A Creative Life

Catch you Unaware!

It is amazing how quickly Christmas begins to creep up on you!!  I was doing my grocery shopping and the fresh faced teen behind the counter enquired how my Christmas preparations were going!  I was taken back a touch, surely not time to think about Christmas??  At first I responded with a wry laugh and said "no, nothing done yet!" and then I thought about it some more, and a quiet wave of self-satisfaction crept over me!!  You see, I have most of the gifts for the children on layby and almost paid off and then just last week I created my yearly photobooks that I give as presents to the parents and grandparents!  I am quite literally waiting for it to be delivered any day now!!  So the tree isn't up yet and I am not sure I even know what we will be doing on Christmas day, but I am at least a little bit prepared, so that counts!!!

On the scrapping front I have a couple of layouts that have been up on the Aussie Scrap Source Blog.  The first one showcasing Jenni Bowlin papers...

I used a real mix of old and new products of hers on this LO. Love the photo of the little rebel rouser!! It is such a perfect depiction of a boy, doing boy things!

Then I also had this one using Lilybee papers go up as well.  The picture of Ethan and Emma puts such a smile on my face with how their emotions have been captured at that point in time.

This week I got a new Camera!!!! Yippeee!!  I have been saving up all my money from scrap related income and finally had enough to buy the camera I wanted.  I could never have justified spending the money from our family budget, so I decided to save just my scrap related income and put it towards a new camera.  I have been saving for quite some time now! LOL!!  I purchased a Nikon D5100 and have only had it for a day, but do love some of the new features in it.  I still have to play with it a lot more, but thankfully as it is another Nikon, a lot of the features and menus are similar which is helpful.  The first thing I noticed is how much better it is in low light conditions.  So much easier to get a shot in focus!  The multi-point focusing also helps a lot too!  So much to learn with this new toy!  I snapped a couple of pictures late yesterday, just to see what I thought of it.  Hmmmmm, I like!! 

How similar do these two look!  No doubting they are siblings!

  

Don't you just love the way kids insist upon pulling silly faces when a camera is put in front of them!!

And just for the record I didn't dress them that day to match for the camera!  Would you believe they all chose their own clothes and came out wearing the same colour!!!!  Oh except for Ethan, he must be more individual!  Ashton was in shorts and a top earlier in the day, but he managed to get himself soaking wet and thus ended up in his jammies before these shots were taken!!  Yes, he is climbing the retaining wall out the back of our house!

 

In fact if you look at these kids they all look similar!!  As newborn babies they all had the same "baby Koczwara" look and even now that they are growing there are distinct similarities between them all! It is like we make them with a Koczwara brand to identify them in a crowd!! :)

Once again thanks for stopping by!

 

Multiplicity!!

Sometimes the notion of multiplicity is oh so appealing!  I commented to Paul this week that I never stop! From dawn till dusk, I am constantly on the go, cooking, cleaning, washing, working looking after/playing/taxi-ing kids and scrapping! Then this week I TOTALLY forgot a deadline for a magazine! Ooops with a capital O!!  When I say completely forgot..... I really mean completely forgot, as in I hadn't even given it a vague thought since agreeing to do it!!  So no wonder the idea seems so luxurious when my Grandmother calls me and tells me she is lonely!  I used to pick her up once a week and have her over but since picking up an extra day at work it makes it very difficult to fit that in any more.  Somehow I will work out a way to have her over more, not weekly but at least once a month!  Imagine how much easier it would be if there were two or more of me!!

Apart from the mundane, I have also taken a trip to Melbourne to catch up with Sharon Laakkonen, Cari Fennell and Ingvild Bolme.  I also got to meet Trisha Ladouceur and Ingvild in Adelaide on the Thursday before travelling to Melbourne.  It was absolutely wonderful to catch up with these ladies.  I have known Sharon, Cari and Ingvild for almost 3 years now and feel like I am already friends, so to finally talk in person was such a treat!  Now I am devising ways we can catch up again!!  We also had some fun when we found this alley off the Burke st Mall with some amazing grafitti art!  

