Another PageMap plus some Masters Sneaks

PageMaps has another contest on at the moment - i love Becky's sketches!! Here's my take on her sketch:

Cute, huh? This is Calvin with his new found friend, Felix. He's about a month younger than Calvin and they play so well together!! Charmaine (Felix's mum) and i try to get the boys together at least once a month, and they both just love it!!!

I had a pretty full on scrapping weekend, which was lovely! There is a store at Rochedale called Somewhere to Scrap that's quite new and they do a big crop once a month. It goes from 9am to midnight. I only go from after lunch - that way i still get to spend the morning with the family :D Anyway, that nice big block of scrapping allowed me to really get stuck into my masters challenges, so i managed to get 2 out of the 4 challenges complete! I can't post them here, but i can put up some sneak peaks! So here you go!!

I'm pretty happy with where it's all going, and i can't wait to have another go at it with the other 2!!

On a yarn note, i finally finished the toddler socks i've been working on, and Calvin even wore them this morning!! They fit him like a glove:

CHA Summer Sneak Peaks

One of my favourite times in the scrapping world is when all the CHA sneak peaks start coming out - it's so exciting because you are seeing all these products for the first time, but you have to *wait* until they are actually released before you can play with them!!!

Here's a couple of links to some sneak peak sites:

• Glitz Design - I LOVE the first range "Dance in Sunshine" - lovely colours and motifs used there!!!
• Pink Paisley - They have released a new 'mistables' range. Loving the look of the mist resist papers and lots of muslin products - these are always great fun to mist!!
• Echo Park - Victoria Gardens - not really my taste, The Apothecary Emporium - another typical halloween range IMO
• Lawn Fawn - very cutsy stamp sets these!!!
• My Little Shoebox - a very traditional sneak peak this one - not much to see here, but what i see i like!!!
• 3 Bugs in a Rug - The Ashtyn collection is so lovely. I can definately see me getting some use out of these oens!!! The rest are nice too, but i definately like the Ashtyn collection the most!!

Some interesting news is that Basic Grey and Tattered Angles are not planning on attending CHA Summer 2011. This doesn't mean they aren't doing releases. Tattered Angles is planning on releasing 42 new colours!!!

Lots more sneaks popping up around the web in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes peeled!! Unfortunately, it will be quite some time before it all hits the shelves - especially here in Australia!!!

June CyberCrop at Scrapboutique

Evening all! Well, i've just started this weekend with the Scrapboutique June Cybercrop - Friday night Speed Scrap challenge. Headed up to my local store, Fancy That, for a couple of hours to complete the challenge, and then i was home in time to upload it. Lucky i was planning on coming home actually, because i needed to do some sewing with my machine on this LO!! Here's the finished product:

How cute is the little star that i've popped on it? I got this idea from the October Afternoon blog this week and i've been dying to try it! It's just like when you pop up a butterfly's wings, but with stars - such a simple, yet effective idea! Loving it!!!

The PP i've used is a mix of some old American Crafts papers and the lovely Blast Off range from Bo Bunny. I've been SOOOO into this range - you've probably seen it feature a lot on my blog recently! I can't believe how much i love it - it suits my little boy so well since he's so into space stuff :D October Afternoon has just realeased a space range too - that makes 3 in total - one from Bo Bunny, another from Fancy Pants and the third from October Afternoon. It seems everyone is jumping on the 'space' bandwagon this year - and i'm loving it!!!

Well, i'm off to bed now. Got to get a good night sleep before i head over to Somewhere to Scrap tomorrow for their monthly marathon day/night crop. I went to this last month and it was awesome! It goes from 9am to midnight. I only go from about 1pm because i like to spend the morning with the fam. We're going to take Calvin down to a new park in our area tomorrow with his tricycle - he'll have a ball!!

Don't forget to head over to Scrapboutique to join in the fun with their monthly CC!! There is lots of inspiration flowing and even a few prizes up for grabs!!!

Busy, busy, busy!!!

Well i don't know how busy you have been lately, but i've been flat out!!! Calvin is such a handful now, but he is also more fun than ever - i am really enjoying this stage. Even though he's naughty, as he tests boundaries and his own sense of individualism, he is chattering away like mad and i can almost have a full conversation with him!! He's such a lovely little boy - i feel so blessed to have him in my life. What an amazing gift from God he is :D

My sister is getting married next year, and i have just recently finished her invitations - they certainally took some time as they were a lot more fiddly than i had anticipated. Here's a little look at the end result:

Boy that was a big task!! Very glad that they have finally been sent out now, and i'm pleased that Sarah is happy with them too!

Another thing i've been busy with is birthday gifts! My brother and sister - in - law recently celebrated their 21st birthday (twins), so i decided that a home made gift was the way to go. Emily lives in Melbourne, so knee high socks were definately appropriate!!

I thought that Martin probably wouldn't appreciate socks, but i wanted to make him a little something. After much consultation with Jeremy we ended up deciding on a Yoshi Amigurami, and i think he worked out pretty well!!

A couple of other birthdays meant more socks (i'm so into them this year!!!), so my mother-in-law got some lovely aqua socks (Ravelry pattern: Shurtigal) and my bestie in Wollongong ended up with some pink/green socks (Ravelry pattern: Leyburn).

