'Rondelle' Mini Album

Hi everyone! Wanted to show you a few pages  of a mini album I'm working on.  It's for a close friend of mine.  We don't  'do'  birthday presents so I'm giving this to her instead of a card.  She is the most amazing person.  She had polio as a child and now has to wear a caliper but she doesn't let that slow her down.  She is always busy  helping others (she bakes cakes for me) and never thinking of herself.  I love her to bits.  

The base album is made from cardstock along the lines of   Kathy Orta's  envelope album but with a couple of my own ideas incorporated into it.

 

    

The papers I've used are mostly from the Prima Rondelle Collection  (love these papers, they are really beautiful)  but the black spotted one is from Graphic 45's Olde Curiosity Shoppe and the orange spot is from their Nutcracker Suite  papers. I needed a couple of contrasts and felt these fitted in really well. All papers are distressed with Kaisercraft Bark Stamp Pad.

 

The small journalling tags I'm using are from various sources.  Some are Kaisercraft, some are free printables from the net and some are from my stash.

The charms are ones I put together myself.

It's not quite finished, I'm having problems working out how to decorate the front and what embellishments to use  inside.  Doesn't help when you're not feeling well but I'm sure it will all come together eventually.  I'll show the rest when it's all finished.

Thanks for visiting. Take care and God Bless.
xx Margy

Masculine Cards

Hi everyone!  Thought I'd  show you some masculine cards I've made. Feminine or girly cards are so easy to do, you just pick the colours and add flowers and swirls and butterflies, but masculine cards I find more difficult because there is not a lot of embellishments that you can use although I must admit companies are getting better at producing more masculine embellies.

This card was for my eldest son.  He's an avid gamer as well, loves Dragons, Sword and Sorcery, etc.  Bit like his Mum actually.  I've had the mesh in my stash for quite a while but could never work it into a project until this card. I'm quite pleased with the look of it.  The dragon and the shield I downloaded from the net, the swirls are a die-cut and I made the little banner from a strip of paper.

 

 This is the card I made for my brother.  He's a bachelor so I felt the pin-up was quite appropriate.

 

Distressed the edges of the papers and put a pocket behind the main image for the Birthday tag.
I coloured the tattered clock (love this die, I use it a lot) with a black stamp pad.

 Last, but not least, is the card I made for my eldest grandson.  He loves Metallica so I downloaded pictures of their guitars and picks.  The papers are from my stash and I distressed them with Versa Color charcoal.

Punched out the label from kraft card, distressed the edge, stamped the greeting on it and attached the small charm.

That's all for now.  Thank you for visiting and God Bless.
xx Margy

Trinket Boxes

Hello everyone!  Thought I'd show you some little trinket boxes I altered for the girls in our family.  I made three altogether and they are pretty much the same, just different colours.  The papers are out of my stash, I've had them for quite a while and don't remember where most of them came from.

For the top of each box I die cut some swirls and leaves, then added a mix of  flowers. Some are Kaisercraft, some are Prima and others are from my stash.

This first one was for my granddaughter so it had to be pink of course. I added a few gems to the swirls and also added a little heart charm.

 I glued some lace around the bottom and added more flowers and a Doohickey butterfly.

I also lined the inside of the boxes which finished them off quite nicely.

  This one was for my Daughter-in-law. Decorated pretty much the same except I added a gem sprig which is a bit hard to see on this photo.

I used Craft Smart craft glue to glue all the papers down. It's not the strongest glue around but works very well for this purpose.

  

  Last but not least is the one for my second Daughter-in-law. She loves steam punk so I used some Graphic 45 paper for the top and, although the box is certainly not steam punk, the paper lends itself quite nicely to the more girly look. I added some gem sprigs to this one as well.

As I said, they are all decorated very much the same just with different colours.  Luckily they were all well received.

Just a quick thank you to Diana's Creations for the images I have used as dividers and footer and also to Sweetly Scrapped for the welcome sign at the top.

That's all for now.  Thank you so much for visiting. Take care and God Bless.

xx Marg

More Cards

Hi everyone!  Just a few more cards to show you.

This is a card I made for a close friend who lost her Mum. I'd never made a sympathy card before and found it rather difficult emotionally. The background paper I obtained as a free printable from Diana's Creations. She creates some lovely things.  I kept the card fairly simple with lace, Kaisercraft flowers, a Magnolia Heart Swirl and corner stickers.

This card I made for friends having their 50th Wedding Anniversary. I'm pretty sure at least some of the papers are Kaisercraft. The large flower is Prima and the rest are Kaisercraft again, as is the birdcage.

This card I made in class. I know the beige patterned papers are from Diana's Creations but I'm not sure where I got the others from. The clock is a wooden flourish from Kaisercraft.  I love these kinds of interactive cards with multi folds and pockets.  It's almost like unwrapping a little present.

Any of you, who have visited my blog before and looked at the things I make, know I use a lot of Kaisercraft products. You may have heard that they are closing their outlet in Adelaide.  I think it is a great shame. I know their products are sold in other stores but this was the one place where you could find all of their product all in the same place. Not only that, but the staff will also be missed. They are lovely and talented people and I wish them all the best in whatever they undertake in the future. Good luck guys. I for one will miss you.

That's all for now.  Thank you for visiting and God Bless.
xx Marg

Gatefold Diorama

Hello everyone! I made a card for my youngest son's birthday. He is an avid gamer so I obtained some images from the net and made a small diorama. I made a gate fold card with a belly band that closes at the back with Velcro to make it easy to get on and off.

 I used papers from Prima and Graphic 45 and distressed them to get an aged look.

The small sword in the corner can actually be removed and I inked the papers on some of the edges with bronze Versa color to give it a metallic look.

I added some Make it Crafty Flower Leaf Swirls to the front of the card, coloured them with black Versa Color and smudged the edges with bronze to get a rusty look.

Added some shields (which I slightly embossed) on the inside ...
 

  and used a pop-up technique for the diorama.

I need to find a better place to take my photos.  I either get too much light or not enough. Anyway my son was pleased with his card and that's what really matters.
That's all for now.
Thank you so much for visiting and God Bless.
xx Marg

More on Melbourne

So, apart from going to the Paperific Expo, we also went to the Melbourne Aquarium.  If you haven't been there yet, believe me it's well worth a visit.  We were there a few years ago and thought it was good then, but they have made some improvements and it's even better now.  Along with all the fish they have a flock?? of King Penguins and they are absolutely gorgeous. 

These pictures don't do them justice.  I've only ever seen them on photos and film but to see them in real life ... they are magnificent. They also have some Gentoo penguins as well. These guys are great swimmers and really cheeky.

These pictures are not the best but I only have a small camera and the shutter speed is not really fast enough for action shots, but these guys are really cute.

And then there are the fish ...

 

 

And the jellyfish ...

And crabby things ...

And Nautilus Shells ...

 And Cuttlefish ...

 

And the big boys ...

 

You can't really tell from the photo but this Groper is enormous.
 
They also have Seahorses and Sea Dragons but, unfortunately, my photos didn't come out too well.
This is a very small sampling of what you can see there and believe me it is well worth the visit.
We spent quite a few hours wandering around, it was a great day.

That's all for now. Thanks for visiting and God Bless.
xx Marg