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So we make it to day 3 of the Stampin' Up giveaways week and this is where I start to get a little nervous.  I've got a lot on today, I have Abby home sick, I have to go to the vets because the gorgeous kittens that looked so healthy in the shop have cost me a fortune in vet bills and antibiotics for a tummy parasite.  Nice. I know.  Jacob also had a speech contest today which meant Abby and I got to sit through an hour and a half of speeches.  And my house still resembles an insulation factory with piles of toxic glass fibre insulation spread an inch think over everything. I had to make my own lunch alongside those of the kids' today because I knew it was going to happen so I'm fed, but glass fibre makes me restless.  I'm praying to the Gods of home renovation that the mess be over soon. 

And so apart from all that making me nervous (oh and Jacob won the school speech competition which means he now represents his school in the district competition next week.. getting into the finals out of around 150 students was massive, winning the finals is HUGE.  Where the kid gets his ability to speak, I'll never know….you know, being the meek person that I am ;o)

But I digress.

The thing that was really making me nervous today was that I had to add the tag (See previous posts) to a card.  And I'm not a cardmaker.  Actually I'm not a tagmaker either which is why we all ended up with a Strawberry scented water marked trial and error tag, but the process of cardmaking scared me even more.

So I procrastinated all morning and while I was sitting listening to speeches I decided that it doesn't really matter what the card is like because I know the truth and that is, that it is the giveaway that counts. (Just humour me, it helps the nerves)…..And so I came home, cut out some cardstock, punched a scallop and wrote 'thanks' on it over and over – yes, in my own handwriting, something you very rarely see, got a piece of lace off my desk, inked everything, stuck it down, found a Stampin' Up rhinestone brad and finished it off.  And we are done.  One card.

And so there we have it.  One thank you card.  And now I have one giveaway.  See the cardstock above, it's new from a set from Stampin' Up! called the "In Color" set. 

There are 6 colours and I have an A4 block of 36 sheets to send to someone.  Just leave me a comment and I'll draw a name next Monday!  And don't forget to leave your name on the two previous posts as well.

Off to feed some kittens some antibiotics.

Laters.

Tuesday arrived with the alarm instead of the small girl whispering at the bedside.  I’m not sure which was better, the little girl or the alarm- my day starts at 6am during the week.  Up and at ‘em …

In my inbox this morning was an email from Layle announcing Appleton,  the new Scenic Route line..  It’s fun; it’s bright and as usual Layle has giveaways, so head to her blog and take a peek!

The great news though is that it’s day 2 of the Stampin’ Up!  Giveaways and I’ve been busy in my scrap room again.  I didn’t have any unintentional creative discoveries like Strawberry scented colouring or wet-hand-watermarks, but I did have a tonne of fun.  The step by steps are below.  Leave a comment and I’ll add your name in the draw, I’m drawing all the names next Monday so feel free to leave comments on the old post too. 

Step 7.  Take your tag base and start stamping.  I chose a fairly solid image and used black ink to do a main flower up the left side.

 

 

Step 8. Continue with little more inking, using images that aren’t quite so solid.

You should now have a tag with a little more stamping on it, kind of like this – note the 'heavier' images over the left side – there is that art teacher rule I can't shake.

Step 9.  I added another solid image on the right side, but kept it quite low, this time I chose a sentiment from the Stampin’ Up! Heartfelt Thanks stamp set.

 

 

 

Step 10 – Decide on some embellishing.  Since I was already going with the Stampin’ Up theme I carried on with this heart from the ‘Happy Hearts’ set.  I used it with the ‘Real Red’ ink. 

 

 

Step 11 – Gather together any other embellishments you would like to add and start adhering!  The sentiment I used was another one from the ‘heartfelt thanks’ set.  I coloured some more white cardstock with the accidentally strawberry scented colouring and let it dry, I think stamped my sentiment and inked the edges with the chocolate chip ink.  So here is your finished tag! 

Note the strip of kinda splotchy white and brown paper, is the edge of the tag that I cut off yesterday… I’m never one to waste things and I liked the white contrast.  I like that it goes off that edge too, I left it on purpose.  The criss-crosses are definitely a touch of Tim Holtz. 

 

 

Tomorrow I might even put this tag on a card.  Or something.  Not sure… still thinking that one over.

And today’s giveaway?  A few of you mentioned in the comments yesterday about the Stampin’ Up!  Stamp cleaner thing – it’s called the Stampin’ Scrub.  I have one to give away along with the stamp cleaner mist.  It surprises me that it’s one of the things that people mention they love from Stampin’ Up! most.  (me… I’m all about inks, stamps, pretty stuff… not cleaning stuff…lol)…Anyway, leave your name and I’ll add you in the draw! 

Laters.

 

Edited to add: I promised I'd link any Stamp'Up! demonstrators if they wanted to be linked – here are the ones I know of.

Janine Rutherford – Auckland

 Delys Cram – Whakatane/East Coast

Jacque Stamphappy –(Check out this technique blog!)

Anne-Marie – Brown's Bay, North Shore

Karen – Waitakere

Keryn Campbell – Wellington

Megan Finer – New Plymouth

“It’s the Queen’s Birthday today” Abby whispered to me this morning as I was sleeping.  “Happy Birthday to her”, I whispered back finding irony in the fact that one of the only bonuses we get from being linked to the royals is the one sleep in per year and here I was losing it to be told it was her birthday.  Perhaps next year.

I’ve been extremely busy in the scrap room.  The Tarisota site changed over to show sneak peeks of the June kit which means that I’m busy working on my projects. 

 

 

This is one of them, which is currently posted on the Tarisota website under the influences section.  The influences section is full of all sorts of stuff linking back to the current kit, sketches, quotes and every month there is a ‘featured product’ which we all concentrate on, showing tips, tricks and techniques.  This month it is Heidi Swapp Gel Blossoms.   I created this card to show how the blossoms change colour depending on what patterned paper you put behind them.

I’ve also been busy with the Stampin’ Up! Posts for my blog!  I have giveaways all week this week so keep checking back.

So this first post I wanted to show you something cool that was heavily inspired by Tim Holtz.  I’ve a new love for inks and paints and distressing.  All that brown kinda stuff I left behind with Issue 19 of For Keeps and my first ever magazine article (about scrapbooking and playing cards!).  Remember that? You’ve been around a while if you can. I’ll take you through the first steps of paint and ink resist today and tomorrow I’ll finish the tag. 

Step 1.  Cut a tag from white cardstock.

 

Step 2. Stamp on your tag using white paint.  I’ve used a background stamp from the “Looks Like Spring” Stampin’ Up! Set, but you can use anything.  I’ve used butterflies and other backgrounds before.  You’ll stamp the image and think I’m crazy because it won’t show at all.  Trust me, stamp the image and let it dry.

 

Step 3.  Use some walnut ink or other dye to colour your tag.  I had none of the above so I used food colouring.  I have NO idea how this will affect the tag in the future but I just went with what I had handy.  Funny thing is that I was making brown using red, blue, green and a little yellow and I felt it needed to be a richer brown so I added more red.  Except I reached for the strawberry essence instead. Now I have a nice strawberry scented tag.  Who knew I was so clever.  Again, let it dry. See how the white suddenly pops out – ahh the plan starts to fall together! 

 

Step 4. Once the tag is dry, use ink and a sponge to darken the edges.  I’m using Stampin Up! Chocolate Chip ink here.  I’ll never forget my art teacher telling me when I was 14 that you should always shade the left and lower edge of an image.  (this especially applies to lettering etc when adding a shadow).  I followed that theory here and inked those edges and towards the centre a little.

 

Step 5.  I used 2 contrasting inks to create coloured patches within my tags.  Can you see the red and blue in there?  I kept it from the top right edge, I just kept working around the lower left more and it started to come together.  I’ve used SU Buckaroo Blue and Cranberry Crisp. 

 

Step 6.  Your tag is ready to start decorating.  You can see the brown shading the contrasting red and blue in there.  You can also see where I picked it up with wet fingers at the top there.  I was washing my foam brush and decided to move the tag into the sun.  Not something I planned but I kinda like the result so I’ll pretend that was something I did on purpose.  I’ll call that the picking-up-your-dry-tag-with-a-wet-hand-and-creating-a-watercolour-effect-technique.

