DIY Blackboard

I've been checking out some gorgeous DIY projects online lately, and found some really cute little  blackboards made out of secondhand frames. Nothing gets me in like a cheap project, so cue the blackboard paint and look out Vinnies!

I found the perfect frame for, would you believe it, $1! No joke. Wishing I'd taken a pic of it 'before' its transformation, but to give you an idea, it looked a little like this...

I grabbed a spray can of undercoat & white gloss we had in the shed, and the blackboard paint I'd purchased many moons ago, while waiting for the inspiration for this project, a few fine grade sandpaper sheets, and off I went.

First, I took out the glass, and E even helped sand back the old varnish on the frame. After painting a few coats of white, I realised the stain that we couldn't sand back in the grooves was bleeding through, so I raced off to the hardware to see if I could find something to cover it. Thankfully, there was a product just for this situation, Stain No More (AND it was in a can - definitely my kind of product). So, instead of undercoat, next time I'll be using that direct over the frame.

For the glass, I sanded it back with fine (220) grade sandpaper, and I think it would have turned out fine if I had of sprayed the blackboard paint directly over that, but the good salesman at the hardware also managed to sell me some kind of etch stuff for smooth surfaces like glass, mirrors etc. So I'm not sure if it was that, or the sanding that gave it such a good finish, but the surface was fabulous. I think one coat of the blackboard paint would have been enough, but to be on the safe side, I did two.

Now comes the fun part! After letting it dry for 24 hours, I ran a chalk over it sideways, rubbed it off, and let the kids go wild.

What do you think?

Our baby's growing up!

I can't believe our baby is 5! For her party, Erin and her friends were lucky enough to try out the Lots a Scents candle making party kit. I was very impressed with the quality of the supplies in the box. The girls loved mixing in the colours and fragrance themselves.

I would definitely recommend this type of party for a group of girls 5+. It's so much fun, and the girls get to take their creation home too!

The girls mixing the colour and scent into the molten wax

Here's a photo of the finished product. They mixed their own colours too!

Her cute little cupcakes, Martha Stewart Choc Brownie Cupcakes with her famous vanilla bean frosting. Always a hit!

 

The sweets table - totally inspired from Pinterest.

 

Strawberry yoghurt in tiny glasses

TimTam truffle pops

Marshmallows on a stick with white choc & freckles

Layered jelly (very cute and yum!)

Fruit sticks (thanks to Dana!)

Martha Stewart brownie cupcakes with vanilla bean frosting (coloured pink)

and of course, what is a party without lollies.

A little sew-a-thon

After I made Erin's dress last week, I wondered how hard it would be to whip a smaller version up for Erin's Baby doll? I cut a few corners by not using bias binding for the armholes, and just sewed a small hem and was surprised at how quick it all came together.

The pillowcase is another from a thrift shop and came complete with the lace border and embroidery. I just had to re-hem it. I had a bit of leftover fabric, so created this cute little headband to match.

Last year a dear friend asked me to make a car roll for her eldest son, as I'd made her youngest one for his Birthday. I modelled it on one I'd bought at Handmade Heaven a few years ago for Aiden. I found a little iron-on letter motif to dress it up a bit. Hope you like it PJ!

And while I was at the sewing desk, I made one for Erin's Polly Pocket cars, using some gorgeous girly fabric I purchased from Bubbamia Fabrics yonks ago. Was so good to get these little projects finished, as they've been sitting on my desk for about 3 months. 

Thanks for visiting. xx

Giving and taking

While stopping at our local thrift shop earlier this week to deliver a load of goodies of my own, I picked up these gorgeous vintage pillowcases for $2. Bargain! (I'm so like Dad)

My mind started ticking over and although I have a half finished pillowcase dress for Erin sitting on my desk, I thought I'd have a go making one out of an actual pillowcase (in case I stuffed up). I was pretty impressed with the result. It even fit! Leone, you will be proud, I even made some cute little yoyo flowers to match.

There's nothing quite like the feeling of seeing something come to life that you've made with your own two hands.

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.

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).

Our budding artist

Erin's been loving painting her little heart out lately! I took this photo a couple of months ago, and was planning on scrapping it at our little get together at Flourish a couple of weeks ago. How time flies! Anyway, I finally got to scrap it on the weekend. It fit Karen's fresh challenge over at Scrap-Pile perfectly! Very hard not to add too many embellishments, but I really do love the end result, especially the soft colours.

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!

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.

Scrapbooking can be dangerous!

Yep, Erin has proved that scrapbooking can be dangerous! When she was 10mths old, she was playing on the floor in my scrap room, and must have picked up a tiny epoxy letter sticker (pictured below on the heart). Needless to say, we ended up at the Mater Hospital at 1am trying to remove it.

I designed this layout for Karen's challenge over at Scrap Pile.

The requirements were to use the following:
1. Lots of blue
2. Diecut cardstock
3. Transparency
4. Flowers and/or hearts
5. Ribbon

Final touches...

I started this layout at the Brissy Scrap Pile gathering in April. It was sitting on my desk for ages, and I just couldn't seem to get it right, but then today it just all fell into place. I used the souffle pen for the border around the page and for the fake stitching around the circle.


I just love Erin's curls, they are just so gorgeous. I hope she keeps them as her hair grows longer :)

Mel started this gorgeous layout for me at the gathering as well, and I just added the title, a little bling, the journalling card and the inked paper doily. I love how it turned out! Thanks Mel, you're a sweetie :)

This is Erin at her 2nd birthday party. A gorgeous friend of mine, Julie, from Bee Happy Puppets painted all the kids faces - she is the most exquisite face painter ever! The detail was just amazing. The kids all looked so cute, but my favourite of the day has to be the birthday girl!!

Upsy Daisy

Can you believe this is all I have to show for 9hrs of scrapping??? AND I just realised I didn't even add a title! Will be adding that shortly! LOL!

Erin loves watching in the Night Garden, and loves singing and dancing to the "Upsy Daisy" song!


I used the new Fancy Pants Summer range, along with a cute little butterfly thanks to Mel's new Spellbinder and Leone's Cuttlebug! I also used my new Heidi Swapp mask (not as a mask, but as a template), and a cute little checked ribbon I got from the bargain bin at Spotlight on Friday!

Loving Kaisercraft's Mumma Bushka

First of all I just want to thank each and every one of you for leaving such beautiful comments on my blog. I must admit, I tend to neglect my poor little blog from time to time, but your lovely comments keep me going. So a heartfelt thanks for taking the time to drop by and leave your little mark here :)

Now, as for the scrapping, I've been a teensy eansy bit busy today, doing not much of what I should have been doing, but just couldn't resist using these awesome Mumma Bushka papers from Kaisercraft. I so wish I had visited my LSS before the DT call was due. The grey background paper is actually from a really old Kaisercraft range that I had in my stash. I added a Prima crystal flourish and have revived my old retro flower punches with some new ideas from Gabrielle Pollaco's blog (link on sidebar). Mel introduced me to her blog a little while ago, and her work is just so gorgeous and rich. Her pages are like individual works of art, and have so much detail in each one. I also tried her technique of tearing the paper on the side to reveal another layer of scrumptious paper, and loved how it added some balance with the bottom right corner. I also used a gorgeous Stampendous butterfly stamp inked with versamark and chalked with various shades of yellow/oranges.






This cutsie little card was the result of a challenge over at Scrap Pile to create a shaped card (do I get bonus points for using up my scraps???). I am sooo in love with these gorgeous rich papers atm. I just drew the outline on a card freehand, and cut it out, then covered with the 2 different papers.

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!