Scrapware Blog Party tomorrow!

This is where I'll be tomorrow night 7-9pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time)

Scrapware has alot in store for you tomorrow night at their very first PARTY to celebrate their new blog. Firstly, here's a sneak peek at a product being released tomorrow night:

I have no idea either, but it looks great, hey?

OK, so here's a quick run down of what's happening tomorrow night:

7:00 Welcome to the new blog
What we have in store for you & chat
First giveaway - Ask a question/leave a comment
New Product

7:30 Winner of first giveaway
(3 minutes to collect the prize, or it’s redrawn!!!)

7:35 Competition Announcement
Questions/comments/Chat
(ask a question on the competition to go into another draw)

7:55 Winner of second giveaway
(3 minutes to collect the prize, or it’s redrawn!!!)

8:00 Scavenger Hunt
1st Prize to the first person to correctly answer 6 questions
New Product
Chat

8:30 winner of Scavenger Hunt

8:20 Design Team Questions/General Chit Chat/Suggestions

9:00 Final Giveaway

There will also be random lucky prize draws announced throughout the night!

See you there!

Kathie

Blog Party

Scrapware's celebrating it's new blog kicking off by holding a blog party.

When: Sunday 30th November
Time: 7-9pm (Australian Eastern Daylight Savings time)

We are going to have so much fun! You can expect giveaways galore, a fantastic competition announcement, a scavenger hunt, new product sneak peeks and the Design Team will be online to answer any questions you want to fire at them!

So, spread the word, it's time for a celebration.

I hope to drop in for a bit. See you there.
Kathie

On the topic of his schooling...

It would seem that maybe we have been carrying on a little too much about Jamie being another year older.

Last night he was sitting at the tea table with us, eating his schnitzel with his new knife and fork set, when he looked up and declared:

"Jubby big boy now. Jubby go school?"

Phil and I just looked at each other, bemused. It was totally unexpected. We weren't expecting this conversation for at least, oh I dunno..., another twelve months or so? I don't recall even talking that much about school with him. I have no idea where he got that from. Childcare possibly? They're little sponges at this age!

And they grow up so fast!

Third Birthday

Happy third birthday Rabbit!

Thanks to Nic for the photos - thanks for grabbing the camera for me when I had completely forgotten about it. Super photos :)

Holiday snapshots

Kathie

Scrapware giveaway

Scrapware has a brand new blog!

Ange has lots planned for you on the blog... including weekly updates, project ideas, step-by-step instruction sheets, giveaways, competitions, public gallery, sneak peeks and more.

To kick it all off, they are going to kick it all off with a giveaway…all you need to do is go here leave a comment and put a link to the Scrapware blog on yours!

You have until midnight on Monday 24th November to go into the draw to win this yet-to-be-released 3D birdhouse!

And look at these Limited Edition Karen Day Design Christmas Trees! Scrapware is releasing these direct to the public.

Design One - Starry Trees:


Design Two - Chrissy Trees:


Design Three - Birdy Trees:


The sets are 11-12cm tall and are priced at $4 per set, or $10 for all three sets (inclusive of postage). Scrapware is donating 50c per pack to the St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal...as we all know that at this time of year, every little bit can make a big difference.

To order, send an email to scrapware@iinet.net.au and they'll send you instructions.

Inspired by Christmas Carols

This week at Shop and Crop, we were inspired by Christmas Carols. I got to work with my favourite Christmas range in the shop - Fancy Pants' Happy Holidays. I love this range. Seriously love.

One of the great things about it is that it is versatile, with deep Christmas-ey reds and golds offset with bright pinks, oranges and blues. So it lends itself equally well to non-Christmas layouts as it does to Christmas pages.

Journaling: "Put music on Mummy!" you say, pointing up to the CD player on the kitchen bench. You love dancing around the kitchen with me. We twirl. We clap to the music. You go get the wooden logs from a train set and march around the room, beating them to the music. My sweet little drummer boy".


Journaling: "Walking in a Winter Wonderland... back to Auntie Roschi's place, Luebeck Germany December 1982"

This dark, luscious chocolate brown paper is my favourite piece of background paper at the moment. I've roughed up the papers and inked them, sanded back the photo edges and added ink to the flower embellishments. The flourishes are from the Happy Holidays stamp in the Fancy Pants range - I just stamped a few times onto the paper, then cut around the flourishes and adhered them.

Are you feeling the Christmas vibe yet?

Now that we're back from holidays, I can turn my head towards Christmas. Well, after this weekend I can...

This weekend we will be descended upon by half a dozen three year olds, for a Cars party. I'm off to start baking...

Have a fun weekend. See you next week with some photos hopefully :)

Kathie

Layout sharing.

A quick upload to share some layouts that have appeared in the last couple of issues of Creating Keepsakes (Australia).

My Way
1 The Start. This can be anything - a theme or a sketch for a design team, projects to design for a kit club, or 'just because' pages. This time I had a brief to showcase some product. 2 The Design. Oh, where to start, where to start. This is the part that usually challenges me the most. Most often I start with a story. A story gives me passion for the process. Then I hunt through my photos to find something that'll help me tell my tale. 3 Get out the stash. I always go back to my stash. I use things because I love them - even if they're old. My allbacks: strips of patterned paper and ribbons, scallops, distressing, buttons, brads, BG letter stickers, frames and handcut elements. 4 Experiment. This is usually the bit that takes the longest and my page often looks nothing like how it ends up. Eg - the title here and the vehicles around the edge of the photo. Plus it needs a frame! 5 The Detail. I don't stick things down until I'm happy with my page. Once I'm OK with the overall design, I add my journaling and the little finishing touches - some pinetree buttons, cute little brads, a ribbon strip and machine stitching. 6

My Family
Journaling: This is us. My little family. Me and my two guys. Jamie's about to grizzle, itching to slide down the slippery dip he's balanced on. It's his second birthday. Mum and dad are taking photos just before guests arrive. You know, ten years ago I didn't dare dream that one day I'd have a photograph like this in my photo album. It seemed like events were conspiring to make me a single, career woman. And ten years ago I had not idea how insanely happy I'd feel to look at a photograph like this and think "my family".

When I Grow Up
Journaling: ...I'll be a ballerina... no, I'll be a teacher and play with flashcards... no, I'll be a nurse and wear a cap... no, I'll be a pianist in an orchestra... no, maybe I'll be a ballerina... no, I'll be a geologist... no, I'll teach kindergarten... no, I will be a ballerina... no, I'll be a doctor... no, I'll be an engineer and go to uni... no, no, here's what I'll do...
These were my thoughts from the time I was the little girl in the photo. In the end I became a scientist, then an occupational health and safety adviser, then a human resources manager, then... and so it continues!

Back soon with some holiday shots and birthday photos.

Kathie

Cards

A while ago Julia Matthews, who used to be the editor for For Keeps, and who now works over at Creative Cardmaking contacted me to ask if I'd be interested in making some cards for Issue 14 of the magazine. Although I do not make myself out to be a cardmaker by any stretch of the imagination, the brief she gave me was just too delightful to say no. And so these three cards were born:




Yes, a transport theme! Although it doesn't show here, in the magazine you can see that the front of these is shaped and most of the blue background you're seeing is actually the back of the card :).

The tractor card was inspired by Travis the Tractor from the Bob the Builder series. I had him on the table in front of me and hand-sketched him onto the patterned paper. Turned out not too badly!

So, with these cards, I reckon that I have Jamie's next three birthdays covered. I had intentions of using them for little friends' birthdays coming up, but Phil insists that they're too nice to give away (high praise indeed!).

Templates for the images are contained in the magazine for anyone who's interested in replicating the designs.

Have a great weekend!
Kathie

New scrapbooking

This week at Shop and Crop the DT was challenged to scrap using Janine Kaye's style.

Janine is a talented photographer and scrapbooker, so it was a bit of a task to design something that came anywhere near close to her style. These are my pages. I just hope I did her justice.


Journaling "You had never been interested in the craft activities at playgroup. Until two weeks ago. And look what you made - your first craft!"


Journaling: It's taken over twelve months to get to this point. To the point that, for the first time the other day you actually asked to GO to childcare. On a Tuesday - not your usual childcare day. You ahe two friends there now and it's made all the difference. Noah and Axel. It's so lovely to drop you off in the morning and see you happily playing with your friends. Sometimes you don't even acknowledge me leaving. Quite a difference to when you used to cling to me crying. I'm so happy that you enjoy yourself and have fun there now :)

Enjoy the rest of your week.
Kathie