double or nothing....

In true Melbourne style, winter returned with gusto today replacing yesterdays sunshine and heat with a cold, wet day where the dogs decided that no amount of coaxing would tempt them to join me in an early morning walk...

So I went solo, and returned to hear Timmy muttering about singing, whinning dogs.....oops. Maybe next time I'll drag them kicking and screaming or bribe them with peanut butter toast. (their favourite)

for those whom have never met them this is Rosie

and this is Lilly or silly lilly... they are the same bred but are so different in natures and looks. They are meant to be Groodles (golden retriever X poodle) and I am sure the only mix is that one is Golden retriever and the other is a poodle....but they are family

Now on to the doubles......

The first one is the one you may have seen a snippet of last week on my desk...

A six photo double layout using a 5x7, 4x6, 4(2x3)...the focus being on the large black and white photo of the two little treasures. Fletch and Domi are two peas in a pod destined to create mayhem and destruction at every turn.

The next is one of Nanny and Domi in one of there many Tea parties.....they are complete with little finger sticking out and all the etiquet the two of them can muster.

This is a 9 photo layout...using 2(4x6) and 7(2x3). I always take way too many photos and can not bear to delete any of them so I choose the best and enlarge and use the rest n varying sizes.

The chandeliers and lettering are Scrapware of course... I will journal in the white space under the journalling later....

The last double is a 10 photo layout....of saturday morning basketball or should I say Football.

They play hard and fast and the rules are pushed...lots of eyes closed and oouches from the gallery along with the odd giggle from people like me.

for this one there are 2(4x6) and the rest are 2x3

you may notice that I dont journal, well I do but often it may be a couple of months down the track. Why you may ask???? well often my brain is in create mode not intelligent-string-sentences-together-mode or maybe it is because my handwriting at that time is just plain ugly. so instead of ruining a layout I wait it out.... and when the time is right I will sit down with a stack of layouts to write on and then I neatly put them into albums and they are complete.... done and dusted. I forgot to add if I think the layout is too pretty to write on and it still needs a story or explaining I will write on the back of the layout so the story isn't lost forever.

Journalling is a really important reason that I do this, I have a memory like a sieve and I want to enjoy the story in years to come not the flowers or the paper or the embellishments. These things should be secondary to your stories but somewhere along the way I think we all forgot this,

but oh how I love the call of something new...

well thats it for me today

cheers

love naomi x

cards,cards and cards for monday...

I am loving making cards now, I am on the roll and I cant stop. Now I just have to learn how to address them and post them.....one step at a time Naomi.

I made five bird inspired cards for today, using Scrapware of course, the cricut machine and a little imagination and of course the new Indy girl range of Sassafrass Lass papers

These are my Bird on a branch cards... I patchworked one and made a nest out of twine. FOr the other I stamped Prima music stamp over the top and made a window in the card and nestled a beautiful frame from the Sentiments cricut cartridge.

for the next two I went with a birdhouse theme.... I made an actual birdhouse and stamped the birds inside the card and I decorated a scrapware birdhouse for the other one.

and for the final card I made a tulle flower with a heart and set it off with a set of wings... this one I have wrote on and I will be sending off to a dear friend of mine whom I think of most days...I am sending you positive thoughts always Coxy..

It is vintage inspired week at Scrapware so pop over and see what wonderful creations Hetty Hall has found to showcase this week.

I hope you like the cards this week..

cheers

love naomi x

friday night on sunday..... whoops

Two posts today.....

I have been having some fun in preparation for Paperific in a couple of weeks....Scrapware has some fantastic new products to be released and I wish ( oh how I wish I could show you) but I cant..... remember if you are in melbourne come and check out the Scrapware store and say hello cause I will be working and teaching there....

Check out the great classes that are running over the weekend here.

To commemorate Domi's big move into her own bed I did a layout while it was all fresh...

with gusto I went in working in my little 12" of free space and this happened... bugger

With gusto I went in working in my little 12" of free space and this happened... bugger

Lime green paint all over the photo and the layout. I had gone too far to start pulling it apart and really I am not submitting it so I went into recovery mode... how can I cover it?

reprint the photo the same size and chop out the wild little creature and mount it. That covered the majority of the accident and the other bit - oh well oops.. move away naomi move away

so then I did this...

so then I did this...

and that lasted approximately 3hours, until I finished this...

