Hello all!

After a few months, off, I am back.

Where did I go? Nowhere special, just buried under a pile of kids and the usual Christmas hijinks. Phew, what a year!

The Photography business took off like a rocket towards the end of last year and I was literally snowed under with jobs – what a great way to be!

I hope everyone out there had a lovely and joyous Christmas season and a fabulous New Year!

Now that the New Year gas started I can also OFFICIALLY unveil a new project of mine – “SARAH’S SPACE”.

Some of you may remember that, last year I was awarded the position of Scrapbooking Memories Master and I began a year’s worth of work for the magazine over here in Australia.

I know that the mag also gets published and sent around the world, so a big HELLO! to all my girls in America (both North and South), Canada, Asia, the UK and South Africa!

Boy am I glad to see some happy, familiar names and faces amongst you all!

“Sarah’s Space” is an article I will be writing for Scrapbooking Memories magazine once a month. It is going to feature in it everything from new products and new techniques to

fascinating new sites, blogs and things from the scrapping digital world. I am so excited to be bringing it to you! Of course, I have had to keep it a secret for MONTHS, which has nearly driven me bonkers, but if you get a chance to pick up the magazine and see the first article, that would make me smile. The first article is in the current issue – Volume 13 Number 2 and it is on page 71. Woot!

Some other projects that have been published this month are:

 

This is a LO I created about my son who is a bit of a dreamboat. You can almost hear the cogs whirring around in his head and when he shows you what he has been creating, you literally hold your breath. I drew the background in with felt tip pen to picture what I thought was constantly going on inside his kooky little mind. I then hand coloured it using Watercolour pencils. I love this technique – it’s perfect for those of us who freehand doodle while we are chatting on the phone! lol. For those of you who have the current issue of Scrapbooking Memories magazine, this page is being used for the Technique of the Month (page 41) and there are some close up shots and some tips and techniques for creating this page yourselves.

Another fabbo accomplishment I had over the Christmas holidays was to score the cover of the Scrapbooking Memories magazine for their Christmas issue – woot!

Here it is, with my gorgeous eldest son as the subject:

And here it is on the cover:

EXCITING!!

So, what else has everyone been up to? For those of you in the southern hemisphere, scrapping while the kids are on holidays? I hope so!

For those of you interested, here are the images from this month’s “Sarah’s Space” article. The article was all about Dry Embossing and using it in ways on your scrapping pages and projects that brings a little “lift” in dimension as well as gets to use your products in ways that are a little “Outside the square” (I hope!).

    

Two cards using embossed cardstock from the Cuttlebug, plus some Die Cuts from the Quickutz range.

The LO using the same technique – just taking things a step further. This time, after embossing some white cardstock through the Cuttlebug machine, I hand cut out some pieces and then coloured them with small cubes of ink. After they were placed around the window frame and layered, they were spritzed with some Glimmermist. I LOVE this effect. The sky is the limit in terms of how you place everything. You could use a canvas as a base, for example, and cover the entire thing with embossed and cut out sections of cardstock to make it look like an entire GARDEN of 3D scrumptiousness.

Well, I am going to head off now and have a cuppa before bed – this is enough to keep you going for a little while, I hope!

I will be back soon, of course, with more details of techniques, more Photography tips and even more ways of getting your work to look better and better using some of the newest products around.

Have fun and happy scrapping!

Sares x

Doesn’t Time Fly?

…when you’re having fun?

I have been “batching it” as a single parent this month and I have to say – there seems to be less hours in the day, for some reason. I mean, seriously – did someone take away an hour or three? That’s the only explanation I have for getting to the end of the day and having no time left to scrap! Or sleep, for that matter, lol.

It’s been a hectic month, as you would imagine, with 4 kids, the dog, the cat, the fish (now sadly deceased) (thank god – one less mouth to feed), the garden, the housework, the school work and the newest batch of snails and hunstman spiders my front garden seems to love to procreate. Eek. Going out the front door feels like running the gammut of the Haunted House at the local circus.

I just sprayed the whole front of the house with “get-rid-of-spiders” type stuff and now I am sorry! Their little bodies are all curled up on my front porch as a testament to my genocide. Eek! It was too much for me, I’m afraid. I went around the back and out the side gate to get the post. I WILL have to go out there at some stage and get rid of them. Or maybe, if I wait long enough, we will have a stiff breeze and it will blow them all across the road. Here’s hoping! lol.

So, scrap wise – there are a few things on the agenda.

Firstly – class this week. We are doing an “All white” project of mine.

It seemed like a good idea, at the time, to have an “all white” page but I didn’t count on the fact that I am a MESS and I attract dirt and other unmentionables to me like a magnet. Keeping the page clean for class has been a nightmare! Anyway, enjoy 🙂

Next thing to show you is my start to the Halloween decorations for the year. The kids are right into it this year – and why not? A bit of fun never hurt, I say.

I call this, “The Bellfry”:

I can finally show you this page:

“Into the Wild” was created as one of my last Masters projects for the year using Karen Foster’s Zoo papers and embies. I liked this one. The papers are kinda cutesy but they work with the calico in the background.

This is a LO with a vintage feel to it that I created for one of our Sat classes. I LOVE the combination of brown, cream and gold. The photo is actually digitally manipulated to look like a drawing and then printed onto canvas:

So, now I am off to publish something on both the Upsy Daisy Blog and my Photography blog. I have been a busy gal this month, with weddings and family shoots non stop most weekends. It’s a stressful but wonderful time to share with people. If you get the time, pop over to my Photography Blog and take a peek.

That’s all from me for now – thanks for stopping by!

Sares x

Hi Ho Hi Ho…

…it’s off to SIA I go!

What a month! I have been practically nonexistent on here, for which I deeply apologise. It’s been bedlam, believe me.

I think we are long overdue for some serious scrapping tips – so here we go!

Tip: Tightly cropping photos can help you keep the focus on the “occasion” rather than the unneccessary details. It’s also good for getting the best out of some ordinary pics – even blurry or overexposed shots look oko when they are cropped.

TIP: Boy themed LO’s don’t need to be without little things like hearts and flowers – keeping the colours bright can help make the “look” a bit more masculine. If your son still complains, tell him “too bad” – you are doing these LO’s for you (at this stage) not him and I can bet he’ll be grateful for them later. Ok, much later, but still grateful! lol.

New Webster’s Pages papers – need I say more? LOVE THEM.

TIP: the new paper ranges out that have such incredible designs on them hardly need to be scrapped, let alone embellished. You could be forgiven for simply plonking your photo on the page and walking away. As you can see, I can’t do that. I would disintegrate into ash. Too hard! But this one is just kept to a minimum to allow the photo to shine.

I’m loving working with acetate at the moment. This page is clear with a Prima Mulberry paper cut out and laid around the outside edges.

TIP: Don’t be afraid to invest in an expensive paper and then chop it up. Reason 1: You only live once – why wait? Reason 2: You will always use the remainder of the paper on something else.

New papers from Scrap Within Reach. PERFECT for boy pages.

TIP: Cut out three large circles from co-ordinating papers and stick them to your cardstock base. Overstitch the edges with your sewing machine and then lift up some edges for a textured look.

First of all, can I say how much I LOVE the “Sylvester” range of papers from Rouge de Garance? Gorgeous quality, gorgeous colours and co-ordinate perfectly together.

TIP:  Try to mix up your LO shapes by introducing circles, ovals, triangles etc. I layered a transparency over the top of the circle in the background of this page, then stitched it into place. I also hand made the “Fir Tree” branch embellies – I couldn’t find any that didn’t look poxy, so I draw them on card with clear embossing pen, then covered in white embossing powder and heat gunned the lot. LOVE the effect.

Finally, this one for Mother’s Day:

This is the simplest card EVER. The new ranges of Prima stamps are fantastic to use as hand made embellishments.

TIP: For this card, I pulled out some co-ordinating Versacolour Ink blocks and double inked those Prima paisley shapes onto white cardstock. Then I simply cut them out and arranged them with some flowers on the front of the card. A few scraps of card later (with some bling of course) and VOILA! Happy Mother’s Day, Mum.

OK, that will hopefully give you all something to think about until I post again, which won’t be until after I return from SIA. I’ll hopefully have some happy snaps of some great girls and new friends made while I am there. I pomise I’ll only publish the nice ones, ladies! What is Photoshop for, anyway? 😉

I’ll leave you with a few pics of my gorgeous tribe, taken while we were out for a drive last week. Let me say this about that drive – GPS DOES have it’s limitations, it seems. I found myself at the bottom of a mountain, on a dirt road surrounded by wild mushies and wallabies. LOL. On the plus side, I would never have seen this:

Clear, ice cold mountain stream. Complete with turtles and fishies. The kids went wild. And speaking of kids, the kidlets (aka “the 4 amigos”) let me take some pics of them during the day – LOVE these:

LOL, I love you, my four amigos. You light up my days.

Take care, everyone and I’ll see you when I getback!

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 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