Stamps Ahead

This weekend Kaszazz released a new January flier and as a team leader I was able to hold a team training day (TDD). I will share layouts and cards I created shortly.  One of the optional activities are that participants can participate in a challenge using criteria set by Kaszazz.  This TDD the challenge was to use any of the Collage Paper Pads.  Here is what I created using Floral Splash Collage Paper Pad. The photographs were taken at Kirkton Park at Polkobin in the Hunter Valley of NSW. It was a my birthday celebration gift from my sister.  It was lovely to take time out and enjoy the hospitality and ambience of Kirkton Park.  Except for the two main background papers everything else came from the Collage paper pad. If you are interested in purchasing any of the Collage paper pads that Kaszazz has in their range please visit my website  www.kaszazz.com/cart?consid=110787  and type into search bar "Collage Paper Pad" and see the range of paper pads ...

This layout is for a challenge over at ARTastic Challenges  Facebook group - the challenge Christmas themed and must include stars. The photos of my sister and I were taken at Kirkton Park, Pokolbin, in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, were we were having a high tea to celebrate my birthday.  This tree was in the foyer.   Whilst I would have been tempted to have a photo of the both of us without our masks - I decided to use this photo as a record of the Covid restrictions in place then.   Hopefully, Christmas 2022 we will be different, however, we will continue to wear masks as long as needed and probably past that to protect ourselves, family and friends in years to come. Thank you for looking, why not click on the link and participate in the challenge that will end at the end of January.   Margaret

White with 1 winter cybercrop challenge No1 was to use the colour Smokey Blue/Grey and fabric.  Here is my layout  My photograph was taken during a Danube River dusk/evening cruise in Budapest.  It was winter and it was cold!!  This cruise is one of the highlights of my travels across the world.  You may recognise this as the Parliament building. On the way back the building was illuminated and that is another 'wonder' moment. I have used Kaszazz stamps from Destinations collection and a small amount of paper from Writers Block Collage pad.  The fabric is calico that I sprayed with Dylusions Pure Sunshine ink spray then lightly washed and allowed to dry. I also frayed the fabric and used the threads as to give added wistfulness to the beautiful scene. The background is texture paste coloured with Stormy Sky distress oxide ink. Thank you for looking and remember - never lose your sense of Wonder - wherever and whenever we can!   Margaret

 Way back on 8th May, 2007 I started this blog.  It has been a journey of change and experiences that I never ever thought I would have.  Thank you to those who have read my blog and I hope there are still some out there who do.  For my 1,000th post my scrapbook layout is about change. Like the quote here, that I found on the internet - If I never changed from how I did things back in 2007 I would not have grown as an artist, teacher or indeed as a person. I have been retrenched (not the worst thing in the world as it turned out), travelled extensively, had my own business, worked in a call centre or two, went back into a financial role, left became a carer, and then working in China teaching English for a year. Moved to Central Coast of NSW.  Finally, retirement! Retirement - never!!  Not afraid of change!!  This week, I even started a Facebook group so that ladies in my classes can share what they have been doing and connect during the lockdown here ...

Kaszazz recently released a set of 4 animal skin stencils.  I was able to to create with them pre-release and here is what I created with the Snake, Giraffe and Leopard skins, there is also a Cheetah skin:  I put out a request to my friend Kathy in Detroit, Michigan to take some photos of animals in zoos near her as I knew I would not be heading to a zoo anytime soon.  Kathy will shortly be starting as a volunteer in Detroit Zoo once they re-open following Covid restrictions.  Papers and stamps are from Kaszazz Resort collection. Close up of Snake skin page. Close up of Giraffe skin page. This card of a Snow Leopard was created using the Leopard skin stencil. The stamps are also available from Kaszazz - Leopard and the greeting is from Party Animal Uncut set (5 stamps). Remember as a Kaszazz consultant you can order from my website  www.kaszazz.com/cart?consid=110787 .  All orders over $99 will be delivered free to your address.  Don't like on-line con...

 Here is another layout I have completed for a challenge at Paper Issues (Friends and Fans) .  The challenge is called Operation - challenges this month are named after games.  The criteria is "Pull out those surgical instruments and put those motor skills to the test! Show us your fussy cutting skills, use your die cutting machine, or show us how well you can sew up your layout".  I went with fussy cutting.  The papers and stamps are from Kaisercraft Serenity Collection .  I have added some die cuts from another Kaisercraft collection Fleur. Ink is Ranger Distress Oxide speckled egg.  The chipboard is from Kaszazz. The photo is of my sister (left) and I.  I would say we are 10 and 11 years of age (yes, we are very close in age - just 13 months difference).  Our mother made all our clothes, as I remember it these dresses were a green velveteen. We were dressed for a Sunday School anniversary - look at our hats and gloves! We are leaning up ag...

