Weekend Workout

Firstly, Sophie-Lee and I spent 6 hours straight moving four bedrooms' worth of furniture, which included 2 very heavy queen-size beds. That was a workout in itself, the result of which is that I now have a scrapbooking room with all my stuff in one place.

The Scrapapple Weekend Workout was to be inspired by music.

Here is my rendition using photos from the concert we went to in February. I surprised myself! Firstly I made a mask in the shape of The Cat Empire's symbol then I spattered red paint with a paint brush. Then I sprayed blue paint with an old toothbrush. I had a couple of 'jazz' moments but it turned out okay.


I used Bazzill, Making Memories paint, KI Memories pp, ribbon from somewhere, jewels (which I thought I would never use) from goodness knows where, MM Tiny Type, and Dymo. And Signo Gel pen.

Early in the Morning...

Just as the sun was rising...

I looked at the clouds and thought "Hmmm. It might be a cool sunrise this morning."

So I turned around on my walk, went home, got my camera and drove to Dangar's lagoon. By the time the sun rose the clouds had banked up a bit and the sunrise was not as astounding as I thought it might be. I took photos, fiddled with them and picked out one favourite for you to look at - a black and white sunrise!!! Then I promptly forgot to show you - so here it is.


Lamentations 3:22-24

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."

Gostwyck in the Morning

Here's a quick post to show you my latest photography efforts.

Nae and I went out to Gostwyck again this morning. We went a little bit later than last time and the weather was more conducive to good photos today. So here's a little collage of some photos and what I did with them. Enjoy!

Khormaksar 1962

The challenge for the Scrapapple Weekend Workout was baby oriented - again. Kelly was kind of heading for photos of us as babies, so I decided I would take up the challenge even though the photos that I have are small and not particularly good quality.

I started by looking at the photo and wondering if there was anything on the 'net that would show a picture of the mountains that are in the background of the photo. What I found when I Googled Khormaksar was very interesting and exciting. Not only did I find lots of photos of Khormaksar, I even found a website that told me what the weather was like on the day I was born!!!

So here is my simple layout - a picture of my Dad holding me, on the verandah of their place in Aden. It was hot and I very rarely wore anything more than a nappy. Check out the nappies on the line in the foreground of the photo.


I wanted the overall look of the page to depict sand, sunshine, and heat. While I was doing my research I found this website and I absolutely love their logo - presumably it says something to do with the British-Yemeni Society in Arabic. So I added that as part of my decoration for the page.

That's all for now.

Good News

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners... 1 Timothy 1:15

The good news is that Jesus didn't stay dead. The Gospel of John gives us an account of Christ's resurrection in chapter 20. And this is not just a good story made up so that we can have a huge public holiday and eat lots of chocolate - it is a scientifically proven event in history - the most important event in history.

Because Jesus came back to life, he conquered death and makes it so that we can enjoy eternal life with our sins forgiven - all of them, forever! YAY!

Here is my photographic fiddling for today! A bit of RAW stuff and a bit of PhotoShop as well. Ta dum!

So we have the Easter Egg - a symbol of new life.



And the Easter Bunny - a symbol of abundant life.

Good Friday

Firstly, I'd like to note that on Good Friday last year I was in a seriously dark mood which lasted for months. I am glad to say that the mood is gone and may it never return.

The Gospel of Mark records an account of Christ's crucifixion in chapter 15. All day I have been pondering what kind of layout I could do for Good Friday.

In the end I decided that just my photography manipulation experiments would suffice. I headed to the cemetery with the purpose of taking photos of crosses. The lighting was difficult because the sun was high but clouds helped out in the end.

Just recently I happed upon mammarazzi's blog where she highly recommends shooting in RAWs. It didn't take me long at all to realise that this is exactly what I had been craving for my photos - something to take my photos from the ordinary to the sublime - although I would like to take outstanding photos without digital enhancement.

Anyway...

DH, being a professional photographer and working with RAWs all the time, knew exactly what I had to do, loaded the software onto my computer and gave me some hints straight away. He came with me to take photos this arvo and gave me lessons in photography. Where would I be without him?

So, here is my Good Friday-inspired photo.



And then, before I did anything sensible with the photo, I did this.





And this.



Sophie-Lee suggested that I should try some simple enhancements - good idea - so I took this rather ordinary photo of a cross



and turned it into this.



I couldn't help myself and did this as well :)



For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16.

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:7-8.

Stay tuned for some really good news.

Some Stamping Fun

Some time last month in the Scrap of Faith forum I read about a challenge to scrap your favourite prayer. Even though I didn't do the challenge at the time I knew instantly what prayer I would do - and it probably wasn't what they had in mind.

I quite like the photo I took of a little angel on a headstone at the Uralla cemetery so I coupled that with my favourite prayer to enter the challenge for Aussie Dares, which is to make your own stamp/s and use them on an artwork.

Firstly I found some bubble wrap - I've always wanted to stamp with that stuff - covered it in paint and pressed my page onto it. Then I took the protector thingy that came around a custard apple, slipped it onto my hand and randomly stamped that over the page. Finally, for home-made stamps, I stamped the stamp that I made with felt and string onto the page.


A bit of masking, inking and more stamping with ready-made stamps and voila!



And a couple of close-ups for your scrutiny!




On a serious note, I need to pray this prayer from Proverbs 30:8-9 on a regular basis.

Clearly Fun

Okay. So the Aussie Scrapjack this month is Suz Doyle.



It took me a long time to get around to it but when I did I was on a roll. I got the Hambly screen print in a kit a few months ago and just found it the other day when I was trying to make some space on my scrapping table (a card table at the moment). Then, I couldn't decide whether to scrap the photos in colour or black and white so I did them both and this is what I ended up with.




How do you take a photo of a see-through layout, pray tell? These look so much better in real life.

5

Declan turned 5 years old in January. I even printed his birthday photo the same day - it has been sitting there waiting for the right moment, or inspiration or something.

Eventually, the right inspiration came along in the shape of a sketch challenge. Marni T, who is on the Scrapapple Design Team is great at designing sketches, so they enlisted her for the March Scrapper Challenge. Here's Marni's sketch.



I challenged myself to use this bright piece of Cherry Arte paper. The thing that clinched it for me was that it had a red 5 on the side. Red used to be Declan's favourite colour but he has moved on to blue now. So I combined the paper challenge with Marni's sketch and this is what I came up with. You can see I have been influenced too, by Peg and her use of Dymo - fabulous stuff for journalling with/on. :)



You might also be wondering what kind of cake is that? It's a muffin mountain. Well actually, I think it is a buttercake berm!!! Gluten-free muffins are our usual fare and buttercakes are for special occasions, of which we have a few. We save buttercakes for special occasions because they have so much fat and sugar in them, which is why, of course, they are so yummy!

Anyway, I pile them up and drip the icing over them and Voila! Very quick and easy and it seems to go further than a normal-shaped cake that has to be sliced. So there you go!

If you would like my Gluten Free dessert recipes - just send me an email and I'll send you a copy.

Laundry Queen

Sing along when you catch the tune.



To the tune of "I am the Pirate King" written by Gilbert & Sullivan, Trevor Farrant, and Peter Sullivan and sung by Ted Hamilton and the Pirates in The Pirates of Penzance.

I sing: For I am a laundry queen
(You sing: You are, hurrah for a laundry queen ).
I sing: And it is, it is a glorious thing to be the laundry queen .
I sing: I am a laundry queen
(You sing: You are, hurrah for a laundry queen ).
I sing: And it is, it is a glorious thing to be the laundry queen .
(You sing: It is, hurrah for a laundry queen , hurrah for the laundry queen )

Louder! :)

Here's my Maya Road Crown album that I decided to use to pass on my tried and true laundry tips - and a few tips to get a clean heart as well. "...The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7

Clydesdales, Colorstory and Crop Night

Okay! Where do I start?

A couple of weeks ago Fay, from the Armidale Home Education Group (AHEG for short), organised an excursion to the Clydesdale Sanctuary on the outskirts of Armidale.

We had a pleasant afternoon with Julie and Shannon telling us about the beautiful horses. One of the highlights of the excursion was to see Bonnie Angel, the 9 day old foal, of Gwennie.


The children all were excited to have a pat and a brush of Stumpy, the smallest horse in Australia.


And to sit on top of Charlie - who from Stumpy's viewpoint could be the biggest horse in Australia!

So...

The other day Nae told me about this scrapbooking challenge blog called Colorstory. Last night, at the scrapbooking evening with the Uralla girls, I worked on the Colorstory challenge for this month - Shades of green, pop with orange, with accents of red and blue.


I can hardly believe it is half way through March already. And you know the sad thing - I haven't taken any photos for TWO WHOLE WEEKS! We're having a bit of Summer-like weather at the moment so it might be a great opportunity to get out and capture the kids in pixels!

First Time For Everything!

I've been tagged - by Meg - for the very first time ever. And, frankly, I don't think I can do it. Especially the bit where you have to tag someone else.

This is what you are supposed to do.

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

Here's my seven weird and wonderful things...

1. I have very long and very narrow, flat feet. That creates a nightmare for finding shoes that can fit my orthotics and look great at the same time.
2. My favourite season is Autumn - Love it!
3. My favourite colour is pink.
4. If I was to study something at a tertiary level it would be a hard choice between Maths, Science or Graphic Arts. How weird is that?
5. If I have to have a favourite number it is 11 - I don’t know why!
6. I really can't handle the smell of deodorant and washing powders - they make me cry (literally - I just burst into tears) and nauseous.
7. I can say the books of the Bible (btw - my favourite book of the Bible is Romans)

So, if you feel like tagging yourself, go right ahead. :)

Lovely Lace

I have been overwhelmingly inspired by Scrapperlicious. I just happened upon one of her layouts and then went and found her blog and could just sit looking at her layouts for hours. They are full of delicious layering, scrumptious techniques and tantalising depth. How's that for a rave review?!

Anyway, I decided to have a go at her style. This is my rendition using Scrapperlicious techniques (or my interpetation of them) and incorporating a bit of lace which is the challenge for the Scrapapple Weekend Workout.


Guess what my Mum is getting for Mother's Day? The photo is of my Mum's family at a professional studio sitting by G K Vale in Madras. Isn't it beautiful? Mum's the one with the black dress with white flowers - she's about 18 years old.

I've taken a close up photo to show the layering that I did.

Love a Party

That's the title of today's layout. I think this is the first time I've ever scrapbooked my own birthday but it was the only photo/s I had that would fit a title with the word 'love' in it. That's the challenge for the Scrapapple Weekend Workout.


I also love to use up scraps and that is exactly what I did for this layout. YAY!