Days 'Til Christmas Sale!

The latest pages from my Tattered Angels Glimmer Glass Album.  This album is meant to be about things I've found in my garden and what I have more of than anything else is DOGS!  This is Sprite.  She loves to play dress-ups, but wasn't too happy about the wings flapping around, hence the sad face.

Papers used are BoBunny Petal Pushers.  Other materials used are Alphabet and Fairy Rub-ons, Kaisercraft Rhinestones, Glimmer Mist, Glossy Accents and Ribbons. 

The flowers above have been punched out of pattern paper and then sprayed with Glimmer Mist.  Other flowers have been cut out of the pattern paper and covered with Glossy Accents. 

Funky Wreath

Christmas is coming and I decided that this year I was actually going to make one of the Christmas things I've bought instead of piling them up with the rest of my stash.  I actually made this one twice as I stuffed up the first one by putting too much Stickles on and once it's on, it doesn't come off!  I tried scraping it off gently, but it was far easier to pull the whole thing apart and start again.  I'm happier with it second time around anyway!

Materials used:- Kaisercraft Funky Wreath, Making Memories Noel paper, Prima Flower, Glimmermist, idea-ology Key, Chain, Charms, Rub-ons & Rock Candy Crackle Paint.

  

The Flower has been sprayed with Glimmermist and the Birds have been covered with Rock Candy Crackle Paint.  Rock Candy crackles differently to regular Crackle Paint and is great for use over pattern papers.

Howz This?

We are incredibly lucky with the variety, quantity and beauty of the birds that visit our garden.  Our most beautiful are the Red Wing Parrots.  The most I've counted in the yard at one time is 23 and currently a family of babies has been introduced to our yard.  We have feeders to encourage them in, but we try not to have so much food out that they forget how to feed themselves from nature!  Red Wings are meant to be shy, but they're reasonably used to us, however they do usually fly away when we get too close.  This one decided go stay as I approached and stood there posing for me.  I'm sure she was either saying, "bugger off" or "howz this?"  I chose to think she was posing for me rather than trying to get me to go away!

Materials used:  BoBunny Sun Kissed papers, Bella Glittered Chipboard Alphas, Kaisercraft Mini Alphas, ribbon, Green Tara Flower, Tim Holtz idea-ology paper clip and Adage Ticket, button & bird charm.

 

Extra Special Visitor

For all you wildlife fans, we've been having a very special visitor in our garden during the last month and a bit. A Gouldian Finch. For those of you who don't know, the Gouldian Finch is very rare and is almost impossible to find in the wild. This little finch has joined the feeding frenzy in our yard and we feel very privileged to have her join us. The Mareeba Wetlands has a breeding programme for these special little birds and were excited when I sent them some photos. As she doesn't have a tag, we're assuming she's a wild one which makes this even more special. The photos are a little blurry, but who cares???

The 2 flowers were made using the Tim Holtz Sizzix Paper Rosette Strip Die. It was so simple and fun to use that I was determined I had to put these flowers "somewhere" on the layout.

Materials used - purple cardstock, Fancy Pants Lilac House pattern papers, Bella Birds & Birdcages felt icons, Basic Grey Alpha Stickers, Rub-ons, Charms, May Arts Celery Faux Suede with Ruffle Trim and Kaiser Bird Wood Flourishes.  For the scalloped die-cut pattern paper, I used a template to trace the scallops and then cut them out.  A very simple layout, but I didn't want to over-do it when the subject itself is so pretty!

Glimmer Glass Mini Album

I think I've bitten off a bit more than I can chew with this project.  With limited scrapping time I like to be able to sit and complete a layout in a few days or a week at the most (I know, I know...some of you are just the bees knees and can complete several layouts in a day!)  I'm not taking too well to this mini-album where I completed the front cover, didn't get back to it for a couple of weeks, did the next 2 pages (over about 2 months!) and I still have a kajillion pages to fill!!!  OK, it's time to stop complaining!  I love this album and am looking forward to filling all the pages during the next year or 5!

