Let's get shabby-#46

hello again, 

another great challenge at Let's get shabby this month. 

it was a colour board so here it is

this photo was a little hard to scrap because of the emotion behind it. 

it still brings tears to my eyes and i remember it like it was yesterday. 

my husband is in the army and he had gone out bush for 2 weeks. we were half way through and i couldnt sleep one night so i had stayed up watching tv. he always watches the news and i dont but for some reason when the late news came on i kept it on. there was a breaking story about the riots in east timor and that townsville troops were being deployed. i tried to ring him instantly but of course there was no service. i tried to calm down and went to bed to get some sleep. i got woken up about 3 oclock in the morning to what i thought was someone breaking in. it was my husband. he came down and told me he was leaving. they had been bought back from bush and put in lockdown. phones had been taken off them and no one was to go home to see their families because of operational security. he was a private, the lowest rank, as we were only 21 so it didnt bother many of them as most of them didnt even have girlfriends let alone children. he had made up an excuse that some of his equipment he needed for this deployment was at home and they let him go home and get it. we had less than an hour to say goodbye and have one last cuddle before he was deployed for 6 months.

our daughter was 5 months old, we had to wake her to get a photo. i look at this photo and see how tired she is and how she had no idea why she had to be woken up. i see his blood shot eyes from all the tears. this wasnt his first deployment since joining the army it was his third, but it was our first since having children. 

so here is my page

and a close up of the stiching

thanks for looking and any comments you may leave. 

cant wait to see what next months challenge will bring. 

pagemaps boy girl challenge AND bird is the word

good morning

i lost my mojo for  a few days so i needed to do a challenge that wasnt too far out of my comfort zone. i have combined two challenges here. the first one is the sketch from Pagemaps boy/girl challenge. the idea is to tranform those girly elements on a sketch like flowers and butterflies into something else. being a mum of 1 girl and 3 boys i find myself doing this all the time.

and the second challenge is for bird is the word - he/she/him/her to be used in the title. 

we were so excited to finally fall pregnant with our second baby as we had so many set backs due to my husband being deployed when we wanted to start trying again and then with an upcoming deployment all the training for several months prior. when we told people at 12 weeks everyone had made the essumption that we wanted a boy as our first was a girl, or that they were too close in age ( although 27monthapart it was not close enough in our opinion), or that were we still not married. but the one thing that really stuck into my head was that she was going to be so jealous that i would struggle being on my own so much and that i had to make sure she was never left alone with the new baby and all that crazy stuff. well,they couldnt have been more wrong. she adored him ( and all the other babies we have since had) from before they were born. she is a little mini mummy. she is my big helper and with my husbnad away alot i do wonder if things would run as smootly if i didnt have her help. i put it down to her confidence and knowing no matter how many babies i bring home they all know they are all loved and nothing will change that. we have never had a problem with jealousy and my babies have only gotten closer in age. 

so here is the sketch which i rotated

i saw the circle title and thought of the bike wheel which i have cut out from the paper so the title got moved to where the flourish was suppose to be. my photo was already printed out smaller so i used the gorgeous quote on the otherside. all the flowers on the sketch became birds with glossy accent in all the hearts. 

so here is my page

thanks for looking and any comments you may leave. 

pagemaps - grand prize

Pagemaps are having a huge birthday anniversary month full of challenges,

and its so easy because i have been using pagemaps sketches for years. 

so this challenge i did play with the sketch a little bit. 

here it is

and here is my page

so as you can see i have turned the 3 little photos into a 6x4 and the bigger photo into a journalling note. i have the little subtitle down the bottom but the lines and the clouds i turned into the shevrons to the journalling. 

thanks for looking!!

the paper mixing bowl-may challenge

hello 

i was so excited to find this new site last month called the paper mixing bowl and

i was so sad to hear that this challenge site was closing down due to low participants in challenges so this will be the last one. 

so here it is

in this challenge i started off really slowly as i could not find anything in that gorgeous purple colour so i just had to go with the purple flower and keep it at a minimum. i then went over the utensils and saw stitching....quickly looked through my sewing threads and there is was...a dark purple. 

so now all the main ingredients were being used. 

the utensils i used were...mummy will fix it -washi tape and stitching

get messy (gesso on the background)

stamp your feet (stamped ink over gesso)

throw a tantrum

and the measurements weren't exact but werent too far off. 

so here is my candied flowers...

with a close up of the colour thread

even though i found this challenge site too late im glad i got to play along the last 2 times. 

thanks for looking and any comments you may leave. 

scrapfriends-yummy palette #13

hello again, 

everyone has there bad days and i have had a few more in a row than i would have liked so i have found my pages have been a reflection of that lately. 

pages that have a message for me, and this is no different. 

i completely this page on the thursday but i wasnt too sure if i was going to upload it as its very personal. this photo was taken at a time in my life when things were starting to turn around for me in a good way. but i still look at these photos and i hate them as it just reminds me of the previous 2 years before these photos were taken. its from a professional photo shoot and i have never put them up or scrapped them. they sit hidden in the bottom of our bookshelf. 

anyway....

here is the palette

 and here is my page

thanks for looking and any comments you may leave. 

lets get shabby-confetti

hello again, 

here to share another special layout.

my layout i did for this challenge i got my daughter to put on the confetti. 

since then she has done 8 layouts. she just loves scrapbooking,so i have been letting her use the older papers and the leftover papers from other layouts of mine. 

yesterday was mother's day in australia and my husband is away with work so the kids and i spent all day in our pajamas and watched a movie with pop corn and then sat and scrapbooked all day. we had such a fantastic time. she wanted to do a special layout for me so i gave her the kaiser 6x6 pad and a wedding photo i had 2 of. 

she completed her page and i just love it.

i have sent a pic of it to some of the family and they love it too so i thought i would upload it for her. i do ask you to remember that she is 7 yrs old and that she would love to read any encouraging comments you would like to leave for her. 

so here is her gorgeous page. 

thanks for looking

123 challenge - may

hello again, 

what another great challenge.

and here it is....

so in this challenge i discovered im not a red person. i have thousands of papers and only about 5 with red on it. lol but i did it. 

its a photo of my children at their Grandpa's 60th birthday party. 

lucky for me it was at a winery so they had a few acres to run around on...however this was in may near canberra so it was freezing cold. the kids had a balloon each tied to a bangle so they didnt loose them but could also take it off whenever they wanted. my husband (grandpa's son) wasnt able to come with us as he has strong work commitments but i was so pleased that the children were very well behaved for me as i was 20 weeks pregnant and they were the only children there of that age. (everyone else besides me was above 50-which is to be expected)

anyway these photos were taken on my iphone so not the best quality but i just love them and remember how much fun they had. 

here is my page...

thanks for looking and any comments you may leave. 

Scrap around the world - may

i found this new website Scrap Around The World through Eila Sandberg

and im really excited.

 the list of dt's on this site are amazing. 

the challenge is a mood board which i have never done one before. 

as soon as i saw it i had the photo and the paper i was going to use. i then pulled it all out and it just didnt work for me. so i had to pack it all away and look at the mood board again. 

pulling inspiration from different things i got another clear picture of what i wanted to do and my page came together so easily. 

the colours inspired me and also the outdoor picture, the rock and the aqua square looked like water to me. it also comes with a sketch which again i took inspiration from but didnt follow exactly. i turned it on its side and the tags i turned into a banner and i curved my title like the circle. 

so here is the moodboard

and here is my page

and some close ups

i chose not to journal on this one as i felt the little quotes and title were a reflection of my journalling and thoughts. im an army wife but more importantly a stay at home mum to the four children in the photo (have a second look...you can see four hats as my baby was alseep in the ergo on my belly)

my husband is away alot and i constantly get asked if im "over it" or if i would ask him to leave the army and do something else. my answer each and every time is no. he has wanted to be in the army since highschool and all i ever wanted to be was a mum. we are very lucky and both have what we have always wanted. i believe i would never have been able to stay at home for the last 7 years if he wasnt in the army. yes it has its down sides but it also has some good sides. 

its hard for the kids and i to be on our own alot but its just as hard for him to miss out on so much too. and besides he is such a fantastic dad and husband he makes up for the time he is away when he is home. 

thanks for looking and any comments you may leave. 

cant wait to see the next mood board. 

pagemaps-LYB challenge

its no secret that i dont scrap without a sketch and i look forward to looking at Pagemaps new sketches at the begining of every month. 

well,this month Pagemaps turns 7 and they are having a huge celebration. 

so the first challenge was to follow this sketch. 

how easy!!!

its Mother's day in Australia this sunday and i hadn't even scrapped my photos from last years mothers day.

my husband is in the army and was overseas on exchange in england last year so he wasnt home. so these photos are selfies of me and the kids. the only thing i changed was 3 photos which i put in 4 as i have 4 kids.

so here is my page

and some close ups of the crackle title and the fussy cut bird and banner. 

