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Two more sleeps til my brother arrives from London. I’ve been boasting the 30degree days and the lack of rain to him for weeks. If the person that took the sun could kindly send it back my way now, I’d be a happy girl. I can’t believe how quickly this weather has turned. Happy to see rain, disappointed that Vaughan won’t arrive to those glorious summer days we had. Send. the. sun. back. lol.

Want to contribute to a huge scrapbooking charity??? You’ll have to do some scrapping… might be tough goin…
I got this email from Julie Stone talking about a kiddies charity. I took a look, thought about it and didn’t think again. As ya do. Then I was at Trina’s blog the other day and saw that Trina is coordinating the NZ part of this charity. I read further and thought why not?

Now this happened to be the same day that I recieved some cool stuff from Stampin’ Up! – I’ll be doing some projects using Stampin’ Up! on my blog soon…anyway I’m chatting to Stampin’ Up about this charity and all of a sudden they want to help out too! COOL!
So this is the deal.

This is the Southern Cross Kids Camp in Australia. Its a camp that is held for abused and ‘at risk’ kids . The camp is run by volunteers who help them put together 6×6 scrapbooks – they take photos and put them in scrapbooks. SO cool. Alot of the time these books are the only photos these children have of their childhoods.

So last year they created the pages all at the camp. This year they are having twice the kids and since they need 1600 pages they decided to do it all beforehand. So.

Who’s in? Julie needs 1600 6×6 pages. I’ve started to scrap a few and here are pics of the ones Julie suggested you copy – and some I have been creating. Now these are all done with Stampin’ Up! stuff – except for that tiny bit of BG blush you see there.

So they need 6×6 pages. Really simple. Room for a 5″ x 3.5″ photo.

AND this is the bonus.
For every 8 pages you scrap and send to me or Trina, I’ll put you in the draw for a prize from Stampin’ Up! YEA! more GIVEaways!!!!

You don’t get entered into the draw until Trina or I have received your pages in the mail – but you have 5 weeks! Imagine how many sets you could do! I made 4 this morning in under an hour and that was really mucking around with these stamps – I just had to play lol.

So again – It’s 8 pages – you can get those out of 2 sheets of cardstock! Simple simple easy simple. Create 8 and send them to me or Trina and I’ll put you in the draw.
AND I’m pretty sure people on other blogs are going to follow suit…Trina mentioned prizes on her blog for creating 8 pages too – we’ll make this a true group effort… so you could be entering for prizes all over the place …
Who’s IN?!!!! You have til March 21st.

(and thanks Stampin’ Up! for the prize for my blog!).

Oh – something for the designers, For Keeps is sponsoring a prize or two for the Scrapbooking Industry Australia Commercial Designer Awards. It’s a different kind of competition as it recognises those people in the scrapbooking industry that are trying to become established as designers. Prizes for Outstanding commercial design for an individual and for a design team. Aaaaaaaaand I’ve just read the rules and it seems it’s Aussies only – go you Aussie girls! Good luck to everyone!

So. That sun. Who’s going to reassure myself it’s on its way back? Drinking a rum with my bro on the deck just isn’t the same when it’s raining ;o)

laters.

I’m a proud New Zealander tonight. So proud. I smiled watching the news as I heard that the Flight of the Conchords have won a Grammy. A Grammy? I think I got that right, but it’s just flippin awesome. I’ve been a fan for a while – ever since seeing this clip on Youtube actually and just about wetting myself laughing so hard. This is huge though – GO Flight of the CONCHORDS! Yea! I think it’s one of them that does those awesome L&P ads on TV too. I’d love to see these guys in concert.

Business Time. Crack me up.
Ok seriously.

More BG layouts. This one “Living for Today” was a mix of Sultry, Two Scoops and Sugared, which goes to show that if the papers can mix and match. I’m a huge fan of doing this with the older BG papers too and to be honest it darn near killed me not being able to do it with the other assigned layouts. Because I loved doing it, I curled the papers and used brads and buttons and other gorgeous stuff.

This next one is a Two Scoops layout but I used a heap of the new BG stamps. The word ‘unique’ and the label and swirls, butterflies, birds etc are all stamps – as is the thing that looks like one of the old BG rub-ons.. SO cool they come in stamps now.

BTW you’ll notice I often use photos that I have used before in my layouts for manufacturers. Mostly because I use the best pics I have and also because I never really know if I’m getting them back. One assumes so, but never really knows.

