A Sneaky Sneak Peak

What a hectic week it has been this week! Lachlan started back at school on Monday and was so excited!

Then on Tuesday afternoon we packed up and drove the 5 hours to Brisbane! Luke bought a new quad bike for the farm so he decided we should make use of the public holiday and go pick it up. So we had Australia Day with my parents - just a quiet BBQ and a few drinks. Then Thursday we jumped back in the car and headed home. It took all day to get here by the time we stopped to shop, have lunch and the million and one toilet stops for the kids!

And today we have some visitors arriving for the weekend! I'm looking forward to catching up with my bestie and her family. We don't get to see each other as much as we should.

So you can probably tell that there hasn't been much scrapping going on here for the past week. But I can share with you some sneaks:

All will be revealed in a few days. :)

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great weekend!

The Secret Is Out!!

This year's major comp has been announced at The Little Scrapbook Shop and it's going to be awesome:

You can find all the details here. The prizes are amazing, including a voucher for 50% off in the shop!! How cool is that?! So who wants to join in?

Life Documented 2010

I received this collection by Memory Works Simple Stories called 'Life Documented' in my latest DT parcel from The Little Scrapbook Shop. I knew straight away what I wanted to do with it (gotta love when that happens! lol). I have made a 'year in review' style mini album of the goings on in the Bell household in 2010:

And here are all the inside pages - they vary in size and material - some are chipboard, some are patterned paper and some are cardstock.

And here are the inside pages. For each month I have included a photo and added some journalling about what happened that month:

Sorry for the dodgy picture sizes. Photobucket won't play nice. I'm really happy with how the album turned out though. I have heaps of stuff left over too so will be doing a few layouts over the next few days.

School starts for my big boy tomorrow! He will be in year 1 this year. Where did the holidays go? I feel like we haven't done anything or been anywhere these holidays - oh hang on, that's because we haven't!! lol

Thanks so much for stopping by and for any comments you may leave...

Want to Win....

some goodies from My Little Bit Of Whimsy?? Go and check out this awesome giveaway here.

Crikey!!

For Lachlan's 5th birthday (almost 2 years ago) we took the kids to Australia Zoo. We left the farm at 4am (crazy I know, especially with a then 3 month old!) so that we could get there when the zoo opened. We met my parents and my sister there, who had travelled up from Brissy. The kids had a great day and this is probably my favourite photo from the day. This layout is for the Jan 15th sketch at Stuck?!. Here's the sketch:

And here is my layout:

I kept pretty much to the sketch and kept my layout fairly simple. I had had the LYB die cut paper for ages and was going to give it away coz I thought I'd never use it. But I pulled it out and chopped it up instead! :)

Thanks for stopping by...

What About Me?

One of my New Year's Scrapping Resolutions was to start doing more layouts about me. I seem to record the day to day moments for everyone else in the family and very rarely focus on something about myself. Maybe that's because I'm always the one behind the camera, which I prefer to be honest. I hate having my photo taken! LOL So this year I'm going to try and change that!

This layout is for the next sketch challenge at Get Picky. The sketch is a double (!!) provided by Anna Bowkis:


I don't like doing doubles - mainly because everyone I do, I don't like. The only one I have EVER done that I really LOVED was my Masters double. I decided to adapt this sketch to a single layout:

I have used a bit of Cosmo Cricket 'Circa 1934' on this one and well as some misting and inking. Hopefully this will be the start of some 'Lauren layouts'.

Thanks for stopping by...

Can You Help?

We've all seen the scenes of devastation all throughout Queensland over the past few weeks. Over 75% of our state has been affected in some way by floods. I can't begin to imagine what the people who have lost their homes, their farms and their loved ones are going through right now. I feel so helpless. But there are a couple of ways we can help those affected by the floods. Kim Archer is conducting a special online workshop where all proceeds will go the Premiers Flood Relief Appeal. The workshop is only $5! You can sign up here.

You can also help by getting creative. The Rising Waters Flood Appeal for Crafters are taking donations of scrap pages (minus the photo) that will then be sent to the flood victims for them to create their own scrapbook albums. Head over to the blog to find out the details on where to send your pages.

I have started creating several pages so far and will do some more in the next few days. It's a great way to use all those bits of scrap paper! I really hope you can help out too.

Thanks for stopping by...

A Little Ray Of Sunshine

I was lucky enough to get to do one of the new challenges for the Little Scrapbook Shop January Cybercrop - the Product Challenge. The product you must use on your layout is chipboard. Here is my layout:

There are a few other criteria for this challenge as well. Head here to find out what they are.

Thanks for stopping by...

It's That Time Again!

The first Cybercrop for 2011 starts tonight over at The Little Scrapbook Shop. This months theme is 'A Little Ray of Sunshine'. We are shaking it up a bit with an all new format and all new challenges. I would love to see some all new faces too! There will be Bingo and awesome prizes up for grabs. The fun starts at 7.00pm EDST. You can find all the details here. :)

This Tinsel is Making Me Itchy!!

Huh? I hear you say! I promise this will be my last blog post for the weekend! LOL

The 3rd Inspiration challenge is up over at Get Picky and this is the picture you need to draw inspiration from:

I was inspired by the subtle hints of blue as well as the silver on the christmas tree. And of course, because there is a christmas tree, I used Christmas photos and the colour red and created this:

I have used some Cosmo Cricket 'Mitten Weather' 6x6 papers that were blue and red. You can't really see it in this photo but I have also flicked some silver paint across the layout. I found the chippy tree in amongst my stash of Basic Grey 'Oliver' and thought it looked a little Christmassy, so I added some full stops from the Thickers to make little decorations. The red Thickers matched the glittery tinsel in the photo too.

Thanks so much for stopping by...

Dad & His Girl

Gotta love rainy days - it's a great excuse to sit and scrap! And that's just what I've been doing. This layout is for the January 1st sketch at Stuck?! Sketches:

Once again using October Afternoon - 'Seaside' this time. :) Sorry for the dull photo - rainy weather might be good for scrapping but not so good for taking photos. :(

Hope you are having a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by...

Sand Man

This months challenge at White With 1 is to use White with Navy/Royal blue and Banners. I am having a little love affair with banners at the moment (LOL) so thought I would play along. Here is my layout:

That pp is navy but it showing up more like black in this photo. :? When we went away back in November last year, we took the kids to the beach. Lachlan wanted to be buried in the sand so Luke started covering him and then got a little carried away! He turned him into a giant sand muscle man (not sure what's going on with the legs though!)

I have used a bit of Glimmermist, OA and Pink Paislee papers, and string. For the title I traced around some Pink Paislee chipboard letters to make my own from the OA patterned paper. It's a great way to save the chipboard alphas for another layout - you never seem to get enough of the letters you use the most!

And once again there is a lot of doodling.

You may have seen by post below about one of my layouts appearing on the Crate Paper blog. If you go and leave a comment on the blog telling them that mine was your favourite you can win a prize pack. And if I get the most votes I can win a little something too. I would very much appreciate it. ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by and for any comments you may leave.

Excited!!

One of my layouts using the Crate Paper 'School Spirit' range (that I got in my DT pack from the Little Scrapbook Shop) is up on the Crate Paper blog today!! You can see it here.

The Pigeon

I have some scrapping that I can actually share! :) This is a 'just because' layout. We finally received our mail after not getting any for 3 weeks due to the flooding in our local town. In there was a parcel from The Little Scrapbook Shop with some yummy new October Afternoon goodies inside. :) So I created this:



It's a layout about the homing pigeon that came to visit us last year (you may have heard about it if you are on Facebook). I have used a mix of 'Campfire' and 'Modern Homemaker' as well as using up some older bits and pieces from Cosmo Cricket, Sass Lass and The Chip Chop Shop.

Thanks so much for stopping by...

Kraft It Up

January's challenge is now up on the Kraft It Up blog. The challenge is to create a layout based on the theme SUMMER and you must also use a SUMMER word in your title, using Kraft cardstock as your base. Here is my take on the challenge:


Head on over to the blog to see what the rest of the CT have done - including some new faces! Congrats ladies!! :)

Well Hello 2011!

I hope it doesn't go as fast as 2010! I hope you all had a great New Year's - we had a quiet BBQ with the neighbours and were in bed before midnight. We're becoming old fuddy duddy's! LOL

With the new month comes a new challenge over at Scrap The Girls. This months challenge is to scrap your favourite summer memories or moments. This is my layout:

This was Darcie's first taste of watermelon whilst on a 'picnic' over at our other property. It was such a stinker of a day so we found a nice cool spot beside the dam under the shade of a tree. She looks so little in that photo. :(

I would love to see you play along. Thanks for stopping by...