Valentine's Day card tutorial

I have made a Valentine's Day card today and I'm going to give you simply instructions on how to create it.

1. Start with a 6" x 12" piece of cardstock or other thick 12" paper. I've used 12" American Crafts - Romance - Tainted Love.
2. Score down the centre and fold in half.
3. Punch out 20 x 1" hearts in at least 4 colours.
4. Adhere punched hearts in rows until the card is filled.
5. One of the hearts I punched was in white vellum. I like that the stripes show through a little. Even though this card is mainly pink I think it makes it a little more masculine. As this card is for my husband I didn't want to to be all girly.

6. Finished.

So hot

This weather is dreadful. It's so hard to sleep. I went out for a walk this morning in the 30 C heat with 60% humidity. No wonder no-one else was out there. But I go every Sunday so off I went.

Last night Paul and I went to The Essex Restaurant in Fremantle to celebrate his 47th birthday. I was a bit hesitant to go due to the cyclone but the weather was really lovely. Here is a photo my Uncle Pete took of us before we left.

5 kilos scrappers challenge

I have bitten the bullet and am going to take up this challenge to motivate me to lose 5 kilos. I have been wanting to for some time but nothing is happening. Still partaking of cake probably doesn't help. I shouldn't bake.

The above is a site set up by Karen Shady who has recently lost a lot of weight. The address for the blog is http://5kilosscrappers.blogspot.com/. There are also prizes to be won but the main win will be the 5 kilo loss for me.

I had to take a photo of me on the scales. Did that this morning. Here is the pic.



I have to describe how to reach my target weight. I plan to:

• lay off the sugary processed foods and drinks
• walk 2-3 times per week (already do this)
• swim laps or walk around the bridges with a friend once a week (about an 1 hr 15 minute)
• eat more fruit and veg
• do floor exercises each day in my lounge room in front of the TV (used to do this)

I also plan to weigh myself each Monday morning and put it on my blog. Accountability and evidence. Something to motivate me. I won't do it tomorrow as I'm doing it now. Monday, 7 Feb will be the next blog.

I have several celebrations coming up, husband's birthday, Valentine's and wedding anniversary and we have planned dinner out for each of them. This will be a challenge.

Also, part of the deal is to scrap a page about my journey.

So, wish me luck. I want to be 65 kilos real soon.

Bad weather plus cyclone Bianca heading this way

How to prepare your home and family for bad weather


Friday 28 January 2011 – 7:20 PM

You and your family need to be prepared for bad weather expected from Severe Tropical Cyclone Bianca.

If you are not prepared you need to do it now before the bad weather starts.

DAYS BEFORE THE BAD WEATHER HITS
· Trim branches around your home to prevent them falling on your roof or car. Store or secure the branches until after the danger has passed to prevent them from becoming dangerous objects in strong winds.
· Where bulk verge collections are scheduled people are advised to delay placing their rubbish outside until the bad weather has passed or secure any loose items.
· Check your roof and gutters for damage or loose material. Replace any damaged or missing tiles.
· Clear gutters and downpipes so they don’t over flow after heavy rain.
· Store or weigh down loose objects around your home like outdoor furniture, playground equipment and sheds that could be picked up and thrown by strong winds, causing damage or injury.
· Prepare an emergency kit with a portable radio, torch, spare batteries and a first aid kit. This is essential because services such as power, telephones lines, water, sewerage and gas may not work.
· Prepare an emergency plan including a relocation plan in case your home becomes flooded after heavy rain or flash flooding:
◦Consider what you will do with your pets
◦Know how to turn off the gas, electricity and water supplies
· If you are away from home contact family or friends to prepare your property.
· Display a list of emergency phone numbers
· Know where to get information from before, during and after the bad weather
o Call 1300 657 209, visit www.fesa.wa.gov.au or listen to news bulletins.
· Check you have adequate home and contents insurance. Probably a bit late for this today.



