Paper and Pins... my handmade journey

Goodnight

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 06:10:00 +0000

Hello friends,

I've decided to abandon this little blog.

It has served its purpose and run its course. Since I started writing here 4 years ago much has changed: when I began blogging, Holly was just 2 weeks old, I had hardly even got into scrapping (and what I'd done so far was woeful), I was running an Etsy store called Pork Chop sewing baby dresses and stuffed toys, I was 10kg heavier, I was quiet, awkward and incredibly self-conscious about my wonky teeth, I was furiously anti-exercise, I didn't have a healthy body or healthy mind, and had bouts of post-natal depression. I threw myself into craft to escape from the parts of myself that I didn't like.

Fast forward to today: Holly is four and Ty is six, I've been married for 7 years, I've moved house, changed jobs, found my true creative voice, got healthy and started to (gasp) enjoy exercise. I suffered the pain of braces for over 3 and a half years so my teeth don't worry me anymore. For the first time in my life I really believe my dream of owning a cafe - a dream that I've had since I was about 13 - could eventuate some time in the next five years. I'm writing a book. And just writing in general again; something I've neglected for a long time.

I'm still leaving this blog up on the web though; I have so much work recorded here and an indecipherable tangle of links that would need to be tidied up if I unpublished this whole blog.

What I am doing however is tidying up things in my life and getting rid of the stuff that no longer serves me - including flicking the off switch here at Paper and Pins. This blog doesn't paint a true picture of who I really am, and that hasn't felt quite right to me for some time. I'm still crafting - just not so often. I'm also trying to be my real, raw, honest self as much as possible both online and in real life. Challenging! But in a good way.

But I'm still blogging!

Just not here - now you can find me sharing my creative stuff and much more at This Whole Soul. Please come over and take a look around! Or you can sign up here to get posts straight to your inbox.

Leonie
xoxox

Intermission

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 03:12:00 +0000

So, December was my final DT spot for 123 - and probably my last DT spot for quite a while. 2013 was such a full on year in general and I feel like I am totally burnt out creatively. It's a bit sad to say this, but I am looking forward to taking a break from scrapping for a while. I think I've just pushed too hard over the past 12 months and it turned into a chore instead of a joyous creative outlet. I am going to step away from a while and let it naturally fall back into my life when I am ready. Other things have been taking the spotlight in my life too; last year was amazing, life-changing, eye-opening, painful and deeply challenging all rolled into one. Mostly revolving around my health and spirituality which I have started blogging about (along with a few recipes - go check 'em out) over at This Whole Soul. And there's a lot I haven't written about yet either. But even this is intermittent: I find I consistently over commit to things, get busy, get way way busy, then burn myself out, so I am purposely not throwing myself into something new just for the sake of it. And it's still me just sharing things and making things every now and then; the only reason I set up a separate blog address was to not bore the people that come here just for the scrappy goodness. :)

Speaking of scrappy goodness... I have also been slack and not kept up with reading many other scrappy blogs and leaving much love, I am a bad virtual friend LOL. Seriously though in my RSS reader I have hundreds of unread posts. So sorry I have dropped off the radar a bit. Every now and then I look at my inspiration board and see amazing layouts from so many talented people and think 'OMG I want to create... COME BACK MOJO!!'

However... even though my creative brain needs a break, this isn't a 'bye bye no more blogging here for me' kinda thing. As that header up there says, it's my creative journey... and every journey has peaks and troughs. I've been blogging pretty consistently since February 2010. That's a pretty long time for someone with such a short attention span. So, things might go quiet for a little bit here, then I'm certain I'll want to scrap again later on in an organic, no pressure kinda way, and I'll start sharing my layouts and journal pages again. I have a feeling that come winter, I'll want to regroup and cocoon myself in a small cave made of paper and pins.

Thanks for reading, lotsa love to you guys and hope 2014 brings everything you have dreamed of! :)

PS... here is a little hint of some of the goodness at my other blog This Whole Soul if you're interested in checking out my own wholefood recipes and other snippets of my life. You can also follow on Facebook or Pinterest. Ugh this feels like shameful self promotion, sorry.

