This year, I was representing
Scrapware at the Scrapbook Industry of Australia
tradeshow.
Scrapware's release was totally gorgeous! I'm so thrilled I got to be a part of it. Not only that, my designs were released too...so excited! Here's some pics...check out our display...all of those pink frames contain our new designs.
Here's Ange, Kim and I...
Here we are teaching our make and takes and the totally cute name badges I made us using the new funky birds, as well as my friend
Sandra working the Bella stand...
Kim and I at the Awards dinner, my designs, and my friend
Sar who is the new, very proud owner of
Scrapbook Savvy!
Here's a close up of my designs...I'm so proud of myself for taking a leap of faith. I have a lot of ideas running through my head, and some that are currently being digitised and cut...so watch out for Lisa Warren Designs for
Scrapware at a scrapbook store near you soon! This release features a cute little peacock that would sit perfectly on the corner of your photo, my trees, flourishes, feathers and puzzle
journaling pieces (the centre of which pops out so you can insert a photo).
Here's the run down of events...grab a chair because this is lengthy...then you'll understand why I haven't updated my blog before now!
lol.
MONDAYSandra and I had a great morning together...taking it easy driving up to visit
Scraploot, then lunch at Rhodes and finally on to the State Sports Centre at
Homebush to set up the stalls. Kim picked Ange up at the airport and met us there. Poor Ange had been in hospital that morning with back spasms...they told her it was just muscular and she'd be
ok, so she flew to Sydney. It was obvious she was not well, but being the trooper she is, she
persevered and the stall looked beautiful! Monday night after we'd finished setting up, we went for dinner at the brewery downstairs from the Ibis, then headed up to bed. As Ange's back was sore and Kim is 6ft tall, I took the trundle, which was like a cot (
lol). We discovered around 9pm that the air conditioning wasn't working, so we asked for maintenance to come up. Unfortunately, the technician couldn't fix it, so we requested a new room...now the story turns a little
Goldilocks and the three bears...the next room was full of smoke; room no. 3 had no air conditioning either; room no. 4 was also full of smoke; and room no. 5 was just right!
lol. We unpacked and settled in for the night. At some stage during the night, Kim got up and when she returned to her bed, she tripped over, nearly broke her toe and fell on top of me!
lol!
TUESDAYIts raining. Ange's condition was deteriorating rapidly, so she did the fastest shuffle she could into the centre. The doors opened at 9am and its on. At first it was quiet because most people went off to classes, but it quickly started to pick up once everyone saw how gorgeous our make and takes were...door hangers...stop/keep out for boys and birdhouse and flowers for girls...totally usable and adorable. The feedback we received from everyone was really positive and exciting. Ange went to see the sports doctor and he diagnosed a prolapsed disc or ruptured disc! Not quite the "muscular" issue the hospital in Melbourne thought it was. The
dr prescribed a whole different range of painkillers and sent her back to us. She spent the rest of the day lying down in the first aid room and Kim and I looked after the stand. It was busy, busy, busy!!
TUESDAY NIGHTAnge wasn't well enough to attend the Awards dinner, so Kim and I pushed on. Dinner was okay and the company was good...excitement though when the fire alarms went off and the firemen came into the room! I don't think they knew what hit them!! A room full of cackling,
scrapbooking woman bearing cameras!!
lol. We got back to the room around 11
ish, chatted for a while, then went to sleep. At 1.20am, Ange woke us up to say she was in incredible pain...she couldn't even get out of bed! We called an ambulance and they took her to Concord Hospital. Kim and I followed to make sure she was okay, then returned to the hotel. We went to sleep around 4am.
VERY EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNINGIt is still raining. At 5am-
ish the fire alarms went off in the hotel! At first I thought it was the alarm to wake me up, but it registered pretty quickly when it went to the "whoop" sound! I stuck my head out the door to see everyone else trying to figure out what to do. I quickly threw on a cardigan over my pyjamas, grabbed some shoes, and started down the stairs. I had makeup all over my face and terrible hair. The hotel was fully booked out too - The Who had a concert on that night and there were people everywhere!! So embarrassing - in my jammies in the pouring rain. The fire brigade gave the hotel the all clear, so we headed back up. We dropped back off to sleep, then the alarm went off again! Unbelievable!!! Kim asked that I leave her there to burn...we were so tired. Thankfully the alarm stopped and we could go back to sleep (so far the sleep total was about 2 hours for the night). Not one hour later, Ange rang from the hospital to say she was being discharged. We begged for an extra hour's sleep, then we'd pick her up.
