escape 2 create creativity continued...

This year, there were three highly regarded and talented teachers with a class each to wow us with:  (L-R)
Ebony van der Starre, Kim Jeffress, and Sharmaine Kruijver.   Ebony is a current "Scrapbooking Memories Master", and is on the guest design team for Bella Blvd.  Kim is an Aussie scrapping superstar, on the design teams for Heidi Swapp, Basic Grey, Bella Blvd, Pebbles, Greatest View as well as having been a past Scrapbooking Memories Master.  Sharmaine is on the Cocoa Daisy, Scrapmatts, X-pressIT, FabScraps, D-lish scraps and is also an official blogger for Target.  I decided to do all three classes this year, to create some new pages for my wall frames (most of which still contain pages scrapped when I was last on a design team, some years back now!).  All three ladies were lovely, down to earth and friendly.  Sharmaine and I kept feeling we knew each other from somewhere  (but still can't think how or where, so perhaps it's a kindred spirits thing)

Anyway, here are the projects:

This was created in Ebony's class, and I loved making it.  Lots of masks, mists, strips, tape, and gesso texture. as well as doodling.  I love it, and the colour theme suits my boy's favourite colour - ORANGE!

Kim's class was for a Memory File - and it's not yet complete, as I intend making it an album to record the 2013 e2c retreat roadtrip.  I think I will have a bit of a play using some SU gear to create something similar - it's a fast and  easy way to get memories stuck down and safe.
Here are the progress pics - I've collected quite a few bits and bobs to stash in the pockets, and have plenty of photos.  I'll try and remember to post again when it's done.  And I'd better hurry up, since Kim is keen to show our creations to Heidi Swapp herself (!)

Sharmaine's class was perfect for my messy style, more sprays and paste and splats.  And Potty People!  I'd not heard the term before, but it was perfect for the little wooden male/female shapes we added.  There was resin, washi, twine and more.  Another frame-worthy creation.

As well as these three completed (well, almost!) layouts, I did a non-class layout of my own, first time in aaaaaaggggges, as a warm up before the classes started.  And 14 cards!!  I think that was a record level of output for me at a retreat, but staying up laaaattte is good for that ;-)

More later!!

Date keeper Class - Sunday 28th April

I have planned a class for a  Date Keeper, and you can see a few sneak-peek style pics of the project above.  The class includes all materials to create an altered, decorated clipboard, with a set of plaques/tags that you can personalise yourself to keep track of all the important dates in your life - everything from birthdays to anniversaries and more - anything with a recurring date to remember.  It's expandable, and update-able, so you can use it for many years to come!

It's designed to be on display, unlike a birthday book tucked away in the 'everything drawer', so it should serve as an omnipresent reminder of the next date of significance. The class uses the "Fan Fair" DSP, matching cardstocks, paints and inks, and is embellished with framelits shapes and a flower using a new product - so you'll pick up a couple of new techniques at the same time as creating the Date Keeper to organise your life!

Cost:  $30, including all materials for making the project, tuition and afternoon tea
Where:  Cherrybrook, North Western Sydney
Date: Sunday 28th April (last Sunday of the school holidays) 2pm - approx 5pm
How to book:  Payment is required in advance of the class, and in the event of cancellation, you will receive the kit and instructions to complete the project yourself or at a future Stampin' Crop day.  Please register your interest by email, and if there are sufficient numbers I may be able to schedule an alternate date.

Kate Mason's Canvas Napkin Art Class

There is no stamping on this particular example, but you could quite easily add stamping to this really cool, really fun, and easy technique!
Kate Mason was one of the three awesome teachers this year, and she taught a class on the fascinating technique of paper napkin collage.  The teaser images on the class flyer and the plethora of darling artworks on her blog and etsy shop had me quite excited to try something new. I'm planning to have a go with some of my immense collection of Stampin' Up! Designer Series paper and fabrics too, chucking in a bit of texture paste and gauze too maybe, a la Louise Nelson (who's workshop I loved at last year's e2c).  Adding it to the never ending 'to do' list.  Shame there's so much tedious, less crafty stuff that must come first.  I wonder how many art subjects I would need to do at uni before I would be allowed to teach that too???  Hmm, there's an idea!  After all, there's plenty of science in art!

 I changed the designs only a little from the class samples, mainly moving the images to make space for a large quote on each, and switching the colours around.  I had an idea straight off that I wanted to put an inspirational quote on each as a gift for my two lovely kids.  I went looking for rubons, but the only ones I liked were too small and/or the wrong font style.  Hmm, what to do?  I was not keen on writing directly onto the finished canvas, for fear of stuffing it up, but I had a brainwave about using the white layers from the 3 ply napkins, which weren't used on the canvas base.  I took my Sakura Pigma black pen and hand-wrote what I wanted to say, then carefully cut around the lettering and applied it just like another layer of printed napkin.  It meant I could write a word as many times as I needed to get the spacing and look to be how I wanted.  I just need to add a final coat of matte sealer, and then the kids can have them.  I'm desperate to make more, but as per above, there's less fun stuff ahead in the queue :(  Better get off here and start ticking some of those items off I guess... 

