Twilight ATC swap and Some Holiday Photos!

 This is going to be a very picture heavy post!:)

I recently took part in my first ATC swap and of course it just had to be a Twilight one!  This was also the first time I have ever made an ATC and although it was fun I don't think it is something I would get really into but just couldn't resist Twilight ones;). These are the fab ATC's that I got back!  Mine is the one on the bottom left :)

 And just a close up of mine :)

I have been slowly trying to go through the hundreds of photos I took over the holiday and then noticed that one of our camera cards was missing.  Of course it just happened to be the one with some of my favourite photos on too!!  So I phoned my poor mom to look around the house to see if we had forgotten it there but she couldn't find it either.  Luckily I had downloaded all the photos onto my moms computer before we left there anyway so she could have put them on a disc and sent them to me but at the last minute we found the card!  So anyway here are some photos of the kids from Ushaka marine world in Durban.

This dolphin they are posing with is Gambit who I used to go and see when I was a child!  He is the largest dolphin in any oceanarium in the world and apparently has surprised everyone at how old he is as they did not think dolphins lived that long!  We were actually really lucky because Paul used to go to school with the MD there so the kids got to see some extra feedings and things that they would not have normally seen.  I love the dolphin shows, dolphins are one of my favourite animals, I actually cried when I was watching the show lol!  I always wanted to be a trainer when I was younger they really are the most beautiful, amazing animals! :) :)

Christopher was thrilled because he was selected to be one of the passengers in the boat for the show they do where they get splashed and get to wave to the dolphins and feed them.  Kieran was gutted as he was the one who put his hand up and then they took Christopher but was very happy later on as he got chosen for a little part in the seal show :)

Then we went to see the penguins and the kids were thrilled because the penguins decided to follow the kids wherever they went so they had loads of fun walking along the glass and getting the penguins to swim up and down and around in circles wherever they put their hands.  Even when more people came along they only followed the kids and all swam to the edge of the glass and stayed there looking after the kids when we left.

The kids loved it and we didn't even get to go the the Wet and Wild water park as there was just so much at the oceanarium side so we had to go back for that the next day.  Both my sisters came with to that and that was the most fun I have had in years!  This was the kids by the time we arrived home ;)

Don't forget my giveaway on the post under this one, you still have until the 1 November :)

TFL!

Halloween Banner and Giveaway!!!

Hi!  Yes I have been a very bad blogger.... things have been non stop crazy since we have been back and although slightly slower now will probably still be crazy for the next 3 weeks or so!

My youngest son Christopher had his 8th birthday recently and one of the presents he has been wanting for a while now is a Build-a-Bear so we took him and his brother (who insisted on spending some of his birthday money on one too!) to build a bear.

This is them outside the Trafford centre with their "bears" inside their little houses.  These are the "bears" they chose, a wolf named Ferrari and a monkey named Cheeky :)

 I just love the shoes, especially the monkeys trainers :)

Ok now to share my latest project for Bo Bunny :)  This is a Halloween banner made from the super cute Whoo-ligans!  I just adore this range it is sooo cute and the papers are really versatile and can be used for any layouts! :)




 The saying is from the Whoo-ligans range and I had to use it because I thought it was adorable!  Of course when I first made this I didn't think about how hard it would be to photograph lol!  Here are a few more photos :)

 I just adore those little monsters!  Right now would you like a chance to win some of these papers???  Well if you follow my blog you might remember that  in August before I found out that I had made the Bo Bunny design team I won a pack of the Whoo-ligans range when they first revealed the new ranges and gave away one of each new range!  I found this very funny when I found out I was on the design team!  Anyway as Bo Bunny is amazingly generous to their design team and I have all I need of this range I have decided to give away the prize I won to another Bo Bunny fan!!! :)  So here it is...

10 sheets of gorgeous double sided paper, 1 cut out paper, 1 die cut paper, 1 12x12 sticker sheet and 2 card stock sticker sheets!  You can see more f the papers and stickers on the Bo Bunny website here.  So if you would like a chance to win this fab range of papers here is what you need to do.

1.  You need to either be or become a follower of my blog
2.  You need to link to this post on the sidebar of your blog
3.  lastly comment on this post to let me know that you want to win it!

For the people who already follow my blog if you comment on this post that you would like to enter then you will be given 2 entries :)  I will draw a winner on the 1st November the day after Halloween! :)

Good luck and TFL!!!

