Brrrrr... winter's here!!!

Well, winter is actually NOT here. It is about 30°C, or 86°F, as every other day!!!! When I moved, I thought I would not like this unchanging weather, but it really makes life oh so easy, I have changed my mind. I do miss a little bit of winter, though, so today's feature at Practical Scrappers was my chance to bring some snow this way! It is an acrylic card, so it was extremely difficult to photograph, something else I need to learn how to do...

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Another project I'd like to share is one I created using the left side of this week's sketch at Let's Scrap. It is another wedding layout, including family pics. The pics were quite grainy and I couldn't make them look the way I wanted, so I finally went for a vintage look using picnik, and I think it was really the right choice, as the photos now look great.

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I love the fact that I could finally use those feathers I had had for ages!!!! Here is a list of supplies for this layout:

Paper: K&Memories

Paper Flowers: they came in a kit, but I think they are Prima

Ribbon flower: Maya Road

Feathers: Little Yellow Bicycle

Doilies: from a kit

Rick Rack: from a haberdashery in Tripoli

Tag: from a kit

Stickers: My Mind's Eye, Amy Tangerine

Clip: Amy Tangerine

Letter stickers: American Crafts for Studio Calico

Glue: Glue Glider Pro

Finally, a little piece of news. Somebody in this house is finally learning to ride without training wheels (and somebody else is getting fit just by running behind to make sure she does not fall!!!). Little big moments of life. Love them all.

Ten Fabulous Christmas Ideas

Just wanted to share a couple of things with you today. The first one is a picture I took when trying to take a photo of my pop-up tree card. The weather here keeps changing all the time, but that day was worse than ever. It was a little windy, and the clouds kept covering the sun every few minutes. Every time the sun started to shine I went out, put the fabric on the table (I can't leave it on as the birds would be happy to come and play on it... and leave their mark!), set the card, sprinkle snow on it... and the sun was gone, replaced by very dark clouds that would ruin any picture. Finally, after several attempts, I put the fabric on the table, set the card, arranged the little gifts sprinkled the snow, and shot:

Oops, a little elf popped up from behind the fabric and I had to start all over again!!! Sometimes it takes longer to take a decent poto of a project than it took to make the project itself...

The second thing I wanted to share today is that I have a new post at the Freehand Scraps' blog called "TEN FABULOUS CHRISTMAS IDEAS TO INSPIRE YOU". I have picked my favourite ten Christmas ideas for layouts, cards, and projects so you can get inspired and, why not, lift some of them to make your projects stand out. Click here to have a look at them, and if you feel inspired and create a project using any of these ideas, please leave a comment with a link so I can have a look at it and leave you some love. Merry Christmas to all of you!!!

Exploring the swamp

It's been a very-busy-no-scrapbooking week, as we have family visiting and we've been showing the island to them. Yesterday afternoon we went to the Caroni swamp, which is an amazing place. Fifteen thousand scarlet ibises (Trinidad's national bird) come to spend the night here, so around sunset, it is a unforgettable sight. Here is my little explorer ready for the trip:

These are some of the other inhabitants we saw on the way there:

Kind of makes you think if the life vests would be useful at all if the boat sank with this kind of creatures around! 


And this is when the ibises begin to come and fill up the tree. I found it hard to take a good picture of this amazing moment, but these are my best attempts, not close enough to real life!

So happy I got a few minutes to share this with you! I'll be back with some Halloween altered projects (remember the lanterns I was painting) on Thursday. Thanks for visiting my blog!

Working hard

I am working hard finishing some lovely handmade embellies with the rest of my Freehand Scraps August kit to include in my giveaway, together with Teresa Collins Blingage, Bella Blvd chipboard stickers, We R Memory Keepers foil lace, stickers, flowers, felt buttons and other yummy things that will go in the winner's pack! If you'd like a chance to win, remember to come back tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'd like to share a couple of pics with you. The first one shows how hard it is for me to take pictures of my projects, as Mia always wants to be part of the pic! She saw me with the camera and actually ran out of the pool to come and pose next to the journal!

The second one is from our weekend in Bahamas, where we played with dolphins. It was a wonderful moment, and I'm sure you'll soon see this photo in a layout!

Come back tomorrow to join the giveaway, but if you can't, don't worry, the deadline is September 30th!

Busy, busy, busy!

Sorry for not posting much this week, I've not been a lazy bug, on the contrary, I've been VERY busy. I finally got my Freehand Scraps kit and my mojo is flowing like a river! So many yummy things, I really can't tell you what they are, but I can say that the papers have been perfectly chosen so you can use any of them with any other piece of paper or cardstock in the kit. And the embellies.... Well, you'll have to wait for the sneak peeks to start drooling over them!  

It is DD's last week of summer holidays, so we have had playdates and pool parties in the afternoon and have been getting everything ready for school in the mornings. Plus, I signed in for the Big Idea Festival at Big Picture classes and I am making a mini album with their daily words. This is something I can share with you. I am keeping the pages very simple, choosing some background paper I like (trying to use PP from my scrap box) printing the template on them, and then embellishing. The main focus is on the journalling, what these words mean to me right now. I love this kind of journalling and there isn't always room for it in LOs, so I'm loving this experience. Here are the two pages I've made so far.

I want to make a mini album with a very messy look, the kind that has bits and pieces sticking out from every page. I will share the pages as I make them here, and then I'll share the look of the finished album once I am done. You still have time to share the Big Idea Festival if you feel you'd like to give it a try!

Dia de Playa!

I haven´t posted anything for a few days because of a huge mistake I made: I spilled coffee on my laptop!!!!!!!!!! I then had to leave it to dry for a few days, and while we waited, we went to the eastern side of the island to see a miracle: the leatherback turtle hatchlings being born!!! This was the first one we saw: I almost cried! 

And this is DD picking it up to take it to a tank with water. They keep them there and release them during the night, to maximise their chances of survival. 

And now, back to scrapping, but also by the sea! This is a pic of my daughter I absolutely love, so I´ve been saving it for some special papers. The Summer Fun collection by Pink Paislee is the kind of special paper I needed! The picture is not very good, unfortunately, as we are in the middle of the rainy season and it is hard to find a good chance to take a pic. 

I used stitching to give some texture to the waves and sun. And I used the rubber stickers, chipboard stickers, and paper embellies from the collection. Gorgeous! 

This LO is based on this week´s sketch at Let´s Scrap. you can still play until midnight, or visit the site tomorrow for a fantastic card sketch!


List of supplies

Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Paper, Chipboard, Stickers, elements: Pink Paislee
Acrylic paint: from my daughter´s stash!
Glue: GLue Glider Pro
Embroidery Floss: assorted

Party Pics and some news!

As you've read here these past weeks, I've been very busy preparing a WordWorld birthday party for my daughter. The party was just fabulous and here are some pics:

I don't think I can scrap today.... I'm exhausted and I had to use my scrap table for the party, so everything is on the floor.... I don't think I can pick anything up today!!!!!!!!!!

The page I made for Practical Scrappers' blue feature was spotlighted this week at Club CK. I'm so hapy about it!!!!!!!!!!! You can see the other fabulous pages that were spotlighted here:

http://clubcreatingkeepsakes.com/blogs/ck_community/archive/2011/07/05/scrapbooking-inspiration-july-5.aspx

Hope you have a fantastic weekend, it's going to rain a lot here, so I'm going to relax, rest, and hopefully, pick some stuff from the floor of my scraproom and scrap!!!!

Wordworld and DT call!

If you wonder what I've been doing these days, I've been crafting. No scrapbooking, though. I've been working on the decorations for DD's WordWorld birthday party. Pinata, banners, favour boxes, the lot! And I still need to work on the biscuits, the cupcakes, the cake (three tiers) and the piggy hot dogs!!!! I promise lots of photos once the event is over and done with. In the meantime, do you know Let's Scrap is having a DT Call? With over 3000 members, it is a great community to design for! Here's the add, in case you are interested. You still have 15 days to get your LO done and apply for the DT!

Design Team Call - August - November 

Are you ready to join our Design Team? Do you love to scrapbook from sketches and love to encourage others? Then we've got a place for you!  Please send your take on this sketch to us at letsscrap2011@gmail.com by July 15th, 2011.  You are welcome to do one or both sides of the sketch. 

If chosen, you will be on a 4 month term from August - November.  Here is what you would be asked to do:

1)  A weekly layout of a sketch {the sketches are posted weeks in advance for you to work on and you can do one or both sides}

2) Provide a Challenge and Ask a Question

3) Help get sponsors

4) Encourage and Support our members in the gallery

5) Help promote our great site

If you are excited at the chance of being on our team, please email us your take on this sketch and tell us why you'd be a great fit.  Please also provide a link to your blog or include other examples of your work.  We cant wait to see what YOU come up with!!

I'm back!!!

I'm back, we've taken a couple of weeks away from home to relax and enjoy lots of family time together. Now, I'm just trying to catch up with lots of scrapbooking stuff I'm behind with, plus the washing and the tidying-up (just taking things from the suitcases took me the whole day yesterday!!!!). DD has finished her school year, so she needs me to give her some playing time as well! I can't wait to scrap, though, so I'll be posting something soon.

JBS overdose

Skybox guy just came. He had some hangers for DD's doll clothes, my Cards and Scrapbooking Trends Magazines (that was the Crafty Steals pack), and... listen to this: Just got my JBS January kit, January project kit, January add-ons, February kit and add-ons, plus some hodge podge tins and extras I purchased (not that they didn't send them on time, there was a problem at my skybox's warehouse). I am stunned. There are so many beautiful things I can't even breathe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am having a stash overdose!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't even think I'll be able to scrap today, I will just sit and stare at the stuff (and maybe take a peek at the magazines!!! LOL).

Barbados

Hi, I am back from a gorgeous long weekend we spent in Barbados. After the car crash, and the awful things that have been going on around so many of our friends in Libya, we really needed some relaxation, and Barbados (less than an our away) looked like the right place. It was! Te beach is great, the island is beautiful, and the sea breeze makes the weather perfect! Here are a few pics:

Taking a walk after breakfast. This is my Aleida's Challenge pic for February. 

Ready for the beach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And this is a photo I took for the Sunday Shutterbugs' January theme: shapes. I loved the shape of the things inside the flower the bee is feeding from (sorry, lack the word for them!), they are all shaped like tiny bottles. Just like bottles of honey! Maybe you can see them better here:

And, yes, I do realize we are in March already, but I read some older Sunday Shutterbugs post and didn't see the date, so I kept looking for shapes!!!

Almost there!

Only 4 more resolutions to complete before the end of Let's Scrap's Blog Hop!!!! I think I can make it, keeping my fingers crossed! I have a few things to share with you today, the first one is the LO I made for this week's sketch at Let's Scrap. I wanted to enter it in the Sassafras Project Challenge at Two Peas, so it's made with paper from their Apple Jack and Count me in collections.

I've also made two cards for Resolutions #7 and #6 in the Blog Hop (I'm doing a countdown, and #5 was my challenge, so that one's already completed!).

  While I was taking pictures of this card, under the mango tree (love the light there in the morning) I saw someone spying on me and finally captured him on camera (been trying for some time with no success).

I have to say he doesn't look so threatening in person as he does in the pic. It probably has to do with the fact that he is only a few inches tall, just a baby!

Tobago

We spent the weekend in Tobago, and loved it! Total relaxation by the sea!!!!!!!!! I realised I'd not taken any pictures with my daughter for Aleida's challenge since we got here, so we took one together. Here it is:

I could spend much more than a weekend there - I'd have to take my scrapbooking with me, though!

Busy end of school term!

And the end of school term has been busy, there was the play and the Christmas party, and it took me two weeks to find the right drill to set up the clip it up wall mounts in my scraproom! I had a million plans for cards and layouts but, in the end, I haven't scrapped at all. Just wanted to share a pic from the school play with you. Don't they look cute?

Great Candy at Let's Get Scrap Happy

Just a quick post to let you know that:

a) I haven't been scrapping as I can't finish tidying up my new scrap room and I don't have a free inch to work on! In case you don't believe me, I have just taken this picture as proof!

Yes, I know, I shouldn't be posting pictures of this awful mess, but I wanted you to understand why I haven't been scrapping, I just don't know where to start tidying up! Plus, there's my daughter's playroom, which is not as big a mess but only because we clean up everyday, and I am working on creating play areas (house area, dress up area, reading area, arts area, etc), which is taking lots of time. I start doing one thing, then have an idea for the other room, go do that, have another idea for another room in the middle, and go do something else, and I never finish!!!!!!!!!! I promise I'll post pictures of my scraproom once I finish, so you can stop having nightmares with this picture!

b) my friend Betty Anne is having a fantastic blog candy giveaway. Here is the wonderful candy you can win by visiting her blog, Let's Get Scrap Happy.

Plus, I know she's organizing a big surprise for Let's Scrap members for the beginning of next year so, if you are not a member yet, you should seriously consider becoming one! I tell you you can't miss it.

Hope to be posting some layouts soon, thanks for visiting my blog and leaving your comments!

Nothing is original

I have been working on some first communion cards someone asked me to do this week (even taught myself how to do rosary knots and beaded crosses to embellish the cards!) so there's been little scrapbooking. I have also spent lots of time lifting ideas from fabulous Etsy shops to make my new house feel like home without spending too much, since we won't be living here that long. Love this: 

And this (though bigger, this is only 3 x 3):

And this, but I have more scrapbooking items than earrings to hang from it!

I wish I'd saved the shop's names together with the addresses, but I didn't, so if you'd like to buy any of these gorgeous things, you'll have to search Etsy. 

And since we are talking about lifting, I'd like to share this paragraph I came upon while Stumbling in my Ipod (what an addiction!):

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to. (Jim Jarmusch's Golden Rule #5).

I think this is a perfect quote for scrappers. Where do you steal from?

Let's Scrap 11-10-10

First of all let me say thanks for all the encouraging comments I got both here and at Let's Scrap last week. For a nomad whose life keeps changing every few years, only two things remain constant: my family and my scrapbooking (though in very different priority rankings, of course). Feeling I'd lost my ability to scrap or enjoy scrapbooking was really frustrating and scary, but everything came back with this LO. It doesn't really mean this LO is any better than the previous ones, or that it is a masterpiece (far from it), it just means I enjoyed doing it and felt I knew what I wanted the page to look like and was able to make it look that way. So there's now a happy scrapper wandering this Caribbean island!

I think these embellies I just got in the mail are simply yummy! Really felt tempted to include all of them in one page!

Plus, I've just found a group of ladies who are dying to begin scrapbooking and asked me to organize a crop. Great way to get to know the people here and scrap at the same time. Will be looking forward to it, though I need to organize things yet, and get the supplies mailed!

International Fair

Only a few days after arriving in Trinidad I got a call from some moms at my daughter's school, asking me if I wanted to take part in the International Fair they hold every year. There is a booth for each country that wants to participate and, the school being international, the list of countries is LONG! I said OK as long as I didn't need to cook, as I am not ready yet, not until I get all my stuff (which is waiting at the customs office at the moment). So I made letters, signs, helped with the decoration and made souvenirs to give away. Here we are at our booth, waiting for the fair to start:

 

And here are the souvenirs I made, something very simple as I had very few materials and a short time to work on them. Still, I think they looked nice, especially when grouped, and lots of people came to ask for them. 

I'm also working on decorations for my daughter's Halloween classroom party, plus we are probably moving to our permanent house next Saturday, so no scrapbooking at the moment. Lots of crafting, though, so that keeps me sane.

Home sweet home!

Here we are, in our new home in Trinidad. Haven't been able to see much yet, but this is the view from the balcony in out temporary flat and I can only say it looks nothing like Tripoli!!!!

Already asked for my scrapbooking kits and pending orders to be sent to my new address, so I won't have too wait too long to scrap!!!!!

Princess party

No scrapbooking these days, as all my time was devoted to preparing my daughter's second birthday party this year! She had a pool party on her birthday, but her school friends were all away, so she wanted a new party with them now they've all returned. Everything was full of princess stuff:

A princess cake.

Chocolate cookies full of pink stuff.

Princess cupcakes (that's Snow White's apple).

     

And more princess cupcakes!

And every princess needs a castle... full of party favors! (I got this fabulous idea from Handmade Sparks).

the piñata

And the birthday princess!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't forget to come back tomorrow to see who's won the giveaway!