This one I used sandpaper around the edges and mounted the heart for a dimentional look. A few brads also looks good on the bottom to emphasise LOVE.

Another thing I enjoy doing is making my own frames for layouts or photo frames etc. I like the Bazzill metallic cardstock as it lends itself to so may altering techniques. I used STAZON ink on the metallic card as some of the other inks don't dry on it. I stamped LOVE and inked around the edges.

At camp we supplied the ladies with the chipboard and the inserts to make these little photo albums which were fantastic and everybody enjoyed doing. Here a few I have done.

Had a fantastic time at camp the other weekend. I did my mask lesson and it was popular again. People like the masks as much as I do. LOL. They are very versatile. Met some fantastic ladies and it was so good to see children scrapbooking with their mums. My saying is "a family that scraps together STICKS together" LOL.

Went into Sydney yesterday to the fair which was fantastic. Boy are there some fantastic products out there in all areas of life. Was a lovely day at Darling Harbour having lunch and watching Jess play in the park.

Another canvas of Cooper. This time I used texture paste and layed the fibre into it and when dried I painted the fibre and the canvas.

I also used wire and threaded beads onto it and screwed it into the bottom of the canvas.

When we did theis canvas at school the kids asked me if the 2 babies were twins. LOL Same baby.

I have been playing around with canvases lately and there you go again my favourite, masks. I feel this one needs something in the top right hand corner. I will think about this.

Another layout done using the foam block. I scrunched up paper and made a border by pressing the foam into the paper and then inking and stamping.

The flowers were made from a metal embellishment by MM.

This was a fun layout to do.

I have a new favourite tool-this foam block that you heat and make your own stamps. All you have to do is reheat and the indentation goes away. I am going to demonstrate this at the next camp i am doing.

The leaf stamp that I made was from buttons. I had 2 sizes so I heated the block, pressed the buttons into the block and then inked the block and then stamped.

Shirley was my cousin I knew only for a brief time. I wished I had of known her longer. She had a sense of humour like me. Well that was dangerous LOL. Shirley died of cancer. She had it in her leg-hence the walking sticks.

Boy have I had a busy weekend. Saturday Melanie and I went down to Nowra for our crop and we took our shop-I should be poet LOL. I did 2 demonstrations and they went well especially the mask class. I sold practically all my masks but what thrilled me the most was the number of ladies who went and did some masks on their pages and showed me. I was so impressed and thrilled.
We laft there around 11pm and got home 1am sunday morning. Mela nd I had a few drinks and then went to bed. I found it hard to sleep.
I was up early the next morning and emptied Brian's car and then set out to The Crop for a Cure. Was nice meeting up with friends there and meeting new people.
Then it was home and up to Mel's church for the seminars we are doing there. We brought Jess home with us so Mel could work the next day.

I had alovely time with Jess today and I wore her out. She is so funny. Now this little girl has a strange grandmother-LOL Thats me!!! I have false teeth-well 2 anyway that i pull out to cleana nd she always has something to say about that and I have a tatoo of a rose on my hip and she always wants to have a look at my stampa nd has soemthing to say about that. Then this morning she came into our room at 6 and both Brian and i were asleepa nd because I have sleep apnea I wear a mask which is attached to my breathing machine and she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw this on me. So now she has something else to ask me about. I don't think there is anything else strange about me -that is to a little child LOL.

Here is a layout I did ages ago. I love those big brads from Bazzill.

BUSY BUSY BUSY

The next few weekends are very busy. This weekend is the crop down at Nowra and we will be taking our mobile store there as usual. I will be doing 2 demoes-one will be using the masks and the other will be with the metal rulers that I love at the moment. This is on the saturdaya nd we will get home around 1ama nd I will have to empty the car and then get some sleep before going to CROP FOR A CURE with a group of my friends. This is very important to me as my Mother died from cancer which began in the breast.

The weekend afterwards we have a camp at Wiseman's Ferry run by Dawnmarie Brennan. We do all her camps and crops etc. Naturally we will be taking the store and once again i will do the same demoes that I did at the cropday. My friend Debbie is doing all the lessons at the camp and so i have provided her witht he products to use. i will have to get her layouts etc and show on here.

I am also helping do the Kids Craft at the 4x4 Club Birthday weekend in the school holidays. So today i am off to get the craft products to do this and tomorrow I am going to Serena's along with Lisa to get all the Kids Activities and prizes finalised.

WHEN AM I GOING TO GET MY YEAR 10 EXAMS MARKED THAT THEY DID LAST WEEK. lol DURING THE WEEK-lol.

Once again i have been Masking with Heidi Swapp masks but this time with alphabet Masks. I painted over the alphabet with a watered down paint. You ahve to be careful it doesn't run underneath so care needs to be taken.I have sewn ribbon around the edges of the cardstock.

This felt hat I made years ago when i was learning how to make felt. Jess saw it in the bedroom she sleps in at my place and put it on her head and was prouncing about being funny in it. I had to capture the moment as it was so funny and special. She didn't want to take it off.

This shows the flower up close and personal LOL.




Jess loves pink.The bows are made out of fabric and so is the monogram of J. i machine stitched around the edges of the cardstock with a fancy stitch.

Another Mask layout. These masks are getting a work out. LOL. This time I traced around the mask with a white gel pen and then stuck a Heidi Swapp puffy in the middle. I like this effect.

As I sit here thinking I wonder what this week will bring. Last week was a very sad week-especially with the death of Steve Irwin who has done so much for Australia and Australian wildlife. Then Peter Brock who on all accounts was a really nice man. Today in Australia is Setember 11th and this brings home the thoughts on terrorists. I am now 54 and the past few years have been the worst in my life when it comes to saddness and tragedy on a global scale. I wonder why people need to be so cruel and hungry for power.

