Hello, and welcome to our 'Nature’ Australasian 'Blog Hop'. If you've arrived here from Danielle Edwards - Scrappychicks, then you're in the right place. If you've landed here by accident, then welcome to the fun! Please join in by following the link at the bottom of this blog.  The current catalogue, which runs through April, May and June, is absolutely chokka full of nature themed products. So many, in fact, it was hard to decide what to share in the blog this week. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else on the hop chooses too! After a couple of weeks playing with several of the products, I decided to work with the Butterfly slimline embossing folder for this blog. It's a great product, because it also comes with two layers of stencils to help us enhance the butterflies. As it happens, I spent some time in my neighbours front yard this week, photographing a whole lot of Monarch butterflies. It's great to photograph them when they first e...

    Hello, and welcome to our 'Cosette’ Australasian 'Blog Hop'. If you've arrived here from Danielle Edwards -Scrappychicks, then you're in the right place.  If you've landed here by accident, then welcome to the fun! Please join in by following the link at the bottom of this blog.  This month, the feature paper for Close to my Heart is called 'Cosette'. It has a beautiful range of soft tones that would work perfectly for all kinds of events - a girly day out perhaps, anniversary celebrations, or even travel. To me, some of the designs leapt out at me for my heritage album. Heritage albums are what got me interested in scrapbooking in the first place. I have collected photos for years from many branches of the family, with a view to having them preserved and documented for future generations to enjoy and learn from. I've made a good start, but it's an ongoing passion........ Through collecting photos over the years from various sources, it'...

  Hello, and welcome to our 'Down Under’ Australasian 'Blog Hop'. If you've arrived here from Lauren Moore - CTMH Craftings , then you're in the right place.  If you've landed here by accident, then welcome to the fun! Please join in by following the link at the bottom of this blog.      In this blog hop, we will be following the theme of 'Down Under', inspired mainly by the March Stamp of the Month, which has lots of iconic Australian animals on it.   If, like me, you are a New Zealander, you will note that the stamp is totally Australian animals, but the blog title is 'Down Under', which is intended to include us kiwis too.       However I imagine I am not unique in the fact that I am a New Zealander (Kiwi) with an extended family of Australians. In fact, I am the youngest of 22 cousins, and the only Kiwi amongst us! Even my brothers are Australian, but being the youngest in my family, I waited until Mum and Dad had moved to Auckl...

Hello, and welcome to our 'Life’s a Hoot’ Australasian 'Blog Hop'. If you've arrived here from Maz Wood - Amazing Creations,   then you're in the right place.  If you've landed here by accident, then welcome to the fun! Please join in by following the link at the bottom of this blog.  The feature paper with CTMH for March is called ‘Life’s a Hoot’. The tonal range of the papers is divine, and includes the pinks, purples and some glacier green, along with some golden foil accents on some of the paper and the sticker sheet.  It’s amazing how when I first see a set of papers, generally a specific photo or set of photos will come to mind, and then I’m on a mission to hunt them out and get them printed, so I can use them. This month was no exception!  My husband and I have had Golden Retrievers for the past 20+ years, with our latest one arriving in July 2020, at 8 weeks old. Her name is Gracie, and she has an older role model in Pippa who was 6 when Gracie arrived. ...

 Hello, and welcome to our 'Borders' Australasian 'Blog Hop'. If you've arrived here from Maz Wood - aMAZing Creations , then you're in the right place.  If you've landed here by accident, then welcome to the fun! Please join in by following the link at the bottom of this blog.  This blog hop is all about borders. There's soooo many choices of how to create a border, it's hard to narrow it down to just one option. This months 'stamp of the month' is a beautiful border stamp, but I decided to share a border I've made to use in my family album.  The photos will be from a trip we did to Sydney a few years ago, so my border reflects the skyscraping city we holidayed in. The products used in making this border are: - White Daisy cardstock.  - Stamp pads - Periwinkle and Pewter. - Mini ink blending foam. - Irresistable letters. - Travel Stencil.  STEP 1: Taking some white Daisy cardstock, I trimmed it to 3 inches wide. That's not the finis...

Hello, and welcome to our 'Storybook' Australasian 'Close To My Heart' Blog Hop. If you've arrived here from Maz Wood - aMAZing Creations then you're in the right place.  If, however, you've landed here by accident, no problem! Please join in by following the link at the end of this blog.... When the storybook collection became available, I was keen to use it to document these photos from my childhood.  My Mum loved to sew, and Dad loved to take photos. So, one day, back in 1970, I was (apparently) invited to a fancy dress event, and Mum decided I would be going as a circus pony! I think in hindsight Mum enjoyed the challenge, but I do remember her frustration as she tried to get all the layers of gathered tulle to stay together at the waist. I also remember watching on in admiration, even while wondering why I had to dress up as a circus pony in the first place!? The outfit was duly finished, with much admiration from everyone in the household, and Dad too...

  Hello, and welcome to our 'All you need is Love' Australasian 'Close To My Heart' Blog Hop.  If you've arrived here from Maz Wood - aMAZing Creations , then you're in the right place.   If you've landed here by accident, no problem!  Please join in by following the link at the end of this post.   With February not far away, there's lots of creative thought around the world for the  upcoming Valentines Day, often associated with young love or perhaps a secret love,  and the sending of anonymous cards. Not so in our house. We have no teenagers anymore, but we will be celebrating our  38th wedding anniversary in March. The recent paper pack called 'Now and Forever' is a beautiful collection of designs in a  colour palette that is right up my ally! So I decided to try and use all of the papers! Before I share my project though, I think it's worth mentioning that although I've been  scrapbooking for over 20 years, I have NEVER, EVER p...