A Peek at Paris.

When I realised that we are almost half way through this year, first I  wondered where on earth has the time gone and secondly I thought it is definitely time to add some more Paris photos. I took many, many photos of the Louvre, inside and out, but here is just a peek. 

The Louvre, viewed through the glass Louvre Pyramid which serves as the museum's main entrance and contrasts so beautifully with it's glass and steel construction.

Ceiling in the Louvre. My photos come no where near capturing the size, the richness of colour, the technical detail and the immense beauty of these ceilings, they are truly awesome.

Inside the Louvre looking out: still more beauty to be seen.

Lani and bronze street sculpture.

Me and Christmas macaroons.

Thanks for visiting me today. I hope your week is a happy, productive one.

Music-to make housework easier...........a song

I love to visit Czekoczyna ( Kasia Krzyminska ) and be inspired by her delicate, artsy pages. She,  and some of her very creative friends, visit HERE to check out who they are, get together once a month and create a work inspired by a favourite song. Music is a massive part of my life; my blog is partly named after a hip-hop, rap band, so pages influenced by music and lyrics very much appeal to me. They call their challenge "Music-to make housework easier" and their pages are of course amazing and inspirational. This month the song they chose is one that has a very personal significance for me. I tend not to share too much personal stuff on my blog, I don't like to get too 'heavy', I like to keep it bright and breezy, but we all have things go on in our lives that cause our hearts to break and our heads to be troubled.

Two and a half years ago my youngest daughter was not in a good place. Since then she has shown incredible strength and determination to overcome some personal battles and has grown and matured into a wise, empathetic, beautiful young woman with a clear focus on what she wants her future to be, and how she can achieve it. So proud of her. This song by Sia is a reminder of her lost, darker days.

Thanks for visiting today. May the music in your week be either touching or toe tapping, just as long as it's good.

A Page For Meg's Garden.

This is a page I made for Meg's Garden a few weeks ago using all her beautiful papers, and in particular this one called; "The Rose Garden Collection - Pale Blue Roses". I found it was perfect for using with other mixed media...gesso, inks and texture paste.

Other papers used from Meg's Garden are:

"Ode To A Summer's Day Collection - Summer beauty"

Elements Collection - "Old World Time" and "Old Writing"

Vintage Ornate Tags Sheet

Transparency Sheet - "Butterflies"

Also used Melissa Francis Vintage Embellishments, Prima Resist Canvas, Crafters Workshop Mask, Prima Clear Stamp.

If you would like to see this range of paper from Meg's Garden and all her other beautiful scrapbook and card making supplies, visit her online store HERE. Thanks for dropping by today. May your weekend be full of fun and colour.

Scrap Around The World........A New Challenge

Welcome to the launch of Scrap Around The World, a new, creative challenge site. Each month a different  designer will present you with a Mood Board and a Sketch. Look at them, play with them and use them any way your creative instincts tell you to and create a page.

 All the details on HOW TO PLAY, OUR SPONSORS AND PRIZES AND THE DESIGN TEAM are all here at the new blog site:

SCRAP AROUND THE WORLD

May Mood Board created by Agnieszka Bellaidea

This is the May Sketch and Mood Board combination that can be interpreted any way you like. You have the freedom to use these images as starting points and go from there, where ever your creative instincts lead you.

Here is my take on this months sketch and mood board. I have spun the sketch around so the tags are at the bottom instead of at the side, but apart from that I've remained visually accurate to the sketch right down to the placement of the circular elements, the chevrons, the tags and the splatters. 

I love the colour scheme of teal and rust, so have gone with it. I was also influenced by the slightly shabby, feminine look of the mood board, so introduced the damask patterned background, doilies and dress forms.

 The photos are of my daughters being silly, taking photos of themselves in the back or the car with my iphone.

Embossed tags

Crumpled flowers made with the Tim Holtz flower punch; the tips dipped into copper paint.

Distressed stained tag, embossed with white, splatters made with watered down Distress paint.

Our challenges are open to everyone, anywhere in the world & all this month's prizes include
FREE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING!!

This month our merit winner will receive the newest collection from
  Inkido! PaperCraft Scandinavia

2nd place will receive the brand new collection from 13 arts

3rd place will receive a $25 chipboard prize-pack from
Scrapmatts Chipboard in Australia,
containing a selection of their latest releases!

Australian Made Laser Cut Chipboard to compliment your scrapbook pages, cards & papercrafting projects. Scrapmatts has a ning site that showcases our amazing talented international design team who post daily on our blog there, a Gallery, customer challenges & an online store. 

4th place will receive two sets of flowers from
Inkido!  PaperCraft Scandinavia

Our RANDOM winner will receive this assorted pack of goodies

The deadline for this challenge is midnight EST Saturday 25th May 2013.

Please link your entries into our sidebar using our Inlinkz tool & don't forget to read our RULES OF PLAY before you begin.

Please play along - our success depends on YOU!

FOR ALL THE DETAILS VISIT "SCRAP AROUND THE WORLD" CLICK HERE.

I am really very happy and excited to be a part of this new challenge site. I hope you will be excited too by the mood boards and sketches, that they will inspire you and that each month you will make a page, your way, in your style with the creative freedom that they allow, and be a part of this new venture.

'Oh Happy Day' at Prima

No words, just pictures. Wanting to share my joy. Two pages featured last month for the Prima BAP and the Prima PPP 

Thanks for visiting, hope you have a great start to your week.

Lets Get Shabby.....Challenge #45

This months challenge at Lets Get Shabby is about CONFETTI. Create a LO, card or OTP project using confetti, it's such pretty stuff. I tried to find the the pastel, small confetti but could only get this large, brightly coloured one made of tissue. Get creative, see what you can come up with and play along. All the details are HERE. 

Well, it's Friday, the weekend is here, hug your loved ones and make something pretty.

Works in Progress

Hello. I feel as though it's been ages since I posted any work here in my "creative space", and my last post was a "whingy" one about people who couldn't be honest, sorry, I'm not going there again....just let me say there is no news of the missing journals. Thank you to those of you who left reassuring messages of hope.

I haven't been completely idle tho. Apart from helping one daughter relocate (oh how I hate moving !), I have been playing in my little studio and have done a couple of pages but am not quite ready to put them up yet, and some are still 'works in progress'. Mike and I are off on a little holiday this week to the Hunter Valley ( I have never been to this part of Australia before ) and while there I'm doing 2 Dina Wakley mixed media classes at Pages2Scrap, which I am really looking forward to. Any way, just to proove I have been busy, here is a peek at some current projects.

Thank you for visiting today. Have a wonderful week ahead, may there be more smiles than frowns.

Circle Journals.....Where Art Thou ?

This is a difficult post for me to do. I'm pretty laid-back, low profile, love the arty, scrappy world and just do my own thing; but something is bothering me.

Below are 2 pages I made for a journal that is now, sadly, missing in action somewhere.

About this time last year, one lovely lady hand made several blank journals and asked 9 Australian scrapbook/ mixed media artists if they would do 2 or 3 pages in each journal and pass ( or post ) it on to the next person on the list..........a Circle Journal. The idea being that at the beginning of each month you would receive a journal that had been worked in by one of the other girls, you then do your couple of pages in it and post it on. Not hard, a lot of fun and at the end we all have one journal each to keep that every one in the group has created a little bit of themselves in.

After doing about 3 journals, and with about 6 still to go, they all stopped.

No more journals arrived in my letter box, nor in some of the other girls I was in regular contact with. The sweet lady who started it all, of course sent out emails to everyone in the group trying to track them down, to no avail, they all seem to have vanished.

Really ????! No, they are in someones possession, maybe lost in their work room or studio somewhere, but no, someone from this group has them, or maybe a few girls have 1 or 2.

Please give them back or send the on, finished or not. I would be so excited if one arrived in my letter box next week! No questions asked. 

We all have "shit happen" in our lives and I know circumstances can change. To not be able to complete a page in the journal, or to not be able to continue to be involved is no big deal.

To keep these journals tho, and prevent the others in the group from completing and then receiving one is sad and disappointing. You have stolen from us. Not just in a material way, but you have destroyed the trust and faith that we all had in each other.

The art/scrapbooking/mixed media world in Australia is small, everyone knows everyone. If anyone out there knows where these "lost" journals might be, could you do whatever you think is a fair thing and get them moving again.

Thanks for visiting me today. Hope the coming week is full of creativity and lots of laughs.

Lets Get Shabby Challenge #44 and "A Holiday"

Hello. Challenge #44 is up at Lets Get Shabby and it's an Easter List........well, 3 lists really. A list for 'subject', a list for 'embellishment', and a list for 'technique'. You need to work with one or more things from each list. Check out all the details HERE, we would love you to play along.

I have made an Easter Tin from one of those cute little pot plant holders from Ikea. I have covered it with paper, decorated it, made 3 tags and decoupaged some foam eggs with napkins and 7gypsies Tissue Paper. Of course you could fill it with real chocolate eggs or any other Easter treats.

While we are on the subject of "holidays," here is one you may like to go on. My friend Lucy Muraca organizes "scrapbooking holidays"...............does it get any better..........scrapbooking AND a holiday !! Anyway, this time the very experienced and talented, Angella Peardon is going along as teacher, and they are going to Vietnam........AMAZING!! I would love to be going. If you are interested, here are all the details.  

      Wishing you all a safe, peaceful and happy Easter.