my ramblings

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).

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

RAK winners and some Christmas projects

Thank you ladies for sharing your Christmas traditions in my last post. I've loved reading what everyone does for Christmas... there are lots of different festive activities, but we all seem to enjoy this time with family and friends.

Not a lot to share from me this time. I've been making these little Christmas cards with Maya Road ribbon and felt, sewn onto small cards.

I had a couple of projects in the latest Scrapbooking Memories. First one is the layout below using Piggy Tales papers, Maya Road sheer letters and Autumn Leaves stamps.

 

The second project in SM was a card using Urban Lily Oh So Merry paper and a stamp from Autumn Leaves.

 

The gingerbread for the gingerbread houses has been made. I did share my recipe last year... Robyn S who left me a comment reminded me of this fact. Thanks Robyn. The recipe can be found HERE, along with the icing to hold the house together. The Nordicware Gingerbread House Mold which I use to make the pieces for the house can be found at Alfresco Emporium.

Now, onto the RAK winners of the little Maya Road people keychains (drawn randomly, in no particular order)....

Trace G: "My favorite tradition is driving an hour and a half to go find the perfect Christmas tree and then cut it down ourselves. The day also includes a sleigh ride, hot chocolate, and some cookies. Those reindeer are beyond adorable.
Happy holidays"

Julia: "My favourite tradition is decorating our Christmas tree while watching Carols by Candlelight and all singing along at the top of our voices."

Robyn S: "I love everything about Christmas. I now make gingerbread thanks to your gingerbread recipe you posted last year. This is a tradition I am starting. Thank you, love you blog."

Yvette: "Our favourite tradition is having the kid's photo taken with Santa. Not such a big deal, except the *children* involved are now 23, 20 and nearly 17! We are off to see the big fella tomorrow night and the kids are so excited!"

Thanks again to everyone who left me a comment.

Hope you're all having a festive week.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona

x

Maya Road birdies and that Distress Crackle Paint

I have received a few emails about the Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint from Ranger since my post with the Maya Road birthday tag. I've had trouble finding a good selection of these in Australia until last night, when I read Karen's Scrapping Kupboard's update.

KSK now has the full range (that's 24 colours) of the Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint available.

I have some Maya Road projects which I made for our DT October challenge (and all the DT member's projects are on the Maya Road DT blog).

The first two Christmas ornaments use chipboard pages from the MR Round Coaster Chipboard book. I've covered the pages (front and back) with Urban Lily Oh So Merry 'Frost' paper, (which I noticed KSK has in store as well, while I was there). The little birdies and branches are from the MR Birds of a Feather Chipboard set, which I've painted. The idea of these two tags/ornaments is that you can write your message on the back of the tag, the it can be hung on the Christmas tree afterwards.

This one uses the Aged Mahogany Distress Crackle Paint. I have painted the bird first with a fuchsia acrylic paint, then once dry, painted the crackle paint over the top and left it to do it's magic.

And a few more tree decorations using the Maya Road birdies and also some birds from the MR Birds Chipboard Key chain.

Above birdie uses Weathered Wood Crackle Paint (left), and right is the Aged Mahogany again.

Hootie the owl, above left has been painted with Shabby Shutters Crackle Paint, and right is the Weathered Wood again.

The little birdie above was painted with a red acrylic paint first, and I've painted over the top with some Tattered Rose Distress Crackle Paint.

Well, that's about all for today. Have a great day everyone.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Fiona x

Tarisota's September Collection : Spring Sojourn

This post is long overdue...

I was thrilled when Tamar asked me to be the September guest designer for Tarisota a little while back. Just in time for my favourite season, the SPRING SOJOURN collection was full of colour with Urban Lily and Tinkering Ink papers mixed with the textures of matching fabrics and ribbons. The Tarisota designers created beautiful projects which can be seen in the Tarisota gallery. And the latest Tarisota Talk can be viewed HERE.

Here's my projects created from the kit, more details can be seen in the Tarisota gallery.

This layout below was a one of those "spur of the moment" ones. Emily plays the drums and percussion, and lately she walks around the house stamping her feet, tapping her fingers or clapping her hands... in perfect beat... very loudly, (and she's usually singing as well). And it drives me crazy. I'm reluctant to tell her stop (trying to be the good encouraging mother, etc, etc) but sometimes I just have to tell her to give is a break (particularly when she's stomping in her school shoes on the wooden floor boards standing right next to me). Anyway, that's what this layout is about.

Next layout just documents our front garden in spring. I seem to take the same photos every September of our freesias which carpet our front garden. They are self sewn, starting out a few years back with just a few little bulbs. They are the old fashioned freesias which smell so sweet. On a warm spring day, the scent is beautiful.

This little blank book is included in the kit. It is very cute, a small chipboard book with plastic sleeves.

And some cards. I used StazOn in to stamp on the acrylic flower and heart.

Thanks for visiting.

Have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona x

Back from Chicago : part 1 : CHA-S 07

I'm back from Chicago. My trip was a great combination of lots of work and lots of fun.

CHA was big and busy. The Urban Lily booth looked great. And the UL products were well received. Everyone who passed through the booth were so friendly. Despite spending three days with Renata and Phil, we didn't get a photo together. But I did manage to get a few of the booth, below. I'm hoping Kim M and Adrienne, UL DT members will forward some photos, as I know they took some when they visited the booth

Left photo: The Urban Lily Secret Keeper Cards. What a hit they were. We loved the reaction from everyone as we would open them up to reveal the inside. Middle photo: The UL booth. Right photo: A fantastic little display piece for some of the smaller projects.

