My name is Sue Smyth and I live in a fairly rural suburb of Brisbane and have been married for 22 years to the one man, and we have three young children and over the required amount of pets and plants. I love my life and am luck enough to work at my passion…scrapbooking

I have been an artist all of my life in some medium or other. I have had work published at the young age of 11years of age until 17 years of age in newspapers and magazines. With my interest in sketching and design, and straight A’s in Art, it was inevitable that I go to Art College when I finished school. I studied for 3 years for a Diploma of Visual Communications at the then Seven Hills College of Art in Brisbane. While there I achieved honors and credits in such subjects as Photography,Illustration, Design, Philosophy, Psychology of colour and colour theory.

After finishing Art College, I took a long rest from painting and drawing, as I was tired of the deadlines and doing work for others. So I learnt to type and worked as a Data entry clerk. While working I completed a train the trainer and calligraphy1 course and contemplated becoming an art teacher.

But I always dabbled in Painting ,Pottery and Drawing and applied what I had learnt to every day life, I would hand draw my Christmas cards and collect pretty stationery to cut up and place with my photos. When rubber stamps were first introduced to Australia some 20 years ago I was instantly interested, and started making cards.

Once my children were born, card making took over from all other crafts such as cross stitch and pottery as it was tidier and not so messy. When a newborn cries it take time to wipe turps or clay off your hands, so cardmaking became my sanity amongst 3 children in 3 years. I began to teach what I had learnt and some years later was asked to teach scrapbooking too. So I took a lesson and instantly, saw the connection with what I had learned in Art college, in design drawing and collage. That was ten years ago and I have been Scrapbooking and teaching my designs ever since.

I have had the privilege to teach at many stores in Brisbane, including Myers, Spotlight, Scrap Art, Think Crafty and TAFE, my style has developed over the years to be quite different than the main stream, and I have had my work displayed at shows and websites. I have taught large numbers and small, and really try to design a page that anyone can adapt to their situation and achieve a pleasant result.

I specialize in Canvas Art and small off the page projects, I also love interactive pages with many layers and textures with attention to detail and a point of difference. Currently I teach and work in two stores and have classes at home in my workspace. I am launching a range of trifold cards custom cut to my design and also working on designing my own papers. I have a large workshop coming up in August and have been asked to feature in a book coming out next year, we will wait to see that one.

I love scrapbooking because you can put so much love and care into your work and the viewer can see that and what is more it is all about the people and times you love. All of our work will be left for the generations to come, and they will see into your life and heart by the work you leave. I love to teach that same thing to others so the can realize the sense of satisfaction and achievement I do when I finish a page that speaks to me of the journey that is my life.