A special quote.

I don't often create a layout that simply uses a quote. I much prefer to journal with a story or include my feelings or even use a question/answer style .... but I've had this quote for ages, maybe years now in my little special book and it's one that I really wanted to use one day. It felt right for this layout.

Quote reads:
To the outside world we all grow old.
But not to brothers and sisters.
We know each other as we always were.
We know each other's hearts.
We share private family jokes.
We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys.
We live outside the touch of time.
by Clara Ortega.

Paper is from Autumn Leaves and so is that cute flower embellishment.
Birdie is from American Crafts.
Alpha stickers are Making Memories.

Holiday layout

I had so many photos from our visit to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary that I created a mosaic of photos. I resized them to 2x2 inches each and then had the mosaic printed.
I was so glad that the new Basic Grey paper - offbeat (with the birds) - was a good match. It's so cute.

I've been doing so many multi photo layouts lately and I'm finding it a bit tricky to still have enough white space on the layout when I scrap 8.5x11. I have been thinking about going back to 12x12 to see if that gives me some more room to play with - should I or shouldn't I ? I'm such a huge fan of 8.5x11.

Pink Ribbon Day

Next month there are quite a few events going on to help raise money and awareness for Cancer in Women - Pink Ribbon Day is designed to do just that.
Scrapchat is holding a fundraising event in Brisbane on the 4th October with heaps of prizes and fun as well as a great opportunity to scrap with friends all afternoon and into the night. Scrapchat is auctioning off a custom made layout created by myself with all the money going to Pink Ribbon Day. So, if you live in Australia and you'd like to donate to a most worthwhile cause and get a layout from me as a little thankyou (using your favourite photo/s), then head on over to the SCRAPCHAT site and make a bid. There are heaps of other items available to bid for too.

On another note, I have a recent layout to share - YOUR ADDICTION.
This is about Joshua and his dummy (pacifier for all of the US visitors).
Fun photos and a simple layout ... but it tells the story and that's what I like to.

I love a challenge!

I have 10 stories planned to tell on 10 of my up and coming layouts.
I have some brand new beautiful pieces of paper and cardstock.
I have some gorgeous embellishments and rubons - even some that haven't hit the stores here yet that were a gift from my dear friend, Severine
... but what was lacking was the inspiration.

So, I remembered seeing a gorgeous layout by the talented Amanda Hall. And I recalled Nicole Southworth from the Remember When Blog saying to scrap your childhood memories. I even had Severine Di Giacomo challenge me last night to use the following on a layout - circles, chipboard and 2 pieces of patterned paper. It all fell into place today and I love the result. Thank you so much girls for the much needed inspiration - what do you think?

Inspiration ???

I'm not sure that I've ever shared this layout on my blog before. It's from Valentine's Day early this year and I was inspired by my friend, Karla Dudley and her amazing work. Somehow, I don't think it has the 'freedom' that Karla's layouts ooze. I have her link in the side of my blog - Creat Something Today - go check her out if you haven't already. Which blogs do you like to visit for inpsiration? I'd love some new links.
Have a great weekend.

Home Sweet Home

The best part about ending a holiday is the thought of coming home to your own bed and pillow - for me, nothing beats that!
We have just returned from six days at the Gold Coast, and although we had Ethan with both high and low temperatures from a virus of some sort, we managed to get to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on our last day. We had a great time feeding the kangaroos, cuddling the koalas, seeing the crocodiles, emus, echidnae, lizards, snakes, eagles and heaps of other animals.





Thanks for all the comments on my previous post - it's really great to read them.

Looking forward to scrapping some photos - have bought some new paper and alphas and can't wait. I visited the new store on the Gold Coast - Sunbird Scrapbooking at Burleigh Heads and loved the huge range of stock they had. Hope to have something to show you soon.

Hooray !!!

It's official and it really has happened this time. I have a layout featured in the current (October) issue of SCRAPBOOKS ETC. magazine - which is a great US scrapbooking magazine.
The reason I say 'really happened', is that the last time I had a layout accepted by a US magazine, I packaged it up and mailed it, they photographed it and then in the month that it was due to be printed, the magazine (Scrapbook Answers USA) was sold to another company who ceased its publication - it never happened!
But this time, I have waited patiently since April to hear that it IS IN PRINT - I can't wait to see it myself.
It's featured in the MAKING IT YOURS section which is where I was given a photo of someone elses layout and needed to create my layout using theirs as the inspiration - I loved it. Here is what I sent them.



Did I say how excited I am ?
Woohoo !

