My poor poor blog :(

HELLOOOO!!! If anyone is left out there lol.....
I feel so so so slack that I havent updated in ages...Truth is I have been extremely busy with Creative Butterfly Designs. The response from everyone has been incredible and so uplifting. Also another truth..I havent done any scrapbooking since the competition...I was just soo exhausted afterwards that I took a step back from my scrappin to focus on my family, myself and my new venture. But fear not...Scrapbooking is still a passion of mine that I will contine to do...The new year will be looking bright and creative. So please dont dissapear...I will be back. But in the mean time if you would all like to see what Ive been up too you can find Creative Butterfly Designs on facebook and also I now had a storefront over at MADE IT. You can check out my creations for sale here.

Anyhoos I hope you have all been well and you arnt all stressing out with the busy season upon us...Arhhh I cant beleive its almost christmas already!! eekkk where did the year go?

Much love to you all!! xxx

Introducing Creative Butterfly Designs

Hi everyone :D

Ive been a busy little bee, getting a little project of mine up and running. I have started a small handmade business called Creative Butterfly Designs. I started my own Facebook page on friday night and to my absolute surprise it took off really really well...something I actually wasn't prepared for. The response and support from everyone has been absolutely heart warming <3 I also have an etsy shop too...which I am yet to upload anything too...Facebook has consumed most of me at the moment. Ok so your probably wondering what am I selling?? Well as long as I can remember I've always wanted to have a little girl of my very own to dress up and share all things girlie with. Anyways the moment I found out I was pregnant I purchased a newborn headband for luck for a girl. Well it worked lol...The moment she arrived I whacked a headband on her...and from then on..I started buying heaps of them...Then I thought what the heck!! I'll start making some...well since then...I've had alot of comments and even sold a few from her very head....so that started the idea of starting my own little handmade shop. I wanted each and every headband to be pretty, classy, chic and stylish for little girls and for women too. After all...women love feeling pretty too...and if my headbands can make someone feel special and girlie, well then I would say my job is done. So if you would like to check out my shop or facebook you most certainly can at my Facebook and my etsy. But here is a sample of some of the items I have up for sale...

Okies so thats a few I have made...Plenty more on facebook and soon to come to etsy.

I hope to see you become a fan on facebook...Take care everyone...Mummy duty calls...off to bed alex to bed, its way past his bed time.

Love Belynda-Lee xxx

I'm baaackkk :D

Hi lovelies :D Did you miss me?? teheheh. I know its been such a long time in between posts...But this past month and a bit has been one of the busiest ever!! My beautiful little Savannah-Rose turned 1!! My cousin got married...I had to plan a hens night and on top of all this we had about 12 family members come and stay with us. My gorgeous best friend/sis in law alyssa and my bro and my awesome nephews plus my auntie, uncle and cousins. Mind you all this happened in one weekend. So as you can imagine it was one crazy roller coaster..not much sleep had but tons of fun :D
So in saying all this I was meant to come back sooner...but other aspects in my life got complicated and needed urgent attention and love. Thank you mum, Jess and Alyssa for being there for me during that tough time.

So on another note..I am starting to feel much calmer and relaxed and slightly getting on my feet again, Unfortunately not one little bit of scrapping has been done. I have been focusing on something entirely different which I hope to get up and running soon...Hopefully will only be a week away until I can reveal. Thank you for the support from already some eager buyers :D Muchly appreciated.

Okie doke photo time lol..You all get to see why my time was occupied...Here are the pics from Savannah-Roses birthday..(Thank you lys for taking the photos for me :D)

 

As you can probably see...our little girl had a tea party theme...It truly was such a beautiful day. All the colours and decorations tied in nicely. For the party I made, tissue pom poms to hang from the net marque and tissue paper flowers for center pieces. I also sewed a banner but forgot to bring that out :( The party favours were baby jars decorated up with a cupcake inside...they were for the adults and the children all got tea kettle cookies. My mum also painted a signature board for everyone to write a msg to Savannah...Only they wrote msg's on printed tea cups and pinned them to board.(will take photo soon) My Beautiful friend helped me out alot and took most of the pressure of me by baking some cupcakes...they were just soooo cute and a massive hit and her bf cooked up 120 quiches...I don't even think I got to eat one :( they were gone too fast lol. But all in all it was a great day...Considering I got no sleep the night before due to kirsty's hens night lol. However the end of the day I did find myself waking up in my bed...LOL cant even remember how I got there. Apparently Jamie took me to bed I think lol.

The next day was the wedding of my beautiful cousin Kirsty marrying Blake. That was also such a magical day. Started bright an early with hair and makeup and wine...lol never had wine so early before. Thank you guys for allowing me to be apart of your special day. May the rest of your lives bring you much happiness, laughter and much much love. Cant wait to show some photos of their day. Congrats guys. xxx

Ok that's it..I think that post was way tooooooo long...Will gasbag some more another day. So if you made it this far you truly have done well. Have a great day/night...Just a thought to leave you with. Cherish and always make time for the ones you love...Never let life get boring....Live it up!! xxx

1st day of Spring :D

Not only does the 1st of September mark the first day of spring, but also marks the first day I became a mum, On this very day my beautiful little man entered the world and looked up at me for the very first time at 3.32am, that was 3 years ago.. Today he turned 3, not so much a baby anymore but a boy...The last 3 years has come and gone so fast, and its all been absolutely brilliant!!! So HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY to our handsome little fella!! Mummy and Daddy and Savannah-Rose love you so so so much, we hope you had a great day yesterday with us and we Hope you liked all your presents especially your special red trike you got and the loads of clothes you received LOL :D Happy riding little mate. xxoxoxx

On another note...lately I have discovered I have an obsession with the old look of Polaroid cameras. An old Polaroid camera is now on my wish list and this other little hand held video camera gadget. Anyhoos I came across this Polaroid photo booth on the net the other night, its free and just a really quick fun easy way of taking awesome vintage looking photos..So the above photo is using the photo booth as well as the below photo. As you can see we've been having alot of fun with it lately :D

Again sorry I have no scrappin to show, but I've been super busy...Almost completed all the craft decorations for Savannah-Rose's Birthday party and will soon begin the bits and bobs for my cousins upcoming hens night. Everyone starts to arrive on Monday :D Can not wait. So this place with literally be a mad house for the next week or so. Anyhoos I better head of and start baking..I'm making cookies and a birthday cake for alex to take to kindy tomorrow :D Have a wonderful day...and thankgod the warmer weather is on the way..wahoooo xoxox
Love Belynda AKA Lyn

Whooly dooley. Ive been busy.

Sorry guys for not updatting in over 2 weeks. Ive been super busy these past couple of weeks. First of was the end of the Embellish it comp. I came third overall, So was completely wrapped to of even scored a place in the comp. Congrats to the winner Sue smith. Totally gorgeous work was done by all who entered and continued with the comp. Thanks to tan and everyone who ran the comp, I can only imagine how hard the judges job's were. Another positive out of the comp was that I was offered a DT position, but unfortunately with a heavy heart I had to turn it down. My family atm is more important, the comp honestly took alot of my time and my family missed me. So for now I want to dedicate my time to them. Anyhoos you may notice I wont be around much from here on in. I have a HUGE month ahead of me. First of my little man turns 3 on the 1st sept, I cant beleive my first little man is almost 3, where did the last 3 years go :( Second of is fathers day which I have something special planned for the important man in our lives and thirdly my baby girl turns the BIG 1 on the 9th sept. So I am in the midst of planning a beautiful tea party for her, so all my time and craftiness is going towards that atm. I will show you a sneak peak of what I've been creating. So her party is on the 11th sept. But on the 10th sept I have a hens night that I am hosting, then the day after Savannah-Rose's party the wedding takes place which  I am bridesmaid for :D Also in this week we will be having at least 20 ppl staying with us including my bff Alyssa and the boys :D Cant wait to see them again. So on Monday the 13th I plan to put my feet up and have a huge icy cold glass of beer!!!!! But to top everything of atm, my whole family is sick with this crazy flu!!! Bring on summer!!!!
Wow that was a huge rant lol. Lastly I will leave you with 2 of my layouts and a card I created for Leanne over at Mad about scrap, she kindly asked me to be a Guest Designer for mad!! Was totally so excited and couldn't resist. Gotta love the gorgeous range she gave me, So I had a play with the Road Show collection from Fancy Pants. I'm not sure if she has any kits left but head of over to Mad's blog/forum to find out more.

