Let's Capture These Sketches #29

A new card challenge is up at Let's Capture These Sketches.

This is the sketch this time, for challenge #29

and here is my DT example

This was done with the Nook March kit using mainly Crate Paper - Emma's Shoppe. 

Why don't you play along?  Let's see what you come up with using this sketch! Don't forget you could have chance to be our next Card Guest Designer and get 10% off your next Let's Capture Our Memories order. 

Just link your card to Mr. Linky at the blog here by Tuesday, May 3rd.

Can't wait to see what you create! 

OK! Ladies, just a few more hours to get your Once Upon A ..Sketch entries in for our April 15th challenge...

...and...

just a few more hours before I can  FINALLY announce my most exciting and amazing news to date!! Remember I would tell you a secret on May 1st? Well ..in just a few hours I will be able to tell you!

See you all tomorrow :o)

Happy Hour

TONIGHT LADIES WE HAVE A VERY SPECIAL DISCOUNT CODE FOR YOU TO USE

WHEN YOU USE

HAPPY30

ON CHECKOUT YOU WILL RECEIVE 30% OFF YOUR CART TOTAL

(This is for one hour only so you better get in before this discount disappears)

at PRETTY PAPER PETALS

Tonight we are also introducing some new flowers.....

Please welcome...

Tonight we are giving away this FREE DOWNLOAD for you to sample

just click on this link to download

Click here to be directed to the shop

Featured @ Nikki Sivils

Hi there everyone..

THANK YOU so much for all the encouraging words you all gave me in my previous post about going back to work. Well..day 1 was a blur yesterday. It went rather quickly and I didn't think of the kids at all (..well..i thought about them every moment of every hour I was there, but I'm not going to tell you that!). Then today, it was a little better. The students returned to school today, so in all fairness it did make me think of my kids a little less. Which then made me feel worse because I felt like I had forgotten them too quickly...aaarrrggggggggggghhhh!!! I can't win. 

Anyway...I just wanted to tell you some happy news...You will remember this layout and card, that I made for Color Combos Galore a few weeks back. Well today they were featured at the Nikki Sivils blog. YAY! How exciting! 

I was approached by Julie Tucker- Wolek, who is the coordinator for the Nikki Sivils blog, a couple of weeks back and was so excited that she liked my work enough to feature it on the blog!

Check It out here!!

THANKS SO MUCH JULIE. 

I have used the Nikki Sivils line "Its Raining Its Pouring", which was SO kindly sent to all the Design Team at Color Combos Galore a few weeks back. 

OK...last day of the week tomorrow...can't wait for the weekend. Take care!

Bird Is The Word + Once Upon A...Sketch!

 There is a new word challenge up at Bird Is The Word. The key word to use this time is Begin/Beginning. 

Here is the card sketch that I created for this challenge and if you head on over here you will see the SUPER amazing projects the rest of the Design Team created. Remember this sketch is optional and for inspiration...you don't HAVE to use this sketch..

Over at my sketch blog Once Upon A...Sketch, we have some outstanding entries so far, but just reminding you that you have just under 5 days left to get your entry in for the current challenge.

Up for grabs is a HUGE $50.00 and $20.00 voucher to use at Scrap Matrix!! This is an Australian online store, who  will ship to anyone in the world at actual cost prices! Oh I have to say I LOVE their chipboard and I think its really well priced. 

Remember anyone can enter from anywhere in the world ..

Click here for the details.

 So school's back in starting tomorrow here in Sydney and that means I am back at work!! This week I have to work 3 days as we have a Staff Development day tomorrow , Wednesday (for those that don't know, it means a teacher's only day where we plan the next Term curriculum) and then I will also work Thursday and Friday which are my usual days. But from next week I will be working only Thursday, Friday.

I took Term 1 (Feb-April) off work and before that we had our summer school holidays, so I have not been at work since early December ..5 months!

I have mixed feelings...well..what i mean by that is that I don't want to go back to work. Not that I don't like teaching..in fact teaching is my passion! And my boss has looked after me in that she has given me an STL role (supporting learning difficulties) ..but...I just want to be with my kids. I JUST WANT TO BE WITH MY KIDS. 

Teaching is not the kind of work, where people say "oh at least I will get out of the house a bit..get away from the kids"..Nah! Teaching is FULL ON! Its like having your own kids x 30 ! I don't stop from the moment I get there, till the moment the bell rings. So even though I am home at 3:30 its like I have worked a 12 hour shift. What I am trying to say, is that even though its just 2 days a week it feels longer than that because I get back home and I am exhausted! Which means, I don't have much energy for my kids, which means those 2 days I feel the kids are neglected. The little one is with my mum/mother in law and the older one at pre school..but still! They are not with me :( ...

