Sketch Challenge

Well I don't know where the rest of August went to so fast. All the poor kids will be whining that it went by to fast too since they all go back to school tomorrow. But there will probably be a lot of Moms doing a happy dance, lol!

Enough about that. Here is my latest creation which I did for the Swirlydoos Sketch Challenge for August. These are my grandchildren taken when they were up visiting back in July. This actually shows why you shouldn't throw away all of your smaller scraps of paper. Other than the background piece of paper all of the other bits are scraps, even the pretty teal trim down the right side of the paper, the trim wasn't long enough to go down the whole side of the photo but that was okay because the flowers cover it up and then no one is the wiser, lol!

Here's the sketch, and you can find the challenge here http://www.swirlydoos.com/sd_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?215838.0

 Have a great day everyone!
 

Julie Nutting Doll Stamps

So I bought six of the Julie Nutting doll stamps and I finally got the chance to play with them, well not all of them but one of them. They're all so cute and it's like playing cut out dolls again like I did as a kid. My sisters and I had Rock Hudson and Rosemary Clooney  cut out dolls, we'd play with them for hours! 

Anyway I cut out my doll that I stamped and then cut out her dress and hair band and got them all glued on. I wanted to make a tag with the doll but all of a sudden my mojo decided to take a vacation....I think I may have left it at the campsite my friend and I stayed at last weekend, lol. My mojo still isn't totally back but at least I can say I did finish the tag last night...finally! So here's the finished project, it's not perfect but I do like it, lol. Thanks for stopping by and having a peek. I hope you ave a great weekend!

 

Vintage Altered Spool

Altered Spool

I’ve been seeing a lot of these altered spools on the internet and they all looked so pretty and I thought I must try making one of these spools. I made my spool using a toilet paper roll and 4 circles of chipboard (or in this case cereal box chipboard) cut out with my Cricut machine at 4” in size. For the top and bottom of the spool I glued 2 pieces of the chipboard together for each end. I used the Blue Paradise papers for my spool, so before gluing the spool together I cut 4 circles at 4” on my Cricut again and glued one of these circles to both the top of each circle and the under side of the circle. I then cut a piece of the Blue Paradise paper to wrap around the toilet paper roll. Once all of the pieces were covered with the paper I was then able to glue the spool together.

The glass knob on the top of the spool I picked up at a local recycling store for $1.00, I love finding bargains like that at these types of stores! Once I got that glued onto the top of the spool I took some white lace and glued that all around the top circle of the spool. I then took a string of pearls and wrapped them around the bottom of the center piece a couple of times; using some hot glue in spots to hold them in place, then loosely draped the pearl string up the center and brought it onto the top of the spool using some hot glue to glue it down on the top. In my stash I found this small dangly bracelet that I had picked up at the dollar store one day and decided it would look pretty dangling off the top of the spool.

For my flowers I took one of the French White Open Paper roses and sprayed it with some purple glimmer mist. I had also taken a small piece of the same lace and used it to make a lace flower which I dipped into the glimmer mist that was on my craft mat from spraying the white rose, never waste anything I always say lol. I glued the purple rose, one of the pretty white meadow flowers and a small purple rose bud, which I made, onto the top along with this cute little bird I found in my stash. I then glued my lace flower and another flower from my stash onto the bottom and I was done and quite pleased at how it turned out. I hope this inspires you for Meg's Vintage challenge! TFL!

Products from Meg’s Garden

Blue Paradise paper P6215

White Lace L2895

French White Open Paper Rose

White Meadows flower

Other Products

White pearl string

$ Store bracelet

Prima flower

Glass drawer knob

Small craft bird

Vintage Challenge - Prizes to be Won!!

Hello Bloggers

Meg's Garden is having a

"Vintage Challenge" this  month and we'd love you all to play along with us! It's so easy!!

All you have to do is create a layout, project or card using any Meg's Garden images or papers in a "Vintage" style.

Challenge Rules

1. Join Meg's Garden Blog
  
2. Join and "Like" Meg's Garden Facebook page

3. Please upload your Vintage entry to any online gallery
 of your choice, or in a blog post.Once done link your project entry into the comments section at Meg's Garden blog
 below the post for this challenge. It's that Easy!!

