House of scraps

Beautiful Spring

2008-09-04T20:55:00.006+10:00

Spring definitely started beautiful this year. 2 Gorgeous days to start of this gorgeous season!

It has been overcast the last 2 days though but I love Spring so much! I decided to make a spring album with some random "Days of spring" photo's. I saw on some girls' blogs"Days of summer" photo's. I really like that idea but my fave. season here is spring so thought it would be great to do a spring one. The kids are finally getting over their colds... hope that they will be the last colds for this year!!

I just can't believe how much the kiddies have grown lately!! Chris has gotten so tall and is such a teenager now and the girls are definitely not babies anymore. It's nice the they are growing up, becoming more independent (well as far as toddlers are independent... LOL) and are turning into little girls but I do miss them being babies too.

Today it really hit me how much they have changed. Instead of having to chase after them while doing the grocery shopping they were helping me putting the things in the trolley (adding a few bits and pieces here and there...), holding onto the trolley in the card park... very nice indeed!!

Anyway...

This weekend(starting tonight) is the "Spice it up" CC at Crafting in Style. Liz her sketch challenge and Karen her OTP challenge are already up!! Very nice, go and have a look!! While you're there also have a look at the challenge area and go to "Ready, Steady, Scrap! A gorgeous new competition that stared this week. !st LO is due by Sunday so go on and have a look and join in the fun!!

Speaking of Liz her sketches. These are the LO's I did for the Stylish Sketch blog :)

My sweet boss Chelsea at ScrapBoutique sent us these gorgeous papers. I received some lovely "Static" Crate paper and created this LO with it. I had a chat with the other stylists for a title for this LO... Old Man Rock was one of the suggestions... needless to say that Allan wasn't impressed with that one LOL. Most of the patterned papers are 20 % of this week but the new crate patterned paper is a massive 25% off!!!. While you're at ScrapBoutique shopping also have a look at all the cardstock which is 15% off this week!!! Awesome deals and a great way to stock up on some gorgeous papers!!

Chels also sent me some of this gorgeous Pink Paislee "Vintage Moon" patterned paper. Such gorgeous paper, love it!! This is my LO with it.

Liz had one of her gorgeous sketch challenges up at the CC at ScrapBoutique last weekend. This was my LO for it. Lucy is such a strong little girl!

At the CC I did the Blind Challenge and I created this LO for it. I made the LO for my sweet friend Liz.

I made a little mini album about Lucy her 1st birthday for Craft Online this month. This is the front cover. If you want to see the rest you have to go and have a look at the gallery on their site

Something non scrapping... I found this site Aussie farmers direct. It's such a great idea. You can get a box full of vegies and fruit straight from the farmers to your door. Every week you get a different box of goodies. Now, there's plenty of people that get a box delivered in NSW, QLD etc. But it's not available yet in Canberra (or Tassie). They need to have more interest in it for them to be able to start it up here. If you are interested (and who wouldn't be!!!) send them an email!!!!! When I lived in Holland we always received a box of fresh fruit and vegies straight from the farmers and let me tell you, it's awesome!!!! You get the freshest produce and the farmers get a decent prize for their products (instead of us giving the money to woolies or coles).

So click here and let's try to get it started in Canberra too!!!!!!!

That's it for now!! Enjoy spring :)

Happy scrapping!

The fabulous forties.....

2008-08-28T23:23:00.002+10:00

Yes this year it's my turn to turn 40... aarrrgghhhh...

But I'm not alone!! Liz, Nat and Charmaine are turning 40 as well. To celebrate this fabulous event we are celebrating it with a Cybercrop to remember at ScrapBoutique.

The cybercrop kicks of on Friday night at 7.30 with challenges, games, prizes and loads of fun!!

On Sunday evening I'm going to do the Blind challenge. I hope you'll join me at 8.30 for some scrappy fun and a chat!!

Hope to see you there!!!

Happy scrapping!!

Brilliante weblog

2008-08-22T13:07:00.005+10:00

The lovely Miranda (saffiertje)has awarded me a blog award, so sweet!! The funny thing is that she is from my hometown in Holland called Emmen. She moved there after I had left so we have never met. It's lovely to know a scrapper from my former hometown though and I always try to find pictures of Emmen on her LO's or the photo's on her blog.

Soooo I have to pass the award on!

Oh my... that is not easy!! So many lovely bloggers/scrapbookers out there!

The first one is too easy as it is for my sweet friend Liz!! She is an awesome scrapbooker, creates gorgeous sketches and is a lovely person. She is just been chosen to be a designer on a Canadian site. Go to her site and have a look!!

The second one goes to the lovely Kate M. She is an awesome scrapper and is my co stylist (just like Liz) at the scrap boutique. It's so lovely getting to know her better, she is gorgeous!!

Next one is for Bek Vavic. What can I say, she is a great artist, love what she does (and she's a great blogger too!!!). She's a fellow Canberran but we've only met once... not enough!!!

Then Karen. She's one of the gorgeous DT's at Crafting in Style (together with Liz).

I love her style, her support and the fact that she is an awesome girl!

