First crop talk

Consider now I am on a break with casual meets and workshops I thought it might be nice to share some of the layout ideas I have done throughout the year or so. You are welcome to use them if it inspires you to try out.

You need to have a jumbo star cutter from Creative Memories and two CM cutter blades to be able to do this layout idea. 

You cut three different coloured star ribbons and mount down on the page as shown on the left. 

And you need a bold star shape cut and mount onto the main cardstock before you add the star ribbons on top.

This layout is quite simple.  If you have scrap strips of paper of plain or printed, this layout is ideal to use them.

Firstly you need a triangle shaped paper cut to fit the album page.  Add strips of scrap papers onto your triangle. Cut ends to make the triangler shape.  Add photos onto your tree and add a small star punch on top and a medium square punch on the bottom (as the base of your tree).

Requirements:  small circle punch and a "L" template created to use on the main photo.  Cut two L shapes on the photo.  See layout to show how the "L" template was used.  Mount the cutting onto paper/cardstock.

Cut a medium sized circle to add behind the long strip as illustrated.  Then add the small circle punches on one of the half circle.  The rest are added to the other side where the shorter paper is (as illustrated).

Use one 2-3 inch strip to mount down the page.  Add a standard photo sized paper to the right side of the page. Then mount the photo on top between the long strip and the shorter one.

Have fun creating!

Scrap meets ended

My scrap meets are all finished for the year now.  I had the final three meets on the last week of school term.  Also last week I placed my first order online because I thought my consultant wasn't going to do anymore ordering until after Christmas.  Normally it's later each month she orders.  But it doesn't matter it will be nice to see a big parcel arriving at my home address (hopefully this week) for once.  I think I will continue going this way from now on as I know alot of CM customers are doing the same thing and they say the orders do arrive within a week.

Two of the final meets were break up workshop parties held at my consultant's house on Wednesday and Friday night.  Friday night was basically our consultant provided supper but I wasn't quick enough to grab hot finger food.  So I grab Maccies on my way home for a midnight snack. 

On Wednesday we had to bring a plate to share but I decided to bring in a fruit punch instead.  Unfortunately it didn't get all drank because we had a cool and wet day to remain indoors scrappin' away with a topic idea.  In the last hour of the workshop we had our lunch with seafood, a variety of salad freshly made and dessert.  Who said about going on a diet over summer is ideal?  I think it's the worst time of the year to start dieting because you have break up parties and Christmas celebrations to deal with.

The next workshop is scheduled to happened in the New Year. Between now and then I will need to get some pages organised. I have been looking on eBay to see what retired products are still available.  My consultant is hosting a 12 hour meet at her child's school hall after New Year's Day.  All we got to bring is our scrap gear and BYO lunch.  I will be going to this meet because my kids will be away at Grandma's for their holiday.

Have a great summer with the kids! 

Break up parties

You can tell it's heading towards the end of the year as TV shows are ending and break up parties have started. 

Last Saturday I had my first break up party to attend for scrapbooking with the Saturday's group.  Not sure what time this event ended as I had to leave as I had a sports break up party to attend that evening until 11pm. 

Only have this week to go with two break up parties on Wednesday and Friday night for scrapbooking and one casual meet and then it will be finished for year.  For Wednesday's group we need to bring a plate to share for lunch but I intend to be a little different and bring the fruit punch ingredients.  The ladies love it and my punch intends to go quite quickly.  There is no real secret!  Just you need to have the right fruit juice to add and the right amount of ginger ale and lemonade to use in the punch bowl..  I use diet lemonade instead of the normal lemonade, otherwise I think it would be too sweet to drink. 

My CM workshop meets won't resume back until school resumes in late January 2012.  My consultant has discuss last month about having a day meet in early January at a function room but she hasn't got back to anyone to say if the venue has been booked. Not sure when I will return back for casual meets at the craft store as I will have kids home with their school holidays for six weeks.  But if the kids managed to have a holiday at Grandma's, I might call in the New Year for a casual sit or two but more likely I will be at home and get other projects organised while the kids aren't at home. 

Even through Frank and the kids will be away for a couple of days after Christmas I plan on using "my" home alone time to have my own scrap camp at home. I might be busy printing many photos ready for 2012 workshops with the use of my new A3 printer that I got as an early Christmas present.  My standard printer is slowly dying of old age and lots of usage.

Speaking of printing, I have my new printer to set up as I have some Christmas card inserts and my annual newsletters to print up, ready to add with the cards and post to people who aren't connected to the internet.  I had a busy AM spring cleaning around this area.  I need a space area to set up the A3 size printer.

