True Happiness

Well hello there!

So let's catch up shall we?  There's been far too little blogging around here recently and as I still have Winter pages to post, I think I'd better get moving before this Winter decides to make an appearance.

You'll have to forgive grammar and spelling today as I'm not moving all that quickly.......the results of a Birthday sleepover for my eldest last night.......5 girls, lot's of food, movies, chatter and a full on pillow fight complete with war paint at one point - but it was all good fun and we did sleep.....eventually!

So, today's page is from what feels like eons ago (because it was!) and was part of a DT Kit from Two Scrapbook Friends......the Cozy Collection by Authentique.

This first page uses some treasured photo's of my girls when there were small.....I just love the expressions on their faces, but I have been told by certain people (you know who you are!!) that this is not a 'Jayne' page at all!

Not sure why but I guess you can decide for yourselves:

True Happiness

It starts with a fab little background cut from 'Birch' grain paper on my Silhouette and layered on top of Kraft.

There's also a textured white embossing powder dabbed here and there for a snowy effect.

A few layers of stickers, paper and thread hold the photo's, and I do like those brass mittens and natural hemp. 

Finally the action shots......framed with Kraft, photo corners and a little white Gesso around the edges.

The title was also cut using my Cameo.

There we go.....one down......a few more to go!

Have a wonderful day enjoying the sunshine I hope and I'll see you in a couple of days,
Jayne.x.

You Can Always Find A Friend In A Good Book

Time for a little more action on here I think, so today I thought I'd finish off my creations from a recent DT Kit from Two Scrapbook Friends......the 'Enchanted' collection from Simple Stories.

This is a lovely feminine line full of pastels, but with a wonderful mix of modern geometric patterns, and a touch of Kraft in there too.

Can't go wrong really and with a house of girlies I knew I could put it to good use!

The only thing I seem to be struggling with recently is a lack of photo's.....for a scrapbooker my penchant for taking photographs is pretty hopeless really!

Note to self: take more photo's (or at least remember to bring your camera).

So, I lucked out when I found this little gem - no idea who took it, certainly not me so probably my youngest who unlike her Mother, is definitely 'snap' happy!

Anyone that knows my eldest daughter is well aware that this is the position she can usually be found in.........with her nose in a book!

You Can Always Find A Friend In A Good Book

The background paper starts this one off for me.  I decided to add a little colour to the 'postcard' stamp with watercolour paints.

The large chevrons were fussy cut from another sheet of patterned paper, the vines were courtesy of my Silhouette, and I used a combination of mini alpha's and more Silhouette cuts for the long long title.

There are some cute die cut paper clips found in this collection, so I layered a couple of different ones in a cluster of embellies here......

and finished things off with a scattering of enamel dots.

Just about covers everything I think.

You can find 'Enchanted' over at Two Scrapbook Friends either in person or at their online store.

Have a wonderful day.....enjoy the sunshine and hopefully I'll be back here again later this week.

Take care,
Jayne.x.

Love This Face

Good morning.

Off to work for me today so I finally remembered to schedule a blog post!

Today's page is the second and final from my recent Two Scrapbook Friends DT Kit, using the Hugs and Kisses collection by Simple Stories.

This is a sweet little mini collection perfect for those valentine, love inspired or general girlie pages.

I paired this time around with Kraft cardstock......who can resist a little Kraft here and there?

Love This Face

So you can see that the whole page centers around the background die cut......and the gorgeous little girl in the center there of course!

The 'heart' background is a 4"x6" overlay in the Silhouette store called Doodle Hearts which I stretched to approximately 8"x12".  I then randomly filled some of the hearts with patterned paper.

The bottom section of the background is letters I 'welded' to the overlay to form part of the title.  This is what I love about the Silhouette.....the possibilities are endless!

I decided not to glue these down and left them hanging as I like the shadow they create in this tone on tone area.

As always with collections from Simple Stories, there are co-ordinating stickers so I made use of a few of them starting with the word 'Love' for the title.

