Jo Blogs

Tarisota July

Kit has been revealed and I know I say this every month but omg is it yummy. This one has not one, but TWO embroidery hoops for you to play with and wait until the 7^th when you see what the designers have done with them – just luscious. And what is making me even more excited and proud is that my good friend Trina has been chosen as GD for July...how cool is that?! I am so enjoying seeing what she is creating but can't share yet...you will have to be kept in suspense until the gallery reveal on the 8^th. Meantime, I can share one thing with you. This is what I created using the featured product for this month, which is the Heidi Swapp Clear Extras which are shaped transparencies. I love how pretty and delicate looking it came out. Pop on over to the Tarisota site and check out the rest of the kit and all the other goodies there. You won't regret it.

First video blog :O)

If you would like to have a go at the Inspired Journal activities go here

Doh!

I keep forgetting to share my Tarisota creations with you! And now I think this month's kits are sold out unfortunately...and I am not just saying that because I create for Tarisota either, it really is unfortunate that this month has sold out because it seriously rocked...those little houses OMG! Have you been over to the gallery and seen all the beautiful things the design team did with them? So inspirational! I used them to make a canvas for my front entrance celebrating home and put little pics of the family in the windows of the large house. In the pic you can only see me and DH but the girls are there in the side windows.

I made a mini album too also with the theme of "home". I have been meaning to scrap all about our new house ever since we moved in but two years later and I still hadn't done it lol! So here it is...featuring pics of all my fave parts of the house.

The featured product this month was the Heidi Swapp Gel Blossums which were a beautiful teal colour. They looked gorgeous stamped and heat embossed with gold embossing powder. I used mine to make a book thong.

and finally a layout I made for Tarisota Talk featuring this month's sketch. The flowers are actually muslin shaped with melted bees wax. This is the first time I have used beeswax in a layout and it was so lovely to use, great as an adhesive and molder and smells heavenly too!

So there you have it! Sneaks have already started for the July kit over on the Tarisota blog, and let me tell you...it is another one not to be missed AND we have a very special guest designer too...and that is all I am saying...for now.

 

Jo xx

Making pretty things

Over the past few months I have become very interested in vintage and romantic handbags, I have always loved bags and thought it might be kind of cool to make one. At the same time I wanted to make something special for a lovely friend who had done something really nice for me. I got a few books from Amazon about gorgeous bags and spent ages hunting online for the right trim. Anyhow here is the result which I actually made most of on Mother's day (remember I said the family allowed me a day sewing?) and am I allowed to say I LOVE it?!

The rose on the front is extra special because it is regifted really. My friend gave it to me and I dyed it with glimmer mist and gave it right back as an embellishment on the front of her bag. Now I realise this bag may be a little OTT to be used every day lol, but really I think it would be pretty just hanging in your design space.

And while we are on the subject of pretty things, for a few month now I have been buying Carol Wingert's beautiful vintage type kits over at Creatologie. OMG do I love this girl's work! And the beauty of her kits is that everything is included, so all you have to do is follow the very in depth instructions to make yourself a treasure. I love to take things like this to crops...it is a chance to do some scrapping for myself without having to think, so I can chat and create at the same time. So this is what I made recently, started at the last Pukekohe crop (girls thanks so much for inviting me...I had a blast...man you girls are fun!!! Haven't laughed so much in ages, you are all very naughty;o)

Isn't it beautiful? It is a little memory box with a domed lid...here check out the dome...

Pretty huh? The dome comes separately from the box and you decorate your box up and then insert the dome through the lid and pop some treasures underneath. You can even change what goes under the dome if you like. Now I cannot take any credit for this, this is totally Carol's design, although I did pop a couple of extra treasures under the lid (the lock and key). It also has a beautiful little mini album that goes inside it that I am working on now...will share that when it is finished. Sometimes it is lovely to make up someone else's designs...you always learn something.

Awesome Things!

Happening all over the place at the moment. First you have to check out Tarisota's huge paper and ribbon sale which started yesterday and runs all weekend.

