Blog Changes

As a result of the course I did recently at WEA, today I am making a few changes to my blog and trying a few new features. This will be an ongoing exercise as I work my way through the course notes. I have never shared a blog post through Pinterest before so I have done that today, surprisingly easy when you realise it can be done. I have started using Titles so the blog can be searched to find certain posts. I have added a search function and extended the About Me section.

Winner Stuck?! Sketches

Lucky me.  I am a winner over on Stuck?! Sketches

With this layout

I won a $20 Voucher from Scrap Much? which is a Canadian Scrapbooking store. Unfortunately the cost of postage to get my prize to me was $50 so I decided to forgo the prize. It was nice to be selected though.

I made this card for one of my students to make at her next class. I have incorporated a bit of metal on the card to give it a more masculine feel.

I have started 2 courses at WEA (a adult learning facility here in Adelaide) One is about Blogging in the hope that I will be able to upgrade my blog and the other is Mixed Media with the hope of learning some new techniques to incorporate into my scrapbooking and off the page projects. I have had one lesson on each subject and so far enjoying them both.

We went to Renmark for the weekend for the Renmark Rocks On Festival. Ray DJ'd Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. Very hard work for him, very hectic too.

This photo is of Wendy and I on the Saturday night.

It was a great weekend but it takes so long to get over the late nights and early mornings these days...does that mean I am getting too old for all this Rock and Roll stuff???Never.

Thanks for dropping by

Till next time

Cheers

Julie

True Love Layout

Hi everyone

Posting my layout for the sketch challenge over at Stuck?! Sketches I really loved this sketch. I have been meaning to do a layout in this style for some time so this was the little push I needed.
The photo is of my husband and our grand-daughter and was taken at a recent family photo shoot. I think it shows the completely relaxed and loving relationship they have.

I have used an American Crafts paper pad for the patterned papers.

I applied texture paste with white acrylic paint through a stencil to the background. The title and the very small tourquise hearts have a coat of Dimensional Magic, a revived old love.

Thanks for dropping by
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

Jacks 21st Layout and Cards

A few things to share today.

A couple of cards I made for my Saturday class.

This first easel card uses a "Round the Page" punch along with various dies and embossing folders. The small hearts are made with a small punch. A few daimanties added for a little bit of sparkle

This card is a very simple card that I use if I am giving someone a voucher of gift card as a present.
Once again using a border punch and die cuts.
I have added a little bit of ribbon and a paper flower also.
An excellent card at christmas time made with christmas paper and embellishments.

 Inside the card I generally put a tag to attach the gift card to, or write my greeting on.

This double page layout uses a stencil with embossing ink on the background (feathers) then heat embossed with UTEE, a background stamp with distress ink for a bit of added background texture. All of the patterned papers have been distressed around the edges and then inked and the doily has been cut on my Cricut using the Paper Lace cartridge.

I have cut the feathers using Kaisercraft's feather die, 2 in patterned paper and one in chipboard. The chipboard has been covered with embossing ink and then heat embossed with black embossing powder then tied together with some vintage lace.

I have used Dimensional Magic on the title to give it some depth and shine.

Thanks for dropping by
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

Card and 2015 Diary

A post tonight to share what I have been making this week.

First a simple card I made as a sample for the Scrapbooking/Card Making class I run each Saturday at Camelot Studios here in Adelaide.

I have cut some strips of 2 patterned papers, put them through my Big Shot with 2 different embossing folders then inked lightly over the top to highlight the embossed pattern. A strip of plain co-ordinting paper across the card topped with a ticket I have cut on the Big Shot using the Die-Namics "Just The Ticket" die and foam tape. I printed the sentiment on my computer and added it to the ticket. A bit of faux stitching to finish off.

I have spent a bit of time working on making a planner. I have finished the actual construction now I get to decorate it. It is A5 size.

