Australasian Blog Hop - October 2019 Hawthorn

Well hello!
Welcome to our Australasian Blog Hop for October!
Did you arrive here from Maz's blog or are you a regular visitor? Either way I am happy to see you here and to showcase this month's Close to My Heart feature paper pack "Hawthorn"

I adore the colours in this one - rich Autumnal tones (which perfectly match a lot of my wardrobe)  Clearly I am not the only one who loves these colours as at a recent Close To My Heart Event several of my friends and our beautiful president were all wearing Hawthorn colours!

It really is a very versatile and easy to use pack and I love how it works for more masculine pages too!

First up, the Craft With Heart Subscription pages - if you haven't yet signed up for Craft With Heart I really can recommend it.  These pages come together so quickly and easily and really need only your favourite adhesive.  Because there are two double page layouts for each month you end up with a stunning album at the end of the year for less than a dollar a day!  You may notice that I rotated the pages to work for my portrait photos. 

Next are pages from our Make it From Your Heart Volume 3 page 6. 

This is a great layout for adding flip flaps to get extra photos onto your page.  I love the way the leaves from this month's Stamp of the Month worked in so well on this one (and how amazing is our new "Paprika" cardstock?)  The really great thing about this layout is that it really only needs one strip of 4 x 12" patterned paper and a couple of teeny strips - a great layout to do right at the end of a scrapping session to use up those last few precious bits!

The plaid in this pack works really well for my daughter's school uniform so it was easy to modify the Hawthorn Scrapbooking workshop kit to suit her school album.
Lastly a couple of quick, masculine cards using our stitched frames and the Hawthorn Cardmaking Stamp set (C1798) which has a great range of masculine images.  The thank you card used up some scrappy zip strips and offcuts from Hawthorn and Mix In papers and the "Thank" was cut out from the "Thankful" stickers in the Craft With Heart Subscription pages while the "you" was stamped.  I like to get extra mileage out of my scrapping supplies so if ever a title or embellishment doesn't work on its intended page then you just use it somewhere else!

I hope you enjoy using Hawthorn as much as I did.  Don't forget to put in an order with your consultant as this one will be gone for good at the end of the month!

Now hop on over to Lauren's blog to see what she has been busy creating.

Until next time,

Happy scrapping,

Nell

Something Fierce Feature Paper Blog Hop

Welcome to our Blog Hop for the January feature paper "Something Fierce"  Did you arrive here from Shaunna's Blog ?  I hope you enjoy clicking through all of the links to see everyone's different takes on this versatile paper pack.  The colours in it are fabulous for our Australian Summer photos!

Sticker quotes look great in a stitched circle thin cut.  I have also used leftover cardstock and our numbers thin cuts to do the "12" in the corner.  Thin cuts are a fabulous way of turning scraps into great embellishments.

I just love the bright, clear colours in this pack.  They are easily customised to suit pretty much any photos.  This pack also works exceptionally well with our Carolina and Bluebird cardstock and ink. Don't be put off by the super-cute dinosaurs as you can easily avoid dino-themed pages (simply by turning the paper over!)

The bright primary colours in this pack make it perfect for fun kid's pages.

My cute niece is affectionately known as "T-Rex" so I liked adding the dinosaurs to her page!

This was my take on the Workshop Your Way layout - not a dinosaur in sight.

That is it for me this month - I may confess to being "all scrapped out" - I have just returned from a 3 day scrap retreat with some scrapping buddies and actually completed over 100 pages.  It feels good to be getting those albums up to date!

Now hop on over to Maz at Amazing Creations to see what she has been up to!
Until next time,
Happy scrapping,
Nell

Card Captions Stamp of the Month Australasian Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to our first blog hop for the year.
Did you arrive here from Shaunna's Blog?  Whether you are new here or a seasoned scrapper please enjoy hopping along to all of our blogs to see what we've been creating.  We love it when you leave us a comment too!

