Scrapology October Card Challenge

This month, the challenge set by Sue (Doogle 007) over at Scrapology is to use eyelets!  Goodness knows, if you've been a crafter sometime, then you probably have quite a stash of these in your craft drawers. 

I decided to make a card for my niece Erin who has a birthday coming up later this month. 



I used Autumn Leaves Freestyle Alpha by Tia Bennett.  I stamped each letter onto a different piece of green patterned paper scrap - I find my scraps do come in very handy for all sorts of things! 

This photo was taken outdoors in that amazing bout of late summer weather we had at the beginning of October.  The boys and I really enjoyed being out in the garden those afternoons - hard to believe we had that mini heatwave, after the wintery weather we've had just lately. 

I really like how this card came together and have decided to really use those eyelets more often.  Why don't you go check out the other girls' work and join in with the challenge?

Ace of Spades

As part of the Sketch and Scrap challenge on UK Scrappers for September, we were asked to follow this sketch:

It was fairly similar to a sketch that came up earlier in the year - so I had previously prepared the photos and already decided on the background colour for the layout.  I failed to complete it, however, due to being pregnant and intensely tired and not really interested in being creative!  So when I saw this sketch, I was very happy that I had already started the process of pulling things together. 



The photos are from Chelsea Flower Show 2009 - and the garden is called the "Ace of Spades", designed by David Dumoney. 

My journalling reads:  "Designed by David Dumoney, the 'Ace of Spades' garden fell in the Urban Garden category and gained a silver gilt medal.  He was inspired by listening to the Motorhead track, whilst working on his bike at home.  A giant Ace of Spades was set on the back wall, created out of garden spade heads.  The 'Alien' furtniture was constructed from old motor parts by artist Susannah Trigg."

I particularly love drawing inspiration for a look and feel of a layout from the photos, so I wanted to achieve an industrial, grungy theme - tying in with the heavy metal song and the extensive use of metal in the garden!  I outlined the border and my photos with paint, and also had great fun flicking paint onto the cardstock with a paintbrush.  I used lots of silver metallic card to mat the photos and other elements.  I found the "Ace of Spades" logo in Google images and printed that out and stamped some additional swirls around the edge. 

Supplies:

Bazzill cardstock

Heidi Swapp mask "Floral Bouquet"
K & Company Handmade embossed stickers
Stamps:  Technique Tuesday "Irony", Autumn Leaves Stampology "Round & Round"
Dawn Bibby Silver mist
Black Distress ink
Jo Sonja black acrylic paint



Scrapology October Layout

Welcome to October!  This month we are scraplifting one of Georgia K Keay's layouts, with the theme being "B for Borders". 

I was quite intimidated when I saw Georgia's layout because I knew I wanted to scrapbook my boys, but didn't want to splatter paint or ink or make it quite as eclectic as she did, even though I greatly admire the finished product.  In the end, I went with these photos as I knew I wanted to scrapbook them, even though they weren't marvellous, and thought that I could eventually make them work on a layout. 

Here is my layout:

Technique:

The layout is all about the bibs my mum bought the boys from Brisbane Airport when she flew over to be with us for the first month after the boys were born.  One bib had a picture of a pirate kangaroo and was emblazoned with "The Wild Ride" whilst the other was called the "Happy Turtle", depicted in the aboriginal art style.   The bibs are so cute and I wanted to remember their provenance so I decided to incorporate their design into the layout.  So I picked up the aboriginal art theme and thought that the Basic Grey Archaic papers were very suitably earthy.  I traced the kangaroo and turtle outlines onto acetate with a permanent marker and filled in the detail with Promarkers.  Then once the various patterned papers were stuck on, I decided to use the dot imagery for a border around the page to fit in with the Scrapology theme this month and also use the same principle to surround the journalling shape.  I liked the naive lettering on the bibs so just scribbled out my title and coloured in the letters using the same colour scheme.  After all, I can't cut up every item of clothing the boys have ever worn (as I did with their first baby grows)!  The splotches from Georgia's page are emulated with the dots in the border to look like air bubbles from the turtle and also the same with the fish. 

I outlined the patterned paper with my black Promarker to save on black cardstock, but did matt the photos on black Bazzill to give them more stability. 

My journalling reads " Grandma Brierley bought these bibs for you from Brisbane Airport because she said she couldn't resist them.  If you were crying a lot I would say to you "come on, my wild koalas, I want you to be happy turtles".  I don't know why you were called wild koalas where the picture was clearly a pirate kangaroo... @ 9 days old.  15-07-11".

Supplies:

Bazzill Basics cardstock

Patterned Papers:  Basic Grey - Archaic collection "Passe", "Fossil"

                               Crate Paper - Crate Avenue collection "Style"

                               Scenic Route - "Background Blue Grid Worn"

1/2" circle punch

Promarkers

As usual, Jill from Cardinal Colours is putting up a prize for the challenge.  Come on and join in!