Return to normal - or at least my version of it......

The last 4 weeks have been a blur in my household. They included 2 dance eisteddfods, a tap dance exam, a ballet exam, a speech eisteddfod and school holidays with the usual sleepovers and playdates. We are still in preparation for a speech exam and before we know it Christmas concert, carols in the park and the other preparations for the end of year and Christmas will be upon us.

However, for a few brief hours this week my life returned to my version of normal. I even got to take a few hours out and wander around the Craft & Quilt fair here in Brisbane, where I got to see a whole heap of wonderful new dies released onto the market - and of course invest in a few.

My favourite new find of this expo was Fancy That dies on the Papercraft Hub stall. I invested in 2 of their dies and also one of the Dienetics dies - I have already been playing with them :)

Despite the lack of posts to my blog I have been doing some working out in the scrapbook room - 2 lots of wedding invitations (sorry can't post pics yet) and a couple of layouts have kept me busy.

My first layout for the month was Reef Adventure - finally scrapping photos from a trip to Cairns to visit my brother and his family last year.

I've used some of the wonderful Scrapmatts chipboard on this layout - colouring it with the wonderful Sakura gellyroll pens as per instruction by the designers Anne Patterson and Angela Peardon on the Scrapmatts stand at the June papercraft Convention in Brisbane. Love how these pens make colouring chipboard sooooo easy and also how they blend together and leave a beautiful shimmer effect on the surface (though hard to see here).

Add a couple of die cuts using Sizzix sizzlets dies, a transparency for the title and the wonderful May Arts mesh ribbon and some everyday gauze and a few shells to add to the beachy feel.

Today was one of the first days of the many to follow of hot weather, kids swimming in the pool and family popping over for a hello and a swim. Once the hot weather had sapped all our energies the kids and I escaped to the scrap room this afternoon for some time out in the aircond comfort.

I had taken a great photo of my little girl looking ever so grown up at last weekend's speech eisteddfod with her best friend - all ready to go in and perform in their latest pretty dresses.

Again, referring back to product I purchased at the June Papercraft Expo and some techniques I saw on display there - I finally pulled out the sponge dauber tops and some Glimmermist and created my own background to go with the very summery colours the girls were wearing.

The gorgeous swirly vine is using the new Fancy That die I purchased from The Papercraft Hub.

Flowers are cut from papers in the Kaisercraft's Tigerlilly range. I have used a range of Washi tape from both Sawyers and my mate Lisa Kauphius - thanks for aiding my washi addiction Lisa :) The other paper I've used is a freebie which came with one of the Australian Scrapbook Ideas magazines.

So, time to call it a night now - thanks for stopping by and catching up - see you back here when I have some more to share :)