Aurora Collection Blog Hop

Welcome to the Australasian CTMH Aurora collection blog hop, if you arrived here from Doreen's blog you are in the right place. If you arrived here by chance click on the link at the end of this post to go to the next blog.

We are showcasing the Aurora collection, these papers are lovely and please don't think they are just for outdoor adventure photos. They can be used for lots of other themes.

My first layout is of my trip to Washington DC a very long time ago, we went to all the iconic sights, the Capitol building, the White House, the Smithsonian and also Mt Vernon. Thankfully these were slides which were scanned and I only recently got them printed. The stamped images are from the stamps that came with the You Are Here Cricut collection.

I love this stamp set from the May catalogue it's called A Million Little Things and these papers compliments the lovely flower beautifully.

This layout is also from my trip to Washington DC, this unknown soldier's tomb has been guarded continuously since 1948. I searched the net for a paid or free cut file of soldiers and couldn't find anything. Thankfully my niece Laura Beacham told me if I could find suitable clipart silhouette image I could convert it to a svg image that I could cut with the Cricut. I was so happy to find this image and it fitted perfectly.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope I have given you some inspiration to use this collection. To continue the hop go along to Lauren Moore's CTMH Crafting I am sure she will have something great to share.

I would really appreciate it if you take a moment and leave and leave a comment before you go to Lauren's blog.

May Stamp of the Month "Time to Celebrate"

Welcome to the Australasian CTMH stamp of the month blog hop, if you arrived here from Danielle's Scrappy Chicks  you are in the right place. If you arrived here by chance just click on the link at the end of this post to go to the next blog.

This lovely stamp is called "Time To Celebrate" and has a variety of sentiments perfect for all 

occasions. It also includes cute icons with different size  hearts, stars and some kisses.

I like to be able to use the stamps for scrapbooking layouts as well as cards. With this layout I first drew a circle using a plate as a guide, very lightly with a pencil. Then I was able to stamp the sentiments around the circle leaving a gap for the flowers. I erased the pencil lines and added the lovely flowers and few small butterflies.

I used a card by Gayatri Murali for inspiration, the roses are from the Flower Market  Cricut cartridge and the leaves are Thin Cuts. I stamped the sentiment directly on the white cardstock and added a few gems.

Thank you for stopping by, you can get more ideas by hopping along to Maz's blog to see what wonderful project she has to share.

Please take a moment and leave a comment, they are always appreciated.

Happy crafting!

Cardstock Carnival Blog Hop

Welcome to the Australasian CTMH Cardstock Carnival blog hop, if you arrived here from Doreen's blog you are in the right place. If you arrived here by chance, you can continue the hop by clicking on the link at the end of this post to see more great ideas.

During April you can enjoy some amazing deals on your favourite cardstocks. You can buy bundles of the same colour or bundles of different colours. There are discounts of 20-40% off  of the bundles. The Close To My Heart cardstock has two shade of the same colour on either side of each sheet. This allows great versatility when combining colours for your projects.

Initially I thought it would be hard to create with just cardstock, and no printed paper,  but I am very happy with all of my projects. Some of the suggestions for using the cardstock, were using both sides of the paper, dry embossing and using inks to sponge colour to the cardstock and theses are the techniques I decided to use.

 As Mother's Day is approaching I thought I would make a card. My mother loves receiving flowers and I am sure she will like this pot plant with these gorgeous flowers. This card is 5.5" x 5.5"

As I looked at these photos I could not help reminiscing about my childhood, and I thought what a blessed life I have had so far, not without troubles but still blessed. While working on this layout I decided to write a letter to my younger self.  I did cheat just a little bit by using one of the printed papers for my letter, to use cardstock it would have been too thick. The flowers are from the Flower Market Cricut cartridge and the flourishes are from the Artiste cartridge.

