MERRY CHRISTMAS

  Down here in NZ we are the first to see the new day so therefore the first to have christmas day and the first to see it go.  For us our day is coming to a close for most it is about to begin.

 I hope everyone has a day full of love joy and happiness. 

Merry Christmas from me to you.

The English Language

Well its been an interesting weekend and we have a really busy week ahead.  Isn't it amazing how the written word can be interpreted and misinterpreted by people in different ways.  I always admire the kids that I teach as they try and grasp the English language.  Other languages are much less complicated and a sound is a sound and a word has one meaning and is said one way.  Its no wonder they find it so difficult.  I find myself often saying "you just have to remember it" .  Read this and I think you will understand where I am coming from:
 
  I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead: it's said like bed, not bead -
For goodness sake don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

There is another verse but maybe I will post that next time.

So I have been busy sewing costumes, we made good progress but have a way to go.  Dave took Nick and his freind out to the forest today.  Its 200 acres of pine forest in the middle of nowhere.  They went motorbike riding and generally exploring.  Came home exhausted and hungry, well starving apparently.  Abbey and I went to her dancing prizegiving and she won the encouragement award and trophy and was really pleased, and surprised. 

On Friday Dave is going with Nick on what they call "The Big Day Out".  It is for the year 6's and is a day of fun confidence courses and kayaking and a big mud slide, flying foxes that kind of thing.  The teachers cook them a BBQ lunch and they come home around 7pm.  Unfortunately Abbey won't be there as she has a full day of rehersals for the Christmas in the Park, which is a big live televised variety show here in NZ with local NZ celebraties, bands etc. She is part of a group of dancers that will be performing - hence costume making.  Its a once in a life time opportunity so she gave up the Big day Out to be part of the show and is really excited about it.
Anyway I have a card to share.........over at Sassy Cheryl's the theme is "Winter" and whilst many of my blog freinds are experiencing the beginning of winter we are entering summer.  So winter for me is not snow flakes and christmas but rain and wind in the middle of the year.  I stamped the background with a fantastic 6 x 6 inch stamp and thought I would use it to resemble the wind.  In the background I inked what is actually a clock, as we are always looking forward to the time when summer is here.  We get a lot of rain hence the image.   The flower was made by gathering seam binding and sewing little seed beads in the centre. I kind of wish I hadn't used the clock but was too late by the time I decided I didn't want it the card was made.

Christmas is coming.......

Yes indeedy its just around the corner and I have busy sewing costumes for the group of girls who will be dancing at the Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park, which is a big variety show that is performed live and televised here in NZ.  My kitchen has been full of tuelle and satin all weekend.  In between times I have been making little christmas boxes to fill will chocolates for gifts.  I try and make some handmade gifts each year and this year I have dedided on these little milk carton boxes decorated and then I will go to the bulk bins and buy wrapped chocolates to pop inside.  These are the first 2 made and I am hoping to get at least another 8 made but then I also need more Christmas cards.....hmmmm how much time do I have..........

These stand about 51/2 inches high so aren't overly big - otherwise they cost too much to fill.  So these are being displayed in Sassy Cheryls "Anything Goes" challenge this week.

Do modern and vintage mix?

Well here I am posing another question.  All because of something not going as planned.

All week I have been itching to make a card but I have been making spats instead.  Spats for a cabaret show that the owner of the Dance Studio Abbey attends also operates.  The brief was a pair of short tartan boots with gold buttons up the side and a pair of long white ones with red buttons up the side.  My deadline was Friday night, so I have been beavering away and delivered them yesterday afternnon with a couple of hours to spare.

Today I managed to get to my desk in preparation of card making.  I had in mind a card that was cute but vintagey in style.  I wanted to try and colour, using distress inks, an image that came under the "cute" classification.  I chose my image and set to with inks, I decide that I wanted to age the background so it wasn't  so white and this is where the plan fell apart as it did not look good.  So......what to do as before the background atempt I was quite happy with my image.  Only thing I could do...cut it out.    I made the larger tag and inked it using a mask then spritzed it with gold, you can't really see it, but I know its there.  Sassy  Cheryl's challenge this week is "Anything Goes".  Lucky for me as this one fits right in.

