My little Sketchbook, KIDZ ARTZ

Hi everyone, a rainy old day today here, hope it fines up for Nate's mini's soccer breakup tomorrow. I love it when it rains, somehow, it makes me feel like scrapping even more.

I did the above layout for My Little Sketchbook, I just love Liz Qualman's sketches, they always motivate me. I used the gorgeous Brook Collection papers from Crate paper and made some flowers and did some fussy cutting as you know I love. Click on the above link to give it a go.

Louise is one of my favourite scrappers and when she put the call out for KIDZ ARTZ I took a photo of Nate making a clown for Grampsy. He is a wonderful fussy cutter and always sits with me on th lounge and helps me.......

Here he is with my glasses on colouring the clown:

And here is the finished pic stuck to a piece of framed paper for Grampsy:

If you would like to see the other young scrappers go HERE and also, their is a great prize, but also just the opportunity to showcase the junior up and coming scrappers of the future.

If I haven't visited your blog this week yet, I am about too, been super busy with Nate stuff on, will talk over the weekend, love to you all and your family's. Love Melxx

PS. Look what I just spotted HERE thankyou dear Karen, just beautiful, and can you believe he was looking at the camera and I have a layout with machine stitching on.....YAY

Design DolliesSketch challenge

Happy Tuesday everyone, hope you are all enjoying the start to this new week. We have had a good start to the week, my mojo is soaring at the moment (touch wood) so making the most of it. The above layout is the sketch challenge for DESIGN DOLLIES, I just love Kristy's sketch's and decided to get out my Basic Grey papers for this challenge, I am sure this layout borders on being Monochramatic - just not entirely sure.

We had our wonderful lady's morning today and had a lovely time, some photos are below:

This is Dawn and Barbara and make up 2 of the approx 10 ladies that we have that now come along.

Tomorrow is scrap Wednesday with Jan, because of Jan being sick and other things we have missed 2 weeks, so I am looking forward to spending the day scrapping, I hope Amber will come also, and I look forward to doing some more Scrapbook University challenges.

Talk soon, Love Melxx

The Nook University, My Mind's Eye, Maxi

Hi everyone, hope you have all had a good weekend, we have had a wet weekend here, still raining outside as I type this, I have arranged to take Nate to a friend's house to play with her daughter tomorrow, co-incidently she happens to be a scrapper also......lol

I got all my assignments finished for Scrapbook Nook University, I have to say a big thank you to Tanya Tahir, she encouraged me through her blog posts to join up and I am just loving every minute so far, this is my entry for the Topography Class, you had to use all sorts of differents fonts and sizes for letters and for the Economics Class I did these:



Nate and I went to mum and dad's for lunch, came home and had a nana nap, then I did some more scrapping tonight, if it's raining tomorrow arvo - (I was planning on mowing and whipper snipping) I will do some blog hopping and then I am so looking forward to seeing what the next uni challenge is.

This is my gorgeous old dog Maxi, he is my loyal 14 yr old boy, he gave me a scare this week, but is back to fighting fit again, chasing balls, this was taken just this Friday gone. I pray he stays well, he has been through so much with me. I wanted to share him with you all.

Talk soon. Love to you and your families, Melxxx

My little Shoebox August Sketch, Artastic Challenge for September

Morning everyone, hope your week is going well so far, just over hump day so that means it's downhill to the weekend, busy week so far, went to Amanda's on Monday, Tuesday's lady's group and yesterday, well just caught up with blogging and you know just how when you sit down at the computer you can sought of lose track of time........way too much inspiration out there

How gorgeous are thes amazing My Little Shoebox papers, this layout took me quite a while to complete, I hand cut those little green 3/4 scollops around the circle, and the banner also, I just love fussy cutting - can you tell...

Ingredients: base "Green - Treehouse range", the circle I used a plate as a template, this paper is also from the "Treehouse range", and the little cut out cars with are just so super gorgeous are from the "Away we Go - road trip" range, the pink base for the banners is from "Simple Life - Front Porch" now the gorgeous doily and that awesome owl button come from Purple Pumpkin, gotta visit this one, and the letters are felt thickers from Making Memories. This is an awesome sketch you can see it Here

This Frida Kahlo painting is the Artastic inspiration painting for September, it is a great challenge this month, the criteria is for 1 point have a photo of you or family member with a pet, 2 points do the layout in shades of brown and orange and for 3 points add a tropical flower. Now below you will find my submission, I based my layout on a Ali Edwards Sketch because I really was more excited about doing the journalling on this layout, these two have a special relationship and I just had to document the memory of it. I hope you like it. Here is the link to Artastic Challenge site, and I would love if you decide to do a layout you would mention that MEL sent you, the main reason is to let Shazza know we love her site and love to encourage others to play along.

