Holidays... time for scrapbooking (or packing)

So, now the madness of Christmas is over... We are packing up our house again to move to our more permanent home. Feels great after moving around rentals for 6 years!

In between packing boxes in the impossible QLD humidity, I have been trying to catch up with some scrapbooking.

Here is a page that I created for the Stuck?! blog mid-December sketch challenge. It is of Tobey on the morning of "talk like a pirate" day at school.

 

He's pretty cute huh? I like that I am getting back into my scrappy groove now. It's taken about 6 months!

I'm packing up my scrappy supplies soon and I am sure I will find some unwanted goodies. I might see how many people I can get to come out of lurk-dom and say hello.

Until then, enjoy the holidays!

Mel

December Daily pages

Some December Daily pages from my album. The first two pictures are a mini collage that I made with some coin sleeves, I cut them down to size, added a patterned paper border, punched holes for the album rings and inserted all kinds of Christmas trinkets. It was so much fun!

 The next few are of the inside pages, A mix of different page styles with the Simple stories 6x8 album sleeves. These are so versatile and I think I might even start on a Project Life type album next year.

For this page I added some patterned paper to a card one of the kids received in the mail and punched holes to add to the binding of the album. A great way to include any ephemera.

I got the kids to write out their wishlists to fit in a 6x4 sleeve below a photo of them this year.

 

 Christmas Wishlists in detail :) Note Lilly asks for Scrapbooking stuff (just like mum)...

I love the Christmas tree Tobey drew on his list!

My Pinterest board at the beginning of December...

The cover again, in better light, and a close up!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Mel

DT Call

Since being away from scrapbooking last year, I have missed the feeling of reward from sharing my creations in the form of a Design Team member of a scrapbooking store. I love having to think outside the square and create projects to inspire others to create.

So after thinking it through, I decided I might try for at this Design Team call at Scrapfriends: here.

Wish me luck!

With all the hustle and bustle of Christmas, I am in the midst of again m moving house. Hopefully this will be the last move of ours for some time.

Instead of packing  I have been making some progress with December Daily:

I love how the cover turned out!

I will share some of the pages tomorrow.

Mel

Etzcetera Issue 8 Out now!

Have you gotten yours yet? Issue 8 of the Etzcetera magazine, full of Christmas and summery ideas.

Kim and the Etzcetera team have been working hard on this issue to bring you loads of inspiration and fun things to read. Below is a glimpse of what Issue 8 has to offer. I have had a quick look through and it is amazing. I can't wait to get a minute to myself and a hot cup of tea so I can read it cover to cover!

If you are looking for some last minute gift ideas, perhaps the Jingle Bells 2012 online class is for you. Packed with craft ideas, gifts and tasty treats, the class will give you tons of inspiration to make those Christmas goodies.

I had so much fun contributing to this class. Go and check out the awesome projects from Kim, Janelle, Sheree, Lisa, Mardi Yvette and myself. You won't be dissapointed!

Mel

Another Sunday Sketch share

Hi again!

Just wanting to post a page done for the Studio Calico Sunday Sketch...

One layout of the girl in my life... Seems she gets a little neglected because she doesn't cooperate with the camera (and never has). Anyway my mission is to capture her on "film" as much as I can after school finishes for summer in less than 2 weeks.

This layout is called Bounce, and it is photos of miss Lilly poking her tongue out and being silly in front of the camera.

I have been busy working with my December Daily kit and I hopefully will have some pages and the cover to share after the weekend.

Mel

Stuck! November 1 sketch

I'm finding that sketches are really getting me motivated and finding my mojo at the moment. November 1 over at Stuck! sketches inspired me to create this layout:

The green never photographs properly. IRL it is not so Kermitty! I found this photo on my old laptop just before I cleaned it all off for the kids to play with. Its from just before Tobey started school. Such a sweetie! The page and more close ups are in my Studio Calico gallery here.

Happy Thursday!

Sunday Sketch Share

This week I decided to participate in the Sunday Sketch challenge at Studio Calico. This is what I came up with.

I pulled the old typewriter out from under the pile of clothes in the wardrobe and went old-school. I love the result.

Don't you just love flair and those enamel dots? I do. I want to hoard those dots in every colour imaginable.

In other news, we have finally bought a house after selling the one in Ballarat nearly 6 years ago. No hurry really. Now we just want to move in already!!! Not until late December. You heard right- we move again over Christmas... This will be the third time. We love it (not really...).

 

SO anyway I will again have my own scrapping/sewing room. Yay!! What wonderful creations I will make?

