Hello!  I’m thinking it too: only two weeks to Christmas.  How did that happen?  We all get caught in the flurry of shopping, parties, card-writing (maybe even card-making!) – and everyone seems to fall into either loving or hating this time of year!

At the end of 2006, I was a bit down about the fact that time had passed so quickly, so I made a list of what I’d done that year. I was really surprised – I’d gone overseas for the first time, started latin dancing after 15 years of wanting to, met my riding coach again after being out of touch for years, got a great new (day) job with an awesome team of colleagues, and heaps more.

I did a double-page layout celebrating these achievements, and it really changed the way I view a new year. I’ve done a 2007 one, and have been collecting items all year for the 2008 version! Now rather than be sad reflecting on another year ‘gone’, I’m proud of what I’ve done and genuinely excited about the opportunities ahead. One thing’s for sure, Creative Creatures will feature front and centre of the 2008 pages! 

Talking of Creative Creatures, we’re celebrating the season with a cute Christmas theme, some new products, random sale items and a special offer for you and your friends.  Read on for the offer and more goodies for Dec 2008.

I thought I’d share a little pic of my friend Gus, who likes to help out whenever I go into the scrapbooking room.  As with most cats, they like to sit on top of whatever has your interest….here, he’s impeding progress on the layout of Ernie. I finally got it finished, ‘cos it’s in Creature Features below!  

Gus 'helping' out

Well, we hope you all have a safe, happy and relaxing Christmas and New Year with your family, friends and beloved animals.  Keep safe on the roads and keep your four-legged friends free from the hazards of the season (grass-seeds, snakes, dehydration and over-indulgence ). 

Keep your eyes out for our January newsletter with a new shipment of our most popular items, plus more ‘new stuff’!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Alison & Ida

Christmas gift orders – wrapped and sent direct for you! If you’d like to send animal themed scrapbooking supplies to a friend or family member for Christmas, we are happy to wrap the items (no extra cost) and add a message from you before sending.  Simply add their address in the ‘Post To’ fields at check-out, and the message in the comments field. I can’t guarantee Australia Post will deliver by Christmas, but to get the best chance, gift orders need to be in by about 15^th December. 

Did you know: You can search CC online store?  It works especially well for popular dog breeds…just put your breed into the search field at the top right hand corner, and it’ll pop up with all the related items.  Go on – try it!

December special:  Use voucher code Xmas08 to get 20% off for orders over $20.

And because it’s Christmas…the first three orders through after this newsletter will receive a $20 gift voucher from Creative Creatures, for use on subsequent orders.

Random sale items:  We’ve put some random items on sale, ranging from 20 – 35 % off RRP.  Get in quick!

We have some very cute new items this month – 20 to be precise! You can see the new papers, stickers and die-cuts under New Items at www.creativecreatures.com.au.

Here’s a small sample of what you’ll find:

I’ll keep it short this month, with a piece I found on a forum a couple of months ago.  It’s what ‘comet’ said their pet had taught them…I thought it was pretty cute, and fits nicely with my aim to a) keep trying my best and b) having fun doing it!

“When you run, run full-speed. When you jump, jump as high as you can. When you love, love with every inch of your being. When you’re happy, wag your whole body.  And when you sleep, spread out across the entire space so no one can get past you without rubbing your belly.”

Layout 1: This cute little layout is from a Wubie Magnetic Show-off Kit, which includes one piece of 6 x 6 striped magnetic paper, three coordinating pieces of cardstock, mounting tabs and lots of cute words to describe your pet – like prissy, shaggy, naughty, goofy.  You just need scissors and imagination!

The kit is SO easy to use (this one took about 10mins) and is much cuter on your fridge than advertising magnets!  This is a lovely and easy gift idea too, either as a kit or made up in a layout.   

Our hairy little rascal, Jilly Bean!

Layout 2:  Sepp was a little cat with a huge personality. He was always on the move, with somewhere to be or someone to see.  His little flame burnt furiously, but not for long…we lost him at only 10 months old to a brown snake bite.  I got Sepp after I lost my 20yo soul-mate cat, Joey. Sepp did his best to fill a huge void and gave me so much love and laughter when I needed it the most.  I wanted to do a vibrant tribute to reflect his colourful, energetic and fun nature.  I was going to journal this, but decided to put this in a frame, as you can see below.

I’ve used Creative Creatures ‘Cat Words’ paper, some colourful ribbon from Lincraft (96c for 6metre roll!), some cheap diamante things from the ‘cheapie shop’ and printed lettering from the computer. 

Sepp April 2005 - February 2006

Framing: a nice alternative for a memorial layout

Layout 3:  Another cat layout…this time of Ernie.  You probably wouldn’t guess by looking, but Ernie is the full brother to Bert, the orange ‘calendar cat’ in the September newsletter. They don’t’ get along quite as well as the Sesame Street pair!  Ernie is our ex- stable cat, whose job it was to catch mice.  He got bored of ‘working’ so now he’s ‘the overseer’: he eats, cuddles and sleeps….anywhere!  Here he’s asleep in a pile of hay left by one of the horses.  It’s out in an open yard, but Ernie’s confident that no-one or nothing will harm him and he lay there fast asleep for several hours!  

 We used Moxxie Meow paper, some coordinating cardstock, and some little ribbon offcuts with tiny, coordinating brads.

The world is my bed!

Well, that’s all folks.  Keeping it short and sweet for December.  We truly wish you all the best for the Christmas and New Year period and hope you have lots of fun with family, friends and animals.

Take care and see you in 2009!

