Aussie Scrapjacked Young Scrapper

Hi my friends,

This post is a very special one for Christina, my youngest daughter. She decided to play along with the Aussie Scrapjacked Challenge for young scrappers, which was to jack a LO by the wonderful Ruby Bisson. Here's her entry:


Not bad for a 7-year old huh? She did it all by herself. All my suggestions were politely listened too and then discarded LOL, and I couldn't be more proud of her!
Notice that gorgeous concentrated look on her face:

Now I know that she would loooooove to receive some comments, so if you would have a minute to write a little something, I would be so grateful! Thanks!

Love xxx Peggy

"The Next Step" LO and some awards!

Hi my blogging friends!

Let me start by showing you my entry for the May challenge over at The Next Step, "I love you as far as the moon ... and back".



Ever since the fabulous Lucy announced that she would be starting a challenge/tutorial blog - The Next Step - I decided for myself that I would try to enter every single one of their challenges. I was a bit disappointed that their very first challenge had to do with stamping: painting using stamps as a guide. Those who know me or have been following my blog know that I have a fear of stamping, and as a result I don't own all that many stamps, and I don't own any that could be used for the challenge. However, I asked if I could draw something in stead of using a stamped image, and that was fine too, so the only problem left was figuring out what to draw.

I didn't have to think long though. I've been wanting to scrap about my bedtime ritual with my youngest daughter for so long now, and this was the perfect opportunity. I used to read her a story "Guess how much I love you" by Sam McBratney. It's a lovely story about a papa rabbit and his son Hazel. Hazel keeps telling his daddy how much he loves him, for example "I love you as far as I can reach", but of course his daddy can reach higher, and that's how it goes the whole story long. Finally, Hazel thinks he has found something his daddy can't beat, and he tells him as he falls asleep: "I love you as far as the moon". His daddy softly says "That is far, that is really far". But then he cuddles next to his sleeping boy and says "I love you as far as the moon ... AND BACK". Isn't that the most wonderful story ... I hope the translation didn't diminish the loveliness of this story. Anyway, every night we have a ritual that goes like this:
Me: "I love you"
Christina: "I love you too"
Me: "as far as the moon..."
Christina: "and back"
She absolutely refuses to go to sleep without having done this, and to tell you the truth, I don't mind one bit!!!

The images that go with this story are absolutely adorable, and I copied the one where Hazel is asleep in his fathers arms who is looking to the moon. I took pics of the different steps of my LO. I used aquarelle paints.




In this last photo, you can see the original image I copied my drawing from.
I really like this LO, thank you so much to the ladies of The Next Step, I would never have started on anything like this without your challenge! And what's more important, Christina loves the LO as well, I think this one is going on the wall in her room, so she can look at it before she goes to sleep.




Okay, what else...

I received the following awards from my sweet friend Jocelyn:

The rules of the Lemonade Stand award:
Comment on this blog. Cut and paste the award logo and use it in your own blog. Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude. Link to your nominees within your blog post. Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award. Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.

And here's a little about the Friends award:
These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to five bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Thank you so much Jocelyn, I appreciate them both, especially the second one, as I'd like to think I've made some real friends here. I'd like to pass on these awards to:

Maryangella - for being the lovely person she is. I've only known her for a short time, but she touched my heart already, she's just that kind of lady.

Mandy - she is one of the first who made this beginning blogger feel right at home with her ever encouraging and enthousiastic words. She never fails to leave a comment, though it's a mistery to me how she finds the time to do so, given the amount of wonderful artsy creations that arrive on her blog on a daily basis!!!

Cathy - for encouraging me to tell more personal stuff on my blog. I haven't done much of that in the past, but I intend to in the future, and Cathy's blog is my inspiration. She shares so much of her life with us, and I so enjoy reading her stories ... she's one sweet lady who always finds the time to leave an equally sweet comment!!!