Is less really more?

Good question, is less indeed more?

I have been trying to use this motto as I look at cards others makes and think, this is so simple and clean and fresh.  A couple of my friends are really good at this clean and simple approach ( yes I am refering to you B and C).  Why is it I am always drawn to ribbons and bows and flowers and pins and pearls and......? Why is it that I always have to use an image?  A card doesn't seem to be a card unless I use an image and yet I look at cards without them and have to admire them.  

So that brings me to my attempt last night of "less is more".  I chose red and white as my colour scheme CAS will be easier with only 2 colours......right?  Chose my image and coloured it, keeping to red and white, (well except the hair).  Doing well so far.  Checked out Sassy Cheryl to see what this weeks challenge is.  "Emboss it", yep that works. Embossed my background,  made a snowman, embossed him.  Ok and this is where I started going a little off track........less became way more than more.......

So to answer the question " is less more"?  Well how can it possibly be the question doesn't even make any sense.

I would like to ennter this into Sassy Cheryl's challenge #89 Emboss It

Looking for a penguin led me to Di's Digital Downloads

Yes it is true I've been on the hunt for a penguin, just had it in my mind that I wanted penguins on some christmas cards all because I have this rougue piece of paper with little christmas penguins on it.  My search led me to a site that has previously elluded me. Di'sDigital Download and penguins she indeed has.  The second thing I discovered is a challenge with ribbons and bows, well you all know how I love my bows so yep I made a card with penguins and bows and I thought I might pop it into Di's challenge.  So this is a little sample of one of the previous posts mentioned Christmas cards I made.  Ha and I didn't use the penguin paper on it after all...... he's cute though huh?

Now what I would like to know is what do people use for snow? I have seen this "stuff" on cards and it looks like snow, raised and kind of puffy - what is that stuff?



Oh and I forgot to mention I have removed the word thingy from when you post a comment - sorry didn't realise it was on.

Something different

Well I have a very productive weekend started with 4 christmas cards made and ended with 16.  Not bad if I do say so myself.  Some I made vintage and some cute.  Of course I can't post them all so you will just have to take my word for it.  I am however going to post this little one that it quite different from my usual style.  It is a La Blanche stamp called "In the Meadow".  There are two in the set this is just one.  Now I have to say that I would never have given these stamps a second look until won in a blog post. They are really quite amazing the detail is incredible and they stamp and ink beautifully.  So my tastes are evolving which is a good thing and I don't generally do clean and simple - more inclined to add a little bit more.  But these images just don't need it.  Oh and sorry this one isn't a christmas card  - just a "because I can" card.

A little bit of Carfting

Wow I think I may have been carfting up a storm I have 4 cards to post.........

This first one is a stamp by LaBlanche coloured in Inks and aged,  I then added a simple double bow using seam binding and added some gold bells both from Wild Orchid Crafts.  Thats it apart from the background paper.  It just didn't seem to need anything else.



I would like to enter this in Wild Orchid Crafts "Santa" Challenge

This one is  a Sassy Cheryl image coloured in pencils except for the skin which is using copics.  The challenge stipulated using pink and also there was a picture that was to be used as inspiration.  Cheryl has a new range of super cute images that you must go check out.

This one I would like to enter into Sassy Cheryl's Challenge #106



Okay onto number 3 This one is a Mo Manning image and I made this as a thank you card for Abbeys dance teacher.  I was going for dramatic hence the colour combination of purple. orange and black. I'm actually really pleased with this one.  Again coloured in pencils.


I would like to enter this one into Mo's Challenge # 106

Last but by no means least is a little LOTV image again coloured in pencil with embellishments and ribbon and some bling added/  I used these little tear drop beads for leaves which I am liking a lot.  This one fits nicely into the lilac and green colour challenge at the Ribbon Girl.



This one I would like to enter into the Colour Challenge # 12 at The Ribbon Girl



I also made a couple of Christmas cards in an effort to be organised........yeah good luck with that.