   

I added an acid action to the second image and the ones below for a funky cool effect!

The we found a cool window dressing to pose in front of!!  Cari took the photo for me! 

While we were in Melbourne we took the kids to the Melbourne Zoo for the day.  Next time I will make sure that I pack some sneakers!  4 inch wedges and 4 hours of walking around the zoo are not a good match at all!  I had blisters on the soles of my feet by the end of the day and never wanted to put on shoes again!!  On the upside I was 5"8 instead of 5"4 for the day!! :)  We got a picture of 4 of the 5 kids in the Japanese Garden in the Zoo.  Mr 2 was highly unco-operative!  He was a lot happier when we put him on the carousel ride!

 

Cameron has taken to "posing" for shots.  Usually it involves his hand on his chin, but I snuck this shot in before his hand made it up there!  Then Lachlan decided it would be fun to smother his brother!

Now of course while I was in Melbourne I absolutley had to catch up with my best friend Kym!!  Time never seems enough when we catch up!!  Between the two of us we could talk for hours and hours and never stop!  Some have been known to comment on how on earth we even breathe for talking so much!

She took this picture of Paul and I together!  Very rare for us to get a picture together!  Paul was doing his very best to avoid the camera!  I have even been wearing my hair in its naturally curly state more as well!  Just a lot easier than trying to straighten it!

Then I had some fun the other day at home with Miss K!!  I just can't help myself and have to take pics of this little girl.  The camera just LOVES her!

 

 

As for scrappy stuff..... I have been a busy girl lately but most of it I can't show just yet!  Story of my life!  I have created a LO for the Color Room.  Feels like a long time since I played along and created a LO there!

Once again thanks for stopping by my blog!

 

 

Signs Of Spring LO Tutorial

Just a quick update with another tutorial.  I still have a couple of these prepared to share, so bit by bit I will upload them here.

Prima paintables can be so much fun and in this tutorial, I will show you one way to bring them to life on your page in a fun and colorful way!

Products Used:

602291    Prima Paintable
881283    Signs Of Spring Collection Paper
881290    Signs Of Spring Collection Paper
881306    Signs Of Spring Collection Paper
840952    Tropics Collection - Celery Splash
531171    Alphabet Stickers - Black
549374    Candy Gems - Cotton Candy
532680    Evelyn Collection Flowers
535063    Sultan Centers
536350    Clear Stamp
536275    Clear Stamp
543877    Roosevelt Collection Flowers
528966    Caboodles Flowers
528676    Caboodles Flowers 
548131    Floret Collection - Rosie

Other Products Used:

Prima Comfort Craft Tools, Scissors, Craft Knife and Cutting Mat
Martha Stewart Deep Around the page Punch - Wildflowers
Watercolour Pencils
Tattered Angels Chalkboard Glimmermist - Teal High Heel 
Distress Ink - Walnut Stain 
Circle Punches or Cutters 

• Step 1 - Punch directly around the border of your Tropics Collection page according to the instructions for your punch. Ink the edges and stick down in the centre of your hot pink, Signs Of Spring paper, which has also been inked and distressed. (I carefully removed the centre from the pink paper so I could use it on the front of the LO).  Once stuck down sew around the page.

• Step 2 - Add some texture to the background by randomly stamping your Prima Chickenwire stamp.  Rather than placing it on a block to stamp, I inked it and then held it in my hand and only pressed down rough areas to stamp so that there were no solid straight edges.

• Step 3 - Take the spray tube out of your glimmermist and allow drops to splatter onto the page. When the large drops have fallen, flick it slightly for smaller drops.

• Step 4 - Cut some strips from your patterned paper and then cut V's into one end, Ink then distress and arrange on page as shown.  

• Step 5 - Cut 1 from the orange paper, 9 inches x 4 inches, ink, distress and stick down in the centre of the page, make sure the previous pieces are secured at this stage as well and the ends fit under the orange piece. Sew around edge of orange sheet.

• Step 6 - Cut one each from blue and green Signs of Spring Paper, 5 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches, ink and distress edges and stick down as shown. Sewing around each piece before sticking the next one.

• Step 7 - Take your Prima paintable and a few matching colors of watercolor pencils.  I like to use a couple of each of the shades, for additional shading.  Color in the paintable, if you want a more intense colour, be firmer with the pencils, just a hint of colour, just a rough soft stroke will do fine.  Where the image shows dark shading, I usually use a darker shade of pencil over the top of that spot.  Once it is fully colored in, I take a very fine paint brush, dip into water and go over the areas colored in.  Wash the paint brush before going over a new colour to prevent bleeding.  You will see the watercolor pencils merge together before your eyes.  Heaps of fun and highly effective!!  Allow the sheet to dry and if you need to apply more color you can do so, at any point, you can even dip the tip of your wet brush onto the end of the pencil for extra color while it is still wet.

• Step 8 - Carefully cut around the colored image, you will need both good sharp pointed scissors, craft knife and Mat ( I recommend the new Prima Comfort Craft Tools for this as they are all ergonomically designed and as there is a lot of cutting involved it will lessen hand fatigue)

• Step 9 - Carefully cut between your floral arrangement, so that one half can go above the photo and the other below. Tear a piece of cardboard in a circular fashion that is just bigger than your photo will be. Ink edges and stick down both cardboard and cut out paintable.

• Step 10 - Using circle cutters, cut out your photo and a circle frame (or mat) and then adhere to the page as shown.  Finish off with flowers, lettering, stamped butterflies and some Candy Gems.

• Hint: For something a bit fun, try printing out your journaling and cutting it into peices and arrange on the page.  This adds an artistic and whimsy touch to the page.

You can see the degree of shading you can achieve with the watercolor pencils on the paintable, the results are beautiful and it makes you feel so artistic when you can paint your own paper!!

When I am designing a page, I always cut up and try out a lot of different things that never end up on my pages.  Often these bits and pieces of extra stamped butterflies, cut circles or paper lie around on my desk until I am forced to clean due to lack of visible space for creating!!  Rather than just moving on to the next project, I decided to create a card from these leftovers.  It is fun and can "force" your design a little according to what your leftovers are.  

This time I had a couple of cut out circles that I didn't use, a paper rosette I created that I originally was trying to use under my photograph for extra texture, but I just couldn't get it large enough. Extra strips of paper, created into flags and a piece of cardboard I tore down too small!

Try challenging yourself to make a card from your leftovers next time you create!!  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have enjoyed todays tutorial.

 

A Little bit Boring!

I am feeling rather boring this week!  No fun things like birthdays or anniversaries to report, just the same old same stuff, work, sleep (not enough of that), eat, tidy up after the squillion kids I seem to have aquired over the years.  You know the usual mundane activities that keep you busy day in and day out!  Sometimes a highlight for a week would be the absence of cleaning up mess I didn't create!  Sadly, no such highlights, the kids were their usual happily abandoned selves with total disregard to shoe and clothing placement once entering the premises!  So you get the picture!!  

I did however notice that I seem to have not shared a few pictures of miss Kaitlyn that I took the other day, so I can share those!!  Is it just my girl that pulls her hair out of its plat/ponytail the moment she gets home?  She will keep it in for Kindy but the moment she is home, she yanks out that hair-tie and allows her tresses to run free like a wild woman.

What a cheeky little face!

It is funny how her eyes can look quite green in some pictures and blue in other pictures.  The irony is that she has blue eyes with patches of green in them!!  Cameron also has patches of green/hazel in his eyes as well.  Pretty sure it comes from Paul's side of the family as my side has nothing but very blue eyes for any relative I know!  

I also think I haven't shared a few LO's either.  So here are a couple that I have done for Aussie Scrap Source!