More Bo Bunny items and some photos!

First off I have a couple more Bo Bunny projects to share!  The first is a card using Cambridge, I am still quite new to this card making but I am getting there :)

 

Supplies:
Coordinating Double Dot - Honey Mustard Dot
Cambridge Victory
Note Worthy Cambridge
Cardstock Stickers - Rock Star
Cambridge 12x12 Chipboard
Cambrige Clearly Stamps

Other Supplies:
Embossing powder

Next we had to do a two page layout and I used Olivia which just went perfectly with my photos!  These are photos of me and one of my best Friends Taryn, we have been friends since standard 5 so for about 20 years!  These photos were taken 2 years ago about 2 months before she died very unexpectedly.  I had a hard time coming to terms with her death which I think is why it took me so long to scrap these photos but now that I have I think it has helped me loads even with the crying involved!  Taryn was 31, a school teacher and a wonderful person.  I have so many good memories of her, we always had loads of fun together! :)

I painted and inked my chipboard letters to match my papers and then used rub-ons to help co-ordinate them with my layout.

I used the chocolate ruffle wrap and iCandy brads to make these yummy flowers!


Supplies:
Coordinating Double Dot - Deep Sea Dot
Olivia Cameo Die Cut
Olivia
Olivia Honeydew
Olivia Noteworthy
Olivia 12x12 Chipboard
Olivia Chocolate Ruffle Wrap
Olivia iCandy Brads
Olivia Rub-ons
Glitter Olivia iCandy Chipboard
Olivia 12x12 Combo Sticker
A Mothers Love Cardstock Stickers

Others:
Chipboard letters and heart
Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment Border Punch
ADORNit letter stickers

Lol still not sorted through all my photos but as these are on my camera card at the moment thought I would put them up.  I usually try to avoid being in front of the camera but decided a little while ago that I need to allow more photos of myself because I have thousands of photos from our life but going through them it is almost like I am not in it because I am never in any of the photos and I want my kids to be able to look back and remember all of us!  So I am really happy to have these because I have hardly any photos of me and Paul and of me and my sisters!  I have some more with my other sister and my mom but they are on the other cards that I have not sorted yet!  These are from when we went out to supper one night it was a really fab restaurant, the food was amazing and the servings were huge!!

My messy hair is because we spent the whole day at Wet & Wild at Usahka, where we had such a ball that I didn't even get to take any photos!!!  That is a first, but the camera was locked away in a locker and we were having too much fun to stop and go and get it out.  We even ended up leaving late because we didn't want to leave so we had to rush home, get changed and charge out to meet everyone else for supper (no time to do anything like fix your hair ;) ).  Definitely have to do that next time, I felt like a kid again! 

This is my younger sister Tamlyn and her husband Jaques, shame she had surgery on her gum the day before and her top lip was still all swollen and couldn't move properly here but she is such a good sport that she still came with us to Wet & Wild and then out to supper :)

This is my elder sister Trish and her friend Barbara.  And finally I will leave you with a photo of the sunset from our balcony in Umhlanga Rocks :)

TFL!

Bo Bunny Indulgence - Twilight

We had to do a layout for Bo Bunny about a secret indulgence so of course I had to choose Twilight as mine!  Not really a secret indulgence as everyone knows I LOVE Twilight but it is definitely an indulgence to me!  I did my layout using the scrummy Cambridge collection :)

I love the effect of punching shapes out of paper and then putting them against the same paper, it also looks fab with card stock!

 

Supplies:
Cambridge Post
Cambridge Crest
Cambridge 12x12 Chipboard
Cambridge iCandy Brads
Olivia Cream Gardenia
Double Dot Almond Ribbon
Chunky Charms Licorice Swirls & Brackets
Other Supplies:
EK Success Edger Punch - Scroll & Dots
Ranger Liquid pearls - White Opal


Well things have just been crazy busy since we got back and I still haven't had time to go through my photos so none of those to go up yet!  My kids have also added new activities to their list and although some have fallen away with the ones they have added we now have something on everyday except Sunday and some days have 2 activities!!  I seem to hardly ever be home anymore, think I need to get myself a Chauffeurs outfit! ;)  Tfl!

Back Home and Bo Bunny Audition Pieces!

Hi!  Well we are back from our holiday and I am so sad to be home because I am already missing my family but am also so excited to be home because I will soon get to play with loads of gorgeous Bo Bunny products!!  I can't wait to start but will just have to wait a couple of days to get my box from my sister in law where I had it delivered while we were away!

