Stamps Ahead

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 week I am departing on my scrapbooking cruise with Unmistakable Creations . We had been provided with a small mini canvas and easel to create a name tag.  We could use any technique and here is what I created. It will sit on our table in our conference room onboard. I wanted to try a something I had not done before, so off I went to internet to do some research and found Ranger Distress Glaze resist technique.  I must say I loved the result and I added a small cluster to top right so that I could incorporate my name and to cover up and area that I was not all that happy with. I used the following products: I sprayed the canvas with Dylusions Ink Sprays - Calypso Tea, Peony Blush, Vanilla Custard several times onto the canvas until I was happy with the result, drying in between and dabbing with a paper towel if too much water. Allow to dry. Note: I did not gesso the canvas beforehand. Next, I used Ranger Distress Glaze through a stencil in places on the canvas. I must conf...

Last night I attended a local youth club and together they each created an Easter card to be given to residents at local retirement villages and others.   Here are the cards they created.  My thanks to my sister (mentor to the group) for her assistance and making card inserts to write their name. The card I designed for them uses a reverse stencil technique.  They first inked up Distress Oxide ink onto a craft sheet/acrylic block/plastic then sprayed with water.  Next, place the stencil into the water/ink and then lay it onto the white cardstock and then press to transfer the inks and dry with a heat gun.  The tag/cross I prepared for each card.  The cross die was a long ago free purchase with a magazine.  The youth enjoyed making their card for donation Thank you for looking, Margaret

 Here is my layout for the 3rd and final challenge at White with 1 Earth cyber crop. This was a Tic Tac Toe challenge (one of my favourite forms of challenge criteria).  Here is the board.  I selected straight down the middle - wood veneer, earth theme and stencil background (texture paste mixed with Bundled Sage Distress Oxide Ink).  I search my stash for any wood veneer flowers and the hearts and any other wood veneer I thought would work.  You may be able to see that I also added a shimmer to give that extra sparkle!                                                      I have had this photo of water lilies forever!  I took it years ago when my father was alive and I took him for a drive and if memory serves me well it was in the Hawkesbury area. I decided to search the internet for some interesting facts about water lilie...

 This past weekend I ran two classes that featured Sunflower images  Coloured with Distress Oxide Inks - Vintage Photo, Fired Brick, Fossilized Amber and Bundled Sage. A little bit of Distress Stickles Glue to make the wings sparkle.  Same colours used in the layout. Those doing the single page layout had the option of purchasing a small kit to make a mirror image double layout. Some random facts, courtesy of internet searching: Sunflowers are associated with positivity.  They are the national flower of Ukraine and people are flooding social media with photos of Sunflowers.  Who knew when I started researching a couple of weeks earlier that what we are now seeing in Ukraine came to pass. The current world record for the tallest Sunflower was set in Germany in 2014 (I checked and it still stands today apparently). It had its own scaffolding.  How tall did it grow? 30 feet, 1 inch (9.17m)! Sunflowers are native to the Americas. The sunflower was a common crop...

 I have completed this layout for a challenge over at Soul Scrappers .  More about the challenge below. The challenge was a mystery bag challenge - and we were to be inspired by this poem we could select one of the lines, words or even the whole poem to inspire us. I selected "P" is for presents. One of the gifts I gave my great nephew at Christmas was a 'paint a birdhouse' kit.  I recently received these photos as well as a video of him painting it.  In the video he said "thank you for my present" and when his mother asked what did you learn - he said 'how to mix colours'.   Not bad for a 3 and half year old.  Inspired gift I would say. Here are some close ups of the layouts - please note that they are straight, they have buckled slightly as I used sprays on the background - I will place between a couple of books to straighten up further. I used 2 stencils from Kaisercraft - Creativity is contagious and Raindrop.  Sprays I used were Dylusions Per...

 Here are the projects I created using the newest release from Kaszazz - Serenity  3 small gift cards 3" square. Products used: 6675K Just Because Lily Un-Cut (3) set, 6681M Enjoy your Day Girl Un-cut (3) set - greeting used, 8040 Stencil - Triangle Cluster A set of 4 mixed media cards 6" square. Products used 8039 Stencil - Organic Shapes - Large, 6688L Organic Spots stamp, 6691H Small Organic Dashes stamp, 6689LLarge Organic Dashes stamp, TDO72683 Distress Oxide Inkpad - Prize Ribbon, 8069 Chipboard - Organic Branches, 8038 Vellum Stickers - Serenity (32 stickers, 2 of each). A close up of each card follows Below is an 8 pages journal I created with papers and embellishments left over from various projects.  I will post a separate blog post showing the individual pages. Serenity is a great range and would be great on travel photos, masculine layouts, and mixed media. Some of the paper  is above. Thank you for looking.  Margaret

Lockdown is over, restrictions are reducing and a slow return to regular activities. On Saturday 13 November, my sister and I took a drive to Yarramalong (just up the M1) and whilst there we relaxed and had morning tea.  Here is layout I have created for Hello Spring Cyber Crop at  White with 1 challenges.  The challenge: So often we are behind the camera so please 'put yourself in the picture'. Take a selfie, ask a friend or family to snap a shot of you.  Add one colour of  your choice and be sure you add some flowers to your layout to give it a 'Spring' feel. My sister took this photo of me in the sunshine, reading a magazine and enjoying a cup of tea and a pastry. Afterwards we browsed the gift store and then headed on a round trip back home fitting in a spot of shopping! I firstly swiped Bundled Sage Distress Oxide onto an acrylic block and then smooched to my white cardstock. I then used all the stamps in the JOFY102 stamp set from Paper Artsy. Flowers, bra...

 I completed this layout today.   The designer of the layout was Natalie May (2017) and I purchased it in kit form - the kit included the paper, stencil, chipboard and hardware.   Everything else I used came from my stash. The photo is of my great nephew doing a spot of whale watching.  Thank you for looking, Margaret

SOUL Scrappers has moved their  monthly challenges to Facebook here.   This layout is for the Mystery challenge "Shapes" with inspiration of stars, hearts, crescents. I selected the hexagon shape.   I firstly used Distress Oxide Speckled Egg to create the background - smooched with pearlised water, then I used a The Crafters Workshop stencil (no name - but I will call hexagon) with the Distress Oxide ink.  The papers I have used are from Kaisercraft Serenity collection and I have die cut 6 hexagon and 1 larger for attaching the folded 6 hexagons. The finished shape looks like a star. I have put below a photo below of how I folded the hexagons.   A smattering of the smallest die and one for journalling then attached. Thank you for looking, if you like scrapbooking challenges head over the SOUL scrappers challenge facebook  and have a look.  Still in lockdown, Margaret

I recently watched a video by a fellow Kaszazz consultant Julie Whitechurch where she demonstrated a great way to make to make your own backgrounds on paper.   Here is what I came up with Basically the technique using Distress Inks and Distress Oxide Inks applied to paper with a dry brush to create a checkerboard pattern (leaving white space) then embossing over the top using Embossing Ink applied with a ruler edge - see top right.  I then decided to use a ruler and the edge of an acrylic block.  Next, I decided that I would see what it looked like using Scarlet Distress Mixed Media Embossing Powder and Black Embossing Powder.  Love the result and when I do it next I will not leave as much white space.  I have left a thank you to Julie for the inspiration.  Check out her video, link attached above.  Now to make make into Christmas cards. Thank you for looking, Margaret

 Here is a layout I have created using all Kaszazz products available from Kaszazz.   I drew inspiration from a layout I created 3 days ago.  There is space for journalling on the tag and underneath the photo.  Spring is coming - my mini daffodils are blooming this morning and look top right the first freesia has arrived as well. Thank you for looking, Margaret I am a Kaszazz consultant and if you are interested in purchasing any of the products available from them please visit my website   www.kaszazz.com/cart?consid=110787  spend over $99 you get free postage and the products will be delivered direct to you.

