Chantilly Cream Sympathy Cards - Megs Garden

Hello my lovely visitors and welcome to my blog.  Hope the World is treating you well.

Creating sympathy cards is always a bit difficult and when you have to make them for someone who is very close to you it makes it even more so.  I needed to make cards for two very close friends who had lost someone dear to them amd I used Megs Garden's Chantilly Cream Collection because they are such lovely papers and the creamy tones were just perfect for these cards.

Triple layers of paper for the base with some different laces in between.  I will list all Megs Garden products at the end of this post.  Distressing and crumpling the edges slightly, I think, gives everything a softer look.

The small tags and the frame were cut from the ephemera pages.  All the flowers are available from Megs Garden.

The leaves and doily are from my stash.

Printed the greeting on my computer and simply cut it into a small banner.

The next card only has a single layer of paper for the base.

I added some book paper, a doily, some ribbon and a piece of lace for the layers under the cluster.

The Puffy Paper Flower flowers are available from Megs Garden and I added a bow made from knitting cotton to my cluster.  The leaves are from my stash.

I used a lot of the same elements on both of these cards and the insides are the same as well.  I haven't shown you the right hand side as I had already added a personal message.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I did find these a bit difficult to make and, as they are quite personal, I really had to think twice about posting them.  I am hoping that, by doing so, I have helped those of you looking for some ideas.  I found the Chantilly Cream Papers  were the perfect choice.  As I wanted a monochrome look, the lovely creamy tones and subtle patterns were ideal.


Thank you so much for visiting and I urge you to hop on over to the Megs Garden Blog HERE to take a look at the gorgeous creations by my Team mates.  You will find some wonderful inspiration for using this fabulous paper collection and more.

A special thank you to all you sweet visitors who have left me some words of encouragement  and love.  I really do appreciate each and every one. 

Enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Turtle Soup Creative Magazine - February 2016

Hello lovely visitors and welcome to my blog.  I hope you are all having a fantastic day.

Just a quick post today.  I was priviledged to be invited again to contribute some of my work for the Turtle Soup Creative Magazine which has now gone live.

I was lucky enough to have 4 of my cards and one of my Mini Albums included in the February issue.  A huge thank you to Bev Code for inviting me once again.

To view the Magazine, click on the above link then click on the link to the Magazine and then on Full screen to browse through it.  It is full of beautiful and inspirational projects from crafters all over the world and I feel very priviledged to have my little creations in there as well.


Here are my published creations on pages 94 & 95.  Sorry for the fuzzy image.

  

Of course, if you browse the Magazine, I promise the photos are a lot sharper.

Thank you so much for popping by and do enjoy the rest of your day.

Take care and God Bless.

My first Christmas Card for 2016 and an Update on my Planner

Hello everyone and welcome to my Blog.  I hope you are all having a wonderful day.

I am in shock!!!  I have actually made my very first Christmas Card for this year  ..  I think I might be really sick and just don't realise it yet!!  LOL!!

For a long time now I've been  trying to convince myself that I should be making Christmas cards right through the year and I have finally listened!!  I actually found a Challenge site for making Christmas Cards and that has given me the incentive to get cracking on this.  The site is called Christmas Card Challenges (surprise! surprise!  LOL!!) and the current Challenge is Anything Goes!

HERE is the link and here is my card ..

Used some Kaisercraft papers on this one and actually popped it through my sewing machine to stitch the edges.

The chippie is from 2Crafty Chipboard.  I simply painted it with a paint dauber and, while it was still wet, sprinkled it with some glitter.

Used crackle paste through a stencil and again, while it was still wet, sprinkled on some micro beads.

The larger bloom is the Carabella Rose which is available through Megs Garden.   It was pink originally .. I simply sprayed it with a mix of acrylic paint and Cherry Pie Dylusion spray.

The inside with some blank space for a personal message ..