Lucy - for unselfishly sharing all of her techniques with us and always offering support and further explanations when asked. I so appreciate that, there is so much to learn and it's not always easy doing it alone, thanks Lucy!!

Julie - this incredibly talented woman caught my eye from the very beginning, and totally won me ever with her sweet personality. The fact that she wrote me a message once starting "Hey gorgeous..." didn't hurt either LOL.

Lisa - what can I say about Lisa ... we all know Lisa don't we?!!!! And if you don't, head on over to her blog, you don't want to NOT know Lisa, I tell ya!!! Love you Lisa!!!!!!!!

April - last but not least, April, my sweet and very first online scrapping friend, I love you dearly, you deserve every award possible in my eyes!

Jocelyn, if you hadn't sent these awards to me, you know you would have been on my list too!!
I have been seeing these awards regularly, so if you had already received them, I'm sorry, I didn't check beforehand...

That's it for now. I'm still working on my Song Bird Scraps LO, so I don't have any sneak peeks to show you just yet. The LO has been lying here on my desk, waiting for inspiration to hit me ... sometimes I think it would be nice to finish a LO in an hour or so ... yeah right LOL!! Keep on dreaming...

Love you all, TFL!
xxx Peggy

Easy to please

I'm so proud of my kids today. We planned a trip to a theme park today, the "Efteling" in Holland, and the kids were soooo excited. We overslept (of course) and departed a bit behind schedule, but still in time to make it before 11am, which isn't too bad, because the park doesn't open until 10am anyway. At about 10.30am, only 15km away from our destination, we got stuck in a traffic jam. At 11.30am, we still hadn't arrived and we were moving oh so slowly if at all. We have been to the Efteling many times before, even during the summer holidays, and we had never experienced something like this. So Kurt and I started talking ... we still had to buy our tickets (almost €30.00 a piece times 5!!!), so we wouldn't make it into the park before 12 o'clock at best ... Kurt wanted to leave a bit before closing time too (which is 6pm), because he has the night shift this evening, and he still wanted to get two precious hours of sleep before going to work. And this is what did it for us ... with that much people, the waiting time for all the attractions would have been close to an hour, so that meant we could maybe ride on 5 attractions ... a lot of money wasted and not very amusing neither for us or the kids ... so, with the Efteling almost in sight, we decided to turn around and get back home.

We of course did this consulting our kids beforehand, and they were surprisingly understanding. The two eldest were disappointed, but then again so were we, but understood. We did promise to take them again before the summer holiday, which they thought was a good deal. Christina, our youngest, cried a bit, but settled down when we promised to drive to the nearest McDonalds ... that girl sure loves her food LOL. I also promised to take them on a little bike ride this afternoon.

So, we spend almost 4 hours in the car for nothing. Once back home, Kurt got into bed and I took the kids out for a bike ride. We stopped at a little cafe, got some sodas and some chips, and they were happy as can be. They even thanked me for wanting to take them to the Efteling (???!!!) and for going for a bike ride in stead, which they perceived as cosy and fun. Aren't they precious and easy to please? Really, I'm so proud of them. When I was their age and something like that had happened to me, I would have cried my eyes out and had probably given my best tantrum performance, but then again, I was a spoiled little brad LOL.

Blog candy
Something else entirely ... Oddbjorg is giving away some delicious blog candy, you can find it here. While your there, check out her blog, I think you'll like what you'll see ...

Question
I wonder if anyone can help me. I've been looking for some papers I really like, like the Rose Moka's, Lilly Bee's, ... The (belgian) online shop I usually use doesn't carry these lines, so I'm forced to look for shops who ship internationally. And of course, the problem here is that the shipping costs are huge!!!! I have the same problems with kits. There are some kits I really adore, like Scarlet Lime, Studio Calico, and some others, but the shipping costs are just too much.

