8.40am

It takes a while to wake up in the morning. This is what our house looks like, in the morning, on coffee number two... I love having Ian home in the morning- I love the morning coffee ritual on the couch.

There's usually a sprinkling of toys on the Facari rug from the night before...

Tasmin munches on fruit, Angie crawls around working up an appetite...

The bottles left to dry on the sink, from the night before... I love to wake up to the sight of clean dishes. It's not common...

ahh bliss... this is what I was up to last night, like most nights... I almost completed a whole double layout...and I bravely tried paint on my page which I LOVE. 1am was a bit late to finish though.

"why am i always the last to get fed around here....?"

Ah yes, the new pile of washing.....

The towels I hung out to dry YESTERDAY...

And now, I'm off to take Tassie to her swimming lesson. Hope we won't be late :-)

Thanks for visiting!

How do you spend your mornings?

Remembering Dad book

I got a bit fixated on making a book in time for the funeral. It was supposed to be eight pages, so I went to Spotlight to get some smaller O-rings and a Space Bar which are designed to bind smaller books with the Zutter bind-it-all. No one was surprised when I emerged on the day of the funeral with a 50 page book!

I'd stayed up til 4.45 am printing pages and binding it all together. I'd somehow imagined I'd even make four copies, one for everyone else attending, and that it would all be done in two hours. Where do I get these crazy ideas and what drives me to keep going? Well, I felt the need to document all my thoughts about the fortnight leading up to Dad's passing as well as more general memories, so that is done now. Relief. And the material is all organised and printed reading for binding so I can make the other copies in my own time.

I found images of his favourite music on Google images (above);

I included messages received by SMS and email (above), as well as my own eulogy at the funeral, and some of his - and my - favorite quotes. I'll also include the notes from Ian, my sister

and her husband.

I included one sample of Dad's handwriting, from an old letter that I'd recently rediscovered in one of Grandma's holiday scrapbooks (above);

I scanned in the beautiful portrait painted by my talented cousin Noni Clarke, (with only a portion of the portrait showing);

I included scans from his favourite book of poetry, above and his beloved Scottish ancestry below;

As mentioned a few weeks ago, I finished a little album about Dad's childhood and early adult years and made a slideshow of photos to go with it. Even though he wasn't terribly interested, he knew I made them to remember him, and it was the closest we came to having a conversation about how we felt. So I'm as satisfied as I'm ever going to be. I wrote a few pages of memories and anecdotes from my childhood which I'll use in Part two of the album, which will focus on my relationship with dad. Part three will focus on his relationship with the babies, and there are many lovely photos, which I am really grateful for. These will each be housed in their own little album.

Farewell Dad

My dear Dad passed away just over a week ago so my little world ground to a halt. Even though he'd been very unwell with cancer for a couple of years, two days before he passed the doctors thought it would be weeks. So in a way it was all a bit sudden as I thought there'd be months left. So of course I spent a lot of time thinking about the day before I saw him and how it should have gone. But that day I do remember greeting him properly, grabbing his chin and giving him a really big kiss. I took Tasmin along and she was pretty good that day. His wish had been to see the babies as much as possible and I scheduled my days around the hospital visits. It's always difficult taking toddlers to the hospital.

The call came at 2.30am on Thursday 15th October and it was an emotional journey that day as I, my sister and her new husband sat by his bedside, holding his hand, reminiscing about the past and recalling his favourite jokes. It was wonderful to hear him chortle and laugh a few times even though he was in a light coma by then.

All in all, it was a peaceful passing and I was very grateful to be there with Dad holding his hand.

The funeral was on Wednesday and attended by me, Ian, my sister and her husband and Mum. My in-laws very kindly stepped in to mind the babies back at our house. It was an amazing and very simple service, with just the five of us looking out at the beautiful water garden atrium, cradled by a beautiful blue, almost cloudless, sky. We all spoke, and laughed, and cried, and all wore colour. Afterwards we went out into the gardens for a picnic. It didn't feel strange at all. I felt compelled to take pictures of the roses as they felt like his roses: they would look different the next day, and the day after that, and these will be a reminder of the beauty of infinite life.