.. and my first Christmas card for 2016 done and dusted!!!  So now I just need to stay focused and make sure I make at least two per month.  Then, hopefully, I won't be so rushed at the end of the year.
With that out of the way, I thought I would give you a little update on my 2016 Planner.  I haven't done a great deal on it yet but I have completed the dividers for January and February and decorated a few of the January weekly pages.  

This is the January divider ..

.. and the full month on two pages.

The little plastic pocket was meant to hold some photos but, as I keep forgetting to take photos (Duhh!!), I have inserted a couple of quotes instead.

So, on the full month pages I will record appointments and reminders, etc.

and then on the week pages, I will write about  those in more detail and, hopefully, remember to take some photos and place them in there as well.  By the end of the year, I should have a really good record of what we actually did.  

Here is the divider for February.

 The plastic pocket here holds the strips and quotes I will use for that particular month.  I have decided to colour code each month to match with the tabs on the side.

I was going to purchase a whole heap of Washi Tape to decorate these pages but , as that would be quite an expensive exercise, decided to simply use strips of scrap paper from my stash.  A little more work but will look just as effective and I get to use up all of those pesky scraps!!

I should point out that I'm not really happy with those dividers and I may yet decide to create some art journal-like pages instead.  Will have to see how enthusiastic I am whether that happens or not.  LOL!!

That's about all for now folks.  Just a reminder about the Christmas Card Challenge Blog.  Why not join in and start making your Chrissy cards now.  Would save a lot of hassle at the end of the year!!  HERE is the link again.

Thank you so much for visiting and do enjoy the rest of your day.  Happy crafting everyone!!

Take care and God Bless.

The Last of my Cards for Christmas

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  Thank you so much for visiting.

This year has simply flown by and here we are with just two days to go til Christmas day.  Unbelievable!!  Happy to say though that I'm pretty well organised for the great day.  It does help that we are celebrating  at our son's house this year so I haven't had to worry about the meal or anything.  Really looking forward to it.

Well, I thought I would share a few more of my Christmas cards (seeing as I have nothing else to share at this point.  LOL!!)  Once again, these are variations of the original theme.  

The background is a little different on this first one.  I've still layered two sheets of DP (from

 Megs Garden of course) but, this time, I have torn the center out of the top layer to reveal the one underneath.  This is an idea inspired by Di Garling, an amazing scrap artist who creates the most stunning projects.  I visited her blog not so long ago and she used this technique on one of her scrapbook pages so, I thought I would try it out on a card.  I think it looks great!!  Thank you Di!!  You can check out her blog HERE.  

Did a little stamping on this one and also slightly changed the way I added the snow so as to make it look like its dripping (melting).  I have put snow on all of my cards this year, which may seem a bit ridiculous because we have been suffering through a heat wave here in Adelaide, but I really love the look.  Have to thank Pamelia Johnson for that.  I mentioned in a previous post that she has a wonderful step by step showing exactly how it's done and I'll give you the link again HERE.  Have to say, hers is so much better than mine, but I still love it!!

A bit of hessian ribbon added to this one and, once again, I have torn the center out of the top DP layer.  Also, I have been using some Quick Release Die Paper from Couture Creations while cutting my pine branches (it really works to release the paper from the die so much easier)   and, on this card I decided to add it to my branches under the flowers.

Added some deep red cotton ribbon on this card and again included the quick release die paper.

More of the hessian ribbon but, this time, no baubles, just a couple of berry sprays.

Using the same basic design made it so easy to make my cards this year and yet, just by changing the embellies and colours slightly on each one, they do look quite different.

This will most likely be my last post for 2015.  I am taking a little break.  I'll probably still do some crafting but, even if I do, I won't be posting anything until next year.  I want to take this opportunity to thank all you wonderful people who have visited my blog and especially those who have taken the time to leave me some comment love.  Thank you all for your support and encouragement and I want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and wish you all the very best for 2016.

Thank you so much for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day!!
Take care and God Bless.
See you in 2016!!

More Cards for Christmas

Hello my lovely visitors and welcome to my blog.  I am also very pleased to welcome some new followers as well.  Thank you so much for joining me, it is so lovely to have you along on my creative journey.

