Bring it on!!!

Yay I love this time of the year for more than one reason!
Not only is Christmas the time to spend time with your family and friends for me it is the longest holiday of the year with my work taking a compulsory shut down of 3 weeks plus stat days so take a guess at what I have been up to today????
SCRAPBOOKING!!!! Seriously it is SOOO good to be getting back into it even though the layout was a very simple one - it still took me about 2 hours (that includes the the time to dry the letters).
But talk about stuck, I didn't know what to do to finish it off so i decided to stick the journalling on and just leave it, its not the best work I have done but since I have made Beck happy because for once I didn't scraplift and BOY does that show lol.
Anyway here is it:

Jamie was to hot so he decided to go outside but he didn't think that if he put shorts on and took off the THICK socks that he might just have been cool enough inside? He loves the cat, his computer, chocolate milk so he was having a blast!
I just did lots of paper curling and layering, if nothing else it is another one done!

Christmas day was really nice having lunch at my Mum & Dad's place with my big brother,his 3 kids, wife and my Aunty Lyn who joined us from Australia (I hope she has booked for next year already?)
I took photos but not enough and mostly on Dad's camera at his place but here is one of Abby at 6.00am!!

(see the raindeer on the tree - that was from Trina as part of my secret santa)
She couldn't wait to wake her brother up so we could open presents - should have let her ring her grandparents at that hour! My mum used to get up and slam doors to wake us kids up - who is the kid I wonder (and she has not got any better!).
Abby got a guitar and she just can't wait to start lessons, Kenny her drum tutor is going to start her off on the guitar and when she is going they will do alternate lessons each week - I apologize to the neighbors in advance but hey at least the guitar is not as loud as the drums!
Jamie was so hard to buy for this year and in the end he got what he asked for - money!
And since it is only 6 more sleeps until his 14th birthday and he only wants MORE money - that should make it easy too!

I also was busy trying to get some more things in to the Up 2 Scraps magazine for publication and was stoaked to have 2 off the page items accepted and published in the current magazine and have got one accepted for the up and coming issue.
Here is the ones that I did that didn't make it:






Well I think that's about it from me for the minute.

I hope you are all still enjoying the break and if I am not back before the new year -
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wow one more sleep where on earth did that time go?

I made a few Christmas Cards - not many just enough to say that I did it, here is a peek



Abby had to bring a $5 gift to school - they played a very cool game everyone got a number, 1 to how ever many are playing and number one goes first. He or she gets to pick a present and open it, then number 2 decides if they want to steel #1's gift or take one from the middle of the pile - and the games goes on.
This is what we made for her $5 gift

I went to the final assembly and then back to the class to watch the game - talk about laugh!!! Her house got picked 3rd and got stolen 8 times (including once by herself?) One of the boys ended up with it at the very last steel - bet his mother was pleased with us!
While Abby was making chocolates she also crushed up candy canes and put in white chocolate (this was on Tarosita web site) and made these:

There should be a warning about these - YUMMY!!!! And yes i felt sick I ate that many of them!

While she was doing that I made this for our Christmas table:


I also had to do two different secret santa's one for work and I can't show you any pictures of the chocolates I made for that one as they are VERY naughty!! I brought the chocolate moulds in from the United States and brought some extra's in so if anyone is keen to purchase some - drop me a line!

And Trina also held one - you wouldn't believe it but I got Beck - now don't take this the wrong way - yay for Beck BUT BECK??? lol Her and my taste's are on POLAR opposites and she know's everything I have here.
So I thought I was being really secret I had just got an order in from the states so I thought how wrong can you go with Prima Flowers? Just as I was thinking that beck txt to say she was coming around so I threw the flowers (all of them) into my bedroom and shut the door, Becks had a squiz at the new stuff minus the flowers lol.
The next morning I got Abby to address a courier bag and we dropped it in the letter box. That afternoon I get a "thanks for the secret santa" phone call from Becks???
Man that woman should be renamed - Sherlock homes!!! I thought I had done a great job lol.
Any my seceret Santa was Trina - but I will blog about that once I have taken photos of all the lovely cards Trina made for me - they are so nice all bundled up in ribbon I don't want to undo them he he. Also some chocolates (not scared to un do them - they went in 5 mins!) and a tin full of bits and bobs to add to my stash - thanks so much Trina - I LOVE THEM!

Also friends of ours - David & Gi Young, had a baby boy this morning so welcome to the world - Joshua I can't wait to met you in person! They live in Wellington now so I hope they will be settled in soon so we can skype and get a glimpse of the new wee man and his "big brother". Hugs to you all!

Well think that is about enough (post was long enough should have warned you to get a coffee - nah it's Christmas a wine!)

From all of us here at Embellish It - I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a VERY Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!!!!

*hugs*

Rachel

Want Nic Howard for Christmas?

Well not literally just perhaps for Christmas you might like to book yourself in for Nic Howards Class's!
We have finalised the details of what we (or more to the point Nic) will be teaching and are delighted and excited to announce that Nic Howard will be teaching both a layout class and a Canvas Class!

So if you can’t think of what you might like for Christmas choose these!
When: Saturday 27th February 2010

Where: To be advised but in Timaru
Cost: $58.00 each Class

Here are the descriptions:

Layout Class:

The Summer Double with Nic Howard

Summer is here and with it will come all those fabulous fun summer photos. But where to put them?! Join Nic Howard as she constructs a layout with room for multiple photos as well as the all important summer story. This class will include all those things Nic is well known for, patterns and layers, dimension and detail, but most importantly it'll help you pull together some of those super summer pics you've been waiting to scrapbook.

Level: Intermediate.
Length: 2 hours.
What to bring: Details to follow in the New Year.

Canvas Class:

Creative Wilderness

It's messy and it's fun, it's a super layered canvas class! Nic is well known for her layout classes, but she's ready to walk you through something decidedly different! Starting with a blank canvas, Nic will use a variety of products including Tim Holtz and Ranger, and she'll add the messy stuff; gesso, stamping, glimmer mist, inks and paints. The end result will be stunning and you'll learn several valuable techniques along the way!
Level: Intermediate
Length: 2.5 hours (split over morning and afternoon)
What to bring: Details to follow in the New Year.

Now the tricky bit! The Canvas class is going to take time as the base needs to be completed and then let to dry so we can build on it; we will then have a break of probably an hour then have the layout class.
After the layout class there will be a break again for lunch for about one hour and then we will complete the rest of the Canvas class.

So start time will be 10.00 am but the times after this will need some consideration so please BOOK NOW and then when I have more of an idea on how many just want to do the layout class we will be able to make a guess on times – please be a little flexible with this just because of the nature of the class, Nic suggested that if you choose the canvas class that you do both that way times won’t matter so much.

I am more than happy if you would like to pay for your class’s in installments but these will be considered as deposits and will be NON refundable, so we are not turning away others as spaces will be limited.

Confirmation of your place is by way of payment for you class.
So don't miss out on this magic opportunity to do a Nic Howard class LIVE!!!

If you have any further queries please don’t hesitate to contact me, and if you would like to be put on our e-mail list also just let me know.
Hope you all had a great weekend!

Take care

Rachel

Timaru Christmas Crop

Once again I have to say a big thank you to the lovely ladies who support us crop after crop especially those who travel to join us - you girls ROCK!
We had 26 ladies join us for the day - Not including the wedding party! Fantastic turn out for the time of the year so once again thank you so much!

We had a fantastic day last Saturday - it was our annual Christmas crop & with some help I had made Popping Christmas Crackers for all the tables complete with lollies, poppers and a joke (all hand picked after hours of trawling the internet). All the ladies got a Christmas present, the template for the Christmas cracker so they can go home and make their own and many joined us in dressing up.

The prize for best dressed goes to Christine - most won't be able to tell it is her with the blond hair, Chrissy went all out and I think she looks so angelic but she really is a little devil inside lol! Here is a peek at her:


Here are a few more pics from the day:

Jaynie, Andrea and Kathryn

Steph & Jayne

Bronwyn and Her Friend (on the wall behind her) who we might add had lots to say during the day lol. He sang and barked christmas music and was really fun!

Now we also had a special bunch of visitors for the day - check this out not one to miss out on a crop Nic got married on Saturday and she called in with her wedding party to visit us - Nic you looked GORGEOUS!! And these are just snaps as our resident photographer Beck's was away she was the photographer for the wedding so maybe with Nic's permission we might be able to share some "professional" photos when they are all sorted!

and the group - these girls just looked stunning:


On that lovely note - I will leave you to your day and will be back soon with all the details on the up and comming visit from Nic Howard for some class's to be held in Timaru in February!

Catch you all soon.
Take care

Rachel

Christmas Poem

Bronwyn Sent this to me in an e-mail - now I know I have had it before but it is a goodie!

Will be back tomorrow with some photos from the crop yesterday, but for now I will leave you with this!


Twas the night before Christmas, I'm glued to the tree.
I'm wondering what Santa brought just for me.
Could it be cardstock or inkpads or lace?
Or some stamps I said, with a smile on my face.
And that`s when I heard him...."Hi Santa", I said.
He replied,"You know... good girls should be in their beds".
"I know I should Santa, and now I've been caught.
But i was just so excited to see what you brought".
"Well let's take a look in this room where you work"
He shook his head quickly and left with a jerk.
I heard him exclaim as he put it in gear
"You've got enough crap I'll see you next year!".

39 Sleeps till Christmas!!!

That's right scary aye!!!

And on that happy note did you see that Wellington had their Christmas Parade this weekend - wow it's not THAT close is it?

So much for writing lists and getting things done, Monday & Tuesday I pretty much spent the days in bed sick and the rest of the week was not much better.
Typical when I had something planned for Friday and Saturday Night, but it was not meant to be and instead I was in bed early every night!

But I have some exciting news - our own Diane Hanson has made the Elite Design Team for the Up 2 Scraps magazine!! Congrats to Diane I am SO excited for you, you have much more talant that you give yourself credit for!! Here is the list

# Annelie Maddock (Whangaparaoa)
# Sonya Pickles (Duntroon)
# Pauline McArdle (Napier)
# Dianne Hanson (Timaru )

Congrats to you all ladies - it is exciting with Sonya Pickles and Dianne from our neck of the woods and both ladies have amazing talent, and Annelie who Bronwyn and I had the great pleasure of meeting last year at the Sketch book retreat - Annelie was kind enough to give us both a ride back to the airport we know that three out of the 4 have amazing talent and I am sure that Pauline will to so looks like I will need to Subscribe to the magazine so I don't miss out on all that Inspiration!

Diaine made me a gift which was totally unnecessary but very much appreciated and nearly eaten (lol lots) here are some photos of what she did with an Prima tin!




Thank you Diane - it was so very kind of you and boy do you know me so well, pretty scrapped packaging, chocolate and strawberry lollies from the lollie Jar - YUMMY!!!

So I hope you all had a much better week and weekend than I did and I will start that list again for this week!

Have a good one

*hugs*

Rachel

Busy Weekend?

What did I planned for my weekend?? NOTHING!!! Well that was the plan, I am big into making lists at the moment to get things done - seems it is the only way that I can get anything crossed off! Although I wanted to get a scrapbook page done this weekend as I took some cool photos of my son which just show what he is all about - but it will be on my "to do on Tuesday" list - gotta love Tuesdays my day off work!

So Yesterday I spent the day playing in my room, what did I make - take a look:


and a close up



And what is so amazing about this card I can hear you ask? Well if you remember quite a few post's ago I was asking if ANYONE could help me figure out how i could "digital stamp" and colour with distress inks, and this wonderful lady answered my call and gave me all the information I needed to be able to do it!
Please check out Mina's blog for a HEAP of inspiration! And thank you, thank you Mina I can't tell you how excited I am to now be able to use the images that I brought and also confess to popping over to Mo's Digital Pencil and purchasing a few more! (Mina is also a design team member for Mo).

Now this is what I had while trying to look for an image to "copy"


He was a BIG help!

I also used the new Kaiser Christmas papers to start making my own christmas crackers, I was really pleased with how this turned out and to be honest it doesn't show all that well in the picture but looks much better in real life!


