Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

Here are some mouthwatering Christmas goodies that I thought I would share.


Enjoy!

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Gorjuss Girls

I think I may have mentioned previously that I don't really do "cute" cards often. Well that seems to have changed slightly with the ownership of two of the Gorjuss stamp sets.... I was so impressed by the first one that I went & splurged (well not really as they are quite inexpensive) on another...Merry Christmas to me.
 
The first 3 cards here are using the same girl that I used on the Christmas card and the last one is from the new set.
 
 



 
You should have seen me agonise over choosing which one I would get...I may have to get the other sets as I am having so much fun with these little girlies.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Christmas again

Ha! I found a photo of one of the previously mentioned Christmas cards, so I can share with you yet another one...



Thursday, December 19, 2013

Through the window

I love the Memorybox window and windowbox dies and have been trying different window treatments to change them up a bit. The shutters are actually a gate that I cut up as I love finding other uses for diecuts and stamps.
 





Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Gorjuss Christmas

I guess I spoke too soon about being finished with my Christmas cards. A sweet friend gave me a set of Gorjuss stamps, so I decided to use one on a Christmas card....for her.



Remember, your stamps can be adapted for almost any occassion.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Christmas cards after all

I felt so guilty about not being able to share the other cards I had made, so I thought I would share some that I have received. I am very lucky to have so many amazingly talented crafter friends and their cards deserved to be shared with all...


This stunning card is from my friend Jenny Garlick who is on the Heartfelt Creations design team and this card certainly showcases their product and her talent.

 
This beautiful card was made by my friend Maria, with whom I used to work in our local scrapbook store. She says her forte is scrapbooking, but I think her cards are amazing too.



And finally (for now) this lovingly created card from my other Jenny friend. She has gone to a great deal of trouble to make a card that is special for a number of reasons...I love pears, I love the 12 Days of Christmas song and I love Graphic 45.

I love to make cards for special people and I also love receiving handmade cards from special people. I know what goes into the making of a mini work of art and appreciate the effort.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

A confession

I have a confession to make.... after my last post where I said I would be sharing more of the Christmas cards.... I forgot to photograph them before I sent them off on their merry way...so I apologise that that is the only one you get to see this year.
 
Hopefully next Christmas I won't be so distracted and will actually remember to take photos.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Friday, December 6, 2013

December Layout

I know that December layouts are usually Christmas based, but I went in a different direction and was inspired to do a layout about my two baby girls (when they were babies). Lots of lovely layering, flowers, butterflies and bling.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Mums Birthday

Just sharing a card I made for my Mum's birthday. I was pleased with the way it turned out, using acetate in the window and lace trim for curtains.


Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Ballet Thank You

I love making the end of year thank you card for my daughter's ballet teacher. It has to be large emough for all the students to sign, so A5 concertina is the way to go. The kids all have a great time during the year and their teacher is a real gem, so I try & make it special.

Friday, November 15, 2013

November Layout

The year is gathering momentum to it's conclusion and time is flying by. So many things happening and my poor little blog seems to be suffering a certain amount of neglect. But here at least is my November layout celebrating my oldest's achievement in becoming a school leader for her final year. We are so proud of her accomplishments and thought it deserved a layout of it's own.
 
 

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Project Life - the catchup

I had a lightbulb moment the other day, one of those great AH HA moments where everything made sense. I finally realised why I seem to always be late with the making of and posting of my PL layouts even though I am only doing it a month a layout....It is because: I AM NOT a chronological scrapbooker.
 
I never have been and I obviosly never will. I have been scrapping for 13 years now and as I think you can tell by the layouts I post, they are all over the place time-wise. I mix the here & now with  baby photos of my teenagers.
 
Having realised that, I now feel no guilt for constantly playing catchup with my Project Life layouts....so without further ado.....
 
 
Project Life - August 2013

 
Project Life - September 2013

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Friday, September 20, 2013

September Layout

I veered away from my normal style this month and ended up doing two single pages, but I kept them similar as I want them facing each other in the album. The reason... while they are two separate days, they are connected. The feelings on each day were polar opposite, but important to document (the story of the first day is written behind the photo in the file folder, but the second day's story is self evident).
 


 
I kept them very simple, in both colour and layout, but did go to some effort in the embossing of the chipboard and the cardstock. I used Tim Holtz distress embossing powder in Broken China and Enamelware with some Whisper White thrown in for good measure. I used the same colours with a TCW stencil and Versamark ink. By now the powders were mixed together and so a lot softer. I edged each page with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. The other embellishments were some Prima flowers and Kaisercraft pearls with some old rubons and date stamp.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Project Life - July 2013

Ooops I always seem to be running behind with posting my project life layouts and here we are suddenly in September and I am only just posting my July PL.

July was filled with LOTS of birthday parties and other fun stuff as school holidays were a big part of the month. I aim to post August in the near future.


