Textured Flower Card

One of the challenges at the Stampin' Out Alzheimer's Fundraiser was to create a card that had a flower with texture. I decided to use chipboard and to dress my flower in craft ink, flocking powder and Kindy Gitz! It really has some dimension in real life! Lol!

The SOA crop is nearly over and i have been enjoying it very much. I hope you have enjoyed looking at the entries I made too :)

If you would like to know how I made the flower, you can see step-by-step instructions for it on PaperCraftCentral.

Cupcake Box

The Stampin' Out Alzheimer's crop is going well! (See widget to the right of this post for a chance to join in by donating to the cause). I finished my cupcake box last night. A lady named Kelleigh Ratzlaff gave us the template and I can see this being a sweet little gift box to give to people full of candy or a piece or two of jewelry or as a party favour box or anything else you can think of :) You can put a good handful of SOMEthing in it! Lol!

The crop finishes tomorrow but man are there some good free giveaways available to people who donate, especially in the digi line.

I'm working on another challenge - will post that when it is ready.

Happy carfting!

Stampin' Out Alzheimers

Would you like to contribute to a good cause and have some fun at the same time? PaperCraftPlanet is having a cyber crop for people who donate to their cause, Stampin' Out Alzheimers, this week. The video in this post explains. I'll be joining in where I can! Why not meet me there?

EDITED: There's a Stampin' Out Alzheimers widget in the right hand column of my blog - just click on the link to go to the donation page. When you make a donation, you will be sent a password to the cybercrop page. They are trying to raise $5,000 for the cause this week :) Thanks for your support!

Flood Rains Break the Drought

The drought is over. It has been pretty wet here this week, so much so that roads have been blocked, houses and land flooded, and people urged to stay home where they can. We had our share of rain and there's more to come. Wednesday our little creek cut off the road to our house for awhile and there were streams down both sides of my house but really we are safe and well. I kept our little old (14 yo) dog (pictured) and two old cats inside for the day on Wednesday. I might need to do that again today as the storms are building up again. You can see where the rainwater ran down the side of the house (yes, our neighbours still have their icicle lights Christmas decorations up - icicles? In Qld??) and where the water got up to on the back fence. It floated my pine bark mulch clear away and out of the yard.

Elsewhere in South East Queensland and in northern NSW we have had significant flooding. If you want to see some pictures of what I mean, ABC News has some beauties. We live in the Caboolture/Morayfield area and there are plenty of shots of commonly frequented places on that news stream so do watch for them.

We stayed away from the shopping centres and just as well because it flooded the undercover ones. Today we were able to shop as we normally would though we had to walk up the Travelator because it had been flood damaged and was still broken. No big deal!

I'm so glad the drought is broken - for now.

Peaceful Layout

It's raining steadily here and has been doing that since last night. We're promised even more rain and wind tomorrow. And it is cool-ish too.

So to remind myself that fair weather is the norm here in Australia, I though you may like to see one of the double layouts I did at Warana. It shows pictures of the ocean near DH's mother's last residence. Sadly we lost her early this month, so the pictures have a special meaning for my DH and I. It truly is a beautiful place and I hope I did them justice. There were little orange flowers in the grass which made my choice of paper flowers easy. If you click on the photo you may also see some crystal and pearl bling.

Remember to consider having a look at Tan's shop (see story in post below). All of the supplies used in this double Layout were purchased at her store.

Make a Table Card

Guess where I have been? On a Scrapchat Retreat! And it was marvelous fun. I left home Friday night and didn't get home till noon on Monday. There were fourteen girls who scrapped their hearts out all weekend. We had wonderful challenges, wonderful food, a baby shower for our most pregnant scrapper, (there were two pregnant ladies but the second one isn't due till later in the year), lots of photo opportunities with our country and western theme night, lots of photo opportunities on the beach, and lots of shopping opportunities with Tanyah bringing along her entire Scrap 'n Craft With T shop for our convenience and temptation!!! And I was tempted, and I shopped. A lot.

I'll be showing you some layouts and cards and so on over the next few days but thought I would start with our table cards. We have a tradition of making a table card out of a jumbo playing card each Retreat. Every lady gets a card as a base. She is supposed to cover the card with paper or paint or her choice of medium, then pas the card on to the next person at the table.
The next person adds another embellishment, than passes the card on and so on. We had four at my table and I wound up with a card I love. I sanded then painted the front of the card, then added turquoise dauber to the top of that. The effect looked like silk to me. I sanded and daubed the back of the card so some of the playing card would show through. Everyone signed the back of the card. As this was my second Retreat, I now have two! I plan to link these together wth a book binding ring and continue to add table cards as I attend Retreats.

Oh and before I go, if you haven't been on a Retreat but would like to be tempted with some gorgeous new products, check out Tanyah's shop. She is having a celebration as it is her shop's first birthday so is offering lots of specials. If you decide to register as a customer and place an order, please put my name in the comment box as a referer (just put Susan's Saga)? I said I would promote Tan's celebration on my Blog and she would like to know that I told you about her. Thanks!

I'll be back later with some more projects from the Retreat. Happy Crafting!

Start A Scrapbook May Card Challenge

One of the new forums I am playing at has a weekly card challenge. Start A Scrapbook gave us an example card and the idea is to use it as inspiration for making one based on the ideas you gain from that card. Here's my attempt.

It was a fun card to make. I tried a few different things such as inking the edge of the card front instead of using olour for the entire card (so the inside wound up staying white - easy to write on hey?), stamping a sort of scene on a larger piece of white paper and adhering other elements to that, and I used some scented gel pens to draw some extra circles. You may not be able to tell but the sentiment and flowers are popped up. There are cute little flower crystals as well as some Kaiser crystals on there too. All stamped images are from Stampin' Up!

What do you think?

Altered Matchbox

Have you ever altered a matchbox? An ordinary, everyday matchbox can be transformed into such a cute little gift box! I took part in a swap that asked us to use only black and white, and so I covered this one in designer paper and bling and added a little ribbon handle with some eyelets. I filled the box with black and white scrappy materials. Now I have to give it away! How sad!

If you have never altered a matchbox before, I made a tutorial about it for you on PaperCraftCentral.com. Let me know if you make one!

Looking for some new forums?

I was moseying around the Internet the other night and found some forums that look inspirational.

I've recommended Scrapchat to you all before and I heartily endorse it, especially for Aussie girls who love retreats and want inspiration and a place to display their creations as well as make some fabulous friends. The forum membership is around 200 so you can really get to know people there. We're all off on a retreat this Friday and I expect to be able to show you plenty of new things after that!

I found another forum that is based in the USA as well, and it's mainly about scrapbooking. It's called the Start A Scrapbook Community. The members there have made me feel very welcome already! And they are looking for new members, so if you want a new place to hang out, why not join in? Their aim is to reach 1,000 members and they only need five more as of today!

Another forum that seems also to be USA based but who has some international members is Rubberstampchat. They too have made me very welcome. Their membership is over 2,000 so it's a big place, with lots of ideas coming from many directions. The focus there is stamping and card making but there's plenty of paper craft diversity as well.

Another interesting place is PaperCraftPlanet. They have a Ning format so you have a page of your own as a sort of blog and people comment on your page. I'm learning the format there and it's fun - sort of like instantly finding a huge source of inspirational blogs all at once! Talk about being a kid in a candy store - lol!

Have fun and let me know if you join sany of the forums or know of some other great ones :)

Happy Crafting!

Inspirational!

If you have been one of the few people who have missed this beautiful voice, take a moment to listen now. Susan Boyle is fantastic in this clip!

Online Trash and Treasure Auction 26th April!

Oops - I published the wrong date for this auction last time - sorry! It is going to be run on April 26th and all items will be set with a 'Buy It Now' cost so it won't be exactly like an auction - it will be more like a sale!

As a teaser, a number of the cards I uploaded today will be for sale. There will be heaps more things for sale though! Why not come and take a look, and of course you can also sell items if you register at the auction site.

See you on the day!

PS: If you need instructions for the card I pictured here, you can see them on PaperCraftCentral.com

Blog Candy Available....

....at Creating with Chrissie - but only till tomorrow so be quick!

Oh and don't forget about the Online Craft Auction (see yesterday's post :))

Online Auction Day 26th April!

Have you ever participated in an online craft auction? Well, now is your chance!
The Scrapchat girls are busy making things and listing items for sale for the 26th April (Australian Eastern Standard Time). It's been billed as a Trash and Treasure day. and the event will be run as a one day auction.

Here's what to do if you would like to participate by selling things, straight from the organiser:

"I have set up a Craft Section and a Non Craft Section under the heading of Trash and Treasure. Here is the link:- Auction Site

Firstly when you upload please put somewhere in your description for people to use the Buy It Now feature as this is not meant to be an auction day iykwim.

You need to make your starting price the same as your Buy It Now price.

Set your auction up to start at:- 2009-04-26 00:01:00

Make it a 1 day auction so it finishes at midnight Sunday night.

Because we are using the Buy It Now feature for all the auctions for this day it will be first in best dressed so to speak. So when a person has purchased an item it should then be offline.

If you have more then one of any item you must have a separate auction for each item.

If you are going to have a few items you are more then welcome to start uploading at any time to make it easier closer to the date.

As long as the start time is entered correctly it will automatically start at the right time."

If you are looking for some great items to buy, this will be the place to do it! I am stamping up some images and putting them in little bags to sell, and will probably stamp on acetate too :) And if I get time I'll add a card topper or two.

Hope to see you there!

A Circle Journal in Monochrome

This Circle Journal instructions were about Happiness. We needed to scrap a page about what made us happy in life. You won't be surprised to know that I chose to scrap about becoming Grandparents together! Lol!

I used shades of yellow and gold in this layout. There is a touch of green in it too though, so I guess it isn't a true monochrome. The green had lots of yellow in it! That's my justification :)

A Circle Journal Entry in Black and White

Can you believe that is me in the picture? Well, it was! I am not nearly as sweet and shiny anymore, but the picture still lives! Lol!

I had a Circle Journal to scrap a page in about a childhood memory. It had to be made with black and white supplies, and it didn't need ot have a photograph, but the memory I wanted to talk abotu involved a photo so here it is.

I hadn't used black and white exclusively before and I rather like it!

If you would like to see how I did it, there's a page on PaperCraftCentral.com about it:

Circle Journal Page in Black and White

Week #4 Cybercrop at Scrapchat

Thanks for the comments you all made for the last entry. Lee was correct in guessing that I made the card in the left! You know my 'style' well, Lee! lol!

This week at Scrapchat we had our final March cybercrop event. It is always a lovely month in March at Scrapchat because we all have such a good time chatting and crafting! Here was the challenge for the layout about Ethan and Us:

"You need to do a layout about a loved one and a special occasion. In your layout you need to have at least one puzzle piece. Your layout must have a painted title and at least one monogram letter cut from pattern paper. You must also include an inchie somewhere on your layout."

So I made a layout about our little grandson coming to stay with us overnight for the very first time. Isn't he adorable? Grandpa and I totally enjoyed having him here!

The second challenge was a bonus challenge. We had played a game where we dumped out the contents of our handbags on the floor, then took a photo and uploaded it to the gallery. The challenge was to have the most items posted up on a list that the moderators had. I actually won this challenge!! I had 10 of the listed items and the next closest person only had 9 - LOL!

The bonus challenge was this:

"...you need to complete a layout using the image of the contents of your bag."

So I scrapped a pic of the contents of my handbag. I decided to put this one in my Gratitude Journal.

So once again, it has been a fun week, and I have enjoyed the crafting!

Thanks to anyone who visited Ramintessah's blog where I am her guest artist for this week :)

Happy crafting!

NOTE: If you would like ot see how I put the two layouts on this page together, I wrote about them on PaperCraftCentral.com:

Gratitude Journal
Page about Ethan

Woo hoo! I'm a Guest Artist for 'The Gallery'!!!

OOoo! I am excited! Ramintessah of The Gallery in Japan has asked me to be her Guest Artist this week! She is creating the post as I type! In this amazing world we live in, Tessah and I have been exchanging emails across the ocean at the very same time we are both posting on our blogs - how incredible is that? Do have a look at The Gallery as there are many wonderful pages to explore there :)

The template for the little purse I talked about in the last post is still going to be given away to all of those who subscribe to Paper Twists, my free newsletter at PaperCraftCentral.com

I would love to be able to give all of you a copy of the template! The next issue goes out on 31st March and the template will be available exclusively to subscribers, so don't miss your copy.

(Jaqi, don't click on the next link now now - I'll tell you why!) In the meanwhile, today I have made some ATCs for Jaqi in England. They are 'live' on PaperCraftCentral right now, Jaqi, so if you want to be surprised, don't look yet! They will be in the mail to you on Monday :) Jaqi loves Paris so guess what they are about?

I have posted a pic of a new set of cards today using the crayon resist technique. Danielle and I made them yesterday and I think they turned out very nicely. They are a surprise for someone else in remote Qld so this time, Lucy, don't look! He he! )These are actually on their way to you now as they were posted yesterday, Lucy.) Danielle and I used the same stamps and cardstock and the same technique, but we made them look quite different from each other.

Just for fun, see if you can guess which card is mine and which one is Danielle's. They say we all have a style, and I'd like to see if that holds true for me!

Have a wonderful crafting week!

Paper Scallop Purse

I wasplaying around the other night with the idea of making paper purses that actually opened up, so you could put little gifts or messages in them. This is what I came up with. Do you like it?

I am going to publish instructions and a pattern for making it on PaperCraftCentral in the next day or so if you want to know how to make one yourself:)

Scrapchat Week 3 Cybercrop

The cybercrop challenge this week was a doozy! Here it is:

When we cut into our patterned paper – isn’t it a pain to have leftovers … so I thought what a great idea to utilize the whole sheet. Hence this is the challenge – 1 x patterned paper/cardstock --- hint… double sided will probably work the best You have to stitch on your work – hand or machine… doesn’t matter You have to use paint somewhere You have to use some fabric – yes fabric flowers, alphas, and ribbon count as fabric… You have to stamp on your work too. Now for the twist…. You have to create with this one piece of patterned cardstock as many things as you can… yes you can use plain cardstock - as much as you want. You must create at least 3 items – but only two can be of the same genre the third must be different – by genre I mean: cards, layouts, atc’s, btp An example of this will be at least – one layout and two cards; or – two layouts and one card etc...

I did the layout first. There's lace on the layout as my fabric, a stamped image edges with Radiant Rain daubers and ink, and stitching along one side. The lady is DH's mother when she was about 20 years old.

I then stole the dp from the back of the large picture and from under the lace. Next I made the purse out of the same dp and the same stamp and added ribbon and stitched randomly over the stamped image and ribbon. Again I used the Radiant Rain daubers to edge the purse. There's faux stitching on the handle and clasp.

After that I made the card, with the same dp, stamp, rain daubers, some sheer ribbon this time and I stitched random crosses on the stamped image and ribbon.

Fun!

What do you think?? Why not set yourself a challenge to do this too?

Cybercrop Week 2

This week the Scrapchat cybercrop was a little different - no sketch but plenty of requirements:

"Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to create a layout that:

- Must have a black and white photo
- Must have 3 different types of patterned paper
- Must have a large journalling tag
- Must have rub-ons
- Must have bling
- Must have some ribbon, and a button on it somewhere.

No problems you say?? Well ....

.... to make it just that little bit more challenging, one piece of your patterned paper has to have stripes on it, and one piece has to have polkadots on it "

I think I got all of the requirements on the page.