It was great to meet up with the girls from my other design teams, Maya Road and Paper Salon.

Deb, Caroline and Jess from Maya Road were so friendly and welcoming, as were all the DT girls who were working the MR booth. So lovely to meet them.

Also loved meeting up with the Paper Salon girls and go out with them a couple of times in the evenings, was great to spend time with them. Below is Jen, a fellow Crowded House fan and PS DT'er. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of everyone at the booth :-(

One other lovely lady I was able to meet was Kai-mei from Fontwerks. I have been a fan of Fontwerks for the last few years, and always love seeing the new products they release.

We met lots of other fun people. Will post more later. As well as some sight seeing photos of Chicago. Love, LOVE that city. Loved wandering the streets, catching the 'L' around town, jumping on and off the buses to get around town, going up tall towers with spectacular views, wandering through parks... Anyway, more of that in another post.

Thanks for visiting.

Fiona x

urban lily sneak peeks for CHA-S 07

Some sneak peeks for Urban Lily have started appearing on the UL blog.

Renata has created some amazing new products, the LIFE BOOK is just gorgeous with lots of pre-printed pages, and the SECRET KEEPER CARDS are a perfect place to pop your journaling on your projects.

Hope you're having a good day!

Fiona x

a couple of scrapbooking projects

Thought I'd share a little project which will be making it's way to the Maya Road stand at CHA Summer very soon.

This is a Maya Road Secret Box and matching Secret Box Chipboard Book. The little book is very cute, only 3"x3" in size. I've used lots of Urban Lily products to decorate. The word "celebrate" on the outside of the box has Derivan KindyGlitz added for a bit of girly shimmer. This little book lists just a few of the many, many things I love about my gorgeous Emily.

Inside I've writting the "I love..." in journaling shapes stamped from the Maya Road Foundations Jouraling Clear Stamps.

The little book can then be stored inside the box.

 

I was also thrilled to have a couple of my layouts using Fontwerks Write Line papers appear over on the Aussie Scrap Source blog last week. I've shared my 'The Euphonium' layout previously, but here's a new one I completed using some Fontwerks papers.

The letters in the large title {WAIT} are covered Maya Road Philadelphia chipboard letters. And I'm pleased to report our bulbs which we planted in the above layout are now sprouting little green stalks. Bring on Spring!

Thanks for the well wishes for my mum who is in hospital, she is doing OK.

Hope you have a great week. Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

last week for the Journal Jottings online class

My latest online class is now in it's last week. It will be finishing on Monday 11 June.

If you'd like to read more about the class details please visit my website.

When you register for the class and your payment is received (which is within a few minutes if you use PayPal), you will have access to the detailed class steps on-line, as well as the downloadable resources. You can then enter the on-line class room when ever it is convenient to you and as many times as you like until Monday 11 June 2007.

Everyone is welcome to join the class. If you live outside Australia, please use the currency converter on my website to convert the Aussie dollar to your own currency.

Thank you to the ladies who have taken the class.

Hope you're having a great week.

Cheers

Fiona

x

journal jottings : new online class is now open

My new online class is now open and my first newsletter has been sent. This class will run from today until Monday 11 June. Once you have registered and your payment has been received, you can enter the online classroom whenever you please, as many times as you like.

Here is a sneak peek of my class, JOURNAL JOTTINGS. You can find more details at FionaCarter.com .

I've had a few emails asking whether international visitors can take the lesson. The answer is YES, with payment via PayPal. You'll be directed to the PayPal site once you've ordered the class on my site. I also have a currency converter on my online lessons page so you can convert Aussie dollars to your currency.

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

Cheers

Fiona

x

new urban lily

I'm loving the latest 2007 collection from URBAN LILY which can be seen seen HERE. New papers, rub-ons and chipboards which, I believe, are available tor pre-order.

One of my favourite things from this new range would have to be the new URBAN CUT COLLECTION. I particularly love the little urban cut mini books.

Looking forward to working with some of these yummy products!

Cheers

Fiona

x

urban lily's sugar cube

And we have another Urban Lily project. Yet another little project I made last night when I really should have been packing for my Canberra trip this week.

Using Urban Lily papers from the Doodle Daisy collection again (the same ones as the invites below) AND the super cute Sugar Cube from Urban Lily.

I covered the sugar cube with papers, tied it up with ribbons from Ribbons Galore. I made the little mini book, which fits inside the sugar cube. The "live" circle is a new chipboard product from Urban Lily.

Thanks for looking.

Fiona

x

new urban lily

Last night I made Emily's birthday party invites using some delicious new Urban Lily papers from the Doodle Daisy collection. This collection is so bright, happy and funky.

The design of the invites is very simple. I printed the details of the party inside the cards. The papers were trimmed to fit the front of the cards, I rounded the corners with a punch before gluing the papers in place. I added some bling to the flower motifs on all the papers. And wrote "you're invited" on the front on the cards somewhere with a white gel pen.

 

 

   

Emily's very happy with her invites, they have now been carefully placed in envelopes ready to be handed out at school.

Thanks for visiting.

Fiona

x