A fun card...

Hello there blogging friends,

Can't believe the difference in the weather from the weekend to today (and yesterday especially). Went from 36c to 23c during the day. Phew and phew. What's the weather like in your neck of the woods?

Speaking of woods, there are some woods on this here card.

I made this one last year for my brother for his birthday. I got the idea from a card I saw on the front of a magazine quite a while ago. All I remember is that it had a house and a tree and I liked it.

Decided I wanted a house and a tree on my card too. And the fun part was choosing all the patterned papers for the bits and pieces. It's a good way to use up your scraps, but beware usually these cards are one-of-a-kind because you can't count on your scraps to go the distance and stretch out to two or more cards.

If I make a card I like, I sometimes make another for myself. I guess I see it as enjoying the process twice. Or I just make two at once. Am I the only one that does that?

The card is A5 by the way. Wanted to make a big one, so I could fit all the bits on there.

Point to note too: (and I'm sure I've said this before, but I'll repeat it for good measure) Man cards do not have to be brown, blue and burgundy all the time. If you like brights, make it bright. Trust me, they'll like it and my brother said it was one of the best cards I've ever made.

Nice of him, hey? I agree, it's one of my very favourites.

My desk is a mess...again. Better go clean it up!

Punch Art Fun 1 - Look in the Book - page 18

Hello!

Sorry I didn't get to post yesterday. Was at Photo Continental all day doing stuff for my class this weekend.

Good news though, those new EK Success border punches I linked you to last week are over there. A couple of them are now over here. Yeah.

Here are the edgers - at the EK site. My favourites are the Open Scallop and the Donut chain. Open Scallop is an edger, Donut chain is a paper ribbon punch (that's my lingo to explain how it works).

The paper ribbon ones don't punch out an edge on your paper, they cut a complete piece that breaks away from the edge of your paper that you use separately. I call it paper ribbon. I've seen some companies bring out paper ribbon before, but not in punch form.

It's a great idea. Maybe Martha started it with the deep edger Doily Lace trim (the handle below) and the others jumped on the band wagon. Maybe it was the other way round. Doesn't matter, it's just good.

So, what'd you think of the punches? Got any fast favourites?

Okay, moving on to Look in the Book day. We're on page 18, if you'd like to turn there.

It's the opposite page to the koalas and kangaroos from last time and features our native floral emblem, the Golden Wattle.

Andrew and I must be very Australian because we have a Golden Wattle in our yard. It's quite fabulous when it flowers - yellow is my favourite colour I've just remembered, so it's fitting.

What's not so fabulous is having your wheelie bin underneath the tree when the flowers drop.

Then less fabulous again is rain because then all you get is flower mush. Wait, rain = good. Flower mush = bad.

Summary = find new place for wheelie bin when tree is in flower. Or clean bin. Or leave it and deal with mush.

Here's my version of a wattle branch. Honestly, they're gorgeous in full bloom as most trees are. Gotta love that about trees.

Just for interest - Here's a link to a page of photos of some Australian flora, including the Bottlebrush we talked about last week too.

I like this page too - it has a really good photo of the wattle. And that really good photo pointed out that my punch art leaves are completely wrong for the wattle tree. Oh well, I'm an artist, not a botanist. I did check pics of things when I was making them, but don't know what happened there :o) The wattle is on our emblem too - nice one.

Okay, see you soon!

I found these on my camera...

Hey there,

My, it be warm today...what's up with that? It's April, and April means cool, well, at least it should.

Remember this punch? The legendary McGill one?


Remember this Easter bunting?

I used the idea again to make a card for my little nephew. Found it on the camera and thought you might like to see.

He turned two, thus the two cupcakes and two balloons. And that's him the middle, of course. He's way cuter in real life.

Kept it pretty simple for him because let's face it, he's a boy and he's two and he could really skip the card, but I'm a card maker, so he gets a card. And I get a kiss! I love the kiss.

Don't you love little kids? I do. Always have.

Pull! Pull! His parents were calling when it was time to open the present. And pull he did to see the things inside. So fun watching him blow his candles out too. We always light them multiple times at family dos.

And this was on the camera too. I realise it's after Easter, but we crafters can never be too prepared, can we?

I did suggest using refillable eggs at Easter time and I did just that this year. Found these at Spotlight - 6 for $2 (bought two sets). I got 20% off too, so they were cheep! Ha ha.

Made one for everyone and filled them with choc eggs. Josiah is our newest nephew - he's just under three months old, so no chocs for him this year. He had to have an egg in the basket, so I put a note in there for him instead. I realise he can't read, but that's not the point.

Didn't make myself an egg, that was a bit silly. I nicked a few chocs while I was filling the eggs, so I didn't miss out. Jack (he's 8) hid the eggs and each family member had to find theirs. I hid his for him - twice, actually. Was fun.

(The bowl is just a plastic one and the strawy stuff was packaging in a parcel I got recently. Knew I'd use it sometime)

Well, you enjoy your weekend now, won't you?

Have a good one!

:o)

A quick card share...

Hello there to you today!

Thought I'd share this card today because of the colour combo. It's still my favourite - cream with all colours. Same for my house too!

What's your favourite colour combo? Does it match your house decor?

Do you know Stephanie Howell? She's a US girlie with a soldier husband and two little chicks as she calls them. I love her scrapbooking style - she's just very natural, inspiring, real and cool. You can check out her blog here.

She showed some photos from around her house recently (under April 6) and when I saw them I thought, "Her house looks like her scrap pages!"

All I'm saying is we are who we are and it's depicted in what we create. Makes sense, right? Obvious, right?

Stephanie's pages are a mix of bits and pieces and fun and her. Her house is the same. I love seeing people live out their style.

I say that because I had no idea of my own personal style when we built this house. I got some big parts right - like the bricks and roof and the colour of the walls (phew, lucky), but I got some major parts wrong like brown curtains in my room here (brown!!) and a hunter green kitchen bench that I have to look at each day (one day I'm going to change that sucker).

My point? Stephanie knows who she is and what she likes.

My other point? I didn't back then, but I know now. Big phew.

So, that card above? It's me. It's not every part of me, but it's a part of me. I like the cream background, the little punch art bits and all the colours on it.

What about this? Stacy Julian suggested this once and I think it's a good idea. Go through your layouts (for her) and cards (for me and you) and pick your ten favourites. Put them in front of you and have a look. What do you like about them? What draws you to them?

Think about them for a bit, write them down if you want, but definitely identify them in some way. Those things you pick out are who you are. They are your style.

There's been a bit of talk over the last few years (not so much recently) about your style as a crafter and all that. Knowing for the sake of knowing, maybe? I want to know for a different reason and that's to save money. If you know who you are and what you like, you'll save money!

Hands up if you've bought crafting product you've never used?

Hands up if you've bought something just because you wanted to, not because you knew you'd use it?

Hands up if you've had buyer's remorse not just with craft products, but with anything?

Why is that? Why do we buy stuff like that sometimes? I'd love to go back and relive some of those moments and not buy some things so I could save that money. I'd also do the opposite and buy a couple more of a few favourite things along the way too!

My reiterated point? Know your style - what you like and what you don't - and you'll save yourself money. Pretty good reason to know a bit about yourself, don't you reckon?

Just wish I knew that when I was picking the colour of my kitchen bench....live and learn, I say, live and learn...

And to finish today...here's another card that is my style right now. Very different from the one above, but still, it's me.

Go on, look around your room and choose your favourites. It's fun, and if nothing else, you'll get to enjoy them all over again!

Thanks for sticking with me today...was just going to share a card in the beginning. That's how I work this here blog. Choose a project to share and see where it takes me - it's usually as much of a surprise to me as it is to you. Just going with my blogo style :o)

Okay, have a great day!

New punches and a video

(Scallop hearts border is Martha)

Hi there,

How are you today?

I'm making stuff (later), doing this (now) and probably ironing (later). Life - it's like spaghetti and it just gets mixed in together!

I thought I'd share a photo of my desk and how it looks sometimes. What a mess and I end up working in one little spot with no room to move...does that happen to you, too? I end up doing a big arm sweep to clear some space...lol.

On the topic of mess and organisation, you may like to check out Noell's latest Paperclipping episode on how to store your patterned paper and other bits. She's worth listening to, that girl.

As it turns out, my system is like Noell's. I've spent years organising and reorganising to find a system that works for me because the inspiration soon leaves if I can't find things easily.

The trick is to organise your papers (and all supplies actually) according to how you go looking for them (that's how Noell explains it and she nailed it). For me, that's by theme, type, manufacturer and colour - yeah, I know, a lot of categories.

Manufacturer: Any collections I buy that I want to keep together for a while.

