Old world charm tea rooms, glitter and lace...

There's something appealing about old world charm tea rooms. Like the Hopetoun Tea Rooms at The Block Arcade in Melbourne. With its incredible array of delightful treats. A visual feast for the eyes and a calorie-laden one for the tummy...*LOL*

Lots of glitter under the lace..And can you tell that it's not one big piece of lace...but carefully pieced together pieces? 

The glitter, pearls and butterflies are supposed to help to distract...it is called "scrap"booking right? *winks*

Playing along with the challenges at Scrap Africa to use chipboard and the sketch at Scrap Around The World.

P/s: Come play along with my guest Shahrul's stitching challenge!

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The importance of flexibility...and chocolate

It's been trying these days to get a decent shot of my littlest nephew J and niece S.

They would make funny faces OR cover up their faces with a toy...

Here they are...at 10.21am. Totally determined not to let Aunt Y get a shot of them....

Here they are at 10.22am...one minute later...[when Aunt Y promised them chocolate for posing]

Yep. The importance of flexibility is key when it comes to chocolate. *LOL*
Inspired by the challenge at Once Upon a Sketch.

P/s: Happy weekend friends! If you have time, come play along with my guest Shahrul's stitching challenge, LESSology Challenge #25: For the love of fabric, Purple Pumpkin's May sketch and the mood board challenge at Zeus and Zoe! Working on a super secret project....*winks*

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Do you love stickers?

Do you love stickers? I do! They are easy to use and add interest to your page without bulk. Perfect for your art journal...:)

I started with gesso on the base....some masking and misting...a little stamping...punched out windows for cute photos of my niece, then washi tape and stickers!

P/s: Come play along with my guest Shahrul's stitching challenge and LESSology Challenge #25: For the love of fabric!

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Celebrate .... a giveaway winner! :)

Sometimes it's hard to find a huge chunk of time to sit down and craft. Or when you finally have time to sit down and craft, all you hear are crickets chirping....*LOL*

I try to sneak in little bits of creative time here and there on weekends...like fussy-cutting when the nephews are watching the same cartoon for the 100th time....or adding glass bead gel medium to a project...

This tag was done during a screening of Madagascar 3. Love when I get something done and spend time with my fave little people. Celebrate the little victories in life right? :) 

Playing along with the gift tag challenge at Moxie Fab World.

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And now it's time to for someone to celebrate with a little happy dance! Thanks to all who entered the  Faber Castell giveaway ...

And the winner is....

Congratulations Lizzy Hill! Please email me your mailing details so that the kind folks at Faber Castell can ship out your goodies to you pronto! :)

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Exploring styles: Eclectic freestyle

When I am forced to define my style, I usually say "eclectic" which is really euphemism for "anything goes". :)

Eclectic: selecting/choosing from various sources; made up of what is selected from different sources; not following one particular system.

The elements don't have to make sense.

The background of this layout was created by leftover residual mists, freshened up with a few ink splats and texturized with a little washi tape and fiber paste.




It can be pretty.

I added a lot of different elements and textures here....felt swirls, pleated ribbon, fabric buttons, text overlay, kraft envelope, wood letters...but I kept to two main colours to create a coherent piece.




Incorporate lots of found elements and make it whimsical.

So the theme was to use postage stamps....but the photo I really wanted to use was blurry...so I made "it" into a postage stamp. Then, when I was trying to cut the gauze with the lousy travel scissors, I decided that I should just get a better pair *LOL* and glued the scissors on my layout.





Use unexpected colours to draw interest.

Sticking to gender-specific colours just limits your colour palette. Pair unusual colours together to create a greater impact. I added red as a grounding colour to brighten up the dark colour palette.



Go wild with patterns and colours.

When everything is bright and colourful, no one really notices that your patterns clash [or do they? *winks*].



Make the most out of an "accident".

Removing the clog from my black mist bottle resulted in a heavy over-spray. I added some punched black butterflies, matted the photo in a black and white mat along with black and white brads to complete the illusion that the black mist was intentional.



Inject a little humour.

Did you notice that this "scene" doesn't make any sense? Distracted you with those arrows, funny faces and cute ducks right? Mission accomplished! *LOL*

So what do you think? Is eclectic freestyle your style of choice? Are you more of a minimalist? Or pattern mixer?

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Thank you friends! :)

My friends, thank you for the comments in the post How to grow a blog following. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that blogging is hard work! *LOL* 

One of the ways I get projects done quickly is to "scraplift" myself. This is a huge time-saver because you have done certain steps before so you spend less time fiddling. For instance, this base of this CD/DVD cover is adhered in washi tape like a previous upcycled CD/DVD holder project. 

The key is to vary the layout and the elements. That switches things up and keeps it looking fresh and interesting when it essentially is the same project [uh..huh...I hear glass shattering...less impressed by me now eh? *LOL*]

Here are the projects side by side...

Need to pass some photos to someone? Why not burn them on a rewritable disc in a upcycled decorated cover like this? Playing along with the gift-packaging challenge at Moxie Fab World. 

P/s: Last day to enter my Faber Castell giveaway!

