The Nicest People

Sometimes it seems like terrible things happen to the nicest people.  I recently found out that a lady I got to know in the NZ scrapbooking world has been diagnosed with breast cancer. I was deeply affected by this - who wouldn't be? Even though I've only known M for a short time and I hardly get to see her in real life very often, I know that she is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. At times like this you think: What can I do?  As I don't live in the same city I can't just pop over and help out with whatever needs doing but I can make and send a card letting her know that I am thinking of her.

Here's the inside of the card. This time I added the small message on the bottom left hand side of the card rather than on the right hand side.

In my stash I have a stamp set from Amuse Studio which was designed to support breast cancer.  They only charged shipping on the stamp set - not for the stamp set itself. I think shipping was only $2.95. When I decided to make a card I knew instantly that I needed to use that stamp set. I love the phrase: Fight Like A Girl. Only women understand this threat and fight so I thought it was appropriate. As a side note, there is an online campaign, I believe was started by Jennifer Garner, about stopping the negativity behind the phrase "like a girl". It is never used in a positive way like: you fight/throw/play like a girl. When I read about it I really understood where they were coming from. Let's change our thinking one person at a time. So my friends: fight like a girl - I mean that in the best, most positive way.

When I made this card I just went with inspiration. I didn't have a challenge in mind but it just happens to fit a couple of challenges. Here's my dilemma: does it make the sentiment behind the card less if I enter it in online challenges? I truly hope not!


The challenges are:
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Make New Friends But Keep The Old. The challenge is here .  This card is for a newish friend and I used items I already had in my stash (old friends).
Inspiration Emporium Challenge - Fresh Start. The challenge details are  here . I'm making a fresh start on using my stash. My 2015 resolutions include using up my stash and not adding to it (hard to do when I already want to order some of the new dies Tim Holtz is releasing at CHA this week!). This card uses items I already had and nothing new was bought.

Materials:
Paper (by Allison Kreft for Echo Park), Cardstock (Stampin' Up!), Ink (Stampin' Up!, Ranger), Stamps (Amuse Studio), Journal Tag (Bella), Embossing Powder (Celebrations of Australia), Doily, Twine, Ribbon.

It's Official

It's official - I'm a planner nerd. It happened overnight. I saw all these brilliant ideas on Instagram and wanted a pretty planner for myself! I would love a fancy KikkiK or Erin Condren planner but all I have is a spiral bound diary my mum got for me. I am planning on using it as a diary/memory planner this year. I want to document the every day, my spending, my activities, gratitude as well as play with ink and pretty things. So far it is going great! On the first day of the year I set to making a couple of pretty paperclips (first try) and a dashboard (I think that is what it is called). I stamped up some notepads for the dashboard (one for 'To Do' and one for 'Spending") and will change them out as I need to. I also ordered some erasable pens online - yes, erasable! They are awesome. So awesome that I had to get the only other colour available at my local stationers  as well (pale blue). So far I have: black, dark blue, pale blue, purple, red, pink and green.  I wish we had more colour options available in NZ - The set of 6 I ordered online from USA.   Here's the whole set up:

I don't know why the photo has rotated - sorry,. I'm not technical enough to fix this (it is in the right orientation in the original file!)


This year I purchased a Cinch machine and I was worried I might not use it enough - boy was I wrong! I use it regularly for adding things to my Heidi Swapp Memory Planner (just snip the holes to make a removeable item that also stays in place) and I intend on using it in the spiral bound diary as well (I can always add a bigger coil if it gets a bit too much). I used the cinch to make holes for the dashboard and I see myself using it to add little items in as the year goes on as well as photos. As you can see in the first photo I have already pre-punched the holes on the 'Spending' paper [pad] to add it into the diary when I am done with the week (it is adhered to the back of the dashboard). Excited much!

As you can see I can now tick "blog for SSS anything goes challenge" off the list!

One thing I made that I adored and still do is my sparkle page. I decided that Sparkle will be my One Little Word for 2015. Originally I was going to add this into my diary/planner but I think I will use it in my HS Memory Planner so that I can move it every month and still be reminded to sparkle. Don't you just love it?

