An extremely busy month with lots to share

Well the last month has been absolutely crazy for me, and I must say it is so great to feel like my head is above water again.

Personally April and May are very busy times for me with holidays, and also birthdays.  Extra busy was this time with a milestone birthday as well as my son's 4th birthday.  I'm sure many of you can relate the stress and time being put into those special presents for close ones reaching a milestone birthday as well as kiddy parties.  I must say the most enjoyable was my son's first kiddy party inviting some of his friends from childcare to celebrate with him.  He was just so excited.  But more on that later.

We had some wonderful family time in April going away camping for Easter as well as ANZAC day and the weekend following.  I even got to start my project life which I am using in the main to document our holidays while we are away.  The main of this was done while we were away and I just needed to add in the pics.  I do have a couple of pages to finish of the weekend, but I loved that a day back home and the memories were pretty much captured in a beautiful form.  All I really took with me was my Project life core kit, album with pockets and a container that is 13''x13''x4'' high filled with some Amy Tangerine paper, Helmar Acid Free Glue and Helmar 450 Quick Dry, various alpha stickers, some appropriate stamps, pens and odd embellishments.  Oh and not to forget my trusty corner punch :)  Here are a couple of pics of my first pages.

I just love my stash of Amy Tangerine's papers stamps and embellishments work so well with my project life theme, I have become a real fan of her stuff (even though I have loved her alpha's for some time now) as although her papers don't really fit my usual scrapping style, it is just perfect for my Project life.  And this leads me to my next big thing of the month.

I recently had an awesome opportunity to teach at Melbourne Paperific Expo and in the last minute have a booth as well as the original gallery of my work that I was to have.  This sure kept me busy this month attracting new customers for my kits.  So much work goes into preparing for these expos as well as setting up and designing how the booth would look not to mention the after work with all the new customers.  But I loved every minute of it.

I had so many lovely comments on my work as well as the look of the booth.  Thanks everyone that took the time to stop by, say hi and even those that purchased a kit from me.  Also an EXTRA SPECIAL thanks to my mum who helped me make this happen.  From helping me prepare for the event (which can be a big ask with two little boys running around all day at home) to being at the stand the whole time manning the fort while I taught on each day.  Here is a pic of the booth.

Here are the layouts I taught at the expo.  Participants had a choice of going with a feminine or masculine feel as well as flat or dimensional finish.  A big thank-you to all the participants that did my classes, they were nearly all sold out!

 They also got to make this step card:

Here is a pic of the ladies at work

So I'm guessing your wondering how using my Amy Tangerine stash for my project life lead me to talking about Paperific... well this is why!

Amy Tangerine was demonstrating at the Better Homes and Gardens Expo and when I let Naomi the organiser of Melbourne Paperific Expo know, she said we could head over there and pass on some free passes for her and the Better Homes and Gardens craft division to come across and visit us as both Expos were being held at the show grounds at the same time.  We headed on over there and dropped of the free passes.  I also left one of my kits for Amy at the same time.

Well later that day when she had finished her promo they popped on over to Paperific and came up to my classroom where I was busy teaching.  I was VERY embarrassed (as I had my 'serious' teaching hat on - most would know that that is not VERY serious lol) and SO SO excited to meet her.  She stayed a bit chatting and the whole class was happy to spend the time meeting her.  She is just SO LOVELY!!  Here is a pic of me with her.

The next part of this post with some VERY exciting news I got a couple of weeks ago and that was that I made Round two of the Spellbinders Worldwide Design Team Competition 2013  - I am beyond thrilled, especially to be sharing this with some long time scrappy friends Teresa Abajo and Tarrah McLean.

Good luck to everyone who is busy getting their round two entries in today if not already in.  You can see the full post HERE To be on this team is something I have wanted for a very long time and even had done all my projects for their last call before feeling it wasn't good timing for me a year and a half ago.  But now I am ready, so please keep your fingers crossed for me!

To finish off here are some pics from my boy's 4th Birthday.

This is the cake I made him - a little larger than I first wanted, but it ended up so yummy that the left overs have been very enjoyable with a cup of tea!  Do you like the colour of the board, this was SO easy to do with some bright blue coated wrapping paper and my Helmar Spray Adheasive!  Came up a treat!

 The inside was bright and colourful.  The boys were having SO much fun watching me make the cakes with all the bright colours - probably the most enjoyable part of birthday cake making I think.

 The Birthday Boy and the Hi-5 Dance Room all ready for his friends to arrive.

He was spoilt SO much with so many lovely gifts.  Thanks everyone for coming and making my boy's day so special!

So my boy is is 4 now... where does the time go huh!  I'll be back with some more things I have been busy creating over the last month real soon!