Finally some scrapping!

I was motivated to do some scrapping today - after I realised that I had only completed 7 LO in the last 6 months - not too impressed :( I entered this LO into the Kraft It Up challenges - this month's was a monochrome theme + kraft.


This LO was one I started at last month's Simply Crafty day.

Curtain Call -Act #27

I loooovvvveee these challenges!! This week's colours and inspiration picture was perfect for me to try the fabric rose technique (these turned out perfectly!) and make a cute banner!!

Happy Mail!

I received a parcel of fantastic goodies (blog candy) in the mail today from the lovely Charmaine. First of all was this gorgeous card - using the new embossing folder and Top Note die that I want - I'm sooo jealous! :)


Then a very generous gift of the "Happy Moments" stamp sets!! I have seen these stamps on a lot of blogs lately - happy dance!!! I can't wait to have a play with them!!


Plus I also got some lovely ribbons, flower brads and a cute SU pen!

Pot plants

I had another busy morning today. Mum came over and we painted the front fence - looks good :) Next we cleaned the cement verandahs / walkways around the house - after the weeks of rain over the last couple of months we had problems with mould / moss growing on the cement. It made the cement look awful and it was slippery to walk on. A friend suggested we try pool chlorine to clean it. The result is AMAZING - the cement looks brand new! After all the hard work, we sat down to do a bit of planting. Mum had picked up some teapots and containers at various garage sales so we could plant some succulents. I think all the pots are so cute! I did give mum a small coronary - she looked over to find me happily potting plants in my great-grandmothers antique teapot...ooops!! Next time she won't put the cheap teapots in the same cupboard as the family heirlooms!! ROFLMAO

Long weekend...

Saturday afternoon we got together with friends & family for an a nice relaxing afternoon chatting with lots of yummy finger food. Once again it was a great excuse to try out another new recipe... homemade sausage rolls! I made a few changes - I added bacon and garlic, then sprinkled with sesame seeds - yummmo!!


As usual I took my camera, so I could take lots of pics of Cohan & Mitchell. Cohan was his usual busy self - so lots of "action" shots of him LOL


Mitchell had lots of smiles for everyone - check out those teeth!! This was my favourite pic - so I had a bit of play in Picassa.



Today was a quiet day - Craig went to the ANZAC parade then spent the day watching sports. I did some more sewing - no pictures as it's not finished yet.

Sewing

I was finally motivated to set up my sewing machine and spend the day sewing yesterday - it ended up being a very productive day :) I had this bag half completed - so I added the handles and hand stitched the lining in + added flowers. I love the red and denim combo!! This is a smaller size bag compared to the other ones I have made.


Next up I made this babushka doll - I found the free pattern and full instructions here. This was my first attempt at embroidery (so don't look too close at the stitching LOL) and I am pleased how well it turned out! It doesn't look exactly like the ones on the other blog - think I might have to make a few adjustments when I make my next one.


After sewing the doll I then had a go at making some plastic bag holders. I have had all the materials for awhile, but was a bit hesitant making them as I was unsure how to machine stitch the elastic. Since I was feeling super confident after my last 2 projects I thought I would just give it a go...and I had no problems at all :) I would have sewn another 3, but I ran out of elastic and rope!!


I wanted to share a picture of these four gorgeous doilies I found at an op-shop for $2.50 - bargain!! Still trying to decide if I want to use them on a LO or on more jeans bags....

Baby cards

A friend asked me to make a boy Christening card for her. I decided to keep it clean & classic - she's really happy with it :) I was pleased how it turned out and decided to make a girl Christening card too.


While I had all the pink & blue papers and ribbons out - I decided to make a few baby cards. I have seen the cute pram idea around on blogs and thought it would be perfect!

A bit of a change ....

Last week I finally got around to updating the pictures on my slide show to more recent LO, cards, etc. I also had a bit of cull of my blog lists. Today I decided to give the whole blog a face lift - - so I changed my template. I love it!!! What do you think? I lost all of my blog, challenge & inspiration links :( That's OK - like I said, i was updating them anyway LOL

Voting has started for Scrapbook Apprentice - Printblocks is asking "Which Docrafts' Apprentice do you favour in your initial reaction?".

I would love it if you would pop over there and vote for me - yep, I'm pimping myself LOL **The poll is currently not working, so they are asking people to leave comments - when it asks for "NAME" they mean yours, not the person you are voting for**

Woo hoo - she's back...

So happy to share that my wonderful friend Kylie has found her mojo and has been scrapping up a storm! I have missed my scrapping partner-in-crime! Even more exciting - she has got her blog back up and running! Please pop over and check out her latest LO and say hello!!

Weekend away

Friday we headed to the Gold Coast for the weekend. We stayed at this fancy hotel.


Love the little shampoo, conditioner, lotions....! Craig said I was like a chipmunk...running around collecting all the little freebies :)

We had time to grab some dinner, get changed, then off to a footy game - Dragons vs Titans. Craig was happy - his beloved Dragons won :) We had a crazy cab drive back to the motel - crazy driver and funny drunks sharing our cab!!


Saturday we went to went out to lunch with friends. We had a fun time driving around trying to find their car in the massive car park! LOL Then we went for drive around Surfers and checked out the beaches. I did manage to squeeze some shopping in at the Kaiser outlet shop! Pretty amazing to see ALL the paper ranges and the other bits & pieces all in one shop! I also got some travel theme wooden stamps from Riot.

Saturday afternoon we decided to head to Caloundra and spent the night there. No fancy hotel this time - just a nice unit at a beach resort. Sunday we went to the markets and spent a lovely morning wandering around checking all the stalls out. Craig brought me another charm for my Pandora bracelet.


