Beginning the year as I mean to go on

Throughout the year last year, I knew I wasn’t doing as much scrapping for myself as I wanted. There are lots of stories and lots of photos that I really want to get in and play with. When Hubby asked me the other day “what did I want to do before going back to work?” my first thought was – “Something crafty!”. Luckily for me, the weather conjured up some great indoor weather – how else can you look at wind and rain in what is meant to be fantastically gorgeous summer time days???

I gave my space a bit of a shuffle (I can’t say “tidy” cos that would be lying! That is another job for another day!!) and created some space at my little table. The first thing I did was get a card out of the way which has been in my head – I don’t know any babies about to be born as yet, but this will come in handy once I do!

Then I headed to Harvey Norman / Norman Ross (side bar: why do both stores exist in the same building and attempt to compete?? I know they are owned by the same people so I just don’t get it!!) Norman bet out Harvey’s VIP price on enlargements, so I did my printing at Norman’s for a change. I needed some 8 x 10s for the school photos as I decided finally, I really needed to get started on the Becky Higgins School Years kits that have been waiting for me to do something with for at least 18 months if not longer! I’ve been collecting items from the Mr’s from their pre-school activities and popping them into the provided pockets but hadn’t actually scrapped any photos. I have now! They might be basic (very basic), but as a first dip of the toe back into scrapping, the pages were just what I needed.

The kits are definitely American with “Grades” instead of years, but I figured I can make this work with a bit of good old Dymo.

Mr 8 in Year 3,

Mr 5 in Year 1.

A little planning on what I need to do for the other pages is needed but they will get done before the end of this month. Then I just need to catch up on the rest of the pre-school items like kindy and the like and I’m up to date on these albums! Great because that will keep me motivated for the upcoming years. Despite being stung on the shipping price (the kits themselves were awesome value – plus it was even better at the time because the $NZ was really good!), I’m still pleased I got these kits. It’s going to be fun to have something simple, cohesive and all-encompassing of the Mr’s school lives at the end of however many years I’m looking at!

Once these were done, I had the need to break out my new Circle Scissors (new in the Stampin Up Summer mini… there’ll be more about those over on my SU blog: Kelly’s Stampin Spot if you want to take a look over there in the next few days and weeks ). There was also a challenge on Scrappin Patch’s forum (to use a frame of some sort) so I ended up the day with this next page.

I felt like this was a pretty good haul for someone that hasn’t touched her scrapping supplies for many (too many!) months. It certainly made me want to keep up with the urge to scrap so I have a feeling there is likely to be more pages being done over the remainder of the year! I’m determined to get more of our stories told as well as keep up with the other crafty urges I’ve unleashed through ’09!  Plus, it felt oh-so-good to dive back into my underloved stash of scrapping goodness.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed that little tour of scrappy goodness. I’m off to fold some washing so that maybe I can get another little project started before I go back to work tomorrow morning!

PS – for those of you that are interested in Stampin Up goodies, there is an Inventory Clearance Sale on at the moment – until 24 January, in fact. Click over to my SU blog, and check out the Current Specials image. Click on that and it will take you to the file with all the goodies in the sale – some of the sets are up to 50% off. There’s some great Alpha sets perfect for layout titles at just $46 (half-price) and then there is the awesome value “Wonderful favourites” set – 23 stamps for just over $35. (This set in my view was way under-priced to begin with, and now at the sale price, it’s incredible value.) This last set is a great one for all kinds of family members on your layouts and helps make great cards.

I am, of course!, happy to place an order for you if you are interested in any of the items. Just send me an email and let me know. I’m looking to place an order for this sale 14th January, and then any last minutes orders on the 24th.

Some pics as promised and another new beginning

Happy New Year!!

Another new Year, and another new decade. I’m constantly amazed at how fast the time just zooms by. At the BBQ/party we were at last night, we were comparing tales from a decade ago – almost all of us sans kiddos.  And being a big night (you remember….. a new Millenium!) we all had tales to tell. Awesome stuff. I hope you and yours celebrated in good ways

As promised in my last post, I downloaded my pics. All 858 of them. Uh-huh…. 858 in one month alone! Wow…. I wonder if it was the influence of the new toy or not?!

Anyway, I couldn’t possibly inflict all 858 photos on you. Besides, I don’t think I would be finished even now if I had decided to do just that! So here is a taster from our week in Ohope. And guess what? It barely scratches the surface of even those pictures!! Anyway, I’m sure you’ll get the idea!

You’ll see lots of surf and sand… the gorgeous Pohutakawas, our Christmas hats, cousins, berry picking, gingerbread house building (YUM!!) and playing in the sprinklers at Creel Lodge (Turangi).

Having put all of these photos from December I’ve realised that I have a TON of material to scrap. Plus all the items I’ve not done through the year. I was a slacker scrapper in ’09! But I’m really itching to get back into some good creative messes. Having spent quite a number of minutes (…hours?!) taking the photos from camera to PC, I have also completed a couple of digi pages a la Jessica Sprague’s Holidays in Hand class. Great templates and papers were given away in the free class.

The plan is to get December’s activities into a photo book. Shutterfly or Snapfish for printing? Any thoughts?

Right – having spent a good number of hours on the PC today, I’m being told to get down and cook dinner. The cheek!! Actually, I think the late night last night meant they were all happy to let me play while the Mr’s all chilled out in one form or another.

So happy 2010 to you all – see you soon!

Practise, practise, practise!

Better, I think.

But wait. There’s more!

Mr 5 has had 2 textures, a clipping mask, brush, word art and a frame applied. Yeah, ok, so this one might have gone a little over the top with pretty much everything except the kitchen sink thrown at it, but it is so much fun to do! For printing, I think I’d do away with the frame on this one and just re-jig the size of the brush.

Playing Digi Style

This week Jessica Sprague has been running a free digital course to show how to manipulate photos. Having had a go at digi-scrapping, I was feeling a little let down with my Photoshop abilities to actually have good photos to use. This course is a basic one, but she is teaching us So.Many.Seriously.Cool techniques. I’ve done just a couple of photos from earlier in the year, and I’m impressed.

Of course, it goes without saying I still need to learn to take better photos to begin with (actually, I’m almost certain I just need a great camera…. *wink*).

So here is an example after Day 3′s lesson. I’ve applied a frame, created a vintage tint and tried a little hand tinting.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Personally, I’d probably apply a little more tinting to Mr 8′s eyes before I get this printed. I definitely wanted a natural, vintage look; but his eyes are so blue, I think it could stand a little more “popping”. What do you think?

Cross Country Fever

About 10 days or thereabouts ago, the Mr’s school ran their cross-country races. As I made mention, Mr 7 was just thrilled as he came in 5th in his race. All his training with pal L during the lunch times paid off. Certainly the “Cotton Wristband” { = sweatband!} lent to him was apparently a key ingredient to his success. And as I made mention, although I had all the saintly motherly intentions of seeing him place so well, the actual announcement that the racing was going to happen on the Wednesday conflicted with other chores that needed to get done. I guess there goes my only hope of Sainthood!

In my absence, D took some great pictures for me – I have her to thank for not only the snaps of Mr 7 on the day, but also for the camera envy now I have. I’m saving now!! LOL Anyway, so I didn’t clog her stick up with images of my Mr’s I whipped it down to Harvey Norman’s for a quick print job. {As an aside, it was while we were waiting for the print job that the Mr’s and I discovered Wii. We want it!!}

This morning I raced round like a mad thing getting some housework done and out of the way. I wanted to create something. Anything. I’m motivated to get on and create, but not so motivated to leave the warm environs of the lounge and the heater in the evenings. So, I’m making it a mission to spend some time during the school week to get some of these projects sorted. Yesterday it was attacking the hall cupboard and reorganising that. Today, it was creating a few pages and cards! I really do know which I prefer to do, but there was I have to say, a sense of satisfaction at seeing the newly created floor space in that cupboard. But creating pages is just that little bit more fun!

One of the things I’m loving about this page, is not only that I can kid myself about being current because these are recent photos – but they are scrapped with entirely old – really old! – stash. I’m stash busting too. Man, I am just too clever!!

Multi Photo layout

As a mum I take a LOT of photos. Lots and lots. Even with the old film cameras (I still think my old Olympus Mjo point and shoot took the best photos, ever!) I would click and not worry too much about it. Hoping probably that in the sheer volume of pictures I was taking that I’d get at least ONE decent photo. Sometimes I was really lucky and I did. Get ONE decent photo!

Anyway, in the days of digi, I take even more…. although the incease in photos taken hasn’t necessarily led to an increase in decent photos…. I blame the camera and not the need for me to take photography lessons! Anywhere we go, I will usually pull out the camera for posterity. Except those times when I should really have brought the camera along and it’s been forgotten. I’m really good at doing that.

So where is all this going? Well, as a scrapbooker I want to get these very similar shots scrapped. A day at the beach for me is more than just one perfect photo (ok, so in reality, it’s always going to be in numerous less than perfect shots, but you’re with me, right?!)

