Our Family - 2007

Here are our family photo's for the end of the year. I've always wanted to do my own photo shoot. It was so much fun and for the most part, the boys enjoyed taking part.

Here is the link. It brings you to Jump Cut; click on Full Screen under the photo and then you can press play. Have your speakers on so you can hear the music as well.
Enjoy!!

http://www.jumpcut.com/view?id=C6BEFD88AD6811DC8CA8000423CF381C

Why I love this time of year...

There are many reasons, big and small, why I love this wonderful but busy time of year. Here are just some of them.

6. It's summer time for us. (in the southern hemisphere) This means long, lazy days at the beach, having fun in the sun, cooling off in the in the deep blue sea, BBQ's for dinner, fishing with the kids and so much more.....

5. It's school holidays. Seven weeks of no school for the kids. This means we don't need to get up early to go the bus, no making of lunches, no homework and no organized routines. It certainly will be a nice break.

4. The 'big' school holidays are usually when we go away on holidays. This year we are going to Donnelly River to have a family holiday with all the 'Huizenga's. Will be great to get together again, as we don't all live close to each other anymore. I know all the kids will have a great time together.

3. A time of relection of the past year. To count the many, many blessings we have received from our heavenly Father. To be thankful for family and friends, for a life of peace and freedom, for our chuch community and faith. To show our thankfulness and to praise Him and to share the message of His love and promises.

2. Christmas lunch is always special with yummy food and the company of family and friends. We can look forward to seafood, kebabs on the BBQ and fresh salads. Delicous!!

1. Remembering the birthday of our dear Jesus. He is the reason for the season. God sent His only Son into this world to save us from our sins. A truly wonderful blessing and one we should be thankful for everyday. At Christmas time we remember God's gift He sent to us from above.

Time Well Spent

'Time well Spent' is the lovely stamp set demonstrators have received from Stampin'Up as a thankyou. I received mine this week and today made these four cards. It really is a fun stamp set with lots of different images to colour (12 in total) This stamp set will be available in the annual catalogue next April for those hosting a party. This is a Level 3 hostess stamp and is a great incentive to have a Stampin'Up demo.





All images Copyright Stampin'Up 2007

Snapshots of our first year in Busso!

View Album

Get your own

It's not quite one year yet, but getting close! I was just having a play around with Picasa, didn't work out quite the way I was hoping but anyway, it's something. I can't seem to get the slideshow to go full screen when you click on it!! I think if you double-click on the pictures it takes you to the web album where you can do the side show and it does it in full screen there. Confusing?!? Yes, well I'm still learning about all this technical stuff.

We've enjoyed our first year alot. It's been fun to live near the beach, especially for the boys. We've been blessed in many ways and we hope and pray for another wonderful year, with many more happy moments to treasure.

Love Matters

This is the name of the stamp set that I've used for these three pages. It's a new set from the Summer mini catalogue, great for scrapbooking; and it's definately going to be one of those special stamp sets that I'll be using heaps.






I've posted this photo previously and just love it. When I have a great photo I always tend to scrapbook these one's soon after getting the photo developed. I have three 8x8 albums going for the boys this year; so hence three different layouts.

I always get my inspiration and colours from the photo itself. Most layouts are fairly simple with a few embellishments and journalling. I like to keep it simple, so it doesn't take away from the photo. Having great stamp sets to work with is wonderful and lots of fun for me.




All images Copyright Stampin'Up 2007

Psalm 21 & Psalm 139

Psalm 21:1+2
I will lift up my eyes to the hills- From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

A Psalm about our God of help to those who seek Him

Psalm 139:1-6
O Lord, You have searched me and known me,
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
and are aquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold O Lord, You know it all together.
You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.

A Psalm of God's perfect knowledge of man


Please pray for my dear friend Lisa and her family as they make a difficult journey. You can read here - http://www.nicknlisa-alwayssomething.blogspot.com/

Staying cool

Tyson & Liam enjoying some 'cooling off' in our backyard pool. They have been having a great time together. Tyson always enters the pool with a big run-off and then dives into the pool. Funny to watch!!

