Been creating....

Well, I got my pack of goodies from Kaiser Craft just days after they announced the guest designers. All I can say is WOW! It was just like Christmas! Mind you, I don't think anyone else in the house quite understood just why I was so excited, but you get that! I was so lucky to receive one of everything from the Devonshire and La Di Da collections, and just between you and me, I was already hanging out for the Devonshire collection anyway! Both are just beautiful and some of the new trims are to die for. I have now completed a page and card with each collection and have sent them off to KC, so I will wait until they are up on the blog before I reveal them here. I have also managed to do another couple of sketch challenges from the KC blog. Admittedly they were from a couple of weeks ago, but time flies, weekends are busy! I had fun creating them and I even used the first of my month in review photos from last year. We are also in the middle of birthday month here, with Niamh just having had her eleventh birthday and Erin about to have her ninth. Which reminds me I must get some birthday photos done! We have had low key celebrations this year, with each of the girls inviting a couple of friends to come out to dinner at Sizzer with us. A lot of fun all round. Andrew and I also celebrated 15 years married at the beginning of the month (not that we did anything too exciting on the night!), and we plan to have a weekend away, by ourselves, later in the year to celebrate. So we are looking forward to that. Otherwise, we are all back into the school routine and the year is moving ahead with great pace already. Thanks for stopping by and catch you soon.

Exciting News

Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather this morning! I was checking my email and there was one from the lovely AnneP congratulating me on my Guest DT spot over at Kaiser Craft! I hadn't checked the blog for a little while so hadn't seen this update! Well I can tell you this is a great way to start the weekend that is for sure! I can't wait until I get my goodies to start creating! Talking about creating, I have just finished the February challenge for Out of the Hat. This months criteria are:

Include a butterfly Buttons and Bows 4 word title

Now I can tell you I have been mulling over this criteria for a day or two, butterflies cool, buttons and bows cool, but four word title, that had me a little stumped. So, to get over this block I pulled out some photos and tried starting with the title first (not my usual process), and ended up having about 4 possibilities of photos and four word titles! Once I was over that hump the rest came quickly! I did use a beautiful layout in an old Scrapbook Trends as my starting point for this layout and I got to try some of the new 7Gypsies papers that I just recently bought! So here it is: If you haven't already, head over to the blog and try your hand at the challenge, there are some cool prizes too! Remember last time I mentioned some new Basic Grey papers? Well I have put together my page using these. This is basically a scraplift of a page by Layle Koncar from Basic Grey. I just loved the colours and the design is very similar to my style too. I can't wait until these papers are in store, they are just divine to work with, and isn't that owl just the cutest??!! Well, I think that about covers it for now. Thanks for dropping by and catch you next time!

Back to School

Well, the kids have finished their first week (a very short week mind you!) back at school for the new year. My baby Liam is now a big school boy too, and I have to say it was a little hard to think of him as being big enough to go to school. He is my baby and always will be I guess regardless of how big he gets! This coming week will be the real test, five full days at school! I think there will be at least one very tired child by the end of the week. I have been busy playing again with my scrapbooking, particularly making more flowers. I found this design on the well known Tim Holtz's blog and they were pretty simple to put together and they look sensational! For my flowers I have used my Slice to cut out the basic flower shape (3" for the larger one and 2" for the smaller one), one flower was from the Wedding card and the other from Basics 2. The trick that I did learn is that you really need to start with a flower shape with 6 petals. My larger one had only 5 petals and the smaller 8. This obviously didn't ruin the flower but means I had to ad-lib a little to make it work! Both flowers have been sprayed with glimmer mist to liven them up. I haven't yet worked out where to use them, but I know they are sitting there waiting to be used on something! And I can create more if I need the "perfect" flower accent. I have also done a little scrapbooking too. Again using up older stash (although I did splurge on some 7 Gypsies papers the other day!) and playing with my Slice. The journal frame and title backing were both cut using the Slice, and I have used one of my favourite border punches for the scallop border. I really love this particular punch and I have seen that EK Success have a few more coming that were released at CHA Winter and I can't wait!! This was done for the KasierCraft blog Saturday sketch. I used the Slice to cut the patterned hearts and the little tag and the EK Success postage stamp border punch to create the pages edge. One thing I have done and is sitting waiting to be scrapped is started putting together some 6x8 photo proof type sheets summarising a month or two from last year. Then I can put together a little summary of the entire year in a handful of pages! Now to find the time to scrap (actually I think it has been the motivation lately, so hot and humid recently). I have just got my hands on some new Basic Grey (yes the just released from CHA Winter!!). More precisely I have some of my favourite release, Green at Heart, to play with! Can't wait to put that together. Talking about CHA I am now hanging out for the new hands free for the Slice to be available! This looks wonderful! Also dying for the new Pink Paisley releases, loved these a lot!! Ok I can see some spending happening soon, so I had better start saving (or earning lol!!). Well, that about sums things up for now. Thanks for stopping by, catch you soon!

January in Full Swing

Well, January is definitely in full swing and things are all underway for preparing the kids to return to school. New shoes, new lunch boxes and drink bottles, new haircuts and books being labelled and covered. No wonder the days are flying past (not to mention the money flying out of the wallet!). The girls got themselves proper style cuts for the first time and they are both so proud of themselves! I will take some photos of them soon to show you their new "do's". I have been playing a lot with my Slice the last week or so, partly because it is probably my favourite tool and partly because I am teaching a class on getting the most from your Slice at Scrapbook City in February. I have some sneak peeks of the class for you, if you are in Brisbane and are interested in the class head over to the Scrapbook City website and click on the classes link to find the details. I have also managed to do some scrapping for myself. Just one page for now, but more are in the works. This one has used the Slice, with the Big Kids card for the dinosaurs (which I think are just so cute in pink!), and the Vintage Findings card for the title. I have also just ordered myself a new lens, the 85mm f1.8 lens to be precise and I am really hanging out for this to arrive. I think it will become my most used portrait lens. I have been using the older Tamron 90mm which is really nice, but because it is an older lens it doesn't hold its focus to allow you to reframe the shot, and this really wasn't very helpful! So, a new lens it was, can't wait for that. I have a shoot in a couple of weeks and I am really hoping it will be here before then. Fingers crossed. Last week I took the kids (with G-Ma aka my Mum) in tow to see the new exhibits at GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art). It was all really interesting and the kids really enjoyed the exhibits too. I think I may need to go back with my big camera next time (only had the G10 with me) to really capture some of the fantastic exhibits. One of the most strange exhibits was an interactive one which involved pegboard on the ceiling with strings of different lengths hanging from each hole. The idea is you enter the space where the strings hang and walk through. Well, the kids loved it, me and mum on the other hand felt disoriented and a bit motion sick! A strange feeling indeed. Here are a couple of shots to try and give you an idea. Again, all I can say was this was strange! But I guess that is what art is all about! Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2010! I can't believe another year has rolled around, and I am sure this one will disappear just as quickly as the last one. Although I am secretly hoping that it will slow down just a little this time! Christmas was good for us, and lasted about 4 days! After that we were all well and truly over festive food! Liam's comment after having sausages and salad (normal food!) for dinner a couple of days ago - "Mmmm, that was so good". Funny, but summed up how we were all feeling I think! The kids got plenty of cool presents mainly around Lego, DS games and Ben 10! I scored a new Slice card (Under the Sea) and a great new lamp for my desk. So I am pretty happy too! I have even had some time for scrapping, which has been nice. The January challenge is now up over at Out of the Hat, so make sure you check it out. I have done my sample with the criteria, which are: 1. Use circles some where 2. Used striped paper 3. One word title And my result is this page about a Kindy creation made by Liam. I have been playing with flowers again on another couple of pages. I read a technique on the Creating Keepsake blog for these scrunched flowers and I must say they turned out quite well. I think I will use this idea again. Although one little tip, don't use paper that is too thick! After making the flowers I sprayed them with some glimmer mist for extra sparkle! This last layout (using some older photos again), I made layered flowers with paper and felt. I really like the simplicity of these kinds of flowers, and how you can so easily create embellishments to match your page from a few scraps! I also ran the chipboard title through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder, something I will be doing again! Well, I have some photos to edit now, so I will keep going. I will share some of these Christmas photos soon! Catch you soon.

