Chloe's Hat Box

I mentioned this in an earlier blog, and somehow lost the photo's so Chloe has kindly lent it to me so I can photograph it.
I used a box given to me from a friend that was full of nice things for expectant Mums. I always knew I would use it for Chloe because it's purple and I don't particularly like purple. I had some papers that have always had Chloes name on them. It was simply a case of tearing and layering, sealing with sparkle mod podge and creating the handle with lsrge eye-lets and the handle of an old birthday bag.

Novembers Lesson

Tracey set the challenge of using hinges. She gave instructions on making them but I wanted this page to look quite masculine, so I used some metal ones. You can't say I took the easy route because they are a B----er to attach. In the end I took out the snaps and used brads and you can't even tell the difference. Bazil flowers, Bazil Paper a Rusty Pickle sticker to finish it.
The journelling and hidden pictures tells the story of our costumes.

Helena's very christmassy birthday card

Helena's card took the slow boat to china. It started out as a Christmas card and developed into a birthday card when I realised I was rapidly running out of time!
I used Crafty Individual papers onto a Black Gesso Trip-tych thing. The images were down loaded from FLICKR as "vintage xmas postcards" and I used mod podge to seal them. German scrap, a feather and some net stuff that I got in my very first stash from Helena 2 Xmas's ago!
I am quite pleased with the result and hope she likes it.

A Christmas STAR

Here she is in all her glory. Rubbish photos but thankfully she was in last nights paper so I will order a copy.

This ones for my sisters!

If you check out www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/nativity you will see a preview of The Willows school nativity play. Press click here and you can see Georgia as a dancing star, she appears after about 2 minutes on the left hand side of the screen and holds hands and dances in a circle. Floaty pale blue dresses after the sign of the star appears. I think they could have done with some expert video editing from Sarah!

the christmas house website photo

I found it at last. I was looking on the wrong date on their website and off course we were on page 2, so I had given up for 2 weeks and went back to it today for another search. This ones for you Mum!
I haven't any craft photos to post. I took a really good one of Chloe's altered hat box and have somehow wiped it off my memory card.
No surprise there then!

The Christmas House

The three of us Mums and kids went out for tea with the left over £10 from the party, and on the way home Chrissie and I stopped at the Christmas House. The lady literally opens her back garden to the public. She puts in a lot of hard work though. Meeting and greeting the public every night for over a month. This year is her best display ever!

Big Momma

I asked Mark to take this photo recently as I have deleted all previous photos of me. This is because a) I look horrible
b) I feel horrible
c) georgia has taken the only photos of me during this pregnancy and they mainly contain the ceiling and the top of my head!

I wouldn't want baby to think the stork brought him to us so here is the proof!

The Big 5

Georgia in her Barbie and The Island Princess costume. At one stage during the party she became a bit overwhelmed by it all and wouldn't stop following me around. It's a good job I stopped and took this photo because all of the others are action shots!

I think it goes without saying this photo of Kirsty needs scrapping!!

Perfect Smile

My finished page for Novembers Competition at Paper Paradise. The journelling is hidden underneath the photo and reads:

Georgia kept her lips pursed in her last school photo, when I asked her why she said
"because I don't want people to see I have a dummy"
You can imagine my relief when she brought this gorgeous picture home from school with her natural beaming smile.
A week later she lost her first tooth and it's back to
"Mummy do I look ugly when I smile?"
I try to reassure her that she is always beautiful in my eyes!

This is how I made it;
I originally wanted to do an oval but it was too hard and Georgia's face looked really round so I thought lets emphasise it.
As I don't have a cicle cutter I used 2 dinner plates to create the circular frame and raised it with foam. I printed the photo on A4 paper first to ensure I cut the cicle in the right place then laid that one over the good copy.
The letters were hand cut, inked and I smeared a lilac glitter glue on them. They were attached with silicone which I have only recently discovered, thanks to Norma and the Wednesday card makers.
I drew the flourishes on A4 and played about with the dimensions then cut them by hand, inked and attached. Inked my flowers as the blue wasn't a perfect match and diamond glazed the buttons in place. Voila!!!