Last but definitely NOT least is the gorgeous Krissy!! She's a fellow Stylish sketch blog design sister. She creates gorgeous lay outs and has a way with flowers, just awesome!! She is also a lovely lovely girl!! Wish I could meet her IRL!!

There are heaps more out there that I would like to award this award to but these girls are my favourites.

So what else has happened scrappy wise??

Chels from ScrapBoutique send me these gorgeous Rose Moka papers to have a play with. Those papers are just so awesome!! Lovely rich colours, good size paper weight, just gorgeous!! This is what I made with them.

I also took part in a Chinese Whispers challenge at the boutique and this is my version of the LO>

This Lo is the one I created for my first challenge at Scrap Boutique.

This weeks sketch at the Stylish sketch blog is a lovely layered one made by Liz. This is what I did with it.

Speaking of Crafting In Style. We are cooking up a gorgeous competition that is starting very soon. Go and have a look and join in. It's going to be so much fun!! Click here to have a look at what's coming :)

My mum and Evert are busy renovating their house and are staying at a camping for the time being which means we can't talk on the phone :(

So, in case you are reading this at work, I just want to say hello to my mum and big hugs and kisses to you and Evert. Mwah, love you!!

Happy scrapping :)

Boutique Stylist Challenge

2008-08-03T22:24:00.003+10:00

My first challenge for ScrapBoutique is up.

Go and have a look here and I'd love you to join in!!!

We all had a lovely weekend. Allan went to the Bay with his friend to spend some time near the ocean. They had a great time!!

The kids and I went to a birthday party from one of their little friends, we had breakfast at Brand depot and spend some time at the Black Mountain Peninsula.

We had not been there for more than 2 years. The last time I took Chris and Ruby there was when I was pregant with Lucy. Good thing we went again as it was lovely and they all had a great time. Next time we'll bring a picnic too!

I have to say a belated happy birthday to my little Big brother who turned 38 last week!!

Happy birthday Jeroen!!!!!

Your pressie is on it's way!!

Just wanted to say thank you to all the lovely girls who congratulated me on my DT spot at Scrapboutique, mwah, thank you so much!!!!

That's all for today, back to do some more scrapping for the CC at Scrapboutique :)

Happy scrapping!

The new stylist :)

2008-08-01T11:05:00.003+10:00

Woohoo.... guess what!!!
Chels from Scrapboutique has asked me to be the new stylist for ScrapBoutique!! It's such an honour, I totally love this site, love the girls that are part of the community and it has such an awesome team (*waves* hi Chels, Kate and Liz).
I've really wanted to be on a DT with my sweet friend Liz and now we are, woohoo!!!!!!

This week, (it started yesterday.. will go on till next week thursday) the celebration CC started.
Come and join in the awesome challenges the girls have come up with!!!

Hope to see you there!!

Happy scrapping :)

Rachel Greig at ACTSA

2008-07-30T19:53:00.007+10:00

The ACT stamping Artist stamp camp was so much fun!!

Our guest teacher for the weekend was Rachel Greig. Oh she is just so gorgeous!! We had fun with dimensional pearls, alcohol inks, bottle caps and accents. I didn't go with anyone else so it was nice to meet some new people. It was a great weekend and if you ever get the chance to do a workshop with Rachel, please do it, you won't regret it!!! I've asked her if she did any photography workshops and she said that quite a few other people had asked her about that so who knows!!!

Here's Rachel and me...

Just a little sneak peek of some of the things we made. Not everything is on here as my bottle caps were stacked nicely by my sweet Lucy when they were still wet so they didn't turn out too well and the girls claimed a few of the cards we made.... LOL

The scrap olympics at ScrapBoutique have come to an end. It was so much fun. Tomorrow night we have the closing ceremony and the start of the celebration CC!!! Come along and join us in a week of fun. Yes it's on for a week with lots of challenges, am so looking forward to that!!

Here are some more of the LO's I did for the olympics :)

This one was for the stash stompers challenge at ScrapBoutique. I so much love this pic of Lucy. She was sitting across the table from me eating her brekky when the light was so lovely on her little face and her eyes looked amazing so I took my camera and took this piccie. If you have a look at the LO down at the bottom and look at Lucy there you can see the face she pulled after this angelic look LOL.

Tomorrow the new sketch will be up at The Stylish Sketch Blog, this is my take on the sketch. And... have you entered your LO for the monthly sketch??? Go on... just a little more time to do it, there a gorgeous prize up for grabs!!

Did you check out Lucy's funny face on this one?? LOL Speaking of photography. I really want tolearn some (a whole lot) more about my camera and want to learn about all the buttons, aperture etc on my lovely camera. I really should take the time to learn about it, I don't have this kinda camera for nothing I think. So I got a book from the library (dslr for dummies... hehe) and Rachel gave me a name of an Author as well. If you have any good ideas or titles please let me know!!

Happy scrapping!!!

The (scrap) olympics

2008-07-22T10:35:00.005+10:00

We're still going strong at the scrap olympics at Scrap boutique. I am loving the challenges. It's already the last week!! Here's what we've done the last weeks.

