Category: Uncategorized

School holidays are pretty cool.  I get up a little later to go to the gym, there is no pressure to get 3 kids off to school.  They look after their own breakfast.  They empty the dishwasher and get the firewood in for me.  Life is good.

I'm still fairly busy organising my classes for Paperific in Melbourne and other scrappy projects, but school holidays mean stopping every now and again to play, well , kid stuff. 

Kid stuff on Tuesday comprised of Baker's Twine (I know you will ask, I get mine from the Twinery), PVA glue and a heart cookie cutter shape.  And I have to add that this wasn't my idea.  I saw it whilst browsing the web *somewhere* during the week.  I can't credit where because it was during the middle of one of those I-should-be-working-but-I'll-procrastinate-by-blog-hopping-for-hours-on-end type times. 

This project involved baker's twine, a whole heap (I was always so scientifically accurate at school too – perhaps why my hokey pokey in science class didn't work out…), anyway, a whole heap of 5-10cm lengths of string.  A heart cookie cutter, some PVA clue that I'm sure Paul won't miss from his work shelf, and a kebab stick.  Abby and I cut a whole lot of twine.  We placed the heart shape on an old plastic lid.  A small amount of PVA in the bottom and started pushing the string in.  We added a little PVA glue as we went.  We filled the cookie cutter shape up with a gluey, stringy mess.
(note that we put the kebab stick on the bottom, but actually, it's best doing this without the kebab stick and adding it later).

 
 

Abby decided at this stage that really it needed glitter.  Because every girlie project needs glitter.  She also decided it would work better if we had glitter on our faces too.  Apologies for not having photos of how gorgeous we looked. 

 

Cue sunshine.  And since we had sunshine on Tuesday, this dried surprisingly quickly.  Once it's dry, push it out and you have the cutest little string-glitter heart ever!  Push a kebab stick in the bottom and it becomes a wand, even.  This is the best little 15 minute project for the school holidays. 

 

You may not be able to see how cute that glitter-string heart is, as you may be blinded by the total overwhelming cute-ness of that girl holding it (no biase here!), but really, it was such a success and made one 7 year old very happy.  So happy, infact, that I see this morning there is a roll of baker's twine and a star shape cookie cutter beside my computer.  I think she is trying to tell me something?

laters

I've just confirmed that I'll be teaching this class in Melbourne using the new Prima.  This product is so new that it won't be in my hot little hands until August!  This class has already been popular, this is sure to make it sell out, so email me now if you are planning to join in!

 

Comments closed!  EDITED TO ADD:  Winner!  We have a winner!  Picked randomly (using the tke-a-7-year-old-ask-her-to-close-her-eyes-turnaround-and-point-at-a-winner method…..)

Posted by: Lisa | July 21, 2011 at 04:23 AM

ig Picture Classes are doing it again – a FREE festival for summer.  Or winter, if you are in that hemisphere.  I have been lucky enough to be part of this festival before and it is awesome – the energy, the inspiration, the daily doses of motivation.. it's well worth joining in! (and it's free, what could be more awesome?)

Involved in the festival this year…

 

The details ….

Big Idea Festival 2011 – Words to live by…

You are invited to a FREE festival packed full of big ideas at Big Picture Classes this August! Join us for 12 fun-filled days starting Monday August 15, featuring 12 of our talented instructors. Each instructor will be giving you a word of the day, which we hope will inspire you, along with a downloadable template (in both printable and digital format) so that you can create a mini layout about that day's word and how you applied it in your life. Finally, each teacher will leave you with an inspirational video message and a preview of the page they created with their word.

http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/summerfun11.php

 

The goodies…

Big Picture Classes has also created our first-ever kit to go along with the Big Idea Festival! While the kit is not required to participate, we've designed this kit to make creating your mini album easy and fun. http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/summer2011kit.php

And the BEST part?  I have a kit to giveaway.  Remember you don't have to have this kit to do the class, you can use your stash but take a look at these goodies!   Anyway – giveaway time, leave me a comment, tell me if you are joining in, and I'll draw the lucky winner of these goodies on July 27th. 
Laters!
 

We've been working on a brand new Big Picture Class, opening for registration soon.  Yep.  A brand new, all new layouts, awesome new class. We?  Yes, we have… I've paired up with good friend, May Flaum for this one.  We've known each other forever, and often chat about our Big Picture Classes.  So we got comparing notes.  We started brainstorming.  All of a sudden, emails were flying back and forth.  We came up with a rockin' new idea together.  And so it was born. 

Double Take – Double the layouts and sketches with Nic & May.

Are you ready?  Are you ready for 4 full-on weeks with double page layouts?  Two teachers, double pages, double the sketches, twice the amount of layout examples, inspiration overload!  Both May & I love a good interactive workshop, so no doubt there will be an awesome atmosphere in the gallery and messageboards.. this is something we are both really looking forward to!

Class runs from September 22nd, registration will open July 28th, it's a few weeks away, but it's something to look out for.  May & I are both really excited about this class, we hope to see a great turnout.  I'll let you know when registration is open!

 

 

Hands up who is going to Paperific in Melbourne!  Me!   I'm excited to announce that I'll be teaching for Scrapware at Paperific Melbourne in August!   Here's the write-up, descriptions and small print – join me for a woooohooo!  It's been a while since I've been to Australia, I'm thrilled to be teaching there again!  Email me for bookings.  Details of all classes below!
 
" Scrapware is bringing Nic Howard to Melbourne Paperific! Nic will be teaching three of her most sought after classes, spread over two days at the Melbourne Showgrounds.  Catering to all types of paper crafters and combined with the fun, relaxed style of teaching that Nic is well known for, Nic’s classes always sell out quickly; book now to secure your place in class! "

All classes are layout classes. 
Bookings are taken directly with Nic by emailing nic.paul@xtra.co.nz 
All classes are $52 AUD each, limited spaces are available! 

Prima-licious, the sequel!
Friday 26^th August.  9.45 – 11.45am
Saturday 27^th August 9.45 – 11.45am

Following hot on the heels of the super popular ‘Prima-licious’, a class which Nic taught to over a thousand students, comes ‘Prima-licious, the sequel!’

Paper, ink, flowers and clusters of embellishments, the kind that make you look at the detail of a layout again and again, let's get creating!  Join Nic Howard as she creates a dimensional double layout full of gorgeous Prima goodness! Nic will start with the simple paper curling technique that she is well known for and work through inking, layering and ways to achieve perfect cluster embellishing.  Discover how easy it is to create something so visually effective – and learn techniques to help you create similar beautiful clusters of embellishments again and again. 

Sneak Peek coming soon!

That’s my Boy!
Friday 26^th August.  12.15 – 2.15pm
Saturday 27^th August.  12.15 – 2.15pm

Time and time again we hear you saying you want a BOY layout class!  Ask no more, Nic has put together the perfect boy layout class just for you!  Celebrate that boy in your life, whether it is son, brother, hubby or friend, this class will suit them all.  Interesting technique and bright colours combine to make two layouts in class with enough supplies and a sketch for a third layout!

 

Decadent Details
Friday 26^th August.  2.45 – 4.45pm
Saturday 27^th August.  2.45 – 4.45pm

Join Nic as she brings you her freshest class in dimensional scrapbooking.  From the background to the smallest embellishments, Nic will visit her favourite techniques, some old, some new, it’ll all come together to create a gorgeous 12×12 layout that will be suitable for a variety of themes.   Kit includes product sponsored by Scrapware and detailed colour instructions.  Nic maintains that this is one of her favourite classes, so if you love the detailed look of layered pages, you won’t want to miss this one! 

 

The small print and other important stuff:
All classes are $52 AUD and will be taught by Nic at Melbourne Paperific, 26-28 August 2011.  All classes are non-refundable.  In the unlikely event Nic is unable to teach at this event, you will be mailed your kit with full colour step-by-step instructions.  Bookings are made by emailing Nic direct at nic.paul@xtra.co.nz , and payment is made via paypal invoice (please provide your paypal account email address with your class request).  Please be aware that Nic answers her emails within 24-48 hours, so please try again if she has not answered during this time.  Class places are limited.  No small children or packets of Jaffas were harmed in the making of this advertisment.  Wait.  There was one packet of Jaffas, after all, it is Red Nose Day tomorrow.

 

 

Ya know, in general, I think I'm a good Mum.  I feed, clothe, and love my kids unconditionally.  I am their biggest advocates.  I'm a strong mother, raising confident, strong children.  There are a lot of things I don't disclose on facebook or my blog, being a firm believer that no child should be able to grow up and find discouraging information on themselves when searching the internet during one of those random quiet teenage moments when they have nothing better to do.  But I have to tell you about this bad-parent moment.  Stick around, you may learn something.

Abby came to me in a quiet moment recently and snuggled into me.  Seven year olds are good at that.  I'm soaking those snuggles up before she discovers it's not a cool thing to do.

And then she turned to me and quietly said "Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, waiting to start again?"

A moment of hesitation and a touch of "WTF did my seven year old just ask me?" and I asked her to repeat herself. 

"Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, waiting to start again?".  Now if that wasn't the most profound and sad thing I had ever heard come from a seven year old.  Again, stick with me, imagine that said with cute-puppy dog eyes looking up at me sadly through snuggles given with pudgey little arms. That's sad, right?  At which point she stood up and walked away.  Dragging her feet. Sadly.

See, right now, I'm feeling like the. worst. mother. ever.  (Well worst, since I confiscated Jacob's Tamagotchi back in 2008, throwing it with a "HA!" up on top of the kitchen cabinetry, only to hear it go crashing down the back, where it can never.ever.be.retrieved from).

So this sits with me for a few days.  I talk it over with Paul.  We're confused.  That is some seriously deep language coming from my 7 year old. 

So life goes on as normal.  I rise each morning, feet on floor, gym time, home (only then the sun rises, I can't wait for summer), work, eat, parent, bed and it repeats… until yesterday when I was at the gym, on the treadmill and a Katy Perry song comes on the big screen.  Sick of this song.  Fireworks.  I've heard it 8000 times already.  Walking on the treadmill, walking, walking.  "Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, waiting to start again?" I stop.dead.in.my.tracks. and actually, seriously bad idea on the treadmill 'cos it keeps going.  Katy freakin Perry lyrics?  My seven year old was repeating Katy Perry Lyrics? 

I guess I should take it for what it was.  A serious 'wake up, you don't know it all, MUM" moment.  How'd I not see that coming?  And the ironic thing?  I mentioned the whole thing to my 10 year old and I only had to get one sentence into the story and he interupted with "Do you ever feel so paper thin, like a house of cards, one blow from caving in?"

Cute puppy dog eyes, Braden, but I'm not being caught out by Katy Perry again.
 

laters

Comment to hubby.  "For the record, if your BBQ cover is not there in the morning, I did warn you that the wind was trying to take it away".  His answer? "Yep, sure".  He doesn't believe me.  The male's faith in the female's ability to predict around-the-home-misfortune is beyond me.  Like the time I warned him the trampoline was about to make a sailboat of itself and it impaled itself sideways on the clothesline.  Or the time I warned him not to let the kids put their own food colouring in the bath.  Why yes, Abby looked great with a red tinge to her skin. 
We have the ickiest weather outside right now, which is okay, since it's winter, but I did watch the BBQ cover try and take off on several occasions today, I mentioned it several times, why it has not been anchored down, I have no idea. Wild wind, thunder and lightening , and fingers crossed we still have a BBQ cover in the morning.

CHA sneak peeks.  Love what Prima is releasing.  Excited about BasicGrey's new releases but Picadilly especially.  Always looking forward to Wesbter's Pages new releases.  I see a lot of bold, rich colours but also a lot more neutral coloured papers, ledger, time, clocks, and architecture as well.  Loving it all. 

Anyone up for a challenge?  You have about 2 days to create your version of my layout on this website.  Some cool interpretations there already if you are keen for some blog hopping. 

