I want to be...

...a great great great grandmother.


Inspired by Lano and Woodley and this little snippet from one of their shows.

(Lano and Woodley are going on holiday, and are packing. Lano produces an oar from the cupboard.)
Lano: Ba-da!!
Woodley: Why are you taking an oar?
Lano: In case we hire a canoe.
Woodley: Yeah, but the canoes come with oars.
Lano: I want to use my oar.
Woodley: Why?
Lano: My great great great grandfather gave me this oar. He gave it to me a few years ago.
Woodley: Wha’?
Lano: It's one of my most prized possessions.
Woodley: But how could your great great great grandfather have given it to you? He must’ve died about a hundred years ago!
Lano: No. He’s still alive. Oh, sorry. He's not my grandfather's father's father's father. He's just my normal grandfather, but he's a really great, great, great grandfather. He's really great. I love him.

So yeah. I want to be a great great great grandmother. I don't mean that I want my children's children's children to have children. (You have no idea how long it took me to work that out!!! I'm still not sure.) I want to be a normal grandmother. Just a really great, great, great grandmother.

Some of my challenges for this layout...
Use only pp.
Use my newly acquired Boxx of Scraps
Do a layout without a photo

I overcame this challenge with inspiration from Nic Howard from her book That's Life(for the topic - something about the future), Loretta Grayson and Ngaire Bartlam (for using pp), and all the fab products in the Boxx of Scraps from The Boxx. The layout sans photo was just the result really.

There is some symbolism as well - just a little bit. There's a big tree - that's me and DH - and there is a tree for each of our children. That's all.

Products: October Afternoon pp; Luxe Designs Simple Alpha Stickers with an old Pinecone Versacube rubbed over them (they were a tad bright!); Pink Paislee pp; Collections bluebird; WeR Memory Keepers ribbon.

P.S. When I showed Reuben and Susannah my layout just after I photographed it they looked at it, read it and commented. Both liked it.
Reuben said, "You probably will be."
Susannah said "You're already a really great, great, great mother."
Awwwwww! I'm so blessed!

White on White

and White With 1.

It all started with a sheet of Bazzill with a defect - a nice defect, I thought. So I layered the Bazzill and then started adding things.

The challenge at White With 1 is to have white as the dominant colour, black as the additional colour (I know, black is not a colour! Nor white, for that matter.) and a hand-made embellishment.

I was inspired by the embellishment on a layout by Kylie that I saw on The Boxx and hopefully you can see here called tea for 2.



Products: Bazzill; ColorMates; felt; Melissa Frances Vintage Antique Buttons; 7 gypsies clear buttons; Queen&Co Felt Fusion (I needed teflon-coated fingers and FOUR hands for this stuff!); KaiserCraft Rhinestones (I love those things!); American Crafts Thickers; Uniball Gel Pen.

I woke up one morning...

...with an idea in my head - to do a layout with a particular shaped photo. I couldn't wait to take exactly the right photo so I found one that would do the job well enough and ta dah!


I have been particularly inspired by Louise's stunning layouts and clever techniques so I had a go at doing a layout with some of her elements of design - white out; tears in the paper; and stripey bits. I'd already been inspired to add some black and white stripes to my pages by Teesha Moore and Fatma.

I made the snowflake out of some greaseproof paper - 'twas easy, following these folding guidelines that I had remembered from years gone by.

It's been a long time

Contrary to my children's belief, and maybe your suspicions, I don't scrapbook all the time. In fact, of late, I have not scrapbooked much of the time. This weekend I have been doing a bit of catching up and finishing off things - in between all the other things I do when I am not scrapbooking. :)

So here's the layout/artwork that I did in Loretta Grayson's class at the Scrapbook Convention on the long weeked in June. This was my favourite class - lots of yummy product, plenty of challenge, new techniques to play around with, and a finished product that I am happy with.

Mixed Media Challenge

Just a little project (6"x6") to share today.

I have been doing the Mixed Media challenges at Blue Bazaar. If you did the first two then you received a free kit for the third. So that is what I did and I did!

I decided to just following the instructions and not agonise (as is my wont) over every little bit and mostly likely end up with nothing. I just changed it a little bit at the very end. Instead of putting a photo, or the word "art" on the canvas I decided to go with the quote "Everyone deserves music" by Michael Franti, suggested to me by DD, Annelise.

