Exploring red and white

The trip to the scrapbooking store yesterday was somewhat disappointing - and discouraging too. I really wanted some lovely heritage-style papers but they didn't have any vintage themed ones that appealed to me at all. Plus the cards that were on display for the card classes are so fancy that I felt embarrassed by my efforts. They are dressed up in multiple layers of papers, stickers, 3-D embellishments, bling etc as though being entered for a competition. In fact I don't know how you would even write a message on some of them - and there was certainly no room on the front to say what sort of card it was. I guess they are items of beauty rather than the sort of card you would send normally. I certainly could not afford to send that kind of card routinely as a greeting card! They sure did make my efforts look amateurish!

I had been experimenting with red and white. Mainly because I am due to send off a birthday card to a member of one of my groups. She is Japanese, and I want a card that reflects the colours for happiness and good luck for Japanese people so I googled and came up with red and white. I also want a card that is simple (as in uncluttered and understated) and elegant, because everything Kazumi does is just that. I also looked for something at the shop to inspire me along those lines but didn't find anything for that either, although I bought some ribbons in different colours. Then when I got them home I realised that I really, really like spots and checks!
Coming home I tried out a couple more and here are some variations. First, for Kazumi:

I think that is elegant and simple - what do you think?
Then there is this one, with the background embossed with spots again, the red flourishes, and some of the new red ribbon.

I bought a set of nesting shapes at the shop, and for this next card I cut around the printed greeting (done on my computer) with the white shape then hand cut the red shadow shape behind it because the next largest is just that bit too big. The border is done with a border punch and again I've used the same satin ribbon.

So there they are. I hope Kazumi likes hers, and the other recipients like theirs too.

Some birthday cards - creative criticism please

It's time to start making some birthday cards. First of all, my mother's birthday is 29th January - she will be 87 this year and she is so proud of the cards that I make myself. I want to make her something pretty special if I can.

Then there are the cards for two of my groups' Birthday card exchanges the year. The first one is due 1st February. I want to do all the cards and mark the dates of the birthdays on the envelopes so I know when to post them.

I've been experimenting with birthday card designs pretty much along the same line, using my border punches, embossing folders and diecuts to get a feel for what I want to do for Mum, and to make some cards for the card exchanges as well. I am terribly slow at making them though - I do hope I speed up as I become more experienced!

I am showing them to you here even though they aren't all completed. After my back treatment today I need to go shopping (if I can manage it) for more 'bling' and bits to add to cards, as well as some more cardstock.

Okay, so #1 is navy on white, approx 6" x 4" when folded. I hope the embossed pattern on the white sheet shows up, though I'm fairly sure the little holes in the scallops around the navy circle won't. The flowers need something added in the centre.

Good heavens! What on earth has blogger done to the 'post photos' function? The photo is just showing up as the computer command, I can't see the photo itself in this draft form. YUCK!!

Plodding on. #2 is a square card, 5 1/2" each way when folded. I have made these first two based on Sketch #131 from Card Patterns. Heres' the sketch:

and here is #2 card. It is a burgundy colour on cream. The cream background is textured.

#3 uses a ready-made hot pink card, 4 1/4" x 6". I embossed the white cardstock with dots, cut the edge with a border punch, added flowers using my dies and pearls in the middle. The other pink pieces and the sentiment are also cut with dies on the Cuttlebug.

Next, #4 is another cream card with a purple cardstock. All the details including the 3-d butterflies are done on the Cuttlebug, the border is done with a border punch.

My love of blue and white is reflected in #5, a Royal Blue and white combination, again with a 3-D butterfly.

#6 still needs the writing added, and I'm not sure whether to do it in the dusty pink of the ribbon or the darker green of the border. What do you think?

And finally #7 is again on the cream square card, with a grape background overlaid with a lighter purple that is embossed with 'happy birthday' and spots. Do I need to make the words stand out more? I thought maybe coloured stones in the flowers, or clear or pearls? Suggestions please.
I think I've posted the same photo twice but don't have time to adjust it now because it is time to leave for my back treatment. Will fiddle more later but I do want your opinion.

And did you notice that the lovely banner and signature are here now too?

Hello Natalia!

By the way, have you noticed that I have finally uploaded the beautiful banner that Sharon designed for me, and the signature as well? I chose the same font as the Studio Snippets blog. I think I've mentioned that the font is called 'Sunshine in my Soul' - how pretty is that?!!

Thank you Natalia for joining us here - it is lovely to see the numbers of friends growing bit by bit. I hope

you enjoy my exploration into this new world of card making, and the scrapbooking pages I share on here as well. I don't profess to be an expert in either field by any means, I am learning in both areas. So I really would appreciate feedback on how to improve as well as anything I am doing 'right' or effectively. So please do visit, relax, enjoy, and comment!

...and more friends are here too

It's exciting to have you join me

So thank you Vera, Sharon, Heidi and Jan for signing on as followers!