A card using one of Liz her sketches

A LO where one photo had to stand out with quite a bit of journalling. It's about my Oma and how she never got to see her granddaughter and how I created a picture in photoshop with the 4 of us in it (Oma, Mum, Ruby and me).

This LO was using another one of Liz her sketches.

The LO for last week, we had to use lots of layering and dimension. I am so happy with this one :)
The monthly challenge creating a birthday LO. Well plenty of birthday photo's still to be scrapped so I made this one about Ruby her 4th birthday.

This LO was created for the Blumars Weekend workshop in July. The title had to be havin' fun. here's Lucy having fun at the "botanical gardens" when my mum and my brother were here.

This one is for my Forever always forever family album that we are making at Forever always. The challenge was to use a family photo and include journalling, 5 things you like about each person. Love this one :)

This last one was for the July CC at forever Always.

Life is back to normal. Chris is back at school. His toe is great. He took the half cast off as it was causing him more discomfort than his toe. He's running again etc. so it's all good. Thanks you so much for the well wishes for him!

I'll be going to the ACTSA stamp camp on the weekend where Rachel Greig will be giving workshops. I'm so excited about it. I have to make 42 ATC,s and have just started so I guess I will be quite busy with that!

It's such a lovely day today, I might take the girls for a walk to the ponds and look at the baby swans, so cute!!

Happy scrapping!!

woohoo woohoo woohoo

2008-07-12T21:03:00.006+10:00

Guess what...

Maria from Blumars has asked me to be on the design team!!!!!!!!!!

It was such a lovely surprise! It's a lovely site with lovely girls so am really looking forward to working with the other girls on the team.

This weekend we have a weekend workshop (like a CC) at Blumars with 3 challenges.

Go and have a look and send your photo's of your work to Maria!!

I have some other exciting news but am not sure if I am allowed to tell you all already so I will have to ask first :)

My poor Chris broke his big toe. He was playing with Ruby and Lucy and accidentally kicked the couch. I spend the day in the ER with him today. It was only a small break so the doctor gave him a half cast just to support his toe. I think he actually likes having the cast as now i am serving him his drinks etc. and he gets lots of attention, bless him. He's such a lovely kid though and doesn't complain at all, I'm so lucky to have him!

We went to playgroup yesterday. For the first time since ages. The girls had so much fun seeing all their friends again. Ruby wanted to invite one of the girls over for afternoon tea as soon as we left, too cute!

I haven't been taking so many photo's lately. Just some of the girls in the bath the other day. They love to lie down in the bath so that the only thing still above the water are their eyes and noses, so funny. I made a LO with some of the pics for the CIS sketch blog.

Did you have a go at the monthly sketch yet??? Go on... You know you want to... LOL.

Here's the LO for this week.

Some other LO's from this week.
This one was for the recipe scrap at Forever Always. It's on every Thursday night. This week my friend Michelle and I did our LO's together, was good fun!! Both our LO's look so different even though we follwed the same recipe :)

Sketch challenge

family album

This is for the scrap olympics at Scrapboutique, do you like my medal??

LO week 1

I'd better get back to my scrap table as I have quite a few more things to scrap.

Happy scrapping :)

Blumars

2008-07-01T16:09:00.005+10:00

What a rainy cold day today here in Canberra. A perfect day for craft (finger painting, cutting, tearing and pasting.. almost scrapbooking :) ) and biccies making. The girls and I made some yummie date and oats biscuits. Gorgeous.

I've done so much scrapping lately, just lovely!!

Been taking part in challenges and DT competitions.

I have just entered all my 4 entries to the Blumars DT challenge. We'll hear by the end of the week, hopefully, who is the lucky girl. Or I should say lucky girls as the lovely Maria is looking for 3 girls to add to the Design team. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

Here are all my entries.

I am also taking part in a challenge at 123 scrapbooks and these are my entries so far. I so much love the LO, it came together really quick (well for me anyway) and it all fell into place.

On Thursday my sketch will be the monthly sketch for Crafting in Style Stylish Sketch blog. Ally always has a lovely prize to give away but you can also win a month long GDT at our sketch blog. How cool is that. I hope you all are going to check it out and take part. But wait till Thursday for the new sketch. (a little hint.. you'll need wallet size piccies).

This was my take on last weeks gorgeous sketch. I am so happy with how this one turned out. I really need to do some more LO's of the kids when they were wee bubs so I made a start.

I can't somehow not turn the pic today.. but you get what I mean :)
On Saturday I went to ACTSA and was so so lucky that someone pulled out of stamp camp in July so now I can participate and do 3 classes with Rachel Greig. Can't wait :)

Last weekend both Allan and I had work dinners at different turkish restaurants, I had such a lovely time on mine. It was nice to hang out with my colleagues out of work and just chat and have a lovely dinner.

When Allan had his dinner the kids and I had nice pancakes for dinner with ice cream for desert, I love doing simple fun stuff with the kids.

The next day we didn't have to cook either as we had dinner at our friends. Lovely home made sausage, yum!! I love have dinners with more people, so much fun!!

We are all slowly getting over our bugs.... not totally over it but we're getting there... slowly! Thanks for all your well wishes and thank you to the lovely people always leaving such nice comments, I really appreciate it!!

Happy scrapping!!

Scrap Boutique

2008-06-27T23:32:00.002+10:00

Look at what is happening at the boutique :)

Fancy winning a Gold Medal and some Great Prizes? Plus a place as our third and final Boutique Stylist is also up for grabs!! Here’s how you can win!!

Registrations are NOW OPEN for our new MAJOR comp… The 2008 ScrapOlympics The competition will start with the Opening Ceremony on Fri July 4 and run for 3 ½ weeks. July is an excellent month to get yourself involved at ScrapBoutique!

It’s our First Birthday Celebration month, and that means there are stacks of fun activities and challenges to get your mojo flowing in a big way!! Plus, our Big Celebration Cybercrop is coming up at the end of the month!
Here’s the Deal…. This comp is not just based on scrapping ability!! Points will be allocated for a variety of things, and will go towards your final Medal Tally…
Points System - 20 points – for completing each week’s ScrapOlympic Challenge.
Plus 20 Bonus Points if you complete ALL 4 Challenges.
Top 3 Voted entries each week will receive 10, 5 and 2 points respectively.
Weekly winner will receive a small prize pack from the Boutique.
10 points – For completing any other official ScrapBoutique Competitions or Challenges (during the competition)
5 points for every $20 you spend in the boutique (you will need to enter your comp id in the comments box)
2 points – for every 10 posts you make in the Forum.
There will also be Spot Bonus Points items throughout the competition….so keep your eyes open!
The Weekly Medal Tally will be displayed for the first 2 weeks only, then it will go into hiding until the medals are awarded at the closing ceremony.
The Prizes – Gold Medallist - $100 ScrapBoutique Gift Voucher
Silver Medallist - $40 ScrapBoutique Gift Voucher
Bronze Medallist - $20 ScrapBoutique Gift Voucher

What you need to do…. -Register your interest in the Registration Thread. -Choose which country you will be representing at the ScrapOlympics. Get in quick, because each country can only be represented by One person! -
ON the FIRST DAY of the comp – you need to see the “list of countries” and enter your current forum post tally, so that I can keep track of them during the comp. -

Get ready for a fun, scrappy time of Olympic proportions!!!

Note – The winner of the Boutique Stylist position will not necessarily be the Gold Medallist. This position will be judged by myself and the current stylists on the quality of your entries, plus your overall participation in the ScrapBoutique community

Well how does that sounds, fun huh!! Come and join in!!!!

Check it out here

2008-06-20T11:55:00.005+10:00

First of all... no I didn't get in :(

Talking about mystical scrapbooks, am a bit disappointed but oh well, I'm sure something will come along eventually. Am busy trying for a few other ones so who knows hey! Yes I really would love to be on a Design Team. I am on the CIS sketch blog DT and love that but would love to add a "real" DT to that.

Anyway, what have we been up to? Not much out of the ordinary, playdates with friends (the girls and me as well :) ), dinner with friends, work, scrapping, date with DS Chris.

Chris and I went shopping together and the plan was that we were going out for dinner as well but he already had something to eat before so we didn't. We did go to the movies though. He really wanted to see Narnia.. . I really didn't. But "Narnia" and "Sex and the City" started at the same time so we both went to a movie we really enjoyed and could talk about it afterwards. I felt a bit bad about not going with him but he knew some kids there so it was all good. I so much loved the movie, if you haven't been you really should!!

Oh and guess what. Jol, Allan his niece her husband, who always organises "The Boot", the annual cricket game where Allan ruptured his achiles... he ruptured his Achiles as well, playing basketball. The poor guy!! I don't think he reads this but if you do (gotta do something with all that spare time.. hehe) Jol, hope you feel better very soon, mate!!

My mum brought some books over from Holland for me. I have been trying to read slowly so they'll last me a little longer. She gave me "De vliegeraar" (original title "the kite runner") written by Khaled Hosseini (I read his "a thousand splendid suns" before and totally loved it). Also she gave me a book called "schaduw op het zand (original tital is "Mirage") by Soheir Khashoggi (am reading that at the moment.. great book), a book by Marianne Fredriksson (saving that one for last) and IJsval (original title "Ice Trap") by Kitty Sewell. I already finished the last book and loved it so much. A real must read I reckon!! Aall 4 books are in Dutch and it's nice to read in my native language again as I don't do that very often.

Scrapping wise I've done some work for the sketch blog.

The forever always recipe scrap (so much fun... it's on every Thursday night.)

Blumars weekend workshop.

And the CIS cybercrop.

The first LO for the sketch blog features the cute Sabrina. She is the daughter of my sweet friend Liz. She has been doing so amazing this year!! 3 DT plus she is the head sketchie for the CIS sketch blog!! How totally awesome is that! And to top it of she is a wonderful and very special woman. She and the lovely Jolene have just got themselves a job at a scrapshop in Brisbane. Liz will be doing the Saturday shift and Jolene the weekdays. If you live in Brisbane, go and visit them and tell them I said hi :)

ps. I just received my prize for aussie scrapjack from Bella. I expected a little pack but it is huge!!!! A big pack of PP, flowers, 3 packets of brads, 2 big packets of chip shapes, 3 12 x 12 sheets of chip shapes, 4 sheets of chip tags and words, chip alpha's, pack with ribbons, chip borders.... OMG, how wonderful!!

Guess what I'll be doing this afternoon and weekend... :)

Happy scrapping!

Fingers crossed...

2008-06-08T11:20:00.005+10:00

It seems like we're taking turns in being sick. Ruby started then Chris had a fun night on and near the toilet and now I am not feeling too fantastic. Not as bad as Chris and Ruby but bad enough not wanting to eat (which could be a good thing of course LOL).

No news about mystical yet... Can't wait to hear who the new DT is but am dreading it a bit too as I put a lot of work into it and don't want to be disappointed. But I guess all 10 finalists feel that way, they are all awesome!!

Here are my entries from the last weeks

The first 2 were for the last week. Karen sent us all a small DT pack with 3 flowers, some buttons and 3 sheets of paper so that she could see what we could do with it. This is what I did with it.

The week before we had to "design" a cybercrop. Think of a theme, set the 3 LO and 1 card challenges and make examples for all of them. We can't reveal the theme yet just in case we get chosen and get the chance to do the CC. Here are my entries for the CC.

We also had the opportunity to design an OTP class. All I can say is here is a sneak peek... LOL

Last weekend I took part in the CC at scrapboutique. I only managed to do the speedscrap but fortunately it worked out well and the other girls liked it too so I won with it, woohoo.

I almost forgot. I submitted a LO for Aussie Scrapjack the other month where we had to jack a LO from Nic Howard. I love Nic, so really enjoyed this challenge and woohoo, I am one of the winners :). You can find the LO somewhere if you scroll down, it's Lucy at the boot havind fun.

Speaking of the boot... my DH had to wear a special boot (we thought that was quite funny) the last 2 weeks. Now he is just wearing shoes again with an insert and has to do exercises everyday. He says it's quite painfull and his leg still has a long way to go. But he'll get there, thanks for the well wishes!!

Of course I have been making some more LO's for the CIS stylish sketch blog. This is the entry for this week. It's a sketch by Krissy. This sketch is also the sketch comp for this month. Not only can you win a gorgeous prize but you'll also have the chance to be a Guest Design Team member for a month. So give it a go.

This Lo was for the sketch blog last week. It's an older pic of Ruby. She just loves sand, can play in it for hours, especially if there is water involved as well. So cute!!

Suppose that's it for now.. will let you know if I hear something about the Mystical Competition... keep your fingers crossed for me!!!!!

Happy scrapping :)

Too quick

2008-05-27T15:01:00.005+10:00

These last few weeks have gone way too quickly!! It feels as if my mum and brother only arrived the other day but they have already left again! They have gone to Sydney for a few days before heading back to Holland. It was lovely to have them here. I suppose my mum has made up for the times she can't be with her grandkids. She has been playing with them heaps and they loved it of course! So now we are going back to our normal day to day life.

My gorgeous Ruby turned 4 last week! We had a party the weekend before her birthday so that megan, Drew and Melissa could come over as well. It had been a long time since all the kids were together! It was a lovely day. There were about 35 people in total at our place, the party started at 12 and the last people left just after 5.

We were so lucky that a friend of mine, Anita, painted all the kids their faces. She did such a fantastic job!! Here's the brithday girls in her butterfly glory :)

When my mum and brother were here I had plenty of opportunities to take some pictures. I made a LO about my bro for the CIS sketch blog. I used the little scrappers pack for it that is available in the shop, the lovely Liz gave one to every sketch DT member!!

This is the LO for this weeks sketch. If you take part in the sketch blog monthly competition you have the chance of becoming a guestdesigner for a month!!

At CIS we're having a cinema competition. The first week the genre was comedy. I choose the title "the burbs". Lucy is doing these fake burbs lately. I think she got it from the tot from the fairies.. Anyway here is a LO with Lucy doing her burbs and Ruby not being too impressed :)

Last week the genre was romance. I picked the title the sweetest thing. I had these pics for quite some time now so it was about time I did something with them. I suppose the love affair with chocolate starts here LOL

I started on the scraploot DT competition but pulled out as it was just too busy with my mum and brother being here and having enough time to do all the challenges. This is the card I made for the first and only challenge that I took part in. I am very happy with the card though.

Something I am so excited about is the fact that I am in the top ten of Mystical scrapbooks DT Masters competition! Woohoo!! Here are some of my entries.
The first one was to scrap an 8.5 x 11 LO, monochromatic. I love the little jeans pocket with flowers.

This LO had to be based on journalling... I couldn't get any more journalling on this LO if I wanted to.. I doodled on this LO with a versamark pen and heat embossed it. Never used then pen before bit really love it!This one was for last week. We had to use a size that is so different from the "standard" size and scrap about our scrap journey towards the DT. I was a bit nervous about doing this one but am very happy with how it turned out.

The last one was the hardest (for me anyway) as it had to be typically your style. I do like to vary my style and like to try new things so I really had to think about this one. But I suppose I do love scallops, doodling and funky colours so this is what I came up with. Thank you all so much for your votes!! I am busy working on this weeks challenge. Organising a CC, Theme, challenges and example LO's, fun!!

Suppose this is it for now. I'll try to update a bit sooner instead of having a LO overload.

Very mystical...

2008-05-08T16:34:00.009+10:00

Very mystical indeed... been busy with the Mystical Scrapbooks Design Team masters. We're in week 2 now. This week we had to do a "tutorial" with a technique. Have a look at mine:)

http://www.mysticalscrapbooks.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=2433&p=36498#p36498

The first week we had to create a LO using a sketch from Susan, create a sketch and make a LO using that sketch.

This is the LO I created with Susan's sketch. It's Ruby when she was a little one..

This is the sketch I created

Blogger doesn't let me add the LO I did for that sketch.. it turns it for some reason .. will add that later. You can see it at the mystical gallery if you are really desperate LOL

http://www.mysticalscrapbooks.com.au/photos/showgallery.php?cat=578&page=2

my nickname there is rubylulu...

For this weeks LO I had to use my flowers, so here is the LO

The shadows are too harsh.. suppose I didn't take the pic at the right time..

The LO's I did for the mystical CC last weekend are also not coming up the right way around so I'll add them in later as well...

At mystical I was also challenged to do a predominantly red LO, with no flowers and a handmade transparency. Well no flowers automatically leads to a "chris" LO.. The transparency is the stop sign on his hand.

I made this LO about Lucrecia and Ruby. In November they had such a gorgeous coversation together and I still hadn't scrapped it. Funny thing is that Lucrecia and I scrapped it almost at the same time, love what she did as well.

This LO was for the sketch challenge at the CC at Forever and Always, just love this cutie pic of Chris and Lucy.

For the sketch blog I created my very first digital LO. I just wanted to have a go at it.. it was fun but I do prefer my paper and glue. I do although really like hybrid.. but have to learn more about that!!

This is the LO for the sketchblog from this week.

With pictures of Chris and my mum. Speaking of them. They, my mum and my brother, arrived last week on Wednesday night. I mangaged to stay awake LOL and picked them up at 11.30.

It was so lovely to see them again. I had forgotten how tall my brother is!!

We have been taking it easy with doing some shopping and going for some nice walks. My mum, Jeroen (my brother) and Chris have gone to Kiama for a week. Looks like they are having a great time!! Wish we could have gone too but with Allan his leg in plaster it wouldn't be very handy.

Tonight the CC at CIS starts.. hope to see many of you there :)

Happy scrapping!!

Forever and Always...

2008-04-20T11:35:00.004+10:00

Just a quick update..
First of all.. big hugs to my friend Lucrecia who brought over this gorgeous dinner on Thursday night!! You are such a lovely dear friend, love you girl!!

I have been participating in the Forever and Always Cybercrop and I'm loving it. Lovely girls and great challenges!! The first LO I did ( on Friday night) was challenge 2. The criteria was to think of a box of chocolates.. (not that hard lol) so a white, brown or black background, clean lines with lots of squares and bling (the shiny wrappers). I don't do too many clean lines and squares so this was a nice challenge for me... This is what I did.

Then last night (Saturday) I participated in the "recipe for scrapping" challenge. Sonia gave us the ingredients and the recipe on how to do the LO, but no pictures so it was sometimes a bit of a guess what she menat.. which was good. So I ended up with this LO (I added a few personal touches like every one else did).

While I was scrapping I also had a lovely online chat to my friend Liz. Always nice to catch up!

Last night Allan's friend Darrin came over with his girls for dinner (and the footy) and I made this maroccan chicken dish from Stephanie Aleanders "the cooks companion" cookbook. It was just delicious!! I borrowed the book from the library but am very tempted to buy it somewhere. It's such a big book with loads of recipes, very good!!

I might look for some recipes with zucchini as my little gardener harvested this big zucchini :)

I often have a look where the people come from that read my blog and am so happy to see that they come from literally all over the world!! I would love you all to say hello!! :)

Hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Happy scrapping!

Scarlet Lime Kits

2008-04-17T08:35:00.003+10:00

I just couldn't believe these hackers last week and into this week. These hackers that target scrapbooking sites... Really, don't they have anything better to do with their time.. they should try scrapbooking LOL.
The weekend before last (when Allan ruptured his achilles) I spent a little bit of time at this new wonderful site that I discovered called "Mystical Scrapbooks". They had a CC on and I love a challenge but I managed to do only the one LO. It was a sketch challenge. Lucky me as the girls voted my LO as the winner for the sketch challenge!! Yay :)

It was a shame though that those hackers kept disturbing the site and deleting threads in the forum, stuffing up the gallery etc. Very annoying. They also payed some visits to Crafting in Style, did the same things overthere!! Luckily the server handled it really well and,fingers crossed, they won't bother again!!
Ally has ordered Scarlet Lime kits and I was lucky enough to order one of them. Ally ordered 10 and they are all sold out. I can't wait for it to arrive!! If you are interested in them as well please let Ally know as she is thinking of making it a subscription kit. Have a look in the forum and sign up!!

