While the cat's away...

The mouse has been busy scrapping!!! LOL As you know, Dave went off to his brother's wedding and he had a great time catching up with his family. The card I made was very much appreciated and Dave also got to meet his nephew (now 14 months old) for the first time! They had a great day and Dave brought me back exactly what I asked for: some pink 'aeroplane' lollies :) I'm a very happy girl... both to have him back home again and for the lollies LOL I have simple needs!

So while Dave was away I took the opportunity to get lots of scrapping done!! On Friday night I managed to catch up with my Paper Adventure 08 pages and completed 'Operations 6, 7, 8 & 9!!! Go Me!!! The mojo was really flowing and I am really pleased with my pages. You can check them out here... but I wanted to show you this one because it was my first go at using Grungeboard and I LOVE it!! I inked them, glazed them with embossing powder and then stitched them and it was wonderful to work with... really pliable and with a great texture!

On Saturday I took my car for a much needed W.O.F. and then went and got all my photos done for my 'D.I.Y. Patio' album... over 270 photos!!! But I did print them out 4 to a 6x4 so that made it a lot less!! I also found the 'perfect' colour cardstock for my pages so I made a start on the album. Not showing you all yet but if you have a good look at the next photo you might get a sneaky idea! So on Saturday night the girls and I set up a second table (cause the first one is overflowing and I didn't feel like tidying up! DON'T look Mum!!!) and we put on some music and then the three of us scrapped!! Heaps of fun!!!The girls were making themselves a door hanger each for their bedrooms and they had a ball using stamps, paint, ink, embossing powder and all sorts of other bits and pieces. Here's Krystal's one:And here's Mikayla's:They did so well! And I totally enjoyed spending some 'girl time' with them!! In my last post I mentioned a 'Top Secret' project and now I can share it! One of my nieces had her first birthday yesterday (Happy Birthday honey!!!) and I altered a photo frame for her using stamps, inks, alcohol inks, bling, sanding and flowers... LOVE how it turned out and IRL it looks a lot more purple than it does in the photo!The photos were all taken two weeks ago and I love how candid they all are... really relaxed mother/daughter time! Here's part of the frame in a bit more detail:Then it was time to make a birthday card and I was definitely in a PINK mood. I did try to do something 'cute' but it just didn't work out... I don't think cute is 'my thing' somehow... so here's the card:Then of course I had to make an envelope... but it was much easier this time around after the practice I had with the wedding one:I love how all the colours came together and my Mum was quite impressed :)My sister had a go at making her first birthday cake ever... and OMG it was AMAZING!!! She has definitely got a talent for it!! The whole party was fantastic and Miss Kody had a wonderful day!As if that wasn't enough for one weekend... I got invited to a Stampin Up workshop which was on Sunday afternoon so I invited Mum to come with me and we had a brilliant mother/daughter afternoon being creative together! Thanks for coming with me Mum... I REALLY enjoyed your company and I'm totally looking forward to doing it again another time!!! The workshop was making 'Antiqued Tile Coasters' and our lovely tutor Jacque gave us two different techniques to do so Mum did one style and I did the other.

Mine was done using great big stamps and then adding colour with chalks... I quite like the soft effects you can achieve with the colours using this technique:

Mum used the stamp and 'colour in' technique using blender pens and chalks... Please note that Mum has done folk art painting before and is really talented at it!!! Did I make you blush Mum?? Here's her tiles:I have to admit that I spent quite a bit of time watching Mum doing her tiles because it was really interesting seeing how she used blending to create beautiful subtle colours. Then we sealed our tiles and made a little gift card.So all in all it's been an incredibly busy weekend but filled with lots of creative art, family bonding and fun! Hope you all had a great weekend as well :)