Stamps Ahead

Here I am ready and waiting at the Christmas in Europe market last night. I met some lovely people. Guests could sit awhile and make a small card with me. Thanks to everyone who visited. Merry Christmas.

The day of the Christmas market and my table at this market has arrived, it is a twilight event and is called a European Christmas. I have made cards (birthday, thank you, friendship and of course Christmas), 2012 mini calendars, and gift tags and cards. Here are some of the small gift tags I made - I used Spellbinders Scalloped Tag die (the largest die, you get 3 in the pack) and used many fun techniques to create the tags. Thank you for looking. Enjoy your day.

I don't normally do kids cards, my nephews and niece are well past the kid age, so as I was making cards for a Christmas table I will be having shortly, I decided to make some non-Christmas cards and I have made some cards suitable for kid's birthday. Over a year ago, I purchased these adorable rub-ons from Kaszazz. I little hint - I rubbed the images onto a sheet of plastic (you know like those we used in the 'old days' for presentations on the overhead projector) and then cut around the images. Thank you Danielle for this hint. Look at the little monkey, you will see that I was able to put him hanging from the ribbon. For the faux grass I stamped images onto green card and then snipped away very close.

I have been asked to create some candle wraps for soy candles that come in a glass container. This is my first effort - what do you think? There are 3 of the birds around the wrap. I have created the flower stamping on vellum, using scallop punch, distressing around the edges, scrunching and finally putting a brad in centre. I like it.

I am thinking all things Europe at present - why? A couple of reasons, but the first one is that I am having a table at a Christmas market in the next few weeks. It has a European Christmas theme. Okay, so this is not a Christmas card, it is a Thank You card as I have made some non-Christmas cards so that I have a range of cards for sale. I have been in a distressing (as in ink/paper distressing) mode recently and this card uses Ranger Distress Ink. I love this Stampin' Up! (r) stamp set that is now retired I believe. Some lace and ribbon from my stash add to the vintage feel that I was wanting. Off now to make some similar birthday cards. Have a great day everyone.

I have finally finished my 2011 USA holiday scrapbooking. Today, I am sharing with you The Blue Whale at Catoosa, Oklahoma - an iconic Route 66 stop. Built in the early 1970's as a surprise anniversary gift for a wife who collected whale figurines. The Blue Whale and its pond became a favoured swimming hole for both locals and travellers along Route 66 alike. For several days our tour guide had promised us a something unique and as he said you could just picture kids pleading with their parents to stop for a rest and swim along their way. It was closed to the public in 1988 and had fallen into disrepair. It has been restored by the people of Catoosa and is a popular stop again. But be aware do not stop for a swim the pond is full of algae! I have hand drawn my blue whale - sorry about the glare on the photo but yesterday was a 'scorcher' here in Sydney and I just could not could not stop the sun to take a photo - and this was without the flash!!! And I just realised we were

My cousin has recently moved into a new home she has purchased and she is excited that she has a rose garden for the first time ever. Here is the card I sent welcoming her to her new home. The rose paper is Anna Griffin (circa 2007) from my stash. I have put some more of the paper inside with an appropriate greeting. Whilst blog surfing recently I saw a similar card but I did not take down the blog details - so I thank that person for the inspiration.

I am meeting friends for lunch on Sunday and they want to see my photos from my USA trip this year - so I have been madly finishing up my pages. This one is of the end of Route 66 @ Santa Monica, CA (the start is Chicago). The alphabet stickers I got at Big Lots, Poplar Bluff, Missouri for 25c for the pack - bargain. And my friend Carol sent me the Route 66 charm. I love the simplicity of this page. We were unable to stop to get a better picture of the plaque marking the end, as there was no parking for our bus, so this photo was taken from the bus. One day I hope to go back and actually read it.

What a great anonymous quote this is "Friends are those who nourish the spirit" . This has never been more relevent over the past few weeks as I have a had a chest infection that has left me feeling without energy etc. My sister was overseas and so I could not call on her at the start - but my next door neighbour and friend (who noticed I had not collected the local paper) came in with this beautiful basket of goodies - just what I needed. Thank you Dianne. When my sister arrived back in Australia, she came over and made a great salmon mornay, sorry no photos of this. And then I got a post from Laura and family, who live in Missouri, just the pick-me-up I needed. I have put a close up of the beautiful owl notecard set she included. Laura loves her owls and Cole put in a beautiful handwritten letter. Thank you Laura and Cole. My abovementioned neighbour went to Bendigo, Victoria and so I put together a bag of nibblies and drinks she could take along on her road-trip and I put

