2011 in Review

Well what a rollercoaster year it has been for us this year. Lachlan has finished his second year at school and still loves it, Michala has grown up all of a sudden and is a real little princess and Darcie has become a very independant and very cheeky little girl. All 3 of them bring so much joy into our lives.

On the scrapping front I have had a very priveledged year. I enjoyed my time as a Scrapbooking Memories Master and loved meeting some of my fellow Masters at Camp Mojo in July. I taught my first ever class at the Little Scrapbook Shop Retreat in August, which seemed to go down a treat! :)
We have had a pretty good year on the farm this year as well. With all the rain we had over last summer, we have grown lots of grass! Lots of grass = happy cows and happy cows = lots of new calves.
Our lives were turned upside down in February this year, when my Mum was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a successful op to have the lump removed, some chemo and radium treatment, she is well on the road to recovery. We won't know until early next year whether or not she is in the all clear but she is feeling pretty good and is almost looking like her normal self again (with shorter, curlier hair!!)
And finally I will leave you with some of my favourite layouts from the year (well the ones I can share anyway! Most of my real faves are out for publication.)

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous 2012!!

Happy New Year!!

And So That Was Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful day! We did! There were new bikes, scooters and Barbie's for the kids, a new 50mm lens, camera bag and iPad cover for me and a new point & shoot camera for Luke.


The afternoon was spent relaxing with the family.








There may or may not have been too much bourbon.











We will be heading home tomorrow. And then the fun stuff begins - finding homes for all the new stuff (including a new tele, courtesy of the Boxing Day sales).

Thanks for stopping by...

The Countdown Is On!!

Until the man in the big red suit is here!! I can't believe how quickly it has snuck up this year! But I am all organised - just need to pack it all to go away to my parents place tomorrow.

I have had Donna and Sarah here for the last couple of days to scrap with me! It was a lot of fun! I managed a few layouts but I am feeling a little 'meh' about my scrapping at the moment so I am only going to share a couple of them with you. This one is fitting with the Christmas theme:
I made the little christmas tree out of some Jillibean Soup papers:

And added a little OA, a fabric button and some twine.

I was trying to get the mojo happening so decided to do a layout that is completely different to what I have been doing lately. There is NO mist on this layout!! lol

I have used machine stitching, stamps and NO doodling either. Yep, completely different for me! And I'm still not sure I like the end result. :( I do love these Thickers though.

Perhaps a little break from scrapping over Christmas will be good for me! It has been a big year, after all. ;)

I would like to wish all of you a safe and happy Christmas. I hope you get everything you wish for. And I would like to say a huge thank you for all your support and beautiful comments you leave on my lil old blog too! It really means a lot. I will try and blog while we are away but don't know how much I will manage on my iPad.

Have a good one and thanks for stopping by...

A Bit Random

We are part way through a busy week in the Bell household. I've signed the kids up for a block of swimming lessons - only thing is the pool is a 3 hour round trip away and we are going 5 days in a row!! But the bit of pain will be well worth the gain! Kids + water scare the crap out of me!!

I do have a little scrappy share for you though. I completed this layout on the weekend.
I have used Crate Paper 'Random' from The Little Scrapbook Shop. I was also sent some of these awesome Pink Paislee mistable wooden alphas - love them!! I have sprayed them with a little Pearl Glimmermist to give them a bit of shimmer.

I'm looking forward to this weekend so that I can scrap a few more pages with this range! :) Thanks for stopping by...

Who Doesn't Love A Sale??

Is happening NOW at The Little Scrapbook Shop! Why not check out the shop and stock up on some goodies for the holidays. ;)

The Mo Had To Go!!!

As you are probably aware, Luke took part in Movember this year. The deal is that you shave off your 'Mo' once November is over. But Luke decided to keep his on for an extra week!! He wanted to show his sponsors, so he got to do that at our little schools break up day on Friday. He finally shaved the hideous thing off yesterday!! Yay!! If he didn't do it soon, I was seriously contemplating divorce!! lol I created this layout as a momento of his month:
This is my entry for the December 1st sketch at Stuck?! Sketches. Here is the sketch:

I have changed a few things around but most of the elements are there. Love these Thickers! I've had them for ages but am only just using them now.

I've used a mix of ric-rac, ribbon, twine and masking tape to create the layers behind the photos.

And used the good ol Dymo tape for my journalling:

Thanks so much for stopping by...

Christmas Spirit

I think Lachlan takes after me! He just loves everything about Christmas. He loves to dress up in his Santa hat, he loves to help decorate the tree and he loves opening all the presents (well which kid doesn't! lol). He's the only one who will sit and smile for our photo shoot - although he still has his moments. I took this photo of him the other day. He was behaving and then he decided it would be funny to not look at the camera! This layout is for this months challenge at Scrap The Boys:

You need to use this colour combination on a Christmas themed layout:

I've used a mix of October Afternoon and American Crafts papers on this, and some corrugated alphas from Jillibean Soup.

I've added a few embellies from MME as well, and a fabric button I made myself. :)

Thanks for stopping by....

Personalised Gift Tags

It's my turn for this weeks Christmas Step x Step at the Little Scrapbook Shop. I love to wrap all the pressies at Christmas time so this year I have made my own little personalised gift tags to put on them. It's a great way to use up all your scraps of Chrissy paper, scraps of cardstock and all the left over alphas in your stash.

For step x step instructions, head over to the LSBS forum here.

Thanks for stopping by....

Basic Grey 'Indie Bloom'

I received some of the very bright and funky 'Indie Bloom' range from Basic Grey in my DT pack from the Little Scrapbook Shop this month. It really threw me at first as they are colours and patterns that I would not usually work with. But this is what I came up with.

I haven't used any patterned paper on this first one. Instead, I have used some of the gorgeous ribbons and trims and some washi tape that are all available in the shop. I've used some stickers and alpha stickers from the Indie Bloom range as well. And of course some mist on the background.
And I've added a couple of Jillibean Soup felt flowers and corrugated button shapes.
I've kept this next one fairly simple as well. I've used a little bit of the patterned paper on the background and a single wide strip of velvet ribbon. I've added a couple of the stickers from this range and some Studio Calico chipboard alphas for my title.

I've used some foam tape to lift the photo above the ribbon and then added the sticker to the corner of the photo. It gives it a bit of dimension.

And finally another simple layout using some strips of patterned paper, ribbon, lace, twine and mist.

And some more felt flowers and stickers. :)

You can find all the products in this range here. Until next time....

Pink, Teal & Yellow...

is one of my most favourite colour combinations of all time! I've noticed a couple of different paper ranges lately that are predominantly these colours - I am in heaven!! This is another layout from Donna's:
I've used some Jillibean Soup on this one, with some pink hessian, and washi tape. :) I've used a couple of different coloured mists on my background and added the kite by A Lil Somethin.

Darcie has the most beautiful curls but I'm never quite sure what to do with them! lol Some days she looks like a shaggy dog - especially first thing in the morning. As soon as you brush them, her hair goes all frizzy! With the weather warming up, I have started tying it up in a ponytail for her. She looks so different - and super cute!

I've used OA Sidewalks again on this one, with some washi tape and twine. Oh and some mist (shock horror!! lol).

I'd forgotten I had these Prima alphas! They match perfectly with the colour scheme.

You can definately tell the silly season is here. I have had no time to create this past week! I have some yummy new stuff to play with too. :( But I am getting excited that Christmas is nearly here. We will put our tree up today. And then there is only 1 more week of school!! Yay!

Thanks for stopping by...