 

So there it is!  The tag ready for decorating.  This post is getting massively long so I’ll leave it and finish it tomorrow with all the embellishing, stamping etc.  I do have a giveaway though.

Stampin’ Up! Have provided me with 3 inkpads in their new colours, Purely Pomegranate, River Rock and Blue Bayou.  These are huge ink pads, and I’ll be giving all 3 away to a random comment at the end of the week.  I’m hoping if I comment enough on my own posts I get to just keep them, is that Ok you think?  Leave a comment.  I’ll post all winners next Monday.

 

Check back tomorrow for the rest of the post and another giveaway.

*Talking of giveaways, I’m off over to the Queen & Co blog to give details of a competition over there.  It’s open to everyone worldwide so be sure to let everyone know.  Just give me a little while to write that post up!

 

Edited to add: I promised I'd link any Stamp'Up! demonstrators if they wanted to be linked – here are the ones I know of.

Janine Rutherford – Auckland

 Delys Cram – Whakatane/East Coast

Jacque Stamphappy –(Check out this technique blog!)

Anne-Marie – Brown's Bay, North Shore

Karen – Waitakere

Laters.

Friday night is my very favourite night.  I can't get enough of Project Runway and America's Next Top Model.  One takes raw materials and turns them into artful creations and the other is a lot about photography etc. A scrapbooker's dream.  I watch with my laptop on my lap, catching up on email.  Who knows what I actually type, I just hope it makes sense to the recipient – if you get an email from me tonight that totally does not make sense, you know why.

This past week has been spent trashing my own house, the outside is nearly done it only seems fitting the inside is trashed too.  We'll have a beautiful home when we are done but for now we cuddle kittens for warmth and clear gib dust and rubble from the kitchen bench before trying to prepare a meal.  I'm sure a few of you can relate.  And should have warned me.

Oh my goodness and this will make no sense whatsoever to anyone born after about 1987 and anyone outside of New Zealand but I bought myself the DVD of the Under the Mountain Series.  Best viewing for ages.  I don't really what that much T.V. although tonight it's sounding like it, but this series is soooooooo …well….sooooooo 1980's.  We sat and laughed our way through the cutting edge graphics and stubbies shorts pulled up far too high and the emergency phone call to 111 on the dial telephone.  Mum could you really not walk around with the phone in the old days?  Real Groovy Records has it if anone is interested.

Scrapping – I've been doing a lot of that this week too – Queen & Co just released new mini felt.  Pics on the Queen & Co blog here.  I'm in the process of setting up a competition on the Queen & Co blog to give some away, Check back over the next few days to see how to enter.  Like when I've figured out what kind of contest to do.

Aside from that it's beenTarisota that is keeping me busy, as well as the Stampin Up blog posts for next week.  I'm looking forward to it.  I'm especially looking forward to getting rid of the box of prizes that Stampin' Up! provided off my floor.  I'm not a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, despite the fact I use a lot of their products, so if there are any SU demonstrators out there, put your hand up, I'll link in the next post.

Ok.  Project runway are making clothes from Chocolate wrappers.  I need to concentrate.  I'll leave you with a few pages from a circle journal I created recently.  Some random facts about me, some MM Blossoms and it was done.

laters

I am in the mood to talk, but there is noone here to listen to me.  Jacob and Braden are at school and Paul is on a school trip – No Mummy, Daddy can come with us, because he is so much cooler.  Abby is at Kindy.  At least I can type and there may be some that listen.  Although with the way Typepad is going this computer may end up being put on the naughty spot.  Typepad.  Sort your crap out, please.

The kittens are settling in grandly, and despite the varous toileting problems that I won't describe due to the fact that one may be put off one's vegemite on toast if one is currently eating their breakfast, we still love them.  And this is what I remind myself over and over as I'm cleaning out the litter tray. Little kittens are so cute, little kittens are so cute.  Here is some favourite pics from the past week, yes I cut off the bottom of Molly's face in this first one, what can I say.  She is fast, I am not.  I love the pic all the same.

Just a sidenote – I heard that today is national eat-whatever-you-want day.  How appropriate, because that was what I planned doing :o)  Gotta love New Zealand's idea of a national day.  We're an on-to-it nation, really.

