Farewell 2015...

Happy New Year to you all, I hope it is a very healthy and prosperous one for you. I'm looking forward to 2016 and all the new and exciting adventures it may bring. I wanted to upload one last project for the year to share with you. This is a frame that I made for our DD for her new little home and the close ups that I posted a few weeks ago:

I went with a seafoam/mint and soft pink colour scheme. The lovely background pp is from Kaisercraft. This little bird is from Prima as is the die that I used for the leaves.  The wooden heart which I altered is also from Prima.

I had to included a little wooden globe (Kaisercraft) which represents all her travels. I altered it with paint and clear crackle paint then I let some drops of mist run through the cracks. 

The fantastic large chipboard clock is one I've had in my stash forever and I finally found a project to use it on. I gessoed it then added "structure" paste. Once dried I added mists and paint. I then spread some clear glue around and sprinkled on the seed beads.

Here is the finished project. I covered the Kaisercraft wooden "Love" word with a matching subtle glitter paper and some small wooden letters were painted in the same tones. The little white heart on the right lower corner is from Prima. Sorry about the dodgy photo :(

There is a little bit of glare off the glass in this pic. It is a 38x38cm (15x15 inch) frame and 30x30cm (12x12 inch) with the white mat frame inside.

Thanks for looking and I look forward to sharing some more inspo in the new year xx

Birthday card inspo...

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day. It was the most perfect weather in my neck of the woods; sunshine and mild temperatures (a nice break from the near 40 degree heat of last week). Today, Boxing Day it is raining! Yay! We couldn't ask for a better Christmas present. So rainy weather means a chance to get back to my Creation Station while I have a few days off. I want to share with you a couple of cards that I was asked to create just before Christmas.

The wonderful team at 2 Crafty Chipboard sent me the lovely little chippy "Happy Birthday" circles as part of this prize pack a few months ago. I know, right!!!!  So very generous. Perfect for cards.

For this card I used the Bokeh technique on the background and my favourite Prima skeleton leaf die.
The flowers are from D-lish.

Secondly I want to share with you the most wonderful gift I received from my DS this Christmas. I'm not sure if you follow on FB an Artist by the name of Amanda Brooks, but if not here is a link to her blog: http://www.artbybrooks.com.au/  I've been following her for a while now and admiring her amazing artwork. So this is what was under my Christmas tree this year:

My wonderful Son commissioned an Oil on Canvas painting by Amanda Brooks of my precious princess "China". She did an amazing job capturing those soulful eyes and China's gentle personality, all just from a photograph!

I can't wait to get this piece up on the wall :)  Thanks for dropping by and enjoy the rest of your Christmas break. Travel safe if you are on the road xx

Christmas wishes....

Hello all and welcome back. I just wanted to share a few recent projects with you. The first is one of many Christmas cards that I made this year, but this is the first of this type that I've attempted.

I found this technique on the internet and I apologise but I can't find the original website to give credit to. But this is a great way to use up ribbon off cuts. I chose my range of ribbons and threads, tied knots in the middle and glued them onto the background and then I cut them at an angle to a sort of Christmas tree shape. I then added buttons, star and tag.

The next project I wanted to share is some Pocket Page Letters that I sent out to my craft friends. These are so much fun to put together:

I love the challenge of not only matching colours and themes, but also matching them to the recipients personality or creative style. This first one is for Bec who is English and who I'm sure must miss her homeland at this time of year. She really gets into the Christmas Spirit so I thought this would be appropriate. I'm planning on seeing more of the lovely Bec in 2016.

I popped little chocolates in behind a card for an extra treat and a little hand-written note is included either on a tag of behind a card.
This second one is for Lizzy whom I've know for a while via the Scrapbooking online community, however I finally got a chance to meet her in real life this year and she is the most amazingly talented, positive person one could ever meet, so I included a photo of the two of us taken at the Retreat where we met....love ya Lizzy! When I think of Lizzy I immediately think of bright, vibrant and happy colours.

