My Play Ground

A change from Christmas cards

It was nice to have a change from making Christmas cards this week and make a couple of kids Birthday cards.  My favourite (and only) nephew Jasper turned 6 last week and we were very lucky to have a visit with him today.  After his visit Jasper was headed to his friend Olives 6th Birthday party so I quickly whipped up a girly card for him to give her.  Finally I made a 3rd card for another special little boy turning 6 this week who just happens to love trains, hope he likes it.

Jaspers card

Olives card

Lucus's Card

 
   

Thanks for stopping by and if you want to know what products I've used for each card please just ask.

Cheers

Erica xx

Just a few Christmas cards

Just a quick post today with a few Christmas cards.  These are from my favourite Christmas set from Stampin' Up! this year "Holiday Lineup".  I've made about 20 cards like these but all slightly different, different paper, colours, ribbons etc. Enjoy.........

I made these cards about 2 months ago and I'm sure I CASEed some of the designs, just can't remember from where.  If it's from You, Thank You.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you like my chrissy cards, I'll be back soon with some more.

Erica xx  

A special Birthday and 3 firsts

Today is my very good friend Karen's 4oth Birthday.  I had such a good time on Saturday night helping her celebrate the big event.  Karen is a fellow card maker so I was determined to make her a special card for this special event (I think it would have been the end of a good friendship if I had bought her a card).  So 3 hours before the party started, after packing up the boys and sending them to Mum and Dads for the night I made a start.  This is the first ever Tri-shutter card I have made and despite owing the Cheep Talk stamp set from Stampin' Up! since April this is the first time I have used this set.  I have also used the Candy Lane DSP from Stampin' Up! for the first time as well.  So after 3 new things and 3 hours later I finally came up with this card....

I hope you have a fantastic 40th Birthday Karen, I'm off now to make my special little nephew Jasper a special card for his 6th Birthday which is also today.

See you soon

Erica xxx

Lots to share

With Christmas rapidly approaching I have been busy creating lots of festive goodies.  I was determined to make all my christmas cards this year and alot of gifts as well, so I have an abundance of things I wish to share over the next few days.

As all the kids activities wind up for the year I have made all the kids teachers and carers a special card and a little gift, and I just have to say "how cute are my kids".

Thomas's 2009 Christmas card

Will's 2009 Christmas card

Teachers and Carer's gift,

That's it for today, but stay tuned with more cards and creative goodies.

Cheers

Erica xx

OK....... I'm slack.........but I have been busy

Yes it's been awhile between posts but I couldn't resist sharing the following pictures with you.  Thomas had his prep alphabet concert today and he was the letter "S".  After much ummming and ahhing he dcided to go as a skeleton (probably much easier than the sumo wrestler he was thinking about last week).  So I pulled out the sewing machine and "whipped" this up in a day.  i finally got to bed at 1am and was woken by Tom fully dressed in his costume.  He was so happy and excited that it makes all the hard work worth it.  So if you're ever in need of a skeleton costume I now have one........

 

Thanks for stopping by, I'm planning to be back shortly to share all the other crafty things I've been doing.

See you Soon,  Erica xxx

How time flies!

I'm not sure why it still surprises me how quickly time flies.  I grew up with mum telling me each year seems to go by quicker and quicker.  I now know what she meant.  This year is just disappearing before my eyes, weeks go by and I have to stop and think what have I done with my time, surely it can't nearly be August.

We have had our fair share of common colds and bugs this winter and I have just recovered from the worst Flu I think I've ever had.  The doctors didn't test but said it was possibly swine flu, now I know why everyone is complaining about it.  It came on so quickly and within hours I was in bed and couldn't move.  Luckily I have a great supportive family and my husband was Mr Mum for a few days and let me rest.  Luckier still the rest of the family have avoided it, so far.  We are keeping our fingers crossed.

My big boy Thomas is celebrating his 100 days of school today.  It got me thinking how quickly he is growing up and how much he is learning and changing.  This is Tom this morning.  They had to wear something that represented 100 and Thomas wanted to decorate a T-Shirt which we did at 8pm last night and have 100 on his face.  Also check out the back of his hair.  These were all Tom's ideas and I helped with putting it together.  It is really hard as a parent not to step in and do the work for them and I'm really trying to encourage Tom to make decisions for himself and just give a little guidence.  I think he looked great this morning and was very proud walking him into School.

 

 

The first 100 days of school has gone by so quickly, I still remember that excited anxious feeling when we were walking him into class that very first day.  I miss having my big boy around and often find myself thinking about him and wondering what he is doing now.  He may be growing up and becoming less dependant on me, but he is never far from my thoughts and is always in my heart.

May the next 100 days of school be as good as the first.

Until next time,

Erica xxx

A quick post

Just a quick post to share with you a layout I just completed of my clever boy Will.  I have CASEd this LO from somewhere out there in internet land but can't remember where.  I saved it into a file of LO's I like and came across it the other day and decided to give it a go.  I just loved the stitched border and stars on the original and I have made some changes of my own.  All the stitching is done by hand after piercing the holes first.  It was quiet nice to sit and watch TV while doing some stitching.

 

I have lots more LO's and projects to share with you over the next few days.  Thomas is heading off to his Grandads for a few nights so hopefully I'll find some more time for blogging.  I've enjoyed having him around these holidays and realised how much he is growing up now that he is a big school kid.  But I will also enjoy some time to myself again while he has a holiday at Grandads. 

Hope all you Mums out there are enjoying the holidays.

Bye for now,

Erica  xoxo

Sprung!

I decided to make a chicken pie for dinner tonight and after making the filling I was letting it cool down before putting it into the base to put in oven.  While the filling was cooling I decided to surf for awhile until I realised Will, now 2, was very quiet.  Upon investigation I found Will in the Kitchen 1) eating the grated cheese that was to go in the pie and 2) putting the cheese in the mixture.  He is just too cheeky at the moment and he knew he was sprung.  I just had to get the camera out to take a few photos before removing him from the kitchen and locking the gate. Note to self: lock kitchen gate more often.

 

  

I just had to put this last shot in.  I asked Will to smile and this is what I got.

 

As you can also see I cook the way I scrap.  MESSY.  Oh well it's the end result that counts.  The pie is now in the oven, fingers crossed it works as it was a bit of an experiment. 

Hope you are all well and happy.

With Love

akv Erica vka

 

I think I'm going to cry

What is it they say about the best made plans?  After confirming the details of our girls day out to Paperific with Anita, my eldest son Thomas developed a sore throat and a temperature last night.  After a restless night sleeping in bed with me he woke up the same.  While he wasn't overly unwell I couldn't send him to school, my mum is still overseas so she couldn't have him and I didn't think it fair to drag him around Paperific.  So I had to ring and cancel our day out and I have spent the day at home with a semi sick child.  Luckily he's happy watching movies, drawing and using the computer and I have been able to sit and scrap. 

After spending 4 days on the last page, I decided to go for a couple of quick and easy pages.  Neither one took very long and I'm happy with the outcome.  This first LO is based on a sketch and LO of Makeesha Byl's which I saw ages ago on her blog. 

 

And my second LO is of my nephew Jasper with Thomas taken last year at easter.  They are so different to look at and in personality but are really good buddies.

 

Hope you are all having a lovely Friday.  We are fortunate down here in Melbourne to be seeing a bit of sunshine, yippee.  And to everyone who got to Paperific hope you're having a great time.

With Love

akv Erica vka

It's taken awaile

My kitchen table has been covered in paper and photos all week just to get this one page done.  I started on Monday after selecting the photos and having a plan in my head of the layout I wanted.  It seemed really easy but when I came to putting it all together it just wasn't working.  So everyday I have fiddled and played trying to get it "just right".  I really wanted to use the colours from Will's top of brown and pale blue, but the bright yellow of the cake and the bright orange from our friend Corey's top kept clashing. 

So after eating dinner on our laps all week I really needed to finish the LO today.  Not sure if I'm happy with it but I think I've spent to much time looking at it.  Might put it away and see how I feel in a few weeks.  My husband will also be glad to have the kitchen table back.  I'm not one of those fortunate scrappers that has a scrap room.  I have to make do with the kitchen table and pack up after each session.  Although that is not really a bad thing because I'm also not the neatest scrapper and this way I'm forced to keep it clean and pack up after each session.

I have included journaling under one of the small photos held down by the paperclip.  I often get to the end of a LO and realise I haven't left room for journaling, probably because I've never been comfortable with my writing.  English, spelling and grammar have never been my strong point.  Hiding it under a lift up photo is my way of including the story without sharing it with the world.

After just celebrating Will's 2nd Birthday I realised how much he has grown up in the last year.  Although he still loves "Raffee" his giraffe soft toy as much today as he did when he was 1.  Some things never change.

I'm really looking forward to a day out tomorrow with my dear friend Anitato Paperific.  We very rarely get time together without the kids these days so it will be nice to have a girlie day out together.

Hope everyone has had a good week, see you soon,

akv Erica vka