The July challenge over on Scrap the Girls is to use black and white plus one other colour.
I've used green as my highlight colour.
My daughter turned 18 on the day of the NSW election last year and she got to vote for the very first time. I thought it was worth recording as I don't think too many people actually get to vote on the very day they are eligible to do so.
Participating in challenges on Scrap that Song raises an interesting question ... which comes first, the photo/layout or the song?
There really is no right or wrong way to go about the process but I'll admit it took me a little time to work out which system works best for me.
This month the criteria is Rock Music and while I am quite familiar with this genre I decided my first port of call was a Top 500 website where the more obvious contenders were posted in all their glory (and yes I did get sidetracked for an hour or so reliving old memories!).
So with split screens open - my trusty list of songs on one side and my gallery of yet to scrap photos on the other - I scrolled through the lot until I came up with a short list of both pictures and music titles that just might go well together. Some more tweaking and a bit more pondering and I came up with a very famous and equally popular number from The Rolling Stones - Satisfaction.
And here's my layout.
Intencity is not only a drawcard for men and boys who like to "drive" computer generated cars around race tracks at $2 a go but it can also fuel the small addictions of those amongst us who like to win. Playing Deal or No Deal proved the Achilles heal of my husband. He refused to get off the game until he had bettered the machine and that took more turns than he might have liked.
Daring you to Scrap has asked us to use twine and tape on our challenge layout this month. Lots of wonderful inspiration from the talented Design Team on show.
I've used blue washi tape on a layout of our family cats. Unfortunately the camera has really picked this out and the tape is much more prominent in the photo than it actually is on the layout. The twine is wrapped around the fish shaped title.
Way back when I first started to scrapbook, in the days when Lisa Bearnson still ruled Creative Keepsakes and we had 12 bumper filled monthly issues and back before Becky Higgins had even thought about abandoning traditional scrapbooking in favour of plastic pockets and printed cards, in the days of Creative Memories, see through vellum and coloured eyelets, I, in my infinite wisdom, decided it would be a good idea (nay a wonderful idea) to scrap my around the world honeymoon some ten years after the event.
We'd visited 15 countries in just over 6 months and while my husband had taken his expensive SLR camera, we'd decided for ease of use and economy to use slide film to take the vast majority of our holiday photographs - and this he did - some 1000 of them which in the pre-digital era was a significant amount of holidays snaps. I, on the other hand would take my trusty point and shoot and "point and shoot" I would do - taking "highlight" pictures which would sit alongside our holiday diary in a normal photograph album.
In my beginner scrapbooking enthusiasm I decided to take that process one step further. Wouldn't it be a wonderful idea to revisit those photos and create a double page spread for each of the countries we visited? It would make the album so much more appealing!! So armed with paper, tape, my trusty CK Becky Higgins Creative Sketches magazine, I embarked on my mission like a woman possessed.
Sounds fine in theory doesn't it but you guessed it - it fell over very quickly in practise. The double page spread worked just fine for the 2 hour stop in Lichtenstein and Monte Carlo, it even worked with the slight expansion to two doubles pages for Singapore and Hawaii but it came to a crashing halt when faced with three weeks in Greece, eight weeks in the United Kingdom and nearly four weeks in seven countries of Europe. My double page spread per country almost immediately became a double page layout per city, then per tourist location. My simple honeymoon album became bigger than Ben Hur and more wordy than War and Peace and while my resolve remained strong my enthusiasm did not and like many a good intention, scrapbooking class or "wonderful idea" it fell by the wayside, half way complete yet half undone.
So why am I telling you this? Well mainly because I came across a new challenge site called Archi-Scraps run by the lovely Julene Matthews and her first challenge has a picture of the Duomo di Firenze, in Florence Italy and I had one of those eureka moments.
Julene's challenge is not necessarily about the Duomo but to take an aspect you see in the photo (the colours, the shapes etc) to create your layout. But for me it was all about Florence because you see this was one of those stops on that around the world trip and it was still in the pile marked "yet to do". How could I not answer the Archi-Scraps call?
One thing that sits with me with this project is how very, VERY differently I scrap these days. I've moved on a long way since the days of Becky sketches, as have scrapbooking manufacturers with their paper products and assorted embellishments and tools. All the supplies I originally used for layouts in this album have long gone and I am going to have to be really careful what I use for any future pages to try and keep some form of continuity with those pages already completed. I guess it may also be time to get out my trusty Becky mag and revisit those plain and simple layouts.
Keep them coming Julene !! I only have another 40 or so layouts to go !
I must admit that I am partial to a good colour challenge especially when the colours of choice are bright and vibrant and fun and you can't get more colourful than this pretty combination being used on Scrap Friends this month.
I wanted to shake away the winter blues and immerse myself in the colours of summer so I delved deep into my paper stash and found these beautiful Sassafrass Lass papers (so sad this manufacturer has disappeared from the main stream scrapbooking world).
This little cutie is the daughter of good friends of ours and what's more summery than a day at the beach.
Couldn't resist joining in on Scrap Jacked again this month. Lots of lovely layputs to glean some inspiration from and I eventually decided to lift this one from Dana.
I liked the quirky "A 5678" - she used - very droll Dana :) Mine is an almost straight lift of her page although I felt I couldn't directly copy the title so used another to suit the picture of my son scoffing down cake.
I really love the painting we have used as inspiration on ARTastic this month. It's called Butterflyfish and is my Queensland artist Carla Blackman. The extra criteria for this month is to submit a bright and vibrant entry - how could you not with this gorgeous ink on silk creation as your inspiration.
I must admit I'm a little biased when it comes to Carla's work as we have one of her silk paintings hanging in the foyer of our home. We fell in love with her vivid, happy colours when we saw them displayed at a gallery in Kuranda, near Cairns in north Queensland some years ago and came home with one of her artworks.
It never ceases to bring me cheer on dull, listless days.
I do hope you can join us on ARTastic this month and help us brighten up this middle month of winter.
ARTastic
is looking for some new members to join our current Creative
Team.
If you like
taking inspiration from a source that is a little different to the norm we would
love to hear from you.
Applications
are open to everyone – you don’t have to be a scrapbooking superstar nor live in
Australia to apply – all are welcome.
The CT
position will be from August 2012 to January 2013 with an option for a further
six months.
As a
Creative team member you will be required to:
* Create one layout a month
using the challenge requirements provided. * Comment on all our challenge
entries. * Voting each month as required. * Promoting ARTastic on your
blog or via Facebook as applicable.
*
Participate in other blog promotions as required.
To apply
please …
complete
the JULY ARTastic challenge
and then
email me Jane @ jjjustjane@bigpond.com with your
details, why you
would like to join our team, your blog address if you have one and also please
include two of your
recent layouts that you feel best represents your particular scrapping
style.
Applications
close July 20th,2012.
Successful
applicants will be notified before the end of July.
FS2S July inspiration will come from the Movie Poster...'The QUEEN'
The QUEEN
(Suggested by Dale Tiernan)
Extra Criteria
1pt = Pearls/Rhinestones
2pts = Two Word Title
3pts = Cut out figure/Person from a photo
This is my layout example. I decided not to go with a regal image (mainly because I just couldn't find a photograph that I could cut out that worked for a royal theme) so I decided to go use the criteria elements more fully.
