Awards Night 2017

A couple of nights ago I was blessed to be sitting with a table of much loved people at the Midwest Business Excellence Awards. People who believe in my little shop, and in me. People who inspire me and share the love of our papercrafting industry.

 My little business was nominated in 2 categories; Business Excellence and Customer Service by a Business. I was thrilled to be nominated – and would like to say to the person/s that nominated me… I want you to know how positive this experience has been for me… and it began with you. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

So after the nomination, came the opportunity to put forward a submission. This is a massive undertaking for anyone to undertake, not only to write out so many words (and try to be eloquent even with my grammatical errors) but you need to ring your own bell. That’s not fun for anyone. Next you need to take a good hard look at yourself, (again not fun); what you are doing right, but also what you are needing to improve. Then, whilst you are still wincing over the areas where you suck you aren’t super special, you have to come up with strategies and outcomes to report on. Whoa… it’s like business stuff. I like colours and matching papers, and helping people get the most out of their crafting experience, not figures and certainly not percentages.

This is what I did one year ago. It took me weeks, but having a good base to begin with made the process this year a little easier, although it was glaringly obvious that I needed improve those figures or we wouldn’t be here in the coming year. So, we did. We had much of the year to work on it, and implemented new ideas and improvement. We had goals this year. Goals that we met. Goals that we exceeded. Far out… am I actually becoming some kind of legitimate business woman after all these years of faking it?

I was proud of my submission. I wrote it myself, not even asking anyone to proofread it, because I wanted to know if it was accepted, that it would be on my own merit.

Then I was invited for an interview.

I wasn’t even too scared of the interviewer who probably deals with more money than I have ever seen in my life. Last year I had to keep my jacket on because I was so nervous I began sweating like a crazy woman, and no matter how warm one gets, no-one needs to see that! This year I rocked up confidently in heels and a sexy little car. Who is this woman?

Then, The Scrapbook House became a finalist. My beautiful staff, design team and Mum  got to dress up and attend the evening of excellence. Wow there is certainly some excellence in Geraldton. We have great businesses and brilliant customer service.

We ate, drank and were merry. We took some photos and then we danced till the band could play no more. What a wonderful night.

Whoever nominated me, you have inspired me to work on my business, and in doing so realise how good my little shop is and I am so proud. Thank you. If you still believe in me next year, please nominate me again.

We didn’t win the award, but I certainly feel like I did.

Layers of colour

Boy it was hard to just watch those lucky ladies in our Art Journal class on Friday night. I really wanted to get in there and get inky too, but I really love seeing the artwork progress along through the night.

The girls were all so grateful to delve into Michelle’s Dylusions stamp collection and stencils, and spent time to be sure they were all cleaned properly before returning them, Lord help them if they were not! Michelle, our instructor really knows her stuff and is wonderful to learn with, she is very giving of her time and expertise and sharing all her wonderful stash with the class.

  
The next Art Journal class will teach us Image Transfer, Term 4. I am already looking forward to it, so much potential with this technique and I am really looking forward to watching it unfold in class.

Have a great day!

 

July School Holidays

Hey there – the school holidays are HERE!!!

Time to kick back and spend some more time in those winter PJ’s. We have our holiday program ready to go- there are 6 classes to choose from, and Emily will be back teaching, yes, she’s also getting out the watercolour paints and pencils, and teaching scrapbook and card-making classes and more.

Click here to go to kids classes page to download your copy of the timesheet, come in-store  to book, pay and see the fabulous classes in person.

See you soon!

 

Business Awards Night

Andrew and I had such a good time at the Business Excellence Awards this year. Thank you to David Boyes from Business Local – RSM Australia for his encouragement and support through this process, I’ve never felt more proud of my little business. It’s time I let the people of ‪#‎Geraldton‬ know a little about the paper craft industry here in the midwest. We’re not just selling pretty paper (although it IS very pretty)

Being invited to sponsor a table by Mid West Chamber of Commerce and Industry- MWCCI was an exciting opportunity to showcase some of the beautiful creations handmade by the people and products of The Scrapbook House

Preferring to showcase what we actually do rather than advertising our “logo” colours with business cards and bags, I think was well received, the table could see the albums and artwork and really get a good feel for what we can create. Thank you to the talented Celeste for the loan of some of her beautiful work to add to our display and Sharon for her ideas, the lighting and tulle was perfect. How fabulous it was to overhear people talking about our table on the night, I was thrilled that it was so well received.

I hope the recipients on our sponsor table enjoyed their gifts, and would go on to gift them to their friends and family, after all, that’s whats most important to us all… friends and family.

I am so grateful for the help of my friends Janine, Rita and Sharon to complete these all on time, it put me in a spin when it was apparent that we needed to whip up 2 more sets…. they take about 4 hours each to complete, but my friends are right there by my side to make it happen.

Each setting had a gift bag to put their goodies in and take home. I was inspired by Jim’s lunch pail by Graphic 45 and created our own to fit the handmade cards, gift card holders, pens and vouchers. We hand stamped, cut, inked, shaped and glittered over 250 Heartfelt Creations flowers to put these 12 kits together.

Thank you to Cathy and her team from LETS PARTY for the Black napkins and beautiful black linen, they looked so smart.

Congratulations to all the winners on the night, it was an honour to be amongst fine calibre of excellence and you all deserve to be awarded.

Thank you to the Chamber I will be coming to see you soon Jess! You and your team did an amazing job.

Thank you. ~ Tania

 

Anyone Can Watercolour

Watercolour is trendy because it’s beautiful and ANYONE can do it! Watercolors can be added to virtually any project by virtually any age! And you know we’re here to make watercolor even MORE fun with a few of our latest and greatest products! Check them out!

Watercolour Colouring Book: filled with 24 gorgeous illustrations, from quotes to florals to typography, each printed on thick watercolour paper, ready for you to bring to life! For those who don’t like to draw…it’s ALL done for you. You just sit down and colour away.

Once you finish your gorgeous watercolour design, add a flower with a leaf, frame it in an A4 frame and hang!

Watercolour Brush Pens: a set of three water-brushes with three wide tips: 1/4″, 1/3″, and 1/2″!

To make water colouring even more fun Prima has started a fabulous Facebook group dedicated to all thing watercolour! Join them at The Coloring Society and share your creations!

iPhone backgrounds

Do you have a smart phone? I found you something…

If don’t know about you, but I spend a butt load of time on my phone, and the wallpaper and lock screen are images I love. But I do like a change… so I found these images on Pinterest and saved them for you. If you’d like more, you can check out our board here and follow us on Pinterest for great ideas to inspire you!

I don’t know how to do it on all phones, but on the iPhone I think you can do it like this…

Just hold your finger on the image, tap “Save image”.  Open the image in your camera roll. Tap the little square with an arrow on the bottom left.

Swipe the bottom menu across till you see the “Use as wallpaper” and tap. You can set it as your lock screen if you like too. (I like this because thats where you see all the image without the icons)

And if you have Scrapbook House in your contacts you can add this image…

First you need our details 0899648288
You can hold this phone number, then tap “Add to Contacts”,
Choose “Create new Contact” and type in Scrapbook House where it says “Company”, then “Done”.

Again – hold your finger on the image, tap “Save image”. Open the image in your camera roll. Swipe the bottom menu across till you see ” Assign to contact” and choose Scrapbook House

You’re welcome. xx

Treat Box

Perhaps you are still thinking about that perfect something to give your Mum for Mothers Day this weekend… what about something handmade?

Our treat boxes are easy to decorate, a project you could do in an evening.

Use your favourite stash of papers and flowers, or buy something new and fresh.

Instructions are downloadable here Dusty Attic Treat Box Instructions

 

 

Business Excellence Awards

Something to do with writing 3000 words and baring all to others freaks me out.

Well, I did it. I finally filled out the application form and submitted it. Phew.

It was an exhausting process, so much writing, and the more I self examined the business, the more I became aware of some great things, and then… some not so great things.

Things to be proud of… and also things I need to work on. Geez, I hate having faults… So without broadcasting all my faults (yes there are more than one) I am endeavouring to do things better for the business. This will help me… and it will also help you.

But the good things are really good! And I was so proud of my submission. I have been nominated for many awards over the years and never actually submitted anything.  We have a rocking little business with so much to be proud of, it was really nice to see this on the pages in front of me. Thanks to the Midwest Chamber of Commerce and Industry, (who I have always been very scared of) for the opportunity to take a look at myself and in turn for the judges to take a look at me.

Thanks to whoever nominated me – this is for you.

Now it’s in their hands and I can get back to doing what I do.

 

 

Make a Mini Album

Celeste has used her creative skills to build us a quick and easy mini album that we can recreate and decorate in a single class.

This travel album is sure to delight and when you’ve filled it with photographs and memories, it will become a treasure to be admired.

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The entire album is constructed using Premium Kraft card stock, using 2 of the 3 different weights available, heavy card and medium card,  as well as envelopes in a few sizes. These have been kitted up for our class along with the papers, stickers, hardware and embellishments.

