Monday 30 May 2016

Layout not Working for You?

Hey There and Happy Monday!!!!

Okay so picture this you are sitting around with your besties having a scrapbooking day / afternoon / night and one of the girls pulls out a double layout she did in class and states "I really don't like this and don't know what to do with it"!!!! So I have a look at it and state that I will make her some 6 x 6 cards from it (most of you know I am not really a scrapbooker) Tah -Dah!!!! Problem solved - so that was around 9 months ago and today I am sharing how it turned out.  There was some of that goosebump spray on there as well as some sewing so I hope you can see how / where I adapted each segment of the layout.  It was a really good challenge for me and I enjoyed seeing what I could come up with.

P.S. Sorry about the quality of the photos - I was away on retreat (yes another one) and it was about 1am when I finished the last of them.

So I started with this.

And ended up with these little beauties which my lovely friend now has to give to some special people in her life!






Why don't you challenge yourself this week and if something is not working for you creatively - then make something else from it!

Keep Creating!
Wendy

Saturday 21 May 2016

It's A Boy Thing - Jane Tregenza Class

Hello & Happy Saturday

So today is about the boy - I have two wonderful boys in my life and I tend to focus all my energy both in scrapbooking and life on the smallest one as he seems to need the most of me.  So when I was preparing my photos to take over to Autumn Escape Retreat in NZ I wanted to focus the layouts around my husband.

The class with Jane Tregenza "It's a Boy Thing" was perfect for this, the colour palette is one of my favourites and all the fussy cutting was definitely worth it when you see the end result.  The picture does not do this layout justice & there are no words to describe how happy I am with the finished product.


Keep Creating!
Wendy

Thursday 12 May 2016

Autumn Escape Taupo NZ - Classes

Hello & Happy Thursday

Just a real quick one today, a few weeks ago now I was  lucky enough to attend the Autumn Escape Retreat in Taupo NZ.  This was the most amazing retreat I have ever attended from the scrapping room to the classes to the food and accommodation everything was first class.  Today I am posting pictures of a Distress Ink technique class we did with the ever so talented Vicki Boutin.  Whilst I have been working with these inks for a while now I was still amazed at their versatility.  So we started with blank tags and created the backgrounds with various colours - the picture does not do them justice.

Pop by again during the week for some more pictures of the other classes we did.


  
Keep Creating!
Wendy

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Cards for Sale - eBay

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Okay so you know, you have those friends that want to buy cards from you but you are flat out keeping your own stash up to date!! Well worry no more I have restocked my eBay store so now you can refer them to me for some lovely cards at really competitive prices.


During my hiatus I was able to sort through the 250 or so cards I have and decide to part with some. I have three price categories my larger cards are $5, the normal size are $3 and I also have a $1 range. Postage is only $2.45 up to 500g & 2cm thick (about 3 of the normal & smaller size cards and 2 of the larger ones). So buy a few and save on postage and they will be cheaper than at the newsagents and you will be supporting local business. Couple pictures attached of my current stock.
eBay. Search "handmade cards" within 2km of 4078 and they should pop up. Working on getting the store back up which will make it easier.

Keep Creating!
Wendy






Monday 9 May 2016

Decorated Salt & Pepper Shakers

Well Hello There 


I know, I know I haven't posted for about six months!!! But as mentioned in the blog post before I went AWOL the first half of 2016 has just been crazy busy.  Whilst I'm not going to give you all the details just briefly there was a 3 week snowboarding trip to Japan, Scrapbooking Retreats to the value of 3 (including one in NZ) and many, many other full weekends of paper deliciousness (don't even know if that is a word).

So the time off has allowed some reflection on how, why & when I do what I do, both personally and professionally.  I love the papercrafting industry, at the same time I understand how hard it is to keep your head above water when you have a business in this industry. Make no mistake you have to sell a lot of paper at $1.70 to make the rent! The recent announcement of the closure of another couple of bricks and mortar stores here is Brisbane is really really sad.  Ladies I say this to you, I know it is cheaper (in some cases) to buy on-line I don't refute that argument but when you sit there and look at all the items you have accumulated in your craft room / cupboard / studio how many of you can really say that you absolutely know how to use everything!! Youtube is only going to get you so far and then you need someone to show you in person the full potential of all your crafting goodies.  Just think about it for a minute!

Okay I am off my soap box and would love to share some cool Salt & Pepper Shakers that I made with the idea of storing the smaller brads etc in them.  BUT someone at a recent scrap retreat mentioned I should actually see if there are any cafe's which would be interested in using them as they were intended.  So feel free to get in contact with me if you think this is something you would be interested in. So I have used mostly washi tape and a few embellishments I had lying around the place. They are sooooo cute and perfect all those little bits floating around in the bottom of your craft tote.  


Other Info: Classes will be commencing later in the year from my home and as mentioned I am working on a new website / blog / store for the Stampin Up side of the business, stay tuned for this I am super excited. I will continue to share my own designs & projects on this blog as well as sneak peaks on what I have been up to in the last 6 months.

Salt & Pepper Shakers






Thanks for stopping by!

Keep Creating (I have been)!
Wendy