Nappy Cakes and a RAK

I just completed my very first Nappy Cake or Diaper Cake which ever your prefer to call it! Its actually pretty easy to make...all up Ive spent about NZD$80 on it....just another idea to add to LadyBlackHeart Studio

I made this one Green and Orange and I am RAKing this one off on the Fiskateer Boards to one very lucky Expecting Mother...

The following pics are all the sides and the details on it.

I DID A PAGE!!!

Its been almost two months since I completed a layout.....and this is a long awaited for one too - Ive had these photos printed since 2006 just havent been able to think of a layout to do with them. Sadly in 2007 my kitten Tortillini went missing and we still havent got her back....and my beautiful Bullseye is now just over 3yrs of age...! These photos were from the day I got the kittens when they were about 6 weeks old or so..!

My First Order - COMPLETE

Ive been spending the last few days pulling late nights to get these invites for Jenna all finished. It only took me two days to have them all done to the stage that all is left to do is print the info onto the vellum, I spent about 2 hours making 50 envelopes, another 4 hours making the sleeves and cutting out all the invites to size and the vellum and rose wrapping paper...with additional 2 hours getting them all stuck together and the holes punched and ribbon tied to them....I searched high and low for Vellum Tape but couldnt find any. I hate it when you know a store has it then they change their stock and you cant find it anywhere....I had to revert to getting Vellum Spray....which Ive never used before....

Jenna came over and together we went out and picked up her wedding dress and brought some shoes to go with it....haha can I say I was pretty proud of those shoes and Im sure they will look great on the day! They were the same colour as the dress and had little dimantes things on it like the dress...for a short moment of 20 seconds I felt like I was a maid of owner or some kind of wedding planner....that was until the door of her car hit me in the backside as I went to go climb in..! Once back home I got onto printing the invites out onto the vellum....and tested out the glue...and was all completed in about 10 mins...

That was when disater struck....!! And I was completely guttered....my heart felt like it was ripped out of my chest and my stomach did a big twist....my whole world came crashing down right then and there...

The problem was some minor little things:


1. As the Red Rose Wrapping paper was hand cut and rulled out, it wasnt all even on the edges.


2. The borders around each layer were not all even.


3. The vellum was in the wrong place and needed to be changed to what it was at.


4. Once the vellum was taken off and put back down the Red Rose Paper was left damaged in places.

I didnt sleep overly well that night, I woke up early and kept thinking about them, Jenna wanted to change the whole design and I wasnt full keen on the idea of it, I know its her wedding but it took 6 months to get to this stage and it was something she was dead set on, I knew in such a short time we wouldnt be able to find the supplies for what she was wanting let alone be able to afford it, and at that one of the embellishments she wanted was going to cost her almost as much as her dress. We went on over to a scrapbooking store to see what we could find, originally on a mission to find these dimante ribbon slides, but instead with the support and talking with the staff I was able to use their large trimmer and gilotine....I was able to convince Jenna that we could stick with what we had original and remake them all again and I wouldnt charge her for the ones I was remaking...even though it was a big loss for me.....she agreed to it and we went off out to get a couple more rolls of the red rose wrapping paper by John Stands and some lunch also - and so that was how I spent the afternoon with her sitting there watching me cut them all to size with the help of the staff at NZScrapbooking...


*big salute to you lovely ladies and the wonderful gentleman working there*

We stopped by one more store to get some paper for the invite part to be printed on as we decided that the vellum just wasnt working for this...once back home we got to work sticking them all together, it helped having Jenna there to make sure everything was ok and to her liking...infact I believe she ended up sticking them all together this time...I had to make sure all the writing was correct and to the size she wanted before I printed them out, doing so we got underway with cutting them out by hand.....we finished them off with a border punch and were able to recycle the ribbon from the original ones...we changed a few things from the first ones made but at the end of it all I believe Jenna was happy and greatful to have them all done.


I still need to cost out the new design and make up a sampler for in my folder as I had no spear ones left over - I gave them to Jenna...somehow we ended up with more than 50...I dont know how that happened...

Here is the final design (less the envelopes I made for them) I think for future reference I might stick to three sizes only for the invites...so that making envelopes for them will be a bit more easier....that all depends on if I can find a template to cut them out with...instead of pain stakenly sitting there measuring and scoring...

Speaking of scoring just as I finished them all my scoring blade I won off Trade Me arrived in the mail!

Now what I need to now is going through the samplers I have already and work out the costs of them, and the costs of these new ones....

Invite Samplers

Jenna sent me a link with a couple of pics of some invites she liked on New Years Eve....tired and fustrted over it all, I spent a good week trying to track down something to make a sampler up similar to what she had found....of course using just the supplies I had in terms of black paper and card stock...the real ones wont be the same in terms of what is used to make them with...I hunted EVERYWHERE to find Red Rose Vellum and I couldnt find anything in New Zealand. As an alternative I used Red Rose Wrapping Paper.

The Red Sleeve was from scanning rose wrapping paper and printing the image onto Vellum....this didnt give an over good look, my printer made it look very dark and ink jets seem to print out very wet and it sits on the vellum and smudges easy when wet.....Im not sure how to fix this problem....Im not sure if Laser jets work better for Vellum in terms of printing on them. The Black Sleeve has plain vellum stuck over a piece of rose wrapping paper. And the invite is very similar with plain vellum over rose wrapping paper. I accidently ripped a little corner so had to trim a bit off and so thats why there is a border on it...it was originally meant to met at both ends....but I guess thats all part of changing the designs and altering it to how you like it...

