new layout

The new year has begun and already I am off and doing new things, I have a lot of exciting projects lined up for this year, and cant wait to get into them. Right now I am working on some spellbinder cards for Simply Cards magazine and I have completed some layouts for Stamp and Scrapbook Madness, using the latest Kaiser papers, which I just love, perhaps the best they have ever done. This layout uses some pleated taffeta which you can buy by the meter, it is pretty easy to roll up into a flower, but I discovered a few things you can do to it to make it even prettier as a flower. Come along to class and find out how...lol

magic moments

This is the last page for the year, so I will make it a Christmas one. the year has flown by, and another Christmas is over, as much as I love Christmas, I am glad it is over, I have put away all the trees and decorations, (this takes me a full day) and the house is back to normal. Next I will tidy and rearrange the workshop, and then get cracking into new ideas and projects for the New year, cant wait!
This page uses the colours of the photo in the layout, soft gingerbread colours of christmas, I have used Spellbinders to create interesting corners and lots of leaves. I love the bow, I had some green binding, lots of it, but was not fussed with the colour, so I sprayed it with adhesive glue and sprinkled it with glitter. Only at christmas can you get away with this!

christmas

As it gets even closer to christmas,I am putting the finishing touches on our preparations, all the trees are up and presents bought, I am madly icing gingerbread men today, (i found a shop that sells lots of lovely christmas sprinkles, trees candy canes and gingerbread men) My cake kitchen in cleveland and i snapped up heaps.
the pic today shows our table favours. I have decorated a small pringle tin, our theme is angels (though these are cherubs) they all have wings dont they! so they will fit in with our theme gold white and silver. well back to the gingerbread men or my daughter will be cross

how many sleeps til christmas?

I dont know exactly how many sleeps til christmas I am sure my kids could tell you, but I dont think I want to know really. Today I will share with you what I have been up to lately, the house above is made from a MDF purchased kit, I have papered it with brown cardstock, which I have stamped, bleached and ink up to look like gingerbread. What I wanted was the look of a gingerbread house, that would keep forever and not be eaten!! The roof is plastered with texture paste to resemble snow, and the lovely striped candy is some red and white straws, available from kitchen shops. they look just like candy canes I think. I have used Martha Stewart's grass punch to create paper snow on the roof edges etc. Lots of little buttons and embellishments that I have saved over the years really came in handy with this project. Because the back is open like a doll house, I have stored all my little mini albums inside, so it is practical too...you may remember my halloween house, I thought I would never do another house, how wrong I was, but as this kit was only $5.00 it was just tooooo tempting.

Also, I have a pic of a project I do every year, I create a theme...ie angels and then make a chip board/card decoration, some year's it has been a star, others a bird house, this year is an angel bauble featuring my own stamp design. Once I have the bauble made I attach it to a CD of music featuring christmas carols with an angel theme, and of course decorate the CD cover too. This is really not an expensive project to do, just time consuming, I start it early in the year and do it when time permits, then panic at the end of the year because I dont have enough of them done..lol. this year I made 30 hope it is enough!

christmas candy

hi everybody, I have had computer dramas, lets just say my old faithful died, and I am in the process of getting a new one, which is really trying, all my work has been put on hold until I get everything sorted, lucky I was a head with my work. meanwhile we have all been gearing up to christmas, I have been to 2 christmas parties, and look forward to one here on tuesday. Today instead of a page I have included a few things we have been doing for christmas. I decorate the house pretty fully around christmas and we do lots of little things to give to people and remember the spirit of giving. every year we dip candy canes in melted choc and add sprinkles, then we bag them up in pairs and these we give to the kids we see over the christmas season. the other photo shows a centrerpiece I made for one of our christmas tables, this table holds all the jars of candy and nuts to be eaten over christmas. needless to say I seal the jars with tape, to stop eager little elves hands eating all the candy before christmas. I just love the candy canes in this center piece, not all are edible, hope no one loses a tooth on the plastic ones on christmas eve.lol cheers sue

christmas elf

We are really and truly in the swing of Christmas by now, all of my children turn into elves overnight and become really interested in putting up the decorations and lights, I don't know if it is the promise of presents soon, or that they are just used to it, but they do help, not for long mind you, each has their own thing they like to do, and attentions spans are not the best. One tradition they have is to watch Santa Clause 1 , 2 and 3 to put us in the spirit of Christmas, I must say it works for me.