Here is a layout I have created today for a challenge on ARTastic Challenge Blog  facebook page. The challenge was to use pen work.  We were to be inspired by this work by Thea Proctor called "The Game". Now anyone who knows me that sport of any kind is not really my thing, okay, maybe several years of playing social squash in the distant past with friends - does that count!  Remember the game of squash? I believe it has largely disappeared as a sport. I was not sure if I would enter this challenge, the thoughts of pen work did not just come to me easily. And, then I remember 'zentangles'.  What are zentangles?  They are a fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns - tangles. You use combinations of dots, lines, simple curves, s-curves etc.  I have not done much in the way of zentangles so this was indeed fun to do. I  did a goggle search and was inspired by many of the search results to draw my zentangles. This photo of me was t...

Here is another layout I completed today.  The photos were taken at McMasters Beach in February as my sister and I and a friend enjoyed morning tea overlooking the ocean. I was on pinterest and somehow I got onto stash busting layouts and I found one that gave me inspiration for this layout.  I was on Lasting Memories blog and I was inspired by the banners and the note paper punching on the right side of Lesley's layout. I have left some thanks on the blog for her. Papers are from several piles of paper I have laying around - the eagle eyed my spot some Kaisercraft (papers,stickers and rhinestones) and some very old Stampin' Up papers. This is another layout that I am putting into Calvinball 2020 and here are the 'rules' I used. Single page layout Shared with Calvinball2020 facebook page Added to pinterest Circles Handwritten journaling (it is there snippet of today)  Multiple photos Green - stickers that have wording on them Woodgrain paper (temporary ru...

This is a double page layout using Kaszazz Tis'the Season collection of stamps and papers.  It is a modified version of a layout by Kerry Collins, a fellow Kaszazz Consultant.  Yesterday I lead a fund raising day of scrapbooking to raise funds for Skills for Life, Kissi Kenya.  The ladies completed two layouts this was the second one. All products available from Kaszazz. Yes I am a consultant.  Love the almost rustic nature of these papers.  Close up of left hand page. Close up of right hand page. These layouts give the opportunity to add a lot of Christmas photo memories. Thank you for looking, Margaret

Here is my layout using Natalie Pecovnik inspiration on Kaszazz consultant web site.  Again, I have used stamps from the new Mediterranean collection by Kaszazz. The photo was taken at Bell's at Killcare in December 2018, when my sister and I took a friend to dinner there.   My dress (which is more white in real life - the printing made it have more blue) was from Italy and has lemons on it!   Perfect. This time I double embossed the chipboard and I stamped, coloured and cut a few more lemons.  One of the lemons hides an 'oopsy' can you see where it is?  Top left I stamped to heavy and there were black lines I did not want - so one of those cut lemons did the trick. Thank you for looking, Margaret 

Two layouts I completed this weekend.  They are from my time in Southern Missouri and Arkansas this past June. This first shows my friends and I eating Possum Pie -  and no you are not eating Possum!!! It consists of a cracker type base, chocolate pudding (similar to a chocolate mousse),whipped cream and topped off with chocolate sauce.  David told me it was an institution in Arkansas and we found one in Eureka Springs where we spent the night before heading to Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, AR. Whilst I was away, it was International Dinosaur Day!  Surely a day to celebrate.  This dinosaur sits on my friends property in Missouri - it was rescued and repaired by David and he gave the name Faye.  The morning was misty and I love that mist through the trees. More layouts being completed. Thank you for looking, Margaret. :)

Back again today, with a layout just completed for a challenge over at Soul Scrappers : Here is the grid we were given. As you can probably guess I selected the first column downwards. The photos are from the scrapbooking cruise with Unmistakeable Creations earlier this year.  These photos show the group at work in the dedicated scrapbooking area of the convention room on the ship.  I have used lots of left over papers, stickers, embellishments etc and embossing paste shells on the layout. Why not head over to Soul Scrappers and get involved in the challenges they offer. Thank you for looking, Margaret

Yesterday, I drove up to Swansea about 1.5 hours from my home.  Time to sit by the water and take in the suns rays before heading to The Scrapbookers Confetti Box store for a class. Here is the layout I created: Lots of luscious layers.  The photo is of my mother and grandmother out in 1940's.   Following is a close up of some of the layers.  My view of the river at Swansea as I sat before the class started. On the way home, I took a road that I usually say 'one day I will take that road' and called into Catherine Hill Bay a historic mining town.   Such a great day to be out and about - spring in Australia awesome. Thanks for looking, Margaret :)

Sharing a few more layouts I created this past weekend at the retreat I attended.  Uluru, Central Australia.  Created with Close to my heart patterned paper and arrow adhesives. The stamps I used for the photo and Australia were borrowed from a friend on the same table. Remember is a Tim Holtz die. I think it came together well. I took these photos to show the rock face at Walpa Gorge, Kata Tjuta, Central Australia. Conglomerate rock - I remember this from school day lessons.   In March this year my sister had friends over from England, and it was decided that we would hire a BBQ boat and enjoy a cruise and BBQ with our cousins as other friends - well what set out as a "3 hour tour" was only 30 minutes in duration due to the weather.  We had been assured by boat shed attendant only light rain - haha, it did not take long for it to pour down in buckets, from every angle. We all got wet, the food got wet, the boat got wet - it was decided to abandon and head...

We are expecting record high winter temperatures here today, so why not a bright layout. This is a photo of my sister taken on our cruise in April this year.  My sister is currently overseas and she found a scrapbooking magazine in France and posted it back to me.  She had handwritten a note on a layout she found in the magazine - see below.  (note the other handwriting is mine translating the ingredients for the layout) So I accepted her challenge and my layout is the result.  I used Dylusions Paints and pages from an old dictionary on which to apply the paints.  My stash provided everything else. Thanks for looking, have a bright day, Margaret :)

Well, it has nearly been a month since I completed a layout - I have been busy - busy good - and also on a short break in Central Australia. Today, I wanted to create a layout, and here is what I came up with, a double page layout. When my sister and I went on a cruise in April this year, I found out that there would be a 'pink' moon on 11 April.  I was excited when on boarding our boat I found out we were on the side that the moon what be appearing. So come 11 April, I was ready with my camera. Unfortunately the sky did not come to the party and the pink I was expecting so why? Why is it called a pink moon?  Off I went to Google and found the following explanation: A pink moon is heading our way Tuesday – but those expecting to see a literal pink sphere sailing above us in the sky may be disappointed. Any full moon that occurs in April is called a ‘Pink Moon’ simply because of the pink flowers, such as North America’s wild ground phlox, which blossom in April and...

Today I created another layout from our cruise in April.  Here my sister and I are dressed for a cocktail party that our group had on our final evening of cruising.   I was inspired by a 2013 layout by Marie-Pierre Capistran   that I found whilst web surfing. Thank you for your inspiration and I have left her some thanks on her blog. Using Distress Stains I diluted them and applied to paper with brush in long random strokes.  A Mason Jar Stamp by Heartfelt Creations was then added when the ink had dried.  At the same time as painting I also painted onto a scrap of paper to use for embellishments.   Splotches of the paint were added randomly. I do not usually work in pastel colours and overall I love the result.  I just need to add some journaling. Thank you for looking, Margaret :)

Breaking records with the heat here in Australia at present, yes today is hot, hot, hot again.  Here are two layouts I completed recently for some classes I am leading for a local community group.. Inspired by a layout by the August Paper Flourishes kit. The papers are from Kaisercraft.  I have adapted for a more heritage layout. I found the great quote on the internet.  And is that not what we are as scrapbookers, preserving for future generations.  The photo is of my grandparents in the front of their home in Asquith, New South Wales in I would say the early to mid 1950's. This bright and happy layout includes a photo of my friend, Mel and her kids taken at Buderim Rainforest Walk and Falls, last year.  We walked down to the falls and I must say it was a relief to spend a little bit of time in the coolness before we headed up again to the road.  The button on the left says "Never give up" and I didn't I pressed on and achieved one of the greate...

Here are some more layouts I completed during the past weekend at the retreat I went to, enjoy and I would love you to comment (if you are able) as I love to see where the visitors to my blog come from. I appreciate all the comments (except spam that is instantly deleted). Thanks, so settle back as I write a little about each layout. Recently, I went around to my sisters and said "it is a beautiful day let's head out for lunch and a bit of relaxation."  So we grabbed a couple of sandwiches, soft drinks and a cake from local shops, and headed to the waterfront at Woy Woy in New South Wales.  Just down the road for us about 5 minutes away.   The pelicans were resting on the shoreline, and sure enough this one, we nicknamed "Mr Percival" came over to join us as we ate - shoo, go, we have no food etc etc but he (I am assuming a he) stayed for awhile and looked at us as begging for a handout.  Not that day!!! The organizer of the retreat sets a bingo challenge...

This layout is for another challenge over at Scrap Girls at Home Retreat.  This time it was a blind scrap, you are given requirements for layout and then instructions to follow.  This photo was taken at Yandina Nutworks, in Queensland.  My friend Mel and I could not resist having our photo taken. This is a close up of the some of the layering of papers.  The patterned paper is an old Stampin' Up! (r) range and it was suitable for this as the images are Australian.  And I chose papers that could be loosely interpreted as 'nuts'.  These put your face in boards followed me around my Queensland holiday - 3 in all. The first one in Redcliffe, the next at Maleny Dairy and finally this one at Nutworks.  And of course I have photos of each time on this blog in previous posts - I hope you have the time to scroll back and find them.  Thank you for looking, Margaret :)