From My Scrapping Corner

Too Busy

Busy is the theme in our house this week. With kinder's meeting, kinder's duty, school council's meeting, dance exams &  Riley's birthday approaching, we have things to do everyday. I also had to make these.

Riley wants a cupcake party, ever since he saw the photos of Chloe's birthday party in Jane's blog. So, I made these for the party bag. They are like a giant pincushion, with a take-away plastic container as base. The plan is to put the lollies in the container.

I had this idea on Monday evening, while chatting with Amanda. And I tried it out using a scrap of calico. That white cupcake was the proto-type. It worked, so the past 2 days we made the rest of them. I made the basic cupcake, Amanda decorated them & Riley put them in front of the heater so the fabric glitter could dry quicker.  After 4 cupcakes, we get a real production line going.  I chose these colours because it's a boy's cupcake party. They are really quite cute & I though that after the lollies were eaten, the kids can use them for playing or for storing their bits & bobs.

The party will be on Sunday, just a family lunch at home. But our family is big & our house is small, so we need to make as much room as possible inside & out. That means clearing out the junk we have all over the house. So we had also been spring cleaning. We cleaned out every book shelves in the house, donated some stuff to school & kinder. We also packed up some of the kids toys & put them in the shed, thrown out heaps of Maccas Happy Meal toys & recycled whatever possible.

Anyway, the house looks so much neater & tidier now. But the laundry was chocked full with dirty clothes. Until yesterday, I could only squeezed in there to put the dirty clothes. No space to do anything because the laundry was our junk transit place. So, you know what I'll be busy with in the next 2 days. Definitely no scrapping for me this week. Too many things to do & too much laundry.

So, here are the 2 layouts from my last week's ASS challenge. They maybe my last ones, so I hope you enjoy them. And don't forget that there is always voting at the ASS blog.

Ok, that's all for today. I will post again next week with photos from the weekend. I hope you have a nice weekend too. By for now.

Unpublished For Keeps Layouts

A few weeks ago I emailed Casey from For Keeps regarding my unpublished layouts. I have a few from my DT period there and since my contract was finished a few months ago, I thought I would ask whether I could post them here. Some layout are from early 2007, as you can probably tell from the colours or paper range.  But I still love them, so I'm sharing them here. Hope you enjoy them.

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A layout I completed for the Meet Our Design Team article. It never got published due to the article being discontinued.

A digital layout I completed for Colour Expose section. It had to make way for an ad.

 

Credit: Vintage Dreams Retro Collaboration kit, Michelle Coleman Hand Stamped Alpha both from little dreamer designs. Photo by DanielleQ photography.

A digital layout I completed for Affordable Style section for issue 67. This is the first issue of For Keeps Creative Paper, and on this new-look For Keeps, the article was discontinued.

Credit: Brushes by Jason Gaylor, Elements by Katie Pertiet from designer digital, Linda Gillbilldal from scrapartist, Frame by Nancy Comelab from the lilypad, Kit by Corina Nielsen.

A digital layout I completed for Colour Expose issue 67. It didn't make it due to space constraint.

Credit: Frame by Holly McCaig, String by Lori Banhurst, Papers by Michelle Coleman both  from little dreamer designs, Glitter paper by Two Sisters Design from we are story tellers dot net, Template by Theresa Kavouras from scrap girls, Brushes by Katie Pertiet from designer digitals.

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Looking at these layout made me want to scrap digitally again. I haven't done that in a while & I miss it. I seemed to be doing papers all the time recently. It is ironic that since I owned the laptop, I couldn't find time to digi scrap. Everything this month is about paper crafting. Siigh... Perhaps one day soon I will digi scrap again, just for me.... because I want to.

Thanks for stopping by, everyone. Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Maya Road Sheer Sheet

I have been busy last month working with Maya Road Sheer Sheet. These are what I came up with.

Star Sheet

Close up

 

Butterfly Sheet

Close Up

For the step by step, check the Tips & Technique section at TSE forum here.

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As for news, I am now buried under kinder's paperworks. Committe meeting will be next week & I haven't even typed up minutes from last meeting. Yikes. There are some newsletter work needed to be done as well. So, lots of computer work for the next couple of days.  I do hope I can still scrap, especially since I have 2 half finished layouts for the next ASS chalenges sitting on my desk.

I also need to peel myself off the Wii.  The kids started me on Tamagotchi Party On. It is the hit game this week.

We are 1/2 way through our 30 election game. So things are hotting up & everytime Amanda's back from school she definitely bugs me to death with continuing the game. The record so far is 4 hrs non-stop. I know it's bad... but it's sooo addictive & we are getting good at the games.

So yeah, decision decision... paperwork, scrapping & Wii. Can you guess which one win? LOL...

I better go now. I'll cya next time. TFSB.

37

I turned 37 last week. Thank you for all the sms, cards, emails & pressies. I love them all & you have made my birthday very special. Thank you Kerry, Sandy, Emily, Nikki & the girls at Purplescraps, everyone at TSE, Carolyn & Tammy, Fleur, Kat, Jane, Ruey, Mich, Jorja, Felicity, Suzanne & everyone else that I forgot to mention.

On my birthday, I had a lovely bithday lunch with Jane. She gave me the cutest ever ceramic owl for my pressie. It's just so adorable. I still yet to name him, but at the moment he sit proudly on my desk. Love him. Then I had dinner at home, since Riley hadn't been feeling well after his acro class. I decided to just stay home rather than risking taking a grumpy boy to dinner at a restaurant. The day before, Yung also brought home a Wii that he secretly had lay-by-ed from Target, so the kids were quite happy entertaining themselves while I was busy in the kitchen. It's not really a quiet birthday night with the Wii session after the cake, but sure was a fun one.

On Saturday (last week), I picked up Ruey & drove all the way over the bridge to Jorja's crop. It was fab & I had a blast. So much yummy food & Jorja's pavlova was simply the best. The girls surprised me with a scrap tote. A pink one! It was awesome! Thank you so much, girls. I love it. Mich also gave me a bag of goodies. And I just can't help using 1 of the flower straight away at the crop. Here are the pic of all my pressie & cards.

Close up of the owl from Jane.

The layout I completed at the crop. It started from my fellow DT Ngaire Gilligan's online class at TSE, but ended up a little different. :)

 It was raining on the drive home & I took a wrong turn after we passed the bridge. Hehehe... Ruey & I were too busy chatting, none of us paying attention to the road. But clever Miss Tomtom navigated us back to the Citylink. Yes, Ruey brought over her nav-sat system so we could find Jorja's house easily. Awesome decision, because otherwise we would have ended up in Geelong instead of home. LOL...

The week that follow afterwards was a blur loaded with sickies. Yung was home a couple of days due to cold. Amanda stayed home another couple of days. And Riley skipped kinder & acro all together all week. I was so tired cooking & minding sick people, now I know why nurses keep demanding pay-rise. They so deserve it. I felt like a pay-rise myself, except that I don't get paid in the first place. So, all I did was more scrapping, while all the sickies were contained in the lounge playing Mario Kart. That Wii was such a relief.

So I have lots of layouts to show. These are my next Aussie Scrap Source challenges layouts. I really enjoyed these challenges. The criterias are challenging & it made me think. I so enjoyed trying out the different techniques. I tried to keep to the manufacturers criteria, but I guess it won't be me if I don't add some other brand to it. :)

ASS challenge 2 - Everyday Distressed (everyday photo, layering & distressing, lots of photo, Scenic Route/SEI)

ASS challenge 3 - Birthday Paper (birthday party, simple, pattern paper with no chipboard owls/flourishes, more than 3 photos)

Voting for challenge 2 & 3 has been opened. You can vote here, on the left sidebar of the blog.

ASS challenge 4 - Basic Grey Dreams (hopes & dreams, shabby chic, Basic Grey, hidden journaling, 3 photos in various sizes)

ASS challenge 5 - My Layered Life (my life, layered & lots of pop, dimensional magic/glossy accent, 3D embelli, 1 photo on a single page layout)

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Now for winner of my guessing game on my post below. The time of my birth is 12.17pm (just after noon), so from all the guesses, the closest one was noon, guess by Jane Jones.

have a great birthday vita wish i could be there to help you celebrate. oh i am so not good at guessing things but will give it a try

2:40am
9:00am
noon
3pm
9pm

Posted by:jane jones | Tuesday, 29 July 2008 at 08:03 PM

 

Way to go , JJ. I will post the stamp for you soon. And for everyone else, thanks for playing.

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Ok, finally one last little news. I hurt my right pinkie finger yesterday arvo. It was a freak accident involving a fall, a metal shelf, a deep cut & lots of blood. I couldn't really use my right hand afterwards because my pinkie throbbed (badly). So yesterday I gave up doing things & just watched DVDs instead.

It felt a bit better when I woke up this morning. No more throbbing & the bleeding has stopped. I am still going to rest it, because I don't want the cut to open again. So at the moment, I wrapped my ring finger & the pinkie together. It looked like I have a giant finger. Hehehe....

Anyway, I hope you have a safe & lovely Sunday. C ya on the next post. TFSB.

Vote, Game & Prize

Remember my ASS challenge 1 layout? It is posted on the Aussie Scrap Source Blog, along with lots of other gorgeous pages from other scrappers. Check it out here. You can vote there too, if you want. It should be somewhere on the left hand bar. You can vote for me or for any of your favourite layout. It's cool. I'm just happy that my page got posted. It didn't even have Tinkering Ink papers in it, so they must have liked it.

Anyway, as promised... there is a game this post. :) Are you ready?

My birthday is coming real soon. So, the game will be a guessing game in honor of my birthday. To play, here's the rules:

1. Guess the time of my actual birthday. Yep, the actual time when I was born, like 7.03am, 8.22pm, etc.

2. Everyone can have a max of 5 guesses.

3. Post your guesses in the comment section this post only.

4. You have until the end of the month to play. I will close the comment section & check the guesses on 1st August.

5. The winner will be the first person whose guess is the closest to the actual time.

6. The prize is a BN set of Autumn Leaves "Dated & Noted" clear stamp. I think it will be perfect, don't you think?

7. It's open for Australian & International scrappers.

So, come on.... have fun voting & guessing. C ya soon on the next post.

Challenges, Layout & Award

So what do you think of the new range coming soon from CHA winter? (Check the link on the post below.) Have you found your favourite yet? I like Basic Grey & We R Memory Keepers. Pink Paisley & Prima are looking good as well. I may also be tempted with Sassafras Lass. And some Hambly will definitely find their way to my stash. Hmm, better start saving, I think.

Anyway, remember when I said I was busy making wedding invites? I couldn't decide on a design, I made a few samples instead. And a good thing too, because wedding invites are a completely different designing game. You are talking mass production here, 50-100 cards. So it needs a simple, easy yet classy design. My first design is good, but it's not until this red set (which is #4 btw), that I totally get the hang of it. I must say that this set is my most favourite one. It's simple, classy & dead easy to make. I used premade envelopes, A5 size card, generic gold ribbon & chipboard hearts covered in kindy glitz. All are easily sourced materials & nothing really fancy, except for the speciality paper (which you can get from Angelbell Memories).

The one special item is probably the guest book (Yup, that big love heart album is the guest book). But then again, you only need to make 1 or 2 guest book, so I guess it's ok. The album is Melissa Frances Open Up Heart Album (from Bumblebee Crafts).

So, I can now safely say that I can design a wedding invite. Thank you for the challenge, Belle. :)

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Now onto a layout.

I have also completed my challenge 2 of the Aussie Scrap Source Blog challenge. Here it is.

If you want to play, check the details on the link I gave in my previous post. Have fun.

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Finally some news.

- Amanda had her Grade 3 Checetti Ballet exam yesterday morning.

Unfortunately her schedule fell on Monday morning, so I have to excuse her for a couple of hours from school. She did very well on the exam & she was very pleased with herself. We won't get the results until August/Sept but I think we won't have anything to worry about. She is most likely will starts taking her pointe class next year if her feet are ready. Something that she has been looking forward to for years. So all is good.

- I am very very busy with kinder at the moment.

I am back serving at the committee, back to my old post as Secretary due to an unfortunate event - like some people stepping down from their current position. I was asked to fill-in, but I should have known better that it actually means take-over. LOL... So yup, must get my head around to typing minutes, newsletters & posters (again). Thankfully I don't do correspondence letters. They must have known I can't even keep up with my own letters, let alone kinder. :)

- My TSE fellow DT Jane Jones nominated me for a blog award. :)

How awesome! Thanks Jane. It is always nice to know that someone actually find my blog interesting, inspiring & not just utter gas-bag. LOL...

  

In return, I will nominate these blogs below for the award as well. Ladies, please continue this award by nominating 7 more blogs.

Ruey

Jane

Fleur

Michelle

Charmane

Kelly

Danielle

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I think that's all for today's post. Pop by again in a few more days. Hopefully I will post a game with prize then.

GTGN. TFSB. TTFN.... LOL.

New Product Ranges

Take a look at the new range of ceramics from Craftymatters.

Aren't they delicious? I especially love the Russian Doll. It would be great for baby or little girl page, don't you think? If you like them, you can order them here. Keep an eye out for some layout samples using these new ceramic soon.

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Talking about layout, have you checked the Aussie Scrap Source blog? They are posting some new challenges. The first one is Project Tink. Check the criterias here. I have decided to join in. But since I don't have any Tinkering Ink papers left in my stash, I used Amy Butler and a few other brands. It's just not me, if I don't mix them up, right? :) Here's my take for Challenge 1.

  

If you like it, you have until Tuesday 22nd July to complete a layout & email it to ASS. Have fun. Oh yeah, you can upload it to Blue Bazzar too to earn yourself some shopping vouchers. Take a look at the detail here.

Finally, I will leave you with some new CHA winter08 products courtesy of Aussie Scrap Source blog. Here's the link. Better get yourself a cuppa first. There's lots to see & drool. :) Enjoy & have a lovely Sunday.

