Project Life: Week 21 and a MAJOR event!

Hi everyone :)

I’m a couple of days late with this blog update but it ended up in the ‘I’m just too tired to do it’ basket!  I’ve had a hugely eventful weekend at Creative Escape Downunder and it was totally awesome!  Of course I will show you all the project… but not today… and I’ve got an insert as well… but not today LOL

Here’s an overview of last week:

I’m a big fan of Masterchef Masterclass and I like to pretend I’m right there with the contestants… I’m sure I’m not the only one… although the little voice in my head says I might be one of the few to admit it!

Last weekend Josh showed everyone how to make a very decadent and grown up bread and butter pudding and I decided to give it a go.  I did make a couple of changes like adding cranberries instead of raisins and changing the alcohol to white chocolate syrup but the final pudding was pretty delicious!

We’re right into the whole cooking thing at school now too and on Monday we made hokey pokey in class which the kids thought was pretty awesome!

Here’s a closer look at the beginning of my week:

I finally got all my preparations done for my big weekend.  I ended up making 18 swap pins which I was pretty pleased with and then I decided to make some large tags to label all my stuff.  I totally love how they turned out… and then I got a bit carried away because I had just a little more paper scraps so I made two smaller tags as well.  I have now used all the Graphic 45 paper that I had for this project but still loving the collection!

I also realised that my old jeans just weren’t going to stand up to another wash so it was time to get a new pair.  While I was trying them on I spotted some cool socks so I got them too because Mr Toby has a tendency to ‘borrow’ aka STEAL socks!!

On Thursday morning I got the car all packed and ready to go and to be honest I was pretty impressed with myself.  I also had a list of what I needed to take and managed to have everything on the list labelled and packed and just for once I didn’t forget anything!

Here’s a closer look at the second half of my week:

Since it was raining on Thursday afternoon we couldn’t do our senior school sports so the kids and I opened up the gingerbeer we made the week before and they LOVED it!  They actually drank every last drop of the 5 bottles we made.  It was super fizzy and had a great flavour too :)

I did a quick trip to see my chiropractor on Thursday since I’d woken up with a ‘kink’ in my neck and then I was off to Auckland for three days of creativity!

I’m not going to put too many details here because I’ve got an insert with photos to share later on in the week but I will say it was absolutely fantastic!

Mum came with me and we met up at the hotel.  Registration closed at 7pm and she knew I wouldn’t get there before then so she registered me and the goodie bag was pretty cool… lots of neat things to use over the weekend and beyond.

Our first class was with Donna Downey and she is hilarious!  We laughed all through the class which lasted from 9am until afternoon tea.  She also gave my Mum a nickname which ended up sticking for the whole weekend… I’ll tell you more about that with the insert.

We did two classes each with Teresa Collins and Heidi Swapp and these women are both hugely inspiring story tellers as well as being humble and generous women. 

It was a huge event and one that I’m so pleased to have taken part in… and I honestly do promise to share lots of photos and details with you later in the week.

And now for a MAJOR event… I’m such a proud Mumma today… and to be honest I’m also a little bit teary about it… but today my ‘big girl’ is 21!

I don’t know where the years have gone… I still have such vivid memories of the day she was born but 21 years have flown by and now my precious newborn baby is a woman in her own right.

Happy 21st birthday Krystal… you are beautiful on the inside as well as the outside, super talented, kind, generous and totally unique.  I’m so proud to be your Mum and I love you very much xx

So before I need another pack of tissues I’ll wish you all a great week xx

Time for a catch up!

Hi everyone

There has been so much happening over the past few weeks and although I’ve had great intentions of updating my blog, it just hasn’t happened until now LOL

First up I’ve been busy with the Rugby World Cup!  I’ve never been much of a rugby  follower but this term at school it was our theme and I got caught up in the excitement of it as well… and actually I’ve learnt quite a lot along the way.

On the Scrapbook Dreams forum we organised a tag swap for the Rugby World Cup and I was blown away by the response.  20 ladies chose a country and each created 20 tags about their country.  Then they sent them in to me and we organised them all before sending them back out.  Here’s what 420 tags (including covers) looked like on my lounge floor:

I did 20 cover tags:

And then I created 20 New Zealand tags:

The finished tag book looks pretty impressive!  Mum took part in the swap as well and she created the Ireland tags… if you knew my mum you’d know that she’s more Irish than the Irish LOL

Here’s Mum’s tag:

And here’s a photo she sent me of all her tags arranged very artistically!

At school we were lucky enough to have three of the Irish team come for a visit so we made a huge effort and had a classroom window competition.  Here’s the entry for my class:

We used a shamrock template and the kids coloured in HEAPS of them… green ones for the ‘grass’ and colourful ones for our rainbow.  We also had a pot of gold at each end of the rainbow along with dancing leprechauns!!

It was a bit hard to photograph with the sunlight but you kind of get the idea.  In the centre area we had a string of flags and big letters spelling out Ireland that the kids did:

On the day that the Irish players visited we had a massive fashion parade which was fantastic… so much GREEN everywhere!  Here’s a couple photos of my kids all dressed up:

Just imagine over 500 people all dressed in GREEN!

In the middle block we had Gaelic games and I was helping out with the Gumboot tossing… lots of fun but I lost a lot of my voice shouting out “1... 2… 3… TOSS!”

At lunchtime there was a mini food festival with all sorts of Irish goodies and Mum came over for the afternoon as well.  After lunch we all went to the hall where our kids performed some kapahaka and really blew the Irish players out of the water by singing the ‘Irish Call’… it was pretty impressive stuff!

The Irish players were presented with a carved paddle which they were pretty thrilled about:

Afterwards they went around shaking hands and handing out a few goodies like key rings.  Mum and I were a bit slow off the mark but one of my boys managed to get a key ring for Mum and she was pretty thrilled about it:

So that was Irish Day!  I’ve been watching quite a few of the games and actually enjoying them LOL 

I think that’s enough for now but I’ve got a very special little boy to introduce to you in the next update so keep watching :)

It’s all about…. Alice :)

Alice in Wonderland that is!  WARNING… this is a long post with LOTS of photos!! 

A few months ago Lynne and I came up with the idea to create each other a mini to swap.  There were just a couple of guidelines we decided on:

• 6 pages of chipboard bases 5x5 size
• Zutter binding
• Something with little quotes – in other words a finished mini that we didn’t have to add photos to

After having several ideas that I discarded a ‘light bulb’ went off when I saw how much Lynne loved this 8x8 paper pad:

I’ve never really worked with Graphic 45 paper before… but after doing these projects I can honestly say I LOVE IT!!!  It’s seriously good value and the paper is so ‘cuttable’ :)

I had so much fun making the mini for Lynne… but it was also REALLY hard to give it away!  So…  before I show you the mini I made for Lynne I wanted to show you the Alice in Wonderland canvas I made for myself using the left over bits and pieces. 

Here’s the full canvas (click on the pics to see them in more detail) :

I actually used several of the ideas I’d put into Lynne’s mini – mostly so that I could remember what I’d done LOL

This canvas has LOTS of little details and different layers so here’s another shot to give you an idea:

The little scroll is made from some of the paper in the pad… and I loved the little bottle which I found and have had in my stash for ages!!

And now… onto Lynne’s mini!!  Here’s the front cover:

I used LOTS of Dimensional Magic on this mini along with rhinestones to give it all a bit of sparkle and shine! 

Pages 1 & 2:

And YES I do know that the clock is upside down… that’s one of the neat things about working on an ‘Alice’ album… anything goes!!

Pages 3 &4:

There’s a little story to this one… I am ALWAYS late when I go to Lynne’s and she always texts to ask where I am.  As soon as I arrived she normally says something along the lines of “I wondered if you’d ever arrive” so the quote from the Alice paper worked in perfectly!

Pages 5 & 6:

The clock surround on page 5 is actually a chipboard embellishment I’ve had for AGES!  So pleased it was right for this project. 

Pages 7 & 8:

I had a HUGE amount of fun doing the hand on page 8!! 

Pages 9 & 10:LOTS of cutting on this page!!

Back cover:

Of course the key hole should be on the back!! LOL

When I’d finished doing all the pages the book was really FAT!!  I actually wondered if I’d be able to bind it…

Luckily it did fit in the binder!!  Then  I just added some silver ribbons which I raided from Mum’s stash (thanks Mum!)

I had so much fun making this mini for Lynne and I know that she loved it… in fact she actually made a You Tube video of it (was very excited to see my project!!) 

Here’s Lynne’s video

And before I go I just wanted to share a few of my favourite embellishments:

The hand reaching out to grab the pebble:

The scroll:

The Mad Hatter square embedded with watch parts:

The fancy clock:

and the Tim Holtz type charm:

Thanks for coming to visit today… would love to hear what you thought of this project so please leave me a comment!

More layouts

You know what it’s like when you get challenged to do something and you just have to… well that’s been the case with these layouts!

First up there was a ‘photo swap’ layout challenge.  Esther, Rangi and myself all swapped photos and then the challenge was to make a layout for each other.

Rangi made a gorgeous double layout for Esther featuring some photos of her son Liam:

Esther received one of my photos (taken on Alphabet Day earlier this year) and she’s created this fab layout for me!  Love the grungy look of this one :)

Rangi sent me a photo of Luke when he was just a wee boy and here’s the layout I came up with:

We all agreed that it was a bit of a challenge scrapping for someone else… the results speak for themselves!

And while we’re talking about layouts… it was the Friday
Fun Night at Scrapbook Dreams and we had a fantastic challenge… select a favourite designer/scrapper and then create a layout in their style.

I chose Renee Dowling as it’s a style I admire but haven’t tried before.

When I looked at Renee Dowling’s blog I spotted this layout:

And this is the layout I created by scraplifting her style:

I’m really pleased with the layout… especially since the photos have been waiting for 3 YEARS to make it onto a layout!!

Rangi also set us a TWIST challenge… to create a flower without using scrapbooking paper… heck!  But with a little creativity I came up with this:

It’s a flower made from skeleton leaves mixed with a denim die cut flower and the centre is a Prima pebble.

Thanks again for another awesome challenge Rangi… my album is getting much fatter now :)