A Few More Pages...

Well, aren't holidays grand! I have had some time (between trips to the pool for lessons and the shops for groceries!) to do a few pages and play with some new things. I finally had a play with my new deep edge Martha Steward punch and I have to say another favourite has been born! Anyway, enough blabbing here is what I have been up to. I also played with the spiral flowers that Anne had on her blog a little while ago. These ones were made with felt and add a real depth to the page. I am also loving these hydrangea flowers I picked up from My2Angels. And the strip in the middle is my new punch, very cool isn't it?! Again playing around, old photos to scrap and older papers to use, making my own flowers with paper and felt, love how these ones look. And can you believe the little girl in the stroller is now almost 9! And speaking of little girls. These two are now almost 11 and 9, a far cry from these little urchins clean out of the bath! I used the MS punch again, as a mask with chalk ink down the bottom of the page and as the original strip at the top. Again making my own flowers. This time from shaped punched circles sewn together. Quite effective I thought. This one has used the newer Vintage Findings line from Making Memories. And given we are so close to Christmas and the cards have been sent, I thought I could share with you my Christmas card for this year and take the opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Safe and Happy New Year. Make sure to spend time with loved ones and enjoy every moment! Till next time...

As Promised....

Ok, here I am back, as promised! With stuff to share and news. Firstly, I was lucky enough to get my hands on an i-top from Imaginisce to play with last week and then demo to a number of eager ladies. Let me tell you this tool is very cool! It is really easy to use and makes me feel the need to buy it (no, I do not have a tool problem..... honestly....), for the potential it has to make coordinating and decorating pages so easy and cost effective. Below is the page I created as a sample for the demo. I created two medium sized brads which I covered in coordinating papers, then one was coated in Kindy Glitz and the other sprayed with Glimmer Mist (pearl I think). You can see the actual brads better in the close ups further down. It was just such a lovely and easy way to finish off my page. Scrapbook City are selling the i-top and accessories (although I do know they sold out of a few things on Friday after the demos! See it is not just me!!) Hmm, maybe this will be something on my Christmas list!! Or I can just go and buy myself a present and put it under the tree! The other great new tool to add to my collection is one of the new deep edge border punches from Martha Stewart (these sold out pretty quickly too). I picked up the one that actually creates a doily lace strip, very cool! I haven't put it into use on a page yet, but rest assured that is coming soon! I did however manage to do another page. This one you may remember the photo from June or July from our 10 year playgroup reunion. I finally printed a copy and scrapped it. I really enjoyed keeping this page simple and elegant and I managed to use up some older Chatterbox papers too. Well, the kid's are all finished at school and kindy (for the last time) for the year and I am trying to exhaust them with intensive swimming lessons this week each morning. I think I am only serving to exhaust myself! Oh well, Christmas will be here soon and then there will be new toys to keep them occupied. I have also had a birthday since last posting (not including the brief update yesterday!). I scored a hot pink i-pod shuffle to help me ignore the kids over the holidays! Very cool, it is already loaded with some groovy music and some classics. I have found though, that my ears are just not right for the hard larger ear phones and I need to get myself a set of softer inner ear phones. Perhaps another item to add to the Christmas list! I also scored a new cuttlebug folder and the Music and Dance Slice card. Can't wait to play with those new toys! It is Andrew's birthday tomorrow so more celebrating for us! Obviously we have worked out that just dealing with Christmas is not enough pressure! Hopefully I will have some time to be creative soon and then have some more to share! Till next time, thanks for stopping by!