Handy hints...

I love how the internet gives me the opportunity to find ideas / hints for scrapping, storage, etc. I had a few ideas that I wanted to share - I hope you find them interesting / handy :)

First idea is AC glitter cardstock (it's sooo pretty)...I'm going to cut alphas / titles out - it will be cheaper than buying Thickers and it means I can have as many letters as I need. It comes in a huge range of colours - I brought pink, blue and black...so far. This picture shows all the other yummy colours that are available + Spotlight has them on special this week!!


While I was at Spotlight I brought this folder ($2) to store my sewing / crochet patterns. Afterwards I realised it would be a budget-friendly option to store stamps. I compared it to my Kaiser folder and it is a bit smaller, but will fit the Kaiser pockets in. Another bonus is you can take out the covers and put your own creations in the front & side pockets to personalise it.


A few weeks ago I sorted through my ever-growing pile of paper & cardstock scraps and put them into pizza boxes. I used my butterfly punch to punch out colour samples to glue on the front of the boxes.


Last one...everyone loves a freebie right??! Well I found this box at my local Bunnings - perfect for using with my Glimmer mists. I was putting newspaper down, then using the mists, but it still went everywhere. This box will fit a 12x12" scrapbook page. I saw a Kaszazz demo using something very similar in the Scrapbook Creations DVD.

Christmas in July challenge

I have joined a Christmas in July card-a-day challenge over at Sandie's blog. I never make Christmas cards (I just buy them on special after Christmas LOL) - but thought it would be a good way to use up some Xmas papers and I have some un-inked Xmas stamps :) Pop over to her blog to have a look and sign up!

Still on the topic of cards...this morning I made a quick "Get Well" card for a friend - then popped up to the hospital to catch up with her. As usual, lots of chatting and laughing :)

Play date :)

Friday Cohan & I had a play-date!! We spent the morning looking at the animals and playing in the playground at Alexandria Park. I got a few good pics of Cohan playing - this is my fave!!


This weekend Mum and I are heading to Blackwater for 4 days to see Kate & family and my brother and his family. I'm looking forward to seeing my 2 nieces - I haven't seen them for about 12 months :( I can't wait to have a play-date with the girls - I have a few fun activities planned. One of them is this jumbo cupcake cake tin to make! I have stocked up on lollies to decorate it with. Chocolate cake + lollies - that should have all the kids bouncing around, hyped up on sugar!! LOL


The last of my Stampin Up stuff arrived on Friday - so I had a quick play :) This is a "just because" card - my mum loves native birds, so I made this Rainbow Lorikeet card for her.


Saturday we had lunch with Craig's extended family, then dinner with my family. I love spending time with both families :)

Bits & pieces

Just a quick update of my week so far... Tuesday mum and I spent the afternoon doing some sewing. We hemmed up a dress and pair of jeans and transformed a sun-dress into a top :) The sewing machine is still set up - I should get motivated and sew some more jeans bags....

I completed a LO for this month's Kraft It Up! challenge - minimalist!


I have been working on my 2 crocheted blankets...this one is almost complete - I just need 8 caramel squares and a border.


These are the squares for my 2nd blanket. I only need 14 more squares - chocolate and caramel - to finish.



Katie, James and Cohan are visiting for a couple of days, so Cohan and I are having a play-date tomorrow :) Hope the weather is nice - we're off to the park to see the animals and play in the playground.

The most exciting news...my bestie Becca is pregnant!! Baby number 2 is due January 2011 :)

Scrapbook Apprentice Update

I am super excited to share that I have made it through to the next round of Scrapbook Apprentice!! A HUGE box of goodies arrived today with details of my next challenge! Thank you to everyone who left comments voting for me - I really appreciate it.

A couple of LO

I've been busy scrapping - woo hoo! This LO was one of my (many) half-completed layouts - I have been motivated to work through and finish them. I just had to add some journalling and embellishments.


I started this LO at Simply Crafty a few weeks ago. I just added the journalling today to finish it. I usually hand-write any journalling, but thought I would try strip journalling - I think it suits this LO. The top half (paper and banner) was an idea I saw in a recent magazine - I love banners!!


I had to share a close up of the cute embellishments. I wanted to add a 3D effect - so I made the fence. I just used a tree stamp on cardstock - then cut out 'posts', then I wrapped string around them.


Kylie & her mum came over yesterday and we spent the day scrapping. I am pleased to say that I started AND COMPLETED a LO - woo hoo!!! LOL I was going to use the ticket for journalling, then I saw the cute idea to decorate it on one of Petrina's LO.

Baby blanket

On Saturday Craig and I went to a baby shower. It was a relaxing morning - catching up with friends from work and having a delicious morning tea. I managed to get the baby blanket finished in time :)


I've also finished crocheting up all the balls of wool I had for the other 2 blankets. Now I just need to buy a few more balls to finish them. While I was looking for some wool I was very tempted to buy some pink/green/white wools, but I stayed strong!! LOL

I made this card today - I'm super happy with how it turned out! I'm even more pleased that I made a masculine looking card - woo hoo! I made it for the current Pals Paper Arts challenge, but was a day late - oops!! LOL


Mum brought over a big bag of passionfruit, so I froze the pulp. Tonight I made up some passionfruit kisses and more vanilla coffee creams while Craig was watching State of Origin.

