Card of the Day - Just the two of us

Today's card is using an image from Paperbag studios. They have a superb range of unmounted stamps.I always order them from my friend Niki at Paperchain in Johannesburg. Her email address is paperchn@netactive.co.za.

I stamped the image of the two children onto cream cardstock and then coloured it in with chalks. I then went around the edges with a gold pen and then wrapped an organza ribbon around the bottom and mounted it onto black cardstock. For the card base, I mounted scrapbook paper onto Black cardstock and then stamped various swirls onto the paper and then mounted the image of the children. I added a small gold butterfly and used my Dymo to make word labels - Just the two of us.

The children look so happy and carefree - it's a shame that we allow our lives to become complicated and we don't enjoy enough carefree moments.

Card of the day - A Trip to Remember

Today's card combines two of my favourite topics - clothes and travel. I have worked in the Travel Industry for 27 years and have been lucky enough to have travelled the world. My favourite is cruising and I try to go on a cruise every year.

My last cruise was the Panama Canal in November last year with my friends Graham, Denver, Ray, Janice and Lester. We had a fabulous time and were gone for about a month. We started off in San Diego were I managed to find several very good craft shops and then we joined our cruise down the Mexican Riveria, through the Panama Canal and then back up through the Caribbean to Fort Lauderdale. We then drove down to Key West for a couple of days, followed by a couple of days in Miami South Beach and then up to Washington DC. Lots of shopping in Washington DC and then home just before Christmas. Wish my suitcase had been as small as this one. I ended up flying home from Washington with 84kg - mostly all crafting stuff I had bought in the States - not clothes.

For this card, I used scrapbook paper for the background and then took a mannequin die cut and stamped it with Hero Arts words and coloured it with Direct to Paper technique using color box ink pads. I then made the skirt from star ribbon and the waistband from Gold Magic tape. Around the bodice of the dress I wrapped some wool and then made a little necklace with beads. I then added a suitcase sticker and used my Dymo to add the word label - A trip to remember. I then added a couple of rhinestones and viola.

This card makes me want to pack up my bags and go travelling.

Card of the day - Retail therapy

Today's card is on one of my favourite topics - shopping. My mother says the phrase "Born to shop" was made for me. When I was younger I was mad about clothes and shoes and handbags, then I got into the household items phase and now its all about crafting stash. I shop a lot on the internet and only wish we had more craft stores in Cape Town.

This card uses an image from one of my favourite stamp companies - My favourite things http://www.mftstamps.com/.

I stamped the main shopping girl image onto white cardstock and coloured in with tombow pens and Copic markers. For the background, I took a strip of green pattern scrapbook paper, a strip of Bazzil cardstock on which I stamped the words, Retail Therapy using Black Brilliance ink pad and then finally Blue Bazzil cardstock which I ran through my Big Shot using a Sissix embossing folder. I then mounted the shopping girls image, added some pale blue organza flowers that I got from Charmaine's Magic ribbon and cards and some rhinestones.

Makes me want to rush out and shop till I drop.

Card of the day

It's such a gorgeous morning in Cape Town - despite being winter, the sun is shining and it is just perfect. Hard to believe it's July.

Today's card is one I made a little while ago, using one of my friend Niki Zipp's Paperchain range of stamps. She has a small range of stamps that are just super .I have to say I just love girly and clothing stamps.

This card is made using my favourite colours - black and white. I have used black base card and then layered on white cardstock which I embossed with my Big Shot using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and then went around the edges with a Silver pen. I then added a strip of black and silver swirl paper. I stamped the image of the bodice and the words and embossed with black sparkle embossing powder and then cut them out and attached to the cardfront and used Stickles glitter glue to highlight areas of the images. I then added some rhinestones, ribbon with a clippola and flowers with a jewel brad. A very simple card but rather elegant I think.

My Stamping Studio

I am a member of the RSA Stamping Group and was asked recently to take some pictures of my studio. So here goes on my first post.I love my studio and spend a lot of time in it. It has unfortunately now grown to small to store all my cardmaking stash, so I plan to build a new one early next year, but that is going to take a lot of planning, which is the fun part.

There are quite a few changes that I will be making so it will be fun to look back at these in a years time.

The picture above shows my desk which looks out onto my garden, when I have the blinds open. At the back of my desk I store my most popular ink pads - Brilliance, Adirondack, Memories and Tuxedo and on top of the storage units are my jars of flowers - I just adore Prima flowers especially. To the left of my desk is a built in storage unit which holds my plastic folders with Unmounted stamps arranged by company and also some of my scrapbook paper in flip files. Above my desk is a shelf for my chunky books that I have participated in with the RSA Group - I just adore making Chunky books - its always such a joy to see what other people come up with on the theme chosen.

Behind my desk are my storage cupboards for my mounted rubber stamps which I store in leopard print boxes from Merrypak. In the new studio I will be changing the boxes to a black and white pattern box from Merrypak. They are sorted mainly by theme ie Angels, Marine, Clothing etc and in some cases by Stamp Company. There are rather a lot of them and I need a ladder to get to the upper ones. The bottom 4 or 5 rows are open ie no doors on the unit, but above that there are cupboard doors.

Now one of my other passions is magazines and books - this bookcase just holds my stamping magazines and books and is jam packed full, which is just one of the reasons I need more space. The magazines are all in the Leopard print magazine holders from Merrypak. The Gold/Bronze files you can see on the shelves, are my cataloging system for my rubber stamps. Each time I get a new rubber stamp, I stamp the image and record the date and cost and then add it to the file or should I say files - they have rather grown in number over the years. I find this system works very well for me as if I am looking for a stamp I just browse through the files and choose my stamp that way. What I should have done in retrospect was also scanned the image into the computer as that would make life a lot easier - something to put on my to do list. The bookcase is again floor to ceiling, so I have to use my ladder to reach the upper shelves. Those ink pads that are not housed in the storage units at the back of my desk are in my drawers underneath my desk - to either side of my chair for easy reach- I seem to collect ink pads but always end up using my favourite Brilliance range and the color box ink pads for edging my cards.

Heres another shot of the area to the left of my desk which shows the start of my stamp boxes behind my desk. The cards on the memo boards are various cards I have made or received over the years.
In the picture above you can also see Teddy(another thing that I collect) sitting on one of my favourite tools - my Big Shot. So glad I choose the Big Shot over other die cutters. I also have the Cricut Expression but that is in the computer room as it doesn't fit in the studio. Behind the Big shot are the shelves for my Sissix dies and next to the Big shot you can just see 1 of a few paper stands that I have, that I store paper 14x14 in, which I find is the perfect size for my square cards.

Well I hope that you enjoy this brief tour of my studio space.

Welcome to Harrods Creations

Well I have finally taken the plunge and decided to create a blog. Now the challenge will be to keep it up to date and load everything.

I adore rubber stamping and cardmaking and my reason for creating this blog, is to be able to share my creations and hopefully inspire others.