Just the ticket

This collage stamp was perfect for making a card for a friend who is leaving the country to live in Australia!

I love how, even though it is a long thin stamp, you can combine the elements to make a square card.

I've joined the Crafty Individuals Design Team

I am truly honoured to have been invited onto the Crafty Individuals' design team, along with my good friend Chris of Pearshaped Crafting blog.  As a full-time special needs teacher the time I have available to 'make' is limited, and I am thankful for Jean and Malcolm's understanding of this.  It is wonderful though to be back blogging; and I am hoping that this will keep me on my blog a bit more regularly rather than just on Instagram!

I recently made some cards using the new designs and snapped some step by step photos along the way.

I am taking part in a challenge over on Instagram, set by the amazing Birgit Koopsen, to use a different product every day in October.  This day's product was my poor neglected distress markers.   After creating a Distress Oxide background with Picked Raspberry and Salted Ocean, I stamped text in the background, part of the 'Noel Border' then used the distress marker to stamp the snowflakes from the main stamp image.

I use parts of the stamp by inking up the required area then removing the ink with a baby wipe from the areas I don't want to stamp with.  Here I selected one of those tiny stars...

...which I then stamped on the inked background, along with some of the larger text stars.

I stamped the image onto white copier paper a few times and cut out the areas shown.

I love those stitchy marks and emphasised them using my sewing machine.

A gold confetti star on top of the tree..

...and some snowy effects added using Stickles completed my card.

I really love the collage stamps that Crafty Individuals design.  They have sooo many little elements that you can use in so many different ways.  The stamps used in this project were:

And then, because I was having so much fun,  I made a little tag too!

Thanks so much for reading, and I hope nobody collapsed in shock when they spotted I'd blogged lol

Teeny Tiny Journaling

Probably about eight years or so ago I included some small journaling in one of my art journals ...

... and over the past few months I've wanted to get back to it, but hadn't found the right way, until now!

This teeny, weeny, traveller's notebook is made by Monica, on Instagram as @moon.4.life, and available in Cafe Analog's Webshop.

It comes beautifully packaged in a tiny little box.

Being tiny, it makes it extremely portable (but you have to keep your eye on it so it doesn't get lost!).  I love being able to take a pencil case of papers, glue stick, scissors and pencil and journal wherever I am.

Gelli printed deli paper makes for a great background,

.. and it's a great place to use up the tiniest of snippets of paper!

The trouble is, Monica's produced some new colours ... I can feel a collection coming on, oh dear!!