Its nearly March!

Don't forget to register for our awesome competition 'The Amazing Race' which will be launched on Monday over at Mystical Scrapbooks! My layout is the first one, and its ready to go, I can't wait to show you all.

Last night I went to a Stampin Up party at my friend Linda's place, held by Ness. Ended up getting a card and a tag done, and finally a layout after everyone else left. Can't show much of my work at the moment...until tomorrow when all my deadlines will be public anyway, but here are the little things we did at the party last night.




Oh, and I totally forgot to brag....my niece Emma got two more layouts accepted by Scrapbooking Memories magazine this week! So excited for her, and she's pretty chuffed herself. So tonight we typed up our lists of products and packaged up our parcel with our layouts in it, ready to send off to SM on Monday. Woo!

Off to bed now, after a 1am finish last night, tonight I am knackered. I have finished off the month with 35 layouts finished and I'm so happy with that. I have also finished off the month knowing that I'm a total friggin paper addict...Emma & I have just finished sorting out my cardstock and printed paper...and holy crap, there is sooooo much here. I hate to think how much money value would be sitting in this little old scrap room of mine! ;)

Bye,
Sar

Class with Lisa Warren

Oh my goodness, this girl has some talent! I always love her classes and am so glad I went along to this one, making a family tree layout. I adore how this turned out! Thanks Lisa for your instructions, and thanks Loz for taking the beautiful photographs that make up my layout.



Don't forget, only a few days till the launch of our Amazing Race comp over at Mystical Scrapbooks! Awesome prizes up for grabs, head over to the forum and sign up to our comp asap. Three sleeps to go!

Cheers,
Sar

I cracked Scrapbooking Memories!

I've been told that SM are the hardest mag in Australia to crack...but I've done it! Got an email today saying that my 'New Cubby' layout (which was from my Mystical DT kit) has been accepted for publication. Doing the happy dance here...come on, dance with me...hehe... ;)

So a few things to share, the current Stuck?! Sketch which is Sketch #75 which I completed the other night. Finished it off with an awesome flourish from Cricut's Storybook cartridge. Thanks Loz for the loan of the cartridge babe, it is just awesome and I'm REALLY tempted not to give it back...LOL!



Then a quick double I did of Cooper's 4th birthday last year. I have trouble with doubles and LOTS of pics, so be nice...I know its not my best work...



Today I scrapped with my SIL Hayles. Would've been an awesome day had it not been for the distractions of husbands and children! We still had a good day together, but maybe not AS productive as we would've liked. I only completed one layout, which I did actually start the other night just by painting the cardstock base. It was then left to dry and I did the rest today. This is one of my faves of late.



I actually did this for the Scrap The Girls blog which for this month to include Ephemera on your page, which is something non scrap related. I chose to use a clothing tag. I have no idea which item of clothing its from, and its definitely not from the outfit Bronte is wearing in this pic, but I thought the words 'Whirly Girl' suited my heading of 'You make my heart spin'.

So like I said, the boys were here and were meant to be looking after the kids so we could scrap. I can hear you laughing already...but this will make you laugh even more...here is Miss Bronte AFTER she has managed to eat a stamp pad that Cooper had been playing with. Mind you, this happened downstairs in the toy room where the boys were sitting with the kids. How could this happen, I hear you ask? Well, Damo & Daniel's eyes were of course glued to the TV screen on which they were playing playstation...

Anyways, here was the result!



Boys, can't trust them to do anything properly hey... ;)

Thats it from me for now, I want to head off and do some more scrapping, I have a LO half finished and I can't leave it like that overnight! It might feel neglected or unloved, and we can't have that.

Cheers,
Sar

29 and counting...

Thats how many LO's I've done so far this month...so more LO's than days in the month, and I've beat last month's tally. Geez, if I keep that up and beat the previous month every time...that'll be a damn lot of scrap pages!! ;)

Here are the three pages I did at the Friday night crop at Scrapbooking Delights.

This is for Sara's Colour Challenge at Mystical Scrapbooks for February. Loved this colour combination, and am so happy with all the elements on the page. The Buzz and Bloom acrylic bird is to die for, isn't it!?



Then this one which is this month's Sketch Challenge by Peta at Bon's Scraps. Lots of white space, had to be on white card and include buttons & hearts. Think I covered everything.



And lastly this one just because, thanks so much Lisa for showing me this awesome doodling technique...as you'll see in the upcoming LO's I did this weekend, every single layout features the same doodling!!!!



Then Saturday night Emma stayed over, we scrapped but I can't show that one just yet.

