Gate Fold Belated Birthday

I felt like crafting today and enjoyed making this Gate-fold card as a belated birthday offering for my DD. I'm glad she knows I love her whether she receives her cards on time or not! We did speak on the phone on her actual birthday (yesterday) so I can't be that bad.

This card is also being submitted to Tan at Scrap N Craft With T as Project 2 of my Guest Design Team commitment. Most of the materials used were purchased or given to me from Tan's online shop - thank you, Tan! I had never tried shrinky dinks before. They are a lot of fun to use.

If you would like to see how I made this card, go to my PaperCraftCentral site to this page.

Materials List:

Royal blue cardstock - I made the base card with it

Basic GreyMortifica - Ochre Pattern

'Carte Postale' stamp set from Stampin' Up!

Shrinky Dinks almond

Blue & orange brads

Ribbon

Serendipity Elevation sticker (I coloured it a deeper blue)

Versacolor inks in cocoa and black

Black Stazon

Gold gel pen, black fine tipped felt pen

Gold cord

Black raffia
Stampin' Up! Rubons - A Perfect Day

Creative Memories Vellum
Corner punch from Creative Memories

Computer printed message inside

The Wylde Women Award

Thank you to Chriss for this amazingpiece of ART. It is a gorgeous award which I am not sure I deserve lately! You made my day when I saw that you had nominated me, Chriss. Pop on over to The Artist Trading Club especially if you like phenomenal ATCs. There is always plenty of inspiration there!

To pass on The Wylde Women Award, the rules are:-

1. You can give it to one or one hundred or any number in between - it’s up to you! Make sure you link to their site on your post.

2. Link back to Tammy's blog (the originator of the Award).The purpose of the Award is to send love and acknowledgement to women who brighten your day, teach you new things, and live their lives fully with generosity and joy.

So here goes (and in no particular order)…..

Lee You ALWAYS inspire me, with your wonderful creations, your funny and uplifting comments, and your willingness to share! You are so generous and I love to visit your blog, Lee.

Andrea You are always trying new things and growing all the time! Your generosity also touches me.

Suzanne What an amazing woman you are, talented in so many fields, and willing to share step-by-step instructions for your creations! I know no one whose quilts are so utterly gorgeous as yours.

Melanie Your creativity and humour never fail to inspire! What a wonderful designer you are and how well you build up suspense to surprise us all with newly minted stamps!! I love how versatile your stamps are Mel.

Nicola What a wonderful blog to visit for card making ideas and designs and for inspiration from all over the world! Thank you also for your sharing nature.

Chrissie You make some awesome cards and have such a lovely attitude to life! You're an inspiration to me, Chrissie, and to many others.

Pearl Your colours and designs are amazing! I love to see what you have made and am in awe of your talent! And you are a lovely person as well!!

Tanyah What a prolific crafter you are and what amazing pages you create. Your energy and enthusiasm shows through in all that you do!

Amanda
What a clever person you are and how wonderful are your new ventures - handmade bags! Your scrapping style is also one I thoroughly enjoy and I always see something new on your blog.

Gypsyangel Your amazing generosity and ideas for making the world a better place to be shine through in all of your actions, Gypsy. I am so grateful to have found Scrapchat The inspiration there is dazzling and it's all because of you!

Scrapchat Auction Site

Want to join a site that lets you buy and sell your papercraft items for free?

Scrapchat Craft Exchange auction site has been developed by a friend of mine specifically for scrapbookers, cardmakers and other crafts. The auction site doesn't have any fees to buy or to sell products. You are able to sell, swap or exchange all of your excess stash.

I'm a member there and I just bought three papers and am bidding on a stamp set! I'll have to think about putting some of my stash up for sale...what on Earth would I part with? Lol!

Anyway, do consider it if you are interested. It's a real advantage not having to pay for advertising especially when you may only have small amounts of something for sale :-)

The Winner Is....

Thank you for the people who had a look at my developing website PapercraftCentral.com

I have taken in board the feedback I received. It is very valuable to have it!

Now for the person who I found the most helpful? Cos there was blog candy involved in this, y'know. It IS.....

LEE!!!

Lee, you are such an inspiration to me and I love your blog. Thank you for the trouble you took to give me thoughtful feedback. I hope it shows in the page on embossing now and that I also took it on board for the new page on Masking!

Start watching the postman soon, Lee. I have just the thing for you as blog candy! Oh and that is our dog, Trixie, who is helping me to congratulate you :wink:

Engagement!

Thank you for your well-wishes, dear friends. I am feeling a little less ill today. The problem is, I can’t just have ONE health complaint – I have to have THREE AT ONCE. I have bronchitis, asthma and sinusitis right now so am not a very happy camper! All of it will go away eventually though which is the good thing. Roll on summer.

