Check out the inspiration over on the Challenge Site!

No? Well you should pop on over and have a look. They’ve always got some fun things happening!

I’ve got a fun layout for this week’s challenge.

For my Evidence, I used
Circles (that double as frames)
Numbers
Retro Image
Small Repeating Patterns

My Testimony is Inspirational Words

And you can see, I followed the sketch pretty closely.

Loving the Colours they picked, too.

Right. Well, you can still join the challenge. It’s open through this weekend!

I’m in Montana, at my parents’ house. If you want to follow the adventure (loads of adventure happening!) pop over to my “Real Life” Blog; Consider the Day Seized.

I’ve known Steffanie for years.  I’ve even had the privilege of staying overnight at her house last month.  She was a true star and let me crash on her sofa after a CRAZY couple of days trying to catch a flight to Oregon!  She’s all kinds of crazy talented, too.

Melissa is a new friend, and one I haven’t yet met in person.  Note I said “yet”!  In fact, a coule nights ago, I had this crazy dream where I was stranded in an airport in New Zealand, and she rescued me!  (hmmm… me and stranded at airports starting to sound like a theme?  Well… you’d be right!)  Thanks, Melissa!  I’m sure your Real Life Self would have done the same for a Stranded Scrapper!  And don’t worry, I’ll make it down to visit before TOO long

Don’t forget: The June Inspired By Challenge is still going!  There’s a fun prize to be had, so you might as well get to your table and get Inspired!

Lyne’s a super talented scraper, and I’m so excited to work with her on this team.  Go check out her work.

Don’t forget, the June Inspired By Challenge is still going on.  You have 2 more weeks to join in!

On the 1st Monday I was there she took off work and we headed to the Coast.  Turned out to be one of the few really good days we got, so it was a fortuitous pick.  We were SUPPOSED to go on Saturday.  But no.  I couldn’t get a flight out until the middle of the night, and even then I could only fly to Portland, not Eugene!  (Thanks Steff for the use of your sofa!)

Here are two LOs I’ve done using (some of) the Cost Photos:

Hybrid page.
PP – BasicGrey
Journal – Katie Periet
Stamp – Tim Holtz, BoBunny
Ink – Versafine, Tim Holtz
Clouds – Crafters Workshop
Fiber Paste
Burlap – Little Yellow Bicycle
Font – BasicGrey
Banner – Spellbinders
Pen – Zagg

Digital Template – Pam Callaghan
Digital papers – One Little Bird

I’ve been invited to join a brand new Design Team! Stacia, over at Scrap Stuffz, has decided to start an inspiration challenge.

I’m Inspired By!

Monday she revealed the first of the team, my very very very dear friend, Mooney! (Yeah, you’ll all know her as Laura, but she’s been Mooney to me since the first time I “met” her on the Club Creating Keepsakes Message Boards. I have to really concentrate to call her anything but “Mooney”.)

Here’s her LO:

Mooney’s Inspired By Design Team Reveal

Aaah, yeah… Mooney’s LO for this reveal? That’s me in the photos! I spent 10 days at her place (we live in different States) at the end of May (Happy Birthday, Mooney!) The story is, I’m NOT a morning person. So she started calling me “The Princess” because I don’t get up at Stupid O’Clock in the Morning! The other thing is, we joke about my “allergy” to Pink. One morning, she threatened me with Pink Glitter if I didn’t get up. You see the results. I Woke Up Dead.

Ok, back to the reveal. You’ve seen what Mooney and I call the “Psychedelic Fish”.

The Psychedelic Fish

We both had this immediate reaction to the fishie, Mooney saw the stripes on a black background. I saw Pinwheels!

Cardstock: Bazzill
Washi: Queen & Co
Thickers: American Craft
Ink: Reflections, Zigg
Buttons: Reflections

Is my Nephew not the cutest kid you’ve ever seen? Seriously, that kid lights my world! This was his first time really playing with a Hoola Hoop, though there’s been one kicking around for a year or so. Bless him, he’s hilarious.

I chose these photos because the spinning of the hoola hoop is similar to the spinning of pinwheels.

I chose the colours based on my photo, of course, but I chose the background because of how much the black in the Psychedelic Fish image makes the other colours pop so well. Now, I came upon a problem. I don’t have any paper that’s a bright solid on one side, and black on the other. Much less have the 3 colours I really needed. So, what did I do? I glued 2 sheets of Card Stock together!

Pinwheels are super easy to make. Here’s a closeup of one of mine:

Large are 2×2 inch squares, small are 1.25×1.25 inch squares.

To make them, I cut a square (the large ones in my LO are 2×2 inches, the small ones are 1.25×1.25 inches). Then I took my smallest Spellbinder Square Die and traced a square around the edge of the die. Then I scored corner to corner diagonally across the square, and cut along the score, from corner to the tip of the pencil square, 4 times. I then erased the pencil line, and bent the corner of one side of each resultant triangle into the centre, and used a wet adhesive to adhere it. Super simple, and totally effective! The centers were a little manky looking (from all that wet glue) so I added the button to disguise that! A bit of bling or a flower would be equally effective. I left mine rounded, but if you want it more flat, you could fold it instead. I also adhered them to my page with wet adhesive. Just didn’t want it to shift at all.

And, here’s a bonus LO I did. Yeah… I’ve been called an overachiever before.

