Queenie and ProudWickedFan - INTRODUCTION THREAD

[Janice]

Here we are ladies - get chatting!

As soon as you’ve reached 10 posts would you mind using the PM Facility to chat so that this forum doesn’t get clogged with lots of threads? Let me know when this happens or you’ve already reached 10 posts and I’ll delete the thread.

Thank you and have fun.

[ProudWickedFan]

Hiya Queenie, I'm Mandy and I'll be your your new mummy until you get to grips with this big old forum, anything you need just give me a shout, it's really good to meet you!

[Queenie]

Great to meet you too Mandy (my real name is Sophie btw). I had a look at your layouts earlier and they're wonderful, I particularly liked the one of your two daughters together "Now there's two of them!" lol! It will be good to get chatting to some UK scrappers, I've been on a scrapping board for a year now but it's 99% Americans which gets very frustrating when they're all talking about the new stuff in their stores and the oh-so-cheap prices!! My maid scarpping subjects are Disney (I've just started work on our trip to Florida last Oct - BIG project!), my cats and our family. My sister has a beautiful daughter who is 3, the perfect age to take a thousand wonderful pictures whenever I see her. Just finished a layout on our Christmas Tree tonight which I am happy with so I think it's bed time! Sorry for rambling on!

[ProudWickedFan]

Hiya Sophie,

how are you today? lovely to hear from you, now then is there anything you need to know, we just have 9 more posts until you can pm and I reckon by the time we get you there we will be sorted (so to speak!) thanks for the comments about my layouts, I don't much like my ones from earlier this year, I think just recently I am learning to be a much better scrapper, even though I have been scrapping for 15 months I still think I am a bit of a newbie! So are you going to upload your layout that you did? You lucky thing going to Disney, I would love to go there but DH has a flyig phobia and with my 3 poppets (iain is 9, Abigail is 3 and Looby (real name Laura but we never use that) who is 2) I think I would need a mortgage to get there, DH (Paul) said if he ever went it would have to be by Boat!
Hopefully I will be around for a little while this morning and then I have to pop out to pick up supplies, more stash! So if I don't catch you this morning I will be back on this afternoon! if there is anything you really need you can always email me, just click on my name to reveal my profile and my email addy is in there.

[Queenie]

Hi Mandy, at the moment all my layouts are up on an American scrapping site called Twopeasinabucket dot com, I'll be transferring them over here when I have a week to spare (currently scheduled for some time in 2010!!) My username over there is easyqueenie, just search the gallery.
I also have a fear of flying that has been getting gradually worse. The thought of getting on another plane this Sept (we're going back again, 3rd year in a row!!!) fills me with terror. I just have to think very hard about why it's worth it and take a lot of sedatives!!!

I suppose the main things that seem strange on this forum are the cybercrops and the groups/challenges as these are all new to me. I'm just about to participate in my first swap over on another forum so I'd be interested in the rules for these too in case I get bitten by any swapping bugs in the next few weeks.

[ProudWickedFan]

a cybercrop is just like a normal crop except you get to do it all at home and the classes are all on the forum, there are usually a couple of them a year on here, I went to a couple of cyber-crops last year, one here and one on papercraft which is Cannycrafts forum and they were both lots of fun.

When it comes to swaps there's not too many rules, usually it's all in the first post as all are slightly different, just remember to always send your stuff on time and enclose an SAE and you'll soon have a good trader rating, the more points you get the more swaps you can join in, some specify that you have to have a certain amount of trader points, others are newbie friendly. Other forums have different rules and you may have to be an active member for a certain length of time, I actually moderate on another forum and our rules specify that.

Swaps are really great fun, some involve making things and some involve a bit of stash shopping, say 10 metres of ribbon cut into 10 lengths and then you get back 10 different kinds, it's a great way to get new and unusual things in your stash and who doesn't need that?

I can't wait to see some of your layouts, how long have you been scrapping for? I might check out 2peas but I usually try and avoid forums other than here or papercraft for fear that I become too addicted!

So how are you finding it over here, have you jumped in and posted on the main forum yet or are you still lurking?

When it comes to teams and challenges, there are a few about and often teams will post for new members, you have to be quick though as they fill up really fast, my team is full at the moment but a couple of people seem to have stopped posting of late, I'll check out the situation there for you and see if and when we might be looking!

Of course you can always post to volunteer to run your own team, it's a great way to meet another 9 people who are probably all newbies like you and then you learn and grow together.

right i have rambled enough for now, lets see if we can get you up to 10 posts and then you will have your pm's enabled and by flying :D

[Queenie]

I'm just lurking at the moment, I've learned not to jump in on new forums too quickly ar you risk getting flamed for saying something inappropriate or bringing up a "bad" topic. I'm just trying to spot the unspoken rules, it seems pretty friendly from what I've seen!

[ProudWickedFan]

LOL, i never noticed! i just tend to jump in with both feet! I think it is quite friendly over here, can be a bit big and intimidating when you first join, I had been moderating at Canny for over a year before I joined this place and I was still a little scared!

[Queenie]

I always find that whenever I join a new messageboard, I always come across someone I knew on a previous one!! I joined this one thinking It'd be a clean break, no one I knew did scrapping. Turns out I DID know someone!! fizzkitten was on another messageboard I was on, her husband was the webmaster there! Maybe one day I'll join one and not know anyone.

I had a look at joining a team earlier, need to get my PM's going so I can message a team leader. It all looks like a lot of fun! One thing confused me about the weekly challenge. The 30 points seem to be split into sections, 5 points for using a certain colour, another 5 for using stickers or something. Do you need to use all the different bits or could you just get 20 points for doing some parts of the challenge?

[ProudWickedFan]

If you look in my gallery i did the weekly challenge this week, I think I got points for using the black and white and the collage, so if you don't want to you don't have to complete every element, its just to get more people involved I think!

Just finished some CJ's I had been putting off, thank goodness they're done!

[Queenie]

The page looks great, I've been intending to try out some effects on pics for a while. My partner used to do it all the time and had some online photo galleries but I never really got into it. I've finally finished off a layout of some pics of me building a snowman as a kid.
I like the idea of CJ's but am nervous to get involved in one. My inspiration seems to run very hot and cold and I'd be scared of getting the book and having no ideas and ending up making something really rubbish!
I notice you've got some photography competition pics on your gallery. I'm just getting into photography, tonight I've been getting some portrait close ups of the cats as they slept! Are they many photography competitions on here? Having ideas for shots given to me might help me try out some new stuff!

[ProudWickedFan]

There's a photography competition every month and it's open to everyone, my entries haven't been the best to be honest, the pressure of competitions never did suit me! LOL. I'm a bit of a fan of photography, I take nearly all my own photos with one or two exceptions, my dad is really into photography and thats where my interest stems from, in the last year I have been getting much better! I love taking photos of flowers, not much call for that at the moment though! can't for the life of me think what the comp is this month! I just entered the competition to win a design team place for A trip down memory lane, it's in their gallery at the moment, if you have a look you can see the woman behind the layouts ;)

[Queenie]

Can you point me in the direction of the photography competition, I can;t find it anywhere! I love taking pics of flowers too, in fact all natural things really. I did a layout in the summer using close ups of some flowers in our back garden. It makes it look like our garden was awash with colour when really there were only about 5 plants in the whole place!!

I'd love to be on a design team for someone but I'm still just learning really. I thought about trying out for the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame 2006 but just didn't have time as I'm doing an Open Uni degree. Maybe next year!

[ProudWickedFan]

If you click HERE (http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=88706) that should get you januarys competition.

I love Creating Keepsakes, it's my favourite scrapping mag!

What are you studying at Uni, I have a degree in Psychology with philosophy!

[Queenie]

I've chosen to do an open/unnamed degree so I can pick and choose courses for it's duration. I've just passed my first course "Exploring Mars" for 10 points and am currently doing "Discovering Science" for 60pts. It's getting harder by the day! It's taken me over an hour to 3 questions today but admittedly they were in my worst areas from school - physics and algebra!!

[ProudWickedFan]

Sounds a bit trciky though fasctinating, i never knew that you could do unnamed degrees! Ooh look you're only a couple of posts from 10 and then you can PM and we can give this thread back to Janice, shame though I have enjoyed having our own little thread! a couple of my team mates have put in to host swaps, one of them is a newbie swap, if you see it appear on the board hosted by Chrismicbritt, go and join, Louise will look after you, she's lovely!

[Queenie]

Ooh I'll definately have a look at that if I see it! Just got underway on another swap elsewhere. Have you ever made a paper bag album? I need to get some and have a go.

I've just booked tickets to my first craft show, the Stitch and Craft show at G-Mex Manchester on Feb 3rd, can't wait!!

[ProudWickedFan]

OOh I adore paperbag books, I have made quite a few, made one for my daughters photos to go in at christmas, made one for a swap on here and some others for pressies, if you need any advice, then fire away, i guess you might end up addicted like me, i have loads of paperbags so if you need any just give a shout and I can send you some, I also wrote a tutorial about paperbag books once, I'm a bit addicted to mini-books, I made 36 of them at christmas (accordian books) and sent them to all my friends, what a project that was!

oh I still haven't been to a craft show yet, might get to one eventually!

[Queenie]

36!!! Good Lord, and I'm worried about trying to make 1! Where do you get the bags from, I can't remember seeing them anywhere but then I wasn't looking. If you have the tutorial you wrote to hand that'd be great.

I'm a bit concerned about this craft fair, I can see my bank account being hit hard which I seriously don't need at the moment as we're trying to save for a holiday and we've had a serious problem with the car this week (as in half the bumper isn't currently connected to the back due to an incident with a fence:( ) I'll just have to be very careful, luckily mum will be there to help me NOT buy things, knowing her by buying them for me! Isn't it always the case that when you're low on money loads of stuff happens?

Looks like I'm finally at 10 posts, hurrah! Shame though, I will miss this thread. I've been taking pics for the photography contest so I'm hopefully going to upload those today. Speak to you on PM!