A bowl of cherries

Happy Birthday MScraps!

2012-01-27T17:00:00.000Z

Welcome to my stop on the Mscraps Birthday Blog/Facebook Hop!

I hope you enjoy all of the fabulous gifts that the MScraps Creative Team & Designers have prepared just for you.
You should have come here from Sonia's blog (aka gateausoso)
If you've become lost or missed a stop along the way, you can visit the MScraps forum to get the full blog train list.

Here's my freebie:

You can download it from Dropbox by clicking here.

Now head over to Tinci's facebook page to collect your next gift.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I just want to give myself a little toot!

2011-11-13T23:44:00.000Z

There's a new blinkie in my side bar over there! I got invited over to join the digital creative team over at Two Peas in a Bucket! Talk about heart palpating with excitement! I've got oodles of their digi kits on my hard drive already, plus I'm on Emily's (Polka Dot Pixel's) creative team (who sells at Two Peas) but to be asked to join in and play with the lush creations of ALL of the designers over there is thrilling! Thanks Erica!

I'm just starting to get into the swing of things over there and will share with you three pages for now.

Falling for Digital - DSD collab by the designers at Two Peas in a Bucket
Template - Gridz by ChrissyW
Fonts - Roundslab Serif, Jellyka Saint-Andrew's Queen

Template Mixin' It Up 9 by Chrissy W

I Hope by Edeline Marta
A Vintage Affair by Polka Dot Pixels
Font - Enhanted Prairie Dog

Fashionably Fall papers and elements by Tricia Chapman
Font - Bud Hand

DSD is here and there's so much fun to be found!

2011-11-04T07:59:00.000Z

Starting off at ZigZagScrap!

To celebrate Digital Scrapbooking Day, we have a totally amazing blog train. And I really do mean amazing! The theme is Memory Keepers and it is such a beautifully soft and elegant colour palette. Plus there is an even more amazing 50% storewide (pretty well everything) sale! and not forgetting the games and challenges being hosted on the forum!

And there is even more to shout about as we have FOUR NEW DESIGNERS joining the shop this week too, really there is so much to choose from in store it's unreal!

Here's a page from me using the fabulousness from the blog train:

And a whole selection of inspiration from the other members of the Creative Team:

So you are probably here for your freebie, right? Okay well I love word art and don't think you can ever have enough, so I've got a pack for you available to download from Dropbox.

Not totally sure about the scrapbooking is cheaper than therapy, but it's okay to let other people think that :D

If you are following the train order, you will have arrived here from Terese of t for me designs and your next stop will be Rita of Blue Flower Art and if you get lost along the way you can find the whole listing over in this post at the ZigZagScrap Fun Place. Be aware that our team is diverse and spread throughout various corners of the earth! If the blog post link isn't up and running when you first visit it, give it a whirl a little later on.

The freebies from the Design Team are only around until Monday 7th November, after that you will have to head over to the store. My own freebie (can't speak for the other Creative Team members) will be around for a little longer :)

Enjoy!

What a blast!

2011-11-03T10:17:00.000Z

I had a blast teaching at the scrapping retreat this past weekend organised by A Trip Down Memory Lane. I taught four classes over the weekend, so I was busy, busy, busy, but I had really great feedback from the ladies which is always a good feeling.

As ever, it was great meeting up with old friends and chatting and making new ones. Plus the chance to stroke (and buy) (yet more) goodies from well stocked shop. This was the 9th retreat organised by Mel and Jill and (again as ever) it was totally fabulous. I was really impressed by the restaurant staff who went above and beyond to provide me with scrumptious gluten free options (very appreciated it was).

My first class uses My Mind's Eye Lush products. I was given quite a generous kit to work with, but I was a bit OMG! when I saw it, as I would never have picked these papers myself in a million years (and all but two of the ladies in the class agreed with me). Though it does go to show that stretching yourself with new product can give you suprisingly great results! I decided to do three layouts in the one class (very ambitious) each layout focusing on a specific design technique.

The first was 'what white space?' as in the white space was taken up by patterned paper, so it was there, but not obvious at all.

The second was 'little and large' the use of contrast (size of photos in this case)

The third was 'again and again' being repetition of design elements (pattern, butterflies and text across the page). A simple page to put together making great use of scraps and my butterfly dies and punch! (though someone completed theirs using snowflakes and that was STUNNING!).

