Countdown to Christmas …

… vintage style.

I played with some Kaiser Craft goodies last week.

These very cool Kaiser Advent Calendar kits arrived at Crafthouse last week … along with the three new Kaiser Christmas paper ranges and I just had to have a play.

I’ve used Kaisercraft Dear Santa papers and rubons. Just couldn’t resist the beautiful vintage colours and traditional Christmassy images.

And of course I couldn’t help but add some extra vintage bits and pieces … lace, book pages, bingo counters, pearls … you know, all the good stuff. Then I had to go digging in the attic for the box of Christmas decorations, I just knew there was a perfect nutcracker soldier man buried in there somewhere.

So yeah, lots of fun putting all the finishing touches on but I’ve gotta admit though, there was a whole lot of work involved in prepping, painting and putting the basic kit together … that part wasn’t so much fun. I think it was totally worth it though … don’t you?

It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas

… already!

 

And I think we can blame SBO for the most part! There’s a new comp going on called Ready, steady … it’s nearly Christmas. This one is using guest designers to set the challenges, so part of the fun is finding out who the next designer is and then, of course, doing the challenge. I think Nan Jules has set the tone for my entire Christmas theme this year with her ‘vintage’ challenge.

It seems that everything I create these days has a little touch of vintage … it’s like I can’t help myself … it just happens.

 

And then Naomi’s challenge was to use at least 5 photos, beads and gold or silver.

That’s Rebekah sitting next to Santa in the Wellington Christmas parade a couple of years ago. I saw parts of the parade yesterday … wasn’t really paying a lot of attention because I didn’t have the kids with me … saw Santa but totally missed the All Whites.

 

Anyway, back to the SBO comp. This week I’m the guest designer and I decided it was time to deck the halls.

So I made some quick alphabet blocks as my example. I’m surprised at how much my family is enjoying them … each time I walk past they’ve been rearranged into another word … some not necessarily Christmassy and definitely not all spelled correctly!

 

I also made a set of larger blocks a few weeks ago, which are on display at Craft house.

I’ve got more to share … will try not to leave it so long between posts next time!

Apple Shortcake, Prima and Basic Grey

Today we ate apple shortcake in memory of Nana and Grandad. Nana’s apple shortcake was the best … mine isn’t quite as good … but I use her recipe, so it’s as close as I can get. Maybe it’s that I convert ounces to grams … or maybe it’s that I use a mixer instead of my hand like I remember her doing … I made sure I used cold apple like her recipe says this time … maybe when I grow up to be a Nana I’ll have it sorted!

 

Today is/or would be Nana’s birthday and also the day Grandad died … so it’s a good day to eat shortcake and remember.

 

Prima … this is my ‘build a page’ layout for October.

This is my cousin Karen’s sweet baby … she lives in Melbourne.

Cute huh?

And new Basic Grey …

So maybe I need to start a scrapbook album for Siena!

 

Catch up Share

Thanks for all your comments on my Melbourne post … good to know I’m not the only one who appreciates a beautiful city with good shopping!

You know, around May … just last year … I thought a trip to Aussie was only a far off distant dream … that it would never happen. And then somehow … I’m still not completely sure how, except that it was a God thing … I found myself in Brisbane meeting the SOF girls. That was an amazing experience … a once in a lifetime experience … or so I thought…

… and then, before another year is out, I find myself flying off to Melbourne, another stamp in my passport to prove that once again dreams do come true!

Anyway … before rushing off to follow my dreams … I was playing the SBO Gok game. This was my vintage, handmade buttons and something else I forget layout:

That’s me … the short one … with the very short skirt!

So that was week 5.

Week 6 … I did very quickly before flying out …

This one needed a silhouette of me, stamping and a homemade journalling spot I think. Not too keen on the photo of me idea … but I didn’t have time to be fussy. The photo started out as a 5×7 I cut around the edge of me and then cut a smaller square around Jessi to get that look. I’ve had these papers since scrap camp in April so it was good to use them … and nice to do something fun and light as well.

And that was the end of the Gok comp …  might have to find something else to give me challenges and set me deadlines to keep me scrapping!

Since I’ve been back I’ve only done one layout and that was motivated purely by the fact that I wanted to try out my new smooch ink … I picked up two bottles while in Melbourne. Yummy stuff, seriously creamy and pearly and conveniently bottled with it’s own fine foam brush … very much like nail polish really, but totally scrapbook friendly.

I’ve stamped the trees with it and coloured the title letter stickers. Just another one of those photos I have in the huge pile I’ve been meaning to scrap. Good times, good memories … and I see there are spaces available in the 2010 camp.

Right … time to go do something before bedtime rolls around again.

Wanna see?

Where I’ve been and what I’ve seen?

Melbourne … such a beautiful city.

Such amazingly big trees and gorgeous parks right next to huge city buildings. Our hotel apartment was in the city centre but we still walked A LOT … we also mastered the Melbourne trams which saved my protesting legs a bit. Fortunate timing meant there was a huge craft show on … so I got to meet Lyn and Dawn at the Fiskars stand … and stock up on beading, scrapping, craft supplies all in the one very cool old building.

Of course … we went to shop and shop we did! Spent ages at the Queen Vic Markets and found this delightful little boutique type store with all things pretty. Also took a tram ride out to my cousin’s place in St Kilda so snapped a pic of the Luna Park face … didn’t go in though … more shopping won out against roller coaster rides.

More shops … loved the specialty shops with amazing window displays. I finally got a set of babushka dolls … have wanted some since I was little. Found a nice cupcake shop but didn’t take a pic … ate afternoon tea at this french bakery … and yes, it did take ages to choose!

Melbourne at night was incredible … watched the fire balls in front of the casino. The little drooling cutie is my cousins girl Siena.

The reason for our visit … to celebrate Mum’s 60th birthday … I think we did that pretty well. We bought her a ticket to Chicago the musical which was lots of fun and ate at fancy places.

Also squeezed in a visit to Ikea … just to see what’s there … and even managed to eat banana bread at Macca’s … an Australian delicacy … according to the SOF girls.

So … that was Melbourne in 5 days … totally need to go back one day and see the rest.

Busy Weekend

I spent most of the weekend teaching people how to make a tag similar to this:

At Wellington Paper Arts … so I spent many hours talking about chipboard covering techniques while longingly looking at all the other lovely shops displaying yummy products that I needed to see closer and touch and maybe take home with me. Of course I did manage a little bit of shopping and am now the proud owner of some copic marker pens … yay!

I put together this layout to show how a tag such as the one above could be used on a layout.

Was also going for the SBO comp … white space thing, but decided I really needed to try again on that one!

This is the layout I actually entered for white space.

It was really hard for me and I needed a whole lot of support from those around me at the crop I was at last Saturday.

This next one I entered in the ink/glimmermist category … had grand intentions to do one with glimmermist but somehow ran out of time for that … so went with the ink around the edges of everything … something that happens in pretty much every one of my layouts.

Fabric flowers are made from half circles of fabric folded and stitched in just the right way … I’d link to the tutorial I used if I could remember where it was.

Loving fabric covered buttons at the moment too.

And the last one … had to use under $5 of supplies. It’s been a long, long time since I thought about just how much it cost me to put a layout together … I have so much stuff these days that I just use whatever I please.

Using double sided papers certainly helps keep the cost down while still being able to layer a bit.

Also in the last week I’ve done a couple of vintage inspired layouts using Webster’s Pages.

Can’t use these ones for the SBO comp this week (even though they fit the criteria) because they are for a layout class I’ll be teaching at Crafthouse later on this month. Loved using Webster’s Pages … such gorgeous papers and I’ve also added a few yummy vintage finds too. So …  if you’re in Wellington I’d love to see you at the class …. but if you are a bit geographically challenged I might just be able to put together some kits and instructions … let me know if you’re interested.

I think that’s all the interesting show and tell stuff to share. Holidays are going well but busy. Today was the first day we had with nothing on … just chilling at home (trying to keep warm actually … it was freezing today). Alexander stayed in his ‘jama’s all day, Rebekah made soup for lunch and we pretty much hung out on the couch watching tv all day … nice!

I’m counting down the days till Friday … read this post on the Fiskars blog to find out why.

Time Passes By …

… sometimes just waaay too fast.

Do you ever have that problem? I’m thinking particularly the time between 9 and 3 … and then there’s the time somewhere round midnight and 7(ish) am …

Or we could think about those big chunks of time like Christmas is only 13 weeks away (or so I was told) and I’m not sure what happened to August and September.

And to go even bigger … what happened to the last few years? My kids were babies … I’m sure it was only yesterday. I blinked and they grew up.

Stop the world, I wanna get off … or atleast go in slow motion for a while! Just lately it seems that we’ve been rushing from one thing to the next … I feel like I’m missing the whole watching the grass grow, or at least watching the kids grow, thing.

I guess all that was on my mind when I created this layout.

Cosmo Cricket papers, a vintage book page and Stampin’ Up Stamps. This was my ‘wardrobe’ entry for the SBO Gok Inspired Comp … had to use stitching.

This one had to use fabric. I’ve used a 12×12 piece of canvas fabric as the base … and painted one side to match the Sassa paper. The journalling tag is also canvas which I painted with ribbon stiff … once dry I was able to write on it easily with my normal journalling pen. Notice I’ve rediscovered my stash of Queen and Co felt stuff.

And the 3rd one for this week needed to use pearl bling … which could, just maybe, be my favourite kind of bling right now … it goes so well with the pretty/vintage look. And yes … I have been saving the prima pearls for a while now … waiting for ‘just the right’ kind of layout … I guess I’ll just have to buy some more, ‘cos I think there are a few more ‘right’ kind of layouts just waiting for me to create.

Last week I was obviously busier … or maybe just not quite so determined … because I only managed to complete one of the 3 challenges.

Was playing with some paper clay stuff which I pressed into a mold to make the little bird. The tree is laser cut wood – I’ve lightly inked it with pinecone ink and sprayed it with a little bit of gold glimmermist but it pretty much looked that cool when I got it and all I had to do was stick it on my page. Got it from here … if you want one, just ask … ‘cos they’re so special they aren’t actually in the shop.

Notice I’m on about that growing too fast thing again in this layout!

I think I’m just ready for the holidays … time to take it easy in the mornings, time to hang with my kids … and maybe take a few photos … time to just chill and watch the grass grow some.

Not so excited about the whole daylight savings thing … but then, that’s a whole ‘nuther blog post.

Notice anything different …

… about me?

I guess it’s as plain as the nose on my face! lol

In scrappy news … I decided to play along with the SBO GOK fashion inspired competition.  Some fun challenges that will hopefully get me scrapping a bit more.

For this one we had to make our own felt embellishments … there’s that crochet again!

This one needed a paper pieced embellishment … I’d used this scalloped circle dress idea on a card recently … pretty papers are prima.

And this one was all about the colours – pink, purple and turquoise. More prima there and a bit of alcohol ink to get the colours right.

Okay … gotta go do housework … woo hoo!

I’ve been scrapping …

So … if I can crochet a fancy edge on a straight piece of paper … I should be able to crochet round a circle right?

Well … that’s what I thought anyway.

I put this layout together on Friday night at our monthly crop … was a little bit distracted chatting with/helping friends with their projects … but, given that I was also feeling totally uncreative … I’m okay with how this came together. A mix of basic grey and stampin’ up papers.

So if I can crochet in straight lines, and around curves … it must be possible to crochet swirl embellishments too right?

Looks a bit odd in this pic … I think it’s the placement of the flower that makes it look weird.

But anyway … it’s possible! This is my version of the prima build a page sketch … hence all the prima products.

Had a bit of fun with this layout … not long ago I discovered water soluble pastels, they go on with all the satisfaction of drawing with pastels and then they turn into paint with a wet brush … just like watercolour pencils – only waaaay better!  Also coloured the letters with them. The ‘blossom’ flowers are just flat white prima flowers which I layered, glimmermisted and scrunched while they were still wet.

And then I thought it was about time I played with these new Stampin’ Up papers. This layout came together really quickly … and surprisingly … I was okay with keeping it simple.

Love these textured papers … and it’s a good thing you get two of each design in the pack … cos the other sides are gorgeous (just not suitable for a boy layout)!

And there’s more … but I can’t share them just yet. ;o)

Feels good to be creating again!

Party Photos

This has got to be the easiest party ever … laser strike = no stress = no planning = no mess = easy! (Okay so there was mess … but we left it there and some other nice person came and cleaned it up … not me!)

Generally speaking … I enjoy planning parties, I enjoy creating amazing themed party supplies, themed games, themed cakes and generally going all out in fun stuff. But this year I just didn’t have the inclination to do all that. So we went with a Strike party.

There was the briefing …

And the guns and vests …

And the little girl who wore a tutu all day today (even at Church) who found it glowed in the dark really, really well.

And a Mum who had a great time playing with camera settings and capturing cool shots of lights and kids shooting each other.

And a rather excited 8 year old who couldn’t believe his luck … all that coke was for him and his friends to drink.

And of course … cake and candles too.

The only creative thing I did was a bit of last minute inspiration to stamp on some brown paper bags just to dress up the standard goodie bags a bit … oh and that sign on the front of the cake which I cut with my nestabilities to cover up the gap where the cake trim didn’t quite reach all the way round the cake.

So all in all a successful party and a happy big 8 year old having fabulous dreams tonight.