July Reveal for Meg's Garden #2

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog!!  Well, we're back to the rain again in Adelaide, the sunshine only lasted for one day!!  It was so lovely but back to the dull and dreary again!!  (sigh)

I'm back today to share the second part of my Meg's Garden Design Team reveal for July.  This time I have an AT Block to share with you.

I make my AT Blocks from scratch and I really love making them!  They could be used for so many different things, I thought this one could be used as a Wedding or Party Favor.  You could fill it with almonds or a piece of jewelry or anything else you may prefer.
Still using the 'Correspondence' papers I cut them to size and stenciled the side pieces with gesso before glueing them down and then adding small pearls to the center of the flowers.  I edged the papers with gesso as well.  Once all the sides were glued down I added the gorgeous Mini Rose Braid around the bottom.

The Dodo Vine Wire on the top of the box was randomly covered with glitter, although the photos don't show it all that well.  The Ivory Primula is another flower I absolutely love and I just added a small die cut to complete the cluster.  The heart was cut with a Fiskars Shape cutter and I simply glued the paper to it and wrote the Thank you by hand.  (I know, my hand writing is awful, but just pretend it looks pretty and that I didn't forget to rub out the pencil lines!  LOL)

I also lined the inside of the box with a different sheet of the papers and edged those with gesso as well ...

... and here is the box filled with lollies.  This little box only measures 2.75" x 2.75" but you would be amazed at how much will fit inside.

Hoping you like my little ATB and that, perhaps, I have inspired you today!

Meg's Garden Products used:
'Correspondence' Mini Paper Pack
Ivory Primula
Mini Rose Braid
Dodo Vine Wire
You can check out all the yummy goodies Meg stocks in her shop HERE,
and to take a look at the gorgeous creations made by my Teamies, you can visit Meg's Garden Blog HERE.

Thank you so much for coming by and I do hope you enjoy the rest of your day!!
Take care and God Bless.

Positive Tags

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog space.  A very special welcome to my new followers, so lovely to have you here.

Sorry that I've been AWOL for a little while.  I actually didn't realize it had been so long since my last post.  I had some problems with my computer which, thankfully, are now fixed and I have been a bit busy creating  but unfortunately can't show any of that as it's mostly DT projects.  I now have a lot of blog visits to catch up on and all that is apart from things happening at home.  Nothing drastic thank goodness, but still things that had to be taken care of.  Anyway, now that I'm kind of back to normal I find that I don't have a lot that I can actually post about except for a couple of tags that I made a while ago for my Positivity Journal.

I had to make these tags fairly simple so that they will fit into the pockets so, basically, I've only used some stencils and stamps on them.

 I cut these tags from Prima's Ledger Pad Collection as it is quite thick and sturdy.  Inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then stenciled with TCW's Mini Bricks Stencil and Tea Stain Distress.

 The stamps are both from Kaisercraft.  The butterflies are from their Tiger Lily Collection and I stamped it with Fired Brick Distress Ink and the quote is from the Blubelle Collection and was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black.

 The Washi tape with the script is from Tim Holtz, it is my absolute favourite, I use it all the time.  I have no idea who produces the other one though.

This next tag was cut from the same papers but then I used a technique from a tutorial shared by Jenny Marples on A Vintage Journey blog.  If you'd like to take a look for yourself HERE is the link.   It basically shows how to layer stencils and stamps etc. which I had done before but not quite in the same manner.   I didn't follow Jenny's tutorial exactly but I do like how this turned out.  

Painted the tag with gesso first and then edged it with gathered twigs D.I.  When dry, I used the Tim Holtz Doily Stencil with Crushed Olive Distress Ink and over that I used the Tim Holtz Burlap Stencil with Gathered Twigs.  Then it was stamped with a Prima script stamp and Walnut Stain D.I and Kaisercraft's Crackle Stamp and Black Soot D.I.

The die cuts are from Kaisercraft ...

... and the flourish was cut with the Hearts Swirl Die from Magnolia Ink.
As I said, these tags are fairly simple because I can't use anything dimensional on them, but I'm still pleased with how they turned out.
Slowly but surely my Positivity Journal is taking shape.  There is still a lot to do though, so it is going to take quite some time to finish, especially as I'm only working on it in my spare time.

Thank you so much for dropping by and for any comments you may leave.  I really appreciate you taking the time.

I do hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
Marg   oxox

A little Spring in my Step

Hi everyone and a very warm welcome to you!!  Hope everyone is having a wonderful day and that the weather in your part of the world is being kind to you.  We've had quite a lovely Autumn day in Adelaide today.  Nice and sunny with the temperature in the low 20s.  Could handle a lot more days like this one.

So, with our weather heading into winter, I thought I would take a step back and make a spring card.  Does that seem a bit on the silly side?  Well, I just felt like making something bright and sunny, and this is what I came up with.

 Have I told you that I really like making step cards???  Yeah, I think I might have mentioned that!!

 This one is a variation of my previous Crossover Step Card design.  Instead of using the pocket for tags, it has been closed and simply become part of the card itself and the crossover has been done in a double layer.  The papers were border punched with Martha Stewarts' Doily Die Border and some lace was inserted in between.  The papers used are a mix of Pion's Flower Frames and Maja's Vintage Summer Basics and I've done some stencilling with texture paste as a bit of added interest.  

 I've also tucked a few branches in between the card layers here and there.

 Added a couple of Vintage Brads at the bottom ...

 ... and here is a sideways closie of the flower cluster to which was added a twine bow.

The inside was lined with a sheet from Prima's Ledger Pad Paper pack and I made the pocket from a scrap piece of the Maja papers.

Thoroughly enjoyed making this card and it came together really quickly.  Love it when that happens.

I've decided to enter this one into the following Challenges -
Allsorts Challenge Blog - Spring Flowers
Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Cherry Blossoms

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

Well, here I am again and with yet another Art Journal page.  For someone who really only does these once in a blue moon, I've been quite prolific lately.  I've been experimenting because I could not get the hang of using gesso to seal the pages  and stop everything from seeping through the paper.  Every time I tried coating my page with gesso first I seemed to lose all the colour once I started spraying.  Used a few different brands but all I would be left with is the shimmer and not much colour at all. Well, this time I coated the page with watered down gesso and, when dry, sprayed with watered down acrylic paint and the colour actually stayed on the page.  Woo!! Hoo!!

Once the paint dried I was able to spray with Distress Inks as well, and it all worked.  I haven't quite got the effect I was after, but I'm hoping that will come with experience.

As stated before, I coated the page with watered down gesso and while doing that I added in a few cotton threads for a bit of texture. The orange  colour is the acrylic paint.  I simply mixed some Vermillion with Ochre Yellow  until I achieved the shade I wanted.  Then, when that was dry I also sprayed with watered down Broken China and Mustard Seed Distress Inks.  You can just see the watercolour type blotches on the side.  That was the effect I was trying for.  Hopefully, one day I will get it all over. 

 Used Urban Artist  'Mt. Fuji Blossom' Stencil with some homemade texture paste, coloured it with watercolour pencils and highlighted with a white gel pen and a black sharpie.  Then went around the blossoms with a black watercolour pencil and a wet paint brush so they would stand out a bit more.  Not sure if I should have done that actually as it turned out a bit messy.

Unfortunately I forgot to do the stamping before I did the stenciling so the surface wasn't exactly smooth and the stamps didn't work too well but, I'm just going to say it adds character to the piece. LOL.  The stamps used are Kaisercraft's Tiny Dots and a Chinese or maybe a Japanese Script stamp.  It is also a Kaisercraft stamp but I haven't got the name of it I'm afraid.

 I searched the net for a Confuscius quote, but they were mostly quite rude except for this one which I quite liked.  'Wherever you go ... go with all your heart.'
So, there you go, I finally managed to do an Art Journal page that didn't seep into the back of the paper and make a mess of the next page.  Yay!!
This will actually be the last of my Journal pages for a while.  I have also been making cards as usual, but I can't show any of them here just yet as they are mostly DT projects although I've also been working on a project I purchased from Marion Smith Designs and I will be showing that in the next few days so do please come back and take a look at that.
I thank you so much for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

 

'Happiness' Art Journal Page

Hello lovely people and welcome to my blog.  

Here I am again to share another Art Journal page with you.  Wow!!  This is a first for me ... two journal pages in a row.   My Journal pages usually take quite a long time for me to finish because I never really know what I'm going to do.  I am still experimenting with this medium and I very rarely have a design in my head when I start.  I do usually know the colours I want to use but once I've got that on the paper I don't always know where to go from there so it sits on my desk until I decide what to do next.  This page was a bit different.  I started with the basic colours and it all came together quite quickly from there.  It still took most of a day but when you consider that they usually take me a few weeks to complete, this one came together very quickly indeed.

 After posting my last page, I was in the mood for getting a bit messy so started creating the background colour.  I tried laying down some gesso but still don't seem to have the knack.  I watered it down a bit thinking that might make the difference but for some reason, when I coat the page with gesso the colour just seems to disappear.  I've seen other people's work using gesso and theirs is fabulous, but I just can't seem to make it work. Consequently my first page ended up in the bin.  It was an awful mess.  So then I started this page without the gesso and it worked!!  I'm really happy with this background ... I love the dark, richness of it!!  I used watered down Distress Inks in Brushed Corduroy, Broken China and Walnut Stain and also used watered down Viva Precious Metal Colour in Olive.  You can't really see it in these photos but the green has a lovely golden sheen to it.

 Brushed on some 'Clear Rock Candy' Distress Crackle Paint in a couple of places and used 'Walnut Stain' through a  Crackle Stencil by Scrapbookncraft.  Used a music stamp by Prima with Memento Tuxedo Black and the top from one of my spray bottles dipped in gesso and then in Black Soot Distress Stain for the circles.

 The hearts were cut from some plain cardstock with a Fiskars Shape Cutter and then coloured with Fired Brick and Mustard Seed Distress Ink.  Glued them onto the page and then outlined them with a black watercolour pencil and also highlighted them with a white gel pen.

 Here you can see the other patch of the crackle.

I had actually intended to put flowers on this page, hence the washi tape which was meant to be the ground.  When I changed my mind and used the hearts instead I tried to remove the tape but it started tearing the paper beneath it so I simply left it there.   

The quote stamp is from Kaisercraft.  Stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black and then clear embossed it.  I was very pleased with myself that I finished this page so quickly and I must say, I am really happy with the result, it really represents how I feel about my life right now.  I am very, very blessed to have a wonderful, loving family and some amazing and treasured friends, so my heart really does bubble over with happiness right now and happiness is so much better when it's shared isn't it??
Even in the tough times we really do need to sit back and count our blessings.

Thank you so much for visiting, I am really pleased you came to have a look.  Please do come again.

Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

Art Journal - 'Bird House'

Hello everyone and welcome to my little blog.  

It has not been a nice day today weather wise.  We're suffering through another heat wave in Adelaide and it is not pleasant at all, although perhaps I'd rather have the heat than the masses of snow they are getting in other parts of the world.  I guess extreme weather is something we will always complain about, no matter which extreme we get.  Have to make the best of it I guess.

Anyway, I thought I'd share my next Art Journal page. 

 My background was, again, created with Distress Inks.  Some watered down 'Brushed Corduroy' and 'Broken China' were sprayed on and then flicked around the page, and then I dabbed 'Shabby Shutters' through some sequin waste.  

Then did the stamping using Kaisercraft's 'Arty', 'Crackle', 'Tic Toc' and 'Grafiti' stamps in Memento's 'Tuxedo Black'.    

 Stamped the Bird on some tissue paper and coloured it with water colour pencils.  It was then glued on with Multi-Medium and did the same with the Bird House in the picture below. 

Both of these stamps came with a magazine I bought quite a while ago and have no idea of who produced them. 

 The words I've used here are part of a quote ...

... by Albert Einstein.  Unfortunately, I can't give you the rest of it because I forgot to write it down and this was all I remembered.

I printed it on some tissue paper and then also glued it on with the Multi-Medium.  Then I just edged the page with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and it was done!!

I usually work on this Journal in between other projects so it takes me quite a while to do a page but I really love it.  I find it very therapeutic and soothing.  

Once again, I'd like to thank you for visiting.  I really appreciate you taking the time.

Please take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

  

More Positivity !!

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog.

I have been quite busy in my Craft Space lately  and I can actually post two days in a row.  Wow!!!  I even amaze myself sometimes.

So, I am back this time to show you the first double page in my Positivity Journal!!

If you haven't come across this before and would like to know more, check out Astrid Maclean's post HERE.

First of all I'd like to show the inside cover of my Journal.

 Not a lot going on here but I found the quote on the left hand side on the net and felt it was very appropriate for this project.  I simply wrote it on some scraps of paper and glued them in with a few leaves and small flowers.
The journaling on the right simply explains what this journal is all about.  I printed that from my computer and glued it to the page along with the die cut leaves.
I am not actually writing in this book every day but I am recording special days such as Scrapbooking with my Granddaughter.  When I look back at the end of the year I will be able to recall those special days more readily.  Not that I will forget about spending time with my Granddaughter but now I will actually know which day it was.  LOL

Here is my first double page spread. 

The stenciling was done using sequin waste and Shabby Shutters Distress Ink.  When dry it was randomly sprayed with watered down Broken China D.I. and flicked with Faded Jeans D.I.   

The cursive writing, the clocks and the 'Cherish' stamps are from KC and were done in Coffee Archival Ink.  The music stamp is from Prima and was done in Faded Jeans D.I.  For the circles I simply pressed some different sized lids onto the Coffee Archival Ink Pad and then onto the page.  I also gave the 'Cherish' stamp a little extra colour with some watercolour pencils.

The two tags at the back are a Prima tag and I think it's from their 'Engraver' Collection.  I simply cut it in half so it would fit into the pocket.  The tag at the front is one I made myself.  I am using these tags to record my 'Positive' days. 

The butterfly was cut from a separate sheet of paper and then coloured with Mustard Seed and Shabby Shutters DI.  It was then stamped on the left with a KC floral stamp and on the right with the Prima Bold Print stamp.  The floral stamp was coloured with Reeves Watercolour crayons.  I have to say I am really happy with how this butterfly turned out.

Once it was coloured I glued the butterfly to the page and then drew the trail and the antennae with a Sharpie.  I also went around the outside of it with watercolour pencils to blur the edges a little.

When I wrote the quote on this page my pen was running out so I had to go over it all again with another pen so it's a bit messier than I would have liked but I am still happy with it. 

I will leave you with the same words - 

LIVE every moment.  LAUGH every day.  LOVE beyond words.

Thank you so much for visiting.

Take care good people and God Bless.

oxox Marg