It's November 30th..

The last day of November is here..I found it hard to sleep last night. My mind races and thinks and thinks and thinks. I think of so many things. I just can't let go. Tomorrow will be December. The Christmas month. Jut too many things on my mind. I really didn't know what else to do to pass the time last night so I surfed the net for some inspiration...I found my self really getting into Pinterest and allowed my self to be lost on all sorts of interesting images, as well as some really irrelevant stuff I will never have use for. I signed up and started "pinning" quotes I like. 

What do you think of this one? 

Hmmm...this irritates me. I don't really know why.  So..when she is off doing her hour and a half at the gym, where are the kids? Who is doing the cooking and cleaning and washing? Is it NOT luck or an accident that she has nannies to mind the kids while she steps out and can focus for an hour and a half? Is it not fairy dust that she has cleaners and chefs and people to drive her around or pick up her kids from school if she is running late? Am I sounding cynical? LOL! I am not..there is just something in that statement that does not spell "reality" for me. Reality is what real life mums do. 

Yes..an hour and a half at the gym is EXTREMELY hard work. I know because I just joined the gym..but when I have to put 2 kids in the car and take them with me to the gym to be minded I am exhausted before I even get there. Today, while I was working out for an hour all I could think of was the jobs left behind that would just pile up. It just irritates me when famous women make these statements and then us, mere mortals, kill our selves at the gym to look like that and feel guilty for not training for an hour and half 5 days a week. 

I don't know about you but my life seems to be on fast forward mode all day every day. Going to the gym is actually VERY difficult for me. Its time taken out of an already tight schedule. Maybe its because my kids are young. I don't know. But I just imagine Gwyneth going to the gym on her own, not having to drop off the kids, working out and then coming home , having a shower and taking it easy! LOL! I am actually a lot more stressed these day after joining the gym...

Aaaaaaanyway. I am just saying! 

I also found this quote at Pinterest which is more like my way of thinking lately.,.

 On that note, this is what I ended up scrapping last night. Must say it feels very empty for me..very plain. What do you think? 

Just simple.  I didn't want to say anything else. 

My editing program has been playing up a little and for some reason the faces of the people in the photo come out a little weird looking. 

Anyway, this is based on the current sketch over at Sketchy Thursdays

I also wanted to play along at Scrapbookers Anonymous "D" challenge  but I didn't read the challenge correctly and thought I had to use the letter D in my title . But instead we needed to use items from our stash starting with D. Oh well..note to self..read things twice in the middle of the night! LOL!

The swirl in the middle on the layout above is from Imaginarium Designs as are the letters..

Flourish 1

Main Letter Set lower case (Small) 16mm high

Hope you have a great night wherever you are. 

Take care xoxo Nadia. 

Sunday!

Hi everyone. How was your weekend? Mine was OK. We had a pretty big clean up around the house and I must say it feels awesome. The house/garage feels so spacious and airy. Perfect. 

I am doing OK. Having better days I must admit. Moving on ..thinking of better things coming. Still feel the love of so many. Its nice. In the middle of this huge storm I have been living lately, its just nice to at least feel loved by so many. It never really goes away. Everything is always there...always. But maybe it will be OK. I don't know. 

Well anyway. I wanted to bring your attention to this super cool deal over at Handmade By Suzanne. You do not want to miss this..

Birthday Sale Starts Now! 20% Off Storewide

Handmade By Suzanne is 2 years old in December and to celebrate we are having a month long sale – there is 20% off all items storewide with the exception of the very latest arrivals the previous week.

As always there are a few conditions during the sale – No Free Shipping, all orders will have a $5 flat rate postage charge, 1st Order Discounts cannot be applied and no further discount on the sale categories.

Get in quick and stock up, finish off your Christmas projects or checkout that shopping basket you have been putting together – now is the perfect time!

Best wishes,

Suzanne

Why don't you head on over to the store? You just never know what you might see there. Oh and don't forget there is STILL time to play along with our sketch challenge. This is for your chance to win a $30.00 voucher to the store including postage. It is a random draw so anyone can win! The timing will be perfect with this sale.

Now let me show you a couple of layouts I created for 2 challenges. I am not too sure how these turned out..

They are both created using the November main kit from My Creative Scrapbook. 

The papers, stickers etc are Bo Bunny Welcome Home collection. 

This first one is for the November 15th sketch challenge over at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge. Besides this sketch we also had to scrap our favourite book. 

I was about 7 years old, in my little village in Greece when  I received my first ever children's book from Hans Christian Andersen. It was "The Ugly Duckling" and I still feel a warmth in my heart each and every time I read this story to the kids at school or my own kids. 

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This next layout is for Challenge #11 at Challenge Me Happy, where we were asked to use this photo as inspiration..

