A weekend with " the 11th hour Sassy challenge"

Well there is nothing like the 11^th hour to get a project complete..lol.. and TA DA I complete the Sassy Scrapper challenge just in the nick of time.. This month using the quote “ Today I am thankful” was the criteria, so it was really open ended.

I mainly used the Amy Tan “Yes Please” collection as I wanted to try and play with with more of a muted palette. I am still not sure if “muted” is my thing..

Any who I have taken some pictures BUT I will be re taking them tomorrow in daylight , as right now the back ground looks orange when in fact it is tan.. oh boy..

  

Much Love

Bernii xx

A weekend with "123 Challenge"

Well today is the last day of the month and luckily I have had the chance to play in my craft room for the last few days ..I have noticed that I have not made many layouts for my son Hunter, so when I saw the 123 challenge I knew that the grey colours would be perfect for a “boy” layout. I decided to try out some impasto with a studio calico template for the back ground and I love how it turned out and I love that it showed up the finer detail in the stencil. I then dragged out some of my favourite Hambly to add hints of colour and depth around the page.

So without for ado here is the criteria:

JUNE CHALLENGE

* Our colour = Grey
* Our Word = You
* Our Technique =Circles

Then this is my take..

I loved adding some old rub ons over the impasto 

Much Love

Bernii xx

A weekend with " Scrap Friends" sketch layout ♥

I have been crackin’ in the scrapbooking department for the last few days, as I just realised how close we are to the end of the month and how many challenges I have not taken part in. There are so many great challenges I wanted to take part in this month and with the cooler weather settling in it was a little easier to get started on them.

I was lucky enough to have my Piece of Cake kit turn up right before the weekend, so I have decided to complete as many challenges as I can, only using this kit ( and only adding in a few extras). So first layout is based on this sketch from the awesome site over at Scrapfriends .. 

And this is what I whipped up with the kit..

I stitched around the circles making sure the "back" of the stitch was showing to help add more subtle texture. 

Usually I freak out a little with black back grounds but I loved the brights in the kit and thought they would all work well with each other. Adding the paint over the top also help to add some cohesiveness.

Much Love

Bernii 

A week with "Use your words" call

A brand spankin' new challenge blog has just been started over Use your words ♥ And right now they are having a DT call :) If you fancy having a go make sure you head on over soon as applications end soon 

Much Love

Bernii xx

A week with “ finding what I love”

This is week I have been taking the time to curl up in my reading corner next to the fireplace. I LOVE that corner in my house and find it a real treat to sit down for a few minutes and flip through a book or a scrapbook album. I have a ton of new crafting book that are awaiting to be read ( I will share those later) , but I found myself thinking about my scraping style instead yesterday. I have been scraping and crafting for a long time, my father is an artist and my mother has always sewn by hand and with machine so crafting is in my blood ha ha. I also own and run a handmade sewing business which means I get to play with pretty fabrics and notions all day long. (sheesh I LOVE my life) .

Any way I was flipping through some albums and noticed that I kept smiling and lingering over certain pages that I had made in the past. They were pages that were more “artsy” and mixed media-ish in their style. I love the messy free style of feel and layering of random paper and elements from around my home! I actually made an 8x 10 pregnancy album 5 years ago about my daughter and that album has a whole “artsy” feel that I love. The lumpy bumpy feel and textures make me smile and I love flipping through that album!

So I thought I would share with you a few of my older pages and what I love about them.

I LOVE Hambly and have a HIGE stash here that I have been hoarding as it breaks my heart to think I can not get any more. I LOVE the rubons , fussy cutting and paint ♥

 

I love so many things about this page. I love that this is the first time I did an actually selfie of myself and is one of the very few pictures of myself. I adore all the textures, elements and layering I have managed to use with out distracting from the picture.I also love the title and love how it is all mixed alphas.

Now this layout is not “arsty” at all, but in fact a class I did in Rockhampton years ago with Carole Jansen, the queen of fussy cutting. I have added here as I LOVE the fussy cutting ( and this started my love for it) and I love the layering of the paper to create a 3d flower look. I never ever thought to do that before!! Duh!! This class and layout inspired a lot of what I incorporated into my future layouts.

 I just ADORE this layout.. The more I look at it I love it and I realise it I because of the journalling  paint, transparency and the minimal layering. Oh and because it is also using my favourite designer Heidi Swapp’s goodies.I have pulled out a few more pages and am now displaying them in my scrap space to help me "remember" what I LOVE creating on pages. I think all too often it is really easy to try and follow trends in the industry that sometimes we can lose what we love to do , the key is to try and put your own spin on trends, using your style to do so .

Much Love 

Bernii xx

A week with " Scrap the Girls" challenge.

Scrap the girls are up with another challenge this month and I LOVE having a go! It has been a few months since my last entry, but since getting my scrap area organised and shuffling my daily time table around a little I have more time to do what I love .. Scrapbooking!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE challenge sites and love it when I have to stick to a certain “list” or “sketch”. I find that it pushes me more to find a way to put my spin on it. So the task for this month was as follows:

winter is here! Cold days, rain, snow for some, beanies, coats, gumboots and comfort food.

So the Scrap the Girls challenge for June is

WINTER COLOURS

e.g. brown, blue, red, orange, green, no pastels, no brights

And this is my take on it, using the October scrap kit from A piece of cake designs.