Flirtatious fabric-covered Journal with Fabric Flowers

I made this for a special relative, to record some important stuff as she goes through her cancer treatment.  I've made it pretty and girly, although it is a very plain and practical blank page journal on the inside.  It's so hard to think of what to give in these situations, but I think if it were me, a special place to record everything from diary entries to family recipes to hopes and dreams for the future would be useful.

I started with a hard-bound plain journal, and painted the spine bindings to make sure their black colour wouldn't show through.  I then added some Pellon padding to the front and back covers.  I removed the whole inner page section, so I could fully cover the bindings.  I used the purple Flirtatious fabric and Sticky Strip (super strong!) adhesive to attach the fabric around the bindings.  I used the wonderful iron-on fabric adhesive to back the dark pink fabric, and used this to line the end papers. Hot glue came in handy for re-attaching the pages inside, and I then ironed on the fabric endpapers to hold it all in place. 

Some Wisteria Wonder ruffled ribbon went around the outside to hold loose papers, and from the centre to make a page marker, embellished with some retired "Pretties Kit" beads and pearls.  I then cut several sizes and colours of flowers using the "Fun Flowers" Bigshot die, from the three Flirtatious fabrics.  But, to make it fast and easy, I used the iron-on fabric adhesive before I cut them, so they could be ironed straight onto the cover.  I made a little fabric 'yoyo' from a circle of wisteria fabric and added a button centre.  A monogram "A" finishes  it off.  It took a little while, but the result was worth it, I think. 

Ooops! A VERY early Christmas project - Wooden Advent Calendar wth Ski Slope and Welcome Christmas

Oh dear, it's been a lot longer between posts than I intended.  Life has intervened, with two kids starting school for the year, and myself just about to start back at uni after a long break from study.  I've lots of things on my 'to do' list before my course starts, but posting here wasn't at the top of the list, sorry!

So, without further ado, I present a project that is either:
a) very early for Christmas 2011 (because I'm SO organised!)
or



b) so late that you won't even look at it!

Hopefully you'll choose option A!

I used a wooden Advent Calendar kit, and decorated it with the (now retired) Ski Slope Designer Series Papers.  Probably the biggest trick to assembling the pieces is to ignore the advice regarding painting first.  Assemble first!!  Yes, painting might be slightly more time consuming, but not as time consuming (or frustrating) as needing to sand back all the pieces before they'd fit!!!

The little drawers are covered in strips of DSP, and then decorated with rhinestones and Early Espresso marker doodle borders.  I painted the chipboard numbers in colours I blended to match Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood red and Kiwi Kiss.  The beauty of the SU DSPs is that the patterns and colours co-ordinate so well, and the double sided patterns make it a snap to use little offcuts and strips to vary the look.
I sponged the edges of the raw chipboard drawers with Chocolate Chip ink also, to take away the grey look.  The wooden snowflakes were coated in Tombow Multi glue and covered with our Supernova and Galaxy microfine glitters.  So Sparkly!!  I attached them to the frame with mini Glue dots.

The back of the calendar is covered with a 12x12 sheet of textured cardstock in Riding Hood Red, and I used strips of a red Ski Slope DSP to make a border.  I chose a Baja Breeze print Ski Slope DSP for the front window background.  I didn't stick in the page, as I wanted to be able to re-do one with each year's christmas tree kid pic.

The page is 8x8", on Baja Breeze textured cardstock.  I used the "So Swirly" wheel to decorate one edge, and sponged the other sides with Baja ink.  The photo is matted on Old Olive, with a border made with the Scallop Trim border punch.  A strip of Real Red cardstock is at one side, with faux stitching made with the Mat Pack kit and white gel pen.  Under the other side of the photo I used strips of Ski Slope paper cut into banner shapes.  The "Christmas" stamp is from Basic Phrases, and the "Joy" is from Welcome Christmas,  I stamped in Marina Mist, but it still wasn't 'popping' from the background as well as I'd like, so I traced around with the white gel pen to match the stitching doodles.  A snowflake from Snow Swirled was stamped in Whisper White Craft ink and punched out with the scallop circle, and I stamped the ornaments from the Tree Trimmings set in Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Real Red and Old Olive, mounting them on dimensionals and drawing 'strings' in with more gel pen.

