Connecting with nature

 

Chrisy Clay on the living a good north coast life blog is hosting a blog link party on the theme of connecting with nature and sharing our photos.    One photograph at time but so many new things to discover and explore.

 

This week I am sharing a link and photo of the Beluga Whales at Vancouver Aquarium.  Fun to see them at play in the water but rather dull viewing if it is night time and in their pool. Vancouver Aquarium ranks as one of my favourite outdoor adventures and getting up close with nature. 

 

And for my SkyWatch Friday friends, a couple of photos of the beautiful city of Vancouver.

 

 

We all like to stay connected when travelling, as much as all the new internet technology is fun for the instant communication, I still like a good old fashioned postcard or in this case a decorated postcard. I teach classes in mixed media and mail art on the My Creative Classroom website.

 

 Rebekah Meier released a new collection of stencils this year with the crafters workshop and I am loving the mail art themes.  

 

Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair.

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic and we’ll change the world."  Jack Layton 

A great quote from a Canadian politician who believed we all have the power to make a difference.

The bird is a Cormorant or yes in deed a shag on a rock (for my Aussie friends the name shag refers to their style of headdress).  Early in the morning is my favourite time to visit the beach while it is peaceful and quiet.  Am on the road this week, catching up with other bloggers who are becoming fast real life friends.

Am linking to an expat blogging party for the month of Feb and having great fun seeing what everyone has to share. The life of an ex-pat was not one that I would have chosen. My childhood memories are scattered across many continents but one thing that stands out for me in all our adventures, is the beach. No matter where were we have been it was not far from the beach and they have all been so different. The black sand of New Brunswick Canada, my mothers’ rocky gravel shore lines in England were hard on tender toes, foggy misty dunes of Cape Cod, and now the wild and remote beaches of Australia’s east coast. Where ever we go, where ever we wonder, and not matter how different the shore line might look the beach is always home to me.

Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party
Expat Blogging Challenge

Thank you to Basic Grey and a gift card tutorial

My most popular workshops are mail art and gift card holders, anytime I combine the two it is always a winner.   Gift certificates sometimes really are the best present for someone but the cards can be so plain.  This is one of my retired workshops that used the Basic Grey line called Clippings designed to be a photo frame and multilayered gift to tuck a gift certificate in the pockets.  It has a fun postal art theme that you can dress up for different seasons by varying the accent colours.

Products

Basic Grey new collection “Clippings”
Typewriter paper
Handmade Quilt paper
Their Snippets paper stack and sticker set
Typewriter keys for chipboard letters
Brads
Epoxy stickers to top the typewriter letters or dimensional magic
And bakers twine I like Maya Road’s collection of pretty colours

Start with the base card

From brown cardstock cut to 6 inches by 12 inches
Score at 5 and 7/8’s from each end
For the front cut a piece of red cardstock 5 ¾  square
From the red patterned side of the handmade quilt paper cut another 5 ¾ square
The red checked pattern can be glued inside the card
 
Add a photo behind the frame and put aside
Cut the typewriter paper to 5 ½ square
To capture the air mail bands in the front of the card, you can cut the red and blue bands out separately and simply glued them in place
Attach brads in the corners and tie with twine
Cut out the tag from the snippets pack
Cover back of tag with dictionary definition page

Assembling the cover -

Layer the frame with the tag behind
Mount on the brown paper and then center on the red cardstock to glue to the front cover
Place the ticket to the bottom right of the frame
Typewriter keys could spell out their name or another word like thanks
Top the typewriter keys with Epoxy stickers to give the better definition or dimensional magic for a touch of shine

Inside Pockets

The inside pockets become an extra support to help your picture frame stand up
Cut kraft cardstock for pockets
3 ¼ high by 11 ½  long 
Score at 5 ¾ or about half the length
Glue around just the outside edges
to create open pockets and glue to the inside of the card
One pocket goes on the front of the card, one goes on the back and that will leave you with a pocket in the middle

Starting with the left inside cover

Cut Snippets pads the date page, tags, especially for you
 I am thankful every day and the nail heads are in the chipboard set
The nail heads were topped with dimensional magic

Right side of the inside pocket
Behind the envelope chipboard are random left over papers to fill the space, not much of it shows.  
The top is the big chipboard envelope with the torn return address from the Snippets set.
The thanks tag is from the sticky labels
Finish off with two more nail heads on the side

 On the back of the inside pocket

This is one strip of the papers in the Snippets paperstack
Trim the page to size and glue to the pocket

Last pocket on the back cover
Trim the to do list from the Snippets set
And glue inside the pocket
Date due is another page from the Snippets set glued to the front of the pocket
Handmade tag is from the sticker set

Inside the pockets is space to tuck gift cards or you can add little messages in the form of ATCs. An ATC is a nice way of adding more creative messages. Being a small size, they can tuck these in their wallet or desk at the office.

An ATC  is simply a little card of art, they are generally sized as 2 ½ by 3 ½ with art on one side and your creative details on the back.

Thank you to the lovely folks at Basic Grey for sponsoring me with the Clippings collection, it has been great fun to see how many different ways we could use this theme.  This is a sample of the classic paper craft classes I teach at the My Creative Classroom site, would love to meet up with you again soon in one of the classrooms

This week I am at the CHA event in Anaheim waiting to see the new Basic Grey collections up close.  While we are waiting they are hosting a competition to win the new one of the new 2014 collections including Mon Ami, Capture, Herbs and Honey. Highline or Spice Market, all pretty cool for creative projects.

Getting outdoors and making the new year memorable

Happy New Year  !
This new year marked the start of an exciting adventure after being introduced the first time to the native Australian stingless bees.  In the photos they are the tiny little black spots, how nice to not have to be afraid of a bug bite or find a bee without a stinger.

This year's summer holiday reading list included The Life of The Bee by Maurice Maeterlinck. Lots of interesting things the average person would  not know, like a Queen Bee could die of loneliness without all her busy little buddies, shows how tight knit their communities are.  We forget the world is all interconnected in some way.  If we all do our little bit to look out for little creatures or our patch of the environment it can impact the collective community.

 

My other fun start to the year is participating in One Little Word. Instead making a whole list of resolutions, some folks think about one guiding word that frames everything in their year.  Last year I had zen, that beautiful blissed out feeling would be nice, I was hoping to settle on balancing in the middle ground of what we would like to be and where things are. Click the link if you are interested in reading more about the One Little Word program.

 

This year my word is joy, as in looking for the joy in ordinary little moments, finding the joy in chores because that is the fuel that gets them done and appreciating all that is good in our world.

Looking forward to hearing about your plans and figuring out how to make 2014 meaningful or memorable.

Am busy developing new workshops for 2014 featuring mail art themes. This is one of the Crate Paper projects from last season

And wait till you see what we got up to with this collection.



Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party

Celebrating Red Cup Season with Maya Road and Basic Grey

Happy New Year, it is fun to share gifts of the season.  This week I am sharing tutorials using my favorite products.   Some my most popular workshops are about turning a gift certificate into a present.  This year we used tags as a base to build cards, adding little pockets for the gift cards and personalized with special messages that say more about what they mean to you.

Products

Ranger Craft Tag size 10 ( 8 ½” or 22cms)

Maya Road Chipboard clocks
Maya Road Chipboard cup and spoon from the teapot album
Maya Road Twine
Scrapbook Adhesives  E-Z  tape runner and Foam Squares
Basic Grey paper Bow Ties – Capture The Flag
Basic Grey paper Clippings – Hand Made Quilt
Basic Grey Clippings chipboard
Basic Grey Clippings snippets pad
Basic Grey Bow Ties sticker collection
ColorBox Donna Salazar Mixed Media Inx Honey
Luminarte Silks Ice & Solar Gold
Small heart brads
Button (clock on the sample)

Start by covering the outside with the red side of the Quilt paper.  The Scrapbook Adhesives brands of tape runners provide a good solid stick to hold your paper to the tag.  Score or fold the tag at 2 1/2” from the square end and 2” from the tag end.

 

On the inside use the number side of the Bow Ties paper, cut a length of paper 4” high across the numbers.   You can use the tag as a guide for cutting the squares are about 2 1/4”   and 3 1/4”  and the tag end was 1 3/4” before the triangles were nipped off.  

To assemble the inside, starting from the left, cut the days of the week from the snippets pad, top with a quick coat of a clear gloss or Dimensional Magic to add the touch of a dyno tape look. Glue to the left edge and top with a ruler from the BowTies Sticker Collection. 

