You Show Me Yours Challenge #2

Hi everybody and welcome to my blog.

The photo Lucy Muraca chose for this month's YSMY Challenge is of the totally gorgeous Hugh Jackman.  

All I can say is "YUMMO!!". 

Had a bit of a problem with this one.  Apart from the fact that I kept finding myself just drooling over the photo (hehehe) I really didn't know where to start.  How do you make a card with a male photo.  Do I add flowers?  Do I make it Steampunk? For a little while there, I was lost, but once I chose my papers it all seemed to come together almost by itself.

The papers I chose are all from Kaisercraft's Sears & Son Collection.  Love these, they are very much a male oriented line and I think they fitted in very well with the photo.  I distressed and inked all the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  The ornate corner chippies are from Make'it'Crafty and I coloured them with the Walnut Stain as well.

For the embellies I thought  'Film strips and cannisters', I mean. he's a Movie Star, right?  It fits,doesn't it?  So, I made the film strips out of plain black cardstock ... 

... and obtained the image of the film canister from the net, printed it twice and fussy cut the second image, and layered it on top to give a little more dimension.

 

 This is just a close-up of the layered papers.

So, this is my contribution to this month's Challenge.  If you are interested in joining us  (and I can tell you, with photo's like this one, it's a lot of fun) please visit Lucy's Blog to get all the details.

Below are listed the ladies who have already joined in.

Lucy Muraca -   Red Chi Chi

Emma Stafrace -  Just a Girl with Ideas

Debi -   Debi's Joy

Val Thorpe - Val-Belle's Ramblings
Annette Gearside -  Moment in Time
Kerry-Jean Watson -  KJWstudio
Heather Jacobs - Art and life
Jennifer Waugh -  My Creative Journey
 

Thank you so much for visiting. Please take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Booklet Tag Card

Hello everyone and a very warm welcome to my blog.

I'd like to share a card I made based on one I found on Astrid Maclean's blog.  She called it a Booklet Tag Card, hence the title for my post.  

 You can find Astrid's Blog and her wonderful creations HERE.

I made this card for my Granddaughter's Birthday, she turned 11 today and, as you can probably tell, she loves all things pink.

For the card base I created a cutting file for my Silhouette Portrait from one of their Doily SVG files.  Needed a little help with that from my Daughter-in-Law Kerry-Jean Watson.   She's very clever with all things computer based.  Very handy for little old me who is not so cluey about such things.  Kerry has a blog where she shares her own fabulous creations and you can find it HERE.

From the picture below you can see that this is similar to a gatefold card except that the front actually overlaps.

Inside left - The paper is from My Mind's Eye's Lost & Found.  Stamped and fussy cut the little heart and attached it with foam dots.  Also stamped the little vine and coloured it with textas. 

The centre - Made a pocket from a half doily also cut with the Silhouette Portrait.  The paper on the pocket is from a free pack which came with a Scrapbooking Magazine and the paper on the base is again from My Mind's Eye.  The Die cuts are from Kaisercraft's On This Day Collection.  Cut out the tag from cardstock and covered it with paper from My Mind's Eye.

The inside right - The paper is again from My Mind's Eye and the small doily and the flower die cut are from Kaisercraft.

The stickers below are from Kaisercraft's These Days Collection. 

 The flowers are mainly from Kaisercraft.  I lightly gessoed them and also added some Stickles for a bit of glitter and placed them on top of a bit of gauze.  The leaves were cut with the Silhouette.  I also placed some small gems around the doily.  The die cuts in the centre are from Kaisercraft.

You can see the glitter a little better here.

I really like the style of this card.  I like the idea of the tag for the sentiment and there's a lot of space for decorating.

Thank you so much for visiting and I do hope you enjoy your weekend.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

A 'Girly' Card

Hello again everyone.  Welcome to my blog.

My niece turned 14 a few days ago and I'd like to share the card I made for her.

The papers I used are My Mind's Eye's Lost & Found and Howdy Doody and Kaisercraft's Sweet Nothings.  Distressed all the edges of course and inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

Placed a couple of torn and distressed paper pieces in between the layers for extra dimension.   The flower cluster is made up of  Kaisercraft and Prima roses.  The larger flower I made myself and I placed it all on a piece of gauze which was lightly coloured with Tea Dye Distress Ink.  The leaves were cut using my Silhouette Portrait.  

 The large initial is an Alpha Thin from Papercraft which I covered with some of the paper, and the banner I made myself using a Kaisercraft Stamp.  The doily was very lightly edged with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

 I quite like the colours on this card and am happy with how it turned out ...

... hope my niece was happy with it too.

Thank you so much for visiting and I'd also like to thank those of you who have left me such heart warming comments in the past.  I really appreciate the support you give me.  Thank you so much.

Take care and enjoy the rest of your day.

God Bless.

oxox Margy

Tags in a Box

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  

I would especially like to welcome my new followers.  Thank you ladies.  Totally stoked to have you join me.

I would like to share a little tutorial with you.  Actually it won't be all that little, there are a lot of photos.  LOL

A little while ago I posted about a box I had made to hold a mini album and smash book on our New Zealand Cruise and I said I would show you how it was put together.  I needed another box to hold the tags I have been making and I took photos along the way so I could show the process.   You're probably thinking  'Well, that's  bit silly, we all know how to make a box".   I just hope I'm not wasting your time, but I was amazed at how simple it was to put together and you can use this process to make any  size and type of box you need.  So I hope you will stick with me to see the finished product at the end. 

To make this box I used 2ml paperboard which I purchased from my Newsagent.  You can get a huge sheet of it for only a couple of dollars.  Then you need to decide on the measurements.  My box had to be 3.5"  x  4.5" on the base so that my tags would fit inside and I decided to make it 4" deep with a 6" back.  

