Scrappy Kea

Party was yesterday! Miss K is 5! She'll be off to School next Wednesday after many happy days at Playcentre - going to be strange just taking Mr E with me each day & leaving the girls at school. Here's the card for daring cardmakers for this week - I used metal heart brads given by Paula with some gel-a-tin stamps I purchased from her :-) We were up till 2am on the day of K's birthday & I'd been up till 1:30am the day before getting an A-Z album finished for Katya's present so am still rather tired! J did it too which is nice for Miss K to have an album that both her parents worked on for her. We got her a gorgeous castle thing that is Lego! It's so nice to see some 'girly' lego, hope they make more! She was really spoilt with gifts from her grandparents, cousins and friends! Off to get a coffee!

The dare from the middle of last week (I think) was to use 'imagine' as the theme for your card, my dream card emerged from this. I smeared it with Lil davis glitter glaze and adhered the letters on top. I stamped with some blue shadow ink - to try not to have too much strenght of colour - that day dreamy, hazy feeling.... Last Friday's dare was to have openings or windows in your card. I used my small retro daisy punch to create a row of flower windows along th ebottom of this birthday card and adhered some 7 gypsies tape in behind them. So what are the tricks for stamping on fabric? It doesn't have the depth of colour I imagined & can you heat emboss on fabric? There are only 3 kits left of the January kits which are shipping today from the Scrapbook Outlet . These were designed by Yolande & Donna & it looks stunning, watch out for the limited edition designed stamp too :-)

another DCM challenge - this was a mid week one -The fabric on here is an ex-swatch from an interior designer & would have been thrown out if not rescued by a fellow scrapper/stamper/cardmaker & shared - thanks Ali :-). I stamped on it with stazon & added the name plate also with a stamp on it.

Heidi challenged us last week to scrap our chicken pox pictures. I loved what she did! Here's my attempt. Though you can't see many pox I think you get the idea of how miserable miss A was. Her siblings have it now with Miss K getting it the worst!

Inspiration from the wardrobe was this weeks dare . I love blues & greens so naturally these translated into my cards this week! The above is a top & below is a neckace I made at our Scrap Retreat last year - make & take run by the fabulous Nik (thanks Nik). I had fun making this card with the blues & greens & experimenting with some new embossing powders (blue & holographic) as well as the embossing heat gun that I got with my FK award voucher (thanks for shopping for me Lynley). I stamped a catslife press 'dream' stamp in the middle & used a mod frame. Topped with a bazzill flower & MM gem sticker. the paisley stamp is a hero arts one. I just used a square of left over paper for this one, inked the edges with blue versamark cube & cut the words with george in my cricut. I added some more MM gems on for interest - simple but appropriate for a 'sympathy' type card. My remaining two children now have chicken pox (I'm pleased...

Daring Card Makers Challenge was to include some 'bling'. I used some of the Ki shimmer paper to cut the heart from, used some MM gems & the dots on the top make use of silver embossing powder. This will be for my daughters 5th Birthday card for Jan 29th - she loves sparkly things :-) Love this crown stamp from catslife press too!

I was going to upload more pics - but they are coming through so pixelated or something at the moment.... not sure what's up or if I've done something different???? Any way... the above pic follows my mum asking 'who will massage my feet?' & Ali & Kat had a ball rubbing some lotion on mums feet, the best bit was when they finished & jumped on the sofa with their feet on her lap & said 'it's our turn now!' - not what mum was planning at all! I came back from Camp to an email saying I had got on the Scrap Of Faith Design Team which is very cool. I get to teach some online classes there in April & May & the concepts are going to be quite challenging in regards to related layouts & projects - something to really get me thinking! Perfect. I found a great blog the other day with some topics/themes for taking photos & in the process developing photography skills - not sure why I'd never ventured into the 'photography...

Wahoo, I won one of the Awards For Excellence with For Keeps - for photography! I've just collected my prizes from a friends place - she went shopping to spend my $500 voucher at Scrapbookers Delight in Auckland for me - how cool is that a prize & a personal shopper!!!??? Any way I got quite a few bits of patterned paper, cardstocks (still need white!!!), a new trimmer, an embossing heat gun, some stazons, some distressing ink a new cutting mat, some cool powders, adhesives & tombow, anyway, have to go put it all in it's place so I can use it. Niks coming up tonight so we can play - have a tag to make for our cyber friend Sal of Scrap Of Faith as she had her fifth baby - Cowper early this morning - Congrats Sal! Anyway, gotta vacuum since Niks coming....

here goes.... check the blurb at the end of the next post titled 'twelve days'. continued below...

