Scrap shop in a box, a bag and a basket!

Well, here I go!

I have always wanted to have a go at doing a blog, yet why I think all of a sudden I'm going to have extra time to do this, I don't know.

I suppose it is because I feel like I have started some sort of new venture, but I haven't really, as I have been doing it for a little while, though it all just seems to be coming together sort of now.

So if you haven't already switched away to a fancier, better structured blog that doesn't appear to have been written by a rambling lunatic, I will go ahead and introduce myself.

My name is Shelley. I live in Wyndham Vale in Victoria, Australia, and scrapbooking is one of my passions!

I have been scrapbooking for about 9 years (I didn't realise it was that long until i worked it out) and if you are a likeminded scrapbooking crazy person you will know that all that paraphenalia that goes with scrapbooking just mysteriously mutiplies and diversifies wherever you try to hide your scrapping stuff. And it also incredibly seems that the longer you do it for, that more bits and bobs appear to replace the bits and bobs that you have used! It truly is magical!

Bearing that in mind, I seem to have done a lot of scrapbook shopping in my time, mostly online, but also in retail scrapbooking stores, art supply shops, hardware stores, variety stores, $2 shops, fetes, craft fairs, markets, op shops, etc, etc, etc.

A few months ago I had a really terrific auction win on ebay and bought up a whole heap of stuff that another crazy scrapper (well maybe she had regained her sanity) was getting rid of.  Most of it was new and unused. I sorted through it all and realised there were mutliples of many of the bits and pieces, and that as I was going away on a crop weekend soon with some friends I might as well take the bits and pieces with me and see if any of the other scrappers were interested in them. I wasn't out to make a huge profit, just get my money back on them and a bit extra, so most of the items were well below retail prices although they were in as new condition. I joked to my friends at the scrapping weekend that I would show them my shop in a bag, as I had put all the things to sell in a paper gift bag and that was how all this started.

Except now I have a scrap shop in a box.......... a bag........ and a basket! See! They're all multiplying!!!

And I am also an ebay seller. I sell vintage bits and bobs, secondhand books, and (surprise, surprise) scrapbooking stuff,  including the amazing, fantastic, can't live without it, Glue Glider Pro scrapbooking gun and refill cartridges! I will put a link to ebay on this blog when my 13 year old son Sam teaches me how to do it tomorrow night.

I have also started selling on etsy (what an amazing website that it is) but I'm only taking baby steps there at the moment so I wouldn't rush over to check out my etsy shop just yet! I'll need to put a link up for that as well.

AND I have also told my scrapping friends, who are ALL as crazy as I am, that I am having 2 cropping nights at my house next month. I have said NO to that sort of thing for so long, with the excuse being that I have three small children that, lovable as they all are, will drive everyone up the wall, but you know what - I don't have three small children any more! At 13, 10 and 7 they are more than capable of occupying themselves and not bothering their frazzled mother too much while she and her buddies try to get some scrapping done. This was such a positive, uplifting revelation when I thought it all out. It's hard to describe how such a small decision could have such a huge positive impact on me but that is what happened.

A bit like this blog.......!

So on this blog I intend to

•  tell you all about my adventures with the scrap shop in a box..... a bag..... and a basket.
• upload photos of some of my layouts which will add a lot of colour to the blog as I love bright, bright, bright colours and bold patterns
• link this all to ebay and etsy and facebook in this multilayered, multimedia world we now live in
• try to stress the positive in my life rather than always criticising my many negatives

And I'm sure I could come up with many other things i would like to do with this blog but my eyes keep shutting and my head keeps hitting the keyboard - so I'll upload those photos tomorrow with Sam and..........zzzzzzzz!

Good Night everybody - ha ha, I'm assuming that someone is actually going to read this!!!!

Shelley