Look what I got!

Another Blog award for me!! Lucky me!!

Thanks so much to Rachel for passing this Fabulous Blog award onto me!

I am passing it onto ...

Carol who is an inspiration to me, I enjoy our cyber chats and the fact that Carol often stays up crafting later than me! Check out Carols blog I'm sure she will inspire you to!

Mel from Vancouver shares her knowledge so freely on her card blog! I love to visit Melstampz there is always something new to see. Thank you Mel!

Katepai's blog is another of my many favorite blogs to haunt, take a look for yourself! Love your gorgeous girl scrap pages and your beautiful photos Katepai!

Linda from California is another lady with so much talent, her blog is bright and colourful and such a happy place to visit!

Ewonne in Sweden has an eye for detail! Take a look here her work is totally gorgeous!

One more... and I am sure this lady is tired of me passing on blog awards to her, but she is such a lovely person and always takes the time out to send me a friendly email to brighten my day! thank you Renate!

Card patterns #2

Here is my card that I submitted to Card Patterns last week.

My owl is a rub-on which I have placed on vellum paper, that sits between the cut out circle and the inside lemon paper. The flowers are Epoxy stickers, by Creative Imaginations which I have embellished with gems. The leaves are cut out stamps with a touch of glitz and the branch was cut on my cricut. Those tiny stars were made using a boarder punch.



This card, below was the card I did not submit, I had fun making it though so thought I would show you anyway!

Check out the sketch below

Liz webber was chosen from a huge group of ladies, who submitted the most amazing cards, to be this weeks guest designer on Card patterns. pop over and see her wonderful card and all of the Design teams gorgeous creations HERE.

Remember that you to can be in with a chance to be the next guest designer on Card patterns, simply by creating a card using Michelle's wonderful sketch.

Happy Birthday Camden

Yesterday Camden, our baby turned 14! Here he is chopping into his birthday cake after tea.

Bossy Scrapper returns!

Well, last night saw the return of the Bossy Scrapper at Scrapbook Studio. The Bossy Scrapper involves logging into the forum and the Scrap Cafe, which is an online chat room, at 8pm every Sunday evening. Once there you will be greeted by a lovely group of very friendly like minded scrapper's and a lovely boss lady! Now the boss gives out instructions, one at a time. For example the first instruction last night was this: I WANT YOU TO FIND ONE BACKGROUND PIECE, WE ARE LEAVING IT WHOLE IN EITHER PATTERNED OR PLAIN. Next everyone taking part in the scrapping side of things (some people just pop in for a chat) rush away and round up their piece of paper. After this task is completed a second instruction is given, and so on ... There is no pressure to finish your page on the night, which is lucky for me as last night I got a little behind, problems committing to patterned paper and ribbon!!

Anyway, here is my finished page!

Cup Cakes in the Garden

Here are a few close-ups

I have painted and crackled my chipboard letters.

You just have to love butterfly's don't you!

Last night my sister Debbie joined us on the Bossy Scrapper. Yay Debbie!!! Looking forward to seeing your page!

Origami Fun

Yesterday, as well as making my card for Card Patterns, well cards, (I was not happy with the first few attempts). I had a go at a bit of origami and made this bookmark.

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Thought it looked like a fun idea when I spotted it on a very cool blog called 'How about Orange'

Check it out for your self right HERE.

Well the past few days have zipped by very quickly. Thought it high time I did a quick post.

On the home front first, On Wednesday we went to School to the Investiture Mass to see dear daughter Aimee receive her 'Stars and stripes', she has the honour of being Sports Captain this year at school and is very pleased with herself. Of course we are very proud she was chosen.

On the craft front, i can only say that I seemed to have made more mess than anything else this week! Yesterday I made my card for Card pattern's sketch #2, I cannot show you this one yet, but, if you haven't already,pop over and check out the site and be in for a chance to be guest designer for round 3. There has been a wonderful response so far...but I'm not seeing anyone from N.Z having a go yet!! Come on Kiwis!!!

This was what my room looked like at 1 am this morning!

Last night I was so tired that I turned off my light before cleaning up, not something I usually do! Today I have had a major tidy-up and am feeling all set to launch into my next project, which involves a spoon!

Another project completed!

I have finished Aimee's calendar and already one month has turned over!!

