Great news

After receiving notification that all our website data had been lost in the damage caused to our server host by hackers over a week ago things were looking rather ordinary. All automatic backups were lost and absolutely nothing is retrievable. We were looking at a huge amount of work to sort it all out, re-establish our website, all the costs involved again and worst of all, the time it takes to set sites up. I can tell you my head was spinning. This could not have hit at a worse time, end of financial year, sale time and the launch of our magazine advertising campaign in Scrapbook Creations. What the heck were we going to do?

Thankfully I had used a great local IT person to develop the site and he has a backup on file, albeit somewhat behind where we were as I had been busy with the site in recent weeks and a huge amount of stock had been uploaded since the last backup. He is working frantically to get all our domain name etc released from the original host, has already organized a new host site and hopefully it will be back up by tonight. The main thing is that the website is still there, the updating of stock and components I had been 'tweaking' can all be replaced, all that involves is time - lots of time but I will be spending every waking moment on it in order to get back to where we were.

Most of our client list has gone so please, log back in and enter your details again to receive the updates and info that is emailed to our client base. We also lost all the records of sales which will make for some interesting accounting for the tax man. On the upside, while I have to actually go through every bit of stock to redo all the quantities on site it does at least address stocktake! I dread that/those day/days.

To thank all our loyal customers and those who choose to use our site during the relaunch or the website and advertising campaign, there will be huge discounts on stock which will be applied as I reload it all. What is already still online will have discounts applied too, so keep checking in regularly as you will find more each day.

I thank you for your patience, this has been a somewhat stressful time for us but this little black duck or should I say this little paper doll let this stand in the way of our dream. We are your One Stop Chipboard Shop!!!

Scrapbooking, chipboard and fun, fun, fun

Yesterday I played with some chipboard, using some coloring techniques and surface altering. I have so many other ‘things’ in my head to do to these pieces of chipboard, things I’ve seen and want to try, things I imagine and want  to see if they work. Just to test out how far can you push a piece of cardboard in the name of art or scrapping. There are many who have tested these boundaries and they are dangling in front of me, testing my patience as I scramble together some “uncommitted” time to “play”. It is all in the name of work but never feels like it.

Circus

 

Circus

 A few years ago we went to a circus that was performing locally, just the small traveling ones that do the circuit of the country. These days, with all the 'animal issues' and 'political correctness' of the world, they are so different to what we, as kids saw. No 'wild' performing animals but some well trained ducks, dogs and cows. Yes, cows. I haven't got to that page yet but I certainly will. There are still the clowns and the acrobats, the good old ringmaster and a 'rubber' man who could squeeze himself into a ridiculously small container - that took some skill! We took the kids, who were 3 and 9 at the time and they thoroughly enjoyed it. Now they are 6 and 12 and we have booked to see Cirque de Soleil later this month. We booked that nearly a year ago and have been excited about the prospect of going all that time. There won't be the photo opportunities I'm sure but the memories (combined with a few online pics) will be scrappable.

Materials used: textured card, WeR Memory Keepers paper, 2Crafty Chipboard. The chippies have been colored using markers of various sorts. Be sure to test them on the back of your chippies for color depth and to ensure that the chippies are of a quality that will not disintegrate. Color gently and with even strokes, some markers are better for this than others. I use brush ones. I've also use gel pens for some of the smaller, more intricate detail on chippies too. Once again test before using.

*Check out the stationery sections of stores and newsagents, you'll find some handy coloring items. Check their acid status if available but remember if it's not touching your photos, it will generally be alright to use on a page.

Just Add Water

Just add water - and so the rains did! During summer we had massive rains in Victoria (who didn't in Australia - ok WA maybe) and many were inundated with floods causing devastation that most of us cannot imagine unless involved. This is the Mighty Murray that threatened to flood our town. It did flood in many areas but due to the amazing efforts of the SES, Police, CFA, other emergency teams and the outstanding work by volunteers in our town and many others along the way, we remained 'high and dry'. Sadly, some outlying areas were not so lucky and today, 3 months later are still under water, houses and all! While the relief of the waters being restrained was felt by myself here, my farming property upstream of the river and on other rivers and creeks was flooded. So a lot of mixed emotions about it all, scenes that I hopefully will never see again. This photos in this page were a daily ritual for quite some time, the water here rose slowly (unlike the farm which was 'flash flooded') and readings were constantly being taken. My daughter is sitting on the top step of what is 10 steps. Prior to the flooding we were able to sit on the bottom step! These steps are more of a 'jump' down than step down, so quite a long way under water.

Materials used: textured card, A2Z Scraplets, Crafty Notions Color Spray, SEI Chalk inks, Basic Grey paper and some stitching. The cogs have simply been misted with spray and the title color blended with the inks. I was looking for a distressed feel to this page as well as letting the photos speak for themselves.

Sandbagging

This is what save many towns and properties - Sandbags! The volunteers who filled bags, adults and children who helped feed and water these hardworking people, the ones who transported them to sites, stacked them along banks and around houses, power stations, vital services are to be commended for their tireless work. Filling bags is no light work. It's heavy, dirty, dusty and hot, very hot work in summer. Not the usual time that we would associate with floods. Much work was done through the night to ease the heat issue and purely to get enough bags filled and ready for what lay ahead. There was no predicting what it would do. Sure there are some records from many years ago when a similar event occurred but land layout has changed through farming, redevelopment and clearing. The path of the water would not be the same, nor the speed or volume of the flow.

Materials used: textured card, Basic Grey paper and alphabet, SEI inks and Bella distressing tool, staples and A2Z Scraplets Chipboard. The chipboard has been soaked in water to separate the layers, then I've carefully scrunched and distressed the top of it, let it dry and then roughly inked it, followed by a smudging of metallic rub. Quite a fun way to add to the distressed look on a page.