No Idea What To Call This Post...

Sorry there was no blog post yesterday. That was so not my intention. I kinda miscalculated a little. I thought the BYOC Friday for the Lilypad (the big monthly release) was going to be NEXT week...and then found out it's this week. So I had a very busy day downloading and tagging kits like crazy. I finished late and had totally forgotten I'd not updated my blog and by then I was zapped of all energy. I even intended to do a layout with the new BYOC stuff yesterday too, but there simply was no time so I'm off to change that in a little bit...

In the meantime I can share this layout which was done for Cathy Zielske's BPS class. If you have followed my blog for a while, you know that I have been trying to catch up on the last few weeks of the class. This layout was the first layout assignment for the last week of the class. I have another 2 more left to show after this. Which still need to be photographed...

Best Buddies + Beads...

This morning I have been working on a digital layout which I have just finished. However since it's a kit by a designer that will start at SSD soon (like this week I believe), the kit has not officially been released there yet, so I'm not allowed to post it here yet.

Instead I have also been playing with this sweet kit by Kay Miller called "Little Boy Joy". I really love the colour combination of this kit. Here's a little preview pic of it:

So sweet, don't you think? I really love that cute little turtle at the bottom so I must make something with him one day. For now I used the little dog and made this card:

A few days ago I found some misplaced jewellery in a little box. Amongst other things there were a pair of turquoise and silver earrings I'd totally forgotten I had. I really liked them and started thinking about where I might have bought them in the first place. But I really could not remember...

After having worn them for a day it suddenly dawned on me ---> I made them! LOL! I just started laughing when it came to me - no wonder I couldn't remember where I'd bought them. Anyway, the point of this story was that it really made me want to play with beads again. So I think that's what I might do now, go and hunt for my bead making supplies :)

Home Sweet Home...

Sigh. Such nice weather over the weekend and now? Dark and rainy. And they say it will continue more or less like this until Thursday - oh well. I've just been out for a cold walk under the umbrella to the post office. Brr! I'll be looking forward to some nicer weather on Friday. Or at least they say so now :)

[Supplies: Where The Heart Is by Zoe Pearn (SSD)]

Above is a hybrid card that I made as part of my assignments for the Sweet Shoppe Designs CT now in April. I really enjoyed this sweet kit by Zoe Pearn. Great for "moved house" cards etc.

Right I'm off to go through some folders of photos and try to make a selection (I hate this work...takes such long time) to hopefully get ready and sent off to Photobox today. Wish me luck please :)

What Kind Of Scrapper Are You...

Earlier I took a fun little poll at Creating Keepsakes about "what kind (or colour!) of scrapper are you". Check it out here if you want a few minutes to do something fun & silly.

I'm apparently:

"Yellow Scrapbooker

Scrapbooking is more than a hobby for you-it's a way to connect with others. You may enjoy attending crops or chatting with other scrapbookers online. Your photos may often feature you and your chums. Your pages have a cute, happy vibe."

Hrm...kinda true I think...but then again so would the result be for any of the other colours too LOL! Also I'm not sure if this is supposed to mean that I use a lot of yellow as it's definitely one of my least used colours, both in scrapbooking and life in general. But I guess it's only a bit of fun anyway! :)

I'm leaving you with another layout done during the cyber crop. This one is inspired by a class by "3DJean"...even though mine turned out nothing like the original class layout.

Animals + DSi...

Before I go onto talking about the Nintendo DSi and some questions I got...

This is a digital layout that I made this morning for the Sweet Shoppe CT:

[Supplies: Inspired By Peppermint - Bree Clarkson, Another Mandy - Darcy Baldwin, My Sequin Obsession - Eva Kipler, Wild At Heart - Julie Billingsley, Painted Chippy Buttons - Libby Weifenbach (all from SSD)]

We got our Nintendo DS Lite:s traded in and exchanged for DSi:s yesterday evening. Yay! So onto some comments/questions that I got about that:

Sue - thanks for your thoughtful tip of saying "make sure there are no stickers or names on them or they won't trade them". No problem about that (I would never dream of adding stickers etc LOL!). In fact we got huge, huge praise for them! They couldn't believe how good they looked (and we have used them a lot and had them since the day the DS Lite were released in this country), boxes immaculate etc. They guy at the till even said he was going to buy one of ours himself as his dad wanted one - so that was cool :)

Jackie - you asked what I thought about the DSi "and was it worth trading it in". Good question! I'll try my best to answer but please keep in mind that I have only had mine little over 12 hours and most of that time has been night=sleep time. So there might be lots that I have not discovered yet. Okay. Firstly we both had white DS Lite:s and we traded them in for white DSi:s...so looks wise it's not a huge difference. You have the camera lens(es) of course and I think the DSi might be a tiny, tiny bit longer (but this is just a feeling I have). The power button is in a new place. The finish of the console is different...while the Lite was shiny this is matte. And the screens are a little brighter and bigger.

