Katrina's mini album

Hello, here is my first blog for Imagine If for 2015, today I  have a mini album I made out of chipboard, for this album I wanted something a little different so it opens up from both sides, and I have pages on each side, I have added lots of pockets and flaps for photos and journaling.

This is the cover and I have used Imagine If's rectangle frames, I have painted with black Gesso then dusted perfect pearls for a light shimmer on top, then used my finger to paint a little Emerald wax in places to age it, then i have just added random paper, bling  and jewelry.  

This page I have used the Hand mirror frame and I have distressed inked, sprayed and UTEE's to give it an old look, then i cut it in half and made two pages that match but sit in different parts of the album.

I have used lots of Imagine If's chip board, here is a beautiful bird cage, I have also filled my mini album with Jo's quote sheets.

Since it is a new year with a new start the lovely Jo has a  give away for each design team member, all you have to do is leave a comment  on here,( my blog) or leave me a comment on my facebook page and like the Imagine If face book page, then you can go into the draw to win a pack of beach words and things worth $20. winner will be drawn on Wednesday 28th January.

Happy craftin   

Katrina

2015 and hello to a new year.

Hi to everyone and hello 2015.

So we begin another exciting year, lots more plans and classes already underway, but first a quick catch up. . 
Firstly we had an awesome Christmas, well two actually Christmas eve at my place, and those that were still around Christmas day, at my brother and sister n laws with awesome food and music.
The best thing we did however was a week in Vanuatu with the girls and their partners, where we learnt a few things:
No1:  My husband tried to drown me on a jet ski... he was probably trying to pay me back for all the newsletter comments that I make about him.  But it was okay because I ended up going with the tour guide.. a strapping young man, shirtless..but he did have a life jacket on, (no actually I hung on to the seat - not him) but was awesome.

No 2: You should never play Monopoly with the two boys as they formed a partnership (who knew that was legal) gave free passes to each other and tried to take over NZ (NZ Monopoly), however they forgot there was four Johnson's playing, so with a little bit of team work (okay we helped each other out) we took the boys down, playing late into the night (actually early morning) to do so though.


So that was my holiday, though I have to say doing class plans on the deck at the Bali Hai club was awesome, all my Senz classes are drawn up, my Nelson SPA retreat weekend classes are drawn up, scrap classes are planned, and ready to be actually completed.

I have spent hours on the website, and if you check it out you will see that we have loaded most of the mixed media products we stock

http://www.imagineif.co.nz/
http://www.imagineif.co.nz/cremes-pastes-rubs/
http://www.imagineif.co.nz/diamond-dust-snow-interesting-mediums/
http://www.imagineif.co.nz/embossing-enamels-and-powders/
http://www.imagineif.co.nz/gesso-gel-and-other-mediums/
http://www.imagineif.co.nz/ranger-alcohol-inks/
http://www.imagineif.co.nz/sprays-and-mists/
http://www.imagineif.co.nz/vintaj-patina/

 all the miniatures for dolls houses, models, and more
http://www.imagineif.co.nz/darice-dolls-house-model-railway-miniatures/

we are next on to the chipboard and then the metal embellishments and we will be up to date, lucky we still have two weeks before classes start.  Then we are all go.

We have started our own range of invitations, they are laser cut, and if I hadn't left my Ipad sitting on the deck in the sun, and the small amount of rain we had the other night I would have photos to show you, unfortunately I now need a new Ipad, (I know stupid! ).  We are also engraving chopping boards and bread boards.  So that will all follow, after i get a new Ipad and re photograph them.  But if you have a wedding to go to I can engrave names and dates into boards, and more.  If you want something really different for a wedding present or a special anniversary come and have a talk about what we can do.

Hours for Summer: 
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 10am - 4pm
Tuesday Closed
Saturday 1-am - 12pm
Sunday closed.

Please note:  Even though we are open, the front door maybe be locked, as we are working on lots of custom cutting now.  So for the summer period we will have access via the back door.  If you park in our carpark come in behind the BNZ bank or behind the Crazy cow restaurant, then drive behind the creche not the first car park but the 2nd one, we have named (imagine if) car parks you can use and just come in the back door (it is the wide open garage door). 

If you are on Canada street parked, just go to the right hand side car park beside triple jump (our neighbours) walk down carpark a few metres, and the door is right there.

IF I AM SINGING PLEASE IGNORE THE NOISE

Classes
These run in conjunction with the school terms.  Bookings essential

New Scrapbooking class - Tuesday night 6pm - 8pm $20.00.  This will be for 2 pages, sometimes 3.  Everything supplied, except your tools, tape and glue.  Every now and again you may need to purchase something extra, but usually everything is included in the price.   I teach technique, so you will learn and get to play with lots of products, sometimes just paper.   You get notice of what photos to bring, and you can always add them later if needed.  You need to sign up for the term, as I need to buy enough product in to cover class requirements.   If we only get a few or if it suits better, we can change to a Thursday night.

Wednesday Morning 10am - 12pm Scrapbooking classes  FULL at this stage.

Cards & Box Classes:  Friday's 10am - 12pm - $12.00
This is a new set of classes we will be doing on alternate weeks, one week cards, the next boxes, etc.
You will learn to make usually two cards (depending on how intricate or one box, there are some amazing projects planned.  Everything supplied for the $12.00.  You will learns all sorts of techniques from stamping, folding, mixed media, layering, simple, over the top, etc.  The boxes are great to give as gifts, to hold things, to add cards to or chocolate etc.

Thursday night class: 6pm - 8pm.  $5.00 per person.
This is where you get to play and do whatever you want, or you can buy a kit and complete it in this time.  
One off classes starting in February held on a Saturday or Sunday, dates confirmed next week. 
Mixed media class - art class
10 scrap booking pages in one day class  (maybe kit available)
Mother n daughter recipe book class  (kit available)
52 playing cards -  Date night or family night ideas (kit available)
Photography class

So that is the first plan, booking are essential for the set classes, please book in as soon as possible, so I can get stock ordered.

Keep an eye out for the design team this week, they have giveaways, and we will be starting a weekly specials pack.

Don't forget to follow us on facebook for updates, blog details, and other bits of information.
https://www.facebook.com/ImagineIfNZ

enjoy the sun if you are in NZ, or somewhere else sunny.  If you are in the snow, I hope you are not to cold.

Jo

Merry Christmas everyone

Merry Christmas everyone Well the tree is well and truly up, the presents all two of them are under the tree (okay there are some hidden ones, but we cannot discuss those as we agreed not to buy for each other, because he got me a new spa pool - but it seemed fair since really the spa is for me). We have a couple of huge days planned, we are all going kayaking for one day and eating the other, sounds like a good way not to spend two days eating.  My family get together is always fun, and this year it has got a bit bigger again, we are lucky enough to have a lovely guy join us, Samantha's partner Sean. I am pleased to say that the shop has gone from strength to strength and classes are nearly always full, and for that I am truly grateful, that you put your faith in me.  I have enjoyed doing some really cool projects this year, and when someone says to me that they feel inspired, and that I gave them a new purpose, then I can honestly say I am very proud of what we are doing. Pauline has been amazing this year, from running the make n takes at Senz to taking classes for Children every week, it makes my life a lot easier, not to mention she makes my coffee perfect, although i do blame her for the slip up on the diet when she feels like a cake, I never feel like one till she mentions it. We have a lot of new products in, and the job over the next week or so of the Christmas break is to get more stock loaded.  It has been a major struggle this year to keep up with that, the shop, the classes, the design team, and the custom cutting we are doing.  So will have to address that next year. We have booked into Senz, a large stand, a whole classroom, so that is going to keep us busy, and I am off to Nelson to the Spa retreat to teach as well.  I am in discussions with about coming to Northland to teach, and a few other places.  We will be looking at doing scrapbooking kits as well, as we know a lot of people cannot get to our classes.  Plus other kits as well. Please if you are following us on facebook, make sure your notifications are turned on for us, as you wont get to see our posts if they aren't.  When our post comes up, top right is a little arrow, click on that and a drop down box shows one that says turn on notifications.   Congratulations to all our winners this year. We are now closed until the 13th of January when we will be on limited hours, and then we re open on the 20th January properly.  Classes start with the school term. I want to wish each and everyone one of you a Merry Christmas, please stay safe.  Forget the diet Christmas day, spend time with friends, family, have lots of fun.  Lick your knife, and the bowl clean.  I hope that 2015 is Amazing, that the world is good to you, I hope with all my heart that we do not go to war, that the goodness in people will prevail, and that we can all look at strangers and smile. I decided to add a little game that we like to play when we are all together, it is really simple.  Everyone starts with a present, and you stand in two lines or a circle, and everyone time you hear the word left, you pass your parcel to the left, if you hear the word right, you pass to the right, and if you hear the word across you pass your parcel across.  It is a great game, and so much fun to play, doesn't matter if you are young or old. So if you are having a big get together or a medium one, try it out. I have added the game below, so you can print it out, to play. Thanks for all your support. Jo Imagine If...              This is a story about Mr. and Mrs WRIGHT. One evening they were baking cookies. Mrs. WRIGHT called from the kitchen, "Oh no, there is no flour LEFT! You will need to go to the store." "I can't believe you forgot to check the pantry," grumbled MR. WRIGHT. "You never get anything RIGHT!" "Don't be difficult, dear," replied Mrs. WRIGHT. "It will only take twenty minutes if you come RIGHT back. Go along Studholme street, and turn Right at the stop sign. Then go to Thames Street and turn LEFT, drive along there and there it will be ACROSS the street on your Right," declared Mrs. WRIGHT. Mr. WRIGHT found the store and asked the clerk where he could find the flour. The clerk pointed and said, "Go to aisle four and turn LEFT. The flour and sugar will be on your LEFT, or perhaps it may be ACROSS the aisle, on your RIGHT, I just don’t remember for sure." Mr. WRIGHT made his purchase and walked RIGHT out the door. He turned LEFT, but he couldn't remember where he had LEFT his car. Suddenly he remembered that he had driven Mrs. WRIGHT'S car and that his car was in the driveway at home RIGHT where he had LEFT it. He finally found Mrs. WRIGHT’S car ACROSS the parking lot and to the RIGHT. Eventually, a weary Mr. WRIGHT found his way home. Mrs. WRIGHT had been waiting impatiently. "I thought you would be RIGHT back," she said. "I LEFT all the cookie ingredients on the kitchen counter, and the cats got into the milk. You'll just have to go RIGHT out again. " Mr. WRIGHT sighed. He had no energy LEFT. "I am going RIGHT to bed," he said. "Anyway, I need to go on a diet, so I might as well start RIGHT now. Isn't that RIGHT, dear?" MERRY CHRISTMAS

9 sleeps till Santas comes,

Merry Christmas everyone,
Well the jolly fellow is on his way, and we have a giveaway.
The design team have all been busy creating, so all you need to do is go to each team member to get the complete list, and they will have a clue, write the answers down, and then go to the Imagine If face book page
https://www.facebook.com/ImagineIfNZ 
go to the post about this weeks hop and write I WANT IT ALL.  If you are the one selected then I will ask you to list all the prizes and if you get them right, you get it all.  It is that easy.   Do not put the answers on facebook until you are selected as the prize winner. 

So here we go:

Katrina Hart http://randominkings1.blogspot.com/2014/12/its-nearly-christmas-time.html
Brenda Morgan: http://thyme2craft.blogspot.co.nz/2014/12/twelve-days-of-christmas.html
Ngaere Bennetts: http://nysbiz.blogspot.co.nz/2014/12/imagine-if-design-team-project-mdf-box.html
Tash Chanwai  http://withallmyartandsoul.blogspot.com/2014/12/merry-christmas-everyone-this-is-my.html
Carol Noakes: http://4carol.blogspot.com/2014/12/i-love-christmas.html
Beth Barnes:  http://www.bethbarnes.co.nz/christmas-recipe-book/
Lilian Clifton    http://amysticaltouchnz.blogspot.com/2014/12/christmas-hideaway.html


Good luck everyone.

  

On the 7th day of Christmas my true love gave to me........7 stockings ....... 7 ways.....from 7 designers

Hi all and it starting to look a lot like Christmas.  There is starting to be magic in the air, lots of hustle and bustle and present buying has begun and hopefully your cards are made.

This week the design team were given a christmas stocking each to decorate.  Then to make things a little harder, I got them all to guess what each other was going to do.  This had awesome results, some decided they were to predictable, and wanted to step outside the square.

So what have they been up to?

I guessed Lilian would use lace, beads and pretties, cream and red, maybe a dash of green.
Did she? Click on her link.  
 http://amysticaltouchnz.blogspot.co.nz/2014/12/burlap-christmas-stocking.html    

Beth I guessed would use simple clear clean lines, stencils.  Red and green. Click on the link to see if I was right. 
http://www.bethbarnes.co.nz/christmas-stocking/

Now Ngaere was always going to be a hard guess but I said.. tricky - traditional with a dark underlying theme, very grungy.  Click on the link to see. 
http://nysbiz.blogspot.com/2014/12/christmas-stocking.html

Next up is Tash was I right?   Red with lots of beads, stitching, material
http://withallmyartandsoul.blogspot.com/2014/12/christmas-stocking.html

Katrina was never going to be an easy guess 
boy orientated, not to much but not as clean as Beths, traditional colours.  What do you think?
http://randominkings1.blogspot.com/2014/12/christmas-stocking.html

Carol is next I said quirky but smart traditional colours but maybe with a winter feel.
http://4carol.blogspot.com/2014/12/hang-it-herethereand-every-where.html

Brenda had me stumped a bit.  Red with an unusual base on it, maybe pine cones glued on it. what did she do?
http://thyme2craft.blogspot.com/2014/12/stocking-for-santa-to-fill.html

So how did they do?  leave us a comment.

On the 1st day of December......

Hi and welcome to December everyone.  Can you believe it! The 1st of December 2014.  Next thing you know another year will have passed and we will have to write 2015.

