Busy Busy Busy and more Busy

I don’t think I know of any other way to live, LOL.

Some good news – little Oscar is doing very well and will soon be out of hospital – we are counting down the days until he can be home with his mum, dad and big sister. Yay!

I have been stuck in one of those – “Gotta get those blimmin projects finished or else” kind of moods this week. I started the ball rolling for my new Studio (thanks so much Caz!) and it looks like it will be going ahead. Why does that freak me out? Because it means that every bit of jumk I have accumulated in this studio in the last 5 years will have to be moved out. EEEEEEEEK!

Get ready for a massive cleanout people – there is stuff in here I had forgotten I even owned. On the plus side, though – new Studio! Yay!

In honour of all things “new” I also decided to re-upholster a chair that has been in my studio for about a year.

Here are the before, during and after shots:

The chair before I tore the stuffing out of it.

The chair after I stripped it and pulled out a BAZILLION staples.

The chair as it now sits in our front lounge room.

DH’s grandfather made that chair, so it wasn’t going to be dumped in some antique shop. It needed a new life – and I love love love it now. Except no-one is allowed to sit on it. You hear me, kids?

On to the fun stuff – the kids had a Halloween Disco at school which was great fun – who doesn’t like dressing up and painting faces all night? lol

Everyone had a great time and the kids slept like logs well past 8am the next morning

Now for the scrapping stuff:

“Life is Full of Possibilities”

TIP – use your kid’s clothing labels as part of your LO.

TIP – paint over areas in the background to make the whole foreground “pop”.

“A Hug From You”

TIP – cut out some leaf shapes from scraps with a pair of fancy-edged scissors, ink them and layer them.

“Christmas Angel”

TIP – paint some extended star shapes in the background of your LO – especially if it is a Christmas theme.

“Princess”

TIP – Paint a frame around the base of the photo (without the photo on the page, of course), and then flick the paint around the top left and bottom right corners to make it look like it is “spraying” into the LO.

TIP – Once you have done the painted frame, stitch over the top in a contrasting coloured thread and paint within that frame.

OK, that’s all from me for the moment – I need to go back to sorting out this studio

Take care all!

Sares x

 

 

Some Sincere Thanks

As we speak I am printing out all the Thankyou notes for all of the individuals and retailers/wholesalers that got on board the Memory Gifts Project – all 600 of them! lol

There are certainly too many contributors to mention here in one place, so look out for the postie in the next few weeks while i get this job finished and please forgive me if I don’t get to you – I’ll get there at some stage, I promise!

There are a few of you who have asked how the Memory Gifts have been received and I can say that there have been quite a few “thankyou’s” from the recipients so far but I have to assume that people are still rebuilding their lives and find it difficult to even look at an album, let alone send a thankyou. That day may come – it may not and I don’t care. It wasn’t what we did it for, was it?

There are a few passages from people’s emails and letters that I would like to share with you, however:

“Our family would like to express its delight at receiving this lovely album.   You should be congratulated for the tremendous effort that has gone into creating and organising such a massive project.  The delight I have been seeing on families’ faces when they were presented with this wonderful gift brought tears to my eyes.  Their first new photos now have somewhere special to reside.  I visited your wonderful website and read all about you and was wondering if you could please convey our gratitude to all the amazing people that helped make these albums possible.

 

I am an avid card maker but have never tried scrapbooking.  While things are still very hectic at the moment your album has inspired me to give scrapbooking a go.  It is heart warming to know there are so many wonderful people out there who have helped support us through this difficult time.  Thank you again.”

“To Sarah
I have received one of the thousands of Scrapbooks that you have contributed. I am in grade 6 and love sport.I love it and will have so many good memory’s in there because of you, my sister has also got one and treasures it more than i can say.I am very touched by the way you have lighted up our days and so many people will be smiling because of what you have done and this is not like any other donation it is more and i am so very happy to get it. Thank-you a thousand times and more.”

 

 ”I must admit that it was quite emotional receiving my albums, remembering the two I had as an ongoing project for my two children.  After losing all my photos in the fire I didnt know where to start.  You kind of push it to the back of your mind because day to day sometimes is an effort in itself.  This is the incentive I needed to start tracking down some copies of the ones that i had. For this I have to say thank you because I have located some wonderful photos from family and friends…ones that I had forgotten that I had given them. 
 
My husband and I are so very grateful for the time and effort put into these beautiful albums and I am excited to start putting them together along with the new photos we have started to take. Memories will always remain with us even though we lost everything in the fire. These memories we made in the past will forever remain in our hearts and now we can make new ones.  Its the generosity from people like yourself that is so overwhelming.”

 

Give yourselves a pat on the back everyone.

If I had to do this whole project all over again, I would, based on what I read in the above letters. Cheers girls xxxx.

The only other thing to tell you from this week has been the very exciting arrival of my new little nephew Oscar :). I have to say, he hasn’t had the easiest delivery or first week of life, but he’s getting there and we are all doing our best to help. Little man, pull up those socks – it’s time to go home with mum and start your little life, ok?

I wont show you the rest of the pics I took of him – too distressing. I was lucky to get these. But he’s gorgeous – he takes his good looks from his aunty, of course

And then of course, we had a full weekend of family stuff. This is what we decided to do this afternoon:

What coud be better than a Sunday afternooon at the local down at Salamander bay? Glass of champers, beach, steak, awesome live music and taking photos. Didn’t matter about the crappy weather. James (after promising he would NOT get wet) did a face plant into the water about 2 minutesafter these pics were taken. Picture a dripping wet, screaming kid being dragged out of the water. Not screaming because he was wet, but beause he didn’t want to get OUT. God help me.

One last thing I managed to complete was some wedding ring demo shots – I needed a few more for my website – here’s a few shares:

Happy with that last shot, especially. DH was having a heart attack because he thought we were going to lose both rings and spend the afternoon snorkelling to find them

That’s all for me folks – lots more scrapping happening this week so there will be heaps to show you next post – stay tuned!

Love to all

Sares xx

 

Project Memory Gifts Finale

Well, it’s taken 9 months, about 2000 emails, about 200 phone calls, about 3000 man hours and about 20,000 LO’s but guess what?

THE MEMORY GIFTS PROJECT HAS FINALLY COME TO AN END.

Honestly, I don’t know how to feel. I thought I would be ecstatic to have my house/garage back in order but I don’t. I think I’ve been concentrating on this for so long that I am a bit lost now that it’s finished.
What I AM looking forward to is imagining the faces on the kids when they open their albums. My DH is driving down to Melbourne with the last trailer load of albums packed and ready for delivery.

The back of the car paxked with the “Starter Kits”.

The boys having a last minute hug goodbye (awww).

Some of the boxes within the trailer (there were over 50 altogether).

….and off they go.

Here we come, Strathewen, Kingslake, Marysille, Taggerty and Wattleglen!

Scrapping news:

Here’s a few shares from this week’s playing in the studio -

TIP: Don’t be afraid to crop your photos quite tightly around the face to help focus on what the real “story” is.

TIP: Embellishments don’t have to cost the earth – cut some extra bits out of co-ordinating papers and mount them off the surface of your page have done with the animals on this one.

TIP: Don’t just use patterned vellum against a white or light background – place it off centre against a textured or flocked paper and the results are gorgeous!

Every single LO I produced this week was about James – purely coincidence because the photos are all jumbled up and in no order (just the way I like things lol). He must have been on my mind LOL.

What else have I been up to this week? A wee bit of socialising and I have to tell you I had a ball – two nights down in Sydney attending a Reunion and a birthday party was great fun.

The reunion was of my old Year 12 class of ‘99 – it was great to catch up with them all again and see what lovely adults they have become. There were some suprised there, mind you! (yes, Paul, I mean you lol).

Here is a terrible photo of me with Meeks who organised the do – she is still as gorgeous as always on the inside and out.

Sat night I went to my aunt’s 60th – wow, I was blown away by the entertainment. Has anyone ever participated in a “Drum Circle Event” before? Well, I am addicted and I have to have one now. Basically it means that there are several drummers at the front of the crowd getting everyone to participate in bongo-ing out a rythm together. Everyone has their own drum. There was over 100 of us drumming – awesome stuff! By the end of it we even had my 85 year old great aunt up on the dance floor LOL. Aunty Shirley! two words! BROKEN. HIP.

The guy in black (standing) was the maestro and he had us all swinging, baby. And the noise! We were attracting people off the street LOL.ss to say that at the end of it all my hands were fleuro pink from banging my drum and I was an addicted Bongo player (and the guys were a little bit of “allright” if you know what I’m say’n ).

So that’s all for now until another update later in the week – PLEASE don’t forget to check in and participate in the TWELVE WEEKS OF CHRISTMAS weekly challenges and competition we have going on over at the Addicted to Craft Blog - there are plenty of opportunities to win prizes and participate – whether you are a retailer or an individual!

Oh! I nearly forgot! There is something else a little bit exciting I wanted to share with you all – here it is:

That is the cover of the latest Scrapbooking Memories Magazine over here in Australia – and THAT IS MY LO ON THE COVER. O.M.G. I’m a little bit excited – heck I am wetting my pants I’m so excited – WOOHOO! Hannah is getting such a huge kick out of seeing her face on the mag when we go out (me too lol). I am very honoured to be a part of the special Breast Cancer awareness issue too – GO PINK.

That’s all folks – y’all take care now

Sares x

Welcome…

… to little Piper. Here’s a small pic of this gorgeous little ray of sunshine:

A huge thankyou to Nene for allowing me to use bubby for a photoshoot – newborn babies don’t pop up very often around here . Isn’t she just divine? It was all I could do not to climb in the basket with her and have a snuggle.

While I was editing the photos I was struck by how fast the time goes when babies are small – one minute they are completely dependent on you and the next – poof! Applying for their drivers’ licence. As a matter of fact – DH, if you read this, I refuse to be the one to teach our kids to drive ok? I have more than enough grey hairs already

Another new addition around here has been this:

My latest baby – an antique temple ceiling panel from Goa, India. HUMUNGOUS. Weighs a ton and I love love love it. I can smell the candle smoke and wax on it. Every single bit of it hand carved and painted over 100 years ago – amazing, right?

I’ve done a heap of scrapping this week but I can’t share any of it with you yet as it’s either going into the mag for pubbing or it’s due up on the ATC site.

HEY! Speaking of Addicted to Craft, I dropped a hint last post about something exciting happening there. Well, we are almost ready to start the ball rolling! I’m so excited! Woot!

My last hint was BIRDS. My next hint is………..12. Keep guessing!

Some ideas that I would like you all to try in your scrapping or craft this week are:

1. Use multiple photos in different sizes. Crop them or print them that way. Offset one of the photos to make the LO have more flow.

(By the way, these photos were taken the first time we tried out the pool this year. Notice I wasn’t in the pool. That’s because my children are INSANE.)

2. Don’t be afraid to use strong colours – black and hot pink are an awesome combination, especially for little girls.

3. Don’t be afraid to give your camera to one of the kids and let them take shots of the things surrounding them. I always have a good laugh at the result (and I get a lot of “nostril” shots ) but it gives the kids a huge thrill and you get a little insight into their heads and what makes them tick.

That’s all for me for now, me hearties I am off to listen to some music and chill before a glass of room temp red and a warm TV.

Take care all,

Sares x

Where did the week go?

I am positive that time flies faster in this house. One minute I am sitting down writing a blog post and the next (it seems) it’s a fortnight later and I am trying to put something witty together for my next entry.

We are nearing the end of Term 3 here in Australia and we are really looking forward to some holidays. It’s been three of the longest terms of my life. (Just ignore that – I say it every year). But seriously, aren’t things supposed to be getting easier as the kids get older? LOL.

One thing I have had time for this week has been a whole lot of scrapping – the mojo hit and when the mojo hits you go create! If I don’t create I expode in a fit of cleaning and fall in an exhausted heap after vacuuming the ceiling in the garage (seriously).

One of the things I’ve been dying to do is use the latest in Graphic 45 and Webster’s Pages  papers to hit the Aussie shores. I don’t know whether to frame them or scrap with them. But – as I say to my classes all the time – it’s only a bit of paper and you could be dead tomorrow so bring out the scissors baby!

This is a photo of me with my darling younger brother in – you guessed it – 1979. Check out the pigtails and the home made overalls!

A gorgeous old photo (which I have scrapped vefore but I can’t get enough of) of my grandmother and great grandmother in 1923. The gorgeous Webster’s Pages papers set it off beautifully.

One of my fave colour combinations – red, white and blue – with a die cut sheet of cardstock as background and some hand cut cherries as embies.

Some of my newest work with the MAN ABOUT TOWN range of papers from Upsy Daisy :

I love this range. Perfect for a whole lot of themes. You can buy Upsy Daisy Papers directly from the company by following the above link, or, if you are in Australia you can get it from Addicted To Craft (wholesale) or Scrapbook Supplies Online (retail).

So that’s all from me for the moment – keep checking back on my Blog for little hints about my BIG suprise – I’ll give you a clue – there are a lot of birds involved (and a whole lot of prizes – sssh!).

Take care everyone – next tutorial will be uploaded in a few days – all about using Stamps with Masking Fluid!

Sares x