Lots and lots of bookmarks (450 to be exact!!)

I was I initially asked to make an invite to my mentor President Daisaku Ikeda for the Women’s Division Commemorative Meeting which I was an abosolute pleasure.   I started with a photo and thought I 12″ x 12″ scrapbook page would be good, but then I was lost and couldn’t work out the layout (since I am a little out of practice) so while searching for embellishments I came across some unused explosion cards, JACKPOT!! and the inspiration came flooding over.

Then I was asked to help make a bookmark that would be handed out to all the women attending the meeting.

So this is what I came up with:

The bookmarks where based around three themes – Hope, Courage and Life.  Something we all face on a day to day basis.

This was a simple bookmark (so I thought) that could be made reasonably quickly and easy to teach.  Initially I wanted match cardstock to the pattern paper, but when your making such a huge amount that rule went out the window!!

But the end result was very pleasing to the eye and the person that received would be have enjoy the wonder message that was printed on it.

Hope:

No matter how long the cold, bleak days of winter may continue, the key to all change is in our inner transformation–a change of our hearts and minds. This is human revolution. We all have the power to change. When we realize this truth, we can bring forth that power anywhere, anytime, and in any situation.

Hope transforms pessimism into optimism. Hope is invincible. Hope changes everything. It changes winter into summer, darkness into dawn, descent into ascent, barrenness into creativity, agony into joy. Hope is the sun. It is light. It is passion. It is the fundamental force for life’s blossoming.

Even places that have been shrouded in darkness for billions of years can be illuminated. Even a stone from the bottom of a river can be used to produce fire. Our present sufferings, no matter how dark, have certainly not continued for billions of years-nor will they linger forever. The sun will definitely rise. In fact, its ascent has already begun.

Courage:

The courage to challenge and triumph over one’s limitations is what defines a victor. The door to victory opens only when one gains control over their own tendencies toward weakness, cowardice, laziness, avoidance, and resignation. By bravely training oneself and making an earnest effort while young, a person can build a strong, unshakable foundation for victory in life, upon which they can construct a great bastion of human revolution

Don’t let the present moment slip by. Like throwing the windows wide open, open your lives to the fullest and manifest the joy-filled wisdom and power of the Buddha. Faith in the Mystic Law enables us to do this. Every moment is a challenge; every moment is a win-or-lose struggle. ?It’s a waste to limit your potential by locking yourself away and letting yourself be ruled by fear. Summon up your courage. Challenge yourself with an eager and optimistic spirit.

The courage to challenge and triumph over one’s limitations is what defines a victor. The door to victory opens only when one gains control over their own tendencies toward weakness, cowardice, laziness, avoidance, and resignation. By bravely training oneself and making an earnest effort while young, a person can build a strong, unshakable foundation for victory in life, upon which they can construct a great bastion of human revolution

Life:

The worst mistake you can make is to give up on yourself and stop challenging yourself for fear of failure. Keep moving forward with a firm eye on the future, telling yourself, “I’ll start from today!” “I’ll start afresh from now, from this very moment!”

Life is a struggle, and ultimate victory is only decided in its final chapter. That is why it’s important not to grow conceited in victory or become disheartened in defeat. Those who keep pressing onward toward a goal with tireless patience and persistence win in the end.

Become like the sun. If you do so, all darkness will be dispelled. No matter what happens, live confidently with the conviction that you, yourself are the “sun.” Of course, in life there are sunny days and cloudy days. But even on cloudy days, the sun is still the sun. Even when you are suffering, it is vital that you strive to keep the sun shining brightly in your heart

 

 

 

 

Christmas Gift Holders

Yes I know Christmas is over, but during the silly season I had no time to do any blogging and this one I thought was worth showing.

This Christmas gift holders were made for all the pre-school teachers at Willoughby Community Pre School.  I can’t thank the teachers enough for all they have done for Hugo’s growth and development.

So thank you Di, Libby, Jan and Helen in the Blue Room I am sure Hugo will miss you all immensely.

The stamp is a 4 separate Mo Manning digistamps.  This would be the first time I have ever used a digistamp but was very happy with the result.  The best thing about digistamps is that you can manipulate them to whatever size you like and line them up nicely and print out.  You can see on close up the each of the characters in time out it’s quite funny.

For colouring I used both copic sketch markers and prisma pencils.  I hadn’t used pencils before but they really do add more detail than just copic alone.

The copic were great fro blending shades of colours and the prisma pencils to add details like blush I thought was fantastic.

Inside I used Unity Stamp Co and Stampin Up! stamps and covered it with dazzling diamonds.

