Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Gutter Girlz/Ad This and Songbird Scraps



GUTTER GIRLZ / AD THIS CHALLENGES


I should be outside... the sun is shining, I really should mow the lawn and pull out some (very stubborn) weeds, but ... I don't feel like it hehe. I've been longing for some sun for days now, and now that she's finally paying us a long overdue visit (which is predicted not to last very long), I'm here, behind my pc, looking at your beautiful blogs and feeling a need, an urge to scrap. Sounds familiar to anyone???

This is the LO I made yesterday, and I did manage to do some cleaning as well, so I'm feeling incredibly proud of myself today LOL.



After the rather "childish" LO I made previously (a style which I like as well, don't get me wrong!), I really wanted to create something funky, and what better sites to visit when you want funkyness than Gutter Girlz and Ad This!

The Prompt #25 over at Gutter Girlz was the song "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks and the specified technique was "black". I think I got that covered.

For the challenge over at Ad This we had to use 5 diffferent mediums. I used distress inks (1), black acrylic paint (2), black felt (3), ribbon (4) and puffy stickers by Making Memories (5) ... got those covered as well!

I was also inspired by the latest technique over at The Next Step, which is to alter your patterned paper. However, as I started out with plain white cardstock, I don't think I can enter this one for their challenge. I you haven't visited their blog yet, go and check it out. The wonderful ladies over there highlight a new technique every month, and update the blog weekly with new tips and variations on that technique. I love that site!

Usually distress inks are used to give a distressed look (doh!!!) to the pages, but since I don't own any funky-coloured paints, and I didn't feel like mixing them up, I decided to find out if the distress inks would work for a funky look as well ... and I think it worked surprisingly well! I started out by printing and cutting out different words to be used as masks and reverse masks. I used following distress inks all over the page: Broken China, Fired Brick, Mustard Seed and Peeled Paint. The black shade visible around the word "Saint" is due to the ink of my printer, so watch out for that. In this case it worked out fine because I wanted a lot of black on my LO, but I can imagine in other circumstances I wouldn't have been at all happy with this unexpected effect! However, this didn't happen with the words "mother" and "lover" ... I have no idea why not?? Oh yes, I also randomly applied some masking tape over the page, just to add some extra visual interest.

I immediately knew which papers I wanted to use, which is rare for me. Usually I spend hours contemplating what papers and other embellies to use, but this LO just seemed to make itself. I didn't think, I just grabbed what I wanted and adhered it to the page. Anyway, I tore the papers, inked the edges with black soot distress ink and curled their edges. I then used mesh as a mask for my black acrylic paint around the edges of the background. After that, all I needed to do was add my pics and some embellies and stitch on the ribbons. That's it really, I don't think I've ever completed a LO so quickly before.

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2ND JUNE SONGBIRD SCRAPS CHALLENGE

The new songs are up over at Songbird Scraps. I do hope you'll join us this month. This is my DT example:


This is a song about how releaved we are that our kids have switched over from children's songs (although that period of time certainly had it's charm as well) to "regular" songs. This LO features my youngest daughter Christina who's constantly singing along with the songs on her mp3, and who shares my kind of music, thank goodness. My other two children favor their father's music and let me tell you, my music and his are not compatible LOL!!!!!!!!!!

Again I was inpired by "The Next Step" to alter my pp ... I drew and coloured the stars, and also coloured parts of the journaling. Thanks for that tip Bethany, it made a huge difference to the overall look of the page!!!
To mimic CD's I simply cut out some circles and painted them with silver dabber paint by Ranger.

Okay, does it show that I'm home alone (my husband's at work), that my kids are playing by themselves and that I desperately want someone to talk to LOL???????? Still, I'm not finished talking ... I want to share a funny story with you:
Remember that post in which I told you we planned on going to the "Efteling" (a theme park), and we turned back home because of a traffic jam ... well, two days laters we got up real early and this time arrived at that same theme park even before opening time. Anyway, we were standing in line waiting to go on our first attraction of the day, when Chloë said: "oh, if I had fairy godparents (she's a big fan of "Fairly Odd Parents") I'd wish it was our turn already" ... and then she put up her finger and added "oh yes ... and world peace of course" ... haha, this cracked me up.

Talk to you later my sweet friends
Big hugs xxx Peggy

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Kiddie Lit / Scrap the Girls

Hello my sweet friends, I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I had a marvellous lazy Sunday afternoon. It hadn't stopped raining all day, all the excuse I needed to spend my entire day scrapping ... this is what I came up with:


This LO was inspired by 2 challenges. The first challenge over at Kiddie Lit stated we had to use green, use the word "giving", use a tree/leaves image and doodle. For the challenge over at Scrap the Girls we had to create a "scene" LO. I thought both challenges went well together. You have until the end of the month to participate in either challenge should you be interested...

I found out one thing while doing this LO, I'm not good at layering embellies! I have several embellies here (sent to me by my friend Julie, thanks again!) that would work so well on this LO, but I just couldn't find a suitable place for them. Something I'll definitely have to work on, as I do like the look of clustered embellies!

This is one of those photos I would have thrown away if it had not been for my scrapping. The picture is out of focus ... I was sitting down when Christina came to give me some flowers she picked, and I shot this picture upwards ... as a result (and because I absolutely know nothing about photography...) the flowers show up crystal clear, but Christina's face is all blurry. For the purpose of this LO however this picture is just perfect! I did edit the picture in Picnik to give it that aged look.

Well, that's it, nothing more to tell. I've come to the conclusion that I'm leading a pretty boring life LOL. It's ironic really, now that I've finally decided for myself to share more personal stuff here on my blog, nothing worthwile telling about is happening... Oh I could tell you I'm getting depressed with our weather here, and that I wish summer would finally arrive, but I want to leave you all on a happy note, not whining about things I can't change anyway.

So, on a happy note, it's high time to do some cleaning ... haha, not really happy about that, but I'll make the best of it. I'm gonna put on some happy music and dance the day away, mopping's so much more fun when shaking that booty LOL.

Big kisses xxx Peggy

Saturday, June 6, 2009

All good news + New Song Bird Scraps Challenge

My sweet friends, first of all I would like to thank all of you who left those wonderful comments for my daughter Christina. She too says "thanks"! She was sooo excited and proud when she read the things you wrote to her, and she can't wait to start on her next LO! The people over at Aussie Scrap Jack have generously said they would send her a little something ... you should have seen her little face when I told her about that!

Other good news, I won my sweet friend Julie's RAK give-away ... lots of yummy stuff AND some handmade cards, original Julie's haha, superexcited about that!!!!! I so want to see some of her work IRL, you know, I'm sure it will even look better than on pics.

I also won a doorprize (you know, a prize you win just by commenting) over at OLW when they were celebrating their 2nd anniversary! Pretty excited about that too.

And this news I'm most excited about, because for the very first time I won a prize with one of my LO's!!!! This is the one (haha, just had to post this one one more time):

I entered this LO for the "painting using stamps as a guide" technique challenge over at "The Next Step" and I won ... well not exactly for using their technique ... since I don't own any stamps that could be used for this challenge, I drew ... but well, they said because they thought my entry was ... wow! Isn't that the best reaction ever haha!!!! They actually gave away four prizes, so you might want to participate in their next challenge as well!!!!! Go and check it out.

I also found some tutorials I would like to share ... as soon as I figure out how to put them on my blog :-( Technology is a wonderful thing, if you know how to use it!!!! So, if anyone knows how to do this, let me know, I could use the help.

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The June Challenge over at Song Bird Scraps is up! Take a look and see if this month's lyrics can inspire you ...

Lullaby - Matt Costa
Don't you cry, no don't you cry
Sing this lullaby to yourself
Cause when I arrive dear it won't be that long
No it won't seem like anytime that I've been gone
It ain't the first time it won't be the last
Won't you remember these words to help the time pass?
So when you're so lonely lying in bed
Night's closed it's eyes but you can't rest your head
Everyone's sleeping all through the house
You wish you could dream but forgot to somehow
Sing this lullaby to yourself
Sing this lullaby to yourself

When You Dream - Barenaked Ladies
With life just begun, my sleeping new son
Has eyes that roll back in his head
They flutter and dart, he slows down his heart
And pictures a world past his bed
Its hard to believe
As I watch you breathe
Your mind drifts and weaves
When you dream, What do you dream about?
When you dream, What do you dream about?
Do you dream about Music or mathematics
Or planets too far for the eye?
Do you dream about Jesus or quantum mechanics
Or angels who sing lullabies?

I was inspired by "my sleeping new son" in the second lyrics, and this is my DT example, I hope it will inspire you to give this challenge a try:

I always loved seeing my babies asleep with their daddy like that.
This wasn't an easy pic to scrap ... I wanted a soft look but I also wanted bold colours. Like I said before, I find it much easier to scrap without a definite look in my head. Anyway, I like the result, especially that hobby rope I stitched on to create a frame is really pretty IRL.

Does it show I have become addicted to paint on my LO's??? It's such an easy solution when the look of the LO isn't quite right yet.

Talk to you later!
Love you mwa mwa xxxx Peggy

Awesome give-away

I completely forgot to tell you about this amazing give-away by Jenneke.
Just click here to see what she offers as a prize! She'll be choosing a winner today, so hurry!! Hurry!! What are you waiting for, go!! GO!!!!