I was greatful to have Jenna finally say YES to this design!! I can now go ahead and make the 50 invites, sleeves and envelopes for her wedding..!!

Showing my talents..

My mate Teresa from High School came over today - I havent seen her for a few years now and Ive known her 10 yrs this year...I wont go into details about high school and the very colourful past with her lol....but she decided she wanted to be like me and do scrapbooking we went out to the Warehouse and there I had to try and explain what she needed - it was just to hard to do in so little time and being told she wanted everything I had....and me having to explain that:

A. I started scrapbooking 5 yrs ago so my stuff has been collecting since then

B. I have stuff sent from overseas as gifts and stuff...

C. I have some stuff given to me that is my grandmothers and is EXTREMELY old and impossible to buy now.......

D. You dont have the money on you to be able to afford all I have in my room...!!

So once I got that in I told her to get just a few things....just a pack of papers to start with, a small pack, not to go all hard out on stuff...I had to keep telling her it is very expensive....to go for bargains and stuff...

When we got home she wanted me to show her how I made my gift boxes that I made at Xmas for the fudge we gave out for presents....I made one for her, then with that she wanted the template with the score lines and measurements, and I had to convert that into CM from IN as she doesnt understand IN....I mean I dont fully either but Im kinda getting there...after that I had to make ANOTHER template this one with all the score lines and cut out parts....it fustrated the hell out of me....then I had to make the mini version of the box I put together the other day....which was fustrating as its so tiny in size and I havent got the markings all worked out....and you guessed it....needed a template for that too...

I put my foot down on doing anything more - but to end this story I had to also print out the instructions from off SplitCoastStampers where i found the template to start with for her...!!

I didnt get a pic of the mini box I made but this is the big box I made...pretty cute...the Kaiser Stamp is embossed in Detail Black Embossing Powder then coloured in with Acrylic Paints. Pattern Papers are from My Minds Eye.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

Welcome to the Year 2010!!!!

I cant believe 10 yrs ago I had just started high school at the turn of the century....and I had just started my guinea pig training as I like to say for the new Qualification Framework of NCEA.....10 yrs ago I walked into High School believing I was going to be a FIRE FIGHTER, I never imagined back then I would be working and studying in Hospitality let alone dreaming and planning on having my own Restaurant and Bar!!

This year my resolution is to get debt free and to work on progressing with my career and doing well in my last two semesters of Uni...I think I really need to plan and work on my assignments and get them down early and on time with less stressing last minute. I think as soon as I have the resources in terms of my handbooks for each paper I need to really look at the assignments and start them ASAP in the first week of the semester and plan out when they are due. I think what will help will be working with my mate Karan, I believe if we create a team we will get through our last 5 papers we have at Uni....we worked really well together the last few weeks of the semester where we had assignments and exams and studying for them I think we will do well this semester together. Thats the plan - and I know this means I will be putting my crafting on the back burner again BUT its only for one more year....!!

I also need  to become stronger at work and step up and be more assertive and take more inntiative....and not take on so much crap...! When I start back at Uni Im going to go to the budget advisors again and have a budget set out and work out what I need to budget and stuff...I really need to work a way out of my debt....and figure out just how much I need coming in to become financially stable or at least enough so Im not stressing each week...

One key thing this year is not taking on Crap...as I said to Jade, Im going to put the plastic seat down on the toilet and sit on it, Im not going to sit on the cold porcelin bowl and fall into the water - Im not going to be pushed in and flushed down or have crap shat on me or the piss taken out of me - if anyone crosses my path, Im just block them...Im not even going to get into an argument...sure you can have your say....but Im not going to give a flying fuck anymore....you cross me thats its your flushed from my life....down the drain......all drains lead to the ocean, Im sure those who smell will find other fish in the sea they can mellow with...

This year its about ME!!!!

Here's to the Year 2010!!!

Cheers!

Boxing Up Another Year

Its the last day of 2009 and this is how I have spent my day, Im clearly really bored not being at work and I am dying to get back to work already....!! I have sat on Splitcoaststampers and looked at tutorials for different boxes and stuff....I went to the warehouse and got a couple pads of paper on clearance, they are massive pads I had seen them some months ago and they were about NZD$30 or so.....and I put it on the "wishlist" I went out and tried to find them the other day, no one had them but I managed to find two in the clearance part of the Airports Branch....they were scanning up full price even though they were damaged and missing a few sheets and the cover.....I was offered them for a discount for damage stock...$20 but I wasnt fully keen on it for one lot of paper...that wasnt an overly large amount off given that there didnt appear to be any in stock for some time in any of the stores Ive been too......I said there were two the same (in the same condition they both have different papers in them) and so I was offered them for half price and I think I got them both for about $17 each or something like that.....so I have this big heaps of gorgous papers now to use for Layouts and all sorts of other things....

This is what I have made with some of the damaged papers....all the templates for these can be found on Splitcoaststampers under resources....so thankyou to those who have uploaded them....I for some reason managed to work these templates out better than trying to trace some of the templates Ive Googled for....

2-5-7-10 Box (half sized)

Box in a Bag

Ghirardelli® Box

Explosion Box

Party Favour

 

Sour Cream Container

Milk Carton Box