Hand in Hand Crop

Scrapaholics had a fundraising crop day for Hand in Hand.  Hand in Hand in a free beautician service for women with cancer.

I had a great day with lovely ladies & I didn't get much done,but it got me inspired.  These are most of the layouts I did at the crop & days following.  

This is from Maggies class:

I ended up buying the Basic Grey new releases kit.  As usual I used the instructions as a general guide...

Basic Grey  - Highline

 Basic Grey - Capture

 Basic Grey - Spice Market & Capture

 Basic Grey - Capture 

 Basic Grey - Highline

 Basic Grey Spice Market & Capture (& really old Basic Grey)

There are others in various stages of completion, but I figured this was enough for one post ;)

Busy Creating OTP?

Do all these count as OTP projects? Can't get any more off the page than a bed!

Nicola got a new bed for her birthday & wanted it painted rainbow.  So each draw is a colour of the rainbow & the base is her fave pink.  I think it worked well & she is very happy.  She has even made her bed properly every morning since she got it.

I saw this rose iron candelabra on the footpath outside work & had to take it home. 

 It is now the centerpiece of our dining room table.  Thanks to Louise for the birds.  The paper roses are Kaiser & the bird cage is Twiddleybitz.  The velvet leaves are from Spotlight.

 While I was a Spotlight looking for something unrelated i saw that patterns were on sale.  I accidently collect fabric but it just sits in the cupboard.  Baby needed a new sweat shirt & pants & when I saw the patterns.  She chose which patterns we were buying & what I made. I wanted a sweatshirt, she wanted the poncho.  She loves the  trackpants & barely takes them off.  The dress fabric I bought when we lived in Napier.  I finally made the Creeper face for the back of D's sweatshirt.  He is very happy.

 I made this little Teddy bear from a Scrapbooking stencil, it is felt.  It is small enough to  be posted to my B.I.L. for his baby. Don't tell them, it will be a surprise!

 What is this? A Layout???  I know I am shocked too.  I have been trying to finish sewing before I start on scrapbooking again. (shhh...I still have I more teddy to make)   I took these photos of my boy when we were away last school holidays & I love them.  They are just so him.  This LO came together quiet easily as I have heaps of stuff i have got over the years for his gaming pages.  The paper is DCWV Generation Tech & the stickers are Jodie Foster.

ssssssssssssssssssss...............................

I have finally finished making Daniels creeper.  It is made of stiffened felt, which is horrible to sew, but keeps the square, pixalated shape that he needed.  He is very happy :)

 Happy mail! 3 pairs of Blythe shoes & socks :)

Back to work on Monday....

The holidays are drawing to a close (for the adults anyway) so I thought I would share some of our adventures.  The weather has not been kind to us so we took advantage of the first sunny day & went for a hike up Rangitoto Island.  It was a bit of a struggle, but we made it to the top.  No time to look around, we had to run back down to catch the ferry home.  It is amazing where you can find the energy when properly motivated.

We made it!

Man I was sore for the next couple of days, although not as bad as I was expecting or in places I was thinking either.  Why were my arms sore?

The last week consisted of child chosen activities, I think it might have been cheaper to put them ina  holiday programme & have week at home by myself....Monday we saw the new Chipmunks movie.  Tuesday we went bowling with a friend each.  Wednesday the cousins came for a swim.

Thursday we took the ferry to the CBD to have lunch with daddy.  Friday was Mission Bay for lunch with Nana & Popa.

I also managed to read the whole Twighlight series "Mum can you stop reading, u r boring"  I really enjoyed them (thanks Brenda)  I have only seen the first 3 movies & so far they don't compare to the books.  I am going to see the fourth movie on Monday.
My New Years Resolution was to do the Round the Bays this year, so we have been going for  walks (hence Rangitio)
I have also been working on 2 OTP projects, but no scrapping.

Happy New Year!!!!

I see I have some new followers...WELCOME!!! & sorry I have been so quiet lately, it's cos I have been so busy!
In the past few months we have had some possibly life altering decisions to make for our son; which Intermediate he should go to. It has been very stressful. After many hours of research, discussions, to-&-fro, & ballots we have decided on Farm Cove Digital area.  He is very excited as this means he will be going to Nana's school like he wanted, but not with his best friend.  It also means he will be 80% on a laptop.  We are hoping this will encourage & motivate him to do his school work more.  Part of the deal is we have to supply him with a laptop, so guess what he got for Xmas?  He can't wait until school starts & wants to go & get his uniform & stationery ASAP.  We have a carpool/bus system organised as it is to far to walk.

Obviously Daniel finished Primary school this year.  The school had a lovely graduation assembly for all the Year Six students. He will miss some of his friends (including girlfriend) for the next 2 years. They will all be back together at College soon.....
Daniel moved up to Sea Scouts at the beginning of term 4. He wasn't sure about it at first, but now loves the sailing. Apparently capsizing is "Epically EPIC!!!!"
Nicola shall be moving up to the middle school, but has been separated from her best friend for her own good.  I got very frustrated with the school & even contemplated moving her. They don't start till the 7th of Feb!!!! NO holiday programmes run that last week cos ALL the other schools have gone back.  I got a really rude email from secretary when I asked about who I should direct my complaint to, I am thinking of contacting the BOT.  I wonder how many kids will turn up a week early cos their parents didn't notice the date in tiny print on the newsletter, or people who are new to the area.  I was absolutely fuming, but don't deal well with conflict.....
Nicola was in the Howick Santa Parade again this year with Nicola & her Brownie Troupe.  She loves it.
Then see went to Brownie Regional camp with Elizabeth & Shona.  She had a fantastic time (no problems sleeping) & can't wait till the next camp.  She made lots of new friends :)
I have been having problems with dealing with someone from a certain somewhere where a woman's opinion means nothing.....makes working life very difficult.  He keeps ringing my boss to check everything I say.  After 5 years of working with this guy, my boss finally said that, yes THAT was the problem....sigh.....not like I can change!!
Scott started a new job in December.  They sent him to Oz for a training course & he won an Xbox!!  The kids were very excited as our PS3 has been broken for ages.  However we may have to ban it in the early morning as it sounds like a herd of elephants jumping upstairs!!!  The Kinex games are great fun, but hard work!!!
Christmas was odd this year.  We didn't really feel very Christmasy.  But I felt it sort of snuck up on us.  We were all involved in the RWC, then the elections & then suddenly it was Christmas!  It definitely felt low key, but the kids are happy & that's all that matters.  My home computer finally died so I got a new one, it is so quiet I can hear the hard drive spinning!!!!!  Nicola got an iPod touch from Santa & now I get nagged by text "Mum, can I have a glass of water....MUM....." Scott is building a firewall cos she is getting text bullied by a friend...sigh.....I am talking to her about how friends shouldn't make her so unhappy....Daniel took over iPod for awhile to try to get through to this kid what sh was doing to Nicola....sigh....
Because of Scott's new job the whole family has a couple of weeks on holiday together for the first time in years.  However we didn't know about it till to late to organise anything so we are planning some day trips.  The weather is disgusting!  We went to visit friends up north on the best day weather wise, but still not nice enough to go sailing.
I have not done much scrapping since camp in October, don't know why.  However since I haven't posted for so long it looks like I have done heaps!!
I did this one for the Halloween challenge at camp & won!!!!!!!!!  (Those of you who know me will know how surprised I was) I got a new trimmer! I nicked the plastic spiders from the weekends decorations (I asked Debbie first), hehe.  It is difficult to see in this pic, but the fence has bats in it, thanks Bev for letting me borrow the punch it is no longer available.

I got the photos from our family trip to South Africa in 1987 scanned & printed & took them to camp to work on.  I love this photo of our family in the back of the van at the Kruger Game Reserve.

I am really happy with this school one, quiet different from some of the others I have done.

This is the LO I did from Louise's class at camp.  Love the combination of clustered embellishments & white space.

This is another South Africa LO which I did for the October challenge at NZ Paper Chase blog

These two cuties are actually my hubby & his big bro when they were little.  I started this LO ages ago & am happy to finally finish it.

