Scrapping goals for February

my scrapbooking TO DO list is huge. today i went through the items i have bought to alter then never did and i have:

- five 20x25cm canvases
- four 15x15cm canvases
- four notebooks
- one maya road chipboard mini album with chipboard pages (LOVE THIS ALBUM!!!!) i dont know why i havent done anything with it yet!!!
- another mini album
- 3 keepsake boxes that have a photo album built into the lid of the box (they are so cute i HAD to have them ... still undressed!)
- two wooden doorhangers
- one round metal tin
- a bamboo basket that i want to alter and use as a bin for my scrap table
- about 30 paper bags

i cant help it. something looks cute ... i get an idea ... i buy .... then i store on the shelf for a year ... then i decide i dont want it anymore!

if anyone wants some of those paper bags let me know and ill post a few to you. they were 5 cents each so i got a tonne.

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So this is what I plan on doing in February. Ill post at the end of Feb and see how ive gone!

1. Alter one of the keepsake boxes for Ethan's 2nd birthday (11-Feb)
2. Do the 14-day-challenge at Scrapboxx where I complete 14 layouts/OTP projects in 14 days (this starts tomorrow)
3. Use the Maya Road mini-album to create a book for Brianna about ppl who love her (friends/family).
4. Do weeks 4 - 7 of Elsie's challenges book

Ooops! DT application mixup!

Im a dork! I got my dates mixed up. I thought the DT comp i entered ended at the end of january - but its february! now i have another month to wait.

oh well!

I have also entered another design team competition. This one is at Crafting in Style. If you want to enter this one signup ends tonight! So get over there quick! This one goes for quite a few weeks so we will see how i go. I havent participated in their forums much though so I dont know how Ill go.

I think (dont know for sure, just my own opinion) that this may hinder my application. People tend to like to get their friends in, not someone they dont know very well. But i will apply anyway and see how i go! Its all more layouts so why not go for it!

Weekly Summary - Week 4 of 2007

Only one post this week because Ive been out of town!

Last Tuesday I headed into Mackay for a few days to visit family and friends however Im still here! I decided to extend my visit an extra few days and how plan on heading back into town on Tuesday.

Ive had fun shopping around at the scrapping stores here and managed to find a few little things to add to my stock at Moranbah. My lovely mum babysat both kids on Wednesday and I went to the LSS for 5 hours to scrap. My first crop since Liam was born 3 months ago! I had soo much fun. Its so relaxing chatting scrap stuff with ladies and shopping as you scrap.

I did three layouts on the day and that is all I managed to do this week. I will take photos of them on Tuesday and upload to this blog - so make sure you come back to check them out! Im very happy with the layouts and I love how they turned out. Once again I tried to extend my boundaries with colour shemes. I did a brown/pink/orange/teal layout and a royal blue/lime green layout and a bright red/sea blue layout (these colours go really well together surprisingly!)

I did alot of painting and handstitching and distressing. Fun fun fun! Im loving the direction my scrapping style has taken of late. Its evolved into a style that I enjoy. But I really must remember to date my layouts!!!!! Im shocking with that :)

Have a great week!

Weekly Summary - Week 3 of 2007

Ive decided to do a weekly summary - and we are in the 3rd week of the year. This will help me keep track of how many layouts ive done over the year to help me stay on track with my goals. :)

This week I did 8 layouts! i think this is close to the most ive done in a week. This is thanks to the awesome cybercrop i took part of at chookscraps over the weekend. So that brings my total to 15 layouts for 2007 so far - out of 200.

Im now up to date with my Elsie challenge that im doing at chookscraps - you can see week two's challenge here (use a black and white photo). i was also doing it at scrapboxx but they are choosing their challenges haphazardly from the book - whereas i want to do it in order. so im just going to focus on the chook one.

This was also the layout I mentioned when I last posted. I used black with teal - and a splash of cream. I think it turned out great! I totally am in love with basic grey rubons though!

