ARTastic FEB CHALLENGE ~ DANCING CAN REVEAL ALL THE MYSTERY THAT MUSIC CONCEALS

Good Morning ~ 
Where did the first month of the year fly by  to ?
So a new month brings a new challenge  over at ARTastic and it's a beauty

by Josh Miels You can read about Josh over at the ARTastic blog 

I was influenced by the big flowers ( thank you Lizzy ) and the swirls in the ladies face. I have used texture paste to create swirls and added glitz and glitter. I also felt the painting is quite dramatic, which I tried to reflect in the layout. I was influenced by the colours which I felt were dramatic as well.

Dancing can reveal all the mystery that Music Conceals ~ Charles Baudelaire

This is my Beautiful Grand Daughter . When she was doing this dance I kept saying " She looks so grown Up"  A few years on I have come to terms with this now and can scrap the photo. 

The beautiful flair is from StudioFourteen40  as is the Silver glitz Washi . I added a bit of Gesso to Lizzy's gorgeous flowers that she sent me awhile ago. I also added some textured tissue paper down the side of the photo and added water paints to lighten the dark photo.

I created the swirls with texture paste and added glitter and glitz

Thank you for calling by and I hope you join us in this awesome challenge. We would love to see what inspires you in the beautiful painting. Please pop over to the blog and leave the DT members some love, they have rocked the challenge. 

Love, Peace and Happiness 

Mary x

SKETCHY BOARDS CHALLENGE ~ THE BEAUTY OF PATMOS

Hello !

I was wanting to join in with Sketchy Boards challenge this month. 

the sketch

and the colour palette

Not living near the sea and not getting there as much as I would like , I don't have a lot of beach photo's . The photo's I have when my  children were little on beach holidays are terrible quality, which is a shame, so.......

I thought I would use this lovely photo I took at Patmos

The gorgeous flair is from StudioFourteen40  I encourage you to pop over to StudioFourteen40 check out the gorgeous products and to also visit the blog and leave some love for the gorgeous creations by the team.  The time piece is from My 2 Angels. 

I have also used washi here and there from Georgia Heald

The cute little heart chippy is for StudioFourteen40, they are so versatile to pop on a layout or PL 

I have randomly stamped here and there with a Dark Room Door stamp

Thank you for calling by and hope you find the time to join in this lovely challenge. 
Being Australia Day Long weekend here this weekend I will leave you with a photo my Son Chris Bennetts  took of my Grandson .The photo was on the  front cover of one of our local papers here today.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone (it's nearly here )

Love , Peace and Happiness
Mary x

SNAIL MAIL CRAFTING

Hello !

I hope you have had a good weekend. I enjoyed a visit from Cheryl who did a stamping up demo for us. We all really enjoyed the day and I loved the make and takes we did. Thanks Cheryl for coming over to Orange , I enjoyed the weekend, but getting too old for such late nights lol
The last week I have been putting together a little something for one of my Pen Pals. I decided I would make a little something for each day of the week. So for 7 days my friend could pull out a gift from the package with a little message for the day ( and no peeking at the rest ! yeah I know I would peek  )
So these are her little gifts for the days

I have pegged a peppermint tea to the back of the tag

this one I pegged a recipe on the back. A very yummy one that is probably extremely bad for you , but oh so yummy !

With this one , when the envelope is opened up , it is filled with little butterflies

Sometimes this one is hard to do.

I also made one that I have already sealed up in a little envelope. It is a little card I made that had a window filled with sequins and sparkle and said "Leave a bit of sparkle wherever you go "
So there you have it. Maybe I have given you some ideas for a little something extra to put with a gift or just to send someone a happy thought for the day. 

I also made this into a little notebook for her and put this on the cover  

I have four pen pals. Three overseas girls and one Aussie. It is such a lovely positive thing to be part of. I really enjoy writing to them and receiving mail from them. It brightens a day . 

A couple of photos from our day with Cheryl 

The strawberry jam on the scones was sent to me from my pen pal. Handmade strawberry jam and it was Delicious , it is  nearly all gone, didn't last long , it was soooooo good .

And some of the gang. 

Love, Peace and Happiness

Mary x

MAKING MEMORIES ~ HOME AND SCRAPPED SKETCH CHALLENGE

Hello !

I have been seriously missing my mojo of late and finding it difficult to have the energy or desire to scrap. I am hoping it is only because of the tummy bug I have atm. But yesterday I decided to pick out a photo I have been wanting to scrap and just start and Focus as Lizzy told me .
I am entering this in the sketch challenge at Home and Scrapped. Home and Scrapped is a lovely community on facebook , a lovely bunch of gals, that make you feel , well right at home. :)

So this is the sketch. 

and here is my take. I have only used one photo, but never the less used the sketch as my inspiration

Making Memories

Back in the day , the photographs were very small and I wasn't sure who was in this photo. I was thrilled when I enlarged it to find my Mum is the girl second from the right looking at the photo.  I don't know about you , but I find it hard to think of my Mum as being young and carefree. So I really wanted to scrap this pic, not sure who the others are in the photo, I will have to try and find out. I think my Mum was really pretty when she was young, but I am bias.

My friend Jo gave me the lovely big brown flower and the handmade flowers are made by the talented Heather Waldron. Rosettes, Satin Seam binding and square pearl embellies are from CraftQueen. Chippy words are from Scrapmatts.

I have use the Kaiser Rustic Heritage range of papers.

I also love adding Mum's old threads to my layouts. I have used texture and distress inks as well,

Thank you for calling by, we would love to see you join in the community over at Home and Scrapped.

Love , Peace and Happiness

Mary x

RESTING IN YOUR HEART

Good Evening!

I am popping in to share a layout that I did awhile ago for my sister in law.
I have a tutorial up at StudioFourteen40 on how I created this layout. Plus if you would like to pop over there , you will see lots of lovely inspiration from the girls at StudioFourteen40 , from Traditional layouts to PL. I recommend a visit.

Billy ~ Resting in your Heart

I have used the flair that says "Love you forever" from Always Range at StudioFourteen40. The versatility of the range allows it to be used to convey our feelings towards our fur babies as well.

I have left the opening to slide in a verse (which made me cry ) . The verse is that our Beloved Dogs don't really die, but are just resting in our hearts. Tissue material .

Thank you for calling by. Hope your enjoying your weekend

Love, Peace and Happiness

Mary x

THE EARTH WITHOUT ART IS JUST "EH" NEW CHALLENGE AT ARTastic

Hello and Happy New Year ! 

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and that the New Year brings you all good things.
ARTastic has a fantastic new challenge up . My mojo had been seriously lacking, but I enjoyed this challenge and it helped to get the creative juices flowing.
The challenge is .....

We start off with this really delightful street art by Fintan Magee.  Aren't these little guys adorable!

This is a free scrap with no set criteria so make of it as you will but don't forget to tell us what inspired you about the painting - the brickwork, the super hero costumes, the little boys, the colours ... whatever you like.

To learn a little more about Fintan Magee, pop over to Artastic and while there check out the DT's inspiration and leave them so love.

The scene of these cute little super hero's reminded me of street art and that is where I have taken my inspiration from. I remembered I had taken a photo of a mural at Bondi Beach and thought it would be perfect for this challenge. That is what I love about challenges, I probably would never have scrapped this otherwise, and now I am happy that I did.

The Earth without Art is just "Eh"

I kept it pretty simple with stamping, water colour, gesso and washi tape.

The little stars were sent to me from my Pen Pal in the UK and are a really pretty mauve IRL

 Washi tapes are from Craftqueen & Georgia Heald 

Thank you for calling by and for those in Australia , I hope you are staying cool in the heat . Looking forward to seeing lots of layouts this month :)

Love , Peace and Happiness

Mary x