In Sydney for a couple of days of relaxation and adventuring...

Long name for a scrapbook page ... .

 I still haven't quite worked out the difference between a photo album and a scrapbook yet,

but that's fine... I just have to learn to take less photos or take a less photogenic sweet child next time I go on holidays... 

The first Page shows gorgeous Jess getting aquainted with our hotel room at the Old Sydney Holiday Inn. It is an old converted wharehouse with heaps of character and lots of natural light in all the rooms and the huge atrium inside.

On the Roof top of the hotel is the swimming pool, spa and sauna... Jess took teddy with her for a bit of R&R while we checked out the city views. That's the harbour bridge and the Opera house to the right.

That sunshine in the middle of winter was beautiful, we could have hung around all day.

But, the city shops and sights were beckoning...

and we had to go adventuring:

Can you remember when you were a kid and found a sign with your name on it?

It didn't ever happen for me until I went to Nerida street, Chatswood.

But Jessie has a garden named after her!

We discovered the Jessie street garden in the city and she was over the moon.

Ok, the stamping is minimal on these pages... I have used the big shot Timeless type alphabet to do my titling (the set contains both upper and lower case alphabets) and the Lots of Tags die for the "a few days of relaxation..." The hearts are punched with my small heart punch - it makes a cute border with great contrast against the Pacific Point textured cardstock.

I think what I like about this alphabet is that it makes me think of a magezine font ... now all I have to do is come up with some better titles for my scrapbook pages.

Stampset: Frames with a flourish

Cardstock: Textured 12x12 Pacific Point and Kiwi kiss, whisper white smooth.

Ink: Basic Black Stazon and marker pen.

Rhinestones and ribbon ...

Aren't these gorgous together?

Do you know, I don't own any fire or ice rhinestones ...

You may have noticed I use my clear rhinestones when ever I need a little point of shine, bling and a centre of attention.

They suit vintage cards like this one which I think makes a nice wedding or anniversary card.

It is inspired by Shelli's vintage demo at Convention. Its definitely my style too.

You can do so much with monotone colours (thats a single colour).

And you can be certain you will have no colour clashes.

The collage effect of different stamps layed over each other is another easy technique that makes a one layer card so easy to prepare.

Without the rhinestone and filigree brad in the centre of the ribbon this card would be well... a little dull I think. I am pretty pleased with how this turned out and it could be done in melon mambo or Rich Razzleberry colours too.

If you are looking for some bling for the centre of your accesories let me know before Wednesday so that we can place an order for some rhinestones and ribbon.

Card Recipe:

Stampsets: Friends 24/7, Rustic Rooster, Teeny tiny sentiments.

Cardstock: Sahara sand

Ink: Sahara sand, Soft Suede.

Accessories: Clear Rhinestone brads, Filigree brad, Soft Suede polka dot ribbon.

Tools: Large Oval punch, Scallop oval punch.

Scrapbook an original Super star

Do you have a gorgous photo that you want to display or a milestone moment to be celebrated?
This year (in December) Daughter finally achieved her first super star Assistant Principals award certificate.
We celebrated with a photo and she was up on stage to recieve it at the school assembly.

At first I used a 6x6" scrapbook page to present her photo with a ribbon and I thought I might put it in a small shadow box frame to place on our display shelf.

The layout is one that we made at a recent Team training day ... then as I always have more than one photo I decided to make it up into a 12x12" scrapbook page to either fit my album or frame for the wall.

The quote is "Unique" out of the Life Definitions stampset - an excellent set for scrapbooking.

If you want to place the stamp perfectly inside the stamped frame as I did here you can use a stamp positioner, affectionately known as the stamp-a-ma-jig.

And here is a button-grommet combination to add interest to my ribbon. The gromot has little metal prongs that you can simply press into the cardstock and bend the tines over to hold it securely in place. Really easy!

And I placed the button into the centre with a mini glue dot.

What you need to make this page:
Stampset: life definitions, outline alphabet, Friends 24/7, Frames with a flourish.
Cardstock: Baja breeze textured, riding hood red, whisper white, Pacific Point.
Ink: Riding hood red, baja breeze, Pacific Point, white craft (for the large title).
Tools and accessories: Riding hood red ribbon, large white grommet, button bouquet, stampamajig, jumbo eyelet, cropadile, 1 3/4" circle punch, crimper tool, large star punch, mini glue dots.

January Elite Challenge - SC29.

Ten more days to go until Sale-a-bration! I just had to mention that.
The January challenges over at the Elite Challenges Team site have started for another month. This sketch comes from a card design on page 17 of the Summer mini.
I have replaced the dragonfly image with the Bird in a cage from Happy moments stampset (available Free from 25 January during Saleabration).
As soon as I saw this stampset with the bird in a cage and happy birthday words I knew what I wanted to do with it. . . 
Embossing .... not surprised?

The cage image has been stamped in versamark and gold embossed.

I liked the idea of the golden cage hanging from something like a tree or the verander. The Frames with a flourish stampset have lots of curly wrought iron like frames, so imagine this little song bird singing on the front verander.

Now that I have used these Basic Jumbo Grommets with ribbon I find it hard to just tie a bow anymore ... another of those accessories you wondered how you ever got by with out.

Card Recipe:
Stampsets: Frames with a Flourish, Happy Moments.
Cardstock: Orchid Opulence, Elegant Eggplant, whisper white.
Ink: Orchid Opulence, Versamark.
Accessories and Tools:
Gold embossing Powder, heat tool, Certainly celery Ribbon, Basic Jumbo Grommet, Word window punch.