Before I go, I have to tell you what I caught my boy doing the other night, I was sitting at the kitchen table (where I scrap) and low and behold he grabs the chux and t-towels and starts taking the griller etc out of the oven, and places it on the floor (cold not hot) and starts cleaning, well I got up as quick as I could and grabbed the camera and well, not sure why he wanted to do this but I am so glad I have the proof that it happenned.

Please Note:  the picture you are seeing here does not depict the mess that is on the kitchen floor whilst he is working on the inside........and once the cleaning duties were over there was an even bigger mess for mum to clean, but in saying that, wow I was still super impressed with the attempt....

Okay, sorry for the long post, don't forget the Purple Pumpkin reveal on Friday night, Amber and I are setting our alarms for 7.30pm so we don't miss out on any goodness HERE.

Love to you all, you mean the world to me, being able to blab about my creativeness and my little boy. Love Melxxxxxx

Guest DT My2Angels and My2Angels Blog Hop Rak Drawers

Hi Everyone, I hope your weekends were all wonderful, I was without computer and had my trusty Computer man Vince out to fix it today, $200 and by 4pm she was up and running. Expensive little suckers these computers. The above layout is one I made for my Guest Design Team position at My2Angels this month. Every item here is from her wonderful site. The instructions are below and all the products are available from the shop at My2Angels

I used a template to trace around some co-ordinations cardstock then inked it then gave it a spray with glimmermist, I placed some old letters on some cardstock and traced around them and then cut them out individually, I glued them on to some acetate (so I could raise them off the page). I matte my photo with Kaiser paper side 2 and then made strips using both sides of this paper under the photo, above and below these strips I added some old music paper. The journalling is using a circle of the pp and a gorgeous October Afternoon label sticker the red underneath is a huge daisy flower with the ends of its petals cut. and the circle saying reserved is a cut out from Collage Press Knave of Hearts paper and a small mulberry flower again with some ends cut off. Lastly I stamped a little party hat (unknown brand) and added it to the a in the title.

The layout below is again for my Guest appearance this month and the stamp I used and all the ingredients are:

Started with some co-ordinations cardstock and doodled around the outside with a zig pen then cut off the scollop of the Crate paper Prudence paper and glued it over the top of some Kaiser paper and made my own die cut paper, using the opposite side of the Kaiser paper, I made a piece with a hand doodled bottom edge coming out from under the photo and over the top I placed a strip of Pink Paislee Artisian tape and added some diamontes on the tape and bling to form a photo corner. I stamped a flower onto the left over patterned paper and some white mesh fabric, cut them out, placed a rhinestone in their middles. The journalling spot is cut out of this gorgeous Pink Paislee journal card and the little letters are Carolee Creations and the numbers are cut out of Collage Press patterned paper, everything is inked with pinecone ink.

Okay, it's time to draw the winners of the My2Angels Blog Hop Raks, and we have drawn the winner of the major Prize RAK is LYNNDA HOSNI super congratulations my girl.

Okay here is a picture of the other 4 Rak prizes and the lucky winners are:
 ANN MAREE, KELLY MASSMAN, ROXY AND DEBBIE super congratulations everyone, thank you so much for participating. I was blown away by the 49 entries. Please email me at mel_o68@hotmail.com and give me your address and I will post out first thing Tuesday morning.

I am off to Amanda's tomorrow for Scrap Monday, (cannot believe it is a fortnight already) so I will catch up with you all during the week. Love Melxx

RAK & Noel Mignon Kit colour challenge, Tag Relay layout

Morning everyone, a beautiful sunny day here YAY, so sick of windy overcast drizzly days, (can't take photos in dull weather) lol.  The layout above was created for the colour challenge at Noel's crop last week, this is from one of Noel's beautiful kits, "Partly Sunny". I thoroughly enjoyed being a little different with this, by the way, the cardstock is actually cut down but the leaves of the sunflower depict the edge of the 12" x 12" layout.

This layout is from a TAG layout challenge, it is so much fun, You start with the same layout, have 2 teams, the first on each team uses that same layout as inspiration for their's and then presents their layout to the next member in their team to copy. It is amazing to see the end results of the layouts. If you would like to see them and Noel's gorgeous kits just press HERE and HERE.

Meeting a friend for coffee today at Riverlink, a load of washing, some overdue ironing, have to do the groceries, then it is Nate's last night at soccer, wow, where on earth did that time go. I can honestly say I will miss it, it has become a great part of our routine for Friday nights. Any other suggestions as to what I could enrol Nate into over the up coming months?

You still have time to enter the RAK giveaway, and as I have gone through some more of my stash, I have decided to do 4 little RAK's to go with it, so there is 5 chances to win now. If you would like to be in the running just leave a comment HERE.

