Another Quick One...

... 'cos I am so busy trying to get organised for the Sketchbook Retreat in... 2 days!! I have my Design Team kit, so am just trying to pick photos that go with the lovely products I have been sent by Adrienne and Pauline over at Scrappin' Patch, plus I have to organise a couple of technique projects and an Easter layout, so at least I won't run out of things to do whilst I am there. I'm freaking out a little, actually; at the last retreat I didn't even manage to complete a single project, but this time I have to as my DT kit stuff is due next Wednesday... gulp! So I am just gonna have to get over myself, put my head down and just scrap instead of my usual procrastinating. I am really looking forward to spending some time with some of my closest friends, and meeting others I have 'met' online.

Oh, and if you have nothing else to do between now and Midnight this Friday, please please please have a go at the sketch in my previous post... getting desperate now; with only 3 entries so far you have an excellent chance of winning the RAK... lol.

Keep your eyes peeled on the Scrappin' Patch forum too from this Friday; lots of exciting new challenges going to be happening.

I will leave you with a pic of my gorgeous sister, Nick, who never sends me emails.... (hint, hint, nubee...), and all her nieces and nephews... most of whom belong to our other sister, Lee - mine's the little dark one on the end! It's from when she was over from London in Jan, and we had a fab time. Miss you, babe.

Can't wait to see some of you at the retreat this weekend!

Shock, Horror...

... my second post in as many days!

I forgot to say a huge Congratulations to Liz, Lynne and Beverley in my last post. They are the winners of the Stars in Their Eyes competition that finished recently over at Scrappin' Patch. I think the winners were definitely well deserved, and I am especially happy that my good friend, Liz, came first - she is awesome!! Congrats, Liz!

The Sketchbook Retreat is in only a couple of weeks; Liz, Kim (my friend), Amanda (Liz's friend) and I are all going together. So excited; can't wait!! Just not sure I am going to have anything organised to do...
Oh, I had to post a sketch challenge over at Scrappin' Patch; I have only ever done one layout from a sketch, and I have never made a challenge before, so my first attempt is at left.

Ok, now you have to forgive my awful drawing, but I couldn't figure out how to make a computer sketch on either PSE or Sketchblog - is that what's it's called? Or is it Scrapblog... anyway, so I had to quickly do a sketch and scan it. You can see why I never became an artist, lol.

And at left is my take on the sketch. Not sure I like this page very much; it is very simple and linear compared to what I have been doing lately, but the photos and paper were quite busy and just needed some simplicity, I think. And it was pretty quick to do, which was a bonus. I love my little hand-stitched felt clouds!

So, if you wanna play along with me, visit the Scrappin' Patch forum here for more details. Would love to see your version of it...

Ok, that'll do for today; need to go make an Easter layout, and sort out a couple of techniques, so that should keep me busy for a while. Oh, and expecting a HUGE parcel from Scrappin' Patch early next week, including my next DT kit, so can't wait to get that and have a play. Have a great weekend!

Ooops, I Did It Again...

... it's been nearly a month again since I blogged!! Goodness, where does the time go?

First of all, a huge thanks to the lovely Lynne for giving me my first ever blog award! Now, I have to nominate others ... who to pick!! I suppose, the blogs I visit most often:

Liz

Danice

Serena

Sandra

Trace

Annelie

Hannah

... and my good friend, Kim, who has finally joined the world of blogging! Yay!

I love all your blogs, ladies, so thanks for all the interesting reading. This is what you need to do:

1. Add the logo to your blog.

2. Link to the person from whom you received this award.

3. Nominate 7 or more blogs.

4. Leave a message on their blog, letting them know they are “One Lovely Blog.

Also, Annelie has challenged me to a photo post; the 6th photo in my 6th photo folder...however, I have lots of subfolders, so I just kept going through picking the 6th folder until I got to a photo, and this was it, pure and unadulterated (in other words, no photoshop!!). Just me, no idea how old I am, having a bath. Obviously enjoying it! One of the very few photos from my childhood.

So there you go. Now, I need to nominate 6 others to do the same, just post the 6th photo in your 6th folder on your blog, then nominate 6 more people:

Liz

Danice

Serena

Sandra

Kim

and Lynne.

Ok, now for some scrapping stuff. A couple of weeks ago I posted the following layout for Scrappin' Patch, with instructions showing how to make the tissue paper flowers using Glimmermist. I had lots of fun painting the Prima Paintable with Twinkling H2Os, and I even tucked a bit of the Glimmermisted tissue paper between the Paintable and the scalloped border. It looks very cool IRL; I was very happy with how the flowers turned out; give it a try yourself one day - and show me the results if you do!