Alrighty, leaving you with one of my BasicGrey Picadilly layouts.  I was asked to do 8 fairly simple layouts with instructions for an assignment recently.  This is one, very simple and non-dimensional for me.  I had to show you how gorgeous these papers are.
Oh – before I go, a question – anyone going to Paperific in Melbourne in August?  Hands up!  I'd love to hear!

Laters. 

 

Colour!  or is it Color?  We start on Thursday so I'm after last minute sign-ups!  Big Picture has put up a blog post here showing you all the content that is included.  It's one of those classes that are jam-packed with stuff and they really wanted you to see how much there is – so take a lookie!  I love the way each of my videos are still-shot with me making a weirdo face in each one LOL  nice!

Anyway, take a look there, and here is a repeat of some of the info below – it's a great class (ask anyone who has taken it before – we have FUN!) , splash out and join me!

The Class Description:

Do you love colour? Do you want to immerse yourself in a workshop that takes you through a whole rainbow of possibilities? Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet… colours are all around us! They reflect our mood and fill our scrapbooks; it’s time to celebrate the colours we use!

Join Nic Howard for ‘Colour! or is it Color?’, an exciting 6 week workshop that will be a true celebration of the gorgeous colours all around us. Nic is known for her beautifully detailed projects, and in this workshop you’ll get the added bonus of learning some of Nic’s favourite techniques as well as building a library of valuable colour theory!

You’ll learn a variety of things from the way colours affect the mood of our pages, to how to use colours together effectively, to RED hot techniques! Nic will bring you this and more in step by step format with plenty of examples, tips and techniques, week after week. From the smallest of details, to the largest of projects, we all need to know how to enjoy all the gorgeousness the rainbow has to offer, click here to learn more, you won’t want to miss this class!

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can you tell me, what will we be doing?

As mentioned in the class description, we do everything from colour theory to practical, hands on, good old creating layouts!  The class includes a large amount of sketches, guest artists, challenges, giveaways, step-by-step instructions, videos of me dancing to old 1950’s songs… you know, just the usual…

Is this class project based, or layout based?

This is a layout based class.  You will receive instructions for the occasional other project, such as the tags above, but in general, the weekly assignments and step by step instructions are for layouts. 

What if I can’t keep up?

Big Picture Classes have forever access.  Participate as much or as little as you wish.  All the materials are accessible forever, you can come along on a crazy colour-filled 6 week ride with us all, or do it at your own pace, it’s up to you!

Do I need specific materials?

I supply materials lists for many of the layouts, but nah, dive into that stash, use up product you already have, unless you really want to go shopping?…

If I completed Dimensional Details with you, will I be repeating things by joining this class?

No – this is new stuff.  I do cover some of the Dimensional Details techniques in pre-class but that is just to get those that didn’t sit that class up to speed with a few techniques.  Join in, I’d love to see you!

Will this class suit the digital scrapbooker?
My class teaches colour theory, which translates to both digital and paper scrapbooking, but all of the assignments and all of the techniques are paper based.  There are no digital templates in my class.  Whether or not you think it will suit you, as a digital scrapbooker, depends on how well you adapt paper techniques to digital scrapbooking.  We have had plenty of digital scrapbookers join in the last round, they loved it – you probably will too!

Are the layouts 12×12"or smaller?
The assignments are all for 12×12" layouts.  Some of the examples are 8.5×11" though!  Although I use the bigger size, I would hope that if you scrapped in a smaller size, that it would be easy to convert!

Nic, can you give me information on what kind of techniques you cover in this class?
Oh my goodness, there are many!  Mostly techniques that are not difficult.  Just interesting techniques that can be adapted to be used a whole lot, of just add a small touch to your page. 

Ok.  I’m just about convinced.  Give me one more reason why I should join in…

Just one reason?  Seriously.  I have hundreds of reasons in the form of testimonials from those that sat in on my last class.  Please, ask around.  I’m a perfectionist.  I love detail.  I pack so much into these classes that my family eat 2-minute-noodles and tomato sauce for weeks while I work on it.  Please make that worthwhile for them.  I’d love to see you there! 

SENZ is over for another year and I think it was the most eventful one yet.  So many people had to overcome so much to be there.  From earthquakes, to volcanic ash cancelling flights, to trains derailing and one lady even had her house struck by lightening.  I was so amazed by two ladies in my class on Friday. They'd been to hell and back with the earthquakes so were looking forward to a weekend away in Auckland.  Their flights were cancelled due to volcanic ash but they decided nothing was going to stop them.  They got in the car, took turns driving, left Christchurch around 1pm on Thursday, 7pm sailing across the Cook Strait, drove all night and arrived in time for my first class Friday morning.  We had to keep prodding them awake but 10 points for effort, it gave me the warm fuzzies thinking about all they'd been through and how hopefully SENZ could improve things just a little for them!

Anyway, my classes went well, I had one only about half full on Friday morning but the rest were sold out or close to it.  I worked all day Friday, all day Saturday and then stood at the Scrapware demo table all day Sunday.  It was GREAT catching up with everyone.

We had a lot of fun in class,despite not being in the most ideal spot.  Because I was in the main hall I was competing with the noise of everyone else a bit but I think we all had fun (didn't we?!) I had taken a lot of layouts and projects to display, and I even took blu-tack to stick them to the classroom wall.  Unfortunately I didn't have walls, I had partitions and no velcro dots!  Argh! Anyway, best laid plans and all that… I enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones and there were some wickedly AMAZING pages created, so yay!

I think Decadent Details was my favourite class of the weekend.  We visited alsorts of little techniques, from white-washing to Hybrid scrapping. Hands up those who have their Hybrid scrapbooking brownie badge now?!!!  The Webster's Pages products were a favourite and most of us got our pages finished in class. I love the feeling of walking away from a class knowing that the projects all looked so good.  I can't thank you all enough for putting the effort into your pages in class that you do.  Sometimes a class atmosphere can be a little pressured, especially when the classes are quite large, so thank you ladies!

 

 
Cute girls, huh?  One is mine of course, and one is Lucy's – those two are a great team – much like Lucy and myself, she was the best TA during all six classes (I'm so lucky to have such great support!) . 

Will share more of my classes in the next few days.  Things don't slow down for me for at least a few weeks, I put off a lot of other assignments to do last minute SENZ stuff and now I have some big elephants to eat.  Just like my hubby says.  One bite at a time.  Lucky I seem to thrive on having elephants standing in the corner of the room.  Can't complain.

Laters.

 

I've adopted a new attitude lately and I think it's because of all that our little country is going through right now.  I wouldn't be lying when I said that I want to gather as many Cantabrians as I can and adopt them, just so that they can get a good night sleep and 'switch off' mentally for a while.  I can't imagine what they are going through.  The mental, physical and economic hardship I'm sure is unmeasurable. 

So lately when I go to complain of something, whether it's online, facebook,  or to my family, I think twice.  It could be worse.  Having to pair thousands of socks from the rack that I used to dry the washing in front of the fire last night isn't really hardship, is it.  Because at least I have a warm home.  The new towels I bought that are shedding masses of dust everywhere?  That's nothing compared to what Cantabrians are dealing with, and that hot shower?  A luxury. 

It's interesting how the earthquakes have changed some of us.  I still complain, of course I do, but I think twice.  And I'm going to touch wood as I say this because I don't want to tempt fate, but what else could be thrown at us?  Volcanic ash.  Who knew.  Ask me how nervous I am about the 2 packages being held up in Australia because of volcanic ash.  (not a complaint, just stating that I'm a little jittery about it here!) SENZ class kit stuff.  And I'm not writing instructions/finishing samples until I get those packages incase I need to change the class.  Which of course would make for a fun and interesting day before SENZ, right?

Anyway, I have the best of friends and one of my favourites is coming around tonight to kit some of the class kits.  The ones that I have everything for.  Here are some sneaks of that class.. can you guess which one.. I'm excited for Friday evening, kitting kits, having a little drink and chatting the night away.  The more we chat, the more the evening goes on, the more chance we have of coming up with a plan to adopt those thousands of Cantabrians, right? 

 

 

 

Laters.