Scraps Of Mind

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Scotch Brand Most Gifted Wrapper Contest

How would you like to win $10,000 for wrapping some presents?

Sound good? Read on . . .

The 3M Company who own Scotch Brand are holding their 14^th annual gift wrapping contest in December this year. Entries close 18^th October 2010 and the winner of the Scotch Brand Most Gifted Wrapper walks away with $10,000.00.

Now that would buy a whooole lot of scrapbooking supplies.

So if you’re someone who extends their passion for scrapbooking to off-the-page gift wrapping projects, or if you know someone who does, then click over to the competition website and find out more about it.

Scotch Brand Most Gifted Wrapper for 2009

To enter all you need to do is complete a form telling the organizers why you or someone you’re nominating, are a gift wrapping guru and share your best gift wrapping tips. You can upload a couple of photos if you like, but that’s not mandatory.

And you’ll need to tell them whether the nominee is a professional or an amateur gift wrapper. I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize there was such a thing as a professional gift wrapper, but apparently a professional is someone who has earned an income as a gift wrapper at a department store. Hmmm . . . I once worked in a garden nursery and we used to gift wrap the potted plants. Does that make me a professional gift wrapper? I don’t think so.

Anyhoo, even if you’re not so great in the gift wrapping department yourself if you’re the person who nominates the winner you get $1000 for just putting in the nomination.

So check out the competition website This might be the opportunity for you or a friend to actually get a cash windfall from your papercraft creativity.

And wouldn’t that be very satisfying to point out to your significant other?

- Art & Craft, Scrapbooking - 1 Comment

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The Cat and the Celtics

The Cat in the title doesn’t have four legs, doesn’t meow and is in fact the singer/songwriter formerly known as Cat Stevens.

My daughter Seona has been a humongous fan ever since she was 13; fourteen years after he gave up his singing career! So when I found out that he was doing some concerts in Australia I knew that tickets to see him would be the perfect birthday present for her.

With the help of her partner Phil we arranged that I should fly up to Sydney on the night and meet her for dinner before the show as a surprise. There were a few hiccups in the plans along the way (not least when I accidentally on forwarded the two tickets to her) but through a web of lies and deceit we managed to keep her in the dark and the surprise was wonderfully successful.

She was totally wound up for the concert; having loaded her iPhone with his entire catalogue and spending the last two weeks revisiting every song he’s ever recorded. So I was a leetle bit nervous that the actual show might not be able to live up to the high expectations.

Fortunately my fears were unfounded. We both had a fantastic time and Yusuf (as Cat Stevens has been known for the past 30 years) put on a magnificent performance with two hours of solid quality.

Seona was totally melted when he sang Sitting (the song that first got her into Cat Stevens). All the favourites from the old days were there and also some new stuff which we both enjoyed too. Amazingly his voice doesn’t seem to have changed at all over the last 30 years. He sounded exactly like his recordings.

Plus his interaction with the audience was brilliant. You really felt that he wanted to be there and was putting on the show just for you. He laughed and joked in a relaxed way with just enough chat between the songs to keep the flow going.

The light show was wonderful with some magnificent art work and Yusuf gave us a taster of a musical show he’s written called Moonshadow which we’re very excited about and are keeping our fingers crossed that it’ll come to Australia.

It’s always risky going to see someone that you have been a big fan of as often your expectations can be impossibly high and it’s easy to find yourself disappointed with the reality. But fortunately all expectations were met by Yusuf last week, and then some.

The Celtics

Long time visitors to Scraps of Mind may remember that the last weekend in June is when I get my annual Folk Fix. The Kilmore Celtic Festival (14 years and going strong) is where Allan and I rug up warm and head up the Hume Freeway to spend a day immersed in Celtic music of every flavour.

Once again Kilmore imported the weather directly from Ireland and Scotland for the event. I realise that the cold in Australia may not be of the professional standard of cold that some of your homes may achieve, but let me tell you Saturday in Kilmore was plenty cold enough for me. Still when the craic is good and the wine is flowing (sorry, I’ve never come to terms with Guinness) what do a few frosty fingers matter?

Several of our favourite acts were there again this year. Bhan Tre returned with a new and excellent fiddler from Dublin who’s backpacking her way around Australia. And of course what would Kilmore Festival be without Ced le Meledo and Bric a Brac; always a great act to watch and listen to. And the Breton/French music adds some great variety to the Scottish and Irish tunes.

Our new band to watch this year is called Shannachie and they’re from the Lake School of Celtic Music. This place seems to be producing some great future talent. They’re still a bit unpolished in their stage presence but we definitely liked what we heard.

And we got a double helping of Braemar this year. Braemar always bring out the Scottish in me, even though there’s really none there (I’m Irish t’be sure). Eddie has the perfect voice for those Scottish laments. This year Eddie and Marc were joined by a couple of friends on the fiddle and the uilleann pipes. The sad thing is that it was Braemar’s final year at the Festival as they are disbanding in the next couple of months. So thank you Eddie and Marc for all the great Festivals we’ve enjoyed with you and we wish you the very best for the future.

As the day drew to a close we head south a few kilometres and called in at my sister Elaine’s place. Also now a tradition for us. A warm and toasty evening with yummy food was the perfect end to another great Kilmore Celtic Festival Day.

Step by Step Digital Scrapbook Relaunch

I’m very excited about some big changes that are happening over at my Step by Step Digital Scrapbook website and I can’t wait to share them with you.

If you’re a regular reader here you may recall that I started Step by Step digital Scrapbook a couple of years ago to help newbies who wanted to get started in Digital Scrapbooking.

One of the things I offered was a mentoring program to help newbies develop their skills from absolute beginner to advanced digital scrapbooker through weekly video eClasses. Each eClass demonstrated the creation of different scrapbook layouts using different techniques. And each weekly class came with a complementary digital scrapbook kit.

Well over the past year or so many visitors to the site requested that I make the tutorial videos available to more than just newbies.

So I have decided to change the site from a membership mentoring program to a more a-la-carte style.

A-La-Carte Digital Scrapbooking Tutorials

Example: Advanced Tutorial 1 Package - Making an Animated Layout

Now, instead of joining as a beginner and working your way through the program, you can pick and choose what interests you.

You can still start at the beginning and work your way through if you wish. But if you already know the basics of digital scrapbooking and you want to learn some more advanced techniques and tricks you can browse through the Intermediate Tutorial Section or the Advanced Tutorial Section and select the ones that tickle your fancy.

Each tutorial is presented in two videos totalling between 30-60 minutes and demonstrates all the steps to creating the pictured digital scrapbook layout. And each Tutorial comes with a complementary digital scrapbook kit so that you can jump right in and make your own version of the demonstrated layout.

In fact, pausing the video whilst you create your own layout step by step is a great way to learn the techniques.

AND BEST OF ALL . . .

With this change comes a 50% reduction in cost!

Check it out for yourself and see what you think.

Step by Step Digital Scrapbook Beginners Tutorials, Intermediate Tutorials and Advanced Tutorials .

You can’t go wrong!

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Scrapbooking, Video Tutorials - 1 Comment

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Hybrid Scrapbooking a 50th Card

I’ve just made this 50^th birthday card for my brother and I thought I’d share it with you.

It’s a Hybrid scrapbooking card made using both paper scrapbooking and digital scrapbooking techniques and I must confess, this is my absolute favourite form of scrapbooking. It combines the touchy-feely satisfaction of working with paper with the convenience, versatility and virtually unlimited paper and embellishment options of digital scrapbooking.

I’m pretty chuffed with how it turned out. What do you think?

I’ve used this template before when I made a 50^th Wedding Anniversary card for my Aunt and Uncle. And if you want to try it out you can download the template here. If you want to use it for digital cards just delete the white background and clip your digital papers to the outline shape.

When I make hybrid scrapbook cards I usually do the design on my computer first so I can play around with ideas. Even if I’m not intending to use digital papers I’ll usually pick a digital paper that’s similar to the ‘real’ one that I intend to use for the purpose of the design. And I’ll use digital elements to stand in for the ‘real life’ ones I’m planning to use. Things like brads and ribbons etc.

Once the design is done I work out which of the digital elements I’m going to use on the card and then print them out. It’s easy to change the color of them if they don’t quite coordinate with my other elements.

On this card I clipped the patterned digital paper I wanted to use (Cheryl Barber’s Etc Collection) to the template and then printed out the whole of the digital design on satin finish photo paper. Then I glued it onto cardstock which I’d printed with the template shape. I cut a slit in the card to thread the ribbon through on the inside before I glued the designed card to the card stock. If I was going to use ‘real’ brads I would also have fixed them to the papers before gluing onto the cardstock.

Then I printed several of the elements of the card separately onto satin photo paper, cut them out and adhered them to the card with foam tape to add further dimension. This worked particularly well with the focal photo because it meant I was able to run the real ribbon over the frame and under the photo.

Like I said earlier, I love the way hybrid scrapbooking combines the best of both of the scrapbooking worlds I love. If you haven’t tried it yourself I urge you to give it a go. It’s the perfect scrapbooking marriage.

And if you’re nervous about the idea of the digital scrapbooking part, just click on the banner below and check out the selection of Beginner Tutorials from Step by Step Digital Scrapbook to help you get started.