1 for me, 1 for her, 1 for him

I got the chance to scrap for a little while yesterday, one for my BOM and one for Alyse's album and one for TJ's album.

This KISS layout was based on Nic's instructions for ScrapbookingbyDesign's last Bossy Scrapper challenge. I quite like how the bling looks highlighting part of the photo and I made my own 'chipboard' buttons by gluing four punched circles on top of each other and adding holes with my eyelet hole punch.

This one is based on Jane's (aka Tilly) sketch challenge over at the Scrapbook Dreams forum. Jane was this week's guest designer and created this sketch and element instructions to inspire us. I am always on the lookout for sketches/layouts that incorporate two photos of differing orientations, as it seems alot of my older photos are a mixture of portrait and landscape orientation.

This is one of those "just cos" layouts, created just cos I wanted to, not for a challenge and not based on any sketch/layout I had saved in my favourites folder.** These photos are over 10years old and not the best quality but I still love them. (btw the layout is straight IRL).

** I have over 1500 layouts and over 600 sketches in my favourites folder all sorted into sub-folders depending on how many photos on the layout/sketch. I will be adding many more layouts to my favourites folder in the future that is a promise.

I created another layout yesterday but cannot share that one as yet as it is for October's jack challenge. I will link it up to the challenge tomorrow.

Even though I have created over 20 layouts this month my scrapping desk seems to be relatively tidy, just need to put away the completed layouts now!Anyone else having trouble signing in to Blogger using Firefox? I have recently updated to a newer version of Firefox and there seems to be some sort of incompatibility. I only say that cos I had no trouble signing in with IE. Anyone know how to fix the problems or should I just uninstall the Firefox update?

2 x 3 = 6 and a framed gift

Vicky has recently had a birthday so challenged us to create our own birthday layout. I have had these photos in my TO SCRAP binder for some time now (photos taken in January 1998) so this was just the push I need to get them into TJ's album.


btw check out Vicky's new etsy shop, you will find some way cute knitted baby gear. She is one talented lady!

On the subject of babies, I made this simple framed layout for a workmate who is leaving today to have a wee bub. I think the quote is such a cute one and used one of Trina's sketches for my inspiration. Donna was very impressed.

Tried some new techniques & I've been tagged!

Sundays Bossy Scrapper #12 was Meek, once again I didn't get into the 'office' aka chatroom to play but printed off the instructions and worked on my layout this morning. {btw - I slept well (on the recliner) from 8pm - midnight, went to bed and tossed and turned till 4.12am so got up to scrap!!!}

Here is my layout (I apologise for all the shadows, the sun was streaming in the door when I took the photo, not that I'm complaining about the sun LOL).

I had such fun creating my layout, with machine stitching, a title cut from a magazine (not sure if this is what Meek actually meant but I did it anyway), I painted over a spotty mask (love the look it creates), I also tore up corrugated box for the photo matt (had to use the heat gun to dry the box as I found the box out on the damp lawn at 5.42 this morning from another box project DS was creating LOL), and found three tiny brads to complete my layout. I think I got all the challenge elements checked off.

I've been tagged by Katrina Criglington. Check out her blog

Here are the rules:
1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Seven facts:~
1. I have a frozen berry smoothie for breakfast almost everyday of the year.

2. I have a collection of letter R's on my bookshelf.

3. My cellphone sounds like a series of farts when a call comes in.

4. My wee dog Ralf sits at my feet whenever I am scrapping or on the computer.

5. Nicknames - my stepkids and stepgrandkids call me Whinney and my DH Ross calls me Petal.

6. I give blood a few times a year and feel faint after almost every donation. Will keep on giving though.

7. I have a yucky scar on my belly from an appendix op in 1985, you will NEVER see me in a bikini.

Now to choose some peeps to do the Tagging Thing...
1. Shell H

2. Lara M

3. Ruth C

4. Monique D

5. Adele Q

6. Nicki V

7. Kent P

Have a great day!

two more - one old one new

This is a layout from last month, for the Scrapbook Dreams August challenge (a sketch) and I won the $20 shop voucher!!!! I bought this and this and this. Sooooo cool, and Shell is such a darling too, she even added these in for me, the colours are gorgeous.

I created this layout this morning for another Scrapbook Dreams challenge. It is based on a card sketch which you can see here. I can see this design being used for some upcoming birthday cards too.

There are some other challenges I want to do too, but firstly I've gotta go clean up the pigsty.

Oh before I post this entry - have you heard they have stopped making Tangy Fruits, Snifters and Sparkles anymore. I am a fan of Snifters and remember orange sparkles from my childhood and Tangy fruits I would eat at the movies. I sent TJ down to the superette this morning but they have NONE. I have to find some of these ASAP to photograph for a BOM layout (and to eat of course) LOL. I used to belong to a US scrapping yahoogroup and raved over Snifters, none of the Americans had heard of them so I ended up sending about 15 packets to various group members all over the US!
Go here to add your name to the petition to Bring Back Tangy Fruits (snifters and sparkles).

have a good weekend, hope the weather is as beautiful for you as it seems to be here in the Bay.

