Happy

Hi again. many years ago we had the pleasure of taking our first born to Australia. I am still scraping some of those photos. This is one layout from that time. We were in a car park and Leon was playing racing cars with her in the trolley. She thought it was great.

 I used a pattern page from my stash and spread some textured paste mixed with some orange in various places over the page (most of it ended up covered by the photos).

 I loved how the orange and blue gave the page a bold look. so i continued that look by using the same colour scheme in the flower embellishments.

 I have so much washi tape collected from various places and have been unsure as to where to use it. So i decided on this page I was going to use some. I used some on the page under the photos and continues some through the centre to join the photos.

I hope this layout may give you some inspiration for your projects. Let me know if it did. I would love to hear from you. Until next time. Diane

Smile

Hi everyone, It has been such a long time since I posted. It doesnt mean that I havent been creating though. I have been working on a few diverse projects. One of them a quilt for my son which I am hand sewing most of. However one of my goals over the long weekend was to post a blog. Better late than never.

This layout was inspired by a gift bag i saw in a discount store and decided to cut out the flowers to use on a layout. I sprayed a white card stock with some Lindy Stamp Gang spray to add a little bit of pink to the page and like I said I cut out the patterns on the paper bag and lay them out on the page.

 I raised some of the flowers to give them some dimension and added in some diamantes to give it a little bling. The charms were off a bracelet from my niece who was going to throw it out as it was all tangle up and broken.

I liked out this turned out and will be looking for more paper gift bags in the future that may take my fancy to scrap. Until next time, Diane

Fisherman

 It's really cosy by the fire at at night now winter is closer. Snow capped mountains to the west. Great time to get creative and scrapbook. It seems that life doesn't slow down though especially with kids. I created this layout a few weeks ago. I started with the white paper and shaded it with a variety of blue  and green gelatos. The paper was a bit thin so I cut it down a bit and matted it on a striped page. Rolling up the edges and journaled date and place on the edge on one.

Using a net stencil and a baby wipe I took some of the gelato back off again. Then used a wave look (Have also used this a a wood grain look. You decide it you think it suits wave or wood?) stencil with texture paste. After I used sploggers and arrow stamps with brown ink randomly stamping over the page.

To matt the photo I pulled random bits of leftover paper from my 'I might need that one day' box. I added a chain and anchor from Dutch Doobado - Nautical. And a title from my stash. 

I try to pull colours from the photos. In this case it was oranges and blues. I wouldn't normally have mixed these two colours but I feel it has worked in this case. Stay warm out there...useless of course you are in a warmer climate than South Canterbury, New Zealand :-) Happy scrapping.

Blast from the past

Hi, hope you all had a great ANZAC Day break with family and friends. I managed to get some scrapbooking done even though the weather was great. For me it was about de-stressing! To do the things I love, reading a book, spending time with family, good food and of course scrapbooking. I spent a bit of time going through old photos and this one just popped out at me. My sisters and I had a pet lamb, Sally. 

I used papers from a pack I had recently brought off the Garage Sale Facebook page of Artfull Crafts. Worth looking at if you get a change. Link here

Journaling is not one of my strong points but I have been trying to get some words down on this page. I used 'Tears on Pillow Tangerine' spray from Lindy's Stamp Gang to match the orange that was in the photo (don't you love the old photo look). I splattered the page with 'Toto's Tornado Black' also from Lindy's Stamp Gang after I had finished (covering the photo which I normally forget to do).

There was a lot of work in matting each strip with the black but I think the effect looks great. It was a fairly easy layout and one I would do again with some variations to spice it up.

Diane

Magical Moment

Wow life has been so busy lately but hopefully with winter almost upon us things will slow down and there will be more time for activities like scrapbooking. I got my cross stitch out last night after over 8 months in storage. Some of the reason for digging it out was an inspiring crafting weekend last week with a group of amazingly talented ladies. It was a weekend for finishing off UFO's (unfinished objects) of all different crafts, knitting, quilting, embroidery and scrapbooking.  

Before attending the weekend I completed this layout which is my new favourite.

I used Gelatos to shade the background in Metallic Melon, Lemon, Guava and Raspberry. I then mixed some of the Raspberry with texture paste and used a stencil of splats and circles on the page. I also mixed some black ink with texture paint (which turned out grey) and used a word stencil. Then stamped a net randomly.

I added flowers and black embossed frames and twirls.



I think the bit I like the most is in the top left hand where I embossed some doily and added a butterfly and heart trinkets. I have since made this my screen saver on my cell phone as I liked it so much.

Hope you like it as much as I do and can see why its my favourite. Until next time (which I promise wont be as long as this one has been coming) I had promised myself weekly blogs but I'm not doing too good so far.

Diane





A time for family

 HI all, Its been a while since I blogged on Destressing Diane. I have been supper busy with kids, work and life in general. I haven't been sitting idle though. I have been busy with the Design Team Challenge for ArtFull Crafts - Check it out here if you get a chance.

I also completed this page using black card stock and sprayed with Lindy's Stamp Gang "Delphinium Turquoise" and "Whale Watch Blue" (which I am almost out of as I've used it so much) I mixed some of the turquoise spray with modeling paste to get a blue texture onto the page.

Using the same spray I coloured some white flowers and used them to embellish the page. I found some left over scrap paper (including a piece off one of my kids colour in book) to create a background for the photo. I also used a stamp to try get some further texture into the page however you can't really see it as it was black ink (shopping list for next visit to craft shop - white stamp ink)

For the first time I used beads on my project and even though it was fiddly they looked good. I really liked the blues in this page. What do you think? Until next time,  Diane.

Welcome to my blog

This is my first blog post. It's a bit scary to think this will be out in the web world for all to see. I only hope I can create my own little corner in that world. Much like real life I suppose.

My first post I wanted to share with you all is a beyond the page project I won in a raffle donated by Papervine (to my surprise as I don't normally win anything). It has been sitting around for ages and after a recent visit to my local scrapbooking shop, Artful Crafts I was inspired to do something. I was up till 1am that night working on this and completed it last night.

I covered these draws with Kaisercraft Needle and Thread paper. In order to get a smooth edge I ran a nail file along the edges. 

The top was embellished with little bits and pieces including buttons, lace, cotton reels of various sizes, scissors, measure tape and a little sewing machine charm.

I chose not to embellish the sides of the little draws because I didn't want to take away the effect of having a collection of items on the top. Had I used plainer paper on the draws I may have added more.

There was a couple of late nights spent on this little project but I feel it was worth it, despite being just a little tired at work the next day.

I hope you all enjoyed my first blog. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or comments on ways I can improve this blog. I am so excited to be finally published (not to mention the huge learning curve to start blogging). Next item on bucket list is to write a book. Something tells me that is a long way off being accomplished.