Just one pattern paper

Have you ever had that issue when putting together a layout where the patterns you want are on the same piece of paper?
I had that last week when creating a layout for my Disneyland adventures.  I decided some creative cutting was needed as I really wanted these two patterns.

So I cut carefully a 10" square from my paper, but I did it is such a way that I only needed to do three cuts

Then I carefully flipped over the 10" square and placed it in the hole.

I adhered the two pattern pieces to a Kraft cardstock so that if there were any gaps they would not show.

I was very pleased with the end result of my layout.

I cropped and adhered my photos and added a journaling card and a small piece of washi tape that will be a recurring theme on my Disney layouts.

Workshop Layouts

I have two layouts to share with you.  Both I started at my last workshop.  The first I want to share with you is the last layout I did at my workshop.  To be honest all I did with this one at my workshop was to adhere a 5"x 7" photo to a scene pattern paper (I covered the yellow submarine with the photos LOL).
Yesterday using my Silhouette Cameo I cut out the title and the Orca.  I started with just 'Amazing' but then added the 'Creatures'.  Then using a date stamp I added the date we went to Sea World.

The second layout was my first layout I did at my workshop.  I wanted a red gingham paper for my background as we had gone to a traditional Italian pizza place for lunch that day.  But it needed breaking. I cut a narrow frame from black cardstock and a narrow circle frame from kraft cardstock, I adhered these to my layout then added my photos.
Today I cut out the title and stamped two tickets stamps for a bit of fun.  Lastly I added a journaling block (which now has journaling in it)

Can you believe, at this pizza place I had a huge tasty ... salad.  The food and company was amazing.  We had some good laughs.  It was great to stop briefly after shopping in Coronado - a beautiful sea side town with amazing houses (one of my next layouts)

It is so much fun to work on my holiday album.  I love remembering all the fun we had as I look at the photos before and after I scrapbook them.

My Christmas Gift Tags

OK, I admit it. I am kind of getting excited about the arrival of summer and of Christmas.  I always struggle at this time of year because both my daughters have birthdays about now.  I like to concentrate on them first before I starting doing Christmas stuff.
This year I am feeling prepared for the second birthday this weekend and so last week I made our Christmas gift tags.  I am really pleased with how they have turned out.

I cut the ornament shape using my Silhouette Cameo, then stamped the 'To and From' on the back.  Using Copic friendly cardstock I stamped lots of little  Christmas robins.  I coloured these using my Copics and Spectrum Noir pens.  I added a touch of Clear Wink of Stella to all the areas coloured red.
I punched each Christmas Robin out using a 1 1/4" circle punch.  Then inked the edges with Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide ink.  I adhered these circles to the front of my ornaments and lastly added some glittered thread to each ornament.

Now all I need are sine gifts and a tree to put them under.  Roll on Christmas Season.  But, first lets enjoy thanksgiving.

I'm Back!!!!

It has been such a long time since I last posted (almost a year).  So much has happened since I last posted.  I am and have continued to craft while I was gone.  I have been thinking lately about whether or not to carry on/pick up my blog again.  I number of people encouraged me to start writing my blog again, so here I am.

I have decided to make this a personal blog and to share my cards and scrapbooking layouts.  Even to share how I have done some of them.

First of all let me catch you up of a few things.
About three months ago my father-in-law had a heart attach and a triple bypass heart surgery.  My sister-in-law flew over from the UK to spend time with her Dad and to be here for his initial recovery.  She also spent some time with us which was lovely. She even got me knitting - haven't done that in a long time.  It has been fun.

About six weeks ago my daughters and I went for a wonderful two week holiday to America.  Grace went to Orlando, Florida for the Zumba convention. While she was at convention Melissa and i spent time with my friends Andrew and Katie in San Diego.  Melissa's friend from Canada also joined us.

After convention Grace joined us in San Diego for a couple of days, Then Grace, Melissa and I went to San Francisco for three days before coming home.

Recently my Dad has been diagnosed with Dementia.  For me this was not a total surprise. But it is still something my family and I are needing to come to terms with.

I have just done my first training to become a Zumba instructor.  I do not know where this will lead but I am looking forward to the adventure.  So much to learn - exciting.

So currently I have many scrapbooking projects on the go.  I am also seeing a great need to document family stories from both sides of the family.

So come join me on a journey of learning, discovery and creativity.

Xterra 2015

Last year we went to Rotorua for the Paymark Xterra series and had such a great time that we decided to do it all again this year.  With one difference - this time Melissa and I were going to do the 5.5km run as well as Brad doing the 26km mountain bike ride.

This year we stayed at the Distinction Hotel in Rotorua, we arrived early evening on the Friday.  A lovely hotel.  The registration and pack pick-ups were at our hotel as well so that made it real easy.  We went and picked up our race packs, checked into the hotel and proceeded to see what we got in our race packs.  Brad's company is one of the major sponsors of the event so we caught up with some of his workmates as well.

The girls had their own hotel room across the hall from us, so it was really nice for them and for us to have our own spaces.  None of us seemed to sleep well that night.  Not sure if it was the night before the race jitters or that the hotel rooms were too hot or what but never mind.

We were all up at 6am on race day (Saturday 11 April) and headed down to breakfast at 6:30am.  The breakfast buffet was lovely with so much to choose from.  It was great to see so many other Xterra competitors in the dining room as well.  We even saw Hamish Carter and his family at breakfast.

We left the hotel and headed off for the event at about 7:15am after checking out as Melissa and my event started at 8am at the Blue Lake.  We arrived with plenty of time, un-hitched Brad's bike for his event at 9am.

8am came round pretty quick.  Melissa and I were ready and waiting at the start line.  Melissa was going to try to stay with me for the first bit of the event.  But as soon as the whistle went there was a surge forward and we were separated.  She took off - and good for her.  She did so well.  I was planning to walk but signed up for the run so if I wanted to run I could.  With everyone round me running at the start I decided to just go for it and run I did.  I ran for just over a kilometer before having to do some walking.  I met up with Karina for Paymark and we chatted pretty much the rest of the way.

Once we got off the road and onto the trail it got pretty muddy as it had been raining in Rotorua for most of the week and the night before.  The weather was trying to clear up for the events, but the wind was freezing.  On the 5.5km I did warm up so it wasn't to bad.  Karina was doing the 11km so as we came to the finish line we separated and I took off until I hit the soft sand and had to walk until it firmed up again and then just went for it and ran to the finish.

I just missed the start of Brad's event, but both the girls were there to see him off. Melissa made it to the finish line about 5-6 minutes ahead of me - not too bad.

Brad found the course a lot harder this year just because of all the mud and muck on the course.  He did really really well though.  He managed to have about the same finishing time as last year on his old bike.  We reckon had the course been dry he would have thrashed his previous time.  It was funny seeing all the mountain bikers return absolutely covered in mud.  Quite an adventure out on the course.

We watched some of the individual and teams start out on the triathlon.  Man they were amazing, especially those doing the full triathlon on their own.  Looking forward to taking part again next year and hopefully beating my time - maybe even running more of it.   If the weather is good I will wear my vibram shoes next time.

That afternoon we visited the Redwood forest.  This is one of our favourite places to visit when we go to Rotorua.  We went for a bit of a walk to try and loosen up after our events.

After checking out a couple of other spots we headed back home.
Another great time in Rotorua.  Looking forward to our next trip.

See ya next year Xterra!