You can ride!

Number 19 of my challenge...

I really didn't think it would take me so long to complete this little self challenge...I'll be glad to be finished I think :)

I've used mostly Basic Grey June Bug on this LO...Vintage Plaid, Admiral and the cute little "Pops", which are 3D stickers. The strip of bicycles are cut from paper by Little Yellow Bicycle (how appropriate!) , and the journal block I hand cut from Bazzill, then decorated with red dots.

Today's the big day...the first day of competition for Riley at the National Trampoline Championships in Adelaide. I'm feeling excited, scared and nervous all at the same time, so I can only imagine how he is feeling! He's not expecting to do well in the event today but hey, you never know!

The talented Janelle Wind is having a weeks worth of giveaways over on her blog...her patterns are divine and really easy to follow, so pop over and put your name down! You may just be lucky enough to win :)

TTFN xxx

All Day Suckers and Lemonade

It was only a matter of time before these photos made it onto a layout :)

This is number 18 of my self challenge...getting close to finishing now. I'm loving that Riley will have a predominantly pink page in his album...variety is a good thing :) I've finally broken into my Basic Grey Lemonade stash for this LO...it has been looking at me for weeks, but since I started my Riley challenge, the pink pages have been few and far between. This is my first page with it, and the colours are DIVINE!

I've used the buttons and chipboard stickers as well...yuuuummmmm!

This LO is based on one by Kelly Goree, one of the designers for Basic Grey. She would be one of my favourite scrappers at the moment...I love the colours she uses, her attention to details, and her awesome boy pages!

Whose work are you loving right now? Leave me a comment so I can check out their style :)

TTFN xxx

Scrapping as therapy :)

So...

...what is a "seriously freaked out" mother to do while her boy is away? Scrap of course :)

It's not often I print photos at home anymore, but I made an exception for this gorgeous shot.


I used my last piece of Basic Grey Urban Prairie Harvest on this one...it's the ONLY paper I've come across that matches the colours of Riley's team perfectly. Turns out it also matches the West Australian state team colours even better, because they have the yellow as well :)

The colours didn't come out very true...I'm still searching for that perfect spot to photograph LOs in our new house. Guess I'd better keep looking :)

I've used Fiskars Effervescence punch to cut the borders, and stamped both the journal block (Autumn Leaves) and "the facts" (Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday).

Enjoy your Sunday evening, and thank you for visiting!

TTFN xxx

Seriously. Freaking. Out.

The clothes are labelled.

The official badge is sewn on.


The bags are packed.

Now all that's left to do is watch him board that plane to the National Championships in the morning :(

And try very hard to be brave.

TTFN xxx

Partners in Crime

In a flurry of pink, purple and yellow :) here is my latest page...


These gorgeous papers are Dancing Girl by Fancy Pants, and their colours are delicious and very very girly. I've used Ballet and Tutu, as well as one of the coordinating journaling cards.

A layout about me, my girl and a craft fair had to include some fabric and buttons :) I've cut a long strip of fabric and "hemmed" it using two strips of tape on the back. I then laid two strips of tape on my LO where I wanted the fabric, but removed the tape backing gradually, ruching the fabric strip as I went...very easy to do, and I love the texture of it.

I then laid the pink trim across the top, anchored it with tape on the back of the LO, and then used a needle and thread to secure the buttons at intervals down the strip. The alphas are American Crafts Thickers, and are the most beautiful shade of yellow! All of these goodies are available at Tomorrows Memories in Bassendean...have you been in there lately? It's choc-a -block with yummy new goodies :)

TTFN xxx

Sweet Things

Wet, rainy, windy days are also perfect for cooking....

Does it get any cuter than this? Miss M received this gorgeous little chef outfit for her birthday, and when I put my apron, she had to find hers of course :)

Despite the bowl not being even warm, an oven mit is a necessity...don't you agree?

The full view.

We made a couple of old favourite recipes, but couldn't resist the sound of "Caramel Pecan Clusters", the recipe featured on the can of ready-made caramel. Some of our most loved recipes have come from the side of the can/packet!

Yummy little mouthfuls of caramel, coconut and pecans, drizzled with chocolate...perfect to keep those rainy day blues away!

TTFN xxx

Sunday afternoon distractions :)

It is the perfect afternoon for a little bit of crafting...windy, cold, with some rain thrown in. My darling kids are all chilling after a busy morning out, so rather than heading to the ironing (YUK!) , I headed for my craft room :)

This wedding photo was sitting on my desk from the challenge I did the other day, so rather than put it away, I decided to scrap it.

Lots of older goodies on here...WeR Memory Keepers 3D words, PebblesInc stickers and MM Valentines words from a few years back, as well as some newer ones from the Making Memories recent wedding line.

On the stitching front, I'm still plodding away on my Little Bluebirds quilt top...there sure is a lot of stitching on this one!

Still loving the colours, but I would love some solid blocks of time to devote to it...my progress is very slow! Have also been checking out a few of my favourite stitching websites, and was very excited to see that this book is being released this week...

This is the new book by Rosalie Quinlan and features her brand new fabric range, and it looks delicious! Some happy mail coming my way soon :)

Hope you are finding some time to do the things you love today!

TTFN xxx

Beautiful.

The challenge this month at Scrapsidaisy is to scrap a wedding photo, and include something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue...which is quite a challenge (thanks Julieann!)

Finding a wedding photo was the first challenge...mine are all still packed in a box, and I haven't actually been to a wedding in years. Then I remembered this photo of my sisters' wedding, which I had filed (ages and ages ago) in a binder along with the piece of American Crafts Metropolitan paper...and bonus, it has blue on it!

