Let's get together for a crop soon

Invercargill Trade Me people, my cell number is 0272487944. Text me so that I can add you to my address book for a crop in Invers really soon!!

A Fun Challenge

My friend, Alisa, and I scrap together from time and to time. We often look for ways to challenge ourselves and change things up. Something we'd been wanting to do for a while, was see what different layouts we might come up with if we both had to use the same materials in our designs.


Materials used for Challenge, from Scrapbook Essentials' May Pack, Urban Rhapsody

The rules were, we had to use all of these materials shown here (although my journalling spot was ashaped like a flower, not a star), and we both used 6x4 photos from our backlog of pics to be scrapped. We could use any other papers or embellishments that we wanted to, but the paper shown had to be the main paper used in our designs.

We each took a couple of days to plan and come up with our layouts. And this is what we made... hehe...


Alisa's layout: "Where's the Ball?"


My Layout: "Way Up High"

Sing with me... "Our God is an Awesome God..."

I got the job!! I'm so excited. Maybe finally things are looking up. Those of you who pray though, please pray with me that my health is up to the task. I so want to be the best employee they ever had!!

A Cool Project, great to do with older children

This Kaiser brand box comes in a kitset from Spotlight. It's made out of a wood product like MDF, only very thin.

Step 1) I painted all the pieces of the box on both sides. I used two coats of Kaisercolour crafters acrylic Sage.

Step 2) While the paint was drying, I measured up the backing paper. I used a floral design from Spotlight I think. I attached the flowers to the papers by brads. Then I glued a strip of contrasting paper to the bottom, and covered the join with a fine ribbon glued all the way along the join and folded under the papers to hide the ends of the ribbon.

Step 3) When the paint had dried, I put the box together fixing it with Leeho craft glue, and then tacked the parts together with fine nails.

Step 4) I used tiki tape to stick the layout onto the lid of the box, and another strip of matching paper to the front of the box and added an alpha sticker from a Studio K range.

Step 5) Lastly, I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to age balsa scrolls from Spotlight. When they were dry, I used Tombo craft glue to adhere them to the project, and it was finished.

So I've done the interview... :)

That was my first real job interview in 21 years. Whew!! Am I really that old?? I was so nervous last night, but all my nerves left me this morning praise God, and I think the interview went really well. The typing test sucked, but then it was so cold this morning and my fingers were frozen even with woolley gloves on. However, I think typing tests pretty much suck for everyone, and the panel who interviewed me seemed very positive. I will know by the end of next week, but they want someone urgently so maybe even before then. Anyway tonight I'm celebrating that I got through my first job interview feeling very positively about it.

The difficult thing about the whole situation is that I feel like it all hangs on me, whether the family finances float or sink. And that's a heavy responsibility, given my health. I seriously worry that I won't make it through a day without eating, and that if I do eat, I will become quite ill and not able to work. However, I know it will all work out. It always does.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Big day tomorrow

I am SOOOOOO not blaming the scrapping (hehe, of course not) but we are really struggling to cope financially at the moment. In fact, we're not really coping, so I've started applying for part time jobs that I can fit around my children's needs. And I have my first interview tomorrow. It's been so many years since I've done an interview, and I'm more than nervous. But I'm hopeful that God will go before me, and ace my typing test so that I don't have to worry about fumble fingers.

I'll let you know what happens tomorrow afternoon.

Getting Published - sooooo exciting!!

This is so exciting!! Who'd have thunk after only four years scrapping... little old completely artisically challenged me would have a layout published in a scrapping magazine. Let alone Up2Scrap, my FAVOURITE magazine, let alone the only scrapping mag that I know of published in my country.

So here's what happened....

I did this layout in January for a challenge in a scrapping bebo group. It's all about my darling husband, truly the best man in the world. I wanted to make the layout lovely like he is, and I think I did.



My good friend Alisa really liked it. She said I should submit it for publishing. Of course, I couldn't even consider it. I didn't think my work was nearly good enough. Well, Lisi took it upon herself to take a copy of the layout that I'd posted on Bebo and send it to Up2Scrap, who promptly emailed me and told me that it had been accepted for publishing in the May 2008 issue of their magazine. I was blown away, until I read the fine print on their email. It said that they would not publish a layout that had been posted on any website, no matter how small, or on a Blog. I was gutted. But our scrapping site is very small, so I wrote asking for an exception. They turned me down, but offered me the chance to submit another layout.

This time I was on a time limit and had to do one quickly, but given that this time I was actually knowingly submitting to a magazine, I was so nervous. I decided to do my layout on my friend Alisa, since it was her that got me to this point in the first place.



And wouldn't you know it, the May edition has just hit the shelves and there on a page all of my own, is my layout. I've had the mag for days now, and I still can't get the grin off my face. I may even submit again. hehe.


My layout as it appeared in Up2Scrap, May 2008 edition.