Every pirate needs treasure .....

I LOVE these Hometown Summer papers from Pink Paislee .... they are just so bright and fun! This month at Kraft it Up is a number challenge and I just had to combine the two to create this page of my little pirate!

1 Kraft base .... check

2 Photos smaller than 6x4 .... mine are 3x4 .... check

3 Different alphas ..... matching Pink Paislee from Hometown Summer range and 2 colours and sizes of Jenni Bowlin ..... check

4 Patterned papers .... waves, yellow for island, black bingo and red star .... check

5 different embellishments .... embroidery thread, canvas pirate, coins, staples and journal spot ..... check

Mission accomplished!!

I also used some smooch spritz for the background.

A close-up of the coins that I "borrowed" from my little man ;) and yes .... he did want them back when he saw them .... so it took a little bargaining to not have them ripped from the page lol

Also check out the cool laser cut canvas pirate that I picked up from the Craft Expo. Just love him!

TFL Star xx

Out of the Hat - March

Well it's our 2nd month back at Out of the Hat and we kicked off with the reveal of our fabulous new team of Mad Hatters.

This month's challenge was:

1. A handmade journal box

2. String

3. A number in the title

Had an awesome day out with Lou last Friday. We took a trip to Reverse Garbage and I got some great stuff to use on my layout. The mesh, blue canvas and yellow fabric were all from there and the circle background was stamped with a foam offcut I got as well. Also the clear acrylic #2 which I got for 10 cents!! I just covered the back in patterned paper.

The journal box was designed by Heather Waldron ... you download an A4 sheet of them as a PDF and then just simply print them off and cut them out!

TFL Star xx

Baby themed ATC's

I belong to a private group of ATC swappers called "Full Sleeve" and this month's theme was Baby.

I have used the Stars Cuttlebug embossing folder for the background and inked around the edges. The baby is a pic I sourced from the internet and then I tied him hanging from a tree branch with some blue organza ribbon. It's a "he" as blue was the only colour ribbon I had enough of in my stash ... well at least until 3 yr old hands got at it with the scissors ... so two ended up being in silver!

The branch is a real twig, carefully harvested off my hubby's topiary's while he wasn't looking ;-) and the leaves are stamped and then cut out and layered with foam dots.

TFL Star xx

Blog Hop

Last Friday night I followed along with the A2Z Scraplets Blog Hop. During the crop on Saturday at Mad About Scrappin I was able to have a go at the sketch challenge from the hop. You can see the original sketch on their blog which I have flipped on it's side. The only other criteria was that it had to be a summertime themed layout.

I dug these Cosmo papers out of my scraps to create the page .... perfect to go with pics of my little man at the pool. I also used some twine and Jenni Bowlin alphas from Mad About Scrappin.

TFL Star xx

Something a little different ....

I've had this idea for scrapping this "first" pic of our little girl for a while now so when this month's challenge came up for Show Us Your Stuff I decided to turn my ideas into reality. It's not the style of layout I would usually do (pink, girly and frilly) but with the birth of our little girl just around the corner, I guess it's something you will see a little more of from me in the not too distant future.

The challenge was based on the theme of love and you had to include a handmade heart. I made my own chipboard heart by first drawing it on some blank chipboard and then cutting out and covering in patterned paper. I added a lacy heart border to the outside and some pearl trim to the inside. I even pulled out the sewing machine and stitched around the edge of the page.

Also thought I'd share a few close-ups of the embellishing on this one ... the photo of the whole layout doesn't do it a lot of justice.

TFL Star xx

Aaaaaaarrghhhh - Negative Space ......

Okay so while I'm not a have-to-fill-every-spare-inch-of-the-page kinda gal .... this whole negative space thing is really a challenge for me. I've tried a few times and failed dismally, so I'm hoping that this time I have kinda-sorta pulled it off. Maybe not as negative as others would do, but it's about as negative as I can manage! lol Mad About Scrappin run a monthly challenge from their facebook page and this month the challenge was of course negative space with a border around the page.

This is the first time I've used my Fine and Dandy papers ... I did pull them out for a Jan challenge somewhere but never got around to it. I've used the layered diecuts from the range and also some of the "holes" from the border punch .... seemed a waste to throw them away! ;-)

TFL Star xx

Out of the Hat is back!!

We had a much needed break over the festive season but now Out of the Hat is back for 2011 with our fab February challenge.

1. Masking and misting

2. Clouds

3. A tree somewhere on the layout

I came up with this idea for my layout almost straight away and it only took me about an hour and a half to pull it all together!

Papers are October Afternoon Fly a Kite range that I got from Mad About Scrappin a while back ... just been sitting in my stash waiting for the right moment - lol

I have used some chippy clouds to mask with and misted with some Maya Mist in Hydrangea Blue and then hand stitched the outline. I also used the same mist to colour my chippy alphas.

The chipboard tree is from Meant To Be Scrapbooking which I have painted with Twinkling H2O's.

And lastly the cool striped twine which is also from Mad About Scrappin and costs a measly $1.10 for 5 metres!! At that price you grab all 7 colours ..... I did!! ;-)

I hope some of you find the time to join in at Out of the Hat this month.

TFL Star xx