Now She's 5

It's birthday season around here - first Munchy, now me (tomorrow..... and it's a big one.... shhhhh!!!) and then Moodles in another week or so.

This was one of those layouts that I had been imagining in my head for the longest time and then when it actually came to translating it to paper it just.... well...... didn't!! *LOL*

Oh well! The birthday essence is still there - with the colourful flags and ephemera and misting/splattering fun. And the idea of capturing a moment in time is still there. I did a mini-interview with Munchy about all her favourite things right at the moment and tried to include as many of them as possible in my journaling.

I even had the courage to let her write her own name up in the corner on my almost finished layout. It went a bit crooked hey? But adds to the charm I think :-)

So there's a few birthday celebrations going on around here and I might not have a chance to get near the computer for a few days for which I apologise in advance. But don't worry because I've been scrapping up a storm lately and have quite the backlog of projects to share when I get back!

News Flash

Munchy turned 5 recently. I think she's rather clever - she knows all her letters and numbers, and can write her own name. But she's determined to do more before school starts next year. She's actually requested that we help her learn to read and write!

And when I suggested to her the concept of making some flash cards to help her do this, she was SUPER-excited! I mean, the idea of mixing patterned paper and embellishments with learning to read is mighty attractive right?!

So whilst she was out one day I got out some old kits and leftover scraps of paper and set to work making some quick and easy (and oh-so-pretty) flashcards.

Knowing that they were going to be handled a bit (I hope!) I was afraid all those letter stickers might fall off, so I ran the whole bunch through my sewing machine to keep them in place. Then I realised I had ended up with flash-card-bunting and strung it up to surprise her when she came home!

After squealing with delight and promptly ripping the whole thing down we cut it apart again and started practicing her words. Perfect solution :-)

In other fabulous news: the new sketch is up at Once Upon a Sketch, and this time the journaling criteria is a little easier! *LOL* You need to journal at least 2 sentences on when you started scrapping and why?

And the prizes are just fabulous (as always!!). Apart from gaining a spot as a Guest Designer in an upcoming challenge you can also win this amazing October kit from our sponsor Swirlydoos kit club.

We are super lucky to have Leeann Pearce as our Guest Designer this month (another one of my longstanding scrappy crushes!!) and she's offered up this exciting embellishment pack for a lucky winner from her Chip Chop Shop.

AND..... another lucky winner will receive this entire Ladies and Gents collection by Webster's Pages.
There's plenty of time to enter, so go over to Once Upon a Sketch and check out all the details :-)

The Wonder Years

Little Moodles is in the midst of a growth spurt. Physically of course .... she's almost changing right before our eyes. But she's growing emotionally as well.

We've challenged her recently with a few things. Firstly with taking away her dummy. That one was a little hard! Just like with Munchy, we simply threw away her dummy one morning so she had to go cold-turkey. The first night was pretty tough work.

After crying for more than two hours she finally went to sleep. But not before Munchy had her own breakdown and begged us to give it back to her :-( But the next night was easier... and it only got better from there.

Once she conquered that challenge, the next step was to take away her cot sides so now she effectively sleeps in a bed. After only one night-time wander around the house she settled down and probably goes to bed easier now than before.

I'm so proud of my growing girl. Facing life head-on and overcoming :-)

Having a Flutter

The Melbourne Cup. It's called the 'Race That Stops the Nation' and I'm usually lucky enough as a Melbournite to even get a public holiday. For a horse race!! Crazy right?!

Over at Scrapz.biz we're celebrating the occasion in true scrappy style by hosting a competition. It's like a layout sweepstake. All you have to do is upload a layout to our Melbourne Cup Flutter gallery using the sketch and colour inspiration (all the instructions are here) and you'll be assigned a random horse that's running in the Cup.

Should your horse place in the Melbourne Cup - then you win a lovely scrappy voucher!! There's even a prize for lucky last! But you better hop to it if you want to enter because the race is on Tuesday which means you need your entries in before that :-)

My layout tells the story about Moodle's obsession with my iPhone. She's not even two years old yet, she can barely talk, but she's taught herself how to play Angry Birds!! Whenever she sees me with my phone she starts calling out "Eagle? EAGLE!" or simply "Game?" which is her way of saying she wants to play.... now.

Kids hey? By the time they're as old as me they'll probably know how to fly their own hover-cars and communicate via telepathy or whatever it is that Star Trek tells us the future holds :-)

Reducing my Footprint

Last week's weekly theme at Scrapz.biz was "Footprints" and I hosted the Noteworthy challenge which is about making cards.

The first thing that challenged me was trying to figure out how to incorporate the "Footprints" theme into a card. As you can see, my first idea was to actually include some footprints, but I thought that might be a bit hard :-)

But you know what it reminded me of? All this talk these days about reducing our 'carbon footprint' to lessen our impact on the environment. So the challenge I'm setting is for you to "Reduce, Reuse or Recycle" something on your card!! You can interpret that any way you like!

I chose the "Reduce" option which meant I tried to limit the amount of supplies I used on these cards. Can you believe I only used one piece of patterned paper to make both these cards? And all I added was some scraps of twine, some left-over pieces from my Thickers and a splash of mist :-)

Other ways you might like to interpret the challenge would be to 'Reuse' something that was intended for a different purpose such as clothing tags, kitchen supplies etc. Or try your hand at the 'Recycled' option and include materials that might otherwise end up in the bin such as junk-mail or packaging.


Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Or if you're looking for more challenges.......here's a sneak of my new Scrap it Blind challenge that's just gone up today....

Happy scrapping!

Sweet Spring

It was a beautiful spring day here today. How about for you?

The town we're currently living in seems to have an abundance of cherry trees! Everywhere I look I see cherry blossoms, I see them scatter their petals in the soft breeze, and smell their delicate fragrance.

Yes I do get a little sentimental about cherry blossoms :-) It's because it reminds me of afternoons as a child at my Grandmother's house. Playing in her garden, young and innocent and free.

So I scrapped the memory :-) I really must do more of this sort of thing. It's like passing down an inheritance to my children. I used up the last scraps of my very first Studio Calico kit 'Partly Sunny'.... it seemed appropriate. And finally I can call myself a kit-killer!! I've only been subscribing for the last 16 months!

I just had to mix in a little Pink Paislee and some yummy woodgrain Hambly that I've been hoarding :-) And splash some paint around of course. I love Spring scrapping!!!

100 Years.... and a winner!!

Can I tell you a little secret? It's something I don't usually admit to very freely....
Once upon a time I entered a showgirl competition.
And won!

It was something I entered in order to support my friend who was entered, she didn't want to feel alone. I never thought I would actually win! And even though this was 12 years ago, it still came back to "haunt" me this year when they celebrated their 100year anniversary and invited all the past showgirls back for the party.

We had a parade through town, we got to feel like royalty as we sat on the back of a float and waved to people watching. Hheeee!! My family came to watch of course. The girls squealed when they say their Mummy on the back of a truck :-)

You might recognise this sneak peak that I revealed during the Scrapz.biz blog hop? This is the full reveal of the page I made for the "What's Cooking" challenge that I hosted last week

Lots of mix and match of products here for this page. You can click on each thumbnail to be taken directly to the Scrapz.biz store to purchase the same supplies if you like.


Supplies Used:

InLinkz.com

and now, the moment you've been waiting for.. The winner of my candy from last week's Scrapz.biz blog hop is......

MELANIE H. !!!!

Melanie, please contact me either by email (address is on the right there) or PM me on the Scrapz forum to let me know your postal address and I'll get your goodies in the mail ASAP.

I'll be back to post the sneak of my next challenge later.