Theme: Christmas

Type: Ledger and lined papers together and also Music papers together because I go looking for these all the time.

Colour: Well, by colour. That's cardstock and patterned paper.

The thing is - they don't always stay this way. For example, after I've used up most of the collection (ie. like Farm Fresh above) the left over bits get split up and put into the scrap colour files to get used up that way.

I also have a Vintage section and an All Colours section because some patterned papers have lots of colours on them. It sounds complicated, but it's not really. I know it works because I can find things easily.

Right, moving on to new punches! What do you think of these?

Donut Chain Edger Punch

Double Embossed Dotted Edger Punch

Open Scallop Edger Punch

They're from EK Success - hopefully they'll hit our shores soon!

Well, you have a great day now, talk soon, bye!

:o)

Punch Art Fun 1 - Look in the Book - page 17

Well, hello to you on this Tuesday of Tuesdays.

How's the weather in your neck of the woods?

We have a woods in our backyard actually. It's a woods of weeds. All that rain and the weeds are having a party.

They won't be having a party when the mower comes out, I can tell you.

So, Look in the Book, page 17 today.

(Disclaimer here: Please excuse the cheese in the top left hand corner of that page. That writing...ughh. All true, but cheesy. So sorry)

If you haven't guessed already it's an Australiana page in the book. Koalas, kangaroos, possums and wombats are running around all over the place, which they do in real life actually. Well, except for the koalas. Not a lot of running for them.

Above I used punches for the animals, but in the book there's also animals made from hearts and circles etc. The kangaroo, for example, is hearts, leaves and circles. The eucalyptus leaves are from a penguin punch. It shows you how to trim the punch in the book. I've used the eucalyptus leaves at Christmas time instead of holly. Very Australian.

And at the bottom of page 17 are a couple of Andrew's favourite things in the book. He loves those layered Banksia and Bottlebrush flowers. Not sure why, probably because they're different from anything else in the book.

And hands up if you've got a Bottlebrush in your yard?

Oh, a few of you. Not bad.

And to finish today's post, here's a little story/anecdote about a few Aussie animals, just for kicks.

Koala - I don't think I've ever held a koala. Might've when I was little, but I don't think so. Been to Lone Pine a few times - it's a koala sanctuary here in our city. Hey, the baby koalas are the cutest! And I love the ones that spread out flat on the branches to sleep.

They have sharp claws.

Kangaroo - I've eaten roo, it tastes gamey. Very strong taste. Not to my liking. You can buy it as mince in the supermarket. It's very lean and cheaper (I think) than beef. Ever tried it?

They have sharp claws.

Possum - Cody chases them up and down the fence when they run down at night. One scared me the other night when I was on a toad run in the yard. Big old sucker was sitting on the fence right near my head and took off when he didn't like me being so close - gave me such a fright!

Apparently they're immune to ticks.

Their growl sounds like a prize wheel. If any of you lovely overseas ladies come to Australia to visit and you get scared out of your wits in the middle of the night by a very weird sound that really does sound like a prize wheel (you know, spin the wheel to see what you win) - it'll be a possum around the place somewhere. Don't worry, just picture a prize wheel and hope you win a car.

They have sharp claws.

Wombat - We were camping right down the bottom of Australia a couple of years ago and were woken up in the middle of the night by the backpackers next to us yelping and carrying on. I got up to see what was happening and a wombat was trying to get into our tent! Got a huge fright!

They have sharp claws.

We have all manner of other poisonous animals - spiders and snakes and whatnot too. Just a part of the territory over here, but honestly, it's not that bad.

We have massive Huntsman spiders that we find in the house, but they're harmless.

We also have massive snakes that we find in our yard too, but they're harmless.

Recently I got rid of a carpet snake on our verandah. I heard some birds going crazy, but I was on the phone and couldn't really check. Well, when I checked my mouth dropped open and of course I rang Andrew. I told him I'd film the snake removal, so he could see the events unfold.

I pause for a bit in the middle - I opened the door to house in case I needed it.

I talk to Andrew during the filming too!

Click here to see me wrangle a snake. Andrew told me to do this...I'm not so sure. There's squealing involved and it ain't pretty.

Want to come to Australia?

It's a great place to holiday!

Close ups!

Hi!

You're probably all busy at your last day of work before the break, or getting ready at home, or finishing at work and then going home to get ready, or getting ready to go home, or just going home, or going away, or falling down in a heap because you tried to get cheap petrol (at 1.18) and your car actually ran out of it because you waited in line for forever...so, I'll keep it brief today!

Been playing around with the camera and doing some close up shots - it's amazing what you see.

Blush on her cheeks...

(it's coloured pencil - just a light touch)

Individual colours of glitter...

(See the purple, pink and clear? Amazing)

The fibre in the cardstock...

(This is what the back of Bazzill looks like close up - I omit the texture of the Bazzill when punching sometimes, particularly for little pieces. Smooth is good for them)

Little stray pieces of card...

(there's a orange bit to the left of the beak there)

Gorgeous shimmer on both the cream card and the grass...

(Didn't have the foresight to spray the card before I put the grass on. Didn't know I was going to shimmer it before I put the grass on. Go with the flow, right?)

Individual pieces of pink glitter on a pink nose...

(Why do I find this so enchanting? Who would've thought craft could be enchanting? Are you with me on that or am I speaking into the abyss of cyberspace where the resounding echo of this question continues on forever?)

Sorry, supposed to be brief...

More glitter than you can poke a stick at...

(What does that mean anyway and is it wrong?)

Even more glitter that you can poke a stick at...

(Once again, right or wrong?)

Texture, lots of texture...

(and whether I've been specific about keeping it all aligned. Do you line up your Bazzill and punch it so the texture is straight? I do, mostly. The pattern on the box is diagonal because that's the way it works when it's folded. Who knew? See what you see when you get up close?)

A stray dot of glue...

(Handmade!)

Me in the reflection...

(That's me, the black spot. At least I think it is)

Just wanted to say too, since we're talking about taking a close up look at things, that Easter is the season where Christians remember and celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yes, He died. Yes, He rose again. And if you strip away all the details and get to the crux of what that means - it means love. And He did it for you.

He not only died, He took on all the sin of the world (all of it! Past, present and future) on Himself. It's sin, someone has to pay for it. Take responsibility for it. The way sin has to be paid for is through death, and Jesus paid that price for all of us, and died for us, so we wouldn't have to. That's what He did, that's what it's all about. The price was paid so that a way could be made for us to be with God in heaven. The only way to the Lord is through His Son, Jesus, and accepting Him as your Saviour - the One who saved you from your sin.

Does that make sense? It's kinda like having someone pay your mortgage for you! Just paying it, making you free and clear and debt-free. If someone did that for you, wouldn't you be amazed? I mean, debt, then all of sudden, no debt! Gone! The burden taken - what a gift to get. Was it earned? No, it was just given out of love.

Take a close look, Jesus did what He did for you (and me, all of us) and it's all about love and grace. It's amazing.

He loves you, hey, He really does.

If you would like to love Him back and say thanks and become a Christian you can say this prayer:

"Dear Jesus, Thank you for loving me and for dying on the cross for me. I repent of my sin and am so grateful that you paid the price for me so I wouldn't have to. Come into my heart because I want to love you all the days of my life. Amen."

If you said that prayer now and believed it in your heart, you're a Christian! Welcome to the family! Send me an email if you'd like to. I'd love to hear from you.

Well, that's all for now. Have a wonderful and blessed Easter. Stay safe, be good and don't eat too much chocolate!

Debra :o)

PS. Sorry, the word brief obviously isn't in my vocabulary!

Easter bits and bobs

Hi, I'm back with some Easter projects today.

Now, you've seen these boxes before. I make them a lot because they're good. They're easy to make, they fit a decent amount of treats and they're forgiving when you make them. A good formula, I reckon.

Click here and Erin will show you how to make them. I got the stack idea from her. She was giving brownies, I gave chocolate Easter eggs the same size as regular eggs.

Ye good olde curling ribbon always comes in handy!

And of course, punches, they're always handy.

Here's a little treat box, come basket, come bag thingy.

It houses about two or three of those small eggs. I just made it up as I went along. Not the easiest thing I've put together, that's for sure. Just being honest :o). Not that it was hard necessarily, it was just fanangaly. Try finding that word in the dictionary!

You know what fanangaly is, right? It means that you made it and you probably wouldn't make it again because it didn't come together easily enough to warrant another go. I bet you're thinking of a fanangaly project of your own. Yep, that one you did once and probably won't do again :o)

This little basket wasn't fananagaly...it was fine.

It's essentially the base of a box and instead of cutting to make the normal tabs, I cut down the middle of the tab square and just joined those bits together.

Clear as mud?

Sorry! Hard to explain!

Does this pic help?

Instead of cutting in to make a square tab (that you would normally attach sticky tape to and then stick to the long side to make the side of the box), you cut from the corner of the card to the point where all the score lines meet and that'll give you two triangular tabs. Glue those two together and that gives you the slant.

Trust me, it's not hard in real life, it's just hard to explain in words. And I didn't take a photo of it in bits or anything. Rats.

So, the last two little projects might've put you off making anything (sorry about that!), but this one's easy, easy, easy.

I did these at Christmas too. They're just any shape folded over a treat bag and decorated at will.

I decorated the decorations out of mine and went for glitter, embossing, eggs and butterflies.

Actually, I sprayed Vanilla Smooch over the embossed eggs too, so, make that glitter, embossing, eggs, Smooch and butterflies.

Don't think I could've fit anything else on there!

Here's a non-fat version for you - use real eggs.

(These are organic, free-range, top-notch, premium eggs, ie. they're from our chooks. Thanks, girls)

Another idea I heard about recently would work too - buy refillable eggs and put notes in them. For example, little jokes, riddles or "things I appreciate about you", stuff like that.

To finish today we're going to focus on the fake parsley in the box.

It's the Martha Stewart loopy border punch punched in two greens then rolled up and glued.

Okay, have a fab day!

Easter cards = chicks + glitter

Hey there!

Have quite a few Easter card and tag ideas to share with you today.

Gotta say, I'm loving the bright colours and the glitter paper. So fun.

Firstly, a cute chick hiding in the grass with a treat for you!

The punch at the bottom is one of those huge Martha Stewart deep edger ones. I don't know the name, sorry. Daisy something?
I'm just starting to get into the habit of labelling my punches - ie. their names. They always have the name on the packaging, but never the punch. I've started writing them on with permanent pen, so I know their names and can tell you!
I write on my punches all the time. Little marks to show me where the image is underneath the punch (because on the levers it doesn't line up with the picture on the top), names of the punches, sizes of the circles so I pick up the right one etc. And with the circles I write in both inches and mm - it's useful to have both on there.
Okay, back to the cards. The glitter paper is from Doodlebug. It was in a stand at PC near all the other Doodlebug papers. Comes in lots of fun colours.
It also gets all over your desk! The glitter, that is. We all know what it's like to work with glitter :o)
A giant chick with giant eggs!

The crepe paper is Melissa Frances Vintage Treasures and there's four colours in the pack (cream, green, blue, pink). Pleating the crepe paper like this is a lot of fun.

To do it - just put your tape on the card itself and then pleat along as you go. I made it a bit wiggly so it looked more grassy.

And some punch art fun - cute girl on a swirl.

I used my Matte accents (it's the same as Dimensional Magic, only matte. I use this strictly as glue as I have no need to make anything look matte) to draw the swirl and then put Banana Art Glitter over it. Sticks well. Dimensional Magic would work just as well.

This Easter basket is a new one for me this year. It's Martha (don't you love her?) and the punch includes the basket and four eggs. Those eggs are so cute!

Above I punched the basket twice and did the handle in a lighter yellow. It's not very obvious in the photo. A very simple card, this one.

Next, I pulled out the oft used Cupcake punch from McGill.

The cupcake bottom is the basket obviously, and the icing is the grass. Good punch that.

If you want to make simpler cards, you could make these.

Be prepared for people to say that the eggs look like shot-puts, though. I said that about my own cards, so others will too probably!

The background embossing folder is a Tri-Dots one from Sizzix (from a birthday set). It's a nice option, I think.

And more glitter paper. Been using it a lot lately...

This embossing folder is Caramelo by Provo Craft (Cuttlebug people). Love the flowers.

The chick looks a little sad or confused. Egg or shot-put?

All the little cards are the same as the bunny tag from last week. They have a back piece that's creased for the card flap bit.

They don't have the pierced holes like the bunny tag does, I just noticed.

And more crepe paper and hidden eggs.

Love the hidden eggs.

See what your macro setting shows up?

What's that black spot?

Hmmm....

I sprayed the background of the whole card with Vanilla Smooch - gives it a subtle shine. It's on the border at the bottom too.

And that little Scatter Joy stamp is from Daisy Bucket.

I got all these supplies from Photo Continental. Lots of fun things to be found over there!

I'll be back again tomorrow with some more Easter crafting ideas.

Enjoy your day!

:o)