My Happy Place...

After much surfing on the net, I realised so many scrappers have amazing views from their scrap rooms. But I don't. My view is boring - concrete and and wood. Blah! So I decided I needed to create my own view. And here it is!!! My own happy place, with my own bright and colourful view for inspiration. I used a Scrapware Shadow Box Kit as my base. I painted it white then went to town with Prima papers, flowers and bling!!! I kept the frame a light shade of pink so as not to detract from the "view". (-:

Close ups and details...the cloud is from My Little Shoebox.

I added Jo Sonja Opal Dust to the centre of the flowers.

The tree stamp is from Prima.

Lots of bling and pearls...I wanted it to reflect a richness of colour.

Pencil Lines Sketch 184

Sketch 184 is up over at Pencil Lines. Our guest designer this week is Stacey Young (from Australia).

Here's my take on the sketch. Titled: Summer Play. I have misted the background with a white Glimmermist to soften the colour of the kraft cardstock. And I have outlined my alpha stickers in black pen to help them "pop" off the page.

Zva Creative Blog Hop Continued...

Here's the sketch that I got from Jana Eubank's blog. Details for the blog hop can be found here.

And here's my take on the sketch. I tilted the sketch, then flipped it over. I loved Jana's Halloween theme, so I borrowed that. I didn't have any themed Halloween paper that matched the sketch, so I used Sassafrass instead. I've added some Pink Paislee alphas and chipboard, a little Glimmermist, a Zva Creative bling flourish, rhinestones and doodling, and I'm done!

First Time For Somethings...

Look what I made - my first ever tag!!! Yes, I know I have been scrapping for more than 4 years, but I've never made a tag before? Why? It might have something to do with the fact that my first love is layouts and I just didn't think I would enjoy creating anything as much as I enjoy creating layouts. But I was wrong. This held my fascination as much as a layout ( I don't get that feeling so much when making cards). I can see a lot more tags in the future because this was definitely addictive (in a good way!!!) (-:

Prima April Product Picks

Look at all these wonderful goodies that Prima has on offer for some lucky fan to win. So cheery, colourful and fun!!! If you would like to win these, please go to Prima for the details. But hurry, this is for April only. Next month, it's a whole new pick of products.

Guess What I Got?

We officially had a new member join our family today (or should I just say a new addiction for me? LOL!!!). Meet "Prima Dolly Paris" (Blythe doll for those who have not met one before). They are collector's dolls, not toys, so I have to explain to my two darlings why they can't play with her. Paris was actually won by the lucky Kate Mason, but she decided she was willing to part with Paris. So I snapped her up before anyone else could even think about it. (-: I have been wanting a Blythe doll for nearly a year, and finally, my patience has paid off. But if this wasn't enough to make me happy today, guess what else turned up? See below...

My new Noel Mignon kit (in all its glory) arrived on my doorstep today. Oh, so yummy!!! So much delicious goodness to play with. I don't know where to begin...

On the weekend we went to the dentist for our 6 month check-up. This is Keana looking oh, so cool and glamorous while rinsing out her mouth. Here's proof that not all kids are scared of the dentist. I have been taking my two to the dentist with me since they were born - the end result is that they have absolutely no fear of the dentist. They actually get excited when I say we are going. And they argue over who gets to go first. See, I told you my daughters strange. (Giggle!!!)

They both know the drill (pun intended). Glasses on, rinse mouth, relax, and open wide.

Look mum, all clean!!! (-:
Who would have thought going to the dentist could be so much fun???

The Colour Room Palette #2

Here's this weeks colour palette over at The Colour Room. This week we have the more masculine colours. So, how hard is it to turn these colours into a girlie layout?

It's not hard at all. The colours matched this photograph perfectly. Then you add in some hand-made flowers, a little bit of bling, some fussy cutting and some recyled paper packaging inserts from Pink Paislee and Prima, and voila!!! I have my girlie layout. (-:

Blog Hopping...

I've been blog hopping with the team from Zva Creative. They have a blog hop sketch competition on at the moment. It starts at Kim Hughes blog and goes on from there. There are 12 designers in total, so you have 12 sketches to choose from. Here's the sketch I chose from Lynn Mercurio's blog. I hope I get time to do a couple more yet.

And here's my take on the sketch. The twist to this competition is that you have to keep to the colour scheme of the sketch. I've flipped the sketch, and made it mine, by adding the bracket shaped paper at the top. I've used Prima felt, flowers and leaves; Heidi Swapp plastic letters; and a Zva Creative bling flourish. I've decorated the centres of the flowers with Jo Sonja Opal Dust.

Pencil Lines Sketch...

Sketch #183 is up over on the Pencil Lines blog. Our guest designer this week is Beatriz Jennings.

Here's my take on this week's sketch. Titled: Love Story. I didn't have the right coloured lace for my layout so I coloured a cream piece with Glimmermist. Don't you love the end result? The colour is so rich and blends in perfectly with the layout. I didn't have enough Webster's flowers cut out, and didn't feel like cutting out any more, so I just added some Prima flowers that I had cut out for a previous layout, but hadn't used. The clock is a Heidi Swapp ghost shape that I have glued to a Prima chipboard piece with Glossy Accents. The stamped background was created with a new Prima stamp.

Prima April Build-A-Page

Prima Build-A-Page sketch for April 2010.

Here's my take on the Prima April BAP. Titled: Always.

Pink, Blue and Yellow...

It's finally done!!! My layout for The Color Room challenge. This one is titled: Beloved. And this time I have kept to the pink, blue and yellow theme. (-: You should pop over to The Color Room and have a look as there is some AMAZING inspiration in the gallery. Absolutely stunning!!!

Did I mention that I took the girls to see Alice In Wonderland last weekend? What a fantastic movie. It went so fast even though it was nearly 2 hours in length. If you are thinking about seeing it, I highly recommend it. I am so glad we went.

Crafty Sketches...

This wonderful sketch was created by Kylie Howland from Crafty Sketches. The team over at Crafty Sketches could really use your support. They love seeing new entries from all the wonderful scrappers out there. Vanessa (from Scrap With V) offers up some fantastic prizes each month. Why not drop over to the blog and check it out? Who knows - you might just be inspired to give it a go and join the fun. Come on - I dare you!!! (LOL!!!)

Here's my take on Kylie's sketch. Titled: YUM. I've used lots of My Little Shoebox (papers, stickers, die cuts), Zva Creative brads, and Kaisercraft rhinestones and pearls. Don't you just love my two with their chocolate covered faces!!! (-:

Crate Paper Blog...

Woo-hoo!!! My "Adventures With Daddy" layout is up on the Crate Paper Blog site, along with several other lovely creations created by Crate Paper fans. You can see it here.

Challenge Time at Scrap With V

Scrap with V had their monthly cyber crop over the weekend. So I decided to tackle their sketch challenge (challenge 4). The twist was it had to include fabric of some sort (I have used felt flowers and ribbon). This layout is titled: Love Laugh Grow and is primarily created with Basic Grey products. Yes, it's the new Green At Heart range. I just adore the colours. So bright and fun. Have a great week! It's back to school tomorrow for my two. Yippee!!!

Seeing Double...

We are seeing double this week over at Pencil Lines. Double layouts, that is!!! Here's sketch 182. This week is sponsored by Amercian Crafts and our guest designer is Mandy Douglass.

This is my interpretation of the sketch. I did think about only doing a single layout, but I had enough product to do a double, so I decided to make the most of it. Titled: Unique In Every Way. Please drop in at Pencil Lines and say hello. We'd love to have you join in the fun. (-:

Not As Planned...

I started this layout with every intention of using the colour palette from The Color Room. But things didn't go as planned, and I ended up using lots of other colours (like brown and orange). So, I guess I will be doing another layout tonight for The Colour Room. (-: This time I will make sure to stick to the palette (or I will at least try to - ha! ha! ha!). Products: My Little Shoebox (papers), Zva Creative (bling flourish and flowers), Heidi Swapp (bling brads) and Kaisercraft (rhinestones. Titled: "Heart" U.

Pretty, Pretty...

When I took this photo, I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to find papers to match. I couldn't have been more wrong! These papers from My Little Shoebox work perfectly (I picked them up at my local store on Thursday). Titled: This Kiss. Other products - MLS Sticker Alphas, Zva Creative bling swirl, Carolees Creations Mini Alphas, Kaisercraft Rhinestones, and Glimmermist.

And another card! No, I have not been converted to a card maker!!! (-: Just dabbling and having some fun (sort of!!!).

The Color Room...

Guess what? There is a new challenge site...The Color Room. After all the challenge sites that have ceased operating in the last 6 months (Lotus Paperie, OLW, Aussie Pub Calls, Roadmaps, White With 1, What's Ad About?), this is a breathe of fresh air. I'm really looking forward to having some fun with these colour challenges.

That's it! I'm done! I have FINALLY completed all the layouts from the classes I took last year (June 2009) with Jodi Holbrook from Making Memories. These are the last two layouts. This one is titled "Everyday Life", and is about my girls' love of LEGO.

And this one is titled "This Is Me - The Details". Lots of journaling. (-: It is such a relief for this to be over. I love doing layouts but these just seemed to drag on forever. And I've lost count of how many I did. I think it was 8 layouts and 2 mini albums.

Look what I did with some of my scraps! Shock horror!!! I actually created a card. Yes, you can pick yourself up off the floor now!!! (-: I must try and make more cards, I really must try...but my love of creating layouts always gets in the way...sigh!!!

Can I ask for your help with something, dear reader? I would love your feedback on which of my layouts are your favourite (top 3). They are all showing in the Slide gallery in the side bar. If you have a few minutes to spare, I would really appreciate hearing your opinion. Please just leave a comment listing your favourite three. Why am I asking for this? Because I have learnt one thing in scrapbooking - what I like, and what others like, are usually two totally different things. All will be revealed at a later date...promise!!! (-:

Kit Addict!!!

Up until about August last year, I religiously received a monthly scrap kit from Sweet Pea Scraps. Then they stopped making them, and I felt lost. I searched everywhere, but couldn't find a kit that was as good as theirs. Until now. I can finally replace my addiction with Noel Mignon Kits!!! I am so in love with these kits. (-: I'm happy, happy, happy...gloriously happy!!!!!! I'm already counting down to my next kit.

I created this layout last night. Titled: Adventures With Daddy. I've Glimmermisted my background, and used a piece of Bella! lace/butterfly paper as a mask. I've placed all the ticket stubbs from their adventures in the kraft envelope. I've torn strips of paper for the background, and done some fussy cutting inbetween the chipboard and stickers. The only thing I've added is some rhinestones and the mini alphas that spell out the word "open".

Unexpected Layout...

This is a very unexpected Pencil Lines layout. I had no plans on creating it. Why, I hear you ask? Because I had used up most of my American Craft supplies with next weeks layout, and I honestly didn't think I had enough left to make another layout for this week's sketch (which is sketch #181). At this point, all I have left, are just a few small strips of paper. Plus it was my week off, so no layout was actually necessary. But I decided to make an attempt at it last night. This is what I managed to come up with using my left over scraps, but you won't find it up on the Pencil Lines blog as I missed the upload deadline by quite a few days. But I thought I'd still share this with you anyway. (-:

Happy Easter!!!

Wow! It's been such a busy week. I'm looking forward to this week of school holidays so we can all recover. Monday morning I was informed that we had to make Easter bonnets for the Easter bonnet parade on Wednesday morning. So I spent Monday afternoon making these two "top hats" that the girls then decorated (thank goodness for cardstock!!!). In between cutting and pasting, we made about 70 chocolate truffles for the girls to take to school the next morning, to share amongst their classmates. I'm over cooking...seriously!!!

Tuesday afternoon was open day at the dance school. So I had to sit through an hour-and-a-half of lessons. On a hard seat. After doing top hats and truffles the day before, my "mommy duties" were getting the better of me...I'd had enough. So on Wednesday when they tried to rope me into staying for school assembly and the Easter hat parade, I claimed I had PT at the gym. Which was kind of true. I did have PT, but not until 10:30am. Oops!!! (-: And then on Thursday my mother arrived from down south to stay with me for a week or two. I'll let you know how that goes. My limit is 2 weeks. Anything over that and things might get ugly. Sigh!!! For some insane reason, my mother seems to bring out the worst in me. Friday we went to the Festival of the Sails (see post below). Saturday we did shopping, swimming, and a tonne of washing and housework.

Then we have today. Easter Sunday. Here's my two with their stash. How they go t their hands on it is a whole other story. Mum woke me up at 5:30am (she's an early riser) so that I could hide the eggs in the back yard. Did I mention that I didn't get to sleep that night until after 12:30am??? The things we do for our children. But at least they had fun hunting. We had hot crossed choc-chip buns for breakfast, went to church, and spent a nice, quiet day at home. My brother Matthew, and his wife Amanda, came over in the afternoon. So Matt played playstation with the girls for a while. The girls LOVED having someone else to play with. (-: Yep, it was a nice day, indeed.

Play Time...

I've finally found some time to play with my Noel Mignon kit. This layout is titled: Your Beauty Leaves Me Breathless. I've used all sorts of goodies - Pink Paislee, Crate Paper, Basic Grey and Making Memories. It was strange using these colours as they are not "me" colours. I tend to gravitate towards brighter colours. But I think I could get used to this...(-:

Festival Of The Sails...

My dear readers, I am so sorry for neglecting you. But it has been a very busy, very long week. I've got more posts to do later tonight (or tomorrow) that will show just what I mean!!! But let's start with these photos that I took yesterday at the Redcliffe Festival of the Sails. Getting parking is a nightmare, so we got smart and went down early for breakfast before the festival. Parking? No problem!!! (-: We had breakfast at one of the little cafes along the water front. Yummy!!! Keana had a little bit of breakfast with her tomato sauce (LOL!!!). In case your wondering what she's doing, she's slurping tomato sauce and bacon (she was being too lazy to use her knife and fork - cheeky monkey!!!)

At least one of my daughter's knows how to use a knife and fork (*giggle*)...

First up at the festival was rock climbing. Right to the top, several times each...

Followed by African drum playing lessons...

And a sky diving Easter Bunny...

who came with lots and lots of eggs, but still ran out and didn't have enough for all the children who turned up. Bad Easter Bunny - how dare you not be prepared!!!

And a dragon and castle carved out of sand. This was a huge hit with my two girls. We also did kite making, went shopping at the stalls, had painting done on our arms, played on the beach, did an Easter Egg hunt in the sand, and ate some Pierogi (Polish pastries filled with potato and cream cheese). After 6 hours we decided we'd had enough and walked all the way back to the car (with two cranky, tired little girls)...(-: