Category: Uncategorized

Feeling a little under the weather.  Would like to blame daylight savings but it's probably the huge weekend, the 40th birthday party I attended on Saturday night and not being able to handle the 4am bedtime.  All pretty good indications that I'm getting old.  (Especially all the 40th birthday parties I'm starting to attend). Personally I love the idea of nearly being 40.  What an awesome time of life.  I just wish my body would cooperate. 

Anyway – because when one starts getting all the attention drawn to one's BIG birthday coming up, one starts deciding that one should start looking for BIG presents, right?  Tell me that makes sense.  Because I have adored what the Silhouette Cameo can do, thank you bloggers like Kim Watson for their amazing inspiration, I admit to investing in one.  Fiona at the ScrapBox was fabulous at helping me feed my need for this machine, and now it's here.  In the box.  On the floor.  I won't bring it out until I have a little more time, but I can't wait to be getting my handcut titles cut out by a machine.  Lovin' the thought of that.  I still love me some handcut flourishy titles!

This layout was created for CHA in July but also published in the 'My Prima Place' magazine recently.  It's made with the gorgeous Rondelle range of papers and has those touches of mixed media in there… a bit of Tattered Angels GlimmerMist, some gesso and texture paste and lots of trinkets and other embellishments. 

Lookin' forward to being able to have the Silhouette cut that handcut title next time – I love birthdays and I'll be getting the most out of my next one, for sure!

Laters

 

A post full of winners.  Chocka block.  Overflowing.  If one of these comments looks like you, please email me and I'll get some prizes on the way – can't have all these fab prizes sitting around the place 🙂

Firstly: My True Scrap winner…

Then the winners of the Stampin' Up! Stamps…
 

And lastly, a reminder to those of you from the Stampin' Up catalog giveaway… some of you haven't claimed prizes.. email me!

Happy browsing of the prize winners  – laters!

When I was little, cats lived forever.  I'll never forget our childhood cat living til 18 years old, wandering off one day to curl up under a tree and pass away at a ripe old age.  Me, as a distraught teen bringing him back and tucking him up in the warm, only to have him make his poor weary self back to the tree. He only lasted a day after that.

Anyway.  Cats seemed to live forever.  They were a part of life for our whole childhood.  There was "the cat I had when I was growing up".

When Paul & I decided to get two kittens a few years ago we did so to give our kids life lessons that we thought were important.  Caring for a pet, learning to be responsible and being accountable to another little being.  There was also the companionship and the fun times that would be a bonus.  We searched out two gorgeous little kittens, brother and sister and they joined our family, Jackson & Molly.

Molly quickly became Abby's kitten, cuddled up constantly, a true companion.  Jackson became the staunch cat, a real man's man.. not so cuddly but a real mate to the boys in our family.

Then there was a little bit of heartbreak.   Molly disappeared at 3 years old and never came home.  It was summertime and it was hot, so at first Abby didn't notice so much.  Molly didn't seek cuddles as much in summer, in winter she was a constant companion on Abby's knee.

 After a lot of searching, mail drops, wandering the roads looking and calling, we realised poor Molly was never coming home.  Abby realised too, she pinned a favourite photo beside her bed and there were a lot of tears, despite us reassuring her that Molly probably got lost and found her way to a fabulous home with lot of cuddles and a different family.

Molly wasn't quite three years old.  We still don't know what happened to her.

10 days ago Jackson got sick.  It was incredibly sudden.  At lunchtime he was fine, by 2pm I was wondering if he was unwell.  At 3.30pm I took him to the vet and said "This is probably a false alarm but I don't think he is right".  By 4.30pm we were told he wouldn't live through the night without surgery. 

Kinda sudden.  Kids with me at the vets.  We chose to try and make him better.  Nagging in the back of my mind that Molly had already broken these kids hearts, we gotta at least give Jackson a go at sticking around.

