Meg's Garden: Forgotten Meadows Long Stitch Book

Hey all you create creatures out there reading my blog post today.

I got something new and oh so awesome for you. Well, I think it is awesome none-the-less. 

Now I have tried my hand at book making for a while and have done many coptic stitch and other binding methods before. This time I tried long stitch. I am so impressed with the outcome, I had to show you all. 

 There is a youtube clip at the end of the post that shows the whole process of making the book and it was a lot of fun.

I decided to use the Forgotten Meadows Collection and make a leather bound journal with the Long Stitch binding method. There are a few different tutorials out there, but I used this particular tutorial which seems simple and easy to do.

The two library card I put at each end of the book. Which I filled with tags and some of the journal cards that come in the kit.

I printed out three copies of the book pages from the kit. I used the line page to print of the back of all the pages too as I will use this book for notes while out and about.  

The book was the be for note taking while I was out so I didn't want to add any flowers or balky embellishing.  The book closes up nicely and will be very handy in the future. 

Remember to watch the video to see the making of the book and the final project.

Thank you so much for reading this post and I hope you like the project.

Please leave a comment or any questions.

Meg's Garden: Cards of Forgotten Meadows

Hello crafters and thank you for visiting my blog today. 

I have some step cards I have made with the new collection from Meg's Garden Forgotten Meadows that was released in February .

I really love the ephemera in this collection, which I really wanted to use for the cards. I am not big on the whole having "happy birthday" or " happy anniversary" on the front of the card, I like making generic cards where that information is written in on the inside to the recipient of the card. This gives me free reign to do whatever I want on the outside of the card.

For the first step card I used the Mini/card maker pack of Forgotten Meadows. I used the ephemera from the 12 inch Cut and Create page which has some wonderful ephemera.  I also used some of the Mini Rose Braid at the base of the card and the lovely paper flowers and rose buds.  The small bottles are also available as Meg's Garden and I love adding them to small cards as a bit of a feature. These two I filled with some of the ephemera rolled up. The inking around the edge of the paper is done with Tim Holtz Tea Dye distress ink.

For this second card I have use those wonderful paper leaves and paper flowers again, there is however this time a small white fabric Heirloom flower.  I found a Filigree Oval metal embellishment, a Tim Holtz pen nib and Word Band in my stash which works well. The edges are inked with Pumice Stone to add some contrast but not drown out that lilac in the wisteria on the paper.

I hope you like these two cards and please leave a comment or questions. Thanks for visiting my blog today.

The Coming of Age of a Young Man.

Hello there crafters. Welcome to my blog again. 

Today I have a treat for you. My nephew turned 18 this weekend. I have been very busy the last couple weeks, but I whipped this card up last week for the birthday celebration.

As you may have worked out by now, I love easel cards. They are so much fun to make, I find as you get to adorn the inside of the card as well. 

The card is 6x4 inches and I made the envelope for it specifically as the card had a bit of depth to it that I didn't want to try and jam into a standard envelope.

For the gears I used this technique to emulate rust. 

 I hope you like this card, please feel free to leave a comment or question.

I also entered this card in a GEAR it UP challenge over at http://sandee-and-amelie.blogspot.co.at. The challenge can be see over here: http://sandee-and-amelie.blogspot.co.at/2015/03/gear-it-up-march-steampunk-challenge.html

Dare to be different

HI creative types and regular readers.

I have a Halloween special for you. Last year on Halloween my brother sent me this photo before he went off to a party. Something to know about my brother and I is if you are going to make and effort at all we do a really good job of it. 

With this layout my aim was working with textures. So I did a lot of black on black with a few textile stamps with silver.

With this layout my aim was working with textures. So I did a lot of black on black with a few textile stamps with silver.

The lettering and circles were done using my Silhouette Cameo again.

Some Market Research

Hello dear readers.

I hope that many of you could do my a big big favour and complete a short survey for me.  It is through facebook, so you can either complete it here or use this link to head over to the survey. Please feel free to share this survey with any friends or family too that do crafting as well.

I do apologize for the dark text on dark background, this is why I have added the facebook link.



Many thanks in advance.

The Individual

Hi readers! A new post for you.

So, another photo of my big brother from his visit in 2014. This layout is one of my favourites. 

Materials list:
Prima Marketing Ledger Paper, Tim Holtz Ideology Word Band, Kaisercraft texture script stamp, Creative Embellishment Compass Rose, Kaisercraft texture Stains stamp, Imaginarium Design Edward Relief chippy,Hero Arts Silhouette Feather. Various gears and Cogs. Scrap bits of card stock. True Hemp Crafter's Cord.

I also entered this LO in a GEAR it UP challenge over at http://sandee-and-amelie.blogspot.co.at. The challenge can be see over here: http://sandee-and-amelie.blogspot.co.at/2015/03/gear-it-up-march-steampunk-challenge.html

Meg's Garden Design Team project: A Different Age

Hello readers. Welcome to another blog post of mine. 

I wanted to try something a little new and different with this DT project. I loved the new papers at Meg's Garden because of the subtlety of the design on them. From there I was inspired the try doing most, if not all, the embellishments in all white. 

I started by doing some texture medium stenciling with a damask stencil...or two in the back ground. I chose a irridescent blue mostly because that color fitted for me. and then I did some senceling over the top of that with just the texture past.  I then did some misting with the Navy Blue spray in the heidi Swapp Colour Shine range.

Then came the fun bit. Gessoing all the metal and chipboard embellishments. It takes a little while and you have to do a couple coats but the finished product is awesome!

I also used the Cottage Foliage dye cut and also some sprays that I cut with my Silhouette just to add a bit more depth.

Compiling the whole thing from there was pretty easy. I started to just build up with bgg pieces on the background and then tucking things in and adding the dye cuts and finally the paper flowers.

Once it was all dry I did think about adding some green leaves but it just didn't look right. I also gessoed a leaf and it still didn't look right, so I left it as is.

Product List

Butterfly Garden Collection

Metal Embellishments

Chipboard Oval Butterfly Frame

Vintage beauty Strips

Cottage Foliage die cut

Paper Flowers

Gardenia Flowers

Always looking so mischievous

Hi there readers, welcome again to another post. 

This is another one of those quick layouts I did in December. This is of a really good friend of mine who has a habit of looking a bit mischievous when I get photos of him.

As mentioned previously this layout like the others was done quickly with embellishments I could get my hands on quickly. I used some stenciling with texture paste and also inking. With this layout I also added a bit of crackle paint.  Some of the embellishments are Prima clocks, Creative Embellishments circles chippies, some film strip from Tim Holtz. I also had a Silhouette Cameo film strip in my stash too.

Meg's Garden Forgotten Meadows

Hello creative readers.

Today I want to talk about the new collection at Meg's Garden called Forgotten Meadows that I designed.

The inspiration for the collection comes from one of my favourite movies that I watch a few times a year. Howards End (1992) starring Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins and Vanessa Redgraves.

Set at the beginning of the 20th century in England. Vanessa Redgraves play the wife of a successful businessman who is very sick, and wants dearly to show her family home Howards End to her new friend played by Emma Thompson.  The part that inspired the collection was something Vanessa Redgraves said about the Howards End cottage. " It's in the morning my house looks most beautiful." This is because in the film the cottage is surrounded by meadows of grass and flowers and the way the morning sunlight hit the meadows is just beautiful.

My direction for this collection was a softer romantic feeling with a very subtle vintage aged look. I hope you like it and find it as inspiring as I was to make it. The collection is available in the 12 in single side papers, the mini/cardmakers pack, and a book kit as a digital download or printed medium.
So, head over to the webstore and buy your self the new collection and happy crafting!

The Forgotten Meadows Collection

The Forgotten Meadows Book Kit

 Video Reveals of the collection

Bye for now
Meg & Kerry-Jean
www.megsgarden.com
megsgarden@outlook.com

My Big Brother

Hey Crafters, 

After my move 4 weeks ago, I found some layouts I had been working on during December.

During December, while in my second stint of recovery from my surgery, I pulled out some photos of my brother and did some quick layouts. I had some recent photos from his visit to Adelaide in 2014 and a few I pinched off his Facebook gallery. 

  

I didn't spend too much time of planning these layouts and just grabbed papers and embellishments and put it all together in under an hour. I rather enjoyed the process, sometimes it is just good to do things a little differently. Stops activities from becoming predictable. 

The idea was to use methods and techniques I hadn't for a while. Stamping and sprays and things along that line. Also pulled out embellishments that I haven't used for a while. Overall it was a load of fun and now that my craft corner is set up I might do this regularly. 

Meg's Garden Design Team Project: Butterfly Book Kit

Hello there crafters 

I am finally getting back into the swing of things after recovery, Chrissy, New Years and also moving house. Seems I like to jam a lot of things in to a small space of time. 

All that said, I still found some time to make a mini album with the Butterfly Book Kit available from Meg's Garden. 

The mini is of course Kathy Orta's All Occasions Mini of which I have made about 10 in all and really do enjoy creating them. I have added a youtube video at the bottom of this post so you can see the mini in action.  The one difference is I used a different hinge method which I actually prefer to the hidden hinge.

I pulled out all of my flowers from my Meg's Garden stash and went a little nuts, but really love the final product. I added a few Kaisercraft wood embellishments which are covers in crackle paint from Rangers to add to the overall feel I was going for. 

I even went as far as to add flowers and leave to the pages on the inside. And using the stacking hinge method meant I had a lot more space between the pages to add things. 

I included a lot of model paste stenciling and also some ink stenciling to give the pages some more dimension.

Here is the video, and remember to leave any comments or questions to this blog post or the video. 

Thanks for visiting.

Product list

Butterfly Book Kit

Paper Flowers and Leaves

Vintage Brads

Mini Rose Braid

Customer 21st Card

Hi there card makers.

I got a call from a family member while in the middle moving. luckily enough it didn't take me long to unpack the craft kit and create this for their friends upcoming 21st in January.