Don’t eat yellow snow!

That was one of the first things I said to the kids (especially James) when we hit the slopes for our holiday last week. Other choice things I had to say were:

“Ryan! Please don’t lick the car. Your tongue will stick to it and then I will have to drive to the ski fields with you attached to the roof racks.”

“Hannah, you cannot take your snuggie blanket on the toboggan. No.”

“James! Don’t go near the creek! Don’t do it! I mean it! Don’t go anywhere near the creek or your foot will go in……OK, now that your foot has gone in, it’s cold isn’t it? Yeah, well, I told you so!”

“Luke, if I get one more surly look from, you, so help me I will chain you to the chairlift and leave you there to do permanent loops for the entire day.”

SIGH!

Honestly, though, we had a great holiday. I was down there by myself with the 4 kids and my brother, Greg, joined us to help out and corral the kids. He was fantastic value – but I reckon he isn’t going to be anywhere near kids for a while! LOL.

Here are some pics of the week for you to have a sticky beek at – look at all that snow!

Now that I am back in the land of warm days and sun I have got to finish off at least 5 projects that are on the boil for various design teams or magazine issues. Wish me luck! lol. I hope everyone out there had a great week and I’ll catch up with you again shortly – with lots of yummo new ideas for you to use with the new Upsy Daisy range of papers and with other fab products that have found their way onto my desk from CHA and beyond. Keep your eyes peeled!

Love to all,

Sares x

Down but not Out!

Hello there all,

You may be wondering where I have been for a month. Answer: under a doona. I have had the flu lurgy three times this year and this time it developed into something more sinister. Never mind, I am on the mend now and I hope to be back at full speed very shortly!

The problem with leaving it so long between posts is that I hardly know where to start, there is so much to tell you all.

Well, first of all, there is this bit of news. With the advent of CHA next week, UPSY DAISY Designs have released their two newest ranges of papers – AVALANCHE and HOME SWEET HOME:

Aren’t they divine?

I love the misty, cool blues and silvers on the Avalanche range and the Home Sweet Home range has the most gorgeous colour tones, so warm and delicious. Can’t you just see those papers used as part of a Recipe Book?

There was also a bit of unexpected UDD news. After a few years of being a wonderful DT co-ordinator, Lacintha has stepped down so that she can move on to her own scrapping business – good luck Laci!

Now we have a new DT co-ordinator, Kim Sonksen, who has already freshened up the Blog and we have all been told of a NEW DT CALL – so get the word out amongst yourselves. The applicants can be from anywhere around the world and I have to say, I LOVE being part of the UDD team. Everyone is lovely, friendly and so supportive of one another. So why don’t you apply? To read more about the UDD Design Team and get some inspiration from our designs, visit the Upsy Daisy Designs Blog.

So, what else can I share with you?

Oh that’s right!  THIS!

My gf, Deb, came over last week and we had a lovely play with a big canvas, some organza strips and Impasto. We made a big mess but BOY was it fun! Look at what she did!

The canvas is actually about 2.5 feet long by 1 foot wide. So the new owner will now be hanging it above her bed in her room – lucky thing!

What else can I show you? Oh, I few things:

“Spiritual Home” using  Anna Griffin Die Cut cardstock and papers, white lace treated with two shaed of Glimmermist, DCWV papers and K & Co Blossomwood Die cuts.

  

A couple of A4’s I did when I was feeling a tad sick – not up to my usual standard of throwing everything at the page, but I was happy with them :).

I was also lucky enough to be asked to be a Guest Dt member for Twiddleybitz during June. I had a ball! Here are some of the projects I created using their wonderful product.

“JOY” Christmas Wreath:

and my fave for the month, “NAUGHTY MISS CHARLOTTE”….

  

“Naughty Miss Charlotte was created using several pieces of the latest range from Twiddleybitz . To check out more of their great product, you can visit their site HERE or pop on over to their Ning site Twiddleybitz on Ning and join in the Gallery and Forum!

That’s all from me for now – I hope everyone has a fantastic week and that the sun is shining, wherever you are in the world!

Love to all,

Sares x

School Holiday Projects!

Hi there all,

We have just started our Winter school holidays (a much needed break, let me tell you) and already I have the kids knocking down my door for some crafty things to do to keep them occupied.

I was looking through my bag of tricks and I thought I’d compile a list of things you can do with your kids these holidays with your scrapping and/or crafting equipment…..

Idea #1:

Make some Fuzzy Felt animal shapes to cut out and use on the front ofyour child’s tee shirts, kindy bag, pillowcases or pencilcase.

Idea #2:

If ou are anything like me and you accumulate a bazillion paper scraps, bring them out for the kids and make some cute little birdies to use on the front of birthday cards, on a custom made canvas to hang in your child’s room, or even make one using fabric scraps and sew it to the front of a tee shirt.

Idea #3:

Use some left over sculpey, fimo,or even bread dough to make some cute little figures for your child to paint.

Idea #4:

Create a little “Time Capsule” for your little ones using left over boxes that contained your scrap supplies. Get them to collect little items to include in their time capsule, hide away and open later!

