50 Posts and 5,000 Page Views!

I hope you've had a good week everyone.

I was putting up my last post and realised I have put 50 posts on my blog. I can't believe it! Coincidentally  I also just had my 5,000th view so that's got to be some sort of milestone.

I thought I should do something to celebrate. I remembered how I really enjoyed looking through other blogs at the end of last year where people listed their top 10 favourite layouts for the year so I thought I'd do this. I've gone through all my posts and picked out my 10 favourites pages. I can't believe how hard this was! There are layouts that I love because I think they look great but there are others that I love because they record a special memory or have some other significance.

So, without further ado, here they are.

In tenth position:

This was a page that was quick and simple to make and I really love the result. I made it for my Design Team work at Scrap Everything! using the KaiserCraft Secret Admirer Collection. This layout also brings back fantastic memories of Mykonos!

In ninth place:

I love the retro feel of this one and the funny story behind it - when my son was 2 he couldn't blow his candles out because he couldn't blow properly! This layout was published in Scrapbooking Memories Vol 14, No 12.

In eighth spot:

I made this one for my DT application for Manor House Creations. The photo is of my mum when she was a young teen. It's such a stunning photo. I went with the colour purple as it's mum's favourite colour. I really like the unique frame I created with covered wire adorned with flowers.

In seventh place:

I really love this as not only does it look great but it holds all the secrets to my very versatile casserole recipe. I made this for my sister-in-law when she had just had her third child. I figured she needed all the short cuts in the kitchen she could get! For more pics (and the recipe) go to here. It was published in Scrapbook Creations.

In sixth place:

I struggled with which of my Masters' layouts to put up here. I couldn't make 4 out of my 10 favourites layouts from my Masters application! In the end I went with two of them.
I love this one for the stunning photo of my daughter and the acrylic flower frame. My daughter doesn't often let me take 'nice' photos of her but on this occasion she just had her lovely long hair cut short and she loved it so was happy for me to take a pic.

In fifth place is another Masters layout:

The pastel colours really didn't show up well in the mag on this one. I loved the old pics of me and I was really pleased with the multi-layered tags I placed behind each photo. There's a lot on this page so for more info see here

In fourth position:

This gorgeous pic is of my nephew Archie, who has featured in a few of my layouts. I loved experimenting with sprays and stencils on this one. It was published in Scrapbook Creations Issue No 95.

In third place:

Again, I love it when I can get good pics of my daughter! I love the rich colours in this one. Those Bo Bunny papers are just awesome! The black Manor House flowers finished off the page nicely. And just to show how fickle it can be trying to get layouts published, this one wasn't accepted by the mags and it's my third favourite!

In second place:

This is another one I did for Scrap Everything! Although this is a simple page, it really speaks to me. I'm not sure why. I don't even remember where these pics were taken. Somehow it just seems to work.

And finally, here's my number one pick from my first 50 blog posts:

I made this layout a while ago and the products were older ones even then. I still love it though! It was published in Scrapbooking Memories Vol 14, No 10.

Hope you've enjoyed this. I had fun putting it together!

Heather     

Scrap Everything Sale!

Hi all,

Just a quickie to let you know that Scrap Everything! is having a huge sale. There are some awesome savings here!

Katheine has been a busy Vegemite and there are also about 45 new items in stock.

The sale will last until all items are sold. Have fun!

Heather

A bit of Dylusions love

I have a confession to make - I'm a Dylusions addict! I keep finding more and more uses for those little bottles of colour explosions!

Here's a more subdued page that I made recently:

I went for more earthy tones to suit the pic and sprayed two of the Manor House Creations flowers with Dylusions to match. I inked the large Twiddleybitz flourish, painted the tips gold and laid it over the sprays.

Here are some close ups:

The lizard inspired me to think about Australian outback themes so I decided to create a dot painting frame around the page to give it an aboriginal feel. To do this I used various sizes of dots from foam lettering, mounted them on the end of a pen then dipped them on a stamp pad. I then used a smaller foam dot dipped in gold paint to accent the larger dots. I used the edge of a chevron stamp to create zigzags to help add to that aboriginal feel.

Til next time!

Heather

The Leibster Awards

Last week, I was thrilled to be awarded a Leibster Award from the amazing Lizzy Hill.

The Leibster Award was designed to be a blog award in the pay it forward fashion. It is awarded to blogs that have fewer than 200 followers to encourage new visitors to them. Once you have been nominated you award it to five other blogs.

The rules are: post the award on your blog, give the award to 5 bloggers who you appreciate that have fewer than 200 followers then leave a comment on their blogs to let them know you have given them this award.

So a very big thank-you to Lizzy. She's one of the most amazing bloggers out there. She seems to get as much enjoyment out of my work as I do and is always so supportive.

I've had to think long and hard about who to award my Leibsters to. I decided to not give it those who already have one as I'm thinking that the idea is to share this love around! That ruled out Lizzy, Sandra and Fi, all of whom would have been on my list. (Just got a plug in for them though didn't I?)

In no particular order I would like to award my Leibsters to...(drum roll please)....

Kim Price I think Kim's work is amazing. I'm continually astounded at the sheer beauty of her pages. She has a distinctive style and her photography is superb.

Beck Beattie Beck's work is so professional. I've seen it in real life and the detail and dimension are spot on. Her boy layouts are so inspiring.

Sarah Groen I hope we're allowed to nominate outside our own country! I love Sarah's work, perhaps cos it's often a lot like mine! She's great at documenting life's moments and uses her own handwriting - aren't these what scrapping is all about?

Leonie Neal-Dawson Leonie is the background queen. I adore her layered background techniques and her fabulous use of colour. Her work is amazing.

Lizzy Crust Lizzy only just qualifies as she has almost 200 followers! She's an amazing blogger and is always there with words of encouragement and support. Her work is constantly  growing and developing which is very exciting to watch.

Two other fabulous bloggers that I love to check out their work are Dani Cristina and Lizzy Wurmann, both South American artists with gorgeously unique talents. Just thought I'd sneak that one in there.

Hope you have fun checking out these blogs - I do!

Heather

My First Masters Challenge

Hi there,

Hope you all had a great weekend. I went to the Scrap Expo in Melbourne on Friday. I caught up with the ever lovely Leonie Neal-Dawson there. She and her friends were heading off for a scrapping retreat weekend. I'm so jealous! Met Jasmine Shea who I follow online but had never met. People are so much nicer in real life - just like layouts!!!

For the first time, I'm finally able to post a Master's Challenge layout on my blog. I'm enjoying these challenges so much! Basically, each sponsor gives us a supply of goodies and a description of what we have to create - in this case, a single layout. The sponsor for the first challenge was Stampin' Up! The papers we received were gorgeously retro and one of the stamps depicted a girl and a boy in an old fashioned wagon. This stamp triggered off a vague recollection that I might have a photo of something like that. After a bit of a search I was thrilled when I found it.

Here's the layout:

I was really pleased with how this layout turned out. The colours in the photo matched the papers beautifully and, although I'd like to say the style of the papers is older than me, it's probably not that much older! I drew on the flags and banners theme in the papers to create my own. The flagpole is made from a skewer and I put a small kink in the flags on it to give the appearance of movement. I had fun making a double layer of banners, raising one lot above the other with foam tape.

Here are some close ups:

To colour the stamped image, I used a wet brush and just used the Stampin' Up! ink pads like paint. It was so easy and worked really well. The inks are colour coordinated with the papers so it's hard to go wrong!

I hope you're enjoying checking out the Masters Challenges each month in Scrapbooking Memories mag. I think we all have a ball making them!

Hooroo!

Heather