2013: my finished journal

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 11:41:00 +0000

I've shared bits of this previously, but have managed to find a few moments during the silly season to complete my journal for 2013. Here it is in its entirety, minus a few pages that are a bit personal. :)

Now I just have to find another vintage book to turn into my 2014 journal.... op shops here I come!

My last DT layout for 123 !

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 10:09:00 +0000

Hello all, it's my final month as a DT member at the 123 Challenge blog... thanks so much for having me Mel, it's been a blast! :)

December's wonderful prompt is

JOY + METALLICS + BOWS

I've decided not to go with a Christmas theme... instead I was inspired by the beautiful metallic wings of this beetle and based my page around his lovely colours. It's a bit hard to see in the photos but the misting is all shimmery.

I don't really do bows, but I snuck in a little wire one at the bottom. :)

This was a fun page to put together, although my mojo has been sadly lacking lately :(

If you want to check out some totally inspiring layouts head on over to the 123 blog to see what the DT have whipped up for this month. Love how everyone has taken this in a different direction!

And big congratulations to the new DT members who'll be announced very soon!

November 123 Challenge!

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 09:19:00 +0000

What an awesome prompt this month over at 123 Challenge!

Teal, 'cool' and stamping - this is my take on it... Ty had a dress up day at school and the theme was what you wanted to be when you grew up. Every boy in his class wanted to be a policeman!

Head on over to the 123 Challenge and check out some of the fantastic DT work :)

AND...

123 Challenge is having a DT CALL!! Go on, why not apply? This team is so much fun to work with. :)

A peek into my journal

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 10:44:00 +0000

A little while ago I mentioned I'd found an old domestic science manual and was planning to turn it into my art journal. I've covered the front in texture paste, dylusions and glimmermist and it has become a record of my journey to get healthy which started on the 31st December '12. So I'm 10 months into that journey now and a lot has changed!

I've completed a few pages now so I thought it was time to share, even though these pages are a bit personal :)

There's a few other pages I plan to do next weekend at the Pages 2 Scrap Spring Retreat ... woo hoo! My only retreat for this year and I'm planning to completely relax and enjoy it, rather than trying to cram in as many layouts as possible like I normally do. I might even spend most of my time in the day spa at the resort, who knows?! :)

123 challenge for October!

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 13:24:00 +0000

Helloooo lovely peeps, and my hasn't my poor blog been a bit neglected lately... I have been busy with all sorts of things and unfortunately haven't had as much time to scrap as I usually do! And, I must apologise - a little slack in commenting on all your lovely challenge entries! Sorry!

Anyway, October's here already! OMG how did that happen... Christmas will be upon us before we know it. I just realised my layout for this month looks a little Halloween-y, but that wasn't my intention... I was actually going for:

This month at 123 Challenge it's yellow, 'heart' and mixed alphas, so here's my take on it!

Yep - Holly hiding under the kitchen table being a tiger... with no pants on.

It was awesome to see so many people get on board and take up last month's challenge; we had 35 entries which was a great improvement on the past few months, things had been a little quiet in 123 land! But now - pow - right back into it, with so many fantastic entries too. Head on over to the 123 site to see the fab DT samples for this month!

White With... PISTACHIO! yum...

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 10:22:00 +0000

What an awesome colour, don't you think!?

This month over at White With 1 we have a lovely challenge with the colour PISTACHIO!

AND an extra special incentive to get your entry in this month... A Lil' Somethin' is giving away a pack of these sweet flairs to every entry! All you have to do is link your layout in the blog as normal, plus like us on Facebook and share your layout there (then message WW1 via Facebook with your postal address).

And don't forget to pop over to A Lil' Somethin' and like their page too!

And the blog has got a bit of a new look with the lovely Susan Longman now at the helm. Note that the link tool to link up your challenge entries is now underneath that month's blog post, not in the sidebar :)

Head on over and to the blog to see the other DT layouts, and I see we've got some awesome entries this month already!

And lastly (and a bit sadly), this is my final month with White With 1 but I'm looking forward to continuing to participate in the challenges when I can!

123 Challenge... September is all about PINK

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 09:35:00 +0000

And the 123 Challenge for September is...

PINK + 'SWEET' + FLORALS

Here's my take:

This paper was SUPER pink so I slapped on a bit of gesso first. :) The little wood bits are from Freckled Fawn and the giant Tweet one is from Typo.

Some lovely Greatest View flair and a little cross stitch applique piece from an old doily...

Even though pink isn't really my thing, I like how this one has turned out! Head over to the 123 site to see the other DT pages, some amazeballs ones in there this month!

Lots more art journalling... final Pages 2 Scrap DT Projects

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 08:44:00 +0000

Well, my poor blog has been a bit neglected of late, and I just realised I hadn't shared July's DT projects with you for Pages 2 Scrap. And these are my last lot for P2S! You may have already seen some lovely work from the new P2S DT, now featuring the gorgeous Bee Clarkson and the very talented Marg Oliver.

So here's my last few art journalling projects for Pages 2 Scrap; I had great fun with these, even if it was more about the process than the end result! You can also go back and take a look at June's pages if you're interested.

This page for example was going to be entirely different, but I made a mess of it so I covered the middle with a gesso'ed and stencilled parking ticket (!) and now I really like it!

And this page was pretty much the same story... you can see the remnants of something else underneath but I didn't like it so covered the lot in teal green and started over.

LOVE my white poster paint Sharpie marker too; it's perfect for highlighting your page. And I believe that plane stamp is from Tim Holtz. :)

Here I've used some cardboard packaging as a base and layered some washi tape and stencils with red glimmermist and blue dylusions, and added my quote in a painted WoW frame. The girl mask is one of Dina Wakley's range for TCW, available at Pages 2 Scrap.

Once again, the chipboard here was a happy accident... I painted this frame blue ages ago and didn't end up using it, so I repainted it orange on the reverse side for this little canvas. However I didn't realise it was leaking through to the back, but really like the mottled blue / orange effect.

This TCW cloud stencil is one of my faves :)

And a little close up... look at that fabbo colour...

And my last little project is - a pencil case!

I was going to do a small canvas for the wall, when I saw these plain white canvas pencil cases in a kid's art and craft store - this one was fun to do! I just put some plastic inside the case so the paint wouldn't leak through to the other side, and covered it in gesso, mist and some paint and stencilling action.

The little applique robot is something I've had in my sewing stash for ages.

Well, I hope you have fun getting messy this month! And if you're in the area, head in to Pages 2 Scrap for some awesome stencils, a huge range of paints, lots of Dylusions goodness and all your essential art journalling supplies! AND lots of lovely Project Life goodies too. ;)

White With 1... pastel love!

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 10:42:00 +0000

This month over at White With 1 we have a beautiful, soft, pretty challenge!

WHITE + MASKING + PASTELS!

So here's my take...

I've used a couple of different masks and a spot template to mist the background, and most of the papers are from Glitz Designs.

I loved this challenge! Why not check out the other awesome creative team examples at White With 1!

123 Challenge... let's get VINTAGE :)

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 04:44:00 +0000

This month at the 123 challenge we have a lovely challenge for you...

CREAM + "OLD" + VINTAGE

So pull out all your gorgeous vintage bits and pieces!

This is my take on it - a pretty simple page using lots of vintage paper scraps. I've stitched a little pocket for my photo, which is a folded up pic of Ty and his dad being silly.

If you can't read my scribbly handwriting, my journalling is about how Tyler took this photo to daycare with him for a year or so as a 'security blanket'; he wouldn't leave home without it in his pocket. Then finally, he felt comfortable enough at daycare to not need it. It's all creased and dirty but I couldn't bear to throw it out. :)

Head over to the 123 challenge to see some other fantastic design team layouts!

