Scrapbook Dreams sketch challenge

Hi everyone :)

This week we announced our mid month sketch challenge.  It’s a lovely sketch… just perfect for so many different photos!

Our Guest Designer this month is Janeen and she’s created a fabulous layout using the cutest photos:

Thanks for being our Guest Designer this month xx

If you’d like to take part in this challenge simply create a layout using the sketch for inspiration and upload it into our June gallery (or email me a photo and I’ll upload it for you)

Birthday Activity #3

This week we’ve got another birthday activity for you :)

This week we're going square with a twist! You need to create a square project... either a layout, card or something of your choice... but it must be square.

And here's the twist... we've got a colour theme for you:

Yes it's my own personal favourite: red, white, black and craft!

4 x 4 cards are really popular and if you've never tried them here's the perfect opportunity :)

Simply create your SQUARE project using our colour theme and upload it into the gallery.

p.s. we've had a few people ask about deadlines for these activities... you have all the time you need as we're going to give you an extra 4 days after the end of the month to upload your projects!

Happy crafting  everyone xx

2nd January Challenge for Scrapbook Dreams

Hi everyone :)

I’ve got LOTS to share with you today so this is the first of three blog posts.

The mid-month sketch challenge at Scrapbook Dreams is up and it’s a double layout… which means double the reward points if you enter your layout into our January gallery! If you’re not into doing double layouts then there’s options for doing either the left or right side as well:)

Here’s the sketch:

I had so many photos from Toby’s first Christmas so this sketch was perfect for it! Here’s the full layout:

And here’s some close ups of the left and right side:

On the left side I included a letter from Toby about his first Christmas. It was actually lots of fun to write. Here’s ‘his’ view of his first Christmas:

How was your Christmas? I had a GREAT time!! On Christmas Eve Mumma hung my stocking the door and in the morning it was FULL of treats for me! That guy Santa must have lots of treats at his house because he left me 5 different sorts. The only problem was Mumma wouldn’t let me eat them all at once because she said I might make myself sick... sometimes she takes all my fun away!!

After I got TWO treats we went over to my Auntie Tracey and Uncle Hau’s house at Waihi Beach. Auntie Katey and Uncle Simon were there too and so were all the kids. I got to play with all my cousins and look at their toys. Mumma made a whole heap of decorated biscuits for my cousins so that I could give them a present... pretty cool aye!

Then we had to wait for Grandma to arrive... and she was taking a LONG time!! So, we went for a walk to the beach.... just me, Mumma, Aidan and Leila. I’d never been to the beach before and it was a bit scary for me. Did you know that the water comes in waves??? and that waves move in and out??? I like being NEAR the water but I’m not too confident about getting IN the water so it was all very confusing.

Then we went home and Grandma and Poppa arrived and we all got presents! I got some toys and some more treats!! I even unwrapped most of my parcels myself!!

Next we had some lunch... Auntie Tracey kept sneaking me little treats while Mumma wasn’t looking... and so did Uncle Hau.... and so did Grandma.... and so did the kids... and do you know what? That night I was SICK as a DOG!!! Poor Mumma was a bit worried about me but I was feeling fine after I’d been sick!

Anyway... back to lunch! There was ham... and chicken... and sausages... and sausage rolls... and bacon... and all sorts of other things! Everyone had their lunch and then Uncle Simon and Mumma took all the kids to the beach for a BIG walk. They had to be careful to make sure they brought all the right kids home and didn’t leave anyone behind but they did a good job.

When we got back from our walk Auntie Tracey had our pudding ready. I watched all the other kids getting ice cream and jelly and sprinkles and I thought that maybe she’d forgotten about me.... but then she gave me an ice cream in an ice cream cone!!! I was so hot and the ice cream was so cold... it was REALLY nice!

Then we all played some more before we got back in the car. Mumma had to drive all the way back home but I got to snore on the back seat!! I snored so loud that Mumma had to turn up the CD so that she could hear it properly because I was REALLY tired.

So that’s my layout for the challenge… Toby and I would love to see what you guys come up with!

Happy scrapping xx

It's all about the garden!

Mikayla and I have just had a VERY busy weekend in the garden... and it was SO worth it! It was good timing too because the Scrapbook Dreams mid-month motivation for November is all about the garden!

Esther has provided the challenge this month (You can check it out HERE) Part 1 is to make a cool little watering can (there's a link to the template on the forum). I made mine out of Oyster Fleck which is a super sturdy cardstock so it's great for OTP projects... and it LOVES ink so I'm a happy scrapper! Here's the front of my watering can:
All the cut out images came from one piece of Webster's paper. I haven't been a bit fan of Websters but their latest stuff is so darn cool! There's some in the Scrapbook Dreams SHOP if you want to have a look! I used the Grow Dreams paper :) Here's a side view of the watering can:
And here's the other side (I used the 'ruler' part of the paper to make my handle):

I had heaps of fun making it too! Great template and easy instructions... gotta love that! Part 2 of the challenge is to create a garden themed layout using Esther's LO as a design. She's even given some cool ideas to use such as:

• Your garden
• Somone else's garden
• City/Town/Botanical garden
• Children playing in the garden
• Making of your watering can
• Lack of garden
• Planting a garden...

I've decided on the 'planting of a garden' idea and luckily I had the camera around all weekend so now I've got lots of photos to use! For those of you who were following my blog a couple of years ago you might remember when we built the retaining wall... well it never got past 'The wall is built' stage :( Over the past 18 months NOTHING has been done with it so it was looking pretty sad and overgrown... and just plain neglected!

Mikayla had the day off school on Friday so I asked her if she could "Pull out EVERYTHING" in the bottom garden... and she did! Here's what it looked like:

YES the lawn needs mowing! YES I should never have let it get to this stage... and YES I'm doing something about it!!! LOL

On Saturday morning I woke Mikayla up and we went to the local market... it's like a Farmer's Market and packed with all sorts of incredible buys! a couple of weeks ago I got 11 strawberry plants for a fraction of the cost of buying them from the garden centre! This week I bought a few bits and pieces for the bottom garden.

On the way home we did a quick shop at Bunnings and then we got started. First job was to paint the posts of the retaining wall:Next we cracked open ANOTHER can of Liquid Amber stain and gave the fence a spruce up:It looked pretty good for one coat... by that stage we had to pick up Krystal from Spotlight so we didn't do any more because she had no idea what we'd been up to all day (in spite of the fact we had paint on us!)... sometimes having your teenager living in their OWN world can be quite a blessing LOL

On Sunday we did a second coat on the fence:It really made a HUGE difference! Then came all the digging! We got the garden completely weed free... thanks to the new spade from Bunnings! Next we added 4 big bags of compost... that's 160 litres!!!
We got it all turned over:Then we added some weedmat:

And while we were weedmatting it started to RAIN!! Mikayla was all for giving up... but her very mean mother (that would be ME!) made her keep going! We grabbed all the plants and started sitting them on top of the weedmat where we wanted them to go:There's all sorts of plants in there.... see those HUGE gerbera's?? We got them for $6 each at the local market! The mini flax's are small pups I got from some of the other flax plants... there's also some succulents ($5 for 3 at the market)... old fashioned violets ($2 each)... four mini gardenia's for $5 each at Bunnings... and lots of plants that I bought on sale 2 1/2 years ago that NEVER got planted... hopefully they'll all survive now in their new home!

Then we went around and cut slits in the weedmat and got all the plants in the garden... in the RAIN!Next came all the bark! I used big nuggets this time because I quite like the rustic effect of them... and they definitely help keep the weeds down. I had originally bought 5 bags (that's 200 litres of bark!) but ended up having to get three MORE so in total this garden has 320 LITRES of bark!

I was thinking it was getting a bit expensive until I talked to Mum. She asked how much I had paid for my bark because she had just bought 8 bags as well. I paid $6.47 a bag (total $52) and she paid $9.95 a bag (total $80)... you can see why I like Bunnings!!!

Here's what the garden looks like from the deck outside my scrap room:

Over the next couple of afternoons I'm going to clean up all the bags, pots, weeds etc and get the lawn mowed and it will look great! The best part is that it rained most of the night and now the sun is out so the garden has had a really good watering :)

I'm going to be using some of these photos for my garden layout page for Esther's challenge! Why not grab your camera out and give it a go too!!

June Monthly Kits

Scrapbook Dreams has released 2 brand new kits this month! Both kits feature Kaiser craft papers, Bazzill cardstock and a range of lovely embellishments.

The first kit features the Country Grove collection:This kit features, 8 double sided 12 x 12 papers, 5 x Bazzill cardstocks, Ruche textured cardstock, buttons, Green Tara flowers, 7 Gypsies journaling cards, My Minds Eye quote card, ribbons and a Grungeboard butterfly!

Our second kit features the Reminiscing collection:This kit features, 8 double sided 12 x 12 papers, 6 x Bazzill cardstocks, Green Tara flowers, photo anchors, mini and medium brads, ribbons and self adhesive pearls in a lovely chocolate colour.The kits are great value at only $30 each (plus courier)! If you like to see a full list of the kit contents please visit our online shop.

We also ran our first sketch challenge which closed on Sunday night and the winner was Jane. Check out her fantastic layout!!!

The next sketch challenge is up and it closes on Sunday 22nd June at 6pm. This weeks featured sketch was designed by Catherine Latta for Pencil Lines:

All the details are on our forum and you can view the all the amazing layouts from the first sketch challenge in our gallery.

There is also at ATC swap being organised and the June monthly challenge has already started (the prize is a $20 voucher to spend in the shop) - check out the forum for all the details.

We'd love you to join in!