my ramblings

Pursuit of Craftyness blog

This is a very short post to share some news about the Paper Salon design team, a team I've been a part of for the last two years. Paper Salon has been sold to Gartner Studios and they have decided they do not have the immediate need for a design team.

The good news is we, the members of our design team, are staying together. We have created a new venture and you can visit our new blog Pursuit of Craftyness.

I'm looking forward to being part of this creative blog with these very creative ladies. We look forward to your visit soon.

Cheers

Fiona

Easter craft project #3 and a DCM challenge card

The mid week challenge over at the Daring Cardmakers blog is "These are a few of my favourite things" set by Mel. We had to use one of Mel's favourite things on our card (embroidery cotton/thread, buttons, felt or fabric) and combine it with one of our own favourite things.

This is the card I made.

I thought it would make another good Easter project, so here we go...

Materials: Urban Lily Secret Keeper Cards, pattern paper (I've used new Paper Salon KN Easter Sorbet paper), cardstock, embellishments (felt ribbon, buttons, flowers, brads, etc) and greetings stamp for the inside of the card (I've used some new Paper Salon Easter stamps which I've just received).

Just case you haven't seen them, this is what an Urban Lily Secret Keeper card looks like when it's open. They are very versatile, but I find they make fun interactive cards.

1.  Cut an oval/egg shape from pattern paper. Make sure it will cover the UL Secret Keeper card if you are using one, or that it covers whatever base card you will be putting this on. If you are using pattern paper, you may wish to back it with some cardstock to make the card a little more sturdy. I've cut another egg shape from yellow cardstock. Glue the paper and cardstock together.

2. Cut the egg in half. I've used a zig-zag line to {hopefully} resemble a cracked egg on my finished card. See my other sample below where I've just cut straight across the egg.

3.  Embellish the egg. I've used felt ribbon which I've attached to the egg by sewing buttons onto the egg and have used brads through the felt flowers.

Make sure your cracked egg can still 're-join' when the card is closed. I actually removed the larger green flowers (third row from the top) and left the smaller ones, as my egg wasn't closing properly.

4.  Stamp your greeting to the inside of the UL Secret Keeper Card. As the surface of the card is shiny, use StazOn ink. I've just received this gorgeous little Easter stamp set from Paper Salon, so was very keen to use it.

Add some colour with doodling. I've used Sharpie pens for this, again they are a permanent marker suitable for shiny surfaces.

5.  Turn your egg over, matching the two sides. Position the closed Urban Lily Secret Keeper card and glue in place. Leave the glue to dry before opening and closing the card.

And it's finished. Here it is closed...

and opened.

This is another Easter egg card which I made. This was a bit simpler. I cut the egg in half and added flowers around the edge before gluing to the Urban Lily Secret Keeper card.

And this one open.

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

Tamar has suggested I make Easter bonnets next... mmm will have to see if I have enough time before Easter.

Till next time.

Cheers

Fiona

A few cards to share...

Over the last couple of weeks I've received a few good things in the mail (that is, they were not bills).

First to arrive was the PaperCrafts "Paper Crafting with Photos" magazine from the US. I was so excited to have two projects included this edition {extra excited in fact as this is my first time published overseas}.

Here's one of my projects from Paper Crafting with Photos with our gorgeous little bunnies. {papers are from the KN Hip Hip Hooray collection by Paper Salon}.

Last week Stamping and Papercraft magazine arrived in the post. I have a set of cards/tag in this edition (vol 13 no 6). This is another first for me, first time published in this magazine (and my tag is on the cover). Here is the set, there are how-to instructions in the magazine for each card. Love this paper collection from Paper Salon, its called Prestine {Paper Salon is available from Bumblebee Crafts here in Australia}.

So with Easter just around the corner {yes, the chocolate Easter eggs have taken over the supermarkets}, I'll be sharing a few Easter projects here on my blog very soon, so stay tuned.

And my Easter loving buddy, Mel, has already sent me an Easter goodie bag. I haven't taken photos of it yet, but I will and share the very cute things that she sent me. Thanks Mel :-)

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

Cheers

Fiona

a very, very, very quick Valentine's Day project

I made some chocolate pockets ready for Valentine's Day today. The girls like to take little Valentine gifts to their friends on Valentine's Day. Phoebe decided she needed at least 10 for her friends (and is apparently still counting), so I wanted something that was very quick and easy to make.

I've used papers from three different Paper Salon collections to make these.... here's how to make them if you're interested:

1. Cut two hearts from pattern paper (I just used a chipboard heart from a Maya Road book as my template).
2. Sew the hearts together along the "bottom" edges, leaving the top of the pocket open.
3. Punch a hole about 2cm below the "point" of the heart for the ribbon.
4. Place a few small chocolates in the heart pocket.
5. Thread ribbon through the hole and tie a bow.
6. Give to someone special!

Easy!

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

Paper Salon CHA-W 2008 sneak peeks

Paper Salon has some gorgeous new projects being released at CHA-W very soon. They can be seen over at the PAPER SALON BLOG. Be sure to keep checking back there as new things are being added every couple of days.

I just have to share a couple of my favourites...

Just in time for Easter there's the new KN Sorbet Easter & PS Hoppy Easter Tailored Tin being released. These co-ordinate with the Sorbet collection released at the end of last year. I just have to share two papers which will be so cute for all those Easter projects... Glitter Bunnies and Thermography Chicks (there are six new double-sided papers in this set, as well as die-cut stickers and stamps, so make sure you peek at the Paper Salon blog to see them all)

Another new product for Paper Salon ... Lovely Lace 12x12 double-sided die-cut papers. They have die cut holes around the edges perfect for threading some beautiful ribbon and so much more... These will be available in four colour collections. Take a look at the Paper Salon Blog for some Lovely Lace projects by the design team girls.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you're having a great day.

