Shabby Advent Calendar

This is an Advent calendar we made in a class I taught last month:

I took the photo when there were 39 days left until Christmas. Now there are 6. Dunno what happened in between, but I think everything is ok. There haven't been any policemen knocking at the door so if something did happen, I reckon I got away with it ;)

This is a Collections chipboard frame, covered with FabScraps papers, paint and a couple of flowers. I strung some twine from one end to the other and pegged the numbers to it. It's so light I have it blu-tacked to a wall and it's so easy to change the days as we hurtle uncontrollably toward Christmas. The numbers are a Darkroom Door set called Big Numbers and they are perfectly distressed for this type of project.

I have a couple more Christmas posts coming - stay tuned!

A mass of ATCs

I'm part of a group that meets once a month to make and occasionally swap ATCs. One of our themes this year was houses, and I remembered I had a tonne of little chipboard houses made by Collections. Here's what I made:

This process took over two months, as I kept getting interrupted with other work and kids. I covered the houses with Collections patterned paper, and stuck them on a base that was covered with KaiserCraft papers (Base Coat or Curiosity). The base had been stencilled with a Crafter's Workshop stencil and some blue acrylic paint.

I love seeing things en masse! Thanks for stopping by today.

more Collections cards for Craft Queen

I made more cards last year as part of my guest DT spot at Craft Queen. Here are another two:

I made the flower from some gorgeous ruffled satin ribbon, with another little flower in the centre of it.

This one is simply four tiles with dimension:

Nicole has a full materials list on the Craft Queen blog if there's a product I've used that you simply MUST have :)

The Melbourne Scrapbook Expo is on in a couple of weeks, so if you're wanting to do my class, or any other, head over to the website to book yourself in.

Classes at August 2012 Paperific

Here's a little sneak peek of the project we'll be making at Paperific at the end of the month:

It's a little heart shaped printers tray using lots of Collections products. Lots of girly glittery yumminess.

Bookings can be made through Little Bits on 03 9798 4122. Hope to see you there!

Grey and White thank you card

Here's another Craft Queen share:

Lots of Collections goodies and some of the huge variety of ribbons and trims stocked by the Craft Queen.  The full ingredients list can be found on the Craft Queen blog.
Thanks for dropping in.

I'm baaaaaack!

Three and a half wonderful weeks - Christmas then seeing in the new year, and then just hanging with the family, learning to rest again.
I've got heaps to catch this little blog up on, which is going to be difficult with a shaped internet service. That's what you get when three little children get iPods for Christmas and discover YouTube I suppose!!
I'll start today with this canvas I put together for an ArtyOz 1-4-1 swap. It's a 5x7, and it was for Lucy who likes reds and creams:

I started with some Teresa Collins papers, a dressform by Collections, some red flowers from Prima and some wings and white flowers I had in my stash. A bit of modelling paste, buttons and acrylic paints and the canvas was done.

Lucy tells me I accidentally signed the back "Teresa - 2010" which is just an indicator of where my mind was! Eck! I do hate that stress I put myself under every December. This year will be different - I've promised myself.

Before I go, I'll share some of the insanity that goes on around these parts. This is my mate Max, who thought it was a little unusual for me to be taking pictures of something other than him.

Sniff sniff, what's this?

That would look awesome in my kennel!

How heavy is it?

Quick, before she catches me!

I got it back pretty bloody quickly! He thought it was just hilarious - I'm sure he was laughing at me, the cheeky mutt!

A vintage chic printer's tray

Here's a full pic of the sample I made for the class I taught at Paperific this year:

I also taught this class last night at Little Bits. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun teaching a class. There were lots of smiles and people looking pretty chuffed with themselves when they completed their trays. I love seeing that!

I must say a huge thanks to Julie of Collections - she keeps bringing out amazing products that I just grow to love. She's a creative inspiring soul, and so generous with her knowledge.

I'll walk you around the compartments now.  Here's the top row up close:

That's tea-stained muslin glued to a chipboard heart in the first compartment. The second has a couple of little weeny glass bottles sitting on top of an antique ruler shelf. The third has a couple of chipboard keys, stained with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink (they look rusted, don't they?), then there's a pile of little buttons and a Love Letters image from Darkroom Door (about the only thing not Collections in the whole project!).