HOURS BEFORE THE BAD WEATHER HITS
· Ensure pets and animals are in a safe area.
· Move your vehicles under cover.
· Unplug electrical appliances and don’t use landline telephones if there is lightning.
· Prepare for the possible loss of electricity.
· Do not go boating, fishing, swimming or surfing in affected areas.
· Boat owners need to ensure boats in pens and on moorings are secure and items above deck removed or secured.
· If caught outside find safe shelter away from trees, powerlines, storm water drains and streams.

A giveaway

http://www.simplescrapper.com/2011/01/25/giveaway-simple-pages-projects/

I've started following the Simple Scrapper site. It has lots of great tips for getting on with your scrapping. They are having a giveaway. Just follow the link above for more info.

Show Us Your Stuff

I didn't get around to doing the first challenge but I really wanted to. Had it all printed off. So, I've combined that one and the new recipe challenge into one page.

Products used:

Creative Memories Vintage Designer Prints and Storybox Photo Mats

Handmade by me lace flowers with vintage buttons

My Memories PP 140714

Vellum quote

Crate Paper Prudence - Consideration

We R Memory Keepers PP

Basic Grey alphas - granola - sugar

Tattered Angels Wheatgrass glimmer mist

From Screen 2 Scrap

http://screen2scrap.blogspot.com/

Not long to go if you want to have a crack at this month's challenge. You must have some 80's photos hiding somewhere. Why not give it a go. If you do, tell Shazza that Dale sent you. Love to see you try it.

Multi-photo Scrapbooking Layouts Gallery: Here are the Sketch Challenge submissions....

Multi-photo Scrapbooking Layouts Gallery: Here are the Sketch Challenge submissions....: "Hello everyone Well here they are.....the gorgeous submissions for the current Sketch Challenge (which has now closed). We have had q..."

My layout is the last one. Feel free to vote for me. :-)

Scrap Boutique cyber crop

The theme this month was REFRESHING. Appropriate and a nice easy one I felt.
I'll start with the sketch challenge. Here is the 4 photo sketch:



Other criteria were white background and use refreshing colours. Here is what I did with it. I've used Echo Park Sweet Summertime papers, a Collage Press tag, buttons, brads and orange ricrac.

SB cyber crop - last one

Manon's challenge contained a list of things to use and you could only use those items and you had to create a layout and a card. I found this one to be the trickiest and it took me the longest. I made a companion page to the Happy Day one I posted earlier. They match really nicely and are very summery pages.

Here is the card. The crab is a fridge magnet. You had to use a non-scrapping item.

SB more cyber crop

When the cyber crop started on Friday night they held a speed crop. You had an hour to make a page. As the eastern staters are 3 hrs ahead of me I was also in the midst of cooking dinner and eating it when this began. So, I had about half an hour. But, that is all it usually takes me to do a page so it was OK. Here is the sketch I had to use. You also had to use the word refresh in the title somehow and use a patterned paper background.



I flipped the sketch on its side. I've used a Bo Bunny Block Party background. These photos were taken at Santa Monica Pier in California. The boys had frozen slushies and it was pretty hot so they found them pretty refreshing.

Natalie's giveaway

http://onescrappydoctor.blogspot.com/2011/01/inpromptu-giveaway.html

Hop over to the above link for a chance to clean up.

Handmade lace flowers

My Mum gave me lots of lace offcuts last month. Not being blessed with the talent for sewing you'll understand that I'm kind of proud of myself for producing these lace flowers. It took me quite a while but I had some nice company yesterday and had allocated the time for it. Some were pleasing to the eye, some not so much but all in all a good result I think.

Do you stack up challenge

Think Pink - make a card using that theme. Here you go, a baby girl card.