The new sketch will be up in the forum today. It was a sketch by Liz, a lovely sketch. Here is my LO for the sketch.
It has a picture of 2 Rubies on it. Ash and Tracy's little girl is called Ruby as well and our Ruby thinks it's pretty cool!!
I hadn't showed you the LO for the sketch challenge for last week. It's a sketch made by Ally. The LO is about Ruby and Harper at the blowhole in Kiama.

I haven't even showed the LO for the monthly sketch challenge!! If you haven't done so already please have a go and win that gorgeous BG stamp set. The prizes are so good all the time!! Shame I can't enter. This LO is Lucy having fun in the garden.

And a bit of detail...

A LO for the Crafting in Style CC that was on last weekend. I used some piccies that my mum emailed me. She just loooooves walking and walks about 3 times a week. Not strolls but 25 Km walks with those sticks (don't know if you've ever seen them but they seem pretty popular in Holland, maybe other countries as well but I haven't seen anyone with them here as yet). On one of her walks nature had a very icy look to it. I loved these pictures so decided to use that for a LO. Something different.

Last but not least. A LO for Aussie scrapjack. It's a jack of a LO from Nic Howard. Just love what she does!! It's Lucy at "The Boot" where she was having so much fun playing with friends!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the LO's. I'd better do something fun with the kiddies today as I had to work 2 days in a row.

Happy scrapping!!

The Boot 2008

2008-04-07T11:35:00.003+10:00

Saturday we went to the annual "The Boot". It's about an hour drive from Canberra to the property of Allan's Niece her family. I always enjoy going there so much. This year it was going to be my job to organise the games for the kids so we had all the eggs boiled, sacks out, stockings ready etc for the games. But they didn't happen.... and this is why....

The main focus of "The Boot" is the cricket game. Jol has a team and his friend Matt has a team. Allan has been playing in Jol's team and this year his friend darrin played as well. Allan was openings batman together with Darrin and they did great! Darrin got out after a little while but Allan stayed the full 30 runs (the max. that you can get in this game). He was all happy as you can imagine. I was so pleased for him!! After morning tea he was one of the umpires.

When their team had finished playing we had lunch and after lunch it was Mat's team to bat. Allan was fielding and after a little while, I was just going to do the games with the kids, I heard someone calling.. man down... I was sure it wouldn't be Allan.. but when I looked I realised it was him...

He was in quite a bit of pain and we carried him to the sideline. He and Matt said they heard a snapping sound, like a whip... not good!!

So after some cooling and a bandage we drove back to the city. Normally Allan always wants to drive on the highways and dirt roads but today he had to surrender to my driving skills LOL. He was quite surprised that it wasn't that bad after all..

Anyway we went to the ER and stayed there for 6 (!) hours with the girls. After he was seen and put in plaster we went home again. The doctor was quite sure it was his achiles. So the next day we had an appointment in another hospital, waited another 4 hours (with the girls again!!) and then he was admitted. 2 Hours later he was in the operating room!! I was quite shocked how quick that was organised!!

So now he's still in hospital and I'll have to go and pick him up in half an hour. He's still in quite a lot of pain, the poor darling. As you can imagine I didn't get any scrapping done..

I did however take a pic of Al after his fall... people laughed when I did... can't miss that photo opportunity hey!!

So here are the pics of the day. Allan playing and being happy.. and later on in pain. And the girls having a ball!!

Hope you all had a better ending to your weekend than we had!!

Happy scrapping

Earth Hour

2008-03-29T15:02:00.004+11:00

Tonight is earth hour. As the girls will be in bed then (it's at 8 pm) I'll play some games by candlelight with Chris then. Should be fun!! Allan and his mates will be at the Raiders vs Dragons game where they will dim the lights for an hour. Bet that will be pretty special!!
Have a look here to join in Earth Hour.

Before and after earth hour I'll be chatting and scrapping with the girls at CIS, hope you'll be there too!!

Last weekend the kids had an egg hunt. I had bought some eggs and a bunny each but then we won a raffle (more eggs) and Drew and Megan gave the kids eggs and bunnies as well... so we (they) ended up with loads of chocolates!! Not that they complained though. They loooved it!! Lucy started to eat the eggs as soon as she found one. She was so excited to find the eggs. Ruby was running around trying to find them all and was just loving the whole hunt. Chris controlled (LOL) himself and only "found" a few for the girls sake. He still loves the hunt too though!

Here's the kiddies during their hunt..

I suppose this pic shows why I don't scrap as many pics of Chris as I do of the girls.. but then again I guess that most teenagers are not that willing to pose for all the paparazzi mums out there :)

This is my LO for the CIS sketch blog this week. It's about my mum with Lucy when she was only a few days old. It won't be long and my mum and brother Jeroen will be over here. They will be here for the month of May. We're all looking forward to see them again. Especially the girls can't wait to see their Oma again and to go to the park with her, draw, paint and read stories with her. They are missing out on their oma the rest of the year so I bet they are going to make up for the times they miss out on her. That my brother is coming over will be a lovely bonus for them.
Lucy has never met her Uncle and Ruby was only a baby the last time she saw him. They are going to have so much fun!!

