WOW it has been soooooo long, but....

you know how it is - life happens.
So much life has happened really - boys moving out, changed jobs, hospital visits for both myself and Doofus...I could go on, and on, but I wont'

I did get sidetracked, a lot, with hockey over the last season with the photos that it didn't leave much time for anything else in the weekend - and it cut into my scrapping time.

This year, I made a resolution (I do every year, but you know how THAT goes....) and I am going to be POSITIVE.

POSITIVE to try new things
POSITIVE  in my attitude
POSITIVE overall....and that includes finding time to make some cards and scrap.

So, I made a card, in fact, I have made several.....but the first one I am showing you is a Halloween card....I know, Halloween, in January...go figure.

But I purchased the background stamp and then ordered it again, in error. So I have 2! I thought I would sell the other one on Trade Me...but thought it might look more appealing if I had a card showing how it really looks.

This card is a copy of a card I saw on a blog....for the life of me, I cannot remember whose (new computer, lost all my bookmarks) so I cannot credit the talented card maker..

I used some Zing! opaque white embossing powder for the background swirls, and also on the vellum.
I stamped the ghost on some textured white card stock and cut around him - and popped him up on some foam dots

I like it, but I did miss some embossing (have not done lots of heat embossing, so that is my excuse for the blotchy marks, lol) 
I used up the last of my Stampin Up black card stock, not sure how I feel about that - yay or not.....

I used stamps from Paper Smooches stamps - Happy Halloweenies. I love PS stamps, and recently found a place, online, in NZ who has some of the range....www.creativebugs.co.nz

So anyways, I am off to list the 2nd stamp on trademe...hopefully someone likes this stamp as much as me...

Jamey


 

Happy New Year Everybody....  :)   (slightly late, but the thought is there)

I drive my daughter P to school every day - it's not safe for her to walk, it's too far, she has to cross 2x busy roads, there is pavement on one side of the road only, the speed limit varies - 50kms, 70kms, then to 40kms by the school - it is easier if I drive her.
Anyways, this is the 3rd year we see Shrek.

Shrek is there every school day, rain or shine.
Every day, Shrek is doing something different.
Some times he is with Donkey, the teletubbies, Bugs Bunny, or some other random character.
I always say to P, wonder what Shrekkie is doing today.......it is the highlight of our morning (yes, I know it's sad, but this is my life....)

He totally cracks me up - some days, he's all out - props, furniture, the works. Some days, he's very laid back - a bunch of flowers, sitting in a tree....he keeps us guessing.

This is Shrekkie -

I haven't had any time to do anything for me - scrapping or stamping - too busy painting, moving bedrooms and working. This is going to change....even if it kills me!

Until next time
Jamey

Christmas is coming.....yay!

I found a 'recipe' over at splitcoaststampers for a handmade handcream that took my fancy. Everyone had raved over it, wanted the instructions,  had requests to make it again, and again.
I decided, I could make it too! Only thing is, we don't have a dollar store, wal-mart, or the shops they have, so I had to really look for the ingrediants.
I found them - or variations of the ingrediants.

Whipping out my trusty cake mixer - I whipped me up some handcream:

I caught myself bringing the spoon to my lips a couple of times, just out of habit - lol!

I had to guess the consistancy of the handcream - did I add too much of this, not enough of that - that part was pretty much hit and miss, but.....

 

this is the finished product (not decorated though!)

I sampled the cream myself - and although the mix is a little bit gloopy, it seemed to work. My hands were softer and smellier :)

I did have to pop out to payless plastics for more containers - I underestimated how many I needed.

I also picked up some more ingrediants to make another batch - hoping that the cream recipients like it.

I now need to make a band to go around the jar, and a little tag for the poem I found for the handcream.

My first guinea pigs trialists are my cropping group I go to every month. We are having a gift exchange - this is part of the gift I am making for them.

anyway, until next time

Jamey



Well, go figure - 2, yes 2 people have asked me when am I updating my blog!
And today, I bumped into a friend who advised me, ever so nicely, that I am slack, very slack for not blogging!
Anyway, I have been cleaning up my scraproom, and I had oodles of scrap cardstock - way too much, so much, that I had to struggle to close my folder where I store them, so I thought I would eliminate some of them. Had to really. Didn't want to just throw them away - such a waste, an expensive waste, so I thought kindy can have some.  
Now, cos I am such a sad sharing caring kinda gal, I thought the kids might like their pretty pieces of paper to be pretty AND fancy. So I grabbed  3x punches and punched away. Took me 2 nights after work to do it, but I did it - lookie at all the prettiness....

Think the kindy kids will be happy to see these?

Then, amazingly enough, I had a brainwave - I grabbed my trimmer, and trimmed and straightened the edges of the scraps I wanted to keep, and sorted out my folder - lookie at this....

Now I just have to use them!

Now, I just have to sort out my alphabet stickers/thickers - I truly cannot close that folder, and it's heavy, and the folder is split.....off to surf the net to get some ideas. And if you have a great idea for alpha's, feel free to let me know! It must be portable (I go to a monthly crop, as well as scrap at home) as well as practical, and user friendly!

