D-Lish Scraps December challenge

I was lucky enough to snap up a D-lish Scraps 'just add paper' kit this month, you have to get in quick because these babies sell out quick. This months theme is 'peaches and cream' and I had this picture of my daughter in my photo stash that I knew would just go with it perfectly. 

This was taken on Christmas Eve when she was 23 months old... how do I know she was 23 months, she turned 2 in the January just 3 weeks after Christmas. This is one of those pics that just brings a little tear to my eye when I look back over them... so little, so innocent, and a reminder of when Christmas's held so much magic and joy.... both my children now know the 'truth about Santa' and while the day is still filled with family and joy, a little of the magic has gone...

Show Us Your Stuff November Challenge

'Stay Wild Moon Child'

I don't know about you but this challenge from Show Us Your Stuff couldn't have come at a better time... I have a moody Mr 15 that refuses to let me scrap pics of him, and a Miss 10 that I am kinda a little over scrapping at the moment (I love her dearly, but she features in 90% of my scrappy pics) 

This pic is one of 25 million I save to my phone while I'm trolling Facebook late at night in bed, and when this challenge came up I knew this was the pic I was going to use. 

Inspired by a YouTube video I watched, I've used a mixture of watercolour paints and Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals and Colour Blast Shimmer Dusts to create the moon, with some random washi tape and a WOW Creations laser cut chipboard constellation. 

A really simple layout that uses minimal elements but has a big impact.. 

Seeking Serendipity - D-lish Scraps November Mood board

THANK FUCK IT'S FRIDAY!!!

My apologies for the sentence enhancer but its been a looong week, one that literally ended in me up to my eye balls in poop... the joys of being a Family Daycare Educator. 

Hubby was away working this week, Moody teenage boy was hibernating in his bedroom like a vampire and Miss 10 was binge watching Friends... cue uninterrupted art time...

This layout was inspired by the mood board over at D-lish Scraps... and its a fun one this month! 

Purples, blues, teals, squeeel!!! 

I pulled out every Colour Blast I had for this one. If you haven't fallen in love with the Colour Blast products yet, get your butt over to their BLOG or FACEBOOK now! All Australian owed and manufactured, these product are an absolute must have in your Mixed media stash. 

 I mixed up the Shimmer dust in Passion, Cobalt and Peacock with a little water in my pallet and added it to my card stock in layers, letting it pool in places, drying inbetween with my heat tool and adding some splatters at the end. 

Next I added the Colour Paste in Royalty and Just blue through a stencil and set is aside to dry. 

I used the left over Shimmer dust in my pallet to colour some white flowers and a crochet doily. 

I used the Colour Embossing Powders in Dusty Charcoal and Stormy Weather to coat the 'Serendipity' title I grabbed from Kinder Kreations. Added to the embellishments was a Charms Creations heart embelle and some Dymo tape. 

Simply delicious isn't it! Feeling like my Mojo is returning... 

Your vibe attracts your tribe

So ive been a dark and moody lately with my scrappy pages, so I though it was time to play with some colour.... Ive had this pic sitting in my pile of photos for a little while and was waiting for the right colour mood to hit me to use it... taken at a local scrapping fundraiser day, it capture some of my 'tribe' pretty well... 

So I started scrapping back when my daughter was about 2ish, so 8 years ago... Back then mixed media wasn't a 'thing' and clean cut scrapping, Making Memories and Kazzaz where pretty much the trend... my sewing machine, paint splatters, layers and texture were not received well by the 'masses' and I soon fizzled out. 

Hello 2015 and my first retreat with the super amazing Peta from Scrapbooking from Scratch. Here were these awesome ladies that were creating things I had only envisaged in my mind and I found myself singing to the heavens, I HAD FOUND MY TRIBE!!! and with it, my MOJO soon returned... 

 Here are a few of the awesome ladies Im honoured to know and create with... 

Scrap the Girls November Sketch

- SLIPKNOT 2016 - 

- He might be a complete idiot when he's wasted - 

- But I love him -

So over at Scrap the Girls this month they have a super fun sketch challenge, and well... I started out with a vintage inspired page with a photo of my grandmother and somehow ended up with this... Its not a true 'scrap the girls page' as it somehow ended up featuring my bonehead husband. 

We had a friend 'try' and take a picture of us together as we made our way into the Arena to see my most favourit-ist bad ever - SLIPKNOT- and this is what I got.... not a picture to hang on the wall, but captures us pretty well... Jimmy being an idiot wasted and me grinning like an idiot oblivious to his shenanigans... 

While I cant enter this into this months challenge, I did have fun playing along... Head on over to the Scrap the Girls blog HERE and check out all the super talented chicks on their Design team... 

Kraft Plus November Challenge

Oh man, this weather... hot, cold, rain, super hot... I'm wearing 3 different seasons in a day!

This months challenge over at Kraft Plus is especially fitting for this time of the year. 

+Take inspiration from something out of your closet. 

Well, in this family we do one thing well.... BLACK.... 

I had lots of fun with this layout

Lots of texture and layering going on here... Black denim from an old pair of jeans, Medical gauze, tags from clothing, Scrap FX chippies, Charms Creations denim dot, Dymo label-er, washi and a skull stamp from my stash.  

Skool Holiday Workshop courtesy of Pep.C.

Im double adulting today with 2 blog posts..lol... 

I shared some mood board love over at the Scrapping Clearly Blog and im teaming it up with another fun layout I created late at night when my mojo hit  as the sun went down.. 