This was actually the inspiration for the whole page!

Finally, more stickers and layers to embellish the photograph, and a little messy thread to finish things off.

That's about all from me for today, but you can grab this collection for yourself either at the online store or in person at Two Scrapbook Friends.

Have a great day and I hope to be back Thursday with another page for ya.

Till then,
Jayne.x.

My Furry Valentine

Good morning.

It's Friday.....an extremely COLD Friday for sure, but never the less it's the perfect time to get your craft on!

I'm killing two birds with one stone today in the form of 2 DT projects.......I try my best not to do this but my time was fairly short the last couple of weeks so needs must!

I was given a great new kit from Two Scrapbook Friends containing the Hugs and Kisses collection by Simple Stories.  Perfect for those Valentine pages, but if you're like me and not much into lovey dovey photo shoots, it works great for the everyday too.

Also as it's Friday, it happens to be time for a brand new Sketch challenge over on the Scrapmuch? blog.

Team B is up this week so here's my take on this weeks sketch using the Hugs and Kisses line.......

Here's the sketch for you to play along with:

I flipped my page 180 degrees as I'm sure you can tell, purely because the background paper I chose to use has a flower cluster in the bottom left corner, and that's where I wanted to place my title.

I happened to have 2 sheets of this paper so I fussy cut the flowers from the second and stuck them over top with foam dots.

More fussy cutting for the line of hearts which were taken from another sheet of PP, then stitched with embroidery floss.

Finally, the photo (a selfie of me and my boy!) and lots of layers using a combination of papers, chipboard, paper clip, pin badge and the perfect co-ordinating stickers you can find in this collection.I also added a little embossing to the background using a stencil and pale pink embossing powder, and a little 'print' with a rubber stamp and black ink.

I also added some embossing to the background using a stencil and pale pink embossing powder, and a little more 'print' with a rubber stamp and black ink.

I think that's about all.

You can obviously find the Simple Stories line over at the Two Scrapbook Friends store so you can grab your own supplies.

Also I'd love for you to play along with this weeks Sketch-y Friday challenge with Scrapmuch?  You have until the end of the month to play along......just link up your creation over on the Scrapmuch? blog to be in with a chance of winning some goodies.  You can check out a little more inspiration from the rest of the team whilst you're there too.

Have a wonderful weekend.  We have an extended one here due to extreme cold temperatures and schools being closed......I wonder if it's too cold to shop?

See you next week,
Jayne.x. 

Oh Holy Night

After walking the dog last night I am seriously considering hibernating for the next couple of months if these FREEZING temperatures persist!  Either that or he's going to have to learn to walk himself.

Thankfully I don't have go to work, which means I don't plan on leaving the house for the next 2 days, so fingers crossed it may have warmed up slightly by the time I next venture out.

Good thing is I get to play.......scrap, blog, etc.

Today I'm finishing up with my second page from a recent Two Scrapbook Friends DT Kit, using the Tinsel & Company collection by Teresa Collins. (You can check out the first here).

I loved using this line and from one that is NOT a Christmas scrapper, that's praise indeed!

Oh Holy Night.

Lots of the usual layers on here starting with a cut background using the Silhouette brand chipboard, and ending with a cute little peek-a-boo folded corner.

I made use of lots of stickers and the lovely brads that come along with this line too.

So there we have the first one into the book for 2015!

Well maybe not quite as technically it's sitting in the store right now but you know what I mean.......still lot's more to go.

I'll be back tomorrow as it's time for a Sketch-y Friday over at Scrapmuch?

See you then,
Jayne.x.

Inspiration Elevator - Christmas Past.

It's the 15th of the month folks which means it's time for a little Inspiration Elevator!

Our main purpose here at IE is to challenge ourselves, each other and YOU to take the creative process to the next level;  to inspire growth and change in our scrapbooking beyond our usual boundaries.
You can see all of Inspiration Elevator's previous challenges on Facebook .

