I hope you all enjoyed yourselves and werent too dissappointed to not get finished. I did say the hall was ours until church on Sunday!!!

Mum so enjoyed meeting lots of you. Maybe I’ll be able to convince her to come cook at Raincliff!

Heres a couple of shots of the completed pages in colour just incase you would like to reference for your finishing touches

I got the impression that those little rosettes were driving a few of you to distraction, BUT dont they look great!! We completely sold out of all of these dies so I expect to see lots of lovely rosette filled layouts in the new year. They really are a breeze to use when you get the hang of it. If you were having trouble with the glue try skinny double sided tape (thats what I use and it works a treat). BoBunny have been using heaps of rosettes on their blog lately. They have made theirs with the scorpal (I stock the Martha Stewart Score board as a cheaper alternative to the scorpal) check out here and keep scrolling down for some lovely ideas.

Also, wasnt it great learning about changing the colour of the seam binding? My arm got sore measuring so many metres of the stuff.

I saw a few of you make a start on the cards and here is a colour image to assist those of you wanting to finish them off.

All in all I thought Becks did a stellar job on her layouts and especially her marshmallow christmas trees, and for this I thank her very much.

We will surely do another class next year, perhaps a bit less challenging – nah! if we don’t challenge ourself how do we learn……

Layout number 1:
1 x 6″x4″ photograph and
2 x 3″x4″ photographs
both of landscape orientation
Layout number 2:
1 x 5″x7″ photograph
also of landscape orientation
These photo sizes are ideal for the layouts Becks has designed, but with some creative thinking could be amended if necessary. It will be a very busy class due to the nature of the handmade embellishments involved so Tania (and her not brilliant printer) will not be able to resize photographs on the day, sorry!!

Other items to bring with you are:
Double sided tape/adhesives
Quilling tool (if you have one)
Paper trimmer/cutter
Scissors (suitable for fussy cutting)
Cutting mat

Final cost for the day is $40.00 (non refundable).
This covers full kit for the 2 layouts and 3 cards with heaps of leftovers (kit valued at $50) and includes lunch and tea/coffee etc.
Venue is Knox church hall, cnr Manse and Shearman St, Waimate. 10am kickoff and we finish up at 3pm.
Please forward payments to Embellish It, 30 Innes St, Waimate, by Friday 4th November to confirm your place or alternately pay into our account
02 0888 0069878 00
Numbers are extremely limited so please confirm as soon as possible.

Hopefully I havent forgotten anything (yeah right!) but brain is a bit fuddled from lack of sleep (you guessed it another sick child – now Rosie has the chicken pox BAD!)

Tania

Thanks to Nolas neice’s boyfriend????? for such a great shot. Call me biased but it looks like a wonderful day and a great bunch of ladies having a lovely time. What do you think? If you would like me to email you a copy just let me know. Already 31 names down for the next camp and I havent even announced a date!!

And of course heres the noisey table who just cant help themselves. This is Nic’s version of PLANKING!

Thanks to everyone for such a great weekend. I just love how such a diverse group of people can come together with just one small thing in common and have such a nice time. I hope everyone enjoyed the increased flexibility in breakfasts and snack breaks, it certainly made it easier on the kitchen staff. Huge thanks especially to Lisa and Becs for their assistance over the whole weekend and especially in the kitchen hope I wasnt too bossy. And Karyl who almost single handedly prepared lunch on sunday, you chose the wrong moment to be walking thru the kitchen!!! I think you stayed for about an hour.
Sorry I got a bit distracted at lunchtime on Sunday, handling the money is always a tricky time and then when I saw my little boys sick face well, it was all over rover!

Speaking of sick, you are probably all wondering where the 111 call come into it. Here we go again…..
After everyone left, my wee man was heading down hill rapidly. Nurse Janice (aka Cricut expert) and I had already deducted that he had a burst ear drum but he was in a lot of pain and as you can imagine I had a lot of tidying up to do…. so….. I told him it was time to have a sleep in Mummys bunk bed. Off he went without any protest and I was able to help out again with the cleanup. About 45mins later I was just sweeping out the toilets out when I heard screaming from outside. Off I flew and there was Charlie covered in blood. Now dont get me wrong, we have dealt with plenty of bleeding noses in our house (most of them from this child) but this was a doozey. I ran back to the bunkroom and grabbed the nearest thing (my pyjamas!!) and tried to stop it. One by one Becs, Greg and Lisa came to assist and run relay with chux cloths. BUT there seemed to be nothing we could do. It would not stop. After more than twenty minutes Mummy was getting a little worried and everyone had run out of encouraging things to say. There were 4 very worried adult faces and 5 year old screaming and I cant remember what Rosie was up to. Greg, I said, go ring somebody!!!!! Of course toll bar wouldnt let him ring anyone so eventually he rang 111.
Meanwhile back out on the grass, finally the blood clot came out and managed to completely gross out Rebecca (aka not so tough cop) who wondered if it was ever going to stop and would there be brains on the end of it.It actually cheered me up no end as usually this is the sign that its all over. BUT NO, still it continued bleeding. Greg said do we want an ambulance? finally it started to slow down but child still screaming. We said no to the ambulance. Greg ordered us ladies off the premises and sent us to Timaru hospital while he finished locking up. Me in the back with Charlie, feeling very reassured that Policewoman was now in charge and would get us there in quick smart time (she had by now recovered!!!) unfortunately Becs didnt have her glassses on and we were towing a trailer so no speed records were broken. Super organised Mummy who managed to pull off the whole weekend without too many disasters (who needed frozen yoghurt anyway?) burst into tears on sight of the nurse. Nurse must have wondered what on earth was going on, hysterical woman with flowers in her hair and grass skirt holding half naked child wrapped in blanket covered in blood……………………..

The rest as they say is history. 2hr wait even though the waiting room was actually empty and we got home about 6.30pm. Kids eh? just as well we love them.
As I type Charlie is off at the farm with Greg building some sort of worm farm (as 5 yr old boys do) and girl child Rosie is asleep in bed 2pm in afternoon. You guessed it………….. shes sick!! sore ears, sore throat, sore tummy. Oh to be a mother! I wont even tell you what I had to clean up yesterday….. thats a story for another less public forum.

On the scrapping front, I am looking at the calendar as we speak just trying to choose dates for crops between here and christmas. Calendar is rather full with gym comps (she is going so well!) trips to Auckland to see the giant rugby ball! Birthdays (my 40th and daughters 8th) Mothers moving house (yes she has bought a house here in Waimo!) and thats just what I have remembered to write down.
So I will send out an email in a day or two with dates and venues.

Something exciting to look forward to though is Embellish It is going to hold a class! The lovely Becks Caithness has put herself foward to be my official design team. Together we hope to come up with a wonderfull kit full of lovely Teresa Collins Christmas Home range of products and more. This is just one of the lovely papers we will be using. Isnt it beautiful?

The tentative plan at this stage is for a double page layout and 3 or 4 Christmas cards. This will be a limited spaces class so watch out for more details, I’m sure it will be a great day, and something a bit different for a change.

Thats it for me today. Best go handwash the dishes. Dishwasher seems to have swallowed all our crockery and cutlery and now we cant get the door open! might have to be fish and chips for dinner as we dont have enough clean plates for a proper meal. LOL.

PS. thanks for all the lovely emails and cards that I have recieved over the last 2 weeks, cant wait till we do it all again!

Along with Diane I have been enrolled in Nic Howards Colour or is it colour? class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Great to have so much direction for my scrapping for the 6 week course, although doesnt look like it is going to use any newly arrived stock anytime soon!
Last night I finally got started on RED and this is my result


Although it looks nothing like Nic’s final layout it is actually sort of based on hers (really it is, you just have to use your imagination). Isnt it the cutest photo? and finally I have used my beautiful big Prima heart stamp.
Life has been just too busy to do Orange and Yellow from stratch but heres a yellow I already had done that works exactly with everything Nic talks about.