Sisters

I've had the pleasure of my two sisters, Katie and Aimee, staying with me yesterday and today. Wow, it was so good to see them. We enjoyed a nice lunch yesterday and went for a beach walk this morning. The boys loved seeing their aunty's again as well. Was great to have you stay with us!!

Kyle & Cody sharing a moment at the beach yesterday afternoon.






















The gorgeous blue waters of Geographe Bay.......
Our back door step........
Our summer playground........
God's awesome creation.......

An update on my Christmas cards

Just a few more samples of what I've been busy doing these last few days. Having lots of fun trying different techniques and using all my Christmas stamps in many ways. I'm loving the new Holiday Thyme Designer Series paper. This pack has some gorgeous paper and you'll definately be making lots of nice Christmas cards using it.
















The big pile of Christmas cards; it's certainly nice to have so many cards on my desk at one time. Going to be hard to part with some of them!!

I'm going all blue for Christmas with these two. It's a different look, but I was really happy with the end result. The inspiration for these cards came from a Christmas card swap I joined in with Stampin'Up demo's from around Oz. I've changed the colours and layout to make it my own.

* The image from Scribble This is stamped in Basic Black on glossy white cardstock. I've hi-lighted some bits with white crayon. Then I've inked up my brayer using the Spectrum Blue ink pad and rolled onto the glossy white. You'll need to go over a few times to get the blended effect as shown on my cards. Then with a sponge, rub over the crayon to reveal the hi-lighted areas (crayon resist)

* Merry & Bright sentiment is stamped onto Bashful Blue and matted onto Brilliant Blue by using SU circle punches.

* With the smallest SU circle punch, I've punched random over the cardstock and used my glue pen and glitter for some added effect.

* Base of card has also been stamped with Scribble This. For a non-Christmas stamp set, this has truly been a very versatile set and I'm sure it's one I won't be parting with anytime soon.

All images Copyright Stampin'Up 2007

While you were sleeping....

"while you were sleeping, your mum was taking photo's ". How could I not take a picture of this? When I went to check on the boys earlier this evening, after we had put them to bed; this is how I found them. They had been busy making a cubby before bedtime, in their bunkbed. The boys had hung their quilt over the side of top bed to make a 'cave' (they called it). They had so much fun together, that they wanted to sleep in the same bed at opposite ends. When they finally fell asleep, they must have snuggled up together to have sweet dreams.
I know I've said this before: the friendship they share with each other is so special and I really love and enjoy how close they are. I hope this stays with them for many years to come.

The beach, a bottle of wine, warm weather .......

I took this photo on Monday night. It had been a really warm day, we were sitting on the beach with the boys having some dinner. It's the only photo I took because the batteries went flat on my camera. When I got home, I had a bit of a play to create some different looks of this shot with Picasa.

#1 Black & White

#2 Colour with a soft glow

#3 Focal Black & White

Note: The wine was very good.

Happy photo's

Here are a few pictures I took this morning before Warren's parents left.

The boys lazing around in our hammock.

Tyson and Liam with Opa and Oma Huizenga. The boys certainly loved having them around on the weekend. Now they call our shed 'guest retreat', Opa and Oma's room!!

Our shed 'guest retreat'

I wanted to share with you, some pictures of our little 'guest retreat'. We had a bathroom in our shed when we bought this house, so Warren has partitioned some of the shed to include a bedroom. Now we have our own little 'guest retreat' for our family and friends. We had Warren's parent staying for three nights this past weekend. They really loved their accommodation, had a great stay and we enjoyed their company. The lamp you can see in the first picture is a gift from them. Very nice.

Just a few more....

Yes, I've been busy designing Christmas cards. Getting quite an assortment now; it's going to be fun sending these ones out to my family and friends. Normally, I would mass produce one design, but this year I'm doing assorted.
This first card uses the Crazy for Christmas stamp set. I've stamped in black onto the Whisper White and then spot-lighted a peice of the image. The circle image has been raised and I've punch out with circle punch and then matted onto a Ruby red circle. The close up image gives you a better idea of the different layers in this card.

Stamp set: Crazy for Christmas, Print Pattern BG, sentiment from All Year Cheer
Cardstock: Ruby Red, Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, Whisper White
Ink: Ruby Red, Basic Black
Accessories: Gingham, Hodgepodge hardware, SU markers to colour images, tag (non-SU) circle punches.