Anyway! Wish me luck!

Have a great week, Nadia. 

Color Combos Galore #189 + HAPPY EASTER!

I want to take this chance to wish you and your family a very HAPPY Easter! If you are religious or not, you have to agree that once again, this is a special and blessed time to spend with family and I hope your Easter weekend is a beautiful time for you. 

Being Greek Orthodox, my week long strict fasting (no dairy & meat) comes to an end on midnight Saturday night, and when we get home from the church we dig into a very interesting meat (!) based soup, go to bed VERY late, only to wake up early the next day and have a very traditional Greek Easter ...lamb on the spit and all! (You know what I mean...is there anyone left that HASN'T seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Nothing to do with Easter...but you know how it is LOL!) 

There is something hugely warm and intense about Easter for me. Easter is HUGE in my family and in many, MANY Greek homes as the preparation really begins about 50 days before Easter day. There SO SO SO many traditions at Easter for Greek Orthodox people, as compared to Christmas...even though there are traditionally no Easter eggs/bunnies etc. (or never used to be anyway!) , I think Easter is very kid friendly and maybe this is why I have held on to so many good memories. I like to think that we are a traditional Christian home, who have blended my Greek Orthodox customs, together with my husbands (Italian) Catholic traditions and added all the typical Australian elements to create a harmonious and religious Easter celebration for our 2 girls.

So having said that I also wanted to tell ALL my gorgeous followers (and constant supporters in everything I do!) from Greece 

ΚΑΛΟ ΠΑΣΧΑ 

ΚΑΙ 

ΚΑΛΗ ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΗ

.

.

.

.

.

Now just because its Good Friday today doesn't mean we don't talk about scrapping huh? LOL

The next colour challenge is up at Color Combos Galore!

Very soft and beautiful colours and I decided to create this...

I have used Ranger Icicles on the flowers to keep with the Shine theme, and also added a bit of bling for a bit of sparkle. 

The flowers are Prima, the papers Bo Bunny Gabrielle (yep! still going with that!), the fence chipboard is Dusty Attic, the butterfly (which I misted peach) and the rub on are Kaisercraft...and now the title "what little girls are made of" ..well its chipboard but I don't remember from which manufacturer. Well actually I don't know why but the photo of this has come up a little blurry I think, and that title doesn't look that clear. Oh well..

So I hope you get a chance to join us over at Color Combos Galore...

Again, have a happy and safe Easter weekend. 

Take good care!

Nadia. 

Welcome to our very first HAPPY HOUR!

So glad you can join us....Happy Hour will last for exactly ONE HOUR so if there is a bargain you are interested in you only have an hour to snap it up ladies!

*IF YOU ARE TOO LATE FOR THIS, PLEASE STILL HAVE A LOOK AT THE NEW RELEASE FLOWERS BELOW! THEY ARE AMAZING!**

Tonight Pretty Paper Petals is also releasing some new flowers, which have been given very royal names and when you see them you will know why....

Please meet ..

DIANA BUDS

Handcrafted with tissue paper, and finished off with a gorgeous diamante button, these gorgeous flowers come in packs of 3 as shown below....

Wedding Shower

Tuxedo

Royal Wedding

Country Princess

This adorable little petals are handcrafted with gingham ribbon and in the centre they have some gorgeous little rhinestone brads.

These flowers are in a pack of 2 flowers....check them out!

To see our other HAPPY HOUR specials tonight click on this link

HAPPY HOUR

Check Out All the info here

Bo Bunny *Gabrielle*

Happy Tuesday everyone. Almost time for Easter and I think I have seen enough chocolate this past week to last me a life time. In the last 3 days, both my little girls have received an incredible amount of Barbie Easter chocolate stuff and its all just worth it to see the look on their faces. I am even letting them have chocolate for breakfast! LOL What the? Well there...I admitted it! 

Aaaaaannnyyyyyyway! I recently told you I had lost my scrapping way a little. I don't know what happened. Everything I created started to look the same and I wasnt motivated. Well that was until I got to work with Gabrielle from Bo Bunny. I think I have told you before how easy it was to work with that line when it first came out, but I recently got the entire line and it is simply amazing to work with. 

So this first layout is based on the current Bo Bunny sketch challenge...and this is the sketch

and here is my take on it...

