lucky me ...

when heidi was here, she left me some of her new "invisibles" they are her new product she has just launched at CHA ... they are really fun, if you see her blog she explains it all in more detail.

So tonight i decided to have a play and did this page with Katya and I from Christmas day ... i have so many photos to scrapbook ...

Happy Australia Day!

kids rooms & mosiac photos

i seem to be on a bit of a SPRING CLEAN at the moment. Every time i open a cupboard, walk into a room, pull out a draw i feel like it is totally out of control and needs an overhaul.


We have decided to be more frugal this year ... basically because we have everything we need (and some) and i think our society is just loosing the plot when it comes to priorities! So as easy as it is to say ... we are going to try hard to make do with what we have, and really really think before we buy!


I have been reading this blog lately - its had some really interesting stuff on it, about prioritising and being in charge of your life. I am enjoying reading the posts ... todays one is particularly good. (i don't however agree with the article on parenting ... )


So as i was cleaning up Emra's room (our middle child - who is particularly messy) does everyone have one messy child? Its just her personality i guess ... but i cannot believe how much crap i pulled out of that room! it was insane. I guess what topped it off the most, was finding some food (i am not sure exactly what it was .... as it wasn't in good shape) which was still in her school bag ... yes people, from like .... 6-7 weeks ago! It was a bad situation ... and i can tell you it smelled like a bad situation! We were all totaly grossed out ... and having a house full on girls ... that carried on for a bit!






The goal now is to keep it in a controlable state.






i did make these cards last night ... still catching up on birthdays that have already gone!





this is a little sneak peak for my first class back this year which will be a Valentines Day Class ... I will be putting the details on the Creative Cafe blog. I am working on the classes for the first term, I have some fun things in store.

As promised .... I have had a few friends asking how to do the Mosiac Photos ... here is how i have been taught:
firstly you will need a yahoo account. From there go to flickr where you will need to create a new account (if you do not already have one) First time around you will click on "Upload your first photos" and it will then prompt for which photos you would like to upload ... go ahead and choose.
From there you will need to go to this website bighugelabs.com you will see on here "choose a layout" you can pick the different styles of mosaics in here. Down a little further is where you will then choose the photos for each part of the mosiac (depending on how large your pic is) beware that a seperate dialogue box will open to choose the photos ... then you can click on "create" once you are done.
let me know how you go ... hopefully i have given all the instructions in the right order ... (it is getting late you know! lol)

Melbourne Open .... right here, right now ...

ok ... my stomach is almost not hurting anymore! Gary and I got our family a table tennis table for Christmas (actually it came from Gary's dad - thanks Dad) i grew up with a table tennis table, and it really is such good fun. We have re-arranged downstairs to fit it in, so we can play all the time.

I finally broke my creative drought tonight and have been sitting in my new "studio" area playing .... actually making some birthday cards for birthdays which have already passed - so slack! So i have had the Melbourne Open Tennis on the tv as i have been playing.

Gary came in and challenged me to a table tennis match .... well, we have been laughing so hard ... as the commentary has been right on with our game, and it was just super hilarious ... and for some insane reason i have been playing superbly well and catching gary off guard .... so you can imagine the crowd applauding ... its just been too funny! i guess you had to be there .... lol!

i thought i would share this layout i did for Christmas using the same techniques Heidi taught at the Create 08 classes. i changed it up and used the holly mask and green and red ink. Gold pen instead of silver ... its really pretty cool when you start changing things around. Shame my photo is so bad ...

same thing with the birthday cards, i used the inspiration from the "thank you card kit" we have been

selling ... its fun when you start mixing and matching! Tomorrow i will post about creating Mosiac Photos ... i have been asked about it ... so stay tuned!

Reminder ...

this morning, i recieved this email ...
i forwarded it to alot of people i know, however i decided to copy it here, as it is a good reminder to us all to embrace each day!
I'll be honest ... i am trying to drag myself up today ... i have a headache and i am feeling a little sorry for myself, and then i read this and it reminds me ... we just never know what tomorrow or the future holds - we don't know how much time we have here, or how long we have the people we love ...
so i am going to go ask my kids what they want to do today (we are still on holidays) and go and have some fun with them. each day is a blessing!
I hope you have a wonderful day ... i did finally do something creative last night, i have been in a bit of a rut ... so will post some pics later!