My daughter Trinity features in many of my layouts, only because Mr 14 is to cool for pics and doesn't like to be shared with mums stuff... (But posts a million selfies I'm not allowed to use?) 

Here she had just attended a school holiday workshop with the super cool Pep.C. of Urban Arts Workshops. At 10 ts hard to find school holiday stuff to do that is relevant to what your into. Here they spray painted t-shirts, explored Newcastle and practised their Hip-Hop moves. 

Ive used Marshmallow Heavy Weight Cardstockas my base. This cardstock is the BOMB!! Specifically designed for mixed media it can take a shit load of medium. 

Ive used Flutterby Designs paint and Wild Bohemian cards, Colour Blast Paste in Dusty Charcoal and Charms Creations Embelle. 

Scrapbooking Top 50 November Sketch

Just stopping by to post up this layout I played with over the weekend. I used the Scrapbooking Top 50 November sketch as the guts to this baby. Lots of layeres and texture happening here, with medical gauze, WOW Chippies, Heidi Swapp watercolour tags, left over Prima packaging, a Flutterby Designs flare and a Charms Creations embelle. 

Heidi Swapp MINC Junk journal

Im pretty sure that when the awesome Heidi Swapp was designing these canvas covers to compliment her MINC range, this isnt what she had in mind. I received my Design team bundle from the extremely generous Kylie from Scrapping Clearly and as I unpacked my goodies this is the thing that grabbed my attention.... this is a good quality canvas cover that is well stitched and was perfect to house my 'junk journal'. 

Dylusions Colour sprays are my go-to ink sprays as they are super vibrant and the colour just pops. I used Bubblegum pink, Vibrant Turquiose and Crushed grape and some stencils to create the canvas cover background. Dont be afraid to give this a good soaking, the canvas took a fair bit of the colour spray and didnt leach through. 

I layered up some flowers, leaves, calico fabric, mesh and a wooden word from Flutterby Designs. I roughly glued them down then machine stitched the entire thing! I highly recomend you go slow and use a good quality needle made for leather work or heavy duty fabric. 

There were a few nights there where my daughter and I went crazy making gelli prints when we first got our Gelli plate. I used up all of the prints with colours that matched up with the pink/purple/blue theme and made them into several small books which i stuck together to make a larger journal. 

Now the Junk journaling can begin. 

Junk journaling is basically using up all your leftovers or 'junk' scraps and just playing and having fun...  Here I've used medical gauze, black tissue paper, texture paste, more Dylusions sprays, black house paint and journalling cards from the Creative Chaos range from Flutterby Designs. 

Im looking forward to sharing some more pages with you soon... 

Happy Art-ing !!

Sketches to the rescue!

Meh, I have been stuck in a creative funk for a few weeks now, the poor brain has 2 billion tabs open of things to do and art just isn't one of them at the moment... I absolutely love my job as a Family Day Care Educator, but after 50 hrs of kids each week, I find it hard to just switch off and play... So this is when I turn to my favourite scrap booking sites and blogs and steal some inspiration in the form of mood boards and sketches. 

I literally on the first of the month go trolling to all my fav sites and print out all the current challenges and whack them up on a cork board in my studio. 

The best part of a sketch is that is doesn't have to be an exact copy, but gives you some elements you may like to play with... This month over at Scrapping Clearly the girls have a funky sketch to play along with. 

You can see that my layout looks nothing like the sketch, but I've used some key elements to inspire me. I've been hanging to use the Maggie Holmes wood panel paper, and teamed it up with some Simple Stories 'SO Fancy' bits and pieces. Add in some Freakled Fawn washi and stamps for the title, and of course some machine stitching and you have one layout complete. 

Not my best work, but a good start to get myself out of this creative slump otherwise known to teachers as '4th term-itis'

WELCOME!!!

This week in the life and times that is Skai Mitchell, Aka: Skaiblu82 has been one of many firsts, and im feeling pretty awesome about them all..

My first ever blog post (Technology still evades me at 33.8 years of life), my first ever design team contribution for the gorgeous ladies that have welcomed me at Scrapping Clearly , I've chopped my hair off for the first time in my life shorter than the shoulders (thanks to my cousin at Blanc Hair ) and went where I had never dared to venture before... the chest tattoo... 

Its taken me a long while to get comfortable in my skin, and to a point where my life is coasting along on cruise control. During the day in my 'real' life I am a mum to 'the large child' Zane who is 14, and the 'small child' Trinity-Jewel who is almost 10. 

I collect Black cats, and we currently have 4 furbabies that have as long and as complicated a story as I do... ill save you that 'tail' for another time..

Im currently have about 100hrs of ink time invested into my skin, all black and grey and by the same tattoo artist... ill share snippets of those stories along the way, and if you choose to read those id be truly hunbled... just as much time, planning, dreaming and drawing have gone into them as actual time in the chair. One day when its my time to leave this earth, id like to think my stories will stay a little longer.. 

I am a Family Day care educator, who 5 days a week, or 55 plus hours cares for some amazing kidlets in my home, which my partner and I have spent a decade or more renovating, restyling, and renovating some more... I wont post about that part of my life much on here, but if you were interested in following my FDC journey you can head over to Rock-A-Bye Baby Early Childhood Education and Care ...

Please add me to your bloggy likes or subscription thingies... and share in my artistic journey that is generally black, grungy and very much like me... you can also follow my instagram feed, im still working on buttons and shit, ive only just figured out how to 'blog' let alone make it all pretty.... you can find me here - Skaiblu82