 

And over on the Tarisota Blog running in conjunction with the sale:

There is no point  having patterned paper if you don't know what to use it for.. so the designers have gone through their favourite projects and are sharing them right there on the Tari blog for the whole 35 hours! Every hour at ten minutes past the hour a new tip/project will be posted...I tell ya I have already learnt something!

And that is not all, there is a cool prize to be had as well! Here I will let Tamar tell you:

 

"a very fun give away - hidden in three of our pattern paper packs or ribbon packs are  1 month subscriptions to the  I Want it all of your choice! Find the voucher and you are a winner!"

 

That is a VERY generous prize!

 

 

And speaking of generous prizes - a new dare went up at NZDares last night – my dare this time and this is such a cool prize sponsored by none other than:

And the prize value this time is $129!

Go on off you go...what you hanging around here for? Go and check it all out!

 

Hugs, Jo x

Texture Techniques

Is what my class this Saturday down at NZ Scrapbook at 11am will be all about. Learning some techniques for applying texture to a page and we will be having a heap of fun with texture paste, paint and kindy glitz. Here is the layout we will be making. Kind of simple but elegant. Love Jade and chocolate together. Phone the store to book 912 0665. And if you have a heat gun it would be good to bring that as well as your basic kit, so we are not waiting all day for the texture paste to dry.

See you there!

Jo xx

 

I’m not supposed to be here

Sunday morning and here I am sitting in my dining room writing this post, when I'm actually supposed to be in Rotorua enjoying the last morning of scrapcamp. But as you can see l am clearly not there. Why? Well because my fellow camper, scrap buddy and chauffeur is very sick with flu and was told by her doctor to stay in bed and so she couldn't go. And although I could have gone without her I chose not to. You see a) I won't drive all that way by myself; and b) it was going to be our thing, our weekend away to hang, have a break, have a laugh, scrap and talk and solve life's problems as we always do eh buddy? It was something we had planned together and it just wouldn't be the same without her. And although I am disappointed I am more disappointed for her, because with three preschoolers she needs the break more than me!

The rest of my week, however, has gone to plan. Remember I was filming my second ad on Tuesday? Well that was so much fun. Mostly because my buddy from Canon, Rob and I were so much more relaxed this time around. And the TVNZ crew treated us like old friends. Got a couple of pics of me and Aroha on set and you can see in the second one she is trying to kiss me, she is so much fun that girl and is so skilled at her job and making me feel relaxed. And I managed to avoid the dreaded "double chin" photo this time but forgot to pull the tummy in. Sigh! No I am not pregnant, my only excuse is that my top is stretchy and Aroha has hold of the back of it. Doesn't help that she is so gorgeous, but too lovely for me to hate her for it lol! The ad took six takes this time instead of the four last time but only one of the retakes was my fault. You won't believe it, but I said "papercraps" instead of "paperpacks" AGAIN!!! What is with that? I obviously have got a faulty connection in the old brain somewhere! The other muckups I am pleased to say were Aroha x 2 and technical difficulties x 2 (oh and one take was just a rehearsal) but boy did we have some laughs.
Aroha seriously loves the Selphy and in between takes was seen to stroke it gently quite often lol. It's funny though, I was saying to Rob, that the first time I shot the ad I was so nervous that I was delighted just to get through it. But this time I wanted it to be perfect, and it wasn't because it never is, especially since once they start filming the ad has to run through from start to finish, so I came away (perfectionist that I am) feeling a little disappointed that I couldn't get it done with no mistakes – I know... I'm an idiot. But will be very interested to see the finished product. It is showing for the first time on this Friday on Good Morning. It's a newer model of the Selphy that has some cool new features so be sure and tune in if you want to see.

 

Jo xx

Busy busy bee

That's me, honestly just when I think I am on top of things, something else comes along to take up my time. What was it this week? Another ad, that's what. Call from Canon Friday a week ago, would I do another one for them? Of course I will but fast turn around from request to shooting this time. I am shooting tomorrow! EEEK! Not so nervous this time though, so we will see, at least things will be familiar to me, might even get it done in less takes – you never know...and must remember to say paperpacks and not papercraps this time lol. So that's Tuesday and this Sunday I am off to Scrapcamp with Trina in Rotovegas...woohoo! Really looking forward to it! First scrapcamp for me, couldn't go last year and promised Trina I would this year so she and I are off on a roadtrip, gonna be so much fun!

