Sorry...

I am sorry its been so long since my last post. I have been away, came home and now I'm away again! All is well though, just very busy at the moment and may be for a while yet. I'll be home on Monday then I'm off to Newdegate Field Days on Tuesday to Thursday, then my eldest, Phoebe has her 5th birthday on Friday. That's scarey, my first born is 5! Tomorrow is my Mums 60th birthday so we are having a family gathering which will be great - cant wait. I've got lots to show in future posts of layouts I've done and other creative projects I have squeezed in between trips, so stay tuned. Hope you have a great weekend. Cheers!

Announcing...

SCRAPPIN' OUTBACK

presents

the 7th

Wave Rock Scrapbooking Retreat

@ Hyden, Western Australia.

17th - 19th October 2008

Featuring talented tutors

Lis Cassey, Caversham, W.A.

Sharon Manning, Bullsbrook, W.A.

& Gayle Smith, Narrogin, W.A.

Brochures and applications available shortly.

MARK YOUR DIARIES!

Where I've been...

Sorry to be gone for so long. I don't like to do leave it too long between posts but I've been away which was unplanned and since I've been home I've been struck by the stomach bug.

I went to Perth last week for a training course to become a child advocate for Compassion, a child sponsorship program. I have been wanting to undergo training for 12 months and finally decided that despite the hassle of going to Perth at such late notice, I should go anyway and get it done. I am so glad I went although I am ruined...not the same person because of what I now know about poverty and how it affects children all over the world. I have done so much soul searching and thinking since doing the course that it's taken me some time to process all I learnt. The good news is that I am now qualified and equipped to sign people up for child sponsorship as well as having the knowledge to pass on to anyone who may be interested and show that there are many ways you can support children in poverty even without sponsoring a child. It made me think most of all about how children are defenseless and cant speak out about the injustice that they bare, and be heard. Therefore I consider it my responsibility to speak for them and be their voice. I admit that there are plenty of corrupt ADULTS out there in the world who cause poverty and even some parents who don't deserve to be helped because they are corrupt to. But its not those adults who I am advocating, its the children who are affected by the corruption or even environmental problems like famine and drought. I also am aware that we have poverty here in Australia and homeless people who have nothing. Compassion supports the poorest of the poor though and those people are spread over 25 countries across the world and in this day and age of global awareness and the global communications like the Internet that we have, I feel that we cannot ignore the problem because it wont go away. And the problem is huge and overwhelming but every little bit of support can make a difference. There I go...up on my soapbox...I am rather passionate about this at the moment. And changed. I wont be preaching to anyone who does not wish to listen and I wont be twisting any ones arms when I see them face to face, so don't avoid me when you see me next. I promise to be gentle! If you are interested in finding out more about Compassion and what I've learnt you can contact me at my new email address; scrappinoutback@bigpond.com

I think I'm coming good from the stomach bug so I got out and unpacked another dozen boxes of new stock and managed to clean and reorganise the scrapbook room. I even managed to finish a couple of layouts I'd started a week or 2 ago.

The first I mentioned in a previous post. It's about Jett and his latest favourite activity - scrapbooking. I used Love Elsie papers.

The second is a double page layout of Phoebe's class from school. I recently received her school photos back and being the first time, I ordered the whole pack available, not realising that the whole pack included all the same photo apart from her class photos. Duh! I know this may seem like an overkill but I have decided to start a school album for her as I have 3 layouts already and can see myself doing more. For this layout I kept it simple and used Little Yellow Bicycle "Zach's Life" papers and chipboard arrow, adhesive sticker strip by Making Memories and letters by Scrapworks.

For some reason this photo will not upload so I'll post it later.

Hopefully I'll be able to create over the next few days at home to prepare for classes in Newdegate on the 27th of August. Be back soon.

A layout to share...

Hi folks! Not much scrappin' get done around here...but I did manage to finish the layout I started on Tuesday. Firstly, you should know that my friend Carla should take the credit for the sketch I used to base the layout on. In fact Carla has 6 layouts using this sketch and they are all different and ALL good! Thanks Carla for sharing your ideas.

I have had company these days while scrapping. My kids have joined me and they love it. They are messy of course, and use too much glue, but they are delighted to be scrapping with Mama and getting to use my stuff. They both have terms for it...Phoebe calls it scrapaling...always has...and I'm proud to say my 2 year old Jett can say scapbooking (no r) and he's very proud of himself too. I came across a scrapbook in a book sale so I nabbed it and thought it would be a good place for Phoeb's to start. Up until now she has scrapped in a big paper book with all sorts of stuff. So, as a scrapbooking Mama I had to take photos and this is the layout I put them on. I used all sorts of goodies on this layout. I like the speech bubble stamp by 7 Gypsies I had in stock and thought might be useful (got more if anyone wants one), and I used felt brads - my new favourite product! So here it is...




I have also begun a layout of Jett scrapbooking and will show soon. Other than that I have been printing off photos for my new class series and planning the layouts and kits for them. It's fun but I cant wait to sink my teeth into the layouts themselves.

Retreat plans are coming along and I have been discussing ideas with the tutors and they are really exciting. It's going to be jam packed I can tell you that.

Toodle Pip! and thanks for looking.

Catch-up

Classes went really well in Newdegate and Ravensthorpe on Friday and Saturday. As usual the girls are eager to learn and are very enthusiastic which makes it worth the while. Since then I've been home and doing a massive clean-up ( I think it's become a never ending story - sorry to bore you with it). And today the weather was nice so I planted some hedging plants in my garden that I purchased a while ago and were being neglected. I always find it hard to get time to do things like that but the results are so good I wonder why I didn't do it ages ago.

I did a little scrapping on Tuesday with the locals but didn't get to finish anything so when I do I'll show and tell. I do have a couple of layouts to show though. One I did for the Condy retreat and one I did quite a while ago but they are the same sketch so I thought I'd show both. I love the simplicity - of course - and how the sequence of photos tell the story. Gosh I love my kids - they are so funny sometimes! So here are the layouts - the first, Phoebe doing a fairy dance in the outfit she got for her birthday and was wearing for the 10th day in a row. Then Jett talking on the phone to Nanny, pacing the backyard in Phoebe's sparkly shoes with a saggy wet nappy...priceless...

I've been sorting stock for up coming events such as the Newdegate Field Days (3rd and 4th of September) and classes I'll be holding at the end of August and mid September. I'm working on a series of 6 heritage layouts that can be converted to layouts with current photos using 3 ranges of paper and embellishments. I'm really excited about this class because its a series and can be used for so many themes. I'm using heritage themed papers, classical all occasion papers and the third is a masculine range. You'll have to stay tuned for more details and to find out where and when the classes will be held.

Of course there's always new stock arriving and more on order. I'll be receiving the 3 new ranges of Basic Grey this month hopefully and lots, lots more. Plans are now coming along for the October retreat and tutors are currently designing projects. I'll announce the tutors shortly and have more information then. Looking forward to it -it should be a goody!

Thanks for looking and take care.