Sunday, September 1, 2013

Happy Father's Day

In Australia, it is Father's day and while my dad is no longer with us, I would like to wish all the dad's out there (especially my husband) a very Happy Father's Day. Sleep in, watch sport, hang out with your kids or do whatever makes the day special for you.
 
 

Sunday, August 25, 2013

a little tip

If you are like me and have a stockpile of scrapbooking "stuff" then you may want to use your stash wisely and hopefully this little trick will come in handy.

When purchasing chipboard letters I tended to buy either raw or black or white, but as with all things there are some things that catch your eye or are perfect for a particular layout and once done you are left with letters that you really can't use.

These are the letters that I used on the August layout "before":

 
While they are a cute font, perfect for the layout, the colours were not suitable, so I grabbed my Versamark ink pad, Tim Holtz Distressing Embossing powder and heat gun and away I went. These letters would have to be about 6 years old and the adhesive on the back was coming away, so I just stuck them down on a plain piece of paper and gave a wipe over with the ink. Then sprinkled liberally (ok I dumped a whole heap) of the powder on...
 
 
 
I tapped off the excess powder back into the tub and heated. Now to be honest I usually sand shiny letters before I do this, but forgot this time, so it took a second layer to get all the letters covered, but this was the end result...
 
 
 
Then I peeled off each letter (the backing with the old adhesive was left on the paper) and attached to the layout with some adhesive after giving a light sand to distress the letters. 
 
 
I hope this encourages you to look at some of your stash and give old bits & pieces a new lease on life.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

August Layout

Time sure does fly in this busy household and so I seem to be running ever so slightly behind with posting (not to mention actually scrapbooking certain photos). I know we are still in August, but I really thought I'd have something to show you before now.




 
 

This layout is all about my youngest (now 15) on a visit to GoldenRidge Farm way back when she was about 18 ths old. I was apparently just waiting on the lovely Authentique paper and chicken wire chipboard to get going with this layout....better late than never.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Another cute Prima doll

My cute little neighbour has her birthday tomorrow, so I thought I would make a special card for her using Ruffles (she would have to be my fave Prima Doll stamp).




This little doll is based on her with lots of gorgeous red curls (thanks to Tim Holtz Distress markers, mixing colours is easy and getting definition is a breeze). The balloons were cut from Kaisercraft paper and the background is old Fancy Pants paper with little heart stamps.

I hope she has a very special day.

Monday, August 12, 2013

More Prima Dolls

I'm loving the doll stamps and went out & got a couple more- Swing & Lorrena. It's funny though I keep coming back to the first one I originally bought- Ruffle. I had a lot of fun with Swing and find she fits nicely on a standard size card.
 
I did stamp lots of Lorrena, Pockets and Riley and will show them off in coming weeks as I find the time to put them together. Enjoy.
 






Sunday, August 11, 2013

Fifty & Fabulous mini album

I had such a great birthday (back in June)that I decided to dedicate a mini album to the fun we had. I kept it very simple and used Pink Paislee and My Minds Eye paper & embellishments as I just love Rhonna Farrer's designs (she is responsible for the images in my blog header), so it only made sense to go with the fun theme. Here are some of the pages....






Now these pages are not finished, but I thought a preview might hurry me up a bit in actually finishing it....wishful thinking.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Project Life - June 2013

Here we are in August and I am only now getting around to showing you my June PL layout, funny how life sometimes gets in the way of documenting it.

June was a busy, busy month with lots of momentous events (a first love, a dislocated finger, a new phone and a 50th birthday, just to name a few) and then July was equally busy with school holidays and then a ski trip for my eldest (but that will come in the next PL post). 

 
For anyone interested I have found this really cool app (now that I have an iPhone) called "Collect" which is a useful tool if you are doing Project Life/Project 365 or just to keep track of who did what, when.
 
It is a calendar where you can link photo's to a day and make notes. These can then be printed (or not) and they look like Polaroid's, simply just cool.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Project Life - May 2013 ...take 2

I did post this layout earlier but wasn't super happy with it, so have tweaked it a bit and can move on. I suppose that is one of the good things about this system is that you can quite easily do that.
 
Funny thing is, I went back & redid it after I had done the June layout....which will follow in another post.

 

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Prima doll tags

I really LOVE the Prima doll stamps as I have mentioned in previous posts and have had fun lately creating these tags. They just make me happy.....(my absolute favourite is Doll # 12, but I am also partial to Doll 1 & Doll 7)

Doll 1

Doll 2

Doll 3

Doll 4


Doll 5

Doll 6
 
Doll 7

Doll 8

Doll 9

Doll 10

Doll 11

Doll 12
 
I loved inking and spraying the tags and then dressing the dolls and fitting the right one to the right tag and finding embellishments to finish them off. I have stamped most of them on old dictionary paper, but think I much prefer the way the ink sits on heavier weight paper.
 
You may have noticed how I mixed around some of the dresses. I love it when an image is versatile...more bang for my buck.