Oops - 3 weeks!

Didn't realise it had been 3 weeks since a post - oops!

Lots of things have been happening my end. Here's a quick summary :

* My parents, sister and nephew have all been over to Melbourne to visit so we've had a trip to the Zoo, and to the beach, shopping, fishing, picnics and all sorts, so I should have some photos to post once I get a chance to look on my camera (and Dan's :-P). Lots of fun!

* Alannah has started her school orientation visits for next year, so she's starting to get excited. I've managed to buy half of her school uniform requirements, just have to pick up a few logo-d tees and a jacket. I can't believe my baby girl is going to school next year - although she is definitely ready for that next step!

* I clocked over to the big 3-0 - aarrgghh!! hehe...I'm actually quite okay with it, but it's just a momentous thing to click over into a new decade of life :-P

* I've made it through to Round 8 of the Scraptacular Comp - SYTYCS - which is very exciting. I will find out on Wednesday if I have made it through to the next round or not. From here on in, anything is way more than where I expected to get - the competition is just so tough! Here is my round 7 and round 8 entries :



* I'm suppose to be teaching at the Papercrafts Festival this weekend, in Sydney. A weekend away from the family - bizarre :-P Just waiting on flight confirmations from the team in Sydney. Hmmm..I wonder what Sydney's weather will be like...Looking forward to meeting so many people there.

* Nothing has really happened with the house, although I must say that I am loving my spring garden - snapdragons, french lavender (I think it's french :-P), orange mexican blossoms and pansies - all so pretty and fresh and lovely. Here's a little pic :


And here's just a photo that I like of Alannah with the daisy chain garland in her hair, that she made with her grandma. What a cutie!


Ok, I think I'm off to bed now. I'm reading a great book at the moment by Liane Moriarty, so can't wait to get back into it - am half-way through. Have a fab week!

Hugs,
Kell
x

Challenges A-plenty :-P

I have had a fantastic scrapping weekend. My hubby has been away for two nights, working on his uncle's new house, which is about 1 1/2 hours away, so to save travel time & costs, he just stayed down there. So that really allowed me the time to scrap away with friends and by myself. The kids have been really well behaved, which is another bonus :-)

So, first up is the first finals round, Round 5, in the SYTYCS comp over at Scraptacular - woo hoo - can't believe I made it through this far. I'm very excited about it though. This was a REAL challenge - an arty/free-style type layout and it had to have : * at least one odd edge, *paint (excluding painting chipboard embellishments/words), * doodling, *title must be hand-written/handmade (at least 75% of the title must meet this criteria) and *it must include an everyday or thrift item. So here is my effort :

And here is a close-up of the wire word 'all' that I made :

Next layout up is one of the cyber-crop challenges over at the Scrap Therapy ROCtober CC. This was for challenge 3, and was a sketch which I flipped, and it also had to have music visible on the layout - I've used Love Elsie paper. This layout is of my gorgeous friend Kate's baby girl - Abby Grace - she's so sweet and perfect.

And finally, this last layout is for the 1,2,3 Challenge Blog for October. This month we actually were given 4 things of which we could choose 3 to include. I've included hand-stitching, a garden theme (the photo) and a little animal embellishment (gotta love the new Sass Lass chipboard - so adorable!). Alannah's name actually means "fair and beautiful" so I thought the title perfect for this photo. For a change, I actually just popped some journaling on the back, in pencil.

I'm still really loving the Basic Grey Urban Prairie range, but I just got my hands on a lot of the new Sassafras Lass ranges, as well as some of the KI Memories Sheer Delights. The sheer delights are really different - they kind of feel like thin place-mats. I'm still yet to have a proper play with them, but they look very cool. Ruey at Kiti Q has a huge range of them.

Ok, I'm off to scrap some more....well, after I fold a load of washing.

Enjoy your Sunday!

The Crafty Cat Classroom - new layout

Today I designed a new class for one of my dearest friend's classroom blog - The Crafty Cat Classroom - and the best thing about it is it's completely free! You can use your own products, or buy new ones, but either way, you can create a quick multi-photo layout without having to think too hard - sounds good to me! hehe

Here's the layout, and you will find the step-by-step instructions over at the blog :

Also, I got confirmation from Anne at For Keeps that I will be teaching two classes at the Sydney Papercrafts show at the end of October/early November. One is a 6"x4" mini album cover which is for beginners, and the other one is a layout class for the more intermediate scrappers. Both are bright, funky and full of butterflies and flowers. Will put up an image here when I know if I can or not..lol...:-P I'm so nervous - I've never taught a big class before, but I'm sure we will all have fun - well, that's the plan!

Ok, I have to go and start dinner. Oh, the joys!

Round 4 of SYTYCS and more..

Lucky me - thanks to some lovely ladies voting for my layouts, I have made it through to Round 4 of the 'So You Think You Can Scrap' comp over at the Scraptacular website - woo hoo! So here is my Round 4 submission - the challenge was set by the fabulous Clair Bremner to use tape (decorative/masking), rub-ons, to write directly onto the photo and to use bright colours. The photos used in this layout were taken by Dan, at Teresa's baby shower. Reeze looked especially beautiful and glowing that day.


I also had a little bit of a shopping spree, at The Scrapbook Scene in Burwood with Dan and Reeze. I picked up some Cosmo Cricket 'Jack's World' which I've used in this layout of Jude, and then I also got a good selection of Basic Grey's new range "Urban Prairie" which I am totally in love with - it's just so pretty! (Have used some of these products in the "heart happy" layout below) And it's been awhile since Basic Grey have excited me about one of their releases. I also picked up a few sheets of Basic Grey's "Offbeat" and "Granola" which grabbed me. Sharon and Janet make visiting the shop so enjoyable, I end up spending a good percentage of my time there just chatting to them :-P...and on Saturday I also ran into Felicity there too, which was fantastic as we hadn't caught up in absolutely ages!

I've got one more layout half done on my desk, which I will finish off tomorrow. Am just loving this hobby at the moment!

Have a fab week :-)

Some Photos from today

Just a few photos from our day. We headed back to the Tulip Festival with lots of friends and family and had a fantastic day. I didn't actually take too many photos, but I'm sure Dan & Reeze did :-P

Having Fun

Been having a ball with my scrapping lately. I've been doing a lot of scrapping - although not much of the stuff I have to do...oops! Had a fantastic night out on Friday with my girlfriends, scrapping and chatting. I started two layouts on the night, and finished this one off of Caden on Saturday night.

ETA - Layout "Cheeky Monkey" has been removed for publication.

Then early yesterday morning, I designed the cover for my mini album (although it's actually 8.5" x 11" so not quite so mini) for all my renovation ideas, notes, colour charts, furniture ideas, etc. And the inner cover will have all our 'milestone' dates throughout the extension, recorded.
Hopefully I'll continue with this - I do have the habit of starting mini albums, but not actually finishing them (I have about 3 in my unfinished projects pile :-P) so fingers crossed I keep this one going.


Ok, I've got to go and get ready for work. School holidays this week, so the kids are going to Auntie Dan's while I work. I'm sure they'll have fun :-)

Take care xx

A Tiger, a Butterfly and some Tulips

Yep, today we headed to the Tulip Festival in Silvan. Rohan had promised his mum we would take her, so we did. Unfortunately we got rained out! I only got to take a few photos before the rain but here they are. Also the kids got their faces painted and the ladies did a brilliant job. Jude took his tiger face very seriously too...lol.


Lana is looking so grown up now.

Fortunately for me, I'm heading back to the tulip festival on Wednesday with Dan & the kids, and some friends too. It's promising to be a fine day, and it's a 'children's day' with petting zoos, children's crafts, a fairy and a heap of other things for kids - should be a great day out for a school holiday adventure, and hopefully I'll get some more photos :-)

Will be back tomorrow with another finished layout, or possibly two!

Enjoy your Saturday evening :-)