Stamps Ahead

Advent Calendar 2013 for my sister This is an advent calender I have made this week for my sister - I am delivering it today to her home and it is a surprise for her. I have made each day from Stampin'Up! (r) Designer Series paper or used their Tag a Bag Gift Bags. The envelopes are made using Envelope Punch Board (of course, with the exception of the Sour Cream container for Day 9).  I have used a variety of embellishments (some not SU) to decorate each day. I did not have numbers that I liked so I searched the internet and found this free download of numbers which just matched the paper perfectly. Each day has a little gift inside (I spent no more than $3 on each gift and the hunt was on to find small items that I knew would mean something to her) and a Christmas saying I sourced from the Internet.  One bag has chocolate - I was very restrained - wasn't I !!! Here is a close up of several of the bags and they will go in a box I got from a discount store - wall space ...

I am a guest designer over at ARTastic Challenges   this month.  The inspiration is this mixed media work titled Listen by New Zealander, Jenny Grant.  The criteria for the month was free choice, make of this what you will. Mixed media (according to Ebay) is loosely defined as any work of art that uses more than one medium.  I loved the colours, the writing you can see peeping through and that hair effect.  I am relatively new to this mixed media application for scrapbooking and initially I was what - 'scared' to put ideas onto paper. After deciding to use a brick stencil/mask, Impasto medium and Gelato's painted on after medium had dried and then sprinkled with salt.  I played around with three variations of these until I got the background I wanted. In this case a patterned paper already with writing and flowers on it and a thick layer of Impasto medium. I wanted to match the different clothes and hair colours of us all.   These are some ...

Paris cards These cards were inspired by Alanna Paterson, I do not have a blog address for her, so thank you Alanna. I have made the card in both Whisper White and Very Vanilla cardstock.  I have used two new in-colours inks from Stampin'Up!(r) - Baked Brown Sugar and Strawberry Slush (what a great name!)  and for the background have used Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and Very Vintage Large Wheel.  The Eiffel Tower is from a no longer available stamp set.  Washi tape was from my stash. Ironically the pink flower ribbon was purchased in Paris many years ago and has obviously been sitting just waiting for the right cards.  I have not mounted the CS with the image I have simply run around the edge with Strawberry Slush. I think the card is very Shabby Chic and Vintage what do you think? Merci, thank you for looking, Margaret.

This is the second card my class made today (first was Grandmothers Flower Garden that I posted earlier in the week). Pinwheel Birthday Card I was inspired by a card at ilovepapercrafts.com   I do not have a pinwheel die so for this card, I created the pinwheel.  I played around with various sizes and ultimately settled on a 2" x 2" square, drew lines as shown, measured about 14/16th (about a third along the line) then using my hole punch punched holes as seen. Not sure how to do it?  There are instructions around on the web to follow. The DSP is Stampin'Up! Epic Day This and That. Now, I must confess when I got home I did think it was a little plain, so I did a quick spritz of my home made spritz using SU Stampin' Spritzer and some retired re-inker top and bottom of the card. As always in my classes the ladies had an option of choosing their greeting to make it relevant to them and their proposed recipient of the card. Constructing the pinwheel Thanking ...

Many years ago - too many years ago to mention here - I attended my first patchwork class and the first block that I made was Grandmothers Flower Garden.  The pattern was used by Persian and Indian quilters for centuries before the Crusaders took it by to Europe - now I don't go back as far as the Crusades just in case you were wondering!! I became enthralled with patchwork after this first lesson and many years later I became a patchwork teacher and the first block I would teach, of course, was Grandmothers Flower Garden. Students would start off by creating their own hexagons with a compass.  Years later there became available templates you could buy already in the shape of hexagons. Example of a quilt using hexagons.  You can just imagine Grandmother walking  the green path around the flower beds or maybe my maternal grandmother walking the strawberry patch eating the strawberries on her way around the garden. http://www.patternsfromhistory.com/colonial_reviv...

This card is inspired by a card created by Kerry Crocker (not sure if Kerry reads my blog or if she has a blog I can link this to).  It uses non-traditional stamps, in this case Betsy's Blossoms by Stampin' Up!(r) and retired SU inks.  The WOW factor in this card is the clear embossing and sponging over the embossed images and surrounds - the photograph captures the embossing magnificently.  Why not consider using non-traditional Christmas stamps on your next project?   This was created for a class I taught recently at a local community centre and the ladies had the option to put another greeting and several put Happy Birthday. Christmas card using non-traditional Christmas Stamps During last week I played around with Gelato crayons and using patterned paper from my stash, I rubbed crayons on the top of the paper, spritzed with water and allowed it to drip by holding paper up for a short time.  I then applied salt whilst still dry and the salt absorbs the m...