Christmas Tags

Hi there. Thought I would share the Christmas tags that I have made to adorn our gifts this year. I have been having fun playing with a digi kit by the lovely Zoe Pearn called Winter Wonderland, you can purchase this kit and others of hers at Sweet Shoppe Designs. There are lots of great digi kits and things there! The tags are quite simple, but more personal than buying them, not to mention I can now use the kit for lots of other things too!! Well, today marks the end of an era with Scrapbook City opening and closing its door for the last time. It is both a sad and happy time. Sad for those of us who like to pop in to see what is new and have a chat but happy for Leisa and Kerri moving on to the next stage in their lives. For those lovely ladies who I have passed on my details to, I have updated my side bar links with all the challenge blog sites that I like to visit! So I expect to see some of your work there with mine as we use these blogs to kick start our own scrapping! I must say I am greatly looking forward to scrapping for myself for a little while. I have to admit since knowing about the shop closing there had been a fair bit of panic buying and collecting going on, so I really do need to sit down and start using all these new products and tools! The latest of which is a Gypsy to go with my Cricut! I am hoping that I will have lots of down time soon with work and shopping slowing down and of course our renos nearly complete! OK, enough rattling on... I thought I would do a quick digi page while I was in the mood too. I have used a free kit that came when linking up for a regular newsletter from Zoe. Not sure if it is still around, but it is a great versatile little kit, and who complains when it comes for free!! Well, that's all for now. Catch you later. Katie

Back Again!

I know, back again so quickly??!! Unheard of really! But I am killing some time while my new Gypsy updates so I thought I would amuse myself by uploading more to my blog! I thought I would share with you the last class that I taught for Scrapbook City. Now this was no ordinary class, it was an all day, catered, exhausting and head full of stuff kind of class! And it was so much fun it was run twice! Each time with about 25 ladies in attendance! Curious as to what it was about??!! Well, you all know how inspired by Tim Holtz I have been this year, well we decided to do our own version of his 12 tags of Christmas. I created 12 Cards of Christmas based on techniques he had used in previous years of tags and using our own home grown stamps from Dark Room Door. The results were some pretty great cards (even if I do say so myself!), a lot of techniques learnt and a lot of fun had by all. So here is my little collage of the 12 cards to show you what we did. There was lots of distress inks, alcohol inks, paints, crackle paints, masks, grunge paper, embossing and perfect pearls involved and some very dirty hands too. It was a really fun class and I am glad I had such a great way to finish my time teaching with Scrapbook City. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Leisa and Kerri for the wonderful times that I had while working for them. It was a such a fantastic time and I know I will be seeing you both regularly even after the shops doors close for the last time. Well, that is about it. My downloads are almost done and it is getting close to bed time. Til next time. Katie

Santa Photo

Well, the kids had their photo with Santa the other day. I am not sure how much longer this will continue. Niamh is already saying she is too old for Santa! Anyway, I will keep pushing as long as I can! I have some more renovation photos too! As I mentioned the tapware is in place, and here is the shower I was talking about... pretty amazing hey! And the tapware on the vanities, simple but effective... And most importantly, a second working toilet in the house... You know you have picked good colours and fittings when even the builders make a comment on how good the ensuite looks!! As we speak undercoating and prep work for the painting is going on. So by the end of the week the bedroom should be all painted and next week the outside, and the deck sealed. Yay! Some where in there too the electrician will be back to give us power! Then the hard work begins... the sorting, culling and moving (not to mention carpets, but that will be after Christmas now). That is all for now. Catch you later. Katie

Scrapping!

I have done some scrapping!! Yay for me!! I decided now that I am no longer busy doing things for Scrapbook City that I could join in some blog challenges again. I have created an entry for the White with One blog challenge. The December criteria was White + Grey + Masking. So this is the result. My beautiful little nieces, with butterflies and flourishes! I created my own mask from some masking paper and Tim Holtz's flourish Sizzix dies, and I had some great My Minds Eye papers that were perfect in shades of grey and white! The next challenge was for Kraft It Up, a challenge blog that I have heard about but not participated in before. The idea is Kraft is the basis for your layout. The rest of the December criteria was Christmas photo, non-traditional colours and knots. This is the result, a dun page I think. Again I had fun with a Tim Holtz technique to create the flower. It is over on his blog under one of his new 12 tags of Christmas. So many wonderful ideas and techniques on his blog! Oh, and speaking of Scrapbook City. They now have a closing date, 18th December. So if you are in Brisbane it is worth your while to drop in one last time for some amazing bargains!! Well, that is it for now. Catch you later. Katie

Schools Out for Summer.....

