My ABC's

Wow, as of yesterday I have 3 school children! My little Leah had her first day of grade 1 and it was also Joel's first day as school captain.

I used this layout for the fortnightly challenge on the Boxx. It was to use a photo of your kids in school uniform.

From way, way down in my stash I dug out the paper doll template and dressed it up in our school colours. The skirt is an inked and folded doily.

Did you spot the tiny school boy charm?

In case you're wondering what Leah is holding, it's a German thing. All kids will get those cones on their very first day of school and it's full of sweets and school supplies.

We had a little party for Leah and her best friend. Quite the collection, girls!

Look at this old photo of me and my sisters! (I'm the little one and it was actually my oldest sister, Ulli, who started school that day)

Since I'm reminiscing, here's one of my grandmother in 1917, which I scrapped a couple of years ago:

It's a boy!

No, it's not what you think! This is a photo of Joel when he was brand-new.

I did my first challenge for show us your stuff. The challenge was to include the following:

*Stitching (hand, machine or faux): I added a few gold cross stitches here and there
*Misting: those blue blobs on the cardstock (my all-time favourite glimmer mist colour is running out, but even though I can no longer mist with it I will blob till the bitter end!)
*buttons: those cuuuuute Lil Red Rocket buttons

*4 or more patterned paper: I used Crate paper, love the quirkiness of it

*Something handmade: I made a funky heart with texture paste

Simply put some in a zip-lock bag, snip of a tiny corner and squeeze unto some baking paper. It curls by itself. How cool is that! It does take a few hours to dry properly though. 

I also made a buckle, it's got Joel's full name in stickers with Dimensional Magic on top:

Check out this pin from my2angels. I totally love it.

I've never really journalled about the birth as it was quite traumatic for mum and bub but after 11 years I finally wrote it down.

Took me long enough! LOL

Beach girl

Ahh, my cute little Hannah 3 year ago! We really don't go to the beach often enough (not that it's been 3 years!) And who wouldn't want to go if there's such cute October Afternoon paper to scrap beach photos.

Did you spot the boy chasing the girl with a fish? I think that artist must have watched my kids.

And here's another dress maker's dummy, this time sporting a bikini:

And look what I found in my bottomless stash! It's a little zipper puller:

All we need now is a few sunny days so we can squeeze in another beach day.

First DT project for My 2 Angels

I did my first design team project for the lovely Tracy from My 2 Angels. Amazingly we just found out that we both have a birthday today!!!! Wow, how cool is it to find a twin that loves the stuff I love.

She's got a really good sale on at the moment: 

 Check it out here

Until the 20th January 2011 we have up to 50% off ALL Pattern Papers,  Christmas Ribbons and Christmas Felt

Here's what I did, but please check out the rest of the blog for some really gorgeous stuff.

Not using any patterned paper was a challenge for me, but the felt stands out so much better on a plain paper.

First, I used some glimmer mist for a bit of shine on the cardstock and stitched around the edge twice with my sewing machine, adding a few rhinestones wherever the stitches cross.

I framed the photo with the cute white scalloped felt frame and glued on strips of the white and silver rhinestone chain and a pink rhinestone heart.

I love the contrast of felt and rhinestones.

I had half a paper doily left from another project, so that went under the frame and then I glued down the pink and white stemmed star flowers.

The cute felt heart with a charm and an organza ribbon bow hides any glue bits and the gorgeous little camera charm inspired the title.

Thanks for looking, everyone! Now for a birthday drink...

2010 in a nutshell

I was going to make a little summary of our year but 12 photos on 1 page can be a bit crowded. After seeing some pages with a pop-up ball in Scrapbooking Memories I knew that's what I wanted.

At first it looks like a normal page:

...bits of embellies here and there... 

...but you can open it here... 

... and there is more! 

It's a little hard to photograph, but inside there is a ball that pops up! 

It looks like this and there is a photo from every month of the year 2010 to remind us of some of the fun times we've had. 

I didn't glue it down so it's easier to have a look at all the photos. And yes, it gets squished flat again when you close the book. 

We'll be making a page like this in class next week (January 11 and 13), so come along if you'd like to learn how!

Rainy Christmas

OMG, we've had the wettest December in 150 years and I cannot imagine it could have been any rainier 151 years ago. It rained and rained and rained. Most days the yard was a huge puddle, too wet to even let the guinea pigs out. Normally at this time of the year I am always keen to go camping but this year it didn't work out for DH to take time off and I'm kind of glad we're not slugging it out in some mud hole.

So here's a photo of my girls an hour after a big storm having some fun in the flooded back yard:

I joined in a challenge on the Boxx (again!). We were to use something from a Christmas card. I used Lisa's card (thanks!):

I really loved the big glitter snowflake but there's little chance of a white Christmas in Brisbane. So instead I made the page about our "Rainy Christmas...How I wish it was snow". By the way, the rain drops are the punched out scrap bits from the blue border on the bottom.

And again, one of Lil Red Rocket's cute buttons. Who could resist these?!

What I've been up to over Christmas

I totally love Christmas and I had an old photo from Leah's kindy party 2 years ago. I used the same basic layout as on the "owner of a blog" page, with a few small changes.

The tree is a mask using texture paste and some kindy glitz: 

an ancient rub-on from the bottom of my Christmas stash and that gorgeous blue butterfly I've been hoarding for weeks: 

The little chipboard bird is embossed and (while it's still hot) covered with some glitter. Thanks, Janet, for the buckle!

I made this page for my DH Greg. The challenge from the Boxx was to create a  mood board. Somehow it turned out more "layouty" than "mood boardy" but he doesn't know that and he liked it anyway.

The hearts sit on some messy misting: 

and I used lots of embellies from previous Boxx swaps: 

And while we're talking of favourite people here is my page about some of my favourite scrapbooking friends:

Using a lot of bits and pieces: 

One of Lil Red Rocket's buttons: 

The journalling says, "These girls heap inspiration on me every time we meet. They understand my need to own a huge stash of pretty papers and things. They are great friends and that's why...I love you."

Maybe you find yourself here!