2012 Year in Reveiw - The Final Chapter

Hi again and thanks for coming back to the final post of my 2012 creations in review.  This post will cover September through to December.

January to April can be found here and May through to August can be seen here

September 2012 - First DT Post with iSpy Sketch Challenge

September was a hugely rewarding month for me.  I was invited to join not one but two design teams (iSpy sketch challenge and Aussie Scrap Source) this year and September saw my first post with iSpy as a DT member go up.  It has been an honour to say the least to be approached by the DT co-ordinators and invited onto the DT's - thank you so much!  This was the card I created.  The original post cam be found here

 

October 2012 - First Aussie Scrap Source DT post

My feelings of excitement, appreciation and joy continued into October with my first ASS DT post going up. I had the most amazing time playing with Prima for my first ASS post.  I love being part of this DT.  The team is filled with amazingly talented papercrafters who I have followed for years and now I was asked to join them - how truly lucky am I! You can see the original post on the ASS blog here 

 

November 2012 - Classes at Scrappy Hollow

My year has really been fun filled with not only having challenges to play along with, DT's to create for but I also had the most amazing time creating and teaching classes at Scrappy Hollow.  November saw the end of my classes for the year and we made a cute Christmas Tree together.  I am really looking forward to teaching again in 2013 and look forward to seeing all my regular class ladies and meeting some new card makers throughout 2013.

 

December 2012 - Creating for Christmas

One thing  that I absolutely look forward to is whenever I create something is the look that the recipient gives when they open one of my hand made gifts. I made a few Christmas Trees, washi tape baubles, decorated stars and hearts but I think the gift I had most fun creating was my jingling bauble.  Originally bright silver and very modern I took to it with crackle paint, distress ink, sand paper, embellishments and seam binding and this was what I created

 

You can see more of my gifts here

 

Well that's 2012 in a nutshell.  I am incredibly lucky to be working in an industry that I love, meet and get inspired by creative men and women around the world and share the things I do along the way with my blog visitors.  Thank you for your support in 2012 and I look forward to sharing more with you in 2013.  2013 is shaping up to be busy as I will continue to work and teach at Scrappy Hollow, create and play with the ASS on their DT using their amazing products and there will be a few guest DT spots for me too!!!!

 

I would also like to thank my lovely husband and daughter who are my most loyal supporters - from dealing with a neglected house, questionable meals through to  being asked to provide design feedback/opinions and creating photo booths the two of you are amazingly patient and understanding and I am so lucky to have you in my life - LOVE you both xxx xxx

 

Happy New Year!!!!

 

 

The Shabby Tea Room #146 - Favorite Tea Room Project

With the holiday's upon us and life slowing down a little I was able to visit some of my favourite challenge sites with the hope of playing along with a few of them.

The Shabby Tea Room is one of my favourite colour challenge blogs to visit for inspiration and to play along with. 

This weeks challenge at TSTR is really cool! "Favorite Tea Room Project" the challenge asks that you share your favorite project that you created for ANY Tea Room challenge from 2012! If you haven't created anything for the Tea Room in the past, you can create anything new to share with them this week!

I have decided to choose one of my favourites to re-post - TSTR #129

For week #129 Starr was the creative host and she had chosen the theme of 'Summer Cottage' along with this beautiful photo for inspiration the challenge was to create a card or project inspired by the COLORS from the photo and INCLUDE DISTRESSING/SHABBY ELEMENTS plus a TITLE/SENTIMENT!

And this was the card I made for the challenge:

You can view my original post here

I have really enjoyed posting my year in review posts the last couple of days and playing along with this challenge also let me take some time to look back at all the amazing inspiration the talented ladies at TSTR provide - thanks everyone on the DT!

2012 - Year in Review continued ...............

Continuing on with my year in review ................... this post will cover my faves from May through to August.

May 2012 - Mojo 239 Round Card

One of my favourite monthly challenges is the round or square sketch posted in the first week of the month over at the Mojo Monday Blog.  I always choose to go round - love making these cards.  Here is my favourite this month:

You can see the original post here

June 2012 - The Shabby Team Room Terrific Top Three Winner/Terrific Top 2 at iSpy

This was both a sad and happy month in my life.  Sad because my dear father passed away.  He was the rock of our family, my guiding light and I miss him terribly.  Happy because I was made a Top # winner over at The Shabby Tea Room and I made the Terrific Top 2 at iSpy.  Here is the card

You can see the original post here

July 2012 - ISSC and Shabby Tea Room

 

This card was so much fun to make.  MFT die-namics released their mini doilies and this card showcased all of them!

 

You can see the original post here

 

August 2012 - Happy Birthday Bec

 

The gorgeous Bec from Scrappy Hollow turned 21!  Here is the card I made for her

 

 

You can see the original post here

 

Thanks again for dropping by - I'll be back tomorrow with the last review post.

 

 

 

 

 

Aussie Scrap Source - Weekend Inspiration

Just dropped in to post a quick link to share some of the Weekend Inspiration posts which have gone up over at  the Aussie Scrap Source Blog.  I absolutely love working on this design team! In fact it's not really work when you have GREAT products to play with - thanks ASS!!!!!

Pebbles Inc

You can see the post and more pics here

My Minds Eye

You can see the post and more pics here

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

2012 A Year in Review!

With 2012 rapidly coming to a close I thought I would post some of the creations/cards I have made this year.  For this first post I have some to share from January through to April.

January 2012 - MOJO 224

I loved this MOJO sketch (but then again I love them all!!!) and working with the Martha Stewart papers.