Like this trip to Waimarama earlier in the summer. And Mr 7′s first experience in amazing, huge surf. I don’t think I could ever get just one photo to tell the story of how he just LOVED the wave pushing him around. I had the perfect quote – he’d uttered those words to hubby unprompted. But How, HOW do I scrap this????

Yes, I have a ton of these occasions all waiting to be put together – the birthdays, the easters, the christmas’ over the years. And then a scrapbook magazine showed up in my letterbox. Because Simple Scrapbooks is no more, I’m getting issues of Creating Keepsakes until my subscription runs out. It’s not a mag I’ve been buying much, but if this issue is any indication, I think I may just take up their *very special, one time only* offer…..

Inspiration? It was fair pouring!! It’s been a long, long time since I sat down with a scrapmag and spent time with it instead of flicking. And this particular issue just had multi-photo layouts GALORE.

On Sunday afternoon, I told the family I wanted time to do some scrapping  – and was promptly joined by two Mr’s who just had to do something too. *sigh….* Anyway, the above is the layout I did. Done and dusted in the afternoon. Inpired by the MANY layout ideas and sketches given in the mag. Lots of photos. Double layout. Happy? Yes indeed!! I have a feeling that a few more of those pages-in-waiting might finally get their turn.

Celebrating {Inter}National Scrapbooking Day

You know how America has a myriad of “holidays” – almost one for every day of the year it seems? Well, Saturday May 2 is no exception. That is their National Scrapbooking Day. And being a dedicated (ignore the fact I haven’t done so much this year!) scrapper myself, I’ll be joining in for sure.

Not by actual planning though. No, that is not how this girl operates! Such things are purely coincidental in my case!!

Last October myself and three other crafty girlfriends put our diaries together to ensure there was a weekend free that none of us were allowed to cancel out from. Looking through the diaries, this weekend was the first date that could be set in concrete. I am so NOT the only busy bee in town.

So, tonight, a winged car leaves from Tawa and the blue Oma-mobile leaves from the Hutt, each carrying two occupants and the best part of a scrap/cardmaking shop between us. The cars and their occupants will meet in Waikanae where we will be enjoying a bottle of wine, lots of laughter, chat, fun and games and best of all great company – for two fantastic nights. Oh yeah, there should be a bit of crafting going on as well. We’ve been counting down the sleeps and my share of the “shop lot” is spread out in order to determine what to take. Actually, it’ll all be packed and taken because it really is that hard for me to decide what to leave behind!!

If you hear lots of laughter and general mayhem as you drive through the Kapiti coast this weekend, you’ll know it is four friends having a whale of a time. Especially as there’s something afoot………

Oh, and for those of you not coming to Waikanae, you can still join in the {Inter}National Day by checking out Scrappin’ Patch as they have plans too.

Easter happenings

Well, the reality is that our Easter was pretty darn quiet. I’ve been a little taken aback as to how long it takes to regain usual energy levels. On some days I don’t think I’ve done that much, but a little extra running around is paid for in a day or two. Still, things must be improving because I’m getting in longer stretches of days before I need to rest up a bit. Nana naps are great!!

Here are a couple of pics of rugby day I missed in person:

Mr 5 loving, seriously LOVING, his first rugby training in the nursary grade. Hubby doesn’t know what was going on with the camera but most of these photos are blurry. One thing you can’t miss though is the huge ear to ear smile that never left Mr5′s face!

A little later in the morning and the camera is behaving again. Mr 7 is leading from the front at this point and looking every inch a future All Black (…..whaaaat?? You’ve gotta have goals! LOL) Actually, Mr 7 is trying to work out which position he thinks he’d like to play in. Yes indeed, nothing holding this boy back!

Easter bunny left two very special bunnies to be found in the morning. Actually, EB stuffed up a little….. he left the high quality chocolate bunnies that were destined for more grown-up tummies for the Mr’s because the assistant bunny forgot to actually get little guy supplies in. Ooooops!! The things that get overlooked when mother is slightly housebound!!

One thing that was still on the books was our Easter Hunt. It’s become a bit of an annual thing to share this with the A’s - it’s more fun when there are more kids hunting!!  This particular peek of gold in amongst some lavender was the last egg to be found. What was really funny was that we told the kids that there was an egg hidden and the two big Mr’s were hunting every direction around the bush except the most obvious!

