D is for delight !

Delight in Discovery ! 

I finally decided to put my Canon 50mm f1.8 lens to use this weekend 

and got some pics of DD with her sharp & the background blurred but sometimes still in context ! 

hurray ! lol ! 

Delight in the new BG Capella - pps & new Basic pps & micro alphas ! 

I didn't think I would be picking up any of the new Basic, Capella or Max & Whiskers 

but got done in with the current promo we have in our LSS .

I did limit myself to 15 pps

 ( & it was a mix of 5 Basic pps & the rest Capella - nope , no Max & Whiskers brought home ;) ) 

Yup,story of our lives ! 

frankly, I do not think Weddings at all when I look at the Capella pps , 

shabby chic perhaps , Mother's Day even ,

everything except Weddings ! 

 Pics of my layout here taken

 with the 50mm f1.8 lens  for a change.

Layout design is inspired by Ingvild's new Weekend sketches posting . 

here's a few more pics I got .

I can't recommend this 50mm1.8 lens more highly, 

especially in view of its cost ! ;)

The Scrappiest layout sketch 62

Here's the latest sketch up & running on The Scrappiest this week . 

We're still having a little banner fever here . 

For this layout I tried out some My Little Shoebox for a change ,

and challenged myself to make my own pennant banner 

which turned out way easier than I thought ! 

I hand cut the triangles & trapezoid shapes as I saw fit with the patterns on the papers 

and with some brown twine easily created these monster banners & such ! 

Still loving the white Bazzill spot laminated cardstock for a background. 

I unearthed these Pink Paislee Chipboard alphas 

and the journaling spot is by American Crafts

Some puffy AC shapes easily finished off the ends of one banner .

Remember to play along this month.

Winner gets that fabulous kit from Paper Poppy Kit Co ! 

Laugh - TCR#3

I think you can guess the color palette for the latest challenge over at the Color Room this week,

given that I tried to follow it closely ! ;) 

I tried using doily flowers for the first time . 

Thanks to some enablement ! 

Papers I used : 

Doodlebug Design for the background dotted paper, scrap of Prima in green , 

CI Mon Ami in purple , A bit of white Bazzill cardstock with an Edge , 

I tried stapling on the hemp strings for a quick linear frame -

hence the messy staple work . 

Of course a few more Prima flowers thrown into the works , 

mini Maya scroll painted with Shimmerz Blings , old SEI Ally puffy stickers , 

PP ruffled ribbon , Maya Rd leaf pins & kraft tag, 

Heidi Swapp cardstock sticker for the title. 

Just a fun quick go using Sketch 120 by Sketch Inspiration .

The Color Room Challenge #2

The 2nd challenge over at the Color Room 

was a prompt for masculine colors , 

not surprisingly as Challenge No 1 was inspired by Her Room .

I am by now totally convinced that 

there is no such thing as unusable pp in our stash anymore .lol . 

I used to detest certain types of designs/design styles which to me were an

outright cop out or simply meant to me that

 certain papers who actually really hard to use well.

Well goodbye to all that wrong thinking or even snob thinking!!!

Now I willingly tear up / chop up strips of papers 

which I find hard to use in a pleasing manner &

 simply collage them 

& then add my own signature spin to them, 

whatever rocks my boat at the time of creating with them .

I was a little off with my choice of blue here 

but I would put it all down to sheer laziness as

 I simply went with the first, newest sheet of blue paper

 that was right out on my scrap table. tsk ! tsk ! 

& yes ! I broke out my new OA doily stamp & stamped away in brown versafine -

& this time it totally worked out that the stamping was imperfect 

& appears broken in places - not entirely intentional

 but absolutley embraceable for me here ! 

& I have to thank Piradee & Wendy  for being the enablers

 to get this set of Thrift Shop stamps into my stash ! woot !
That's how it all started ! 

 here's an online color generator to play with 

 ( who those of us who cannot wait for the next Color Room palette perhaps ! ;)
http://www.colortoy.net/

For eg,  if I would still like to play with the blue/purple color  from the above TCR#2 palette

I can  easily find all the complementary colors that go with it ,with one click ! 

