More Layouts Completed at Crop Night

I completed three more layouts last night at a crop night held at Christy Baine's house. Christy is a Creative Memories consultant in the Greensborough/St Helena area. It was a fab night with dinner provided and hours and hours of chatting, drinking and scrapping. There were raffles and door prizes given out throughout the night. Christy has a fantastic set up with plenty of room to scrap at two large tables and lots of lovely things on display on bookshelves around the room. I would highly recommend this crop night to anyone. I even got to use a new punch I purchased on the night called the "Sweet Heart Maker", it just added the right touch to my Jenna "Purple Girl" layout. The punch would be perfect to use for Valentines card making.

My first layout is "Cheeky" Jenna at Mansfield 1990/1991.

A close up of Jenna

The next layout is Jarred taken at Ocean Grove in 1990. I have titled this one "Driving Miss Daisy".......

A close up of Jarred

and finally another lay out of Jenna, "Purple Girl".Which has a mauve/purple tinge!

A close up of Jenna. She was such a cutie as a littlie!

Anyway, thanks for looking.

Cheers
Shazza

Three Little Cards

I needed to make three little cards today. I made them using Stampin' Up! products. I used the color Blue Bayou from the "In Color" range. The card stock, ink pad and double stitched ribbon are all Blue Bayou. I used a scallop punch and the stamp set used was "Figures of Speech". I also cut my own template and embossed a frame inside the card using a stylus. So quick and easy to make using one color. What do you think?

You can see the embossing around the inside of the card clearer in the close up

Is this card on its way to you!

Cheers
and thanks for looking
Shazza

Kookaburra Shoe Shine Box

Every couple of months I will post some pics of things that I have painted or crafted at home, with some info about the projects.

I came across this "Kookaburra Shoe Shine Box" in a painting magazine called "Folk Art & Decorative Painting Yearbook", Vol 6 #3. It was painted by a talented folk art painter called Pam Taylor. She designed the shoe box for a friend to give to her man, to store his boot polishes and brushes in. She did a lot of research into old Australian adverts and together with her collection of tins put this together. It's a little bit of Australian history to remember.

As soon as I saw it I just had to paint one. I looked everywhere to firstly find the box, and came across one in an second hand store that had been quite knocked around, was dirty splattered with paint and had rubber (Where you place your shoes) that was worn and hanging off. I remember my mum saying "What in carnation are you going to do with that dirty thing". I told her I had a plan for it! Well I removed the rubber and gave it a scrub, I traced the elements on to the sides and got cracking base coating it and with some help from my painting teacher Monica.... the following is the end result! The only change I made to the project, was the Kookaburra on the front, I found a postcard at the post office with a chunkier Kookaburra, so I copied that one instead.

Close up of painting detail

The other side

Close up of painting detail

The Front

The Back

The kookaburra post card.

What do you think?

Thanks for looking!

Cheers
Shazza

4 Generations

This is one of my latest layouts. I found this photo when I was tidying up an old box of paperwork, so as not to misplace this photo again, I scrapped it straight away.
The photo was taken in 1984, we are visiting my nan in a nursing home as she was 80 years old. My Dad (Graeme) and my Nan (Annie) have both now passed away. I was 26, Dad was 45 and baby adam was only 5 weeks old.
I wish I was that thin again and amasingly I have the same basic hair cut (thats what happens when you have curly hair).
I really love this photo!

Here is a close up.

Cheers
Shazza

Riverside Picnic!

Being creative is an exhausting process! So to give my brain a break my lovey took me for a picnic down by the lovely Maribrynong River. We had a nice lunch, a bit too much camembert (!) and topped it off with a visit to Poyntons Nursery. Going to the nursery is fun because we always stop and get a gelati on the way out.

It was a lovely sunny day down by the riverside:)

Cheers
Shazza

Celebrating our 50th Birthdays on Hamilton Island!

Here are some pics of my 4 girlfriends and I celebrating our 5oth birthdays. We went to Hamilton Island which is part of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland mid November. It also gave me a chance to visit my son Jarred who was living on the island (What a life!!) and was working as a landscape gardener at the resorts (he is back in Melbourne now). He was working at a new 5 star resort, called "Qualia".

I am staying with Sharon, Kim, Robyn and Sue, (We all went to Primary and Secondary school) and we all turned 50 during 2008, we thought it would be nice idea to get together for a few days of celebration. Robyn flew in from Reno USA.

Celebrating Robyn turning 50 at a local restaurant! From left {me}, Kim, Sharon, Robyn and Sue.

Sailing on the Banjo Patterson on a sunset cruise. From left- Sue {me} Kim, Robyn and Sharon

Here is a pic of Jarred and I taken down by the Marina.

Cheers
Shazza

Makeesha Byl's Weekly Challenge

I have always wanted to participate in a challenge. So, this will be my first challenge ever!
I thought I would try Makeesha Byl's first challenge for the year which is a sketch. You can link to her blog here.

Here are two of my creationsI have made using the sketch. The first is a Christmas card (#1 for 2009).

The second card is a "Lovey" card. Maybe I could use this one for Valentines day.

Next, I will probably post a few new layouts.

Cheers
Shazza

Down on the Farm

I went to my first 'crop night' for 2009 at Flutterbuys located at 653 High Street, Preston. I managed to get three layouts completed so I am very happy. This means I have now completed 13 layouts for the year. Woo Hoo!

