I’ve been laying low this week,

because of my cold. I think it’s getting better, though. Today I made these two cards (I did say they come in pairs…). One is green and pink, the other is aqua and pink. Both have Prima papers and pink frames (I’ve forgotten the brand).

On the green one I’ve used Jenni Bowlin rubons for the picture, and put pearls around the frame. The aqua one has a layered flower I made by gathering lace to make a circle, then the flowers are on top, and the brad holds it together. I like how these are pretty and feminine.

I went on one of my op-shopping forays yesterday, just to see what I could find, and I got the coolest thing; a mini hand-held sewing machine. I just had to put the batteries in, and it’s really easy to use. The best thing is that I won’t have to drag out my other machine and set it up every time I just want to do some stitching on paper for a card or layout. It’s my new crafty toy, and it cost $3!

Christmas in July

I know it’s a bit premature, but this week I was looking at blogs and saw Christmas lines that were shown at CHA, and I got inspired to make some Christmas cards. I’ve accumulated lots of bits and pieces from last year, so I’ve combined things from Making Memories, with Daisy D’s, ribbons, etc. I’ve also tried some techniques of stitching with my machine, tearing, inking, and distressing. Cards are a great way to try out techniques; if it doesn’t work out I don’t keep the card.

I’ve got a yucky cold at the moment (courtesy of both my parents), and it’s the second time this winter I’ve had this cold/fluey/achy feeling, so I’m not impressed. Today I drank 1.5 litres of water, so I’ll keep that up and hopefully kick this cold very soon.

I did this layout

last night during the footy (go cats!).

Nearly everything I’ve used is by Heidi Swapp, except for the ledger paper by Making Memories. How cool are the mirrors? I hadn’t used these before, but I will definitely be using them again. I also love the clear extras, which I’ve put onto the mirrors. A lot of products in the world of scrapbooking are blatant copies of other stuff, so it’s great to find something that’s different. I also used my chandelier stamp for the first time. I like this photo of my sister and her good friend. She’s going to a ball tonight, so I’ve told her to take plenty of photos!

This week

I’ve done 3 layouts, here’s 2 of them:

This one is nearly all American Crafts; the papers, thickers, ribbons, and chipboard shapes. I love the colours and I thought the simple style went with the photo. You can’t really see it, but I’ve also used one of my new alphabet stamp sets for the journalling. I love these little stamps, I can tell I’ll be using them a lot from now on.

This layout I did yesterday, and it’s a lot more detailed than the previous one. I’ve been wanting to use this Sunshine lollipop paper and lace paper for ages, and I found the perfect page. It’s actually a ‘re-do’ of one of my first pages, from my ‘Book of Me’, that I did ages ago but I wasn’t happy with it. I know you’re not really meant to re-do pages, but this is much better.

A lot of the details don’t show up, but I’ve done lot’s of creasing and inking the edges, and I’ve stitched around the love elsie grid paper, and highlighted the lace paper with rhinestones. I’ve also used kindyglitz on the sassafras lass paper to highlight the design. The journalling I did with another set of stamps, and thickers for the title. I’ve used a lot of ribbons and flowers for the embellishments. I like this alot, it’s the sort of page you notice something different each time you look at it. I’m not really happy with the photo, though. It’s me in the late 80s , not my best haircut…

I finished making

the bollywood invitations, and dropped them off yesterday. They didn’t take a long time, it was just cutting out all the little gold flowers, sticking them on, and then putting the rhinestones in the middle of the flowers. Each invitation was individually made, so considering the party is not until October, they were finished in plenty of time! Here’s the finished product:

I bought envelopes in the DL size too, but who knew envelopes were so expensive? They’re just going to be thrown out once they’re opened, and some of the art supply shops charge nearly $20 for 15! I found what I wanted eventually, they were $2.50 for 15. The orange wasn’t exactly the same, but near enough.

I made a few more cards last night:

These two I made with the last of this American Crafts paper, so I just added coordinating flowers and rhinestones. Love these papers, they have great designs, and what makes them even better is they’re double sided, so I make the frames and coordinating strips with the backs.

I like this quirky card. I made it using pictures from books I bought at Op shops, and I’ve made a collage of papers for the hills and sky.  Each piece is cut out individually. The flowers are stickers with black rhinestones, and pen drawn stems.

I got my latest internet purchase this morning, very exciting. Americans get so much stuff we don’t! I was reading somewhere on the internet (as usual), and found these stamps that were $1 a set. With the exchange rate so good for us at the moment, and because I love little wooden stamp sets like my psx, I bought all 18 fonts! Even with postage, it cost me less than $30! I love all the fonts, because there’s a good mix of modern and classic styles, and there’s my favourite font, which is unicase, and almost the same as one of my quickutz alphabet sets, just a lot smaller. Can’t wait to start using these!

I’ve come to realise

that I seem to make cards in pairs, two by two. I guess it’s because I get two from a sheet of cardstock. These four are my latest, they use the same stuff, but they’re all slightly different:

This is Basic Grey, Prima, and Making Memories paper, with lots of embellishments, including a buckle, flowers, and American Crafts dragonfly. I’ve also done some stitching and inking.

Much the same as before, with a Green Tara flower, different embellishments.

These 2 square cards are My Mind’s Eye cardstock, Making Memories paper, and lots of flowers and some brads.

