Art dolls… my new favourite thing!

Hi everyone :)

I’ve been getting all creative this weekend and the ideas are really flowing… it’s a good thing!  Recently I’ve noticed the Prima mixed media art doll stamps designed by Julie Nutting… and from the look of quite a few of the arty blogs out there lots of other people have been noticing them too!

At the end of last week I decided to get a couple of the stamps for myself and see what all the fuss was about and on Tuesday a lovely little package arrived for me:

If you haven’t seen these stamps yourself they're actually not so little!  The doll is actually almost 8 inches tall!  I’ve been wanting to stamp her all week because one of my sisters’ is celebrating her 40th birthday today and I wanted to make her a card… but I wasn’t even able to take them out of the packaging until this morning… and I tell you I’ve had FUN today!

I did a fair bit of stamping… lots of ‘fussy’ cutting and some paper piecing… so many options were available with all the paper I’ve got in my stash!  It didn’t take me too long to come up with a birthday card for my sister… which I then emailed her a photo of and it will be in the post on Monday morning!  Here’s her card:

The card is 4 inches x 9 inches so it’s a good size and I’ve used some of the 6x6 paper pad I bought last weekend to create her dress.

I liked the way this girl came together so much that I had to make one for me using the same papers… and of course I had another stamp to use as well so next came two tags:

I had to cut the tags out with my Silhouette because the doll is too tall for the Tim Holtz die tags I usually use… but that just meant I could use some more of my paper stash!

By the time I’d done these two I didn’t really want to make any more tags but was still enjoying the stamping, cutting and colouring so I made some more dolls… not sure what I’m going to make with them yet… maybe some more cards??

I have a couple of friends who will be celebrating their birthdays in the next couple of months so these girls might really come in handy!

So here’s my productivity for the day:

It’s been a good day for being creative!

Project Life: Week 31

Hi everyone :)

I’m a bit late tonight but I’m feeling like a Domestic Goddess today… the lounge, dining room and kitchen are all sparkling clean… including the kitchen floors which I scrubbed to within an inch of their lives…  I also cleaned my laptop screen… it’s sparkling now  and so is the TV screen LOL  I’ve cleaned out my pantry… bought groceries and now I’ve got a Moroccan Lamb Tagine in the oven… yams semi cooked and ready for their honey and butter glazing… couscous all set to go and Turkish bread ready to be warmed up for dinner… oh yes, and I’ve got the fire going as well.  It’s a GREAT day!

Now onto the week that has just been:

Of course it was the start of the new school term on Monday and quite frankly it’s zooming ahead already.  We’re trying to pack so much into this term!  We’re also packing meetings into our weeks…. yuck!  This week I’ve had a staff meeting, team meeting and a course after school… where will the madness end??

After work on Tuesday I went over to Tauranga to try and get a couple of things… with only a little success.  By the time I’d finished all the things I needed to do it was just after 7pm so I decided to grab some Chinese takeaways and head to Mum’s for dinner since she was just getting off work for the day.  She was definitely surprised to see me and hadn’t even had a chance to think about what to have for dinner so it worked out really well!

On Wednesday I ended up doing a writing course after school.  It was actually really good and there were heaps of great things to learn… including some good things I used to do in my writing programme but had forgotten about.  I ended up buying the book for myself because, quite frankly, sharing three books between 23 teachers is just never going to work.

Here’s a close up of the start of my week:

In other news… I finally decided that the mustard wall paper in my toilet HAD to go!  I’ve lived with it for 7 years and always hated it and for whatever reason had done nothing about it… that is until I realised during the holidays that it’s only wall paper therefore it can be ripped off!  LOL  So now I’ve been busy ripping toilet paper every time I go to the loo… small things amuse small minds sometimes!

Toby has been having more ‘tato balls’ too!  Mikayla keeps making mashed potato for dinner and once or twice a week would be alright but not every night (hence why we’re having couscous tonight!).

I’ve been getting all my baskets on special at The Warehouse and the special was ending on Tuesday.  I just couldn’t seem to find all the baskets I needed so I decided to order them online (at the reduced price) and it totally worked… all the baskets I needed to complete my storage turned up this week and they’re working out fantastically well!

