Glittery Sequin Card Tutorial

Papercrafts

This week on the Less is More Blog, the challenge is "STARS".

Glittery Number card: A tutorial 

Quick instructions are:

I use a printer to a huge font size and print directly onto the Jac paper. (Jac Paper is like Double sided sticky tape only in sheet size formats)
I hand cut the big numbers from double sided Jac pape.
Peel the backing off one side and stuck it onto some layers first.
The coloured card layer is stamped and embossed in silver and then trimmed to size.
Layer this onto your base card which already has had a metallic embossed paper adhered to the front.
Peel off the bottom layer of the jac paper and stick down onto your coloured card layer.
Peel off the top layer & randonly sprinkle some star sequins over the sticky exposed surface.
Sprinkle the rest of the sticky surface with ultra fine glitter.
Glue some extra sequins in a scattered fashion off to the right of the card, extending the 'explosion' effect as per photos.
The gold and silver backing papers are from a dear friend who used to make cake bases and has all these yummy gold and sliver embossed papers left over that she shared with me. I am very stingy in using up these yummy papers. (Thanks Lesley)

Hope you enjoyed these cards. I have some lovely ideas for variations.

Enjoy your crafting time

Michelle

Wirraway Homestead

We had the wonderful opportunity to assist a Christian ministry, MMM (Mobile Maintenance Ministry) by installing a kit kitchen in one of the staff houses on site at Wirraway Homestead near Strathalbyn, just south east of Adelaide, South Australia.
 

We rolled up in the Robbiebago to this marvelous campground.  The setting is absolutely a dream. I just love it. Much of it comes literally out of a old western movie set that shot on location in the nearby town. More importantly than the surrounds is to the ministry that goes on here where they host horse based camps and musters here for the schools and the community of SA. 

We camped with the Robbiebago right outside the house where the kitchen needed work. We could use the house bathroom & shower as the occupant (the bride) was at her parent's home doing last minute things for her wedding which was to be the weekend after we were to leave.

We like to turn up for our volunteer work on the Friday or Saturday so that we can spend the weekend familiarizing ourselves with the people, location and the ministry. It is a great opportunity to go to the local church and we nearly always feel welcomed and right at home despite the many varieties of church services we encounter. This time we went with the founding director, Peter & his wife to their large church some 40 minutes away. It was called Coromandel Uniting Church. It surprised us to travel so far but it was a beautiful drive through some awe inspiring hill countryside and the church family service was fantastic and God glorifying. Peter and his wife also invited us back to a baked dinner at their lovely house and garden near Strathalbyn.

However we were there to work and on the Monday morning we started to unpack the flat boxes and see how to put the kitchen together. First off the walls needed a bit of cement rendering. Over the next week there were all kinds of jobs that needed work in the kitchen. Obviously this was Rob's department. I had a lot of time to selfishly indulge in my explosion box crafts and to explore the campsite and the nearby town of Strathalbyn where there were some delightful craft shops including a marvelous little quilting shop with a cafe within the shop. 

 

Each day we had lunch and dinner with the campers. This was a highlight of our days there. I don't know the name of the school that was visiting at the time, but they were noisy as kids will be but very well behaved, so much so, that we were pleasantly surprised to discover that this was not a private school but a public school up for their yearly year 6 camp. The teachers have such a great rapport with the kids that respect is evident on both sides. Even the ex principal came back from retirement to do the camp with them, he loves them so.

Peter (left) wanted to 'encourage' Rob to get back to work

Back to the kitchen, work continued along at a steady pace. Peter popped by often to see if Rob needed supplies or additional tools. Some parts of the job went easily and others so so easily. as jobs often do. Bit by bit it all came together and by Friday the kitchen was finished; drain pipes re routed and connected, tiling fixed and grouting done etc. It wasn't all work all week.We could set our own timetables. It was still very cold in the mornings and Rob likes his sleep, so many mornings he didn't start working until something like 9 o'clock. We even took a few hours off on Thursday when our ex pastor, Fred and his wife Helen, came by for a visit and lunched with us up at the camp dining hall. (Did I mention the food was great and so much of it!)

Rob in the finished kitchen

By the Friday the kitchen was all finsihed and then it was up to me to clean up after Rob. (Gee, that sounds familiar: I think all my married life has been spent cleaning up after him and the kids!)

