Tamsin Alford

Craft and Quilt Fair in Adelaide.....

2009-11-06T16:23:00.003+10:30

....is this weekend! It started yesterday and runs until Sunday.

If you do come along, make sure you say hello to us lovely ladies at the Kaszazz stand! I will be there on Sunday until 1.30pm, can't wait!

If you'd like to find out more about the fair, click here.

The Colour Wheel

2009-11-03T14:39:00.009+10:30

Inspired by last week’s blog war challenge – primary colours – I thought I’d share my thoughts on colour with you.
For those of you who do not know me well, my background in more recent years is predominantly digital. I love designing and creating from scratch, and this has meant from time to time coming up with colour schemes.
Believe it or not there is logic..yes, logic...to the art of creating great colour schemes.
The most important tool for this– a good old fashioned colour wheel:

You'll find them at any good art supply store, or Spotlight (where I got mine).

Obviously primary colours are red, yellow and blue. They are ‘primary’ as all colours are primarily derived from them.
Secondary colours are the result of the combination of two primary colours. Green, purple and Orange.
Tertiary colours are a combination of one primary and one secondary.
Adding white to a colour creates a ‘tint’, adding grey creates a ‘tone’ and black creates a ‘shade’.

In the centre of the wheel are shapes and arrows which show colour relationships. Moving the arrow your dominant colour, these shapes show the different relations.

On the colour wheel, directly opposite your chosen colour is it's complimentary colour. If you choose a colour from either side of the complimentary colour, (or a tint, tone or shade of it), you will come across a split complementary colour scheme. This is one of my favourites to work with.

If I choose a dominant colour, this lovely red-violet colour:and then add the split complimentary colours from my colour wheel, yellow and green (or a shade, tint or tone of these colours). These colours make up a basic split complementary colour scheme.

Go one step further, and to each of the colours from the bottom, combine with the dominant colour to add two more colours to your scheme:

You can create great colour schemes just by using just the one colour and it's shades, tones or tints. These are known as 'monochromatic':

Here is a complimentary colour scheme. Starting with red and it's complimentary green, we have a very well known Christmas colour scheme. Combine shades, tints and tones of these colours and you have many variations:

Other relationships include 'triad' - 3 colours evenly spaced around the wheel (Primary colours are an example of this). 'Diad' - using two colours which are spaced two colours apart. 'Tetrad' - 4 or more colours, obtained by using the colours at the points of a uniform shape in the centre of the wheel. 'Analogous' - using two colours adjacent to each other.

And don't forget the famous 60/20/10 rule. Use your dominant colour for 60% of your layout, and another two colours for the 20% and 10%. Of course there are some great layouts which do not necessarily follow this rule, or rules of colour relationships, but I've found this to be the best and easiest way to ensure aesthetically pleasing layouts.

For the most eyecatching layouts, choose your colour scheme from a colour in your photo(s). The results can be striking. As I get more adventurous with my paper scrapping and card making, I try to think of these principles when choosing my coloured cardstock, and which inks I will use. Even though patterned paper sets are lovely, I don't like to think I am limited to using them with every layout.

I will be applying these principles to my next layout for this week's blog war challenge, so please stop by again soon to see what I have come up with :)

Tamsin.

Blog Wars - Primary Colours

2009-11-03T13:48:00.003+10:30

As it seems my usual fashion, here's my project from last week's Primary Colours challenge:

These little dinosaurs are to be framed and hung in my youngest son, Ryan's room. At three, he just loves dinosaurs and anything to do with them....they match his floor rug, curtains and wall stickers!
I used the papers from the 'Brights' collection to make these.

Tamsin.

Blog wars - double sided adhesive paper and glitter.

2009-10-21T17:23:00.003+10:30

From last week's blog wars challenge:

These are my ATC's for October's swap. As you may have guessed, it's themed Halloween!

My glittery little Jack-o-lanterns are made from doubled sided adhesive paper, punched out with the Super sized circle punch. I shaved a little off the top and bottom, these pieces then were used to create the eyes, mouth and stalk. The circle was cut into segments, rounding the edges with scissors, and then adhered to the card. Then I poured on the glitter!

Multiple colours can be used by masking and pouring only one colour at a time, brushing away any excess before exposing more of the adhesive for a new colour.

