I always know that December is a stupidly busy month for us and I know that I always spend every night in the week before Christmas in the kitchen cooking treats and wrapping presents.... So why on earth did I think that doing a December Daily album was a great idea??!!
I'm sure I'm not the only person who has felt this way, and I am not stressing about it at all as I am noting down what each day is and making sure I have the photos to add in later. I just feel that I should be doing a thousand things at once. The best thing about this album though, is that I can come back to it after Christmas and enjoy the process of putting it all together.
I am still not happy with the photos I have taken of the Christmas decorations around our house, so am trying to get a few more done before its too late. But once these are taken and I am happy with them, I will add them to the page for December 2nd. I have used the 'Deck the Halls' chipboard title and coloured it in with a black sharpie. It has then been attached to the outside of the plastic sleeve.
On December 3rd I have added a light wood veneer reindeer to the page.
December 11th we headed to the local 'Carols in the Park'. I have added the light wood veneer 'Merry Christmas, Hope, Joy'. How gorgeous are all of those red sequins?! They are from Studio Fourteen 40.
And December15th was Mission Santa Photo. Oh the joys of being a scrapbookers husband! Its a great thing he is such a great sport!!
I have added a chipboard 'Believe' title and a light wood veneer reindeer, both painted in a light coat of gold paint.
I am loving this album and can't wait for the rush to be over so that I can finish it. Don't forget that all of these Words or Whatever products are available through your local scrap store.
I hope to have a little bit more inspiration to you before Christmas. Thanks for calling past.
These gorgeous little pieces from Words or Whatever in their Christmas release are just amazing. Can you tell I LOVE them?
The moment I received my bag of goodies this month I wanted to play with them so sat down and scrapped a layout. Thats something I havent done for a while!
I love nothing more at Christmas than to take photos of the tree all lit up at night with all of the presents under it. It seems this year these photos may have to wait until I manage to get all of the gift wrapping done!!
Oh Christmas Tree
Using chipboard stockings, chipboard bow, chipboard 'Christmas' from the 'Baby's First Christmas' title and chipboard snowflake.
A close up of the title, stocking and bow. All of these chipboard items have been altered with sharpie markers and gel pens.
The other stocking and snowflake. Both have also been altered with gel pens and sharpie markers, and a little bit of bling to the snowflake.
Are you still scrapping last Christmas? I love the felling of finishing them for another year before the next Christmas hits.
Back again with more December Daily (also slightly unfinished), which I am trying to work on today and get it up to date.
I am loving this project and can understand why people do it every year.
December 7th I have added a paper bag from the packaging in the Studio Calico kit to give me some more room to add more photos and journaling to this one. It was a pretty full on day with a lot of different bits and pieces that I wanted to record.
To decorate the bag I have added a raw light wood veneer deer and a raw dark veneer 'always' from Words or Whatever. To the other page I have added a chipboard bow embossed in red. These pages are far from completed but I am documenting my experience with this project and some photos of each day half done is still achieving this.
December 8th and 9th are still not completed as yet either, but are in progress. I have used the Words or Whatever dark wood veneer 'Christmas' bauble and a couple of small light wood veneer candy canes coloured with bronze gel pen.
Let me know if you are doing December Daily too. Leave me your blog address in the comments as I would love to see what you are doing.
I'm dropping past with a quick Christmas card or gift tag idea. There Words or Whatever items come in both a light and dark wood veneer, but I couldn't help but cover them in gold embossing.
The idea behind this card was found on Pinterest and inspired by Amanda Winkleman.
Its a pretty simple card really. So easy yet effective.
Did you make cards this year? Did you actually send them out? I tend to make them and never get around to sending them!
AARRRRGGGGHHHHHH... Christmas is coming way too fast and I don't think I am going to have enough time to get everything done before the fat man comes!!!! Please tell me that I am not the only one who feels this way!
I did want to stop in and share a couple more pages in my December Daily album using some of the gorgeous Words or Whatever Christmas pieces. I am loving everything I have and cant help by find a way to be using them on just about everything!
December 4th and 5th using the dark wood veneer wreath and the light wood veneer word tree.
On the 6th I have used a medium size light wood veneer candy cane coloured with a bronze gel pen and red sharpie marker. The present on the other page will belong on this page but as you can see, it isn't quiet finished yet! This is on my 'to do' list for this weekend (along with taking some nicer photos).
Are you doing December Daily? Are you keeping up? Will you be buying some Words or Whatever products to scrap your Christmas this year?
This year I am trying my hand at a December Daily album. I thought it best to tackle this task with a pre done kit and there was no way I was going past the Studio Calico kit. I loved just about everything about it and it has made life just that little bit easier pulling the album together.
Armed with the kit, and the gorgeous new Words or Whatever Christmas products, I was away.