One more post for today.  Here are 2 cards I have made recently following the new release of Papillon Collection by Kaszazz.  One of the benefits of being a Kaszazz Consultant is that I can be inspired by other consultants - these cards were inspired by those created by Natalie Pecovnik.  I made a few small changes to the colours and patterned paper I used. If you are interested in purchasing the stamps used, they are - Grunge Background and Mini Words of Wisdom.  The die is Layered Butterfly.  It is not obvious in my photo, but the butterfly is layered over vellum.  You can order these from my website  www.kaszazz.com/cart?consid=110787   Thank you for looking, Margaret

Yesterday I participated in a Biggest Morning Tea (BMT) event.  BMT is a community event that raises vital funds to make a big difference for those impacted by cancer.  The event I attended was organised by one of the community groups where I lead cardmaking classes.  Here is a card I designed especially for the day. I set up a table and participants could join me and make the card for a gold coin donation.  I supplied all the materials to make the card.  Several non stampers joined me at the table to make a card.   The card background was made with Distress Oxide Inks - Wilted Violet and Squeezed Lemonade or Dusty Concord and Fossiled Amber. The two colours were wiped across a clear acrylic block, water mister applied and then put face down onto watercolour paper.  After a quick zap with the heat gun, the stamped images were applied.  Then it was applied to background mat (they had a choice of colours in yellow, purples or black) and then to...

I was thrilled to be able to hold a Team Training Day, today,  to introduce the new Kaszazz collection to team members and customers can attend.  These are my layouts and cards that were designed by Robyn Owen - each participant pays for receives a kit that allows them to make these, including instructions. Also, I created the following.  The first is a collage of scraps of paper I had left over with stamps, stencil and chipboard from the collection.  The photo, was in a suitcase of photos, that belonged to our uncle and was given to us by his wife following his death.  It contained a lot of family photos and our father was alive at the time and he was able to identify many of the people in the photos.  However, this one I cannot find any reference to - on the back it has a photographers mark in Lismore, and to my knowledge we had no relatives in Lismore area.  I love the photograph as it appears to have been painted with colour as was done in the past...

 Here is a layout I have completed for a challenge over at Unmistakable Creations on Facebook. The challenge was to use these papers created by Melissa the owner of Unmistakable Creations.  I had to download them from the website  and print on white cardstock.   Our mother passed away in 1974 at only 49 years of age.   My memories are strong of the short time that we had with her.  She was a constant inspiration, her life was plagued by ill-health but she always managed to bounce back with a smile and an overwhelming desire to get in the car and drive again.  I do not have many photos and those that I have are gradually being put onto scrapbook layouts.  This photo is of my parents wedding day in 1948 as I could not find a suitable photo of just Mum alone. Anyway, it is apt as both of them helped me to be everything I am today.  Our father passed away in 2007.   The layout uses two stencils available from Kaszazz - Rose an...

    I recently posted photos of my recently published scrapbook layout and pocket pages.   For my two card classes that I lead at two community groups I demonstrated the background technique I used - and I have called Confetti Cling Wrap technique.  Above are some of the cards the ladies made - unfortunately I did not photograph them all! Greeting is from Kaszazz Nostalgic collections and inks are Ranger Distress Oxide inks Thank you for looking, Margaret

Here is a layout I have completed today for the April challenge over at ARTastic challenges The challenge was to be inspired by this painting by Evelyn Chapman titled "French Ruins with Poppies". The criteria was Remembrance and to include the colour Red. The layout did not have to be Anzac themed.  I know as soon as I saw the inspiration it reminded me of a photo I took on Anzac Day 2020. First, let me tell you about the photo.  Australia was in lockdown due to Covid and therefore Anzac Day events were cancelled. No dawn services, no marches, nothing. People around the country held front garden sunrise services.  My 94 year old neighbour, Lorna, every year would donate to service clubs the Rosemary, from her garden, for patrons to wear - alas she could not do so in 2020.  She came to me and said what did I think of her putting Rosemary on the bricks at the front of our villas.  I said go for it - a great idea.  Later in the day, she came to me and said no-...