Yet another of the wonderful building around the place

 We decide to leave on Monday as per our normal custom of having church at the beginning and at the end of each ministry stay. This freed us on Saturday to go for another drive around the countryside and this is when we went to Murray River Bridge and surrounds which were covered in the last post.

Sunday was back to Coromandel Church with Peter & Nina again. We headed east on Monday after a delicious morning tea with Nina. Peter was unable to free himself from Wirraway just at that time which was a pity. But we will certainly be back next time we come through South Australia.

Strathalbyn

As part of MMM (Mobile Maintenance Ministry), we were asked to consider helping at a campsite near Strathalbyn which is just a tad more than half an hour north east of Adelaide. (More on the campsite work in the next blog entry!) 

It is a lovely drive through the northern hinterlands of Adelaide anytime but especially through the bright autumn colouring of the magnificent trees in the area. Whispering Wall at the Barossa Reservoir was a great place to try out the unique acoustic capacity of the dam wall. I expected to be able to hear Bob, but I did not expect the clarity of actually understanding clearly what he said on the opposite of the wall. With me being 80% deaf and relying on lip reading, I was blown away.

Strathalbyn would have to be one of the prettiest, old world, unspoilt towns in SA. It is large enough to have all facilities you need locally and it is less than 45 minutes into Adelaide proper. It boasts one of the loveliest town parks anywhere with a bridge that my husband & I  found aesthetically pleasing and my husband in particular found structurally interesting.

Whilst staying here for 8 days , we took a day off to go sight seeing up to the Murray Bridge area. We went on a loop up to Mannum and the across the ferry at Murray River and back home a different way. I think we were there about a month after the huge damaging floods of 2010 and it was still very evident in the areas surrounding the river.

 The wet grounds at Murray Bridge.

Overlooking the Murray River. The bulk of the foreground body of water is not usually there. 

The river generally stops at the trees with just a creek running this side - see the little boat wharf in the foreground.

Here you see the two ferries passing each other.

They would be about 1/4 the way from the right of the photo above this one.

The above are just 2 photos of the many wind powered sculptures that are alongside a private driveway on the road somewhere between Mt Barker and Strathalbyn. All the sculptures are actually working and turning. You can actually see the legs of the 'boy' turning round and round.

This is one place I can heartily recommend so don't visit Adelaide when you go to South Australia. Do make sure to tour the surrounding areas outside of Adelaide if you have a car.  Strathalbyn, Harndorf and Murray Bridge and the Murray River are all well worth the effort. I would love to come back and explore more especially around the river... a house boat holiday sounds ideal to me.

Parham

I reckon Parham is one of the secret hidden pleasures of SA. It is within a short hopping from Adelaide. It is right on the coast in a tiny small village that truly unspoilt. The people are very friendly and the campspot is FREE. You are encouraged to go to the social club around the corner which offers basic club fares and we can recommend it. We liked to sit out in the 'beer' garden. It was a bit quieter, easier for the kids to run around and we had a couple who were smokers!
In fact we were so taken with this place we decided to stay an entra night.
The tide here goes out (& in) a long way and boy it comes in fast something like 10m in 30seconds... actually I can't remember now ...one of the problems of writing this a long time after the holidays have concluded. Another thing is the seaweed bed is very thick and this prompts some unusual boat craft!

This is the only photo we have of our time in Parham and we didn't have the camera working when this amphibious vehicle was coming out of the water. Sorry!

South Australia's beautiful Yorke Peninsula

We well well on our way down Yorke Peninsula after stopping at the lovely Black Point where some shacks are truly waterside with the tide coming right up to the foundations. So on we go south along some lovely coastline and we stop at Port Vincent for lunch and then on through Stansbury and then onto Edithburgh where the huge wind farms are. We stopped and looked at them just from the road since we already saw them in great detail at Snowtown.

Now we start to go inland to Yorketown and Warooka Dam and straight onto Innes National Park. After such long distances in the west between points of interests or even just towns, it is amazing to us how quickly we are at the southern most peak of Yorke Peninsula in just a few hours driving.

Another we are noticing as we travel Australia, is that national parks are NOT really national. You still have to pay per state at least to visit national parks. There is no national park fee that covers all national parks. Innes is actually an expensive park to visit considering there is very little conveniences and such available for your buck.We paid $24.50 entry and 1 nights accommodation which only included a dump toilet - no water, no shower, no anything else! very disappointing. After settling the Robbiebago into its spot, we went walking to the nearest beach but first we have to walk through what is basically a private dump. Actually if you were a tourist brochure writer you would describe it as a quaint old fishing village.

