Kelly, Caitlin & Caleb

I did this layout so long ago now it is almost disgraceful! It has been rolling around my room for months now... I didn't even put it in my album! I have been meaning to take a photo of it for ages and seeing as it has been shoved everywhere for about three months it is still in great condition! Anyway, Kelly is my sister, Caitlin is my niece and Caleb is my little tasmanian devil nephew. He was blocking his ears because everyone was saying 'CHEESE' and he didn't want to listen to them.

The Boys

Meet...THE BOYS! These two are joined at the hip! Bingo (the ringleader) and Herman. Bingo is my dad's dog and Herman was mine. Then I moved out of home and couldn't split them up. They are so human somewhere along the line we stopped calling them their names when referring to the two of them and just called them 'The Boys'. Bingo is about 16 now, he is just a cranky old man... happy old man but extremely judgemental and such a lecturer! Thankfully its just barking so you don't have to actually take in everything he is yelling at you but we know him so well now we can tell exactly what he is complaining about!

Herman is a stresser... he is about 8 or 9 now and he has been gray since he was 1! He worries a lot! He is extremely intelligent and he actively listens to every single thing that's said around him. Where other dogs would go sleep when there are people standing around talking, Herman sits in the circle at attention and watches the face of the talker from person to person listening to everything... he can keep it up for hours! That comes from the fact that when he was young and did something wrong I would lecture him... make him sit at attention in front of me and I would lecture! If he broke concentration I would make him focus and I would start all over again... I kept that up for 10 - 15 minutes then let him go... it doesn't hurt to have a good listener in the family and listening to me talk that long is punishment enough!!

Family

Yet another Retreat layout. This one is using Kaisercraft 'Country Grove' paper. I have one more that is only half finished but it was all a great effort in one weekend in my book!

Her Nose!

What is big, black and totally incapable of going five minutes without touching human skin? HER NOSE!

This is Rougie... more specifically her nose! She drives us INSANE! Everytime she comes near us she bumps her nose up to your legs, arms... pretty much any skin she can find.

Shine

I actually won a prize for this one at retreat. When we arrived we picked three pieces of paper from a bucket and we had to incorporate them all on one layout. The three I picked were: borrow something from someone, use a bird, butterfly or dragonfly embellishment and use cirles or eyelets. I was so happy when I won the vote... I got a Kaisercraft 'Jade's Garden' pack so there will be more pages coming from that range!

Bearly Awake

I went to the Memories in Mareeba Retreat last weekend at the Kuranda Resort and it was the BEST weekend! I had an absolute blast! It was two days and two nights of scrapping madness! I got heaps done in between a couple OTP classes and I am really proud considering I am usually such a slow scrapper! This is the polar bear from Seaworld... considering we went there in April I have done really well to get it scrapped by June!

This is ME

This is me. I know what I look like, I know what I am like. It may not always be that way though... thats what this page is for... its to hide in the back of my album so if I forget what I look like or what I am like I have a reminder.

Rachael's Class

It has taken me AGES but I have finally finished the layout from Rachael's class over at Scrapbook Diva's. It took me ages to actually think of something to do and surprise, surprise... its just another layout of Rouge! I looked at it for so long that I got sick of it and its been about a week since I last saw it and I like it now that I have had a break! The book idea is a great way to fit a heap of photos on one layout without it looking cluttered and I manged to cut a nice hole in my page protector so it can be opened without having to take it out the album.

Find Joy

I'm happy with this one. I wasn't straight away but I am getting used to it now. This was an online class at Crafting In Style and I completley missed it!! I thought it was on the 31st of this month but it was actually the 15th. I couldn't have gotten that any more wrong! The 15th still would have been a hard time to make anyway seeing as we were in Brisbane then so it really doesn't matter. I even got out the sewing machine for this one too. I lost count of how many times it chewed up my paper and jammed but it didn't do too much damage. That aside, I love this photo! Rougie's spots always make me smile!

Dad

I did this layout last night and got the idea from a layout in Scrapbooking Memories at the beginning of the year. It is a really nice design being so simple yet really interesting still so I am really glad that I was shown another way of looking at paper like that. Originally I never would have got that paper seeing as I wouldn't have known the first thing to do with the tree piece! Anyway, this is my Dada and I took this photo during the week when he came over for lunch with my sister. I have never actually scrapped a page of my dad and I like the simplicity of this one so much that I might have to do more!

Steve & Kelly

This is my sister, Kelly and her husband Steve. They were married last May and it has taken me all this time to actually do the layout and put it in the frame that I got them the day after the wedding! I made this the night before she came over for lunch so I left it to the last minute before she came over too.... its not as if I wasn't going to see her again for a while though. The pattern paper is so PRETTY! You can't see it in the photo but its all embossed and its from a wedding collection so it was perfect... I have had it for almost a year too so it was almost an antique before I used it too!

In Nine Lives

I did say that I was only going to do one layout of the cat because I don't really like her enough to spend too long scrapping her face but turns out, she is rather cute and its taken two years but she is slowly growing on me this week... I still stand by my 'a little bit boring' comment though... she doesn't do much. My next comment is I HATE Photoshop CS3!! I think I loved it a few days ago but I can't fix the colours on my photos to save myself and the auto function is rubbish!! 5.0 had a good auto function on it when I couldn't get the colour right any other way by myself but CS3.... ARGH! *rant over* Anyway, you may just have to take my word that the two photo's I have posted today look much better in real life.

Explore

I have been looking for a reason to buy these Kaisercraft papers for ages now and I got one of those little free Kaiser booklets they bring out and it has some great ideas on how to use their paper ranges. This one is quite similar to one of them but I am so happy with it anyway! I am having technical difficulties with Photoshop CS3 (I just upgraded from 5.0) so the colour isn't fantastic but I will work it out... I have mastered brushes now! Well, I'm off to do more!!

Once Upon A Time....

There was a cute, little.... actually..... rather large Dotweiler who sprouted wings!


This is my girl Rouge... as I have mentioned before, she is our Dotweiler (Dalmatian x Rottweiler) and she is getting bigger by the day! She is full grown but she is gaining weight faster than she can blink... 8kg in 5 months! Even on her diet I think I am still feeding her too much... I just like to feed her... it makes her happy!! This photo makes me laugh... not because I spent HOURS and HOURS and HOURS playing with Photoshop to give her wings but because she has a cute little belly roll hanging off the side of her leg... she is so cute and I love the fact that she either doesn't care that she is 38kg and more than half my body weight or she never lets it show that she cares! Whatever way she looks at it... its something I want to learn from her. Hmm... thats weird... I want to learn something from my dog!!

Anyway.... back to the layout.... I found this paper on the weekend at my LSS and loved it... I didn't know what I could do with it though. I showed Matt and said that I will probably just keep it and never use it... then I joked that I should put a princess hat on Rouge and do a funny layout. That lit the lightbulb and I figured that it was time to work out Photoshop! The lady at the photo store lauged when I picked up my prints the other day and I got quite a few "oh that poor dog!" comments from the people at work but I love it and thats the main thing! I actually don't think I could be happier with this layout now its finished!!

All Boy

Caleb. What can I say... he is a boy... he is cheeky and I doubt he will ever change... it seems to be too much about who he is! I love this photo... my sister Kelly got this snap when he was pelting towards her out of the kitchen months and months back. Just looking at it makes me laugh every time! He is growing so fast and it almost seems he doesn't look anything like this anymore but he is just as crazy and unpredictable.... the only way to sum him up... he's a boy!

I had a great time doing this layout. I am rather proud of my attempt to layer paper (something I am trying to learn) and I am pleased with how it turned out in the end. The photo goes well and the Kaisercraft Rough and Tough range just sums him up really well! I also had a bit of fun doodling too and loved the fact that I didn't have to get it neat!

BTW, I am on a ROLL today! Three layouts in one day... thats pretty good for me... I don't even remember the last time I did three layouts in one month!!

Kitty

This is the first layout and probably the last I have done of our cat, Kitty. She sat very nicely for this photo last night and I realised that she is actually much easier to get a photo of than Rouge, our dog! The only issue was, I was laying on my stomach to get to her level!

This is the cat layout from the class I did at Crafting In Style a month or so back. Now I have a dog and cat layout to match!

At the Beach

I can't take credit for this layout because NONE of it was my idea but Jo's (NMP)! I know Jo from the INKredibles forum and she is (with good reason!) a DT member of All Craftz. I saw this layout AGES ago and I just LOVED it so much that I made Matt and Rouge go to the beach just so I had a photo I could use on it!

Jo, your layout is amazing... its been quite a while since I have seen a layout so unique and different from everything I have seen... I just hope that you don't mind that I cased it so closely! I tried my hardest to make it my own but it just wasn't happening... yours was just too good!!! :(

Anyway, go have a look at Jo's gallery in the link above... its worth it! You will also see her original idea of the layout I cased here (it's way better though!) and thanks Jo if you read this, you have made me look so totally different at paint and a great way to use it... bubble wrap!

Lethal Weapon - Movie World!

This is one of my Movie World layouts I did with photos from my first trip to Brisbane last Christmas. This Christmas I said that I would finally finish scrapping them all (I still have a couple Australia Zoo ones to go and then Mt Cootha.... the list just keeps going!) As I mentioned in a post a while back, I tend to do these ones pretty plain because I always have so many photos I squeeze on them I don't want to go overboard.

In the main pic there, Matt is the one doing the thumbs up to the camera and I am in the red next to him holding on for dear life! I am still stunned at how he managed to actually let go! If my feet had something they could grip to, I would have been white knuckled on those too... this was the second time we went on it and it was still as terrifying as the first time! I had never been on a rollercoaster before this day so it was pretty freaky!

Rocket Man Tour

I did this layout a few weeks ago but forgot I did it and also forgot to take a photo. I got a bit of a surprise when I opened my album tonight and saw it. I can't say I have ever forgotten a layout before!

Obviously, this is Elton John. I went to see him in Townsville in December with my sister. It was a fantastic show! It takes someone pretty special to entertain 20,000 people with only a microphone and a piano. The Townsville show was the biggest one he did while he was touring in Australia going to wineries and doing small concerts. I am just amazed that we were actually able to see him!

Dog Crazy Layout

I did a Dog Layout class on Thursday night with Liz from Crafting in Style and I had so much fun! I had the best time doing this one and I am really happy with how it turned out! There are lots of little 3D bits and pieces with a lot of the circles being raised and cute little epoxy brads all over the place. I couldn't be happier with it! There is a similar cat layout that I am going to do when my supplies arrive. These are all Cloud 9 products and have to be the best pet stuff I have found... there is just not much around in the pet theme and it annoys me a bit... I figure, not everyone has kids to scrap!

Hope you like it as much as I do!