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Talking Point: How to grow a blog following

When I first started blogging, it was purely to play along with online challenges. Then it became my "resume" to apply for design teams. Right now, it is about maintaining and growing the connections and friendships I have made online. :)

Today's Talking Point: How to grow a blog following

It takes time and effort to maintain a blog. Decide what is possible for you. And do it on a regular basis. Once a routine is established, you will start to enjoy the process. These are the 3 things I've used to grow my following - content, visuals and social networking.

A lot of people think that a blog is all about yourself and thus one should just blog about anything one fancies. It is really about your audience. 

Do you like to hang out with friends who talk about themselves all the time? No right? You like to connect with friends who share common experiences or present you with a different perspective on things. And inspire you. Or make you laugh out laugh based on their kooky sense of humour.

Write your content based on that.  Your authentic (awesome) self.  

" I think for those projects that are technique based, tutorials & tips are always welcomed.  For those that follow me, they know that I'm not much of a technique kind of crafter but I'm always fascinated by them."                                                                                        Amy Tsuruta

Don't get me wrong. You still share what you like. But you curate it for your audience.
Give them more of what they like. :)

"I swear whenever Brookie "does" a blog post ... she gets more comments than me! LOL :) "                                                                                   Julie Tucker-Wolek

Can't write well? Use pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words.

People like to look at pretty things. Give them pretty pictures.

Take the time to edit them. Even brightening the picture a little is going to make a difference. No excuses. Lots of free photo-editing applications online.

"I follow other blogs because I love the way that their blog looks or feels."  

                                                                                                               Amy Tsuruta

Now, your blog following includes all the people who subscribe to your blog's feed in different ways - RSS, email or via Google Friend Connect [for those with a Google ID] plus other social networking sites that you post to like Facebook [Networked blogs]. 

"In terms of the Blogger Friends Connect Gadget, don't be deceived by the numbers associated with it.  There are other ways that people can follow your blog and as the time nears when Google Reader will be closing their doors, you may see a decline in your connections.  I have moved to the Feedly and have totally dropped Google Reader."                                                   Amy Tsuruta

You know the adage, "Build it and they will come...." ? It doesn't work in the Internet age. You need to go out there and socialize a little. Virtually. Not the blatant self-promotion we see plastered all over Facebook. That seems a tad narcissistic.  Just do it within the blogosphere.

"One way to get more followers is to visit and follow others! And COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT on your friends blogs! How we will ever know you have visited us if you don't comment?  I visit and comment on close to 100 blogs a day! Do I do it because I want people to come and visit me? No! I do it because I consider my bloggy buds my friends! I want to see what you are creating, what's going on your life, your families, what you are reading, what you are cooking, whatever is going on, I want to share it with you! :)

Let's face it, it feels good when someone visits your blog and comments! We like to know that our friends care about us and visit us. Yes, this is a 'virtual' world, but just like in the real world, it's nice when people come by and see what's going on in your life :)"                                                 Julie Tucker-Wolek

"I think the first place to start to grow your following is to visit other blogs and comment, comment, comment. I tend to follow other blogs that consistently comment on my blog... "                                                                        Amy Tsuruta

It does seem like people are less interested in blogs these days because of other 'social distractions' like Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Keep churning out good and valuable content because Google still searches blogs for useful information. Do you search Facebook for useful information? Seriously? Plus, only half the world is on Facebook. So if you spend all your time on Facebook, you can't conquer the world! *winks* [Seriously though, Facebook has certain algorithms...that they change constantly... that determines if your post appears in your friends/followers' news stream so you actually don't reach 100% of your audience...]

"Even though there are other social media distractions, I know that blogs are still an important part of the social media interaction -- some people still don't have Facebook or Twitter, so they still come to blogs to see what's happening with their friends. :)"                                                                      Julie Tucker-Wolek

At the end of the day, you do what is possible for you. Social media can be a huge time suck and gratifying at the same time. The key is to strike a balance. I go off-grid by Friday after my last post of the week ...that's my time to de-compress.  And check in again on Monday....yes Monday is mad commenting day...[my greatest wish is for people to stop blogging on weekends so that I have less catching up to do...*LOL*]

A big thank you to my bloggy pals Julie Tucker-Wolek and Amy Tsuruta who have helped me with this post. What about you? How did you grow your blog following?

P/s: Happy weekend friends! :) 

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Mixed media + cute stuff = upcycled box....and some challenge winners! :)

Hello there friends! I went for my felt scraps for LESSology Challenge #25: For the love of fabric and used lots of yummy goodies from Purple Pumpkin.

I started with a sturdy box [with a design I didn't like] and went to work with some paints and mediums. I won't lie....it took a really long time...*LOL*

Then came the fun part...embellishing with the cute stuff from Purple Pumpkin. :) 

I lined the insides with felt too. Made a small dent in my felt stash...yay! :)

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A big thank you to those who played along with my guest Lizzy's challenge. The winner is

Sandra Scott

And there's also a runner-up prize....

Tone-Lill

Congratulations Sandra and Tone-Lill! Please email me with your mailing addresses and I will get your RAK out to you! Big thanks to Lizzy for hosting this awesome challenge! :)

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