Pencillines Sketch 201

We have teamed up again with CCG this week and this is one of my favorite color combos!
I have kept my LO quite simple as I wanted the photos to be the main focus. Love how it turned out. To check out all the inspiration from this weeks sketch go here.


I'm off to Germany on Thursday to see my mum and dad. It's well overdue...I haven't seen my family in 2 years. Dad works on an island called 'Juist' until the end of the year when he goes into retirement. There are no cars, the only way to get around is a bicycle or horse carriage...quite idyllic. It will be very relaxing and a bit of time out from the kids never hurts either:)

Pencillines Sketch 200

Sketch 200! I have only been part of the Pencillines Team since January but I look forward to all the inspiration every week on the blog. This week we have teamed up with Colour Combos Galore and it is interesting to see all the different shades of the combo being used. I've stayed pretty true to the colour scheme and the softer hues and I must say really liked the result. I often scrap with brighter colours so it was a nice change.

MME Challenge

MME Blog Challenge #14: Summertime
I've decided to play along since the sketch (by Anam Stubbington) inspired me straight away. I liked the clean design and the fact it had multiple photos on it. I've decided to turn the sketch on its side though since it suited my pictures better.


You still have time until the 19th to get your entries in!

Sick Kids

The kids have been home for the last 3 days with the dreaded cough and mild temperatures. On the upside I had some extra time to scrap :)
This is my take on the American Crafts Button Challenge.

Pencillines Sketch 198

We are back from the snow and I'm still trying to catch up with my washing! Anyone able to help?? At least the sun has come out and I might get a few things dried.
I've missed creating while we were away and was happy to get straight back into it. This LO is from Pencillines Sketch 198 (which will not go live until tomorrow night)...I love the yellow and green colour combo, such happy and warm tones. Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

Off to the snow!

We are off to the snow today for week! I'm looking forward to having a break and spending some time with the family on the slopes. The kids are excited and all fired up :) I'll take my iPad though so I can check out all the new CHA releases...can't miss out on those! Here are some more that have caught my eye...
American Crafts City Park

















...and Lizzy 'Enchanted'






















Jillibean Soup 'Pasta Fagioli'(click on link to see images)

Jenni Bowlin





















I'll leave you with a LO about my daughter not eating her fruit or veg. Very frustrating for her mum!

Photoshop Actions

I have just come across a wonderful blog that has countless free Photoshop Actions, Brushes, Templates and Textures. I have downloaded some favorites and on the pic here I have used the 'Simply Vintage' action. Loving the result! Go here to have a look...it is well worth it!

Some CHA sneaks I'm diggin...

Glitz Design looking totally yummy!

First up is Scarlett


















Then we have Love Nest



















...and look at this mix of aqua and lime green...just divine. Hoopla

I'm not sure how I could possible decide between these collections. I think Glitz is one of the companies that have definitely grown and improved over the last couple years.




Can't wait for Indie Girl to arrive on my door step!












This is looking interesting...a collaboration between Pink Paislee and House of Three.


More Later!

West Side Story

Yesterday we all went to see 'West Side Story', what a fantastic production! It was amazing and exciting to see how much the kids enjoyed it. I thought Max might get bored half way through or he may be to young for this kind of experience, but I had no reason to feel this way. I kept on sneaking little side glances at the kids during the performance, they were totally absorbed in the story, the singing and the dancing. Admittedly we had fantastic seats...3rd row from the front, so we were able to see everything up close. I'll definitely take them again in the future.

Last Sunday we also finished up Romy's birthday invites which turned into a bit of a production. We spent all afternoon together, me stamping and heat embossing and Romy stamping little butterflies and inking the embossed backgrounds. She learned some new things and I enjoyed doing crafty things together! Tim Holtz watch out!


School holidays have now started and some of the activities on our list are ice skating, movies (Eclipse is a must!) and probably some mother and daughter shopping. Max has already organized his social life for the holidays, he needs playmates or he just gets bored. I will enjoy the sleep ins most :)

School Reports

School Reports came home yesterday and I can really say I'm proud of my kids and how well they are doing. Romy achieved high marks in maths and english and the report showed she always puts great effort in her work. She is a very meticulous child (not sure where she gets it from but I would say probably me:). Max also achieved good grades but we need to work on his concentration and time management which we already know. He had a new teacher starting in Term 2 and I'm really glad that he has warmed to her. She is a lovely teacher and after his rather difficult first term with a teacher that was strict and not very warm he is now much happier. He responds much better to kindness.
A few weeks ago I went to Ikea to overhaul the kids bedrooms. Max got a bunk bed and a desk and Romy also got a desk. The bed she chose was out of stock and she will have to wait a little for her trundle. She did have a great time organizing all her bits and pieces in her new corner desk. Gotta love IKEA!!
This weekend will be a quiet one in our house and I'm intending to make a couple of sets of cards. A new one for me but I'm constantly inspired by this talented artist and will finally have a go at making some cards. I will share them in my next post...Have a great weekend!

Hello Mars to Earth

I have been missing in action for the last 18 months on this blog...anyone still checking in here? I'm not even going to attempt to recap the last year and a half but it has definitely been busy :)
Family and kids are well...Romy is nearly 9, Max will turn 8 soon and Monique is 14. Where does the time go? I'm retreating from some business related responsibilities and I'm making more time for me and the things I enjoy in life. Heard this one before? Well, apparently one needs to learn from experience. I've been missing scrapbooking for fun and for me and I have also taken up tennis 6 months ago which I enjoy so much that I'm playing three times a week. It has given me something else besides family that I do just for me and let's face it...once we start staring the big 40 in the eye gravity takes hold and we all need to do something. Tennis is more fun then just running on a treadmill. Never liked those things in the first place. I intend to update this blog regularly again to also keep some sort of diary for my family overseas...hi Mum and Dad!
You will get some more then just the occasional photo from your grandchildren again!
Ok...I will leave you with one of my recent Layouts done for Pencillines using the Crate Paper 'Brook' Collection.

CHA Day 1

As promised I will post a quick update everyday...Day 1 was busy! I have seen a lot of new product that I really liked...LYB, Maya Road, Fancy Pants to name a few. I wanted to upload some images from the show (although the quality is not very good due to the light inside) but Blogger is not being kind to me. I've sent the images to the girls from

Memories2Remember

and they have uploaded them on to their

blog

.
Stay tuned for more!

How to annoy your parents

...the journaling for the LO came from a kids website that Romy discovered and she actually went through the trouble of copying the journaling word by word on a piece of paper and gave it to me. I just had to scrap it:) Supplies are from the

February Kit

!

February Kit

...is now available! Lots of October Afternoon goodness :)

Sneak Peek

...Kit will be released 15th January :)

Designing Memories

Bolt and Mittens

Anyone seen the Kids movie 'Bolt' yet? I just loved 'Mittens' the cat! A great movie to see these school holidays, try to see it in 3D, well worth it.
Otherwise we are keeping busy catching up with friends and swimming in the pool, especially these last few days.
I have done another LO with the same papers as the LO in the previous post, just love the 'Spaceboy' and 'Little Guys' papers from Prima. Great for boy pages!

A very unconventional Christmas

I know it is a bit late for a Christmas post but time just gets away sometimes! We've had the best Christmas in a long time (at least I thought so) and all because we decided to have a very quiet Christmas Day. The kids got up at 7.30am and we opened presents for the next hour. Max and Romy got an iPod Shuffle each as well as some toys and books. They were really pleased with what Santa had chosen and played for the next few hours with all their new stuff. The house has been very quiet as well since they had their iPods stuck to their ears the whole time! So off I went to have a little morning snooze and the next thing I know I woke up at 11.30. I thought I better get up and make some lunch so I grabbed a Pizza and put it in the oven! We all went for a long swim in the pool in the afternoon and some more playtime. All in all a very relaxing day. I know there was no traditional lunch but I think the kids couldn't care less and we had a much more relaxing day without all the cooking. Selfish? Maybe a little. But we had a big Christmas Eve at my sister in laws place with the whole family and a wonderful Boxing Day at my Father in Laws farm. After all it is supposed to be about Family and spending time together. And we certainly did that.
And I even had some time to create...Happy New Year!

You can find all these papers

here.

Creative Paper

The December issue of For Keeps Creative Paper Magazine is now available. I have a digital LO in there and you should be able to download the matching layered template from their website to create your own page. If you're having problems with the downloading of the template just send me an e-mail (katja@designingmemories.com.au) and I will be happy to send you the zip file. Enjoy your week!

Sneak Peeks

Just a quick update with some sneak peeks for the next Kit (available December 15th)!