Join us Friday May 13th for some creative fun. Cost $15 class plus supplies. Kits available $36.95

 

 

Term 2 Timetable

The Term 2 Class Calendar is now available for download, you can find it here  or navigate to the Current Timetable Page using our menu.

 

 

 

Mothers Day

It’s coming up soon -hint hint –

Scrapbook Layout Kit for sale – Days like Today

Hi, did you know we kit up extra class kits? This one is for sale now..

Click the photograph for more information.

“DAYS LIKE TODAY”
by Sharon Drown

Overview: Using stickers and papers from the Authentique “Fresh” range you will create this page great for those summer beach pictures but could be used for any of those happy moments that you have captured. You will be using stencilling and stamping techniques texture paste and ink to add extra detail to your background.

 

Weekend Fun

This weekend was rather busy with the shop, family and friends. How blessed I am to have so much to do!

Friday night was the Art Journal class, using Distress Ink, Paint and Stain. Here is Kim’s page – I’m loving the colour tones in this.

Saturday after the shop had closed, we had a children’s birthday party scrapbook class held at the shop where we shared the afternoon with 13 little girls (and some helpers who didn’t quite know they’d signed up) as they crafted and chatted the afternoon away. Jo shared a photo with us afterwards – so cute as they left, walking to afternoon tea, hand in hand in rows of two.

The Nagle Year 12 Ball was held this weekend too, and how wonderful it is to see our beautiful young people dressed in their finest, on their special day. I think half the town heads out to the Marina, it seems to be “THE” spot for photos, the perfect venue for “Pre- ball greeting and photos”

I had the pleasure of shooting with some friends – they all looked so beautiful.

At the beautiful Marina and also the 50 cent ‘seat’ (more commonly known as the 50 cent swing)

And my darling hubby had his beloved old car out tonight.

Then we all went out to dinner for my Mum’s birthday – we were late… but we were there! Happy birthday Ma xxx

I’m not sure where Sunday went, but it whizzed by far too quickly. I did go see The INKS at the Freemasons as usual for a few hours – chill time, so good 🙂

 

 

 

 

Pop Up Card

We are making this fun card in a box style in today’s 10:30 class, I love these colours and the girls are going to love those butterflies! They are stickers so this will be a very easy class to put together. We also have a few simple cards to make using the rest of the papers if we have time.

Kits are available with papers an instructions, just ask and we can post them out to you.

Have a great day

Exploding popularity

My blog is more than a little neglected these past couple of years, Facebook took precedence as it was more interactive and user friendly, but today, this blog got my attention again. Seems the stats, which I once studied carefully and now don’t even check on, have exploded recently.
All due to my ‘exploding box tutorial‘ from way back. It’s still so very popular. Today there were over 600 views for this and over 300 downloaded my instructions… that’s just today. That’s pretty big stats for my little blog… and kinda makes me smile. I’m hoping that a whole bunch of people make something beautiful for someone using those instructions.

So, this gets me thinking… what would make this blog come alive again? What would I need to post to keep it interesting for me, as well as for the potential reader? Got any ideas? Please leave a comment…

What would you like to see more of here?

Anyhow, I’m just glad that one of my posts is still being seen – thanks for that internet world! xx

Take care

Christmas Page Workshop

Want to make this great page using Gold Paints and the new Texture Tool? Come along to our Scrapbook Class on either Tuesday morning, Tuesday evening or Thursday Evening and get painty! Classes start Feb 10 2105

See our timetable (link above on the webpage current timetable) and ring us to book.

Variety Club Dinner

The Midwest branch of the Children’s Variety Club holds a special place in my heart, and there’s not much I can offer to help this amazing charity in way of time or money, but I was pretty happy to be asked to make some thankyou tags to thank the sponsors at their Dinner.

This is what I came up with last year…

This year for their Midwest Getaway Bash, the theme is “Around the World in 80 hours” and I know they are going to have a blast. I’ll be following The Hippies – Car 9 and their antics on Facebook. Should prove to be entertaining!

They leave Friday morning, you can go down and check out the cars at the start line. They will be having breakfast at the Indian Sunset and leave from the vacant block next to Mitchell and Brown. First car out at 8am.
Follow them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/The-Hippies-Car-

I hope they have fun!

Why should we remember?

Today marks the 100 year anniversary of the first outbreak of the First World War.

Why should we remember?
“Why should we stop and think about those events that happened so long ago? By the end of the First World War there were very few people in the countries that took part who remained unaffected.
The war reached out and touched almost everyone’s life in some way or another”.