My next class was a double layout, quite simple in construction (though there was quite a bit of cutting out and layering images from the patterned paper) as this was a technique based class where the ladies got to play with shrink plastic to create their own unique embellishments (on mine the shrink plastic is the smaller butterfly and flower centres). In the class they used different colouring techniques as well as stamping and die cutting the shrink plastic. The papers, trim and fabric labels are all from the Webster's Pages All About Me range and are totally gorgeous!

The third class was a home decor item of a chipboard star created from scratch, with a bonus card (as I felt guilty that the star didn't actually use up much of the kit contents lol!). I chose to work with the St Nick range from Fancy Pants as I like to use traditional colours myself for Christmas, yet there are enough whimsical touches in the papers (not those I used, but in the selection given to the delegates to choose from) if anyone wanted something more fun than traditional.

My final class was more technically challenging, it involved lots of measuring and cutting out to make best use of the beautiful Bo Bunny patterned papers (plus they had to cut a great big circle in the background which caused a few palpitations lol!), as well as creating flowers from fabric and paper.

Phew! A busy weekend to say the least!

Huge thanks to Mel and Jill for asking me along and to EVERYONE who was so friendly!

My class is up

2011-06-19T09:17:00.000+01:00

Over at the A Trip Down Memory Lane cybercrop.

Sneak peek

Using the really fun Ad Lib range from Bo Bunny. See it on the blog here (and follow the link to download the pdf).

My next go I think will be either Ann's triple frame card or the sketch challenge.

Blogger isn't liking me today, it won't let me comment :(

Cybercropping today!

2011-06-18T14:08:00.000+01:00

A heads up that there is a cyber crop this weekend over at A Trip Down Memory Lane. A no pressure, use up your stash and create beautiful pages cybercrop. Four classes are up already and two challenges have been issued. I'm a bit behind (so, what's new?) - I've just finished doing Ann's wonderful double layout class. Now to decide on which to do next!

Photos to follow :)

A freebie fruity framework for you!

2011-04-13T11:28:00.000+01:00

I do love alliteration lol!

Things have been incredibly hectic this end. Seen far more of the Royal Derby hospital than I ever felt I needed to, and for far too many times too!

Josh's birthday came and went as has Mia's (my baby is TEN! - how did that happen?!) Chiara's is next on the list in May. FIL is still very poorly in hospital (thank you everyone for all your thoughts and wishes, they do mean a lot to me).

I have been doing a lot of creating in some form or another, whether it be baking and decorating, creating party pieces, cards, paper scrapping or digital scrapping. I just haven't really had the time to sit down and get all my thoughts together and bits and bobs organised for sharing properly.

Updating my slide shows is moving up my list of priorities (as should be clearing my paper scrapping space).

Just for now though I wanted to share a digital scrapbook template freebie with you. Bear with me, I haven't shared a download on my blog before so I am really hoping that I have it all figured out right. It's a .psd layered template, based on this digital page:

Credits:
Two Peas in a Bucket: Eggstravaganza and Kitschensinque by Polka Dot Pixels
Owl Tree Studio: Iced Cookie Alpha by Wild Blueberry Ink
Sweet Shoppe Designs: Itty Bits alpha by Danni Mogstad
Fonts: Dancing Script OT and Vintage Typewriter

Which, in turn, was based on this paper page made for A Trip Down Memory Lane for a monthly DT gallery using My Little Shoebox papers:

Scraplifting your own pages is in no way cheating! Nope, it's making the best of what you've already done and can be a great timesaver too.

Download the digital template here

Please let me know if you have any problems and I'll try to figure them out.

Oh and, if you don't digital scrapbook, here's the sketch for you instead :)

A week of highs and lows

2011-03-13T17:27:00.001Z

Happy birthday wishes this week for DH (ssshhh! he won't want you to know how hold!) and also my eldest child, DS Josh who reached 16! He didn't ask for anything or want to go anywhere. I was rather disappointed so made an extra special effort with the cake. Given the situation with FIL, I was running out of time and spent all day Friday (Josh's birthday) decorating my usual chocolate cake.

I used sugar paste for the first time in fifteen years (the last time was for his first birthday cake!). Inspired by a pic in a book, but I added lots of black glittered sugarpaste stars too, as well as spraying it over with edible gold lustre spray. The centrepiece stars should have been edible too, but there wasn't enough time for them to set hard enough, so they were cut from glittered cardstock with my Sizzix. The '16' was sparklers.

And here it is lit:

I think I rolled the sugar paste out a little too thin and it cracked a bit when put over the cake, but I managed to hide most of them with the glittered stars. I'm really proud of my efforts I have to say.

I've told the girls not to get ideas as I'm not going to this much trouble for all three every year! Too stressful (and too expensive!).

The low for the week is that my most treasured father in law has suffered a massive stroke and remains unconscious. This is devastating for our family - any prayers would be appreciated.

Two Peas Winterfest

2011-03-03T15:57:00.000Z

Do you love to stamp? Winter is the perfect time to hunker down and get inky! Peas are gathering on the Stamping board and inviting you to participate in an event members have organized and named Winterfest! There will be challenges and chatter you won't want to miss. Two Peas in a Bucket will also be sponsoring prizes and giving you badges by participating. Interested? Just head on over to the General Stamping message board and dive right in! See the master thread for an index of challenges and details if you have questions; challenges begin March 5th. Have fun!

Now I'm not a master stamper by ANY MEANS of the imagination. In fact, the main times that I stamp are when I fancy joining in challenges like Winterfest. I love challenges, the chance to try new things and be inspired by the projects submitted by other people. I will be hosting a challenge at Winterfest myself, with a randomly drawn prize winner to get a $15 gift certificate to the Two Peas store.

The challenges take place from 5th to 13th March so there is plenty of time to join in.

Got to start clearing my desk ready to make samples for my own challenge!

Quickie share

2011-02-25T01:23:00.000Z

Been feeling rough all week so that, coupled with the dire weather, has made half term with the kids rather a wash out in more ways than one :(

We did manage some baking, the girls made a marble maze game from an empty chocolate box, bits of cardboard, cut out holes and some marbles out of Kerplunk! So creative, must take a photo and scrap about that! I'm thinking of setting them some sort of treasure challenge tomorrow, but as the weather has been given as bad again, it is going to have to be an indoors one, I think. The one I'm favouring the most at the moment is a 'fit as many items in a matchbox as you can' challenge, though it's a larger than normal size matchbox they will be filling, and the girls will be working together as a team as it would be too unfair otherwise given the big difference between them.

Today has been half term hair cut day. No photos yet (unfortunately Mia had her hair curled after cutting today and they fell out by bed time). Chiara has gone for a more 'grown up' cut, reflected in the fact that they tried charging as if she was 14 - she's still 11 lol! Josh has had the normal blade 2 and bog brush on top style. I keep trying to talk him into something more on trend, but he's not terribly fashion conscious - until it comes to jeans (of which we had to buy two more pairs today - he's growing way too fast still!)

I've been playing digi whilst I've been poorly, using the laptop in the warmth of the lounge (when I've been able to wrestle it out of Josh's clutches). As it's up with him now I can't share my projects for Owl Tree Studio (which was my original intention) so I'm sharing this page using Two Peas products (including the weekly freebie template available here). As you can see, I kept pretty faithful to the template, though I straightened out the frame as I thought it being wonky gave it a playful look and the photo I used didn't match that mood at all.

The photo is just a fortuitous snap taking whilst the girls were out playing in the garden last year - I altered the colour tones to match the more wistful look captured on Mia's unposed pose (if you follow me).

Credits all Two Peas in a Bucket

Template freebie February 2011
Summer's Edge kit by Scrap Originals
Boho Chic (freebie) Brandy Buffington
Live Well word art (freebie) Jo Hanna
Font Angelina (freely available on the web)

Cute Things Make me Smile

2011-02-20T11:25:00.000Z

I was lucky enough to be asked to guest design by Leo over at Quirky Kits this month. The kit came and I was amazed at all the different bits and pieces includes, so many different embellishments and textures as well as a lovely selection of papers by Sassafras and 4heures37 and a variety of cardstock types (including bling and dotted swiss).

So far I've created five layouts, have a further one planned and a couple of little extra projects too. I've blogged my creations on the Quirky Kits blog here and here.

A couple of close ups for you:

I told you it was a fun kit!

7Gypsies yumminess

2011-02-15T14:39:00.000Z

This month Mel and Jill at A Trip Down Memory Lane sent out a selection of 7Gypsies goodies to create with for the shop design team gallery.

I have to admit that 7Gypsies papers aren't the first I think of when creating layouts as I generally like to use more colourful and/or playful papers. However, being given something different from the norm really does help to give a push outside of your comfort zone and normal creative boundaries. And the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so to speak, and I absolutely love all the projects I created this month!

I made three layouts with the Paddington papers, another using the Conservatory papers and then I decorated a beautiful decorative heart I bought from the local garden centre. So double whammy for me then because I don't usually do off the page pieces either!

The gallery is up over at A Trip Down Memory Lane (be sure to click over all three pages to see everything) where you can see a whole range of beautiful pieces created by the design team. Some sneakies from my submissions to whet your appetite are below:

On this page I used the packaging tag from a roll of 7Gypsies tape and added some of the steampunk style rub-ons to it and layered over some of the phrase stickers (I absolutely adore those sheets of 7Gypsies 97% complete stickers, I have LOTS of them and use them LOTS too!).

Here I used some more of the rub-ons, a couple directly onto the sheer journaling block and a third onto a button. Oh, and I wanted that splash of red in the bottom corner but the words on the tape didn't 'fit' the page at all so I simply cut it down into smaller pieces so you get the effect without the distraction of uncomplimentary text.

I already had a pile of these die cut butterflies sitting on my desk from my previous post over at It's a Creative World. Some more of those rub-ons on buttons, layered them on a selection of the journal blocks from a Pink Paislee notebook and there is a very easy (but striking) embellishment for a very simple (but striking) page.

You know, I really probably wouldn't have bought the rub-ons either, I'm not much into the grunge or steampunk look, but I feel a need to buy more of them because I have loved how they add such fun and interesting detail to the pages. The actual ones I used are these but there is a whole range of 7Gypsies rub-ons available in the shop here.

Yet another of those butterflies (well, two actually, the sheet music one was rather flimsy so I layered it over a corrugated card one to make it more sturdy). I absolutely love these little typewriter words, the set I had was Family but there are other themes too - and just how perfect was the 'gather' one for a page about my daughter's snail collecting habit?!

Finally, a peek at the decorated heart. I added in quite a few bits and pieces onto this item. The key and quote sticker are 7Gypsies, the bird/oval frame was cut out of some very delicious My Mind's Eye Lost and Found papers, the sticker heart is Webster's Pages and the little love embellishment is from way back when when I first started scrapbooking, as are the little metal pins (which I added some beads to).

Who knew?

2011-02-13T12:24:00.001Z

I was playing with a digital page the other day and found out that you can use a brush in conjunction with the eraser tool to create a punched effect. Adding a drop shadow increases the 'depth' of the cut out. How cool!

I created this page with a free template over at Two Peas in a Bucket and using the Apple of My Eye kit (it's such a beautiful kit) by Vinnie Pearce, also at Two Peas. I altered the template slightly to included two photos rather than three, added a photo mat, the butterflies and moved the title down a bit.

Oh and that title effect - I re-coloured a tag from the kit, used a standard font (Georgia), made it bold and added a Simple Pillow Emboss effect layer style. I love that this gives a debossed effect to the text.

Counterfeit kit for February

2011-02-12T18:40:00.005Z

I put together my kit for February yesterday ready for crop today.

All the links are available at the Counterfeit kit challenge blog, the kit photos at the kit site (Scraps of Darkness) are here.

I've made the colours of my kit less 'boudoir' and more girly, but tried to keep in with the general feel in terms of tone and pattern.

I've got nine patterned papers, plus a half sheet and a die cut sheet. These are a mix of Prima, Webster's Pages, My Mind's Eye and Making Memories.

There are seven sheets of cardstock and a LOT of part used sets of alphas. I like to have a variety of fonts and sizes and I think this is a good mix.

I've added in a lot of bling and buttons (more things I missed last month) together with the ribbons, Cosmic Shimmers and Prima masks. I've not bothered with the mirrors or page pebbles (substituted with the epoxy brads).

I added in the stamps rather than stamping the images onto cardstock as I thought this would give me more flexibility in using them (ie stamping directly onto the patterned papers, which is something I did with the January kit). I love adding stickers to my pages too, especially word and phrase stickers, so just added a few sheets which I felt went with the kit colours.

