2011

What a time to start afresh... Here I sit seeing the New Year in with wonderful friends that I didn't even know a year ago - yet I know that each of them would do anything for me. 2010 was such a turbulent year for my family - my marriage separation, the death of my father and the death of my much loved mother-in-law. Certainly a year I do not wish to repeat. But it is a year to build upon. In 2011 I see fresh starts, I see learning from past experience (both mine and others dear to me), I see a road stretching ahead.... I'm not sure where the road will lead me - but I look forward to the adventures ahead, and sharing my life with those dear to me, both new and old. Here is another layout using WordArt World's 'Bring It On' pack - my feelings exactly.

Bring It On ..... 2011!!!

Over at Gotta Pixel the designers have gotten together to bring the New Year in in style. They have all contributed to a new kit called Bring It On!. Here is my layout using elements and wordart from Jen at WordArt World. The kit will be released on the 1st January, 2011 - so head on over and check it out.

BTW - this lovely photo was taken by the talented Juanita at Broderick Photography.

One Day pack

Jen is going to release a fantastic WordArt pack on 3/1/11 ... make sure you keep your eye out for it. Here is one of my layouts using a WordArt from the pack. I have used a template to create this layout - something unusual for me, hope you like it :)

Some more of my late night creativity,,,

Here are some more layouts that I have made for Jen's WordArt World Blog. Hope you like them...

My dad...

On December 12th, 2010 - ten days shy of his 92nd birthday my father - Felix Attard- passed away. Luckily I did get to see him before he died; Glynn, Lachlan and I flew to Sydney the week before when he was taken to hospital with pneumonia and we knew as we left his bedside on the Saturday that we were saying goodbye for good.
Who could complain after 92 years of living a full life? My dad had been through a war, immigrated to a new country, brought up a family of six children and achieved his dream of living on the Central coast of NSW in a house that he built. He was survived by 6 children, 19 grandchildren and 18 great-grand children.
Here is a layout that I created in memory of my dad - Felix Attard.

The week that was ........

Well I certainly don't want to go through a week like that again! I've had two rush flights to Sydney - which culminated in attending my father's funeral. I am trying to think of this as a celebration of his 92 years of living. It was a very emotional time.
While sitting vigil in the hospital, waiting in airports and riding in trains/planes/auto-mobiles I did get time to do a couple of layouts. Here they be .....

More Creative Team Layouts

Just a quick post as it is after midnight and I can feel my pumpkin starting to turn!! Really, I am pretty tired so I will upload the details of these layouts at a more reasonable hour, but I wanted to share them with you. More beautiful Word Art from Jen and some great papers from 'The Greatest Gift' Blog train that is running atm.
Cheers,
G

Creative Procrastination.....

There are other things I should be doing tonight, but this new WordArt from Jen just 'needed' to be scrapped!!! Memories are Sewn in Love is from WordArt World SWAP 8 pack which is available for FREE in Jen's store .... check out all her other lovely items while you are there, she has a WordArt for every occasion .... and then some :)

This layout shows me sewing my costume for my first Zombie Walk. I didn't know what to expect, and it turned out to be a marvelous day. Check out more pictures from the Walk here on my blog.

cheers

Grace

Fantastic Sale at WORD ART WORLD !!!

You really should go and check this out!!! Items for less than $1 :)

Cyber Monday Sale--Everything is 60% OFF!

CYBER MONDAY

starts early at

Word Art World!

60% off EVERYTHING NOW*

This sale only happens once a year at Word Art World and it starts EARLY!

Use the following code at checkout to get everything in Jen's store for 60%, through Monday, November 29th. Code will be valid until 11:59 pm EST.

*My Grab Bag is not included in this offer, but is priced at the sale price of $3.50!

CODE: waw_cybersale60

Adorable Boy ...

Here is another layout using the wonderful WordArt created by Jen over at WordArt World. This text is from her soon to be released 'Always' pack. I have to admit my great nephew was the perfect candidate for this quote ... he is simply adorable!!

WordArt World ..... I'm on the TEAM !!!

Woo Hoo!!! I've been chosen to be on the Creative Team at WordArt World !! I am so happy to be able to share these fantastic resources with you. Jen, the owner, creates gorgeous wordart which you can use for titles on your digi-layouts, or print them out and use them on cards and hybrid layouts.

Here is a layout of my nieces 21st, in which I have used Jen's Birthday Pack which is being released early December. Why not pop over to WordArt World and see what great FREEBIES are available this week!!!

cheers

Grace

Wonderful news ......

I received some FANTASTIC news via email yesterday morning, it really made my day. But I can't share just yet.
Let's just say that I am going to have the opportunity to work with some absolutely marvellous digi products in the near future .... and I just can't wait to share them with you :)
Stay tuned ... you know I am terrible at keeping secrets ...lol

Welcome to the World ....

My lovely friend had a beautiful baby girl yesterday and I just had to jump into my PhotoShop playground and whip up a quick layout. Considering most of this was created between midnight and one o'clock in the morning, I think I did OK .

Hope you like it,

Brisbane Zombie Walk 2010

I had an absolute ball on Sunday at the Brisbane Zombie Walk. It was amazing just how much effort people went to on their make-up and costumes. Some of the Zombies who joined in the walk were the Where’s Wally gang, Zombie Smurfs, Santa, clowns, brides, prisoners, the Navi from Avatar and countless others. Here are just a couple of pics from the day ….

Get the kids scrapping ....

I'm having a lovely time at school on Wednesday afternoons scrapping with a number of Year 5, 6 and 7 students during 'Options' time. I feel really lucky to be able to spend this value-time with the students, it really is a great opportunity to see each other on a different level than the normal teacher/student dichotomy. The kids are constantly surprising me with their creativity, though a number still need to learn that there is such a thing as too much on a scrap page.
One student came to me today, Friday, feeling a bit blue and wanted to know if she could spend some time scrapbooking because 'it makes her feel better'. Of course I willingly grabbed my stash and sat her down at a table and let her create to her hearts content. Would you believe she whipped up 4 pages in about 2 hours!! And she was smiling while she was doing them.
I just love the way that our creativity works. It's like our own anti-depressant sometimes.
I'll post some pics of the kids layouts as soon as I can,
cheers

Towards Dawn: Days One to Four

Towards Dawn: Days One to Four: "And so it begins. Day One The sun rises over the ocean. I spend my first morning collecting wood for tools and a simple boat. By midday I..."

My Latest Creations

Here are a couple of layouts I made while relaxing on the lounge today - gotta love school holidays :)

Two of them are from some photos I took at my friends wedding over the weekend. It was held in the beautiful Sunshine Coast hinterland town of Maleny, where the bride's parents had an absolutely stunning house which was the perfect venue for this garden celebration.

The other layout highlights a quote which I stumbled across (author unknown) about tattoos. I often get asked to explain and justify my tattoo, and I am sure that my son is the same, so these photos fitted perfectly.

Cookbook Covers

This term at school we have been running an Options program with the students were they get to do some fun activities like woodwork, cooking, scrapbooking, photography and other great stuff. All the staff involved have nominated their 'specialist' area to mentor the kids - not much trouble guessing which group I'm taking :)

The ladies who are running the cooking group asked me to design a range of Cookbook covers for them, as they are going to print out the recipes the kids have been making and present a book to each student at the end of the program. They are taking photos of each child and including these on the front covers.

These two are my efforts so far. What do you think?

Proud of this boy

I'm so proud of my DS1 who has followed his dream to be a writer, and is succeeding beautifully. Here is the link to his Blog - Critical Damage. (Critical Damage is a blog about videogames—particularly about the stories we put into them and the stories we get out of them. I try to update with a new article roughly once a week varying from creative retellings of specific gaming moments to pseudo-academic musings on videogames in general.)
He has also had a number of articles published in e-zines and print media.
Check out the links to his published articles on his site.

A giveaway worth getting!!!

The lovely and talented Tracey Lau is hosting a fantastic giveaway at her Heart & Soul blog today. You have the chance to win an absolutely brilliant prize, and while you are there you just have to check out Tracey's work. She is inspirational.

This is what ADORABLE looks like...

How lucky am I to have another gorgeous great-nephew to scrap about! These lovely photos were taken by his mum, he is so photogenic. I used a template for this layout, something I dont usually do, but I am very happy with how it all turned out.

More digi-creations

Here are a couple of my recent digi-layouts. My late-night creative creations. I wish I could spend more time with my laptop and PhotoShop, I really love creating and 'playing' with different techniques. How dare life interrupt me!!
Work has been so busy lately, I've been having fun moving into the new library at school. It's lovely and so open-plan. It's like having a clean canvas to paint on.

Faeries in the forest.

I saw some absolutely amazing photos that had been edited to look very 'fanciful' and thought I would give it a go. Here is a pic of my gorgeous great niece in her fairy dress. I've used PhotoShop Elements and imported photos of the forest and the mushrooms, then layered them and added a couple of filters.
While I've got a long way to go, I'm pretty happy with the result.

Dad's Girl...

Here is a layout of my nephew and his beautiful little girl. I love the red in this layout, I think I need to play with it some more. Hope you like it,
Grace

Opinions sort...

OK, well I've had to cut back my work load due to poor health, so I'm on the hunt for a money making venture.... aren't we all? I would love to use my digi skills, cardmaking or a combination of both. I'm thinking of making cards and selling them at markets, or online maybe. But I've looked at some of the crafty shops around town and I've seen a glut of handmade cards sitting on shelves (bottom shelves at that). And there are so many free digital downloads out there, that I cant see making money out of that venture, even though its something I could do - like designing blog backgrounds and such.
Or maybe I should look at something with an educational resource lean to i, since I've worked in schools for for so long
I would love to hear from people who have tried and succeeded (or failed) to 'make some money on the side' through a crafty sort of interest. Is it even possible??
cheers
G

But wait, there's more ......

