Her love language is "craft with Mum"

There's a certain girl in this house whose Love Language* is "quality time", and her particular dialect is "craft with Mum".

So back in January, I helped her to start on a bit of a craft project that she could work on while I was doing my own crafts.  Problem is, she takes after her grandmother (oh alright, and her mother) in that she wants to jump straight in at the deep end at the hardest project rather than starting at the beginning with an easy one!

She decided to design and make an "alien dog" stuffed toy.  It ended up being a joint project, with me doing the machine sewing and her doing the stuffing, making the tail and doing the hand sewing.

After two months, he's finished, and here he is:

And to give you a sense of scale, here he is with an actual dog:

Well done Maddy, but maybe we'll start with an easier project next time!

* from the "Five Love Languages" series of books by Gary Chapman

February Fabric Stashbusting

Wow! I'm really demonstrating my fabulous sewing skills so far this year.  Last month I made . . . a blanket, and this month . . . a pillow case!

Well, it's a dog bed, of course, but in terms of construction, it's a big pillow case stuffed with a few layers of an old mattress Robert was pulling apart (don't ask!)

This project counts as #2 of my goal to make a minimum of 6 projects from my stash, and also meets the suggested Stashbusting Sewalong challenge to "make something for someone that you love!" 

I didn't manage to complete my personal goal of completing one of the specific projects on my list, although I did do a burst of sewing yesterday and I now have a half-finished dress.  It's sleeveless, and today the weather has announced "Yes it is autumn now" with a windy, wet miserable day, so I'm suddenly a bit less motivated for that particular project!

The one with the Speech Bubbles

Does anyone remember speech bubbles in the early days of scrapbooking?  A cheesy photo of some innocent child stuck in the middle of a page with an equally cheesy caption on a speech bubble sticker coming out of their head?
Just so we're all clear on this point, I, personally, never owned, and certainly never used, those original speech bubble stickers!
But today's speech bubbles in today's scrapbooking are a lot more fun and funky, in my opinion at least!

These photos are the first ones printed from our holiday to Port Macquarie last month.  We chose our holiday destination by telling He Who Skates The Most to find a skatepark on the mid-north coast he'd like to visit and we'd try and choose a caravan park based on that.  It just so happened that while we were staying there, a Penny Skateboard promotion had been scheduled, with heaps of give-aways and competitions.
 The weather was not on on the side of Penny Skateboards that day, however, and the promotion was rained out before the skateboarding was due to start.  Between the three kids, they ended up with one free cap and an assortment of stickers, posters, drinkbottles, and this piece of advice:

Almost everything on this page is from my February Counterfeit Kit, the only exception being my DIY letter stickers.

This page sat on my desk for about a week, and was simmering in the back of my head for longer, and when a page sits around for that long, I like to do a super-quick layout to balance it out:

 Like I said, super quick, using the last of the four sheets of older paper from my kit as well as some of the stamped elements.  The chipboard letter have also been sitting in my stash for forever - long enough for me to say to myself, stop worrying about using all the vowels on one page and just use them already!"

February Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Member Blog Hop

Welcome, welcome, welcome to my stop on the CKC Member's Blog Hop!

If you haven't come here from the beginning, you've missed most of the fun, so here's the full list for this month's hop:

CKCB http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/

Lisa H http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com
Lesley http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk/
Julene http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com
Maggie http://maggiebscrapblog.blogspot.fr/
Mandy http://teacupofscrapisms.blogspot.com/
Caryn https://thescorpiancrafter.blogspot.com/
Julie http://spendlesscraftmore.blogspot.com.au/ (you are here)

Leslie http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/ (go here next)
Jemma http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk/


Can you keep a secret?  When I first read the theme for this month's Hop I had grave doubts about whether I could pull it off!

The Challenge is to create a project with no photo about "Why I Love ..." .  To create a project about something I love, that's no biggie, but what abut that bit in the middle . . . NO PHOTOS!  Surely things that we love and photos go together, don't they?

But I had a bit of a think, and I managed to come up with something.  I hope you enjoy it!
 

 As you can see, what we've got is a page with three library card pockets holding "hidden" journalling about why I love each of my children individually, as well as some visible journalling about why I love them collectively.  

I really wanted to be able to say (just for a change!) that this page was absolutely, totally 100% from this month's Counterfeit Kit . . . but I couldn't!  The pink paper is left over from this page here, (which was created this month but not from the kit) and I ended up pulling some stickers from my stash as well.

At first glance the words and sentiments on my Pink Paislee tabs and journalling cards did not fit the "love" theme of my page at all, but I made some of them work!  I twisted the meaning of  the file tabs, which at first glance have an organisational theme to them, to "Don't Forget" that I love you "Yesterday Today and Tomorrow".


In the context of the other journalling cards and die cuts, the "whatever" would tend to be interpreted as a kind of teenage, "I don't care what you think and I don't feel like talking to you" kind of "whatever".  So I was particularly proud of myself for thinking to include it in my journalling as a "whatever happens I will always love you" kind of "whatever".


OK, counterfeiters, thanks heaps for hopping by!  I hope you'll leave me a message letting me know you were here, and then it's off to the lovely Leslie's blog!

I spy . . . a Daddy and a baby

I wonder if you spotted the two very specifically themed papers I included in my February Counterfeit Kit, "Never Be Seen"?

Can you see them in the bottom right hand corner?  Two papers covered in definitions, one for a baby boy and one for a dad.

So the theme of today's pages should come as no surprise!   Nothing very special in terms of page construction, but precious in terms of photos and memories!

I love the top photo of Robert, with the clock in the background, which I took minutes after Angus was born.  And the look on his face in the bottom photo as he looks at his second-born is also so special (Me - I'm not looking so crash hot!)

This page is almost 100% Counterfeit Kit, with just the addition of a piece of map-patterned tissue paper which actually came with a box of shoes!  (Or did I add the cardstock stickers too?)

 

You've seen the Dad, now here's the baby . . .

As these pages will face each other in the family album, I used some of the same elements again.  This time the layer that I added was a piece of muslin. 

I had to dig through my old photo boxes to find the negative for this photo, as it's from pre-digital days.  The little bits of negative peeking out will be a permanent reminder! (Don't worry, they were just the blank bits of negative from the end of the roll, no precious memories destroyed here!)

I really struggle to scatter buttons on a page that looks good, so I tried a trick that I learnt from MercyTiara on Youtube, which is to splatter some mist underneath where your buttons will sit on the page.  I'm not sure how well you can see that in the photos, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

February Scrapfriends page

A super-quick post just to show you a page I finished based on this sketch at Scrapfriends this month:

Another lot of photos from my phone from when we were in Canberra last October school holidays:

Pretty much everything except the twine and plain green cardstock is from my Counterfeit Kit.  I wanted to add the splash of orang with those pre-cut arrows, but I'd already used the thinner shape in my title block . . . so I ended up layering both shapes!

Thanks for stopping by!

A very pink layout (and a green one)

First up, I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who left lovely comments about my sick daughter last week.  The good news was, she was only sick for a day, the rest of the family did stay healthy, and I did get my weekend home alone!

I've got two pages to show you today, first up is quite a departure from my February Counterfeit Kit (but don't worry, counterfeiters, the second one is from the kit).

I've combined two challenges for this page . . .

 . . . an old favourite - Scrapbook Boutique

Theme: "LOVE"

. . . one I've long been stalking but never attempted - White With One

Theme: White + Pink + Hearts


But I probably wouldn't have given them a second thought if it wasn't for this gorgeous inspiration from Wilna at Two Peas in a Bucket:

So let's not waste any more time, here's my page:

and some close ups:

I did the ombre painting on the weekend (when the family was away) then left it to dry.  I've been working on it in bits and pieces since then so it feels like it's taken nearly a week to finish!.

By contrast, this page for Angus came together in less than an hour, thanks to my Counterfeit Kit:

It's no secret that I tend to keep my boy pages pretty simple. With some stickers, washi, wood veneers and pre-cut arrows, I'm really happy with how this page came out!

Thanks everybody for dropping by!