Yesterday, I had a great day making christmas cards for Aussie troops to send back home to family and friends. We were all excited to get a visit from some serving troops during the day. Here is just one photo from the day. A bit blurry but you can see we were having a good time/laugh. Also, in the photo is Julee who is our contact at Defence. Thank you to Karen for your continued organisation of this event and for the photos- for more photos go to Karen's blog here

This photograph was taken in Badlands National Park, South Dakota. This is a real hidden gem in the National Parks in USA. We did a 40 mile loop through the park. This photograph was taken at an area of the park called "The Door". We were able to get out and walk around the area - I tell you it looked like as though it would be a perfect setting for movies. The vibrant colours of the outcrops are caused by mineral deposits - oxidized maganese, iron oxide and volcanic ash. The Badlands were named by French trappers who explored the west in the early 1800's and they called the area a "bad land to cross". The Dakota Indians labeled it "mako sica" meaning "land bad". Remember back then they did not paved highways or visitors centre that makes for travelling these days. This is no bad land it was a joy to discover. Inspiration for this layout was found in Scrapbooking Trends, Dec 2009 p.29. The tag has my journalling on it. Lots of distressing on

I have been making christmas cards for Cards for the Troops - check out the details here if you would like to be involved in this, making cards for Australian troops to send back home at Christmas. And, I have been also making cards to sell as a fundraiser as my sister's church. They raise funds for ongoing mission work. Here is just one of the cards I am currently making. I have stamped the image with Stazon onto Very Vanilla cardstock, the photo comes out quite white and then coloured with my very limited collection of Copic pens. There is a message inside. I like it and I hope you do as well. Have a happy day.

Sometimes, you see something that takes your breath away and for me it was this tree in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, ACT when I visited there earlier this year. I decided to keep my layout simple, I had this wood grain paper in my stash, some green cardstock for mounting, journalling and the punched branch completed a simple layout with emphasis on the photograph. I hope you agree. Margaret

Saturday - lunch at a restaurant in Woolwich on Parramatta River with my sister. Lovely meal with views to Sydney. These photos were taken with my mobile phone - why oh why do I not have my Nikon with me when I need it.

Well spring has sprung in Sydney with temperatures expected to reach 30 degrees (c) tomorrow. Here is a photo of the Wisteria and Jasmine over my side fence. With the sun coming out my friendly blue-tongue lizard comes out to sun itself and it reminded me that I had a photo to scrapbook. I have blogged previously about my day at Australian Walkabout Wildlife Park . The rangers allowed visitors to hold at diamond python snake and after much urging from my visitors from Missouri I had my photo taken with it. We were told to put both hands out flat to hold the snake - look at me - a one handed hold! I like to wear scarves but a snake is ridiculous!! Fun.

Recently watching Scrap It TV Rachel Greig was demonstrating a layout using Distress Stains and Inks - I was inspired to create this page. Check out her link here. I added a spray of Walnut Ink as well. Bear Country USA is in the Black Hills of Dakota. This is a close up of the tag. "I see bears". I have been to Alaska - no bears seen, I have been to Yellowstone - no bears seen. Okay Bear Country USA is not in the wild BUT I SAW BEARS!!! I am happy. More pages with bears yet to come. Thank you for looking and thank you Rachel for the inspiration.

The Country Women's Association (CWA) is a national, state based, not for profit service organisation that has been assisting women and their families for many years. At this years Sydney Royal Easter Show, my sister and I volunteered at the New South Wales CWA tea rooms. Here we are in our aprons ready for the day. Heather's, front of house job, was to put hot water into teapots. My back of house jobs were cutting fruit and making fruit salad, making special request sandwiches (aka Vegemite and cheese) and relief scone maker. It was a very exhausting, as the CWA tea rooms are for many the highlight of their visit and it was very busy for both of us but fun at the same time. The journalling is on the small tag slipped in behind a photo and I have used some Dimensional Magic (DM) to highlight the chipboard letters. The DM needs to take over 3 hours to dry completely, longer in cooler weather. So this is not a fast finished layout - I needed to wait!!!!

Today I made a cake. A Pina Colada cake - no alcohol - just the deliciousness of coconut and pineapple. This cake is about 5" square and I made 6 large cupcakes as well. I am just back from lunch, at a friends place, and we enjoyed the cake in the beautiful Spring sunshine here in Sydney. Want the recipe? Into a mixing bowl put the contents of packet cake mix, add ingredients as per package (I left out the butter as it was going to be moist enough), add 1 cup coconut and about 2/3 cup of crushed pineapple. Mix all ingredients until combined, if mixture is too dry add more pineapple. Put into oven until golden brown and a skewer, when inserted into mixture, comes out dry. When cool ice - I used the icing that came with the packet cake and added a small amount soft butter, coconut and crushed pineapple to this. A sprinkle of coconut and a couple of cocktail umbrellas - ready to eat and enjoy. Scrumptious.

30th May, 2011. Before leaving Flagstaff, Arizona and heading to the Grand Canyon I was watching morning television and the weather announcer was saying what a great day it was going to be and said "Get out and enjoy your day". So this became the heading for my day in Grand Canyon. I have used a scrapbooking kit I got from the Grand Canyon to display my photos. For this page I combined two photographs and put them in the frame that came in the kit - I loved the result.

One of my favourite things to do before heading off on a holiday is to research what scrapbook, papercraft, craft stores I can visit. One of the most viewed pages on my blog is a posting I did on finding a scrapbooking store in Shanghai. Well, knowing I was going to be in San Francisco in June this year, I found Scrapbook Territory located in Berkeley. On Monday 13th June, I started out - take the Bart to Berkeley Station, change to a bus and get off at Fourth Street, walk to store. The store was in a beautiful area, lovely stores and such. Find scrapbook store - WHAT it was closed, oops obviously did not see that on the internet!! Oh well, look around the area, have a cuppa and cake, and a free facial offered by one of the stores and check out Castle in the Air that I had read about in Victoria magazine. If you are ever in the area check out Fourth Street, Berkeley - you will not be disappointed. I did go back to Scrapbook Territory on Wednesday 15th (following same route) and was

Tomorrow I am attending a wedding and here is the card I have made for the happy couple. The colour was inspired by the ribbon around their wedding invitation. Looking for a less traditional wedding card I went blog surfing and I found a card by Christine Miller on which I based this card. My thanks also go to Jayne for lending me her stamp. Happiness always Tegan and Ben

This week I have managed to complete 3 scrapbook pages - slowly the mojo is returning. My friends came to Australia from Missouri in December, 2010 for a holiday and these pages are from that visit. We had a fabulous day at Australian Walkabout Wildlife Park , Calga NSW - if you have not been there and you live in or are planning to visit Sydney, go there in the school holidays when they have a fantastic holiday programme. Aboriginal Face Painting was a hit. At the end of their holiday I asked each of them to write down their individual memories of their holiday. I have kept this page simple as the memories are the most important element of the pages. Today, I went out and got the remainer of my USA holiday photos developed - a bargain at .12c per photograph as I had so many!!!! I hope to get more pages created in the coming week.

Fishing down on the Farm. I stayed with my friends Carol and David down on their farm. Whilst Carol went to a meeting, David and I went fishing in the dams on their property. First I needed to be kitted out - gumboots, shirt and hat courtesy of Carol. I needed a little help putting the gumboots on and then we hopped onto "The Mule" aka jeep and headed to the ponds. We caught many fish and had a great fish fry in the evening. Now these pages did not really come together until I put the black wire (to represent fishing line) on it. Checking out scrapbook stores in America. After spending time with Carol and David, I headed up state to my friends Laura (Carol and David's daughter), Jason and their fantabulous boys - Casey and Cole. Whilst there Laura had to go to Kansas City for work and I went with her - and of course she had to twist my arm to visit the scrapbook stores on the way!!!! As we passed into Kansas state - she said we had to go to the best scrapbook store eve

cards (c) Bianca Clarkson - Princess Bee's Designs - Classes at Fantasia. Yesterday, I made these cards at a workshop at Fantasia , Bella Vista. Lots of good techniques. Today. it is a beautiful winter's day here in Sydney,plenty of sun - I have really got my creating mojo happening - I have made some scrapbooks for SCKC (South Coast Kids Camp) and some christmas cards for Aussie troops overseas. I really need to get some photos of my holidays printed and start scrapbooking my holiday.

Where have I been? Well, for the past six weeks I have been travelling in The United States of America. I have seen so many wonderful places - a favourite was The Grand Canyon, this photograph was taken at sunset. Amazing. Of course, I have taken many more photographs and will begin scrapbooking them asap - stay tuned to see more amazing photos. One of the other wonderful things about travelling is the people you meet. This card is for Ruth Ann, from South Carolina, who very kindly gave me the book she was reading when she finished it. This card was inspired by a challenge on Splitcoast Stampers. More later and thank you for stopping by. Margaret

It is Easter Saturday and it is raining here in Sydney - just right to stay in and so some scrapbooking. Here are the two pages I have created already (and it is only 9.33am). This one is when the Bax family arrived in Australia from Missouri in December, 2010. It was great to welcome them to my country. The first place we stopped was at Kirribilli, on the north side of Sydney Harbour Bridge to view the Bridge, Opera House and the harbour. In October, 2010 I was invited to the naming ceremony for the granddaughter of my long term friends - Robyn and Colin. After the ceremony we all headed to Sutton Beach, Qld for a barbeque. I love the sayings on this page - they seemed just right - especially "Open your arms and Welcome the JOY of today!"

Sunday we are getting together for a friends birthday. Here is the card I have made her. I had the Cuttlebug embossing folder and Blushing Bride CS/ribbon out from yesterday's card, so I just continued with them. The set I have used is a new Stampin'Up! (r) set called Strength and Hope, I was drawn to this set because of its message and as well SU is donating $2 from each set sold to Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Inside the card and on the envelope I have stamped the message and scroll. For the front scallop/circle embellishment I was inspired by a card by Sandi Maciver in US. If you are looking for a demonstrator to support this cause then simply visit the Stampin'Up! website.

Tomorrow I am off to a wedding - here is the card I have made for the bride and groom. The colour is Stampin'Up! (r) Blushing Bride (BB). I have embossed some BB CS and used a Martha Stewart Heart lace edged punch at the bottom. I then embossed white CS and sponged them with BB, punched out the larger hearts and placed some random bling onto the hearts, then a little bit of BB ribbon. Not forgetting the inside I have put another punched heart and a greeting appropriate to the occasion. A long and happy life toether Tessa and Peter.

I met with my sister and another friend today and we did some scrapbooking and lunch, and cups of tea and ................... Here is a page I based on a layout from Splitcoast Stampers. I moved the top right papers down to the bottom as I wanted to ensure the journalling "How to kiss a kangaroo" was evenly spaced on the layout. Cole was quietly interacting with this kangaroo, there was no-one else around (well there was me with my telephoto lens). I was transfixed as the kangaroo allowed him to get so close and Cole seemed to be talking to him. I love it!!!

And now for something different............... I have been cleaning up and clearing out a lot of my craft supplies. I rediscovered these painted images and I picked up a needle and thread to complete some simple embroidery to finish them off. I used a candlewicking knot as I find this to be a very tactile knot.I have turned them into lavender sachets - again using fabric and wadding from my stash. The finished items are heading to Grafton to assist in raising funds for a missionary in Kiev, Ukraine. Enjoy.

My mother died far too early over 30 years ago - my how time flies - so I really enjoy making cards for others to give to their mothers. These are just two of the cards I am sending off to Grafton to be sold to raise funds for a missionary in Kiev. The inside greeting "hope your day is blooming with love." I have watercoloured the image with my SU markers - my favourite method of colouring by far. Thank you for stopping by.

Needing inspiration - I found a great book "52 more scrapbooking challenges" by Elizabeth Kartchner Creating Keepsakes. Challenge 1 find inspiration all around you......Get inspired by an outfit. The inspiration for this page are the bright clothes worn by the pre-firework entertainers on New Years Eve in Sydney. What do you think?

What have I been doing? Well for the past month or so I have been making 15cm x 15cm ( 6" x 6" for my USA friends) scrapbook pages that I have made for children who attend camps for abused children here in Australia. It has been fun and I must say slightly addictive - a 20 page album grows quickly. Tomorrow I am off to a friends 60th birthday celebration and here is a different kind of birthday card I have created for her. I followed instructions found the pixie cottage I have used a sheet of vellum for the envelope and created a card from some embossed paper left over from a previous card. Some lace and a flower from my stash finish the envelope wallet. Thank you for reading, have a great weekend everyone - celebrate everyday.

It is hot, hot, hot here in Sydney today (in fact we are breaking records for the number of hot days). I am off to an engagement celebration this afternoon. Here is the card I made for the happy couple. I found a long not used dry embossed sheet of paper in my stash and it suited the chandelier stamp (from Kazzaz). Many congratulations to Tegan and Ben. Happiness always.

Here is a card I got from Laura in USA - isn't it lovely? What are you dreaming about? Well in Sydney today it is a 'stinker' we are having a heatwave and it looks like it will be for a few more days to come. So I am dreaming of some cooler weather!!!! It is good to dream. Thank you Laura for a great card and your box of goodies as well.