Day to Day

Cogsmo mini book

Something I've been working on over the last week is this Limited Edition Cogsmo mini book.  It was a really fun project celebrating some of the toys in James' room.  He's growing up fast and I thought this would be a nice reminder and keepsake for him.   The collection includes a cool mini album, papers, embellishments, awesome stamps plus fabric/felt/buttons to create a keepsake bag to hold the album.  You can see the inside pages and closeups of the album here.

Thinking back I really wish I had photos of my childhood toys.  Sure, some of them I still have - a little musical box, my pram, dolls house and jack in the box....but I'd love photos of my favourite dolls, teddies, random things in my bedroom that have been either given away, lost or sold.

Oh and a pastel card that I created for the Daring Card Makers blog for the mid week dare :))  I've used more of the Honey Pie papers and dicuts for this one.

Brrr.

Here's another quick Easter card that I created for the Aussie Scrap Source blog.  I know Easter is all over now, but this one could be easily adapted to any special day by replacing the wording on the front.  The pretty ribbons are by Strano and the paper, flower die cut and wording strip are from Scenic Route's new range - Lynden. 

Here's a layout that I also scrapped for the Aussie Scrap Source blog recently - all about James and Bella making badges for themselves.  I've been emailed a few times and asked about my use of flowers or floral papers on boy layouts and how I go about deciding which ones to use.  On this page I used hot pink Basic Grey and Lil Davis papers to match Bella's pink top in the photo.  It doesn't bother me that there is a boy in the photo - lol - I just use what I like at the time and try and have fun with my pages.  If I think the shade or pattern looks okay with the photo then I go ahead and just use it. 

It's raining here and the temperature has dropped quite a bit from yesterday (brrr).  I don't think there will be much treehouse playing today unless the rain clears this afternoon.  It looks like a great day for staying indoors and doing a bit of baking.  I might make some of this or these.

Oh and here are some more cool links for you -

Button Card templates: I thought these were super cute for cards and so easy to print out.

Today's Homemaker: Sarah motivates you to clean :))

Lollipop flowers: These are supposed to be for Valentines Day, but how cute would they be for birthday partie!!?

Fabric clothes book: I love this and I wish I had one!

Random things

Just a few random things. 

Our little swans swimming away happily - no idea what the bush is called that we picked these from, so we just call it our 'swan tree'.

Bella's tiny fairy fire - a selection of rocks, sticks, Tarisota tissue paper and blue-tak.

The Easter cupcakes that I made this afternoon.  I copied Fiona's idea and dropped a chocolate egg inside each cupcaker prior to cooking.

A layout for Aussie Scrap Source of Bella at the beach.

One of the Easter cards that I made for Aussie Scrap Source.  You can see the rest of my cards here.

It's all over

The party is all over and went really well.  The girls made little drawing books - a simple design of folded cardstock, flower for the front and pre-stamped words (my drawing book) for them to stick on, reflex paper cut and folded ready for the middle and a length of ribbon to tie it all together.  We also did shrink plastic tags which they coloured in with pencils, shrunk in the toaster oven and then threaded ribbon through to make a loop.  Party games were musical chairs and pass the parcel.  Apparently (so the girls told me) you're supposed to put a lolly in each layer of the parcel - not just a prize for the end winner - so I'll have to keep that in mind for the next party lol.

You might think with all the pink decorations that the party girl would also be wearing pink - but no, she wanted to wear black and red and her vintage beaded necklace - she calls it vintage but it's actually just a plastic ball necklace that we picked up for $1 at thrift shop, lol. 

I'd share more photos but they all have the other girls in them and I wouldn't like to post pics on here without parent permission etc..

Just before I go ... the mid week dare over at the Daring Card Makers blog is a recipe - 2 buttons, 1 ribbon and a spoonful of flowers.  Here's my very quick card for it this afternoon.  The die cuts are from the Basic Grey Mellow range and the cute green rubons are by Been There Done That.

The office

I love seeing this kind of free play between James and Bella.  Out of the blue the other day they set up two offices - James' was in the bathroom, he was the boss and approved documents etc..  Bella took over the laundry (although sadly I somehow missed taking photos of her office space) and she worked underneath James, preparing documents and drawings for his approval.

I especially love that big giant blue tak ball holding the sign on the bathroom door. 

They worked in their offices for a couple of hours.  Fun stuff.

Today was their first day back at school after the summer break.  I felt a little lost this afternoon.  I always do for the first week :o(

Herb Garden

The Herb Garden Tarisota gallery is up if you want to pop over for a look at everyone's work this month.

Here are a few of my layouts using the scrummy collection.

Just before I go - here is my card for the sponsored dare this week over at the Daring Card Makers blog - pop over, join in the fun and you might be lucky enough to win a spot prize this week!

Hide & Seek - DCM dare

This week's dare over at the Daring Card Makers Blog is all about 'hide and seek'....go and pop over for a look and join in with the fun if you like!

Today Bella and I went to Big W (I swear we live at this shop) and printed about 100 photos followed by milk shakes and cookies at Gloria Jeans (or Nora Jones as Bella calls it) as Bella's reward for being so patient while we sat in the photo printing chair for nearly an hour.  I think we arrived home at about lunch time and then set up the playstation to belt out tunes to Singstar Legends.  Bella made a rocket ship using foil, paper and jewels (because we'd been singing 'rocket man').

The boys were at work! James is saving up for a Nintendo Wii and decided to go to work with his Dad for the day to help finance it.  They left at 7am this morning and at 3pm I drove into town to pick him up as he'd had enough.  He looked exhausted and hasn't moved from the couch all afternoon - he hasn't decided yet if he wants to go back and help another day, lol. Poor little darling. 

Daring Card Makers - *new*

This week's dare is all about something *new*.  Here is my card using a mix of fabric, felt and patterned paper. 

If you'd like to play then pop over to the blog for a peek. 

I'll be hopefully back later today with the pencil topper patterns (car and house) for those that asked for them.

4 dares

For this week's dare over at the Daring Card Makers blog I created a little button card ready for James' birthday next week. 

I know I say this every year, but I can't believe that James is turning 12!  Today we popped into town to find his present and this afternoon was the mammoth decoration pull down - we always like to have them down before the 1st so that we can have a nice lead up to his birthday celebrations.  It's kind of sad when all the Christmas ornaments go away - there is such a lead up to the big day and then *wham* it's all over .....

Freebies...

This week's dare over at the Daring Card Makers Blog is all about using magazine freebies on your card. 

For my card I used the free paper from the Christmas issue of Better Homes & Gardens magazine.  I used some glitter, dimensional magic and beads on the snowflake (that I also cut out from the paper).

Why don't you pop over and have a play :O)