my ramblings

maya road scroll binder book & chipboard wings album

Here's a couple more Maya Road project using two of their new chipboard books, the Scroll Binder Book and the Wings Album, both released last week at CHA-S 08.

First up is the Scroll Binder Book. The shaping of this book is gorgeous. The paper I've used throughout this book is from the Office Lingo collection by Pink Paislee, one of my new favourites.

The "phoebe" is made from the Maya Road Noah chipboard alphabet set. The letters in this set are a great size. Being smaller than the original MR chipboard letters you can fit a larger title to the front on a book:

The 100% Girl Sheer Calendar Turn fitted well with the theme of this little book:

Inside page, a MR chipboard tree shape and a new sheer ticket:

And a few inside pages from the book, my favourite photos of Phoebe growing up over the last 10 years:

And another newly released album from Maya Road, their chipboard Wings Album. This little book now documents the lullaby I used to sing to my girls when they were babies and little girls. They used to love this song, and as they got a little older would sing along with me. I wanted to put the words down in writing, just so we have them around. Papers used inside the book are by Sweetwater from their Giggle Girl collection.

Some inside pages:

That's me and Emily over 12 years ago:

And me and Phoebe over 9 years ago:

I've a few smaller Maya Road projects to show, but I think that's about enough for today's blog post!

Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you're all having a great week.

Cheers

Fiona x

maya road projects for CHA-S 2008

Maya Road is making some gorgeous stamps, both in sets and single stamps (which are called singletons). You can see the stamp sets (including new CHA releases) in the Maya Road CHA-S Catalog.

A couple of my favourites have features in some of my projects which have gone to CHA.

I've used owl stamp (below) on a few little projects.

The tiny owl stamp and the 'what a hoot' have been used below, with Pink Paisley paper on the background.

The owl stamped on acetate and coloured and mounted on a round tag with Scenic Route paper:

These owls were stamped on linen fabric then embroidered:

And while I was making little fabric hanging ornaments, I used the new Maya Road cupcake singleton stamp for these:

I love cupcakes. And now Maya Road have several new cupcake themed products. There's the stamp (which I mentioned above), but also there's

• a cupcake stamp set (with six cupcake stamps plus more),
• a cupcake chipboard album,
• cupcake rubons sheets,
• a cupcake sheer ribbon,
• a cupcakes chipboard set and
• a cupcake coaster album.

Below I've used a chipboard cupcake shape from the cupcake coaster album as the base for the felt cupcake below. This book is a Maya Road sheer tab binder book, which I covered with fabric slip cover which I sewed.

And a few pages from inside my cupcake book. This book holds most of my cupcake secrets, the recipes, the frostings, the fun stuff. Being the binder style book, I'll be able to add more pages as I go along, with more fun ideas.

This book was lots of fun to make.

That's all for today, I'll gather some more photos of my Maya Road projects and post very soon.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

Early July catch up

It was my turn to post over at the Pursuit of CraftYness blog a week or so back (yes, just catching up now). I created a little farewell book with Phoebe for one of her friends. I've posted more about it over at the POC blog.

This is a little project I had in Stamping and Papercraft magazine a couple of issues back (yes again, just catching up now). This project used an Urban Lily Secret Keeper Card as the base. The card slides open to reveal the invitation details.

 

Speaking of Urban Lily, I spotted some new releases on the Scrap Genie blog recently.

I've been very busy working through my Maya Road projects for CHA-Summer. They are now in the mail making their way to the US. There's lots of yummy new products coming out for Maya Road, and the sneak peeks will be starting on the Maya Road blog this week.

Some other sneak peeks from some of my favourite companies are:

Pink Paislee (lots of sneak peeks happening on their blog, love the owl on the Vintage Moon paper).

Luxe Designs (Sugar Cookie and Gingersnap, and can you believe there is a holiday range preveiwed for October release - Candy Cane, love the bright colours in this one).

Scrap-n-Crop, Malaysia

Valerie from Scrap-n-Crop in Malaysia asked me to be a guest designer for her store this month. Here's a little look at a few things made. The full gallery is up on the Scrap-n-Crop site now. Thanks Valerie for inviting me to work with you this month, it's been fun creating!

Here's a few of the new things I made...

This layout is just about documenting my girls at the moment, a little memory for the album, about how they make me laugh in such different ways.

I was just trying to take a photo of them together. Phoebe stood and waited patiently... and Em, well she was just being Em!

After a short time Phoebe looked at me very seriously and said "can't you just photoshop us together?"  A classic Phoebe comeback.

I love writing little messages on my layouts, like the one above "good idea gorgeous!" I'm thinking well into the future here, when, hopefully, my girls might look through these scrapbooks and read little thing's I've written to them.