BasicGrey Four You – take 2 – I’ve had questions – Are the layouts on 2peas the ones that are in the Tarisota collection? Ummmm nope. Ok so one is. the really super cool one – I’ll let you choose which that is. One is close. Two are totally never been seen before and the 2 cards are still floating around in my mind ready to fall out onto my scrap desk any minute now. I’m sure. All have instructions and embeliishments and stuff and face it, you’ll have 4 layouts and 2 cards done with 4 new BG collections of papers before most people even receive it in their mailbox. Lovin that idea. LOL.

CHA – I have found that this site is the best for looking up CHA booth pics if anyone is interested. I’m dying to see some of the Queen & Co & BasicGrey booths. Link me if you have links!

Did I mention it’s 6 sleeps til my brother comes home from London? Yea. All those pics of large snapper and glorious summer days paid off.

Laters

As mentioned in my post below, BasicGrey Four you, take 2 is now ready for pre-order.
It is loaded under Limited Editions on the Tarisota website. Last time I created one of these collections it sold out within a day – Tamar got more onsite and it sold out a second time really quickly too.

Ok. On with the day. Monday feels sooooo much better than Sunday. lol

laters

Monday tomorrow and for once I’m looking forward to it. For one thing, Sunday has felt pretty darn bad, I can’t handle a night out specifically the drinking actually like I used to. That’s the second time in a week I’v had a wake up call that I’m not erring on the side of youth anymore. Earlier in the week I had a telemarketer ring. I was just about to give her the “Don’t you know it’s dinnertime and I’m really busy and please can you take me off your calling list” speel when she asked if there was anyone 18-34 in the home. My mouth dropped open to answer and give her the big grumpy rev and all I could manage was a little “no…” “thankyou.. bye” – I put the phone down slowly and dragged my middleage butt back to the kitchen and cooked dinner LOL

But anyway. Monday. CHA starts, and finally I get to share the 7 Basicgrey pages I created. BasicGrey have 5 new lines releasing this CHA season, all of which I worked with in varying degrees. I have my favourites and finally I have been given the go-ahead to show you a few of my layouts! (And I’d love to hear what you think of the papers! The BasicGrey releases always seem to be one of the most anticipated!)

Boxer is a new line by BasicGrey that incorporates gorgeous masculine reds and blues, but has touches of grass green and whites. On first look it is a masculine line, but the patterns have a slightly architectural, floral touch, which meant to me that this line was suitable for anything the colours suited, really. As you can see, by the pics of Abby I used with it. I’m personally amused by the patterns and the names of the papers – like low-rise, commando, courduroy, it’s truly all about the boxers huh?

Archaic is a more subtle line. It has the old-age qualities of clay orange, moss greens and earthly browns. Add a touch of blue to this line and my first instinct was that it could be used for outdoorsey pics, beach pics, boys, anything masculine really. I created a few layouts with this line, but the one below fell together so easily. There are a few dinosaur prints in there which points to pages with young boys, but in the true Nic tradition, I ignored that and used them as a cool pattern more than anything.

For those of you that are wondering and that have asked me by email YES I will be creating another ‘BAsicGrey Four you” limited edition pack for Tarisota. It’ll be in the limited editions area and isn’t quite ready just yet, but check back in a day or two to pre-order. You’ll get a taste of 4 of the lines – Boxer, Sugared, Sultry and Cupcake along with instructions to create a layout from each, plus a few cards, along with various alphas and embellishments. The prep for this is already done. The layouts have been mostly created and the instructions aren’t far away. This means as soon as the BasicGrey papers hit Aussie shores in the first-second week of March, they’ll be kitted and sent out to you with those instructions. Cool huh? I’ll remind you when the link goes up for that.

(And more BG layouts tomorrow perhaps! I love this part – I often stress and curse and throw my hands in the air and go stare at the pantry for hours on end while I am creating and I swear it’s the sharing on the galleries and blog etc that makes it all worthwhile. )

Did I mention the free felt giveaway on the Queen & Co blog? Open til the 14th.

The winner of my last giveaway was Yvette – email me with your address and I’ll get this package on its way!

I haven’t posted any of the past packages yet – I’m looking to do so on Wednesday.

Aussie Scrap Source class kits are up again. Ask a local retailer to get the class in if you fancy completing this layout set – it has a minibook built into the layout to fit all those extra pics. I think you might even be able to get them through Scrapbook Outlet or maybe even Embellish It even maybe. not sure on that one…

Can you see the mini-book? It has the string tied around it.

ok. It’s bedtime for those that really hardly went to bed last night. lol

laters.