The other two cards are using Scribble This. I'm really enjoying using this set for Christmas cards, even though it's not very traditional. The first card uses Ruby Red, Black & Sage Shadow. The second card uses Bordering Blue, Night of Navy & Whisper White. Also on this card, I've used the verse from Wishing You (Spring mini).

Any questions, I'm happy to answer. Hope you are all having a wonderful day. The weather is really starting to warm up here now. I'm looking forward to the weekend. We have Warren's parents staying with us, the first guests to use our little 'retreat'. Hope they love it!! So with warmer weather on the way, we are sure to be going to the beach and enjoying some time outside and having a few BBQ's. Very nice!!

All images Copyright Stampin'Up 2007

Promotions for November

Stampin'Up have two great speicals for the month of November.

All in the Family
In honour of Stampin'Up Australia general manager, David Abbott, Stampin'Up are pre-releasing the stamp set 'All in the Family'. Recently, David Abbott passed away after a long battle with a rare blood disease. Stampin'Up worldwide, will be donating 100% of sales from this stamp set, to the Abbott family.

Item: 111998 All in the Family $73.95


Just in Thyme!!
To get ready for the festive season, Stampin'Up have on offer an exclusive Holiday Thyme double-sided Designer Series paper, perfect for making cards, party invites, gift wrap or scrapbook memories. Check out the patterns below.

Item: 107890 Holiday Thyme Designer series paper $14.95 ($16.95 value)
This item is available from Nov 1 - Dec 15.

To take part in any of these promotions or if you have any questions, please email me at chuizeng@bigpond.net.au for further details. I have both of these items on order, so I'm hoping to show you some samples very soon.

Christmas card in Navy

Everyone loved this card at my Stampin'Stack last Friday night. This card uses:

Cardstock: Bordering Blue, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Ink: Night of Navy, Whisper White
Stamp Set: Wishing You (from Spring mini)
Accessories: White grosgrain, mat pack

I've stamped the images onto the whisper white and matted onto Bordering Blue. The base of card is Bordering Blue, then layered with Night of Navy. I've finished off with paper piercing and white ribbon. The sentiment is stamped in Whisper white.





















All images Copyright Stampin'Up 2007

Sunset

Now that we have an extra hour of day light, due to daylight savings, we can enjoy going to the beach after dinner. It's espeically great on the weekends, and will be even better for the big school holidays.

This is Hanna

Well these are my new Hanna Stamps, all the way from the US. Kristy from Kreations By Krissy has launched her own range of stamps. Check out her blog to read all about how you can get these really cute stamp sets. (http://www.kreationsbykrissy.com)



The images have been stamped with Stazon Black and coloured-in. One of the cards has the dress paper pieced to match with background. I've teamed it up with Stampin'Up cardstock and DP. It was a lot of fun working with some different stamps. I think I'll send one of these cards to someone I know, who looooves shopping and is always buying bags!!??!!

All images Copyright Hanna Stamps 2007

Orchid Oppulence

I couldn't decide which one I liked the best!! So I've posted a few pictures to show you this pretty flower I received as a gift.

Christmas cards

A couple more Christmas card samples, I've been working on.

Card 1:
Stamp set: Holiday Print, Scribble This
Cardstock: True Thyme, Cranberry Crisp, Confetti White
Ink: True Thyme, Cranberry Crisp
Accessories: Cranberry stitched ribbon, White gel pen

I've stamped the Thyme and Cranberry cardstock with ink using Scribble This. For the square, I've used part of the Holiday Print BG stamp, then matted onto the Thyme. Finished off with some stitched cranberry ribbon and hi-lighted the background with the white gel pen.
























Card 2:
Stamp Set: Wishing You (from Spring mini) Fine Lace BG
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Cranberry Crisp, Choc Chip
Ink: Bashful Blue, Choc Chip
Accessories: Cranberry stitched ribbon, Paper peircing, Circle punch

The layout and style of this card was CASED. When I saw this card, I just loved it and had to try one myself, just with different colours. It's amazing what colours you can use for Christmas cards. So I've given you a view of the card, open and closed.

All images Copyright Stampin'Up 2007