I have bound it using my Cinch and a white spiral binding wire. It has a white "leatherette" heavy cardstock back and front cover with a clear cover over the top of them both. I am not that keen on the way the spiral binding wire has the pages uneven when the book is open so I am going to try to buy some 2" binding wires to replace it. The planner is quite thick, about 3cm so is not as portable as I had first thought I would like. I might take some of the note paper out when I re-bind it as there are 100 note page in there....don't think I will make that many notes

I have created a week to an opening calendar which has room for notes at the end of each week so I can write down my "To Do" list or things I might forget. Each month has a divider at the beginning of it that I am going to decorate and add pockets to keep "things" in.
I need to decide how I am going to date the days, either stamp or just hand write and also not sure about the month tabs, may see if I can buy some already printed. The ones that are currently in there I have punched using the McGill Tab punch and written the months.

After the calendar there are 4 sections of lined paper for things like Notes, Scrapbooking ideas, Tickets for functions that I have to organise and holiday ideas for our trip to New Zealand later this year. They will have tabs too but I ran out of the white card I was using to make them. Each of these sections have a zip lock coloured plastic pocket at the beginning of it for any bits and pieces that I want to keep handy.

So as you can see there is still lots of work to do but that is the idea isn't it........

Till next time
Thanks for dropping by
Cheers
Julie

Christmas Cards and Birthday Card

It's a whole new year and it has been a very long time since my last post.

I have to admit I did loose a bit of interest in scrapbooking, blogging etc but I have decided to get a bit more involved again and see where that takes me.

I would like to enter a few more challenges and perhaps even try out for a design team or two so it's back into "it".

I did make a couple of Christmas cards ... 2 to be exact.

I made this birthday card for Charli. She turned 7 on 24th January. I got the idea for this one off of Pinterest, a card made by Nicole Heady (www.papertreyink.com). Very bright and colourful for a little girl

Her birthday party had a Mermaid theme so the food was all water related. My job was to make this Puffer fish (another internet find). It was very colourful and very popular with the kids. Not one piece of fruit remained.

I usually make chocolate mud cupcakes for Charli's parties and when some of our friends heard I was making a pufferfish instead they were disappointed to be missing out on the cupcakes so I made a batch of those as well although they had nothing to do with a mermaid theme.

I have made one layout in the last week. I used the sketch from Stuck?! Sketches and created this layout for their challenge. You can find the details and the sketch here.

We had Charli for the day on Tuesday and her and I have started a Art Journal page each (both doing the same thing) so when it is finished I will share it with you

Till next time

Thanks for dropping by

Cheers

Julie

Art Journal Page

Hi

Today I am sharing an art journal page.

As you can see it is a double page in my A4 Ranger Journal.
I started by Gessoing the pages, then I used Gelatos to create the background colour. I then tore up pieces of Mulberry paper and some book paper that had been coloured with Twinkling H2O's and stuck them down. I stamped some flowers and heat embossed with clear embossing powder before stamping some more flowers using StayzOn ink. Next step was some rub-ons. When the Mod Podge I used to seal the background had dried I used a stencil and some texture paste coloured with acrylic paints to create the yellow flowers and grass.
I used my Pitt Pens to shade and detail the yellow flowers and grass before I stuck the white flowers on.
These were cut using Leane Creatief Multi Die Flower 006 which has the 3 different sized flowers. The heart centres were made using a punch I have had for a very long time. Detailing once again with Pitt Pens. I did go over all of the white flowers with my Wink of Stella White pen but when I gave the page it's final coat of Mod Podge any sign of the shimmer was lost.
The title was printed on the computer, sprayed with Glimmermists and then stuck down. It gets lost in the background and I have been debating about going over it with my White Gel pen but not sure if I want it to stand out that much.

We have been very busy and have been away a lot. We are away again this weekend as well. Off to Berri for their Rock and Roll Festival. A busy weekend, especially for Ray as he is DJ'ing Friday night in Renmark and Saturday night in Berri. Lots of lugging of equipment for him and very late nights for both of us as he has to pack up after each function.

We have also been away to Barham Rock and Roll Weekend. It was the first time we had been there. It is a long way from home but we went their on our way to housesitting at Penshurst in Victoria. We enjoyed the weekend but because it is so far away we probably won't go again.

We really enjoyed the house sitting. We were there for just under 3 weeks. We house sat Stonefield Vineyards just outside of Penshurst while the owners went to Bali. They have 50 acres with half of it under vines. There was no vine work during the time of year so we basically had to look after their dog and chooks. They also had cows, peahens, peacock and ducks. We had a good look around the area while we were there. Reacquainting ourselves with Port Fairy, Hamilton, Mt Eccles and Warnambool.

Thanks for dropping by
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

Cards and Santorini Layout

I have been pretty busy in the papercrafting area lately. I made a mini album for a friend for her birthday but forgot to photograph it before I gave it to her so can't share that one with you.

I did make her a card and also a card for a male friend's birthday.

I have also completed a double page for my holiday album. I have used a lot of machine stitching on these pages.

I had 25 photos that I wanted to use for Santorini. I could of had more but had to stop somewhere. I also like to incorporate all of the ephemera I collect as I go while on holidays. To do this I made pockets out of transparencies to put the photos in. To keep them strong and able to hold all the photos I stitched them together. I then added a tab to each photo so they can be pulled out to view all the photos behind the one on display. I have used embellishments from the Collectables pack, some die cuts and some stamping and heat embossing

I have created a pocket on one of the pages to hold the bits and pieces that I collected and the title is cut on my Cricut using the Opposites Attract cartridge

I have had computer problems last week and had to take my Apple in for repairs. Luckily it wasn't anything major and 2 days and $112 saw it back on my desk working like a charm

Thanks for dropping by
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

Layout Getting There and Back

I know it has been far too long since my last post and I don't really have an excuse. Time goes quickly and life happens and all of a sudden nearly a month has passed.

I have managed to get pages 2 & 3 of my holiday album done. It is the page that includes all of the travel documents.

Because there was so much paperwork I used 2 of the white A4 ready made envelopes, with the sealable flap cut off.

I used a clock stencil, to signify all the time spent on planes and in airports, with some texture paste I had coloured with acrylic paint on the background. I then sprayed with some Black Magic Glimmermist.

I created the flap of the envelopes with the same patterned paper that I used to mat the Boarding passes.
The flaps close with velcro to keep them closed and the embellishment on the tab is a pair of earrings I bought at the op shop with the backs removed. The centre of the earring is a velvety type of fabric.

I stitched the envelopes to the background card with my sewing machine to make sure they stayed in place.

I cut the title out on my Cricut using the Cuttin Up cartridge. The wooden planes were painted with acrylic paint and then heat embossed with a couple of coats of UTEE.

I have also made a card for a friend who is having his 70th birthday party while we are away, but have not taken a photo of it yet. Hopefully I will get that done tomorrow and I will post a picture here for you then.

Thanks for dropping by

Till next time

Cheers

Julie

Layout Mediterranean Holiday

It feels like so long since I have paid my blog any attention so I have decided to be a better blogger and post more often.

It has been very hectic around here with our holiday, a weekend away with my Mum and all my sisters then the backlog of things that get put aside when you have got more enjoyable things to do. But hopefully I have got some time now to get back to creating and sharing.

I got some photos from our holiday printed and I have made the front page for my album.

I have chosen to use the Kaisercraft Now Boarding collection for this album so will use that all the way through. I have also decided to restrict the album to one double page layout for each town/city we visited. I am going to have to incorporate a pocket or envelope on every page to get everything into this album so if you have any innovative ways of doing this I would be happy to hear about them.

This is the front page

I have used Kaisercraft Black cardstock as the base then Baggage Carousel for the next layer. I have distressed the edges, applied some texture paste, which I have coloured with acrylic paint through a chevron mask, and stamped randomly with a clear stamp and Stayz On ink. The strip of paper down the left hand side is from the Check In Collection - Delayed. I have just distressed and inked the edges on that. I have used some washi tape here and there. The tape was black and white but looked too stark so I applied some Cotton Candy Gelato over it and smudged it with my fingers. The tags and tag shadows were cut on my cricut as was the title. I have added eyelets and silk ribbon to them and the text on the tags was printed on self adhesive transparency. A few items from the collectables were used around the photo.

Till next time
Thanks for dropping by
Cheers
Julie