Using these muted colours were a little harder for me but in the end I love the fact that I got to scrap these sweet photos of my hubby and daughter having cuddles on the couch,,

I love that I was also able to use up my Kaisercraft flourishes ♥

I used my American craft cut outs to add some extra interest to the border ♥

Thanks so much for looking

Much Love

Bernii xx

A week with "Polly! project life kit"

Not too long ago I signed up for the Polly! Scrap kit brand spankin’ new Project life kit. This May kit that I nabbed sold out like hotcakes and it is no surprise why!! You get bang for buck with this kit, and it is worth its weight in gold, packed to the brim with the latest scrapbooking goodies!! I did however use an extra packed of Amy Tangerine die cuts, for a pop of colour and they too are available form Polly!

Thanks so much for taking the time to have a look :)

Much Love

Bernii xx

A week with " Project Life cards sorting"

Helllooooo

Well last week I was lucky enough to head to Brisbane for the Scrapbooking and Paper Craft expo at Southbank. I had the BEST day EVER!!! Now not for the expo itself, but for the fact that I took my daughter with me to the “city” and had a blast showing her all  the different places. We even took the time to catch a train and she was almost beside herself with excitement ha ha ..

Anyway, I ended up buying the gorgeous BLUSH kit from the Craft House stand at the expo and I am, so glad I did. I have already pre ordered the Honey and the Kraft edition but I always glanced over the Blush edition Seeing it in real life made such a difference as the colours are just gorgeous! So I snapped one up but I have been thinking about how I will store the kits to make sure that I use them. So a discussion yesterday in the “Australian Project Life group” got me thinking and spurred me along to get organised and get my cards out of the kit.

I managed to pick up this container from my local discount store, and grabbed it because of the size and how sturdy it looks. I also LOVE the fact that it has a lid with handle, so I can keep little hands and dust out, and then I can always carry it around if need be. ( You never know where a core kit can travel too )

After asking about a few questions and reading through some posts I decided to sort the cards by colour, but still within their editions. I went through and divided each “group” of 10 cards into half. So that I would have the same card just back to front. As I realised that some of the cards had pink on one side then grey on the other. So by splitting those 10 cards in half I could put some into the grey and some into the pink sections. ( Sheesh I hope that made sense. Here is a picture of how the cards where then sorted.

I sorted them into their colour and then from colour I sorted into journal cards and filler cards. Then it was just a case of putting them into the container with little dividers.

I then just placed the bi fold cards right into the front of  the container, then popped the rest of the cards into the side.

Too finish off I just grabbed a large label to write the kit name on front and TA DA complete!!

I must say I am in LOVE storing the kit this way! I LOVE that the cards are easy to flip through and see and I am certain I will se more of them now.

If you have any more suggestions on storing your cards please share away .

Much Love

Bernii xx 

A week with "Use your stash" layout.

Well I have an addiction and I am almost afraid to admit it, but I know I am in good company and I have a feeling most of you are in the same boat.

I AM ADDICTED TO

THICKERS

Holy heck it is not just restricted to thickers either, but to all alpha stickers in general in any shape and size. This week I organised my scrap space ( again) and I came across a huge pile of Adornit mini stickers that I totally forgot about! Please don’t judge me. I myself am ashamed and that I forgot about these little cuties , but on the up side I am totally stoked that I found them again as they are the perfect size for my project life layouts.

Any who, I was stalking the Two Peas site and I wandered through their free classes, and came across the “Use your stash” clips, and in particular one focusing on using your thicker stash. PERFECT!!! I literally scraflifted the whole layout as I LOVED it, and I had the whole Dear Lizzy collection here. 

I grabbed these words from the Scrapbook Savvy on line crop as part of their challenge. 

Now I had EVERY intention of using the original LO as inspiration and making it my own, but when I actually sat down to complete it I actually really enjoyed not having to think about he process or what to do next. So instead I treated this like taking a “class” and I am so glad I did as I am now totally inspired to start using up my thickers, of just becoming a connoisseur collector of THICKERS.

Much Love

Bernii xx

A week with " Getting my Christmas on"

So in the last couple of days I have started to get organised for Christmas.. in the way of decorations for my home.

This will be the 3^rd Christmas we will have in our hose , and I finally feel like we are settled in and am ready to make decorations for certain areas in my home. I have some pretty big ideas; I just hope that I have enough time to get them done, with everything else in my life too.

I was actually inspired to have a go at “felting” after seeing a stunning and gorgeous new blog Down Grapevine Lane. Sedef had created a Christmas stocking and I LOVED the look of it. She was also kind enough to share the link as to where the purchased the kit HERE so I went over for a peek and before I knew it I had 5 new felt kits in my cart. I did not get any Christmas stockings as I have already made a couple of cross stitch ones , so I would like to keep going with that theme there.

I have started one of the patterns (a Christmas wreath to be exact) and to be honest trying to understand the new pattern was a little confusing to start with. I am so used to reading dress or cross stitch patterns, so this was challenge. So I started off my cutting out the base and then freaked out when I saw all those numbers!!

But I worked out that using the cover photo of the kit is really helping me make sense, and now the pattern is a breeze.

So I am really hoping to have this wreath and a felt advent calendar made in time for this Christmas THIS YEAR, alongside my other crafty endeavours.. But I figure if I start now surely I can be finished in time J

I would LOVE to know if you have made any felt creations yourself. As far as I can see now there only really seems to be felt toys, Christmas ornaments and food..

Much Love

Bernii