Mina's Journal

Calendar 2012: January - February Another new year upon us! Up for you today is a printable calendar for the months January and February 2012. 'Doodly' in nature, colour them yourselves or leave as outlines. ...or print them out on coloured paper! There is space on them to write up special notes or occasions. Download Calendar 2012: January - February :)

Butterfly Ribbon Borders Some ribbon type borders with butterflies for your projects. Nice texture and detail. Was playing about with some of my butterfly drawings. These have a romantic/vintage feel. So print them out, grab the scissors and glue, and get busy! Download Butterfly Ribbon Borders :)

Had a couple of days up my sleeve, so went net surfing. Signed up for a Christmas ATC swap with the NZ group at Card Making World. You only get to see this much, because the swap isn't complete. Will unveil when the whole shebang is over. Somewhere I read recently that something like 92% of crafters make or have made cards. There are so many wonderful examples that are really inspiring...I just have to have a go at it. I had a go a while back but wasn't very pleased with my efforts. Same as everything I suppose...practice makes perfect. There are a heap of aids available to buy but I shan't be doing that. Not yet anyway... I'll see if I get the bug. Talk about spending... I think I need a new printer... :)

I was without a computer for a while because the old one up and conked out. Decided to dust off the sewing machine and run up some lounging about pants for Darcy. That kid has some real nice clothes, but he was staying with us and I thought he could do with some pants that we didn't need to worry if they got wrecked. Kids need plain, basic gear just for that reason. Horrified that clothing for a three and a half year old cost just about the same as clothing for myself, I pulled an existing pair of trackies from his overnight bag, to use as a pattern , cut some sale cloth (sweatshirting) and ran them up. Pretty pleased. I haven't sewn for years. Used one inch elastic for the waistband, next time I'll probably go smaller. Looked a bit plain. So cut stencils from kitchen packaging (thanks, Bell Tea!) and we used acrylic paint and a paintbrush to apply them. Acrylic paint is okay for this stuff. You can get textile medium, which you can mix with acrylics for using on fabr

Time for a change. Blog looking tired and needing some loving. So changed to Simple template, made a header and added my name and doodles to an avatar. Looks brighter and looks like fun. Pretty pleased with it now. If you want to make your own avatar, head on over to Avatar Maker . I like the simple cartoon style of the elements. Choose your facial features, hair etc. You do need to make a screenshot to save the pic. If you read the comments, someone kindly tells people how to do it. I use MW Snap - a small freeware program I discovered about five years ago and use quite often. This is one of my 'must have' bits of software, and you can't beat the price. It was made by Mirek Wojtowicz - generous genius! :)

More Rainbow Bunny Stickers. Easter not far away now. Put this page of 20 rainbow bunny stickers in your craft stash! Download More Rainbow Bunny Stickers :)

Rainbow Bunny Stickers. A page of 20 for your Easter craftings!   Download Rainbow Bunny Stickers :)

Another cute frog mini card. Two cards to a download page Download Froggy Card :)

Gift Tags - Pointing Hands 12 to a download page Download Gift Tags - Pointing Hands :)

Frog Mini Card. ATC sized, two and half inches by three and a half inches, with rounded corners. Fun and funky and bright! For all those who love frogs! You get two to a download page. Blank inside for your own message. Fits most happy occasions. Download Frog Mini Card Enjoy :) Another Froggy Card

Bird Disk Gift Tags. Round, elegant and very chic! You get 12 to a download page Download Bird Disk Gift Tags :)

Heart Shapes for you today. Plain and simple. Download Heart Shapes Password is 'hearts' Enjoy! :)

Circle of Friends Cartoon Stickers. This first pic shows a close up of the detail of the 'stickers'. You get four large and eight small badge-type 'stickers' for your pages, letters, envelopes or projects. Download Circle of Friends Cartoon Stickers Password is 'circle' (no apostrophes) Happy Crafting! :)

Nice wee project here for Valentine's Day. Small cards in a gift tag shape with inpapers. Once you have printed: Trim cards and inpapers. Fold all pieces in half lengthwise. Apply a strip of glue next to the fold line of the back of the inpaper and stick to the outer card matching the fold lines. The inpaper looks good if its able to flap about a bit. Write your message and you're done! Valentine Mini Tag Cards - password 'valentine' (no apostrophes) Happy Crafting! :)

Some people like to create their own images for Window Cards. This template fits a project I did elsewhere.   You guys are so clever, I bet you could find other uses for it!  Blank Window Guide Template . Password is 'love' (what else?) Remember, no apostrophes. :)

Here are some romantic tiles to use in your projects. They will fit a Window Card project I did elsewhere.   Essentially the cards were made from office paper, folded horizontally then vertically to make an A6 sized card. A window was to be cut through the front and inside left pages and an image was to be stuck to the inside right page, so you could see it from the front. Well, these images fit those. I'm sure you creative types will find other uses for them. Click the pic to go grab them. Password is 'love' (no apostrophes!) :)

Just in time for Valentine's Day! Romance plus! A page of images to use in your romantic craftings. Card making, scrapbooking and more.   Click the image to go to the download link. Or right click and Open Link in New Tab/Window if you don't want to leave here just yet. Password is 'love' (without the apostrophes). :)

Card Making Techniques Sometimes in your paper crafting endeavors you might want to cut window shapes from your printed projects with scissors. If you have used office paper to print on, the paper is quite flimsy and cutting out the windows can make extra crumples and creases in it. For projects children are going to make (and therefore they will be using scissors instead of a craft knife) here is a simple method to get around the problem. Cutting Window Shapes Slightly bend the paper (loose bend) and make a cut in the center of the window. Make cuts to each of the corners from the center. Cut along the window edges.   There should be minimal creasing and crumpling. Happy Crafting! :)

Use these cheery flowerpots to dress up your projects and pages. Just print, cut and paste. Password is 'flower'.  :)