The presents and nursery/craft room as previously mentioned!!
"Organised Chaos"

Flourishes

This months competition is to use flourishes(that's the curly swirley bit). I really wanted to cheat and post this picture but I made it 2 months ago. So took on the challenge and started again. As much as I want to vary my flourishes they always end up looking the same! Anyway this picture has been missed out of my slide show so here it is. The stitching was done on the machine which is broken and only punches holes, so I had to add the zig-zag thread in by hand.

More recent photos

What me organised! (not quite)

Everyone who knows me knows that I am extremely disorganised. So it came as a shock to myself when I realised that I have nearly finished my xmas shopping. Georgia and I spent the day wrapping them and she is sworn to secrecy. Which probably won't last long with her as she loves telling people what they are getting.
I went to the shop (Paper Paradise) on my own yesterday which was bliss and had a good smooch around. Bought some lovely papers to match Georgia's school photo and am looking forward to getting her off to school tomorrow so I can get started on creating my page for this months competition. Helena and I tied last month which is quite funny as it was my first time entering and the page "Soap Suds" had her daughter my niece on it.
The craft room looks like a bomb site come baby shop with boxes of baby clothes all over. Do you think it is possible for a baby to stay in its moses basket in Mum and Dads room until it's 16 or leaves home?

Autumn Leaves and Yellow Trees

I took Georgia to see Beauty and The Beast at the Auditorium and it was fantastic. Worth every penny especially as I had searched every avenue to get cheaper tickets. I didn't want to sit down the front as last time she had struggled to see from down there, but when your tickets are half price through work what can a girl do!
As I was saying it was fab, but we nearly didn't go because I had the wrong week in my head and once again only realised 2 hours before the show and had to take her out of school. Still I think stage shows are part of a good education. This was very Disney and very professional. I can't even begin to describe the special effects. Sitting down the front we could see their facial expressions and all of the small details and Georgia was mesmorised for 3 hours.
The walk there was lovely and Georgia was excited because I let her have her birthday present early to wear (just the once mind you) so she could be like her heroine.
On the way I took photos and we had a lovely afternoon. Much more fun than being in school!!

Recent Photos

Octobers Paper Paradise Competition Page

This is my entry for Octobers competition at Paper Paradise. I had to follow a template and have stuck to it quite rigidly as it works really well with all of the elements attached.
I always scrap with one large photo so using small ones is new to me and I have never had the subjects looking away from the camera, you almost feel as if you are spying on them, but I am sure the girls didn't even notice Helena had her camera pointed at them.
It was a bit scary using my own handwriting but I had been inspired by some embellishments in the previous Scrapbook Inspirations Magazine and I love doing a stitched effect with my Sakura Pens. It's certainly more reliable than my sewing machine!

Halloween ATC "Dancing in the Moonlight"

Sunday

What a night, I am no longer able to sleep due to chronic backpain and still have 11 weeks to go. This on top of doing 2 night shifts, so am severely sleep deprived already. God help me when the baby comes I will already be knackered.

I am pleased that I managed to get my Halloween ATC finished and handed in on time as its half term and Georgia is off but she was very patient with me for the morning whilst I was making them. Used my mod podge glue and was pleased with the results. I fancy doing a tag book of similar ones but it all takes time.

Check out my Slide Show!

At last I have managed to upload my first picture. I created this page as a tribute to my Mum who was a life saver this year when she flew out to England from NZ to look after us. The journelling is hidden in a tag and you have to pull the flower out at the bottom of the page to read it.

It reads-
Yet again during my second pregnancy I suffered
from Hyperemesis Gravitas (massive vomiting).
I was so ill that I spent 2 weeks in hospital on a drip.
My mum came over to look after us, and for that I
will always be truly grateful. She cooked, cleaned
and took Georgia to school. They read together,
played games and Georgia got to know her Granny.
It took quite a while for it to happen but Georgia
finally admitted that she loved her Granny xox



The rub ons at the bottom say 1-Poorly Mummy 2-Devoted Granny 3-Lonely Child.

How Love Grows

Getting Started

OK here goes. If I can master photobucket on my own then I am sure I can create a blog on my own. Only time will tell.