"Umbrella" by Rihanna

Now I am not a Rihanna fan, but it was challenge #49 on Challenge Me Happy & I was stuck.  When I read the lyrics I knew it would be perfect for a wedding photo.  I am not sure if I am too late for competition, but thought I would share anyway.

 This is one of my fave sheets of paper, unfortunately I cut the strip off so I can't tell you what it is.  I used my new Prima foam stamp I bought at SENZ.  It isn't as clear as I wanted, but gives cool 3D effect, I mixed gell into the paint.

The little frame is also Prima with metallic rub-ons  to give it more definition. The kids kissing is actually a jewelry pendant I painted the back of.

Introducing Ryan the Lion

For Mothers Day my baby bought me a lion soft toy to keep me company when daddy is away.  We named him Ryan.
This weekend I went on a scrapbooking getaway with two friends; Ryan had to come with to keep me company.  I sent photos home to Baby so she could see what we were up too.

Here is Ryan helping me with a LO.

 Dinner time!

 Showing off the weekends work

 Ready for the road trip home

Back to Blythe

I originally tried Pinkysil & resin to make me eye chips for my Blythe dolls as they aren't available here.  Hubby got some amazing Warhammer wings in a set that I decided were mine for a  Blythe idea I have, but he wasn't so keen to give them up so I thought I might try to make a mold of them.  I worked out it would cost more to make a mold than buy a new Warhammer model, keep the wings & throw the rest away. This is what we ended up doing, sort of, he got a new model but I got the wings. Aren't they cool?

So this got me motivated to start playing with my dolls again.  I decided to redo the goth one I hadn't finished from last time I was motivated. I think I may have the mouth carving figured out, although I will probably forget before I do another one.  You need to start shaping the lips from the central crease, work out & up to shape top lip (I hope that is enough to remind me for next time). Apart from the fact I worked that out too late & was working with very thin see through plastic I am much happier with my lip shape this time.  I am definitely going to redo my other dolls lips sometime. 

Right, back to work on re-rooting her hair.

Pinkysil Fun :)

Top Mark Products, the NZ importer of Pinkysil & heaps of other resin & other model making products has gone out of business. The week before they shut their door was a 50% off sale....I got some easy cast clear resin, a few resin tints & some Pearlex.  I also got a mold for a ring &  bracelet.  Here is the bracelet I made using clear resin & kids coloured sand. I kept adding more sand because I couldn't see any...duh! Gravity      had all gone to the bottom!

They had already sold out of Pinkysil & white Easycast resin.  Scotties Crafts still had stock so had to go for a drive............Pinkysil is so much fun to play with.   I wanted Pinkysil to make a mold of one of Scott's Warhammer creatures wings, they were perfect for my Blythe doll but he wont give them up, hehe.  The wings were not currently available for me to cast & I couldn't wait to play do I made some little molds.  These are some of the things I used.

 Here are my 2 new molds....

 and here is some of the things I have made in the last 24 hours.  Unfortunately I think I wont be getting a wing cast.  I think it would use 2 bottles of Pinkysil & therefore it would be cheaper just to go buy another one of Scott's Creatures keep the wings & throw the rest away.  Pinkysil doesn't go very far, resin does.  I got red, bright blue, turquoise & yellow resin colours.   I am not sure why the dark green came out glassy.  I painted the molds with Pearlex to get different colours & effects.  See Tinker Bell's wings, the guitar, etc.  Nicola has decided were are going to make necklaces at her birthday party with Tinker Bell, the guitar & the butterfly.  I am so happy with how they have turned out that now I need to do some scrapbooking to stick them on!

My Impersonation of a Chinese Sweat Shop

How did it happen you ask....well.....It started innocently enough  We were talking about the girls upcoming Mariners Regatta at a parent meeting when one of the leaders mentioned how good one of the other groups tents looked cos all the girls had matching blankets.  They are very strict with tents tidiness etc & have inspections every morning at 9. So I pipe up & say that it wouldn't be that hard to make polar fleece blankets for the girls (this is 2 weeks until camp). Now as you know I am a perfectionist so refused other parents help.  I had 13 blankets to make by camp & another 3 after.  (The siblings who didn't need them for camp had to wait, and they still are....)The amazing team at Centrepoint Fabrics in Newmarket cut the blankets to length for me, which was very helpful.  Then I played 'rat & letter' tetris with the expensive Visoflex (double sided fabric glue sheet). My bestie & my daughter cut them out for me.  Unfortunately I am a dork & forgot about everything being reversed on Visoflex until after the cutting of the rats (luckily before the letters) so all the rats are back to front compared to the original design on the girls t-shirts.  But that was tough! I was not redoing all that work & money. So I lived & breathed blankets for 2 weeks with my poor hubby in charge of feeding me & family, he was amazing! There were 'rats' and green fluff all over the house. They were completed the day before the girls needed them and (if I do say so myself) looked pretty good.  Frustratingly once I delivered them I had other parents saying.."ooo how much are they?  Maybe we should get one....."  NO MORE UNTIL NEXT REGATTA!!!!!!! (Easter 2014) I just need to finish the 3 sibling ones now cos they have already been paid for, but no more orders!

White plus one

As I was doing really well with my scrapbooking LO challenges so I thought I would have another go at one.  This LO was 90% done for the white plus one February challenge when tragedy struck our extended family & I was unable to complete it in time.  I really like the way it has turned out so thought I would post it anyway.  The chipboard background was a purchase from the retreat I went to at the start of this blog!!  I was always waiting for something 'special' to use it for, well my baby is special :)

We are related to the guy who was killed in the shark attack of Murawai beach.  As soon as I heard about it on the radio I thought "I wonder if...." but thought the chances that it was him was so slight I put it from my mind.  So when we got the call later that evening I was in shock.  Such a horrible tragedy I was speechless & in shock for days, I just could wrap my head around the fact that he was gone. I mean what are the odds?  Now that beautiful little girl has lost her adoring daddy & Meg has lost the love of her life so soon after finding him.  IT'S NOT FAIR!! There are so many scumbags in this world, why him? I know life isn't fair, I tell my kids that often, but still....

Another white space LO

I'm on a roll!

This is one of my fave pics of me as a teenager, it's just me.  I used 'Follow your heart' paper left over from the retreat & a new Kaiser background stamp.

Reading the Paper

 I love this photo, and the conversation that went with it.  I have  been wanting to scrap it for ages but wanted to do something special.  I saw the Challenge Me Happy competition #39 White Space & decided it was perfect inspiration.

On my blue paper I first I mod podged some strips of newspaper under the area for my photo, then i added some dimensional stickers & crackle glaze, then gesso painted over everything.  I wiped the paint off the dimensionals before it dried.  I did rub it into the crackle glaze. 

I decided it still needed more texture so added some texture paste to edges & top left corner.  I know my spelling & grammar is bad, but i was short letter stickers.

New Address Book

For all my Facebook friends here is my greatly improved address book for work.

It is a Prima column, corner & gate; Twiddleybitz doors & windows.  The key is jewelery.