Can you believe it's nearly December?
We went and saw our little Heidi today and were told some exciting news. We can bring her home next Thursday, we thought we still had 11 days to go but she is feeding well and will be ready next week. The kids are over the moon!!!!



I made up these pencil wraps for Lachie and Sophie's birthdays next month, a very quick and easy little extra something for my babies.

TEACHERS PRESSIES

I thought I had better get the boys teacher's pressies done this week as I just seem to be getting busier and busier trying to finish things off for birthdays and Christmas.
The pictures on these notebooks suit both of the teachers, they have such different personalities yet perfect for each of the boys.
I am so grateful to both teachers for how they helped the boys settle in at a new school and have guided them through the year.

THIS IS GORGEOUS

THANKS WENDY

TODAY'S EFFORT

I have been wanting try out an idea I've had for a while.

I collect old tins and some of these tins have fantastic pictures and words on them so I decided to cut them up and punch holes in them to use as a wall decoration.


I used alcohol inks on the tin, tied everything together with wire and used beads as decoration.

Th bird was stamped onto shrink plastic them wiped over with alcohol inks and stazon ink. I made the bird to stick out at a right angle from the hanging so it didn't look so flat against the wall.

I would love to know what you people out there think, guess what I'll be doing tonight now I'm all inspired with these pretties.

I'm on a roll, I've just finished another one that's completely different, I won't share on here though because the idea was to be making Christmas presents, sorry no more pictures.

so here it is wrinkles and all, unfortunately I couldn't get to the iron without Sophie seeing what I was doing so just try and ignore the fold marks.
I can't wait to get it put together and quilted. The very hungry caterpillar is Sophie's all time favourite book, we read it every night at bed time so when this fabric came in at work I just couldn't resist it.

Not much craftiness to share this week, my back has been giving me so much grief that I just don't feel like doing much at all.

Today I did start a Christmas gift for a very special friend, I also attempted some gel medium transfers using junk mail (they didn't turn out very well), so I'm back to sitting down with a heat pack behind me and surfing the net.

I do have to go to work tonight and will hopefully finish the top of Sophie's birthday quilt, maybe I'll take a picture of that one tomorrow so you all won't get to bored with me.

I hope everyone is having a happy, active week.

xxxSue

ps: I'm having a fantastic time re-living and jotting down memories thanks to Jessica Sprague's classes.

Oh and Lisa if you are reading, YOU WIN, yes you are the best, there I said it and yes I will be on Flickr tonight as I have been every other night and no I haven't even started on the cj's because of the above problem. LOL.

MAMA TO MAMA

Mama To Mama is a blog by Amanda Soule (Soulemama). She is running a campaign for anyone who wants to help out with the 'Caps To Cap-Haitien Project'.

This project pulled at my heart-strings and I got straight down to making newborn baby caps and a blanket to send to her. Anyone with a sewing machine and a knowledge on how to use it can be involved in this very worthwhile project, for more information please go here

All materials used for the caps and blanket are re-purposed cotton fabrics, there is a pattern download for the cap on Amanda's site.

I was happy to give around an hour of my time to make these items and hopefully they will make a difference.

Thanks for reading
xxxSue :)

For the last two days, I have been busily printing, arguing with my printer, cutting card and punching holes.

Here is why.....





I can not believe how generous Jessica Sprague has been with this free 2 week class. Her downloads are gorgeous and there are over 1000 prompts just to get you thinking and writing.
A warning to those how are participating and haven't printed yet, you will need a tonne of card, look for A4 packs of white card around 160-190gsm, I found that this was the cheapest way for me.
I will embellish as I go and probably print some pp for the inside of the covers, it was really important for me to get the basics done otherwise I would be too far behind.
I can't wait for the next email from her and I can't believe I'm up-to-date. Now to do some housework....

TODAY..

Sophie had her first school visit, I am not ready for my constant companion to leave me. I was worried that she might feel overwhelmed with it all as I taught her kindy at home and she had never been in a class situation before, but no, she LOVED IT, she happily waved me goodbye and took it all in her stride.
When the boys started their visits, they cried and cried when I was about to leave, not this girl she couldn't wait and wanted to know if she would learn to read today and I might add, was very disappointed when I picked her up and she couldn't read a novel!! I'm guessing she doesn't want to spend another year at home with me (I was secretly hoping that she might want to stay home until she was 6 so I could be with my little baby for just 1 more year).

So my days with my littlest are numbered, at least I'll have Heidi to keep me busy.

Speaking of Heidi, here's what I did this afternoon.

On this layout I did one of Gloria's transparency transfers and then used some elements from her as well as the bottom of a note that Sanderijn in The Netherlands sent me and some Papier D'Armenie (yummy smelly paper) that my wonderful friend Monique sent me. Oh, and of course lets not forget the moonshadow mist on the file card.

I'm also busy making up 2 quilt tops, one for Sophie for her birthday (I'll show that on real soon) and one for our brand new lounge suite that should be here in a couple of weeks. We've never owned a new suite and are a little excited, hopefully the cat will respect the fact that we are spending a lot of money on it and will not claw it!!

For those that registered with Jessica Sprague and her fantastic new FREE workshop, I hope I will get to chat to you over there. I printed out all of the page dividers and front and back covers today, very nice, I cant wait until the next lesson.

LETS WELCOME....

the newest addition to our family

Our beautiful pug, Heidi.



She will come and live with us on the 9th of December and we can't wait.

This fellow however may not be so happy.

Dante is one very spoilt Burmese and doesn't share very well. We'll see I guess.

SUNDAY'S CREATIVITY

I made this present and card for my new little niece Abrethe (Abbey for short).
Gina is my baby sister and Abrethe is hers and Dav's first child.

The blanket is very easy to put together, just 2 pieces of polar fleece, a decorative stitch around the edges and some cute little images cut out and handstitched on with blanket stitch.

Wishing you a lovely Sunday
xxxSue

ALI EDWARDS STYLE

If you are short on time then this post may not be for you.
Thanks to the wonderful Ali Edwards I put together this journal last night with bits and pieces I had around the place.
Now I'm all set to photograph and journal each day of December leading up to Christmas without the hassle of putting a journal page together from scratch each day. I know myself better than to try and do that, 5 days in and it will be the end of the project.
So, with the basics already in place, all I have to do is click away, journal day to day stuff and add some simple embellishments. This journal doesn't need a lot, it's simple and Ali style.

front cover; Christina Re paper, dymo tape, chipboard, paint, felt star from Spotlight.


Day 1; trading card holder, Christina Re paper, Ali Edwards digital journal card, Hambly transparency.

Day 2; polka dot card, Heidi Swapp chipboard number.

Day 3; Maya Road sheer file card, chipboard number.

Day 4; kraft cardstock, Ali Edwards digital journal card, my own designed digital number.

Day 5; black cardstock, Ali Edwards digital December journaling page.

Day 6; polka dot felt on cardstock, Heidi Swapp chipboard number.

Day 7; Ali Edwards digital journal card, number sticker.

Day 8; red cardstock, stamps, Fiskars threading water punch.

Day 9; Ali Edwards digital journal card, chipboard number.

Day 10; trading card holder, Ali Edwards digital journal card, Hambly transparency, Christina Re paper.

Day 11; patterned file card, my own digitally designed number.

Day 12; patterned card, rub-ons.

Day 13; Maya Road sheer file card, Heidi Swapp chipboard numbers.

Day 14; patterned paper, Ali Edwards digital journal card.

Day 15; trading card holder, Christina Re paper, rub-ons, cut up Christmas tag.

Day 16; black cardstock, patterned card, sticker, Heidi Swapp chipboard numbers.

Day 17; vintage bingo card, round stamp, red ink.

Day 18; patterned paper, journal spot, rub-ons, Fiskars threading water punch.

Day 19; Maya Road sheer file card, Ali Edwards digital journal card.

Day 20; Ali Edwards digital journal card, chipboard numbers.

Day 21; patterned card, rub-ons.

Day 22; patterned file card, cut up Christmas tag, rub-ons.

Day 23; patterned card, my own digitally designed number.

Day 24; Ali Edwards digital journal cards, kraft cardstock.

Day 25; Maya road sheer file card, patterned file card.

Day 25 cont. trading card holder, Christina Re papers, Hambly transparency.

Inside Back Cover; Christina Re papers, old Christmas card.

As you can see I have limited my colours and selection of papers and embellishments to keep this project very simple and flowing, I will be adding pages to the days that need more room.

Thanks for looking,
xxxSue