Fabulous Fridays @ 5'o'clock'ish, 29Jan2021!

 Well hello everyone.

I have been creating, I've just not been blogging. It's quite uncomfortable to sit out here at my computer desk when we'd had no air-conditioning for nearly a week and right in the midst of a heatwave too!  Thankfully it was repaired early last Saturday AND it's been raining on and off for a couple of days now too.

I hope you've all jumped into this new year of 2021 with a new perspective and new positivity. I know I have.   I had a heart check a couple of days ago and am pleased that my cardiologist has reduced a couple of medications.  I know I have to take most of them for the rest of my life but now my pacemaker is well and truly settled in to it's job, some of the meds needed adjusting, yay and go me!!!!

(This photo is copyrighted to a Ben Pearce)

Today I'm sharing with you a few different cards but one of them was a challenge from a friend who is also in my Stampin' Up! downline, Caroline Nathan!  Above is the photo I posted the other day on my Facebook page, no it's not mine but I loved it so much. We have these galahs gather in our front and back gardens regularly and they can be very comical to watch.

Now I know this stamped image isn't by Stampin' Up! but it was one a friend, Jane Clark used the other week so I thought 1) I'd get it out to use and 2) I'd take Caroline up on her colour challenge.

I've used Tuxedo Black to stamp this little bear image then have coloured it using Stampin' Blends alcohol ink markers.  Quite bright and striking I do believe.  Yes the hot pink background is all Blend marker (Magenta Madness).  I've layered on to basic black then basic grey then smokey slate card stocks. I've hand dyed my white seam binding using the Magenta Madness re-inker too. The rhinestones have been coloured over using a smokey slate Blend and my sentiment comes from the stamp set Art Gallery.   

That little bear stamp is by a company that I don't think exists any more, Stamp It, Perth, Western Australia.  It was very popular back in the day. I've looked them up and seems they closed down in Perth back in about 2016, were ment to start up their art stamps again under new management in Brisbane QLD but as yet there are only custom made business stamps available. Such a shame as I have a lot of this company's wood mounted stamps in my huge collection.  Oh well, at least I have them for ever.

Next is a trio of cards I created by making a stencil out of card stock and a stitched edge rectangle die.  I love, if you can see it up close, that my blending went through the stitched border!.  I have used the new Stampin' Up! Blending brushes that come in a packet of three.  

 

 

TIP: You don't need to have a different blending brush for every colour. I've used a microfibre cloth between colours, buffing off the ink excess, and didn't have any colour transfer at all.  You can wash these brushes but it's a good idea to let them dry over night if you do.

I love how these three cards came out. Our new Stampin' Blending brushes are brilliant!!

This last photo is to show you that although I may not share as much on here, over on my Facebook page found here: https://www.facebook.com/StampOutYourArtWithVirginia   You'll see a lot more of my creations as I make them, or even on my Instagram and Pinterest pages too! 

 

So until next time, remember,

happy stamping, colouring & creating too!!!!

Fabulous Fridays @ 5'o'clock'ish, 15 Jan 2021!

Welcome to a slightly different FF@5'ish post.  

This afternoon I'm taking a walk down memory lane.  This was prompted by a comment my stampin' up! upline made this afternoon.  It made me go and fish out this A4 art journal I have along with the huge D ring scrap booking album full of project challenges.  It was a year long challenge back in 2009. I was a design team member of a now defunct online scrap booking store/forum. 

Each of us design team members were given different weeks of the year and we kept that challenge going for 52 weeks.  I was so proud of myself for talking part AND completing every single week's challenge, all 52 of them  Here are some photos of my work. I decided to keep a journal about the 52 weeks with photos and print outs of all the challenges.  It's something I love to get out now and then.  It's also something to show that yes, I do scrapbook now and then still.  I was quite prolific back then but since the introduction to both pocket page (project life) styled albums and digital scrapbooking, I've not done so many physical pages. One of the week's challenges was to make a journal about this year long challenge

I do find it hard to handle large 12 x 12 pages these days as well so I am sticking to 8 x 6 albums now and they suit me just fine.  I'm currently part way through making an album of my son's wedding.  I know, they've been married a year & a bit now but we can't rush these things  can we. Also, I didn't find any patterned papers that really fit the wedding's theme until last year's  holiday catalogue came out and I bought the halloween products.  Not a fan of halloween but oh my goodness, the papers were perfect to use for a Harry Potter themed wedding album, yay me!!

So here is the front cover of my art journal, as you can see it was called "52 week Pick-Up". This journal is full of printouts of all the week's challenges and samples, many include the instructions/how to techniques as well. It's a fabulous resource even today!  Looking back over some of the scrapped pages I've done sure has been lovely.

 

 Here are some of the challenge pages

 And here's some photos of the finished challenges.  There were page layouts which had to include 'found' objects, do not use patterned paper, card challenges, off the page items like a wall hanging too. This double page layout of my son as a teen is a favourite for sure!  It also won me an amazing prize back then as well.  He took the photos himself, clever lad!

 

 

And how could I not create & share a layout of the Sydney Swans!  We've been members for 18+ years, same seats all that time at the SCG! These are my own photos taken at games and we had to use 'found objects so I've used old brochures and a member card too.

Of course I had to do a layout of Donny Osmond. Within the space of a few years, I finally got to meet him in person, see him live and then see his whole family live in concert and meet them too, 2009, what a year that was!

Of course there were a few card challenges as well. These two are some of my favourite creations.  House Mouse stamps and PSX stamps are still used today though as I'm a Stampin Up Demonstrator, not as much as they use to be.  I must get them out again ;-)

My son Benjamin has always been a great source of inspiration to scrap and journal. In his last 2 years at school he and his mates had a bit of a band going.  This was a layout to spotlight just one in a group photo. I used photoshop to create a black & white photo, layered it over the top of the coloured photo one then erased that black and white photo just where my son was showing. Makes him stand out well I do believe.

