Final scrapping in 2013

Being on holiday for the last two weeks with not much going on has let me spend loads of time in my scrap room catching up on some much needed scrap therapy.  So feast your eyes on the layouts that I've managed to complete:

A Scrapkits layout about Mom's trip to Antarctica

A cute layout from Michelle van Wyk

 The rest of these are all from sketches from Scrapbook Challenges that I never got around to doing during my last Design Team term... so nice to finally cross them off my to do list

Sketch 355

Sketch 358

SS5

SS6

SS7

SS8

SS9

SS10

SS11

SS13

SS14

SS15

SS16

I still didn't make my goal of a layout a day, but definitely tried hard this year.... a total of 280 pages done! Looking forward to tackling a lot more in 2014.

Books I've read in 2013

I haven't done nearly as much reading this past year as I normally do.... been busy with work, overtime work, scrapping and a few family holidays.  But still I think it's pretty impressive that I've read 25 books.  This is the full list by month.

JANUARY
1. Daniel's Den - Dodson, Brandt

FEBRUARY
2. Love Amid the Ashes - Andrews, Mesu
3. The Flight of Christmas - Paxmann, Rozanne
4. Diamond Duo - Gruver, Marcia

MARCH
5. The Vigilante's Bride - Harris, Yvonne
6. The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted - Asher, Bridget
7. Love Song - Stone, Katherine

APRIL
8. Fated Genes - Reich, Harry
9. The Deepest Waters - Walsh, Dan

MAY
10. Safe Haven - Sparks, Nicholas
11. On Sparrow Hill - Lang, Maureen

JUNE
12. The Shape of Mercy - Meissner, Susan
13. Waiting for Summer's Return - Sawyer, Kim Vogel

JULY
14. Where the Heart Leads - Sawyer, Kim Vogel
15. Amber Morn - Collins, Brandilyn

AUGUST
16. Journey to the Well - Taylor, Diana Wallis
17. Reluctant Burglar - Nelson, Jill Elizabeth
18. Reluctant Runaway - Nelson, Jill Elizabeth

SEPTEMBER
19. Interior Motives - Aiken, Ginny
20. Refiner's Fire - Bambola, Sylvia

OCTOBER
21. Ezekiel's Shadow - Long, David

NOVEMBER
22. Maggie's Story - Mackall, Dandi Daley
23. The Lightkeeper's Daughter - Coble, Colleen

DECEMBER
24. The Lightkeeper's Bride - Coble, Colleen
25. The Lightkeeper's Ball - Coble, Colleen

 I can definitely recommend these to anyone's bookshelf.  Happy reading in 2014.

Nuts About Sketches - Week 298

Wow it's the last Monday of 2013.... can you believe it?  This year has come and gone with lots of things happening... and lots of scrapping too!

I tried a few different things on my page this week.... stamped the map image and embossed it in brown, then ripped and crumpled it to make it look old.  The green piece under the title, I put through my cuttlebug after I had inked the raised edges.... so the ink is actually in the grooves.

Check out the blog today for news about the next design team call... this is one terrific team to be on, so apply now.  Also while there you will see the rest of today's reveal layouts.

Weekend Retreat with Scrapbook 'n Things

Lara Hanna from Scrapbook 'n Things and Sharon Coetzee put together a lovely weekend retreat jam packed with scrapping.  Me and my scrap buddy Theresa booked for the whole shebang and stayed over.  We also went halvies on the kits so ordered all three and split them between us... ie we got 9 layouts each to scrap...how's that for fun!

On the actual weekend (16-19 August 2013) I managed to complete 7 doubles.  The night we got home I put photos on two of them and since then have slowly worked my way through the rest.  So feast your eyes on these beauties.

Over the weekend we received lots of goodies to eat.... red velvet cupcakes, popcorn, biltong, sweets.... and also loads of product handouts and prizes.  I even managed to win some.

We played Bingo on Saturday night and a whole bunch of us got it on the last word... so we all got lovely bright green t-shirts!  Then because I scrapped the most pages over the weekend, I received this lovely double frame

There were some lucky draws at the end... I won a bluetooth headset in one and some scrap papers in another... aren't I just the lucky one!

Theresa got a prize for making the most beautiful card in the 15 minute card challenge.  She also won two prizes in the bingo.

