Today was the last day of our school holiday program. I really enjoyed the classes for the past 4 weeks. I can’t even say which age group I liked best as all the kids were wonderful.

The most popular was definitely the Wednesday morning and afternoon classes, with most of the kids doing both. They have learnt to cut out little images, inking, faux stitching, border punching, little bit of paper tole, stamping, ripping, shrinky dinks and putting it all together to make a work of art. 

Kids amaze you sometimes with their hidden talents. They can be so creative and don’t always follow the instructions step by step as their creativity is unleashed. I even learnt a thing or 2 from them. We have a couple of boys that joined us every week, and a 12 year old boy who learnt card making wasn’t for him (the shrinking of plastic is what attracted him to the class lol).

We also had a very talented young lady helping out with the classes. She was brilliant. So great with the kids. I am very honoured that she was able to work with me, and couldn’t have done it without her  – hopefully with school commitments and her other job she will still be able to help out with the kids classes and parties.

We have put together a great Term 1 program for all ages. At booking just specify the age so I can tailor the kit slightly if they are younger to help them keep up with the rest of the group. Places are limited as I don’t want to over fill the class. Cost $15 per week or $62.50 if you book and pay for the term before the 1st class commences. (saving of $12.50). If Saturday afternoons don’t suit you, you can also sign up for our take away classes and you will receive the kit along with detailed instructions to take home. (Help is available if needed).

Here are a few layouts we made during the holidays. Some are still available in kits if you would like to purchase any.

Hair Clips. During the class we made sleeper clips, bobbi pins and alligator clips.

Babushka Canvas Class

1 page layout for the 6-8 year group

Boys layout for the 6-8 year group

1 page layout. The kids cut out their title using the cricut.

Same class as above – ut a boy version. Even though a lot of the girls opted for this one too.

The girl version to the “boys and their toys” layout.

9+ age group layout class. You can’t see it on most of the layouts, but the kids definitely gave the foam mounts a good workout!

Our Christmas layout. The kids loved using the glossy accents!

This was the 2nd option to go with the Butterfly layout.

I don’t have the other layouts on the computer, will try to remember to load them at a later date.

Term 1 kids classes are on display in the classroom if anyone wood like to have a look.
Feel free to ring or e-mail me with any questions regarding the workshops available.
Hope everyone has a fantastic last weekend of the school holidays 🙂

Has any of you been following Planet Cakes effort to make the Ultimate Opera House cake for Australia day? The end cake will weigh approx 1.5 tonnes!!! That’s a lot of chocolate cake!!

Have you heard of Shrinky Dinks? I love them! You can make embellishments for your paper craft with them, make jewellery pieces, make wine charms and keyrings like you probably used to do with chip packets when you were younger! Shrinky Dinks Shrink to approximately 1/3rd their original size and become 9 times thicker. You can shrink them either by using a heat gun or putting them in the oven.

You can stamp and colour them. If you plan on using them as a keyring you will need to punch a hole in it before shrinking as it will be near impossible after shrinkage.

They come in various colours. My favourite is the Frosted Ruff n Ready one. Just recently Shrinky Dinks also released a version that can go through your printer! How cool is that? You can purchase Shrinky Dinks here.

On Tuesday afternoon we are holding a class using the Shrinky Dinks on cards. E-mail / ring me if you would like to join us. Cost $10 which includes everything.

Here are a couple of photos from Friday nights Desk Organiser Class.
Jodie used the Sakura Park Collection:

And Leigh made hers using English Rose

Maybe I can convince Celeste to share her one made using Home Made too….
The organisers will still get embellished. You can see a rubber band across the top which is used to help hold it together while the wood glue dries.

The organiser I have on the counter was made using Lilac Avenue.

We have a couple of desk organisers left in store if you would like one. $29.95 for just the organiser.

Have you made anything for your home?

Do you keep a journal or Diary? Have a look at the KaiserCraft blog. It has some cute projects….and they would make great gifts!
Do you make many gifts or do you prefer to by ready made? If you make them, what is your favourite gift to make?

Heard of the Sew Easy but not sure what it is? Have a look at this video…
We have them in store here.

What do you think of the Sew Easy? Do you sew a lot on your layouts / cards?

There is no better time to get back in to paper crafting as right now! Follow this link to view workshops being run this coming week. Ring now to secure your spot! Don’t live in Geraldton? (or would just prefer to Take-away?) Ring or pop in to buy the class kit complete with photo and instructions. Kits are only available AFTER the class has been held.

All kids layouts are available too 🙂 They proved to be extremely popular with the kids (and adults!!)

Hope you have a great day tomorrow!

Who doesn’t love Kaiser Craft? They have now been around for over 21 years! It wasn’t always what it is today….grab a cuppa, sit back, relax and I will tell you the story of Kaiser Craft…..

Stephen Kaiser started a little part-time job in wood working to support his (in his own words) meat pie habit during high school. Then around 21 years ago while operating a joinery business, he was asked by his wife to manufacture some small wood products to sell in her craft store. Seeing a niche opportunity, Stephen soon expanded to manufacturing plastic stencils and added other products such as acrylic paint to the company’s core range. Before long, word spread, and the Kaisercraft brand was soon in demand among Bunnings and Spotlight stores Australia wide. (excerpt taken from the Kaiser website)

In 2005 Kaiser Craft changed direction and started bringing out Scrapbooking Products.After a while they had a great design team and their monthly releases started. They had 4 double sided papers in the collection + matching epoxy brads. Their core range also started expanding including paper flowers etc.

