Rabbit card, I lied and Glaze pens v Dimensional Magic!

Hey there, 

A few things to talk about and share today. 

Firstly, this card - an Easter one I did recently. I've made quite a lot of things for Easter and they're on the table over at Photo Continental if you'd like to have a look. 

Mum just missed the new display by about half an hour last week. Or I missed Mum by half an hour! 

Here's the die I used for the cream layer on the card. Note the yellow graphic down the bottom that shows exactly what die cuts you get with the die. So fab. They never used to do this and it was hard to tell what the die actually was sometimes...so glad they've added it.

It's a mini book type die, but I rarely use them for things like that. I've made an actual card using it so far. Still haven't used the other bits yet - there's a label type shape, an oval and a ticket one on it too.

Pretty good.

Here's the punch that I used for the thought bubble for the rabbit, it's the Photo Captions one. A goodie that one.

I love this punch - so great. Speaking bubbles and punch art up the cute factor significantly.

And good news - all punches are 25% off for the month of April at PC! Wow, a great deal.

Okay onto the next part of this post - the part where I lied.

Note the rabbit ears.

Sullivans makes this punch. It only comes in orange, green and blue, or so I thought.

During class on Saturday I told the ladies that the punch comes in the three sizes above, but not in yellow. Orange is small, green is medium, yellow is large and blue is extra large, so you see, a size was missing.

When I needed a large ear recently, I cut the extra large one down to the size I wanted. We didn't have to do that in class, but still, I was just esplain'n the situation to the girls.

So I told 'em there was no yellow fish. And there wasn't - I knew that for a fact.

But there is now!

I went over to PC last Thursday and look what I found...ah yes, a yellow fish and now all the necessary sizes exist. The girls probably saw it hanging up when they went shopping and wondered why I fibbed to them :o)

Righto, now we've cleared that up, onto Glaze pens vs Dimensional Magic.

Just wanted to show the difference in shine that these two add. The Glaze comes in pen form and the DM comes in a bottle and is quite runny. I use both all the time, but for this post I just wanted to show you the difference on the rabbit's nose.

Okay, so here's the bunny's nose with clear Glaze pen on it.

There's shine there, but you can't see it well.

It's also quite flat. The shine, not the nose.

Here's the Dimensional Magic.

Remember, the DM is runny and it comes out pretty fast, particularly when the bottle is full.

I always up-end it on some scrap paper first because there's usually an air bubble that needs to come out, and then I keep it up-ended, and move it above the bit I want to gloss and then apply it carefully.

Sometimes I just put a blob there and use a tool (anything) to move it around and get it to the edges.

Here's the result.

A lot more glossy and fab, don't you reckon?

Now, like I said, I love the Glaze pen and use it all the time, but on the really small little things like pink hearts.   I've got a lot more Easter things to show you over the coming weeks (unless you go to PC and see them first!) and you'll see a lot of pink hearts with clear Glaze on them. It's the way things rolled out this time.

Okay then, blogo-teers, have a great day!

:o)

Revamp, redo, repeat or recycle - part 3

Hi, 

Me again. 

No surprise there! 

Talking about Santa and the inspiration he gave me to make a similar card. 

Another revamp, if you will. 

Again, no single word like ho ho ho, but grass instead. I did think of hop hop hop, but I didn't have a stamp.

Could've written it in white pen, I suppose. Great idea after the whole card's made.

Here he is again.

In the grass this time.

The green shred is from Spotlight, as are the eggs. I love Spotlight and find some great stuff down there. The bags (of shred) were only a couple of dollars (got 'em on special too) and they have a tonne in them.

More of that loopy grass I love so much. So fun to hide the eggs in it.

And the eggs are Sullivans balloons with the rubbery knotty bit trimmed. They don't have egg punches. Rats to that.

And the kicker that binds the two cards?

The shiny nose that's mounted with foam tape. Mounting with foam tape kicks a goal.

Dimensional Magic - it's a staple in this crafting kitchen for it's shiny adding abilities, and for it's 'I'm great for sticking buttons down' abilities too. Winner winner chicken dinner!

So remember, want to make a card?

Revamp, redo, repeat or recycle something you've already made!

Revamp, redo, repeat or recycle - part 2

Hi there,

A week or so ago, I talked about revamping, redoing, repeating or recycling something you've already made into something new.