Toodle-pip until next time - when I will hopefully be able to upload some layouts I have done recently

Jamey

There's one thing in life I have learnt over the years - you just don't know what is going to happen next! This is so very true!

The last couple of months have been anything but dull -
my middle son - Chicken Boy - had a car accident - he's ok, luckily. Just banged his head, AND MY CAR! :( my car, that I have only had for 11 months :( is now at the panelbeaters, waiting to get fixed. He is only on a restricted license, and therefore the insurance excess is high.
Mind you, Doofus did the same thing with our car, and his car, and the other car as well - I should be used to the phone call, after the time they are meant to be home, with the little voice going - Muuuummmmm.....

My step-father had a heart attack, and was found on the floor at 3am - he now needs a pace maker. But, he is of the opinion, the doctors only want to experiment on him, so he checked himself out of hospital.The next one, and the doctor's have told him, may be fatal.

I have a new boss at work - and this has obviously brought about a few changes - still early days, but we'll see how that goes

And, I have been asked to take photos for my youngest son's sports teams (yes, plural - teams) D plays hockey - both for his school and a club.  Waitakere Hockey has only started up this season with 5 teams, and have started a website. They wanted MY photos for their gallery - and have asked if I can take photos of both the men's and women's teams. So, of course, I smiled and said yes. Inside, I was doing a happy dance - and then the thought ran through my head - they will find out, I'm not a photographer. But so far, so good - some shots have come out great. But, games go over the weekend - both Saturday and Sunday, so that's basically my weekends gone.
His school team has asked if I can take some photos for their gallery and web page - which is a work in progress....this was a great excuse for me to run out and buy a new zoom lens - and hubby even agreed! Without any fuss!

So, my crafting has had to take a back seat for a few days, months, hopefully for not much longer - just means I need to get a bit more organised at home

So, if you had been holding your breath, wondering where I was, I apologise.
But, in all honesty, I just needed a few hours to myself so I can take a deep breath, smile at my son and tell him that it's not the end of the world, and still be the mum, wife, daughter, worker, sister, chef, taxi driver (very hard with no car!), laundry maid, and whatever else I am and just get on with my life - dull and uneventful as it is  LOL!

Jamey

Today is ANZAC day, and Easter Monday.

Today, my middle son L (also known as chicken boy!) was to march in the Henderson ANZAC parade - but they called it off due to the rain. So the RSA had a service only, to which I didn't go to.

Here is L in his uniform - he is a volunteer fireman (fireboy?) for the local station. (I like to tease him and say he's playing dress ups, hehe)

This photo is totally spur of the moment - I was sitting in the car, it was raining, he had his hat under his arm, and just plonked it on for the photo,  and, he was grinning!

Last year, he was in the Air Training Corp, and did the dawn parade in the city. This is him:

the one on the right hand side. He stood like that for the entire service, both the 6am and the 10am. I am so proud of him!

Anyway, it's also Easter as we all know, and yes, the Easter bunny (aka me) came, and as usual, left too many eggs.
I made this, just as a little something for the KinderSurprises.

I saved an egg carton, peeled off the label, and cut it down to size for 4 eggs.
I had some Easter paper from a DCWV slab (the only issue I have with that is, Easter in NZ is in the autumn, not the spring as in other parts of the world, so the paper is wrong sorta not quite right), but the green print, actually went with the green carton. I used some SU ribbon cut to length to tie it up. I also grabbed some green ink (Mellow Moss) and inked around the carton edges and paper.

If I was a truly caring creative mummy, I would have spent more than 10 mins on it - I would have painted the carton, inked it, trimmed more suitable paper, and tied it prettily in a bow - not just tied, knotted, called it done!
And I would have purchased a smaller carton of eggs - a 4pack anyways, so that I didn't have the unsightly edges, but 4x eggs just doesn't cut it in my family! Neither does a dozen for that matter....

But, as its raining, hubby is sleeping, the cherubs all have lives and are busy, I'm gonna go and scrap.
Megan had some new products in store, and I grabbed a few of the papers (page 3) so I'm going to go down to the dungeon and play....

Jamey

A couple of weeks ago, there was a craft expo at the ASB Stadium - so off I toddled with P in tow to check it out. Well, that was an easy way to spend hubby's hard earned money!
I 'tried' not to spend too much money, but alas, I failed.
I 'tried' hard not to be frivolous in my spending, but alas, I failed.
I 'tried' hard to only buy things that I needed - but, I 'needed' a lot of things :)

One of the many things I needed, was this cute little die from Nellie Snellen. I mean, it goes perfectly with the SU scalloppy punch (I think it does)

So, on Sunday, I whipped out my new (to me) doggie stamp from Magnolia and created this delightful wee card. Yellow, is not one of my favourite colours, or even a go-to colour, but the sun was shining, autumn is coming, so why not have a little bit of sunshine! Actually, in reality, I thought yellow went ok blended with the colouring in of the dog's fur!
This is the finished card:

I like it. I'm actually happy with it - go figure!

Anyway, Desperate Housewifes is on and Wisteria Lane is calling my name....

until next time,
Jamey