Embellished Idol round #1

I have decided to participate in this year's Embellished Idol as a little creative kickstart :) I signed up and launched straight into the first challenge last night while I had a little idea of what to do. The challenge is to draw inspiration from the picture given and create a layout. This is what I came up with...more yummy Graphic 45 papers!

There will be a new challenge every week with voting and eliminations...very exciting and a bit scary. I am looking forward to the fun and a bit of a challenge! This first week was a lot of fun :)

Class Action...

I am teaching the layout below as a class at Scrapbook Princess tomorrow night. A few Ladies have pulled out due to illness so I have a few spots left. I turned people away for this class on Saturday as it was full and now it has three spots available! If you have nothing else on and would like to join in on this fun class tomorrow night, the class details are -
Scrapbook Princess
Riverlakes Village - Beenleigh-Redland Bay Road Cornubia
Phone 3287 7211
Time - 7:00 -9:30pm

I am hosting the 52 Pick-up challenge for this week at Little Scrapbook Shop and have set a whimsical challenge. The layout features bunting that is also part of the challenge. Check it out here if you want to play along.

Sharing

This is a layout from a class I taught a few weeks ago using the gorgeous Collage Press Knave of Hearts range. I love this range and have used it a few times for other things (I'll be able to show them at a later date ;) I don't know if I showed this layout before....but here it is...again? Oh well ;)



We have a cybercrop happening over at Little Scrapbook Shop all weekend until tomorrow night. I have designed the sketch challenge this month and created a layout using my sketch. Head on over there if you want a challenge and have a bit of spare time up your sleeve. There are some great challenges posted for the weekend.

Scrapbooking, Sickness and Sydney...

We are back from our Sydney roadtrip mostly intact but suffering from a variety of lurgies. All the kids bar Jarred and I have a mix of respiratory, ear and throat infections with the house sounding like a choir of barking dogs through the night and well into the day. Piles of tissues are mounting around the place and the kitchen bench looks like a pharmacy....but it's not Swine Flu...so it's all OK ;)
I managed to have one of my ears completely block up a few days ago and had both of them syringed today! Oh - My - Goodness...I had no idea how much I was missing! Besides the fact that what came out of my ears and into the kidney dish was enough for my boys to go nuts with excitement over ("are you are going back again soon and can we come and do you think Daddy can get his done too cause his ears are real big!?"), the level of noise is now deafening. I think I might ask the doctor to put some of it back in....

I haven't shown any of my published work for a long time now as I never remember when the time has lapsed enough to show it and so then never get around to mentioning it. This month however was a bit special as I have a gallery cover in this Month's issue of Scrapbooking Memories. I have had an actual mag cover before and a gallery cover for Creating Keepsakes magazine, but not an inside gallery cover for Scrapbooking Memories. I was a bit chuffed especially as it is a layout of my gorgeous nieces :) I can't show the actual layout here just yet but it is the cover of the Encore Gallery if you happen to have a copy.


Then I was super surprised to see another layout of mine in this month's issue of Creating Keepsakes was a full page gallery cover too! Master Connor thinks he is terribly famous ;) It's always a thrill to see your work in print but a full page is extra fun :)

The Sydney roadtrip was a working holiday of sorts with us traveling to the Hillsong conference to work for the week and also have a little traveling holiday. Conference was amazing as usual and very interesting to experience as staff this year. The kids had a blast at Kidsong where they were looked after brilliantly!
The obligatory mirror shot...what roadtrip is complete without it?

We stayed at this little heritage cottage in North Strathfield right near Olympic Park where the conference was held. It was just gorgeous. Fully renovated with beautiful new bathrooms, kitchen and furniture but with all the original features like ceiling roses, fireplaces and floors. Amazing!

We walked kilometres every day between the conference and day trips with backpacks strapped on....

Wea te fresh, wholesome meals every single day *cough*....

Connor wore his Spidey jacket every single day and we never lost him in a crowd :)

We took the kids to Circular Quay, Darling harbour, Powerhouse Museum etc like all good tourists do and had some great times. We took trains, monorails and millions of stairs....

We shopped at the Rocks Markets and ate loads of fudge...which makes the kids act like this.....

We spotted boats on harbours.....

I handed over the camera to be in at least one photo....

We enlisted the teen to lug around small siblings.....

And now all we need to do is properly unpack and recover. Hopefully the kids will be on the mend enough to go back to school ASAP and I can get back to normal routines. I have a heap of deadlines to meet and projects to tackle this week so I need to be well and have the feral four back to their assorted institutions of learning......wish me luck!

Child labour and layouts

You might remember the last time I asked the kids for their help in folding socks....this was the outcome....

Today I am paying them 5c a pair and hoping they might actually match a few pairs up. We'll see....at such cheap rates I might pass off some vacuuming or folding next :)

I was editing some photos this morning and found this gem from Saturday. Isn't he all grown up and broody LOL. I love how sometimes just a quick snap from the side of the road can turn out so beautifully.

Lethal Ethan is also the subject of the layout I taught at Scrapbook Princess last night. It was a big group for this masculine class and we had a great night. I am loving my Tuesday classes...such a great group of ladies :)

I scrapped a few layouts on Saturday at our 15 hour Scrap Attack...literally a few! I averaged a layout every 5 hours I think LOL. What a shocking effort. I just didn't have it going on I'm afraid.

Yummy Ducks in a Row by October Afternoon with my Connor and little cousin Lachie...*sigh*

More wintery shots of Miss Mikaela using some papers I've had in my stash for ages. Nice to use up some stuff.

Another design team layout for Little Scrapbook Shop using the My Mind's Eye Bella Bella range. Some rather random stitching and a couple of flowers is all I added to these beautiful papers and sweet photo of my niece Piper.

We are preparing to head to Sydney on Sunday for a 10 day working holiday and have so much to do before then. I'll more than likely be a bit quiet until I get back....see you soon :)