Stamps Ahead

In January, 2019 on a cruise to New Zealand, one port of call was Dunedin.  We hired a car and headed for Larnach Castle.   On arrival, there was a piper welcoming us.  I loved the stone staircase into the Castle and the weathering of years on the lions. Yesterday, we met up with the friends that we travelled with on the cruise and Karen bought along a large punch that she had and I punched out the white frame you see.  I used Distress Oxide Sprays to match the colours in the photos.  A clean and simple layout. Margaret Crafting in the time of coronavirus.

Here is a card I created today, it is suitable for the men in your life: I have used Tim Holtz, Stampers Anonymous Stamp and Stencil from a set simply called THMM104.  Once again I raided my stash and found a Scrapmatts black frame that was ideal for this card. Also, I have used Ranger Distress Oxide Sprays after I had finished applying texture paste (white) and stamps and then on the stamped image of the gentleman of old.  Arrow, Choose Happy and papers are from Kaszazz and the dots found in my stash. Thank you for looking, Margaret Crafting in the time of coronavirus. 

Here is a card I have made - it was designed by Rosemary Clive, Kaszazz demonstator. All supplies are available from Kaszazz - yes, I am a demonstrator also.  This card features papers and stamps from the recently released Destination collection. As one happy world traveller I will be travelling again I am sure when the world is opened up to us again. Thank you looking, Margaret Crafting in the time of coronavirus.

As I mentioned in previous posts I have been conscious of using up my stash during the coronavirus pandemic.  Today, I share with you a set of 6 small (3" x 3")  gift cards I have made: I have used a die set I purchased in the USA 2 years ago - Pink Fresh Floral Squares.  As you can see in the photo above here is what I did: Die cut the 6 dies in the set onto to white cardstock - see top left of photo. Coloured the die cuts with watercolour paint and water pen.  I purchased the paints also in USA in Walmart - very cheap and they are great vibrant colours. Any, watercolour paints would work. These were then placed on to black cardstock and attached with Nuvo glue (a favourite for sure) and the edges distressed. Then raided the paper stash of offcuts for to make the gift cards. Finally, into the stash for some old rhinestones. Following the same steps as above and this time using Kaszazz Alcohol Ink Markers I coloured the images.  Here are the results:

Here is a layout I completed today.  I have been making a very concentrated effort these past few isolation months to use what I have in my stash - of course, I have only made a miniscule reduction during this coronavirus time!! The photo is of my great nephew Oscar.  Those that have read any of my previous blog posts will know that my sister was overseas and came home early due to coronavirus pandemic - and boy was I relieved when she arrived home!  She purchased this mask in Portugal for Oscar and when she got home she posted it down to him with some crayons.   My niece took these photos to show his handiwork.  He will be 2 in June and he is growing so quickly and one of the things he loves to do is draw and colour in.   An artist in the making maybe!! The papers are from Kaisercraft - Into the Wild collection, the brads from Bo Bunny and stickers are from Thickers - I found that over the years the 'stick' had gone and I need to use some glue to make them stay on.   I hav

I made the deadline.  Here is my final layout for the International Scrapbook Day Celebration 2020 at Cocoa Vanilla Studio. The challenge was to complete a monochromatic paper project and you could only use one colour  (or shades thereof) and black, white or grey. This photo of my great nephew was taken this year at his Day Care, he had just got the hang of riding this tricycle. I used Kaszazz Hearts stencil and modelling paste and then went over the stencil with watercolour paint.  I was not too precise as I wanted it to be like a drawing that a child would do at Day Care (that is my story and I am sticking to it!).   I then searched my stash for anything orange in hue - not an easy job I realized.   The chipboard is orange - I coloured it with orange alcohol pens - in this evenings light it looks rather dark. I had fun creating this layout, and my wish is that Oscar will grow up loving his life, believing in himself and explore all that his life ahead of him brings.  Love this

The penultimate challenge over at Cocoa Vanilla Studio International Scrapbook Day Celebration. Who says you only scrap people, homes, scenery etc.  I love flowers and the Peace Rose has a special significance to me. Here is my layout: The challenge was to create a project using 5 elements chipboard.  I have use beautiful and moments chipboard from Kaszazz.  I stamped with pink ink the chipboard pieces and then applied glossy accents. die cut title.  I found a packet of Cocoa Vanilla Studio Die Cut Ephemera in my stash - as luck would have it as I only thought at beginning of challenges I only had 4 sheets of patterned paper from their collection.  I used the word sweet. a flair button.   A little hard to find in my stash - I don't have many of these, but did find the heart flair that was just right - how old it is I have no idea. enamel dots were placed around the layout in 3 colours of pink. and something fussy cut.   I fussy cut a from a page full of roses in Kaisercraf

