A busy week ....

Evening all :)

Well, what a busy week it's been for me .... not only did I get a layout accepted for publication by Scrapbook Creations, but I have also been offered a position on the Design Team for Scrapping Around, which I have of course accepted - very excited to be part of the team!

Plus, I had the most delicious Christmas lunch with work at Rockpool yesterday - it was just divine! Next time I'm flush with money (yeah, right!), I'm going to take Nick there. The food was fabulous, the service the best I've had in a long time, and the decor was really lovely too - all in all a wonderul dining experience - especially because I didn't have to pay the bill! Hooley dooley - the dearest steak on the menu (Wagyu) was $110 .... I DIDN'T order that one LOL!

Well, I hope the pre-Christmas madness isn't doing your head in too much .... I have had a very busy day today, and am currently finishing off a nice glass of wine, and will be heading to bed shortly.

Only a couple of creations to show you tonight ...

Here is the layout I did as part of my DT application ... it's the pics from Ashton's orientation days at primary school.


And here's a clock I did as a step-by-step ... love that photo of my boys.


Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday, and I'll talk to you soon.
Ness.
xx.

I've received an award ....

.... from the lovely Annie at The Scrapbook Hub. I have received a Proximity Award!

"These blogs invest and believe in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

So the 8 bloggers I choose to pass on the award to are Tanja, Chelle, Kylie, Manda, Lisa, Belynda, Gypsyangel and Tanyah.

I love reading your blogs ladies - keep up the good work!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xx

Been very busy ....

Hello all -

Just a quick post from me tonight - I have been madly trying to prepare for Christmas so haven't been posting much, but wanted to share some news with you ...

At the recommendation of my friend Tanja, I've decided to apply for a Design Team position, and was busy on the weekend putting my application together. I sent everything off last night, so it's beyond my control now .... I think applications close on the 19th, so wish me luck!

Also, I decided to try and submit a few layouts to the Scrapbook Creations magazine, just to see what happened. It's one thing on my scrapping to-do list ... getting a layout published at some stage .... and considering I got bumped by Scrapbooking Memories a few months back, I thought it was time to try again.

Well, I have had some success - I got a lovely email back today, advising they want to publish one of my layouts in a forthcoming edition of Scrapbook Creations!! Very exciting :) See - doesn't hurt to try!

Now I need to cross all my fingers and toes, and hope that this one doesn't get bumped too :)

I will, of course, keep you posted, and I will post pics of my Design Team application pieces as soon as I can.

And now, it's late, and I need sleep .... so I'll talk to you soon. Hope you have a good week!
Ness.

Another present completed ...

Hello all :)

Wow - what a wet weekend we're having here in Melbourne - and isn't it fabulous?? I can hear a collective sigh of relief from all the Melbourne gardens ... desperately needed a good watering.

Well, after finally fishing off the canvas during the week, I had the chance to work on the gift box of cards that I gave to mum.

I had a paper mache cigar box from Spotlight sitting here on the shelf - covered the lid in some Crate paper, added some Kaiser rub-ons, some Green Tara flowers and a selection of green, blue and silver bling, and it's done! Here is the finished product :)


Gave it to mum last night as her Christmas present, and she loved it. And, we gave her the canvas today too, as we won't be seeing her for her birthday, and she was absolutely thrilled - even teared up a little bit! Awwwwwww .... very pleased I decided to finish it off for her.

I've got a little project that I need to work on at the moment, so I hope to get the boys into bed shortly so I can get some scrapping done and make a start on it. They've had a couple of late nights in a row, and they are VERY tired, so hopefully they won't put up too much of a fight and I can grab a glass of wine and head to my craft room.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

Finally finished ....

Evening all!

I'm pleased to say that I have finally finished the canvas that I started back in May ... I'd painted it, and stuck the photos and PP down, but that was it. I lost motivation, and put it aside. Well, I had a brainwave last night that I could finish it off and give it to mum for her birthday, so now, it's finally complete!


It's a pretty big canvas - 15 inches x 30 inches, and I just love those photos of my beautiful boys. I hope mum likes her pressie!

I've also been madly working on cards lately too - making my Christmas cards, but also making normal cards that I'm giving to mum in a gift box as her Christmas present. Just finished decorating the box tonight too, but it's too late to take a pic, so will post that one tomorrow. Here's a pic of one of my Christmas cards (I've made all different cards this year) with thanks to Claire for the colour combination idea, and also just a general card I made to give as part of mum's present.


Well, we ended up having a pretty busy weekend - I had a work Christmas dinner on Friday night which was lovely, and then we had a wedding to go to on Saturday night at the Melbourne Savage Club. Very interesting venue, and as it's traditionally a men only club (no, not THAT sort of men's club! :) ) I doubt I'll ever see anything like it again. Lots of leather couches and hunting equipment and valuable paintings and books and pool tables and poker tables ... very stuffy, but still an interesting venue for a wedding reception. The food was lovely, and it was also nice to be able to wash it down with a glass or two of 1988 (yes, that's 1988) Wynn's Coonawarra. Yummo!

