Inspired2scrap

Busy Busy Busy!

Well its been a full on last few weeks with re-decorating our house for selling, cleaning up our beach house to sell and keeping up with classes at the shop. Over the school holidays the first week I taught two classes:

Best of Friends Layout

 

and this funky kids telephone/address book, both projects I found on the internet and both using the Cricut Expression.

 

For the first few days of the holidays Olivia went with Kryshina to course for a photoshoot to be her model for her make-up. She took Aimee her girlfriend along and they had a ball. Kryshina got given loads of awesome photos, here are a few, they look so grown up.

 

 

On top of this over the weekend I made a couple of gluten free recipes. I adapted my faithful Maggi Quiche Lorraine recipe by removing the pastry base and making it into a self crusting recipe and also Edmonds Peanut Brownies. Find the recipe listed under the picture. This is a gluten free option but if you don't need to be gluten free just use ordinary flour instead and any brand of bacon, plus you can also use pastry sheets for a base, just omit the flour and half the milk.

 

Quiche Lorraine - Adapted Maggi Recipe - Self Crusting - Gluten Free

25g butter

6-8 Kiwi rashers streaky bacon - chopped - Gluten Free

1 cup mushrooms - sliced

1 small onion chopped

3 eggs, beaten with 1/2 cup milk

1/2 tin Nestle reduced cream

3/4 cup Orgran All Purpose Plain Flour - Gluten Free

2 cups grated cheese ( suppose to be one cup but I like extra)

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Salt & Pepper to taste

Melt butter, saute onions, mushrooms & bacon. Beat the eggs, add reduced cream, flour, cheese, nutmeg & salt and pepper. Once mixed add the saute ingredients (I usually drain off the fat) Stir thoroughly and pour into a greased flan/quiche dish. Bake at 200C for 10 mins then reduce heat to 180C and cook for a remaining 30 minutes. Serves 4-6 also great cold once refrigerated.

Better late than never!!

OK, yes I know sooooo slack! I have been busy creating but mostly projects for classes etc which I cannot post just yet. In the meantime though I will finally post my Senz class project along with a couple of ATC's I just did for our latest dare. I am also working on another couple of layouts which I hope to post by the end of the week.

First of all, here is the 'Shabby Village' class I taught at Senz, a project inspired by Audrey Underwood & Maxine Hazebroek (you can check out their blogs as linked on my sidebar)using My Mind's Eye papers and Collections elements chipboard and shadowbox from Twiddleybitz.

 

Next is a class I taught using the amazing new products from Heidi Swapp, her Invisibles and new papers, stickers etc & Collections transparency creating two layouts!

 

 

and lastly my most exciting class was one I was taught while over in Sydney at the SIA retailer convention using Heidi Swapp Invisible Chipboard, Tim Holtz new Grunge Paper mixed with masks & distress inks. I have taught this popular class 3 times and we are re-listing it once again, set for the 19th Oct 7pm, so if anyone is interested don't miss out, loads of techniques in this class and this is the LAST time I will be teaching it. All stamps used for embellishments are from Studio 490.

 

 

 

I also just finished a project for our Monthly Kit for September:

 

And here are my two ATC's I just finished for my contribution for our ATC dare this month called 'Art Nouveau' if you want to play along click HERE for more details and to see Lianne's & Nickie's contributions.

 

 

So, there you have it! Everything at once.....lol, will promise to post sooner next time, TFL Lisa

News from the Forum

If you follow the forum you will know that most month's we try to run a sketch challenge or layout competition along with prizes. For the sketch challenge everybody who participates goes in the draw to win a $20 gift voucher to our store. For the competition we choose prizes to the value of around $30-40.It reasonably simple to join in, register if you haven't already over at 'The Board' (forum) and 'The Art Room' (gallery) and take part in the conversations and upload your art work. Each month also we run a draw for a Guest Designer for the month where you could receive some goodies to play with to create a couple of pages to post and be in the spotlight for the month.The sketch has been posted for August, I made up a layout then drew a sketch up from that, here are the results:

For this one I took a chipboard tree from 2Crafty and inked it all over with brown ink. I think took some left over green pp and hand cut little leaf shapes to stick on the tree.

For our monthly competition for August I decided on three rules:

1. Keep your scrapping space (i.e papers,photo,embellishments) within a no larger space than 8" x 8" area
2. Use some packaging from a scrapbook product
3. Only handwriting allowed for journaling and title (you can however use stencils, templates etc providing you are using some type of pen etc)

Here is my example: Using several Prima products including the packaging I made up this page taking up the whole 8" x 8" inch area. My background paper was quite plain so I spruced it up with a couple of stamps and pen lines. My title was tracing the negative space of some used chipboard letters, coloured in with pen, cut out then glazed with dimensional magic. I probably would never actually do this unless I had too, I'd much rather reach for a pack of brought lettering.I don't think the results came out too bad considering  I really am a 'fill a page' kinda girl.

In the weekend I hand cut out a Prima Paintable, the page didn't really come out as nice as I imagined but the colours suited the photo anyhow. This photo is a picture of Steve's grandmother who passed away several years ago. Using all Prima Products except for the journaling spot that is Rhonna Farrer and bird sticker. I still have to fill in the dates yet.

So come on girls, get on over to the forum and create your take on these two challenges, its loads of fun and you get to have two more pages done!I'll be posting a new dare over at ATC Dares later on this evening, its going to be a goodie :)

Thanks

Having a play with NEW Prima Flowers!

This week guess what just arrived? Some more new Prima goodies, just in time for the Senz Show this weekend, hooray!

I peeked through the box yesterday and couldn't resist taking home some new flower vines & gorgeous sets of roses (we have a few different colours) wow they are all to die for!!

I've been wanting to do something with one of the cool Twiddleybitz Chipboard gates so out it came along with a scrap of corrugated board, Fancy Pants PP, 2Crafty Swirl, 2Crafty Birds & Collections Butterflies.

I grabbed my new bottle of Walnut Ink Spray and quickly coloured the gate pieces, edge of board and swirl. I let these dry out in the meantime preparing the rest of the page.

I inked the chipboard birds with white pigment ink, once dry stamped in Rich Cocoa Memento ink with a tiny dictionary print stamp. Coloured some white pearls with Expresso Alcohol ink for the eyes on the birds. Am really thrilled with this page, take a look....

Here is a sneak peek of some other new releases we will be having at the show:

We have sooooo many more goodies instore for the show, not just Prima but loads of other new and exciting stuff plus we will be showcasing Tim Holtz products from Ranger so if you haven't got your ticket yet, its not too late or buy at the door, don't miss out!!

TFL

Prima Felt Gates & Vines

We have four different styles of felt gates in from Prima hidden away out the back for Senz along with some gorgeous Prima Flower Vines. Naturally I couldn't wait and have to have a play with some of them. I am always inspired by Ingvild Bolme's blog so I took a few ideas from some of her pages and put this together. Unfortunately it was a bad scan being so lumpy bumpy!! I did take a photo also but it turned out so dark. You can get the general idea anyway, also on the page is a cute little chipboard birdcage we stock from 2Crafty.

I've really been in too the little rosebuds lately, we have a great assortment in at the shop and thanks to our large shipment of glimmer mist, I have been spraying my flowers to co-ordinate with my projects. All the turquoise flowers on this page were all originally white. Prima does a tub of white flowers in an assortment of shapes and sizes, great for colouring, we have some tubs in store right now!

close up view

Well, Senz is only a couple a weeks away so its countdown time. Nickie is currently putting together another class for us so we will be posting a NEW class very soon for the show. This is going to be a vintage style which is Nickie's forte using some gorgeous elements from Collections and Twiddleybitz, you won't want to miss out on this one, Nickie is one talented lady!!

We will keep you posted!! TFL

Ava's 3rd Birthday & Another Layout

Hello everyone.

On Monday I took Briana out of kindy and took her to her cousin Ava's 3rd Birthday. Briana, Tea' and Ava (cousins) all had a fun time catching up. Just check out Ava's face when it was time to blow out the candles, priceless!

Tea'  having fun in the playground.....

and Briana? well she is constantly pulling stupid faces these days whenever she spots me with the camera!

We have a small monthly competition going on in the Forum its still running for a couple more weeks yet and great prize to be won!
The details are on the forum but I decided to do up an example. We had to use around one third of the background using stamping, we also had to use vibrant colours plus make a homemade embellishment.

Here is my take: I stamped the Chandeliers, inked the chipboard Chandelier and covered it in stickles, built up my embellishments with Prima flowers and a rub-on rose, cut the frame from a Prima Patterned Paper and my handmade embellishment is the little rose heart.

I cut out a heart shape from some chipboard, glued tiny roses & flowers all over it and filled in some gaps with pearls. I also glimmer misted the turquoise roses, they were originally white. I scanned an old wedding photo and fixed up any blemishes in photoshop, re-coloured and softened the edges, took a couple of hours to enhance & reprint.

Close up of embellishment:

There you have it, so why don't you give it a go? Still  not too late to join in. Also have you been checking out the Winter Warmer competition the DT girls have running, this has been really fun and challenging for all. Also keep watch for a new sketch challenge coming soon.....

thanks, Lisa

Two new layouts to share!

