Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Always a bookworm


This is a dedication to Nate's fondness for reading ever since he was little, I am learning so much about what is important for me to tell Nate in my scrapbooking about himself - most of my inspiration has been coming from Simple scrapbooks magazine, I do like Creating Keepsakes also, Nate and I created the background by colouring our hand outlines and he just did a bit of a scribble for me, I really love this page, I hope he does when he is older too.

Simple Pleasures


I only had these small photos on hand of Nate asleep on the lounge, so I scraplifted a layout from Simple Magazines - (Wendy Smedley) bit dissappointed that they are going out of print though, buying as many old copies as I can, I love it. I didn't use much for this one, used some rub-ons around the photo of nate, a ScapFX chipboard heading from Kat at The Scrappin Kats and some of poor Aunty Jan's tape measure Nate cut up last time she was down here.

Nate has always been a reader, loves 1,000,000 books (well that is what it seems like) each night read to him, this one day last summer I found him on his mini lounge reading a 50c book from lifeline called (counting cows) and he looked so intrigued by each sentence, he is such a great little actor, I often think he will end up like a Sally on Home and Away. (Well a great job, good money and no stress, I would think) I used Bo Bunny cardstock, Scenic Route pp and Bella have this cute pp out at the moment with all these coloured tape measures on, looks cute. A friend of mine - Amy Brown from The scrappin Kats gave me the idea to put a rub-on on to cardstock and cut it out, I 3d'd it and I just love it, also Amy sent me the gorgeous blue and red square brads in a mystery RAK also, my style amazes me all the time, I do the simplest of layouts and then do a busy, multi-coloured one, hard to define my style......

Monday, May 18, 2009

Windows Live Hotmail


Windows Live Hotmail Jodie sent me this photo of the boys whilst they were feeding the mini ponies next door to her, we are saving up our bread now and will probably start buying carrots although it is not a standard on our shopping order. Jodie has a gorgeous property, not too big, just a great size, she has a poddy cow, 2 mini horses, a baby gosling, and all sorts of chickens, wonderful we don't need to go to the animal nursery anymore as we see them every Saturday.

Friday, May 1, 2009

I love these photos of my escapee, a little too big to get under the gate these days (thank goodness) I actually stamped onto acetate and then painted underneath it to get the see through effect, and used my bird paper from Basic Grey, copied around a chipboard tree in PP that I got from Kat at The Scrappin Kats and then decided to journal inside it, then used my Pink Paislee alpha stickers. I cherish these memories, hard to believe he is already too big to escape, where has my fun gone.

The Smartie Game

We were at Sizzler for Uncle Craig's 39th birthday and he would reach for a smartie and go to put it in Nate's mouth then detour it into his own mouth and Nate was so cute he would look surprised, put his arms out and say "Gone", a fun game, Nate clapped his hands when a smartie made it to his mouth. He loves his Uncle Craig, used alot of scraps for this layout, the butterfly is a cutout from some Urban Lilly paper, some Basic Grey and MM paper also, concertina'd it, was happy with the result, got the design for the layout from my Simple scrapbooks magazine but am so dissappointed they are ceasing publication. That is my absolute favourite mag.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Well he loves to play dress ups, he is so cute, has a thing for hats, have about 10 pics of different things he puts on his head like a hat, this time one wasn't enough, although this time he is spidey, has to have the boots on also, I love everything about Nate at two, he is growing up just so fast and I treasure every moment, he is the best company ever and now he is saying mum all the time it is soooo gorgeous, It's 6.38am easter Sunday morning and the easter bunny has just been here and left him some eggs and some treasures, I have the camera by the bed so I can record his face when he sees his basket full and the Little People construction site beside it, when he went to bed we checked it with a torch and it was empty!!!These are the best times of my life, I love my little man. Oh, so many photos, so many layouts to complete, although I can feel the mojo starting to return, planned out two of Kat's sketches last night and was actually happy with what I did, finished off one of the Kit's also with those gorgeous Sassafrass Lass papers, had so much hand stitching on it, I just love doing it, but it takes soooo long. Playing around with my stamp of Tilda and the rabbit, it will be great for the easter layout, Jodie came over yesterday and Tracy came over on Wednesday and no scrapping was achieved either day, I have just been a little slack but with what I achieved last night combined with Jan coming over tonight and I just finished looking at the Gallery at The Kats I feel some Mojo returning. Gee the Design Team there is awesome and with Kel doing the cards now, suppose it inspires me to no end, it's raining here great day for scrapping too, better go an creep back to bed and wait for my bubba to awake and catch the expression. Hope you all have a fantastic Easter and Josey, sorry I didn't come down to Sydney this break, but I am so looking forward to coming when I have just a bit more notice, the spontanaity is all gone and I have Nate and 2 poodles to thank for that.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

This is my favourite kind of page, 8.5" x 12", fits into the normal sleeves you buy at woolies and then just slips into my ringbinder as is, where you see black around the circles is actually hand stitching, so this took me hours to complete but I loved doing it, stitching is one of my favourite things to do on a layout, not sure why as I cannot sew to save myself, Nate is so amazing with his antics, so there will never be a shortage of crazy layouts in this house, I used Kat's new Gold Hero Arts Embossing powder on the letters, love love embossing, so much fun also, thank you so much Tracy for sharing with me the gorgeous ways I can use my powders.

Monday, March 23, 2009

This is my younger brother Craig with Nate at a celebration for Craig's birthday at Sizzler, we all had a great time, with Nate being the entertainment for our meal.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

I just love this photo of Nate and my old dog Maxi, they are great friends, here you see Nate in his new pjamas which come with that bright ball attached. At night if I do scrapbooking Nate gets the chair from his special table and chair set and brings it out and scraps with me, this involves getting a pair of scissors (yes you heard right) he is very profficient too, but this particular night he decided to cut open that bright ball and see what was inside, then after the mess is made and the damage done he walked over to me and said "dooonnnne" which is Nate's GONE. It was so funny, and that was the short life of the bright blue ball.

Friday, March 13, 2009

I got these gorgeous flowers today from Josephine, crazy Josephine, the card read, miss you, hope your feeling better, well when the interflora van turned up I would never have thought it would be coming to me, but wow, that just made my day, and yes I do feel much better now.
I finished this layout when I first started scrapping, probably about 18 months ago, I love Rouge De Guarance patterned paper, and I love this beautiful photo of my grubby little prince.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

I am still not fully recovered after 7 days with a severe chest infection, it has really knocked me for a 6, so no new layouts to show, but this is an amazing quilted mat (I guess that is what you call it) I was totally blown away by these talented quilters at a church fete I went to. The Scrappin Kats challenge this month is to design a layout based on something we have seen or are ispired by, the challenge is from Ames, she is what I call my Australian Ali Edwards, she really gets us all thinking, I love it, I am going to use this amazing quilt somehow, and am going to combine fabric into my layout. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

This is Nate with his Aunty Julie (my little sister) and he just adores her, she never fails to come out with some crazy photos, which make scrapping pages of her and Nate heaps of fun, you can see why Nate loves her.
This layout I did approx 12 months ago, thought I might start adding some of them as a indication to see if my style has changed. I am so inconsistant with my style though I go from limited embellishments and lots of photos, to filling the whole page with stuff so guess I just haven't defined my particular style as yet, I love it all ways.
My favourite scrap magazine is Creating Keepsakes, I have to admit for me some of my favourite pages are ones I have lifted from this magazine, usually Ali Edwards original designed ones, although I haven't been able to quite grasp her concept to use only a few photos (select the best) I have heaps of trouble with this so I try to scrap them all. But I still appreciate the inspiration I get from attempting to copy her layout, usually turns out nothing like the original which to me is a good thing. This layout was one of the ones with me holding the camera in front of me and just snapping away whilst we were being silly. I love these times, we both laugh and carry on like fools. Hope he remembers these times.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Isn't this the most awesome card, I actually see this as a layout, Kellie Winnell, a Stampin Up! Distributor, which is awfully dangerous, as they have the most awesome stuff, has become guest designer at two different locations, do yourself a favour if you want to be spellbound by her awesome cards, I first met her at my favourite scrapping site, The Scrappin Kats, and she is a great person as well as a very talented lady. This card is just one of the many gorgeous cards she has made (she could make me 10 kits to make these cards and I would buy them) she is just that talented). I wish she lived closer but I would love to have a few days of paper crafts with this lady. Anyway just wanted to showcase this as the nicest card I have ever seen......Big comment - but this is Me.

Monday, March 2, 2009

My favourite photo of us, this is in the frame on my duchess. Love you Josey
Just more crazy Jo.
And this is Jason the "must love Dogs" boarder, who boarded with me whilst in Hervey Bay, he is a chef so the meals were awesome, he also played the digeradoo and was very good. He is crazy also but they may come with knowing Josephine. lol.

The crazy lady in this photo is on her way to my house right now, I first met Josephine when I put an add in the paper for a boarder whilst living in Hervey Bay, the heading read "Must love Dogs" because my animals share the house with me (and I mean share) and Jason moved in with me and I met Josephine and her partner Rob as a result of this, I am so grateful I did, because she is an awesome person, she means the absolute world to me and although we don't see each other as often as we used to, I miss her gaiety, positive and down right craziness, I would imagine those of you lucky enough to know Kellie Winnell, would think of my Josephine like her, although she isn't into scrapbooking YET! I am working on her, and she pours over my albums when she is here. We will be planning a trip to Sydney later in the year to spend some time with her and her family so lots to look forward to. God bless all the crazy friends we all have out there, they make life so much more enjoyable.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

This is my good friend Jan, she conveniently lives 8 houses up the road and loves scrapbooking but makes cards also. We usually see her every day and she has a wonderful husband who Nate calls Uncle Col, they are very special people so alot of pages are dedicated to them, just to remind Nate when he gets bigger.