Sunday was really just a clean-up day, as I'm trying to give our house a nice big spring clean, as we've got friends coming to stay over Christmas and New Year. My to-do list is massive, so I'm trying to whittle a few tasks off it each day.

And this evening has been very exciting, celebrating the announcement of the 2008 Scrapbooking Memories Masters, as my friend Chelle has been 'crowned' a Master - congratulations Chelle - such fabulous work by you, and look - you're even on the cover!! Well done indeed ... what a fabulous year lies ahead for you - enjoy your prize :)

Hope the rest of the week treats you well ...

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

It's December ....

..... and that means that I can finally show you the card I made, using one of the stamp sets from the new Summer Mini from Stampin' Up! I also borrowed one of the new scallop punches when I was at Genna's house - very easy to use!



This is the Embrace Life set, and I also have the Eastern Blooms set, but am yet to use it ...

I love the products in the new mini - I've got some of the felt flowers coming my way, as well as some of the coordinating rubons ... they look lovely! If you're interested in getting any of the Stampin' Up! products, just give me a hoy!

I've been busily making Christmas cards this week, and also cards to give in a gift box to my mum as her present, so haven't done a scrapbooking layout for what feels like ages ... although I did make the trip down to the new Kaisercraft store in Geelong today and got some lovely papers and bits and pieces, so who knows ... maybe there's a scrapbooking page not too far away.

Hope everyone has had a good week so far,
Talk to you soon,
Ness.

A couple of cards ...

Hello all :)

Just thought I'd post a couple of pics of the cards I made at my catch up with Tanja and Genna last week ... there is a third card as well, but it's got the new Summer Mini stamps on it, so I can't show that to you yet ...




The exciting news in my world this week is that my friend Jacqui has finally had her visa approved, so that she and her hubby and daughter can now migrate out to Australia. It's been about two years in the making, but they've finally been approved. They're planning on getting here around Christmas or New Year, so now it's full steam ahead for everything for her - trying to organise flights and pack up their lives ready to ship everything over to the other side of the world!

They'll be staying with us for a bit until they find a rental property - and I'm actually really looking forward to helping them set up home here in Melbourne - who doesn't enjoy spending someone else's money??

Anyway, I'm really tired tonight, so I think I'm going to call it a night ... thanks for looking, and I'll talk to you soon.

Ness.
xx.

Time for school!

Hello all :)

Hope you've been well. The Bradfords have again been busy busy busy ... and it's also been an exciting time for Ashton too, as he had his first orientation day at school yesterday. How cute does he look, all dressed up in his uniform??


Don't you just love the look of the school uniform that's got room to grow? And the cute little peg legs poking out the bottom of his shorts?? :)

You may recall I had a little scrap session with Tanja a few weeks back, and managed to whip through a few really simple Christmas cards ... just love some of the Kaiser Christmas rub-ons that are available at the moment.





Also whipped up this normal card too ...


And, other than the wedding invitations, that's about all I've done lately. Have started some other cards using the Unfrogettable set, but they're still unfinished, so won't post pics of them yet. Here's a pic of the front of the wedding invitations I've made for Greg and Brooke ... she loved the exampe in the Stampin' Up! catalogue, so here's a copy as close as I could make it :)


I've just placed an order from the Stampin' Up! Summer Mini Catalogue too, which will hopefully arrive this week sometime, so it will be great to have a little advance play with some of the lovely sets available in the new catalogue. Will be sure to post pics when I'm allowed too!

Well, that's all from me for now - hope you are having a good week so far!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

What a busy weekend it's been ...

Afternoon all :)

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend! I know I have ...

It all started on Friday when we had a lovely catch-up with Kath and Justin and the kids again, and also gave singstar another belting into the wee hours of the morning! We downloaded one of the Queen special packs, and were singing our little hearts out :) It was another 4.00am finish though, so we were just a tad tired on Saturday ...

We had to drive over to Epping yesterday to order our new trailer for our camping expedition, and once home, Nick and I tag-teamed nana naps in the afternoon, so we were both a bit more prepared to go out for dinner again to Stu and Sonia's house. Had a lovely roast dinner, and then played the usual games of 500 (Sonia and I actually one a couple of games this time!), and then called it a night about 12.30am.

Today has been busy busy busy too - headed over to Eltham Lower Park and took the boys on the train and also the pony rides, and they had a great time. Then lots of work in the garden this afternoon to make room for us to park the trailer, and we're about to head out go-karting tonight as well.

I'd better go get ready ... but hope you all have a lovely week! No new creations to show you yet, but I'll be able to take a pic of all the wedding invites now, and will post that shortly.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

Monthly sketch challenges and a mini-retreat!