 This month's challenge is issued by the creative Lisa Moen. Lisa is a busy scrapbooker who takes on every creative challenge with gusto; she works layering and clustering beautifully. This month she has a seasonal challenge for us. Here it is in her own words:

" Scrap A Christmas Past.
We all have them- one Christmas that sticks out more in our minds than others. Maybe it was when you were a child or maybe it was more recent. Maybe it was a gift you received that makes it memorable. Maybe a special visitor? Create a page, with or without photos and tell us the story behind that Christmas.."

OK so this challenge was actually a little tricky for me as anyone who knows me is fully aware of the fact that I'm not a happy Christmas scrapper!

Anything with a theme, I tend to steer well clear of and unfortunately this includes festive pages.......I know - what kind of a scrapbooker am I?!

I did create one 'Christmas Day' page quite a number of years back and included 6 years on one page! Lol

So for today's project I had to root back through bunches of old photo's till I found one which triggered a little something in me.

Christmas to me has always been about Family, and although I now live 3000 miles away from the majority of mine, it's the memories of those Christmas lunches shared with parents/Grandparents/siblings that I hold dear and miss so very much.

Unfortunately I don't have a photograph of one of those family gatherings, but I do have one which kind of changed my Christmas perspective.

One which commemorates the start of our own little family Christmas, marked by the birth of my first born.

Blessed.

I realize it's quite ironic that this photo shows my daughter surrounded by a huge pile of gifts (what can I say.....first Grandchild on both sides = spoilt rotten!) because that's not at all what this page is about.

It's about a new beginning.  New memories.  New/Old traditions, and although I would jump on a plane in a minute to experience one more Family gathering (if only finances would allow Christmas airfares!), I cherish these new family memories which will become our legacy.  They say you don't appreciate the joy of Christmas until you have children and I guess this is true.  I certainly hope I get to experience one of those Christmas lunches where I'm a Grandparent surrounded by those I hold near and dear.

On with the deets.

Papers are from a fabulous new festive DT Kit I was generously gifted by Two Scrapbook Friends......'Tinsel and Company' from Teresa Collins.  This collection is everything I look for in a Christmas collection.......if only I scrapped those kind of pages more often!  It's the perfect mix of 'modern' patterns paired with luxurious 'gold' elements.  I still have one more page to complete for the store, but find myself torn between jumping right in there and not wanting to cut into a sheet of patterned paper - it's so pretty!

Most of the inspiration for this page began with the gorgeous 'wreath' cut file I snagged from the Silhouette store......love it!

Lots of layers too of course but I continued the traditional theme by hanging the ribbon behind.

The title was cut from a sheet of glittered cardstock, again using my Silhouette.

There's an abundance of awesome stickers and brads included in this collection so I made use of most of them by either laying flat or 'popped with foam dots.

I'm not sure if you can tell but there are also wooden stars coloured with gold or silver marker, resting in the background clusters too.

That's about all from me but we encourage you to check out each designer's creation for Inspiration Elevator this month: here's a complete list of this month's participating designers!  

Lisa Moen

Ann Jobes

             Jayne Morgan - that's me!

Wendy Robinson

Katherine Sutton

Why not give the challenge a try yourself? Then pop by our Facebook page and share with us what you created!

Have a great day and I'll be seeing you again later this week.

Take care,
Jayne.x.

Joy

It seems only fitting that I should share a Christmas layout on here today in the midst of our Winter Wonderland out there.

This page is another I seemed to have missed blogging, and was the second I created using my Two Scrapbook Friends DT kit 'Cozy Christmas' by Simple Stories.  You can check out the first here.

I'll confess (as I seem to do regularly on here!) that I'm not a huge fan of this page.  I loved the first one using this collection so I guess I must have used up my quota of creativity by the time I got to this!

I don't hate it exactly........just (definitely!) not my fave.  I think it has something to do with using a large number of photo's on a single page..........I'm a single (or maybe 2) photo gal at heart.

Joy.

Busy huh?