I love the new Euphoria range from Basic Grey. I couldn’t decide which papers to use for this sample, so I used five (?!) I wanted it to look a bit old, so I made the ruffle around the edge with satin ribbon, and I distressed the edges of the burgundy paper.

This week has been a little

bit of everything. I taught classes on Wednesday and Thursday at Chandon, which went really well. My job was made easier because I taught the same layout for each class, so I knew all the tricks by the second time around. It was a beautiful K & Co layout Raqual did at a class interstate:

Everyone seems to love the K & Co papers, they go with everything. The flower was given a great look with rubons under the sheer layer. I had some scraps from layouts, so I made cards with them. Here’s a few:

These 2 cards were made with American Crafts Amplified papers, ribbons, and earrings I took the backs from so they sit flat. I’ve also inked a lot. The details don’t show, but there’s a raised pattern on one of the papers, and metallic leaves on the other. Great colours together.

I made a couple of these quirky cards with Sassafras Lass owl paper, some more earrings with the backs removed, love elsie frames, heidi swapp journalling spots, and rhinestones.

This one uses American Crafts papers, with imaginisce lily, felt flower, crocheted circle, and a game piece glued in the middle. I like the birdies on the paper.

The colours on this one haven’t shown very well, but I’ve used navy and olive ribbons and flowers on this My Mind’s Eye cardstock.

I’ve got a few more cards to make, I love matching the embellishments with the papers and seeing what I can come up with. I like to make the bright ones, but I know people prefer the more subdued designs, so I’ll make some like that too.

I did this layout

last night, it’s a ‘just for fun’:

 

I’ve used Sassafras Lass, Love Elsie, and Daisy D’s papers. I liked the look of the new glitter amercan thickers, but I couldn’t find the right font and colour, so I made my own by painting plain chipboard thickers, and put Kindyglitz on top for the title. 

This felt frame was from Spotlight on clearance for $1. I took out the plastic and backing, to frame my journalling. I glued on the flowers, and the kaisercraft rhinestones stuck straight onto the felt.

My sister gave me this cool little badge a while ago, and I kept it just knowing I’d use it sometime. I’ve attached it to a heidi swapp velvet flower, and then to my layout.

I love just doing something for fun, I got to use hearts in papers, ribbons, and embellishments. I’ve started buying things for my Bollywood invitations, today I got a pack of bright orange paper for only $2. For me, part of the fun is seeing how I can economise; how good I can make them look spending the littlest amount possible.

I did some more samples

for Chandon this week, I’m happy with how they turned out:

This one is really quite simple, I added a lot of black in the backing, paint, heading, and rubons to mirror the photo, and the orange colours of the print still stand out.

I still love the colours teal and red together, so when I saw this teal diecut paper I knew what to put with it. I still love those American Crafts thickers, and I used my fiddly little psx stamps in upper and lower case. I also cut pieces from a queen and co felt border for all the little individual flowers. I used a whole pack of red pearls to put in the middle of the felt flowers and highlight some of the border design.

I’ve also been asked by a lady who works with my aunty and has bought a lot of my cards to make her 40th birthday invitations. This is really exciting, especially since the theme is Bollywood, which I have a fondness for myself. As soon as I heard that, heaps of ideas popped into my head. I showed her some stuff yesterday, and we agreed on the same ideas, so I can’t wait to get started! I’ve made invitations before, like for my sister’s 21st, but it’s cool to be asked by someone I don’t know. I’ll be using bright orange, purple, and gold, I think. Probably some rhinestones too. I’ve already started looking for suitable fonts to use.

Last night I dressed like I was from the 40s, which was rather fun. I’d been worrying about what top to wear, when yesterday afternoon I decided to go to one of my regular op shops for something to do, and I found the perfect fur wrap! Not only that, but it was half price! It’s fake, but still vintage, which I love. I also bought clip on pearl earrings. So I was happy with the outfit, even the red lippy didn’t look too strange. I was worried about my hair, but I got a few comments on how it looked authentic. I took a couple of photos, so no doubt I’ll scrap them soon, although they are a bit embarassing…

As a child of the 80s

I vaguely remember when fluoro colours were popular. Not just bright, but fluorescent. So for my last Einstein Factor photo, I’ve used those colours as my inspiration. I’ve put them with lots of black and white for balance:

Lots of details on this layout! This ‘flower’ I made using a huge black button, with an earring I’ve taken the back off stuck on top. The orange star trim is cut from a lanyard. The die cut is Bam Pop.

I’ve used a pipe cleaner to make the corner, and the little yellow circles are game pieces. The stitching is fluoro DMC, which I was excited to find.

This little rainbow is from Kittyrobot, and I used those fluoro circle stickers. I also used fluoro Kindyglitz, which I made flat with a paint brush. Another thing I did was I painted a sticker I knew I wouldn’t use with black paint to be the background for the title. Make sure you don’t throw anything out you might use! I also backed the hambly overlay with bright pink paper for the strip down the side.

I’m going to an engagement party tonight, and the theme is to dress from the swing era. I love the forties and I already had a suitable skirt and shoes, so I’ve gathered a few things for my outfit, and I just have to add bright red nails and lipstick, and hope my attempt at something resembling a suitable hairstyle works out. I can’t wait to see what everyone else wears, it should be fun. Here’s the engagement card I made last night:

I used Love Elsie paper, Jenni Bowlin rubons I coloured in, felt shapes, ribbon, and a Making Memories brad that says ‘love’. I hope the happy couple like it.