LATER WEDNESDAY MORNING
Breakfast at the hotel, then we headed off to pick up Ange. The poor
chicken had been thrown out of her bed and was waiting for us in the emergency room. She still couldn't walk properly and lord knows what medications they had her on. We dropped her back at the hotel, then headed off to the
tradeshow. The show was really busy and people were lining up to do the make and takes. Sales were going really well too! Kim picked up Ange from the hotel at 1.30pm and brought her back to the show. By now, she was in a wheelchair and in immense pain. I still can't believe that the hospital discharged her!! It makes me cranky just thinking about it. The poor
chook was sick too, then spent rest of the day in the first aid room again. By this stage, we were all exhausted! The show wrapped up, we started packing and checked on Ange, who was really, really unwell. We called another ambulance and demanded they take her to a different hospital...so off to
RPA it was. Sandra and some of the volunteers packed up the rest of the stand and I am eternally grateful! I can't believe how many people were willing to drop everything to help us out...special thanks to Sandra, Sally, Lorraine, Kelly, Allison, Heidi and the volunteers (sorry I can't remember your names). I rang Ange's hubby to let him know, then we headed off to the hospital...the doctors at
RPA were fantastic. They were treating Ange so well and she was very well medicated by the time we got there...although she did have a reaction to the morphine...but what do you expect after 3 days from hell.
lol. Kim and I drove home in the fog and rain and got home about 10.30pm. It was such a long day! You'll all be happy to know that Ange has made it back to Melbourne now and is slowly getting back on her feet.
So, after reading all of that, I think you deserve a prize!!To celebrate the fact that
Scrapware had a great show despite the setbacks, I am having a giveaway! I have a sample pack of all the new release items valued at $80 to giveaway to one lucky blog reader!! Leave a comment on this post and let me know how use chipboard on your layouts...I will draw the winner next Friday (10 April).
Cheers,
Lis.
ps. Wendy and Laura...I'll be sending your goodies from the previous giveaway this week.
delicious watermelon - bubblegum pink - vanilla ice cream - sweet pineapple
I started creating this one at Sar's place, and it looks nothing like the layout I began! lol. I just kept adding and adding, and I kept finding more and more stuff within the colour combo, so the end result is quite cluttered. I even managed to add a feather! lol. This is just one of those random pics of the kids that I like, so the journaling is for Seth...to let him know that even though Eme drives him crazy, he really does love and adore her!
Here's my take...featuring some more pics from Easter this year. 
Next up, the Scraplift with a Difference...loved this challenge! We had to scraplift the person above us in the forum thread. I scraplifted Eileen (irishirish15) and chose her "Family" layout out of the gallery to lift. I really like how this one turned out and I'm even prouder of myself that I'm scrapping this year's Easter photos and the month isn't even over yet! lol.
This layout was for the "Beginnings" challenge...we had to scrap a new beginning, and I found these photos in my stash of Seth building/moving into his first big boy bed...the start of him not being a baby anymore. This photos crack me up...he wasn't even two yet and he was painting his own room and building his own bed. Andrew reminded me that Seth kept saying brssssht noises (imagine the sound of the cordless drill) while he was "helping". lol. Look at those gorgeous red curls! They are well and truely gone now...sigh.
Lastly, this one was for the Interior Inspiration challenge...Jana posted a pic of an interior advertisment and we had to create a layout inspired by it. I picked out the colour scheme, the neutral background, the advert had chocolate lettering in two different sizes, the florals, fabric etc...and I finally managed to use one of the chandelier rubons I've been hanging onto! yay! Check out how gorgeous my girl is!
Now, onto the giveaway...Ange at Scrapware is back on deck and has decided to giveaway some more SIA release product! So if you missed out on the giveaway I had, here's a second chance! Woohoo!! Entries close Sunday 26 April 2009.
Here's the finished product. She was adamant that she wanted flowers on her layout (she even used the word "layout"...ahh, so proud). She picked out the flowers (all 6 of them!), I layered them up, put a brad through and added some foam tape for her and she stuck it all together. Then she went the sticker sneeze with the Easter egg stickers...but she loves it! The journaling tag reads "Happy Easter" apparently. lol. I handed her the letters she needed for her title and she was terribly upset that she couldn't stick the whole sheet of Thickers on there! No way Jose!
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Hope that made you smile...they are now proudly hanging in my scrap room for inspiration.
Savvy Random Challenge
Sketch Challenge
So there you have it! Lots of inspiration at 
Gauche Alchemy's kits contain lots of vintage book papers and ephemera, and I've used a lot of it here. The chipboard tree featured here is the one I designed for 
COLOR COMBOS GALORE
GCD STUDIOS!
You can take inspiration from the colours, or the design, or whatever it is that this layout inspires in you. Can't wait to see your takes...upload them 
