No more DT kits for me :(

My DT time with Scrap Pile is well and truly over, and it was sad to not receive a surprise in the mail this month. Although I haven't had much time to scrap lately, I really enjoyed spending some time creating some cards for World Card Making Day at ScrapPile. I had a great day, thanks to all the great activities the team organised. Thanks girls! You know who you are!

This card was for Jewl's Blind challenge, and it was heaps of fun. We had to follow and interpret instructions without seeing the end result first. I even ended up winning this challenge! Who wouldn't love these gorgeous Rose Moka PP! I don't think I'll ever get sick of these! Love the vibrancy!



Yep, Rose Moka again... but this time for Leone's Iris folding challenge. I loved this too. Thanks for the challenge Leone. I also added a glittered frame to highlight the folding in the centre.


Mel's challenge was to create a set of 3 cards using someone else's stamped images. I was real happy with how these turned out and loved using Jaki's gorgeous stamps! Thanks Jaki and thanks Mel for the challenge!


AND, I couldn't believe it when I was made World Card Making Day Queen!!! OMG!!

Here's a card I've just made for Jewls' monthly card challenge. The challenge was to create a circle card. I had heaps of fun with this, despite my horrendous cutting and doodling! LOL! I made this card for my girlfriend, Jules, who has just had a gorgeous little boy, Jeremy! Love these colours together!



Well, that's it for today folks...

A big week

What a huge week it's been! Aiden's birthday has just about gone for an entire week. The celebrations started with a day at the farm on Tuesday with his playgroup friends and ended yesterday with a small party at home! Both the kids enjoyed it thoroughly!

I won't bore you with all the details, but here are some pics...

The kids loved riding on the ponies, but do you think I could get a smile out of either of them?????



and they both loved the mice, even though Erin doesn't look impressed in this photo!


blowing out the candles with Lily and Rhyaken


and this photo pretty much sums up the day!


the second (but not last) cake I made. This one was to take into kindy... (you may notice the train theme by now!!)


Pressie time on your birthday morning! You were so excited that your cousins Cordell & Griffin came to visit with Grandy and Gramps! Griffin handmade some gorgeous little paper puppets for you. He's got some talent that boy!


Aiden & Erin on the trike that I picked up from a garage sale about 3 years ago! Dad restored it to it's original glory! Thanks Dad! It looks great, and I love the hand drawn pinstripes and the A on the front. As you can see, the kids are loving it!!


Aiden and the boys helping Gramps put his new digger together!


Where we found Erin when we walked around the corner! No idea how she got up there, as it's quite a way off the ground!


Nap time quickly became bath time after this little incident with the Sudocream!! Why does this always happen when you are busy? Thanks to Al for taking the photos (this is definitely 21st material!) and cleaning the carpet and the walls in Little Miss Trouble's room!!!




The evidence.... handprints and all!

Mind you this all happened about 2 hrs before the party was due to start!!!

The 3rd and final cake!! Phew... no more cakes til next year now! And yes, I made that Thomas train on top out of fondant icing. After making him, Al commented how his wheels were getting square. Well, the lady at the cake shop forgot to tell me there is a special type of icing to make figurines out of.... which doesn't sag like poor Thomas did. But, he did the job perfectly and the kids loved him, so that's all that matters!!!


Blowing out the candles...


Pass the parcel - Aiden & Becca & Zoe...






At the circus... Aiden & Daddy...


And Mummy & Erin...


I took some videos of some of the performances, but still have to work out how to get photos from the videos. Need some time to experiment. All in all, we had a great week of celebrations, but boy, am I glad it's over now! Time to re-focus and possibly get some scrapping time again!!!

Thanks for reading this huge post! I hope you had a laugh or two along the way!

Slack, I know :)

Gee wiz, I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted. How time flies!!! Work is keeping me very busy at the moment, and so is our little family :). In fact, so busy so, that I woke up one morning last week and decided something had to give. After much deliberation, I have decided to give up my Design Team position at Scrap-Pile. I will be be finishing up at the end of September, but not before the Cybercrop on Friday night :) It's a Spring Fling theme, and look out for some great challenges and prizes on the night.

I really have thoroughly enjoyed my time on the team, and throughout the past year, I have made some gorgeous new friends, done LOADS of scrapping (even more than I imagined) and learnt some fantastic new skills along the way. I would like to thank Mel and Justine for giving me the opportunity to share in the Scrap Pile experience as a part of the design team. It wouldn't be the same without you guys :) I would also like to thank everyone on ScrapPile, your support and encouragement has kept me motivated and keen. Thanks heaps guys!!!

Now for some of my latest stuff.. although I haven't had much time to create in the past month, I have still managed to squeeze a few little things through...

My gorgeous boy playing with his trains (for Scrap Pile DT). I just adore these photos of Aiden playing. Mind you I took about a 100 to get these :) I'm sure you can relate!


A page for the Fathers' Day CC challenge - my Grandpa. Loving Pink Paislee's new paper range!


A little interactive Fathers' Day book/card for Allan from the kids - Jewls' Cybercrop challenge. Great challenge btw Jewls :) I also made a similar card for my Dad. What a fantastic idea and it was so quick and easy :) Just what I needed to get me back into the swing of things! I just love this photo of Al and the kids taken at the EKKA eating strawberry icecreams!


And a card for my dear Uncle David (and his family), whose wife passed away last week. Aunty Junie, you will be missed by us all, but we all know you have gone to a dance with the saints in Heaven.

Olympic fever...

While I haven't watched one little bit of the Olympics so far (how slack of me), I have been checking out all the action at the Scrapping Olympics over at Scrap-Pile. Everyone's on fire! Check it out for yourself here... The gallery is really buzzing and it's great to see so many beautiful designs in there each day.

Here are a few of my latest projects...

I have had this one on my table since July and it's using the gorgeous BoBunny PP that Mel sent through as part of the July DT kit... These huge letter stickers have been sitting in my stash for so long (I'd guess about 3 years) that they are no longer sticky. I love these gorgeous photos of my brother's kids and our two little ones while they were playing in the trees at my parent's house. Erin sure does stand out being the only girl :)


As part of the PP Challenge that Maree, Mel and I cooked up, we had to design some of our own PP and send it to another person to create a page with. This page features the gorgeous PP that Maree sent to me :) I love how it turned out, although this one took a bit of time to get right. I must have bumped the tension switch on the good old Janome, and it stuffed up a bit at the top, but I think it all adds to the feeling of the page. I really loved working with these colours :) Thanks Maree :)


I cooked this meal for dinner last night, so it was the inspiration for Melanie's Recipe Circle Journal. I love making this meal, it's so quick and easy.


It's amazing how quickly some things can come together. You know how you can sit for hours thinking about how to do something, but once you get started, it kind of just falls into place. Well, that's how these pages came together. I'm very thankful for those moments, otherwise nothing would get done :)

Sweet child...

I couldn't wait to have a play with the gorgeous Fancy Pants PP that I chose for my August DT kit. This is the first real cutout work I have ever done, and let me tell you, it may just be the last.... my fingers are still sore from where I was gripping the craft knife!! LOL! I am really happy with the result, however I will definitely be purchasing a new blade for my knife shortly!

Just a quick share...

I've had a chance to get a couple of cards done this weekend, one for Jewls' Monthly Card Challenge over at Scrap-Pile... I loved this sketch Jewls!! Thanks for the challenge.


and this one's for Challenge #1 for the Clayton's Retreat over at LSS.


I've also finally finished the patterned paper for Maree, as a result of the PP Challenge that we started over 2 weeks ago now. I hope you like it Maree, and I hope you find inspiration for a layout in these to complete the challenge.


TOP LEFT - Painted then embossed AL stamps in gold.
TOP RIGHT - Painted a base cream colour, then painted giant bubblewrap in two tones and stamped, then chalked the edges.
BOTTOM LEFT - Painted a base cream colour, then used a piece of material Deb (Blurose) gave me as a RAK as a mask and painted over in the red colour, then chalked the edges.
BOTTOM RIGHT - This one is very textured, but difficult to see in this photo. I paint in a criss cross pattern with red paint, when dry, went over in a gold MM paint

Peekaboo Erin

Erin has been soooo naughty all day today, and we thought this new little word... Peekaboo, was so cute... although, she had to end it all with her funny little 'dinner throwing' episode #3!! Needless to say, she visited the naughty chair soon after... the cheeky little thing!

The EKKA

What a blast we had today at the EKKA! WOW! I discovered many things I had to deal with from my past!! LOL! I think I am permanently scarred that we never went as kids. The first time I went was with DH before we were married. And even though we had a great time, it was nothing like today! Man, did we have some fun! I was like a little kid going to the show for the first time... we did the whole deal... animals, showbags, sideshow alley, fairyfloss. I think the only thing we missed out on was the fireworks, which I'm kinda glad we missed, as the kids (and both of us) were tiring quickly by the end of the day!

We couldn't have asked for a better day, the weather was warm, the sky was clear, the kids were absolutely angels the entire day! They even sat relatively still on the hour-long train trip, both ways!

Oh, and it was also my second train trip EVER, so I was pretty excited about that, as you can see from these photos... Al was a little embarassed that I was taking photos of a 'train'! He also pointed out that I probably blinded the driver with this photo.... OOPS! I told him it's not like he has to watch where he's going or anything!!


Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention that I spoiled myself and bought a new camera for the occasion. I was getting sick of lugging around my S5 everywhere, so I bought a smaller Canon (Ixus 80is) for those 'point and shoot' type events, where size is everything! Still an 8MP though, and I'm pretty happy with the results, considering it won't be replacing my much loved S5! The only thing I would complain about if I was going to, is the flash, but really, you couldn't really expect to have such a small lightweight camera with a HUGE flash, now, could you? An okay trade off, I guess. I'll have to have another photo shoot around here just to test out its true potential before I decide on its fate. (Note, I haven't had time to edit these photos yet, so they are pretty much how they were taken.) Some of them turned out quite dark, especially the inside ones that required a flash.

Anyway, that aside, the kids both loved the animals and Erin got to use her new word lots today... FISH... or phssss... as it turns out!! LOL!


Aiden loved the donkeys, ducks, geese, birds, Llama, but most of all the cows & horses kept his interest. Everywhere we went, he'd ask if he could see the cows & horses!

Erin was fascinated by the phhhhsh (fish) and was a little scared of the goats and sheep, but she enjoyed patting the chickens and smaller animals that were more her size!

Some more happy snaps...


The kids enjoying a train ride...


Aiden loved the motorbikes... I think he's going to be like his Daddy! Into fast and expensive toys!


A much needed rest... for all of us! The kids only had about an hour's sleep in the pram, but it got them through the day!


When the kids woke up we went to get a couple of showbags and then for the tradition of Al's family of the strawberry ice-cream cone with cream and strawberries on top, which the kids just loved! Okay, so did we! Yummo!






And the show just wouldn't be the show without the ferris wheel! And I would have loved a ride on it, we took one look at the price and walked away! I did enjoy watching it while we were waiting for the train though!


We all had a fantastic day and we're definitely going to sleep well tonight!!

Christmas in July Cypercrop

We had a great night last Friday night at the Christmas in July Cybercrop over at Scrap Pile.

I am so excited to say that I completed all of the challenges! Thanks Jewls, Mel and Melanie for the super challenges, and to all of the participants for a great night!

My challenge was to create a layout using last year's Christmas stash. No specifics, just use as much stash as you can! Here's my example...



Here's my take of Mel's challenge to use only red and white about a Christmas tradition.


Some cards I made for Jewls' cool Christmas card challenge using some beaut little design sketches. I had a heap of fun making these, thank Jewls!


And here's my take of Mel's black, white, silver & blue challenge (8.5x11in).

Birthday Fun

I know it's a little late, but I wasn't really feeling up to celebrating my birthday at the time... after all 30 is a turning point as far as birthdays go. I wanted it to pass by quietly, so a I invited my best friend & sister to share a cosy little dinner at Hog's Breath with us. The kids had a ball playing under the table and running around afterwards in the playground outside. Even though I wasn't looking forward to the "turning 30" part, I have to admit, I really enjoyed celebrating my birthday this year.

I also received some gorgeous gifts. Al and the kids gave me the most gorgeous belcher necklace, Dana has booked cooking lessons at Spirit House, which I am soooo looking forward to at the end of the month! Mum & Dad gave me some kitchen things I have been wanting for a long time and Al's parents gave me a gorgeous painting that I admire daily in the living room, and a scrap gift voucher, which I spent right away!! LOL!

Dana & I had the best girlie time together. We spent lots of time catching up, scrapping and laughed so much when one lady at the shops asked if we were twins... Poor Dana was devastated, but I was pretty stoked. The lady was a bit embarrassed when we told her there were 9 years between us!!

Here are some of the cards that resulted from our little scrap session...