Turtle Soup Creative Magazine - June 2016 Edition

The latest edition of Turtle Soup Creative Magazine is ready for viewing. Why don't you come across and have a look, it's choc a block full of beautiful projects from all over the world. I'm very excited to have some of my projects published in the magazine again. 

Click on the link to see the rest of Turtle Soup Creative Magazine, you won't be disappointed.

Thanks for looking :)

Off The Rails Scrapbooking - June Challenge (Monochromatic)

I haven't done a layout for Off The Rails Scrapbooking for quite a while. I've always loved OTRS and was lucky enough to be a member of their design team. However, I'm back now with a submission for their latest challenge - Monochromatic. 

I find it very difficult to do monochromatic projects, but I love the challenge because sometimes it just "clicks" and the result can be stunning. I chose to do a vintage layout so I used subdued brown tones on my page. This is what I created:

I think the subdued, monochromatic colour scheme lends itself well to a masculine vintage layout. I hope you think so too.

Cheers until next time :)

123 Challenge - June

This month's challenge at the 123 Challenge Blog is to use all three "Lilac, Drama, and Doodle" on a project.

As soon as I saw the challenge I knew exactly what to scrapbook. Last year my husband and I took a short break to visit family in Perth, Western Australia. The street we stayed in was so pretty, with a whole row of Jacaranda trees in full bloom. Then at the end of the street, seemingly rising out of nowhere, were some tall city buildings. As soon as you turned into the street, the drama was so evident and striking - very dramatic. I tried to show the drama in my layout by highlighting the streetscape against a dark background. Here is what I came up with:

I hope you like what I created.

Thank you for stopping by :)

CSI, Color, Stories, Inspiration - Case File 202

I'm back again, solving another Case File over at CSI Color, Stories, Inspiration. This time it's Case File 202 which also has a sketch inspiration from The Nifty Pixel.

This is how I solved the case file.

I love the subdued colour scheme, and I've used all five colours. The clues in my evidence include architectural elements, diamond pattern (background), hearts, and a stamp. For my testimony I journaled about the pioneer buildings in a part of NZ. 

Thank you for taking the time to look at my post.

Kraft + Plus June Challenge

Well it's the start of winter Downunder and it's a good time to stay indoors and do some creating. My first challenge for the month is "It's a Puzzle" at Kraft Plus Challenge Blog.

As a keen family historian, I have many puzzles to solve so I decided to document one of  them. A cousin gave me a photo of a sweet little toddler many years ago. He found the photo amongst his mother's belongings and was puzzled as to who the subject of the photo was. I think I have worked out who she is. I've found a family member with the same name who would have been the right age but I can't be positive because she has a common name and, in those days (1914), children often referred to "aunts and uncles" that were actually close family friends. Anyway, rather than keep the photo in a box, I decided to document the puzzle. 

 I hope one day to put all the pieces together and categorically  solve this puzzle.

Always, big thanks for stopping by. :)

CSI Color, Stories, Inspiration - Case File 201

Hello Scrapbooking Friends

One of the reasons I like solving the CSI Case Files is because they always inspire me to do meaningful journalling  on my layouts. CSI Case File 201 is no different and that's why I chose to take on the challenge and journal about a very difficult subject. First off, this is the case I had to solve:

I decided to solve the case file like this:

I have included all five colours of the scheme. My evidence includes the following clues - cats, tree, diamonds (background paper), architectural element (house). For my testimony I have documented about my cat.

This was a difficult layout for me to do but now I'm glad I have.

 you for stopping by :)

Memories Layout

Hi Folks

Today I just wanted to share an experimental layout I did with a new kit I just got. The kit is called Steeped in History and it's from G&T Designs at E-scape and Scrap. I had a quick play around and this is what I came up with.

The photo is a few years old and was taken at Portsea Pier in Victoria. It was on one of the trips my youngest son did when he was a learner driver to build up his driving hours. He always liked to drive to a beach, usually around Port Phillip Bay. Portsea is a beach on the Mornington Peninsula between Port Phillip and the wild surf of Bass Strait. It's a beautiful spot.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

ARTastic - April Challenge

This month's challenge at ARTastic Challenge Blog is to use typography on your project, and the inspirational artwork is a piece called "We will Remember" by Josh Miels.

It's an absolutely beautiful portrait, stark and poignant. It's totally appropriate for this time of the year where we from Down Under are coming up to ANZAC Day. 

Just like last year, this ANZAC Day we will leave home at 4.30am and head into the city for the Dawn Service at the Shine of Remembrance in Melbourne where we will meet up with other family members. After the service we will have breakfast together at a nearby deli where we will, once again, laugh and enjoy each other's company ..... and give thanks that we are lucky enough to be able to do that.

I have done quite a few scrapbook pages over the years of family members who fought in various wars but, this time, I decided to scrap some photos from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. We went there a few years ago and it was so eerie looking at the names of my family members on the Wall of Remembrance. The grounds are immaculate and beautiful, and the museum is fascinating. Anyway, this is what created.

