It's a go......

Scrapz.Biz opened today.  It's an amazing new online store, and I am Lucky enough to be starting on their Design Team right from the get go!  It is owned by the Lovely Heike Brennan, and is also a bricks and mortar store based in Toowoomba....We can't all get to visit that....so we are very lucky so much time and effort has gone into making the store chocka-block full of new products, motivating challenges and inspiring competitions!

Have a look here

There are many goodies instore, and there are some fabulous competitions and challenges each week, with great prizes and givaways.

sign up for the newsletter and get informed of all the new stuff in store (Heike has great taste, and there is lots more expected soon straight from CHA!) find out more about the weekly and monthly challenges and the competitions that are running.

Go visit the forum too,  there are already some lovely ladies frequenting, chatting and socialising.  Look forward to seeing you there!

I am off to go check what's on!

Hi All....
Wow, August is here already, well almost!  That makes just a few months until Christmas!  My Goodness....Should start on the Christmas lists and gift/card ideas, all the goodies that go hand in hand with Christmas, but need a little time to organise....maybe I am getting ahead of myeslf, just a little, but usually I am deciding to do some major creation just a few days before and find myself majorly stressed and staying up late to finish, Not good!

I have done a couple of LO's for Color Combo's Galore #128 AND #129

#128 Pallette

 
This is slightly toned down a little, all those colours are in the print of the 'patchwork' paper, but in small amounts.  The combo did freak me out slightly...The colours were so bright, but I did it in my style.....make the colour you like the least..... least featured!!!  They are still all there, just in small amounts! 
I hand made the book page roses and wired them onto a wire stem....then just added the tiny Prima roses in at the bottom.  The centres of the roses also have a little Prima stamen that the trimmed pages are wrapped around too, and a couple of leaves taken from a cheap bouquet.  I just cut the petal shapes by hand into rough little 'oval' shapes cut in halves, then just wrapped and scrunched around the previous one with a dob of good glue.  Not too tricky.

and #129

 

Loved this colour Scheme.  It came together so easily!
I have just completed the next one, which is my pallette,  But it has not been revealed yet!  Next Monday I hear....will probably be a little later than that, but it is a challenge....so I picked challenging colours.  I thought they were very pretty and I enjoyed them,  I would have liked more paper to choose from though!  My stash did not hold much in the colours I needed!  I guess if nothing else these challenges let you know where you have holes in your stash!  As well as using up papers that may have been sitting for ages, and you would not usually go to!

Ok...best get cracking on the next round of things I have due!  Will share as I can!
Hope you are having a good week!

A few more to share......

CCG #127.....

  

Such soft pretty colours, I stitched torn strips of organza to white cardstock, then made some folded roses with the same torn strips.  I made these years ago ( and LOTS of them) for my wedding.  They turned out really beautiful as pew decorations in the church, They were out of heavy satin ribbon, I am still using them on the odd 'special' gift atop of the wrapping ribbon.

Teeny Prima flowers, Heidi Swapp paper and K&Co 'Amy Butler' butterfly die cuts with Kaiser Pearls and of course Thickers.

 

CCG #126

I sprayed the background with Glimmer mist in two colours ( a pale pink and a green) then traced around various droplets with a fine black pen.  It made for an interesting finish.  Leaves are just hand cut out then designs stitched into them with 3 strands of embroidery thread.  My sister drew a series of trees in her little inspiration book, that she had seen somewhere in her travels, have no idea where, but I thought some similar would be cute, sitting on top of the uneven scallops.  I Just free hand cut them, out of various patterned papers.

That's it on the creative front.....I have been spending my time this week, cleaning out cupboards and under the stairwell downstairs, things that have been in place for 6 years, since we moved in......What a job.  Apart from that our household has been blessed with yet another sickness...or mix of!  I have a headcold, DS managed to bring home some sort of gastro bug from school.  So far DD and DH are fine.....touch wood!

TFL x

Be back soon!

I am in Love......

with this .  My new toy!  A brother Innovis 900D.  An embroidery sewing machine.

I have been playing like crazy!

Mostly things for Mykenzie....so little, relatively quick....and there is room for 'pretty'.

 An altered skirt. 

Made from fabric which was once a curtain, (from my stash!)

Pyjamas for Madam.....note the embroidered butterfly on the shirt!  Pretty, pretty!!!

I made a pair for Denver too, but they are already in the wash.  They have skull and crossbones, so absolutely had to be worn the minute they were sewn.....(skulls....Not so pretty!)

These turned out really well, they have an elasticised back, with faux pocket.  Very cute!

And the floral embroidery....yep...pretty!

I also made her a black pair very similar, with out the embroidery.  I have been making my own patterns, (or slopers) to be the base of any pants pattern, so small alterations can be made to the one pattern.

Some tops are next!