 

February 2012 - MOJO 227

 

Feb was a hugely exciting month for me as I was made a MOJO Sketch Champion for the first time!!!

 

Here is the announcement post here

 

And this is the card I created

 

I framed this card and have it on the shelf in my craft studio.  I was so honoured and proud to have been given this award.

 

March 2012 - Cards at Scrappy Hollow

I absolutely LOVE teaching cards classes at Scrappy Hollow.  Sharing my passion and papercrafting discoveries is what it's all about for me.  Seeing the ladies in class finish a card of which they are both happy with and proud of makes my heart sing!

In March the demand for my classes was overwhelming, waiting lists, bookings for the whole year etc etc.  I am so honoured and very grateful to the ladies who supported me by coming to class.  I have made some lovely friends through the classes which I treasure as well.

Here is my March Class cards:

 

April 2012 - CR84FN Colour Challenges

 

Sketch challenges are so much fun and this month I also discovered how much fun colour challenges can be as well.  The talented Mona Pendleton - whom I admire GREATLY- runs this challenge and I played along.  Here is the card I made and you can see the original post here

 

 

 

So there you have it - the first 4 months of 2012 in review.  Stay tuned as I will post more reviews in the next few days and also give you an insight into my plans for 2013.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

 



 





Gettin My Mojo Happening With MOJO273!

WOW what an amazing Christmas I have had.  I am so lucky to have been able to celebrate and spend the day with my family and special friends.  Boxing Day in our house is always a relaxing day, so after a little bit of Boxing Day shopping I have sat down to spend some time playing in the craft studio.

I absolutely love designing for the DT's I am part of and for my classes at Scrappy Hollow but with all my assignments done I found today was a day I could just "play" with whatever I wanted.

Having not played along with many challenges of late I immediately headed over to Mojo Monday and found their latest sketch challenge to play along with.

One of my all time favourite card makers - Teresa Kline from the Mojo DT designed this sketch:

And here is the card I created:

I love Simple Stories papers and the Summer Fresh collection is a fave.  I like the country feel and I teams it up with some MME and October Afternoon patterned papers as well.

 

 

The doily was cut with a denim paper from the MME On The Bright Side collection and the blue worked well with the floral paper from the SS collection.  Of course I had to include a butterfly and rolled flower.  The MFT Royal Rose would have to be my favourite find of 2012.

 

 

Materials Used:

 

Papers:

MME On The Bright Side 6x6 paper pad

Simple Stories Summer Fresh 6x6 paper pad

October Afternoon Ring Around the Rosie 12x12 sheet

 

Dies & Punches:

My Favorite Things Die-namics Royal Rolled Rose, Dainty Doily Med

EK Large Punch - Butterfly

MS punch Med Branch

 

Grosgrain ribbon by Birch, TH Distress ink (Tea Dye), edge distressor, button and twine from my stash, Twiddleybits Itty Bitty Alphabet and 2 1/2  inch circle punch.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 



 



Creating for Christmas

Just one final post before Christmas to share with you a few of the gifts I have created for work colleagues and friends.  For these projects I started with a pre made Christmas decoration and then altered it and added to it with handmade flower and embellishments.

 

 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported me by visiting my blog and also another thank you to those who commented along the way as well.  I love what I do and appreciate you sharing the creative journey with me!

 

Merry Christmas!!!!

 



So Excited!!!

I am so excited!!!!  Scrappy Hollow is lucky enough to have the opportunity to host the amazingly talented Anna Dabrowska - Pecocka AKA "Finnibair" in March 2013 and I am definitely not going to miss going to some of the workshops!!!!

Check them out here

Aussie Scrap Souce Creativity

Just wanted to drop by and share some of my creations that have posted on the Aussie Scrap Source Blog this week.

First up I had loads of fun creating some special Christmas cards using the My Minds Eye - All is Bright range.  Love the traditional feel and alternative colour combination of the collection.

Here is what I created and you can see the full post here

 

 

The second post was a Weekend Inspiration featuring Pebbles Inc's Walnut Grove.  Such a fun and colourful collection to play with!  Here is what I created and the full post can be viewed here

Thanks for dropping by!

ISSC - Farewell

It is with much sadness I write this post.  Some of you will be looking for the next iSpy sketch challenge.  Unfortunately the founder and guiding light at iSpy, lovely Kim, has made the decision not to continue on running the challenge blog.  Life at time just gets too busy and decisions have to be made to ensure family, life and work commitments are met.

Thank you so much to Kim and the rest of the DT at iSpy for inviting me to join the team and also for the support and friendship they so openly gave me.  I will miss our weekly posts and chats along the way.  Hope fully we will cross paths again on another DT or blog challenge forum.

Thank you also to all the lovely and creative card makers who inspired us over the weeks and to all of the people who participated in the challenges each week.

I spent some time looking back through the challenges I completed both as a DT member and as an avid challenge participant and here are a few of my favourites!

As a challenge participant:

ISSC 1

ISSC 4

 

ISSC 6

 As a DT Memeber:

 ISSC 36

ISSC 38

 

ISSC 40

 

 

But my all time favourite sketch and week to play along was ISSC 18.  It was one of the weeks I was part of the top 2 so that made it even more special!  You can visit my original post here

 

 



So it's a sad farewell and a huge thank you to the iSpy team. Now as they say when one door closes another opens so 2013 will hopefully bring some new challenges to play along with and DT opportunities so stay tuned!