Homework Books

Ahhhh ... it's homework time again! Year 5 and 6 at our school have to have a hard covered book to put in their homework sheets and written homework - Rhiannon was Year 5 last year and so, nice Mother that I am, I covered her book with special paper ... sucker that I am, I had to do it this year as well! Charlotte came home the other day very excited as at Year 3, she gets a "real" homework sheet each week this year (I hope she is just as excited for the rest of her homework years) ... so of course, she had to have a special book as well. I finally did them this past weekend - they picked the papers, Charlotte is a "blue" girl, Rhiannon went for a more elegant "older" look.

Rhiannon's I used the now retired Holiday Harmony set (still one of my favourites), I've gold embossed the swirls on hers and added Artichoke butterflies.

Charlotte picked out the only blue she could find - from the Bali Breeze set. For her's I added pink swirls and pink/blue butterflies.

I'm not sure that the butterflies will last long, anything raised that is pulled in and out of a box of books at school doesn't hold much hope really, if they come off I'll replace them and stick them flat and re modge podge the top :)

SCS Scrapbook Sketch Challenge #176

Like the cardmaking, sometimes a sketch just helps those creative juices kick off. I'm trying to scrap some of our older photos, and these sketches are perfect for putting pages together.

I have to say, gosh, it is nostoligic looking through our older photos, and quite sad - time goes by so fast, it doesn't seem so long ago that our boys were little, that was such a big time of our lives that has just disappeared *sniff sniff*

This was the annual Kids Christmas Party that my work used to put on, so many of these kids still have parents that work there (I still work there!), and they're all grown up/teenagers now :) It's also funny looking at the date on the photo, 19 November 1999 - exactly two years before our surprise no.5 baby was born, its funny to think there we were with our four kids with no idea that two years later on that day we'd have another one!

Anyway, onto the actual scrapbooking - I've used Dashing DSP and based all the colours from the paper (makes easy scrapbooking!). I've used the Big Deal Alphabet and added glitter to the top of it. Then used the star punch to punch out the stars for the "SHOW" (and cuttlebugged those letters), and then glittered the smaller stamped out stars for a bit of bling in the middle. Josh who is being the Magician's Assistant tells me that all he remembers is the rope - nothing else! LOL

Kwerner Colour Inspiration #41

I'm a bit late with this one - but, hey I did it!

This came together surprisingly fast! I used my favourite heart (one of my few hearts, I'm drooling over "A Happy Heart" in the Summer Mini though, not one that really caught my attention straight away, but as happens ... now I MUST have LOL). Anyway, I used the Heart from the Always set that was available in the Spring Mini - one set I'm really hoping will make it into the new big catalogue, definitely one of my favourite sets. I'm also looking forward to having the Riding Hood Red - I like the Real Red ... but I have a feeling Riding Hood Red is going to become one of my fast favourites :)

Onto the card ... I white embossed the heart image onto the red card and cut that out, stuck it onto the black card and cut it out again (actually I stuck it onto the grey and cut it, didn't like it and THEN stuck it onto the black). I stamped the Basic Grey card with one of the small flowers from the set with Basic Grey ink. I ran the black card through my cuttlebug to get the embossed image (I made two cards the same, one piece of black cuttlebugged card was enough for the two cards). Stuck the black onto the red, wrapped the Red grograin ribbon around, stuck all of that onto the grey and then the heart on top with dimensional dots, I then used rub-ons for the greeting - quite a basic, but effective, card :)

Now, the funny story. Josh (14yo) had his girlfriend here yesterday when I finished the two cards, so I called him out (of his bedroom that I'm continuously walking past and pushing the door open, or just happening to have to go in every now and again to ask something!) and gave him the card to give to Emma (cuz much to my disgust he hadn't done anything for Valentines ;)), so he gave it to her, and she handed it back and said well, you have to write in it too! LOL ... he's a romantic boy that one ...

I think reality really is going to set in this week ... it is the start of the two weeks/month I spend helping Dad with his delivering (he has a contract to deliver all the local power bills and I'm doing more and more of them as he slowly admits he IS getting older), my workshops/classes are taking off again for the year ... so it will be a busy week and I'm thinking the start of the usual years busyiness that always seems to happen no matter how I start every year saying THIS is the year we slow down a bit! Oh well, its busy, but I really enjoy everything I do so that is just the way it is, I plan to enjoy the ride :)

Always Time for You

There are two of my favourite things from the summer catalogue used on this card - the bike from "Time for You" and the Scallop Edge Punch - these are available through until the end of March, so not much time left if you are wanting them!