I used the spellbinders Poinsettia nestabilitie, Kaiser Christmas paper, Kaiser Pears, Matha Stewart Butterfly punch, and cut the word "nana" from my Klic N Kut and covered it with glitter.
Inside the cracker is a custom joke just for nana, and HEAPS of lollies and a explosive thingy that spouts paper everywhere!
These are heaps of fun to make and lots of fun on christmas day - no dud jokes and silly hats for the Forrester Christmas this year!

And I want to wish Alvina (our little christmas elf) from Christchurch & Sean Flannery a happy birthday for yesterday!
Then after all that today, I got up and did house work, cleaned windows bathroom, toilets etc, and then started baking, we now have full tins with Chocolate cake, yo yo's, tan square (Marg's no nut slice to our close friends)Lolly cake, & chocolate fudge!!! Better be no complaining there is nothing in the tins for the next week at least!
I also made a chocolate cake for a friend who is in our thoughts.

Righto off to get some cake and perhaps make a start on that scrapbook page!

Take care will be back before the end of the week with that scrap page!

Take care

Rachel



Catch you all again soon!

Send some Love!

I have just come from Katharina Frie's blog, this is the lady that is responsiable for Whiff of joy stamps.
There has been a tragic story and I would love to be able to help spread some love to little Jamie - just think if this was your own child.

Here is some information about what happened:

"On October 4th, 4 teenagers armed with knives broke into a home in a small town in New Hampshire. Alone and sleeping inside were a mother and her 11 year old daughter. These 4 boys broke into this home with the intent to rob and kill anyone inside. They stabbed the mom, Kimberly Cates, to death and left her daughter, Jaimie, for dead in their driveway. It was a completely random act, their home was chosen only due to its secluded surroundings."

Our hope is that everyone hopping around today will stop for a moment and think about Jaimie and her father and what life must be like for them now. One moment in time has changed their lives forever. We are asking that everyone reading this message please take a moment to make a card and send it off to Jaimie. You can make something very simple or much more involved, but please share some words of hope and love and let her know that people do care and want the best for her. Please send your card to the address below:

Jaimie Cates
c/o Mont Vernon Fire Station
Main Street
Mont Vernon, NH 03057
United States

We have over 60 hoppers joining us and some amazing sponsors who have donated fabulous prizes for our Spread the Love Card Drive Challenge!

The Blog hop will end on Monday, November 9th at 10am ET (3 pm GMT). At that point we will draw random winners to receive the prizes offered by our generous sponsors.

Pop on over to Katherina's blog for links to the hop.

Thanks for your help in helping make this little girls future perhaps a better one - just in the knowledge that others care!

Take care

*hugs*

Rachel

Oamaru Crop

Back with a few photos to share with you!

We had an amazing day in Oamaru with the ladies, making flowers and sharing ideas and information.

Here are a few of the pictures



Here are a couple of the lovely ladies making the flowers that was the make n take, they are fun and addictive!




Dallas traveled from Palmerston to join us - Dallas you are a dag and loads of fun!
But also these are two pages that Dallas has done using Glimmer mist and they were stunning, just had to share:



Here is the page of the day winner's pages - congratulations to Nadine (again she is talent on legs this girl!)



Well I think that is about it for now, hope you are all enjoying the long weekend and have had lots of R&R and craft of course.

Catch you soon!

*hugs*

Rachel

Just call us the next Tim Holtz??

I love Tim Holtz distress inks to colour in stamping images, using to distress pages and all sorts!
I also love Tim Holtz handles for using with the inks it just makes using on your pages SO much easier, so because I have nearly all 24 inks and I was blog hopping (as you do) I saw a scrap room that had handles for all the major colours in the distress inks and away on a tangent i went - surely I could have that - as with the add for Mitre 10 - Come on mate it's easy!!
So after talking Jo and Jo's hubby - Sean (and also my work mate) into showing us girls how to turn the handles we spent all weekend making them.
Saturday saw me turning handles from Rimu - wow that was so much fun - time consuming fun i might add.
Then on Sunday Jo rang to skite that she had made 10 handles in 3 hours, so off I went to Sean's garage to make some to but there was no way I could make it work on Sunday it was like a jigsaw puzzle that I could not put together so that left Jo doing all the wood turning and I was head glue them together and oil up the wood.
Here are a few photos:

A very patient Sean on the side!