It is a little bit disjointed for my liking and I am should I will tweek it as it sis on my desk over the coming week until I am happy but that is what happens when I interupt the flow with a clean desk... nothing comes together well...

as you'll see later my desk has returned to it's previous state as christmas comes to town tonight... I have made some quick,easy and inexpensive gift tags for my christmas presents tonight.

see you later

cheers naomi x

just finding my way home....

For those that know me well you'll know that the last 2 years have been really bumpy. So in an effort to remember the 'me' in me I am going to spend one day a week doing something I love and learning a little about myself in the process, via the ART JOURNAL.

I have always wanted to attempt one, but self doubt and the feeling of being judged always won the war.... but not this time. I hope to round up some friends along the way to help me out because the talent of these girls never ceases to inspire and encourage me. I have a range of different artists from writers to painters to scrapbookers and artisans that I have admired and will be begging in the near future.

so I hope you enjoy the first installment of the Journal....

I have been working on the cover..... it is progressing nicely but still has along ways to go yet, but I am loving the process of getting painted and misted, glued and impastoed (if there is such a word)

as you can see the desk has gotten worse since last post... oops.... friday is clean day I hope. I did remove the lemon paint water that I featured last time but I figured I had already painted my favourite coffee cup so for the time being it is staying put.

I have printed the photos on the cardstock and then sealed them into place with beeswax. Love this stuff, seriously it gives a great finish and also you just reheat it to remove the piece that you dont like- which for indecisive people like me is a good thing. Try it sometime.

I have impasto medium and mist over the top... I am about to add some stamping and crackling over the top and then it will be time to put this sucker together. The front and back covers are canvas boards.... next week I will show you how I put together an album....I love making my own albums very addictive, and a good challenge.

The first page is the blog post...

'just finding my way home...'

I am challenging you all to think about this, have you lost your way or cant remember which way is up???and what are you going to do to get back on track. I hope you'll use this to spark off a page or write sometime I would love to hear or see what you come up with so email me soI can feature you next week..

So next week I will have my page and the album and the next theme.

And just something to make you smile or in my case cry...

Dominique got a big bed today and of course there was no pink in site because

'Buzz Lightyear in a space ranger mama, not a girl hpffff' She has been obsessed with Buzz for about a year now and when we talked about a bed she wanted a buzz donna from the get go... I thought my pink, barbie loving girlie girl she would have gone princess option, but nope not yet anyway.

This was her reaction to the new bed...she was so quick that I didn't have time to change settings on the camera and capture the moment of sheer,pure joy...

oh that feeling of bouncing on a new bed... we have all done it at some stage, and wasn't it the best?

.....but sometimes it is not about the perfect picture it is enjoying moment, before I burst into tears because my last baby has her own bed, I know she'll be in for a snuggle soon so that makes me feel better.... hehehe

Tomorrow I will have some traditional scrapbooking pages, but for now

good night all

love naomi x

sticking to the plan.....

Tuesday night is double night....

but first a giggle from the editor.

-went to bed at 2am chasing deadlines and chatting on facebook.

(that place will be the death of me)

-Woke at 530am for the run and to clear my head, was going to head to the gym but didn't feel like confronting people, fresh winter air....on my hunt for that I ran into a spider web, tripped over the dog and most likely work the ENTIRE neighbourhood as I tried to frantically remove spider and the web.... (look at the crazy lady)

- by 11am I had dropped a whole lasagne on the kitchen floor... the dogs got an extra treat today.

- decided to work out some frustrations by bleeching the bath in black clothing... not my cleverest trick to date. I now have an interesting tie-dyed smeared orange and black number.'BUMBLE BEE' springs to mind

-change top not really looking or caring at this stage went and picked up children and some 6 hours later my husband tells me my shirt is inside out.....(once again look at the crazy lady)

- You think the run of bad luck may have stopped there....nooooooo

I burnt dinner. Tim walked in the door and I walked out once again seeking fresh winter air...

so I am back happy and clearer for the moment, and now that you have pictured the crazy lady's day from hell here is the tuesday night Double.....

