Check this out!!

I got up the other morning to the sound of my kids laughing hysterically and this is what I found...



One of the kids came out to get something out of their bag and found Dora Puss hanging out in Jordyn's Pre-school bag! I suspect she had deliberately sourced a quiet spot away from the kids but it didn't last long for her. She aint called "Dora the Explorer" for nothin'!!

Using up Scraps

I had some left over scraps of some Kaiser papers sitting on my desk from a scrapbook layout of my boys that I'd made. In fact I've got great mileage out of these papers as the pieces I used for the layout were scraps that I'd used on my clipboards some time ago - so I guess I've used scraps from scraps!! Anyway, I love these papers and couldn't bring myself to throw away the little pieces that I had left so here's what I made with them...

Sadly I now have no more scaps from this range left :-(

Well , it's bucketing down here so the combination of that and school holidays makes it perfect "lock yourself in your craftroom" conditions. But before I do that, Mikayla and I are going to do a few more rows of knitting on her octopus (now that's a lesson in patience...teaching a 6 year old to knit!!)

Guessing Competition Winner

I forgot to mention the winner for my cake guessing competition. Congratulations Jacob, you were the first to guess correctly ... it was a Banana Split! I'll get a prize to you soon :-)

Some Random Creations

Well I've been having a bit of a tidy up in my craft room and as I was getting organized I found some things that I've had tucked away and thought you might want to take a look. So here's some random creations for you to peek at...


I was asked to teach a little something at our church's Mums & Bubs group, so I put this 6x6 layout together. The mums had the option of either using it as an album page or for those that didn't have 6x6 albums they mounted it onto chipboard and either stuck magnets behind it for the fridge or punched holes in the top and threaded string through to hang as a picture. Gotta love quick & easy!!

Ok, this one's an oldie, but in my opinion a goodie! Just look at how adorable Jordy was when she was little ... she was just so cute!! I absolutely love this photo of her, I've scrapped it so many times in so many ways.

This is a Blessings Book that I made for Mikayla last year. I got quite ill at one stage last year and from that point she became really insecure and started struggling with school and friends and would cry when it was time to go to school and wouldn't want to leave me. It was a horrible time for both of us and absolutely heartbreaking for me. Her lovely teacher suggested that we get her a little book that we could all write positive things in to encourage her. But of course I couldn't just leave it at a plain note book could I???




Unfortunately, these aren't the most brilliant photos, I kept getting reflections in the glass but you get the idea. These were some window frames that I had a play with with the intention of selling at the markets, but I just don't know that I can part with them! I think they'll either find their way onto my walls or become gifts for people who I know will appreciate them. Does anyone else find there are some things you just can't part with?

Thanks for dropping in and have a fabulous easter!

A Guessing Competition!

A frightening thing happened on Friday ... my eldest turned 11! He informed me that he is now a "tween". You see, he's not a kid, and he's not a teenager, he's in-be-"tween". And I'd have to agree with him! Each of our kids has a party every second year (you kinda have to do that with 4 kids!!) and as Ryan had his "big"party last year he had one special friend come and sleep over for this birthday. As per tradition, the kids also get their choice of dinner so we indulged in KFC followed by birthday cake with the family (and Sam). So here's where the guessing competition comes in. I had a bit of a shocker with the cake - runny icing, crumbly cake and just a down-right-difficult cake to make! (I might revise my rules about the kids choosing any cake they want!!) So here's a pic, can you guess what it is?? And no, it's not a Viking ship as my grandfather thought (I'll put that down to him being 81!) So leave a comment, first correct answer wins a prize!


Here's a few more pics from the day. I just love this next one as it really shows the difference between my boys ... Jake up and dressed and ready for school and Ryan still with bed head, sleepy eyes and his new shirt thrown over the top of his PJs.

The presents ... oh boy were there presents ... it was like christmas - thanks Noonie!!

And lastly, the cake I made to take to school - far more successful! I know they say don't play with your food, but this was just too cute. Apparently it was a hit with the kids.

That's My Girl!

As part of her homework this week, Mikayla had to make an Easter card for her buddy, so for Mika this was the best homework eva!! She picked her colours and embellishments all herself and even surprised me by piercing holes for the brads before putting them in. I just had to take a photo of the finished card as I'm so proud of her. But then she really made me laugh...she wanted me to put it on my blog with instructions so all the people who visit can make one too!

So here it is, Mikayla's Easter card tutorial:


"Well first I got a white piece of paper and then in dark purple (it was actually black which tells me it's definitely time to re-ink) I stamped six flowers on and then I got some coloured textas and coloured them in. And then I cut it out. And then I got a purple piece of paper and folded it in half. Well, we got a white piece of paper and we stamped in redish purple "Sharing with you the miracle of new hope and new life through the glorious gift of Christ the Lord" (I had to write the whole quote, I asked if I could just write "the stamp with the words", but no, we had to be very clear!!). And then I sticked the white piece onto the blue piece of paper and then I got a red, a light blue, a green and a dark blue beads and then I put it down and stuck four holes in and I put them in. I put the blue and white piece onto the purple piece. I got a white ribbon and tied it on the side and then I stuck the flowers on. And then I wrote inside. And then I put some coloured bits of texta on the purple and white bits. And then I putd it in the envelope!"

Well at least someone in this family is finding time to do some stamping!

Off the Page in a Big Way!

I haven't been doing much lately, or should I say, I haven't been doing much creating lately! (plenty of other not so fun things - likely swapping the boys bedrooms ... what was I thinking???) So I thought I'd show you something that I created a while back. Those of you who know me, know that I absolutely love to create off-the-page things. This canvas was one of quite a few pieces that I made for our church's art exhibition last year. This was actually one of the pieces that didn't sell so I was contemplating other places I could take it to sell but decided to hang it on our lounge room wall in the meantime to keep it safe. I put it up and straight away my hubby said "NO don't sell it! It looks perfect in our house!" and I have to agree with him! So I finally have a piece of work that I've created and kept just for us!! So here is my giant canvas with one of my favourite quotes...

And here's another picture that shows how big it is in comparison to our furniture...you need the full effect!

I painted the canvas with a neutral colour and then inked around the edges using my Basic Black ink pad. The Live, Laugh and Love words are Kaiser giant monograms painted around the edges and covered in scrapbboking papers (Basicgrey - Scarlett's Letter). The words fully, often and deeply I cut out with my cricut using the "Opposites Attract" cartridge. The flourishes were also done with the cricut.