Mt Rainier

These layouts are of the absolutely beautiful snow at Mt Rainier in Washington State.

Back Again

Well after being away from my blog for some time I am now back and will hopefully have the time to keep it up to date.

When I last posted we were heading back to the USA to visit our daughter and her family in Washington State. Well, our first visit there was absolutely wonderful, it was so nice to see how our gorgeous grandson had grown since we were last over there. Our daughter and son in-law took us to some of the most beautiful and scenic places and have to say this State is truly beautiful, can't wait to go back and explore it some more.

Yesterday was a wonderful day with our youngest daughter and her fiance at their home for Christmas Lunch. What a wonderful day it was, they have been renovating their home and doing a really great job, we are so proud of them. A lovely breakfast with them after a very early start from home, and then dinner and chat with Jeremy's family, made for a lovely day before heading back to Orford.

Back to the U.S.A

Great news, Bob and I are heading back to the United States to Washington State this time where our daughter and her family have recently moved to, Bob surprised me with the suggestion to go back, he misses them as much as I do, we leave in a few weeks, yea!!

Good Morning Vietnam

Just to change the scenery a bit. This pic was taken at 11a.m. our first morning in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, it was already around 39 deg at that time, so very hot. Picture was taken in a beautiful restaurant we visited for lunch prior to travelling south to Vung Tau where my husband was stationed for some of his time in Vietnam.

Grandchildren are things dreams are made of

A couple of multi pic pages highlighting my dear grandsons cute faces as he grows.

Proud Moments

I was so glad to finally be in America and to be holding our first grandchild, he arrived early and we were still touring Ireland on our way to Virginia for his birth.

The Journaling on the bottom of this layout says; My greatest joy in life was having children. My second greatest was to see them happily married and happy in life. A grandchild is the icing on the cake and the dream.

This layout was done using a sketch by 'Julie Bonner' for the October Sketch Challenge on 'that Scrappy Girl' site.

Henry with his beautiful mum

This picdture taken on Erin's 31st birthday, Henry was just 3 wks old, I love this picture Erin looks so beautiful and full of love for her son.

Our Beautiful Murpy

This picture taken in October 2009 and it was so cold but Murphy likes to think he can catch the seagulls so went for a swim, his efforts were in vain as they hover above him tormenting.

Henry and his Dad

Well my blog is going to feature a lot of Henry, he is going to grow up on this blog I think.
This one I love the picture I took of him with his dad when we were visiting them, Jarrod was dressed in his 'Dress Uniform' for a formal event.

Slide Show

ALL WEEKEND LONG CROP

Yes, that's right, all weekend over at PAGES IN TIME -
Are you ready to crop the weekend away?????

Nikki is hosting a National Holidays Mini-Crop at Pages In Time and would love for you to come join in on the fun with us. What can you win????

How does the September Pages In Time Kit sound???? Yummy, right???? There are already sold out so this is your only chance to get this awesome kit in your hands.

The National Holidays Mini-Crop starts at 9am Friday, September 11th and last until Sunday 9pm, September 13th. There will be lots of challenges and some fun games and our top winner will get that yummy kit shown above. Second and Third place winners will get some goodness from my personal stash.

Beautiful Vietnam

Just to mix things up a bit I have started scrapping our latest holiday. This first one is from Vung Tau in South Vietnam, when my husband was based very close by during the war, this was all scrub, now its a tourist mecca. A very beautiful country and the people in the majority are really humble and lovely.

Couple more...and this is just the beginning

These pics were taken at around 2 wks when Henry was a bit unsettled and loved to lie on his tummy on his mum or dad.









And a beautiful peaceful picture ;

Well this is it - the start of Henry's Album

On this one I have cut the frame from the Cricut Cartridge 'Accent Essentials'. The furry little blue elephant ' too cute' is from Martha Stewart and the 'Moment in Time' wording is from FX essentials, Australia.



















I decided rather than start with my favourite picture of Henry, I would start at the beginning, so these first 2 pages are a couple of many, taken shortly after his birth with his 'hospital' cap on, doesn't he look cute.
The Punched left edge and frame are both done with Martha Stewart Punches, the pale pp is Creative Imaginations. Decided to do a mix of blues with a hint of green for the album, although I'm sure I'll be tempted to vary that a bit when some nice new pages are released.