Lots of BasicGrey goodness in this LO. Love all the shabby newsprint in this range.

Of course I had to add some pretty Prima to finish it all off!  The LO below was created for a Generation Gap post about the differences between my family holidays and that of my childrens. Ironically they are more similar than I would have thought!

I had lots of fun layering cut paper, flowers and other elements to create this page.  It was also fun to mix a couple of paper ranges together.  Funny how so often now my LO's are created predominantly from a range without much mixing and matching and yet there was a time I loved nothing more than to mix and match all my ranges together!

That is about all from me for this post, quick and to the point today!  Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

Hard Work Never Killed Anyone?

Seriously, where does the saying, "Hard work never killed anyone!" come from?  I am not talking the sort of busy that you get all the time, like being frantic busy at work, or scrap related, I am talking physical hard labour!!!  I swear, it could do some serious damage, especially if you ask my poor aging body!  

You see this past week, over and above my usual job at the University and meeting scrapping deadlines, not to mention looking after 5 kids, We (Paul the kids and I) went up to the Mother In Laws place and started some serious cleaning up!  As fire season will be on us by the end of October, we are frantically trying to burn off as much rubbish and fallen branches to keep the fire risk down.  There was a lot of pulling out of saplings that had sprung up all over the place, and dragging of heavy branches and add to that digging up a pile of mulch to get to broken water pipes and my poor body was screaming "no more"!!

As if that wasn't enough, we had a huge dump bin delivered to our house on Friday and we filled it within 5 hours!!  We are on a mission!  Broken trampolines were pulled down and thrown away, trees branches were cut back and then we attacked the shed!  We threw out over 5 boxes full of toys!  Ah it felt good.  There is only one problem, the bin is chock full and we need another one as we still have not finished cleaning out the shed!  It is back breaking heavy work and my body feels "old".  It is bruised and battered and aches all over but I am happy as there is a whole lot of decluttering going on!  Can't wait until we have finished it all.

So, other than working my patootie off, there has also been two birthdays and a wedding anniversary in this household!  Little Mr Ashto baby turned 2!!  He is really growing up.  If only he would sleep through the night!!  I didn't have a flash on my camera for this shot, so it is super grainy and orange!!

Ashton is here with his cousins Maitland and Poppy and his Aunty Natalie.  Love that happy look on his face!  Don't worry we do know how to count but it was a number 2 candle flanked by two star candles!!! The cupcakes all had little dinosaurs on them, totally cute and all courtesy of a quick trip to the supermarket, since I was working the day of his birthday!  Ashtons speach is going ahead in leaps and bounds and he says so much now. Some of his favourite sayings are ..... my bag, my seat, my phone, my car, my Mummy.... are you seeing a pattern of posessive behaviour?  At the moment it is cute, I am sure that might change with time if he is still so posessive as he gets older!

Paul and I had our 16th wedding anniversary on the 8th of October.  We asked my cousin Kylie to baby sit for us so we could go out for dinner and a movie.  For Kylie it provided her with her first ever nappy change!!  She is just lucky Mr Ashto boy didn't purge his bowels!! LOL!  It was lovley to go out for a really yummy dinner and just have a night out as they are rare around here! 

Then on the 13th it was Ethans 8th Birthday!  He has been Mr moneybags since then, regularly counting his money in front of us.  I love the way kids enjoy counting their treasure!  Not sure what he plans to buy with it at this stage, but for now he is happy to just have a good haul of cash!

So as you can see it has been busy, busy, busy here.  Kids have gone back to school today and we are one child down for a week as Cameron has gone on his school camp to Melbourne.  The poor kid was so excited last night he couldn't sleep and emerged at 11pm complaining he was too excited!!  If only he knew how thoroughly stuffed he was going to be by the end of the week!!  The one good thing about him being away is the reduction in fighting in the household.  The eldest 2 boys sure know how to fight these days, so having a break from one another is a good thing!