Very simple card - the sketch is cased from the US Catalogue, nice and simple :) I water coloured the Bike image and added a wee bit of Dazzling Diamonds to add sparkle to the flowers. I've used some of the Fall Flowers DSP from my scrap box (can you tell I've been trying to work through some of those scraps lately?) and gone with the lovely two toned blue look of Soft Sky and Blue Bayou together, I love the look of the two blues and haven't used the combination nearly enough ... especially as these will only be available until end of March which is creeping up fast!

Scrapbook Page - 1st School Photo

First scrapbook page I've done in a while! This is the cute little Rhiannon's first school photo - she's grown up so much since then! There is a mixture of Stampin' Up products and other bits and pieces on this one. I had the hardest time getting a title right so ended up with more journaling and less title. I'm hoping to get a little more scrapbooking done over the next year - trying to make more time for my crafting - we will see how that goes, I'm sure I say that every year!

Mojo Monday - Week 73

Before I start Mojo'ing ... I have been shocked and saddened, as we all have I am sure, of the horrible bush fires and the trauma of them over in Victoria, Australia. Very good friends of my in-laws have lost everything - they had five minutes warning which wasn't enough time to grab all the special things we imagine we'll have time to take, they just had to get out - thankfully, unhurt - but it is hard to imagine the horror of being in that situation (as an aside, these friends were made when they were billeted with my husband's family to recover after surviving the Wahine Disaster, two disasters in one lifetime is definitely two too many).

There is a "Card Drive" happening - if you feel like helping in some little way, make a card that will be sent to victims so they know they are being thought of - I've just searched and searched for a direct email/address you can send these to and can't find one! But the NZSU Blog has an email address if you want to find out more details.

Right, onto Mojo Monday :)
I really enjoyed putting this one together, as soon as I saw the strip I knew I'd be using my double stitched Rose Red ribbon, so the rest of the card came together around that. I pulled out my Rose Red papers, and chose the poka dots image and then went to my colour wheel to find a complimentary colour to go with the Rose Red - it gave me Garden Green - a colour I very rarely use (I think because I just love the Old Olive and continuously use that) ... so Garden Green is what I went with - along with some white to go with the white stitches in the ribbon.

I fiddled for a while to get the scallops just right - and really they are "close to" just right ;) ... but I did manage to get a reasonable rectangle with my new favourite tool, the scallop edge punch. I actually put all the square etc together before deciding what stamp set I was going to use. Once I had all that together, the Priceless set just seemed the right one, so that is what I used! I've added a wee bit of Dazzling Diamonds to the butterflies and put one of the lovely silver brads from the Silver Hodge Podge set to hold down the ribbon. I've white embossed the "So Kind" words. And just for once, I love how this card came together and turned out!

US Catalogue CASE for Blair

Okay, yesterday was Melanie's card ... today we have Blair's!


This is another CASE from the American Catalogue, had to change the colours slightly, as they had used the new in-colours, and I didn't have quite the same stamps ... but basically it was the same ... and worked well for a masculine card (although my delightful children tell me - after I'd made the card - that the Turquoise Blue is a girly blue, thanks darlings!).

I've used Tempting Turquoise for the base, a snowflake from the small snowflake set for the background stamp and Big Bold Birthday for the other images. Whisper White for the main images and So Saffron for backing the white. This was a nice straight forward one to make - but quite effective.

US Catalogue CASE for Melanie

CASE = Copy and Share Everything



The new US catalogue has just come out, and not only is it full of goodies, but like ours, its full of great samples as well! I'm not sure whether its a sign of the times or just my style (I'm not sure I have a style quite honestly, but right now I am liking simple, clear lines) - but I went through the catalogue and founds lots and lots that I wanted to copy/try doing similar and Friday afternoon I had some time and cards that needed to be made to try a couple of them.



First up is Birthday card for Melanie, my niece who is turning 25yo in August, her partner was 25yo a week or so ago though, so they had a combined party :) (as an aside, how did I become old enough to have a 25yo niece??? having said that, my youngest brother just turned 28yo - so he must be wondering that even more! LOL).



Anyway, on to the card - the sample in the catalogue had a cute little vase and flowers, which we don't have so I used the flower from Embrace Life and just slightly water coloured it with Pale Plum. The main card is Sahara Sand, Confetti White for the flowers and other white accents, Chocolate Chip card and ink and Sage Shadow to back the image. I used my Happy Everything for the greeting ... not quite right, but the best I had!

