Love me some Martha!

So my new Martha Stewart punches arrived on my doorstep 2 days ago. I don't think I can stand a straight edge again! Here's what I've been doing with Martha:

This first LO was created using the Jan colour challenge over at WickedPrincesses as inspiration. Really love the combo that Kayla has chosen - pastel blue, pastel pink and pastel green, so pretty! I've used BG paper as the background, with some scraps from my stash, Love Elsie cloud paper, German scrap, Prima and Petaloo flowers, Kaiser brads, BG and AC thickers alphas to embellish. Finished off with the punch in the corner, so cute! :)

Next, I decided to participate in ChristmasCardsAllYearRound this year, due to the mad rush that I experienced at the end of last year...decided I had better start getting my act together earlier this year! The first challenge at CCAYR this year was very simple - anything goes! So I decided to take one card and recyle that together with 1 piece of c/s and 1 piece of PP into 5 new cards! The last one had to be a mini card as I was running out of c/s and PP, but still, quite a cute little collection, don't you think? I went one step further with the "Christmas Magic" card, and cut slits into the background PP, so that the embellishment can actually be removed and used as a bookmark. Also, the words "Christmas Magic" and "Christmas" on the small card is actually the bottom bit of my PP recycled, as the name of the range is "Christmas Magic", I think by BG. The words "May the spirit of the season" is the inside sentiment of the original card recycled, and it is finished off inside by saying "carry you into the new year". I love how the punches add the little oomph to cards, giving them something fancier :)

Lastly, these 2 cards are for the Tuesday Trigger MoxieFabWorld. Again, started with one card from last Christmas. So far, have only used part of this card, mainly the words, so will be creating a few more cards out of this one recycled card, I think. Love the Martha snowflake punch, and love that you can use both the punched out shape AND the reverse of it :)

Finally did the Just Add Ink LO

I don't normally do such organised LOs, but am happy with how this turned out because it was quick and easy to put together, and also incorporates lots of pics. As an added bonus, I made the turqouise part a pocket, so that I can add extra journalling/photos inside if I want to in the future. I tend to create some sort of pocket somewhere in most of my LOs, but this is a particularly big one. As you'll see on the JustAddInk site, the colour challenge was to use saffron yellow, rose pink, turquoise, chocolate and white. I've used mainly the chocolate in mine, with touches of pink and turquoise, and very small amounts of white and yellow. The background paper is BG, the heart shape is an old Cosmo Cricket scrap, and the pink and yellow papers are also random scraps from my pile of "things I must use up". Finished off with some German scrap, and some BG and Heidi Swapp alphas (Glimmer Misted in a rose colour, but doesn't show up well), and done...easy! :)

Massive blog candy!

Look where the Magic Carpet Ride has taken me...click here for some awesome inspiration and the chance to win a whole lot of blog candy :) The pic shows only a small portion of it!

OWOH giveaway

Click here or on the pink One World One Heart giveaway badge to the right there to find out more about this Magic Carpet Ride and visit all the different participants - you won't be disappointed!

For my part, I decided to create a mini book, as this is something I love to do. When I found out the theme was Magic Carpet Ride, I immediately thought of the souks and bazaars of Morocoo, Egypt, Turkey...you get the idea. So I picked some papers to suit this theme. The cover papers are actually called Morocco or Marrakesh (I can't remember), and are by Cherry Arte. I've chosen other papers/colours to coordinate with this.

As you can see from these pictures, I haven't been very organised and haven't quite got the book together yet! All the pages are done, 10 in total, I just need to ink the edges and add on some rings. I've punched the holes using a standard hole punch, and used ring binding system so that you can add more pages if desired. The book will be sent in that box, which I'm filling with orange and yellow items to help you embellish your mini book. One of the items is actually one of several souvenir mini carpets I got a few years back in Morocco, again in keeping with the theme :) Box is still looking a bit empty, but I'll keep adding to it until the drawing date.

