Hi Everyone - Lowri here. Today we are meeting Louise Forsyth - another new member of our Design Team. Louise lives in Dannevirke and is soon to welcome her fourth child into the world!  She creates  fabulous cards which are filled with lace, flowers and coloured images.

Louise and her friend Tracy set up the Southern Girls Challenge Blog a couple of years ago and they love encouraging the NZ and Australian craft community to share their creations.  Louise has her personal blog at punknscrap2@blogspot.com. Here are a few examples of some recent cards she has made.



How were you introduced to scrapbooking?
I started scrapbooking in 2005 after attending a “Creative Memories” class. I didn’t really like the photos surrounded by stickers look than I had achieved on my class project but could definitely see the potential in this hobby for me. I visited some shops in our little town and am proud to say I managed to find some ribbons, lace, iron on patches and beads that I thought would look great mixed with some papers from the Warehouse. Our family didn’t own a computer in those days but after reading some scrapbooking magazines I knew I would need one…. And so my hobby spread it wings thanks to wonderful online stores.

What inspires you for layouts, projects, cards?
My scrapbooking is heavily inspired by my wonderful children and family. My cards are usually inspired by whatever image takes my fancy at the time.

What other project types do you like to work on besides scrapbook pages?
What don’t I like to dabble in would be more the question, I enjoy, cards, off the page and canvas’ along with beading, sewing and quilting although papercrafts are definitely my first love. I have totally astounded my very crafty Mum since I started scrapbooking as prior to my first scrapbook page I had never shown any interest in a crafty hobby much to her dismay. It has really strengthened our relationship as we can share a love of crafting together now.


What is your favourite scrapbook brand and why?
That’s a hard one I love so many different brands for different reasons, so I will try and choose one….. ummmmmm……. My Mind’s Eye, I love the quality of the papers, the gorgeous designs and beautiful embellishments. I also love that they blend so well with products from other companies.


What scrapbooking tools/products can you not do without?
I will narrow this down to 5….
Patterned Papers – the base of any project, has to be good quality, thick and look fabulous.
Stamps and Digital Images – Anything sweet and cute has me at “hello”
Blingity Bling – whether it be pearls, rhinestones, glitter or shimmer spray I don’t mind, I embrace them all with love, affection and open arms.
Lace – Love the pretty textured look it gives to any girly project.
Flowers – as above, plus you can use them to make cost effective, pretty hair ties and clips, can you say CUTE?

What is your current favorite technique or embellishment?
Colouring with copics, I can’t see this wearing off anytime soon. I love the gorgeous effects I can get when I colour with them. I love showing my colouring off to my husband (he is my biggest fan xox)

What do you hope to try or improve on this year?
I want to get more actual scrapbooking done, I seem to be getting lots of cards done but am heinously behind in my scrapbooking.

What advice can you give to people just beginning to enjoy scrapbooking?
Try anything, don’t be constrained by rules and if you think it looks great then it does!
Being a scrapbooking superstar/big name means nothing, what matters is that YOU love what you create and you are making a memory reminder for you and your family, not a magazine subscriber or the latest “in” product manufacturer. Embrace your style and be proud of your creations.

Do you have a blog?
I sure do, you can find me at www.punknscrap2.blogspot.com
And a good friend and I also have a challenge blog www.southerngirlschallenge.blogspot.com it has special prizes each challenge for Nzers & Aussies so be sure to check it out.

Can you share with us your three favorite projects and tell us a little about them?

I love the layout because I adore the photo of my boys and it also uses some of my favourite companies products, October Afternoon & Cosmo Cricket. Also it has recycling on it which makes me feel good :-)

I love the colours and the flower border on the card with the little girl on the bike, also the image is by Mo Manning and I adore her images of children and find them fun to create a card around.

The last card is the card I made for my little girls first birthday, again a Mo Manning image teamed with some lovely girly papers, I also made a layout to match for her birthday photo. The inside is also decorated on this card which is unusual for me as I generally sell my cards and to keep costs down it isn't really viable to decorate the insides of all the cards I make.

Here is a picture of the inside of the card.




CONTEST WINNERS
We have 4 winners to announce!

Blog Contest winner is - Karyn Willis (Karyn you win an entire Christmas Kaiser Collection - YAY!)
Facebook Fan winner (for recommending a fan) is - Stacey Donaldson (Stacey you win the papers from both upcoming Christmas Kaiser Collections)
New Facebook Fan Winner (for becoming a new fan) is Maxine Sayers - WELCOME MAXINE! (Maxine you also the papers from both upcoming Christmas Kaiser Collections)
Sandy's "Guess the journal cards" winner is "pinkladynz" (You win a set of Crate Paper papers.
(Karyn actually guessed right but we wanted to share the prizes around and she already won the Blog Contest!)

Congratulations - please contact me at lowri.mcnabb@artfullcrafts.co.nz and I will arrange for your prizes to be sent out.

CHALLENGE UPDATE
We have some fabulous entries already to our Challenge. This month we have had so many fantastic entries we will award a prize in EACH of the following categories.
Layouts
Cards
New Entry
Overall Winner
That's double the normal chance to win!

You still have over a week to enter. Send a picture of your entry to entries@artfullcrafts.co.nz. If you remember, please state if it is the first time you have entered a challenge - and include your blog address if you would like us to feature it on our showcase post.

All entries are also posted into the Artfull Crafts Competition Gallery on our website

Post a questions with any questions - Lowri :-)