some photos to share!

So, I'm going to be quick tonight and share a recent collage from the DISCO PARTY that my 6 year old niece had for her birthday party. I need to be quick because I'm hoping scrap this collage tonight - I have the paper and the embellishments all chosen, I just need to begin.

I love how it turned out - crazy photos of some of us in the photo booth I set up - I had props like fake moustaches, tiaras, feather boas and crazy sunglasses - the kids and adults had a ball. Fingers crossed I do the layout justice.

Then there's this photo that I took while on holidays at the Gold Coast at Easter time. It's of my sister in law and her son - a gift to her husband on their 10th wedding anniversary, celebrated a couple of days ago. I'm really pleased with how it turned out considering the fading afternoon light we had that day. Special thanks to Rachel for being my second processor (kind of like a second shooter but even better!) LOL!

With models like this, who needs to be a good photographer, right? ;)

SImple News!

A couple of days ago I received in the mail a copy of the final issue of SIMPLE SCRAPBOOKS USA. It's certainly sad when a magazine that was all about the Simple Philosophy stops production. I was excited to see my layout in there in the Reader Gallery. Some time ago the magazine had a call for layouts about friendships and I couldn't go pass submiting this layout about my friendship with Severine (Switzerland). I also couldn't go pass secretly submitting her layout as well - we had both done one about our online friendhip. To my surprise I received an email from Simple Scrapbooks Magazine asking for not ONE but BOTH layouts - I was so excited and couldn't wait to share the news with Severine. We are both featured on the same page together in the magazine with a story about our friendship.

In other news, I have been scrapping but can't share my pages yet - they are for publication in up and coming issues. I did take this sneak peak shot though.

Off for a walk and to feed the ducks with the children and friends today - might have to take my camera for a walk too - Hope your weekend is relaxing!

Precious Beau

25th April, 2009 - Beau has left us. RIP precious baby boy



I’m Praying for Beau - Photo Project

Click HERE to view the photos. And please don't hesitate to add your own "I'm praying for Beau" photo as well - I'm sure the family would appreciate the support.

BEAU!

There has been a great response to the "I'm Praying For Beau" photo request that I mentioned in the last post. So far, over 50 photos have been uploaded to facebook and they are all so very special. Beau's family is quite overwhelmed at the support. It's never too late to be part of this - you can follow the link in my previous post and show your support - this is International too!

Here is my photo taken this afternoon after Ethan arrived home from school - notice how dirty he is! And since I'm a bit of a collage girl, that's how I submitted my photos.

Thank you for helping!

Edited to Add

Just some information that was asked about the last post - DISCO ALBUM.

Tiff, I had this album made through PICPRESS - they are a wholesaler that deal with photographers and do a great job. In the past, I have used OFFICEWORKS with great success and they are extremely affordable. You download the program from their online site and you can send the album that you create directly to them once it has been created - online I mean.

Deanne, the fabric on that cushion on my couch is from IKEA - they have a whole lot that co-ordinate with it - I love it too! Oh, and don't be shy to stop by and say hello - leave a comment or 2 and maybe even become a FOLLOWER (on the right side of my blog) - heheh!

Heidi, thanks for leaving me a message on my blog - it was lovely to visit your blog and read about your exciting publication news. I found your address to your blog because it showed up that you had visited my blog and I was curious to see who it was - hope that's OK! Please come and visit any time - it means alot to me!


Oh, and there's something very special going on over HERE - if you can help, that would mean so much! Just a quick snapshot is all you need, nothing elaborate, really!


And it's never exciting to have a post without a layout or photo, right?
So, here's one I did using some great product from Bella. You can buy the kit over HERE if you love it! :)

Disco Album

A couple of weeks ago my niece celebrated her 6th birthday with a DISCO PARTY. I was official photographer (LOL) and captured some funny pics. As our gift to her, I created an 8x8 coffee table book - it arrived last night and I couldn't wait to give it to her this afternoon. She was pretty excited to say the least!

The Easter Bunny!

I have just returned home from 10 days at Broadbeach, Gold Coast for the Easter Vacation.
It was so lovely to have lots of family spending their holidays in the same area as we were. The boys had a great time on the beach, playing tennis, in the park, swimming in the pool ... the list goes on! And in true Queensland style, the weather was simply amazing!

I'm even sporting a bit of a tan - woohoo!

We celebrated Easter at the Gold Coast with a traditional egg hunt first thing in the morning with as many cousins and friends as we could text. We knew the Easter Bunny would be coming as the kids had found a carrot in the garden a couple of days earlier and then it was half eaten the following day. They were even more excited when they found the entire carrot missing from the garden just 20 minutes after they had gone swimming in the pool - UNBELIEVABLE!

Joshua was screaming with excitement when he found a pair of Thomas The Tank Pyjamas left by the Easter Bunny for him !

And they couldn't run fast enough to fill their baskets!

Their baskets were exploding.

So, now to get back into some serious scrapping - I have heaps to catch up on.

Hope your Easter was relaxing too!