Cheers

Fiona

very random ramblings

I feel the silly season is here. Not much spare time at the moment for blogging. There's lots going on in the Carter household and many end of year activities at the girls' school. Christmas shopping hasn't started yet, although I've seen a few Christmas "wish lists" around the house.

I'm busy making table decorations for Emily's graduation dinner coming up soon (will post photos when I have some). Emily has just over 2 weeks left of primary school. She is so excited about starting high school next year, which is great.

There have been quite a few "proud mummy moments" lately. Here's a few:

Yesterday we attended Presentation Day for the girls' school. Both girls received awards. First up was Phoebe who received the Academic Book Award for her class. After the ceremony she was allowed to choose a book and have her certificate placed on the inside cover.

And Emily received the Public Speaking Debating Award for the school. She was so excited. She speaks beautifully and can speak in front of an audience with ease, which is such a fantastic skill to have. We now lovingly refer to it at home as the Argument Award, something she's particularly good at, and obviously a requirement for debaters :-)

A few weeks back, Phoebe ran in the State Relay Carnival out at Homebush. She was part of the Under 10's 4 x 100m relay team for her Little Athletics club. They ran well, finished third in their heat, but missed going onto the final. She was happy to be out there and part of the action. That's her below just starting her run.

We were up at Hawks on the weekend. The weather wasn't great, but it was so nice to be away for a few days. Not much photographic evidence that we were there apart from these photos of the girls.

{mental note for next time, remind Phoebe to remove white socks before we take photos}

We've been visited by a few kookaburras in our back yard recently. There seems to be more around than in recent years. I took this photo while standing in my kitchen, looking through the shutters. He sat on our clothes line for ages (we think he was stalking the bunnies!). It's so nice to hear them too, laughing away so close to the city.

Are you still with me?

Paper Salon has released some new collections recently. Visit the Paper Salon blog to see lots of creations from the DT. I've created a few things with the new papers.

Above layout and the book cover below use the KN Sorbet papers. Some Maya Road products have also been used, the scalloped rick rack on the layout, and the chipboard letters painted with Ranger Distress Crackle paint. Paper Salon has also released Alphabet Rub-ons which are on the book below too. They are a really good quality and are easy to apply.

The next three layouts use papers and letter stickers from the Glad Rags collection.

I should mention that here in Australia, Paper Salon is distruted by Bumble Bee Crafts.

These are a few Christmas cards made as part of my latest on line class. The patterns and instructions are included in the class, and I've used Paper Salon papers again, this time it's the Christmas range, Ornamental Holiday.

 

And keep checking the Maya Road Design Team blog for lots of new projects.

That's about all for now. Thanks for visiting and reading my blog.

Hope you all have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona

x

Christmas scrapbooking class

My latest on-line class is now open. This class focuses on creating a double page, multi photo layout with a Christmas traditions theme, as well as a bonus step by step for creating some fun Christmas cards. For more details please visit my website.

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

Cheers

Fiona

x

overdue RAK photos

Well, back to school has been busier than expected, and these photos are long overdue.

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has left a comment in my post below. I've loved reading where everyone who reads my blog comes from. And I've appreciated your lovely comments. Thank you. (my typepad comments have stopped being emailed to me, so if you've asked a question, I'll answer that some other way soon)

So on to the RAK photos. {I haven't drawn the names yet, these are just pictures of the RAKS}.

Yesterday I left Phoebe in charge of choosing a few things from my scrapping stuff to add to the RAK. It seems she liked the bottles of Prima flowers and has distributed them into 7 little bags. It actually turns out that she wanted the bottles for herself, so decided it was the flowers that had to go! Anyway, we worked to put a few more things together, she cut up rick rack, choose some chipboard things. We've added some of the flowers from the lace I was talking out in the last post. And this is what we've packed...

There are five of the above little bags, which I'll give away to people who have left a comment.

And Phoebe and I have put together two of the packs below which we'll give to the first two names that we draw out of the "hat".

I've included a couple of the Maya Road Chipboard scrolls and a shimmer tag and card which are new from Paper Salon. There might be some extra bits that we add too.

And I've been crocheting, so the two big packs have a few of my little crochet flowers.

So when the girls are home this afternoon, we'll do the draw and I'll get post the winners.

This week Caroline from Maya Road celebrated her birthday. Each of the DT members made her a little tag for her birthday and there's a post over on the DT blog showing them all. All the tags will be put together onto one large ring for her to keep. This is the little tag I made using a chipboard MR tag (one from a coaster book), painted with Ranger acrylic paint dabbers (stream - the blue colour), then the front was painted over with Ranger distress crackle paint (shabby shutters - the lovely green colour). New Maya Road scalloped rick rack, little letter rub-ons and the journaling stamp image and the acrylic flowers.

   

I did a class last week with Rachel Greig, where we were using Ranger Alcohol Inks on different surfaces. The MR acrylic flowers above were just some of the surfaces I managed to cover with this fabulous medium.

Hope you're all having a good day.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

another card challenge for World Card Making Day

There's another card challenge over at the Paper Salon World Card Making Day Blog. Create a card or tag for the holiday season, post it online and enter over at the blog. Easy!

Have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona x