Love a good cheat ;)

The very first Copycatcard challenge is up over on the Scrapsidaisy gallery!

Requirements for this challenge are to create a card using floral patterned paper, a button or brad, twine or cotton, felt and a punch or diecut....lots of elements to include on one card! So I pondered for a little while, and cleaned out the paper holder on my desk, and found the answer to my dilemma right there!

See that little snail in the middle? Not only is he cute, but he is made of felt, has cotton, a button, and is a diecut...BINGO!!! Thank you Basic Grey! The patterned paper is Heather Bailey Fresh Cut again... I really need to move it off my desk, don't I?

As you may know, my baby is heading off to school on Monday....and Monday is the day when we have always baked together....sob sob. So I treated myself to these...


...to take my mind off my empty kitchen, and give me a new recipe or two to try on Monday morning! Pathetic, I know, but I will need to keep my mind busy :)

Have a great weekend...we are going to a Christmas party tonight! (doesn't that speak volumes about my hubbys work LOL).

TTFN xxx

Heather Bailey, fan flowers and happy mail.

Seems that Heather Bailey has been the answer to my scrapbooking rut of late...I am LOVING using her scrapbooking range! Her Fresh Cut fabric has been released in a papercrafting line by Autumn Leaves, and I purchased mine here. Her blog is also on my favourites list...a great source of colour inspiration!

I made this LO using paper, ribbon and rub-ons from the range, as well as some Making Memories flowers and sticker, Kindyglitz and American Crafts thickers.

The flower below is what I call a fan flower. My daughter Lydia loves making paper fans...you know, the ones we used to make as kids where you pleat a length of paper to make a fan? I was thinking how cool they would look all joined together as a flower, so made this one from October Afternoon Cherry Hill Tea Towel paper.

It's quite dimensional, especially with the extra pieces on top :) The scallops underneath were traced onto plain cardstock, cut out, and then edged with Kindyglitz to match the MM sticker on top of the flower.

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway on http://www.threadsoffriendship.blogspot.com/ just before Christmas, and it arrived in my letterbox yesterday!

Oh how I love happy mail! The little felt birds are just exquisite, and the pin cushion and Matryoshka dolly...divine! The chocolate reindeers didn't survive the Christmas heat very well, but I'm sure after a little stint in my fridge, they will taste yummy :) Thanks so much KraftyKJ and the lovely girls at Threads Of Friendship....you made my day!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. I will be coming to terms with the fact that the school holidays are over...sob sob....and that my baby will be starting big school on Monday morning...sob sob.

TTFN xxx

For scrapbooking sake!

It's been quite a while since I've scrapbooked, just for scrapbooking sake. It's also been a while since I started a layout with the patterned paper, rather than the photos or the story first. But here is what I've been playing with...


Heather Bailey is one of my favourite fabric designers, and I LOVE that her Fresh Cut range has been released in paper too! I've cut the paper to fit onto the Creative Imaginations shaped piece, then inked the edges with pink.

The raised white dots are pop dots. I had actually cut out lots of little white circles to mount onto the LO, until I realised that the pop dots backing is white...der...and they pop out of their backing sheet perfectly! The butterfly is one of Basic Grey's Lemonade Woolies.

Have you checked out any of the new CHA releases yet? Lots of yummy scrapping goodness on it's way to us! My favourite is Basic Grey (so predictable) and the best sneaks I've seen are at www.sandekrieger.typepad.com, who designs for them.

A special hello to Vanessa today :) thanks for delurking, it was wonderful to hear from you, and lots of love to Callum for PP next week xxx

Hope you are having a great Australia Day!

TTFN xxx

Finished...at last!

It is a wonderful feeling to put the final stitches on the binding of a quilt.

A couple of days before Christmas, I received the call I had been waiting several months for...my Christmas Belles quilt was ready to collect from the machine quilters :)

I couldn't be happier with the job she did! See how the little girls' skirts puff out? See how the lines of stippling enhance the hand stitching of the legs and shoes? Ahhhhh.....it makes me so happy :)

The DS tape dilemma from yesterday turned out to be the little push I needed to finish off the binding (not my favourite job!) and tick this quilt off my to-do list. I've even made the quilt label for the back, and am about to write it into my Quilt Journal...it is such a wonderful feeling :)

TTFN xxx

Good intentions :)

Back in November, I had very good intentions of making a December Daily album. I would have the album mostly completed by the end of November, with just the photos and journaling to add during the very busy month of December....that was the plan.

Even when December 1 came and went, the intentions were still there...despite the fact that my album was far from complete and still had no covers.

By December 20, the album was up-to-date (you may recall) minus the covers still, but looking positive...until my home printer ran out of ink, and I couldn't print off my photos :(

Then Christmas came and went, we flew out of the state for 3 weeks, and December Daily went on the back burner.

Until this weekend arrived. I made the pages for Days 21, 22, and 23, (pictured above) and then ran out of double-sided tape. Can you believe it? Me, who always has a stash of at least 5 rolls in case of such an emergency. The day has been hot, the kids have been playing happily, and I didn't have the heart to drag them out of the pool in an emergency dash to buy tape. December Daily has come to a halt once more....sigh.

How did you all go with yours? I haven't seen too many pictures of completed albums around, so would love to take a squizz at yours :) Or are you like me....hanging your head in shame that you still haven't finished, and it's already late January?

Will keep you posted on my progress LMAO!

TTFN xxx

A new year...a new challenge!

The first challenge for 2010 is up over at the Scrapsidaisy gallery, and it's a doozie! Scrap a page using the colour red, a title beginning with the letter "O" and distressing. Here is what I came up with...

I've painted the background with a watered down mix of Making Memories paints to give the effect of sky on Swiss Dots Bazzill, and the clouds are hand-cut from felt.

Lots of my favourites on this layout...AC Thickers, Basic Grey Lime Rickey, Fiskars border punch, dotty cardstock and MM journal pads! I recently realised that I haven't scrapped a LO "just because" for a couple of months, so eased back into it with my favourite products :)

Hope you are having a great day!

TTFN xxx

Scrapsidaisy Roundup 2010

While I was in NSW, I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural Scrapsidaisy Roundup 2010...what a blast! The event kicked off on Friday at lunchtime, and went right through till Sunday afternoon, and while I can't say I did a lot of scrapping, I caught up with lots of my lovely friends, and made lots of new friends too :)

The event included classes by some very talented girls that flew in from all over Australia especially for the retreat. The first class was by the very talented Sharon Sanna from Victoria....

...and this is my version. The page included lots of Cuttlebugging, stamping on acetate, and featured the beautiful Basic Grey Wisteria range.

Saturday afternoon was Debbie Kingston's class...


...and I just love this page :) The border technique was designed by Deb, and involved lots of measuring!

So worth it for the finished result, though.

Sunday was a full-on, 3 hour technique class taught by Michelle Grant from Queensland. I didn't participate in this one (a little busy in the Scrapsidaisy shop!) but have a kit ready to start now that I'm home. Speaking of the shop, this is how it looked at the venue...

...and these are some of the girls that I sat with on Saturday ( new friends and old friends!)

These are my very dear friends Karen and Josie, with Karen's SIL Nerrida and I...love these girls :)

Friday night was "Susan's Challenge Night"...the girls were all given a pack containing some of Cosmo Cricket's gorgeous Nutmeg line, and had to create a project by Saturday at 5pm using a piece of each item in the pack. I didn't get any photos, but WOW! There were some simply amazing entries! The challenge was won by Carol (as voted by the retreat participants) but I believe that every LO created was a winner...very talented girls!

There is talk of another retreat next year...bring it on!

TTFN xxx

Back from the farm...

First of all....HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hard to believe that the month of January is already more than half over...and what a whirlwind 2010 has been so far!

We arrived home from our big trip East yesterday... to piles of washing, bags to unpack, cupboards to stock, and generally lots of catching up to do. On the upside, I also have lots and lots of photos to sort through...but this one caught my eye today :)

Can you believe how green and lush the grass is?

Anyhoo...just thought I'd pop in and say hello, we're back, and ready to launch into a new year of creativity...how about you?

TTFN xxx