Crate Paper

Did you see the new collections over at Crate Paper? I love them. Emma's Shop Collection and Toy Box. I could easily use everything. Look here - http://crate.typepad.com/cratepaper/2011/01/preview.html

Win with Prima

This month brings us a gorgeous array of NEW soon-to-be-released CHA products filled with delightful touches that only Prima can produce! Just take a long look at these beauties:



special fabric-filled flowers (unlike anything else on the market)

the heirloom-quality flower centers

home-spun crochet touches

delicate laces

sparkling crystals

and fluttering butterflies!

This release is sure to top all of our others so be on the look-out for MORE peeks coming soon!

As part of our monthly Prima Product Pick we include a Prima Color Palette for you to play with!
So now you have two chances to win some of these FUN products:
Repost the January Prima Product Pick post on your blog/Facebook/other site and link back here for your first chance to win. A winner will be randomly chosen the first week of February.
Create a Prima-based project using our new Prima Palette colors shown above and email your project to: sharon@primamarketinginc.com for a second chance to win! Please put "Prima Palette-January" in the subject. Projects must be received by January 30th.

Click here: Prima Blog

Scrap Tiffany Sketch Challenge reveal

Morning all.

It's the second challenge for January over at Scrap Tiffany. As a card maker there I had to turn this layout sketch into a card. Well, never having done that before I just looked at it and ignored the word photo and thought about how I could decorate a card using the shapes. The result is a pretty, girly card that I made for my Nan. I gave it to her on the 31st of December for her birthday.

If you'd like to challenge  yourself make a card or layout and send it along to tiffany@scraptiffany.com. For more inspiration take at look at the blog at what the other Design Team members did at http://www.scraptiffany.com/.

Cosmo giveaway

http://cosmocricket.typepad.com/cosmo_cricket/2011/01/a-tiny-bit-bigger-sneak-and-a-giveaway.html#comment-6a01053717ab71970b0147e18524f6970b

Follow link peeps.

My Word

The word I've chosen to inspire me this year is STRIVE. Strive means to:
(v. i.) To make efforts; to use exertions; to endeavor with earnestness; to labor hard.


(v. i.) To struggle in opposition; to be in contention or dispute; to contend; to contest; -- followed by against or with before the person or thing opposed; as, strive against temptation; strive for the truth.

(v. i.) To vie; to compete; to be a rival.

(n.) Strife; contention.

(n.) An effort; a striving.
I choose the best definition of this word to use.  I've made a wall hanging (inspired by Tiffany Haller's originally) which I'm hanging in my scrap room. The monthly stylist challenge at Scrap Boutique is to choose a word and scrap about it. So, I have done that too. Here is my layout. One of the photos is of the wall hanging. Nice and soft dusky pink tones. That's two pink layouts from me recently. Hmmm.
 

ARTastic challenge for January

Hiya,
Last night I managed to complete a layout for the ARTastic challenge blog. The painting this month was a beautiful one by Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party.


The added criteria were scrap a celebration with more than 3 people on the page and including food. Here is my design.

I have used: Prima Pastiche Collection Seaside paper and cardstock stickers. These are lovely and sparkly. Also BG Lilykate tag and some ribbon and a Kaisercraft pearl.

Scrapping tonight

My good friend Nicole is coming over to scrap with me tonight. Hubby has gone to Karratha for work overnight so here's my chance to get a good night's worth of scrapping in. I invited a couple of other ladies too but they've gone away down south for family holidays.

SB Stash Stomper

Mark's Under 12's cricket coach organised a kids vs parents match in lieu of a bye week. It was great fun. I wanted to play and had the boys give me some batting and bowling practise in the nets during the week. I decided to dress the part and wore Paul's coaching shirt (from when he coached Mark in Under 10s) and the Ardross matching cap.  How funny.

The design for the layout was inspired by an article I saw about 8 months ago in the TV guide (referring to the title and strips above each word). It looked really effective and I've been wanting to use it ever since.

This was done for Scrap Boutique's Stash Stomper for January. Had to use lots of alphas.

Punky Scraps and Anna's Craft Cupboard challenges for January

I sometimes like to combine a couple of challenges. It's not that easy to do really. I've chosen a photo from 1996 of myself and my husband playing around in my Mum's backyard.