I love double layout pages mainly cause I always take way too many photos and feel the need to use them all....

First I need to show you what my desk looks like, I have very little room to move on the surface but it works... seriously I get a block when the room is clean. this is a double I am working on about Fletch and Domi. ( I love that photo it is like joy and giggles in a photo it speaks volumes to me)

Tea anyone???

I have been fighting one of those pesky little germs that the kids like to share and have had a really sore throat so hot water and lemon is what I have been drinking. The study is at the other end of the house and it was late and I needed to clean a paint brush...

so I did...lemon and all, oops the crazylady is all class

Doubles doubles and doubles

#1 - at a snails pace

is about snail races at Nanny's and Poppy's. There was cheering and cheating I love these photos. big photos and a really minimal page, just wanted to get the story down before I lost it in my horrible memory

Sometimes I think I forget why I started scrapbooking, it wasn't about making the page pretty, or creating a masterpiece it was simply about telling my story, the kids story so I can keep re-living all the aspects of our lives when my brain gets all mushy....

#2- Lucky U

this is from a Inspiredblueprints sketch. Love sketches when I am struggling for placement. sometimes it may be a certain element that sparks another idea and off I go and in the end it looks nothing like the original sketch... This is the original sketch, I dare you to give it a go???

#3- Nanna's garden

At christmas the kids and I went to my parents place. Mum has the most amazing garden the colours are so rich and vibrant. the kids spent from sunup to sundown outside looking and catching bugs and lizards and frogs. once again lots of photos...

So that is it from me tonight I have to go and finish some class projects for Paperific and finish the double and maybe clean up alittle in here.... Fletch trod on a pin this afternoon and yelled at me that I hassle him to clean his room why dont I clean my room?

I have no come back for that- sorry Fletch.

Night all see you on thursday for the first page in the art journal....come and do one with me I would love to post them on here.....come on please.

cheers to all

love naomi x

so NOT a card maker... but I am trying

I am crafty.... and you think I would have no need to buy cards, right?

but nooooooooo... I am terrible at cards. giving them, making them, sending them.

I have issues.

I thought I would try to do CARDS every monday on the blog, to dig myself out of the rutt I have made for myself. In a word lets just say I have 'struggled' and sworn and tossed out many a piece of cardstock over the last couple of days.

But persistance is the Key.

I am relatively happy with the four cards I came up with.... but they are a start.

I have baby's popping p in the near future so I thought I would get the jump on it. I have started to stock pile the card formula in multiple colours like pink, blue, green and yellow. I thought I might try one in primary colours as well. For those non-traditional types. ( I know a few of those)

I literally pulled out everything, The MM slice I haven't played with it in about a year and cut with the Vintage findings cartridge that was still in it's packet.... The frames are devine in the set. And I rediscovered my love of the cuttlebug and embossing plates and dots... swiss dots, polka dots and big dots, love them

The sewing machine and the inks and paint all got a go in this little card.....of course it has to have scrapware. (the mini stars) Another product in my stash I had never used was one of those tiny Basic Grey stamps, they are about 3 or 4 dollars and are really cute but sadly I never used it. The baby banner I stamped it directly on the card and then again onto Kraft and then cut out the little Triangles with the letters in them, I really like how it came out

There is of course layering and foam tape, never go with out those two elements.

And while I am on my cloud addiction here are the other two cards. I forgot to take pictures of the insides... I have stamped and decorated them too... oh well next week

(LIVE AND LEARN, at least I did them)

The rocket and the kite are of course Scrapware as well as the lettering.... nothing is complete with out a little chipboard.

So here are my simple cards and my first MONDAY NIGHT CARD entry....

Wednesday is a layout night

Hey by the way the classes for Paperific are up here I hope to see you there,come and have a giggle with me.

Have a good night

cheers naomi x