Waitangi day – the last public holiday before the summer festivities die down and the kids go back to school. Which, by the way, I’m not looking forward to. Has anyone else noticed the “I’m so proud to be a New Zealander, Happy Waitangi Day” adverts on T.V? It’s true that I’m proud to be a New Zealander. And it’s true I watch the proceedings of Waitangi day with interest, but I have never heard anyone say “Happy Waitangi Day”. It seemed really unusual for it to start appearing on TV advertisements. On that note though, Happy Waitangi day to you.

Ok the tidy trays from Embellish It. I have a double set (large and small) to give away as well as a small tray. The winners are: Large set , Christine Cleary. Small tray: Lisa. Ladies, get in touch with me and I’ll get these sent out! Congrats ladies! I might even sneak in some Queen & Co extras for you :o)

I’ll keep comments open on this one for a while longer.

I have been catching up with Trina’s blog and saw she mentioned lots of activity and giveaways at the Fiskars blog.

Thanks SO much for the ladies that offered me their copy of the Scrapbooking Memories magazine. I have 2 copies now – both going to my proud SIL. Thanks so much!

Thanks also to those that mentioned my Aussie Scrap Source class kits – I get the occasional email and comment asking where mine have been lately. I took a small hiatus through October/November last year due to teaching commitments, and it meant through January/February, I didn’t have class kits up. I do have one coming up for March. (It should go up on AussieScrapSource around the 10th of Feb for preorder – it’s one of my favs actually) I will also continue to do probably two out of every three months kind of thing. I didn’t realise they would be missed! Your comments were encouraging to say the least :o)

Ok I’m working on layouts for Scenic Route and here is the first. This is Grafton. The papers are saturated with colour. Really suitable for summer and beach layouts but as you see here they are suitable for anything really. I’ve used the water paper here just because I like the colour.

I love this time of year. Talking of which, I saw Baker’s Delight had Hot Cross buns out yesterday. You know, when I was buying vegies at fruitworld next door ;o) No soooner does school go back but they are trying to force Autumn upon us. What is up with that!?

Laters.

Comments closed – Congrats yvette!

February has always been a big celebrating month for us. Paul and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary yesterday. We always have a quiet day, usually spent celebrating one of the kids birthdays. Yesterday was Abby’s turn.
4 years ago exactly today, right now, I was just starting Jacob on his first day of school. I was a bundle of nerves, my biggest baby starting school. I sat in his classroom for an hour doing jobs for the teacher knowing full well I was in labour. I picked Jacob up at the end of the day, driving the 2 minute drive to school inbetween contractions that were 7 minutes apart. By 10.40pm that night my big boy had completed his first day at school and I was holding my new baby girl.

Happy 4th Birthday Abby :o)

We celebrated with a trip to Butterfly Creek. Which I have always loved. But which didn’t impress me yesterday. There didn’t seem to be many butterflies, although Braden managed to find a friend which everyone thought was so cute as it rode around on his head for about 5 minutes.

Back home for more cake, more drinks, more socialising and I *think* we are done for birthdays for a while.

(And a little note – Happy Birthday to Chris Millar for today also!)

Giveaways!! Tuesday’s giveaway – congrats to Kirsten N (nthrn NSW) – I’ll get this stuff in the mail to you ASAP if you email me your address!

I’ll leave the comments at this post open for a bit longer if you want to leave your name to win one of those trays. Actually Abby hasn’t finished playing with them yet. LOL.

Today’s giveaway – and perhaps the last for a while – is pictured below, leave me a comment if you want your name in the draw. There are rub-ons, flocked alpha, Making Memories stuff, a little Queen & Co, some gorgeous ribbon…

OK now I need a favour. I desperatly need a copy or two of the Scrapbooking Memories Magazine Vol 9 No2. It has a layout I created with my nephew in it and I have never had a copy to show my SIL – I need to give her a few copies really. Does anyone have one they wouldn’t mind sending me? I’ll pay for it – pay postage – no probs, I just really need to get my hands on a copy or two. Email me please!

Interesting thread on 2peas with pics of one of the new BG lines… I’m dying to post my layouts here. I am loving the sneaks slowly coming out.

I’m currently working on a layout about the conversation we had with Abby about her ‘Whole World’. It’s not for anything. Nothing. No restrictions on topic, product, anything. I can’t remember last time I did this. I’m kinda stuck. lol
I’ll show you when I’m done.

