  I was wondering what they would come up and they didn't disappoint.  It was a recipe challenge.  These are just so much fun and can be challenging too as you can only work with what the recipe states.  In this case the ingredients to use were :
1 photo
2 different cardstocks
3 journaling spots/tags/etc
4 words in the title
5 patterned papers
6 butterflies

Mist/ink/paint and border punches are freebies!

When I saw that I was able to use butterflies and 6 of them I knew where to go.  One of the kits from Studio Calico had a supply of fantastic butterflies (which I hadn't used up) and I had a little paper left - so that is where I went.


The 2 cardstocks I used were my staples - Kraft as my base and vanilla to matt the photo.  I also used the white to make the number 1 stand out as wanted to include it in my title. The papers used are all American Craft Pebbles.  I had a strip of pink that I used to fold over to give the tag abit of something extra.  I would normally have used ribbon for this but paper works just as good.  And of course used my stickles to give the butterflies are bit of shine.

Thanks for another great challenge