An Award & Heidi Swapp!

As a wonderful lady so aptly put it - right now it's so 'Crazy Busy'! I always find that the lead up to Christmas takes on a life of its own and the time seems to accelerate as the 25th December gets closer - or is it getting worse!?! Things are getting done but I still have alot more to do ... it will be done!

Last week, the amazing Libby gave me an award, my very first one and I thank you very much Libby - This is called The Proximity Award.

"These blogs invest and believe in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

So the 8 bloggers I choose to pass on the award are ... **drum roll** ... Vicki, Karen, Sara, Leonie, Julie, Julie, Ness and Heidi ... I really enjoy reading these blogs and I'm sure you will too!

I have been frantically doing some creating - presents for friends (decorated albums & notebooks), some cards (very few!! Even had to *shock horror* buy some!) and making a mini album for my precious 14yo daughter for Christmas. It is an A to Z or her and I'm loving doing it - it's all falling in to place so easily. I'll post pictures when it's finished. I got some great ideas to add to it from my day with Heidi Swapp yesterday ...

What a frenetic day! I attended the Create 08 workshop in Melbourne as many, many other avid scrapper did. Heidi has increased her standing in my eyes - she is such an emotionally honest and inspiring woman - I love her! We spent the day doing some wonderful techniques - beginning with a calendar album (did 4 pages) and a mini mirror album. It was go, go, go right from the start but an amazing day! If you ever get the chance to be in one of Heidi's workshops I highly recommend her - she is so down to earth and what she offers covers all types of papercrafters styles and expertise.

Here are some shares from yesterday (unfinished but still impressive!)



Here is a picture of the venue - verrry crowded, with no room to move which was a bit frustrating! Really the only thing that I didn't like about the day. The venue was in a beautiful setting but not one to hold so many crafters with all the paraphernalia that we all need to do our work! I'm standing up right at the back, in the white shirt!

This is the view from our table - Heidi is the speck on the right at the front!

And of course, I had to have my photo taken with Heidi and my scrapping colleague, Wendy. It's not what I usually do but decided that I wanted to remember this amazing day with an amazing woman. Of course, with all the paparazzi there it was hard to know which camera to look at!
Thank you Heidi!

So until next time ...

100 Pages!

I know, this is too crazy to believe - but I have just finished 100 pages (6" x 6") for the Southern Cross Kids' Camps designed to create happy memories for children who have been victims of abuse, neglect and abandonment. Julie Stone - Making a Difference - has taken on the mammoth challenge to provide, literally thousands, of pages to be made into albums for all the children who attend the 7 camps around Australia and 2 in New Zealand.

I think that this is just an amazing thing to do for these kids who are "over the moon" to get these albums, with photos taken at the camp, presented to them on their last day. Check Julie's blog entry from earlier in the year to see the finished albums.

It feels good to be able to contribute and I urge all you crafters out there to spend some time, even in this crazy time of the year, to create, and send off, some very basic but colourful and inspiring pages. She needs them for the camps to be held early in January. It's a great way to use your scraps and all those extra bits and pieces lying around. You can contact Julie for her postal address.

Here are the pages I made - they are basic, as they are meant to be, and are just to show you how easy they are to make! The campleaders add the photos and a bit of journalling so there needs to be space for these things.

Here is what a pile of 100 looks like -


I also managed to get some Christmas cards completed last week - I spend a wonderful week with my eldest daughter and 3 grand-daughters getting some TLC after my bout of the flu. Being an avid crafter, she has a space set up for her paper crafts and I made good use (and a big mess) of it and made these cards (my camera is being repaired and I've used my iPhone camera so the photo's are not as sharp and crisp as they should be) -




Well they are my shares for now - hope to get some more creating done this week - meeting up with the gorgeous Dorothy on Wednesday for a social crop. I have an album to complete for my rebellious but beautiful youngest daughter, for Christmas - will be a push!

Till next time ...