Introducing our Design Team Members:

Suse Hocking

My name is Suse and I live on the glorious Gold Coast in QLD. I am married to a wonderful man, mother to a gorgeous 3 year old daughter (Natalie) and pregnant with our second little cherub (also a girl). I have been a Christian since I was 9 years old and I love my Lord and Saviour with all of my being and I endeavour to teach my children to love him and live for him in every way possible.

I have been scrapping since just after our wedding 4.5 years ago and am totally addicted and have been from the start. I love this craft for what it has given me...a creative outlet, a way to share God's love and of course the wonderful friends I have made along the way. I am honoured and feel very blessed to be a part of the team here at Heaven-Sent and can't wait to share my creations with you and to see the wonderful creations that you make as well.

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Melanie Brewin

I am married to my high school sweetheart Anthony & have been for 16 years. I am SAHM to three gorgeous girls Georgia (6) Lucia (4) & Olivia (2). They are usually my subjects for my scrapbooking. I started out with a love for photography & really wanted to do something with the photos that I was taking. I thought about doing it professionally but really wanted to be home with my girls, so scrapbooking was the perfect outlet. I have always done some sort of craft (when I finally admitted that I loved it) scrapbooking was what I stayed with. You will see some remnants of other crafts on my pages. I also am so excited to be working with other Christian women in Heaven Sent. I was impressed with the vision statement as I am a Christian and up until 2 years ago was in full-time ministry at our church. It is so exciting to be part of a large community of women who love Jesus & want to make a difference.

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Moira Coates

I’m Moira, and I’ve been married to the very patient and wonderful Matthew for the last 2 years. I’m ‘mum’ to 2 naughty little kitties called Oscar and Lucy – no real kids yet. We live in a lovely little town called Warwick, where I’m the teacher-in-charge of Warwick Christian College (student total:21!) I started scrapbooking about three years ago, but it didn’t become a full blown obsession until 2 years ago, just after our wedding. After that I began scrapping everything I could lay my hands on. I was experimenting with all sorts of techniques, products, designs, taking as many classes as I could, and evolving my own style.

Of course, nurturing an obsession as worthy as scrapbooking does come at a cost – our dining room table didn’t resurface for months, and I did get well acquainted with my chiropractor after many, many late nights hunched over the table tweaking paper and embellishments into a suitable layout. And I’m pretty sure my husband is well and truly over dropping me (and the extensive stash) off at the LSS and collecting me at midnight. It’s hard to believe it’s only been such a short time. I can’t imagine my life without this craft, without the skills I’ve learned and the amazing friends I’ve made – although I could live without the rather painful dint that scrapbooking has made on my bank balance! I love scrapbooking for the stories it helps us share, for the camaraderie that sharing those stories with other women (and the very occasional male scrapper) creates, even the time spent agonising over a correct shade of paper or ink is still fun.

My job is fairly stressful (you’d think with only 9 students in my class things would be easy, but no) and scrapping gives me some time and creative space to myself. I never imagined when I started that I’d end up being able to combine my faith and my craft/art in the one outlet, but I’ve long since learned to quit trying to make my own plans – God generally has other ideas. I can’t wait to get started on my contributions to Heaven Sent, and sharing with the other talented women both on the design team and on the forums. Looking forward to getting to know you – and your scrapbook styles – over the next few months…

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Brigitte Sutcliffe

Hi, I am Brigitte, wife to Ward (no kids yet) and we are happy new house and dog owners! I work full time in the construction industry and my husband has recently graduated from his law degree and is set to finish his postgraduate studies in December.

I love exploring ways of combining my faith with my love for everything scrapbooking. I love reading, renovating, time with close friends and family and being able to record all of that and more in my albums and OTPs. I often find my inspiration for scrapbooking projects from books I read, sermons at church, bible study topics and life in general.

I love being part of Heaven-Sent, meeting like-minded people through this opportunity and encouraging others on this faith-journey of life!
 

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Leanne Love

My name is Leanne and I live in Robina on the beautiful Gold Coast. I am married to my best friend Stuart and we have been married for almost 13 years. We’ve been blessed with three children, Mishae 20yrs, Jacob 11yrs (who is obsessed with pulling electrical items apart!!) and Emma 8 yrs (going on 18). We all enjoy spending our spare time camping and 4 Wheel Driving or just fishing in the canals.