Challenge 4 at Cocoa Vanilla Studio was to use more than 1 photo and create a title from different fonts.   Here is my layout: I have used Cocoa Vanilla Wild at Heart papers again.  I was inspired to use the Grow Wild flower paper as it was a close match to the outfit I was wearing.  A few bits of left overs from yesterdays layout also used.   I have created tags and I have done my journaling on them.  All the embellishments came from my stash and I created the scallop flower - one of my favourite ways of creating flowers. About the photo.  It was taken on 8th December, 1993.  I am with my father (who if he was still alive would have been 100 in March this year) and we had lunch at a restaurant at Coal and Candle Creek, situated east of Cottage Point, in Sydney. I love this photo for many reasons not the least that it has my Dad in it, but it is a bit retro.  I am wearing a favourite Maggie Shepherd outfit - I had several of her outfits over the years, I loved the colours and the

Today, I am back to completing layouts for International Scrapbook Day Celebration 2020 over at Cocoa Vanilla Studios facebook page.  Challenge 3 was a sketch challenge.  Here is my layout: Here is the sketch: I have used Cocoa Vanilla Wild at Heart range  - Bohemian paper.  I hand cut my hearts from both sides of this paper and also from a gold paper in my stash.   The background papers and die cuts are from Kaszazz and the reminder of the embellishments from my stash.   I slightly modified the design to fit my photo and the colours I chose.  I The photo of me was taken at the Christmas/Break up lunch of a community group where I lead a cardmaking table of wonderful ladies.  It was a candid moment during the lunch and I really love it.  I like to think I am "wild at heart", nothing too wild mine you!!!  I took this photo of my layout as well - using the camellia tree in my yard - is this wild enough!!  Most layouts are just photographed by themselves. Thank you

I have made 30 thank you cards that are to be given to volunteers at our local hospitals to say thank you for all that they do.  Here are just a sample of some the cards I made multiples of: Believe it or not these cards are the same size! Techniques - blue card made with embossing paste and watercolour paint. Butterfly card made with Distress Oxide sprays onto a mat then butterfly stamp pressed into the sprays.    Dark pink card made with Distress Oxide Inks sprayed onto watercolour paper, the light pink/mauve card uses Distress Oxide Inks "smooched" onto glossy cardstock and then buffed off. Blue card made with Distress Oxide Inks (can you see I love them!) applied over embossed flower images.  The top right card I made using one of my all time favourite stamp sets (no longer available) Gorgeous Grunge by Stampin' Up! (r).  The bottom card is one of my new favourites after designing this card the stamps (excluding the Thank You) are from Kaszazz Classique col

Here is a layout and card I completed for a challenge over at White with 1 April Cyber Crop.  Well, I cannot enter it as the cut-off date was 1st May (call it isolation brain)....but the grid layout and colour stumped me!!   I got in my head 'grid' and created one layout that of course did not contain blue.  And then the colour! I was thinking light blue, blue flowers, of course nothing in my photos! A long post! The challenge was to create a layout and matching card : Have I created a new technique for my background?  It came to me as I was in slumberland last night. I decided to use my paints from the layout I did for Cocoa Vanilla challenges, as they were out as I had not put them away.  So I created a grid.  Let me show you the process. To get the grid - I first penciled in the lines and then using my brush and ruler painted in the grid lines.  Being sure, to clean the ruler after each line was added!  Learnt that the hard way - no worries it was texture!   Is

Layout I completed for challenge at Cocoa Vanilla Studio International Scrapbook Day 2020 Celebration.  The challenge was to be inspired by a layout by one of their design team. I was inspired by a layout by Anna Komenda from 28th January, 2020.  Thank you Anna. For sometime I have wanted to do a circle type layout, a few times I have got my bits and pieces out to make a layout - in fact the white cardstock (CS) I used in my layout was creased as it was in the bag with the said bits and pieces.  I got my iron out and gave it a good iron to get it straight!!  Is that dedication to a task? My first thought was to use some blue Nuova mousse that I have....whoops go get it, open and it is so hard not even water will get this baby going again - ever!  Look at the knife (well, actually scissor edge) it will not penetrate that surface.   So off I went to get my paints and paint a somewhat round circle and spread some drops over my CS. The paper I used to fussy cut the flo

I am participating in challenges over at Cocoa Vanilla Studio this weekend.  The first challenge was to be inspired by a mood board.   Here is my layout with a photo of my great nephew who is growing up so quickly - 2nd birthday shortly: And here is the mood board - we could draw on images, colours, patterns, texture or the quote - whatever grabbed you.  I loved the quote, butterflies and the pastel colours. I only own 4 12" x 12" patterned papers (pp) by Cocoa Vanilla but reassured we could use any of our stash I proceeded.  What have I used: One of my sheets of pp from their Wild at Heart collection - Artisan I lightly sprayed Distress Oxide Sprays - picked raspberry; broken china; fossilized amber. Then search my stash for co-ordinating papers (both retired Kaszazz papers) that match the photo I selected and then sprayed with fossiled amber and distressed the edge. On to my craft mat sprayed the 3 colours, and a little water,then stamped Kaisercraft Magestic Butt