Teacher's Birthday Gift

Tomorrow is already the last day of term 1. During the Easter break it is Renee's teacher's birthday. One of the class reps thought it would be nice to do a card for her. I offered to make the card, but thought the logistics of getting the card round to the whole class for the children to write something, I'd thought to make her a little birthday book with artwork from the children.

Last week I quickly cut up a few sheets of cardstock in 4" x 4" squares and passed them onto the parents for each child to create something for their teacher. We will be giving the birthday book to the teacher first thing in the morning.

All the children have done their own little artwork, but in the photo collage below I've just shown Renee's creation as I didn't ask for permission from any of the other parents to post their child's.

Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics | Patterned Paper + Alpha Stickers + Die-Cut Stickers: Bella Blvd | Scallop Die: Papertrey Ink | Ribbon: Paperchase | Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts | Tag: Making Memories | Corner Rounder: EK Success | Button | Label Die: Spellbinder Nestabilities (Labels One) | Marker: ZIG EK Success| Label Stamp: 7Gypsies

I really enjoyed making this little book from scratch and I'm pleasantly surprised how sturdy it is. Let's hope she'll like it too.

Valentine's Day...

...that's the movie my friend Beth and her daughter Lauren, Rebecca and I will be seeing this morning.

As promised I would show you my Valentine's album, which is created for Papercrafts Inspirations' February 2010 issue. Two weeks ago I received my copy of the magazine and I was overwhelmed with the way they managed to feature the album. It's a three page spread. I struggled a little to take good pictures, but I think they did a marvellous job. It even had a tiny picture of it on the front cover!







Below are the pictures I took (beware.... picture overload):

For a list of supplies please refer to the magazine, or else contact me if you have any questions.

And finally the card I made for my Valentine...

Supplies

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Cardstock

Patterned Paper + Die-cut labels: Pink Paislee 'Cupid'

Ribbon: Paperchase

Heart Punch + Border Punch: Martha Stewart

Button: Making Memories

Pearl: KaiserCraft

Machine Stitching

Still there?? Thank you for your visit and we'll meet again soon... Happy Valentine's Day!

Girls Day Out + Brother-in-Law's birthday

Rebecca and I had a very busy day. After a failed attempt of Ruben and Rebecca's swimming lesson this morning, as a little baby had been sick in the pool which forced the pool to be closed, the two of us went to Alexandra Palace in London where the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show was being held this weekend. The journey took an hour and a half and we had to travel by train, two tubes and another train to get there. I can tell you it was extremely busy and very disappointing. Not to be repeated. Besides the disappointment the view over the city from Alexandra Palace was amazing, and the weather was beautiful. On the way back we took the bus back to Finsbury Park, hopped on the tube to Piccadilly Circus and did a little bit of retail therapy along Regent Street. When we got to Oxford Circus we got back on the underground and headed home.

David was already busy preparing dinner when we got in. Rebecca and I were only stopping off for a short while, as we were off to see 'Fame'. I must say, not a great movie. I personally prefer the old version. We were finally home again at 8.45 p.m. Just in time to watch this evening's results of Strictly Come Dancing. Rebecca was pretty beat after all the excitement today and decided not even to read before going to sleep.

Today is also David's eldest brother's birthday. Of course I made Paul a card. I'm a strong believer that when something works you shouldn't be afraid to use it again. I've done something like this before, and I liked it, so here's the encore:

Supplies - Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, Patterned Paper: Pebbles Inc., ribbon, Alphabet sticker: American Crafts, Button: SEI, Circle Punch: Fiskars, Circle Die: Spellbinder Nestabilities, Marker: ZIG (Brown), Corner Rounder: Woodware

A few weeks ago we spent the day at my brother-in-law's house, where most of the Gibbons' cousins were together. I took the opportunity to take some pictures as the weather conditions were excellent for it. I used my 50mm lens for all the shots. Besides the card I made for Paul, I also created a little mini album of all four of his daughters. It was a surprise, but I had my sister-in-law as an accomplice to provide me with a short list to describe each of his girls and their relationships to add to the album. Besides 5 of their characteristics he also thought they were all very beautiful. That's what became the title:

On the next pages are Louise's children. Even though they are not Paul's daugthers (!) I felt they needed to be included. And who wouldn't they are gorgeous:

Supplies - Chipboard mini album: Basic Grey, Patterned Paper: October Afternoon, Alphabet stickers: American Crafts Foam + Chipboard Thickers, Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, Pearls: KaiserCraft, Die-Cut flowers: Quickutz, Butterfly Punch: Martha Stewart, Clear Stamps: Autumn Leaves + Inkadinkado + Little Yellow Bicycle + Technique Tuesday, Markers: ZIG + Stabilo + Kikki.K, Ink: Staz'On (Jet Black) + Stampin'Up (Turquoise), Buttons: SEI + various, Ribbon: Haberdashery, Clear sheet: Shortcut Sheetloads

It's almost 11 p.m.... time for me to rest my head as well. Tomorrow's another sunny day. Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day + Hello Summer!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads! We treated David to breakfast in bed this morning. This afternoon we are going to see Transformers at the cinema. While David was away on his trip around the world I did a little photo shoot with the children. I had this fun idea and they were totally up for it. They each wore one of David's shirts while rummaging around on the bed. With the pictures done so early I relaxed and let it come to last Friday to put the album together. In my head I'd already made 10 different mini albums, but nothing could pull me over to actually start on it.

So Friday was the day. Whether I liked it or not, it had to come together that day. I'd already decided on what papers to use as soon as I purchased them, and I didn't steer away from that. In an impulse I went for a little 4" x 4" album from Maya Road. Here's how it turned out:


Supplies: Maya Road 4"x4" chipboard album | My Mind's Eye Andrea Victoria patterned paper + die-cuts | Papertrey Ink clear stamps Fancy Flourishes | American Crafts chipboard alphabet stickers | button | ribbon | Fiskars Uppercrest border punch | EK Success mini alphabet stickers | Staz'On ink Jet Black.

Supplies: as above | EK Success Scalloped Scallop border punch | Spotlight button | ribbon | baker's twine

Supplies: as above | buttons | Jillybean Soup journaling sprouts | font Aphrodite | digital brushes Katie Pertiet

Renee accidentally wrote her text upside down, but I decided to not risk trying to correct it.

Supplies: as above | digital brushes Rhonna Farrer

Rebecca drew a picture of David and wrote: 'You are hansome'

Supplies: as above | Bazzill Basics Cardstock | Martha Stewart border punch | ribbon 

Ruben drew a picture of David and himself wearing a Liverpool kit. This because David used to support Liverpool, even though Ruben support Manchester United.

Renee drew a picture of David and herself having a cuddle on the brown sofa.





Supplies: as above | Basic Grey chipboard numbers

For my dad I made this card:

Supplies: as above | Making Memories mini alphabet stickers | buttons Sei | American Crafts chipboard alphabet stickers | Banana Frog clear stamps Stars | VersaColor ink

Did you notice I put the letter 'h' together using a 'n' and a 'l'?

Besides it being Father's Day today it's also the first official day of Summer and the longest day. It will be interesting to see what Summer we'll be having this year as last year's was basically non existent.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Fiji Album

In January I started on a mini album from our holiday that we took during Easter 2008. I then put it aside until two days ago. Having found new inspiration to finish it -  as our next holiday to Mauritius is only two months away, I got to work. I finished it this morning. The album was inspired by this album by Ali Edwards. I purchased the kit from Cocao Daisy, but didn't decide what to use it for until this.

I took pictures of most pages, but not of all of them. To include lots of journaling I've added my blog entries of the daily blog I wrote in the time we lived in Australia, which I slot into pockets that I made out of each page. I haven't photographed all the blog entry pages.

I also made a video of the pictures of the album, but the quality isn't great, but as I went and found some traditional Fijian music with it, I still think you should watch it to get a true feel of what it was like.



Now, are you ready for some picture overload!

Supplies: Tinkering Ink chipboard album | Making Memories patterned paper + epoxy stickers + canvas alphabet stickers + canvas tags + chipboard letters + flowers + brads + metal clips + ribbon + clear stamps Passport | Ali Edwards clear Travel stamps | American crafts metal hinges | Three Bugs in a Rug clear date stamps | Staz'On ink Jet Black | red + black marker | Kikki.K white pen | Woodware corner punch | Catslife Press rubber stamp | Fiskars circle punch | EK Success circle punch

Are you still there? I hope you liked it. I'm very pleased with the end result, especially since I got so many pictures (59 I counted quickly) as well as so much journaling in such a tiny album.

Have a great evening!