Lots of things to share :)

Hi all :) The girls and I have just had a marvellous weekend camping down in Taranaki and it was fabulous!! Lots of rest and relaxation... not quite as 'rugged' as last time... plus we got to catch up with some friends as well which was great :) I seem to have lots of bits and pieces to share this time so on with the post.

Starfish Club - My niece Kody has recently joined the 'Starfish Club' for swimming lessons. She sent me a really lovely email (her mum helped I think LOL) with some photos attached so I made this double layout for her album. She's got an 8x8 that my other sister started and it's the first time I've ever scrapped this size but I really enjoyed it! The journaling is pretty much word for word what 'Kody' sent to me :)

Christmas Card Swap - Recently I joined in a Christmas card swap with SbO. I'm starting to like making cards now LOL Here's the ones I made:

And here's the ones I received: This first one was made by Niella... love the way she used the transparency!

The next one was made by Kirstin... she's been very creative with punches!!!I'm not sure who made the third one (let me know if it's you). It's hard to tell from the photo but there is the most gorgeous little tag held on by ribbon :)RAK Thank yous :) I've been receiving lots of little treasures in the mail lately :) I've been feeling very lucky! The first thank you goes to Meg from Scrapbook Essentials. She sent me this gorgeous scroll (I've never seen these before!) which I received as part of her 'Blinkie Hunt'... Thanks Meg :)

Next on the list is Andrea and Ms Mouse from SbO. I got this lovely package of Heidi Swapp eyelets and a gorgeous little tin of Maya Rd Sunflower slides... think I might already know how I'm going to use them too :) Thanks Andrea and Ms Mouse (whoever you are LOL)!And finally Kate from Paper Pesto sent me this gorgeous RAK simply for leaving a comment on the PP blog. If you haven't visited it yet I would highly recommend it!!

Off the Page bits and pieces - I've been doing a lot of off the page stuff lately... mini albums and things for Christmas presents but here's a couple that I can share without blowing any surprises!!

The first is a bow I made using Kaiser papers. If you want to make one of your own click HERE for the tutorial. Super easy to follow and the finished results look great :)

The second thing is this Christmas ornament I designed using paua paper. I made quite a few of these a few years ago using fabric and hand stitching them but this time I used paper, mod podge, ribbon and beads. I like the 'kiwiness' of this one :)I've been published... kind of - A couple of months ago I participated in an ATC swap with Scrapbooker and Co and in the November newsletter they've published my ATC (it's on page 2!)Here's a close up view of my ATC which I called Butterfly Dreams :)So that's all from me... it feels great to have gotten all those bits and pieces documented now. I've got a few more things in the pipeline at the moment plus I'm still working on my Christmas traditions mini album so hopefully I'll get that finished this week so I can share it with you. Please leave me a comment because it's so nice to hear what you all think :) Have a great week!

Circle Journal - Part 2

As of yesterday everyone has their own circle journals back YIPPEE!! So now I can share with you what I did in each of the others' journals.

The first journal I worked on was Tracy's. Her theme was 'My Home Town' and she had a little binder album which was very cute. I decided to put in quite a few photos of Rotorua sights so I added a little flip page to the album. The flax paper, tiki and Maori ribbon all worked really well. If you want to check out the rest of Tracy's album on her blog click here!

Next was Zeetra's 'Cookie' album. Some yummy treats ended up in there! Check out her blog here to see the rest of her album! My girls really loved me doing this album too because they got to help with the 'research' LOL

Then it was time for Kirstin's lovely album. She added a new element to hers - and altered jig-saw puzzle piece! Her album was titled 'Pieces of Me' and I really enjoyed working on this one. I had just done a class involving a little bit of doodling and it shows in the pages I did for her.Rangi's album was next. She did a gorgeous album which she called 'Delicious Desserts'. I haven't got a photo of her front cover but she used ribbon letters which was fabulous. This was another one that my girls enjoyed 'helping' with. We actually had the dessert for breakfast so that we could photograph it in daylight LOL

Nie's album was next... and it was a very sweet album called 'Simple Pleasures'. It was a neat time to think about all those 'little' things that make you smile everyday. It also gave me a chance to use some of the neat stuff I bought at SENZ... love that background paper!!!The last album I worked on was Rebecca's. She titled her album 'A Journey Through Time' and we could choose any time period we liked... I did mine about growing up in the 70's and how life was so much slower than it is today. A huge bonus with this album was that I was able to see everyone else's work and see all our different styles come together in one album.I love having my album back and everyone else in the group feels the same although it's a little bit sad too so we've decided to do another one starting early next year :) Thank you all so much for all your wonderful comments... it's been so wonderful hearing what everyone has to say :)

My Circle Journal came home :)

It was so exciting getting the courier bag containing my circle journal. I knew what it was and I only managed to hold off opening it up straight away because it arrived at work and I was right in the middle of teaching my class LOL There's lots of 'eye candy' in this post so hope you all enjoy it :)

After a lot of thinking and changing my mind a million times I decided to call my circle journal 'You and Me'. The idea was for each participant to scrapbook a layout about their relationship with someone special to them. I even went so far as to cut out all my pages by going around and around... and around... a glass bowl with my craft knife so that I could have circular pages. Once my circle journal came home I put some bigger rings through the holes and then added the ribbons :)

Next came the introduction and sign in pages. My only requirement for the participants was to use black and white photos to give the album some continuity. The sign in pages required me cutting lots of circles again (I was pretty much over my circle phase by the time I posted off my album!) I asked everyone to write their layout titles into their circles and I'm really pleased I did because it looks really cool :)

I did the first layout titled 'Nana and Me'. My layout is all about my Great-Grandmother who I was super close to. She gave me a gorgeous walkie-talkie doll when I was two and I've still got her although she's a little worse for wear from where she 'needed' open heart surgery with Dad's screwdriver when I was little LOL

The first person to work in my journal was Rebecca who lives way down in Winton! She did her layout about her cat Pip. Gorgeous layout and I love all the flowers and the photo corners!!

Next to contribute was Niella who did this gorgeous layout about her relationship with her best friend Ana. Love your page Nie and am definitely going to try using transparencies in the future!

Then it was off to Rangi. This page is extra special because she did it about her brand new son Lewis who was born just after we started our swap!! So lovely to see a photo in real life and love the wee tags too :)

Next it was back up to Auckland for Kirstin to work on. She did this beautiful layout about her and her husband David. The black flowers are slightly glittery and the 'david & me' feels like felt... have to love that gold scroll too!!

Then it was off Zeetra who did a layout about her relationship with her husband Chris. I love the pencil drawing Zeetra!!! Plus you've reminded me that I've got some of those chipboard photo turns that I must start using LOLFinally it was Tracy's turn. She did a beautiful layout about her and her husband Adrian. The black scroll has the most velvety feel to it and love the way you scrunched the flower. Plus it's my first time seeing Dymo labelling on a layout in real life and the effect is really cool!I saved the back page as a place to document the travels of my circle journal. Everyone signed out with their location and it will remind me in the future about how far my wee journal went before coming back home.To all the girls in the group I would like to say a big THANK YOU for all your lovely work! I feel really proud of my circle journal and I know that I will always remember what an awesome experience this was :)

Watch out for the next update when I'll share with you the pages I did in each of the others journals! Would love to hear what you all think and would especially love to hear any comments from the circle journal group... hint hint!!

p.s. I love the mouse!!! Those of you on SbO will know what I mean LOL

Christmas is coming

It's a scary thought but it really is only a matter of weeks away now. SbO are having a BIG christmas gala and I've been entering into some of the challenges.

Challenge 1 was designed by Rach and we had to design a layout to do with celebrating Christmas with FOOD. I did mine about our 2005 Christmas celebration. My girls and I hosted Christmas that year and we went with a very non-traditional menu and it was great so here's my layout:

Challenge 2 was designed by Vicky. We had to design 3 tags and they could be gift tags or to go on the tree etc. The only catch being that at least two of them had to be a recycled/altered something. This one had me thinking but it was a lot of fun.The tag at the top is an altered luggage label. The 'recipe' on the left is an altered coffee coaster and believe it or not the one on the right is an old floppy disk (remember them???). If you look closely at the bottom of the square part you can still see the indentations of the disk and this one was originally pink LOL

Challenge 3 was designed by Yolande and she started it off with a 'homework' assignment which was to list 5 traditions our families followed over Christmas. I should have known there would be more to it!!! I listed my 5 traditions and thought I was almost done.... then she announced that we needed to scrap those traditions LOL So now I'm working on a mini album and it's going really well... I just love how it's all coming together but no sneak peaks from me you'll just have to wait to see what I come up with!!!

Next I want to share the latest ATC challenge with SbO. We chose Music for our theme and the results are amazing! They're so much better in real life!!!

Shell

Niella

Rangi

Rebecca

Tracey

Kirstin

Keryn

Kelly

Donna

And a big thank you to all of you who sent emails/comments regarding my grandmother! It is lovely to know that so many people care and I just want to say 'Thank You'.

Have a great week and I'll be back in a few days to post my lovely circle journal that is coming home this week!!! Sooo excited about it and can't wait to see what everyone has done for their pages :) As always, please leave me a comment because I really do appreciate it :)