The Days of Summer fly by

The days of summer here are flying by. While tales of snow and flood reach us down here in New Zealand, we have days of hot summer sun interspersed with grey days with rain tossed in to keep everything green. 

In the weeks since I last visited I have

 from South Seas Film school

went on a road trip at Christmas and missed all the holiday traffic!!

Had a blast in Auckland.

Spent Christmas with family at a farmstay cottage here. We had no internet access and I will admit I did switch off completely. We relaxed, read books, played games and watched movies.

I learned how to make these paper dresses and shared them on my favorite addiction at the moment .... Instagram. I am here

Worked in my vintage collage journal.

Got very messy with some faux metal techniques for some new books I am making.

and finally .... decided this was the year that I will get over my phobia about being in front of the camera instead of behind it.

Hello this is me - I hope you are having a fabulous 2014.

Thanks for visiting 

xx Michelle 

New Zealand Junk Journal

Hi everyone
As you may know I am a member of Life on the Scrapbeach. It is a really cool site for meeting and sharing and learning with and from other crafters. Last November I decided to push myself and join a swap called Let's get Creative. I was really nervous as I am a beginner and was not sure if I could make something good enough to swap. The previous post shows my Kathy Orta Paper Bag Mini which I made. My swap partner was a lady called Rose from Texas. Rose had never been to NZ and was really interested in my country, she asked if I could use packaging and things from NZ that didn't cost money. I really wanted to use Tim Holtz paper for my mini so I decided to make a Junk Journal as an extra.

I made a simple charm for the cover with a rugby ball  to celebrate

the 2011 World Cup, a Silver Fern and a Koru charm.

The Silver Fern is a special emblem to Kiwis.

I added some maps to show our place in the world and made collages of photos of our beautiful country.

One of the best things about making this fun book was looking and appreciating where I live.

Some of the images I collected, have been added to my own Must See List!

I have lived in Wellington all my life and had to include our beautiful harbour. It might be windy here occasionally!....but we do get incredibly clean and clear days.

My journal used packaging in the simplest way as pockets. I sealed up one end, trimmed off what I didn't need and retained the images as even though they are found in my everyday life (some of them are just at Christmas time! I do love Scorched Almonds) they will be different for Rose and her family in Texas.

Our family are all mad about the movies, and we all loved the Lord of the Rings trilogy. No visit to NZ is complete without a view of the talent that is here in our Movie Industry.

I found some vintage NZ ephemera that I had forgotten I had collected... it was a long time ago! Some of these things were collected on holidays with my family when I was a child.

Some more vintage ephemera that will be fabulous for use in future projects. Old vintage images, old stamps and Health stamp envelopes.

If you would like to see the video for further photos and information on this journal, please click on the link below.

I hope you will think about making a journal of the place you live, it can be as easy as mine, and I promise you will have fun and look at your place in the world with fresh eyes!

Take Care until next time

xxx

Michelle