Kate Mason

I am 37, married to Jeff and mother to Georgia Poppy (born May 2005), Charlotte Daisy (born May 2006) & twins Amelia Bluebell & Chelsea Blossom (born Jan 2008).

Right now, my main focus is looking after my 4 beautiful daughters. Our littlest by 2 minutes, Chelsea, has a complex heart condition and has already had 3 surgeries. Its been a huge year and Chelsea's last surgery was a big one. This year, all our energies have been focussed on her.

Aside from family, I need some mummy time once all the girls are sound asleep, so find it great therapy to not only create arty things but to record our life on my 2 blogs - the life/arty one and the heartkids one.

Making stuff is one of the great passions of my life and because there’s nothing more important to me than my family and the life we share together, scrapbooking has become a big part of my life...

After leaving the busy business world after 15 years, I now operate my own art supply & teaching business ‘Scrapps Flea Market’ [currently very small scale] and work part-time doing graphic arts for our family printing business. When my girls leave home for kindy [!] I'll get back to finishing my degree in Visual Arts specializing in digital media and printmaking. Edit that plan..... I've decided to switch my printmaking major to photography. New Media & Photography is a much better fit for my life & creative goals I think.

So anyway.... I have been involved in many crafts over the years but in addition to scrapbooking, have a particular love for rubber stamping, book making and cushion making. It is this cross-section of interests and skills which I love to incorporate into my artwork and my classes.

I have been scrapbooking for about 6 years and find it satisfies all my creative needs. I love mixed media, collage & have a real soft spot for whimsy. Its really the 'little details' I love most - I'll spend whatever time I deem necessary to add a snippet of yummy to my projects. One ingredient to my scrapbooking that I always try to incorporate regardless of the photos I have to work with, is to record the history and ensure I document those special family stories. Layouts mightn’t always have those designer pics but I feel even the littlest memory or piece of family history is oh so important and is the essence of true scrapbooking. It is these layouts I always treasure the most and know it’s at the heart of most scrapbookers too.

Having been selected for the For Keeps 2005 Elite Team and continuing on the Design Team throughout 2006 enabled my work to be published each month in For Keeps magazine, ForKeeps Book – “Scrapbooking Awards for Excellence”, and in the 2005 Elite Team book, “The Times of Our Lives”.
My work has also been published in Australian Paper Arts, I Can Make it Myself, Parties for Kids, Scrapbooking Memories Magazine and Bookzine: “Scrapbooking and Beyond”. When time permits I do a little design work for local scrapbook store Scrapbook Station Design Team, local online store Crafty Cat Company, online stores Blue Bazaar, Ruby Street and also, in 2007 enjoyed the release of new book, "The Heart of Design" co-authored with Debra Fuller.

I hope you enjoy looking at my work & reading my thoughts whenever I get the urge to write & hearing about my daily juggle of motherhood, creating and coping [or not coping, whatever day it happens to be] with congenital heart disease in our family and how the rest of life is for our family. xo