All  of these tips and idea can be found in my side menu with detailed instructions and pictures to follow. I hope the school holidays aren’t too painful for everyone and have fun!

Sares x

Post Brisbane!

Here I am, talking to you from the studio where I have finally surfaced after a a marathon sleep. I needed to sleep to catch up on the 16 HOURS of sleep I got over 4 nights while we were up in Brisvegas., LOL.

I flew up to Brissy last Friday, in time to pick up the eCraft and head straight over to the Expo site and set up the Addicted To Craft stand plus help on some others. I also set up my Tutors wall as well as had a peek at the Master’s Gallery where my other work was hanging.

WELL. I have to tell you, I was impressed. Actually that sounds like I am impressed with myself, der. No, I was impressed with the Brissy show being so well run, well organised and well set out. I was impressed with the calibre of scrappers they had for teaching and showing things, as well as impressed with the range of product as well as the prices on things. Woot! I didn’t spend a fortune but I was really happy with what I did get in the few minutes I had to dash around the stands and look at things. High on my shopping list (as always) were the Pink Paislee Artisan albums, some new stamps and some new inks…and yay! I got them all.

It was soon time to start teaching classes and I have to tell you, I wasn’t nervous before I started but I was sure nervous by the second day! Gosh, I am a clutz. It’s a good thing I can laugh at myself, let me tell you. I entertained my first class by tripping over a cord, tearing my shirt right up the centre and sitting down in a cloud of talcum powder because I had been too generous in applying it in my jeans that morning. And yes, I did ask everyone to guess what colour my undies were and yes, I WAS wearing some thankyou Angella! 😉

That first night was a great chance to catch up with my girls Deb and Sherie who were also up there to have fun and attend classes. We all fell into a restuarant called “Ahmet’s” (Turkish Bellydancing a standard part of the evening) where we were joined by another 18 or so scrappin industry buddies and some AWESOME cocktails. I had this drink made with passionfruit and vanilla and drank three of them before I realised they were getting me tipsy from the ground up – my god! I tried to stand at the end of the night and my knees wouldn’t work. I laughed so hard and so long that night, it was great. And the food! I could have moved in to that place permanently.

Sorry about the shocking photos – I only had my phone on me and it’s not exactly known for it’s brilliant capabilities. Or maybe it was the cocktails. Either way, I can’t be blamed for the one of me and my girls, coz I’m in it!

So, back to the Show. I have to say, I was thrilled with the response from people doing my classes and the general “vibe” of the public. Everyone was very calm, no “shovey shovey my turn” at the stands, everyone was pleasant, happy and polite and BEST OF ALL they liked my jokes and tolerated by poor attempts at humour, the poor suffering mites!

Another bonus of this show was the chance to catch up with quite a few of the members of the Addicted To Craft Design Team. We all worked on the stand together, all had great laughs together, all worked as a team well together for classes and we all had a great time letting down our proverbial hairs at dinner on the Sunday night.

I have to thank Kelly Lusted, my fellow Master, for helping me out in my classes each morning, as well as Sonia Thomason, Tatum Woodroffe, Angela Peardon, Renee Dowling and Susan Longman for also being fantastic company. It was a delight to finally meet you girls!

Luisa Gibson (aka “Big Cheese”), Mark Butler, Susan Longman, Kellie Lusted.

Sonia Thomason, Angela Peardon.

Tatum Woodroffe and Renee Dowling.

So, as I get to the end of this post and start feeling guilty about not tackling the “Mount Washmore” pile in the laundry, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the whole Brisbane experience and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I am exhausted and hallucinating about sleeping for a whole 24 hours but man! it was worth it, lol.

Here’s a couple more piccies – me with the lovely Scrapapple girls Louise and Stacey is the one on the left. The one on the right is me with Deb Godley who was in my class along with her lovely sister, mum and girlfriend.

Thanks to everyone for reading this epic – I’m to try and assemble something to eat for dinner. I promise, when I am feeling a bit more “with it” I will attempt to link all those names up there to their blogs or sites. But it’s beyond my fuzzy brain at the moment, lol. Till next time, peeps!

Take care,

Sares x

A Busy Month ahead…

…but oh my lordy what fun it’s going to be!

I am heading up to Brisvegas at the end of next week in order to attend the Brisbane Scrapbook and Papercraft Convention. I have always missed out on going to this show – every year I used to hear all the great stories coming back from the girls who attended and I just had to sit there and grit my teeth! lol. Not this year!

This year I am heading up to the Show to represent Addicted To Craft and teach what I hope to be some fabbo lessons using the newest range of Rouge de Garance papers and embellishments – can we say WOOHOOOOO!?!

Be there or be square peeps! 😉

Another exciting thing I have been invited to do this month is be a Guest Designer for Twiddleybitz – yay!

I have long been a fan of TBZ and their new chippy products are amazing. Wait until you see some of the designs!

I have uploaded the first of my designs for this month onto the TBZ Ning site – click HERE to head on over and take a look at everyone’s wonderful work.

This is my first projct for the month: “LIVE,DREAM, LOVE”

Back soon to upload some more!

Love to all,

Sares xx