That’s right… my little baby has turned 4. Where has the time gone?! She had a wonderful birthday and got spoiled rotten with tonnes of presents and hugs and kisses. Here are a few pics of the Birthday Girl…

The Birthday Girl

Blowing out the candles

My final layout for Songbirds is now up on the site… pop on over and have a go at the challenges. I have had this photo of Wayne’s niece for a while now and finally found the right way to scrap it. She was soooo beautiful for her first ever school ball and I love this photo.

Turn Your Golden Face Into The Sun

And just for a bit of fun I had a play in photoshop with some of the new digi stuff I have got lately to come up with this layout for Angie’s cool sketch challenge site. She has a great scketch up there this month and I felt inspired enough to play along

Happy Birthday

That’s all from me for now. Wayne’s parents are staying with us at the moment so I’ve been a little quiet on the scrapping and forums. The kids have been loving having them here and it is great to spend some time with them. I think the cold weather is knocking them around a bit though… they are used to temps between 20-30 and at the moment we are getting between 4-17. LOL

Bye for now folks.

Luv Kirsti xoxox

Yep, that’s right… you can slap me now for neglecting my poor little blog so much lately!

So much has been going on here… just the usual family dramas and I’ve been feeling very out-of-sorts for the last few months. I’ve been doing some soul searching and trying to find answers to some of lifes more perplexing questions (not with much luck I might add). Every time I start to get things mapped out again and feel like I have a little control back over our lives, another curveball gets thrown my way. With all the stress, doing things for myself has become so much more difficult. I am finding that my passion for scrapping is fading and I so despertely don’t want it to. I need to recentre myself and focus on what made me enjoy scrapping to begin with. I need to remember it is all about the memories of my family and take some of the pressure off myself. I’ve made a few really big decisions when it comes to this… the first one being to step down from my CT role at Songbird Scraps. I feel very privileged to have been a part of the team there for the last 7 months and wish all the girls the best. I’m sure Songbirds will continue to thrive… and for those interested, Skye has put out a new CT call for another 3 positions!!!

There are a few more announcements to make in the coming weeks. It has been a difficult time and some very hard choices but I think I am doing the right thing for myself and my family. But no…. I am most definitely not quitting scrapping. I have lived and breathed scrapbooking for the last 5 years and would not be myself without it. Like I said, it is time to recentre and find the passion I had when I started.

I can share a couple of things I have been working on…

My baby girl is turning 4 on Sunday so we have Wayne’s parents down from Kununurra for a visit. I cannot believe she is four… where has the time gone? I am really missing my baby lately… I love the little girl she is but can’t help but miss those cute baby moments. Like when she was quiet and didn’t run around the house screaming! PML

I had better go for now. I’ll be back with an update again soon. Take care all

Luv Kirsti xoxox

]]> http://kirstibrandis.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/ok-you-can-slap-me-now-d/feed/ 0 Kirsti 2009-07-09_00002 July Sketch Challenge for Ready, Set, Scrap! 2009-07-09_00005 2009-07-13_00003 http://kirstibrandis.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/forgot-my-blog-again/ http://kirstibrandis.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/forgot-my-blog-again/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:32:44 +0000 Kirsti http://kirstibrandis.wordpress.com/?p=301 ]]>

I swear I must be going senile… I totally forgot my blog again! I’d forget my head if it wasn’t screwed on LOL

Not much has been happening around here… school holidays start today. So far so good – no wars have erupted yet. Ashlea will be 4 in just a couple of weeks. I am having a really hard time accepting that my ‘baby’ really isn’t such a baby anymore. She’s grown up so much in the last 6-9 months and has become a little girl with huge attitude.

Rachelle has had a big two weeks… she finished off doing the MS Readathon and managed to read an awesome 27 books!! Last count she had raised $65 with a few sponsors still to come. I am so proud of her! She got an Honour Certificate at school two weeks ago and then yesterday her class presented the whole school assembly. She was the first person to get up and talk to welcome everyone and ask them to sing the national anthem. Poor little thing got so embarrassed… the microphone wasn’t working! They fixed it and she was an absolute legend getting up a second time to do her bit. I have to admit that she was the only kid that I could hear and understand right at the back That’s my girl!!!!

News Flash!! There is an awesome new online scrap store to check out… The Stamp Spot. The gorgeous Marcia has just opened the cyber-doors on the 1st July and is going to be adding more new stock really soon so go and have a look! If there is anything you are after, feel free to ask and I am sure she would love to help where she can!

Scrapping wise I’ve only got a few things to share.You really have to take a squizz at the new challenges for July at Ready, Set, Scrap! They are just awesome this month and I am hoping to actually get some done this time! Also, Songbird Scraps now has a new ning community. I have to admit I am getting a little lost while trying to work it out, but make sure you come by and have a look… the new challenge will be up real soon

Ok, photo time….

First July layout for Songbirds

That’s all for now my lovelies. Hopefully I will be back again soon with another update. Take care,

Luv Kirsti xoxox

I’ve got a few layouts to share from Cybercrop this weekend over at RSS. The entries don’t close until tomorrow night and the girls are coming up with some stunning work! Being with an 80’s theme, we have seen a lot of flouro colours and daggy photos

Here is my challenge example that I made… my challenge was to create a layout with your favourite 80’s photo, inspired by your favourite 80’s tv show. I was only born in the 80’s so my shows were mostly cartoons LOL I remember going through a phase of totally loving Fraggle Rock so using this picture to inspire me…I made the layout below…

That photo is so precious to me because it is the only one I know of that has my Mum’s whole family together. That’s me at the front left by the way Only problem is that once I finished the hidden journalling (the yellow tag sticks out behind the photo) I realised that maybe the photo wasn’t quite the 80’s… I think it may have been Christmas 1990 But ssssh… don’t tell anyone, we can just pretend it was still the 80’s LOL

This month there was also a DT Dare set by the non-DT members for us DTers to have a go at. The challenge was to use dominant colour of purple, lace and a photo of a memorable 80’s moment. Who doesn’t remember their Pixie Photos? LOL

And then the next layout was for Rach’s 80’s Challenge. I was stuck on this for soooo long! We needed to create a layout inspired by a photo of our favourite 80’s pop star. Sounds easy until you try and do it! LOL My fave music in the 80’s was nursery rhymes… but by the end of the 80’s I had discovered Bruce Springstein, Kylie Minogue and the Chipmunks & Chippettes. Anyone remember their album ‘Born to Rock’? What a crack up… I loved it and always listened to it – must have driven my parents mad! LOL Anyway, so I decided to go with Kylie Minogue. Here is the pic I used to inspire me…and here is my layout…

I took the colours of the photo and my fave Kylie song from way back then to create this very girly layout for Ashlea.

So now that I have them done, I still have another 4 awesome challenges to get stuck into… better get back to it

Take care all,

Luv Kirsti xoxox

It is Cybercrop time again at Ready, Set, Scrap and I am sooo excited! Wayne is at work this weekend so I can scrap my little heart out all weekend without neglecting him LOL

Check it out….80’s theme, 6 challenges, 6 prizes AND a cash prize! Wahooo! How can it get any better than this…

I was really behind this month and only got my challenge example made this afternoon (sorry Tracey! LOL) I just know you guys want a sneak peek so here it is….

To see the whole thing you need to come into the forum tomorrow night

Scrap It Flaunt It in Armadale is having a huge stocktake sale!!! I was in the shop today and OMG…. I so easily could have spent this month’s mortgage repayment! They have such a fantastic range of scrapping goodies. If you are in Perth it is well worth the visit to the store. Details taken straight from their newsletter which you can conveniently have emailed to you also

It’s that time of the year again…

STOCKTAKE!!!

To avoid having to count everything in the shop, we are having a sale. YAY!!

Monday 8^th of June to Sunday 14^th of June we will have 20% off storewide*

Monday 15^th of June to Sunday 21^st of June it will be 15% off storewide*

Monday 22^nd of June till Sunday 28^th of June it will reduce to 10% off storewide*

* Excludes all electronic cutting machines, classes, crops and gift vouchers.

* No stamps will be given, and flaunter credits cannot be redeemed.

*No rainchecks.

Here’s some of the goodies I grabbed today…

And now my fellow scrapaddicts, I am going to go and play with some of those gorgeous papers. Take care,

Luv Kirsti xoxox

Yep… I’m a bad, bad blogger! This week I almost forgot I even had a blog! LOL Still not much to share with you all though, I’ve been pretty quiet lately.

It was my turn to set the Negative Space challenge for June at RSS and this is what I came up with…. the challenge is to use no more than 25% of the page and use monotones – as many shades of the one colour as you like. This photo is of me as a chubby 3 week old bubba with my big sister Jasmine…

And then I had time for one more layout before Wayne got home. I loved the June Sketch Challenge at RSS and got stuck into it straight away…

Well that is all my scrappin for now. Told ya I hadn’t been up to much lately LOL

Now before I go I just had to share with you this pic of Ashlea. The child sleeps in some very, very strange poses… LOL

Someone really should tell her the blanket goes on top and the pillow goes under her head PML

Take care all, I’m off to watch a movie with Wayne before we go and get Rachelle from school.

Luv Kirsti xoxox

Yep… that’s right. Only one. That is so not normal for me. I just can’t scrap. I want to. Really, I do but when it comes to getting everything out I just can’t be bothered. It could be because I have been pretty obsessed lately with something very unusual for me… I have been reading. Naughty Nat got me started on Twilight. The one fad I swore I would steer clear of has caught me and sucked me in (oh pardon the pun LOL). I am loving the books and am about a third of the way through the third book. Maybe when I finish reading, and if I ever get thoughts of vampires and werewolves out of my head, then I will get my mojo motivated to scrap again.

I will show you the one layout I got done… it is for the May Neg Space challenge at RSS. Pretty happy with this one. I had to use only paper – no other embellies. And now I can’t remember the other criteria but without further ado here is my solitary layout for the week….

We had a few good days of rain here and when today turned out to be a lovely clear, dry day I decided to take the girls out exploring. I love checking out all the places around here… there are so many hidden delights and I am always finding somewhere else I have never been to. Today’s expedition was to the Bickley Brook Reservoir. Such a peaceful day for us… we had a bit of a bushwalk, the kids played in a little creek, I got some great photos, we got attacked by bullants, Ashlea discovered a new fear (black worms), the girls played on the playground and I took advantage of the fresh air and finally relaxed. I really want to go back there again soon to try out some more of the little walk trails that lead away from there. Here’s a couple of the hundred or so pics I took…

Well folks… I’ve got a hot date with a good book and my warm bed so I’m gonna luv yas and leave yas.

Night all

Luv Kirsti xoxox

Ooops, I did it again. I have a bad habit of going AWOL but this time I have a really good excuse… we’ve all been sick with the flu since Friday. Every single one of us! I am still feeling like death warmed up and hoping that by resting today I will feel better. I hate being sick… I can’t understand why Mother’s always look after everyone else but when they are sick there is no-one to look after them. LOL Guess it’s another of the joys of being a Mum

On Friday before the flu struck we had a Family night out. It was great to take the 4 kids out with us to the Perth Motor Show. It was actually CJ’s idea and to see the impossible to satisfy teenagers enjoying themselves with us oldies was kinda cool. LOL  After driving around Burswood for half an hour trying to find parking we made our way in. I haven’t been to a motor show since I was a teenager and it was a lot smaller than I remember. LOL There were some beautiful cars there… and there were some there that made me wonder what they were doing there. I saw my dream car….

yeah… so I am a bogan at heart but dontcha just love that car!?! There were a few there with the good old canaries (defect notices) on them too. I found that kinda funny for a car show but I am guessing they are for illegal mods Maybe this one was to do with the nitro setup in between the seats? ROFL

and one more boring car pic for yas…. I was pretty impressed by this paint job. Very noice…the headlights were pretty cool.

Ok so I haven’t got any scrapping done but I can share with you two of my DT layouts. The first is for the May Cybercrop challenge at RSS… my challenge was to draw inspiration from the soundtrack of the movie Armageddon. You could use the title of one of the songs or the lyrics and had to have one photo, distressing and inking on your layout. I chose Aerosmith’s Don’t Want To Miss a Thing. This song has always touched me and is one of my all-time favourite songs. I just knew when I saw this picture of Ashlea that I had to use the lyrics for it.

I missed the cybercrop this month because of all the family sickies but I will be there for next month that’s for sure!

And here we have my sample for the Songbirds Scraps challenge… get your backside over there and have a go at the challenges. There has not been one single entry yet this month and I just know Skye wants to give the monthly prize pack away so get scrappin peoples!!!!

Ok that is it for now. I think I’ve bored you enough for one day. LOL

Take care,

Luv Kirsti xoxox

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mother’s out there. I hope everyone has had a wonderful day being pampered by their loved ones.

I’ve had a pretty quiet day myself… Wayne is out at work so it was just me and my girls this morning. We took a run up to visit my naughty, naughty sister Nat and then came home to relax the rest of the day. I baked some super yummy Lemonade Scones that are just heavenly, spent a while on Facebook and just vegged out for a bit.

Here’s a teeny sneak peek at my next Songbirds challenge…

and here is a layout I made just for fun using the new SEI Bridgeport collection…

Now I am gonna go and scoff some more of these super yummy scones and get some more big cuddles from my little angels.

Luv Kirsti xoxox

Well, things in my little part of the world are rather quiet lately. I have just been keeping busy with the normal boring household stuff and entertaining the kids. I’ve got a teeny bit of scrapping done with the hopes to get some more done today after I get the house sorted out again. I cannot believe how much mess kids can create in such a short space of time!!! I swear they must do it deliberately just to see me doing something. LOL

Here is my first May challenge for Songbirds May lyrics. Not sure if I really am happy with this one. I loved it at first but now it just seems to be lacking something. Anyway… get your backside on over to Songbirds and have a go at the challenge. Last month’s winner Renee Ludlow made the most beautiful layout using the lyrics to ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’ and won a great Kaiser Mumma Bushka Album and paper set. That could be you this month if you have a go

Ok so this is a Twiddleybitz Filagree Shadow Box thingymajig. It is hard to tell but it was painted and then sprayed with a layer of Glimmermist for a wonderful shimmer. The gate thing is also by Twiddleybitz and such a unique embellishment that I had fun playing with. I kinda feel like I should have done more with this whole item though…

I also had a go at a couple of the May challenges at Ready, Set, Scrap! Lexie set a great sketch challenge this month and Shell set the colour challenge in my fave combo – Pink and white so I decided to combine the two. Every month there are 9 sponsored challenges, an ongoing scraplift list, photoswaps as well as a massive cybercrop with another 9 challenges so there is always something to do over there.

I love the SEI Jolie Chocolat paper collection and figured it was about time I used them again…

And then we have my photoswap layout I made for Shazza. She sent me some pics of her cutie-pie daughter and I just thought she was sooooo cute!

I think that is enough for now. It is about time I pry my bottom off my chair and get stuck into this housework so I can scrap this afternoon!

Til next time, take care

Luv Kirsti xoxox