These old shacks are in poor condition and the yards surrounding them are dumps with rusty old cars and water tanks and stuff strewn around the place. on top of all this, these places are privately owned... since when do people own prime beach side property inside a National park. Surely the government should buy them out and revert the land to nature and allow everyone to enjoy this area, not just a few 'privileged fisher folk'! There is a sign on the beach proclaiming it to be the nesting area of a rare bird... but the locals are allowed to drive for nearly a kilometre along the beach! I just don't understand the national parks thinking!

As we were only staying here the one night and there was only one other camper at our camp spot, we decided to unhitch the Robbiebago and go driving and exploring the other beaches of Innes asap the next morning. The many beaches are lovely though and some with great lookouts.

The shipwreck part is fascinating and one can still clearly see 2 shipwrecks without having to even go right down to Ethel Beach. Soon it is time to hitch the van back to the car and head out. Dunns Point and Warooka are stopping points. We didn't hug much of the west coast at all. We decided to camp at the Maitland Showgrounds. The trip is often smokey as many farmers still burn the stubble in preparation for the next part of farming. All that smoke must be bad for the environment and the carbon release in the area. I have no idea how this method compares to the alternatives. I leave that to someone else who is more knowledgeable in this area! So onto the little copper town of Moonta with its potholed roads for a wonderful pub lunch and then a visit to the delightful and very interesting Wallaroo Museum and the Moonta Pier which is basically our last stop in Yorke Peninsula.

We are glad we went and we truly loved our stay in Black Point, but it is not a place I would aspire to visit a second time.

Crafts on the road

 An Explosion Box

Yoo Hoo I am back!

Not only did I have the 'flu for a whole month, our eldest daughter had to borrow our laptop with all the trip photos on it as JetStar were foolish enough to move her cabin luggage further back out of her sight and hence gave the opportunity for it to be stolen along with all her stuff and they wont pay more than $150 compensation. Grrr bad dog - JetStar. Enough of the whinge.

New online craft shop

So along with everything including setting up my very own online craft shop, see my blog Inkspirational Designs for more info, I have been procrastinating finishing these entries. It is hard to garner enthusiasm to write after the event, no matter how terrific the events were...at least it is for me. However I made a commitment and I intend to follow it through!

So let's move on!
And just 'cause I hate to have a blog entry with no picture, here is a lovely one of one of my fabulously popular Explosion Boxes that are in my online craft shop! Click on the photo to go straight to the shop! This design might not be there anymore but there are many more to choose from or I can custom make one for you.

Port Augusta to Black Point.

We left Pildappa Rock and headed to Port Augusta for Sunday service. We went to the Presbyterian Church here and had a wonderful morning of fellowship around the traditional morning tea before heading off to the Yorke Peninsula. We had planned to stay overnight at a free camp, but we missed the first one and the second was no go as it was on a highway junction and would have been a very noisy location. We drove on and found that our 3rd choice at Red Hill. We stopped by the pub there to ask directions only to find that the free council campground no longer existed. The very friendly pub owner suggested that we camp up the road 200 metres alongside the river. She said it is such a safe and friendly town that we wouldn’t have any problems. Which is what we did and she was right, it was nice and quiet.

In this sunrise photo you can just make out one of the water side shack

We continued on the very bumpy & wavy roads towards Buta which has a delightful fauna park right next to the highway and a picnic area. The fauna park included the customary red & grey kangaroos, emus and some parma wallabies. It also had some black swans, Cape Barron Geese, white bantam chooks and some other animals. Though it wasn’t big, it was a delightful unexpected interlude.
Anyway on we go down the east coast of Yorke Peninsula. After the long distances we had become used to, it was surprising to come across towns every 30 – 50km. Yorke is so small! Our overnight stop was at Black Point which literally has shacks right up to the waters’ edge. We enjoyed a long leisurely walk along the water edge though our walk was cut short by meeting and chatting to a couple who were renting a shack. They have been renting the same shack for nearly 20 years. We enjoyed a couple of hours chatting with them. They informed us that these same dilapidated shacks are going for $1.5 million. The council here wants all the shacks pulled down but do not have the right to demand it so they have put severe restrictions on building and renovating. You cannot renovate or add to the shack at all, if you build a house further back on your block, you must demolish the shack, etc etc etc. Whilst we were with them we saw dolphins playing just in shore and then a manta ray swam past. By the time we stopped talking and walked back it was high tide and we literally had to walk right up against some of the shacks to get back.

The next morning was a glorious morning & I was up early to catch the sunrise on camera. I also caught up with the washing here  - I just had to wrestle with a twin tub, which I have never used before. I was doing well until I suddenly remembered that I had not rinsed the soapy water out of the clothes, so I had to do that & spin dry all over again. Oh well it is all part of the experience! We left close to lunch time to allow the sheets and clothes time to dry on the line.

Haslam, Streaky Bay & Pildappa Rock

One of the beautifully cute baby Hairy Nosed Wombats that I managed to nurse back in Ceduna

From Haslam we went and had a long leisurely pie lunch in a bakery in Streaky Bay where we also met up with some of the campers from Haslam. After a couple of hours in Streaky Bay we went on north to Pildappa Rock which is a smaller Wave rock which in my opinion nicer if smaller than The Wave Rock in WA if for no other reason than it is unspoilt!

We were able to park with the rock as a backdrop. There are free gas BBQ’s here and picnic tables & seats here too. It was such a nice quiet place to stop and rest for a couple of days, plus we weren’t in a hurry to hit the rough corrugated dirt road coming in here too soon, even though it was only about 15km – it seemed much longer when you are going so slow so as not to shake the guts of the van around anymore than you have to! We enjoyed the climb and the fabulous views from the top of the rock.

Oops – I got some places back to front

Oops, I ha ve done it again!
I made a mistake in the last entry “Ceduna” in stating that we stayed at Smokey Bay before we arrived in Ceduna...I was wrong it was after Ceduna that we stopped by Smokey Bay. Then we actually stayed 1 night in Haslam which is where we got the super fresh oysters!

Relaxing Days at Smokey Bay & Ceduna

The wharf at Smokey Bay

Before arriving at Ceduna we stopped at Smokey Bay which is beautiful though with a mightly cold breeze straight off the Antarctica I think!. The Oysters here are cheap and fresh each day. Bob tried them raw and didn’t take to them at all. He did buy a dozen & cook them up with Worcestershire sauce and bacon which I thought were lovely but once again bob is not keen. I guess oysters are not going to be a regular inclusion to our diet!

The sunset at the Ceduna Wharf

Arriving in Ceduna the next day, the major caravan parks were full and we ended up at the A1 Cabins & park which is a very low cost park $18 pn. It is not the best looking park but it is quiet and we later learnt that the manager is a person with a great heart who assists the Anglican minister with emergency accommodation etc. We ended up staying here for 4 nights. Many of the residents are permanent but are courteous and keep to themselves.
We made sure to arrive here in Ceduna for a Sunday Service. We had greetings from Harry & Pam to pass on to long term members. This is the first church Harry & Pam served in and they have many fond memories of their time here. Bob & I too, enjoyed our fellowship here. There was a children’s section within the service and of course the fellowship over tea & coffee after the church. Most people said hello & welcomed us. We made arrangement to meet up with the minister, Brian the next day. We had a quiet lazy afternoon and went to the wharf to get some lovely sunset photos to cap off the day just nicely. We had the most amazing fresh fish and calamari at Bill’s Fish & Chip joint just across the road almost from Foodland. I heartily recommend this. It is the best calamari I have ever had.

Same wharf, same sunset - just a different angle

After Bob getting a mechanic to assess the  worrying ‘noise’ the engine / clutch  had started making on the Nullarbor and changing the oil and a few bits & pieces, we set off to meet the minister, first picking up a cake for morning tea. They decided to drive out to Penong in the afternoon so Bob could advise Brian on repairs to some white ant damage to the church building there. Brian took the opportunity to introduce Bob to many locals along the way. Since Monday is Brian’s regular day off and he had been looking forward to working in the garden, I offered to stay behind and weed & prune it for him, so that he doesn’t get further behind. Who knows when he might get the time again? A minister’s time off is rarely ever cut & dry. We also invited Brian and Heather to a baked dinner at the Robbiebago on the following night. All in all it was lovely to take a few days in one place again and feel like we were contributing to society again, even in a very small way.

The famous Nullarbor

All of us have heard of the famous Nullarbor or the more correctly named Eyre Highway which crosses the Nullarbor. We decided not to stay at Norseman after leaving Kalgoorlie as it just didn’t appeal to us on the trip up so we decided to tackle the beginning of the Nullarbor straight away and make use of one of the many free camp sites along the way, the first one being the Fraser Range Rest Area. (#25 in the Camps 5 book). Second night stop was at Moonini Bluff (#10 in the Camps 5 book). The third night across the Nullarbor plains sees us stop at Bunba Cliff Lookout which was just east of the WA/SA border. This has a superb view of the water and cliff erosion on the coast of the Great Australian Bight. Many of the camp sites earlier are closed due to the unstable cliff faces from the forces of nature on our land. Even if you don’t intend to stay at any of these camp sites I do recommend that you stop and take a look at the cliffs – they are so beautiful in their ruggedness. As for the drive across the Nullarbor, it varies from low shrubby area, to rocky plains, treeless vistas (Nullarbor means no trees). The wind can be rather strong at times cutting across the road from the coast. The long stretches of road including many straight sections as well as the famous longest straight stretch in the world. The long drive can rather dull the senses at times, but if you look for it you can see interesting shapes in the trees or whatever.

At the edge of the Great Australian Bight

We stopped at the head of the Great Australian Bight even though it is not Whale watching season. This is a place where apparently it is common to see as many as 50 whales in a single day! Wow! But not surprisingly there wasn’t any on our day. However the walkway is easy to take and the scene on the western fork is amazing. It is well worth the small $5 pp charge.

Fuel gets rather expensive

Just a note aside here.

Fuel (diesel) prices lately have been around the $1.54 mark in most of the lower towns of WA. We were warned that fuel going across the Nullarbor was going to be expensive, so we tanked up in Kalgoorlie including a spare jerry can at $1.46 (4c discount included) and then again in Norseman at $1.64. Some places along the road were $1.92 & $1.96 but we made it nearly all the way, to Eucla, just before the SA border, where it was $1.82. Penong just east of Ceduna is our next fuel stop where we purchased some for the more reasonable price of $1.58.

Kalgoorlie

The gi-normous Super Pit

This is 40 times zoom on the middle of the photo above

Just a little 220 ton truck like what they use down in the Super Pit

Finally we move onto Kalgoorlie which is a town that has legendary proportions for me from my school days and stories of the gold rush and streets lines with gold.
We made the long drive and arrived early enough to take in the views over the Super Pit. It is so enormous, apparently it can be seen from the moon. We wanted to go to the Miner’s hall of Fame but the tour was another hour or so away so we took off to get some lunch first and then came back for a later tour. It was well worth the tour.

Poring a gold bar

We went underground and even get to have a go hammering into the hard rock as it would have been done by hand in the early days...too much hard work for me no matter how much gold I’d get! We also saw a gold melting/pour demonstration and we took a electric car drive around the place, which is well worth the $5 for all the info the guide gives you. You can walk it all but you just don’t get the history or explanation of the various equipment that an experienced miner can give you. It was so good we came back for a second look the next day and some of the exhibits which we missed the day before.

Esperence and Cape Le Grande National Park

We stayed in Esperance for 3 nights, the weather became overcast with light spitting type of rain mostly. Yet it was still warm, in fact it is warmer here than in Albany & Pemberton. Esperance is surrounded by beautiful bays of super fine white beaches, none we found were really surfing beaches but lovely quiet coves that are perfect for picnics. I had a real hankering for a pizza and the one & only pizza joint was closed. Then we tried a kebab shop, it didn’t have chicken. Then we tried a couple of restaurants, but they were $55pp & we weren’t really dressed for that, being in shorts and thongs and anyway we didn’t want a fancy meal. Then we tried a noodle house but no seating, only take away. There is a Subway but we tried to avoid that this time. We eventually found a Chinese. Boy it was hard work to buy dinner that night!

One of the beaches at Cape Le Grande NP

Another one of the beaches at Cape Le Grande NP. You can't believe just how fine the white sand is.

Frenchman's Peak at Cape Le Grande NP

During the day we went into Cape Le Grande National Park and thoroughly enjoyed more beaches and coves in the area.

Rob still thinks I am worth photographing from time to time!

We saw a few prostrate, almost white flowering banksias which I haven’t seen before.