So, what to do if you like what you've seen:
1. Leave a comment on THIS post, making sure I'm linked back to you or that you leave an email address if you're not a blogger
2. Make sure you're entered before Feb 15th, which is when this giveaway will be drawn. I will be picking the winner some time in the evening of Feb 15th, MY time, which is GMT+8 (Western Australian). I will attempt to use the random number generator this year, but if proves too difficult for a technophobe like myself, I will have to fall back on what I did last year, which was to print out all the comments, cut them into a hat, and draw the winner that way, lol...I will then contact the winner, and also post your name on my blog by the following day
3. Don't forget to visit the other participants' sites :)

Enjoy your magic carpet ride!

I LOVE Prima!

It wasn't hard digging out some Prima goodies to join in the fun over at Prima's JanuaryBuildaPage. The paper, journalling block and the green packaging up top are all Prima. I've embellished with generic no-brand ribbon, doilies, paper roses, gessoed key, tag, and rhinestones. The lock is Melissa Frances. The alphas and chipboard butterfly were from my stash, can't remember what line they're from. This was fun :)

NEW challenge blog! :)

A lovely group of Stampin' Up demonstrators have started up a new challenge blog called JustAddInk, and they are also offering a $50 prize pack just by following them, adding their badge and linking to their blog. Easy! Am going to try and create something for their first challenge too...love their chosen colour combo yellow, teal, rose, chocolate and white!

I LOVE challenge blogs!

Well, if you haven't noticed by now, I love challenge blogs for the inspiraton they give me to scrap those old photos. Here are 2 more:

For this first one, I went back to good ol' Pencil Lines and worked on Sketch169. I don't normally like circles on my LOs because I'm too lazy to cut them, but my new Fiskars circle punch is making this a thing of the past :) Thought this SRPC paper was perfect for the addition of more circles, too. I've embellished with Glimmer Mist, German scraps, and scraps from my stash of MME, BG and SFL, as well as AC alphas.

This next one is from ScraptheGirls. Really love this sketch as it's so simple but effective. I've used SFL as background paper, and again delved into my scraps stash to embellish, using bits of KI, Pink Paislee, Jenni Bowlin and Rouge de Garance. Flowers are cut from Spellbinders die, plus one Heidi Swapp flower. Again, my beloved AC alphas, with some Carolees, and of course the obligatory Glimmer Mist.

ANOTHER double!

This was created using the January sketch over at ForeverAlways. I struggled with it because it's a double, but am happy with how it turned out. Have used Pink Paislee papers (love the subtle textures in them), together with Bo Bunny, MME rub-ons and die-cuts, some old stickers and brads from my stash, and some German scrap. There's plenty of room for more journalling, but I just couldn't think of what else to write!

Very happy with this next one :) Love the collage style, and especially those SFL and Sei papers. This was based on the Jan sketch over at WickedPrincesses. Didn't end up looking that much like the sketch as I went a bit overboard with cutting and layering the SFL, Pink Paislee, Sei and Heidi Swapp flowers, circles and butterflies. Also handcut the Love Elsie to make clouds shapes. Love how everything came together in the end...

A double!

My double LOs never start out as doubles, and this was no exception. I started with page 1, which is based on Pencil Lines' Sketch170. Quite an easy page really, using Creative Imaginations paper as background, scraps of Heidi Swapp, SFL and SRPC, and embellished with Prima, German scraps, Kaiser dots, and handcut butterflies from a sheet of KI Memories. Had so much fun, decided to use Sketch168 to make a page 2, as I had lots of photos taken in the same place (Intercourse, Pennsylvania, for those who are interested). Used the same papers/embellis as before except swapped Kaiser dots for rhinestones, as the gray didn't stand out too much against the black flowers. Am happy with how it turned out in the end :)

This next LO was inspired by the advertisement inspiration challenge over at MysticalScrapbooks. The photos reminded me of the ad, rather than the other way around, due to the party poses and the bright colours of the M&Ms. I kept this one simple because of the busy photos, but like how this one turned out too :)

Someone loves me :)

Woohoo, what a way to start the day! Turned on my computer to be told that someone at ISpyCraftiness loves me! And to top it off, they've even got a giveaway going on, and all I had to do was to blog about them. Had a look at their site - it's really awesome with loads of inspiration and ideas, go take a look NOW!