I have been giving Nicola fancy mini jewelled boxes each Christmas since she was born.  I thought it would be nice to collect something pretty for her that she can still play with.  I have been getting annoyed that we can't always find them so I bought printers tray thing to display them in, yay for Trademe.  Obviously we had to decorate it.....I did cause a problem for  myself. Nicola wanted a red roof & I don't like red & pink together so I said she could have any colour of the rainbow..."I want rainbow!"  Oops!  I did that to myself!  So here it is complete with pink walls, a cat, fence, glass, flowers AND a rainbow roof.  I think it came out pretty well.  Now we just need to hang it up & find all her boxes to put in it. 

Lets start the new year with a giggle.  I was given the link to this website & it had me laughing so hard I cried so thought I would share with you....


http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/03/spiders-are-scary-its-okay-to-be-afraid.html

It's been awhile....

It was the Book Week Parade at the kids school the other day. This this Harry Potter & Thea Stilton, don't hey look good :) Daniel wanted his hair black so we bought some coloured hairspray, but it didn't work so I PAINTED it! I had seen it done on NZ Next Top Model so thought it would just wash out like theirs did...but no. I have had to cut it & spend hours fine combing his hair.

This is the photo (finally) of the LO we did at SENZ in the Artfull Crafts class.

After all those sketches I did some double LO's. Believe it or not I actually got the idea for my mosaic from one of them. The flowers & tag are Kaiser, everything else is just stuff from my stash. I am trying to use it up, but it is not going well, still buying more than using. Oh well :) I have had these felt fish (Queens Co) for years too. Paper is Bo Bunny (I think) I used the paper that came off the back of the self adhesive fish as a mask for some inking. The brackets are a Pink Paislee magazine give away. Green Glitter letters are also Pink Paislee, the blue letters are Scenic Route.

I have been playing with some of that shrink plastic that I bought at SENZ. It is heaps of fun, but does take some experimentation (hence I just bought some more at the NZS sale) These are those stamps I bought there, I probably should have started with something similar......I discovered paint does not work, it bubbles & lifts. The colours get HEAPS stronger, so if it looks good before u shrink it is probably to much. Even tho the instructions tell u to use Brilliance ink I don't think this is a good idea. The shimmer is almost to much. Also you do need to use Stazon if u want to colour stamped image, other inks don't dry enough, but do stain plastic. I can guarantee I shall be playing some more.

I used my best fairy on the page below. I also used a Cosmo Cricket Gluber to make the flower. the paper is DCWV Ciao Bella that I got on sale at the Warehouse, isn't it pretty? The letters are Basic Grey that I coloured.

I had fun making this Websters style LO inspired by the LO Louise Williams taught us at the retreat last year. It is also DCWV paper.

Finally a sneak peak of two OTP projects I am currently working on.

Queens Birthday Weekend

Nicola went to a birthday party at Extreme Edge Rock Climbing on Saturday. She made it to the top of two of them, & wanted me to take pics of her on each wall, hehe. She had heaps of fun & didn't want to go home.....ever!
Scott took Daniel to the Pokemon National Championship. He was very excited, if he won he got a trip to the USA. He didn't win but had a great day & did get some prizes including this ULTRA RARE card Scrappin' Patch had a blind scrap challenge over Queens Birthday weekend. I haven't done one before, it was quiet hard, but fun. They give you a specific list of items you must use, only allowed to add ink, glue, distressing, etc to list. So the list was : 1-12"x12" cardstock; 1-4"x6" photo; 5 different patterned papers cut to these sizes - 9.5"x5.5",1"x11.5", 4.5"x7", 0.5"x11", 2"x2.5"; a diecut shape; 3 circles; 3 tags; 3 stars; stamped image; 1 piece of ribbon; 3 stickers; 2 staples; 2 different colour alphas for the title; journaling; & doodling. This is what I finally came up with.Don't ask me what most of the papers are, they are out of my scraps, the main flower paper is Kaiser & the graph paper is Cosmo Cricket. The blue alpha's are Scenic Route, the red alpha's are Making Memories Foil Love Notes. The bird stickers are also the circles from Cristina Re Paper Chic. I inked some cool decorative staples I got from Warehouse Stationery awhile ago. It was definitely out of my comfort zone to use so many different patterned papers on 1 page, but I think it came up ok. I think it got my mojo back, cos now I want to try some other LO's using same list of ingredients, but I have to finish sewing for Daniel first. Here is my duvet I have been working on for ages too. I haven't managed to get Nicola to stand still long enough for a photo of the party dress I made for her.

Scrapbooking & Lindt Easter eggs

Last weekend I went away with 4 of my scrapbooking friends for 2 1/2 days of uninterrupted craft! No kids, no tidying, no hubby's (missed him tho), no bed time We each had to prepare only 1 meal each over the weekend.....bliss. I got 5 Lo's done & some work on my mini album. One of the girls brought some Lindt Easter Eggs....OMG!! I was in heaven! Yummiest things ever! & the wrappers were so pretty I used them to make these frames for these cute pics of Daniel. I need to find out when they were taken, but he was about 5. They worked so well I used the Cookies & Cream wrappers on this LO of Nicola. (Can't remember if the dark blue were milk or dark chocolate.) mmmmm......yummmy.... Yes that is more Bo Bunny Peacock Lane paper.One of each of the kids & then one of me! I bought this paper years ago to use on some of my photos, don't you love orange/yellow & brown? The brackets are actually a Bo Bunny frame cut in half & the arrow points to me (surprising I know). The brad I made using my Build-a-brad from Stampin' Up! The tags (thanks Annelie) are Cuttlebugged & stamped using my new fav stamps & then on the other side I have the kids names (as many as mum wrote down) I can't believe how many I could actually remember anyway & a few of them are now Facebook friends. I love my baby & my baby loves me, see I have proof....she is so cute.I saw this Kaiser wooden frame in my stash & knew it would be perfect for this school pic of Nicola. I inked & clear embossed it, but for some reason one bit was a different colour, I guess cos it is wood, so I added the flower to cover it. So all in all a great weekend!

More Bo Bunny LO's

So when Shona & I went to the Bo Bunny day the other weekend, they gave us 2 range packs, including paper, brads, stickers, rub-ons & brads, free, very cool!! We got Peacock Lane & Petal Pushers collections. I love Peacock lane & already had some of the matching flowers & paper. I also used the BoBunny Chunky Charms Swirls & Brackets Chipboard stickers they gave us for the class. They were brown so I UTEE'd (Pipe Dream Ink in Macquarine & Lilly Pilly)& them stamped them. The stamp didn't come out to well cos I was scared (I used my new Stampin' Up! En Francais background stamp) I must thank my mum for the inspiration for his LO. I looked at the 12 x12 diecut flower & thought "What am I gonna do with that?" Mum suggested cutting it asymmetrically & away I went. My emporium ribbons & sequins matched perfectly :) The pattern paper behind the chipboard letters is DCWV Madly in Love range that I got for a bargain awhile ago, beautiful paper. The sparklely strips are actually tinsel, hehe.

Valentines Day Surprise

Valentines Day this year was our 19th 'together' anniversary. I was so excited by the present I had bought Scott & few months ago & had been waiting impatiently to give it to him. I got him the personalised plates he has been pining over for ages on the web. The tricky part was the money as all of our accounts are joint how was I gonna withdraw $900 without him knowing? The solution came from the kids bank accounts, I got permission from Daniel to use his money (as long as I pay him back) they are bank accounts we set up ages ago & have been depositing regularly but seldom look at statements, so I was counting on that & Daniel not saying anything when he checked h is balance as he was in on it with me. The actual plates have finally arrived!!! (I hope he isn't expecting anything for our anniversary cos now we are broke! hehe)

Daniel's Sea Cubs in having a great term this term. The other week they went fishing at Half Moon Bay Marina & he caught at least 12 baby snapper & pipers. He threw them all back, he is very much into catch & release. He did so well he even let some kids who weren't doing so well reel in some of his fish. (insert proud mummy icon here).Then they went to Mechanics Bay to visit the Sea Police & the Rescue Helicopter. I went with & it was very interesting. (I even went on the Police Launch!!!! I hate boats but talked myself into it as a once in a lifetime experience)

I had a Stampin' Up! party in the weekend. It was really cool, Nicola helped me & mum ;) I bought heaps!!!! & got even more free!!!! As soon as I got them I had to play. I am pleased with my first grungy LO. Daniel doesn't like it, it is too messy for him, he likes straight & clean like me. I went with 'Spunky' cos that is what I call Scott IRL.