Stamps Ahead

I was inspired by a card I found on Instagram by Kleinewolke_2.  I am not a big fan of rainbows in traditional colours, however, I found that the colours that Janet (and I am hoping she does not mind me calling her by her name) inspiring so decided to have a go, as we say here in Australia! I have used a variety of products on this card - die cuts, chevron stamp on top rainbow and greeting are from Kaszazz, dots on background Stampin' Up! and the papers and wooden stars are from my stash. Thank you looking, I have left a thank you for Janet on her Instagram. I am off to have my flu needle this week.  Flu needle done - all up-to-date with required injections.  Margaret

This card has a very vintage vibe to it but it is modern in its colouring - I hope.   Yesterday, a friend gave me a Stampin'Up! stamp set called Style Beautiful - it was vintage 2011.  So, I made this card and shared it with her.   The ladies in my Friday community group will be making it this week. Inside - greeting from Darkroom Door everthing else from my stash. My card was inspired by a card I found on Pinterest, by Jessica Lamb in 2011, unfortunately she does not seem to have a current blog so I was unable to thank you for the inspiration.  I hope you like.   Margaret :)

I have bitten the bullet and decided to rejoin Stampin' Up! (r).  It has been a few years and they have special joining offer of $25 at the moment as part of their 25th Anniversary. Are you interested in joining?  This offer ends and all paper work must be in by 21 October, 2013.  For more information go to Stampin' Up!   I signed up on-line and it was easy as to do. Now can't wait to get my goodies to play with.  Put me Margaret Crawford as your upline/demonstrator and I will only be too pleased to guide you through the wonders of paper crafting. Margaret

The current challenge over at The Lollipop Ladies  is Crocodile sweets with the added challenge of washi tape. See inspiration image below. I fell in love with the colours - very gelato don't you think?  So I went hunting for a crocodile stamp and the only one I could find was a foam rubber stamp (thanks to Fiona who recently donated her excess stash so I could make and donate scrapbook pages to Southern Cross Kids Camps and this stamp was included - more on that later).I randomly stamped the image and then fussy cut 3 other images and applied them with dimensionals.  The Epic Day this and that Designer Washi Tape from current Stampin' Up! (r) catalogue reminded me of caution tape. And the pink eyes are just so cute... Why not hop over to their blog and have a go - prizes to be won if sufficient entries received. Here is the inspiration: Crocodiles ... with the additional challenge of  Washi .

Earlier this month I completed the sale of my home and the purchase of a new one.  I have settled in now and have just about unpacked all my cardmaking/scrapbooking supplies. Today, I taught a cardmaking class at a local craft group and here are the cards I designed especially for the class. Whilst waiting for all attendees to get to the class, I like to get students to make a gift card of some sort.  This week it was a 3" x 3" card. They made only one card.   The butterfly stamp is from Penny Black and the flower card is Stampin' Up! (r) (SU) Elements of Style set.  You stamp across the card, fold, add a bit of bling and a greeting - a quick and easy card. The next card, of which there are many variations around in blog land, uses punched edges (or decorative scissors) to create a ruffled look to the card.   This design could be used for birthday, wedding or thank you cards.  It is a simple card but it does take a little time to punch all the edges....

Card designed by Margaret Crawford (c) I was excited  to win a guest designer spot with The Lollipop Ladies recently and I was asked to submit for Challenge #70.  The challenge is Bug Lollipops with the extra challenge of Nature. I was immediately attracted to the Lady Bug in the inspiration photo below. I used Elizabeth craft designs die 711 - Lady Bugs in black and red. The resulting bug is very small and I was perplexed as to how I would adhere the wings to the body - but a Quickie Glue pen came to the rescue.  The nature paper came from the Kaisercraft - Great Southern Land Collection.  The greeting is Stampin' Up! (r) from a long retired set, the words just seemed right for this card. And finally I used dimensional pops to raise the greeting and the bugs to give them the appearance of flying across the card. If you are inspired, why not head over to The Lollipop Ladies  and enter.  I found this quote on-line: I'm sending luck and w...

Thank you for coming to my blog, do I say that enough?  This is a rather lengthy entry as I have had painters in for the past week and my house looks like an episode of "Hoarders", they have gone now and I am trying to catch up with all that needs to be done to get back into order. Once again, over at Scrapbook Challenges there was a Progressive Scrapbooking challenge for September. Here are the steps published each week: Week 1 Choose one 4" x 6" photo (hold on to it) Choose and adhere a pattern paper (pp) background (no cardstock allowed) Choose  and adhere another piece of pp to match and cut to any size you like Week 2 Choose and adhere one piece of pp and cut a 2" wide strip Choose and adhere another co-ordinating pp and cut to about 8" x 8" or 9" x 9" Week 3 Place your photo on layout add journal spot and subtitle(s) Week 4 Add title , journaling and embellishments!. Here are my finished layouts. Yes, I di...

Firstly, this card design was popular with the ladies of the local craft group, who have been making Christmas cards for the troops for the past 4 weeks.  Together they completed 286 cards that I will deliver to Paper Lady, Karen ,who founded and co-ordinates this initiative, on Saturday.  Contact her if you would like to be involved. Closing date for 2012 is 2nd November. Secondly, here are some photos of the some of  ladies creating their cards this week. Thank you to all the ladies involved.  Margaret

Bonne Anne is French for Happy New Year. On 1st January, we were in Paris. We started the day at the Paris Flea Markets - alas as it was the 1st day of the year most of the stands did not open and there was not many people around (getting over the night before maybe), nevertheless we had a great time wandering those that were open. We then made our way to Sacre Couer in time for lunch at a restaurant with this view. We made our way the hill to explore and of course there were Christmas markets to view. This is where the people were - it was crowded, crowded and did I say crowded. Then a walk and a spot of window gazing and souvenir shopping around Montmarte before late in the afternoon heading off to find dinner. I was inspired by a challenge over at Scrapbook Challenges to finish this layout. Notice the little spots of red and blue to tie in our coats. I used an old Stampin'Up! kit that has been in my stash for years to make this layout.

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.

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 was my birthday and I got some fabulous cards and wishes. I wanted to share with you all a card I received from Laura in USA. Laura made the card and it is just beautiful. I love the colour, the detail and the design. Thanks to everyone who sent me wishes.

All images Stampin'Up! (r) unless indicated I have purchased 4 Copic markers and I used them to colour in the images from SU Happy Moments stamp set - I stamped out an A4 sheet of Very Vanilla CS (sorry it came out white in photo). I am very pleased with the result - what do you think?

All supplies Stampin'Up! (r) unless otherwise indicated. A couple of friends have had baby girls recently and here are the cards I have just created for them. I decided to go for a non-traditional baby card and have used paper from Stampin'Up! Sweet Nothings Simply Scrappin' kit. Some now retired stamps/ribbon and a little flower from my stash complete the card. Welcome to world Chloe and Isabelle.