It's been a while...

Since I last logged on!  Well between the school holidays and then getting settled back to school and kindy and doing some extra jobs, it has been a lot longer than I realised since I last blogged.  I have been working on some projects, but it is more of a 'pottering around' rather than focussed craft time.  I did a hockey layout in the school holidays, and once I take a photo, I will put it on here.  Currently, I am working on a speedway page - its only been on going for 4 weeks!  Fingers  crossed, I will be able to figure out the last few embellishments to finish it off!

Christmas 2012

Every year, we take a photo of the kids under the tree on Christmas morning - this is a tradition from when I was a kid, and my cousin and I were photographed under the tree every year!  This year the kids knew the drill and sat waiting for their photo before they started touching presents from under the tree - normally I have to ask them to wait for a minute.  I had a 6x6 Kaisercraft twig and berry pad, and one of the pages was a calender page of December 2012 that just begged me to use it on this page!  So I decided that this was the only year as it was dated with the year and tailored the page around the paper (normally I do it to the photo).  I didn't get any of the embellishments that go with this set, I only got the pad.  The cardstock is Rosie's Studio and the spotty paper is MME.  The other layering pieces are from the Twig and Berry Pad.

Photo and more info coming

Jessica's Elephant

This is a card that I made for Jessica's 7th Birthday, I just love this Elephant and did a similar card for Emily with it!  I coloured this in with Spectrum Noir Pens, using shading and blending techniques.  I really love using my Cuttlebug, and the dies that I used for this card are Marvellous Squares, Circles, Scalloped Circles, Squares and a butterfly punch.  I just love to see the reaction when I give a handmade card to someone, and Jessica's face was delightful!

Hedgie Card

Last week, I got a new selection of Spectrum Noir Pens.  These are alcohol based pens that blend beautifully to give texture and vibrant colours.  I made this card using a Docraft stamp with black ink then coloured the image with the pens.  The brown is done with a dark brown and a very light brown then I used a palette blending technique to achieve the mid brown.  I only got one shade of green, so I used my blender pen to take back the colour in the middle.  I really like how it turned out so had to put it in a card straight away!  I used the green from the boots to choose my paper and cardstock and as I have just got the new butterflies last week as well, had to use these.  They are so cute and cut out five small butterflies at once!  I chose the biggest three for this card and finished them off with a teensie tiny pearl.

Brush Holder

I was getting a bit frustrated with my paint brushes, so I made this brush holder.  I used my favourite glaze, Mayco Peacock Eyes which is a moving glaze and so you have to get the right amount of glaze on your piece.  I love the blue and purple crystal explosions!

1st Tooth Fairy Visit

Katie Rose was very upset that she had to wait for so long for a wiggly tooth and as her right of passage, I had to scrap about it!  I got the fairy paper, chipboard fairy and rose, butterflies and doily, from a kit from Scottie Crafts, and thought that this would make a fantastic fairy page for all the photos of Katie Rose's first tooth falling out.

Turning 10

Last year, Madison had her 10th birthday and it has taken me this long to scrap about it!  I have a process where I go through my photo's and print out a selection from the last few months, and some from the previous year that I have not done yet.  This way, I can keep current, but also have time to reflect on what happened in the past.  Maddy had a big party last year, and she wanted me to teach the girls how to make a butterfly book. 

When the girls arrived, I took a photo of each girl, then got them to put together a book instead of party games.  I also made mini pizza boxes and taught them how to decorate with the same colours and theme of the book.  They turned out great, and all the girls loved them.  I even slipped in some chocolates and lollies for them to take home in them!  When it came to scrapping this page, I could have done the same colours and even put a little book that Maddy made, but I decided to base it on the colour of her new hoodie that she loved - Plum as this was what stood out in the main photo of her blowing out her candles.

I looked everywhere for the right heart stamp and couldn't get the right one, so I used my heart punch and cut out a heart from a die packet to use as a template.  Then I stamped through it with the script from Graphic 45 ladies diary and sponged over the top with the residual ink on the template.