Crop on the 29th

Well those of you that follow my blog will know that at 'Pages in Time' we have regular crops which are a lot of fun with games and challenges.

This month's crop is going to be wet and wild, it is on the 29th of this month, and we are going to have a blast, hope you can join us. Come get all the details and so on!http://www.pagesintimestoresite.ning.com/

Of course - more of Henry

2 very proud grandparents
grandma and poppy Walker

Meet my very special little man

This is HENRY born 5th July 2009



Oh!! how I love this beautiful little person

Back to the Real World

Well after 7 wks travelling to various parts of the world, namely Vietnam, Ireland and the USA, we are back home, missing our new grandson terribly but settling back into 'normal life' as we know it.

Taken a while to get everything organised to the point where I now feel I can throw myself back into my scrapping, my great love and enjoyment in life outside of my family.

Stay tuned for lots of pictures of 'HENRY', yes starting his album today and can't wait.

Online Mini Crop Saturday 13TH JUNE

Join me at 'PAGES IN TIME' for my online mini crop on Saturday 13th June. On line tutorials, challenges some for points towards overall daily winner, and some for a RAK.

Commences 7am East Coast Time America, for those in other time zones I will take your 7am time as the first hour for you, so you won't be penalised for being an hour or two behind, this only applies where points are awarded for challenges completed within the hour they are posted.

Look forward to seeing you there, just check under Forum/Mini Crop

New Family - DT PAGE for PAGES IN TIME

Pre wedding pic taken the night my SIL's family arrived from America for the wedding of dd and her dh. Big family gathering and first time we met most of his family.

This is for the DT at Pages in Time
I must admit to cutting the paper quite a bit it is Prima and the darker blue areas are flocked the lighter blue shading in it matched Jarrod's top so I decided to use the apricot with it as he had underneath in his T-Shirt and liked the match.

I stitched around the edge using the Bazzill 'In Stitch'z' template 'silly stitches' then used 5 strands of Anchor Embroidery cotton.

Birds were stamped from a Stampin Up Stamp on to the rough side of Acetate
Butterfly's stamped from an unknown clear stamp set

I then coloured them both on the rough side with Marvy Markers and added bling.

title cut using Cricut Cartridge Cursive 101, and the scalloped circle using Cartridge Accent Essentials

Life's Little Memories

Youngest daughter Katie, this pic is 20 yrs old and didn't have much going for it in the background so I cut around the pic when I spotted this paper and thought it so suited the look on her face. If only I knew what she was thinking at the time.

Paper is Sassafras Lass Woodland Whimsy collection, and the green background is Cosmo Cricket Mr Camper Collection pack, caravan and bird are also added from that kit.

Wording on the cloud 'Mmmmm' Life's little moments was cut using Graphically Speaking Cricut Cartridge

Happy

This layout was created for the DT on Pages in Time

I love manipulating paper, the more I can do that the less embellishment is needed in my mind.
For this reason I love to purchase matching paper sets.

The papers used here are from Prima, ' Spotlight' and 'Kabloom' these are available from Karen's store at Pages in Time; as well as the pale green b/ground paper I have used.

The frame is cut from 1 piece of Prima paper the base of which was a dark red that I have used to cut the title.
Vines and flowers around the page were cut from a separate piece of Prima paper with was brown with the pink and a few green flowers on it, the remainder of that is being used to make a card.

The Title was cut on my Cricut using Cartridge 'Cursive 101', and the lattice work was cut using Cartridge 'Graphically Speaking'. The vines top right corner, bottom left corner and across the lattice are from plain cardstock and cut using Cartridge 'Home Accents' then covered with Eucalyptus Stickles to blend it more and to match the other vines and leaves all of which came already glittered.

Used a Fiskars Finger Knife to do all the paper cutting. Flowers bottom left are adhered with 3D dots.

My youngest daugher Katie and partner of 8 yrs, have been together since 18 yrs and in University plus working extra jobs. 8 yrs on Katie is a qualified teacher who went straight from University into teaching at a top Private ladies School in Tasmania, and Jeremy is a software designer with a computer company.

Am really proud of them because they have travelled to Europe, saved and now have their own home which they are renovating and this Sunday leave to visit my eldest daughter in America, they really have done well and work very hard.

Love distressing and for this I used various techniques:
I begin by cutting completely around the edge with deckle scissors any design will do. Then run my craft knife around the already cut edges and it will catch and tear in the indentations, I think this gives more of a natural distressed look.

I then get a foot buff sander and rub at all rough edges to feather them a bit.
This was followed by using 3 different colours inks, any can be used but a mix of light to dark works best.

B/ground paper is K & Co, brown circle paper is BG Bittersweet as are the embellishments i cut from a piece of paper.
The frame is cut using Cricut Storybook cart, bottom shield shaped embellie I have had for yrs in my stash.
Punched top around circle is using a Tonic punch which I love.

It's a P Night

Local Golf Club had fundraising night to buy water (we are in a severe drought), theme was to dress as something beginning with a 'P'.

Bob was Phantom of the Opera and I was his Parlor Maid hehe

Used BG Bittersweet paper and cut from a piece of paper all the strips using a Fiskars Finger Knife
Btoom right embellishment and 'p" were cut from Cricut as was the title

Used Stickles on the flowers
White signo Pen around matting and circle.

Note for journaling was from 'Making Memories'

Guest Designer on Pages in Time

Would you like to be a guest design team member here!
Then enter your lo's in our gallery and on this discussion forum and mention you want to be a guest dt member. Must be recent lo's!Please try to stop by the site at least weekly too,stop and post a message here,and to see if you have been choosen. I choose one lo of the week that I will feature as *lo of the week*,and then after 4 choices,you pm me ur fav of the 4 and that person could be the guest design team member for the next month.

You will also be featured in the gallery and on the main post! You will win a kit for being a dt member too for that month!


****GET CREATIVE AND SHOW US WHAT YOU CAN DO!****

Enter as many times as you'd like.

When you post your lo,card,item,mention its for the guest dt member spot.
Make a point to come live chat,its on the bottom right hand side,click on chat button,chat then click on enter!

***You must have a minimum of 10 (lo's,cards,ect) posts in to be eligible.*

Cards from leftovers

A challenge on 'Pages in Time' was to do a layout and a card using the leftovers. I thought this was a wonderful idea and although I didn't meet guidelines of challenge (it need to be about Easter), I thought it was such a great idea I would start doing it. Don't know how much I have thrown away when I think I am doing the right thing in keeping scraps 'to be used later', only to never use them and thrown them out.

This way I should never have to buy cards again and I won't be piling up a heap of scrap paper either. From the layout posted below, I made 3 cards which I am very happy with because I am not a card maker - well, I should say I have never been a card maker, but now I plan to become one and be creative in my use of paper with it.

Made sure they were for different occasions as well.

Mum & I

This layout is a very special one for me, as my mum was my greatest inspiration, a real lady and someone I miss heaps.

The original pic was taken by my father in 1957 and was only 2 X 2 inches, so not very clear and quite scrunched up. I restored it best I could on photoshop then blew it up to 5X7 and was amazed it came up as well as it did. Because it still is isn't 100% with the restoration I realized I would need to create a beautiful background to lift the pic and give it the credit the pic deserved.

Techniques used; Cosmo Cricket papers and journaling tag
Deep orange/red colour for backing page, olive green with red and gold front pp
Cut a square to surround pic and didn't distress on that
Cut a square 1" around that, zig zag in a line around the centre of that strip in green cotton
Cut both edges of that frame and the inner and outer edge of the outside square which was left with serated edge scissors and stitched with a straight stitch which I sewed in uneven twisted lines
Used a heel scourer to ruff up the already cut edges on all but the square around picture
Inked around all edges using Versamark 'Pine Cone' deep brown ink, and also Stampin Up 'Old Olive' ink
Cut vine from another piece of paper from same Cosmo Cricket range and adhered only in certain sections
Added a range of autumn tone flowers and leaves to match papers
Stickled with 'Cinnamon' on brown flower buds on paper vine and 'Eucalyptus' on small leaf sections, and 'Frosted Ice' on cream flowers
Added a metal floral heart to centre of main flower, another brass floral style heart to anchor the journaling note, very small cameo button at base of paper vine and a vintage style square brad at end of braid, topped off pic with 2 metal corners
Didn't want title to stand out too much so used a dull green lettering and stickled over that with a dk green
Hope you enjoyed viewing.