I talked about it because it's hard to slip into the creative mode sometimes.

When we create we don't have to originate! Ha ha, that's my new saying. It's a goodie, sometimes I just want to create, not necessarily create anything new. You know the deal, right?

Well, I took my own advice and did a bit of recycling recently.

You may remember this card I posted around Christmas.

Remember him?

Cuuute!

And oh so simple - never oh so simple the first time, but oh so simple to re-create the ten times after.

I rarely do that - you know, make ten of the same good card, but I should. I mean, we're talking about making and not thinking, and that's making and not thinking to a T.

Ah, my favourite part of this guy is his nose. His shiny nose. Just makes him, well...shine, really.

My other fav bit is the scallop heart beard because I never thought I'd use a scallop heart. Just thought they were dodge really and never saw any use for them.

In enters the scallop heart at Christmas as another beard option and it didn't leave my desk until after Valentine's Day. Used it to make lots of hearty lollypops and bunting and hanging things.

I love disregarding a punch and then finding it's oh so cool. There's something oh so cool about that.

Okay, onto the ravamp, redo, repeat or recycle concept.

Let's call this one a revamp.

Scroll up (did you? Back to the Santa?) - yep, same card base with a character type thing going on.

I couldn't really think of a word to repeat for the chick, so I went with a speech bubble instead. Worked.

The key with the four Rs is to start with a concept and then see where it takes you.

Art never works when you try to push into a box. It just doesn't. I've tried it and I'm never happy with what I do.

So, chick got a speech bubble and some grass. I've done the Easter display for Photo Continental and this grass is on everything.

Chicks, rabbits, eggs and grass...they're the theme. And bunting. It's still a theme. And the bright colours. Another theme. And no red. The last theme. And cards that warm my heart because I love 'em so much because of the characters, bunting and bright colours. Yep, theme.

The grass is Martha's Ribbon Loop combo set (corner and border) - PC had a few sets last week when I was there. Totally cool and it needs a mow :o) Just like 'round here.

Hello, chickie.

Yes, you.

Welcome back to some cards.

We haven't seen you for while, have we? Glad you're back though, you're my favourite, but don't tell the bunny that.

The speaking bubble punch is an EK Success one called Photo Captions. It's got three different sized speaking bubbles on it. Perfect to go with punch art and have been dying to use it for ages. Used it here too.

Actually this one looks more like the chick card I ended up with!

I think I used them both as inspiration now that I think about it.

I did - I remember now - I thought three eggs floating around the place would look silly, so I put them in some grass instead. There you go, go with the flow and go with what the current card needs.

And also yak on about using one card as inspiration when in fact you used another!

Good one, Debra.

Here are the said eggs.

Easter hunts require hidden eggs, not floating eggs, so grass (and a little flower to finish), was the order of the day.

Speaking of cooking speak, have you heard of Heston Blementhal? He's an amazing British chef and a new show started last Thursday night. He took on aeroplane food - amazing. You can catch the episode online if you missed it. We missed the last 10 mins and I caught up there.

I've seen some of his feasts...another show of his on SBS...Heston's Feasts (or something like that). The last one I saw was a seaside/fishy type one and what he did was incredible.


The guy's a genius.

So, hope you liked the chickie card. I do. I should, I made it :o) Will be back soon with another Easter card based on the four Rs!

A Scrap Quiz - What's your favourite colour combo?

Hey there and hello to you!

Welcome back to the Scrap Quiz I'm asking myself! Sounds silly, but I kinda am if you think about it. Lucky that you're reading it, otherwise it'd really defeat the purpose. Who wants to ask themselves totally riveting questions about papercrafting and have no one read the answers??

Moving onto today's question - "What's your favourite colour combo?"

Well, it's this....

...cream with all colours.

You've seen this card just recently, so please excuse that, but it's a good example of what I love.

Cream base - oh man, the cream base - with red, blue, green and yellow plus pink and orange.

I love red, blue, green and yellow together.

I loooove red, blue, green and yellow plus pink and orange. Yes, I really love that combo.

But more than that though....I love this....

That is....I looooooooooooooooove red, blue, green and yellow plus pink and orange plus purple plus a couple of different shades of one or more of those colours!!

Here, let me explain.

Cream base - tick.

