Rachel Greig

Wednesday Stamper - Blue

Wednesday Stamper put up another challenge yesterday, this time with a 'Blue' theme. And on my desk last night were some fresh new Penny Black Christmas stamps, mainly with a snow theme. So, put them both together, and here's a blue card! No mind blowing techniques, just simple stamping, and I added some Crystal Stickles onto the snowflakes for a bit of glitz. Hard to see in this scan, so I photographed it here:

Can't really see it in the photograph that well either! But I'm sure you can imagine moving the card around to make the sun glisten on the snow flakes ;)

And by the way - it's 117 sleeps til Christmas!

Crisis Over!

Thanks so much for your responses for my  blogging crisis... It's nice to know that you don't mind what I put on here! I appreciate your thoughts, and your time for actually coming back and reading this blog!

So here's an update of everything...

• My brother Pete and his girlfriend both came runners up in a photo comp here.
• And Pete has been doing some awesome music photography here.
• Lots of babies being born recently... my cousin Tanya had a baby girl, my friend Alicia had a baby boy, and my friend Regina had twin baby boys!
• I won a $100 hamper from the chocolate wheel @ a school fete on the weekend
• Then I won return airfares to Coffs Harbour from attending a business expo!
• My scrap desk is tidy (not like the photo in the current Scrapbooking Memories!!!)
• And that means I usually get more scrapbooking done... and I've completed several layouts recently.
• Plus I have scanned lots of my layouts that have been published over the years, and have added some of them to my gallery here. Still lots more to upload. (that's such a nice problem to have!)
• 4 of my brothers competed in the Yellow Mountain Cross Country dirt bike weekend, and they're all still alive and well! Ken came 4th in his section too :) Speaking of Ken, he is doing really well for himself with his motoX career. Check out his website.
• My cousin Tanya had a baby girl a few weeks ago, then her sister Paula celebrated her 21st birthday last week, and then a few days later two of their brothers got engaged (to their respective girlfriends). So it's all happening in the McRae household!! Can't wait for the weddings... both of those cousins were involved in a food fight at my wedding, so.... ;)
• I've been doing some work with the USA mags, and have started writing photography articles for Creative TECHniques magazine. The first article is in their current issue. For us Aussies, I've not seen this mag anywhere in our newsagents, and I've asked Borders, but they don't seem to carry it. It's a great mag though - especially if you're into using digital techniques on your art.
• And on the weekend, I took these photos of the kids...

As you can see, Ethan was being a clown. Wonder where he gets that from !?!?

Have a great day!

A blogging crisis!

Yep, that's right, I'm in a blogging crisis. I've had lots of things going on that were blog worthy, but for some reason I just didn't finish the posts. And I have to be honest... sometimes I don't know what to put on here, or what you want me to put on here. I wonder if I should just blog about photography, art, scrapbooking, and stamping... or about my workshops.... or about my travels... or how Justin Timberlake really did bring the  sexy back... or how I wish I knew how to cook more meals... or about how I love reading inspirational stories from those who had a dream and reached for it... or about the kids... or how well my brothers are doing in all their chosen life paths... or just how I should just throw it all into the blender and see what concoction it makes!

I know I have readers from all sides of my life. Scrapbookers. Stampers. Photographers. Artists. Family. Extended Family. Friends. Travelers. And who knows who else ;) I do know I get a few hits from people looking for INXS stuff (I must have written about INXS a few times on here over the years!) And now I'll get more hits just from mentioning them again. I.N.X.S.

So... lots has been going on over the past 10 days... I'll put some photos together and will do an update later tonight. In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you want to see more of on this ole' blog!

Stamps on QVC (UK)

I've been doing a bit of stamp designing for Personal Impressions in the UK, and two sets of my stamps have ended up on their QVC tv channel :)

4 Message Stamps - as the title suggests, this set is wording stamps, and it also has a link to see the video from the QVC presentation. For some reason I can't seem to be able to view it, but hopefully you guys can!

5 Christmas Message Stamps - and as this title suggest, here's a set of Christmas messages. These are mainly traditional style.

This snowman set also has one of my working stamps in there too. (the snowmen aren't mine - but they're cute!)

QVC have only used the wording stamps so far, but the rest of the range can be seen here. (to see the stamps you will need to choose to download the PDF catalogues.) Not all of those designs are mine, but it has a list at the end to show who designed each of the stamps. Sorry to the Aussies - these stamps aren't available here but if you're in the UK - here's the stockist list.

Hope you're having a relaxing Sunday!

Back from Brissie!

What a fun weekend I had in Brisbane with Michelle and all the gang! Some I had met at shows or in classes that I've taught before, and some I'd known from online groups, and some I've never met before but are now new friends :):) Together we all had such a fun weekend. Bouncing ideas off each other. Eating homemade slice. Inky fingers. Dirty stamps. Gooey accents. Delicious BBQ lunches. Gorgeous sunny days. Color Wash mayhem. 'That was easy!' And a bunch of laughs.

