When it comes to Christmas themed patterned papers and embellishments, I am a bit of a traditionalist and am always drawn to the rich reds and greens that are typical of Christmas.

So imagine my delight when I saw Basic Grey's new Christmas range Wassail!

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OK…I’m sitting here, slouched in my chair, tummy sticking out {attractive I know}…bored…listless. I have a layout that has had the photo cut and committed {cut and stuck down}…I have a title; I’ve even got the title and alphas in mind…I want to finish it…but couldn’t be bothered!

What do you do when you get this ‘listlessness’ in your scrapping…other than walk away? I’m wondering if starting a different layout will help…but I don’t think it will. It’s one of ‘those’ moods!! You know the one…it's the one where playing with the shoe falling off your foot is more entertaining than the project sitting next to you, begging to be finished.

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3AS are supporting the 'Girls Night In' campaign, which helps to raise much needed funds for cancer research. We are going to be holding a...

GIRLS WEEKEND IN CYBERCROP

When: Sat 11th & Sun 12th Oct 2008

There will be 10 locked challenges set up in the Cybercrop section of our forum. A description of each challenge will be available on our forums as we get a bit closer, but think PINK!!!

We are asking for a $2 donation to unlock the challenges you are interested in doing over the weekend. Once your payment has been registered you will receive a password that will allow you access. We encourage you to pay in advance so you can access them on the 'Girls Weekend In'.

We will send the money raised onto the Cancer Council after the weekend. Let's aim high girls!! It's for a great cause. Your challenge donation can also be made at our Cancer Council website set up for our weekend.

We'd love to see you at our Girls Weekend In; so dust off your best pink PJ's and head on over next weekend to join in the fun!

So who is stamping this weekend? Did you know it's World Card Making Day today? Did you know that you can win prizes this weekend just by making cards? I know there are a LOT of challenges and prizes going on around a LOT of different websites this weekend, and you have to be in it to win it, right?

The teams at Lime Tart, Odd Bird Planet and Queen Kat Stamps are all hosting challenges with prizes. So get blog hopping and join in the fun!

Odd Bird Planet Participation:
To keep an eye on all of the Odd Bird Planet challenges as they pop up, watch here: http://www.time2stamp.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=30. The girls will post their challenges there. They should start at around 11pm our time tonight, but you have heaps of time to upload your creations to join in the fun. I think the cutoff is about 5pm Monday evening our time.

Prizes details: One winner per blog challenge - a pre-selected OBP stamp. All of the blog challenge participants will be entered into a grand prize drawing for:

• 1st prize - a $100 OBP shopping spree
• 2nd prize - Lime Tart kit
• 3rd prize - OBP October Special Deal

**NOTE**  There is a prize cap!! Each winner may ONLY win two prizes.

Lime Tart Participation:
For Teresa's and my challenges:
http://www.limetart.com/blog/
http://www.thetamarisk.blogspot.com/

Queen Kat Stamps Participation:
If you visit the Queen Kat blog (http://qkd.blogspot.com/), you will find links to all of the QKS design team listed above in the
schedule. Queen Kat will offer the following, grand prizes:

• $25 shopping spree at Queen Kat Stamps
• 1 - Get Inked! Kit
• 1 - Set of monster stamps
• PLUS blog prizes of random stamp sets - 1 per winner on each blog.

I LOVE a good cyber crop…nothing gets me motivated more than being told what to do, with a deadline to do it in! Not all Cyber Crops are the same; the ones I have attended are very different to each other. Some are full on, with massive amounts of chatter, mountains of challenges and games, big prizes up for grabs and a lot of competition, others are smaller and easier going with an emphasis on getting some mojo flowing and stretching some creative boundaries - these smaller ones are my favourites.

I love the motivation, but I also love the idea that there is a community of us around Australia, and in some cases the world…all scrapping the same thing at the same time, and each of us producing something totally different from the other. I love the feeling of unity it gives. I love the ‘me’ time, the uniform {jammies}, the special treats {red rocks, red frogs, chicos and sarsaparilla}…it all sums up to a special weekend without having to leave home!

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Hey everyone! Ngaire here... with another edition of the latest and greatest for your viewing (reading??) pleasure...LOL. My kids have been in the pool and things are starting to warm up...I guess we will have to start thinking about Christmas pretty soon.. huh? :)) (I adore Christmas as you may have guessed...I just get that tinge of excitement when I start seeing the decorations coming in to the stores...even though it is only October. :) ahh yes...I am aware I am sad...any hoo...onwards with this weeks top ten. :)

1. A beautiful gallery of illustrations.... so gorgeous > i WISH I could draw. :)

2. Classic ideas for shappy chic style scrapbooking here...lots of lace and cardboard, and old buttons.. delightful! :)

(Read on for more latest & greatest...)

Gabbie's having a few well earned days off this weekend...(lucky duck!)...so in her absence I'm posting our news updates.

If you have any scrapbooking news to submit over the next few days, please submit it directly, or email the details to me at jill@aussiescrapbooking.com.au. Oh and please, PLEASE include the title of of your store, website or blog...and a link with your news item. Believe it or not we've had quite a few submissions of late with no contact details whatsoever! Unfortunately, we're not mind readers so if we can't identify you, your news won't get posted...sorry.

Sponsor - Makeesha Byl

I've just done a tutorials for Photo boards and thought it might be useful for Aussie blog readers. You can check it out at the following link: http://www.makeeshabyl.com.au/index.php/2008/09/30/make-it-monday-11-photo-boards/

Sponsor - Scrap Of Your Life

I have been brad shopping again, I must admit I am a bradaholic and am always looking for interesting and unusual brads to add to the store. There are over 15 different categories containing approximately 150 different brads. So you can check the lot out right here.

Just arrived, Fancy Pants new GLITTER CUTS. Each design uses unique and detailed artwork, coated with glitter accents and a die cut to accent the design. A fabulous mix of design and detail! Check them out here.

Also the complete range of CherryArte Rubons are now in store. Choose gorgeous designs from the His and Her Basic Range, Girl Power or Boy Story Ranges, alpha, numerical,  flourishes, dragonfly designs and much more. Rub Ons.

For the month of October all orders over $35.00 will receive a FREE Maya Rd Heart Chipboard Album valued at $7.00. See the album here.

The Scrapbook Establishment

Our upcoming Cybercrop starts with games in the forum and chatroom at 8:30pm EST on Friday 10 October. The theme for our Cybercrop is "Thankfulness". Visit www.thescrapbookestablishment.com.au for further details.

Is your scrapbooking blog looking tired and boring? Do you think it needs a facelift? Are you unhappy with the boring old default  background templates provided by your blog host? A simple google search for "free blog templates" will bring up thousands of options - so where do you start?

Good news! I am here to show you 2 great sites to help you give your blog the personalised look you are after!

1. "Suck My Lolly" is a website that has free blog templates for blogger users. You can see the gallery of designs here. There are both XML (for beginners) and Classic templates (for more experienced bloggers with HTML knowledge) - you should refer to the help page in blogger for advice on which one will suit you best.

Best of all, all of the designs are FREE! :)

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Aisle 5 Games, Inc. has developed an addictive, casual video game just for scrapbookers. The game, titled "Scrapbook Paige", is a fun and rewarding experience for all.

Need a break from the daily stresses of life? Aisle 5 Games has just the thing to help you unwind. Play Scrapbook Paige, the casual video game just for scrapbookers. Paige owns a scrapbooking shop and needs your designer's eye to help her out with customer's requests. Search through the shop's many themed areas for those special items that will add a personal touch to the customer's scrapbook pages. Use your scrapbooking skills to gain the status of a top designer.

Scrapbook Paige is an addictive “hidden object” game with 17 environments to explore and 15 levels of play. After searching the many themed areas of the shop, players are given the chance to try out their scrapbooking skills. Creativity is key to earning extra cash when designing scrapbook pages for shop customers. “Speed Rounds” offer an exciting challenge as you try to complete rush orders. The superb magnifying glass feature is sure to please players when looking for those hard to find items. The game features engaging music and a gallery section for viewing completed scrapbooking pages.

Download a free 60 minute trial of the game at the company's website, www.aisle5games.com.

Scrapping Around October 2008 Cybercrop

There will be six scrapbooking challenges, a step by step project from one of our wonderful Design Team members, we’ll play a game of bingo, as well as a treasure hunt over the 4 nights. There are going to be some very wonderful prizes for the winners of each of our challenges as well as some exciting store specials for the weekend only.

When: Thursday, 16th Oct 2008 at 7:30 pm (to Monday, 20th Oct)

Where: Scrapping Around Forums

You know it is going to be heaps of fun! We'd love to see you there! For further details visit our forums.