Green and Grungy .. and a Little Look at My Craft Room!!

Hello again sweet crafty people .. welcome to my blog.  So pleased you've dropped by.
Can't believe it's October already, where has this year gone????

So, I'm back again with another of my 'guy' cards.  Seems that most of my male rellies and friends have their birthdays towards the end of the year and so I end up with a quite a few male cards to post all around the same time.  This card was made a little while ago and I thought it was about time I posted it.  It is a fairly simple make with a little touch of grungyness!!

I've used more of my scraps on this one and I think they are all from Kaisercraft papers.

Added my fave embellie .. yep, more tickets, plus a paper clip!!

Love those keyholes too.  Could be Tim Holtz but I'm not sure as I keep finding all these little treasures while sorting through my stash ready to move them to the new room. 

The chippy is from 2Crafty Chipboard and has simply been coloured with Black Soot Distress Ink and then coated with Glossy Accents.  The tiny piece of mini chicken wire is another little treasure found while cleaning up my stash.  I've rubbed a little of my 'Rust' Patina on them both for a bit of a  rusty look.

The chipboard button is another found treasure.  I actually cut it in half so I still have another piece to use elsewhere.

Added some yummy clear crackle in a couple of spots.  When it was dry I poured a little watered down 'Faded Jeans' Distress Ink over it so the cracks would stand out a bit more.  Really love how it looks.  Also splashed around a bit of gesso as you can see.

The inside .. just waiting for a verse and greeting!!

So, I've been talking a little about my new craft room and have been asked by a couple of people to show some piccies, so here they are!!  Just keep in mind that this is a work in progress!!

The work table and the cube shelves are from my old space. 

Everything in the shelf unit will eventually be moved into cupboards and drawers on the other side of the room and I think I may use the shelves as a display unit. I still have a lot of stuff to go through in my old space so there will be quite a bit more to find room for in here.

As you can see, I have a very bare wall on the other side ..

.. which is where the cupboards and drawers are going to be built to the height of my worktable.
My son is building them for me so they may take a bit of time to complete.  He is not actually a carpenter but he has had quite a bit of experience in making furniture for himself and did it beautifully too.  It's not going to be fancy but it is going to be fabulous!!  Once the cupboards are done, I will get some shelves put in above them for more display space.  I collect Pop Vinyls so that would be the perfect place to display them.  Can't wait for it all to be finished!!  Then I can move my little box of clear stamps off the floor as well .. LOL!!

That's all from me lovely people.

Thank you so much for visiting and do enjoy the rest of your day.  To all my Aussie visitors, I hope you've been managing to stay reasonably cool in the middle of this heat wave!!  It hasn't been very  comfortable for me even though we have air con.  Hate hot weather, but I guess I'd better get used to it as we are heading into summer here.

Bye for now.
Take care and God Bless.

Gather Your Dreams Mini Album for Megs Garden

Hello sweet visitors and welcome to my blog.  So nice to have you here and hope your day is going well.

I'm here to share another Mini Album with you.  This one is made with the 'Gather Your Dreams' Book Kit from Megs Garden.  This is a lovely kit with purples and pinks and greens and lots of gorgeous floral images.

This is just a small Album with a waterfall and an accordion booklet as well.  I  do have to warn you though, there are a lot of photos and I mean a LOT of photos.  So, maybe grab yourself a cuppa and a comfy chair and .. here we go.  Hope you like it.

The Cover.

Added a strip of dry wall tape on the cover and then did some stenciling with Tim Holtz's Flourish stencil and texture paste.  Sprayed in the center with watered down acrylic paints and created some splatters around the edges.

I used some of the labels from the kit to add the layers.

The cameo and frame were made with air dry clay and some moulds.  They were both painted with acrylic paint and then glued together and sealed with matte medium.  The small roses were coloured with acrylic paint as well (watered down of course, so I could spray it) and I tucked some small pieces of lace into the cluster.

This lovely leaf chippie is the 'Mini Branches' from 2Crafty Chipboard.  It was coloured with Versa Color stamp pads in two shades of green and then covered in Clear Rock Candy crackle paint.  Once everything was assembled and glued down I dry-brushed the flowers with a bit of gesso and added a few stick-on pearls in and around the cluster.

Opening the book.

I tore the edges of the small labels in the kit, edged them with 'Gathered Twigs' Distress Ink and layered them on the inside front cover.  Added a Tim Holtz Chit Chat Sticker and one of the lovely butterflies from the Butterfly Transparency sheet.   

 

This is the right hand side of the cover .. the part that folds in underneath.  I'm not quite sure what to call it but it was stenciled the same as the main part of the cover and then it was sprayed with 'Afraid of the Dark' Glimmer Mist.  I used another of the labels from the kit  as the base for the Title which is also part of the Kit.

Open the right side (that pesky bit that I can't put a name to LOL!!) and you can see the waterfall section of the book.

I used one of the lined pages from the 'Sherlock Book' for this journal page and fussy cut some floral images from a scrap piece to decorate the edges.

The Waterfall Booklet.

I love the pretty floral images on these papers, don't you??  Just gorgeous.

There is room for 7 wallet sized photos in this little booklet.  I have left this first page blank ..

.. and here I've added another vintage image from the Kit to give you some idea of how it looks with a photo.  Of course, you could add another photo on the bottom page, or you could use it for your journalling.

