Want to help Queensland but not sure how?

Two lovely Australian Ladies have got together and are raising money to help those who have been affected by the disaster which has been happening in Queensland. All of us are shocked by the images we have been seeing and the overwhelming feelings of being wanting to help but not sure how.

You can by attending an auction being held on face book. Many mix media artists and scrapbookers from all over the world and many in Australia are donating works of art for you to buy. All money raised is going to the Premier Flood Relief Appeal. I was asked to donate something and I have given one of my albums. Its a 12x12 K & Company Blue Awnings Album with 10 double layouts and 2 single layouts, all ready and done, just waiting for your photos and journing. Keep an eye out for it at the Creative Journey face book Page. There are auctions happening all day every day until they run out of items for you to bid on. There is even a list of people who have donated, with many familiar names on there, so this is your chance to win a piece of work from one of your favorite creative people.

Please help if you can.

Thanks for looking

Jane

Another Page in my Book

There is the next page in my Book. This one is on my Third Darling Daughter. She was married early last year and this just about to celebrate her 1st wedding anniversary- my how time flies. For this page I decided to make a book within a book. This 1st photo shows the page as it looks. The photo of Leah is on the 1st page of the mini book. Note the rose here is done by cutting out lots of the same rose and building it up again petal by petal, I needed 7 copies of the same rose and it took three sheets of paper to do it.

This is the second page of the mini Book

This is the 3rd page

And this is the last, showing Leah as a small child.

I am busy working on projects for CHA and Printblocks, not to mention the Paper and crafts expo.

Starting to think about what to take to LA, if any of you girls who have traveled international before have any tips, I would love to hear.

Thanks for Looking

Jane

PS only 16 sleeps to go and counting!

Tutorial for Making a Frame

In this tutorial I would like to show you how to make a frame around a page using one of the Graphic 45 striped paper. You need to choose a paper that has a repeating patterned least four times. Each pattern must be the same width, if you want your corners to match.

Choose your background paper and leave it the full 12x12 inches. Choose a second print paper to be a contrast and cut it to 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches and tape to the background paper in the middle. In the Halloween in Wonderland layout I used Wonderland Classifieds and my background and my contrast print was Jabberwocky. For my stripe I used Uncommon Nonsense.

Once you have your background page and contrasting page taped together, you are ready to make your frame. Cut your four stripes pieces the same width and place one stripe each side of the contrasting square, leaving a whisker showing on the outer edge. This will make the frame 11 1/8 x 11 1/8. Place a small amount of tape under each stripe in the middle. Don't used too much as you will need to lift the frame off, when the corners are done. Tape the two pieces of frame together at the corners ( but not to the base papers), to make it a bit firmer. Check that your frame is square using a ruler, to do this measure from the outside edge of your frame across at the top and then at the bottom. both measurements should be the same. Turn the page and repeat the other way. If all measurements are the same then your frame will be square.

When happy you can make the mitre in each corner. To do this, use a ruler and measure from inside corner to the outer corner. Mark with a pencil. Do this to all four corners. To make it easier for you to see, I have removed my frame from my page, you don't need to do this yet.

Cut with scissors but only the top layer and not the bottom. Do this to all four corners. To make it easier for you to see I have removed my frame from my page, you don't need to do this yet. Rove the extra bits hanging under the frame and tape down the top corner to the bottom.

Remove the frame in one pieces and turn it over and reinforce with the frame with cardboard along each side of the frame. I always put my frames on my pages with foam tape, this gives depth to my layouts. Be generous with the amount of foam tape you use, as this stops the frame from sagging. Be careful when sticking frame to page. I always stick only a little bit on at a time, rather than trying to do it in one go. You now not only have a frame, but you have a shadow box. You can now build up other pieces on your layout.

Here are another couple of samples of Frame Layouts.

In the Christmas layout I used Bazzill for my background, Yours Truly form my contrast print with Uncommon Nonsense for my Stripe.

In my layout playtime past, I used Always on my Mind, for the background, for my contrast page I used Dolly's tea Party and for my stripe I used Jack and Jill.

Let me know how you get on making a frame, I would love to hear so leave me a comment.
Thanks for looking

Jane

PS Only 19 sleeps to go.

The Next Page

Well its back to work today, and I am finding it hard to settle to anything, so I have decide to update my blog.

Here is the next page in my book. This is one I did for Anna, my special girl, who is the delight and some times the pain of my life. I used the playtime collection for this one. I fell in love with the "Mary Quite Contrary" print, but found it too busy and wondered where I was going to put my photo! So I grabed my fine point scissors and I started cutting. The tree was probably the hardest bit. Then I put it all back together again. I had this lovely photo of Anna on a merry go round when she was about 4yrs. In looking for this photo I found one of her taken 4 yrs ago at water world. Perfect two photos taken 20yrs apart but with the same theme. A scrapbookers perfect excuse for a layout. This was the first time I tried making a frame around my pages and I love the look. I have used this time and time again. I have a tutorial to put on my blog for making this, so I will post it tomorrow if anyone wants to try it. Bits and pieces of the layout are raised up with foam.

thanks for looking

Jane

PS only 23 sleeps to go, still can't believe it.

PPS I am teaching again at Printblocks on March 14th, I know some of you Ladies missed out last time due to not receiving your email, so ring Printblocks and book in. I will be teaching you how to make a book, and it will take all day!

We had a very special Visitor Yesterday!

It was 41c or 107f (for all you ladies shivering over seas) yesterday in Adelaide, and that's in the shade! I decided that as our home does not have air-con that it would be a good idea to work at the shop. Our shop has two big units and the shop stayed a cool 23c all day. I can see out of our double glass doors, and I noticed a lot of people stopping in the car park and peering up at one of the trees on the edge of the car park and foot path. Our shop is in a side street of one of the busy main roads in Adelaide, but as we are close to the foot hills we have a lovely view. So being curious I wandered out to have a look for my self. This Koala was so low down the tree at one could touch him. It is illegal to touch so I just looked and told him how sorry I was that he had to wear his fur coat on such a hot day. I took a stack of photo's as you don't normally see them this close and left him with a contain of water. He is our local Koala and moves around Colonel light Gardens, we had him in a tree just down the road during winter.

Here is one of the Projects I taught at Printblocks in November. Andrew has asked me to teach again in March, and I will be teaching just one project for the whole day, and it will be a book. This wall hanger was a way of teaching lots of different techniques. I used only Graphic 45 papers and all the chipboard is from Imaginarium Designs. We used 4 different embossing powders + sprays, smooch and inks. We stamped and inked our way through the whole project. It is made up of 9 squares each one different. The frame is one from Imaginarium Designs.

The Together square has a prima flower, the flower and chipboard word are sprayed with smooch spritz .

The We don't remember days square is one of my favorite, I love quotes and this one is a favorite.

Anna's square has a chipboard "Tinnies Flourish", embossed in black embossing powder. You need to do it twice to build up the black. It makes it look amazing.

Beth's square is another favorite, it has a "Tinnies Frames" painted with smooch ink and a chipboard word inked black.

The Flower square is two sizzix die flowers - one is Tim Holtz's Tattered Flowers and the other flower die is called 3d flower, you need to roll it up into a tight roll.

Josh's square has one of Imagainarium Designs photo frame, which I cut in half. I inked it with black and stamped a back ground stamp embossed with silver embossing powder. I emboss my chipboard all the time as I love the look.

I have spent most of the week at home and so I don't have anything to show, other than a clean house and no ironing pile in my laundry. I will be at the shop tomorrow and again on Monday before we open on Tuesday.

I will post another of my pages tomorrow or Monday and my Masters projects Tuesday.

Thanks for looking

Jane

PS only 26 sleeps to go and counting down.

Ok, so it's not the Masters Projects

I forgot that in the rush to get my masters projects off, I didn't take any photos. Its now 6pm and I am still at the shop having taught my Graphic 45 Christmas prayer to 10 lovely Ladies, who went home worn out. I was going to show you my masters, but I am too tired to take the photos and then edit them and then post them on my blog. It feels like a job for Monday. Instead I will put another of my pages on my blog for you.

This one is on my Eldest Daughter, it may look familiar as I based a Graphic 45 layout on my book page. Because the book went to Graphic 45 and was to stay there and I loved this page so much I re-did it and changed it so I had it in a 12x12 layout for my album here in Australia. I used the Graphic 45 Bathing Beauty's on the front as a mat for Beth's photo. I love cutting out, so I cut out the three ladies in a row and shaped them to perch on the photo of the lady below. I had two cute photos of Beth, so one went on the front and I made a flap and used some beautiful K&Co hinges I had been saving for that special project! I have a beautiful photo Beth took of herself for the other side of the page. I used Tim Holtz's film strip, Maya road pins, 7 Gypsies Bracelet kit for Beth's title and ribbons. All the rub ons in the book are Creative Imaginations.