 

 Measure up the clock against the gift card to form the pocket, cut across the bottom to create a straight edge. Use the Scrapbook Adhesives foam pads along the straight edge and half way up the clock edges.  Top the clock with a Thanks sticker and moments file folder from the Clippings collection.  Top with a little red flag from the Bow Ties collection.

To finish the outside cover , paint the chipboard spoon and cup with Luminate Silks.  

Trim a large clock to fit the left edge of the tag and a smaller clock behind that.  Top with the spoon and cup.

The button and tie need to be strong to hold your card closed and the reason why I rely on Scrapbook Adhesives foam pads. Tie a not in the twine and lock into the back of the button with foam pads that will double as your adhesive to hold the button on the front of the card.

 

Hope you enjoyed this project and if you liked what we did with Maya Road in this one have a peek at the workshops where we use mixed media techniques in the Maya Road shadowboxes. 

 

Joining Link Parties:

The Shabby Nest Frugal Friday

Jenny's Alphabee

My Romantic Home
 

Sending you wishes in a gift card Melissa Frances and Scrapbook Adhesives

Happy Holidays everyone.  My family’s culture is European so for us Christmas is not just on the 25th but we celebrate the full 12 days with gifts of gratitude.   Many of the ex Commonwealth Countries celebrate Boxing Day as the day you traditionally give small gifts to the tradespeople or staff who have worked with you through the year.  In Ireland they have St Stephen’s day and across Europe there are the fests of Le Jour des Rois and  dia de los Reyes Magos.

In the spirit of gratitude and giving I am sharing free tutorials over the next few days.  To say thank you for your support through the year and as a sampler of our workshops we have hosted in the past.  Today we are kicking off with a Melissa Frances supported by Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L. 

 

This project has lots of layers of envelopes, tags, stickers, embellishments and trims that are the personalization and make your project  uniquely U.    A tag is a good base to build a gift card, with little pockets for the gift certificates and personalized with special messages that tell them what they mean to you.

 

Products

Ranger Craft Tag size 10 ( 8 ½” or 22cms)

Scrapbook Adhesives  E-Z  tape runner

Versa Color Inx Petal Pink

Thin ribbon to tie off the tags

Grey felt tip pen or copic

 

Melissa Frances Products:

Green Honeycomb paper

Holiday Notes paper

Green velum envelopes

Tags and die cuts from Holiday Notes, Hopeful, Vintage Treasures, C’est la Vie

Resin frames and a heart

Green pompom trim

This is a classic and  pretty project that does not take much time to finish.   One of my favourite time savers is to use the right tools or products, like Scrapbook Adhesives tape runners.   Their velum tape is very clear or hardly shows at all. All of the Scrapbook Adhesive tapes hold really well on all kinds of surfaces. Even the fabric pompom trim holds firm with Scrapbook Adhesive tapes.

Directions:

Cover the jumbo tag with Melissa Frances Honeycomb paper.

Cut the countdown date strip from Melissa Frances Holiday Notes and attach to the left side of the tag. Add pompom trim behind the tag on the left side.

This post card tag is from Melissa Frances’ Christmas Collection but there are lots of postcard images in the Melissa Frances range of papers and tags, if you wanted to try something different.

The Melissa Frances velum envelopes come with plain white tags.  You can use these as a template to cut colorful tags from matching papers.    Or use some of the tags from C’est la vie, Hopeful, Vintage Treasures, or the Holiday collection.  This is a great place to add special messages that tell the recipient how much they mean to you.

To build up the postage corner, there is a small tag from the Hopeful collection, recycled postage stamps and a Dec 25 tag cut from the Holiday Notes paper.

One of the things I love about the Melissa Frances resin trims is that they take colour so well.  Because we want this to be a quick project I rubbed them down quickly with a light touch of the petal pink ink and set it aside to dry.  Then to give the details emphasis, another quick wipe accented the details nicely when the 2^nd coat dried a deeper shade.

 Start building the envelopes in the left corner, biggest envelopes first, pointing to the right, another on top of that pointing up. The large envelopes are just the right size for gift cards.  Finish with a tiny tag and the resin heart.

A good trick for bringing a collage together is to hand draw  stitching around the edges of all the trims and envelopes with a pen  or doodle lines. That tricks your eye into seeing everything as being connected. 