The first photo in the layout is the Wall of Remembrance. The second photo is a sculpture in the gardens of Simpson and his donkey carrying a wounded soldier. Simpson was one of Australia's most famous soldiers, a stretcher bearer who served briefly in the nation's first major campaign. The sculptor, Peter Corlett, wanted the figures to be accessible and he hoped that the donkey's nose would be rubbed smooth by the many people touching it. I guess he got his wish because the donkey's nose is now very shiny.  

I really enjoyed doing this challenge. I started off thinking and talking about one piece of art and finished up talking about a totally different artwork but, to me, they have something in common; they both represent humanity.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. 

Lest We Forget.

Photo Masks

Hi Everyone,

Just a very quick post today, probably more relevant for the digital scrapbookers. I've been experimenting with digi photo masks lately and I think I'm hooked. Here is a layout I did recently and I really like the way it turned out.  

This is my youngest son who is now 20 years of age. The clipping mask I used is called Cosmos Bloom, and most of the other elements on the page come from the Cosmos Bloom Mini Kit by The Nifty Pixel.

Thanks for stopping by. :)

CSI Color, Stories, Inspiration - Case File 197

Hello Scrappy Friends

Today I'm showing you a layout I did for Case File 197 over at CSI. It's a major case file and there is a fabulous sketch,  from The Nifty Pixel, for added inspiration.

This was a real challenge for me - I had to search high and low for my pink elements. Well that's what happens when you live with a house full of men who are the main subjects of your pages. Anyway, I got there in the end and this is what I created.

Sorry about the photo being crooked. I always seem to have trouble taking a straight photo of my layout. Another problem I have is that white always looks like it's tinged blue. In real life, the background cardstock is bright white.

The subject of my layout is an art installation at Waiheke Island in New Zealand. It's three giant kinetic dandelions with each seed head showing a different point in time. The sculpture overlooks an exposed headland enabling it to respond to the wind. When I look at the sculpture, I'm immediately transported back to childhood and I wanted to reflect these feelings in my layout. I think I achieved this.

I used the sketch as inspiration, but I only included one photo because I wanted to show how beautiful and dramatic the installation is. To solve the case I used all five colours.  My evidence includes stripes, flowers, decorative border, rub-ons and string. My testimony consists of a free verse explaining just how this piece of art makes me feel.

Here are a few close-ups of my page

Thank you for stopping by :)

Pixels and Paper April Challenge - Vintage Style

Happy April Everyone

I love doing vintage style layouts, whether it be traditional or digital. I think I developed my love of vintage while scrapbooking the photos I collected while doing my family history research. I love genealogy and I love scrapping heritage photos. Now it doesn't matter how old the photo is, if it lends itself to vintage ..... I'll do it. That's why this month's challenge over at the Pixels and Paper Challenge Blog appealed to me so much. There is something about the inspirational photo that just drew me in. 

I love the subdued colours, the faded flowers, and the hint of something a little bit exciting at the bottom of the trunk.

I decided to do a vintage style layout of myself at different ages (22 years, 50 years and almost 60 years) and here it is.

This layout took me days to do, but I had fun doing it and I'm pleased with how it turned out. I think the best part, though, was when I showed it to my youngest son - after telling me how nice it was, he said "Gee you've really aged well Mum". What a beautiful young man he is :)

Thank you for taking the time to stop by. Until next time, happy scrapping xx

Kraft Plus March Challenge - A bit of hound

Hello Crafty Creatives

Today I've done a layout for the March Challenge over at Kraft Plus. The challenge is to include some hounds-tooth on the layout, and there is an inspirational sketch as well. The sketch was designed by Em Stafrace from The Nifty Pixel.

I love the sketch so I didn't change it too much, just a bit of manipulating to suit my photos and layout. This is what I was inspired to create.

This page just brings back such good memories of an amazing fun time. I hope you like it.

Thank you for looking :)

Scrapping Clearly Feb Mood Board Challenge

Sorry folks, I've reposted this because I had a gremlin that hacked my account and deleted my comments. This really annoyed me because I love your comments.

Hello scrappy friends,

This month the challenge at Scrapping Clearly is a beautiful mood board.

I decided to enter the challenge because I love the colours, the "relax" theme and the gorgeous butterflies. It reminded me of the Moorilla Estate in Tasmania where beautiful birds wander the grounds; the restaurant serves delicious local produce; the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) houses some wonderful art; and it is just a fabulous place to relax.

This is how I interpreted the challenge

 This beautiful creature was just wandering around and I waited ages to get a photo of him displaying his tail but it wasn't to be. He was more interested in foraging - he didn't even display his plume when the peahen walked by.  In the end it didn't matter because he's still gorgeous.

Here are some close ups of my layout

Thank you for stopping by. :)


I really apologise to those people who posted nice comments on this post (I got all the emails advising me) but your comments have been erased from my blog (not from anything I've done). I appreciate the comments and I'm working on getting rid of the problems :)

Kraft+ February Challenge

Hello Peoples,

I'm back again with another project for the Kraft Plus challenge "Going Postal".

