For a change - a layout!

Here is something else I did at the craft expo I attended recently.

I made it during a class called "#Boys" with Tracey Kielty. The photo was taken in April of this year when my son, Alex, came second in the Lego Challenge final held at a local shopping centre. He was chuffed and you can see it in his face.

The layout uses a piece of cardboard box as its base, with some top layers torn away. It's been painted with gesso and then coloured using Glimmer Mists, etc. As you can see, there are a variety of techniques going on in it, including, stencilling with Viva Decor ferro Steel, stamping, using die cuts, using acetate, using flyscreen and using hardware. It was very intensive (brainwise) but I love the result - so totally different to what I usually do. I especially love the grey stencilled brickwork (very tactile).

Bye for now,
Janelle
  :)

P.S. It was square, but my photo came out odd-shaped trying to prevent glare from the acetate.

Cards from the Papercraft Expo

Here are the cards I made at the recent Papercraft Expo.

This first lot were made during the "Textured & Dimensional Frame Cards" class taught by Belinda Spencer from Darkroom Door. It featured the Shadow 12 Up Frame Stamp from Darkroom Door, which I can see being very versatile. I definitely love these cards and Belinda was an exceptional tutor.

The cards also used some of Rachel's Filmstrips, Wordstrips and Montage sheets. I'd not used these before, but love the effect achieved with them. I love the beach themed card the best. The black and white card used a stamp kissing technique on the background stamp. Must admit it was the first time I've used two colours to do this technique; previously I'd only done it with a clean second stamp to create an impression effect.

This next set of cards was made during Tracey Cooley's class "A Touch of Whimsy". These are totally different from the other lot, being just sweet and fun with the butterflies and glitter.

This first card is called a lantern card. It's made with three leaves (I'm showing the front and back sides). When it stands on the table, it forms a triangular shape, and an electric candle fits inside the triangular space and you see it through the vellum. Don't you just love the die cut frame? It's from Couture Creations and called Tied Together Ornamental Lace Die. I just had to buy a copy of it for myself.

These cards used design papers from the Bo Bunny Primrose Collection and all of the butterflies were cut from a sheet of Primrose Bliss. The glitter was just a clear glitter glue.

I hope you like these cards. The designers, Belinda Spencer and Tracey Cooley, made it easy to make these cards and the classes were well worth their value.

I'll post more work from the Expo tomorrow.

Bye for now,

Janelle

Not good enough!

It's really not good enough, Janelle, that you have only been doing one post a month!!! Buck up and get at it!!!

There, now that I've given myself a good talking to, I'll tell you about my fun-filled days at the recent Papercraft Expo in Brisbane. Oh, I had so much fun!!!

First off, I'll get this out of the way. In previous posts I've told you about my health problems (CFS, numb feet, etc). Well I went to the neurologist and I have peripheral neuropathy in my feet and hands with notable deficiencies.  He isn't even sure if it's permanent or not. So for now, I just have to put up with the nerve pain, numbness and cramps. 

As part of his investigations, he sent me for a glucose tolerance test - and you guessed it - I also have Type 2 Diabetes. Yay, me!! Consequently, this is why I've not been working on all cylinders and not keeping up with my commitments (esp. card-making and blogging). So, if anyone out there can give me some support, (I've only known for two weeks), I would so desperately appreciate it. For the first four days, I didn't even know how to do the blood testing properly - thank goodness for friendly chemists! Anyway, I'm now part of the NDSS (National Diabetes Services Scheme) and trying to absorb all of the info re diabetes.

Now onto some fun stuff. The craft expo was brilliant. I went on the Saturday (so incredibly packed, you could hardly move) and did two card classes; and then on the Monday, I went with a fellow scrapper and did two scrapping classes. I'll post pictures tomorrow - keep you hanging on. :)

I also was able to catch up with some scrapping friends, Rachel Greig  from Darkroom Door and Sue Smyth. I met Rachel about three years ago and have used many of her stamps in my commissions for Practical Publishing. She is such a talented photographer and I love her work. Sue Smythe also works for Practical Publishing, as well as for a number of other places as a demonstrator/tutor and designer. She's such a lovely lady and I adore her layered works.

I was fortunate enough to meet Jane Davenport, who was there encouraging more art journalling. She's amazing and her work is also. I love watching her work as she gets so involved in it. She is a little quirky too, which suits me. She was sweet enough to have a photo with me.

