Stamps Ahead

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