Inspired2scrap

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

Layouts over the last few days!

Hello everybody!

I have a few new layouts to share, a couple I am happy with but I also did a couple of quick pages which I'm not that chuffed about. I must say I definitely am a pretty/flower girl as far as decorating my pages go. I have a lot more fun adding the embellishments, when I scrap boy pages I kind of get uninspired.

Anyhow, here are the pages I did:

This first one was a quick page using a digital rub-on I printed on a transparency. I also enjoyed using one of my fabric doily's recently purchased from an antique shop. Also used was another digital rub-on printed on photo paper, also suppied Prima bling & flower.

This next one I used some new Webster's Pages plus one of their stickers off their new 12 x 12 sticker sheet (these are gorgeous) plus I teamed them up with Prima flower, bling, stitched Mulberry, PP.

Really like this page except for the fact that most of the embellishments cover up half of the photo.....LOL

This next one is more of a fun page but also a bit bitsy I think, not sure if it pulled together very well but anyhow another page done!...LOL Using new Fancy Pants papers.

This last page was super quick. Using the new Fancy Pants Kraft Kuts I ened up covering the Kraft and cut a circle on the Cricut Machine. Don't like the journaling note I added, I think it should have been a circular shape, don't really want to rip it off because I stuck it down with several pop dots that are really sticky...lol. Didn't really do a lot with this page but add some wording etc.

Layouts done on Easter Sunday

I've had a great relaxing time down here in Papamoa. Yesterday morning Olivia and Sophie put on an Easter Hunt for the little ones to fill their new Easter Baskets we made. I got loads of photos, here are a few.

Yesterday afternoon we just relaxed and I decided to scrap. After that we went out for a family dinner at Steve's Sister's house and caught up with the grandparents too. Was a lovely dinner. At 10pm I decided to start scrapping again. I searched through some pictures I had saved on my computer and found one I loved so decided to do a scraplift.

I came away with limited products but by fluke I managed to find one of the exact papers plus some supplements. I copied some of my photos off facebook and printed them out. The quality is never as good as facebook resizes the images but if you only print 4" x 6" they don't come out too bad.

I'll go through both layouts individually. First here is the one I did in the afternoon, my own design. It required loads of cutting out, not sure if I'm that happy with it but I did however get to use my NEW Collections chipboard picket fence. These are one of their new designs which we have on order. These are time consuming but really versatile because you get all the parts in the pack and customize your own fence, I just made up the standard one here but I have loads more ideas, all you need to do is take inspiration from properties when driving around..lol

I decided to keep the fence natural (raw) as I had used the craft paper Hambly bird cages in the background.

These next page is the scraplift I was talking about. I really love this page but unfortunately cannot take the credit. I was lucky enough to have brought the Prima Mulberry with me to cut out and found other supplements to make up the rest. This also required a lot of cutting out but the results were worth it. I really love this style, not sure if I'm happy with the lettering though but again was limited with what I had with me.

Credits please to Heidi Kelley, I found the layout HERE, thanks Heidi for fabulous inspiration and I hope you don't mind me copying but I thought your page was gorgeous!

The page is a bit more colourful in real life, but I have to say I love Heidi's colours better, these were the only choices I had here with me.

Happy Easter for tomorrow everyone!

Happy Easter everyone. This afternoon Olivia, Sophie and I made some Easter Baskets for the little ones tomorrow. They are going to put on an Easter Hunt in the morning.

These are really cute and quick and easy to make. You can use the rectangle or square scallop dies from Spellbinders Nestabilities. You don't have to use dies if you don't want but the scallop shapes make them cuter. For a full tutorial where I found them go HERE.

Last night I also completed a layout. I only brought a handful of pics with me plus limited supplies but managed to come up with this:

Used one Prima pp and one Webster's Pages pp, MME rub-on butterflies and quote, Prima flowers, bling and printed digital kit image.

Inspiration Hits!

Wow, we've have so many gorgeous products in the last week that I've been so inspired I've had to come home and create each night this week. Oh well last night we spend the night driving to Papamoa but don't worry I've brought plenty of scrappin supplies with me :)

I really wanted to use one of the New Prima felt frames, flowers and pearls so here's what I came up with:

We have been putting together the Monthly Kit for April this week and I was assigned to design this month's project. I took some papers home and couldn't resist choosing my two favourite papers from the collection to create the page. I've also printed and stamped some other goodies for the kit also, using some digital images plus a gorgeous new Hero Art stamp just in. Its a stunning kit this month if you are a Prima addict like me, here is a sneak peek of the project which I was really happy with the page once finished.

Wishing you all a safe and happy Easter break and if you are living near Mt Wellington and wanting activities for the kids this holidays, we have some great children's classes lined up. You can check them out HERE.