Shimelle Starting Point: BKK Baby

I was looking for a creative spark and once again Shimelle came to the rescue with her latest starting point. I had an unopened kit from Studio Calico gathering dust so I pulled it out, followed Shimelle's steps and came up with this.

I pulled out the papers I really liked and didn't hesitate to cut them up and put them to use. The background paper is from Dear Lizzy as is the yellow heart strip and the stripey paper. The grey wave paper is a Studio Calico piece. In lieu of the ink splatters suggested by Shimelle I went for gold sequins instead. The doily die cut is from Crate Paper's new The Pier line and the other loved card is from Dear Lizzy.

The photo is an Origrami print from our trip to Bangkok earlier in the year. I love that the colours in the stripey paper echo the colours on Scarlett's leggings in the photo. It really is the small things that make me happy.

I am linking this up to Shimelle's page here.

Shimelle Starting Point for Subtle Backgrounds

Shimelle posted this starting point a wee while back and to be honest I finished the layout a week or ago too. It is the first layout in ages that I have misted on or used a mask for so it is a bit of a red letter layout.

In my usual disorganised fashion I didn't take a photo of the layout before I added to the starting point!

 

You may recognise these thickers as quite old Amy Tangerine ones. I have two packets of this pattern in varying degrees of used up and am trying hard to use them before opening any of the new ones from the recent CHA. The remainder of this layout comes from scraps of my Wildberry Court add on from the Block Party kit. I adore the Crate Paper background page. I decided to draw upon the red and pink in my daughter's skirt for the background piecing and embellishment. I love these Pink Paislee  mistable hearts and while I had the pink mist out I had a go at a simple ombre mask on some white cardstock. I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

The picture is from one of our many trips to this playground. There are lots of fun things to climb on and a pond with turtles and bridges and a reflexology path for hours of fun. Like so many playgrounds here there is no shade, so a hat and sun block are a must.

Two posts in one day! There must be something wrong with me!

Summer Holiday Starting Point

Good morning. We are on Day Two of Miss Nearly Three going to school four days a week. She was full of the joys of school when she got home yesterday and couldn't wait to go and see her teacher this morning so so far so good! She will be making the switch to five days in a couple of weeks provided she isn't totally exhausted. At that point I guess this mother needs to start thinking about a proper job.

Being in denial about the future is one of my favourite mind spaces and what better way to ignore stress than by looking back on a recent summer holiday. Shimelle has been on fire lately with loads of wonderful sketches and a starting point. I couldn't help myself and pulled out one of the few photos I had printed from our recent trip to Phuket to give the starting point treatment.

This starting point was simple and I wanted to make the most of the patterned papers I had already cut into from my December Studio Calico kit so it looked like a good way to do it.

Here is my take on the starting point: 

I forgot to take a picture until after I had adhered my photo to the layout but you get the general idea. The background paper and all the blocks and strips are from 34th Street kit and the Murray Hill and Kris Kringle add ons with the exception of the shorter green strip which used up a last scrap from the older Central High kit. The picture is of my daughter and sister at our morning banana pancake hang out right on  Bang Tao Beach in Phuket.

I have been looking for a layout to use the Smile tag from Dear Lizzy for quite some time and this photo seemed to be the right fit. Once I added my title and journalling there really was not much need for a lot of additional adornment. I am still not entirely happy with the Just Add Water sticker and it may disappear from the layout before I file it. I will give it a few days before I decide.

This photo makes me want to plan a beach getaway pronto. I will I think, as soon as we know where we are going to be!

I hope to have two further weeks of Project Life up on Thursday. Week 4 has turned into a 3 page spread so it is taking a bit longer than I intended.

I am off to have a first attempt at making Chia Pudding. It sounds delicious so I hope it turns out OK for me! If anyone has a favourite chia recipe I would love to see it.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Happy Mail and a Starting Point

I used another of Shimelle Laine's starting points to make a further dent in my Central High kit last night. Hubby was watching 'Taken' on TV so I sat with him and made a start on this layout.

I love the green on green floral Kesiart paper so I am trying not to cover too much of the rest of it up once I start adding photos and embellishment. I can say that I have added a photo from Christmas Day last year to this starting point and I have pulled out my October Afternoon Christmas supplies from last year that did not arrive until well after Christmas. I have really had some fun mixing and matching these papers this time.

The mail fairies must have seen what I was up to as I received the perfect happy mail this morning. My order of six rolls of washi from Freckled Fawn.