Now onto the second part of the week:

While I’ve been teaching and organising my WOF ran out… to be fair it actually ran out on the 21st of July but I’d forgotten to get it done so on Saturday morning I took it for a warrant thinking that it would fly through… ah NOT!!!  Not only did it not pass but it cost me FOUR tyres to get it put right! 

I just about had a heart attack… honestly… FOUR TYRES!  One of the reasons that I got such a nice car in the first place was so that warrants wouldn’t cost me a fortune.  Thankfully the lovely guy at the tyre place told me that they accepted Q Card and I’ve got one of those so on went the tyres and then it was back to VTNZ to get my warrant.  Now the car is all legal again and it’s really good to know that I’m going to be safe on the road!

Last night I spent most of the evening sorting through stamps and organising them into baskets.  I’ve still got lots more organising to do but I can honestly say that it’s all coming together nicely… plus I discovered quite a few stamp sets that I’ve bought and forgotten about so it’s a bit like Christmas for me really!

Along with house work I also got some school work done today.  Try as I might I just can’t seem to get away from doing school stuff on the weekends.  Honestly, I’m working 50-60 hours per week so something can’t be right with that!  National Standards have a lot of paperwork that goes with them and in my humble opinion it hasn’t made much (if any) difference to the kids at all… except that they have to put up with overworked and stressed teachers.  Ok, I’m off my soap box now!

So there you have it… just another week in my life LOL

I’m off to finish off my Moroccan feast and relax for the evening.  I hope you’ve all had a wonderful weekend and that the week ahead is a good one xx

Project Life: Week 30

Hi everyone :)

This afternoon I’ve had a lovely time reading my book in the sunshine… but all of a sudden it’s gotten cooler and it’s definitely time to light the fire!

It’s been a busy week here filled with loads of sorting, organising, cleaning and de-cluttering… but there’s been lots of progress so that’s a good thing.

Here’s an overview of my week:

On Monday Nina came over for a visit and we got ourselves set up at the dining room table for some much needed craft time together.  It’s really nice when you can get on with your own project but still have the company of a good friend as well.

While I was waiting for things to dry on my art journal page I got busy making spicy cheese and corn Texas muffins… super delicious! 

On Tuesday Toby decided that he was ‘over’ the tidy lounge and he decided to pull more stuffing out of his bed.  When he first started pulling the stuffing out I spent a LOT of time putting it all back in… but quite frankly he was enjoying the ‘game’ far more than me so now the stuffing just goes in the bin!

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

It was lovely to see Kate and William with their new little baby boy and I decided to put a photo in my album this week to mark the occasion.

With all the sorting, tidying and de-cluttering it was super easy to get my night class all sorted out… and miraculously I was actually all set up and ready for them before 7pm!

Just before everyone arrived Toby decided to pull even more stuffing out of his bed and make a big mess… he’s such an attention seeker!  I couldn’t resist adding this quote to his photo:

Right now Toby is curled up on the sofa looking very sweet and innocent… but it doesn’t last long once he wakes up LOL

The second half of my week was spent doing more sorting, de-cluttering and looking at ways to organise my scrap room.  It’s not finished yet but I’m definitely on the right track at last!

On Friday another one left the nest… not Mikayla… our cat Brandy.  We adopted Brandy as a wee kitten almost ten years ago and she’s lived in relative peace until Toby came along.  For the first few months things were ok… and then it was summer and things were still ok… but this winter Toby has taken a dislike to Brandy being in ‘his’ house.  He barks at her constantly and quite frankly it’s too jolly cold outside for her so I took her over to Krystal’s place where she can be indoors during the cold winter nights and lie in front of the gas fire and be warm and cosy.

Here’s a better view of the second half of my week:

Krystal and I did lots of errands on Friday and in between jobs we went out for lunch.  It was so nice to just stop and chat for a while.  Krystal is really good company and she’s doing so many things it’s good to catch up with her for a day.

When I came home I raced around and got dinner all sorted out before Chris and Carey (teachers I work with) arrived.  I was feeling a bit of a ‘Nigella’ when they arrived and I had a Moroccan feast ready.  It’s ages since I’ve done a lamb tagine and this one was probably the best one I’ve ever made… totally delicious with all the little sides dishes.

Toby and Mikayla quite often tease each other but when I saw Mikayla reading out some of the ‘house rules’ to him I had to laugh… thankfully I had my camera close at hand because it really did look like Toby was listening to the rules!