This week's layouts:

• one my fav photos of brianna - done with the Jan chookscraps kit
  
• i love the way you love each other - done with the Jan chookscraps kit
• me and you - done with the Jan chookscraps kit
• smile - cybercrop challenge 2
  
• silly brianna - cybercrop challenge 3
  
• 1st birthday - cybercrop challenge 1
  
• christmas - playgroup christmas party!
  
• sweet dreams - Elsie challenge week 2 plus a no-patterned-paper challenge i was given

Im outta here!

Cybercrop at Chookscraps!

Wow what a great weekend so far! ive bought some new storage boxes for my scrap-crap and ive also bought a new bookcase to store it all! it looks great.

this weekend ive been a part of the chookscraps cybercrop. sooo much fun! normally i dont scrap when i go to a cyber crop but this time i decided i would! so i didnt chat as much as i normally do.

i managed to get all 3 scrap challenges done lastnight so im very happy with that! and then today ive started a beautiful layout about liam. Im working with colours that i dont normally do and im loving the effect they have together. u will have to wait until tomorrow to find out the colours though because ill post a pic of it when its finished :) and im using some new rubons that i bought last week so that is always fun! hopefully the finished product will look just as striking as it seems to be in my mental picture i have of it!

tomorrow ill have lots of new layout photos up because ill be uploading the 3 chookscraps challenges, this layout i started today, plus a christmas layout i did a few days ago.

its so satisfying to scrap. i find it very therapeutic to use my creativity to express my feelings and thoughts about my family.

its just past midnight so i had better get to bed. this was really a 'nothing' sort of post wasnt it!

2 more weeks till i find out how my DT application went! fingers crossed :D

Just a quick post ...

... cos i finally have some time to scrap and Im not gonna waste it blogging :P

The party went fantastically! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

I have some bad news - the only LSS in my town is closing!!! EEEeeeek. So while I do purchase online, this will be stepped up heaps. Im considering signing up for some more kits from various stores but ill probably start doing that in Feb or March because Im planning 2 visits to Mackay in Feb and there is a LSS there. So ill be blowing my scrap budget twice next month. I always do when Im in town! I can easily spend about $80 - $100 in one transaction when I go to Magical Memories in Mackay. Their stuff is just so gorgeous. And they get new stock in daily nearly. So its hard to resist all their goodies.

My normal budget for scrapbooking is around $100 a month - sometimes more, sometimes less. But now that Ill be paying for postage costs itll probably rise, depending on how many different stores I buy from online. Itll probably go more towards $150 a month because Ill not be able to say 'no' to online stuff. Im a pretty cheap scrapper. I like to doodle and make my own embellishments. Not necessarily cos its cheap (although thats a bonus!) but because I like experimenting with different things and making stuff.

I currently am recieving small kits from ChookScraps monthly and they are a great find. Their kits are small but thats what I like! I wanting to sign up for the Boxx of Scraps from Scrapboxx but that will probably happen in March. It all depends on if I get any of the DT positions Ive applied for.

Im currently going for two positions. One I find out at the end of Jan and the other comp ends in March.

Im sooooooooo excited. I really want to be a part of a team again. I miss this since I quit work! But I guess Ill have to stop being impatient and just wait. It must be hard choosing a DT member when you get so many applications. These things take time!!! Still, I cant help but be impatient :P

Must run - Ive gotta play with the new goodies I bought yesterday :D mmmmm I love getting new chipboard.

My baby is two!!!!

did i say i was busy last time I posted??? cos that is nothing compared to now!

yesterday Brianna turned 2! shes so old now! we had a small party yesterday for her where my inlaws came out to moranbah for a visit. and today im spending the day cooking for tomorrow - her REAL party! its only 8.30am and ive already cooked 2 cakes (they are now cooling ready for icing) and also made chocolate crackles. so im on the ball!!!

the funniest thing just happened. Brianna is having some "nappy off" time and she just came bouncing into the kitchen going "Jump like a kangaroo" over and over. And as she turned around to jump out the room I noticed she had squeezed a golf ball in between her butt-cheeks!!!! LOL Her cheeks were keeping it there in place while she jumped. she thought she was hilarious. what a drifter!! haha

On a scrapping note - Ive been so busy I havent had time to upload layouts! Ive got four sitting here finished and I still havent photographed them and edited/uploaded. Hopefully Ill get onto that this afternoon. That is of course after ive filled the sandpit with sand, cooked biscuits, made the party bags, blown up around 20 balloons, iced and decorated the "butterfly" cakes im making and also made the "thankyou" cards for all of brianna's friends that are coming.

hmmmm - maybe itll be a couple more days before i get a chance to upload!

At least Ill have lots of photo opportunities tomorrow - which means more stuff to scrap! yay! :)

Have a great week.

Life is so busy! But I always have time for my ChookScraps pack! :P

tomorrow my little angel turns 2!! and today was spent cleaning the house and shopping. basically getting ready for the in-laws coming to town for the day tomorrow to celebrate her birthday. And then on Tuesday the house is getting overtaken by 2 year olds! Its going to be crazy but Im looking forward to having some fresh material to work on with the layouts.

ive got a few ideas for her 2nd birthday layout but there is sooooo much to put into 1 layout itll be hard to decide what to do. I havent even scrapped brianna's 1st birthday photos! how slack is that. i really should do those soon :P

i got my first ChookScraps pack yesterday and Ive gone crazy with it! It had some great papers and bazzil and some ribbons with a few embellishies. Ive already completed 2 layouts and ive started a third. but the third one is for a dear friend of mine Katrina. Im slowly doing her kids' albums. But the layout is turning out soon good im thinking of doing another one the same for Brianna. I love the colours in this pack!

im hoping to finish it off tonight. so ill upload it tomorrow for you to see. just picture a lovely tealy blue matched with watermelon pink and some white thrown in to balance it all out. its a colour combo i havent worked with before and im loving how the whole page just bounces out at you. but u will have to wait to see it!

My first acceptance for publication!

On the first of January I submitted my first lot of layouts to For Keeps, Scrap Memories and Scrap Creations as part of my new years resolutions and goals for 2007.

Today I got TWO EMAILS from For Keeps saying that I had two layouts accepted!!!!

I am just over the moon. I really am. And one of them is one of my fav layouts, which makes it even better.

Wow ... exciting!!!!!

Design Team Applications

Name: Karen Day
User name on Australian scrapbooking forums: Kaz (or Kaz_from_Moranbah)

How long have you been scrapbooking?
I started scrapbooking in 2004 but didn't do it really seriously until I became a stay-at-home mum in late 2005. Since then I have been completing around 3 - 5 layouts a week.

How would you describe your scrapbooking style?
These are the 6 terms I would use to describe my style:
- fun
- adventurous
- scrappy chic
- negative space/'white' space
- mostly single page layouts
- mostly single photo layouts but some work with multiple photos

What are your 3 most-used scrapbooking tools?
1. nail file for distressing
2. cotton buds (the ones for babies ears) for applying/mixing paint
3. pens for journalling/doodling - I journal on nearly every layout and do a fair bit of doodling

Do you have a preferred layout size?
I work with 12x12 but would love to branch into other sizes.

Are you comfortable working with several different product lines?
Very comfortable. I love expanding my boundaries and testing out new products and also using old products in a new way. The ever-changing trends and styles is what keeps scrapbooking so 'fresh' and interesting.

What are some of your favorite products?
Bazzil (of course!) ... but I tend to use alot of rubons, blossoms, transparencies, ribbons and paint.

Are you currently designing for any manufacturers, online teams or kit clubs?
No, Im not. I have only just decided to start applying for design teams in late 2006.

Are you currently teaching or designing for your local scrapbook store? No, our LSS is very small and their only teacher is the owner of the store. One of the set-backs of living in a small country mining town! I would love to do this as I have a bachelors degree in Education that isnt being used.

How do you stay current on the latest techniques and trends in scrapbooking?
I feel the best way to keep on top of it all is to browse the many many sites/galleries online and see what is being produced by other scrappers. This way you can see the varied interests from those who have been scrapping for years and those who are just starting. This helps identify how the varying degrees of interest affect the styles/techniques employed.