Onto scrappy stuff.....  I have been creating a bit lately after a short break, but all of it is for future deadlines.  I can share this LO that I created for Aussie Scrap Source for a blog post on Technique Tuesday stamps!  I mixed it in with some Echo Park papers!

Love the way you can see all the layers here!

I also created some Thankyou cards for my MIL to give out.  I wanted to make a few special ones that  she could give to people.  I was pleased with how they turned out as they were very elegant. I also put some old Chatterbox papers that I have had for a very long time to good use on these, mixed with Prima of course! 

Thanks for stopping by and putting up with my irregularity of blog updates!  I have good intentions but then find myself busy doing other things!  Story of my life!

Glittered Masking Tutorial

In this tutorial, I will show you an easy technique for creating a glittered mask on your page.  With  just a slight twist on the regular way to mask on a page.

Products Used:
842819 - Botanical Collection - Romance
842826 - Botanical Collection - From the Heart
842888 - Jack & Jill Collection - Happy Easter Jill
842314 - Reflections Collection - Mantra
841157 - The Shabby Chic Collection - Majestic Breeze 
542597 - Sweet Taffy Collection - Blue
546328 - Angelica Rose Collection - Bonney
546274 - Arcadian Collection - Weathered
930042 - Vintage Trinkets
544942 - Clear Stamp
545567 - Mask
544294 - Say It In Crystals and Pearls 
544232 - Alphabet Stickers
540463 - Mulberry Rose Leaves 
Viola Felt - grey 

Other Products Required:
Glitter
Gel Medium
Ranger Distress Ink - Walnut Stain
Distress Ink Tool
Spellbinders Dies
Edge Distressor 
Martha Stewart around the Page Punch

•  Step 1 - Cut Your Text Paper 8inches x 8 inches, ink and distress edges and stick onto the centre of your cream swirl paper. Machine sew around the edge of this paper
• Step 2 - Cut 1 from your blue spot Paper, 11 inches x 6 inches, ink, distress and stick down across the centre of the text paper.
• Step 3 - Cut 1 from the pale green section of the Jack and Jill paper, 5 inches x 10.25 inches and then punch around the page according to the instructions of the punch.

• Step 4 Place the mask over your punched out paper and then brush on a coating of Gel Medium

• Step 5 - Sprinkle glitter over the area covered in Gel Medium, shake off excess and then stick down onto page as shown and sew around edge.
• Step 6 - Use your artisan dies and punch out  2 , one from Reflections paper and one from the Botanical floral paper. Ink and distress edges, stick down on top of each other.
• Step 7 - Stamp your shipping tag and arrange your flat flowers and tag at this point before sticking your artisan shaped papers in place.
• Step 8 - Add your photo and finish off with flowers, felt and other embellishments

I hope you will give a glittered mask a try for a gorgeous sparkly effect!!  Don't forget to wash the mask and brush afterwards to ensure all the Gel Medium is washed off!

This Tutorial was brought to you by:

 

Pixie Glen Tutorial from Live With Prima Class

I have been playing with the sweet, delicate Pixie Glen range!  This range is so full of pretty and playful details, perfect for baby pages or feminine LO's!  This layout is filled with lots of Shabby Chic elements to compliment the pretty papers.  This was the LO I taught in my Live with Prima class. Live With Prima Recorded Class

Products Used:

843236    Pixie Glen Collection - Dartmoor
843205     Pixie Glen Collection - Rose Arbor
843168     Pixie Glen Collection - Window View
843182 Pixie Glen Collection - Pyske Cuts
541064    Lace
536350    Clear Stamp
536152    Monarch Centers
Special Edition Prima Roses Pink Cream (PE-002)
538620    Fairytale Roses - White
890797    Shabby Chic Resin Treasures - Birdhouses
546137    Innocence Collection II
549336    Candy Gems - Blue Berry
544324    Alphabet Stickers
Prima Packaging

Other Products Used:

Spellbinders Circle Dies
Spellbinders Lotus Die
Papertreyink Doily Die
Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Walnut Stain
Distress Ink Tool
Edge Distressor
Martha Stewart Lace Doily Punch
Martha Stewart Leaf Punch 

• Step 1 - Ink and distress the bottom page of your design.  Cut a small slit along the umbrella and near the bird, so that the green paper can be slipped under.