Kind regards,

Alison & Ida

Welcome to the October/November edition of the Creative Creatures newsletter.   I can’t believe how quickly time flies at this time of year! I’ve learnt you can’t beat time, so you may as well have fun with it.   

And that’s just what I’ve been doing.  With longer days and warmer weather, I’ve come out of hibernation a bit and started playing with the horses again.  We also had a Creative Creatures stall at our local Art & Craft Markets and the local Government ‘Dogs Day Out’. Both were great days, particularly because dogs on leads are allowed and there were hundreds clearly enjoying the day out as much as their owners.    

Unfortunately the warm weather makes my baby Mieka suffer an annoying itch (she’s a 10yo long-haired shepherd).  We’ve tried nearly everything – as those with itchy dogs do – but to no avail.  Shaving was suggested as one way to manage the itching, so shave her we did!  We uncovered a few things. Firstly, she’s not as fat as we thought (it was all hair!) and secondly, a whole new lease of life!  I really should have done it sooner – she’s still super active for her age, but she’s so happy and back to bounding around with the energy of a 4mth old puppy!        

Anyway, as we said last month, we’d love to hear from you and feature your pet scrapbook creations and photos on the site and in the newsletter.  Send your contributions, feedback, suggestions or requests to admin@creativecreatures.com.au .  

We’ve combined the October & November news this month, as a way of bringing news forward to the beginning of the month. Next newsletter will be early December, and will showcase some fun new products.

Until then, take care and happy (pet) scrapping!
Alison & Ida

A few thoughts occurred to us while scrapbooking this month, so we thought we’d put together our own ‘Top 5 Scrapbooking Tips’ but we surprised ourselves and made it to 6!  Being a self-confessed ‘not so creative scrapbooker’, these tips are about the emotion and enjoyment of scrapbooking, not the techniques. So here goes:

Our top 6 tips:

1. Scrapbook something you love.  You’ll most enjoy scrapbooking when you’re handling your favourite photos, souvenirs and memories, so start with them.  Sort through the box that stores all your photos and choose those that jump out at you…don’t try to tackle every picture in date order or you’ll go mad!!  Do “what you want”, not “what you should”. 

2. Please yourself.  This is something I had to come to terms with – I’m not competing with anyone, so my scrapbook layouts only have to please me. There are plenty of super-talented scrapbookers who produce beautiful works of art (open any scrapbook magazine or book to see these!), but my album is for my eyes only…or for people I choose to share it with.  So don’t feel pressure to be better, fancier or more creative.   Be you and please you.

3. Try new things.  This might sound contradictory to #2, but getting out of your comfort zone can bring some interesting and exciting results.  We’re all prone to doing ‘what works’ but it means we can get stuck into habits like never using patterned paper, always matting photos or steering clear of stripes.  You might surprise yourself by trying new tricks with your layouts. Just don’t stick anything down before you’re really happy!

4. Take ideas from everything!  Getting ideas is the subject of many creative articles, blogs and books, and it is definitely easier for some people than others. Keep your eyes and mind open, and you’ll start finding inspiration everywhere you go. Of course scrapbook magazines and books are great, but look at advertisements and posters (designers are paid to create catchy layouts!), listen to sounds and music, read books, poems and quotes; observe nature – gardens, people, animals, the sky; learn about different cultures and even consider historical events.  Your imagination and emotion will help you to expand on an idea.  Most of my ideas come from sayings or quotes, hence our ‘quote of the month’ section! 

5. Take your time. We’re all really busy nowadays, so we tend to set aside time to scrapbook…unfortunately, you may not be your most creative or inspired self at your set time! The key is to do something with your idea when you have it – no matter how small.  Write the idea down, sketch a layout, note a good colour combination, play with your pictures etc.  It might mean you take a week or two (or more sometimes!) of small efforts but I think you’ll be pleased with the results when you’re finished.

6. Do a scrapbooking class. If there’s a shop or evening college near you, a class will show you some really easy ways to improve your layouts plus give you valuable tips, effects and shortcuts.  And there’s the added benefit of meeting people with a similar interest!

November Special!

10% off all orders submitted between now and Nov 30 for subscribers to our newsletter.  Use code ONN08SUB on checkout.

This section will feature new and exciting products as they come into the store, and some of our current products you might not have found yet.   We previously only had a few horsey papers, so we have ordered in several ‘new’ paper designs for those of you with horses, or with photos of horses!   Hope you enjoy!  We have some cat and dog products on their way for the December newsletter.

“He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog.  

 You are his life, his love, his leader.  

 He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart.  

 You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.”

This unattributed quote is quite a tear-jerker when teamed with a beautiful photo.   I’d been considering it in a layout for a while, and was prompted by a recent situation with Mieka to get it finished.    It was a lovely Spring day and I was planting trees with Mike (as she’s also known!) when I spied a little over a metre away, what I first thought was my shovel in the grass.  My brain worked this over:  ’But I don’t have a shovel with a ribbed handle’.  A split second later, I realised it was actually a large brown snake checking us out. Instinctively Mike raced in, getting between me and the snake.  My adrenaline shot through the roof as I faced the prospect of Mike being bitten. It ended well however…I removed her from the situation and after a lengthy mexican-type stand off with me, the snake lost interest and headed away across the paddock. However corny it sounds, I really can’t put into words how important Mieka is to me, and this event really bought home to me that it’s mutual. The words defender and devotion ring very true.

I tried to do Mieka justice in a layout with this quote (with minor modifications due to gender). I hope you like it…it’s shown in Creature Features below with a couple of others I’ve recently worked on.