Next weekend will be going to "the Boot". It's an annual cricket event at Allan's niece her hubby's families farm in the bush. We've been there 3 times before and love going there. This year Darrin, Michelle and their kids will be there as well. So much looking forward to it!! Woohoo

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy scrapping.

Wedding etc.

2008-03-17T11:36:00.005+11:00

Had a busy but fun weekend(s). First last weekend I went to a hensnight. My first ever and of course.. I forgot my camera. Didn't matter. We had a fun relaxing night. First some dinner at the light house and then bowling. I am so bad at bowling, really rerally bad.. might need the ramps. But I had fun though.

This weekend we had to go to the wedding. We took the kids with us to the ceremony and our friends looked after them at night.

We had a great time. We had a really lovely group of people at our table so had lots of fun chatting and catching up with people.

On Sunday Lucrecia and went to a scrap day at CSIRO organised by Memory bugs where I finally met the beautiful Bek Vavic!! She is so lovely!! I was very happy to meet her. I did feel a bit worse for wear after the wedding but it still was a good day!

I even did 3 simple LO's. I just finished them this morning.

Ok here we go.. LO share :)

The first one is for Aussie scrapjack. A lift from Suz Doyle

This one is a LO created with a sketch from Ali Edwards at Mojo

This one is a sketch by a Dutch lady named Corinne. It's for the pencillines site. There's a bit of a story with this one. About 2 weeks ago I went to the movies with Chris to see "Meet the Spartans" (terrible movie BTW.. well I didn't like it..) and as soon as we got home we went to the clubn to have dinner with friends and their kids. We got there and I thought Ruby did look a bit funny but didn't think much of it until I noticed that her hair was shorter on one side. I had a good look and she chopped long lengths of her hair on both sides of her head!! I was a bit sad about it as she had such gorgeous hair!! She must have cut ii when Allan was talking to a friend on the phone. She cut a little bit of Lucy's too but we didn't realise that until they both had a "real" haircut. So the pink LO is of Ruby before she had her haircut (hairdressers haircut I mean *LOL*) And the next one is of Lucy after her haircut. The LO from Lucy is also done for Pencillines. This one was a sketch by the lovely Jolene.

This one is for the 1,2,3 challenge. Love this piccie of Ruby with her undie on her head :)

The last one for today is for the CIS Sketch blog for this Thursday.

Hope you all are having a go at the sketch competition!!

Happy scrapping!

Stylish Sketch Blog

2008-03-04T11:18:00.004+11:00

At the CIS stylish sketch blog you can find the new sketch for the monthly competition. This month you can win a totally cool AMM tote (the smallish one). Unfortunately I am not allowed to enter but you can do me a favour and win this little beauty!!

This is what I did with the sketch

I also spent some time at scrapboutique to join in on their Feb. CC. I only managed to do one LO but had a great time there. This challenge was to work with a sketch and this is the result.

On Friday night I also did an online class with Trudi at CIS but only managed to do the front and first page so far (too much online chatting *fun* ). But will share when that one is finished.

Not much else news.. had to work yesterday so didn't have my day to myself. But had a good time at work so all is good. On the weekend I go to the first ever hens night I've ever been to. Better take my camera hey LOL!

Hope you all have a good week

Happy Scrapping !

pencillines

2008-03-01T11:54:00.004+11:00

It's the first time I've used a pencillines sketch!! I used it to create a LO for my friend Lucrecia. She had her birthday party last Saturday, a "Bollywood Party". It was so much fun. It was funny to see how she has these groups of friends, scrappy friends, school friends and bosses (there were at least 6 of them, old and new..) and then some older friends as well.

I loved catching up with scrap buddies Moira, Alison and Nat *waving*.

We are going to a scrap night at "Scrapping for Angels" next month, will be lovely to scrap with the girls again :)

Anyway here's the pencillines sketch LO.
I also used this LO to practice the photoshop lesson "how to create a subtle journalling block" that is part of the CISters Computer Tricks Challenge at CIS.

This month at the CIS computer tricks challenge wealso learned how to fade a picture to add journalling. Ised this pic of Chris, just love this pic :)

Lat Monday I've spend the afternoon scrapping, was so good to have some time to myself and to just scrap. I can;'t share thopse LO's yet as they areDT work for the Cisters stylish sketches blog . I really love having the mondays to myself but coming Monday I have to work due to staff shortages.... and it is only my 3rd Monday by myself. Ah well, hopefully time to myself again next week!

I applied for the DT at Kylie's new venture Scrapping Clearly. She sells beautiful acrylic albums there and all the other things that go beautifully with it like overlays (great for pages), rub ons and lots of colours of stayz on inks!!
Unfortunaltly I didn't get picked :( I do however get the chance to be a guest designer for a month so am looking forward to that!

Make sure you check out CIS as there are some really lovely competitions, dares and challenges going on.

Happy scrapping!