January's Stamp of the Month is an absolute must have.  I recommend a sentiments stamp like this one for every beginner scrapper/cardmaker.  It is a perfect addition to your "toolbox"

Confession time: I woke up super early this morning and rather than toss and turn got up and played while the rest of the house was asleep.  My daughter shares a bookcase partition with my scrapping room so I had to scrap on a corner of the kitchen table.  I crept in and grabbed a couple of blocks and my black ink and little tool caddy and the "Something Fierce" Workshop Your Way without waking her.
You may notice that all of my examples this month use only black ink and two blocks (a 1" block and a 1x3 1/2" block)  Most of my cutting was done just using my microtip scissors.  I know that this stamp set would work beautifully with any of the papers in our range but I wanted to keep to using Something Fierce.

I think I have mentioned before that I am big on teaching my kids gratitude.  We generally have a basket full of thank you cards easily accessible for them to write thank yous.  My son has recently lamented that "there are only girly cards left"  (meaning too many butterflies and flowers!) so these are to restock the basket.

Don't throw that sticker sheet away until you have thought about the bits that are left - the little zig zag borders are the bit left over after the stickers were removed.

Stamping directly onto the PML cutouts or pre-made journalling dies is a great way to add extra dimension to your work.

This stamp set is not just for sentiments - how cute is that little star?  I have been using "leftovers" from my Craft with Heart subscription as they coordinate perfectly with the feature paper pack for the month.

This one was made especially for a dear brave little girl who has an extended stay in hospital.  Paired with a set of our watercolours and a visual art diary it will be a perfect recovery present.

Sometimes it is great to have a couple of generic cards on hand.  This is perfect for a new job, new house, promotion, graduation, or any job well done!  I love the little dots to make an effective border.

Part of my strategy to get organised this year is to make Birthday cards for my friends and family and put them in a 12 month file under the month of their birthday.  If I mark in my diary the week I need to send cards (and to whom) then it should all work perfectly.  I will have two nieces turning three this year and one of them (Tiana) is sometimes affectionately known as Ti-Rex.

This is part of my strategy to send cards "just because"  All of my really best friends live interstate.  Catch ups are rare so when they do happen I want to be able to send a photo of that moment afterwards just so they know I am missing them!  Can you see the little scraps of cream paper under the dinosaurs? They are bits that are cut away from the sticker carrier sheet so that I can still stick my photo under the dinosaurs.

And I couldn't let you go without pointing out that this stamp set is not just for cardmakers!  Look at that border!? With sentiments like "hello" and "love you" it is also perfect for adding to your layouts.

So what do you think?  Hugely versatile and lots of fun.  The other thing I LOVE about this set is how easy Close To My Heart have made it for you to obtain it.  We have a brand new Seasonal Expression packed full of gorgeous new product.  Choose any of your favourite things up to $82.50 and this stamp is yours for only $8.50.  That is money well spent!

Happy New Year to you.
May your scrapping bring you joy this year!
Now click on this link to Doris' Blog to see what clever ideas she has been creating!
Keep smiling,
Nell

Documented Blog Hop

Ah Documented how I love thee!
Welcome to our Australasian Blog Hop.  Did you arrive here from the crafty goodness of Lauren's Blog?
I hope you will click on each link to the very end and we would love it if you leave a comment (crafters need a bit of encouragement occasionally!)

Now this paper pack is an important one.  It celebrates all of those wonderful things that make life worth documenting - friends, special memories, moments you want to relive.  The sentiments in this one are just so sweet too (especially that Dr Seuss quote which I put with a photo of our recently departed dear old dog and then howled!)

Love, love, love it.  To me it screams album-making in my favourite scrappy, slightly off kilter kind of way and every page I've used it for I love. I hope you love it too!

Oh, and it teams AMAZINGLY with our retiring colour of the year - Bashful - if you are a Bashful fan then don't forget to get it before it is gone this month!

I love the sweet Picture My Life - Love Us cards that go so well with this pack.  That gorgeous green floral is just one little 3x4 card cut in half.  The zip strip at the bottom suits my sassy little girl perfectly!

The chipboard complements worked perfectly for 14th birthday photos - this is pretty much a modified layout from our Seasonal Expressions Catalogue.  Cutting a square into triangles is a great way to get extra mileage out of your feature papers.

This is the layout that we did at our Close to My Heart Convention this year.  I love it! It worked so well with these treasured photos.

Sometimes a little bit of product goes a long way.  This double page only used four 3/4inch strips of feature paper and a few (mostly leftover) compliments! And see what I mean about how beautiful it looks with the Bashful!

