Challenge Me Happy Sketch #3

I am still working on my aquarium, (no u can't see it yet),but I decided to take a bit of a break & do some scrapping. I have gotten half way through a few LO's & decided they just weren't working, so when I saw the current sketch on Challenge Me Happy I thought it might be just what I needed. However I 'finished' it but felt it was till missing something. I do find sketches hard as some people's interpretation seem to me to be nothing like it, whereas I take them literally. So here is my literal LO from the sketch. One other thing I found difficult was purposely sewing non straight lines! This went against the grain of who I am! (but I love the effect) You probably wont be able to read the jouranling as it is so small, but this is me at 18 with my first car.

SENZ & some Layouts

Yesterday I took the day off work to go to SENZ with my BFF. It was great because we didn't have the kids either! I might have gone just a little bit crazy, but could have bought more! I got some glue, alchol ink, liquid pearls, Cosmo Cricket Glubers, Co-ordinates card stock, 4 stamps, flowers, polyshrink paper, bling, flower soft, Cricut blades & some other bits & pieces, hehe. We did a class with Artfullcrafts from Timaru which I shall share once finished, it was a very fast paced class! This is my first attempt at colouing in 2 Sweatpeas stamps I bought from Pitcher Stamps. The lovely lady said she colours her with watercolour pencils!!!! I love them, but hadn't thought about using them for the stamps as the currant rage is to use markers (which I don't like because you need special paper & need so many different colours), pencils I have been using all my life! I also painted them with my Twinkling H2O's to give them shimmer. I have learned that you do not need to use Stazon ink even though you are wetting them with the watercolur pen, but I think I do need to get a superfine ink pad as it was difficult to get a really clear image with my normal inks. I also found the images stamped better using a normal acrylic block rather than my wonderful Fiscar Stamp-press. She also told me I could use double sided tape to attach stamp to block if i don't have any of the proper sticky stuff! I had fun doing these but don't think it will be something I do regularly, although Nicola wants a LO with the pink one on it. I have done a bit of scrapping lately. When I saw this 'old school' telephone (Cosmo Cricket) the these dicuts (DCWV) I knew which photos I needed to use with them. The papers are Kaiser & DCWV
I finally finished this LO of Nicola being a Diva (she says she is not & doesn't like the LO)

Who is that lovely young couple? And why does he have so much hair? hehe. 1994 seems such a long time ago now! I used one of the SCAL files I downloaded to do this frame.On a slightly different note, I did get a bit annoyed when I read the submission guidelines/hints in a magazine. They said you are more likely to get accepted if you use the same brand on your LO. I don't like this! I like the idea of mxing it all up, if you only use 1 brand you are limiting your creativity. All my LO's are mixed up! So maybe that is why I don't get published.....they can't sell advertising space next to my LO's. (grumble over)

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.

Our first Fejoa's

This horrible wind blew our first fejoa's off the tree before they really had a chance, but we were told it wouldn't fruit for a few more years so this is still exciting.

Opps, it's been awhile.....

I have been busy lately, but have got a little bit of scrapping lately.

I finally did a LO of my first BFF, Lenny. It is using Basic Grey Marrakech paper, stickers & letters, & Kaiser Penny Royale paper & flowers. I used my new favourite Stamin' Up! brad maker to make matching flower centres.

Nicola helped me paint the background of this LO. I wanted the paper to look like Daniel's Moko, so the plain black Bazzil is painted white over the Crafter's Workshop Cosmic Swirl stencil.

This was a very fast LO of Nicola using daddy's laptop. It is a pre-printed sheet from DCWV Generation Tech with a few die cuts added.

I finally took a pic of the LO we did at camp last year in Louise's class. There was a lot of discussion at the time of who my dad looks like, the majority vote was for either Austin Powers (after he gets his teeth done), or one of the Flight of the Concord guys. I gave it to mum & dad for Xmas.I have been doing a bit of sewing lately instead of scrapping. I had to mend Daniels school pants, he wasn't pleased, apparently he liked them that way, hehe. I added a frill to the bottom of Nicolas favourite dress-up dress. It reminded me of my childhood, the dresses mum used to make longer for me as I grew, I loved those dresses. Then I made myself a top & started on the new duvet cover. I am now sick of sewing, but I know if I don't finish it now, it wont get done. I did take a break to make a Mothers Day card & a baby card for a friend.

This Saturday was the kids first hockey games for the year, Nicola's first ever! Both the kids did very well & it even stopped raining. Daniel was awake & concentrating for the whole game. Nicola scored her teams first goal! They enjoyed themselves so much that neither of them would take off their uniforms, in fact Nicola even slept in hers....with her stick! Time to get back to the sewing......

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!

Daddy's Home!!!

Daddy went to Waiheke fishing over night (a really loooonnnnng time, not) But Nicola missed him. Can't say you don't feel loved when this is the greeting you get when you get home :) So adorable