Last weekend I spent most of my time sorting out my scrap room and setting up my new 'Inspiration Creative Cutter'. I re-organized my desk and found a new home for it. The software is not compatible with my Mac but luckily I am fortunate to have a Windows laptop set up in my room which is hooked up to the Cricut also.

Yes I know what you are thinking! Why does she have two cutting machines? Well my excuse is that I need to try them out, figure out how they work etc so I can inform my customers in the shop (and demonstrate)....lol, so you know, I just have to have it!!

Here's some pictures of my set up!

Inspiration Creative Cutter

Cricut Expression

Anyhow, I spent last Sunday figuring out how to draw with the Creative Cutter. As I mentioned on the forum it has many optional tools and a pen holder is one of them. You can import digital images, brushes etc, vectorize them in the machine software and either choose to draw, cut, engrave or prick (for hand stitching) its really awesome.

So, I had a play and it was actually really simple once I figured out a couple of things. I drew a couple of drawings on scrap paper then threw in a piece of 12 x 12 Kraft and drew this title on the following layout. Once the drawing was finished I simply enhanced it will colour using Tombo Pens.

First of all I had to edit and reprint the old photo of my husband when he was little (the cute little blondie in the front...lol) The original was just a copy Steve's Mum gave me which had the Photography Studio's stamp on the front. I imported it into Photoshop Elements and removed the stamp using the clone tool for most of it, fixed up the faded colour, removed the scratches and the photo was good as new! (took me about an hour though!!)

I went from this:

and here is my end result using the new photo and drawing (I converted a Rhonna Farrer Brush) I traced another piece of patterned paper to change the shape of the Kraft, other products used: Prima Flowers, small roses other, some printed images plus brought embellishments, 2Crafty chipboard swirl, metal flowers, Prima bling, Doily purchased from antique shop.

I ended up journaling on the back, just the names nothing special. Couldn't believe it, when I went outside to take this photo it started to rain!!! Some water dropped on my photo so don't look too close and its not that easy to change now....grrrr!

Now, my next layout I'm really pleased with. I actually started this a few weeks ago when the girls at work and I had a scrapping sleep-over at the shop for the weekend and just hadn't got back to it to finish it off.

I also played around on the Creative Cutter this week and engraved (etched) a Hambly Heavy Clear Background, I am still playing with it but it show once its done :)

I stitched some Prima bobble trim to the background with the sewing machine, stamped the swirls and title with Prima clear stamps, added Prima bling, Rhonna Farrer chipboard journaling spot with added rub ons, Prima flower, velvet leaves from antique shop, ribbon from the shop, peacock and flower picture cut out from a greeting card. Oh and I also used black german scrap around the picture frame and stitched the matting down.

Last night I helped Olivia and her friend Georgia get ready for a School Dance at Baradene College. They both had new outfits and I helped them with their make-up (where was Kryshina when I needed her...lol) here they are:

 

Other news is that a few weeks back I finally picked up my new Mac Book Pro 17" that I had been longing for! I ordered it ages ago and had to wait several weeks while it came from overseas. Anybody that knows me, knows I am obsessed with technology gadgets.

Did I need it? NO, did I want it YES...lol. It all started when they released the new model and my son Nick who is studying Graphic Design needed one, him and I went in and picked up a 15". Needless to say I was jealous, I adore Mac so what did I do, yes had to have it!

Ideally I want to be able to set it up with my Wacom drawing tablet but haven't actually got around to checking out whether its compatible with Mac yet.

This is actually a picture of a newer model than mine, oh no I hate it when stuff outdates it makes me have want to upgrade! Hmmm, well my son does actually need one for his design now there's a thought....:) maybe he could have my older one!!...lol

 

I finally got my video camera fixed after a couple of years of missing out on memories and believe it or not it was only the battery!! go figure....anyhow apparently you are never mean't to leave a lithium battery on the camera when you are not using it because it drains the life out of it hence why it didn't last long. Anyhow its great to have that back, I can start filming again!

Its raining now, good day to sit around watching some old home movies!

Next on the list to complete my needs is a really good (more than likely Canon) digital SLR camera. This is something I'd like to look at soon but just need to do my homework first.

Well, thats about it for now, a big catch up! Soon I'll be able to post the sneak peeks of our Senz classes so keep watching! :) Cya

Finally!!

Yes, finally I am posting after 3.5 weeks!

Well, the new baby bunnies have been keeping me busy plus on top of that we had a few more arrivals since my last post!

