My Sweet Girl loves to Read

Challenge #19 for Challenge Me Happy was to create your own emblishments.  I had received my March Scrapbook Circle Best.Day.Ever kit full of the latest Dear Lizzy (which I just love) and other fabulousness and had an idea of what I was going to do.  I also had seen this great idea from Sketch Support with the use of banners.  It was Add On Sketch #15, so I modified it to make it work with my layout.  I created the banners and put them together to go "into" the Dear Lizzy chipboard shape, like a vase.

I thought I would try something slightly different too and that was use my new Studio Calico Mr Huey spray to give a splatter look on the base paper.  I really like how this layout turned out.

Also, should let you know that I had a little help for the title.  I knew what I wanted to say but just couldn't find the right words.  So asked the person who the layout was about for ideas and the title came straight from her.  So just had to use it.

Ssssh show us a secret..

After completing the masking challenge for Challenge Me Happy (click here for post) I was inspired to do another layout with another mask.  It was a Heidi Swapp tulip mask.  I found these 2 photos of my daughters that weren't taken at the same time (I think there was 2 weeks between them).  We were doing some baking and I asked them to smile.  They both gave me the same pose and tilted their head the same way - just classic - so of course had to scrapbook them.  In completing the layout I realised that wasn't much room for journalling - which tied in well with the Southern Girls Challenge #19 to do something hidden.  I created a journalling tag and slipped it behind the top photo.  To do this smoothly I raised the photos so that the tag would slide in easily.  I used papers from the Crate Paper Random collection thickers from American Craft and letter stickers from October Afternoon.

While we were waiting

Challenge Me Happy's challenge number 18 was to use masking.  This is not something that I often do but thought it would be abit of fun to play with.  I've got heart masks that Heidi Swapp did and they do get used - just not very frequently.  So I used Silver Spun Tattered Angels Glimmermist to bring the heart out and I also traced a smaller heart mask for my journalling to match my daughter's heart on her sweatshirt.  Everything else came from a Studio Calico kit.

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.

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.

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!

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.