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!