I'm a total stale-mate with the kids album.  I really want to fill in the blanks with the pictures that Abby is meant to draw but she is refusing.  She tried again to draw, this time she tried a picture of herself and a school bag at her feet.  She got the fabulous stick-person-Abby right and then spat the dummy, threw the pencil and gave up.  Head in hands she sobbed.  I can't draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw.  The child is 4.  I find that really sad.  Not giving up no matter how you feel you are doing is big on my qualities to try and instill in my children.  It seems I'm already failing with Abby.  So it's back to the drawing board for me and I may by-pass those pages and do soem more photo ones soon. Stay tuned.

EXCITING NEWS!  - starting next Monday 2nd June I'll have that week of giveaways.  I have a box of Stampin' Up! stuff on the way to me and every day, Monday through Sunday I'll demo one of their products and I'll have one to giveaway.  Let me hear ya say YEA! lol.  So that's a week of posts from me and a demo a day as well as a giveaway a day.  Goodness help me as I try and get some blogs posts organised while my house is being renovated around my ears, but I am determined to not miss a day!  Again. Stay tuned.

I'll leave you with a layout I did with Suz Doyle's photos.  I was supposed to scrap Suz's photos in Suz's style.  I admit I held back a little on this.  I mean I tried really really hard but I knew that Suz pops more colour into her layouts, but I couldn't make it work with any more colour so I left it with the white space and dreamy-ness that I associate with Suz.  Gosh I love the way Suz scraps and it was an honour to be scrapping her pics.  Just wish I could have added that colour she is well known for!

Laters

It's been far too long – I'm trying to be a more regular blogger, last week I failed somewhat, next week will be better.

Briefly… (I don't truly know if I can do briefly)…

* I LOVE what Megan Renfree has done in creating a new scrapbooking community in SketchBookNZ.  the site has nothing really to do with sketches and everything to do with a great forum and gallery that isn't affiliated with any retailers or manufacturers.  Megan mentioned she has hopes of the site becoming the kind of place where we all check in first thing in the morning over our cereal kinda thing.  I think she has hit the spot with the site, and I agree with Megan when she mentions a nuetral site where scrapbookers can all gather will be beneficial to us all.  NZ is such a small place, it's great to have a community to serve us as one.  YAY!  Go NZ scrapping!

*I figured out on Thursday that many of the Pascalls Lollies family packs have a free Itune song with them.  It's actually cheaper to buy the lollies and get the free ITune than to buy the ITune.  What an excuse to buy more lollies. LOL. Love it.  I'll have the milk bottles.

*I'm a little late with this, but check out the Aussie ScrapSource Blog – direct link here to a post where Jaimie Emmerton and Mel Goodsell used my pics to scrap a page in my style.  Well check the post out but WOW they did a page in my style better than I do.  Darnit. LOL.  I didn't realise I was so predictable! 

Here is my version of the page.  Check the link to see their versions. 

* I saw Janine Kaye was a guest designer at Scenic Route – She has some amazing gorgeous pages here at the Scenic Route guest designer page.

Ok – back to editing photos – I have some kids pages to do…

laters

My favourite part of the last few days?  Ringing my Mum and letting her know there will be the pitter patter of little feet around the Howard home again.  There was no fooling her though and she knew what it was likely to be.  Welcome to our world, little Molly and Jack.  (Bad pic – I apologise!  They are 50 times cuter IRL)

My least favourite part of the week so far?  Going to the dentist on Monday.  I was a little early and as I sat in the waiting room I looked over the various books and magazines on the table thinking how I can’t concentrate on reading anything whilst waiting to be called in for my appointment . Then I notice the bible.  Sitting right there next to the New Zealand guide to Bed and Breakfasts.  It just seemed kind of bizarre.  (Trying not to offend anyone here) but there I was feeling like I was about to meet my maker and they kind of confirmed it by having the bible there in the waiting room. lol.

