Simple life

This month's inspiration picture at Get Picky is up and it's gorgeous (as usual).

I was struck by the interesting combination of colours on this, and the freestyle feel to it. I wondered if I could interpret it across into a layout. Here's what I have done:

Journaling: This is what I want from now on: a slower pace, a more centered existence, and the feeling of perfect happiness to be found in the moments I come home to myself. Linda Weltner

I started with a page of Prima background paper that had a purple/green colour combo and I spritzed it liberally with hot pink and turquoise mists. Then I laid down a really thick layer of white acrylic paint for my photo mat. I've added a hambly overlay frame under the photos to give a bit of black oomph and inked around the edge of the background, concentrating heavily on the lower RH corner just like in the inspiration piece.

I loved the sprinkling of teeny flowers and butterflies on the original picture and used a combo of Prima, Kaisiercraft and Maya Road flowers, and nearly all of the butterflies in my rather limited butterfly stash ;).

The quote I used on my page reflects how I'm feeling about my life, and in particular my scrapbooking commitments right now.

This is my last project for Get Picky. I am sadly saying goodbye. I leave reluctantly, as it's a great bunch of girls and the inspiration that Nikki and Tanya find each fortnight has been awesome. I am going to miss designing for them. However, the level of projects I've been committed to each month just does not fit into the amount of time I have spare since I've upped my work days. So, reluctantly I must step back a bit. Sob.

I will be staying on at Aussie Scrap Source though, and I'm busy making something for them right now :).

Back to it!
Kathie xx

Fireman Jamie

I was rapt when I discovered that I was assigned Crate Paper's Toy Box collection to play with over at Aussie Scrap Source. And this is what I made:

Journaling: The fire brigade came to playgroup and you got to climb up on the fire-engine and see the equipment. You even got to squirt water with the firehose!

These photos are of Jamie at playgroup almost a year ago. The fire brigade brought their firetruck to show the kids, and taught them a little bit about fire safety. I love these photos of Jamie in his fire helmet!

The chipboard in the Toy Box collection is the best assortment of images I've seen for little (or older) boy pages for a long time! And of course, the old vintage colours just speak to me. Needless to say, I had a blast creating with it!


Kathie xx

Spring Pages

I just discovered that a scrapbooking page that was in Creating Keepsakes magazine Scrapbooking Tips and Tricks: Texture recently, is featured on the Club CK blog at the moment :).

AND they have a competition running - all you have to do is create a Spring page. Go check it out if you're interested.

School and Contemplation

These are my final two layouts for Handmade by Suzanne this month. I have so enjoyed working with the Echo Park For the Record papers and letter stickers.

This first layout features one of the little pockets Suzanne sent me, along with the Echo Park papers. I have intentions of scanning some of Jamie's artwork this term and printing it out small enough to fit in that pocket, along with recollections of what he liked doing at school in his first term - best friends, favourite activities etc.

And then my next layout:

I wasn't intending on making a fourth page, but I had cut out something from the light green paper, and an offcut was sitting on the kraft cardstock looking so much like a little hillock. I've had the doggie in my box of offcuts for ever, and thought I'd get him out and make him a little page to sit within :). I do love these kinds of fun pages.

So, we were supposed to be having a quiet weekend away with friends at the river this weekend just gone. But wouldn't you know it, we had been there no more than three hours when Jamie came down with gastro. He spent all weekend throwing up or sleeping and Phil and I played tag team staying in our cabin looking after him, or going socialising with our friends. Ah well. He seems to be on the mend now. I am pretty ordinary though now. Hopefully I'll not get any worse

First Halloween

Recently I made my very first Halloween layout! Halloween isn't really celebrated here in Australia, so I haven't ever had photos that were appropriate for Halloween pages. But, last year we were invited to a kiddies Halloween party, complete with Trick or Treating.

Journaling: Last year w were invited to a Halloween party with some friends. It was the first time we had celebrated it. All the kids dressed up and went trick or treating in the street. Oh my! You had the best time and got an awesome stash of treats.

This is my layout for Aussie Scrap Source, using The Girls Paperie Toil and Trouble collection. I adore the vintage-ness (is that a word?) of this range!

Jamie had his little TOT bucket. It was full by the end of the evening!


Go have a look at the other projects here. Aussie has three new posts choc full of weekend inspiration - that's three different manufacturers. You're bound to find something to kick start your weekend creating. Have fun!