Here's the back - a Project Life card from a Gold Foil pack

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge has extended their Anything Goes challenges so I am entering these items this week. The Wednesday Challenge details are here  .

Materials: Heidi Swapp Ephemera, Maggie Holmes Ephemera, Becky Higgins Project Life Card, Stampin' Up! Stamp, Basic Grey Stamps, Teresa Collins Washi, Tim Holtz Stapler, Pilot Frixion Pens, Bling, Gold Paint Pen.

The Layout is Up - Anything Goes

Remember the layout that was on my desk? It's finally finished! It's a busy time of year, isn't it? With Christmas and two birthdays in the beginning of December it has been hard to get some creating done. Pity I have to go to work to pay for my addiction :)

Here's my layout from Raffles:

The main photo lifts up to reveal 3 photos - there is one under the top picture (under another flap).

I was supremely lucky to win a BoBunny prize and when it arrived it was chock full of paper and embellishments from their brand new Café Rose collection.  It is the first time I have had an entire collection to play with - thank you BoBunny! I pulled it out and played. I also purchased some Maggie Holmes goodies which I added.

I am entering this layout in Simon Says Stamp's latest challenge on their Monday Challenge site - Anything Goes.  The info is here .

Materials: BoBunny, Maggie Holmes, Heidi Swapp spray, Twine,

What's On My Desk?

The blog has been quiet but that doesn't mean I have been. Some of the ladies in the scrapbook industry have been snapping pictures of their work desk lately and loading them to Instagram. I thought I would snap a picture to show you I have actually been busy - honest!

The layout (held down by twine spools and stamps) is one I am putting together of some pictures from Raffles. I won a Rose Café prize pack from Bo Bunny and the prize they sent me was amazing! I have never had almost an entire collection to play with before. My winning comment was that I would use the fountain paper to scrapbook a layout of my photos of me and the fountain at Raffles. I decided to sit down and do just that - to be honest I was on the floor with all the prize goodies spilled around me.

There may also be the goodies I ordered from SSS on that table - they arrived this morning! I am impatiently waiting for this month's Ali Edward's stamps from my subscription to arrive :(

Something else I have been doing this month is: 30 Days of Gratitude. I am not following a class or kit. I just decided to do this (even though we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in NZ) and use items in my stash. I used two 4x6 printed cards to make the booklet and the inside pages are 3x4 cards, hole punched, stamped and with hand journaling about what I am grateful for that day.

Do you remember me showing you a book I made for my niece a long time ago? Possibly a couple of years ago. My niece is 15, almost 16, now so I have decided it is time to give it to her. As well as the handwritten stories in the book I decided to add various positive sayings and life notes. I pulled out my positive saying stamp sets and set to work on some 3x4 project life cards I had.

The next photo is the back of some of the cards. The others have either a saying on the back or a heavy pattern that can't be easily stamped over.

This is a stack that is ready to stamp - I just need to find the time to do it.

Tonight I am visiting the BFF and I will look through her stash to see is she has any stamps I could use.

That's about it for me.  Now you know what I've been working on while the blog has been quiet. No time to add a materials list. See you in the next post.

Another 3Fer

This project is another 3fer - fits 3 current challenges!

In the weekend I found a whole lot of photos (of various sizes) I had printed from Creative Adventure Downunder 2013 (CAD). I also had a Teresa Collins flip book I bought last year. Time to put that baby to good use! The thing I enjoyed about this project was that I used only leftover items from the class kits from CAD and pieces of memorabilia and, believe it or not, my official lanyard (the thing you wear around you neck to show that you belong somewhere). Pretty chuffed with that. Please remember that I only used leftovers and such so it is a very simple mini - I like the photos to be the centre of attention anyway.

Please excuse the piece of tissue covering my full name! The frame was from a Heidi Swapp class, the paua is from a Maggie Armstrong class and the flowers are leftovers from a class from SENZ 2013. Inside the frame is the plastic holder from my lanyard with my name tag from CAD13. If you look closely you will see pink ribbon peeking out the sides of the frame - this was the ribbon from my lanyard! You will see it more clearly on the next picture.