Kid’s album – I’m up to the pages that Abby is meant to draw herself.  The cute pictures of what she wants to be when she grows up etc.  Unfortunately she won’t draw.  She tried to draw herself holding a hammer and she didn’t think her drawing was good enough.  So she screwed it up and threw it away.  Then refuses to draw again.  Sad.  I’ll try again tomorrow although Abby is a spitfire, she does things by her own rules, doing something I ask her to do is out of the question.  I’ll have to somehow trick her into drawing me something.  Once she has it in the book, she will be so proud so I need to push on.

I see new Becky higgin’s sketches are up – I haven’t seen calls for these for ages – perhaps I haven’t been looking – it reminds me I should drag out those old sketches books.   I looked through my old albums the other day and was reminded how many double layouts I used to do.  Seeing those, and then seeing these sketches made me think – wow, maybe I should try a few double layouts again.  Then I realised how frightening that thought really is and I came to my senses.

I’ve been enjoying ScrapScene lately, especially the love that the NZers and Aussies have been shown on there.  Lusi Austin (who has a really fun blog to visit anyway, despite the fact she has some fun product releases on there!) features a lot and just recently, our very own Louise Williams was on there. 

Did I show you my latest purchase from Trademe? 

That’s the listing pic from trademe, not a pic of my home.  Noooooooooo I should be so lucky. lol.

Anyhoooo I was at Trina’s house recently and she had something similar and as she completed a layout she put it in the easel.  In front of the last layout she did.  It just means you get to see your last creation for a bit before putting it in an album.  Or leaving it on the easel till no more can be jammed in front and then being put on a shelf and staying there for years.  Albumless. 
I was rapt when I found this on trademe and asked the lady if she had more – here is her email address if you want it … Opulence Living .  Tell her you saw it on my blog (I get nothing out of it, it’s just cool to see that she is getting credit where credit is due for a cool product :o)

Did I mention anywhere I’ll happily and most gratefully take unwanted bluebird rugby cards off anyone’s hands?  (Talking of trademe reminded me of this – I have been scouring trademe looking for them after Braden’s got stolen out of his schoolbag at school! – Poor wee mite, he had a little velvet bag he kept them in and he very diligently returned them to his bag after trading time at lunch and returned to find his bag wide open, and they had gone through and taken all the best cards out and left the dud ones.  He was devastated, especially as he had been ‘earning’ them at home from me.  I was getting so much housework done. lol) ANyway.  The promotion is over, but don’t throw them away if you have them hanging around, I’d like to get even more housework done.

Talking of housework.  I’ll leave you with this layout.  Have you seen it yet?  Another one that went missing in the MM shipment…laters

Now it’s no secret I’m a self confessed winter-grinch.  I’d see no problem with having no wintertime at all, except that would mean the world had stopped turning and that in itself could pose small problems, perhaps.  But there are some good things about winter, I admit.  Daffodils and Irises for example.  Feijoas and fresh apples.  And this.  Buttercup Squash.

Now pumpkin of any sort has never been popular with me but I found a yummy recipe that makes this wintertime food something to look forward to.  So I thought I’d share.

Nic’s Mums Super Amazingly Easy Microwaved Buttercup Squash recipe.

Ingred:
1 Buttercup squash, cut open as pic above.  Seeds scooped out.
1 Packet dried Maggi onion Soup.
Water.

Cut open squash to make a ‘pot and lid’.  Scoop seeds out.  Place in a dish, a little bigger than the squash .  Half fill the squash with water and mix in the dried soup. Place the ‘lid’ back on, but put it on ‘wrong’ so that there is room for the steam to escape as you cook.

Microwave for 5 minutes on high.

Take it out of the microwave, carefully take off lid and stir the ‘sauce’ in the middle. 
Return to microwave and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Repeat this process several times until the squash is cooked.  As the squash starts to cook you’ll find as you stir the ‘sauce’ mix in the middle that you start to scrape off cooked squash into the sauce as well.  YUM!  Just be careful not to scrape too much off!

It usually takes around four 5-minute lots in the microwave until mine is cooked.  At that point, carefully take the sauce out of the middle with a spoon (be careful not to scrape away too much cooked squash!) and put it in a gravy jug.  Cut the squash into slices and serve with a little pumpkin sauce on top.

YUM!  (And let me know how you go!  Prices of squash will drop further as wintertime passes, it’s a great cheap food once the prices get really low!)