The world's quickest card.  Feature paper cut to 1/8th inch shorter than our value card base, a sentiment stamped in black on a scrap of White cardstock, tear the bottom. Add a couple of dots.  Call it done.

And just to prove it is not just for girls - a very quick page for my son's album.  Once again just a strip and a PML card put to good use.

What will you make with Documented?  Hop on over to Doreen's Blog to see what she has created!
Until next time,
Happy scrapping,
Nell

Classic Summer Bash Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to our Australasian Blog Hop for May!  Did you arrive here from the lovely Doris?
May already! How did that happen?  If you are anything like me you are still scrapping Summer photos so this stamp will work perfectly for those occasions.  As is usual with Stamp of the Month this stamp can be yours for just $7.50 with a $75 purchase this month (and what a month to spend money with all of the glorious new products available in our Seasonal Expressions Catalogue!)  See your consultant for more details or if you don't have a consultant feel free to shop with me at www.nellward.closetomyheart.com.au

I think my favourite part of this stamp is that cute little banner.  I also think the jar will come in super handy to put floral stamps in as an informal vase.  

This super simple little card is just one of our bulk white daisy cards cut into a square and corner rounded.  I used a background texture stamp like the one from our "Colourful Texture"set (D1784) with glacier ink and then stamped an M sized sentiment on with memento black ink.  The little banners were in Twilight, Cranberry and Canary ink.

This card uses one of the PML cards from our new "Documented" Paper and then a scrap of blue behind it and black ink to stamp the jug and lemons and banner.  Then I just cut tiny triangles from scrap paper.  

This page is just waiting for some photos of my funny friends.  I am very lucky to be part of a "secret" Pimms group of like-minded, fun loving school mums who come and drink Pimms and eat cheese on my deck on nice afternoons.  It is a tradition that I love and we always laugh so hard that my stomach muscles hurt so I thought it was worth documenting these beautiful friends in my album.  Our albums should be a celebration of our relationships! Of course now I need to organise another Pimms afternoon to get some photos - the things we do for our scrapbooking!!!
I used Willow cardstock and ink, with the same Twilight, Cranberry and Canary combo for the lettering.  I know that the "Location", "Date" and "Time" stamp will be great for future birthday invites/social gatherings but it also works beautifully as a journalling prompt.

So that is it from me this month.  Hop on over to Wendy's Blog to keep sharing the great ideas!
Happy Scrapping,
Nell

Australasian Blog Hop - Christmas Tunes Stamp of the Month

Hello and welcome to our Australasian Blog Hop for October.  Did you arrive here from Doreen's lovely blog?  This month we feature the beautiful Christmas Tunes Stamp of the Month.  As usual this stamp is available for $7.50 with a $75 order this month only.

Whilst I can see this stamp making easy Christmas cards, it will also work really well for Christmas themed pages (and I also cut the "Baby it is cold outside" sentiment from the inside of the snow globe so that I can use the sentiment on Winter pages and the snow globe with other stamps inside it!)

I really had fun using this stamp with our new Christmas ranges.

First up is a little card with Ruby card stock and ink and a bit of red glitter ribbon. The heart paper is from the Silver and Gold Workshop Your Way.

For the next card I again used Ruby cardstock but paired it with the grey from out of the Silver and Gold Workshop Your Way.  I cut the "falalalala" out of the inside of the PML card which then became the grey and white border.  I added a 1/4 inch strip of silver paper to the bottom of the white card and  I used memento black ink to stamp the snow globe (with the sentiment cut out of it) and the little bear which is my favourite from the Beary Christmas Scrapbooking stamp set (Z4047)  A spot of carmine Shinhan marker on his nose, the bauble and the hat was all that was needed to complete this little card.  I love it! Perfect for a fellow teddy bear lover!

My last project was again working on the back log of Christmas photos from last year.  I used the SOM bauble with the Silver and Gold Cardmaking Holiday stamps (C1689) to create my baubles along the top with Willow and Ruby ink.  A cricut cut tree and a few silver sequins just finished off the look with a banner (which incidently was in my scraps box left over from cutting the "Christmas" thincuts for card buffet last year!)  Don't be afraid to use your scraps to best advantage.  I try to put any usable scraps in one of our large organisers (with the compartments removed) and then anytime I have a bit of spare time I sit and play just with the scraps.  I love to feel like I am getting something from nothing and creating with old scraps mixed with new product is my very favourite way to work!

I think you will really enjoy this stamp and it works so well with other Christmas stamps and papers in our range.

So that is it from me.  I love to read your comments (and have especially enjoyed the comments being left by our American friends on the last few hops!) Please click on Rachel's blog to continue the hop.
Until next time,
Keep smiling,
Nell

Australasian Blog Hop - Cats and Bats

Welcome to the Australasian Blog Hop for September.  This month we could choose to focus on either "Cats and Bats" or "Falling For You".  Hello to those who arrived from Doreen's Blog and also to regular readers and new readers!

Now I am not big on Halloween.  I don't personally like ooky spooky things and I just honestly feel like there is nothing Australian about it - we don't need to borrow someone else's celebration, so I was really glad to see that "Cats and Bats" can also work really well for non-Halloween subjects.  It worked well for my son's October birthday and also exceptionally well for school themed photos.

One thing I was really happy about is how well it works with Willow and Emerald cardstock (I may have over-ordered those two colours at some point LOL)

I even found that the compliments could be easily tweaked to suit my purposes.  Did you notice how I turned "Halloween" into "Hello Ten"?  I think my favourite thing about this pack was those glittery black stars - so many of them and they work on just about any page!

I also really wanted to play with our new Make It From Your Heart Volume 3 so you might find that patterns 29 and 30 look familiar?

So now on to Kara's Blog
Thanks for reading!
Keep smiling,
Nell

p.s. I do plan to play with Falling for You before my workshops next month so check back later this month for a blog post featuring it!

Prickly Pear Australasian Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to our Australasian Blog Hop.  Hello to those who have arrived from Colleen's Blog - I hope you are enjoying the hop.

Confession time.  I am not a lover of cacti.  This could possibly be because I remember eating prickly pear on a camping trip as a kid and having to go wailing back to campsite so Mum could remove prickles from the roof of my mouth.  When I first saw the Prickly Pear Paper Pack it didn't sing to me.  However, I have just busted open my second packet.  Why? Because the colour palette in this one goes with EVERYTHING.  It also works really, really well with some of our older complements and papers and washi tape.  It is SOOOOO easy to use and because it is bright and bold a little bit goes a long way.

I have to also rave on about the Prickly Pear Scrapbooking Stamp (D1722)  As you probably know, at Close to My Heart we are all about celebrating relationships.  I feel like this stamp nails that! It is perfect for creating special pages to celebrate family and friends.  It has user friendly words that coordinate with "I love my.." or "is the best time" so you can make a page celebrating your grandparents, family, cousins, parents or sisters/brothers and friends.  This is the page I am teaching at my workshops this month so that my customers can celebrate someone dear to them:

See how the Prickly Pear paper goes so well with our old washi and the stamps just support the photo of me with one of my besties? I just cut one 1/2 inch sapphire strip and a 1 inch strip to use with the scallop border punch, with a 2 inch strip of Prickly Pear to sandwich in between.  If you don't have old washi then any zip strips or patterned paper would work just as well.  The stamping was done in Sapphire, Poppy and Tangerine.

 I love this rainbow stripe paper so much! It makes an effortless border, with a simple title straight from the Complements.

 Proving versatility - this is using Sweet Leaf cardstock as the border background and then the complements with a couple of dovetailed scrap strips. Easy Peasy!

 My take on the layout straight from page 27 of the Seasonal Expression.  I wanted to add more photos and moved the strips over to the left hand side of the page.  This is a fabulous layout for using up scrap strips of paper (when you are getting towards the end of a paper packet!)  I can't wait to share this idea with my customers!)

Lastly, this paper lends itself really well to cards.  I had fun mixing and matching paper and stamps.

So if you aren't particularly fond of cacti either please don't let that one feature paper put you off.  The floral and the rainbow stripe in this are just gorgeous, as is that sea glass irregular stripe.  It is a paper pack that will extend what you already have in stash.  The Complements have beautiful sentiments and flowers so I just used up the cactus stickers on cards to give away.