Which brings me back to the craft room and more organising.  I saw some cool baskets the other day and thought they ‘might’ be good for craft storage… and they totally are! 

I’ve even been busy making labels for the baskets:

This morning I was looking at the vision board I made for my One Little Word class and realised that I’d actually included a photo that was quite similar to what I’ve ended up with… just goes to show that I was on the right track after all.

The scrap room still needs a lot more work doing to it but it’s coming together really well.  I’ve even started making matching labels for my 12 x 12 drawers so when I’m done I’ll actually be able to find things really easily!

So there you have it… a very productive week and I feel like I’ve achieved heaps these school holidays.  Now I just have to get my head around the idea of heading back to work tomorrow.

Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead xx

Project Life: Week 26 and the last page

Hi everyone :)

You know how sometimes you just feel good… you know, like REALLY GOOD!  Well that’s me today!

Mikayla cooked me breakfast for my birthday since she’s been busy all week… I started a new ‘top secret’ project and it’s going super smoothly… and I just feel like I’m on top of things.  It’s a good place to be :)

Here’s an overview of my week:

It was super cold here on Monday morning and my poor car looked like something you might see on ‘ice road truckers’.  When I finally de-iced the windscreen and started the car the temp was –0.3 which is pretty cold for me… I’m more of a summer girl LOL

When I got home on Monday Mikayla was super excited.  She’d won a FREE carpet shampoo and ‘the man’ was coming in less than half an hour.  Not really the welcome I was hoping for!  The man duly arrived at 6.30 and of course Mikayla was so excited that she hadn’t cooked dinner yet…. but ‘the man’ didn’t leave until 9.30pm by which time I was getting pretty annoyed… especially since I’d told him that ‘Mikayla won this’ and it was nothing to do with me LOL

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

In New Zealand we’ve just experienced the ‘super moon’ and it was pretty spectacular!  The sky was really bright for several nights but on Tuesday morning the moon looked quite ethereal over my neighbours roof so I had to take a photo.

Mikayla has been teasing Toby by sitting on his new sheepskin bed and he’s been getting himself all wound up… it’s not much fun for Toby but it is funny watching them behave like little kids!

On Wednesday I felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me following a hugely horrible experience from last Friday catching up with me.  I was all over the place and needed some time to get my head together again so I had a ‘mental health day’ and did some art journaling and I can honestly say it was the cheapest and most productive form of therapy ever!

On Thursday I felt so much better and was back at school which was just as well because it was also my birthday!

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

I’d been telling the kids at school for days that my birthday was coming up and on Thursday I received several bars of chocolate along with some V drinks… they know me so well :)

I also had cards from family and friends and then at morning tea time the most gorgeous flowers turned up and got everyone thinking that I had a new man in my life… some of them were actually disappointed when I told them Krystal had sent them LOL  The flowers are currently in a vase on my dining table and the perfume coming into the lounge is beautiful!  Thank you so much Krystal xx

Mum sent me a photo of the note I’d left in her diary… I’d forgotten I’d done that.  Mum always said that if it wasn’t on the shopping list or in the diary then it wouldn’t happen.  (The big present didn’t happen either… even though it was in the diary… but I did get taken out for lunch!!)  Actually every time I go to Mum’s I add things to her grocery list… chip and dip, chocolate, treats for Toby but somehow they always get crossed off before she does the groceries!

Toby was VERY interested in my dinner on Thursday night… especially with my dessert!

He’s a total drama queen when it comes to the camera and I often have to take photos of him just to get him out of the way and be able to get the photos I really want to take!

Friday was busy with our Room 4 Masterchef challenges which the kids are totally loving and tomorrow we have our class final!

Yesterday Mum came over and took me out for lunch which was lovely and then we did some shopping… actually we ended up spending the entire afternoon shopping and we had such a good time.  She helped me pick out lots of fabrics for a project I’ve had in my mind for a while (the ‘secret one’) and I’m happy to report that I’m having some success with it so I’m sure I’ll share it with you sometime soon.

This week marks the half way point in 2013 and my first album of the year is pretty full so I decided to do a final page for the back of the album before starting album number 2.  I found lots of cool quotes that I wanted to remember so I spent a bit of time putting them together with some photos and here’s what I came up with:

So that’s my week and the end of album Number One!

