Monthly Archives: April 2012

An outing to The Globe

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Last week my friend Jessie and I went to see Troilus and Cressida performed by the Ngakau Toa from NZ. The play was performed all in Maori which was both interesting and near impossible to understand! I could remember a few words from my 10 weeks in high school maori class like: Aroha: Love, Kia Kaha: Stay strong, Kapai: Good, Tena Kotu: Hello/Welcome and that’s probably about it!

Me (left) and Jessie (right)

We met at Jessie’s work and walked a block to have some Thai food for dinner then got the bus to Blackfriars and walked along Southbank to The Globe. With excitement and just a little starstruck with the settings and finding out we were going to see Rawiri Paratene in real life.

We sat just off the side of the stage which was lucky since it did rain in the middle of the show. It was amazing, we had plenty of laughs and a lot of gorgeous boys on show. :) The story of Troilus and Cressida is a tragedy written by Shakespeare. They believe it was written around 1602. The play is based around the love between Troilus and Cressida and ends in the tragic death of Troilus’ brother, Hector. The play rapidly changes from comedy to gloom which keeps you on the edge of your seat and Rawiri played a hilarious Uncle Pandarus. My other favourite character of the night was Thersites who is a servant to Ajax. The actors really made the most of the theatre and mingled in with the crowd which was awesome to see. It was the only time I wished we had bought standing tickets.

At the end of the play Jessie and I walked back over the Millenium Bridge in awe of the lighting of St Pauls at night and parted ways. I had a great night out and I am really pleased to have enjoyed another unique London experience.

 

Shimelle’s Weekend Crop – Challenge #7

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I used an envelope and created a first page using some of the bits and pieces I had kept from our journey over here in 2010. In the envelope I have a couple of collage photo prints, our hotel booking details, our boarding cards, a little sewing kit from the hotel and a few pages from our Lonely Planet book we bought. I really enjoyed making this page and it all came together really quickly. Please excuse the poor lighting in the photo. I used Instagram for the photo to try and ‘photoshop’ it. :)

Shimelle’s Weekend Crop – Challenge #6

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“And so, my challenge to you is to find a layout you love that isn’t in a style or colour scheme you’d usually use and scraplift it with a twist that makes it yours.
To enter this challenge create a new project by changing something dramatic.”

I used one of the page links that Shimelle had on her post which you can find here.

I took inspiration from the page in the form of the strip down the middle and browsed throught the etsy store to borrow some of the wordings of a print – you can find my source on etsy. When we have a place of our own I love to think we will find something similar to this for a feature wall!

Here is the print I created:

And here is my page:

Shimelle’s Weekend Crop – Challenge #5

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Here is the sketch I drew up. Inspiration I drew from Wilna was the white card stock, border stripes, stitching, punching the bottom of the photo (s) and a camera embelishment.

Here is my page I ended up with:

The photo cuts off a bit of the side of the page but both sides have a washi tape border.
I really enjoyed making this page and tried to keep it a minimalist style too. Hope you like it!

 

Shimelle’s Weekend Crop – Challenge #4

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Challenge 4:

I needed some inspiration for this layout and I wanted to try to get as many of the sheets I had pulled on to it!!

I went onto Two Peas and searched in the Gallery for a 12×12 layout with the colour grey and found this page by Madeline:

Using this as inspiration – I followed fairly closely the same layout – this is my grey, yellow and navy page!

Products I used:

Blue Awning Blue Polka Dots Flat Paper – K & Co
Grey and yellow Distress Card stock -Tim Holtz and Ranger
Random yellow and grey patterned papers – Various
Lace – Prime (?)
Butterfly – Random supplier from Ally Pally Sept. 2010
Border sticker – Jenni Bowlin Studio
Yellow Baker’s Twine – Ally Pally stall
Marquise Chipboard letters – Thickers Am. Crafts
Yellow Brads – Random
Black Precision Pen – Am. Crafts
Tag – Ally Pally stall
Lace Washi Tape – Hambly

Shimelle’s Weekend Crop – Challenge #3

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“Choose a style or a scrapper you admire but with a different look to your own pages. Mix something from that with your own style to create something new”

Shimelle chose Dina Wakley and produced this page.

