Mother’s Day card
May 13th, 2012
As I know a few people who have been to Japan recently, I have ended up with a stash of hand made Japanese papers of various kinds. Silk, unryushi, chiogami and so on. All lovely stuff. So I decided to dip into my stash for the mother’s day card I made for mum today.
Japanese Mother's Day Card
Aspect to the Sun
May 12th, 2012
For a friend’s birthday tonight.
I have used this quote quite a bit in the past, but have rested it for the last few years. However this design and layout is new, I wanted something fresh and colourful.
Envelope is below the cut.
Elements of Design
April 4th, 2012
Following on from my previous post, this is from an article in Simply Cards and Papercraft, UK Edition, Issue 7 (not sure why this was published first, I think it is information that follows on from the previous information).
The seven elements of design are:
- Point
- Line
- Form / Shape / Space
- Movement
- Colour
- Pattern
- Texture
For more detail read on
Principles of Design
April 3rd, 2012
While these are fairly standard in art theory, I like the presentation and examples given and wanted to record it for my own information. This is from an article by Natalie O’Shea in Simply Cards & Papercraft, UK Edition, Issue 9 (published in 2005 I think).
The five principles of Design:
- Balance
- Proportion
- Rhythm
- Emphasis / Dominance
- Unity
For more detail, read on.
Steampunk revisited
March 11th, 2012
This was for Daedalist’s birthday, which is today
Steampunk airship
It took around 2 hours to make, including the interior (torn white linen paper, edged in raisin, shadow block in 2nd impression tea dye, ‘Happy Birthday’ in raisin, pocket watch stamped randomly around the edges. Given I am still learning how to use my embossing machine as well as experimenting with the steampunk style, I am very happy with the results.
If you want to find out how I did it, and see the envelope, read on . . .
Tattered flowers
March 3rd, 2012
I got myself a manual die cutting machine for my birthday (a Big Shot).
I had been thinking about it for a while, and weighing up options. When they initially came out a few years ago, it was mostly cutesy scrapbooking images and I wasn’t interested. But as available options have changed I have seen more and more things I like. That includes pretty much the whole Tim Holtz die and embossing range, plus some of the nested shapes. I haven’t got many dies yet, but I do have a few of Tim Holtz Alterations embossing folder range. Plus the tattered flowers dies which is apparently the best selling Sizzix die ever (and of course another Tim Holtz product).
Anyway, the instructions that came with it are not great, so after an initial attempt I decided to check out some online tutorials to make sure I was doing it properly. And this week I have started to play around with it a bit. This card is my second attempt (the first was given to a friend for his birthday a few weeks ago).
This card has die cut flowers frorm the tattered flowers set. There are actually 4 different shapes but I only layered 3 of them. I was also able to use papers from mat stacks that I kind of like but have found hard to use in designs. But I think they work on this design. One is a street map (of London), one is a page of vintage measuring tapes but the colour is darker and more yellow than I like to use, and the final paper was a ledger with lines. There are champagne gems in the centre of the top one on the stack, and the smaller ones on each side.
The flowers have been layered on brown cardstock that has been embossed with clock faces from the Tim Holtz steampunk set. I swiped ink over to make it stand out a bit more, but the raised surface is really cool. The edges are distressed with my paper distresser, and then it is mounted on cream cardstock.
Yes, it has flowers, but it is an attempt to use colours and papers (and embossing!) that is more masculine. I don’t have any other dies yet! I also wanted to work on some steampunk designs and although this isn’t really that it is kind of a first step.
I’ll play around with the dies and embossing some more over the next few weeks. I also want to get some Nestabilities labels, although not quite sure which shape yet, which was one of the motivating factors for the whole purchase. I quite like the Grand labels too – several articles used them as a base card that was shaped which was pretty cool.
New Years cards
February 24th, 2012
This is the design I did for my New Years cards. I made about 12 of them, and once again I challenged myself to used papers and colours that I would not usual use.
The tag has been punched with a new doily border punch I got, I really like it. I had to swipe it with ink to make it stand out better but overall I’m really happy with the results. The flowers are punched and so is the centre of each. The colour palette is quite soft but I think it works.
Christmas cards
December 28th, 2011
I don’t do many Christmas cards, as I prefer to do New years cards for my friends. But I do give out some to work colleagues, and these are the designs I made this year.
Once again I challenged myself to use the free papers and card toppers that come with magazines – there are an awful lot of snow scenes tho, which I usually try to avoid! I did make an exception this year to use some of my free stash. It isn’t my usual style but I enjoyed the challenge, and my colleages liked the cards I gave them.
Popcorn and friend
YY’s birthday card
December 28th, 2011
YY is a friend at work, her birthday is late December close to Christmas. But she makes sure that everyone remembers her day 
Because YY is a bit of a shopaholic, and loves her shoes and handbags, I wanted a card that reflects that. The stickers and the floral paper are both from free gifts that I got with crafting magazines, as I am trying to challenge myself to use these and try different things. I was really happy with the colours and the overall results, and so was YY – she said I know her so well.
Plenary Session: And they lived happily ever after
December 28th, 2011
Next was actually the Panel session: the Next 20 Years, which I posted at the time.
And finally there was the last Plenary by Jane Porter.
This was fun, and at times quite moving. Jane read excerpts of the rejection letters she got for 14 books over a 17 year period. During this time there were 4 comments that stood out that encouraged her to keep going.
- one said she had a good plot
- one said it was competently written
- one said it was a good premise
- one said she had a ‘crisp and enjoyable writing style’
Despite all the rejections, Jane perservered, because she believed that she was meant to write. Eventually her 15th book was accepted for publication. Jane now has more than 30 books published since the late 90s – from her website it looks like 22 category romances with Harlequin Mills & Boon, and subsequently another 10 single title books she has classified under ‘classic romance modern lit’. Flirting with Forty was even made into a movie.
As the closing session of the conference, it was a in inspirational way to finish. It was positive and encouraging, and for those who have had rejections before, it was a sign that it is not final, if you persevere. And Jane left us with the following thoughts:
- we don’t write for those who criticise us
- we don’t write for the glory
- we write because we are driven to
- we write for those who want the story
That brought the formal proceedings to a close. After that there was a confirmation that the 2012 conference will be held on the Gold Coast, and the organising team was announce (I of course didn’t know any of them). The 2013 conference will be held in Fremantle, and the 2014 conference will be held in Sydney.
I had a great time, I took copious notes. I met lots of people and learned about the mailing lists (which I have joined, but goodness they are high volume, even in digest mode). My computer problems and subsequent lack of time mean that some of the sessions were quite delayed in getting up here, but at least they are all done now. I hope that my friends who read this have got something out of it, and I’m sure that I will find it a useful reference for myself too.
Now I have about 8 months til the Gold Coast conference is on! Anyone interested in that?