• Step 2 - Cut Green Jack and Jill paper, 8 1/2 inches x 6 inches, ink and distress edges and curl over top LH corner slightly.

• Step 3 - Punch a strip from pink text paper (check what is on the back before punching so you do not go through images on the other side you may need to use later, or just have 2 sheets if easier!). Cut to 8 1/2 inches in length and around an inch wide after punching and slip under RH side of green paper.

• Step 4 - Cut out floral elements from the "rose arbor" paper and slip under green paper as shown.

• Step 5 - Using a set of nesting circle cutters (I used spellbinders dies) lay the 4 largest dies onto the pink paper so they sit perfectly within each other and run through your die cutting machine. This should give you 3 circle frames.  Ink the edges of all the frames and stick the mid sized one under the green paper as shown.  All of these layers are ready to be stuck down now.

• Step 6 - Handcut the strip of floral vine from your paper, ink slightly and stick down on LH side edge of the green paper as shown.

• Step 7 - Cut / tear a piece of corrugated carboard box, 4 3/4 inches x approx 4 1/4 inches (at longest torn edges), Ink and place on page.  Before sticking down, stick your piece of lace (approx 6 inches in length) as shown and your smallest circle down as well.

• Step 8 - Stick down your largest circle at the top as shown. Cut out the frame shown from your patterned paper, ink and distress edges then cut the two decorative ends of some green Prima packaging, ink edges and stick to the back of the frame before sticking onto your page as shown.

• Step 9 - From the blue paper cut a lotus shape using the spellbinders die, a lace doily with the Papertreyink die from green J&J paper and finally a circle from pink (this should be left over after cutting the circlular frames.)  Ink the edges of each layer and stick on top of each other.

• Step 10 - Cut a couple of strips (1 blue and 1 pink) and cut out a V in them, ink and distress then layer under the lotus/circular element.

• Step 11 - Finish off page with flowers, (a couple of mine have been coloured with Glimmermist),stamped butterflies, candy gems and your title. The green leaves have been punched from the green Prima packaging.

Hint: The new Pixie Glen papers work beautifully with the first release of Jack and Jill papers (they are the same tones of pink, green and blue), if you are wanting a few more options of patterns to mix with this range.

By building a layer cluster you add both depth and interest to the design.

Lastly, I have heavily inked many of the edges of this layout as it really adds to the depth of the page.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

They Make Me Proud

It has been another difficult week this week.  But the scrapbooker within has emerged a little as I couldn't resist capturing a few photos with the kids all dressed up.  Unfortunately I had Ashton in childcare until just before we left for the funeral so he isn't in some of the first pictures.

I then let Lachlan take a few photos of me with each of the kids. He did a great job and I think he will make a great photographer in the future.

and Cameron was very excited to get his hands on the Camera to take pics of Lachlan and I! Because he was taking the photo from lower down than we were standing, my face looks kind of weird shaped! Yes I have got rid of my pesky wrinkles in these shots!  If I can I will!

When you bury someone you love you can not ask for more than to feel like they would have loved their own funeral service and that is exactly how we felt after the funeral on Tuesday.  Of course it was sad, funerals always are, but it was such a fitting send off for a man who was so loved by his family.

I was so proud of my hubby who managed to deliver the eulogy, which I think is possibly the hardest thing to have to do at your own Father's funeral.  So proud of my children, the 3 eldest prepared a few words that were read out during the service.  I was so greatful I had read their messages the night before and shed a tear then, so I was more prepared on the day to hold it together when those same messages were read out.  I thought they had done such a good job:

Lachlan’s Words

My Poppa was the greatest Grandfather I could ever ask for because of all the great times we had and it is only now that I realise how much I will miss him.