Two days later we had another litter of 3, then about a week later we had another rabbit who gave birth to 5! Unfortunately for some reason they all died, not sure if they were still born or died of cold not long after birth.

The kids and I really can't believe just how quickly they grow. They have gone from this:

to this in 3 weeks!!

Here are some pics of Mollie's little ones, they are 2 days older. We have two caramel coloured ones, one quite a bit bigger than the other, love this colouring though:

one little black one:

and we had two Molly (Mum) look a likes but one died a couple of days after the birth (must have been the smallest)

I've also had a busy weekend sorting out classes for Senz and the shop. I also started making a couple of lap quilts for Emily & Briana, should have the tops sewn up in no time!

Last weekend I stayed the night with the girls at the shop and we scrapped for the weekend. Here are a couple of layouts that I achieved:

The first is using the Prima Stitched Mulberry's and I really wanted to use the birdcage that I had cut out on my Cricut Machine. Just loving this machine at the moment!

This next one is completely different as I felt like doing a cutsy page. We just got a whole lot of new chipboard in from 2Crafty so I used the scalloped frame and Reed/Butterfly. Coloured the butterfly with Souffle pens.

Yesterday I was very excited because I completed a layout for a class and made some really cool paper flowers on my Cricut for it. Anyhow afterwards I had an idea to make one using the new Tim Holtz grunge paper (we have it at the shop and holding it for Senz but could be persuaded to sell it on request :)

I cut out all the flower parts on the Cricut Machine (using Multi-cut), then stamped the petals with a music background stamp and sprayed two colours of glimmer mist on them to colour. Layered the petals together, scrunched them a bit then wow! Just love the result, here is a close up:

GRUNGE PAPER FLOWER

Here is the whole page, not that happy with it really, I put alcohol inks over the lettering but didn't really come out the colour I wanted. I also cut out the apron lace circle on the Cricut Machine. I also glimmer misted the chipboard birds from Collections.

A New Mother on Mother's Day!

A new mum was born today! My kids discovered which checking on the rabbits that Molly had become a Mum! This was all very exciting considering we didn't even realize she was pregnant!....LOL

Olivia tried to tell me yesterday that she may have been nesting as their was her fur spread out around the hutch, I just said 'yeah yeah yeah' I doubt it, shes not even fat!

This morning Molly became the proud mother of 5 little baby bunnies! From what we can see we have two black & white, two white and one black. We moved her and the babies into a cage inside so they can be nice and warm, my only worry so far is I don't think she has fed them yet. Hopefully she will nest with them tonight, so far so good they are still alive.

The kids are so excited I just hope they survive.

This is an old pic when she was a baby herself!

Will post a pic of the babies in a couple of days or so when we can get a little nearer to them, we have to be careful not to turn the mother off them, sometime the Mum's can eat her babies.

Here's hoping they are still alive in the morning!

Hope all you mum's out there had a great day, spent the afternoon and evening finishing off my ATC swaps for last month and this month. Will show and tell as soon as everybody receives them.

Talk soon!

Been Busy!

Hello everyone!

I have been a busy girl this week, thus I haven't reported here about Autumn Escape! Autumn Escape was a fantastic weekend but I am ashamed to say that I didn't take any photos! I did however take my camera just did'nt get around to using it.

A big thank you to Nic, Lucy and all the other helpers for a great relaxing weekend away. The classes were great too, definitely worth the money and I'll definitely plan to go again next year.

The only disappointment was in myself because I did'nt acheive a lot. I completed the classes but only made two other layouts that I was'nt that happy with.

I've had a busy week in the shop, working each night and we had our Friday Frenzy crop last night. I've had no time to sit and relax or update this blog! Ok, so here is a catch up...

I had been meaning to put up the project I designed last month for the April Monthly Kit, remember I only had a sneak peak? Well we used the new Clover Rose Makers and I really loved how the page turned out, here it is:

On Tuesday night I ran a Mother's Day card class, we made two cards which involved a lot of cutting out with the new Webster's Pages patterned papers. I did take some ideas online but really loved these gorgeous cards which I actually ended up posting to my own Mother and Mother-in-law in time for tomorrow. Here's a close up shot of each:

Next are the two layouts I did at Autumn Escape (not my classes), the first is kind of a weird colour combo but found it hard to work with a background paper that I wouldn't usually use:

This next one was really just a quick challenge for me to use one of my Large Sets of Fancy Pants Clear Stamps. I tried to do this in under an hour which is record time for me...lol

Didn't really like my background colour, kind of made it look like halloween colours but was the closest I had with me.

Now, off to start thinking about my black & white ATC swap, they were due in a few days ago and I haven't even started!! TFL