Tuesday, 22 November 2011

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.
 
 

Friday, 18 November 2011

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!

Wednesday, 9 November 2011

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.

Saturday, 5 November 2011

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.

Thursday, 27 October 2011

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.

Sunday, 23 October 2011

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.

Saturday, 15 October 2011

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.