Sizzling Summer Workshop 20th-22nd January

This is going to be such an awesome workshop.
Come set up your scrapbooking supplies and scrap the weekend away.
This is NOT a camp but a full on, fun workshop.

The cost is only $100 for the whole weekend.  We do have a couple of day spots if you cannot do a the whole weekend.

What will you get on this Sizzling Summer Workshop?

With your registration you will receive a Scrapbooking Workshop survival kit with some great things to help you enjoy and inspire your scrapbooking over the weekend
Dinner and Breakfast will be supplied - please bring something for a shared lunch and baking for breaks.
Games to keep you motivate
Inspiration board - with fun prizes.
Decorate your scrap space in the theme of Summer and you could win a prize.

How do I register?

Simply click here for the registration form, print, fill in and send away.  It is as simple as that.

I look forward to seeing you at our Sizzling Summer Workshop

Better Scrapbooking Garage Sale

Oh this is so much fun.  We have had a number of people coming in and finding great bargains.  Melissa has also been selling her baking, while Grace has been working on the sausage sizzle.  There are still plenty of great bargains to be had so feel free to drop by/buy or visit the online shop http://www.betterscrapbooking.co.nz/shop/index.php

Scrapbooking Garage Sale

All Grown Up

Yesterday was such a big day.  The day you truly realise your baby has grown up.  I mean I have known for sometime that Grace was growing up, but yesterday was such a big new step in that growing up process.  I am so very proud of her and all that she has accomplished and no doubt will keep doing so.

Yesterday Grace started her first (real) job.  She is working at her Dad's office in town sorting mail and inputting address changes and things.  She gets to work at the office permanently during school holidays.  This is a fantastic opportunity for her.  Not only will she be earning money to support her spending but she will be able to carry on her studies at school and not have to try and juggle work and school.  Also this gives her a jump start into working in the future - whatever field she tries for.

Brad has been very supportive in helping Grace to get this position and taking her to work each day (ok this only day 2 LOL)

Good on you Grace.  Here are couple of photos of Grace just before she sets off for day 1 of her working career.

Welcome to the family ... Bumblebee

Well, it is official, we are going to get rid of my lovely car.  This means we needed a new mode of transport.  After much deliberation we decided the best thing to do was to get Brad a scooter and I would use the 4x4 Nissan Mistral.  So today we all went into town so Brad could pay for and pick up his new scooter.  He chose the yellow one and it has been named "Bumble Bee".  Yes Brad is a transformers fan too LOL.  So I just had to share some photos of him picking up and riding his scooter home.

 As well as the scooter we also made sure he was safe with a new helmet, proper jacket and gloves.  It bought back memories seeing Brad on two wheels.  You see back when we were dating he had a motorbike.  Great fun!

 Doesn't he look the part?

Now if you look at the handle bars of the scooter, don't they look like a bumble bee's face?

On the way home something really funny happened.  Most of the way home Brad either rode behind or beside another scooter ...

Then we noticed the two license plates.  Brad's is A4KBL and the other scooter was A5KBL.  Tell me, what are the chances of that happening.  It was really hard to get a photo of the plates as I only had my mobile phone and seeing as I was driving I had to get Grace to take the photo.  But really have you ever seen two vehicles with numerically in order number plates?

Christmas Workshop

Thanks ladies for a fun night of scrapbooking, laughter and lots of very yummy treats (both edible and in the gift department)  I can't really say we got a lot of scrapbooking done, but we did all have fun and some layouts were created in the process LOL.  Here are a couple I managed to do during the night.

 With Melissa being at a new school this year she was able to get a school photo, so I just had to create a layout with it.  I was very pleased with how it all came together.

 This layout caused me much distress in that I just could not think what to do.  All I knew was that I wanted to use the photo with the background paper.  Amazing how one comment can inspire you.  The letters for this layout came from Jamey as a part of her Christmas Swap gift.  Love this font, just another reason to consider getting a Cuttlebug (another tool - sigh)

Lastly I had fun creating this layout on Sunday after the workshop, funny how a workshop can inspire you to scrap even more, later.  It has been a fun year of workshops and classes, I am so looking forward to what 2012 has in store for our workshops, classes and more.

Thank you ladies for your lovely gifts, it really felt like Christmas at the workshop, what with carols playing, festive attire and gift giving.  I loved the thoughts that went into each gift.

