I LOVE Glimmer Mist!

I love my GlimmerMist - not only do you get to colour in chipboard shapes easily with it, you get to use it as a stencil if you place white c/s behind the piece that you're trying to spray! Such an easy yet effective background :)

The title of this LO is "Relaxing in Kakadu". It's based on a sketch on the 52 Weeks website (see here). Other than GM and Collections chipboard branches (as my mask), I've also used Lil Davis alphabet stickers, Me and My Big Ideas epoxy stickers and swirls, Making Memories letter rubons and Creative Imaginations quote sticker. As I had the swirls, I was also able to tie this LO in with the Rainbow Lady's swirls and flourishes challenge for the week - see here

Best Birthday

Beverley is such a sweetie that she doesn't mind us combining her challenges with other challenges, so I've done this as a 2-in-1. First of all, this qualifies for her "recycling" birthday challenge, as I've gone and recycled the packaging of my new Crabtree and Evelyn cosmetics - this is the gorgeous pink and white cardboard on the left under my picture, as well as the cut-out flowers. Too scrumptious, so I just HAD to reuse them! I forgot to take a before picture, so hopefully you've seen the packaging before and believe me that it IS Crabtree and Evelyn packaging! I've also recycled a doily from an afternoon tea I saved from ages ago. Other than that, I've also used Christina Re PP, some scrap paper to journal on with some ribbon to pull it out from under photo, and letters by KI Memories. Very minimalistic LO for me, but I love it! The 2nd challenge this LO qualifies for is the "best birthday" challenge on the BTYD blog (see here). This was my 26th birthday, celebrated in Brighton in England when I first went over there for my working holiday. Although I only had a couple of close friends to celebrate with, they really touched me with their friendship as they were determind for me not to feel homesick (my first birthday away from Australia). Also, they helped me to focus instead on the things to look ahead to - the new experiences and adventures that I was later to have! The Forever Friends cake is a pretty cheap one from the local supermarket, Asda or Tesco! So cool that the supermarkets there really ARE SUPER! Unlike our little ones over here! Really miss England... :(

London Life

Love this quote because I think it's so true - "When one is tired of London, one is tired of life", by Samuel Johnson. Have used this quote as the title - "London Life". Materials used include plain white c/s, PP by BG, KI Memories, SRPC and Stamp-It, ribbon, KI Memories journalling spot, Love Elsie epoxy stickers, and Lil Davis letter stickers. This LO is based on an ad/sketch on the Memorable Seasons website, and fulfils the criteria from this week's Game On challenge at Mystical Scrapbooks - at least 4 colours and layers, and circles.

We Love to Travel!

Well, this is the final Forever Always Family challenge. Again tried to match the previous week's LO, so have used the same Love Elsie cloud paper, which I thought went with my photo of the Swiss Alps (taken from the plane) anyway. In addition, there's the matching Cosmo Cricket heart die-cut (last time used a flower to make a sun), matching ribbon, matching buttons, and matching Glitz Designs chipboard owl (last time used the tree). This time have added MME rubon letters, Colorbok number and Love Elsie "travel" epoxy sticker. Also used a scrap piece of PP to journal on. Criteria for the challenge this week were to create a LO about a family trait/mutual interest, including cutting (cut the scallops on my PP) and stitching (stitched yellow border on cloud paper) in the LO.

Real Alcazar

This is a 2-in-1. I participated in the Sonia Says game at Forever Always, ie like Simon Says except taking turns to scraplift each other but with a different criterion each time. I turned the LO created by the person before me on its side, and chose the "stick to the colour scheme" criterion. In addition, instead of a solid photo mat, I've used scraps of PP as part of Beverley's 40th celebration. The one with 4 petal flowers is SFL, but I can't remember what the other scraps are! My Glimmer Misted German Scraps on the top are also scraps, in fact! Apart from that, have used Heidi Swapp flowers and buttons, plus flowers from 123 Scrapbooks and miscellaneous buttons, felt flourishes, Dymo labeller, and letters by Colorbok and Heidi Grace. "Real Alcazar" means "Royal Palace", and "real" is pronounced "ray-ahl". These photos were taken in Segovia, Spain...I have tons of holiday photos that I'm still trying to get through, hence loving multiphoto layouts! Really love how this has turned out and am planning a matching page for the rest of my photos from the Real Alcazar of Segovia.

How Time Flies

The title is from one of Mystical Scrapbooks' Mid-Month Marathon challenges. When I saw this "title tempter", I immediately thought about how I've lived in Australia for 17 years now, and how I went from culture shock to now proud of being an Aussie and joining in the Anzac Day celebrations in Gallipoli, Turkey in 2006! The dates are the years that I have so far lived in Australia, 1991 up to now. Journalling is about how I first came to Australia with my family 17 years ago, and now love being an Australian citizen and why. I've used PP by I think SRPC, 7G and MME - they're all scraps from a mini book I'm making. Embellished with some Aussie flag stickers, felt stars, German scraps and Colorbok plastic alphas. I'm thinking I might print a 5th photo and stick it on the top piece of PP - looks a bit bare to me right now!

Happy Day

Deanne from Sisterhood of Scrap (here) (and view her blog here) created a special challenge to celebrate Beverley's 40th extravaganza (see here) - the criteria to get maximum number of chances to win her little giveaway was to create a LO with the word "happy" in the title and use one of her sketches. Her sketch is above my LO, which uses PP by KI Memories, Kaiser and MME (the cut-out flowers), together with diecut letters by Heidi Grace and letter stickers by Bo Bunny Press. Have also added a wee bit of ribbon. This is such a simple LO but so effective thanks to the wonderful sketch...will definitely use it again! :)

Little Princess

I made this page to match a recent LO I did about my friend on her wedding day with her niece as gorgeous flower girl ("Cherish the Moment"). In this LO, I've given the focus to the flower girl with my title. Used the same PP and embellis so that the pages would match - these are SRPC, 7G and Crate Paper PP, German scraps, Making Memories rubon letters, flowers from 123 Scrapbooks and by Heidi Swapp, and brads by Kaiser. In this LO though I've also added the transparency crown (have had it for ages and can't remember the brand), and the Kaiser bling word. Love the 2 pages together as a double :)

Mezquita

This is my July Scrapjack. Mezquita means mosque, and this well-known mosque-turned-cathedral is in Cordoba, Spain. It's a beautiful mix of east and west architecture, and I wanted to reflect that by using clashing PP/embellis. Have kept things to a minimum because of this, so as not to overwhelm the LO. Have picked green and red also because they're at opposite ends of colour wheel, and also these colours echoed the red arches and my green top. I've used Kraft cs, BG photo mat, Creative Imaginations and Me and My Big Ideas stickers, ribbon, and Making Memories and MME rubons. And that's it! Simple LO for me! :)

Family Quotes

This week's Forever Always Forever Family challenge was to create a LO without words, documenting family quotes/sayings/advice, and incorporating at least 1 heart and some flourishes. I've been wanting to "create a scene" for some time now, so finally got around to it! I've used Love Elsie cloud paper lined with silver ink, Cosmo Cricket for sun and ribbon for rays, Glitz Designs tree dressed up with button leaves, and to fulfil the criteria, I stamped flourish stamps to create grass/flower stamps, and doodled hearts around my title to make it stand out. This was sooooo much fun! The title is "My parents always told me....." and their oft-repeated, not very original, pieces of advice to me are "Always look on the bright side of life", "Every cloud has a silver lining" and "Reach for the skies but don't forget your roots".