“These Days” Update and Giveaway.

This is another range I have really enjoyed playing and though i must admit it feels like so long ago as we had to have everything finished before Christmas to send over to CHA, i still want to use it again as the colours are so versatile.  Below are some of the projects I created with These Days.  Sorry to those of you who have a workshop mag – these are also included in there but last year on some of my travels i have been told i need to post more of these as there are some who can’t get hold of the mags – so girls these are for you.   
PHOTO BOX
Im not sure about anyone else, but i know when tracing back your family tree you can end up with soooooo many photos you wonder where you are going to store them.  Well i thought – why not take the old recipe box from Kaisercraft and give it a new life and use it as a photo storage box instead.    Add a few of our flourishes for frames on the sides of the box (highlight some fave photos in the cutouts) and as additional decoration, a Tim Holtz Curio Knob to open the lid, you have yourself a storage box for those photos that can also become an heirloom in itself.


ORNATE FRAME
i had heaps of fun playing with this ornate frame.  Returning from Ranger Uni i have been hanging out to actually put some of the techniques we did there onto our wood.  You don’t quite get to see it from the photo, but the actual feel of the frame in the end felt like laminate – actually quite like my kitchen bench top, even to the colour….   I told you i liked this range. 

To recreate the frame look:
Paint all edges and inside the cutouts of the ornate frame using sage paint and allow to dry.  Lightly white wash the front of the frame using the white paint and again allow to dry. (though to be truthful i don’t think i waited….) Don’t worry if some of the frame doesn’t have any paint on it as it will only add to the distressed look.  (no such thing as mistakes remember girls)    Using the a Bundled Sage ink pad (Tim Holtz of course) rub over the front of the frame.  This will stain the frame and also go in to the little grooves and places where there was no paint.  Whilst the ink is still wet cover the ENTIRE frame in clear embossing powder – yeah ok i forgot to tell you – you WILL need a lot of embossing powder.  Use a heat gun to melt the powder to create an enamel look on your frame.  Due to the size of the frame you may want to do this in sections.  Use a sanding block to rough up some of the edges before rubbing in some Vintage Photo distress ink over the entire frame.  This will go into the grooves and add definition to the edge areas and give more of a distressed look.  Add more ink to further define any areas you would like highlight.  You just got to love distressing hey!!!

Like i said i had a lot of fun – but i am really enjoying anything that is a little messy these days….  play on words – get it, get it – THESE DAYS….  ok forget it Mel..

And lastly of the projects to share is another double layout similar to the one i did up for the kits (see below) but with a few extra added embellishments etc.  This one i have been waiting for to come back from CHA as its a little bit more special to me and i would like to put it up somewhere as these are pictures of my grandparents who both died within 8 weeks of each other just before Christmas. Aren’t they gorgeous on their wedding day 70 years ago. 

CLASS
Yesterday i spent a lovely day up in Seymour with Kathie from Scraphappy Kat – a small homebased business and took a group of lovely ladies(below) for a class.

Kathie(in the pink)  has been trying to get me up there for a while but my schedule last year was a little hectic and not much free time, anyway i finally made the drive up the highway and it was well worth the trip. As i mentioned on yesterday’s facebook post, sometimes we are just meant to be in certain places at certain times and this weekend turned out like that. I won’t go into all the details but its just funny how things work out and everything just fell into place. We did the layout kit from “These Days’ paper range and lots of fun and laughs were to be had, especially when i told them about the “norty” corner for anyone who misbehaves or mucks up any of their papers…. Thankfully no one needed to visit it and they were all on their very best of behaviour – OK well some of them. Thanks girls for a making me so welcome - it was a pleasure and hopefully i will get up there again soon.  Below is the layout kit we worked through.  These are available for sale from your local store – well only if they have purchased them (go on give them a little nudge if they haven’t)


If any of you live local (Geelong region) and would like to do these, i will be also be doing this class again at Chandon Craft this upcoming Thursday night. (Please contact them to book).

Also i have two kits left over and will randomly draw them from names from the list of comments left on this blog.  If you would like one of these kits – which contains all you need to complete the above,(instructions paper, cardstock, flowers, blossoms, rubons and collectables) leave a comment along with your name and email address where i can contact you if you are the winner.  (unfortunately i have to limit this to Australian residents – sorry girls).

Thanks again for reading and hope you have had a weekend as fun as i have.Take Care and have a great week
Mel

Give more than 100%

Now, take a look at this...

101%
From a strictly mathematical viewpoint:

What Equals 100%?
What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%?

We have all been in situations where someone wants you to
GIVE OVER 100%.

How about ACHIEVING 101%?

What equals 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help
answer these questions:

If:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Is represented as:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

If:

H-A-R-D-W-O- R- K

8+1+18+4+23+ 15+18+11 = 98%

And:

K-N-O-W-L-E- D-G-E

11+14+15+23+ 12+5+4+7+ 5 = 96%

But:

A-T-T-I-T-U- D-E

1+20+20+9+20+ 21+4+5 = 100%

THEN, look how far the love of God will take you:

L-O-V-E-O-F- G-O-D

12+15+22+5+15+ 6+7+15+4 = 101%

Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that:

While Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will
get you there, It's the Love of God that will put you over the top!

(-author unknown)

Playing with Paint

Can you believe it's the end of the week already and the weekend is upon us.  

Well i am well and truly ready for it.  

What a night - i had gotten myself all worked up for an exam tonight 

to get my Surf Bronze and now that i am home 

Im wondering why i was really worried as it wasn't really as hard as i thought, 

though Im truly hoping i never really have to actually save someone 

but hopefully if i do i will remember everything i have learnt.  

So if you decided to drown down here, 

be careful i may just be on patrol - hehehe.

Anyways i thought i would share these canvases with you.  

Time has gotten away from me lately and i realised today whn i started a new one 

that i haven't shown you these.  

I've been dabbling a little with some techniques 

i learnt earlier from a She Art course and ended up with these.  

I have this idea of putting them up on a wall in a grid 

- but now i need another 6.  

But instead of making a start on those today 

i started a giant canvas instead (as you do).... 

- well you will have to wait to see that one 

as i have no idea how it will end up 

as i don't really have any plans for it 

- it will just evolve over time...


FREE TO FLY
No one can hold you back - Spread your wings and Fly

BE YOURSELF
Find out who you are and do it on purpose

WINGS OF CHANGE
Be the change you want to see in the World.
We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.

Cruise Update…finally

well we have been back for a couple of weeks but it has taken me that long to finally go through the photos i have taken and sort them out.  2000+ photos down to a selection every day to share is a daunting task especially when i really have already deleted all the ones i didn’t want ad still left with 1709.  Eeeeek – definately not all of them are getting scrapped.  Time for another story book to be printed i think.  Getting back into the swing of things at work has been harder than i thought with me crashing on the couch as soon as dinner is over.  i don’t know how many times i had full intentions of updating my blog and well then i hit snooze.  eeeek sorry girls.  Beware this post is a little photo heavy but i have put them into slide shows for each day – so i totally understand if you don’t look at all the pics but if you have time and you have never been to the South Pacific you will get a little glimpse of how beautiful the place really is.
all i can say about the Radiance of the Seas  - Royal Caribbean line is is WOW.  The actual scapping group compared to last years cruise was much smaller but we still had lots of fun together and from my point of view it was great as i got to know the girls personally a lot better than i would have if it had been as big as last years – anyway i just want to thank all you girls for what i think has been one of the most fun cruises we have done yet and i really look forward to next years.
I personally want to thank Bo Bunny, Pink Paislee and Darkroom Door for sponsoring some of the classes.   I think by far the one of the highlights for me was watching you girls everyday gathering and collating all the things you collected over the day and updating your albums each night.  I loved poking my nose into the conference room at night to catch up with whoever was in there and seeing what you had been up to.  You certainly have inspired me to finish my example off here at home.  Its funny when you teach you give out the ideas and suggestions etc for what you can put inside it but i thoroughly enjoyed watching you ladies jump on board with the whole idea.  Seeing many of you almost complete the album in the  12 days to take home a fantastic memento of your trip was a little buzz for me.  Plus many of you gave me so many good ideas as well – i guess that is what i love about teaching so much is that i often learn just as much from the participants in the classes.  It really is such a share share hobby and why i love it so much.

The captain signed the front of my album with the new logo for Royal Caribbean – which will be on all advertising soon. “The Sea is Calling Answer it Royally.” He was great, we asked him if he would come to our cocktail party on the last night and he did so that was lovely to be able to have photos taken with him and the group.

Personally one of my favourite classes to design was using the Pink Paislee Nantucket range.  I now have all my photos sorted and will have to finish off these layouts by adding a favourite photo to them but as you will see below it is still going to be hard to work out which photos to use.  It really was a fun range to work with.

Its going to be hard to share with you the whole trip so i am going to do it as best as i can and give you a couple of highlights of each day, hopefully in the near future you will see my favourites of these pics scrapped up.
Day 1 – Leaving Sydney
Sydney is an exciting place to be even if you are only there for the day to board the ship.  The kids also were sooo excited to be on the Radiance ship because in addition to the rock climbing wall, it also had a water slide, mini golf and basketball courts to play on.  If you have never cruised before it is truly one of the most relaxing holidays you can have – provided you don’t snorkel 7 days in a row like we did.  You can also RELAX….

