These are 2 handmade cards that my dear friends Libby(pink) and Debbie(mauve) made me for my birthday. I love handmade cards and these helped to make my day.

This was taken at Tanilba Bay. We went to see the historic house but it wasn't opened

on the Tuesday. Something the tourist bureau didn't tell us. Not to worry, we still had a good day looking around.

Me on the Stockton Sand Dunes. I love this area.

Brian had to rescue a man and his son who were bogged in the sand.

Me on the rocks at Boat Harbour. I love the coastal areas and love the rock formations. I used to come up here when I was a girl with my parents. We would often go for a drive up here and being there last week brought back many memories.

I have been on holidays with Brian up at Nelson Bay. We left last Sunday and stayed there until Friday morning and then drove to Cessnock. We had a look at some land and then made our way to Milbrodale to the 4x4 Club Birthday Weekend. I was in charge of the Kids Activities and they went well. We did get some rain and Brian and I packed up today in the rain and got rather wet.

What did we do in Nelson Bay-we walked and walked and I saw so much by doing that. One day we went swimming, another we climbed the hill near Shoal Bay and viewed the spectacular scenery of the area. We also went 4x4 driving on Stockton beach and had a great time doing that. We also went for several drives and had dinner at an Indian restaurant in Nelson Bay one night. It was delicious. We stayed at Halifax Camping grounds and I highly recommend this place. The amenities are so clean.

Here is an easy card I made recently for a lesson I was doing at Pecky's. I drew a basic butterfly pattern and then using the photocopier reduced it to 2 other sizes. I traced around each onto cardstock and patterned paper then glued the biggest one onto the card. The next 2 were folded slightly in half and glued down the fold line onto the previous layer. I made a centre piece and the then put Kaiser Pearls down the centre and also for it's antena. I liked how it turned out.

A close up of the beautiful necklace my year 12 Biology class gave me.

Look what my year 12 gave me as a going away present. They sure did spoil me.

This week has been a difficult week for me.

I had to say goodbye to my Year 12 class who are fantastic and I will miss very much. It has been so nice to see them grow up and become mature and caring young people.

My Uncle died at 4am on Monday morning. He was the last of my Mother's siblings to go. I am so pleased I got to say goodbye to him last holidays.

I also had a bad eye and a headache all week. I need a holiday. Not long now. 1 working day left.

Cuttlebug double die-cut and emboss butterfly

Another version of the same style of card using the Cuttlebug folders.

Look what I did with a plain book.

Gel Medium glues anything to anything.The plastic folder -I glued Basic Grey and Bazzill card on the front using Gel Medium. I also Kindy Glitzed the patterned paper and around the edges. The photo of me on my wedding day was attached to red Bazzill and is Gel Medium to the inside of the plastic cover.

This little book is good to put ideas you pick up from camp and other places you go about scrapbooking and card ideas.

Cutlebug double die and border

This card was made using Cuttlebug Folders.

The Butterfly is a double folder and the border is a new folder.

I used Kaiser bling on the butterfly.

I used Gel Medium to glue everything in place.

I used Chrystallina Kindy Glitz to add some bling to the border.

The ribbon is Maya Road.

The white cardstock is produced by SALT

These last 3 photos were from my Surprise Party my yr 12s gave me. These Chinese Noodles were made by Charlie's grandmother-they were delicious.The writing on the board in the previous photos was done by a very talented Art Student, Joey in my class.

These chocolates were given to me by my

yr 10 class. They were yummy and I had them eaten by the end of the week. I LOVE chocolate.

This lovely bunch of flowers was given to me by one of my special students in year 12 along with the Indian sweets for my birthday. They are beautiful. I am going to press the flowers so i can have them forever.

These flowers were given to me by yr 12 and yr 11 for my Birthday.

I just managed to stuff up my computor and hence I cannot get any of my photos etc from my hard drive until next week. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.This lap top is a pain also as some of the keys stick and I have to press the same key more than once.Grrrrrrrr again.

I had a fabulous birthday yesterday and was spoiled rotten especially by the kids at school. Year10 gave me a box of Belgian Chocolates and a card which had all kinds of words from the kids.Some made me laugh.

Year 11-well there were about 50 of them came down to my lab and sang me Happy Birthday twice and gave me a bunch of flowers, mug and chocolates plus a lovely card. Many of the students I do not teach now but some I have in the past. I have a lovely yr 11 Biology class. This touched me very much. They are so special. All my yr 11 students were there.

Then my Yr 12 Biology class gave me a surprise birthday party. This touched me very much also.They blew up balloons and had a cake with candles, flowers and Charlie's grandmother made Chinese noodles which was lovely. They sang Happy Birthday to me.

No wonder I love teaching-the love and respect says it all.

Then I came home and Amanda, Cooper and Brian had presents for me. This was nice as didn't expect anything.Yes Brian cooked me a chop dinner.I suppose it was the thought that counts.

All in all I had a wonderful birthday.

I hope all the fathers out there had a nice Father's Day. We had a nice one here. I cooked a roast dinner with chicken being the meat. Melanie, Gavin, Jessica and Chloe came. Amanda was here and her friend Ben. Cooper was with his father and we missed him. There was also Brian and myself. We had a lovely family day.

Brian and I went for a walk in the morning. It was a beautiful sunny morning.

Brian asked me tonight what I wanted for dinner tomorrow night. Sausages or chops. To be honest I don't want neither. Why would I want something so plain and simple on my birthday. I thought a nice special dinner would have been nice.I suppose he has forgotten or just isn't thoughtful. He did ask me last week what I wanted for my birthday and I said not to buy me anything but I would like a nice meal out. Must have forgotten. I don't want it 2 weeks down the track as it will not be my birthday then. Melanie and Amanda are taking me out to lunch and it will not be on my birthday but that is OK as we had discussed it as Melanie and I have things on the next 3 weeks of a weekend. We will do something in the school holidays.

I will take myself out tomorrow afternoon after school for coffee and cake. I usually do that every year by myself. Hope I don't sound too "complainy" but I like to be made a fuss of on my birthday. It is the little girl in me.

Thank you Libby for nominating me for an award. I am thrilled to bits.

The rules of the award are:
1.The winner can put the logo on her/his blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3.Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4.Put links of those blogs on yours.
5.Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you’ve nominated.So, the ones I'm nominating are:

Gail
Haylee
Sharon
Lusi
Melanie
MELROSE

Thank you Libby for nominating me for an award.I was thrilled to bits as i never win anything. I will nominate tomorrow who i want to give this award to. Thank you so much.

This card I made with the kids at school yesterday for Father's Day. They enjoyed making it.

The circles are chipboard from SALT and the pearls are Kaiser products.

This is a card I was playing with. The heart was cut out of chipboard and the positive and negative was used on the card. Both were raised using foam.

I love the Kaiser pearls. They are so useful.

Melanie, Amanda's sister made this lovely chocolate Mudcake. She designed and decorated it herself.

A few family shots during the 21st Party

1982

and

2005

Yesterday was our 26th wedding anniversary 28th August.We couldn't do anything as Brian had to have a colonoscopy today and wasn't allowed the type of food we like to celebrate. So we went out on Wednesday night to our Favourite Italian restaurant Bongornios-We had a nice meal.

One of my special year 12 students sent me a beautiful message to wish me a happy anniversary and quite a few of them wished it to me at school. It is these special efforts that people make that touch my heart and give me confidence that there are nice people out there. None of my family said anything to me. Brian did say "Happy Anniversary" in the morning.

I chose red and blue for this post as these were the colours of my bridesmaid and the men's suits.

This Faith page was done to put on show at the SECET camp in June 2008.

The theme was Love and I explained why I love the Lord your God with all my heart. He is always there for me and loves me no matter what. Unlike friends and family who put so many expectations on you and some love you for what they can get from you. I sound a little sceptical but some days the pressures get so much that it is hard to see rationally.

I need a holiday-I am worn out at the moment.

The chipboard words are from SALT and they have been painted with Tim Holtz crackle paint. The cardstock is Bazzill.

These last photos were taken from my garden. I have always loved the flowering plum trees as I reminds me of my Mother's garden in Newcastle when I was young girl. This shrub in particular was from one of my Mother's stock. In fact my Father has thrown it in the garbage and I salvaged it. I think of my Parents when I see this blooming.

The daisy is a commoner but I like how it photographed.

ORCHIDS

These Orchids are the only ones I have left and when they bloomed this week I was so excited. I love Orchids but don't have the time at the moment to nurture them.

This layout was made using Sassafras Lass patterned paper and Bazzill cardstock.The title is in white chipboard that SALT produce.

This is a little felt purse I made. Inside is a fold out section for a verse etc. These were fun to make. i made these with the students at school and they loved them.

Once again I have used Heidi Swapp masks to write the word love as the title.I painted over the letters and then peeled them off. While the paint was still wet I ran the paintbrush handle around to make feature lines. I used left over paint from this layout and the previous one posted and painted white cardstock and then punched the flowers.

My, how much has Jessica grown since these photos were taken.

The big flowers were painted on transparencies by using a Heidi Swapp mask. Then inked in the centre. I glued it on where the blue paint is and you cannot see the glue. I did the same with the stamped image of the small flower.

The life of a little boy is always so active. So is the life of the big boy. Cooper has always enjoyed being outside and doing things in the open air. The title is in brown coaster board that has been sanded. I have also used the negative for the a as i ran out. The word boy is in chipboard and has been inked.

My other passion is sewing but I don't get to do much of that these days. Hence, i have heaps of laces and

fibres etc. The flowers are chipboard covered in paint and Kindy Glitz.

I like this photo of Amanda.

This is page 2 of the other page previously posted. I bought this dress for Jess so her mother could take nice photos on the beach up in Queensland. The things we do.

Jessica, our little Princess and Drama Queen. She loves to act and express herself.

This was the first layout I did using Souffle Pens. I wrote on the Bazzill and it was very light to start with but as it dried it became darker. I was in love with the pens from that moment of darkening onwards. LOL I need a life.

The colour in this isn't good. It is Cathy B Vellum and patterned paper that I love.

It is also my little granddaughter Chloe.

This layout was done using cotton tape and Imagination Project patterned paper. The tag is a Basic Grey Chipboard tag covered in patterned paper.This is Melanie in Cairns when we all went on a family holiday and spent Christmas day up there and then 2 more weeks. Was a nice relaxing time.

This is the other flower pot that Melanie bought me way back in the 1970s. How cute is it. i can never part with this and the Koala one she gave me. I look at them and see her as a little girl so proud and happy with what she bought me. Memories are so precious.

We went to Barrington Tops over the Australia Day long weekend in January. These photos were taken up there.

This is the girl version of the layout technique using a [ink theme instead of a blue one. Same products were used as in Cute layout.

This is the boy layout based on the circles and the same theme as the card. Some circles had buttons and other plain. The circular photo of Cooper was popped up. The papers are Main Street and the cardstock Bazzill. I also used Crafter's Workshop templates for the writing.

I made this card from the left overs of a layout i did as a lesson earlier this year. The technique uses different sizes of chipboard circles(SALT) which have Tim Holtz crackle paint on them, some with patterned paper and sanded and others with Tim Holtz distress inks. Cards are a great way to use up scraps you don't want or need any more. The theme was the same as the layout I did.