I'm in love.....

with this Tote Bag pattern from Artsy-Crafty Babe!!!!!!!

I have had this cut out on my desk for a few days and managed to sew it up this morning. The instructions are very good and easy to follow.

I have interfaced the lining and the outer fabric but I think on the next one I would only inferface the outr fabric allowing the lining to sit a little better.

Fabric is from Textile Traders in the furnishings section and the lining is actually a very fine flannel which is lovely and soft, Gemma helped me pick the fabrics out last Saturday!

This one is a gift for Xmas and now I want to make some more. It's a great size too - not too big, but big enough to fit all my gear in, including my diary and drink bottle.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Acrylic Album - Xmas 07

When I saw Ali Edwards' December Daily Album on her blog I immediately thought about using some of my Acrylic Album covers to make one of my own because I loved it so much. I'm in love with Acrylic at the moment!!!! So here's my version.

Some elements I have scraplifted from Ali's, like the clock and the "m" for Manning on the cover.

I have used my new Quickutz Revolution dies and cut white velvet paper for the letters - these work surprisingly well.

I have 6 acrylic pages in my album and these are for sale in my www.sharonmanning.com.au online shop here at $9.95 for a set of 2 and this includes 3 hinged rings. So if you want only 4 pages in your album you only need to purchase 2 sets.

I will post full photos of the pages in my "Off the Page" gallery if you want to take a look at every page.

Once I decide on the photos I will be using then I will probably add some more elements to the pages.

This is a great project and I had heaps of fun doing it and the acrylic pages work out to be good value.

Hope you are enjoying your week!

Trimming the tree....done

The girls trimmed the tree yesterday and they did a great job.....I wanted it to be just green and red this year with all my new decorations but Gemma had to add her "Singing Bauble" and of course it is silver. I have bitten my tongue and shelved my desire to have a perfect tree and have promised not to remove it. Steve you should be proud of me!

Chaos #2

Some gremlins attacked me....sorry....here is my post again!

My desk is in chaos, I'm not home long enough at the moment to tidy it up, more and more stuff just gets dumped on top............look!

I think I can see at least 4 projects on the go here, several photos, school notes, dancing notes etc etc etc. and that's only about a 1/4 of the desk.

Paper Pesto are starting to post sneek peaks on their blog for the December kit which looks divine, obviously a Christmas theme but very rich reds and greens which I think has been lacking in other Christmas themed papers this year. Check it out because I have a feeling these will sell like hotcakes!!!!!!!!!

I hope to get an update out for sharonmanning.com.au early next week. In the meantime, I have added some products to the online shop and in particular my 6x6 Acrylic album covers under SM Products and at $9.95 they are very good value. I have had a few enquiries about the 12x12 Acrylic Frames which are currently out of stock. I have decided to do another run of these and they should be available early in the new year. I will be adding more and more stock to the shop over the coming weeks so keep checking back and you might find a bargain!

Some exciting news....my project kits will be available at Tomorrow's Memories as of next week, so if you are in the shop check them out. Oh and those of you that are local don't forget the Family 6x6 Acrylic Album class this Wednesday 28th November 7pm-9.30pm at Tomorrow's Memories, you can find out more information here.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Creative Day!

Today I finished off two projects, I can't remember the last time I did that!

The first one has been sitting on my desk for a while now, well the covers have!

I love photos in B&W so I decided to make up a simple 6x4 album with just Black and White photos for 2007.

The covers are made from Template Plastic and I have put a Hambly Screen Prints (Vintage Plaid) behind them just to give it another dimension.

The cover is pretty simple with fuzzy rub-ons,

chipboard Alphabets and stickers.

The pages are simply the 6x4 photos with the corners rounded off, this way I can add some more as I go.

I have also added some rub-ons to the photos.

Pretty easy, I think I will be making another one for 2008 that I can add to throughout the year.

My other project today was a Kaiser wooden Christmas Tree as my table decoration. Now you might be wondering why I chose browns/blues/silver??? Well I have only recently bought a new table cloth and place mats for our outdoor table which are a chocolate brown and I wanted to use these on Christmas Day! I'm pretty happy with the outcome except if you are going to do one of these and cover it with papers, you might need to check as you go that the two pieces fit together again...the extra layers of papers make it a very tight fit.

