The Girls Night In Weekend retreat was unreal!! We all had an absolute ball as well as raising money for The NSW Cancer Council. Here are a few photos showing what we got up to...



Scrapping and Card making of course!!

We visited the bird avairy and had fun feeding the birdies their apple and allowing them to crawl all over us.

Mamma Mia and Grease kept us grooving along during the evenings along with a visit from the gorgeous Pink Ladies...

Oops...did we say gorgeous???

Here is the lovely Leanne from Melbourne dressed in Pink

Very cute!!

...and some interesting pink outfits for our Girls Night In Saturday night dress up!!

We enjoyed lovely dinners and some pink bubbly  - Yum!!

Our scrap pack challenge winners...

 and the lovely breast cancer survivor on holidays from Canberra that befriended Maree and Robyn and was over the moon at the scrapbook page of her son

that they did for her...

All in all we had a great weekend, made some lovely new friends, played games, won some prizes and did what we love to do...be Creatively Inspired!!

October is here and our GIRLS NIGHT IN weekend retreat is only a week away!! YAY!!

As we have been collecting for the NSW Cancer Council this month we thought we would share with you what one of our beautiful ladies did to raise funds....

A big thank you to Karen who baked cupcakes shaped like boobs and took them in to her work for morning tea. Karen passed a collection plate around and the ladies raised $50 towards womens cancer research which Karen has donated to our Girls Night In effort. 

One of Karen's colleague's was diagnosed with breast cancer a year ago so it was a special morning tea for these ladies and a chance to help a worthy cause that is close to their hearts. Well done ladies!

We love the Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and now they have so many new products...here we have found Heidi Swapp showing the new CHA 2010 products and they are just gorgeous!!!

We are all starting to get excited about our "Girls Night In" October weekend retreat...only two months to go and we have started to order goodies for your goodie bags and the scrap pack challenge kit and class layouts and demos are currently being planned. And... as per usual there are heaps of prizes and surprises during the weekend!! Don't forget we can arrive as early as 11am on the Friday and keep scrapping all the way through until 3pm Sunday - YIPPEE!!

Our new venue for this retreat is fabulous!! The beautiful spacious villas contain two bedrooms (twin share) and we have a great hall for scrapbooking. The food will be scrumptious and why not bring along your favourite wine or cocktail to enjoy also!

We thought we would tantalise you with some photos of where you will enjoy your weekend...

Villa interior - view 1

Villa interior - view 2

Fabulous bedrooms complete with linen!!

Spacious Scrapbooking Room

Pool by day!!

Relaxing Spa!!       Oh What BLISS!!

Pool by night!!

The excitement is building...

Here's a tip...about creating kits!!

Put aside one day every so often, to sit down and put together a few of your own "kits" for when you have a moment to scrapbook.

Put all the elements in a zip lock bag ie: photos already cropped, cardstock for backgrounds and matting, patterned papers, embellishments and either hand written or typed journaling.

You could even pop in a sketch with the appropriate amount of photos to save you even more time when it comes to scrapbooking them.

Loving these gorgeous pleated ribbon roses. Click here to go to the tutorial on the Maya Road Blog to see how to make them.

Next Retreat Venue???

Hey ladies...we were sent an email by the lovely Tina
(one of our June weekend retreat gals) who suggests this venue as the one for our next retreat...lol...it is in Singapore and all we can say is...OMG!!

The pool is up on the rooftop and looks out over the city...wouldn't want to be scared of heights!!

Kylie is extremely height phobic and is freaking out just looking at this picture LOL :)

Wonder where the scrap room would be???

Saturday Marathon

Saturday Marathons are back!!!

We have had quite a few of you asking to bring back the marathon so we have....

Our first one will be on Saturday 24th July 2010 from 1pm till 11pm - YES - a full 10 hours of uninterrupted scrapping time!! YAY

We are also running our Super Saturday on the same Saturday so you have a choice:

- Come to our Super Saturday where you will complete a gorgeous 4x4 mini album. Cost is $65 and class begins at 10am. This includes all materials, morning and afternoon tea.

- Come along to the Saturday Marathon and scrap to your hearts content. Cost is $20 and includes afternoon tea, supper and a couple of fabulous demos (including how to make these gorgeous paper flowers pictured).

- Or do both...come along to our Super Saturday Class for $65 and stay on for the Marathon for FREE!!

We are looking forward to a fun day of scrapping - hope to see you there...

June Weekend Retreat

What a fantastic time we all had at our June Weekend retreat....

Friday morning the mad keen scrappers arrived ready to start their weekend. They leapt straight into their scrapping with fabulous pages being created right from the get go!!

By evening the rest of the ladies had arrived and we started the weekend off with our Scrappy competition as well as a fantastic Mini Album class taught in the classroom by Kylie.

Saturday morning everyone enjoyed their breakfast from the baskets including the yummy Lemon Butter made by our gorgeous friend Justine, then it was scrap, scrap, scrap...

