Fancy A February Blog Challenge

Lovely Alisa approached me about her goals of getting more creative this year, of making creativity a priority for her. She asked if I'd join her for a wee challenge. To blog at least one photo (with words or without if you don't have the time) of something creative you have done that day.. every day of February. Of course I jumped at the chance. I have been getting super creative lately mostly to keep myself from thinking to much about what I don't have and it is an excellent way for me to process my feelings about losing Jason.

So from tomorrow I will be posting something creative EVERYDAY during February. And I'll keep an eye to make sure Alisa does too!!

Anyone else wanna join in with us??
To a creative and inspiring February!

More Online Crop Fun

Well another busy day on the Fiskateer Message Board with the Online CHA Crop. So much talent on those boards! Amazing! I managed to get 2 of the challenges done today.

First one was called 'Let's Turn The Gallery Orange For The Leads' Now we have four amazing Fiskateer Leads who are all at CHA in Los Angeles. Cheryl, Tami, Angela & Rebecca do so much for Fiskars and the Fiskateers so to show them how much we appreciate everything they do for us as a community, we were to make some Orange and Green Thank You cards, for those of you that don't know orange & green are the Fiskateer colours.
And here is the card I made ...



The Second Challenge was called 'Make and Take- Challenge 3 Leading Lady- Feature One' Each day at CHA one of the leads is deciding the theme of the Fiskateer Lounge. Yesterday's theme was Picnic. We simply had create a project with the theme "Old Fashioned Picnic" as our inspiration.
For Christmas my Mum gave Abbey the most beautiful picnic basket set full of knitted picnic food. Both Abbey & Riley LOVED playing with it so I thought those photos would be perfect for this challenge!




I used a sketch from Page Maps which I thought looked kinda like a Picnic Blanket and if you look close on the really bad Apple close up you will see the word picnic, which I cut from an old dictionary.

So there is still more Online Crop Fun at Fiskateers tomorrow and even if you miss out on all the crop fun there is always great stuff going on so come on over and join the Fiska-Fun!!

Love Letters

I have realised since losing Jason that I was one of those very lucky ladies who's husband did more than he was appreciated for. He sent love letters, cards, notes, emails often. For the longest time they have just sat in a dusty old box. I decided it was time to give them the respect they deserved, and I have also been reading them a lot more lately, so I decided to make a Love Letters Box for them.
When Jase went back to America at the end of 2008 he bought me back a whole heap of craft stuff, one of the things he came home with was this suitcase



It wasn't originally orange but as you all know if anything sits still for long enough in my house it becomes orange!!


This range is called State Of the Heart by My Minds Eye and it is what I used to change my little Suitcase into this ....






Materials Used:
*My Minds Eye State of the Heart Paper
*Making Memories Love Note Metal Charms
*My Mind's Eye State of The Heart Die Cuts
*Bazzill Paper Flowers
*Queen & Co Scroll Felt Fusion
*Making Memories Love Note Heart doily Paper
*Paper Doily
*Ribbon & Fibres
*Little Metal Frames & Bookplate
*Buttons
*Brads
*Ink

Now my extra precious letters have a kind, friendly and LOVING home for me to treasure even more.

Crafty Day

I have had a crafty day today. It's still early enough for me to do more but I just thought I'd blog what I've done so far.

The first thing I started last night and finished this morning. I'll give you a bit of background first ....

