Can I have a couple more hours in the day?

Today especially...need more time to get everything done!

Well, by now you should have received a brochure for the 6th Wave Rock Scrapbooking retreat from me via email. If you haven't please let me know, I may have misplaced your email address or I don't have it. It's all happening now. Drum roll...it's official...our tutors for this retreat are...Alli Paterson, Sharon Manning and Gayle Smith! YAY! Sadly Lis Cassey has declined but I'm sure she will be back. So be watching this space and the girls blogs late in February to see sneak peaks of the classes on offer. Book your babysitters and tell your family's your busy on the 28th - 30th March. Cant wait!

I did a little scrapping today with the local girls and Ann (twice in one week you wicked thing!). It was good to get the 'anal' layout finished and I'm not stoked with it but the memory is recorded and I'm not doing it again. It's so much about the photo though isn't it? You should see Jett's lips shaped as he's saying choo choo choo as he pushed his trains along...priceless (heart swells).

I even whipped up a second layout. A masculine one Matt will be proud of - it's about him and our little man whose loves trucks...Truck was one of his first words. I even got the paint out for an un-anal swipe swipe for the corners of the page - wonders never cease.

That was sadly the last of my scrapping for the next three weeks as I'm about to take off on my Island holiday - tough hey? I'll laze on the beach dreaming up the layouts I'll do when I get home.

That's about all I've got time for, for today. By the way can anyone tell me... when did 4 year old's, when they've been asked to help with something, start turning around and saying..."alright...whatever" with a sigh?

Two posts in one Day!

I just have another quick layout to share. I've been sweltering in the heat but managed to pull one together. I've have the idea in mind for a while , then came across this paper the other day to suit - Love Elsie of course! Poor kids got an obsessed mother!

I'm also working on another layout but as usual I'm being anal about it so it's not working for me right now. I need to stop scrapping and do some packing and office work anyway!

A layout to share

I hope your Australia Day celebrations were memorable...ours certainly was. Yes I can remember and it was a lot of fun.

I finished the layout I was working on yesterday. I used Love Elsie embossed paper for the background and a patterned paper scrap behind the photos (yay! I'm using some scraps!). I used rub-on black stitching instead of the sewing machine which was easy peasy. I've had Daisy D's rub-on stitching for some time but never used it - it's really good. Also, I used a doodling template to mark the whimsical shapes either side of the photos, then attached different size and colour brads to give a 3d effect. I love this technique...think I'll use it again. I made an arrow from Bazzill using a die cut arrow, that was the wrong colour, as a template and added rub-on stitching. A couple of Chipboard buttons, journaling and the date completes the layout. I love these American Crafts vinyl letters I used for the title but they are really hard to get. I cant get them wholesale at the moment...bummer because they're really good.

Not a lot else to report today. Plans for the retreat are coming along. I'll announce who the tutors will be once I have definite replies from all of them. Our Saturday evening meal will be at Terra Vista this time. It's a lovely Italian restaurant on a farm in beautiful surroundings...this place is a little gem of the outback!

Toodle pip!

Christmas layouts

Hi there! I hope you're all having a great Australia Day. Beauty Mate!...and all that to all of you.

I'm home working on preparation for the 6th Wave Rock Scrapbooking Retreat which is being held on the 28th - 30th of March 2008. It's all coming together and I should have brochures and applications out next week sometime so if you don't receive one from me let me know and I'll forward one on. Everything is booked and just waiting on a few details...only 2 months to go now, so I'm getting excited.

I managed to put some finishing touches on some of my Christmas layouts today. The first is of the Varley Christmas Tree, a local event held just before Christmas each year (obviously). All the locals come together and have Mass, Christmas carols and then Santa comes laden with gifts for all the kiddies. We've been going each year since we arrived in Varley (almost 6 years ago!) and each year it's more fun for us as our kids get older and enjoy the anticipation and excitement of celebrating and receiving gifts. Phoebe is old enough now to understand whats going on and this year she loved her Dora the Explorer Lego set. Jett was a bit unsure about Santa though.

I used a Paper Salon background paper - which I love. Also, Making Memories green glitter letters and some Love Elsie Christmas ribbon (TDF). It's a simple layout I know but I intend to do about 6 Christmas layouts so no time for rocket science!

The second layout I have to show is our Christmas Eve celebration. We had dinner with my family - my brother, Dean, made Mexican which was to die for, my favourite food at the moment. The kids blew bubbles and chased them, and had cup cakes for Jesus birthday - the reason we celebrate Christmas. After dinner we were all exhausted so we sat and watched carols on TV. I used Love Elsie Christmas papers and chipboard buttons for this layout...I'm getting some mileage out of these papers, something I didn't expect. The papers are a little dark in colour but still nice and really good for kids or casual layouts.

I'm currently working on a layout but it's taking a long time to finish because I'm actually paying great attention to detail and technique - something I don't do much of these days as I'm usually trying to keep things simple and quick. I'm really pleased with it so far - just got journaling to do so I'll show soon.

For now I'm off to an Australia Day BBQ with friends (of course!).

Chink chink...cheers my friends.

Mini album...

Hello there. Today was a good day. My friend Ann visited to catch-up and stock up on supplies...so good to see you Ann and thanks for the idea! I showed Ann a mini album I was working on for a Valentine's Day project. I had a problem with the binding falling apart on my Maya Road mini heart chipboard album. I have come across this problem before but love the little albums anyway. Ann's solution was to get rid of the binding and do ribbon or ring binding. So while she was still here I got to it and punched holes with my Crop-a-dile (a very good buy!) through each chipboard page, put eyelets in the cover pages - once again with the Crop-a-dile - , threaded ribbon through the holes and wa-la...it worked! Now all I have to do is fill with photos and decorate. I printed out a stack of black and white photos of Matt and I from the last 10 years but they weren't quite right - think I need sepia and possibly older style photos. I hope to get it finished soon though.

Other than that I've been cleaning, sorting, PURGING and rearranging. It's such a good feeling to get through the rubble that built up over the last year (or 4) and get things in order and looking and feeling cleaner. I love a good clean-up. I also found a few minutes to sort and print some photos that I'll hopefully get to scrap in the next day or two.

That all for now folks...til tomorrow.

A layout to share...

I've just had a weekend away in Perth (for a rellie bash) which was relaxing, and now it's back to work at home, in the office and the scrapbook room. I had the ladies over for scrapbooking today. It was great to have them over - I even got inspired enough to do a layout! It's my February layout for my calendar. Although it may look like a Valentines layout, it's actually to mark out 9th Wedding Anniversary. We've been together for 11 years (in April) and Matt is still the love of my life - through good and bad - hence the title 'You're still the one'. I'm enjoying this Calendar idea a lot. As well as doing the layouts I've been having fun decorating the calendar page with events such as birthdays, holidays and anniversaries. I've found I can use up rub-ons, stickers and stamp a lot of icons and words to make it pretty.

I got these Making Memories calendars in the other day - they are really good - I may have to do one of these as well...for my office...or something like that. I know I don't need it seeing as we've been given plenty of calendars. These calendars look great decorated with Making Memories Noteworthy range as shown in the January edition of Creating Keepsakes magazine.

I also got lots of yummy new papers in last week - too many to show - some by My Minds Eye that are TDF, and a few other goodies.

Don't forget to come and see me this week or next if you're in the area...because...I'm going to be away for the first 3 weeks of February. Yes that's right another holiday! I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it but we are off again, this time to Christmas Island. We are taking the kids to see my cousins who have just moved there. I'm so excited about it, I plan to dive with whale sharks and do other adventurous things that I haven't done for a long time.

I hope you're all having a great day...back soon.

Catch-up

I'm finally home and back on deck. It's taken me a couple of days to unpack and clean up, and I've caught the spring cleaning bug so I cant rest until it's done. I have managed to find my computer amongst the piles of stuff mounting up on my desk, and locate my camera and recently scrapped layouts so I could post. It's great to be home and I have a renewed vigor and vision to get me started on a new year. Thank goodness for new years - I'm so glad the last one is over! I'm excited about what this year has to hold.

Here is the calendar I've been working on. As mentioned earlier, its the Heidi Swapp 12 x 12 calendar with page protectors. I'm loving it. Here are a few photos of it and my January layout. I'm not sure about my February theme. I could do a school layout, as it's Phoebe first year (Kindy) or Valentines but I'm trying to think of something a little bit different.

I've used these Heidi Swapp clear stamps - months, which I think will be handy to have.

I've received a few goodies over the break and thought I'd show a few. These Around The Block tape refills are for tapewriters (manual labeling gadgets) by Around The Block but they also fit Dymo labelers as well which I'm stoked about because I've been wanting to dig mine out to use again and now I have a selection of colours to chose from. Very cool I think.

Also, these cute whimsical journal stamps by Autumn Leaves arrived. TDF! (to die for). Cant wait to use these.

And lastly, one of my Christmas layouts - i've done a few and got a few to go. I decided to go all out this year and rather than try to fit all of the Christmas events on one page, I'm doing several pages. This one is using Paper Salon Christmas papers.



I'll show more layouts as I have time to put final touches on and photograph them.

For those of you who are reasonably close enough to visit or dont mind mail ordering, I'm having a sale for the rest of January. 15% off everything in store. I'm open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays until further notice for anyone who would like to come and scrap or stock up on supplies. If you'd like to order something by mail just give me a call on (08) 98751021.

Thanks for visiting.

I'm back...

Apologies for the lapse in time...been resting and recuperating.

I do hope you all had a memorable New Years, I had a great one spent with some new and old friends. I've also had a lovely couple of weeks recovering from a whirl wind year. It's been great to spend time with family and friends doing things we don't get to do at home - like go to the beach when it's hot or walk to the shop for an ice cream.

I've had alot of time to reflect on last year and as usual make New Year resolutions, although I've tried to make achievable ones. I don't think there is any harm in aiming high - as long as I don't whip myself when I don't always achieve the highest. One thing I have done already is buy a juicer - I want to eat a healthier diet this year...we'll see.

I have been thinking about how much scrapbooking is a fashion industry. Techniques and products are coming in and out of fashion so fast its hard to keep up. Especially in Australia where it takes along time to get products that are new to the market - we get new stuff but its old in America. It doesn't matter though I think...most of us are moving at the same pace. The only consolation is that fashion moves in cycles so products that have gone out will eventually come back I'm sure. I've noticed quite a few stand out products this year, some I've mentioned before - but here's a list of what was hot in 2007;

1. Glitter
2. Bling
3. Felt
4. Scalloped edges
5. Owls
6. Skull and cross bones
7. Birds
8. Ledger paper (is back for the second time!)
9. Brads made a come back
10. Electronic die-cut machines
11. Stamps are back - especially clear ones
12. Journaling blocks
13. Printed transparencies are back
14. Clocks
15. Crowns
16 Die-cut 12 x 12 papers (this is only the beginning!)

It's hard to predict whats going to be hot in 2008 but I have a few ideas.
Tim Holtz (an expert crafter and designer) has come up with a product called GRUNGE BOARD. It's a bit like chip board but more durable and flexible. It can be painted, inked, stamped, embossed and much, much more. I think its finally hit Australia after being on pre-order for some time, so we'll see this soon and my guess is it's going to be big.
I also think that with bling and glitter being so popular, they will continue to do so but also metallic products are still going to get better and become more available. For example, the new range of metallic shapes and chipboard letters by Heidi Swapp. As mentioned in the January edition of Creating Keepsakes magazine, metallic papers and similar products will be available in abundance.
I think we've only seen the tip of the iceberg with die-cut papers. KI Memories Pop Culture laced papers are the beginning and I think there is alot more of this to come.
Who knows what else there may be on the horizon but I'm looking forward to finding out and keeping you informed.

I'm heading home very soon and will be able to upload photos of new layouts I've done since being in Esperance. I'm almost finished my Christmas layouts already - only trouble is I've got alot to catch up on from previous years - maybe I'll do those while I'm on a roll especially with all the lovely Christmas papers available this year.

I'm working on a new project to inspire you. I have a Heidi Swapp blank calendar which I thought was like any other blank calendar on the market but upon opening one that I had in stock I discovered it was a bit different. I has 12 page protectors in it to store a scrapbook page for each month of the year. Once the year in over and the calendar is no longer of use, you can rip out the calendar pages and leave the layouts as a photographic record of the year or better still leave the calendar pages in as a written record as well. It will be great to look back on in years to come. One of my resolutions is to be a better time manager and more organised so a calendar seemed like the perfect solution. It's pretty, fun to make and decorate and its preserving precious memories. I'm going to do a layout per month in themes and maybe a month in advance but I don't think it matters if I don't get the layout done until the first couple of days in the month. I did a January layout on about the 4th of January about a day we had spent at the beach and I'm so happy with the result. Ive decorated the calendar page with stamps and coloured pens to mark birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and so on. I'll be stocking several brands and sizes of calendars, and doing layouts and theme suggestions to inspire you. Join in if you like and see the results, you wont be disappointed!

I'm also working on Valentines layouts and projects for February, and maybe a school layout for Phoebes first day at school - yes my baby's growing up!

Thanks for visiting!