An extremely busy month with lots to share

Well the last month has been absolutely crazy for me, and I must say it is so great to feel like my head is above water again.

Personally April and May are very busy times for me with holidays, and also birthdays.  Extra busy was this time with a milestone birthday as well as my son's 4th birthday.  I'm sure many of you can relate the stress and time being put into those special presents for close ones reaching a milestone birthday as well as kiddy parties.  I must say the most enjoyable was my son's first kiddy party inviting some of his friends from childcare to celebrate with him.  He was just so excited.  But more on that later.

We had some wonderful family time in April going away camping for Easter as well as ANZAC day and the weekend following.  I even got to start my project life which I am using in the main to document our holidays while we are away.  The main of this was done while we were away and I just needed to add in the pics.  I do have a couple of pages to finish of the weekend, but I loved that a day back home and the memories were pretty much captured in a beautiful form.  All I really took with me was my Project life core kit, album with pockets and a container that is 13''x13''x4'' high filled with some Amy Tangerine paper, Helmar Acid Free Glue and Helmar 450 Quick Dry, various alpha stickers, some appropriate stamps, pens and odd embellishments.  Oh and not to forget my trusty corner punch :)  Here are a couple of pics of my first pages.

I just love my stash of Amy Tangerine's papers stamps and embellishments work so well with my project life theme, I have become a real fan of her stuff (even though I have loved her alpha's for some time now) as although her papers don't really fit my usual scrapping style, it is just perfect for my Project life.  And this leads me to my next big thing of the month.

I recently had an awesome opportunity to teach at Melbourne Paperific Expo and in the last minute have a booth as well as the original gallery of my work that I was to have.  This sure kept me busy this month attracting new customers for my kits.  So much work goes into preparing for these expos as well as setting up and designing how the booth would look not to mention the after work with all the new customers.  But I loved every minute of it.

I had so many lovely comments on my work as well as the look of the booth.  Thanks everyone that took the time to stop by, say hi and even those that purchased a kit from me.  Also an EXTRA SPECIAL thanks to my mum who helped me make this happen.  From helping me prepare for the event (which can be a big ask with two little boys running around all day at home) to being at the stand the whole time manning the fort while I taught on each day.  Here is a pic of the booth.

Here are the layouts I taught at the expo.  Participants had a choice of going with a feminine or masculine feel as well as flat or dimensional finish.  A big thank-you to all the participants that did my classes, they were nearly all sold out!

 They also got to make this step card:

Here is a pic of the ladies at work

So I'm guessing your wondering how using my Amy Tangerine stash for my project life lead me to talking about Paperific... well this is why!

Amy Tangerine was demonstrating at the Better Homes and Gardens Expo and when I let Naomi the organiser of Melbourne Paperific Expo know, she said we could head over there and pass on some free passes for her and the Better Homes and Gardens craft division to come across and visit us as both Expos were being held at the show grounds at the same time.  We headed on over there and dropped of the free passes.  I also left one of my kits for Amy at the same time.

Well later that day when she had finished her promo they popped on over to Paperific and came up to my classroom where I was busy teaching.  I was VERY embarrassed (as I had my 'serious' teaching hat on - most would know that that is not VERY serious lol) and SO SO excited to meet her.  She stayed a bit chatting and the whole class was happy to spend the time meeting her.  She is just SO LOVELY!!  Here is a pic of me with her.

The next part of this post with some VERY exciting news I got a couple of weeks ago and that was that I made Round two of the Spellbinders Worldwide Design Team Competition 2013  - I am beyond thrilled, especially to be sharing this with some long time scrappy friends Teresa Abajo and Tarrah McLean.

Good luck to everyone who is busy getting their round two entries in today if not already in.  You can see the full post HERE To be on this team is something I have wanted for a very long time and even had done all my projects for their last call before feeling it wasn't good timing for me a year and a half ago.  But now I am ready, so please keep your fingers crossed for me!

To finish off here are some pics from my boy's 4th Birthday.

This is the cake I made him - a little larger than I first wanted, but it ended up so yummy that the left overs have been very enjoyable with a cup of tea!  Do you like the colour of the board, this was SO easy to do with some bright blue coated wrapping paper and my Helmar Spray Adheasive!  Came up a treat!