I have some more Christmas cards to share.  There are three more cards in this post and, once again, they are all a variation on the same theme.  I am not going to bore you with a lot of photos as these are all very similar to each other and to what I've shown before.  

So here is Card No. 1.

Once again I have used Megs Garden papers for all of these cards with base papers and labels  from Kaisercraft.

This one has a half doily, some tickets, a die cut pine bough, flowers of course, and a bit of gold mesh some baubles ..  and some snow!! 

The insides are pretty much the same, just different papers.

Card No.2

This one also has the half doily as well as some strips of MG papers across the middle.  The same die cut, flowers and baubles, plus a little gold bow and a label instead of the tickets .. and more snow!!

Same inside.

Card No.3

Here we have some lace across the middle, same die cut, flowers, slightly different baubles and a couple of labels, one of which is made from some MG paper and almost hidden under the cluster .. and, of course, more snow!!

Much the same again on the inside.

I really wish the glitter would show up on the photos because it is really pretty!!

I had hoped to have finished all of my Christmas cards by now but once again fate conspired against me and I still have more to do.  I did manage to make all the ones that had to be posted, which I am pleased about but, I still need to make a few more which simply need to be hand delivered.  Next year I am going to try my hardest to make at least two Christmas cards each month, that way I should be  well ahead by the time December comes around again.

Don't laugh, I really am going to try.  LOL!!

Thank you so much for popping in for a visit and enjoy the rest of your day.

Happy Christmas crafting!!
Take care and God Bless.

Variations on a Christmas Theme & Some Happy News!!

Hello my lovely visitors and welcome to my blog.  Thank you for dropping by.

I have some more Christmas cards to share.  Once again, these are different variations on the same theme.  Yes, I know, you're probably getting a bit bored with these but, this is what I do at Christmas time.  I find a couple of designs I like and then create my cards using different colours with slightly different elements.

In my previous post I showed Design No. 1 and this is design No. 2.  This time around I'm sharing three cards and all of them have a little pocket to hold a gift voucher.

Card 1

The papers used are, once again, from Megs Garden and from Kaisercraft. 

The flowers also came from Megs Garden and the bauble spray is from a cheap Christmas decoration.   The pine bough die is from Impression Obsession Dies.

The small label is from Kaisercraft.

The inside with the Gift Voucher pocket at the bottom and I added a verse to the top section before it was posted (mailed that is!! he! he!)

Card 2

 All of the cards have a bit of 'snow'  treatment.  In other words, some splashes of white ink, a bit of gritty texture paste in different places and then sprinkled with glitter.

 All of the red flowers were originally a different colour.  They have all been sprayed with Cherrie Pie Dylusion Spray. 

Another small label from Kaisercraft.  I mounted them on some thick card for extra dimension.

The insides were all decorated the same, just with different papers.

 Card 3

 As you can see, more of the same!

Some cards have stenciling.  This one was done with translucent texture paste.

Most of them have a piece of the metallic mesh behind the cluster .. some with red and some with gold.

 

So, three more cards done and dusted!!

Thanks so much for dropping by but, before you go, I have some happy news to share.
I entered the Feeling Sketchy Challenge with one of my Christmas cards (you can see it HERE) .. and I WON!!  I actually won the random draw and was also TOP PICK!!  So thrilled!!  Huge thanks to the team at FEELING SKETCHY .. I am totally chuffed .. Thank you ladies, you are wonderful!!!

But there's more folks!!!  The lovely Bev Code from TURTLE SOUP CREATIVITY & MAGAZINE, got in touch and asked me to submit some of my cards, etc. for the Christmas Issue of their on-line Magazine!!  Woo!! Hoo!!  I actually have a double page spread as well as one of my cards in their card section!!  Once again, totally chuffed.  It is a gorgeous mag and there are so many talented artist's work in there, I'm still pinching myself that I was included.  If you'd like to take a look you will find it HERE.  Thank you so much Bev for including me, I am over the moon.

Once again, thank you for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.