Afternoon came around all too quickly but that was OK because with it came relaxing massages on the verandah by Nikki and a technique class with Sharon that was a huge hit.
When Sharon and Kylie ducked out to pick up Pizza on Saturday night a couple of cheeky ladies (no names will be mentioned) took our Scrappy on the adventure of his lifetime.

 We've never laughed so hard as when we discovered the adventures he got up to on Sharon's camera - see our photos below for the evidence :)

The "Retreat" layout class in the main hall was fun, the announcement of our Challenge winners and then more scrapping until the wee hours of the morning.

Congratulations to our Scrap Pack Challenge wnners - Melanie and Louise for fabulous layouts, Cath for her heartfelt journalling and cheeky Cheryl for entering not one but two cheeky entries!!

Sunday came by oh so quickly - another fabulous class and some bargain shopping provided by Sherie, a bit more scrapping then time to pack up and say our goodbyes until next time...

Thank you to all our ladies for a fun filled weekend.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see our fabulous slideshow from the weekend...

Crafters Workshop Video Tutorial

We found this great video from Christine at Scraptime using The Crafters Workshop Templates and our favourite Glimmermist to create design backgrounds for layouts and cards. Check it out...


Scrap Time - Ep. 409 - Crafter's Workshop Templates from Mark Giles on Vimeo.

Super Saturday

We have to tell you about our Super Saturday!! Well, the class started like it was supposed to...Kylie got the painting of the lovely frame going...then Sharon took over for the fabulous double page layout - no sooner had the ladies cut a couple of pieces of pattern paper when Sharon's phone rang with the news that Kenz had fallen from the bars at gymnastics and broken her arm!!

Poor Kenz had broken both the bones in her forearm and needed surgery to set them straight. Poor Sharon had to leave our Super Saturday class to spend the day, evening and then her Mother's Day in the hospital. Ever the trooper Mackenzie is doing well after her ordeal and ever the SCRAPBOOKER Sharon has some amazing photos that she has been showing us.

Thanks to the Super Saturday ladies who didn't mind the early interruption to their class, they all went on to produce amazing works of art and we enjoyed our very first Saturday workshop!!

Bits and Pieces

The last couple of weeks have been dedicated to getting ready to bring you awesome classes and we are happy that our classes started this week and they were fantastic!!

Thanks to everyone who came along and supported us in our new endeavour!! Riverstone is a great venue for our classes - the hall is bright and has fabulous natural light and the centre room also has great lighting and a cosy atmosphere.

This week we sewed on our pages, glimmermisted our titles, some painted, some inked and we all enjoyed Tim Tams and a wonderful Choc Peppermint Slice (thanks to CC for making it and bringing it along for us to share). Sherie was at each class with her wonderful range of products - heaps of new papers and bits and pieces. We love new product!!

This Saturday's workshop is almost full - there are a couple of spaces still available if your interested.

We have been planning the Saturday workshops for the rest of this year. Do you believe we are almost half way through and we hate to say it but Christmas will be upon us before we know it, so we thought we would be super organised and therefore this years Saturday workshops will be as follows:

JULY - Mini Album

SEPTEMBER - Christmas Cards and Gifts

NOVEMBER - Christmas Projects

We still need to finalise the exact dates and we will announce those as soon as we have them.

June's weekend retreat filled up so quickly that we went back to Castlereagh Academy to beg for another cabin and luckily one was available so there are now a few more spots. Be quick though as they will book fast. We have planned fantastic classes including a layout using the Cuttlebug, quick demos and yes there will be scones with jam and cream!! AND, you can arrive anytime after 12 noon on Friday so you can start your scrapping early!!

We've also booked the Girls Night In weekend retreat for the last weekend in October - as well as spending a whole weekend scrapbooking we will be fundraising for The NSW Cancer Council and the girls night in is all about women's cancers so THINK PINK and get on board for a great cause. Both weekends are going to be lots of fun!!

Until next time...

Spare 15 minutes? Here's some ideas...

Sometimes it is difficult to devote the time to our scrapbooking but if you find yourself with a spare 15 minutes or so here are some ways to keep you organised whilst enjoying your favourite hobby...

- Scraplift an Accent
Find a great accent or embellishment idea that someone else has done and create your own version to use on a layout!

- Shop
Do a quick inventory of your supplies and make a list of anything you need to stock up on. ie: adhesives.

- Purge
Select one type of supply at a time - such as patterned papers, cardstock or stickers and any you think you will not use donate to friends, schools or charities.

- Crop
Use any extra time to crop any photos that need cropping.

- Sketch
Sketch any ides you think of for layouts or do a quick sketch of a layout you have seen that you like.

- Practise
Muck around practising any new techniques you'd like to try. Practise embossing, stamping, painting etc. You could embellish the cover of a blank exercise book to use as an art journal for recording results as well as sketching etc


- Clean
Spend 15 minutes cleaning up your scrap area!!