My birthday...

I was spoilt with 3 days of celebrations :) Saturday night we went out to dinner with friends. I got lots of lovely presents - perfume, books, flowers, another Pandora charm (handbag), etc. I had a great time catching up with everyone and the meal was delicious!

Sunday (my actual birthday) Craig & I spent the morning wandering around the craft markets, then off to the beach for fish & chips. There was a car show on - so all the old hot rods were driving around the beach, so we spent a wonderful afternoon watching them.

Craig brought me a mix master - woo hoo! I will be doing lots of cooking this week :) I also got a Siamese fighter (crown tail) fish - Elvis :)

The celebrations have begun...

Due to mum and Mike going away for the weekend - they brought some pizzas over for dinner and I got to open my birthday presents from them early :) I got some gorgeous new beads for my Pandora bracelet.



Mum made me a bird feeder - I had been asking for one since she made hers!! I can't wait to set it up in the yard :)


Plus some more plants - a mini lettuce garden and succulents :)



Tonight we're going out to dinner with friends :)

Dog kennel

Well I finally remembered to download and print the pics from my mobile of the dog kennel that mum and I made for MIL's german shepard - see this previous post for more details about the kennel.

Here is what the kennel looked like when we first brought it...


And here it is after we re-vamped it :)

Vanilla Coffee Creams

These biscuits are quick and easy to make - I have made quite a few batches over the last month.




2 tsp instant coffee
180g butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup icing sugar
1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup custard powder

Biscuits
Place 150g of the butter, 1 tsp vanilla essence and 1/4 cup of the icing sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until light and creamy.

Dissolve the instant coffee in 1 tbs hot water. Sift together plain flour and custard powder and stir into creamed butter mixture with the dissolved coffee.

Roll level teaspoons of mixture into balls, place about 4cm apart on lightly greased tray and press gently with a lightly floured fork.

Bake in a 180c pre-heated oven for about 10-12 minutes or until the biscuits are lightly browned.

Vanilla cream
Beat the remaining 30g softened butter and 1 tsp vanilla essence with electric mixer until creamy, then gradually beat in remaining 3/4 cup icing sugar and enough water (about 2 tsp) to give a light and fluffy consistency.

Sandwhich coffee biscuits together with a a little vanilla cream.

Cooler weather means...

It's time to get out the wool and crochet hook :) I started crocheting the squares on the left first - using up leftover wool from the blanket I made last year. Then I brought the multi-coloured wool (on the right) to go with it, but after crocheting a few squares I realised it did not go very well with the pinks. So....now I am working on 2 blankets :) I have crocheted about 40 squares so far :)



Last year I brought some red wool (still not sure about that purchase LOL), but I had no idea what other colours to crochet with it. Last night I was having a chat with Kylie about knitting and she mentioned she is knitting a red and turquoise striped blanket. Today while out shopping I saw some teal and white balls of wool. I totally agree with Kylie's red / blue colour combo - so brought the wool and have now started working on blanket #3!! :)

Future OTP

Last week Katie & I popped into a few op-shops looking for some black pants and I spied this cute little house!! It was only $2.50 - bargain!! I have a few ideas about how I want to scrap it, pics to use and colours / papers :)



Cruise countdown...3 months!!!

Impossible Box

I have had this template for awhile and finally got around to creating the box. You can find the template and instructions here. I changed some of the measurements on mine - I wanted to make it taller - it was easy enough to change. I also opted to use double-sided paper instead of painting the inside of the lid.



This cute box has been filled with hand-made flowers and banners and mailed off to someone as a little "thank you" gift :)

Watercolour cards

I have been admiring lots of watercolour cards around blogs lately and wanted to have a go. I already had a set of watercolour pencils, but was unsure how to use them. After reading some tutorials and articles I was ready to have a go :) I started off simple - just trying some blending techniques and using the new stamp set that Charmaine sent me.


Then I made this card - using a sketch from Taylored Expressions sketch #114 and a new stamp set I brought at the Sew What's Crafty Expo (which I brought specifically to try watercolours).


After that card turned out well I wanted to make another one. This card I took a step further - I added some Kaiser pearls to the flower and stamped the wings again, coloured them in and added some foam dots to make the wing 3D.

Scrapbook apprentice - Round One!

I was so excited to receive the June issue of Docraft's Creativity magazine!! It has the first round of Scrapbook Apprentice projects - LO, card and OTP. I am happy with the way the judges scored my projects - bit nerve-wrecking having someone mark your work! LOL Here are my entries....


From the website -
This month's challenge was "Christmas in July".

If you have seen the apprentice submissions for round one, tell us what you thought about their projects. What you like, what you didn't and which were your favourites! The contestant that receives the most positive constructive feedback from comments here, from professionals visiting our distribution centre and through all correspondence, will be awarded the "peoples choice" and get an extra bag of goodies (there may even be secret rewards in the later rounds).

Voting has started today! I would love to make it through to the next round, so please pop over to HERE to vote for me!!

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!