Aimee choose the paper and the photo for this one. I must add that I found it quite a challenge to do a beach theme on the dotty paper! I haven't really been successful either!

Here's a few close up of the embellishments I have added, the vine is a rub on.

I love stamps and seldom tackle a project without having at least one stamp close at hand! For this project I used four of them.

Thought I would add a memo pad to this calendar, for Aimee to jot down little memories on, and it was another excuse to have a play with my somewhat unused Zutter. If any of you are thinking of buying a Zutter I would say - Go for it, it is so surprisingly simple to use, even for someone as untrained as me!!

The little memo pad can be swung easily to the inside, apart from the coil you would not know it was even there! Here is the whole photo that hides under the cover.

Fingers crossed this will pass Aimee's inspection tomorrow!

Look what I got

Leah, at PaperBlossoms , kindly gave me this blog award.

First I have to Say one nice thing about the man in my life, That is easy

Andrew is super supportive of my scrap addition and never growls when I over spend on craft supplies! He is also a wonderful dad and... that is more than one isn't it!!

Next I need to List 6 ways I measure success in my life:

1) The number of smiling faces I have around me.

2) My children text just to say hello, not to ask for money!

3) Waking up and feeling ready to leap out of bed and begin a new day.

4) Feeling proud of my children's accomplishments.
5) Looking at something I have created and feeling satisfied with it.

6) Friendly hello's and lovely comments on my blog posts, of course!

Now for the hard part, choosing just 5 fellow bloggers to pass this award onto...

Carol at http://4carol.blogspot.com/

Renate at http://die-annasmama.blogspot.com/

Marie at http://bootstostamps.typepad.com/

Louise at http://louisewilliams.wordpress.com/

Raewyn at http://whinneys-whims.blogspot.com/

Card Patterns are on the hunt...

Here is my take on Michelle's sketch over at Card Patterns. Pop over and take a look at the wonderful cards the rest of the team created, and if your up for a challenge have a go yourself.
Michelle is on the hunt for a guest designer for Sketch #3

This is another card I created using the same sketch. I would love to see your take on it!

Rock Fest' Fun

Hi Ya, I'm back with some photos of our weekend to share with you.

I just had to stop off for a photo shoot by the sign!!

Saturday morning and already the day is hotting up! That drink is non alcoholic by the way!

Got to love those colours! If only I could walk on stilts - just maybe I to would look that trim!!

This guy made it!! One guy missed the ramp and landed in a crumpled heap. Was horrible to see that happen. He did kind of walk to the ambulance, that was a huge relief.

Jess and Aimee got into the Rock scene and stayed in the whole weekend, sleeping in Aimee's car!

Zorbing - All the fun you can have in a big ball!!

Cam braved the bungee, and the top of his head did return!!

The Black Seeds were a huge hit with the crowd last night.

That wee girl on stage , in the black dress is none other than my sweet second cousin and organiser of this huge advent. I am so very proud of her! WTG Rossie!

Thanks to you all for the lovely wishes for a great weekend. I have to say that I am by no means a hardened Rock fest' groupie, but had a wonderful time- and did so much sitting doing nothing, quite a change for me!

Thank you Leah for the wonderful Blog Award, so nice to come home to such a lovely surprise, I will pop it onto my blog tomorrow, all that R & R has quite worn me out!!

Card Patterns is up and running, check out the design team takes on Michelle's wonderful first pattern here, and do give it a go. More on that tomorrow as well.

Away for the weekend

Today we are off to Twizel to 'Area 9' Click on the picture above to see what its all about.My lovely cousin's daughter is the 'chief ' of this whole concert. I have no idea how she has organised this advent and managed to stay sane!Anyway we have been fortunate enough to receive Guest passes so are off for a 'wild weekend'. LOL, I think our wild days are well and truly over, but this will be a wonderful experience I'm sure. Aimee is really looking forward to being in on the action. Cody has decided he is going pig shooting as Area 9 is ...quote..."not really my thing Mum" And Camden is 15 for the weekend! This advent is only open to 15 year olds upwards, shhhh...don't tell!!

Wishing all my wonderful readers a great weekend.

To my far away friend Renate, I do hope the sun shines for you!

In my Design Team kit last month, from Scrapbook Studios I received this little Key Plate Album. I decorated it in my usual busy way and have totally over done it!
This album is bursting at the seams with thirty photos, and room for more, of Aimee's recent trip to Hawaii and L.A.
The front cover has the words 'Spread your wigs and Fly' as it seemed the perfect title for Aimee's Album. The bird is from the Collections range. As you can see I have added a final ribbon so the album can be displayed on a hook , door handle , or similar.
The smile on Aimee's face, when I gave her the album, made the many missed hours of sleep (while working on this project) all worth while!

I have used Basic Grey Offbeat papers and element stickers to decorate this mini album.

As you can see, I have used lots of ribbon scraps and the odd flower.

Throughout the album I have added lots of pockets and envelope type holders to store the many photos

The photos are all laminated, so they are able to with stand life at the School boarding Hostel!

Here are my latest scrapbook pages. I have used the new Basic Grey Offbeat paper. The Element stickers, also from the Offbeat range and the Basic Grey Chipboard sticker's are both so easy to use, no messy glue or tape involved here!

The boys in the photos above are, from left Christopher, Andrew (my hubby) and David, all in their much younger days!

These photos were taken during our recent holiday at Tekapo. The LO is very simple, as is the top page, as I did not want to distract too much from that wonderful paper!

Check out Scrapbook Studio for the latest scrap booking products.

The last of my Puzzle pieces

Here are the last of the puzzle pieces I have completed for the Puzzle Swap over a Glamourgirls.

Karen's puzzle theme is Masquerade, I do think I wandered off the theme a little as this has more of a fantasy theme going on! Sorry Karen!

Inspire me with Love was the theme for Rebecca's puzzle,here is the piece I altered for her. Kristi's theme is Vintage. I used shellac and inks to 'age' her piece of puzzle.

Ngaere's puzzle theme is Romantic love, to add texture I printed the image onto canvas paper and applied paint,wax and gold leaf.

This was such a fun swap to take part in and really kept me thinking! I have one more puzzle piece to receive before my whole puzzle is complete. I can tell you now that it is going to look great, all of the ladies have made a beautiful job completing my Angel themed pieces.

Lucky me!

Isn't it a treat to find something nice in your mail box! Last week the postie was good to me and delivered these beautiful goodies to my mail box! This lovely mermaid card come from Amanda along with the truly stunning canvas below

The photo does not do Amanda's canvas justice really, it is rich gold and bronze in colour and has the most wonderful textures going on.

Here is a close up showing the texture and a little of the detail. Lovely work Amanda, Thank you so so much!

From Karen I received this beautiful calender. I just love the colours and the beautiful images as well as the fact that the calender days are in big squares and I have plenty of room to write notes in- if I can ever bring myself to write on this master piece at all!!

Thank you so much Karen, I love this! Too see more of Karen's work take a look here!

Plenty to do.

Now on my desk this week I have plenty to do! There is my card I need to make for Card Patterns and I have a set of Cat ATC's to make for a swap on at Scrapbooking by Design. Also over at Glamour Girls I have my name down on the altered cutlery swap, now this is a new one on me and sounds like way too much fun to miss out on. I have also sent away my stamped pages for a Stamp Swap at Better Scrapbooking and finished my Design Team work for Scrapbookstudio.
I have some photos to show you of some of my finished work and of a lovely gift I received, but will load them on tomorrow as I have promised myself that I WILL be in bed by mid-night tonight- or there abouts!

Pipes in the Park

On Saturday we went to Waimate to see Camden compete in the Solo Bagpipe competitions, this was a big thing for all of us as usually Camden competes as a part of the whole Band. Here he is with Bruce, his teacher tuning up his pipes moments before his first performance.

Standing in front of the judge was very scary for me, not sure how Camden felt!!

Camden won first prize with both of his pieces in the Novice Section, and won two second places for his D grade preformances. He also won the trophy in the Novice section!

Now that makes the trailing and hard work worth it - for all involved.

WooHoo!!

I was thrilled to find I have been chosen to be a Design Team member over at Card Patterns.
Now between my Scrapping, altered arts, painting and swaps I will be cranking up my Card making again. Poor Hubby is thinking he may have to employ someone to look after him!!
Check out Card patterns and the rest of the Design team here. These ladies look to be super talented, I am really going to have to put in some hard yards to keep up to their standard!