Still scrapbooking

You think I would of lost my mojo by now after a weekend of scrapbooking but no...I had a casual scrap at the craft store today. Only me and another lady had the room to ourselves as the scrappers who do weekly workshops were absent.  I didn't scrap much as I was too busy helping the other lady with a couple of layout ideas. 

But the thing I learnt from the craft store today was how to knit without needles.  They called it elbow knitting but to me it looks more like french knitting minus the equipment.  It looks very simple to do which I might try out next winter if I can remember to.  I don't knit or crochet during the summery months because it's too hot.  Long before I had kids I used to knit and crochet alot but once scrapbooking was introduce, my other hobbies I used to do have more or less went to the back burner.  It was my Nanna who taught me to knit while I learnt to crochet at school when I studied Home Economics during my junior years.

What a weekend it was!!  I was away for two nights at our scrap camp at our popular venue spot.  It was a full house at the centre with three other groups of scrappers in their conference rooms.  Don't know what time the other rooms finished up each night but our group finished up by 1am on each night.  Like always I was the last up on both nights so I had to lock up, etc, etc. I did managed to meet a couple of other ladies from groups.  One lady came up from Sydney and had three nights at the centre with that group. 

 

Surprisingly I was quite a productive person being creative and managed to finished off two smaller projects and started on a new one.  I have noticed over the years I am getting better with page layout ideas.  Some are that good I don't wish to give those great pages away to anyone. Definiately time to get my camera out and take photos to remember what I have done.

 

The food at the camp was great. That place sure knows how to feed the army.  I am not really a big intaker of food at meal times so my tummy was quite blotted by the time I left the conference centre on Sunday afternoon.  It was my first time I tried sushi and surprisingly I quite enjoyed it!

 

Because of the accomodation availably, my CM consultant only could book 15 ladies to attend this time so it was our first time in history we all had a table each to ourselves.  She set up the room with most of the tables in a big rectangle and only afew tables were placed in the middle.  There were jokes made about the seating arranagements in the middle as the time out tables for naughty people,  But I sat near the main air conditioner on the outer ring so most of the time I had the control of the remote of the air conditioner. 

 

As for the sleeping arrangements I was the only guest who had a room all to myself.  Honestly the room was just big enough to fill with four single beds, four mini cupboards and a mini vanity sink near the entrance.  I didn't have a bathroom so I had to use the next unit bathroom at time of need.  There was no wall between these two units.  It was a long hallway for me to walk down to the other end.  The other unit had more private rooms like a normal house with bedrooms .  Each room had either one or two single beds but one of the rooms did have a double bed.  Lucky person who had that bed because the bed I slept on was so uncomfortable.  I should of just stayed up and scrap all night! By the time I got to sleep it was too close to daylight.  But I was good to be home to sleep on my own bed again since.

 

Since Christmas is only a month away I need to sit down and get my newsletter completed and cards written to be sent off by the time school ends for the year.  And make some small goodies for the kids to give to their teachers.

 

 

Scrap camp

The weekend I have been waiting for is almost here.  Only have around 90 minutes to go and I will be off travelling to my scrap camp destination for two nights.  I spent many hours on camp preparation and I have four albums to take with me.  I will try to be a productive person and complete many pages as I can.  Three of the four albums are more to finish off some pages not completed and one 12 inch is to start from scratch.  I am not expecting to complete all projects I packed in one weekend as I need breaks for meals, read, sleep and possible swim in the centre's pool too.

It doesn't matter if outdoors is humid and hot this weekend because we will be all inside in air conditioning comfort scrappin' away to our heart's content, gossiping about any good old subject, share jokes, laughter and pigging out on the meals and snacks that has been prepared for us. 

A good thing about this weekend I don't need to be stressful about SAHM duties or be the taxi driver for my kid's sports this weekend.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Scrap tips

I only had one scrap meet this week. It was just a casual meet with three ladies at the craft store.  It was nice to catch up with these ladies as we haven't been there for two weeks.  This time I decided to go back in time and finish off one of my diary years where my eldest daughter was at preschool.

Next week will be busy because I have the final touches to do before weekend.  I will be away for two nights at a scrap camp, west of Brisbane.  I can't wait as I need abit of a break away from homelife.

Before I sign off here I have a couple of scrap tips for this month.  It involves sewing and stickers to create interesting fonts. 

If you are scrapbooking school days, have crayon stickers and don't know what to do with them, create letters with the crayon stickers. 

If you a keen sewer, you can either hand or machine stitch around your large diecut letters.  Also you could do the simpler stitching around a particular subject of any photos.  This shaped stitching will give the focal point of your photo/s.