 

This is a Glimmer Glass Album by Tattered Angels and although they're not the cheapest on the block, they ROCK....& ROLL!!!!  I'll tell you the reasons why....1) it comes with heaps of pages and they're normal cardstock thickness except for the tabbed dividers so it's not already bulky before you begin....2) the dividers & covers are covered so you can spray glimmermist straight onto them and it looks great....3) it comes with a couple of smaller plastic butterflies the same as the one in the window so you can put them on the tabs (which are butterfly shape) or use them on your pages to embellish....4) it comes bound with proper spiral binder which is easy to open and close so you can take it apart while you're making it and easily put it all back together again.

The cover has been the most fun so far!  I used 3 different Glimmermist colours sprayed randomly over the cover. I've always been a little afraid of Glimmermist, but I just went wild with it here.  The cover is embellished with a mixture of Rubons, Stamped Butterflies, Ribbon, Basic Grey Buttons, a Tim Holtz Key and Grungeboard Alphas & Wings.  The Rubons and Wings are covered in Glossy Accents which is something I now LOVE.  The wings of the tabbed butterfly have been finished with some Ranger Stickles.  I then used a purple marker to decorate the edges of the cover.

 

POPPY'S LIZARD

The first 2 pages are dedicated to a lizard caught by our naughty boxer Poppy.  She thinks she's so clever, but meanwhile I don't think the lizard was too impressed especially as it spent over a week in our Vet's wildlife room while it was treated with antibiotics!  When we brought it home to release it still had a limp, but managed to run very quickly to get away from us.

The paper used on this double page spread is Basic Grey Kioshi.  I love the colours of this paper range.  On the left page I covered the whole page with paper and used my binding edge punch to punch the edges so I could cover all the way to the edge instead of having to chop it off before the binding rings.  I love that punch!

The title is from Fancy Pants Roadshow Alphabets.  I have NEVER used sticker alphabets and I was really cranky when I realised how much I've been missing out on.  I have no idea why, but I have never even thought to buy or use stickers.  I think it was seeing so many people buy them through the shop that made me think of trying them....that's after I pulled out every chipboard, rubon and stamp alphabets that I own.  I even printed a title on card from the computer before I thought of stickers!!!  What an idiot I am!

I thought the page needed a bit of dimension so the journalling which is on a Paper Loft journal card, has been stuck onto the grosgrain ribbon behind it so that it's "lifted" off the page a little.  I'm really into tearing and distressing the edges of card at the moment so I've torn this and then used ink to distress the edges.

The facing (right) page has been covered with 3 different Glimmermist colours.  This is one of the internal sheets of white card pages that came with the album.  I used heaps of Glimmermist and it hasn't made the page crinkly or soaked through to the other side.  I'm very impressed.  I used my Tim Holtz Retractablen Craft Scratcher to distress the edges of the photo, some more Kioshi Paper and Kioshi Stickers to finish the page.  There's also a Basic Grey Button hiding behind the circle sticker on the bottom left side.

#1 Creepy Crawly!

Once again, it's been longer than ever between blog posts.  I feel sorry for anyone who may be checking this blog regularly as they must be bored out of their brains!!!  Hopefully that's about to end.  I'm getting my creative mojo back and I impressed myself yesterday when I created a whole double layout in the one day.

For those of you who are snake-phobic - like me! - you may want to stop reading now, or maybe just pretend the photos aren't there.  I am absolutely petrified of snakes, but this one was such a stunning colour that I had to get his photo.  I felt very proud of myself as I bravely stood fairly close (on the other side of a chainlink fence) from this snake and took photo after photo.

OK, so I raided the store for the materials for this....literally....I think I may have had the ric-rac and the fragment charm already, but that's about it.  I even took a roll of 1/8" roll of wondertape to stick down the ric-rac...now's as good a time as any to say that it is PERFECT for ric-rac. 

The papers used are from Making Memories Toil & Trouble range.  I wanted to make something with Halloween paper to show that you don't have to be into Halloween to have fun with it.  I don't believe in Halloween in Australia as it's not our tradition, but it's becoming more popular so who am I to complain.

I used a total of 4 sheets of paper for the 2 pages - 2 sheets of Pumpkins, 1 of Spider Web and 1 of Playing Cards.  I really like how the cut out playing cards embellish the page!  I've also used Core'dinations Black Magic with a yellow core. 

On the left hand page the Core'dinations was scrunched, sanded and the edges distressed...how fun is that when you can totally destroy a piece of card, including unintentionally ripping it, and then think it's a work of art???  The Core'dination piece on the right behind the large photo has had the edges ripped and then using the Tim Holtz Retractable Craft Scratcher I scratched around the inside edges.  The Craft Scratcher was also used to distress the headshot of the snake that was cut using Nestabilities dies into an octagon.  Another piece of Core'dinations was used as a mat for the photo (aren't Nestabilities great how you can just go up a size to create the same shape mat?).

The word "Creepy" is using the Jillibean Soup Corrugated Alphas.  I also rubbed metalic rubons (available soon in the store) across the ridges of the alphas to enhance them and make them sparkle a little.  the word "Crawly" is using Fancy Pants Road Show Alphas (sorry, I used the last sheet in stock, but other varieties are available!).  The torn strips of paper have had the edges distressed with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and then to finish off I gave sprayed Glimmermist Hulla Hoop over both pages.  I thought it was a suitably evil colour for a snake!

On the left page, I've added 2 Dream Street Superstition die cuts.  I thought the saying "forget the ghosts...beware of me" was very fitting for a snake!  "You're BOO-tiful" has been mounted on a Fragment Charm which has been coloured with alcohol inks and the diecut has been covered in Glossy Accents.   The final touch was to use a remaining piece of Black Magic Core'dinations, wrong-side up, which has been cut out using Nestabilities and a couple of brads.

That's it!  I'm amazed at how much I did use on this layout.  It looks so simple until you write it all down.  I hope you like it and I hope the subject didn't scare you too much....

I see that in my previous blog (in March) that I promised some blog candy.  I'll see what I can scrounge from the shop and put something up soon!  Keep checking back and I hope I can fulfil my promise of more regular blogging.

Exciting Times!

Well, I'm really shocked how time has flown and I haven't done a blog since the beginning of December.  Serves me right for nagging at my friend Amy when she got a bit behind with blogging.  Now the shoe's on the other foot and she's loving it!!! 

I do have a small excuse though....I have temporarily gone insane and started an online shop!  It's something I've been wanting to do for ages and now it's done.  I tell you though, I think it would have been a whole lot less painful if I had paid someone to set the website up for me and I just come along at the end and manage it from there, but I stubbornly wanted to "do it myself" so that if I had problems or if I wanted to change the look or design then I could do it.  It's been a great learning curve and I can now re-install the whole thing in a matter of a couple of hours from scratch.  Thanks to the free software from Zen-Cart and lots of googling for answers, most of which have already been asked on the Zen-Cart forum.

Anyway, pop on over and have a look.  It's "getting there" I guess is the best word for it.  There are so many great products out there and it's amazing how when you're buying to start-up, money just doesn't go far at all.  Buying from Australian Wholesalers also makes prices higher so although my first few batches of products have come from Australian Wholesalers, I am searching for US Wholesalers and have set-up accounts with many of the paper manufacturers to try and reduce costs.  Importing's not that hard and it's amazing how a parcel from Illinois which left on Friday last week arrived the same day as a parcel that left Brisbane on Thursday last week.  Both parcels arrived on Tuesday this week - quick isn't the word.  The US parcel was great because it contained heaps of Tim Holtz products.  I just love his stuff and while I'm writing this I'm trying to work out what I want to make. 

I haven't made anything for ages and I want to make something using his techniques.  I've been making Recipe Cards and I'm thinking about doing some more of them.  They're easier than scrapbook pages because they're smaller, you don't have to match colours to photos and you can do insteresting techniques really quickly.  A bit like Tim's tags I guess, except I don't do quite so many techniques on one page.

Anyway, sorry to be so slack and I'm now going off to "explore" my cupboard and see what I can make.

I know it's not Christmas, but here's a picture of my Christmas Elf, usually known as Sprite.

Watch this space and spread the word as I'm going to run some more Blog Candy soon.  I'll go and have a raid on the "shop" and see what I can come up with.  Don't forget to pop on over to Wild About Scrap and check out some of the specials we have instore.  Check the prices as I'm trying to get products at the cheapest price so that I can pass on the savings to you.