Does anyone know of a shop who has justifiable (in my husband's eyes mainly, I probably wouldn't care all that much LOL) shipping rates? Or does anyone know any good kits or online shops available in Belgium or the Netherlands? I would sure love to hear from you if you do. Thanks in advance for your help.

Finally I would like to thank Cathy for giving me a little push to write some personal stuff/stories on my blog. I like reading this sort of things in other people's blog, and I hope you enjoyed mine.

Love xxx Peggy

Song Bird Scraps Second May Lyrics/ and altered project

Song Bird Scraps DT example / Entry Aussie Scrapjacked May Challenge

A bit too late, but my DT example for the second Song Bird Scraps May Lyrics finally got finished. Thanks you Skye again for being so understanding.

The lyrics to choose from were:

Angel - Jack Johnson

I've got an Angel,

She doesn't wear any wings

She wears a heart that could melt my own,

She wears a smile that makes me wanna sing

She gives me presents

With her presence alone

She gives me everything I could wish for

She gives me kisses on the lips just for coming home.

So Beautiful - Darren Hayes

Whether I'm up or down
There's no crowd to please
I'm like a faith without a clause to believe in it
And if all the world was smiling
I would only ever want to see your frown
You know they can sail away in sunsets
We'll be right here stranded on the ground
Just happy to be found
You make me feel so beautiful
Nowhere else in the world I wanna be
You make me feel so beautiful

I used the first lyrics as inspiration for my LO:

I wrote the full lyrics given in the challenge on the right side of my page. My husband remarked that he couldn't read them well enough, and totally didn't get it when I said this was how it was supposed to be LOL. The lyrics in fact aren't that important, I just wanted to create a messy, chaotic look, and I thought a bit of writing would do the trick. As I said, even after explaining, he still didn't get it LOL. It works for me though LOL. I actually got the idea from the Aussie Scrapjacked may challenge. The LO to be jacked this month is this beautiful LO by the fabulous Ruby Bisson. Take a minute to check out her blog, this girl is certain to blow you away with her amazing art. Especially, brace yourself for this, when you realize she just turned 15!!!!!!!! This is her LO which has to be jacked:

Isn't this amazing?? As you can see, there's some text used as a background, hence my writing. You get it don't you LOL???????
So, I will be entering their challenge with my She/Angel LO. It turned out a bit different, but it was totally inspired by above example. I just don't have it in me to be this messy yet, though I really tried.

I first masked the "she" with different colours of distress inks (peeled paint, dried marigold and vintage photo). Then I used Ranger's Acrylic Paint Dabber (copper) on the background paper, which is daisy d's Garden Green Gingham (I so love that paper, I wish I had bought some more of this...). I then placed the "angel" thickers (American Crafts - Rootbeer float) over the mask, in the hope to make the whole look a bit more interesting.

I should mention that the copper paint is much darker in real life. The paint caught the sun when I took a photograph of the LO, which gives it that shiny look. It really depends on how you position the page...

To really jack the original, I probably just should have placed my pics and be done with it, but like I said, sometimes things just have to look a bit more "dressed up". So I placed some white paper under the photos (which is the paper they wrap new shoes in - so wonderful to work with, don't throw it away!!!!!), and stitched it to the background paper. It added to the feel of the page, since these are pics we took for Chloë's first communion.
The wings are grungeboard, inked with mustard seed and vintage photo distress inks, and given a coat of glossy accents. Really, inked grungeboard on itself is real pretty, but with a coat of glossy accents they just become irresistable!!!!!!! And that's it really, a simple LO, but I like it. Especially the combination of inks and paints, I'll definitely be doing that again.


My first altered project and my very first card!

Yes, you heard right, I made my very first altered project, and it shows that it's my first LOL. The kids love it though, and Kurt thought it looked very cool and he loved the bright colours, so I couldn't be happier with it.

I started out with a remote-control box (I don't know the word for this, sorry, I'm gonna keep calling it "the box"), and I painted the parts that would remain visible with white gesso (twice).


