Sara Sandberg

Owl Shaped Card Template

I am sorry not to have updated you with the last projects! Internet browsers are ganging up against me! Chrome has crashed, and can't be uninstalled or installed on my computer! Internet Explorer won't let me upload photos to Typepad, so I am here with Firefox seeing if that works!

Yay!! It does!!! I designed this owl for Marion's birthday, even though I had only a couple of weeks ago designed a different shaped owl;

I love them both! The first is very quick and easy, but I love the character of the one above here.

Also I have added a new handbag to the site;

If you're not a member, take a look at www.cardmakingparadise.com - there are lots of lovely free resources there for you. If you would like to become a member and have access to all our lovely projects, I keep the price very low so that everyone can join in.

It's exam time for the Sandberg kids. Holly is preparing at uni in Bournemouth by eating pizza, Max is here in Southampton playing his computer game - and Nicole has a radical approach, she's in Plymouth revising!

Have you heard of Snapchat? It's an app where you take a photo and send it to someone with a message on, and they can only see it for a few seconds. So I am constantly gettting pictures sent from the kids and I have had to train myself to put my glasses on before opening them, otherwise it's gone before I've seen it!

If you're quick you can screenshot them, but it's not the cool thing to do! And it's definitely not cool to save the pictures and put them on your blog! ;)

Aren't we lucky to have all the technology we have now to keep us in contact around the world. When I worked on the ships I used to have to find a phone ashore to contact home, and it used to be such a pain finding one, plus it was very expensive - I didn't usually make it past the shops/bar on the way there! My poor neglected Mum!

We got Mum started with an account on Facebook so that she could see pictures of family my sister and I post there. Mum is about as handy with a computer as a chocolate teapot, and hasn't a clue what she's doing on Facebook, but is just enjoying browsing around looking at photos. Or so she thinks - actually she's pressed requesting to be peoples friends on several occasions - and it's friends of the children, goodness knows how she got there! She has no idea how to ask someone to be a friend, so has no idea how this has happened! But can you imagine how cool it is for the kids when their grandmother is requesting to be a friend to their friends?!! Poor Mum is now frightened to click on anything! She has been instructed to look and not touch!

I hope you have had a lovely weekend, and if it's Mother's Day in your country, I hope you have had a lovely family time.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Love and smiles,

Current Card Sketch Challenge

Here's my entry for our current card sketch challenge;

It was a bit cheaty of me really - I had an idea for doing this with the Memory Box oak tree die when I designed the card sketch! And the two came together! Our card sketches are definitely bringing a softer colour scheme than my normal cards out fo me!

Going back to bright, did you see my latest design for Cardmaking Paradise?

If you would like to see the project closer you can do so here. My Mum saw the newsletter announcing this, and asked if she could have one! I told her she hadn't quite grasped the concept of the website! The idea is you go to the project and make your own!!! (Now she'll be reading this and reminded I haven't made it for her yet! :o)

I have my daughter Nicole home from uni for Easter, which is lovely! Holly is coming for the night tomorrow, then back to Bournemouth to go on a skiing trip organised by a group at uni. I used to go on a skiing trip with a large wild group every year when I was Holly's age too! It was on one of these trips I met my gorgeous Danish husband! I told her to be careful, you can catch things on trips like that which stay with you for life! ;)

I hope you are all having a good week - what would be REALLY nice for Easter would be some warm weather! Anyone got any going spare they could send over to the UK?!

Love and smiles,

More beautiful things at Stitches

I hope you enjoyed Part 1 - onward with more lovely things!

It's always fun seeing new stamps, shapes and colours of our favourite products - but to find something completely different is really exciting. Tucked away was Brit Wellens, a truly talented artist, with a product I know a lot of you who love texture are going to LOVE! It's called Powertex, I wish I had taken more photos of the wonderful things Brit had made, but here are the two I did take.


When material is dipped in Powertex, it dries really hard. So the top frame the material string had been dipped in it, and the material too and it looked fantastic! If you look at the gallery on the Powertex website you will see more of Brit's creations.

Another talented person shares his name with my Dad! Ken Oliver was showing us Spellbinders Bezels. This made my day, as I had seen them online and loved them - and to see them in real life added another page to my shopping list! 

It's such a great idea, there are dies that fit the Bezels perfectly and you can create beautiful things with them.

