My first traditional scrapbook layout for 2009

Well I have been totally unmotivated to scrap - the think tank has run dry and I just have no inspiration whatsoever but Craft and Scrap have a new weekly challenge called Two-sdays where a new challenge is posted every Tuesday. This week we had to do a layout with 2 flowers in it.

I had a play with my MM Slice and made my flowers and scrolls. That machine just saves so much time - it's just brilliant.

I chose photos which I took of our Blackboys (Grasstrees). These have always held a fascination for me. I love the way after a fierce bush-fire, come a shower of rain and they send out a new skirt and spear.

Just after the drought I lit the skirts of mine and they have come on beautifully with new green growth and lovely spears.

January's Digital Layouts

Here are two more of my layouts for my January Diary. I am starting to understand what I am doing with these pages now and quite enjoying myself. I will never leave the traditional way of scrapping though as I enjoy actually creating with my hands but the digital method is interesting and I love trying out new ideas.

These possums live in our storage shed. They don't seem to mind being in amongst all the clutter and are quite content to just sit and watch our comings and goings during the day. The kit I used for this was jasjuls - jhc_ppossum from the Cottage Scrapbook shoppe.

Yes - I couldn't resist scrapping my latest Brom flowers. This time I used one of Stella's kits - Floral Abundance which is also available from the Cottage Shoppe.

Amazing Artist Award

I would really like to thank Sam from Sam's Scraps for giving me this award. Thank you so very very much Sam - I was really honoured that you thought my blog worthy.


So now I am to pass this award onto three more blogs. I have chosen the following because I love their awesome designs & kits.

Franny at Picklebeans
June at Censloft
Stella at Stellarific Creations

More Digital Layouts

These are two of my latest attempts at digital scrapbooking. They were for challenges at Cottage Scrapbooks. The first one is part of scrapping 2009 with a layout at least weekly. This was from when my niece was staying with me during the school holidays.

The challenge was January's Impromptu Challenge using blue. I had this lovely photo taken at Palm Beach and used a kit from ScrappyLuv which fitted in perfectly with the colour of the water.

Scrapbook Flowers to Share

Well I have just been playing around with a wonderful tutorial by MaryLou & Shirley who a members of PIRC and have made some flowers to share with you. These are for personal use only.

Here is the preview & download link. The shadows are only for preview purposes and the flowers are actually all the same size however they can be coloured or resized however you like.



Flowers Link

More Broms to Share

I have more Bromiliads flowering at present. These have the most beautiful large red flowers. The photos are saved on 4shared at 1000x750 and you are welcome to copies if you would like.

The link for this photo is here.
And the link for this one is here.

6 PICTURE MEME

I have been Tagged by Ann from Raggedyannsplayground to play this fun photo game.

What you do is:-

1. navigate to where you keep your pictures, select the 6th folder, and the 6th picture in that folder.

2. Then post it on your blog with an explanation of the story behind the picture

3. tag 6 other people to do the same, and make sure you let them know about it

So here is my picture .....................

This is a photo of my mum with me and my little brother at I think the day of his Christening however I will have to ask mum for certain.It was taken in the front yard of their old home at The Gap in Brisbane. My brother was born early May so this would have been taken in winter. I had even forgotten I had this picture as it's amongst some I scanned for mum to have printed. Can't believe that is me though - I NEVER wear dresses - lol and isn't that such a cute little bonnet and mohair jacket. I would have been about 2 1/2 years old at the time.

So I now tag:-
Su at Suruha-Freespirit
Linda at Bon Scrapatit Designs
Gail at Aussie Scrap Designs
Kirsty at Kirsty Scraps
Vicki at Vicki's Blog - A Work in Progress
Vella at Wench Designs

Looking forward to seeing your photos.

January Journal

On the 15th January my niece came to stay for a few days. She is such good company and we had lots of fun beading and doing other crafts. She also spend time throwing balls to the dogs and riding her push-bike as well as playing 'Horse Games' on the internet. She know so much about computers for her age.

