The two lions...

Just wanted to show you the two lion cards together to show the different sizes.

Notice the tails are on the opposite sides? Must've designed them that way so they'd fit on the chipboard sheet.

The larger scallop is a die from Sizzix - it's huge. About 4" high. Fun stuff.

Bye now.

Little animals

Hi, hope your week is going well.

Okay, so you know there have been a lot of little animals running around my desk lately and they've made it onto a lot of cards...

Well, here's some more. The chipboard pieces set has big and little animals in it and all the cards above are using the little animals. They were left in the chipboard packaging and were begging to be used...

Ended up putting them on my favourite paper of the moment - the ledger paper from Making Memories. Coupled with Early Bird dot paper and Bungle Jungle (or Jungle Bungle?) paper. It's in the same line as the chipboard animals.

And my favourite punch of the moment...the 3" scallop from Marvy. Loving that thing right now as is proved by the bazillion cards above.

Why reinvent? Just do the same design again and again and call it a set! That truth comes from this philosophy...Crafting is about making, not thinking all the time.

Thank you.

And yes, the lion cards are the same. Made all the little cards first and then made the big lion card to match. Once again, why reinvent? Apply crafting philosophy here...

Thank you again.

:o)

Lots of links

CHA Summer is on in the States this week and I've been looking around the net to see what's new. Here's some links if you'd like to look too.

Sizzix is coming out with a 12 x 12 embossing machine. Are they going to have 12 x12 embossing folders too? They've also got some smaller embossing folders coming out as well (the Cuttlebug type ones).

New punches from Fiskars. They do have four Christmassy type punches coming too.

Martha Stewart and EK punches.

EK punches.

All Martha Stewart punches.

I like this one. Loopy! And here's a little how-to video about it.

New Cuttlebug embossing folders. Nice!

I love Christmas papers. Here's My Mind's Eye Colourful Christmas and Merry Days of Christmas.

And Cosmo Cricket's Jolly By Golly (I like the vintage bits on the elements).

That's all for now. Hope all the links work for you!

The croc and the lion

Hi!

Just wanted to share the croc and lion cards that I made using the Sassafras Wild Side chipboard pieces. Have had so much fun with these animals!

I made the lion one differently, but didn't like it in the end. Pulled it apart and made this instead. Much better. You'll have to believe me on that because there's no evidence of the previous card. Actually there may be...but there's no evidence here. All crafters are allowed a percentage of stuff that goes in the old bino...you know! And yes, bino is a word. To me anyway. Maybe it should be spelt bin-o...so it's easier to pronounce correctly.

And the percentage? 10%? 15%? 5%?

Do you have a bin-o percentage?

I'd say mine is about 5%. And I say that for the following reasons:

1. Because I try to fix things that aren't working, unless I just get over it and chuck it.

2. I'm cautious and I don't commit to the design unless I like it (excepting original lion card of course).

3. If I make something I don't like I pull it apart and try to make it into something better (original lion card again).

4. I try to only use things that are inspiring me at the time so the chances of the old bin-o coming into play are decreased dramatically.

5. I'm a results-based person and to see an hour's worth of work go into the bin is not an option, so I make it work!

(Okay, so I don't do these things all the time as is obvious with the lion do-over card.)

Well, there you go. That's my bin-o percentage and rationale. Gosh, who knew this blog would turn into a place of bin-o percentages!

Enough rambling. Will finish off by mentioning that the ruffled paper is creased every couple of cms or so along the bottom. A piece of double-sided tape on the card (or the paper itself if you like) helps to stick it down as you go along. No staples. Andrew didn't like the staples on one card I used. The giraffe one I think it was. He doesn't do the craft, but he knows what he likes, that's for sure.

Andrew's rules of crafting:

• Subtle use of glitter
• No staples!

:o)

A scrap page

Today I thought I would show you a scrap page I did just a little while ago. I was lucky enough to have over 24 hours of uninterrupted scrap time with my mum and sister-in-law recently...only interrupted by sleeping and eating. Sleeping really gets in the way sometimes!