I have simply placed some washi tape in the small bit of space between the pages.

Open the right side again and you can see the Accordion Booklet and the inside back cover.

Here I have fussy cut some of the floral images to create a little pocket.

The tag is one of the images from the 'Cut & Create' pages of the Book Kit.  There are a number of these lovely vintage images and I have used some of them in this book.

The Accordion Booklet.

I don't embellish my mini albums a great deal because I don't like too much bulk in my books but I do like to use stencils to add a bit of interest to the pages.  Here I've used my fave stencil, Tim Holtz's Latticework with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.

Before I show you the inside pages of the Accordion Book I thought I would show you this view so you could see how it all works.

Opening the booklet to the right you can see another lovely vintage image from the 'Cut & Create' pages.  I've simply framed the photo with some die-cuts and added some micro beads and a few seed beads as well as a Chit Chat Sticker. 

Similar embellishment here with a die-cut,  micro beads and a Chit Chat Sticker ..

.. and the same again here.  I haven't filled all the pages with images .. just enough to give you an idea of how it would look once photos are added.

 Opening the booklet to the left, I haven't added any pictures on these pages.  Just did a little stenciling and added some more die-cuts.

The back of the Album where I've just added a small metal trinket.  Done!!  I did warn you that there were a lot of photos didn't I??  I do hope you were able to stick it out to the end and, of course, I also hope that you enjoyed your visit.

Megs Garden Products used.

Gather Your Dreams Book Kit
Mini Rose Buds
Small White Roses
Filigree Strip

Thank you so much for visiting with me today.  Why not pop over to the Megs Garden Blog and take a look at all the wonderful creations by my Team Mates, you will love them.

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

Tags & Tickets - Easel Card

Hi everyone!!  Welcome to my blog .. so nice to have you here!!

Back again to share another of my 'guy' cards.  Not too many more to go and, once they are done, I can get started on Christmas cards.
Gahhh!!  Did I just say Christmas??????  Really didn't want to think about that just yet but I guess it isn't all that far away.  

This card was made for a close  friend who turned 70 (as you can see) and the papers are from different Kaisercraft Collections.  I am using up a lot of my scraps so don't always know which Collection I'm using.

  

I'm becoming quite enamored of using tags and tickets on my cards.  I think they add quite a bit of interest without adding too much bulk.

Of course, I also love using metal elements on my 'guy' cards and I also like to alter them slightly by adding some 'rust'.  Normally I brush some of the paint on and then rub it with my finger to spread it a bit and soften the look.  Unfortunately it was quite a warm day when I worked on this part of the card and the paint dried way too quickly so it's not quite as realistic as usual. 

The numbers are small wooden ones.  I've simply left them raw and just added a little gesso.

The inside is lined with more of the KC papers.  The cog border chippy is a piece from my stash so, of course, I have no idea where it came from.  I left it mainly raw and just added touches of paint and gesso.

Here's how it looks standing up.

I kept this one reasonable 'clean', in other words .. shock!! horror!! .. NO crackle and NO distress ink!!  I did do a little dry brushing with gesso though and I am happy to say it was well received, and that always makes me feel good.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog and I hope you have a great weekend!!

Take care and God Bless.

 

My Latest 'Guy' Card

Hello everyone!!  A very warm welcome once again to my blog and a very special welcome to my latest followers.  Thank you so much for joining me on my creative journey.  I hope you'll find some inspiration here.

Well, I hope everyone's day is going well.  I have actually moved into my new craft room (Yayy!!) even though it is nowhere close to being finished.   As a matter of fact, all we've done so far is paint the walls.  I am using the work bench from my old craft space and that's about all there is in there at the moment.  Have to say though, I love having my own space .. and hubby enjoys having me out of what he calls 'his computer room'.  Hah!!  News for him .. my computer is staying in there so it will be my computer room too.  LOL!!

So, here is my latest card ..

The papers are from Kaisercraft but I couldn't tell you which collection.   The timber look one is probably from 'Base Coat'  but I'm not sure.  These pieces came from my scrap box .. I must remember to write  the collections on the back in future.

 

The metal trinket is actually two pieces glued together.  I find Helmar 450 is wonderful for glueing metal.  I have never yet known it to come apart.

The chippie is the 'Interlocking Grid Panel' from 2 Crafty Chipboard.  I love this piece .. it suits so many different styles of projects.  Here I have simply coloured it with Black Soot Distress Ink and then drizzled some Glossy Accents over the top.
I also love those Tim Holtz Word Bands.  I get mine from Megs Garden.  This one has been tied on with some twine simply wrapped around the back of the paper.

My fave technique on masculine cards is adding a touch of crackle.  I use a spatula to add some random spots and, when the cracks appear, I just love how it looks.  Usually I would rub some distress ink into the cracks but this time I left it clear.

The inside decorated with more of what I think is the Base Coat paper.  The piece on the right was border punched with an EK Success 'Binding Edge' Slim Border Punch.

Of course, once it was all put together I dry brushed randomly with a bit of gesso .. another of my fave things to do.

Well, that's all from me for now.  Thank you so much for popping in to take a look at my little creations.   I hope you have enjoyed your visit.

Take care, stay safe and God Bless.