They are finished with Ice Resin, which is really easy to use - no mixing, it comes in a two part container that dispenses the correct amount of both parts easily for you. Again, not the best photo I could have got for you above - but I was too busy watching Ken creating! I will definitely be keeping an eye on Ken's Blog - he had some fantastic things on show he had made.

 
The altered book above was amazing, how he created the gradiated circular tear out I don't know - but I hope to find out!

I'm rubbish with compact cameras, but I would freak everyone out if I arrived at the stands with my SLR!!! It was lovely to meet Ken, and to have new inspiration.

Lots of more lovely things on display! Paper Artsy have new colours in their fabulous Fresco Paints range - the best paints ever! (Well, IMO anyway!)

These pictures are from their gorgeous display.

Jean and Malcolm from Crafty Individuals were there - they are such nice people. Whenever I see a distinctive tree I think 'Malcolm would like that!' as he has used his great tree shots for some of my favourite products of theirs! As always, they had some beautiful things that Jean had made on display.

This card caught my eye on the Marianne Design stand.

Look out for Snoesjes, which is a range including these great characters! If you go to the Marianne Designs website, there is a slideshow of cards on the home page which are just stunning.

I took this photo of a Sizzix stand on the way out just because I love picket fences and birdhouses!

That is a gorgeous fence, and I love the way it's painted and adorned.

And by now, I was so excited by all I had seen, I couldn't wait to get home to share it with you!

Love and smiles,

A fantastic day at Stitches, Birmingham NEC

What an exciting day I have had! It is always one of my most favourite days of the year when I attend this show, and I thought I'd make it even more of a treat by staying the night before so I could be one of the first through the door. My sister and family were also arriving back from holiday to Birmingham airport, right next door, on the Saturday night, so I thought I would be there for that, and surprise them by being in the arrivals hall to meet them! You know when you get off the flight and come through the airport secretly hoping one of those people is there to meet you - and they never are?! It was a great plan, and would have gone well if I hadn't popped into a kiosk to buy a bottle of water and missed them . . . .

However, back to Stitches! The great thing about being early is that normal sensible bodies are tucked up in bed with a cup of tea at 9 am on a Sunday morning, which meant the demonstrators were all mine! And how fantastic that Dyan Reaveley was one of the first people I saw. Her Dylusions inks are one of my favourite things to use - and there are 6 new colours, including a beautiful Calypso Teal and Funky Fushia!

It was a treat to see Dyan's art journal in real life. Her sense of humour is just my cup of tea - look at the background of the dress! One of the new colours is White Linen, which gives a great effect sprayed over the stencils - slightly opaque so the colour below shows through. There are some great new stamps too.

A trick from Dyan for masking so you can stamp several in a row is to stamp one onto acetate, and cut it out so you can cover the stamped image with it and stamp on top of it. (Actually, she said to use special Tim Holtz masking stuff, but I felt it and it looked just like thick acetate to me!)

Another little clip from her journal above - what a great idea to tear the pages like this, it's really effective. Dyan says she uses the bits torn off for other parts of the journal. Nothing is wasted!

I had such a lovely time chatting to Dyan, I couldn't believe my luck at spending time with someone whose work I admire so much. You can find all these products at Art From The Heart.

Darkroom Door have some new stamps out, which are presented in a DVD sized box - opaque so you can easily see the stamps inside. Below is one of the great new stamp sets, and beside it another new stamp - Rachel Greig stamped this flower, colouring it first with Distress Pens, and then giving it a spritz of water before stamping.

I will carry on tomorrow with more lovely things I saw - including some great creations from a talented man who shares his name with my Dad!

I hope you have all had a lovely Sunday too!

Smiles,

Who knew I could 'do' delicate??!!

We have started card sketch challenges at Cardmaking Paradise. I have really enjoyed this - I've seen them about but never used one before, I always go off on shaped card tangents! Once I got my head round creating a rectangular card, I really enjoyed doing it!

I love the Contempo Circle Border by Memory Box. My Tim Holtz pokey needle thingy is really useful with the Memory Box dies - this one in particular! There is something quite relaxing poking all the holes out though! And it's the first outing for the Blooming Violet die, which is nice!

I'm off to the Stitches Trade Show at Birmingham tomorrow - I'm staying Saturday night so I can be there first thing on Sunday! I enjoy it so much, every minute is precious! I'll be reporting back to you on new products, and the demonstrations I see.

Have a lovely weekend!

Smiles,