A Nephew's Birthday Card!

Hello sweet crafty friends and welcome to my blog!  So pleased you dropped by.
A very special welcome to my new followers.  So very pleased you decided to follow me and I hope I can give you a little inspiration now and then.

I'd like to share a card made for my nephew's birthday.

Still using up some older Kaisercraft papers.  Still have lots, so I'll be using them for a long time to come me thinks!   Distressed the edges and did a bit of inking with Gathered Twigs and Ground Espresso Distress Inks.

I had cut a panel with one of the new Tim Holtz dies but it didn't really fit into the design of my card so I got out my crackle paste and used it as a stencil instead .. am very happy with the result. 

Used one of the pop out labels from the paper pad as a graphic on the front.

 I also added in a couple of scraps from some Prima papers and a couple of Tim Holtz tickets as well.

 

The inside with pockets for a gift voucher and a tag on which I will write a personal message.

 .. and my card is done!!

Thank you so much for dropping by and taking a look at my creations and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

For everyone in Aus who is caught up in the terrible storms we are having at the moment .. stay warm, stay dry, stay safe.

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.

Man Card #2

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

I'm here to share the second of two male cards I created just recently.  If you haven't seen it, and you'd like to, the first one is HERE.   

This card, and the previous one, were both made predominantly with Prima's Engraver Collection.

I really love these papers .. my fave colour combo!!
This card was actually made first and took me a few days to complete.  Then I used the left over bits, and some things I decided not to use here, to make the other one and that only took an hour or so to make.  This one is a bit more involved than the other card but still ... not sure if there is a lesson to be learned here or not.   

 

I've never used staples before but thought I would give it a try and, I like it!!  A great way to attach the twine from the labels so they don't just dangle every which way.

Had to add some crackle and, of course, swipe some gesso as well.

Cut out the Happy Birthday with my Silhouette Portrait.  I actually cut two and glued them together for some extra depth/height .. whatever.  I also covered it in Glossy Accents, although you can't really see that here.

The inside .. of course.

The stamp is from the 'Pearls of Wisdom' Set by My Favourite Things.

A couple of closies showing the layers.

 .. and another front view (just in case you forgot what it looked like LOL!!).

So, that is all my 'man' cards done for this year .. Yayy! .. and now I can get started on Christmas!!
That's quite freaky actually, because I have never started my Christmas makes before the end of November.  Hopefully this means less stress!! ..  or not!! .. LOL!!

Thank you so much for visiting and special thanks to you sweet people who take the time to leave me some love.  I really, really appreciate it!!  Hope you all enjoy the rest of your day.

Take care and God Bless.

2Crafty December Shares #1

Hello everyone, and welcome.  So pleased that you made the time to visit at this busy time of the year. So, Christmas has come and gone and I hope you all had a fabulous day and didn't suffer too much with the holiday hangover.  Now we can look forward to the New Year and, probably, an even worse hangover!!  LOL!! It's my turn again to share some things I made using some fabulous pieces from 2Crafty. First up is a very masculine card made for my oldest son's Birthday last month.   2 Crafty Chipboard used Hessian Patch Panel World Globe & Ink Set As I am wont to do on my cards nowadays, I added some patches of Clear Rock Candy Crackle to the paper.  I love that textured look, especially on 'man' cards.  

I only used the quill and ink bottle from the World Globe & Ink Set.  The ink bottle was coloured with Black Soot Distress Ink and then covered in Glossy Accents.  For the quill, I coloured the feather with VersaMagic Cloud White and added some light shading with VersaMagic  Midnight Black.  The spine was then coloured with  Distress Ink and coated with Glossy Accents.

The Hessian Patch Panel was cut into three pieces and was left mainly raw.  It was just lightly sponged with gesso as I didn't want too much colour on it.  The pieces were then layered in between the papers.  I really love how it looks, it just added the perfect accent to my card.

Once everything was assembled I simply dry brushed some gesso around the card, just as a highlight and accent.

  This was the first of my 2Crafty Chipboard December projects.  I will be sharing 2 more over the next couple of days and I do hope you will have the time to come and look.      Thank you so much for visiting and leaving a little comment.  I would love to know what you think. and remember, to find a 2Crafty Chipboard stockist near you simply send an e-mail to salesat2crafty@optusnet.com.au   Take care and God Bless oxo Marg  

Christmas with the 'Gentleman Collection' Papers for Meg's Garden

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  So pleased you dropped by.

I have finally started making my Christmas Cards.  Yes, I know, I have started them way too late, but my life has been a bit hectic over the last couple of months and hubby and I have been away on the most wonderful holiday as well so I haven't really cottoned onto the fact that Christmas is just around the corner.  Oh My Gosh!!!  Did I just say that!!  Yikes!!  I really do have to pull the proverbial finger out!!
 Anyway, back to the business at hand (before I totally freak out LOL!) I'm here to share a couple of Christmas cards that have been made with some sheets from Meg's Garden's 'Gentleman Collection' and I really love how they have turned out.  You all know that it is not necessary to use dedicated Christmas paper to make your Christmas cards.  For me, it's more about the colour and texture than it is about the designs so I decided that the 'Gentleman Collection' papers would be perfect.

Card No. 1

I did use a small piece of Christmas paper from Kaisercraft underneath but the top layer is 'A Gentleman's Auto' 12" x 12".  Did a tiny bit of spraying with watered down Distress Ink in 'Peeled Paint' and 'Pine Needles'.

Used some fabulous 2Crafty Chipboard  (Element Set 1, Card Word Circles - Christmas and Mini Reindeers) and a die cut  from Memory Box.  The lovely lace is also available from Meg's Garden.  

Love that gorgeous deep red bloom.  Meg's Garden has some beautiful flowers available in her shop but you should check it out on a regular basis as the stock does change from time to time.   To the cluster I added some die cut leaves, berries, gauze, the lace of course and some bits of twine as well.  

The inside was also decorated with the same paper.  Heat embossed the edges with gold and I created a pocket on the left hand side to hold some gift vouchers.  The right hand side was left blank so I could write the sentiment.

Card No. 2
This one is very similar to the first.  The sheet used here is 'Gentleman' 12" x 12" and I've just added some different colours and different embellishments.

Spread some crackle around on this one and inked it with 'Fired Brick' DI.  The tags are a freebie received with a crafting magazine.

Used the same type of flower and lace in the cluster but this time I added some dodo wire and different berries as well as a piece of  gold mesh and some die cuts.

The inside was decorated the same again just with different colours and different stamps and I've added a small piece of dry wall tape as well.

There you have it!!  My 'Gentleman Collection' Christmas cards.  As I said before, I am really pleased with how these cards turned out so I will be making all of my cards this year in the same manner.  I will be posting those up over the next few weeks so I hope you will pop back here to take a look.  In the meantime why not take a look at all the amazing creations from my Teamies over at the Meg's Garden Blog.  You can find it HERE.   To take a look at all the fabulous products Meg has in her online store, click HERE.

Meg's Garden products used
'Gentleman's Auto' 12 x 12
'Gentleman' 12 x 12
Dodo Wire
Lace 1.6cm white

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

Marg oxox