Another project for the store, Maya Road Bottlecap Memory Game...

I've used the Maya Road chipboard Motifs set and set them into the Maya Road Mega bottlecaps.

I've been enjoying many Memory games in the evenings recently. Phoebe beats me every time.

I also made a set of cards, this one was a spare one, the rest are in the gallery.

The rest of my projects are over in gallery at Scrap-n-Crop.

That's about all from me today. Thanks for visiting.

Hope you have a great day.

Fiona x

Birthday month

June sees the start of birthday month in our house. Both Phoebe and I have June birthdays, my niece and a few friends also celebrate during this month. But for some reason Phoebe's birthday celebrations seem to last the whole month... (usually overshadowing my birthday completely).

On the weekend we took Phoebe and a few friends to the Sydney Observatory for her birthday celebration. She wanted to go to the Observatory last year, but we left it all too late to arrange, so this year we started early. Just as well, as we couldn't get in next weekend as planned (that's the Observatory's 150th birthday and there's big things planned there) so we had to go a week early for Phoebe's birthday.

We arrived at Observatory Hill early, and the girls had fun running around the rotunda. They watched a bridal party have their photos taken, then the girls insisted the bride and groom kiss, which they willingly obliged.

I tried to take some creative photos, but without my tripod, they didn't really work out. Here's one of the better ones.

The view from the rotunda was beautiful looking north over the harbour to the Harbour Bridge and Luna Park.

The Observatory was great. We looked through two big telescopes including the large one in the domed roof. The most amazing thing we saw was Saturn, we could actually see the rings around the planet. Quite amazing.

After the visit to the Observatory, it was back home for the Starry-Starry night pinata cake. We saw this cake being made several weeks ago on Better Homes and Gardens. Phoebe loved it when she saw it and ordered one (from mum) for her birthday.

Armed with wooden spoons the girls had to smash their way through the chocolate outer shell to reach the cupcakes and lollies hiding underneath.

Phoebe and I made little starry time capsules for the lolly bags. We found the plastic containers at Reverse Garbage. We then wrapped a strip of Scenic Route paper around each container, added a scalloped punched oval shape, a star shape (with doodling) and a Maya Road chipboard letter to finish.

I just have to say I love my new Marvy Uchida scalloped punches. After searching here in Australia for them, and not being able to find them, I finally bought several from Papertrey Ink in the US recently.

That's about all for now. Thanks for visiting!

Cheers

Fiona x

Pursuit of Craftyness blog tutorial

It was my turn to write a tutorial on the Pursuit of Craftyness blog. I've created these little magnets and the steps can be viewed HERE.

I've used Maya Road Blossom chipboard, Ranger Distress Crackle Paint and fabric.

Thanks for visiting, have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona xx

Maya Road projects

Maya Road is exhibiting at the National Stationery Show in New York. The design team has been creating some new projects to display at the show. Make sure you check the Maya Road DT girls blogs (they are listed in the left column) to see their projects.

Here are my projects, using lots of the recently released products from CHA-W. One of my favourite new products are the MR Johathan Chipbaord Alphabet Set. They are such a great sized chipboard alphabet (small than the other MR alphabet sets).

Thank You Card materials:

• Maya Road Johathan Chipbaord Alphabet Set
• Maya Road Trinkets Ribbon - Forest
• Maya Road Trinkets Textured Knit Blossoms

Love Card materials:

• Maya Road Stamp Seals Set
• Maya Road Microchips - Hearts Chipboard (both neutral and brights sets used)
• Maya Road Las Vegas Ribbon - Avenue

Journey Card materials:

• Maya Road Travel Keychain Set
• Maya Road Trinkets Buttons - Grass
• Maya Road Air Mail Rubons

The Girls Frame materials:

• Maya Road Scroll Frame Chipboard Accordian Album
• Maya Road Microchips Neutrals - Hearts Chipboard
• Maya Road Stamp Seals Set

Nature Girl album materials:

• Maya Road Sheer Butterfly Coaster Album
• Maya Road Jonathan Chipboard Alphabet Set
• Maya Road Trinkets Crochet Shimmer Butterflies
• Maya Road The Cubicle Rubons

Thanks for visiting.

Hope you all have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona x

New Maya Road website

The new MAYA ROAD website is up and running. It looks so good, make sure you visit soon.

I'll be back with a longer post soon, we've been busy with school holidays and projects (me and the girls - LOL).

Also, Emily's Cupcake competition cut off date has been extended (see previous post). She's received a couple of entries which she'll put in the gallery soon, but wanted to let you know you can still send her your projects for another week.

Have a good weekend.