Purple Hats

In honor of Beautiful Women's Month and in memory of Belinda Emmett(Rove's wife) who lost her fight with cancer, please pass this on to five women.
If you don't know five women to pass this on to, one will do just fine.

'If I had my life over'
By Belinda Emmett (written after she found out she was dying from cancer)

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the Earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for a day....
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted into a rose before it melted in storage... I would have talked less and listened more...
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained or the sofa faded...
I would have eaten popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace...
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.....
I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband..
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed...
I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains...
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life....
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime...

Beautiful Women's Month
Age 3 She looks at herself and sees a Queen
Age 8 She looks at herself and sees Cinderella
Age 15 She looks at herself and sees an Ugly Sister ('Mum, I can't go to school looking like this!')
Age 20 She looks at herself and sees 'too fat / too thin / too short / too tall / too straight / too curly' - but decides she's going out anyway
Age 30 She looks at herself and sees 'too fat / too thin / too short / too tall / too straight / too curly' - but decides she doesn't have time to fix it, so she's going out anyway
Age 40 She looks at herself and sees 'clean' and goes out anyway
Age 50 She looks at herself and sees 'I am' and goes wherever she wants to
Age 60 She looks at herself and reminds herself of all the people who can't even see themselves in the mirror anymore - goes out and conquers the world
Age 70 She looks at herself and sees wisdom, laughter and ability and goes out to enjoy life
Age 80 Doesn't even bother to look - just puts on a purple hat and goes out to have fun with the world

Maybe we should put on that purple hat earlier...


If you don't mind, send this on to all the women you are grateful to have as friends. Maybe we should all grab that purple hat earlier. Please send this to five phenomenal women today in celebration of Beautiful Women's Month. If you do, something good will happen - you will boost another woman's self esteem.

Local Girls ....

classes are starting again next month for Creative Cafe, some fun projects on the horizon. Anyone interested can email me at chanelstuck@hotmail.com or call ph: 0412 649 009 for more details. I will be posting the first project soon!

The Creative Kids Scrapbooking classes are firing up again next week ... check the website for more info. Numbers are limited.

we have been enjoying what mother nature has had on offer ... more fun boating times and also camping! camping rocks ... its just getting back to the simple life! something i am striving to do more of this year! Check out how great the light was on friday night when we had the boat out until 6.30pm - thats the life!

My word for this year is ....

E N E R G Y

Ali Edwards started a few years ago picking a "word" for the year ... its a fun idea, last year i had "balance" which i am not sure i did a very good of! maybe i should be running with that one again?

anyways ... i have chosen "energy" and i think it fits right in with the project heidi taught me when we were away. Its an energy journal ... a way to keep track of ways you gain and expend energy - its quite a cool concept - that energy is like a currency, and you only have so much of it, so how do you gain it and how do you use it? She has thought of ways to jot down thoughts and using the journalling spots tracking each day the energy for that day.

This project uses one of her cool mirror album. On the inside i choose this quote ... to try and remind me to let some things go!

there is a little spin out to store quotes or uplifting thoughts ....

and a note pad at the back to journal your thoughts.

It was Gary's birthday on the weekend ... we were at the Lake with the boat, so much fun! A great way to spend a birthday!

Day 3 ...

Our plans were to go to the Lake today to spend a few days - skiing, wakeboarding all the watersports fun - however, the weather has been a bit average today, so instead i was able to catch up on a few things ... the major one being my new scrapbooking area. I have been sharing my space in the laundry, and have always suffered as i didn't have enough space to spread out. We have a "bar" area in our house which we don't actually use as a bar ... so i now have a studio in this area. I still have some sorting and storing to do ... i need to buy some shelves for my paper, but i feel the vibe already and its exciting! I will share some photos once i get the shelves organised ...

I have some photos to share from our holiday.

we had a storm roll in one night ... it didn't actually come to much, but it looked pretty cool in the sky!

Emra and Quincy thought it was hilarious to have fun in the spa ... can you see why! LOL ...

this is where i was bloggin from ... horrible! lol

the girls had super sundae's for New Year's Eve

The past couple of days we have been playing Monopoly (the kids version) seems that i am not very good at it!

Today Katya made piklets. I remember making them all the time when i was a girl ... it bought back memories ....

H A P P Y N E W Y E A R 2 0 0 9

Yahoo ... a new year, a new start ...
i love that!
there is something about a fresh, clean start ... even if it is the last day of our holiday at the beach! It always goes so fast ... its never enough time for me!
I am happy tho, i have been running every second day, i have been out surfing 3 or 4 times - SOOOOOOOO fun! we have had lovely doses of sun ... pool time, its all been good stuff!
Do you love my new banner? Lucky i have a computer, digital saavy friend ... lol! She is inspiring me to get myself into it ... so that will be part of my goals to make.
Each year Gary and I sit down and go thru our goals for the year. We do individual goals, goals for our marriage, family goals and also goals for our businesses ... seems like alot, but you need to cover all the bases right! We have already started talking about our plans, and i started making some notes about goals for myself. I think its good to be trying new things - each year i attempt to try something new - make life different. Last year i learnt to wake board and single ski ... so fun. There were other things too ... like Create 08 ...
so i have a heap of photos to download ... but i have limited time right now, so tomorrow i will try post some more pics! I did have Heidi teach me the project she is teaching on the Cruize ... its an "Energy Journal" and i am keen to get it started. I will explain more about it when i show you the pics ... its really cute!
enjoy this first day of the year ...

Hello from the beach ...

so i am sitting outside our unit, looking at the sea (the pool is right in front of our unit actually ... so its a double water view - am i rubbing it in too much! wink!)

Can you tell i'm loving these mosaics? So i doubled up on a couple of pics ... ops! too chilled out to change it ... lol!~

I am loving being here ... have been surfing a couple of times, and back running .. even tho i forgot how hilly it is - the first one was a bit of a torture session! but i love the good endorphins that come after!

anyways ... gotta run, dinner is calling ....

Merry Christmas ....


great food, great friends, great family, great presents, great fun, did i say great food ... lol!





seriously tho, i love Christmas. its a wonderful day to celebrate your faith, and what you believe in ... we traditionally go to Christmas Eve Mass at my church St Gerard Majella's. They do a "live" outdoor nativity ... with a real Mary, Joseph and Jesus ... angels, shepherds, wise men and real animals - camels, shep, donkeys etc ... its so awesome, and i love how it makes me think about the story and how it must have happened.


This year, we had a storm roll in ... but we decided to brave it and go with our umbrellas. It wasn't the same atmosphere unfortunately for the Swapp's ... but still fun to experience for them.
We had a wonderful day ... i have shared some pics in the mosiac (how cool is it? heidi has shown me how to do it ... so cool - lucky she is getting me a little bit more computer savvy!) One of the many highlights was our dress up Table tennis competition, Gary and I were the "bobs" and Heidi and Eric the "afros" ... shame about the skills! lol!
I was surprised by Gary with my very own single ski ... what a shock ... i better learn how to use it now! i guess that will be one of my New Years resolutions ....
I have to share tho ... for my friends and family who don't know, Heidi my friend is a scrapbook designer and she is Mrs Pink ... its her favourite colour. Well, she put a load of washing on the other day and totally turned all the whites pink ... i just think its so hilarious ... it was a mistake ... but just so funny!
For those Create 08 ladies, we have kits on sale on the Create 08 blog ... they go on sale Jan 2nd ... go check out all the options! very cool!

i love sydney ....

its been a great couple of days, i really love Sydney alot. I was here earlier in the year for my birthday ... so i feel very blessed to be back again in the same year. There is always so much going on there, esp this time of the year. I love all the Christmas windows and decorations.

We were picked up from the airport by some lovely ladies in the Scrapbook industry. They were so nice and took us to this really awesome Chocolate shop ... of course you know how much i hated that! LOL ... it was stunningly good. I especially loved the chocolate pizza ... which of course i will attempt to knock off at home now. You will have to stand by and see if i can pull it off.

We did go up to DJ's to see the Christmas windows ... they are always really gorgeous! Of course i took pics to show my girls. There was a spot of late night shopping ... yay!

I had to go back to Bills for breakfast and share the delight! My favourite meal there are his famous Ricotta Hotcakes ... they are super amazing. Heidi shared my feelings on them. She couldn't finish hers like I could ... lol! i am a seasoned hotcake eater tho! From there the only option was to hit Oxford Street ... truely a sensory overload. The shop windows were so cool ... and it was frustrating to not get to finish shopping there ... one of my favourite places to browse for sure. Check out this Garfield cake ... it is just amazing! The cake shop this came from was really incredible ... i was in awe!