Finally, I added in a pile of die cuts and metals. I love layering on my pages and use die cuts LOTS! And the metals are from a box I have been hoarding for many years now. Glad to see metals coming back into fashion, scrapbookwise!

So, yes, a HUGE kit, but I limited myself on what I took to crop to this kit, the remnants of the January kit and a Guest DT kit. I had my trimmer, tool kit, inks, Big Shot and a selection of punches and dies and that is it! Walking in with one tote instead of two totes PLUS lots other other stuff was a shock to everyone I can tell you LOL!

Counterfeit Kit pages

2011-02-11T13:09:00.000Z

A while ago on It's a Creative World, I wrote about a new blog I'd discovered, The Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog. My original post at IACW lists all the goodies I used putting together the January kit (together with links to the original kit we were counterfeiting) and can be found here if you want all the details.

This is the kit I put together

So far, I've created two layouts - I've put off doing more as I am wanting to take the kit to crop with me tomorrow. I used everything from the kit. I added a different coloured thread and also used the doily stamps with versamark and and Distress embossing powder on this first page (which was part of the Stamping and Scrapbooking class challenge for February over at Two Peas).

Here's a close up of the heat embossed image - I used the Tattered Rose Distress embossing powder, it was a perfect match for the pale pink on the clothing tag I used on the page.

And this close up shows the clothing tag I used (as part of another Two Peas challenge), just the perfect addition to a page talking about how much fun my daughter had shopping for new clothes for her new High School (no school uniform!).

This second page I added some Cosmic Shimmer mists to the background (hence the slight crumpling to the background paper). Also extra to the kit are the alpha stickers for the word 'so' which, in the spirit of the challenge blog, are by Creative Imaginations and must be six or seven years old!

I also punched out one of the digital elements, I think it adds yet another touch of whimsy to this page.

And I used some of the border stickers as journaling lines (again for a Two Peas challenge - to use border stickers creatively on a layout).

I really enjoyed working with such a mix of products from so many manufacturers. It did take a while to put together (in no small part due to the huge stash I have and which I trawled through), but all I have to do now is look for a few more photos to 'fit the kit' and I've got another two or three pages all planned for tomorrow.

I'm also going to be putting together the February Counterfeit kit too based on this kit

I have to say I'm not too hot on the colour mix here (rather I can't think of anything I would be scrapbooking with those colours) so I will be changing the colours up a bit - which is one of the great things about putting kits together this way.

Lucky Me!

2011-02-02T22:34:00.001Z

I won a cute digital kit for a facebook comment this week. It's this one here at Two Peas Me and You kit by Edeline Marta. And here's a quick page I did with it as I was eager to play (and also I used a freebie template by Chrissy W, also at Two Peas ). I love this kit and I can't wait to play more with it, but I have other things I have to do first! And, unfortunately, tomorrow I'm at the Accountant's so no time to play *sulk*.

I've done lots of scrapping over the weekend, enjoying the challenges over at Two Peas as they celebrate CHA. Lots of new goodies coming out, I can't wait to see what Mel and Jill get in over at A Trip Down Memory Lane. Lots of lush stuff to be added to my wish list I'm sure.

Here's a couple of the pages I have done. I admit to starting them at crop but not actually getting very far with them. For all of these three I used the Sugar Rush collection by Basic Grey (a wonderfully generous prize pack sponsored by Basic Grey and issued by Two Peas for another challenge quite a while ago).

This snap of Chiara posing in a replica turtle shell at Chester Zoo a couple of years ago came out great (with a little PSE tweaking!). I love the look of pure enjoyment on her face. The colours of the kit were perfect for the photo and I couldn't help using that corny title! The journaling is about how Chiara was growing in confidence at that point in her life, so the title did double duty.

I used some Hot Off the Press stamps (that I seem to recall were another prize, I know, I've been so lucky in drawings and challenges!) to add part of the title to a handcut banner, to fit the Scrapbook Stamping class that was running over at Two Peas in January (to include stamping in your title and journaling). This is a year long class (February's is to add heat embossed images to a layout) and I'm already getting a lot more use out of my stamps than they have seen in like .... ummm .... forever!).

I loved these fun pics of Mia at a local park last year and, of course, the purple dress was another great match for the papers. I always get a bit 'blah' over journaling these park play photos, just how many times can you talk about having fun playing on the swings or whatever? So for this one I used the photos as a link to something that is very dear to Mia's heart and that is animals. She loves all animals, but has a special dream of having a horse, or pony, or donkey or dog! Like the title says ... Dream on!