I hope you all have a happy and safe week xx

Project Life: Week 24 and Matariki

Hi everyone :)

I’ve been enjoying the best weekend I’ve had in MONTHS!  I’ve even done a couple more pages in my art journal today so I’m feeling really good.  It’s been a good week overall too… except that my website has been demolished by internet hacks of the worst kind so we’ve had to take it offline for now. 

Here’s an overview of my week:

The start of my week was filled with baking.  On Monday my class had their second go at making chocolate chippie cookies and this time my bowl survived the experience… although not all the cookies did because Matua Mike could smell the baking and just had to help himself on his way through the staff room LOL

At home Mikayla found a new cookie recipe… Apple and Peanut Butter!  I wasn’t too sure about them but they were surprisingly yummy!

Here’s a close up of the start of my week:

On Tuesday the Duffy Theatre people arrived and did a couple of performances for our kids.  They always produce a lot of laughs and the kids get completely captivated by their stories and acting.

We’ve been doing a lot of writing lately… and lots of different types of writing too!  The kids all wrote recipes for making Smoothies for Ralph (the mouse from our class story).  Most of the smoothies had peanut butter, blueberry muffins and bacon in them LOL  They might not taste good to us but the kids set out their recipes correctly which was the aim of the writing.

Along with lots of writing we’ve also been doing some art in the past couple of weeks getting ready for the Matariki celebration and I finally got it all mounted and ready for display.  The kids loved how they turned out.

Another wall display that has suddenly ended up on our wall is all the kids reading activities.  They’ve been producing some outstanding work and our classroom walls look awesome!  We’ve even got a little wall above the classroom sink with all our S.M.A.R.T. Goals on them (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound).

One of my boys really struggles with his learning but we’ve discovered he likes working on my desk with Whaea Sue so we’ve been making good use of that!

On Friday afternoon I took my kids to see the Matariki display in the school hall just before the bell for home time went and sitting on the stage was Matua Aidan trying to get his painting finished for the art auction… the paint wouldn’t have even been dry by the time the auction was supposed to start LOL

If you saw my blog yesterday you would have seen all the pages I’ve been working on for my art journal and my table was a creative mess… but it felt really good!

Now for the Matariki insert.  I decided to just include the photos without writing on them because I wanted them in my album but I really wanted to keep on being creative so a compromise was called for LOL  Here’s what I came up with for the insert:

As it turned out the art auction didn’t go ahead… not sure why… but they’re going to have it early next term apparently so my kids and I are going to get a classroom canvas done to go in the auction.

So that’s been my week and best of all my school work is practically finished so I might just get to have a night off tonight :)

Wishing you all a safe and happy week ahead xx

p.s. even though Toby isn’t in my pages this week he’s quite happy and currently lying full stretch in front of the fire :)

Project Life: Week 12

Hi everyone :)

When I was putting together this weeks pages I realised that my week has been full of lots of ‘little’ events and things.  It’s quite interesting doing a project like this because some weeks seem to hold really significant events while others it’s more a case of it being ‘just another week’… but I’m thinking that it’s those weeks that will be more interesting to look back on one day.

Food seems to appear quite a lot this week too… not sure why LOL  Here’s an overview of my week:

As most of you know I’m a bit of a D.I.Y. girl and I’m always on the lookout for my next project.  I’ve decided to create a more relaxing bedroom for myself and this week I found the ‘perfect’ duvet for my new colour scheme.

I was also super pleased to find ‘MARMITE’ back on the shelves.  I haven’t even opened the pot up yet but I DO feel comforted knowing that it’s then when I’m ready!

There’s been a little more artwork going on… more mixed media stuff and I’ve got a different kind of canvas on my work table at the moment… hopefully I’ll be able to share that with you next week.

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

On Wednesday there was a ‘hop’ on over in Waihi and Tracey went all out getting dressed up… she even went to the hairdresser for a very 1950’s hairstyle.   I was so pleased to see the photos she sent me because quite frankly I think she looks amazing!  Mum had a big hand in getting her outfit ready too :)

Mikayla also got busy making some cupcakes… but these ones were very ‘different’ from the usual variety.  She made them with BACON and MAPLE SYRUP!  There is actually bacon IN the cupcakes along with some maple syrup and then she iced them with maple syrup icing and put crushed up bacon on top…. Ummm no thanks!