3 new kits !

If you take a peak over at Scrap 'n' Craft with T, you'll see I have created 3 new kits for Tanyah - I had such alot of fun with these gorgeous Bella papers. The best part was using such feminine girly papers - something I don't often get a chance to play with.



There is also a Challenge over on Tanyah's blog this month - set by me - go take a look, the prize is worth it.



Hope your Easter was wonderful,

Leanne

New banner!

Oh, and I have finally changed my banner - hooray!

Thank you to Rachel who captured some photos of us all a few weeks back - it's so important to me to be in the photos 'with my family' instead of always behind the camera. Love this photo alot!

Happy Easter !

Hooray for Easter - I'm so looking forward to the Easter break.

Ethan and I made these for his school teachers for Easter this year - filled with a handful of chocolate eggs. So simple to make too - I'm sure they'll come in handy for Lolly bags some time.



I've been scrapping a bit but can't share I'm sorry but I have created a couple of cards that I can share.

This is for my 6 year old niece, Genevieve!



And this will be for a friend who's almost 40 ... and yes, I made it upside down - oops!



Have a wonderful Easter and take care!

Collage from Moreton Island

I get quite a few friends asking me about how I create my photo collages.
It's becoming a bit of a trademark for me lately - I really love layouts that have lots of pics because they help to tell a story and to me, that's why I scrapbook.

So, here are 2 collages I made about our trip to Moreton Island. I'm about to head off now to have them printed. Normally at KMart on satin paper and I make them fit the nearest enlargement size - like a 5x7 or 6x8. I'm going to print these both and create a double layout for Scrapbook Creations - my next keeping It Simple Article is almost due.

I open a new A4 sized document in photoshop and then crop all my pics to 2inches by 2 inches. Then I copy and paste them into the A4 document, placing them in the position I want them to be with just a couple of spaces in between each image. Once I'm happy, I crop the final image and save it. Easy! Yell out if I didn't explain it clearly.





Hope your weekend has been fun!

Easter Ideas

It feels as though we just celebrated Christmas and now Easter is creeping up on us. I keep thinking that any day now, Ethan will come home from school and give me 24 hrs notice to make him an Easter bonnet ... so, just in case, I'm on the lookout for some cool BOY ideas or some sites that might inspire me ... just in case!
I'd love to hear from you if you have any ideas at all - really!

I did some scrapping today - a layout that's heading off to Scrapbooking Memories.
And hopefully, I'll complete another tomorrow using a drawing that I need Joshua to create for me - I love looking back on Ethan's drawings as a 3 year old so I really need one for Joshua too.

Apart from that, the rain has been heavy ... but I like it!

Enjoy the weekend and since I can't share what I created today, I've uploaded some layouts that I created quite a while ago.

4 days!

I've just returned home from 4 days away with my family and 5 other families - it was terrific and Ethan and Joshua had a ball - who wouldn't, with a total of 13 little boys and just 1 girl!

We travelled to Moreton Island which is so picturesque and not at all commercial or high rise - it's a beautiful place to visit if you ever come to Brisbane - just 1.5 hrs by barge across from the mainland.

It was an action packed 4 days - sand castles, swimming in the ocean, canoe rides, jet skiing to see the ship wrecks, frisbee, beach cricket, boogie boarding, totem tennis ... and this was all before lunchtime ... then beach soccer, sliding down the sand dunes on boogie boards, fishing at dusk on the beachfront, watching the dolphins being hand fed in the ocean ... all before dinner time ...followed by a fun filled 'moon walk' - walking with glow sticks and torches in search of any night time animals like possums.

This is the jetty the kids fished off last night at around 5pm.



This is the view of Moreton Island beach.



And these are the little houses we stayed in that are situated on the beach.
We had 3 houses in total with 2 families sharing each one - it was so much fun.
There are at least 40 of these little blue houses all in a row on the beach front.



So, I have a heap of washing and ironing to do and I'm sure this jammed pack holiday will catch up on me in the next couple of days, but it was worth it.

Oh, and in breaking news .... Ethan's first tooth finally fell out on our second morning at Moreton Island - just needed an apple to nudge it out! Luckily the tooth fairy knew her way to where we were staying and left him some coins for his treasure. For those of you who saw my layout about Ethan's TOOTH FAIRY CONSTRUCTION (it has since been removed for publication), well Ethan HAD constructed an amazing house for the Tooth Fairy to visit in Brisbane (out of clean pizza boxes) and since we were away and he couldn't write a letter to her because none of us had a pen with us, he chose a more modern approach and asked one of the Dad's to text the tooth fairy a message to come visit us when we returned to Brisbane as well! Kindly enough, the Tooth Fairy replied and should be coming some time this week to check out the construction that Ethan made for her!

Hectic Week

Where has the week gone?
It's been hectic.

I'm really happy that some layouts from a couple of recent posts were accepted for publication and they have been sent off. A few of you have noticed one layout in particular that's gone and that was the TOOTH FAIRY CONSTRUCTION layout. That won't be published for some time because Scrapbook Creations are wanting it as part of an article I suggested I'd write along with 4 other layouts ... so maybe in the 2nd part of the year that layout will resurface.

I did create this layout last week and it slipped my mind to show it here. I challenged myself to scrap 'my new method' and that is where firstly I choose the embellishments I really want to use and make everything work around those embellishments. I'm really enjoying doing it this way rather than pic my papers and design then lastly the embellishments.



This layout used Making Memories 5th avenue range of cardstock scallop circle and word as well as that pretty metal clip. I also got to use an American Crafts rubon that was really cute and worked well under the clip.

I'm looking forward to a restful weekend - thanks always for dropping by and saying hello!

Big weekend!

Do you ever have one of those weekends where you're on the go 24/7 ?

I've had a fun filled crazy couple of days.

Yesterday, along with 1000 other things, I assisted Rachel as a second shooter for a wedding. It was great fun and hopefully you'll see some of my images on Rachel's blog soon.

The ceremony and reception was held at a stunning Brisbane winery - the location was gorgeous.

I also taught my first Cyber Crop class online at Scrap Chat for Scrap 'n' Craft with T.

This is the layout I created for the Cyber Crop.

It was such a fun night with some really cool girls - thanks for asking me.

I even completed a layout on Friday night but since I haven't scanned I might have to share that tomorrow night. Hope your weekend has been restful - take care!

BIG PLANS

I had some fun creating this layout tonight - a chance to use a tiny bit of pink on a layout is always good for a girl living in an all boy house.

Ethan is big into construction. He has been from a young age even though his only 5 and a half now. So these are his 'drawings' to help the Tooth Fairy safely take his tooth and leave him some money ..... when his first tooth finally falls out. The tooth is pretty wobbly so construction has begun and I will document what the Fairy wonderland looks like once it is finished.






Thanks to my friend, Nicole, who inspired me to scrap the everyday stuff. This is certainly something I don't want to forget.

Workshop - day 2

I had a lovely afternoon taking some photos of these beautiful girls that modelled for Rachel's

Day 2 workshop - held at Wellington Point. Everyone seemed to have a great time

- thanks Rach.

This week I'm hoping to get some scrapping done and I'm looking forward to the Cyber Crop Class that I'm teaching over at Scrap Chat on Saturday night at 7.30pm. If you're an aussie and you'd like to join in, you may still have time to order a kit from Scrap 'n' Craft with T.

Workshop

This afternoon I had the pleasure of helping out at a photo workshop held by my good friend, Rachel Richter. Today was part 1 and tomorrow will be part 2. I met some lovely girls and had so much fun taking some photos along the way. Looking forward to tomorrow - better rest.

New Technique

Normally when I create a new layout, I get the photos I want to scrap, select some papers that match (patterned and cardstock) and then rummage through my embellishment/sticker stash (as small as it is) and select what I want to use that co-ordinates.

I'm fortunate to have generous friends who have occasionally sent me goodies but somehow I haven't been able to work them into my layouts. So, this week I decided it was time to try a 'new technique'. I grabbed some gorgeous American Craft stickers that were sent to me by Severine and decided to work my photo and layout design around my favourite stickers ... and this is how it turned out. Oh, I love American Crafts' products - they are so easy for me to use - and these stickers are no exception. Of course the rubon alphas that I used in the title are lovely also.

So, time to decide whether this is my new way of doing a layout or not, photo and papers first or embellishments first ... mmmm!

Also, I've had some requests for information about the Photo Book that I created. I used a company called PICPRESS. I registered with them at a Photographic Expo that was here in Brisbane - they generally deal with Photographers or student photographers, but if you're looking for one that you can use yourself then OFFICEWORKS have great value coffee table books. I have created probably close to 8 or 10 from Officeworks and they look really good. The print quality is slightly less than the professional books but no-one that has received one from me has ever complained. They have all the layouts and the program available for download on their site and yo can take a peak at a sample in any store.

Another question was which program do I use to create my collages? The truth is that I don't use a program, I open an A4 document in Photoshop and resize my all the photos that I want to include on the collage to something a fair bit smaller like 2x3 inches. I copy and paste them into the A4 page and move each image with the space bar a few spaces apart from each other image. Does that make sense? Once I have formed a collage, if there is any room leftover that hasn't formed a square/rectangle, I simply outline the leftover space and fill with a complimentary colour and add some text to it. Let me know if I explained that as clear as mud! Oh, and the person that asked me that didn't leave their name, so don't be shy and let me know if that helps.

Thank you for dropping by and leaving such kind comments. It's lovely to get such encouraging words.

This month ...

I was asked to take part in this month's Scrapbook Creations sketch article. I really enjoyed creating this layout - I had such fun photos to work with of Joshua diving into his bean bag.

Apart from this, I'm looking forward to seeing more photos from the photo shoot I had with Rachel on Sunday. I should add that I am waiting patiently but because Rachel knows me so well she sent me a pic to tie me over until my disc arrives. Take a peak here if you like.