Anyhoos thats about it for now. I have a few publications out atm. So sorry if theres not too much to look at on my blog. But hopefully I will be able to share my journey and lead up to Savannah-Rose's first birthday. I cant wait and I cant wait to see all my scrappy gf's again...its been a while. Take care guys.
Love Belynda-Lee AKA Lyn xxx

Embellish it Week 8 :D Long post..Lots of photos.

Oooohhhh Its coming to an end...This was our 2nd last week in the comp..I am truly so happy to have made it this far....Not too sure if I'll make it through to the next round though...I did struggle alot with this challenge...One reason being that we had to create a mini album and personally I am not a mini album maker...For me I like to utilise all my OTP creations. So for this weeks challenge I decided to expand on the mini album criteria, instead I thought I would create a album/journal.
Anyhoos the criteria this week was massive!! First off we had to create a mini album, this album needed to include 2 fabric pages, as well as 3 other pages using different mixed media bases. All pages needed to include stitching, paint, ink, buttons and collage. Lastly within this album we had to include a different shaped acetate page. This page had to include pp and words and of course all the above criteria also. Here are my pics and a bit of info.

• Front Cover- Made out of fabric, Lots of stitching on this. In between the fabric I actually have foam. In the middle I have painted with yellow and green. Cut out the huge rose from fabric. Adhered buttons. The big white and pink button binds my book closed by cotton. I then stitched this page onto the first inside page.

First inside page. Loads more stitching. I have also created a place to store my pens/pencils.

Second page- Base page is pp then I have awashed it with gesso for added dimension then painted over it with green. The words are all printed on Calico fabric then I have painted around my words. Collaged the page with flowers and buttons and lace, chipboard and sewing.

More close ups of the Album/Journal.

Page 3- Base is tissue paper glued with PVA then painted over with PVA with a touch of green. The words are again printed on calico fabric and painted around the edge. The roses in the corner are hand cut from fabric. Again loads of stitching. The next page is blank, ready for me to start my journaling.

Page 5- My acetate page.  Which has been sewen onto page 6.

More close ups of the acetate Page. I really like the lace stitched around this page and yes I'm totally in love with the birdhouse and birds atm.

Page 6 above on the left is the page behind the acetate. I have made a collage of photos of myself and the kidlets and printed it on canvas paper. I wanted a clip, so I could continually change the photos as my family expands. Page 7- My base for this page is texture paste smeared all over cardstock, then I have given it a wash with green and pink paint. The words here are printed on canvas paper and I have made an envelope out of fabric to store little keepsakes.

Above is just a full view of 7 and 8

Page 9 and 10 - Page 10 base is a ripped up page from a book glued down with PVA. I have then let that dry and did the painting, You can barley see it, but there are clouds there too with machine stitching around that and page. I have also smeared again more paint on the paper and inked around the edges. After this was all dry and then painted over the entire page with gel medium so give it that glossy finish and to stop the ripped up parer from tearing in the future. Lastly added a bit of ric rac and buttons.

Close up.

Last few pages, 11 and 12. Page 11's base is pp with paint, stitching and I attached this fabric pocket to store more bits and bobs and lastly adhered a LISA KAMPHIUS flower. Btw go and check out her blog, my awesome friend is selling some of her lovely handmade flowers :D

Page 12 is my last fabric page.

Lastly are some close ups and the very back of my album/Journal. I am now really happy with this piece :D At first I didn't like it due to the fact I had no idea what I was doing lol..I just went in and attacked this challenge blind. But thank you for stopping by and I love all your heartfelt comments..Truly makes me Love scrappin :D Be sure to go and check out the gallery here.

Anyhoos its wayyyyyyyyyy past my bed time..kids will be awake screaming for me soon lol. I will be back with more soon.

Love Belynda-Lee AKA lyn xx

Embellish it Week 7 - Alter it.

One more week down 2 more to go hopefully...This weeks challenge was set by Nicky Amber. The criteria she set was to- Create your own patterned background, make and use at least 3 inches on your project, use a quote as part of your title, do not use alpha stickers on your project and lastly to create a handmade embellishment from fabric. So here is my take on the challenge.

So firstly I had to create my background. Its very simple but I think it looks effective. I used a fancy pants stamp, then I added more colour by adding paint to the Poland of the stamp flower. The butterflies you see are all made from off cuts of fabric as well as the rope and flower swirl. And oh my how Divine is the lace ribbon? My mum actually picked a whole bag of this up from an op shop..Couldn't of come at a better time :) Also lastly I have to give my mum a shout out as well for letting me use her word art as my title. You can find more of her awesome digital designs here. Below are just some close up views of the detail.

Anyhoos its raining and cold here today..and I have 2 cranky kidlets at the moment..sharing?? whats that word?? That's all they seem not to be doing atm and it always ends in tears.

Thank you for popping by...I totally love all your comments. Oh and be sure to go check out the Scrap N Craft with T gallery to see all the entries this week here.

Love Belynda-Lee AKA Lyn xx

Oh oh oh i forgot to tell you...my little girl is walking :D

Far out our little miss Savannah-Rose is an impatient little girl. She got tired of crawling and decided she would like to walk after her brother instead. She started walking officially 3 weeks ago in her 9th month. Honestly it doesn't look natural..she is still way too little. Apparently according to the doc she is underweight..but meh as far as I'm concerned she's progressing and her milestones are all normal, so I'm not worried. Anyhoos she recently turned 10 months old..not sure how much she weighs atm so will have to do my monthly check in with her yet. But she is a happy little girl most of the time..but recently has started this high pitch scream when she doesn't get what she wants :( hopefully this stops soon. Savannah is definitely has alot of personality, she pulls this funny little squinty face with her mouth wide open and her eyes tightly closed..way too cute and one thing she is definitely known for is a hair puller lol. But Just like her mama she loves food, eats everything and anything, thankfully not fussy for now lol. Still only has one little chompa down the bottom(teething atm though). Anyhoos thats a little bit about her this month. But here are some photos from last month of our little savylicious :D

I simply love that I captured this...Have tons more photos from this day that I will share with you all soon. Little man is wanting to go to bed. Night all xx

Embellish It Week 6 - Store it.

ahooo I made it through another round. Only 3 weeks to go :D Okie's this weeks challenge was set by Karen Calcutt and her criteria was to:
-Create a card compendium to give as a gift.

-It must be made from at least 2 PP's from the same paper range.
-They must include a couple of cards to show how it is used.
-I would like the card compendium to look nothing like mine. (since someone has already made one in last weeks challenge)

-We require you to create an embellishment by taking a store bought embellish such as the flower shown and altering it in some way.

Okies so those of you who know me or who have followed my work know that I am not a card maker at all!! So this challenge was definitely going to put me out of my comfort zone. So after stressing and worrying what on earth I was going to make I came across this tutorial on how to make this awesome box here. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make it..knowing it would definitely be something I could keep or give away as a gift in the future. So out of this tutorial this is what I created :D

TFL...Have a great day...I need to go and attend to my extremely cranky daughter...she's teething at the moment :(

Love Belynda xx

Embellish it week 5 - Roll it.

Yay so happy I've made it through to the next round...Anyways this weeks challenge was set by Melinda Spinks... Melinda's challenge is to create a layout using the following criteria:

Layout to be any shape but square

Monochromatic Colour Scheme (With a hint of one other colour only!)

Paper Rolling or Quilling must be used on your layout!

Stamping to be used on your layout and be a prominant feature (not just a little stamp in the corner).

An embellishment to be made using acetate/transparency (you can also include any of the above criteria on your embellishment).

So with the criteria set..this is the layout I came up with...

Normally I would never do quilling on a layout..simply because I'm far too impatient, but now that I've tried it and seen the end result, I'm happy...So I think I will start using this technique more often :D The quilling on this layout is actually mounted on top of a stamped flourish image on acetate.

Lastly on the last image...I stamped over the cardstock I ahered to chipboard letters and also around the photo itself I handrew the flowers and coloured them in. I also never do odd shaped layouts by themselves so I'm thinking I may mount this layout to black cardstock now to go in the album.

Okie Doke thats all I have to show today...I have tons of ATC's to catch up on :( and soon I'll be taking a break from scrappin and atc's for a whole month as my little girl is turning 1 and I'm planning a high tea party for her...Ive been searching for months now for lots of different knick knacks for her party..without much luck :( I'm searching for vintage/shabby chic items, I thought the op shops might stock alot of this..but I was wrong :( If anyone knows anyone that is giving it away please let me know or email me..I just want to borrow things for the day. Also the night before her party I am planning a hens night too..LOL I think my stress levels will be hitting the roof that week. Wish me luck.

TFL...much love Belynda-Lee AKA lyn xx

Embellish it - Week 4...and a sneak peak.

Yay I've made it to week 4 :D This weeks challenge set by Lisa K is of course vintage...The criteria she set was to make it vintage using lace and ribbon, use rubons and paint, include a distressing technique and lastly must be something for practical use. So This week I decided to stop procrastinating and finally pulled out this old beautiful little cabinet that I picked up from our local carboot sale a couple months back. This challenge was just the push I needed to create...So I turned this lovely cabinet into a jewellery box for Savannah-Rose. I know she's too little for jewellery just yet..but in the future hopefully it's something she can treasure.

Ok so I repainted the entire box then lightly sanded the edges to give it that distressed look...I also used Tim holtz crackle medium on the picket fence to age it a tad.

In the below pic I adhered the beautiful vintage key hole and key by Melissa Frances onto the box.

Below is a close up of all the detail inside the jewellery box. The paper on the back wall is of course the beautiful prima. Basic Grey Chipboard tree. In the bottom corner I cut from websters papers creating that flower embellishment, then within it I adhered some blossoms and flowers. Then I painted this old miniature furniture piece and made lace pillows for the top centering it with a brad and laced the edge of the chair. To finish it off the hooks needed to be screwed in and birdhouse needed to finish it off.

Below is an extreme close up of the chair and blossoms and flowers and also flower soft..First time using flower soft..but wow..its so pretty..I can definitely see myself buying some more :D

How cute are those little chipboard birds!!! Thanks for the great challenge Lisa and the scrap n craft team. Remember to go and check out everyone's work in the gallery. In the below post you will find the link.

Before I go I also have one more sneak peak of the guest dt spot for Mad About Scrap. Full reveal still to come :D

Thankyou for stopping by...Much love Belynda-Lee aka Lyn. xx

Embellish it Week 3 - Stitch it.

Wow week 3 already!! This comp is going really fast and the entries this week are all just amazing!! I just love seeing how every one interprets the challenge. Its just amazing how different everyone's LO's are.

Weeks 3 Challenge was to incorporate these 5 things in your LO...Hand stitching, felt, beads, bling/rhinestones and doodling. We were also asked to create our own embellishment using some of these things from the list or all of the above.

So pretty good criteria..and I just lovvvee hand stitching!! My inspiration for this weeks challenge was my daughters clothes she wore in the photo..

These are just my favourite clothes atm of hers...beautiful colours and so much detail.

Ok so from this I created this LO...Hope you like...