                                   

thanks for looking and any comments you may leave. 

once upon a sketch...may

played along this month (finally) and the theme was numbers.

i had printed out a few photos on the weekend prior to this challenge coming out to be organised for the challenges this month. 

and when this challenge came out i knew exactly which photo i was going to use. 

now this isnt the original photo but i have cut the corners on it to make it look a little older and i have lots of distressing on the page to make it fit with the age of the photo. 

so im the middle aged girl. 

and the numbers are the year the photo was taken.

i have only the one photo but made a pocket with tags in them with a note to each of the other children ( my siblings)

here is the sketch 

and here is my page

thanks for looking 

 

the paper mixing bowl-april challenge

i found this challenge site through Heather Jacobs as she was a GD.

its called The Paper Mixing Bowl 

i love being so inspired that it pushes me to do different things. 

this page wasnt the easiest for me as im not very good at clusters and i love to work with pattern paper but i did my best and i love what i did. 

this photo is about 6 years old but still a favourite. 

so here is the recipe

main ingredients-all

utensils-whipped cream, may flowers, signs of spring, nesting materials

and i used the measurements. 

so here is my salad...

close ups

 

thanks for looking and any comments you may leave. 

scrapfriends sketch #13

hello again, 

played along with this sketch and it is the second page to a double layout.  (please see previous post for the first page) so the title spreads out over 2 pages.

this is a photo of myself as its a gift for my aunty for her up coming birthday,and she is in the first page. 

through sms ( as we are on opposite sides of australia) she helps me get my pages just right before i upload them for challenges we do together. 

she has taught me everything i know in scrapping and i just love that connection we have. 

so here is the sketch (although i turned it on its side)

and here is my page

thanks for looking. 

sketchabilities #90

i look at this site all the time but i never have posted before. im getting much better at meeting deadlines to challenges and putting them up now so i thought i would share this one with you. 

this was such an easy sketch to work with too. 

the paper was given to me by the person in the photo a few years ago when she made her husband stop in the middle of nowhere at a scrapbooking store which she said was amazing. 

it is a present for her upcoming birthday. 

this person has taught me so much in scrapbooking and has been so inspiring to me and through sms she helps me perfect my pages for the challenges we do together. 

this is the first of a double layout so the title spread over 2 pages. the other page is in my next post on my blog. 

so here is the sketch

and here is my page

thanks for looking and any comments you may leave. 

Let's get shabby - confetti

hello again

i didnt want to a wedding picture for this theme as i thought it would be what everyone expected but i must admit, im so happy that i did. 

i recieved these papers from my aunty a few years ago when she came to visit me. she had made my uncle stop in the middle of nowhere at a little scrapbooking store. she had bought 2 of each papers in the collection as they are double sided. 

i did a challenge a few years ago now of our wedding photo and it seemed perfect to do a double for it. (which i very rarely do)

so i have used the same border punch,made the same flowers,used a bigger dove, used the same alphas and inked it so that it all ties in together. 

i had no idea how i was going to put the confetti on as i wanted it to look like it had just fallen there so i got the gorgeous little girl in the photo (my daughter, who is now 7) to do it and i think she has done such a fantastic job. she has put some upside down and on top of each other.

my husband and i got married before he went to Afghanistan as we couldnt bear the thought of something bad happening on deployment so we "eloped".(with full permission from the parents)

we were due to have a wedding in july the following year after he returned and we had had our second child. so with noone at this wedding we only have a handful of photos. 

so here is the page

close up

and here is the other page i did years ago (cos i know you were all wanting to see it)

thanks for looking and any comments you may leave.

cant wait for the next challenge

Bird is the Word- MOMENT

im so excited as this is my first challenge for Bird is the word.

my aunty often played and i got to see her layouts but i never did for some reason. 

but im scrapping alot more lately and was eager to play along this time. 

this photo was long over due to be scrapped as the baby in the belly just turned 3.

the photo was taken 3 weeks before he was born.  

i was meant to scrap this page in neutral colours ( as we have never found out what the sex of the baby is before bub was born) but the purple background wasnt working for me so i had to change it and blue just looked the part. bubby was a boy so it fit. 

i was inspired by the sketch but altered it a little to make it fit my style and my one photo.

so here is my page. 

thanks for looking and any comments you may leave. 

cant wait for the next word.