I trawled through a few galleries on Two Peas but couldn’t get a spark of inspiration like I did when I looked through Dina’s work. Her scrapbook pages that incorporate her signature art journalling style always look so amazing and I have always wondered what my page might look like if I took some inspiration from them…so here it is!

(That blue and white stripe is the table cloth!)

I used some waterbased acrylic paints I have had for some time and mixed the blue and pink together in the middle to get a purple blend. I used Folk Art paints that you can buy in Hobbycraft I think? The colours were 441 Sterling Blue and 754 Rose Garden. I then painted on circles in Kaisercraft eggshell which is a paint I bought back in NZ when I also did more ‘off the page” projects. After I had finished painting and set it aside to dry I started getting fiddgity (sp?!) and got my Cosmic Shimmer Mist (Plum Twist) out and tried to use some butterfly negatives from yesterday as a mask, That didn’t go so well so I dried them into more of a splodge look and then…then I decided I wanted to use my UTEE in white on some of the spots. This was the drying phase when I couldn’t leave it alone:

So there you have it! My Shimelle/Dina inspired page! I will leave you with some details shots and I am sure there will be more pages coming later.

I stapled some cream silk ribbon to the back of the butterfly negative for a handmade embellie!

Ultra thick embossing enamel spot

Sparkly pink thickers (I never use pink!!!)

I used the left over paint smudged over this tag then stamped some background images and a bird to use as another handmade embellie

Enjoy!

Shimelle’s Weekend Crop – Challenge #2

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For the second challenge the task was to use three or more collections on a page. We could scraplift Shimelle’s page or make our own. As long as we used three or more collections.

I used a sketch from my print outs of The Hitchhikers Guide to Scrapbooking as below

For me, using multiple collections is quite a normal thing to do. I don’t tend to buy whole collections, instead I prefer to pick papers and embellishments I like. For my page ‘Parisian Love Affair” I used and old Graphic 45 scrap, some pieces of a paper I got in my one and only Studio Calico kit and a piece of leftover paper from what I believe is a Kaisercraft range (that is no longer for sale). I used all left over scrap pieces and then cut a few smaller butterflies out of a DCWV mattstack that I was sent as a birthday present in 2010. So all in all I have no current collections on this page but I am happy with the overall look. I also found some really old letters that I bought way back when I first got interested in scrapping but knew nothing of suppliers etc in a closing down sale. When I left NZ in 2010 there were just two scrapbooking/stamping specialist stores in existance after most had to close down – mostly due to the economy I assume.

Anyway, enough of the chatter! Here is my page I made:

The journalling reads: I love Paris! It all started @ 13 years old in French class in high school. I learnt the basics but got lost somewhere along the way with the verbs: past, present, future, female, male…so I gave up. But I never stopped wanting to visit France. We toured through Paris and Nice in 2010 and visited Paris again with my sister April and her boyfriend Rowan in 2011. There is just something magical about the place. I love the food, the people, the chic little clothing stores, the bakeries and of course the Eiffel Tower. Pure bliss…

Enjoy!

Shimelle’s Weekend Crop – Challenge #1

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Hello lovelies!

I hope you are all enjoying the creative time and if you aren’t already participating do join in! All the fun is started here at: Shimelle.com

Challenge 1 is a scraplift from Jamie Warren. Check out her page here.

I started with these supplies:

And this is the page completed:

Loving playing around with Instagram that android users can finally have!!!
Lots more fun and games coming to you over the weekend.

Scrapping Update

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I wrote in one of my ‘Make a List’ posts a while back about all the different craft projects I have on the go and gave my self a timeframe to get them all completed…see the post here.