Something old? Apart from the paper, I used this Delish transparency from an almost empty packet in my stash.

Something new? I stocked up on ribbons for wrapping gifts a couple of weeks ago at the markets, so raided that box for this piece of white :) Something blue? The paper, but also the blue American Crafts rubon...that's the straight lines across the white photo mat. That only left something borrowed...so I started with a borrowed LO idea from Sketchmaps. Even though the LO ended up looking very little like the sketch, I figure that counts :)

Have you ever tried a scrap challenge? They are lots of fun, and can get you digging around your stash for all sorts of unexpected things :)

Have a great weekend!

TTFN xxx

Discovering hidden treasures...

...and remembering past loves :)

Moving house, and finally having a craft room that I can spread out in, has meant that I am able to unpack boxes of craft goodies that have been stored in my poor husband's garage these last few years. These boxes ( which haven't seen West Australian sunlight LOL) contain so much crafty treasure...and so many reminders of previous crafty endeavours that consumed my days long before scrapbooking took over!

Embroidery was my big thing back then. In particular, Brazillian embroidery. And with long lustrous threads with names like Lola and Glory and Nova to describe their thicknesses, how could you not fall in love with them? I used to stitch religiously every day..it didn't hurt that I only had one baby back then , who was so kind as to have a three hour nap every afternoon :)

As well as quite a few framed pieces, I made these...

I came across a woodturner (?) who created these gorgeous wooden boxes. I bought as many as he had, and started stitching! This bottlebrush with Wanderer butterfly was my own design, which I created for my beautiful Nan...it came back to me when she passed away several years ago.

This lavender and daisy design was from a copy of Embroidery and Cross-Stitch magazine (I think?) and I stitched it for my mother. The threads, if you can imagine, are rich and lustrous, and the stitches quite complex. Some French Knots in these designs can contain as many as 90 wraps of the thread around the needle!



These photos are scans of the original photos...thus the lack of detail!

While unpacking the other day, I found another three wooden boxes. Wow...three more. I must have really loved those boxes :) I also found threads upon threads upon threads...all just waiting to be turned into something beautiful. And I was inspired.

I wonder if I could put my scrapbooking aside long enough to stitch another :)

Do you have a past crafty love? I'd love to hear about it ;)

TTFN xxx

Cake, cards and more cake!

Despite the fact that my measuring cups are missing (still in a box somewhere, I'm guessing) I couldn't resist trying out some new recipes in my new oven over the weekend.

Chocolate fudge cake...yuuuuuum!

I found the recipe in the Donna Hay kids issue 2009...such a wonderful source of inspiration (you may remember Merryn's birthday cake from the front cover). We ate some warm from the oven with cream, and dusted with icing sugar :)

These cookies were featured in an advertisement in the same issue...


So easy! Just take half a pack of Arnott's Choc Ripple biscuits and top with 5 or 6 Mallow Bakes (mini marshmallows) and bake for a couple of minutes in a moderate oven. Top the other half of the biscuits with strawberry jam, then sandwich them...yuuummmm!! Mine got a little dark on some of the edges...I forgot about them! Yes, I have short attention span :)

Thanks for all your lovely comments about my cards in my last post. These are a couple more I made while I was in the mood...

Basic Grey Lime Rickey paper and cardstock stickers...bright, fun colours.

And Basic Grey Bittersweet for this one. It's so quick when you use elements from the same range because they all match so beautifully.

I finally got back to my 20 Riley LO challenge. This is number 16.

I used Daisy Bucket My Little Monster papers and a Jenni Bowlin Studios bingo card. The "stitching" is hand drawn this time...my sewing machine isn't quite unpacked yet.

I've highlighted the number 8 with some Kaiser rhinestones, and also decorated the spotty paper with lots of little rhinestones and buttons...it reminded me of a cupcake with sprinkles :)

I've missed playing with crafty goodies so much in the last couple of weeks...it feels great to be creating again!

Thanks for looking

TTFN xxx

A different approach to cardmaking.

HAPPY SUNDAY!

It's been a while since I've popped in to say hello...life has been chaotic to say the least :)

I did manage to find a spot in my new scrapping area, and set to work creating some cards. I started off with one of the Basic Grey card kits...have you seen these around? They are perfect for the beginner cardmaker, as all the pieces are cut to size and labelled. All you need is an ink pad and sponge, and some adhesives! They include chipboard pieces, rubons, diecuts, cards and envelopes...too easy. I had the Wisteria kit from Tomorrows' Memories ....yum!

So after I had made the first card, I got to thinking about all the Basic Grey bits and pieces I have sitting around...and believe me, there are lots. ..and thought that, as I made each card from the kit, I would make a card using the same design, but a different range from Basic Grey!

This one uses Urban Prairie...oh, how I loved that range! Same basic design, but using bits that needed using up!

The Wisteria card...

...and another Urban Prairie card, with a rub-on from my stash..

Wisteria card...

...and one made from some leftover Lime Rickey!

Wisteria card...

...and another Lime Rickey one!

...and so on and so on :)

This kept me busy for hours, and it was really fun to not have to think too hard about the design. It's also a great way to use up some of those leftover bits and pieces that we all have sitting around, while adding some value to the original card kits!

Lots to update on the family scene, but I'll leave that for another day. Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

TTFN xxx

Busy?

Busy? Yep, you could say that :)

We've been busy moving house this past few days....what a HUGE job. The minute I clear off a space I will be back to creating...but that's a while off yet :)

Hope everyone is well and happy!

TTFN xxx