Sunday I had a scrap day at my place and was joined by Hayley, Doreen & Kindra as well as Miss Emma. We had a great day but the kids were a big distraction as usual, I only ended up with two layouts for the day, which is unlike me.

Finally I have completed some of the Stuck Sketches for this month, this is Sketch #73.



And Sketch #74.



I finished another one late last night, but haven't photographed it as yet.

Other than scrap stuff, not too much else is happening in my world. Daniel is at work doing OT, the girls are in bed, Cooper is watching 'Stanley' and we've just had an absolutely MASSIVE thunderstorm, with the most spectacular lightning I've seen in a long time.

Nearly time for Cooper to get to bed, so I'll make a move and start the proceedings...

Seeya,
Sar

More Exciting News from Me!

Its all happening in my scrap world at the moment...I have been accepted on the new Design Team for the challenge blog White With 1! I am really excited about this and can't believe I made it through when there were so many applications submitted. Can't wait to get started and work with this amazing group of girls. Here are the layouts I submitted with my application, which also included the White with White layout I showed you a few posts ago.




Our mini vacation turned to absolute crap when we had nothing but rain, rain, rain the whole time we were in Port Macquarie! They had floods, torrential rain, I couldn't believe it. We were cooped up in a little unit and couldn't get away from eachother, which is never good. The Tuesday was horrible because we were all cranky, but we made the most of it on Wednesday and went clothes shopping and scrap shopping, then out for dinner and Cold Rock which was fun. We also managed one swim all together on the Wednesday arvo, it wasn't sunny but it wasn't pouring rain either. We woke up Thursday to an absolutely gorgeous day, only to have to pack the car and come home. Daniel took Cooper & Georgie for a swim for about an hour before we left, and poor Coop was so sad, he didn't want to get out of the pool and begged to stay longer. I felt so sorry for him, we'd been talking up our 'holiday' and how much fun we'd have. Oh well, what can you do, we'll plan another holiday soon. It will be hard for the next 18 months or so as Daniel is about to start his Undermanagers course, but we'll work something out.

The only pics I managed from our trip were the morning we left in the pool...




BUT, what else could I do when we were soooo bored and the rain wouldn't stop? Scrap, of course! Here's what I ended up with, plus there is another one I can't show just yet.

This one is a Pagemaps sketch that is this month's sketch challenge at Anna's Craft Cupboard. I love this page (and I know you will too, Loz!) and I mean every word, I wish Loz & I lived closer and our babies could play together more often, they would definitely be the best of friends.



The next one is the February Sketch over at Mystical Scrapbooks, the sketch being designed by Cookie.



I used a February Pagemaps sketch to FINALLY scrap these snow photos of Cooper that I've been putting off for 2 1/2 years. I'm loving the end result, and can't believe I actually used some of my old TLC kit products (god forbid!).



A just because LO of Cooper when he graduated from the baby class at swimming to the 'big boy class', including his certificate.



This was the February sketch at Scrap of Difference. Finally some more xmas photos scrapped. Why does it always seem such an EFFORT to scrap christmas photos, I don't get it, but it always seems hard!



And lastly, this one was this month's Aussie Pub Calls Roadmap. I had so much fun TAKING and SCRAPPING these photos of me and Daniel, just mucking around! He was making the most stupid faces you've ever seen, we were pissing ourselves laughing and Cooper was trying to get involved (as kids do!). Finally I got a decent smile out of my husband, even if half our faces are chopped off....LOL!



Well thats it for the layouts for now, I did manage three more at the crop at Scrapbooking Delights last night, but today is so rainy and dismal that I'm not even going to attempt to photograph them. I did get back out to Scrapbooking Delights this morning for their big sale, thanks Sandra for the bargains and can't wait to see what you fill the shop up with now!

Emma is here, I've had a good day of getting organised and some of the mountain load of washing in my laundry done. We have the girls coming for a scrap day tomorrow, so I'm really looking forward to that.

I can feel a headache coming on, I best go get a coffee and stop it before it starts!

Bye for now,
Sar

New Mystical Competition starting soon!! Sign Up Now!

Were getting ready for a new competition at Mystical........Are you ready for a trip around the world??

Well then, pack your bags and scrap kit and register for our 6 week competition online now and be in to win some awesome prizes!….Including all new CHA released products.

The competition starts on March 2nd. To enter you need to be a member of Mystical Scrapbooks forum and gallery.

Sign Ups: Open now and close at midnight February 28th
Challenges: Start Monday 2nd March
Duration: 6 Weeks Elimination style
Themes: Based on the featured Countries

Rules: Amazing Race will run for 6 weeks. The competition will commence at 9am EST on Monday 2nd March 2009.
See our competition forum for more info and the full set of rules…

I'll be back soon with a MASSIVE layout update!