The finishing touches were the drawer contents, but they are all long gone!!!  The little drawers are a good size to put praline chocolate balls and mini chocolate santa figures (I got mine from Aldi because I love their Moser Roth choc balls!)  You could probably squeeze in about 6 balls.

Hope you like, I am looking forward to bringing it out again for this coming Christmas, and making a new insert page with my cherubs.

Back again  soon!  (sooner than last time I promise!!)

We're BAAAACCCKK!

Kim and I are back from a week in Bawley Point, and after a jam packed weekend are ready to go with bloggings again. Thanks very much to everyone who was able to come to our Summer Mini Catalogue Launch yesterday, we hope you enjoyed seeing many of the products in use! I'll be posting pictures of the Make and Take projects we offered soon .

For now, here's a project I made for a Secret Santa. Underneath is a tin that I saved from a china mug I bought, and was nice and easy to decorate with flat smooth sides. The papers are the delectable Bella Rose Designer Series. I used the wonderful Circle Scissor to cut the layers for the top of the tin (after demo'ing a number of times yesterday I can confidently say I am now a Circle Scissor expert!!!) using Riding Hood Red and Pink Pirouette cardstock to match the paper. It's so easy to pull a project together like this when everything matches so nicely - it's a simple matter of choosing a paper design you like, a couple of the matching cardstocks, some matching ribbon and stamp using matching ink colours! And with things like the Pretties Kit flowers, used here in the hat pin, which can be coloured with reinkers to match any colour you like, you have an ideal finishing touch to match. I have also used the Eyelet Border punch to decorate the strips on the tin base. The stamps are from the "Dreams du Jour" set, and I watercoloured them using a blender pen and inkpad puddle. I added some layered flowers to the central motif, and glazed them with Crystal Effects. It did blur the ink a little, but I decided I liked the soft effect and left it that way. I hope my recipient Angie finds it useful as a keeping tin for bits and bobs.

And now for something COMPLETELY different!!

Here's a bit of an oddball post, and it has nothing at all to do with stamping! I was shopping last week with the kids and we happened to see some fluffy pencil cases. As it is the beginning of kindergarten in just 2o something days for Lillian, she naturally wanted one. As did Ciaran, who has most definitely inherited his mother's love of all things stationery! Hmm, says I, looking at the hefty price tag and the rather ordinary quality.

Spotlight happened to be just across the road, and I promised them I would sew them each a furry pencil case. Off we trooped, and found a dazzling selection of fake fur. I was thinking that Miss Lillian would definitely go for pink, and she surprised me by deciding on a steely grey that she named "Bentley" - he's our pretty British Blue cat. Having named the colour, she then decided, naturally, that the pencil case should look like a cat. Hmm. OK, well, we'll buy some pink too. Ciaran is my Mr Orange, always has been, so I thought that would be his choice. Wrong AGAIN - he chooses Leopard Print!

I made them in an evening, and they were quite fun. I lined them with some mid-weight denim, and made them with open end zippers (which makes assembling them easier as the zipper seams are enclosed to make them open smoothly) I like this style of pencil case with the sipper down the middle because it sits nicely on the desk without spilling the contents.

Lillian's has a pink 'tongue', and they both have a tie of ribbon to make opening the zip easier.

At least I know that amongst a host of smiggle/barbie/dora/smash pencil cases, they will both have something pretty unique. I made a couple of smaller zipped purse pouches with the excess width of the fabric, so they have a matching pouch for their lunch money too. Cool hey!

Teacher Gifts with Raspberry Tart and a Happy New Year

Two thousand and ten. Twenty Ten. Neither of those sound right, although the preferred version seems to be the first. Dunno why really, I grew up in the previous millenium (yeah, I'm THAT old! ) and we were firmly in the habit of saying Nineteen Ninety-one etc. All I know is that the years are accelerating!

Here are a couple of pics of the teacher gifts I made for Ciaran's main teacher. As with last year, I also made some mini fruit cakes again . I took a Heaven Hot Chocolate tin, saved from when they still made that delicious stuff, and decorated it using the yummy Raspberry Tart papers and matching Kiwi Kiss/Vanilla double sided satin ribbon. On the top I layered two Felt Fusion flowers and a Kiwi Kiss corduroy button from the Spring Mini. I tied them together with some (retired) pink Organza ribbon, as it had the right degree of "floatiness" (and I could thread it through the button holes!) The pencil erasers (still very much in demand in Year Two) have been decorated using scraps of various Stampin' Up! Designer Series Papers. The little cards with ribbon snips were stamped on Confetti Cream using some of the cute images from the Teacher's Pet stamp set. I jazzed them up a little with either scallop or eyelet lace border punches, and layered them onto Bold Brights cardstock. I coloured the images using a blender pen and Watercolor Wonder Crayons. They are blank at the bottom and the back, so the lovely Mrs Ward can write a little note to the recipient. I hope she liked it, must make a change from coffee cups and chocolates, as useful as those are!