 The inside was bright and colourful.  The boys were having SO much fun watching me make the cakes with all the bright colours - probably the most enjoyable part of birthday cake making I think.

 The Birthday Boy and the Hi-5 Dance Room all ready for his friends to arrive.

He was spoilt SO much with so many lovely gifts.  Thanks everyone for coming and making my boy's day so special!

So my boy is is 4 now... where does the time go huh!  I'll be back with some more things I have been busy creating over the last month real soon!

Melbourne Paperific Expo

So it has been VERY busy on the Scrapping front with Melbourne Paperific Expo this weekend along with a new kit being released at the same time.  My Gallery has come together and set up is tomorrow - oh so exciting!

There are a couiple of spots left in the classes, so if you are interested, check out the 'need to bring' list and you can book in on the day, but be early as spots are limited of course.

Click on the image that will take you to the post with all the information.

On display in our booth will be my Master's entries as other work for your inspiration.

Hope to see you there!

My first USTREAM class

So yesterday I had the opportunity to do my USTREAM class for Helmar.  USTREAM wasn't at all playing nice and kept dropping out freezing, looping and doing all funny stuff.  Although many hurdles were thrown my way we got through it.  The taping of it seems ok (I've watched some of it) so those that missed it can check it out.  It does start off with a blank black screen, and the first 5 minutes it is a bit in delay due to the problems we had with USTREAM on the day, but this doesn't last too long, so just keep watching or fast forward if it gets too annoying ;)

Here are some pictures of the finished project:

Here is a link to the video, it always starts with a commercial and then you can watch it.  Click HERE

Class at Fastlane Scrappe Supplies this week

Hi Everyone,

Just me here with a quick sneak of my class I am teaching tomorrow night at Fastlane Scrappe Supplies.

I will be teaching layering, creating backgrounds as well as tying colours into your photos.  We will be working with a wonderful stamp set by 7 Gypsies which you will receive the complete set of as well.

There are a few spots left so if you are interested in booking in, contact the store directly on 03 9742 2000.  They are located at 135 Railway Avenue Werribee.

New opportunity at Manor House Creations

I am JUST SO THRILLED to announce that I have been given the most wonderful opportunity that I just know I am going to enjoy!

I am now on the Design team over at Manor House Creations, who have the most exquisite flowers you can imagine.  I know you are saying... but don't you usually do 'boy' stuff with 'NO' flowers?  well yes I do, but I also love ANY excuse to sneak flowers onto a layout that has me or a scenery.  I also love to create off the page projects for the house, and I must say this one has turned out to be just perfect for the wall that greets people to our home as they enter the front door.

I thought I would take some time to share how this was created.

I started off by rubbing a little gold rub-on onto the plastic moulded picket fence

 Next I added some texture paste and once dry I added some Tim Holtz Distress Rock Candy crackle over the top of the texture paste.

I then added a little colour with some Aqua Alcohol ink.

 I then assembled it all, adding the wooden 'Home' word, alphas and of course the beautiful Manor House Creations flowers, along with some Twiddelybitz chipboard coated with some pewter Liquid Pearls.

The last step was to add some Jo Sonya's Pearl white paint randomly over the picket fence and some Perfect pearls 'opal' spray over the top of everything.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my first creation for Manor House Creations.

Spellbinders International Flair team - My first post

Hi everyone, and thanks for checking out my post today.

I have been lucky enough to be accepted to be a Spellbinders International Flair team giving me an opportunity to share my creations to my blog views both old and new (coming from the Spellbinders site).

I have been designing with Spellbinders dies for over 6 months now as part of the team over at Down Under Direct and they are one of my favourite products to use.  I think what I love most is once you pay for the die you can cut SO many pretty embellishments for your pages.

On our recent Easter Holiday, I got the opportunity to go shopping with my sister in-law, and we popped into the local bargain variety store where I found the cutest little watering can.  Knowing I just HAD to alter it; I bought it, took it home; and yes altered it.

Well I wanted to show you more than a pic of where I took the watering can, so I thought I would create a little video so that you can see how I altered it from start to finish.  Still a bit green with the videos and working on staying in the frame better, but I'm sure you will still enjoy watching it come together.

Don't forget to stay to the end, to see the credits listing all the products used.

I hope I have inspired you to take a second look in some of those 'cheap' shops at what can be turned into something a little more pretty to decorate your home.

Teaching at Paperific Expo Melbourne 3-5th May 2013

Firstly I would love to say thank you to the many ladies that have supported my new venture and bought my kits!  Many returning customers and wonderful feedback making this girl feel very special indeed!

For those of you that are thinking of attending Paperific in Melbourne from 3-5th May I have so exciting news to share.  I will be teaching in person over the 3 days and looking forward to meeting many many people.  For those of you that have been doing my kits, this is a great opportunity to do this one with me in person!  It will be a wonderful kit full of wonderful products from my supporting partners all listed in the side bar on the Scrappy Chat Designs web page.  Visit them to see all the wonderful products they have.

The projects I will be teaching will start with a layout that can really be personalised using the same kit.  You can go for a more masculine theme or more feminine.  You can also stick to a more flat style of scrapping (for those of you that like to get a big number of layouts into your albums) or a more dimensional feel (my signature style).  So you have 4 different ways you can go with this one to really personalise it along with your own personally created background!  You may even come up with your own spin on it and create option number 5 - your own version!  I will be teaching numerous techniques and sharing my way of scrapping and how I design my pages as well.

Here are some sneaks of the different layouts (you will choose one) and card that we will be creating.

I would like to say thanks to Helmar, The Crafters Workshop, DownUnder Direct, A Fastlane Scrappe Supplies and Twiddleybitz for their support in various forms in helping me put together a wonderful kit for you all to create with.  

Cost: $35  Time: 12:30pm - 2:30pm Friday, Saturday & Sunday

Students will need to bring:

·                     6'' x 4'' (10cm x 15cm) landscape photo - colour, Black and white, sepia - you choose!  You can see the colour scheme in the photos

·                     Double sided tape or liquid adheasive - I recommend Helmar 450 Quick dry and Helmar Acid free for this class. (Basic kit)

·                     Double sided foam or packing cardboard (if taking the dimensional option)

·                     Cutter (craft knive and ruler can a substitute) (Basic kit)

·                     Craft mat (Basic kit)

·                     Scissors (Basic kit)

·                     Pencil and eraser (Basic kit)

·                     Distress tool if you have them for distress inks

·                     light yellow ink pad (I have used Tim Holtz 'Old Paper' distress ink)

·                     Pink/peach ink pad ( I have used Tim Holtz ‘Worn lipstick’ distress ink)

·                     Light blue ink pad (I have used Tim Holtz 'Tumbled glass' distress ink)

·                     Colorbox (or any chalk ink - can be used in place of above too) light blue (for masculine theme) OR pink (for feminine theme) to colour chipboard - not Distress ink for this, pigment ink ok.

·                     Grey ink pad any type (I used Stampin' Up! Basic Grey) - you can get away with black, will obviously just be a little darker

We will also be using some 'share' tools in the class that you may like to bring your favourites to use or to save time.

·                     Border punch   

·                     script background stamp

I am taking bookings now and you can e-mail me at orders.scrappychatdesigns@gmail.com or call me on 0413 608 170

There are limited spots, so booking and payment will be required to secure your spot.

I will also have a gallery displaying my Master's Entries as well as other work for those interested to have a look at, and please don't hesitate to come up and say hi!  I will be wearing a white apron with 'Scrappy Chat Designs' on it, so you won't miss me :)

Details of the show can be found here:  Melbourne Paperific Expo

I look forward to meeting those attending the show.

Getting Creative with paint and Helmar for my boy to meet Hi-5

If you came to the door of our house, you wouldn't be shocked to hear Hi-5 playing from somewhere in the house.  You see my eldest boy just loves to sing and dance while watching them and his younger brother is already singing and doing some of the moves too.  It is such a joy to watch him as he is keeping so active and it is amazing that he doesn't get tired.  He is also not just staying inside dancing often taking the IPad outside and dancing out there as well!