Alrighty.  Scrappy things.  I’m involved in a big sketching fun forum thingie over at Scrapbookers Clubhouse .  They have a Celebrity Sketch Extravaganza going on for over a week with new sketches added daily – so far they’ve had Becky Fleck & Angie Pedersen, and then today is my day!!  Here is my sketch (none of this fancy computer generated stuff, good old pen and paper here!)

And this sketch came from one of my favourite CHA layouts, and you’ve seen this layout many times before probably but it’s one of my all time favs.

So there ya go – I kinda like that sketch, I may use it again myself!  There is a whole forum dedicated to this sketch including layouts created from this sketch here.  The ladies are using older product and using up their stash – good to see, we could all do with a bit of that, huh?!

Happy Friday – I’m off to create new computer programs for the 08-09 tax year for our construction business.  Tax time.  Another reason to dislike winter.

Oh – edited to add – yes! Please keep sending me the kids pages to add to my sidebar gallery!  I have a pile in my inbox to add to the gallery and I’m off to do that now – thanks so much for the inspiration!  (If you are doing a kids’ booka nd haven’t checked the sidebar gallery out, please do so!)

laters.

I’ve been creating again, ready to add to Abby’s album.  I’m finding the size quite limiting, but then maybe that’s good, she doesn’t need anything creatively amazing, she just needs the pictures, the words and the sentiments.  I should just go with that!

Today I made a double page.  I am jumping all over the place here, but here it is –

Page 8 – Friends make me happy, this is my friend Jessie
Page 9 – The thing we like to do together is play dress-ups.

 

The background is actually way cooler in real life.  I used some pens and stamps and stamped images over and over on a background cream colour.  Because I didn’t want it to overwhelm the photos and because I wanted the circle embellishment (above) to stand out, I placed vellum, yes vellum, over the stamped cream cardstock background.  I used the same stamped background to create the circle embellishment above – as you can see the vellum toned it down a lot.   Here’s what it looked like before i added the vellum.

And yes – there is the scalloped circle again, there are the leaves again.. you know my motto, if one is loving something, one should do it more often.   Note the Cloud 9 raindrops in the closeup, I know you’ll be seeing more of those – it’ll be leaves, scalloped circles and raindrops you’ll be sick of seeing.  Also I found this pen (actually Abby found this pen) in my little pen box called a ‘Glitter Pen’.  (Not the one in the above photo, that’s the Stampin’ Up! one I use to stamp with …I just mean I found another pen!) It is by American Crafts and I have no idea where I got it but I LIKE it! lol.  You can’t see so well in the pics but that little punched flower is glittered.

(Supplies list: Cardstock; Stampin’ Up old olive and very vanilla. Friend stamp; Looks like spring set from Stampin Up. Leaves stamp; All natural set from Stampin up. Background stamps; Aged to perfection set from Stampin Up. Punch from Stampin Up.  Pen for stamping from Stampin Up.  Gem from Kaiser.  Raindrops from Cloud 9.  Glitter Pen from American Crafts.)

As I mentioned yesterday, I thought we’d do a run down of the basic 18 pages.  This is from a post here where it is all explained in much more detail.  I’ll post it below so those that want to can scroll through. As you can see, I’m about halfway… I’m hoping to fly through it over the next few weeks.  I’ve been getting a few more pages from others in my inbox as well, so check back to the ‘Kid’s albums by others’ gallery in the sidebar.

Right.  Back to work.  Emails to answer.  Pages to create.  Pantries to browse.  Lunch to make.  Chocolate wrappers to hide.

Laters.

Page 1: Inside cover:
Photo of child holding the same amount of fingers as their age.  Title saying "All about me" and "A scrapbook made especially for me by …" or something similar, and the date.  DONE

Page 2: A nice pic of your child.  Write "My name is….." and get them to write their name.  Write "And I am __________ years old".  Get them to write their age. DONE

Page 3: Things I like about myself.  I like my ______________ (smile? teeth? feet? curly hair?  whatever they say!) Take a pic of that thing or those things for this page. DONE

page 4 & 5: A list of favourites: (There is no photo on my pages with this list but since it goes over 2 pages, there is room for one if you want – add any ‘favourites’ you see will suit!) DONE
Colour, Food,Ice Cream,biscuits,Song,Book,TV Show, Sport, Hobby, Game, Season, Holiday.