Red, blue, green and yellow - tick. Okay, that's not true, there's no red on this card (I only just noticed!). There's a dark pink though (the middle flag), so we're counting that as the red. The small egg on the left looks red, but it's dark pink. I don't use red on Easter cards and that's pretty much a rule.

Pink and orange - tick.

Purple - tick. Only a bit though, can't go overboard on purple.

A couple of different shades of one or more of those colours - tick. There's two shades of green and three shades of pink.

And the kicker with this card is that it has a bit of white, baby yellow (face) and brown too. Adds a bit of richness and depth (I've been watching My Kitchen Rules). If you scroll back up to the top card, and then back to the Easter card, you'll see what I mean. Adding the different colours, and a couple of shades of them, adds so much more to the card.

Colour is the kicker, really, it is. You can have a great design, but if the colours are off, it's a car wreck. Or a card wreck. And we don't want those.

When I was writing my books, I drew a lot of sketches of the cards etc I wanted to make, particularly for Book 3. I remember being able to visualise the designs, but being stuck on the colour balance/combo more than once.

I particularly remember the pram I was making for Book 2 - it's in the baby section. I had the sketch in front of me and knew how I was going to make it. Got stumped on the colours though. It was with the wheels for some reason. I remember thinking, "I know there's a solution to this!" - there always is with these things. I also remember walking away from it because it just wasn't working at the time. I worked it out eventually, because obviously it made it into the book, but it took some time.

There's always a solution to these things in papercrafting, but it usually takes time (or distance) to figure them out.

Another quick example. I was making something just last week and I liked the green grass under the chick, but the card wasn't going where I wanted it to. You know what I mean by going? It wasn't kicking it.

I left it and came back hours later. As soon as I caught sight of the card as I was sitting back down at my desk, the answer hit me right between the eyes - literally, because it was a visual thing. Oh, I've gotta make it in other colours! I did and it worked and get this, the whole thing is different to how I was going to make it in the first place.

Happen to you too?

So, in summary, my favourite colour combo is 'cream with all colours including a couple of those in different shades'. 

Rather lengthy and specific colour combo, isn't it?

Feel free to share yours!

:o)

A Scrap Quiz - What's on my scrap desk right now?

Well, let's see!

What is on my scrap desk? 

Tickets I made with Papertrey Ink's 'Just the Ticket' stamps. 

So fun. 

The die is hiding behind there too. I've used a few on pages already. Go me. 

ATG.

(I got mine here)

I love this thing. 

Makes sticking everything down so much easier. 

Problem is, it's so fun to use that I can tend to get sticky tape happy and use way much more than I need to! Pull it back, Debra, pull it back. 

Note the little ticket in the page protector. Nice.  

Photos.

Always photos. 

I think this answers where I get my photos developed, but I have more to say about that later.

And Kilometrico pens. They rock. If I can't find one in within 10 secs in the house (as if) I will go and buy another 10 pack. Yep, 10 at a time. 

A layout of the fellas fixing the car downstairs. 

We (mostly me) love red accents in this house and I just noticed all the red accents in the layout above. My red shoes, the red cupboard, the red head rest on the roller thing, the red tool box - so funny. They're (except for my shoes) red accents for men! 

And Cody's ball is red and green too! Good for seeing in the grass. 

Maybe the red accents thing should be part of the story for the page :o)

What else is on my scrap desk?

New scissors I bought at Woolies. 

Mum had some small scissors with long, thin blades and I immediately got tool envy and decided I needed some too. 

Then whammo, I saw them while grocery shopping and chucked them in my trolley with nary a hesitation.

Nice.

And only 5 bucks. 

Another layout.

This is the left side - the other was the right side. 

My glue of choice. 

Bought it in Big W, but they don't seem to carry it anymore. Pity, it was about $8.70 or something like that. Officeworks has it for about 10 bucks and we found it online somewhere too. 

Nice to have options, but it's not like I don't have enough glue to use here in the meantime. Glue is something I seem to amass a lot of. You?

A not-so-glamorous, but very functional, rubbish bin. 

Got it at IKEA years ago for 5 bucks. It's good because it's thin, but long.

It's the best bin I've used! 

Bits and pieces on the extra table space (that was supposed to only be there for the summer...hmmm). 

Cuttlebug. Love it. 

Another container that has my thin dies in it - and some scissors. They don't usually live there. 

Pile of photos to scrap with other bits. 

One of my favourite Tonic knives. 

Huge photo of my living room - 6 x 8 and a quote from Becky Higgins that says "Who said life had to be exciting to take photos and document stories?" 

Reason I took the photo - I walked into my living room one day and got a huge blast of a cold air, and a memory. Ah, this is summer, I thought. Air con on, Christmas decorations up, ironing to do, Christmas presents to buy and wrap, scrapping happening - you know, and I wanted to document it.

Reason I got it enlarged - Because I know myself well enough to know that I'll want that sucker nice and big in the future, so I can pour over it. Also see paragraph below.

Mum has a photo of Dad as a 17 (or so) year old sitting on the couch in his childhood lounge room with Uncle Frank and Pappa nearby and Granny on the piano. It's staged, but it captures their life at the time. It's fun to see what they are wearing and doing. Also to see the room and how a lot of things did/didn't change over the years.

Hello? Reason behind big living room photos! And because we live in our living room the most, it changes all the time, which is the point. To see the progression and see how things change, or stay the same.

Click, click, I say.

(I've taken two more photos of our living room since - have a total of three now. Really like 'em).

One last thing on my desk (besides the pink mat and the light) - a cute cupcake ticket. 

Made it the other day and threw it on here to put on a page sometime. 

That's it, that's what's on my scrap desk right now. 

Wait, I forgot something. 

I forgot my Tonic guillotine trimmer. 

You can see it under the layout there. It's long and thin - perfect for my scrapping needs. I wanted something to cut 12 x 12 strips with, but I didn't want a wide base on it. This was the perfect solution and it has an extender arm if I need it. I rarely pull it out - I just guess if I'm going above 6 inches. 

You know when you buy something and it turns out so great that you pat yourself on the back every time you use it? That's what this trimmer is to me. 

Pat-o-back worthy. 

And so's our Panasonic DMC-TZ5 camera. It's a compact and it's fab. It's an older model now (was when we bought it - you know, not the newest one out), but I'd buy another in a second. 

That's all for today - bye now!

I've cleared my plate...

Hi there,

How are you today?

Just wanted to post an update about my classes. Due to a lot of things, I'm not teaching classes right now. For this teacher at heart, it's a pretty big deal.

The amount of planning and the preparation are why really. I've been doing this for about 9 years now, and golly, I've taught a lot of things over the years. As is usual with teaching of any sort, there's a lot of planning and preparation involved before the good bit of teaching comes. Unfortunately it's just not doable right now, so I've had to let it go.

I'm not saying what my plans are with teaching (even to myself), I'm just pulling back and waiting and seeing at the moment. It's kinda how I need it to be. I need a rest, which sums it up pretty much.

I am still with Photo Continental doing the table displays, shows and things like that, which is good. I will miss teaching. I love it. Thanks to all of you who have supported me over the years, you've made it so fun.

:o)

A Scrap Quiz

Hey there,

(This is not me. It's from a catalogue I found at my grandma's house)

Coming up on the old blogo is a series of questions I thought I'd answer in relation to scrapping and crafting.

It's just for fun and I thought you might like a peek into my crafting spaces, thoughts and processes.

I know I love to see what other people do and how they think. It's interesting and it's all part of the sharing and caring that comes with this craft.

To put it simply...

(From GCD Studios - Homespun Chic)

...so I thought I'd answer some questions in relation to that.

The questions I'll be tackling....

1. What's on your scrap desk right now?

2. What's your favourite colour combo?

3. What kinds of photos do you love to take?

You know, questions like that.

And questions like these...

4. Where do you get your photos developed?

5. Where do you scrap?

6. What's your scrapping process?

7. What's the motivation behind your crafting that pushes you to do what you do?

8. Where do you get your inspiration? 

9. Where do you store your albums?

10. How has your scrapping changed over the years?

A lot!

11. What do you like to scrap the most?

12. What's on your craft desk right now? (Different to my scrap desk).

13. How do you store your Nestabilities?

In a much better way than I did before.  

14. What are your favourite crafting tools? 

I think we know this one. 

15. What projects are you working on right now?

16. (Space reserved for another question if I think of one)

Okay, that's the quick overview for now. The questions might change (probably not) and they'll be spread over a few posts. We'll see what happens and just go with the flow. Like craft, writing is inspiration based, so I'll just go with it.

