Reflecting on 2011 ....

I think I’ve written and rewritten this post in my head about 1000 times and many more on the screen as today drew closer. I’ve been taking time to reflect on 2011 in the last few weeks and have realised that I have learnt so much this past year. There have been many events that have changed my life for the better, even if they were some of the toughest lessons to learn.

So I bring to you my list …. Lessons of 2011 … (in no particular order)

-          I have learnt that my family may not be perfect, but they are perfect for me in every little way and that’s all that matters.

-          I have learnt that there is no greater gift than a beautiful healthy baby.

-          I have learnt that my children complete me and I find nothing more fulfilling than being a mother and the unconditional love I get in return.

-          I have learned that all the money in the world will not buy you time with your loved ones.

-          I have learnt that I will never be someone’s friend out of pity ever again, it only makes you miserable.

-          I have learned that I should ALWAYS be true to myself no matter what others opinions are.

-          I have learnt that some people are just plain nasty and manipulative, call it what you like but it’s true.

-          I have learnt that I don’t need a lot of friends, just a couple of really special ones that don’t drain the happiness out of me.

-          I have learnt that the truth will always come out in the end even if it takes a bit of time.

-          I have learnt that in the company of true friends I never have to edit myself, I can be free to speak my mind and that’s okay.

-          I have learnt that some people will just listen to the first thing they hear, even if it’s not true. This is their loss not mine.

-          I have learnt that I am good enough and I should never let anyone make me feel otherwise.

-          I have learnt that the only person who can motivate me is myself.

-          I have learnt that I am only one person so I should stop anticipating that I can do the work of 3.

-          I have learnt that nothing will change if you don’t start changing.

-          I have learnt that sometimes life is cruel to the kindest of people while others who I can only describe as assholes seem to sail through unscathed.

-          I have learnt that if it’s not on facebook it can’t possibly be true. *wink* just jokes … threw that one in to see if you were still reading … lol

-     I have learnt that no matter how bad today seems, a new day will always come .... you've just got to get there.

-     I have learnt that one should smile a lot, laugh often and love with all your heart.

-     I have learnt that the life you desire just won't land in your lap .... you have to get out there and fight for it!

All in all I would have to say that 2011 has been a positive year for me. I was blessed with the arrival of my beautiful baby girl, made it onto the design team for a chipboard manufacturer, was published for the first time with many more acceptances for the future and above all life has finally fallen into the groove I'm happy with.

I made a final piece for the year and my final piece as a DT member for WOW chipboard. I have used the 12x12 interconnecting squares to make a page summarising 2011 for our family. It includes a few pictures of our most memorable times during the year.

I've turned the square in the bottom left hand corner into a pocket and added a card for each member of the family. On it I will record our achievements and special moments from the year.

A close up of the banner I made.

As we embark on the journey that will be 2012, I leave you with this ...

TFL Star xx

It's nearly time to say goodbye :'( ....

Well my time is nearly up on the DT for WOW chipboard. I have had a wonderful time over the past 6 months using their wonderful products. I have just posted my final scheduled post over on the blog. Here are a few sneaks of the pages I created ....

Make sure you stop by and check out the full reveal.

TFL Star xx

Just a little bit WOW .....

So November was a bad month for me scrappy wise :( Somewhere along I lost my way and just couldn't seem to get back on the right path. Certainly not for a lack of trying though. I think I 'dedicated' over 5 solid days perfecting my art of paper shuffling but still nothing. It was really starting to get me down especially knowing that I was letting down those I have made commitments to. I even had to admit defeat on one kit and hand it over to someone else! (thanks Emma for saving my bacon ;))

Today I was more determined than ever .... I had to break this drought and scrap a page.

I FINISHED ONE!!!

Using some more of my wonderful WOW Christmas chipboard I created this:

Every year I take a photo of Cody with the Christmas tree. Last year was his last solo shot .... this year he'll have to share the limelight with his sister! lol

I decorated the WOW Bubble Christmas Tree by adding a button to the centre of each. Took quite a while digging through all my buttons finding the right size for each hole but well worth the effort! I was beaten by two of the tiny gaps where I had to use brads instead.

The tree was painted with h2o's and the stars coloured with gold gel pen. I also hand stitched each button on. Got this thing about 'naked' buttons.

I also used one of the banner borders when I discovered that they had the exact right number of pennants for the word 'Christmas' ... happy days!

The '2010' is using their new self adhesive alphas. OMG I loooove these so much! I have 6 sheets already and I can just see they are going to be a staple in my stash for a long time!

TFL Star xx

Sneak peek ....

I've just posted my latest project to the WOW Words or Whatever blog.

Here's a couple of sneak's for you;

To check out the full post and finished layout head over to here and have a look!

TFL Star xx

Stuck?! November 1st .....

Sketches are my fave 'go to' for inspiration these days. It eliminates much of the paper shuffling stage for me. Stuck?! is always one of my first calling points each month, they have awesome sketches to use :)

Been using up some more of my wonderful WOW Christmas chipboard too ... may just be the first time I have ever has the previous years photos scrapped before this one!

I've used the 'Trimming the Tree' title along with some Echo Park papers for this page.

I used some Music Note Washi Tape from D-lish Scraps with some cross stitching.

The title was coloured with my fave medium, Twinkling H2o's and highlighted with a little Stickles on the star and ornaments.

For my embellie cluster I've used a small paper doiley, a Jillibean corrugated heart that I stitched around, a Journal It's Mini Date tab, a button from Lil' Red Rocket and some more Music Note Washi Tape.

TFL Star xx

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ......

Well at least on the WOW blog anyhow! This month is Christmas month over at WOW and the DT have all been given a truck load of awesome Christmas chipboard to play with.

This is my first page for the month using some gorgeous papers from My Minds Eye 12 Days of Christmas range I picked up from Bella Paperie. I made this cute layout of my little monkey who jumped in this elf cutout while we were waiting at the bank last Christmas. I've used the "Santa's Little Helper" title and "Cute Rudolph" chipboard for this page.

Here's a closeup of rudolph ... couldn't resist adding some googly eyes! He's all painted up in twinkling H2o's.

I also used H2o's on the title and have simply added some pen to break up the lettering a little.

TFL Star xx

Crafty Thursday .....

It's become a bit of a ritual for the little man and I {and the little girl} to have a crafty activity each Thursday. I think it may have started as a way to justify all the things I was pinning on Pinterest .... but that's another story ;)

For our first activity we decided to make what the boy refers to as 'monster rocks' which are pet rocks painted up like monsters. First up we had to get some rocks so we went on a little nature walk to collect some. We came across the scrub turkeys along the way.

Back home again and painting our rocks. Cody is painting his just like Sully (from Monsters Inc)

We did 6 in total .... here they all are. The green one is Mike (again from Monsters Inc) can you see the resemblance?? He's got this thing for monsters at the moment but only if they have happy faces ... lol ... apparently the red one is scary!

And here he is lining all his monsters up in a very straight line ... I wonder where he inherited that trait from???

The next week, inspired by grass heads, we decided to make pot monsters. Can you see the theme going on here?

Off to Bunnings to shop for supplies, he loved that he could zoom around the store with his very own trolley!

We painted up some terracotta pots and added eyes and faces from scrap cardstock. The seeds were planted in the cut off bottoms from softdrink bottles.

Here they are just 4 days later! Must have been the optimal growing conditions for them .... they were starting to sprout within 24 hrs!

TFL Star xx

Happy Days .....

I've had these Echo Park Happy Days papers for a while now to make a sample for Bella Paperie, my lss. (oops!)

I loved the October 15th sketch from Stuck?! so I have used it to create this layout of my little Ellah Bellah in her fairy singlet.

I used my spanky new Martha punch on the edges .... adore this punch sooo much! I have also layered one of her doily tags with a WOW chipboard butterfly. And check out the lace .... isn't it just divine! Took a little bit of fiddling but I managed to get it to curve round the edges of the circle nicely.

I also made some rosettes out of the papers too.

TFL Star xx

Challenge anyone??

Would you like to win this awesome collection pack from Echo Park? All you need to do is enter the monthly challenge on the Mad About Scrappin facebook page and you'll go in the draw.

This months challenge is a number one:

4 patterned papers

3 photos

2 ribbons

1 word title

Here's my sample for the challenge:

I've used some We R Memory Keepers paper and a WOW chipboard title "Ouch"

Your entries need to be loaded to their facebook page by midnight on the 25th of the month and the winner will be chosen at random.

TFL Star xx

It's been awhile ....

Almost 2 weeks since my last post. Life has been busy to say the least, the shop has been travelling along nice and strong and it bringing my dream of being a work from home mum true!

I have managed to squeeze in a few challenges, scrapping keeps me sane and without it I think I would be lost.

Having limited time I thought it best to start with a few sketches .... eliminates some of the paper shuffling ;)

I started with the October 1st sketch from Stuck?!

I have to admit that the sketch threw me at first and I just wasn't sure what to do with it but when it all came together I think it's turned out to be one of my favourite pages. I think I like the limited colour pallette with the pops of red. I also got to use my new Mr Huey's white mist and splat Crafter's Workshop template (thanks Peta :) ) and what's a layout without a little bit of WOW ... I used the 12" Cog Border on this one cut into 2 pieces. Also a scalloped circle Journal It from D-lish.

Next up is the October sketch challenge from Lime Tree Creations.

I thought I would have the perfect doiley to go in that circle area under the title but once I choose my photo and papers I didn't have a colour to match :( So instead I punched a scalloped circle of patterned paper and used one of the trims to add a decorative edge around it. I've also used a little WOW chipboard on this one; the 'Proud Mum' title and the butterflies from the Girl card pack. I've also included a few D-lish goodies too, a Journal It Date strip and pink lace washi tape.

TFL Star xx

Out of the Hat - October .....

At first glance this month's challenge seemed a little tricky but it was actually quite simple once it's broken down.

- complimentary colour scheme (I chose blue & orange)

- felt

- paper tearing

Once I had my colour scheme and photos I simply pulled some bits and pieces from my stash to suit. I made this entire layout from scraps!

I embellished with a gorgeous lollipop from Charms Creations and a cute tiger button from Lovelybug Bits and Bobs.

TFL Star xx

Ways With Washi - Day 4 ....

Today I have shared a cool technique for wiring your washi tape with kitchen ties. I'm sure the possibilities are endless but here are some things I made from them.

Head over to the facebook page to see the whole tutorial.

TFL Star xx

Ways With Washi - Day 3 .....

Bunting and Flags make for such fun and playful layouts so I just had to share how easy they are for the Ways With Washi feature at D-lish. I made this layout based on the September challenge at Kraft it Up! The criteria are fabric and stitching. I used felt as my "fabric" and have used both machine and hand stitching on my page.

Here's a close up of the washi tape flags.

Another of the bunting which I have added part of the title to.

To make my felt title I used an alphabet stencil and traced the letters onto the back before cutting them out. To add a fun look I did some random stitches to "hold" them on the page.

TFL Star xx

Ways With Washi - Day 2 .....

For today's Ways With Washi tutorial on D-lish Scraps I made these awesome twisted roses. My layout was inspired by the Show us Your Stuff September challenge where the criteria was multi photos, stripes and of course something handmade.

Here's a close up showing off the washi tape roses. I added rhinestones to the centre and clustered them with a WOW chipboard leaf.

The title is also WOW chipboard which I coloured with twinkling H2o's and decorated with some more rhinestones.

I also added one of the felt butterflies at the top of a rhinestone trail.

TFL Star xx

Just because .....

No challenge, no kit, no rules .... just because I can.

I dug into my WOW chipboard stash and created this page on the weekend.

I used some papers from the Echo Park Victoria Gardens pack and also some really old Kaiser.

I also "borrowed" some of the gorgeous gingham frill ribbon from the shop **ssshhhh** lol

All the chipboard has been painted with H2o's and then for the branch I inlaid the flower centres with some scraps of the purple paper, punched holes in the centre and added some flower stamens. I really like the 3D effect this gives the chipboard.

TFL Star x

Splash a bit of paint .....

This month's challenge for Mad About Scrappin is just that .... splash a bit of paint on your layout! Post it on their facebook page and one lucky person drawn at random will win this awesome Graphic 45 paper pad valued at $17!!

Here's my sample ... although being on the DT means I can't win :( but it's always fun to play along anyhow!

I used Words or Whatever 12 x 12 Cog Set along with a mix of REALLY old pp's from my stash to create this layout of my little scooter boy and my not so little one!

I painted the cogs in black paint and the title in twinkling H2o's.

I swiped on some more black paint with an old credit card and added some joint tape over it. Love this stuff ... a huge roll was only $2 and the best part is it's already sticky!

TFL Star x