Virtual Stamping Night

At Split Coast Stampers! I nearly missed this. Glad I didn't as I LOVE challenges and there are some great ones there. I've done 9 cards so far (didn't find out about it until Saturday tea time otherwise I might have got more done). Saying that, I'm on a roll and hoping to fit at least a couple more in before bedtime.


Stamps - Gorjuss Girl by Sugar Nellie, sentiment by Hero Arts
Inks - Memento, Distress inks and Promarkers
Paper and die cuts - My Little Yellow Bicycle
Other - Butterfly punch, Basic Grey rub-ons and pearls
Challenges - Gorjuss Girls Challenge 32 - Wings


Stamps - Hero Arts
Inks - Memento, Distress inks and Promarkers
Other - Sakura glaze pen, Nestabilities die


Stamps - Stampin' Up, Hero Arts
Inks - Memento, Promarkers, American Crafts slick writer
Patterned paper - Poundland (!)
Other - Fiskars edger punch, Cuttlebug embossing folder, bling



This was created for the challenge to use the babywipe technique, dripping re-inkers onto a babywipe and stamping into that. I had neither babywipes or re-inkers so improvised using damp kitchen roll and dripping shimmer mists onto it.
Stamps - Hero Arts
Inks - Ranger Archival ink, alcohol inks, Cosmic Shimmer mists, Tattered Angel Glimmer mists
Patterned paper - K&Co
Die cut - Marianne Design Creatables (cut out of acetate, it didn't cut right through so I cut the outer design and left the other bits that should have been cut out), Nestabilities


Stamps - Stampin' Up, Hero Arts
Inks - Memento, Distress inks, chalk ink
Paper - Bella Blvd
Other - American Crafts scalloped sticker, circle punch, Nestabilities die, Fiskars edger punch bling, ribbon, Creative Memories corner punch


Stamps - Hero Arts, Craft Stamper (bird/heart, freebie with magazine)
Inks - Versamark, Memento, Distress inks
Patterned Paper - die cut element Basic Grey
Other - Nestabilities die, clear embossing powder, pearls, ribbon


I've admired these flower pot cards for ages, so jumped at the chance to take part in this challenge (with fab linked instructions.

Stamps - Hero Arts
Inks - Ranger Archival ink, distress inks
Patterned paper - Basic Grey (red)
Other - Cuttlebug embossing folder, 3d flower gsd file from Silhouette, Sizzix flower die, Fiskars edger punch, gems, flower wires, ribbon


The flower stamp on the tag is by ??? (will have to check! and coloured with distress inks.


This card is a bit of a cheat - the tag was made previously and used as a gift tag. I just took it apart and added the flower and buttons and then layered a card base.

Stamps - Studio G, Craft Stamper (magazine freebie)
Inks - Distress inks
Patterned paper - 7Gypsies
Other - office tag, Stampin' Up oval and scalloped oval punches, Nestabilities die, buttons, 3d flower gsd file from Silhouette, ribbon


Stamps - Crafty Individuals (bird), Hero Arts (sentiment)
Inks - Stazon, Distress inks
Patterned paper - the bracket and bracket label shapes both Basic Grey die cuts

Bunny Girls

I did start this last week but it got left on the desk underneath a pile of paperwork. It's a quick (if you don't count the time left between starting and finishing) page for Creative Scrappers sketch 104 from last week and also for the American Crafts Spring themed challenge week.


Another Easter themed birthday party for Mia - last year - they did crafty stuff decorating baskets for the Easter Egg hunt, plus standard party games. All the girls had these cute bunny ears to wear - don't they look cute?!

Scalloped Cardstock - Papermania
Patterned papers - American Crafts (Letterbox range) and Chatterbox (the blue tapestry and pink dotty ones).
Stickers - American Crafts
Felt embellishment - American Crafts
Epoxy Stickers - DCWV
Alphabets - American Crafts
Edger punch - Fiskars

I was determined to get this one finished today because I want to start on the next one!

Promarker initiation

I have succumbed. To Promarkers. I tried for a long while not to, but, you know, the colours are all so gorgeous! I have found the Passion for Promarkers blog and will be working my way through all the wonderfully helpful workshops they have on there. I'm not an arty person (which is different from being a crafty person) - I have no idea of putting into practice perspective, shadows or highlights, so I can see me becoming a bit frustrated at my shortcomings (hence the need to follow the workshops!).

