Donna grew up in regional south Australia right by the beach. In fact, by some of the best beaches in country. She spent many a weekend as a child, walking barefoot on the sand. It was for this reason that this particular photo 'spoke' volumes to her and why she wanted to scrapbook it with substance. The journalling reads: "One of the best things about being Australian is that my kids get to grow up thinking this is 'normal'.
Pristine, beautiful beaches. Amazing sunsets. Fishing with their Dad or collecting shells with me. This is the stuff that childhoods are made of!"
Donna used several product ranges for this layout including, SEI, BasicGrey and Jenni Bowlin Studios. She particularly loved the rich colour vaguely resembling the Aussie flag.
Even the Jenni Bowlin stars and the SEI journalling sticker echo aspects of the flag in some way and remind Donna of just how much it means to her to be Australian!
Suz writes that one of the few events of the year she insists on her children going to is the Anzac Day service at her local cenotaph. Though they grumble and wriggle and are bored by much of it, it's just a part of being Australian as far as she is concerned. For the last few years her mother has represented her retirement village and lays the wreath on behalf of the less able from there.
It's all about the little details in layouts that delight Suz, and when she discovered that the map on these Collage Press Grayson Hall papers perfectly situate Australia on the bottom left hand side of the page and just poking out from the photos the top right, she was sold on using them. A few rubons from the ever-useful Been There Done That range, Jenni Bowlin stickers and one of Tim Holtz's new Philosophy tags completed the simple but photo oriented look.
There is so much truth in the line - 'there's no place like home'. Jaimie has spent time working overseas when she was younger and still remembers the joy she felt when the wheels of the plane touched down in Sydney. Jaimie says that compared to the rest of the world, Australians have a unique sense of national pride, we might not wear it on our sleeves but it is plain to see how those of us that live in this wide brown land share a deep affection for our country.
Jaimie created this simple and straight to the point LO to commemorate Australia Day. She took a photo of the national flag and used filters in Photoshop to give a canvas effect to the picture. Cutout circle patterns were layered under a Hambly overlay and using a combination of alpha stickers and Tim Holtz Philosophy Tags and Tickets she created her title. Journalling on a Pink Paislee Sweet Cakes postcard, a little bit of stamping and inking and the LO is finished.
Caz has created a layout commemorating Australia Day and celebrating one of our 'unofficial' national anthems - We Are Australian, which no matter how many times she hears it, almost always makes her tear up.
Caz has used SEI Glitzmas papers in this layout, showing that Christmas stuff doesn't always have to be put away for the other eleven months of the year.
Chris had heard this tongue in cheek quote about being Australian and thought it helped convey how she felt about being Australian. Chris downloaded photos from Google to fit the quote and explained in her journalling how wonderful she thinks it is for Australian children to be given the opportunity to learn about different cultures in amongst their everyday life. Chris used a very small amount of SEI Poppy pattern paper on her layout as her photos, quote and journalling were her main focus.
Being faced with the question, "What does being Australian mean to you" Nicole asked her husband and kids and was surprised that they all came up with basically the same answers.
Nic felt that there was enough conversation to fill a mini book so she set about creating this little album from various sheets of Michael Miller fabric papers.
The best discovery Nic made was that she could print wonderfully textured photos straight onto the fabric. In this example, Nicole printed onto the back of the Fairy Frost Snow paper - it showed the photo yet allowed the pattern of the paper still show through. Have a look at the close-ups and you can see how printing straight onto the fabric paper gives a subtle canvas-like texture.
She created a little Australian flag for the cover from Michael Miller papers and machine stitching and then attached her photographs to each page before embellishing and stitching each page back to back.
The fabric papers lent themselves perfectly to not only printing photos on, but also accepted rub-ons and stamps really well too.
Nic punched through all layers with her Crop-A-Dile and then used it to set her eyelets on the front and back covers. It created a gorgeous homely little keepsake with a beautiful fabric texture throughout.
