Here are a few pages from a project I am quite proud of. It's the album I made to commemorate the opening of the brand new ambulance station in Ipswich. I was a member of the LAC* at the time, and wanted to document the building of the new station.

The old ambulance centre had been in operation for 100 years and the city desperately needed a new, modern facility. After many delays, it was finally completed, and all the committee members were proud to have been part of it.

The album is dedicated to the wonderful ambo's at the station who give so much of themselves to the community, and to the
members of the LAC who give freely of their time to fundraise and support the staff. I donated the album to the station on behalf of the LAC.

* LAC - Local Ambulance Committee - a group of volunteers who raise money to supply the station with extra equipment that the government doesn't provide.

This is another lot of little gifts I made today -4 large pillow boxes and 2 mini size. The large ones have a few little fun goodies in them, and the minis will have cash inside.

I made them all from Kaszazz cardstock which is the perfect thickness. The large ones are made to exactly fit their A5 size c\s sheets, and the mini's are only 1 1\2" x 2 1\2" (finished size). The cute Santa' portraits' were easy with a few punches.

The beard is a scalloped circle and his 'mo' is 2 of the scallops snipped off. The face and hat are circles and the hat band is a white strip with the ends rounded. The pompom is a small flower. I love my punches!

The things I put in them were hard to wrap, so they turned out to be the perfect gift bags.

A few years ago made little heap of little treats to give away to folks while I'm out shopping. I got such a kick out of it I decided to do it every year. It costs me less than 10 cents each and they don't take long to make, but it can and does make a difference to someone's day.

Shop assistants, bank tellers etc are all harried at this time of year and usually get very little thanks for their efforts. If I can give them a little bit of Christmas cheer, make them feel appreciated even for a few minutes, it's worth the effort. Besides, it makes me happy to see their smiles.

Here's my give aways for this year.

My kids liked to give their teachers a small present for Christmas, and I'm carrying it on with my grandies now. A couple of years ago I made a heap of sticky note pad holders and they were a big hit.

I decided to make them again, but a little bit simpler this time. I just covered the bases with mulberry paper that I've had for ever, and punched out the flowers - too easy.



With the holiday season here again, it's time to start thinking about this years Christmas pages.

This is a very simple and quick layout, but still very effective. I used the patterned paper as the background, and with it's pretty design, it really doesn't need other embellishments.

The photo is double matted on the olive and chestnut c\s, while the title is cut from the sand c\s (I used Alex Brush font). The best way I've found to stick down a title like this is to use a spray adhesive. Lay the words face down on sheet of paper, then take it outside to spray. This type of adhesive is great as it gives you a bit of time to make adjustments before it sticks permanently.

This layout shows how nicely a vintage photo can fit onto a simple, modern page. My scrapping style is 'clean and simple' so I keep embellishments to a minimum, but this layout could be be easily take more accents.

The base is sky cardstock with darker blue highlight. This can be done with paint or ink. I think the effect is much

better if you use textured c\s, as the paint\ink kind of seeps into the grooves, giving a 2 tone look.

The photo is matted on the patterned paper, then on pine c\s. Last is a couple of lines of stitching.