Week two winner

We received many stunning christmas cards in our Winter Warmer Competition at SSB. Congratulations to Grace for creating this stunning number!....

Take a look at all of the other wonderful cards HERE

Winter Warmer Competiton #3

Challenge 3 of the Winter warmer Competition at Scrapbook Studio is now underway. The challenge this round is to create an All Seasons ATC, check HERE for the details.

Here is the ATC I have made as an example...

Challenge two saw some gorgeous Christmas cards created, now we have the hard chore of tring to chose our winners.

The winner of Challenge 1 was this gorgeous LO created byLilli

Second place went to Sue, her LO was tilted 'Our Trip', check it out in the Art Room along with all of the other amazing entries, it was super hard to choose just two winners as we loved them all!
Thanks to everyone taking part...and remember it is never too late to join in, all you need to do is Register on the Board at Scrapbooking by Design Registration is totally free and fun and inspiration is 100% guaranteed! See You There!

Lovely Mail

Recently I took part in a Ribbon Fairy Swap at GGS. My swap partner was the extremely talented Ngaere. Here is the Fairy that I received in my post box.

Ngaere has used a combination of magazine pictures and printed images to create her fairy, isn't she clever.In with my parcel was this delightful pocket, complete with its own tag! Thanks ever so much Ngaere!

At the moment I am busy creating 8 more Ribbon Fairy's for a swap at BSB.

We have received word from Burwood Hospital that Andrew is booked in for a 'warrant of fitness' on the 6th of July,which means I am going to be rather busy racing to get my swaps and DT work caught up with before we head off. Unfortunately we have to leave a couple of days before this date as Aimee is off on her Outward Bound Adventure and needs to be in Christchurch to catch an early morning train. Talking of early mornings..... see my next post...

busy busy...

Tomorrow morning we are off to Timaru...at 7.30 am...Yuck :-( That means that I am going to have to be out of bed by 5am..double yuck!! We are doing this crazy thing because our Camden wants to be a professional Fire Fighter. Tomorrow is 'work experience' set up through his school. It enables the children to experience a tiny taste of the career of their choice. With Camden already being a member of the volunteer brigade here in Duntroon I'm not sure if he will gain any new skills, but it will be a new experience for him and our children can never have too many life experiences!
Tonight We have the Coral Festival (singing) at St Kevin's college to attend. I was feeling very keen to give it a side step this year and stay at home...but Aimee wants us to go because it will be her last Coral Festival, so of course we will go. The school has many talented 'voices' and even though it goes for about four hours it is always a joy to attend.
This morning I was in town, again, this time with Cody's dog Tui. Tui had to have her broken toe checked and re bandaged. Next week she will be xrayed and if her toe is not mending it could well be going to be amputated!! Shock horror from me at the thought, but the vets tell me that this is the best option for Tui. I have my fingers crossed that her toe will be mended. Cody is still out hunting all weekend, only with two dogs instead of three at the moment. Here he is beside the high country hut that he and his mate are restoring, at least I think this is the hut!! Will check on that!

Challenge Two of our Winter warmer Competition finishes at Mid-night tonight and round three begins tomorrow. For anyone keen to jump in you will find the details HERE and check out this months competition HERE or register and login to the forum and have a chat, we would love to hear from you!

Winter warmer Competiton #2

Week one of our Winter Warmer Competition at Scrapbook Studio is over already. We received some gorgeous entries and had such a hard time choosing our favorite two LOs. You can view the entries HERE

The winner of our random draw this week was Lynda, take a wee look at the pack of goodies that will turn up in her post box very soon...

Challenge two was Carols pick and she has everyone making Christmas cards!! Such a cool idea, and it never is too early in the year to get onto this project. I have whipped up two cards using some scrapping scraps.

My first card has embossed, inked bazzil and lace as a contrast

My second Christmas card is a little more traditional, in colour anyway...

I have used scraps of paper, fabric, lace, fibre and I have raided my button jar!
I have sewn my stamped image into the middle of a folded red serviette and simply torn around the edges before attaching it to the card base and gently pulling out all of the serviette layers.


It is not too late to make a Christmas card and join in the competition, already today we have had two new ladies join in. Check out the details HERE

Lost??

Somehow last week I lost my way to my blog...well not really, but were did the week go?

I did spend most of the week popping back and forth to Oamaru (our nearest town). Monday saw me in the Silk Centre in Oamaru searching through pattern books and fabric racks with our lovely daughter, the ball is coming up and my mum offered to make Aimee's dress. She is a brave lady, I sew but just know that sewing Aimee's ball dress could create a lot of stress! Aimee is doing the ball thing twice this year, she has been asked to the Waitaki Boys High School ball and has the St Kevin's Collage (that's the school she attends) ball coming up as well.

