Artfull Crafts opened our shop 6 months ago! It's certainly flown by. Happy Birthday to us!

I'm going to be missing in action for the next few days. I'm in a BIG Sweet Adelines Barbershop chorus in Christchurch. 3 of us travel from Timaru to Christchurch every week for rehearsals and this weekend it's the National Champs in Wellington where we will qualify for the Houston, Texas International Champs in 2010.

We had extra rehearsals last weekend where we worked really hard and then topped it off with a wonderful Friends and Family show. It's a lot of fun with 130 other women. We sing and dance and wear glamourous costumes. We even wear false eye-lashes and nail polish (not my usual!).

We also performed at the International Champs in 2007 in Calgary Canada and we were placed 9th in the world. Such fun! Anyway, we're off to Christchurch tomorrow for a CTV performance and then off to Wellington on Thursday til Monday. I'm running a class tonight too - so it might be a late one packing!

While I'm away I bet the Prima order will arrive! I've been hanging out for it. It's definitely left America. I've also got stacks of Peelcraft and 3-D Decoupage sheets arriving this week (my local ladies just love it!). And if you want a bargain go and have a look at my $1 res auctions on Trade Me ending during the weekend.

Sorry, got no crafting done this week - so pop in next week and I might even have a scrapped up page of our singing competition.

:-) Liz

We've finally given in to the world of Facebook! Lots of people have been trying to convince me to start an account for myself and Artfull Crafts - but I was a bit worried that I might enjoy it too much! I also had the same problem with scrapbooking. I resisted for about 3 years and now I own a scrapbooking store... What a great problem to have!

So head to our Fan page and sign up. We got over 100 people in one day - so there certainly must be some interest out there.

We'll pop interesting bits of crafty info on there. We're celebrating by offering a FREE piece of Bazzill Cardstock with every 12x12 patterned paper sold until midnight tonight for (and Monday for the physical shop). Head to the website to see all the new great papers we've got...

I've been scrapbooking too! Here's a double layout of a friend's 50th Birthday Party. I've used the new Pink Paislee Bayberry Cottage papers (yummy colours!):

I LOVE these papers and especially the cool pleated ribbons (12 inch strip of magenta and lime). I've used Basic Grey Micro Alpha chipboard letters (a hot favourite of mine), and some Prima Crystals (my BIG order is about to leave the USA this week!!).

Head here to see the FULL Bayberry Collection including the journal pad, brads, cork buttons and clear stickers.

I'm going to spend the evening doing some more scrapping for my Heritage Album (playing with the new Shabby Green Door papers). They are so lovely.

Well, where do I start!!

Firstly I've been buried in end-of-year paperwork. I now know why April Fools Day is the day after the 31st of March. I am the fool who put her receipts and invoices in a big pile... and now I have to sort through them all!


I have also been on a tiki-tour around Central Otago. Over Easter we had planned to go to the glaciers - but the forecast looked bad - so at the last minute we changed our plans. We headed to Fairlie for a very enjoyable round of golf and then stayed the night at the Tekapo camping ground. My parents were staying there too - so we enjoyed an evening of Quiz games!



Then we headed off the next day to Mount Cook. I knew the weather was likely to be bad - but I've never been to Mount Cook and decided we were so close it would be silly not to pop in! Sadly we only saw the lower slopes - but we enjoyed the Sir Edmond Hilary Centre and the huge Restaurant! It seemed a bit embarrassing - but I couldn't acutally tell which slope belonged to Mount Cook!



We then headed to our friends in Queenstown and visited Warbirds over Wanaka on the Sunday. What a great event! We couldn't believe the speed and noise of the F18s made!



Here's a nice picture of Mt Aspiring. It makes up for the Mount Cook disappoinment!


Afterwards was made our way to Dunedin for 2 very relaxing days with more friends and their children. What a great weekend! Here we are trying to take Mr 4 for a rollerblade!

And here is Mr 4 trying to take us for a ride!!


Since then I've been buried in paperwork. This coming week I am running 4 classes for the holiday programme... So I can't see myself getting the chance to blog much. Hopefully I'll have more time to do some crafting soon...

We've got some 'hot' new products arriving in store this week too. Check them out at www.artfulcrafts.co.nz

Have a great week!