Journaling says;
My mum, my greatest inspiration, my greatest loss, a lady like no other whom I adored unconditionally and who I miss so much.
Picure taken at Marion Bay beach Tasmania, 1957. Original pic only 2X2" reproduced it on Photoshop

Mothers Day Lunch

My daughter Katie and her partner Jeremy came up from Hobart to spend Mother's Day here. We went to our little local restaurant which does Wood Fired Pizzas/Pasta, we love it, well, actually its the only restaurant here other than the hotel. They are getting pretty excited now as its only 2wks today and they are heading off over to Fiji then on to Erin's in Virginia to visit, they really haved saved hard to do this and Katie can't wait to see Erin.

We have a lovely day and it was so nice to see them, they have been so busy with work.
A friend who was going to be home alone came with us. Here's a pic of our lovely luncheon.

Pages in Time - May Kits - SORRY ALL SOLD

Check out this gorgeous new Kit and rubons from Pages in Time, all can be purchased separately. They are selling really quickly so if you want some really great value, get in quick and grab then,

Can't wait for mine to arrive they have been so beautifully matched and put together with enough paper and embellies for lots of projects.

Unfortunately I am having difficulties with my computer and can't post the images of these great buys, but this is the link to the site where you can see them and the descriptions.

http://fablady.blogspot.com/2009/05/may-kit-of-month-is-now-available.html

VERY SPECIAL

This page was made from the PAGES IN TIME - April Kit, absolutely gorgeous and very feminine.

I used only a portion of it to do this page of my beautiful great niece Taylah. Picture was taken at her 12 th birthday family party.

The white lace at left of picture and small hand made flowers bottom left, are the only things that weren't in the kit. Can't wait for the next one, these kits are gorgeous.

Congratulations to the WINNER!

Well NSBD challenges all went very well, and a great day was had by all it seems.

The winner of my challenge MULTI PAPER - was CHERYL KOSAKURA, congratulations Cheryl.
Please contact me so I can arrange for you to receive you package.

NSBD - PAGES IN TIME CHALLENGE

For this challenge you must complete either a layout or card using at least 4 different patterned or mix of patterned/plain paper. TWIST: embellishment/s must be added, NO flowers. Any sized layout can be used.

When your finished post your project here and leave me a message so I can enter you in a draw for a great prize pack.

Please ensure you also post your project to the gallery using the name of this challenge.
Attached below is my layout to show how many papers can be mixed, using paper packs makes it easy as its already coordinated. Also below is picture of the prize pack for this challenge.

For those who aren't familiar with the Pages in Time site, if you have any queries about where to submit your project just put a comment on here for me and I'll advise you.

NSBD - Not long to go now

eWell it is getting close now, only a little while to wait for the posting of my challenge. I will be posting it here along with my sample layout and the RAK I will be providing to the random winner.

However, you will need to actually post the layout or card on Pages in Time http://pagesintimestoresite.ning.com/forum in the appropriate thread on the Forum as well as posting it in the gallery.

You will have until end of Monday to complete your project so if you have any queries about where or how to post it just leave me a comment on here. Hope to see you back soon.

PAGES IN TIME - NSBD

Come celebrate National Scrapbooking Day with Pages In Time

Saturday, May 2nd
Karen and the Pages In Time design team invite you to join us for a day of fun challenges, games and chat.

There will be RAK's given away for individual challenges, and one main prize awarded.

All challenges will be posted Sat. May 2nd, but you will have until Mon. May 4th midnight EST to complete them.

Official kick off time is Sat, May 2nd @ 7 a.m.
Hope to see you there!!!!!!!

PAGES IN TIME DESIGN TEAM

These are the wonderful artists who make up the DT for Pages in Time, check out their fabulous blogs.

