Enjoy the Moments that make you smile!

In the past couple of weeks my Mum has lost two of her dearest friends.  I have known both these beautiful women for over 40 years and they have each played a large part in my life.  Sitting in my family church in Avalon Beach in NSW yesterday at one of their funerals,  I listened as family members and friends stood up and remembered the things about one of these women that made them smile.
Simple things like a full table of people sharing a meal and a story, a look that she was able to give her children which spoke volumes, her endless supply of energy for helping other people and how those efforts made those peoples lives richer, lamington drives, time spent with children and someone who was always at the end of the phone if you needed her.  Whilst this day was sad to be saying goodbye - it was also a celebration of all the things in her life which had made us enjoy our moments with her so much more and a reminder of all the things about her which make us smile when we think of her.

When I sat to write this blog post having just returned back to Queensland, I realised that the last layout I completed for the wonderful expanded version of the Dimensional Details class with Nic Howard that I'm doing over at Big Picture Classes is in fact entitled "Enjoy the Moments that make you Smile".  Life has been very hectic of late and perhaps I needed a gentle reminder that there is so much in my life I'm thankful for and sometimes I need to sit back and remember to celebrate those moments.  Thank goodness for my scrapbooking - it allows me to celebrate those moments and keep them on hand as reminders.

Here is my latest scrapping endeavours

The Dimensional Details class has just kicked into Week 2 - I'm not sure if it is still open for new registrations but if you're thinking about it - check it out.  A fantastic class for content and the support of the other participants from all around the world on the gallery and the forums is incredible.  I'm sure you'll love it and make some new scrappy friends along the way! www.bigpictureclasses.com  is the link.

Sorry the photo looks a bit dark - there is a transparency over the top of the photo and it has made it a bit hazy when I scan :(

Thanks for looking and I hope your week is full of moments that make you smile!

Social Media of the past.

I hear so many people these days complaining of how the youth of today are constantly hooked up to an electronic device for their entertainment.  I laugh a little, remembering that I too was guilty of this in my youth. Today we have internet, facebook, video games & mobile phones with a multitude of applications to keep us entertained.  Back in my day it was a C.B radio.  I would spend countless hours in my room with a microphone in my hand and chatting to my friends.  The greatest threat from them was to ring the house if I dared to sign off!  Horrors.....

This layout celebrates the role this radio played in my youth and the friends I am blessed to still have in my life today as a result.

Thanks again go to Nic Howard for design inspiration on this layout.  I recently purchased a class Nic did for True Scrap 3 called Flower Frenzy - check out Nic's blog for details http://nichoward.typepad.com/my_weblog/.  This layout was inspired by Nic's example layout for this class but veered off drastically after the journal block.  Thanks for the kickstart though Nic.

Completely aside from this layout - if you want to learn about how to make some incredible flowers and how to incorporate these and other store purchased flowers into your scrapbooking or cardmaking - make an investment in this class.  I've been playing in the scrap room the past couple of days designing cards for an upcoming workshop and have already used 2 of the handmade flowers Nic taught in this class - simple and quick - even my 9 year old has been out here with me making some!

Of course if you follow the link to Nic's blog you will also see details of the Dimensional Details class Nic is teaching for Big Picture Classes starting on 5th July!  I did this class back in 2010 and it changed the way I scrap forever - 12 weeks of sheer bliss and a wonderful and interactive forum and gallery to boot!

Online Inspiration!

A trip to the recent Scrapbook & Papercraft Expo in Brisbane had me feeling that my scrapbook pages of late were a little lacking.  Off to the internet for inspiration and I was thrilled to find an online class with my favourite instructor - Nic Howard via True Scrap.  Here is the end result of the class - I love it and feel inspired to start scrapping again - thanks Nic~!

Layout is my beautiful girl with one of her besties all dressed up a couple of years ago for dance eisteddfod - how quickly they grow up!

A year in the making

I'm not one to normally have unfinished projects in my scrapbook room - I start and usually finish the layout I'm working on, even if it takes me a few days to do so.  However, this particular layout was one I started whilst away on retreat in May 2011 and have finally this week finished it.  It is the story of my childhood home - a place of many happy memories and some tough times too.   Yes, it did require a lot of journalling - after all it is the place I grew up in and spent 15 years of my life and many many milestones but I think perhaps it was the thought of tackling that journalling that took sooooo long for this layout to come to completion.  All of the journalling is hidden behind the photo blocks on both pages and the journal block which slides out is printed on both sides - so yes, plenty of memories locked away there.

However, it is a layout I'm thrilled to have now in my album about me.  It has reminded me of all the reasons I called this place home and the trials, tribulations and celebrations that took place here.  I'm happy I've recorded it for myself to revisit and also for my children to realise in future years why this place holds such a special part of me.

 

The remainder of this week has disappeared into the world of dance - again my little girl is dancing at the local eisteddfod - this week is solos.  So, it is back to costume adjustments, making sure the tights are all in one piece, the dance shoes are all clean and the hair accessories are all packed.  Tomorrow she will step out on stage and make all the hard work of lessons, taxi service to and from and the costume preparations all worth while.  So, back to the needle and thread for me.

I hope the year's shortest day today is a good one for you!

Australian Scrapbook & Papercraft Convention & Expo

It is with great excitement that I have booked my class schedule for the Australian Scrapbook & Papercraft Expo this weekend here in Brisbane at the Southbank Convention Centre.

I purchased a Pazzles die cutting machine back in 2008 and I confess, have hardly touched it.  The thought of pulling out the 131 page manual and working my way through it was always daunting and other than the occasional title or swirl here and there it has sat looking pretty on the end of my computer desk in the scrap room :(  So, when I saw that Addicted to Craft were bring Klo Oxford - the master of all things Pazzle to Brisbane for the expo I just had to jump online and book my spot in her 2 classes.  I will kick off with the beginners class in the morning - because let's face it that's where my current level of expertise is, despite having owned this machine for 4 years.  I'm then hoping that I have enough know how to go onto the afternoon advanced class (yipes) and learn how to really make the most of this machine.

So, here's hoping that the next few posts to my blog will include some projects and layouts created using my Pazzles!!!

I'm also excited to check out all the wonderful stalls at this year's expo.  I know of many of our friends from the retail stores around S.E Queensland whom we visit on our scrapbooking tours who are going to be there and I'm looking forward to catching up on all the scrap chatter with them.  I'm also looking forward to meeting in person Sue Smyth, the editor of Australian Scrapbook Ideas magazine and perhaps some of the other design team members for the mag at their stall.

To top off what I'm sure is going to be a very full and eventful day I'm blessed to have an old friend and work colleague from my past life (you know the one before kids) coming up from Victoria for the Expo.  She too is a scrapbooker these days and it has been an awfully long time since we last were in the same state let alone room together.  So, after we have learnt all we can for the day we are heading out to dinner and a long overdue dinner and catch up!

So, computer software for the Pazzles is all updated, laptop will be charged and ready to go, leave pass from hubby for the day and evening has been obtained and I'm ready to rock!

Hope to see a few others at the show.  I'll be wearing my Scrap of Difference jumper so if you see the logo - stop me and say Hi!

Memories - from Grandparents to Tea Parties.

One of the wonderful things about scrapbooking is that some of those little daily occurances or funny things that happen, which would normally be forgotten, are recorded and therefore become our memories.  Certainly big events like birthdays, graduations, weddings and the like are recorded and remembered but the ability to record those other stories which would normally be forgotten are there for not only our memory but for future generations.

I'm rather excited to have had my first layout accepted and published in the Australian edition of Creating Keepsakes magazine.  It is a layout of my son and his Grandma entitled Memories and is featured in the Reader's Gallery.  It tells the story of how my Mum worried that she would not have a close relationship with my kids as she lives in another state 1200 kms away but that as they have grown older and she has always come to visit or talk to them on the phone regularly that has never been a reality.  They love their grandparents and enjoy spending special time with them whenever they are able to.  I like that my kids will understand when they get older, how important it was to their Grandma to she have a close relationship with them and how hard she worked to make that a reality.

Here is the cover and it's on the shelves at your local newsagent now

Today I took my son to his under 7's soccer game at the local park.  My 9 year old daughter came along to support her brother and watch as always and set up camp on a rug beside the field playing with one of the boy's younger sisters whilst the game was in motion.  I turned at one stage from the play to check on the girls to find them having their own little play tea party.  On closer inspection, to my horror, I noticed that not only were they using the boy's water bottles as their tea pots but had my fresh packet of tampons open on the rug beside them and were dangling and jiggling a tampon in and out of the water bottle as their tea bag!!!  It was one of those situations were you jump quickly to remove the embarrassment and the poor little ones had no real idea of why I reacted the way I did.  However, on reflection I haven't been able to wipe the smile off my face all afternoon.  This is one of those stories I will record on a scrapbook page so that I can continue to remember and smile about their innocence for many years to come.  I look forward to pulling all these sorts of stories out at her 21st!

Oh my gosh!!!

It seems there really is a desk under all the stuff I've thrown into the scrap room over the past 2 weeks whilst eisteddfod fever has hit my house.  Between dancing and speech & drama and a fundraising night where I took part of the shop with me, my poor scrap studio has not seen a great deal of time to tidy lately.  I did sit for a few hours last week and create a couple of fabulous Family History interview books which I shall photograph and upload in the next day or so but the housekeeping side has been poorly neglected.

However, the good side to this is that when I did find it today I also had time to unpack a box of wonderful new paper ranges from Kaisercraft including this one of the Lakehouse pictured above.  Kaiser have started selling their new ranges as packs as well as individual papers and other embellishments - fabulous news for those of us who like to have the whole range to play with.

Here are some images of the other ranges I've just received in