Seven layouts Seven Challenges

This post is an attempt to get around the problems I'm having posting a link to all seven layouts done for the seven challenges on the Challenge Me Happy blog 'Hoopla'!  So I am posting all layouts in one big post.  So here goes: BIG FAN OF ROSES is the four word title.

Firstly, the challenge from Hannah with the recipe.  And I chose to create a layout of my forever favourite climbing rose.  Sorry, don't know the name of it now as it is quite old. It lasts only for 6-8 weeks, but strangely now, in the middle of winter has three or four flowers.
The second is Missy's Book of Me with the title including the words 'Someday I hope to...' I finished it with the plea to have more time to scrap.

Here is Norine's challenge of creating a layout of a birthday.  Any birthday!  So here goes - a fifth birthday.

Next is Lisa's challenge of a take on an advertisement using multi photos. I did the journalling using mini alphas, which took ages to stick on.  The journalling describes a typical Christmas for our family.

For Annelie's challenge using a photo to entice us to create, I put all of the details on the right hand side of the layout as if piling them up on the bookshelves which appear in the photo.  This is one of two Motat layouts I did for this challenge.

The penultimate layout is for Michelle's word challenge - to use the word Happy.  And always, catching sprats at Bucklands Beach is a time for the boys of great happiness.

And lastly, the sketch challenge from Marie meant I created a page showing Motat's holiday programme in January, when they put on a spectacular light show which the boys loved.

Well, these are all my layouts.  Thanks Challenge Me Happy for the incentive to speed scrap.  Not something I usually do, as my pace is quite leisurely.

I've been scrapbooking rather a lot

Here is another layout for the Challenge Me Happy blog hoopla challenge.  It is of Hannah's challenge - a recipe.  And I chose to create a page about the climbing rose that flowers briefly in spring.  The title is four words and all of the elements of the recipe are there.  This took some thinking about how to fit in all of the elements, but I made it!

Challenge Me Happy - the deal and two layouts!

This is a poor, sad blog.  It's February since I wrote anything, let alone loaded up some layouts I've completed.  And I have completed lots!  It's just time to do everything in my case.
But along came a challenge site I fell upon - Challenge Me Happy.  It's been going for a year and has seven challenges to entice a scrapbooking addict.  So here are two layouts I completed.

The bottom layout:  Motat Light Show is based upon the sketch challenge from Marie. The photos were taken at the Museum of Transport and Technology's light show and here the boys created shadow silhouettes of themselves on a screen on the left.  On the right they are posing! The top layout:  Happy is based upon the challenge to use the word 'Happy' in a layout and is from Michelle. And anything to do with the boys catching sprats equals happiness.

Challenges

Layouts as different from chalk to cheese.

I've been inspired by two sites to create layouts and follow the instructions. The first is The Color Room and the palette for #96. The second has many more challenge to be faced for it has journalling requirements and evidence requirements as part of the challenge. It is a new site. Go to CSI for this challenge. But either are just one of the many exciting challenges now on the net.

Altered photos

There are heaps of photo editing programmes available on the net and I love fiddling with the way a photo can be altered to produce a unique image. So in this layout is a take on using altered photos. How you alter them can produce layouts from the serious and sublime to the ridiculous.

Love this site!

The papers and inspiration from The Scrapcake Blog are a joy.

Tone on tone

I've had a spell from scrapbooking, hence the time gap in posting.  Life gets very full at times, but I have managed a visit to my LSS with the purchase of stash - papers and embellishments that seemed to co-ordinate, tone on tone.  Most of the papers are Glitz and the tones range from off white through to browns and autumnal yellow.  What's great about co-ordinating papers is that you can build a page really quickly, yet get lots of different looks. And you don't just have to use papers from one collection but across collections.

The double that became a single

It feels as if it has been days and days now that I've been sorting out my scrapbooking room. And I haven't finished yet. I've collected a stash over the last year that needed re-organising, so I could find what I was looking for without a major search amongst the older stash collected in years past!
And during this major re-organisation, I came across the beginnings of a double layout that I think I began in a class some years ago and abandoned.  It had just the background completed and a framed photo of a paternal grandmother who should perhaps have a number of 'greats' attached to her. I must find out more about this dark haired young woman. It must have been years ago that I began this double layout judging by the patterned paper adhered to the cardstock and the circular cut framing.
I really didn't like the colours on the layout - a bit dour I think, and neglecting the tidy up, decided that I would try something different. A more modern approach to scrapping family history photos.  And I wouldn't complete a double layout, but a single. I know that more often I'll have to challenge myself to do doubles again!  
So, I've attached a photo here of the left side of the double layout I found, to show what I began with, although I chose to use the right hand side for my revamped layout.  This was relatively quick to put together once I'd worked out how to overcome the colouring I didn't favour.
And I've added a layout of another family photo using mostly Webster's Pages. Much more finesse with that one I think.

Re-ordered, discovered, created

Double Trouble, Double Page

I'm learning my way around blogger, and it seems as if it is a trouble for the moment.  I'm definitely a newbie at this!
I will post a double layout which I've just finished and it reminded me of how, when first scrapbooking, I would only create double layouts.  I have not created any for ages.  I had bought post-bound albums and wanted to have a double spread on all of the pages.  I was probably anal about that.  But then things changed and I use D ring albums and almost exclusively create single pages now. 
So, it was a bit of a challenge posted over on Scrappin' Patch's website that kicked in the mojo to play with a double page again.  I'm quite taken with it really.  And I remembered the need for making a double page work - the flow of a line across the two pages using patterned papers;  the repetition of embellishments on both pages and the repeat of the design elements.
As I've said, I like these pages because of the fun element in the pictures.  Usually taking photos of the boys hurts them, although I've yet to figure out how that actually happens.  But on this day, as long as they could act up, then they were willing posers.
I'll try another post to get the double spread up!  Still learning!

Double Trouble, Double Layout

A Newbie

My first post!  It's all about scrapbooking - an addictive, creative and fun outlet that's let me record life as we find it.  The good, the bad and the ugly.  I love taking photos on the run - hardly any are posed, so while they may not always be perfect, they do record the moment.  And scrapbooking has become a way to preserve these memories for the future.
I've been scrapbooking for seven years now.  At first, the idea of cutting up photos, of placing embellishments on photos and of stamping on photos was truly frightening.  And seven years ago, the range of products to make scrapbooking an art was limited.  Now, I can see on other blogs and websites the most amazing techniques used to enhance a page and preserve those  photos.
I've been lucky to have layouts published in both Australian and New Zealand magazines.  I've been on two design teams - in the past an on-line design team and just last year on the Elite Team for NZ Paper Chase.  It's always a thrill to see a layout published in a magazine.
And finally, I've decided to enter the digital age and start this blog.
So, this is what I want this blog to be about.  The art of scrapbooking. The techniques I may try and fail and those that work. It will be all about my journey in scrapbooking.
And if you do read this blog, please leave a comment.  It will be truly appreciated.