This is what it looked like after putting papers on all of the surfaces:


It looked pretty great then (to me at least LOL), but the child in me wanted to add some extra's:


Fun, isn't it? Haha, I know, I'm just a big kid LOL.


I really like this, which is more than I can say for my very first card. I almost didn't want to post it, but decided to do it anyway, we all had to start somewhere, no? It looks really simple and yes, again a bit childish, but I think my SIL (I made it for her to thank her for a wonderful weekend we spent together) will be happy with it. She might think the kids made it though LOL, still deciding on telling her the truth or not if she does haha.


Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike it, it just doesn't measure up when you compare it to other cards shown on the net (oh yes Julie (scrapnut), I'm definitely thinking of your wonderful creations!!!). I actually quite like the birds. I painted them with a waterbrush and distress inks (broken china, peeled paint and worn lipstick). I loved how bright and cheery the colours came out ... I hadn't expected that, using distress inks...

Well that's it. Did you make it all the way down here ... congratulations!!!!! You're a true friend LOL.

Love you all
xxx Peggy

OLW Challenge

One Little Word is turning two, and they are celebrating! This is the LO I made for their "two"-challenge.



This has always been one of my favorite wedding pictures, and when I found a song called "2 tickets to paradise", I knew this was the picture I wanted to scrap for this challenge. Sorry about the glare on the pic, no matter what I did, I couldn't take a decent pic without the glare...

Most of you who follow my blog know that I never start with a definite image in my head of how my LO is going to turn out, I just go with the flow so to speak. But this time even I am surprised at the turn this LO has taken ... I really intended to create a very romantic LO, best suited for this picture, but I guess I was in a whimsical mood today LOL. Anyway, I love how it turned out, never mind that it reminds me more of a circus than it does a wedding LOL, and what's more important, I had fun making it.

I started out with a Basic Grey Offbeat paper and glued some tissue paper onto it. Then I covered the tissue paper with gesso, and later on with yellow and a little bit of red paint. I sanded the picture and adhered it to the painted tissue paper. I stitched a random frame around the pic and added another "frame" by cutting out the pattern of Making Memories Flocked Dot Rouge Paperie Paper. This inspired me to paint the scallops in the corners. I also added some white and brown paint over the background paper because I didn't like the clean look the LO had, that just didn't work with the tissue paper.

The flowers were made out of a paper bag in which we keep our bread, again first painted with gesso, later on with red/yellow. The edges were dipped with gesso, again to avoid that clean look. I stitched the hearts of the flowers in such a way that they stand a bit upwards in stead of just being flat, just to give the whole look a bit more texture. The brad in one of the flower centers is by Making Memories.

I'm not sure about the black alphas (by American Crafts) ... I might remove them and just make my own (white) alphas in paper ... any thoughts on that, I would love your input.

Well, that's it really. Not so complicated, but still I spent hours and hours on this! Ah well, at least I got it finished in one day (well, night actually, yep, I did it again, I spent all night scrapping, good thing the kids are sleeping over at my moms ...), which is quite an achievement for me!

I'll be back tomorrow to share my very first altered project with you.

Love xxx Peggy

The flowers were

RAK

Hi ladies!

Sorry for the delay, but today I put things in order and finally had some time to draw a winner for my little RAK. My youngest daughter Christina picked the following name:




KIMBER
Kimber, please let me know if you're interested in playing our RAK-game (you didn't say in your comment...). The rules are simple, as soon as you receive your RAK, you put a RAK together of your own to give away and post a pic of your RAK on your blog, together with a link to my RAK-post. Please don't break the RAK-chain! So Kimber, if you are interested, please e-mail your address to me: peggy.schenkels@telenet.be.

Off to scrap a bit with my girls now ... talk to you later my friends!
Love xxx Peggy

Lots to share

It's going to be a lengthy post today, so grab yourself a cup of coffee and if you make it all the way down, you'll see a little RAK that just might be coming your way ...


