Sunday 30 May 2010

Miss Krystal is 18!

Well the years have flown by and now my first ‘baby’ is a fully fledged adult.  It’s hard to believe really… we were watching a video of her as a two year old on Friday night (just for old times sake) and it really doesn’t seem like that long ago!

She has had quite a family time this weekend… Friday (her actual birthday) was fairly uneventful although she and Chris did manage to find time to go to a late afternoon movie :)

On Friday night Grandma and Poppa came over for dinner… curried kumara soup with English muffins… YUM!!  We sat around a blazing fire eating and chatting and then for dessert we had a chocolate mud cake that Grandma brought over!Krsystals cake Not such a great photo because my camera frosted up with the heat of the fire LOL  That’s Chris smiling away… her boyfriend of 9 months.  He’s doing a LOT of smiling at the moment because he got his braces off on Monday :)

Here’s the card I made for Krystal using one of my FABULOUS Magnolia Tilda stamps!  Easel I’m really enjoying making easel cards at the moment :)

Here’s what the front looks like:FrontKrystal’s not really a ‘pastel’ girl but I did manage to keep the softness.  The stamped image is coloured with Distress Inks… such a cool technique!

Here’s the inside of the card (I took the photo before I wrote the message… a girl’s got to keep some things private LOLInside  The beauty of easel cards is that when you stand them up they don’t fall over and nobody can read the message:Open Happy birthday Krystal… and as the card says I wish you ‘happiness always’

Love Mum xxx

Tuesday 18 May 2010

Another giveaway

While I’ve been looking around Magnolia blogs… seeing what others have done with the stamps… it  seems that there’s quite a few giveaways at the moment :)

This one comes from Mindy:IMG_5954_thumb[2] I’m totally loving Mindy’s oval border around the Magnolia stamp!!  It reminds me of a neat pleated circle Mum did on a layout last week. 

If you want to have a go at winning too then just visit Mindy’s blog HERE and see what you have to do.

Happy Scrapping… Shell xx

Monday 17 May 2010

Magnolia Stamps Giveaway!

Just lately I've been looking at some gorgeous new stamps... and I actually bought myself some from America last week (they're going to be my birthday present to myself LOL). Anyway, along the Magnolia journey I've discovered some wonderful blogs and one of my favourites is Jodie from Oz!

I was already liking Magnolia Stamps a LOT but after seeing what Jodie has done with them I really fell in love with them! After getting home from work tonight I see that Jodie is doing a blog giveaway and here's what's up for grabs:

Magnolia Stamps
Wild Orchid Flowers
Spellbinders embossing folders


So how could I resist entering??? This would be such a cool prize to win :)
p.s. Jodie... thanks for a fantastic blog!

Sunday 16 May 2010

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

THE BAD/UGLY: It’s been an unbelievable few weeks in our household! Almost 4 weeks ago we got burgled… in broad daylight!! I nipped home from work at lunchtime because I was expecting a courier parcel to find the said parcel tampered with on the front door step.

Then I unlocked the front door and found ICE CUBES all over the kitchen floor and both the fridge and freezer doors wide open… to be honest I muttered something about “blinken girls not closing the freezer properly” and proceeded to pick up all the ice cubes (which were only a little bit melted).

Then I opened up the courier parcel on the dining room table and checked to see what was missing. By this stage I’d already been inside for about 5 minutes and still hadn’t realised what had happened.

Then I came around the corner into the lounge and saw the backdoor swinging in the wind…. realisation hit FAST!!! I rushed into my craft room and sure enough my laptop was GONE!!

Next it was down to Krystal’s room and her laptop was GONE!! I rang my sister and told her and while I was doing that I realised that there was a LOT of stuff gone!!!

Anyone who has been through this will not be surprised that the next minute I was crying my eyes out…. it’s amazing how emotional you get about things like this. I remember crying because whoever had been inside my home had walked all over my VERY clean kitchen floor that I’d scrubbed on hands and knees the night before!

Over the next 24 hours we realised the extent of the burglary… apart from the laptops there was also all the other techno gadgets that a typical home with teenagers has… cameras, playstations, MP3 players etc and along with that clothing (only mine so does that mean I have ‘cooler’ clothes than the girls??), food (yes they took ALL our meat, bread, milk and chocolate yoghurts… they did leave us the fruit ones!) plus all my family jewellery… and all of this happened between 9.30 and midday!

Almost 4 weeks later we’re finally getting things sorted… which means we can finally get back to doing the things we enjoy like blogging :)

One thing I’ve learnt from this experience is that I’m VERY blessed to have so many good friends and my Scrapbook Dreams family! Thank you all so much for everything you’ve done… the calls, visits, texts, and emails have been amazing! And to all the girls on the forum a HUGE thank you for being there every step of the way! You’re all amazing in my opinion!!

And now for something GOOD :)

I’ve been busy this morning creating my first easel card… and they’re ridiculously easy to make! In fact I had so much fun with it that it’s going to be our Mid Month Motivation on the Scrapbook Dreams forum :)

The finished card measures 4 1/4 inches square and I really love it. Here’s the front:FrontThe bird is made from Grungepaper which I inked and stamped :) If you look in the lower right hand corner you will see a wax seal I added too.

This is the inside of the card:InsideI used one of my new stamps (from Stampin Up) for the sentiment and I layered that on a piece I tore from an old book. Quite by accident the text from the book reads: I sat there feeling at peace with all the world while I waited and it was grand not having to talk for a bit.

Here’s what the card looks like when it’s sitting ‘open’:Open I really love how it all turned out! You might be wondering about the ‘easel’ part of the card… maybe this will explain:Side 2 After making just one of these I’ve totally gotten into them so I’m sure you’ll be seeing lots more of this style of card from me in the future :)

Now if you REALLY like it here’s a couple of options for you!!

  • You could make your own using the tutorial I’m putting on Scrapbook Dreams.
  • You could WIN this particular card by becoming a follower and leaving a comment on the Scrapbook Dreams blog!!

I hope you’ll have a go at making you’re own :)

Happy Scrapping from me xxx