What a neglectful blogger I have been!

I haven't uploaded a thing since before Christmas but I do have an excuse - my PC crashed again!
This time without any warning at all.

And here is a lesson for all bloggers/scrapbookers/photographers/family archivists/etc,etc, etc out there - yes, I did lose some photos, about 5 weeks worth, and that is sad, but I didn't lose the lot, as I could have, because I had BACKED THEM UP!
And I have kicked myself for not backing up more frequently, as I will do in the future, but 5 weeks lost as opposed to everything is wonderful!

My computer crashed on the 27th of December and I didn't get it back until a couple of days ago as my computer tech was trying so hard to retrieve the lost photos - thanks Huw. In the end I told him to stop as it was going to cost me a fortune and I was missing my PC so much. How pathetic!

So when I finally did get it back on track I had 1500 emails waiting for me - aaaggghhhh! That, if nothing else, will teach me to look after my PC's health and BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK  UP!

Even though it is school holiday time here I can't say I have completed much scrapbooking since my last blog post. Perhaps it is something to do with the 3 children hanging around here at the moment????? And I am NOT counting down the days until they go back as I will be going back to school too. I have had a year away from teaching dealing with illness and having a complete rest but it is now time to go back.
So I refuse to think about that now.

I haven't been completely idle though. I have sorted out the scrapshop in a box, a bag and a basket which needed a good tidy up and I even cut down some USPS flat rate boxes that I had received supplies in to act as temporary paper holders. I covered them with some contact I had leftover from covering last year's schoolbooks to give them a bit more strength and although far from perfect they don't look too bad. I was going to cover them with scrapping paper but I spied the old roll of contact on top of the cupboard in my office and thought I would use that first, and then if I wasn't happy with how they looked I could still go ahead and cover them with scrapping paper knowing that the contact layer would just give them a bit more strength anyway. So 5 bright paperboxes are finished and, best of all, they haven't cost me a cent!

Julie, Karen and Pauline came over to scrap last Friday night and we all enjoyed ourselves. It was quite a hot day so when Julie arrived late in the afternoon we sat out the back with the big umbrella over us, our feet in the pool, while my crazy fish/children leapt about in the water. While lazily enjoying doing nothing much I noticed a bare bottom in the pool. Georgia's bikini bottoms had fallen off but she just kept swimming. When I asked Georgie what she was doing she told me that her bottoms had fallen off but she couldn't be bothered putting them back on - oh, the summery delights of life when you're 7!!!

So I have to admit that I don't think a great deal of scrapping was done by the 4 of us but  - big deal, the friendship, gasbagging and the giggles were what we were really there for! I did take some photos so as soon as they are uploaded I will add them to the blog.

Here are some layouts that I completed a while ago but I haven't put on the blog yet.

This is a four page layout I did ages ago when Sam came second in his age group in a writing contest run in our local area. It is an Australia wide writing competition for children and Sam came second in the under 10's poetry category with his poem 'I am". Sam sat in the front row and accepted his award when his name was called. We were so proud of him. Sam was so surprised when one of the shortlist judges read his poem aloud in a deep booming voice. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as he read. He commented later that he couldn't believe that such a powerful piece of writing had been written by such a small boy. Sam was overwhelmed. He said the reading of the poem in a voice so different to his own made the words come alive! What a night!

Georgie where's my lipstick? The smudgy blue and pinky red background paper was perfect for this priceless moment when Mummy ran and grabbed the camera before cleaning her daughter up!!! Would you believe she is sitting in her carseat in the car!

Journalling is on a tag behind the photo explaining how Sam managed to make his way out to the middle of the ground, right where the presentations were happening, at a State schoolboy's football championship game in which our friend Blair was playing, by somehow pretending he belonged there. I was mortified at the time but saw the funny side of it later. I suppose confidence can sometimes be a good thing!!!

 This is one of my all time favourite layouts of some photos taken on the same day as the layout above. It just all came together on this one. Journalling is again under the photo. The machine stitching is actually one of those fantastic rollon rubon thingys. Daisy D;s brand I think. I just love them - so much easier than really stitching!!!

So I hope you are all having a fabulous New Year! And I hope to see at least some of you at my next scrapping Friday on the 21st January!

Shelley

Teacher Presents Complete - Hooray!

Well ,of course they are finished as we gave them to the teacher's last Thursday and that was the second last day of school. I am never going to leave them to be completed so late again!!!
My last entry said I was going to start them on that day, which was Saturday, so , of course, I didn't touch them at all and finally got them started on Sunday night.

I didn't photograph Sebastian's teacher's present as i didn't alter it much. It was an Essendon tin lunchbox so i just added some red and black ribbon to the handle and a tag in red and black lettering that said Mr Payton's stuf! he also got an Essendon beer mug.

Sam was in Year 7 this year, and my best buddy Kim, informed me that Mitchell, her son in year 8, told her that you don't give high school teachers presents. It just isn't cool. I discussed this with Sam and he decided that he didn't care if it wasn't cool, he still wanted me to make Kate a present. Sam's high school is also organised a bit differently as Sam had his teacher Kate for most things every day, and only went off to specialist classes for things like art and Wood Tech (which Sam loathed with a passion).

So I decorated a clipboard for Kate. The stripey strips are just the reverse of the sun paper. I put her name on it in 3 different sorts of stickers in the corners. The back was covered in the stripey reverse of the sun paper. I had already painted the edges of the board orange ages ago.

I also decorated a small notebook that I picked up at the supermarket which luckily already had an orange cover!

Georgia had two teachers this year and she loved every minute she was with them. She informed me that Miss Narres liked owls and Mrs Winship liked pirates. I had these tins up on my shelf for ages. I think originally I was going to decorate one for Georgia but never got around to it. I liked the owl one so much when I finished it I wanted to keep it for myself!

Front.

Branches I had in my stash. I think they were originally from a CK kit of the month. Owl was a diecut I bought to use on a page but it was too big. I just enhanced his feathers with some sparkle gel and added some bling to his eyes which were just pinpoints.

Side

Back

side

tag

Lid

3 other flowers, all different, are hiding beneath all the ribbon on the handle!

Front

just added a bit of bling to these stickers.

Side

Back

Again added extra bling to the treasure chest.

Side

Front showing name tag

Lid

And again, three extra different flowers hiding under the ribbon decorated handle.

Hope you liked them!

Shell