Entries close at midnight September 30th, 2013
(AEST Australia Time)

Entries are open to everyone.

The Design Team will then vote and there will be 3 prizes!

1st Prize
A $50.00 coupon (shipping free) to spend at www.megsgarden.com

2nd Prize
A $30.00 coupon (shipping free) to spend at www.megsgarden.com

3rd Prize
A $15.00 coupon (shipping free) to spend at www.megsgarden.com   

We can't wait to see what you come up with...
Have fun!!

Tim Holtz Clock

Wow, where as the time gone, it's already the 24th of July? Well I've been busy with my grand kids since the 12th of July. They're up early this year to visit as their Mom is expecting a new baby boy in August so they wanted to make sure they are home for the birth. We have been doing lots of crafting as they wanted to make some goodies for the baby. 

Well I've been seeing all of these gorgeous Tim Holtz altered clocks so I decided to do one myself. I first took the back off of the clock and cut a circle to put on to the inside part using the Websters Secret Garden "Coming Up Roses" paper. I then took some gesso and covered the whole clock (except the inside) with it and let that dry.  After the gesso dried I took some molding paste and mixed a couple of drops of Rangers alcohol ink "Stream" to it to give me a light turquoise blue color which I then added to the clock in a sort of random gloppy (Is that a word, lol) style. While it was style wet I tore small pieces of the "Coming up Ross" paper and stuck them down in different areas of the clock and then used a brush to add bits of the molding paste to the edges of the paper to lend it in with the molding paste.

While all that was drying I took the back piece of the clock and added a couple of Tim Holtz game spinners to the center of the clock to act as clock hands. I also added a black rub on that spelt "Love" at the top of the back in between the two clock hands. It's a bit hard to see in the photo but looks good IRL. When the molding paste on the clock was dried I took a Prima vine and added that to the front of the inside of the clock in a circle shape. I took a long thin strip of cheesecloth and placed it in the bottom of the inside of the clock and tucked a couple of small blue and peach colored flowers in front of that against the glass. 

For my photo, my Mum & Dad from 1967 back in Windsor, Ontario at my Nana's, I used a small Prima clock to frame the photo. To the back of the clock I added a pair of Tim Holtz wings which I covered in gesso and rock candy crackle paint. I then glued that to the side of the clock. I die cut some leaves and tucked them in between my flower cluster on the side of the clock. To finish the clock off I made the banner which says "Back in Time - A Love Story" a tribute to my parents, I've never known anyone more in love than these two! Well thanks for stopping by and I hope you like my clock. 

New Mini Album

I was watching one of Steff Miller's Prima Video's on Prima's UStream channel using the Engraver Collection and some black paper bags for a cute mini album. I have been hoarding this Engraver collection and so I decided to try making this mini album, but since I didn't have any black paper bags I decided to make it using black cardstock for the background. You can see Steff's mini album on Prima's blog here: Prima

The outside size of my mini when closed up is 7" x 4". I made the black flower using Tim Holtz flower die and a clear gem for the center, I glued it down with one end of my string under it and then used a button from my stash on the side so I could wrap the string around the button to close the album. So here is the front pages of my mini album.

Opening up to first page, the section with writing on the left is about 7 ¾" wide and flips over to the left to reveal the third pages. 

In the middle the piece that says "Fifty Dollars" "Printed by James Davis", which is approximately 4" wide flips open to the right. 

Take the 4" piece and fold it back then you can flip over to the left that middle section to reveal the last pages of the album, the center section has a small pocket and a tag which is blank on one side that can be used for journaling or another photo.

I didn't want to add embellishments to the inside of the album, I wanted the papers to be the embellishments. TFL and I'd love to hear your comments!

New Design Team Members

Please join me in welcoming the new members to the Design Team for Meg's Garden!

