Flat out!

Wow, it's been so long since I blogged, it's a wonder I remember how :)

All I can say is I have been flat out with teaching at Stamp Art Studio and Arnold's Scrapbook and Craft Warehouse, teaching card classes and catering too.

Plus I have been working on making lots of new samples for class and cards for a project for birthdays and Christmas.

I did manage to fit in 2 days of cropping with my girlfriend Sharon too! Yesterday we spent the day being crafty and getting layouts and cards made. I can't believe how many cards Sharon has made...I think its 170 ish!

Get creative everyone,

Jane

Classes, layouts and cards!

Wow! It's been a really busy time lately with classes at Arnold's and Stamp Art Studio PLUS my continuing card classes hosted by the Burpengary Library.

We have also had a bit of catering to do and I am onto my second housesitting job in a row. If fact the cute dog I'm minding is sitting on my feet as I type this very entry.

So I hope you have all been well and getting creative as usual. I am planning on a big scrapbooking fest this weekend! Yay!

I include a card I made for my cousin's birthday and a photo of the lovely ladies who came to the library for a laugh and to make some quick and easy cards.

Now I must go feed the dog as its his dinner time!

Be happy,

Jane

September card class!

Birds and dragonflies....beauty takes flight.

Book yourself in to make these 3 beautiful cards. with their embossed backgrounds, scallops, ribbon and soft pretty colours. Lovely!

I will be teaching a card class "Beauty Takes Flight" at my home workshop on Friday 10th September from 10am to 11.30am with a cuppa and chat to follow.

Price is $12 and covers all materials. Please bring a bone scorer, scissors, glue, double sided tape and foam tape or foam dots.

Booking is essential so contact me at liveoutloud43@y7mail.com

Cheers all,
Jane

Happy Birthday Lindy!

Today is Lindy's birthday -Happy Birthday girlfriend!

If you click on the title of this blog post it will take you to Lindy's blog - and it's jam packed with goodies to look at :)

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I have made a birthday card for her from the Born to Shop range of stamps. It is a from this month's Do Crafts magazine Creativity. I had great fun colouring it in with Copic markers and highlighting it with a Spica pen. Both Arnold's and Stamp Art Studio carry these pens.

The other card is one I made as part of a stash. Lindy loves green. As she is out and about today and then we are having morning tea Thursday for her birthday.

I like being able to personalise birthdays with gifts we make because we are creative people. And who better to give them to than other creative people? They understand the effort and appreciate the creativity!

Hope the cold westerlies of August aren't rattling you too much and creeping under the door.

Have a great day everyone,

Jane

Pretty, oh so pretty!

I have two of the songs from West Side Story singing through my brain this morning! A friend is going to see the stage musical in Sydney and now I can't get the words out of my head...oh well, may as well go with it.

"I feel pretty, oh so pretty,

I feel pretty and witty and bright,

and I pity any girl who isn't me tonight!"

Which is partly why I have added this photo of Gay's birthday card to my post this morning. I hope you had a great day sweetie! This card is in the Jane Balke tradition - simple, colourful with ribbon and bling added!

You can never have enough ribbon or jewels. :-)

The sun is shining today - yay!

Jane

Celebration

What a great day!

I am a very tired, happy and satisfied woman tonight. Some friends and I got together to celebrate our friendship, our creativity and our friend Gay's birthday (a little early).

Gay was thrilled with part one of her birthday present which was a stash of handcrafted cards. I include a photo of one of the cards here.

We had white chocolate fairy cakes each with their own candle. So cute! More importantly they taste fabulous according to the girls :-)

Time to put my feet up,

Jane

Card fun...with Jane

Did you read Dick and Dora at primary school? I always remember the book being called Fun With Dick and Dora. I remember they had pets: Nip the dog and Fluff the kitten.

No, I haven't regressed to childhood, the Card Fun with Jane made me think of it. I do have a double page layout about my love of reading and the books I loved as a child. I wasn't a dolly girl, I wanted books! I loved The Famous Five and the Secret Seven, Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldon and even the Hardy Boys.

Anyway, my point, and I do have one (;-) is that today's class was fun and many thanks to Gwen, Jan, Karen and Dawn. Pat on the back to the ladies who had last minute problems and couldn't come. Rest assured girls, we ate your cake too.

The last card is one we made today and I promised to highlight on this blog how you can simply change something to make it look different.

Tomorrow is a crop with friends...oh the joys of creativity, girlfriends, laughter and cake!

Have a great weekend everyone,

Jane

Keeping an eye on me

The cat has been keeping an eye on me....and complaining loudly that i am working too much and NOT paying him enough attention. Sorry Elliott.

I got all the kits ready for the card class Friday and finished off some birthday and congratulation cards too.

Elliott even followed me out when I went to take some photos of them in the dying afternoon light. Here he is peeking around the letterbox which served as a display shelf.

We had morning tea together with the family and Amelie managed to polish off her little scone, an apple juice, some baby cino, a bit of my cup of tea and chocolate cake too. I forgot to take photos - I was having such a nice time. :)

Hope you had a nice weekend,

Jane

16th birthday card

Just finished this card for Rachael's 16th Birthday...

My niece is quite an arty, creative young lady :-) I used an ribbon, a Chinese charm and 2 jump rings, an old Asian theme stamp, Memento black ink, the new Copic pens (yay!) and some Bazzill card.

If you want to see more about Copic markers go to http://copicmarker.com.au/ or visit your local art and craft store. Arnold's sells a large range of them and has classes on technique.

I wanted to make something a bit more special for such an important birthday.

Teaching 2 classes at Stamp Art Studio at Aspley tomorrow and the classes are full, so I will see some of you fabulous creative people tomorrow...

Enjoy your art,

Jane

Inspiration and new things!

Hi everyone. Hope you had a great long weekend...

As usual I saw many wonderful things at the Papercraft Expo and can't wait to play with my new purchases. needless to say I bought stamps from Heaven Scent http://www.heavenscentcrafts.com.au/ where I worked all weekend.

Debbie and Cheryl were lovely and carry some fabulous and unusual ranges of stamps. One of each would have been very nice!

Soon I intend sitting down and creating some lovely cards... meanwhile this morning I am teaching at Arnold's Scrapbooking and Stamp Art Studio all day Saturday. I hope to see you there!

Have a happy day,

Jane

Flower Power!

Thanks to the lovely ladies in my card class at Burpengary library today: Amanda, Kerryn, Shirley, Jan, Gwen, Joan, Jeanette, Dawn and Robyn.

I'm not sure why I enjoy it so much, but I do. We all made 3 cards with a floral theme.

Apparently I gave them some ideas they say they never thought of....thanks girls! I look forward to the next one.

Speaking of crafty, its the Scrapbook and Papercraft expo at the Brisbane Convention Centre at Southbank this long weekend. No doubt heaps of you will be going in for a look and a little retail therapy. Come say hi, I will be at the Heaven Scent stand (No 71) helping out all weekend.

If you want to know more click here http://www.scrapbookexpo.com.au/Brisbane2010/

I hope to get a look at some of the fabulous things on offer...don't you love being creative? So much to play with :-)

Happy weekend all,

Jane

Sydney tomorrow!

Tomorrow I am flying to Sydney to catch up with friends and see the sights! My camera will be out and busy.

Got my act together today and made a friend's birthday card, but I won't pop it on here until she gets it in the mail!

Don't want to be leaving you without any visuals though so here's another vintage card some ladies made in my class..and a page(half the layout) from an upcoming scrapbooking class.

More photos will be coming!

Jane

More cards!

I seem to be on a roll with cards lately...

Here's some of the girls making cards...and some of the cards.

Working on more designs for classes too.

Get crafty!

Jane

Cards and crops

Another day of getting creative for upcoming classes...

The card uses a tulip stamp and I have only inked the stem and leaf with Chalk ink in Tea Leaves. The paper flower was pale blue and I added 2 shades of aqua or teal also in chalk inks.

I added the tiny butterfly with a foam pop dot and 2 more inside with the sentiment. Yes, that is a tiny aqua gem on the dot of the 'j' in "just".

The sentiment "Just because..." continues inside with "I miss you".

The card below uses the same stamp and idea in another way.

Off to give a class at Arnold's Scrapbooking and Craft Supplies at Rothwell tomorrow, then giving a card class Friday and finally on Saturday a day spent with my friend Sharon playing with our new Copic pens, stamps, and Sharon's Cricut and Big Shot.

Yes, it's hard work, but someone's got to do it!

Loving yellow at the moment! What are you in to??

See the colours around you,

Jane

Who Messed Up My Workshop?

So I would like to know who messed up my workshop?

I can't have been me surely? I haven't even been in there very much lately!

But seeing as no one else has been either I must conclude it was the pixies, or the cat....Darn it Elliott, stop working on projects and not tidying up after!

If you don't hear from me this week send in a rescue team please!

The card is a simple but cute one I made for Tracy's birthday and I had to include this super cute one of Amelie. Hasn't she grown? She's 2 and a half years old now. Those pigtails are SOOO cute. Must scrap it soon. But have to be able to get into the workshop....oh well, back to the cleaning up.

Whatever you do, do it with a smile,

Jane

Croakier than a frog!

I'm not sure that "croakier" is a word, but I like it... :)

I now have a very deep husky voice and can hardly speak at all. Yes, I know! The sky is falling!

If I have any claim to fame at all, it's my ability to chat. I find myself laughing out loud - and I guess many friends are shaking their heads at the sudden quiet of me without a voice.

The photo is of a little card I made to say thanks. Super simple, but kinda cute! Too easy, even for a scrapbooker. I am actually going to do one of Robyn's lovely card classes at Arnold's Scrapbooking and Craft tomorrow. How nice to be on the other side for a change!

Keep well,

Jane

More Cards!

Lately I have been having fun making cards.

I think all that enthusiasm from the wonderful card makers I know has been rubbing off! Thanks Gay, Gwenyth, Lindy and Sharon.

Tomorrow I'm spending the day at Arnold's Scrapbooking and Craft just to have more creative time. Just think 7 hours of uninterrupted play time during their Crop. Fantastic!

The weekend is almost here. Not a long one this time, so make the most of it!

Get arty,

Jane

Camera at the ready!

I hope everyone has something creative planned for the long weekend. Go on, indulge yourself!

This weekend I am staying on Bribie Island and plan on taking the camera out to get a few shots, soak up some sunshine, and have a long leisurely walk by the sea. This photo is a late afternoon shot from March earlier in the year.

I haven't scrapped them yet...but I plan on making cards this weekend, not layouts!

Enjoy the long weekend,

Jane