We also have a beautiful non-human member of our family and that is Jed our amazing Labrador. We do have a few fish as well but they are Stuarts and I choose not to have anything to do with them (especially the cleaning of the tank).

We have only recently found Jesus and are loving every minute that we get to share our lives with him. Our son Jacob is finding it hard as he has Aspergers syndrome so to him it is all fiction. I am sure that God will help us to guide him and he too will believe whole hearted..

I have been scrapbooking now for a period of about 4 years. My styles have changed considerably over that time but generally I would say that I tend to lean more towards classical, straight lines. I love that I am recording my thoughts for my children to read and share with their families long after I have gone. I am lucky enough to have children who love to be in front of the camera so am never short of a subject to photograph.

I am incredibly blessed to have been asked to join the girls at Heaven-Sent and I know that I am going to learn so much from these beautiful women.

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Melissa Docking

I am Melissa, SAHM of triplet boys, Keelan, Ethan and Mitchell (Jan 2000), step-Mum of Jason and James, married to DH, Bruce, living in Golden Grove, South Australia. I have been scrappin' since the boys were 12 months old and have really noticed the way my style has changed over time. I enjoy scrappin’ a variety of subjects and participating in challenges to help extend myself and get some scrappin' done. Design Team work is a great way to challenge yourself to use and do things you wouldn’t normally do.

I would say my style is classic and simple with clean lines and bright colours. My subjects are usually my boys or I ‘borrow’ girls photos from the rest of the family and/or friends. I am definitely a 12 x 12 scrapbooker with a combination of double and single pages depending upon the subject. I don’t often use a single photo on a page either. I love to ‘play’ with digital scrapbooking too, when I get the chance.
I work from home as a Papercraft Artist and love teaching workshops once or twice a month and holding fortnightly crops. I also sell Breezy Design products and work as a Fiskars demonstrator in my spare time. I enjoy card making, dabbling in a variety of effects. Again, I like simple, clean, easy to make cards that look good with little effort. I do not rubber stamp so much but prefer to use rub-ons, die-cuts and other embellishments to decorate my cards.

My Christian background is an upbringing with the Catholic faith and whilst I am not a practicing Catholic, I still live with my Christian values. I enjoy my faith but I like to keep my feelings in this area to myself and my relationship with God.
 

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Karen Kowalick

Hello, I am Karen K married to Craig and we have three wonderful children Brandon, Taylor and Hamish and we live in Tea Tree Gully. We also share our house with our pets Milo, Jars and Charlie Brown. I work part-time as a theatre nurse.
I started scrapping about 8 years ago, but only really became addicted about 4 years ago and wow what an addiction it has become. Just over 3 years I was very fortunate to meet Ingeborg and she introduced me to TLC (now Breezy designs) and a whole lot more and I am so grateful for this. I was delighted when my application to be a member of the design team was initially accepted and I am so happy and thrilled a year later to still be on the team. Thank you, Ingeborg.

My scrapping style has changed over the years; although I believe I still I scrap in a classical clean style. I tend to mainly scrap 12 x 12 pages but I love off the page and I am slowly entering the world of digital scrapping.
I have always loved craft work, as a child I would sew, knit, embroider once my daughter was born I learnt to smock....she had lots of smocked dresses. So for me it seemed a natural progression to move into scrapbooking and into my new hobby photography. Luckily my dh supports this, I love to take action shots so a lot of my photos tend to be of a sporting nature ( I often take up to 600 photos on a Sunday at the boys football). We are very much a football orientated family.
 

Just over ten years ago Craig and I made a commitment to our faith and we attended the RCIA program at our local parish and after a year long journey we were accepted into the Catholic faith. Our children had been baptised in the Anglican Church as babies during our time in the program they were also accepted into the Catholic faith.
 

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Mary Crosthwaite

My name is Mary and I have been married to Kim for 37 years. We were blessed with 3 precious children, 2 girls and a boy, in less than 3 years. They are now in their 30’s and are all married and have families of their own. We praise God that they are all Christians and are very involved in their own Churches.
I am a 58 year old grandmother of 8 young grandchildren. I retired from Secondary School teaching at the beginning of this year. I mainly taught textiles and fashion, and thoroughly enjoyed it most of the time. I love working with young people. I have been doing casual relief teaching this year at the South Coast Christian College in Leongatha.

I started scrapbooking 3 years ago after going to a Creative Memories party. (I didn’t actually go to it, it was at my house!). I thought ‘this is for me’. I liked most things about it. I love that it is creative and there are very few rules to adhere to. I liked the idea of being able to use all those items I had from so many years of doing sewing and embroidery. And with a rapidly growing family I had so many baby photos to work with.

For awhile I was aware of the on-line scrapbooking community, but I felt it was for everybody else and not for me. Basically, I was too busy doing LO’s and having fun that I didn’t feel I had the time (as I was still working) or need to be involved. However, with retirement nearing, I handed my laptop back to the Dept of Education and got my own laptop last December and I haven’t looked back. I have been fortunate enough to have 3 LO’s published in Scrapbooking Memories. I was thrilled to be chosen for the Heaven Sent Design Team and I pray that God will use my creativity and skills to inspire others through this great site!

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Our previous Design Team Members:

Debbie Buckland

I am a happily married wife to Simon and mother of two children, a boy Ethan born Jan 2007, and a girl Mishael (pronounced Mish-ay-el) born June 2004. We live in New Zealand.

Simon is a chef by trade but is now in his second year training to be a Nurse. He is very supportive of me with my many hobbies. Simon also is creative himself - he has made our outdoor furniture and is half way through making a remote control model yacht. He also knows how to play the electric bass guitar, electric/acoustic guitars, piano, He is also rather good at mixing a sound desk (that is how I met him - at the back of a church sound mixing the service).

I started scrapbooking at the time my daughter was only just born and a friend - that wasn't even into scrapbooking herself - gave me an album saying that I might need this to scrapbook her life. To me scrapbooking was what kids did at school by slapping magazine pictures in a news print paper book. I cringed at the thought!!!

I mentioned this to another friend of mine and she showed me what scrapbooking was all about. I was opened to a very new and different world! And had my preconceived idea of it corrected. Needless to say I have never looked back!

I am a trained Graphic/Multimedia designer but never worked in that field. I ended up working in a primary school after my training to teach 5 year olds to 12 year olds how to use the computer. I also trained the teachers in the school how to use the computers. My point in this is that I use my Graphic Design training as a tool for my scrapbooking. I also have a passion for painting/sewing (hand and machine), x-stitch, beading/jewelry making so I also put this into my scrapbooking ---- or will eventually. I have always loved passing on my knowledge to others so I find teaching comes natural to me.

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Tracey Smith

Hi! My name is Tracey and I live in Panania, a suburb of Sydney. I have a wonderful husband Cameron, and we have been married for 14 years. We’ve been blessed with two children, our lizard-loving son Andrew who is 12 and our shop-till-ya-drop daughter Claire who is 9.

We also share our home with an assortment of creatures  -  a sausage dog called Monte, an aviary of budgies, three blue tongue lizards and our most recent additions, two bearded dragons named Ebony and Ivory who live in our sunroom and delight us every day with their antics. We are never short of a photo opportunity in our little family!

Our family all love Jesus, and we answered his call to go to the UK in 2004 to study prayer counseling. I personally received a lot of healing during that time and it was as if the Lord was giving me a special gift – the reawakening of my creativity which had taken a bit of a beating over the years. It probably explains why I have dabbled in many crafts in the past but didn’t really stick to any of them until we returned from the UK and I was re-introduced to scrapbooking.

Since then the floodgates have opened and I continue to thoroughly enjoy all of the things that scrapbooking brings into my life – exercising my creativity, creating a lasting record of the journey of my precious family, meeting other likeminded girls who share my passion for scrapping, and most recently the challenge of scrapping my faith. Even my own little daughter has caught the scrapping bug and can put me to shame with the speed in which she puts her layouts together!

It is an honour and a privilege to be part of Ingeborg’s vision for Heaven-Sent Scrapbooking and I look forward to sharing and making more ‘cyber friends’ through the blessing of this website.

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