Here is the  Christmas selection which I think will be a perfect addition to my starting point and very useful when it comes time to wrap some presents.

I also picked up two of their new lines that they designed in house. The bottom roll is potty people and the top is a fantastic selection of hearts and arrows. I love them both!

I was quite taken with the colours in Shimelle's original starting point so thought I would share it here as it is the right time of year for North Americans especially to make use of these colours.

 

I have said it before and I will surely say it again - I cannot get enough of these starting points!

Pure Joy

I love watching my daughter playing with her friends. Her excitement at being part of a group and her love of all things social is so obvious! Over the course of the weekend we had plenty of opportunities to watch Scarlett at play. She had gym class, a play and dinner date with old friends and a pool party celebrating a class mate's second birthday. It really was just as well that ballet was cancelled this week!

I am frantically trying to finish off the scraps from Summer of 69 and make a decent dent in Central High before my new kit and ahem- four -ahem add ons arrive later this week. I had one piece of quite brightly coloured orange card from the Summer of 69 main left. I decided to use a very old Shimelle starting point as a way of keeping the process simple. I made the starting point before I had chosen a photo which is not the way I usually work. As luck would have it I found a photo of Scarlett with a lovely seventies looking tent in the background. I think the card and the photo were made for each other!

I cut some circles from the SC exclusive paper in the main kit. It is times like this I wish I owned some circle punches! I added an Amy Tangerine flower to one circle. The labels and stickers are either from October Afternoon's Cakewalk collection or the new Amy Tangerine line. I added some sequins to the labels to match the Hello There label. I have become addicted to sequins and just ordered half a dozen types on Etsy and they are winging their way from South Africa as we speak! There is some hidden journalling on the card tucked behind the photo mount. The layout is a little simpler than I initially planned but with the bright coloured background I definitely think less is more is the correct approach!

My aim of blogging every day in October fell at the first weekend hurdle. I really struggle to blog over the weekends as we do not spend much time at home. I am not usually that organised to pre post during the week. Something for me to work on I guess.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and that my Canadian readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

Shimelle Starting Point: Time For Tea

Long time readers of my blog will be aware of my love of Shimelle's starting points. They are such a fun way to start a layout. I tend to keep my additions to the starting point relatively minimal and today was really no exception.

The original starting point was all the layers of paper and (in my case) washi in the top third of the page. I do not really have any punches so I desided to use washi in place of the punched strip of paper suggested. I added a date label, an additional strip of washi and a brad to the top section.  My journalling and title work clustered in the bottom right quafrant, leaving a good chunk of white (or indeed aqua) space. Once again this is a Summer of 69 kit layout with some additional OA Woodland Park labels.

The photo is from Christmas morning. Scarlett received a beautiful tin tea set from her "uncles" in KL. She spent most of Christmas morning making us all cups of tea. It was one of her favourite presents.

Thanks for the kind words from readers with regards to my health. My procedure went well and I was given a clean bill of structural digestive health. I have been diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome which is much more common than I realised and we have started a couple of medications which, to be honest, do not appear to be helping. I am very interested in alternative medicine though so I am hopeful I may find some other treatments that do work. If anyone out there has had some good experiences I would love to hear of them.

Scarlett Stars in a Starting Point

For anyone who regularly reads this blog, it will come as no surprise that a great deal of the scrapbooking that happens at our house revolves around the two year old who runs the place. I have a handful of cute but no real story to go with them instax photos and I decided that I would try and use them on one of Shimelle's starting point layouts. Today is the day!

This Starting Point had quite a simple layout. Building a layout from the bottom up using strips and borders and scraps. I was itching to use the SO Cal Studio Calico kit, not the least because my new kit should be arriving anyday and I would really like to feel like I have made a start with the last one!

Once again I remembered to take a photo of my starting point before adding anything.

Now I want to say right from the start that I am not a pink person. My daughter is a purple and red person. I had a feeling if I did not use this pink cardstock early it would languish in my stash for all time. It works really nicely with the MME stripe and decided to go with that. My strips at the bottom are various pieces cut from an SC exclusive Tim and Beck paper and a Heidi Swapp map based fringe.

My initial intention was to just use three instax photos but they did not seem to work for me so I added in an additional photo of Scarlett larking about outside a restaurant with her Dad. I love the three pictures he took  this day. She really does look like a doll.

The tag tucked in behind the PP explains the title a little. We are told almost everyday by random strangers that Scarlett is a doll or looks like a China doll. I think it is her very fair skin and lightish hair combined with her very Asian features but it has become a bit of a standing joke that she is a doll. With this idea in mind, I fussy cut a couple of girl/dolls from the Crate Paper Party Guest paper to add to the effect. I used the exclusive stamp that came with the main kit between two of the instax and the Stamping class stamp below the main title. I am not a very confident stamper but now that I have googled stamp press I am actually using mine properly and it has changed my life!

I loved using the Kaisercraft blossom as part of the CP bouquet

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Love the Prima Raspberry Pie ink

I am pretty happy with the way the layout has turned out and I am glad I used something from the main kit and the two add ons I purchased last month. I really need to get scrapping as there are a couple of new lines coming with Summer CHA that have totally caught my eye and I will need to make some room for them!

Another Starting Point

For once I actually remembered to take a photo of the starting point before I added my extras to it. I am so excited! Small things, I know. The original post with the starting point can be found here.

Here is my take on the starting point.

I just love that turquoise wood pattern and felt a little guilty covering up so much of it but.... All the papers are from the 35 mm Studio Calico kit and the Lomography add on. There is not too much left in those kits now so expect to see some So Cal goodness soon! One of the stickers is from an older Echo Park sticker sheet. Can I just say how much I love their sticker sheets with the mixture of pictures, journalling tags and border stickers. They are so useful when you are just looking for that little extra something.

I am sorry this photo is not so fantastic. I took it just before a storm came in the last of the available light. I had a wee experiment with the mistable hexagons from Studio Calico. I actually used my Jenni Bowlin ink pads in Weather Vane and Speckled Egg and that was a quick and easy way to get the colours I wanted. I know hexagons are super trendy but I find them a real challenge to use. I also added in a super cute Marcy Penner flair and an MME sticker on the little bag. There is some hidden journalling on a tag inside there. The photos are from March last year and it did seem surreal two days after the quake to be out on the water.

I had a little helper with my photos this time.

The Ginger Ninja aka Poppy became obsessed with the page and it was a struggle to keep her off. This is also the cat who likes to sleep in the doll's bed....

Well I must fly as Miss S will be back on the school bus shortly. They had a trip to the Fire Station today. Scarlett wanted to go without Mummy or Daddy so I hope it went well! Happy Thursday!

How I love a good Starting Point

I think it would be fair to say that inspiration does not always run hot. In fact, on many occasions it seems to have left the building entirely. On days such as this when I have the time and inclination to scrap but no great plan I find that sketches and increasingly, Shimelle Laine's starting points are where I turn.

Her pink and grey starting point this week had me reaching for my Glee Club Studio Calico kit which is very nearly finished. I found a recent photo of Miss Monkey that really shows her personality and went from there.

The link to the starting point is here.

The photo was taken on a day trip we took to Sentosa a few weeks ago. Monkey loved the butterfly park and especially liked the macaws and lorikeets that were also living there. She is pointing too some spectacular Scarlet Macaws just out of shot although she refused to believe they have her name too! All the patterned papers are from the very old Glee Club kit and Debate Team add on. The blue paper is actually the back of an advert that was popped in with the kit. The two bird themed journalling cards are from October Afternoon and the fonts are Amy Tangerine Muse in woodgrain and Studio Calico letter stickers. I did slightly adjust the starting point to suit the orientation of my journalling cards.

I am off to tackle another week or two of Project Life this afternoon. I remain about a month behind in spite of my best efforts. I am trying to focus on PL for the rest of the week in my evenings. Monkey is off school with a cold today and school is closed on Friday so ,once again, free time is a pretty scarce commodity.

Scrapbook Challenges

Studio Calico has had a plethora of sales and great kits of late. As a result my stash is growing and my output has failed to match this. Fortunately there are a number of great challenges taking place on the boards at present and I am determined to kill a couple of kits this week!

I have just completed my first challenge which was to create a layout from your oldest kit. Embarrassingly this was from Boardwalk - the first kit I ever bought back in August 2010. I love this kit in the main although I have found some of the Basic Grey patterned paper quite challenging to use!

I used Shimelle Laine's Starting Point from last week which I loved. The layout came together really quickly and I ended up abandoning the thought of embellishing it as I really liked the focus on the photos and the colours and patterns in the paper.

Anyway here is the finished product.

The photo is from our trip to Tokyo last year and it amazes me to see the changes in Scarlett over that time. She only started walking a couple of months before this photo was taken and she was pretty confident in her abilities by this stage. This is also one of the few photos actually in focus from this holiday as she was in constant motion!