Catch up time!

Well I don't know how it could be possibly a month since my last post..........whizzzzzzz.....what was that ....oh another month.  They tell me only 9 weeks till the big "C".  Yikes can that possibly be true.  Anyway we are on school holidays and last week we were at the beach,  The weather was ok, Nick did swim a couple of times, in a wetsuit mind you.  The rest of us watched.  Its always so nice though to walk on the sand and to just be near the ocean.  We also went whitebaiting on the river, which was very "Huckleberry Finn" like.  We had a lovely time and this week we have just been hanging around really, restoring ready for a busy last term of school. 

Whangamata Surf

Whitebaiting on the river - very tranquil spot.

I had a really great crafting day yesterday, caught up on lots of stuff that needed to be finished, sealed and addressed envelopes with a great feeling of satisfaction (maybe its something they put in the glue).  Unfortunately the photos I took are a bit washed out as I now realise I hadn't changed the setting on the camera.  So here are just a couple.

This one is made using a stamp from the Angel Company called exotic birds and you will just have to trust me that it looked way better than this up close.  This is a bit different for me but I really enjoyed doing this more cleaner style and was pleased with the result.

These two are more my usual style and are LOTV images sent to me by a friend, again sorry a bit wishy washy but I really like the girl with the butterfly on her head, she really pops off the page in real life(so to speak).

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week.  Oh and the All Blacks are in the Rugby World Cup Final against France, playing this weekend.  "Go the AB's".

Its a Mo's Celebration

Well I had hoped to have a crafty weekend and I did play but not as much as I has hoped.  I have just completed this little card using a few new things I received from my friend in the States,  I used the copics for the skin and whilst I haven't got it quite right its ok for a first attempt.  I also used this very useful stamp alphabet set for the word "enjoy" and inked around the flowers to make them the colour I wanted. The image is "Kansas" from Mo Manning.  Mo's are celebrating their 100th challenge and so its a "Celebration" challenge.  I have also been playing with alcohol inks but I need to play some more and I think I read somewhere to use transparencies (can you still get them?) because I think my acetate is too thick and won't die cut.  And I also discovered you need glossy card - so I have learned a few things along the way.  Anyway prattle, prattle here is the card.  P.S:  Go the All Blacks.

Just Playing!!

I received an email this morning prompting me to post a picture of something.  Si thats what I will do.  I have been working on something else that I can't post because I don't want a certain someone to see it  but suffice to say it is taking up some of my time at the moment.  But here a couple of shots of a card I have made for a swap.  The criteria is cats and dogs and peace.  Quite a tricky combination to put together and I'm not quite sure that I have got it right but here it is anyway.

This is the card closed - suppossed to resemble a kennel



This is is opened  and this is my contribution towards peace



This is the card opened completely with cats on the paper.



One For Mo and One For Sassy Cheryl

Well today I bashed out not one, not two, but three cards.....making up for lost time.  One I can't post as it is going to be on its way to someone celebrating a September birthday, but here are the other two.  The first is a Mo Manning Image, coloured in pencil and I hope that Mo adds to this collection as I think she is quite lovely and needs a few friends. Purple is not a colour I usually play with and I can't seem to loose this thing I have going with red, I think it adds a little bit of drama.  Its a little hard to see but the black background is embossed with one of my new folders.

I haven't entered any challenges in a while so I am entering this one into Mo's Challenge #98

 This next card is A Sassy Cheryl image and is nice and soft and glittery.  Quite different from the one above and if I could show you the third card it is again completely different and not a flower in sight.  Anyway back to this card.  Coloured in pencils and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, I think they do the best flowers and I get them direct as I have not found anyone here that stocks anything quite as good as these.

He is very cute this cheeky little fellow. 

 I am entering this one into Sassy Cheryl's Challenge #79

August and playing with Inks

Well I have been very neglectful of my poor wee blog of late.  I see it is almost a month since I posted - and I have no idea just where that month went.  Well.....actually I do really.  You may or may not know that I am on the committee of the Dance & Performing Arts Society and this weekend just past we hosted our annual Competitions,  Entries far exceeded our expectation and we took on running two venues simultaneously.  It was a huge undertaking, with lots of preparation and challenges along the way.  But I think overall we did a pretty good job and can tick the weekend off as being successful.  I was totally exhausted by Monday. 