Check back tomorrow for Blair's card :)

NZSU Sites February Challenge

The lovely Trudi set us a challenge to try a Cami Fold Card ... I loved doing this one, and can see me doing more! I actually made three all the same, with two little girlie girls, we seem to need lots of girlie girl birthday cards! I used the last bits and pieces from the Crew Girls Simply Scrapping Kit (gosh, these kits really just go and go ... I've used half for a scrapbooking book, and the other half has been used for classes, and for other bits and pieces!) - I had one piece of the Regal Rose card left and one of the Wild Wasabi, so the pink was perfect to cut into three pieces and make three of the cards with. I had a last bit of paper left - just enough to cut out the squares for the fronts of the cards, and then used some of the last of the stickers to do some final decorating on them. I didn't add ribbon as per the instructions, I was being scroogy and knowing that the cards are on their way to birthday parties, I decided not to waste it (don't tell the darling little girls that though!).

I've put links to the NZSU blog and to the instructions on how to make the card below the photos.

NZ Stampin' Up Blog - Click here
Instructions for "Cami Fold Card" - Click here

Kwernerdesign Colour Inspiration #40

Ahhhhhh what a nice afternoon I had yesterday, very productive! This was the first card I made (and I actually made two of it), using Kristina's colour challenge. I asked Rhiannon to pick a stamp set out for me (sometimes, it's just all too hard to think of colours AND what stamp set to use!), and I was really pleased when she picked out Friendly Flowers, I love this set and just haven't used it enough - partly I think because it is such a big image. But, something else I've wanted to do is make a couple of cards to fit in the envelopes I've got left over from the Carousel Notes I've used for other creations ... so, perfect!

I hunted through my scraps of DSP and found a couple to match, and admit I also cut into a couple of whole pieces just for those small strips, well, just because the colour was right and I had to ;) I white embossed the first image of the flower onto Olive Green, and also the More Mustard last one. The middle one I have stamped Taken with Teal onto white and cut out. I think the rest is self-explanatory. I quite like the finished result - quite different, but a lot of fun to put together!


I also made Birthday cards for my niece and her partner, they are having a combined 25th birthday party today, so I needed a couple of cards for that - but while I was in such a productive mood, I also made doubles of those so I have a couple to put away for future birthdays. Check back over the next few days and I'll have those cards up, I love this being able to set entries to show up later! Tomorrow I have the NZSU Challenge Card ready to appear, and I'll set up the other two birthday cards to show after that ... it makes me look like I'm actually keeping up to date with my blog for a change!

I need to go make some yummy chocolate eclairs to take with me later ... have to make double, the rest of family don't want to drive all the way to Wanganui (and secretly, I'm quite pleased, I don't mind going on my own) to my niece's party, so I will leave them with some eclairs to sweeten them up, and take a batch with me :)

Mojo Monday #72

Hmmmm as usual, i'm not sure I'm totally pleased with this, I couldn't get the Riverrock stamped part to look just right ... I think I suffer from always trying to finish things quickly before heading off somewhere else! I loved the sketch though, completely different and more busy than what I usually make, I like that these challenges push me out of my comfort zone :)

I used the Embrace Life set, and the Ginger Blossom papers ... again. these are definitely my two favourites at the moment! I also dug into my Pretties kit, I really do have to make myself use all those lovely goodies, I'm terrible at "saving" them ... it's not like I can't order more when I run out!

It's a holiday here in New Zealand, and one of the few to fall on one of the days I work (I work Wed, Thurs and Fri so I miss out on the Monday public holidays), so I plan to enjoy it by sitting at my craft table - the latest Kwernerdesign Color Inspiration is printed off and ready to go :) ... and I might just persuade my lovely children that the TV can be on the Rugby 7's and Cricket while I'm there (watch out for the strange dressed up animals ... one of them will be my nutty son!).

Hope everyone else is enjoying their day off :)

NZSU Blogs Challenge and First Day of School!

This is for the NZSU Sites Blog Colour Challenge this month (http://nzsublog.blogspot.com/) - the colours for the challenge were Certainly Celery, Rose Red, Regal Rose and Whisper White. I was trying to go with the minimalistic look with more white showing, I'm really not sure I captured it well - it looks too top heavy and unbalanced to me. For those following from my newsletter - this is my example of paper piecing!


Card Stock and Inks: Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Black and Rose Red
Stamp Sets: Scribble This, Short and Sweet
Other: DSP (from 6x6 promo earlier on in the year and scrap from Simply Scrapping Kit).

... and yesterday, ALL the kids were finally back at school (I think it was middle of November that the oldest finished school so its been a long time since they've all been out of the house!), so here is the annual "back to school" photo :) Hard to believe that my oldest is in his last year of High School, he is planning on leaving home next year, wow!

Have a nice day!