The Magical Land of Oz

I am in love with the range of Wizard of Oz papers from Grapic 45. My children love the film, so I had to have every paper in the range. I think that the vintage look co-ordinates well with my recent blog freebie of bingo cards, so I have started crafting with them together. This is the first project I have made from the combination. It is a collage-style card, but also doubles as the cover for a desk calendar for a friend's christmas gift.

To make the two small panels featuring Dorothy and the Wizard, I cut the images from one of the Graphic 45 sheets then liberally applied glossy accents. When completely dry, I crumpled the glossy paper to crack the glaze. I then rubbed distressing ink into the cracks to highlight them.

The ruby coloured flower with the emerald centre is, of course, made using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die. Liquid pearls were used to highlight the centre of the petals. I made it to resemble the poppies in the Graphic 45 image, which I also brushed with liquid pearls. I mounted the various elements onto a background of gingham paper to go with the Dorothy theme and added a red and white tab with ruby ribbon bow.

Using fabric Mod Podge, I layered the ruby velvet ribbon on the card and ruffled it to add more texture. I made a 'badge' from the Oz 'logo' and added another emerald gem. The whole thing was then generously spritzed with ranger bronze perfect pearls mist.

I made calendar pages to co-ordinate with this cover and fastened it all together with more velvet ruby coloured ribbon.

I would like to enter this calendar card into a couple of blog challenges:

Charisma Cardz 'cuties' challenge. Dorothy is a cutie isn't she?

Papertake Weekly's 'When is a card not a card...'

That's me finished now. I have to be in hospital by 7am in the morning for my operation. I may not be up to actual crafting for a little while as I may not be able to get out of bed to get to my craft stash (sooo frustrating when your head is full of ideas!!), but I will be working on digital goodies and more digital layouts for an album I am trying to finish by Christmas.

Freebie - Naughty or Nice?

In the hope that I'll be on the 'nice' list compiled by the jolly fella, I thought I would post a freebie here that I have made for my cards and projects this Christmas. Having said that, it is so cold in my house today that I think the lump of coal delivered to naughty children could come in handy...

When I have finished a project using 'the list', I'll post that here too, but in the meantime, I am sure you'll have lots of great ideas to make use of this fun printable. Resize it, recolour it as you wish. I just ask that when you copy it, that you leave me a comment and consider following my blog. I am aiming to post regular freebies and that way you won't miss any.

You are welcome to post details of my freebies on your blog, but please direct people here to download them for themselves.

I'd love to see what you do with it. If you post details about a project using 'the list' on your blog, please send me a link and I'll show it here too.

I'm having my next operation in a couple of days, so wish me luck! I guess I wont be able to stand at all for a while afterwards, which means lots of time at the computer, so watch out for more printables soon.

Freebie - Anyone for Bingo?

A few years ago, when Bingo cards became popular in scrapbooks, particularly in digi layouts, I made a few different types for my own for use in my papercraft projects. I use them on cards, layouts, gift vouchers, mini books, etc. Maybe because I love playing bingo, but also because I love collecting and using real ephemera or fake ephemera if the real thing isn't available.

I am not a regular gambler and am not keen on online bingo or playing at giant bingo halls, but I do love a game of 'housey housey' at amusement arcades and holiday parks. I have very fond memories of playing bingo with my grandmother on precious trips to the seaside. Not for the prizes, but just the sheer thrill of the chance of winning and frantically trying to keep up with checking off the numbers. I even got my husband hooked on it when we went on holiday to Malta about ten years ago. We used to return to the same town every year as we love the country so much. One of the real treats was playing a nightly game of bingo at the hotel after dinner. We are passed the age of going clubbing and don't like pubs, so it was an ideal night out for us before a walk along the seashore and an hour visiting the tourist shops to browse local crafts and souvenirs.

Anyway, I was working on another project using one of my bingo cards and thought I would share with you. If you would like to download it, just copy the picture and use as you wish. I just ask that you leave me a comment and consider following my blog. If you would like to share with a friend, or on your own blog, please use the link to this post and they can copy the file themselves.

When I've finished the project using the card, I'll add that here too. I've also got a few more freebies to share over the next few days as I finish editing them and tidying up the edges. I hope you'll visit again and download them too.

Here are a few slight variations for you too. Just save to your pc and use as you wish.

A Note of Thanks

As many of you will know, I had an accident back in June and that, combined with complicated health problems, means that I am unable to walk more than a few steps. This means that I am unable to either walk or drive my children home from school. This past week they have been collected by a new neighbour of ours who also has children at the same school. Usually, Claire would drive to pick her son up, but with her own three children in the car, she would be unable to pick my two up as she only has a 5-seat car. Because of this, Claire kindly walked to collect them each day, even though on Friday her son was not going home at the same time as my children, she still made the journey to collect Oliver and Purdey.

This has saved us a small fortune this week in childcare (plus it means that the our two monkeys came home straight after school rather than moaning about going to after school club). Claire would not accept anything for this enormous favour, so I have made her a little gift box and 6 notecards to express our gratitude. I don't usually do miniature, but it made sense as a gift to give mini notelet sized cards.

All six cards feature Pollycraft digi stamps and paper from my varied stash. The images are coloured with Promarkers and Flex Markers and then die cut with a selection of Nellies, Nestabilties and Lifestyle dies. The edges are distressed with the obligatory Ranger corduroy distressing ink and there has been a fair bit of sanding going on. There is also glitter, mica mist and stickles galore, both on the box and the cards. I made the envelopes as the cards are an odd size. I have used lick and stick envelope glue so that there is no need to use ds tape. They are still drying on my craft table, I am just hoping they will be dry soon so that I can package them up in order for the children to deliver them to Claire in the morning, along with a lovely bunch of peach coloured roses.

I would like to enter my project (which has taken about 15 hours to make!) into the following challenges:

Pollycraft's Anything Goes

The Pink Elephant's TPE123 Distressing

Papertake Weekly Challenge's Anything Goes (plus a bit of bling)

I just hope this loads as I am having hideous internet connection problems, compounded by IE8 crashing every time I try to load a page. I am using Google Chrome to try to overcome it, but still have an internet connection at the pace of a snail!

Take One - Part 3

Firstly, apologies for the TERRIBLE photos of the layouts.

The super talented SJ at Little Musings (amongst other places) has challenged us with 'Take One', where she invites us to take a good long look at some of our previous scrap layouts, choose one element that we love and use that element on a new piece of work. What an amazing idea! Over at her blog, SJ has fortnightly videos on the Take One challenge, giving hints and inspiration to anyone who wants to play along. The thread can also be found at UK Scrappers, where SJ regularly gives us great inspiration, freebies and allround crafting enthusiasm.

I decided to join in the challenge with one of my favourite techniques. I just love laying vellum over photos and adding detail on them. The layout I took my inspiration from was one I made for an album for my aunt and uncle (who sadly died from cancer a year ago tomorrow - you'll never be forgotten Uncle Ken!). The photo wasn't the greatest quality, which is why I overlaid the photo with vellum in the first place.

The second layout features my beautiful neighbour Laraine on her wedding day. I added the sheer vellum overlay and, I don't know why, but I started doodling with the white pen (that hardly ever leaves my hand) and this was the result! I just love it! If it wasn't so weird having a photo of my neighbour in my house, I would put this on my wall.

So, thanks SJ. I have really enjoyed this challenge and hope to join in next time. I already have another element in mind, but can I cheat and use a digital next time??

Jules' Blog Candy

What is better than Trick or Treat candy? Crafty Blog Candy, that's what!! The lovely and talented Jules is offering blog candy. What a sweetie (sweetie, get it? Ha, ha I'm just so funny - not!!).

Do stop by Jules' blog and have a look at her gorgeous crafty projects. She has some really great ideas that I'm sure you'll love.

Just for fun, I thought I'd add a pic of two of my halloween monsters a couple of years ago. Now, is that a big pumpkin, or did my children shrink?

Oh, and by the way, who forgot to feed the pole dancer?

Don't forget, in my previous post I have a freebie for you to download!

Happy Halloween

Mwa, ha, ha, haaaaaa

Freebie No. 1

I have a little freebie for you. Some sentiments in the style of tickets. I am still stuck on this trend for using tickets, real or 'faux'. One of the things I compulsively hoard is tickets (plane, boat, theatre... you get the picture), so quite appropriate that I use them a lot on my craft projects.

This file is saved at 150 dpi, so is fine for home printing at upto A4. I've put 24 on a sheet to make it easier to print loads in one go, saving cardstock and effort!They are mostly in black and white, a few coloured. Mostly straightforward birthday, with a 'happy anniversary', 'just for you', 'with love' and 'good friend' thrown in for good measure. I'll make some others for different occasions when I get a chance - it is nearly midnight and I might turn into a (Halloween) pumpkin if I don't think about going to bed soon.

The tickets look cool printed onto biscuit or kraft coloured card stock (even the coloured ones). You can resize them, crop them to print just a few, recolour them etc. Use them as you wish! Oh, if you can't be bothered to curve the corners by hand and don't have a ticket punch, a cropodile will nibble the corners nicely if printed at 100%.

I'd be grateful if you would leave me a comment and become a follower (way down at the bottom of the page). That way, I'll know you've stopped by and you'll know when I make up the next freebie. Please feel feel to post a link to this page on your blog, rather than sharing the JPEG. Thank you.