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

 Sharing a "Z" card I made last week for the community group that I lead  The ladies loved making it. Thank you for looking, Margaret

Yippee, card classes that I lead at a local community group are back!  All be it adhering to Covid restrictions in place.  2 of my ladies (sorry, no men in the class) are not back due to recent falls that have put them out of action for several more weeks.  Here, is one of the cards I have prepared for next Friday's class. The card uses Kaszazz Layer Die cuts 7830 - Spring Flower and 7829 - Leafy Sprig. The greeting is from 6297Q Floral Paradise Un-cut set (5 stamps).   That beautiful 1079 - Powder SB Essential paper, that I have used for the mat and top of blue flower, sets off the die cuts wonderfully. Thank you for looking, have a great week ahead, Margaret

A friend asked me to make a 21st birthday card for her grand daughter - after discussion about the gift she was giving it was decided that I would make a card featuring silver.  Here is what I came up with  I have used a very old Stampin' Up! set/alphas, silver embossing powder, rhinestones and silver paper.  I hope she loves it.   It was very hard to photograph all that silver! Thank you for looking, Margaret

 I was asked to make some cards for a very special person.  I selected 18th birthday cards one for a girl and one for a boy.  This is a long post with lots of photos so please enjoy.   This was the card for 18 year old young lady.  This card is not expected to be opened for some time therefore I designed a card that did not require any tape or glue.   This card uses all Kaszzaz product with the exception of the "18".  The papers are from Kaszazz Stellar collection and the greeting stamps are also from various collections in current Kaszazz catalogues.  A lot of gold embossing powder was used. The inside - as you can see the ribbon is threaded through and holds the 4 individual securely when closed.  These are the 4 individual greeting cards.  There is space on the back of each for personal greetings and messages. This is the masculine card.  Again all product is from Kaszazz with the exception of the 18 numbers. The card i...

 Recently , I posted a photo of a card I made for a friend who is turning 70 this month.   I loved it but did not think it right for my friend.   So, I have created another one for her.   This one is a little more feminine.                                           I changed up the embossing from black embossing powder to the white and added a bit of lace and pearls.   The inks are again Ranger Distress Inks but this time in softer colours.    Inside, I added my greeting and a few things about the number 70 that I searched for on the internet: 70 years 840 months 3,652 weeks 25,567 days 613,607 hours 36,816,444 minutes 2,208,986,640 seconds *** 70 is only 13 in Scrabble *** Turning 70 is like turning, 21 in Celsius. *** Thank you for looking, Margaret Happy birthday to everyone who has a birthday in December.

 Here is another 70th birthday card I have created for a longtime friend who celebrates her birthday in December. As soon as I saw this Kaszazz stamp - Scholar - I knew I had to purchase it to make her card.  Her career as a Secretary and typist started when we were both teenagers working for a major bank here in Australia.  The Happy Birthday stamp is also from Kaszazz Word Montage - Be Yourself.  The background has been coloured with Ranger Distress Inks. The card is sparkly, just does not show up in the photo as I sprayed it with pearlised water. Some sequins and stickers (both from my stash) completed the card. Thank you for looking, Margaret. 6 December, 2020  Just letting you know that I have decided that this card was not suitable for my friend..   I have made a more feminine version: It is great to see that the Scholar Stamp also looks great with white embossing powder. Thank you, Margaret

Here is a card I have made for a friend who celebrated her 70th birthday this past week. I used Distress Inks (in my friends favourite colours) to create the background and a spritz of water with Pearl powder in to give it a sheen - unfortunately this does not show up just how shimmery it was in the photo.I then die cut flowers and 70 and attached to card along with the Happy Birthday greeting.  Lastly I added some sparkly rhinestones. Thank you for looking,  Margaret

Here is a non-Christmas card I made this morning: Thank you for looking, Margaret

The local community group, where I lead card making, has made a return, albeit following Covid-19 restrictions.  Here is a card I have created for class this week. The card uses all Kaszazz stamps and papers from their Classique Collection with brad and frayed tape also in the catalogue. I got a little creative and photographed this card on my magnolia tree. Thank you for looking, Margaret A great quote by Georgia O'Keeffe an American artist known for her paintings of enlarged flowers. "When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower.  I want them to see it whether they want to or not."

It is a rainy Sunday here on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. A day perfect for staying in and creating. No fishing here today! Here is a card I have made, perfect for my brother when his birthday comes around next year.  I was inspired by a card by Sona D on The Male Room blog.  I just loved her card and decided I had to make it! Yes, I have left a thank you for Sona on her blog (link above).  This is a 15cm (6") square card.  I have used various items from my stash: Kaszazz - cardstock, die greeting happy birthday, rhinestones, small background stamps and papers for small banner and light blue. Kaisercraft - fish, circle die the brown banner paper. Unknown - that piece of blue I found lingering away in my stash and it was just the right colour. How long it has been there? I don't know! Thank you for looking, Margaret

If you are a regular reader of my blog you will have noticed that I made two 90th birthday cards recently using the die set - Tim Holtz Wildflowers 1.   Here is another card I have made today: When I was making the earlier cards I had in mind that I would love to make a card that the ladies in my community card class would love - I have had to hold off on that idea due to coronavirus pandemic. But wait, the good news after the current New South Wales school holidays we will be resuming....albeit in a format that adheres to current guidelines and restrictions. As a result, I will be doing all stamping, die cutting, misting etc and making up a pack for each person to make in class, with photo and simple instructions to complete if appropriate.   For this card they will need to do watercolouring - lucky for me I have numerous media to use for watercolouring so that there will be no need to share.    I love the simplicity of this card with it's 'with love' die cut. ...

My neighbor (herself aged 94) asked me to make a card for a friend of hers who is turning 90 in July.  Here is the card I made: I recently purchased the Tim Holtz Sizzix Die set called Wildflower Stems #1 and decided to go with this set.  I also used a very old Stampin' Up! set called Number of Years and its corresponding die Large Numbers. My inspiration came from Ranger and a card by Bobbi Smith. I have used different supplies.  I watercoloured the flowers.  Thank you for the inspiration, I have left a comment on the blogpost.  Thank you for 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 t...

I was asked to create a card for lady celebrating her 80th birthday.  I was told that chrysanthemum was her favourite flower and her birthday was in November. Here is the card and box envelope I have created: As can be seen in the photo below, there are many layers to the main flower. Interestingly, my google search revealed that the chrysanthemum is the birth flower for November.  I never knew that! This card uses supplies from a many sources: Kaszazz - Leaves embossing folder, papers, pearls and envelope punch board. Stamp and die from Altenew - Build -a-flower: Chrysanthemum Ranger Distress Inks: Spun Sugar, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany for flower and Bundled Sage, Peeled Paint and Forest Moss for the leaves.   Spun Sugar and Bundled Sage were also 'smooched' onto background and box card. Also available from Kaszazz. Stampin' Up - Number of years stamps and die (retired) Thank you for looking, Margaret. Fun quote: "Why don'...

Here is a card I designed for our Kaszazz team meeting make and take yesterday: I have used all Kaszazz products, that are available through me (yes I am a consultant) or your consultant of choice, on the card.   The card uses stamps and paper available with the Resort Collection.  As  you can see this card as a fancy fold - see below.  There is masking of leaves on the inside of the cards. Also, there is some fussy cutting involved.  The colouring has been done with Kaszazz Alcohol Ink markers and Aqua Noir black marker. Here are the images that will be fussy cut and applied to the card. Not sure how to mask? Firstly stamp your image onto a piece of scrap paper or post-it note cut around this just inside the lines.   You then place the masks over previously stamped image on your card (or scrapbook layout) as you can see I used a small piece of washi tape to hold down mask whilst I stamped the next leaf images - see first photo for the result....

I have designed this card for ladies I lead at local community group on Fridays. This is called a diorama card - I headed to Google and searched.  There are many sites and videos out there that provide information on how to make them.  Jennifer McGuire has information - just click on her name to discover her wonderful cards made using this fancy fold. All stamps (except for the greeting stamps) are from Kaszazz. For my card I attached a little 3" square card to the back - this also provides and easel if the recipient wants to display card as well as the sender writing their special greetings. By the way, I did also Google "colours of turtles" and found there was a rainbow turtle - so that is what I went with on my card - lots of opportunities for the ladies to use the coloured pencils. Thank you for looking, Margaret :)

I must admit I love Distress Oxides, they are beautiful colours and they blend so well together.  Here are cards I made with my local community group last Friday.  This card uses spiced pumpkin and mustard seed distress oxide inks. This card uses picked raspberry and wilted violet distress oxide inks. Both cards use stamps available from Kaszazz - Peonies and Happy Day Messages.  Yes, I am a consultant and I just love that this is an Australian company and has great stamps and papers that I get to use. I was inspired by a video over at Jennifer McGuire on Distress Oxide Water Painting.  Thank you Jennifer for inspiring me.  I have left her some thanks on her blog - check the link and check out her blog for great projects. Thank you for looking, happy creating, Margaret.

Here is a card I have designed using all products available from Kaszazz for the class I lead at local community group. The ladies could choose what colour alcohol ink they wanted to use. The card uses stamps and papers from Distress Surfaces range, I admit I have really used this range a lot recently, not only this card but also scrapbook layouts I have previously posted. Thznk you for looking, 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 :)