It was a great weekend away - lots of fun, friends, shopping, yummy food - Thai, Greek, Chinese, footy... :)

Scrapping, scrapping, scrapping

I have been busy finishing off my Scrapbook Apprentice challenges - LO, card and OTP. Once I stopped stressing about them and scrapped in my own style - they all came together quickly. I am really pleased with how they turned out.

Now that's done I can finish off my LO that I started at Simply Crafty last weekend and do a few online chllanges :)

Dinner with friends..

I went out to dinner for Donna's birthday last night. Had a delicious meal and got to meet lots of new people :) We finally got some group photos together - I can't wait to scrap them! We popped into one of the clubs / pubs - stayed long enough to feel old!! LOL


I got up early this morning and made Chelsea buns - another cooking success :) I'm going to use the dough recipe to make pizza scrolls and cheesymite rolls.


I spent the day scrapping at Simply Crafty today - I will put the finishing touches on my LO and post pics tomorrow. I better go - Elena is home from Darwin for a couple of days, so she is coming over for dinner tonight so we can catch up.

Engagement card

After some blog hopping I found a card design here that I really liked for the engagement card. The original card had stars, so I just CASEd the card with hearts instead. I love this design - I am going to make another one with butterflies.


I got some surprise mail this week - a cheque from Scrapbook Creations for the layout that was published a few months ago :) No prizes for guessing what I will be spending the money on! LOL

I also managed a bit more cooking this week. A friend gave us a bag of lemons so I decided to have a go at making some Lemon Butter. It's not something we usually eat, but I wanted to try making jams / spreads. We were also given a bag of chillis - so I will try making some chilli jam too.



Cruise countdown...5 months!!

Mars Bar Cheesecake

When Craig asks his team what they want as an incentive prize they always want him to cook them some sort of cake / cheesecake. Last month they won "Team of the Month" and after a vote it was decided their prize would be a Mars bar cheesecake. After googling some recipes I found this one and Craig made it last night. I had a slice for morning tea and thought I would share this easy, delicious recipe with you.

Mars Bar Cheesecake
250g plain chocolate biscuits
125g butter, melted
2 tablespoons brown sugar
20g butter, extra
300ml thickened cream
50g milk eating chocolate, chopped finely
3 teaspoons gelatine
1/4 cup (60ml) water
2 x 250g packets cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
3 x 60g Mars Bars, chopped finely

1. Blend or process biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add butter process until just combined. Press biscuit mixture evenly over base and side of 20cm springform tin, place on tray; refrigerate about 30 minutes or until firm.
2. Meanwhile make butterscotch sauce; combine brown sugar, extra butter and 2 tablespoons of the cream in small saucepan. Stir over low heat, without boiling until sugar dissolves.
3. Make chocolate sauce; combine chocolate and another 2 tablespoons of the cream in another small saucepan; stir over low heat until chocolate melts.
4. Sprinkle gelatine over the water in small heatproof jug; stand jug in small saucepan of simmering water, stir until gelatine dissolves. Cool for 5 minutes
5. Beat cream cheese and caster sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Beat remaining cream in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Stir gelatine mixture into cream cheese mixture with Mars Bars; fold in cream.
6. Pour half of the cream cheese mixture into crumb crust; drizzle half of the butterscotch and chocolate sauces over cream cheese mixture. Pull skewer backwards and forwards through mixture to create marbled effect. Repeat with remaining cream cheese mixture and sauces. Cover cheesecake; refrigerate for about 3 hours or until set.

Pink & chocolate cards

I wanted to make an engagement card for friends and thought pink & chocolate would be the perfect colour combo. I made this card first - I wanted to try a heart cut-out idea. After I made this I decided it was a bit too small (4 x 4 inch).


Next I made this card - I decided to keep with the punched hearts, but make the card bigger. I'm pleased with how it turned out, but still not what I wanted.


I had a piece of the pink c/stock left so decided to try the "medallion" style stamp that I have seen in the new Stampin' Up catalogue. I used the new Kaiser stamp set "Prairie Lane". There are different layers of stamping and I also used foam dots to make part of it 3D. I also had a go a adding a pleated strip to the bottom - love how this turned out! I'm thinking I might make 3 more in different colours and package them up as a gift set.


BTW - Thank you to everyone who has left such lovely comments on my blog :)

Happy Easter

Wishing every-bunny an egg-cellent Easter! Hope the bunny left lots of yummy eggs and you are all enjoying the long weekend!

Easter Projects

I was feeling really crafty this week and wanted to make some Easter packaging for my nieces / nephews. How cute are those little bunnies?!?!? Spotlight has all their Easter range on special so I managed to pick up a packet of clear boxes to make this first project.


I have seen these packages around a few blogs and really wanted to give them a go - I think they turned out really well. They are very awkward to photograph though LOL

Napkin Challenge

I made this cute little notebook for Sandie's napkin challenge. I still have bits of the napkin left which I can't wait to use on other projects :)

Scrapbook Apprentice Australia

I am so excited!! I can finally announce that I am one of the 12 finalists for Scrapbook Apprentice Australia!!! I got the call telling me I was a finalist on the 3rd March - it nearly killed me keeping that secret! LOL

My first parcel of goodies and challenge instructions arrived yesterday - Christmas In July theme. I have lots of ideas going through my brain at the moment LOL

The latest Docrafts Creativity magazine is out (with free clear stamps this month) - which has the announcement! If you want a copy either see Joy (Joy's Floral Art Studio) at the Shalom Markets or call her on 0741518254. At $4.99 + a freebie and over 100 pages of great ideas for card making & scrapping it's definitely a bargain!