About Us

To describe myself very briefly – fun loving.
For over ten years now I have been encouraging fellow crafters to join with me and other like minded women who share their passion for travel through Crafting Cruises. My name is Melissa Kennedy and yes I love to travel – I live in Geelong, Victoria with my uber patient hubby and three daughters, who are now finally old enough to look after themselves when we travel – though more often than not one of them will join me and they become very special times.

How Australian Scrapbook and Craft Cruises started:
In 2010 my dad gave me a Business Registration and encouraged me to live my dreams and go out on my own. As I was still teaching on yearly cruises for a lady in America, I didn’t think it was the right thing to do this just yet. However in 2016, with a lot of encouragement from family and friends, when it was decided she wasn’t coming out to Australia the following year, as she had a now a young family – the timing was now right. Though still working at Kaisercraft at the time, I started my own business from home, and its been a gradual progression over the years. Long hours of working two jobs. Slowly increasing the number and variety of cruises offered each year to cater for more people and to give them more options with different classes and instructors to choose from. Now in 2020, with Kaisercraft moving in a different direction, and scrapbooking not being their focus – it was the right time to take that leap of faith and go out on my own. And Im looking forward to taking this to a new level of fun and professionalism.

Working and participating in many areas of the industry over the past 20 years, I have seen so many changes. And regardless of the demise of actual bricks and mortar stores – I have found that us as women still LOVE to get together with like minded souls.
In reality, we were created to be CREATIVE and to have relation.SHIPS… (pun intended).
As the saying goes “if you love what you do you don’t have to work a day in your life“. And I am now blessed to have the opportunity to run my own business doing something that I love and hopefully can encourage others to do the same.

Whilst I have had many years of crafting and cruising experience, none of this would be possible without being able to work alongside an award winning – privately owned travel business – Geelong Travel. The support, friendships and encouragement they have given me is mind blowing.
They specialize in cruises and their consultants are professional with many years of travel experience.

Why I Love Cruising: and travel.
Travel opens up your mind to many new experiences and cruising is one of the most cost-effective ways to travel to many smaller remote locations and a great way to tick off places on your bucket list all in the one trip. Not only do you get to experience many different destinations – you only have to unpack once.
One of the best things I have enjoyed about these cruises is encouraging and watching the ladies put themselves out of their comfort zones to something new – whether its in the area of craft and trying out a new technique or seeing them do something for the first time e.g. snorkelling or swimming with the turtles. It doesn’t matter whether you are 40 or 64 – the satisfaction and excitement on their faces is something special.

I love my job because it has given me the opportunity, not only to travel but to meet YOU and so many new people and to build relationSHIPS with them… Yes, there are some crazy busy times, I can’t deny, especially before an event – that is the challenging part – but once onboard that work is done and it’s all worthwhile. Focus is shifted to you and then its about helping you make some of your dreams come true.

Hope you get the opportunity to join myself or another host on one of our voyages and see a little bit more of this awesome world we live in.

“LIFE is to be LIVED, to be ENJOYED,
let’s get out there and LIVE it, EXPERIENCE it, LAUGH about it, and LOVE it.”
– Melissa Kennedy