sporadic poster

yeah, that would be me.

A has had 2 weeks of school and is loving it. She comes bouncing out of the classroom every day. Not too bad on the tired tantrums. Yet?? *knock on wood But she's certainly trying out her new found independence. Love the attitude that goes with it. Have to try and snap a picture when she stands in front of me, hands on hips and a look of 'what are you going to do about it' on her face.

T is proving to be a very caring big brother and on the two (yes that's right just two days of no rain in two weeks) occassions that they were able to go outside for lunch he and his mates have been playing with her at lunch time. How sweet. Can't help but wonder when the novelty will wear off for him though. But it does make me so proud to see him so caring for his little sister. They really are becoming great mates now.



Lime Tart gallery went up last week. Man I loved that kit. I am still playing with it eventhough the Half Tart for November has already arrived on my doorstep. (yay)

For a complete view all projects please check out the October gallery.

I'm loving using masks on my layouts at the moment. Some old Christmas bow material has proven to be very useful!

I made it through the second round of Last Scrapper Standing. Yay! Had to do a project about 7 random things. I choose to do a layout with 7 random thoughts that went through my head on A's first day of school. Would you believe I got the date wrong! Ouch. The '9' in the title should be '10' for September. I've changed it on the layout but am too lazy to take a pic of it again. But you get the picture.
Bit sad to see that Lianne and Lesley didn't make it through. Am I the only New Zealander left now?
Next challenge is 'ribbon galore'. HELP! I'm ribbon challenged. Honestly I am. I have plenty of it but hardly ever use it. I find it hard to use ribbon in a new and innovative way. I have an idea of two but am still pondering my options.



Scrapgal. A little while ago we started a blog to share inspiration from the DT. It's proving to be a huge hit. I know I'm biased but I think we have a great variation of styles represented on our team. Such a talented group of women. And I love being part of such a great, fun and caring community. Such a shame that I'll probably never be able to catch up with any of them in person.

And the winner of my blog challenge is.....

Marcie!!
Congratulations. I need you to email me your contact details, ie last name and address please. Your prize will be sent to you direct from Just Johanna.

Want to know how I did the draw? I wrote the names on small strips of paper, folded them up and threw them into the air above the table. Only one fell off it on the floor which was declared to be the winner, in this case Marcie.

All participants are of course still in the drawing for the GRAND PRIZE. Just imagine winning that US$250 shopping spree... (must admit to being a bit bummed I don't get to go into the draw for that one....)

World Card Making Day Challenge - "clearly painted

My turn to host a challenge on my blog for World Card Making Day as a guest of Just Johanna. Check out their forum for lots of other fun card challenges!


I like to use paint, ink and other messy stuff on my projects. Cards are no exception. Lately I've been having fun with paint on transparency. So simple, yet so effective. So that's your challenge for today: make a card using painted transparency. Either as the card's base, or as an element. And it must be obvious that you've used a transparency. Have fun!


You are not playing for nothing either! There are prizes to be won:

Once your card is ready please post it on your blog and post a link to your project in the comment section here on my blog! The deadline for entries is midnight California time tomorrow, 10/7/07, or Monday 8pm New Zealand time. One lucky winner taken randomly from my comments will win a limited edition justjohanna image created specially for this event! You may enter as many projects as you like! Each linked project will count as one entry into the drawing.
You can check out the other justjohanna festivites happening today! The grand prize (one lucky winner taken from ALL the entries world wide!) is a $250 justjohanna shopping spree! Who wouldn't want that?
justjohanna and Limetart employees are not elegible to win. We're just posting examples to inspire! If you have a question about the challenge, post here and I will check in every so often to answer. Don't have a blog? You can post your project in the gallery here and link back that way!

So, in short these are the prizes:

One limited edition stamp for doing this challenge.