I scrap pretty simply. I've been scrapping for over 8 years now, and know what works for me, and what I want to accomplish with my scrapbooking. This is what my layouts looked like when I first started - ie. on white with just photos and a bit of colour. And I've come full circle. I've done the masterpiece pages (masterpiece according to me, not according to publishing in a magazine masterpiece), I've done the mini-albums, I've done 12 x 12 theme albums and I've done gift albums. I've done a lot of different types of scrapping.

And this is what I've come back to. This is what I want to do. I want to keep it simple - put the photos in, write the date and write the story. Sometimes I caption. Sometimes I type, print it out on regular paper and put it in behind the photos.

Chronological sequence is important to me. Seeing things from beginning to end the same. Chronological scrapbooking is an outdated approach in the scrapbooking world, but it isn't in mine.

Chronological scrapbooking used to suit everyone because we all had film cameras and we'd get our photos developed and put them in albums in that order. It was doable, it was easy. But with the onset of digital cameras the photo developing, and the scrapbooking, has changed. I changed with it for a while there, but I always kept up the chronological albums. I added to my scrapping and got overwhelmed with too many projects. Too many things to keep up with and it wasn't fun. It was ridiculous actually.

Recently I decided to just pretty much stick to my chronological albums (which I actually think of as my visual diary) and just leave it at that. Things may change in the future, but for now it's what I'm doing. And I'm okay with it. I like it. I'm happy with it.

It's been a scrapping journey, for sure!

So during the 24 hours of uninterrupted scrapping time I did 17 pages. Yay for me. What I didn't do was journal on them. Not yay for me. I always finish each page before I go onto the next page because of this very "it's-a-couple-of-weeks-later-and-I-still-haven't-done-the-journalling-on-those-pages" issue, but I ignored the issue and ignored the journalling. And now I have the issue! But in my defense have you ever found it easy to journal at the table when everyone else is yakking? No, that's right. It's tough. But I still have the issue! And it's not that I have a problem writing anything (as you can tell by these looonnngg posts), it's just that it's not done. But it will be soon. Issue solved.

Hope you love your scrapping hobby and aren't frustrated by it. Really hope so.

Favourite things right now...

I was taking photos today of some cards I'm going to post in the future, and I decided to take a photo of my favourite things right now.

And the nominees are:

1. 3" scallop punch from Marvy.

2. Ledger paper from Making Memories in an 8x8 pad (having it in the book really adds to the appeal of it).

3. The Corner Chomper from We Are Memory Keepers. Love it. And it chomps well!

4. The Basic Lowercase Letters set of alphabet stamps from Hero Arts with a Zig pen.

5. Chipboard pieces for cards. The flowers are from Early Bird.

6. Early Bird yellow dotty paper.

And the winner is...

All of them!

I'm particularly happy with the whole using the pen to ink the stamps, rather than using an ink pad, because it's just so much easier. Draw on stamp. Breathe on it a bit if necessary to re-moisten it. Stamp. Easy.

Oh, how I love paper and tools :o)

And the rest

Hi again!

And the last of the book today. Hope you're liking it as much as I'm enjoying sharing it.

Love the bow tie on the bear. He looks good. And the bees, fiddily diddily, but very worth it.

Cutie frog and clown. I really do like the fact that you only have to use cardstock, punches and glue to make something fun. Of course I use a lot of other tools too, but really, you don't need much to make some cute punch art.



And the inside back cover with punch art punches. So fun. Just traced around the actual punch shape to make them. Very easy.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the book and feel ready to go and punch something. I do!

Punch on!

Talk again soon.

More of the little book

Hey, hope your week is going well.

Here's some more pages of the little punch art book.

That chicken is my favourite - my very favourite. And the bow on the baby - fiddily, diddily!

Here we have the bear with the balloons. Always a fun favourite. And the cute butterflies using balloons as the wings. Nice.

More soon!

