Beach Life Tilda Design for Challenge #1 @ DDCC

Good morning my lovelies :)

Welcome to all my new followers & hello again to those that have come for another peek at what I am doing :)  Thank you so much for coming to see me.  I appreciate your support :)

Yesterday was the launch of Dreamtime Designs Craft Challenge :)

Have you seen the very first challenge yet?  I hope you will give the challenge a go.  It really isn't as hard as it may look & you will be amazed at how the 'pieces' seem to come together for you.

I have popped in today to share with you my take on the challenge as yesterday all the our fabulous Design Team ladies have had their challenge posted to their blogs & thought I had better show you mine lol.

I have left it till now due to it being a very big post yesterday & didn't want to give you too much in one day to read lol.  See, how thoughtful I am? lol

Yesterday you would have seen my Dreamtime glimpse (or sneak peek as the ladies call it).  I will show you the rest in just a sec but first I want to re-cap the challenge itself.

Here are the details of the challenge we had to create our projects around.

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Dreamtime Designs Craft Challenge #1:

Anything Goes About Me - The Designer Behind the Project.

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This challenge revolves around any type of design or project that you would like to create.  You can use anything your heart desires but the finished item MUST be related to your answers from questions below.

Please note:  The following questions are to be literally included & are an important part of the challenge.  They need to be added to your challenge blog post along with your answers due to your project being designed & based around them.

Challenge - Part A:

Answer the following five questions:

1) Where do you live?

2) What do you love most about where you live?

3) Who do you share this special place with?

4) What is your favourite season there & why?

5) What is your most loved thing to do or place to visit & why?

Challenge Part B:

Create your design / project that reflects the questions above.

Challenge Part C:

Take a photo or two of anything that relates to your above discussion so that they can be included in your challenge blog post.

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It looks quite daunting doesn't it?  However, like I have suggested in the original challenge post here, if you break it down bit by bit you will find that the theme will come to you sooner than you think & you will be on your way to creating a wonderful project.  

When you enter the challenge, you will go into the draw of winning 

$20 Cash to spend at any craft shop your heart desires :)  To find out more, click here.

To help me create this design I recruited the help of the gorgeous Tilda :)

I haven't used Tilda much in my designs lately & due to the concept of my take on the challenge, this little cutie was perfect.  Not only that, she has been hiding out in my craft studio for some time & it was fantastic to finally ink her up :)  Do you like the Kookaburra? I have named him Cookie. More about him later :)

I used my Copics to add some colourful life to Tilda & Cookie.

The colours I have used are as follows (which are more than usual lol).

I used the following Copic colours:

Skin: E000, 00, 04, 11, 21, R20

Pants: B32, 93, 95, 97, 99

Top: R14, 17, 37

Kookaburra: BG01, E40, 41, 43, 47, C1, 3

Ocean: B000, 00, 02, 12, 45

Sand: E31, 33, 35, 40, 41, 43, 50, 51, 53, YR00, 31, Y11

Blender

Want to pin the Copic colour combo?

Click here

This is the first ocean & beach themed design I have ever done.  So forgive me if it doesn't look too realistic lol.  As you have seen, I used sooo many Copic Earthy colours to try & get the look of the sand right.  My blender helped tone it down a little.  I don't have many blue Copics so I tried the best I could with blending the ocean colours.  I added the Frantage as an after-thought & it really helped me to give the 'surf' look to the waves.  Well, I hope it does lol.

1) Where do you live?

If you haven't guessed yet, I live right next to the beach on the Central Coast of New South Wales in Australia.  I am extremely lucky to have the option of a few beaches to go to that are within a 15 minute walk of each other.  The sand is as golden as you can imagine & the ocean is ever so blue.

Here is a few photo's for you :)

Beautiful isn't it? I just love it here :)

One of my DT friends (Roberta) challenged me to use cheese cloth on my design for this challenge.  This is another item I have never used before. For some reason I felt really intimidated by it.  Go figure lol. However, now I love it & want to use it as much as I can because it is so versatile.  It can be easily manipulated to have it look exactly how you want it to.  I love the effect it gives :)

2)  What do you love the most about where you live?

I love the fact that I am very close to the beach which obviously gives the 'holiday' feel to the place.  We have lot's of people that come here to visit from all different parts of the country & from all over the world.  

There are quite a few hotels here, clubs, restaurants, cafes & the like.  Nobody is in a hurry to get from A-B, there is no hustle & bustle which is something I totally love.  There is a nice pleasant 'laid-back' feel to the place.

What I love the most is that if it get's too hot, we can just duck down to the beach to cool off & not only that, we sometimes have Christmas lunch on the beach too :)  

I was originally born & bred in the the UK till I was 15 yrs old when I emigrated to Australia with my family.  I am still a UK Citizen but an Australian resident.  I love that I still have the English accent, proud to be English but extremely passionate & happy about living in our wonderful country Australia.  I am very lucky. As far as I am concerned I have two places that I call home :)

I have used the colour combo of red, white & blue & the flags as the significance to this of both England & Australia.

