A Girls Best Friend

Boy I've had a busy couple of weeks.

My brother, sister-in-law and their two kiddo's have been staying with us during this time so we've had a crazy, fun, chaotically happy kinda time, which is unfortunately coming to an end pretty soon.

The only good side to this is that my blog might get some tlc (in that I might actually visit more often), and all of our kids may get to sleep at a reasonable hour!

Anyhow, thought I'd post a card on here whilst I have a little time.  This was one I made for my youngest dd's birthday a while back, using another sweet Pollycraft image.

 

This little lady and her best friend are coloured with Copic's and papers are some of my old favourites from My Minds Eye.

 

I can't tell you how much I've had my monies worth from these paper tea roses and felt birds from the $1.50 bin at Michael's.....saved the day more than once!

The layout for this card was inspired by an older sketch from The Deconstructed Sketch.

That's it for today, but I will be back sometime this week I hope.
Have a good one,
Jayne.x.
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Challenges entered:
Come And Get It Challenges - Show us your flowers
A Gem of a Challenge - #53 Animals or Teddies
Craft Your Days Away - #52 Anything Goes
Little Claire's - #24 Best Friends
ATC's and Cards with Attitude - #22 Anything Goes
Copic Marker Europe - A Summer Card
Digi Doodle Shop Challenges - #122 Use Pearls
Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes

Extreme White Space!

It's time for another Crafty Challenge over on the Two Scrapbook Friends Forum, and Yours Truly is here to deliver the goods.

For today's challenge, instead of using a particular technique or embellishment, I thought we'd change things up a little and try a particular style of scrapbooking.

Some may call it minimalist, but I see quite a lot of pages in this style throughout magazines and the Internet, that contain quite a large amount of detail and embellishments, so I prefer to think of it as 'Extreme White Space'!

I'm sure you've seen layouts that showcase one small photograph, with a variety of techniques or embellishments condensed into one small area of a 12" by 12" page?

Well that's what I'm referring to......they don't call it a Crafty 'Challenge' for nothing right?

It's not a style I usually employ as the urge to add more most often wins, but I was up for the challenge so here's my page.

I realize I may have took liberties just a little, as my patterned paper has some detailing of it's own in the top right corner, but I guess I had to get my fix of adding more somehow!

Don't be put off this challenge by thinking you can't go to town on one of these pages, as you can still cram quite a lot of detail on there......just into a smaller area.

I kept things fairly simple on my layout, and probably could have added more, but even on here there are 12 different techniques/embellishments in that one small space.

I hope you'll give this one a try and have some fun with it as I surprisingly did!
I'd also love to see your creations so don't forget to upload them to the Gallery and Forum.....there are buttons to be gained of course.

See you next time,
Jayne.x.

Olympic Challenge #12 at Two Scrapbook Friends

Well today we are posting our final Olympic Challenge over on the TSF Forum and for this one, I thought I'd issue a card challenge.

For Challenge #12 I'd like you to create a card with one thing in mind........the ultimate goal of every athlete completing in any Olympic Games...........a medal!

I want to see some 'Gold', 'Silver', or 'Bronze' on there, some bling, some sparkle, some shine.  It doesn't matter which colour you choose (or use all three!), or how you use it as long as it's there.

For my example I went all out for Gold of course.....why not?!

I'm not much of a fussy, glittery type of gal so this card is a little OTT for me, but I guess I had to get my point across!

I do love the image, a freebie from Sureya over at Deviant Art, and I'm liking the new combo of Copic's I tried for her hair - a little Copper thrown in there.

Papers are from Authentique ('Blissfull' line I think but I'm too lazy to go check!)
 
 I hope you have fun if you get a chance to join in with today's challenge, and I look forward to seeing some medal winning creations.
Have a good weekend,
Jayne.x. 

The Coolest Kid

Happy Monday to you, hope you're having a good one.  Our house is on a weeks vacation which has so far meant finally catching up on laundry with the new washer (that actually works (!!)......three's a charm they say!), and completely decluttering my bedroom.  Yay for vacation....gotta love the rest and recuperation.

Anyhow everyone in the house seems to be doing their thing at present, so hopefully no-one will miss me while I sneak on here.

A card for you today and this one was given to my eldest dd for her Birthday a while ago.  I usually tread on thin ice creating cards for her.....has to be cool.....has to be pretty, you know the drill.  I think I covered the main two criteria with this one, but the real reason I think it's perfect for her is 'the look'.  You know 'the look', the one they give you when (in their opinion) you're being very 'Mom'ish, uncool, generally behaving like......a parent!  Well this image has it to perfection......'the look'!