So have you got that song in your head now? I have!! Well, the kids have finished another year at school so we now brace ourselves for 6 weeks of holidays. But as things seem to be going lately this will disappear all too quickly too. The Christmas countdown is well and truly on and we are also looking forward to the finishing touches of the renovations being completed so we can begin the moving around. (Not to mention great big clean up and purge!) I have some more photos to share of the renos too. Since last time we have an almost complete deck with railings and screening all but done. Just sealing the timber and lights and fan fittings to be done. The room too is close to completion with tiling in the bathroom complete and the vanities, tapware and toilet in place. Painting and electrical fit out along with wardrobe doors, mirrors and carpets are the last things to be done. We can't wait!! There is now a roof on the deck and external walls on the bedroom, along with louvers and windows. The screening on the deck is underway here. Looking pretty swish and we cannot wait until it is usable. Railings on the stairs make them safe now! Tiles in the ensuite start to finish this area off. Here are the vanities, one each with ceasarstone tops. I need to take more photos showing the tapware! The shower looks awesome!! Remember last post I mentioned Liam had lost another tooth, well here is the toothless boy. And Niamh did pose for a photo with her cast on. We were lucky to find after a week in plaster and a second lot of x-rays that there didn't seem to be a break, just possibly some tendon damage. So no more plaster, which is a relief in this heat. I have also been playing around with some photoshop actions I purchased from here with a "hipstamatic" look. I have enjoyed seeing people with their i-phone versions but as I don't have an i-phone nor any desire to own one I thought I would look for a photoshop version! Here is another one with lovely Erin. This next one is following a "forumla" in Lightroom to create a similar effect. It has its own appeal too, so I turned it into my own Lightroom Preset. I think Liam in his funky glasses added to the effect! Here is another snap I took a couple of weeks ago. We had just come home from shopping to find a rainbow across the sky, and here it looks like it is landing at our house. I searched for the pot of gold but had no luck finding it! And lastly, I celebrated my birthday this week. Aside from the cricut I mentioned earlier I received some great cartridges to use in it, some gold class movie vouchers and a steam mop! I know a steam mop isn't that exciting, but it was something I really wanted and I can't wait until the building work is done so I can clean! Sad really, isn't it??!! Oh and I received these when I was least expecting them! Andrew can be so sneaky sometimes! So that sums up things here. I am sure I will be back soon with more reno news! Til next time, Katie

More Photos

Hello! Life is getting very busy here as we start winding up the year at school and continue with our building works. I feel like I spend my time split between home answering questions about what way to do something or what colour and so on or down at the school at one of the kids activities. Well, I guess we will be on holidays soon and the building will be over so then I will be complaining about moving rooms, and kids at home!! No winning really is there??!! So, what has happened since I last updated. Well, Scrapbook City is on its way to closing its doors for good. Which is sad, but the right thing for Leisa and Kerri. I will miss having a little haven to go to and just chat if nothing else. But I have gained many wonderful friendships out of my relationship with this shop and I know these will continue. If you are in Brisbane and want a bargain however, I suggest you head over as they currently have 40% off storewide (with a few exceptions like cricut cartridges and the like, but these are still at fabulous prices!) and stock is almost walking out the door! On the Scrapbooking bent, I am now the proud owner of a Cricut machine!! This is my birthday/christmas present from Andrew and the kids! Cool hey?! I was told, that since I kept talking about this machine and that I was hard to buy for that perhaps I should just buy one!! Who was I to say no! I am also getting a Gypsy to go with it from my in-laws for my birthday! I am feeling like one lucky girl at the moment. Now I just need five minutes to be able to sit down and scrap! Liam lost another tooth. I feel like we have a hot line to the tooth fairy at the moment, between Liam and Niamh I think six teeth have come out in about two months! Speaking of Niamh, she has just come back from camp, where she was not allowed to do very much as she has a cast on her arm! Last Sunday while scootering at her cousins house she had a fall and now has a suspected fracture.... So Monday we go back to the doctor, get the cast off, go back to x-ray then go back to see if we need to put another cast on. No wonder I am exhausted all that running around! (I am trying to get a photo, but she doesn't like the camera very much at the moment! I only have one on my mobile so I will have to download that!) The house is coming along. We are starting to get to the details now. The room has walls inside and out, the bathroom has been waterproofed and tiles will start to go down (hopefully) tomorrow, the roof is on over the deck and railings should start to go up soon. So it won't be too long and we will have a functioning room and deck! I can't wait for the deck to be done. I have a photo to share, but it is a little behind with where things really are. I have photos on the camera, just need to download them! Roof frame for deck is up and getting ready to clad the outside of the bedroom. I had a chance to visit my newest niece Alice. She is lovely, so small and basically just slept the whole time we were there! I have some photos of her with various combinations of people. Proud Grandma with Alice New big sister Jasmine with her baby Alice and big cousin Niamh. Life is tough when you are little...... I took some Christmas photos for my sister in law last weekend so she could make cards. I always seem to get a classic photo of my niece Rachel when I do this. I had the giggles when I saw this photo in camera, let alone after I had added to it! And not to be left out, brother Dan had a classic too! Til next time! Katie