Here's another one .....

Ben, the Bengal tiger (along with his brother Cheeky Monkey) joined the Keogh menagerie on a recent trip to the Gold Coast. The boys discovered a "Build-A-Bear" workshop in Surfer's Paradise and immediately fell in love with their chosen must-have pet. It's a really fun place where kids, and adults, can select from a wide range of plush toys (mainly bears, but heaps of other animals too) then with the help of their stuff, proceed to bring their friend to life.
They can place a voice box inside the animal, which comes in a range of pre-recorded audios or you can even record your own voice !!
The kids then get to help their friend being stuffed, sewn together and can even buy clothes for the designer wardrobe that every animal requires.
Before they leave the store, children need to fill out a birth registry on the shops computer, which is then printed out for them and they are presented with a Birth Certificate for their friend.
The boys loved it!!

In creating this layout I used wordart from Jens Word Art World Blog and digi elements from Tracy Howards "Kids With Attitude" kit.
G

Where has the time gone?

Here are a couple of layouts using wordart from Jen's Word Art World Blog. She has been a very busy lady of late and keeping those of us on her Design Team very busy with her lovely word art.
You really should visit her blog and her store at Gotta Pixel for some fantastic offers.


It seems ages since I've had a good chat here on my Blog, but life has been pretty hectic lately. I started back at work this week - though pupil-free days don't really feel like work days to be honest. Back to teaching the students tomorrow :) I have a real positive feel about this year, I really hope I can pass this onto my students and we can all have fun learning together.
I'm planning on introducing the older students to Digital Layouts too .... that should be interesting. But little steps first. I just want to show them that computers have more use than playing games and chatting on FaceBook - not that there is any problem with either of those two things !!

Cheers all,
Grace

Friends are like flowers ....

My two boys took their digital camera to school on the last day of 2010 and took heaps of photos of their friends. I love this picture of some of the girls in their year. The cuddly toys were a favourite 'Secret Santa' gift; so many of the girls and boys received them from each other.
The title of this layout is a quote from a song that my older children learnt at school. I always loved it, and thought that it suited the picture so well.
WordArt from Jen's WordArt Blog - it was so much fun to colour it in so that it matched the girls clothing in the photo. That's one of the benefits of Jen's wordart, you can blend it in with any colour scheme you like.
Papers, flowers, borders and heart are from The Helping Hand Collaboration Kit.
Enjoy,
G

A not so nice beginning to 2011

Well my last few weeks have really been a nightmare. It started with my dad passing away mid December and has ended with the terrifying floods in south east Queensland - of which I was part off. Thank goodness my family and house survived untouched - but it was very unnerving having to pack the car for a possible evacuation, while trying to occupy two 9 yr olds during a 3 day black-out in a town that was totally isolated. And no mobile phone contact - I felt so isolated! But like I said, the water didn't reach my house and we were very lucky to come through it all with just some rotten food in the freezer to throw out.
It was so upsetting to drive through parts of Brisbane yesterday and see people hosing out their houses, with all their possessions heaped in mud piles in their frontyards, awaiting rubbish trucks to take it all away. So much destruction - tragedy is the only word I can think of to describe it.

AC/DC Rulz!!

My great-nephew looks so adorable in his little AC/DC shirt!!! When I saw the WordArt in Jens new pack I knew I just had to use this photo in a layout! Doesn't he look cool ?

Busy time on the WordArt World site ....

Jen is sure churning out the beautiful WordArt this month. This layout features wordart from her 'Best of Friends' pack which is released today (08/01/11). The papers I've used are from the Helping Hand collaboration kit I purchased last year. I've added some cut doggy brushes to the background using PSE to emphasis the doggy theme.
This layout features my great-nephew with his adorable puppy (whose name escapes me atm). Puppy is now 6 months old and bigger than Ben!!
Hope you like it,

Lovely Frangipanis

Ever since I can remember I have loved Frangipanis. My parents had a large tree in the backyard as I was growing up, and there was a smaller one in the front yard of our holiday house, so they were always around. I remember placing the flowers in a bowl of water, and watching them float like lily pads. Mum used to place the bowl in the centre of the dinning room table and the beautiful scent would fill the rooms.
I think it was karma that when I was looking for a place to rent after my separation the first house I saw had two frangipani trees growing in the front yard. So now I get to enjoy my own frangis.

Here is a layout I've created using some wonderful WordArt from Jen's WordArt World. This one is from her 'Take Time' pack to be released at her Gotta Pixel store in the next week.

The simple things in life....

I love this photo of my nephew and his wife - I think it is beautiful in its simplicity. They are such a gorgeous couple...
Word Art from Jen's WordArt World.... of course :)

WordArt Challenge at Gotta Pixel

Here is a layout I created this morning after seeing the WordArt that Jen had produced for her latest challenge at Gotta Pixel. As soon as I read the quote I knew this photo would suit it beautifully. Aunty Phil is the type of lady who has a smile ready for anyone at anytime, a real lovely soul.
I have used digi elements from Laurie's Scraps. This is from her 'Down by the Seashore' kit, which contains heaps of lovely beachy elements - but as you can see from this layout it doesn't restrict itself to use in seaside related layouts only.
Hope you like it,
Grace