The Humble Paperclip

Actually not true...the paperclip is not so humble after all and is a very useful peice of stationery that I suspect most of us have a wee stash of.

Here is some useless information you can share at your next dinner party....The first patent for a bent wire paperclip was awarded to a certain American gentleman by the name of Mr Samual B. Fay in 1867.  Originally intended to attach tickets to fabric,  it was also recognised that the paperclip could be used to attach sheets of paper together.

These are slightly bigger than your bog standard paperclip about 2 inches at a guess. Really fun to make and still functional.



A Red theme going on here, the wooden bird is embossed and the others are made from paper.





A spring theme in this set, a fabrc yo-yo flower, the butterfly is covered in paper and then
a coat of dimensional magic applied, my favourite is the sheep made using a variety
 of pieces from a couple of punches.

 I wonder what Mr Samuel B. Fay would make of these paper clips, bet they would still attach a ticket to some fabric though.


Bye for now.

The fear of responsibility

Well on Friday both children came home with invitations to try out to become School Councillors, not sure what you call them elsewhere but in other words student leaders.  By Sunday the thrill has worn off and the fear of responsibility has set in.

The doubt of not knowing what is expected, how much time will be spent out of class, having to speak at assembly in front of their peers. Do they in fact even want this honor.  As a parent of course I am thrilled and yes of course they should be councillors, how good is that for the future.  I often say be a leader not a follower, but I have to also admire the foresight of not wanting to spend time away from learning in the class.  Both want to earn places in the advanced classes at College which means a head down bumb up year this year.  They also don't want to let the Principal down by saying no.

 I am so very proud of the grown up way they are approaching this dilemma, how they are reflecting on the situation and trying to come up with a solution. Today being Monday they are going to talk to their teacher and ask him just how much time they will spend out of class and what the expectations will be.  Researching to make an informed decision.

This is such a great test for their young minds and a sign of their character. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out, but either way lessons are being learnt and I am very proud.

                                              

Back to School

Well its Monday and as promised another post, I have had major Internet issues so missed last week but given I posted twice the week before I think that makes me even.

Well as I said its Monday and the summer holidays are over and we are back to school.  I never thought I would be in my 30's oh ok 40's and still saying "I don"t want to go to school" but the necessary evil of money dictates that one must work.  I know once I get there and have had my first 50 hugs I will forget I didn't want to be there and enjoy being with the kids again.  Nick and Abbey went off at 10 past 8 for their first day of the year both with new school bags on their backs full of the years stationery.  Oh and because it is the first day of school ...of course....it's raining!!!

So today I have a little something I have been playing with, dominos, just for something different.  These little wooden pieces are lots of fun and you can do lots with them.  Also seen all the tiles that are popular at the moment well I have made my own from scrabble pieces. I still need to perfect my technique but they are fun and easy and cheaper.  Dominos I had some here and found some at the $2 store.



This is a mini album with a Domino fromt and back and an accordian fold album inbetween.
 Cute huh! and only measures 1 1/4 x2 1/2 inches




This is it opened up.




These are smaller dominos I turned into tiles, fun I can assure you but I think the scrabble tiles are cuter.
 These would make nice necklaces, but I need to work on my drilling as my holes leave a little bit to be desired.

Well must go as the bell will be ringing soon.  Till next Monday.

Bye
Karen

Water Gardens

I know I said see you on Monday but I wanted to share some photos of the Gardens we went to today.  They are about 20 km from home and feature water lillies.  The gardens are built in an old disused quarry.  We took a picnic lunch and spent the afternoon there.  It was actually closed but they have an honesty box to leave your entry fee and you can roam the gardens at your leisure. We were the only ones there for the most part.  The lillies are so beautiful and in about another 2 weeks will have finished flowering.  The photos show the lillies and a view from above the gardens taken beside the waterfall. 

Sorry Blog.....

Well what do you call a post after you have been absent for a little bit. 4 months to be exact.  Sometimes life gets very busy and one of the things that slips to the back of your mind is ones poor neglected blog.  Well just so it feels special I have given it a little bit of a revamp.  It is amazing how blogging has changed in this time I can no longer upload photos directly from my memory card.   Hmmmmm!!!

As it is supposedly summer down in this hemisphere we are on summer holidays.  The weather has been accomodating at times to beach going but more specifically to crafting.  It has been good to sit at my desk and play.

I have caught up on cards that were well overdue and also made a little pile of extras ready to go at a moments notice, not something I would usually do.  I had to rethink the whole card thing.  Postage is getting quite ridiculous and as I like to embellish my cards, I always go over the 10mm thickness required and end up having to post at parcel rates.  Soooooo clean  simple and flat was the brief.  Here is a little sample of what I came up with.

This one is simply made from scraps using squares and hearts.

Again using squares and butterflies this time, the background paper
 is from a My Minds Eye 6 x 6 paper pad .



This one is a little stack of parcels using squares and rectangles and the
 gorgeous paper from Prima Tea Thyme collection. 
Add some crochet cotton bows and.....

Now I am off to take a look at my friends blogs to see what creations they have been......well....creating.
I have promised myself I will blog once a week so on that note I shall see you next Monday.  Till Then xo

Consider yourself.......

Tonight was a great night.  Nick won himself three certificates and 2 trophies at the badminton prizegiving this evening.  Runnerup U13 Boy, Runnerup Interclub Team, and Runnerup in the mixed Doubles.  Fair chuffed he was and rightly so. He has had a great badminton year and has really improved this past 6 months. Very very proud of him.

Next installment of the dance scrapbook, I am on such a roll. This was taken at the 2011 Showcase. Abbeys Tap group danced to Consder Yourself from the musical Oliver. Never seen such a pretty bunch of urchins. The inspiration comes from Once Upon A Sketch.  This was the colour pallet you had to use which is perfect for this photos. I just happened to have this Authentique paper sitting around waiting to be used.  I made the rosette thingys from a page from an old music book.

A good friend has given me some great advice about photographing my layouts so I am very hopeful the next lot of photos will be much better and cropped. 




I journalled aroound the rosettes so it becomes part of the embellishments.

 

This is the sketch information and the rules you needed to follow, great way to run a challenge.  Pretty sure I ticked all the boxes.

Hands Up -Howdy Pardner

Well here I am continuing on my scrapbooking binge,  I have to say I am enjoying doing layouts again.  This one is for the Scrappin Patch September sketch challenge.  It always amazes me how people interpret a sketch.  It seems the rules can indeed be sketchy and when I look at some I wonder exactly which sketch it was they used.  Of course this is not a bad thing as there has to be some, or lots of,  creative licence envolved othewise they would all look exactly the same......and how boring would that be. Anyway this is the sketch.

And this is my interpretation.  Yes I am working on Abbeys dance album.  The troupe these are taken from was called Hands Up and they won every competition they enterered for the 2011 season.

The journalling is hidden in the pocket at the top right.

I have used a selection of October Afternoon papers, some from the Sasparilla collection some form Woodland Park and some from Farmhouse.  Embellished with a Websters flower and some burlap bows.