Evening all ...

Wow - I can't believe it's November already ... or should that be Movember? I found out on Friday night that Nick's dad, who has a full beard and moustache, and has had a full beard and moustache for 43 years now, has been gathering sponsors, and is planning on shaving it all off for Movember! Good on you Laurie :)

And, of course, being November, it's now time for my next monthly card and layout sketch challenges at Scrapchat.

Here is this month's sketch, designed by Anna Bowkis, and taken from the PencilLines sketch blog.


And here is the sample layout that I prepared.



And here is the sketch for the card challenge - design is by Lucy Chesna, and is from her sketch blog My Sketch World.

And here is the sample card I prepared, using Stampin' Up! cardstock, stamps from the Priceless and Warm Words sets, and the double-stitched ribbon in Blue Bayou, as well as some fabbo SEI patterned paper.

And I also want to say a big thank you to Tanja, who invited me down to her place yesterday and overnight for a fabbo scrap session and 'mini-retreat'! Thanks Tan, I had a great time! It was lovely to catch up with you again and spend some time with your family - I really appreciate the invitation :D I churned out a few cards, so I'll work out how to resize things on this laptop, and upload a few pics for you at some stage soon.

Well, I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend, and I'll talk to you soon!

Ness.

October photo swap layout -

Hi there - me again.

I have been given permission by the lovely Sue to post a pic of the photo swap LO that I prepared for her ... for the swap that runs most months over at Scrapchat.

It know it's very green, which is not a colour that I normally work with, but it's also very sparkly, which matches the pic perfectly, I think.

Thanks for letting me post it on my blog Sue!


And now, back to the housework. Ugh ....

Hello sunshine!

Hello all :)

Just a quick one from me today ... and I don't even really have anything to report.

Just wanted to wish you all a wonderful weekend! It's going to be a super day in Melbourne town today - 30 degrees! The sun is already shining, and it's lovely and warm outside already.

A day of action is ahead for me - we have friends for dinner tonight, so there's all the housework and shopping to be done, as well as washing the dog (which she's NOT going to enjoy... she loves water, just not being washed :D), fixing our curtain rail that fell down yesterday, and I have to get some drinks for tonight as well - Kath's bringing the Singstar, so I'll need to get some Dutch courage !!

I hope everyone has a lovely day, and I'll have some more pics to post in the next few days - I've been busy preparing sketch challenge samples and photo swap LOs, so I'll be able to post the challenges at the end of the month, and will post my pics here too when I can.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xx.

A new scrapbooking resource website has been launched ...

Hello all -

Just a quick one for today - letting you know that a fantastic new scrapbooking and papercrafting website has been launched - the Scrapbook Hub.

It's chock-full of inspiration, and useful information and links, and showcases specifically the Australian papercrafting industry.

It's well worth the look if you want to check it out ...

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xx

Stampin' Up! specials for the month ...

Oops - I almost forgot to mention the 20th Birthday Specials that Stampin' Up! are having this month. Just spend $20 on regular catalogue merchandise and you will recieve 20% off the following sets.

Item	Page #	Description	Regular Price	20% Off Price
112594	37	Big Bold Birthday	$53.95	$43.16
108894	38	Pretty Princess	$45.95	$36.76
108753	51	Birthday Best	$25.95	$20.76
110246	55	Crab & Company	$52.95	$42.36
112318	118	Short & Sweet	$29.95	$23.96

and the extra bonus is that you only have to spend the $20 once and get as many discounted sets you like on that order. This offer expires 31st October, so check out your catalogues, or if you don’t have one yet, there are links here on my blog to the catalogues on the Stampin’ Up! website.

Let me know if there is anything I can help you with!

Long time no blog ... and Happy Birthday to my future daughter-in-law!

Hello again -

Sorry it's been well over a week since my last blog post, but life just seems to get in the way sometimes!

I've been busy busy busy lately - not with anything in particular though, just generally busy.

On Friday night I caught up with my friend (and Stampin' Up! upline) Tanja, and her other downline Genna, and had a lovely night (well, night and morning, considering I didn't leave Genna's house until 2.00am!!) I didn't get a huge deal done though ... mostly chatted :) I did make a couple of cards and did some stamping to use on future cards, so all was not lost. Here's a nice simple male birthday card ....



We have just had a lovely weekend weather-wise here in Melbourne, so the boys and I (including the big boy!) got out into the garden on Saturday and tidied up the back yard - all the trees had become a bit overgrown since we've moved in, so we've chopped off a few branches, and pulled out a few shrubs that hadn't survived the drier conditions, and it looks soooo much tidier in our yard now. Nick even got the mower and whippersnipper out - I don't think the neighbours knew what those strange sounds coming from over the fence were! The whippersnipper protested a bit initially, but eventually Nick got it started, and away he went. Anyway, the garden is looking great - he even got out and did the nature strip!

