Making Memories Guest Designer...
I'm really thrilled to announce that I am Guest Designer for
Making Memories today - would love for you to check it out HERE!

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Imaginice September Sketch...

Winter is finally behind us (Southern Hemisphere) and today is the first day of Spring, thankgoodness because I'm not a great fan of the cold... I love my hot weather! Anyhow, with the first of the month comes another wonderful sketch challenge from Imaginisce and this month's sketch has been designed by the very talented Aida Haron.

Here is my sample layout.

Aida's sketch was condusive to ATC size rectangles so I ran with that idea and created nine little ATC's... each with its own miniature tree scene. The Imaginisce Apple Cider range of papers and embellishments was perfect for this as it has an entire sheet of double sided patterned paper covered in different trees which was one of my favourites as soon as I saw it!

 A standard feature for me is the 'fussy cutting' of grass tufts but for something a little non traditional - I decided to make my clouds using the i-rock and a whole pile of little glam-rock pearls - I am seriously loving my i-rock, it is fast becoming my new favourite toy! 

 A dog's life indeed! Our farm dog 'Lizzy' is perhaps not your traditional choice of K9 for a farm but she is an absolute delight and the kids wouldn't be without her and she wouldn't be without them!

So, grab you scrappy stash and your Imaginisce products and start creating... you have until September 25 to enter the sketch challenge to be in the running for a fabulous box of goodies! You will find all the details HERE! Plus, don't forget to leave a comment on the Imaginisce blog (and mine hehe) for another chance to win more goodies, and if you blog hop around all the participating Imaginisce design team to view their gorgeos sketch samples and leave messages, you increase you chances of winning, good luck!

From farm to you...

Imaginisce are showcasing my Birthday Bash/Cuttlebug cards on their blog today which is a bit exciting, but more exciting is the news that they are giving away a Cuttlebug Machine and Extra Folders to one lucky follower... go check it out HERE.

From farm to you...

August is the busiest month for us when it comes to birthdays and last week we celebrated 'the farmer's birthday to be followed this week with our precious girl turning eleven. She loves birthdays and has been happily counting down the months, weeks and days until it was her birthday. By request I made 25 chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream to take to her little school (one for each child in the school and three teachers). Her birthday supper (again requested) was fish 'n' chips and ice-cream cake! Lots of arty and crafty pressies and she was blissfully happy with her day. I love this age because she is still very easy to please and still such a sweet, carefree child... selfishly I don't want her to get any older! Happy Birthday my beautiful girl!

Although we didn't take any photos of her birthday, I still wanted to run with the 'birthday theme' and create something from my new Imaginisce B-Day Bash collection so decided to do a layout using some fun pics of a cake baking session during the school holidays. The kitchen was a mess but they had a great time and the end result was rather scrumptious.

I love the gorgeous colour scheme to this range of papers... red, aqua and brown are always a beautiful combination and look really striking when teamed with black and white. You can view the complete range of papers and embellishments HERE.

I also gave my new i-rock a work out and added lots of Glam Rocks to the layout to keep in-line with the polka-dot theme. I also used my paper piercing tool to create extra circles adding another dimension to the page. I think I almost got a bit carried away with the Glam Rocks but the i-rock is so quick and easy to use and so darn fun! I will have more projects to share from the delightful Birthday Bash in the coming weeks.

From farm to you...

Life on the farm is good, clean, fun! Especially during the holidays as our 'city' cousins come to play and the kids spend days on end outside conjuring up exciting adventures. Sure, they have their computer games, mobile phones etc but never stop to worry about them when they are outside in the fresh air and wide open spaces. Life is good!

Again, I have used 'My Little Shoebox' All a Flutter and Flying High papers as they tie in well with the farm theme and I can't resist the bright, funky colours at the best of times.

I have based the layout on my sketch design for the August Sketch at Scrapville so if you would like to enter, hop on over to the Scrapville blog and check out all the details, you have until September, 14th to enter!

Decided to use the outer casings of the letters for the word 'fun' just for something different! And have again used a little bit of stitching on one of the letters as a wee little focal poin.

The My Little Shoebox range of papers is fabulous for paper piecing as there are always so many little bits and pieces to their designs. I have also added some 'glossy accents' to make highlights of little areas like the door knob and the flower centres.

More quilling, wouldn't be me if I didn't add atleast one little roll of quilling somewhere!

From farm to you...

I'm still on cloud 9 (and happy to stay here for a little longer) after the Pebbles Inc Design Team announcement, so I thought I would get straight down to business and start showing you some of the gorgeous products from Pebbles Inc.

Another circular layout, must admit I'm rather partial to the circle layouts at the moment, especially when teamed with a rolled edge border. This layout was created using the super cute and colourful Lil' Miss range and has the most adorable little flowers, hearts, owls, etc... all the fun stuff that I love to play with!

I hope you enjoyed my first project using the Pebbles range and I look forward to sharing more with you in the coming weeks.

From farm to you...

I'm delighted to be guesting for Liz Qualman's 'My Little Sketch Blook' again as I have loved working with Liz's wonderful sketches. She really has an amazing eye for putting together the perfect sketch, everything just falls into place, no thinking necessary, no stressing about what to put where and whether your layout will be well balanced, it's all done for you! I would love for you to take a wander through Liz's blog HERE where you will not only find her gorgous sketch designs, you will also get to browse through her amazing scrapbooking creations... she is a talented lady who inspires me with her work.

Here is my take using the very funky My Little Shoe Box - 'Imaginary Friends':

I've also had a wonderful play with my i-rock from Imaginisce to add the cute little box of pearl glamrocks.

Even added a bit of glossy accents to give the little bird a bad case of transparent measles!

More glossy accents to give the monsters googlie eyes and some paper piecing too!

I would just like to thank Liz for having me back and allowing me the opportunity to work with her sketch designs!

From farm to you...

I am thrilled to say that I have been selected to join the Pebbles Inc Design Team for 2010 - 2011. I would like to thank Pebbles for including me in their new line-up, and to say that I'm feeling a little in awe of the amazing talent that make up the rest of the team which you can view HERE.
So, I cannot wait to get started on some exciting new projects with the gorgeous Pebbles Inc products... looks like an exciting time ahead which I'm delighted to be able to share with you!

I've never seen a company have so many give-aways as Imaginisce... they just love to share the fabulous products with their followers... which is wonderful for everyone out there...

Their current give-away TOTALLY ROCKS... to see how you can win a beautiful album, i-rock and i-rock tote, crystals and templates then pop over to HERE.

The winner will be announced on Monday, 9th August. Good luck!

From farm to you...

Have you ever started a layout late at night and not been able to finish it because you came to a stand-still on what you wanted to do? This is one of those layouts... I'd decided to start a layout using the new Apple Cider Collection from my Imaginisce DT pack and I knew I wanted to reproduce a larger version of the tree from the 'Autumn Splendour' paper and cut out lots of leaves from the 'Changing Leaves' paper but that was the end of my imagination! As soon as the David Letterman show started after midnight I knew it was time to give up and go to bed. Then in the middle of the night I woke up with a brain-wave... sticks! Well of course it was too cold and too dark to get out of bed and go hunting in the early am's so I wrote it down and rolled over and went back to sleep. The farmer is starting to worry about me! LOL!

The next day I took the kids stick hunting... we had to find the right thickness and as dry as possible because we'd had so much rain of late. Bingo, we found the perfect branches in an old tank that we'd been using for our kindling. The kids enjoyed measuring and breaking each little piece into 5cm lengths whilst I glued them to a strip of stiff clear acetate (I've learnt not to glue things straight down to my paper as the glue makes the paper buckle out of shape).

So, I was again happy with the layout and continued to add the embellishments from the Happy Harvest & Give Thanks Sticker Stackers, plus these gorgeous clear pastic leaves from the 'Falling Leaves Mosaic Sticker Sheet'.

Add a little bit of sewing...

And a little bit of quilling...

And the layout was complete - finally.

From farm to you...

WOW, how fast is this year motoring along? August is upon us and so we have come to another wonderful sketch challenge over at Imaginisce. This months sketch was designed by the very talented DT member Sarah de Guzman.

If you would like to play along, you have until the 25th of August to upload your creation into the Mr Linky on the Imaginisce blog and be in the running for the uber fabulous prize of an i-top package or a $75US package of Imaginisce collections!!!

 My take on the sketch challenge...

I have used the new Cottage Christmas collection from Imaginisce and some of the gorgeous crystal snowflakes... which have definitely made it onto my favourite embellishment list! The picture below shows the medium crystal snowflake which I have used a white paintpen to define the outline and then topped with another gorgeous product to this collection... the Metal Snowflake Glitz.

Don't forget your must leave a comment on the Imaginisce blog to enter and then to increase your chances you can leave comments on the DT blogs as well!... good luck and thanks for stopping by!

From farm to you...