Below I recreated the Felt flower from her Jumper...Also you should be able to see the beads I hand sewed on as well and more stitching tehehe.

Next is a close up of the butterfly I recreated from Savannah's Jeans.. this embellishment took me the longest to do..but so worth it...

More Close ups...

Lastly the journalling...This in particular means alot to me as its written from her daddy for her...Jamie asked me a couple of weeks ago "how come I only ever do layouts from my perspective and not his...lol so here it is baby I hope you love it as much as I do. BTW how beautiful are his words for his little girl :D Makes my heart skip a beat and sing!!

Thank you for stopping by...make sure you head on over and leave some love for all the other entries here.

Love Belynda-Lee xxx

Embellish It - Week 2...and some ATC's

Here's my take on Weeks 2 Challenge. The criteria was to use cool colours, paint, some kind of title/lettering, a flower and lastly a hybrid element. Had again tons of fun creating this, here is my take on the challenge.

I painted the background using bubble wrap and the green paint was painted on using a toothbrush, then I smeared bits of the edge of the paper with the brush. Really like how this has turned out :D

Have Incorporated the Prima packaging on my layout, love how it looks on the layout. Also one of my hybrid elements is the journal spot at the bottom of the packaging.

Another hybrid embellishment is the journal spot underneath the I love you. More Prima packaging :D

My handmade flower is another hybrid embellishment...You cant see it too clearly but what I did was typed Mother and Son over and over again in word then ran some cotton fabric through my printer and whaa laa..I now have some journal fabric and out of that I created this flower and also the remaining fabric is behind the photo.

Lastly if you can kinda see I have incorporated some cork paper, Love this, I think its going to be a new favourite thing of mine hehe. Also I'm totally lovin the wire mesh atm too. A nice touch to anything I reckon.

Anyhoos for some more amazing layouts in this weeks challenge head on over to Scrap 'N' craft with T here.

Lastly here are some recent ATC'S I've swapped out. One being a Wild West swap and the other being an Apron Swap.

Oh I do have some exciting news to share...Little Miss Savannah-Rose has just started attempting walking, she's little miss independent now..doesn't want us helping her, she thinks she can do it all on her own LOL. The most steps she's taken has been seven now..So I think she will be well and truly walking by 10 months :D Also she has her first tooth with the 2nd one on the way. Alex on the other hand has been sick this week, poor Little tyke, hopefully he's better by Friday for kindy. So here's to hoping for a healthy week for us and anyone else out there thats feeling under the weather.

Thanks for stopping by..Have an awesome day!! xx

Belynda-Lee

1st Layout for the Embellishment Comp :D

Here's my first layout for Scrap N Craft with T's Embellishment Competition. The criteria for the layout is you must use paint, doodling, use 3 different patterned papers and also interesting ways to journal and title. You also had to make your own embellishment with its own criteria which was to include, paint, stitching and 3 colours. I hope you like my first take on this weeks challenge, really was alot of fun.

My interesting way of doing the title was I went into word..found the font I wanted to use..I then printed it on baking paper, glimmermisted the font and washed it over the font to take the edge of the ink. Lastly I coloured it in with water colours.

My handmade embellishment was the cupcake. I used gesso as the icing then painted it and added beads into it with a button and cherry on top. I also stitched on the wrapper as well as doodled. Does it look good enough to eat?

Well that's all the scrappyness I have to show you for today. Next time I will show you one of my latest ATC's I've created for a swap..Wild Wild West was the theme :D I'm also in the process of doing an apron themed ATC swap too, will soon be able to show that one as well.

I'm really in the scrappin mood lately due to the fact I have awesome scrappy friends and also on Saturday a few of the girlies and I headed to the Brissie scrap expo. Was so great to catch up with alot of online friends, shop the day away and be inspired. Thanks for a great day girls..luv yas all!! Anyhoos I've gotta run..the kidlets, Jamie and I are off for coffee and babychino's :D Have a great day gorgeous people!! xxx luv Belynda-Lee AKA Lyn.