I haven't had time to play around with the camera yet so I don't know how good it is. But then again for occasions where you'd really want a camera and you *know* you will take photos, you would probably have brought a digital camera anyway. But you can take photos, create slide shows etc with the DSi. The sound is definitely better and I have read that you can play around with sounds, make recordings etc...and you can also listen to music (AAC files) which you add to an SD card and play via your DSi. Again I have not had the time to try this so I don't know just how good (or not) the sound quality would be for music.

I guess the main thing for the new DSi is the on-line stuff. The access to "DSi Wares"...games. You can buy "points" (you know, similar to iTunes cards from shops etc) which you can buy games with on-line, in the Nintendo shop, with your console. As we logged on we got given 1000 free points. I'm not sure if this is a temporary thing or it will always be the case for new DSi:s. I didn't buy an DSi Wares game with my points as there were not too many available yet but I think this bit will be huge. Also you can download a free browser and surf the net. I have downloaded this but not yet had the chance to try it.

Anyway this is becoming and essay LOL! Hope this gave you a good view of the differences Jackie :)

Play Time...

The cyber crop took a different turn with some digital scrapping and a template supplied by Kate Hadfield, especially made for the crop, on Tuesday. This is my take on the template which I made yesterday...

I used a brand new kit called "Saddle Up" by Kay Miller to create the page. Super cute kit and perfect if you're into horse riding. With which in fact my layout had absolutely nothing to do! LOL! No horse/horse related item in sight and the photos are of my mum and niece. But I though the whole cuteness of the kit went very well with baby photos :)

I'm really excited today as the plan tonight is that we're going to take our Nintendo DS Lite:s and trade them in for DSi:s instead. Definitely want a white one (my DS Lite is white and I have always been very happy that I made that choice) so we have already called ahead to the shop to check that they have some stock. And we're eating out tonight on the way back from the shopping centre so I'm really looking forward to a nice evening out :)

Nice Surprise...

I got a nice surprise totally out of the blue last night. I got a PM saying I'd been picked as the 'featured hybrid artist' at DST. I feel very honoured to be picked and that certainly put a smile on my face :)

Sue you asked about the URL for the ScrapPad. It's a closed forum so I can't give out the URL. Hope you understand - sorry about that.

And talking about that and the cybercrop going on there, here's another layout which I did yesterday afternoon:

This is inspired by a class by Lousette. I'm so in love with that swiss dotted Bazzill. I have used it now on 3 layouts in the last 2 days and I think I only have about 4 sheets left. *sob* Anyone know where they do a good price for it in the UK please?

I'm off on a walk in the nice weather now :)

Scrapping For Fun...

It's a long time since I sat down and just did a normal paper layout just for me. You know...no deadlines, not for any DT/CT work, not for a class...but just doing it. So the cyber crop at the ScrapPad which is week long and started on Saturday came at the perfect time. Okay so it's kinda like doing a layout for a class, but not really... as I tend to never really do cyber crop classes "properly". Instead I just look at the finished layout and let that take me wherever it does :)

I have really enjoyed doing some proper paper scrapping yesterday afternoon and today. I have focused a lot on hybrid lately (getting Creative Team assignments done) so this was a really nice change. The layout above was inspired by a class by Mafswife and I had lots of fun playing with my little bird "sheers" by Maya Road etc.

Right I'm off to get some more paper scrapping done while I'm on a roll :)

Fantastic Weather...

Wow I have just sat outside having lunch in April! Amazing! The weather is great here today...blue sky and sunshine. Just makes me smile so much :)

Thanks to Randi for leaving a comment on yesterday's post with some Nintendo DS game suggestions - I really appreciate it. I'm looking for some game recommendations so if you have a DS, please take a look at this post. Thank you.

This is a layout using some photos from my mum & dad taken on a trip to Las Palmas. I did the layout as part of Cathy Zielske's BPS class.