These photos are from the same day as the Dream on layout. We don't always get the chance to go out much as a family (and even on this day, Josh didn't want to join us at the park - not fun enough for a fifteeen year old any more I guess) and especially last year as it seemed to be permanently raining! Mia is such a happy and loving little girl and she really is a joy to be with (well, mostly!).

These layered embellishments from Basic Grey are such fun, I thought off setting them was perfect for the cloud shape and it gave me more room for the title too. As you can see, I'm working my older stash a lot at the moment. These rub-ons are by Crate Paper and the paper flowers are years old and by Making Memories - I love them and happily bought a lot when they were on clearance.

xxx's
Suzanne

Scrapbook Manufacturers

2011-01-25T01:29:00.000Z

Just a quick note - if you come by my blog to access the list of scrapbook manufacturer websites and blogs, I have moved it from the sidebar onto it's own page - just click the link at the top of the page. I updated the list today, removing now defunct companies and adding in new ones, plus I checked all the links so there should be no broken ones now. A couple of the manufacturers have been taken over and now come under the banner of another company (eg K&Co and Martha Stewart are both found under the EK Success links).

With wanting to keep up with all the new release news and sneak peeks, the incessant scrolling down the sidebar wasn't doing my wrist many favours; having the link at the top is much easier!

January goodies and CT call at Owl Tree Studio

2011-01-24T11:35:00.001Z

I had lots of fun working the with January releases over at Owl Tree Studio. I used a whole variety of the product which you can get for the fabulous price of just $7.95 a month if you become a subscribed member. You could, of course, just get the things individually as they become available in the shop, but the membership price is a great deal (check it out here to view all the kits, templates and other goodies that comprise the membership bundle for January).

Oh .... and if you are a digital scrapper/hybrid artist you must check out the CT call Tiffany has at the moment. She is looking for people to join a variety of the sub-teams working with these great products. The blog post with all the details is here.

New Beginnings and fancy word overlays by Torta Gialla

Talk to Me, Month Ribbon and border mask by Simply Kelly Designs
Font Pea Valerie

Talk to Me by Simply Kelly Designs

Journaling font Smiley Monster

DejaVu by Wild Blueberry Ink
New Beginnings by Torta Gialla (staples)
Font Pea Valerie

New Beginnings by Torta Gialla

Deja Vu by Wild Blueberry Ink
Border Masks by Simply Kelly Designs
Fonts Sylfaen, Fontmoochers
Based on P365 template 1 by Wild Blueberry Ink

And, yes, I've managed to keep to my resolution so far!

Shock! A blog post!

2011-01-20T13:50:00.003Z

Yes. Really. It's been a long time since I last posted, I know. Not that I've not been busy creating. In fact I've done lots. I've just been a bad blogger.

Christmas and New Year went without a hitch. The snow was a bind (the kids got fed up after just a couple of sessions playing in it - they didn't like getting that cold!) but I took lots of pictures, some of them even quite good!

I'm going to start sharing stuff again on a more regular basis. Starting with stuff now and then going back and adding more from the past couple of months.

Firstly a shout out that the A Trip Down Memory Lane gallery for January is up and available for viewing here. We used a variety of lines from October Afternoon. Loved working with those bright, fun colours and patterns.

Also, I had a class up online over there for December, mixing up products a bit rather than relying on everything from one line. This is my page (look at those eyes, bless!) and you can access the pdf here.

This week I've made a big effort to get some of those layouts from the unfinished pile out, finished and put into albums. Well, they're not into albums just yet but all but two of the ten have had the finishing touches and journaling added. Mostly from classes (the last UKS cybercrop and the ATDML retreat) - I'll get them photographed and uploaded another day with details.

I've also done three pages from scratch for various manufacturer blog challenges. All were sketch challenges and here are my takes on them.

Bo Bunny

I used the Love Bandit line that I recently bought (a bit behind the times, I know, but it's only just appeared on the stall I visit when I'm in Derby), plus a couple of bits from the Persuasion line. How cute are those little creatures? Such fun and happy papers, perfect for scrapping my two girls having fun together in the garden.

