Stamp Camp

It's taken over 2 years but finally I managed to attend Stamp Camp in the Hunter Valley this year from 7th - 9th September. It's always held on a weekend in September and as the majority of my family members birthdays occur during this month, I haven't been able to go ... until now!

I arrived on Friday night after working all day, just in time for dinner. I spent the weekend with a lovely group of ladies, some I'd met before and others I met through various online groups.

On Saturday, the lovely Rachel Greig from Darkroom Door (http://www.rachelgreig.typepad.com)
spent the day teaching us different techniques to make cards.  When we weren't in the classroom, our time was our own to finish off other projects.

All in all the weekend was just what I need to recharge and get back in balance with a little bit of creativity.

Below some photos of the cards made in Rachel's class, some ATC completed and a pic of my Stamp Camp buddies. From L to R Bev Charter, Therese Davis, Me, Dorothy Leach, Heather Askitis & Carolyn Passfield.

 

Keep smiling and keep creating!



A weekend in Queensland

Ferg and I travelled up to Queensland for the Queens Birthday long weekend just gone.  It always amazes me how much my niece Alexis and nephew Harry grow up in between visits. The photo's below are when I went to the school to pick Alexis up ... she was very excited to see Aunty Di.  Also lovely (and very rare) family shot of my sister Sylvia, Dave, Alexis & Harry.

I also managed to go to the Scrapbook and Papercraft Convention on Saturday and did a few classes with my friend Pam Prosser.  The classes we did were with the delightful Louise Nelson and Michelle Hartjes ... both very talented scrapbookers and very different.  Of course, I didn't finish my layouts in the class, so it'll probably take me a few years to get them completed (ha, ha).

 

I was a bit star struck when I saw Tim Holtz ... I just stood behind him ... ha ha.

One family member was sorely missed on this trip.  My sister's dog Max was put down since our last visit to Queensland .  His last day was 21st April and he was 17 years of age so had a good innings for a dog.  Nevertheless, he's been a part of the family for a very long time and it was sad that he isn't going to be around anymore.

Enjoy,

Di

Visitors ...

As you can see from recent my recent blog posts, there hasn't been much creativity happening ... in fact there's been none since I was on holidays over Christmas/New Years.

We did have visitors recently though and that was a nice change from the norm. Good friends Pam and Barry from the Gold Coast came to visit from Wednesday 14th March until Sunday. We didn't do too much together during the week because we were still working, but we did go to the Austrian Schnitzel House for dinner one night.

We had a great day on Saturday - St Patricks Day - even though the grey skies were out in abundance all day.  We started by visiting the Reverse Garbage centre in Marrickville (http://www.reversegarbage.org.au/) ... Pam and I would have loved to spend more time browsing around, but with the husbands in tow it was a quick visit.

Our next stop was Sydney Fish Markets. We spent a fair bit of time at De Costi Seafoods ... the array of seafood in that place alone was amazing. We had lunch at a one of the seafood places inside the market area, then bought prawns, mussels, marinara and monk fish in an attempt to increase our seafood intake during the week.
As Pam is very creative, I thought she might enjoy heading to the Art Gallery to check out Art Express, which is the senior school students end of year artworks. Every time I go to this free exhibition, I am amazed at the talent and depth of these young artists.  The exhibition is on until 22nd April in Sydney and a must see if you get the chance (http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/artexpress-2012/).

Saturday night saw us at the Hunters Hill Hotel for Irish fare and St Patties Day entertainment.
Some pictures of amazing art but there was much much more: beautiful sculpture made out of paper - Flourish - Hannah Clements Sydney; A collection of postcards from wits end - Lisa Koesterke Mullumbimby; amazing hand drawn girl - Muse - Eva Nolan Port Macquarie; capturing the playfulness of a dog - No Inhibitions - Karmen Fong Sydney.

Pics of me and Pam, Barry and Ferg.

Jen Crossley Workshops Part 2

Hard to imagine that it's now been a week since dear Jen Crossley graced our shores and I am only now posting what beautiful creations we made.

On Saturday (16th May) the day started early (we left the Gold Coast at 8am) after the late finish on the Friday night. Pam, Kyla and I all travelled together and managed to get there without a wrong turn like Kyla and I did last night. We finished around 8pm ... quite a long day considering I only had 5 hours sleep. We created a type of altered book made out of chipboard windows and alas ... I was unable to finish mine, but here are a few pictures of us working away and of the unfinished product. I will post more pictures in the future when I've finished it ...

Me (in the pink apron), Kyla and Karla working away on our books.

Ginny, Pam and Margaret also in the swing of book making.

Sample pages of the inside of my book. It's difficult to see, but some are completely transparent.

On the Sunday, only Pam and I attended the class as Kyla was hosting a birthday party for her oldest daughter, Summer. We got into etching and bashing metal with a rubber mallet and drilling and all sorts of things to come up with this gorgeous necklace. I've worn it a few times now and it's always met with oooohs and aaaahs.

Long shot of whole necklace.

Close up view of the gorgeous details.

Here we all are wearing our finished product - L to R - Jen, Ginny, me and Pam.

The gorgeous Jenny and me.

"Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them."
~David Hume, 1711-1776, Scottish Philosopher/Historian/Economist~

Jen Crossley Workshops Part 1

I had a fantastic weekend doing 3 workshops with the fabulously talented Jen Crossley (aka "Captain Underpants"), who flew up from Ballarat to teach a group of us. The workshops were being held at the lovely Evelyn's place in Waterford (Queensland) and boy did she look after all of us with her wonderful husband John.

For those of you who may not know, Jen's alter ego "Captain Underpants" took form at the Creative Soul Retreat in March as she "flew" around the retreat with her Australian flag cape, but I felt she wasn't quite complete without some special "underpants" so made up a pair for her as a gift, and presented them on Friday night.

Jen presented with Captain Underpants


I think they'll do nicely!


Jen even taught in them ... I think she forgot she was wearing them after a while.


What's this, someone thought this sight was worth paying for, with Amanda & Evelyn in the background.

Kyla and I started on Friday night at 6pm doing the Resin Book class and were too hyped up to notice it was 11pm before we made our way home with our finished masterpieces. It also happened to be Kyla's birthday, so we had to have a little cake and a sing-along too.

The lovely Ginny, who sat opposite me all weekend.


Happy Birthday to Kyla ... I'm surprised I got a shot of Kyla, she doesn't really like being in photos.

My finished Resin Book front cover.

Back Cover.

Side View.

Open View, you can see we used an antique Band-Aid tin as the front and back covers.

All-in-all it was so much fun and it took me until around 1am to finally come down off the high and go to sleep, so I could wake up fresh and ready for a full day of Jenny on Saturday!

"We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents."
~Eric Hoffer, 1902-1983, Author.~