...and talking about that class. I have caught up! Yes you read it, I have finished the last three weeks of the class which I couldn't do while the class was run back in December. I still need to take photos of the last three layouts for "week 12", but I have finished them. Feels so great that I made the "effort" to catch up and complete the class, rather than going for the easier option of not doing those last few weeks. Such a nice feeling :)

Cards + DS Games...

Before I show you the cards I have made with a super cute kit by Mindy Terasawa, I wanted to talk Nintendo DS games. Basically to see if anyone can recommend any good games please? :) My favoruite type definitely has to be puzzle games with the odd simulation or platform game (like Mario) thrown in. So if you can recommend anything, please leave me some suggestions! In the meantime I'll share my current favourite game which I really like:
If you like puzzle games like Sudoku etc...where you have to work out what goes where, I think you will really like it. Also if you have ever played Picross then this is the same only with different colours added too.

Now over to the playing which I have been doing with the "Love Bandits" kit by Mindy Terasawa:

The little characters by Mindy are just the cutest! These are some cards which I have made using the kit:

Hope you're all having a great weekend! I'm off to play some more Colour Cross :)

A Different Owl...

To continue the owl theme which has kinda taken over my blog in the last week (how did that happen?! LOL!) I can now post the card that I made yesterday. It's using some new goodies which were released at the Lilypad this morning...

[Supplies: Grad Expectations - Kate Hadfield, Jacque Larsen, A Perfect Day - Kaye Winiecki, Flergs (both from the Lilypad), Writes A Lot - Darcy Baldwin (font - from SSD)]

Just before I started typing this post I finished off my latest online class for Mel & Jill at ATDML. It should be online some time next week, so I'll post a link here then.

Leaving you with some images that I borrowed from Amazon of the stuff that Ross managed to get for me yesterday...

Love it, love it, love it :)

Wild Thing...

*happy* I just got a phone call from Ross saying that he'd managed to find the bag!! I'm so happy and I can't wait to see it tonight :) And he'd found some owl coasters and a glasses case (which I've been after for ages) too. *smile*

Today I've been having a busy day designing cards. I started on 4 last night and continued this morning. Plus I have started another 3 too. Four are finished now but I have only taken photos of two so far. One is for some new releases at the Lilypad tomorrow so I can't add it to my blog yet. But I have been playing with the super cute "Wild About You" kit by Kay Miller:

Kay Miller's kits are just prefect for cards and if you like cute things (especially animals) like me then you really can't go wrong with this kit :)

Back to making more cards...

Owls On My Brain...

...or so I think LOL! I kinda...eh...went to the shop again and...well...I mean, who can resist owls? :) Isn't this pattern just the cutest? :)

I really, really wanted a bag which they call the "Bowling Bag"...but they didn't have it. But I know Ross is on the case and he was going to see if he could find another branch that might have it. Anyway these are the bits I got:

A cute pen and pencil set which I know I will use daily :)

And this bag which was labelled as a "wash bag/toiletries bag" but I don't really think it's big enough. You could use it for toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant etc but as soon as you'd want to take something like bottles (shower gel, shampoo and so on...) you'd be really pushing it. So I didn't buy it as a toiletries bag but instead I will use it as a make-up travel bag :)

A binder. I always find myself needing binders when I have none spare so this will be ready for next time. Perfect!

Just a little handy folder. Ideal for travel documents (which will indeed be what I will use it for).

And finally something totally different and non-owl related. A roll of super cute cupcake wrapping paper. (And yes I only bought one roll...but to show the pattern a bit better I put two pictures together). I'm thinking I will use this to cover something with (book, binder or something) rather than using it for presents...we'll see. Or maybe a bit of both.

Now I'm off to make a little "to do" list for today (using my new owl pen!) and then I'm going to tidy my desk & my noticeboard (and add my new owl magnets from Monday)...while multitasking and backing up my hard drive at the same time. If you haven't done a back-up for a while, PLEASE join me and do a backup TODAY...NOW...you never know if tomorrow is going to be too late...

Those Owls...Still...

I can't get over the super cute owl stationery ...I just want to keep looking at it LOL! I have it on my desk next to me but it's really not practical as I can just about find enough space to type this :) I need to put the stuff away (ie. magnets on the magnetic board, binder on a shelf etc) but I really don't want to. Having a very small desk(to go with my very small scrapping room), it's only just over a metre long, it kinda makes it a necessity to keep it as clear as possible or there won't be any scrapping done. :)

And talking about scrapping...

This is for "week 11" of "Design Your Life". All the patterned papers are from my "scraps" ziplock bag...which makes you feel even better when you scrap :)

And finally a few replies to yesterday's comments:
Marja - lucky you with the owl stuff :) This shop did have quite a few bits left (I doubt I even bought half of different owl items that they had). I so wanted a different owl bag too but the last one was literally snapped up in front of my nose. I picked it up, looked at it, put it down, looked at the item above it and bent down to get the bag again and it was gone.

Marja, Kerry, Jana - the police came around yesterday and filed a proper crime form with a crime number etc. Apparently they are going to send around a policeman in the next few days to "knock on neighbour's doors for leads" and...well I guess basically have a general "talk" to the kids without actually accusing someone as such. I think that should "scare" them enough from doing something like this again. We hope...

Owls, Owls & Owls...

I'm in a good mood and bad mood today. So let's talk nice things... Cute things! We went shopping today and I got the cutest owl items ever...

A bag, a binder, a super cute owl cup (for hot chocolate - yum!), some magnets, badges, a passport cover and a super cute owl tin with coloured pencils (with owls on them!!) inside. *happy girl*

(I'm not so happy that we came out this morning to find some kids had scratched the car, writing/scribbles on the driver's door and side of the bonnet. What's worse is that we know it's one/some of the neighbour's kids - one of two house - but we can't prove it. The police is coming out in the next few hours. Grrrr!)

Happy Easter...

I hope you're all having a great Easter weekend! The sun has been shining here and we've had a fantastic day! :)

I'm off to have a Chinese takeaway in a bit and then some Easter chocolate tonight...yum! :)

Another One...

Here's another layout from "week 11" of the "Design Your Life" class:

This one I'm not 100% sure on. I don't know what it is. I just found it really hard making it...I just couldn't get the sketch to work, I mean...work for *me*. Nothing I did I really liked. Though at the end I liked it more than I did when I was halfway done. LOL! Madness! Not sure what that means :)

Just One To Go...

One. ONE. O-N-E. That's all. One single layout left to do for the "Design Your Life" class by Cathy Zielske and then I'm finished. Caught up. For those of you wondering what I'm talking about, Cathy held a 3 month class at BPS from Oct-Dec. I was away and unable to do the last 3 weeks...so for about 2 weeks now I have been trying to catch up on the class and get all outstanding layouts done. And now I only have one single layout left to do - yay! :) It's such a great class and I'm really pleased I made a point of getting those last few weeks done too.

I was hoping that I could have gotten that final layout done today. But I got some new pre-releases at the Lilypad and I wanted to get a layout done & uploaded for the Creative Team before the official release tomorrow. So that's what I'm busy doing at the moment...

I did this layout just the other day. Another one for the DYL class. This one was the first assignment for week 11 and I really enjoyed doing it. Cathy even supplied us with a template for PSE to get the four photos into a cool little photo strip.

Get Ready For Super Cuteness...

If you, like me, like super cute things then I think you agree that Easter is a great time. I mean, what's more cute than bunnies, little chicks, and pastel coloured eggs? :)

And I have found the most *perfect* digital Easter kit for me. Really honestly, if I could have had someone designing ME an Easter kit, I think it would be very close to this one. I was in love as soon as I saw it. *smile*

What am I talking about? Kay Miller's "Easter Joy"! Isn't it just THE cutest ever? :)

At first my obvious thought was to make some Easter cards. But then I spotted this cute basket template by Heather Roselli at SSD so I decided to use that instead.

The basket was pretty straight forward to make and I really enjoyed putting all the design together for the sides of the basket.

I always find that it's hard to get a good glue for projects like this. My usual Herma (which I use for all scrapping) is not strong enough. Double-sided tape looks like it works but a few hours later it peels apart when you least expect it...

This time I decided to go for a wet glue - Glossy Accents - and yes you have to hold it in place for a little while so the glue sets but it really doesn't take that long. So I think that will be this glue to use for future projects. If you have found another good glue for boxes etc, please do share :)

I'm off to work on a birthday card for my dad now :)

Thanks...

A big thank you to everyone who left ideas for me on yesterday's border-punch-storage-dilemma. Head is now full of ideas and I'm considering different options and investigating what's around. I'll be back and let you know how it goes :)

Pinky - I do like the idea of sending the punches to you so you can store them for me...only thing is that I use them quite a lot so I'm not sure it would be such a practical solution ;) *giggle*

This is a 12x12 double layout for the "Design Your Life" class by Cathy Zielske. Wow it was big to work on! I don' really do double layouts very often any more and certainly not 12x12. As usual I have done a fantastic (not!) job of taking photos of it and the right page looks anything but straight I'm afraid...which it of course is in real life.

Desperately Need Ideas Please...

I'm stuck when it comes to my pretty Martha Stewart border punches - this is NOT a good idea for storage at all. In fact, dumped on the window sill doesn't even count as "storage"...

Please, I need ideas. How do/would you store border punches? They are such an awkward shape that I really can't think of a good way of storing them. And I desperately need to store them in a handy way with easy access. I thought of hanging them in some way but there seems to be no good way of being able to "hook" anything into/onto them because of how they are moulded. Please leave a comment if you have any ideas - I'd really, really appreciate it :)

And talking about comments I have some that needs replying to:

Melanie - yes I did get to watch Twilight and enjoyed it very much :) I tried to watch without too many expectations, so I don't know if that made any difference, but I really liked it and thought it was much better than I "dared hoping". But I do wonder how much sense the film would have made if you'd not read the book first...? I guess I will never know LOL! We watched the film on Saturday evening and yesterday we watched the 2nd DVD with all the extras. There was much more on that second DVD than I thought there would be and some parts were REALLY interesting to see. I'm really pleased I got the Special Edition with 2 DVDs now :)

Ruth - just wanted to say "thank you" for taking the time to leave your first comment on my blog. I really appreciate it :)

Now...yesterday was a long day. Why? We went here...

...and had a amazing day out. :) Took like a million photos (well, maybe not quite!) and had a really great time. I'm really pleased with how some of the photos turned out...though of course small blog photos does not really show that at all.

Meet Mr Camel...

And there were loads of lions. Of course all the photos had to be taken through the car window when it came to the lion enclosure. I'm glad I have got 10x zooooooom on my camera :)

This peacock was amazing and this photo (in the original size) is absolutely fantastic in reality...unfortunately making it small for the blog totally lost the "wow" feeling.

And the final photo I chose for this post is Mr (or is it Mrs?) Giraffe. And no I did not climb the trees to take this. On the ground with full zooooooom :)

Exhausted...

Been out all day. Exhausted now LOL! Will tell you all about today's adventures tomorrow when I have recovered - now I'm going to collapse on the sofa with a big glass of ice cold water.

Happy Girl...

The title of this post was going to be "bleugh" LOL! As I woke up feeling a migraine coming on and had no energy whatsoever. Took some migraine tablets asap and then went for a walk. It was pretty nice weather but quite early so still very cool which was nice for the head.

Anyway as I launch blogger to start typing this, the postman comes and delivers:

The 2 DVD Special Edition of Twilight. Yay! I pre-ordered it probably about 2 months ago now and I think I was pretty lucky to get it today as I believe (?) it's not officially released here until Monday.

Because we were away over the Christmas period (when it was shown at the cinemas here) we never got to watch the film. So I'm really excited about this! Of course I have read all the books and totally loved them but I also know that the film has got quite mixed reviews so I'm going to try (!) and watch it without too high expectations...

Anyway, I better get away from this computer monitor and rest my poor head or there won't be any Twilight watching for me tonight...

Pretty Spring Colours...

Yesterday I mentioned that I was working with some new pretty spring kits to be go on sale at the Lilypad today. And the April BYOC kits have now been released. Such pretty, pretty spring pastels. :)

Since it's the big release of the month there are so many kits to choose from but I've tried my best to pick a few of my personal favourites as usual.

Kate's doodles are...well, irresistible as always...

These tape bits by Jenna are just so useful:

And finally buttons. I can't get enough of buttons whether it's for normal paper scrapping or digital scrapping and these cute felt ones by Amy do just the trick:

So what did I come up with using the new BYOC? I did the layout below yesterday afternoon and I'd hoped to get a second one done too but the time ran away and it was impossible. So I'm working on a second one this morning instead. Those cute Easter doodles by Kate will definitely be featured :)

[Supplies: Felt Buttons by Amy Wolff, Flairy Floss - Elements by Flergs, Flairy Floss - Frames by Flergs, Flairy Floss - Papers by Flergs, Funky Strips by Jenna Desai (all from the Lilypad),
And I Quote...Laughter by MandaBean (SSD)]