Sneak peek - Tasmin and Angus's little zoo book

I'm very excited about my current project - which is about two-thirds of the way through. I'm making a little 8" mini-album book of our first trip to the zoo a few weeks ago. I'm dead keen to get it done quickly while the babies still remember it! It's about 30 pages and this is the first album I'll have made myself - the pages are cut from buff coloured manila folders and the album itself will be bound together with my groovy new Zutter bind-it-all. I stayed up late last week practising with it and made a little notebook using recyled paper for Tasmin to draw in.

I feel like it's more a children's picture book than an album - I'm giving my clouds-and-grass stencil a flogging and paper-piecing trees, flowers, animals and sticking in ribbon, pipe cleaners, mesh, anything with texture. It seems a bit silly in a way as the babies may end up ripping it all out as we read it but I want them to have a tactile experience and to be able to touch the different surfaces.

Hope to finish it soon then I'll post the whole album up. Have a great Sunday!

Debbie :D xox

Christmas cards - never too early to start

I was treated to Ruth Cameron's cardmaking class today and came away with four Christmas cards. There should have been five but we chatted a bit! I've decided to try and get my cards done in November this year as it's always done at the last minute and there's always a panic about getting them to people in time for Christmas. I usually come up with one master card then copy it 50 times... I can't imagine making individual cards for everyone. I am definitely inspired by the card at the top, with the three baubles - green and red by the way, but the scan didn't really pick up the red very well. I'll probably incorporate a family pic as well I think.

I used some new products and techniques too -

1. Several of the cards used Kindyglitz or Ice Iccles and I was loved the effect, which was actually quite subtle. Some sequins were used too, on the baubles.

2. There's corrugated metallic card too - I have a little machine on order at Seriously Scrapbooking that crinkles paper for you but you can apparently buy the card like this.

3. I also really love the simple scalloped edging achieved with scissors. I was thinking about buying a scallop punch but I think scissors would have more uses - you could do straight and curved lines, or circles, I think.

4. The Christmas tree was cut from scrapbooking paper and I've seen similar papers in the shops, and the little reindeer was purchased from a pack of gift tags. I love the creative thought that went into those!

5. And finally embossing powder melted with a heat tool - the white powder shines like thick lovely snow. Will have to think about adding some to my stash...maybe next year.

The Christmas letter will be different from usual... we normally do a boring old text only letter but I want to include fewer words and some pics this time. There must be 1000 to choose from so that will be easier said than done.

Isn't it crazy though, to see Christmas stuff in the shops already?

Grandma's holiday scrapbooks from my childhood

I was so delighted to pull out some of Grandma's old holiday books last night. Naturally I scanned them in at the first opportunity and uploaded them on to my Facebook page. I feel better knowing that they're "safe" in cyber space and free from moths, fires, floods and burglars. I'm terrified of losing any of my precious photos or mementos from the past. Reading through my books made me feel incredibly grateful that Grandma took the time and care to make them for me, my sister and cousins over the years to remember our annual Christmas visits to Melbourne. We travelled all the way from Darwin so we usually didn't see her more often than once a year. She's gone now but I think of her often and know she had a strong impact on my life. She is probably the one who influenced me to be a collector of articles, pictures and stories, years before I found scrapbooking. I wonder if she would be a scrapbooker today, in the way that I am?

Tissue paper flowers... I love recyling anything around the house to make pretty embellishments and found a better way of making tissue paper flowers, a little more sophisticated than my Mothers Day effort. With thanks to Philippa at Zestblog.