Stamping

I recently scooped up a huge pack of stamps of ebay. Some are double up, some aren't, all mix brands (my kind of stuff) and all are awesome stuff. So, I have been making cards & layout using them. And since it's me, I can't help to mix them up. I hardly stick to 1 brand on a project, it's just too much for my brain. :) 

Now here are the cards.

This one is using Hero Arts 'Bird in a Cage" stamp, while the sentiment is from Stampin' Up "Friendship Blooms" set.

This one is using Stampin' Up "Illumination" stamp set. It's just gorgeous. Fleur, thank you for letting me borrow it. It is also my entry for Kristine's card challenge at Scrapbook Shelf.

 

This 2 cards are the ones I made using this month's sketch challenge at Anna's Craft Cupboard. I wanted to try making cards from sketch & these are what I ended up with. The cupcake stamp is actually Mich's stamping that she did at Scrapnchat (using Pink Paisley stamp set). She didn't use it & so I used it instead. LOL... Yeah, you got to be careful with your scrap papers when you scrap with me. I may ended up using them. LOL.... Mich's that card is yours btw, although I don't know if you like mustard colour. Other images are from Inkadinkado mini clear sets. I combined a few different stamps.

As for layout, here it is.

 

The owl stamp is from Inkadinkado mini clear, while that alpha is Stampin' Up Headlines Alpha (the same set I used on my other layout a few post below). I love the way that you can get a customised look with alpha stamps. It's a perfect alternative if you happen not having any matching alphas in your stash.

This layout is also my entry for the Slice of Life competition at Scrapbook Shelf. I decided that I will scrap about everything that is a big part of our life at this moment - a slice of our life right now kind of thing. I hope I can use 6x12 all through the 5 weeks, so at the end of the comp I will end up with a mini album. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy today's post. Cya next time.

Happy Birthday Xav!

Wishing you a fun day, especially with school back on. This means playgroup is back on too, right? Hope you enjoy all the new toys.

We went to SIL on Satday evening for my nephew's birthday. His real birthday is today, but we celebrated on the weekend. The cousins had fun playing while us adults totally enjoyed the food & company. We had so much food (as usual). There were cheese platters for appetizers, steam boat for main meal & dessert. Then we also had some birthday cake with coffee. I was so full.

Today the kids are back to school & kindy. Yippee! I can finally catch up on the cleaning, tidying up & washing. It's been so hard keeping the house neat while the kids are home, so I stop trying. And with all the running around, the laundry has been a little neglected too. Hmm, actually about a week's load of washing needed to be done this morning. :) So, pretty boring stuff to share today .... or not....

I actually have to share my excitement. I am now have a laptop.

{YAY....!!!}

Yung got me an early birthday pressie.

A Dell Vostro laptop with 120GB external hard drive & a bluetooth mouse. I am in geek-heaven. I am in luuurve with it already - so slick, handsome & super fast. It will take sometime to get used to the screen though, but no complain.... no complain. It's the same resolution as our 24" monitor, except that it's compressed to a 15", so everything looks so much smaller. But the image is sharp & I can see myself watching my movies with the laptop while waiting for Amanda's ballet classes to finish. :) So, anyone in the area wants a Photoshop private class? Matt, next time we catch up, I'll show you some.

I'm off now. Time to get the kids their bath. Till next post. TTFN.

I Scrap!

Yay! Today I scrap for myself. Just doing a layout that I have been wanting to do for a while. Ever since I bought Fleur's old SU alphabet stamp set, to be exact. It's also good that the technique I want to do is the theme of this month's Stamping challenge at Scrapbook Shelf. So, I can enter my layout for the challenge too.

The stamps are Pink Paisley alphas & Stampin' Up - Headlines Alpha sets (retired) & Wild About You. The inks are SU too - Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Green Galore, Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi, More Mustard, Tempting Turquoise, Groovy Guava, River Rock & Taken with Teal.

I love my SU inks. I have quite a collection now, as you can see. If you have stamps but doesn't use them as much as you want to, I suggest to get more inks. Ever since I have more inks, I have been using my stamps more often. You can get the small cube ones, but to me the SU inkpad is the way to go. I simply luuurve them. Hehehe..

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Anyway, for those who know, I have been busy designing wedding invites these past couple of days. And as a first thing to do, I need to design a logo. I saw Jane's birdie drawings for her friend Linda's wedding (It's so cute btw, Jane... totally love it). I'm just wondering if this is the next trend in wedding. I'm totally clueless but this is what I draw. It's the couple's name initials.  :)  

What do you think? It's fun, isn't it? I am going to use it somewhere within the wording. I hope it goes well & the couple likes it. I myself, really like it. But I am bias.

Well, I'm off now. I'll update again when I have more things to show - hopefully more layouts. I'm trying to sneak in doing some layouts in between invites, just to keep myself amused. C ya next time.