We bought our home in 2003 and we spent almost 2 years non stop preparing it for our kids. We pretty much renovated about 80% of the house..made extra bedrooms, a nice backyard. All for our kids.

I should tell you that the "Welcome Home"colelction by Bo bunny featured in these layout here is all available at the store HERE 

I hope you are all well and getting ready for the season ahead. It sure is getting rather crazy everywhere at the moment!

Have a great night/day wherever you are :o)

xoxo Nadia. 

Get Creative + Handmade By Suzanne

Happy Friday to everyone! 

Today I wanted to show you the last of my layouts that I created for Handmade By Suzanne using the newest collection from Authentique Gathering 

I played along at my good friend Irini's challenge blog Get Creative, which is based in Greece but open  internationally so anyone can enter. They have some very good challenges there and I have missed playing along!

SO this was the sketch I worked with 

 Happy Together 

This is my daughter Maria Elena with her cousin Alessandra who SHE IDOLISES. Alessandra is also such a sweet natured child and a very mature girl as well and LOVES to look after her. 

For this layout I used every little bit I had left. See the background with all the words? Well because I know that if I pack anything up and put it away I WILL NEVER SEE IT AGAIN, I created a background with this sheet of paper 

Authentique - Gathering Diction Word Stickers

Pretty cool huh? I just tried to cover up any blanks where the words were missing, but I think it creates a nice effect!

I also use this paper to cut out flowers and create some depth to this layout

Authentique Gathering Collection double sided paper - Together 

The orange and dark blue flowers are from my stash and they are just some old Prima ones.

 The blue flowers you see above are Kaisercraft Blooms in Sea Breeze

The banner is just hand cut and the orange flowers are Prima Marketing Gillian Cider

The sentiments are from this sheet

Authentique - Gathering - Noteables - Die Cut Elements

I used Authentique Petite Type Square Alpha Stickers in Teal colour 

Must say REALLY loved working with this and if you like what you have seen the last few days that I have been showing you the 3 layouts I created with all these goodies then follow the link I have provided and you can find it all at the store!

But in the mean time you can browse the GALLERY at Handmade By Suzanne for some more inspiration and don't forget that you have until the 30th of November to play along with our SKETCH CHALLENGE for your chance to win $30.00 voucher to the store. 

Take care everyone and talk to you all soon.

Get Picky + Handmade By Suzanne

Good Evening/Morning to all of you. I hope you are all well and getting ready for Christmas. 

Today i wanted to share with you the second layout that I created with the beautiful things Handmade By Suzanne sent me to work with.

Remember I was working with the Authentique collection Gathering and you will find the COMPLETE collection right HERE in the shop. 

This time I based my layout on the November sketch challenge over at Get Picky which looks like this..

Loving You Is Easy Because You're Beautiful. 

Oh yes...all that fussy cutting took me AS LONG AS YOU IMAGINE! LOL! But seriously..what better things do I have to do at 2 am? 

I decided to use the orange again, as I really loved the muted tone it had. 

Here are some close ups and I have provided links for you where you can access these materials at the shop. 

This time I used this paper as my base

Authentique - Gathering - Grow - Patterned Paper and I cut the centre of it out and flipped it over to reveal the orange side that you cab see in the middle. I then pasted it all on a Kraft piece of cardboard. 

The border punch that I used to create the effect on the side of the orange paper is

Martha Stewart Crafts - Deep Edger Punch - Floral Vine

All the orange flowers were fussy cut from this paper ..

Authentique - Gathering Bloom patterned paper

Just like the last layout I created, the blue flowers you see above are Kaisercraft Blooms in Sea Breeze

while the orange flowers are Prima Marketing Gillian Cider

I also created the lacy white flowers using this lace ribbon 

Websters Pages - Western Romance - Western Eyelet - Natural

I also used some leaves and some orange Prima flowers from my stash. 

The words you see scattered everywhere came from this..

Authentique - Gathering Diction Word Stickers

and the alphas were from the same collection..

 Authentique Petite Type Square Alpha Stickers in Teal colour (love!) 

I still have one more layout to show you in the next couple of days. But in the mean time you can browse the GALLERY at Handmade By Suzanne for some more inspiration and don't forget that you have until the 30th of November to play along with our SKETCH CHALLENGE for your chance to win $30.00 voucher to the store. 

Take care everyone and talk to you all soon. 

Scrap Jacked + Handmade By Suzanne

Don't forget to check out my **GIVEAWAY** here

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Hi all! How are you doing? 

Well I am really excited to share with you my very first layout as an official Design Team member at Handmade By Suzanne!! My box of goodies arrived last week and I had 3 layouts over and done with in just one night! Thank you Marelize and Suzanne...you really know my style I think as you sent me the most gorgeous things to work with. 

I was sent the gorgeous Authentique collection Gathering  which has JUST arrived at Handmade By Suzanne!