In my previous post I blogged about how I created a scrapbooking layout for this challenge - I liked the challenge so much I decided to enter another project. I wanted to do something different and, as I don't make many cards now days, I decided to make a card. 

I really wanted to step out of my comfort zone and make a card with a theme I've never done before, so I made a card for Chinese New Year. It's an easel card and the four postage stamps at it's centre make one complete picture. I bought these stamps in Taiwan in 1979! (Not giving away my age or anything.) It's a very non-traditional Chinese New Year card but it does have traditional elements such as the red and gold colours. Besides the postage stamps, I have used franking stamps as well. I showed the card to one of my son's friends who is Chinese and he said it was beautiful and he would be honoured to receive a card like that. I was chuffed. He is a lovely young man!

Anyway, here are some close ups so you can see more of the detail.

As always, thank you for taking the time to look at my post.  :)

Kraft+ February Challenge

Hello Everyone,

The challenge over at Kraft Plus Challenge Blog this month is to use Kraft plus postage stamps.

I really had to put my thinking cap on for this challenge. I thought of many different ways to approach the challenge but, in the end, went with a fairly difficult, time consuming hybrid layout. I could have gone with a traditional layout or a digital layout but, somehow, neither way really spoke to me for this challenge. I couldn't turn the picture I had in my mind into a layout without thinking of a more innovative way to do it, so hybrid it was. This is how I eventually ended up interpreting the challenge - I hope you like it.

People often ask me if my layouts are traditional, digital, or hybrid and, of course, I do all three depending on what I'm trying to achieve. For this particular challenge I didn't have the right traditional or digital elements to create what I wanted, so I combined both. Just to give you a bit of an idea,  below I have highlighted how I created it.

First I started with this digital background paper:

I liked the Asian feel of the paper but it wasn't right for my Vietnam layout. So, I extracted the flower drawings from the background and got rid of the white paper, and the Chinese writing.  I ended up with this:

Once I cleaned it up, I saved it as a digital element. Then I printed it on some light coloured Kraft card stock, scanned it, and saved it as a paper.

So, after what seemed like a very long time, I ended up with the exact background I wanted (and I still have the element and background paper to use over and over again). 

Next, I scanned the Vietnamese stamps and saved them as digital elements. I added the photo to the digital Kraft paper using a digital mask so that it blended into the background. I changed and resized the elements I made from the scanned stamps and added them to my layout. Then I used parts of the plant drawing as overlaps. The lanterns, arrows and tickets are purely digital embellishments (I didn't make them).

The red circles highlight the masking effect that helps the photo blend into the background. The blue circles show How I used the drawing of the plants to overlap parts of the layout.

This is a long blog post but I thought it was worthwhile because I am so often asked how I do my layouts and this will give you a bit of an idea. Plus, it highlights the lengths I go to to create exactly what I want. :)

Thank you so much for stopping by.


Thank you to Everybody who has left nice comments on this post. I know there are many more comments, because Google+ keeps advising me, but they are not showing up in the comments section. It's not that I don't appreciate your comments, I'm just unable to reply until the problem is sorted. :)

Scrapping Clearly - February Challenge

Turtle Soup Creative Magazine - February 2016 Edition

The February edition of Turtle Soup Creative Magazine has now gone live.

It is jammed packed with beautiful projects from all over the world. Here is my contribution to the mag:

If you click this link  you will be able to see all the other projects (111 pages of yummy).

Don't forget to view it in full screen. Enjoy,

Kraft Plus - January 2016

Hello Scrappy Friends

You can tell it's getting towards the end of the month because this is my third post today as I try to beat the challenge deadlines. This time I'm joining the challenge at Kraft Plus Challenge Blog. I really like this challenge blog but haven't had much time to join in lately, so now I'm glad I'm back. The challenge is Kraft, plus to use handwriting on your project.

I don't really like my handwriting on my layouts but, as a genealogist, I love seeing documents with my ancestors' writing on them. I'm glad I did this challenge because maybe one day one of my descendants will appreciate seeing my writing. I'm going to try using my own handwriting on my projects more often from now on. Anyway, this is my layout.

Thanks for stopping by. :)

CSI Color, Stories, Inspiration - Case File 189

I'm back again to solve another case file at CSI, Colour, Stories, Inspiration. This time I'm solving Case File 189.

I've used all five colours. The clues in my evidence include gingham, food accents, and cursive font. For my testimony I have documented something about food. This is what I created.

Hope you like what I created. Thanks for looking. Cheers.

CSI Color, Stories, Inspiration - Case File 187

Hello Folks

Today I'm solving Case File 187 over at CSI - Color, Stories, Inspiration.

I used some photos I took of the 2016 New Year fireworks to solve the case file. The fireworks display was in Melbourne, Australia, and I took the photos from the balcony of my friend's 26th floor penthouse. It was a lovely NYE party with great friends and, of course, fireworks!

I've used all five colours of the scheme. My evidence includes a solid background, watch, clouds, and numbers. For my testimony I have documented New Year's Eve/New Year.

Thank you for dropping by :)