and the rest.... I've done a few more than the 12 layouts - but at this stage (while still not home yet!!!) I'm just putting up the ones that relate to the fantastic themes set for us! Thanks again Janine for the extrinsic motivation to actually begin & complete this project! Once again digitalmax came through & my photos arrived just in time :-)

Busy, busy, busy! Looking forward to a six week break starting Thursday this week. Have a 'Christmas at the Beach' planned & then off to Christmas Camp till after new years. I've done a couple of online classes this week - on Wednesday with Nik & last night with Chris - the inside of the tin I did in Niks class is the first pic on the colage below - can't show you what I did in Chris's class last night as it has bare bottoms! The pics from Left to right starting at the top (also on the bottom right corner) - Niks online class tin. My trusty wooden cake box. The kids reading a new book. Firt Ribbon night at the Arrowtown Pool. The gingerbread house I didn't win. The kids with santa (who is their dad!). Looking at some of our beautiful scenery. Alicia on the water slide at the Chefs Association Barbecue & Niks tin again! I have been busy creating these for Andrea - it's been fun playing with different versions of 'the boot' & playi...

a few competitions: Keep an eye on the Scrapbook Outlet for the next monthly competition & for the new theme for 'Get Real'. Check out Evana's Blog (links on the right hand side) for a cool comp & check out what's happening on Janines blog (this is the reason for today's post - but later...) Also a cyber crop at the Scrapbook Outlet this coming friday so get your name on the list. These are heaps of fun with fantastic prizes for games and layout challenges too! Might mean an early Christmas present :-) Can't wait to see the new out of the closet stuff at Up2Scrap either - I have some to play with & love it!!! OK - the 12 days of Christmas... Have myself and 8 x 8 Maya Road Binder for this one & intend to make a kind of album that spells out some of what Christmas is for our family. Janine is setting the daily themes & I just can't scrap them till I get photos from Digital Max (my printer gets choked up if I put anything thicker than ...

Here's my single layout that didn't get published: Wow, it now seems real! When I saw my stuff in Up2Scrap I finally felt like I was on the Elite Team! There's heaps of inspiration and ideas in the latest copy -so get one! Trina even altered a 'nappy' - yep a nappy - so check it out!

Well, it's really a winery now but once it was - the building was relocated from somewhere down south! Huge congrats to Andrew & Bex who got married yesterday :-) The children came to the service and I pre-cut &/or painted up the below items to which they added embellishments - These came about through suggestions from some online friends and Rach at the weekly chat at SBO on Friday night! The bride arrived in a helicopter - reminded me of my wedding :-) She looked aboslutely gorgeous! The food was stunning too - bbq crayfish, spit roasted pork, lamb & chicken and some really tasty salads. Dessert was creme brule, cheesecake or tiramisu - YUM - guess that's what happens when the groom and one of the groomsmen are chefs who initially trained under my DH - the groom works casually at Waitiri now though once was the full time chef & one of the groomsmen has done really well in chef competitions and is heading off overseas to further his career. Andrew has ch...

Yep - this is kind of how they were on the jet boat too! Katya laughed out lout at the excitement of it all, Ethan went quiet & growly as he got cold & Alicia was kind of 'stoic'! Great scenery despite the rain & cold - would happily do it all over again though (would wear thermals though). My CJ from a recipe Circle Journal swap came back home yesterday & here's a collection of the pages! I really appreciate all the work & the fantastic recipes in here - Thank You!

Ok, it's been a while, sorry. See I love Picassa - so easy & soo free! but for some reason, when I click 'blog this' nothing happens any more - any ideas? I'm having a go at using photobucket so bare with me please.... First Tooth - Ali has been so excited to have wiggly teeth for the past few weeks.... & while munching on some snow (don't ask) she proudly announced that one came out! The tooth fairy came & took it that night leaving some $ in the glass instead (it's now sitting in one of those cute maya road tins that the 'ribbon slides' come in) awaiting attachment on a page - photos of this should be here on Tuesday! It is November isn't it? Well last Wednesday you wouldn't think so - check out the snow angel on my deck! The kids had a ball! The November kit at SBO is fantastic & must cruise some blogs to see how it's being used. Should be getting the December kit later this week & it's gorgeous too - with...

Well, here's a use for them! Jase is growing some lavender from cuttings and ran out of seedling trays - who needs em??!! So instead of saying to dh, here's another scrapbooking supply parcel or hiding it in the cupboard till later just say "hey, I got another seedling tray for all our fabulous plants" - do you think he'll fall for it? Ah well - only doing a post to keep Vicky happy or is that my blog talking? LOL. Off to a scrap retreat in Bannockburn tomorrow, can't wait though have a bit to get done and sort through tonight so I can actually get there in time! Congrats to those who got onto the Scrapbooks By Design team WTG & fingers crossed for all who are entering the SE Dt call also :-) see ya!