The above is an altered tin featuring BoBunny papers and Stampin' Up! In The Wild Stamps (newly retired). This was a project taught during a recent class. Most of the ladies had never tried their hands at altering art, and they truly enjoyed this experience!

Hi, I'm Kathryn McAllister, and I have been scrapbooking ever since I was a youngster. My mom, Bobbi Schott, has always had a passion for scrapbooks, and she passed the bug onto me. Mom also taught me about publication and advertising layout when I used to help her on our hometown newspaper, which my parents founded and owned from 1956-1980, in Castroville, Texas. Eventually, I followed my journalist dad, Joe L., and mom into the publication business, receiving bachelor and master's degrees in journalism and communication. I worked for years as a writer, editor, graphic designer and desktop publisher.

Along the way, I met a really wonderfully sweet and loving man, Niall (from N. Ireland), and we married in 1986. In 1995, our son Branduff was born while we were on an overseas assignment in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Our expatriate lifestyle of bouncing from overseas assignment back to Houston, played havoc on my so-called career. Eventually, I decided it was best to begin my own homespun business, and hence, Teawife Productions & Refined Rubber were born.

I began teaching classes and selling products for rubber stamping, scrapbooking and paper crafting in north Houston, Texas (Tomball, Spring, The Woodlands).

All things changed again when my family moved to Abu Dhabi for another overseas assignment in January 2007.

It did not take long for me to discover other women with the enthusiasm and desire to learn new crafts. To meet that demand, I began the Abu Dhabi Scrapping & Stamping Society. This ever-growing group of ladies meet on Tuesdays to either stamp or scrap. The women represent a wide range of international locations, including Scotland, England, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Central America, the United States, etc.

If you live in Abu Dhabi and want to find out more about stamping classes and scrapping gatherings, please drop Kathryn a line at teawife@yahoo.com.