Stamping with Bleach

Do you like learning new stamping craft techniques? I do! I found a page on SplitCoastStampers that tells how you can stamp with bleach, and the card shown today is the result of my playing.

I have made a page about how to stamp with bleach over at PaperCraftCentral. If you have never tried it, it's an easy technique to learn and just might extend the uses you have for your stamps. (To say nothing of finding a better use than housework for household bleach!! Lol!)

Have fun and if you do make a card by stamping with bleach, why not upload it to PaperCraftCentral? I'd love to see it!

Happy Stampin'!

It's Officially the End of Summer!

It's March 1st - the end of summer in Oz! Time to get ready for cooler weather.

With that thought in mind, I decided this year is the year I will learn how to quilt. Yes, quilt! I have wanted to know how it is done for years, and now is my chance. I have a few fat quarters cut into hexagons, lots of hexagon card shapes, and have started tacking I'll show you as the project progresses. Oh, I'm not making a whole quilt on my own just yet. Some other ladies at church are learning too, and we are all making blocks that will be sewn into the one quilt and it will be given away at the end :)

That doesn't mean I have given up papercrafting!! I made a double layout this week for a friend's circle journal. She wanted to know about our home towns, and I would never have thought to do a layout like that if I hadn't been asked. It was fun to do. I learned some things about my birth city that I didn't know before! Has anybody else reading this scrapped about their home town? I'd love to know how yours turned out.

I'm working on another circle journal for a friend who wants to know about something I count as a favourite - 'Your favourite whatever." That one is going to be about chocolates! Surprise, surprise!

And I have a card swap to create for - the cards are about Love.

Once I get my camera and me together with the papercrafts I am working on, I will post again :) Just wanted you to know I am still around, still up to my elbows in paper and ink and glue...

Is anyone on Twitter? I just started Twittering this week too. Put an 'lhl 'after my first name to find me if you want :)

Handmade Help

How's everyone going today? We're doing fine in our corner of Queensland, while a lot of the rest of the country isn't. The bushfires in the south are still raging and the needs of people who have lost everything are starting to bite. The website I am featuring today is a palce you can go to find out what the real needs are in case you can help at all. Just click on the image to go to the site.

Thank you for all your support. And stay safe.

Spread the Love Award

Thank you so much for thinking of me for this award Hannah! You are too kind :)

Hannah also told me The rules for passing this award on: you must post the award on your blog, name the person who awarded you, then pass the award to 6 other bloggers and leave a message on their blog that they've received the award.

My 6 nominees are........

1. Jaqi
2. Lee
3. Suzanne
4. Pearl
5. Lexie
6. Grace

Handmade Wrapping Paper

Have you ever run out of gift wrap at a critical time? Or do you just want to personalise your own wrapping paper, making a special looking gift for a special someone? That's what did this Valentine's Day - I made my own handstamped paper! My husband was so surprised!

I made a page about how to make your own wrapping paper at PaperCraftCentral.com, in case you would like to make your own and would like to see the nitty gritty 'how to' details - lol!

Oh by the way - is anyone wondering what I wrapped here? It was a gift for my hubby. Can you tell what it was?

More Faux Metal Cards

Once I started using the faux metal technique, it was hard to know where to stop! Lol! I had a lot of fun with this and made some thank you cards as well as another Valentine's Day card. I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I did making them. And if you do decide to make some faux metal cards yourself, why not write to me at PaperCraftCentral and I will showcase them!

Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! Have you got your card for your special someone organised yet? I am always a 'last minute' or 'just in the nick of time' girl and finally got one done today. I used the Faux Metal technique with a shallower cut stamp and got a sort of molten look - lol! I like it. I cut the heart out a little wobbly on purpose as there were some parts of the stamp that showed better that way. It's not really dripping embossing powder off the image!! The embossing powder is red with gold glitter dust in it - woo hoo!

I plan to wrap up a large Lindt chocolate-orange bar as well and write something suitably sweet inside the card. Do you think he'll like it??

Happy Valentines Day, ladies!

A Disaster Update and a Twinchie

DISASTER UPDATE:
Well, the fires are slowly becoming tamed. There are five still burning tonight which is a vast improvement on the first week of fires. Thank you to everyone who has sent messages of support. Let's pray that ALL of the fires are extinguished soon.

There's also good news about the flood victims. Food trucks are getting through so the supermarkets are being re-stocked. And people are able to start concentrating on cleaning up and starting again.

TWINCHIE:
I promised you a craft project and here it is! Remember the little Twinchie I made awhile ago? Well, I have written a page about it at PaperCraftCentral. Just in time for Valentine's Day! Oh - and I plan to give you another example of a Valentine's Day project tomorrow :)

Till next time!

Want to help the fire victims in a Scrappy way? "Memory Gifts" is one way...

I found someone who has discovered a way to help people who have lost all of their photos in fires. Here's the link to Sarah's blog in case you would also like to help in a scrappy way:

http://sares1911.wordpress.com/

Sarah explains it this way:

"I feel for those families in the Victorian regions devasted by fire this week. I can’t help but feel frustrated at the limited amount we are able to do from here to help. I can donate money but I felt the need for something more tangible to be done for those families who have literally lost everything.

As scrappers, one of the most important things we deal with on a daily basis are memories. Family memories, memories of loved ones, memories of holidays, birthdays, christenings, bbq’s and days at the beach. These families in Victoria have got no tangible evidence of their lives left. No family photos. No happy snaps. You can replace a fridge, but you can’t replace years of momentos.

In order to help out these family begin to put their lives back together I have started a scrapbooking plan - called “MEMORY GIFTS”.

Quite simply, I ask each and every one of you who read this blog to donate a 12 x 12inch almost completed scrapbook LO to the “Memory Gifts” program. Each page will be sent to me. I will collect them and bind them, then hand them over to the head of Pastoral Care for the Victorian Catholic Education Office, Maria Kirkwood in Melbourne. It will not be just Catholic families benefiting, it will be anyone who needs it. The albums will then be distributed to the principals of the 4 schools that burned down, who will know exactly who to give them to.

Each family devastated by fire will be (in time) given album pages to help them begin their memories again. Those families can then approach their own families for copies of photos to put into the albums, or simply start putting in fresh memories."

Do follow the link to Sarah's blog and send her a message to get her address if you would like to help this way. I plan to and already have someone else who has pledged to do so. Let's see how many pages we can get together between us! Please let me know if you make and send some pages for this cause by posting here.

Thank you!

Update on the Disasters

I feel like an amateur news reporter these last few days :)

The fires are still burning but gradually being brought under control. There are 181 confirmed dead now, with more expected to be found.

People are responding wonderfully to the various appeals in place to help both people and animals affected by the fires. $31,255,562 has been collected in donations so far! That's wonderful. There are over 750 houses burned down and over 3,000 homes affected by floods, so the appeal is important. Government and corporations are also stepping up and giving significant support. If you are in Australia and shop at Coles, they are going to donate ALL of their profits if you shop on Friday this week!

The story about this wild koala is most touching and amazing, as they never go near human beings like this normally.

If you want to know how to help the animals, Wildlife Victoria has organised an appeal.

Volunteering to help is also a possibility, for people in Australia.

The floods in FNQ are receding so people are returning to ther homes and communities for the massive cleanup. There is significant disease risk as there are sewerage leaks - eww.

We're still doing fine in our area. The rain is heading towards us today but no floods are expected.

On a more everyday level, I am having a scrapbooking class this afternoon here at home. Imagine the scrapbooks people will be able to create after the disasters are over and done with, and only the photos and memories remain. This is one of those times where I am so glad to know about scrapbooking as it can be such a way of processing hard experiences and bad memories for people. It can be very therapeutic to create a book of memories, allowing you to tie things together in a way that makes sense, and allowing you to deal with what actually happened.

I hope some of the traumatised people can eventually be helped by the process of scrapbooking and the sharing that goes with it when you make your scrapbook with a group of caring friends....

Take care, all. XX

Bushfire and Flood News

Thank you so much for your concern, my friends. Colin and I are still safe and are far away from the fires and floods. The fires are still burning and the death toll is at 173 today, and expected to rise. The static picture I've given you here shows where the fires are today. Here is a movable fire map so you can see where the blazes are controlled and where they are not.

To get an idea of the size of Australia, think of the lower 48 US states, turn that upside down, and overlay it on Australia. It just fits.

On the movable map, if you follow the east coast up to where Australia bulges out the most, you will find Brisbane and just north of that, Caboolture. That is where I am.

Keep going up the coast to where the coast starts to be verticle, and you will see Cairns, and inland from that, Atherton. That's where I used to live and all along the coast up there south to Ingham is also where the floods are happening. Thankfully, the waters are receding up there now but they will need to work very hard to clean everything up. I don't know if you have ever had flood water through your house, but it is pretty smelly, muddy and ugly. There's over 3,000 homes affected by the floods in the north and down south, over 750 houses burnt in the fires.

Sorry to be so depressing, but the mood over here is a little like that right now. We're also a caring country where people will get up and get going to help, so we will be alright.

Some of you have been so kind and caring, and have asked how to help. If anyone wants to know about a charity taking funds for disaster relief, try the Australian Red Cross.

This story about the experiences of one family who barely escaped with their lives really touched me.

Thank you on behalf of those who cannot thank you themselves right now.

I'll be back papercrafting very soon!

Black Saturday in Australia

Everyone here seems to be in shock. Victoria is experiencing the worst bush fires in living memory. The death count is horrible - 131 are dead today and more than 700 houses are burnt, and whole communities have been wiped out. The fires are still raging.

Up North where I used to live, vast areas are covered in flood waters and the monsoonal rain is still coming down. Flood waters have receded a little but they still have roads cut and supplies are not getting through. There are loads of people being evacuated, but no deaths known up north. A little five year old boy is missing, presumed taken by a crocodile though.

I am safe. I am living about half way between the disasters, in comfort. I do have friends and relatives in both the north and the south, and they are also safe.

Thank you for your concern. My heart goes out to the victims and the people left with nothing. One couple were rescued clutching a burnt photo album between them, and they have nothing else....

An Award from Michelle!

How lovely to be thought of for this pretty award! Thank you, Michelle. Please do visit Michelle's blog and leave her a comment - she is a new blogger and a great crafter :)

Now I want to pass on this award to all of you who visit me. Please do accept it as you come on by! And thank you for visiting me! XX

A Portrait

Here's another little offering for you - an 8 x 8 display of my DD! Isn't the little frame cute? It's from Creative Memories and I just love it. I stamped on this LO and popped the little butterfly up at the bottom. I love the chocolate coloured frame with this paper and the photo. The corner bits are chocolatey magnets :)

Chocolate! Mmmmmmm!

Too bad I'm trying to shed some weight after an over-indulgent Christmas! Otherwise I would go find me some rich, dark chocolate. Lol!

Accordion Album Page

How's the New Year going at your place? I'm getting back into the swing of things at last!

I decided to take up a challenge and scrap a page about a significant birthday.
I also wanted to fit heaps of photos on one page. I used an accordion album to do this. You can see from the pictures how it is done - all I did was fold up a piece of cardstock and use each flat surface as a picture area! You could make your accordion longer or shorter. Attach more cardstock folds for a longer album, but bear in mind that will make it thicker when it is folded up. How thick a page can your album take? LoL!

I have the layour in a magnetic frame right now and once I put it in my album, I will cut a piece out of the page protector so the album can still be unfolded by any viewers. I'll need a little flat clip for it or maybe I can make a little 'clip' out of cardstock by using a circle or other shape and my slit punch - hmmmm! I'll let you know what I decide!

Twinchies!

For all of you who guessed about Twinchies, you were so right! Lol! Twinchies are two inch square works of art! I used one on a card I made to show how they can be used. Of course, you can use them fro anything you lik e- they are just pretty embellishments for any scrappin' or cardmaking project :)

I've noticed some of you have new avatars and they look GOOD! I must update mine soon. It's a new year, after all, right? Hmm. Maybe this 'ol blog could use some redecorating too.

OK I have those things on my 'to do' list!

Hope you're having a great day!

Paper Balls

I was asked how to make a paper ball this week. The only trouble was, it had to be one you could make without using any adhesive. I was stumped for a minute, then I remembered my school days and all the folded paper balls we made and filled with water to throw at each other! Lol! Who would have thought that a schoolyard plaything could become a lovely papercraft one day? Not me!

Well, I had to remind myself how to make these, and then I thought, why not make them out of designer paper? I was really pleased with the way this one turned out.

Just in case you want a reminder of how to make them too, I wrote a few details down for you :)

Have you got any other ways for using these to decorate, other than to string them up in groups somewhere for a pretty effect?

Hope you're having fun!

Inchies!

Aren't these little pretties just beautiful? I collected most of these in a swap and I must say, I love them all. Each one has personality and each one is so different, yet when I put them together on a page they all form a powerful whole.

If you have never tried making inchies before, here's some instructions about how to get started.

Oh and do you remember which inchies on this board are the ones I made? There are three of them!


I'll be showing you how to make Twinchies pretty soon - he he - can you tell me what they are??

Hope you're having a great New Year so far :)

Hugs!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I trust you will have far more Ups than Downs in the year 2009, and that we will all be able to find the time and space to craft with inspiration, and continue to help and encourage each other in the wonderful world of paper crafting!

All the very best to you, your family and friends. See you with some new craft projects soon - some pages for a circle journal on tips and techniques, a decorated OTP clock, some ATCs, new cards - I have a LOT to show you and will be getting all this organised soon. I'm just enjoying a little break, but I'll be baaaaack! :)

Merry Christmas!

I wish all of you a lovely Christmas. It has been great to have you all visiting and being able to visit your wonderful blogs in return all this year. Thank you for all the fun and sharing!

May 2009 be a good year for you and your family, one that contains lots of creativity and paper crafting days!

Decorating Candles

How are you doing with getting ready for Christmas? It's all 'go' here! Tonight I needed a little gift to put in a box I am giving away tomorrow, and I remembered how easy it is to personalise your own candles. So I went ahead and made one!

The details for how to decorate candles are at PaperCraftCentral, if you would like to know how to make some yourself. It's really easy and quick, and not expensive either!

Oh and I used the Stampin' Up! stamp set "City of David" to embellish this candle.

If you want some more ideas for last minute handmade Christmas gifts, I have put a few together for you.

ArticlesBase is a free, online articles directory if you have ever thought about publishing an article or two yourself :)

WARNING: I assume you know all this, but just in case.....Candles decorated with tissue should not be burned unless you place them in a hurricane lamp or similar for safety in the event that the tissue catches on fire, and please, NEVER burn ANY candle and leave it unsupervised!

Apparently there is a candle safe product available for stamping on. I am attempting to find it. If you hear of this product, would you please leave me a link or a comment so I can find it too?

Thanks in advance! Stay safe!

An Invitation and Challenge

Jaqi is delighted that more people could come visiting Dottie's blog. It helps her write the stories if she has lots of people reacting. She wrote to me from England about how much she appreciates people visiting, and sent this invitation and challenge along as well:

"If anyone would like to design a little flat doll I would be happy to add to the little family. The sizes needs to be 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" approximately, and I need a black and white image so I can colour her or him differently to look as though it looks like changes of clothes.

That would be fun if we had friends from all over the world !
cheers
Jaqi x"

So if it interests you to create a new character for Jaqi, a character who will be included in Dottie's adventures, adventures that you could read to your small friends, children or grandchildren, then please do have a go!

EDITED: By the way, Dottie is a PAPER doll, so please don't think you have to sew to be in the challenge, Tanyah!

Definitely Dottie

Oh my, what adventures Dottie gets up to! If you haven't met her yet, she has her own blog, courtesy of Jaqi who keeps and an eye on her and helps us follow along with what happens to her.

Jaqi, I take my hat of to you. You are an amazing story teller!! And paper crafter and friend, too!

Dottie's adventures are especially interesting lately because she has a new friend, from Australia of all places. Her name is Poppet.

But don't let me spoil all the surprises and news! DO go read about Dottie's adventures yourself and tell her I sent you, OK?

Kreativ Blogger Award

What a beautiful award I received from Tanyah today! Thak you so much for the encouragement and kind words, and for helping me along my ceative journey, Tan. If you haven't checked to Tanyah's amazing work, please do go have a look - you will not be disappointed!

Now it is my turn to choose some awesome creative bloggers!.....I gave out eight awards just the other day so this time I have awarded five new people. You know I love ALL of your blogs!!

The Rules for the Kreativ Blogger Award are :
1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to their blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

Tammy
Ness
Andrea
Chelle
Yillup

Paper Pierced Card

It's getting closer to Christmas every day, so I've been thinking about some designs for this year. I used the star template Lee kindly sent me for this one and it worked really well! Thank you again for your generosity, Lee!

This little star template (I posted a pic of it too) cannot be found in Australia! Well, I haven't found it here anywhere and I was looking for ages. It's actually a sewing notion in the USA. Lee sent me a circle and a square too. They are great!

So if anyone reading this has a craft importing business, I reckon you'd do well to look for some of these little beauties and let paper crafters know you have them!!

What is a Rub On?

Thanks for asking about what rub ons are, Grace. I plan to place some pictures up soon to show how they work. They are like transfers, decals or a form of stickers.

Nardi, thank you for asking about the quality of home-made rub ons. The end result of making your own rub ons is good - they may turn out to be a little softer or less defined than regular store-bought ones, but I like that look :)

It depends on the quality of your printer, I guess.

The other advantage to using your own Rub Ons is that you can get them to say exactly what you want them to! No need to keep hunting for just the right words in a shop! You can personalise your message without any fuss!

My PC is having some problems as I have an older operating system, and I have yet to work out how to download and edit pics from my camera on the laptop. I will do that very soon (today I have a scrap booking workshop here at home so am preparing for that!) and will show you how the rub ons turn out, OK?

Proximity Award!

"This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY -nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

Jaqi kindly gave me this award. You should visit her blog and the one she has made about Dottie! Jaqi knows how to tell a story and I can't wait to find out what happens to Dottie next.

Now to pass on this award. It's hard to choose between my blogging friends and I am only allowed to choose eight, so here goes:

Lee

Suzanne

Pearl

Grace

Chrissy

Nardi

Kim

Lexie

Make your own Rub Ons

Got some acetate or OHP sheets? Another thing I wrote about today is a way to custom make your own rub ons with not much more than that!

Paper Topiary Tree

The weather is continuing to be unpredictable. Today it was so hot and muggy it was hard to stay cool. They are predicting more storms, hail, winds etc for tomorrow. My brother has come to stay for a few days straight from central Queensland where they also had very destructive hail and storms. He said the hail there got to be 7cm (3.5") in diameter, which is pretty scary hail!

Well, the other 'storm' is that my PC does indeed have a virus, and I am relying on the laptop till it is fixed. Maybe tomorrow I will figure out how to upload photos from my camera to the laptop, then to edit them in a different and unfamiliar program. Maybe!

In the meantime, I decided I could show you how I made this artificial (paper) topiary tree. It really is quite easy and I think it makes a lovely holiday or special occasion decoration! Make it in any colours you choose. Here's where you can find the step-by-step instructions.

Hope you have fun with this!

Storms and the PC

We are having some amazing storms lately. This week it has stormed twice already. They are calling the first storm we had a cyclone, though it lasted only half an hour in our area. It was strong enough to lift a large aviary off a paved area under cover and shift it several feet! It was strong enough to pick up our garden furniture and dance it around the back yard! It was even strong enough to derail a freight train in our town!!!

My poor delicate little pansies were battered and there was a mini-flood that has saturated the ground in the back yard. I'm doubly glad I took pictures and made a slide show of the flowers before they were battered.

Tonight we had a wonderful display of sheet lightning, then forked lightning, then heavy rain. Our power went off for half an hour, the dog was cowering under our feet, but we managed to find plenty of candles to light our way. It's all good now, and we weren't too concerned at the time. Other people in our city didn't fare so well though - there are roofs off in a couple of suburbs and some people were hit by both storms this week, to their sorrow and their property's detriment.

To add to all this, my PC is on the blink and is behaving badly. I cannot upload photos or get to some websites, even on the laptop. Tomorrow I plan to have the PC and the laptop checked out.

To tease you, a card class I held on Wednesday was a lot of fun, so when I am able I will upload some more images of what we made :) Oh and I have wonderful shots of some things made at last weekend's craft retreat!

More later.......

Candy Bar Favors or Chocolate Bar Sliders

Have you seen any of the chocolate bar sliders people have been making these days? I have been admiring them and decided it was high time I had a go at making some. I Wound up making a few of them in different colours with different decorations on them, and thought i would share some with you. Here's a picture of one of them :)

I wrote out some instructions for making them and have shown a couple of other variations of the slider wrappers over at PaperCraftCentral. I found some cute little kangaroo chocolate bars to use, too!

If you get a chance to make some, please do let me know how they turn out!

Morayfield flowers

Our flower garden is looking so sweet I just had to take some pictures of it for you today. Don't they look nice?

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams

It is a hot and humid day so when the bell rang and I realised a delivery truck was here, I was very happy for the diversion! The delivery man left a box on my doorstep, which contained a beautiful new 8 x 8 'Everyday Display' magnetic, framed board. I just had to try it out immediately.

I just love how my DD looks in this frame!

Candy Bar Cards

"
I found out about a new way to make a splash for people celebrating significant birthdays - make them a Candy Bar Card! My friend Angie at Chocolate Candy Mall described how to make these to me awhile ago, and today I made one for a friend who was turning 60. That's a significant birthday! I took this one with me to our dinner out with our friend and people seemed to find it quite amusing :)

If you would like to see how I made this, I have written the instructions out over at PaperCraftCentral. Let me know if you make one of these, OK? I'd love to see how you use your chocolate bars!

And if you cannot read what I have written on the card, here are the words I used:

"Dear Bob

We know you need a BOOST now the CRUNCH(ie) has come and you have reached that (cherry)RIPE old age of 60, so here’s some advice. Take some TIME OUT to DREAM. Go on PICNICS with the (Turkish)DELIGHTful love of your life. Be (cara)MELLOW and try not to FLAKE when out with friends.

Happy Birthday to our OLD FAVOURITE friend. Have a CADBURY DAIRY MILK CHOCOLATE day!

Love from your pseudo sibling and his wife, Colin & Susan XXX"

See, DH and Bob look so much alike people mistake them for brothers. That's why I call them the Pseudo Siblings! LoL!

Thank you, Nancy

Nancy is Karen Russell's sister. She found my tribute to Karen and is passing it on to her - how wonderful is that? I had thought my little page would be overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and love to this family from around the world, and would most likely not be found by them, but it was. I am glad they know that others find them inspiring and are praying for them and thinking of them all during this difficult time.

Nancy is a papercrafter too and she has another blog about papercrafts. Go have a looksee - you'll be delighted with her work!

A Tribute to an Inspiring Woman - Karen Russell

Some of you may have visited Karen Russell's blog over the last few months and years. She is a scrapbooking lady too. She has shown remarkable strength and faith in the face of some awful personal challenges - one of her four sons contracted brain cancer as a teen and this week, he sadly lost his battle for life. When Scrapchat set a challenge to make a page about an inspiring woman who I had never met in person, who else could I choose but Karen.

Karen, if you ever see this, I hope it brings you a small measure of comfort to know you are an inspiring person. I hope you will take this as my tribute to your sorrow and loss.

Theatre Box

This past week I have had a little more time for scrapbooking, something I do miss when I don't get my 'fix'! My daughter is in theatre and I decided it was high time she had a Theatre Memorabilia Box. She was in a play just the last month and I was able to attend one of the productions, where she was Olive in the female version of The Odd Couple. Olive is the messy one! LoL!

I recently purchased a lovely memorabilia display box from Creative Memories and thought it would be ideal for her acting work to be displayed. The outside of the box is a magnetic, cloth covered display board. Inside it is also magnetic and crossed with ribbons. On the third panel there is a lovely big pocket, a hook, and an elastic strap for holding bulky items in place. All of it can be hung on a wall. I placed an album inside this box and as DD is in a production, I plan to do pages about it, then place them in the album when more productions take place.

Think it will work?

I like it quite a lot :) Clever Creative Memories!

Watercolor Technique

Just when I think I won't have time to craft, I get some time! Yay!

I've been experimenting with cards for Christmas (I know I'm not alone! Lol!) and came up with some watercolored cards using the Stampin' Up! stamp set called "City of David". I thought they looked nice. There's some embossing and paint daubing going on in there too. I outlined how I made them on PaperCraftCentral if you would like to know more!

In Australia there is no snow at Christmas so I am always looking for ways to make cards that go with the season here. I like the effect of the starlight glittering on the sand in this image. I don't know if you can see it or the glittery stars either, but in real life you can!

Hope you like these!

Baby Cards

Well, I managed to get some crafting done quicker than I thought I would! I put together a page on PaperCraftCentral about some of the baby cards I have made in the past. I remembered a twin card idea I had used before and have shown you how to make a baby bundle embellishment too :) The original idea came from mom5boys at SplitCoastStampers.

Aren't they cute??

I hope you enjoy looking at my cards!

Grins and greetings! Oh and a RAK and prayer request.

Hi all - just thought I had best post a comment so you know I am still among the land of the living - lol! I have been busy working with my hubby in our andyman/home maintenance business learning new things that have nothing to do with paper crafting, which is kind of sad but surprisingly I am also enjoying the experience.

We just accepted several new jobs and they are huge, so now I go off to work with hubby every day. I now know how to operate a ride-on mower, clean a swimming pool, and use a push mower and leaf blower! I never thought I would enjoy this kind of work having been at desk jobs all my life till now, but it is like a sea change so far.

I will not be giving paper crafting up! I just need to work out when I can have time to craft given the new physical labour and excess of sun each day making me want to fall into bed earlier than usual...

Happy note: I received some beee-OO-tiful altered brads inthe mail from some crafting friends today. I will have to photograph and show you a few! Give me a few days and I will do just that :)

In the meantime, the lovely and compassionate and talented Lee has posted something amazing about an inspiring family. If you would like to help them, please go on over and read about it. Prayers and RAKs help so much...

Have a lovely day!

Altered Brads

Hi all - I'm back! I had a wonderful week away visiting my family and watching my DD perform in a play. She was Olive in "The Odd Couple" and I think she did a marvellous job!

I loved being away yet it was also lovely to come home.

While I was away, I did a little experimenting with altering brads for my paper craft projects. Have you ever done that? It's quite good fun! I wrote up how I did it at PaperCraftCentral, of course!

I plan to visit lots of blogs over the next few days to see what you have all been busy creating!

Stamp Positioner

I'm so glad some of you enjoyed the silly pictures I put up last post! I hope you also are brave enough to try out a new look and share it! He he!

On another topic, have you ever used a stamp positioner? I know you probably have, if you are a card maker. But if you have never used one or would like a few tips about how to get the best use out of them, I wrote a page about them on PaperCraftCentral and also linked to a video by Kristina Werner for a demonstration on how best to use them. You can check it out here.

I'm working on some cards and altered brads for a couple of swaps so I will post some new projects up in a day or so :)

Take care, everyone!

Yearbook Photos

Oh my - if you need a good giggle this site just might do it! Thanks to Chriss I had a lot of fun trying out the different looks this evening and just had to share the link! Here are the ones I am willing to share - LOL!!

From left to right and top to bottom, they are from the years 1954, 1968, 1970 and 1984. I look like my grandmother in 1954, myself in 1968 and 1984 and I'm not sure who in 1970!!


What a hoot!

Let me know if you upload some pics so I can come visit you too :)

Hot Glue Guns!

How do you use your hot glue gun? Do you have a picture of something you have created with yours? How about sharing it on PaperCraftCentral? You can now publish comments on some of the pages there and I am planning on making it possible to share even more!

I'd love to see anything you have created!! It would help others to see what can be done as well. So feel free to upload a comment/pic on the glue gun page at PaperCraftCentral, OK?

Hope your day has been a happy one. XX

Who's special in your life?

The Week #4 Scrapaway Challenge at Scrapchat is this:

BUTTONS & LACE

Our 5 design elements needed for this weeks challenge are:-

1. Your layout must have at least one piece of lace on it and at least one button.
2. You need only one photo on this weeks layout.
3. Your layout must have a title.
4. Your layout must have a journalling block of some sort.
5. You must scrap about someone who is older then you and who you have a great amount of respect for..

So I chose my wonderful mother's picture - it's from the 1950s. Doesn't she look gorgeous? I didn't want to make the layout very complicated as my mother has never been a lacy, decorative person - she likes things more classical and she does have a clean, smooth style.

The paper is from Creative Memories. The lace and button are from my stash :)

If you have never tried drawing your own scrapbook page layouts, why not give it a go? There's a page I wrote about how to get started on PaperCraftCentral.

ATCs 'explained'

Have you ever made an ATC or two or twenty? I have just been making some for Chrissy over at Artist Trading Cards and Me There's always a challenge going at Chrissy's blog and all are welcome to join in!

If you would like to know more about these fascinating little projects, there's a bit more information on my website

I'll definitely be making more of these! There's something compelling about them :) I used paint on the backgrounds of these, and doodled, and scrumpled up copied sheet music then distressed it with inks, and I kind of distressed the strawberries and their mounting papers too...there's plenty of metallic pens used on these ATCs. And I used Crystal Effects to make the berries look a little dewy. What do you think??