Tuesday was back to town for appointments.

Wednesday was going to be a day at home ..but... and don't you just hate but's...Cody's new dog (did I mention he had a new dog??) chewed the plaster off her leg so I had to zip her into the vets for a re plaster. Here is a photo of Tui , that was the name she arrived with. She is 18 months old and was very shy and so sad looking that I feel in love with her. She looked miserable for the first four days, and was so so scared of everything. Now she smiles as she sits in her basket by the fire, or on my knee and is looking like she has been here forever!Whats that around her neck I hear you ask?? Well last week she come up to me looking like this..LOL..she has been sticking her nose into the rubbish bin that sits in our laundry, and has the lid stuck around her neck as evidence!! What a hoot, I just had to get a photo before I removed it...but its not a great one as she did not like the red light that flashes on my camera.

Saturday morning saw us here...

...back in Oamaru, as Camden took part in the Pipe playing for the ceremony for the Boer War monument that has been relocated ..40 metres along the road...LOL, no joke!!


The sun shone for the occasion so it was quite a pleasant day all in all.
I have lots of things in the crafty line to show you but will leave that for another day as its past my bed time!!
Sorry about this long rambling post...and if you did read it all I hope you were not too bored!

One last thing..Camden went skiing today Uncle David was very kind and took him. Super sweet of him as Camden misses out on that kind of thing with Andrew being wheelchair bound. I'm too scared to drive the van up the ski field track...doubt we would even get up there in the transit?? And the wheelchair does not do snow!! So a big Thank you to Uncle David. Camden love his day on the slopes.

Thank you Rose

Thankyou Rose for kindly nominating me for this Lovely blog award, that was super sweet of you. Check out Rose's wonderful Blog called, Rose's happy place by clicking on the blog award.

I would love to pass this on to ..

Stephanine

SrappySue

Wilma

Laurel

Neverenough Rubberstamps

Leah

Jacque

These ladies are a few of the wonderful, kindhearted and caring people I have been lucky to stumble upon in the wonderful land of blogging. Do pay them a visit,I just know you will find plenty to inspire you, as I do

Ribbon Fairys

Take a wee look at a Ribbon Fairy I made for a swap at Glamour Girl Stamps recently

These really are such fun to make and very simple

Find out how to make your own Ribbon Fairy at TenTwoStudios

I have my name down to make more for a swap at Better Scrapbooking. For anyone keen to take part in the swap you have until Wednesday this week to add your name to the list... found HERE

Over at Scrapbook Studio our WINTER WARMER Competition is 'heating up' still plenty of time to join in, the first challenge is under way and all that is required is one single page LO that use's three or more photos. You have until Thursday evening to get your entry emailed to me.Carol is busy organising Challenge 2 details for this will be posted on the BOARD this Friday

Winter Warmer Scrapbook Competition..NOW ON

Look at what YOU could win by taking part in The Winter Warmer Scrap booking competition at SCRAPBOOK STUDIO.....

Making Memories Carousel worth $105.00 (comes empty)

That's not all though, our competition runs for 5 weeks so there are more scrapping goodies up for grabs as well.

The first challenge is just up on the BOARD and its simple..

just complete a single page layout using three or more photos. Email your page to me by mid-night next Thursday.... its that simple

Here's a page I have created to (hopefully) inspire you into action!!

Just for fun I have added my own little bit of 'winter warmth'...a tiny bit of knitting!Whats a boy page without a buckle and piece of string ...
...and a bug!
I Love using this bird stamp on my scrapping pages.
to add more dimension I have embossed a leaf stamp straight onto the background card.

Now don't be shy , show us what YOU can do!

Lisa, Lianne, Carol and I would love to have you join us for our Winter Warmer Scrap booking Competition at Scrapbook studio see you there.

Let Nature inspire you

Here is the LO I have created for this months Up2Scrap challenge, the theme is... to be inspired by Nature. Vicki Morris has provided the inspiration along with a sketch and a gorgeous page of her own.

Check it out HERE

That's Andrew and Cody in the photo, in the good old days when Andrew was able to move, and make his own cup of tea!!

From Nature I have added my paper leaves, made from real leaves, a real leaf, a duck feather ...

... acorn ends into which I put a drop of Glossy Accents and small beads, to create a kind of flower.

Spot the dried grass that happened to be in our garden. The paper flower was made by inking a page from an old dictionary and punching out hearts from the paper. I squeezed each paper heart together at the bottom point and joined them together.

I added the wire, which I have wound around an old paintbrush to get the spiral effect , and threaded with autumn coloured beads, for a bit of dimension.
I have combined the 'rolling the paper trend idea' from April, and the March trend of embossing from the Up2scrap blog to create the' branch' look boarder under my photo.
And I do not think of 'nature' without a bird or a tree, hence the stamped image and rubons.

Embellishments from Nature

Last week I was reading the Up2Scrap blog and Vicki had written an article about being inspired by nature and about using nature to create your own embellishments. Later in the day I was outside and thought about Vicki's words as I glanced at the great pile of leaves on our lawn. I knew then that I just had to give this a go!

Here I have used leaves to make a great pile of 'paper leaves' for my Scrapbook pages.

here's what I did.....Warning.. this is messy!!

1- Using your finger, or a brush smear two or three different coloured paints over the back of your leaf.


2- Take some paper ( I have used my home made rusty paper for this job, Kristi's rusty paper recipe can be found HERE ). Place your paper on top of your leaf and press , or roll from the top.

3- Carefully peel away your paper.

Here's my oak leaf...
4- Once the paint has dried cut out your leaf imprint. (I used zig-zag scissors for this one)

then use a blunt edge to 'dry emboss' some of the main leaf veins.
4- To add shine I sprayed my leaves with 'Wheatfields' Glimmer Mist

They almost look real don't they!

How to Crochet Flowers

Here is the Pattern for the Crochet flowers shown in my layout below.

This is a pattern that come from my Granmar, so its an oldie, but a goody I'm sure!

I am not a knitter at all and I cannot really crochet either so that gives you an idea of just how simple these are to make!



1st round : 1ch, work 15dc into that 1ch. Ss to first ch.



2nd round: 3 ch . *miss 1dc, 1tr into next dc, 1ch, rep from * 6 more times join with a Ss into 2nd of 3ch.


3rd round: 1ch into ch space work 1tr, 1dtr, 1tr, 1dc to form a petal, *into next chain space work 1dc, 1tr, 1dtr,1tr, 1dc,repeat from* until 8 petals have been worked.

(I do not manage to get 8 petals using embroidery or crochet cotton, usually I get around 6 petals) Join to the first petal with a Ss.

Abbreviations:

ch = chain

dc = Double chain

Ss = Slip stitch

tr = treble

dtr = double treble

If you need help on how to do the stitches listed above you can find simple instructions HERE

Frugal Scrapping!

The little girl in this photo is my mum...and no that is not me in the photo!! LOL
Better Scrap booking have a challenge on for the Month of June and that challenge is to create a scrapbook page for under $5 Of course I can never resist a good challenge.

Here's the approximate costing of my page.....

Background paper.$nil I used a piece of packing card that come with a piece of Prima paper.

Flowers and leaves under 5c each ( from a bunch of silk flowers brought from the super market.

Crochet flowers I made myself, cost of cotton used maybe 10c each

Paper flowers $nil- hand made from scrap paper

Ribbon 90c

One serviette , I have used the top layer and the bottom layer 30c

paint 10c at the most

Two buttons 10c

Everything else is just small scraps from things I have lying around: tulle, lace, fabric, old beads from a necklace.

The Cherish stamp is stamped onto the back of a clothing label (I have a huge collection of these).

Photo approx 20c maybe less, I print my own.

Total cost of my page is around : $2.40 Not bad A!

Silk flowers, with a little swipe of my red ink pad and centre 'beads' from an old necklace.
Paper flowers that I made last week for another scrap page.

Hand made crochet flowers, fabric scrap and very cheap leaves!

I have scrunched and mod podged a tissue onto a scrap piece of card and applied a little paint.

Look at that, I managed to use two of the stamps from my 'stamp stash'

I hunted through my ribbon scrap jar and found just the right piece... it matches my serviette!

It was fun to make a page as cheaply as possible, it took lots of thought! Check out the challenge HERE and give it ago yourself

Remember to watch out for our Winter challenge coming up very soon at Scrapbook Studios as well. Its going to be fun!

Sign ATC's

Today I received an ATC from one of the latest swaps at Glamour Girl Stamps. the theme was 'Hanging signs' I was very happy to receive an ATC from Robyn P take a look .....

It is hard to tell by the photo but the cat is embossed with a sparkle powder, so really shines. I have this cute card hanging on my wall above a photo of my dear old dog, and I just have to smile every time I look at it :-)

This is the card I made and sent to Kath, not as much fun as Robyn's I'm afraid.

At the moment I am creating a 'mask for the latest swap at GGS, what a business it is. The mask is to be human face size and I have made up a brew of paper mache, following this recipe HERE from The Good Morning Show. This morning my sons dog was eating my 'face' I had left it drying in front of the fire overnight and Cody's dogs usually make a bee line for the spot in front of the fire when he lets them out of their kennels in the morning...hmmmmm I got out of bed to find a good chunk of my 'face' gone!! Lucky I have plenty of spare ' Mash'