Anyhow, this is my first Promarker coloured image - it's a Sugar Nellie stamp - Blossom by Leanne Ellis. These stamps are so pretty and bold and simple enough for a novice like me to colour in. The sentiments stamp is from a Hero Arts message set, edger punch is Apron Lace by Fiskars, oval and oval scallop punches by Stampin' Up and the scalloped rectangle is a Nestabilities die. The patterned paper and die cuts are one of my favourite paper ranges - Dutch Girl by Cosmo Cricket - probably classed as vintage now in scrapbooking terms! I bought lots of it as I thought it would work well for the kids school photos. So far I've only scrapped one page ...


Promarkers colours used:
Cool Aqua and Duck Egg (dress)
Red and Crimson (flowers, with blending pen to lighten them a bit)
Leaf Green
Burnt Sienna, Cocoa, Spice and Coral (hair)
Ice Grey 1 (to outline)

I've added liquid pearls to the flower centres and stickles to the dress and used
Broken China and Vintage Photo distress inks for inking edges.

The card meets several challenges:
Split Coast Stampers colour challenge (red, bermuda blue and kraft)
Passion for Promarkers
Crafty Cardmakers (decorate inside the card)
Etsy Inspired (inspired by this)
Split Coast Stampers free for all challenge (buttons - inside the card)
Fresh Brewed Designs (red, white and blue)
My Time to Craft (vivid)
Stamping for the Weekend (to cheer someone up)
Sugar Nellie challenge at Split Coast Stampers (blossoms)

More yumminess

From Hero Arts on the horizon

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Sigh and drool. And CHA Summer won't be long either. I need a job and/or a sugar daddy. Unfortunately have neither.

Anyhow, just a quick share of a card featuring HA stamps (including the fabby and fun digi owl) which I did for a Two Peas challenge a while ago


I spritzed the cloud background stamp with Radiant Rain and then swiped some distress ink over to take away from the glaring white. The owl was slightly recoloured and embossed with clear embossing powder. As I had printed onto glossy photo paper, the embossing bubbled, but I really like the extra texture this gives. The branch is the HA woodgrain stamp and the sentiment (stamped onto a Maya Road sheer journaling spot) is also HA. I added some brass rings to create glasses for him too. A real wise old bird! (the owl, not me that is!).

A blast from the past

Another quick share of a page I did for the March gallery over at A Trip Down Memory Lane. Working with the 7gypsies papers again. I had just been given some old photos by my mother in law and really liked this photo of her own father. He had died long before I ever met Len and, truthfully, I don't know much at all about him. Not even his proper first name. Everyone knew him as Bootsy - even his children and grandchildren. I have got to get more details so I can add some journaling to the tags.


The papers were very clean looking, so I dirtied them up by adding Distress ink and spray mist to the papers, adding some ripping, curling and tearing for good measure! I used lots of circles with the stitching, cardstock, buttons and stickers, to echo the tyres of the motorbike. It's quite simply embellished with a variety of buttons, rub-ons (7gypsies) and stickers (7gypsies and Jennie Bowlin). I love using word and label stickers, they are such an easy (as in, lazy) way of layering and adding interest to a page.


The gorgeous American Crafts thickers on here are a cream pearlised finish. Beautiful but, again, too clean looking so I spritzed them with the spray mist again and lightly blottted. I love the effect - a bit like colourful oil splatters! Oh and can you see that there? A blast from the past - a Making Memories metal word washer - and how perfect is it for this page? Just proves having a good old rummage through your stash can reveal treasures indeed.

Oh and check out the A Trip Down Memory Lane blog - giveaways and challenges mean there's plenty of ways to win some lovely goodies :)

Toot toot for me :)

Kristine has very kindly included me in the latest batch of designers over at Creative Scrappers - look over >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

okay and down a bit LOL! (ETA now there's new post, it's ^^^^^^^^^^ a bit!)
a lovely new blinkie to add to my sidebar. I'm so thrilled and really looking forward to working more with these great sketches.

I'm itching to be having a go at sketch 104



but it's really busy, busy, busy for me today and tomorrow. I have got to decorate cakes (one for Chiara's birthday and one for a school fundraiser tonight) as well as do housewifey stuff as Chiara has a friend over for a sleepover tonight and tomorrow we are going on a girly shopping spree. This is what she has chosen instead of a party. Sigh. Eleven. Getting so grown up.

