Class Schedule

New schedule has been listed HERE 

Join me for some fun - pick either a scrapbooking class, a technique class or an 'off the page' 3D class.

Spaces are limited - book now.

Call on 0481 316 626 (new numbe) or 03 9587 6363

Or email by clicking here

Art With Heart Team Blog Hop - Scrapbooking

I am blog hopping with the Art with Heart Stampin Up Team, where some of the girls in the team have got together to show off our lovely Designer Series Paper Packs on special during May!  Great if you are a scrap-booker, especially as 1 May is National Scrapbooking Day.  I also have news of a new way to join Stampin' Up and how to get some free papers ..... find out more at the bottom of this post.

Its been too long between scrapbooking pages .... I loved putting this together.  I've used the Well Worn DSP pack - a favourite of mine.

The flowers are made with the Blossoms punch from the new Autumn Winter Mini.  I've 'matted' the flower with a coordinating colour to create an edge to the petals.  I've also used the punch to create a border by cutting up the little petals into individual pieces.

The centres of the flowers are 1" circles of DSP which I have ran through the Lattice Embossing folder and a piece of seam binding tied in a knot.  The little butterflies are have hemp twine detailing too.

This photo was taken during our Easter break at Raymond Island - just as the sun was setting - Olivia is now 16 1/2 and having changed schools and circle of friends, she is now more confident and happy.  A simple task of just letting her hair dry 'au natural' rather than straightening it to within an inch of its life is so significant - this time last year she wouldn't have left the house without everything being 'just so'.

Designer Series Papers Special Offer - buy 3 get one FREE

During the month of May, for every 3 packs of DSP you purchase you choose an extra pack for free - that's a saving of up to $18.95.  Speciality packs are not included.

New Demo News

Now for some breaking news ..... from today, there's a new way to join Stampin' Up!  It's only $169 to become a demonstrator now and the best news is that you can now choose anything you like to go in your kit!

So if you've been an avid customer for a while and have built up your stash of goodies, there is no need to replicate what you have already.  You can choose whatever you want.

As an added incentive to join, any who recruits in May will receive a pack of DSP every month from May until December 2012 for FREE.  This includes packs from any publication - so that's new packs of DSP too - that's $151.60 of free products (you will need to pay shipping).  

The Art With Heart Team is a great group of crafters spread throughout Australia who communicate and share online and in person at stamping days. We would love to have new members join our team.

You can contact me on 0428 254 952 or email me at nikki@inkyart.com.au anytime and I would be happy to answer any questions you have - or send out an information pack.  No pressure, just ask any questions you have and then decide if this is for you.

Okay now its time to hop along to the next blog stop - the lovely Ros Davidson

Hope you enjoy the blog hop and I'll be seeing you very soon.

Nikki

x

 

 

Christmas Decoration Ritual

More Ritual scrapbooking - this time the tradition of the children buying their annual tree decoration.  The object of the exercise is to end up with a box of decorations that the children would then taken with them when they set up their own homes to start their trees with. 

The little pull out tag explains that these decorations were purchased in Sydney and Olivia's is a disco ball and Kieran's .... well he was rather grumpy the day we bought these decorations so he literally walked into the Myer Christmas Shop grabbed the  nearest decoration he could find and then walked out again!  Amazingly they matched!  And of course once he had stopped being grumpy he said he had wanted the star all along and therefore didn't see why he needed to look at every decoration in the shop when he had already made his decision!

The big question of course is .... will I let the kids take all these decorations with them when they leave home .... or indeed will I even let them leave home?  It makes me sad already to think that one day they won't be living with us anymore ... yes I know ... insane and sad!

Perhaps that's the topic for another page.

Happy scrapbooking!

Nikki

x

Letters To Santa DSP

Another page for the Twelve collection - for the subject of Rituals.  I like the idea of documenting the traditions for our family - and as I have written the list of pages to complete it is amazing how many of these traditions happen at Christmas.

This page is about our Christmas Letter writing ritual.  Started 9 years ago when we emigrated to Australia we write an annual letter and include it within our Christmas card.  Several years ago I came across Picasa so now I also include a collage of photos too.

As demonstrators we receive a monthly publication called Impressions with ideas and inspiration to help run a Stampin' Up! business.  This month I spied an envelope that had been run through an embossing folder and thought it would be perfect for this page.  