Mystical Reveal (and a fire!)

Today being the 15th of the month, it is reveal day for the Design Team at Mystical Scrapbooks. I have just uploaded my layouts to the Mystical Gallery with details on all the fab products used from the Mystical Scrapbooks shop. Here are the layouts, but make sure you check out the gallery to see exactly what products I've used.




So today was an exciting one, let me tell you...




I had a visit from the local fire brigade, and no not for the usual visit or whatever because Daniel is one of them. Can you believe, my dishwasher caught on fire!!?? I couldn't. I was downstairs in the laundry washing/folding/sorting clothes, trying to get organised to leave for our trip tomorrow morning. I walked upstairs to take some clothes up and could smell smoke straight away. I walked into the kitchen to find flames coming out of my dishwasher, I was in shock! I rang 000 straight away, the guy on the phone pretty much told me to shut all the doors and leave the house but I couldn't do that...so went downstairs, grabbed an extinguisher from the garage but then I couldn't get it to work. Found another extinguisher in the vacuum cleaner cupboard and managed to get this one going. I put the fire out, but smoke continued to come out of the front of the dishwasher. So then I left it as there was no way known I was opening it to see what was going on in there! Turned out it was the electrics in the front that had caught fire, but its done a great job of destroying my dishwasher and damaging my kitchen bench. There was ash and crap everywhere, so that was just another job to add to the list for this afternoon! Thank god Emma was here, she was outside with the kids at the time which meant I didn't panic about them and concentrated on putting the fire out...I think if I'd been alone with the kids I probably would've grabbed them and sat outside waiting for the fire brigade to arrive. God knows how far it would've gone and how much more damage there would've been! It was classic when the boys arrived, they couldn't believe it was my house and we spent the whole time laughing about it, and Daniel not being here to help me when my own house catches fire!!! I think its classic in the pic that our mate Kev took his shoes off and didn't put boot prints right through my house! LOL! All turned out good in the end, someone was looking over me today thats for sure.

So apart from that, my house is a bomb with getting organised, the car is just about packed, I'm getting tired. Georgie has been my little troublemaker today...first she decided to take her nappy off before going to sleep this afternoon. You can just imagine how THAT turned out. Then tonight she found the moisturiser (which I crazily left out after their bath) and look at her, little devil...




She's always good for a laugh though, and I needed one tonight!

I better go, its nearly 10.30pm and we're meant to be getting up at 4am or something stupid, so talk to all at the end of the week.

Cheers,
Sar

Happy Valentines Day!

I am so cranky, I just wrote a HUGE blog post for it to vanish into thin air! Grrrr....damn blogger...

Anyways, I'll start again. Check this out:




I got flowers delivered to day, omg! Daniel NEVER sends flowers and we've never really 'done' Valentines Day so this is totally out of the blue. I'm very pleased, can't wait for him to come home from work tonight. We're heading out for a Thai dinner, just the two of us with no babies, I can't wait!

My day didn't start off so crash hot, I was absolutely shattered and cranky as hell when I was woken up by my daughter at 6am. Needless to say, the late night of scrapping at Scrapbooking Delights was TOTALLY worth it, I had a great time with Kel & Hayles and Sandra was cracking us up most of the night with her take on the songs playing on the radio. Hehe. My day has slowly gotten better, but is sure to improve once again when Miss Emma arrives this afternoon...

I did manage to get some productive scrapping done last night (shock horror!) and ended up with three layouts.

The first one was Recipe #4 for Cook Up A Storm at Scrap of Difference. Due this weekend so HAD to be done last night.



The next was the first Black Magic sketch for February. I was totally freaking out about this colour combo, but am happily surprised with the end result. Thanks Sandra for your eye on this one, love having your input when I need it!



And lastly I did this month's White With One challenge....which this time was White with White, eek! Not so easy, but I like my page in the end.



If you're looking for another scrapping blog to follow, head over to Hayley's blog, my SIL who has just started in the blogging world. Leave her a comment and make her feel loved!! Stoked that I can read her updates and see her pages in between seeing her IRL.

I best make a move, I'm in the middle of washing and organising to leave for Port Macquarie early Monday morning. I'll only be gone for three nights, so don't miss me too much!!

Cheers,
Sar

What a surprise!

After seeing the success of Kat with the UK mag called Scrapbook Magazine, I decided to email them one of my layouts last night. I woke up this morning to find a reply in my inbox...and it was an acceptance! Not only that, they want to feature me in their 'Introducing' section and want another four layouts from me! Oh my god, I'm still in shock, I can't believe it. It won't be out until October, but still...I'm going to be internationally published...me? Unbelievable...

