23 Days...

Hello

I have been a slack blogger. Oops! It doesn't mean I haven't been creating anything, because I have. Not a lot, but a few bits and pieces. A DT project for Designer Scrapbooking which I can hopefully share soon and I have started on my christmas cards.

There are only 23 days left until our baby is due so that countdown is getting a little scary. Scary mostly in the way that there is sooooooo much I want to do before she enters the world but as I haven't yet finished work, my time is limited on a lot of those tasks until next week. So Friday is my last day of work for 7 months. Hard to imagine! A lot to finalise there too and I feel bad leaving my team but they will be in good hands I hope...

My focus will then become my house. It is still quite a disaster and I had planned to completely declutter and organise it before the baby arrived but at this rate, I don't think it'll be quite where I wanted it to be. But I am doing little things where I can like listing a few unwanted things online since I'm too lazy to organise a garage sale. And I have been cleaning out different areas when I get a burst of energy, such as the linen press last weekend and the ensuite cupboard this week. Small steps are better than nothing! But come Monday... or maybe even Sunday, it will be full operation house organisation time! LOL

At least on the weekend we got to have more cuddles with my adorable nephew Caiden who is just over 3 weeks now. Uncle Simon finally got to meet him and had a chance to get in some baby holding practice before our own arrives lol Very cute!

So just to prove I have been doing some creating in between working and preparing myself mentally for motherhood, here are some pics of some christmas cards I did last night. I am shocking with the fact that cards can sometimes take me hours because I over think them. This time I went with the KISS method... Keep it simple stupid... because it's the only way I am going to get the stack of christmas cards I want to finish done before bubs arrives.

 

Anyway... time to make some more cards. I have another couple in progress tonight so that should make it a total of 6 cards in two nights at least. Woot!

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

Designer Scrapbooking DT News

Hey there,

How is everyone going on this fine Saturday? It is actually a bit overcast here so a good day to hopefully do some scrapping. I have not been out of bed all that long, with plans for a very relaxing weekend since my 2 week holidays have come to an end :(

I wanted to share some exciting news. I have been selected to be part of the design team at Designer Scrapbooking.

In case you have not yet discovered Designer Scrapbooking, they are an online store stocking lots of the big names in scrapbooking with all your essential scrapping items, such as albums, embellishments, papers, tools etc. They also have monthly challenges. Here is the current challenge details:

This months challenge:

THEME: Birthday Bash

To celebrate the Queen's Birthday Long Weekend we want to see your birthday bash double page.

REQUIREMENTS: A Double Page Layout, that includes a journalling block to sum up the eventful day.

PRIZE: This month a $30 gift certificate for our online store is up for grabs.

CLOSING DATE: June 30th 2012

Also, be sure to like their Facebook page and you could be in the running to win a great prize to kick off.

Designer Scrapbooking offers free postage for orders over $80, otherwise a flat rate of $7 shipping per order. There will be lots of new staff added to the store soon so be sure to keep an eye out and sign up for updates.

I got my first DT pack in the mail yesterday and I can assure you it is going to be a fun one to create with! Can't wait to get into it and be able to share it with you all. The item is not yet in the store but will be added once my version is ready to share. So stay tuned :)

Holly x