This next pocket page is for my dear friend Mary. I've know Mary for quite a while now through the scrapbook community and happily she only lives 2 hours away. She has been brave enough to have me as a guest at her lovely home on occasions and to be my road trip companion this year. Mary creates the most beautiful vintage projects so of course I wanted to give her some vintage-style goodies.

The final pocket page letter is for the lovely Cheryl. Another creative friend whom I met online and have had the privilege of meeting on several occasions (once at the Bribane Scrapbooking Expo a few years ago), but sadly I don't see her often enough (distance is so annoying!). Cheryl is another talented lady and creates beautiful and inspiring pages. I created a pocket page that is a bit eclectic as I know that she has grandchildren whom she likes to create pages about.

So that has been my mission over the last few weeks. I hope you have enjoyed looking at these little projects. I want to take this opportunity to thank you again for following my Blog. I wish you all the happiest of Christmases and a safe and healthy New Year. May you be surrounded by loving family and crazy friends! xx

December Kraft Plus Challenge

Hello everyone, I hope you get to have some creative time in this busy month. When I saw the Challenge for December over at KRAFT PLUS I thought to myself if I can only get to do one challenge this month it has to be this one. And happily it's not a Christmas theme! Yay! It's a theme that is close to my heart....

And here is my take:                               "Friday evening road trip"

I printed off a map of Australia then wet & crinkled it. I threw a bit of watered-down mist on the background and the whole page took me less than an hour to complete.....a record for me! This is a photo our DS took on one of his regular trips he does after work most weekends. What I love about this photo is that the landscape image in the mirror is near identical to the landscape up ahead, which at first glance, gives the impression of a small photo placed on top of a large photo of the same scene :) or is it just me that can see that? Anyway, if you aren't into Christmas themed challenges, pop on over to K+ & have a go.

Thanks for dropping by xx

A fond farewell...

Hello everyone & welcome back to my humble blog. Now that December has arrived I can let you know (with a heavy heart) that I am stepping down from the Design Teams of ARTastic & Scrap Africa. It was a very hard decision as I have so loved being involved with these two wonderfully organised challenge blogs. A few months ago I returned to the world of study which is taking up more of my time than I anticipated. An opportunity arose for me to pursue something that I've been interested in for a long time so with that and working outside the home I struggled to give ARTastic & Scrap Africa the attention that they deserve & I am not one for doing things by halves. So to be fair to both Jane & Denise I have given up my Team position. I want to take this opportunity to pubicly thank both Jane Howden (ARTastic) and Denise van Deventer (Scrap Africa) for having me on their teams & for running such fun & inspirational challenges. I do hope that the New Year will bring me a few more hours in each day so that I can participate in their challenges. I hope that all of you will continue to support ARTastic & Scrap Africa & continue to submit your wonderful creations.

So without further ado, here are my final Design Team submissions.  The December challenge over at ARTastic is a Christmas theme with the criteria being GOLD. Here is the lovely artwork by Alice Ju:

Alice has really captured the technique of creating shine on the baubles and ribbons in this piece. Here is my Christmas tag on which I used gold texture paste & Inka Gold for highlights. I die cut the stars & the word "hope" & used aqua, gold & white mists & paint.

You really need to pop on over to the ARTastic blog & check out the beautiful DT inspo! I hope you will find the time to join in on this very easy challenge.

Next up is my final DT submission for SCRAP AFRICA This isn't necessarily a Christmas themed challenge, but another beautiful sketch by Denise. I've gone with a Christmas theme because it is my last submission. Don't let the hexagons put you off though! they are very easy to achieve or you don't have to use them at all, just go with however this sketch inspires you. Easy peasy!

I've gone for a Card using the lovely Kaisercraft paper collection "Silver bells". Lots of die cutting as well.

Check out the inspo over on the Scrap Africa blog! You'll see some amazing creations from the Design Team.

I will still be updating my blog as often as possible, hopefully with some paper creations, & I'm still working on our London album, so please call in from time to time & I would love to hear from you. In the meantime, happy creating! xx