Mel

 

Smash Book update

Just a hello to anyone who has been visiting me because of the Smash Book challenge... I have a couple more pages to keep you inspired! Also have you seen Issue 7 of the Etzcetera Magazine? It is jam packed with lifestyle and craft articles and a Smash Book special and picnic food article written by me :)... Kim and the girls never disappoint. Grab yours now!

The first is a cover page for my Smash book... I have been holding off on doing the cover page because it is the first that you see in the book (obviously). It kinda has some sort of stigma and mystery around the first page in a book. A lot of art journalers have said the same thing.

Annnnyway... here it is:

 

I like it :) I may add more bits to it as time goes on.

I also have a picture of Lilly and Tobey riding up and down our street. Taken just before their birthdays and on their old smaller bikes. I cant believe how good they are on their bikes, for a while I thought they might be on training wheels forever!

Working on a birthday spread in a 6x8 Simple Stories album right now and have the itch to sew this quilt.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Mel

Dippin' Dots?

Have you heard of Dippin' Dots? If you live in the U.S. you probably have, but it is something totally new for me here in Australia. My family and I went to a festival a couple of weekends ago and we came across this delectable ice cream treat. Lilly especially loves these dots :)

 

Back in the swing of scrapbooking, I have also been playing with my Cameo. I love this Moroccan style background here:

My big girl turned 9 on the weekend... Can you believe that? Anyway I am having a go at a few pages in the Project Life style, for her birthday. I will be using a 6x8 Simple stories album. I will share when I have something I like :)

Mel

A few more bits to share :)

I've been busy cooking up a storm this week. The end of strawberry season is nigh so I have been bottling up jam as fast as I can get my hands on the berries. I bought some cumquats from the market today also to give marmalade a try too.

I managed to get a bit of scrapping done on Friday. A smash book page and a regular page. Nice to give regular pages a go. It seems I haven't forgotten how to glue paper down on cardstock.

The smash book page:

 

A page about the beautiful Kelly's Beach down the road. I know I have lots of pages of the beach, But I am just loving living here.

Below is another page I have made about the delicious porridge I have been eating this winter:

 

Yum!!

And the layout of Tobey:

 

I had fun with my Studio Calico So Cal kit here!! I love those muse thickers especially....

Another smash book page I made about Fish and Chips... (Geez you must think my world revolves around food!) I have found the Fish and Chips in Queensland to be not as good as I am used to but my goodness all the shelfish is amazing!

Hope you have a great weekend! (I will be buried in strawberries).

Mel xx

A layout share

The weather has been fantastic the past few weeks here and I just sent my Grandpa home after staying with us for 2 weeks.

In the meantime I got a small amount of scrapbooking done. My boy is home sick today so I thought I would take a few minutes to share a page.

REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION

 Just a little layering challenge that I did at Studio Calico.

I have a couple more layouts to share over the next few days :)

Hope you are having a great week!

Mel

Smash Book Challenge Day 30

We made it!! Something to be thankful for today... My 81 year old grandpa is staying with us, all the way from home- 2200km away!

My page that is all about being thankful- I chose the sunshine. It lifts my mood and makes me happy. I am so grateful that we don't have to suffer through another cold grey Ballarat winter.

 

For this page I used a pint chip from the hardware store and a couple of shapes cut from my Cameo. I downloaded the sun from the store for free. It is here if you would like to grab it.

I hope you enjoyed playing along with this challenge... It stretched me and that was great, now I am am onto a bigger project which includes some tag and embellishment designing.

Have a good one.

Mel

Smash Book Challenge Day 29

Today you have free reign... As long as you use a list.

I found a random shopping list in my bag and decided to use that on a layout with a shopping trolley picture. The trolley is empty and it symbolised my lack of organisation towards meal planning. Often I find myself planning what we are to eat on the day, resulting in me having to visit the supermarket every day.

I hate that.

 

Does anyone have any tips that I could use when considering meal planning?

Have a great day!

Mel

Smash Book Challenge Day 28

Almost there! Today's callenge is to Smash something that you think is pretty.

We have a gorgeous little beach town not far from here, with it's own eerie boardwalk through the swamp gums.

 

It really is a pretty little walk with kangaroos hopping by and with lots of birds and colourful mushrooms.

What's your pretty page today?

Mel

Smash book challenge Day 27

Day 27! Nearly over :( Although it has taken longer than 30 days.

The challenge today was "a celebration".

I chose to Smash a page about Chinese New year. Each year for Chinese New Year they have a celebration in the gardens here with food and music.

The kids loved the dragons. I just liked the different foods :)

What is your celebration? A birthday or Christmas? Wedding anniversary, or special holiday?

