Testing.. testing... anybody there?

Oh good. It's not rusty yet. Just popping in to leave a little clue. Stay tuned...

Taking a break

If it wasn't already obvious from my lack of posts, I haven't been doing much scrapping lately. It's not that I've been too busy. I have plenty of time. So much has been going on in my life. I'm not the same person I was six months... a year ago. I'm just not feeling creative in that way right now. Losing my beloved mother has made me view my life through fresh eyes. I've developed some new interests and have been focussing my time and energy on my family. I'm not selling all my stuff or making a big announcement that I'm giving up scrapping for good. I'm just calling it a break. I've stepped down from all my designing commitments. I would like to thank Nicole and Andrew from Twiddleybitz, Mandie from The Scrap Cottage and Sue from Australian Scrapbook Ideas for being so understanding and supportive.

It's likely that I will begin studying for a new career soon. I've been researching something I've been passionate about for a long time and would love to work in that field. It might involve starting a new blog that has nothing to do with craft. For now I'm just going to leave this one sitting here and see what happens. I won't be checking for comments very often so if you need to get in touch with me, please email me via the contact tab at the top.

Thanks for all of your comments and support lovely readers. I truly appreciate it. In the words of two ladies I find to be incredibly inspirational (Christy Tomlinson and Melody Ross)... "do what matters most" and "go where the peace is".

Kaisercraft, Twiddleybitz and Prima

Here's a new layout I've created. See the Twiddleybitz Ning gallery for information about products and techniques. Make sure you check out the amazing work of the other DT girls and members while you're there. There are so many inspirational projects being shared lately!

CSI challenge 41

I came across the CSI - Color, Stories, Inspiration site a while ago and really liked the concept of how the challenges work. I've been wanting to play along and finally got my act together when I fell in love with the latest case file! It is so, so gorgeous and I knew I had the perfect photo and products all ready to go. I know... I know... I've scrapped this gorgeous photo by Amanda Newman Photography a couple of times before, but I don't care! I hope you like what I came up with. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Pink Paislee Portfolio Layout

I was in the mood for creating something NOT girly (for a change), when the  Pink Paislee Portfolio collection caught my eye yesterday. I thought it would really suit a photo of my handsome stepson Jayden. I'm so lucky to have such a lovely, photogenic boy in my life and I didn't even have to give birth to him!

The adorable Maya Road banner had been calling my name so I grabbed a pack of those and some Pink Paislee Artisan Elements that I'd also been wanting to try. There are lots of ways you can customise the white Artisan Elements to suit your projects. I simply dabbed these border strips with an ink pad and cut them up. I really enjoyed using them and plan to try some of the other varieties now. The alphas I've used are Prima and American Crafts thickers, and then I embellished with a few cute little wood veneer stars from Studio Calico (coming soon).You might have noticed the newsprint acetate peeking out from underneath the layers? That's actually from the Kaisercraft Periwinkle collection and it's so versatile. I must have more.

Well that's it for now. I've been feeling super inspired to make lots of cards lately so that's probably what I'll have to share next time. I have a few Twiddleybitz beyond the page ideas floating around in my head too. I hope you're having a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

A Twiddleybitz Autumn layout

Here's a simple layout to share that was fun and quick to put together. I'd had these photos of Holly sitting around since Autumn (in Australia) and was just waiting for the right paper to come along to scrap them. When I saw the Simple Stories Harvest Lane collection knew I'd found it. I'd already put aside the Twiddleybitz chipboard elements because I thought they would look so cute with these photos!

I think I had trouble choosing papers to use with these photos because the purple sleeves on Holly's shirt seemed to clash with anything that suited the autumn theme. I remembered a good friend telling me once not to get caught up in trying to match everything perfectly. I toned down the saturation in my photos so the purple wasn't as overpowering, got them printed and went with this!

I don't often use stickers in my scrapping and really enjoyed how quick and easy this layout was when I put a few on it. I love creating whimsical little scenes and this collection is perfect for that. The chipboard elements were also really simple. I just inked them with different colours of Distress Ink, and put a few little bits of paper on the back of the owl. The flower was made with my  Big Shot  and Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die.

Well, this beautiful spring weather is inspiring me to get in and scrap the season we are actually in now! There are beautiful new collections arriving all the time at The Scrap Cottage so I won't have to look far for everything I need.