It's Nearly Time....

For Creative Adventure Downunder that is!  Less than a month to go before we kick off our amazing 3 day workshop and fun filled weekend with Teresa, Donna and Heidi! 

I have finished designing my class and I'm getting ready to kit it up ready to teach on Friday morning 24th May and again on Sunday morning.  In between, I have the greatest pleasure of assisting our American tutors with their classes. 

Can't wait! 

Nervous?  A bit. 

Excited?  Lots! 

Honoured?  Yes - to say the least.

Here are some sneak peeks of my class.  The layout incorporates some really beautiful and different mixed media materials and techniques which will be sure to kick start the creative juices!  I am especially excited about showcasing one technique in particular.  But keeping it under wraps for the time being.....

On a side note, we have just spent a couple of days here http://www.waipamustation.co.nz/about.html.

It truly is a slice if Kiwi Heaven, one that we plan to invest in, in the very near future! The fresh air and country side certainly elevated the childrens appetites!  Might have to take out a second mortgage just to keep up with the food bill!

Also popped in to Taupo to watch our nephew compete in NZ Secondary Schools Sailing Regatta.  So lucky with the weather for this time of year, the lake was superb.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Comments are always appreciated.  And if you are registered for Creative Adventure Downunder - then I'll be seeing you soon!

75c Workshop

Back in February I travelled to Hamilton to teach my Kaisercraft 75c 1 Day Workshop at Paperzone.  It was a fabulous day with some fun Waikato ladies!  Yesterday I taught the same workshop at my LSS, Scrapaholics - once again a great day!  I thought I'd share some pics of the projects.  The 75c range is one of my all time favorites - the colours and patterns lend themselves to so many themes and photos.

Layout 1:

And some close ups...

Layout 2:

Close up...
 

 

Then we created 4 cards:

Thanks to Paperzone and Scrapaholics for hosting me.  Looking forward to next time!

Cheerio
Maggie

 

 

 

Birthday Sweets

I'm fascinated by the whole faux minature food thing. There are some amazing books about it all in Japan (might need to take another trip there!!!) where it's a huge hobby.  I've attempted to make a few bits and pieces lately, with the help of a variety of differerent clays, whipped creams, fake sugars etc.  And I found the perfect project to use them on - a special little box for my daughters upcoming birthday to put her presents and maybe a few little sweets into...

 

I loved decorating the ScrapFX chipboard cupcake stand with glitter and whipped cream!  Almost good enough to eat!

 

 

 It's an addictive little craft - this miniature food! (and quite calorie free!) But so enjoyable.  And it has loads of opportunity for using in my scrapbooking and cardmaking. I wonder how long it'll take before it takes the scrapbooking world by storm??!!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Beautiful

So easy to create soft, feminine and pretty layouts when you have a gorgeous little girl in your life!!  Here's a layout done with Websters In Love range - simply titled 'Beautiful'  - because she truly is a beautiful little soul.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

News Flash!

And on the back of my last post, I received this lovely badge from Brandin O'Neill today...

Thrilled to be part of the Websters family - can't wait to get started!

Wonderful Websters

How many of you suffer this syndrome.....you buy some beautiful papers, so beautiful you can't bring yourself to use them just yet so you put them aside for later.  12 months later you revisit them and - hmmm, well - they just don't seem to strike a chord in that same way anymore???!!!  And you kind of wish that you had actually used them when you first bought them!

That's me all over - but I'm getting better at using up current stash while it's still fresh and new.

However...............this is one of the reasons I love Websters Pages so much.  No matter how 'old' or how long I've been hoarding their pages for - I still love them and find them equally as beautiful a year later!  That's got to be a good thing, right?

Case in point.  Last year I started a layout using some Lullaby Lane and Winter Fairytales.  I got halfway, then put it aside for whatever reason.  This weekend, I rediscovered this half finished layout - and guess what? I still really liked how it was shaping up.  So I put my apron on and set about completing it.  Here is the finished product...

Having a gorgeous wee girl who quite likes to be photgraphed makes my job so easy!  So, that's another one done and dusted and ready for the album.  Hope you like it!

Happy Monday!

Winter Holidays

The winter school holidays begin today in earnest!  We have a few movies to see, some birthday shopping to do for a certain lovely lad who's about to turn 10, and a few day trips to cool places that we haven't been to for a while - namely the Auckland Art Gallery  and the Auckland War Memorial Museum (who run incredible programmes for kids).  Interspersed with some bike rides and winter beach walks, I think the holidays are going to finish far too soon!  I know I buck the trend with school holidays when I say I LOVE them, but the truth is I relish hanging out with the kids with no set schedule to adhere to. 

Auckland War Memorial Museum

Our local - Cockle Bay Beach

And I do want to pack in as much fun as possible before SENZ, which kicks off in Hamilton 13th July.

My lovely - soon to be 10 year old son - had some amazing news this weekend!  He was participating in the Honda Winter Swimming Carnival, and was selected to join the Junior Olympians Swimming Squad!  Wow!  That means 10 plus hours of training per week and swim meets galore!  It's going to be a big committment (for all of us!) but one that Will really is passionate about.  Congratulations my wonderful boy!  We're right behind you.

I'll leave you with a few more pics from my Prima Pop Up Keepsake Book class that I'll be teaching at SENZ.  It's fully booked, but I may run it again at Scrapaholics if there is sufficient interest.

Keep warm, all my antipodean friends, and enjoy your summer you northern hemispherians! (is that a word?).



Getting ready...

For SENZ that is! Lot's of cutting papers, preparing embellishments and writing/reviewing instructions. I'm in the middle of running 'dummy' classes with my friends to test that the instructions read clearly. My friend Libby will be pleased about that! All my classes are pretty much fully booked - very happy about that too! Jodi (Mrs Scrapaholics) has put so much time and effort and preparation into her booth (as she did last year) that I know she is going to be very busy at SENZ. She certainly doesn't do things by halves! She has some awesome bargains that will only be on offer at SENZ (listen up Smash book lovers!) and her incredibly obliging better half has organized the manufacture of some very cool things (think gorgeous card/book binding bits and bobs!). Yay Paul! There is also a lot of brainstorming and planning going on for Creative Adventure Downunder May 2013. Registrations are now open - go to www.creativeadventure.co.nz for details and registration. We are really looking forward to hosting Heidi, Donna and Teresa together - and hope to spoil them and YOU rotten! I am busy designing my class for the event, it's going to be a doozy so I'll need the year to perfect it! So that's a quick run down on the state of play in my neck of the woods! I have some cool ScrapFX goodness to share shortly. So stay tuned! Thanks for stopping by!