I am very grateful to my Mum and to my Grandmother for the wonderful crafting skills I learned from them. They both influenced me greatly: My Mum with her sewing skills and my Grandmother with her crafting prowess. Home making skills were a necessary part of our lives and we sewed everything that we wore and crafted many of the decor items around our home. So in honour of those days, here's a set of cards which celebrates the things that our Mothers and Grandmothers held dear. These very feminine cards are inspired by the crafts of days gone by when handmade meant quality! All the papers and embellishments featured are from Collections Elements . Hand embroidery was a wonderful past time for ladies of all ages and they were very skilled with a needle and embroidery floss, creating beautiful table cloths and duchess sets for their dressing tables. I still have some treasured items in my linen cupboard which have been handed down through the family. And whilst the bobbins on my card ......

How quickly this year is flying past! Everyone you talk to makes the same comment. Each and every year seems to fly past more quickly than the last. But I've been so busy lately, that I'm not even noticing time is passing. Days and weeks are now such a blur it's almost like there is no separation in time - no night, no day, no weeks or months - it's almost like it's one continuous day!! With very little spare time on my hands these days, I'm grateful that I made a New Year's Resolution back in January: " To procrastinate less". It's really helping to keep me on track . When I made that promise to myself (and said it out loud on my blog), I felt a little nervous because it meant having to be accountable and really striving to achieve that goal. I knew I would never have been able to completely stop procrastinating but by quantifying it in terms of procrastinating less , it has made this goal achievable. And here we are, three months into the y......

Ah, Valentine's Day! And romance is in the air! When I walked into the office this morning I was greeted with a beautiful bunch of roses in shades of pink and red, and then shortly after by a box of exquisite foil wrapped chocolates in a heart shaped box. How romantic! Before a minute had passed the cutest little kitten with a red bow tied around it's neck appeared. Romantic image after romantic image flashed across my computer screen - what a lovely start to the day. I bet you were thinking how spoiled I am? Well, perhaps I'm not quite that spoiled but my sweetheart and I did exchange boxes of chocolates this morning and we'll sit down quietly tonight to share them as we watch Sleepless in Seattle together - mushy stuff, I know, but very romantic! And that leads me on to today's post - Zentangle inspired Valentine's Cards. One of the wonderful things about Zentangle is that there really are no rules so there is nothing to say that your doodle has to fill a squ......

Well, here we are! It's December 31st... New Year's Eve 2010. Tomorrow we start a new year and we all hope to start afresh resolving to improve this and change that. And like everyone who makes a New Year's resolution, I want to succeed, not fail! So I will not sabotage myself before the year starts. I will make just one promise to myself..... to procrastinate less. Not "to stop procrastinating" but just to procrastinate LESS. I procrastinate in all areas of my life: at home; in my work life; in my studio; everywhere! The procrastination monster is a mighty beast that is hard to tame so I will be happy to just control it a little bit better than I do at the moment! So here's to 2011 - and to less procrastination. Happy New Year! And just quickly before I go, I'm in print in the latest edition of Scrapbooking m.m. - a Swedish magazine. Wow! I've never been translated before! It's strange to see your instructions written in a different language! And......

There was a time when I used to say that if it stood still long enough I will stamp it . That statement eventually made way to this one: if it stands still long enough I will paint it with Lumiere paint but now I can add to that " if it stands still long enough I will Zentangle it!" Oh my..... I'm hooked! How can something so simple have such an addictive effect on you? I just can't explain, except to say that I'm now seeing patterns absolutely everywhere I look. I never noticed them before but now I see they are everywhere around me. And I just feel compelled to get them onto paper before I forget them. I have doodled so much over the last few weeks that I have run out of ink in my trusty Zig writer so it will be a trip to Officeworks this week to see what other suitable pens I can find to doodle with. So without a pen to doodle with I think I should share a couple of the things I've been up to. Firstly, a pendant. This is a slight variation of the one I f......