A Pretty Birthday Box

This box I made as a present for a little girls birthday.   The inspiration came from a friend who made something similar and I thought what a great idea.  Inside I filled it with lots of hair accessories, necklaces,  a little finger puppet Barbie doll and the crazy pink mobile phone and key toy I found at a kids shop.

The idea was to fill it with all sorts of little girls trinkets and they can keep the box to store all their favourite items.

It was a lot of fun to make and took me ages only because I kept wanting to try new products on it.  There was so many choices of what to use but I guess you can only use so much…***sigh***

The little dress came from Scrapware who purely make chipboard products and is a good old Aussie company too!   They come in a pack of 6 and is called dress garland and you can actually make a lovely banner with it as well.  Here is a image:

The bling heart was made from the I-rock tool and I used the flower stencil at an angle .  The tu-tu was made of organza ribbon cut and folded over as I didn’t have any tulle at the time and was sprayed with tattered angles glimmer mist in Pink SWAK.  This put a hint of tiny glittery speckles all over the chipboard, it was also used on the circle behind the “V” for Victoria.

I used the I-rock tool on the box sides as well, this created a textured and eye catching box.  I had a request from a customer to review the I-rock tool and I must admit at first I found it fiddly to use, but once you get the hang of it and I highly recommend the little jewel setting stix or a one of the glam rock packs as it has the stix in it and this really helped set the rocks in place.  Also you do need to be a little patient to get the tool hot otherwise you will find you need to go over them again.

I used the Martha Stewart Scoreboard to make the flower embellishment, the right tools always make lighter work and this is one tool I do love using as it makes your “beyond the page” project SO easy!

2 x Imaginary Friends by My Little Shoebox  12 “x 12″ papers, I-rock tool,  –rock flower stencil, Glam Rock Rhinestuds, GCD Studios – Glitzy Alphabets, 1 piece of the Dress Garland Chipboard, Vintage Distress Ink, Basics White Ribbon , Basic ribbon doilies – Basic Grey mine came from the Studio Calico Add On Kit Free Range, Happy Birthday Rub On – Imaginisce, tim holtz blending tool, Best Ever Glue- this stuff is awesome!!,  Glimmer Mist – Pink SWAK by Tattered Angels

**Please note not all the products are available at the shoppe but I do have the products (just no time to put them on as yet) so if you are interested in purchasing any of the items to make this box shoot me an email and I will endeavor to work out the pricing and availability for you***

Die-namics Dies – making flowers EASY!!!

I went to Paperific last month and did a class and they showed us how to make a rolled flower to use as an embellishment.  The end result simply stunning, BUT it made me wonder how in the world did she cut out so many spirals ready for us to use in class….THE ANSWER was DIE-NAMICS ROLLED FLOWER DIE!! what are godsend, this die saves you so much time and if you like me I am always time poor (such as now when I am suppose to be cleaning and hanging the clothes since it is a very nice day outside….ooops!)

Pictured above is the rolled flower I made at the class and the other is another way you could use this die as a pop up for the inside of a card.  I chose butterflies as I am obsessed with them must be a girl thing I guess.

Below is a video tutorial by Rolled Flowers by Joanne Basile from Splitcoast Stampers on how to make paper rolled flowers, but if you buy the die you can skip the drawing and scissors part.

A simple paper pierced card

Hi All,

My apologies for the Unity Stamp Co images on my website, as my images where linked to the Unity website (I know my own doing) and when they updated their website I lost all my images.  So I now have the tedious task of reloading each and every image.  (I have heaps of stamps images to load **sigh*** but I do love the Unity stamps they are so varied you will find one to suit your needs for sure).

I just had another friend who has had a little baby boy.  Babies are so cute, I wish they could stay that way forever.    So I decided to make a card using the paper piercing technique.  It certainly saves on colouring the image and with so many patterned papers to choose it was so much fun or you can use some of your off cuts as they are so tiny it really is a cost effective way of making a card.   I decided to use the “bouncy blue” stamp from Unity Stamp Co for this card and of course blue papers!!

Stamps:  Bouncy Blue – Unity Stamp Co, Nursery Necessities – Stampin Up! Paper/Cardstock:  Stampin Up! pacific point designer paper, pacific point smooth cardstock A4, Stamp Pads:  Classic Stamp pad – Pacific Point & Basic Black.  Other:  Basic Grey doily ribbons, royal blue grossgrain ribbon, Classic Circles Large die – Nestabilities.

My Pirate Goodie Bags

Hi All,

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, my apologies for not updating my site.  We have been painting, changing room interiors so we can get our apartment on the market.  S0 if you looking to purchase a property in the St Leonards area give me a bell (wink wink), and on top of all that I had my son’s (Hugo) 4th Birthday party to organise.