For this layout I was inspired by the super lovely Kylie Symons over at Scrap Jacked and decided to lift her layout to create this..

Oh isn't the orange so gorgeous up against the browns and blues? Just LOVED working with this and its SO easy to create with. 

Let me show you some close ups and I have provided links for you where you can access these materials at the shop. 

All the orange flowers were fussy cut from this paper ..

Authentique - Gathering Bloom patterned paper

I also used this paper as my base and middle part..

Authentique - Gathering Reminisce patterned paper

I created the decorative border with this punch..

Martha Stewart - Punch Around The Page Set  Swirling Lace

The blue flowers you see above are Kaisercraft Blooms in Sea Breeze

while the orange flowers are Prima Marketing Gillian Cider

I also created the lacy white flowers using this lace ribbon 

Websters Pages - Western Romance - Western Eyelet - Natural

I used Authentique Petite Type Square Alpha Stickers in Teal colour (love!) 

Just above you can see these little words that I have bunched together and they are from this..

Authentique - Gathering Diction Word Stickers

and also the small butterflies which I created with something similar to this..

EK Success Layering Punch - Butterfly 

Other products I used , that you can find right now at the shop are:

Kaisercraft Pearls in Denim colour

Authentique - Gathering - Noteables - Die Cut Elements

and the title "Cherish"is from my stash which is Kaisercraft chipboard. 

I have created 2 more layouts that I will show you in the following days with almost the same materials as you see above and if you are inspired to create this layout and start crafting with the Authentique Gathering  collection then follow the links above and you will find all this available at the shop now.

Be sure to check out the monthly sketch challenge HERE for your chance to win a $30.00 voucher to the shop and who knows? You could be the winner and buy your self this awesome collection.

Thank you also to Scrap Jacked for providing awesome inspiration and cool challenges! I enjoyed playing along.

A couple of challenges..

Good morning to all :o) I have woken up to the most gorgeous Spring Saturday here in Sydney.  Just like a scene from a movie, the birds are chirping, the sun rays break through the shutters and it is not too hot to be uncomfortable but just perfect. The day is promising. It sure lifts your spirits. 

Well anyway. I need to tell you that I have been scrapping a lot. Still not as much as before, but certainly a lot more than the last couple of months where all the supplies and kits I had were building up. 

I have been joining in a few challenges. I have always loved challenge blogs because they just give me inspiration and a reason to scrap. 

This first one is for the November 1st prompt over at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge. 

This month's challenge is to scrap about a belief, or philosophy you have – it can be something deep or something silly. It might be a religious or other philosophy, or something as light as your theory on how you can put two socks into the washing machine and only one ever comes back to you. Take this challenge as seriously or not as you would like to!!

I find my self creating yet another photo less layout because I just wanted to say the story . I have many many strong beliefs, but this one I think is very important to me. I think the journalling is self explanatory and I don't need to say much more. Everything here came from a past kit from Tidbitz In Time and includes Prima Marketing Melody Collection  papers and butterfly, and from my stash  Kaisercraft chipboard sign, Glitz Designs banner. 

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This next layout is for the November challenge at White With 1 

WHITE + BRIGHTS + FLOWERS

This month BRIGHTS are defined as ANY colour that is bright and loud, you must pick ONE bright colour ONLY.

The papers , bloomers and ribbon here are from Webster's Pages All About Me Collection and I have used Kasercraft blooms, Petaloo flowers, and this incredibly gorgeous butterfly from Imaginarium Designs  

which looked like this when I finished with it. 

I just inked it with white ink and went over it with Ice Stickles Glitter Glue in Crystal Ice. Did you know that Imaginarium Designs are an Australian chipboard company, who sell their products at Seriously Scrapbooking ? You might have seen their gorgeous chipboard pop up everywhere and even though they are based in Australia they actually ship WORLD WIDE and postage is pretty cheap. You would be very surprised. 

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My last layout is for yet one more challenge that went up on November 15th at Scrapbooking In Greece . This is such an awesome site and Elina, the owner has been providing some gorgeous photo prompts and colours. Check this one out..

It is in Greek but it says that besides the colours we need to use flowers all over the page. Like I need an excuse to use flowers LOL! 

I was over at my friend Vicky's blog and she she had recently posted a layout of her sleeping baby, who is now a toddler and it got me thinking that I should scrap a photo about my children as babies. Can you guess who is who? The one on the left in Maria and the one on the right is Ioanna. Both EXCELLENT sleepers and I must say i am extremely lucky. I had to work VERY hard to train them to get into routines etc, but I am pretty lucky they adapted so well.

I have used Webster's Pages Country Estate papers and flowers , and some other Prima flowers and bits and pieces. The beautiful chipboard swirl is again from Imaginarium Designs and you can find it RIGHT HERE

Here is a close up of the finished product

I inked it yellow and just applied some Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in Mustard Seed. Easy!

You can check out all the range of Imaginarium Designs HERE and I was SO lucky to be sent a whole bunch of goodies from them as part of their sponsorship deal with Once Upon A...Sketch. All the girls on the DT received some too, and thats 23 of us! They are very generous. Thanks ID. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing a few layouts all at once and I hope I have inspired to to go and start creating :o) 

Don't forget my giveaway HERE

and the  Once Upon A...Sketch giveaway HERE and current challenge HERE

Phewwwwwwwww...That was LONG!

Have a great weekend everyone. See you all NEXT WEEK!

Check this out...

There is a giveaway happening at Once Upon A...Sketch. 

You have a chance to win this gorgeous album kit featuring Melissa Frances 5th Avenue collection...

"Limited Edition Melissa Frances" Kit Contents (kit by Scrap That! - Canada's best kit club) 

Envelopes and Tags Book

5th Avenue 6 X 6 Paper Pad

5th Avenue Sticker Book

5th Avenue Diecuts

2 Mini Envelopes and Tags

Trinkets & Baubles

Diamond Chandelier Drops

“Mom” Expressive Transfer

Vintage Architectural Molding Appliques

Crepe Paper - Light Blue, Pale Pink, Cream, Pastel Green

4 ZVA Pink Transition Mini Roses

6 ZVA Cream Mini Roses

Vintage Seam Binding

All you need to do is: 

1) Be or become a follower of the Once Upon A...Sketch blog

2) post about this give away on your blog or Facebook page or wherever you like, together with this picture and a link back to Once Upon A...Sketch

3) Link your blog, or Facebook Page or wherever you posted about this giveaway on the bottom of the giveaway post at Once Upon A...Sketch using the Inlinkz button. 

The details

* open worldwide

*you have 1 week from today - this giveaway will end on midnight Friday November 25th ( Australian Eastern Standard Time) 

Good luck!

Once Upon A..Sketch + Crafty Sketches

Hi there everyone. I wanted to share with you a layout that I did for the current challenge over at my sketch challenge blog Once Upon A...Sketch. 

November 15th Challenge

Journalling criteria: This time the journalling criteria focuses on YOU as a woman OR ANY female in your life. What is the best thing about being a woman? Motherhood? Shopping? Make Up? Girls nights? Gossip? Your journalling can be as long as you wish and in any language, but you must journal at least 2 sentences on the best part of being a woman.

You must combine the journalling criteria with this sketch..

Here is my example for this challenge using the October Limited Edition kit from My Creative Scrapbook. This kit included the "All About Me" collection from Webster's Pages, ZVA flowers, Petaloo flowers , Prima Shabby Chic Treasures (door) , Prima Marketing Antique Mirrors and BasicGrey rub ons. 

I based my example on my eldest girl, who is THE very definition on femininity. 

So will you come along and play with us? You can check out all the information HERE and see what else the rest of the Design Team created. Speaking of which..you have NO idea how happy they all have made me in the last few days. I mean I have always been VERY happy with all the design team...I handpicked each and every one of them and I always knew exactly who I was picking to be on my Design Team. 

But yesterday I received something in the post, created by ALL OF THEM from all over the world to help me through the dark days. This was initiated by my incredible friend Jeni O'Connor and collated by my equally admirable friend Heather Jacob and let's just say that what they did is, in one word, amazing and had me in tears all day and night. I will take photos and post them here just so you know what I mean. Thank you is NOT enough...!

But anyway, I will share more in a future post. 

Now if you do play along at Once Upon A...Sketch you can be in the running for one of these prizes..

A gorgeous chipboard collection for 1 randomly chosen winner by Imaginarium Designs.  

A stunning collection of goodies to the value of $25.00 to one randomly chosen winner from The Chip Chop Shop 

And lastly, the winner of this challenge, as chosen by the Design Team, will receive this embellishment collection from BasicGrey's Jovial line.  Just in time for Christmas...

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I have a few things I have been working on and a couple of kits to go through so I thought I would show you another layout that I did using the same kit as the layout above, which is the October Limited Edition kit from My Creative Scrapbook. 

I guess the journalling speaks for itself. I recently said here on my blog "how perfect life would have been with the arrival of the baby in late February , which was a little girl" . I feel bad for saying that. I feel bad because my life is indeed perfect because besides health and great family and husband, I have these 2 people that were chosen by God to be looked after by me and my hubby. I know that many people cannot say that. I know people struggle to have even 1 child. The pain of what happened recently will never go away, but my life is perfect already. 

Anyway..before I get all sentimental I just wanted to tell you that while surfing the net I came across this sketch over at Crafty Sketches and drew inspiration from it. Great sketch! 

If you made it this far, give your self a pat on the back! LOL!

Thank you for everything ALWAYS. 

Have a great day, Nadia.