Stamps Ahead

I returned from overseas yesterday, the flight had severe turbulence coming into Sydney. How severe I here you say!  Lightning hit the plane, big bang and bright light...white knuckle time...all okay and another travel story for years to come. This Friday back to teaching cards at a local community group. Here is one card I designed: This card uses Tim Holtz Distress Crayons swept lightly across his watercolour paper, then baby wipe or similar swiped in one direction down the paper.  The stamps (except greeting) are also from Ranger. What was not evident in top photo was the Fun Stampers Journey Silk spashed onto the card front. Whilst overseas I was asked by my friend to lead a card class for her friends....this is one of the cards I designed for them, it is a smaller panel on a coloured card, and uses stamps from her stash. This provided the inspiration for the card for this weeks class. Thank you for looking, Margaret

Time for one more post before I head off to bed........this is another card I developed for the group of ladies at local community group. This card uses Tim Holtz Alteration die called Sewing Room and some free stamps that were included in a magazine some time ago.  Other bits and pieces are from my stash. The card is square. My mother was a tailoress and taught my sister and I to sew, knit and embroider therefore this card reminds me of her skills.   Once again, I am going to post this to Soul Scrappers   for their challenge to use a die on a card. Thank you for looking and good night. Margaret.

Christmas season is over and it is now time to celebrate 2018 and all that it will bring. I have been busy cleaning up and finishing projects that have been around for awhile as well as preparing for classes to come in 2018. Here are a couple of layouts from this past week: Both of these layouts were from kits by Scrappy Chat Designs that came out last year.  They showcase the use of Ranger Distress Crayons.  The arrow stencil is from Tim Holtz Collection, Stampers Anonymous.  Now I am not generally a user of pastel colours but I think these are great.  I have added some additional wooden embellishments.  I am heading off on holidays shortly and these will soon be filled with photos. Thank you for looking, Happy New Year to you all.   Margaret :)

Yesterday, I participated in a cardmaking fundraiser for Kisii, a school in Kenya.  Here is the card I created for the ladies to make. It uses Tim Holtz Crazy Bird stamp and die, the background is Gorgeous Grunge from Stampin' Up! (SU) and the greeting also is SU.  I pre-stamped and cut the die before including in the bundle of goodies to make the card.  The bird has been watercoloured using SU markers. I was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest - however despite searching for over an hour I was unable to find the original creator of card that inspired me - it had been copied and saved to many boards. So if you are out there and happen to read my blog, thank you. I love the Gorgeous Grunge stamps as you do not have to be precise in the placing of stamps, excellent for beginners and experienced cardmakers alike. Close up of that Crazy Bird.  Thank you for looking, Margaret :)

I was over at Splitcoast Stampers having a look and they had a challenge to make a card just using one colour cardstock - no ink, no stamping, no bling etc etc.   I was intrigued.  So I got out my Stampin'Up! Deco Labels Framelits dies (okay so I may not have used them since I got them!  Surely I am not the only one!) and Tim Holtz Alterations Die Tattered Florals (okay I have used these before).  Here is the first one I made in white cardstock - Love it.  After cutting out the flowers I wet them, curled them, pushed them down in middle, the edges. So I decided to go with blue for the next one - Love it.   They may not fit into a regular sized envelope (I suppose if I flattened the flowers it would work).   They just look good enough to eat - like cake decorating flowers don't you think.  Here they are together.  This is a close up of the layers of dies that I raised with dimensional foam tape. I might just g...

I am near to finishing layouts of my photos from my holiday (vacation) in USA last year.  Today is bought to you by Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan.  The village is part of the Henry Ford Museum complex and it's catchphrase is 300 years of America everywhere you turn.  A great place to visit. I had paper, Tim Holtz stamps Life's Possibilities, Tea Dye Distress Ink,  Kaisercraft clock template on my table after finishing other projects recently.  I then raided my stash to find other vintage type embellishments - an old round tab that I distressed/added clockface stamp, some wire, Tim Holtz (TH) idea-ology salvage stickers and from the depths of one drawer TH idea-ology tokens! Oh and one black brad that will surely reduce my stock!!!!  Some of the detail is below.   Now my inspiration started with this sketch from The Memory Nest  Make it Monday No.36.          ...

For sometime I have had in the back of my mind to use old dictionary pages on a card.  Now the trouble is, I believe, that op shops etc destroy any old books not fit for sale and I have not been able to find any in recent times.  However, at a car book sale near where I live, there was a person selling books - a casual do you have any 'old' dictionary or 'old' books - you know the ones yellowing with age - they found a dictionary and a book for me - for the grand sum of 40cents. Here are the cards I created: The first card uses Tim Holtz, Stampers Anonymous clear 'man with an umbrella' stamp from Life's Possibilities set. This card uses unity stamp company girl stamp from Angie Girl Dream with your Heart set.  I did cut the legs of her so that I could put a little bit of lace. Both cards use a Stampin'Up! greeting, Ranger Distress Ink Vintage Photo, Studio 49 Polka Dotty stencil for art, foam tape to lift greeting/image and a bit of bling. Now, ...

It is my brothers birthday today, and I made this card for him.  I love many of the Tim Holtz products and this card uses two - texture embossing folder and Ideaology Numerals.  I have used a core cardstock that I have sanded back to reveal the Kraft core.  This is technique that I love to use and it is good for male cards. A clean and simple card full of heartfelt wishes for his birthday.

This photograph was found in a suitcase of photographs that belonged to my dad's brother that was given to me on the death of my uncle.  The photograph is showing it's age and was calling out to be saved.The photo shows my mother centre and her sister to her left (the tall one) was chief bridesmaid and a friend was the other bridesmaid and the flowergirl was the daughter of another friend. My mother made all the dresses as well as her going away outfit.  This layout was for a challenge over at Scrapbook Challenges  to creatively frame a photograph. I went to my stash and endeavoured to find embellishments that reflect some of the details of the photograph.  I used Graphic 45 paper and inked the edges with Tim Holtz tattered rose Distress Ink, the paper matting the photo was first distressed and then inked. The flowers for the bouquets, the lace doilies (again inked with tattered rose) represent the veil my mother is wearing, the pearls for the beautiful cov...

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...

Would more could we give to our loved ones. I have been catching up with some scrapbooking recently and here is a page I have created today - enjoy. I have used Prima flowers and pebbles (see detail above) that my sister got for me in a scrapbook store she found in Singapore recently, and the stamping and green background paper, well they are Tim Holtz, Stampers Anonymous. Some complementary and gold stamp pad ink around the edges and ribbon complete the look.