Stamps Ahead

Here are 3 fun and colourful whimsical houses I created this morning. I used some bright papers and cut the whimiscal shapes and attached to cardstock with glue stick and then I machine stitched around I was inspired by a photo my friends, Jenny and Lyn took in August in Qaqortoq, a Southern Greenland cruise port. They have been on 3 month journey around the world and this was one of the ports they called into. Here is the photo they took and served as my inspiration - the colourful houses stood out to me Thank you for looking, Margaret

Have you heard of the 7 Coloured Earth in Mauritius?  Here is my art journal page inspired by this area It so happens that the owner of Hillbilly Shenanigans and her friend are on a world cruise that called into Mauritius recently.  They took photos of their visit to the location.  They are documenting their travels and setting small challenges along the way.  This challenge was to be inspired by one of their photos of this truly amazing area in Mauritius. The earth is mainly different types of red, gold, browns and purples. For my art journal page, I first took a sheet of heavy white card stock and applied several Paper Artsy Paints with a spatula.  I allowed this to dry and then using a now discontinued Kaszazz stamp with black archival ink randomly.  I DID NOT LIKE IT!!! The inner critic was saying throw it away and start again!  Well, I nearly did and then I realised I still had punches on my desk from some recent creating and decided to punch squa...

 This weekend I attended the inaugural ScrapKat's retreat in Goulburn, NSW.  The landscape garden features a stationery Southern Aurora Railway carriage on its own private railway platform. Here are layouts I completed - sorry/not sorry long post: For a challenge over at Soul Scrappers - One word title starting with either 'D', 'A' or 'S'. Photos from my time in Florida in 2024 with my friend Kathy - taken a few different places.  The bottom left photo was a 'highway' of alligators, I had never seen so many together. Completed for challenge with Hillbilly Scrappers - a virtual mixed media retreat starts at end of the month and this was a warm up challenge - Monochromatic.   Photo taken last year, again in Florida when we visited Russell Stover Chocolates outlet. They are the makers of Whitmans Chocolates that are available in Australia and were a favourite many years ago.  Yes, I did purchase a supply. Completed this over the weekend - a layout desig...

Here is my 2nd Blind Scrap challenge that I completed with Hillbilly Shenanigans prior to last weeks virtual retreat. I will admit I got a little confused with mat placement and I hear you say 'you have 3 matted photos!' there was originally only 2 matted photos. Well, as Michael Crawford (no relation) would say "I had an oopsy" with some stamping, so rather than toss the lot decided an extra photo would cover it up! I used some last remaining sheets of Kaisercraft Magnolia collection that had the flowers and leaves that required fussy cutting. Photos are from my trip to UK last year from top right Stoke-on-Trent, Chester and Jane Austen Museum in Bath. Thank you for looking, Margaret

 This layout has been created as the result of a challenge - create a layered embellishment suitable for a boy and then use on a layout. One of the things I have been doing recently is going through my stash trying to use it up or donate or send for recycling or donation.  I found in my stash as I was doing this the leftovers of CeleB8 Take Note collection (many years old). I firstly made the embellishment Using Kraft cardstock and my We are Memory Keepers Envelope board I created a 6" x 4" envelope and then decorated it layers of the bits and pieces in the kit and finished up with some white splatters. I used a magnet to create a closure for the envelope. Also, I found a small book that I started many years ago so this I put in the envelope - just put a piece of chipboard to make it easier to remove from the envelope. The photo on the layout is off my great nephew on his first day back at school in 2025.  Thank you for looking, Margaret

Nearly 12 months ago I travelled to USA and I spent part of my time there with good friends "The Baxes".  Here we are at Cracker Barrel waiting for our dinner to arrive The layout was completed for an optional early bird challenge prior to Hillbilly Shenanigans- The Great Papercraft Caper - Virtual Retreat later this month.  Admission to retreat is now finished however they are having another Mixed Media virtual retreat later this year. This challenge required us to use this sketch to complete a layout and we were free to interpret it however we liked - flip it, rotate it, or take just a few elements that inspired! I used Celeb8 Bon Appetite paper and embellishments (except for background red and the larger polka dot papers) from my stash. From memory I have these papers, at least, since 2020! As I am participating in Calvinball 2025 I have also added this layout to Scrap Happy .  Check out Calvinball - a fun papercraft event happening this March - just click on the link ...