Clean and Simple - My Way

Hello sweet crafty friends, thank you for stopping by my blog today.
  

Hope your weather is being nice.  We had some lovely days down here in Adelaide and then all of a sudden we're back to winter again.  Don't know what's going on but I don't think anyone is enjoying these destructive storms we keep having  .. most unusual.  Let's hope we don't have any more.

Ok, finished complaining about the weather.  I am actually here to share a birthday card created for my niece.

This one is a little different for me.   Just recently, in October actually, I participated in the 'Hop to Stop' and created a few CAS cards for it.  (If you'd like to take a look HERE is the link)  They were totally out of my comfort zone but I quite enjoyed the challenge and decided to have another try.
This is about as clean and simple as I got.

After cutting the card base I sprayed the front with a little 'Whale Watch Blue' Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Spray.  
I used up some more of those gorgeous Maja papers I received as a gift from Heather Jacob.  After not being able to get my hands on any, I now have so much that I won't run out for ages .. and ages .. and ages and .. well, you get the idea!!  LOL!!

 Still used flowers (it is a girly card after all), but only a couple and just added a twine bow.

 Added some washi tape under the cluster and a scrapmatts chippie.
The chippie was coloured with  'Lapislazuli' stamp pad by VersaColor and then coated in Glossy Accents.

Popped a few sticky back gems around and added some micro beads as well.  Wanted to add a lot more stuff but had to keep reminding myself that this was supposed to be clean and simple.  LOL!!

The usual on the inside.  One pocket to hold a gift voucher and the other to hold a journal card with a personal message.

Done!!
My version of Clean and Simple and I'm quite pleased with the result.

Thank you so much for stopping by and taking a look at my creations.
I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

Take care and God Bless.

A Friend's Birthday Card

Hello sweet crafty peeps.  So pleased you took the time to stop by and hope you are having a wonderful day.

I have another of my girl  cards to share with you today.  This was made for one of my best friends' birthday and I really hope she likes it.  I have no problem posting this before I give it to her because she doesn't actually own a computer (I know!!!  Amazing isn't it??  Especially in this day and age) and gets along very well without it!

The papers I've used here are from Kaisercraft.  Not exactly stash busting because they were purchased just recently, but they were left over from a previous project so, in a way, still stash busting I guess!!

Got the inspo for the die cut piece taken out of the side from the new Tim Holtz  Mixed Media Thinlits dies.  I purchased a couple of those recently too and thought that idea would work equally well with other dies.  The one I've used here is the Framing Flourishes from Die Namics.

The twirly bits ?? (not sure what to call them) are some long stamens I purchased ages ago from one of our cheapie Variety Stores.  They are about 8" long with tiny glass beads at one end and just white paper wrapped around the other.  I've just cut them in half so I could use both ends, and gently twisted them around a thin wooden skewer.  I re-discovered them just recently hiding in my stash and really love how they look.  Unfortunately, the store has closed down so have to use them wisely because I can't get them any more.

The large white bloom and the tiny rosebuds are available from Megs Garden.

The usual on the inside ..

.. and, because it was a bit front heavy, I added some of the same paper to the back.

I really love the subtle colour of these papers .. unfortunately I have now used them all up!!
Good for the stash busting .. not so good 'cause' now I have no more!!  Ah well, can't have it both ways I gues!!

Thank you so much for stopping by and taking a look.
Have yourself a wonderful week.
Take care and God Bless.

Stash Busting for a Man Card!!

G'day crafty peeps and welcome to my bloggy space.  Lovely to have you visit.

Here I am with another one of my blokes cards.  Think I've mentioned once or twice (or maybe more times!  LOL!!) that I have more male friends and rellies than female, so I do have to make quite a few of these.  I don't mind though .. I quite enjoy making them.

Have been inspired again by Lizzy Hill to do some stash busting, so the papers are a mix from different collections by Kaisercraft although the number strip is from Prima. 

Distressed the edges and did some inking with Ground Espresso Distress Inks.

 Added a shaped paper clip ..

 .. a couple of cogs ..

 .. and a little twine as well.  All from my stash. 

The 'Happy Birthday' chippie is from 2 Crafty Chipboard (yep!  from my stash!).  It was randomly coloured with Bronze VersaColor.

Pockets on the inside as usual.

 Done!!  .. and my stash is a little smaller .. LOL!!

Thank you for dropping in for a visit  and hoping I have given a little inspiration.

Enjoy the rest of your day!!
Take care and God Bless.

OH NO!!!!! Not Another Photo Folio .... LOL!! 'Fraid So!!!

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  I would especially like to welcome my new followers.  Thank you so much for joining me on my creative journey.  I hope I can give you a little inspiration along the way.

As you can tell by the Post Title #!!??!!@#, I am finally able to share with you the folio I made for the Tutorial I posted recently.  I really hope you are not sick of these yet as there is still one more to go after this one.  (I just know you are holding your head in your hands .. stop it!!  It's only one more!!!  LOL!!)

In case this is the first time you've seen these, I first made these little photo folios as an exchange gift for a 'Girls Day Out' with four of my lovely crafty friends, Heather Jacob, Astrid Maclean, Adriana Bolzon and Helen Wallace.   I made one  for each of the ladies and then decided to do a Step by Step Tutorial and this is the one I created while writing that Tutorial.

The papers used on this folio are all from Maja.  I have always loved Maja papers but they are not easy to get here and now I have heaps thanks to my sweet friend Heather Jacob who gifted me a stack of these gorgeous papers.  Thank you so much for your generosity Heather, I am blessed by your friendship in so many ways.
 

Unfortunately I didn't have much left in the way of the word chippies that I used on the other folios
but I did manage to find a few different ones that were suitable.

When writing the tutorial, I did explain that the pages don't really sit flat when the book is open (as you can see in the photo below) but I don't really see it as a problem.

Photo mat from the inside front pocket.

Half pocket page.

Folded card from half pocket.

Double pocket page.

  Journaling cards.

 Full pocket page.

 

 Photo mat from Pocket page.

Flip page.

 Opened once .. 

 .. fully open .. 

 .. the inside back cover .. 

.. and the back of the book.

As you saw, I decorated this one pretty much the same as the others with just some stamping, stenciling, washi tape and a few Scrapmatts chippies.

Thank you so much for dropping by and suffering through another of these.  Only one more to go (which will be a while .. (yeah, I can hear your sigh of relief .. LOL!!)) and then I'll be done with these!!

Have a great week!!
Take care and God Bless.

Hop to Stop!!

Hello dear crafty peeps and welcome to my blog.  Hope everyone is having a fabulous day!!

So, a couple of weeks ago my dear crafty friend Lizzy Hill shared a post about the Hop to Stop.  This Hop is run by Becca Cruger and is about raising awareness for Domestic Violence!  

As well as the Hop there is also the opportunity to help by making cards to donate to Becca's local shelter.  They are looking for birthday, thank you and encouragement cards and for them to be left blank inside to make them more usable.

Well, this is such a worthy cause that I decided to join in with the Hop and also to make a few cards to send on to the shelter.   Unfortunately I didn't make as many as I would have liked but I did managed to do about 5.  My biggest problem with these was that, for ease of posting, I felt they needed to be clean and simple! Well, anyone who knows my work knows that I don't really do clean and simple.  Most of my cards are reasonably loaded down with layers and embellies which make them quite heavy so, not cheap for posting.  Anyways, thank goodness for Pinterest.  Had a look around, got a few ideas and came up with these.

Now, for the Hop, you have to use purple on your card so, I hunted around for purple stuff to put on these cards, and came up with .. virtually, nothing!!  But, I managed to find just enough to be able to create these.

I had made a background ages ago that was just sitting around doing nothing, and had a touch of purple in it so, I cut it up and used part of it here.

 I also found a purple VersaColor stamp pad so have used that on almost all of these cards ..

.. along with a small amount of purple Maja papers.
(I received a very generous gift from my dear friend Heather Jacob a little while ago .. it was a pile of Maja papers which, luckily, had some purple ones among them.  Thank you so much Heather, you are such a sweet and generous person and I am so Blessed to be able to call you my friend!!)
I possess only four Gelatos, which I have never used but, luckily, one of them was purple, so the bit of colour under the stamp was created with my Gelatos!  Love them!!

Went hunting for some purple embossing powder but, no luck, so had to use black which actually balanced out the washi tape quite nicely.  I have decided that heat embossing is not one of my skills!!  (One of many I'm not good at!) Every time I try it, I mess it up one way or another.  Very frustrating that I can never get a crisp, clear image but, I guess that's what happens with hand made stuff .. adds character, I say!!  LOL!!

 Stamped the butterflies twice and fussy cut them to give the card above some dimension, and messed up the stamping on the card below but used it anyway, 'cos I quite like how it looks!

I will be sending these off tomorrow.

Now for the Hop.
As I said before, you have to use purple in your card and these are the wonderful sponsors for this Hop.

So, here is my card. 
I made this for a friend's birthday .. killed two birds with one stone and got back into my comfort zone!

The papers are from Maja (more  of that fabulous gift from Heather)
Did a bit of stenciling with transparent texture paste ..

.. and added some Scrapmatts chippies.

The flowers are from my stash and the leaves were cut with my Silhouette.

Along with a piece of netting and a twine bow, I also sprinkled around some micro beads.

My usual pockets on the inside.

Done!!

I know there's not a lot of time left but, if you can manage, it would be lovely if you could create a card for the Hop, it closes on the 30th October.

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