A Wet & Wild Trip

We all went to Wet & Wild today and had so much fun!! I pretty much relaxed in the wading pool most of the day with Sophia - meeting and chatting with mums and dads and their kids who loved Sophia while Jas took Amber on all the rides that would make me scream! Little daredevil!! It was a really hot day which was perfect for swimming but we burnt our feet everywhere that we went - so I don't have too many photos of our day. This was Jason's Work Christmas party for the kids so we were all under a large roof at one end of the park - so it was a bit of a hike from there to where we were swimming. Here are some of the photos I did get:

This is Sophia's little Wiggles boat that she swam in - we tested it out in the bath first. She love being tugged around in it - even in the wave pool!

Santa visited us all at the park - and here's Sophia opening her first Christmas present for the year!I think Sophia is thinking "OH MY GOD I GOT A CATERPILLAR!!"

Amber got a present from Santa too - she was so excited to get it home and give it a go - we now all have engraved pendants!YAWN! The end of a very big day for a little girl - Sophia did so well with only 1 hour of sleep during our lunch. She's wearing her little toweling robe and playing with her new toy - she loves to smack it's blue button and make it squeek!

A virtual baby shower

One of my Sassy Blinging Babe sisters was showered over the weekend with tiny little clothes and a gorgeous album made my each one of us!! I unfortunately couldn't attend (even though I really really wanted to!) because it was at 3am my time!! Each of the 17 babes created an ATC and a page for a secret album that we made Shannon. I was in charge of the games so I chose "internet friendly" ones like cross-words, the a-z of baby boy names, measure mum's bump, name that animal and fill in the blanks in the nursery rhymes. The girls all had a ton of fun over at SB.com - reading what Shannon was up to as she opened her presents with the help of her son and husband. Here is the page and ATC that I created:
The layout has a little hidden journalling spot behind the photo area, little blue pearls to act as bubbles - as it's a First Bath layout. The size of the layout is 8x8 inches. The ATC was created with an elephant rattle sticker, some more blue pears, ribbon and a blingy title "BOY".

I also created a little title card for the front of the album:
This little card was about 3.5x3.5 inches from memory, the disc is raised on pop dots and I slipped some deep red Bazzill underneith to highlight the heart. The title is from some velum quotes.

Another cute Christmas Gift!

Please be aware that the Adornit Blog Hop post is the next post down......

Okay so you want another cute gift to make for Christmas? Well I have one to show you - it's my altered M&M Smoothy with Candy Cane straw!
This is so easy to make! We simply purchased a Frozen Fanta from McDonalds, then washed it out with soapy water and dried it well. Then I created a sleeve to go around the cup by using Bazzill cardstock that I cut with scalloped scissors and then placed a piece of pp over the top. I added some Stickles for sparkle. Then I wrapped some Christmas ribbon around the cup, tied a bow and added a simple tag with a tiny safety pin
I simply used a Doodlebug sticker that I stuck on some white cardstock and cut around. I distressed the edge of the white cardstock by running my scissors over it, then added clear Stickles for a snowy effect (can't quite see it here).

As for the candy cane - it's placed into the the cup once the M&Ms are poured in - they hold it in place. The candy cane is upside down and I stuck another sticker on white cardstock, added some brads and gold thread to the top of the ornament. It's adhered with some clear tape (the candy cane is still in it's plastic wrap)

A very quick and easy project!! You can even make them in different sizes - this is a medium drink cup. PP is Kaisercraft, Stickers are Doodlbug. You could also use Christmas M&Ms for a really festive gift!

Make It Merry Blog Hop

Hi and welcome to the Make It Merry Blog hop for Adornit!! Can you believe it's nearly Christmas - well if you need some inspiration, start at the very beginning of the blog hop and feast your eyes on some gorgeous Christmas creations that you know you are going to have to make, then hop along to all the other blogs along the way!

Okay so I have created something special for you all! It's a Matchbox Christmas Advent Calendar

24 matchboxes all covered in Christmas paper, and decked out in embellies then filled with chocolate - what more could you want? More pictures perhaps?
All I did was buy some matchboxes from Riot (craft store), wrap them in Christmas Themed PP from Kaiser Craft, stack them in a tree shape then embellish with little things I found in my stash (ribbons, brads, bling, stickers, bells, flowers). I then used 5 different sticker fonts to create the numbering (I didn't put the numbers in order so that the girls would have to hunt for the chocolates), then I filled the little drawers with foiled chocolates that I bought at Big W. It's got a bit of weight in it now that the chocolates are in!

For more fun - hop on over to Rhonda Sue's blog!

Sophia is a Wii Baby!