In the shop, Kaiser Little Toot, Blae and Ivy, and Chapter One have arrived and filled up all the new paper racks that I recently purchased so paper ranges in stock have more than doubled in the last few months. I hope you are liking the new variety and colour. I am flat out planning lots of stock and challenge details for Raincliff. Most of the deposits are now in for camp and no cancellations yet sorry for those on the waitinglist.

Have to type fast as Duffy books in homes assembly at school in just a few minutes and Jacqui Dean (MP) is coming to present the books. Kids are all in costume of their fav book characters so its great fun to see them.

HOPE TO SEE LOTS OF YOU AT
HIGHFIELD SCHOOL HALL SATURDAY 30TH JULY (last sat of school Hols)
9.30am – 6pm
REMEMBER THIS IS THE LAST CROP UNTIL RAINCLIFF WEEKEND so please join us, there is no longer any worries about tables at this venue so the more the merrier.

Remember to email me as soon as you know you will be able to attend.

Better fly, 4 minutes to get to school.

Happy Scrapping

Tania

I take this moment to thank you all for the wonderful support you have given me over the winter months, its been great. Things might change a bit over the spring/summer as family life takes over here in Waimate so watch this space – it might be your turn to have a road trip!.
Also, all your good wishes towards my Mum and her recovery have been very cherished. Unfortunately she has been terribly sick this past week, so bad one night that she thought she better write me a note regarding where to spread her ashes! I was round there first thing the next morning and straight on the phone to the doctor and she perked right up knowing help was on its way. There are some horrible bugs going around at the moment so I hope you all stay clear of them.

On the scrapping front, stock levels are getting low so time to start ordering again. If there is anything you would like to suggest, by all means do so. I am having fun playing with my new Cricut (well not so new actually) and managed to do most of a page on it the other night! see here…


It was nice to do a more 2D page again, and I am loving the boldness of these Echo Park Spots and Stripes papers. I did the trees, ovals and font on the cricut. Sorry about the glare off the photo but it shows the glossy accents and dimensional magic off! the final result of these 2 products is very similar but they handle very differently. Having always used Dimensional Magic, Becks told me she glues her flowers on with Glossy Accents. So I tried it and it was brilliant, no more flowers falling off their glue dots. It is much thicker than DM so is also great to use on those tricky little bits of lettering, however doesnt spread as far so DM is still great on larger spaces (like my tree trunks)

Deposits are rolling in for Raincliff, menu is 90% decided on. Kit/page challenge is in the design stages so its full steam ahead. Must ask the cooks soon if they will come back!
Looking forward to Oamaru NEXT weekend all rejuvinated after this weekend off (be my luck I’ll come down with whatever Mum had!)
So as always, let me know ASAP if you are coming to the last crops of the winter and
Happy Scrapping

Tania

We are off to Dunedin this weekend so looking forward to meeting some more of you out there in email land! BUT a bit worried about some dreams I had last night though.
“the time was 7.10pm on a friday night and the trailer wasnt even packed for a 7.30pm crop (who knows where) Husband and brother were absolutely no help as they had just had babies that afternoon????? THEN I realised I had booked a crop in another city for the next day!”
managed to wake myself up at that point. Anybody care to analyse that? I know my husband is desperate for the 3rd child but didnt think he would resort to having it himself! Arent dreams weird?
Also in Dunedin (on Sat night) we are having a huge birthday dinner at restaurant for my soon to be 15yr old nephew (who is about 6ft tall) seems like yesterday he was such a beautiful blonde toddler. Our kids are so excited but probably dont realise there wont be balloons or pass the parcel. Here are the cards/posters they have made him.


Charlie has even sacrificed one of his precious “beados” creations to use on the front of his


Arent kids just the cutest!

Here is my latest entry into the Dusty Attic monthly challenge


Papers used were from the Teressa Collins Off the Edge range and of course Dusty Attic for the bracket frame and banners. I like the result in terms of colours and products but ovals are not my thing (should have used a bit more artistic liscense and deviated away from them)

Martha Stewart Garden Gate deep edger punches finally arrived this week! Arent they gorgeous.

Also the delicate Kaiser Pink Gelato range. So delicate that internet images are too faint, you will have to come see it at the next crop!
Also in Kaiser I now have the Chanteuse paper pads (6 1/2 x 6 1/2) which all you card makers out there would enjoy.

Next crop is Timaru Sat 25 June and we are back to the Highfield school Hall for a change (better access, heating and beautiful kitchen)
Caretaker has assured me that he can rustle up a few more tables but if you are able to bring one please let me know.

Thats all for now, time to go and pack for Dunedin crop. Will have to have a good think about what to take as the venue is upstairs and once again Hubby not too happy!

Tania

On the scrapbooking front, had a bit of a rest this week as last week was just a tad stressfull. Had heaps of laughs last night with the thursday night girls. Realised Rebecca is like a whole generation younger than me, she doesnt even know what Jazzercise is!!!!! lots of laughter and lots of creating (again no photos!) Already almost completed my Dusty attic challenge for June and if you were thinking of doing the same I still have sets of the Bracket Frames available. The other ladies were scrapping up a storm and I am going to blatantly copy one layout shortly so will post it here when I get batteries for that darn camera.
Kaiser Pink Gelato on its way as we speak, so that makes 9 new paper collections in the last 3 weeks!

Upcoming events, nothing this weekend and would you believe it my daughter is NOT playing netball. Will I ever get to see her play?
Next weekend (11th June) Oamaru crop, and we are going country to the Weston Hall for a change. Should be a bit warmer and brighter but hopefully not torrential rain like our last trip down there.
Then the following weekend (18th June) off to Dunedin for a crop at the Arthur St Bowling Club 10am-5pm. I am really looking forward to seeing what they get up to down there. There are still spaces available for both of those crops so let me know if you are interested.

Thats all for now. Mum has joined the Waimate Town and Country Club so shes taking us all out for dinner.

Hope you have a lovely long weekend with your friends and families,

Tania

So all in all a great day after a very rocky start, I even managed to assist some poor Timaruvian man out side the fish and chip shop on Otipua Rd who had left his lights on while he waited for his dinner to cook and was in serious danger of missing the rugby if he had to walk home. His words were “your blood is worth bottling luv”. I think that was another way of saying thankyou?… …

Now back to my love affair with pink, as you know if you read my blog, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer AGAIN, two hours after she moved to Waimate. Well her surgery is scheduled for Tuesday of this coming week, and since we are having a crop in Timaru it was suggested to me that we acknowledge all those affected by this horrible disease by having a Pink Ribbon Breakfast (well morning tea in our case.) See here for official details.
So for all of you already coming on Saturday 28th May to the Sacred Heart Hall, and for all of you still thinking about it, I will donate all proceeds made from crop fees to the cause. Morning tea and afternoon tea are quite likely to be pink and if you want to join in the atmosphere pink dress code is optional. There will be the tiniest ever challenge and the word of the day is PINK. Just as well I have three new ranges that are predominantly, you guessed it, pink! Kathryn might be joining us with her pink necklaces and pink beads and I am open to anyother suggestions anyone wants to make. So I hope to see lots of you come along and join in for a great cause.

Anyway Oamaru crop was great (apart from the not great bits) and Jane walked away with the door prize of a Martha Stewart punch and a 6×6 paper pad. Met lots of lovely new ladies and made a few plans!!!

On the scrapbooking front, Kaiser Chanteuse has arrived, very similar to the popular English Rose range but with a true pink tone compared to the earlier peachy/pink of its predecessor. The posy embellishments are very cool, and made out of tiny polystyrene balls. Also the Party Animals range which I cant wait to do my kids birthday pages in.
On its way are lots of lovely Teressa Collins Designs papers which I just couldnt resist! Posh, Sports Edition II, On the Edge and Timeless.

Now I know I should have links and pictures for these ranges but must be having a moment and cant work out how to do it on my new blog (which seems strange as I put a picture in the last post) but I am sure all you computer savvy scrapbookers out there can google it to see the lovely images!!!!!

So blog will be here from now on, took me a couple of attempts but I managed to save it to my Google reader so I am sure you will be able to to!
Shop is coming, truly it is (I think!)

TT4N

Tania