Candy!!

Hey head over to Cassie’s blog - http://cassiesscraps.blogspot.com.au/. There are two awesome giveaways to be had!!

Stencils 101

WOW! Ok I really really suck at using stencils, and now I know all the reasons why, and so can you. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer has a FREE class on them, it has heaps of videos and tips. Visit her blog http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/ and click on classes. Then scroll down to Stencils 101 and follow her instructions to get access.
I made myself tags so I know what to do and what NOT to do. I used chalkboard spray as my ‘spray’ and even when I sprayed fairly close, it didn’t bleed under the tag as much as I thought it should have, so I’ll be doing some using glimmermist and homemade glimmermist, just in case there is a difference. I also have another couple of ways I want to try out – inkpad direct, chalks and something I’ve forgotten haha.
Thanks again Julie! Was an awesome class :)

First tag is using Goosebumps spray (FUN!)

Btw get too and DO this class, I think it is only up til the end of 2011 :(

12 Tags of Christmas

Well I fell behind on the 12 tags. This is Day 10. We had Michael’s work Christmas party on Sunday, so wasn’t able to get that day done and only just got day 11 done tonight just before Tim put up day 12.
I couldn’t find my fragments for day 10’s piece and I couldn’t find my shrinkee’s for day 11 LOL. Good thing though, for day 12 I just got a box of the tissue paper in the mail on Sunday LOL. Funny too, as I used it as the background for tag 10, which I made BEFORE Tim put up his ‘using it as a background’– Great minds and all that!!

Here is day 11’s.

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 9

Here we are at day 9, only 3 days to go :( I’ve enjoyed challenging myself everyday. I’m going to have to find new challenges :D

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 8

Well I’m a few minutes late getting this one up. Michael came home and I got busy. Had actually gotten this done last night, so was more just slack getting the photo done.
I meant to add a holly and berries to the blokes hat, might add it later :)

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 7

Well uploaded and more than 10 Minutes to spare…. Pretty good
I really liked Tim’s tag today. I couldn’t do most of what he did as I didn’t have the same gear. Instead of the glassine paper, I stamped a flower/flourish image on PP then crumpled it up. I ran the inkpad over the paper and painted Tattered Angels GlimmerGlam over it. Added some flowers, pearls and some fibres. Topped it with a distressed ‘peace’ :)

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 6

Uploaded with about 1 min to spare.. I think I’m getting worse :P
I like the background of my piece today. I didn’t use daubers, just used some regular acrylic ink. I had to apply it twice to stop the silver coming through.

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 5

It is really hard to see the detail on this piece, the main part is acetate, so it’s really hard to take a good photo of it.
I like todays technique, I had done it before, but done it on smaller pieces. When it came to blotting and rubbing the archival ink off it was harder as it had started to dry a little and the alcohol ink made it sticky. It’s a little more grungy than it should be, but I like it :)
Made it on to the blog with 2 mins to spare today, because I spent 25 mins looking for my camera LOL!

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 4

Finished with 13 minutes to spare today LOL. My best friend rang me this arvo and we chatted away merrily for 45 minutes. When I hung up I remembered I had to get cracking on my tag :O
I followed Tim’s instructions on my bauble with the stains- then crackle paint. Once it had dried and I added the stains on top I had all the crackle lifting off as I tried to wipe it.. Not sure what I did wrong so I added a top coat of glossy accents over the top.

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 3.

Here we are at Day 3 and I am posting in the last minutes of the day LOL! I was at a 12 hour crop yesterday so that cut into a good chunk of ‘Timmy time’. Here is my piece for today. It’s fairly basic, which is good as time was running short.
Thanks for stopping by.

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 2

Wow, I can hardly believe it. I’ve already done day 2. I didn’t have any of the resist paper that Tim had, so I made my own :). I stamped some green spotted paper with Music from Dark Room Door. I then stamped it with a boarder stamp also from DRD. I embossed that image. I rubbed over it with the distress stains then stamped the two Christmas images from Kaisercraft. I added a ‘on the edge’ diecut then added some trim and a diecut from Kaisercraft. Woot. 2/2 :)

12 tags of Christmas

Day 1

I am stoked that I actually finished Day 1, on Day 1, with 7 mins to spare LOL!
Here is my interpretation of Tim’s tag, and his techniques. I embossed the background and just inked over it. For the bird I followed Tim’s ‘embossing – embossing’. I made scrunched flowers using the distressed flower die. My leaves are from the Autumn leaves die. The inking of the background paper/leaves/flowers was using the ‘baking paper technique’ (Distress inks on baking paper-glass-craft mat-whatever and then spritzing water over it and putting your paper on that)
I’ve not added a tie to the top, I am going to stick them down to a mini book

Time Flies?

WOW.. March is the last time I blogged.. that’s ages ago lol. Hmm a lot has happened and at the same time, not much haha. Haven’t dieted in a while. Really enjoyed the CSIRO diet, didn’t lose heaps of weight, though I wasn’t exercising etc, so I guess it’s to be expected. It was pretty easy to stick to and I will go back ‘on’ it. Really it is more of a lifestyle change than a real diet.
Went up to Qld for a couple of weeks. Had an alright time. I went up to Bundy for one of my best and oldest friends 30th, unfortunately her father in law passed away and she ended up having to go to Brissy so we only saw each other once.

Haven’t scrapped lots this year. Have been rather slack on the swaps too.. Hopefully 2012 will be a better scrappy year :)

The garden has been going along really well. Have got all of our spring/summer stuff on the go atm. My favourite time of the year- food wise :)

Have crop for a cause this weekend. Lots of stuff to make and chatting to do. Tim Holtz has his 12 tags of Christmas again this year so am planning to join in.  - which is why I ventured over to my blog LOL!

Week 3 Day 4

Tonight we had a beef vindaloo and the mint yoghurt, had a salad to accompany it. The curry was lovely and flavoursome, but it was really hot, I think the chilli I picked might have been a bit spicey.. that or I should have seeded it lol.. lesson learnt :)

Week 3 Day 3

A basic salad and oven cooked chicken. Unfortunately the chicken was tougher than old boots, and it wasn’t how I cooked it (was lovely and moist, just tough) returned the uncooked portion to Coles and got a full refund AND products to the value of the cost.. so we chose steak LOL.

Week 3 Day 2

I made the lemon cous cous from book 2 and had one of the ‘rubs’ from book one. Was really yummy!

Week 3 Day 1

A nice and simple chicken stir-fry with lots of veggies. I’m really getting into the whole stir-fry thing.. I love sesame oil..
Today was the start of a new week, which means weigh day. I lost 1.6kg this week.. Whoot!

Week 2 Day 7

Open sandwich with rocket, chicken meat and my home grown alfalfas.

I had white fish on a bed of stir-fried zucchini and beans. There were 3 different types of zucchini and those and the beans were from my back yard.

Week 2 Day 6

I really don’t like apples, so I’ll do anything to ‘hide’ them in food lol. Here is a really yummy sandwich that was, apple, cheese, plum sauce, sun flower seeds and something else.. lol sounds bad but it was really yum.

Tea was steak with fried onion and capsicum. Had a big salad, fresh beans and beetroot from my garden.

Week 2 Day 5

I made the spinach and pumpkin frittata today for lunch.. It nearly killed me putting in the effort. The cold is getting worse and standing and cooking was a silly thing to do, but I wanted to make this so bad lol. It’s 2 serves of veg, 1 of protein, fat and dairy. The whole thing makes 4 serves which is perfect for the next couple of days.. and I can freeze some.
Was really nice! Next time though I’m adding 1/2 as much spinach and will add corn and zucchini instead.