Above is part of the Sakura Park Collection, released in 2008 ( I think! correct me if I’m wrong)

In July 2009 Q1 was released.

Q1 was very impressive. I must say this is when I really fell in love with Kaiser. I liked them before….but now I get excited everytime new collections are released as the Kasier designers NEVER disappoint. They are not always exactly to my taste….But that is because Kaiser has such an eclectic selection of collections – I am yet to find someone who doesn’t like any of them.

Kaiser only released 3 Q’s as it was too much for 1 month, and then you had such a long break in between releases.

2 collections are being released per month. Each collection includes 6 double sided heavy weight paper, 2 speciality papers, coloured rub ons, black rub ons, printed chipboard, die cuts, clear stamps, 6″ paper pad, journaling tags. Occasionally somthing may be added or subtracted to suit the collection being released. For example  After 5 only had black rub ons.

Their Core Range includes: (sorry if I miss any!)

• Mini Alphas as well as standard sized alpha stickers
• Acrylic Paints
• Album Rings
• Mini ink pads (and only $2 each!!)
• Card and Envelope Packs
• Rhinestones (in 24 diff. colours)
• Rhinestone Strips
• Rhinstone Flourishes
• Pearls (in 24. colours)
• Pearl Strips
• Pearl Flourishes
• Grosgrain ribbon packs
• Organza Ribbon packs
• Paper Flowers (3 sizes per pack)
• Paper Blooms (new release!)
• Mini Acrylic stamps
• Crochet Doilies
• Wooden Flourishes
• Chipboard Alpha
• Brads
• Lace Ribbon packs
• A selection of tools
• Quote Rub ons
• and I’m sure there is more…but without my catalogue in front of me I can’t remember 🙂

The 1 thing Kaiser was always big on (and still is!) is wood items. There are so many to choose from. And all at a very affordable price. In fact I find all of Kaiser is very affordable. There are a group of ladies who have signed up with me to receive every new Kaiser release. They receive:
* 2 of each double sided paper * 1 each of the designer paper * all the matching embellishments (excludes 6×6 paper pad – this is an optional extra) the average cost of the kits are $50.00. (So $100 per month if you would like both) Let me know if you would like to sign up for the kits.

I get side tracked too easily…back to the wood. Kaiser’s wood products include bins, storage boxes, paper racks, albums, recipe stands, Christmas decorations and so much more!

Mini wooden handbag – great to use as a desk pencil holder

This tree has proved to be extremely popular. They come as raw wood, sand and paint and voila a jewellery stand! They are only $18.95

Decorate your kitchen in style with these great items!

A great memento for kids for their year at school

Recipe card holder

Tags. The designer made these into maths tables. Love the idea!

Looking for some Kaiser? Visit us in store or here.

Nearly forgot to mention the most important facts….they are an Australian company. All the workshop magazines are printed in Australia, and all the wood items are made in their own joinery. All other items are designed in Australia.

Kaiser is still a family owned business and they support many charities. They own / help run many orphanages in Pakistan and the Philippines. Further info can be found on their website here. Check out the user gallery – many many great ideas! Also their blog is full of inspiration and that can be found here.

How about a bit of blog candy? Answer the question below in the comments section and next Sunday a random person will be chosen (using random.org) to win a kaiser bag of goodies valued at $25.

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail the other day with the meaning of love as told by 4-8year olds. Such great insights!

I often get asked how did scrapbooking start….Scrapbooking has been around in some form or other for hundreds of years. But Scrapbooking as we know it today evolved from the very clever people at Creative Memories. Creative memory consultant soon got thousands of people interested in Scrapbooking, then other manufacturers and designers jumped in the wagon and the craft continually evolves and grows from there.

For a bit more detail on the history I went to one of my favourite pages – wikipedia.

Here is what they say:
With the advent of affordable paper, precursors to modern scrapbooks became available to a wider array of people. Beginning in the 15th century, commonplace books, popular in England, emerged as a way to compile information that included recipes, quotes, letters, poems and more. Each commonplace book was unique to its creator’s particular interests. Friendship albums became popular in the 16th century. These albums were used much like modern day yearbooks, where friends or patrons would enter their names, titles and short texts or illustrations at the request of the album’s owner. These albums were often created as souvenirs of European tours and would contain local memorabilia including coats of arms or works of art commissioned by local artisans.^[1] Starting in 1570, it became fashionable to incorporate colored plates depicting popular scenes such as Venetian costumes or Carnival scenes. These provided affordable options as compared to original works and, as such, these plates were not sold to commemorate or document a specific event, but specifically as embellishments for albums.^[1] In 1775, James Granger published a history of England with several blank pages at the end of the book. The pages were designed to allow the book’s owner to personalize the book with his own memorabilia.^[2] The practice of leaving pages to personalize at the end of books became known as grangerizing.^[2] Additionally, friendship albums and school yearbooks afforded girls in the 18th and 19th centuries an outlet through which to share their literary skills, and allowed girls an opportunity to document their own personalized historical record^[3][4] previously not readily available to them.
The advent of modern photography began with the first permanent photograph created by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826.^[5] Photography became available to an ever-widening population with the invention of George Eastman‘s paper photographs in the late 1880s and the mass production of the Kodak Brownie, a camera designed to be simple (and inexpensive) enough for a child, in 1900.^[6] This allowed the average person to begin to incorporate photographs into their scrapbooks.
Old scrapbooks tended to have photos mounted with photomounting corners and perhaps notations of who was in a photo or where and when it was taken. They often included bits of memorabilia like newspaper clippings, letters, etc.

Hope this has given you a little insight to the humble beginnings of Scrapbooking 🙂