I think you will find this quite fun too ! ;) 

ICS #63 - altered notebook

Sketch 63 is up and running over at Inspirational Card Sketches. 

I created an altered notebook with the sketch ,

using Webster's Pages Garden Gala paper. 

Wow ! I seem to be having a fest 

for Webster's this week so far ! lol.

I didn't intentionally schedule anything, seriously ! 

Image and sentiment 

is by Crafty Secrets. 

I don't usually decorate the back of my notebooks 

but for this one, i decided to have a bit of fun  with distressed inks 

and a Tattered Angels decorative screen. 

This notebook was also a little RAK for

Ms Piradee , 

from whom I won this sweet blog  Rak not so long ago. ;) 

I also tried out making some paperbag flowers here 

 out of a Studio Calico kraft bag, 

using my Martha Stewart pop-up water lily punch . 

I used Such Sweet Tierney buttons for the flower centers. 

Check out the SALE going on there . 

I could do a little tutorial on it 

if anyone is interested.

I did get the idea from  here on GCD Studio's blog. 

My final photo challenge revealed !

Yes ! I recently issued Ms Jing-Jing Nickel a private photo challenge 

since she noticed I was scrapping up a lotta pics 

not taken by me ! lol 

The photo challenge once again is

 to use the same pics 

and then to see how our  layouts would turn out . 

Even before JJ ,sent me her pics I knew I would want to use some new Webster's Pages papers, 

 knowing  that she probably doesn't have them in her mountain of stash . 

( & I suppose trying to soft sell her the wonders of Webster's - teehee ! ) 

I ended up pairing a Life Portrait pp with a Lullaby Lane Leaps & Bounds pp. 

I like this unusual color combo - with lots of grey and black inspite 

of a very adorable child as the main focus here ! 

I edited 2 of the center pics here on picnik.com adding in a bokeh  heart effect .

I would have preferred to use 1-2 pics in the layout but couldn't resist using 4

for the sequence shots effect 

( although I probably jumbled up the sequence ) 

Unknown to me , little Amelie here had a piece of chocolate in her hand,

instead I gave her a sequin heart 

just so I could easily work in the Webster's Pages Quote card ! woot ! 

Now , do check out Jing Jing's reveal here using 7 Gypsies' Avignon line . ;)

The Scrappiest layout sketch 61

More Webster's Pages love 

with the Scrappiest Sketch 61 this time. 

I knew many pics of our oldest friends at Disney Sea would go perfectly together with 

the Seaside Retreat line & just had to get it.

Here's one of them posing near the  fire belching volcano of Mysterious Island.

I misted in a Lullaby Lane die cut shape in

 Tattered Leather over the base Hide & Seek pp.

I tend to do that a lot with WP's pps when I don't cut out the images .;) 

I also added a little Gold Distressed stickles & easily got a nice sandy texture going on. 

Lots of stickles for a change on the beautiful images of this pp . 

I also used some BG & Jillibean embellishments to add to the color & fun of this 

Seaside Retreat feel. 

Remember the prize this month 

is a yummy Paper Poppy kit 

so do play along !!

My Little Sketch Blook - Apr 18th G D

Liz Qualman's Sunday Sketches

are definitely amongst my top faves to work with !

So when Liz had a recent call for Guest Designers ,

I couldn't pass up on the chance.

Here's my take on her latest Apr 18th sketch .

It's really not difficult to create around

scallops, butterflies , flowers , shaped edges

which are all the rage at the mo.

So I gathered some supplies from my fave brands

which I haven't used till now.

Papers are Webster's Pages Life's Portrait .

Buttercup yellow lace from Prima.

Monarch butterfly punch by Martha Stewart .

Prima bird vine - which i cut some vines apart .

A little glimmer misting over a mesh for some texture behind the pics .

Our oldest niece here posing amongst sunflower sculptures !!!

No, they aren't the real thing ! ;)

The new Pink Paislee Artisan scroll element here

was Maya Misted in Avocado.

A little handcutting around the floral images

on this bracket shaped pp.

Different types of Prima flowers & flower centers always

work with Webster's Pages ,

can't go wrong !

Whether you follow the sketch to the tee or shabby/technique it up ,

you can be sure you will create something you will be happy with,

using a Liz Qualman's sketch ! ;)

check out the rest of the GD examples here to see that .

& if you play along with any of this month's sketches do

link up in the comment section !

A week of being spotted ! ;)

 I was Soup Spotted on 14.4.10 on Jillibean Soup's blog 

with the above Zest for Life layout . Thanks , Kimber !!

And on Such Sweet Tierney's monthly designer spotlight 

For Spray ink Magic ! Thanks much , London !!!

A Sketchy Thursday's DT fave for : 

& My Bliss layout is amongst the featured layouts for 

the very first challenge at 

The Color Room ! 

( together with 4 other scrappy pals ! 

Patti , LG, Trudi , Darien )
Thanks, Jing-Jing !!!

Remember this ?

I liked this Sketchy Thurs' blog hop challenge sketch .

I just had to give it a whirl 

using some new OA Fly a Kite . 

on 1 Jan this year we were out trying to fly kites with our nieces & nephews . 

The weather that afternoon was awful and I only have very dark , overcast pics of the kite flying . 

Our 6 year-old  nephew, Josh here was the only one skateboarding while the rest were trying to fly their kites.

Supplies : MS pop up water lily punch on kraft paper bag , SF Applejack banner stickers , Glimmer Mists in Brick , Black Magic , OA Mini Market Ledger Stickers 

Monday in the Park

This week ,I got hold of some new OA Thrift Shop ( & a little Fly a Kite ) 

& couldn't resist doing a park layout

 when I looked at that background sheet music pp 

& all the song titles/ images on it. 

I am getting a hang of using those banners -

 this time with the Jenni Bowlin stickers 

on brown twine . ;) 

They really do fill up empty spaces in such a fun way for me 

& definitely great for titles too.

There are a coupla of new Martha Stewart punch sets 

that are so desirable to me - eeks ! 

I test drove this bird and branch set here .

Love the new quilted, embroidered floral , Gothic Arches just to name a few ...

I misted my fave TH Flourish Mask in 3 colors this time 

- Chocolate, English Ivy & Lemon Meringue .

Misting just takes so little time , 

compared to say inking.

Layout design inspired by Sketch 119, Sketch Inspiration.

ICSketches #62

Here's my take for ICS #62 this week . 

Went a little dotty with lots of old stash .;) 

Here's our  sponsor back again this week is PaperMom .owner is Cassandra.

 She is offering the winner of this challenge 3 Free Digital Images of the winners choice. 

All you have to do is complete the challenge using the sketch and link us up in Mr. Linky .

 Happy Crafting!

A Photo Challenge ...

with Singaporean scrappy , blogging pal Wendy Kwok ! 

Finally , reveal day has arrived for

 the first of my private photo challenges. 

It's simply a challenge where we scrap the same photos - 

and Wendy chose these of  her darling little 3 year-old Ellise . 

Wendy teaches sell out shabby chic style classes

 at Made With Love 

using Webster's Pages & Prima . 

& you can find her published in the latest Somerset Memories ,

& more to come ! 

You go , girl ! ;) 

Do have a lookie at Wendy's reveal here too . 

I used a grey Core'dinations embossed cardstock background

 with the new Paper Girl by Girls' Paperie .

Rub ons here by Lily Bee .

Photos were edited in picnik.com 

I used an extra large May Arts polka dotted grosgrain ribbon 

with a Heidi Swapp pink ribbon . 

Some Shimmerz Blingz on the Prima rosebuds to add more color. 

& a customised Maya Road chipboard butterfly - using acrylic paint , GM & stickles. 

It was such a fun challenge for me 

 & great to see what we both would come up with ! 

Remember to check out Wendy's blog here . ;)