She is so cute...a title and an understatement......

I have so many beautiful pictures of my 3 grandchildren its hard to keep up and I have pretty much given up having time to scrap any of my many trip photos, maybe one day as I know the photos will get fewer as they grow up.  Although with 2 of them living in America my daughter is very good in keeping the photos coming so we can see them as they are growing up.

I have a couple of lovely friends online who not only inspire me but help we with any information they think may help or I ask for, they are Gerry van Gent and Iris Uy Babao (sorry if I spelt that incorrectly Iris).  Gerry has for some time been using just white cardstock for her starting block and with Pan Pastels becoming so popular right now I had to try them, both ladies use these and again I thank them for their inspiration and help.

I've used pink for most of the b/ground but have used a mask (brand unknown) in top left corner with the blue Pastels.  Fussy cut the border from Cup Cake Paper and of course a lot of Prima flowers, stamps and embellishments.  Iron look strip is Dusty Attic and the tiny little white lock is Melissa Frances.

Where has the time gone!!!

The last month and a half seems to have just disappeared, not much scrapping time as I hit the roads and beaches and the treadmill in a crazy effort to trim down to a more healthier weight....and that has meant little or no scrapping, but my mojo is back and I'm more organised with the fitness regime and ready to fire again.  Done a few layouts which I'll load just a couple of and be ready to take off.

Prima has hit the stores

Been up the North of our State for a few days and found an awesome scrap store in a small town.  They took me out the back of the store to their newly unloaded Prima products....boy, talk about gorgeous, I left the store a little poorer but very happy with my bag of goodies, now to get using them.

Been busy busy busy, a few pages created and will share over the weekend, but check this out!!

http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8354ebd2869e2016302ea7f70970dIt's arriving in stores, whoa can't wait to get some of this !!

Family - 3 Generations

Love this picture of little Sofia only a month old, my daughter Erin and myself, to enable the '3 generation' picture.  I remember when I had  Erin's photo taken when she was a little girl, with myself, my mum and my grandmother, she was lucky to have a '4' generation photo, but hope when Sofia grows up she will cherish this photo.

Used the gorgeous Kaisercraft paper range and kept it simple because the photo was so important to me, as much as I love to explore new techniques and the layering and 'pretty' look, I went basic with this.  I think this is ok to do, to me its like doing 'boy' layouts...no way will I put flowers on a boy layout, I just have set ideas about things like this which is why I can't say I have 'a style' of any particular kind..hope you enjoy it.

My First Trip

My daughter Erin and her family flew down to Arizona to have Christmas with her husband's family and while there did a road trip.  Part of that was getting a train into see the Grand Canyon, the train had the usual 'hold up' by cowboys etc and they family loved it.

This was Sofia's first trip and Erin said she travelled really well, this picture was taken on that train trip.

It was the first time I've attempted to use G45 paper, it's always seemed to be in the 'too hard basket' for me, just didn't know what I would do with it.  Well when I saw these gorgeous Pixie line papers I couldn't resist them.

I realised the 'way' was in fussy cutting, something which I enjoy a lot, so this page is full of it, pieces from about 4 different papers on this LO, and it was one of those occasions when I had to go, whoa...enough, hope you like it.

The journaling is actually on the little blue bunny card on the book, I tried to make it part of the book.  And it simply read, My First Trip, and explains it was on the train going to the Grand Canyon...she won't remember of course, but pretty cool place to see at her age...I thought Magical was a good title for that and also for the gorgeous picture of my daughter with Sofia.

My Sweet little Granddaughter Sofia

As I promised I am hoping to keep the layouts coming to my blog.
I couldn't resist this Kaisercraft paper line when I saw it at our LSS, it's so girlie and cute isn't it.

I actually fussy cut the paper circle with the flowers at the top, away from the inner circle and the outside edges. I then used a 2nd piece of paper for the inner circle and a 3rd piece for the squared outer piece. Fussy cutting takes ages and drives you a little crazy at the time but gosh its well worth the effort.

All the embellishments, the little girls, flowers and some of the leaves, are all from the same Kaisercraft paper range. The green chipboard frame is from Dusty Attic...love their stuff, I painted this with Making Memories 'Celery' paint.

PRINCESS

Putting in the Kilometres

Well I'm doing really well in my fitness routine, trying to lose weight and am dieting but eating sensibly, the exercising...well, I know what it means to become addicted to it, am working my butt off literally, did 6 kilometres on the treadmill today but still found time to do a layout. I will be posting that shortly, so hopefully I can keep this blog up to date now. Although, my slideshow I had with all my work on it disappeared when I had trouble with my blog and I doubt I will have time to re do that, hope to get another under way soon.

I'm almost back !!

Well after not updating my blog for some time due to family health problems and a 2 month trip to America to see my daughter and her family, also managed to have a get together with 5 of my American online scrapping friends...now I hope to re jig it a bit and get it going again, may put some of my LO's which have missed out...wow!! so many pictures of grandchildren during that period, some scrapped and heaps not.

My husband has just had an operation in Melbourne for his back so hopefully things will start to look up now.

In November my friend and I went to Melbourne to do Prima classes with the amazing Ingvilde Bolme and Sharon Laakanon. What amazing ideas they have and although doing a class with Ingvilde was the highlight as I've been a long time fan of hers, I must say that Sharon's class was awesome, as you all know I like 'pretty', well Sharon does 'pretty' so well and we made a beautiful canvas mini album.

We were so happy with the classes in Melbourne we both jumped at the opportunity when another of my long time favourite artists was coming to Perth Gerry Van Gent....yes we are going!!! 2 days of classes with her and the other artist while not my style but absolutely amazing in the field of mixed medic is Finnibair (on Scrapbook.com), she is so amazing in her own style that I'm sure there will be heaps we'll take away from the classes so am looking forward to her classes as well.

In the meantime I am just hanging out for all the new Prima goodies to come on the market after there release at the recent CHA in America. Along this line, I have been lucky enough to have a great scrapping friend in America who sat up until Midnight to catch the HSN show which showcased 'We R Memory Keepers' Lucky 8 punches, they sold for that show only at half price and immediate release, they won't be in stores until July....sooo lucky and I now can't wait for them to arrive, these punches cut out the lining up problems that can occur with border work.

Well that's a brief summary of my 'missing in action' time. Whilst catching up on my scrapping is of utmost importance to me I will endeavour to get back into my blog.

Cricut cuts with a difference

Well something different and thinking outside the square when using the Cricut.
Katie wanted the quilt for her new born I was making, to have a jungle theme with the colours that made it look 'jungle like' not pretty with silly coloured animals, so therefore the colours were dictated by that.

I immediately thought of my 'Animal World' cartridge but had never cut fabric on the Cricut before, it did present with a problem because I wasn't confident cutting out the animals with the visoflex (sticky stuff), on the back of it. So I changed my applique method, cut them bigger and allowed a 'tuck under' seam allowance so I rolled the edges under as I did the blanket stitching.

I used a different cartridge for the crocodile but I'm darned if I can remember which cart it was from but it was a few weeks ago that I cut them out and have too many carts to search through at this point, but I will do and update this post later.

Well I'll put the animal pics up and the full quilt and hopefully it will help some of you to have the courage to do something different.

Sorry for the long list but I wanted all the pics on my blog to remember it as I'll now delete the pics from the thousands that I seem to pile up on my computer.

Happiness is....

being able to have time to get online again, gosh after family visiting from America, my other daughter having a baby and a very sick pooch I thought I was never going to get around to scrapping again, then when I started and finally did something, my blogger was locking me out, anyway I'm back online and hopefully my blog will start rolling again now, although I have so much to do as I've just finished a quilt for my newest grandson William (Will) and now my other daughter is having a much wanted baby girl so I finally get to scrap pink and pretty, but also make a beautiful pink baby quilt...so where can I get more hours in the day?

This latest LO is of Bob and I with our Grandson William or Will to most and Billy to some hehehe..
We both love this photo of us with him so thought I would practice pretty again in readiness for the baby girl album to come.

For this page I used Cricut cartridges 'Heritage' for the gate, and 'Cindy Loo' for the scalloped circle with the vines and bird...although I must say I think that cute little bluebird that I thought it was on the screen actually looks more like a 'puffer fish' to me in reality oh well its there to stay. I thought I would use a mixture of Glimmer Mist's on this to make it blend in a little more and the blue bird is also Glimmer Mist with the face stamped on using a 'Peachy Keen' stamp. I also used 'Smooch' white spray for the chipboard working 'Happiness is..' and on the vine down the side I used a gold Glimmer Mist. Both of these chipboard elements along with the tag at the top which reads 'holding onto the things you love'...are from Dusty Attic another great Australian company, love their chipboard die cuts.

The whole lot of everything used on this page comes from one of my fav online stores 'Outback Scrapping' which by the name you can tell is also Australian, they have great monthly kits, you probably get 1 LO and a card or 2 from a kit but they aren't expensive at all so I am happy with that.

Well I am going to endeavour to pop in daily from now on and include more of my life in my blog, of course that life revolves around mainly scrapping anyway, along with a bit of quilting and a lot of my grandchildren so nothing much will change probably from what I'm doing.

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day...

Layouts for the Cricutworld Blog

In trying to clean up Henry's 1st year album I realised I hadn't scrapped his Halloween pics. So went searching and found them thankfully so here they are.

Today....I've used the October 31 cartridge so much I don't think there is a cut on it I didn't use. We don't really celebrate Halloween much here in Australia so I get to enjoy it through my grandson in America. These pictures are of his 1st Halloween, so was more fun for mum and dad than Henry, sure he won't remember much about it but he will at least have these memories in my album...I thought because it is what I call the 'silly season', that I could go a bit over the top with these layouts and had a lot of fun doing them, hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I had fun doing them.

Very Exciting News!!

Had a great phone call from my daughter Erin yesterday from America. She is having her 2nd child in September, whatever it is a little brother for Henry or a little sister, it is going to be very loved and welcomed into the world by my Bob and I as our 3rd grandchild. With Katie's son due in only 4 weeks now...ooohh!! so exciting to have a grandchild here in the same country that we can actually babysit as often as required....to have it followed by another in only a few months after that brings me more happiness than I can put into words. Our beautiful sweet little Henry is going to have lots of instant playmates and can only dream of the years ahead to see them playing together. I feel we are truly blessed to have 2 such beautiful daughters and now to have 3 grandchildren.

Cards

Not much of a card maker but want to improve so keep trying different things. This lot of cards was done in a mad rush to supply some for a fund raising event the following day. Pretty basic but thought I'd put them up anyway, nothing special to explain about any of them other than I have used my Cricut whenever possible.

Like I said, just an example of a few cards done very quickly and easily, made for a fund raiser so didn't want to put too much on them so as they could be kept at a reasonable price to sell.

This one was done for a special person, so a little more time taken with the design and beautiful Christina Rea papers which I love. The embellishments were done using my Cricut and the beautiful 'Paper Lace' cartridge...just love it and will be using it a lot I'm sure.

Been busy scrapping

Well been neglecting my blog again. The reason is I have been making a really big attempt to catch up on my friends galleries and leave the comments they so deserve and I am happy that I have caught up on a lot of them but still have a little way to go.