 

On the creating front of course I have been creating up a storm, gone are the days of downtime, I always have something I am working on. I did however recently make something just for me (although it became my Tarisota featured product for this month too but that was purely coincidence!) and that was this glam rubbish bin for my newly tidied and cleaned out workspace.

I so love it but now everyone is telling me I can't possibly put rubbish in it and should put something pretty in it for display. Well that is all fine and dandy girls but I still need a rubbish bin!

Oh and something else I did just because I wanted to play was this wonderland digi layout for Tamar of her girls. Really pleased with how it turned out...

Speaking of Tarisota, gallery has been up a week and as usual I haven't got around to sharing my stuff, so here we go. So much fun this month with lots of freestyle work and paper piecing. My digi freebie which I mentioned on here before was some silhouettes to cut out and use for paper piecing and some clipping masks. Here is the little bless this house sign I made as a project to go with the freebie.

And my gallery projects:

Up2Scrap came out last week full to the brim with gorgeous goodies for you to look at. I can't share my creations here with you just yet, you will have to buy the mag...but I can share the creations which appeared in the February edition now.

I made a canvas celebrating romance and used it was the first time I used the Canon Selphy ES1 printer, which you can use to create a journaling box featuring your photos, print it out, write on it and stick it straight on your layout.

My other contribution was to an article where the elite team members had to use a sketch and interpret it their own way. I love this layout, and had so much fun chasing Kathleen's son Oliver around the scrapbook store to get some awesome pics of him on the go!

Not this weekend just gone but the one before was very busy for the Kneller family, so busy that I forgot my brother's birthday (sorry Gav! Prezzie is on its way). As well as mother's day on the Sunday we had Patrick's mum's 80^th birthday at our house on the Saturday. She had friends over for a lunch and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. We ended up as usual with food to feed twice as many people. The hit of the day in my opinion was Patrick's butterflied lamb that he does on the bbq, has to be tasted to be believed. He isn't really a huge lamb fan, but knows it is my favourite and boy it was sooo good! Here is the birthday girl enjoying her present from my father in law, a new laptop. She really doesn't look 80 does she?

And here is everyone gathered together for a birthday pic to mark the occasion. That is Patrick's dad on the right of his mum and my mum sitting on the seat next to me in the red jersey.

Mother's day was lovely, except that Cait was working all day and Sarah was at a sleepover the night before so didn't show up until about 11.30 and was tired and grumpy, having not gone to sleep until 5a.m. Patrick gave me some adorable diamond hoop earrings, made me a cooked champagne breakfast and left me in peace to sew all day. Cait gave me a Jamie Oliver mug with "Super Mum" on it and Sarah had made me the most gorgeous bracelet at school, hand beaded and so professional looking I didn't believe she had actually made it at first. I am going to wear it for the next tv appearance so you might get a look at it then.

 

Phew think that's about all for now. This blogging thing sure would be easier if I took the time to update more frequently huh?

 

Hugs, Jo x

Dear Xtra, please tell me how...

I can find emails from my friends in my online spam folder all the time, and yet I get up this morning to not one but TWO of these messages in my inbox...

Subject: Customer Suvey Team! ! !

From: Xtra Communications Inc. [customer@xtra.co.nz]

Dear Xtra member,

You are receiving this email with regards to your personal account.Please read carefully before continuing as some vital information is being updated.

Your account is showing to be incomplete due to a data failure in our systems and you MUST provide us with a correct information within 48 hours of receiving this email. Failure to comply will result in account termination.

To update your account provide us with the following datas:

1. Username:

2. Account Password:

3. Mother maiden Name:

4. Complete Name:

Ensure the informations are correct carefully before submitting it,mistakes can terminate your account.

Thank you for your support.

Account Supervisor Team

Yeah right!

Lol

Jo x

A little sneaky...

peek of some hybrid pretties I have created for Mother's Day, on sale at Tarisota very soon. Watch this space :O)