Amy Prior               www.amyprior.com
Annette Gearside    http://annette-momentintime.blogspot.com
Geraldine Pasinati   A Fabricated Journey.blogspot.com.au
Helen Wallace        http://texturesandtales.blogspot.com.au
Jen Waugh             http://allformyprincess.blogspot.com.au
Linda Thompson     http://6diamonds1sapphire.blogspot.com.au
Sandra Scott          http://kiandra-kreations.blogspot.com.au

At this time we say farewell to Sandrine & Shell - we wish them the best & say thank them so much for their fabulous projects over their DT term. I'm also happy to let you all know that I have been asked to stay on Meg's Garden Design Team for another 6 month term! Have a great week everyone!

New Elemets Papers from Meg's Garden

Hi everyone, today I'd like to share a layout of some pictures of my daughter and niece when they were on their trip through London and Europe last summer. As soon as I saw the new Elements papers and tags from Meg’s Garden I knew they would be perfect for the pictures of them in Paris. I printed the pictures out in sepia colors to go along with the paper colors better.

I used some background paper from my stash and then cut out the “Paris” tag and a blank tag from the “Vintage Ornate Tags” sheet and I then printed the date and names out onto the blank tag. I double matted the photos with a light and dark brown cardstock. I cut a piece approximately 4x6 from the “Vintage French Writing” paper which I inked over with some Vintage photo distress ink. I also cut out a strip from the “French Cinema” paper and one of the clocks from the “Old World Time” sheet. I distressed all my papers and tags etc with my distress tool and with distress ink and layered them as shown.

I wanted to use this beautiful organza lace flower and leaves from Meg’s Garden on the layout and also a few small cream colored Prima flowers from my stash along with some small die cut leaves as well as a tiny handmade rosebud that I put between the torn paper. To finish the layout off I printed off a graphic of the Eiffel tower and used some pop dots on it for a 3D look. TFL!

Meg’s Garden Products Used

Papers – 1036 Vintage Ornate Tags

               1034 Vintage French Writing

               1038 The French Cinema

                2063 Old World Time

Organza Lace Flower, lavender, cream & green

Other products Used

Small Prima cream flowers

Vintage photo distress ink

Handmade rosebud

Eiffel Tower graphic

Die cut leaves

Light & dark brown cardstock

Quick Fathers Day Card

Just a quick card I did for my husband for Father’s Day which could basically be used for any occasion by just changing the sentiment on the banner. The bottom two layers are papers from my stash, one which just happened to have gears on it so it went perfect with the clock from the “Old World Time” sheet. I cut a piece of paper from the “Vintage Map” sheet which I thought was appropriate since my husband is a truck driver and is always on the road doing deliveries. I added some gears from my stash and a bit of burlap I had and you have a great masculine card! TFL!

Meg’s Garden Products Used

1035 Vintage Map paper

1037 Old World Time

Other products Used

Miscellaneous background papers

Metal gears

Burlap

Vintage photo distress ink 

Quick Birthday card

Hi all, just a quick card that I made for my sister for her birthday. I used the “Blue Paradise” paper from Meg’s Garden for this card. For my card base I used a light mauve piece of cardstock cut to 10” x 7”, so when folded in half would give you a 5” x 7” card. I then cut a darker purple piece of cardstock cut to 4¾” to 6¾” for my second layer. My third layer was cut (4½ x 6½) from the center of the blue paradise papers which has a faint print of a man and woman on it. I didn’t do any distressing of my papers as I usually do as I wanted it to have cleaner lines to it.

I then cut out the sentiment and the gate using my Cricut machine and placed and glued them down where I wanted them on the card. I don’t know about you but I love fussing cutting the papers from Meg’s Garden, which is what I did with the flowers from the same Blue Paradise papers. It’s rather hard to see in this photo for some reason but I have popped up the flowers with foam pop dots for a 3D look. I also printed and cut out the butterfly graphic and covered it with glossy accents. Once it was dry I glued it down onto the card but just in the center so I could bend the wings up. That’s it, so simple but looks so pretty with these beautiful papers from Meg’s Garden! TFL!'

 

Design Team Call

To all "Australian" paper craft artists, Meg's Garden is having a Design Team Call! Meg is looking for a few awesome Australian paper craft artists who can showcase the Meg's Garden products!!

If you LOVE papers and lots of embellishments and use them to create layouts, cards and off the page projects, then show us what you love to do!! Meg is looking for talented artists who inspire others to create.

