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

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:

Give yourselves a pat on the back everyone.

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

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

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

… 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

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

….has got to be the most exhausting yet gratitfying job throughout the year, don’t you think?

I have spent the week washing curtains, wiping down blinds, weeding the gardens and making my DH do horrible things like MOW THE LAWN for crying out loud! Sheesh, I was starting to lose the kids in the weeds. Another problem has developed from my cleanliness – the curtains are off the windows and the dog can see in. That means as soon as our butts are off the couch late at night she is crying and scratching at the door to be let in. Before, with the curtains up we could sneak out and pretend we hadn’t seen her.  Not so this time – “I can see you! I know you’re in there! Ha!”God help me.

The rest of the week has been flat out (is there ever a week that isn’t?) with preparations for James’ birthday party on tomorrow, photo shoots, classes and canteen duty. I will NEVER get tired of a little 5 year old looking up at me with big eyes and a handful of one cent pieces that he found in the bottom of Dad’s sock draw and asking, “What can I get for this money?” Mate, you’re breaking my heart! My last canteen bill was over $25 because I had subsidised most of Kindergarten’s ice creams for the day. Sucker

Well, onto scrapping things – this week we have uploaded the Prima Sketch Challenge onto the Addicted to Craft Blog. I can’t get over how many different approaches there are to the same sketch – each one is brilliant so well done girls!

Here’s my effort:

Colourful, eh? Those flowers on the left were created using the same Prima papers and the Spellbinders Nestabilities Flower Dies.

My fave LO for this week is this one:

Using My Mind’s Eye “Breaking Free” – which is quite a surfie line but I tried to make it a bit more grungy and boyish. Love it!

Last weekend saw me completing a weekend Photograohy course with Janine Kaye. Woah! The woman is a genius. My brain all of a sudden went, “Oooohhhhhhh, so that’s what that button means…”. I realised that my photos were turning out before mostly due to dumb luck. I wasn’t using half the setting on my camera and the posing and composition were little more than happy snaps – thankyou Janine for making me better

Here’s an example of one of my photos BEFORE:

MEH.

Problems: Cropped too far, one kid out of focus, background still too clear, facial lighting too bright and washed out – I could go on.

This is one of my photo shoots from two days ago – AFTER:

Yay! Still, while no means brilliant they are much better shots than the previous ones. Composition, check. Lighting, check. Depth, check. Facial expressions, check. Yay again!

I had another photo shoot that same day with a little guy by the name of Olly. Omg he was gorgeous – I could not take a bad photo of him at all

Don’t you just want to get in there and cover him in smooches?

Well, I’m going to head for bedfordshire to get myself some beauty sleep before the mayhem of 25 six year olds having a party. Am I mad? Somebody slap me!

Have a great week, everyone

Sares x

….a Wee Bear that is

We had Book Week this week at school and the kids had to come dressed as their favourite book character. I just HAD to show you these pics of James:

“ROWRRR!”

Is that not the cutest thing you have ever seen? I mean, I know he’s my kid and all and I’m a bit biassed (well, a lot biassed) but still! Sometimes there are days when I am grinning from ear to ear because of my kids.

I’ve been doing a bit of “virtual tidying” here in the computer and getting rid of some old files and I thought I’d pull out some “oldies but goodies” – LO’s that have been done a while ago but have never seen the light of day on here.

Here’s a few shares:

I’ve also finally finished off this Mini Book (no longer so mini) about my trips to the USA – here’s the front cover:

and here’s some thumbs of the other pages:

Of course, there are tons more pages but I won’t bore you with them, lol.

I have also completed another TWO more tutorials for you here on the Apprentice.

Check out:

Tips and Techniques: Using Spellbinders and the Sizzix

and

Tips and Techniques: Button Trees

for some easy to follow instructions on creating some of your own embies for papercrafts.

It’s been a busy week but it hasn’t finished yet so I had better get back to creating and cleaning before the kidlets get home.

Have a great day everyone!

Sares x

…of something new that I have in the planning stages at the moment.

I’ll give you a clue – it’s to do with scrapbooking. It also has something to do with the Spring Carnival. I’m going to give you a letter each post so that you can start putting two and two together about my next exciting project, ok?

Girls in my classes – sssh! Pretend you don’t know, ok?

Here’s your first sneak peek:

And your first letter clue is…………..B.

Stay tuned for some more exciting sneak peeks!

We’ve had a bit of a mixed week – all of those usual mundane, humdrum things going on like birthday parties (not ours), flat batteries, grocery kamikaze shopping – you know the drill.

You don’t know what kamikaze shopping is? Picture this:

About 20 harrassed looking mothers in sweaty gym clothes on a Monday morning outside Woolworths. They each have an empty shopping trolley in front of them, a shopping list and they are winding up their proverbial motors to get started on the weekly grocery spin around the aisles.

(In the voice of the horse racing commentator….)

“And they’re off! Number 12 takes the lead with a tricky manouevre around number 7, elbowing her out of the way between the bananas and the toffee apples, look out! number 7 is retaliating with a quick upper jab of the trolley bar into the back of number 12, number 3 is heading straight for the discounted roasts in the meat section, oh dear, number 5 has spilled a bag of pasta and there are Dolmio elbows all over the place! Check out number two who has picked up a jumbo size loo roll packet – it’s so big she can’t see where she’s going! CRASH! Clean up in Aisle 4!”

Seriously, aside from the loo roll incident that pretty much sums up my Monday mornings. No wonder I need a drink and a lie down by lunch time

As most of you know, I a very big fan of Lolcats (“I can haz cheezburger”) and so I just had to share with you one of the pics from last week – check this out:

CHUCKLE. Hah, gets me every time, I tell ya

Spent a bit of time playing with my camera in the backyard today – wasn’t the weather just divine? Here’s the results:

I am going to have to wait until tomorrow to show you the LO’s I did during the week because they have to go up on the Addicted to Craft Blog first.  They are due up tonight and so I will update this post again tomorrow to show show you the pages – I quite liked them

Well, everyone, I am off to go collect kiddies from parties and hopefully steal some time lazing out in the backyard before it’s time to get back into the swing of things tonight. I have a whole new stash of Prima to play with – OH MY HEAVENS I love that stuff. The new flower ranges are too beautiful – I can hardly bring myself to use them (but I will, watch me).

Love to all and take care for now,

Sares x

…or maybe had a brain snap. I just cut out over 200 flower shapes from felt and fabric but it was worth it ‘coz the result is gorgeous!

Been a quiet week here, settling back in to routine after DH returned. I was spoiled with some gorgeous pressies so it was worth the trip after all

I am working on something a bit exciting at the moment – stay tuned over the nest few weeks to see what I get up to

In the meantime, here’s a few peeks of LO’s to share :

I have also had a chance to send my Masters stuff off – cross your fingers for me for this year I was pretty happy with everything I made, but we’ll just have to wait and see, eh?

Here’s a sneak peek of what I have been working on – but ssssh! it’s going to be a suprise

That’s all from me for now – take care everyone!

Sares x

…what you find out you can do when you are under pressure.

It has been a tough month with DH away, school holidays, soccer, birthday parties and sick kids, but we’ve made it. Even managed to have a bit of fun along the way (weak laughter). I desperately need a bit of R & R and DH is due home tonight so after he recovers from his trip I’ll be asking for some “time out” baby!

I must admit that I was dreading him being away for so long. I thought that I would go crazy spending so much time with the kids. I was always telling them “in a minute” or “just a sec” or “go play in the rumpus room” and my guilt over not spending enough time with them was huge. But the “pull” of creating was much bigger. Still, I had that “niggling” feeling at all times – what kind of a parent can you be if you are always telling the kids to go away?

So I was thrown in the deep end and it was good. I actually got more time to create because we did stuff together. Sure, I blew my stack when they were naughty, but they got to see a softer side as well as the disciplinarian.

So when DH gets home there will be some other adjustments to be made, like many of you who live with a partner in the military will know. There is one thing I know for sure and that is the kids have missed their dad like mad and they will all over him like a rash the first chance they get

I have had a chance to work with a Kit for the lovely Cas over at Scrappaddix again – this time using the new range of papers from Collage Press called “Knave of Hearts”. The full Kit comes complete with a stack of co-ordinated papers and Die Cuts as well as a 12 x 12 alpha sticker sheet – awesome value!

These papers and embies are PERFECT for your boy pages – young ones through to teens. The co-ordinating Die Cut cardstock come in a great range od shapes and colours and really pack a punch in your design. But don’t limit yourself to boy pages only – why not something like this:

or this:

or this:

There is plenty more to come using that Kit – so stay tuned because I have only just got warmed up! lol

EIDOU UPDATE:

My Digi Designing has taken on a whole new level since the SENZ show in NZ last week. A HUGE thankyou to Louise who managed the Eidou Display and managed to put together a fabulous effort while 6 months pregnant – you deserve a break big cheese!

Those die hard scrappers who were new to Digi scrapping were given a little demo on how easy it is to create a Digi page, so they lost some of their fear of it.

Here are some previews of another two complete Kits that I have uploaded this week:

The “Spring Lights Kit“:

“Shabby Toile” Papers:

and “Shabby Toile Elements” to match:

Here is a sample of a LO that you can achieve using just a few elements from the paper and elements packs:

Didi scrapping really is a whole lot simpler than you may think – stay tuned for more Digi Scrapping Tutorials as I work my way through screenshots to bring them to you.

The last thing I will leave you with this post is a LO I have just completed using the newest Upsy Daisy Designs paper range called “A Walk in the Park”. Using the colours of Fall and modern, retro organic patterns, this range of papers is simply gorgeous. Here is my first LO using the range titled “Discover New Things”:

Speaking of designing for Upsy Daisy – how would you like to be a part of our wonderful team?

Upsy Daisy are looking for NEW talented designers to add to our awesome design team. We are a fun loving, caring bunch of gals and we would love to have some more member to share our work with – just follow this link to the UDD Blog:

Find out more about the Upsy Daisy Designer Call HERE:

Well, given that this is a bit of an epic message I’ll love you and leave you for now. There’s washing a’callin’!

Take care all and happy scrapping,

Sares xx