Saturday 30 August 2014

My Watson Grandparents

Hi there creative readers!

I was looking through my layouts from the last year and realised I didn't have many of the paternal grandparents, which is a little odd as i was closer to the than I was my maternal grandparents purely through geography.


Here we have Peggy and Ryan Watson. Sadly Peggy passed away 20 years ago the night before my mother and I left South Africa. Ryan passed away a while later. I spent a lot of time with these grandparents as they live in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. We would have Sunday roast at their place most weekends. Ryan was a hobbyist photographer and Peggy made various things from knitting to sewing and making my barbie clothes.

For my layout of this particular photo of them I have used Marion Smith's Nirvana Collection which I got from Meg's Garden. I did a bit of senceling and misting of the background too. I love the cut & create pages from Marion which I have used in this layout.

I hope you like and please leave a comment or any questions

Happy Crafting!

Wednesday 27 August 2014

Custom card

Hello readers!

So a few weeks back I get a call from a family member at about 7pm while I was at work. Work was hectic so I didn't answer but sent a txt a little later on asking if everything was ok. 

Family member wanted an urgent birthday card for a friend. Phew! 

So I made this for his friend. 




What can I say I love using butterflies as much as I do gears and cogs.

Please feel free to leave a comment or a question.

Happy Crafting!

Monday 25 August 2014

4in strip book with Back to Back binding

So a few months ago I was going through my scrap paper and found I have a large amount of 4 inch strips as I had been doing a fair amount of work in 8 inches. I was about to finish my last photo journal and started working on a way to use up all these strips of paper.  From watching many craft videos on binding methods I opted for what I call a back to back binding method. There is a youtube video at the end of this post where I show the basic construction of one of these books.








I have four of these books now all ready and waiting for photos to go in them. I might even give a few away as presents.

Please feel free to ask any questions or make any comments

Saturday 23 August 2014

Photo Journal #2

Hi Crafters

Back in March I showed you my first coptic stitch bound photo journal which I was very proud of and really enjoyed the entire project from making the book to filling it and completing it. I had to do it all over again only this time I wanted to make it bigger. Little did I know HOW MUCH BIGGER it would be.










Here is a video of me talking about the project and going through the second photo journal.



I hope you have enjoyed this and are inspired to maybe give it a try your self.

Leave a comment or any questions.

Friday 22 August 2014

Book cover with Tea Stained Lace


Hi crafters!

I have a great project to show you today. I wanted to pay with staining lace with tea to see how it would turn out. I have some lovely cotton and synthetic lace from Meg's Garden that had been sitting in my stash that I thought would be perfect for this project.

There is a video at the end of this post where I talk about how I went about doing this project.









I hope you like this project as much as I do.

Please feel free to leave a comment or any questions. 


Thursday 21 August 2014

Custome Card: Jo's Birthday card

Once or twice a year I hear from a friend in Western Australia who asks for a birthday card for his partner and sometimes a sister.
Here is Jo's birthday card for this year, I think it is the 3rd in a row. 




I tend to get free reign with what I can make. I know Jo and she is a one of a kind, which is what I work with. This year I went with a steampunk style with a bold and defined feel as Jo is not a frilly girly girl, which I can relate to making my job rather simple. 

I have used Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante, which I have had sitting in my paper collection for a couple years waiting for the perfect project to use it. Some Prima Market gears that were painted with Tim Holtz distress daubers (love the metallics). The acetate is a quarter pages from a Kaisercraft acetate page and the wood flourish is also from Kaisercraft which was painted black with Glossy crackle of the surface.

Jo was over the moon about her card, hope you readers like it too. 

Leave a comment or a question.



Sunday 10 August 2014

Correspondence The traveling mans brother

Greetings to all the bloggers out there.


This dashing young man is my maternal grandfather, Adriaan 

Back 2006 mother and I arranged for a large suitcase of family photos to be sent to us in Perth, Australia.
I was amazed at many of the picture mostly because they showed my mother parents younger than what I knew them as. It was like being introduced to total strangers. My grandparents were well in to their late 70's early 80's by the time I was born, so I never saw them as children or young adults. My grandfather would be in his mid thirties in the portrait.


So for this layout I wanted to combine the new Correspondence Collection with some of the previous Meg's Garden collections and some French Writing Ephemera. The Hot Air Balloons were a nice add to the photo and the feel of the layout. 



Saturday 2 August 2014

Family Album Speed freak and The one of all of us

HI there crafters!

I have been adding to my massive family album that I created and finished not to long ago. I will be doing a video of all the files soon so that you can all see what I have been doing. 


I found some wonderful pics of my older brother when he was a littl'in, They were standard prints but I love using those Kaisercraft polaroid frames, which I had a few left. I didn't want to make the layout too complicated, so I kept it simple with a few embellishments. 




This was a family shot taken back in 2001. My dad decided before he left to go live in the UK he would head down to Walpole, Western Australia to surprise my brother for his birthday, who was living down there with my mother at the time. Well the Lada 4x4 broke down halfway and the surprise was a bust as we had to get my mother and brother to come rescue us at Manjimup. For various reasons it wasn't the best of trips and the photo kind of captured that. By the time this photo was taken we were all very independent individuals and the idea of family unity was a very much over with.

That may seem like a sad story, but it is at least an honest one. I feel as a scrapbooker, it is unrealistic to expect there to always be happy moments to memorialise on the page.



Friday 1 August 2014

Mother to be

A work colleague recently has taken leave from my other job to have her baby. My boss was going to BUY a card, at which point I stepped up and said I would be happy to make a card. This is what I created for her, which apparently made her day when she was given the card by the boss.





All the best Jodie with your baby. Don't be a stranger.