There you go, a quick and easy gift card holder with personality.  Would love to see you soon in one of my full workshops that include introductions to mixed media techniques on the My Creative Classroom website.  This is a little peek from one of the Mail Art workshops.

Happy Holidays

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." Norman Vincent Peale

Happy Holidays to all my blogging friends.  2013 has been a humdinger around here, am thankful for friends and being able to enjoying the great outdoors for holding me together.  Sharing photos this week that show a little of my mixed up Christmas themes,  with a photo of the decorated windows at the historic Bay in Toronto (Hudson Bay Trading Company in previous eras) we have lots of special memories associated with this day out and one from the sunshine filled beach where we will spend the 25^th. 

 

I love altered art and  the reflections of the wintery skyline in the window over the cute decorations makes me smile.

For the next few weeks this will be my skyline, big blue horizons reflecting sparkling sunshine.

For a giggle, this is a video clip of local black swans, who have taken to body surfing at the beach.  Nature at play ~ got to love it.

To say thank you for visiting and cheering us on, the next few weeks I will be posting tutorials for workshops that I am retiring this year.  Be sure to come back for a visit, there will be designs using all of my personal favourites Melissa Frances, Scrapbook Adhesives, Maya Road, Basic Grey and Crate Paper.

Link Parties: Sky Watch Friday,

Thankful

 “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them” John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American family and friends. As long as we remember to say please, thank you and appreciate all that is good in our lives it sure does make a difference in this fast paced modern world we live in. 

Thanksgiving has always been my favourite holiday, it can be a beautiful day, quiet and simple and uncomplicated as simply taking time to be thankful for all that is good.

Plymouth  was our home for many years. The things I love about the region include being able to smell pine and salty beaches at the same time, fresh seafood, sandy beaches, quiet forests with unexpected encounters with nature at play, the many little local artists and markets and shopkeepers, going to school and hanging out with kids with names that connected us to history.   The Plymouth Plantation is a fantastic adventure to visit to get a feel of life for the pioneers and appreciate their accomplishments.

 

This photo was taken on one of the beaches at Plymouth not far from the famous rock.

 

Psalm 71:14

"As for me, I will always have hope."
Started working on the calendar and schedule for the next few weeks and realised 2013 is almost over. It has been a blur of all kinds of events around here but focusing on the future and appreciating all beauty that does surround us. Sharing a photo for fans of Sky Watch Friday from the beautiful north coast of New South Wales were we could almost call this a room with a view.
Putting the finishing touches on a new workshops as well, including this gift card holder for the holiday season based on a jumbo tag with lots of special little details.

The class is part of the My Creative Classroom offerings, lots to choose from for all kinds of crafters. Have a wildly creative weekend friends!

Sharing a video clip from time lapse photographer Louie Schwartzberg and TEDx on the topic of living with gratitude that can't help but make you smile.

 

It is that time of year .... the holiday music has started.

Hopes & Dreams

"There is a world where hope and dreams can last for all times."Ariel

Happy Sky Watch Friday my friends, click the link to see what bloggers from all over have found in their skies to share this week.  Have been busy with a few projects the last few weeks, taking up new roles with the Craft and Hobby Association Designers Group and launching new on line workshops including this one on textures called Bricks and Stones.

Whatevers is a challenge site hosted by 3 creative friends Cat Scanlon, Vicki Chrisman, Nat Kalbach,  to celebrate found photos and the stories that could be told.    My creation is Charles and Chelsea which started here  

This edition is titled the colourful world down under.

Dearest Charles,

We have been motoring across the countryside and our timing could not have been better, the desert wildflowers are in bloom everywhere.  The hills are a rainbow of bright vivid hues of every colour.  Catherine has been sketching the many pretty flowers.  Tomorrow we are travelling on the city of Grafton for their famous Jacaranda festival in a blaze of purple.

Write more when we get there! 

Chelsea

 

Found photos of weddings, babies, or young people going off to war are often for sale at jumble stalls and antique centres.  Rich with details of fashion or landscapes that have changed and vintage automobiles, but sadly with no voice to tell their stories.  Do you ever wonder, who are these people and what is their story? Click the link to the Whatevers and see how some of collaborating creatives are taking their stories, everyone is welcome to join in.

The flowers on this page are cut from Catherine Scanlon’s Art Journal Coloring Book.