This is where I get back to my observation at the start of this post.  Cats lived "forever" when I was younger.  18 years was a fabulous innings for my childhood friend before curling up in the sunshine under the tree.  It's sad that my children have now had two heartbreaks, because at just 4 years old we lost Jackson last Saturday too.  We wanted our kids to learn responsibility and accountability, and in all honesty we wanted to teach them the circle of life too.  But perhaps when they were a little older.  Sad times at the Howard home.  We miss you Jackson.

I'm just glad that starting Project Life made me take pics like this..

Laters

 

 

 I've been a fan of washi tape for a while now so I was thrilled when I saw Prima had some cool designs released.  Why washi?  Washi is versatile, quick, easy to use (just rip a piece off!) and the burst of colour or contrast it gives is a super cool addition to any project.

So – a project – now a while back I designed a layout I loved, it had strips of patterned paper and I used the 'design' over and over for various layouts.I decided it'd be cool to use Washi instead of some of the strips of patterned paper in the design so I gathered some Kraft cardstock, coloured sprays, Prima patterned paper, flowers and washi and got to work.

First step was to add my journaling to my 12×12 layout.  I knew I wanted a long story and I knew I wanted it down the right side of my layout.  I typed the journaling in Word and printed it on a normal piece of printer paper.  I cut my Kraft cardstock where I knew it would be covered, I temporarily adhered it to the printer paper, fed it back through the printer and then joined my Kraft cardstock back together.

I added three strips of paper, two blue and one orange, all from the Zephyr range.  I tucked a piece of lace in one layer and added some Glimmer Mist.

These two designs of washi caught my eye as the ones that would add that extra contrast where it was needed.  Love the type font especially – I swear Prima released a heap of products especially for me this last release.  Firstly the extremely teal Zephyr line, then this washi.  Thank you Prima.

And kaboom.  Extra contrast.  Love it.  What's cool is that you rip a piece off thewashi  roll, stick it down and it's repositionable, move it around, change your mind, too easy.

Add some cut out floral elements from a Rosarian paper, add some flowers and a few sparklies, some photos,  (such a cute pup), and it's done. 

Potentially a very quick layout that can easily use scraps of paper, this layout is super easy to do. I'd love to see yours if you give it a go, link me up!  Laters!

Products Used:

• 844547 – Rosarian Darby Paper
• 844448 – Zephyr Zanella Paper
• 844509 – Zephyr Parfait Paper
• 561192 – Washi
• 561161 – Washi
• 560577 – SIIC 18 Crystals
• 562595 – Rosarian Perles Flowers
• 561253 – Puccini Flowers
• 555399 – Alphas.

 

 

It's giveaway time again – this time it's online classes… read on!

Look, up in the sky!  Is that a bird? A plane? NO! It's TRUE SCRAP 4, coming Oct. 19-20!

 True Scrap 4 is the galaxy's ONLY online, live scrapbooking and papercrafting experience. With 15 A-list instructors, five virtual make-and-takes, and a ton of fun, you won't want to miss it. Instructors (like me!) bring classes on everything from photography to design to inspiration right to your computer – live! You log in from home and interact in our state-of-the-art webroom, chatting, learning, and interacting in real time. And it's all recorded so you can go back and watch again and again.

 Sound cool? I think so! And here's something even cooler:
You can WIN a FREE spot in True Scrap 4, valued at $147, plus some other great prizes. Here's how to enter:

1. Click this link and watch the sneak peek instructor video.

2. Sign up for the “More Info” email list at the bottom of the page.

3. Come back here and leave me a comment letting me know you've done steps 1 & 2.

Contest closes on Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012. Winners will be notified by Wed., Sept. 25, 2012, and all prizes must be claimed by Friday, Sept. 28, 2012.

I am so excited to be part of this event, which is sponsored by Two Peas in a Bucket.
Here's the full list of instructors who will be appearing LIVE at this event:

• Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

• Erin Bassett

• Monica Bradford

• Kelli Crowe

• Laura Denison

• Jennifer Gallacher

• Nic Howard

• Noell Hyman

• Katrina Kennedy

• Nichol Magouirk

• Gretchen Schmidt

• Katrina Simeck

• Jessica Sprague

• Heidi Swapp

• Jennifer Wilson

Ready to sign up? You can get $20 off your registration by going here now! Get ready for a
fantastic weekend!
(fine print and other stuff about the comp here..  One winner from each blog participating in this giveaway will receive the class replay of their choice from True Scrap 1, 2 or 3, valued at $9.95 – $12.95. There are over 40 classes to choose from! (yay!)
All entries from ALL blogs will be entered to win ONE “superhero prize” which includes an all access pass to True Scrap 4, valued at $147. (Double yay!)
All entries from ALL blogs will also be entered to win one of THREE “grand prizes,” which is a set of replays from True Scrap 1, 2 or 3, valued at $127-$147.(triple yay yay, what are you waiting for?)

Saturday was awesome.  I don't often get out to crafting events without it being work related, but the Auckland Heartfelt Stampin' Event was one thing I went to with no strings attached, no teaching to do, I was there to soak up the inspiration and learn new things.

And learn I did.  The 'Product Playground' was an awesome idea – a whole room dedicated to learning technique and how to use the various types of products, this area was full of enthusiastic  demonstrators with lots to show me.  Lucy and I spent far too much time at the first table learning something called the 'Rock n Roll' technique which is clearly an old technique to many stampers but there were many "Ooooohhh"s and "Ahhhhhhh"s coming from us.  Seriously.  It doesn't take much to thrill me on a day out not working.

One of my fav demonstations for the day was Delys Cram and her rock salt technique.  Delys demonstrated how to create this card using rock salt and brayering.  It's amazing what you can do with something like Rock Salt and a whole lot of blue ink.

Just along from the product playground was the Gathering Place where make n takes were set up – we were all given packets of pretty fun crafty stuff to create four different projects.  We didn't have to bring anything, it was all provided, and Lucy & I were lucky enough to have one of the nicest Stampin' Up teachers ever to sit down beside us, thank you Louise Hopman,  the thought of not having to think too much was just fabulous.   

  What an awesome time sitting, chatting, creating and trying to talk anyone that walked past into accepting our pears from our lunch in swapsies for their chocolate brownie.  No one agreed.  What's up with that?

The other fun part of this event was a big presentation room with chats and demonstations on various things from Handmade gifts, to Heartfelt cards, packaging, wrapping ideas and my favourite 'Decorations' by Sophie Zadeh.  Sophie made amazing decorations which were quite reminiscent of this name badge, which I didn't make, so I suspect the fabulous Sophie may have had a hand in it.

So anyway, yes – awesome event, would go again, especially if you are a Stampin' Up! groupie – and if you aren't a groupie then it's possible you'll be converted during the day. 

And to celebrate?  I have TWO sets of stamps to give away, one each to TWO lucky people..,. these are the sets we used for the Make n Take projects at the event.  We got to take them home too.  Score!  All you have to do to be in the draw is to click "Like" on the little itty bitty facebook icon at the end of this post, and then leave a comment here on the blog post to say you've done so.

(And for those of you waiting on the winners from the catalog post, they are here, email me if you are one of the winners!)

Easy as that.  Good luck, I'm off to play with rock salt and ink.

Laters.

The last time I was in Sydney I had an absolute blast.  I'm thrilled to be jumping on a plane and returning to Aussie where I'll be teaching at the Sydney PaperCrafts Festival, 2nd – 4th November. 

There is very little info on the webpage at the moment so I thought I'd outline it in a blogpost… there are only 20 seats in my class each day so it's really a case of first in!

The new Stampin' Up!  Idea book and catolog was released this week and because I don't have enough stuff and because this catalog is always chocka full of awesome ideas, I sat down in front of the fire last night and soaked up the inspiration. 

I started bending the corners of pages over – Mum you aren't meant to do that, the teachers says we should use post-it notes – and it wasn't long before I had enough ideas to sink the proverbial ship.  Or to kill the elephant standing in the corner of my room which really wasn't an elephant, it's really a list of assignments 50 million miles long. 

 

So anyway.  Because I have a soft spot for Stampin' Up! and because I really have SIX catalogs and it'd probably be greedy to keep them all, I thought I'd share the love.  I'm going to share my 5 favourite items from the new 2012-2013 catalog/idea book.  All you have to do to be in the draw for one of these 5 spare catalogs is to leave a comment on this post and me know which one of my five favs you like best.

 

Easy, right?  Take a look at my favs, decide which is your fave too and leave me a comment.  5 winners in a week's time.  Don't forget to pin this, facebook it, spread the giveaway love and let others know this draw is here… right… here we go…. (Scroll past the image to see my explanations…)

In no particular order…

1. The coolio cardstock-creation-over-the-bottle idea.  Imagine the bottle of wine with that over it.  Or some cool boutique sauce.  Actually Watties Tomato Sauce could even look great with this over the top of it.  Everyone's gettin Watties for Christmas.

2. Anyone else remember scratch and sniff stickers?  Anyone elses heart melt when they read that Stampin' Up! do a scented embossing powder?  Um. Hello.  YUM!!!!!  Sorry kids, I'm busy, make your own dinner, mama is busy embossing…

3. Cookie Stamps.  Make the cookies and then instead of the good old fork pressed in the top, you use one of these cookie stamp bizzos.  Pure genius!  And a good reason to make cookies.  Or get the kids to make the cookies.  Whatever way, it's a cool idea.

4. Stamps that fit inside punched shapes.  And a catalog that shows me which stamps fit inside which punched shapes.  As if I didn't love these stamps already, now I need the punches too… see those little blue outlines around the stamp images… those are the ones I want.  I flick back and forth dog-earing more pages…

5.  Last but not least THE stamp that fits into THE all time best Stampin' Up! punch that I already have.  I used to just build-a-bird.  Now I can stamp and THEN build my bird.  Seriously cool.  The bird has come to life. 

Alright.  Browse the image .  Let me know which is your fav.  No, the scented embossing powder is not interactive right now, you cannot scratch your computer screen.  You can however comment then cross your fingers and hope you are one of the five people I send this 205 page idea book to.  I'll pick in a week.
Laters.
 EDITED TO ADD:  Winners as follows, the draw is now closed…winners, please email me using the link on the sidebar….

EDITED to add – yes, if you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, please leave your name and blog and let us know which area you are generally hanging out in… geographically, not just "my scrap room" or "the office"…. that'd be cool to have the Stampin Up demos sign in .  And for those going to the BIG Stampin' Up!  Heartfelt Demonstration and inspiration day here in Auckland, yes I'll be there – might see you there!

It's been a long time coming but I have a whole lot of new classes coming up – the first is at True Scrap, an event available to everyone, because it's online – yeees! (I'm teaching alongside lots of cool teachers including Heidi Swapp, Jessica Sprague etc… scroll down for details of their classes…)

Tag – You're It! 
Using tags as canvases for experimentation and play!

Tags are so versatile! They are quick, easy, they are the perfect size for technique experimenting and the result can be used in so many ways! Join Nic Howard as she uses papers, chipboard, stamps, photos, paints and a whole lot of other cool stuff from her stash to create mini masterpieces that will inspire and motivate.

Each tag is designed to inspire in a different way and teach techniques you can apply to your own projects at home. Whether you are a scrapbooker, a card maker, dabble in mixed media art or just want to play with awesome technique, this class is perfect for you – creating tags and learning how to use them in your projects, what could be more fun?!

See this class at True Scrap 4.  Find out more here!

Other teachers and classes involved in True Scrap are below, onwards with creating… lots more classes coming and I'll be back tomorrow with a giveaway…

Laters!

• All About Actions: Photoshop Actions for Beginners with Jessica Sprague
• YourMemory File: A New Approach to Scrapbooking with Heidi Swapp

• Dirty Fingers, Clean Design with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer
• Art Journaling 101: A Beginner’s Guide with Erin Bassett
• All I Really Need to Know About Journaling I Learned in First Grade with Monica Bradford
• Get Your Butt Out of That Rut! with Kelli Crowe
• One andDone: Mini-Album in an Hour with Laura Denison
• The BoysAre Back in Town: Making Manly & Masculine Layouts with Jennifer Gallacher
• Tag!  You’re It! Using Tags as Canvases for Inspiration, Experimentation and Play with Nic Howard
• Story Core Design: A Storytelling Process for Scrapbooking with Noell Hyman
• Everyday Portraits: Capturing Personality Through the Lens with Katrina Kennedy
• The Art of Layering: Tips & Tricks for Creating Dimensional Scrapbook Layouts with
  Nichol Magouirk
• Stretch Your Sketch: Take Creative Control of Your Scrapbook Sketches with Gretchen Schmidt
• DON’T Say “Cheese:” Natural Kid Photography with Katrina Simeck
• Try Hybrid: Go-To Digital Techniques for Paper Crafters with Jennifer Wilson

 

Mondays are always crazy for me.  It's the day where I catch up on all the things that got our of control at the weekend, the piles of washing, the overflowing inbox, the tidying and organising.  Most my diets even start on Mondays, it's a busy day.

It's probably the same for a lot of people, including fab New Zealand scrapbooker, Annelie Maddock because at some point she got crazy enough to add something else to her schedule.  Crazy for her, bonus for us because she started her very own New Zealand Kit Club, Crazy Monday kits.  (I hear a resounding yaaaaaay from the NZ scrappers, it's a very cool addition to our scrapbooking shopping options, right?!)

This makes me really proud.  New Zealand has come a long way since the days I used to drag hubby around as many central Auckland book shops as possible in the hope of finding something, anything, that was acid free!

It was a big YAY from me when I heard NZ was getting this kit club, it was an even bigger YAY when I was asked to create some artwork for the first kit and it was a humongous WOOHOOO when I saw the kit – "Teal your story" .. it was me all over and I was very grateful to be invited to be the very first guest designer for Crazy Monday Kits.

This layout uses only a small amount of the kit.  I suffered a huge case of -I'm-going-to-save-that-for-the-next-layout-itis, so all my favourite stuff is still sitting in the packets.   This layout was created with only a few papers, a sheet of cardstock and a few of the embellishments.

AND just as I was about to call it done, Paul walked past taking an elastic band off new shoes to the rubbish bin, he threw it on my layout and went "that looks way better now" (smartass) and I stopped, looked, and said.. "You know what, I kinda like that".  And so it stayed.  The black cord is not part of the kit.  It's actually Paul's attempt to be a smartass. 

And as I said – I saved the best bits for the next layout.  And then I ran out of time. I didn't even use the big butterfly or the alphas or any of the other papers or the other cool stuff that Annelie had included.

I did find time for a card though.  A gratitude card.  Perhaps recognising I should be grateful for cool things like scrapbooking, and entrepreneurial New Zealanders, and husbands with smartass ideas that actually end up knowing better than I do.

I hope you'll join me in congratulating Annelie for taking the brave step to provide New Zealand with this new shopping option.   Ventures like this are often really hard to get off the ground – (I should know, anyone remember the days when I owned one of NZs first little scrapbook stores, Kiwiscraps?) so it's our support at the start that counts. Go to Crazy Monday Facebook page and 'Like' them.  Link Crazy Monday up where you can, pin the images, promote and blog.  Let's embrace this little bit of Kiwi enterprise and make it something that'll stay around for a long time.  And don't forget to email Annelie too – if not with an order, email just for fun. To say hi and good on ya – thanks for bringing something cool to NZ.

Laters.