I hope each and every one of you enjoys your day and weekend,  I will be back on Sunday night for the drawing of the 5 raks, Aunty Jan is going to come down and drawer the names out of the hat for me. Thanks everyone for participating in the blog hop, and have a great weekend. Love to you all, Melxx

My2Angels Scrapping Blog Hop & RAK giveaway

Do you want win some fantastic prizes from my2angels?

If you said yes (and who wouldn't!)

Today we are excited to present the first ever my2angels Blog Hop for all of it's talented DT’s and Guest DT’s to show off their creations and for you to view their blogs.
In order to go into the draw to win you need to leave a comment on each of the Angels’s blog, as there will be winners drawn randomly from the blogs … so you won’t know which ones! Then go back to the start at my2angels and let us know you have completed the hop.

Become a follower to get a bonus entry (don’t worry if you are already a follower we will add the bonus entry automatically for you)

The b'day theme of the hop is "Cards" I made the above card using the following:

The sentitment was sent to me in a stamp swap
The gorgeous pink paislee artisian tape The patterned paper I cut the flowers from Little Yellow bicycle here and the gorgeous flower centre pearls here

Okay so I know I don't do many girly layouts so here was an "out of my comfort zone" layout, the ingredients are here and all available from My 2 Angels except those huge red daisy's which came out of the bottom of the flower jar - dust and all. This is me on the left and Aunty Jan on the right on her 60th b'day celebration weekend.

Patterned paper is prima and prima and of course pink paislee artisian tape and I saw this flower made on the Noel Mignon technique site, if you would like to see the tute just go HERE Loads of fun, I just need a little practise. Leaves and bling and bingo card by Jenni Bowlin, thickers, and of course my trusty pine cone ink.

And whilst we are on the hop, I thought it would be nice to celebrate Tracy's birthday at My2Angels with a RAK giveaway, all you have to do is leave a message here at this post and overseas visitors are welcome to be in the RAK drawer too.  But if you would like to become a blogging friend to this scrapnut just press the follow button and I will pop over and visit you too.

good luck and thanks for stopping by!

Oops! Hopped into the middle of this blog hop and want to join in the fun?

Or have you lost your blog trail and need to start again..?.... The starter blog for this hop is my2angels

Next stop in the hop is the super talented Tarryn Stark, heaps of eye-candy on this talented scrappers blog ladies.

Love to you all, Melxx

Bisous - Is it Love

Morning Dear friends, rainy day here today, and I still cannot swallow, I wish I had got some anti-biotics when I took Nate to the Dr. He is really well, nose cleared up and a little bit more of his independence (lol) is back...Thank you so much for your well wishes.

I am guest designer for Bisous - a Canadian Company next month, so I am making some layouts for Suzanne to showcase, I am really enjoying it, she send so much wonderful stash to me, problem was I only received it on 5th August, and she sent them in June.......so I am trying hard to get everything finished. This is Nate's friend Lolita, she is my sister's step-granddaughter, and this is when they met for the first time, she is a gorgeous blonde with a streak of mischief and defiance - so of course Nate was smitten with her.

I designed this based on a layout I found in an e-book I purchased from Ella publishing, actually, I have created 4 now from the e-book, and it only cost $5.99 USD. I love mists still and combined 3 in this one, although a little hard to see. I hope you like it.

Okay, so a little housework, have to go to the chemist, I might grab a dvd for Mr. and then I am spending the arvo scrapping,,,,well that's the plan. Love to you all, will catch up soon. Love Melxx

ps. Forgot to mention Sarah Lou, your gorgeous rak arrived yesterday - can you believe it, that is almost 2 months-  must have been sitting in the PO somewhere as it was a little grubby on the outside, thank you so much.....

My Minds Eye sketch layout

Morning everyone, what a glorious Tuesday morning here today, but I still have my little sick boy, I took him to the doctor yesterday and he has a little chest and nose infection so is on antibiotics, (what a drama getting them into him). Thank you for all the well wishes, he is doing fine.

I went to Scrap Monday at Amanda Taylor's yesterday and finished the above layout for the My mind's eye challenge this month, I enjoyed the sketch and substituted the middle photo with one of their journalling spots. The criteria is to follow the sketch and use 80% at least of MME products, the gorgeous free kit from The Nook was full of So Sophie papers from MME, so very handy for the challenges.

I will be checking out all your beautiful blogs over the next couple of days, loving the great inspiration you all give to me, and now it is time to do some housework and put on "Tooth Fairy" for the 16th time for my little man to watch. After this, some scrap time for sure. Love Melxx

Design Dollies Sketch Challenge

Morning dear friends, Saturday morning and a beautiful sunny day. I have a little man with a cold at the moment, we went to Soccer but came home early, he wanted so much to go but just didn't have the stamina to play. He is fine in every other way, just the nose and guessing in his head. But you know, that means this mum is on muuuuuummmmm duties, or should I say servant duties lol pillow mummmmmmmmm, drink muuuummmm, you may know what I mean here. So it looks like a day at home for us, which means I may get some more scrapping done, well inbetween my nurse duties.