I love this range from Graphic 45, I think its the colours that speak to me and I use them over and over again. I also love German Scrap and the way it adds a border to my work. I also love using Graphic 45 to create frames and borders to my layouts.

Hope you enjoy.

Thanks for Looking.

Jane

PS Only 38 Sleeps until I leave for USA and CHA.

It's Jade and My Turn on the Graphic 45's Blog

Hi everyone

It's Jade and my turn on the Graphic 45's Blog today. We both used "once a upon a Spring Time". Jade did an amazing layout, with a gorgeous photo on it. I decided to make a shadow box using one from Imaginarium Designs with French doors. I have not wanted to open my "once upon a springtime" pad, as it is all the paper I have, and I wanted to use it on something special. The box is the perfect project for one of my favorite photos of Anna and Me. Graphic 45 are doing a blog swap with Glue Arts and they kindly sent us some of their products to use. I used their Glue Glider Pro and it made the job so much neater and quicker. I love cutting out and as soon as I saw the Primrose Cottage Print Paper from the collection I knew I wanted to cut it out and drape it over something. It took about 2 hours to carefully cut out the pieces I needed and to put it all together. Well worth the time for the look I ended up with.

Thanks for looking

Special thanks to those to take the time to leave a comment. Its so nice to hear from you and know that someone is enjoying what I do.

Jane

Ps Will post the three Scrapbooking Memories pieces I did for the masters tomorrow and another page from my book over the weekend.

The Next Page in my Book

The Next Page in my book is on my Husband Malcolm. I decided to do a page with a pocket and make tags on Malcolm with each of our children to go in the pocket.

This tag is on Beth our first Child, in the photo I am expecting Anna and only had about 6 weeks to go. Beth and Anna are only 14 months apart. I was 20 when I had Beth.

This is the back of Beth's tag and is of Malcolm in Neo-natal with Anna. She needed special care for the first 4 weeks of her life, which with a 14 month old toddler made life interesting.

When it came to finding a photo of Leah with Malcolm I couldn't find one. So the front of Leah's tag is of all three girls with Malc and Me.

The back of the tag shows Malcolm and Leah on her wedding day. I love this photo of the two of them hugging.

This is Josh's tag our only boy and a delightful surprise after 3 girls.

The back of Josh's tag has Kate our last child and another beautiful Girl. She is a delight and as a toddler she would sit beside me all day watching what I was making and ever touched anything!
The whole page with all the tags in the pocket look great. I should have taken a photo of it but as the book is still in the States, what I have shown will have to do and you will need to use your imagination.

Thanks for looking

Jane

PS Only 44 sleeps to go.

Its my turn on Graphic 45's Blog.

The Design Team at Graphic 45 have been doing a blog swap with Core dinations. They are the company that make embossed Card Stock. I haven't really played with this product before. So thanks to Graphic 45 for giving me the chance. It works like magic, you rub and rub and right before your eyes this embossed pattern appears giving a instant dimension to your paper. I have a thing about clocks, so I couldn't go past the black paper with the clocks hidden underneath. I use a photo of have of my darling eldest daughter and her Grandpa, sharing a quite moment together. It was take at my Mother in laws 70th birthday and with all the hustle and bustle going on around them, they seem to be quite on their own. I washed out most of the colour of the photo, but left a spot of colour on Beth's beautiful auburn hair. I then printed it out on cream criss cross bazzill to give it an aged look. I used one of the Graphic 45 papers to give me the lovely frame around the page. I also used another Graphic 45 paper to do the smaller frame around the photo.

I used some Imaginarium Designs Chipboard for my layout. The little clock was perfect for the top of my page and I found the title fitted it perfectly so I lay the two on top of each other. A larger clock was used to poke out from under the photo.

