Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Tags for a friend

I've made some tags this week. I laid out my 'place mat' on a corner of the kitchen table and went gung ho making the background and then over the next few days I added pieces until I felt they were complete. 





A Sizzix Tag die.
A collection of cereal boxes. 
Three coats of gesso painted across and allowed to dry. 
More gesso applied vertically and horizontally again. 
This gave the card a lovely texture like Bazzil linen look cardstock. 
It also made the card stronger and flexible. 




Scribble the main colour in awesome Gelatos and apply a wet wipe to create your background colour. 
Add various colours of Gelatos and blend in with a damp finger until you're happy with the finish. 
I've used a combination of red, pink, yellow and green. 

Using various stencils add textured paint or similar. 




 Add ink! The black was a little bold in some places 
so I quickly dabbed off some before it dried. 
The Stamp set used is from Close to My Heart
I will edit this when I find the set for details!!











The yellow tag has a brown powder added to the bricks and the pink tag has metallic gilding wax from Creative Expressions which, I found difficult to use. I had to use a stiff piece of plastic to 'dig' it out of the tiny pot and then used my finger to smudge it over the bricks. It didn't want to stay in place in the beginning but after it softened up a bit...!  It was bought from a destash Facebook group. Maybe it was a little old but I will keep using it because I enjoy the effect it adds. 




As said earlier, over the next few days I embellished the tags until I felt they were done. 
I enjoy this process but it also gets frustrating finding the perfect pieces to make it just so! 

Constantly visiting Pinterest too for inspiration. 








I completed the yellow envelope and the pink lace tag first. Using bits left over including the packaging of some of those pieces I made the house tag. Under the house is a transparency from a Basic Grey collection that goes back a few years. The yellow of the house is a piece of cardboard cut from a scrap, leftover from cutting the tags. I grabbed a yellow gelato and swiped it with a wet wipe. 

The windows. 
The Halloween tag is embellished with two pins. They're part of a swap I was in 6 years ago! The pins arrived in cute homemade packaging and the windows are cut from that - already coloured and they've been edged in gold. 


The letter f is an ancient rub on from a fabulous packet of mixed rub-ons I received a long time ago. It was actually in my box of things to give away! It was pretty cool to discover they're still in good nick!

There was no planning for these tag fronts, just looking through containers packed away,  picking up bits and pieces off the kitchen table and looking at them differently from their original purpose.
Its a great way to use up items/embellishments you've had for a while but don't want to get rid of them because there is still life in them.




Thursday, July 26, 2018

Postcrossing 3

Just a few of the postcards I've sent to fellow Postcrossers this year. 

I made this from a Whittakers chocolate wrapper and some washi tape. In the profile of the recipient they said they would be happy to receive postcards made of food wrappers of your country and for me Whittakers is right up there! 



Most of my postcards I've bought from Pikitia, based in Tauranga, just 20 mins from my home in the Bay of Plenty. I try hard to choose a postcard that I think the recipient might like based on their profile, gotta tell you though....it's damn hard sometimes!  
Dr Who? Sherlock Homes anyone? 



The Beehive, NZ's parliament house in Wellington



 Our national bird the Kiwi





Our beautiful Kauri trees are dying. 
I hope our scientists discover a means to 
save them before it's too late!!  




My favourite postcard to date from Pikitia




Sunday, July 22, 2018

Postcrossing II

Four of these postcards arrived on the same day! 


I like the ink smudge on this, it looks well travelled! That's not to say I would like to receive marked postcards of course! 
Bronze Sculpture. 
"Let us beat our Swords into Ploughshares"
by Evgeny Vuchetich
New York


Bavaria


Canada of course! 

What about the iceberg that's threatening the little village in Greenland?!! 
It weighs 11 million tons! Freaky! 


Malaysia


Taiwan



The Paper Teapot Scrapbook Kit

 Four of the layouts I made from the June Kit. 
There are lot's of pieces left to make a few more layouts yet :D








Three Mini Albums for some lovely ladies that I had the good fortune to work with over Autumn. 

Lots of flaps to open! 







I made three albums the same but used different papers/embellishments for each. I was rapt that I didn't need to buy anything extra to complete them except for more adhesive. 











I spent a lot of time searching Pinterest for a mini album tutorial. I wanted something fun! I  didn't have a lot of photo's but I also wanted space for the recipients to write down anything they wanted. Katherine McElvain had the perfect tutorial at Bella Blvd Studio Blog. Of course there are similar albums around but this tutorial was so easy to follow! 

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Bach Crop

Bach Crop

I had a fabulous weekend staying at Mt Maunganui where I got to scrap the whole weekend with like minded people. I wanted to make good use of the time I was away from home and I think I did great. I had no kits, pre plans or pre cut anything. But I did make a visit to Pinterest the night before and printed off a few for inspiration









Friday, February 2, 2018

Scrapping is still a very favourite thing of mine I like to do but I wanted to share a new thing...I'm  a member of Postcrossing and enjoy receiving postcards from around the world. Today I received this one and I love it so much! I love it because it brought back memories of my life at home with my parents, sisters and my youngest brother in the 70's! 


Stockholm




These are some of the postcards I've received since I registered with Postcrossing last year.



Japan



Vintage/Tower of London


Czech Republic


Street view/Jena
Germany


Germany