The colours are from the new September release glitters, Sweet Orange, Charcoal and Ocean Spray.

Tamsin.

Blog Wars!!

2009-10-06T14:47:00.005+10:30

I am back with my first official blog war post! Since I didn't get back on here in time to post before the new week began, I am going to play catch up and do two for the price of one!

If you follow the other blog war girls you'll have seen last week's challenge was based around food/recipes, some of my favourite things! I love cooking! My latest kitchen obsession is preserving. I bought a fabulous book, '5-minute microwave bottling' by Isabel Webb and have made a couple of things, and dying to try lots more.
It's based around using only recyclable jars (the ones you buy your sauces, jams etc in from the supermarket), so I have cleaned and kept all my jars and plan to do a mega cook up in the coming weeks, of jams, spreads, sauces, preserved fruit, and label them to give for presents. The whole process is done in the microwave, even sterilising the jars and vacuum sealing the lids!!

Anyway, in preparation for this I made some labels.

Simple but effective. I used the new label stamps from the July new products, white SB essentials cardstock, gold embossing, brown eyelets and papers from the Ebony and Ivory range. These were quite quick to make, I couldn't bear the thought of spending hours making labels which are inevitably going to be thrown out!

This week's blog war challenge is 'Elegance Vellum'.
I made some gorgeous little boxes to put moon cakes in for the Moon Festival......my father's side of the family is Chinese and we celebrate this every year. It falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, or in other words this year it was the 3rd of October! You can learn more about the moon festival history, legends and traditions here.

I made some 'lotuses' to put on top of the boxes, using vellum, white SB essentials cardstock and the super and jumbo sized daisy punches.

I used fluid chalk to edge the petals, curled them with a paintbrush handle, and fastened them with an eyelet.
The lotus, to Chinese people, is a very significant flower. You could apply this flower to many projects.

I created the lotus box template myself, and made mini sized ones which fit on A5 card (I used my earth tones SB essentials card pack for the boxes above), or two to and A4 sized piece of cardstock. They would make great little gift or bonboniere boxes.
I have created and uploaded a template for this box to share, you can download it from here.
All I ask is that if you want to share this with others, please direct them to my blog and do not link directly to the file from elsewhere.

Send me some pictures of your box creations or leave me a comment and tell me what you think, I love to see other people's ideas and variations!

Tamsin.

Dream Journal.

2009-10-02T15:09:00.004+09:30

Here's my latest project, a dream journal. I found some inspirational quotes on a quotes site, framed them and printed them on vellum. I wanted something 'beautiful' to look at and be inspired, so I decorated it with sparkly whimsical flowers, butterflies, leaves and flourish.
Most of the products used are Kaszazz.

This look is acheived by clear embossing, blending and stamping with distress inks, and also lots of glittery ice stickles. The colours I used were Dusty Concord (purple), and Broken China (blue). The organdy ribbon in the Kaszazz range matched perfectly.

I am now working on my blog wars project...having lots of fun with it. Make sure you stop by again shortly to see what I've been making.

Tamsin.

September raffle results!

2009-10-01T16:39:00.002+09:30

The September raffle has been drawn by my September baby, Cheyenne, who had her 8th birthday just last week.

The winner is ticket number 25!!

Congratulations Mari... I hope these stamps make your Christmas cards look a treat! I know you will get lots of use out of them in the months to come :)

Well, we are now in October! September was a great month for me, I have met so many new crafty people and now joined blog wars. I have found so much inspiration I am now working on a dream journal (idea conceived by Cheryl Devlin at last week's team meeting, thanks for the inspiration Cheryl!) It's the first 'me' project I've done for a while, a lot of my crafting has been for other people.

I am now waiting for the icestickles to dry, photos will follow soon :) And yes, my last order has now arrived along with my products for this week's blog war challenge. You will be seeing these creations very shortly too.

Be sure to pop in shortly to see what I've been making :)

Tamsin.

I've joined Blog Wars!

2009-09-29T12:50:00.003+09:30

This will surely challenge my creative side!!

You will now find a new list of blogs in my side bar belonging to the girls who are part of the Kaszazz blog wars! I highly recommend grabbing a cuppa and visiting their sites for some inspiration.
Each week we have a different product or theme, I am really looking forward to being part of the fun!

