A couple of things

Hi, how's your weekend going?

Reckon it'll rain tomorrow? Hope so! Please, Mr Weather Man, we want to believe you, we really do.

A couple of things to share.

I posted this card earlier in the week - it's my World Card Making Day one. Click on it to see it larger if you like. Like, larger. You'll see the polka dot background better too. And the glitter on the blue stripes (they were pre-glittered).

I used American Crafts Butter embossing powder on the background and wanted to tell you that I saw quite a few AC embossing powders in Spotlight today. Yeah, I know, I got a bit of a surprise too. Never seen them before either.

They had Butter and Mustard (I used Mustard for the "hi") as well as Gold, Silver, other colours and some glitter ones. The powders weren't really in an American Crafts section or anything, they were on the end of an aisle facing into the middle aisle of the craft section.

Walk down the middle aisle of the craft section and scan the ends of the aisles on your left as you walk towards the back of the store. The embossing powders are at about knee height (ish!), and were 30% (or 20%) off today. Don't know their original price because there wasn't one listed unfortunately.

And Susan...hey, Susan! Remember you asked me where to find the pink polka dot stencil we used in the Polka Dots class and I didn't get back to you with an answer? Sorry about that, I remembered as I was driving home that day. Rats.

Here's my answer! Scan the right side as you walk down that middle aisle. The stencils are all pink (I think) so just look for a group of pink hanging stuff that's facing you as you walk down. You might have done this already! I looked and didn't see a polka dot stencil today. Maybe I got lucky?

Hey, look what I found! Thought you'd like to see. Cool, huh?

I posted a photo of Sarah with her reindeer card earlier in the week and then found it in the cupboard with another one. Yep, there's glitter. Knew it. And what a fun tree. It's a good Christmas card that type of thing. Make a tree out of any shape - hearts, santas, reindeers, presents, baubles, holly, teddies...anything Christmassy.

Love the different faces. You're so crafty, Sarah...

And on that point. It's interesting to see her create because it's obvious she's been hanging out with us creative girlies her whole life. We can see the skills she's picked up and just the general creativeness of it all. I firmly believe that the fostering of her creativity has aided her in other areas of learning. School isn't just about learning content, it's about learning the processes of learning, if that makes sense.

Or, school isn't just about learning content, it's about learning how to think.

Kids might say, "But when am I going to use algebra in real life?" Algebra isn't just about the answer, it's about the thinking process to get to the answer that's the biggest deal. They might not use actual algebra in real life, but they'll use the thinking patterns for algebra for sure.

I'm talking about thinking, comprehending, reading, understanding, thinking things through, being patient, working it out, working the process, following the formula, trial and error, comparing and contrasting, analysing the data, applying knowledge, using common sense, making a decision based on what's in front of you - stuff like that. And when do we use those things? All the time.

Algebra isn't silly, it's a brain stretcher.

Crafting isn't silly, it's a brain stretcher too. Oh, yeah.

And another note on Sarah's creative prowess?

Remember, she's 11.

She made her mother's layered birthday cake from scratch (a packet, but still), iced the thing and decorated it with stacks of strawberries and cream and called it a masterpiece. (She did! And it was!).

And made a whole afternoon tea spread as well.

And got us all cups of tea.

And made breakfast in bed for her mother that morning too.

All by herself!

Grandma was on occasional consultation duty from the other room with the cake, while her mother (my sister) was relegated away from the kitchen altogether. The only input Sue had was answering the, "Yellow, blue or pink?" question, which we found out later was the colour of the icing. So great.

It was nice cake too. And a nice cup 'o tea!

Good on you, Sarah. :o)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

He's grrreat.

Hi fellow crafters!

Are you looking forward to the weekend? Yep, me too.

A quick card for you today. What do you think of this guy? He's old...old as in I made him years ago. You know, I don't even know if I have that sun punch anymore.

There's two big sun punches for the mane, two smaller ones (trimmed) for the hair over the face, circles for the ears and head, and then a heart for the nose.

No sun? Could use a flower maybe? One with a lot of petals. I've done that.

As you can tell, I've added a piece of blue card to give the photo a bit of colour. Why not make the card with a blue base and then the cream layer inside that? Would look nice and bright.

Okay, have a grrreat weekend!

Stay tuned...

Hey, stay tuned for a new series I'm calling...actually, I don't know what I'm calling it. It's going to be a book walk through? A page by page look in the book?

Okay, that's it.

Look in the book.

"Punch Art Fun Book 1 - Look in the Book"

Coming soon!

The 27 dollar solution

Hello, how have you been this cool and windy Thursday?

Remember this photo?

Let me draw your attention to the orange mat.

Remember how much I didn't like the orange mat?

Oh, I really didn't like the orange mat!

It slid around.

It was orange.

It was very orange.

It was too small.

I kept rolling off it.

I had to lift my chair to get back on it.

It just wasn't working!

:o(

Well, troubles no more, because we've got a solution!

:o)

Here it is. It's a 27 dollar piece of MDF from Bunnings with an off-cut of our carpet stapled on it.

Took a bit of brainstorming (and wandering the aisles) but we figured it out. And guess what? No sanding or painting!

Thank you, Bunnings.

Thank you, Andrew.

Thank you, one and all!

Edited to add: Yep, I'm rolling around on carpet. Nope, it's not a problem. If it wasn't for the fact that I want to protect our carpet, I would've just rolled around on it as is. Solution works well!

Four little cards

Well, hello!

Some fun punch art flower cards for you today. These are the ones we made at Photo Continental on Saturday.

The top two use the sparkle side of the Bazzill bling. Makes it blingy for sure.

These bottom two use the other side of the bling. I love how rich the colours are.

Here's the list of supplies:

Cardstock - French Vanilla (card base) from Bazzill.

Bazzill bling - Diva, Feather Boa (pinks) and Bank Roll.

Embossing folders (top to bottom) - Cuttlebug Script, Sizzix Scrollmark, Cuttlebug Birds and Swirls, Cuttlebug Textile.

(The Sizzix Scrollmark is from Wedding Set #2)

Gold, Iridescent Gold or Pearl Glimmer Mist (on embossed background).

EK Success Daisy punch (the mega one).

Buttons from Spotlight.

And the finished card size is 10 x 10cm.

Hope you like!

And can you believe it? There's spits of rain coming out of the actual sky. And thunder. Thunder! Haven't heard rain on the roof and thunder for so long!

Gotta get the washing in!

Bye!

World Card Making Day

Hello!

Did you have a good World Card Making Day on Saturday? I was working like I said, but I managed to swing a bit of card making time around it.

I bought this cardstock stack at Big W a couple of weeks ago for $14.97. It's 8 x 8 and has 48 sheets. And some of them are glittered. I know! Good deal, alright.

Click here to see the papers in the range. Trust me, they look better in real life. The first twelve are the ones with glitter. It's a nice weight of paper too...good for card layers.

And click here to see all the other stacks they have. Not all of them were in Big W, but they had a good range. It's worth a look.

Anyway, Sue (sister), Sarah (niece) and I were in Big W (they came for a visit on the holidays) and they bought a stack of it too. We had 20 mins in the arvo and Sarah made two cards. She didn't have a card making day, she had a 20 minute "see what you can make" session. She had a blast, she said.

It was the glitter, I think.

First card she made.

When I pulled out all the coloured glitter, she was a happy girl. Good job for 8 minutes.

Second card.

Took her 5 mins because we all know making the same thing takes a lot less time the second time round.

8 and 5 = 13, the rest of the time was "What colour would you like?", "What punch would you like?" etc.

We've been crafting together for years.

Here she is a few years ago making some Christmas cards. She made a tree with holly leaves and reindeer on top. Nice. And there was probably glitter somewhere on it too.

Love this, so cute.

Always fun crafting with you, Sarah.

And here is my offering for World Card Making Day. I started to make this during our 20 minute session, but couldn't think straight! Just left it and finished it on Friday. Had my own card making session on WCMD eve...

All the papers are from the citrus stack and the flower is from the Cherry Hill elements from October Afternoon. See the whole Cherry Hill line here.

The blue/orange striped piece has glitter on it (on the blue lines). I also made the tag, stamped/embossed the word "hi" and added some polka dots on the background using Hero Arts Raindrop background stamp and some Butter embossing powder from American Crafts.

The colours worked well together, so I was happy. I like mixing and matching, but only when it's not too hard. Can't be bothered thinking too much when I'm card making!

Oh yes, and the punch at the bottom is the Martha Stewart loopy one. Very cool, hey? Photo Continental is selling Martha, and so is Blue Bazaar. At the moment the line is selling fast because it's new. PC also have some of the medium-sized ones. Saw them on Saturday.

Okay, must go!

Hello, October Afternoon!

And how fitting because it's October, and it's the afternoon.

Remember I showed you the new stuff coming out soon? They didn't have images available for the elements sheets back then, but they do now!

How gorgeous!

Actually, they're calling them shape stickers. I've got the ones from the Cherry Hill line and they aren't adhesive-backed. These must be, which will be an added bonus. Peel and stick. Nice.

Check out the rest of the Farm Fresh line here. And the rest of the Report Card line here. There's letter stickers, journalling block stickers, rubber charms....have a look.

You know, it's not like I'm devoid of fun paper products to use. I have plenty of cool papers here at home and even thought to myself the other day that maybe I shouldn't get the new OA line...I mean, really, how much paper do I need?

Then I saw this stuff again.

Then I flicked the "not getting it" idea.

Really flicked it.

:o)

And finally - the punch drawers...

Hello everyone.

Well, here are my punch drawers. Or punch storage options.

Let's take a look, shall we?

This first set of drawers is near the door. I bought these in a homewares type shop years ago. I love that the drawers are the same size and that the bigger punches fit in them. Works well.

The drawers are yet to be labelled with the new tenants...

This is my favourite set of drawers. Bought them many years ago (probably 10) from a specialist gift shop for about $220. I've never seen a set of drawers like them since, even in the same shop.

Gosh, they've been fab. The Carl punches fit perfectly in them - so great. All the drawers are labelled - Flowers, Animals etc. Sometimes the punches get jumbled up and find their way into the wrong drawers, but it works well.

Those punches on top of the drawers always stay there. Circles and squares. I don't put them away as they just come back out again.

This is the set opposite to the one above. Top drawer is stationery, while the others are for punches. Big circles, squares, rectangles and ovals are kept here. Geometrics always need to be within easy reach. Particularly the circles.

Previous to the "move 'em on out" I did recently, most of these punches were housed on my desk somewhere. It's good to have them away. I'm liking it.

Here's the end of the pigeon holes that my previous pigeon hole photo missed. Yep, those big ones need some big space of their own!

And here are the drawers in the scrapbook trolley. Top drawer holds lots of different types of punches - one off ones, EK Success ones etc. This is the bits and bobs punch drawer.

And the bottom drawer holds my EK Success Punchkins punches. Heard of them? They came out probably about 7 years ago, but are discontinued now. There's a body punch and lots of others to dress the body. Hair, clothes, shoes - things like that. And some accessories like sunglasses and hair bows. Plus a campfire, tree, sun, tent etc. I don't get to use them much, but they're a lot of fun when I do.

So, they're my punch drawers.

I do keep some punches in the cupboard just outside my room. And I've been told I'm not allowed to encroach any further into the house...

Kinda reminds me of sharing my room with my sister. We didn't go so far as to actually draw a line down the middle of the room, but we wanted to!

:o)

World Card Making Day

Remember it's World Card Making Day tomorrow!

Make a card!

Enjoy!

(I'm not yelling or anything, I'm just lovin' the craft!) :o)

Punches first

Okay, so I was going to show you my punch drawers, but wanted to show you these first.

Whoa! Are you alright??

Gosh, I'll wait for you to get back on the chair....

Are you back?

Comfy?

Okay, wow, didn't know that was going to happen! Hopefully you landed on some carpet...

Yep, these are my punches. Yep, there's quite a few. Nope, I didn't buy them all. No chance.

Yep, here's some more. Yep, there's a lot here too. Nope, don't have all of these still. Had to move some out because I wasn't using them.

This is the same table as above. I think I counted all these punches at the time and there was about 400 and something? No, that's wrong. I said I had 471 in my first book... Okay, I think this was about 600 and something. Yep, that sounds about right.

You know, I wrote the number down.

Unfortunately though, I chucked the piece of paper out recently when I went through the filing cabinet.

I know! Can you believe that? It always happens.

Another reason I chucked the piece of paper? I knew the number was wrong...

It's gone up, and I don't know if I want to know by how much. Know what I mean?

I've sold some, I've bought some.

Maybe I've come out even.

Probably not.

Pigeon holes

Hi!

Last week I showed you the pigeon holes in my room, and mentioned I'd talk to you about them later.

Now is later, so let's talk.

If you want to, that is.

(Good thing about the web. Delete button)

So, these are my pigeon holes. They've been used for many different things in my room over the years, but currently this is what they're storing.

Starting at top left and going down in columns.

Cuttlebug stuff.
Bags for punch pieces for classes.
Bags again.

Next row - Cuttlebug stuff, Sizzix dies, Nestabilities. I put the Cuttlebug on top of the pigeon holes to use it.
Punch mates.
Tools - Crop-o-dile, Corner Chomper, hammer etc.

Bits and pieces - brads, eyelets, trimmer, foam, circle template, stamp scrubber.
Glitter.
Tapes.

Ribbon spools.
Bits of ribbon.
Paper templates I've made.

There's another row missing, you can just see a bit of it at the bottom. There's punches in that row - ie. the big ones that don't fit in any drawers in my room.

And that's my pigeon holes and what's in them.

Working well for the moment. Phew.

Stay tuned for the punch drawers!

World Card Making Day

Hey, did you know it's World Card Making Day this Saturday?
Any plans?
I'm at Photo Continental for the morning doing a make-and-take. Maybe you could pop up and say hello. :o)
Try to carve out some time for yourself on the day because it's the only day of the year that you can say, "But I have to do this now, it's World Card Making Day!"
Click here to read more about the day if you like. It was started to get a jump start on making Christmas cards. A jump start? I know some of you are probably already finished!
Enjoy the day, whatever you do.
:o)

Another butterfly...

Hey, another butterfly for you today.

Can't go wrong with a butterfly, now can you?

I've used two layers of butterflies and added glitter to the middles of the flowers on the top one.

All of the papers are Cosmo Cricket - Girl Friday. Except the butterfly, that's from October Afternoon's Cherry Hill line (the paper called Recipe Box). Hey, mixing and matching is a good thing!

What do you think? Do you mix and match too?

I love this photo. Bright and pretty and just nice. A lot of people don't like to use too many colours at once, but I'm happiest when I've included them all on the one card.

Red

Blue

Green

and

Yellow

then

Pink

and

Orange

with

Cream as a base!

What's your favourite colour combo? Are you a minimalist, or do you like 'em all like me?

Just wanted to add...

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to add that I'll be posting some more punch art soon.

I realise it's been a little light-on lately.

Actually, the issue is lights, if we're going to mention lights. Lights and light. I need more light in my photos.

We're working on it!

Still got other things planned in the meantime, the aftertime, and the in-between time, so stick around!

Bye now.

:o)