Heck I think my layout fell into my flower stash!

To celebrate Spring, Vicki challenged us (on the SBO forum) to use flowers on a layout.

I ended up using 20 flowers of the felt, prima, paper, brads, silk and buttons variety! yaaaay. The title and flowers seem to have overpowered the photo of Wendy and I =(
The 'girlfriends' stamp was a present from Kerry, it's so cool.

Oh and I won a Fiskars Embossing Punch for the "2000 txts" layout in this blog post. That one was for Lara's challenge at the last SBO cybercrop.

I seem to be low on page kits so I am hoping to spend some time tomorrow sorting some old photos (of the kids) into page kits. You just never know when the chance of a crop may arise. Gotta be prepared!

Don't forget the Kiwi Jack Me Up challenge for September. Go here to be inspired by Meg's layout.

FIRST LOVE

In 1981 I was 15yrs old and "in love" and wrote this poem:

Being in love
Being in love
for the very first time
causes aches & pains
to this heart of mine.

A restless night
a sick feeling all day
is this called love,
does it really pay?

Will you stay here
and love me forever?
I want you to stay
don’t leave me never.

Loving and sharing
is all I ask
will we always be one
how long can it last.

Being in love
just you and I
together in love
until we die.

by Raewyn Taylor

Neen's Spring challenge over at ScrapbookOutletNZ was to create a layout with a line or two of poetry, this is mine, complete with a photo of me at about age 15. (the original handwritten poem is tucked in behind the tag).


oh and by the way - my "love" was a scrawny 16yr old who rode a motorbike and the romance lasted for a whole 3 weeks! LOL

There's some doodling going on here

... and not much else really.

The Bossy Scrapper over at ScrapbookingbyDesign last Sunday was Danice (aka Dana) and she made us doodle. eeek! I gave it a go (late as usual cos my computer just won't let me into the chat cafe) and I must say I really like the doodled frames I have created. The punch of pinky/reddy/orangey patterned paper sets off this otherwise plain black and white layout.

I know I have scrapped this photo of Alyse before but this time I focussed on her slack attitude towards the sunglasses we have bought her. The first pair were a nice Esprit brand ($200 thank you), she lost them! So when I was shopping at the DFO at The Base Hamilton earlier this year I bought her two cheaper pair ($20 each), well they have gone now too, so we told her NO MORE, the next sunglasses she has to pay for herself!

I have been tidying out my scrapbooking cupboard, I spent a couple of hours this morning going through the tonne of alphas I have collected over the years - rub ons, chipboard, metal, plastic, and sticker variety. Still have a long way to go but now I can just reach in the cupboard pull out the right clearfile or storage box and find just what I need.

If I don't blog for a few days, don't panic I have just gotten squished under the avalanche of scrapping stash thats left in my cupboard screaming out to be tidied!

Meanwhile have a browse through some of the blog links on the left hand side - I still have more to add as my Bloglines list is now up to 183 blogs, but adding all those links takes time, maybe in the school hols I could add to my list.

2 layouts from scratch

Its a beautiful day in the Bay, and I have the washing on the line, the dishes done, some photos have been sorted, I have showered and gotten dressed back into my pjays again, the kids and DH are down at the river with T & V and the jetboat, the bedroom still needs decluttering but I have been scrapping!

This layout was scraplifted from one of Lisa Dickinson's over at 2peas (here is her blog).
I have many of Lisa's layouts in my inspiration folder. Click on the layout to see what I am pointing to on my neck hehehe

The Quick Fire Challenge over at ScrapbookingbyDesign really had me thinking cos we had to create a layout using a photo of ourselves "in our dream where we are a glamour queen". Holy Moley, I can't say I have ever been glamorous! Well there was this one time I had a glamour photo shoot but I have scrapped those photos already. When I saw these photos of Ross painting my nails in Fiji I knew they would be perfect for the challenge. I could quite easily get used to being pampered like a queen everyday by my hubby, especially in Fiji! LOL

Note: I think this is the jazziest my titles are going to get in my BOM but I will try a hand drawn and hand cut title when I create something for the kids albums.

Four blog posts in one week

heck that is a record for me I think. I wonder if I could keep this up without boring you.

My latest layout was based on Trina's sketch, no embellishments, just a couple of bits of SR Harvest patterned paper and some "jazzy title elements". I am going to really break out with the jazzy title elements soon, so stayed tuned! LOL

My specs were very trendy at the time of choosing them and those first few pair were perfect for "hiding behind", I was quite shy about my face but looking at my latest 'face' I am quite happy with how I turned out!

Scary layout

As soon as I saw the sketch for the monthly challenge at Scrapbook Dreams I thought photos of our eyes would look good showcased here. Little did I know that photos cropped close to our eyes would be so scary! I really like the title element I created (note I have used three different "alphas" as part of my "jazzy title journey"). This is another layout for my BOM (Book of Me).