So without further ado.....

Just the two of us

DH and I had a rare opportunity to go away - just the two of us. This was made possible because DD, Annelise, and her DH, Alan, kindly volunteered to look after the 7@home.

We headed off to Port macquarie on Thursday afternoon and came back on Sunday morning. DH and I had a great time, as you can well imagine, entertaining ourselves and being entertained. A lot of our time was spent walking and taking photos so we had a go at capturing ourselves a few times too.

This layout took longer to make the right colour on the screen than it did to actually make! Never mind. It's here now thanks to DH and Jason. Simple and fun.


Products:Pretty pale cream cardstock from Simply Kre8tive - don't know what brand it is; Bazzill; KI Memories; Carl Craft Punch; Zig Writer; Uniball Gel Pen.

Kids About

At last, some scrapbooking to show you. This layout has been in the process for so long it almost became a UFO and I don't do UFOs!!!!

Hennyway. The Colorstory challenge for this month suggests using "Bright & Beachy, Mango, Surf, Lime, colors that "pop" on crisp, summer white. Pattern stripes & dots ..."

So here's my rendition - not beachy - we're in the middle of winter here but I think the colours work anyway.


Mango (check)
Surf (check)
Lime (check)
summer white (check)
Stripes (sort of)
Dots (check)

Our house is our home. You can tell this because there is plenty of evidence - hand prints on windows and doors; drawing on walls and furniture; toys all over place; and plenty of mess.

There was another part to the challenge - play with fonts and words. It just wasn't happening for me so I did a little play with the numbers. The photo was taken in July '08 and we have 7 pairs of little hands (some of them a little bigger!) in our house this year.

Products: Bazzill; ColorMates; Jo Sonja's paint with Mal's hand; Sassafras Lass paper; Heidi Swapp Plastic Alphabet; Pink Paislee Diecut journalling block; Making Memories trim.

I haven't seen it yet...

...but I believe my layout is in Scrapbook Creations Magazine - Issue 56. How do I know? A message from Peg and a look on Lusi's blog.

Way back in January I was surprised, honoured and totally excited to be asked (along with other fab scrapbook artists) to submit a layout for Lusi's first Top 10 which is Doodling.

So now, at long last, I can show you.

I had fun doing this layout. It is such a fun photo and Chris took it!

Products: Hmmm. I'll have to tell you what I used when I get my layout back. I didn't realise that I didn't have it. All I know is that I hand-cut the felt flourishes!

PS It arrived today with my copy of the mag - YAY.!

So Products used: Scenic Route; felt cut using Fancy Pants chipboard as template; Foof-a-La Buttons plus other random buttons; Heidi Swapp Chipboard Strips; DMC embroidery thread; American Crafts Memory marker; Stampin' Up Spiral Punch.

Construction and Destruction

There has been a bit of creating going on this house. Most of it is not finished but at last I can show you a finished product or two.

Sophie-Lee had a desire to knit something. She started with a scarf but lost interest and terminated it into a doll's blanket, which Hudson has snaffled.

A beanie was what Sophie-Lee really wanted to make so she bought some gorgeous 'wool' (can't think of the generic term), Googled beanie patterns, raided my knitting needle bag, and got started. PS yarn!!!!!

Having similar genes to me, Sophie-Lee didn't (couldn't really) follow the pattern because her wool was a different ply and the needles were a different size. We played around with circular needles and ended up with a set of four needles (are they for socks?) which did the job triffickly.

So knit, knit, knit and VOILA!



Don't you just love the colours?

Sophie-Lee wanted to make tied-dyed curtains. Another learning curve ensued. Firstly she didn't buy enough fabric and so went and bought some more. Only, the second lot was not cotton, but polyester, and didn't dye the same way. So we made the curtains out of the polyester stuff and have kept the gorgeously tie-dyed cotton fabric for a cushion.



They do the job and we made them ourselves!

Now onto destruction! I only include this so that you can know that you are not alone.

I noticed a scrap of material on the floor but only thought about it for a fraction of a moment without any conclusions.

