Living my dream

Peace

Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis will know how much I believe in treating people well. In building communities. In helping others. 

Peace is part of this. Peace of mind. Peace of heart. Peace of soul. Peace.

But it also applies to the bigger meaning of the word. There is so much war in this world. Between family members, Friends, countries. 

I love that Prima has created this blog hop to help spread the word PEACE. Perhaps our little crafting corner of the internet can help spread the word of peace to us crafters out there even for just one day.

Today my tag was created with the Cartographer range of papers and embellishments from Prima Marketing. I LOVE this range. It is made from colours that can be so beautiful in and of themselves, but you can also add a pop of colour to brighten it up in a new and different way.

Make sure you pop along to all the other blogs on today's blog hop to see what stunning creations the team have created too.

Tags for some friends

This weekend I was lucky to be part of a scrap weekend at Okiwi Bay. We had a ton of fun. But the main reason we were there was to fundraise for my friend Joy's son Bevan. He has a disease which needs medication which is REALLY expensive. So we're all fund raising to help him and his family out. 

There were auctions galore and in the end an amazing $700 was raised for Bevan from this weekend. 

It wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the organiser Miss Brenda! Thank you for going to the time and trouble to pull this off. So worth it!

While we were there Lowri gave us a challenge pack and we were given a challenge to make some tags. Unfortunately as I was busy creating a class for SENZ, I didn't get a chance to do the challenge. But decided as the tag booklets looked so good afterwards, that I'd really like to. Sooooo, I copied off a tag size, brought it home and made a couple of tags to go into Brenda and Joy's tag booklets.....

Making them out of the  remains of the kit I was using, a few bits and bobs sitting around my desk and some packaging from Prima, I'm pretty stoked with how they turned out.

If you've got a few minutes up your sleeve, and some spare product on your table, why not give a tag a go? You can then add it to a layout your making as a very special home made embellishment.

Class share

After a wonderful weekend in first Timaru, then Staveley, I thought I'd show you the lovely work we created in class.

First off, was my 3in1 class at Artfull Crafts.

I used the gorgeous new range "Something Blue" By Prima. 

I think this is my favourite layout from that class. Yes, it's simple. Yes, there is a lot of white space, but yes, it works! I love the teeny tiny photos in the gorgeous Prima resins. I love the colours. I love the flowers. I love the doily. I love the colours. Sigh. I love Prima.

This one also looks simple, but there are a ton of layers. A ton of gorgeous fussy cutting. Beautiful papers. And a memory of a wonderful day for my family.

Finally is a layout that I decided not to put photos on, as for class purposes I wanted to show how it could be made this way (as above) or turn it around to place it upside down. I think most of the class kept it the same way as above. The doily is where a photo will be placed.

As always with my 3in1 class, we create layouts that are relatively 'simple', but still have lots of ideas...texture, layers, fussy cutting, die cutting, punching, distressing. Plenty of techniques, and 3 (yes three!) layouts completed in 2 hours.

And then we went out to Camp Staveley which is a card camp. So, I created 4 cute cards for the ladies to create. And didn't we have fun ladies?!!!! Oh, so good.

First up....

A card with lots of folding to ensure it stands well and can be decorated.

Card 2, an easel card. I love easel cards. They are so easy to make, can be adjusted to be bigger or smaller and just have that 'wow' factor. I also wanted this one to be particularly male. So only one flower. Grin.

Card 3 was very simple, but looks incredibly effective. We created a spine along the edge so we could put our patterned paper inside on foam. This gave such a great 3D effect.

And finally card 4. My favourite of them all...

I love it's design. Just so cute. And again, by adjusting your measurements, it can be made bigger or even smaller. 

I can't claim the card template as my own. I saw it on the web somewhere, but the decorations are all mine. 

On the back is a space for your greeting.

This set of cards was made using the A . MA . ZING range - Cartographer designed by my friend Frank Garcia for Prima Marketing Inc.

It was such a fabulous weekend. Liz is the such a wonderful host and I had a brilliant time getting to know the delightful Miss Betsy better too. If you get a chance to go to Camp Staveley in the future, I would highly recommend it.

Hope you managed to get some wonderful scrapping done over the weekend too.

Scrapaholics charity class

Recently I was asked by Jodi of Scrapaholics to create a kit for a charity fundraising day they are holding. 

Well, as those of you read my blog know, I love to support charities. So it was a no brainer for me. Grin.

Here is a look at the layout the kit will make.....

It was so fun to make this kit. I've used some older papers, and Prima flowers, but I just love the way it's turned out.

If you are interested in helping with this charity, please contact Jodi or her team at Scrapaholics. There is a crop day involved (possibly sold out now?) and if you can make it, I know it will be TONS of fun. 

It's not a disaster, it's not a problem, but boy was it a pain!

Thought I'd share my funny day yesterday with you all....

The day started with the 'normal' craziness that a home with 3 boisterous kids all trying to get ready for school etc. is. On top of that, we had an orthodontist appointment for Sarah and she had to take a note for the teacher. Which I forgot to write.

Nevermind I think to myself. I'll go for my walk this morning, cut it a bit short to make the appointment and give her the letter while she is on road patrol duty.

So off I go. And there are Matt and Sarah doing nothing. WHAT? I ask them what's going on. "There's no parent here to help us, we get told off if we start without an adult". So I get them started and stay on. Ok, so that's only another half hour off my walk, but it's all good. Giving Sarah her note, we do crossing duty and off they go back to school while I head off on my walk. 

Ok, Total so far lost time.... 1 hour.

So I finish my walk, have a shower and race up to school to get Sarah for her appointment. We have a lovely chat over the bridge and to our appointment and sit in the waiting room. Our time passes and then the next appointment time and I'm thinking, this is wrong, they are always on time. What's going on? Sarah pipes up, but isn't my appointment time 11.45 Mum, not 10.45? Oh. My. Goodness! She is right. I chat to the receptionist and just tell her what's happened and would they possibly have had anyone cancel that we could take their spot? No? Ok, By now we've only got half an hour to wait. So we wait.

By the time we finish, it's another hour lost. 

Total time lost : 2 hours.

On the way back to school, I decide to stop off at the supermarket (I know! What was I thinking? Should've got Sarah back to school first), but, our close supermarket closed the day before and I was going past this one so why not pop in and save petrol and time?! Makes sense right? Yeah. Right.

It did, until I said Sarah could stay in the car. Without thinking. Of course the radio was on, the lights (if you've read my story about the cop, you'll understand this!), and the air con. It was hot yesterday. And when I get back to the car, it wouldn't start. ARGH!

Now, I have to admit this has happened before. Another hot sunny day and we were waiting on the boys at cricket. I should've remembered. I should've learnt. Hmmmm. So that time, I just had to wait a 15 minutes or so with everything off, and it came right. This time it didn't. After about half an hour it still wasn't right.

So I ring 0800jumpme. Which I highly recommend if you get stuck with a dead battery. Andy was at work, busy. So half an hour after I call, and $65 lighter, we are on our way again.

Total time lost: 3 hours.

The man has told me I need to keep the car running for half an hour to ensure it will charge up. Ok, so home is only 5mins away, so what to do? I drop Sarah off at school. All good. I need to wash my car, so I think, yep, all good, I'll go do that. I can leave the car running in the wash. It'll help me out, get a job done. All good.

And as I drive towards the car wash I see the wash is empty. Fantastic. But just as I pull up to start the car wash. Someone else pulls in front of me. At this point, I just had to laugh. 

It wasn't going to be my day.

So with 3.5 hours lost before 1.30pm, I decide to finish my wash, go home and do some work at home. Done.

Oh, and before I forget, I can add a whole evening too..... as later that afternoon, I started getting tummy cramps. Fevers. Oh flip! Off to bed I go at 6.30pm. And a whole evening is lost. ARGH!

Here's hoping for a better day today! Grin.

 

Teaching in Timaru next week....

Next week, I'll be in Timaru teaching at Artfull Crafts on Thursday night, then at the retreat they are running (Staveley camp) over the weekend. I know you all know about it, but just in case you don't. I'd love to see you there!

Here's some details for what you'll need to bring along....

3in1 class Thursday night at Artfull Crafts....

And the details for Camp Staveley.....

I'm super excited about these classes, I haven't taught in over 3 months! And I was starting to get all jittery. LOL! As usual the classes are full of beautiful Prima product as a Prima endorsed class and I have BRAND NEW Prima product to share with you. Yes! It is sooooo great! You are going to love it.

I have a funny feeling that Camp Staveley is booked out - check with Liz? But there might be a couple of spots left on the Thursday night at Artfull Crafts. So give Liz and her team a call to see if you can join me.

Would love to see you there!