My Grandad (my Mum's Dad) passed away back in 1990, I was 12 at the time. Amazing man, awesome Grandad. He served in WWII in Egypt & Italy. He was crafty, he'd do wood turning and make wooden puzzles. He also made things out of copper and when ever we went to stay at my grandparents house he was pottering in his work shed. One of my Granddad's passions was the Ocean and the beach. He had a salt water aquarium at home and I remember collecting sea water in bottles, and looking through rock pools for teeny creatures to take back for the tank. It was always a treat to feed the fish pipis when we went around and see if Grandad had got any new sea creatures in the tank. The other thing Grandad was passionate about was shells. He had the biggest shell collection I have seen anywhere. He named and catalogued hundreds, perhaps thousands of shells. He would collect sand from beaches or get my Dad who was a diver to get sand from the ocean floor, and he would sift through it, and comb through it and find the most amazing shells. He'd look at these teeny little shells and name them and catalogue them. He built special boxes and shelves and storage for them. Something I loved about going to my grandparents was helping Grandad sort his shells. He'd get the Microscope out and we would find tiny shells in the collected sand. It was so cool. To this day I cannot walk along a beach without my head down scouring the beach for amazing sea life, shells and other treasures. I have very fond memories of My Grandad for sure. My Mum and Dad had Granddad's shell collection for a long time after he died. But when they moved into a smaller house they didn't have room for it so it was passed onto my Aunt. Before it was taken away I took a couple of items which I really wanted to do something with. And finally I have got around to doing something! So last night and today I made this tribute to my beloved Grandad.





I am REALLY pleased with how it turned out!

Now in an earlier post HERE I mentioned about the Fiskateer Online Crop for CHA. Well the crop began today and is running for the next few days with some amazing challenges and RAKs and a whole heap of fun! Most of the day I have been answering questions, commenting on photos, laughing at other people and of course crafting! And I have already won a prize!! WOW!! Exciting stuff.
Well I have finished one Crafting Challenge and have HEAPS more to go! Best hurry up and finish blogging so I can get back to it!!
Anyway ...
The Challenge was to make a LO or card with a Fairytale Theme. This is what I made ....



Materials used:
*Kaisercraft Airy Fairy Paper
*American Crafts Thickers
*Paper Doilies
*Lace & Ric Rac
*Brads
*Ink
*Glitter

I LOVE this paper and I LOVE this LO. Very proud of my efforts today!!
And now I must get back to the crafting and knock out some more of those Challenges! Come on over and join in too!!!

Wedding LO's

Today I was supposed to be attending my friend Lyann's Wedding. Sadly due to Cyclone Wilma roads have been closed and weather conditions are a little dodgy. I decided to cancel my 2 hour drive down to Orewa and opted to stay home where it is a little less risky. I am pretty Disappointed that I have to miss the Wedding because I was really looking forward to it.
I LOVE weddings, I really do. I had one, it was beautiful! I went to my other friend Amanda's last weekend on Waiheke Island too. Seems to be that it is Wedding season! So in the season of Weddings and with Valentines Day coming up I have scrapped some of my Wedding photos


Materials used:
*Making Memories 'Love Note' paper*Making Memories 'Love Note' Ribbon Slide
*Bazzill Kraft Card Stock
*Heidi Grace Sticker alphas
*lace, ribbon & ric rac
*Heidi Grace Epoxy paper clip
*ink


Materials used:
*Making Memories 'Love Note' paper
*Making Memories 'Love Note' Alphabet Tiny Stickers
*felt ribbon
*fabric flowers & butterflies
*Fiskars scallop heart punch
*cuttlebug alphabet
*flourish stamps
*ink


Materials used:
*Making Memories Love Note paper
*Heidi Swapp 'Together' clear word Stamp
*Queen & Co 'Scroll' Felt Fusion
*lace
*Kaisercraft pearls
*word stamps
*ink
*white cardstock

I am totally inspired to do more Wedding LOs .. you never know I might even finish my wedding Album this year .. it's only been 7yrs since I got married!!! I have always been afraid to do my Wedding photos but Jason's death has made me realise there is no time like the present.

Fiskateers CHA Online Crop

There has been a list of crop challenges & RAKS posted up on the Fiskateer Message Board I thought I'd copy and paste to let you all in on the excitement too!! Remember this is American times so take that into account if you are from NZ or Australia!

Master List of CHA Crop 2.0 Challenges and RAKs
All coming soon!

The crop runs Saturday, January 29th through Tuesday, February 1st from 9 am to 9 pm CST…although the party never really ends does it?!

