Better Scrapbooking March Scrap Pack

When this months scrap pack arrived I was a little worried. It was a very heritagey pack and I have never really done any heritage scrapping before. 

The paper was gorgeous! It was a range called Generations by Simple Stories.

I went to a BBQ at my Nana & Grandad's house and my Nana has photographs EVERYWHERE! Every surface you look at is covered in photos so I borrowed a few from her and scanned them to do my first two layouts.

This is my Dad's family. All 9 of them! My Dad is the last one in the back row.

This is my Nana (Dad's Mum). She said she would have been about 15 or 16 in this photo. She is 84 now. My Nana is awesome!

And just so I don't feel left out ... this is ME! I must have been about 3 in this photo. It was on my Great Uncles farm which we used to visit a lot as kids.

I am lucky enough to have 3 out of my 4 Grandparents still around. On my Mums side we have 4 Generations of girls. It is such a special thing to have in a family. Abbey is very lucky to have 3 generations of advice, wisdom, strength and love to depend upon. My Grandma is 86 years old and I try not to take for granted that she won't always be around. I am so happy that my children can have a relationship with their great-grandparents! 

So even though I was a bit worried to begin with I am really pleased with the end results of this Scrap Pack!  Head on over to the March Better Scrapbooking newsletter to find out how I made these and check out what the other design team member Jennie did too! Also Megan has added some great tips and techniques in too!

Better Scrapbooking March Challenges

This months challenges are:


Layout Challenge: 
~Create a layout with the following:
~Pastel Shades
~Hearts
~Twill or sewing
~One photo
~Your own home made embellishments


This is my take on the challenge ~   
*Pastel Shades ~ Little Yellow Bicycle Fresh Print Clothesline
*Hearts ~ Punched with a Fiskars scalloped heart punch
*Twill or sewing ~ twill around the hearts
*One photo
*Your own home made embellishments ~ My stringed hearts 

Photo Challenge:  

St Patrick's day is coming up so take photos of something 'Green'.  Have fun with this and see what you can find that is Green.

It is not easy to find green around my house!! This is about the only thing I could find that wasn't in my garden!!!

Colour Challenges:  

Create a layout, card, or other paper crafting piece using colours from this colour palette.  You may like to use a couple of the colours or all the colours.

This is my take on the colour challenge ... I do really love the pink/green combo!

Can't wait to see your work in the Better Scrapbooking gallery!!

Better Scrapbooking February Challenges

Remember me talking about them back HERE ....
Well for a change I got all three challenges done really quickly and early! So here are my takes on the challenges

Layout Challenge: Copy this months Layout Guide

Abbey's Kindergarten had a celebration for the Chinese New Year by having a shared lunch and Dress up day, Chinese theme of course! Read all about it HERE


Photo Challenge:  Favourite Holiday photo

A friend of ours gave us a pool recently and the kids can't get enough of it! They want to be in it ALL the time! I just love this photo of Abbey with her goggles on!

Colour Challenge:  Create a layout, card or other project using this months colour combination.

My Lil' Monster! This photo was taken at the Fireworks display in 2010. Riley was actually showing me what was in his mouth hehehe


Would love to see you over at the Better Scrapbooking gallery with your takes on the challenges!!

Better Scrapbooking February Scrap Pack

For the February kit we got to play with the awesome My Family range papers from Fancy Pants. These papers were gorgeous! You could use them to scrap any occasion,  I tried my best to get a few different types of layouts from this pack.

First I went for the Boys ....

My son was born to be a couch potato. It's in the genes! Jason was a couch potato and Riley was in training from a young age!! These photos were taken 5 years apart, love my boys!

Then I went for babies ...

I was kinda in a scrapping Jason mood this month! This is Riley just after he was born, and Abbey a few days after she was born. Devoted Dad, it was love at first site for him and his babies.

Lets try Girls ....

I really love this photo of me and Abbey. I just can't get enough photos of me & my girl!!

And what about Wedding .....