This layout is for the Dollies sketch Challenge, Kristy does the most fantastic sketches and I just had to use this one for Nate's signature head pose when you take his photo, everything on this page is using Bisous products. To get the little grungy circles I just used my pinecone ink stamp pad and stamped on top of some mesh I bought at the junk shop.

I got my new embellies from Sam last night at Purple pumpkin, they are just gorgeous, definately worth a look, but be warned such great value you will want some.

Okay better go and do the housework so I can scrap, will catch up with you all in the next day or so. Take care, Melxxxx

Scrap the Boys Challenge

Hi everyone, hope you are all scrapping up a storm, we have had a lovely week so far, having fun over at My2angels with the relay challenge and on Monday I met Karen B for the first time in real life, she came over with her dear daughter and to say Nate and I had a wonderful time is really an understatement, she came with the most gorgeous cheesebake slice too, I watched her create a beautiful layout, we talked and scrapped, ate and scrapped some more, I had to laugh as

Karen is not only an amazingly talented scrapper but a coffee connoisseur also, so when I asked her if she wanted a coffee, she pulled out this amazing coffee assortment which she just happenned to have in her travelling bag.

 You know the coffee tasted beautiful too. But this is just another memory to scrap and another great reason why I love scrapping, to meet such wonderful people and make lasting friendships. Nate fell asleep approx 15 mins after they drove off, just managed to give him a bath, he had an awesome day and told me he loves Jaaaaa(his version) he seems to like the older ladies, but funny enough they don't put a title on men like they do if a lady does this (cougar) well I don't think they have a name for it ...........

I hope you like the layout I did for Scrap the Boys this month, using flowers on a boys page is certainly criteria I have no problem with "sorry nate" and I really enjoyed creating this layout using the July Nook Kit.

Ange tells me I have a layout in the current Scrapbook Creations, so I am a little excited to see it, my subscription has run out and you know, just haven't got around to subscribing. Will buy a copy tomorrow.

Will check out all your wonderful blogs over the next few days. Love to you all. Melxx

My2angels Birthday relay

Hi everyone, well no laughing at my photo here, but this is me at my 21st birthday party, back in 1989. This is my entry for the Scrapping relay over at My2angels, this is such a fun challenge, pop over HERE to check out the birthday celebration challenges and prizes.

I have instructions on how I created this layout and the products can be found on and you can check them out.

I started with cardstock then got a chipboard piece of any description, I have used a birdcage, then sprayed over the chipboard that you place on the page with glimmermist, wait until dry. The patterned paper is from Prima, I cut out the embellishments I wanted to use ,and inked the edges of the papers, taped and glued down everything, I added some bling by way of a bling stickers and a bling buckle then in the cut out frame I cut out of the gorgeous Prima papers I added my thickers heading which in this case is 21, to go with the theme of my birthday I added a beautiful silver present charm and finally around the outside I made a doodled border , this is heaps of fun and looks lovely.

Can you notice the gorgeous silver present charm I added near the top left corner of the photo, just by placing an order with My2Angels this month you can get some of these for free.

Hope you like the layout, Melxx

A2Z Scraplets sketch challenge, My Rockstar Hero

Morning dear friends, thank you all for your well wishes, all better now, I can tell you though, I have never been sick like I have since having dear Nate. Not that I am blaming him, perhaps it is just a co-incidence?????

This was my July entry for A2Z scraplets, I tried my hand at cutting out the frame of Nate and was happy with the end results. The misting is Denim Blue Glimmer mist and I just love mists and of course a doodled frame with liquid paper in the middle of it for the edge. Just love colouring I think.

This layout is a just for me layout, Nate has always been into loud noisy music and singing since he was 1, so I thought I would use the gorgeous papers & embellishments I bought from Purple Pumpkin, I wish I had all black and white photos or even the 2008 photo in black and white, but I don't have a printer and you know when you just want to do a layout and can't wait to get to the photo lab. I just love the Fancy Pants papers here, they are just so suited to Nate and his antics.

It is a glorious day here today, a little crisp but fresh and sunny, Nate is still happy to be upstairs at the present and is watching one of his fave movies, "Racing Stripes" so I have finished all the housework, will put out the washing and then I am going to sneak in some scrapping, then will visit you all later this arvo. Love to you all and your dear families. Love Mel and Natexxx

Ps. If you are lost for some mojo come and join us at My2angels for some wonderful challenges and prizes with a sketch challenge, and layout relay.