This is the second row:

Here we have an image of the two little girls (sisters maybe?), fussy cut and sitting on top of another piece of antique ruler.  The next compartment has the letters a that come with the tray. These are glued together and inked with Frayed Burlap.  The last compartment has another image fussy cut, sitting on some muslin all behind a broken window (it's really some acetate that has been torn with a jagged edge - bit hard to photograph).  She's in front of a background that looks like pressed tin - it's really just Cuttlebug embossed chipboard that's got a coat of paint on it.

This is the bottom row:

This is a fussy cut butterfly (I tell you, everyone who did my class said "Please Teresa, can we cut out more things? We love cutting little things out."  Not really - just about everyone whinged about that part LOL).  The butterfly has one image glued flat, and the other has only its body glued - the wings are bent up.  The very last compartment has a couple of  Labels Six Nestabilities as a base, and some fun paper rolls holding up some words. I love making paper rolls - I feel that I failed to pass on this love to the majority of the people in my class. ( More whingeing at this point).

Hope you found my little tour at least a little interesting. If it inspires you to make your own printers tray, I'd love to check it out.

 

If it's good the first time.....

 ...why not stick with it?  Remember this card? Well, I liked it so much that when my friend Helen asked me to make a card for a 21st, I thought I'd use the idea again.

Here it is in different colours:

I used some of my favourite Melissa Frances papers, one of the Pink Paislee artisan elements, some pearls (colour matched with Copics), ribbon, a chipboard key painted white and the stamp is by Savvy Stamps.  Here's a close up of the cluster:

The key is a vital ingredient for any 21st card. This one is made by Collections, and looks fabulous painted white.

Thanks for looking!

 

August Paperific class

We've organised a class to teach at Paperific this August 26 through 28. It's one of the beautiful Collections printers trays, done up in shabby pink and cream, with all the little things you'd expect from a Collections type project.  Here's a little peek:

 

All the details can be found on the Paperific website, and bookings can be made through Little Bits on 03 9798 4122. 

Hope to see you there!

 

Gail's tiles

This is the set of chipboard tiles I made for my friend Gail for her birthday (ahem, cough cough - her birthday was in August, but better late than never, right?):

A few friends formed a group and the idea was that on our birthday we would receive 16 tiles from 6 or 7 other people.  The year started enthusiastically, with some people even receiving their tiles early. Life got in the way, however, and here's poor Gail waiting months for tiles from me. I was determined to get them done, and a huuuge purge of craft supplies and a good room tidy later, here they are in her chosen colour scheme of cream, black and gold.

Here's a close up of some of my favourites:

Most of the products used here are by Collections Elements. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Inspired.

The day in the magical studio of felter Elizabeth Armstrong has inspired me to display more work in my own studio.

I've got a box full of work that isn't out on display, so when I was spring cleaning the other day I pulled it out and found a set of Thrinchies (three inch squares) from a swap last year. We had to use Collections products for this swap. I decided to put them on a canvas and hang them up.  Here's what it looks like:

From the top left, the thrinchies were made by : Susan Buckwell, Greta Young, Audrey Underwood, Natalie Wolfe, me and Micky Choo.

It's so deliciously dimensional.  Here's a side view:

I used texture paste and acrylics to decorate the canvas (it was almost too nice to cover up LOL), and then I stuck the thrinchies onto some stained muslin before adhering them to the canvas.

It now sits above my desk - a collaborative work that will provide inspiration for a long time to come!

Thanks for visiting!

 

Winging their way to Queensland

These were made for a swap.  The theme was a decorated chipboard shape, so anything but an ATC really.

Chipboard and words by Collections. I think I'm loving the white and gold together.  Might keep this in mind for my Christmas cards this year. Is there anyone else who hasn't started theirs yet? Hmmmmm....we're running out of time you know!

Thanks for visiting (especially Bev - you can hop off my back now LOL)

Tiles for Debbie

While I was away at camp a couple of weeks ago, I worked on these tiles for Debbie.

They were meant for her birthday in MARCH! I'm sorry they are so late Debbie!  Debbie chose the colours cream, black and crimson.

Here are a couple of my favourite tiles.  This is the spool Audrey taught me how to make at SIA:

And this is a simple star, covered with tea-stained muslin: 

Thank you for your patience Debbie!