Ahhhh one of the best days of my life, the day I said "I Do" to the love of my life.

The range is called My Family so lets give the family thing a go .....

I was kinda stumped with this Maya Road Sheer Key chain at first "what on earth am I going to do with it?!" But I am ever so pleased with how it turned out! Love my little family. 

And how about cards? .....

Awesome works for cards too!!!

I had a lot of fun with this scrap pack!!

So head on over to the Better Scrapbooking February Newsletter to see how I made all this cool stuff and check out what the other design team members did with this awesome pack!

Better Scrapbooking January Scrap Pack

For the January kit we got to play with the stunning Jazmyne Glitter range papers from Bo Bunny

Soooo Pretty and Girly! I just loved them!

Look!! I actually did a LO with me in it!! AMAZING! My awesome friend Neetz took this pic of me and I have always loved it! 

The journalling reads .... 

No-one expected that this was the way
life was going to be, least of all me.
We take the little things in life for granted,
we don’t expect that those little
things will suddenly be gone.  And
those are the things I miss most.  The
little things.  The everyday normal kind
of things.  I wish I took more time to
think about those little everyday
things.  I wish I had made you realise
how much I appreciated all those things.
Everyone needs to take time out to
appreciate the people in their lives
and not take those little things for
granted.  Take more time to be thankful
for the things we have, because
those are the things that are important.
I wish I didn’t have to fi nd out
in the way that I did that we all need to
Live Each Day with Thankful Hearts

These papers screamed Abbey at me (of course!) So I had to find some lovely girly pics of her. I just adore my sweet little Princess!

My cousin Sherri had a beautiful wedding on her husbands family farm. It was so magical and gorgeous just like my cousin. I made Sherri a wedding horse shoe and as per tradition Abbey gave it to her. The photographer captured this gorgeous pic of Abbey giving Sherri the horseshoe.

My Mum and Dad have 8 Grandchildren. Only two are girls! Until my youngest nephew was born the grand-daughters were the oldest and the youngest, 11 years between them. Jasmine and Abbey ~ Beautiful girls xxx

Go check out the Better Scrapbooking January Newsletter to see how I made all these layouts and check out what the other design team members did with this gorgeous pack!

Better Scrapbooking February Challenges

Great prizes up for grabs!! We are really trying to get more people involved so tell your scrappy friends and neighbours!! Come on over and get busy at the Better Scrapbooking Community!!

Layout Challenge: Copy this months Layout Guide
Use this layout guide to create your layout.  Either copy it exactly or let it inspire you.

Photo Challenge:  Favourite Holiday photo
Share with us your favourite holiday photo from this summer.  The way the weather has been it might even be a photo in the snow.


Colour Challenge:  Create a layout, card or other project using this months colour combination.

Have fun and I look forward to seeing all your creations in the Gallery soon!!

Better Scrapbooking December Scrap Pack

I know this is SUPER late! Sorry!!!

We got an interesting range of Christmas Papers by a NZ company called Pavlova Papers. I must admit using these papers were a challenge as I wouldn't have picked them out myself, but I'm always up for a challenge and here is what I made ......

Sweet Tooth
This photo was taken when we took Riley to his very first School Gala. It was the Red Beach School Gala in Whangaparaoa at the end of 2008. Riley would have been almost 4. He was so excited when he saw the stall with the girls selling their lollie necklaces, we couldn't resist to get him one! He was good and saved some for the next day too!

Smile For Santa
Christmas 2010. The Rising Stars Drama group here in Whangarei made this AMAZING Santa's Grotto. We went along of course! They had games and activities and of course Santa! Riley and Abbey had a blast doing all the other things and then walking through the amazing grotto was awesome! But when we got to Santa Abbey was the only one who would have her picture with Him!! Oh well better luck next time Riley!

Christmas
Every year ever since Riley was a baby I have taken a Christmas photo of Riley & then Riley & Abbey and made our Christmas cards with the picture on the front. This photo was our Christmas photo  for 2010. There was even a special appearance from Bear!! Bear is Abbey's special teddy she has had since she was a baby and carries around everywhere!

Christmas Love
Another Christmas 2010 photo. The kids made the awesome hand print wreath and gave it to my Mum. I just LOVE this photo of the two of them in the wreath. Gee my kids are cute!

Inspired HERE by Pinterest I made this Christmas ball ornaments. Not as sparkly as the original, might need to jazz them up a little next time!

I also made a Garland with some of the scrap pack leftovers ....

Go check out how I made these, and what the other design team members did with the scrap pack HERE

I hope you enjoyed!

Better Scrapbooking November Scrap Pack

What a stunning Scrap Pack this month!!
It was cram packed with gorgeous Jillibean Soup's Blossom paper range. Soooo pretty!!



Perfect opportunity to do some more lovely Abbey LOs!! I do love doing girls stuff!


This big photo of Abbey has been hanging around for a while. I have been wanting to scrap it for ages and these papers just worked perfectly with it! This was her first Kindergarten photo, she just got her 2nd one taken today! I can't wait to see how it turns out! I just love how the photographer has gone right away from the traditional sit on a chair pose for the Kindergartners. Abbey told me her photo taken today was a Lion in the Logs! I am very excited to see that one!


Another Kindergarten pic. This is one of Abbey's best friends at Kindy. I just LOVE this photo of the two of them!! Two gorgeous girls!


This photo was taken at my beautiful cousin Sherri's wedding. I had no idea that the photographer had the camera pointed at Abbey! But man I am glad she did I LOVE this photo!

As soon as I saw this Jillibean collection I thought about Abbey and what I want to do for her new bedroom. We are still quite a way away from decorating in there but I thought I could start with the little things so I made this lamp shade.


It was just a cheap Bunnings Warehouse lamp with a pale pink shade. I like it much better now!

To see how I made all these check out the latest Better Scrapbooking Newsletter HERE

And don't forget to go in and check out the latest Challenges!

Better Scrapbooking September Scrap Pack

This pack was ohh so pretty!!! The papers were from the Cosmo Cricket Earth Love range and I really enjoyed working with it!





I found the papers really versatile to a range of different photos.


And they were really cute too!!

For instructions on how I made all these check out the September Newsletter over at Better Scrapbooking, also check out what the other fabulous Design Team member, Jennie, has created too!

Crafting up a Storm! A Pinterest Storm!

I have mentioned my addiction to Pinterest. So so many lovely things to look at. I have been busy making rather than pinning which I have LOVED!! I am sooo excited to be in my new house (which I own!!) in a couple weeks so I haven't been able to craft as much as I want. And today I started packing up my craft room *sob sob* So over the next little while I will have to pause my crafting until I get moved and re-setup. But I have sooo many plans when I get into the house! I have upholstering, painting, gardening, and sooo much more planned! I can't wait! But in the meantime I have managed to get a few things made which were inspired by Pinterest.

*Pin #1 Fancy Frames*

Inspired by THIS PIN I bought these frames from the Op Shop for $3 each.


The pictures were just paper copies which were kinda tricky to get off!! But I stripped all the paper off and cleaned it up, then I gave them a few coats of spray paint and added my own photos and this is what they look like now ....


I can not wait to find a home for them on the wall in the new house!! I am sooo stoked with how awesome they turned out!

*Pin #2 Fancy Lampshade*

This was actually inspired by a lamp at Abbey's Kindergarten (sadly I don't have a photo of that one) But I also have one pinned HERE

So over 300 buttons later, several lengths of wire, a fat lip and sore fingers I produced this .....


The more I look at this photo the more I think that the buttons don't match the orange of the base hmmm might have to fix that soon!!

Also I received a gorgeous Scrap Pack from Better Scrapbooking that I have been working away at .. mmm loving this paper!!


I can't show you the stuff I have been working on with this pack yet but watch out for it soon!

You may have noticed I have been orangefying a little bit .. watch out for a new Orangefying my world tab up the top after I move!