I've added red Stickles to lots of the red hearts and also dotted some crystal gems and hearts around the page too. The one journal block was cut out and made double duty - as a base for both the title and journaling. As you can see I was pretty faithful to the sketch, except I used the lines of the trees in lieu of patterned paper strips down the left hand side and used different sized photos.

Little Yellow Bicycle

I usually struggle with blocked style pages (I'm not too hot getting everything the same size and aligned neatly) so this is a bit different to me. This Zinnia range was perfect for the photos, as you can see.

The embellishments in this range were beautiful. I used a variety of rub-ons and chipboard - the butterflies are using the same punch as was used in the project created by Chiara in the photos. Some of the smaller butterflies and journaling strips were from cardstock sprayed Radiant Rain.

And the banner is made using some transparent acrylic embellishments - a couple of flowers cut in half and a heart (which I mounted onto white cardstock to enhance the colours of it). Look at the glitter, gorgeous!

My Mind's Eye

A fabulous sketch from Anam, love the use of the different shapes. I used a selection of papers and other goodies from the Lost and Found series. I wouldn't have naturally thought to use them with Winter pages, but that was the theme, so I worked it in there. I'm really happy with how well it worked too, helped greatly by the snowflakes, tinsel trim and all the glistening glitter and bling.

I love this huge snowflake die (by Sizzix, bought secondhand from a friend just before Christmas - great purchase as I used it LOTS for Christmas cards, tags and ornaments - thanks Katie!). I also bought a new border punch - that heart lace one from Martha Stewart - with my Christmas money. I was gutted that my Fiskars Apron Lace punch broke (as in the metal die part actually cracked all the way through). Advised Fiskars who wrote back saying that it wasn't guaranteed for cutting through Bazzill so, basically, tough. Hmmm. Anyhow ...

I used lots of layering, distressing, stitching and distress inks on this page. Time consuming but I love how it turned out so it was well worth all the effort.

Oh and finally My Mind's Eye put a card sketch up too

I found it with perfect timing as I needed to make my Mum a birthday card last week. Again, more of the Lost and Found ranges and the hearts border punch. The stamp is by Papertrey Ink (another secondhand purchase - thanks Debbie, love them!).

Thanks if you made it to the end!

xxx's

My Mind's Eye gorgeousness

2010-09-05T17:39:00.000+01:00

My take on the sketch over at Creative Scrappers this week is full of an array of My Mind's Eye gorgeousness. Here I have to say a HUGE thanks to Amber and the customer service team over at MME for their 'wow I'm speechless' generosity. I had a problem with a product I bought a while back that I only recently opened and they sent me some of the new release goodies to compensate. It is all delicious. Truly. Full of beautiful embellishments and lots of beautiful blinging glitter. It's really hard to tell from the layout photo so I have included a close up shot so you can see that background cardstock. And the die cuts. All glittered. It's seriously stunning in real life.

Anyhow, this is the sketch. Please, please, please check out what the rest of the team did with this sketch. I think it's pretty well the best all round reveal I've seen anywhere for a long while.

And my page (I flipped the sketch and substituted the star with a heart)

Credits:
Pretty well everything My Mind's Eye
with a few extra brads, buttons and a bit of string
The digital frame I used for the photos is from Owl Tree Studio.

And look at all the glitter and beautiful dimensional embellishments.

Yumminess at Owl Tree Studio

2010-09-02T11:12:00.001+01:00

I've been playing with the new digital kits available for September at Owl Street Studio. Six this month plus bonuses. I was especially thrilled that so many of them worked great for boy pages. I've done seven pages so far and I'm certain to be using them more. Nip on over to check out the kit previews (oh and yes, you will have read that right, only $9.95 for everything!).

DIY Embellishments

2010-08-26T01:03:00.000+01:00

Meant to mention before, I've done a tutorial over at It's A Creative World on creating little puffy embellishments for your scrapbooks, cards and other papercrafting projects.

All instructions and pics of the finished embellies can be found here.

Not an art lover

2010-08-23T12:39:00.000+01:00

That's Josh! This photo is from one of the few times we had a painting session at home. And once he got to Playgroup, forget it! He never bought any pictures back, he hated cutting, sticking, painting, drawing, all of it. I remember getting so excited the one time he did bring a picture home, only to find out that the assistant had done it under his instruction as what colours to use! And he still feels the same way now he is a teen.

This page is for the Creative Scrappers sketch #118 which was revealed yesterday. Please go and check out what everyone else on the design team did, they created such fabulous pages.

