San Francisco - BoBunny DT

Way back in 2004 my sister asked if I was interested in going to San Francisco for a couple of weeks holiday.  I was soooo keen it was'nt funny!  All the travelling I did in my twenties I loved but had never been to the States before,  and San Francisco was just one on my wish list to visit.  She wanted to go in November just before Thanks Giving did I have any issues with those dates?  No, could'nt think of anything, so we booked the tickets.  And then I remembered..................................my first wedding anniversary was Nov 29th!!!  Thankfully I have a very understanding husband because the tickets were non-refundable, non-transferable, and it could've turned into a bit of a nightmare!  9years later and I still had'nt got round to scrapping those photos :(  and then BoBunny asked me to create my first project using travel as my theme, problem solved!  

So what to do?  Well, you need a suitcase don't you?  So I covered a wooden box I found at Typo, and added a strap of leather to make my handle.  I also wanted it to be a battered suitcase.  The papers I picked were from the The Avenues range and Double Dot Vintage.

Ive used BoBunny texture stamps to create the water mark effect  and inked around the edges with Frayed Burlap distress ink.

On the inside of the lid I created an 'pocket' to hold brochures and postcards that I had purchased.  Ive also added a custom made envelope from the The Avenues papers to store the extra photos I had.

On the cover I have split the flowers to make them go even further, and used the new Kraft collection embellishments, wooden clocks.

Bubba Gump's restaurant in Monteray Bay was very cool, there was even a bench seat outside with Forrest's shoes and suitcase and box of chocolates - do you think I can find that photo?!!

Tip: change paper patterns to suit your own needs.  This little pennant on the birdcage has been altered, by using a pennant from another page and placing it on top with some foam for dimension.  Now it says amazing, instead of love.  Perfect!

The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose.  I found this house fascinating, and the history behind its owner Sara Winchester quite sad.  Overcome with grief from the death of her baby daughter and 15yrs later her husband, Sara Winchester began building this house, and kept going for 38 years!  By the time she passed away, she had built, 160 rooms, nine kitchens, 10,000 windows, 47 fireplaces - no two carved a like.  There were a few quirks too; a spiral staircase has 42 steps, each two inches high.  Other stairways melt into blank walls.  A fascinating place to visit!

The next day we were off to the tourist attractions in San Francisco.  First stop was Alcatraz.  It opened as a federal penitentiary in 1934 and of the 1545 inmates who did time on Alcatraz, only a handful were notorious, one of them being Al Capone.  One of the bits of information I was amazed with was the families who lived there rarely locked their doors!  The average stay for an inmate was 8-10 years.

I had quite a few photos I wanted to include here, so I created a flap.

Golden Gate Bridge.  When we got to the view point to get a good photo, we found a group of highway patrol men gathered.  Perfect photo opportunity!  Their bikes looked just like they did in Chips!  remember that programme?

The Arts Centre. A glorious place, some amazing architecture, just beautiful.

Pop on over to the BoBunny blog today and you'll see another example of travel.  Tracee has done an awesome travel layout using Elf Magic.
Thanks for popping by :)

Its a BoBunny Christmas!

This past weekend I have been helping out teaching make n takes at Scrapfest by the Sea.  As well as sorting out those for the weekend I was also asked to create some Christmas decorations for display, because the weekend had a midwinter Christmas theme to it.  I tend to be a bit of a hoarder of Christmas papers and embellishments ;) yes I freely admit it lol :)

I ended up making quite a few things so I thought I'd show them to you in two posts, because theres a lot to show!  The first two are my favourites.

Ok, so the first is a 10x20" canvas using Kaisercraft wooden word.  Ive used papers from the Snowfall range from BoBunny - this was one of my absolute favourite ranges ever released! Why? Because it encompasses everything I love, Snowflakes!!! and glitter and the colour scheme, well it all just made swoon with delight :) - you'd think they made it just for me ;) lol.  I used eight papers to get three layers, tearing and ripping as I went popping doilies and snowflakes in the ripped sections as I went.  Some of those snowflakes are Kaisercraft, K&Co, Maya Road and Dusty Attic.  That large teal snowflake was a Christmas decoration I found at Spotlight, that I split in half, and theres BoBunny buttons scattered around too.

 And a few close ups for you.  Some of the chipboard I left 'naked' the rest I have either covered in glue and dipped in glitter, or embossed with white embossing powder.

 This snowflake Ive layered up with foam dots, and then added a BoBunny chipboard snowflake, - the embossing powder has ended up giving the chipboard a distressed look to it, not quite what I had in mind but it works!

The second one I have to show you is my other favourite.  Ive had a 7Gypsies house in my stash for a long time but never got around to doing anything with it.  I decided to have a go at turning it into a Christmas cottage, complete with trees and rambling vines.  Vines incidently are one of my all time favourite OTP embellishments!

The paper this time is really old, but still BoBunny of course ;)  its Noel - it has a lovely heritage feel to it.  Ive randomly stamped along all the edges of the house with a new brick stamp that BoBunny has brought out recently, and then attached the vines.

The little red berry mini vines can be found at Scrap it Simple, they've been handmade by Hilary and come in a packet of two - they are beautiful!

So theres the first few for you, I'll be back later with some more :)
Thanks for popping by!

A little of this and a little of that

Today I have a few things to share that have been gifts recently.  

The first is a Kaisercraft frame that I teamed with some old Websters Pages - this went in a completely different direction that what I had originally thought of but I love how it all came together in the end.  Ive painted the frame with gesso and then layered the paper so that all of the design was still there - this was'nt the plan either, but I could'nt bring myself to cut up the paper, it was just too gorgeous!  I cut the stacked the animals out twice before adhering them with foam tape  to given them a bit of dimension.  The rubon is an old Basic Grey, and Ive added some texture paste to a damask stencil on the background.  The white frame was just two pieces of scrap  chipboard stacked on top of each other, painted with gesso and stamped.

And heres the matching card with scraps made with the leftovers.

Another Kaisercraft frame this time with some old Prima papers combined with Kaisercraft corner flourishes and flowers - bit of a mixture of flowers lol, some Prima, BoBunny, and Manor House :)

This photo was taken when I did my trip to England last year - yet another thing to add to the list of things to do, scrap those photos!, and yet another two old paper collections have now bit the dust, I love it when I can finally use something Ive had for ages :)  course it also means I can go shopping ;)

An eventful week coming up for me, birthday cards to make, Scrapfest 'things' to finish, - can't show you those til next week ;) - more BoBunny goodness to share, and night shift starting tonight :(  And now I have the beginnings of a head cold, I hate that!

Thanks for popping by!

BoBunny!!

Today my intro is on BoBunny's blog with one of layouts from my DT application, so I thought I would share the rest of my application.
When I was trying to decide what to do I wanted to make sure it also showed a little bit of me and the things that I like.  I scrap a lot of heritage layouts - having no children of my own its become a bit of a passion of mine and old photos are now coming out of the woodwork from both sides of our family now :)  But also, I 'borrow' my friends children for inspiration to create layouts, and the bonus is they make great gifts in return!
This first layout is little ole me, at about 2-3 years old I think, trying out the trike on the front yard.  The paper is from the Prairie Chic range, and added some gorgeous Manor House flowers and a smidgen of Prima.  Ive also stamped and embossed using some BoBunny stamps  to match the  white flourishes on the paper.

The second layout is the one that is up on the blog and its Forbes's father down on the farm.  Its the same range of paper but this time I wanted to   pop a masculine twist to it, so I separated the wooden palings on the paper and distressed the edges.  the flowers are BoBunny - are'nt they gorgeous?!!  I found them quite by chance on our trip to Whangamata earlier in the year :)  Ive added to this layout scraps of Dusty Attic, a very old Basic Grey Family rubon and a couple of Kaisercraft wooden banners that Ive inked and stamped on.

And lastly two cards. Both of these use the same range of paper, and the only things I added this time was a few Prima flowers and the lattice die from Spellbinders.

 Thanks for popping by!

Dreams can come true

You know what me and secrets are like :) hopeless!  But I had to keep this one, (well I did tell me husband but I don't think that counts), but its all official now so I can tell you my big so awesome make you grin all day overwhelmingly huge secret that Ive had to keep for just over a week!  Im very proud to say Im now on the design team for BoBunny!!!!!

Its really strange to be working with people who's work I have adored and been inspired by, to be now chatting with them and being part of a awesome team of women.  It still feels a bit surreal :)  and I cannot stop grinning! :)

Heres the amazing people I get to work with for the  2013 year :


So you see dreams can come true, they did for me this week! :)

a little hiccup

Funny how some things never go to plan! This week our computer decided to die a completely uneventful death, it just wouldnt turn on one day.  I am very thankful though that I had only just finished backing up the hard drive with all our photos, or I would've been a lot more miffed than I was. So, we are now the proud owners of a new MacBook Air  :) :) This thing is the bomb!!  Im just trying to sort a few things out and load the photos on and I can start blogging again :) theres lots to share!
See you soon!

Scrapfest August 2013

Ive had a wee secret for awhile now and if you know me then you'll know Im lousy at keeping something secret, especially if its really cool :)  I tried this time I really did but thankfully I did'nt have to keep it long lol. Ive been asked by Trina to help teach at Scrapfest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  No classes - don't think Im that good! but two make n takes on Saturday, so my brain has been going into overdrive thinking of all the possibilities :)  I still a bit overwhelmed, such an amazing honour to be asked.

Theres been a challenge on over on the facebook page for everyone to scrap the same photo, any way you want.  Some of the ideas people have had have been so cool!  I ran with Trina's idea and made a mini album to pop in photos, tickets etc in.  This time I used the BoBunny range ETC - its neutral theme was perfect and it incorporates my love of all things heritage as well.  I used a mini album Ive had in my stash from a long time  ago, I think it was a Chatterbox brand - that tells you how old it is!  The front and back covers are canvas, so I decided to have a go at mix media for the cover and while I love looking at what everyone else does with mixed media Ive come to the conclusion its not something I really excel at - Im a bit too anal and neat for the process I think :)  Anyway, I used texture paste on a damask mask I had, and when it was dry sprayed it with three different glimmermists and then stamped over the top with black stazon ink, and then embellished with some Prima trinkets on the side, BoBunny flowers and Blue Fern chipboard.  Im relatively happy with it, but its the inside that I love!

The page on the right folds open which you can see in the next photo.

A simple pocket page with a cluster using the acetate cover from ETC notebook

The page on the has a mini acordion folded album and the one on the left folds open

Another little pocket page

This time I created double doors and embellished with stamps and rubons

Here I stamped over the background paper and also stamped on the seam binding

This album was part of my audition for the BoBunny DT this year so Ive used a lot of BoBunny product, flowers, stamps, chipboard embellishments, broken up the notebook, rubons and of course papers.  And I love how its come together.  Now I can't wait to get to Scrapfest and fill it! :)

Thanks for popping by!