Overall it was a highly successful weekend... well worth every cent spent.  Can't wait to do another one!

ps - I still have two layouts that I need to put together but don't think I'll get to them this week, so thought I'd post this before 2013 is over!

Artzy Girl scrapping

I was so happy to hear that Retha was planning to do a day of scrapping... once again I twisted Theresa's arm and she joined me for a day of scrapping on 27 July 2013.  We created 5 double pages, used lots of different products and even got some great ideas for future pages.

It's taken me a while to complete all my pages with photos, but seeing as I'm on holiday now and have time to scrap, I finally managed to tackle them and can now eventually show them off.

And there were two bonus pages too which I also have done.

And with all these pages done, I still have paper leftover from the day, so might even get some more out of these ranges in the future.

Thanks so much to Retha for a great day of scrapping.... hopefully we can do this again soon.

Merry Christmas to all

Hope your day is special and that you remember Jesus whilst opening presents and feasting on your meal.  May this year's celebrations be especially festive.

Love to all my family, friends and blog readers.

Nuts About Sketches - Week 297

It's the week of Christmas and I am scrapping lots while on holiday....... so nice to be doing something so different than work for a change.  Here is this week's page

Yes the sketch called for one big photo, but I'm scrapping my stash of pics I had printed in July/Aug and so found three jumbos to fill the space.  I also rotated the sketch to work with my pics... nice and simple.

Check out the blog for other great ideas on this sketch.

I'm famous.... hehehe

Okay, maybe only a celebrity to my family and friends, but hey it's not every day you get your face on national television! Here's the story:

I took Aaron to Sci-Bono on Tuesday for a day of fun and exploring... they are holding a Gadget Factory for the school holidays with a number of workshops everyday.

Well he (semi)built and programmed a robot... got it to go round in a square and then also sense an obstacle and reverse and turn.  this was loads of fun... to the point he now wants one for Christmas (Santa's budget doesn't stretch that far unfortunately!)

We also got to try out a  segway... a scooter type thing that you propel forward or backwards using your centre of gravity

Aaron got to play with playdough and create an electric circuit, and also made a periscope.

While we were wondering around the centre, I noticed a TV crew but didn't think too much of it.  Then at lunchtime we went to the Science Show and they were there.

Aaron was one of the volunteers called upon to try and experiement... blowing a ping pong ball out of a funnel... it's physically impossible by the way!

After the show, the lady asked if she could interview me and Aaron... well of course we willingly said yes!!

Then the excitement built... "we're going to be on tv!" sang Aaron throughout the afternoon and most of the way home.  Well we sat glued to the tv that night to catch the broadcast... and had also posted it on facebook and sms'd or bbm'd all our friends.  The broadcast didn't happen! Aw shucks!

Come Wednesday morning and Aaron screams at the top of his voice and wakes me up to say that "we're going to be on tv!"  He had seen the promo of the story coming up.  Well we sat through another 15 minutes of news, sport and weather and then there was our faces and voices on the screen.  Excitement reigned!!

I got sms and calls as well as facebook posts all day long from friends who had also seen the broadcasts... it seemed that ENCA had repeated the story every hour on the hour for the morning news, from 6am till who knows when.... so lots of people saw it.

If you missed it, well you're in luck.  It's on youtube... and here's the link

So there you have the story and the story behind the story... we had our two seconds of fame!

Nuts About Sketches- Week 296

This week I got to play a bit with some of my older stash of papers and put together my layout in under an hour!

 The background is actually grey and then I picked up the blues and yellows from the blanket as the accent colours.  Also added in stitching - used my new WeR SewEasy stitching tool... super easy to make the holes and also a whole lot quicker! I added two photos in the place of one long one... gives the same effect.

Again this week there are some super layouts to see on the blog.

Nuts About Sketches - Week 295

I did this page to match the last one so that they would almost form a double in my album. Also rotated it to better fit the look and feel of the "double" page effect... I know you will need to imagine it for now (hehe!)

There are some more pages to see on the blog.

Nuts About Sketches - Week 294

Just doing some major catch up posts from the last few weeks... phew it has been hectic.

For my layout I replaced the big photo with two smaller ones.  Had fun adding some flowers and bling too.

Don't forget to check out the blog for more amazing layouts