I haven’t done so well…I have been busy and tired and when I have had free time have felt like I haven’t got the ‘mojo’ to scrap so I have only really sat down a few times to get the projects under way. In saying that…I have done something (which is better than nothing!) so here is the first project that was already parly done to start with…

So you can see that some progress has been made, albiet slow! I have all the photos in a file ready to send off to the printers and each week has a fixed ‘recipe’ in terms of products/colours/themes that I use as a starting point for the card.

Hopefully with the start I have made now and with everything all on the go this will help keep my momentum going so I can complete these this month (only two months off my target…)

10 things

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I am actually participating this month!!!! Hurrah! I have a reminder on my phone which has gone off so many times now and one thing or another has happened and I haven’t posted for months now!

This month my 10 things are all about our wedding planning and what not…

1. Venues:

We are getting married in my Gran’s church where I was christened as a baby and where my parents got married 30 years ago (this year!!) The outside isn’t the most beautiful but inside is a wonderful big hall with wooden pews, a nice long aisle and incredible stained glass windows. Oh – and a HUGE organ!!!
Our reception is currently under negotiation but we have two possible venues at this stage that we will confirm soon hopefully. :)

2. Stationery:

This is maybe one of the hardest things for me (I wouold say us but Dave is happy to leave this one to me…) to choose…we need to send out Save The Date cards sometime soon and I have yet to decide what I want…Theme wise I am loving a little bit of old school retro like this:
(yup – you are getting a sneak peek of my wedding book where I am sticking all my little bits of magazine inspiration into!!!)

3. Theme:

I can’t seem to choose what ‘look’ I would like for our day and Dave is so lovely and laidback about it that anything would go! I think I need to decide on what items I want as key decorations etc and use that as a basis? As you can see the look kinda goes one way or another from the bits of mag I have been clipping…

4. Favours:

We were having a Skype call the other day with Dave’s mum, my parents and my sister and tossed around the idea of taking home/sending home Wedding Rock/Brighton Rock as a favour…I love the idea but Dave needs a little more convincing.

5. Photography:

We have our main photographer booked and I am a little nervous since we haven’t met face to face yet but he has said we can always Skype so I might add that to a list of things to do so we can get a feel for what he is like as a person, how we get along etc (so that we feel at ease with him taking our photos!!!) and to discuss what sort of photography we want…

I also would love to ask a friend or someone I know to join in as a sort of second shooter…to take the photos of the boys getting ready and to be with us later in the night when our Photog. leaves us. I have yet to think of who I could ask. Something to ponder.

6. Music:

I can’t really share too much here so that I don’t give away the whole thing…but we have chosen our songs for during the ceremony and a couple for at the reception but we still need to think about prior to the ceremony and also whether we want a band or a DJ for the reception.

7. Food:

We got a sample menu from one of our potential reception venues and I am drooling!!! We are now just waiting on some refinements and a little secret mystery shop visit (Thanks to our Mums) and we will have confirmation!!!

8. Transportation:

Any ideas guys? I know what I will have to get to the reception (top secret)…but we don’t yet have any definate ideas for the boys and bridesmaids and also for the ride from ceremony to reception venue(s).

9. D.I.Y:

This is the part that really gets me excited!!!!! I was thinking of lots of little ways we can decorate our reception venue and I am aching to get home, do some shopping at Spotlight and get sewing. :) Check out my wedding Pinterest board for some recent pins of stunning Cath Kidston fabrics…getting the ideas mulling over!

10. Inspiration:

Just a couple of blogs I read now and again to see if I can ‘borrow’ anyone elses great ideas for our wedding!!!

Rock and Roll Bride

Rock my Wedding

And that’s my 10 things for April. 11 months till “I Do” day!

When I decided to restart my blog a little while back I said to myself that this could be an ideal monthly schedule I could make use of. Now it is just to keep the habit going!

From Shimelle: “Every month, we blog ten things on the tenth.  Your ten things can be absolutely anything you feel like sharing!  Link to your specific blog post on Shimelle’s blog so we can all come read your own list of ten.”