Every time I get the Wii Fit board out, Sophia has to have a play! She climbs all over the board and plays with the remote. So I decided to get some pictures!
We then found an exact replica toy of the remote at the shops - it's supposed to dispence lollies but I just let Sophia play with it. She presses the buttons, points it at the TV and just generally has fun! She does little stretches, crawls, bends and waves - every thing you need to learn to be a big person!! (I've added the actual remote top to the layout! - I bought two, one to play with and one to use as an embellie! The journalling is hidden behind the main picture where the ribbons are, and the flourish was created by painting the sticker negative from some Winter Doodlebug stickers)

Note - without the help of anyone, last night Sophia stood up in the middle of the room all by herself!!! Then she later did it while her daddy was lying down and stood for a full 5 seconds!! She's growing up so fast. Amber is itching to run about with her!!

A little luck for my BFF

My poor BFF has had a terrible time lately, and I haven't been able to do much for her, so I made her a card and popped in something extra in the hopes that it brightens her day and gives her the luck she so badly needs right now!
I don't normally like to use my flash when taking photos of my projects, but it made the clover on the card glisten so nicely! I found these at Spotlight for 20 cents! It's on some green Bazzill which is raised on 3D foam tape. I found the clovers at the Newsagents, the clover is actually laminated in a little clear card which you can put in your wallet, bag or anywhere you want to carry it. I hope it lives up to it's name of "lucky".

Hugs and kisses Amy, hope your luck turns around xoxoxox

My Happy Halloweeners!

Well you've seen the photos - now you can see the layouts! I've done them the same because they will be going in two different albums. The embellies are slightly different too so I've included some closeups
Here's Amber all dressed up as a witch - I did some of the photos b/w as there was too much going on in the background that you lost the focus of the picture - I also played with PSP to highlight the colours of Amber's socks in the Wizard of Oz photo. I layered three different papers by stitching and pleating - the yellow cardstock has a white core so I sanded back the edges of the pleats to show this. I used up some of my stash of fibers too, knotting them and then stapling them to the layout. The flowers are actually orange and green (it's a little hard to see though), I layered them and then stitched them to the layout with a button and thread. The little pictures over the fiber were cut from a sheet of pp. I hand stitched some crosses around the pp and also doodled a border in white.
You can see here that the little pictures are raised on 3D foam tape.
Some organza ribbon in a bow and sparkly "boo" title - I actually used up some numbers and letters to create the title, a q became a b and the numbers 9 and 6 became o's!
Miss Sophia as a pumpkin - a few subtle differences - the layout is a mirror of Ambers, the embellies are slightly different - I love the little hanging spider in this one! I simply used some white thread and then added the spidey!
You can see the distressing really well here - just a few light sands with a sanding block to achieve this simple effect. The pleats were created randomly too before I sewed them to the pp.
You can see the half flowers here - the top one has a bit of sparkle to it. I used orange satin ribbon, green and purple fibers. All the photos were matted with white cardstock.

Scrapbooking Tri- Challenge

Given that it's Halloween - this sounds oddly Harry Potterish! The Tri Challenge is between Practical Scrappers, Frosted Designs & Stuck On U Sketches.

The Challenge for Practical Scrappers was to use 3 different ribbons on a layout or card - here's my layout:
The paper was bought this way with the stitching around the edge. I created the watermelons out of Bazzill to match Sophia's outfit. I then used my sewing machine to stitch ruffles around the edge with dotted satin ribbon. I used some Doodlebug Striped Grossgrain ribbon for the centres of the flowers and some pink organza ribbon for the question mark.
Here you can see the little tags I used for the title - they're adhered with coloured brads.
Here you can see the ribbon in the circle a little better. I simply ran some stitches along the edge of the ribbon and then pulled it tight. It'll automatically form a circle. I just popped a yellow prima and a gold sparkly brad in the centre to secure it all to the layout. The watermelon seeds are tiny hearts that I punched out and then cut in half.
Here is my question mark. I simply created some holes in the shape I needed, then gently pulled the ribbon through. I didn't pull it too tightly so that the ribbon would still retain it's shape.

The second challenge was from Stuck On U Sketches - I had to use a sketch from Page Maps:
I cut the pp shape out myself after drawing it, then I painted some white acrylic paint over it to tone down the colours a little. The dots either side of the word "jumper" are sparkly blue brads, and I doodled the jumping lines. The button down the bottom is a piece of flair.

My third challenge from Frosted Designs is to use an owl on a card or layout:
I drew the little owl myself and cut it out using different shades of brown Bazzill. Then I used some cut flowers for the wings and boggly eyes for movement. The tree is made from cork, the leaves were cut using decorative scissors and doodled. The buttons are sewn to the layout. The little hand print is Sophia's actual handprint that I cut out and raised on 3D foam tape.

Trick or Treat!!!

Here are my little spookies - we had a little photo shoot a few days ago (before we all ended up sick!) and these are my favourite pics
We had so much fun coming up with ideas for the shoot - don't you love our Wizard of Oz moment - the house fell on the witch! (I used a little PSP magic here - Amber was under the house alright, but it wasn't in anyway resting on her legs) We also had fun trying to keep Sophia's hat on cause she hates hats at the moment! Amber would drop it on as I took the picture! She's a great little assistant!