I've been having so much fun in the studio this week playing with my latest find. My LSS is stocking the most fabulous range of mirrored acrylic shapes from Kutalicious, a brand new local manufacturer. The birds and birdcages in the range are so appealing and being reflective, they're eye catching too! In my last post I told you about how magpie-like I am - always attracted to bright shiny things so you can imagine what I was like when I first saw these. I just had to have them! Oh what joy in the studio this week! What do you think of them? Aren't they gorgeous? My photos don't do them justice (it's hard photographing reflective surfaces). But if you click on the images for a larger view you can see them in a much better light. There are also black birdcages available which are my No. 1 pick from the range. I can't share images of the pieces I've made with them just yet as they've been submitted for consideration for publication. And I can't share ......

Just like a magpie, I am drawn to bright shiny things. I like precious jewels, so dazzling that they sparkle in the light. And the reflective shimmer of a CD as you tilt it causing a rainbow to dance around the disk. I like the lustre of shiny satin as it drapes in soft folds, and the crystals of a chandelier as the sunlight dances on them projecting a beautiful spectrum on whatever surface it falls. But I especially like Friendly Plastic with its vibrant, metallic foils so shiny and bright. It is hard not to be drawn to them. But today I want to share what happens when you alter that shiny, smooth surface by impressing a texture. Doesn't it look great?....... still shiny, but no longer smooth. So you CAN have the best of both worlds - texture and shine all in the one piece. With a stunning texture like this only a few simple embellishments are needed to create a lovely focal point on this card. By the way, this texture is from Krafty Lady . Being made of silicone it won'......

It's time for some Friendly Plastic eye candy today. You've seen some of the jewellery pieces I made using the demo samples from the Brisbane Paper Crafts Festival but many of you have asked how you can use Friendly Plastic in your papercrafting projects. Well, let me share some of the things that I like to do. For the first one, I've used cookie cutters to cut some letters from a marbled strip of Friendly Plastic and layered them on a textured strip of gold. Adding texture is one of my favourite things to do with Friendly Plastic Designer Sticks. You can either stamp into it with a rubber stamp or press a texture into it as I did. This one is a silicone texture mat from Krafty Lady. I've layered the Friendly Plastic embellishments onto a piece of stamped acetate which I've coloured with Pinata alcohol inks... the vibrant colours certainly are eye popping! Fun in the Sun To add to the fun of the card I tied a polka dot ribbon around the embellishments before assemb......

It's well known that Friendly Plastic is a great medium for jewellery making but being such a light weight modelling medium it's especially suitable for card making and scrapbooking too. There are many techniques that are suitable to incorporate into your paper crafting projects such as marbling, stamping and moulding. In mid September I'll be demoing and teaching a workshop at the Stampin' Daze Rubber Stamp Club in Brisbane using a couple of these techniques which we'll use to create the focal piece on a card front. I'll be offering two colour alternatives: an all occasion card in girlie pink........... ...... and for those of you who want to get an early start on your Christmas cards, a green version. The choice is yours. Please pardon the slightly blurry images. My trusty little point-and-click Ricoh camera is having a little stay in camera hospital at present and I've used an unfamiliar camera to take these photos. The images simply don't do the card......

Easter Sunday is now just a couple of days away so I wanted to share this card with you. This card might not be religious but it is symbolic of many of the Christian beliefs for the Easter season. In the Christian Church the colour purple represents expectation, purification and penance so it is very much the colour of Easter. And what could be more representative of life than a nest of eggs. Lots of lovely texture here - firstly the wreath and then also the flattened, twisted paper rope. Even the background paper (an oldie but a goodie) adds lots of depth and layering without adding any more bulk to the card. The wreath is made from twigs and creepers I gathered from the garden and I also added a little bit of raffia and very fine wood wool which was rescued from some packaging. The wreath really sets off the little clutch of eggs. They were cast from Delight air dry clay and a Krafty Lady art mould ( AM235 Oval Pattern) and then painted in soft pastel shades using Lumiere pearlescen......

Well, here we at the final day of my Twelve Days of Christmas challenge - it's hard to believe that there are only a few days more sleeps to Christmas. As this is the last card I'll be sharing with you using Magenta's My Christmas Tree / Mon Arbre, Ive made one with real impact - an explosion of colour - like all the twinkling lights festooning the houses in my neighbourhood. This technique is called Faux Carnival Glass and its bejewelled appearance belies its simplicity. I began with a piece of black coreboard the shape of the tree which I coated with Versamark Watermark inkpad and a layer of Franklin Opals embossing powder. In this technique you keep adding layers of powder and heating in between until you have a smooth surface and then you add pieces of Fantasy Film into the molten Opals. I like to give it another burst of the heat gun at this point so that the Fantasy Film warps a little and intensifies in colour. Then add another coat of ink and more Franklin Opals to ......

Day 11 is here and the Pipers weren't able to make an appearance either so I've smooshed a la Tim Holtz again but this time I've swapped the bold red, black and gold for delicate blue, white and silver. Now the photos just don't do this card justice - it was very tricky to photograph and I might try to get some better photos which I'll add later. In real life, the card has a real WOW factor and yet it's deceptively simple! The base of the card is made of acetate and the front was run through the Cuttlebug and then I've painted the depressions of the pattern with white Pinata alcohol ink and Claro Extender - this is the hardest part of the card! Actually, it's not that hard really, just a little time consuming, but I think it's worth the effort. Unfortunately, the photo doesn't show the embossed texture, only the painted pattern. If you didn't want to try painting and embossing the acetate, you could try stamping an image with Opaque White Sta......

It's Day 10 of my Twelve Days of Christmas event but I was unable to book the "10 Lords a' Leaping" (it seems they are heavily booked at this time of the year!) so I hope you'll enjoy what I did with Tim Holtz' alcohol ink smooshing technique instead. This technique is so easy and is really fun to do. You begin by drawing squiggles of your chosen alcohol ink colours on a non-stick craft sheet, sprinkle a little Blending Solution around, lay down a piece of gloss cardstock on top and then turn it 90 degrees. Lift and admire the beautiful and totally unpredictable patterns (no two will ever be the same!). Add some more blending solution and place another sheet of cardstock on the craft sheet and you'll have a second, lighter version of the first background - great way to coordinate your cardstock! I used Red Pepper, Pitch Black and Gold Mixative. The Cuttlebug makes another appearance today - I just don't know how I ever managed without this nifty littl......

Day 9 of my Magenta challenge has arrived and brought with it a lovely soft, lilac colour scheme. And today I've used some of my all-time favourite colouring media - Lumiere paints, Krylon Gold Leafing Pen and webbing spray. I don't know what I'd do without my gold leafing pen - I use it to colour and highlight so many many things in my projects and I think it should be part of everyone's basic kit (as anyone who has been to one of my regular classes will attest!). But I'm rambling, so on to today's card. To get this look, I began with a nappy liner that I painted with Grape Lumiere paint. Because it's so thin you really need scrap paper on your work surface to mop up what seeps through and even though the liner is quite wet, it will dry quickly because it's a nappy liner. To add some interest, I stamped a few flourishes across the liner with gold Encore! ink which the photo hasn't picked up very well. But notice how the edge at the bottom is quite r......

Today is Day 8 of the Challenge and it brings yet another new look. Using the same Basic Grey collection of papers and rubons, Ive created a swing card which works really well with a Christmas tree stamp. There is quite a bit of detail on this card so I've included a few extra photos for you to feast on. Frosted Christmas Tree I started by stamping the image with Brilliance Moonlight White which I was planning to emboss but I wasn't quick enough and very little of the EP stuck so I touched it up with my trusty Uniball Signo White pen. The heart border around the tree comes in a roll and luckily, it's self adhesive so no glue is required - you just peel away the backing and place it where you want it. Great product! I've added a lacey white border rub-on down the spine of the card (this one is called Swirling Samba from Imaginisce) and attached a triangle of triangles cut from the Basic Grey paper. I also stamped the tree on the triangle paper and traced over it with Li......

Welcome to the second half of my card journey towards Christmas! This is card number 7 using Magenta's My Christmas Tree / Mon Arbre. Yesterday I finally managed to make a card using more traditional Christmas colours and today I'm following that trend. I began this one by painting an old book page with Lumiere Metallic Gold paint and then stamped the tree image with black StazOn ink. The gold is much more.... hmmm, shall we say, gold than the photo shows and it needed to be toned down a bit. So I tore a rectangle of star-printed vellum in half diagonally and attached it with brads. That took away the large expanse of bright gold and gave me a nice background to start working with. I also stamped some of the individual words from the tree image along the vellum edges. Here's a couple of little tips: Use sticky tape to mask off the unwanted words, ink up the word you want, then remove the tape and stamp away. If your image is rubber then place it on your work surface, rubbe......