White With 1... July challenge!

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 09:19:00 +0000

Who's up for a challenge... a white with one challenge? :)

This month over at WW1, the challenge is...

WHITE + NAVY + ARROWS

I enjoyed having a go at this one!

It's not entirely white with one... I think I got a little carried away! :) Oops...

But I do like how this one has turned out. And I used flowers! That doesn't happen very often :)

So, head over to White With 1 if you're up for a cool blue challenge this month!

Materials used: Manorhouse and Kaisercraft flowers, metal roses from D'Lish scraps, Sodalicious and Freckled Fawn wood elements, scraps and stickers from Studio Calico and Echo Park Note to Self collection, TCW Balzer Designs template and Kaisercraft paint

123 July challenge is up!

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 10:41:00 +0000

Have you seen the challenge criteria for July at the 123 Challenge blog? Its...

NAVY + 'EXTRAORDINARY' + DENIM

Here's my take...

My denim is the little bits of fabric under the photo - cut from Ty's old beat-up daycare hat that he no longer needs now he's at big school!

I've been wanting to use these funky Sassafras 'Sweet Treats' stickers for a while so used them as the starting point for my layout. :)

Are you scrapping tonight? I am! I'm here in my craft room avoiding the rugby :)

Head on over to the 123 Challenge blog to see the other design team layouts... some seriously inspiring stuff there!

Materials used: Kraft cardstock, Sassafras stickers, vintage milk bottle cap, Echo Park alphas, Typo orange spotty envelope, Glitz transparency, washi tape from Pages 2 Scrap, blue Dylusions, Marmalade glimmermist, TCW and Hueys masks.

123 Challenge for June :)

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 03:29:00 +0000

Yes, yes, I know it's July :) It's been a hectic month all round!

The June challenge at 123 was to use...

GREY + CIRCLES + 'YOU'

I luv how this one has turned out, it could be one of my faves! :)

Did you get time to have a go at the June challenge? July's will be up on the blog very soon!

Materials used: Studio Calico and Glitz pp, Amy Tangerine flower stickers and Thickers, washi tape, Heidi Swapp packaging, feather, Creatiate stamp, yellow and silver Glimmermist, yellow scrap paper from one of Holly's daycare paintings :)

Lots of art journalling! Pages2Scrap June DT projects...

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 08:33:00 +0000

So, I get an email from Sam at Pages 2 Scrap saying that this month she'd love to see some art journalling projects on display in the store.

First reaction: Faaarrk! I don't know what I'm doing!

Second reaction: man, what should I make? There's no boundaries how do I know what the P2S girls want? I know I did Dina's class recently but... err.... HELP!

Third reaction: oh well, I can get all my stencils and paints out. Woot, I don't know what the hell I'm doing, but I'm going to get messy, yay!

If, like me, you are new to art journalling, or are yet to give it a go yourself, you might know where I'm coming from. Being such a free-form, personal, individual thing, it's hard to get a handle on what the point of it is. You know, I struggled with that for a while - I've seen other scrappy friends' gorgeous colourful work and thought 'wow, that's pretty' but when I've tried to give it a go myself, I've felt a bit lost. Like I couldn't quite see why I'd do an art journal page when I could do a layout instead.

I kind of thought of art journalling as a 'nice, but not for me' thing for a while. And I really think if you're going to journal in the traditional sense, meaning you've got yourself a book and you want to try and write stuff, then it might help to have a theme or a purpose to give yourself some structure to work within if you know what I mean. Especially if, like me, you've never really been a diary-keeping kinda person so you feel a bit exposed putting personal thoughts on paper.

Of course, if you're brimming with inspiration and just want to get stuck in, that's great!

But sometimes a big white blank page staring back at you can be a wee bit indimidating for us creative folks, so to ease yourself into it, you could try starting with a theme of sorts... who knows where you'll end up, but these ideas might help you overcome scary blank page syndrome.