The lace & the tulle I actually found in a thrift shop, washed it & added them to my tag.  I put a string of rope pearls around the image, added some flat back pearls, frantage & a few charms that I have had sitting in my stash for quite some time.  So glad I was able to finally use them :)

I decided to machine sew the design & managed to squeeze a doily in there lol.  Do you like my little starfish charm?  Soo cute.

The lace I picked up from the local shop.  I just love it :)

Do you like my cute little bottle / jar that has the sand in it?

I specifically went to the beach to get the sand.  I treated myself to a coffee while I was there.  Actually I wrote one of my latest blog posts while I was sitting there enjoying my coffee & looking out to the ocean.  I love it there.  It's so peaceful :)

Ooooh, wait...there's more lol

Ohhh look...the design opens :)

A Double Photo Frame

3)  Who do you share this special place with?

It is just myself & my 13 yr old Daughter, Zoe that live at home together now.

My other two boys, Michael (24) & Cory (20) live with their partners not far from me.

Zoe & I love having our own little space together.  She is at an age now where she loves having her friends sleepover so most weekends I am sharing my home with about three other teenage girls lol.  The photo of her that you can see was taken quite a few years ago, but at that moment in time when I took the photo is very significant to us both :)

We also have a rabbit called Missy, who makes us laugh & smile all the time.  She is sooo cute.

On a regular basis, we have Kookaburra's come & visit.  They are my favourite Australian bird from the Kingfisher family.  We often sit & watch them (they are always seen with their mate).  They are very well known for their 'laugh' which can be quite loud at times but so unique.  I love it.

4)  What is your favourite season there & why?

Although Summer is wonderful here, sometimes it get's a little too hot for me.  I don't like the heat past 35 degrees.  It's ok when you have air conditioning but outside I burn very easily.  So, I would have to say Spring is the season I love the most.  Seeing all the new blooms, the warmer weather before it gets too hot. However, it is still hot enough to be able to go to the beach & watch Zoe go swimming in the surf :)

5)  What is your most loved thing to do or place to visit & why?

Apart from spending time on the beach, I do love the coffee shop that they have there which is sitting almost right on the beach.  They make lovely food there, sandwiches, burgers, hot chips etc.  

The thing I love the most about it is being able to walk there whenever I want, go sit, order a Cappuccino & just take it all in.  The sound of the surf, watching the waves, the sun glistening onto the gorgeous blue water, watching the children playing & swimming in the surf.  Most of all, when I go there, it means I am having 'time out' for myself.  A time for me to just sit there & be quiet.  To observe & take it all in :)  A time to relax.  It is my happy spot :)  

Here is the full frontal of my design.  What do you think?

I must admit it took me some time to figure out all the sizing, measurements etc, but with the help & inspiration I received from Franz, I managed to pull it off.  I originally saw the design that Franz had created here & instantly knew that I wanted to create one similar.  Thank you so much Franz for the inspiration & all of your help.  I appreciate it greatly.

Mine isn't exactly the same as I adjusted a few things here & there to make it 'my own' but I really love how it turned out.  The thing I love most about it is that I can change the photo's whenever I like & put it in any room of the house I want to :)  

I normally add all of my designs to Etsy but this time, I am keeping this one for myself :)  It holds a lot of sentimental value to me in regards to our first challenge at DDCC & also the friendships I have formed with my friends who are in the DDCC Design Team :)  Sshh, don't tell them though, it will go to their heads lol.

If you would like to pin this design to your Pinterest board:

Click here

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I would like to include my design into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations #242 - Winged Things

Pennys #147 - Anything Goes

2 Sisters #163 - Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin - Things with Wings

Moving Along With The Times - Anything Goes

Magnolia Down Under #216 - Anything but a card

A Creative Romance - Fairytale or Winged Creations

Inky Chicks #14 - Use Two Different Die Cuts

Lovely Hangler/Magnolia #79 - Use a charm

Midweek Magnolias #74 - Warm & Cozy

Oldie But A Goodie - Bingo (Lace, Stitching, Riboon) - Used old charms

Simply Magnolia - Die Cuts / Punches

Top Tip Tuesday #111 - Flowers

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Something Blue

Fashionista Magnolia & More #3 - Anything Goes

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So, are you up to the challenge at

Dreamtime Designs Craft Challenge?

It is a challenge you don't want to miss!

It is designed to get your creative thoughts thinking outside of the box & you seriously don't want to miss being part of the fun :)

Click here to find out more about it.

Thank you so much for popping by.

Big hugs xxx

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