Scrapbooking Top 50 Amazing Race

Hey there

How are you all this Saturday evening? Personally, I am getting over a head cold that knocked me about a bit this week. It would normally have been nothing but teamed with pregnancy, not so fun. Seems nothing more than an on and off sniffle at the moment but I am getting a queasy tummy. I don't know if that's related to the cold now or if its a revisit of morning sickness type symptoms now that I'm in the final trimester. Ahh well..

Over the past couple of weeks I have had lots of fun participating in the current Amazing Race competition over at Scrapbooking Top 50. With all the exhaustion that came with pregnancy and my full on work role, it seemed most of this year all I was really doing were DT related layouts, other than a few just for me layouts at the 2 retreats I attended, so it has been good fun entering a competition for something a bit different. Actually, I've played along with a few different challenges lately which has been great.

Anyway, time to share my Amazing Race layouts so far:

 First stop: Australia. Criteria: Aussie slang title, Aussie icons/animals, scallops or border punch.

 Detour 1: Include either an envelope, a stamp or hidden journalling

 This is actually my second page in my 'ME' scrapbook. This page includes a few brief stats on my date of birth, full name etc but also has journalling inside the envelope about the day I was born which was actually Ash Wednesday bush fires in Victoria. Poor mum was stressed enough already without having to go into labour as the fires were a bit close to our house I think.

And yes, its another layout featuring Echo park papers lol As well as co-ordinations cardstock, AC thickers; Purple pumpkin button and some random items.

 Stop 2: Asia (Russia - is it just me or does everyone else think Russia is in Europe?) Criteria: Large title, something from the garden, something long and horizontal.

 Materials: Yep... Echo park lol; AC Thickers; Adornit alphas; D-lish scraps embellishments; other-hesian strip, wood button.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get on to the 3rd stop, which is Antartica. Pretty easy sounding criteria so that will be good. I have had a productive scrap day today at least, completing 2 DT layouts for A2Z scraplets after cleaning the house. Well.. moving the scrapbooking stuff from 3 rooms back to one. It was a big job. Have to prepare for my baby shower next weekend.

Oh and on other news, my husband and I both ordered iphone 5 today. They are coming in the post in 5-10 days. Yep, totally keeping up with trends lol I think for me the idea of having instagram was appealing. The photos seem pretty good for a phone app and my samsung galaxy doesn't support it. So it might be useful when bubs is around. Even if I was going to downgrade my plan instead of upgrading it by $10 a month haha OOPS!

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Holly xo

The Story of Me

Hello

I am taking a quick break from my 'spring cleaning' to post up a couple of layouts online for various challenges. I managed to do 2 layouts this week so far which is pretty good for me considering how hectic work has been and how tired pregnancy can make me. Time to get into some DT work tonight I think though.

This layout is for the newest challenge over at Bird is the Word. The challenge word is Story which was perfect considering I have decided to create a scrapbook focused on me, who I am and my family etc. I thought it would make a nice item to hand down to my children now that there is one less than 12 weeks away. So often family history gets lost with the people so scrapbooking is perfect for this opportunity. This page was created as the first page of the scrapbook.

 Yet another page using Echo Park. I have discovered a total obsession with this manufacturer lately! With a couple of Wicked Princesses MVB embellishments/doilys, a chipboard flourish and a Kaisercraft tag. The alphas are a mix of AC thickers and Adornit (i think).

 This pic is a bit blurry. Sorry!

The tag has hidden journalling which is about my plan to create a scrapbook to pass on to future generations.

Anyway, that was a nice little break to blog and have some lunch. Time for more cleaning... or baking actually.

Bye for now

Holly x

Off The Page with Designer Scrapbooking

Hey there

Can you believe it is finally Friday? It has been a big couple of weeks for me so my weeks feel so long lately but I am looking forward to a quiet weekend. Actually, it will be extremely quiet with the only plans I have being cleaning the house (parts of it...as inspired by the 20 days to clean your house challenge at The Organised Housewife). More on that later. I also plan on doing a bit of baking... some trial runs of things I want to make for my baby shower in a couple of weeks time. Otherwise, a bit of relaxing is in order I think.

So today I want to share a couple of recent OTP projects that I have done as part of my DT role over at Designer Scrapbooking. Suzanne sends such fun projects to work with, giving me the chance to dabble in some OTP since this is an area I love but rarely squeeze in between all the general scrapbooking.

The first project I had to work with was a Twidleybitz Treat Box:

 The treat box comes as flat packed MDF, but this photo above gives an idea of how it looks before you put on the lid. A little tricky to put together but it did not take too long.

 I gave my paper on the top of the box an aged look by inking and distressing the edge and applying a coat of Helmar 2 step crackle paint for something different. The photo does not really show up too well.

 The box comes with lots of lovely chipboard words and shapes to decorate the box with. I heat embossed my words before adhering them to the box.

 The papers used were Kaisercraft and My minds eye, with d-lish scraps embellishments and a Kaiser flourish.

Now for the latest DT project I completed, Suzanne sent me a super cute butterfly MDF blackboard to work with. I can see this is going to end up in my nursery at some point so I decorated it with that in mind.