Tasmin and Angus playing together

I'm so happy to see the babies playing together! Angus, the baby, is fascinated by anything Tasmin is interested in and crawls over to see what she's up to. He's just started crawling, progressing from creeping, this month, which is an exciting development. His baby days are starting to come to an end now. Tasmin tolerates him but isn't really into sharing just yet. "It's mine!" she often reminds him. It's ironic the way she copies the Stingy character from Lazy Town, not getting the subtle lesson on sharing and team work.

What I'm up to at the moment:

1. I am really discovering the world of blogs. Where have they been all my life? You find one, and that leads to another and another... I've had many too-late nights this week. It's addictive, isn't it? The last one I looked at was Ali Edwards' great page, full of great inspirations and techniques. Note to self... remember to try toothbrush paint flicking and magazine masking with acrylics.

2. I'm interested in paper piecing at the moment, which is very popular again, and I'm experimenting with some different techniques. I bought a quilling tool that I'm experimenting with ... less than $3!... and can't wait to finish a pretty little card with quilled flowers on it. I found the inspiration in this month's issue of Scrapbooking Memories magazine.

Wow, I had to show off my new scrap space. Well, the shelves and desk were built last year but as I've been learning and doing more scrapbooking and accumulating more stuff, well... the piles of stuff just grew and grew and it started to look terrible. And I hate working amongst chaos. I mean, I don't really mind when I'm in the middle of a project, but I like to feel every little thing has a home to go somewhere when I'm finished. So my darling husband put up two new shelves and I stayed up all Friday night reorganising and this is the result. I'm very proud. Though as a friend commented when she say it, It looks as though you live IN Ikea...

Kathie Link class - Webster's pages

I had such fun creating these new pages yesterday in Kathie Link's class as Seriously Scrapbooking. This is the first scrapbooking class I've taken (other than the Creative Memories workshop I tried last year which really got me started on scrapbooking). What a new concept - cutting out images from patterned papers to create scenes. I've seen Kathie's work in Scrapbooking Memories magazine but it all looked a bit complicated. It really pays to do a class as it gets you thinking about the techniques and having a go raises your confidence. I bought a little tool which distresses the edge of the paper - it's actually a thread cutter. It was purple, luckily, my fave colour LOL ;-).

I looked at some more of kathie's work on her blog http://kathielink.blogspot.com/ which is really worth a visit. Now it's got me thinking very differently about how I'm going to tackle the babies' albums. Initially I'd thought I'd try and cram as many photos in as I could. But.. as there will be 60 pages in each album, won't it be MUCH more fun to focus on one or two photos per page instead. And have more fun doing the scrapbooking. Thanks Kathie! I am one happy customer.

Mothers Day 2009

Mothers Day was actually back in May but I felt inspired to do this page for Mum as we've just had Fathers Day. I actually did a similar layout for her and copied it so I could have one for my album. This is the first page I have completed for my 2009 album and I know it's a bit late but you have to start somewhere!

I love using recyled leftovers and the mesh is leftover from florist bouquets I'd been given - yep, I keep everything, even when I have no idea what I'll need it for! - the paper flower is made from a strip of tissue paper (also recyled) and the music sheet is a copy of the one I keep using lately, that I'd bought second hand in an op shop. I love combining text and music on my layouts. And I'm also crazy about doodling so that's appearing on everything at the moment.

Here's a very very cool trick I discovered by accident. We only uploaded Photoshop Elements 7.0 a month or so ago so I'm still getting used to the new features. I had been using version 2.0 so was quite behind. I scanned the page in two parts on my little scanner and found a great feature called 'photomerge' and the program put my page back together again, perfectly. Wow. I thought I'd be fiddling for half and hour to do it manually. Love Photoshop.

Eight cards in three days!!!

It's a quick card when you have your lovely child's drawings to make it with!

Happy Fathers Day Keith

Fathers Day Cards

Gee I had a ball making this card. It uses all my new rubber stamps - the owl (Inkadinkado), the harlequin and Eiffel Tower (Tim Holtz) and the funky man (unknown brand) with lots of TH inks on a manila folder card.

