Magazine, sales and teaching

I see Memory Makers Magazine is to cease publication after the Sept/Oct. I am very sad about this as it's a magazine I really enjoy. The reader submissions are different and show many styles; not just the same old, same old. Then I have to wonder with two US magazines going/gone and a third on very shaky ground how TWO NZ magazines will survive. On the other hand this may be good news for those magazines as people will possibly buy them

Spotlight has been having a sale of craft items and our local one has 50% more off all sale items. I got BasicGrey papers for 10 cents a piece! Thickers were $2 each and there was so much more on sale! I spent a fortune

My scrapbook teaching classes started last Wednesday and they have been so lucky as I got lots of bargains at Spotlight to give them. I have six ladies and that is a nice sized class with which to work

And we have a new family member! His name is Speckles and he is a six week old pied cockatiel! He's actually Colin's bird who has been saving his pocket money for a while now. I will take a photo in the morning ....... after I've made a Mother's Day card for my mother

More Praise

If you've been reading my blog you will know of my quest for a paper kit. I bought four from Scrapbook Dreams and I am very impressed with them. They arrived wrapped in tissue paper (in a box of course) but even better is that each kit had a contents description - Make and name of each patterned paper; make and colour of the c/s.

I will be purchasing again and even better I can purchase a number at time and save on postage

Innovations

I have one in my hand! And I have to say it is fantastic! Love the size and the way the l/os are one to a page. And I love the variety of articles eg Double your Scrapping - How to go from a single page to a double page. I love the "Top Tip" that is printed in brackes on pages. And given all the comments that people have made I think that if you haven't seen one of these magazines RUN to your nearest shop to buy one

Thanks for all your comments on the other s/b magazine

NZ Scrapbook Magazines

For the last five years, Up2Scrap has been the only NZ magazine published. Up until now, they have published a magazine four times a year, but it is now bi-monthly. Personally, I am a bit tired of all the articles being a Step 1. Cut your green paper 11" x 5" type of article. I want more than that. Maybe some articles about Using a Word document. I also like to see lots of l/os. In the last issue received yesterday, out of 24 reader submissions, 13 of them were from NZers and the rest were Aussie. Now that's okay, but I really don't think that the Aussie magazines have 46% of the reader submission from NZers! I know that NZ scrappers submit and are rejected. I must say that I get a bit tired of seeing the same style of l/o published. And I have given them my opinion for what it's worth. I am also probably their longest subscriber.

Enter Innovations to be published monthly. I am desperately awaiting my copy so that I can compare.

I am really enjoying Memory Makers Magazine at the moment - lots of different articles and lots of different style l/os

I know there are a couple of discussions going on elsewhere about the two magazines, but tell me your opinion

First week back, (inter)National Scrapbooking Day and more

Well, one week down, nine to go! Mostly it's been great except for four Year 13s who really should no longer be at school. No matter, I have four weeks to go until my weekend away with a few scrappy friends and less than ten weeks to go until my SIL gets here! The Year 10s did a common test at the end of term 1 and we're waiting for all the results to come in. So far Ross is first (out of over 250) and likely to remain there. He also got an E on his animation in ICT and his teacher invited me specially to go to view it. I was impressed.

My plan today was to cut out my dressing gown (done), get some more page kits done (not done) and to prepare for this term's Beginner's Scrapping class (sort of done). The boys had friends over - five teenage boys playing PSP etc so for lunch I made bacon, cheese and corn scones. I was going to do macaroni-cheese but there was not enough pasta of any kind. Got to fill those stomachs and legs with something substantial! And I need to do the grocery shopping too!

Onto scrappy things ...... it is always National Scrapping Day on the first Saturday in May in the US and down under we follow suit. At SBO there have been challenges all day so that's what I've been doing.

9am challenge: Easy as counting to 5 recipe challenge 1:Get together 1 half circle, 2 swirls, 3 rectangles (photo can count as 1), 4 flowers, and 5 buttons. Mix well and create!!
Didn't manage this one

10am challenge: no right angle cornered photos! circles, stars or even the old corner rounder...just don't have any photos with 90 degree corners on! p.s. your page can still be a square or oblong!
This one I used some old photos of the boys that have been calling me for a week now

11am challenge: create a page using the title 'Wish Granted'
I used a photo of the boys' favourite treats from SA - I love the colours, don't like the photo or the l/o! Doesn't matter - it's scrapped!
midday challenge: Using the classic Tupperware Shape-O-Toy as inspiration I wanna see you use at least one of all these shapes somewhere on a page... a circle, a triangle, a star, a square, a cross and a hexagon
Not for me thanks :-)

1pm challenge: Colour Combo - Create a layout using the following colour combo as the dominant colours in the layout. Charcoal Grey and Hot Pink"
Well, my version of hot pink anyway! I love this one: photos from my second Beginner's class back in 2006 - and it's a lot "pinker" IRL
2pm challenge: Easy as counting to 5 recipe challenge 2:Step 1: Create a layout with only Black and White Step 2: add a TINY splash of colour, Step 3: Embellish with hearts and diamonds Step 4: Include the word LOVE in the title Step 5: Add Sparkles - i.e glitter, bling, sparkly ribbon etc
I didn't think I'd manage this but I found these photos from 2002 and they were so dark that the touch of colour was there
3pm challenge: "Frame it! - create a page or a couple of cards with a 'frame' or three! Frame your journalling, your whole page or your photo...try a paper frame, a paint frame or even some brads & ribbon..."
Messy and so not me! I should have put the photo on the right. But it is a tribute to a special sister
4pm challenge: A journalling Challenge. The prompt (thanks to Oprah) is 'what I know for sure'. Your challenge is to complete a layout which contains journalling of some sort that answers this prompt. The prompt can be interpreted anyway you want.
Hmmmmm ... now this is hard!

5pm challenge: Grab it and stamp it... grab some paint or ink and anything (that's not a traditional stamp) you can lay your mits on to use as a stamp on your layout A stamper I am not and finding something different ... hmmm not for me

I'll see how many more I get done - I've had a lovely day today so far; tomorrow our precious Jacob is coming to visit so I must make a cake in the morning

And another post for today

We stayed home all day - it was lovely! I did a bit of scrapping and packed some more page kits.

Mini Me I scrapped because I love the photo ... and it also fits one of the challenges at SBO

Peace - I love those photos and it's for the April sketch challenge at SBBD. I rotated the sketch 90 degrees because my photos were landscape

This morning I bought a slide scanner - I found a few places yesterday and all of them were out of stock and only expecting new supplies in mid-May. I had been watching two on TradeMe and this morning I decided just to buy it now. I am looking forward to looking at some of the slides. I'm almost tempted to keep all of them now just to have a look slowly over the next year or so.

The three boys fixed the family room couch - one of the sides had come off and so they had to sit downhill. Now it's fixed and they can sit properly - so can any guests who are here!

Tomorrow we have soccer in the morning and I will have to get school lunch ingredients. Maybe I'll have more time to scrap in the afternoon

We will remember them

Australia New Zealand Army Corps

Anzac Day - the day we remember all soldiers and in particular the Anzacs at Anzac Cove Gallipoli, Turkey.

My grandfather fought in WW1. He wasn't accepted by the South African army so went to England and joined up with the British Royal Sevice Corps as a lorry driver. He was wounded and sent back to England to recover where he met my grandmother

We remember all of them

Last day of the Holidays

So what am I doing? Marking. I have two Year 10 tests to mark as well as a couple of Level 1 Unit Standards. The US will be quick so I'll leave them to last.

I have also been doing some investigations regarding those slides. To send them away will cost around NZ$300 but I have been doing some investigation and have found a machine that I can buy for about $250. That will be the way to go. Now I just need some more school holidays to do it in! Can't do it next holidays as this lovely lady is coming to visit! As my bloogy friend Helen says, this is mess that I have had to deal with is why it is so important to get our memories scrapped.

Talking about Helen, this is what she gave me:
Now I just need to pass it on to five other bloggy friends (and I'm happy to pass it on to anyone who asks for it)

Better get back to the marking so I can enjoy what's left of today. So much for my holiday to do list - I didn't sew but got a little of the other items done and sorted the slides!

Holiday catch up

So what have we done? Of course organising last week's crop took up some time and that's all reported further down.


While I was scrapping on Saturday hubby and #2 son spent the day on a friend's yacht on Wellington harbour. It was perfect weather and they were lucky enough to see dolphins too. They both came home exhausted because it's hard work on a yacht Oh I think I am so clever! I've used a wonderful program called Photosheet that I got from here. It allows me to make collages so when I go to print I can get small photos on on 6x4 print

Doj went to the vet on Tuesday for his last visit (I hope) to have his stitches out. He's been fine but has a limp. I did notice last night that his limp seemed to be more pronounce so we'll have to keep an eye on that.

After we got home, my friend Bronwyn came over. She came to sort photos and get photos out of those yukky magnetic albums and I went through my dad's slides. What a job! We estimated that there were about 8000 slides many of them steam engines which was his life's passion. What do I want with soooo many photos of steam engines? Unfortunately, I don't so they're all going in the bin. I kept about 700 which I want to have put on a DVD so I can see them properly and perhaps have some printed. This is what it looked like at about 600 slides left to sort:

In the foreground are seven rotary trays - that's what I'm keeping. In the plastic bag are some of the ones that are being thrown away. These are the two boxes that were full. The box in the foreground has empty plastic containers (going to plastic recycling) and the box at the back has the rest of the slides that are going in the bin.

Oh and the flowers were from hubby at Easter!

Two Years at Craft House

Our craft group has been scrapping for two years at Craft House (aka KiwiScraps) and six years in total. We have been talking about heritage l/o for a few months now so my friend Bronwyn and I put together an heritage pack.

Each person got a hand made mini-box with 18 photos of the heritage l/os that Bronwyn and I have done over the last month or so with simple instructions on the back. There was also sufficient c/s and paper to complete three different l/os as well as some lace, brads and tags.


I used one of the "sets" to create this l/o of my grandmother, my mom and my weddings. I have written more details on the back of each of them. I have also written on the back who all the people are in the photo

Then there was some old Making Memories Heritage paper that we gave to each person. I used mine for this one. It is my mom at about three years old and my sister and I at Fancy Dress competitions. I have entered this one and another one in the SBO April challenges

Then I found a photo of my dad as a baby and a young man. I want to get a photo of him now to put on the right hand side


This is one of my dad as a young boy with his cousin, uncle and dad


I did the l/o of the three "Supermen" from Easter.


I am loving the heritage stuff at the moment, but also need to get my current photos scrapped. When we have our weekend away, I want to get all the baby photos out and scrapped. When my SIL comes in July, she is bringing me a CD with all Adrian's family heritage photos so I will have to make time to do those too.

I have blurred photos and cut names where necessary

Say no to word verification

I am glad to see I am not the only one who finds word verification irritating! See here and here. I often don't leave a comment because I don't have time to enter the words and then fix it if they are wrong. Those words are often hard to read, change randomly and then have to be re-entered. Often people don't realise word verification is switched on and it's easy enough to change that. Have comment moderation because it's easy enough to delete spam messages. In all the time I have had word verification switched off (about a year or so) I have had one spam message.

Anyway, that's my opinion and if you still want word verification that's your choice! :-)

Photo printing

I used to have my photos printed at DigitalMax and I was always happy with both the quality and the service. Then DM was bought by SnapFish and I was less than impressed by their service (you may remember my tirade some time back) and I have become increasingly less impressed with the quality of prints. Yesterday morning I did a bit of a search to look for other printing outlets. FrogPrints @ 34 cents a print is almost twice what most of the others charge. I'm not to keen on using the Warehouse Stationery printers as I don't think the quality is good. So that left Harvey Norman (special at the moment 14 cents a print) and Camera House. I had the same photo printed at both places. Camera House 50 cents and matte an extra $2 making my one print $2.50!! The quality of both prints was very similar but clearly the price at Harvey Norman is much better. Bronwyn and I were there preparing for our crop on Saturday and through one thing and another the printing was a bit of a mess and two of the staff members at HN offered to reprint our photos for us! What awesome service! Then I checked the lifespan of their photos - 120 years ... well, that's good enough for me. So now I am a Harvey Norman fan.

Then, I've been doing a bit of research on those page kits and I think I've found the right place: Scrapbook Dreams. Their page kits look like just the kind of thing I want so I may go shopping there as the prices are not too bad either.

Remember Paul Potts?

In NZ we saw a snippit tonight on TV - here is the full version It's just wonderful

Easter

We had eight adults, two teenage boys and three little boys and Wellington weather could not have been better. By 9am all the little boys were here and we had an Easter egg hunt outside. There were LOTS of little eggs and marshmallow eggs, a chocolate chicken for each of the little boys and a Lindt bunny for each adult. Oh what fun! The litle boys were so into to and even Jacob who had never been on a Easter egg hunt before was copying the other boys and finding eggs.



We came inside for Bucks Fizz (champagne and orange juice( and/or coffee while I finished off the scrambled eggs. Then we sat down to brunch: bacon, sausages, eggs, portabello mushrooms, tomatoes and "smashed" potatoes (cooked, partly mashed, sprinkled with garlic salt and olive oil and then baked in the oven). Then we has dessert - Hot Cross bun bread-and-butter pudding. It was a lovely meal shared with our family and extended family.


Jacob had a sleep in Ross' bed and then all the little boys put on Superman suits. The two littlest had suits that had belonged to Ross and Colin which I could not bring myself to get rid of.


Around 4pm we decided to go fishing; the light was going by the time we found the "right" spot and I took lots of lovely photos of the fishermen. Unfortunately, that's all we brought home from the fishing expedition but there's always another day


It was a wonderful day and I only hope that everyone else enjoyed themselves too

Happy birthday Carol!

Go and visit Carol here

Little boys are very, very tiring!

Holidays!!

Yay it's holidays after a long, exhausting week! I have pumpkin roasting for pumpkin soup and because I forgot to buy chicken stock I made my own. Found some bits of chicken in the fridge, threw in an onion and a few carrots, a few bay leaves and peppercorns. Filled up with water and a bit of salt and let it simmer away. That was supposed to be lunch with either scones or South Island cheese rolls but as the guests left Taupo a bit later than expected it will now be dinner.

I have lots to do these holidays:
1. Complete our preparation for our Heritage l/os at Saturday's crop with my friend Bronwyn
2. Sew a dressing gown for myself.
3. Continue working on the items I am making for someone I know
4. Scrap
5. Read - the school librarian gives me lots of different books to read. It's great as I get forced to read something that I may not necessarily have chosen for myself
6. Have coffee with friends

If you're on holiday too, have fun

Exhausted

I spent 13 hours at school today and tomorrow will be 11 hours ..... it's Parent-Teacher evenings. At least on Wednesday we get a bit of a sleep-in as we will start at 9.25am.

Then not long to go to the holidays and Easter! We have visitors staying with us and our precious Jacob and his mum and dad will spend Easter Sunday with us. Three little boys looking for Easter eggs - it's going to be such fun and Adrian and I can't wait (neither can R&C if the truth be told).

Doj goes for the operation to take his pin out tomorrow so hopefully by next week he will have made a full recovery.

The Amazing Race is sadly over and I earned 13 raffle tickets - hopefully it's lucky for me! Well, we'll know tomorrow.

I'm off to bed before I fall asleep with my face on the keyboard

Some layouts

Here are some of my heritage l/os:

This is is my parents around the time of their engagement and marriage

I did it for Bossy Scrapper at SBBD last week

Snow in South Africa is for SBO Amazing Race Denmark competition

Non - Heritage:

Sunday Cruise is also for SBO for Day 8 Holiday photos

Day 8

No questions tonight :-( but four l/os:

Head to Tonga - famous now for the volcanic activity - do a HOT themed layout!

The Amazing Race is all about airports and travel so show us your best holiday pics on a layout

Japan = Super Kawaii! Think Cute! Harajuku girls and bubbly big eyed cartoon characters. Create a super cute page (use your best judgement, think little animals, candy colours etc)

Africa =Think wildlife... either the ones you live with, would like to have or saw a the zoo... or the kids going wild

I have a couple of ideas that will fit some of these and so this may just be the motivation I need to get the photos scrapped! Not so keen on the "cute Japanese stuff" though.

Weekend wise - Daylight Saving is over tomorrow so if you're in NZ remember to put the clocks back an hour tomorrow before you go to bed. We have a bbq next door. I also need to do some grocery shopping and get some Easter eggs. I want to make a dressing gown too as well as try to do some more scrapping.

And then only four school days left - YAY!

Thursday

Ross competed in the Wellington Regional bowls final today. In the semi-finals they won 16-3 which put them into the finals where they came second. I was really pleased with them as it is second across Wellington Schools! He was disappointed because they didn't win

In the Amazing Race it is Day 7 - USA. Tickets for Angela and I (yay! nine now for me) and a cool sketch to follow for more tickets but I don't have the time or the energy at night. Maybe I'll have time over the weekend. Oh and if YOU feel like winning tickets, go to the Forum, register and post a new post in the "Please pop in" area and say "Hi, I am ........ and jenny sent me". Both you and I will get one ticket in the raffle

Talking of which we have a lot to do: we have visitors over Easter - a family to stay and our lovely friends Jacob and mum and dad on Easter Sunday. Three little boys to spoil! ANd brunch afterwards. I have to buy groceries as well as get organised for the long weekend.

A Doj update - he goes in on Tuesday to have the pin removed - exactly three months after he was bitten. He has been at home for a month but kept inside and he is doing so well! He loves to go outside on the deck in the sun and thunders down the passage. He does walk with a limp but that's only to be expected