This year’s hunt took place in the new setting of the front yard. I had visions of Angus hunting out the well placed eggs in advance of the kids and thought it probably wasn’t the best idea in the world. An added advantage of the front yard is that finally I have photos of the Mr’s faces!! Usually it’s been the behind view and I’ve never been quick enough to hit the button the second they spin around and take off for the next find! In this instance, Mr 7 is not saying “oh cool, look what we’ve found”. It’s more like “Darn, you beat me to it again!!“

No matter how much reminding of how we do things, there is always a bit of competition during the hunt as to who can find the most to put in their baskets. But because I can’t handle the loud protests of finding someone has a smidge more chocolate than another, all egss found are put into a pile at the end and shared evenly. I can’t believe I succomb to this particular piece of PC-ness, but believe me….. it makes for a lot more pleasant day afterwards.

And finally, I actually did some scrapping over the weekend. I can’t believe how many projects I simply haven’t done yet this year. So here at Easter, I was doing some Christmas layouts. Makes a lot of sense…..not!! And after going through my stash to work out what I was going to work with, I came up with this page.

A bonus with this particular layout is that because it is all stuff from my stash and nothing new, it fits the bill for one of the challenges over at Scrappin Patch. Woohoo – finally a challenge done in time for a deadline. The fact it is purely coincidental doesn’t need to be spoken of, surely?

I’m determined to get through a lot more of the projects I have in my To Do pile so hopefully my mojo will come out of hibernation and work with me.

One lot of layouts I’m determined to have done before the end of the holidays are the easter photos. Because I realised I have about 3 or 4 years now of photos waiting to be scrapped!! Someone mentioned on one of the forums that they have problems scrapping the “themed” pages… I think I identify! And to this end, I was thrilled to get a link to the Scrapbook Etc newsletter with 31 pages of easter layouts. Woohoo……. I think that will cover some of the pages I need to do.

Also being tackled is a myriad of unfinished projects. One in particular is a cross stitch that I wanted to complete. It was one that my MIL was working on at the time she had her stroke. That was four years ago, so it really is high time it got finished.

Footnote to the last post: how silly am I? (actually, don’t answer that!) I didn’t actually realise there was a small payment that is made when you have a submission published. I was just thrilled to have my work in a magazine. To see that there is a wee payment….. Squeeeeeeeeeee!!

Oh where oh where has my mojo gone?

There a serious mojo drought happening around these parts. Do you know I’ve not actually finished one complete layout yet this year??!! I know….. and I call myself a scrapbooker!  Think I might be turning my id card in any day.

It makes me feel better that I’m not the only one suffering the affliction… several cyber buddies seem to have similar issues. So instead of looking guiltily at the layout that just needs a bit of something to finish it off, I decided it was time to do my homework from the 2Peas PSE class for February. The lesson was specifically learning about using the shape tool – and I think I got it. The strips and the photo shape are the shapes I used. I piked out of doing the 1/4 circle thing that she showed us in the tutorial. My excuse was the kit I was using had a cute butterfly that I just wanted to use.

So in handing in this assignment, I earned my first official badge over at 2Peas. I forgot to tick the box on the January one so it didn’t show up. Darn!!

Layout details: Shabby Princess “Promise” Collection, swirl by Sunflowers, fonts are Cafe Rojo and Vintage type.

Now that wee bit or creativity has been done, I better get back to the list of UFOs I’ve got gathering dust. There was a time when I wouldn’t actually do something else until I had the first one done… And that is really quite a good rule of thumb. Except when you have a really bright idea that you just have to do.

Um, yeah, not willing to hand back the title of World’s Best Procrastinator I see!

CHA goodness

Gosh, it seems to come around quickly. Yep it’s CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) time again in the US. We scrapbookers get hit twice a year with all the fantastic goodness that papers, tools and embelishments our eyes can take.

Last night when I was looking for a specific few papers to launch myself into a project I’ve been meaning to get done for some time, I actually thought, “You know, Kelly, you really need to use some of this paper before buying anymore”. It seems a strange thing to have so much great stuff to choose from and still be tempted by the new stuff.

So I am going to resist. At least for a while. I know me….. there will be something I simply have to have right now. This is one thing:

http://queenandcompany.typepad.com/queen_co_indulge_your_cre/2009/01/the-queen-goes-green-cha-releases-yay.html

For a start, those buckets are just adorable…. then there is the goodies held inside. Um, yeah, I’ll be first in line at the local for these ones. But what I’m loving more, wait – MOST, is the concept of “open product”.

Getting exactly what you want. No packaging. Man, this is good stuff. Not just in terms of scrapping, but merchandising fullstop. It’s a particular bug-bear of mine that soooo much product comes in far too much packaging. This is something I would like to see more of in general shopping.

But you know I’m just loving the product too, right??!

Oh, and they also have a wee giveaway going, so make sure you do take a peek.

That’s all from me today – I need to download some pics from our cool bushwalk for tomorrow.

See you!