Monday 26 May 2008

I'm back :)

Well the flu bugs really loved me last weekend... I spent the whole weekend feeling VERY sorry for myself... had Monday of work still feeling awful... went to a teaching course on Tuesday and then spent the rest of the week trying to catch up on all the stuff that needed doing :(

Then Friday finally came and I was off to SCRAP CAMP!!! What a blast! I had such a good time, scrapped lots, met some of my blogging friends... hi Ilka, Kelly and Kate :) Met loads of new people... a big wave to Gail, Angie, Rachel and Fiona who I was sitting with (as well as Ms Kelly - you are just toooo funny!!!), talked far too much and got very little sleep... 3 hours the first night and 5 hours the second night LOL

Yolande and Lianne organised a super camp with lots of fun, games and laughs along the way. I was so busy enjoying myself that I didn't actually take any photos while I was there but I did take some photos of my layouts when I got home.

On the Friday night we got given our challenge packs... and I found it quite challenging... Yellow really isn't my colour!!! As well as the yellow cardstock we had two double sided 12 x 12's, some green felt, glue strips, ribbon and sequins... and here's what I came up with:

I added some buttons, used the cuttlebug to get my letters and a few pearls.

On Saturday morning we had our first class with Kelly Rotherham and let me just say that she is a truly LOVELY person plus she is an awesome teacher. I highly recommend her classes (and some of them are available online as well!!)

The first class was called 1, 2, 3 Scrap... no pressure!!! We created 3 layouts in 2 hours - see what I mean about no pressure LOL The class was so much fun and apart from the journaling and titles I actually did complete all 3 of my layouts during the time frame. On Saturday night I got them all finished and here they are:

Yes those are the same photos as the first layout but I just LOVE them!!!Mr 5 playing at 'Auntie's Park'Miss 2 playing at 'Auntie's park'

After lunch we had our second class and it was much more relaxing... and much more indepth. I kind of went off on my own theme and I loved the freedom we had to really get gutsy with our journaling... so here's what I created:

By Sunday I was feeling a bit tired but I did get another layout done... you'll have to wait to see that one cause I'm going to have a go at getting published - I'll never know if I don't give it a go I suppose LOL

So it's been a full on weekend and now it's back to the realities of working again! Hope you all have a great week :)

Monday 12 May 2008

Happy Mothers Day :)

To all the Mum's out there... I hope you all had a fantastic day!!! I certainly felt very spoilt yesterday :) Actually Mother's Day began for me on Thursday when Krystal said that she'd made me a present but that the suspense was killing her so could she give it to me.... and of course then I HAD to know what she'd made and here it is:

It was a bit emotional!!! She painted a 4 x 12 canvas and then added photos of her and her sister... some of these photos are OLD... there's even one when Mikayla was only a few days old! She's added an photos of them individually as well as photos together and it's just stunning! I'm going to hang it above my desk so that I can look at it regularly :)

Yesterday morning Krystal made everyone breakfast... pancakes with maple syrup and cream YUM!!! And while I was eating breakfast she passed me over another present (from both of them)... yep it was a total surprise! They'd bought me the DVD of Music and Lyrics as well as a box of Guylian chocolates :)

