Happy as a pig in mud!

Hi everyone :)

Warning:  There are a LOT of photos in this post so you might want to grab a coffee LOL

Remember how I said yesterday that I wanted to get into my craft room and get creative?  Well after doing some school work this morning I decided to have some ‘me time’ and I got into my craft room and I’m as happy as a little pig in mud!

When Mum and I went to Creative Escape Downunder I was pretty thrilled with Donna Downey’s class… so many cool techniques… but for some reason my art journal just wasn’t working for me.  I wasn’t sure what it was and so it’s been sitting on my craft table looking a bit neglected… until today!

I finally figured out what wasn’t working for me and there was a super simple solution!  It turns out that what wasn’t working for me was the way the signatures were held with ribbon in my book… so I got out my book binding stuff and had a look through it and hey presto… problem solved!

Here’s my book with the original signatures taken out of it… all I had to do was undo the ribbon:

I made three sets of signatures from kraft cardstock and then used book binding thread to sew them all back into the original cover:

Now they fit really well and the whole thing opens like a ‘real book’ which really works for me.

Then I started taking apart the original pages I did with Donna and putting them into my ‘new’ art journal.

Page 1

Here’s how it looked in the original book:

I used some cool rub-ons I’ve had for ages to decorate the heart:

I decided that I quite liked Donna’s idea of ‘dating’ her work so I grabbed out a date stamp that I’ve NEVER used (it’s been in one of my drawers for years) and put the date of the class when I started the page and then today’s date since that’s when I finished it.

Page 2

The next page was one where we just painted the background using a variety of techniques.  I loved the colours so I trimmed it up and got started.

I did a whole heap of stamping… added a photo (from my One Little Word album) and punched out some circles from old dictionary paper.  I also got a bit creative with Indian Ink… love that stuff!

The quote reads: What if your FEARS and DREAMS exist in the same place. Would you still go there?

Then all I had to do was add the page to my journal… easy as pie!

Page 3

This page was even easier than the first two because it was the one page in my original journal that was pretty much finished.

All I did was trim it up… add a stamped quote and the date tags and I was done!

Here’s a close up:

Page 4

(and the final one for today!)

This page took quite a while because basically all I had was a background of texture… no paint, no gesso… nothing!

I got it into my head that I was going to paint a tree… mostly since I’d just found an owl that I’ve had stashed away for ages!

Then I dried it and decided it needed some more detail using charcoal pencil and watercolour pastels:

It was at about this point that I had a ‘hissy fit’ with myself because it wasn’t working… and when all else fails I just bring out my ink sprays and hey presto… happy!

After I dried it off I stamped an image in the centre between the two ‘tree trunks’ but the background was too dark and you couldn’t see it… no problem I just added some paint for the ‘moonlight’ LOL

The quote reads: The world of reality has it’s limits but the world of imagination is limitless.

Then I stuck the page into my book:

It has been a highly productive afternoon… and I’m really thrilled with how my art journal is taking shape.  I’ve still got a few more ‘Donna pages’ to work on before I start any new ones but it feels GOOD!

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of part of my table this afternoon… just to remind myself that this is IMPORTANT to me!  I’ve re-discovered my creativity and I’m feeling really good about it!

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend and I’ll catch you back here again tomorrow with my Project Life update.

Happy Saturday xx

Project Life: Week 17 and an insert

Hi everyone :)

It seems like months ago since last Monday and as I put together this weeks pages I couldn’t believe how much has happened and changed in such a short time.

Here’s an overview of the past week:

On Monday morning Mikayla, Toby and I woke up at Mum’s/Grandma’s house.  In fact, Toby got up with Grandma at 4.30am to have breakfast with her before she left for work (that boy never misses a chance for a free meal!)

Before we left Grandma’s house he wrote her a letter for when she came home… yes he really is quite clever at times!  Here’s what it said:

Dear Grandma

Thank you for letter me and Mumma and Mikayla come to stay for the night.  I did like getting up early with you this morning.  But I did need a little nap after you left.

Your phone has been going ‘ding’ ‘ding’ all the time and it did make me go crazy!

I did try to leave you a present on the lawn but Mumma did throw it away.  She said you would not like it.  But you WOULD like it eh Grandma!

Mumma did put Rusty outside and I did say “Ha” “Ha” because he did say “Ha” “Ha” to me through the window last night AND this morning!

Mumma and Mikayla decided not to have a shower at your house so that you didn’t have to wash the towels.  But Grandma, they does smell POO-TANG and they is going to be in the car with ME!!

I’ve got to go now cause they is ready!

I love you lots and lots Grandma and I’m glad I came over for your birthday.  You is glad I came too eh Grandma!

Love from Toby ‘lick’ ‘lick’

P.S. Mumma did use your internet but don’t tell her I told you ok!

Clearly my son has no sense of loyalty whatsoever since he was quite willing to tell on me about the internet!

On Monday afternoon Toby got a text from Grandma:

Thank you Toby so much for your lovely letter.  Your Mumma has taught you well.  I feel sorry for you in the car with no showers BUT I’m very pleased Mumma got rid of your present.  Don’t want to appear ungrateful.  Love you, Grandma

It’s amazing how much fun we have with Toby in the family! LOL

Here’s a close up of the beginning of the week:

When we left Mum’s we went down to the Education Resource Centre and I bought some new borders and letters for my classroom.  Then we carried on back to Rotorua and ended up having a real ‘retail therapy’ day.

We went down to the recycling centre and after dropping off all our paper, cardboard and other things we stopped into the second hand store there where I managed to get a big box of Mason jars, jam jars and sauce bottles for the awesome price of just $10

Then we headed to another second hand store where I happened to spot a really pretty sugar bowl and milk jug set.  I’ve been thinking about organising a ‘high tea’ one day and I knew I wanted something really pretty but pink just isn’t really my thing so this set will be perfect.

Mikayla came with me to the chiropractors and took some photos for me and then we headed to The Warehouse where I scored a foot spa that I know will get a good workout and Mikayla picked up a really groovy chair for her room along with the 'In-Styler’ she has been coveting for a while.

Here’s a close up of the second part of my week:

Toby has been a bit ‘POO-TANG’ himself lately so Mikayla gave him a bath and he was very keen to get the towel off her.  Apparently it’s much more fun to shake himself off in the lounge because he gets more attention that way!

On Wednesday it really hit me that Matthew had passed away after a tragic accident.  They never teach you how to deal with something like that at teachers’ college and to be honest I feel like I’m floundering in the dark a bit.  I’m really pleased that I take so many photos in my classroom because I’ve got some really lovely photos of Matthew that I know his family will want to have.

On Thursday, Carey and I went around to the house to see Matthew and spend some time with his family.  We also spent a bit of time with Barb and her family.  Carey and I have both worked closely with Barb for a number of years (and in fact she works in my classroom this year).  For her to loose her grandson in such a tragic way has been unbelievable.

On Thursday and Friday Mikayla was an absolute legend helping me get organised for the Scrapbook Dreams retreat.  She cut felt and hessian, die cut tags, packaged classes and generally did a million jobs.  The best part of working with her is that we know each other so well that we barely had to talk about what needed doing… we just got on and did it.

On Friday night we borrowed the school trailer and took all the stands down to the hall and then started working on the displays.  We finally finished just after 1am and as we were walking towards the door Mikayla rattled the keys at me so I knew she had them.  I flicked off the lights, set the alarm and shut the hall door (which I’d pre-locked earlier in the evening).  Then I asked her for the keys…. and she said she’d put them on the counter by the alarm!!!  So there we were… 1am, dark outside, no keys and Toby was in the car.  Thankfully I had my phone on me and we rang the security company who very kindly came down and let us back into the hall!

And now for the inserts! Here’s the front of the insert (6 x 12 size)

I’ll have to pay Mum a ‘photographers fee’ soon since I used a few of her shots!  We had an awesome bunch of ladies at the retreat and there were so many wonderful layouts and projects to share with each other.

Here’s the back of the insert:

Usually we finish the retreats at 2pm and everyone says that they’d like to have more time so this time we planned on staying until 5pm.  The funny thing was that at 2.15 the only people left were Karen and Bridgette!  They decided to scrap for as long as possible which worked out great for us because it meant that we could pack up and take the stands home without having to lock the hall up!

It’s been a very full-on week but before I go I just want to share two layouts with you.

The first one is Karen’s layout from one of the classes.  She used the class kit as the basis for her layout and then changed lots of things on it and I think it looks amazing!

The second layout is the Challenge Pack winner created by Sheree!  Mikayla chose the winner since she didn’t know who had made each layout and this one really appealed to her:

I can totally see why it appealed too because it was absolutely stunning.  Congrats Sheree!

I hope you all have a great week xx

Project Life: Week 28 and SENZ!

Hi everyone :)

Yes it’s a later than usual post tonight because I’ve been at SENZ all weekend… and it was FANTASTIC!!  Before I tell you all about it here’s a look at my week:

On Monday Krystal came home for an overnight visit and we decided that it was definitely time to clean out her old room!  Toby was super happy to see his big sister and she got lots of cuddles and licks!!

While Krystal has been away her old room has become a ‘dumping ground’ for all manner of things… mostly my stuff unfortunately!  We de-cluttered, chucked out and cleaned all afternoon and by dinner time we could see some real progress.  We also bought some lovely new sheets, duvet and an electric blanket for the bed and Krystal had somewhere nice and warm to sleep for the night :)

Here’s a better look at the start of my week:

On Tuesday we took a huge load of rubbish to the dump and then we called into the local habitat store where we spotted a great sofa set for just $85!  The three seater has a fold out double bed inside it and the two seater has a slighter narrower bed as well so now I’ve got heaps of space for visitors… it will definitely be great for when  family comes to stay.

I carried on cleaning and de-cluttering for another day and it was amazing how much stuff I was able to get sorted out!  Then I caught up with all the school work I needed to do… went to school and did the photocopying and had a lovely day with my boy!

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

On Thursday night I got packed and ready for SENZ and then the next morning Nina and I were off to Hamilton!

Before we even got a chance to go into SENZ we caught up with Brenda and Elaine and had a great chat!  It was so good to see them in ‘real life’ again instead of just via the internet!

I’d wanted to see the Project Life stall at SENZ and would you believe it was right by the entrance… obviously meant to be!  As soon as I arrived I got to catch up with Shiree and Loreen which was fab!

Before I show you the rest of the SENZ photos I’d better show you my ‘creativity’ for this weeks pages.  I decided to use my SENZ ticket and just add the dates… super easy!

I’ve done a new style of insert for this weeks pages using one of the cool page protectors I bought at SENZ… this one is ‘Design G’.

The front of the layout is all about our accommodation and some of the people I was able to catch up with… as well as a few little pieces of inspiration:

I’ve kept the back of the insert for my classes… and my shopping goodies:

I haven’t actually printed these photos off yet but at least you can see what it will look like :)

I’d have to say that this has been my favourite SENZ to date.  I’ve caught up with some lovely ladies that I haven’t seen in a long time… met some new scrapbooking friends… and come home extremely tired but also really inspired to get back into the scrap room!

It’s back to school for me tomorrow so I’ve decided to pull out the bed from the sofa and curl up with my boy (who was VERY HAPPY to have Mumma home again!), watch some TV and just blob for the night in front of the fire.

Wishing you all a fabulous week xx

Time for a catch up!!

Ok… well… it’s way past time to catch up!!

Since getting engaged time has seemed to by even quicker… plus we’ve had several birthdays over the past couple of months so there’s been lots happening.

Now that the first term is done I’ve finally managed to catch up on some things and I’ve got lots to share :)

During Term 1 the senior school did a big focus on ‘Courage, Sacrifice and Comradeship’ which the kids really got into.  As part of the topic we did a trip to Waiouru Army Museum and one of the activities was to ride in one of the M548 vehicles…. it was bumpy, dusty, bone shaking and FUN!!  I took my camera with me to capture all our activities and then did this layout:

Tautu and I have a favourite little spot in Rotorua… Okere Falls.  It’s absolutely stunning and special… in fact we’ve decided that we’d quite like to have our wedding ceremony there.  I took my camera with me (of course) and got lots of shots and here’s the resulting layout:

Stepping back in time a bit now… I’ve done several layouts for retreats and classes that I haven’t shared yet so I’ll show you the first few now :)

This layout involves a bit of maths to work out the background but it’s SOOOO worth it!  Each piece of white cardstock has been put through a different embossing folder to create lots of interest and it really is stunning in real life:

Next up is a layout featuring a photo of my youngest sister with two of her gorgeous girls (the third daughter is the baby in the bucket LOL)… I had lots of fun creating this one:

And the last layout for today features Miss Mikayla at the beach.  Even though she’s 16 there are moments when she transports me back to when she was just a small girl… and this is one of those times!!