What is expected of a Meg's Garden/Designs Galore Design Team Member?

The ability to showcase Meg's Garden products!
The ability to take good photos or scans of projects!

The Details:
Design Team is for 6 months from 1st July 2013 - 31 December 2013
Create a minimum of 1 layout/project per month posting on both your blog and Meg's Garden blog - dates will be given when team is picked.
Promote Meg's Garden/Designs Galore by posting the above layouts/projects on other online galleries and blogs with working links to the blog.

For further details please email info@megsgarden.com

The Secret Garden

I was surfing around the internet the other week and I came across this really cute little garden that someone had made using a hollowed out book and they called it "The Secret Garden". I remembered how I liked reading that book. Of course being a scrapbooker the first thing I thought was "I could make that with scrapbooking goodies". So that's exactly what I did and here is my "Secret Garden"!

The chair I got off of eBay, the door knocker I got from Home Hardware, the door I made from Popsicle sticks, the small blue & white rosebuds I made myself, fencing, moss, and rocks are from the $Store, papers from Graphic45 and K&Co, key, larger flowers and greenery is from my stash. If you'd like to check out the real one I used as inspiration you can check it out

here: CLICK HERE

Happy Friday!

With all of the traveling and stuff this month I forgot a card I did manage to sneak in between things. This was a lift of one of my talented friends Paulien Van Den Bosch's beautiful cards, she is so talented and is such an inspiration to me with all of her beautiful cards, layouts and OTP projects! You can see Paulien's card that I lifted here, Paulien's card. Here is my lift of Paulien's card.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Monkey Tree

Wow I can't believe I haven't blogged since the end of April! May has been a crazy month. I had to go down to the mainland at the beginning of the month to have my yearly check up at the MS Clinic with my neurologist and I stayed there to visit with the kids. My dh then flew down to Vancouver and we went down to Las Vegas for 6 days, super hot weather and we had a blast. Since getting home we've been so busy doing yard stuff etc I haven't really had time to do anything else.

I do have another Design Team project for Meg's Garden to share with you.I love this photo of my grandson playing on a maple tree and I thought the colors of the tree would go perfectly with the reds in the “Ode to a Summer’s Day” collection. I used the “Summers Day” as my background paper. The next layer is a piece of light green cardstock which I punched the corners on.  I then used one of the pretty square doilies from Meg’s Garden and the final two paper layers were a “Summers Day” and a “Summers Dance”.

I took a piece of cheese cloth from my stash and sprayed it with Tattered Angels Glimmer mist in “Lily Pad” and then dried it with my heat gun. I decided where I wanted to lay my photo and then glued the cheese cloth down running from the left side and bottom of the photo and poking some pieces underneath where the photo would be and glued my photo down. For my flower cluster I used the white meadows, burgundy/cream open paper roses, rose pink open paper roses and champagne kisses. I love the champagne kisses flowers, there are different sizes in the pack and the color is so soft, they would go perfect on any layout with any papers! I also took a couple of the wire stems that I cut off the flowers and wound them around a thin paint brush, so when I took them off I had little curly Q’s to pop into the flower cluster. I used some alpha stickers from my stash for the title and then added a few gems to the layout to finish it off. Here's a closeup of the flowers and cheesecloth.

Materials Used From Meg's Garden

Papers - P6337 Summers Dance

                P6333 Summers Day

Bond 25 Square Doilies

Flowers - White Meadows

                 Burgundy/Cream Open Paper Roses

                 Rose Pink Open Paper Roses

                 Da801 Champagne Kisses

Other items used

Pale green cardstock

Cheesecloth

Alpha stickers 

"Lily Pad" Tattered Angels Glimmer mist

Green Gems

Thanks so much for stopping by and having a look at my projects, have a great day! 

 
 

More Prima

I'm still playing with the leftovers from my Prima Rondelle papers and I decided to do some tags with the papers. For some reason I've got into making tags lately and I used the new "Dream, Wish, Hope" stamp from Prima as my inspiration for my tags. I made the two large pink and one peach colored flowers using my heartfelt dies and matching stamps and also the small pink rosebuds and the rest are all Prima flowers from my stash. I had all the flowers and papers just laying on my scrap table and the tags just kind of took on a life of their own. Anyway I was quite pleased at how they turned out when I was finished. I hope you like them and if you have any questions just leave me a comment and I'll try to answer it. If you'd like to see a larger view of the photo just click on it and then hit your browsers back button to return to this page. TFL and have a great week!