Page 6 "This is a photo of my smile"  Take a picture of your child with their best smile. DONE

Page 7"I’m smile like this when …." Ask your child to finish the sentence and take a pic of them doing that thing.  Abby said "When I’m with Jessie playing "Dress-ups". OPPS I need a pic of them playing dressups

Page 8 "Friends make me happy!  This is a photograph of me and ________" and take a pic of your child with their fav friend.  DONE

PAge 9 "something we like to do together is____________" and take a pic of them playing together. DONE

Page 10 is a picture that your child has drawn.  Be sure to ask them what it is, if it isn’t too apparent.  Record this in a note at the bottom of the page.  It’s amazing what insight this page gives to their personality at the time.

Page 11 "If I were an animal, I’d be a _______________ " And take a pic of your child acting like that animal. DONE

Page 12 "Someday I want to _____________"   Don’t take a pic of them, this time you ask them to draw a picture of themselves doing the thing that want to do someday.

Page 13 "If I could go anywhere, I’d go __________ "  Again, ask your child to draw a picture.  (Awww looking back on Jacob’s, he said "home".  Braden said "Odette and Gratton’s house".

Page 14" I’m happiest when_______________" Take a pic of your child to go with this.

Page 15 "This is a photograph of me with my favourite_____________"

Page 16 "These are my hands.  Please remember to handle me with care"

Page 17 "Hands are good for waving hello, helping, holding and for saying I love you.  Hands are never good for hitting".  On these 2 pages, draw around your childs hands.  One on each page.

Page 18.  Thankyou for reading my book with me.  The end.

And that is the end of the book as it came – I added more pages such as the following:
This is my brother
Our favourite game is
This is a photo of my family

It’s a huge week.  For mother’s day I got a value pack of dairy milk chocolate.  That’s worthy of a post by itself.  Except the more people I tell, the more likely it is that I might have to share.  So just forget that I said that. 

My first Project NOW class went up at Big Picture Scrapbooking this week.  For those of you that couldn’t make it to Crafting Connection in November last year, this is the Conversations class.  It’s instant download and you use materials from home (unless you want to use exactly what I used).   I’m excited!  And nervous and worried noone is going to understand what the heck I’m saying on the audio. But it’s all good.  (It’s "All G, Mum! my son would say… it took me a while to understand that one.. All WHAT ?  "All G, Mum – like All good – get it?" Seriously when did the generation gap sneak up and smack me upside the head?  )

So this is the link to the Conversations class and you can see my Big Picture bio here – the things those ladies ask!  All in the name of good fun :o)  i’ll have two more classes in the very near future.  I’ll let you know when they go online :o)

Did you see that BasicGrey have just released a new range of paper?  Euphoria.  Ice Blue and raspberry.  Let me think for a minute if I’m going to like it… um YES.  Especially those alphas.  Kelly Goree has some pages created with it on 2peas. Grow – my favourite.  and this one with Molly’s little girl .  While I was at kelly’s gallery I noticed she did a darn fine job of using the Scenic Route Loveland here too.   note to self to visit Kelly’s gallery more often.

The camera – yep, I got it – for way less than that special price too.  I love it when circumstances work out like that.  I’m a happy girl.  I have a camera that works now.  The last one was seriously messing with my head.  So glad I can go about day to day work now without having to curse. Everyone thinks it’s so much nicer.

Evana is moving to Perth!  What is up with that! Good news is that it’ll be easier and cheaper for me to meet her in Sydney every now and again than it was to get to her in the South Island.  Woohoo! lol

Alright – kids album.  I whipped up a very quick (yes, very very quick) page before starting this post – I love this one …. asking Abby what she would be if she were an animal.  A flamingo!  And she posed with one leg held up. Hehehe.  Love it! I used BG 2 scoops and I found some Cloud 9 raindrops.  I haave had these for a while and decided they are actually pretty cool, so I thought I’d use them.  You can’t see them very well.

Look for me to post another page tomorrow, and I’ll re-post all my older pages and give a run-down of the pages and where we are up to – sound like a plan?  You should all be able to get right on track then. 

Laters