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!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABY!!

Just a very quick post to say Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you have a great day, and thanks so much for reading my blog. I will leave you with a pic of our Christmas tree - and of course, my lovely daughter...

WHOO HOOT WEDNESDAY - AND WHAT A WHOO HOOT I HAVE!!!

Just a quick post before bed, but for those of you that don't know, I have some fantastic news!! I have been accepted onto the Scrappin' Patch Design Team!!! I am so excited! I truly cannot believe it. Huge congrats go to the others who made it as well; Annelie, Kate and Delys, and to the 2 Guest Designers, Heidi and Beverley. I feel so honoured that I am among such amazing talent. Our DT entries have been put up on the Scrappin' Patch gallery, so I will just put up a few sneak peeks for you; if you want to see the full items, you have to go there.

A few more Whoo Hoots for today:

It's nearly Christmas - another great Whoo Hoot!!

My sister and her family coming up for Christmas on Christmas Eve - can't wait, even if we don't get any sleep...

My other sister coming from London in January!!!

Cuddles and hugs from my darling daughter, and being told that I am the 'best mummy in the whole world'.

Getting on the Scrappin' Patch Design Team!!

A quiet weekend ahead in order to prepare for the whole Christmas thing.

A catch-up with Liz to look forward to on Friday ... and playing with some scrapping stuff while the kids play.

My DH is actually home for Christmas, which is fab!

Oh, and did I mention, getting on the Scrappin' Patch Design Team??!!

Ok, that's all for tonight, have a great weekend! Oh, I also just wanted to say thanks so much to everyone for all the lovely comments you have been leaving on my posts - I really do appreciate it, and when I am feeling totally inadequate and like a fraud as a scrapbooker, I love to read all the nice comments and it really makes my day, so thanks again.

Dear Loyal Readers...

My most humble apologies for not blogging for... oh, it's been a month!! I can't believe it. I have been so busy with Christmas stuff and scrapbooking competitions. My household has been totally neglected, and I didn't get our Christmas tree up until yesterday!! I am slowly catching up on housework, and am very pleased that I have done most of my Christmas shopping and even wrapping, so getting there. Oh, and I plan on catching up on all my blog-reading and commenting over the next couple of weeks, as well. I only have about 100 posts or so to read, lol...

I have two exciting pieces of news today; first, I am an Aunty again - my sister, Leanne, has had her third child, a little girl called Georgia-Rose, born this morning around 5am. I am anxiously awaiting a photo...

Secondly, I found out that I won the competition over at Scrapbox - I am so excited, my first competition win!! A huge thanks to Julia and the team; Brenda, Lynne and Dallas. My good friend, Liz, and I actually came first equal, so then we had to have a 'scrapoff' - basically, a layout based on a 6 x 12 sketch. I don't know how the judges chose a winner, really; my style is so different to Liz's; and I liked both our pages equally. This is a link to Liz's pic in the gallery. Liz and I have talked about it over the last week, and decided that we like being first equal, no matter who won in the end; we both love each other's work and are happy with our own, so that is what counts. This was my entry:

For the second week of the comp, we had to scrap a Christmas page in non-traditional Christmas colours.
At first I found this difficult, but once I found a Christmas photo that wasn't in Christmas colours, the hard part was really done. This entry came third place.

For the next challenge, we had to make a Christmas table centrepiece. Now, I have not done a lot of OTP, and found this very difficult, but luckily, I ended up coming first!! Yay!! Here is my funky take on a Christmas tree:

I decorated a pencil box, then wrapped ribbon around a tree branch, and decorated it with flocked birds, glittered stars, and flowers with bling.

For the 4th and last challenge, we had to make a set of cards and matching box. I chose to make an acrylic card, mostly see-through. I am really happy with it, but it didn't make the top 3.

I'm loving my new Fiskars lace border punch, used on the bottom of the cards. I stamped a bird twice, then gave it dimension with foam dots, kindyglitzed and added bling. I cut a frame on my new MM Slice, then embossed it on my cuttlebug. The title was AC thickers, inked in green, and the Christmas word was stamped and kindyglitzed. A Christmas message can be written on the inside on the white border.

Next up, I made a Christmas tree ornament for the Christmas comp at Scrapbook Outlet. I kept mine pretty simple, a photo of my Mum in a silver frame:

This is currently hanging on my tree. Unfortunately, I just didn't have time to keep up with this competition, and haven't done any of the challenges since, but there is lots of inspiration happening over there, so go visit the gallery for lots of fun ideas.

I also entered the Stars in Their Eyes competition currently running over at Scrappin' Patch. I came second in the first challenge; which was to do a layout in the style of the famous NZ scrapbooker, Nic Howard.

I totally love this page, and was so proud to come second to another famous NZ scrapbooker, Louise Williams. For the second challenge, we had to do a layout in the style of Mou Saha, which I found very, very difficult. Mou's style is very arty and very different to mine; she even uses different colours to me. This was my take:

I do not like it!! I think it is totally ugly. I don't mind some parts, like the journalling and photo and colours, but I don't like the yellow paint, the title or the buttons. Never mind, this was as close to Mou's style as I can get! I tried to incorporate her spicy colours, handwritten journalling and handmade titles, her use of tags and buttons and lots of paint.

Luckily, the only competition/scrapping thing I am currently doing is this Scrappin' Patch one; with Christmas nearly here I don't have any more time for scrapping at the moment. And the next challenge is to do a project in Emily Falconbridge's style - I am quite looking forward to it; I have some ideas floating round in my head already, and am deciding between 2 themes. But, the deadline is not until early next year, so I have plenty of time, and will probably not start it until after Christmas.

Well, that is everything creative I have to show you at the mo - I have been working on some other stuff, but can't show you just yet. I promise to get better with my blogging!! I will write again soon.