16. I thought of number 16. Where do you buy your scrapping and crafting stuff? 

Told ya, go with the flow and the thoughts that strike.

Til later...

:o)

Don't you love the internet?

I do.

I love it.

I love that it can answer a lot of my questions and recently I had a burning question that just had to be answered.

It was a Sunday afternoon and I was reading an old copy of Simple Scrapbooks magazine from April 2009. One of their last ones.

Anyway, I got to this layout...

Here, look more closely...

Journalling reads, "After your stunning performance on the way from Denver to Cleveland and back again, the next time I am willing to take you on an airplane will be the year 2018 (and quite frankly, maybe not then either). I'm not really kidding. April 2006."

I'm like, "What did she do?" I remember saying the same thing back in 2009 too.

You can see below that the story lives behind the photo on the layout, but it's like a teaser, we can't read it!

Right, I thought, time to get on the internet and find out! I found Elizabeth through Write.Click.Scrapbook, which I knew she was a part of, and emailed her about it.

She was very gracious and linked me over to her blog where she recorded the story in 2006. I told her in my return email that she'd been blogging a long time and that I didn't think I was even reading blogs in 2006, let alone writing one. And of course I said thanks for answering my question. 

So, do you want to know what Gracie's stunning performance was?

Click here to read the story. 

Thanks, Elizabeth. Thanks for putting this issue to rest for me and for giving me permission to share this story.

She was also pleased to report this -----> Gracie is almost 6.5 now, and successfully took a marvelous, uneventful trip by airplane to Ohio with Matt last April. They made it back without incident : )  

Good for you, Gracie!

Mum's craft room

Hey there again,

Posting pics of Mum's craft room for you today.

Recently Mum said she was going to her craft room and Pete (who was visiting) said, "Going to your shed are you, Mum?"

Um, yep!

She uses a spare bedroom in their house as her shed. I actually wrote Punch Art Fun book 2 in this room. Not sure how I did it.

Like I mentioned previously, Dad made the hutch for her and it's been a winner from the beginning.

These pics were taken a while ago and I know Mum wants to get in there and go through all the stuff again and purge. I think she's feeling a need to purge.

You know how it is when you craft and use your space and after a while it just gets out of hand and every time you walk in you feel a bit stressed, disorganised and/or frustrated by the mess?

Yep, the usual signs of needing a 'move it on out' as I call it.

In fact, I've just done another one on my own craft desk. Moved stuff off my desk - that was the main priority. Feels good.

See the blue and black tote at the side there? She bought a lazy susan for it and the whole thing spins now. So great. I can see all her punches down the bottom there in the drawers. Oh, and a bear hiding under there. That sounds like a song...

Lots of paper lined up in the boxes to the side. Looks very clean and organised, doesn't it?

Wonder how it looks now, like, right now, at this exact moment? What's the bet it's not this clean? Usually means some crafty fun is going on!

And to finish. This is the other side of her room. The old trusty sewing machine and overlocker. I think an overlocker does that criss cross on the edge of your fabric or something so it doesn't fray, but all I know is, Mum thought it was the best thing ever when she bought it and whipped up so many things in a fraction of the time. She loved it. Do you use it for quilting too, Mum? Or was that what it was for in the first place?

That big fabric bag (that she made) holds her quilting mats and such. And can you see her sewing bag on top of the shelf? Cute. Yay, we match.

Well, there you go. We've reached the end of the posts dedicated to my creative mother, but I guarantee my mother hasn't reached the end of her creativity!

And one last thing.

What I find interesting, and I've only just noticed this, she's a fab sewer and a fab papercrafter, but I don't think she's ever combined the two. Have you sewed on a scrapbook page, Mum?

Righto, folks, bye now!

See you soon for another series I'm calling, A Scrap Quiz!

Revamp, redo, repeat or recycle

Hi there,

Just posting this quick and simple card today. Gotta ease into the new week, right?

This is a little card - a 7 x 7 cm front. Something like that.

My thought about this type of card is that it can be used as a default.

You know how you want to make something, but every time you sit down at your desk you try to make something new?

Why do that? (Talking to myself here!)

Why not revamp, redo, repeat or recycle something you've done before?

Would take the stress out of it and let you ease into your creative session, right?

Whaddya think?

I'm thinking I might take my own advice and do it next time!