Tooth Pillows

I've had my eye on this cute tooth pillow pattern from mmmcrafts for about 6 months, and since Aiden's first loose tooth was getting wigglier by the day, I thought I'd better hurry up! I ended up making it just in time, and also made one for his little girl friend's birthday as well. I used the basic pattern and dressed them up pretty similar to the examples, so I didn't have too much guess work.

Erin suggested we make the wings out of pink tulle (which turned out awesome), and she also chose the sequin ribbon for the ballet shoes. Lucky we have some left to make one for her soon!

Aren't they adorable!

Thanks to Larissa from mmmcrafts for sharing her awesome pattern for free! Make sure you check out the rest of her cute little sewing patterns in her etsy shop.

And here is toothless Aiden with his tooth officer waiting for the tooth fairy. He was so excited, and even more so because he helped me make this gorgeous little officer.

Bring it on!

I hope you've had a super start to 2011!  I'm positive this year is going to be 100% on the last. Almost everyone I know says they're happy to see the end of 2010! I say, ditto! Good riddens and bring on 2011!

I've vowed this year to make less impact on the environment, aiming to reduce our household waste and reuse as much as we can. It only makes sense that my scrapping goal this year is to use something recycled on my layouts, whether it be fabric offcuts, packaging or something that would normally be thrown in the garbage.

I'm also going to use as much of my old stash as I can before buying new stuff, as tempting as it is.  I think that's going to be the hardest part for me :)

To start the year off on the right foot, I'd like to thank White with 1 and their January challenge.

Here's my take on "white + navy/royal blue + a banner".
I used some old demin offcuts to make the banner and dug a heap of old blue stuff out of my stash. I even managed to use the negative from the threading water punch. Can you pick it?

May your year be full of blessings - here's to 2011!

Holidays and all!

Finally have a chance to catch up on my little poor neglected bloggie. Main reason being, I've been updating our holiday blog from our recent Cape York trip. I'd love you to check it out! Here's a few of my fav pics.

I would love to be able to say I've been scrapping my heart out, but unfortunately, have not :( Not long after we arrived back from our trip, Al received some exciting news that he'd been offered a job in Perth for 2 years. After a long and agonising decision process, we decided not to go. It was absolutely painful, because as much as we wanted the excitement and fun of moving to a new city, there were a lot of downfalls, like the kids starting school next year, the cost of moving, finding a new house to rent, fixing our house up to rent, storage, and the list goes on. Now we've made our decision, we have finally had time to get back into our routine.

Creations ~ the last few months

Thought I'd better update to include a few creations over my *SLACK BLOGGER* period. See, I really have been busy!! ;)

Loved the Kev Carmody - Cannot Buy My Soul concert. We had the best time!

 

Aiden and his diggers.It's a pity he's grown out of Thomas, he really did love playing with Jack, Alfie and Max & Monty, and I loved watching him play for hours in the dirt! Typical boy!

The first time we painted her nails. She was so excited!Although there was a near disaster afterwards, the moment wasn't lost.

Aiden at his Playgroup Party. Just hanging around on the swings.

I did this for my big sister in Sweden, who visited in December. I hope it got home safely, sis!

 

Loved these pics of us girls at the Scrap Pile retreat

in July last year. We had such a ball!

Over and out for now, and I hope to keep up to date a bit more regularly in 2010!

Ooh la la!

A couple of weeks back, I was fortunate enough to meet the gorgeous Zoe Pearn. Zoe is one very talented chickie, and such an inspiration! Zoe designs paper products for My Minds Eye as well as digi scrapping goodies for Sweet Shoppe Designs.

I was also lucky enough to take one of Zoe's classes, and create this gorgeous layout using her pretty Ooh la la range!

Another layout that I've finally had a chance to photograph. Aiden hanging around after his playgroup party. I've been reading up on my camera manual and playing with the manual functions a lot more lately. I was really pleased with how this one turned out (even if it is a little out of focus).

Picking strawberries

We had a gorgeous day today with my SIL and her little boy at a nearby strawberry farm. The kids loved picking their own too, and they were divine!! Just like we used to grow at home. I wish I'd known about this months ago, as they're closing for the season next week. :( We'll definitely be back next year though!









PS check out Erin's tongue in this last pic... do you think she's loving the chocolate dipping sauce??? Just like her Mummy :)

Pink Paislee Pastels

I've finally organised all my papers by manufacturer. I think I must be the last to do this in the entire scrapping world, but now it's done, and I'm loving it! As a result of my big clean-up, I found these gorgeous Pink Paislee papers hiding away, so just had to bring them to life!


This is Erin playing peek-a-boo in the cubby house. Love this pic and how her eyes really shine!


Here are our kids with my brother's boys. They all get on so well!

Some boy layouts for a change :)

I know a big smack on my bottom for not updating sooner, but here are a couple of layouts I did last week.

Aiden was so cute when he inquisitively asked, "Mum, are we having grasshopper meat for dinner?", as I pulled the roast chicken out of the oven. I couldn't stop laughing.

I used some recycled corrugated cardboard from a huge box I tore up from one of the kids toys. I just couldn't throw it out! I painted it with some Tim Holtz crackle paint. Loved the effect.


And our little Harry Potter. All dressed up for Becca & Zoe's Fairy and Wizard party. He wore Al's old school tie, a cape I bought from spotlight, the glasses $2 from Woolies and a hint of eyeliner for the scar! Easy peasy wizard outfit!