At school we have also had inter school cross country and Nick was one of the 8 boys to represent the school and he came a very respectable 21st out of around 80 boys. Taking into consideration his asthma this was a fantastic result and he was rightly very proud of himself. We also have had the annual speech contest.  Both Nick and Abbey got into the finals and Abbey gained first place.  She went on to represent our school at the finals against all the schools in the area and gained third place.  The competition was really tough and she is the first student from our school to have ever placed in this competition. So yes I am extremely proud of them both.

This month also saw the school production take place - no wonder the month disappeared so fast.  The kids did a wonderful job with the direction of the teachers.  It was called the Button Box and the whole school was involved.  Just quickly it was based around a box of buttons from around the world and each one told a story.  It was fantastic.

Finally I have received some wonderful packages this past week from some very thoughtful friends and you all know who you are and I want to say a huge thank you. So THANK YOU.  One of these packages was also from a comment I made on a local scrap booking online shop and as a consequence have been playing with this beautiful La Blanche stamp and inks.  Quite pleased with my first attempt.

La Blanche stamp (German Company) coloured in Inks

Lili of The Valley Cards

Well this week saw us back to school.  The weather has been the perfect winter weather this week.  Cool crisp and clear.  Bright blue skies and sunshine.  We have sat outside and had afternoon tea a couple of times this week.  Alas it is all going to change over the weekend apparently.  Nick and Abbey ran cross country at school this week and both had very respectable results Abbey coming 9th in the girls and Nick 8th in the boys.  That puts Nick going to the inter school race in a week or so and Abbey just missed out she says she would have liked the inter school experience but not to have to run the course.

Well I have managed to make a couple of cards using a cute little image form LOTV. I have had this cute stamp for a while and not used it and a bit of talk abbout bunnies inspired me to pull him out. I decided to add just a touch of colour rather than colouring the bunny in completely as I wanted to use these October afternoon papers. I wanted the bunnies to stand out and I thought that colouring them softly would prevent them from blending into the bolder background. That did however make it harder to photograph.

This one I am putting into the LOTV Rose Challenge # 108

Same image different card and colours.

Stand by - twice in a week - making up for lost time

Yep I know I am outdoing myself this week.......

And Petra I am posting this with you in mind......wildlife and photography who else would I think of aye!

Yesterday Nick, Abbey and I went to the Movies.  The movie we saw was called "African Cats".  Its a movie made by Disney and it follows the lives of two families of cats in the Masa Mara in Kenya.  A pride of  river lions and a cheetah and her cubs.   The movie shows the bonds between a mother and her cubs and the lengths she will go to, to protect them.  I don't want to tell you too much in case you decide to go and see it.  Suffice to say, you will laugh, cry, hold your breath and have lots of ahh moments, guarantee it.

By now you have figured that it is really a documentary style movie, not a cartoon in sight....phew, I have had 11 years of seeing animated movies, thank goodness they seem to be coming to an end. The photography (I suppose its actually cinematography) is outstanding, actually breathtaking in parts.  The cats are beautiful and magnificent and captured perfectly.  If you like this kind of documovie I can highly recommend it - it is not specifically a kids movie in fact I would not take the littlies.

They also trailered a movie called Mr Peppers Penquins with Jim Carey, that looked funny and another that I may take myself to on a day off called The Help.

So thats it for now - I am going for the tri-fector this week so stay tuned.

Yep I have been slipping up.....