Off to think about this week's creation....

September New Product Release.

2009-09-27T10:10:00.012+09:30

School's IN!

The new product release is full of everything school! And everything cool!

There are new school themed papers, cutouts and vellum designs,

New quick kits,

lots of school stamps,

Something for girls,

and something for boys,

I already have a few of the new products and have been having lots of fun using them in my scrapbook layouts and projects. I will be adding these over the coming days for you to look at.

Take a look at the entire new release range here.

Tamsin.

Spring is in the air.

2009-09-08T16:36:00.003+09:30

Don't you love it? Even though it's not all that warm just yet, the season has broken and I love the change in the atmosphere!

It was enough to spur me into action and book a workshop! Click on the "workshop" tab to find out more, I'd love to see you there!

Also for September I am holding a raffle for Christmas stamps. We all know that we're really not that far away now, and one of my lucky customers for this month will win these stamps to help them get their Christmas card making underway (because as super organised card makers I am sure we're already getting *ahem* organised for Christmas! *cough cough*)

For each lot of $30 in your order, I'll issue you a ticket. The winner will be drawn on the 30th Sept, so be sure to place any orders before then to make sure you're in the running! This includes any outside orders.

I will be also handing out a free ticket to anyone who attends a workshop in September.

I am aware that it's been a little while since I updated here.
I want to mention our fantastic creative getaway which was held on the 28-30th of August. It was a lovely weekend of crafting, a fantastic event put together by fellow Kaszazz consultants Margaret, Cheryl, Naomi and Tina! Thank you so much ladies for all your efforts to make such a fun and successful weekend. I cannot wait for next year's!!

And a very happy belated father's day from last Sunday to all the fantastic dads out there! I know that not many dads are into craft, but my all the dads and grandfathers in our family really loved the mini flip tag albums my kids made instead of cards! I wish I had thought to take a photo of them before they were given away, they were very cute. Hopefully I can include them in my next blog post.

New Christmas papers.

2009-08-23T12:11:00.003+09:30

I put together a layout using photos from last Christmas and the new Christmas papers released last month. I love all the flourish in this range of papers and stamps, I turned some of it into "seaweed" to match the theme.

I received these papers as a freebie for becoming a consultant in July, but you can also get these papers for free in September and October as a Hero Host Freebie :)

It has been brought to my attention that my Moana Market date is actually the same as our Team Training Day, so the market will have to be postponed until October. Thanks Tina for pointing that out to me!

Bears and Butterflies.

2009-08-16T19:20:00.004+09:30

When I saw the bears, stitches and denim pocket stamps in the Kaszazz catalogue, I knew they had to have a place up the top of my wish list! As of last week, they joined my rapidly growing stamp collection.

I spent last week working on my first project with them, a bears and butterflies album and matching card for a friend's little girl who has just turned one. I had so much fun, I love to ad lib and see what I can come up with. Quite often ideas pop into my head as I'm crafting, so I can end up with something quite different to what I imagine when I first start out!

I made the album 5x5 size, with a plastic sheet cover and hinged rings. I stuck with the pink and brown theme to go with the Pretty In Pink papers, and used a variety of stamps...there are even some from the All Boy! collection thrown in, which may seem funny but I love being imaginative with my stamps and thinking outside the square!

I have placed plenty of journalling areas, bazzill matting for photos and even a hidden tag and left them blank for her mum to personalise with pictures and memories from her first birthday.

Of course I needed a matching card:

This is so cute, I was rather chuffed with how this turned out! The pop up butterflies are created by making a paper spiral and taping one end to the top and one to the bottom so it springs out when the card is opened. Using little bits of magic mount, I stuck two butterflies to the 'spring', too easy and too cute! I got the idea from a beehive card I once saw.

As a sidenote, I have booked a table at the Moana markets, Pioneers Memorial Hall, Nashwauk Cres. Moana on Sunday 13th September from 9am - 2pm. Please drop by and say 'hi' and take a look at my little (but growing) stash of Kaszazz goodies!

Only 16 weeks to Christmas...

2009-08-07T10:15:00.003+09:30

So I have been playing with Christmas stamps and papers! I love Christmas time, and I find it really important to be organised as it makes the day much more enjoyable.

