Balloon Talk S1404A : CTMH Stamp of the Month Australasian Blog Hop

Hello and welcome aboard our Stamp of the Month Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. If you have arrived here from Jenny’s Heart and Craft Corner  then you are in the right place. If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

Today I would like to share with you this Family Party Time double page layout which features April Stamp of the Month Balloon Talk S1404A  available exclusively throughout April for $24 or for just $5 when you spend $75.

Family Party Time featuring Balloon Talk SOTM available only in April.

Right away Balloon Talk brings to mind fun pages. The sample provided in the stamp set also takes this approach.

SOTM Balloon Talk

These fabulous labels and key words can be used on formal scrapbook pages, cards and would be great fun in any mini album or the Crush Book. 
I have pretty much completed my 50th Birthday album but there was one set of photos I had not yet done. I needed fun papers, fun titles and CTMH have provided both in the current Idea Book. 

Lolydoodle paper pack. Also available in a Card making kit and a Workshops on the go Scrapbooking kit.

Lollydoodle is funky, fun and colourful. I chose the pink highlight colour to bring out the pink outfits of the under 50’s guests and the Whisper base was a good neutral way to carry the colours through both pages. This page celebrates my family’s love of belting out a good bit of old fashioned rock from the 70’s and 8o’s, my brothers love of air guitar and us all joining our entertainer Paul for a sing along. It was this aspect of my celebration that was truly ‘AWESOMENESS’. Yes we did have a blast.

The layout is based on pattern 9 in Make it from your heart Vol 1 pp 22-23. I chose this design as I only had a few scraps of Lolloydoodle left to use after having used both the WOTG kit and the Card making kit. The frame supporting the photo on the left page is cut with the Cricut Artiste Cartridge (p 60) and the title family is on the same page. I cut the flowers from page 54. I set these up in Cricut craftroom on my mat specifically to fit the size of the paper pieces I had.

Close up of left hand page showing Balloon Talk

You can see them ready to go in the cricut here.

I have also used Artbooking Cartridge to get Party Time title (p 87) and Live out loud title (p44).

On the right hand side, the photo mat with the stars is from page 65. (Both these Cricut collections and the Art Philosophy Cartridge are FREE in April for anyone joining CTMH in April. Please talk to your consultant today to find out more about this awesome company! ) I used daubers and ink to colour up my cutouts and ink the edges of the papers. I decided I needed a bit of an outside border so I trimmed 1/4 inch off two sides of each page and mounted the whole onto Juniper cardstock at opposite corners.

Once I had the basic page layout and the photos all attached I then went to town stamp a heap of balloon talk titles on scrap white card stock. (Yes I hoard my scraps) I did various colours and more than I needed.

I fussy cut them all out. Some of the set you can do cricut cuts for, but for this I wanted the other titles and they are simple to cut out. Then I played dressups. I do this a lot. I try different embellishments in different places and swap things around until I am happy. I am worried there is too much on the left hand page but justify it by saying balloon talk is my journalling!
Balloon Talk Stamp of the month is only available until April 30th from your my online store or your local CTMH consultant. Remember it  $24 to buy but with orders over $75 AU it is just $5 and you can shop online from anywhere in AU. (Or NZ with a NZ Consultant) I’d love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop,  Patricia Manhire’s Creative Corner Blog and see what they have created with this fun stamp set. Thank you so much for visiting. I would love it if you would leave a comment.

Have a good one

Jen

Hip pics albums make an awesome gift!

Do you like to brag? I am a bragging Nana and now I have this awesome little handbag size album to go bragging with!

This is the awesome little hip pics album. The project features my Grandson on his first birthday at his cake smash photo shoot.

For those of you looking for the perfect Christmas gift here is an idea that will suit your budget, your time, and a number of different people on your list. The Hip Pics Album kit is now available to CTMH Australia for just $18 and can be done quickly and easily in under two hours. I did this one for myself, but can see it would easily make a fabulous gift for a loved one in a number of ways. A Hip Pics Album is a fast, easy, cost effective project for you to make for someone special- and we all know how much people love gifts with photos and memories in them – or you can purchase a kit for your best friend or mum who are crafters themselves. If you want just that Hip Pic album and use your stash to decorate it that is possible too as they can be ordered on their own for $12 each.

Assuming the photos are already picked out and printed in under an hour you could have this done – a little more if you like to decorate more.

Check out these pages

There are 8 white pocket pages  in the book therefore room for 16 photos. All you need to do is trim photos to suit the 4×4 window and mount them on a piece of cardstock 4 1/4 x 6 and slide it into the sleeve. Put one photo each side of the card. Then decorate and journal. in the ample space below and around the borders.

The kit comes with 5 sheets of petite die cuts in kraft, navy blue, pink, aqua and yellow and are just the right mini size for these 4×4 photo windows. The kit also comes with a coordinating stamp set so you can decorate those die cut embellishments with your ink. Add more decoration with sentiments and icons from other stampsets in your stash (if you are like me and need to decorate a little more!) By the end of the project you will still have loads of those die cuts ready to pop into another Hip Pics album. If you would like to make one but do not have ‘all the gear’ let me know and we’ll get you booked into a class to get one done.

Isn’t this just darling?

awesome pages done fast makes good sense for a great gift!

Items used to create this project are all available online now at my Jen’s Creative Classroom Close To My Heart online shop. If you join in on this months Monthly Virtual Gathering you may end up being the winning host and earn some great rewards. Click the link here an select join the November Virtual Gathering to do your shopping. You can simply enter the codes listed below or jump straight to the Holidays from the Heart guide to fin the Hip Pics Album and more. Don’t forget, you can get Stamp of the Month Illuminate for just $5 with a $75 purchase, and a free starred item from Holidays from the Heart with every $130 purchase!

Items Used in the Hip Pics Album

Hip Pics Album Kit Z1915

Exclusive inks – slate Z2173. Outdoor Denim Z2140, Indian Corn Blue Z2130, Cranberry, Z2116

Stampsets from Artiste cricut collection Z1790 and Artbooking collection  Z1906

Bakers twine neutral assortment Z1701

Cranberry 1272 and Slate X5930 Card Stock 

Adhesives – Tombow adhesive 1514   Memory Book glue dots 1772   3D Foam Tape Z1151

Find your happy in getting scrappy

Jen

Held together by a common cause.

Today sadly Creative Memories closes its doors in Australia. They are still madly packing orders in the warehouse but for consultants we have no CM branding after today. My website will close, my customer list is now safely on my computer and that could have been that. The end point is here – and it is not black, it is a little warm and fuzzy.

You can shut the doors on a business. You cannot shut the doors on a mission.

I found this among the many shared memes on Facebook – it is what our mission is all about.

When Diane Lampert and Brian O’Laughlan started the Australian Creative Memories family they were full of hope that Australians would love both the mission and the product. I have heard Diane’s story. She is a very courageous business woman whose belief in the product and the mission was so profound she agreed to take the risk and come to Australia to test it out in our market. Brian was the support for building the company here and it did not take long before they had a team of consultants spreading the message and mission throughout the country. Australians came to love scrapbooking and this resulted in  a successful direct selling company giving many of us the opportunity to work for ourselves while promoting a priceless concept – to ensure the photos came out of boxes and into albums along with the story that goes with them.

In those days we still printed film from cameras and we were just starting to use digital photography. In a little more than a decade things have rapidly changed! The economy has been up and down, the were boom periods and downturns. And now every hand held devise appears to be capable of capturing a moment. We can also share them freely on the internet and include the story in many ways. Albums on shelves were rapidly being replaced by pictures on disks.

Combining digital and traditional

Creative Memories remained competitive during the period of a scrapping shop on every corner – and came through the other side thanks to the staying power of leaders, good business management and consultants who could handle the competition. We still had albums and workshops for ‘traditional’ scrapbooking. In an era when it seems everything is done by computer we still love to sit and do hand-craft and our albums are an expression of that.

Some consultants had to let go during this period. I was one of them. This though, I have learned, is normal in direct selling. If you want to get to the top you need to put in a few good years of hard work and sponsoring to get there. I could not do this and balance all the other pressures in my life. I stopped consulting but continued scrapping. I believed in the mission and still do.

Then Creative Memories invested in digital solutions…I was hooked again well and truly. I love my Storybook Creator software, Memory Manager and the beautiful books I can produce, Sure there are competitors here too but top of the list for quality and accessibility with creative flexibility is this product. This is my preferred way to scrap even though I have many clients who still like to do the hands on. I became a consultant again because of the digital options enabled me to have another crack at direct selling.

However I do not consult just to make money. I scrap and consult because

• I want to make sure the story goes with the photos
• I want to remember the best parts of my life
• I want my children and their children to know their story
• I love the time out of a busy life doing something for me
• I love taking photos just so I can scrap them
• I am a teacher and love teaching others that they too CAN do this
• I am still and always will be creative and this is just one way of expressing that
• and I love to challenge those who say they are not creative to kill that negative self belief and discover that they are – it just got lost somewhere in their busy lives.
• And, I am not alone in any of this. we are a family of consultants and customers sharing the one mission.

Making paper flowers is fun!

CM Sisters all over the country will say similar to me. For some the company provided income, for others it funds a hobby, but for all of us the mission matters. We want to see photos scrapped and shared, preserved for lifetimes to come. And some…we can do all kinds of paper crafts and make anything you can think of that can be either printed or shared digitally! We run workshops and classes and teach others. For us this business is not just about selling a product – it is about the customer, the you,  your photos, your story, your way. We help people to do this – and that for me is far more rewarding than any fiscal benefit from being a consultant.

So…we are not going to turn our heads and sadly walk away from today’s closed door.

I need a new car, I am about to engage with a new business,,,.I was toying with ideas about what sort of car I can get as I travel throughout my country region helping people preserve their photos and stories.

Those magnificent entrepreneurs Diane and Brian, and others, have been spending this month working on Plan B. Tomorrow just what that is we will find out. It is the new door. The CM family has stuck together with campaigns to scrap the stash and virtual crop all month long so we are still going to be here – but with a new brand. The one constant is the Mission.

So right now the mood is warm and fuzzy. The anticipation for tomorrow’s announcement is mounting – we will have the opportunity to continue the mission with a whole new look and I can’t wait.

Thank you Diane for making it all possible and keeping it all possble, and thank you Sarah for encouraging me to have another crack and more recently wait for tomorrow to come!

ANZAC Day

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, We shall remember them.

In the morning, we shall remember them

This morning I wake to the vivid sounds from memories of the haunting The last Post played on a Lone Bugle at the funerals of my grandfather and great Uncle, and at ceremonies every school year. ANZAC day services have taken place all around the country and in schools this week. It brings to mind all that have been lost in war, not just those tragically lost at ANZAC cove.

I live in the ‘lucky country’. But we have not been so lucky that we have not been affected by the impact of War and the need for soldiers to defend our country. In fact anyone who argues Australia is lucky because it has never been subject to war is clearly forgetting the fact that Darwin was in fact Bombed by the Japanese during World War II

Bombing of Darwin

as the Japanese Emperor attempted to build his own empire throughout Asia and the Pacific; and the fact many Australian men and women have given their lives to war in support of our allies, ultimately protecting our own country. They also forget the many bloody massacres and battles that have been hidden from us now being told as we acknowledge Indigenous people in our History books (at last).

Sometimes it is difficult the remember we have bee to and at war. The bombing of Darwin is as close as this country has ever been suffering the bloody chaos of a long drawn out war. The Japanese break through and take over our shores. I sometimes wonder what would our life be like if they had. (If you child has read Tomorrow when the War Began they will see how author John Marsden has answered this question)

If you have not been to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra,

Australain War Memorial, Canberra

you should, and be sure to take your children along with you. If not, jump online and do some research right here. Try to teach them about the ANZACS and what happened at Gallipoli. Teach them about the tenacity of the Australian Soldier. Educate them about ANZAC cove, about POW camps, about the Burma Railway, about Edward Weary Dunlop, about The Somme and the trenches of  World War One. Teach your children about conscription, and the white feather, the subbing or returned soldiers from Vietnam, and why we currently have had debate about our soldiers in Afghanistan.

 

Be sure your scrapbooks include the history of your family in times of war.  I have included those of my family who have been engaged in war in my scrapbooks – they are fondly remembered.

My Great Uncles in Uniform during World War II

Australian children need to understand why this country needs its allies, why we engage in war that is not of our doing, and invite them to see that Australian soldiers, and supporting nurses and their reputations are part of the folklore of this land. They are the ultimate representatives of tenacity, of mateship, of being ‘Aussie’.

There is nothing nice about blood, guts, mud, sweat, death, killing enemy soldiers and dying in the process. There is plenty that is heroic about a man or woman called to serve doing their duty, following orders, attempting to save themselves, his or her fellow soldier, and from afar protect Australia from invasion by another country.

There are many films, novels and biographies about war and the more of these that our children become familiar with the more they will be able to discover and discuss man’s inhumanity to man, the causes of war, the impact or war, the way in which war today is so different from what it was on this day at ANZAC cove and question what the act of war achieves. They may well struggle with the moral question of how we justify war, why some returned soldiers have been treated as heroes and others have not, and why the role of women has in the past been neglected by the history books.

Above all, do not let them grow up thinking this country is lucky to have not experienced war. This is factually inaccurate. It has.  Australia has been at war numerous times because of our alliances which are essential given the size of this land and the coastline we need to protect from invaders. In our history we have been close to being invaded as submarines  got close to Sydney Harbour, and Darwin was bombed. It can happen again. And it will not be the so called ‘boat people’ we are warring with.

In teaching texts as an English teacher I have sadly often had to include the history of the war experience covered in the text. It saddens me that Australian pupils do not have a general knowledge about their own country history that includes our engagement in Wars that ultimately protect the ‘lucky country’ from invasion and persecution. I urge all Australians to watch or read suggested texts to educate the young about the Australian war heroes who we remember both today and on Remembrance day.

To participate in stopping the advance of an army representing a country hungry for power is heroic. Today we especially remember those who lost their lives fighting at ANZAC Cove, arguably the bloodiest of battles Australians have endured.

ANZAC Trenches

Lest We Forget.

Lest We Forget

War films and books you can watch, read and share with your children to raise their awareness of Australian War experiences:

The best films according to the Australian War Memorial

Some Texts that come to mind for consideration:

• Gallipoli
• Braker morant
• The Rats of Tobruk
• The Odd Angry Shot
• Blood Oath
• Changi
• Kokoda
• My Brother Jack
• Beneath Hill 60
• Paradise Road ( A must for any consideration of Women in war)

There are so many books, I will not list any, but the better ones are the biographical – the life stories of individuals, collections of letters and journals by veterans themselves.

One last thing…have a world map handy for the student…it does help them visualise thw where along with the what, when, how and why 🙂

‘Ave a Great Day