Alison Docherty

Our next class is on Wednesday 1 April at 7.30 pm.

Alison Docherty from Cardiff is teaching the class. Alison has taught at the Club a couple of times before, and has a nice simple, graphic style and her layouts appeal to most people. A picture of her layout is on the blog. Although - there is a choice of colour ways of blue or pink and you can use hearts instead of stars, if you would like to.




The cost of the class is £5.

Could you either email Louise on bubblesmonster@aol.com or go down to Country Clutter in Chepstow to put your name down and pay for the class. Could you also indicate whether you would like to do a pink or blue layout.

Our class in May is going to be an all day Saturday class, still in Chepstow Rugby Club. Jane Dean, who regularly appears in Scrapbook Inspirations magazine is coming from Canterbury, Kent. The class, which is a mini book, has actually been designed by Karen Burniston and Jane has the licence to teach the class. The cost of the day is £6. You will have to bring your own materials, and as soon as we have the list, we will email it out. In order to keep costs down, you will need to bring your own lunch, although the bar will be open and we will bring along tea and coffee.

If you would like to do this class, could you also make sure your name is down at Country Clutter or by emailing Louise.

Photography ideas... a message from Maz

Hi Album Trackers! Pam has recently emailed those of you who have expressed an interest in joining in with the album track classes; a year in your life. You might like to take photographs of some of the following;

- your wardrobe
- your shoes
- tip your handbag on the floor and just take a photo of it
- jewellery
- take photos of things you do every day
- your make up

- your toiletries

- driving

- what do you eat for breakfast

- do you do exercise or do you take a dog for a walk

- do you use a computer, if you do take a photo

- take photographs of things you treasure (ie. a special ornament, a teddy, a piece of clothing)

- maybe take photos of things you do that other people might not know about you or your life

- take photos of things that really matter to you

- do you wear a uniform for work

- do you like to have a certain drink during the day (ie. glass of wine in the evening!)

- do you wear glasses or contact lenses

- do you wear slippers in the house, if you do take a photo of them...



Sometimes I take my camera around with me all day just to record the daily details- it's amazing what little snippets you can record just by having the camera with you all the time!
I think these little chunks of our daily lives will be priceless to look back on when we're older; for me, photography is not just about the high days and the holidays!




Try taking things from different angles- above, below, sideways... try snapping the detail- a label on a winebottle; your child's hands, dog's nose....



If you'd like more inspiration, you can see more on my blog Diving For Pearls. Follow this link or this link for ideas for photographing the every day.

If you'd like any help with ideas or tips on photography, please do get in touch- I'd love to hear from you!

Love
Maz x

2009 - year of the Album Track!

As you may have already heard, we have decided to do something a little different this year. We have had some people say to us that they have lost some motivation, feel they are in a rut with their scrapbooking, or don't quite know how to get started, and meanwhile the photographs are piling up waiting to be scrapped, next to a mountain of scrap supplies- but many of us have the same problem-no mojo!
So to kick start some renewed enthusiam and creative spark, we are going to run an 'Album track'. This means that for 4 evenings throughout this year we will hold classes to quickly, simply and effectively get some pages done and dusted and ready to go in an album. By the end of the year, you will have an album of scrapbooked photos. What more could you ask!

The first session will be in March, then in May, July and October (these evenings might be subject to change). The idea is that hopefully everyone will complete the album on themselves and scrapbook your life as it is right now in 2009, so you have a statement of your life, what makes you tick, what makes you laugh, things you like to do, things you hate to do, who's important and what is important in your life. Although if you would like to complete the album for somebody else, that is absolutely fine, you might just have to make some minor adjustments with photos, and the prompts and ideas we will be giving out.

We plan for you to complete 5 layouts in each of the evenings - I can almost hear you groaning and saying no way - but trust us, 5 will be a doddle!!! By the end of the 4 classes you will have a complete album of 20 pages. You can then of course add to it yourself, if you want.

The classes won't cost anything at all, but you will have to provide your own materials. We are looking into the possibility of bulk buying some American Crafts D ring albums and different sized page protectors, and getting some discount because we are buying in a large quantity. If you are interested in having one of these albums, could you please go and talk to Alison Boalch at February's meeting as she will be ordering the albums, we can't give you a definite cost, but it will be around the £15-£20 mark (which will include the album and the different size page protectors).

Otherwise if you already have an album that is lying around empty and you would like to use it, that is absolutely fine, or alternatively you might like to source your own album.

You will also need to bring along with you to the first track class in March about 10 sheets of cardstock and some patterned paper. Don't stress out about the colours - in fact bring along the cardstock that you have had sitting around for ages - maybe all the odd colours. They don't necessarily have to match one another, but it might be a good idea if some of the patterned paper blended with some of the cardstock. You will only need a couple of sheets of pattered paper initially or bring some of your off cuts, they will work equally well.