In the meantime I thought I would share my Bo Bunny audition pieces. :)  We had to do 2 layouts, 2 cards and then a project of our choice.

My first layout was done using the stunning Mama-razzi collection, I really adore this collection!

My second layout was with the wonderfully happy making Flower Child line. :)

My two cards were done with the Sophie and Paradise collections.

And for my final project I chose to do a chipboard and acrylic mini book using the Paradise collection.  This is another collection I adore as it really has the most amazing beachy feel to it!

Well I have 3 2GB cards full of photos to sort through but once I am done I will put a few photos up from our holiday!

Tfl!

OMG!! I can't believe it!!!

Look at this.....

Seriously if we could have 300 Design Team members, we would.

The talent that is out there blows our minds.

We were so excited to see projects from 22 different countries!!!

The entire office has been pouring over audition e-mails and images.

We've heard things like...

"Come look at this one..."

"did you see that one?"

"I said it before, but this really is my favorite."

"Can she come work here?"



You guys did not make this an easy task for us!



Before we announce our new Design Team....



We want to thank our past Design Team members that will

no longer be with us. They have been amazing to work with,

and they will be missed. Please keep in touch and play and post

on the blog and facebook. We have been so inspired by you all!

Thank You!!!





Alrighty.....



Here we go.....



Without further ado.....



In no particular order......



Our returning team members:

Juliana Michaels

Patti Milazzo

Carole Janson

Shanna Vineyard



Our new USA team members:

Becky Williams

Robbie Herring

Debbie Sherman

Sarah Eclavea

Frances Sylvia



Our new members from around the world:

Mireille Divjak - Netherlands

Jolanda - Netherlands

Irene Tan - Malaysia

Tomoko Takahashi - Japan

Luzma Bruna - Chile

Malin Wiggur - Sweden

Agnieska Piskorz - Poland

Christiane Miller - Germany

Kathleen Glossop - Australia

Michele Beck - France

Celi Mara - Brazil

Carin McDonough - UK

Samantha Wright - South Africa

Janis Medina - Philippines

Tara Orr - Canada

Gabrielle Pollacco - Canada





We want to send out a GIANT congrats to all our new Design Team.

We can't wait to see what the next year brings!

 
I am still in total shock!!  I really didn't expect to be chosen I mean this is BO BUNNY but thought I would never know unless I tried and I am so glad I did!  Do you see the amazing designers on that list!  I am so honoured to be working with them and oh my gosh I can't wait to get some more Bo Bunny yumminess to play with, their new lines are just AMAZING!  I actually read through that a couple of times and just didn't see my name at all lol, then I had to refresh the page a couple of times to make sure it didn't disappear!  
Nobody pinch me because I don't want to wake up! ;)

Holiday!

Just a quick post today because I leave this afternoon for our holiday to South Africa! 

I am very excited because we only go every second year so although I have seen my parents twice in the last year because they have come over here, it has been 2 years since I have seen my sisters!  I am not however looking forward to the flight!  Such a long flight with 2 young kids is a bit of a nightmare.

Anyway I will leave you with this...If you go over to Tracie's blog Life and Times of a 12x12 addict  she is having some fab giveaways :)

I am not sure if I will manage any blog posts while I am away or get to read any of the wonderful blogs I follow as my moms Internet can be a bit up and down but I will try and catch up as much as possible once I am back :).  Four weeks of no blog reading :o!!  I will miss browsing every ones blogs!

Sketchy Thursdays

This was the sketch for this weeks Sketchy Thursdays challenge.

And here is my layout for the challenge.  I don't know if it looks all that much like the sketch in the end!

I used A piece of Reminisce Genuine Boy paper that I bought ages ago and just have never got around to using it.  It was just one of those pieces of paper I was saving for the right photo so I am glad I have finally used it!  Here are some close ups.

I cut some shapes out of acetate and then outlined them in black really like the effect!

I used Memories Mists to colour the chipboard again and then inked the edges.  I really like using the mists for the chipboard it is so much quicker than painting them or covering them in paper, I think I need to get myself a few more colours! 

It is still raining, so far that is every day of the school holidays so far!  Luckily they still play football even when it rains here because the boys have been at football school a couple of days this week.  I am just about to go and play some put-put on the Wii with them!  Tfl!