Stamps Ahead

I have made these pin and needle holders to donate and raise funds for a friend's son who is a missionary in Kiev.  He and his family are largely self funded by his parent's here in Australia.   The doilies I find for usually a small amount of cash - I usually don't spend more than 75c for the small ones- often they have holes, marks etc on them.  A good soak in nappy wash and they are as good as new.  The one on the left is hand stitched and I have added beads and flowers from another old doily, the green leaves were the buttonhole stitch around the edge of that piece.  The one of the right is machine embroidered and I have added some silk ribbon (again rescued) and scissor charm I have had in my stash for YEARS. Inside - a piece of quilt wadding stitched.  I am sure quilters and embroiderers will love them. What do you think?  I loved them so much I went out to the local op shop and got a few more to be done before I deliver t...

Here is a layout I have created for Soul Scrappers Challenge called "In the Garden".  You may recall that yesterday I posted some photos of the beautiful Bird of Paradise flowers that are growing in my garden. We were posted a selection of items to be used on the layout - and here they are. Now what did I do with them? Will firstly I used the two die cut flowers as stencils onto white cardstock with Gelatos that I had shaved and made into a liquid with warm water. I also flicked some of the liquid onto the cardstock.  This I then cut down to a 11.5" square and distressed the edges (not shown) and placed onto blue cardstock. I deconstructed the vanilla burlap (hessian) and soaked it the diluted solution. The flowers and mini-cup cake after stenciling and additional painting with remaining liquid. I then painted with acrylic paint the wood pattern paper with a mixture of white and yellow. The fabric butterfly I also painted with acrylic p...

A layout I have completed (yes, I know it is not the one referred to in my previous post of today - that is for later today after I have recharged the camera) and have posted to a couple of challenge sites that I love....   The first is from Artastic challenge blog and we were to be inspired by the following photo: I was inspired by the water scene and village in the background.  I searched my photos and whatever picture files I was in, the photo of Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was the last on the list.  It is a photo I took when I was there in 1998.   It had the bridge with its span shaped like a sailing boat and it had the view of San Francisco in the background.   I also used the corrugated paper to tie in with the wire suspensions of the bridge.  The patterned paper I used as it had baroque type designs on it reminiscent of Arabian influences.   I coloured some chipboard and added sequins for sparkle. The next challe...

I have not been feeling well for the past week, just this 'coughy' thing that has been going around this winter/spring.  Today I opened the curtains in my second bedroom and saw this beautiful Strelitzia Reginae (Bird of Paradise)I have growing just outside the window. I played around with filters, on the photo program, so that the sun was not the absolute focal point Another view, I bought the flower down out of the beautiful sun we are experiencing today. Don't be fooled by the sun - it is bitterly cold and windy outside today. I have always been fascinated by these flowers, in fact, I designed a cross stitch on black Aida Cloth many years ago when I was completing Advanced Commercial Needlecraft Certificate with TAFE. Now, I have not felt like creating anything lately (or doing much else I must say) however I have a challenge on my desk that needs completing - so I may have just found my inspiration here. Stay tuned.  Thanks for looking, enjoy your day. ...

Two 6inch cards I have created with different colours and ribbons..   So feminine and pretty.  Here are both cards with closer detail. It is a beautiful day here on The Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia and I took a drive down to Patonga to check out the beautiful Waratah flowers and other wildflowers. Are they not the most beautiful flowers you have seen today?   I went with an elderly neighbor who is turning 92 shortly and she loved the drive and the fish and chips we had when we got to Patonga.  The Waratah, Telopea speciosissima,  is the official floral emblem of New South Wales. They are protected plants and heavy fines apply to those who pick them. 

I have completed this layout for challenge over at Challenge YOUself . The challenge was to create a layout as shown below: Now, I have never mastered this taking a selfie thing - I suppose this one, that I took earlier this year, comes the closest to one I am happy with.  The alphas I die cut first in pink and then as they did not stand out, I shadowed them with black cardstock: I have taken the photo tonight and it does not really do the pink colours justice, however I wanted to get challenge in as it finishes on 4th September. Thank you for looking and take a selfie today.   Margaret :)

A number of people have been asking me about how to go about doing a heritage/vintage scrapbooking layout.  Here is one I have completed today.  The photo shows my mother (centre), my maternal grandmother (left) and my paternal grandmother (right) taken on my parent's wedding day. I was inspired by a layout I saw on Pinterest by craftershome.blog. Unfortunately, the link to the layout is not current and I was unable to leave some love for the original designer, but I did leave a comment on Pinterest. Thank you goes to them. The next step was to go through my stash of papers looking for papers suitable for the layout.  As a general rule you should avoid bright colours on vintage layouts.  Also suitable embellishments - go to town you can use lace, flowers, doilies, buttons, ribbon, brads the list is endless and you can customize to suit the photo.   I found the shoe paper and immediately thought of both grandmothers as they always wore lace up stu...