Little book

Today it's time for some punch art. I've been wanting to post this little book for a while because it's full of punch art, and punch art is good!

Beware that you might have to scrape some cheese off it because it's a bit cheesy, but hey, at least it's not stinky cheese.

So here's the cover. Simple. Simple is good.

I love punch art because it's simple. Did I put that in the book? Probably not. It can be the 48 967th reason why I love punch art.

I made the book itself by folding some cream card for the inside pages and blue for the front. I should've scored each page, but I didn't. Unfortunately there's some pretty major cracks on the folds in the book. That cream card is thick and the pages are small. Makes for a bit of cracking, especially when folding against the grain. Live and learn.

I punched holes in each of the pages to thread the ribbon through at the end and each page was decorated before the whole book was put together.

The final book is quarter of an A5. Is there a code for quarter of an A5? Basically it's a little book.

Inside front cover. There's quite a few swirls throughout the book too. Quite a few actually...

First double page. Have loved doing flowers with smiley faces for years now. They're always a good option for a card. And the kids are cute with their sunglasses.

Now that I've just started showing you the book I'll have to leave you hanging because I've got to start dinner and I've already typed this three times! Rats, I know...

See you soon :o)

Weekend

Hi, I hope you had a good weekend! I realise it's Tuesday and people don't usually refer to the previous weekend on a Tuesday, but I still hope you had a good weekend! Do anything exciting? We went to the Samford show and had a really nice time actually. It's small and it's country, but it's good.

My favourite thing was the woodchop - love the woodchop and haven't seen it for years. The guy who won chopped through that thing in 21 secs I think it was! Amazing. That was the underhand event where they stand on the block. We also saw the standing block event and the tree climb one. I mean, I've seen these events many times before, but to see them up close is to see how hard they're working. And those axes are sharp!

The back marker (the guy with the biggest time handicap) is always the guy to watch because he's expected to win (in my humble, I'm-just-a-spectator, opinion). In the tree climb final the first guy started on 5, the second on 17, the rest of them on 60 and 70ish, the second last guy on about 117 and the back marker on 121! They were standing there having a chat while the first guy started and then they got themselves ready. And man, they work hard in that tree climb. Chop, chop and up goes the first plank. Chop, chop and up goes the second plank. Chop, chop and the third plank goes up. Then they chop one side of the top bit. Then down they go and do it all again up the other side. They were amazing to watch really. And when they're on the top plank going for it to break through the log, the plank they're standing on is at such a bend! I'm like, don't fall!

And yep, the back marker won. He blitzed them all and won the final. Good for him, I thought, he deserved it. He's chopping for Queensland at the Ekka soon too.

You know when you go to the cricket, there's cheering? And when you go to the tennis, there's cheering? And when you go to the footy, there's yelling and cheering? Well, at the woodchop there's no cheering. What is up with that really? I love cheering and let out a woo hoo when they finished. Thought they deserved it!

Okay, so I love the woodchop! There you go.

And my other favourite thing was this dog herding these ducks through the legs of about 12 kids who were standing in tunnel ball formation. So cute.

I'm working on a croc and a lion card to go with the others that I posted last week. Will put them up when they're done.

Bye now.

Oh PS. Father-in-law liked elephant with bomb-diving monkey card on Sunday. Knew he would.

Hello there...

Hi again.

Here's the third card I made using the Sassafras chipboard pieces. Fun again. I stamped the greeting with my basic stamp set from Hero Arts and just used a pen to ink the stamps rather than actual ink. Quick, and a little less messy.

Also punched out the circles in the postage stamp border at the bottom. My circle punch was a little smaller, but I was okay with it.

And the lined paper in the background is from Making Memories. It's an 8 x 8 pad of ledger paper. Nice.

There's also a croc and a lion in the chipboard shapes. Wonder what can be done with those?

Cute giraffe

The elephant I used on my father-in-law's card was from the Wild Side chipboard shapes from Sassafras. As soon as I saw them I knew they'd be fun on a card. I've made a few and they've been a lot of fun. I'm really into the whole just stick-it-on-there-because-you-like-it kind of card making at the moment!