Then, on Saturday night, we had our friends Greg and Brooke over for dinner, and so I could show them the mock-ups of their invitations (I'm making their wedding invitations for them) - and I was very pleased to see that they liked what I had prepared. They have decided which one they want, and I'm now organising to order everything in, so I can get cracking. I'm doing 50 invitations, 50 RSVP cards, and 100 placecards - so I'm going to be a busy little bee in the near future. The design they've decided on is using a lot of Stampin' Up! stuff - and is basically a replica of the invitation in the current Idea Book & Catalogue (which is what Brooke had asked for) ... and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Sunday was a sensationally sunny day, so we got out early and went to a couple of nurseries, and bought a few little plants to re-stock our newly tidied garden beds, and then headed home to watch Bathurst. It was a good race, but it never seems to have quite the level of excitement if it's not raining LOL. There was a very good tussle for position in the closing laps though, which made for excellent viewing.

And then, before I knew it ... it was time to head back to work yesterday. Bleh. Didn't have a bad day at work at all, but after such a lovely weekend, it's always icky being stuck back in an office.

Today was the usual Tuesday thing - swimming lessons for Ashton, and then to the playcentre - but today we had the added bonus of it being Hannah's second birthday! We gave her a gorgeous little handbag and purse (what is it with little girls and handbags??), some necklaces and bangles, and a plush Elmo - and she looked so cute running around the playcentre with Elmo poking out of her brand new handbag :)

Well, my scrapping to-do list is again at monolithic proportions, so I'd best get my little kidlets into bed and get to work.

Hope everyone has had a good week so far, and I'll talk to you again soon.

A quick card ...

Evening all :)

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend ... it's a shame it's over so quickly though ...

Firstly - congratulations to all the Hawks supporters out there, and commisserations to all the Cats supporters! At least it turned out to be a great game. So often Grand Finals can be complete fizzers, but it was a very tight, tough tussle, and was very enjoyable to watch.

Just thought I'd show you the male birthday card that I did - with many many thanks to Tanja for the inspiration ...


I've made a few more cards today too, but by the time I remembered to take a pic, it was too dark outside, so they will need to wait until during the week.

Hope everyone has a lovely week, and GO WEBBER in the Singapore GP tonight :)

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

The Stamp Shak CC is on tonight!

Hi all :)

Hope you've all had a lovely Friday ...

Just a quickie from me tonight - a reminder to you all that the Stamp Shak CC is on tonight.

There's no theme per se for this month's CC - it's been a 'grab bag', whereby all forum members had the chance to submit an instruction, and they were all thrown into a hat, and 3 instructions were drawn out for each challenge.

Here is my sample LO for one of tonight's challenges ... I'm being a bit sneaky and uploading it now (the CC is only just about to start ....), but I'm not going to say which challenge I've done, or what my instructions were, so I don't give anything away :) (Sorry about the crooked pic)



I'll be back again over the weekend to show you a nice little male birthday card I made last night for the Scrapchat september card swap - with many thanks to Tanja for the inspiration.

Have a great weekend!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

A quick Christmas card ...

Hello all :)

Hope you're all having a lovely day so far! It's been quite a nice day in Melbourne town today, and it's going to be absolutely glorious tomorrow - 24 degrees and fine - so the girls and I are taking the kids to the Warrandyte Bakery park for a bit of a run around ... will be great to get out into the fresh air again.

Just a quick post from me today ... I participated in the Christmas Card swap through the Stamp Shak forum, and here is my little creation. I sent them off to Tiddlypeep, the swap organiser, today, and I'm looking forward to getting my selection back!




Well, my first official order of Stampin' Up! stuff arrived on my doorstep this morning, so I'm hoping to get around to making some lovely new cards with my lovely new stamps in the next few days or so.

I'll post up pics once they're done!

Hope everyone has a lovely Thursday, and go the Cats on Saturday!!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

It's nearly retreat time again!

Hello all :)

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend so far.

It's been a busy week in the Bradford household ... the year seems to be absolutely flying by of late.

During this past week I signed up for the Very Special Getaway scrapbooking retreat, run by the Remember When Paper Company, in support of Very Special Kids. I went on this retreat last year (my first ever retreat!), and had a great time! I got to meet Tanja in person there for the first time last year, even though we'd been chatting on line for quite a while beforehand ... and we're both going to go again this year. The retreat this year is on the Cup Weekend again, but the venue has changed to the Black Spur Inn ... such a beautiful part of the world up there, I just LOVE the drive through the Black Spur :)

Well, my Stampin' Up! Starter Kit was waiting on my doorstep when I got home on Friday, and it was very exciting rifling through my new stamp sets and all the paperwork. There's quite a bit of reading ahead for me, but it all seems fairly straighforward. And now I need to sit down and make up some nice sample cards ... I placed my first order this morning too, so I should have another box (or 2 - thanks Vicki for helping to flesh out the order!!) arriving on my doorstep this week.