Cardstock: Recollections
Ink: Mr Hughey’s, Tattered Angels, Tim Holtz
Embossing Powder: Stampendous
Paint: Tim Holtz
Embossing Folder: Tim Holtz
Font: Papertray Ink
Acrylic: Diamond Glaze
Clouds: American Crafts

For this one, the inspiration was the colours with the black (again) and the psudo frame around a central image. Obviously I upped the psudo frame to full frame… and multiplied, but that’s where I started. And the sunburst on my LO was a total afterthought that just happened to work with the radiating colours/black on the fish. Wish I could tell you it was planned, but it wasn’t. Happy Accident.

Right. It’s your turn! You’ve seen Mooney’s and my takes. Go. See. Do. Can’t wait to see your inspired creations! Oh… don’t forget, there’s a Mister Linkey for uploading your LO to the original challenge!

What’s every scrapper’s secret dream?  (Well, some people are more overt than others.  It was my secret dream.)  To get published, of course!  Even me.  Except… I had never done anything about it.  I’d never sent anything in to anywhere for submission.  Not once.  Kind of hard to get published if you’re not submitting!

Well, in June 2012, I saw that Creating Keepsakes had a call out for “New Beginnings” for the January/February 2013 issue.  I’d recently finished a LO of my nephew’s hospital photos.  What’s a newer beginning than a baby’s birth?!?  And, this is where my neglect of my blog comes in handy…. I hadn’t got around to publishing it here yet!  So, since I’d not yet shown it off, I could submit it.  So I did.

Two weeks later, I got an email saying it had been accepted for publication.

I remember the moment vividly.  I was in my sister’s Jeep at the Petrol Station.  She was pumping petrol, and I pulled out my phone to check emails.  I saw an email from CK and didn’t even think about my LO.  (I’ve been a moderator for their ClubCK — sadly it’s closing in 2 weeks :’( — for 3 years, now, so getting emails from them isn’t all that unusual for me.)  I opened it up and had to read it twice before my brain processed it.  Seriously.  I thought, “What?  No, wait… WHAT?!?”  THEN I squealed.  And jumped out of the car to tell my sister.  After all, it’s HER SON that was going to be famous!  (Oh, and had to get her to sign all sorts of permissions for his image to be published.)

Here’s a screen shot from the published version (Copyright Creating Keepsakes Magazine 2012)

My darling nephew’s first baby photos. My first published LO.

So, that’s one thing off my bucket list, I guess.  It’s nearly a year since I submitted that LO, and I still can’t believe it.  It’s just weird.

Me! Published! *shock*

Several years ago my good friend Jenny and I decided that trying to figure out what to get each other for Christmas and Birthdays was a bit ridiculous.  Particularly because our birthdays are only a few days apart, so for both it’s a bit silly.  Instead, we started going places or doing things together.  Way more fun.  (Besides… meant nothing to clutter my mantel piece!)  Since I was visiting near Christmas, I suggested to her that we would go to the Harry Potter Experience, at the Warner Brothers studios north of London.

Jenny and I will be the first to admit, we’re geeks.  Well, that’s hardly surprising, is it?  We met whilst studying for our Masters Degrees (her first, my second!) and bonded over PhD Dissertations.  So, when something lights our fire, we do the Quintessential Academic Thing.  We Obsess.  No, really…. that’s what “research” really is.  Obsession.  So it’s not surprise that we had an absolute ball!

Anyway, here are a few of my recent LOs from that visit.  Proof positive that I’m a serious geek.

Memorabilia from The Goblet of Fire.

The Privet Drive interior and exterior sets. PS – I did the calligraphy for the title. I really wanted it to say, “Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived”, but there just wasn’t room

Seriously, this was one of my favourite parts. Not only do you actually get to set in the (well, one of the) actual Ford Anglias, but then they throw you around inside and take your photo! Brilliant.

I mentioned I’m a Geek, right? So, yes, if you’re wondering, I am on Pottermore (SpiritEcho19025). And Yes, I have been sorted. Into Gryffindor. I actually registered a second time to see if, still answering the questions honestly (because I was torn on some of them!) I’d get a different answer. Nope. Still Gryffindor.

Really like how this one turned out. Very Hybrid page. The frames are all digi elements that I printed separately.

Funny story, Jenny and I picked the wands we liked the look of the best, without knowing whose it was. Turned out, I’d chosen Ginny’s. Kind of made me happy. I love Ginny.

This is NOT all I’ve done.  And I’m nowhere NEAR done.  Yeah, that’s how many photos I took that I can’t bear not to scrap.  Uh huh…. Geek.

]]> http://dleebug.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/i-havent-been-idle/feed/ 3 dleebug Tri Wizard Cup Chapter 1: Flying Car Gryffindor Tower Mirror of Erised Have You Seen This Wizard? http://dleebug.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/aaand-im-back/ http://dleebug.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/aaand-im-back/#comments Sun, 02 Jun 2013 04:50:28 +0000 dleebug http://dleebug.wordpress.com/?p=12681 ]]> It’s been a crazy tumultuous year… and change.  As you’ve noticed, I have not done ANYTHING with my Blog.  I’m sorry.  I’m back, and I’ve got all sorts of fun to share with you!

Let’s start off with this:

My friend Stacia is starting up a new Scrapbook Challenge Blog!  I’m so pleased for her.  It’s completely new, and is still in a building phase, so you’ll have to be patient for a bit longer, but there is a current challenge up.  And there’s a GIVEAWAY!  Here, check it out!

Scrapstuffz “Inspired By” Challenges