The other layout I did was on Josh. He has just started work after finishing year 12 a few weeks ago. My little man is no more, and not been my little man for quite a while. I decided to keep this layout simple and use the papers to their best. The background paper is one of the core impressions. The pattered paper has a diamond embossed layer, which when sanded shows beautiful. I rubbed an embossing ink pad all over the paper and then tipped copper embossing powder all over it. I used a paint brush to remove the copper from the diamond pattern in between the embossed diamonds. This means that the sanded diamonds have a light dusting of copper embossing powder over them. I chose another of the embossing papers which had a hounds tooth pattern on it. I sanded it and then stamped a diamond stamp and embossed it with copper embossing powder. I used some Imaginarium Designs chipboard, inked and covered with glossy ascents. I like the simplicity of the layout and the colours work well together.

thanks for looking

Jane

PS Only 46 sleeps to go.

PPS Will post another of my pages of my book tomorrow.

At last - My Book

Here it is at last, I will be posting photos of my book, which is in Scrapbooking and Beyond (Fall Issue) out now, every couple of days for the next few weeks. This was my final project, which I made for Graphic 45's design team call. The guide lines for this project was that Graphic 45 got to keep it. For the first call of the design team, we were asked to submit photos of 10 projects. Graphic 45 suggested that due to the time constraints that we should have started working on a final project as soon as the 10 projects were sent. As I didn't expect to make the final round I had not started anything. I was so amazed to see my name on the list. This meant that I only had about 5 days to do a project and have enough time to get it to the states by the cut off date. It was kinda hard to say goodbye to it, knowing that I would not see it again. To my delight, Graphic 45 loved the book and Diane every kindly brought it back when she visited Printblocks early this year. I attended the event and got quite emotional holding it again, but parted with it again, so it could go back to USA and be hopefully published there. I am now teaching it at Seriously Scrapbooking and making one for myself at the same time. The classes have been running for 4 months now. We do one double page each month. I will be starting a new group in the new year, so if you would like to make your own with me, then ring the shop 82771298 and they will take your details and get back to you with a date later.

So a bit about the book. As the title says, its about the people I love. The first page is on my husband and myself, with a photo of us before we were married and a photo of us taken a couple of years go in Darwin while we were on holiday. I found an old bible book and used the covers to give me a strong hard base for the covers of my book. Each page is made so that the join is hidden and when opened each page looks like a layout. Each page is 7 3/4 inches x 8 1/2 so when you put two together the page is 15 1/2 x 8 1/2 and folded in half. This means that every page had to have papers joined to make it look like it was continuous. Once all the pages where made and folded, I put a strip of paper down the join on the back of the pages, which is what you can see in the middle photo of the spine. I made 7 pages in all, one on Malc and me, Malc and our children, and then one for each of my five children. I would have loved to include my parents and siblings, but because of only having 5 days I had to leave them out. I really love the project and think it is my best work to date. Hope you enjoy looking at my book over the next few weeks, or if you are lucky enough to get your hands on a Scrapbooking and Beyond magazine, and then you will have a copy of your own.

thanks for looking

Jane

PS only 49 sleeps to go.

PPS I am getting ready to make another big book, but in a pop up format with pockets and tags and everything else I can put in. This will be my holiday project, the week the shop is shut. I will post sneak peeks over the Christmas Break.

Graphic 45 Blog Hop

Graphic 45 have teamed up with cord dination to bring you card stock with a difference. It's a pad of embossed cardstock called the Timeless Collection. It includes an excluive collection of Graphic 45 designs embossed on the only sandable Colorcore cardstock. Check out Graphic 45's blog each day to see what we have all been upto and then visit cord dinations to see what they have been up to. Graphic 45 is giving away prizes!!

thanks for looking

Jane

It's Official

I had it confirmed today that I will be teaching at the Scrapbook, Papercraft Expo and Convention. This event is held each year in Brisbane and the dates for next year is 11th -13th of June 2011. I would like to thank Graphic 45 and Printblocks for the opportunity to share my love and passion with everyone attending. I will be teaching 3 classes each day. I hope to do 5-7 different classes some repeated, using "once upon a springtime" and the other new lines we know nothing about yet from Graphic 45, but which will be released at CHA in January. I will be doing layouts, cards, more mini squares and other off the page projects. I will try to let you know when you can book into my classes. Use the link I have created to keep in touch yourself, if you want to. These classes will be open to all and not just people in the trade. That means if you like what I do and would love to do a class, then this is your chance. I would love to see some familiar faces in my classes so please book in.

thanks for looking

Jane