Here is a close-up of the flowers (only the pink and blue ones); if you want the technique for making these, go visit Scrappin' Patch on the blog or forum.

Ok, that's all for today; I'm off to dinner with DH tonight, while the lovely Kim looks after Aurelia and gives us some time to ourselves, yay! Looking forward to getting a bit glammed up, actually. Might even get Kim to take some photos...

Have a good one!

Valentine's Day Card Challenge

And the winner is:

Picked by my little darling; she was quite happy to pick a name out of a hat (well, an old ice cream container, but a hat sounds better!), but not so happy to pose for a pic. Sorry for the delay; I nearly forgot about it! Congrats Amanda!! The RAK will be winging it's way to you shortly.

Remember When...

I was busy creating stuff at the beginning of this year and I totally neglected my blog? Well, now I can finally show you the stuff I was busy creating. I received my first DT kit from Scrappin' Patch, and had to create a couple of different things with the contents. First, I played with the gorgeous My Little Shoebox "Little Birdie" range. Following are the 3 layouts I designed, using mostly this product range. Details of products used are here.

I loved these products, and they are definitely papers I would have picked for myself, so I was pretty happy playing with them. And I like that I made 3 completely different layouts from them.

Next, I got just a couple of items to make some budget projects - I made the following 2 layouts and 2 cards for just on $10!! - I was pretty impressed with that!

I love the She Said layout; and because I had limited products, I really had to stretch myself, but I ended up with a layout I wouldn't normally have done, but am very happy with. I love the card too! These are also not colours I normally use, and I had to really search to find a photo that suited. But sometimes it's really good to do something out of the norm. And I love my little flowers on my layout! I was very impressed with my sewing skills, lol...






The photos on this layout are terrible photos, but they are a reminder of a really fantastic night, so I wanted to scrap them. Making them pretty small helps, I think. I think my girlfriends would not be happy to see these photos in print, but luckily they are not scrapbookers and don't know about my blog, heehee!




And finally, I am very happy that I am going to the Sketchbook Retreat in about 5 weeks - I was freaking out a little that DH might be working that weekend, but he has it off, so phew, it's all stations go!! I can't wait - and maybe this year I might actually get some layouts done, lol. I'm going to be sharing a ride and a room with the lovely Liz (Scrapdizzy) and her good friend, Amanda, whom I have only met a couple of times, but she seems very nice, so it should be a good time. I am also really looking forward to seeing some of the girls I hung out with last time, like Megan, Hannah and Annelie, and getting to know Delys, who is on the Scrappin' Patch DT with me, a bit better this time - if she is going, I'm not sure. Not sure who else is going, but should be fun.

Oh, and I also wanted to say a big congrats to Liz, for being asked to join the Scrappin' Patch team as a Guest Designer - welcome on board Liz, looking forward to working with you!!

Ok, it's late now so bedtime. I need to post again soon, so keep an eye out for me in the next couple of days. Enjoy the rain!

Sending my love... (and a CHALLENGE) ...

to you all today, on Valentine's Day. And in honour of Valentine's Day, I have some crafty stuff to share with you.

Well done figuring out the clue... or finding the lightbulb, lol! My item is: Heart-felt, handwritten journalling. Good luck! Now go visit the next blog.

First, a card and challenge. Now, I had no intention of making a Valentine's card this year, as DH and I don't really 'do' Valentine's (well, he doesn't so I don't get much choice), so I will probably save this card for another occasion, but yesterday I received a lovely box full of goodies from Scrappin' Patch, including the new Little Yellow Bicycle papers, the Love Letters range, and Delish ATC transparencies, and I just wanted to sit down and make something with them straight away. (Boy, that was a long sentence!) Most of the product used in this card is available for purchase over at Scrappin' Patch.

I'm actually not sure whether I really like it or not, it is a little strange... But my DH likes it. Even though he's not getting it...kidding, he will probably get it for our next anniversary!

Along with posting this card on the Scrappin' Patch forum and blog, I decided to set a wee challenge, and I would love all of you to join in... all you have to do is make a card or layout with a 'love' theme, add some ribbon to it somewhere, and post to the gallery here by midnight, Monday 16th Feb, and you will be in the draw to win the RAK, shown at left. It includes some of the 6 x 6 Love Letters papers, incl. 2 of the die-cut papers; a brand new MME stamp, and a set of wooden Kaisercraft 6 x 6 album covers.

And another 'love' themed project is this layout I spent most of the week creating for the Valentine's Inspiration over at the Patch:

I have been totally inspired by Ingvild Bolme's lovely layouts - her work is just totally awesome - and I scraplifted quite a few of her ideas, so thanks, Ingvild. I really love it, although it is still definitely mine and not Ingvild's - I need a lot more practice to be as good as she is! One of my scrapping goals this year is to improve my scrapping, and I would love to make layouts as lovely as Ingvild's. (My other goal is to get quicker at scrapping; I am still so painfully slow, lol!)

And a couple of closeups. I used paper from Prima, Websters, Kaisercraft and Crate, bling and leaves from Prima, lace and flowers and ribbon from my stash, chipboard, paint and ink, AC Thickers, Carolee's Creations mini alpha stickers, and, um, I think that's about it. I am just loving everything Prima and Websters at the moment, and am about to order all the lovely, gorgeous, beautiful new Websters pages from Scrappin' Patch here - and they are even pink! Oh, and for those wondering, yes, that is me and DH, on our wedding day 8 years ago. I look so young, and slim, and lovely...*sigh*. Not sure what happened, lol...

OK, that's all for today. I will be back within the next couple of days, as I have an award to share from the lovely Lynne, and a challenge to complete by the awesome Annelie, as well as some more projects to show you! So see you soon. Happy scrapping!

Where To Start...

Hmm, maybe with another apology for being such a slack blogger...!! I really do enjoy blogging, but I don't understand how all you others out there in blogworld manage to do it all. I can barely keep up with my scrapbooking and family, let alone blogging. Well, I can't promise anything, but in less than a week I will be back home, my family will all be back in their homes, and Aurelia will be back in kindy, so things will be back to their 'normal' state of affairs, and I should be able to blog a bit more often - I hope.

I am writing this from my sister, Leanne's house in Tauranga, on my little nephew's computer. Our other sister, Nicky, is over from London, and even our Aunty Margaret has flown up from Christchurch to be with us all. We are having a lovely time, even if the house is a little crowded. We are just hanging out, spending time together, and Aurelia is having a ball playing with her cousins. Oh, I promised to show a picture of my new baby Niece, so here she is - little Georgia-Rose:

Isn't she just adorable? This was taken a few weeks ago, she has grown so much in that time and is now 7 weeks old!! Her mum is doing an amazing job looking after her and her 12-year-old brother and 2-year-old sister.

Now, another reason for my non-blogging is that I have been busy creating stuff for Scrappin' Patch. Here is a sneak peek of a 3-layout Class Kit I created using My Little Shoebox papers. This kit is available for purchase here, along with another sneak peek. I am so excited; something I have created is available for people to actually buy!! Of course, I hope someone actually buys one, lol...



A lot of cool stuff has been happening over at Scrappin' Patch. The Stars In Your Eyes competition is really hotting up; and now that the competition is mid-way through, Adrienne and Pauline have put up an extra prize for the winner of the next challenge - to scrap a layout like Jolene Pienaar. Check out the details here. My good friend, Liz, is doing really well in the comp so far, go Liz!! I have yet to comment on the entries for Lori's challenge in the gallery, but I have had a quick look, and they really are stunning. Will comment soon, I promise!

The very lovely ladies on the Design Team are also hosting some challenges for the long Waitangi Day weekend coming up; and each challenge winner will receive a cool RAK. Sneak peeks of the challenges are here. Unfortunately I am unable to join in, being here in Tauranga, but I can't wait to see all your entries.


As part of the Holiday Inspiration on the forum and blog, I recently made this school bag tag for Aurelia, and we both love it! After making it, I laminated it to make it hardwearing. You can read more details and see more pics here.


Lastly, as some of you may know, it was my birthday recently, and no, I am not going to tell you how old I am, but I am willing to share some pics from the very loud, raucous, and fun, party I had on Saturday night. Well, I can't show you any photos yet, but go visit Danice's blog if you want to have a bit of a laugh. We had an awesome night. I was so lucky to spend the evening with some of my lovely friends, Danice, Liz, Kim, Rana and my little sis, Nicky. I will post some photos next week when I am home.

Well, I think that is enough for today. I hope to do another post before the end of this week; late one night again probably, while my nephew, Caleb, is asleep!

Bye all!!