Then yesterday, after an absence of 7 years my Vertigo Attacks returned, of course I was home alone and stuck downstairs, managed to crawl up so I could get the phone, but didn't need to ring anyone as it eventually came right, think I had been pushing myself too hard the night before making cards for a charity fund raiser. Tonight I was thinking I must have trodden on a toad or something because when I was in the middle of making Sushi for dinner I knocked the bottle of Olive Oil onto the floor in my pantry, along with a few other bottles of things, they smashed of course on the tiles, oil everywhere, can't begin to tell you what a rotten clean up job that was....moral of my day today...do not keep oil on the higher shelves because if you drop it, its going to take some casualties with it. To top that off I was half way through cleaning it up and I hear my dog being ill, yes, on the cream carpet so I had to drop one lot of cleaning products and grab a different kind aarghh!!! like I said..must have trodden on a toad. Poor old Murphy has continued to be ill and I am really worried about him....well time for bed and hopefully a happier and much more healthy pooch in the morning.

Tomorrow means I'm back to adding some scrapping items on here, been holding a few back for my group blog 'Cricutworld'.

An Occasional Card

I'm not big on making my own cards but trying to do a lot more by using my Cricut for inspiration.

This one is for my brother's b'day. He is about to retire and has a long held dream of getting a mobile home (RV I think they are called in USA), but is a bit concerned over whether it is the way to go or not, so thought I would them his card along that line and the words inside basically remind him that life is short and you should follow your dreams.

I used the Cricut Cartridge 'Going Place' for the Van and the cases, the cases represent my sister in-law's excess baggage, she is a bit like me and will find it difficult to only take what a van will hold, I used Tim Holtz bits to represent his 'spare parts' for the trip, and have included the key to the door. The Birthday wish is also cut on the Cricut but have so many carts now I can't remember which one I cut it from I'm sorry, could soon find out if anyone wants to know though. Inside the card is another cut from 'Going Places' cartridge which says Happy Trails in a jumbled format.

With this one I've envisaged my daughter looking out the window at her future. She got married on the balcony of a very old heritage building which has beautiful large leadlight windows. So to create this idea I used the 'Ornamental Iron' cartridge to create that window she is looking through at the picture of her with her husband to be.

I cut the heart shape clear so it would circle her face and appear that she was indeed looking out the window. The window was cute using the 'Gate 10a with the window feature'. The dark green wrought iron cutting beside the photo of Katie and her husband was cut using the 'Gate 6c and the 1/2 frame feature'.

Used 'Ashlyn's Alphabet' cartridge for the Title background, Title and the butterfly below it. I cut this with the cream and also in green using the 'shadow' function for the background.

The vine was cut with a Martha Stewart punch while the small flowers on it were cut using a very old and small, Carl punch. The Floral Border along the top was also cut using a Martha Stewart punch.

Paper used was one of my fav's Basic Grey Capella (chorus sheet). The ribbon along the bottom had wire along the outside edges and I gathered this up.

Thanks for looking.

Cricut World Blog

Quite a few years ago I started submitting my layouts on the 'Scrapbook.com' site and eventually joined a couple of group threads on there. One of those is a Cricut group where we share our work and ideas and get much needed help when needed, I was a late starter in this group as far as getting my Cricut goes because they came to Australia a lot later than they were available in the USA. Have to say I have had so much help from these girls and am happy to be part of the group creating our own blog called 'Cricut World' to help and encourage others to use their cartridges as much as possible.

My first contribution to this blog follows and is based on another of my 'fantasy' ideas I occasionally have.

PRECIOUS little man

This layout is based on a shot I was lucky to get. As everyone would know, it gets harder to get good pictures of our babies as they become toddlers, so I was very happy with this sweet picture

I used an old technique on this layout that I haven't done for years. That is creating a stamp using bubble wrap. What I did was paint the black Making Memories paint on to a piece of Foil. Then I gently pressed the bubble wrap over that, by doing it this way rather than painting directly on to the bubble wrap, it is more like stamping and you avoid getting blodges of paint on your layout, and get more of a distressed look.

I used the 'Birthday Bash' cartridge for the font and also used the 'shadow' effect. This is a really cute cartridge that I would recommend especially for anyone with young children's layout's to do.