My new Quickutz alphabet dies arrived today so I am going to play with those tonight.

I have some more projects to get done tomorrow too in amongst some housework.

Happy Hump Day everyone!

Weekend over!

The more I get organised for Christmas the happier I am. I’m nearly there, I just have a few presents left to get and of course the food bits and we are done.

I didn't get any craft done this weekend but I did take the girls and Renae’s boyfriend on a photo shoot yesterday, we had a ball. Here is one of my favourites –
Renae doesn't like having her photo taken, but having her boyfriend there helped make her laugh and loosen up a little. There are some amazing shots of them both that I am still processing along with some of Gemma too. I think I shot something like 500 photos. You can see some more here if you like.

I must start to write down what I want to blog about because I'm sure there was more I wanted to share. Oh well it may come to me during the day (or night)....have a great week!

I'm back so this is a long one...

OK I think I have everything else under control now, although I have a million and one things I want to do and not enough time.

I am working on a couple of things at once and have several ideas that I want to make a reality in the coming weeks, but with end of year school activities, exams, dance concerts, awards nights, etc etc etc well my chances of that happening is next to nothing!

Last Sunday I had a stall at the Subiaco Craft Fair selling my kits amongst other Scrapbooking items, I even had some of Lis’ Keepsake Tins on sale (which are still available through Lis if you would like some).

Steve made me an amazing sign with my website address and flourish on it, you can see it at the back of the stall in the photo. The girls were a great help setting up and serving and also packing up afterwards. The day was extremely hot, about 39 degrees but there was still a great turn out of people. My main aim was some exposure for my website, which I think I achieved…..time will tell.

Speaking of the website….I have run a competition over the last 2 weeks to win a copy of Ali Edwards’ new book “Life Artist”, I love this book and have written a small review here. The draw was yesterday and the lucky winner was Jen….congratulations Jen!!!! Hopefully you will love this book too!

I have some exciting things planned for the New Year at my website that hopefully will inspire you all to “Share your creative knowledge”…..great segway (SP?)….look what came in the mail for me last week. Steve didn't quite understand the word "share", I got a funny look!

Just in case I forget my initials!

I ordered these on Ebay here and they are very good quality and you can have whatever word you like for $8.95 per letter plus postage.

I have been doing a lot of organising for Christmas and the shops are definitely hotting up. It was like a Saturday morning at the shopping centre yesterday. I’m nearly finished….just a couple more presents to go. I asked Santa (aka Steve) for one of these…

I got a “Maybe”!

Today is Judy’s birthday and I would like to wish her a very special day and all the happiness in the world…..I know the best present of all is arriving in 2 weeks…..Michael!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took Gemma over the road last night to a vacant block for a photo shoot to practice using the different settings on my camera….here’s one shot (my favourite and if you know Gemma then you will know that this photo is sooooo her!)

but you can see some more here. I'm loving my photography at the moment, I can't get enough and love seeing the results.

Ok I know it’s a long post and I have some more to share but I will save that til next time….Have a great weekend everyone.

Time out.

Taking some time out from blogging, be back soon.

Edited 7/11/07: You can still find me over at my Messageboard on my website or you can email me. Sorry, just need a break from blogging for a bit.

My layouts are home!

Well 4 out of 5 of my layouts are home from For Keeps, they have kept one for possible future publication. So here is my submission to the Awards for Excellence.....

I'm really happy with my submission and that's all that counts - right!

Hope you all have a great weekend - the weather here in Perth is going to be fine and sunny although a little windy tomorrow morning.

Another Competition!

If you would like to be in the draw to win Alli Edwards’ latest book “Life Artist” then all you have to do is post a minimum of 15 messages on the sharonmanning.com.au Messageboard between today 1st November and 15th November. For every 15 posts you will receive one ticket into the prize draw, the more posts the more tickets! It’s that easy. Good Luck.

She's done it!

I'm all for screaming from the rooftops about something that someone has achieved. (Does that make sense?).............Judy has been talking about this for a long time now.....go check it out.