My2angels Birthday relay

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TRACY AT MY2ANGELS,  and she has asked me to be a Guest Design Team member for the month, wow what an honour, she has the most amazing DT , Tracey Hunter, Taryn Stark, and good friends Corrina Mantegna and Wendy Turner, wow to work with them all is just a fantastic but humbling experience.

She has some great competitions this month, one being a "scrapping relay" which sounds like heaps of fun, please join me in this great contest which might I add has awesome prizes.

Please come and join me to enter the scrapping relay, we'll scrap up a storm.

Teams of 5 will be picked from the entrants - register by leaving a comment HERE

(if there is a day YOU CAN NOT participate in please let Tracy know when you register)

Everyone will be advised ahead of time what day they are scheduled to complete their layout on Sunday morning
Sunday night, 8th August, at midnight I will upload the first criteria eg cupcakes on a layout or could it be a banner or perhaps presents on your layout! You will have to wait and see at midnight on your day of allocation.

The member from each team who are allocated Monday will be required to complete a birthday layout with the criteria incorporated on it.

And then every midnight after that for 4 more nights a new criteria for the team member chosen for that day will be uploaded (ending Friday)

They are to be Birthday layouts and to be completed within a 24 hour period, uploaded to your blog & our gallery BEFORE midnight and a comment left on the my2angels blog so we know you have completed the task

so what do YOU win ...

Prizes are awarded to:

Team prize of $15 voucher EACH to spend at my2angels – criteria is the more products used on their layout that are sold at my2angels and the best description of their layout with links to the my2angels website from your blog

Individual Prize of a $15 my2angels voucher is awarded to the most unique way of incorporating the criteria into their layout and links from your blogs to the my2angels website

And a random prize drawn, of a $15 my2angels store voucher, for one lucky entrant (this is drawn between the teams that did not win the team prize)

It is not who is the fastest, (we don’t want you wasting your products to make something quick and easy that you may not want in your albums) but it's fun in participating, following the criteria and uniqueness of the entries.

LOL but in saying that they must be uploaded before midnight

Come on ... register and join us in the challenge ...

The sketch challenge this month:

Create a BIRTHDAY layout using BOTH of the following 2 criterias:
majority of products available from my2angels and use Wendy's Sketch: I love this sketch and below is my example.

I thought is was a good idea to start doing some I wish layouts for when Nate gets older enough to buy his mum some presents for Mum's day  and birthdays etc, I took advantage of Wendy's sketch to start, I coloured the background paper to add some colour and the perfumes's are my very faves' from Guerlain but running very low, may be time to send Nate out to work........

PRODUCTS USED

Collage Press side B patterned paper
Brown Co-ordinations
Marvy felt pens to colour background
prima paper is the torquoise and white polka dot, and prima paper for the roses cut outs
the Pink paper under the prima is Crate
the pink heart is from an embellishment swap
butterflies are Jenny Bowlin stickers
the little black letters are Carolee Creations
yellow letters are Thickers
Ink is pinecone (all of these great products are available at My2Angels)
 
I have been sick the last 2 days but can feel my scrapping mojo creeping back this arvo, my love to you all dear friends. Melxxxx

Artastic Design Team August

Morning dear friends, can you believe it's Monday, I hate Monday's usually, but not today, I am off to Amanda's which will be great to scrap and I know Nate will have heaps of fun playing with Connor. Thanks everyone for your wonderful support for Wednesday, it means the world to me, this is my DT layout for arTastic this month. Criteria is colours mainly blue & green, a silhouette and a sun on the page. This is Nate with my mum (left) and Aunty Val (right) doing a little dance, nana was alive then and laughing at them. This again was made from the most gorgeous Noel Mignon kit.

A new month means some more beautiful Design team and challenge entry's for me to look at of yours so this is just a short message this morning, have a bit of a drive to Amanda's and when I am home tonight will look at what all of you have been up to.

I told my friend Amber that I would give her a shout out, she said she has been lurking around our blogs of late, can anyone tell me here if Amber needs a blog account to leave messages on posts, I couldn't confirm this when I caught up with her yesterday.

Hope you all have a great day, will catch up with you all soon, you mean the world to me. Love Melxxxxxxx

Noel mignon kit/cards for mum's b'day

Hi everyone, hope you are all having a wonderful day. Dreary weather here, just took Nate out for a bit, went to Lifeline op shop and picked up this steering wheel (computer game) thingy, and he is here driving the car and honestly, we are going to have lots and lots of lessons before this boy drives his first real car..... but it was 50c and I got the lady to cut the computer cord off it there and then for me. I so have to do a layout about the best 50c toy we have found to date...

The above layout is one I created using motivation I found when I purchased an e-book from ella publishing, I haven't attempted a double page layout in ages, and definately never finished one with only 2 photos on it, so this was nice to try. Again I used the gorgeous Noel Mignon July kit goodies.

The cards you see above are 8 of approx 15 I am making for mum for her birthday, I just thought this is something that she may possibly like presented in a decorated box as she has everything else she could possibly want for. My friend Jess also mentioned she pre-stamps them when she does this too, which sounds like a great idea. I have so many great inspirational card makers that I visit, Jess, Deb, Liz,  & Amy - to just name 4 this time around. Thank you as visiting your blogs I have learn't so much.

A good blogging friend Lisa has asked if I would share with you all some embellishment flowers she has for sale at the moment, she does some gorgeous really great valued kits too. You can find her kits and other goodies for sale like the pic below right HERE.

I seem to be on a scrappy roll at the moment, and loving it, I really hope it keeps going, you know what the mojo is like, in today gone tomorrow, lol. Tomorrow is Friday again, where has this week gone, shopping tomorrow and my fav show "Trial & Retribution" tomorrow night ABC. Off to see what you have all been up to. Love Melxx

Noel Mignon - Challenge (no patterned paper)

Morning everyone, hope all is well at your places, it's crazy weather here at present, overcast, sunny, showering, sunny again, you know just enough to send you batty when you have washing to do and 2 poodles and a 3 yr old who love to be outside for a short while and then want to come back and lay on the lounge......

The layout "Sweetness it's in your eyes" is one I did for Noel Mignon challenge site this week, (no patterned paper) it was heaps of fun, her challenges I enjoy doing and well using the gorgeous kit with all the DeLovely goodies in it (sorry they are pink Nate) I love. If you are curious to see her August kit, have a look here, I cannot wait to get this one. 

I just love the Heidi Swapp black Glimmermist and once again I used my trusty liquid paper around the edge of the layout - just to frame it. I made the circles mask using a 12 x 12 already cut out chipboard piece, not sure where I bought it from.

Okay, so today is our lady's day, boy the week comes around super quick, and then I am going to come home and do some more scrapping, gee I wish you could come over for a coffee and scrap with me, as it is now, I will probably have Toy Story 2 which I borrowed from the video store on for the 20th time whilst I am scrapping here. Thankfully tomorrow is Wednesday Scrap day with Aunty Jan and I look forward to it. I think it is so nice to do what you love whilst chatting and of course as we will be downstairs, Lightning McQueen will be playing also.

Oh, I almost forgot, dear friend's Cathy and Sam gave me beautiful awards for my blog, thank you ladies, both of these lady's are awesome scrappers, but you probably already know that but you can click on their names to go straight to their blogs, the conditions were I had to tell you 5 things about myself: You may already know these things, but here goes:

1. I will be 43 next March (feel so much younger though)

2. Drive a 2006 Rav4 4wd - white in colour

3. Next goal is to be on a Manufacturer's DT

4. Used to be an Accountant during the day and aerobics instructor at night

5. Love coffee (about 3 - 4 cups per day)  and chocolate (especially together)

Thanks so much for the beautiful awards dear friends, but I would like to give all of you an award so if you want to share some things about yourself, I would enjoy reading.

Love to you all, have a fantastic day, somehow blogger seems to have changed again and can only upload 1 photo at a time, so will share another layout Thursday. Love Melxxx

My Minds Eye layout

Nate and Uncle Col


Good morning everyone, hope this Saturday finds you all healthy, happy and relaxed (yeah right) lol we are having a dvd morning here, watched New Moon Tanya........but after reading the book was just a little let down, I guess I had formed my own little movie in my head.  Nate is now watching Hot Wheels car thingy dvd, so I am trying to concentrate here on what I am doing.


The above layout is one I did using the gorgeous June Nook kit, I just added a Fancy pants word heading "everyday" and some Tessa Buys flowers (corrugated ones), I made the brown button myself using some of Nate's play dough and putting it in the oven.


I entered this layout in the My minds eye challenge and was actually really happy with how it turned out, but when I was reading this I must of only had one coffee as I forgot one of their criteria, put the word HOPE on the layout, but after I notified them they were gracious enough to still ask if they could put the entry into their gallery, which was nice.


Can you believe it is the end of the month already, wow I am just getting through my challenges for this month. We are going to Nate's school in 2012 fete tomorrow, the theme is Craft this year so looking forward to seeing the inspiration. Hard to believe my boy goes to school soon. This thought inspires me to scrap all the things he is up to right now, as before too long I won't see him during the day........Love to you all my friends, off to check out your days. Melxx

Scrap the Boys

Hi Dear friends, hope this has been a great week for you all, been very busy this end, last Saturday was the Handmade markets, caught up with Michelle Jamieson which was nice, (Scrapbooking Master 2009) she sells her brand of merchandise which is called Chelley Bean there. Then Saturday night was to Sizzler for Uncle Col's birthday, Sunday I did some scrapping, Monday to Amanda Taylor's for our scrap day, Tuesday had our lady's morning tea and then some appts, and after a scrap day with Aunty Jan today, I think it's MasterChef and then to bed with my new Scrapbooking Memories Mag.

The above layout is for the Scrap the Boys Challenge blog and this month they have supplied a sketch which is totally optional to use and the criteria is use stamping on your page, the star stamp I have used is a Studio Calico one, I stamped onto some brown Kraft and matching colours on this layout, lots of fun. Oh and I opted to use their sketch also.

This is the new look Nate with his super short haircut, we found a hairdresser that he really likes, his name is Ashe and the day after he got it cut he went in and gave him a freddo frog and gave him a hi - 5, so hallelujah....

That is it for me, have another layout almost finished so I will share this over the weekend. Love to you all and your dear family's. Mel and Natexx

Noel Mignon - Challenge, Nate's 3rd b'day

Hi everyone, hope you are all being crafty, happy and healthy. I know I sound like a broken record and know I am not the only one, but wow doesn't the time just fly, not sure where this week has gone, looked this morning and its been 5 days since I last blogged. To tell you a little about our week:

The layout above is for Noel Mignon Challenge, This "Party Sunny" Kit has been my favourite kit so far, gorgeous with lots of the DeLovely range by Cosmo Cricket, this is my very favourite range at the moment. The challenge was to create a layout indicating when you feel your independence started, mine was when I told Nate's dad I was pregnant and he left me and fled to another state, lol - I laugh now but you know I have stayed single since this day, and since this day I became very independant and love it, I know one day I may meet someone special but am super happy as "just the two of us" for now. I often say, where on earth would I find the time with a 3 year old, 2 poodles, scrapbooking, housework, mowing, gardenning, friends.....blogging...super busy as it is.

The layout below is a layout "just for me" I took so many photos of Nate for his 3rd birthday, and am still seeing some I want to scrap, again the papers were from Noel's kits. Tonight is soccer after the school holidays, I enrolled Nate into Prep school for 2012 and was 46/70 so glad I got in early. Had our lady's day on Tuesday, and Jan and I had Scrap Wednesday together, shopping today and took Jan to get some stitches out, (melanoma) she is fine. Uncle Col's b'day tomorrow, dinner and fete Sunday so that is the weekend gone and off to Amanda's for our fortnightly scrapfest on Monday.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Looking forward to seeing you all, I got a gorgeous blog award from Cathy Cafun (will do the questions next post) and received a beautiful RAK from Julie Lakose today, thank you this totally made my day. Sarah Lou, still no package and surprising as it is Julie lives in USA and the post is received fine and you are the next State and it hasn't turned up. Crazy hey.

Love to you all. Melxx

Screen to Scrap and Kraft it Up

Hi everyone, hope this post finds you all well and happy, the above layout is my entry for Screen to Scrap this month, taking some inspiration from "Sherlock Holmes" screen poster as I have not seen the movie, I used my very own Detective, following the criteria of Teal in the layout, something metal and a block title. In the days when taking photos of Nate suited him, (only a few short months ago) I managed to snap these photos of what he does when you ask to take his photo, he is a born model, smiles and tilts his head to one side and then the other, now I get a hand straight out and he says "NO mum" I mean I hear some mum's saying their kids don't like photos being taken but surely I thought I would get a few more years in before this happenned. Looks like I will be taking more candid, "I got you" photos from now on.






This is my entry for Kraft it Up this month, the criteria was to use 4-6 photos, and of course use Kraft cardstock. These are some pics of Nate servicing the mower, or should I say his mower as everything is "Mine" at present, he did have a big learning curve here as just after these photos were taken and I was thinking just how gorgeous "The Help" is around the house, I put the camera away and came back to see him putting grass that he had just cut using (not my faves thankfully) my scrapbooking scissors into the poor Victa's petrol tank, thankfully I caught him quickly and only a small amount was in the tank, he is certainly quicker than the eye, but I put it down to the imagination of a 3 year old. Will have to get better help. lol.



Good friend Wati Basuri sells these gorgeous flowers they sell for $3.50 SGD which is approx $2.75 AUD and can be purchased through paypal. I have just ordered some and cannot wait to receive them. Just click on HERE to see more gorgeous colours in these flowers.

This week looks busy again, follow up Speech Therapy appt today, Lady's morning tea tomorrow, bring on Scrap Wednesday lol as for apart from cutting out bits and pieces I probably won't get paper to page until then and let me know what you think but for the mum who has everything I decided to make her 15 or so birthday & anniversary cards & bought a nice box to put them in, I got this idea from Stacey Cohen.

Hopefully, I will have no more eco friendly fuel experiments in the lawn mower to report, until then dear friends, I will visit you all and see what you are all up to. Love Melxxx

Scrap the Boys

Hi everyone, hope you are all well, really cold and rainy here again, wow this is a horrible winter, but in saying that it is nice cuddling up with the gang of poodles and the small boy here at nights. Still doing my cutting out and I just went and got my favourite scissors sharpenned and they are back to brand new again. Do you have a favourite pair of scissors or is this weird?

The layout above is my "Scrap the Boys" entry for this month, I am so glad this great challenge site is back, the layout is not my usual style but I just had to find a way to document some of the crazy things that go on here in this house. I used numbers to dot point some of the funny/crazy occassions and some cute photos of Mr. Nate with the title "the one and only you". I am so thankful I am a scrapbooker. It is just like Aunty Jan says, "there is never a dull moment at your house" and this mum wouldn't change a thing, well I would like a break from the damn "Cars" movie that seems to be on whenever he takes time out to sit on the lounge.....If you would like to see the new "Scrap the Boys" challenge site, please CLICK HERE

Boy there are some sales on at the moment and some gorgeous stuff I really want, notice I didn't mention need, I think that would be fibbing....I placed an order Tuesday night with Tracy at My 2 angels and wow received it today and that is just awesome service to me and I cannot wait to get stuck into my goodies, I bought some Black Magic Glimmer mist and some Ranger Red Puffs embossing powder which are just dying to be opened and some awesome little charms that will add that finishing touch to my layouts - sooo cute and some papers, glues, pens and inks..... To check out her great site just click on the shop name above or CLICK HERE

The layout below is my first page I did with the Studio Calico June Kit, and my attempt at a simple, lots of negative space layout. Nate has Aunty Jan's glasses on in the photo here and this mum thinks he looks super cute.



The blog candy below is to celebrate Samantha Hauzer's new Blog "Purple pumpkin" she is just awesome at making these divine buttons,flowers and all sorts of gorgeous handmade embellishments..just click HERE or on the blog name above and put your name on the post to win these.



Lastly, I got the shock of my life when a great blogger friend Julie Lakrose used 2 of my layouts for her Scraplift Saturday, seriously humbling Julie but at the same time a great feeling to think someone would want to scraplift me, thanks Julie, I really love what you did, if you would like to see the 2 layouts she scraplifted just click HERE.

Okay, time to get the tea out here, made Lasagne, Nate's favourite, and Max and Stan love it too. Will be off to check your blogs later tonight and tomorrow. Look forward to catching up. Love Melxxxx

ARTastic, Studio Calico, Design Dollies

Hi everyone, bad blogger this week, been a busy week, hope you have all been well and keeping cool or warm depending of where you are in the world.

A few layouts to share this week, "Not the full deck" is my submission for the Design Team at ARTastic this month, the criteria being, you have to have a playing card, a feather and shades of brown, the pictures here are of Nate and I being silly with his bunny ears this last easter.

I got the gorgeous Studio Calico kit this week, so the layout "Operation" is from the kit with the exception of the silver camera which my good friend Amanda Taylor gave me. I based my layout on the inspiring works of Sasha Farina, (love love her work).

The layout "at the Beach" was one I did for the Dollies DT and haven't had a chance to show you yet. April 2010 Nate and I went on a camp and this is us at Currimundi Beach on the Sunshine Coast. I think this paper was from Pink Paislee, and the canvas material is prima printed canvas, it is divine.

Been a busy week this week, an older friend and I started a small older women's group, we meet every Tuesday at 10.30am and we had 7 attend this last week. The ladies are all over 65, and don't get out of the house very much, I take Dawn (83 years young) and she is gorgeous with lots of great story's of times past, we all have a coffee, laugh and chat and Nate enjoys playing with kids in the cool play area. I feel so enriched to have these older ladies in my life, and it makes their week to get out and chat.

Wednesday was scrap play day, got a layout completed for upcoming ARTastic DT and watched "Cars" the movie another 3 times, Nate leaves and goes and plays on his trampoline or bike and Jan and I are left to watch it, however, if he pops back in to see us and notices we have changed the channel to normal tv, B....so we just leave it on. I almost know the words off by heart.

Went for our walks on Thurs & Friday, and Saturday went to a small park (we walked) and their was a great children's fun day, Nate played with play dough, card and craftmaking & dress ups. We had a great day. I hope you are all very well, I have my scrap day with Amanda tomorrow so hopefully will have some layouts to share with you later in the week. Love to you all dear friends. Melxx