Christmas in September

Hello sweet visitors and welcome to my blog.  Hope you are all having a fantastic day.

Can you believe it's September already??  Read somewhere that it's only about 16 weeks to go 'till Christmas!!   Unbelievable!!!!

I'm here to share another of my Christmas cards with you.  I am trying to get as many done as I can  before the rush begins in November and although I haven't done as many as I wanted, I do have more than at this time last year and that's a good thing!

Used scraps again for this card.  I know the base paper is from Kaisercraft but have no idea where the rest came from.

The white bloom is available at Megs Garden but the rest of the cluster is from my stash.

Finally using up some of the gold stickers I've had in my stash for ages.  I do like that little touch of gold for Christmas ..

.. and I added a few seed beads as well.

The inside, decorated in my usual style .. the small chippy bauble is from Scrapmatts.

Popped some dp on the back as well, just to cover the ribbon.

I actually should have had about 16 Christmas cards by now but I've actually only completed 8.  Rather sad, huh??   Still, as I said at the beginning of this post, I have more now than I did at this time last year .. is good!!  LOL!! 

Just a little side note .. I entered my previous Christmas card (Christmas in Ausust #2) into the challenge at Christmas Card Challenges .. and I WON!!  Just want to say a big thank you to all the lovely people over there for choosing my card .. I am thrilled to bits!!  Thank you all so very much.

And thank you, lovely people for visiting my blog and taking a look at my little creations.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.

Another Celebration!

Hello sweet crafty friends .. welcome to my blog and thank you so much for stopping by.  Hope everyone is having a wonderful day.

I have another masculine birthday card to share with you.   This is another one I created from scraps  and, if I remember rightly, they are a mix of Kaisercraft and Prima.

This chippie is from 2Crafty Chipboard and is also a scrap piece left over from a previous project.
Coloured it with Distress Inks and then coated it with Glossy Accents.

Didn't do a lot on this one.  Just distressed the layers.
Did pop a little ink on the tickets though.

 The chipboard greeting is from Scrapmatts and was not altered in any way.
Love these .. so easy to add  to your card.

 

 

The inside, done in my usual style.

Just a fairly simple card but, happy to say, it was very well received.

Thank you so much for visiting and taking a look at my little creations.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.

Girls Day Out

Hello sweet peeps and welcome to my blog.  Hope you are all having a fabulous day.

A little while ago, I mentioned that I had a fantastic day out with four amazing ladies .. Heather Jacob, Astrid Maclean, Adriana Bolzon and Helen Wallace.   Not only are these ladies amazingly talented as scrappers but they are also the sweetest, loveliest people you could ever hope to meet.  I feel so blessed to be able to call them all 'friend' and to have been included in this wonderful day.
The main reason for this 'Girl's Day Out' was so we could meet with Astrid in person.  Heather and Astrid had already met a few years ago, but the rest of us only knew her online.  Those of you who are familiar with Astrid will know that she actually lives in Scotland but, at the moment she is in Australia visiting relatives in Melbourne.  Luckily for us, she was able to come to Adelaide for a few days and Heather arranged for all of us to get together.  We ended up in Hahndorf and had the most wonderful day just chatting .. laughing .. chatting .. eating .. shopping .. chatting (LOL!!) ..  it was awesome!!
 A kind passer-by took this photo for us.

For those of you who don't know us from right to left is Adriana Bolzon, Helen Wallace, Astrid Maclean, Heather Jacob and myself.

We also exchanged some handmade gifts and I thought I would share them with you.
 First up is this amazing card by Adriana.

I love the embossing on this card, especially the gold heat embossing on the front .. absolutely  gorgeous.  

Lots of inking and I love that sweet little swallow ..

.. and the flower cluster is so very pretty!! 

I also love the die cut words .. love, faith, hope, blessings.  Such beautiful sentiments ..

.. and the angel wings in the center.  Absolutely stunning.

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Next is a small booklet created by Astrid.
It was presented in this lovely little hessian bag.

Anyone who knows Astrid's work knows she is a master at mixed media and this little booklet was made in her distinctive style.

She blends and matches colours to perfection ..

so many different techniques and mediums used in creating this booklet .. simply awesome!

I adore the quotes Astrid used as well .. so inspiring.

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Last, but certainly not least, is this stunning tag by Heather.

Heather also presented her gifts tucked into a gift bag. 

Love the warm subtle colour with that touch of black .. and she added our initial on top of those gorgeous layers .. fabulous!

Just look at all those layers .. awesome!!

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We all wrote some personal messages on the backs of our gifts as well.

You've probably noticed that Helen didn't have a project and that's because she had been on holiday and didn't think she would be able to make it.  As it turned out, she rang Heather the day before to say she was able to join us after all.   We were all so very glad she could come along but, as it was at the last minute, we were not able to exchange gifts with her though her presence was certainly gift enough for all of us.

I created a small photo folio for the girls and I will be sharing those with you in the weeks to come.  In the meantime, here are the links so you can take a look at these 'uberly' talented ladies creations.

ADRIANA BOLZON - AB Inspirations
ASTRID MACLEAN - Astrid's Artistic Efforts
HEATHER JACOB - Art and Life
HELEN WALLACE - Textures and Tales

Here's a few more photos from a fabulous 'Day Out'.
The first one is from Heather's camera.  The last two are from mine.

Thank you so much my gorgeous friends for an absolutely wonderful day.  It was such a great  pleasure to finally meet Astrid in the flesh, so to speak, and she is even more lovely in real life than she is online.  I will treasure the memories and the beautiful gifts you all gave for always.  Love and hugs to you all.

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And thank you all so much for dropping by and making it through this very long post.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your day and that the weather is being kind to you.
Take care and God Bless.

Friends are connected heart to heart ..
Distance and time cannot break them apart.

Watercolour in Blues - Cards for Megs Garden

Hello sweet visitors and welcome to my blog. 

Hope you are having a wonderful day.

I'd like to share two cards with you today created with the beautiful Watercolour in Blues Paper Collection exclusive to Megs Garden. 

I have to say, one thing I really love about the Megs Garden papers is that they come in so many different sizes.  There's the Mini Paper Pack (which is what I've used here), the Papercrafter Mini Packs, the A4 papers, the 12" x 12" Scrapbooking papers and also the Mini Book Papers.   On top of that you also have the matching ephemera papers and they all come in either a printed version or a digital downloadable version.  So, whatever you choose to create, you will find a Megs Garden Collection which is eminently suitable for your project.  I think that is awesome don't you??

For my first card I used the Watercolour in Blues 03 paper.

Added a touch of stenciling with texture paste and also did a little stamping.

The flowers used are all from Megs Garden. (I will pop a list of all Megs' products used at the end of this post)  I just added some colour to the puffy paper flowers to match in with the papers.  The frame was made with a mould and some hot glue and then painted with acrylic paint.  

I was asked by a couple of people to do a tutorial on these frames but there's not really very much to it.  You simply need a mould and then just squirt the hot glue into it.  One little tip I can give you though is, make sure you place the nozzle right down into the mould so the glue can run into all the little details before it cools.  It took me a couple of tries before I realised this, so my first few frames had a few bubbles and missed detail.     Also, make sure you don't overfill the mould as you want to keep the back nice and flat.

The doily is also from Megs Garden.

The small lock came from my stash.

Watercolour in BLues 04 is what I used to create two pockets on the inside.  One is for a Gift Voucher and the other for a tag with a personal message to the recipient.

My second card was created with Watercolour in Blues 01. 

In between the papers I layered some gauze, some lace and a doily cut in half.

The large bloom is from Megs Garden and I have again added another small frame.  To make the frame this time I used some Mod Podge Melts.  I have discovered that they are much easier than hot glue to fill the moulds with.  Once heated they are a thinner consistency than the glue and they fill the moulds better.  Plus the sticks come in different colours so may not need to be painted.

I added a few micro beads and some die cut leaves ..

.. and some cotton for more interest and texture.

As I prefer to add my personal message on a tag or journaling card I usually create at least one pocket for the inside of my cards.  Here I have used Watercolour in BLues 06 and Martha Stewart's Floral Vine Deep Edge Punch.

As I stated at the beginning of this post, I love Megs Garden papers.  Apart from the fact that you can get them in either printed or downloadable versions  they are also totally gorgeous. 
  
Thank you so much for dropping by and taking a look at my little creations.
To see more projects made with these beautiful papers why not take a stroll through the Megs Garden blog and see what the rest of the Team have created.  HERE is the link.

Megs Garden Products used
Watercolour in Blues Mini  Cardmakers Pack  
(Printed version)
Puffy Paper Flowers
Azaleas
10 cm Doily
1.2cm White Lace

Take care and God Bless.
Marg xoxo