A collector's heart

This layout is a bit different - it's nearly an inch thick, full of leaves, shells, snake skin, broken chandelier bits and flyscreen amongst other things. I put this together to celebrate my son's obsession with collecting things... the little photo is of a bowl of sticks and leaves he has on his bedside table; this is a big mixing bowl mind you, and god knows what bugs are living in the bottom of it, but he can't bear to throw his leaves away because they are 'so beautiful'. 

And that just makes me happy in my heart.  :)

Along with the leaf bowl, we have an apple sticker bowl, a rusty bits of wire bowl (hello tetanus), a tags I've ripped off my clothes bowl and a small shiny things I bring home from daycare bowl. Bless his little heart.  :)

Anyway, this page is a bit of a hodge-podge, like Ty's collections - I've used some vintage postcards, tickets, cardboard, sticky business card sleeves to hold the 'specimens' of leaves and snake skin, fly screen, a Prima bird and lightbulb, Bo Bunny paper for the background, pieces from the Note to Self collection, Amy Tangerine stickers and there's some hidden journalling tucked in under the title.

The snake skin was kindly donated by Station, our centralian carpet python. Ain't she sweet?

I don't know how long it will last till the skin and leaves disintegrate, but I kind of like that it's natural and will change over time.  :)

This will probably be my last post before Christmas, so to everyone throughout the year who has read my ramblings, left lovely comments and hopefully been inspired to create - wishing you and your families a wonderful, safe, relaxing, crafty, chocolate-laden Christmas !!

Night swimming...

Do you love swimming at night? It reminds me of when I was little and  mum and dad would take my brother and I outside in the dark on hot summer nights, and we'd have a dip and catch Christmas beetles in the water.

We took the kids for their first night time swim recently and I figured I might try out the night shot setting on my new camera.

Ok my photography skills need work, but I like how this layout turned out :)

I used two old Sassafrass Lass papers from my stash (always good when I can use up old stuff), Basic Grey brads, Kaisercraft wood hearts and sparklets, washi tape, blue Dylusions, and the banner came in a little pack that Lou gave me at the Sydney Papercraft Expo.

Scrap your crap! :)

Ok, I wanted to do a couple of posts showing how I have used a few of those random ugly things that we all have laying around, you know - the freebies from a retreat you went to years ago, things you bought because they were in the bargain bin, things you bought because they were pretty and you're a sucker, but they've been sitting in your embellies box for two years and you haven't used them.

This is all about making room for new stuff!   :)

Today I'm going to share a step by step of how I've turned something odd and un-useable into something sweet and pretty.

There's lots of photos - excuse my crappy night-time photography, the light in here is pretty dodgy.  :)

Ok - I don't even know what this is or where it came from - it looks like bag tags strung together? I've had it forever and can't find a way to use it so it's time to get my altering pants on!

First I painted them with white paint. Ok, now I have a blank canvas - at this point I haven't decided what I'm making yet. But it is going to be pink. Lots of lovely mist action...all pinks and reds.

Looking good! Not dirty enough, needs some black...

Oops, too much black. Never mind, I'll dab a bit off with a tissue.

That's better. A bit of stamping maybe? I love this little Prima stamp.

And this Darkroom Door background stamp

Ok now they are nice and grunged up, and I was thinking of turning these into individual tags but now I'm leaning towards a teensy mini album - and it's gotta be about Holly because it's PINK.

I've added some flowers and wire and a bit more misting... maybe silver texta and these letters for a title? And I'll fill the pages with all the lame sayings she's been coming out with lately that she has picked up from the big girls at daycare!

I'm like, "Noooo honey don't let them turn you into a prissy girly girl!!".

Well I misted the alphas with Dylusions and they fell off, so how about some printed paper strips (on glossy photo paper because it just happened to be in the printer)... and some strips to cover that silver writing I've tried out on the first one (which looks crappy)

Ok better - these are the kind of things she's been saying of late, little miss 2 and a half...

A bit more of that awesome hot pink Dylusions over the printed words, a bit of ribbon, a bit of bling... noice! I like it   :)

Here's some decent photos that weren't taken at midnight. I added a bit of washi tape the next day too.   :)

I hope she stays my little baby forever.   :)

Hope you enjoyed seeing how I have turned something dodgy into something cute! Stay tuned for more step-by-step posts as I have plenty of crap that is gonna get upcycled!

3 layouts I haven't shared yet ;)

Just realised I have a few retreat layouts from way back in August that I haven't blogged yet :) These were done at the amazingly fun Little Scrapbook Shop retreat.

I like this one... the photo was taken in the Noosa hinterland the day after Richie asked me to marry him (awww...).

Here's Richard and his mum Mary when he was a young 'un - in the backyard of the house (that we still lived in up until two years ago!) in Blacktown - see my Blacktown train ticket? A lucky find!  :)

The one below is a bit random with all sorts of stuff on it, but that's how I roll  :)

Like the photo? It wasn't staged - Ty (in red) and his cousins just happened to be wearing matching hats and sitting next to each other at the skate park.

There's one more from retreat but I think it deserves it's own post. :)

Enjoy your week!

White With 1 December CT layout

Today I'm sharing my first CT layout for White With 1! This is shaping up to be an awesome CT spot and I'm looking forward to getting stuck in to the challenges over the next 6 months, and seeing what gorgeousness you guys come up with too!

I'm sharing just a wee bit late as I have been away for the weekend at my brother's wedding in the Hunter Valley which was AWESOME. Anyway, the challenge this month is to use Red + White + a Christmas photo.

I've gone for a photo of Holly wearing her new sequin dress up shoes that her beautiful Auntie Debbie gave her last Christmas. She LOVES these shoes and although they are now falling apart because she wears them so much, at least they fit her now! They were like clown shoes when she first wore them.

I've used a wee bit of silver Glimmermist as the background, as well as a pile of random leftover Thickers which I've had for yonks  :)

Other materials used: Bazzill carstock, washi tape, October Afternoon arrow stamp, glitter Thickers, Smash date stamp, Basic Grey brad, Greatest View badge, metal rose from D'Lish Scraps.

Soooo... hop on over to White With 1 for some more inspiration from the lovely creative team, and do have a go at this lovely Christmassy challenge!