		Sydney - Day 1 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Days 2 and 3 –Cruising
We stuck into our first class at 10.00 this morning which was the start of the cruise ship album.  Decided to do this one first to give the ladies something to work towards finishing by end of the cruise.  Halfway through the class we were called outside onto the decks to yell out to the passing by sister ship – Rhapsody of the Seas.  The Captain used to work on that ship so both ships would slow down and everyone would scream out and it was a little competition between which ship had the noisiest passengers. As you can see from these photos too, the food was glorious and we had little animals put on our beds every second night made out of our towels.

		Cruising - Days 2 and 3 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Day 4 – Noumea
We did the touristy thing and went on a City Tour and then relaxed the rest of the afternoon at Lemon Beach where the kids had fun swimming out to the pontoons and doing backflips and diving off….  Also the island in one of the photos is Castaway Island from the show Survivor – not exactly in the middle of nowhere as it looked like on the show.

		Noumea –Day 4 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Day 5 – Lifou – Loyalty Islands
Beautiful beaches here to the left and right.  We stayed on one side of the island then walked up the top of the hill to a old church that is being renovated.  Beautiful view at the top back over the beach adn ship, and then over to the other side of the island for a swim in a little watering hole where you had to climb down into the water via an old ladder made from branches.  Kids loved this.

		Lifou–Loyalty Islands Day 5 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Day 6 – Port Vila – Vanuatu
FANTASTIC day but truly need more than one day here as it was really hard to decide what to do.  Already have a list a mile long of other places to visit if we do this cruise again…  We hired Harry a drive and he drove us up to Cascade Falls and waited for us whilst we climbed up to the top of them and also had a swim in a few of the holes along the way.  Then we went around the town and over via Ferry to Irriki Island Resort.  Chilled out for a few hours and then returned via the scenic route.

		Port Vila–Vanuatu Day6 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Day 7 – Champagne Bay
This was probably one of my most favourite days.  Just loved this island.  Loved the crystal clear waters, the little stores, the absolutist freshest sweetest pineapple, coconut milk and the snorkelling. The girls faces when the guy put the snakes around them was priceless, Caitlin was seriously scared but the others were just plain entertaining to watch.  Boat ride in one of canoes where you could see the coral from the top of the water – unbelievable clear waters. Just a little bit of heaven on earth.  

		Champagne Bay–Day 7 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Day 8 – Luganville
Driving around in the back of the ute was the highlight today.  Something you aren’t allowed to do back home here in Oz so the kids got a bit of thrill thinking they were doing something “norty”…  There was a couple of things we would have loved to do here like the caves but we didn’t have enough time on our stop so again another thing to add to the list for when we return.

		Luganville –Day 8 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Day 9 – Mystery Island
Little coral garden clusters is how i would describe the snorkelling here.  Gorgeous.  Again crystal clear waters, the most colourful fish i have ever seen and again i totally loved this place.  Would love to just camp out here for a few days if that was possible.  The place is awesome.

		Mystery Island–Day 9 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Day 10 – Isle of Pines
The highlight of this stop would have to be Caitlin and how she just decided to go and play with the local little kids.  She was gorgeous and so were they for that matter.  Also the little island that you could snorkel right around was a a bit of fun too and even though the coral seemed to be a little damaged here due to the amount of people who obviously do the same we saw some of the most amazing fish.  Probably some of the largest we saw whilst we were away.
 

		Isle of Pines - Day 10 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Days 11 and 12 – Cruising
The last couple of days were the usuals things for the last days of a cruise.  The renown belly flop competition where Dad again entered under sufferance but if he didn’t Ellie wouldn’t let him live it down.  He has decided that 70 is too old to be doing this and it will definatley be his last time. Yeah right that is what he said last time too.  He came 2nd again.  Im not sure how hard you have to hit the water to win this but who knows maybe 3rd time lucky.  The Chocolate buffet is always yummy if you can stay up that long – it starts at 11pm and then you can go on a Galley tour which dad and I did, which was extremely interesting to see where/how they prepare to feed the 2000 of us on board.  We then had a cocktail party on the last night with the scrapping girls and as mentioned earlier we got to personally meet the Captain and chat to him – well that was when i finally go there– i had a pedicure booked it that just seemed to go on for ages – under normal circumstances it would have been relaxing but not when they were running behind time and i wanted to be somewhere else.  I had to laugh when i heard my daughters comment – “if the Captain is here who is driving the boat?” – cute hey!!!

		Cruising–Days 11 & 12 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Day 13 – Back to Sydney

Thanks for sticking around and reading .  Hopefully not too bored.   And well until next time…. stay tuned there WILL definitely be another scrapbooking cruise planned for 2013 and would love to have you join me.