PDCC 91 - A splash of RED

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #91 is A Splash of....and I chose RED.  I'm creating a brag book (8"x8") scrapbook of my 2 girls for my mum - you know I'm a "sentimental" crafter, right?  Anyway, this challenge was the perfect inspiration for my cover page - "simply us Sisters".

I had these beatiful B&W photos of my girls taken by their dad which capture a bit of their personality and bond.  This cover page is apt for what the scrapbook is about as well as the showing my kids simply as who they are....growing up.  This is my 7th layout and I've got such a loooong way to go.  You know, much as I'd love to give this away, I think it'll be tough as well.

This has been inspired by many of the DT gals work including:

• use of twine
• use of red 
• black matting
• use of chalk (well, it was by a DT gal but not quite for this week's PDCC)

I was going to do a dry-brush approach but don't really have the right red paint so I ended up using red chalk  (with fingers - messy fun!) which I saw in one of the DT gals blogs....this is why you go visiting DT gals' blogs.   My chalks are hardly ever dug out of storage so it was good to have the inspired nudge to do so.

Happy visiting.

Another combined challenge - bling and stitching

I'm having another go at combining challenges - it kinda triples the inspiration for me. This entry is for:

PDCC #82 (colour inspiration)
Scrapbook Boutique May challenge - stitching
CAS-ual Fridays #3 - bling

CAS is certainly becoming a style of choice so I thought the 3 challenges would really stretch me. Can I create something with vintage-y colours, some stitching (which I hardly ever do, least of all machine-stitching) and bling to boot.

Here it is. What do you think?

The "daisy" was stamped, stitched, cut and blinged.  I wasn't too confident with my daisy stitch, hence the stamp first. I also punched the holes before stitching so I knew exactly where the needle would go through. I got my mojo halfway through and nearly stuffed up (floss off, floss on fix).

I used one of my nesties as a template for the circle of bling. I think it worked rather well.  The sentiment was built out of 2 stamp sets (SU Wonderful Favourites and Upsy Daisy).

I think it looks like a scrapbook layout, speaking of which, here's the original PDCC entry I made. I'm not too confident sharing my scrapbook work but here it is anyway...no longer a challenge entry, just something to share.

Cheers all.

By the way, do you have a tip for photographing cards and layouts? Please share. Thanks.