 

For You Card

Well I've been using some more of my left over Prima Rondelle papers and made another card. Did a lot of distressing on all of the papers with my distress tool and some "Vintage Photo" distress ink. Used some black lace from one of my Swirlydoo's kits. The small pink rose buds I made, along with the large flower using my Heartfelt Creations stamps and dies. The two black roses are Prima from my stash and the leaves are from Dusty Attic. I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!

 

Love lives here...

I found this coat/hat rack at the dollar store and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to buy it (a bargain $3.00) and alter it. The actual top of the rack is 14¾” x 5½”. So I used the purple card stock for the background and since the paper is only 12” wide I cut a strip 12” x 5½” and then a piece 2¾” x 5½”. I knew that my top paper layer would cover up most of the seam between the two papers and then cleverly used my butterfly and flowers to cover up the other bits of the seam.

I used the 12” x 4” strip of the “Summer Beauty” paper and then cut three pieces 6” x 3½” one from each of the “Buds of May”, “A Summers Dance” and “Summer Bouquet”. I distressed all my papers, except the purple cardstock with my distress tool and distress ink. I did the cutting a rolling back of the papers before I glued them all together. For the “Summer Beauty” paper I also cut a piece 6” x 3½” from the 12x12 paper and glued that to the back of the 12” x 4” piece so that when you rolled it back you would still see the patterned paper. For the next two pieces they would be laid face down and the paper rolled back so you would then see the patterned side of the paper. The bottom piece, the Summer Bouquet, would just be laid flat and my little white heart would be laid down on top as shown.

I used one of the French White Open roses which I had used my ink to die the edges purple and placed it right on top of where the papers start to open and stuck a couple of little purple petals from my stash tucked in to the paper rolls behind the rose. On each corner I used a white gardenia, a mia green flower and a yellow handmade flower. My words were cut out on my Cricut machine and the purple letters painted with “Diamond” stickles to give them some glitter. To finish it off I added some white pearl flourish strips I had in my stash which, for some reason, do not want to show very well in the photo but look quite pretty IRL, lol. Here are a few close-ups.

Meg’s Garden Products Used
Papers - Summer Beauty P6334
                  Buds of May P6335
               A Summers Dance P6337
               Summers Bouquet P6336
Flowers - White Gardenias
                 Mia Green
                 French White Open Rose
Other Products Used
"Diamond" Stickles
"Vintage Photo" Distress Ink
Recollections white pearl flourish strips
Small piece of white cardstock for title
Purple cardstock for title
Yellow cardstock for handmade flowers
Prima Hydrangea petals
Small White Heart
Prima Butterfly   

A few tags

I didn't realize that it has been a few days since I last posted on my blog. We've been a little busy what with Easter and family birthdays and our weather has finally begun to feel like spring, it took long enough, lol! The weather on Easter weekend was absolutely gorgeous. On the Saturday we took our boat out for the first time this year and did some fishing and crabbing. I managed to get about 6 ling cod but they were a bit on the small side so we threw them back. One of the poor ones we threw back it took so long to get the hook out of him, by the time he was back in the water the poor thing was dead. We didn't notice him floating right away but one of the bald eagles that was watching us from way up in the trees noticed and flew down and grabbed him for his lunch. I got a photo of him coming down to grab it but I only had my small camera and was a bit of distance away so the pic is not that good but I'll show it off anyway, lol.

You can click on the photo to see the larger photo.

In between all of this stuff going on I did manage to get a bit of scrappy time for myself so I decided to make some tags with my leftover Prima Rondelle papers. I still have a bit of the papers left so I hope to get a card or two made with it. Anyway, here's a photo of the tags, and of course you can see a larger view by clicking on the photo. I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by!