Well a couple of weeks ago on the Hi-5 page they announced their new movie hitting our local cinemas at the moment and an opportunity to meet them.  What you had to do was dress up and show them what you would wear if you were in Hi-5.  Well that would be my little boy's dream!  We also had to add why he should win.  Well I pushed all my deadlines back (including updating my blog -sorry!) as well mum duties should always come first ESPECIALLY in this instance, and made him this outfit.  As you can see in this pic he was beaming from ear to ear when I helped him get changed into it.

Of course I couldn't stop at the clothes, I had to make him REALLY feel like he was in Hi-5 so I created a bit of a stage and backdrop for him.

Ready for some singing and dancing on his new stage:

I created the Hi-5 hands on his top and jeans using my trusty Canon Pixma printer and some transfer paper.  I wanted them to stand out so first I ironed the transfer's onto some white material before adhering them to his top with my trusty Helmar 450 Quick Dry.  The knee patches and rainbow and on his top were painted with my lovely supply of Jo Sonja's paints.  I also painted the backdrop hand with them as well.  The gesso in my art area also came in handy adding the white accents to the top and knee patches as well.  

There was no sewing involved - just a little painting, and now he has an awesome costume that he will also wear for his birthday party which I already have an order for a Hi-5 party complete with a stage (he is so cute) - I just have to deliver!  But at least I'm part way there now. Have also half made his brother's outfit.  His costume is not a copy of any of their outfits, but more of an inspiration of them and most importantly he loves it.  Win the comp or not, he will be wearing it when we go and see them next month!  

If you feel we are deserving, please head on over to the FB page and like his pic and maybe even leave a comment :)  Click here  Also if you are in Oz and a Hi-5 Fan, the movie is in Hoytz cinema's now!  

Stay tuned as I can't wait to scrap these pic's along with our experience of going to see the show next month when they are in our area, and keeping our fingers crossed at the moment that he gets to meet his idols!  

AT LEAST a two cuppa post!

Grab a cup of tea and boil the kettle straight away, because this is AT LEAST a two cuppa post!  Instead of having not much to post about I have been extremely flat out doing a whole lot of scrapping that hasn’t let me much time to even think of a post let alone get one up, so well here is a nice long one with a while things I have been up to!

I have been fortunate join the education team at A Fastlane Scrappe Supplies.  I am now teaching monthly with my first class having been held this week.  I had an awesome bunch of lovely ladies who attended the class, getting their hands dirty and trying some new techniques.

Aside from joining the team at A Fastlane Scrappe Supplies  I have also joined the team over at Color Combos Galore which is a challenge site.  There is new challenge each week and you have until the end of the month to complete them.  They are so much fun and really challenge you to think outside the square whilst working with a colour pallet.  I have already completed 3 of the challenges and I have already had so much fun with them.  These are the 3 challenges, and you have until the end of the month to join in, so head on over to the ning site and become a member to take part in all the fun!

 Can’t wait for the next challenge to push me creatively!

I have also been busy creating for Down Under Direct, using some yummy Bazzill patterned paper and Spellbinders Dies. 

This first layout doesn’t actually use any patterned paper at all, however is a very colourful and detailed layout with a great deal of interest created with my Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots.

 This second layout, uses the Bazzill patterned paper range ‘School Range’ and I just love the contrasting colours of this range.

 I also created these cards and a label for my scrappy supplies for the month’s posts

 Helmar has also been keeping me busy, not only have I been giving my Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots a killing on a great deal of my recent work for other Design Team commitments (you can see all the dimension above created with this awesome product).  This is last month's challenge that was a whole lot of fun!

 I created this canvas as part of our team up with Clearsnap where I got to play with some of Donna Salazar's Mix'd Media Inx

 I also created this altered paint brush that was inspired by another two Helmar Hotties Amy and Jen that have previously altered them as well.  I decided to create my own take on it and made mine into a mini album of my boys getting creative with art.  My brush started out as a nice light stained brush.  It was the biggest brush I could find at the paint store.

 This is also about my 6th attempt at colouring with copics which I think I am now addicted to!

There is also a new Helmar monthly challenge up and you still have plenty of time to take part!  I had a little fun with this one as well.

I hope you have enjoyed all my shares today.  I also have some more exciting stuff to share as well was some of the work I have been doing for Scrapbooking Memories, but all that for another post J