I've also decided that I'd like to see if I can sell some cards and gift cards to local florists etc., and there's also a few craft markets around here - so I'm aiming to make up a little stash and hopefully have a market stall at some stage in the future. If just one person buys a card that I've made, I will be happy :)

I had a quiet-ish day at home with the kids today while Nick was down racing at Phillip Island ... I do enjoy going down to watch him racing, but at the same time it does make my stomach turn watching him drive so fast around the track ... thankfully he didn't break anything on the car, and was able to (yet again) drive it home safely.

I finished off my Christmas cards for the swap at The Stamp Shak forum during the week (will take a pic and upload soon), and tonight I've made a card for the October card sketch challenge sample at Scrapchat, but as it's not October yet, and the challenge hasn't been listed, I can't show you! You'll just have to be patient :) My next item on the to-do list is the LO sketch challenge sample ... I need to decide on a sketch to use first!

Tomorrow is meant to be quite a nice day I think, so we'll hopefully be able to fit in a nice family outing somewhere. And I need some 'me' time too tomorrow - I've done stacks of housework today and entertained the kids from 6.30am until 10.30pm on my own (we had a friend over for dinner which means the kids got to stay up late), and I'm feeling VERY tired tonight.

As a matter of fact, it's actually bed time for me now ... I can't believe it's nearly tomorrow already.

Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday, and I'll talk to you soon.
Ness.
xx

Time for a change ...

Yes, you're in the right place ... this is still Ness's Blog :)

I thought it was time for a bit of a change of scenery for the Blog, so I've chosen a new template for it, and will be working on updating the page elements etc. in the next couple of days, and I'll be incorporating a few Stampin' Up! links as well of course!

So ... you like?? Easy to read?? It's still all getting tweaked, so stay tuned ...

Just a quickie ...

Evening all, or should I say morning all :) I seem to have lost a few hours tonight ... have been cleaning up and organising my scrap room a bit, and was surprised to look at the clock and see that midnight has already ticked over ... oh well ....

I just thought I'd show you a very quick card that Ashton and I whipped up today - one of the ladies that works with me was extremely generous and gave Ashton a HUGE box of LEGO the other day, because her kids no longer play with it - it's even got the instruction booklets and everything - and this massive box of LEGO has just doubled our entire LEGO stocks (and that's no mean feat!). It was so kind of her, so we made her this card today (and Ashton wrote on the inside), and we're going to take her a bunch of flowers tomorrow to say thank you :) It's very basic, but this is what Ashton wanted it to look like!



Oh, and I guess I can share my news with you now too - I got my confirmation email this morning - I've decided to sign up with Stampin' Up! as an Independent Demonstrator. My friend Tanja has been a Demonstrator with them for almost a year now, and is just loving it, so I decided to give it a go too. I'm only planning on being a Hobby Demonstrator, but would like to get into running workshops etc., once I've found my feet a little bit. I'm very much looking forward to receiving my Starter Kit later this week (hopefully), and also to meeting the other people in my team. Wish me luck!

And now, it really is bed time I'm afraid ...

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

So much going on ...

Hello all ...

My life just seems to be in a bit of a blur at the moment! We had a lovely time for Ashton's bowling birthday party -all the kids seemed to really enjoy themselves, and so too did the parents that had a little game or two:D Nick excelled himself, getting the highest score I've ever seen him bowl - 155 - which was a bit weird, because I'd been telling everyone how bad he is at bowling LOL. The kids all loved the icecream cake, and then hit the amusement section, and before we knew it, it was time to head home, with two little exhausted kidlets. The whole day was really well run by the bowling centre, so I can highly recommend bowling birthday parties for kids.

I've been busy working on organising something for a couple of weeks now, so I hope to have some news for you about that soon ... it's nothing particularly earth-shattering, but it's still exciting! Anyway, I'm not going to say what it is until I have official confirmation, which should hopefully be in the next few days.

All this organising has meant that I have been in close contact with my friend Tanja, which has been great! I went down and caught up with her in Mornington on the weekend, and we just HAD to coincide our catch-up with a visit to Paper2. It would have been rude not to, really! I only bought a few little things ... I need to save my pennies to spend on other things in the near future :D

And, we have both decided to attend the Very Special Getaway again this year - a retreat organised by Remember When Paper Company, with all monies going to Very Special Kids. This is where Tanja and I physically met each other last year (having been chatting online for a bit) and we had a great time, so we're going in for another round :D It's held on the Melbourne Cup Weekend, so it's not long to go now!

Well, just a quick one from me today - I've got to get the kids ready to head to swimming lessons and then the playcentre, so I'll catch everyone later.

Hopefully I'll be able to tell you my news soon .... :)

Cheers!
Ness.

Happy birthday to Ashton!