Here's some ideas:

A traditional daily journal / diary for your thoughts
A record of an important time in your life, or a period of change like babies / weight loss / relationship changes / travel
An outlet for dealing with an illness, your own or someone else's
A book to simply practice colour mixing or to test out different techniques with your supplies
A dream journal
A book to paste all your Photo-A-Day pics in (like yours Jo!) :)
A bucket list
Secrets, poems, feelings, dark thoughts that you need to get out of your head

Having said that, I've just read another blog that says 'don't have a theme', so the upshot is, do whatever ya want! :)

What I've found over the years I've been scrapping is that sometimes I want to record a feeling or a moment and I don't have a photo to go with it. Art journalling is great for that. You might be in the car with your family, looking forward to a lovely day out, and you look over at your hubby and he smiles at you, and you feel wonderful in that moment... it's not really the time to go 'hang on honey let me Instagram that so I can scrap this later'... (although maybe we have all done that at some point...).

Of course, there's no rules with an art journal, so if you want treat it like a scrap album and add photos to your pages, then why not? In fact, you might want to keep an eye out on the Pages 2 Scrap blog for Karyn Pawson's project for this month, which is a record of an awesome event where she has combined photos and art journalling.

Ultimately, its about the journey, not the destination. Enjoy getting messy. Give all your paints / mists / inks a workout. Get stuck in and make mistakes. And just accept that people at work won't understand why your fingers have been green for three days. :)

As you can see I don't really have a particular style or theme or anything going on here as I've purposely tried to do a few different looking pages for display in the shop, however in amongst doing all these, I covered an old school domestic science manual in gesso and texture paste, thinking it would end up as a DT project. But it's staying here on my desk, as I have found a use for it; I want it to be a record of my journey towards getting healthy, so stay tuned for some posts about that later on.

I love how this page turned out, although it looked pretty crappy to start with. Note I've used some lines of text cut from vintage papers - this is a good starting point if you don't want to journal, or you're one of those people that never knows what to say! :)

Another good thing about art journalling... you don't need masses of supplies. Just a few essentials and the rest you've most likely got in your stash. Confession: I have 7 tubes of paint. That's it. And 16 mists and inks. Not really that much compared to some lovely ladies I know!

So what do you need? You don't 'need' much of anything really - some thick watercolour paper, anything to make pretty colours with, and a good journalling pen (Fude Ball pens are awesome, P2S should have them in store. They write on ANYTHING). Try out any pens and pencils you have lying around to see what works well on your pages. I still have a mountain of sketching pencils from when I studied fashion design years ago, so I have dug out some charcoal pencils and a Chinagraph pencil (white and waxy) which is fun to scribble with too.

A palette knife (or an old credit card), baby wipes and paper towels (prepare for major mess) and a Ranger craft sheet also come in handy. Failing that, some sort of small tarp-like arrangement to cover your desk! EMBRACE THE MESS.

Other stuff you might like to add to your stash if you don't already have these things:

Gesso (basically undercoat - for making colours brighter and more vibrant)
Gel medium (for sticking stuff on - lots nicer to work with than PVA glue - swipe it on with a palette knife)
Texture paste (for some lumpy bumpy stencilling action)
Stencils, masks and stamps: big bold patterns seem to work best for me, fine and intricate designs seem to get a bit lost and smooshed into everything else, but maybe that's just me. Pages 2 Scrap have a fantastic selection of stencils and stamps.
Black Archival ink
Vintage ephemera or any bits and pieces that take your fancy
And I hear Dyan Reaveley's journals are awesome to work in although I have yet to get my hands on one :)

If you want some ideas on how to get started, you can check out the blogs of such awesome ladies as Dina Wakley, Dyan Reaveley, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Ronda Palazzari or check out my art journalling Pinterest board for some great inspiration, some people do amaaaazing work!

Another good thing about art journalling - you can do it with your kids.

