Penang Sunset or was it Sunrise?

After a terrible couple of hours randomly pushing papers round and searching for photos I gave up. I came back to the same papers and photos after Scarlett went to bed and was able to make something work. It is funny how the inspiration hits you.

Once again it was a Shimelle sketch that helped put the pieces together. I looked at this sketch in the morning but it didn't seem right. Ten hours later it was just what I needed.

 

I fell in love with the Tim and Beck paper that I have used in this layout so I wanted to be able to show off a big chunk of it and this sketch made it possible.

The papers for this layout came from the Studio Calico Neverland kit and the Tink add on. I added a couple of cards from my Project Life card stash and cut a piece of the anchor paper from the SC kit. A few sequins, a Basic Grey sticker and the gorgeous ombre lettering and the layout was done.

These photos are from our trip to Penang last year. I am starting to think that they were from a sunrise rather than a sunset as we were on the Eastern side of the island but the thought was there! It was such a restful outlook from our apartment there.

This morning has been anything but restful. We have been nurturing a tame gecko in our hallway but woke to find that our cat had killed it. Miss Three also woke up with a cough and a runny nose so I have kept her home for the day. My plans for getting much done have evaporated and all before six am! I am hoping that I might be able to work on some Project Life while MT is resting. If she rests of course!

I hope you have started the day in a less eventful fashion!

Shimelle Sketch: Fort Cornwallis

I am struggling to keep up with my blog reader. I am one of the dinosaurs who loves Google Reader and I am really sad that it is disappearing later in the year. I still haven't decided where to transfer my blog list to - I have heard good things about Feedly but I have not had time to look into it any further. The reason that I mention this is that I am about five posts behind Shimelle Laine's blog at present. I thought this sketch was quite current but alas it isn't so. On the upside, I have a lot of great posts to look forward to if I ever get the chance to catch up.

The sketch I was drawn to was this one.

It is lovely and simple but with room to play. Just the way I like it!

 

Here is my take. I kept pretty much to the sketch although my photos were a bit smaller than 4 x 6. In lieu of patterned paper, I used a double strip of the gorgeous ombre washi that came with my Studio Calico February kit, Front Row. The colours from the tape blended so nicely with the patterned papers from the kits and helped showcase all the gorgeous tropical greenery at Fort Cornwallis. I love the AC Kitten Thickers on this layout too. It all just makes my heart happy. I suspect I may go back and outline the Penang at the very bottom of the layout as it is getting a little lost on the tape.

These photos are from our trip to Penang with my Dad last year. We visited Fort Cornwallis on the first day I felt halfway human. It was a nice little outing and it was good to see more of Penang than the beaches and great restaurants. There was a very sweet little cemetery there with graves of the early European settlers. The tropical climate was very hard on the women and children and it was really quite poignant.

By the time this post goes live I will be in Malaysia having a short break in Kuala Lumpur. For those who celebrate, have a wonderful holy season and for those who don't, enjoy your long weekend. We hope to.

Lanterns : A Shimelle Sketch

Sometimes you see a sketch and you think that will be a good creative prompt and it is, for that one layout. Other times you see a sketch and you know you will use it over and over again. This is one such sketch.

People get into scrapbooking for many reasons and for me it was a combination of the old favourite, just having had a baby, and a love of all the pretty patterned paper. I adored all the pretty patterned paper but I also found it totally overwhelming when I first started. As a result, I have some seriously unusable paper stashed away in drawers and I joined Studio Calico to save me from making too many expensive mistakes.

Here is the wonderful Shimelle sketch : 

 

Here is my take on it:

I really loved this scripty neutral paper and I didn't want to hide it and this sketch is designed for those occasions when you want to let a paper sing. The photo is a very bright one so it needed a little toning down and again this paper was perfect. All the other bits were scraps from My Summer of 69 kit and my Christmas add on that I had been working on previously. I loved the pop of colour from the ombre washi here too.

This photo is just a random single image of a float we saw being prepared along the Singapore River for the Lantern Festival. I loved it too much not to scrap but it doesn't really have any bigger story. I am happy it now has a home in an album!

I have linked my layout up to Shimelle's page. There are some lovely takes on this sketch if you are hunting for some inspiration.

There is a bit of school based excitement here this week. Miss Three received her first Scholastic Book Club pamphlet which filled my book loving heart with joy. The two of us are off to a performance of the Little Red Hen at a theatre tomorrow with the rest of her school friends. It is her first proper play so I hope she enjoys it.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Sweet Treats - a Shimelle sketch

I love Shimelle Laine's sketches and starting points. Once again she made this layout a fun and simple process. I think perhaps I took it a little more literally than she intended but it is all good.

 

I can see this is a sketch I will work with again as it is super versatile and I would like to try it turned on its side.

 

This is a very ordinary picture of Miss Three eating ice cream which is a fairly regular scenario. There is just something about this image that I liked as I flicked through my photos. It also meant that I was able to use some of my Christmas papers on a non Christmas layout.

I decided to run with the using the same embellishment in all three spots. In this case I used the word love and sequins.

I was really excited to try the Amy Tangerine embroidery templates on this layout. It was a bit crooked but I love the look and the colour of thread included was perfect.

More sequins and sparkle. Can you have too much of this? I think not.

 
I was really pleased to include some little words from the new MME collections. I am obsessed with those word sheets.


Does this sketch spark your interest? I would love to see any of your takes on it.

 

Our Little Fairy Princess

Does anyone else have photos that are almost too special to scrap? I have been holding onto the blurry photo on this page for over a year. In the interests of getting it done and perfection being the enemy of productivity I vowed to get this photo scrapped this week.

Once again it was Shimelle to the rescue with another great and simple sketch.

 

I had every intention of following it and then once I had glued down my four background pieces onto my go to grey cardstock I realised I had actually done something else. Oh well.

 

This really is a bit pinker than I usually scrap. Scarlett had been looking through my kit remains and expressed her love for the pink paper on the bottom left so that drove the colour choices. I loved the giant zigzag patterned paper so felt compelled to use it twice and in a thin strip to help divide the quadrants as well. The colours worked well with the 5th and Frolic bits and pieces and everything came together quickly. I really did not think I would ever use the fox faces in 5th and Frolic but it seemed to work well with the feel of this layout.

 

 I have been beavering away at my Project Life and will share another couple of weeks worth tomorrow. I need to get all our Bangkok photos edited so I can get to work on Weeks 4 and 5 this weekend.

Welcome to some new faces who have started following my blog over the past few weeks. I am so excited to share my work and adventures with you. If you have any questions at all, please pop them in the comments and I will do my best to answer them.

Have a great Thursday!

Coffee and Cake - a Shimelle Sketch

After waking at 4.30 this morning in anticipation of a 5.30 start I was pretty tired by the time we arrived back to our apartment at two this afternoon. I knew I wanted to do something creative after four days away so I checked my Reader for all the sketches I had recently saved for later. Shimelle came to my rescue with this great little sketch.



I searched through a bag of photos from last year and pulled out two pairs of contenders. I think I will reuse the sketch for the second pairing as well as they will not be living in the same album and it was a lovely simple sketch to play around with.

All the papers in this layout were SC exclusives either from Basic Grey or SC.  I pulled out some hessian look thickers to add to the texture of the page. I added some October Afternoon number washi and a variety of stickers and chipboard from the Dear Lizzy 5th and Frolic range.It came together really quickly.

Coffee and cake have always been my go to comfort foods. My journalling reflects that although my lactose intolerance means the coffees are soy these days, with a bit of planning I can still enjoy the same kind of treat.

Bangkok was a great adventure for us all. I need to gather my thoughts a bit more before blogging about our few days there but I am feeling a lot less pressured about the whole moving issue now. Knowledge most certainly is power.

Have any of you played with Shimelle's sketch? Please post a link in the comments. I would love to see your take.