And Just Like That

 Well, this is embarrassing. I keep meaning to update my blog and just like that two years have passed. 

Just popping in to check my blog is still active. 😆

Don’t worry, I’m still crafting. My style has changed and I find I am crafting more with kits and classes like Vicki Boutin and Creative Adventure Downunder  I’m also recreating projects I see online. These aren’t my original work so I don’t feel like I can share them here. The challenge is getting photos to fit the pre designed albums and layouts. Usually I create a piece around a photo. 

Here’s a layout I copied from Nathalie DeSousa from Vicki Boutin’s Print Shop collection.  It’s me in my happy place, my craft room.  

Another Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge

When the weekly challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is Anything Goes then I am sure to join in. Nice and easy. I need to make a child’s birthday card so today I sat down, uninspired to create. I had a flash of inspiration: see if the sticker book has a mermaid. I was in luck, it has two identical mermaid stickers as well as some mer-cats! I had my inspiration and off I went. 

For this card I wanted to try inking the embossing folder first. Trouble is, I inked the wrong side the first time I did it! Finally I got the base embossed and inked and trimmed as I wanted it. It was quick to come together after that with the stickers leading the way. 

The Inside: here’s where I used the mer-cats! 

Challenge Details:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes Here

Materials:

Card - Grace Taylor, Embossing Folder - Craft Creations, Ink - Ranger Distress Oxide and Archival, Stamps - Altenew and Rubbadubbadoo, Chipboard - Vicki Boutin, Stickers - Vicki Boutin and Skinz. 

Simon says Stamp Monday & Wednesday Challenge - Feminine

NSD has lit a creative spark and I am scrapping up a storm. The weather is getting cooler here so perfect for locking myself away in my craft space. This post is an entry for the challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which is Feminine. The latest challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge has been updated to the same theme so I will be entering this project for that too here

It is Mother’s Day this weekend so it was a perfect fit for creating for that. Instead of a card, I decided to make an explosion box thanks to my WRMK explosion box tool.  I am certainly getting good use out of that tool. Here’s my feminine explosion box I made for my mum this weekend including a pocket for a gift card - hopefully she doesn’t see this post. 

Challenge details: 

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Here

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge here

Materials:

Paper: Kaisercraft, Craftsmith, , Inks: Ranger Distress Oxides, Stamps: Teresa Colins, Heidi Swapp, Basic Grey, Kaisercraft, other, Stickers: American Crafts, Kaisercraft, Ranger liquid pearls, Diecuts: American Crafts,  

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes May 4th

May the fourth be with you. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist 😁

I’m creating for challenges and the latest one is easy over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge as it is Anything Goes. It closes today so I got my project done just in time. I made a box in lieu of a card for a niece’s birthday coming up: 

I might be a little obsessed with the WRMK explosion box tool I bought on a whim so now everyone is getting versions of them. 

Challenge details are Here

Materials:
Paper pad - Francheville
Embossing Powder - Celebrations of Australia

Embossing ink - Ranger

Dies - Technique Tuesday and Pink Paisley 

Stamp - Montarga

Sticker - Peelcraft 

International Scrapbook Weekend

There are lots of challenges happening over this weekend for National Scrapbook Day (NSD). I will link the challenges I participate in here. 

Simon Says Stamp Blog giveaway is to show a recent scrapbook page. This is aTN layout I created yesterday for a challenge put up by a NZ scrapbook company.  The challenge was use flowers or ladybugs. I pulled out circle punches to make the ladybugs - very old school crafting. The background behind the photo is stamped with leaves and flowers   

Supplies:Studio Calico printed TN, stamps unknown, inks Tim Holtz distress oxide, Heidi Swapp calico heart, American Crafts sticker book for the clear flowers and alpha stickers. 

National Craft Month - March and Simonsaysstamp Challenge

 March is National Craft Month so I decided to do something crafty everyday. I even cleared off my desk this month but only because I couldn’t find my ‘don’t care what I cut with them’ scissors. I later found them in the garage where I used them last to cut up the boxes for recycling that some sneaky crafty orders came in! 

So far this month, I have been working on memory dex cards.  I usually try to make one for every month of the year  and have been doing that for 4-5 years.   Unfortunately I stopped somewhere around Oct 2019 so I had 18 to make.  They don’t always have to have photos, sometimes it’s just playing with new product or techniques.  I keep them in the original rectangle Heidi Swapp memory dex box, it isn’t completely full yet. I may have another Heidi Swapp Rolodex style one on standby when the box is full. I also must remind myself that I do not need the new blush memory dex roller! Right?

Without further ado:

Notice anything different about my photos? Hopefully you have noticed that they have improved! I purchased a WRMK Shotbox as soon as they came online for sale in New Zealand. I absolutely love it. WRMK designs are always clever and easy to use. #shotbox @wermemorykeepers #Wermemorykeepers #WRMK #spotlight @spotlightstores #spotlightstoresas 

As 4 of these card include something green, I am entering them into two Simon Says Stamp  Challenges: Monday challenge which closes soon is use something green. The link is Here. The Wednesday challenge is: a bit o green - the link for that is Here

Materials used:

3x4 journaling cards: Project Life, Heidi Swapp (die and card), unknown

Chipboard alpha: Vicki Boutin. Covid Chipboard : scrapmatts

Alpha Stamps: Heidi Swapp Shoppe. Stickers: Heidi Swapp. Die cuts: Uniti

Inks, Sprays and pens: Tim Holtz, Stampin’ Up. Screen and rose gold medium: : Vicki Boutin

2021 so far...and a tip for you

Who was totally ready to end 2020 and ring in the new year? Me. I don’t think I was the only one. Can’t say there’s been much improvement on my end but we live in hope.  January was a right-off for me health wise and I only started to feel more like me around mid February. Who would’ve thought 2021 could be worse than 2020? Sigh. 

Crafting helps though and it’s nice to have had a couple of creative weekends lately. I signed up for the Vicki Boutin Storyteller weekend in November last year and I’m proud to say I recently completed the album and layouts once the missing product was sent in February. I only need to add photos to the album and 3 of the layouts. 

In January 2020, I made another Vicki Boutin album, and true to Vicki style , it is packed even without the photos. The Storyteller album is the same so I split the two abums into three albums. I tried to make the new album similar to the storyteller album by using the stencil. The first attempt did not work, it wiped right off. I switched to archival ink and it worked a little better.  I finished it off by adding some stickers left over from the kit. Gotta use ‘em up!

When I finished one of the sticker sheets I thought to myself: I could use that and stamp in the open spaces.  In the end I backed it with the packaging from some of my Vicki product - it’s too pretty to throw out. The mixed media was already done for me on the background, I just needed to colour the sticker background with Vicki’s water colour pens. Final step was stamping in the blank spaces. I’m just waiting for the right photo, or I will make it into a card. 

 Lastly, I have a tip for you that I worked out.  When I add water to my inks for water colouring, I usually use my spray bottle.  I don’t like to keep a water cup around because of the risk of spilling and I don’t like how dirty the water gets. When I finished a bottle of eye drops I decided to fill it with water and use that instead. I think it works really well.  Let me know if you try it out for yourself