Oldies, but goodies

Sorry!!! I have been a bit busy, life has been getting in my way lately!!

Monday saw us in Dunedin , I had to go see a doctor about joint problems I've been having, seems I'm a bit of a medical mystery!!

Tuesday we were in Oamaru, I had to have a few tests done and Andrew had his regular visit to the podiatrist.
Wednesday we had planned to be grape picking, but woke up to rain...at last!! I thought we were never going to see rain again, cannot remember the last time it rained here! Anyway was a lovely change and it also meant that we got to stay at home.

My Uncle come for a visit and had Cd's of old slides, so we spent a good part of the afternoon looking at those. I now have a copy of many of the old photos...woo hoo....plenty to scrap :-)

I would love to show you all of the photos...but don't think I would have enough mega bites on my blog , so will just share a few...

Hehe, That's me when I was about three, grubby looking thing aren't I!

This dapper looking couple are my wonderful, much younger dad and mum.

Check out the rainbow of colours! This photo is one from my dear Aunt Rosa's wedding, my mum is the flower girl in the lemon dress.

I love the vibrant red crab apples in this photo of my wonderful, sadly departed grandad and I am itching to scrap this one!

Thanks Uncle Jim for the photos, and Thank you Auntie Rae for the feathers you sent for me.

Already I have one of these photos scrapped...hmm which one do you think it is??

I will show you my page tomorrow, as I have a huge mess...again, in my craft room and need to have a clean up and get some shut eye!

I will be back tomorrow.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that it was our 2oth Wedding Anniversary on Wednesday.

Sweet Dreams to you all xx

Blog Candy from Debbie

More blog candy!! I never ever win anything...but I just cannot go past 'Blog Candy' when I happen upon it!! Especially this lovely lot!! Debbie is having a Bloggoversary, Check it out HERE

Like a Challenge??

A wonderful prize is up for grabs this week, courtesy of the.....

check it out... click on the picture for more information on this gorgeous stamp set.

All you have to do is to create a card based on Michelle's wonderful sketch , below. Go to Card Patterns to check out the 'posting' details, and have a look at what the team have done with this sketch!


Here is my card. I used LuminArte painted on white card and then dusted the top with Pearl ex for a super shine. Then I embossed my flowers onto the card, cut them out and attached these on doodled and embossed strips of paper using foam tape. Very simple!!

I am looking forward to seeing what you all come up with this week! Remember, The design team choose their top 5 cards to be show cased on The Card Patterns web site. The winner gets to design a card for the following week and a lucky someone is chosen at random to win the prize!
Good Luck everyone and THANKS for playing along!

In this House : ATC

Take a look at the little house I made for ATC Dares. I really enjoyed making this and based it on things that made our house a happy house for me. Alas, I would have liked to squeeze a whole lot more onto my little piece of card, but there simply was no more room at the inn!!

Warning : There is a rude bit in this next pic, but its all in the name of art!

Here is my house with the door opened. The clock shows the time I usually start thinking about going to bed! And no, that is not a photo of me! I would not fit in that window!! LOLBelow is a close up of some of my tiny details.The flower, green lace and dragon fly are my garden. The one heart really stands for the many hearts that make up our home. And of course with out food my children would have long left home, hence the dinner plate and folk and spoon-(the spoon is for pudding!!
Even though I spent far too long working on my little house I really loved making it!

Thanks for looking.
Keep a look out HERE for the next challenge coming up...or better still check out the details and make a 'house ATC' of your own for this challenge, it is open until the 10th of may!

Anzac Day

Hope you have all had a happy Anzac Day. Our morning got off to an early start with Camden heading into town at 5.30am to take part in the dawn service in Oamaru. He arrived home at 7.30, had a bite to eat then we wandered along to the War memorial in Duntroon to attend our little local service.

Here is Camden doing his bit for the cause.

...and again, another tune on the pipes.

Its not often I go walking this early in the morning and just as we neared our house on the way back from the service I just had to snap a photo of yet another glorious and new day dawning.

