Impromptu wrapping paper

My daughter Emily was invited to a kids party on the weekend, and much like that Kmart ad they are showing on TV at the minute, I only thought about presents the day before.  To make it that much more hectic we spent the night in the city and only got home at lunchtime with the party starting at 2pm.  Wouldn't you know it, I could not find any suitable gift wrap for the presents at home.  Stamps to the rescue!!!  I managed to find 2 pieces of A3 paper which got the stamp treatment.  Unfortunately none of my Rollagraph wheels were particularly kid-friendly so I used rubber stamps instead.  For the boy present I used dark blue paper, and stamped with a star stamp in white ink, and I love how this made the stamps look like a light blue for a tone on tone look.  For the girl present I used an orange paper, stamped with the ladybug stamp in black ink.  I also stamped a matching gift tag for each present and wrapped them in some pretty ribbons.  Problem solved :)

Next time you are stuck without wrapping paper, why not have a go at making your own?!

Haus Designs is Officially Here!

After much headache between Blogger and PayPal, the Haus Designs blog is up and running.  On the blog you can view and purchase the pins (which is the cheapest way if you want to buy them), and there is a gallery of the projects I've received from my trial.
Because I was having limited success with the blog I have also set up an Etsy store to sell them, but because the prices are $US you will end up paying more for them.
My favourite pins are the Deluxe Swarovski Crystal pins - like this:

In the light they just sparkle! 

 My second favourites would have to be the Value Pearl Pins - like this:

They are a bit smaller than the large crystal pins, but they are so pretty - and are great value.

Keep your eye out for more projects featuring these pins and there may be a giveaway or competition or 2...

I can't resist resist

I was so inspired by Jennifer McGuire's cards using resist techniques - not that it is a new concept, but you know how you see something again and you ask yourself why you haven't done that in a while?  This one was a pearlized resist technique - heat embossing with pearl embossing powder then using distress inks to colour the surrounds.  I used Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz to give the whole focal panel a pearl shine.  Instead of using the dots on the whole background I decided to just add some rows to the bottom using the same colour distress ink as the focal image.  The cards are finished with some ribbon and pearls.

This set of 8 have found a new home with my mother - some of their friends are having a rough time at the moment with illnesses and losing loved ones so I think they will come in handy. 

Haus Designs is here!

The trials have been sent and some samples/feedback have been returned!  I am so excited, I can hardly wait til July 1st - which is when the pins will go on sale.

Check out Haus Designs Blog for more information.

Journal Jar

This is a project I have seen pop up in a few different spots and it really struck a chord with me - although not at first.  The idea behind a Journal Jar is that you list a heap of prompts or questions, print them out and fill a jar with them.  Then if you are a regular journal writer (I guess I'd call it diary writing, because I associate journalling more with writing on a scrapbook page) you have something to go-to when you have no inspiration of what to write.  This idea didn't really interest me because I do keep a diary - one of my new projects for this year - but it is just a recap of what happened that day or what is happening in our life now - not an abstract journal where I write my fears, achievements, ponderings, etc.  What did appeal was a different spin on this from CreativityForLife.com where it has a whole list of questions and prompts designed to record your life.  This interested me.  I think every scrapbooker is a memory keeper and a historian in that we want to preserve the here and now for later on.  But what about the times before we were scrapbookers?  What if we don't have photos of certain events? What happens to our memories of our childhood and our family that may no longer be around?  Enter the Journal Jar!

I made this Journal Jar for my mother.  It is filled with 101 questions and prompts (I used the list on the website and altered it to suit) that will help her record her history.  Despite my efforts to encourage her to scrapbook, she just isn't that interested - it's something she doesn't enjoy like I do.  She isn't really a writer either, but she did have a mean typing speed on the old typewriter (you know, the ones that had a ribbon of ink!) and worked for a time for the Bureau of Statistics doing clerical work.  Her strength was English - spelling, grammar, etc.  My hope is that she will use this jar and the accompanying blank book to record her history - what she remembers and how things have changed.
I am currently working on another one for my mother-in-law and then I will also do one for myself.  I guess I can call myself the family historian.

Three's a crowd - or so they say

This is the final instalment in my trio of love cards.

As with the others this one uses the same stamps (Kaszazz heart and SU Congrats).  This time I used a mixture of Perfect Pearls in water and a couple of drops of Distress Re-inker to mist - or should I say splatter onto the card base.  This gives the splatters a lovely shine.  The purples inks are Colorbox fluid chalk inks, and the strips were made by swiping the ink over the cardstock, then cutting them out.  The right heart is popped up using foam, and it is finished by rounding the corners and with 3 of the new Kasz pearls.

More love to share

A saying we use in our house is "sharing the love" - which normally applies when we give each other some illness.  In this case I'm sharing the love in the form of another card.

This card was stamped entirely with Perfect Medium, and brushed with Perfect Pearls.  The Rollagraph down the side uses the Watermark cartridge and then dusted with Perfect Pearls.  The heart on the right is popped up with foam.  I rounded 2 corners to add a bit of interest to an otherwise fairly plain card.