One Grand Prize of $250 justjohanna shopping spree

One $50 justjohanna shopping spree,

and Five 25% off your order coupons for the justjohanna web site



Here's my example: I've used a transparency as the base of the card and painted it roughly with acrylic paint. Stamped the strawberry image and coloured it in with watercolour pencils. Cut out the stamped image and coated with paper glass and sprinkled some red glitter over the strawberries only (not the little leaves) while the paper glass was still wet. Once dry mounted onto the card using pop dots to make them stand out more and printed a simple sentiment to go underneath. The fruit was placed behind the card to show the effect of a transparent card. You can glue a piece of paper on the inside slightly smaller as your painted area to write your message.

$200 worth in stamps

Yep! That's what you can win. It's Lime Tart's second birthday this month and in conjunction with justjohanna, we have a fabulous prize to give away. Are you ready for this?! A prize pack of woodmounted justjohanna stamps valued at $200AUD!! Yes I'm serious!
All you have to do is purchase a Lime Tart/justjohanna A la Tarte before 14th October 2007 from here and you are in the draw! Alternatively, spend $45 or more on justjohanna stamps, and we'll also place you in the draw.
Stamps are chosen by Lime Tart and are not subject to change. Draw will take place on 15th October 2007 and winner notified by email.
A la Tarte kits are limited in stock so don't miss out.

But that's not all!
This Saturday (that would be tomorrow for this part of the world) is World Card Making Day. The justjohanna and Lime Tart design teams are hosting challenges all day with lots of limited edition stamps up for grabs. Plus a main prize of a $250USD shopping spree! See all the details here.

My challenge will be up on my blog on Sunday morning 11 am. See you there! :-)

All or nothing

Hmmm, seems I save up my posts and then have lots to say in one blog post rather than spreading it out a bit. I still have hopes of getting a bit more organised once A goes to school next week! Eek, freaking out slightly here. It should take me a good month at least to get my stuff together. I'm thinking of re-arranging all the bedrooms again. Not sure if all my scrapping stuff etc is going to fit in what is currently A's bedroom though... It's smaller than most people's walk in wardrobes! We'll see.

I'm doing Last Scrapper Standing again. Just got confirmation that I'm through to the second round. Pretty cool. I just want to see how far I can get this time. Last year I was one of the final 25 and then basically choked in the last round. It will be pretty hard to pull that off again.

Oh and I see that Lianne is through too! Yay! Congrats girl. Go the Kiwis!

We had to use 8 transparencies. And that is harder than it sounds! Here's my entry. For explanation what/where these 8 are go here.

I'm heavily into masking lately. Having lots of fun with paint and ink and just making a right mess. The October theme for Scrapgal is pretend. The newsletter comes out on the first of every month. You can sign up here. Trust me it's worth it. Great ideas and layouts every month. And we have blog that regularly gets updated with inspirational pieces.

I seem to scrap in bursts. I'll do something every day for a couple of weeks and then do nothing for a week or so. The Lime Tart October full tart has been sitting on my desk unopened for weeks now. The other day I finally opened it and made card. LOL. Well it's a start! Am planning a bit of a marathon tomorrow actually. Can't wait to sink my teeth into all that glorious American Crafts.

Saturday is World Card Making Day. Well that would be Sunday in our part of the world. Just Johanna (sold through Lime Tart) is celebrating with a host of challenges. They should be fun. Of course in typical Marieke fashion I forgot to sign up to host a challenge for them too. I truly meant to and then forgot. Doh! Check it out though, very cool prize to be won if you're into stamping.

Right, I'm off to bed and listen to the storm that's been battering us this last week of the school holidays. I'll leave you with another layout done for Scrapgal last week. Again, masking and lots of mess involved. ;-)

Oh no before I forget a special shout out to my dear friend Lyne. She's an amazing woman and I am truly thankful to have her in my life. She is such a kind and giving person. I know she reads my blog from time to time. The kindness she shows me really should come back to her three-fold. Lyne you are the best! Ik houd van jou (yes she speaks a bit of Dutch)