My thoughts today are with all of the brave men who fought for us, all of those years ago.

Boot Loot and a Birthday...

Marie has some goodies on her blog to give away in honour of her little girls birthday. Emma is six. Happy Birthday Emma !!

Click on the picture of Marie's giveaway to see how you to could be in with a chance to win!

Free spirted

Here is the only completed layout I have done so far using this months Design Team kit from Scrapbooking By Design.
Aimee is definitely one Free spirited girl, so the title was easy.
The background 'paper' with the bird cages on it , is a Prima Printable transparency, so not really paper at all!
I love the new Prima flowers, the large flower in the corner has people and faces on it, very very cool!

This little bird is from my stamp collection. The sparkles are' Say it in Crystals ' from Prima Marketing once again.

Here is a closer look at the 'new flowers' Most of the new prima Marketing goodies can be found here

Today I cleaned our church, it was my turn on the rooster.

I also found lots of information on artists for Aimee on the computer, she had to work and is really struggling to get all of her Painting homework done....and she has been at it almost all holidays !! No one said the 7th form was going to be easy.

I made Camden's favorite pudding, caramel Fluff. He has been away 'fencing' and I promised I would make that for him when he come home. Tonight he arrived home and was not disappointed.

I also found a spare hour , okay, it may have been longer.... to make a house ATC for this months ATC Dares. (I will show you that tomorrow).

Early start in the morning, Camden is being picked up at 5.30 am as his pipe band are playing at the Dawn service in town tomorrow. Camden has also been chosen to be the soloist piper for the service here in Duntroon at 9.15am. So no sleeping in to be had here.

Now I really must go and iron his kilt and jacket.

Bye bye for now. I wish you all a happy and bright Anzac day for tomorrow.

Half way...almost!

Another grape picking day done! Today we picked thirteen bins full of Pinot Gris grapes, look at them all!! I have to tell you that I had a feast as I went along! These wine grapes are much smaller than 'table grapes' but so much sweeter in taste...yummy!

By all accounts we are almost at the half way mark as far as picking goes. Tomorrow and the weekend are days off as I believe the remaining grapes need to be tested to ensure they are just right for the picking. So if all goes well next week will be another big week in the vineyard!!

The photo below was one I snapped near the end of the day...before we were all treated to a wine sampling. Isn't our country side glorious at this time of the year! Once again we were treated to a perfect day full of sunshine and blue sky, not a breath of wind to be found. I feel so lucky to be living in such a beautiful part of the country on days like this! :-)

Checkout the Ostler website to see the view we were treated to from the top of the vines today, and if you have a wee look under the News and Reviews heading you will spot my Andrews name.

Camden left home this morning at 7am . He is away up in the high country tiring his hand at fencing with one of his friends, and his dad. I am sure he will come home tomorrow feeling as tired as I felt at the end of the grape picking today!!

Aimee spent today with her nose in her school books, goodness me 7th form really is a very tough year, she has spent hours these holidays wading through book work, and still has lots to do.
Tomorrow I will be back with some scrapping. I hope!!

Thankyou all so much for the lovely comments you left me on yesterdays post. Hugs to you all xx

No crafting for me

No crafting for me at the moment.

This week we are picking grapes at Ostler Vineyard, about four minutes drive up the road from our house.
Each year Ostler advertise for volunteer pickers, the wages that these volunteers would make go to the Spinal Trust, based in Christchurch ,where is it dived out to communities to assist with helping paraplegics get back into, and around their community.
Last year Duntroon received funds to assist with making the Squash Courts wheelchair accessible. This is to enable Andrew to be a part of the squash community, which was a big part of his life pre injury. Sure, he cannot play squash, but he can still socialise, attend meetings (he is club captain) and watch our three children play.

This trust has helped us, so it is really nice to be able to give something back.

Have to say that the weather is just gorgeous, the company is warm and friendly and its great to be out in the fresh country air, I am even gaining a sun tan!!


Take a look at me after todays work, all those nets in the background are covering vines that are yet to be picked...Yikes... another big day ahead tomorrow!

Swaps for me!

I just realised today that I have not shared photos of the wonderful gifts I received from Glamourgirl ladies recently.


The first gift resulted from The March Swap, I sent a journal and have shared that earlier on my blog, but here is what I received from the very talented Debbie, who is the 'owner' of Glamourgirlstamps...
Debbie has made me the sweetest little book, the binding is very clever and I am hoping she will tell us all how she did it! The words on the front say 'Where Dreams thrive and Grow'.
Debbie has also included a gorgeous tag holder complete with two tags. Thanks so much Debbie!

The second swap I took part in was a decorated envelope. This time I swapped with Ngaere, this lady is super talented as well. Isn't her envelope amazing...and inside I discovered a matching tag! Thank you to you as well Ngaere, I am sure the postman was blowen away when he found he had such a flash envelope to deliver!!

I love taking part in swaps, I have the most wonderful collection of inspiring, varied and stunning art works, all gained through swaps. I always love everything I receive, and have learnt so much from the talented ladies with whom I swap.
These days I just don't seem to find the time to take part in as many swaps as I would like, but of course I'm still sneaking the odd one in here and there!

Check out Glamourgirlstamps if your ever keen to try your hand at something new. Just click on the picture to get to the 'front page', next click on 'Forum' at the top of that page, then scroll on down to see whats happening!

I might see you there!

Give this a go if your dare!

Card Patterns Sketch 11...Already, where does the time go ?

Here is this weeks sketch:

...a peek at part of my card

.... and a look at the whole thing!

Paper Pixie was very kind to those of us on the Design Team, we all received a little package of their wonderful paper embellishments to use on our cards for this sketch.

The lucky winner this round will receive the goodies shown below!

Every week the standard of the cards submitted just gets better and better, we do have a very hard time choosing our favorites!
Pop over to Card Patterns to check out the rest of the Design Team's takes on the sketch! Already, we have some wonderful submissions in, be sure to check them all out as well.
Thanks to EVERYONE who joins in the fun each week, and for those of you who haven't yet...go on...Give it a go!

Art Patches

Yesterday I had an out side day, doing all of those mundane tasks, mowing the lawn, raking up the leaves, tiding edges etc etc.
Today I sit in my craft room without a guilty conscience!!

I have been tying my hand at making an Art Patch. Check out the Scrapbook Studio Design team blog HERE to see how I made it.

I needed to do something with my Art Patch so I have used it on this page that I created for the April Sketch Challenge at Scrapbook Studios

Challenges and Angels

Today I had a bit of a catchup day and set about making the charms for a swap over at Glamourgirls. They are not finished yet, but well on their way.
Tomorrow Aimee, Camden, Andrew and I are off to Dunedin for the day, mostly because Aimee wants to go!! We will have a catch up with Andrews brother and his family and no doubt have lunch in the mall and I will pop into the odd shop here and there I'm sure!
Alas the Scrapbook shop in Dunedin has closed, very sad for me! I used to Love getting in there!No doubt it will be kinder on the purse though.

Just in case you have missed it , here is this months Sketch at Scrapbook Studios. You have until the end of the month to create a page biased on Lianne's Sketch...
Click HERE to see the page Lianne has created biased on her sketch and click HERE for details on the close off date and prize.

Almost forgot...here is the Handmade item I sent to Renate. Its an angel, of sorts, made from a microscope slide, wire, solder and metal. I was a little worried it may not have made it all the way to Germany in one piece, but Renate assures me it did. Thank you to the posties!!

A lucky day for me!

Today I received the most wonderful surprise in my mail box, all the way from Germany!!
Take a look below at the wonderful gift my dear friend Renate sent me. The gorgeous card, box, necklace and matching bracelet are all handmade by Renate. Check out the Guardian Angel bear, thank you so so much Renate, I just know your little bear will bring good luck to us all!
And Thank you again for brightening my day with your lovely gift and letter. It's just a shame you did not pop out of the box as well!! :-)

Flowers and lace!

Hi there. Cody has just returned from his hunting trip with lots of venison, will be a nice change from pork I dear say! Will try and retrieve a photo or two off his camera later to share with you.

In the mean time I have to say that today I have achieved very little, I have been most of theafternoon fiddling around with my Bossy Scrapper page from last night, adding the finishing touches...all 600 of them! LOL, not quite 600, but in my usuall style I had added rather a lot of little details!

Here are my instructions...

...this is what you need

1 x 6 x 4 " photo, OR two 5 x 3.5" if you prefer to scrap more that one photo at a time.

All photos need to be LANDSCAPE

2 X 12 x12" pattern papers, choose two that look great together!

1 x 5 X12" pattern paper (or coloured paper) that goes well with your 12 X12's

1 x 12 x 12" card stock

1 dinner plate, or circle to trace around (approx 9 1/2" circumference)

and a few 12x12" strips of paper, or lengths of ribbon or trim....and your favorite embellishments.

Here's what to do....

.... Choose one 12x12" pp as your background

- Take another 12x12" pp and cut a large circle (about 9 & 1/2" across)

- Next place your circle in the centre of your card stock, stick it down and proceed to cut a scalloped boarder all the way around the outside of your circle.

- Next Cut a strip of paper 5" x 12"- cut your circle, complete with scalloped boarded in

half...across wise

- Stretch your circle out and place the 5 x12" strip across the middle, to cover the cut

....now your photo, or photos go on that centre strip.

- Place strips of paper, fabric, lace, trim, brads....what ever you like along the top and bottom edges of your strip..to create a boarder for your photo/s

- Finally place embellishments where ever you like, and tile and journalling somewhere on your page.

...and here is my page...

The journalling says...Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.

Can you see some of the little flowers I brought yesterday from riverstone?

I love flowers, lace and ribbon...can you tell??

Just for fun, and because I could, I have added a couple of duck feathers!

Thanks for looking!

Toady Andrew, Camden and I went for a drive, and Lunch to Riverstone Kitchen, just out of Oamaru. We sat outside on the deck over looking the hills, in the sun and dined in fine style. After our meal I checked out the most amazing shops, there are three in total around the restaurant. These shops look like barns from the outside and contain almost every thing you could ever imagine...except scrapping. But I did purchase this sprig of flowers, to take apart and use for scrapping!! Yes a scrapper is always able to find some sort of scrapping product where ever they go! We had a lovely afternoon. I hope you all have had a wonderful relaxing Easter Sunday as well.

Card pattern #10

This week at Card patterns One lucky winner will receive a 3 month subscription to the Scrapbook News & Review's Card Universe magazine from The Card Universe !
Here is this weeks Card Pattern...

For a change I got a little 'arty farty' I chose a crazy colour combo and played with paint and fabric, and basically I had fun! Even though the card is not that wonderful!!

Check out details on how to submit your card to Card patterns to be in with a chance to win that wonderful subscription and a chance to design for sketch 11....right HERE

Laugh out Loud

At last I have completed last Sundays Bossy Scrapper page.

Here are the instructions that Carol gave us...


1 piece of card stock

1 piece of patterned paper 24cm x24cm, you can punch ,distress,ink,sew or tear the edges then centre it on your card stock.

cut a large bracket and place this on the right had side of your 24cm x 24cm piece, then butt your photo up against this but don't stick it down yet

cut a piece of patterned paper about 5cm x 18cm scallop or distress one long edge, this sits on an angle (11ock) portrait, with the scalloped/distressed edge sticking out towards the left of your layout

cut another piece of patterned paper about 3 cm in height and the same length (horizontal) as the bottom of your photo, or you can place a journaling square here..

