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 ;)

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....

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.

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.

Happy Birthday to my Baby

Nicola turned 8 last week! We went to see the Disney Classic Aristocats a the movies.  Unfortunately the cake pic is blurry but the kids ate it so fast I didn't have time for another shot.  We stuck to our tradition of letting kids decorate their own cakes, hers was obviously the girl kitten from the movie.

She was also a well deserved Player of the Day at hockey.  She played hard & even got a little bit hurt, her team mates looked after her :)

Blythe update.  I forgot to post the pic of the lips before any carving.  The hair/wigs arrived from eBay & they are more beautiful in real life than they looked on the net.  They are wigs, not re-roots.  They cover the whole head & you couldn't use them for pig tails & you can't expose ears as they end up under wig.   I am trying to do a French Roll hairstyle, I gave up....will try again later....... As you can see she is reattached to her body.  I had to get Scott to help me modify her stand cos I didn't like the way it looked over her dress, now you wont be able to see it once she is dressed.  I 'sleepy eyed' her, hence the 2 strings.  The shoes are purple Barbie shoes in the right style that I painted, they don't fit very well as Blythe has flat feet, not like Barbie (trying to decide if i amend her foot shape)  I am not overly happy with her lip colour but I got frustrated so this will do (Notice a common theme?)  I am enjoying sewing for her as I don't need to worry about how comfortable things are or how to get them on & off, she shall be sewn in (like Olivia Newton John in Grease) 

I see this new hobby of mine might be more than just the 2 dolls as originally planned.  I already have 2 more in design stages..........

More work on Blythe number 1

My first go at lip carving.  Basically get a small file & scrape.  I did have difficulty with symmetry, especially the nostrils. I took kept referring back to the photo of the finished lips I wanted to achieve.  I am thinking of adding teeth. I haven't been able to find much information on this. I wasn't sure if they are carved as well or added somehow. From what I can gather vampire teeth are carved into the lip, normal teeth are added later, modeled out of Fimo, so I am going to give that a go. 

To remove the eyes from inside the eye lids you have to "carefully unclip the white arc"  It was really tricky, but I got there eventually.  I did not continue & takes eyes apart as I did not see the reason. I 'boggled' the eyelids. I painted the eyelids white with the boys War Hammer paint, then coated them in tacky glue & dipped them in glitter.  Then I coated them in dimensional magic to keep the glitter on.  Removing the eyelashes was easy, just dampen & pull.  I replaced them new ones from the $2 shop, much better.  Second pair of handmade eye chips inserted.  My new wigs are on there way here...yay ebay again. 

In other news. We are rearranging the kids rooms.  Nicola wants a rainbow room, so this weekend we did some DIY art.  The first one is from Pinterest- melted crayons.  They are just Warehouse crayons.  I took the wrappers off as I was worried about them burning.  Mine isn't as neat as the original, but I still think it is cool. The second one needs her name written across the pink stripe still.  The third is Nicola's art about where rainbows come from.  The fourth is a t-shirt we made using the die I bought at Scotties the other week.  Nicola's design, mum just behind the needle, hehe.

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.