How to Tie a Bow - tutorial

Would like to know how to tie a bow? There has been some chit chat on LSBS recently about people's ability (or not) to tie one. Well, if you are one of those who would love to learn how, then pop over to the forum to see the first of a short series of tutorials on bows.

I am first up, with a ribbon bow. You can see the step by step >> HERE <<

Take care and ciao for now,

New Monthly Challenges over at LSBS

Looking for something to challenge you and cheer you up during these cold winter days?

Well, look no further than Little Scrapbook Shop, where we have the first of our monthly challenges ready for you!!

Challenge 1 is mine - its a colour and cardmaking challenge and here are the 2 cards I made which meet the criteria. . .

Challenge 2 is by Lauren - its a sketch challenge and what a great sketch it is too.

Head over to the Little Scrapbook Shop Forums for all the details. There is a great prize for each of the challenges and you have a whole month to get them completed.

Hope to see you there.

Take care and ciao for now,

One Product 3 Ways - Stamps! at Little Scrapbook Shop

Good Morning Bloggers!!

Today I have a treat for you! I have just loaded a tutorial over at Little Scrapbook Shop, showing you 3 ways with stamps. Below is a peek at the cards I made. Details on how to get these results can be found in the forums over at LSBS. Click *HERE* to see the thread in the forum.

Create a background for punching out shapes:

Shrinky Dink Fun:

Paper Piecing:

Product information
~ stamps - The Greeting Farm, "Later Sk8er", "Journey", Buddies"; MME Lost & Found "Madison Avenue "Pretty""
~inks - Stazon Timber Brown
~ cardstock - Bazzill Basics
~ Patterned Papers: Echo Park "littlegirl", Kaisercraft
~ Brads
~ Flowers - Green Tara
~ Ribbons
~ Buttons
~ Punches - Martha Stewart - large butterfly, hydrangeas 3
~ Journaling pens - white & brown
~ The Crafters Workshop Template -
~ EK Success punch - retro flower large
~ Other tools: distressing too, heat gun, adhesives

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!!

Take care and ciao for now,

A quick card share . . .

Yes, I know, 2 posts in 2 days hehehe.

Today I thought I would share with you some very cute little cards I made towards the end of last year. I just so love this little "Milton with Card" stamp from Wild Rose Studio (you can get these at Little Scrapbook Shop :) )

TIP: I colour in my stamped images in colours that I like and then choose the cardstock and mix and match patterned papers to go with the colours I have used in my images. It works surprisingly well.

~ Add some interest to your card by rolling the corners instead of sticking them all down

~ tear an edge of one of your papers and add some sparkles

~ punch a border around 2 sides of your patterned paper for a slightly asymetrical look

______________________________

Product information

~ Wild Rose Studio Clear Stamps - Milton & co - Milton with Card + acrylic block
~ Stazon Inkpad - saddle brown
~ Patterned papers from: Echo Park, Prima, Basic Grey , October Afternoon+ scraps in my stash
~ Bazzill cardstock
~ Ribbons
~ FLowers
~ Buttons
~ i-rock tool & clear & coloured gems
~ Cosmo Cricket alphabet stickers
~ Martha Stewart Border edge punch (available by pre-order)
~ Other ~ Watercolour paper, watercolour paint, handmade flowers and a pin from my stash.

All text and images Copyright © Deanne Stewart-Mills and Little Scrapbook Shop 2011

I will have some more for you tomorrow :)

Take care and ciao for now,

4-7-11 ~ 7 Wonders ~ Challenge 1 ~ Pyramid at Giza

Howdy Bloggers!

Well silly me, I keep forgetting to keep my blog up to date. Our first challenge went up atLSBSon Sunday for our 4-7-11 challenges.

I was first up and my challenge is to create a pyramid-shaped mini album/art work. I have a step by step which you can see in the forum by clicking HERE

Here are the photos of the project I created - a Fairy Garden.

Enjoy.

Product used:

~ Bazzill cardstock
~ Ribbons
~ Wild Rose Studio Stamps
~ Stazon Inkpad - Jet Black
~ Flowers (a mix of lots of brands)
~ Kaisercraft round gems
~ Basic Grey Stickers Chipboard Alphas
~ Kindyglitz
~ other - watercolour pencils, circular paper clip

Take care and ciao for now,

4-7-11 ~ 2011 Challenge at Little Scrapbook Shop ~

Hello Little Scrappers and welcome to our 2011 challenge, 4-7-11!

Why 4-7-11? Well, we will be running our challenge program in 4 sessions, there's 7 design team members, and it's 2011!

But as you'd expect, there is a twist... the answer lies within the number 7!

Each session will run for 7 weeks, the first one starting on Sunday the 6th of February.

So, now you know that there are 7 design team members, and each session will run for 7 weeks... but there's one more thing!

Each session has it's own '7' theme...

Session 1: 7 Wonders
Session 2: 7 Deadly Sins
Session 3: 7 Seas
Session 4: 7 Colours of the Rainbow

Are we clever or what?!

We aim to challenge you in new ways... we aim to challenge you to look at things a little bit differently... but more than anything, our aim is to get you scrapping!

To visit the challenge forum at Little Scrapbook Shop, simply click HERE

We hope you will join us in this exciting project for 2011, and good luck with the challenges.

If you want to promote this challenge on your blog, simply right click and save the image to your desktop and upload to your blog or site.

Take care and ciao for now,

So, don't have a heart attack . .

but I am back in blogland!!!

I decided its time my blog had an overhaul (its looking a bit dark and ho-hum) and its time for a facelift.

But first, what have I been up to for the last 6 months?? Geez I have no idea heheheh. Crafting, teaching, being a mum (a mean mum, if you are to believe my 2 mischevious daughters!). I am so loving being crafty and my girls both tell me they love having a mum who knows how to make stuff. How sweet are they??

I have finally finished Maddie's knitted cardigan that I started 18 months ago (sad, isn't it??) but the good news is, it fits her! Yay!! Emily's one has grown more than Emily, so I am hoping that Mad's will fit her for a while yet too, as the yarn seems to get a bit more stretchy as it gets worn. Fingers crossed.

I am in the middle of many projects, knitted, crocheted and paper-craft based, but here is a list of what I am current doing:

1. Knitting myself a big, bulky purple jumper. Have knitted the front and back, and started the sleeves many months ago but developed a repetitive strain injury in my hand and had to stop. All better now, so I should be able to get it finished in time for next winter! haha!

2. Knitted squares. The community centre where I teach at Dean Park in NSW is having a Breast Cancer Awareness Week Fundraiser Day in October. I have started knitting squares to put together a blanket that will be raffled off on the day. I am also encouraging the ladies who attend the knitting & crochet class to knit or crochet squares to add to the blanket. Thanks so far to Margo, Jenni and Eleanor, who have already made some lovely squares for our blanky. I hope I win!!!!!

I will pop back at a later stage with more information about this for anyone who lives in the Western Sydney area who might like to contribute to our community blanket.

3. I discovered the most wonderful blog just this week, called Attic24. Lucy has only been crocheting for 18 months, but when you see her work, OMG! it is just amazing and it looks so good, you'd think she'd been doing it all her life. The colours Lucy uses on her crochet projects is so beautiful, it has totally inspired my to, once again, take up my crochet hook to make granny squares, something I swore I would never do again 18 years ago, when I gave it up in frustration! Now that I am teaching knitting and crochet, I have learned many things and picked up so much, that nothing seems too daunting (except for a hideous crochet doily stitch that Joan wanted me to try and work out - that has left me stumped {{rolls eyes}}).

More to come about this blanky later too. If you are a crocheter, be sure to go and check out Lucy's block at Attic24

4. I am still crocheting big sqaure (sort of grannies but not really) inspired by the blankets made by my friend Virginia's sister. Actually its a blatant copy - I made a pattern by looking at the squares she made and went with that :) This is a long long term project (cos I just don't have enough hours in the day) but I love it and totally enjoy getting lost in the stitching and then looking at the lovely piles of squares. :) Not looking forward to stitching them together however.

5. I am still very much on the design team at Little Scrapbook Shop and am always busy with things over there. I am currently in the midst of a weekly Cuttlebug tutorial series (there will be 10 all together), of which 6 are already up.

Week 1: Printing with Embossing Folders
Week 2: Colour It

Week 3: Tricks with Acetate

Week 4: Cordinations Cardstock
Week 5: Creative Collage

Week 6: Fun with Grungeboard

6. I am also teaching my 2 girls to knit. It's rather painful as they don't pay attention to business, so that, while I may have started them off with 15 stitches, one ended up with 25 and the other with 32!! I guess they won't be making any jumpers any time soon.

OK, so thats all for now. I am going to now go looking for a nice way to change the look of my blog - needs to be brighter and more cheery, and then I will be back with more info about numbers 2 and 3 above.

Have a great day!!

Winners Announced for WCMD Weekend at LSBS

Well, everyone had a top time making cards during the World Cardmaking weekend over at Little Scrapbook Shop. So many fantastic cards to see in the Gallery.

All of the cards for each challenge were simply fantastic. Here are the links to each challenge in the gallery if you want to go and have a look for yourself, as well as a link to the winner of each category, plus some additional winners.

Challenge 1 - Make a set of cards
and the winner of this one was Virginia with a set of fab male cards.
Challenge 2 - Sketch Challenge  
and the winner of this one was Marg with a beautiful friendship card.
Challenge 3 - Set of Christmas Cards
and the winning set was created by beaverjane (Melinda) with this wonderful Christmas Set.

There were also some special mentions:
Prettiest cards - by Shelee with THESE gorgeous creations.
Cutest cards - by Cats (Clare) with THESE wonderfully stamped cards.
Most eyecatching - gorgeous set of Lime & Black cards by DebiJ.
Coolest cards - THESE cards by Neat28(Anita).
Most different - THESE terrific cards by Pepper (Rachel)

The winners of the competitions were:
Competition 1 - Kingtan (Tania)
Competition 2 - alittlescrappy

Congratulations to all the winners and to everyone who joined in. What a fantastic range of cards you now all have to add to your stash for the next occasion!

World Cardmaking Weekend at LSBS

Just when I was starting to get my blogging going again, we were speed limited (thank you DH & DS!!). I am back now, and what a way to kick it off . .

The wonderful Helen has set some terrific challenges over at Little Scrapbook Shop for you to get your cardmaking kick-started this weekend.

If you would like to come and join in the fun click HERE to go to the forums to register, join in the challenges and play some games.

To save you some time, here are links to the individual threads in the forums:

Register HERE
Challenge 1 HERE
Challenge 2 HERE
Challenge 3 HERE
Game #1 HERE
Game #2 HERE

To see the terrific creations made this weekend, head on over to the GALLERY and check them out.

Hope to see you there,

Come and play 52 Pick Up with us

We currently have a 52 week challenge happening over at Little Scrapbook Shop called 52 Pick Up.

We don't want to tie you down with a lot of rules and regulations. We want you to create!

Here's the guidelines:

1. Challenges will be uploaded by the Design Team on Sunday evenings.
2. While challenges are to be uploaded weekly, you have 52 weeks to complete them all.
3. There will to be a variety of challenges. Inspiration, technique, and product based.
4. Layouts can be 8x8, 8x11.5, 6x12 and 12x12. They can be landscape or portrait.
5. There will also be card & OTP challenges.

And of course you want prizes right?!

The 52 Pick Up challenge is not a competition. It is not about being the 'best' scrapbooker or card maker. It is about completing 52 projects for the year. It is about encouraging you to do what you love to the best of your own ability.

We will be having 52 Pick Up Support Sessions on the last Sunday of every month.

At these sessions, one participant who has completed all set challenges preceeding the last Sunday of the month will be drawn out of a hat to receive a prize. You must have completed all the challenges in that period to be eligible.

At the end of the 52 Pick Up challenge, participants who have completed all challenges will be placed into a hat and one overall winner will be drawn out.

Along the way there will also be prizes for things like craftmanship, photography, encouragement, creativity and outstanding work.

We have a mega prize pool, and it's all going to you!

To find out more about it in detail, click HERE
To see the challenges that have been put up already and to watch for new challenges, click HERE
To pop in and join in with the Support Sessions or to read what was discussed at a previous session, click HERE
And to see who the random winners were for each session, click HERE

You can also pop over to see all the fantastic creations in the LSBS Gallery. Our participants have been creating up a storm and there are many totally fantastic layouts, OTP's and cards in the gallery.