In spite of feeling icky, I have been slowly working on a very special project for Tan at Scrap N Craft With T. Tan has kindly provided me with some of her yummy products to create something as a Guest Design Team member for her this month! I am making two items for Tan to display on the front page of her shop this month. This is Project No 1.

I could think of no better way to announce the wonderful news of my DD’s engagement!

To make this card, I used an acetate base and then printed the same photo out twice to use on the front and back of the card. The rubons are Foil, Glitter and Flock ‘Flowers and Swirls’ plus Kaisercraft ‘Inspiration’ from Tan’s shop, and most of the ribbons, brads, ric rak and flowers can also be obtained from Tan. I strengthened the card by adhering layers of cardstock inside the card and making a little accordion folded stand out of some more. It was fun to try out the foil, glitter and flock items especially and I will be using them some more! I also used the lettering ON the photos (under the acrylic) and also ON TOP OF the acrylic. You get some nice little shadows that way.

I was happy with the result and it’s now on its way to my DD and her fiancé. (I’m glad you liked it too, Tan!)

If you want a great variety of papercraft items and fantastic service, do have a look at Tan’s shop! !

Hi

Just a little note to let you know I haven't fallen off the edge of the world. I am a little under the weather and haven't had any energy for crafting or reading or, well, MOVING too much! Lol! I will get better and be back here crafting again soon.

Take care, everyone.

Gina K Release party!!

Come on over to this page on Splitcoaststampers and join in the Gina K release party! It's on RIGHT NOW!



There are some gorgeous new stamp sets, one of which is helping to raise funds for cancer research.



Oh and I won Lee's lovely blog candy! I get to choose $30.00 of merchandise from Gina K's store! Thank you so much, Lee! You truly made my day!!

Would you like to know what type of fruit you are?

At Lee and Suzanne's blogs, they found a way to find out what type of fruit their personalities resemble. And here's a chance for you to find out this fascinating information for your very own self! Just go to this address and take the quiz!

I did. Here are my results:

You Are a Strawberry

You are friendly, outgoing, and well liked by many people. You are popular, but there's nothing you ordinary or average about you. You a very interesting person, and you have many facets to your personality. Sometimes you feel very conflicted. Your different sides of your personality pull at you. You are a very sensual and passionate person. You are fiery... you can't help it. In general, you keep your passionate side under wraps. You are only wild in private.

"What Type of Fruit Are You?"

Scrapchat class

Scrapchat held a great class tonight and I tried out some quite different techniques (different for me!) The designer showed us some wonderful pages she had completed and gave step-by-step instructions for how to complete our own pages, using different supplies, colours, events etc that we had chosen ourselves in the previous week. I was really pleased with how mine turned out! Of course, they were pages of two of my favourite fellas and my darling grandbaby, and I am sure that made a difference!

One thing I had not tried before was the use of paint, and I had never used paper flowers in my layouts, or buttons, chipboard or ribbons. (Well, I had used ribbons before but not very often).

Anyway, here they are for you to see. What do you think?

I will probably not make too many 'lumpy bumpy' pages in the future as I want to preserve and protect my photos in albums, and I don't think the 'extras' I used tonight will be archival quality, but it will be nice to display these for awhile. I can always reprint and rescrap the photos safely!

And I will :-)

A new card

I was playing with my Carte Postal stamp set and some embossing powder and made this card today. That is such a nice set! I enjoy using the images in it quite a lot. I embossed the central square only. Can you tell from the photo?

I used all Stampin' Up! products to make this card.

Thank you for your comment on my site, Lee. I have taken your suggestions on board and am in the process of adding a few more pictures. It is really helpful to have your feedback!

Everyone else, do remember to comment before July 31st for a chance at the blog candy!

Embossing page and some Blog Candy to win!

Well, I spent a day getting some items ready to be photographed so I could build the rest of the embossing page on PaperCraftCentral.com and it's done! Here's the card I used to illustrate some of the embossing techniques I talked about on the site. I used a Stampin' Up! set called Carte Postale - I really like this set - and gold embossing powder.

If you have some time to have a look at the page and give me some feedback on how it reads and looks, I would be really happy about that :-)

You can find the new page by going here.

What I am trying to do is provide people with a basic idea of how to make things using certain techniques. I know you lovely ladies are all experienced papercrafters and will know instantly what I am trying to show.

Thank you in advance for helping me out with this! I would like feedback in the beginning stages especially so I can get the 'tone' of the site right, iykwim.

Oh yes - The person who gives makes the most helpful comment by the end of July will be in line for a little blog candy!!

'How to'

Hi there everyone! I am sorry I haven't been as regular at posting here as I should. I am getting more organised every day and yesterday I actually had a desk to craft on! Lol!

I have managed to spend a bit more time on my developing website. It isn't much yet but I am concentrating on putting together some very basic tutorials about how to make things, techniques etc. I have some pictures to put up there soon and then will ask you for some feedback.

Watch this space! a chance at some Blog candy could happen shortly!

Have a great day :-)

A Real Bug and a Noisy Miner for you

I'm glad some people enjoyed the little beetle on my card two posts ago. Yesterday in the Park I had a chance to capture a real bug on film for you. It is such a pretty thing. Pity it stinks so much when you touch it, according to two ladies I was with. I didn't try to prove it by touching it to see if it would stink! It seems to be a variety of Harlequin Bug but I am willing to be corrected if wrong.

And the Noisy Miner (also known as a Mickey Bord or a Soldier Bird) was quite cooperative about hanging around over our heads as we lunched. He was just looking for a moment when we turned our heads away from the food so he could swoop in and pick up a few crumbs. I was going to get a picture of a Scared Ibis too but they weren't as cooperative about posing yesterday, though they were terribly interested in our lunch as well.

I'm on a Design Team! (Well, as a Guest!)

I was so chuffed to be asked to create two projects for Scrap N Craft as a guest DT member!

I'll have to put my thinking cap on. I just ordered some of Tan's lovely craft supplies to work with and will post what I do here eventually. The projects don't need to go on display till August so I will have some time to consider....

How nice to be asked though!

Thank You!

Today a lady I know from Scrapchat is coming by and driving me alllll the way to the South Coast to meet other Scrapchat women and have a BBQ. I wanted to thank her for her kindness so totally CASEd (copied and stole everything!) from a card Amy sent me awhile back. I used the Garden Whimsy and Occasional Greeting stamps, Not Quite Navy and Black Stazon ink, and the papers are from the Soft Subtles range, all from Stampin' Up!. It's the first time I have used my new SU! Scallop Punch too - I like it! And the circle punches were from Creative Memories.

Winter

Today at Scrapchat we were challenged thus:

Your task is to use a photo with a distinct season feel. for example, a photo of you in a bikini at the beach may obviously mean 'summer' ; a photo of you with jumpers/jackets/beanies gloves etc is quite likely to be a WINTER photo yes? lol.

Your title needs to be the season appropriate to your photo. Also I'd like to see something different with regard to colours. if it's a winter LO - go easy on the blue...summer - let the yellow go ! lol ... kwim? I do not mean you can't use it at all....just try not to let the 'obvious' colours take over.....



So I had to find a 'seasonal' pic, and remembered one I had been meaning to do something with. It was taken an eon ago in another world. I just loved that parka (coat) that made me look like a fuzzy teddy. A sign of things to come! LoL!

And here I thought I would be scrapping a page for Abbey as my first scrapped page in our new home.

That will happen soon now that I've found all my gear! He he he!

Edited: Pine Point is now a ghost town. It was a mining town in NWT, Canada in the 1960s and into the 1970s and when we were there, it had about 500 people in it. I actually found Pine Point on Google Earth once by searching diligently. It is located 12 miles south of the Great Slave Lake, 60 miles east of Hay River. You can still see the basements of houses that were concreted over by the mining company when the houses were moved and the town was closed.

An Award!

Jaqi has kindly nominated me for an award! Thank you, Jaqi.

I would like to pass this award on to:

Suzanne cos she's so creative and diverse with her crafts
Lee cos she is an amazing crafter and encourager
Andrea cos she tries new things and keeps on getting better!
Chrissy cos she is so inspiring
Chrissie cos she is so talented with her cards

Congratulations!

She's Asleep

My daughter-in-law kindly let me have a picture of Abbey while she was asleep. Shhh!

Grandchild

After some delay, I finally have a picture of us holding our first grandchild to show you. After looking at the shots I realised there were none of her face. She slept throughout this momentous encounter with her new grandparents, but did we care? Nope. Not a bit. It might have frightened her to see how tired we looked anyway - we had been on the road for three days after all! (Boy, does it show!!)

It was wonderful just to finally 'meet' her.

I'm baaaack!

Hi all - have just this evening been able to reconnect to the Internet and am amazed at the number of emails (540!!!!) I have! (a lot of them were spam of course). I need to spend some time on the legitimate ones but will be back here again before too long with some pictures. I am still not quite set up to craft yet but every day I get closer to finding everything and organising it. We moved in to our new house a week ago and I still have a few dozen boxes to unpack. My study looks like the box room as I have been working on getting the kitchen, bedrooms, pets, laundry, books and bathrooms all sorted out. Today DH and I went to one of the new job sites we have to inspect and make quotes on the work we will do for them. Work starts on Monday (shock!) so I really want the house to be functional before then, so I can get soem craft time in at least!

I've missed being here!

Will be around to visit you all as soon as I have tamed the emails!