The school holidays have arrived!

Well we spent the last week of school working on our businesses and getting products completed. We've still got lots to do but it's all manageable! I suddenly remembered last week that I had a bath tub Sizzix die that would be perfect for making the product labels and the kids had a huge amount of fun cutting them all out!

Finally Friday arrived and the term ended. Don't get me wrong... I LOVE my job... but it's been a long, tiring term!

Both the girls had been home on Friday not feeling well... there's still lots of bugs going around... so we just veged out in front of the TV and relaxed.

On Saturday Mikayla's sugar crafting course started! She's been really looking forward to it for the last 6 weeks and apart from a few sniffles and a bit of a sore throat she was feeling a lot better. When I went to pick her up she showed me what she had made... a gorgeous rose and lots of leaves and smaller flowers. She is definitely talented! Unfortunately she seems to have picked up my habit of being far too hard on herself though! She kept comparing what she was doing (after only 3 lessons) with what her tutor had made (after 15 years experience!).

Last night she had some 'homework' to do... another 18 flowers! Krystal and I had already set ourselves up in my scrap room during the day so Mikayla got a small table and joined us (I definitely didn't want sugar anywhere near my paper). I even managed to get a sneaky photo:

I know the table looks a mess... but we were all working hard on our projects! We had a great night all hanging out together and sharing laughs... I totally love spending time with the girls like this!!! Our holidays have gotten off to a great start so hopefully I'll be back with lots of neat projects over the next 2 weeks :)

I hope you all get to enjoy some time with your kids over the holidays as well :)

A few projects to share

We've been having a creative time here getting some projects done. There's a few more things to share... first of all a layout! I definitely haven't had a chance to do many layouts lately but Esther's challenge at Scrapbook Dreams this month was perfect for some of Krystal's ball photos.

Esther provided a wonderful sketch that really appealed to me... and here's my layout:

I used a 12 x 12 Prima Paintables for the base and 'coloured it in' using my Versa Mark pen and chalks. VERY happy with the result! I decided to do a mix of black & white and colour photos... love the effect that gives. The title was cut using Jasmine font on the cricut. The ribbon was a lucky find at a local fabric store (it also has small rhinestones on it that really shine in the evening lights) and the flower & leaves are from Scrapbook Dreams.

The best part is that Krystal really loves the layout!

Next up is some ATC's I did for a recent swap. The theme was playing cards and after several attempts that didn't go the way I was hoping I came up with these:

I used a real playing card for my base... inked over it and added some Distress Paint to the right hand side... and then very patiently waited for it to dry LOL Then I stamped some images (including the gorgeous scroll at the top). The ladies came from a sheet of images in my stash and the butterfly was made by stamping the image onto transparency using Staz On ink. I added a brad to the centre of each butterfly as well. My cards were slightly narrower than the ATC size so I added some text up the left hand side and finished it off with some rhinestones in the top right hand corner. Have to admit that I'm pretty stoked with how they turned out :)

Next up is Mikayla's art! She has just started attending the Rotorua cake decorating guild... and she's loving it. It all started when one Friday night we got out a Nigella Lawson video from the library because nothing else really seemed interesting. WELL... Mikayla and I watched several hours of Nigella's cooking shows and kept going back to the one featuring cupcakes.

On the Monday we went to a local sugar craft store and he told us about the guild (held on the first Tuesday of each month) which happened to be meeting the following evening. I took Mikayla for her first visit and she LOVED it. She learnt to make all sorts of different 'filler' flowers and showed a natural talent for it.

Last Tuesday was her second visit and the tutorial was on how to wire all the flowers together into a bouquet. She's learnt a few more tricks and been practicing ever since. She wanted to add some colour to her flowers and she noticed that my scrapbooking chalks were 'acid free' and 'non-toxic' so she decided to give it a go on her flowers:

Hasn't she done an amazing job??? The leaves were given to her by a couple of people from the guild... and Jacqui gave her the tiny flower (coloured black) and the two buds. Jacqui has been amazing and really encouraging for Mikayla which is just fabulous! One of the tutors said "If this is what she can do after only two lessons imagine what she'll be like in a year". I'm thrilled that she's found something just for HER... something she enjoys and something that she's really talented at!

The final thing for today is some new scrapbooking mini albums that I created for Scrapbook Dreams. It's a new design of the humble paper bag album featuring a covered accordion spine and hard covers. I made one each for my niece and nephews and totally loved doing them :)

There's HEAPS of goodies in the kits so if you're keen to get your hands on one check out the shop at Scrapbook Dreams.

Well it's back to school tomorrow for us so I'd better go and get some things done. Have a safe and happy week... Shell xx