And of course another swan's layout. I've used a membership post card and a photo I took myself of Adam Goods & Barry Hall. Oh those were some amazing games to be at!!

  So I think this post has been long enough. Thanks for stopping by.  Wish us luck that our air conditioning will be repaired or even replaced by this time next week, it's a sweat box here in the hovel right now.

Til next time, remember,

happy stamping colouring & creating!

Fabulous Friday @ 5'o'clock'ish, 8Jan2021!

 Hello lovely people,

This is a quick post to say hello and hope you've all by now seen the new mini catalogue and Sale-A-Bration flyer.  So much gorgeousness to be seen in both and to buy!

I'm sharing a creation here that some fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrators wanted to see.  This is an ink pad stand I handmade from chipboard quite a few years ago.  Let's face it, though we all love Stampin' Up! ink pads, we also do love other brands. In particular the Distress and Distress Oxide range by Tim Holtz.   This ink pad tower on my desk is affectionately referred to as the "Timmy Tower"  It has the square ink pads in it and a few other brands that don't fit in my nice modular Stampin' Up! storage shelves.  I've also put the "Timmy Tower' on a lazy suzanne turntable so I can swing it around easily.  It wasn't hard to make, just a bit time consuming.  

Make sure you use a good quality glue.  I've used XpressIt's TripleTac white glue that dries well and clear too. You need a lot so economically it's probably better value than using the Tombow Multi Purpose Glue from SU.  XpressIt's Triple Tac comes in a 250ml tub with a wide opening so you can dip a flat head paint brush into it easily and spread the clue well.

Remember the wooden pegs SU use to sell?  A bag of them came in handy too for holding all the sections together. You can use fold back clips but the pegs were handy so they got a work out.

I've used black gesso to paint the whole thing.  Mine is in two sections now days. The top are plain distress ink pads and I've decorated it with some DSP's I had back then.  The bottom section is just plain black. It was made separately because there was no such thing as Distress Oxide ink pads when I made the first set.  They sit on top of each other well with out having to have been glued together. 

Here is a link to instructions/measurements to make it. You'll need to contact me to get the password as it is in my private Dropbox account. You can either private message me for the password or send me your email addy and I'll email it to you.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/l9k6lesd8xqjiz1xax0df/DistressInkPadHolderInstructions2021updated.docx?dl=0&rlkey=kw0kwj4dib9kymvoh2n2bjstm

 Please go to my Facebook business page here to contact me...

https://www.facebook.com/StampOutYourArtWithVirginia

Please do not hesitate to leave comments below.  This is a bit time consuming but well worth it.  Don't be tempted to put ink pads into it as soon as it's dry. Give it at least 48hours drying time before you do. I made one for my Stampin' Up! ink pads before I had the official turn table one SU put out and I filled it with my ink pads straight away.  It kind of warped as you may see by these photos...

 

Thanks for stopping by, til next time, remember

happy stamping colouring & creating!

 

Happy New year 2021!!!

 Welcome to 2021!

I trust you all had a lovely Christmas & new year.  It was a quiet one here in Sydney, Australia.  Covid19 has kept a lot of places either closed or restricted in their allowed attendee numbers.

We were able to visit my father & sister on Christmas day for lunch, as well as catch up with our son, Ben, DIL, Kat & grandson Aiden in the morning too.  We totally adored Aiden's reaction to us giving him and his parents new fishing rods.  You'd think that 5yr old was born with a fishing rod in his hands. He had it unpacked, put together and pretending to use it like a pro!

We had the Christmas we wanted, nice & quiet.  Hubby has time off this year so we are doing just day trips here & there finding new place to eat at. Though we've found the Tate's Hotel in Windsor which is about a 1/2 hour drive from us.  Been there twice now for lunch and my goodness, both times I've not been able to finish my meal. They give you huge portions.  Thank goodness for the new air fryer I bought hubby for his birthday mid December.  I brought home my left overs and bingo, 5 minutes and those chips were hot & crispy and my chicken parmi was nice and hot again without being dried out.  I totally recommend this air fryer. It does a lot more than those ones that just have the drawer that pulls out with a basket in them.

Here's a photo of the one I bought.  It has 3 shelves, a rotisserie and you can dehydrate foods in it too.  No need for heating first either, love it. The days of fried foods are now gone in the Hampson's Hovel!!!  It's by Kitchen Corture.

 

I got it from Harvey Norman online and it was delivered in 48hrs, fabulous!  I thought it would be huge on our kitchen bench but it takes up hardly any space at all!

 So, what's new with Stampin' Up!????  The Mini catalogue is now live as is the Sale-A-Bration flyer.  Remember, when you purchase $90AU or more you automatically get to choose a free item from the SAB flyer.  Who doesn't love freebies!

I have to say this new mini catalogue is so very beautiful.  Just the Fine Art & Love You Always Suites of products alone are enough to make a girl drool!  Check out pages 10 to 14 and 32 to 34 for all those gorgeously pretty products.  I've made a few creations using a few of the new items. I'll leave you with some photos!

 

I also absolutely love the new stamp & die bundle, Simply Succulents on page 39.  I've coloured them in this card below using Blends. And see that lovely textured background?  It's a new 3D embossing folder called Painted Texture from the Fine Art Bundle.  I've swiped Coastal Cabana onto one side of the folder before placing my white card stock in it and running it through the new Stampin Cut & Emboss machine.  Wonderful texture!!!

Til next time, remember,

happy stamping, colouring & creating!