Rayette (Scrappinraiderfan)
http://www.scrappinraiderfansplace.blogspot.com/

Aphra Bolyer
http://aphradeedesigns.blogspot.com/

Irene Tan (Scrapperlicious)
http://scrapperlicious.blogspot.com/

Amanda (Kitty) Blevins
http://kittyblevins.blogspot.com/

Deb Avery (Luci)
http://luci61.blogspot.com/

Nicki Love
http://www.nlovewithscrappin.blogspot.com/

Ann Arbogast
http://annarbogast.blogspot.com

Melissa Sackman
http://ihaveprettierstuff.blogspot.com/

Well the wedding pics that have taken me almost a year to complete have just about come to an end. My style leans more towards 'pretty' so they have given me the opportunity to really go with that style. However, it's almost time to move on to the next style and challenge myself some more. I love using paper packs with matching embellishments and also plan to start using old techniques like texture paste, embossing and stamping which haven't been used for a while. A challenge which I look forward to.

Another favourite picture, think I just love all of them. This taken in the grounds of Prospect House at Richmond, Tasmania, absolutely beautiful. I chose the DCWV 'Happy Ever After' paper pack for this page. This paper pack is very unusual but by just thinking outside the square a little it realy has a lot of potential and look forward to using more of it. I shaded the brick area around the arch on this to emphasise it, then with the Fiskars finger knife cut part way round all the leaves and bunches of grapes, put a piece of paper behind it so I could use 3D tape and raise it at different levels. I then used a white Signo pen to outline the veins on the leaves so they stood out a little more. White flowers top left and tall flowers at right of picture were 3D from a decoupage sheet something that is becoming a favourite technique of mine, so raid the card areas at your LSS girls and you will be amazed at how you can blend them into your layouts. Vines down side of picture were cut on Cricut using 'Home Decor' cartridge, and I just dotted Kaiser Scrapbooking pearls here and there. Flowers were miscellaneous from my stash as was the beautiful music card with the bird on it.

Memories

Memories of this day will stay with both my daughter and myself forever. She was such a beautiful bride and my wedding album of her and her husband Jarrod is huge, this is for my husband and I, Erin will do her own as she also does scrapbooking but with a different style to mine. There was a soft light filter on for this pic which gives it a dreamy effect and was taken in the attic of the very old heritage home she left from to get married. I chose the Cosmo Cricket 'Everafter' paper pack and wish I had found this earlier it really is lovely. The title, scroll and vines were all cut using the Cricut Cartridge 'Home Decor', the frame using cartridge 'Storybook'.

Exciting News

Just received some exciting news that I have been appointed to the great DT with 'Pages in Time', you should all pop over, its a fabulous site and has a chat line where you can meet and chat with girls who love what I do, scrapping and chatting.

I can't wait to meet the challenge, the team in place is full of fabulous artists so I feel really humbled and honored. Will keep my blog updated with the progress.

The Crop Day went well, got lots done, but had to finish them off at home, I really use my Cricut so much now that its very hard not having it next to me.

Happy Scrapping.

Crop Day

Well big day tomorrow, up in time to attend the 'Dawn Service' for ANZAC Day in the morning, we have to be at the service by 6am. in the next town from ours. For those that don't know ANZAC stands for Australian New Zealand Armed Corps. It is the same as the American 'Memorial Day' and commemorates and remembers all the men and women who have fought for our country.

A very moving day which I have attended my whole life, firstly with my mother when my father used to march in the parade, and since marrying, with my husband who served in Vietnam.

There is breakfast after it with a 'hot toddy', and another march at 11am which we won't be attending this year.

So I will be going to a Crop day all day and into the night, it's long but really good fun with lovely ladies, the only thing is I am finding it really difficult to attend crop days now because of the build up of tools I have and use in most layouts. Most of these just can't be carted around, they are either too heavy , or too precious like my Cricut.

Well need to go prepare everything ready for the morning.

Our Day

This photo of Erin and Jarrod is one of my favourites. Taken climbing back up the side of historical Richmond Bridge in Tasmania, the oldest bridge in Australia. I tried to use colours and an oval effect to match the circular effect of the bridge curving around.

They had been having pictures taken underneath on the grass side walkway.

Used Kaiser Scrapbooking paper in 5 different designs but from same paper pack. Distressed inner oval matting with plinked edge scissors then with a foot buffer, then inked with Versa Mark Pine Cone Ink. Inner scalloped circles cut on Cricut using Cartridge 'Accent Essentials'. Stickles around hearts were done in 'Cinnamon'.

Neglected of Late

I must admit to having neglected my blog of late always seem to have so much to do but am going to try and catch up with some layouts.

