Right NOW!

I'm very sad

The store I have been teaching at for the past two years is closing!!!!!!!!!

Scrapabout Australia has been run by Leanne and Pat - both wonderful women who have created a great environment at the store. It has always been such a friendly, supportive store with many regulars, so many great classes and a real willingness to source products that the customers wanted.  I know it has been a tough decision for them to close the store but life gets in the way sometimes and as anyone who has run a business knows - it's not an easy job.

I wish Leanne and Pat all the best - they have both been wonderful to me and i've had a lot of fun working with them.  Leanne will get to enjoy more time with her beautiful children and Pat will hopefully get to enjoy an early taste of retirement.

This weekend on Saturday night we will have our last crop night - which will also be a fairwell party so if you have been thinking about coming but are not sure then please take the opportunity to come  along. The store's last trading day will be Saturday 30 June.

I will miss all my 'regulars' - what will I do without you girls????? Very sad indeed.

So - if anyone is looking for an experienced  scrapping teacher let me know!! LOL

Alison

A Big Weekend of Scrapping

Miss Rebecca and I took ourselves to the movies yesterday to see Shrek the Third - I loved it - maybe not quite as unexpectedly funny as the first two but still a great laugh. I was surprised when it ended and that's always a good sign for me...when I'm not sitting there watching the clock and hoping for the end (like I was with the woeful Mr Beans Holiday!)

As the weekend was a long one we set a bunch of challenges over at KSK - and I even completed them all myself!! I did 7 layouts in total - 6 for the challenges and 1 just for extra fun.

Here are some of the LOs. The challenges included a Lo using red, white, blue and a crown (in honour of the Queens Birthday holiday), a LO using handmade embellishments (the felted flowers), a LO using paint  (Play) and a LO using  song title, a frame, stamping ans some chipboard (The Sweet Escape). In the one called 'Fascinated' I have used a canvas painted circle  - an idea I have just plain old scraplifted from the very talented Kim Archer. This cute idea is used on her free on-line class on her new web site. Thanks for the inspiration Kim.

New Toys

Today I got two things I am really excited about  - sad but true when you hear what they are.

I got a new toy to play with..................... wait for it...................a STAPLE GUN!!!  Woweee hey.  I needed this for my canvas album class - to make the sample I borrowed one from my next door neighbour but secretly I have wanted one for a while. I can't wait to  see what I can do with thi. I will be haunting quilters and fabric crafters blogs for upholstery and wall art ideas and will also be able to repair a few things around the house - yay me!! I wanted the pretty yellow one but it was twice the price and I couldn't really justify that just to get a yellow one...mmmm.

The other thing was a new stash of Green Tea flowers in red, with a few brown ones thrown in - these are so cheap - 25c ea - how can I resist.

Thanks for the class this morning girls - I hope you all had fun, we certainly made a mess.  I loved seeing all your different takes on this and would love to see some pics when you are finished. Just email me.

Long Weekend Challenges

Come over and join us at KSK. The DT are setting a whole bunch of challenges to inspire your scrapping over the Queens Birthday long weekend. The weather  in Sydney, the Central Coast and Newcastle is horrendous at the moment - very bad for going outdoors -  huge winds and torrential rain - but that means it's great scrapping weather.  So if you are planning a scrapping weekend come and join us for some fun and prizes too.

If you are affected by the hideous weather please take care - there are some pretty bad things happening out there - roads collapsing, a train de-railed, flooding etc - the weather is insane - such a bad drought and now this flash flooding.  We really need the rain to fill up or dams but the Eastern seaboard has copped it a lot lately. Please rain gods send the rain inland.

On Sunday morning I am teaching a really fun and messy class at Scrapabout Australia in North Parramatta. We are making an album out of two smallish canvasses. The canvasses form the front and back covers - lots of pain and upholstery tacks are  involved!! There are places left if you want to come and play. Here are some sneaky type pics.

(Edited to add - what I meant above was lots of PAINT and upholstery tacks LOL!! I would hate anyone to think the upholstery tacks were being used to inflict pain!!)

New Post

I was reminded by a few lovely girls at my class last night that I haven't updated my blog in a while. Thanks girls....sometimes I just don't feel like I have that much to say!!

So what's been happening since I last blogged about my India Trek reunion.

Work - I have been working from our Head Office all this year and will finally finish up at the end of this month and return to my 'real' job in Parramatta. Head Office has been great but I have missed my team so much I am really looking forward to going back - plus it is much closer to home so I will spend at least 5 hours a week LESS on the road which is a very good thing.

I taught a class on basic photo editing using Elements last night which was a lot of fun. I am still learning as well so it's great to share my experience with other people. The one real bummer of the class is that I used a borrowed Lite-Pro and it gave a green cast to everything so the images projected on the wall were not as clear as they could have been..but we coped. Thanks to everyone who attended for their patience and understanding.

Kim Archer has launched her brand spanking new web site. It is so beautiful to look at and there are so many things on offer. If you haven't already visited check the site out here.  I have admired Kim and her many talents ever since I started scrapbooking and it is so exciting to see her launch this venture. She has a great "Support Team' too (love that title!) - Janelle Wind, Julie Love, Mardi Winen and Yvette Adams (who is on the KSK DT with me - yay Yvette)

My gorgeous friend Albie who I met trekking in India all those years ago has a business called Screaming Seeds based in Victoria. She makes the most delicious spice blends which she distributes all over the country. She started this business about 13 years ago and I am so proud of what she has achieved. She is one of those special uplifting souls who just lights up a room and I am blessed to have met her. In the mail yesterday I received a little package of spices  - Kashmiri Krush (my fave as we spent half our time in India in Kashmir) and Marrakesh Magic. Love you Albie.

I was at the recent Papercrafts event at Homebush with Addicted to Craft and we did some really cute make and takes using Gel-a-tins stamps and Blue Eye Dezines papers. Sadly the show was very quiet - I don't know what other people thought but it didn't seem very well attended to me?

Rebecca's netball team continues on it's winning way - so far they have had one match rained out, one forfeited and have won the other 4. Last week the score was 16 nil and a few weeks ago it was 23-0. She has joined a great team!

This upcoming long weekend I intend to scrap to my hearts content. I haven't done much lately except things for other people or places so I just want to soak up some of the inspiration around me (Like Kim's site) and play.

I will end with a LO share or two - these have been my latest for Karens Scrapping. I am really loving the Heidi Swapp typography stamps at the moment. Hope you are all having a good week