The last couple of Colour combo's....... (Colour combos galore)

The pallette.....#123

 

 

  

The pallette....#124

 

 

All good fun!

Ok....We have colds in this house at ATM....(not swine flu.....despite John travelling to Canada)

I shall go and have a coughing fit elsewhere!

Here we go again.....

We are on our own again for a fortnight.  DH is on a business trip again.  It happens at least once a year, for the longer trips....and I HATE it!  But we will survive!  Even if it is with just a shred of sanity left we always make it.  Both kids have got something 'on' this time.  Denver has school and Mazzie for the first time has kindy, so this will break the monotony a little I guess.  The start is always hard....I have to get into the 'mode' which takes a couple of days....This time has been the worst for me.  I have been anticipating for a week before.  To date...these trips have always brought some sort of crisis I have had to deal with on my own... My back went one trip, and I could not walk let alone lift a crying baby out of her cot.  My parents had to make an emergency trip down and Mum had to stay for a week until I could walk upright again.  Another time Denver got croup really badly and I had to make a trip to Accident and Emergency at 2 am...ewww.  I don't gererally go out in the middle of the night with two small children.  Another trip, the last one actually, and another emergency, I found my beloved old boy (dog) down a ditch under the deck and unable to walk, so I had to carry/drag a HUGE dog up the ramp to the the back door and pay hundreds to get a vet out, then another couple to get him put to sleep.  That would normally have been DH's job.....It was quite hideous, and extremely unfortunate that it had to happen when John was away.....Then mixed with the emotional drain of having children who don't understand and 'lose' it when their dad is away....Denver in particular has struggled majorly with this since he was very little.  It is heartbreaking.....and immensly difficult, as he gets very frustrated and has quite a little temper, and challenges my every instruction.  He is a little older this time and hopefully I can talk with him about how he is feeling a bit more this time.....It started last night already....he lost the plot and there was yelling and screaming and gnashing of teeth before we finally calmed him a little long enough for him to sprout "I hate this...why does Daddy have to go...this is gonna be the worst two weeks in the world" .....(Said complete with furrowed brow and stamping of foot...)  Poor kid.  Mazzie cried inconsolably for an hour one time J was away, after speaking with Daddy on the phone and would not let me hang the receiver up...Like I said....heartbreaking!  Anyway.....he left just a while ago....so it is finally underway....I can stop anticipating....and just do it....

So this is my last Color Combos challenge.  #121

  

Pretty huh?...so this was mine....

 

It was nice actually, because I was running late, and racing against the clock to get it in on time, I did this LO from start to finish...in just a few hours.  Rare for me!  Usually there are so many little distractions, that it sits for a while and I add or take every time I walk past!   The next one is due Sunday....so even though DH is away.....on Mothers day.....I will scrap..... and again start AND finish a LO to make the deadline of 5pm.....cause I have left it late again!!!!

Well....that about covers the way it is today.....Be back soon!

A few weeks worth......

OK......Creative stuff first!!!!

Colour combo # 116 for Colorcombos Galore

  #117

#119

 

#120

 

After googling "making your own flowers" and seeing several examples online of a japanese form of flower making with fabric....which I tried with paper ( not used on this page though- but very cute....I will share that later) I made the flowers here, (with exception to the centre darker pink ones, and the leaves.....they were a cheap shop bouquet I pulled apart) 

I made the tiny roses from toilet paper ( LOL)Well -it was nice and soft and fibrous, and the tissues were in the car!!!  I used a quilling tool for those and the small yellow flowers.

The large pink ones....were cut out of a scallop punch and trimmed into flowers with a few well placed snips with scissors,  I made the stamens by balling up toilet paper on the end of the off cut wire from some bought craft flowers and coating with white glue, The tiny flowers are a tiny flower puch and some of thise afore mentioned snips with scissors....with a pearl in the centre....They look very similar to the tiny flowers you can buy....it is amazing what you can glean from the net, and get ideas from

And yesterdays effort......I am quite happy with how this turned out!

 

I cut out letters from Chipboard, painted them brown, covered them with dimensional fluid, wrote 'Quin' on the wall and glued my letters on top.  Worked quite well.

OK.....I think that is about it for the moment....I have some cleaning to do before I get creative again!  I am cleaning out my dining room/craft/scrapbooking cupboards!!  Huge job, and the dining table is covered!!!!  I conveniently left that out of the above photo!!!  Ok....here i am going.....really....now..... Maybe a coffee first though?

Finally....she's here!

I have 'owned' her since she was 3 weeks old, but she is now old enough to come live with us, and she is delightful.  This is Holly.

And it is just as hard to get good a photo of her as it is to get good ones of the kids!

Oskar thinks she is great....but usually waits till she has turned her back before attacking in stealth mode!

and then planning the next attack.....

It's quite funny to watch.  Holly doesn't pay him much attention.  Perfect for Oskar.  Maximum attack, no consequences......yet!