- Write down a Memory
We think that we will recall the conversations we have (especially some of the cute and funny ones we have with our kids) but reality is that we don't always remember the details. Write down each memory while they are fresh. 

- Make Kits
Put together kits including photos, papers, cardstock and embellishments so you will be ready to scrapbook when you have time.

- Edit
If you have photo editing software take a moment to edit a few photos so they are ready to print.

- Organise
Put together a binder with page protectors and fill with ideas that you tear from magazines.

Hopefully, you will find these handy tips will help you acheive more time to do the actually creating you enjoy so much.

CWA Craft Fair

We had an awesome day at the CWA Craft Fair on Saturday and met lots of lovely new ladies some who have already booked into our classes particularly our Super Saturday in May.

The CWA ladies are lovely and there was one in particular who was just gorgeous.

Her name is Beryl and she was selling the jams, she was telling us she is 85 years old, still drives her car and that you can learn a new thing every day!!

She was giving everyone taste tests of Chilli Relish and Chilli Jam and she was also "falling for" a lot of the lovely young men who were buying from her - our friend Justine's hubby got a fabulous reception from her, she really "fell" for him!!

The news this week is that Sharon is no longer teaching classes at the shop in Richmond - she will now be teaching exclusively for Creatively Inspired!!

If you want to touch base with Sharon please feel free to call her on 0413 511 814 or send her an email at info@creativelyinspired.net

News

We are so excited to see bookings coming in for Classes, the Super Saturday and our June Retreat!!

Retreat News: We have just finished planning the FREE Make and Take that we will be running on the weekend and also the FREE Scrap Pack Challenge Kits. It's all very exciting!!

A couple of people have asked about food - as we are trying to keep your costs down with this retreat and food drives the costs up, we thought we would bring you a retreat where you can decide your own  food budget.

There is a kitchenette in each cabin complete with fridge, microwave, sink, kettle etc... You can plan to bring your food from home eg: frozen meals (homemade or store bought), salad or even 2 min noodles etc or alternatively we will be doing a shop run each day. We are happy to pick up anything your heart desires from the supermarket or at the local takeways. We will have menus ready for you to make your decision if this is your option.

Super Saturday News: Our first Super Saturday is all planned - the double page layout is completed as well as a great selection of cards (sneak peek is on the calendar on our website) and the frame is well on it's way to completion. It's all looking good!! Kits are packed and ready to go!!

Other News: We will be attending the CWA Craft Fair at Kurrajong on Saturday 10th April and will have class projects on display. We will also have class discount vouchers available on the day. Why don't you come down, say hi and pick up a voucher to try one of our classes!!

Stay tuned....

Check out Castlereagh Academy

Wow, we visited Castlereagh Academy today and were really impressed. We are going to have an awesome retreat in June. We loved the fact that you can arrive as early as 10.30am on the Friday morning and go all the way throught until 3pm on Sunday!! Yay.

The cabins are really nice - 4 bedrooms per cabin with a kitchenette, dining table, TV 2 ensuites and not a bunk bed in sight. Sheets, pillows and blankets are included. The cabins and the hall are all air conditioned so we will be toasty warm. Lovely!!

Hall

CabinsCabins

The whole area is on the lake and is so peaceful, we know you are all going to have the best time there. They have a really lovely hall for us to go mad crafting to our hearts content as well as a seperate area for classes and a shop. Can't wait!!

Busy Creative Bees

We have been busy little bees creating fantastic classes for you. We can't wait for the 3rd May when we officially launch our classes!! It is soooooo exciting!!

Here is a sneak peek at the layout for our scrapbooking lesson on the 3rd. We are loving the 3D cutout effect...

We will post a sneak peek and a list of how many photos are needed for each lesson on the calendar page on our website - just click into the relevant date and you will see it. The week of the 10th May has also been loaded onto the calendar. Quick - go take a look!

Next week we will show you what will be on offer at our first Super Saturday. This fabulous day will have 3 classes - a double page layout, a selection of cards and a beautiful double photo frame - a perfect gift for Mother's Day or keep it for yourself!

See you at an event soon...

Kylie and Sharon

Welcome to Creatively Inspired

Welcome to Creatively Inspired...

We decided it was about time to start a business doing what we do best - SCRAPBOOKING, CARDMAKING AND BEYOND THE PAGE EVENTS!!

After many years of offering our customers fabulous classes, saturday marathons, weekend retreats etc we have decided to "go out on our own" and therefore Creatively Inspired has been born.

We are looking forward to bringing you the best of us - weekly classes designed with you in mind, weekend retreats where the fun never stops, bus tours to enable you to check out stores that are further afield than your local ones.In other words, the most awesome events and classes, up to date techniques and experience and all in a bright, fun, relaxing, social environment...

We welcome your input so please feel free to leave comments on our posts.

Stay tuned.....

Kylie and Sharon xx