Vera is a very busy owner of two groups to which I belong, a family tree one and a miniatures one.

Sharon is the wonderful person who owns Plumrose Lane and designs backgrounds Including the one I've used here), banners, signatures for blogs, Etsy shops and more (I gave you here link before but again it is http://plumroselane.com ) the backgrounds and side tags are free and there are lots of free banners etc but I have bought custom banners and signatures for both the backgrounds I have chosen for this blog.

I met Heidi on eBay and she knows just how to tempt me - but she is a lovely person, we have lots in common and I am happy to call her a friend as well.

As for Jan - she is a dear friend indeed. If you follow my minis blog http://SnippetsfrommyStudio.blogspot.com then you might remember my Bundy holiday last year. Jan is the friend who offered the wonderful hospitality and with whom I had such a wonderful mini holiday. That's when I did the main part of the English Cottage by Debbie Young.

So each and every one of you my friends - welcome, and I hope you will visit often and leave comments. I will try to show enough of what you have asked for in the posts on our groups - how I do simple pages (my pages are always quite simple - I have too many to get through), sites I find helpful for cards and scrapbooking, and hints that help me when doing my projects.

In short - hopefully you will find it interesting and motivating (and motivating for me too vbg).

Comments: Some people have emailed me to ask how to leave a comment. At the bottom of this post, where I put my name, you will see a row of little icons and then there is some blue writing that will say '0 COMMENTS' . If you click on the word 'comments' it will take you to a box in which you can write a comment.

Our Granddaughter's birthday card

Grace turns 9

Our oldest granddaughter Grace turned 9 on December 30th, and I made her birthday card. She liked it, although I think her mother liked it even more :) It still takes me a long time to make a card, when I am deciding how to do it. First I looked at CardPatterns (http://cardpatterns.blogspot.com) to see if I could get some inspiration. I chose this one, sketch #122 as a basis.

Gracie's favourite colour is purple, her second favourite is hot pink and she absolutely adores butterflies, so originally I planned a purple card with purple floral where the green is in the sketch, a lighter purple or mauve where the white is, white (embossed with dots) where the black is and a die-cut butterfly in the corner. Once I had the papers and card I would choose the ribbon to go with it.

Instead, since I have been ill and didn't get to the scrapbooking store, this is what I ended up with -

The white cardstock is embossed on my Cuttlebug, the pink border is punched with a Martha Stewart punch. The 3-D butterfly is done by cutting it out twice. The first time I kept all the pieces together and glued it all to the white cardstock, the second (pink) motif has the cut-outs on the wing removed and it is stuck to the purple butterfly just along the body. There are 3 rhinestone stuck along the right edge of the card.

The mauve ribbon is gauzy so I backed it with some purple cardstock before attching it to the white, then tied a bow in the ribbon and stuck that on top.

On the back I modified my usual 'made by' motif. The children call me Marnie, so I changed the 'Handmade by Sandra' to 'Handmade by Marnie' and since I hadn't printed it on the card before I made it - mainly because I didn't know how big the card would end up being - I cut it out with another die shape I have and stuck it on.

Inside I printed in purple ink. After I took this photo I also stamped a couple of butterflies, one on the top left and one on the lower right corner.

I'm really quite pleased with this design but most importantly, Gracie liked it and that's the main thing. Among the gifts for her birthday we gave her a scrapbooking album (with butterflies on the front of course), so I am looking forward to doing some scrapbooking with her - if we have a chance.

Bye till next time

My first pages for our round-Australia trip

Albany, Western Australlia - Christmas 2009

Since this is a blog about scrapbooking, I have been hunting in my workroom and finally found a double page to show you :) Most of my pages are out of reach at the moment so I was happy to find these pages.

In 2009-2010 we went on a trip around Australia. It was 7 months and we barely skimmed the highlights around the edges! It made us realise just how huge Aus is. If you want to read a bit about it, you can see more on my travel blog http://SandrafromSydney.blogspot.com I have done it up to December 2009, but need to finish it off for the final month. But yes, Marlene - I haven't forgotten and will do so lol!

When we packed I took heaps and heaps of scrapbooking materials and equipment. The grand plan was to do pages as I went. Good plan. The first and only pages I did were these! Mainly because any time I had was taken up writing my travel journals (they filled 5 spiral bound books), writing letters to our then 5 grandchildren, my mother and brother with a selection of photos in them for their photo albums (Mum and Terry) or scrapbooks I had made (the grandchildren) and doing a set for Nathan as well and helping him make a scrapbook of our trip.

I will show you the scrapbooks I made for the children another time, though they are on the Sandra from Sydney blog.

So - here are the pages. We spent Christmas at Albany, Western Australia (pronounced Al like albatross). I love red and gold for Christmas, and you will see that I've also used my favourite poinsettia embellishments. Here's the left page:

Now for a word on how I did it, for those who are starting off. The red is Bazzil textured cardstock, which along with the gold ribbon was bought from a scrapbooking store. The ribbon is just attached at the back with some photo tabs (they are pieces of double-sided tape cut to size).