Where does the time go, one minute its the 5th of July the next its the 25th.  I am sure someone keeps messing with my calender.  So in the last twenty days, gosh that sounds bad, has it really been that long.  See B you are doing way better than me with your postings.
Anyway Nick and Abbey turned 11 and it seems like this year they had a perpetual birthday, just kept on going.  It started on their actual birthday when I  put on lunch and invited my Mum and sister.  That evening they had a friend each stay for dinner and a sleepover.  Dave took the boys to work with him for the day as thats what Nick wanted to do.  Dave works in the Hunua Ranges monitoring and maintaining the dams that feed water to Auckland City.  So its in the middle of nowhere in acres and acres of native bush.  The most beautiful natural place one could ever hope to work in.  They found a giant Kauri tree and bought home gum and bark.  They found a knife and whittled spears which they almost caught eels with.  Went hundreds of steps down into the dam and found stalactites and giant wetas with their headlamps.  The perfect day for a couple of 11 year old boys. 

This is one of the Dams in the Hunua Ranges

The following thursday Nick had 4 friends over after school for afternoon tea and an afternoon of talking the most amazing rubbish you could imagine coming from 5 boys.  This was rounded up by Abbey having not 4 but 7 friends for afternnon tea on Saturday and by request my lounge became a salon and I gave the girls a mini facial and my sister did all their nails.  A perfect afternoon for a bunch of 11 year old girls by all accounts.
Now we are on school holidays and we were supposed to go away this week but things just didn'r pan out so we are just doing things like going to the movies having friends over and if the weather holds maybe a round of mini golf.
In between all this I have done a little crafting.  I have been making, well altering notebooks.  I did some a while back but have just made one for a swap and I made a couple more. A great way of using up scraps.   There is one winging its way across the water to a certain reporter I know and until she gets it all I can say is that elephants and hippos are both large grey animals....... when it is received I will reveal what I mean by saying that.

Oh and I am thrilled to see I have a few more followers than when I last checked in - thanks ladies for following my ramblings.

Websters CHA Launch

Websters Pages are launching another amazing range of their products.  Why not pop over to their site and have a look  - I know you won't be dissappointed.
 http://websterspages.typepad.com/

Sugar Nellie in the Sunrise

I have to say I really love these Sugar Nellie Images and a I hope that more will be added to the collection (hint, hint).  Ok I know this does not conform to the challenge but I am so pleased with the result that I thought I would show it off and that the girls over at the Sugar Bowl would like to see how I used "Connie".  This is another tent card and in the background is a computer printed sunset, I coloured Connie in pencil and added her so it looks like she is sitting in the sunrise.  I had to make a card for a swap using a sunrise and this is what I came up with.  It had me really stumped for a while but I think the end result is really great (even if I do say so myself).  I didn't check the photo before I sent it off to its destination so I apologise that it is a little off.

Sassy Cheryl # 70 Outside the Box

Here is a little card I made for a baby shower using Sassy Cheryl's Stork image which I think is (as my US friends say) so "stinkin cute".  I really wanted a piece of paper that had houses along the bottom but had to settle for grass.  My vision was Mr Stork flying across the hill tops at night to deliver this gorgeous little bundle to his new parents. I used bits a pieces from my stash added the stars as it is night time and some ribbon to pretty it up a little.  The image is coloured in pencil then cut out and placed onto thet moon.  As this challenge was out of the box some part of the image had to be doing just that, although my box happens to be round.

LOTV Card.

This is a card I made last week with the intention of entering it in the Lili of the Valley challenge but with one thing and another I missed the deadline but I have decided to post it here anyway.  I wanted to try and have a break from using flowers as I seem to use them all the time (cause I like them) and I must say that was the challenging part.  Its another tent card - I really like the 3D effect it gives.

Winter has arrived!

Over the weekend winter decided to arrive.  Saturday I stood on the sideline watching Nick play soccer in a field that resembled a swamp freezing my butt off.  Fotunately only one shower came across but it really felt like snow in the air (not that it has ever snowed up here - but it was snowing somewhere).  Abbey stayed in the card with her nose in a book wrapped in a rug - smart girl.  Amazingly Nick was warmer than me when he came off and he was only wearing his match shorts and shirt. 