Mel

Smash Book challenge Day 26

Sorry about the delay in the posting, It has been terrible weather here all weekend and I needed to photograph these final pages!

Today is about your pets, and if you don't have any pets, then your favourite animal. Recently we have acquired a baby guinea pig called Bobbie.

Bobbie is really cute but shy. He runs away from us in the hutch and hides under the stairs. It is a bit sad because we love to cuddle him. (I don't think he likes it as much!!)

Mel

Smash Book Challenge Day 25

Your ride. What are you driving/riding? I currently have a hand-me-down commodore. I want to upgrade soon, but I am unsure about what to get.

 

This would be a good page to do if you rode a bike, as well. Imagine the cool pictures that you could take!!

Have a great day!

Mel

Smash Book Challenge Day 24

Happy Thursday... The end of my working week :)

Today's challenge is "Something that makes you giggle" When I created the challenge I thought I fixed the typo, but it looks like I saved the wrong version. You could smash something that makes you goggle, if you'd like.

Anyway I made a page about random signs I see that are stoopid. Like the one above.

Can't wait to see what makes you giggle ;)

Mel

Smash Book Challenge Day 23

Hi again!

I am sure that a lot of you scrapbookers have come across the world of Washi Tape. Today's challenge is a free theme, but to use your Washi tape. If you don't have Washi tape, you could use masking tape or strips of paper.

Today I used a photo I took at a Farmer's Market. I cut the title out with my Silhouette and backed the negative cut title with Washi Tape. I also used strips of Washi tape behind the photo.

I can't wait to see the awesome Washi tape techniques!

Mel

Smash Book Challenge Day 22

Hello again! Having a lazy Sunday here, ten-pin bowling with the kids, grocery shopping and about to go for a walk in the sunshine. Then I'm cooking up an Indian feast. Yummo.

Day 22- in the garden. Now don't think I have a you beaut garden full of flowers herbs and trees. I don't have that yet. I'm still renting and have plans to make a gorgeous garden. I posed the challenge to stretch myself. I hate my garden, It is a lawn and a few succulents in the front. But I bought some pots for herbs and vegetables, and was amazed at how fast they grew.

 

In particular, these cherry tomatoes caught my eye. A truss of six cherry tomatoes dangling in the breeze. What a beautiful thing to see. 

For this page I used one of my new Elle's Studio tags, my most favourite washi tape by Hambly and a few label stickers I have had for ages. I just wanted to point out the white splatters. It is watered down paint that I put in a spray bottle. Instead of spraying I undid the top and flicked some around on my page.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Mel

Smash Book Challenge Day 21

Day 21. Three weeks in. How are you all doing?

Today's challenge was all about chores. I am not a neat freak or a cleaning nut like Monica Geller, and I would rather do most any chore than cleaning the bathroom. Especially the toilet. It is a terrible job with a small and large boy in the house. Plus all the long hair on the floor of the bathroom from a small and a large girl in the family.

Anyway, After confessing that I hate cleaning, please don't think my house is a mess. Its not, because I grin and bear the cleaning. One day when I am rich I will get a cleaner, I swear.

Anyway today's page is simple, I cut the chevron and the title with my silhouette.

I bought another smash journal and I want to start throwing catalogue and magazine clippings in. I love the Anthropologie catalogues but I can't get any in Australia. Can anyone help with this? Maybe a trade for something Australian?

Have a great Friday.

Mel

Smash Book Challenge Day 20

Wow, how exciting, we are powering through the pages. Nearly 3 weeks of Smashing and I am so inspired with the pages that have been shared.

The page today is "something you miss". I miss a lot of things, having just moved over 2000km 6 months ago. I miss my old friends, being able to drop in for a coffee, the gorgeous fresh food store with their gourmet goodies, the scrapbooking store and their Friday night crops, the closeness to the city for shopping and much more.

I noticed this photo on Instagram by scrapbag . Emma owns Ballarat Patchwork, which used to be my local store. I miss being able to wander in there and look at all the gorgeous bright fabrics.

 

I miss Emma's lovely welcomes and the jokes she made with my kids. I almost miss the dent in my credit card too...

Mel

Smash Book Journal Day 19

This challenge was difficult for me. I tend to like new music and I am an avid Triple J listener. (For those of you not in Australia, Triple J is an alternative non-commercial radio station which gives up and coming musicians a fair go).

So today's challenge of "top 10 songs" resulted in a list of songs that are in high rotation in my iTunes at the moment.

What are your favourite songs? Whether they are of all time, or just right now...