Inspired2scrap

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.