Then Krystal was off to work at Spotlight. This DD is growing up way to fast!!She's been wanting a 'specific' watch for quite a while now and she's finally bought herself all the bits and pieces she wanted (including a great little tool kit - might have to borrow that!) and made her own... it's that D.I.Y. attitude coming through again LOL Here's her finished watch:It's really gorgeous... this started off as a couple of bags of beads, some charms, 1metre of chain and the watch face. Unbelieveable how talented she is! I managed to get a couple more photos before she went to work... here's the side:And the back:And a closeup of the watch face:Her co-workers at Spotlight were really impressed and she said that she LOVES wearing it! During the day Dave and I went down to the local craft market for a bit of a look and then we came home to work on a jig saw puzzle... check out the concentration!!Mum has also been busy with her tags again! You might remember her pink and lace one she did... well she decided that it wasn't quite what she wanted and now she's done it in lavendar and lace and I have to admit that I REALLY like this one heaps more:She also made the tag for Nana (my great grandmother) and sent it to me... minus the story! She wanted to see if I could figure it out for myself... and I got most of it but there were parts of her story that I didn't know so now I can share the tag and the full story :)The parts I knew: Nana's favourite colours were soft pinks and greens, the dog represents her black lab she had when I was a little girl (Niggy was her best friend in the world and actually died trying to save her life). Everything Nana did she did with love - she was an incredible woman! She used to sew on an old singer sewing machine which one of my sisters inherited and it still works! The parts I didn't know: The tent (under the sewing machine) represents the tents Nana used to repair for the Ministry of Works... apparently Nana and Pa lived beside the M of W and Pa used to bring the tents home and Nana would fix them. Pa also used to catch fish and sell them and it was Nana's job to sling the nets out (with weights attached) and pull them in... then Pa would sell the fish and keep the money! Nana also mended fishing nets and Mum can remember coming home to seeing a fishing net slung up on the long clothesline and Nana doing repairs to it.

On a final note... I want to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you for your comments and support about Scrapbook Dreams! I've been totally blown away by all your support and encouragement! So far it's going really well... we're up to the 4th sneak peek and the final sneak will be shown tomorrow before the kit officially goes on sale on Wednesday. I'll let you know how it all goes :)

Thursday 8 May 2008

Secret Revealed!

LOL I have to admit that I hadn't considered the idea of the design team.. but you guys are pretty close really! So it's time for me to reveal my secret...

I have started my own small scrapbooking company!!! This has been in the planning for a LONG time and I'm sure my family are pleased that it's finally happening LOL

The idea has changed a lot during the planning stage but now we're up and running! I called my company 'Scrapbook Dreams' and it really is a dream of mine :) One that is fast becoming a reality!

Scrapbook Dreams is going to offer mini albums and off-the-page projects in kit form... and the first kit goes on sale next Wednesday (14th May)! The website is all loaded and ready to go... sneak peeks are in place (we all love those!) so click on the mini banner and go and have a look:
And please, please, please leave me a comment about what you think :) Yep I'm feeling a bit nervous about it all right now!

Tuesday 6 May 2008

Lots of bits and pieces :)

Well you've really made Mum feel great!!! She is quite astounded by all the comments about her tags and it's certainly made her feel really good about sharing her work with others. It's even inspired her to complete a very special tag... this one is for her Mum and it's beautiful :)

Here's what Mum wrote:
The music is one of the songs Mum sang on stage, by herself, when I was about 8 or 9. I remember her being as nervous as a kitten. You could almost say she was terrified. She shouldn't have been because she carried it off no problem. Her biggest loves in life were her family, her faith and of course her cat. Her name was Rose and the colour predominant at her wedding was mushroom pink. The blue represents the dress she wore when she sang... blue roses on a cream background.I agree with Mum that family meant the world to Granny. She was an only child so to have 5 children of her own and be a part of a noisy bustling household gave her a lot of pleasure... and with 4 boys in the family (Mum is an only daughter) it was definitely noisy! Way to go Mum... you've done a FAB job!

While we're on the subject of family... I've just had an email the other day from a long lost cousin and it's awesome to be in touch with her again... (waving frantically across the ditch to you Maree!!!) It's so fab to be back in touch again and can't wait to catch up properly with you!

Right... now that Mum's finished hogging my blog!!! I've got a couple of projects to share :) This first one was a card swap with Glamour Girls. We each made a triptych card (meaning a card in 3 panels but all joined together) using the theme By the Sea. I really enjoyed this project because it was so 'arty'. Here's the front of my card:

And here's the inside:There were lots of elements to the card and it was totally fun making it. Once I was done I figured it would be nice to make a matching envelope so here's the front:And here's the back:This next project is another Glamour Girls swap. We each altered a laminate sample... the kind you get from Bunnings for kitchen benches etc. The theme was 'Asian' and this is what I came up with:And here's a close up of the actual artwork:I really enjoyed 'playing' with stuff for this one! Today in the mail I received a beautifully altered laminate sample from 'Helga'. Here's one side:

And here's the other side:It's just stunning and the beads really look amazing!!!

The very special project I was working on is now done. I'm not going to show you (due to privacy) but I will tell you that it was an album for a family I've never met. I joined up with Care2Crop late last year and they are an absolutely worthwhile group to belong to. Basically Care2Crop is a place where scrapbookers from around New Zealand can join together to help families going through difficult times tell the story of their journey. I've totally enjoyed making the album I was assigned and I'd recommend it to other scrapbookers.

To finish off I've got a wee secret to share... well actully I'm not going to share it until Friday (yes I know that's mean! LOL) but I will tell you that it involves: scrapbooking, sneak peaks and pizza boxes :) Oh, and this butterfly is really important as well:

I'll be back on Friday with all the news... catch you then!

Sunday 4 May 2008

Mum is becoming an Altered Artist!

I had a very different post in mind for today but then I received a phone call and email from Mum and decided that it really needed to be shared :)

My Mum is not one to show off her talents so I'm going to do it for her! When we were on the phone yesterday she was telling me about some things she's been working on and they sounded really good so I got her to email me the photos and I was so amazed! She's really taken to stamping and creating in a BIG way and her work is absolutely gorgeous!!! I got her to do a wee write up about what each piece means and I'm not even going to edit it because she's explained it so well :) So over to Mum:

As with many NZ families, my lineage is what we lovingly call "A Kiwi cocktail".

Over the last 20 odd years I have been putting together a family tree. It is very, very interesting and of great satisfaction. Recently I became the proud owner of a china cabinet that is ideal for displaying the few bits and pieces that belonged to my family. As I am the only one who knows what the history of these bits is, I thought I should get it down on paper as a proper record. So, that started the whole thing off. How do I label these items? Idea................ Luggage tags.

Talking to Shelley and getting a starting point and some ideas helped enormously. She did one very quickly for me and showed me what to do. From there, it was a snow ball and as been gathering speed ever since.

I've done four for the moment but there are still more to do of course. These 4 are done with the person in mind. Where they came from, what they did in life etc.
This is for my Mother’s father. His heritage is pure Irish. He was a Musician and use to play for the silent movies. The music is a stamp. The violin is a Christmas decoration that just fitted the bill. I didn’t attempt to remove the “ring” as I thought it may shatter. The colour of the paper was the colour of his Oldsmobile car that he drove himself and Nana to visit us as kids. My Father’s mother. She was of English descent and a beautiful lady. She died when my father was only 16 years old. This tag was fun to make. It is a stamped card with a stamped cut out on top. I “dressed” the cutout dress. It was like playing with paper dolls from years ago.My Mother’s grandfather came from Philadelphia as a whaler. He abandoned ship in the Bay of Islands and went bush until the ship set sail. He even had bounty hunters after him. This tag was photocopied onto the tag from a post card sent to him from America in 1907. Then I rummaged for a stamp to put on. The key represents the fact that he was a carpenter and built houses and halls. My Nana always said he was a Carpenter by name and a carpenter by trade. This tag is for my Mother’s grandmother. She was Maori from the Bay of Islands. This was the most time consuming. It took me 6 hours to weave the strips of paper into a length that I could get 2 tags from. I chose a colour that would represent flax and now that it’s woven you would never pick which paper it was. I then rummaged in a craft shop to find paua shell. I wanted a piece with a hole in it. The rick-rack was representative too. Putting it all together was a fabulous feeling.

I do have a fancy for heritage ink now. It not only helps with the “look” but it can disguise the odd blemish.


Way to go Mum!!! Your work is gorgeous and I'm so pleased that you're doing something creative and really enjoying it! You've got heaps of talent and I'm really pleased that you've let me share it with everyone :)


Just a quick note to finish off... thanks for your email Penny... your RAK will be in the post tomorrow... and Julie I've got your email too (it went to my spam folder grrr) so yours will be in tomorrows post too :) Have a great Sunday everyone... and please leave Mum a comment :)