It’s our lives, our history, our story. We learn from the past and try our best to make things better for the descendants to come. War isn’t something I have had to live with or live through, my Grandparents did. The devastation, heartache, and magnitude of loss affects us. Remembering helps educate future generations to understand.

I thought today would be a fitting day to share Rita’s recent creation for a gentleman as a keepsake for his military history memoirs.

She has used the new military chipboard pieces and painted them up with various colours. They look great. I am sure the recipient will love this.

Pieces of Me

Puzzles sprayed with bright Dylusions colours are sure to delight any young scrapper and the girls in this weekend’s kids classes sure enjoyed this one.  Chosing just three of their favourite colours proves difficult as they are all so cool and watching them pool and blend was a treat.

The girls also made a Mothers Day pop up flower card, it was a tricky one but totally worth the effort.  They were so excited with their secret which were tucked away neatly in envelopes, hidden from view. One little one was so sweet though… when a Mum came into the room she puts her hand over the envelope and says in a sweet little voice ” This is not anything, this is nothing, this is not a Mothers Day card”

Reminded me of when Emily was little and sneaking things from the kitchen, walking sideways with hands behind her back saying “I haven’t got nuffin Mummy”… Not too good at sneaking, (but I’m sure she’s expert at it now).

More about Dylusions Ink Sprays

Dylusions Ink Spray dyes are a high quality, acid-free, non-toxic concentrated colorant for porous surfaces. The Dylusions Ink Sprays’ bright and vibrant palette will colorize paper, Sticky Back Canvas, wood, paper, clay and more. Use to create backgrounds on cards, scrapbook and journal pages, and in mixed media art projects.

Available in 24 splendid colors.

DYC40453	DYC40477	DYC40439	DYC36777	DYC40446	DYC40460
Pomegranate Seed	Tangerine Dream	Chopped Pesto	Polished Jade	Ground Coffee	Slate Grey
New!	New!	New!	New!	New!	New!
DYC36746	DYC36753	DYC36739	DYC36784	DYC36760	DYC37873
Cherry Pie	Dirty Martini	Calypso Teal	After Midnight	Funky Fuchsia	White Linen
DYC33882 Lemon Zest	DYC33837 Black Marble	DYC33851 Crushed Grape	DYC33875 Fresh Lime	DYC33868 Cut Grass	DYC33936 Squeezed Orange
DYC33905 Melted Chocolate	DYC33912 Postbox Red	DYC33844 Bubblegum Pink	DYC33899 London Blue	DYC33929 Pure Sunshine	DYC33943 Vibrant Turquoise

• Concentrated colorant for porous surfaces
• 24 bright and vibrant super yummy colors
• Acid free and non-toxic
• Fine mist sprayer
• Note – a little addictive – you might want more than 3 colours.

Have a  great weekend and Happy Mothers Day xxx

 

Storing Project Life Cards

It’s become a bit of a problem… how many cards one has in their stash and how to keep them. I have a few packets… (well, ok, lots of packets) of the PL (Project Life) cards and also the SS (Simple Stories) ranges too. Perhaps this might help you decide how you are going to tackle this. To begin with I kept them in their plastic packaging, but it is clear I needed something better so they don’t fall off my shelf. Here is what I started with… and I’m tired of rifling through them to find the one I want, and the matching sets. Each of the Simple Stories ranges has 3 packets: a 4×6, 3×4 and Sticker set. I have a few, like “Family” and “Everyday”, “Him” and “Her” etc. We just got a new set in today called “Travel” and I think I need that too. So anyway,  This is 2 sets, they fit in one of the new 4×6 photo storage boxes that arrived yesterday. Then 6 of the boxes fit neatly into this larger box. One of these boxes fits about a third of a core kit. So effectively you can fit 2 whole core kits, (over 1200 cards) into one of these sets.  Personally, I still like my PL boxes, and like flipping though the sets, so I’m leaving them in the PL boxes for now and concentration on the smaller sets that I need to sort. And I cut the titles from the packaging to add to the inside front of the boxes, so I grab the right box when I’m looking for it. This box has Paintables and overlays in it. So, here’s the finished job. Cards are all in the box, and the packaging can be thrown away. I did keep the backs of each packet as it shows whats in it at a glance, and popped them on top and bottom as a reminder of the colourings inside.

All in all, pretty happy that they all fit.

If you would like to order one of these babies let me know – they are $29.95 a set of 6 with the outer box. I can also order just the inner boxes if you like…

They are actually photo boxes… so there’s another reason to love them!

Have a great day!