Merry Christmas Peeps!!

                      So this we will be my last post before Christmas so I just wanted to say.......

I hope everyone one has a wonderful day with their families!!

Scrap wise...even though everyone is gearing up for Christmas, I have been working on Valentine's Day!! I am doing a great value little creative kit for the store. It is just $15.95, to pre-order yours, click here.

The kit contains enough product to create two layouts or one layout + 3 cards. I have done a sample layout which you can create with my video tutorial or design your own...

Now the video was my first attempt at this and I can tell you it is really dodgy. The camera is out of focus, too many shots of the back of my head and my SD card was too small so there are a few seconds missing in parts lol. Oh well I tried!! But you can still see how the layout was created. If you want to have a sticky beak, it is up on the Paper Stories blog.

Merry Christmas again folks!!!

G xox

Challenges, Kits & Lifting...

Hey scrap friends!! Hope everyone has had an awesome weekend. I've been getting my scrap on in between some Christmas shopping & housework and have a few bits & pieces to share..

So this layout is my first lift layout. I watched a tutorial video for Prima on the weekend by an amazing Polish scrapper, Czekoczyna. Her style is just out of this world and I think she is going to be on every 'to die for' design team very soon!! So my layout was based loosley around some of her techniques, quite different layout really but the same sort of design, layering and the same Prima stamp...I have added some washi & paper tape, plus some gesso. She uses quite a bit of mist, I have never been a big fan of mist and prefer paint but have added 2 little squirts =) This is her video. And as this is a lift, it's a 'just because' layout....

This is the first tut I have actually watched!! Occasionally I will see a technique on someone's work that I love, I will try and nut out how they did it myself so I can put my own spin on it. I think it is really important to be able to try and develop your own style without trying to imitate someone else's too much. Especially when doing design teams, publishing and entering challenges.  I have seen an increasing amount of not just 'influenced by' but direct copies of other people's work right down to the exact same products, composition and even style of photo and it makes me feel really uncomfortable/angry to think that someone has put so much time and effort into creating something just for someone else to recreate it and pass it off as 'their own' without even the slightest shout out to the original designer. Not right is it? 

So anyway, this layout was created with the 'Love Song' kit from Paper Stories along with some Prima flowers from my stash..

And speaking of kits, we had another new kit release over the weekend at Paper Stories and here are a few of my layouts from the kit..

This layout is for Stuck Sketches, I put the sketch upside down and did a little shuffling to get the balance right...

And this one is for the sketch challenge at Let's Get Sketchy....

And this is the kit I used, 'Going My Way'...

Thanks for stopping by =)

G xox

Frosted Designs, Sketchabilites & A Winner!!

Afternoon girls =) Hope everyone is well and are having fun gearing up for Christmas. I only started my shopping today ( I know, I'm bad!!).

So I have a share.... this is a layout I created for the #80 sketch at Sketchabilities and also the challenge at Frosted Designs to use 6 strips of washi tape. I have 3 strips in each corner of my page! It is of my gorgeous step daughter and her new beau...

And while I am here I have the winner to announce for my November giveaway...

Congratulations....GWEN WRUCK!!

If you would like to send me an email at hericarusempire@bigpond.com and I will get your parcel out to you =)

G xox

December Paper Stories Sketch Challenge

Morning girls =) 

We have a new sketch challenge for December up at the Paper Stories blog, with a brilliant new sketch from the very talented Nadia Cannizzo!!

And this is my take on the sketch which I rotated, using the gorgeous New Pink Paislee Portfolio Range..

Products Used-

Pink Paislee - Portfolio - Stupendous

Pink Paislee - Portfolio - Outstanding

Pink Paislee - Portfolio - Unbelievable

Pink Paislee - Portfolio - Amazing

Pink Paislee - Portfolio - Ephemera

Pink Paislee - Portfolio - Stamp Set

Pink Paislee - Artisan Chipboard - Arrows

Pink Paislee - Artisan Chipboard - Stars

The Crafter's Workshop Template - 6 x 6 Pattern Strips

Artiste Acrylic Paint - Noir (Black)

Claudine Hellmuth Gesso

Glitz Design Washi Tape

MME Brad

And up for grabs this month is the awesome Crate Paper Story Teller range. (currently on sale in store too if you want to pick up a bargain!!!)

Hope to see lots of amazing entries again this month!!

Take care

G xox

NEW PaperHaus Issue & Once Upon A Sketch!!!

Hey girls =) Hope everyone is well!!! 

Well December is here.....way too soon!!! I said last year that this season I would be making handmade ornaments for my tree, a December Daily album, a handmade wreath and decorations for my Christmas table + a heap of other projects. I think I probably should have started this back in July as it is looking like my handmade xmas dream just isn't going to happen at all. But..I have managed two layouts and one card ( go me lol). One of which is my first DT project for the current issue of PaperHaus Magazine just released...

Just a little sneak..

You can see the full layout plus a huge amount of amazing talent here...

And as well that, you have to check out this event on the PaperHaus blog & Paper 

Haus Facebook page...

And speaking of Christmas layouts, this is my other one, for the current sketch challenge at Once Upon A Sketch. This month our journalling prompt is: 'It's December' - We know that not everyone celebrates Christmas in December, but if you do we would love to hear all about it. If not, then tell us anything that you like about December..celebratory on not! 

And this is the sketch, I started with this but my layout kind of went in a direction all it's own lol.

Both these projects have been created with this My Mind's Eye All Is Bright Paper & Accessories kit from Paper Stories. Loved loved loved working with this range!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

G xox

Get Creative & Something A Bit EXCITING!!!

Hey all =) Stopping by today for a few shares. Something a bit different for me..cards. I am not a real card maker, my experience equals less than a dozen but from time to time, I don't mind it. Mainly as I have never quite worked out how to incorporate my grungy messy style into the smaller format. But with practice maybe I'll get there. So I decided to play along with the Nov 5th card challenge over at Get Creative...

The challenge is to use a stamp you have never used before. Being more of a scrapbooker than a cardmaker, my sentiment stamps that often pop up in my collection that come in sets never get used. The 'Thanks' stamp I have used here was from an Amercian Crafts set I purchased for the arrow and grid stamp. It felt good to finally find a use for it!

And another card I made with some scraps from a layout I created coming up for a DT assignment...

So my exciting news...

HERE

If you scroll down a bit, you will see that I am going to be one of the tutors at the Scrapbook Papercraft expo in Melbourne next year...YAY! I will be there for the full 3 days with 3 classes each day. Talk about jumping in the deep end for me!!! I have never even been to a class let alone taught one so I am more than a little petrified excited. Being in Tassie I have also never had the opportunity to actually meet ANY ( yes any!) other scrapbookers in person so I am really hoping to see some familiar faces there. If you are planning on going, I will be there on behalf of Scrapbook Creations so you will find me at their pavilion. Should be sooo much fun!! A little closer to the event I should be able to share some sneaks of the projects I have created for these workshops =)

Well that's it for me today!

Be good, G xox

Helmar & Challenge Me Happy

Hey all =) Just stopping by to upload a few quick challenge layouts I have done before I forget.

This one is for the November sketch challenge at Helmar. I have used my fav glue, 450 Quick Dry + a little scrap dots between my layers to give dimension along with the new Crate Paper On Trend range that I got in store a week ago and am totally in love with !!

Some hidden journalling =)

I made a promise to myself a few weeks back that I would stop pinching new ranges from my store until I made an effort to use up some of my older stuff ( I have way too much!!). Well I kind of broke that promise with the Crate Paper so I did another layout with some Amy Tangerine Sketchbook which I went a little nuts buying when it first came out, I will probably be scrapping with it for the next decade!! This layout is for the sketch challenge at Challenge Me Happy.

Thanks for stopping by =)

G xox

Experimenting...

So I am still having my 'oh my god I'm bored' weekend so I decided to get a little experimental last night and created a layout for a challenge, Crazy Monday. I don't often show my 'experimentals' on my blog and I am not sure if I like it or not, but at least it is interesting. I would rather create an interesting mess than a boring pretty any day! So design wise inspiration came from a photo I found on flickr a while back of a graphic style abstract painting. I forgot to pin it but it was a pie element with measurements around the outside like a protractor. Theme wise, it is about master's 15's journey to find 'his thing'. 

Yet to find his passion and what he wants to do with his future, I try and drum home to him that we aren't what we do. It is funny though, if someone asks you about yourself, often the first thing we say is what we do for a living. But in reality this is only very a small part of who we are. This week I actually got asked what 'I do' and I had so much trouble trying to put into words the half a dozen things I do to try and contribute to our house financially in one sentence. That wouldn't make me sound like a nutter anyway. Even when asked what scrapbooking was,  I made it sound like I sit around all day with a bottle of clag glue and some old New Idea magazines! 'Professional Crafter' sounds a bit wanky and calling yourself an 'Artist' is a bit of a long stretch, any ideas girls? When hubbie & I used to have to attend formal events (prior to scrapbooking and the company he worked for being sold) and sit at tables with CEO's and the like, I used to be an 'Executive Officer of Domestic Operations'. It would take a few minutes before that one sunk in lol.

I have scraped this photo more times than I care to count ( sorry peeps!), but if you are the owner of a teenage boy you would know that it would probably be easier to extract a kidney from them than to get a photo!

Hope you are all having a weekend that is more exciting than mine!!

G xox

Scrap365 Sketch Challenge

Hey girls =) Well I am sitting here at my craft desk and my house is eerily silent as my boys have all gone camping for the weekend. It is fun having 'me time' for the first 12 hours but once the housework is all done, I've watched a movie or three and scrapped a few layouts, it starts to become extraordinarily boring having just my cat to chat to! So thought this would be a good opportunity to catch up on some blogging =)

Did you girls know that Scrap365 mag run a sketch challenge on their blog, http://sketchbook365.blogspot.co.uk/? I entered once, next thing you know, guest designer spot,  front cover and now a full time DT position. So if getting noticed plus a great challenge with prizes is your thing, you may want to check it out. I played along this month and this is my layout...

One thing I have always loved about checking out other people's blog ( apart from scrapbooking inspiration) is coming across links to really interesting sites and discovering new things. When I trawl the net, my usual searches involve art, music and photography. So I thought I might share some of this weeks finds...if your currently bored like me and want to check them out lol.

So I found this amazing UK based photographer, Danielle Tunstall. Her work is just mind blowing!! I have a penchant for horror so this is right up my alley. Not your gory type 'nightmare on Elm St' type thing, but just scary stuff that makes your skin crawl ( think The Ring). As a suburban housewife I guess this would be my only rare source of an adrenalin rush! lol. This is her video on youtube, it goes pretty quick but if you want to see more, check out her flickr. Seriously friggin talented chic!

Music wise, I found this song by Ane Brun and haven't been able to stop playing it. Not only is it an awesome song but I just love the cryptic grungy film clip..May not be everyone's thing. My taste tends to be quirky female singer/songwriters so this does it for me =)

Right then, better be off, hope I haven't bored you =)

G xox

Keeping The Best Sketch #47

Hi all =) Hope everyone is doing well and had a great weekend. I am just stopping by today to share the new sketch challenge at Keeping The Best. It has been really awesome to see that quite a few people have discovered this site through my blog and we have been getting lots of really fabulous entries!! So here is my take, I just couldn't get a decent photo of this one so apologizes for the not so great pics...

And the sketch which I decided to rotate for my layout

And in other news you may have noticed this new little badge on my blog.. 

I am super excited to have been asked to join the amazing team of contributors at PaperHaus magazine. If you haven't seen this awesome online mag yet, you can check it out here. The new edition is out in early December and it is going to be awesome!!!

Happy scrapping

G xox

GIVEAWAY TIME!!

Morning ladies!! Well I had a bit of a stash cleanout on the weekend. My scrapping has changed somewhat over the past 6 months and subsequently I have a lot of floral/romantic style papers and flowers that I don't think I will ever use. So who better to give it all too than the gorgeous ladies that follow my blog! So all you need to do is become a follower if your not already and pop your name down here and you could win this...

It is a mixture of GCD, Inkidio, Webster's Pages, The Scrap Cake, Maja Designs, Pion Designs, Daisy D's + Prima Flowers etc

Hate doing this but....The post on this lot will probably be quite high so it is just open to Australian girls unless of course you want to pay the post then it is all yours no matter where you live!!

You have until the end of Nov, goodluck girls!

Once Upon A Sketch November Challenge

Hi all =) Dropping in this morning to share with a new challenge for November at Once Upon A Sketch. This month we have no journalling or theme criteria so you can scrap about whatever you like! And here is my layout...

My photo stash is getting seriously low so I have used this gorgeous photo I found on Pinterest, sorry I am not sure who the photographer is?

And here is Nadia's gorgeous sketch for this challenge..

While here, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to those who left words of support on my last blog post. I am always blown away by how many beautiful kind and souls there are within this little community of scrappers and appreciate SO MUCH those that take the time to leave a kind comment...so THANKYOU again =)

I hope my blog post didn't come across as a whinge as it wasn't. Just..you know...sharing can be a bit cathartic =)

Take care, G xox