Here are the goodie bags I made for is pirate themed birthday.  They are a little off centre as Hugo wanted to be involved every step of the way, it’s amazing a difference a year makes.  But were a hit with all the kids and I think the parents.

I was really happy with the way the turned out.  I used my martha stewart score board (which I have back in stock) to make the boxes (that was the hardest part, made easy with the score board), I highly recommend this it saved me so much time, as I didn’t have to measure each box individually.   The Martha Stewart Edger Punch  – Arch Lattice, Stampin Up Labels punch and scallop round nestabilities.

The stamp is from Unity Stamp Co – Pirate Madness which I had brought specially for Hugo’s birthday and used it on the cake, which was a pirate ship and the sales were done with patterned paper.

Now that the party is over, I am hoping to have more time to update my website as well as get more creative with some of the products I have.  I can’t wait to use some of the papers from Basic Grey I have just ordered.

Stamped Tile Coasters

This is a super easy and very effective way of making some stamped tile coasters.  I picked up the tiles from the local tile shop for FREE!!

I did a bit of experimenting  to get it right and wasted one tile,   But here they are.  I thought they would make great end of year gifts for all Hugo’s Preschool teachers.

I used Stazon Inks in saddle brown and teal blue.  If you use any contrasting colour the result will look spectacular.  I would of like to use a red as well,  maybe I’ll try that for my next lot.

The stamp set was a Unity Stamp Co – The Artist in You by Donna Downey.

On the back I used some felt cut into a large square, this helped seal the unsightly tile as well as a good surface protector for the coaster.

How to Stamp on Tiles:

• Practice on a piece of paper to get the correct positioning of the tile.
• Sponge around the edges using  the Stazon inks,  I used Stazon Saddle Brown, make sure you sponge the side of the tiles as well.
• Stamp the images of choice I used a set from Unity Stamp Co – The Artist in You.
• Make sure you apply nice even pressure as the tiles are rough and porous the images will not stamp as it did on paper.
• Give the ink time to set as the tile is porous it may look blurry to start with.  Once the ink sets it will loose the blurriness (not all as it is a rough surface)
• I sealed my tiles with Jo Sonja’s Silk Varnish and used 2 coats.  Make sure there are no bubbles as when it dries it will peal the entire image off ( I learnt the hard way )
• The varnish it cost $11.95 a bottle and I coated 7 tiles in 2 coats and I still have heaps left so you might want to try baking the tiles instead ( I have hard this works but I haven’t tried it myself.
• The back I covered with a piece of felt which works as protective layer as well as hide all the nasty tile rough lines and edges.  You could use rubber or cork as well.

Tips and Tricks for Studio Calico’s Free Range Add On

Here is a layout Kimberly Neddo from Studio Calico made using this months add on kit – Free Range.

Using the Free Range Add on… and more colour papers available on request.
I picked out the colors and background paper that I wanted to use. I used my Tim Holtz ruler and a pencil to draw even lines spaced an inch apart. Then I simply stamped across each line with this color ink
After the ink was dry, I used my white eraser to take erase the penciled lines

For the outside borders, I used different patterned paper from the kit with different techniques. I used one of my border edge punch, and the fun lace tape that is in the kit. I also love to wet down my papers to get them to mold how I would like them to when they dry, so I did that along the edge to show a little smidge of the patterned paper on the backside.

For the Flowers, I punched out circles using 3 different size circle punches starting with the 3 inch punch. Then I wet the paper to crinkle them up and stack them together. To finish off the flowers, I used the cute chipboard accent flowers with some jute to tie it all in together.

Thanks Kimberly for the beautiful layout that is sure to inspire.  Have fun

Love

Joanna

A Father’s Day Card with the Kids

Today I went into my son’s preschool and helped the kids make a father’s day card.  I was amazed at how well they did in putting all the different pieces together, and Hugo was as proud as punch to have mummy at preschool today.  I heard him say to one of the little boys – You go make a card with MY mummy and then you can come over here and help me paint my lollipop!! LOL it was quite funny.  He became my little helper and even let me know that I had forgot to close one of the inkpads and it might dry out!!

Here is the amazing work of the Preschool Kids I am sure their Dads will love their little creations.  I kept it as simple and only brang 1 stamp and 1 inkpad and all the other bits were pre-cut so all they had to do was stick it down.

Unity Stamp & Store Kits so versatile

Here are some samples of what I have made using the one of the stamp and store kits (SSK) from Unity Stamp Co.

I have made a mini album as well as a few more cards that I didn’t photograph (silly me) before I gave them away!! But I just love how versatile these stamps are AND I am still using the kit to make things!! They are just amazing.

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