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.

Turn back the clock.

Thought Id share this old (and as yet unphotoshopped ) photo with you.
Its of my sister and I many a year ago. Our dear Nana had just taught us both to knit. Our Nana was the best of Nana's, she also taught us to crochet, sew, how to make soap poodles and tulle bath balls...and so many more crafty delights. Guess she unwittingly set me up for my love of crafting. I know if she were alive today she would be a scrapbooker as well, and what fun we would have creating together.

Anyway...back to the present ...and now I really really need to go and tidy up my mess.
...by the way, Im the one in the fluffy pink slippers :-)

Days gone by

Just popping in to say hello before I throw myself into tidying up my very busy and very messy scrap room. Ive had many a late night this week tiring to create a master piece.

Below is a page I completed a week or so back. The photo is of my wonderful mother and father in law. As many of you know I'm really not much good at creating a typical vintage style page...I have this 'need' to add colour and an odd array of embellishments!

This page uses two gorgeous pieces of Prima Paper

Ashton was used for the background and Avondale has been cut up and layered in the corner (see below) along with the lovely Prima fabric flower.

Thank you for popping by...now I'm off for that tidy up that Ive been putting off ALL day!

A little more Prima

Here I am at last! Ive been super busy in my craft room, even though the weather has been beautiful and outside is calling me, just need to get a few things finished and then I can relax and enjoy summer, which hopefully will hang around and wait for me!

Here is my Boy Prima page, created for Scrapbook Outlet

This paper is soooo cute

...and once again Ive cut out many of the images. I'm right into cutting out patterned paper at the moment!

I read this on Face book yesterday (thanks Bronwyn) and thought I d share it with you...

A Birth Certificate proves that you were born

A death certificate proves that you died.

Photographs prove that you lived

so preserve your precious and irreplaceable memories for a life time.

...that's exactly why I spend so much time scrapping I guess!

Be back soon.

Prima- So Cute!

Check out the new range of paper by Prima, called 'So Cute' available now from the Scrapbook Outlet

I was lucky enough to receive some of this to have a play with, here is my 'Girl' page. The photo is of Aimee when she was just a wee dot, Cody is in the background...just a 'wee dot' also!

The paper has such cute wee critters on it! I got busy with the scissors cutting them out and building up layers to create a 3D effect.

Tonight I'm working on a Boy page using the same line of papers. I should mention that these papers are double sided, one side is in pinks, lemons and pale blues, on the reverse side you get browns blues and greens..,.very yummy for scrapping the lttle'ies in your life.

A whole lot of Bull!

We had a very wet weekend in Rangiora at Bull Riding School this weekend

Camden had a ...'excuse the pun' ..ball!

Almost harder than riding the bull is getting onto it in the first place, If you get out of the 'box' without breaking both your legs then your half way there!

Shame you cannot hear the bull snorting...its quite scary to watch your youngest doing this very crazy thing!

The goal is to stay on the Bull for 8 seconds,

and your only aloud to use one hand...crazy!

Cam is so lucky this bull is a young fella and has not grown his horns yet!

Never ever linger when you fall off!!

Camden now needs lots of gear, I can see this 'hobby' is going to be costly. Cowboy boots are at the top of his list, a hard riding helmet is at the top of my, and Andrews list, and I cannot believe they learn this crazy caper without having to first put a helmet on!

Today it was back to work, and then home to unpack our bags as we never got home until late last night.

Camden got his restricted drivers licence duing the school holidays,so it looks like Andrew and I will be staying home for a whlie now as our van is never here!

Back tomorrow with some scrappng, for now its off to bed we go because us old folk need our sleep! Night night.