Now glue down everything and add your embellish to suit your layout



...great set of instructions! Thanks Carol. If your a scrapbooker and have never tried The Bossy Scrapper do have a go at Carols instructions and see what you come up with. Leave me a link if you like, I could even pop it in the Scrapbook Studio Art Room for you!!



Here is my page....
Go HERE to check out Carol's page its... OH so Cute!!

Blog Candy from Carol

Check out Carols Blog candy! Happy Birthday Carol

I'm back!!

Hello -- at last!! I have been quite unwell since last Sunday and have only have enough energy to do the things that had to be done, but at last I'm feeling bright again so here I am having a quick catch-up!

On the craft front there is not much to report as I have done very little! Although I have managed to get the first of my Handmade items off to Renate in Germany, I cannot tell you what I have made until it has reached its destination!

Carol is next on my list, so that will be this weeks mission!

I received an email from Scrapbooking Innovations a couple of days ago, and only just checked my emails last night and discovered that my submitted scrapbook page has been accepted for publication in the third issue of this soon to be released Scrap booking magazine. Very exciting!! Up2Scrap have also accepted another of my pages for their next magazine. Lucky me!!

Now I really do not have much to show you after a very slow week, but I do have my Card created for the 9th Card patterns Sketch. This time I made an Easter card, for obvious reasons!!

Check out the sketch

As usual, my card has lots of layers! the Easter greeting is printed onto transparency which is layered over a piece patterned paper and then tucked underneath a piece of red card.

The green grass near the bottom is cut from green corrugated card, and placed between the patterned paper and the transparency layers.

Be sure to check out the latest winners and happenings at Card Patterns.

An award ... all the way from Germany!

My dear friend who sadly lives so far away has passed this Friendship award onto me. Thank you Renate I am thrilled to accept it!

The "Let´s be friends Award" means:
These blogs are very charming. These nice bloggers try to find friends and to be a friend. They are not trying to pretend they are the greatest. It is our hope that, by passing this award on, friendship will be passed on as well. Please pay more attention to these bloggers. Give this award to eight bloggers who have to give it to eight other bloggers.

..now for the hard part, choosing only eight blogger friends to pass it onto! I always choose the same people so this time I will choose eight ladies who blogs and comments are always so friendly and are not the same blogger friends I always choose!!

Wilma, Angela, Carol, Jo, Lorri, Beverley, Michelle and Patty

I feel very lucky to know, (well kind of know) so many friendly people!!

Check this out

Checkout Carole's blog to see how you can be in with a chance to win this yummy Blog Candy!!
Don't you just love those stamps!! Why do we not have these in NZ yet I wonder??

March Design Team Pages

These beautiful paper's from My Minds Eye were the base for my Design team work for the month of May. These gorgeous papers, and embellishments are available from Scrapbook Studio

Shh.. was a very simple page! This paper is so awesome that it would look great in your album almost without a photo at all!! I have added the photo, the strips of paper behind and under the photo, and those great self adhesive alphas, and that is all. Easy A!

Check out that tiny chipboard heart, it comes with the alphas, along with tiny stars

...spot 'pom-pom' trim, its so cute that I just had to add a little piece of it to my page!

The bright birds and design are already on the paper, I have high lighted some of the design with Dimensional Magic. It's hard to see in the photo though.

'I love U' uses more papers from the My Minds Eye range. This paper all has an equally impressive reverse side to it! My whole three pages use only three pieces of this wonderful patterned paper, both sides can be seen.

Here is one of those sweet, tiny hearts again. The paper flowers have been rubbed over ever so gently with an ink pad.

This transparency is in Penny Lane's Feeling Groovy Range and is called 'No worries'. We all need one of these in our stash!

The blue background paper on this page is the reverse side of the paper above with the flowers on it. The stripe is the reverse side of the green circle paper that I have used in the I love U page above also- (just under the paper flowers).

Here is one of the tiny chipboard stars that comes with the Alphas. These Alphas are from Basic Grey and are called Urban Prairie, love the fact that they just stick on so you don't have to do battle with the glue!