RAK 1: Fiskateer Lounge – Coming Soon
RAK 2: Time to Pack– Coming Soon
RAK 3: How Far Would You Go? – Coming Soon
RAK 4: Meet and Greet– Coming Soon
RAK 5: Seeing New Product– Coming Soon
RAK 6: Talk of the Town– Coming Soon
RAK 7: Innovation Showcase– Coming Soon
RAK 8: Trend Talk– Coming Soon

Make and Take Challenge 1: The Creative Connection– Coming Soon
Make and Take Challenge 2: Demo Time (Part 1) – Coming Soon
Make and Take Challenge 3: Leading Lady Feature 1– Coming Soon
Make and Take Challenge 4: We’re in the Money– Coming Soon
Make and Take Challenge 5: Trying New Things– Coming Soon
Make and Take Challenge 6: Leading Lady Feature 2– Coming Soon
Make and Take Challenge 7: Demo Time (Part 2) – Coming Soon
Make and Take Challenge 8: SWAG– Coming Soon
Make and Take Challenge 9: Leading Ladies Feature 3: – Coming Soon
Make and Take Challenge 10: Designers Showcase– Coming Soon
Make and Take Challenge 11: Color My World– Coming Soon

Online Gala (Chat) - Friday, Feb 4th

Plus, we also have games planned to keep the fun rolling along

Not a Fiskateer??? Pop on over and join up!! Awesome fun, amazing group of people and amazing talent!!

Flashback Friday

A few weeks ago I let Riley (who will be 6 in March) watch Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope for the First time. He LOVED it. Who doesn't? It's a classic film! It came out in 1977 (excellent year both Jason and I were born in 1977!) and kids of the 2000's are still loving it!! Today the weather has been horrid .. rain rain rain and a little bit more rain, it's so bad in fact I have just heard of friends house's getting flooding! Too crazy!! Anyway because of the weather we had a lazy afternoon watching the next two Star Wars movies, Episode V The Empire Strikes Back and VI Return of the Jedi.



So here is Riley's Star Wars review ....
Mum - "so what you think of the star Wars Movies?"
Riley - "I liked the first one and the middle one but not the last one so much"
Mum - "How come?"
Riley - "the last one was scarier, but I liked it at the end when they had the party with the fireworks"
Mum - "Who was your favourite character?"
Riley - "I liked the little robot R2"
Mum - "R2D2?"
Riley - "yeah!"
Mum - "what was your favourite part of the movies?"
Riley - "When Luke lifted the rocket up out of the mud"



I never get tired of these movies and I am soo glad that Riley enjoyed them so much!!

Here are some REALLY cool Star Wars things I found that I hope the rest of you Star Wars junkies will appreciate as much as I did!!

*School Bag & Book Tags
*Book Covers
*Lego
*R2D2 Beanie
*Crochet
*Storm Trooper Helmet
*Baby Yoda Hat
*Cakes

I could carry on for a millennium!! But I won't!! So until next Blog ....

May the force be with you!

Cards

I DO NOT like making cards. For some reason I get a mind block when it comes to cards and I really struggle with them. So when there was a Better Scrapbooking card challenge I frowned ... a lot! But last night I sat down and made three .. yes I said THREE cards, for me that's AMAZING!

SO here is my Card for the Better Scrapbooking January Card Challenge:
Use Markers - Use them to colour your stamps, write a title or create a border. Lets see what you do with your Markers.



This could be a Valentines card but I am using it as a Wedding Card .. maybe lol who knows really! I don't have a Valentine anymore so I will put it to use somewhere! I used Making Memories Love Notes paper which I stenciled and cut Hearts from. I soo need a Heart punch!! Then using a white marker pen made the dotty border around.

The other cards I made are my favourite!



These were make with Making Memories {Note}worthy paper and I used my Stampin' Up Butterfly punch & stamps.
A while back on Facebook there was a 'Pay it Forward' thing going around, comment and I'll make something for you so long as you pay it forward to 5 people. Well I signed up so these cards will go with 2 of my 'Pay It Forward' items!

It is raining hard at my place today .. perfect weather for crafting!!!
Only 3 1/2 days until the Jan Challenges end at Better Scrapbooking head on over and join in!

Summer Showers

This Summer has been HOT oh so hot! It has also been quite rainy.
HOT + Rain = Muggy
and that is HORRIBLE!!! The kids have really been LOVING when Mummy lets them out to run around in the rain, and honestly why not!!



This day only Abbey went out in the rain and she was running around on the deck like a crazy thing!! She only stayed still long enough for me to get ONE good shot on the camera, and this is it!

I used Making Memories 'Flutter' and '{Note}worthy' paper ranges on this LO

I made this LO for the Better Scrapbooking January Layout Challenge 'Your Summer Holidays' which was creating a LO of something you did over your Summer Holidays. Make sure you head over there to check out the January challenges you only have until the end of the month to join in! Check out the other January Challenges HERE
I still have two to do so best I get scrapping!!!

Small things ....

Yesterday I was having such a down day.
Today I got two packages from two AMAZING ladies which totally made my day!
The first one was a surprise one from a lovely lady called Mandy. Now Mandy lives in Wellington, we have never met in real life but have started to get to know one another online. She is so so lovely and she obviously has learnt about my Orange Obsession (who hasn't!!??) and decided to post me off a little RAK (random act of kindness) which I TOTALLY LOVED!!




Now Mandy made those amazing necklaces herself and I can't wait to wear them!!! They are AMAZING! Thanks so much Mandy you totally made my day!

The other amazing lady is someone I have had the pleasure to meet in real life and I am happy to be able to call her one of my closest friends. Nicola is one of the people who is often up late at night online and keeps me sane when I feel like I am going insane, she kicks my butt when it needs kicking and is an AWESOME venting board. I truly appreciate her. Her package was a Trade Me pickup from Christchurch that she kindly picked up for me and she was a little naughty and added a few extra things in there and I will show you my favourite extra thing (since we are on the orange topic)



Oh and the incredibly styley Trade Me purchase ...



Which turned out to be more yellow than orange but I still adore!!

So Mandy and Nic thanks for been amazing friends who packages happened to turn up on the perfect day xxxx

Another LO

I am totally LOVING the 'Alphabet Soup' paper range from My Minds Eye. I decided that it was just perfect for Riley's first day at school photo, which I had been meaning to scrap for oh well almost a year!! I finally got around to getting it done!!



I am very pleased I finally got around to scrapping this photo!

Jealousy

Some days for me are hard for a good reason such as Special days like Christmas, Birthdays, Anniversaries etc. Other days are just hard for no reason other than it's a day without Jason.
I have been Blog Hopping alot lately, finding new inspiration, ideas places to visit. Seeing so many amazing women (and yeah it is 99% women!) with amazing lives and families. I look at the gorgeous photos they post of their smiling children and Husbands/Partners and I feel jealous and sad. I want that back. I want my smiling husband back. I want my happy family back. I want to wake up in the morning with a smile instead of having to force myself to get up. I sometimes feel bitter towards others who have such a good life. Somedays I can't read their blogs. Today would be one of those days.

Today is a hard day for no other reason than it's a day without Jason

The Ultimate Desk Caddy

My kids LOVE doing artwork, might have some influence from their Mum not really sure teehee! But I have being going insane with the mess of the pencil case getting tipped upside down and having pens, crayons and pencils EVERYWHERE!
Just like this ....



Well I decided enough was enough and I decided to make The Ultimate Desk Caddy for all the kids art supplies.
I found these ....



I sawed them into different heights and also added a couple of toilet rolls. I had a piece of MDF wood laying around (doesn't everyone?) and I painted the edges of that cream. Then using the cutest My Minds Eye paper range around covered all the tubes with 'Alphabet Soup' I used double sided tape to attach the paper and painted the top edge of each tube the same as the wood. I used Mod Podge to cover the wood with some more paper and then sanded the edges. Then using Mod Podge I glued all the tubes to the Wood.

Since it was for Riley & Abbey I decided I'd embellish with a couple of Butterflies and Robots, cause they totally go together!! And then after spending an hour sharpening pencils it was done!!







Easy peasy to make! And super tidy!! Bonus!
Fingers crossed the kids remember they don't have to tip everything upside down and out!!!

Have fun keeping your kids tidy!!

Summer Photos

The Better Scrapbooking January Photo Challenge was called "Fun in the Sun" you were to take a photo of you having fun in the "sun". I really don't like photos of myself .. something I need to get over .. really! But I chose two of my fav pics of the kids having fun this summer these are them ....




Gotta love the kids in the summer!!

To a More Organised 2011

I don't know about you guys but I NEVER have enough space on my calendar to write up what's going on. Some days are nothing but as the saying goes 'it never rains but it pours' everything seems to fall on the same day and the teeny little squares don't cut it. I can't do diaries either because I always, ALWAYS forget to look in them. I need it up on the wall in my face. I saw this fabulous idea for a homemade whiteboard and I thought PERFECT and set to work making my very own Home made whiteboard monthly planner.



It was super easy to make and I LOVE it!!

First thing I did was find a BIG photo Frame and I mean BIG mine is 70CM x 55CM. My Grandma was about to throw it out and I nabbed it for myself. I Love my family they ALWAYS ask me if I want stuff before they throw it out, they know me all too well!!! I pulled it apart and put the glass somewhere safe and away from my kids!! The wooden frame was black so I sanded it back (with a little help!)



Once most of the black was sanded off I painted the frame an orangey cream colour.
I measured the glass and with some mathematical help from my good friend Nic, I made even squares on the glass with a black vivid. 7 Squares across and 5 down same as a calendar.

On the wooden back of the frame I Mod Podged some 12x12 papers. I used 4 papers in total, two around the edge and 2 in the middle. I used some gorgeous papers from the Fancy Pants 'On a Whimsy' range.

I used some white chipboard alphas to make the days of the week and inked them with Tim Holtz Distress Ink. I used the colour 'Spiced Marmalade'



I used my Stampin' Up Butterfly punch and co-ordinating stamps 'Butterfly Prints' plus some ADORABLE little Flowers from Sassafras Lass to embellish a little on top of my papers.



I then put the frame back together, making sure to put the side I drew the vivid lines on the inside so they are under the glass not on top. I sealed it all up.
I then embellished the outside with the same flowers and butterflies.



I made a big orange flower with felt, ribbons and a button and using a ribbon long enough to reach all around the board I attached a whiteboard marker which I also embellished with the same papers as inside the frame.



And then it was done! You can write on the glass and rub it off just like a white board. I write the calendar numbers in the squares each month and then will wipe them all off and start new each month.



I am already using it and Riley already knows what we have planned for each day!
So here's to a more organised 2011!!

School Bag Tags

Don't you hate it when your kids chooses their favourite school bag in the shop is totally stoked about it and you get to school and there are 3 more EXACTLY the same! OMGoodness how frustrating! Well I found a FANTASTIC idea as I was searching around for some really cool bag tags. I decided to make one for both Riley's school bag and Abbey's Kindy one .. because of course if I didn't make one for both someone would complain anyway!!

So first thing I did was head off to the $2 shop and bought myself a couple of those hard plastic Licence holders, I knew the $2 shop had them because Jason and I went searching through EVERY variety store in Pukekohe finding the 'right' one for his ID Tag .. particular he was!! Anyway I digress ...

I cut some patterned paper, which co-ordinated with the colour of the bags, the right size for slotting inside the tags embellished and put them in! Simple as that! I just then put a key ring onto the tags to attach them to the bags.

Both Kids LOVED them (my kids are easy to please!) and now we won't have any bag mix ups at school or Kindy!






The Paper I used for Riley was some of the Space themed paper in the DCMV All About Boys stack which I picked up at the Warehouse and for Abbey I used some Imaginisce paper from the range 'Fairest of Them All'. Now we are almost ready to return back to school!!