I'm definitely missing my white space......probably another reason I'm not a fan!

I made lots of use of the die cut collection pack included in the line, some are layered and others 'popped' with foam dots........

I do love that kraft washi I've been hoarding in my stash.  It has random phrases printed on there and space to add your own journalling.

I cut a few Polaroid style frames with my Silhouette and used them to highlight a few of the photographs.

Everything sits on a background of stenciled chicken wire pattern, and finished with randomly scattered enamel dots.

Phew, that's about all for that one and as I'm usually a 'NON' Christmas scrapper, I think that should keep me going for a while!

Have a great weekend........keep warm out there and I'll see you on Monday for a fresh bunch of goodness from Inspiration Elevator.

Take care,
Jayne.x.

Good Day Sunshine!

Aside from the irony of my title as there isn't a glimpse of sunshine to be found out there today (!), I've created my own little piece of sunshine inside as I have a day off......yay!!!!

Time to finally get that Christmas tree finished as the decorations have been lying around half hung since Friday.

First though more important things.......blogging!

I was checking through a bunch of completed scrapbook pages lying on my desk, as I had a feeling I'd probably missed posting one or two here and there.  Sure enough I found one from way back in the Summertime.

I'm not sure why I didn't get around to blogging this one because it happened to be one of my faves at the time.  Papers were from one of my Two Scrapbook Friends DT kits using the 'Truly Scrumptious' collection by The Paper Loft.  This page happens to be the second page I created as the first was posted way back here.

Good Day Sunshine

A beach selfie from our Summer camping trip, wisely positioned to show head and shoulders only! Lol

This page is another example of my present love for embossing powders as there are random doodled circles in the background.

The title was cut using a freebie file for the Silhouette from Kerri Bradford, and there's a bunch of stamping, paint splatters and stenciled molding paste in the background too.

Lots of layering with patterned papers and more cut files here........

And a nice little cluster of embellies to tie in with those on the opposite side of the page.......I was a good girl for using up my flower stash!

I think that's about all so I hope you find your own little piece of sunshine today.

Have a good one and I'll be back again later this week,
Jayne.x.

Youer Than You!

Good morning.

There's a new Sketch and Crafty Challenge up over at Two Scrapbook Friends and it's my turn to deliver the goods so here goes.

As it's the beginning of December, I guess I should be delivering a creation of the merry, tinsel variety, yes?

Errrr no........for those that know me, it's painfully obvious I'm am not a happy Christmas scrapper!

Unfortunately you'll have to make do with an everyday kind of page from me, but that doesn't mean to say you can't get into the festive spirit yourselves!

Here is this month's Sketch........

I'm quite partial to the everyday kind of photo's and pages, so here's my sample showcasing my daughters recent photo shoot........

The only problem I encounter when creating this type of theme (or lack of theme!), is finding an original title or journaling that means something, when in honesty I really have nothing to say!

So did you figure out the Crafty element yet?

This month I'd like you to use a quote somewhere on your creation.

Quotes are such an awesome resource for us Scrapbookers/Cardmakers.  Why not leave it to the experts - the writers, poets and thinkers of the World to put into words what we're trying to say, and give our page meaning?

Here's a close up of the quote I used for my title, provided by the ever inspirational Dr Seuss.

We've also got tearing and layers......

and an eclectic collection of embellies together with more layered goodies.

So there you have it and of course you are free to use a quote wherever you choose, whether it's as a title, journalling or sentiment etc.

It's time to get your craft on and enter this month's Challenge to be in with a chance of winning a $25 Gift Certificate for the store.

Just remember to link up your creation over on the TSF blog.

That's all from me so I'll be seeing you again later this week,
Jayne.x.

A Winter's Tale

This is a second and rather late in the day post from me!

If you're looking for this month's Inspiration Elevator challenge.....please scroll down or click here.

Otherwise stick around as I have another layout to share.