Luckily all of these socks fitted the recipients perfectly!! It's always a bit of a gamble making socks for others!! Another pair of socks i'm working on at the moment is a pair for Calvin. I'm using some lovely yarn from Tangled Yarns called "Ella Rae Lace Merino" in a lovely blue/aqua handpainted colourway. They are looking wonderful so far, and the yarn is just a dream to work with!!! I'm trying to finish these before the end of June to enter into Tangled Yarn's monthly knit-a-long - the theme this month is socks!!! I think i should be able to finish them off in time - i'm on the foot of the second sock (toe down), so not much longer to finish off there!

Another busy weekend for me this weekend. Tomorrow Calvin is in care, so i'm going to make the most of it and get along to the baby and pregnancy expo without him!!! Plan is to duck in and out really quickly - working at my own pace. It would have been really nice to go with a friend, but given that i've not been very well lately, i really need to go on my own and leave if it's all too much for me. Tomorrow night is my regular scrap night at my local store, but i'll just stay for a couple of hours because i'm going to a store at Roachedale all day and night Saturday to scrap - looking forward to that!!!

Sunday we are going to Sea World as a family - it's the last weekend we can use our annual passes, so we thought we'd make the most of it!! Can't wait to show Calvin the penguins they have at the moment, and really hoping that the weather is nice - last time we went it was pretty aweful weather and we didn't stay long because it was just so miserable!!! It will be nice for him to go on a few rides - especially the merry-go-round!! He certainaly loved that at Movie World!!

Well i hope you have a wonderful weekend with your loved ones, whatever you have planned. And that you get to add a bit of craftiness in there too!!

Simple, Funky, Painterly, Misted Fun

June long weekend i was one of the lucky few who got to do a class with Louise Nelson at the Brisbane Scrapbook & Papercraft Expo. I had so much fun with this class, learning all sorts of new techniques, especially with glimmermist - one of my favourite products that i just don't use enough because i really don't know how to use it!!! The class was for 2 LO's, but i really only got time to do 1. Elana and I plan to do the other together one night - to help each other out :D

Here's the LO i ended up with:

Isn't it gorgeous!! We made our own masks for the grass and clouds and then had lots of fun with some paint and mists, not to mention poskar pens and chipboard. Some of the details:

I got SO MUCH inspiration from this class, so thanks heaps Louise!! Needless to say that i've since expanded my glimmer mist collection in a big way, and i'm experimenting a lot more with things like tissue paper, and creating my own backgrounds. My primary love will, however, always be patterned paper - i just love it all :D But, absence can make the heart grow fonder, right?

My life in numbers

1 - we've been in Brisbane for 1 year now. It's gone so quick!!! We've made lots of friends in that time and watched Calvin grow so much. We're very comfortable now in our house and neighbourhood, though we still miss Wollongong so much!!!

2 - this is the second day of serious potty training with Calvin. Yesterday morning he said to me "Potty mummy potty mummy!!!!" He sat on the potty and did a wee straight away!!!! I put him in undies for the day and we only had 1 accident - right before dinner when he was quite distracted by daddy working on the garden out the front. Pretty awesome!!! I've sent him to daycare today with no nappies. Can't wait to see how he goes!!

3 - i'm planning on finishing work at the end of next week, so i only have 3 more days of working left

4 - i've finished 4 pairs of socks so far this year :D

6 - The last Harry Potter is out in just 6 days!!! Can't wait!!! Jeremy and i are going to go together on the first Tuesday i have off from work. Calvin will be in daycare and we'll just love going on a 'date' together. I think we've seen all but the first movie together :D

7 - Jeremy and i will have been married for 7 years this year. Where did THAT time go?

21 - Calvin is 21 months old now and such a big boy!!!

22 - the number of invitations i've made so far for Sarah's wedding

42 - the number of invitations i need to make for Sarah's wedding

28 - i'm now 28 weeks in this pregnancy and definitely feeling it!! Finding it hard to sleep at night because she's kicking me in the hips either side!! Very hard to get comfy. Getting tired very quickly now too - did the groceries yesterday morning and that totally wore me out!!!

70 - I am so thankful for my old Nikon D70 digital SLR. Dad gave it to me when he got his new one, and even though it's like 8-9 years old, it still works perfectly and challenges me with my photography all the time. One of my goals this year was to use it at least once a week. Not sure if i've done that, but i'd certainly be close!!! I'll leave you now with one of the gorgeous pics of Calvin i took with it on the weekend:

Mister Huey's Color Mist {LOVE}

Another lovely night scrapbooking at my LSS, Fancy That - and i was loving the "Mister Huey's Color Mist"!! I chucked it in my bag as an afterthought and ended up using it on both pages i did!!! The gorgeous red i have in it is quite striking, especially when i flicked it onto a shiny surfaced base cardstock (which took all night, plus overnight to set!!!):

The other page i enjoyed some spritzing on was the monthly sketch for Scrapbooking From Scratch. The sketch was designed by Malinda, and i think it's just gorgeous!!! I logged on today to upload my entry, only to find that i was meant to use journaling, paint and 3 circular objects too - oops!!! Never mind. I'll just have to have another go at this one again this month because it was such a fun sketch to use!!!

The page is about how much Calvin is obsessed with his hair - he wants me to gel it every day for him, and he just adores washing his own hair at night - then bragging to me afterwards (dad does the baths). Plus all through the day he's always telling me about his hair. What a little dude!!