Kathie xx

Get Picky March Sketch

This is March's sketch over at Get Picky:

I pondered for a while on this one, because it lends itself to many interpretations. In the end I settled on this:

Journaling: He loves playing My First Monopoly. It's one of our favourite games. We both chuckle at funny ol' Mr Monopoly in his silver car - lately he doesn't seem to count that well (I suspect he needs a new battery). Jamie's already quite the empire builder. He's totally gleeful when I land on one of his properties and knows just how much rent I owe. And he always wins - but I suspect that's because the rules according to Jamie are always in his favour!

Can you see the inspiration? Instead of creating a garden as depicted in the sketch, I created a township based on the images from the My First Monopoly boardgame.

This month SRM Stickers is sponsoring the site and we had an amazing selection of stickers to choose from. I used some flowers, a little birdie and the word stickers. And these stickers are amazing - they are so smooth and great quality.

To make the page I have taken a background of 7gypsies text paper and painted and misted it to give it colour. Then I pieced a little township scene on it using patterned papers from my stash. I borrowed heavily from the images on the boardgame itself. See the red and yellow multistorey on the board below?

Here it is on my page:

See the green and pink townhall?

What are you going to create this fortnight? Are you going to join in?

Kathie xx

Then/Now - Our childhood

This week at Aussie Scrap Source we're continuing the Then/Now theme and reflecting on childhood over the generations. I chose to reflect on how different my childhood home was to the house that Jamie's growing up in.

Here's close up of all that journaling. Hopefully you can get most of it (click on the image to view it up close):

I'm one of two girls and our home was predominantly a girl zone: Barbie dolls, princesses and fairies, toy ovens, ballet slippers and tulle. These days I live in a house full of colour, well every colour except pink it would seem ;).

When I first had Jamie I stressed about raising a boy. What did they like? What did they do? And of course, then I got smitten and we've worked it out as we've gone along :).

In fact, I've become so accustomed to being the mum of a boy that I found it a challenge recently to navigate the pink aisle at Target. I was in search of a birthday present for a three year old girl and realised I was completely clueless as I scanned rows of pink Barbies, Dora the Explorers and Pretty Ponies. Who would have thought I’d now be more at home in the boy aisle with its superheroes, Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine?!

I used a mixture of Crate Paper Toy Box and Cosmo Cricket Material Girl on the page, to incorporate imagery of the style found in the picture books I grew up with. A bright red background and ledger paper to write on kept the whole vintage vibe :).

So today.... today I'm just back from the doctors. Jamie ran into a wooden pole at his grandparents' place on the weekend and has broken his nose. No other damage thank goodness. He ran full tilt into it, so it could have been a lot worse. Still, a broken nose is bad enough, poor little possum.

I have another speeding fine. Yay me. These 50km zones are doing me in, now that I have a nice smooth new car. Both times lately I have been caught doing 58kmh in a 50 zone. This time I didn't even realise it was a 50 zone. Yikes. I thought I was under the limit :(. Sneaky sneaky. I can't afford to keep getting speeding fines. I'm going to have to crawl everywhere from now on. I'll be one of those annoying people who does 50 in a 6okmh zone, lol.

Hopefully the week gets better from here.
Kathie xx

Some Creating

I have had fun this week, creating some pages with the kit Suzanne at Handmade by Suzanne sent me this month. It was loaded with Echo Parks For the Record papers and stickers, which I love. Totally up my alley.

Here are two of my pages:

New Routines

Journaling: Monday: 6.30 shower, load washing, unpack dishwasher; 7.30 wake Jamie; 8.45am school drop off; 9.30 arrive at work - research draft codes of practice for proposed new work health and safety laws; 3.15 pick up Jamie, reading, hang out washing and other house stuff, Jamie in shower; 6.00 tea; 7.00 walk; 8.00 clean kitchen, make lunches; 9.00 scrapbook. Tuesday: 6.30 shower, load washing, tea in slow cooker; 7.30 wake Jamie; 8.45am school drop off; 9.30 arrive at work - organise seminar for public sector OHS practitioners; 3.15 pick up Jamie; 4.00 swimming lesson; 5.00 reading, tidy up, Jamie in shower; 6.00 tea; 7.00 put Jamie to bed; 7.30 clean kitchen, make lunches; 8.30 scrapbook. Wednesday: 6.30 treadmill, shower; 7.30 wake Jamie; 8.45am drop Jamie at school and stay for seminar on reading; 10.30 gym; 11.30 errands; 1.00 scrapbook; 3.15 pick up Jamie, shopping, reading, housework, Jamie in shower; 6.00 tea; 7.00 put Jamie to bed; 7.30 clean kitchen, make lunches; 8.30 art course. Thursday: 6.30 shower, tea in slow cooker, empty dishwasher; 7.30 wake Jamie; 8.45am school drop off; 9.30 arrive at work - start drafting public sector submission on draft work health and safety regulations; 3.15 pick up Jamie, reading, baking, Jamie in shower; 6.00 tea; 7.00 walk; 8.00 clean kitchen, make lunches; 9.00 TV. Friday: 6.30 shower, load washing, scrapbook admin; 7.30 wake Jamie; 8.45am drop Jamie at school and stay to help with reading; 9.30 gym; 10.30 grocery shopping; 12.00 errands, housework, start tea; 3.15 pick up Jamie, playdate; 6.00 tea; 7.00 put Jamie to bed; 7.30 clean up; 8.30 scrapbook. Saturday: 7.30 walk; 8.30 breakfast, tidy kitchen; 9.30 Phil takes Jamie to tennis, I hit the treadmill; 1-3.00 Jamie's friend comes over to play; 3.00 take Jamie up to mum and dad's for a sleepover; 5.00 back home and start tea; 6.00 tea; 7.45 Fringe show with Phil and friends. Sunday: sleep in and generally mooch around; 11.00 go look at pavers for our front driveway with Phil; 2.00 afternoon at the movies with our Gold Passes Phil won; 5.00 Jamie home; 6.00 tea; 7.00 put Jamie to bed; 7.30 clean up, lunches, ironing.

I have been struggling with our new routines since Jamie started school and I started working more days. I thought I'd record our week. I did a similar page a while back for Scrapbooking Memories magazine, and I find it interesting to look back at it now. Our routines change all the time! It's also an interesting audit of where I spend my time and where I could maximise it. It was also therapeutic, lol, as I have really been finding it a struggle to find work-life balance right now.

And then I made this layout as well.

Journaling: July 2008. You collected flowers from the garden for me. Love you Rabbit!

I painted the sheet of text paper in the collection, then made a little scene. I was working from the March sketch at Handmade by Suzanne, although I changed it up a bit so I could create some white space in which to situate the cute little Dusty Attic birdbath that was in the kit :).


I'm loving this style of messy painty creating at the moment and hope to do more.

I still have more product left in my kit, so I hope to do at least another layout for this month. I am so chuffed to be guest designing with them this month. Stay tuned :)

Kathie xx

Toy Library

Twiddleybitz have put out some pirate-themed diecut chipboard recently. I got hold of a pirate island and used it to make this layout. It's up on the Aussie Scrap Source blog at the moment.
Journaling: We are blessed with a fabulous toy library just up the road from our house. For $25 a year we have access to a huge collection of toys. This wooden pirate ship was one of the first toys we borrowed and it's still a firm favourite!

I've coloured the naked chipboard using acrylic paints and popped it on my page. I also painted a little pirate flag to fly over the top of the island. So fun.

It's a long weekend here this weekend. Yay! We have a busy one with lots of stuff happening. Hope yours is good too.
Kathie xx

Making Conversation and a self portrait

Oh this photo....

Journaling: You have been slow to talk but in the last month you've started to get the hang of it. Here's what you're saying at 23 months: *Me, * Detty (dirty), * Woo Woo (woof woof), *Mama, * Bobba!! (Bob the Builder and any associated paraphenalia), *Dedda (daddy), *Mi (milk), * Bump (bump whenever we go over a bump in the car park, *Ledda (ladder).

I just love it so! Look at that little bubby! I can hardly believe that my big 5 year old was this little once. Where did that time go? This layout was in Scrapbooking Memories 13(2) a couple of months ago.

At the time I made the page, we weren't yet aware that Jamie had severe speech difficulties, and I had no clue about the process that we were soon about to embark involving grommets, speech pathology and much playing of snakes and ladders, bingo and eating jelly snakes. Hehehe.... that was all part of the speech therapy sessions in the Link household. I discovered that Jamie loved all forms of snakes and ladders games, so we incorporated that into our sessions, along with bingo. And of course, lollies for a bit of additional persuasion when he started getting resistant to the fun.

I had another page in the same magazine; this one is a rare one of me.

I am so bad at self portraits! This is actually one half of a double page. The other side shows all the out-takes of my self portrait session. LOL.

