It's sketch challenge time again -

Hello all :D

Well, I can't believe that it's the end of August already - where is the time going?? What with renovating and sickness and socialising at all the 5th birthday parties, this month has just flown!

And, being the end of the month, it's also time for me to upload the sketch challenges again for Scrapchat. And, yet again, these sketches have been taken from the wonderful Pagemaps site.

Here is the card sketch ...

And my sample, which I've turned into a Father's Day card (kills 2 birds with 1 stone)

And here is the LO sketch ...

And my sample ... (I can put the pic back now that edition 67 of Scrapbook Creations is out :)


For this LO, I had a play with flocking for the first time (the title, and the tips of the flower, have both been flocked). And, it was fun! Messy, but fun. I successfully managed to flock most of the work surfaces in my craft room I think, but after a little bit of practice, I seemed to get the hang of it, and can't wait to use it again! I think next time though I'll use slightly more substantial chipboard - will just make handling it that little bit easier.

I got my flocking through the wonderful Gypsy at Scrapchat, and I believe you can also purchase packs of the flocking in about a dozen or so colours at the newly launched Scrapchat Craft Exchange. This is a fantastic new auction site that Gypsy has started up, where people can buy, sell or swap their excess scrapbooking and general craft supplies. I have a heap of tapestry wool skeins and embroidery cottons left over from when Dad had his shop, and I need to bundle them up and try and sell them off too. And I'm sure I've got some patterned papers that I just don't think I'll get around to using .... there are heaps of auctions underway already, so it's well worth the look!

My LO for the August photo swap is slowly coming along - it's meant to be finished today, but I've been a bit held up ... sorry Kylie! I'm working on it tonight, so should hopefully have something to show you in the next day or so.

And, Project Scrapaway was launched with a bang on Friday night at Scrapchat as well - it's a 10-week challenge, where participants have to complete LOs each week that meet 5 certain specifications, and depending on how well they meet those specifications, and how quickly they upload to the gallery, participants will be awarded points each week. There are no eliminations for this competition - it's purely based on a points tally. The first challenge has been listed at Scrapchat now - I'm not in the running to win, but I'll be trying to complete the challenges anyway - always love a good challenge.

Here's the first week's challenge ....

MONOCROMATIC

Yes I want you to design a monocromatic layout with lots of tones of Blue.

Our 5 design elements needed for this challenge are:-

1. Must have at least 3 different tones of blue.

2. Must include 2 photo's.

3. Must include ribbon.

4. Must have journalling.

5. Must have a stamped image.

Remember ladies, you need to first sketch your idea and then put it into practice when you complete your layout.

Try to use all the design elements to maximise the amount of points you will receive as the winner of round one will be the one with the most points.

Please upload your sketch and layout to the gallery by 6.00pm Thursday.

Hopefully I'll get to have a go at this tomorrow night ....

Oh, and I'm not in the running to win the prize for Project Scrapaway, because I have recently been 'promoted' to Administrator for the Scrapchat forum, just to give Gypsy a bit of extra help with everything that's going on. There are heaps of new things planned for the forum - it's already bustling, and is only going to get busier. :)

Well, I'd better get off the computer and actually start doing some scrapping ... the clock's ticking, and I'm not getting ANYTHING done! Thanks for reading my ramblins, and I hope everyone has a lovely week.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xx.

So sick of being sick ...

Hello all!

Sorry I haven't blogged again for a while, but the Bradford household has again been struck down with a bit of illness of late - which has unfortunately meant that I myself have been unwell for 2 weekends running now, and that's just not on!

Thankfully, it's only been a really bad head cold each time, so life could still essentially continue, but boy did I feel miserable while I was soldiering on. I just wasn't feeling even the slightest bit creative ...

And, I also decided to give Liam's room a bit of a freshen up - we bought a new bed for Ashton, so that Liam could have Ashton's old bed, and given that Liam's has been painted pink since we moved in, I thought it was high time we made it into a boy's room. I painted the walls blue, the trim a glossy white, and even went as far as making new curtains for the windows - Elmo print, of course! And to top it off, while I had all the painting equipment out, I gave the laundry a freshen up as well :)

So, that took up a weekend and my evenings for the following week as well, and as a result I have had a massive scrapping to-do list which has been building and building, and it's all due by the end of the month. Nothing like leaving things to the last minute, eh?

I have slowly been working through things, and I'm happy to say that I've knocked over the card and LO sketch samples for Scrapchat (and in doing so prepared a Father's Day card as well!), and I've done the CC sample LO for the Stamp Shak CC which is coming up this Friday night.

Now I just need to do some cards for a card swap, a guest DT layout for Scrap'n'Craft with 'T' and the August photo swap LO for Yillup. She'll be right mate!

I'm having a little get together at my house on Saturday - a friend who is an independent Stampin' Up demonstrator is coming to show off the new range, and we're all going to have a nice little cardmaking session, so hopefully I'll knock over the card swap cards on the weekend. Then I've got all next week to get 2 LOs done - easy!

Just remind me not to renovate again will you ...

August challenges for Scrapchat ...

Just thought I'd share with you the sketch challenges I've posted for August for Scrapchat ... both sketches are courtesy of Pagemaps.


Here is the card sketch ...

... and my sample card -



And here is the LO sketch ...


... and my sample LO (note that I've turned the sketch on its side for the sample).



The Bradford family had a lovely day yesterday - Nick's had a couple of days off for all the overtime he worked last week and on the weekend, so yesterday we took the boys up to Lake Mountain for a few hours, and had a great session of tobogganing and snowball fights!

Liam's still a little unsure of the white stuff falling from the sky (it actually snowed a bit while we were there, which was very special), but at the same time sees Ashton enjoying himself so wants to get involved. I'm sure that on our next trip to the snow, be it this year or next, Liam's going to relax a little and actually start having fun :)

Frantic day at work for me today finishing stuff up for my boss who is on three weeks holiday as of Monday morning. The best part about putting in a bit of overtime tonight? I don't have to do any typing on Monday! And the best part about him going away for three weeks? I've already been told that I can bring my scrapping into work because there won't be anything else to do! How good is that??

Well, it's very late, and I'm very tired, so I will leave it there for now ...

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend! Thanks for looking, and I'll talk to you soon,
Ness.