Steve's birthday card.

I made this card for my brother in law, Steve. It was his birthday last week and I'm still not sure if he's received the card yet! Never mind, I can't wait otherwise I might just forget to put it on!!

This started with some Flourish paper rolled through the CB folder- retro. I then textured a piece of oatmeal card with corrugated cardboard CB folder and inked it with vintage photo distress ink. The little piece behind the Happy Birthday is actually from the School range -it's a mustard colour that has been distressed. I used the new Paper distresser for around some edges - love that tool!! I enjoyed decorating the inside of the card too- I used the sand SB paper from the Castaway range and stamped it with the distress ink, the wire stamp and clock stamp. For some reason , I always picture male cards as rustic!

Bunches of love Card and watering can

Excuse the shoddy photos!! Taken in a hurry! Anyway, I had a great time with the card that I made. It all started with the paper for the watering can- it is now discontinued from Kaszazz, but it suited the person I made it for! Maureen loves her garden and has recently begun a vege patch, so I decided that I'd pop some herb seeds into a watering can for her birthday. I can't take absolute credit- Jude came up with the idea of seeds! Thanks Jude.

Once I made the watering can, I knew I had to use the hibiscus stamp in the card. I really enjoyed making the blue CB background for the card. I took a plain white card, embossed it, rubbed it with the Acrylic paint dabber- Pool. Leave it to one side to dry. Once dried, sand the raised parts, gently, dust off. Then take vintage photo distress ink and a blender to gently add some extra colour. It really does look great - even if I may say so myself!

The hibiscus flowers is a Kaszazz stamp. I inked it with marmalade Distress ink and then inked on the edges with Vintage photo distress ink, to give it a blended look. You can also lightly spritz to give a watercolour look, but I wanted crisp for this card.

I also used the nestabilities to cut out the signage for the birthday greetings- I'm really loving them. Thanks Di!!

I have added the link to the watering can template - it's so cute. Just a tip with templates, you can just print the template directly onto your paper, as long as it's on the wrong side- obviously!

Have fun creating. If you do make up a watering can, do email me a pic so I can pop it up on the blog for all to see!!

http://images.splitcoaststampers.com/data/ee/images/tutorials/Watering_Can_Template_without_text.pdf

A Sympathy Card

I thought I'd make a collection of some cards, to have on hand. I have many cards, but I'm not necessarily happy with all of them! Anyway, I thought I"d make a sympathy/thinking of you card. I love the sentiment "thinking of you", it just encompasses so much. I always feel drawn to chalks for these types of cards. I was really pleased with this one,because I used my nestabilities and CB folder! I created the oval nestabilities shape first, kept the plate on and chalked gently around it before removing the plate. I then stamped using perfect medium and chalked the lavender stamp. I stuck a piece of organdy white ribbon along the bottom of the oval, only securing at the back. This allows me to slip another piece of ribbon under the base one to tie a bow. I used the oval scallop nestabilities for the lilac bazzill and then simply put them together and mounted them on the white card. For the strip along the base of the card, I scalloped a piece of lilac bazzill using our new scallop border punch. I then used the CB die which is just a strip (I"m sure all these things have special names, but, I don't know what they are!!); to create a paper ribbon along the bottom. I stuck this onto the scallop piece and placed along the base of the card. The words "thinking of you" were stamped in Dusty concord distress ink, edged and mounted on the paper ribbon.
The whole card is edged with dusty concord. Now to making another friend a card and special gift! Gosh, the fun just never ends!!

My Favourite things...

I did these pages a little while ago, but still like them! I wanted to show how Scrapbooking isn't only about photos, but about journalling about yourself. As you can see, there are no photos on this layout, only pics of favourite things. I've used rub ons a fair bit, as well as punches. I stamped the title and added lines to it. Note, for one of my favourite colours-purple, I used a paint swatch from Bunnings! These swatches are fabulous, also for the backgrounds on cards. They make pretty , inexpensive decor items! As you may have guessed, based on previous posts, I"m doing an album about me and my life. It is quite a journey, and one that my kids are really enjoying reading about.

Here's my challenge to you, start writing in a small notebook of memories you have as a child - try to keep it positive. Then write about your likes /dislikes in music, movies, food, countries, holidays etc. You are only limited by your imagination. Keep your notebook in your handbag for when you're stuck waiting for an appointment. Instead of feeling the frustration, put your time to good use and think back- it's a very liberating experience! It can also be a great time for healing to take place........

Anyway, enough philosophy for one day - enjoy your creations!

Something a little different!

Make a digital scrapbook

I had so much fun with this! It was quick and easy. The photos aren't the most amazing but they get the message of fun across!! Enjoy the viewing!

Monica's birthday card and gift!

My scraps are getting a workout lately! I decided to make a joyfold card with this one. For my followers who are Kaszazz consultants, check out the instructions to that on my workshop- 2H248. I once again used the CB butterfly and double layered it. I really like this effect, so it takes a lot for me to move on. I'll try for the next item. I used My girl papers and sticky bling flourish to outline the square. On the blue square, I stamped the dainty flourish stamp with watermark to create a subtle image. The purple CB piece has had acrylic paint wiped over it to give it a relief look.

The tin I picked up recently at the Picture to page show in Geelong. They had also decorated it with that paper, so naturally I had to have it too! I filled it with choccies and then tied an organdy ribbon around. Voila! Instant gift.

I"ve decided I need to make up some spare gifts, because these sorts of things are what I'm giving out to friends this year for their birthdays. Now if I could just get organized to make cards for family members and actually remember to post them- then perfection would be mine!!!! ( I think that's where the wicked laugh fits in.) Anyway, enjoy and I hope I've inspired you to create today.

Karen's birthday card and gift.

During the week it was Karen's birthday. As usual, I wasn't quite on time with giving her her card and pressie!! With the card, I literally opened up my scrap drawers and pulled out possible colours. She likes green, so that was easy. The card just evolved! I used the cuttlebug to create the texture of the green SB paper (Kaszazz Merry Christmas range), as well as making the butterfly. With that, I just did the green butterfly and then created the white butterfly without the texture and cut it up to create highlights on the wings and body. The piece of white SB essentials card has been bordered using a fiskars punch. Dark brown chalk ink was used for the words and edging and a cute small daisy punch from Kaszazz for the white daisy highlights. I finished it off with some bling from the sticky bling that we sell and some ice stickles.
After having this much fun on the card, I simply had to make the milk cartons!! I know you're all nodding and saying" obviously" ! I'm more than happy to email the templates to you if you drop me a line - they are so cute to make and really easy.
There is a tip when you are working from a template: Cut the template out roughly, use temporary tape to stick it to the paper you want, then cut out , score the lines and remove the template. Easy.
The other way to do it, is to print the template directly onto your paper, wrong side, and then proceed! Too easy.
Anyway, I'm not so skilled on putting the template on my blog, so I'll have to rely on you to email me and I'll send it. I will in the meantime, work on getting my hubby to show me how to do that!! Happy Creating!

My Fur Babies..

I've never done a layout with my pets before, so I was quite happy with this one! My challenge to myself was to use papers from different ranges in Kaszazz. So for this one, working from right to left, in good old arabic fashion, the papers are: merry christmas, ebony and ivory, bella and enchanted. Then I put them onto fawn bazzill. I stamped the Damask image in warm red chalk ink and then inked up our latest flourish stamp with frost white colorbox ink and embossed it in white to make it really stand out.
For the letters, I smooched them in Siren and gold and then sealed them with glossy accents. On the top right side, I used a design adhesive called "french swirl" and then sprinkled the beautiful

ruby slippers glitter over.

The 3 Butterflies were created from CB embossed card that had been spritz with blue. They were then punched out.

I hope you enjoy this layout. Please remember to leave some comments - I really enjoy them!!

Alana's scrapbooking page!!

Alana, my daughter is only 8 years old and she created this by herself! I was so impressed that I asked her if I could share it on my blog - naturally I had to do it immediately! So, after just finishing it, here it is. She used Ooh la la papers for the background and mounted her photos onto Bella papers. She used many different coloured gems (thanks to Sheona!) and did the wording with some discontinued metal letters. I hope this inspires you to let your children create with your scraps- they can be so creative. Well done Alana.

Workshop- A Day in the Park.....

This workshop is created by the talented Jan Barletta from Kaszazz. I , as usual, felt the need to experiement with a different style. I chose to run this workshop at home with a few customers. Once we had completed this, we all agreed , you had to do this one, to really appreciate the fun of it.It opens up your mind to the possiblities of whimsy in your scrapbooking!! Apologies for parts of the stands seen on the pages. If you'd like to try a little whimsy in your scrapbooking, be sure to give me a call and try these pages!!