A gorgeous day with friends

It's been way too long since I've scrapped, and sadly, the drought wasn't broken today, even though I had a fantastic time at a friend's place scrapping (more like chatting) with the girls. Thanks for the great company and yummy scrummy eats too!! So nice to have some adult conversation!

But, hey, I did manage to make a card for Manon's challenge at ScrapBoutique. I haven't added photos yet, so I'll post another day, but OMG I can say that I just adore the "never ending card idea"! Leone and I were mesmerised by this cool card. Check out the instructions over at Scrap Boutique. Definitely worth a go!

Since I don't have much to share in the way of scrapping lately, here are the layouts I did for the Stamp and Scrapbook Madness classes I taught back in June/July.

Love these photos of the kids...

We got home from playgroup on Tuesday, and the kids were really happy and just mucking around out the front of the house, so I thought, what the heck, and grabbed my camera, and what do you know, they actually turned out okay! It really was the perfect day for it, nice bright blue sky etc. etc....

Anyway, I've been having a play in Photoshop and here's what I came up with.


^Love this one. I was lying on the ground and Erin was actually jumping on my tummy! LOL!! This is probably one of the best photos I've ever taken - a big fluke though! Love it with the blue sky behind her.


Here's Aiden mucking around with the rings that came with a maccas toy from the party :) Couldn't have timed this shot better, again, a big fluke :) OMG though, I just realised how much his teeth have moved from sucking his thumb, have to get him out of that habit quick smart!!

and this is the original photo I took of the kids in front of the garage door...


which I played around with in photoshop til it looked like this...

I adjusted the curves, then exposure to give it that washed out look. I love the end result, and can't wait to scrap them now :) I have the perfect papers in mind. Maybe this is just what I need to get my mojo going again!

Butterflies everywhere

I bought these gorgeous butterfly cutouts from Riot last week, then painted them pink, purple and green both sides with Kaiser paint. Then I let the kids loose with KindyGlitz! We're going to string them up and hang them outside for Erin's party on Sunday. Surprisingly, there wasn't much mess to clean up afterwards either. A great activity to remember for a rainy day :)

Backyard Blitz!

BEFORE...

AFTER...

What a transformation! It hasn't happened overnight, but it has happened. Ever since we built the cubby for the kids for Christmas I have wanted to make the back garden into a nice play area for the kids. So, we've finally made it happen!!!

What a huge weekend it's been. I have loved every minute of it though! Saturday we spent all day creating this little oasis in the backyard for the kids (and so Al doesn't have to mow around all the swings etc..!! ). It was my idea, hence my project, and Al didn't want much to do with it (he hates gardening), but he willingly helped shovel tonnes of mulch into the garden all day, while I did about 6 trips to the garden centre for refills. Now that's no small feat, coming from someone who has always been scared to drive anywhere with a trailer on!! So, by the end of the day, I was quite confident at reversing the trailer (after about 10 goes that is!!), hooking the trailer up and taking it off myself, although I did need some help pushing it into the carport! I was quite impressed with my new-found independence.

I even planted a little mini garden with the aggies that Deb gave me ages ago (which had to be dug up when the cubby went in. Thanks Deb!!! The kids love them!

The other side of the garden.

Aiden & Ralph loving the new sandpit!

The kids loved helping too, getting in there with the shovel. Aiden found heaps of witchety grubs in the compost heap, so that kept him amused most of the day. He loved digging and uncovering them all, and we even found a Mummy one, it was massive about 3cm round. Erin loved tipping them all out of Aiden's bucket! (surprise, surprise!).

Anyway, after hours of slaving over the shovel, it was so nice to sit in the garden and play in the sandpit with the kids! Which is exactly what we did yesterday afternoon when it was all finished! As I shoveled the last load of mulch onto the garden, I had such an immense feeling of satisfaction! I felt so empowered, and motivated. I even managed to wash Al's car for him (to try and make up for the lost usb cable)!

Al raced up at Gympie yesterday, and came 5th. Not as good as he has done up there, but he knows what he did wrong at least, so will hopefully be moving up the ranks next race! I was in a teeny, little bit of trouble before he left though, because I had accidentally left a usb cable for his data logger at work (oopsie)... after a quick trip into work today on my day off, I thankfully found it!!! Phew. He got to test out his new racing suit that the kids and I got him for his birthday. Hoping we can get to the next race to check it out! Now he wants me to design new graphics for his kart... he's getting a bit sick of his flower ones!! Just when everyone got to know him as the flower boy too!!! LOL!!

Anyway, that's pretty much it for our weekend. Hoping to get stuck into some scrapping this weekend. And although I did get a card done for a Scrap Pile challenge, I haven't really had a chance to do much real scrapping for ages. Wish me luck!

Dana & Al's big adventure begins today!!

Off to the airport we went this morning to see my lil' sis and her boyfriend leave for their big o/s adventure! Lots of laughs as we said our goodbyes. I can't believe they'll be gone for a whole year. We'll miss them heaps and so will the kids. The kids have grown very fond of their Aunty Dana & Uncle Al's visits! They'll make great parents one day!! (hint, hint!!!) NO ELOPING ALLOWED EITHER!!!!!

I made this cute little keepsake for them to take of the kids...

It was so easy to make. I used two acrylic frames, a scrap of Rose Moka PP, some alphas, rubons and a couple of cute pics of the kids. I must thank Mel for the idea though, as I had these pics and the frames lined up to complete one of her Christmas challenges, and never got to it. It was all sitting on my desk just waiting for this moment!! LOL! Thanks Mel :)