Song Bird Scraps May Challenge
Friends Forever

First things first, the new lyrics for the first May Challenge over at Song Bird Scraps are up, and I'm sure you'll find they provide plenty of inspiration. Do try and join us in the fun this month, there's some pp to be won that I'm sure will be a much needed (LOL) addition to your stash...

These are the lyrics:

Joshua Radin - Friend Like You

When I had no one to call

All the world had shut me down

I showed up at your door so blue

I thank God I had a friend like you

Many times I’ve gone without

A home, a meal, a pair of shoes

If you had 3 you’d give me 2

Their ain’t no other friend like you

Angus & Julia Stone - Bella

There goes the gal in the pretty skirt

With the Golden smile that made you feel new

Like when the marching band strolls the street

You know another years come too soon

So you took her hand and she gave a look that sent you to the moon

And there you spoke the words of a gentleman

Can I have this dance with you?

Can I share this dance with you?

I used the first set of lyrics for my DT example.

This is me on the right (having an extremely bad hairday) and my best friend. We only met about one and a half year ago. I had never thought to find my very best friend at the age of 35...

Not only was I inspired by the lyrics, I also added some extra stuff for the NSD challenges over at Studio Calico. One challenge was to use fabric as a background, which I had never done before, but I love the look of it so much I'm definitely going to be trying that again! (Didn't win btw). The other challenge was to use cute little animals from a pp in the LO. I used the little birds at the bottom of the page (Basic Grey/Offbeat/Carefree paper) and the little bird flying near the sun (Sassafras paper). Now I so love challenges like that, because I have to admit, I never would have thought of adding these to a page by myself, I definitely need something like that to get my creative juices flowing, I just don't have the fantasy/creativity to come up with ideas like that myself. The results of that challenge haven't been posted yet, but I doubt wether my little birds will have done the trick ... still, I love this addition to the page, so I've won already LOL.


Fun

The next LO I want to show you is a bit different. Actually, I didn't like it at all at first, but I didn't hate it enough to start all over again. However, after I kept it in sight for a few days, I grew used to it and now I'm starting to kinda like it.

There's something not right with the colours, I know, I tried to fix it but couldn't.
Anyway, I based this LO on the April sketch over at Prima's Build A Page. I submitted it for the challenge too, but it never even made it to the gallery LOL. I did ask up front if it was okay to submit a LO which didn't have Prima Products included, and it was, but I guess they figured this to be a bit too ... can't find the right word here, ugly maybe LOL.

I had never worked with a sketch before, and I found it quite difficult, don't know if I'll ever be trying that again. I like to do my own thing, and I find it harder when I have a preset image in my mind, because it never ends up the way I had envisioned it, which can be quite disappointing.

The sketch however was perfect for these pics I made in a theme park on my son's birthday, so it had to be a boy's page, because this is going in my son's album. I do love the stitching I did, I think the design was perfect here. So I don't hate all of it LOL.

The journaling reads:
When we told Yannis he could either give a party or visit Bobbejaanland for his 9th birthday, the choice was easily made. The Typhoon was the absolute favorite attraction of both Yannis and Chloë. Christina didn't want to go in at first, but by the end of the day she decided to give it a try. This to my regret, because it meant I had to go too to accompany her ... their idea of fun, not mine!


Dreamgirls Challenge / Artastic Challenge
There is no me without you

On the next LO. This is the LO I made in the middle of the night (remember my previous post ...).


The pic is crooked, the LO itself is not!
I was inspired by quite a few challenges for this one. I made this for the NSD All Day Challenge over at scrapbook.com. The assignment was to make a LO about ME, not my favorite topic! I cheated a bit though, because though it's about me, it's about my love for my kids, so it's still about them too LOL. I got the idea for this LO when I saw the challenge over at Dreamgirls, which was to create a LO about a mother/child relationship. Over at the Artastic Challenge Blog, there is a challenge going on this month wich is inspired by a beautiful painting by Salvador Dali (Landscape with butterflies). As it happens, the colours of that painting matched my pic beautifully, so I used those colours for my LO and that's how I got the idea for the butterflies.