Hello all ... well, today is my biggest little man's 5th birthday - Happy Birthday Ashton!! - and I've been feeling slightly melancholy today - where have the last 5 years gone? It's been awesome watching him grow into the very special little man that he is, but time has just gone by way too fast.

We had a lovely day today - the usualy swimming lessons then the playcentre, and we had both sets of grandparents over for his birthday dinner tonight. And, because it was his birthday, Ashton was of course allowed to choose what he had for dinner - and he chose ROAST. Yummo!!

He got some great presents, including the school bag for when he starts primary school next year, the logo on which he recognised instantly (I have NO idea how!), an art set, Mr Men books, a telescope ... you get the idea. And, we're having his first official birthday party for him on Saturday (where children OTHER than just Emily and Thomas have been invited LOL), and we're going bowling -he's very much looking forward to it, as are all of the parents I think! Lucky I've hired the lane next to us as well, so the parents can have a game too :)

I managed to complete my LO for the first week of the Project Scrapaway challenge at Scrapchat too (see first pic) - and I'm happy with the result! Week 2's challenge sounds fantastic too, but time might just get away from me this week I think ... I'll do my best to get a LO done though!


I've recently become a bit addicted to Stampin' Up products - I bought a couple more stamp sets a couple of weeks back, and I think I really need to buy even more still! I have made a couple of cards in the last day or so (the last one being a pretty close copy to one of the samples in the current Ideas Book), and I do just love the Stampin' Up products.

Here's the card I made for Ashton's 5th birthday ...


And here's an 'elegant' card I did for a challenge on my friend Tan's website Compulsive Scrapbooker ...

And here is my very close interpretation (read: almost exact replica!) of a card from the current Stampin' Up Idea book and catalogue.


And finally, here is the LO that I created as one of the Guest DT's for September for Scrap 'n' Craft with 'T'. I'm really happy with how this one turned out :)


Well, I hope everyone has had a lovely week so far! Thanks for looking, and I'll no doubt talk to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.

It's sketch challenge time again -

Hello all :D

Well, I can't believe that it's the end of August already - where is the time going?? What with renovating and sickness and socialising at all the 5th birthday parties, this month has just flown!

And, being the end of the month, it's also time for me to upload the sketch challenges again for Scrapchat. And, yet again, these sketches have been taken from the wonderful Pagemaps site.

Here is the card sketch ...

And my sample, which I've turned into a Father's Day card (kills 2 birds with 1 stone)

And here is the LO sketch ...

And my sample ... (I can put the pic back now that edition 67 of Scrapbook Creations is out :)


For this LO, I had a play with flocking for the first time (the title, and the tips of the flower, have both been flocked). And, it was fun! Messy, but fun. I successfully managed to flock most of the work surfaces in my craft room I think, but after a little bit of practice, I seemed to get the hang of it, and can't wait to use it again! I think next time though I'll use slightly more substantial chipboard - will just make handling it that little bit easier.

I got my flocking through the wonderful Gypsy at Scrapchat, and I believe you can also purchase packs of the flocking in about a dozen or so colours at the newly launched Scrapchat Craft Exchange. This is a fantastic new auction site that Gypsy has started up, where people can buy, sell or swap their excess scrapbooking and general craft supplies. I have a heap of tapestry wool skeins and embroidery cottons left over from when Dad had his shop, and I need to bundle them up and try and sell them off too. And I'm sure I've got some patterned papers that I just don't think I'll get around to using .... there are heaps of auctions underway already, so it's well worth the look!

My LO for the August photo swap is slowly coming along - it's meant to be finished today, but I've been a bit held up ... sorry Kylie! I'm working on it tonight, so should hopefully have something to show you in the next day or so.

And, Project Scrapaway was launched with a bang on Friday night at Scrapchat as well - it's a 10-week challenge, where participants have to complete LOs each week that meet 5 certain specifications, and depending on how well they meet those specifications, and how quickly they upload to the gallery, participants will be awarded points each week. There are no eliminations for this competition - it's purely based on a points tally. The first challenge has been listed at Scrapchat now - I'm not in the running to win, but I'll be trying to complete the challenges anyway - always love a good challenge.

Here's the first week's challenge ....

MONOCROMATIC

Yes I want you to design a monocromatic layout with lots of tones of Blue.

Our 5 design elements needed for this challenge are:-

1. Must have at least 3 different tones of blue.

2. Must include 2 photo's.

3. Must include ribbon.

4. Must have journalling.

5. Must have a stamped image.

Remember ladies, you need to first sketch your idea and then put it into practice when you complete your layout.

Try to use all the design elements to maximise the amount of points you will receive as the winner of round one will be the one with the most points.

Please upload your sketch and layout to the gallery by 6.00pm Thursday.

Hopefully I'll get to have a go at this tomorrow night ....