They are all different and very unique!


Here is Bo and I putting on the velcro and the pad, note that Bo got the dowel handles cause we gave up at that stage lol.



And mostly done!
Where are the photos of Jo? Well she was always behind the camera so I might have to add one later with her holding the finished product and using them perhaps?

Anyway it was a fast way to kill a whole weekend and Bo, Jo and I got 15 handles each - not quite the 24 we were aiming for but hey it was a good start!


Some of the handles that we used in the make and take on Saturday at the crop!

Back later with some photos of the Oamaru crop at the weekend - man that was fun what an awesome friendly bunch of ladies and it was so much fun so thanks so much for that and I will post in the next couple of days with some photos!

Catch you soon

Rachel

The Page!

As promised here is the layout! This one only took about hour and a half from the start to the finish it was very quick - I did get lots of interruptions but it was still very quick.

I used the new vines from Prima, Prima flourishes,Prima Lettering, and the papers are from my minds eye.







Righto off to sort out some more layouts - can you believe I now have a drawer with a label called "unfinished layouts" where did they all come from?

Catch you soon!

Rachel

A Card and a Promise!

Hi all

Well I created a card at the weekend for my very good friend Christine's Grandma's 90th birthday. I was really happy about it as I started copying but in the end it didn't look anything like the one I started out with and I had fun distressing the music note in the background and making the flowers! Yes these little flowers are SO very addictive and SO quick and much fun to make!

Here is the card



and the inside with a swarovski crystal (is that spelt right?) for the inside of the little flower - at 90 you deserve nothing but the best lol



Now a promise he he - I will be back before Wednesday with a LAYOUT!!

Yes about time I got back and did some seriouse scrapbooking - will still be making cards cause they are addictive and you have to use up your scrapping scraps now don't you!

But seriously watch this space the papers are all picked and the layout sorted just got to get "a handle" on it (serious pun intended there will post about that later to - Jo and I - oh ok and Sean have been making handles all weekend feel like that Mitre 10 add "oh Mate it's easy come on Sean give us a hand - Mate your jokin!!!!!!)

LOL with that I will leave you to it and see you in a couple of days with a layout!

*hugs*

Rachel

World Card Making Day

Hi all!

Hope you are having a great weekend, so much for our weather to be horriable I think it went right around us - lucky I guess except I was geared up for a yuck day and had a day in the scrap room planned.

Bronwyn came over and we played making flowers - this is SO addictive we found about 4 good tutorials and decided to have a play making them, this is the result



So this is the card I made with the other flowers:



A side view:



and not very exciting but the inside view (see I used my new Martha Stewart punch so now it was totally worth buying!)



I was talking to Nic Howard about glimmer misting the flowers , I have a few colours of glimmer mist now, but darn not one with just glimmer and not really any colours which is what i NEED, the flowers have all been made with white paper/card and using the distress inks that we use to colour the images we have sponged the flowers so now we will always have flowers to match the card or layout that we are creating but "we need something else" and I think that is a bit of glimmer so I will get the right colour in stock soon so we can all have a play with it. I did the red and pink one with glimmer mist and they look awesome - now I have a new love Glimmer mist!

I will try to find the links to the tutorials on the flowers and post that later as they are wonderful and very easy! Any flower punch will work with the technique really.
Michele Roo's is the talented lady that makes these flowers so if you don't want to have a go or don't have the right bits then follow this link to her blog where she will sell them to you, and yes I brought some and she shipped very fast to New Zealand, they are super cute colours and I hope to use the one's that I brought very soon.
I did make a six petal flower up on the klic n kut for the roses (and boy was I chuffed when I figured out how to do it, the Klic N Kut is something that really needs lots more of my attention as what can be done with it is AMAZING!)

Well I have rambled enough now, back off to my room to make more flowers, did I tell you that it is addictive apparently Bronwyn has 100 flowers and NO card make yet - aye Bo!
Oh and looking forward to seeing Beck's 5 cards that she was going to make for National card day.

Take care see you soon!

*hugs*

Rachel