Planning our trip to Vietnam, Ireland and America in June. Done as much as I can myself including making very early morning calls to Ireland to make B&B bookings, great fun talking to some wonderful people though even though very time consuming.

Still trying to sort out flight home, at moment we are looking at 26 hours flight time, way too long, but difficult to change with an 'Around World' ticket, hope to sort out tomorrow.

Vintage Style

This is Pg 1 of a double pg spread of the car my daughter arrived in for her wedding. It was a 1956 model Australian Holden, lovingly restored by my brother who proudly drove her to her wedding. The car was in immaculate condition and we all enjoyed the ride in it.

For this layout I used paper from DCWV 'Once upon a time' paper pad. It was already complete with glitter around the flourishes. I used the Cricut to cut the vintage styled frame from miscellaneous paper, also the title. The 'gold' dots were done using 'Liquid Pearls' in gold, this is great to use as it is very easy to control the flow and therefore get quite firm drops of it.

I used the Cricut to cut the leaves, then added miscellaneous flowers and bling.

On the 2nd pg I created a small embellishment using the back of an old brooch. I filled this with Dimensional Magic which I then filled with a mixture of 'sea beads' and popped 3 little crystal beads in the middle, once dried it makes a lovely embellishment.

Always

As always I was waiting for the release of the new Basic Grey lines and wasn' disappointed with the paper I have used in this layout. It was exactly what I was looking for to scrap this picture. Any daughters wedding is special and our daughter and son in law's bridal waltz was just beautiful, so, I wanted that reflected in this layout of my husband and I.

I used the Porcelain line 'Rochelle' to cut all the flowers out using a finger knife, then inked around the edges for definition before adhering with 3D tape. Then mixed in a few smaller blooms and added some Basic Grey rub ons.

Finished it off with the journal tag by Creative Imaginations.

This layout was done using a sketch design from Inspired Blueprints, a fabulous site you should check out their regular sketch ideas.

Scared Stiff

Thought I would try some bright papers for a change and this is the result. Once again I have used the Kaiser Scrapbooking paper family range, about 6 pages all up but by cutting pieces out of various pages I am able to probably get 2-3 more layouts done using this paper in a different combination.

Technique with this one was really just cutting around the different papers, then added a few embellishments to the paper ones. The title was done using the Thickers Foam lettering and the black embellishment down the left side was cut using the Cricut Storybook Cartridge.

Making Memories

I used the Kaiser Scrapbooking paper for this layout. A total of 6 different pages which I cut the various flowers and strips from. The lettering is cut using my Cricut cartridge Plantin Schoolbook. Cut them twice and slightly offset the bottom darker one to give a shadow effect and then covered all lettering with Dimensional Magic to give a glazed effect.

The cut flowers have been adhered with 3D tape. The oval shape on right side with a tag, pulls out and I have journaled on the reverse side of it. The bling down the side was sent to me by one of my lovely friends in America whome I met on the SB.C site.

Love, Live, Laugh

This is a Kaiser Scrapbooking paper design of my great niece and and nephew, just after they'd been in the pool. Love this picture which was taken by my g-niece herself, I thought it was a beautiful soft picture so using Photoshop Elements I feathered around the edge of the picture to soften it even more.

Cut circles from the paper group and 3D them over the circles on the existing tree. Flowers are a mixture of ready made, cut from the paper set, and also centre's cut. Butterfly is by K & Co.

Inspire

My title for this comes simply from this picture which I love of my dd's wedding, it inspired me to put extra effort into this LO to make it as pretty as possible.

I used my Cricut cartridges mainly for this. The title 'Inspire' was cut using 'Home Accents', the scallop circle using 'Storybook with shadow function', and the circle from 'Graphically Speaking with blackout function'. Around the circle I used dimensional magic and sprinkled micro beads over it. The white flourish is from Nicole Lombardo niklindesigns1225.etsy.com thanks Nicole for the beautiful finely cut flourishes you create.
'
I have used 'Stickles' Frosted Ice and Diamond also 'Kindy Glitz' all over the page, including down the lines at regular intervals and on all the little buds, not sure if that will show out but is very obvious IRL. Outlined the swirl on title with 'Stickles Frosted Lace' just to separate it from the lettering a bit. Thanks for looking.

Favourite Layouts