For the beautiful embossed chipboard album cover I have painted it with white paint. I have then added the chipboard Star Cluster Banner which I have coated in a gold embossing.
My title page I have kept super simple (which isn't like me and I might add to it or change it if I have time this month but it is doing the job for now). I have used the gorgeous dark wood veneer Christmas Birds and Ornaments (WV083D) and the chipboard 'December Daily' title (WOW2042). The flair button came in the Studio Calico kit. I have used one of the kit papers and added a piece of vellum to the frame area (which is really hard to see in this picture).
After watching Ali Edwards videos for her December Daily inspiration, I thought it best to add this little half page with the calendar and my 'To Do' list for the month.
The calendar 'Dec' is Words or Whatever chipboard Girly Alpha Uppercase (WOW1386), and the chipboard Mini Star Banner (WOW2017) is embossed in green.
December 1st is our day to put up the Christmas tree in our house, and I had some fun snapping these pics of the tree, our newest decoration and the never ending battle that is our tree lights.
The dark wood veneer 'Triming the Tree' title (WV094D) did have the little tree on the end, but as it didn't fit, I cut it off and used it on the journal card. This is the first time I have cut the dark veneer. It is brittle, but easy enough to cut and it worked out really well.
We haven't had tinsel on our Christmas tree since we got together, so this year I decided that it needed it. Plus I had the 'Tinsel fixes everything' card which I thought was very appropriate.
I will be back next week with some more December Daily and other Christmas inspiration for the Words or Whatever Christmas release. Don't forget that the WOW blog has new inspiration everyday for the month of December, so make sure you take a few minutes to head over and check it out too.
I'm back again with another couple of pages from my USA Holiday capture album. I love how this album made with pocket pages along with cardstock pieces in full size and different pattern and size inserts. It is super fun to work with and embellish.
I have been mainly sticking to the Basic Grey items that belong with this series, due to the colours more than anything else, but they do make it much easier to work with and most of the little cards are already the correct sizes for the pocket pages.
Usually from a holiday like this you have plenty of stories to tell and the way this album is set out there is ample amount of space to get this information down (as you can see with mine - so many stories and I am super wordy as I never want to leave out a single detail)!
I am loving my Canon Selphy C900 printer with this project. This way I don't need to organise ALL of my photos and work out in advance how many I need and in what sizes. I can just focus on one event, page or day and work with a small amount of photos and decide the sizes to print them as I go. My printer would have to be my buy of the year when it comes to my scrap world.
I will be back again this week with the first of my Words or Whatever December shares. I am so excited about all of the gorgeous new release items for Christmas and am having so much fun playing with them all.
Thanks for calling past xx
I have been eyeing off these Basic Grey Capture Albums for a while. I finally took the plunge and bought one. I can say that I am having a lot of fun with this project. I have found that there is a bit of adjusting to do if you haven't tried any of the pocket page (Project Life) style scrapping, but I have found something to take me out of my comfort zone, and I am loving it.
The albums consists of plastic pocket pages, card dividers and additional die cut pages which you will see a combination of as we work through the album. There are plenty of items on the market that can be used for this including MAMBI cards, project life cards and any little die cuts which you will see are I keep working my way through this album. At this stage I am sticking mainly to the Basic Grey range that matches the album and has a strong travel theme.
So with no more fuss, welcome to my holiday Capture
Title Page
Page 2-3
As you can imagine, plotting all of the towns we stopped at on the map was fun! It wasn't the easiest job I have had to do, but it looks like it would if we pulled it up on google maps so I was impressed that I spent the time on it. The only thing missing was Hawaii!
For my SMASH followers, I am still planning on backing this album up with a SMASH album so that I can incorporate all of the relevant memorabilia and use different photos so as to include as many of the 6,500 that I took while on this trip.
Check back again soon for more Basic Grey Capture!
Our beautiful niece Lily turned 13 yesterday. I have only been around the family for 6 years and first met Lil when she was 7. Lily is one of those people that appreciates everything, and I love nothing more than trying to come up with a new birthday card idea for her every year. It makes me feel good that she likes the home made cards and I'm sure it makes her feel good knowing that I put time, effort and most of all, love, into making it especially for her.
There is a use for project life cards even if you don't do project life!!! Cut them up and make cards with them!
We are loving watching her grow into a beautiful young lady, and the personality grows with her, along with her heart.
Here is the birthday girl with her special sign at the restaurant last night. We hope you had an amazing day and cant wait to continue watching you grow!
I will be back with one more post this week about my Capture album, then we are on to the Christmas month!!
Following on from my last blog post, last week saw the announcement of the final donation tally for the i98fm Camp Quality Convoy for 2013.
The results are in and the event this year raised a massive total of $1,191,816.22. This event just keeps getting bigger and better each year. We cant wait to see what the 10th year has in store!
