Hi Everyone - Welcome to Sunday Scrapping
We hope you have had a good week - there have been yet more terrible events on the news and our thoughts are of course with those affected both here in New Zealand and overseas - we hope you and your families are safe.

It's no secret we have been really excited about our guest today, so we are thrilled to introduce Al Hannah as our Featured Artist.


Al's work will be very familiar to those who love Kaisercraft products as she is part of the wonderfully creative Kaisercraft In-House Design Team. We are really excited that she has agreed to answer our questions and share some of her favourite projects.

How were you introduced to scrapbooking?
A friend of mine you all know, Melissa Kennedy, had done quite a few albums, and when she showed me, I instantly knew I wanted to know more about it, and start scrapbooking about my two little boys. And straight away!!!!

CLASS of 87 – Always Proud Of You This layout is all about my youngest son Bailey and his first school assembly award in Prep. He was almost 5 years old in these photos! The papers worked perfectly, and I love how the banners that are “in vogue” right now, set the mood for a school type layout. It was the first time I had even attempted to create a banner – and I love the end result!

What inspires you for layouts, projects, cards?
My family are my foremost inspiration – a thought that comes to mind when I look at a particular photo. Something special that I see happen in my children’s life – I love to scrapbook those special memories as my favourite layouts. Cards are meant to be “from the heart” so when I’m scrapbooking for someone dear to me, I always take extra care that it has the right feel and sentiment. I scrap beyond the page for work – not for myself … so my inspiration is my job!

What other project types do you like to work on beside scrapbook pages?
I have to say my favourite thing I have worked on to date is some canvasses I have been involved in during the past 12 months with some special ladies. Working with canvas has extended me personally to scrap with more diverse products such as glimmer mist and masks – it’s been really great.

What is your favourite scrapbook brand, and why?
My favourite brand, at the moment, is probably Echo Park. I am loving their newness on the market, their style, their papers and some of the vibrant colours! Aside from Echo Park of course it is Kaiser !
What scrapbooking tools/products can you not do without?
I always use my sewing machine! I could not be without it, not even for a minute! I use it on most layouts or cards.

What is your current favourite technique or embellishment?
At the moment I really enjoying using all my different border punches! And also, I do love to cut embellishments out and layer them up!

TIMELESS & Le CHATEAU – Be You These photos of my eldest son were taken in our backyard but they are some of my favourites. They capture the true “Cam” that I know and love. This was the first time I had attempted to mix papers in ranges – and I love the effect. I also really like how the wooden flourishes and the craft tags that I stamped came together to create a cluster effect!

What do you hope to try or improve on this year?
I’m not sure I want to improve anything in the scrap way and last year I really hoped to try teaching – but this year is revolving around one little word “achieve”. I set myself up a vision board of things I hope to achieve like goals, dreams, and my hopes for the future. It’s been my foundation to setting my course and direction for the year 2011.

BE MERRY – Gingerbread Man Album Absolutely one of my favourite Beyond The Page I have done. It looks so effective. I have cut glimmermist to create the gold spots on the front of the gingerbread man and I really like the effect it created. I did faux stitching with my Sharpie – doodling is definitely not something I do very often – but I think it tied in well with the effect I was trying to create. I think the black rhinestones resemble currants and adding buttons and tags completes this little guy!

What advice can you give to people just beginning to enjoy scrapbooking?
If you have a friend that you can sit and scrap with, it is the ideal way to begin! Take a class or workshop somewhere – I have to say that Creative Memories is a great insight for beginning your scrap journey . Just beware – scrapbooking is addictive and the more you look, the more you buy!

Do you have a blog?
Yes I do. I do find I fall behind with updates and my goals were to scrap more this year for myself. I’ve had a few puddles I’ve fallen in along the way, but I’m determined to achieve a layout each week! I hope to have 52 at the end of this year. http://allovesscrapping-al.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much Al for sharing your answers and projects with us - it is really appreciated.

On a final note - there was a Midnight Madness crop at the Artfull Crafts shop on Friday night and the ladies down there were obviously crafting up a storm!!!  Look at this wonderful selection of projects.

You can enter YOUR projects into our challenge and I have to say that already this month we have some wonderful entries.

It doesn't matter if you are a beginner or a seasoned pro - we would love to see what you can come up with! Check out all the details here.

Stay tuned to the blog this week for some more ideas and inspiration from the Design Team.