Happy First Birthday Lawnscaping!

Today I am super excited to share that I’m guest designing with Lawnscaping Challenges this month and it’s their first birthday!

The theme for this special challenge is Birthday! (birthday cards/layouts, invitations, party decorations, etc). I had a little more time to spare as it was Christmas so I thought I would create something that would get me more organised this year, a mini birthday book. I had all of my details in my Blackberry but lost a lot of them when I tried to transfer them to my iPhone so this was a great excuse to start again

 

I dug out lots of my Lawn Fawn stamps and sat down to play.  Using the PTI journal page die and MME’s Lime Twist 6 x 6 patterned paper I cut out 14 pages in different patterns and added two metal rings to hold it together.  I then set to work on adding various elements to each page using Lawn Fawn stamps as shown below.. Warning..picture heavy post!



Front Cover: Bake Me A Cake


January: Winter Bunny


February: My Silly Valentine


March: Judy’s Blooms, Blissful Botanicals (butterfly)


April: Critters on the Farm


May: Sew Lovely


June: Critters in the Sea


July: Swimsuit Season


August: Admit One


September: Bows and Holly


October: Harvest Season, Heebie Jeebies (awwww I just noticed I’ve squished my poor little bat with the peg!)


November: Happy Turkey (requested by my daughter, Tinks (aka Natasha!), for her birthday month


December: Critters in the Forest, Admit one (star on tree)

Back Page: Just plain, but I will probably add an image in at some point to finish it off

Alphabet on all pages: Sally’s ABC’s.  I used Copic markers to add a little zig-zag type border to each of the letters otherwise they just disappeared into the background!

For the backs of the pages I wanted something that I could update if I needed to, rather than it be permanent.  I often like to write in special birthdays, i.e. 18th, 30th, 40th so this means I can change them over for the following year if I want to.

I used PTI Gratitude Journal stamp set and die and an old stamp set by Banana Frog with months on.  I honestly thought I had the Say Cheese, Too set by LF which would have been a much better font for these, but alas I had to improvise.  I guess that set will have to be something to add to my wish list and then I can update them all!  To attach the little lined journal tags I just used mini pegs that I have been hoarding for years!

Make sure you join in the celebrations and pop on by to the rest of the team to see what they’ve created, the links are below.

Laurel Beard -     www.laurelbeard.wordpress.com
Melania Deasy  - http://melaniadeasy.blogspot.com/
Lynnette Kauffman -  http://nettersnotables.blogspot.com/
Tamara Laan - http://tamaartjescrapt.blogspot.com/
Ayana Posadas - http://ayanaposadas.typepad.com/
Christy Reuling - http://christygetscrafty.blogspot.com/
Britta Swiderski - http://brittaswiderski.com/
Vera Yates - http://lingshappyplace.blogspot.com/



You have the chance to win a fab $25 gift certificate from Simon Says Stamp and ALL followers will receive a free gift so once you’ve been inspired by the design team pop on over to the main Lawnscaping blog to read all about it!

Happy Birthday Lawnscaping!!! 

I’m so glad I’ve been able to celebrate this milestone with you!!


I'm going to enter my little book into Wee Memories challenge of 'New'.  I used some new dies and stamps and made a complete mini book which is definitely new to me!  I also created something to start my New Year with a good old bit of organisation!

  

Happy New Year, my 2012 word and a card for Paper Issues

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope this year is your best ever!

Last year you may remember me choosing a word for the year, mine was ‘happy’ and I think I achieved that.  Yes, there were ups and downs, but I chose only to do things that made me happy instead of doing things that I ‘should’ do.  Of course there are things that you have to do, but there are also things that you do out of duty and because of that they can seem a drudge.  If you choose to be happy doing those things they often turn out much better than expected.

As with a lot of others in the blogging world I thought I’d take some time to share some of my favourite projects with you that I’ve blogged about this past year.  One of my teamies, Kellie Winnell, over at Paper Issues is also doing a little link up here on top 10 crafty creations for 2011 so why don’t you spend some time reflecting on what you liked and join in with us.

Ok, so here goes.. (not in any particular order)

A card for Color Me Creative, hair is a bit of a challenge for me so I was pleased how this one turned out.

My first attempt at colouring sepia, this was SO much fun, must have a go at that again.
A colour splash over at Play Date Cafe, I just love the elegance of those Papertrey Ink patterns and that Daydreamer flower is lush!
I made this one for my friend moving back to Australia, it was nice to use letters as the focal point, I don’t often do that.
These mini butterfly cards were really addictive, I just couldn’t stop once I started using the colour blocking trend lol
I don’t often make boy cards so it was fun to play around with this little train that someone had asked me to make for them.
I’m sure you all know I’m a HUGE Lawn Fawn fan so LOVED playing around with some Halloween stamps for this one and my most favourite-y big stripey ribbon, mmmm.  Ruby does love that ribbon! My covered pegs for the Stamp Attic and Paper Issues DT, so quick and simple to make.
One of my favourite colour combinations..

Finally probably my big accomplishment for the year, not because it’s a major thing, but because it’s a major thing for me.. My little Tic Tac Toe game that I made a video about. It looks like a card, but it’s actually a mini board game I made for my daughter for fun. 

I created my very first video using penguin stamps instead of these pumpkin ones, which is what the video was based on, you can see a small video outtake pic below. 

It took FOREVER to make, lots of laughter trying to do it but so scary!  I’m so proud I actually finished it!  Thanks Carole Ann for the nudging!

Paper Issues has a linky up party going on called ‘We’ve Got Your Number’.  I made this card a while back, it seems a bit unusual but it one of a few sample bespoke cards that I was asked to make for something specific but another one made the cut!

So.. my word for this year … (drum roll please…) is …

FABULOUS

Last year's 'Happy' was a great word, but fabulous is even better, it's one of those 'I feel on top of the world' words!  Someone I used to work with in the corporate world used to always say when asked how she was that she was 'fabulous, thank you'.  I think that's a great way to answer!  Saying I'm fine, I'm good, I'm ok just doesn't make you feel great!  

I hope this year is your most fabulous yet, that you manage to achieve all of those crafty goals that you set yourself but most of all have heaps of fun along the way! 

I’ll be back tomorrow with a project for a guest DT post.

Happy New Year!