The moment I was home from the Convoy, I was instantly inspired to scrap a page. Something I haven't done in a nearly a month. Armed with my Canon Selphy, I selected the appropriate photos from the day and got down to work!
Make you feel proud?
Using chipboard Thumbs Up (WOW1946) and chipboard Cog Corner (WOW1521)
As usual for me there is a bit of Words or Whatever chipboard on there and a couple of gorgeous flair buttons from {A Flair for Buttons}. And I am still bringing back vellum one piece at a time :-)
I love that scrapbooking is our record keeping, and this is a record I want to keep forever!
I will be back a bit later in the week to start sharing some of my Basic Grey Capture album from my USA holiday, then before you know it, I will be starting to share my December Daily and some Christmas inspiration in what is shaping up to be a very crafty month!
I cant wait!
You know that feeling you get when you give without expecting to receive? The warm fuzzy feeling you get right to your core?
That was us yesterday. The 9th annual i98fm Camp Quality Convoy.
We had a 3.30am alarm set to get up and ready to roll out to door. Destination - Cleary Bros yard at Albion Park.
On arrival at Cleary Bros depot, the convoy adrenalin started to kick in. Our first sight was all of the truck lined up in front of the sheds, two across. They all had headlights on, and were dimly lit by the workshop lights. The excitement and the joy in the voices could be heard from truck to truck, and the stirring started over the radios. Despite the wet weather we had had the night before, spirits were higher than high.
Names started being called over the radio, from the man on the ground, and trucks started moving towards the front gate in single file. This would be our travelling order for the day. While we waited for the last few truck to take their place at the end of the line, we jumped out and were in awe of how long the line was.
We were wished a great convoy and then we were on our way. This was at about 4.30am. Watching the night turn to day and travelling from Albion Park to the Appin Scout Camp gave some fantastic photo opportunities. This is one of the best parts of convoy. Travelling with a great group, who chatted on the radios, stereo pumping with i98fms trucking songs, and realising that the day had arrived and we were doing this once again. Doing it for all of those sick kids.
We lined up at the top and the waiting game started for the official 'Start your engines' call. Once that came over the radio, we were on our way. This is where the rain started to fall again. Knowing that it was so wet, we wondered how many people would actually come out and brave the rain. You could image our shock to find people everywhere. In cars, under tents, with ponchos, under umbrellas and just in t-shirts in the rain. Every possible place to park a car or stand and watch was taken on the route. The visibility at Bulli Tops wasn't great but improved as we got further down the mountain.
As we were positioned about half way in the pack, I used the 'big dipper' as the perfect spot to get a couple of fleet photos.
Coming down Mount Ousley and seeing that overpass with that many people on it in this crappy weather was where we knew we would be in for a great trip on the rest of the way to Croome Road.
We had to get a selfie in the truck while stopped at a set of lights. We were so lucky to have Lily with us as she was struck down with a bug the day before. Lily had never travelled in a truck for convoy, but had been a spectator for all of those years. We wanted to experience convoy with someone else, someone besides the two of us, through the eyes of someone new. I think Lil had a ball.
On the final stretch to the finish at Croome Road, and due to the rain we made the call not to go in. At the final roundabout we did a full 360 and headed back to the yard. A fair few of the truck with us did the same. It gave us the chance to drive against the convoy and experience for a brief moment what it would be like doing it back the whole way.
All in all we had a great day. We had one of those selfless days. One of those days where a wave or a smile makes the biggest different to a total stranger. Where as a community we all come together as one. Where we know that every cent raised stays in our own community, helping our own families. A day where we are proud to be part of something so much bigger than just us.
Bring on the 10th anniversary in 2014.
So, it is that time of year again. Time for all of the Illawarra trucking and biker community to come out and raise funds for Camp Quality.... Time to raise as much money as we can for kids living in our community with cancer. Time to make the 9th year as amazing as the last 8!
This is a video from last years lead up and the day.
*Warning: you may need a box of tissues for this one! I know I do every time!*
I have travelled in this in a truck three times since I have been working in the industry and that first overpass bridge you get to always, ALWAYS gets the tears rolling down the face.
This convoy is *unofficially* the biggest in the World with over 700 trucks taking part and something most people wouldnt' believe unless they saw it with their own eyes.
It is always an amazing day, where we are very happy to be back in a truck again this year. And a highlight for us will be having our 13 year old niece with us to experience it all for the first time from the road.
Today is a very happy Thursday for the Illawarra. To take words out of Craig Durens mouth 'One we wish we didn't have to do because that would mean the kids weren't sick'. But one that we, as a community, we are so very proud to be a part of!
I wanted to pop past and show a quick card that I pieced together a little while ago. This card was made using a single sheet of double sided scrap paper, and a small piece of cardstock.