A scrap workshop

I only had one scrap meet this week as the craft store was closed on Tuesday.  The owners of the store decided to do a shopping day tour with afew craft people as part of the celebration for Melbourne Cup Day. 

My only scrap meet for the week was held last night at my CM consultant's home. It was a four hour workshop to do a Christmas layout.  Only eight of us ladies were there to do a simple layout using smaller sized photos and lots of 1.5 inch squares from scrap papers.  I decided to go for more the bauble look by cropping my papers and photos into circular shapes.  I completed a cat page of my cat.

Well...Christmas is now 46 days away and I guess it is time to start to get into the festive season spirit and my consultant plans on using this month on getting some Christmas page layouts done from past Christmas.

Our camp is now only two weekends away and I have almost finished preparing my page layout ideas for the weekend. Just got to use my cricut to cut some big fonts and the cuttlebug for some dry embossed pages so I don't take these machines as extra baggage for the weekend.

Camp preparations

What craft products have you been up to lately? I only had one casual meet this week as there was no workshops scheduled.  But I am using this week to prepare my photos and pages ready for scrap camp next month.  It's quite time consuming to find what's required.  At least I am finding stuff I have forgotten I purchased.  The only thing I will need to buy is supplies of mounting tapes as I plan on being productive at camp to get alot of pages completed in one weekend.

Three scrap meets

It sure has been busy here for the past week. Besides preparing scrap pages for three scrap meets, I managed to make a start with camp preparation to take place next month.  So far I have prepared some photos and page layout ideas to about ten pages.  Still got alot to go and I probably work on this project while the girls are at school this week.

On Tuesday I went to the craft store like I do weekly to have our weekly scrap meet with other ladies. Only another two showed up to casually scrap with me on one table. I decided to make a start with Rachel's school albums with this year's photos. I know one of the other ladies was working on her life as I have seen some of her pages. It was interesting to see what our past history was like before I was born.  I wasn't sure what the other lady was doing.  She doesn't really say much or show her work. Her visits to sit and scrap with us intends to be only a short term on some weeks.  She lost her son in the Bali Bombing eight years ago so this month wasn't really the best month for her to go and socialize with other people.  Also there were another two ladies to do a two hour workshop on a different table.

On Wednesday we had our monthly workshop at the consultant's home.  It was quite a full house as twelve ladies showed up to do a different layout idea.  It was a page layout idea to look more like some form of present.  You use either four or less photos on one page but you leave a small gap in between each square.

Yesterday I was back at the same house for another workshop but only five of us were there to do a different layout, using only white papers and embellishments and the new border maker system for the borders.  The challenge was to add only one verb to the page.  The layout I done of the school fete was great!  And I plan on getting this layout done at the camp with more formal photos in an album.

Short break

Been a month since I last reported in my blog about my crafting activities.  I had two weeks break of attending to any scrap meets as it was school holidays in September. 

School resumed last week so it meant, it was back to scrap meets again. Last week I only had a casual scrap meet at the craft store but this week I went to meets on Tuesday and last night.  Currently I am working on this year's photos of my kids at school, trying to get their school albums up to date before their school year ends in December.

Last night's workshop met to held on the first week of term four but my consultant had to reschedule to yesterday as she was sick with influenza.  She showed us the latest products that has been issued in the past month.  Mainly it was Christmas stuff but if you interested in looking, go to http://www.creativememories.com.au/

Last night's workshop involved in using one of the new paper designs with the border maker system.  I did similar layout ideas from the workshop but I used totally different papers of what I have from home.  I am trying to use what I have at home before I go off buying new stock.

Since I purchased my border maker system and cartridges I had a good use of them.  If you intend on buying it, remember the thickest of the paper or cardstock you use.  It seems not to like thin paper used to create the border. 

There is two new border maker cartridges out now which I am thinking of buying...one has a row of pine trees and the other has a row of snowmen.  I think it would be good to use with winter theme ideas too, not just Christmas!

It's only four weeks to go and my weekend away scrapbooking will happened at the same venue we generally go to.  Guess that means I need to get motivated very soon and work out which project I plan to do at camp.  It's the time of preparation beforehand that will require alot of my spare time. It least it will help to complete my pages over the weekend.  Depending on the speed of the scrapbooker, a person could complete a full album in one weekend as long as prepare alot beforehand. But majority of the people who intend like being there to socialize with other people and have a break from their homelife.  For me, it's being productive and enjoying the break from homelife.  There is no cooking or cleaning involved while we are away for two nights!

Feel free to comment on what projects you have worked on this year.

Crafty week

Well... I had a busy few days doing some papercrafting from stamping to scrapbooking.

Over the weekend I worked on some craft booklets.  This only applies to club members who joined up to create booklets or create a page and pass on to other members in Australia or overseas.  This club has been going for five years and we have seen afew books out and about through the post.  Sure there is some interesting and coloured images done by members.

Yesterday and today I was scrapbooking.  Yesterday was a casual meet at the craft store and boy wasn't it a full house of crafters. But I was busy doing my own thing! I decided to get some journalling notes done about some towns I have visited.  I done some research online and it was interesting to read the history about each town. 

Today's scrap meet was a four hour workshop at the consultant's house.  We used the new CM border maker system and cartridges to create simple borders on pages. I managed to get afew more pages done with this system used.

Well...the next two weeks will be school holidays so no scrap meets will happen during this time.  But I am hoping to prepare some more photos to print and have papers ready to do when school resumes in early October.

Other craft

Normally I would be going to a Friday night workshop tonight but I have early starts this weekend due to a family member playing a serious competition in ten pin bowling. 

I had a couple of busy days preparing some craft items to take and do while my daughter bowls her 18 games over the weekend.  I am going to work on some deco booklets for a craft group I belong to.  It's been quite a while since I last worked on adding my creative juice to a page.  Sure will be alot of envelopes to write up after I finish.

Only on Tuesday I went to the craft store for our weekly casual scrap. All of us gang were there to do our own projects in a different room this time.  The other room was used for silk painters.  I have almost finish one family album.  Only got abit of journalling to do then this album will be finished.

Busy crafting away

What a busy week I had with craft!  I had three meets this time on Tuesday, Wednesday and today.  I had a busy couple of days at home to get my preparations done for these meets.

Tuesday was just a casual meet at the craft store and I started on a new project.  This time I wanted to complete an album for one of my Aunties because she asked my parents for some photos of my kids.  After I finish this one I hope to do another one for another Auntie who lives up north. Either of them don't barely have alot of photos of us, so it will be a great opportunity for them to have a keepsake of what their neice created.

Wednesday was a four hour workshop at the consultant's home.  We just had to complete a simple layout with one or two photos and using some scrap papers.  But I was alittle different I decided to use five photos of different sizes.  It looks good!

Today's meet was more a fund raise event for sick kids which went for seven hours.  CM has been involved with this fund raise event for three years now and it is now becoming an annual event at around this time of the year.  I heard so far they have raised around $97K from three events.  It might be abit of time before I hear how we will go this year. 

Anyway I didn't win any prizes but I did have a good productive day on using some new tools they introduced. This month, CM has introduced a border punch system and four new punches.  One of the tools looks very similar to a three hole punch and the other is smaller where you add the punch inside and press the handle down. This tool would suit people who suffer a medical condition to their hands. Both of these tools work together to make a neat border of your paper. Don't worry, I make an order of the system and three punches which I should received within a week or so.  I thought I would do it now because I am not sure how long this product will be available to purchase.

Our event did included lunch at the tavern, which was situated upstairs.  Most of us have been there before so we knew what to expect. When we all first arrived to the function room, we had to pick one dish from a choice of five dishes, served with their salad bar.....steak, chicken, pasta, fish and pork so it can be made and ready by 12:30pm. Take a guess what I picked??  There were about 35 of us ladies and we all had some kind of meat from that menu.  No one complain!  We all said it was great and believe me, you definiately get your money's value from this place.  But unfortunately their drinks is a different story through.

Good news!  I found out our camp scheduled for November is back on.  But my consultant is only taking 15 ladies with her to sleep over at the venue for only two nights.  At first I thought I couldn't go because of a bowling tournament that weekend but I have made prior arrangements for my daughters to make sure they get to that venue that weekend.

More craft tips

Unfortunately I only had one scrap meet this week as the workshop to supposely take place this weekend has been cancelled. Also I found out our camp planned for November has been cancelled. Not happy Jan!

Yesterday I managed to finish off one of my daughters albums at long last and now I am back to working on another couple of projects I am going to try and finish off this year. 

Time to add some more tips for this month. This one is abit of a variety for stampers and scrappers.

1. You should store your inkpads upside down to avoid having your inkpads drying out at the top.

2. If you aren't sure what coloured cardstock or papers to use to layer your image on, choose a colour from your photos.
3. If the rubber on your rubber stamps is turning white, apply a light coat of glycerin over the rubber to avoid ghosting.  You can find glycerin from your local pharmacy.
4. It's recommend to stamp your rubber stamp with Veramark ink first before using permanent inks, otherwise it's more difficult to clean after use.
5. Lightly sand your shrink plastic first before stamping on it.
6. You should always clean your rubber stamps after use.  If your stamps are hard to clean, try using antibacterial hand wash.

New workshop ideas

I had an enjoyable week by attending two scrap meets.  On Tuesday it was just a casual meet with another person but it was more exciting this time as the other ladies who come into the store weekly had share some jokes with us.  Believe me you got to be an open minded person to hear the jokes they said.

Tonight I had attended to a four hour workshop until midnight.  It was abit of a mixed bag with ideas this time to use two new punches, create a paper fan and use some decorative cardstock (which is known as diecuts).  I didn't get time to try out the new punches but I managed to do two pages with using the diecuts and made one paper fan.

Our consultant decided to have a competition going to see who was the first person to try to create a paper fan.  Turns out afew of us tried the challenge at the same time and had to have our names in the draw to win either a cardstock pack or sheet of stickers.  And guess who was the winner up front??  Little old me!!  I won the cardstock pack while two other ladies won a sheet of large stickers each.

When I placed an order of two albums for the price of one deal, I found out I was entitled to a free mini paper album as well which I was quite surprised. The two albums I ordered are the ones where you just add your completed pages inside (like an envelope).  The paper album I chose was a Christmas theme based.

Guess this weekend I will be busy doing some more scrap preparations as I have another two workshops, an all day meet and a couple of casual meets at the store this month.

Creative Days

It has been a good week to be creative.  This week I had two scrap meets on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Tuesday's meet was just a casual meet at the craft store while Wednesday's meet was a workshop at my consultant's home.

At the workshop we created a sphere page layout.  You need up to 9 photos of scenery, gardens or whatever you think is best to do this one.  To me I think sport photos would suit the layout better because it looks more like a basketball when completed.  I didn't get the time to print out extra photos for this workshop so I used someone else's beach scenery photos to do one.  But I am not really happy with it so I am going to recreate the template again.  One side of the template doesn't even up with the other side.

Scrap workshop

This afternoon I had my first workshop for July at my consultant's home. It's now been 13 years since I was introduced to scrapbooking with Creative Memories.  Of course I have met afew consultants in my life and there is only been two I have been with the longest.  The current lady I have been with since her son was a baby.  Now her child is in year 1. 

Over the 13 years there has been alot of new products introduced.  Some products stayed while others were only available for a limited time.

This afternoon's workshop was one of the latest products used. It was one of the Creative Cuts templates with love and floral theme on it. It's about 12 inch long and it's a very similar use like Friskars brand.  I think it was out sometime last year but in June CM had a 2 for 1 deal going with some of the tools we used. 

I managed to created three pages with using this template. I decided to go back to finish off the Graduation Album from last year.  I only got another couple of subjects to do in this album and then it will be finished.

Scrapbooking Tips

I started to do digital scrapbooking in June. Compared to traditional style, I am amazed how quickly to create a page on the computer. I found a program I used online, downloaded and then created half an album from Dreamworld photos. It's hard to believe we taken so many photos from the theme park in the last twelve months. I haven't decided after printing these pages if I will continue these pages as digital or used the hybrid method where Digital and traditional method comes together.

For those who still do traditional scrapbooking I have five tips to share with you all.

No 1 - Choose a focal point photo.  Treat other photos as accessories that help you to tell the rest of the story.  As we read from left to right, the top left hand corner is an excellent point for your focal point photo when you have several photos you want to use on your layout.

No 2 - You don't have to mat every single photo on your page layout, unless you want your photos to stand out from the background.  Always mat your focal point photo though.

No 3 - Run out of adhesive mounts/tape to hold down your ribbon to the page.  Try tacking down the ribbon using brads at each end.

No 4 - Want an eye catching background??  Cut a piece of patterned paper into a large curved shape and attach it to your cardstock. It instantly creates visual interest to your background.  You can also add visual interest to your background by your punches from your cardstock.  Add these page accents to help you create an interesting background design.

No 5 - Wrap ribbons around your focal point photo to add emphasis.

Passion for scrapbooking

Welcome any followers and viewers!  A couple of friends have inspired me to start blogging. But my first blog will all be about my crafting activities.  There will be times I will send tips to help other craft fans with their projects. 

This month has been quite a busy one dealing with scrapbooking.  I spent around 85 hours on scrap preparations of page layout ideas and photos used for attending to casual meets or workshops at either my local craft store or CM consultant. 

Also I had a weekend away scrapbooking with many ladies from all walks of life on the Queen's Birthday weekend.  Our venue was held at Brookfield QCCC which is my favourite spot to go to.  It's great to have a break away from homelife and no meals to prepare for three days. The meals served at their dining room are simply yummy.  They sure know how they feed us well.