Just a little note: this was the first time I used ink (Tim Holtz distress inks) on my chipboard alphas, and I just have to say, the result of that IRL is stunning!!!! Probably not a new thing to any of you, but to me it was a revelation LOL! The butterflies are Tim Holtz grungeboard (Nature) which I inked with distress inks as well.

The journaling reads:
What I feel for my kids is so much more than mere love, it's a kind of love that's hard to describe. It's a kind of everlasting being in love, a constant feeling of butterflies in my stomach. I would be lost without my children, they are the reason of my existence.

RAK

Well, only just the little matter of my RAK left.
My sweet friend Jane Smith started this little RAK-game, which has but one rule: if you win this RAK, you are to go through your stash and put together a little RAK of your own. This might be items which have been used already, they don't have to be new or complete! The idea is not to spend money here, it's to share stuff you'll probably won't use yourself anymore.

If you win, on receiving your RAK you will need to post a photo of your give-away, and link back to the previous RAK-giver. Here's the link to Jane's post.

My RAK:

I encluded some chipboard alphas, foam stickers, ribbon, felt dragonflies, tags (file folder style) and some playing cards. Like I said, it's not much, but it just might make someone happy.
Depending on the shipping costs, I might also include this stamping set:


This set is still in the packaging, as I have it double. If you want to see what the stamps look like, I used these alphas for my title in my "there is no me without you" LO.

What I would like you to do in order to receive this RAK is of course leave me a comment concerning this blog post, and to give me some advice, either about my scrapping or about my blog. For example, what do you like/dislike about my work, do you have a favorite LO/technique you'd like to see more of, do you have any suggestions to improve my blog, etc... Don't be shy, I love compliments but now and again I feel it's necessary to receive some constructive criticism as well!! I'm curious for your comments ... You have until Sunday 10th, I'll be posting the winner on Monday.

Like I said, I do love comments, so spread the word of my little RAK. I do hope you'll join this fun game! Oh, forgot to say, this is open for all countries!

Wow, I made it, and hopefully, so did you! Thanks for reading all the way through till the end!
Love xxx Peggy

Crazy me

Crazy me ... we had been away all day yesterday, came home around 11pm, and I had been looking forward to scrapping a bit in the evening all day long. However, I was tired and didn't think I'd last long ... and then I started scrapping, and guess what, it's now almost 9am and I'm still awake LOL... crazy huh!!! I'm a very slow scrapper, and I scrapped almost 7 hours on end on 1 LO... told you I was a slow scrapper LOL. It took me forever to decide on which photo to use, then which papers, which topic ... you get the idea I guess. Anyway, it's too late to go to bed now, the kids are up and too much to do today. I might even do some more scrapping too LOL. Mind you, my vision is starting to get blurred and I feel a headache coming up ... guess that's my body's way of telling me I should start acting my age huh...

Anyway, I thought this to be the perfect time to direct you to some Blog Candy: The lovely Sarah is giving away some RAK's here and here.

Update: Remember I told you it was too late to go to bed, well, at about 10.30am I changed my mind ... well actually my body changed it for me LOL. I remember the times when I could go out all night and arrive happily at work the next day, without a wink of sleep, going through the next day as if I had slept like a baby that night ... It was a rude wake-up-call to find out I just can't do that anymore, guess I'm really getting old :-( Luckily, the kids were tired from a very busy long weekend already and didn't mind hanging on the couch watching TV all day. Those sweet babies let me sleep till 4 this afternoon, aren't they great!

I have made a few LO's these last few days, I'll share them with you in my next post. I first want to get a little RAK together for me to give away in the next few days, I'll give the details of this also in my next post, so keep your eyes open!

mwa xxx Peggy