The reason for my late appearance is that firstly, I've been meaning to share this page FOREVER, and secondly, I wanted to submit it for the upcoming edition of the Let's Get Sketchy Get Inspired magazine, and the closing date for that is......well.......today!

Last minute of course - no surprise for me!

Anyhow, let me get on with some details.

This layout happens to be the first page I created using my recent DT Kit from Two Scrapbook Friends.  This time around I had the pleasure of working with the yummy new Christmas collection from Simple Stories......Cozy Christmas.

I loved the combination of woodgrains, glittery prints and traditional red, green and gold colour schemes throughout.........visions of a log cabin Christmas come to mind.

I had one of my 'struck with inspiration whilst lying in bed moments' for this page which if nothing else, usually means the outcome is interesting!

A Winter's Tale.

I do love how this turned out - pretty close to what I envisioned in my head for a change!

There's obviously lots (and lots!) of torn layers including patterned paper, corrugated paper and zipper trim from Maya Road.

I happened to have a few zipper pulls in my stash, so I added one of those too along with a little faux stitching.

There's 'snow' on there, in the form of Martha Stewart Texture Paste and a Tim Holtz stencil.

Lots of layers were provided by a few patterned papers, enamel dots, and the ecclectic die cut pack you can find with this collection.

As you can see I also trimmed the photo into a 'tag' shape to add a little interest.

Finally, the simple title was cut using my Silhouette and layered with glitter cardstock.

That's about all.......probably one of my faves for this year I think.

If you are local and would like to create your own version of this page, Two Scrapbook Friends are holding a workshop at 6.00pm on Wednesday 3rd December where you can do just that!  You can contact the store for more details or to reserve your spot.

So, onto the second reason for my late post.

As mentioned, I am submitting this page to the Let's Get Sketchy Get Inspired Magazine in the hope that I may get lucky and achieve another publication.

This is an awesome online publication full of lots of inspiration from crafty gals far and wide.  I was totally over the moon when the last edition was released and yours truly found she had made the cover!!

Totally honoured and thrilled to bits!

Anyhow, the next edition will be brimming with seasonal goodies, so my page will be submitted to their 'Mood Board' challenge.

Here is said board:

Fingers crossed but I look forward to the next issue regardless.

OK, I think that's just about covered everything so it's time for PJ's and a little snack for this gal.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll see you next week,
Jayne.x.

Love You To The Moon

Happy Saturday!

We made it through the first week of school, or part week anyhow!  Only another 40 something to go.

I didn't quite make it back here yesterday as time ran away with me.  We're having a mini Spring Fall clean out.....tidying out the garage ready for Winter, having a clothing clear out, so yesterday I managed to find 8 bag loads for the consignment store.

I've yet to tackle the coat closet.......almost afraid to venture in there!

Anyhow, I am here today and I have the second layout from my Two Scrapbook Friends DT Kit using the 'Ahoy There' collection from Carta Bella.

I mentioned in my first post here that I love the quality of Carta Bella patterned papers, and today's examples are no exception, but they do have the added bonus of including a  Kraft patterned paper.........could it get any better?!

My page is also a tribute to my DH who doesn't get scrapped all that often, although he seems to have made a few more appearances lately!

Love You To The Moon.

Ooooh look at all that white space!

Yes, I'll admit, I was itching to fill it, but nothing seemed to work so I left it 'as is'.

The main design is obviously the variety of triangles both paper (which I stitched to the page) and chipboard (which I painted with acrylic paint).

I had a completely different title and idea for this page, but when I was flicking through my stash looking for something else, I came across a package of journal kinda tags from Jillibean Soup.

A new title was born!

Of course I had to use another of those lovely nautical wooden stars, and a touch of messy stitching worked well.

Finally.........embossing powder!

My new, old, reborn love!

I've thrown this stuff on everything recently and I'm thoroughly enjoying using old stash in a new(er) way.

This time I applied it over a 'brush stroke' stamp and placed it here and there around the page.

I think that just about covers things so I guess it's time for me to get ready for work.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you next week,
Jayne.x.