Happy Mail

I've been scrapped by the lovely Danice Hamilton!

Take a look at the awesome page she has created just for me 

You maybe cannot read the words around the edges of the patterned paper, but they are so lovely and brought a tear to me eye, so I will share them with you... 

Dear Sonya You have added so much kindness and encouragement, not only to me but to so many other paper crafter's in NZ. I want to say that your dedication and generosity have made a big difference in NZ's scrapping community. Thank you from Danice

Orrr Thankyou so much Danice...you are a honey xx

I love all of the detail Danice has added to this page

Thank you Danice and Thank you Carol Noakes for organising this fun swap.

She ...has been canvased!

Recently my good friend Carol organised a very cool photo swap...lol, I hate photos of me but this swap sounded like too much fun to miss out on. I was sent Brenda's photo, which was to be put onto a canvas. 

Here is the canvas I completed for Brenda.

I cut this bird and flowers from patterned paper.The clock is an Antique Mirror from Prima

I combined a hand crocheted flower ( I had to whip this one up especially for the job, because I knew it had to be red) with paper flowers, leaves, lace and tiny pearls to add texture.

Danice is creating with my photo...looking forward to receiving it in the post soon, and will share here when it arrives.

Our completed projects are being posted on Birds Of A Feather, as they are returned to their owners, so Click HEREhttp://challengejournal.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/photo-swap-1-completed.html to go and check them out.

Thank you Carol for organising this fun swap!

New Challenge

Hard to believe we are up to the March Sketch Challenge over at NZ Paper Chase already! Is it just me getting old, or are the years really getting shorter?!

Anyway Tanya Watson created this cool sketch for us. You can find details of the challenge and examples and..photos of the prize that's up for grabs HERE

 This is my take on Tanya's sketch.

The challenge within this sketch challenge is to use paint, or ink on your background paper, or card. I decided to use a bit of both.

 White paint over card makes for a lovely stamping surface.

Hope you can join us this month over at NZ Paper Chase.

Must see blogs!

Check out these beautiful and extreamly talented ladies. They are the new Elite Team for

NZ Paper Chase

If you click on their names you will be transported into Paper Craft heavens!!

Maggie

Donna

Angela

Lynne

Chill'in over a bit of scrapp'in

Don't fall over with shock...but, here I am with a blog post, goodness me the year to date has been packed full of 'stuff', some good stuff and some stuff that has had me struggling to stay afloat some days! Such is life I guess.  Life on the scrapping front is slow for me, but I could not help but be inspired by our February sketch challenge over at NZ Paper Chase. Thanks Donna O'Leary for the inspiration.

 Donna's Challenge was to create texture on your page using embossing powder, or similar. This is what I  did..

I took one stencil...

 One swipe of Impasto Paste....

Which I applied to my stencil

Simply and carefully I lifted my stencil and was left with lovely raised leaf outlines on my page.

 I cut a simple mask from scrap paper and sprayed my leaves with glimmer mist.

 I loved Donna's stitches, so added some to my page.

 And, I went a little over the top with the Impasto Paste and added a few swirls and a couple of butterfly's.

 This flag idea is Donna's again, so I 'borrowed' that as well (Thanks Donna)

I have a top and bottom layer to my flags, both have been stitched together and because this made the flags reasonably firm I decided to roll the points up slightly to create a little more texture.

And take a look'ie here at Donna's page, beautiful isn't it! Check out this girls blog HERE

Nickelback - Gotta Be Somebody

NZ Paper Chase

Check out our latest challenge over at NZ Paper Chase, this sketch was brought to us by the talented Donna O'Leary, All of the details for this months challenge can be found over on Donna's blog.

Check out Donna's way awesome scrapping skills...

Below is the sketch, hope some of you will give this a go!

Our prize's this month include a Dry embossing stencil by Martha Stewart and

this Prima Buttefly 2 pack

Steph from NZ Paper Chase released the names of the 2012 Elite Design Team. I'd like to send a huge welcome and an even bigger 'well done' to these ladies...

Angela Knight

Donna O'Leary

Lynne Harwood

Maggie Armstrong

I'm looking forward to getting to know you all better over the year ahead, and I just know you are going to 'wow' us all with your talents!

Im back!

Goodness me this year is racing away from me, I just cannot keep up!
So far this year I have completed my first NZ paper Chase magazine brief for 2012
I have been to the Duntroon pub three times this year so far...and given the fact that I never set foot in the place last year, and maybe even the year before that I do feel as though I'm pushing myself out of my comfort zone!

Today I have enjoyed the company of friends and sipped wines (perhaps one too many) at the lake edge.
All in all life is good, and we only get a short time to enjoy it, so I'm planing on squeezing alot more into this year

 Here are a couple of snaps taken today... Claires 20th Birthday celebrations

Life doesn't get much better than this!

A whole New Year

So 2012 is upon us...I cannot help but wonder what it will bring with it.
Check out this gorgeous Daily Truth ...A little Birdy told me email I received today from The Brave Girls Club today....


....Makes you think doesn't it!


 If you like this as much as I do then pop over to  Brave Girls .com and sign up to receive their Daily Truths letters direct to your inbox each day.

While on the subject of the year ahead check out my latest art work, which is a work in progress

 While I was tyring to decide on what challenge I was going to put onto the NZ Paper chase blog I was given two great ideas from a couple of the ladies who take part in the challenges. Tanya Watson suggested a recipe challenge and Angela Knight suggested a Mini Book Challenge. Both great ideas...thanks ladies. I got to thinking and was inspired to create this mini book album cover and to use a recipe on the cover, only my recipe is for a "Happy Year", instead of a tasty treat!

I found a clothing tag, saved amongst my ever growing 'could be useful one day' stash and decided it would make a perfect title for my album...Life Space, pretty much sums up what my album is going to be about.

 I hope by the time I get to the end of this year my Life Space album is going to be full of happy positive beautiful memories with more ups than downs and more triumph's than tragedy's. I also hope that YOUR year will be the same :-)

As I was saying some where near the beginning of this post.... this project began as my example for the latest challenge over at NZ Paper Chase. Check it out HERE...and feel free to join in. We'd love to see what you do! And please do join up to our Face Book page.

Jason Mraz - I Won't Give Up (Official Lyric Video)

Good Bye 2011

The end of 2011 is not far off now. 2011 has been an interesting year I guess. Its had its up and its downs and I've had good days and really great days and some not so good days, and some really feel low days. But I'm blessed with beautiful friends and I have people around me who love me, and I live in a gorgeous country I have food to eat and clothes to wear and I have tomorrow to look forward to. I'm lucky and I know it. 

In 2012 I'm going to embrace all that is good in my life and forget about all of the stuff that doesn't matter. I'm going to refuse to be sad and mope over things that never were, and the things that never can be. I'm going to stop hating being 45 and be thankful that I'm healthy and I'm going to continue to shed the few extra pounds that I want to shed. And yes I am going to do lots of positive thinking!!

Things will happen in your life that can't be stopped but that's no reason to shut out the world. There is a purpose for the good and for the bad.

Below are a few photos of Christmas at our house...

Waimate Rodeo, on the of 27th December saw Cam get his first ever Rodeo placing of 3rd, and his first lot of  prize money of $171. Now our boy is extra keen to never give up this silly 'hobby'!

  And on the 28th of December we went to another Rodeo, this time Omarama. Cam didn't bring home any winnings, but he had a pretty awesome ride, and he  lasted the 8 seconds, and didn't get hurt! All good!!

Tomorrow Andrew and I might go to the pub and have a few drinks to see the new year in. I don't remember when the last time was that I went to the pub...a long time ago. Our children are all off doing their own thing. Aimee is at Coromandel Gold. Cam's spending New years with Abby and Cody will be doing what he loves to do...hunting somewhere out in there them hills. I am struggling just a little  to get motivated with life now that our children have all left home...that's something I really need to embrace in the new year...getting used to being with me...LOL...I don't like it, my life kind of feels empty. I always thought Id love it when the children all left home. I'm so used to always having someone at home with me. But now on week days Andrew is not even at home and I have a few hours to myself in the afternoons...I hate it... but I know I will adjust, just need to give myself time I guess.

Happy New Year to all of my wonderful friends. I wish you all only the very best of everything!!

Christina Perri - A Thousand Years (Official Music Video)

Visitors

We had the pleasure of dear daughters company for a short while this weekend. Aimee brought her ten baby rats for a visit, along with mum and dad rat. So I just have to share a few photos with you.

These little fellows are 9 days old already

  Dyni' (dad rat) is Aimee's pride and joy

I feel a scrapbook page coming on...not tonight though. need to get cleaned up ready for the busy week that lays ahead. 

Fancy a December Challenge??

Its been a little while since I've been a-scrapping. But after being inspired by Donna Oleary's blog last week I got to work and created this page and a sketch for our December Challenge over at NZ Paperchase.

I do not normally scrap me...but have had this photo hanging around for some time now so decided to do something with it. 

Oh to be this young again!...

 Our Challenge this month is to 'Mess it Up'

 I have used paint on my page and left threads attached (instead of cutting them off neatly...

 I have stamped and coloured ...

 I have ripped and doodled, and generally just had fun!

 Steph Milne from NZ paper Chase magazine has put this lovely prize up for grabs this time around...Prima Flowers and...

.... a Twiddlebitz shelf for you to get creative with.

Pop over to the Blog (Click HERE) and check out the details for our December Sketch Challenge..we would LOVE for YOU to play along with us!

See you there maybe??