I’ve been so busy at school lately that it’s been very rare to find me at home before 6.30 and poor Toby is getting quite over the whole thing.  He’s taken to going down to the bedroom for a puppy nap so that he can hear me as soon as I arrive. 

I found a super good deal on glass jam jars this week… 12 jars (300 ml size) for $16!   I’m actually more than capable of making jam… and actually I make a pretty good marmalade in spite of the fact that I can’t stand it myself.  These little beauties though are for my craft room and I thought they’d look fab with buttons in them and I’m thrilled with how cool they turned out.  It’s just another step towards being more organised… and if ‘organised’ can be pretty then that’s even better!

Mikayla is getting into the swing of her course again and she took a couple of photos on her phone.  Luckily for me they are nice and big so I can use them in my pages!

Thanks to Krystal I have developed a taste for the food from the Noodle Canteen.  It’s a super quick dinner option when you’re busy and don’t have time to cook and it’s pretty good value for money. 

So that’s been my week… lots of little things but they’re all part of what makes my life what it is… and that’s pretty darn cool!

Have a good week everyone xx

Project Life: Week 31

Hi everyone :)

This week has been really good… and I’ve had an extremely productive weekend!  I’ve spent a lot of time in the newly cleaned (and still clean!) craft room using the Cameo to cut out things for school… and I’m currently working on completing 39 medals for tomorrow’s Olympic Games at school!

At the beginning of this week Mikayla took me out for dinner for the first time.  She bought tickets from her friend Jack as he was raising money for the Lakes High ball.  We had pretty good meals at Nando’s and the food came out really quickly!

We had the sofa bed pulled out on Tuesday and Mikayla and Toby snuggled up… had play fights and just generally acted like kids while I got out my camera.

I got a really wonderful email from one of my night class ladies that I included in this weeks pages too as it made me feel really appreciated as a teacher.  Thanks Chris for the email xx

At school we’ve been busy finishing off our Matariki cloak to go in the exhibition for next Friday.  It’s almost done now and the kids ‘zentangle’ feathers look really amazing now they’ve been died and cut out.

I also started using a new behaviour management idea in class that another teacher told me about.  It’s called Class DoJo and it’s having a really positive effect on the kids!

On Thursday night we had another night class and the ladies were all super impressed with the craft room… they really couldn’t believe how much space there was!

More school stuff… I’ve been reading my class The BFG and they’re really loving it.  When we finish the book we’ll watch the movie and then compare them.  I highly recommend it as a great story for kids and adults alike!

We’ve gone Olympics crazy at school this term and after seeing all the bunting around London we’ve decided to make our own for the classroom.  The kids have all designed a piece of bunting using their initials and we’re now working on our ‘good copies’.

On Saturday I was up super early (5.30am) so I got straight into making the title for my classroom display.  It’s looking really great now and I’m looking forward to getting it all up on the wall tomorrow afternoon.

I’ve also been working on creating 39 medals for our school Olympics tomorrow.  I hit a snag yesterday afternoon and since it was really cold I decided to have a mid-afternoon bath.  The best part was that by the time I’d finished in the bath I was lovely and warm AND I’d worked out how to finish off the project!

Keeping with the Olympic theme this week I cut out an Olympic torch with flames using my Cameo and then added a bit of bling. 

This afternoon has been really productive too… down at the launderette!  I managed to get all my towels and work clothes washed and dried along with my sheets… and as a BIG bonus I was able to get the mink blankets of the sofa and my bed washed and dried too!  The smell simply divine now and look like they’re brand new again!  PLUS while I was doing all the laundry I had a roast cooking in the oven so I’m feeling a little like a domestic goddess again LOL

So that’s been my week… I hope you’ve all had a great week and weekend and that you’re all safe and happy :) 

Thanks for visiting my little corner of the net xx

Project Life: Week 30

Hi everyone :)

Yep I’m a bit late tonight!  I sat down around 3pm to read a ‘couple of chapters’ of my book and somehow I lost 4 hours!!!  It’s a good book though… Your’s Faithfully by Sheila O’Flanagan

Anyway on with Project Life.  Here’s a look at this week:

It was raining again on Monday so Mr Toby (aka The Big Marshmallow) came to school with me again.  Just after morning tea they announced that the hall carpark was flooding but there was nothing I could do about it because I was teaching my class.  By lunchtime though it was getting pretty deep!  Toby was probably getting a bit worried about the water but he was quite safe (and dry) in the car.