I made a few cards (pictured above) which I donated at a fundraising event as part of their end of year raffle, and over the coming weeks I will start to make my own Christmas gifts for the family.

On the subject of gifts and occassions, we have Father's Day coming up in only a few weeks! I have been thinking hard about what the children can make. In the quick kits section of the catalogue there are all kinds of ideas for gifts, and they are great for beginners so the kids will love helping me put them together.
Any Dad (or Grandfather) would be chuffed to receive such a personal gift!

My new punches :)

2009-08-03T12:18:00.003+09:30

My new toys arrived a couple of days ago! I couldn't resist putting together a couple of cards and a tag! The cards pictured are demonstration cards, so if you'd like to hold a demonstration I can show you how to make them. You and your guests will also get the hands on experience of creating one each for FREE! It's such a great way to learn how to use our products and have fun with your friends at the same time!

Also, as a host, you will be entitled to some fantastic offers. Your guests can also take advantage of our customer specials which are hot off the press for August! These are really exciting, so make sure you have a look at what's currently on offer in my Specials and FREEbies section.

Contact me to book one of these fantastic demonstrations for yourself and your friends, or for further information on any of our offers.

Happy Scrapping :)

Fun with the Rollagraph.

2009-07-28T14:26:00.008+09:30

OK, so even though I have been scrapping forever (or so it seems), I am fairly new to the world of stamping and punching. I have learnt a lot in the past few weeks, and with every new technique, I see a new avenue for creativity in my scrapbooking!
Sometimes I am lucky enough to find a set of papers which can set off a photo the way I like. However, as I can be fussy, more often than not I am left with pictures which are waiting for that perfect set of papers. Now I am filling up my wish list with all sorts of stamps, crackle and dotty backgrounds for papers, journalling tag stamps, sentiments and gorgeous little pictures which can be watercoloured, punched out, and used as an embellishment! I can have totally customised pages, I am limited by only my imagination.

One of the items I have been playing with is the Rollagraph. It can be found on page 83 of the current catalogue. It comes in three components, a handle, an ink cartridge, and a huge assortment of wheels. It rolls like a wheel across the page, and because it's self inking you can roll a continuous seamless image.
The first things I have made with the Rollagraph were my demonstration items. Cards, wrapping paper and a gift tag. A coordinating gift wrapping set which takes little effort, is completely unique, not to mention fun to make!

I have been thinking about the Rollagraph for my scrapbooking, and spent a bit of time working on a layout. This layout was partially inspired by one of our lovely two hour workshop projects and has been great for helping me to think outside of the usual scrapbook square!

The papers are Bazzill Basics 'Typhoon' and 'Starmist', and the Rollagraph wheel design is 'Four Flowers'. I applied the Rollagraph directly to the cardstock, extracted one group of four flowers and shaded them using the blue shades in the "basic brights" chalking set. After inking the edges I mounted it over the corresponding flowers on the left hand side. I added solo and twin shaded flowers for a bit of interest.
The subject of the layout is my five month old Ragdoll kitten, Lex. Ragdolls are well known for their striking blue eyes, which is why he obviously needed a blue layout. So he now finally has a place in my scrapbook album.

Some school holiday scrap therapy..

2009-07-19T19:57:00.003+09:30

Scrap therapy, love it! It's the term Tina (my upline) used, and I never really thought about it that way until I had endured almost two weeks of mid winter, raining, windy and cold school holidays. With five children! Usually scrappy "me" time means grabbing 20 mins or so here and there between other jobs to work on a project, so after this I can now define scrap therapy as an entire afternoon!! I felt so great after putting these six pages together, it was by far my biggest scrap accomplishment for the fortnight!!

The papers are from the "Castaway" range, a little bit of a tease when Summer seems so far away, but it was so nice to scrap warm weather memories when it's cold outside :) These layouts are "cut crop assemble - you're done" projects. These kits come with everything you need to create six pages (two double layouts) and include comprehensive instructions, they look absolutely stunning and anyone can make them!

Of course you don't have to make them all in one afternoon like I did!

These came in my business starter kit, but they are available in all different paper ranges for all occassions. And with a whopping six pages (plus some left overs!) they are excellent value!

If you're really observant, you'll notice that I have lots of blank space left for journalling and titles. This was due to missing gel pens. I will get around to finishing that tomorrow hopefully.