The Delightful Decorations have been stamped in Riding Hood Red, covered completely with Versamark and Heat and Stick powder.  Once this powder has been melted with heat gun I've then added Dazzling Diamonds - they are so sparkly.  And I've created the little bows with the new Bakers Twine in the Summer Mini.

Another Summer Mini item is the Glittery Paper - this is even more sparkly than the Dazzling Diamonds - its like Dazzling Diamonds on caffeine shots!  The little piece of Old Olive ribbon is my colour for the category Rituals - and yes it matches the Letters to Santa DSP.

And here's a close up of the photo - amazing how much everyone changes over the course of the year.

Happy scrapping.

Nikki

x

Sale-A-Bration Blog Hop!

Welcome to another blog hop - a group of us are here to showcase the lovely Sale-a-Bration goodies for 2012.  Have you picked your favourite yet?

No surprises really, a scrapbooking page and the lovely Everyday Enchantment papers!  I found a lovely old photo of Paul's parents on the day they were married.

Its just the best photo isn't it.  We are not sure who is who in the photo or if the year 1958 is correct (hence the reason it looks crooked as it is not actually attached to the page just yet!), but I'll be sure to check with my mother-in-law when I call her for a chat.

I created the top note die accent by using offcuts from other projects.  I placed all the pieces onto the cut out and then ran the whole lot through the Big Shot with the lattice folder - smooshed everything together.  I've also used the Triple Layer Punch - Blossom Bouquet to create three little flowers.  The centres are brads from the Everyday Enchantment Ribbons and Brad pack - another Sale-a-Bration freebie.

The leaves have been cut using the Two Step Bird punch too.

The Lace Ribbon Border has been threaded with the ribbons from the Everyday Enchantment ribbon and brad pack - and little pearls added to the centres.  The ribbons are so cute - and very easy to tie into bows.

I was thinking this page was a little sparce but I've decided that I really like it.  The lovely bright colours of the papers work well with the Basic Black cardstock and black and white photo.

Time to hop along to see what Christine Blain has to show you - she is one very clever lady so it is sure to be worth the visit.

Thanks for visiting and pop back soon - I've been scrapbooking this week and I've a few pages to share.

Happy Saturday

Nikki

x

We Love Heart

Another page for Twelve, this time under the heading of Family Story.  My husband has always loved soccer and my son has followed in his footsteps.  

I was meaning to enter this into a challenge but I ran out of time.  The challenge was a valentine theme and I thought it would be good to document our family's love for the Melbourne Heart soccer team.  Olivia and I have been going to AAMI Park to watch the matches with Kieran whilst Paul is away and we've been having fun.  I'm sure Kieran would rather be with his dad but for now he is embracing having a supportive sister and mum very well.

I've used the Big Top Birthday DSP from Stampin' Up! as the red and white stripes were perfect.  I created the title by painting some retired chipboard letters with white craft paint and then I've used the Itty Bitty Bits and Real Red ink to create the little hearts.  I've used a few of these letters before and so had to mix up the capitals and the lowercase, and the 'e' is the number 3 - I love the end result and the fact that I have used up something from my retired stash.

The Twelve colour for Family Stories is another purple - Perfect Plum and I've managed to sneak a little brad onto the layout with the date on it to signify this important part of the course.

I've also used one of the Sale-a-bration stamp sets for the word Love - its Outline Occasions - and the word 'WE' is a rub on from my stash.  

Happy scrapping - pop back in a day or two for a One Little Word update.

Nikki

x

 

 

1st Layout of 2012, 1st of 144 and 1st JAI Scrapbook Challenge

Yes this is the first layout of 2012.

All about what we did on the 1st of January 2012.

It is the first layout for my Twelve project .... only 143 to go :o)

So I think it qualifies as an entry for the Just Add Ink Scrapbook Challenge - Firsts or Ones.

I wanted to include a few pictures, but I only wanted to do a single page layout so I cropped them all and then played with them until they sat together well.  Of course colour was going to be an issue with this many photos so I flicked through the Stampin' Up DSP pages of the catalogue and found this piece from the Paisley Petals pack - matches well with KP's top and the fireworks - perfect.

I loved the concept of firsts and so all the journalling around the outside relates to this - Firsts on the First of the First of Twenty Twelve, Our First time watching the fireworks in Sydney, First Sadler - Petrie event of Twenty Twelve and First time visiting Bondi Beach on the First.  

A part of the Twelve concept is to 'colour code' each of the Twelve topics - so Holiday is my red orange topic.  Students are encouraged to use a small embellishment on the page in your chosen colour - so I've included some Real Red brads as accents - ordinarily I would have just chosen the Cajun Craze ones only but I like the contrast.

