CHA Day 1

Wow, what a day. By the end of it, my feet were hurting and my mind was spinning. So many new products, display ideas and exciting people to meet and talk to. It was fantastic!!

We started the day by sitting down at the Prima table for a make n take and I got very excited when Donna Downey walked up to do the session. {insert Squeal of delight here}

And she was so gorgeous and delightful. My friend Liz jokingly told me to say hi to her (and Donna or course has no idea who either of us are) and Liz should know that of course I WOULD do it. And Donna was do darn cute and accommodating she let me record a message to send back to Liz. So cool!!

I was so excited to find Unity stamps here. I have wanted these stamps for ages but they are really hard to find in Australia. They won't be any more. We will have them at Pages 2 Scrap soon!! {insert another squeal of delight here}

Then I got to meet Jenni Bowlin.

Her displays were just gorgeous.

And then we saw Tim Holtz down an aisle and bailed him up for a photo. He is so gracious and accommodating.

And to watch him work was amazing. So much better in real life than on the computer. Can't wait to go back again on day 2 to watch him some more.

We only got about a third of the way around the show. So heaps more to do on Day 2.

We finished the day going out to dinner with Sherry and Julie (freom Fantasia) and then a little tiny bit of shopping at Bed, Bath & Beyond. It was a huge store, they do everything BIGGER over here.

Chicago

Well, here we are. In the Windy City - Chicago!! Yay!!

The trip started early Sunday morning with being picked up at 6.20am.

We had a great trip by being upgraded to Premium Economy thanks to Tracey's Qantas club membership.

Lots of room and menu dining and champagne before takeoff.

We arrived in Chicago 24 hours after being picked up from Ourimbah. Phew! Little sleep, very tired. But we ploughed on with a shopping trip to Target before dinner and bed. We slept well all night and woke up feeling fine. So off to downtown Chicago we headed.

We visited Navy Pier (forgot to take any photos!!!) and then back into the city for some shopping. We shopped ALOT!! It was so much fun. We found a cool Lego store which my boys would have LOVED!!! Huge Darth Vader made of Lego and a life size Woody!

So after buying some surprises we headed to Macy's for some personal shopping.

It was a fabulous day.

Creative Sharing

Thought I would pop in and post some of what I have been working on lately.

Here is the full page of the class I taught tonight. We used Graphic 45 Baby 2 Bride papers and elements, Martha Stewart border punch and Twiddleybitz laser cuts. Very girlie!!

And I have been busy creating a bunch of cards for a fundraiser I am off to tomorrow night.

Thanks for stopping by,

Alex

3 Weeks to Go!!

I am starting to get super excited now with only three weeks to go until I go to Chicago and New York with Tracey for work. I have my passport, I have a new little camera to take with me (thanks to a bonus from working stocktake - I love my job!!!) and I have borrowed some pink luggage from my gorgeous Mum to take with me. Gonna take my suitcases empty of course so that I can fill them with goodies from the States.

Here is my little bloggie camera that I will record my trip on:

If I work out how, I will upload some footage here to share with you.

So lately, I have been super busy creating all my class samples for July and August so that I am free to go. And of course our Retreat for Pages 2 Scrap is on the week after we get back. So that sample has been started. Want to see what I have created for the next couple of weeks?

This is a class called Q is for Quotes. In this class we play with masking and stamping.

Then this is the 7 Gypsies Photo Tray. I had so much fun creating this using the new Kaiser Up, Up & Away range.

And this is the Wedding Bells sneak peek. This class uses Twiddlybitz and Graphic 45, which I love Graphic 45. Although this is promoted as a wedding class, it would suit any feminine photo.

Call the store for dates, times and cost. Would love to see you there.

Thanks for stopping by.

Focus on Boys

Want to see what I am creating in my class tomorrow?

Well, for those that said yes............here they are. These are the cards for my Focus on Boys card class at Pages 2 Scrap.

Love the Darkroom Door Rockstar stamp set. It rocks!!

And these Kaiser rub ons make sentiments so darn easy.

Add in some vintage music paper for some fun.

Simple, easy and perfect for boys.

And some more vintage paper.

On all these cards I have used the Basic Grey "Max & Whiskers" papers and here on the last one, I flipped it over for a cute little cat & dog card.

Hope you enjoyed seeing what I will be working on tomorrow with a bunch of fabulous people. If you want to see what else is going on at Pages 2 Scrap over the next month or so be sure to check it out here. (It will be updated with July timetable tomorrow sometime....maybe after my class, lol).

Thanks for stopping by,

Cheers

Inspired Blueprints

A couple of weeks ago Tracey and I were invited to go down to the gorgeous Sherry Mendoza's house for a scrap night/sleepover (just like school days, lol). It was so nice to spend the night with some really talented girls including Stacey from Scrapapple, Kim Arnold, Jane Clark, Sherry of course and Lisa Warren. Lisa owns a sketch website called Inspired Blueprints that is ever so popular and so when I got home I decided to check it out. Now I have never been one to use sketches, so this was all a little bit new to me. I am aware of all the sketches out there, but never really used them before. So in honour of meeting a new friend, I checked it out and did my very first layout based on a sketch. I really enjoyed it! It made the page process so much faster, so be sure to go check it out here.

Here is the result of my labour:

I love this photo. It was taken by me (yes, with arm stretched out) on Mothers Day and I just love that super huge smile of Nathan's.

This laser cut is from Twiddlybitz and was black, which didn't suit my layout so I used a Paint Dabber to change the colour. Very easy!!

Thanks for stopping by, catch up with me again this week and I will let you know what classes I have coming up at Pages 2 Scrap.

Bye

Playing Catch Up!

Well, life has been super busy lately and I have been enjoying every minute. So let me catch you up a little. Since attending SIA in Sydney I have been excited to accept the position of Manager at work. Woohoo! It is kind of like a dream come true for me, all these years since having my own home business I have wanted to own a shop. However the position of "MUM" and the availability of funds have always been in the way. So this position gives me the best of both worlds, a hand in helping run a 'smashin' scrapbooking store and no $$$ responsibilites, lol. Plus I am still around after school most days to be with the kids. And I am lovin' it, waking up each morning and thinking about what I am doing that day............well, makes me smile!

Also this job is bringing me some fantastic opportunities. Along with what I have already shared on here, I am getting to go to Chicago in just over a months time for CHA. This is a huge craft trade event where all new scrapbooking products will be released. Super excited about this, and after the trade event we are spending two days in New York shopping. Ahh, so hard (LOL!) So the spending has to stop (soon, I promise) and I need to start saving.

Craft wise I am still busy creating on a daily basis. We are forever getting new product in the store and it is hard not to go home with some. So, enough rabbiting on and I will share some of what I have done lately.

Fancy Pants goodies:

And a card from the left overs.

And this is a page that was done for a challenge at SIA. I failed at the criteria, but enjoyed making the page anyway. The theme was "What If"

Cute little flower detail

Thanks for stopping by and I will be back to share more soon.