See what I mean?

It's the first time I've coloured this image, which is a Lil' Lolita digi from Tickled Pink Stamps, even though it's one of my faves and been sitting in my stash forever.

Papers are from Authentique 'Journey' and colouring is with Copic's.

I messed up the hair a little because I chose 3 colours I wanted to use, then immediately paid no attention and coloured her whole head with the medium shade.  I had no choice then but to shade with my darkest colour and also streak a little black through there too.

The sentiment is printed from Word, and a fine line marker adds the final touches.

That's it from me so have an awesome day.  We're hoping to hit the beach at some point......beats doing laundry anyhow!

See you soon,

Jayne.x.
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Challenges entered:
Incy Wincy Designs - Sugar and Spice (Girlie)
Lollipop Crafts - #85 Monochrome
The Poodles Parlour - Anything Goes
Totally Papercrafts - #128 Monochrome 
Digi Doodle Shop Challenges - #119 Ribbons and Bows 
Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion Challenges - #122 Anything Goes 

The Red, White and Blue.

As I mentioned the other day, for the next couple of weeks over on the Two Scrapbook Friends Forum, we are running a series of challenges in celebration of the 2012 Olympics being held in London, England.

I am up for Challenge #7 today so I'd like to see a little patriotism........a scrapbook page or card showcasing the colours of your countries flag.

The subject can be anything at all, and if you feel a particular attraction to the colours of another countries flag instead of your own.....go for it.  As long as it's obvious as to which country/flag you are representing, your entry will qualify.

For my scrapbook page, being a Brit, I am of course flying the red, white, and blue of the Union Jack so here goes.

Now I realize I'm taking a few liberties here with the light blue.......it's definitely not the royal blue of the Union Jack, but I really just wanted an excuse to use my Authentique papers, so baby blue it is!

The real question here is - How much trouble do you think I'll be in when my Dad catches sight of this posted on the Internet?  The only good thing (which is not usually good) is that we do live 3000 miles apart........well out of arms reach so to speak.  He is however an avid follower of my Blog so he's bound to see it sooner or later..............."Hi Dad.......love ya.........don't do anything hasty here.........remember I am your only daughter!"

As mentioned previously, papers are from the Authentique 'Fresh' line, and my stash of Washi tape came in handy again to create the bunting style banner.

I also saw this idea in a magazine a little while ago, of creating a Union Jack heart, and knew it would fit perfectly with the theme of this page.

I couldn't resist one of the postcard images on the reverse of the patterned papers, so I had to place the lovely lady just so, that she could give that look of awe and amazement! :)

Hop on over to the Forum if you get a chance, to join in with the fun.  We'll be taking a break over the weekend for a much needed rest, but there are lots more challenges and games lined up for next week!

I'll be back here on Monday with..........oh I have no clue, but I'll see you then.

Have a good weekend,

Jayne.x.

A Sketchy Challenge 'Olympic' Style!

Hello there, it's time for another Sketchy Challenge over on the Two Scrapbook Friends Forum, and in the spirit of continuing our 'Olympic' themed challenges we are posting for the duration of the Olympics, I thought I'd add a few elements to this weeks sketch.

More about that in a moment, but first, here's the sketch.........

There are 3 main Olympic themes I incorporated onto this weeks sketch:

#1 The three central elements are inspired by the Olympic podium - every athletes goal for placing 1st, 2nd or 3rd.

#2 There are 5 rings included in the layout, to represent the 5 Olympic rings.

#3 A flag, a symbol representing any one of over 200 countries competing in this years games.

I have a sample layout for you, and the first thing you may notice is that my page is not in the least 'Olympic' related......I have girls who are not interested in anything more aggressive than to float around the house in dance shoes!  The result is not too many 'sporty' type of pics.  However, I think you'll agree, the photo I've used most definitely represents the country in which this years games are being held.

The second thing you may notice is that I veered away from my own sketch (just a little).........the beauty of a sketch I believe........we're allowed to go wherever it takes us!

Here's my page.........

I opted against using two photographs in favour of going with a single over sized (5"x7") instead, and created the three tiered podium by using a stencil and white distress stain.  The rings are there of course........

 as well as the flag........an extra one added for good measure!

 I decided on a little random layering in place of the second photograph, and messy zig-zag stitching finishes the job.

I like the versatility of this sketch in that it could be used for one, two or three photo layouts........make it your own in any way you choose.

I hope you'll get a chance to play along with this weeks challenge, but don't forget to upload your projects to the Two Scrapbook Friends Forum and Gallery, in order to collect those valuable buttons.

Have fun and I'll see you next time,
Jayne.x.