This was a super quick easy layout to put together.  Pop on over to the JAI scrapbooking challenge and why not put in an entry yourself - so much fun.

I am really loving the learnings of the Twelve course - I'll be back in a day or two with my second layout - one all about Me.

Happy scrapping.

Nikki

Stampamemory Challenge - November 2011 - Double Page Layouts

Its been ages since I have felt the need to complete a double page layout, how about you?  This month the Stampamemory team challenge you complete just that ..... I used to struggle to get everything to fit on one page but now one page layouts are all that I complete.  I found this a little challenging .... so I chose a subject that had lots of photos.

Our trip to Sydney gave me lots of photos.  By cropping all the family ones first I was then able to include the photos of the other memories, cropping them to fit in the empty spaces.

I tied the two pages together using a simple hand drawn dashed line around the border.

And I balanced the pennant title on the top left hand side of the page against some little buttons on the bottom of the opposite page.

Having punched out the pennants using the punch I then embossed them with polkadots and stapled the little flags onto a piece of seam binding and cut slits in the cardstock to feed it through.

I  created some little title blocks using a circle punch.

And the Scallop Square die cut for the Bigshot makes a create journalling block. I've used the Beau Chateaux papers with Marina Mist and Soft Suede cardstock.

I enjoyed creating this double page layout and as we are off to Sydney again this month it was great to have scrapped the previous visit.

Why not have a go yourself and enter our November Challenge - check out all the details here.

Happy Monday

Nikki

x

Big Shot Blog Hop

Yes it's that time once again for another blog hop -  this time show casing the lovely Big Shot - one of my favourite tools.  There are  six stops along the way - grab a cuppa and hop on board for some lovely inspiration.   

My most favourite die is the Timeless Type alphabet - being a scrapbooker I love that I can create any title I like.  I took a tip from Tina Gillespie (the hop before me)  and 'chopped off the curly bits' to change the style of the letters - what a fab idea.  

I also love the versatility of the embossing folders.  Just on this scrapbooking page alone I have used both the alphabet and three embossing folders.  

Embossing cardstock and papers is a cheap and easy way to change their look and feel.

Hop along now to see the lovely Sue Madex - she's been absent from our hops for a little bit and we've missed her.

Just have to finish this post with a close up on my boy, did he really look like this once?  Was he really this little and cute?   

Happy hopping and big shotting!

Nikki

 

x

 

Get The Kids Scrapbooking Too!

Check out Stampamemory today - its my turn to share some scrapbooking inspiration with you.

Happy scrapping!

Nikki

x

Stampamemory Challenge - October 2011 - Fears

The Design Team from Stampamemory are you challenging you again this month.  October's challenge is to produce a layout highlighting your fears.

Being on the DT means you see this list way ahead of time so I had plenty of opportunity to wonder how I would deal with this.  I've wanted to document my fear for a long time; but I didn't want to include any pictures - this was about the fear, not the thing itself - and if you have the same fear, there are no pictures so you can read on :o)

I wanted to create a 'raw' feeling to my layout, so I've used the lovely new Well Worn DSP pack.  The flower was created by tearing circles of paper, squishing them up, attacking them with a sanding block and then I attached them all together with a now retired eyelet.

 (Don't strain your eyes .... I've added the journalling to the end of  this post).

The layout itself was quick to create, the papers do all the work I think.  the writing took ages but I am really pleased I have documented this important event.

Stampamemory are challenging you to document your fears, enter the challenge by uploading your layout here.

If you are interested in Emotional Freedom Training - check out Jenny's website.

Happy scrapbooking!

Nikki

x

And the journalling reads:

All my life I have had a fear of snakes.  My mother has the same fear, my grandmother too.  Growing up in England this didn’t matter that much, moving to Australia changed all of that.

Even the word would send shivers down my spine; I was determined not to pass this fear on to my children (or perhaps I should be honest and say Paul was determined J - I thought I was quite rational really).  After all no-one likes them right!

Billboards, children’s books, furry or plastic toys, Harry Potter movies, Allen’s lollies, photos in magazines that had to be put in the bin outside, reptile houses at the zoo (I stood outside and waited for the family – not understanding the fascination).  Animal encounter days at school made me want to scrub the kids clean if they told me they had touched one. I know completely irrational.

Arriving in Australia heightened this phobia, now there was a real chance of actually seeing one, what would I do?  I used to scour the garden beds from the kitchen window before venturing out into the garden.  I wouldn’t dare to open news articles incase they included a picture and as for Steve Urwin (the children were fascinated by him), well I thought he was just weird!

Then one day I saw a baby Dugite in Port Kennedy, WA.  We were out riding our bikes, me gripping the handlebars so tight my knuckles were white as we rode on a bike path through the sand dunes – Paul was ahead with Olivia, KP a little bit behind them. And there it was, KP had gotten off his bike and was screaming, I could do nothing, I couldn’t scream or run to help him – I froze to the spot.  We went home immediately and I had a panic attack – it took me ages to calm down. I was so scared; I couldn’t believe I couldn’t help my kids. 

It sounds dramatic but my fear really was taking over my life.

Fast forward a year or so and we move back to Melbourne.  

I wanted to seek some help but my biggest hurdle was how would they know I was cured?  Would they test me before I left? I couldn’t bring myself to look for help; everywhere I looked had pictures of snakes. 

One day my friend Tracy offers to help.  She tells me her sister-in-law can hypnotize me.  She makes the appointment, doesn’t listen to my excuses why I can’t go, comes to collect me. She says she will be with me the whole time, I’m not happy but I do trust my friend.

On the way Tracy tells me about Emotional Freedom Techniques – talk about weird.  I’m sat there thinking I just want to ‘put to sleep’ and wake up cured!  As I sat there wondering what have I let myself in for, she must have been feeling the same!

Jenny was amazing.  EFT is amazing.  Within a couple of hours I could hold a picture of a snake, pick up and eat an Allen’s snake lolly without feeling it was going to reform in my tummy, and I finally left with a new toy, a plastic snake.  It wasn’t a walk in the park; it took over two hours, most of spent in tears, tapping various parts of my body. But it really did only take two hours to ‘cure’ me.

When Tracy took me home with the toy snake in my hand Paul nearly passed out.  Visiting the reptile house at Melbourne zoo with the Petries freaked him out too.  He had hold of my hand so tightly in case I ran screaming in fright (yes I had done that in the past in – and that was just toy snakes in shops – very embarrassing).

Now I can live without worrying, yes I am wary, yes I ‘tap’ when I feel the level of fear in my tummy start to rise, but it soon puts it to rest.  Several years later I still ‘test’ the therapy, every zoo we visit always includes the reptile house, I am fascinated by the way a snake moves. I still freak my Paul out, he still holds onto my hand for dear life!

Do I love them?  NO.  Do I want to own one?  No.  Do I want to find one in my back garden? NO.  Do I even like them?  Nope!

But what I do know is that if I was faced with my worst fear, I could deal with it. I’d be tapping my cheek like a mad woman, but I could rescue the children.  I could still be in control of the situation.  And best of all, the children are not afraid.

Mission accomplished!   

 

 

Scrapbook Out Of Order

It's my turn to publish a layout on the Stampamemory site - click here to have a look see.

This being the Retired Month, the current DSP's will disappear at the end of August.  This pack is one of my favourites - Sunny Garden.

There are some sellouts on the Retired List - the updated copy is here.

Happy Saturday

Nikki

x

 

 

SAM Challenge - Celebrations

Its the first Monday of the month - must be time for a new SAM Challenge. Stampamemory is celebrating it's second birthday this month - so the Design Team decided it would be appropriate to scrap a celebration.  Our most recent Sadler Celebration was Kieran's 13th birthday (blacked out faces of his friends for blogland (their faces are usually that mucky in real life honest)).

I just had to use the Celebrations DSP.  This is the month for retiring items .... and yes all the Designer Series Papers will be retiring - I wasn't sure about this one when I first saw it but I am pleased to say, I've almost finished the whole pack.  Its bright colours have worked well with my photos this year.

I love the Stars wheel too (rumoured to be retiring but I will update this when I know for sure) - I love that it matches the star punch.  

I've used the paper crimper to add texture to all of the pieces and the Bigshot Timeless Type alphabet for the numbers, Kieran is now officially a teenager! Olivia and I made the cupcakes - and we found some cute icing 'toppers' in the shape of balls together with some grey striped cupcake wrappers to make them 'teenage boy' proof.

 Bunting is so now - I love it .... wonder if Stampin' Up! will bring the bunting punch to us in the new catalogue this time? 

Kieran always has so much fun with this group of boys - and they are all so lovely ... its great to be able to scrap these photos and the event.  

So if you fancy putting a page together to celebrate an event please do join in .... post your link here and check out what all the other designers have come up with.

Back again very soon with more news of retired items, how to get your hands on the new catalogue, a launch party date and a OLW update.

Signing off ... a very busy crafting stampin bee

Nikki

x

 ps - I forgot to mention, I've found a new site for layout inspiration - www.pencillines.com - check them out.

 

Remember to Scrap the Memories

I've created a page for Stampamemory today - click here to take a little look.  I've opened a packet of Autumn Spice Designer Series Paper - wow - its so lovely and very 'me'.  Why has it taken me so long to use it?

And yes that is a photo of my lunch :)

Nikki

x

 

Stampamemory Challenge - July 2011 - Page Map

This moth's challenge over at Stampamemory, is to produce a page using a Page Map. I love Page Maps - they make one of the hardest parts of deciding where and how to lay out the page just so easy .... and then of course using Stampin' Up!'s range of coordinating products makes chosing and matching product and colours a breeze .... scrapbooking isn't hard at all now!

And here's my interpretation.  I've used this layout design before - and I love it. Inspired by this month's Gift with Purchase, I used the colours of the free ribbon and buttons as my colour choice for this page - (see yesterday's post to check out how to qualify for this freebie).

These two girls are in some ways like chalk and cheese and in others just so similar.  They have been friends for over half their lives and for as long as we have lived in Australia.  When they are together - there is always a camera ... they are definiately not camera shy :)

Which is good for a scrapbooking mum!
 
I've added in heaps of different textures including tearing, using the polkadot embossing folder and the Pompom trim from the soon to be retiring Autumn Winter Mini. 

The title is from Fun and Fast Notes set - if you love this set a little birdie told me that it will be retiring in August - so check it out on page 46, and you want / need it have a chat with your demostrator or contact one of us from Stampamemory.

I also created a sheet of my own DSP.  Using the Extreme Elements stamp set, Daffodil Deight, Pacific Point and Melon Mambo inks, I stamped away and created an A4 sheet of customised cardstock.  I punched 1 1/4" squares and backed them with 1 3/8" squares - love how the SU punches just coordinate in size - made this job super quick and super easy.  I'll be making a couple of cards from the left over pieces so keep an eye out for them later this month.

So that's the challenge for this month .... have a go, its great fun.  If you want to check out my other page using this map have a little looksee here.

Nikki

x

 

 

Designer Series Papers Blog Hop

Well here it is .... this post is supposed to be part of a lovely blog hop dedicated to Stampin' Up! lovely Designer Series Papers but with the technical hitch this didn't happen.  If you'd like to have a peep at the hop (and you should because there are some super ideas and creations) start at the lovely Ros Davidson's blog 

Don't you just love how each pack coordinates so well - takes the hard bit out of creating a masterpiece.  

I was recently inspired by my lovely friend Sue Madex to 'interview' the kids and record their answers.  Traditionally I do try to do this for their birthdays but the end result doesn't often end up on a page.  So I sat down with both the kids on 12th of June, asked the same questions Sue asked her children and here's the end result.

This is Kieran's page (he's 13)  - yes I really did use Rose Red for my boy!  I just love the Sweet and Sour set - so bright and it has textured bits - and if you use the sheets without the flowers it isn't too girlie ... right?

See how the different sheets in the pack just work so well together.  I use up all the little scraps - just flick them over and you have a new design that coordinates perfectly- all Stampin' Up! papers are double sided with different and complimentary designs.

Here's Olivia's page (she is 15), Blueberry Crisp - must be one of my favourites because I struggled to actually make this page using the remnants of what was left from previous projects.

I think the best bit about the Stampin' Up! papers is that they take away the need to think - just pick a pack you like, chuck in a few coordinating sheets of card and away you go .... I used to stress that the blue wasn't quite the 'right' shade but really .... when you look back at the pages, do you notice this ... no of course not, its what's written and the photos, that's what counts and since I found Stampin' Up! I have started (and more importantly finished) so many more pages than ever before.

For those that want a closer look at the answers to those questions ... here's a close up.  Kieran's first and I should let you in a secret, I don't cook a meal without veggies ...

and then here's Olivia's ... bless her for wishing her Dad lived in Melbourne full time .... soon sweetheart .... he'll be home again very soon.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend - Melbourne is almost experiencing a heatwave ... during my walk today I had to take my jacket off :)

Happy scrapbooking

Nikki

x