My page this week is using the Spellbinders poinsettia Die, to create lots of layered flowers. I have used lots of glimmer mist and pearlescent medium with traditional red and green colours. I put up most of our decorations, and this year I will photograph some of them and post them on the blog over christmas, this will be a rest from doing paper craft, I hope lol. It seems lately I have heaps to do and it keeps coming.

christmas banner

I just love this project, it is actually longer and says Merry Christmas but I could fit it in the photo, and I am going to hang it up at Christmas time. I have used the Spellbinders pennants and lacey pennants dies, they may not be your first choice to buy, but they have really proved very versatile. I know many of my students are going to make this with names on them for their friends and nieces etc for a gift, such a lovely idea for a quick gift any time of year.

I have backed my patterned paper with thin chip board, cereal boxes are ideal as they are not too thick, but support the paper so it will last much longer and not bend or crumple. I also have the chip letters on both sides, but you could have them on only one if you were hanging it against the wall. In my sample I have used scrap patterned papers, but you could buy colours that suit the person you are giving it to if you want to. I will be teaching this as one of my last classes at Paper Trenz, and it is almost booked out.

santa's helpers

This week I have made heaps of headway in my christmas plans, little things like buying paper plates and serviettes, I like to get the boring stuff done and out of the way, so I can work on the fun stuff, as christmas comes closer.

This page for Down Under Inspirations, uses just blue and white cardstock, and some of the really neat snowflake dies, I admit I am addicted to snowflake dies and punches, I have just about all of them, there is something about their unique shape that I love. Shame we don't have them here, snow that is not the dies lol. I have used a black and white photo, it is a little trick to remember, if your photo does not match or sit well with the colours you want to use, just get it printed in black and white or sepia. I like this one because, once the colour is gone, you notice the spots of light and bling better! Another thing I have done in this layout is sand the edges of the photo, which a lot of people do, but I like to sand it on concrete (that's right) the pebble concrete on our driveway gives a flaky spotted effect on the edges just like snow. It is the same principle as rubbings. Just place the photo on the concrete and gently sand the edge, move it around if you want more white flaky bits!

Well I am off to do a class, and yet more christmas preparations.

snow globe

With christmas coming I have heaps to do, I always plan to do a lot and start early, but somehow, end up worried that I wont get everything done, but I always do. Christmas at our house is a big thing with 7 trees and the main living area's fully decorated. My kids love it and so do I.

This is a Snow Globe that I am teaching at Stamp and Scrapbookmadness, it is a Greg Sudenko concept that I have altered, I love the angels and the trees are 3 d made from circles that have been scored and scrunched. And of course lots of snow.

cute Spook

Here is my Halloween page for Down Under Inspirations. I have used just plain cardstock, Elephant, I think and spritzed it with bleach this gives it a spooky look. I love how you can invent your own paper, with things like bleach and glimmer mists. I like bleach for removing colour and glimmer mists for adding it, or a mix of both in layers. Add some graphic black stamps and you can achieve wonderful results. I have also used some Mica shards here just about the title, and little googly eyes in the o's. This photo of my middle son was when he was 2 or three and I think is soooo cute, those black eyes and teeny tiny teeth, just looks like a cuddly kitten, which is what he was that halloween. Mind you he would hate me saying that now he is 12, not cool

spooky house

This blog is for my friend Barbara

who just loves this house that I did some years ago as a Halloween project. It is a wooden gothic house that you put together and I have decorated the wood with papers and paint etc. I love that it is actually a dolls house, and have had fun over the years filling it with stuff, I now have a teeny tiny candle stick for the piano and a skeleton that fits in the rocking chair. I also have a black scream box in it, so if you clap your hands the house screams out you scared me!! Currently you can see this house at Stamp and Scrapbook Madness and it is screaming out you scared me every time Barbara stomps by lol

halloween lanterns

Halloween is fast approaching but this year being on a Monday I dont think my kids

will be doing much trick or treating, they have Tae Kwon Do, so it is not really

practical to be working out while dressed as a witch or goblin. I think my middle boy

wants to paint his face though just to give his instructor a fright!! meanwhile I have

lots of little lollie bags filled with sour worms and black jelly beans and some lolly pops

called blood suckers ugh! I will hand these out to all the kids I do see.

I decorated these lanterns that I bought from a thrift shop for a dollar or two. Just check the glass pops out from the inside and you can spray paint them any colour and then reinsert the glass. Can you imagine them done in glittery white for christmas too, it was a real struggle to decide which I would do halloween or christmas, so I will probably do some more for christmas

wild child

I love this page and was happy with the result,

I am inspired by Such A Pretty Mess, and Gabriella's work, so,aking a concept and showing that if you don't have the exact patterned paper, that you see on a layout, you can make your own.