I need to just step back a day to Friday for a mo.  I went to a scrapbooking expo, they had all the new releases of paper collections and new gadgets on show.  Some very nice things to see and touch.  I would have like some of the new dies that are around but they are a little costly so I bought a few bits and bobs namely some paper from the new Graphic 45 collection "Wizard of Oz" have no idea what I shall do with it but it just really pulled me in.  Bought a magazine called "Docrafts" haven't heard of them before, lots of cutsey stuff on there stand but some really nice embossing folders and little quote cards, which I didn't buy.  It was a good show just like being in a huge scrapbooking shop, I do however think that things are getting a bit costly - most of the papers were around the $2.50 mark (which is about $2US).  But it was a good day out and not something I usually get to do.

Friday evening Abbey had a dance Competition and the troupe she performs in came first.  3 performances and 3 firsts this time they all got a medal so it was more special than the others.  They are doing really well and the judges comments they are getting are all really positive and the marks in the 90's.

So it has been a pretty busy weekend if you add in a couple of sleepovers as well.  Now I am sitting at home all stuffed up with a cold.  I did go to school yesterday and as the day went on I felt worse and worse so today I am at home dosing myself with Vitamin C and lemon and honey - bit early for Whiskey but my Dad always swore by it.  Maybe later..........

McDonalds, Sugar Nellie and Mo.

Well I have quite a successful crafting weekend - mind you the weather has been pretty awful so not much good for anything else. Luckily the rain held off for the entirety of Nicks soccer game even though the pitch was like a swamp. They won  4 - 0 by the way.  This morning we had McDonald's for breakfast I had promised the kids for some reason, can't remember why but apparently I did, luckily ours is a McCafe.

This first card is using "Connie" one of Sugar Nellie's images, she is coloured in pencil.  The papers are a mixture of Cosmo cricket and Kaisercraft.  I am entering this into challenge # 62 Marlene's Sketch. 

This next one is a Mo Manning image also coloured in pencil (that's all I have) using Graphic 45 paper and core'dinations which sands beautifully when embossed.  This one is for Mo's Challenge # 87 Tags. 

Tent Card

Make a Tent Card:

I haven't tried this before but it was actually really easy and very effective.  I used a Sassy Cheryl Image coloured it in pencils. The papers are from October Afternoon.  I wanted the bear to look like she was dancing in the flowers and I think I have achieved this.  I am entering this in Sassy Cheryl's challenge # 68.



Cards I have made recently



Lili of the vally Image

    

Mo's Digital Pencil Image Kansas and Graphic 45 papaers

Sugar Nellie image Hope

Mo's image Alice - this was done using Lyn's collage techniques

Sugar Nellie image Cybil and October Afternoon Thrift shop papers

A recap of the last 7 months



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                         Sunset at Whangamata

Lonely bay at Cooks Beach

Well the intentions were actually good - just didn't last too long so here is a quick recap of the last 7 months.  Christmas came and went in a flash as did the holidays.  We made our annual pilgrimage to the blissful Cooks Beach in the Coromadel and had a great extended family holiday.  We also had several days away with friends in Whangamata also in the coromandel also great. The year started with the kids back to school in their last year of primary.  A proud mummy moment  occurred when they were both announced as councilors/leaders of the school.  In april the annual Norris Dance Showcase was performed to sold out crowds and despite all the pain and stress to get there the Show was an outstanding success.  April also saw the beginning of the soccer season and the standing on the sideline screaming and yelling the Drury Cougars on.

In the April school holidays I took the kids on a bus

trip down to

Whangamata and we stayed several days with good friends yet again.  We went to the Katikati bird park which is a lovely day out.  Played cricket and walked on the beach and just generally relaxed.



Katikati Bird Park





This term is now half way through and we have had the Barbarians School Rugby Tournament, where the children had the opportunity to meet past All Blacks and current Blues players. It gave Nick a taste for playing rugby and I am pleased to say he has decided that soccer is his prefered code. It was a great day followed by a lovely afternoon exploring Devonport.



The PCS Barbarian Rugby Team



Auckland City seen from Devonport



The dance competiton seson also kicked off with Abbey dancing as a member of the "Hands up" Troupe and coming first in their first 2 outings and also winning the most entertaining Troupe award. They work hard at practices and just look fab on the stage.

Part of the Hands Up Troupe