Sew Ribbon

Oh I love these tools.  They enable you to have some really great looks with your ribbons.  No more just straight ribbon, bows and knots.  Now you can have weave looks, leaf, zig zag and more.

They are also easy to use.  Each template comes in two halves so you can snap your cardstock in between the template pieces.  Then using the little cutter tool punch through each of the template slots.  Add the ribbon needle to your ribbon and start sewing.

Here is a layout one of my students did the other night.  She was very pleased with the result.

You can order your Sew Ribbon tools from our online shop, or just click here.

 Sew Ribbon - Zig Zag
$30.00
Click here to order yours!

Sew Ribbon - Leaf
$30.00
Click here to order yours!

Masking and Misting

I had a class on Tuesday night this week and this is the layout we created using Glimmer Mist and Tim Holtz Masks.  I was really impressed with the Masks and how easy they were to use.

Glimmer Mist is so easy to use and gives such a great look.  I love the sparkles.

So Much Sky

Oh my goodness has it been that long since I last posted.  So much has been happening I have hardly had a chance to sit down and blog.  I have been doing a lot of creative things but just haven't got around to blogging them.  I will do a post soon on the creative items ... but today I wanted to tell about the amount of sky we seem to have around our house at the moment.

I know, what a strange statement.  But on Monday morning just as I was about to take my daughters off to school, our neighbour's landlord came round to let us know that they would be trimming the trees.  Sure we said no problem, if they need to use our driveway we were fine with that.  So off to school I went.  Good grief by the time I got home they were really in to it.

There were four guys.  Two up in the basket thing - one holding the branch, the other chopping, then the first would drop the branch carefully to the ground.  Another guy on the ground would put the branches through the chipper.  The last guy had a chainsaw on a long pole and was trimming as far has he could reach.

We were amazed at how fast they worked and how much they were chopping.  By the end of it the hedge was pretty much chopped down and we could not get over the amount of light now available, let alone all the SKY above us.  It is still a surprise when we come out of the house, we feel very exposed - thank goodness for our new gate.

Anyway here are a couple of photos, a before and an after.

So when you come to visit things do look a bit different.

Special Birthday Album

Here are some quick photos of an mini album I made for my Mum's Birthday.  I used the Making Memories Paper Reverie Antique Brun collection and a lot of Pinecone ink.  This has been a fun project.  Mum I hope you like it.

Pocket albums are a lot of fun.  Each of the tags have been stamped, inked and a photo added.  There is space on the back of each photo tag for journaling and for inspirational sayings.

September Scrap Pack

This pack was ohh so pretty!!! The papers were from the Cosmo Cricket Earth Love range and I really enjoyed working with it!





I found the papers really versatile to a range of different photos.


And they were really cute too!!

For instructions on how I made all these check out the September Newsletter over at Better Scrapbooking, also check out what the other fabulous Design Team member, Jennie, has created too!

Happy Scrapping everyone!

Box of Yummy s from USA

I took my girls to school as usual this morning.  Then when I arrived home, sitting by my workshop door was a lovely box.  I recognised straight away that is was from my darling pen-pal and his darling wife.  I had spoken to them earlier in the month about picking up some Hershey's Nuggets for me so I could do some of those cool projects from You Tube.  My pen-pal's wife Katie said, "Sure no problem".  So I kinda knew what was in the box, but ... I did not realize she had added something else as well.  A huge container or Jelly beans - the gourmet type.  Oh boy, please don't tell my Zumba instructors (thank goodness they are in Miami at the moment).

Anyway I just had to take a photo and share it with you.  I did not realise how big the bag of Hershey's Nuggets was going to be, Phew 1.5kg.  I think I will be having fun making little gifts and treats.  Might have to try one or two of them though - oh feeling the need to run and do Zumba all at the same time LOL!

Have a great creative weekend everyone

Happy Scrappin'

Dry Spell

I have had such a dry spell lately when it comes to my scrapbooking, hence the lack of blogging.  I have been very busy choosing and ordering product fro ScrapPacks, ordering new products and updating the website as well as concentrating on all the newsletters.  Scrapbooking has taken a real back seat - sigh.

Yesterday I decided, that was it, time to do a couple of layouts.  One fore me and a double-page layout for a class I am having tonight.  Both have come together very well.  It was just so nice to have some time to be creative.  I really need to do this more.

I would like to share the two layouts I did.  Here is the page I have done for myself.  It is on my sister-in-laws dog who sadly passed away just the other month.  He will be missed.  Now, as you can see all I need to add is the journaling.

Here is the other layout which we will be creating in class tonight.  It really is a fun double-page layout.

Don't Leave It For So Long

I had a great Saturday afternoon over the weekend where I was able to catch up with some very good friends from school.
We had not seen each other some of us for over 20years.  It has just been too long between visits.  I wish we had been able to catch up sooner.  We were able to all get back in touch thanks to Facebook.

Well naturally being a scrapbooker I just had to make a little something for each of my friends, and the SRM Tubes were the perfect thing to use.  As you can see I used "The Tube" as well as the We've Got Your Stickers - Little Birdie sticker sheet.  I was able to decorate four tubes using just one sheet of stickers.  How great was that.
Gotta love SRM tubes and stickers

The gifts were much appreciated and I had so much fun making them.

Great to see you all girls, lets do this again soon - but let's not leave it so long between catch ups.

Prince Edward Island

Last Friday afternoon I was coming home from some where and as we pulled into the driveway it was Melissa's turn to check the mail.  As she was pulling the mail out of the box I could see there was a package.  Ti is always exciting to get a package.  Then I remembered it was about time my package from my sister-in-law was suppose to arriving.  Melissa gets back in the car and says, "Mum this package is for you!"

Oh I was so excited I could hardly wait to get the car down the drive, parked and get myself into the house to open this exciting parcel.  It seemed like time slowed down and it was taking forever to get myself in the house.

Finally I was in and with scissors in hand I carefully opened my parcel.  There is was, all the way from Prince Edward Island, Canada.  Can you guess what it was?  Those of you familiar with L.M. Montgomery will have guessed ... It was the latest publication of Anne of Green Gables, celebrating 100 years of Anne.

Oh I could hardly contain myself.  It is so beautiful.  The have apparently printed this edition so it looks like the original publication of 100 years ago.  All I could say was - oh, wow!!!

There was also a postcard in the book from my dear sister-in-law telling me that she had visited all places Anne on Prince Edward Island and that her darling husband was being very patient.  OK I admit I was and am a little envious (but in a good way) that she was able to visit such a special place.  I do look forward to her photos (which I will scrapbook LOL)

Now I have three copies of Anne of Green Gables.  How very cool.  I have just discovered however that neither of my daughters have actually read the book.  So when they have finished reading the books they are reading we are all going to read Anne of Green Gables together and have our own mini book club.  Should be fun, but beware, we will be having some scrapbooking challenges shortly to do with Anne.

It's Sew Easy

It is finally here and it is so easy to use.
The Sew Easy Tool and accessories from We R Memory Keepers arrived this week.

I have had a little chance to  fiddle and play with the Sew Easy, and I have to admit I really like this tool.
Both my daughters gave it a go and they both said exactly the same thing, "Awww Cool Mum!"

It does take a little practise to get even pressure, but the holes that didn't quite form can be poked through easily with the needle that comes with the tool.  It also helps to use the Sew Easy Mat as it is foam rubber and enables the tool to poke the holes.  Our hard craft mats just won't work with this tool.

I also like the "hidden" needle compartment in the base of the handle of the tool.  Yay, no lost needles.

Well I am looking forward to a weekend where I can really put this little tool through it's paces.

Happy Scrappin'

Online Challenges for July

It has been a great seeing so many of you enjoying and taking part in our online challenges.
Here are our winners for June's Online Challenges
Layout Challenge: Congratulations to Sharon

Photo Challenge: Congratulations to Jenny

Project Challenge;  Congratulations to Debra.

Now here are July's Online Challenges

You have until the end of July to upload your entries to our challenges.  These are a lot of fun and can be a way to get into your scrapbooking supplies and just create.
Layout Challenge - Create a layout using only green colours.  Yes lets do a monochromatic layout for a change.
Photo Challenge - Sports/fitness action photo.  Winter is a great chance to get a photo of you or your kids/grand-kids taking part in some sort of sport.  It could be soccor, rugby, dance, gymnastics, in my case Zumba, or even running.
Project Challenge - Decorate a tin or box and show it in use.  I love decorating boxes and tins and then don't know what to do with them.  Let's see what you do with them.
Card Challenge - Peel Craft stickers are fantastic for card making.  Create a card using these fabulous stickers.


Happy Scrapping'