I took some cream card stock and layered it with leaves, ferns and grasses, and randomly spritzed it with glimmer mist(creme de rouge and Kiwi) then I have placed some stamped images in the corners etc and used the paper as I would a patterned one.

I have used lots of spellbinders here, the latest Grand Peony and Bird Sanctuary which I have embossed with Stampendous aged gold (loving this product) I have used it on the leaves too see below for close ups. I love making glitter leaves too you can see this on Down Under Direct Inspirations to the right on my blog there is a full tutorial there. Basically they are cut from Corduroy by a Spellbinder die and glimmer misted, outlined in dimensional paint and then glittered. There is also a tutorial for the butterflies there too. I love using the spellbinders to frame photos and matts too, overall the softness of this page really reflects the softness and colours in the rose on the hat, which was the look I was after, love it when a good plan comes together lol.

something extra

I did this Prima page for Stamp and Scrapbook madness, and will be doing a

class on it on October 20, not my usual colur choice, but I do love these colours, they are actually very versitle. I have used some of the latest prima products and they are fantastic! little resin birds and flowers, clear stamps gorgeous braids, you have to see them to believe how neat they are. I have teamed this with Glimmer mists and Prima masks, which match the papers perfectly. hope you like it cheers sue

oh and it has a matching page so it is a double page layout

flower card

sorry to be late blogging, my computer hard drive took a nose dive

last week, and I have been lost with out it so to make up for it I will post

twice, its really only because I have lots I have done lately lol

this card was done with spellbinders Anemone die the photo does not do it justice as it has lots of layers and petals. I have also used the Bazzill pleated cardstock, which is really neat, you get lots in a pack and it saves making it yourself..

ribbon spool cake

here is a cute idea with Spellbinders and lots of ribbon spools

just cut scalloped circles that match the ribbon spools you have, make them increasingly smaller so as to look like a cake. Use your hot glue gun to glue together and decorate with spellbinder spiral blossom roses ....

faded glamour

Hi Last week my bleach cards were published in Australian Simply Cards, issue 35. I was so pleased with the result, they photographed them beautifully and the full colour came through. I hope every one has fun following the instructions and that there are no mistakes, always a worry when writing instructions...lol.

I have been revamping my workshop with new tables and making otp s to put around the walls etc. Now I am starting all my christmas work, I have a few projects done, but much more to do so see you...

adore

I just love the new My Minds Eye Lost and found papers and I have done this page for Stamp and Scrap Madness, I will be teaching it in October I think. Usually I dont like yellow, but the beautiful golden tones of the paper, give this layout almost a "glow". I have used the new Stampendous aged gold embossing powders on the frame. I used to make my own aged powders, by collecting all the spilt and left over bits in a jar, but this is all done for you and gives you a consistent colour all the time. love it ..I had to add a flower or two and made a lovely organza flower, by cutting out lots of circles threading them on a brad and using my heat gun to melt the edges randomly...neat and no fuss...I learnt this from the Down Under Inspirations Girls...it is all about learning little techniques that make what you want to do easier and achievable ..right now I am off to teach a Jack in the box class...See earlier blog entry..

timeless memories

This is my latest page for Down under inspirations. The new Spellbinders are just wonderful for creating your own trinkets and accents, by simply embossing shapes cut out with powders or dimensional magic, then sprinkle with micro beads, shaved fragments and glitters . To add dimesion to the leaves try embossing them with the netting used to hold oranges or onions. it give the leaves a lumpy pitted texture, and then when you glimmer mist them the mist settles in all the pits to give a pattern, which is really neat and easy to do.

I am working on some christmas projects too, and shall share them with you next week cheers sue

baby page

Every one needs to do a Baby page every now and then, my kids are grown, but often I do a baby page, for my students, so it is a neat way for me to update my kids albums and add current work.

Using bazzill I have created a monochromatic scheme. I have used impressabilities and distress ink to alter plain white cardstock. The flowers are using the spellbinders floral doiley motifs, which give the flowers that nice lacey feel, just perfect for baby pages. And I have used some of the glittered leaves I love to make from cord material, white dimensional paint and glitter. The tutorial for these will be on the Down Under Inspirations site this tuesday, the link to this is on the right hand side of my blog...

this is my latest layout for Down under inspirations (see link to blog on the right) I took this photo of my kids waiting near a pool, I loved the reflected light and the illusion of light and space in the photo. So I had to be careful about scrapping it, no flowers this time....I have used scraps of paper rolled up to form a boarder at the bottom and scraps also to make the rosettes. the back ground is white cardstock washed with H2O's one of my favourite mediums, I have stitched lines on the page too to reflect the lines in the photo...hope you like it cheers sue

fairest of them all

I took one look at the ornate frame from Kaiser craft and immediately thought of the Mirror in Snow white and the fairest of them all, which of course is my daughter (every mum thinks that)

I resisted the temptation to paint the frame gold and shabby it up. Instead i painted it

cream and rolled crackle on with distress inks and the rollergraph crackle roller (my cheats way of achieving crackle) i find the paints tedious and they don't always work.

I have made the flowers with spellbinders Rose Creations of course, but this time i have scrunched the inner flower part with water and glimmer misted, but the outer petals i have just shaped and scrunched only a little. I have added some butterflies and elegant posts from Spellbinders too. The elegant posts make a great trellis. I was really pleased with the end result and some of my students will do this as a class soon.

ekka winner 2011

The last 3 years I have enter the Royal Queensland show for Scrapbooking in the Teachers and professional section, and have been lucky enough to win each time. this is my entry this year which won.I think I will retire now undefeated...lol

I have lots of family wedding photos and wanted to use them, to showcase the history of wedding photos, If you look close at the photo on the second page of the bride standing, her bouquet is wilting, that is because you had your photo taken on the next working day, not your wedding day. Camera's were so bulky then you didnt take them on location. She is also leaning on the groom and his chair, he is sitting because the exposure took so long and you had to sit so still, it helped to have a chair. my we have come a long way..

I have used Spellbinders Rose Creations to make the flowers and added, some stitching, tulle and heavily beaded lace to highlight the wedding theme, I have also used pastel and muted colours to reflect the vintage look of the photo's and the colours of the times. hope you like

vintage chic

This is a recent page for the Down Under design team, I wanted to use minimum of colour just cream and black with a hint of yellow and the yellow green of the leaves, I have made the flowers as per our tutorial with old book pages. I love using these they are so so easy and so effective. lots and lots of other spellbinders used on this page. click on the link on the right hand side for a list of materials ...

pennant card

Yet another busy week, but I have all my jobs done, I will share with you a

card I have done for Down Under direct using the pennants, they really are so useful, You dont think so at first, but they do cards and neat little trees too, these trees fold up to be able to post them. I think I may teach these at christmas, which is fast approaching.

fairy queen

Just finished this card for Paper Trenz using the new Stampendous clear stamp

of a Fairy Queen, it has a oval window in which you see the beautiful fairy queen

I love it. This is a more involved card and we will be making it at paper trenz

coming up. I think a full Saturday workshop will suit this card. I have included a few pics of other cards we are doing this month too. Cards from old book pages is great fun and recycling too

Wedding Page

Another busy week for me, send my double page off to the Ekka and finished My down under inspirations tasks, but there is always more to do next week. At least the kids are back at school.

This page is one I am teaching at Scrap and Stamp madness this weekend. The roses in this are not wet and scrunched as much as I usually do and are blousy so you can see the centres, which are lots of little mini beads.

Also my tutorial on butterflies is on the Down Under Inspirations blog, click on it on the right hand side and look for tutorial tuesday, they are kinda neat

outdoor life

This is my latest page for Down Under Inspirations.(see their blog too) Here i have used Bleach to alter the appearance of the cardstock, it looks almost textured with some of the colour bleached out

Then I have made a fence from cardstock and distress inks, and layered over that lots of Spellbinders Foliage leaves and butterflies etc. I love using the Elegant posts in the corners of my photos for added impact, what I like here is the photo disappears into the leaves and you cant tell where the photo begins, it is as if it is growing out of the leaves. Adding to the texture I have included a hessian bow, feathers and fibre stuff, from the florist, I dont know what it is called but it is like nesting fibres, really cool as you can get in lots of colours. Brads and stitching my new favourite thing again, have added more to the texture and dimension of the page. For the circle at the back I have spritzed cream cardstock with green and brown glimmer mists, after I have scrunched and wet the paper, and dried it off. The glimmer mist then seems to sink into the creases more and make neat lines. This makes a really subtle patterned paper from plain cardstock...the other thing I like about the page is that it is masculine, I love doing flowers and pretty stuff, but you have to do pages for the boys too .....