Treasure the Joy of Family

Stuck for inspiration on what to call this post, so thought I would just go with the layout title!

This is a page I've just done today based on a great sketch at Creative Scrappers. This is the sketch


and this is my page



It also fits in with another challenge blog (just found today, blog hopping, as you do!) over at Paper Play Challenges - the challenge was simply to use brown with any other colours. Brown was the perfect choice as the border for this page, providing a bold colour contrast as well as keeping in with the natural setting of the photo.

I've used papers from the Letterbox range by American Crafts, plus some of the brads, flair embellishments and thickers that I received this week as part of my (previously blogged about) prize. The flowers are all cut out from a sheet of patterned paper, love the different patterns and colours on here. And the labels sheet of paper is so pretty AND useful. What a combination!

Lots of yumminess

I got my parcel this week from Two Peas in a Bucket - the prizes from the NSD challenges. Huge thanks to Two Peas for organising and to American Crafts (thickers, brads and remarks stickers), Basic Grey (Sugar Rush paper collection and embellishments) and Fancy Pants (On a Whimsy stamp set) for supplying such gorgeous prizes.

I also found out yesterday that I won a Websters Pages rak from Pamela as part of the Scrapbook Challenges NSD celebrations. I am feeling especially lucky and thankful for the generosity of the people in the world of scrapbooking at the moment (including the wonderful Mel and Jill over at A Trip Down Memory Lane who sent me a lovely little gift to help cheer me up as I am facing a tough time personally just now).

I have been playing a little with the Blogger features and figured out that you can add new pages. I've created a page to feature my Slide galleries (in the process of being updated) and also a page to feature FREE classes. To test it out I am starting with sharing some previous classes I have taught.

Just click on the classes tab at the top to go to the page and then the fullscreen option to enlarge the class details. I would love to know if you create something based on one of these classes (okay there is only one there yet, but really, there WILL be more soon so keep checking back!).

Another woo hoo!

I was lucky enough for some of my layouts to be picked as challenge winners over at Two Peas in Bucket for National Scrapbooking Day. I've had some lovely prizes from there before so I am excitedly anticipating some goodies in the next few weeks.

The gallery for May has gone up over at A Trip Down Memory Lane. Between us, we were given a selection of the latest releases from Fancy Pants (I love their papers, especially the sheets of cards and strips - they really make accenting/titling and mixing patterns so easy).

I've actually done another two pages today which I have emailed across which aren't up there yet, hopefully soon.

Here's a couple of sneaks, the first is a page created using the About a Girl collection


And this second one, using the Rusted Sun collection


I love the bright colours and bold patterns on both of these ranges. Such fun to play with :)

All you need is love

Another one of my NSD creations for the Two Peas challenges. This was for the home decor challenge. Only I got mixed up with the time zones and ... oh well ...

The frame is a cheap plastic one from IKEA which I had sanded and coloured with distress inks MONTHS ago (if not longer). Distress inks don't dry well on plastic. Which is why it had been left for months.

Anyhow, now it WAS dry. I used the Hero Arts antique brocade cling stamp and Stazon ink to stamp on the frame. The patterned paper is from Websters Pages, flowers and crystals Prima (the roses were white and I spritzed them with Glimmer Mist Candy Apple). The small chipboard frame is from Delish Designs (coloured with Stazon then Glimmer Mist) and the rub on (Crate Paper) was applied to transparency and attached to the back of the smaller ornate frame.

Oooooooooh exciting!

I won over at the Bo Bunny blog for my Flutter Butter layout! So excited (as if the title didn't let you know!).

The wonderfully talented Debbie Nicholas is on the DT over there and since then I've become an avid follower of their blog. They have a great DT with lots of gorgeous inspiration ... and gorgeous goodies to drool over too.


Also, there is still the chance to win a prize pack over at Crate paper, check out the blog to find out more!


Crate Paper is another manufacturer with an inspiring blog. I love seeing how the DT's work with the products. Always a real purchasing enabler though.

Pulled an All Nighter!

I don't know how I managed it. I went to bed 4.30am yesterday morning and was up by 10am and as of now (9.20am) I haven't been to bed. Will admit to starting to feel a little tired though, so may have a nap until lunchtime.

Anyhow, I was so fired up by all the challenges I'd found I didn't want to stop. I did slow down significantly mind you.