Mini Gift Box - step by step

Yeah, I know, it was supposed to be LAST week. I always forget just how hard it is to get anything done when school hols are on and both kids are home. Especially when the weather dictates that they are in the pool while I sit poolside with a book! Anyway, better late than never, here is my step-by-step photo tutorial on how to make a cute little box, out of just half a sheet of A4 cardstock. This is a box we made at the recent Stampin' Up! Regional training, using the Hello Again set. I have made it several times since, because it is easy, fast and economical. I hope you like my instructions and photos - click on each image if you would like to get a clearer view.

Standard A4 sheet, no trimming, just cut in half as if you were making two A5 folded cards, and then into A6 rectangles, four from one sheet.

I have drawn pencil lines on one of the pieces to indicate where to score - 1" in from each side and each end. Do this for 2 pieces if making one box, or all 4 if you are making two.

On the left hand side is the box base. Cut in to the horizontal score lines from each short end. For the other half of the box, which will become the lid, cut two corner pieces away completely, up to the score lines. On the other side, cut just to the score line from the short end, as for the base. Take a circle punch and take a half chomp half way along the longer edge.

Decorate now, it's easier when flat! I have used Versamark and the Winter Post stamp set here, and a band of the same snowflake stamped in Baja Breeze over the top. It's also a great size for using your Stampin' Around wheels - then it is an easy matter of using the co-ordinating stamp set to decorate the tag or accent for the box.

Apply Sticky Strip super strength double sided tape to the corners as shown. Then remove the red liner plastic and assemble the lid and base.

After making the lid and base, add another piece of Sticky Strip along the back edge. A bit lower than where I have placed it would be better...

Line up the lid flap with the back of the box base and stick into place. Done!!

Now you can decorate it as you please. I have added a simple tag stamped with the snowflake again, and overstamped with a silver embossed reindeer. I added some Dazzling Diamonds, using my 2 way glue pen. I mounted the 1 3/4" circle onto a 2" scallop circle punched from Brushed Silver metallic cardstock. Then I tied a piece of white taffeta around, and looped a piece of the sadly retired silver cord around it to complete the box. It's a great size for a little treat, and quick to make!

Make Life Prettier with Paper and Stamps!

Here are a couple of projects I have made to make my everyday essentials look a little more attractive.

The first project was to cover my brain. Yes, that IS my brain, well, at least a very important external adjunct of it. I have pretty much always needed to carry a notebook with me to jot things down in, being a list maker from way back. But now, with 2 kids and a pretty full-on schedule, I find it absolutely critical, or important things tend to fall through the holes! I used Bella Bleu Designer Series papers and the matching cardstock colours of Kraft, Very Vanilla and Not Quite Navy. I used the Spiral punch to make the cardstock fit the wire binding cover, and added a few extra snips where necessary (different brands have different pitch for the wire spacing) I then tied some ribbon scraps around the wires, which hides them nicely and adds interest. I stamped some Damask images from Friends 24-7 on the Kraft, using Sahara Sand ink, and on the Very Vanilla band at the base of the layering with the different matching cardstocks and couple of different paper designs. The label is made with the scallop circle and circle punch, and I made the title with the Calendar Alphabet - nice small letters so great for personalised greetings and sentiments. I can't remember where the "the" came from right now, but it was part of a sentiment from a current set that I inked up in marker. I have also used the very pretty Eyelet Border punch, and tied some hemp twine and tafetta ribbon around the band before adhering. I made a bookmark from a piece of Vanilla tafetta, threaded with some beads from the Pretties kit. At the base, which I accidentally chopped off in the picture is a filigree brad with a clear rhinestone brad in the centre. Purty, no? Purty useful anyway!

Next up is my boring black office diary. I buy my diaries for functionality rather than looks, but I figured it sure could use some dressing up!! I was concerned about the longevity of the finish, and intended spraying it with some sealant, but haven't gotten around to it yet, and several weeks later it looks almost as good as new. The top section is Barely Banana textured cardstock. an the bottom layer is smooth Not Quite Navy cardstock. The centre band is a section of the same Bella Bleu DSP that I used for the notebook, and Kraft Eyelet border. I stamped a floral image from the now retired Natural Beauty set, and the butterflies are from the Dreams du Jour set, along with the centre image for the circle motif. I inked up the Dreams image with markers to make it multi coloured and stamped onto Very Vanilla card. There is an Ice rhinestone brand in the centre. behind this is a yummy piece of So Saffron striped grosgrain ribbon. The "Life" sentiment is from the Live Like you Mean it hostess set, and 2009 is from the Calendar alphabet - a must have in your collection!