I also did a card class with Tracey Cooley from Couture Creations and she was a blast. The girls from Couture Creations all dressed up for their classes and were also very generous, as they gave away embossing folders to everyone in the class (as well as what was in the class kits). Great value.

Tracey was dressed as Tinker Bell as her class was called "Once Upon a Whimsy". She even made her glittered shoes with pompoms on the toes. (Sorry you can't see them)


Anyway, tomorrow I'll post photos of the cards I made, so you can see what I've been up to.


Bye for now,
Janelle
    :)

Inktense colouring for Mother's Day

Hello to all. 

A belated Happy Mother's Day to everyone. I had a lovely weekend (I'm greedy - I don't just have a single day! :) ) On the Saturday, my husband took us to the Gold Coast's Jupiter's Casino and we saw the stage show "The Ultimate Vegas Show" which was very well done; and then we followed it up with dinner. On the Sunday, my son gave me a gorgeous little snow globe and a poem he'd written himself; and I had a day of lazing around and being pampered. The next day, I followed up with lunch with one of my sisters and my Mum. Thoroughly cool!!!

I'm posting the Mother's Day card I made for my mum, that is very similar to a card I made as part of one of my commissions for Simply Cards.

I stamped with a Dylusions stamp set "Fancy Florals" and then coloured with my Inktense pencils. To finish off, I went mad with some green sequins and a bow with two shades of twine. The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn and is a nice departure from the standard "Happy Mother's Day" one. (The real truth was that my craft room was temporarily blocked off and that was the closest stamp set I could access. ha!)

I wanted the colours to be big and vibrant and, going with the style of the stamps, not realistic at all - so I only did some slight shading in the background. I tried to get an even finish with the water brushing, but on waterpaper that is naturally slightly rough, it's very difficult to get perfect.

Anyway, I'm off to do some shaped cards now, so I'll post again soon.

Bye,

Janelle

Happy Easter

Just a very quick "Happy Easter" to all as we come to a close of the Easter season. On my personal info, you'll see I've changed my son's age to 11 (as today was his birthday). A special occasion as he was born on Easter Sunday 11 years ago and this is the first time his birthday has fallen on Easter Sunday since. Needless to say, he was thoroughly spoilt today and has had a great day.

Anyway, I hope that everyone has found a little of what they wanted for Easter - be it love, peace, spiritual uplifting or just chocolate.

Love,
Janelle

Whatever happened to March?

I cannot believe that it's been so long since my last post. Life has been busy and I've been not too well with my CFS. I've got to see a neurologist next month as I've got numb skin  on my feet and lower legs, while inside (my muscles etc) it's super sensitive and "burns" and aches. Not fun and totally bewildering. I'm hoping it's just a progression of the CFS (at least it's the devil you know) and not something horribly new.

Since my last post I've been playing around with new toys, like the Martha Stewart air clay moulding set and the ModPodge heat resin set. I've made a card that also incorporates quilling that I used on a set of cards I made for a commission for Papercraft Essentials.

On this card you can see a moulded heart that I made with the Martha Stewart set - super easy and very effective. Perhaps with the ribbon and flowers you can't really tell it's a heart - but it is. I'd forgotten how pretty quilling can be and while researching for the commission, discovered a whole new branch of it called husking, where you wind the quilling paper around a wide toothed comb, which I'll demonstrate some time. 

I'm including this card with the Scrapbook Boutique April Challenge, which is to use the following photo as inspiration for a project. I think it works with it. 

                                              

My son's on school holidays at the moment, but before the school break he wanted some Easter treats to share with his mates. So, using my trusty We R Memory Keepers pillow box maker, I made some boxes that I decorated with stickers and filled with mini eggs.

(The photo was taken on the boot of my car in the garage just before we took them to school so it's not the best background - not festive enough.) The oval tag I did on my computer and just hand cut. From all accounts the boxes were favourably received by his friends. I was surprised how quickly I was able to create them and how little fuss was needed. It's a great tool to have.

Anyway, that's enough for now.

Bye.
Love,
Janelle
;)

Another quick card for today

Last year I created a set of cards for Australian Simply Cards that used the triple stamping technique. While experimenting I made this card that used the same stamp from Darkroom Door that I later used for the submitted card (though that one used a purple/lavender palette).

I loved this technique as it was fun matching up the layers once they'd been stamped (very similar to pyramage) and I loved how this card turned out.

The shine on the blooms is Diamond Glaze and looks much better IRL.

Anyway, bye for now.

Janelle

: D