That's me and the BFF. I missed CAD this year as I went to Italy instead (tough call!). I plan on being there next year though. In this photo you can see the ribbon from my lanyard and the decorated (teal) piece is from a badge swap from one of the ladies at CAD13 (I can't take credit for that). The ribbon on that covers her location.

Here's the list of challenges and why this project fits:
A Blog Named Hero - #54 Recycle It. The details are here .  This project definitely uses recycled items - leftovers from my classes at SENZ and CAD as well as my lanyard.
Inspiration Emporium - In Disguise. The details are here .  My interpretation of this theme is that my lanyard is in disguise. It is not a lanyard anymore - it is used as decorative elements instead now.
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - # Anything Goes. The details are here .  This one needs no explanation.

Materials:
Heidi Swapp - Frame, Banners, Stickers, Letters; Bazill - Stickers; Ranger - Glossy Accents, Liquid Pearls; Ink - Stampin' Up!, Other - Bling, Lanyard, Flowers, Paua.

O is for...

O is for Oh So Cute! O is also for Orange and in the words of Inga the Winga: O is for Orsum (only the kiwis will get that!). Why am I going on about O? O is for is the latest challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday.  I made this layout recently and I am entering it in their O is for challenge:

Oh aren't they cute? These little ladies are miss 2 and miss 5 (almost 5 at the time). They belong to the BFF and these photos were taken at miss 5's kindy. The photographer captured them beautifully - or should I say beYOUtifully? As soon as I saw these pics I requested copies to scrapbook - luckily their mum complied.

I never would've thought I would scrapbook the photos on an orange background but of all the papers I tested the photos on, this was the one that worked the best. I also die cut the word beyoutiful from felt. Awesome! Why have I never done this before???? I suspect you will be seeing this technique in the future.

Challenges I am entering this layout in:
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: O is for here.
Artfull Crafts: Anything Goes here.
Southern Girl's Challenge: Getting Wordy On It here. (I really have only used words and phrases on this layout)

Materials:
Paper (DCWV, HOTP, Stampin' Up!), Dies (Kaisercraft, MFT), Stapler (Tim Holtz), Trims (Bella, Retail Girl, Other), Other (Mini Heart Punch, Felt), Pen (stampin' Up! Journalling added down the sides after photo was taken).

Pure Play

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Design Team Submission:
Scrapbooking is my preferred project and I love just pulling items from my stash and playing. A bonus is getting a large number of photos documented. On a side note: I have tried re-adding the photos but they are still in the wrong orientation!


After watching a Heidi Swapp video on My Craft Channel I set about creating a fun, file folder album of my recent trip to Singapore, Italy, Munich and USA. I managed to cram 83 photos in this little beauty!

 

This album is all about play: sticking photos and stickers down and adding random stamps. Lots of fold-outs and flip-outs for getting as many photos in as possible.  It is at times like these that I love my stash! I have collected lots of travel themed products over the years (as I love to travel).  I didn't spend too much time choosing and getting things just right; it was about getting it completed and playing with my supplies. For this reason I am entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which is Rock The Technique - my technique is pure play and just getting things down! (as well as fold-outs)

I started with a couple of Heidi Swapp folders and some patterned papers for added pages. I even got to play with my cinch. I didn't do as good a job as I wanted but I got the job done. Because I used different papers in this album I am entering this in A Blog Named Hero's current challenge - patterned paper.

 

 

Grrr - I don't know why the software has loaded the pictures that way as they are in the right orientation on my laptop when I selected them for loading! I can't find a button to rotate them - sigh.

These are the challenges I am entering this in:
A Blog Named Hero - Papers Please (use patterned papers) . The challenge details are here  .
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Rock the Techniques. The challenge details are  .here

Materials:
File Folders - Heidi Swapp; Patterned Papers - Kaisercraft; Stamps - Heidi Swapp, Simple Stories, Hero Arts; Embossing Folders - Teresa Collins, Ink - Stampin' Up!, Stazon, Versa; Stickers - Heidi Swapp, K&Co; Washi Tape.