On Monday and Tuesday afternoon this week we started the preparations for our Selwyn School Olympics which will be held this coming Wednesday.  I’ve got two groups of kids ranging from new entrants right through to Year 6 which was a mission on it’s own… I’m definitely not cut out to be a new entrant teacher!

The kids have all been put into ‘countries’ for our school event and my two groups are representing Wales and Australia so we got busy making our flags and banners.

Our class won the Tidy Kiwi award this week too!  It was awarded for our great classroom wall displays which made all of us feel pretty pleased with ourselves :)

I also had five kids involved in the first major kapahaka performance for the year.  They went down to the Rotorua Library as part of Maori Language week and they looked awesome all dressed up in their finery.  I didn’t manage to get a photo of that… but I did manage to get one of their faces all painted up!

On Thursday I was on a course for work and I wore my boots I usually wear to school.  They’ve been getting a bit worn out and I couldn’t wear them on rainy days anymore but on Thursday one of the heels pretty much gave up on me so some urgent shoe shopping was in order!

Along with everything else going on this week it was time for another rates bill… and my first one with NO OVERDUE FINES on it!  Long story but I’ve finally made it!

While I was out shoe shopping I also did a little phone shopping and now have a lovely new phone that works much better than the old one :)

On Friday, Loreen came over to stay for the night and we got lots of things done… packaged ATC’s, tidied up the dining and coffee tables and then set about organising all the accommodation and duties for the October retreat!

Then on Saturday we spent almost the whole day sorting out the ‘bombsite’ I lovingly call my craft room.  We sorted, organised and de-cluttered for several hours before we went out for lunch (top right photo) and then we came back and finished it off. 

Here’s another ‘before’ and ‘after’ shot… don’t look Mum cause you’ll be horrified at the before photo!

Thank you so much Loreen for helping me get myself organised… I really couldn’t have managed it without you!

And here’s my little bit of creativity… or in this case it’s more of a memento:

My little boy is growing up and he’s just gotten his new registration tag so I’m including his old tag in this weeks pages.

So that’s my week… busy with lots of little things and some time spent with a good friend.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed your weekend… I’m off now to see the ‘kiwis’ have a go on My Kitchen Rules!

Scrapbook Dreams is having it’s 2nd Birthday!

It’s hard to believe but my ‘baby’ is celebrating it’s 2nd birthday this weekend!  We’ve got some fun challenges happening over the weekend and of course with this cold, wet and windy weather what could be better than scrapbooking??

Plus!!  Tracey is coming over this weekend to help me finish off my craft room makeover… it’s so exciting seeing the room take shape.  We started last weekend and didn’t get as much done as we thought we would so today is the day to finish it off… so exciting!!!

I’ll definitely take photos once we’re all done so you can see just how awesome it looks but in the meantime why not pop over to Scrapbook Dreams and join in on the birthday celebrations!

Have a great weekend

Shell xx

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 :)

Show and tell :)

Hi again :) I seem to have lots of stuff to blog about lately... and this post has a little bit of everything.

First of all.... LOTS of people have been asking if they can 'look' at my scrap room.... so.... I took a few photos on Wednesday to show some of it! I want to start off with this:
I know, I know... that's NOT my scraproom LOL But it does live in my scrap room now :) I've been looking for a printers tray for AGES... and seen a few on TM but they were always either... too expensive, too big or small, or they were they wrong type, colour etc. Then I was in Tauranga on Tuesday and I walked past the Hospice shop and something caught my eye... I went in and it was this shelf... I saw the price tag and grabbed it... $10!!!
Now it has some of my wooden stamps housed in it... and it also matches the wood on my craft room walls perfectly... was definitely a wonderful find!