 I forgot to take a picture of the raw item, however it comes in 2 pieces, the blackboard and the Wood frame. I simply painted the frame in white paint, decorated with some Kaiser Tigerlilly rub ons and d-lish scraps rhinestones, then added some Kaiser collectables butterflies, also from the Tigerlilly collection around the edge. Simple but pretty for a nursery for a little girl :)

 

So with my baby shower coming up in 2 weeks time, and the fact that I decided I wanted to host it here, I have a mega clean up to do. My house is pretty freaking awful right now. I am not the neatest person on the planet. A bit of a hoarder in fact, and emptying the former junk room to create the nursery has definitely caused the rest of the house to suffer even worse. So when I saw the Organised Housewife 20 days to organise your house, I thought what an awesome idea. The only problem is I don't have 20 days in a row to get into it. So I am doing the tasks on my weekends instead. It means I won't get anywhere near all of the steps done before the baby shower, since I have done 2 and it is up to 10, but I will work out the most essential ones for the areas that need to be done by that day and do those first and then work on the rest later for the rooms I can hide on the day.  So far the kitchen has had a big tidy, and the ensuite. Tomorrow I will tackle the laundry probably as its a smaller job, plus the living room perhaps. I dunno. A bit daunting. There is crap everywhere lol

 

Then closer to baby time, I am going to start from the top and work my way through all 20 days in a row step by step, as I have been printing off the daily tasks and planners for future reference.

 

Anyway, its getting late and I have a layout to finish and a comfy bed to climb into. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend planned.

 

Holly x

Quick Card Share

Hello

On the weekend we had the opportunity to celebrate a friend's daughters 1st birthday. It had been months since we had caught up and it was amazing to see how much the gorgeous birthday girl had grown up in that time. All very exciting knowing our own little princess is only 12 weeks away from arrival approximately.

Here is a quick card I made for the birthday girl:

Now... time for some scrapping!

Holly x

White With 1 - September Challenge

Hey there

So glad it is Friday. It has been a very exhausting week at work and I am definitely ready for a restful weekend. This week was also a milestone in starting the 3rd trimester of my pregnancy too so that day we get to meet our baby is sneaking up closer and closer now. Less than 13 weeks to go!

I am happy that I have actually had the energy to join in a couple of challenges this week. Usually it seems I am only ever doing DT work these days and nothing outside of that. In saying that, I have a few DT layouts I need to get into ASAP for October releases but at least I have had a bit of a chance to branch out.

This layout was for the September White with 1 challenge. The criteria for this month's challenge is:

WHITE + ORANGE + BLACK

So here is my layout:

 Materials: Bazill cardstock; Kaisercraft collectables; AC Thickers; D-lish scraps washi tape; Tim Holtz distress ink; Kaisercraft stamp; black paint.

I was feeling kind of lazy when I created this layout as when I decided I wanted a border, I could not be bothered trimming paper etc to do this. So I had the idea of just using a border of washi tape and am very happy with the result.

So this weekend I am going to start my plan towards a clean house. I have been subscribing to the Organised housewife 20 days to clean your house steps. Yes I'm a few days behind, but hopefully I can catch up with a day or two tomorrow and do it on days I have the time. Gotta get the house looking good before my baby shower in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, for now I might go make a birthday card and do some scrapping. If I can stay awake for long. Exhausted!

Have a great weekend

Holly x

Father's Day, Wedding, Birthday, etc

Hey there

Hope all the fathers out there had a wonderful father's day. Below is the card I made my dad to go with his gift. It was a quick one using some scraps from the Kaisercraft Rock Pool collection.

Somewhere online a while ago I saw a card idea for father's to be for father's day and decided to do something a bit similar for my husband knowing this is his last father's day before he becomes a dad. So I made him a card stating: "You are being promoted", with a pull tab that states "To Dad". The card I saw simply stated you've been promoted but I wanted to make it a bit more interactive and I know Simon. He would have said not yet if I'd stuck with the wording of the card I saw lol

To go with the card, I also made him a Dad survival kit for fathers-to-be lol

In it I have placed the following items and included the below inside the card in case the photo above is not clear:

Dad Survival Kit for the Father-To-Be

Toothpick – To help pick the good out of all situations

Candle – For when you are burning at both ends

Pencil – To help write their wrongs

Eraser – To remind you that all parents make mistakes

Peg – For when it’s your turn to change the nappy

Matchstick – To help keep your eyes open

Dice – To remind you how unpredictable your life will be

Rubber band – To help you stay flexible

Tissue – For cleaning up their little messes

We had a mammoth weekend of celebrating a friend's wedding Saturday night then visits to both dad's on Sunday so I got to give him his card in between father's day visits. I think he really liked it so it was so worth it to make him smile!

And here is the card I made for Saturday's wedding:

It was such a wonderful wedding. So very much to suit the lovely couple and a fun night overall. But the late nights are hard on me these days sporting my 6 month bump. So as a result of the busy weekend, I'm feeling a bit worse for wear today and taking the day to rest up at home. It started with a 14 hour sleep lol

But today is also a special day. My Dexter's 1st birthday! Cannot believe our first baby is already a year old. He is currently enjoying a special treat all on his own while his brother has a snooze. And Simon and I did have a bit of fun making him a quickie party hat yesterday. He was most unimpressed lol

Look at how little he once was...

 And now all grown up and being made fun of with a party hat haha Poor baby!

Holly x