Challenges for Scrapbook Boutique

I've been following the Scrapbook Boutique blog for a few months now. In fact it's been ever since I bought the fantastic Fashion Doll die set from them to do an online class at Scrap Time.

Scrapbook Boutique has a great challenge every month but this is the first month I've actually finished the challenge on time! This month the challenge was to use a bow or ribbon on a page. I've made 2 LOs using a bow I fashioned with staples!

The designs for these LOs are based on a formula called "Freaky Fast Pages" (don't you just love the alliteration!) created by Frances Sylvia for The Scrap Room.

China Doll aka me 1/4 of a lifetime ago!

I have been reading a fantastic book called "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See. This has been the first book that our new online book club, hosted by Suzanne Dean at Color Me Creative has read together.

The book is about friendship and life lessons. It's set in China in the 1800s and has been a fascinating read. We were challenged to create a project inspired by the book in some way. And I knew straight away what I wanted to do.

Back when we were living in Hong Kong, I think around 2000, I went to Shenzhen (a Chinese industrial city just across the border from HK) with some of my students. Apparently it's quite a popular thing to do to go to Shenzhen and get some photos taken. We got our hair and makeup done and got to choose our outfits. The photographer was amazing - he only took one of each outfit/pose/hair do and all the photos turned out.

The sketch for this LO was created by Aphra Boyler from The Scrap Room!

So here I am as a China Doll

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Meet Gryffindor

We have a new puppy. We are so in love with our new Golden Retriever. Conor decided on the name. His full name is Gryffindor Lyndock McCann. Gryffindor will be obvious to anyone who's read Harry Potter (it's the name of Harry's house at Hogwarts). Lyndock is the name of the ship that our convict ancestor travelled to Australia on back in the 1830s. And McCann is our surname.

Bombo-licious!!

We spent pretty much all of January in Kiama which was just beautiful. Mainly we went to Surf Beach which is 310 steps (yes, Anthony counted!) from our front door. But towards the end of our stay we discovered Bombo Beach, which was only a 5 minute drive away. The beach was just beautiful and it was patrolled and generally there was hardly anyone there. Here is Conor showing his excitement and getting ready for some body boarding action!

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Creations on holidays

Much to Anthony's dismay (because he's horrified that I can't live without my scrap stuff for 3 weeks) ... I bought my Crop in Style bag with me to Kiama. It's a good thing for Scrap Room kits so that I can easily scrap on the go.

All I needed to do was grab the November and December kits, a few photos, some basic things like trimmer and adhesive and I was all ready to go.

First I created this LO which celebrates DS coming home from hospital in 2008. He was in for 3 weeks on and off with stomach problems - which may or may not have been related to his CF. Anyway, it was great to have him home and we wanted to buy him something to celebrate ... a Thomas Table was perfect ... we'd taken some Thomas track and trains into hospital for him to play with but this table gave him a much better place to play.

Then I created this LO about the difficulty of taking a dog for a walk and convincing a then 5 year old boy that he had to come along. Conor thought it would be fine for me to leave him at home while I walked Belle!!

And finally a couple of cards which I'll post tomorrow!

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