Photos of New Zealand

Hello everyone.  Welcome to my little blog.

I've finally sorted through a few of the photos we took on our trip to New Zealand so I wanted to give you guys a little taste.  Let me just say, if you ever get the opportunity to go there, don't hesitate.  It is a beautiful country and we loved every minute of our trip.  Unfortunately our photos don't do it justice, but hopefully you'll get a small idea of what it's like.

 This is Tauranga a lovely town.  For those of you who are Lord of the Rings fans, we did a tour to Hobbiton from here and I might do a separate post about that.  It was a great experience. 

 

Next was Napier. 

Can you imagine the spectacular view the owners of this house has?  Scary though.

 This is a small park just on the edge of the shopping precinct.  It was really lovely.

Napier was rebuilt after an earthquake in the 1930's.  The buildings are all Art Deco and they are very vintage oriented here.  We had a tour of the town in this vintage car.  It was fabulous.

 This photo was taken as we left that evening.  Can't see much of the town but the sunset was spectacular.

 Here is Wellington taken from the cable car ....

 .... and from the Harbour.

 Now to Akaroa.  This is a gorgeous little french style fishing village.  We could have gone on the bus to Christchurch from here, but I'm glad we didn't because those who did go said it was very sad as most buldings haven't yet been restored from the terrible earthquakes they had here a couple of years ago.

 This is the bank with the church behind it...

... this gorgeous little building is a library...

... and here is the waterfront.

Our last landfall was Dunedin.  This park is gorgeous...

 ... and so is this church.  There are some really beautiful buldings here.

 We did the excursion to Taieiri Gorge on the train and here are a couple of shots we took on the way.

 

 Such spectacular scenery.  It was a great experience.

 Last, but certainly not least, is the cruise through the Fjordlands.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Isn't it awesome?  It is very humbling going through these fjords.  You really can see and feel God's hand in this place.  It kind of  hits home how small and insignificant we really are. 

Well, that was the end of our trip.  Sorry it's such a huge post but this is only a tiny sampling of the photos we took.  We actually have over 500 of them.  Yaaach!!  I've now got to sort out the ones I want to put in the album I made.  Gives me a headache just thinking about it.  LOL.

Thank you so much for visiting today.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend. 

Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

My First Mixed Media Collage.

Hello everyone.  Welcome to my blog.

I thought I would share with you my first attempt at a Mixed Media Collage.

 It didn't quite turn out how I envisaged it.  I originally made this for my Grandson's 18th Birthday Card.  His favourite colours are green and black.  I actually wanted the black to start in the lower left hand corner and then to  blend in with the green and gold across the page.  As you can see, that's not how it ended.  You would be amazed, I think, if you knew how many times I gessoed this and then started again.  I think it must have at least 5 or 6 coats of paint on it.  LOL.  I started off with tissue paper and once that was glued down and dried, I added some gauze for extra texture. I then coated it all with gesso for the first time.

I then added some bits of string before attaching the cogs and small screws.

I also glued on some beads and spacers.

Here is a close-up view of the main cluster of cogs.

Again, I added a few beads and spacers and some more screws.

After painting and gessoing and painting and gessoing a few times (I didn't actually count how many) I decided it needed more texture so I hit it randomly with some texture paste.  Gessoed it AGAIN and painted it AGAIN.  (Sigh) ... (Deeper Sigh) LOL

You can see more of the texture in this corner here.

I've allowed some of the metal to show through the paint as well, as you can see above.

The black paint I used is my Acrylic Paint Dabber which I actually brushed on.  The final green coat is Viva Precious Metal in Olive and the Gold is also Viva Precious Metal in Orange Yellow.  I also put a little of the green in a sprayer mixed with a little water and dribbled it onto the page.

In reality, the piece is not quite as dark as it appears in these photos. 

Not sure what I'm going to do with this now as I have actually decided to make a mini album for my Grandson's Birthday so he'll have somewhere to keep all the photos he'll get from his party. 

I have to say though, even if it didn't turn out quite how I wanted it, and even though I've whinged about how often I had to re-do it, I actually had a great deal of fun making this.  I just hope I haven't put anyone else off from giving it a go.  I'll probably hang on to this just as a show and tell piece, and I'm definitely going to try it again, but this time with pretty colours and lots of flowers. YES!!!!

Thank you so much for visiting.  Take care, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

God Bless.

oxox Marg

More Cogs

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

I'm back to show another card that I made with inspiration from scrapbooking sites.  This one is a masculine card but, again, I haven't decided on who to give it to, or  even on the greeting I'm going to use.  

The front of the card is a square of black cardstock and  I used my little machine to sew around the edge.  After I finished embellishing it I mounted it on a deep grey card.

The papers are a mix of Prima Craftsman and Kaisercraft Attitude.  I distressed the edges with my Tim Holz distressing tool after I lightly edged them with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I left the edges raw because I liked the 'grungy' look.

Here is a close-up of the Imaginarium cogs in the corner.

 I painted the cogs with a black paint dabber and then went over them with Versa Color Silver and Bronze to give them an aged look.

This chipboard piece is from Twiddlybits and I've painted it the same as the other cogs.

I used a chicken wire Template and dabbed over it with a Paint Dabber in Almond.  

This little patch was actually supposed to be in the opposite corner, but I found that the small cogs didn't stand out very well against the paint colour so I simply turned the card around.

 Here is another close-up of the chipboard piece.

Once I decide who to give this card to I'll sort out what the greeting is going to be.

And another one bites the dust!! LOL

Thank you so much for visiting.

Once I've sorted the photos from my holidays I'll do a post about it.  I have to say, New Zealand is a very, very pretty country, and we are definitely going back again to have another look.

Have a lovely day and please take care.

God Bless.

ox Marg

Happy Easter

Hello everyone.

I just wanted to let you all know that I have returned from my holidays and I would like to wish you  all a very Happy Easter.
I should be back soon with some new stuff to show you.

Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

Liebster Award

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

I have some lovely news to share.

I have just received the Liebster Award.  The what! you say?  The Liebster Award.  

I hadn't heard of it until a few days ago when I saw it on Di Garling's Blog.  It was designed to be a blog award in the pay it forward fashion.  It is awarded to blogs that have fewer than 200 followers to encourage new visitors and I thought  'what a lovely idea'.  Then, the lovely Jan Rankine from Jan's Creative Space passed one on to me.
Thank you so much Jan, I really, really appreciate this.

The rules are:  Post it to your blog and then give the Award to five bloggers whose work you appreciate and who have less than 200 followers.  Leave a comment on their blogs to let them know that you have passed on this Award.

So, now I have to chose 5 bloggers to pass it on to.  Not easy.  A lot of the ones I went to had either already received one or had too many followers but here are the blogs I've chosen.

Kerry-Jean at KJW Studio

Sue at Sue's Spot

Adriana at AB Inspirations
Jo at Joey's Scrap Corner 
Lesa at A Country Girl at Heart

So, now I have to go and leave a comment on each of their blogs.

I also want to let you all know that I will be away from my blog for a couple of weeks.  I'm off on a cruise in a few days.  Yayy!!!  Hope to have you visit when I get back.
 Hopefully I'll have lots of piccies to share and tales to tell.
Thank you for coming by.
Take care and God Bless.
ox Marg

Card for a 16th Birthday

Hello everyone.

I'm back again to show you the card I made for my grandson's Birthday.  He turned 16 a few days ago.  ( Isn't it scary how quickly they grow up ? )

 The papers I used are from Prima's Craftsman Collection.  The metal embellishment below is actually a button I found at (Surprise! Surprise! ) Big W.  I cut a small circle from cardstock with a plier punch, coloured it with a silver Versa Colour Stamp Pad and then swiped it lightly with Bronze and then glued it to the inside so that I could cover the button holes.

Here is a close-up of the cogs.  This is actually a single piece which I obtained at the Melbourne Paperific last year.  I think it was from Twiddlybits but I'm not sure because, unfortunately, I've thrown out the packaging.  I coloured this with Black Versa Magic and then swiped it with silver and bronze Versa Color to give it that old rusty look.

I've placed a small tag behind the main image for the greeting. 

I covered the tag with paper from the same collection and then stamped it with a flourish stamp from my stash.  For the greeting I simply cut a strip of paper, inked it all over with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, stamped the happy birthday with a Kaisercraft Stamp and then folded it to make the banner. 

The number 16 was cut from black cardstock with my Silhouette Portrait. (Love this little machine.) 

I lightly inked that with the bronze Versa Color, edged it with gold and covered it with Glossy Accents.

I made an envelope from a different set of papers, made another banner for his name and placed a few cogs in the lower left hand corner  which were coloured the same way as the main piece.

He really liked his card and that made my day.

That's all for now.  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit.

Take care and God Bless.

ox Marg