VIENNA

A few weeks ago we went to the night market at the Pakuranga Mall, we discovered this little Asian lady turning names into amazing works of art. You write down the name and then in just a few minutes she turns it into a beautiful sign, and if you like it you pay for it and get to keep it. She then added a little glitter to each letter - a step that I personally could have done without but it was too late to stop her. It cost $10 and I loved it!

I haven't decided how I will display it yet but will make it into a wall plaque for Vienna's bedroom.

Christmas Cards 2010

On Christmas Eve Ashley reminded me of the fact that I hadn't made a Christmas card for Vienna ... so ...

while he was creating a QI inspired card for me



I quickly whipped up this totally cute card for Vienna.

It came together so quickly and yet looked sooooo fantastic - Yay! I love it when that happens.

PS Thanks the to the wonderful Gypsy who used her cleverness to take out the star light that looked like it was coming out of Vienna's head in the photo I used. You can check out Gypsy's amazing creative works at http://www.seeshareremember.blogspot.com/ she also does fantastic custom albums and is on the Caz Dezign design team with Glenna, Tania and Me.

Wholesome ...

My word for the year is:

... mostly in regards to our eating. I aim for us to eat whole foods, to eat meals made from whole ingredients not from prepackaged ingredients which often contain hidden undesirable ingredients.

To remind me of this on a daily basis I made this 12 x12 inch canvas when I was up at camp clean in January and have it in my kitchen. I love that I finally found a use for this gorgeous wrapping paper that has been in my stash for ages.

Happy Valentines Day 2011 Part 3

The 3rd and and most important part of this Valentine's Day installment is the creation for Ashley.

It started as a wooden box of dominos for sale at a $2 shop. I freed the box of it's dominoes and gave it a quick coat of white paint a few weeks ago in preparation then I finished this project off at Friday Night Scrap at Caz Dezign Scrapbooking just in time for Valentine's Day. Some paper, rub ons and flowers from my stash, a couple of pieces of bling pinched from Carrie's stash (I forgot to take mine!), and a quick meeting with an ink pad.

Then I added some mini candy papers and filled each paper with sweets for my sweet. Mini glo hearts, pink smarties, message love hearts and rock candy with hearts.

Happy Valentine's Day Ashley xxx.

Happy Valentines Day 2011

Vienna started Valentine's Day early this year by taking these gorgeous 'cute as a button' cookies to share with her school friends on her last day on Friday.

I also took some to share at Friday night scrap.

I love how cute these turned out! They were they coming together of two different inspirations. Ages ago I saw someone on the internet make button cookies similar to these and then recently I found this awesome free printable at http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/ where she was using it to give a gift of covered button earings. I combined the two ideas, put my own twist on it and ...

The photos aren't showing off the gorgeous shades of pink but you get the idea.

Each button is a 2cm diameter yummy butter cookie covered in coloured fondant.

Happy Birthday Emily

Back in January my Goddaughter Emily turned 3.

I made her this quick but totally cute birthday card to hold her birthday bonus bond. I just love it when things are effortless to make and look fantastic!

Creative Minds ...

Last week I discovered a new blog: http://kensworldinprogress.blogspot.com/ . It has great crafts and one thing that really tickled my fancy was the quote in his header:

'creative minds are rarely tidy'

it inspired a little creativity in me and after thinking on it for the night I made this for myself

and then because it is such a cool quote and nice to do things for others, made these for some of my crafty friends.

Ages ago Gypsy sent me a link to some very cool paper doily crafts and then recently she got busy with some of the small doily's I gave her http://seeshareremember.blogspot.com/2010/12/handmade-christmas.html, this inspired me to use some myself and I think they look great in this project.

I don't have step by step photos but I rounded the corners on the patterned paper, inked the edges, sprayed the doily's with walnut ink, printed the quote on bazzil, inked the edges, put the ric rac through the xyron, added some mini flowers from Caz Dezign (http://www.cazdezign.co.nz/), mini brads and a tiny flower bling.

Nappy Cake for Baby Bellhouse

Robert and Rana's baby is due to be born on Wednesday 8th December (that's tomorrow!!!) and I am very much looking forward to being an Aunty!

To go with the great big bag of goodies we have bought for the baby I made a nappy cake. These come in all shapes and sizes but I have settled on a design that works for me, although it does change a little each time I make it.

I can't wait until the baby arrives!

My Heart Is Yours

I can't believe that she has grown so fast, almost a year has past and my baby is growing up ... this is back from when she was still Tiny and not yet Little.

Bless This Girl

Teeny tiny baby Renee all rugged up for a winter visit to Dunedin.

Hammered

You've never tried Jagermiester Carrie? We had better remedy that ...


famous last words!!!


But it wasn't Carrie that was hammered ... she was sober enough to take this photo ... of Ashley, hammered!!!

Stack 'em Up

Camp layout 3

Renee and Emily with their cousins Taneka and Kauri at Emily's 2nd Birthday party. I was stoked to have caught this moment of silliness and fun - especially as it ended in a squashed mess a few seconds later!

This page came together quickly and was fun! Yay!

Camp Challenge - October 2010

Camp Layout 2

Each Scrapbook Camp we have a camp challenge where we are given a number of items and a list of instructions and then let loose to create with them. Sometimes I am really inspired by the challenge, other times not so much! This camp I felt a bit of pressure to the challenge as last camp I didn't do it. This time I set out photos twice and then ended up making a layout that was not in anyway the challenge. I think it was the pale baby blue plastic slide that was screwing with my mojo ... so out came the Staz-On and it was no longer baby blue but now matched the felt stars. One of the rules was that we had to do at least one sentence of journalling ... there was a bit of discussion as to how little we could actually get away with and still complete the challenge and be available for judging - I think Glenna won this discussion with her reasoning that if you spelt out the date it counted as journalling! I had a little help from Gypsy with my journalling - thanks hun!

I love this photo of baby Jacob's feet and the black and white photo helped me to not have to match the blue embellishments to the photo.

I really like the finished layout and am very happy with it.


If you want to check out what items we had to work with and what the rules etc were go here http://cazdezign.blogspot.com/2010/09/october-scrapcamp-challenge.html and if you want to see all the finished layouts (including Shannon's winning page) go here http://cazdezign.blogspot.com/2010/10/october-challenge-layouts.html

May Mini Book

So ... I am a bit behind in the mini books for Vienna considering how quick and fun they are to do, it is that I am behind in printing the photos that is the problem!

Anyway, here is the May installment ...

Sleeping Beauty

Camp Layout 1

How cute is this baby! And how cute is this page! It all came together so easily with gorgeous paper that Tania gave me when Vienna was born. Of course having a great photo of a gorgeous girl all tuckered out after Emily's birthday party helped.

Family Reunion

Loving this page - so simple but it just works so well. Yay for Tania's cool font and for sharing!

Our branch of the Bellhouse family was sooooo small compared to all the others. But we have been having lots of babies in the past year so it is growing! Yay!

Happy New Year 2010

I used another one of Glenna's cool new border punches to create this page - and then threaded ribbon through the cutouts. The background cardstock is SHINY gold and the 2010 felt numbers are from my use it or lose it stash.

Vienna looks so little!

Love

When Robert and Rana came home from Aussie for our cousin Alison's wedding to Gareth we went for an explore in Takapuna and discovered a field of buttercups. We took some very cool photos and at camp I finally finished making this for Robert ...

1st Christmas Stocking

Using sparkly brads from last years gift swap, also using Glenna's awesome border punch. Featuring the awesome handsewn mini Christmas stocking that I made for Vienna last year. I love it when things turn out as cool as I imagined.

Emily Turns 2

Sweet wee photos of this busy little girl standing still for a moment ... she looks so sweet, who would believe that she is actually a little rascal!