I hope you fall in love with Prickly Pear.  Doris has some great ideas so pop over to her blog now (and don't forget to leave a comment - we love to hear from you!)

Keep smiling,

Nell

July Storybook Alphabet SOM Blog Hop

Hello again and welcome to our Australasian SOM Blog Hop featuring the beautiful "Storybook Alphabet" stamp. Hello to those of you who arrived from http://doristaylor.blogspot.com.au/2017/07/july-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html. and to my regular readers.

Let me tell you why I LOVE alphabet stamps so much.  I have a "Hannah", a "Daniel" and a "Maddie" - do you see the problem here? No sticker letters could ever have enough "a" "e" and "d" or "n" stickers for me.  With alphabet stamps I can make my own titles exactly the colour I want, exactly the way I want every single time.  And who wouldn't want to add an alphabet stamp to their collection when it is only $7.50 with a $75 purchase?

This stamp works brilliantly for cards. Both of these were made quickly using up scraps.  I used a rock and roll technique for the top one with Lemon in the middle and then Sorbet and Sweetleaf on either end.  I deliberately placed my stamps higgeldy piggeldy on the long block - no messing about getting them straight that way!

These little bookmarks were just a bit of fun for my bookworms (again using my box of scraps!) I am thinking this would also be a fabulous school holiday idea to get the kids to make personalised bookmarks for their friends!  July school holidays are upon us and we are bound to get a few cold, rainy days where this kind of project with some junk food and scrapping by the fire will go down a treat.

Cards and bookmarks aside it also makes awesome titles (only giving you a sneak peak of this page as it will also be featured in our Jack SOM) and I am teaching it at our Consultant Meeting this month too!

I hope you can see the many uses for this stamp set too! Head over to http://colsiesscrappyfusions.blogspot.com.au/2017/07/s1707-storybook-alphabet-australian.html for more great ideas! We are glad to have Colleen joining us this month so don't forget to leave her a comment.
Until next time,
Keep smiling,
Nell

"Live Beautifully" Australasian Blog Hop

This month is National Scrapbooking Month and Close to My Heart are celebrating with a gorgeous "Live Beautifully" Paper pack ($23) and stamp set ($27) and the "Live Beautifully" Cut Above Kit (5 double page layouts with page protectors for only $68.50!) This is a GREAT month for those new to scrapbooking to scoop up a bargain with the Live Beautifully Album Kit - a grey or black album, cut above pages and protectors, a black pen and a tape runner all for only $103.95! If you have photos on your phone and not printed, or if you have never scrapbooked before, then this is the month to make those memories shine!

If you have arrived here from Kara's blog http://creatingwithkaradavies.blogspot.com/2017/05/live-beautifully-australasian-blog-hop.html then welcome.  Welcome back to all of my regular readers too.

Most of us will be running special National Scrapbooking Month workshops this month so contact your consultant to find out more!

These first few layouts are from the Cut Above kit.  The last one I really mixed it up a bit by using some of the "No Worries" complements and paper to give it a beach theme.

This one was done using the Live Beautifully Paper Pack:

 This one is based on a layout by Jo Armstrong (a very talented Kiwi consultant) - the champagne ink was just the right colour to match my cream coloured wedding dress. Great to finally get these 14 year old photos scrapped!

I also wanted to show you that this paper pack is not just great for formal/girly/love photos.  This ombre Seaglass paper was perfect with a little bit of Whimsy fundamentals to create a super quick layout for my son.

Then these are two simple cards I taught my customers this month - both using the Live Beautifully Stamp set (one with some scraps from my big organiser full of paper scraps, Cranberry and Fern ink and the other with Sea Glass ink and the black floral paper with the ombre seaglass paper from the Live Beautifully Paper Pack.

Both designs took inspiration from my fabulous friend Jacquie Paech.

So many talented consultants have done stunning work with this beautiful collection!

Now for more inspiration head over to Shaunna's blog at http://passionateaboutpages.com/2017/05/10/live-beautifully-australasian-blog-hop  Don't forget to contact your consultant to make the most of these special May only products (and if you don't have a consultant yet then feel free to shop with me at www.nellward.closetomyheart.com.au)

Happy National Scrapbooking Month!