 
 

Prima Rondelle Collection

I am absolutely in love this line of Prima papers! In fact I've been hoarding these few papers that I was able to find. I kept wanting to use them but then I'd think "Oh, no - what if I can never find them again!"  I'm sure we are all guilty of doing this at one time or another, lol. So the other night I decided it's now or never and pulled out the Rondelle papers, got out the photo I wanted to scrap and away I went! Here's the finished layout..

For my background paper I chose the "Etude" paper.  I distressed all of the papers with my distress tool and some Vintage Photo Distress ink. With having most of the paper black I wanted to try out a bit of molding paste on here using this cool ribbon I bought the other day. It's that ribbon you can buy to use when your making things like wreaths at Christmas with all the holes in it. I thought it would be perfect to use as a stencil. Here's a photo of the piece I used.

So this is the white circles you can see on either side of the background paper. I then took a paper doily from my stash and cut that in half to lay under the other layers of paper. For the top 6"x6"paper I used the "Gavotte" paper. I then cut a 9" x 1¼" out of the pink polka dot side of the "Cabriole" and the same size piece out of the "Cottilion" paper. I cut a "V" out on one end of each of these papers and staggered them as shown in the photo. Once all of the papers were glued down I added a piece of black lace and bow to the 6"x6" piece of paper.

I took my piece of "Cabriole" and fussy cut out the flowers and hummingbird from the left side of the paper. I took the hummingbird and scanned it and took it into my graphics program so that I could mirror the image and then printed it out on cardstock and cut that out so now I could have the hummingbird on the left side of my layout. I placed my photo, which I added some cardboard to the back of it to give it some dimension, where I wanted it on my layout and then proceeded to place my flowers where I wanted them. I had the sheer grey fabric flower from Prima in my stash and I new it would be perfect for this layout. I used some small Prima black roses and the pink ones I made using my Heartfelt die and matching stamps. I also used some pop dots on some of the fussy cut flowers and also the hummingbird. I added a small Prima "Say it in Crystals" flourish from their Tea Thyme collection. The journaling card was one of the "Friday Freebies" from Prima. I also added a small key above the photo and my layout was done and I am really pleased at how it turned out. Here are a couple of close ups...

 

 

Box & Mini Album

Well I've been spending the last few days making a mini album and a box for it to go in. I actually started out with the box and went from there.This past January my dh and I celebrated our one year anniversary of quitting smoking. To help with not smoking my dh had purchased a couple of electronic cigarettes to help him out.  The boxes that they came in were quite sturdy and I thought these will be good for something down the road - you know how us scrappers hate to throw anything away, lol.

So this box is not really big, only 4¼" x 4", so the mini album wouldn't really be big either, only 3½" x 3¼". The box does have some depth to it so I was able to make the spine of the mini album 1½" and has 8 pages (4 front & back) to it. Because the mini album was so small I didn't do a whole lot of decorating of the pages as the photos I was using were only about 2¾" x 3". So I basically used bits of lace and small flowers that wouldn't make too much bulk to the album.
I'm making this for my daughter who is in University right now studying to be a Veterinarian. The album contains photos of all of the pets she has had and still has, so I'm really hoping she likes this, it can be her brag book of her fur-babies, lol.

For the box I used the Graphic 45 "Songbird" paper, the teal flowers and small pink rose buds I handmade, and the larger pink rose is Prima, the pearl flourish is from my stash that I picked up at the dollar store. I added some "Aqua" stickles to the teal petals and added some Dusty Attic leaves to the cluster. For the Mini album cover I used the Websters Western Romance collection "Love Letters" paper, using the lighter teal side. The flourish is from Tim Holtz grunge board which I've dyed with the Prima Teal ink chalk. I also used the same ink to dye my ribbon used to tie the mini album closed. The teal & pink flowers I handmade and added a little white scribbles paint here and there on the petals of the teal ones. The butterfly is courtesy of Lisa from Swirlydoos that I printed out and then added some glossy accents to it. The pearls are from my stash. For the inside pages of the mini album I used Webster's "Petite Papers" 6x6 collection pack. Here's a close up of the flower cluster on the box.

I hope you enjoyed looking at this mini I made and I am going to try to do a tutorial on how I made the Mini album with chipboard. Take care  and have a great weekend, TFL!