About Me
My interest in crafts goes way back to my childhood. The crafts I dabbled in were many and varied, but a constant interest in “cutting and pasting” was evident – anything that included papers, pens, pencils and creative lettering always grabbed my attention. As a little girl I would beg my mum to buy me new pencils, pens and sketchbooks so I could draw and sketch. I am still in possession of some of those sketchbooks and I treasure them.
I trained in Catering and Hospitality Management at a Sydney Catering college and worked in the hospitality and tourism industries prior to the arrival of my two gorgeous girls.
My love of sewing lead me to further study at the Fashion School of a Sydney TAFE college, graduating in 1995 with a Certifcate of Clothing Manufacturing and an Advanced Certificate in Children’s Wear Design.
In 2000, I was introduced to scrapbooking through a friend. I was hooked! I loved the concept of scrapbooking, recording the story of my family’s lives in such a creative way. My interest in scrapbooking grew quickly and my first scrapbooking layouts were published within a year of starting this wonderful craft.
I love telling a story on my layouts. I use a combination of a lot of photos of our every day life with journaling to tell the tales of our family. The majority of my layouts are event driven. I feel I am able to add multiple photos and elements on a layout without it appearing cluttered. My scrapbooking is elegant and stylish with clean lines, lots of color with a bit of fun and humor thrown in! We know how to have a laugh in our family, and that is extended into my layouts. I hope in many years that my family can look through our albums and laugh as we remember the fun things we did.
I live on Sydney’s north shore with my husband Paul, daughters Emily and Phoebe and bunnies Bubbles and Butterscotch.
Here are the highlights of my crafting and scrapbooking career so far.
2001: My first scrapbooking layout was published in Scrapbooking Memories.
2002: I was the winner of the inaugural Scrapbooking Memories Peoples Choice Award in 2002 with my layout “Move over Gidget”. I will add here, my scrapbooking friends at the time were horrified when I placed eyelets actually through my photos on this layout!
2003: One of my layouts “Turning 6″ won first place in the Fiskars Papercraft competition at the Stitches and Craft show in Sydney.
2004: I started teaching scrapbooking classes at a local scrapbooking store, as well as at residential retreats.
2004 to 2006: I was a Creative Editor on the Scrapbooking Memories magazine’s Creative Team. I enjoyed working on the magazine for the three years writing the regular feature Scrappin’ Step by Step and creating the supporting scrapbooking projects for these articles.
2004 to 2006: I represented Scrapbooking Memories in the Studio within the Craft and Quilt Fairs demonstrating scrapbooking techniques. In 2004, I attended the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane shows. During 2005 I worked at the Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra shows. In 2006 I demonstrated at the Canberra show.
2005: I realized a dream I had had for a few years, when I traveled to the United States to attend CKU-Masters in Anaheim, and visited many scrapbooking stores in southern California. I also visited Disneyland for the first time (and it won’t be the last!)
2006: I opened an online store selling ribbons and trims. It’s called Ribbons Galore.
2006 to 2008: I was a member of the Urban Lily and Paper Salon Design Teams.
2007 to 2009: I was a member of the Maya Road Design Team.
2007: My new website, Fiona Carter dot com, was launched.
2008: I have continued to have my projects published in Australian and American papercraft magazines.
2009: A stationery set I designed and made was published in Australian Homesewn magazine. I was thrilled to be asked to judge the Scrapbooking section at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.
2010: Looking forward to another busy year at Ribbons Galore. Be sure to visit my blog to see some of my latest crafting projects.