I think the things that I will miss the most will be:

• Making bon fires with him
• Watching “The Three Amigos” with him
• Seeing him laugh at the cartoons that he watched that he laughed hard at when he first watched them and he still laughed as hard as he did after years of watching the same ones
• Going out to breakfast with him
• Going to the shops with him
• Working with him
• Seeing his face when he was having fun with me

I think back to these times and wish I could relive these moments again but realise that it cannot happen, all I can do is remember these great times we had and thank God that we were so close and able to have great times.

I think what I’m trying to say is that I loved him greatly and can’t wait to see him in Heaven, but until that time I can only say how severely he will be missed by his family and friends.

Lachlan

Camerons Words

What I Love About My Grandpa

• That he loves us
• That he took us out on Sundays
• That he taught us great lessons about life
• He taught us how to do things like make fires and plant plants
• He was there for us
• He was funny
• He was brave
• He built things for us like a fort
• He made time for us
• He was smart

I remember Sundays with him when he would take us out for breakfast then we would either fo to the shops or to back to his house, and if we went back to his house we would ask if we could work with him and there was always things to do like pick up scrap metal or make something or even plant some seeds.

I loved my grandfather and I miss him lots like we all do and I know that he would be missing us too. But I know one day we will see him again and he will look better than ever.

Cameron

Ethans Words

Bye to the greatest Poppa who shows us a lot of love

Love Ethan

So heartfelt and touching!  I love my kids so much!  Kaitlyn was so well behaved during the service as well, she just sat there for an hour, she didn't fidget or mess around at all, she seemed to understand the solemness of the occasion.  Ashton, well he was pretty well behaved, but hey, he is Ashton!!

It is nice to have a couple of nice family photos of us all.  I don't think we have had a picture of us all together for a couple of years now, so at least we have these now.

Onto scrappy stuff....

I was in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago teaching.  It was lovely to meet some wonderful ladies and I had a wonderful time teaching and catching up with people.  Sorry to those attending my classes who had to endure my hacking cough!  I did go back to the Dr when I got back and I had another infection in my lungs!  Nothing a double dose of antibiotics couldn't fix up, so finally I have kicked the "Walking pneumonia" to the curb now!  Huge thanks to my roomie Louise Williams, who it was fabulous to get to know a bit more and for our 4am chats, and also Giovanna Scott for being our wonderful taxi service to and from the airport!!  She is also the queen of self portrait photos.

This is the LO that I taught in Brisbane and I will be teaching it again at Paper Flourish in October.  If you would like a kit to create this LO, just email me via the link at the top of the blog.

I will also be teaching a Live With Prima Class at the end of this month, It will be Friday 30th Sept 5.30pm PST if you live in the USA, or if you are in Australia Saturday 1st October, 10.30am.  If you are in Australia and would like a kit for this class, my local Scrapbook Store, Paper Flourish will have some for sale.  

Thanks for stopping by and for all of you who have passed on your condolenses to Paul and I, we sincerely thank you.  



 

 

Sometimes a week is Harder

Sometimes a week is harder than most.  Sometimes it is for trivial reasons, the kids were a little more argumentative, the house a little more in disarray, sometimes it is just for lack of sleep.  Then there are times when there is really good reason for it to be harder and this was one of those weeks.

This week Paul's father died of a heart attack.  Even when you know it is a strong possibility (he had previously had a triple bypass almost 8 years ago and another heart attack in November last year) nothing can actually prepare you for this when it happens.

My FIL was one of those totally self-less individuals that would do anything for his family and friends.  If you needed something done, he would often stop what he was doing to help you.  Only a couple of weeks back my washing machine stopped working, so I called him (he was an electrician, so really good with this sort of stuff).  Despite him being at work he came over within the hour and spent 2 hours at my place fixing my washing machine.  That was just what he was like and he was like that with everyone, if they needed his help.  Where his family was concerned he could never do enough.  So many times he would just come over with a big box of fruit and vegetables, just because he wanted to give us something when he popped over.  So many little things he would do for us.

