Nearly 6 months already

Hello :D

I cannot believe it's been nearly 6 months since my last post...I suck, really I do....

I have a valid reason for my absence....I was offered a job at the school my kids go to, to be an LSA for a child with behavior problems.  After 10 days to think about it, I decided to take on the challenge.

Thinking that having a job, which was only for school hours, I would have the luxury of having the best of both worlds!!!!  Boy was I wrong!!!  I end up with very little time to myself at the end of the day, and sadly my scrapping has taken a major back seat.  I visit my craft room often and get a little sad when I see my unused supplies and tools all sitting there, waiting to be loved again....

I have a goal to at least scrap one page a week, even if I get to spend only 20  min a day in my "happy place" at the end of the corridor :D

I did go on a scrapping binge during a recent school break, and worked feverishly to get some of my Summer Travel Album done...I am not yet finished with it, and it's been 8 months since we were in London and Paris (hanging head in shame).

I also managed a little sneaky time and caught up with my old scrap group last month.  It was nice to be back with the girls.  I really do miss you all so very much!!!!

I have 2 pages which I would like to share with you....The first is "Growing Up In The Gulf".  It was taken when we visited Global Village which is an annual theme park here in Dubai.  It is exactly as it's name suggests, a Global Village, where you can visit all parts of the world by means of halls set up with items from whichever country you are visiting at the time....

The next picture is once again of my favorite subject....my beautiful children.  This is the page I did during my sneaky visit with the girls from TUESDAY THERAPY, at Creative Hands.  The title pretty much says it all.....Adore....and I do, they are my world.....

Thanks again for stopping by, and hopefully I won't be half a year before I post again!!!!

Happy Scrapping!!

Jo

Beautiful

Hello friends....

It has been way too long....I have been really quiet on the scrapping front, just usual Tuesday Therapy sessions, and then a Project Life catchup a couple of evenings a week.

I do have some exciting news, I was invited by Creative Hands Dubai to instruct a beginners Scrapbooking Workshop at Zayed University last Tuesday.  It was such an honor and and an amazing experience :D  The University is so amazing and filled with such lovely friendly ladies :D

While in South Africa (home) during the summer, I was given a picture by my mom.  It is a picture of her, as a bridesmaid at her sisters wedding in 1952, she was 15 years old.  I just couldn't believe how much she looked like a disney princess....

I wanted to do something really special with the photograph, and was toying with making a really whimsical, fantasy, princess type page.  Well, that was all turned on it's head!!!  We were at our monthly crop at Creative Hands, and Annais was working on a page using some Maya Road chipboard die cuts.....I fell in love with the idea immediately.

This is the page I ended up doing......

I am currently working on a travel album from our epic summer vacation....It has been a long while since I have worked on an 8 x 8 album and to scrap multiple photos per page is totally outside of my comfort zone.... 

It is exercising my scrapping brain which is always fun :D

Be Inspired!!

A Little Bit of (Tuesday) Therapy

Tuesday is officially my favorite day!!!  It is TT Day... it is when my scrappy friends and I meet to do a little bit of scrapping, a lot of chatting and lots of coffee/tea/cookies :D

Last week I downloaded a Prima App for my iPod. I was a little disappointed as I was  hoping to do more of my own editing on the layout, but, it is just a done layout, where you add a photo....

This is the layout I "made" using the Prima App:

It is an awesome layout, but not my own, all I did was add the photo.  So, at TT yesterday, I decided to give it a bash and scrap lifted it....

This is result:

I had a lot of fund doing this page and building up all the layers :D

I ended up with a little time to spare, so I did another quick layout...not nearly as much fun as all the building done on the page above :d

Thanks for stopping by :D

Happy Scrapping!!

Jo

Cousins Layout

Hello

I have had so much fun lately in my little craft room :D  I have some really nice pictures from our summer vacation....good photo's make for fun scapping.

This is a page I did of my son and nephew.  We were in South Africa and on the COLDEST day there, we decided to go to a garden centre where they had a play area for children.....the kids were totally unaware of the weather, meanwhile, my mother-in-law and I FROZE.....

I just love these hot air balloons :D

My little owls :D

I stamped out this title, then cut the cardstock into a banner shape

I have hunkered down to get my Project Life album up to date....It is a momentous task as I have 6 weeks of vacation to update, and then the 3 weeks since being home (shew).   NOTE TO SELF:  Don't let Project Life fall behind....hectic to catch it up:D

Happy Scrapping!!

Jo

GigglePlay

Hello

My little ones started school today.  I have so loved having them home for the 9 week summer break.  As sad as I was to have my favorite little people off at school, I did utilize the time by getting a bit of scrapping done!!!  I did a bit of stuff on my travel journal, and really had fun "reliving" the holiday through the photographs.

I managed to do a bit of catchup on my Project Life album, and have had to be a little creative with the flow of it, as I didn't have pictures from every day, or had a million pictures I wanted to include from one day....I got around this by changing the format briefly for the duration of our 6 week vacation.  More on that in a later post, once I have it up to date and can show you how I got around not having a picture a day :D

I want to share a layout I did just a few minutes ago!!!  From start to finish, all done in 40 min.  This is one of the reasons I swear by pre-planning a little on layouts.  When I get some spare time, but not enough to sit down and do a layout, I choose some photos, print them out, then get at least the paper to go with that photo sorted out.  If I am a little flush with prep time, I rummage through my embellishments to see what goes with the layout.  That way, when I do get time to scrap, I don't spend valuable time trying to find the right things to go with the layout.

Just an example, I have 14 pages ready to go (mostly just with the photo and paper).  What I do then, is when I am going through my embellishments, like I did for this layout, if I find an embellishment that will go with one of the other pages in progress, I just add it into the relevant sleeve....

For me, I find it is the best way to economize on my scrapping time!!!

This is a layout of my precious daughter and my adorable niece.  There is just 6 months age difference between then, and because they are in South Africa, and we are in Dubai, they don't get to spend nearly as much time as we would all like together.  The last time these two little sausages saw each other was in 2009

There is a little story behind this picture, as you can see, they are wearing swimming goggles, and you are right in guessing they were swimming, what you probably don't know, is that it was WINTER in South Africa at the time.  The weather was chilly and the water was freezing!!!  Only children will not even bother about the elements when it comes to having fun with friends!!

I layered many different embellishments here, including chipboard, prima flowers, fabric and ribbon flowers, die cut sticker flowers and chipboard die cuts from Basic Grey and American Crafts.

Tim Holtz is the man!!!!  I absolutely love these tickets!!!  Not to mention the super duper flower ribbon trim from Webster's Pages :D

YEs, even my little owls got in there.  This Martha Stewart emboss and punch is my all time favorite.  I try and squeeze these little cuties in to every layout :D

Keep Creating!!!

Christmas Planner

Hello :D

I was catching up on all my favorite blogs last night.  As you all know, I am a huge fan of Rahel Menig at SwissgirlDesigns.  Her latest post was of a Christmas Planner she created for Crate Paper (Yes, she is a CP Girl!!!).

I immediately fell in love with this little treasure and thought it was such an awesome idea to keep all your Christmas ideas in one neat, tidy little note book!!!  So, straight after dinner, I retreated to my "Girl Cave" (aka Scrap Camp) and made a little planner for myself.

I was a little creative with the sizing as I used what I had available to make the planner.  You can find the tutorial to make the mini journal HERE.  Then you just embellish it accordingly for the Christmas Planner.

Here is my take on the Christmas Planner:

I used an A4 pice of printed paper and folded it in half lengthwise to use as my cover.  I created pockets in the front and back covers, just to store extra bits if necessary.

I loved Rahel's idea to add a little envelope for gift tags...

The planner is really quite small and is very transportable!!

I had a lot of fun making this mini journal and it was really quick and easy to do.  I have a few more ideas to do with this mini, and one is to make a recipe book with my favorite recipes, to give as a gift :D

Happy Scrapping!!

Jo

Scrapping After WAY to long!!

Hello :D

I have finally managed to get some time in my craft room, and boy.....have I had fun :D.  We spent most of summer away, and even though I did take an "emergency scrapping stash" with me, I didn't really find the right time to do some crafting.

So, without much ado, here are my latest projects....

This was the first page I did after coming back from a super long summer holiday.  I just had to scrap these photos of us on, under and in front of the Eiffel Tower

Laduree is my all time favorite macaroon shop - yum, yum!!!  I was lucky enough to enjoy macaroons from both the Laduree in London (Harrods) as well as on the Champs Elysees.

Today I decided to go hide in my girl cave again, and I completed 2 pages, both are of my precious little children on St Michaels Beach, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

I had tons of fun with layering and stamping :D

I love the little flag I made with a skewer and a Maya Road canvas bunting flag :)

I hope to be able to get some more scrapping done soon.  I have really missed expressing my creativity :D

Happy Scrapping!!!