Anna always posts a sketch of her website each month. I always do them if I can manage it. This is my version of her sketch. My circle is a bit bigger as I wanted to use the Nikki Sivils die-cut Willow Bee.

For Punky Scraps I basically took every colour that was in their inspiration photo and used each one on my layout. Often I'm too literal when doing challenges and I wanted to avoid that this time.

Anna's sketch for January 2011



Punky Scrap inspiration photo



A little share

http://cosmocricket.typepad.com/cosmo_cricket/

I don't normally do this but I have to share the blog post I just read over at Cosmo Cricket. It's the first time I've read their blog and I really liked it. We, as women, are forever giving ourselves a hard time. It's not easy living happy in our fast-paced lives. There is always a long to-do list and never enough time. Have a read. I recommend it.

White With 1 - January 2011

The challenge this month was:

WHITE + ROYAL or NAVY BLUE + BANNERS

Great combo I thought. Here's what I came up with.






Left side





Right side







Here's the double together



I love to dress up. I made the B attachment for my pearl necklace with a letter B CB, some ink and some beads. Anne Boleyn wore this signature necklace all the time. I also altered the silver crown with some blue beads to match the dress.

New

Spotted this new range this morning at Websters Pages. It's called Farmers Market. They just do the loveliest collections, in particular the trims.
http://websterspages.typepad.com/webstershome/2011/01/welcome-spring-market.html

I'm so happy with the double page spread I'm working on at the moment. Here's a hint, it's navy blue, white and has a banner. Can you guess which challenge it is for?

From Screen 2 Scrap reveal - January

http://screen2scrap.blogspot.com/

This month's movie inspiration poster is "9 to 5". Remember that film? I do. All of the DT's submissions are up and I have to say, this month they are so very different, each one. It's really interesting. Go take a look via the link above.

To join in just email Shazza with your submission. Tell her I sent you if you haven't joined in before.

Here is the poster and my submission. I took inspiration from the 3 ladies in the poster. There are 3 ladies in my photo. We all have very 80's hair. The pink top I'm wearing was hand sewn by my Nan. I hadn't been working for long and didn't have much in the way of cash or a working wardrobe. Nan used to be a seamstress and made me quite a lot of clothes. Very helpful to me. I chose pink as the theme because of that top. I don't often get to work with pink and make girly layouts so I really enjoyed making this one. Hope you like it.

Scrap Tiffany challenge # 1

Scrap Tiffany is off and running for the year of 2011. I'm a card designer over there. If you want to join in just scraplift something from one of the designer's blog sites and email it to Tiffany. Feel free to choose me also if you'd like. Here is what I did. I scraplifted a layout that Yolanda did almost exactly. It was so easy to translate it to a card. The theme is soccer. Plenty of my boys' friends like it so it will be an appropriate birthday card at some stage. No point in making something you won't use I say.

Yolanda's layout

My soccer card

123 challenge

The challenge is up over at http://ourbrightstarsandus.typepad.com/123challenge/. It is:

COLOUR: Purple
WORD: Beautiful
TECHNIQUE/PRODUCT: Punches

I loved this one. Saw it this morning, created it this afternoon. Here is what I came up with. I've used sparkly CM silver background paper and 3 punches, a new Xmas present of the Martha Stewart daisy fan punch, CM corner rounder and CM scallop corner punch.

1/1/11 and Scrap Tiffany

Just had to type those numbers. What an interesting combo.
I love the first of the month. Loads of new challenges to find to be inspired by.
Today is Perth Cup Day. There will be lots of sunburnt punters today no doubt. I'll gladly watch it on the tv this year. Too hot.
Look out for http://www.scraptiffany.com/ after today. Tiffany is overhauling her blog and the new Design Team featuring yours truly will be up. Also she is launching a new format so have a look out for it. Exciting stuff.

Have a great new year's day.