jack in the box

Thought I would share with you a lovely box I made, the goal was to make a Jack in the Box from paper, but just as if it was real. So I started with the box and Graphic 45 circus papers which suited of course, the folded Bazzill formed a perfect spring, it retained its spring well. I add a bobble spring for his face so it wobbles when he pops up. this would be a lovely project for a boys birthday. I will be teaching it at Paper Trenz this month

Star that is what you are

Here is a page I really was happy about, did'nt start out that way, you know how you begin to not like the page you are working on and all of a sudden it comes together and you love it. This page is one of those and neat because I could have left off a lot of the little things (eyelets string and the brads) and the page design would still work. But I do love putting these things in, as they add so much texture to a page, I like to entice people to touch the page and to puzzle at where the photo ends or begins, blurring the line of photo and layout. kind a like the photo belongs there, and is part of the layout. I also like to add lots of little things that you may miss when you first look, but later pick up, and think gee I didnt notice that before...these means a page is worth looking at more than once..which is what we all like...

gothic card

I love the spellbinders Cross collection, it is an oldie but a goodie, however it can

be hard to use them as much as you might like to. I mean how often do we do a christening card?

So I wanted to make a card that had a gothic feel so the use of an ornate cross would not look out of place.

I have used the impressabilites to emboss the whole card, and labels to cut the ornate card shape. I love to brush the embossed cross with rich gold paint too, it gives it an old look ...

paper towel flowers

hi everyone I have a heavy work load this month, but as I enjoy my work it should not be too much trouble to get every thing done.

This week I have a page done for the Design Team of my Great Grandmother, here I have used the Spellbinders Rose Creations again, but cut the flowers out of Paper towel,,,that is right! it is so soft and wispy. I have layered them on a split pin and scrunched them, but I have also added a spritz of glimmer mist to colour them. they are really fun so give them a go. Also I have added some stitching here and a lovely cameo trinket which I have pleated soft tulle around.

Down under inspiration card

hi everyone , here is another card I have done for the down under blog...it is a pocket or sleeve with a tag enclosed. I love making the little embellishment, it is just 3 circles cut of each size 6 in total, then I fringe the circles(a little tedious but not much) ink the edges if you like, then poke a hole in the centre and thread them all on to a brad. I like to cover the brad with lovely ornate button. I am lucky as I have a huge jar of these gold and silver buttons, courtesy of my grandmother. I have also used the nested pennet spellbinder dies, they really are more useful than you would think, keep an eye out for christmas in july ideas...

wife and mother

here is another Down Under Design team project, with a mother's day theme. And you guessed it

there are flowers(i have some coming up for boys) this time I have rolled the petals and split them instead of scrunching much like the one on the ribbon spool candle. I have added some vintage buttons that actually were my grandmothers who is in the layout. Don't forget you can check this out on the Down Under Direct inspirations site ...and it is all made with Bazzil cardstock. I have also made the vines on this page and the Beautiful Bond page I will be doing a tutorial on these in the future. There is a tutorial on how to make my flowers on there right now...so check it out if want to make lovely roses...

ribbon spool candle holder

What a busy week I have had 4 classes and one of them the Magic Carousel was a huge and long class, but we all had fun, especially thinking of all the other ways we could make the carousel, for ballerinas to dragons, instead of horses!! I would love to make them all but not enough time.

I will upload a pic of a project I did for Down Under design team, a candle holder made from a tall ribbon spool, I just love recycling or turning something you would throw out, into a thing of beauty. I have made the flower from the Rose Creations Spellbinders, but instead of wetting and scrunching the flower this time I have rolled it and split some of the petals and pinched the petals between thumb and forefinger to give a kinda point to the petals. I have of course inked each flower first and brushed it over with pearlescent medium lastly. I have used circle and scallop spellbinders to cut the circle shapes and just cut one out into a doughnut shape and cut one side to slip around the spool. Hope you like it cheers sue

nature walk

I taught this class yesterday at Paper Trenz and everybody loved it lots of H2Os and stamping, to make this card look like windows into nature, it can stand on it's own on the shelf and reminds us all what nature has to offer.

down under dt project

Just posting a picture of one of my Down Under Direct desig team projects This one has a mother's day theme, I had some photos take of me and my daughter earlier in the year, so this was an ideal shot to use to celebrate mothers day.

I have used iridescent medium again on the page and on the roses, I just love it at the moment. I have also covered florists wire in really thin strips

of bazzill and then glued leaves to them, they look like twisted vines, and are not too thick and bulky on the page..