Edited: Here is the layout. Cosmo Cricket papers (Hey Sugar), My fav alphas ever cherryarte, SR ledger paper and circular disc thing, MAMBI swirl, a bit of hambly, a little bit of CI and a bit of stamping. The photos are not so blown out IRL, it’s the stupid light and the stupid person using stupid photoshop to try and fix it!

YES. It’s blue-green and red-orange again. I know I use blue-green or light blue for every layout I do. I like it. Isn’t that what it’s all about? I am also loving creating the little cluster of embellishments right now too. It’s my fav part of a whole layout at the moment. I layer some papers and then sit and play with little clusters of embellishments for hours. Paul would much rather I cooked dinner. lol.

Laters.

COMMENTS CLOSED: Congrats to Lisa in Canada, and Christine Cleary.

The 1st of February – this time 9 years ago I was holding my newborn baby. Happy birthday to my big boy Jacob, who turned 9 years old today. May the day stay sunny, may the cake be yummy, may the smoked BBQ spare ribs for dinner be tasty, and may the Pokemon master do whatever a Pokemon Master is meant to do in that game you are playing right now. lol.

Giveaways – congrats to Julie Dudley who won the first giveaway. There is still time to put your name down for the last one. I have more!

This next one was actually sent to me for 2 reasons. Firstly because the team at Embellish It.co.nz know that I love working with beads etc. And secondly because they wanted to help me with my giveaways! So here we are. These are the tidy trays and I understand Embellish It are distributing? Maybe? If you are a retailer interested? I might have made that bit up? I know they sell them retail to the public. Anyway.. these are the trays and they are perfect for embossing powder (hence the really big one, it fits your whole project in there!) or a tray for beads or whatever. I have a big one and 2 small ones to giveaway.
YES! GIVEAWAY! lol.

They will only be slightly used but don’t tell Rachel at Embellish It but Abby thinks they are perfect to tip her little jewellery bead things into and the clean up is super fast. So they will only be slightly used ;o) lol.

So add your name down the bottom and we’ll see if we can give them away! More than one prize, obviously!

Layle now has images of the 2nd new Scenic Route Line – Grafton. Brighter colours, beachy… love it. My fav out the 2 new lines I think. Also images of rub-ons etc. She is giving away 20 collections of the new stuff I believe, so don’t forget to go there and leave a comment too.

I’ll leave you with images of a tiny mini album I did for Tarisota. I was given 2 chipboard butterflies and I decided they were begging to be made into an accordian album. Thanks so some input from Lianne and Lesley and a few other ladies too, the butterfly mini accordian album was born. (And I just notice the February kit are up on the Tarisota site this morning).

Just something little with the January Tarisota kit.

Laters

COMMENTS CLOSED – congrats Kirsten N NSW!

Tuesday – today has been spent avoiding the pantry and working on my Big Picture Scrapbooking classes. They aren’t far away – I promise! The silly season and broken collar bones and blue bottle stings and trips to the beach and enjoying summer far too much held me up just a touch, but they are nearly done now. I’ll be both releived and proud when that one happens.

The kids have been away today resulting in an altogether too loud volume of music coming from the radio. I’m hoping the neighbours were also away because it also resulted in an altogther too uncoordinated spate of dancing in my home. By myself. Just for a minute.
This song by Shawn Mullins came on and I was taken back 9 years to when I was extremely pregnant with Jacob. It was about the last time we had a summer this hot – 1999 and I was neck deep in prenatal depression, soon after to turn into a nasty case of postnatal depression – another story really. But as soon as I heard this song it took me back. It was one of the number one songs and it was played a lot. I found solace in it being played extremely loud at time, as I did again today. I’ll be downloading the song and putting it on CD and scrapping *something* about that. I like to keep my scrapbooks real, but I also don’t like my kids to find negative stuff (about themselves)- I’ll be putting my thinking cap on about how to attack this one.

So. Links. Jo KNeller is giving away some stuff on her blog. The giving bug is going around.

I see Elsie has details of her new book on her blog. Her book is actually a recipe box full of 5×7 cards – interesting concept!

Scrapbook Savvy interviewed me last week and the link is here. (Reading it again to see what I said that will come back and bite me….)

Layle has posted the entire Providence line on her blog, again, sign up for giveaways!

I posted a heap of NEW Queen & Co CHA releases on this 2peas thread. Keep an eye on the Queen & Co blog where I’ll be posting layouts using the new products and after Feb 3rd I’ll be giving some of this product away!

Thanks for the comments on my last post – it’s still open for comments for the giveaway.. so leave a comment if you haven’t. I saved one of the comments as it sparked some journaling in my mind – thanks 2sweetmom for your words.

