I can't stand buying beautiful products and then throwing away the packaging. Have you really looked at some of the packaging lately? They are beautiful and useful and i love using it for various things. These cards were no exception. I used a single sheet of backing cardstock from a set of K&Company Rub-ons. The backing is a cream colour with subtle printed text and images on it and was perfect to stamp on. The first card I used one of my favourite stamps from Stampington (Butterfly) and stamped directly onto the cardstock backing with grey Stazon ink, and then adhered the image to the beautiful K&Company patterned paper background. The newspaper strip wording is also K&Co.

ok..so if you are sick and tired of hearing about me sorting and throwing away and discovering new old things then i apologize- but that's in our nature as scrapbookers, mixed media artists and crafters...we hoard, we gather, we intend to make, we throw away and gather more and then we create. so while cleaning i found millions (ok a lot)of these little one inch boxes cut for wedding favours that was never made. so i started gathering all the packaging on my table, stamps, and odd buttons and beads and stuff and made some of these. added a few splashes of glitter and there you have it. i think they will make for cute xmas tree decorations with the right colours and theme, or even for easter and halloween and thanksgiving and birthdays or anything else we creative souls can dream up. i will have a few suspended somewhere. have a wonderful and blessed creative week.

i absolutely love my alcohol inks! such a pity that the suppliers in South Africa are having such problems supplying us with the necessary quantities we need to fulfill this need within us! Oh well - so to soak my sorrows I thought I would share this project with you. These are little memory glass frames available from most supermarket stores. They measure 4 x 6 inches. The hardboard is covered with glass and four metal clips keep everything together.
So here's what you will need:
Alcohol inks, glass frame, rubber stamp, black dye ink, white card stock.

step 1: Undo the clips from the frame and separate all the parts.

step 2: cut a piece of white card stock the same size as your frame. Stamp your image in black ink on the white card stock and set aside. Combine two or three images together to form a collage effect if you like.

step 3: turn your glass over so that the side that was facing the paper inner is now on top. This side is generally free from any greasy marks. Use your alcohol inks and create a coloured area on your glass. Do not mix too many colours or else it will turn to mud.

step 4: once you are happy with the result leave the glass to dry. Turn over the glass and make your sandwich with the hardboard, then your stamped image, and then the glass and clip them together. Remember at this point you should turn over the glass so that the alcohol ink is on the inside facing your stamped image.

tips and tricks

• to create the blobs on the alcohol ink, drip small drops of blending solution on top of your ink and let it bleed to form interesting effects.
• if you hate the look, clean off the alcohol ink with the blending solution and start again.
• use a single colour or combine 2-3 colours together.
• these make really cute little gifts to hang in your guest loo, a babies nursery or the kitchen.

supplies: Alcohol ink Ranger Industries. Stamp PSX (discontinued). Ink Archival Black. Ribbon in photo Hanna Silk. Other Memory frame.

**PS this morning, while still on a cleaning spree that has lasted about 2 weeks now I found some pretty dotty serviettes (i think they were intended for an ATC swap) i had some inspiration. So watch out for some frosty covered notebooks as a result of this cleaning spree.

so while I have been missing in action for a few days I have been studying HTML code. One is never too old to learn...yeah right...well my honest opinion would be that life is too short to learn code, but none the less here I am. At the ripe old age of....(in your dreams) I am learning and studying to better my abilities to communicate in the land of squiggly brackets, arrows, dots, spaces, breaks and what nots. I hope i get it some time soon.

In the meantime here's a layout I did long ago as well but a firm favourite. It includes ten ways of embossing and using embossing powder and wax on a single layout. Apart from stamping on the background paper and embossing I altered chipboard letters, created resisting on old book paper, poured UTEE directly onto my paper and then stamped into it and created memory slide embellishments with bee's wax.

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Yvonne Hellyar...please contact me with your postal address to send out your parcel. thanks!

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I am relieved to say that I have cleared out about 6 boxes of paper work and junk! I purged about 4 large boxes and 4 boxes for donations! I am left with 40 boxes all sorted with only paper. This is a huge thing that I have accomplished and I feel so much better for doing it! The one good thing is that I found something dear to my heart that was missing for close onto 3 years! That's aweful I know! it is an unmounted stamp from PaperArtsy that a dear friend gave me! I had filed it just before we moved and only discovered it now after all this time. My theory is that there has been a lot of water under the bridge and some forgiveness has taken place on both ends and I had cleared all channels to find it again! I am greatful! Needless to say I love the image and used it on some swaps that I am working on! Friends are awesome. The image here is of a Smell the Coffee ATC swap we recently did and this is only a taste.