I'm going to have to update all the challenge blogs on my favourites list. I did a trawl over the weekend and LOTS of them had gone. On the other hand, I have found quite a few new to me.

I've mentioned Scrapbook Challenges and Creative Scrappers in the previous posts. Well now I've found another Scrap and Stamp. Yep. Challenges to include stamping on your layouts. I'm up for this one! This week is to scrap either a Summer layout or to use Summer colours.


I created this layout to fit in with another couple of challenges at Hero Arts and Two Peas. One being to use cardstock only. Literally. Heck this must be THE hardest layout I have ever done. It took me hours of faffing. Okay, not helped by the time of night, but even more not helped by lack of patterned papers or ANY embellishments. I wanted bling! I really, really wanted bling! But I managed to stay strong and I stuck to cardstock, ink, stamps, heat embossing, punches and die cuts.

The die cut flowers are from Marianne Creatables and the fancy label is a Nestabilities die. I used Hero Arts stamps (All Occasion Messages, Thoughtful Messages, Four Bold Messages and Write Your Own - the ledger stamp). I guess you can say I like Messages stamps :) Oh and I used a couple of punches, my truly loved photo corner punch and the Fiskars Apron Lace punch.

Still Scrapping for NSD :)

This is my 10th completed page. It was a struggle finding papers tbh, look at all those contrasting clothes! I didn't want to change it to black and white though - it being an older photo (like about 30 years old) I wanted to keep the detail of the fashions at the time (as they could be called, not that this lot looked at all fashionable, but then again I guess playing darts for the local pub didn't really require it).


I've used the latest sketch over at Creative Scrappers as well as a couple of stamps for the Hero Arts layout challenge and other stuff to fit in with a couple of Two Peas challenges.

I used glimmer/cosmic shimmer mists onto kraft cardstock, a selection of scraps of papers (Chatterbox and 7Gypsies in the main). The smaller tag opens out to reveal several pages for journaling - once I get the story from DH - and I even included a bottle cap in homage to the pub! The picture of the layout isn't so great, but the light has gone here now and I had to rely on flash instead (hence having to photo at an angle).

Scrapbook Challenges Sketch page

So I managed to fit in the Scrapbook Challenges Sketch last night (okay, early this morning).

This is the sketch, which was a really easy one to work with


And this is my page. It tells the story of my son blowing his candles out this birthday (or not, as the case was!) it was such a funny moment!


I used Making Memories Funky Vintage for the background, Bella Blvd for the two paper strips, scraps from Cosmo Cricket and Making Memories for the banner, the zigzaggy circle and month sticker is by Collage Press and various alpha and word stickers.



They also have a blog hop going on, starting here and you can have a look at what other members have done with the sketch by visting this post at Scrapbook Challenges.

Happy (Inter)National Scrapbooking Day

There are lots of things happening around scrapbooking land .... many of the manufacturers have giveaways and challenges ... to check them all out scroll down my sidebar and work your way through the list (please excuse a couple of links are still broken, I have fixed quite a few but I still need to research on others).

Have just had an email from Hero Arts that they are having random prizes issued for people uploading layouts to their Flickr gallery so I'm going to get my desk cleared and stamps and inks out at the ready for that one too!

Another new find for me today, Scrapbook Challenges ... it's a Ning community group that has got lots of challenges AND a blog hop (which starts at Pamela's blog), all with great prizes. I'm loving the look of the regular challenges too. I can see this being quite a regular drop in point for me from now on :) And I really want to give that great sketch a go, I think it will be the next on the list after I have finished the one I am working on just now.

ETA have eventually found the list of challenges over at Two Peas in a Bucket. Check it out!

Because of my laziness in blogging recently I have a backlog of pages to share. I will start with one I did for A Trip Down Memory Lane for their April gallery, using papers from the Avignon and Venice ranges. I especially loved the colours in the Venice papers.

This is practically a vintage photograph - one of me in Bodrum, Turkey, not long after we were married, and just before the place became really popular as a tourist resort.




I created some tags by covering cardstock with the Diagram paper and colouring with my distress inks to tone in with the Venice papers. I used a mish mash of embellishments, including the fabulous 7Gypsies stickers (I can barely complete a layout without them).


I used some 7Gpysies rub-ons to add interest to this bottom tag and button. And I have to say that these pearlised chipboard Thickers from American Crafts are just GORGEOUS, love the elegant shimmer of them.