If you have alphabet stamps at home, bring them along as we will be stamping on the cardstock (to be economical!!). The Club has some stamps for you to use. Also bring a few basic ink colours with you ie black and brown.

The classes will fall roughly into different categories, but some will blend from one class to the next.

These are:

1st Class
All the personal stuff - a photograph of yourself to start the album off (or with your family)
This could also include - taking a photograph of your wardrobe, your shoes, tip your handbag on the floor and just take a photo, jewellery, take photos of things you do every day - like make up, what you eat for breakfast, get someone to take a photo of you driving (but only if you can drive!!), do you take a dog for a walk each day, do you use a computer every day, take photographs of things you treasure, maybe take photographs of things other people might not know about you or your life.

2nd Class

Favourites which might include - perfume, make up, toiletries, films, music, places, food, drinks, shops, things in your home or anything else that is a favourite.

3rd Class

Family - close and extended, friends, important people in your life, car, special events that might be happening this year.

4th Class

Home - take photos of rooms in your house, food in your fridge, work, garden, special places you might have visit or visit on a regular basis, and most importantly a largish photo of yourself for the end of the album (perhaps a 6 x 8 or 8 x10).

These are only ideas and give you a rough framework in which to work and take relevant photos. Just take photographs of your everyday life, they don't have to be fantastic arty photos, just as long as they illustrate things that are important in your life. 6 x 4 photos will be absolutely fine (apart from the final photo). But obviously if you are going to complete a 6x6 album, you might need to reduce your photo size.

For the first class bring along as many photos as you want, we would recommend maybe around the 15 mark as some pages will have more than one photo on them.

SORRY to have gone on for so long .... but we were keen that you have the overview of this album track class, which will help you think about the photos and the pages you might want to include. Any questions please email me and I'll try and answer them.


I hope you come along and join in with these classes - it will be a real achievement at the end of the year, to have a complete album.

Maz will shortly be writing a post about some ideas and tips for taking great photographs and helping to make this album really special.

Keep watching- and lets know us if you have any queries, sugestions or general comments! We love to hear from you!

Stop Press! Amber has added more kits and you now have a choice! So there are loads more spaces if you haven't booked yet.

Coming Soon; Chepstow Pink Scrappers' Album Track

Watch for details!

Amber Lewis Feb 4th...

And now! News of our next class! Amber Lewis will be joining us to teach on Wednesday 4th February. It looks like a fabulous class;


Amber says;
I'm Amber Lewis, I've been married to James for 8 and half years and we live in Newport, South Wales with our 2 cats. I've been scrapbooking for 6 years after discovering it whilst on holiday in Florida (i'm yet to scrap the photos from that holiday!!) I run the scrapbooking courses for Newport City Council's adult education programme and have done so for nearly 4 years. It still remains a very popular subject. Last year I graduated from University of Wales in Caerleon after completing my certificate in education. Teaching was something that I never thought I would do but I absolutely love it. I still can't believe that i'm actually paid to teach my hobby!! I also teach for Scrapbus Limited which I own along with 3 of my fabulous friends. I have appeared in a variety of scrapbooking magazines including Scrapbook Inspirations, most recently the ready steady scrap challenge. In my spare time I have an office based job in the local hospital.



(There are only a couple of places left on this class so if you haven't already booked- get in touch soon!)

Karen and Cheryl in Chepstow

On Sunday 9 November, we were so lucky to have 2 very talented scrapbookers from America to teach us here in Chepstow - the very technical Karen Burniston and the altered art expert, Cheryl Mezzetti, both of whom design for Creative Imaginations. Karen was the 'brave one' who drove the hire car from Gatwick to Chepstow on the 'wrong side of the road', but having given her instructions on how to tackle a roundabout, they made it safe and sound and all in one piece.

Karen taught her class first, which was a mini album entitled 'King of the Castle', made up of triangular pieces of chipboard, which were all attached to one another and in typical Karen style, had pop-up castles when you opened the album up. Most people almost finished their albums and if they hadn't could easily finish them off at home. Unfortunately because Karen's album had taken a little longer than planned, Cheryl didn't have very much time to make her album. Although, due to Cheryl's highly organised kits with pieces of paper ready cut to the right size and in the right order, we all managed to finished her waterfall album - each of the pages pulled out in a staggered formation.

Both albums were lovely and very different to anything we have done before and it was an absolute pleasure to host both Karen and Cheryl, they are two lovely ladies, and Alison and I had the pleasure of their company on Monday, when we took them on a scenic tourist trail, which included the Wye Valley, Tintern Abbey, Chepstow Castle and the Crippled Creek in Raglan!

If either of them ever come back to visit us in Chepstow - they come highly recommended and please come and take their classes - you won't be disappointed.