Using chipboard Dumptruck from Boy Truck Set (WOW726)
To get the card to a size that it would fit in a pre-eixting envelope I simply made it smaller than the envelope, leaving room for the card to fit in with room to spare for any embellishments you choose to put on the card.
I have used both sides of the paper as they co-ordinate so well to make the card gel.
For the inside I have simply layered a piece of white cardstock with a die-cut in the middle to give you space to write on.
The front of the card has a piece of Words or Whatever chipboard, which has been coloured with a selection of sharpie markers and metallic gel pens.
A simple, quick and effective card for any occasion.
Thanks for calling past.
Day 7 saw our second full day in New York City. After spending time on the sight seeing bus the day before, we had decided that we would hit up Soho. I was desperate to head to the Converse store so that I could get my hands on some cheep and funky shoes that we cant get here (The US Converse site will not ship to Australia).
We caught a cab down with a great driver who was happy to chat, and point us in the right direction for what we wanted to look at.
First stop was breakfast at the SOHO Cafe, with the cafe kitchen and counter on the ground floor and the dining area down a level. This was there idea of eggs on toast which just made us laugh!
As we made a direct line towards the Converse store, I saw this clothing shop a couple of doors up, with all of these old sewing machines on both sides of the entrance. It was such a beautiful touch and got me in the door, even if only for a couple of photos.
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Next stop Converse..... Now I was in heaven! The music was pumping, the store was full of people, there were walls lined with shoes, and a design your own area. This included adding graphics to the sides, choosing colours and designs, and the turn around time was fast.
And there was no way I was ever going to resist a photo of the American Flag made with shoes!! I walked out of there with one new pair of shoes (and later bought another pair at a shoe sale).
We then started to wander the streets and found Yellow Rat Bastard. This place was fantastic. So much selection for everyone and some very obscure brands that aren't always easy to find.
We had been told to stop in and check out the Pearl River Mart. A haven for Asian foods, clothes and home wares. We didn't stop for that stuff though. We headed straight to the back of the shop to look at the beautiful wooden bird cages.
We made it to Houston Street and started walking back. We decided to explore the city a bit by foot before catching a cab - Looking back through Soho.
Street Art at Canal Street. We love you Soho.
We found ourselves wandering around the NYC University area, then into Washington Square Park.
Washington Square Park is another beautiful space in such a packed city. Its proof that NYC has been so well planned out. On the street out through the arch were some markets. We wandered and looked and took in the beautiful food smells, to come across a stall with old mounted photo prints. A lot of them were from the NY subway during the 1970's and early 1980's. Upon talking to the man selling them, we found out that he is an ex Marine, who had a very strong passion for photography. He used to travel the subway and get as many people photos as possible. On the flip side, he was also very interested in what type of camera I had and what subjects I like to shoot. I purchased a print from the railway tracks looking at Conney Island taken in the early 1980's and it is fantastic. The only disappointment is that I didn't get a photo with him or even stop to get his name. Meeting him was a highlight for me as I really needed the boost in my photography around about then. He was an unexpected find!
This was a must on my NYC list this trip, and after spotting the store on the bus trip, I knew where it was and would find my way back. The Ink Pad on Seventh Ave was full to the brim of stamps and paper craft supplies. It was great just to check it out and the ladies were chatty and joking... especially the laughs about washi tape.
My gorgeous sister in law was in NYC at the same time as us so we organised a catch up. We met at Dylan's Candy Store (recently seen in the remake of the movie Arthur). This photo only shows a tiny bit of the ground level. There are two other levels to this store and well worth the visit even if it is just to look at the stairs.
From here we headed off towards a pub for a drink then on to dinner. You know those moments when someone starts tell you about a place, and with very little information, you just know exactly which one it is... This was one of those scenarios. The doorman at Lucys hotel had given her the name and address to a Mexican restaurant within walking distance of Dylan's. Once I heard the address on Third Ave, I knew it was the Mexican restaurant that we had fallen in love with on our last visit. Sure enough, once we got to the address it was the exact same one... Dos Caminos. We love the food here and the atmosphere of the restaurant makes it.
NYC Tip: When heading to the bathroom in a decent restaurant, have a couple of singles in your pocket to tip the bathroom attendant.
We finished up at dinner and found another pub a couple more blocks down, where we had a few more drinks and chatted and relaxed in the middle of one of the busiest cities on earth.
After the cab dropping us off in Time Square we said bye to Lucy. We wandered and checked out the lights (a nightly ritual when staying in the Time Square precinct), but it was certainly more fun after a few drinks!
One last stop on the way back to our hotel was a corner shop for a couple of bottles of water and soft drink. We also picked up a couple of snickers ice-creams to end the night on, kicking back and chilling out in our room.
There is more from New York City to come!