The super talented Karla nominated me for this award and I'm so excited to be posting it here on my blog. If you haven't seen her blog before, you must check it out - her layouts are gorgeous but her hand made journals are simply amazing. She even has some digi brushes about to be released for sale - this is one clever girl.
http://karlastudio5.typepad.com/



The Rules:
1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girl's you nominated.

So ,now I need to nominate some blogs.

Wendy Bretz - http://wendybretzdesigns.typepad.com/wendy_bretz_designs/
I've loved looking at Wendy's layouts for a long time now.
Mega graphic - if that's a word - she oozes design.

Melanie Louette - http://melanie-notesfromhome.blogspot.com/
This girl has a superb style. Clean, modern and gorgeous pics with a story behind them. Take a peak!

Genmanou - http://leblogdegenmanou.blogspot.com/
My newest addition to my favourites list but certainly not a new friend of mine when it comes to scrapping. This girl has a distictly FRENCH style - go check it out - I love her layouts.

I'm going to break the rules a bit and only nominate 3 blogs because I'm hopeless at trying to link them as you can see and I'm sure you'll all be frustrated at me for not doing this better - sorry - need to learn how to do this - I find it really tricky!

Birthday Celebrations!

It's my Grandmother's birthday today - celebrating 95 years!!!
Her name is Anastasia.
I'm named after her (Anastasia is my Greek baptised name and Leanne is what I'm called in English - it's a version of Ann and Anastasia)
I'm the eldest of her 7 grandchildren.
She has 7 great grandchildren and 1 more due any day now.

We all enjoyed a great day on Sunday with our extended family for Father's Day and she cut a cake to celebrate this fantastic milestone.



I really want to use this photo on a layout and I want to journal with a Question/Answer style. I'd love to hear your suggestions about what questions I should ask. All ideas welcome!

Time flies!

It was only yesterday that I was hiding easter eggs for the annual easter hunt and now it's getting closer and closer to the year ending and Christmas is fast approaching! Where does the year go?
I find it hard to believe that Joshua is two and half years old - but he is and here is the layout I scrapped for his Milestone Album. Both boys have their own album with a layout of them and some journalling about their milestones starting from birth and then one each month until they are 1 year old. After that, I do one layout every 6 months. It's amazing to see them develop and grow into who they are. Have a great weekend!

Finally a layout !

It's not that I haven't been scrapping but I had trouble scanning this layout because the cardstock in the background is metalic shiny silver and kept showing up black in the scan. I ended up photographing it today and so I'm happy to share.

My dear friend, Severine from Switzerland, and I have been chatting online with msn for a couple of years now. We met on the scrap site 2peasinabucket during the time I was breastfeeding Joshua and trying to stay awake until the 11pm feed. I noticed that so many 'clean and graphic style' layouts were being posted on 2peas at that time of the night and many of the girls were French. Severine's (living in the french part of switzerland) style stood out a mile away and I asked her if we could do a layout swap where I scrapped for her and she for me. From that day on, almost weekly, we'd chat online on msn. Our friendship is very special to me.

Just a few days ago, while we were chatting, she mentioned that there was a challenge on at 2peas to create a layout about an online conversation and she did the coolest one about US! You can see it on her blog. http://simply-s.blogspot.com/
I really wanted to do one too and here is mine - hope you like it Severine.

Question time?

Thanks so much for the encouraging comments about my photos - to say I'm a little excited is probably an understatement but I need to be honest and tell you that I was the least experienced photographer at the group shoots - if you have made your way to www.ilovephotography.com and you find the threads from our shoots, you will see some simply stunning images.

Now, to answer some questions ....
Jody - I haven't used any actions on these images. I haven't used an action in a long time. I'm trying to learn to see with my eye what an image needs and not rely on a standard setting - then I work with it on the computer.
Melanie - To get a silhouette shot, you need to meter off the sky and then take the shot. I shoot in Manual and also in RAW - hope this helps.
Sofi - did I read correctly? Are you expecting baby no.2? How exciting for you and your family.
KatherineB - I have a Canon 400D and I use a 50mm f1.8 lens most of the time. I also have the standard lens that comes with the camera. I'm actually considering upgrading my camera even though this one is not yet 2 years old and still has a one year warranty - do I sound like a used car salesman? I'll be sticking with Canon - really love their cameras.

For those of you who want to learn more about photography, Rachel Richter is planning a workshop - go take a peak at her blog - I'm her biggest fan.
www.rachelrichter.blogspot.com/

Just a few more and then I'll stop - promise!

As you can tell by my continual posts of photos, I've had a wonderful time trying to improve my skills and getting some great tips from so many amazing photographers - including the mother of that gorgeous baby in the last photo - anyone guess who it is ? mmm ... I wonder ?