Tiles for Greta

Here are the tiles I made for Greta for her birthday:

Black, cream and sepia in a Paris theme. Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Greta

Here's the card I made for Greta for her birthday earlier this week:

I heard Greta likes Collections, so I've used all new stuff on it, including the white damask technique Julie taught us at SIA.

I also completed some tiles for her - I'll post a pic of those soon.

It was Kerry's birthday...

...last Wednesday.  Just in case you're the last person on earth that didn't know.  It's in my diary from last year, and on our birthday list for our ATC group, and we all got email reminders about it last week and the week before.  And just in case I managed to miss all of that, she told me a few times over the weekend too.  I'd have to be trying really hard to forget!

Anyway, here's the card I made her:

I used papers from my new October Afternoon Thrift shop 8x8 pad, stamps from my new Darkroom Door set I won at the Little Bits camp on the weekend, new chipboard from Collections, and a few other odds and ends.  The happy birthday stamp is from Savvy Stamps.

Thanks for looking!

Collections class at SIA

This is the amazing project we completed at SIA in the Collections class run by Julie Van Oosten:

We used a bunch of delicious new product - as always, Julie's classes are jam packed with product and wonderful instructions.

Isn't it gorgeous?

SIA

I was fortunate enough to go to SIA in Sydney again this year.  Thanks to the very wonderful Sherry Mendoza, who offered me a bed for the night, I was able to stay the night in Sydney and attend the show on both days.

The highlight for me was catching up with people I already know, as well as meeting a new bunch of friends.  Here I am with Sherry and Beck (who is a fellow Twiddleybitz DT member):

I also caught up with the rest of the Twiddleybitz gang at the amazing stand, including meeting Tiff and Jo for the first time.  I am genuinely left in awe of the talent of our design team.  Here's the stand:

Isn't it pretty?  That's how Nicole and Andrew displayed the products, and on the wall you can't see in the photo were the design team samples.  Here's a picture of the Floating Frames:

and here's one in particular I was blown away by.  It's Beck's:

Isn't it awesome?  Sorry about the weird angle - it was up really high on the wall.

After the show finished on the Tuesday, I enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Nicole, Andrew, Tiff and  Beck.  I somehow neglected to get the camera out to mark this occasion.  It was a marvelous meal, surpassed only by the fabulous company.  Thank you Nic and Andy for a wonderful evening.

All of the stands looked amazing, but one of my favourites was the Darkroom Door stand.  You can see better pictures than I could ever take here on Rachel's blog.  I love how Rachel and Stewart display their products and samples.  It's all so inspiring!

I managed to get to three classes while I was at SIA, including one with the fabulous Sarah Gladman:

I also did a class with Julie Van Oosten from Collections using some of the latest products.  It was an awesome class, I'll post what we made very soon (when I take a nice photo of it). The Collections stand was absolutely breathtaking.  You can see for yourself what it looked like - Julie has posted a video on her blog, it's just like you were there LOL. The make and take at the Collections stand was run by Audrey Underwood - what a gorgeous, talented lady she is!  Here we are:

The other class I did was with Wendy Senger, the lady behind Tattered Angels.  We did all sorts of things with Glimmermist - I love my sample book!

All too soon it was time to come home. I wish I could have stayed and seen more.  I just know there are things that I missed LOL.  Oh well, there's always next year!

A birthday card for Gail

I'm really quite behind with my blogging. And my ironing. And catching up with friends. You get the picture LOL....I'm sure some of you are just as behind.

This is a card I made for my friend Gail last month.


It's a bit shabby chic isn't it?

I used Graphic 45 papers and some Collections products (dressform and dragonfly). The dressform and dragonfly wings are painted with crackle paint. Love that stuff!

Thanks for looking.

A birthday!

This time it's for Lesley, the owner of Little Bits and one of my best crafty friends. Her favourite colour is green, so this is what I made:


I made an ATC because we're in an ATC group at Little Bits. That's a Collections bird, Basic Grey (Boxer) paper and crackle paint of course!

The dotty border stamp on the ATC is from Odd Bird Planet. It's one of my favourites for prettying up (is that correct English? Oh, you know what I mean!) projects. It's like adding frill without the bulk of lace.