Now I can Show you…

…..some of the projects that I completed in preparation for SIA last week.

It was wonderful to be able to play with papers and embellishments from the following companies:

* Prima

*Upsy Daisy Designs

* Scrap Within Reach

* Rouge de Garance

* Harmonie

Scrap Within Reach “Paper Boy” range.

Rouoge de Garance “Sylvestre” range.

Prima Mulberry papers.

Upsy Daisy Designs “Blossom” and “Alligator” ranges.

Prima Clear Acrylic stamps.

And of course, the Mini Book that was created using Rouge de Garance “Marie Antoinette” papers and embellishments, as well as Prima embies and stamps:

I hope something in there inspires you! I certainly had a great time creating with them all. Every single line of paper used is excellent in design and quality – and I LOVE how Addicted to Craft chooses to sponsor and sell the smaller, less mainstream scrapbook companies. It means that we always get to use products that are different, exciting and unique!

To see some of the other wonderful work created by the Addicted To Craft Design team, visit our Blog HERE - you will be blown away by our talented ladies!

Love to all and take care,

Sares x

Bless the school holidays…

….for they are finally over LOL. I have played umpteen games of Wii, tether tennis, cricket, and scrabble. I’ve baked, cooked, cleaned and sorted until I was ready to fall down – but I had better not (fall) or the kids would think it was an invitation to play “Stacks On”, lol.

I apologise for not updating this Blog recently – I have to say it’s been bedlam around here. Notwithstanding the holiday highjinks, I have also been finalising the preparations for both SIA and the Scrapbook and Papercraft Convention in Brisbane in June. For those of you who are keen to get to the Brissy show, here is a link to the TIMETABLE OF CLASSES. I am teaching alongside such other lovely ladies as Jill Geraghty-Groves, Ngaire Bartlam and Petrina Macdonald – omg I am going to hug the stuffing out of all three ladies. We have been “online” buddies for a while now and I am looking forward to getting a chance to let our combined hair down and chillax a bit.

For those of you keen to do my “A Touch of Rouge” Class – sign up NOW as spaces are filling up fast. You will definitely NOT be disappointed by the cool new products we are using PLUS the amount of gimme’s in your Kits – you are getting almost DOUBLE the Kit value!

So, what else is new with everyone? Aside from the general “cheer” I heard when all the kids went back to school today, I think everyone has been just as busy as I have.

The SIA Kits are all packaged up and ready for the beginning of May – look out retailers!! Here are a few sneak peeks (above) of what you will see me doing or displaying at the SIA show.

So, what else have I been up to? Quite a few Photography jobs – the list of editing keeps getting longer, lol. I also have to say a belated Congratulations to my friends Tim and Mel on the arrival of baby Sophia – this little bundle is part of the reason why I have been so busy this month – isn’t she beautiful?

She had a sleepover with me the other night and we both had a lovely time. She managed to sleep over 5 hours between feeds late that night so I wasn’t even all that sleep deprived! Mind you, I only had to do it for one night and I was very glad to have a last cuddle and then hand her back, lol. As gorgeous as she is, after 4 of my own, I am a little bit past the baby stage and once you get some freedom back you don’t want to let it go! lol.

Another photo shoot down by the River for Ashleigh and Nick was this week’s project. The light was just divine but gee, without daylight saving it doesn’t take long for that sun to set, does it?

That’s all from me for now – I’m am going to hopefully sit down for 5 minutes with a cuppa before it’s time for the bath/tea/bed routine.

Don’t forget to book yourselves into the Brissy show classes!

Take care everyone,

Sares x

A Busy month…

I sat down and started writing  out my calendar today – just for the next few months. Before I had a heart attack I stopped and took a few deep breaths into a brown paper bag – sheesh!

It seems like every minute of every day is accounted for but I know that’s not true. In fact, as I get older, the less I stress about this stuff because it always happens that you have more time to do things than you think.

Having said that – could someone please send me the Tardis from Doctor Who?  Failing that, that Time Turner thingy that Hermione wore in Harry Potter? I need more hours in the day!

So, you might ask yourself, if you are so time poor, how do you manage to get LO’s done? Hmmmm?

Well, smarty pants, I work late, ok? I also work early and somewhere in the middle as well. I don’t eat. I don’t sleep. I don’t play. OK maybe I eat, because James told me tonight that I was “a little bit fat”. Noice. Thanks babe. Love you too. lol.

So here we go – layouts to share!

Yes, I know – all Hannah Banana LO’s. I am trying to catch up on some holiday pages, that’s all. Believe me, there are a ton of boy pages in here, too!

And one OTP as well:

I have been a productive little chook, haven’t I?

For those of you in my classes that are held here, at my studio, have a sticky at the side widgets for dates and materials lists for classes – they have been updated until April so I hope that helps.

For those of you who are in Sydney for the mid March CRAFT EXPO at Homebush, I will be teaching there on behalf of Scrapbooking Memories magazine! Three classes per day on March 11, 12, 13 and 14 – just come and see me at the Express Publications stand and I will be thrilled to catch up with anyone of you. Woot!

So it’s going to be a very busy year. Who am I kidding, it’s going to be hectic. But that’s pretty normal for me. You are a long time dead hey?

Take care all!

Sares xx

Some Studio Time…

Before I get into the meat of this post, let me start by saying a big THANKYOU to all those people who emailed or messaged me or left a comment here to congratulate me on winning one of the SM Masters spots. It’s been a fantastic week!

We are still in the school holidays here in Australia and the kids have been a pleasure (most of the time lol). Everyone has behaved themselves. Except for the time Hannah threw all of James’ undies down the stairs. And except for the boys fighting over who has shot down more zombies ono the DS. Oh and don’t forget sticking bubblegum to the underside of the coffeetable. And harrassinig the dog. And the cat. And………..oh, MOVING ON.

I have had a chance to move everything into my studio now and I have been able to take some pics of what it all looks like completed. Here is a collage of them all: (just click on the image for a larger version)

Yes, it’s girly. Yes, it’s moderately organised. Well, I cleaned it up for the photo – you should have seen it afterwards! lol. I LOVE IT. It’s mine. I can shut the door. I can escape. I can play music. I can even run away through the front doors! I am in a happy place.

I have also managed to do some real scrapping this week, too. I know! It’s been a while since I showed you some. I have been flat out, trust me. Here they are:

Using some left over Halloween papers for some grungy looking boy themed LO’s.

One of the Stamp sets I received as part of the Masters prize pack was Fancy Pants “On a Whimsy”. This is just my first attempt at having a little play with them.

Of course, there is probably a flood of Christmas pages around the forums and galleries at the moment. Here is one more LOL.

“Cherry Bomb” is a LO created t the end of a tutorial. If you’d like to create this page, or at least learn about the technique I used, click HERE.

Playing with my new camera and some light setting scored me this shot of Hannah in silhouette. I knew I had to scrap it immediately!

This LO was created using large sheets of rubber stanps from Darkroom Door. If you’d like to create this LO, or learn about the techniques I used to create it, click HERE.

For another lesson using my Tips and Techniques – Using GLIMMERMIST to Create Custom coloured flowers, click HERE.

The last thing to show you is this – the new Floating Frame from Twiddleybitz. I went down to Sydney to have a go at creating one with Sherry Mendoza and her class. Love it! Very easy and quick to put together – I did this in 1.5 hours.

I’m going to leave it there for now while I go sort out some more stuff in the studio. Apologies to those on dial up for this picture-rich Blog post but it had to be done! lol.

Right – I am back to creating and making a mess – that studio looks far too clean and it needs to be DIRTY.

Love to all and please keep safe on the roads these holidays!

Sares x

 

I have to do this…

…post this entry now, that is, because I am smack in the middle of having my studio refitted and I don’t know how long it would be before getting a chance to scrap again

So before I say anything else, let me post up some photos of the most recent little projects I have created -

ONE: – handmade Chrissy cards.

This year’s colour theme – Kraft card, white, pink and silver colour scheme.

TWO – Handmade Christmas Village:

Using My Mind’s Eye “A Colourful Christmas” paper range – i love it, but more importantly – the kids helped me make it – it was a fabulous family project! LOL….I won’t say I wasn’t tearing my hair out by the end of it but I will say that there was a lot of laughter, bickering and gnashing of teeth to make it happen – in short, a perfectly normal Christmas activity.

Another project I have been working on (shhhhhh…..secret squirrels) is the 12 Days of Christmas Crop over at Scrapbook Divas - Yay!

Here is a sneaky peek of what we will be doing in my “class”…

If you get a chance and you are stretched for inspiration, why not join in on the Diva’s Forum and 12 Days of Chrissy celebrations?? There is going to be plenty of motivationa, a great team to work with, some prizes and other fun stuff PLUS the chance to get to work with Marion Werren, Anne Marie Cox and myself as Guest DT as well as the wonderful regular DT who have all sorts of yummo projects lined up for you!

Last for this week (but certainly not least) is that we are up  to WEEK 9 (!!!) of the TWELVE WEEKS OF CHRISTMAS celebrations over at Addicted to Craft. I can’t believe we are at week 9 already – how fast has the year gone??

This week it is my turn to show you something special – and I have been given the new PRIMA transparencies and other gorgeous mid season realease Prima products to tempt you inot entering our wonderful competition…

So far we have had some fantastic entries and some great guest designers – who knows? the next winner could be you! But you have to be in it to win it, right?

To enter, simply follow the instructions on the Blog entry page This week’s theme ————9 LADIES DANCING…wonder what I come up with, hmmm? (wink).

That’s all from me for now – but keep posted on a regular basis for news of what we are all doing during the Christmas break – when you need some inspiration and motivation, simply visit me here or drop me a line – I’d love to hear from you!

Take care all,

Sares xxx