Blooming Lovely

All of my rosebushes burst into bloom last week much to my delight, matching the lovely bright pansies below them. Even the alyssum was becoming a lush carpet. Until this nasty heatwave struck, that is!!! My poor pansies and alyssum have wilted and the roses are not lasting as long as I would like. The earwigs are finding them quite delicious mind you! At least the heat has opened up my gorgeous yellow liliums.

Hayley's very first sport's day at Kindy went really well. She seemed to have a great time and participated in most of the events. She even raced ahead and demonstrated the obstacle course for everyone. My baby girl is growing up so fast. Sob!!

I have got lots of shares this post. The first of which is 'His Natural Instinct' created for CCG #136. They were autumn colours that I didn't like very much but they seemed to suit the photo of Merlin that I had been dying to scrap. He looked so cute trying to retrieve a leafy twig.

The next LO was for CCG #137 and I hated these colours even more than the last but I managed to come up with this William page.

After all those horrible earthy tones I felt the need to rebel and create something really pretty, pink and girly. So I created this LO for the RW Lasercuts Blog called 'So Tweet'. I have used their Circle Flower Scroll frame, painted it white and applied Coconut glitter over the top. Next up was a Saturday Sketch over at the Kaiser Blog. My spin on the sketch was this LO called 'Spring Time'. Love the sweet photo of Hayley. I think it's one of my favourite LO's at the moment actually. I made the little buttons in the centre of the flowers and coated the title in glitter.

'While You Sleep' is a LO I created for the Inspired Blueprints Sketch Challenge #34. I just love those photos of William sleeping. He looks so adorable...I might be biased!

Lastly, is a double pager I did for the Prima Nov BAP Sketch. I had a great deal of trouble trying to coordinate Prima pattern paper with my extremely limited supply. My solution was to resort to using the packaging from some 'Say It In Crystals'...hence the black and white spotty cardboard. Well B & W does go with anything.Well that's all for now. Well done and thankyou if you made it all the way to the end of this post. I'm off to make a big cold drink and fruit salad for my poor husband who is cutting, raking, baling and carting hay in this horrible heatwave and all on his own. Hmm.....if only he had someone to help him!!! Actually, I'm not sure who has got it worse: Brenton or me having to deal with the terrible two ALL ON MY OWN!!! Just kidding.

Happy Scrappin'.

TIME TO HIBERNATE!

Well I saw my first brown snake of the season last Thursday so summer is definately on its way. Ugh!!! This signals that it is time to prepare our bushfire boxes so we are ready to evacuate should the need arise. I hate summer almost as much as I hate snakes. The threat of bushfire or one of us being bitten by a snake makes me very nervous all summer long. I would be quite happy to hibernate all summer I think. I don't even want to see how brown and dry and dusty the paddocks get. I won't start to relax until the paddocks and hills start turning green again.

On a happier note, I had one of my layouts featured on the Kaisercraft blog again on Tuesday which is quite a thrill. It feels good to think that other people like my "stuff"! So this is the layout. The photo of Hayley is from Christmas last year at Playgroup.

The journalling reads: "You sat so patiently waiting for Santa to arrive. I could tell you were a little nervous but you still sat on his knee for the very first time."

Here's another LO I managed to scrap on the weekend for the RW Laser Cuts blog. I had the Layered Tree Set in my stash already and when I spied the new My Mind's Eye Abbey Road paper I knew I had to combine the two. It's not my usual style (whatever that may be!!) but I had fun making the hills, grass and clouds. I made the clouds from plain white Bazzill and then ran each one through the Cuttlebug using a different Embossing Folder for each. The journalling on this one reads: "Falling down in the long grass and cracking yourself up".

Hayley had her first homework assignment ever from Kindy last week and she was so excited about it. She reminded us every night: "Ooh. I've got to do my homework!" It is now on display at Kindy and Mrs White is going to laminate it for her. That will definately go in her special binder of things to remember.

That's all for now. I'm off to bake biscuits for Hayley's Sports Day at Kindy tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to share some Sports Day photos next week.

Happy Scrappin'

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS!

The good news is: I made the shortlist for the Scrapbooking Memories Masters. Woo Hoo!!!!
The bad news is: So did 66 other talented scrappers! Bummer!! I haven't got a chance of becoming a Master I don't think but I'm so happy I made it this far. And there's always next year.

Brenton and the kids and I had a really lovely family day together on Sunday. First we went to Ikea and bought a small computer desk as well as a table and stools for the kids. Then we went to Harbourtown because I had never been there and wanted a look. All was going well until William got too tired and had a minor meltdown, throwing himself on the ground. We managed to snap him out of it with a trip to MacDonalds for lunch. This was the first time they have had Maccas and fortunately they were not the least bit impressed by it.

Now for some shares....

This first layout I created for the Abundantia's Gold Facebook Scrapbooking Challenge. The theme was 'All things spooky' so the choice for me was easy. It had to be Twilight. I printed the photo from the web onto white Bazzill and the sheet music onto parchment which I distressed, crumpled and aged with Vintage Photo ink. I glittered up the title and some bits of lace paper that I chopped up. The Prima roses were all sprayed with various Glimmermists.

The next LO was for CCG #135. Finally I got to use the blue PRIMA die-cut paper I have had in my stash for so long. I threaded the holes in the pp with Green Tara paper string.

Next is my LO for Inspired Blueprints Sketch #32. I love the expressions on Hayley's face as she experiences her very first lollipop.

Lastly, here is my submission for the KAISER monthly Inspired By... challenge.

See you next week with some more shares and maybe some good news...or not!

Happy Scrappin'

So Many Computer Problems, So Little Time!!

We finally took the plunge and got a new computer...with VISTA on it. Damn Vista!!!! It didn't want to be compatible with the printer or my camera. I thought this might be just the excuse I needed to get that new Digital SLR camera I have been dreaming about but unfortunately for me I found a software update for the camera on the web. Bugga!! One day that camera will be mine!!!

Last week I took the kids down to 'Flat 2' to play in the long grass. They had so much fun falling down and pretending they were 'walking through the jungle'. I was happy to get a couple of great photos until Brenton said we shouldn't be flattening the grass because it will make it hard to cut the hay. Ooopss!! Probably something he could have told us before we went down there. I have been so disorganized with scrapping due to all the computer issues over the last couple of weeks but I am gradually getting back on track. I created this layout for CCG #134 challenge. I placed two tears in the pattern paper on this one, rolled the edges back, put a bit of book paper in and then added flowers. I wanted to make the flowers look like they were spilling out of the tears.

This LO I created for the RW Laser Cuts Blog using their Toffee Birds Set. The little birds on the Cosmo Cricket pattern paper looked like leaves to me which gave me the idea to create a tree and add the birds as leaves. I have added some glitter to the Toffee Birds as it seems to be my favourite thing to do at the moment. And to think I used to hate glitter!!

'Little Miss Pretty' is another one I created for RW using their Vine Set and Solid Butterfly Set.

'Til next time....Happy Scrappin'

It's Not The Space, But The Way You Use It!

I thought I would share a photo of my little "creation station" this week. In my dreams (when I win X-Lotto) I will have a whole room devoted to my scrapbook therapy but for now this is my favourite spot in the house. It is just inside the front door and is quite a chilly spot but I love it just the same. My corkboard takes up half of the window but through the other half I can gaze upon my little rose garden. There is a lovely wall tile that says "Create" not that I need reminding. On the other side of the wall is the roadway where I can see Brenton zooming past on the quad bike or in the hay truck going off to feed the cows. All in all, it's a pretty good spot.

I was delighted this week to find out that I had a layout featured on the Prima blog as well as two on the Kaiser blog. How exciting! This was one of the layouts that I submitted for the 15min embellishment challenge using the free autumn leaf embellishment.

I also completed the following layout for CCG #133 this week. I thought I'd try my hand at glitter again and added it to the chipboard birds.

Lastly, here are some Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) I created using the "A Midsummer Night's Dream" kit put together by Simone at Abundantia's Gold. I have to say this is my favourite ATC kit yet. I just love that image of Puck (?). These little ATC's are so much fun to make. The hardest part for me is deciding which two of these little babies I can bear to part with!

Until next week...Happy Scrappin'.

It's Showtime!

This week we took the kids to the Royal Show for the very first time which they loved. Surprisingly the day went super smooth due to some good planning beforehand. We made sure we got there just before the gates opened and as a result got a really close park (which cost a small fortune) right in the Rose Terrace carpark. The kids hadn't had their breakfast yet (didn't want Hayley to spew in the car) so our first stop was to feed them some custard and fruit. Yum!!

Our next stop was the showbag pavillion to load up before the crowds got there. We were in and out in about 15minutes. Hayley chose The Fairies showbag, William the Thomas and Friends. Brenton the Charlesworth and I got the Cadbury.

Showbags in hand we were free to wander, visiting the Barnyard Nursery, the dogs, the Melbas stand, the cars, plants etc. Hayley and William even went on a kids speedboat ride. It was very tame but they both looked a little green and yet they still wanted more rides! We didn't risk it though mainly because we wanted to avoid any spew and also because we are not made of money!!

Anyway we were out of there by about 11:30 just as the crowds were flooding in. Perfect timing!! Even better, the kids slept most of the way home. Aahh! Peace and quiet...until we got home of course!

The best part for me was that we actually got to spend some quality time together as a family which is very rare considering how much farm work there always is to be done. Sometimes you just have to push that to the side though to have fun together with the kids.

Speaking of the farm. All that horrible gusty wind we had last week blew over two of our new rainwater tanks (they're not hooked up yet) and also blew the chookyard door open. Sadly, three of the chooks got out and nasty foxes killed them. It's such a shame because they were lovely chooks that didn't peck us.

On the scrapping front: Colour Combo #132 was finally up on the website, so I created this layout called "Sweetness and Light". I just love the enjoyment on Hayley's face as she is running around on the lawn at John and Nana's house.

This William layout I created for the Kaisercraft Monthly Inspired By...Challenge. I used the colour scheme from the vintage journalling tag with the trike, robot and plane on it.

Lastly, I created this layout for the Abundantia's Gold Blog. Simone chose the Graphic 45 Clock paper and the Cosmo Cricket Game Spinner and I chose the rest of the product. When I got it home, I thought "OMG! What a challenge I have set for myself. This is too hard!". But once I started it just came together and I totally love the end result even if it is a bit soppy. Sorry about that. The journalling reads: Once upon a time there lived a gorgeous little boy who grew up to be the man of my dreams. Yes, believe it or not that is actually Brenton in the photo. William bears a striking resemblance to Brenton at that age. Happy Scrappin' everyone. Until next week.

Seeya

B-)

"Mum, I Need A Tissue"

I seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment, churning out lots of layouts. I swear I do not know how I've managed to do it considering everytime I sit at my scrap desk somebody wants something. Hayley has picked up yet another bug from kindy and has kindly shared it with both William and myself. I escaped the last two bugs so I suppose it is only fair that I succumb this time. Everytime I even think about doing anything though I hear the words that are driving me absolutely crazy right now:

"Mum, I need a tissue" AAAGGHH!!

I'm not sure what is going on with the Color Combos Galore website but it is not getting updated weekly as it is supposed to and so I do not have a CCG page to share this time. SHOCK! HORROR! Hope it gets back on track and soon! However, I have discovered some challenges going on over at the Kaisercraft website so I have 3 layouts to share from there.

The 1st is called 'Love Those Lashes' using the Loire Valley range. I've used this range of papers before and I love it. The colours are so perfect for little boy pages and I think they look really great with a black and white photo. My lucky little boy has the most luscious black lashes just like his daddy.

The 2nd layout is a Hayley page using the Garden Arabesque range. I have added some handstitching, paper tearing, scrunching and inking to this one.

The 3rd layout is using the same sketch as the Hayley page but using the Fun Fair papers instead. Had to use vibrant colours to match the photo of my little clown, William.

I also created a page for the RW Laser Cuts Blog featuring their Star Circle Frame. It was so much fun experimenting with the different mediums I applied to the frame: painting, doodling, covering with paper and felt, applying Glossy Accents and even handstitching around some of the stars.

Lastly, here is the layout I created for my class at the recent Scrap Fair for Abundantia's Gold.

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot the PRIMA August BAP. I think this is my favourite layout of the week. Only because of the struggle I had to match the papers. I am in desperate need of more new Prima papers in my stash (are you reading theis Simone. Pretty please!! OK enough of the sucking up now). Anyway I love the way it turned out. I am only sorry that I had to sacrifice the beautiful rose design on the back of that blue paper.

In Merlin news, he has happily started pulling out my seedlings just for fun and also eating his $200 fibreglass kennel. I swear we are feeding him and a little too much according to the vet!!

Happy scrappin'

B-)