And that's paper folded then stapled to hold it at the bottom. A kind of ruffled look. Works well for the grass.

Will share another card tomorrow.

Bye now.

This is how it goes...

Hey, just wanted to blog about this card. I was making it for fun (ie. no reason) and wanted to finish it off with a sun in the top corner. The line of paper I was using didn't have a yellow that I could cut a sun from so I started looking for other options. The "Let's Do Lunch" label was on my desk from the Early Bird elements paper and I tried that. It worked, but when would I ever use a card with "Let's Do Lunch" on it? Never, probably. Oh well, what else can I use for a sun?

Then I had a thought. We're having lunch with my father-in-law this weekend for his birthday and all of sudden the "Let's Do Lunch" label made sense. Onto the card it went, and into an envelope it will go. Pretty funny, hey? The card went from no sense at all, to all the sense in the world, in a matter of seconds! That's craft for you....just go with the flow and it'll all work out.

Just wanted to say too that it's not really a man card as far as man cards go, but that's okay. Who wants to work with dark colours anyway (you know, typical man card colours)? Not me. I like the colourful ones and I know my father-in-law will appreciate the card because I made it and also the humour in it too. The monkey doing a bomb dive will get a smile, I'm sure of that.

PS. I'll have to make the envelope myself because it's an A5 card front and I don't have any that size. Might wrap it in wrapping paper even. Will decide on that later. Do you make big cards too?

Bits and pieces

Hi, remember this card? The one with the trim using the Fiskars scallop scissors? I've been wanting to show you the trim we were cutting originally to compare it with the ric rac looking one. Below is a photo of both of them (from my sample book). The red trim is the original where the scallops of the scissors get lined up to make a row of what looks like little balls I guess. And the orange trim is the ric rac one where the scallops get cut into so to speak. Hard to explain, but hopefully the picture helps!



Also wanted to show you some pages of my sample book so you have more of an idea of what's in it. Basically it's just bits and pieces stuck in there. It's not really meant to be organised or anything - I just put the sample where it fits in the book.



This is the inside front cover. Punching on the fold of your card (if your punch can handle it) makes a tab. They're the ones at the top glued over the page.



Here's the circle flowers that I like a lot and use a lot. I'm a big non-reinventer of the wheel. Use again and again, I say. Good use for ribbon scraps too. Should do that.



Stitching and paper piercing holes. You can use any shaped template, punch or die to prick holes around for a nice look. Leave just the holes, stitch through with thread or draw stitches with a matching pen. Lots of possibilities there. And a swing card. The white bit swings to the side to reveal a message underneath. Cute. And the green tab out the side is an actual tab punch. I like how it sticks out the side there. Could do that on a card too.



Thought I'd share this card using my favourite shape...circles. Actually it's not a card, it's just a design, but it could be a card. It would be a big one because the background is 6 x 12" so the bears are pretty big too. I used a circle cutter for the faces and my bigger punches for the other bits including the mouth. To make that I punched a smaller circle first then a bigger one around the negative of that circle to make a ring. I then cut a section of the ring to use as the mouth. There's Dimensional Magic on the noses and the heart to finish them off (makes them shiny).

Hope your week is going well. Loved seeing the sun out today, so nice.

Favourite quote...

Just had to add my favourite quote of the movie...sappy I know, but still gorgeous.

"I don't want diamond sunbursts or marble halls. I just want you..." Anne says to Gilbert on the bridge at the end of the sequel. Roll credits. Literally. It was the end of the movie...big sigh.

:o)

The answer

Hi, how are you this week?

Just remembered that I haven't told you where I was in the photo I put up on Saturday. I was on Prince Edward Island in Canada at Cape Tyron and above is Green Gables in Cavendish. It was a dream come true for me to go to PEI because I'd wanted to go ever since I saw Anne of Green Gables in the mid-eighties. And yes, it's my favourite movie!

"Oh, Marilla! I feel like I've been given the moon and I don't quite know what to do with it..."

"I'm in the depths of despair!"

And the apology to Rachel for calling her fat. SO funny. "All the things I said about you were true too, but I shouldn't have said them..."

Still makes me laugh after all this time. Should watch it again soon :o)

Have a wonderful day!

Brrr!

Hi, how's your weekend going? Today Andrew and I decided to venture out to the beach for some sun and ended up getting stuck in a lot of traffic (I'm talking for at least an hour) on the highway and then windblown on the beach. Phew, breeezzzyy! Saw a little sun in the end, but not enough. Is it just me, or has the sun been hiding this winter?

Bye for now!

PS. In the photo above I'm not in Australia. Can you guess where? Want a hint? Here it is.... AoGG.

PPS. In the photo above I am wearing the same jumper that I took today. How ironic.

PPPS. In the photo above I was freezing, like I was today. I was more freezing in the photo if that means anything. It doesn't.

PPPPS. The photo above is four years old. That makes my jumper four years old. I don't throw things out easily...

PPPPPSSSSSS. What is it about this blog that makes me want to rave on about completely inconsequential things? :o)

Bye now. I promise.

Mess?

You know you've got a lot going on when you have to go to the kitchen to cut something! Look at my desk - a mess! And the other table I use for extra space - full! And the computer desk? I've been making cards there today because all the other space was used up! And then I had to cut something and I found myself here...

...yes, that's right, out in the kitchen! Look at all that free working space...nice! I have to Cuttlebug some things soon so I'll probably find myself out there again. Oh well, who cares really? It's pretty funny.

I'll Cuttlebug and make tea at the same time since it's about time for that too. Just better watch I don't get any food on the cardstock cause that wouldn't be good. :o) It's all about the multi-tasking sometimes, isn't it?

That trimmer is a very good trimmer. It's from Tonic and I've had it a while now. So great because it's got both cms and inches (I use both) and it's solid.

Well, have a good night :o)

PS. Would you believe me if I said I'm a neat person? I am!

Life's a beach...but not here!

Okay, so it's summer in some parts of the world, but not here. Freezing weather recently and I've just gone and put another jumper on. Ah, fleece, what would we do without you?

So this card is absolutely not seasonal, but it's sunny, which is what the sun's trying to do today. It's trying to peek out of the clouds and send some warmth down (not working though). I was only just saying to Andrew last night that we're spoilt here in Queensland because if we don't see the sun for a few days we think something's wrong!

I made this card to try out the ric rac border made with decorative scallop scissors (Fiskars ones with mustard handles). I taught a class recently where we cut a trim for a party hat and one lady in the class cut it differently by accident and it ended up looking like ric rac. Gosh, my mum used to sew ric rac onto the dresses she made for me when I was five. Who knew it'd come back into fashion? And it's been back for a while too. And stayed.

So anyway, it was a great accident and I really wanted to come home and try it on a card. Turned out nice and want to use it again. I love finding little techniques like this that can jazz up a card easily. To keep track of them I stick them in a sample book so I can flick through it if I need a bit of an idea on a card. Works well although I don't really flick through the book much! I think putting ideas in there helps to put it in my mental filing system though, which is why I continue to do it so that's okay. :o)

Til next time, stay warm!

Happiness to us!

Well, hello cutie! You might think I'm talking the little birdy on the card, but I'm not. I'm talking to the recipient of the card and that would be my husband, Andrew. Hello darling. Does he read this you ask? Actually, no, but he'll be asked (ie. brought into the office and shown it on the computer) to have a look at it so we can smile at each other and hug and then go about our business. Ah, married life...
Okay, back to the card. It made it for him on the occasion (I like saying on the occasion) of our 14th wedding anniversary, which was a couple of weeks ago.
Thank you, Cherry Hill! (the paper and die cuts)
Thank you, Ducks in a Row! (the "I love you" bit)
Thank you, scallop punch from Fiskars!
Thanks for coming, thanks for being here and thanks for being invented!
Bye! (that's to you, and not the products by the way)
:o)

A really quick one...

Just a quick card for today. An easy way to use up all the scraps you have. Beware though, easy to punch, hard to line up! Adhere with foam tape and add glitter to finish. There you have it, a card for any occasion. Or any occasion you want to make up!

Have a great weekend!

Ice creams... and quirk number three.

Here's two very different ice cream cards I've made. Both using the Cuttlebug at some point too. The icing for the top one is hand cut. I just wiggle a line until it looks good and then make a pattern of it for future use. And I've used that pattern a lot. The Cuttlebugging is on the cone with the diamonds folder. I don't know the names of the embossing folders very well. I should learn them for times like this I guess. And label them too. Also for times like this.

The second card is a small Cuttlebug embossing folder that I ran through the machine three times in cream, orange and brown. Then I did a cut and paste of the relevant shapes and stuck them together. There's a bit of stickles on the dots on the background. Cute card that. And I like how the edges of the embossed pieces are raised a bit to give it some definition. Nice.

Thought of yet another scrapbooking quirk.

Ready? It's quite weird actually.

I don't like buying embellishments. Nup, I just don't.

Actually, I don't buy embellishments much at all. Mostly I'm okay with it because I don't need them, but sometimes I wish I had a few kicking around so I could actually put something interesting on my layouts or cards... I think it's because they're too expensive mostly. Ever seen something nice, turned it over to see the price and then had to pick yourself up off the floor? I got so tired of picking myself up off the floor of scrapping shops that I stopped looking at them altogether! Hey, we live on an island, and the shipping's expensive to get stuff here, but I'm not paying $9.50 for that.

Embellishments - ignore, ignore, ignore.

Buttons - buy red and yellow. I suppose they're embellishments, but in my brain they're just buttons and are listed separate.

Ribbon - buy because it's always good. Plain, polkas and stripes.

Patterned paper - look, look, look. Buy some.

October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket - buy, buy, buy (not the whole line of course. And the extras I don't like from the 8 x 8 pad get used somehow, even if it's just for note paper. Shocker I know, but I've got a bit of my grandma in me and can't throw it out).

Punches - look, look, look then buy, buy, buy. Or it starts with stalk, stalk, stalk then buy, buy, buy. But not all of them of course, because that would be ridiculous.

Tools - look, look, look. Buy some. Gotta love those tools.

Ah, the shopping habits of a crafter, gotta love it! :o)

Got any quirky habits of your own? You could do a page about it. You could. I can't because I don't scrapbook, remember?

Quirk number two

Here's another quirk.

It's quite shocking actually.

Here it is....

I don't scrapbook a lot.

There, I've said it. I don't scrapbook a lot. Actually the last time was in February. And it was the beginning of February, no less. I did 30 or so pages while on holidays with Andrew. I had a great time! I scrapped for hours each day! I loved it! And I haven't done it since... :o(

Am I worried about that? Nup.

Am I concerned about that? Hmm, sort of. Want to do those photos, you know.

Have I missed it? Yes and no.

What have I been doing instead? Avoiding Harvey Norman because I dislike the photo printing part of scrapping. I like HN, I just don't like having to go there.

What else have I been doing instead? Blogging, making cards, making up more cards, making a lot of cards, making up classes and making up cards. Oh, and I've been making cards.

Will I be scrapping soon? Actually, yes, thanks for asking. I have two specific scrapping events planned in the coming weeks. We shall see if I get to HN in the meantime. I mean, I will get to HN in the meantime.

Will I be making cards soon? Well, of course!

Do you like making cards? Yes

More than scrapbooking? Yes (how can you tell?)

Will things always be this way? No, probably not. But I'm just going with it because creativeness ebbs and flows and you've gotta go with both!

And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Night, night.

Well, it's morning, morning, but that sounds funny.

Morning, morning (see? Told you).

:o)