I know this probably makes me a meanie, but I have never really let Holly (who is 3 and very crafty) join in scrapping with me as she is an octopus and wants to touch / use / mess up / break everything, so generally my scrap time is after the kids are in bed. But, I can say that I have road tested art journalling with a 3 year old and it was pretty nice for an hour or so. Then her brother wanted to join in and the fighting started, but with just the two of us, it was working ok! She used some of my old stamps and ink pads, and I put some paints out for her, and we enjoyed craft time together :)

In the green page above, I've punched those sea-green circles from a painting Holly did at daycare; so it's good for re-using the piles of kids artwork from school as well!

Here is one of Holly's pretty paintings:

So, there you go... I think I may have been converted! As I said earlier, stay tuned for some upcoming posts on how my health journal is coming along. :)

Supplies available from Pages 2 Scrap include: watercolour paper, Liquitex gel medium, Prima stamps and stencils, TCW stencils, Golden brand paints, Dylusions, Glimmer Mists, assortment of brushes and knives

A challenge... of a different kind :)

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Sat, 22 Jun 2013 11:52:00 +0000

Hubby: "You got another package today."

Me: "Oh cool, thanks. I just ordered some craft stuff. It was only thirty bucks or so."

Hubby: "Yeah. Seems like it's thirty bucks or so every week."

You know what I'm talking about, right?

It seems like I am always trying to justify my craft habit to someone. Usually Richard. Occasionally my mum. Often myself.

And it's always 'just $30', right ladies? ;)

I wouldn't consider my craft spending anywhere near excessive, but I was slightly shocked when I totalled up my estimated scrapping expenses for this year. An estimated $1200. Yes, there's two classes and two retreats in that figure, but still, looking at it as one big number, I was a bit taken aback.

Now I'd say we're a pretty average family, with the same expenses as everyone else, but in the coming months there might be a bit of a squeeze on for a while. You see, Richie has debilitating Achilles Tendonitis, compounded by decades of bodily abuse at baseball and perhaps a tad more padding round the tummy area than he'd like. It's gotten to the point where he is taking anti-inflammatories every day and has to wear a big Frankenstein-esque boot thing around the house to stabilise it. The only way forward is surgery, which he has booked in for on (of all days) my 32nd birthday, and then it's a hefty 6 months till full recovery, with 6 weeks of that completely off his feet, and two months off work.

Eek! So not only will I be single-parenting for a little while, I'll be taking a good hard look at the budget to make sure this forced leave-without-pay isn't any more painful than it needs to be.

So, as part of this, I'm setting myself a challenge: not to buy any craft supplies till 2014.

How do you reckon I will go? I hope I don't cave; I really want to show Richie that I can do this to support him. And I'm putting it out here on my blog to make myself accountable for my actions!

However, those two retreats I mentioned? They're still to come, and they will be a challenge! Shopping at retreat = serious bargains and awesome new products! Ugggghhh, the temptation! I do have a craft moneybox with some modest savings in it, but that will be all the cash I'll be spending. And no topping up the moneybox between now and then. :)

And one small exception - I reckon I'm allowed to buy glue or tape if I run out of those essentials!

Have you ever tried a scrap supplies hiatus?

How'd it go?

(Maybe I need to change my signature for a while... to keepin' it thrifty?) :)

White With 1 June Challenge is up!

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 10:33:00 +0000

...and a very pretty one this month:

WHITE + CORAL + DECORATIVE EDGES

Here's my take...

Is that a rice cake on her head you ask? Yes, yes it is. Did I stick it there on purpose? No, that's just what happens when you put your whole face on the table.

My delicate flower is now 3 1/2 and she pretty much still eats like this! She is such a grub.

Love using coral at the moment; it's pretty but not sickly sweet. :)

Now that it's officially ugg boots weather and time for hibernating in your craft room, I hope you'll find some scrappy time this month to join us in the challenge over at WW1! :)

Lots more inspiration from the DT here.