Loving this digi-scrapping at the moment! Here are a couple of layouts I created this week, hope you like them.

Mojo Rising...

Hugs

Love Those Eyes

Here are a couple of digi layouts that I have created recently. So many babies and toddlers in the family lately, and they are all so scrappable!! I still tend to be creating late into the night, but I am so happy that my creativity has returned. I hope you like them.

Family, friends and futures...

I'm having a lovely time in Sydney catching up with family and friends. The weather is gorgeous and so is the company. I'm getting heaps of inspiration down here. Hope I can bottle it and take it home with me,
G

Another day, another background...

Well my poor blog is having an identity crisis at the moment as I experiment with my new found skill of creating my own backgrounds. Now I just need to learn how to let people access them. I am having a great time playing with Photoshop Elements, stay tuned for more creativity. . . .

Learnt Something New...

Hi there, how'd you like my blog background? I made it myself using a couple of Song of Hope digi supplies from DigitalScrapbookPages.com. There is no stopping me now :)
I'm going to make some more and put them up here to share,
cheers
G

Uplate update...

Why is it that my creative juices are flowing so late at night lately? Here it is 11:20pm and I am considering starting to create my own Blog background. Don't get me wrong, I know there are already some gorgeous templates out there, my eyes are blurry from looking at just some of them, but I have always had a 'I can do that" attitude, and I dont really need to be challenged twice to have an excuse to play on my PSe.

Hope you like my updated slideshow, I've included my latest digi-scrapping creations as well.
Time to go play .......

cheers
G

My new toy...

I just can't live without my laptop .... So when my 15 month young HP gave me the 'blue screen of death'' last week I went into serious meltdown!!! How could I survive without my Facebook, Email, internet and most of all my PhotoShop !!
Well I couldn't, so yesterday I went out and purchased my new toy - a Compaq Presario CQ61. I know it's not up there with the 'essential' items I need to set up my new place - but it is definetly an essential item as far as my sanity is concerned.
Digi scrapbooking here I come.....

So HAPPY to be in print .......

How great it is to finally get to see my layout printed in Aust Scrapbooking Memories !!
I am so chuffed that this great mag chose one of my layouts to print in their Newbies gallery this month. I had to race out and buy a copy as soon as it hit the news stand. Thanks so much to my gorgeous niece and her adorable little son Ollie, for giving me such beautiful raw material to start with.

Here is a sneak peak of my layout ... You'll have to go and get ASM Vol 12 No3 to see the full layout and heaps of other amazing work!!

Published on About.com .... Yippee!!

How proud am I ... I received notification that my contibution to About.com has been accepted for publication earlier this week. Check out my layouts and article at http://graphicssoft.about.com/u/sty/galleries/digital-scrapbook-layouts/He-s-My-Baby-No-More.htm

This is a great site that has heaps of information about everything. I particularly love the helpful articles and tutorials about digi-scrapping and graphic design. Go and check it out ....

Some pretty major changes round here....

Well, it's been ages since I have posted and a number of things have changed in my life. I'm not going to bore you with details, but I am hoping that I can now put more time and effort into my blog. . I'm looking at changing the focus of my blog. I still want to show you my scrapping and cards, but I also want to share my educational resources with you.

As a teacher I have heaps of ideas on how to make lessons interesting for kids and stress free for teachers. I love giving teachers ideas on resources and strategies to use in their classrooms. Most of my lessons are based on real-life context for students. I am a firm believer that students need to be able to place their learning in a known context. I also think that students need to be made aware of the 'big world' out there beyond the school ground and their own personal lives. Giving lessons a social context which in turn supports learners in their global citizenship is part of our duty as teachers. We have so many resources at our fingertips - be it the internet, print or recorded materials, we have no excuse not to open their eyes.

So stay tuned, and see where this new road takes me,
cheers
G

Here are a couple of the pages that I have created for the SCKC Memory Book drive. I did take a while to do them, as I like each page to be different. But a lot of the ladies are creating some amazing pages simply by using one or two standard layouts. We need 1000's of these pages for the kids camp, so I think I better start creating using the 'process line' theory. Check out the albums on SCKC Facebook page for heaps of other brilliant pages.

Join the SCKC 2010

I've started creating some 6x6 pages for the fantastic kids at the Southern Cross Kids Camp. This organisation holds camps to create happy memories for children who have been victims of abuse, neglect and abandonment. The pages are collated into Memory Books for the kids to take home with them. Check out the SCKC 2010 Facebook page for how you can help.

Gone Digi Mad!!!

I know I've said it before but I love my PSE!! I am finding it so easy to be creative. There are heaps of lovely creative people out there in cyberland who willingly allow us scrappers to download Freebies, which we can use to create and play with. Thanks to them I can play to my hearts content.

Here is a layout I created based on the January sketch at ScrapLounge by the lovely Miss Jody. Hope you like it :)