MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

Wishing all my family and friends a very Merry Christmas!!!

Let's Scrap sketch layout 9-25-13

This is my Design Team contribution for the weekly sketch 9-25-13 on Let's Scrap.

I have had these beautiful photos of our first home town in New Zealand (named by it's Maori name of Whakatane) for quite some time now.  When I saw this sketch I thought it was perfect to showcase these gorgeous photos.  The layout is more about the photos to be truthful but that is often why I do scrapbooking.  I do like photography and when I am fortunate enough to take really good photos, getting out a layout to bring out the best in them is very important to me.

Just a little bit of info about this beautiful little town on the east coast of central North island.

Welcome to Whakatane, New Zealand. The pacific jewel of the Bay of Plenty.

The main centre for the Eastern Bay of Plenty, Whakatane is one of the sunniest towns in New Zealand. Just off shore is White Island, a spectacular active volcano that can be visited by launch or helicopter. Whakatane is also known for its fishing – more yellow fin tuna are caught here than anywhere else in the country.

The name "Whakatane" commemorates an incident occurring after the arrival of the Mataatua. The men had gone ashore and the canoe began to drift. Wairaka, a young chieftainess, said “Kia Whakatane au i ahau” (“I will act like a man”), and commenced to paddle (which women were not allowed to do), and with the help of the other women saved the canoe.

Whakatane invites you to throw away your watch and soak up the special lure of the ocean, drink in the warmth of the sun, and marvel at the relaxed friendliness of the people as you discover all the little things that make Whakatane so exceptional.

We loved our 18 months in this wonderful town and that is why a piece of my heart will always be in Whakatane - and that is the story of my journal tags.

September 13 White with Pistachio Challenge

I haven't played for quite some time with a challenge from the White with 1 blog, but I just love the challenge for this month:

White with Pistachio Green

I am not generally a fan of green, but when I was digging through my stash of paper, I found I had heaps of green and surprise, surprise, various shades of Pistachio green.  Goodness!  I did not think I had soooo much green paper.  So when I laid them all out and saw how amazing they looked with the white cardstock, I just had to do a layout.  I had the perfect little photograph of my darling little Jessica to scrap ... and well here is the result.  And I must say, I absolutely adore how it came out!  I think I am fan of green papers now!

First DT Layout

Well, this is my first layout for the Design Team of Let's Scrap:

Loved the sketch we had to use.  I had this beautiful old photo of mom and dad's wedding.  I chose to do my favourite scrapbooking style of shabby chic.  I had a great fun making my own tags and playing with my scrap bag of lace.  I really love how it has turned out!!  It really wanted this page to be a special tribute to my parents.  

Whoop Whoop!! I am a Design Team member!!

Dream come true!!!  I have been chosen to be on the Design Team for Let's Scrap for the next period!!  I am sooooo excited.... Stunned, nervous, excited... and more.  I am really honoured to be part of the Design Team and already working on a number of projects.

Here is a link to the announcement:

http://letsscrap.ning.com/forum/topics/design-team-announcement-1

Let's Scrap Weekly Sketch

Hubby is on this way to South Africa 30 August 2013, and I was asked to do a page of the two of us for our great niece, Michaela - for her to remember us.  She will be lucky enough now to meet Edwin on his visit but I have no idea if I will ever meet this little cutie pie.  Sadly this is the heartache of immigration .... being so far away from family ....

So I did this page of hubby and myself.  I based the page on the Let's Scrap weekly sketch 8-21-13.  I need to put in a frame for Michaela, so had to keep the layout flat.  I decided to use a nice big photo of us and play around with a background of soft patterned patterns and flat embellishments.  I framed the photo with a frame of red paper to give the photo emphasis.

This is the sketch from my favourite Scrapbooking site Let's Scrap this week.  I loved the simplicity of it and used it for this layout.

And this is a photo our great niece Michaela, who will get the layout for her bedroom.

Another kiddy page

I found this super cute photo of my great niece, Tyla, starting Kindy School and couldn't resist scrapping it.  I loved the bright primary colours of photo.  I dug out some of my bright patterned papers and thought the white carstock would make the colours pop.

I based this layout on a sketch from Let's Scrap.