Flowers & Punches

I've had a couple of questions on my comments and decided to answer them here, so if you aren't interested then see you next time :-) heheee
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Was this flower handmade? Yep ... using a scrap of paper which we rolled and then adhered to the flower shape natural fibre paper.


Take a piece of paper, double sided is preferable, and if it's from your scrap box even better!

Draw a spiral on it, just draw it on lightly though otherwise you see the pencil marks once you have cut it (like mine!).

Cut out the spiral.

Then from the centre start rolling it.

Or if you like the shabby, scrunched look, (or just need to work out some frustrations) then screw up the paper several times like so :-) Then start rolling as above.

Once you have finished rolling it attach a glue dot on the very end and stick it to the underside of the flower.

Then turn it over and there you have it :-) (see what I mean about the pencil marks!)

Punches
The border punch I have is a Fiskars Threading Water Punch, which is what I have used for these vouchers.
I really like it and I've used it a lot. It punches through cardstock relatively easily too.

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Also I have just bought a couple of new border punches :-) As some of you know Scrap-n-Crop have pretty much finished unpacking 40 boxes of new stock and oh man the punches!!!! There was SOOOO much choice hehehee, anyway I managed to restrain myself and only got two!

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The top one is EK Success Fleur De Lis Edger Punch, it can punch through cardstock, but I think it would be much easier with paper. Real good punch for cardmaking :-) And the best bit - you can use the little fleur punch outs too :-)

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The bottom one is Fiskars Upper Crest Border Punch, it's really nice too.

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There's also this one EK Success Dotted Scallop Edger Punch which is like a baby version of the Fiskars Threading Water punch. Again I think it would be better with paper than cardstock because of the detail. Perfect for cardmakers though!

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Thanks for looking.

Friday Fun

Warning - photo overload (again!)
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Yesterday was a public holiday here (Labour Day), so we decided to go to Deer Land and the Elephant Sanctuary. We have been to the Elephant Sanctuary before, early last year - see here. So we set off (later than we intended LOL) and since it was nearly 11am we got McDonalds to eat in the car. Maddison has taken to hats in a big way over the last couple of days, 3rd pic she's fast asleep and the hat had fallen over her face :-)

And because it was a public holiday the traffic was TERRIBLE ... we did think about turning around and going home again ... but you can't! It's a motorway with barriers in the centre, so you can only go forward ... very slowly! Enjoyed the scenery though and after the Genting Highlands turnoff we were able to pick up speed ;-) When Maddison woke up, the kids amused themselves by holding hands to "hang on" because "Daddy's driving a racing car"!!! I confess to asking him to slow down a few times!

Now ... just before these next photos I want to say that Lyndon did a search on the Internet and got the info for the Deer Park, address, phone number etc. And I assumed he had phoned and asked about their opening hours ... we got there and there was NO cars on the road in, no cars in the carpark and it was completely empty of people! heheheee ... so I photographed the entrance just to show that we have been there ... even though it was closed!! LOL

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So off we went to the Elephant Sanctuary - what a difference. The carpark was bursting at the seams, there were CROWDS of people, it was STINKING hot, but we had a nice surprise as they have renovated quite extensively. The toilets are very very nice indeed ... if there wasn't so many people queuing up, and I had the camera on me when I went, I would have taken a photo of the tiles in there! :-) When we got there (no - not the toilets, the elephant area), there were 3 large elephants, a young elephant (in the shade of a tree), and another big extremely dirty elephant in a fenced off area. (You can see by the photos).

As you can see the kids didn't really want to be near the young elephant at all :-) heheeee

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Aaron and I actually got tickets to do activities with the elephants ... feeding them, riding on them, swimming with them (ummm not that one for me thanks), but Aaron wasn't interested at all. He was happy playing in the dirt! I stood in the que to ride the elephants for ages, but when the crunch came he just refused, so we left after that! Too hot, "sweety", thirsty and tired by that stage LOL

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Lyndon bought some drinks from a stand there and that kept the kids entertained for a while! Look at Miss Bossy Boots face! LOL

This is very typical of Aaron - he was pouring drink from the carton into the can - look at the hand on the hip! As if to say "yes ... what do you want?"!!!

We had two very grubby little urchins to put back in the car when we went to leave.

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The next few pics are from the car window as we were driving along. Remember this little house I took a photo of last year? It hasn't changed much! Not sure what the building was (or is) with no walls. But it's pretty much the size of the other houses there (the size of our bedroom!). Saw quite a few goats on the side of the road. The photo with what looks like tents - that's the living quarters of road construction workers!! They were repairing the highway and there was quite a community set up along side it. Long shed with rusty roof - couldn't really see what was in there, but we think it was either chickens or ducks. Then just a photo of the hills & "jungle" :-)

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So an interesting day indeed. Both kids slept on the way home, so they weren't really interested in going to bed at 7.30pm! (funny that!).

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I'll leave you with some random photos that Aaron's been taking on our little pocket digital camera. (I haven't included the 30 photos of various electronic equipment! LOL)

Not sure what we are going to do today. Lyndon is off travelling again for work tomorrow evening, and is away all week.

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Enjoy your weekend and Happy National Scrapbooking Day! (hoping that I can play at some stage today ... maybe when Maddison is having a sleep!) :-)

Scrap-n-Crop's May Kit Reveal

Been out for the day today (public holiday here), so a bit late in posting this sorry. The May kit for Scrap-n-Crop's kit club has some lovely pinks & greens in it. I managed to make 5 LO's, the covers of a mini album (chipboard covers were included in the kit), 2 cards and 6 vouchers. You can purchase the kit here. And don't forget to check out Scrap-n-Crop's gallery to see what Sharmaine has made as well. I have included descriptions with my creations in the gallery as to what was from the kit and from my stash if you are interested.
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LO - A wet slobbery kiss :-)
If you are wanting a glimmer mist that matches this kit really nicely - Tattered Angels Cherub Pink & Tattered Rose are both perfect! I used cherub pink on the edges on the patterned paper for this LO.

LO - Maddison
Managed to use the sewing machine semi okay here to sew that scrunched bit of fabric LOL

LO - Big Cuddles

Made the flower using ribbon from the kit, then punched out a piece of patterned paper and put glossy accents on it for the centre of the flower.

LO - How to drink hot chocolate

This little cutie belongs to one of my friends in NZ. :-) I did ask if I could scrap and blog pics of her daughter and she said yes, but she didn't see me take these photos heheheee. Too cute.

LO - Sweet Pea

Not a great photo of Maddison as it has a big sun spot over her face, but I wanted to scrap it anyway. And the sewing machine! grrr I got very cross with it on this LO, but the day after I had finished it and was telling Lyndon the problems I'd had, he said the needle wasn't in properly (pushed up too far)! I had replaced the needle because I noticed it was bent (not sure if that was me or one of the kids LOL). So ... need to try and see if I can adjust the needle and then do some practice runs!!!

Mini Album

This is for when we go back to NZ for our holiday. We've got quite a few birthdays to celebrate during the time we are there, so thought I would record them in this. That owl is pretty cool aye.

The inside pages aren't from the kit, but I had these in my stash so popped them in and I will add other pages in when I get round to filling it with photos!

Card - Hi

Using my up scraps of paper - can't throw them away you know!

Card - Happy Birthday

Vouchers - you have seen some of these already - here's the 6 and no you can't see the backs of them other than the baking one ;-) (some things will remain 'unpublished' lol)

Thanks for looking.