Here is a close up of the metal charm that came with the Gabrielle collection and a lot of fussy cutting from the beautiful butterflies printed in the papers. The flowers are Prima with some unknown ones I received in the   April Swirlydoo's kit

And a few more of those metal embellishments and cutting. I also used Liquid Pearls around the edges just for that extra details. 

The next layout I worked on was for the April Sketch challenge at Swirlydoo's. This was the sketch we had to follow

and here is my take on it. 

The orange background part is using a Prima stamp that came in the kit. Again some Prima and Petaloo flowers as well. 

and beautiful butterflies from the papers, with liquid pearls again and ZVA bling. 

And last but not least, one more card that I made for this past weekend's Spring Fever Virtual Crop at the Nook. The challenge set by the super talented fellow team member Danni Reid was to include a butterfly in your card. The quality of this photo isnt the best as I had to take it indoors..but here it is anyway. 

Thanks for your patience! 

Take care, Nadia. 

The Studio Challenge- Sunday Layout Challenge

A new challenge is up at The Studio Challenges.  

Today's challenge is:

Play! Create a page that focuses on 'play'. This could be in the form of photos of your kids playing or you could 'play' with a new technique or colour combo on your page. Use your imagination!

Here is my layout for your inspiration...

Here are some close ups. The papers are the latest  Prima Moulin Rouge line and so are the flowers. 

          

Here I used my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die to make this blue flower, with Prima centres. 

Can you see the new Prima branches with the pearls/diamonds? Oh just divine!!!. As is that long Prima bling and lace strip. Can you also see the diamond stamped background? Again Prima's latest..Can you tell I love Prima? LOL. Just got ALL of that in the March Swirlydoo's kit.

Hope to see you at The Studio!!

I hope you have a WONDERFUL week everyone. 

Featured!

Hi there! 

Just wanted to share with you this lovely bit of news. 

I was contacted earlier in the week by the lovely Jenifer Evans from Creative Soup - a hip and happening place loaded with inspiration. Well anyway...they pick 5 Friday Fave's and this week the focus was banners and I was asked if they could feature this layout!

Ahhh that March Nook kit really did some wonders! This is maybe the 4th time that a creation from that kit has been featured..LOL!

ANyway...check out the rest of the Friday Faves here . You might have to register but its worth it!

**NOOK WEEKEND FUN**

HEY HEY HEY everyone!!! Fancy a few quick challenges this weekend? 

We've got a bunch of fun challenges ready for you at My Scrapbook Nook for some weekend relaxin' and scrappin'! 

Jump right in and create a long with us- you just might win one of the prizes we have up for grabs, and you will definitely get your creative mojo flowing! 

Our theme is SPRING! 

It isn't a big, overwhelming contest..... it's just weekend fun! 

You can check out the newly re-designed message board and gallery and get back into the swing of things with inspiration from our great design team!

My challenge is this: 

 Most people think of the season, but I am thinking that Spring also means life, beginnings..birth! So why don't you create a card or layout based around the concept of *BIRTH* or *BABY* ? 

This is also for us poor souls that are in the middle of Autumn ..heading straight for winter..LOL! Hard to bee chirpy and 'Springy' when its pouring rain outside..LOL

And here is a card that i created to get you started...

 

You will find my challenge in the Contests, Class and Challenges forum here and the rest of the fun in the forum here

Hope to see you there!

Once Upon A...Sketch - April 15th

Well let me be clear - the entries for the very first challenge over at my sketch blog exceeded my expectation **101 ENTRIES** WOW! Just HOW is the Design Team supposed to narrow that down to just their Top 6? Well they are having a hard time ...THATS for sure.

I hope to announce the winners real soon, but until then why don't you come on over to Once Upon A...Sketch and see what my amazing Design Team have done with this sketch...

We have divided the teams in 2 - team A and team B, so this time it is Team B's turn. However because I believe the more inspiration the better, I have given the whole Design Team the option to create a project even if its not their turn..so you will see lots of example up there!

So now its YOUR TURN! You have till April 30th to enter and be in the running for one of the prizes from Scrap Matrix!

Have a nice weekend everyone :o)



Color Combos Galore #188 + Lets Capture These Sketches #27

THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY!!

THAT is all I will say ..LOL!

Well Friday also brings us to the latest Inspiration Board from one of my fave places to hang out Color Combo's Galore..You know why its my fave? Because firstly it is has a super friendly and welcoming atmosphere and even though I cannot get there as often as I would like, I still feel like its home - the boss there (Janet Perafan - Babar) is just a really cool person who works REALLY well with the Design Team. Secondly it is jam packed with talent and inspiration...You really need to check out the gallery and also see what the Design Team created this week with Color Combo #188

Now, because we want to see MORE cards at Color Combos Galore, I decided to create another card with these colours...so here is my take

The challenge this week is 'dry embossing' (i.e. embossed paper etc ), but after a recent massive clean up of my scrap area, I gave away ALL my Cuttlebug Embossing folders (NOTE TO SELF - never do that again!) thinking "I will never make cards again" and had not only nothing to emboss paper with but NO embossed paper AT ALL! SO I drew my own challenge and went for some metal, as inspired by the buckle on the boot (be honest- don't you want those boots?)



Materials List

Patterned Paper and metal charms- Bo Bunny Gabrielle

Flowers and grey ribbon - Prima

Quote- Kaiser Rub-On

Why don't you give it a go? The sponsor this month is Nikki Sivils ...

OK..one more card to show you...

This is for Let's Capture These Sketches card sketch #27. This is the sketch up at the moment

and here is my example using my March Nook kit

Materials List

Ribbon - Websters Pages trim

Papers, chipboard, stickers : Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe

Why don't you head on over here and see what else the Design Team has created? The winner gets to come back next week as our Guest designer and gets a discount for the Let's Capture Our Memories store!

Hope you are well!

More April Nook projects

Hi everyone! I hope you are having a nice day so far.

I have a few more things to show you that I created with April's kit from My Scrapbook Nook. 

The first one is one based on this sketch by The Scrappiest #114.... 

        

A lot of fussy cutting again, and again I had problems photographing this one. This actually has a black border and is pretty evenly lined. Yet no matter how many photos I took the whole thing came out so uneven I had to trim quite a bit off. But anyway here it is. 

The second one is based on this sketch Twisted Sketches #95...

          

Are you interested in knowing how I put this layout together? I have a class posted at My Scrapbook Nook classes forum here, titled April Layout Class. I will give step by step instructions on how I put this together. This is something that I am asked a lot, so if you want to hop on over there you will see how. 

Lastly, here is a card that I made using this beautiful kit based on Cardabilities #28 sketch..

If you like the look of this kit 

why don't you check out the details here or join in all the cool happenings in the forum here

Many thanks in advance for your lovely comments and encouraging words. They help so much ..especially at times like this when ......(shhhhh don't tell anyone but....)..I have lost my mojo...yikes!

Blog Hop **WINNER**

Hi there!

The winner on my blog during the Pretty Paper Petals blog hop is:

Julie K

CONGRATS JULIE..you have won this pack of flowers

Please email Wendy at   prettyppetals@yahoo.com.au and state that you were the winner on Nadia's blog hop.

My Scrapbook Nook *April*

Hi again everyone...

So I told you that I received my April kit from My Scrapbook Nook late last week, and this time the Design Team was treated to some beautiful Petaloo roses as a gift from our coordinator Leah! THANKS LEAH!!

In case you forgot, here is what this awesome kit looks like..

Gorgeous Echo Park - Off The Record , Petaloo flowers, Maya Road chipboard butterflies, Prima bling, Colorbox chalk ink, ribbons...yum yum yum!!

Here is what I have managed so far..

I decided to base this layout on the current inspiration photo challenge at The Paper Variety challenge blog, which looks like this..

I LOVED this photo and I think it was a perfect fit for the Echo Park line so I decided to draw the colours out for inspiration...

For those that don't know, this is my oldest girl, Maria Elena - 4yo. She is super super sensitive...but explosive at the same time. She is not always easy..she is MOSTLY easy, but sometimes she drives me over the edge. Anyway, as I said she is sensitive..just like me. I understand her..

 You can surely read the journalling....what she said just floored me. I was seriously looking pretty ordinary...a complete DAG! I was feeling pretty down.....we get in the car, she looks at me and wholeheartedly says "you are a beautiful mum". Well..I cried! Can you believe that even on my worst day, my child thinks I am beautiful? And it didn't end there..later on in the day , out of the blue, she said "You are a good mum". Oh my God....when a 4 year old child says that they MEAN it...they are not saying it to make you feel good, their minds are still too innocent for that. Well anyway, I didn't think I could love her any more than I already do, but alas! I was proven wrong. 

So on to some details..

       

 Lots of layering...

and here I created this flower using my brand new Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die...

Almost everything here is from the kit..I just added some blue flowers and some liquid pearls.

Now here is a card I also made, using everything from the kit. I based this one on this sketch by Twisted Sketches

Thanks for having a look! I will be back tomorrow with some more creations and a step by step tutorial!

Take care!