I’ve still got loads more layouts to share so stay tuned :)

Happy scrapping everyone xxx

Tags and Layouts :)

Hi there :)

On the weekend I spent some time with one of my scrapping friends Lynne and we did a tag class.  It was so neat to learn lots of new techniques… and refresh on some old ones.

We made 4 tags during the afternoon involving inking, using metals, hammers, Tim Holtz embellishments, texture plates, embossing etc… talk about FUN!

So far I’ve finished off two of the tags so I thought I’d share them:The ‘Time’ tag was created using a Tim Holtz embossing folder and LOTS of inking so I loved it!  The clock, time words and hour glass were all made from metal which we ran through a Ten Studios embossing plate and then banged with a texture hammer to distress.  Next I added some metal chain, brads and mini flower along with a heart charm and larger flower that I distressed with paint.

Here’s a closer look at the Time tag:  I finished off the second tag this morning.  I got quite a bit done in class… inking and stamping with paint (quite like the effect of that!) and then I did the grungeboard bird… but it ‘needed something’.  So this morning I inked and embossed some flowers, layered them up and added a hitch fastener along with jump rings to add the wee bird… really happy with it now!Following on from emails received about the Bugs & Butterflies retreat I thought I’d better share the layouts I did for the classes.

In the first class we created two layouts from My Minds Eye paper… really liked this one because it was so lovely to work with. In the first layout we added photos to a film strip that I cut on the cricut.  The paper is double sided so it was easy to make sure it all coordinated.   We also worked with some mesh ribbon (great for inking!), Prima flowers, Tim Holtz journaling tags and sealing wax.  I did a layout about one of my nieces and love that the paper worked so well with colour photos :)

The second layout had a different feel to it… but still using the same paper: This time we did some cutting, distressing and layering plus we created brads with the i-top brad maker so they match perfectly with the paper.  My niece loves flowers and these photos were perfect for the layout :)

In the other layout class we went for a very different look using some new Bo Bunny paper (Learning Curve Collection): We cut a large circle and then layered various pp strips to create a bit of depth to the layout.  We also used Tim Holtz ruler ribbon, mini paper clips, buttons and brads.  I did my layout using a photo of me when I started school and one taken earlier this year… yes I’m still at Primary School (must be a SLOW learner LOL)

Hope you enjoyed looking at all the creativity :)

Have a great week… Shell xx

First sneak peeks!

Hi everyone :)

The weeks are zooming by and it’s only 25 days until the Bugs & Butterflies Scrap Retreat!

Today I’ve got the first sneak peeks of one of the layout classes.  I had such a blast creating them and I’m dying to show you the full layouts but I’ll just have to wait until after the retreat!

The layouts were created with My Mind’s Eye paper from the Lost & Found collection and there will also be Prima flowers, Tim Holtz journaling tags, mesh ribbon and sealing wax!

It’s going to be a GREAT class!

What a busy weekend!

Well this weekend turned out to be even busier than I had expected!  Friday night and most of Saturday was taken up with Miss Krystal getting ready for the school ball… and it was totally worth it because she looked absolutely amazing!!!

When she went down to the hairdressers in the afternoon she was met with a wee present from me… her corsage and the buttonhole for Chris:I was really impressed because the red was absolutely perfect! 

Here’s Krystal’s hair… although they don’t really show up she actually had lots of pearls pinned in as well as some really fine black glitter was which very sparkly :)Chris turned up looking very grown up with the tie to match Krystal’s dress: Chris and his Mum found time for a quick laugh while they were waiting for Krystal: And here’s Miss Krystal:She made her own dress and jewellery as well as the wrap so she did a fantastic job!

Chris looked pretty proud of her too: There was a pre-ball event including ‘mocktails’ and all the parents were invited… it was also a great opportunity to see what the other girls were wearing: Krystal and Chris had a brilliant night and were very tired but happy on Sunday!

I spent Sunday over at Waihi Beach teaching a scrapbooking class for the Young Artists group.  I was expecting around 8 children…. but 17 turned up!

We made easel cards and the kids had a wonderful time stamping, punching, tearing, inking, gluing and designing!

Here’s most of their cards:

The kids were all thrilled with their creativity and of course as the tutor that’s what we all like to hear!

I hope you all have a great week… Shell xx