 Here are the pieces already cut out and showing the measurements. 

The base and the front ...

 ... the two sides ...

... and the back.

Next come the joiners.  I need to tell you that these are not my own idea.  I actually saw this on The Gentleman Crafter and they are brilliant and so easy to make.  HERE is a link to Jim's blog.

You can use any cardstock you want.  Colour doesn't matter because they get covered with paper.  You simply cut as many 1" strips as you want ...

 ... score them down the middle ...

 ... and attach double sided tape on both sides of the score line.

Cut them to length and attach to all four sides of your base piece.

 Then attach the front, sides and back leaving a small gap so that there is room to fold each piece up.

 You then need to  attach a joiner to one side of each piece as shown ...

 ... adhere the sides together ...

... and then the back.

There you have it.  Now all you need to do is cover with paper and decorate any way you like.  If you want a box with a lid you just need to make all sides the same height and then make a lid exactly the same way but make the base or top piece just a bit bigger so it will fit over your box.

How easy is that?  I actually found this a lot of fun and have thought of a lot of different boxes I wish to make.  I've also made heaps of the joiners so I've got some handy whenever I need them.

Here is the finished product.

I rounded the corners on the back and covered the box with Prima's Nature Garden papers.  I've inked all the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

 Used one of the Nature Garden Tags on the front along with a Prima flower.   The title was cut using my Silhouette Portrait.

 I decorated the back with a chipboard button on which was mounted a metal butterfly.

 The box with the tags inside ...

... and with a tag pinned to the front.   I can easily attach whichever tag I'm in the mood for.

I hope you've enjoyed this post and I haven't confused anyone too much.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Thank you so much for visiting and I hope you take the time to leave a comment.  I'd love to know what you think.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

You Show Me Yours Challenge

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

There is a new fun challenge that has just recently started up.  It's run by Lucy Muraca from RedChiChi and it's called 'You Show Me Yours'.  Lucy sends out an image to each participant and they use it to create whatever they wish.  It sounded like a bit of fun so I thought I would join in.  Here is the image.

A beautiful photo isn't it?  Here is the card I created with it.

I wanted something a bit dramatic so I chose Black and Gold as my colours, and I flipped the photo because it just didn't look right facing the other way.  The papers are from Kaisercraft's Timeless Classics and from G45's Communique.  All the papers were distressed with a Prima Distress Tool and edged with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

The chippie is from Imaginarium, I coloured it with Midnight Black Versa Magic Chalk Ink and then edged it lightly in Gold Versa Color.

The doily and the gauze piece were both white so I coloured the doily with the Midnight Black Versa Magic and the gauze was coloured with Tea Dye Distress Ink.   The doily was cut in half and I used one piece here ...

 ... and the other piece was pleated and used under the flower cluster.  The large flowers are from Prima, the small roses are Kaisercraft and the other two are from Magnolia Ink.

 The small metal clock is from my stash and the label underneath the photo was fussy cut from Kaisercraft's  Timeless Classics Collection.

I was actually persuaded by Heather Jacob to enter into this 'Challenge' and I felt a little intimidated with the wonderful creations she and the other participants submitted but, I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself with it.  I've never taken part in a Challenge before, but I don't think this will be my last.  I loved it.

For further details of this Challenge  go to Lucy's Blog HERE.


Heather  - Art and life
Emma -   Just a Girl with Ideas
Jennifer  -  My Creative Journey
Patricia  -  Between the Sheet
Kerry-Jean - kjwstudio
Christina - myembellisheddaydream
Helen - texturesandtales
Annette - annette-momentintime
Lindy - justanotherday

Hope you've been inspired to join in.  Thank you so much for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Box to Hold a Mini Album and Smash Book

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

I'd like to show you the box I constructed to hold a travel mini and a smash book I'm putting together to hold photos and mementos from our New Zealand Cruise.

I got the idea for the box from Astrid MacLean at Astrid's Artistic Efforts.   You can find her blog HERE.  She has lots of wonderful creations to inspire you.

 

I constructed the box from 2ml thick card which I purchased from my Newsagent.  It's much like chipboard but it's covered with white paper and it's quite cheap.  You can get a huge sheet of it for just a couple of dollars.  After putting the box together I covered it with G45 paper from their Communique collection and edged it with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I love this paper, the colours are so gorgeous and it has so much detail on it that I didn't have to do any stamping.

The vintage map and the Tikis are free images from the net.  The Tikis I printed to the size I needed, fussy cut them and mounted them on the same card that the box is made of to give them extra dimension.  The map is just mounted on a tag tied with a piece of the gorgeous ribbon I received from Sandie Edwards.  You can find her blog and more wonderful inspiration  HERE.  The  Title was cut from black cardstock using my Silhouette Portrait.

The larger flowers I used are from Kaisercraft, which were lightly edged with gesso, and the smaller roses are from Prima.  I placed them on a piece of gauze which was randomly coloured with Vintage Paper Distress Ink.  The leaves I've had in my stash for some time and the small gold spirals were made from some long stamen pieces that I found at one of our cheap outlets.

The 'Tattoo' was another free image from the net.  With the image I was able to make a cutting file for my Silhouette Portrait so it was really easy to cut out the shapes.  (I love this machine, it is so versatile.)  Once the Tattoo was glued to the box I went around it with a soft black pen to blur the edges a little.

More images from the net.  Printed to size, fussy cut, mounted on some card and edged with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

I really enjoyed putting this box together and it was so simple.  I've also made another smaller one to hold some tags and I've taken photos along the way so I'll do a post on that shortly.

Here is the box with the Mini Album and the Smash Book inside it.
Now I really need to get serious about sorting out the photos and mementos to finish off these books.   I have started, but it's a slooow process. 

Thank you so much for visiting and have a great day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg