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??

Heart to Heart Blog Candy

"There are an estimated 5 million Americans currently affected, with another person developing Alzheimer's every 71 seconds ... By mid-century, someone will develop the disease every 33 seconds unless we do something.
Alzheimer's disease is an escalating epidemic due to our aging population. In fact, 10 million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer's disease in their lifetime". From a letter written on behalf of the Alzheimer's Association

Did you know this week people are celebrating World Alzheimer's Day? A lovely lady named Caroline King is wanting to initiate a legacy of thanks to the carers who look after so many people with this crippling disease, in memory of her own grandmother who passed away because of it. She has asked that people make a card of thanks for someone who cares for an Alzheimer's sufferer, and in return she will give that person an entry to win an enormous amount of blog candy that has been donated by all sorts of stamping companies. The total package is worth over $1,000!

If you don't know a carer for someone with Alzheimer's disease, that's OK - Caroline has supplied an address you can send your card to and you will still be able to thank someone.

I hope you have a chance to participate. Caroline has the rules on her blog and says "All entries that follow the rules will be printed out on Friday, September 26 at @ 8 PM (central time) (MY GRANDMOTHER's BIRTHDAY)."

Do let me know if you do participate! I'm going to!

Look who arrived yesterday morning?

Look who arrived yesterday morning? Baby Ethan!

Yes, that's me holding him with proud new Dad (DS2) looking on!


I am so blessed.

He's very adorable.

I quickly made a card to take with me to the hospital today.

There's just nothing like holding a new grandchild for the first time! He is so active and alert already - he arrived a little later than everybody thought he would. And his Mummy did so well (she does NOT want to be on my blog in her hospital PJs! Hence no pic of her for now!)

Isn't he adorable?

Explosion Box Album

I made a little Explosion Box Album that I haven't put photos in yet! It is so easy to make these. If you would like to know how, go to PaperCraftCentral where I have made a tutorial about these little cuties.

Incidentally, my friend Angie has a website about chocolate. She has added my little Explosion Box project to her site! You can see it at Chocolate Candy Mall. Maybe you have a chocolate party favour you could suggest for her too?

I'd also love to hear how you have used explosion boxes. Please do tell me! And have a great day!

Got Too Many Post-It Notes?

EepyBird's Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

Here's an idea....

3-d Paper Flowers!

Want to know how I made the three dimensional paper flowers for the last scrapbook page I posted? I made a tutorial for you about that and it can be found on the How to Make Paper Flowers page at PaperCraftCentral now!

Please let me know if you make any and tell me what you think o fthe tutorial, okay? Thanks!

Iris Fold Fan Cards - made this week!

I used lots of designer paper, my embossing powders, Stampin' Up! stamp sets, a paper crimper, different brads and cords and fibres to make this selection of cards this week using the Iris Fold technique. If you haven't tried Iris Folding before, there is a tutorial for you about how to make these at PaperCraftCentral!

Week 2 of Project Scrapaway

It's been a busy week! I didn't get the Week 2 challenge done till tonight! This time we were asked to do a sketch that

1. Had one photo or more
2. Had hidden journaling
3. Had stitching, by hand or machine (I added faux stitching by hand! Hope it counts!)
4. Was about a life-changing experience
5. Oh dear I cannot remember the last one!

I completed a page about becoming a new mother.That was certainly a life changing experience for me, and also for my child! You can see my 'hidden journaling' tag I am sure. I made the flowers with a heart punch and a shaping tool (tutorial on PaperCraftCentral coming soon!) and I enhanced them with Creative Memories metallic pens - silver, gold and copper. I doodled the swirls as well. Hmm you can't see the faux stitching very well in the photo, but it is all around the circle as well as on the strips of paper in front of and behind the circle.

Hope you like it!

Scrap N Craft with T's Blog Party!

Over at Scrap N Craft with T 's blog (Diary of a Scrapaholic) there's a blog party going on. The lovely Tanyah is producing some wonderful tutorials and scrapping ideas too! Come on over and join in - everyone is welcome! Here's what Tanyah says about Week 1 of the party:

"We look forward to another fun week of more prizes to be given out and will be doing a step by step class this week by our
September Guest Design Team member Sharmaine.
hav fun creating everyone
Luv TanXx"

A Scrappin' Farewell

One of my online friend's husband is in the armed forces and has been posted overseas. So we online girlfriends are making her a surprise mini album for her to take with her. Here's my page!

The specs are to use a 6" x 6" layout, include a picture of whoever makes the layout and also put in a quote about friendship. I made a tag to slip behind the layout with a personal message on it as well.

If you want to know more details about how this layout was created, copy and paste this link:

http://www.papercraftcentral.com/friendship-scrapbook.html

And if you want to know how to make the paper butterfly, copy and paste THIS link - Lol!

http://www.papercraftcentral.com/paper-butterfly.html

Week 1 Project Scrapaway

At Scrapchat we have a challenge going on for the next 10 weeks and it all got started tonight. our challenge was:

MONOCHROMATIC

Yes I want you to design a monochromatic layout with lots of tones of Blue.

Our 5 design elements needed for this challenge are:-

1. Must have at least 3 different tones of blue.
2. Must include 2 photo's.
3. Must include ribbon.
4. Must have journalling.
5. Must have a stamped image.

Remember ladies, you need to first sketch your idea and then put it into practice when you complete your layout.

Try to use all the design elements to maximise the amount of points you will receive as the winner of round one will be the one with the most points.

Please upload your sketch and layout to the gallery by 6.00pm Thursday.

We were allowed to use embellishments of different hues and to use a white or black base page if we wanted to. You can see what I came up with! This was the first time I tried sketching a layout of my own. You can see more entries here. Feel free to come on over and have a look at some of the great talent that's there.

All materials used are from Creative Memories except some of the paper flowers.

A Blinkie from Tan!

Tan from Scrap N Craft with T just bestowed this cute blinkie on me to thank me for being a Guest Design Team member for her in August! Thank YOU, Tan - it was an absolute pleasure for me :)

Tan has a 'Spring Cleaning' sale on in the month of September - do go check it out if you need to stock up!

Wordles........

......are beautiful word clouds. If you haven't discovered this free application yet, click here.

Try it with your favourite poem, song, prose passage, Bible reading, etc. You can print it out then ad use it as your own specially designed paper.

Heartsongs - a Circle Journal

What makes your heart sing? That was the topic for a Circle Journal I completed this week. It took me a long time to think of a song and of how I could do this one, though once I had made the decisions and choices, it came together pretty quickly. Do you find it works that way for you too?

Lee and Maz might notice some of their blog candy and RAKs in use here! Thank you again, my friends.

I based the pages on a 'Flutterby' kit from Kaisercraft, but all bling has been added. The song itself fits in a pocket created by the white envelopes used to make the pages for this album (how clever is that??) These CJ pages have been completed for Gypsy for a challenge over at Scrapchat.

I hope she likes them.

If you would like more information about Circle Journals I wrote something for you at PaperCraftCentral. Go here to see it!

Lee's cards

I just HAD to share the cards Lee made for me with you! I love them both and am so happy to have them - it's very special to actually have someone's inspiring work in my hands!! Thank you again, Lee. I am busy putting all that blog candy to use and will have a pic or two to show you in the next day ....

Wow! An Award!

Chrissy, thank you for awarding me!

The rules of the award are:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you’ve nominated...

I would like to pass this onto (in no particular order)

Amy,
Andrea,
Chrissie,
Lee,
Suzanne,
Lexie,
Pearl

Congratulations, everyone! Thanks for being an inspiration to me!

Blog Candy from Lee!

I was completely gob smacked to receive this box of goodies in the mail today from the lovely Lee, all the way from Colorado! I won some blog candy at Lee's wonderful Blog a few weeks ago and was honoured with choosing my first Gina K stamp set, paper piercing tool and templates Yay!) and some scrummy bling. But when the package arrived, Lee had sent me RAKs of love for me and my new granddaughter as well!!

Lee, you are a very generous and kind person to have sent me such a cornucopia of gifts! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

You sure inspired me to do some papercrafting today as well!
I've already used some of that sweet butterfly ribbon and the note paper ....more about that later!

Happy 50th!

I was over at Catherine's blog, saw her cute Suspension card and decided to follow her link to Splitcoaststampers
to find out how to make one.

It was very timely as I have a 50th birthday party to attend tomorrow, had a brand new stamp set I wanted to play with, and it all just seemed to fall together nicely! I hope the man in question likes it - he is having a surprise cowboy party, courtesy of his loving wife, daughter and friends. So this is a secret card till tomorrow night .... shh! Lol!

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

Materials list:

Stampin’ Up! Bronc Buster stamp set

Certainly Celery & glossy white cardstock

Black Stazon ink

White, copper, gold and green gel pens

Rust coloured cardstock – source unknown

Ink spot pads in cocoa, lemon yellow and green

Dental floss

Double sided tape

Black calligrapher’s pen and black fine felt tipped pen

Creative Memories gold letter stickers

Two Scoops paper pad designer paper

Thank you, Maz!

The post was especially exciting today. I received two boxes and a packet. The boxes were much anticipated - one contained an order from Stampin' Up! and I now have a cowboy stamp to make a surprise birthday card with for this Saturday. The next box was full of things I ordered from Gina K! I will be making some special little tins with what was in that box soon. And the packet was such a wonderful RAK from Maz, who taught me how to scrap those pages of DH and DS a few posts back! I just had to share it with you :)

Thank you so much for being so kind and generous, Maz! And talented too!!!!

A cute bookmark

So glad you enjoyed the Wombat Day story from yesterday! It's a bit of a giggle - I had never heard of it myself till yesterday, and I've lived here for decades :-D

I have been making some bookmarks-cum-calendars for people lately and thought I'd show you one.Chrissie showed me how to do this and even emailed me the calendar template - thank you, Chrissie! You are wonderful!

This bookmark is for a friend who won a stamp set from me over at Scrapchat this month. I just used a Stampin' Up! set from the new Spring Mini catalogue here, called 'A Beautiful Thing'. It makes this type of thing easy as all I had to do was use Versamark and black Stazon on any coloured cardstock to make pretty two-step stamped images. I enhanced a little with a green gel pen and a corner rounder, and a hand written message. The only other things I needed were the slit punch, the Crop-a-dile hole punch and some ric rak.

Of course, you can dress these up pretty much any way you would like to.

Oh - I am feeling lots better now, thank you to everyone who was concerned. I hope that's the end of the winter woes for me now.

Have a good evening, all!

Wombat Day

It's been awhile since i mentioned anything uniquely Australian, and I thought today would be a perfect day to do that.

I know some of you out there like Wombats. Imagine my surprise when I found out Australia has a day set aside especially for celebrating all things wombat! No, you haven't missed it yet. It's on October 22nd. Or maybe not since the graphic from the site actually has 2007 on it, but what's to stop us celebrating it this year on Oct 22nd anyway, I ask you?

You can read more about it here.

PS I'm thinking about decorating a card tin - will let you know if it actually happens in the near future :)

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!