Here is a 'bigger' picture showing it on the wall with my cricut & cuttlebug stuff underneath. I wanted something to house all my stuff so that I could actually 'see' it because I'm definitely a girl where if I can see it I'll use it!On the right are my 'bits & pieces' hangers (which are actually towel rails from Bunnings). The things in the bags are all sorts of things that I use for ATC's and scrapbooking projects. Since I've had them 'visible' like this I've actually been using quite a bit of it which is great!Now you can see all the cricut & cuttlebug stuff better. The stand is an old CD stand my sister didn't need any more. I made 'shelves' by sliding in an empty CD case at the right height and now all my stuff is easy to see (and YES I've been using it a LOT!). I've also got my tripod there because then I can find it when I need it. The drawers are still waiting for labels because I'm not quite finished organising all my stuff how I want it yet.

Some of you might remember this big shelf from just after I moved into my house... I'm happy to say that I still LOVE it because it can house LOTS of stuff... and it's nice to know that something I made is still working well for me :)All the white drawers inside the wooden stand house my acrylic stamp collection which just seems to keep growing. The good part is that now I've got them organised much better and I'm using it all again! The drawers to the left still need to be organised properly... but I'm making progress with that too :)

I just found these cool containers in a sale at Payless Plastics. They're great for keeping all my buttons sorted out! PLUS each of those little yellow compartments comes out of the case seperately so if I want pink buttons I can just take the pink buttons out and put them on my table!! Cool eh :)

And here's how I've got my cottons sorted... another Payless Plastics sale item!

The best part about this container is that it's DOUBLE SIDED!!! Very cool indeed!Right... back to the cricut again. I've got all my die cutting stuff together now :) The desk was in a Warehouse sale last year and it's great for holding all this stuff!And because I don't actually sit down to use any of this stuff I can store LOTS of things underneath the desk and it's easy to get at while still being out of the way!

Now for some Scrapbook Dreams storage. This first photo is all the Distress Inks (top row) followed by all the Green Tara flowers.Underneath is a small shelf, that is probably... almost definitely... going to be leaving the scraproom! But for now I've got some papers in it as well as my chipboard (in the shelf underneath that missed out on the photo). The big wheelie bin is where I've got all my finished projects because I've pretty much run out of wall space now :( BUT I have got an idea that might just work! I'll let you know how that goes :)

Meanwhile I have actually been doing some scrapping!!! It's been lovely to have a bit of extra time with the school holidays to get creative :) This first layout was made using Bella papers that I got from Spotlight. I've been wanting to do a layout using the photos of me and Reece and I finally got it done! The journaling reads: 'Auntie Time' is one of my favourite things in the whole world! This is the first time that Reece came to ME for cuddles. It will always be a special moment in my memory! Love you lots babe!

While I was on a roll I did this layout of my niece and nephews doing their Easter Egg hunt at home. My sister wrote clues and hid them all over the place and my nephew had a lot of fun finding them and reading them (isn't school great!) Once my niece got her bunny she really didn't care about the rest of the egg hunt so that became the focus of my layout. The photos are both 5 x 7 and to do my niece in colour I know that I COULD have just used a photo editing programme but I wanted a more 3D effect so I printed off the photo in colour, cut around her, inked the edges and popped her up on foam dots. The 'egg hunt' letter are little self-adhesive photo stickers and the stars around her bunny and the dots on the i's and j's!

And now we're up to the last part... ATC's! Poor Mum has been waiting for this part for the whole post LOL Mum's been doing ATC swaps with the Scrapfest group since January (and loving it!) Just recently Auntie Daphne decided that she would quite like to do a few ATC's too so we're doing swaps with just the three of us... quite nice to do a smaller group sometimes :)

For our first swap Mum choses the theme 'vintage/antique'... it depends on who you ask because I'm SURE she said vintage... but she said she chose antique!!! Either way the ATC's look great!

Here's Auntie Daphne's ATC:
Love those soft colours and lacey paper!!! Excellent work for a first timer don't you think???
Here's Mum's antique ATC: The sewing machine actually belonged to my great grandmother and now lives at one of my sisters house... so neat to see it on an ATC.
And here's my vintage one:If you saw the online tutorial on Scrapbook Dreams about shellac then you might notice that I used it over/around the cameo!

Sorry for waiting you wait until the end Mum... Yeah right!! LOL

Auntie Daphne is now addicted to ATC's and we've just finished our second swap... The Birds and the Bees... I'll show you how they turn out as soon as we get them all back :)