On the Thursday mum and dad (mama & papa) came for the day and first of all Brooke was helping mama scrapbook and then she went outside to see what papa was doing. He was altering his old workbench to fit into the shed at their new home.

As you can see Shadow (Shaddiegirl) my little kelpie was helping dad too. She gets so excited when any noise is being made. Especially with electrical tools and also the lawn mower. Here she is throwing her ball to dad to get his attention.
Mum also asked me to take a photo of her old dog Heinzie as she wants a nice one to put on the wall of their new home. Being a retirement village they were unable to take him with them but fortunately we were able to "adopt" him and our place was like a second home to him anyway. They have had him for nearly 11 years so it was very upsetting for mum to have to give him away but at least they get to see him regularly and he just loves having a big yard to run around in and explore.
These are some of our native residents. Little brush tail possums who make themselves at home wherever. They had built drays in the trees around our house but I think in they were damaged in the wild storms we had so now some of them take refuge in our shed during the day. They are quite unperturbed by us moving about in the shed. At night they dance on our roof in their hob-nail boots - LoL.

Here they are snuggled up behind the tools.
And this photo was taken the day after with them on top of the cupboard.

Brag Book Page Challenge

Cottage Scrapbooks have a challenge for January to make brag book pages from a kit by Demiurgia Designs. The idea is that anyone can purchase the kit for a discounted price and then submit their pages. At the end of the month everyone who has taken part get copies of the others entries as well so hopefully we will all have a nice selection of Brag Book pages.

Our Son Has Flown The Coop

Well our son took possession of his unit on Wednesday. Even though he did live in Brisbane during his last year of Uni this time he is actually moving into his own place so it's exciting. He has done really well with his purchase. It's a very nice unit in a lovely area and close to transport and shops etc. He will also only be 10 minutes drive from work and is only 5 minutes from hubby and I.

Here is the unit block.

The new property owner ...........

Opening his front door to his first home - YAY.

Here is the lounge/dining/kitchen area. The laundry is to the right off the kitchen. Then the steps lead to the two bedrooms and bathroom.

This photo is of his back yard. It's fairly large and very private so he is intending to do a wooden deck with a shade sail over it leading from the laundry door for a bar-b-que area.

More Brom Flowers

I have more Broms in flower at the moment. These are the most stunning flowers. They start of as small pink clusters right in the heart of the plant and gradually work their way out until they are these beautiful pink flowers. As they age they also get little purple secondary flowers appearing. The blooms last for ages too.

As soon as I work out how to share my photos with on through 4shared I will add links but I haven't been able to sit for long enough to play around with it.





Hehe - well I'll see if I have done this correctly. Here I think is the link to 4shared if anyone would like a copy of these flowers. They are saved at 1000x750 although I can change that if you would like.

Large Pink Brom Flower 1
Large Pink Brom Flower 2

December Impromptu Challenge

Well I am having fun with learning about digital scrapping and really must recommend Cottage Scrapbooks (www.cottagescrapbooks.com/forum/) if you are interested in becoming involved with digital work. The members are so lovely and supportive plus there are heaps of challenges to give you inspiration and motivation.

The impromptu challenge for December was to do a layout of what you would wish for if time and money were no object. I chose to do mine on travel - even though I can't travel far with the fibromyalgia if money was no object I would be able to afford to travel first class - LoL.

My Cottage Scrapbooks Challenges

I am now a member of a wonderful digital scrapbook group called Cottage Scrapbooks. Last month I had a try at an Impromptu Challenge titled FREEDOM - so I chose to scrap a photo of pelicans which was taken on one of our holidays to Rainbow Beach. I love seeing wild birds that are free to come and go as they please.


This this month I attempted their Hybrid Challenge - where we had to mix digital and traditional scrapbooking. I chose to do a mini album and carried on the Christmas theme with embellishments.





I am in the middle of completing the impromptu challenge from December and had planned to try a couple more but seemed to be in a muddle through December and I didn't get half as much done as I had hoped.