Anzac Quickie challenges

If you find yourself with some free time tomorrow then give the Anzac quickie challenges a go over at Scrapbookoutletnz...

ANZAC WEEKEND QUICKIE 1
Ok Guys - how about some quick and easy recipe challenges for over the weekend!!! The measurements are definately approx!! and feel free to add more to the recipes to taste!!!

First up take
one piece 30cm x 30cm Cardstock
add Patterned Paper 28cm x 28cm
add one 3cm x 30cm wide strip of cardstock, and one 1cm x 30cm wide patterned paper
Add 6 Flowers, 6 bits of bling and 1 tag
Add rubons and homemade embellies
Add Title to taste

ANZAC QUICKIE CHALLENGE 2
Dinner Recipe for tonight - it is as easy as 1,2,3 (and 4!!)

1 Cardstock, 1 Heart and 1 Bow
2 Patterned Papers
3 Birds
4 Scalloped edges

ANZAC QUICKIE CHALLENGE 3
Recipe for Lunch today - I am thinking DONUTS - so the recipe is easy for this one CIRCLES, CIRCLES, CIRCLES everywhere!! - no other requirements

ANZAC QUICKIE CHALLENGE 4
I am thinking POPPY's this morning so go for RED in your layout - a bonus raffle if you can somehow incorporate your Poppy!!!!

The challenge deadline is midnight April 30th!

If you don't have time for all four challenges, at least give one a go, here is my layout for challenge 1...I found this photo of Alyse and I recently and even though we both look dorky I knew it would be perfect for this theme.

Lately I have been trying to create little clusters of embellishments on my layouts. You can see how I have the photo close to the p/p and c/s strips, the title partially adhered to the photo edge, the journalling strips close to the photo and of course all the flowery embellishments layered and clustered together.

Here is a close up of the cluster of embellishments and the handmade flower punched from a clear yoghurt pot lid with holes punched in each petal.

I look forward to seeing the layouts in the SBO gallery, hope one or two (or four) will be yours! =)

Oh no - getting nervous now

Thank goodness Wendy is coming to Autumn Escape with me or I would be staying home! I get quite nervous when going to something like this, being around all those way-more-experienced-scrappers, I even break out in a sweat! Once I get there and say my first hellos I tend to calm down.

Meanwhile I start doubting myself and worry that I don't scrap 'properly'!

A girlfriend is trying to talk me into popping over to Rotorua on the Friday to try out the SWOOP, silly woman does she think that will ease my nerves! I DOUBT IT!

Precious Page Kits for sale

Three lovely ladies, Vicky, Trina and Lara (all three of whom I have actually met IRL) have started a new venture that they have been cooking up for a few months now:- Precious Page kits
Here is what they say about their kits...
Precious Pages Kits are all about getting your stories onto pages....quickly, cheaply and without any stress.
When you purchase one of our kits, you’ll get all of these things, plus the joy of finishing another page, telling another story....today.

I ordered one of Trina's kits (from ScrapbookOutletNZ) and got a photo printed yesterday, so now I am all ready to put the layout together at the Autumn Escape (only 7 sleeps to go), the kit came complete with all supplies including a whole packet of Thickers alphas and instructions.

Believe me this kit is almost as good as Trina creating the layout herself!

Will share my layout after the retreat.

I think I am almost ready to go the the Autumn Escape retreat, I have finished my name badge, have photos ready for the Kim Archer class, have supplies in a bag for the mini album challenge plus have 28 page kits (oops 29 if you include Trina's Precious Pages kit). Just need to buy a new pair of pyjamas (bought new slippers today) also need to buy some drinks and snacks and fill the car up with petrol, oh and find some cash for my dinners and of course for the goodies that will be on sale at the retreat.

I can't wait!!!!

Stick Figure Family

Make your Stick Figure Family at FreeFlashToys.com

Midnight Madness

Just last Saturday I attended yet another crop held at my LSS, Scrapbook Corner. They are held quite regularly (usually monthly) at the shop and are not only a good time to get some layouts scrapped but also a great source of entertainment. Of course I am not the instigator of all the somewhat risque conversations had during these events, I am the one who is falling off my chair in fits of laughter. These ladies are hilarious, and there is nothing better than having a good laugh whilst scrapping. Below is a photo from one of the theme crops we had last year... this one a pyjama party.

These are only some of the mad scrappers that go to these events. Can you work out which one/s are the naughtiest??? (hint - look for the most innocent looking ladies).

In between laughing uncontrollably and picking myself up off the floor all night, I did manage to get 23 8x8 layouts done. No I am not wonderwoman, these are in fact extra super simple and only have one photo, a few scraps of patterned paper and minimal embellishment. These are for our Favourite Photos albums that Ross and I will end up keeping to browse through (like coffee table albums) when the kids have left home and taken all their 12x12 albums. I am still unsure if I will add titles to these pages, but they have at least the date when each photo was taken. I will try and get a photo of all the layouts together to share here at some stage.

So if you live in Hawkes Bay and are up for some great conversation and scrapping time then add yourself to the mailing list for Scrapbook Corner to keep up-to-date on the next crop. (Usually held on a Saturday from 10am - 10pm)

In case you were wondering

who won the Amazing Race competition....

well umm err I am embarrassed to say it was ME!

I was eating a piece of yummy hummingbird cake at a local cafe this morning when I got a txt to say go and check your email ASAP! My heart was pounding as my fingers fumbled at the cellphone buttons trying to log in to my email. It took a while for the news from Andrea to sink in that it was my ticket that won first prize!!

The lady I was dining with kept asking me what I had won but I couldn't get the words out. I finally managed to explain what the Amazing Race was all about and even though she isn't a scrapbooker she knew it was an awesome prize to win!

Andrea from ScrapbookOutletNZ and Lucy from Autumn Escape, were more than happy to let me share my prize with my good friend Wendy. So in just a couple of weeks Wendy and I will be on the road towards Taupo to take part in the Autumn Escape Retreat! We are going to be taking part in a Kim Archer class too!

Can you believe it!?!?!?

You should see where we are going to be staying...

Wairakei Resort


I am now going to very busy over the school holidays making some page kits to take to the retreat.

SBO Amazing Race - final stop

Tonight ... I'm guessing you are all a little exhausted now (like me from all those late night scrappers LOL) so take your time it's not a race but you need to jump on the next plane to Taupo and make it in time to attend the Autumn Escape ...

http://autumnescape.blogspot.com/

But your challenge is to Scrap Lift one of our design team layouts from our gallery. If you are apart of our DT then you must scraplift one of the other DT girls layouts .. make sure you provide credit where necessary.


Well the SBO Design Team gallery is bursting with inspiration but I chose to scraplift my friend Vicky Gibson... here is her layout...

and here is my version...

I was particularly inspired by the white pen lines and the simple large photo matt, and of course the pretty little girl (Vicky's neice) so I had to scrap layouts of my pretty girl too.

I got up early this morning and whilst my mojo was still hanging around I created some more "other layouts" for some extra tickets.

Have you noticed that circles are a current favourite? hehe. This $3 tie has been a great last minute 'fancy dress' item, well as fancy dress as any 13year old boy goes anyway.

I have nearly exhausted my supply of these Heidi Swapp ghost flowers (if you have any you want to sell please leave me a comment), I love them, esp teamed with a couple of cardstock strips, a length of ribbon and a simple white circle.

Alyse loves this layout, I said "what is it you like about it?" and I was rapt to hear it was the flourish, heart brad and bling accents!

3 photos, a large circle some torn pp and some stars, how easy can it get? But still looks great (biased I know!)

Whilst all the tickets into the raffle are absolutely wonderful, the real winners out of this competition are me and my family as we have a total of 29 layouts for our albums all in one week!!! (not too mention all the other winners with completed layouts going into their family albums).

A huge thank you to ScrapbookOutletNZ, especially Andrea for the awesome week (albeit somewhat stressful week of scrapping at a crucial time of the year for the accounts LOL).

Now that I have used up a tonne of old supplies on my 29 layouts (not to mention some newer supplies) I am going to treat myself to a wee spend up in the SBO online store! Sadly that will have to wait though as I am due to work real soon!

SBO Amazing Race - the marathon weekend

phew its been a busy weekend of scrapping...

I have been to Africa, Tonga and Mosgiel with a pitstop at the airport along the way! No time to rest up though cos I have been creating non-challenge layouts for the "other layouts" gallery at SBO (for every two non-challenge layouts uploaded you get one raffle ticket for the competition).

So for the Africa challenge (think wildlife... either the ones you live with, would like to have or saw a the zoo... or the kids going wild) ...

I used a favourite photo of Alyse with Alfie the neighbours pet lamb (do you agree they both have the same freckly nose)? So pleased to use up some old patterned paper here. (Even though Alfie is not wild, this layout topic is acceptable)

The Tonga challenge (famous now for the volcanic activity - do a HOT themed layout!)...

Well of course I had to use 'fire' photos for my Tongan layout, especially since my DH & DS are both pyromaniacs!! Don't look for any embellishment here, I felt the full page (8x12) photo was the main focus.

Pitstop at the airport )The Amazing Race is all about airports and travel so show us your best holiday pics on a layout) ...

The airport challenge, made me think of Ross' loathing of having to wait at airports, doctors clinics, traffic jams etc, so this one is for his album. btw -I managed to relax once he fell asleep at the Auckland airport whilst we waited for a flight to Fiji last year.

Tonight we want you all to start making your way back to NZ via all of us at the Mosgiel Scrap Camp and after talking with all these girls I now know their favourite scrapbooking products so we want you to take a look at the list here and you must incorporate at least 5 items into your layout ...

I included cardstock, scalloped edging, flowers (patterned paper), bling, buttons, circles, flourish and even an eyelet!

why? do I look so relaxed - because we have been camping together at Waimarama

"Other Layouts" (non-challenge layouts - 1 ticket for every 'other' layout uploaded to the SBO gallery).

This is a double pager, using the same background cardstock (they each photographed differently tho'), I have used a Cath Zielske sketch from the DYL class for this one

My teenagers hardly share a nice word lately let alone a hug, so I have to scrap this photo even though it isn't a perfect shot. LOL

A quick and easy layout, great quote and one I have had to repeat to DD alot this week, seems the whole world is against her lately.

A favourite old quick n easy layout design, these photos are a few years old now, but I wanted to scrap about how DS passed his days at our beach camp - always a busy boy!

ha ha ha, my funny face boy - hopefully he will see the funny side of this layout! LOL

DD & I were in the bedroom recently and too lazy to get up and go and ask Ross something, so we rang his cellphone instead, I said to DD, I bet he is getting his phone out of his pocket, straining his eyes to see who is calling, slowly pushing the answer button and then saying Yo! LOL no wonder it takes so many rings for him to answer his phone!

These two layouts (above and below) are about the same family photo but scrapped totally differently, one for DD's album and one for DS's.

Circles are a favourite embellishment of mine of late, and especially that 7gypsies journalling stamp.

such a pretty face (NOT), there are constant verbal explosions around here, starting off with a yell from TJ as he leaps out from the pantry then screeches and expletives from his sister as she when she gets a fright!

SBO Amazing Race Friday night challenges

Tonight I (Vicky G) am going to post a few challenges for you to complete, no pressure tonight, so no racing consider it a pitstop

There is a ticket per page up for grabs and of course Andrea has a little extra something up her sleeve

Here are your challenges

Head to Tonga - famous now for the volcanic activity - do a HOT themed layout!

The Amazing Race is all about airports and travel so show us your best holiday pics on a layout

Japan = Super Kawaii! Think Cute! Harajuku girls and bubbly big eyed cartoon characters. Create a super cute page (use your best judgement, think little animals, candy colours etc)

Africa =Think wildlife... either the ones you live with, would like to have or saw a the zoo... or the kids going wild



Vicky you call this a pitstop!!! No time to rest up now, so have created a layout for the Japan challenge...

The first Harajuku image I found on google was of a girl with lots of bright hairclips in her hair, so I fossicked around in my stash, for some old clips which lead me on to the bright patterned paper. Then I found some cardstock strips to match. I didn't have any hot pink alphas so created my own using Fiskars templates. Yet another old photo scrapped this one is 14 years old)!

I have photos in mind for the other challenges so will be working on these layouts later today, thank goodness we get an extra hour this weekend with the clocks being turned back for the end of Daylight Savings Time. Meanwhile I am starving and have gotta go make my berry smoothie for brekky!

btw - here is the link to the forum challenges

SBO Amazing Race - day 7 - ETA layout.

Tonight we are off too the United States of America...

Quickie

One of the organisers of the Autumn Retreat is currently on several well known American Manufacturers design teams ...

- Who is this designer?
- What US design teams is she on?
- What is the name of her book?

Challenge use the following sketch (designed by Trina M) to base your layout around ...

I created this layout way back in February 2008 based on the exact same sketch, so I am going to try and rework the sketch (check back in a day or two for my layout created for the Amazing Race challenge)

ETA: here is my new layout... terrible photo of Alyse though. I was wrapt to find this old patterned paper in my stash, it has always reminded me of marshmallows so was perfect to team up with these photos. I will use the same sketch for similar photos of TJ, probably won't get it created anytime soon though as a new Amazing Race challenge will go up tonight. (plus I don't have any more of the patterned paper, mind you TJ probably wouldn't appreciate too much pink in his album). LOL

Amazing Race - day 6

Tonight the race is on too the United Kingdom

Quickie
Can you find 3x options in the shop that contains a clock, crown and something that has Royal Blue in? If you can provide the links below ...

Challenge UK is the home of Big Ben. Create a page using either the word 'time' somewhere in your title OR use a clock somewhere on your page.

I finally got these photos from June 2002 scrapped, they were in my Sleeping/Bedtime category until recently when I pulled them out to scrap, so this TIME challenge was just what I needed to get the layout done!

The race is on

Well if you haven't been hanging out at the ScrapbookOutletNZ forum lately you are missing out on one uber-cool competition.

SBO’s Amazing Scrappin’ Race

What do we need to do? It’s simple …. Fill our gallery; we want to see your work flooding our gallery – new work. Layouts need to be original. (ie, not posted in other galleries and we do have a couple of “Policeman” going to be watching this for us!). The aim of this comp is to race your fellow scrappers around the world. Each day we will post a country you will be visiting and a couple of challenge’s for that country also. Each day we will also post how you can obtain tickets for that challenge. We will help you along the way but the race is on!

The Prize will not be awarded to the first person to cross the finish line, it is a raffle which means everyone get’s tonnes of entries into the draw… you gain raffle tickets by travelling, posting and creating! First Prize is an amazing weekend away at the Autumn Escape. The maximum prize value is valued at $600 and must include your registration fee to the event, the remaining monetary value will be worked out with the winner, ie: if the winner comes from Invercargill we would pay their registration fee of $375 and we would contribute $225 towards the cost of their travel to get there and home and on top of that you will get 1 free class included also. Where ever you are in the country we will do our best to help you get there and back within reason. Second and Third Prizes will each receive a Making Memories gift pack valued at $100 each. There will be RAK’s and Spot Prizes along the way also if selected please make sure you e-mail your address to us so we can get your prize out quickly.

*First stop is Canberra Australia... to say hello to the girls at Aussie Scrap Source.
Find and list at least 0 of the brands that these guys distribute.

Challenge is to scrap a layout incorporating only products/ lines sold by these guys (there is a huge variety here)

Here I used a Heidi Swapp ghost heart, scenic route chipboard alphas and Basic Grey patterned papers. Journalling - if you click on the pic it should enlarge enough to read the journalling, teenagers are hilarious!

*Tonight we're racing to Paupa New Guinea ... What date was the papua new guinea flag adopted? Who was the designer of the flag? What color is the flag?

Challenge To scrap a layout which must include at least one colour from the Papua New Guinea Flag

Just a simple layout with black and white cardstock, red and yellow ric rac and buttons with a splash of orange thrown in.

*Tonight the Race is on to China ... First Raffle Ticket will be awarded to the person who answers the below 3 questions correctly ... What date was the republic of China established? What is the largest ethnic group in China? Name all the animals of the Chinese zodiac

Challenge Many of the world's leading Scrapbook Manufacturers design their own embellishments however they are then made in China so tonight we want to see you using embellishments in your layout BUT it must be a home made embellishment. Blog hopping lately I've seen some awesome home made embellishments out there so can't wait to see what you come up with.

Donna Downey has been inspiring me with her wire embellishments so I had to give one a go, I am sorely in need of wire tools eg pliers and crimps etc. I am on the look out for some rusty/rustic wire now too.

*Tonight we're off to FRANCE ... Tonight the person to answer and provide links to the below will get the first raffle ticket ...

You need to name and provide links to 3 embellishments that contain red, white & blue somewhere in them + 3 papers that contain these colours also .. they don't necessarily need to be in the SBO shop.

Tonight we are going to give away a few more raffle tickets also. Everyone who submits there layout tonight before 11.00pm will get a bonus ticket (so 2x tickets for their entry) ...

Challenge The french are known for their style, especially their ability to layer their clothing (so says the french style blog!) create a layout that clearly shows your ability to layer. You must include at least 4 layers!

I didn't think background paper, matt, photo and title block would suffice for this challenge so created a layered embellishment too - chipboard puzzle piece (which I handcut from a wooden puzzle), flowers, bling brad and chipboard monogram. Isn't my Alyse just beautiful? (biased I know!)

*Tonight the race is on to Denmark ...

Who is the current Queen and from what date? Denmark is the home country of .....?? (you must have the same answer I have in case there is more than one answer lol)

Challenge Denmark is known for its champion snow sports people As we head into our coldest time of year we'd like you to create a winter themed page for tonight's challenge.

Not many wintery photos in my Scenic/Naure category (Photo Freedom) but these were perfect for this challenge. I created some word art and recoloured each word, then handcut a simple cardstock snowflake. Easy peasy!

Now I haven't had the time to research the answers for the questions posed at each stop but if you click on the links to each forum post you will find the answers. This competition has such fun challenges and we are learning history/geography etc etc along the way!