Materials used: Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go pp, Scrapmatts rocking horse, Echo Park This and That alphas, Prima packaging, washi tape and lots of scraps :)

123 May Challenge... HAPPY!

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Mon, 20 May 2013 08:17:00 +0000

Have you checked out the May challenge over at the 123 Challenge blog? It's a fantastic prompt this month...

Balloons + Red + the word 'Happy'!

How cool is that? Suitable for lots of different things, no? Here's my take - my balloons are extra fruity :)

Lots of October Afternoon's Farm Girl stickers here; I had them sitting on my desk and they inspired this layout!

Holly loves gardening and was super chuffed when she got to bring in the corn from our veggie patch!

So head on over to the 123 Challenge if you have a moment, and check out the other awesome entries (and there are some GREAT ones this month!).

Materials used: Bazzill cardstocks, OA Farm Girl stickers, OA chipboard balloon, vintage lace from RaineCloud, feathers, garden twine, Kaisercraft white paint, Kaiser wood hearts, Sodalicious arrow.

DT layouts: New Hopscotch Collection from Kaisercraft

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Sat, 04 May 2013 10:34:00 +0000

I've got some bright happy layouts to share with you this month using Kaisercraft's new Hopscotch collection available from Pages 2 Scrap!

This is a really cute modern line with plenty of birds, flowers, happy sayings as well as some project-life style accents. I'm yet to begin a Project Life but I sure had fun using all the die cuts and papers in my layouts!

This layout shows some of those gorgeous post-modern flower die cuts, LOVE them!

And another little layout of Miss Holly...

Loving all the neutrals paired with bright happy colours!

Look at that cheeky face :)

So many great bits and pieces to add dimension to your page, everything here is from the Hopscotch collection (with the exception of those two Prima flowers).

And another page - I'm not a massive Instagram user but I do snap the odd pic so thought I'd try a montage of pics from the last month or two - this grid layout was super easy to put together!

Love the torn 'notepaper' cutouts at the top of this paper. And I even managed some proper journalling :)

It's nice to look back at a number of different events on one layout; normally I scrap one event / day / thing at a time, but I like how this covers some of the little things we did over summer...

...and big things - like starting school!

Next is a 8.5 x 11" page that I've put together using all the green, aqua and chocolate bits from my kit. I wanted to scrap some pics of my brother's wedding although this collection is probably not quite right for wedding pics... but this one fitted in ok!

My hubby Richard and I were absolutely drenched after baking in the sun throughout the garden ceremony in Newcastle last December... it was 42 DEGREES with NO BREEZE and it didn't cool down much even after the thunderstorm late that night. I was feeling for Greg in his 3 piece suit and Mel sweltering in her beautiful gown!

Everyone needed to hydrate... let's just say the beer and cider didn't last long!

One last page to share...

I've gone a bit mad and added heaps of stickers and die cut shapes to this one; I couldn't resist doing a bike layout with the cute bike die cuts from this collection.

Lots of pretty bits and pieces to tuck in and under and add a lot of layers to your page.

Hope these pages have given you some inspiration - the Hopscotch collection is available from Pages 2 Scrap along with lots of other wonderful new release goodies!

White With 1: May challenge!

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Wed, 01 May 2013 10:32:00 +0000

This month's challenge at White With 1 is:

White + Black + Badges or Banners

And here's my take on it! I've used some little banners from A Lil' Somethin (two of which I've cut to make flags) and the yellow badge is from Greatest View.

It's a bit hard to see in the photo but there is a heap of white star shapes painted on the background which I've then misted over with black Mister Hueys, and then I poured a bit of water on the page and let it roll around a little. Because it was so wet it's buckled the paper a bit more than I'd like, but hey, I don't want it to be perfect! :)

There's lots of room for interpretation for this month's challenge so why not check out the other Design Team layouts for extra inspiration and get your scrap on!

Materials used: Kaiser paint, black Mister Hueys, Greatest View badge, A Lil' Somethin banner, Heidi Swapp arrow sticker, D'Lish butterfly, Prima pearls, random buttons, string and thread.