These layouts feature two of my three kids, Jarred and Jenna when they were littlies (Jarred is now 22 and Jenna is 20yrs). The pics were taken at a Playgroup excursion to "Uncle Bob's Farm" in 1991. Jarred was five years and Jenna was two. I remember they had such a great time feeding the baby farm animals

Here is a close up of Jarred.

Here is another layout of Jarred. I based my layout on the one posted by Jayne Mercer {Me} on her blog page"Friday Scrapbook challenge" dated 02/01/2009. You can find her blog here.

Jarred's close up "Down on the Farm".

Jenna got quite a surprise when the goat snatched the gum leaves out of her hands. You can tell by the expression on her face! Funny! It's a wonder the goat didn't snatch her dummy as well!

Jenna's close up.

Next I will be working on a challenge by Makeesha Byl.

Astro and Kimba

My new blog would not be complete if I didn't show some pics of our beautiful cats, Astro and Kimba. Astro is a purebred British "Blue" Shorthair. He was born on the 5th March 2005 in Maffra, Victoria. He is from the "HiStyle" cattery, who are multi award winning British Shorthair breeders.
My Astro layout was the first ever layout I attempted back in January 2008!

Astro was named after "Astroboy" the famous Osamu Tezuka Japanese-anime character, who is famous for being "Brave, gentle and wise". Other nicknames "wombat", "koala and "fat cat"!

Here is a close up of him.

Kimba is a purebred "Snow Spotted Bengal," a rare derivative of the Bengal breed, who are famously descended from the union between a domestic cat and the Prionailurus Bengalensis, a small Asian mountain leopard. Kimba was born on the 20th Octoer 2005, at the "Bengadale" cattery in Launceston, Tasmania.

Kimba was named after "Kimba - The White Lion", another famous Osamu Tezuka Japanese anime character. Other nicknames "Kimba-tron" (due to his robotic stares!), "baby leopard" and "baby lion"! Here is a close up of Kimba.

Megan and Mr Gobble

I just finished another Christmas Layout. This pic was taken after Christmas 2007 but I have only just got around to completing the scrap page. This is Megan my Niece (3yrs old) holding Mr Gobble. Mr Gobble was the Christmas gifts I made for my mum, two sisters and sister-in-law in 2007.

I based my layout on the one posted by Jayne Mercer {Me} on her blog page"Friday Scrapbook challenge" dated 02/01/2009. You can find her blog here.

This is a close up of Megan and Mr Gobble. Megan is actually quite happy in this pic and not about to cry! She tends to squint her eyes when she smiles. She just loved her Mr Gobble :)

Mr Gobble is a brown "stuffed" turkey who leaves home determined to escape his fate of ending up on the Christmas dinner table! He has a colourful patchwork plumage and a suitcase packed for his escape, he even has the traditional "leather" boots worn by the turkeys of Victorian London. He is heading off on a holiday until the family have finished eating! I got the pattern for Mr Gobble from "Australian Homespun" No. 38 (Vol 7.6) Christmas in July Special. He was created by Goldie Konsak of Strictly Goldie.

Here are the four turkeys with suitcases waiting for my family to take them home and perch them on their dining room table or sideoard for Christmas. This pattern could even be used and/or altered for a Thanksgiving Mr Gobble.

I finally finished one for myself this year and he looked great sitting up on my bakers hutch :)
What do you think of Mr Gobble, isn't he cute?

First Christmas Layout

I just had to post my first Christmas 2008 Layout of my cute niece Tash (Natashja). She just looked adorable in her Santa hat! I also used some of the tiny Christmas cards I was given (one idea to recycle Christmas cards!) and tied it together with grosgrain green ribbon and added the letters all handmade and stitched together from felt.

A close up of Tash. Isn't she a cutey!

Here is another handmade Christmas card from my Soulology friend Sue from NSW.

Handmade Christmas Gifts

Here are some pics of handmade gifts I made my family for Christmas 2008.
I made four elves ( 1 each for my mum, 2 sisters and sister-in-law). I got the pattern from here. The elves stand about 20" tall and are balanced by a bag of rice inside. Unfortunately, I did not have time to make one for myself :(


I also made six rudy's for my 6 nieces. They stand approx 12" (30cm) tall. I got the pattern from here. I made a medallion for each rudy to wear around his neck with the initial of each niece inside so I would not get them mixed up. I thought they came out rather cute. What do you think?

Here is a close up of his sweet little face.

Rudy N

Rudy M

Handmade Christmas Cards

Here are some handmade Christmas cards from my "Soulology" friends.

This was made by my new friend Theresa from Phoenix, Arizona.

This card was made by my friend Tanya, who is also a stampinup' demonstrator from Greensborough.

This card was made by my new friend Ali from London, UK.

This card was made by my friend Sharon from Donvale, Melbourne.

Happy New Year!

Hi All!
Hope you all had a great New Years Eve celebration. Hasan and I went out for dinner and then had a quiet evening at home. Mind you I did get stuck into a bottle of "Yellow" :)

I have just added a slide show that showcases my "Soulology" projects. "Soulology" is an on-line scrapbooking course created by Erika Martin-Stampin Mama . I am glad I joined the course, it was a great way to express myself creatively. I also met some talented ladies through this journey.

Here is a direct link to pics of all my pages from the Soulology Project Album .

That's it for now - Looking forward to my next blog adventure!

Cheers
Shazza