He was the most involved Grandparent in our childrens lives.  He adored the kids and would ring almost every weekend seeing if he could pick up the kids, take them out for breakfast and spend the day with them.  He loved to just spend time with them and they all adored him.  He would get the kids to do work for him on his garden (they have 5 acres) and then pay them way too much for their work!  The kids would always ask him if he needed them to do some work when they were saving up for something, they knew they were onto a good thing!

I have never felt at such a loss as I did this week, watching my 3 elder boys hearts breaking for the loss of their Poppa. I felt as though I had nothing to offer them other than my love and support, when all I wanted to do was fix it for them, take away the pain and change it back to the way it was.  At the same time I was so proud of them, for their sensitivity and understanding of the loss they had experienced.  They did not try and be tough and pretend it didn't affect them.  One of the most touching moments Paul relayed to me was Cameron asking to hold his Poppas hand and if he could talk to him as he lay on life support in ICU.  These are the moments that make you choke up with love for your child and the saddness they are feeling. 

Nothing will alter the sense of loss now that he is no longer in our lives, but he will always be loved and remembered!

 

Prima Tattered Angels Blog Hop

Welcome to those participating in the Prima and Tattered Angels Blog hop, here is my mini tutorial on some fun tips while using Prima products with Tattered Angels glimmer mists!

Sometimes, you just don't have quite the right colour in a Prima Vine for your page!  Don't worry though, they are super easy to customise with a quick and ultra simple technique with glimmermist!  In this LO, I made my vine 2 tone, by only misting a couple of the flowers!

This is how to colour those flowers without colouring the leaves and branches around the vine, or cutting the flowers from the vine first.....

•  Lift the flowers up a bit from the rest of the vine. Then tear around 1 inch into a piece of scrap paper, (I used a piece of photocopy paper).  slide your flower into the torn part so that the flower shows above the paper and the rest is hidden under the paper.  It is now ready to spray with your designed colour of Glimmermist.  I have used Tattered Angels Chalkboard Glimmermist (Cornflower) as I adore the depth of colour you can achieve using chalkboard mists.

I like to tear a fresh part of the paper for the next flower to avoid spillage from wet glimmermist left over on the scrap paper from coloring the first flower.

As you can see the final result is a dramatically different flower coloured vine.

• You can also use glimmermist to create the custom lace textured blocks in the background.  I cut chipboard to 3 inches x 3 inches and then used Helmar 450 over the entire piece, sticking on the lace strip by strip.  Use your fingers to push the wider parts into the grooves left from the previous piece for a more fully covered piece of chipboard.  Once covered, allow to dry and coat with glimmermist.

By colouring the lace after it is stuck down there is far less wastage than coloring it beforehand. It also colours the chipboard underneath, so it doesn't matter if there are gaps in the lace.

I hope you have enjoyed these couple of tips for using Prima and Tattered Angels Glimmermist!

For more blogs to hop on over to, you can find the complete list back on the Prima Blog  and you can also find out how to win this fabulous RAK.

Included are:

• Prima Innoscense alterable flowers-3 packs
• Prima Winter Roses
• Prima Royal Verbena Silver Flowers
• Prima Miss Sophie Lace Flowers
• Prima Sugar Plum Roses-Banana
• 3 styles of alterable Prima lace
• TA Glimmer Mist-Sunflower, Blackberry Cordial, Bronze and Timberline
• TA Glam-Nightfall & Dirty Martini
• TA Chalkboard-Cherry Cola & Monolith

 

For a chance to win the LOVELY prize above just visit some of the other blogs listed on the Prima Blog and leave a comment on the Prima blog to let them know your favorite altered Prima product spotted on one of the blogs!