Friday, March 23, 2012

March Daring you to scrap

Another great challenge from Daring you to scrap - use photo strips or polaroids

Loved you then


There were some fantastic links to  tutorials to create your own photo-strips or polaroids but as yet I don't have any photo editing software so I went 'old school'.

I found these photos of Scott and I hiding in a box of sentimental goodies that I just couldn't part with. I remember the day we took the photo many moons ago in 1997. We were walking through Dandenong and stumbled upon a photo-booth, hardly what you expect to find in a back arcade with near no shops or passing traffic. 

In a single moment the camera captured our new sweet love, and 15 years later that love is stronger than ever!

I have used cor'dinations cardstock, a Hambly grid screenprint, Kaisercraft pearls, ribbon, a jewelery tag and my trusty Dymo labeller. I can't remember which manufacturer the pp is from, I think I got it from Kmart about a hundred years ago, but can't be sure.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

I'm a proud Mum

Have I mentioned what a proud mum I am lately? 

My children have been excelling this year, they are really outdoing themselves.

Starting back at school was really easy, with both kids loving their teachers and having a few special friends in their classes. They were desperately missing the routine of the day and wanted to get back into their sports and activities.

Just last week Connor and his under 10's freestyle relay team made it all the way to the Sale regional swimming meet. They came second at both the Zone and District competitions and finished just outside the time needed to make the Sale final. What an AMAZING effort from four young boys who don't consider swimming their fave sport, and were competing against swimmers from very successful swim clubs.

AND Connors under 12A Reserve basketball team 'The Gladiators' are through to the - wait for it - Grand Final next week! Woo-hoo, they have played really hard to get this far, losing the semi-final last week and coming back to win on Tuesday. For most of the team it is their first season in under 12's and its a whole different ball game from under 10's.  It doesn't matter how they play next week, they are all winners in our eyes, but fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed for a win our way. Lots of thanks to Shane for coaching xx

And Savannah has been a STAR herself. Hats off to my little girl for coming home with an extra special award from school last Friday.  My little girl was running her heart out in the 1500m when she noticed one of her friends had fallen behind. Going back to check on her she found that she had bad asthma and needed to walk and use her puffer. So, instead of racing off ahead and finishing the race Savannah walked with her friend, slowly, hand-in-hand to finish together. She got the Principals Award for helping others in need, but she got extra kisses and cuddles from mum and dad for being a great friend. You can always train to run faster in next years Athletics Carnival but it takes something special to show kindness and compassion.

She has also shown a great dedication to Cubs this year. Already one term in she has completed both her level 1 Cooking and Level 1 Masks and Sculptures badges. There is a long list of badges she is working towards, and knowing just how DETERMINED (one eyed, pig-headed?) she can be I am sure they will be accomplished in no time! We are very lucky to have such wonderful Cub leaders in Rob, Geoff and Jason - thank you all for your hard work.



Saturday, March 10, 2012

Playing catch up...

It seems this month I have been playing catch up, and I am not getting any closer to where I wanna be! I haven't got any challenges done yet, but I have managed to finish some projects. Gotta get out my camera manual, the pics are all a bit blurry and I can't work out why. I have a feeling little fingers may have been playing with my new toy, so apologies in advance.

TC Cortina

I picked up this Kaisercraft kit at Fat Cat just before they closed their doors for the last time (sniff, sniff).

I've never really been one to use kits, since I like to add my own personality to a project, but thought it might be a great way to play catch up.

Cory was a beautiful beast, all original, nearly no rust, complete with vinyl roof and rear venetian blinds. Sadly it wasn't made for baby capsules and prams, but we sure did drive a lot of miles (yes, miles) together.




Little Miss Chatterbox

This is a layout I started many moons ago but never quite got finished. You know how it it, you start a project and don't like the way it is going so you put it aside for a later time and some fresh eyes?

Playing catch up is fun, I just want the layouts in my album so I'm pulling no punches and just going with it. I liked the graphic block style but it was lacking, so I raided the button stash and added hand and machine stitching.

I thought my little chatterbox could talk then, 7 years on she has mastered the art of talking both with  her mouth full and underwater.  Now that takes practice!


Don't mess with these Gangsters


I was very happy with how this layout turned out and have another work in progress with the rest of these photos taken on our holiday. 


 I have used MME kraft from the Life Stories range. It gave a classic old world feel to the layout and blended perfectly with the sepia prints. 

We girls felt really pretty and a little flirty in our costumes, so I went to the haberdasher and picked up some fringe and pearl trim, similar to our outfits. Since you can never have too many layers I got out my Fiskars punch and  went to town with it. 

My flower cluster includes some beautiful Prima and Kaisercraft blooms and some handmade silk flowers. I found a pearl flourish and cut it into smaller pieces and used it to ground them all together.

If you haven't had a go at making your own little blooms yet they are really easy. There are heaps of great tutorials on You tube, try this link.

I found the fabric I wanted in an op shop for 20c and used some buttons from my stash -see, pretty and economical.

If you are ever on the Gold Coast make sure you drop into Old Time Photos and have some fantastic family fun! Not only is it great to dress up in period clothes (they have items to fit everyone, hey, they fitted me!) but they also have amazing sets and the staff are friendly and efficient. Better still the rates are really reasonable and the finished product is awesome! This was the best way for us all to spend a rather wet afternoon and we came home with a very memorable souvenir.

I have come to realise that I have taken more photos since my children were born than may actually be necessary. No - I don't mean they aren't all important, but I do mean that perhaps I need to start deleting from my memory card before I upload. At this rate I am running out of storage very fast and I am not going to print half of them, and then I'd be lucky if I scrapbooked 10% of them. 

I'm sure all you compulsive clickers are like me, we go out for the day and take a million and one photos because we don't want to miss anything. The problem lies when we get home and upload those million pics. It is overwhelming to select only 2 or 3 photos for a layout, or worse still is feeling obliged to scrap multiple layouts from the event.

Well, today I am going to make a stand and say NO MORE! I want my children to be able to flip through an album and remember the places they have been while it is still fresh in their minds, and not have to wait forever for me to get around to scrapping it. I'm gonna work smarter, not harder, and take an Ali Edwards approach. I will go crazy and buy heaps of divided page protectors, slide the photos in and add a journaling/title block.

Please don't make that face - yes, you! - the single person reading my blog! I will continue to traditionally scrap the most important and my favorite photos with lots of pretty patterned paper, fancy new embellishments, AC Thickers and my most favorite Glimmermist and stitching. I will, I will, I promise! But I need to play catch up, and fast, since the To Do list is growing much quicker than the Completed list.