News & Updates from Linda Wright Designs

For Labour Weekend we took a break to the beach. We went to an NZMCA Rally to Tapu. I wanted to take the walker but Tony said there was no point as I wouldnt be able to use it on the beach.

Its not all fun and games though as I am the NZMCA Waikato Area Newsletter Editor.

I have to be trying to get photos and taking down all the raffle results and the prizes and that was a major issue as we had the Kite Flying competition, Fishing Competition [Tony caught 5 snapper and a Gurnard - Got a nice prize for his efforts too as we are now the proud owners of a foldup table - not your usual cheapy one either], Beach Clean up, Craft afternoon at which I sold the huge sum of two cards.

As you can imagine I thought that was pretty tough after all my efforts, but like my friend said it was better than nothing at all.

We have another one coming up next weekend and we are going to Te Aroha and Tony and I have put our names down to play croquet with the locals.

Should be fun - it looks easy enough to do.

Im doing the new course for becoming a Designer that Sarah Edwards has produced and there is a special facebook page just for the group.

Joan King joined the class as well and she was making comments etc. and then we started messaging each other as she lives in Tauranga.

It was neat being able to talk with someone else from my part of the world instead of feeling all by yourself.

Last weekend Joan was having an open weekend and I managed to convince Tony to take us over and have a look see.

It wasnt too bad a trip going over with just misty rain now and again and not too much traffic.

We arrived and there she was sitting in the garage with all her cards all about her and she was working on the laptop.

It was so neat to meet her. WOW!! I was blown away with all the lovely cards she had made and on sale that I had to buy some special ones she had.

I cant remember what they were called now but they were beautiful.

You had special chalks or crayons and had to melt them to make the design. Her husband Dennis is a very good artist as well so they make a really good team. Joan is a very lovely person and really bubbly and friendly.

We had a good visit talking about our designs and other things that we do and I was envious of her craft room.

I have just a small table in the bus and we only have 12 volt power so I cant have fancy gadgets.

I was ever so pleased we made the trip to meet her and Dennis.

On the way back though the GPS took us to a roundabout and said to take the second exit but Tony missed that and it then took us back to a point to start again.

This time he took the right exit but it was still wrong [probably because of all the road works over there] and so this time it took us to a different way and then we were happy as we could see we were back on our way to Hamilton.

Tony didnt like all the road works over in Tauranga though.

I just love reading all about everybody elses news and really marvelled at the Towel Art in the last issue.

This week we got our old neighbours back beside us. Our little click I call us. There are three buses in a row and we get on really well.

The old neighbours have a gorgeous little girl who is three years old and she is a bundle of bubbliness.

Always on the go. She loves to visit us all in our buses and have her usual talks. She is always wanting to help out with doing stuff and we caught her helping dad fill up with water the other day.

Its much easier than having to put everything away safe inside just so you can drive to the tap. This way we get to stay put and leave all the rubbish around the place.A couple of nights ago we had a full house - there were caravans and campers and buses packed in.

There is supposed to be 9 meters between each vehicle but I really think we were lucky to have a couple of meters apart that night.

It is a very popular place because there are NO FEES to pay.Back to business now - It has been really exciting because I have got some of the sales I made being loaded as completed cards.

It is amazing to see that my designs have been turned into such beautiful cards. I have been kept busy with the little bit of spare time I have had this week in designing some new cards.

It never ceases to amaze me that the ones I think will sell really good always get left behind and the ones that I think will probably not sell - do!

Ive been putting some on special the last couple of weeks and using up some of my points for advertising and it is a great feeling to be able to do it now.

I really feel like part of the group.

I think I mentioned last week that Tony is Santa. Well, he is doing really great and here is a photo that the photographer gave him as it wasnt quite the right size.

He makes a good Santa - doesnt he? Or am I being biased.

Well I have been working hard this week as well and have managed to design a few more cards.

They are still just simple ones but I am really enjoying it and I just love how I wake up in the morning and find my commission has gone up because I made a sale.We have to move the bus today across the road to where we are stationed as the Classics Museum want to have the whole carpark for a Drive In Movie.

They are going to be showing Top Gun which must be a Classic by now as well.I hope you like the two new cards that I have made and I am sure I will be able to venture out a bit more this month and learn how to do something a little different.

Hello everyone. I have just become a Designer for Craftsuprint and have gone Exclusive to boot. Might as well take advantage of what is on the offing! A little about me - I am 69 years old and coming up to 70 pretty fast I can tell you.

My husband [Tony] and I live in a house bus. We have regretted buying what we bought without getting a proper purchase report done as there have been major things go bump in the night for us.

First of all we didnt have power and it cost us nearly $9,000 to get that put right.

Then six months after we purchased it we went for a COF [Certificate of Fitness - similar to a Warrant of Fitness but much more strict] and then did we strike the gold pot of problems.

There was a big long list of things that had to be done to get a new COF.

It took us close on three months to get that sorted as we had to get another Credit Card and take money from the house rental account to pay for this lot - another $10,000 and by this time we were pretty upset I can tell you.

Tony is Santa from next week at the Centre Place Mall in Hamilton not far from where we live. Hopefully the money he makes will put a big dent in the Credit Card. We hate owing money to anyone!!

Amongst all this stress I decide I had better try and design some cards to sell on craftsuprint if I could get accepted to try and help make some money as well.

Only three sales to date but better than none at all. It has been a scary, stressful time and an exciting time all at once.

It took a lot of hard work and a lot of help from Sarah Edwards to get me on the right track though as I was completely useless with Photoshop.

I started out as a cardmaker and joined craftsuprint back in July 2012. I have to admit that when I first started I wasnt worried if the card had a gold star or a flying star as I just wanted to make cards and sell them to my friends.

I sold some but because most are in A5 size or bigger not many wanted to purchase them because of the cost to post them here in New Zealand.

I started to make some designs in Publisher to A6 size and that made life a bit easier and I was selling some of my work.

I applied to become a designer way back but Publisher Files couldnt be accepted.

I couldnt get the hang of Photoshop and a professional photographer tried to show me how to use it. Went straight in one ear and out the other. I was told that there was this free version called GIMP that I might be able to get used to easier.

But no!!

Then I got put on to Sarah and her training is simply super and I got it [maybe not on the first go but by the third time I could actually get as far as flattening the image without get upset cause I couldnt work out what I hadnt done right all the time and would get very grumpy and upset.

I have put a picture up of our house bus and as you can see from the outside it looks really super cool and why we fell in love with it.

Anyway I have now got 21 designs up and have plenty of ideas for lots more so hopefully you will see me contributing like a lot of others who seem to be able to design such beautiful cards all the time and the stars disappear on them very quick.

I hope my designs get that popular as well. Anyway it is a goal now.