Then, as I was removing the tablecloth from the table to give it a shake, I realised where that scrap of material came from.


Nobody knows anything about it! I have my suspicions. It was my fave table cloth - the perfect size (it doesn't hang down too far) for our dining table.

So, what would you do?

I told my Dad about this and he said he knew, as in he knew, what it was like - been there done that. And I know who the culprit was for that knowing!

Off to do some reconstruction

Stuff to Scrap

It's snowing again! YAY.

Just when I thought it really wasn't going to happen and I was tossing up going snow chasing at a higher altitude - it started ??? What do you call it when it is 'pouring' with snow? Anyway, it was heavy, huge, cover-the-ground-type snow. Maybe I could call it 'blanketing down'!

Snow doesn't happen very often in Uralla. In fact, I could probably count on two hands the number of times it has snowed here in the 20 years I have been here. And count on one hand the number of times it has snowed properly.

Okay. So here is a collage of 81 snow photos - click on the collage to see a bigger version.



And a few individual photos.

If Jane Austen was alive today...

... I'd marry her! That's what Sophie-Lee said. Just read a simple "I love Jane Austen's stories."

So that is what I put on my layout for July's Aussie Scrap Music challenge. The film clip, Mistaken Identity by Delta Goodrem, was full of rich colour and bling and all things inspirational, but the scene that appealed to me most was at the end of the clip in the library with all the old books, the old clock and the chandelier.


Having the knowledge that Memories Mist is ink not paint I lightly sprayed a piece of cardstock with a merging of colours a bit like my last artwork. I was going to do this all on gesso with a kind of book texture but I didn't trust the ink to dry so skipped the agony of that. Then I sprayed on some Glimmer Mist.

I painted the clock and the chandelier on with folk art paint that I got in my kit when I did a class with Loretta Grayson at the scrapbook convention.

Then it was time to use my Kandi's Professional Touch Rhinestone Applicator. The crystals are so beautiful and perfect for the chandelier. I did have issues with it and some are still not resolved. Firstly, the crystals were getting stuck in the applicator and it was a trick to remove it in the right place while still hot and using only two hands! I changed the size of the applicator and that seemed to do the trick.

I hot-fixed all the crystals to find that the cardstock had hot-fixed to my cutting board and when I peeled it off some of the crystals popped off! So then I put my Bazzill Splat Mat underneath (knowing that it can withstand high temperatures) and hot-fixed the crystals back on. Good.

Now on to printers. Have you ever felt like you want to take a brick to a computer-related appliance? Well I didn't today, but... (which reminds me of this game.)

So, it's finished. Not exactly how I had envisaged it but it does the job - to show that Sophie-Lee loves Jane Austen's books - her fave being Persuasion.

It was difficult to take a photo that showed the beauty of the crystals sparkling in the sunlight. In fact, it was difficult to take a photo of the whole layout. The light would catch on some parts and not on others. Maybe this one calls for studio lighting - will ask DH later.

So here is a close- up of some of the layout. Please note that the photo of Sophie-Lee is in focus but the layout had a bit of a curl on it.



And here is a close-up of one sparkling Swarovski crystal.



Also on the layout you will find a Hambly's Screenprint and a book plate. I was going to use Dymo but because I was doing the layout with a photo of Sophie-Lee I conferred with her and then deferred to her preference to not use it.

The unresolved issue with the crystals - after I took the photo I noticed that some of the crystals had fallen off. Fortunately they are all there in the photo - that narrows down the area in which I can get the kids to search! This reminds me of looking for something (a nail? a rivet?) for Dad in the grass - it's like searching for a needle in a haystack but I am hoping that we will find them. Bribery might help!

I have just finished reading a very entertaining book (the second book I have actually finished in four years - don't ask!) - The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A. J. Jacobs Lots of LOL moments.


Not only was it entertaining but it raised subjects that had my mind ticking over. I'm sending the book on to Annelise and Alan, and then to Dad, and hoping to have some fun recalling the funny bits and chewing over the interesting questions raised.

Here is a sample of his humour.

Jacobs has a facebook and a MySpace spot. I haven't put links to these because 1. I am not registered to either of them, and 2. I don't know what the content would be like - more from comments than from Jacobs himself.

That's all for now.