Stamps Ahead

Yesterday, I was the class leader of a scrapbooking day that raised funds for a school in Kissi, Kenya. Here are the layouts that I taught. Many people also contributed to the day with food, donations of goods etc. Thank you to everyone. I do not represent any particular company and use product from many sources.  Where possible today I have indicated those sources.  Melissa Kennedy owner of Unmistakable Creations kindly donated packs of Kaisercraft Marigold papers and stickers to the event.   Here is the first layout that they got to make  - now several of the ladies wanted to make a 'boy' page and in the pack was paper suitable for them to create a male version of the page.    The photo on my layout was taken on our April Cruise with Melissa - why not check out her website Unmistakable Creations  and see what cruises she has coming up. Thank you Melissa for your donation - the ladies loved the papers. This is the second layout they ...

I wanted to share with you some cards I have designed recently for a card class I lead each Friday for a local community group. These two cards were made using handmade paper, distress inks (run across a clear block and then spritzed and applied to the paper) and a mixture of stamps I found in my stash.  I love them - the way that the distress ink reacted with the paper is 'magic'. This card uses a Darkroom Door stamp of the lady. Other embellishments were from my stash. This reminds of the old Ladies Home Journals that my mother, a dressmaker/tailor,  collected - they contained pattern paper of some of the clothes in the magazine.  I remember as a child being mesmerized by the images of film stars and their stories, the clothes.  Background paper was old pattern paper that I have collected over the years. In a recent post I share how I made a scrapbook layout using the technique of what I am calling faux watercolouring - I just new it would work on a ca...

Today I am sharing 10 ATC's that I have created to be swapped with others over at Soul Scrappers . The theme was Paris. Paris is one of my favourite cities and the Eiffel Tower is iconic to them.  A close up of one of the cards. To make the ATC's I first applied a coat of Gesso to a 12" square piece of regular cardstock and allowed it to dry.  Then I cut into 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" cards.  Next I dabbed 3 colours of acrylic paint to top of each card and using a palette knife 'swooshed' them down and across the card.  These were then allowed to dry before adding gold embossing paste to a butterfly stencil.  Again, left to dry overnight. This morning I stamped a script stamp on the top, and added a die cut Eiffel Tower from gold cardstock which I affixed to the card.  Then I added the Journey stamp, and some doodling and rhinestones completed each card. They are off the USA tomorrow and I will await the return of 9 other cards from the other particip...

Today, I have a layout I have completed for a challenge over at Soul Scrappers .  For this challenge we sent a number of items that had to be included in a layout.  Warning - this is a long post. First, here is my layout: On 31st May this year I was out and about running errands north of where I live.  After I had finished I decided to drive home via the coast and called in at Toowoon Bay on the beautiful Central Coast.  It was a beautiful if somewhat windy day.  I purchased a toasted sandwich and a drink and found a lovely spot to sit, eat and read. The shadow selfie shows me reading.  More about the book later. The challenge was to incorporate the following items I received into the layout: What was required was quite simple - you had to add a photo/s of you reading a book/magazine, reading a book to a child, a stack of books, your favourite book...anything book or magazine related. The shipping tag was a must to use and had to incorporate ...