The journalling reads:~ Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction. (sorry author unknown to me).
ETA: author is Antoine de Saint Exupery from "The Little Prince - thanks Janine ;)

Design your life...

DYL pre-class assignment - here is my layout.

I loved Cathy's sample layout with the Heidi Swapp clock and had only recently bought myself a packet of these beauties so that was the first thing I pulled out to use on my layout.
I wanted a photo of me taking photos but didn't have any so used an older one in my (then) new specs.
The family photo was taken in August 2006 the only one I have of my whole family, so of course I had to use it on this extra special layout as it is for THEM that I scrapbook.
I have used Scenic Route Grafton patterned papers here and hope they will feature throughout my DYL album.
btw - the title block in the centre of the layout is a class download, it is our logo! Cool ay?!

We need some enlargements for the next class layouts - one being 11" x 7 1/2" and some 7" x 5" so I will be browsing my photo files this weekend, to find something suitable. I panicked when I got Cathy's email giving us the heads up on the photo sizes - "eeeek but Cathy what theme/topic should these photos be????" Cathy says to use photos we love - "eeeek but which ones???" I can just imagine if I was sitting in a classroom (IRL) with Cathy she would give me 'a look' that said, "just trust me Raewyn, you can do it!" hehehe

I can't wait for Oct 2nd (will be Oct 3rd here downunder) for this class to start, I need all the design ideas I can get (and Cathy is the pro at design), maybe then I will stop scraplifting and create true Raewyn-Originals!

If you want to sign up for Cathy's class go HERE

Latest challenge layouts

It's not a secret, I LOVE CHALLENGES - KiwiJackMeUp challenges, sketch challenges, recipe challenges (create a layout with a list of ingredients/elements), theme challenges, colour challenges etc etc. I LOVE CHALLENGES!

I create the following layouts recently, based on various challenges:-

this one is my September Kiwi Jack Me Up layout based on Meg's gorgeous layout. I liked how she had the scalloped strip, embossed pieces and the circular embellishments (three of my current favourite elements). My boy was such a cute wee man even when he was ugly LOL!

this one was for Lara's challenge at the recent SBO Cybercrop - we had to create a layout that included use of white space, doodling, bling & small photos. My 'white space' was in fact yellow, I am not good at doodling so just created a wee scalloped doodled border around the photo strip, I used hot pink rhinestones around the title for my bling element and included five wee photos of Alyse txting. Teenagers what the heck do they say in all those txts?! LOL

this one of my DD and two lovely nieces using photos from 1994 & 2008 (I love finding connections with my photos - thanks to Photo Freedom). The "Bossy Scrapper #9" aka Kelly, challenged us to distress the edges of the patterned paper, layer a scalloped piece on top, add some doodling (my pen lines will have to suffice for doodling here) and to also add some circular embellishments. I love how my layout ended up,distressing is kinda cool, messy but cool. Aren't these girls gorgeous??

this one for my BOM (Book of Me) was based on another Bossy Scrapper challenge (#10), this time our Boss (aka Heidi) made us use seven different patterned papers, two ribbons, a journalling diecut, old photos (mine are from 1982!!!), seven embellishments and to include a variety of alphas in the title. I have recently started on a new journey, I have called it my"jazzy title journey", so hopefully I can learn from Meek Darge and Penny Hackney cos they rock the title elements indeed!

this layout about TJ's Year 4 teacher, Ms Petherick was also based on a Bossy Scrapper challenge #8. "Da Boss" (Liz) really made me work hard to create this layout. The start burst shapes required a fair bit of thought, and I didn't get a crazy as I was supposed to with the white paint spots (I like how they turned out though), but the ribbons and journalling were an easy end to the challenge. Phew. Oh yeah I used up a tonne of alpha embellishments here too. (this was to ease my guilt of having too many alphas, not to be confused with my "jazzy title journey"! as mentioned above. LOL

I have some sketch challenges that I will be working on next so keep checking back for more layouts.

Oh that reminds me, with over 160 blogs on my stalk list (aka Bookmarks) it was becoming a long daily process to check each one to see if there were any updated posts. I decided to spend a bit of time last week subscribing to the blog feeds via Bloglines. Saves a whole lot of time on the computer, so now I really don't have an excuse to NOT have a tidy house, but scrapping would be more fun. (can you tell that housework features very low on my list of daily priorities?!?!)

Oh well before I bore you all any further, let me publish this blog entry. Leave a comment if you have the time. Then I can link up to your blog and add you to my Bloglines list. =)

Oops

Well my photo-a-day in August didn't really happen, mainly because there weren't too many willing photographers around here to help me out. I mean how many self portraits can you take before they all start looking the same.

Never mind.

I shouted myself a birthday present though...




design your life class








I have ordered this album, and am almost ready to do my pre-class assignment (my version of the Cathy's layout on the right) - I just need to buy some white cardstock for the printables.

I will share my layouts here as I create them, I have thought long and hard about signing up for this class as it will end up costing a fair sum of money, however I have long aspired to create like Cathy Z, so now is my chance. Roll on October 2nd when class officially starts!