Happy Scrapping!

First Demo invites are out!!!

2009-07-18T13:58:00.000+09:30

I had fun last night and this morning preparing some invites for my first demo. I am in love with two step stamping so making these was sooo much fun! I even made matching envelopes!
I am going to prepare some email and facebook invites too for those people who I do not know home addresses of.

I really look forward to seeing everyone and showing off my new products. I am also hoping to see some seasoned crafters too, I am keen to learn more and will happily trade bikkies and coffee for any tips and techniques ;)

The Kaszazz catalogue and new products flyer are available to view 3D style. Grab a cuppa and take a look!

Email me, or fill out the form in my sidebar, and I can send you details of the excellent host and customer offers and freebies for this month. Once you're on my mailing list and I can also automatically send you details of any new offers or products as soon as I am aware of them.

Happy scrapping,

Tamsin xx

Gallery

2009-07-13T22:30:00.000+09:30

Stay tuned for pictures of recent projects!

Products and Ordering

2009-07-13T18:38:00.002+09:30

Please browse the latest Kaszazz catalogue online for products and ideas.

Contact me to place an order, or to book your very own Make and Take demo. Hosting a demo is the best way to earn yourself lots of Kaszazz dollars and free products to cross off those items on your wish list! Not to mention you and all your guests each get to create a free project to keep!

Current Specials and FREEbies

2009-07-13T15:40:00.004+09:30

Join my team before November 30th with the full kit starting option, and you'l receive another $200 worth of goodies! This is a great way to start you business....that's over $700 worth for $295!! Beware, promotion may end sooner if Kaszazz reach their goal number of consultants!

Host a demo for these goodies:

And our Customer Promotion:

Contact me to find out more :)

Workshop details

2009-07-13T15:17:00.003+09:30

NOV – DEC

Friday 20th Nov.
Free Make and Take Demo:

Seaford Rise,
7pm

Come and learn embossing and blending techniques to make beautiful Christmas cards.

Lucky door prize – all host gifts and credits!

Limited places, book your FREE spot by Nov 16th.

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Friday 27th Nov

Fancy Embossed Xmas Cards Workshop
Created by Cheryl Devlin

$20 per person,
Seaford Rise
7-9pm
Book your place by 23rd Nov.

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Sunday 6th Nov.

Elegant Xmas 12x12 Layout
Created by Sonya Edwards.

$25 per person,
Seaford Rise
2-4pm
Book your place by 30th Nov.

ph: 0420 423 641

email: tams_tribe@hotmail.com

My Contact Details

2009-07-13T15:09:00.000+09:30

Tamsin Alford

ph:(08) 8327 2240

mob: 0420 423 641

or fill out the contact form on the side of my blog to send me an email.

Welcome to my blog :)

2009-07-13T12:43:00.000+09:30

I did it, I joined Kaszazz! How exciting to begin my journey of sharing all things paper craft and scrapping, I really look forward to helping others unleash their creative side (yes, we all have the ability to create fantastic keepsakes!!).
I have spent so much time looking through the catalogue and at projects for workshops and demonstrations, there are so many great products and inspiration for how to use them. Of course I have to start off with my very first make and take demonstration which I am very much looking forward to.
A little background:
I am the mother of five fantastic kids, Jade 12, Andy 10, Cheyenne 7, Alicia 6, and Ryan 3. They are the very reason behind my love of scrapping, to document each milestone in their lives (which happen far too fast!!). They love to revisit events which happened in previous years and months, and the excitement on their face when they see their special moment so creatively preserved is just amazing! It's also a way of finding a little relaxing "me" time, and helps me refocus and recharge. As much as I love motherhood, it can be very demanding at times so scrapping and stamping is a great "outlet" from everything to do with housework, playdates, and school activities! And as a uni student, it also helps me regroup when things get intense.
I started as a paper scrapper, but also turned to digital scrapbooking through my love of technology. Sometimes I even combine the two and create what is known as "hybrid" scrapping or projects. I am looking forward to the challenge of creating wonderful cards and off the page projects too! I still have so many memories to preserve and can't wait to get into new and creative ways of doing it :) I will post my creations on here to share and hopefully inspire.
Happy Scrapping :)