Oh, and I'm not in the running to win the prize for Project Scrapaway, because I have recently been 'promoted' to Administrator for the Scrapchat forum, just to give Gypsy a bit of extra help with everything that's going on. There are heaps of new things planned for the forum - it's already bustling, and is only going to get busier. :)

Well, I'd better get off the computer and actually start doing some scrapping ... the clock's ticking, and I'm not getting ANYTHING done! Thanks for reading my ramblins, and I hope everyone has a lovely week.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xx.

So sick of being sick ...

Hello all!

Sorry I haven't blogged again for a while, but the Bradford household has again been struck down with a bit of illness of late - which has unfortunately meant that I myself have been unwell for 2 weekends running now, and that's just not on!

Thankfully, it's only been a really bad head cold each time, so life could still essentially continue, but boy did I feel miserable while I was soldiering on. I just wasn't feeling even the slightest bit creative ...

And, I also decided to give Liam's room a bit of a freshen up - we bought a new bed for Ashton, so that Liam could have Ashton's old bed, and given that Liam's has been painted pink since we moved in, I thought it was high time we made it into a boy's room. I painted the walls blue, the trim a glossy white, and even went as far as making new curtains for the windows - Elmo print, of course! And to top it off, while I had all the painting equipment out, I gave the laundry a freshen up as well :)

So, that took up a weekend and my evenings for the following week as well, and as a result I have had a massive scrapping to-do list which has been building and building, and it's all due by the end of the month. Nothing like leaving things to the last minute, eh?

I have slowly been working through things, and I'm happy to say that I've knocked over the card and LO sketch samples for Scrapchat (and in doing so prepared a Father's Day card as well!), and I've done the CC sample LO for the Stamp Shak CC which is coming up this Friday night.

Now I just need to do some cards for a card swap, a guest DT layout for Scrap'n'Craft with 'T' and the August photo swap LO for Yillup. She'll be right mate!

I'm having a little get together at my house on Saturday - a friend who is an independent Stampin' Up demonstrator is coming to show off the new range, and we're all going to have a nice little cardmaking session, so hopefully I'll knock over the card swap cards on the weekend. Then I've got all next week to get 2 LOs done - easy!

Just remind me not to renovate again will you ...

August challenges for Scrapchat ...

Just thought I'd share with you the sketch challenges I've posted for August for Scrapchat ... both sketches are courtesy of Pagemaps.


Here is the card sketch ...

... and my sample card -



And here is the LO sketch ...


... and my sample LO (note that I've turned the sketch on its side for the sample).



The Bradford family had a lovely day yesterday - Nick's had a couple of days off for all the overtime he worked last week and on the weekend, so yesterday we took the boys up to Lake Mountain for a few hours, and had a great session of tobogganing and snowball fights!

Liam's still a little unsure of the white stuff falling from the sky (it actually snowed a bit while we were there, which was very special), but at the same time sees Ashton enjoying himself so wants to get involved. I'm sure that on our next trip to the snow, be it this year or next, Liam's going to relax a little and actually start having fun :)

Frantic day at work for me today finishing stuff up for my boss who is on three weeks holiday as of Monday morning. The best part about putting in a bit of overtime tonight? I don't have to do any typing on Monday! And the best part about him going away for three weeks? I've already been told that I can bring my scrapping into work because there won't be anything else to do! How good is that??

Well, it's very late, and I'm very tired, so I will leave it there for now ...

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend! Thanks for looking, and I'll talk to you soon,
Ness.

My top 10 ...

Hello all :)

Just thought I'd share quickly my attempt at Challenge 2 for the Stamp Shak July CC - layout had to include a list of my Top 10 songs, and a photo of me as well.


I guess this just shows I like my music a little on the heavier side :)

There have been some fantastic entries for the CC this month - it's going to be VERY hard to decide who to vote for!

I've finished off my layout for the final challenge tonight, but it's too late to be taking pics now, so will share that shortly too.

Thanks for looking, and I'll talk to you soon,
Ness.

My first ever no-photo layout ...

Hello all ... long time no blog, sorry about that. I really hate it when life gets in the way :)

Just thought I'd share a pic of my first ever no-photo layout! This is the layout I prepared as the sample for Challenge One at the Stamp Shak's July CC - the theme was Music (great theme Chelle !!).

The challenge I set was to scrap a no-photo layout about a song that had special significance to you, and there had to be stitching included on the layout somewhere too.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out :)

This is the song that was playing while Nick and I were signing our marriage certificate ...


There are another couple of fab challenges that have been set by Chelle and Lexie - to include a song title on your layout, and to scrap a list of your top 10 songs - I've compiled my list, and am now trying to plan my layout. I didn't think it would be soooo hard to narrow it down to 10.

I've done another couple of cards and layouts too lately, which I will take pics of soon and share with you shortly.

Thanks for looking, I hope you've had a lovely weekend, and I'll talk to you soon.
Ness.

A quick card ...