Fiona x

Easter craft project #1 {and a RAK}

Easter is just over three weeks away, so its time to start some Easter craft. Though I'd share some of our Easter projects here on the blog over the next few weeks.

Project: Decorating Easter Eggs

I've used the white foam eggs you can buy from craft stores as I'm not very good at the blown eggs which are traditionally used at Easter time. I've used two mediums to colour the eggs, paints and inks, before decorating them. Here's the steps...

1.  Collect supplies. Polystyrene (white foam) egg shapes, Ranger Distress Crackle Paints and Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks, acrylic paint and toothpicks.

2.  To make handling the eggs easier while painting, stick a toothpick in the base of the foam egg.

Using paints to colour the eggs

1.  Paint the egg with acrylic paint. Let dry.

2.  Once thoroughly dry, paint the egg with Ranger Distress Crackle Paint.

3.  Once completely covered leave to dry, again.

4.  It's dry and the paint has crackled. On this egg I've used a fuchsia acrylic paint under a lighter pink crackle paint. At this point you could use a clear sealer to add a little gloss to the egg if you wanted.

5.  Now decorate. Tie a ribbon around the egg and tie a double knot.

6.  Tie a bow. If you need to secure your bow, use pins to hold the ribbon in position. Try to hide the pins in layers under the bow.

And it's finished.

 

Tip: I painted an egg with the distress paint (with no acrylic paint undercoat) and as the crackle paint dried, it peeled off the egg. It seems necessary to paint the foam eggs with acrylic paint or gesso first before painting with the distress paint.

Using inks to colour the eggs

1.  Dab the Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink onto the surface of the egg. Leave to dry.

2.  While you have your inks out, you can colour some old clear buttons which you can use to decorate the eggs later.

Dab the ink onto the top of the buttons and leave them to dry.

3.  Cut short lengths of fine gauge wire (I used some scrapbooking wire that I'd had in my stash for ages).

4.  Thread the wire through the holes in the button.

5.  Apply a small dob of glue to the egg where you will place the button.

6. Pierce the egg with the wire and push the button in place. Continue around the egg until a row of buttons is formed.

This one is finished too.

Another way to decorate an egg is to wrap with ribbon, form a loop (bow) and top with a flower held in place with a pin. This little crocheted flower is a new one from Maya Road.

 

The gingham ribbons used on these eggs are new in store at Ribbon Galore.

And now for the RAK

I'd love to see any of your egg-y creations that you make for Easter, either following my steps above or your own. Leave a comment to this post with a link to your creation. I'll draw out a name to win an Easter RAK next week some time.

Thanks for visiting, hope you're having a great week.

Cheers

Fiona

more Maya Road projects and some new CHA products

Just thought I'd share a few more Maya Road projects with some of the new products being released at CHA.

Following is a birthday/anniversary reminder book created with a Maya Road Scalloped Chipboard book. I've used a combination of stamps from the Make A Date Clear Stamp set and the Sealed with a Kiss Clear Stamp set both from Maya Road. The cover of this book has three Textured Cord Blossoms from the new Trinkets Collection. All these products can be seen in the Maya Road CHA-W 2008 catalog.

Close ups of those gorgeous new Textured Cord Blossoms....

An inside page of the book...

Next book uses the Maya Road Rectangle Chipboard Banner Book as its base. Its covered with felt and decorated with Velvet Blossoms and gathered Ric Rac. The title is created with the Noah Alphabet Clear Stamps.

New Trinkets Ribbon, from, you guessed it, the Maya Road Trinkets Collection (can you tell I love this new collection).

This book documents my soft toy making. Starting with Bunny which I made sometime during my primary school days, there is a little story of some of my favourite toys I've created.

And finally, the Maya Road Design Team girls created a canvas to display at the MR Booth. Mine follows. All the DT girls canvases can be seen at the MR DT Blog.

Some new Sheer Ribbon:

Maya Road Microchip Foundations Buttons:

And looking around at some new things being released at CHA, these are some of the things I'm loving...

• Scenic Route: Grafton, Providence and Lynden collections.
• Luxe Designs: Cashmere Sweater II,  Classic Black II, Capris and Flip Flop collections, as well as some gorgeous stamps.
• Sassafras Lass: view the whole release HERE. Love the Serendipity "Sunshine Lollipop" and the new buttons and blossoms.
• Piggy Tales: new products can be seen HERE. Piggy Tales is now using recycled paper for their paper collections.
• Paper Salon: new products are appearing on the DT Blog. A couple of favourites of mine are the GRAB BAGS (full of coordinating embellishments) and the Designer Labels.

That's about all to share today. Hope you have a great week. Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona