Christmas Cheer

Keep your chin up...this time next week Christmas day will all be over!

I have to admit that Christmas is not my favorite time of the year, I LOVE Christmas day, but the build up drives me barmy! I guess that is because I'm never organised!

Last night we attended the Fire Brigade Christmas party, and had a wonderful time. Andrew had a Christmas brandy, a Christmas Port, and a wine and beer...needless to say he slept very well!!

The night before that we attended the 'staff Christmas party' our lovely Principal was brave and had this at her home, once again we had a lovely evening amongst wonderful company. Sharing the Christmas cheer really is what makes Christmas special, have to say that I'm so over the Christmas shopping part!

Anyway, below are snap shots of a few Christmas goodies I have created lately.

First up here is a gift bag with matching card.

... and the template to make your own.

Simply enlarge this to what ever size you wish,

cut out the shape,

score the fold lines,

and add a drop of glue to the right hand side tab.

 Add handles and your done!

 Hmmmm what to do with that box of choc'ies...

 Take one polystyrene ball,

poke a painted piece of tree branch in (for the truck)

Use double sided tape and attach chocolates to the ball.

 Add punched out leaves and hand made flowers if you wish to

 ..add a gift tag...and your done!

 Last year Christmas photos ...I know I'm a little late getting these scrapped, but here they are...



Up-date

WOW....where has the time gone I wonder? Our baby girl turned 19 today. Here she is at the Strawberry Fair (on Saturday just gone) with her little brother and very best friends. I feel VERY old!

 

 Spot the little guy below,second from the right, that's my very talented 7 year old nephew. Dane was chosen from hundreds of other children from his ballet company to preform with the Royal NZ ballet. Funny thing was that he was only at the rehearsal's by default as my sister took her daughter (Danes big sister) along to try out for a part. Dane was too young,the producers were looking for children aged around 10 or 11. Anyway as Dane was there he tried out anyway and was the only child chosen from that whole ballet company! WOW...go Dane, your old Auntie is very proud of you.

 Sadly Auckland is a long way away from Duntroon and as I'm not sure how I would go getting Andrew onto a plane, we have to be content with these photos, even though it would have been wonderful to go to one of the shows.

Only two more days of school left for me. Tomorrow, after work, we hope to get our Go-Charts up and running, its our last day of the year for Mechanic's Club and as some of these children are off to High School next year we really need to get the Go- Carts going!! Fingers crossed all will go to plan!

Here are a few snap shots of some of the team at work....

A huge thank you must go to John and Jerry for their expertise and patience! And well done Husband for getting this whole idea off the ground and into reality. Even I have learnt heaps, in fact just this morning on my way to school the chain fell off my push bike and I thought...dont panic and dont leave the bike in the grass on the road side... I can fix this...And I did !

 

Be back tomorrow with a crafty update...all going to plan!
Thanks for looking :-)

Wonderfall

Webster pages have a lovely range of papers out called 'Wonderfall' I have used paper from this range to scrap a photo from days gone by...Here is Camden when he used to ride on Merry-go -Rounds instead of bulls! The other cute little guy in the photo is Camden's good friend George.

 In keeping with my usual style I have cut and layered many of the elements on this page.

 Check out the cute lemonade stand image on this paper, named  'Sweet Shop'

 The font, shown close-up here was cut from Websters Pages, Wonderfall - Learn your ABC's paper

Thanks for looking.

If you haven't done so already be sure to check out whats new and exciting in the NZ papercraft magazine scene..HERE...there are prizes to be had!

Recipe for a Summer Drink

 Tonight I thought I would  share something just a little different with you, by way of a change from paper crafts. 

Hannah, our German guest made a very tasty cordial drink for us out of Elderberry flowers, which grow in our garden.

I have always given our Elderberry plant a wide birth as these plants don't smell very nice, in fact all I have ever done is chop it back hard each winter!

 Hannah's drink however has given us all a new respect for our smelly shrub and I have recently made many batches of this cordial, I even have some in the freezer for winter!

Here's the recipe for you and its super simple to make.

First up : Boil your jug

While your jug boils place 2.5 kgs of sugar into a bowl

Next tip 4 cups of your boiled water onto your sugar and stir to dissolve.
Cool and add 75 grams of citric acid, the juice from 4 lemons and grated rind from 2 lemons.
Next place 20 Elderberry flower heads into your mixture. (Do not wash these first, just give them a bit of a shake )
Cover with a cloth and leave to sit overnight.

The next day strain your cordial through a fine cloth, such as muslin, and pour into sterilised bottles.

Add water and enjoy!

This is very tasty added to lemonade on a hot day.

Elderberry flowers appear to have many health benefits, some of these being improving heart health, boosting the immune system, helpful in fighting viral and bacterial infection, coughs, colds and tonsillitis. I've no idea how much truth is in that but it sure makes a tasty drink!

PS If you wondering...the 'thing' in my bottle of cordial is a chunk of root ginger, I added this along with the lemon just to add a wee zing! This recipe makes a little over two 'wine bottles' of cordial.

Christmas is getting closer

How are Christmas preparations going for you all?

At our house they are going rather slowly! I keep thinking that I have plenty of time, but know in the back of my mind that time is fast coming to a close!

I have two Christmas cards made...LOL, told you things are a little slow!

 These cards were made for a challenge over at Birds of a Feather, if you have any spare time on your hands, and wish to make a card, or two do pop on over and show us what you can do. Carol and I would love to see your creations!

 This challenge has a little twist, to pop over and check it out simply click HERE

This is card number two, and the wee hedgehog is my all time favorite Christmas stamp, Ive had it for years and have used it each Christmas for as long as I can recall!

The inside of my card looks like this...

Double sided paper is great for creating card 'insides'

Here is the sketch I created for this challenge. The lovely snow man image can be downloaded for free, pop over to Birds of A Feather for details.

And... as promised, here is a photo of our newest family member...little Smudge...

How can you not help but fall in love with this wee girl?!

Be in to Win

Hi everyone. Just a quick post tonight to let you know I'm back! Thanks Phil, from Oamaru Computer Services for removing the nasty's from my computer!
Today Andrew and I watched the service for the 29 Pike Miner's who lives have been taken, with much sadness in our hearts. I sure hope the bodies can be retrieved soon and the family's are able to get their lives back on track.


Onto brighter things now...
Be into win this pack of scrap goodies simply by becoming a follower of our Birds of A Feather blog, found here

 ..and be sure to check out our latest challenge while you are there.

Our house is a busy one these days with Aimee home from university, and Camden finished school for the year. I still have another 2 weeks left at my second job, before I also get a holiday...well a holiday from that job anyway. Us mums never really get a holiday do we!

Cody's new pup has settled into our family with much ease, I will post a photo tomorrow.

Its lovely to be back!

Hello

Just popping in to say hello.
My computer is in the fix it shop, it has a 'worm of some sort' and appeared to be very very sick when I tried to turn it on earlier in the week. Im using Andrew's lap top at the moment, but it will not let me insert images into my posts?? Very annoying!
 Fingers crossed our fix it man will work his magic and extract the worm from my computer soon and I will be back in bussiness!
Dear eldest son arrived home with a new puupy tonight...hmmm Im less than thrilled, but puppy is very cute! This pup is for working, not for hunting so that is a good thing.
What a sad, sad week it has been . We have been following the Pike Mine dissaster closely on TV and  really hoped for a brighter outcome. Our thoughts and love go out to all involved in this tragedy.

There's a Fairy...

... in my garden!

This little fairy is a big fairy now. I dug deep into my photo box and decided to scrap this old photo of Aimee using a piece of the lovely 'Webster's Pages paper that I received from Andrea at SBO last month.

 The background paper is called Back to School and the paper range is called Wonderfall. I have cut images from a printed sheet of vellum and from Enjoy Life.

 The little stickers you can see are called Image stickers and are from the Wonderfull range as well. I have mounted mine onto card to achieve a little more dimension.

Hot stuff!

Hot...sweaty and grubby!  This weekend was a busy one for our boy. Camden was a Marshall for the Duntroon School's Motor Bike Rally on Saturday. He had left home by 7am and rode all day until clearing the track by about 6.30 pm. This is what he looked like when Andrew and I arrived at the Rally around 3 pm on Saturday afternoon.

Camden fell into bed about 11 pm, and Andrew and I were not far behind him, the extreme heat, and wind of the day had worn us all out. So when the fire sireen bleared in our ears at 1.30 am we were all a little slow to wake. The first thing that come to my attention, upon waking to the shrill siren was the smell of smoke. I mumbled to Andrew that the fire must be close because I could smell smoke...then my brain jumped to life. Camden is a volunteer fire fighter and I realised he was not up so I jumped out of bed to rouse him. I open our bed room door which leads to our living area and there looking at me through our open windows were large bright orange flames, not too far from our house! I raced up stairs to get Camden who was just pulling on his trousers. We had a hasty look out of Cody's bedroom window (also upstairs) and saw that the paddock between our house and the main road was ablaze, the howling wind was playing havoc with the flames.
Camden raced off to the fire station, which is just over our back fence. I raced to the bedroom and after a quick chat with Andrew we decided it would be best to air on the side of caution and hoist him out of bed, just in case the flames got to our house. Getting Andrew out of bed is like getting him into bed...it takes time.
Anyway, to cut a long story short Duntroon Fire brigade, with the help of Kurow Fire Brigade saved the day and all was well at our house, except for the lingering smell of smoke.

This is the scene today-  photo taken from the main road  -  the up-stairs of our house can just be seen in the background.

 This burnt patch really is closer to our house than it looks in the photos.

I took this photo from outside our gate, its looking towards the main road ,and the fire damage.

Back to Camden for a moment. Tomorrow he sits his first NCEA exam. A week ago he sat an entrance exam at Otago Polytechnic, and as a result has been excepted for next year. Camden will start the Poly tech course at age 15, which is far too young in my opinion! I really do not want my little boy heading out into the big wide world already. SIGH

Another Webster's Pages Layout completed.

Cody, on floral paper, who would have thought that could work! Not me, but I challenged myself to give it a go anyway.

I used a blue and a green stamp pad to 'stipple' in a bit of sky, and texture.

As per usual I cut out tiny pieces of paper, this time the leaf with the butterfly and the house and globe, I really need to get over my fixation of cutting out, although these Webster's Page's paper have such delightful images that it truly is very hard to resist that temptation!

Webster Pages collection's can be purchased from The Scrapbooking Outlet NZ

On Friday night our good friends come to tea, it was lovely to be in their company, we really must make an effort to catch up more often!

Today Cody and Hannah went to Dunedin and brought Aimee  home for the holidays. University holidays are three months long! Aimee will not be idle though as she begins work on a dairy Farm tomorrow. This year she decided to have a change from restaurant work. It will be interesting to see how she likes life with the cows!

NZ Paper Chase

NZ Paper Chase


Follow your creative dreams...

Launching in March 2011 will be NZ's newest papercrafting magazine.

Incorporating the best of Up2Scrap and moving forward from there, Editor Steph Milne is excited to announce that the magazine will be distributed through Craft-Co Ltd, based in Christchurch NZ. NZ paper Chase will be published as a quarterly, due out early March, June, September and December 2011.

We have been in discussion with the team at Craft-Co for a while, about our vision for where this awesome hobby will travel in the future and with that journey in mind, the name NZ Paper Chase seemed ideal", says owner and editor, Steph Milne. "We will be announcing our new creative team for this adventure by mid december - in the meantime, keep an eye on this blog site for news updates.

A new website will be up and running for when the magazine reaches shops in early March 2011, however in the meantime, we will be sending out a special subscription prize offer next week care of this blog. Note that if you are an existing Up2Scrap subscriber, your subscription will not expire. It will be transferred to the new magazine and since we will not be publishing a magazine in November 2010 as per usual, all current subscribers will automatically be credited and extra issue next year.

So here's a creative challenge ....Incorporate the words "paper" and "chase" into a title/sub-title for a layout, card or off-the page item, email a low res file to Sonya at Duntroongarage@xtra.co.nz to load onto the Up2Scrap blog site and go in the draw to win a years subscription to NZ Paper Chase. Closing date for this prize offer is midnight, Friday December 10th

Thanks so much to those of you who have checked out Birds of A Feather Craft Together, thank you also ladies for your lovely comments. Carol and I need all of the 'love' we can get :-)
Hope you get some time to join us in our first challenge.

Webster's Pages are the 'order of the month' for me. I received a gorgeous pack of 'Your Life Beautiful' from Andrea at Scrapbook Outlet to work with. Check out my first page...

That little guy in the centre is my Andrew. Both his lovely mum and dad are gone so I am working on creating an album so that both  Andrew and our children have these precious memories preserved.

This range of paper by Webster's Pages lends itself beautifully towards heritage style layouts.

 As always I have a little bit of paper cutting going on

and layering. I have added a few buttons from my stash, and gathered a piece of fabric, just to add a little bit of texture and height.

Today has been super hot here in Duntroon. after work I headed out to do some work in the garden, I began by pulling out a few weeds, then progressed to the chainsaw for a bit of late pruning! After a short time I was too hot so headed inside to have a major throw out in the wardrobe. You wouldn't believe how fast clothes shrink in our wardrobe! 

Hope the sun shines for you all tomorrow

Birds of a Feather Craft Together

Don't you just meet the coolest people through cyberspace!
 A few years ago I become cybre friends with a lovely lady who oozes talent. Last week this very same lady asked me if Id like to start up a new blog with her. This blog is to be a place where friendly like minded people can share their talents and take part in swaps and challenges, anything goes from ATC's to altered books, and everything inbetween. We are open to suggestions.
Please check out our blog which is due to 'kick off' later this week.
Sure hope some of you ladies join us because I know many of you have so much talent to share.
You can find us HERE

Colour Combo

Just for fun I took part in a wee challenge over at Colour Combos Galore and yesterday I discovered that I was chosen as the gallery favorite, what a buzz! If your looking for colour inspiration be sure to check this  site out.

  This was the card inspiration for this challenge, made by Kim Moreno ...

 This is the picture and colour combo...

And here is the page I created...

I used wax, a stamp and paint to create texture, inspired by the curtain in the photo. 

Check out all of the other wonderful takes on this challenge in the gallery here

Sketch challenge, with a challenge

This week is my turn to do the sketch challenge over at The Scrapbook Outlet, so if you have a spare moment in your week I sure hope you give this a go. I have kept my sketch quite simple....

....but there is  plenty of room for you to add your own mark. My challenge to you is to use your favorite Scrapbook  embellishment on this page. Add it/them where ever you wish to add them.

My most favorite embellishment are those tiny little Prima rose buds that you see on many of my projects.

...they are just perfect to add as a finishing touch. or to full a gap, or to simply add that little bit more!

Sure hope you can join in.  Layouts posted in the gallery by mid-night Thursday 28th October will be in for a chance to win a wee prize. So good luck, and happy scrapping.