That's all for today. I am under instructions to make pancakes for dessert. Better go!
Kathie xx

Happy Camper

I have been fortunate to have a few pages picked up by US scrapbooking magazines lately. This layout appeared in Scrapbook Trends' Create: Quick & Easy Idea Book (US) in February:

Journaling: I don't recall where this photo was taken. But I do remember it involved much walking and climbing. And several nights camping. And I still remember that view: Stunning!

I think I have more layouts being published overseas than I do in Australia at the moment. I don't know why that is. I think my style is not really a "typical" Australian style? I dunno. Who know when it comes to art and craft, hey!

Kathie xx

Aussie Scrap Source competition

Aussie Scrap Source has started a new Guest Design Team Challenge. The first challenge has just started and they are offering a scrapbooker the chance to be on the Sassafras Guest Design Team.

Readers are invited to send in their most fabulous creations using Sassafras papers and embellishments. Projects will be featured in a post on the Aussie Scrap Source blog, and the team from Sassafras will choose one winning artist. The winner will receive a prize pack from Sassafras, which that person will then use in projects to feature on the Sassafras blog as a Guest Design Team Member!

Check out the fine print here.

And look at what I've been playing with: Sassafras’ Ellie’s Tale. Now this line is packed full of vintage colour. So deliciously vintage that I had to use it for this cute photo I have of my mum when she was about 18 months old.

Awww. Look at her, the little sweetheart. She was not even two. The photo was taken in 1943. I loved the reds and yellows in the colour palette in particular and based the layout on these predominantly. I love how happy it all looks.

Or maybe it just reminds me of the colours in the old picture books I used to read as a kid? Maybe that's why I'm drawn to these colours and why they make me so happy?

I used one of the new Foldies to make the major accent across the bottom of the page. They certainly are one very easy way of dressing up a page.

I augmented the Foldie with a scattering of other vintagy and girly embellishments - Sassafras Felties, Cosmo Cricket Chipboard, Jenni Bowlin Buttons and BasicGrey Bloomers. They all work so well together.

I've also added in some other bits and pieces from other Sassafras' lines, just because I sorta like doing that ;). I love it when I can use a little snippet from my box of offcuts :).

Kathie xx

Handmade Rubons

We're all about hand-made over at Aussie Scrap Source right now. This week Aussie is challenging readers to make their own rubons. Yes, rubons!

I have accumulated a load of speech pathology material since Jamie started speech sessions two and a half years ago. And, you know, I marvel at the way our speechie makes it all into a big game for him. We have a whole exercise book brimming with fun little games. I chose this week's challenge to make some rubons of the cute little pictures on these so that I could include them on a page.

Journaling: You have made amazing progress with your speech. I am so proud of how you do your exercises. And it has paid off - totally age appropriate and ready for school.

The latest exercises that we've been doing have been designed to sharpen up Jamie's "s" and to distinguish between "s", "sh", and "ch". Thus, all the "ch" words up above.

To make the rubons, I have scanned images from several of Jamie’s exercise sheets into the computer, then flipped them so they were back to front, and printed them out onto the smooth side of a sheet of inkjet transparency (it's important that you print on the smooth, not the rough side of the inkjet transparency). After letting the ink dry for ten minutes or so, I simply treated the sheet like any regular rub-on and applied the images onto the page.

It's a great way of incorporating custom images onto your backgrounds, and now my head is full of possibilities for other pages :).

So, want to join in? There are prizes up for grabs! Check the details here.

Guest Designing this month...

I am a guest designer over at Handmade by Suzanne this month. I am looking forward to playing along with the girls and adding my work to their gorgeous gallery. If you would like to check it out, it's here. Thanks so much girls, for including me this month.

Kathie xx

That Look

I was fortunate to have a layout requested by Creating Keepsakes magazine in the US a while back. It was for Cindy Tobey's article on setting the scene on your scrapbooking pages. By chance, I'd just created this page:

Journaling: You are such a bright, happy little soul. But quite frequently I see you standing there gazing into the distance with that look on your face. Like you're pondering some puzzle. I'd love to know what you're thinking!

I used WeR Memory Keepers' 72&Sunny line. The original photo had a horribly distracting background, so I cut the image of Jamie out and created a new white background for him, then framed the new "photo" to draw your eye to it (because the background is so bright and busy!).

I've hand cut images from the patterned papers to add to the scene, and used some of the diecut circle shapes for balloons. Then I added some embroidery floss as the "string" to the bunch of balloons.

It turned out kinda neat, I reckon!

Kathie xx