Fathers Day 2009

I bought a pack of 100 manila folders very cheaply - for the price of a single greeting card! - and distressed with my favourite Tim Holtz distress inks. It's a fairy with a wooden leg - one of Dad's favourite sayings when I was a child! I used some printed paper with fairies on it; the words are printed on the computer, stuck on leftover card and mounted on foam squares.

Marian and Keith's 50th Golden Wedding Anniversary

I used Kraft cardstock for the card and distressed it with my Tim Holtz distress inks. The middle is a circle of sheet music, the anniversary message is recycled from an old card, the bird is an Inkadinkado stamp and the 50 a Making Memories foam stamp. I used acrylic paint to paint 50 underneath as a shadow.

Happy Engagement to Noni and Mike

This was such a fun card as the party theme was "vintage cocktail" so I printed an internet image of a little red cocktail dress and stamped it with the chandelier image (Tim Holtz) and repeated the stamp at the top of the music paper circle (the sheet music was found in an op shop). I added some words mounted on foam "She was positively radiant"...the inside of the card is a photo of our mothers as young teens in the fifties with words added to the top for a fun effect "gorgeous man so.. purple". I love to be random!

It's finally finished - Dad's childhood album

Incredible... I can't believe Mick's childhood album is finally finished. Completely. I've scanned the 20 pages in and ordered little 8" by 8" softcover photobooks of the final results to give as gifts to family members.

It's the first album I started and the third I've actually finished. It includes an eclectic range of techniques as I've been learning along the way. I've tried to stick to a colour theme of vintage brown, green and blue and kept patterened paper to a minimum. But I think it showcases how great stamping is in scrapbook albums.

I read a great tip in Scrapbooking Memories magazine which is - when you finish a scrapbook project, keep the leftovers for cards. A great idea as everything sort of matches and you could make several while it's still all fresh in your mind.

Layered ink technique on recycled card

My favourite thing is to use recycled cardboard for cards which I use from boxes and packaging around the house. The paper trimmer cuts a nice line and I do the rest with a craft knife. The kraft colour is great - it dominates everything I make at the moment.

I wanted to try out a new technique of layering colours using only inks. I stamped with my handwriting stamp first in a light colour, then used a stamped image of leaves (which I'd cut out of paper but had leftover from another project) so I used it as a mask to ink over with the red. I'll need to go easy next time - it's pretty heavy when you're using coloured card. Then I stamped with my angel image.

I had already stamped the flourish (Fancy Pants designs) on top of some acetate leftover from the last project so I cut it out and stuck it on top of the card using mounted foam squares (coloured in black with a pen). The fun of this is you can run the design off the page but I decided to be more conservative this time and keep it within the edges.

See-through acetate CD gift card

I made this card to hold the CD I compiled as a gift for my sister. As the CD pen seems to have run out of ink, I experimented with other kinds. In the end I used the pens that are designed to write on non-porous services (white boards and overhead transparencies). These items are virtually obselete by now I guess.

I used the Staz On black ink to stamp the flourish on the card itself and it seems to have dried ok. I folded the card three times using a wooden ruler, so as not to scratch the transparency. The top is tied together with string, through a little hole made with a hole punch.

Looking forward to experimenting more with transparencies.

Tim Holtz distress inks

Tim Holtz demonstrates using the distress ink around the edges and note the way he sprays the ink with water for a watermarked effect. Haven't tried that yet.

How to make your own rub-ons with 'Ask Erin

This is an exciting new discovery... making your own rubs ons. Who can afford a thousand rubber stamps? Great for others like me, who like 'hybrid' scrapbooking and use the computer for lots of journalling and imagery. Haven't tried it yet but have some transparency that I can use.