We were off to Sraploot from here for Heidi to do her stuff. Sue and Craig's shop is really nice and i would love to have it as my LSS ... its so well stocked, and its a large shop ... i really enjoyed being there - it made me want to shop! LOL!

The ladies there were so nice, and i met some gorgeous girls. They loved seeing Heidi and one lucky lady - Michelle, won the prize for Heidi to scrapbook her photos. It was wonderful for these girls to see her in action. They also had a "heidi" clock which she personally signed and then hung in the "heidi swapp" corner.

We had the pleasure of having dinner at Circular Quay with Sue and Craig after all the festivities.

My family were so happy to see us back today! I was the favourite because we bought cupcakes back from the Cupcake Shop ... so yum! Tomorrow the rest of Heidi's crew arrives ..... i need to organise our Christmas menu ... lucky i love to cook, i have a few good ideas up my sleeve! Funny how my life revolves around food! speaking of which ... i think the Darrell Lea Rocky Road is calling ....

Create 08 Brisbane & Melbourne

It kicked off on Friday night with the Brisbane Retailers Event. We had so much fun with them getting messy and creating ... they were a fun group of ladies. It was great seeing all their creations!

There was no rest as next morning we had to be up early to organise Create 08 Brisbane. We were greated with woman when we arrived, who were super keen and ready to have fun. Some of the girls even helped us set up ...thank you so much to you guys, you were awesome and i really appreciated your kind and generous spirits! It was a fun day, full of lots of scrapbooking thanks to Heidi who had planned super cool projects (of course). It was really nice to meet all these people i had been in contact with and put a name to a face. What a great group of people - who looked like they had heaps of fun. I was a little jealous i wasn't sitting down with them creating cool stuff! lol! It was a bit of a family affair - esp in Brisbane, even Gary was called in to help ... our girls were doing jobs, and i had a team of volunteers who were amazing. Lisa, Ange, Alicia and Tracey you girls were fabulous and i am so thankful you were there ... thanks a million! We met with the Scrapbook Creations ladies after the event, they were so generous and donated magazines for everyone ... we really appreciate the support of them and others like Delish, and all the other sponsors who supported us.

Monday we were on the early flight down to Melbourne, I took our eldest daughter Katya with us ... she has truely been an amazing help to us and quite frankly i don't know what i would have done without her. So she was on board to help set up in Melbourne, and my dear friend Suzanne let me steal her daughters to help (and give Katya some company - they are super best friends) Melbourne was a different situation, as the venue was able to let us set up the day before .... this was alot less stressful on us ...

Melbourne was so fun, again i was just so happy to meet all these great people i had been in contact with and get to know them a little. I was on the floor in Melbourne so i got to spend more time with everyone, if i did it again i would have done the same in Brisbane ... i guess that is part of learning! We did run out of food at lunchtime, and thanks to everyone for being so patient and understanding of the situation while they prepared some more.

Once again i loved seeing everyone so busy and inspired making all the fun things. I had done the samples for the calender class ... so i knew how exciting all the techniques that were being taught were ... it was exciting to see people learning. I have to thank Suzanne for her help thru the day, Maddy, Jessie and Katya for their wonderful help ... also my sister-in-law who was amazing on monday .. i know she would have loved to come if she had a babysitter!

I was really touched with the gorgeous girl at the end who stood up and thanked both Heidi and myself ... it bought a tear to my eye to be honest, and i appreciated her thoughtfulness so much. Heidi did an amazing job of teaching, that is why we all love her so much. She made tears come to my eyes ... and i wasn't even doing the class! lol ... she has a way of touching your heart ... a special gift!
Arlington at Wattle Park Chalet were so helpful to us, they really bent over backwards to accomodate us and make the event go well ... i am especially thankful to Tanya for all her hard work and the positiveness. She made this process so much easier for me - esp with me being away from Melbourne!

We had approx 2 hours in between ... mostly which was re-setting for the Retailers event. We had again a gorgeous group of woman, i enjoyed chatting to them all and seeing their creations. Being in business myself, i loved seeing their reactions and the lightbulbs going off as Heidi shared some ideas and advice for ways they could improve or grow their businesses! It was inspiring ...

I just want to leave this LONG post to say i feel incredibly greatful for the opportunity to have been able to do this with my dear friend Heidi. She is so talented and clever ... and she constantly inspires me. This has been an incredible learning experience and i want to say THANK YOU for all of your kinds words of encouragement or the "thank yous" the emails and the comments on the blog. You are an incredible group of ladies, and i feel thankful to have met you thru this cool experience. Merry Christmas to you all ...

a new love ....

we have had a huge weekend of fun ... my brother and sister-in-law and little nephew have been staying and we had a big boating day yesterday - so fun. I tried wakeboarding yesterday and its officially on my list of favourite things to do now - wikid fun!

today the girls had their christmas party for dancing at Wet n Wild - a huge water park. I had to share this photo of us on one of the rides with our friends ... holy cow it was hilarious (if you couldn't tell already) i think its going to be early to bed tonight ... we are all worn up from all the action!

Heidi and I have been busy video chatting and testing the classes out ... i have been having so much fun, she has come up with awesome classes (of course) all the Create 08 girls are going to have the best time! the count down is on ... yahoo!

Finally .... some scrapbooking!

Last friday Gary finally put his foot down and declared that something had to happen in the laundry/scrapbooking room! (i share my desk with the laundry ... its not so bad, you can get your washing up to date at the same time as you get creative ... lol) i was starting to infiltrate into other rooms, the spare room, the garage ... it was spreading everywhere! So last friday we went and got new shelves ... what a difference. I feel like a new scrapbooker ... so much easier to access what i need, and also clean up after myself. I have finished a few projects this week like my "Remember Book" for this year which i taught in the Creative Cafe class ... i will have to take some photos of it. I just finished this page today ... i have about 200 photos from my China trip, and finally i have had a chance to start of them. These paper cuts were sold all over the place in China. I actually cut this one to make it larger ... they are so cool and fragile! The red chop is my name i had it made there too ...

Its Dance Concert weekend this weekend, so i have to run ... its Stage Rehersal tonight ... i am so excited to see the girls in concert tomorrow ... i "well" up with pride! Enjoy your weekend!

getting excited ....

its thursday night, the eve of friday ... i love fridays! i am planning to get alot of things done tomorrow. Tomorrow is my brother in law's birthday ... and i need to send his birthday present to him! opss! at least i've got it i guess!

This week has been WILD to say the least. The weather here in Queensland has been devestating! The storm i blogged about the other day did major damage ... and we have had two more since. So many people have damaged homes, have lost roofs, two people have lost their lives ...its been really bad. Tonight we had another one hit, and we flooded downstairs! sigh! lucky nothing was damaged it was easy enough to clean up ... but i am feeling so bad for all those unlucky ones who are suffering badly. please keep them in your prayers. We have another storm forcast for saturday and then more next week ... so who knows what that will bring. This photo i took tonight as it was building up ....

The kits and product for Create 08 arrived last week and i went thru and checked it all on wed! It made me so excited to see it all ... the ladies coming are going to have a great time playing with all this cool stuff! Things are going well and we are on track for a couple of amazing events!

I made this up quickly today to drop off to our old neighbour (from our last house) she turned 90 last week ... still lives at home, isn't that so cool! it was lovely to see her ... she inspires me!

even tho this week has been super busy, i did manage to do these circle journals for our cj group ... maybe tomorrow i'll get a chance to work on some more creative projects. I have 2 more circle journals i need to get out ....

Dance Concert season!

if you remember what i was doing last year this time ... sewing madly dancing costumes! Lucky for me this year has been considerably less sewing ... most of the 12 costumes (yes people ... there are 12 this year - every year gets worse!) have been made, and there have just been minor touches of adding or altering done by me! This weekend was taken up by dancing tho ... the girls had their costume rehersal on sunday and because they are in so many it went for most of the day.

I have to say tho, watching each one of them dance just makes me well up with pride! Its all worth it!

We had a massive storm hit on Sunday night ... i did take a couple of photos of it rolling in, before it got too wild to be outside ... there was major damage all over the place. We lost power for12 hours ... which was interesting. I did the dishes in the candle light the old fashioned way - in the sink! LOL! and went to bed early .... caught up on some sleep ... i felt great this morning! I got up and went for a run ... i love that!

the best thing that happened today was getting some special mail from our lovely friends in Canada! They sent some treats for all of us ... i esp love the chocolate!

Y U MMMMMMMMMM !