What subjects or individuals do you tend to scrapbook the most?
Im very fortunate - I have a toddler girl and a baby boy. So I can do baby layouts, toddler layouts, pink layouts, blue layouts and everything else. Im lucky to have such willing posers for photos!

Tell us a little bit about your daily life and what a typical day is for you:
My daily life revolves around my family (like nearly every other SAHM)! I revel in the whole "Susie Homemaker" lifestyle that involves cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, doing laundry, looking after the kids and doing more laundry. I love it when my husband comes home from work to a clean house and dinner on the table at 5pm. It makes me feel like I've achieved something that day. This lifestyle isnt for everyone, but it suits my family and me.

A typical day for me involves getting up at 5:30am. Then the normal morning routine (getting kids dressed, wash the day before's cloth nappies, breakfast) goes until around 7am. Then the kids and I go for a walk around the neighbourhood. At 8am its time for a snack and a rest. This is where I normally put on a kid's DVD for 30 mins so I can jump on the computer and do the rounds of the scrapbooking communities. If I have time I also normally have a quick fiddle with my scrapbooking supplies and plan the day's layouts.

At 10am its naptime for Brianna and Liam and I get the house to myself for an hour and a half. I know it sounds crazy but this is my ME time - so I even unplug the phone!! All my family and friends know that I scrap at this time and they don't bother trying to ring.

My afternoons are spent doing an "active" activity with the kids - swimming, playing outside, dancing, visiting friends, running errands, doing the shopping. And I generally always take my camera because it's a great opportunity to take a few snaps of the kids.

At 3pm our nighttime routine starts early due to the kid's bedtime being 6pm. I love having them down to bed early because it means I have the night to myself to watch a movie and hang out with my husband Troy, to scrap or to have friends over for a board-games night.

Have you ever been published?
I haven't been published before, but that is because I only just starting submitting my layouts to magazines in January 2007. Previous to this I didn't feel the need to start submitting. My wanting to be a part of a design team is what prompted me to start submitting my layouts.

Would you be able to write up a simple and easy to understand (step by step) instructions?
Yes, this ability is linked back to when I did my bachelors degree in Education.

Do you have any teaching experience?
I taught for eight months in a primary school after university, then I also taught adults how to edit websites using a ZOPE platform.

Why do you want to be part of an online Design Team?
I miss the feeling of working with a team since I became a SAHM. Also, our LSS isn't very active at creating a feeling of a 'scrapping community', so I miss that environment since moving towns in December 2005. They teach basically no scrapbooking classes so I have no chance of being involved in the teaching there.

Is there anything else you would like us to know? List it here:
- My employment background revolves around graphic design. I used to create websites and design promotional material for TAFE Queensland. So I've always been a creative person.
- I turn over around 3 - 5 layouts a week depending on how simple/extravagant the layouts are.
- My biggest scrapping role-model is Elsie Flannigan. I love her book and quite often have a quick flick through when lacking in "scrapping mojo".
- I create a wide variety of layouts - some are quite basic and some involve more advanced techniques.
- I enjoy looking "outside the box" when it comes to using products.
- I love teaching (I have a bachelors degree in education from Central Queensland University, majoring in Multimedia).
- Due to my background in multimedia and computers I am really internet and computer savvy so have no worries uploading layouts, manipulating images, installing fonts, using Photoshop brushes, and working my way around a website.
- Because I am a stay at home mum I have lots of time to commit to a design team position. On average I spend around 15 hours a week scrapbooking.
- I work very well with deadlines. I actually miss them a bit now that I haven't been working for over a year.

Scrap goals for 2007

> complete 200 layouts

> complete 15 OTP items for around the house (I dont normally do alot of these but i just altered a tonne of stuff for christmas gifts and i loved it)

> compete in forum challenges as much as i can to try to extend my boundaries

> really focus on improving my photography skills and learning how to actually USE my camera instead of just using "auto" all the time

> complete Elsie's 52 challenges

> get published

> apply for design teams. even though i may not get in, itll all be experience for me :)

Favourite Layouts from 2007

Im going to be updating this post throughout the year to feature my ultimate favourite layouts from 2007!!!! Thanks for looking!! :D

LAST UPDATED: 10 October 07