Birthday Card

Just a quick peak at a birthday card I made for a male friend who's birthday is coming up early next month. I will put his birthday present up after his birthday in case he sneaks a peak on here.

Online Scrapbook Class - Mini Basket

This afternoon I participated in one of Laura's "Following The Paper Trail" Paper Craft classes streamed live on UStream. Although the streaming seemed to be almost constantly buffering (which made it really difficult to follow at times, especially when you only got half of the instructions) I still managed to completed the class before the end of the live stream. (Thank goodness for all the chit chat is all I can say.)


You can find Laura's blog on this at Easter Basket Class which includes a link to the UStream where you can view a recorded version of the class. I'm not sure how long it takes for Laura to get the recorded version loaded, but be sure to check back a couple of times. She also has some other classes available on UStream not to mention her classes on You Tube.


Here is my finished Mini Basket. I may add some extra decoration and embellishments to the tags, but I also like them simple and plain just as they are.

Jewellery for Sale

A couple of days ago I finished these two pieces which I hope to sell on Trade Me (an Auction site here in New Zealand).


I had no idea what the choker would look like until it was finished (or even that it would end up as a choker). It looks so much better on my step-daughter Alysha than me just trying to photograph it on a backdrop.

The second piece is based on a pattern I found in a library book "Glamorous Beaded Jewellery" by M.T. Ryan.


This is a Slinky Cuff Bracelet in burgundy and gold which looks great in the daylight but even better at night - it just seems to sparkle so nicely. Think I will be making another one of these just for me.

Birthday Party Food by Miss Wendy

I know Miss Wendy has posted pictures of these, they were too cute not to post again.


The ginger nut cookies were just styled onto a plate - simple presentation. Meanwhile the marsh mellow honey pots were left on their tooth picks and pushed into lemons which I sliced a flat spot on the bottom to stand them up in. (An old 70's trick from my mother)

First Birthday Cake

I am not now nor have I ever been a baker. So I'm still yet to realize the wisdom in my deciding to make my darling Granddaughter a birthday cake for her first birthday. And not just any old birthday cake but an iced Winnie the Pooh birthday cake.


So the colour isn't totally correct and the icing needs a bit more practice and the facial features make him look like he should be in a horror movie not a kid's movie... but given I've never iced a cake before... I'm totally impressed with myself.

Sonia's Album

I'm in the countdown to Sonia-Marie's first birthday and first birthday party. I can't believe it was almost a year ago that my beautiful grand-daughter was born.


Like any good scrapbooker I am flat stick making sure her album is up to date so I can show off some of my latest scrapping.


Here are the pages I have completed the last few days. The first few I just had to finish titles and journalling, but still consider them only just finished now.

Challenge Entries

OK... I'm fulfilling two completely separate challenges here because I can.


The first is a "Three-Way Challenge" between myself and two very good scrapping friends of mine. It's an idea I came up with based on a similar challenge I have seen in Scrapbooking Magazines where you are all given the same photo and told to scrap it. We went one step further and the three of us each printed three copies of one or two photos, then we traded the photos so that we each ended up with three different sets of photos. We then brought them home to scrapbook. We have until early March to get them done when we will trade back the completed pages.


The second challenge is the Scrapdango Sketch Contest on the Page Maps Blog.
I have scrapped all three pages using the same sketch, both to enter into the contest and also to prove how versatile one sketch can be, even when used by the same scrapper.


The sketch I worked from (including the prize for the contest above the sketch):

Here are the layouts:


"Mum"

This is my good friend Glenna's mother. The journalling reads "Beach Front Photo Shoot".


"Princess Grumpy"

This is my good friend Tania's niece Brooke on her third birthday. The journalling reads "Brooke really wasn't happy about having her photo taken on her 3rd birthday, despite looking like a beautiful Fairy Princess." I love the way the patterned paper looks like an extension of her fairy wings from the placement of the photo.


"Those 70's Sisters"

This was one of my photos (I didn't use the second photo because I loved this one too much on its own.) Having seen the other ladies' photos I would have preferred printing my one a little larger, but knew I had to stick with what I had as that was all the others had to utilise.
The journalling reads "Circa 1973/4. Photo by Granddad Wilson. Digitised from slide by Uncle Bill Wilson. Scrapbooked 19.20.2010"
The title was stickers and rub-ons on a hand cut transparency journal block.


Aside from the sketch I also wanted to utilise some other commonalities across all three layouts. These were:

1. Use of hand stitching - a personal favourite technique of mine
2. Use of ribbons in particular as right hand edge for photo - because both my friends love ribbons but most especially Tania
3. Use of flowers as Glenna is definitely a flower lady and I love the way she uses flowers on her layouts