Hello all :D

I hope your week is trundling along nicely so far - it's almost the weekend again, YAY!

Just thought I'd share a quick card I whipped up as a sample for the July Card Sketch challenge at Scrapchat ... the sketch was courtesy of Pagemaps.

Each month you'll find a sketch challenge, a card sketch challenge and a digi challenge listed - and they're well worth the look for a bit of inspiration! This month, there is also a nice little prize for the digi LO, very kindly donated from Point, Shoot, Play - a Rhonna Farrer sample CD (yum!), and the winner will also get their LO printed and sent to them. How good is that?

Anyway, here's a pic of the sample card I made ...


Hopefully, I'll get some more scrapping done on Friday night too, as Nick's heading out to drinks with his work mates. I'm making wedding invitations for our friends Greg and Brooke (Nick's the Best Man too :D), and I need to start on some samples to show them. We're going to their engagement party on Saturday night too, which should be a great night!

Anyway, thanks for looking, I hope everyone has a fun weekend, and I'll talk to you soon.
Ness.
xx

Forgive me ...

... everyone ... for I have sinned - it's been over a month since my last blog post! That's just terrible!

I guess that life sometimes gets in the way of blogging, so, sorry about that. It's been a hectic month or so in the Bradford household - we've had a lot of illness, with poor little Liam having an ear infection, complicated by gastro, for 10 days, which wasn't pleasant. It's soooo nice to not be cleaning up spew anymore! Then, of course, Nick and I got a touch of the tummy bug too, so suffice to say that there were 2 weeks back at the start of June that I would just rather forget about.

Last weekend I had a lovely scrapping day at Sandy's house, a little get-together with Sandy, Lizzy and Alz, to celebrate Scrapchat's 1st Birthday! And, it was timed to perfection to coincide with a fantastic online class that Gypsy organised with THE Rhonna Farrer herself! It was such an honour to have Rhonna at Scrapchat, and she had prepared an absolutely stunning LO for the class as well. I haven't had a chance to choose my photos yet so I haven't started my LO, but I'm ready and raring to get to it this week, given that I've managed to clear a few things off my to-do list this week just passed. I've got a busy time ahead of me too, with a few extra jobs I've picked up around Scrapchat to help Gypsy out ... but at least it will keep my scrapping ticking over!

This weekend was also the cybercrop at The Stamp Shak forum, and I prepared the card challenge sample. I came up with the theme of 'Turning Points' for the cybercrop, and the layout challenges posted by Chelle and Gypsy were fabulous. The challenge I set was to make a sympathy card, and a few lovely examples have already been posted in the gallery, so thanks to those girls who have tried my challenge :)

Yesterday, I had a lovely lunch with Scrapmanda, who was down in Melbourne for a work function. It was lovely to catch up with her again :) We found a nifty little store on Glenferrie Road and Amanda picked up some lace and bits and pieces, and I got some very cute little organza flowers as well.

And today, the Bradford family (as well as the rest of Melbourne) finally got to try out the new Eastlink tollway, which is open as of today. Ashton was very excited to be able to drive on the roads that we've been watching being constructed for so long now ... and was so excited driving through the tunnels! I'm surprised as to how steep the tunnels are ... and how long ... but the road is nice, and it will make my special long-distance scrapping excursions down to Paper2 in Mornington much more do-able now :D And that's always a good thing!

Well, I'll post some pics so you can see a few of the things that I've been working on of late! Thanks for looking, thanks for reading my ramblings, and I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.


Here is my sample for the Sympathy card challenge -


And here is my take on Challenge 2 - about a turning point in your life, and the LO had to include a flower, a heart and a rubon. I'm really pleased with how this one turned out!


And he's one of my favourite pics of Ashton when he was younger ... he's only just started walking, and was so proud of himself! And he LOVES Dr Seuss books now, so it was the perfect quote :)


And this is one I did a month or so ago, and I didn't like it at all ... but it's been sitting to the side of my desk, and it's grown on me now! I drew the white line around the edge of the page, and I'm happy with it now. Funny how tastes can change!


Thanks for looking!

Some more of my latest ...

Hello everyone :D

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend so far! Well, the Stamp Shak CC is on this weekend, and I did samples for a couple of the challenges for the weekend.

Here's the card I did for the card sketch challenge - thanks to Pagemaps for the sketch!


Just LOVE the DCWV Far East papers - this one is "Fire Blossom".

Here's the LO I did for the Challenge I set using flowers .... LOTS of flowers ... and at least 3 different types of flowers (felt, PP, paper, ribbon, stamped etc.) to be used on the LO.


And here's the card I did for the Mosaic card challenge set by Lexie - great challenge Lex! I decided to do a masculine card ... normally do girly ones :D


I'm off to my LSS today as they're having a 20-40% off sale (who can resist THAT!), but might get some more scrapping time this afternoon.

Thanks for looking, and I'll talk to you soon!
Ness.