Happy Birthday Dave

This unusual looking piece of card I found at the 'SA Stamping and Scrapbooking Fair' yesterday contains textured stripe on one side and black on the other. I thought it would be fun to have black on the inside of the folded card instead of the usual white. I used my white Signo gel pen to write the inscription and used white chalky ink on my foam stamps for the "h" and 'b". I gently sponged Tim Holtz distress ink on the front cover to bring out the stripes and rubber stamped the main image onto recyled cardboard packaging. It was attached with foam mounting squares to give the 3-D effect. The other images, the text and flower, were stamped last with the same white chalky ink used earlier. I like the result but need to practise the new technique. I learnt it from the teachers at "Seriously Scrapbooking" yesterday. This is going to revolutionise scrapbooking for me as I'm interested in making my own papers and papers for layouts and cards.

Josh's magnificent photobook

This was an incredible labour of love. First Ian collected all his favourite photos of his son Josh, soon to turn 18. We were very fortunate that Ian's mother offered us a shoebox of photos or it would have been a very small collection. There were 200 odd photos, some in albums, that had to be scanned, photoshopped and reprinted. Mostly the photoshopping was to reduce some of the pictures (to 80% or 50% depending on the room available). Very quick in Adobe Photoshop Elements. Then the photos had to be cropped and scrapped into a 60 page album. I mainly used coloured cardstock with some pattered papers and rubber/acrylic stamping here and there. The journalling was all done on the computer. Wish I'd thought to use the Xyron sticker maker at the start - would have saved a lot of time! Used at least 75 metres of double sided tape sticking it all down. I experimented with doodled borders using coordinating coloured textas, ink pens and my new Signo gel pen in white. One page went overboard and had to be redone (better to stick to the paler of the white pens) but overall it was successful.

I'm a very slow scrapper but it sped up towards the end. There were four or five nights of staying up and not going to bed til 6am or so. Lucky my wonderful husband minded the babies those mornings I slept it.

The key to doing an album, I think, is to try 'grid' pages where you have nine photos or 16 photos on one page, but you substitute patterned papers or embellishments or titles and journalling in some of the spaces to break it up. Also to stick to a colour theme and just a few rubber stamps which you can reuse in different ways, using different colours. I found recyled or chocolate brown papers were the best to use on pages where the colours clashed a bit. You can then jazz it up a bit with coloured ink embellishments / titling / patterend papers. I also found a 'storyboard' plan was very useful with rough sketches and notes for each page.

The printer scanned in the pages and had it bound in beautiful blue leather binding by a retired book binder with gold lettering and a box case. It was expensive but worth it. A cheaper way would have been to do an A4 sized album that I could have scanned myself as there are hundreds of companies who do photobooks now. Maybe for his daughter's album.

First Mothers Day 2008

This is last year's Mothers Day but probably the first time I scrapped a proper 12" X 12" page. I experimented with my own writing plus rubber stamps and included a tiny stencil of a pregnant lady - me. Angus was not quite born yet. I also tried distressing the circle photos and love the frame effect of that. The green paper with the pink flower petals I loved so much I bought several sheets of it. I remember I used to feel terrified when starting out that the page would be a disaster and the paper wasted. Now I don't worry - this comes with confidence and lovely repositionable double sided tape. It's a challenge fitting in multiple photos. I've learned to do it even better so the page doesn't look too busy. I really must do this year's soon. Mum's waiting for it.

Baby journal gift

I made this little journal for one of the expecting mothers in my mothers group. I had a pile of little exercise books I'd bought for about two cents each and just covered the outside with a combination of some pretty paper, recyled paper dividers, ribbon and printed a little image on the front of a vintage pram - love anything vintage and sneak it in wherever I can. I really love the pastel bluey-green ice colour for baby boys at the moment. I'll be using lots of that in Angus' album when I get around to starting it. Soon... On the inside back page I stuck a vellum envelope and stamped the words 'Baby' and 'notes and tags' in coordinating colours. I even had some little tags I popped in to prompt some her to write in some thoughts when the baby is born. Things like how she felt, first impressions and so on. I hope she thinks it's pretty too but not too pretty to write in!