Oh and another link – This blog has a book club and this month they did layouts inspired by my book. I was especially blown away by the one called “With Love”. Amazing inspiration in that blog post – support the girls and click through to visit their blog!

And todays giveaway! (I have more this week, so keep on checking back!)
It’s older Queen & Co product but it’s still gorgeous and I want to give it away to someone – leave me a comment, whereever you are from – I’d love to hear from you.

laters.

COMMENTS CLOSED – WINNER IS JULIE (Perth- Life Happenings blog) Email me with your address, Julie!

It’s a holiday Monday here in Auckland and I’m soaking up the peace and quiet. We’ve been to the beach and back, stayed the night and everyone is relaxing after a busy beach day yesterday.
BUT I was lost without my desk. More specifically, I was lost without my computer that sits on my desk. But even more-so, after a week of scrapping 16 hours a day I missed my scraproom. I sat on the beach yesterday in the glorious sun with the cicadas rattling out their summer symphony and the waves crashing on the beach and thought of layouts. I swear if I could digitally create layouts in my mind, I created at least a dozen yesterday. I saw a t-shirt walk past – no doubt there was someone in it but I didn’t notice that part, I was too busy trying to memorise the design – but I was lost without my notebook to draw the design on the front of the shirt. It seems I am addicted.

On the way to the beach we travelled out the Bombay Road, and just as you get to Pukekohe East you look left into a huge crater – except it just looks like a farm really, but it’s a massive valley. Abby yells and I wish I could show the excitement in her voice on my blog “Oh my GOSH! LOOK! I can see the WHOLE WORLD!!”
She then grabbed Braden’s arm and said “Look! Look! and it has a racetrack in the bottom! – Braden! have you ever been on that horse track in my whole world down there?”

And as if my heart wasn’t melting with oh-my-God-that-is-SO-cute already, Braden’s answer…
“Yes Abby I have! And last time I was there, I won!!”

Oh man. So cute. It was for her. He had no interest in the horse track at the bottom of the random gully really, he just did it for her.

Anyway. I’m loving scrapping again. All is well.

SO another side effect of the CHA work I do is that all of a sudden I get new product. Lots of it, sucks to be me, I know. BUT it makes me want to clean out. Gather things, Give them away.
So I figured I’d give it to you guys. I did a few giveaways before Christmas, so I’m going to carry on.

So the first giveaway is some Queen & Co felt. No packaging, because being on the DT doesn’t mean we get luxuries like packaging but the felt is what counts. I’ll give this felt away to someone I randomly pick from the comments on this post. So leave me a comment and I might draw your name.
And remember, spread the word, I have more to giveaway this week so keep checking back and spread the word I’m feeling generous.
I’ll give it a few days.

Ok other stuff – Scenic Route it releasing alsorts of cool new products at CHA – new types of products for them including buttons and stamps. Exciting – for images of the new stuff and some sneak peeks of one of the new lines, Providence, go see Layle’s blog. She is promising big giveaways too.

Ahhh the season of giving really does not stop at Christmas. Leave a comment.
laters

I’m exhausted. I’ve been missing in action from everywhere except the scraproom. The rest of the house misses me. The cleaning misses me. The sunshine misses me. The supermarket misses me.

And I’m feeling it – I do this every CHA season. I start to feel like this whole hobby is crazy. I’m here in New Zealand and I’m cutting up coloured pieces of paper to glue to other coloured pieces of paper and courier them to the USA to go in a tradeshow. It blows my mind, I’m tired and spending hours a day in the scraproom and sometimes I wonder if the stress is worth it. I ask Paul. “What the heck am I doing?”.
His answer “Dude if I had $1 for every time you asked me that… I’d have like $18 by now” and he walks off.

Men.

But anyway. I have a short moment of wondering why I stay in my stiffling hot room for days on end cutting and glueing, cursing and eating nothing but rice crackers and water (wait, that is because I’m counting points again – not the fault of scrapbooking).. and then something like this happens.

Abby comes in, grabs paper from the kids stuff, draws a pic and says “Look, it’s you and me! We are hugging! And it’s an A for Abby and a M for Mummy”.
And in particular I love this part…
Awwww… look… we are hugging…

And my first reaction? I didn’t know what to scramble for first. My camera to take pics. My notebook to write it down, my papers to start scrapbooking. To tell the story. Because I’m afraid of how fast time flies and that I’ll forget some of this gorgeousness.

And THAT is essentially why I take coloured pieces of paper and glue them to other coloured pieces of paper.

Because I can.