I taught 6 workshops over the 2 days, and it certainly didn't take long for the tables to look like this:

This table won the prize of the messiest table! So I was putting the kits on top of paper towels, or in whatever space I could find. In this pic you can see various components of the workshops. Bottlecaps, LOTS of paper towels, Color Washes, Distress Inks, stamps etc. Is it possible to have too much fun with this stuff? Honestly, I have to pinch myself sometimes. Thankyou to ALL of you for such a great weekend! I'll be back next year for sure!

Off to Brisbane

Heading up to Brisbane today to teach a round of workshops for the weekend with Michelle's Cards & Stamps! I'm not sure if there are any spaces left, but if you wanted more info, contact Michelle and Robyn: Phone: (07) 3888 2462

The workshops cover Color Wash, Adirondack Paint Dabbers, InkEssentials Accents, Distress Inks, Adirondack Dimensional Pearls, and Shabby Chic embossing. Plus - I have some samples from CHA that I'll be bringing along to look at and play with too :) Yummo!

Also - a big Happy Birthday to my Dad! And a big Happy Birthday to my godmother Marg! xxx

CHA, Chicago Photos and Greeting Card Winner!

Thanks for being patient while I put together these photo galleries!

Firstly, here's the CHA Summer 2007 Gallery. I took most of the CHA photos on the first day, and there were a lot of booths that I went to but didn't get the camera out. It just depended on what I was doing or how busy I was etc. But gives you a small idea of what I got up to and what CHA is like for those who have never been. Everyone kept telling me the Winter show is four times the size - so that would be huge! Anyway - hope you enjoy the photos.

Then here is the Chicago Photography Gallery. I was only able to sightsee around Chicago for 1.5 days, so I missed a LOT and the weather was average,  but did what I could - and hope to go back again someday!

I'd love to hear any feedback on both of these galleries! Tell me which is your favourite picture (or booth etc)!

And thanks for all your comments about greeting cards that you like to send and receive! The winner of the box of greeting cards (and also some gift cards too) is..... Kelley  Bodycott! Congrats Kelley - please email me your mailing details and I'll get that box out to you.

Happy Tuesday!

Artiology Swap Gallery

I've  just finished hosting a card and ATC swap using stamps from the Stamp-It Artiology Catalogue. All of the artwork is just pure eye candy! Lots of great ideas, and I loved seeing how all of the stamps were used. Here's a link to the gallery:

Artiology Swap Gallery

Enjoy!

July Calendar

Thanks for all of your comments from the post below. It's great hearing about what cards you all make and what you like to receive! I haven't done the drawing for my greeting card pack yet so keep those comments coming! I'll draw a winner when I have finished those Chicago photos - which hopefully will be tonight. But until you see those photos on here... there's still time to comment and be in the draw :)

Here's my completed July Calendar! I was chatting to my brother Pete yesterday (he also has this same calendar, but not decorated like mine ;) and he has asked me for the 2008 refill for Christmas this year! Apparently they love turning over each month to see what new photo they have of the kids. (I think Pete needs his own kids, hehe ;) So he wants it to continue for next year. Hmmm, I think I've taken some real crackers of the kids this year, so I'll see....

So here's July. I have found some more miniature supplies to use from my stash. When I looked at the Sue Dreamer alpha stickers, they have all these cute little 'extras', like stars, flowers, bugs, hearts etc. So I've added them a few times this month. It's still a challenge trying to edit what I want to say, and fit it into a little box. And I have found out that rub ons actually go off! I have some old ones here that really don't work anymore, or they are hard to 'rub', so I'm glad I'm using up the stash a bit! And as for 26th July - that day didn't actually exist for me, as I crossed the International Date Line, so I missed out on that day. When I asked Stew what they did while I was away, his response was "I can't remember". LOL. So that day is an X. Although it was my cousin Bronte's 7th birthday that day! I hope she had a great day - cause none of us have any recollection! (and I did the X before I thought of Bronte's birthday - I could have put that in there instead, but the X looks kinda cool, yeah?)

And while Ethan had a sleepover at Nans last night, Zoë and I cooked ginger biscuits!

Bon Appetit!

Astarte's Mega-Zine Issue 3 + Giveaway!

I'd hoped to have my Chicago photos up here by now, but I've been swamped with work. The gift fair has been on in Brisbane, and then in Melbourne this weekend, so I'm in the middle of making quite a few thousand greeting cards to fill the orders. Still can't believe they're selling so strongly after all this time. 10 years. Who knows how many I've made and sold in that time. But you know, they've been my constant bread and butter throughout my business, so I'm thankful for that. All from greeting cards. Who would have thought! And to think I also encourage everyone to hand make cards... bit of a contradiction really, don't you think? "Here's how to make a card... but wait! buy one of my handmade cards!" I tell you, either way I'm happy :)

So, I'll get to the Chicago photos soon. In the meantime, I have just been emailed the latest issue of Astarte's Mega-Zine. It's all about Dwelling Places, and my article is about creating photo essays within your home.  More info here.

Back to the greeting cards... I'll make a box full to give away to someone... so post a comment here about what type of cards you like to give and receive, and I'll choose a random winner by the weekend!