I have used cricut and die cut images in this last 3D project, I saw something similar on Splitcoast Stampers by Girlgeek101stamping and was so impressed with the simplicity of it. Black and white is such a stunning combination and these butterflies and leaves in this shadow frame are quite beautiful.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have been inspired by my creations. To continue the hop please go to Shaunna's Passionate About Pages and see what great project she has to share.

Please take a moment and leave a comment before you go on to the next blog. Your comments are always appreciated.

April Stamp of the Month "O-fish-ally Awesome"

Welcome to the Australasian Stamp of the Month blog hop, if you arrived here from Doreen's blog  you are in the right place. If you arrived by chance to continue the hop, click on the link at the end of this post.

This stamp set is  O-fish-ally Awesome, lots of great images that I can see being used for many different projects. My projects are all pretty different.

I've had cats for most of my adult life, and they brought much fun to my life, but after the last one died about six years ago I decided that I wouldn't have anymore pets. It was now so much easier if I wanted to go away, I didn't need to get someone to look after them for me. Then about five years ago I thought maybe I would get some goldfish. I first got six but for some reason two died but the remaining four lived happily together and grew bigger and fatter in my pond. 

I thought I would try to manipulate the fish bowl stamp to see if I could create a bowl vase and I am very happy with how it turned out. I used the February stamp of the month for the bunch of flowers in the vase. I water coloured the flowers and used the clear shimmer brush to give them some sparkle but unfortunately it doesn't show in my photo. It really is very pretty in real life.

In these uncertain times with this terrible virus affecting all of us in some way or another, even if  it's just  isolating ourselves, we have to remember to "just keep swimming" and get on with our lives the best way possible. Keep in touch with family and friends and for some of us we have more time to craft than we ever did. I stamped and coloured the fish, then embossed it. It's a really easy card to make.

Thank you for stopping by, please hop over to Danielle's Scrappy Chicks to see some more great ideas. I am sure she will have something wonderful to share.

Have a wonderful day and please take a moment and leave a comment they are always appreciated.

These are My People blog hop

Welcome to the CTMH Australasian blog hop, if you arrived here from Maz Wood's blog you are in the right place. If you arrived here by chance I hope you get some inspiration from what I have created. You will be able to continue the hop by clicking on the link at the end of this post.

We are showcasing the lovely "These are My People" collection the papers have wonderful patterns and colours and the sticker sheet is just gorgeous.

This layout uses the beautiful yellow paper, the zip strip and some of the stickers. These photos were taken at The House of Honey in the Swan Valley during our Christmas holiday break, the bee hive and honey combe on display were amazing. I love this bee stamp and got it in last month's sale.

The second layout shows my amazing niece's birthday photos. I used a layout I saw on Pinterest for inspiration, but I am unable to give credit to the person as I didn't pay attention their name and I have been unable to find it again.

I am very happy with how this card turned out, I have used the frame from sticker sheet and the lovely green paper.

Thank you for stopping by to see more great ideas hop along to Shaunna's Passionate About Pages, I am sure she will have some wonderful to share. Please take a moment and leave a comment, they are always appreciated.

Yesterday and Today Blog Hop

Welcome to the CTMH Australasian blog hop, if you arrived here from Shaunna's Passionate About Pages you are in the right place. If you arrived here by chance you can continue the hop by clicking on the link at the end of this post.

I do love all things vintage and this collection is so lovely. Even though the papers are lovely I really felt with my photos to use just them in a layout may make the look too dark so I have added papers from other collections.

I love this photo of my grandfather, dad, brother and nephew, four generations of Taylor males. I have used one of the Mix In papers, some of the stickers and a wonderful stamp set called Then and Now that unfortunately is now discontinued.

My nephew in the above photo is now married and has two amazing daughters and I am told he and his wife are unlikely to have any more children. I am hoping one of my other nephews may soon get married and start a family and have a son to carry on this line of the Taylor name. So maybe one day soon an engagement may be in wings and I will have need of this card.

I am one of six children, we are all relatively close in age and I am sure we were a handful growing up. Thankfully my mum and dad always had help from my grandparents. I believe this photo was taken about 1959-60 during the summer holidays.

Thank you for stopping by I hope you got some inspiration from my projects. To see more ideas please go to Arty Maz's blog, I am sure she will have something wonderful to share. Please take a moment and leave a comment they are always appreciated.

March Stamp of the Month "Family Legacy"

Welcome to the Australasian CTMH stamp of the month blog hop, if you arrived here from Doreen's Blog you are in the right place. If you arrived here by chance I hope you like what I have created, you can continue the hop by clicking on the link at the end of the post.

This very heritage looking stamp is wonderful, it is called Family Legacy and will be great for layouts with old photos but of course it can also be used with more traditional colours and projects. I have plans for using this stamp set with many old photos of my mum and dad's but I have to sort through them before I can start. So I have used what I have on hand at the moment.

One of the gifts my parents handed down to me was the love of family time spent together. I remember fondly the many occasions my immediate family spent with my grandparents and the extended family. I can see this legacy has been passed down to my nieces and nephews as well.

With this card this card I have used the lovely flourish stamp and the flower stamp which I have heat embossed with daisy white ink on sapphire cardstock. This reminded me of the beautiful toile fabrics you see in many heritage homes. I fussy cut the flower image to fit just on the corner edge. I really like how it turned out.

This is such a pretty card, I have used the flower stamp again with one of the small flourish stamps. I  coloured the clear sparkle gems to match the paper. I love this blush ribbon and how it looks on this card.

To see more great ideas go to  Lauren Moore's blog, I am sure she has something lovely to share. Please take moment and leave a comment, they are always appreciated.

Keep Your Head Up Blog Hop

Welcome to this special blog hop, if you have arrived here from Shaunna's Passionate About Pages you are in the right place, if you have arrived by chance, I hope you like what I have created. You can continue the hop by clicking on the link at the end of this post.

We are showcasing a stamp set that CTMH have produced especially in response to the terrible bushfires around Australia. The proceeds from the sale of this stamp will be donated to the Australian Red Cross. This lovely stamp is only $10.00.

I love all of the sentiments and images, we all need to remember to keep our heads up and our hearts strong. Don't you just love that heart stamp and the great thing is the sentiment fits inside the heart.

This was a very easy to card to make, I wanted the stamps to be the focus of the card so I stamped both using sugarplum ink and left it as is. I duplicated the flowers on the paper using the complimenting cardstocks.

This little pouch will hold all sorts of goodies, I have used the same stamped heart but have coloured it with our markers and added the flower stamps to the middle of the heart. I stamped the heart again on a pretty pale pink paper and then cut out just the heart shape and placed it on top before adding the flowers.

This is my lovely niece who is no longer with us.

Thank you for stopping by, you can get more ideas using this stamp set by continuing the hop. Just hop along to Lauren Moore's blog to see what wonderful project she has created.

Celebrate Today Blog Hop

Welcome to the Australasian CTMH blog hop, if you arrived here from "Arty Maz" you are in the right place. If you arrived here by chance, I hope you see something you like and you can continue the hop by clicking on the link at the end of this post.

We are showcasing the Celebrate Today collection, there are some beautiful papers and also great complimenting stickers. This collection is so lovely and so easy to work with, all of the elements are bright and cheery.

These papers looked great with these photos, there's nothing like a short holiday to recharge the tired bodies and soothe the soul. This is a really simple and easy layout, I used two of the papers the zip strips, some decorations and the most important, the story that goes with the photos.

Split Coast Stampers is a wonderful resource with lots of great card making tutorials. I came across  this one to make an easel card. You can find the step by step tutorial and a video here  This card is 4.25" x 4.25" but when opened it can be displayed like an easel. The flower sticker was too large for my card, so I fussy cut it so it had no white edge and also cut the leaves away from the flower. I was then able to rearrange the leaves behind the flower and it fitted on my card.

Thank you for stopping by, to see more great ideas check out what Lauren Moore has created, here at laurenctmhcraftings  Please take a moment and leave a comment, they are always appreciated.