February.....The Month of Love

I missed the boat last year....didn't do a thing for Valentine's Day so; I decided that this year I would nominate February as "The Month Of Love" and make something special for it....and here it is; my 'Month Of Love Booklet'

The Front Cover....

A Beautiful Crystal (well not really..a faux one) Tree.....

Dreamy 'Crinkled Seam Binding' to add interest to the spine......

The First Inside Page......

A pretty pocket with a tag and space behind for photo's......

The Second (left) and Third (right) Inside Pages ...

Background Music of love, tag and space for photo's....

A little embossed heart holds the Crinkled Seam Binding......

A Lovely Lady in the Mist looks at the lovebirds on a tag......

Two pockets for little verses and special keepsakes......

The Back Inside Page; plenty of space for special photo's or memorabilia;

A sweet child to love with all your heart.....

The Back Cover; stamped with a distressed look.

The images were selected from free digital image sites...sorry I can't remember which ones. They've been stored in my files for awhile.

I loved making this little booklet...hope you have enjoyed seeing it!

I took a few photo's during its construction; not enough for a tutorial but enough for some tips on where to start and finish...anyone want to see them???

Stamp It Up!!

Last Saturday was one of the hottest days we had last week but;

when I was given the opportunity to go along to a Stampin' Up Workshop, my lifeless body sprang into action.....lol! Well....I must admit the air conditioned room was a big draw card, but the prospect of having some stamping fun with 25-30 other ladies was also enticing.

Our two lovely, local Stampin' Up Demonstrators, Michelle Snape and Nicola Ryan did not let the heat daunt them...no; the girls were fired up to introduce us to the 'Summer Mini Catalogue' and the new fun stamps which have just come on the market...

I love Stampin' Up products; the company really does its homework to provide customers with the stamps they want and........ you can't go wrong with their system of creating cardstock, ink pads, embellishments and stamps to link together by colour and design. These cute cars were a response to customers asking for more stamps for men.......they won me over, I think they are great!

This ship is also in the same stamp set, which is called 'Sentimental Journey'. I was a bit worried about it at first....thought I might have a ship swinging around in mid air...but a bit of sponging with the 'Night of Navy' stamp pad, which matches the cardstock and I had a deep blue ocean for it to sail on. I added a few non-Stampin' Up stickers and glitter glue to finish it off and I was pleased with it...think my man would like it too.

Our other two cards in the session were "delicate" and as I already have the 'Stampin' Up' Butterfly punch in my collection, I was keen to try the stamp set as well and..... guess what.....yes....I love it too.....hello wish list!

My camera's battery died before I could photograph two other cards; one I made in the workshop and another I made in our "free time".

I had so much fun that I have booked in for next month's workshop.

If you live in the Manning Valley area and would like to hop in on this creative action, contact Michelle here; otherwise check out where your local Stampin' Up Demonstrator is, by going here.

Just Fiddling!

mmmm....I have to confess that I'm doing very little during the current heatwave we are having here in OZ. Even with the blessing of an air conditioned home; I feel like a rag doll...all floppy in the arms and limbs, even the head feels wobbly....I'm a sad case of "I'm too hot to do anything"...lol!

So; to keep myself amused I've been fiddling around unpacking boxes that came back home from the Papercrafts Expo and finding places to put things.

I demonstrated the making of these pretty tags on one of the Expo days and gave them away to visitors as I made them; but these were left over from the display so I decided to decorate some of my glass bottles with them.

I purchased the gorgeous digital prints from Just Dream Designs on Etsy.

I made the tags with a 'Creative Memories' tag punch....

then; I used stamp pad ink to sponge the edges of both the tag and the images, you will notice that I sponged a bit of the blue coloured ink onto the image on this one...just to bring the background into the image colours.....

I used background stamps and stickers to decorate with.....

and.....glitter glue to highlight the wings.

You might have also noticed that I have fallen in love with 'Crinkled Seam Binding' which I purchased from the States. I used it for the tag trims here and also for my 'Romantic Gothic Ghost' display in one of my previous posts.

I love it so much I'm seriously thinking of buying rolls in to "hand crinkle" myself and have it for sale here on my blog. What do you think......is it dreamy enough for you to buy???

It's Brag Time !!

I've been living in Papercrafts land for so long lately, that I haven't been bragging about my published work....well that will never do so; here is the current 'Handmade' magazine with my Beach Bag; 'Aquatic Fantasy'. I loved designing and making this bag

The bag is actually round, so here's a pic from my files to show the shape. It will hold a beach towel, sunnies and other bits and pieces quite well.

Here is the cover; Vol:28 No:10 which is in newsagents right now.

Happy Sewing......I'll be back at my machine soon....promise!

Fantastic Papercrafts!

Hi There Blogging Friends! The Papercrafts Expo that I have been organising for the last six months was held recently and what a success it was. Hi there to all the 'Papercrafters' who travelled far and wide to visit our humble Craft Cottage and join in on the Expo.

Following are pics of my display. The items are the result of an on-line class called 'Romantic Gothic Ghosts' by Karla Nathan and Beth Leintz, which I thoroughly enjoyed; and was thrilled to be able to share with so many visitors to our Expo.

A Banner, Tags, Hanging Cones and Altered Books make up the display.

I had a lot of fun finding the old silver pieces in our local "op" shops, I'm sure I will use those again. Now....its time to settle down and finish off a few projects.

Bookmark Mania !

Yes Blogging Friends; I've been creating bookmarks by the dozens for a session I will be presenting with my friend Sue at our up coming 'Papercrafts Expo' on the 20th Jan.

The idea was to use bookmarks as a product to demonstrate how to use a laminater. The process would certainly have shown crafters how to use a laminater but; I got to thinking that our bookmarks would look pretty ordinary.

So....I slept on it for a couple of days and eventually decided that I wanted a decorative touch; and this is what I came up with......

I put border stickers on the blank sections of these little bird pics; before we put them through the laminater...and they came out looking very pretty....

Then; I used lots of fancy knitting yarns and ribbons for ties and also put some corner stickers on the outside of some laminated bookmarks....

I also added brads, flowers and other embellishments to the ties...

The corners all eventually got rounded with a corner punch as well...

mmm.....a girl can never have too many bookmarks...love them all!