Dina Wakley's Introduction to Art Journalling workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:30:00 +0000

What a FABULOUS day I had last Sunday! Not only did I go on a road trip with my gal pals Karyn and Nicole, I got to spend 6 hours learning all about art journalling and being a sponge and absorbing as many creative vibes as possible from Dina and a handful of other very special ladies.

I had so much fun getting messy and painting for hours and learning some great new techniques. Three days later my knuckles are still accessorized with blue Dylusions. That's always a good look. :)

So anyway, I have lots of photos to share!

I had to just let go and trust the process with this page... I wasn't sure where the 'cover it all with black' thing was going to end up but I don't mind how it turned out in the end!

The Pages 2 Scrap staff and design team - Sam, Heidi, Dina, Karen, me, Tracey, Karyn and Julie

Loving the saturated blue with lots of white space :)

Luv my handmade cloud stamp from Extase. :)

The lovely Heidi - thanks for letting me borrow all your stuff chicky! :)

This is my fave page - I had some bits of an old comic and the text in it seemed really appropriate. And that bit of journalling? You need a Ohto Fude Ball pen. Go get one now. They write on anything. I reckon they would write on water. Pages 2 Scrap should have them back in stock very soon. :)

Messy, scribbly, stencily fun.

Rainbow layers!

Thanks Dina for sharing your skills and techniques and stencils and stamps and making us all realise we CAN draw! xx

And thanks to Lisa for letting me share the two pics below... aren't our hands BEAUTIFUL?

CSI 67: Hey crab man!!

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 23:20:00 +0000

This is the first time I've had a go at a CSI challenge... I've avoided them a bit because, man, there's so many rules!

But I happened to have these pics of Ty in a crab costume sitting on my desk, and the colours just clicked. :)

I've used all the colours and the sketch, and for the evidence I have used clouds and outlining in pen, and punctuation embellishment if you count the white asterixes.

For the testimony I've handwritten my journalling and I guess it's documenting something funny too, I laugh every time I look at this ridiculous costume!!

I've used a lot of stuff on my page but no mist (very unusual for me!), and I got to use up those metal circles which are actually some tag maker rims from Making Memories that are a million years old. And would you believe I had a die cut crab in my stash? It was meant to be. :)

Paper from Echo Park, Crate, Glitz, Making Memories metal circles, Fancy Pants brads, Jenni Bowlin buttons, Bella Blvd clouds, washi tape, crabs and swimmer badge from a way old Pink Paislee Nantucket ephemera pack, Amy Tangerine Thickers (and asterixes), red Dymo letter stickers from Officeworks, Sodalicious arrows.

And so... I have made myself an art journal.

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:28:00 +0000

I altered the cover of this el-cheapo watercolour pad back before Christmas, but I hadn't shared it with you because I haven't really done much in it yet. :)

But, I'll definately be giving it a work out on Sunday....

I'm heading up to Pages 2 Scrap to meet the amazingly talented Dina Wakely for her Introduction to Art Journalling workshop!

WOOOOT!

Stay tuned for pics and awesomeness and INSPIRATION!! xoxxoxo

April 123 Challenge!

noreply@blogger.com (Leonie Waldron) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 02:52:00 +0000

Here's my take on this month's 123 Challenge which is to use...

Duck-egg blue + "Today" + Whitewash

I had to scrap these pics of Holly being a diva (with a sugar moustache) :)

I love how my background turned out :) I suppose it's not technically 'whitewash' but it's 'white spray!' and lots of it - a fingerpainted base made with some white paint, then heaps of Mister Hueys on top, left to dry overnight.

Head on over to the 123 Challenge blog to see some more fab DT inspiration, I love how this has challenge criteria has been interpreted in so many different ways!

Materials used: very old and somewhat nasty Bella paper (yay - scrappin' some crap LOL), Greatest View badge, white Mr Hueys, October Afternoon, Authentique, Websters Pages and Thickers alphas, Sodalicious wood bits, gauze, washi tape, and, as always, paper scraps. :)