The photo is matted (in other words stuck with the photo tabs) with red cardstock, then again on gold cardstock.

I then adhered it to the red background cardstock. Once it was positioned I knew where to attach the ribbon. The poinsettias are stuck on with some more double-sided tape. Here's a close-up of the corner, showing the details of the matting around the photo as well as the corner of the page.

The word 'Christmas' is a gold sticker, and so are the little gold embellishments. It's all quite simple but also quite effective.

And here's the right page:

Again, it is using the gold ribbon, and a single poinsettia on the top corner.

I printed the journalling (that's the writing) on white vellum (from the scrapbooking store). To make sure the writing would show up I put white paper behind the vellum, then attached it to some gold cardstock with two brads - I must have run out of the dark red ones or I would have used four of them.

To add a bit of interest to the vellum I tore the edges. This is a technique I use a lot: on paper, cardstock,vellum and even photos. But not on photos that are studio or heritage ones unless I am using scanned copies!

I know you can't read the words properly but at least this close-up shows a bit more detail of the journalling. Sorry the photos didn't come out as well as I had hoped.

Next time I will show you one of the miniatures pages I scrapped while at Kylie's in September-October this year.

Hope you like this one.

And more friends have joined us....

Thank you so much for checking it out here

Welcome Drora, Carmen, Judith & Krin - it is lovely to see your names added to the Followers list. this blog is getting such positive feedback that I think it's a 'go-er' so now I need to look our some of my completed pages and start showing them to you. Please don't expect works of wonder, I am very much on a learning trip and my style changes from page to page depending on what technique I am learning (when I am able to attend classes) or the album I am doing. You will also see, as I show you earlier pages and later pages, how I have changed over time, become a little more adventurous etc.

Meanwhile - thank you again for having a look, and I hope you will be visiting a lot here and sharing your comments and ideas as well as giving feedback.

That was quick!

Welcome to two friends

How lovely to see two of my friends signing on so quickly as followers of my new blog! Welcome, Alisa and Sandie - thank you for having a look and becoming my very first followers. I hope you both enjoy this blog too, and will visit often to see what I am getting up to.

Alisa has already emailed me to say how she likes the background. Alisa, I too like backgrounds that don't overpower the posts and photos that are published on the blog. The second background I have chosen is in richer colours (rich red and tan) and I didn't feel it was appropriate for now. It is summer here and very hot at the moment and I like the effect of the pretty blue.

I know you both check the Snippets blog regularly and I hope you check this one too, and leave lots of feedback my friends.

New Year - New blog

Happy New Year!

What better way to start a new year than to start yet another blog :) As if two aren't enough already! I thought that this one would be for my scrapbooking and cardmaking, and will try it to see how things go (that's a favourite expression of mine, isn't it?)

I spent hours yesterday evening downloading the codes for various backgrounds and side tags from Plumrose Lane (you can find it here) and finally settled on 'Whispers of Spring' because it suggests scrapbooking to me. And because it is a change of colour- a lot of the designs I like are pink, like my other Snippets blog, or burgundy and I thought a change would be good.

I will order a banner for the top of the page after the new year's holiday. And once I am sure that I will settle for this background and/or keep the blog going.

I have been doing scrapbooking on and off for quite a few years now. While I was staying with Kylie, my oldest daughter, during September - November last year, we both bought Cuttlebug machines, with the idea of using them for our scrapbooking. And buying embossing folders and cutting dies on eBay led me into cardmaking. I showed my first attempts on my blog Snippets from my Studio and I also made all our Christmas cards. Here is one of them:

They were all very similar, but had variations. Some of them were done on cream card in the end, but I prefer the ones done on blue. The inside had blue writing, and a small stamp of the old Jerusalem in one corner, the star in the top right corner. Each card was printed with an individual message.

The envelopes were embossed, as you can see below:

When I handed out the cards that I delivered personally (mainly the 25 or so that I gave out at church on Christmas Eve), people were really intrigued with the embossed envelopes. Several said that they would keep the envelope as well as the card.

In the break between Christmas and New Year I have been browsing many scrapbooking and cardmaking sites and have really been inspired. Kylie is arriving tomorrow with her two darling boys, and Kirstie, our other daughter is arriving with her four maybe on Wednesday. Kylie and I hope to do some scrapbooking together, though it will probably be after Kirsten leaves for home because it will be too busy until then.

Kylie talked me into doing some scrapbooking of my miniatures while I was at her place. That is ready to extend into 3 albums now - so far! I will share the pages with you over time. And doing my family tree with my mother has led me into scrapbooking those photos and extra details about our ancestors. So I have plenty of pages waiting to be created.

So now I will wait and see whether it is practical to have a blog just for scrapping and cardmaking, or whether to combine it with the miniatures as I have been doing.

What do you think?