Lets hope this week will be a better week with more good news than bad.

This mask was done with chalk. I like the effect on the black Bazzill cardstock.

I had a nice birthday dinner. Brian and I went to Parramatta and went to a Korean Restaurant.I have never had Korean before but I will in the future. It was very tastey and different to other Asian cuisines. The side dishes were very nice. I liked the alcoholic drink called Sojo-tasted like gin but is made from potatoes. The man who ran the restaurant was very nice and friendly.
Afterwards we thought we would listen to a band but they came on too late. We did have a few drinks. Then went and had Gelato which was yummy. I ordered 7 scoops because I couldn't make up my mind. It was to share so I wasn't completely greedy. There were heaps to choose from-I will be going back there again.
I wore one pair of my new shoes-well derrrrrrrrrr as if I would wear the 2 pairs.They were very comfortable.
Had lots of phone calls and e-mail messages today. Was nice to be spoiled.

Friday night was a nice night also. I went to a retirement dinner for Annette. Annette was our lab assistant for many years when I was teaching at another High school. We have always stayed in contact over the years and now plan on having coffee after school because she lives not far from the school I teach in now. We have been friends since 1983.

What a beautiful little baby Boy is our Cooper.

Once again I have been Masking. I painted the whole Mask in black over a white background and did touch ups in blue and white around the edges. i also used part of the mask in green on the corners. The centre of the flowers I have used Bazzill Big Brads with fibre poking out from behind.

Down the bottom I cut out a separate masked flower.

I love this photo of Cooper. He has grown so much.

My favourite thing to do at the moment in scrapbooking is using Masks. I have a few Heidi Swapp Masks and have been doing all kinds of things with them. In this layout I used black paint over the whole mask and then painted the white parts blue and green as seen in the cutout. I then cut it out and used Bazzill big brads as the centre.
I love these photos of Amanda-they show how attractive she is and the blue really suits her complexion and hair.
Keep on BLOOMING!!!!!!!!!

Here are 2 books I made as a" make and take" class at the last crop I did at Pecky's before Father's Day. I also did it at school with the students in my craft class. Both groups enjoyed doing them. Inside is a pocket and a notepad. Instead of buying cards that often get thrown away, I thought it would be better to make these which dad can use and keep. One lady who made them at the crop couldn't wait until Father's day to give them to her husband. I was thrilled at this as it meant she liked what she made. Isn't this what life is all about "making somebody feel good about what they have made"-this is one of my reasons I teach these classes and am in the scrapbooking business.

I noticed when I viewed my blog that the date was still in US time as My birthday is hte 9th September and it is saturday here in Australia now.

Today is my 54th Birthday. I wish I still had the body I had when I was 30 but the mind and experience I have today. So far I have been spoiled by my good friend Rhonda in USA who has told everybody on all the yahoogroups we share that it is my birthday and I have had heaps of birthday wishes which i love. I am still a big kid at heart and love all the attention-My friend in Switzerland sent me a lovely present of little Teddy Bears. I love Bears so they were exciting to open today.I have also received lots of cards from friends around the world. One of my special yr 9 students remembered it as my birthday and wished me happy birthday which i thought was lovely. Brian offered during the week to take me out for dinner tonight so haven't decided yet whether to go to Sydney or Parramatta-will decide soon. He hasn't wished me Happy Birthday yet. You would think after 26 yrs of knowing me that he would realise I still like to be made feel special and I like to get presents. So ia m going out soon to spoil myself. I will get back on here later and tell you all what I did and got.

It is days like these that i really miss my Parents. Birthdays and Christmases have never been the same since they left this Earth. I miss them so much. I do know I will see them again one day and these days will be back to normal again. I had better go before I cry all over the keyboard.

The circles on the layout of "Sweet" were chipboard circle covered in patterned paper. The flowers are Heidi Swapp. Melanie took these photos of Jess. The paper was SEI.

The Family layouts of Amanda, Craig and Cooper were done using Sassafras Lass and i painted the white flowersa nd the centres were Heidi Swapp puff circles which I love.

I think you can tell I love usuing chipboard. When I like something I like it and use it heaps. LOL.
I have been busy tonight uploading Layouts. Hope to get more done soon to put on here.

I did this layout as a "make and take" at camp and at a recent crop day. It was very popular in different stripe paper and backgrounds. The squares were done in chipboard and paper covered them. i inked and sanded the edges.This one was done using Basic Grey.

A range of Scrapbooking Australia papers that we sell. I chose the orange and red ones and so did the kids. I also used a song for the title-"YOU are so Beautiful to me". I love this photo of Amanda. I inked around the edges of the white cardstock.

Once again, the torn edges made by the metal ruler(a different one this time) , chalked and sewn. The top border was chipboard cut into rectangles with Chatterbox paper glued to it. The blue striped is a chatterbox range.The kids enjoyed this one also. I enjoyed doing it.

On the layout of Brown Eyes I used my new favourite tool, the metal rulers which are great for tearing. I tore the Chatterbox papers and chalked the edges and using the sewing machine sewed the edges. Brown eyes were made out of chipboard covered in paper.

We had a lovely Father's day yesterday. Brian's mother came down on Saturday and we all went to Melanie's on Sunday for lunch. We had a roasr Beef Rump with a lovely stuffing and nut pie afterwards. A few drinks and chocolate. We took Jessica to the park for a run and the short walk did us good also.
Then at night we all went to the Seminar we are doing at Mel's church. Was very good.
Brought Jess home as Mel had things to do for our business in the morning and then she arrived around 10:30 in the morning. We had a great day with friends and did lots.
Here are a few of my layouts I have been doing with the kids at school. Each week I design a different layout and the kids in my scrapbooking group do them. They are enjoying the classes.