Stamps Ahead

This past weekend I went down to Melbourne and did a couple of classes with Beck Beattie at Paperfic Expo.  This layout uses Beck's Colour Crush powders.  They are so much fun - and they explode before your eyes when you spray water.  Just the right background for the photos of my friends children blowing bubbles with the bubble sets I gave them when I visited Queensland this year.  I have kept it rather simple as I did not want to cover up too much of the fab background. Here is a close up. The class below was called Reverse Canvas and it uses many techniques. The cheesecloth and twine were coloured using water downed Colour Crush powders. The other interesting new technique I used on this canvas was paper clay to make the heart more 3 dimensional and I will certainly be trying many of these techniques again. Thanks Beck. Thank you for looking, Margaret :)

Here are two cards I have made recently.                                        This first card uses product from many different sources and I like how they have all come together to a fun masculine card. The greeting from Abraham Lincoln in the middle of the card.   This card uses watercolour paints applied to the background.  Clean and simple.  The top and bottom were masked off.  After drying a stamp was applied and the flowers coloured with markers. Thank you for looking,  Margaret :)

Yesterday, I participated in a cardmaking fundraiser for Kisii, a school in Kenya.  Here is the card I created for the ladies to make. It uses Tim Holtz Crazy Bird stamp and die, the background is Gorgeous Grunge from Stampin' Up! (SU) and the greeting also is SU.  I pre-stamped and cut the die before including in the bundle of goodies to make the card.  The bird has been watercoloured using SU markers. I was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest - however despite searching for over an hour I was unable to find the original creator of card that inspired me - it had been copied and saved to many boards. So if you are out there and happen to read my blog, thank you. I love the Gorgeous Grunge stamps as you do not have to be precise in the placing of stamps, excellent for beginners and experienced cardmakers alike. Close up of that Crazy Bird.  Thank you for looking, Margaret :)

This is going to be a long post. I have been competing in a challenge over at Soul Scrappers where we were sent a bundle of goodies with which to create a layout.   Here is my layout: This is what I received in the post from the challenge organiser from the USA. And this letter. "I hope you find my challenge challenging ( yes it was ).  I would LOVE to SEE the most BEAUTIFUL SUNSETS, you have EVER seen thru your travels or just being around your home town.( I did not have any sunset photos but I had amazing sunrises taken on my recent holiday - hence the title of my post and layout )".  Included goodies were: playing card diamond sunset quote 4x3 embossed white cardstock 3 black seagulls 4" gold  circle yellow/orange tissue paper red and yellow (4) triangles 6" of ribbon metallic gold streamers Here is how I went about creating my layout. The most challenging for me - those gold streamers.  The first thing I did was iron them, yes you ...

Here is a layout I completed on the weekend using Paper Flourish June Kit.  It contains Kaisercraft Just Land collection.   I have adjusted layout to suit my photograph - this is what I love about the kit, you get the ideas and you can adapt to suit your photograph and colours if needed. The kit contain these fabulous wood veneer embellishments. Look, at my travel notes - I made it! If you are ever up in the Sunshine Coast area of Queensland why not head to the real undiscovered gem of Australia. Here is a little insight into some of the other highlights of this walk (or trek for me-haha).  Thanks to Mel and Craig for having me stay with them, so great to catch up with them and their girls. Craig also took the photo above from a bridge that suspends the water below and that we climbed (well walked really but it felt like a climb) to get back up onto road - another 300 metres to go! Just so beautiful. Thank you for looking, Margaret

Looking for a quick and easy card.   Here is one I made this morning using Stampin' Up!(r) set Work of Art. Don't forget to decorate your envelopes.  Thanks for looking,  Margaret :)