Now for more excitement...my layout was launched in this week's round on Inspired Blueprints. This is Sketch #9 and this month we are all featuring Scrapware on our layouts, as they are this month's sponsor. Upload Sketch #9 or #10 to the Inspired Blueprints Gallery by the end of February for your chance to win an awesome prize from Scrapware.



Today I rang to get Cooper in for a haircut...but couldn't get him in so we decided that Daniel could cut his hair with the clippers. OMG, my boy looks so different!!! Daniel says he looks like a crim, but I don't think I'd go THAT far. Here's a before and after pic...




And before I forget, I have been photo-tagged by the lovely Melissa.

The assignment is:
Go to the 6th album of your photos and find the 6th photo.
Share that photo and tell a little bit about it.
Tag six people and ask them to do the same.

So here it is -



This was really hot day just after Christmas, it must've been on the weekend as Daniel was at work. I filled up the little seashell pool and put it out the front for the kids to have a splash. They loved it! Check out the look on Georgie's face, she's such a character. And my gorgeous niece Em was here (when isn't she?!) helping me out as you can see.

So its my turn now to pass on the tag, so I choose:

Leesh
Loz
Emma
Malinda
Sara
Lisa

Well thats about it from me for today, its getting late, Daniel is out at the club watching the Mundine/Taylor fight and I don't think I'll be waiting up, my eyes are getting bleary...

Cheers,
Sar

My girl is growing up...

Last night we took another step in losing our 'baby girl' and gaining a 'big girl'. We all of a sudden realised that Georgia was getting a BIG gap between her top and bottom teeth, which was being caused by her spending way too much time with a dummy in her mouth. So, we decided yesterday afternoon that the dummy fairy would visit us during the night and leave Georgia a present in exchange for her dummies, and the dummy fairy would take her dummies to some little babies in the hospital that needed them. Georgia is a smart cookie for only just two years old and TOTALLY understood what was happening, and she took it so well. She put her dummies all into a bowl, left them on the table and went to bed without them. She took a lot longer than normal to get to sleep, but we didn't have any tears until this morning at around 6am when she was asking for her dummies...which was soon forgotten when she found her present on the table, which was a Princess Barbie (which she calls her fairy doll). Here are some pics of my girl, putting her dummies out and having one last suck. It makes me sad, but proud at the same time that she was so brave.




Today has been busy, with Mum spending the day, the car going in for a service, Daniel's dad and sister & kids coming to visit, dentist appointments for the family this afternoon. Its been non-stop! Look what Mum brought with her today, a special fabric book she has made for Bronte, isn't it just gorgeous!!









I had a book sort of like this when I was little that Mum made, it was so cute and had bits and pieces that attached and zipped and all that fun stuff. I hope Bronte loves her book as much as I remember loving mine!

Not much to show here scrap wise, all I have is a first birthday card I made for my friend Kellie's little boy, James. I used some of the wrapping paper, which was kinda cool as it coordinated with the present!



I best be off, nearly time in my house for the mad dinner rush, hope your week has started off well and talk to you all soon.

Cheers,
Sar

Cybercrop Challenges complete!

I have been a good little DT member over at Mystical and completed all the challenges for this weekend's cybercrop. Check them out, I love them both.

The first is for Cookie's challenge which is a mini exploding box, which I've done for Daniel for Valentines Day. We don't usually 'do' Valentines Day...but I thought this would be something nice to give him that basically just reminds him of everything we have together, and to thank him for being my world.






And here is my take on Sara's Challenge, which was a scraplift from a LO in our gallery by Kayla-Renee and had to be about a loved possession. I scrapped Cooper's Thomas trains, which is a love totally inspired by Daddy buying WAY TOO MANY trains for his little boy...but is still very much loved by Cooper.



Another cybercrop happening this weekend is at Scrap Therapy, where I haven't spend much time lately because of other commitments, but it was still great to head on over and say hello to all the girls. I ended up completing the Sketch Challenge, which had to include a title from a song out of a movie, for which I used 'Food Glorious Food!' which is from Oliver and was TOTALLY thought by the smarty pants Miss Emma who was sitting in my scraproom with me all weekend! Thanks babe...



I'm so excited that my little nephew Nate looks like coming home from hospital tomorrow, its been a long haul for poor Damo & Hayley and a really tough couple of weeks, but fingers crossed all goes well tonight and they'll have their boy at home with them in the morning.

Not too much else happening here, I can't stop thinking about all those poor people in VIC suffering during these bushfires. It just blows my mind, the devastation...

Bye for now, I have a first birthday card to make for tomorrow, hope a good week is had by all.

Cheers,
Sar