I have just finished putting up my Christmas tree, just one this year as I have the painters here, and to be honest the dust is everywhere, I warned them that the kitchen family area had to be completed by today, and it was.  So now after my husband spent yesterday cleaning up the dust and mess, (Oh I couldn't help unfortunately had to work..darn that was well planned) I got to do the hard part and put up all the pretty things.  So I have a gold, white and black tree this year.  Not sure where all the colour went, I just decided that was this years look.  Though the shop tree which I hope to get up tomorrow will be purple and silver.           

This has been a crazy month, well actually a crazy year.  I don't feel like I have stopped, and even when I have managed a bit of time off, the brain has continued to churn.  I don't look at anything now with out imagining where the cut lines are, where it needs to be embossed, will it work as a stencil.  Just as well I love my job I think.

We have have just finished our last class Saturday class for the year, we have 3 weeks left of scrapbooking classes, and one more card class.  We still continue with out UFO class (Unfinished objects class) on Thursday nights, until the 19th of December excluding the 11th December, as we have a private function that night.

Stock arriving is sort of slowing down finally, though we have got all the new Kasiercraft ranges, as well as graphic 45, and much more.  I hope that by closing on the 20th of December, we will have a chance to load all the stock on line, as we will finally be ahead, instead of constantly being behind.

Beth Barnes has designed a couple of Christmas stencils, which I managed to cut some on Saturday morning, but then promptly sold them in my tag class, so I didn't even get to photograph them and they were gone.  So I will post them on facebook as soon as I re cut tomorrow.  There is a holly stencil and a bauble stencil.  They are both $6.50 each, and obviously they were popular.
I will try and load them as soon as I can.

The design team has been very busy with more projects and if you click on the links you will get to see what they have been up to.

Carol, http://4carol.blogspot.com/2014/11/oh-christmas-tree.html
Brenda, http://thyme2craft.blogspot.com/2014/11/xmas-tree-oh-xmas-tree.html
Tash  http://withallmyartandsoul.blogspot.com/2014/11/christmas-tree-album.html
Beth     http://www.bethbarnes.co.nz/merry-christmas-jacobs-ladder/
Katrina   http://randominkings1.blogspot.com/2014/11/oh-so-different.html
Lilian    http://amysticaltouchnz.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/family-christmas-recipes-journal.html







     

     

Christmas Trees and some tags

Hi everyone,
I have just arrived home from a weekend in Queenstown, and seen what I think is probably one of the most amazing places in the country.  The old saying Don't leave home till you have seen the country is really true.  I was amazed with the beauty of the area, and a little bit a of rain did nothing to dampen my spirits down there at all.

As the title says it is now the countdown to Christmas and if you haven't starting on your cards and gifts...you need to start now.

We have done a last minute christmas kit... it is $45.00 plus postage of $5.00

This kit comes with paper, and all the embellishments you can see here, some will need to be painted or coloured.  It includes our new acrylic mirror candles, chipboard, and paper pictures,  bows, trees, clock etc.  it does not include glitters or paints.  The kit is 30 x 30cm in size.
  
Limited kits, to purchase click on here. 
http://www.imagineif.co.nz/imagine-if...mdf-3d-projects/      
Adult Class Lists:
Wednesday scrapbooking class is full. 

Friday
This Friday 28th we have a card class.  We will be making a beautiful Christmas card and box project this week.  The cost is $12.00 and everything is supplied, except your tap and tools.   We have 2 spaces left for this class, Then the next class and final class for the year will be 12th December.
Other classes:

Saturday November 29th  - 10am - 2pm $30 for 8 tags.  My very popular techniques class from last year.  We will be making tags using lots of different products, mediums, patinas, inks, sprays, re-inkers, paper, stamps and wacky ideas to make a set of tags.  Photo is from last years class.  This years will class will be different.     Two spaces left. 

December  Cake decorating class with Cheryl Owlsley-  Due to the death of Cheryls mum this class has been cancelled.  We feel deeply for Cheryl and her family.    

Please note:  We close on Saturday December 20th, so we can get ready for all the amazing things we will be doing in 2015.
We have lots of classes ready to go, new projects, and so much more, but we need some serious planing time, for Senz, as well as the retreat in Nelson, and more very cool projects. 
Classes sorted so far are
Recipe book
Art
Photography
Mixed media
Scrapbooking Layout day
Card days
Art journal

and more.

So what have the design team been up to! Christmas trees and tags on the blog hop today. 
Katrina http://randominkings1.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/christmas-trees.html
beth      http://www.bethbarnes.co.nz/christmas-tree-advent-calendar/
lilian     http://amysticaltouchnz.blogspot.com/2014/11/mdf-christmas-tree-all-ready-for-santa.html
ngaere http://nysbiz.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-tale-of-three-tags.html
tash http://withallmyartandsoul.blogspot.com/2014/11/christmas-tag-and-small-gift-tags.html
carol   http://4carol.blogspot.com/2014/11/its-nearly-christmas.html
brenda   http://thyme2craft.blogspot.com/2014/11/lifes-beach.html