Product used:

Papers, die cuts, chipboard, Cosmo Cricket
Star die cuts (from felt) Sizzix
Rub-on alpha Making Memories
Black pen Sharpie
Misc buttons, brads, paint

And this is the sketch. If you play along, please don't forget to add your link to Mr Linky over at the Creative Scrappers blog to be in with a chance to win the monthly prize.

Creative Scrappers toot and Basic Grey goodies :)

2010-08-19T22:28:00.001+01:00

I made the sketch team, I'm so thrilled to be continuing with this inspirational site! There is also a call out for the next design team - give it a go, the sketches are all fabulous to work with and Kristine welcomes a whole range of scrapbooking styles!

Whilst I'm here I'll share a few of the projects I did for A Trip Down Memory Lane for July. These four projects use the Max and Whiskers range from Basic Grey. Some really cute stuff in this range, seriously!

This first one is a very old picture of Josh on a visit to Whitepost Farm. He loved the small animal and bird handling sessions. I can't get him interested in going any more (he's 15 now) but at least my daughters still love to visit there.

Another older photo. The cats used to absolutely love going to sleep in the 'comfy' double pushchair which was kept up in the conservatory ready for walks in the village (the fold up double buggy was kept in the car all the time). They are British Blue Shorthair cats, hence the play on words for the title.

I had this plain wooden box from IKEA for YEARS! That long I can't remember buying it! Anyhow, I painted it with a dusky blue paint and added distress inks for an even more muted look. It's a great little container for keeping together the fish food and drops next to the tank - and saves the bottles getting knocked off the table when the cats jump up to watch their very own 'cat tv'.

Lastly this card. I have to admit that it hurt sending this card - only because I loved it so much, not because of who it was sent to - it was sent to one of the teachers at the end of year. I absolutely adore that bunny die cut.

Next shares will be more digital scrapbooking as well as the next reveal over at Creative Scrappers.

More from my scrapping frenzy

2010-08-13T01:14:00.000+01:00

from a couple of weeks ago! I've been so busy that sharing these projects fell by the wayside.

This first one is based on sketch #115 at Creative Scrappers

Though, as you can see, I flipped the sketch and extended the title somewhat (LOL!).

Product used:

Patterned papers - Making Memories, Little Yellow Bicycle
Stickers/die cuts - Little Yellow Bicycle
Flower trim - Webster's Pages
Flowers - Prima
Alphabets - Adornit, My Little Shoebox, Scrapworks, American Crafts

Oh and lots of pretty pearliness.

Next up is a page which records the special friendship between my youngest daughter and my husband's closest and oldest friend.

Products used:

Patterned papers - Scenic Route, Chatterbox
Acrylic heart - Heidi Grace
Scalloped Edge cardstock - Bazzill
Phrase sticker - Chatterbox
Chipboard frame - Maya Road
Phrase stamp - Art Warehouse
Dymo, paint, stickles

I painted the frame white and then liberally applied frosted lace Stickles over the top.

Finally a trio of cards using the Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday range. I love the sheet of 'cards' they are just perfect for cutting up and adding a super easy but pretty element to cards. The sentiment on the first one is a Hero Arts stamp

Sending you smiles and wishing you all an especially happy day (after all it IS Friday!).

Just a quickie to let you know ...

2010-08-11T18:04:00.000+01:00

that the Owl Tree Studio gallery and forum are up and running! Please pop on over, join in our discussions and start uploading your layouts created with Owl Tree Studio products. We’re going to be randomly giving away some one month memberships and other goodies to participants and I would love for you to be one of the winners!

Also, in celebration of putting the last piece of the site puzzle into place, Tiffany has extended the fabulous $7.95 promotional membership pricing until August 15th. If you didn’t get a chance to sign up last week, go ahead and sign up today!

2010-08-10T05:30:00.001+01:00

The August gallery over at A Trip Down Memory Lane went live a couple of days ago. We had yummy new papers and stickers from Echo Park to play with. Such a fun range!

Here are sneak peeks of some of my pages - I did four layouts altogether - just click on the previous link to go and see them (and the gorgeousness by the other DT members) up close and personal :)

They also have LOTS AND LOTS of yummy new goodies now in stock. I adore the 7Gypsies rubbings (rub-ons in other words), they are such beautiful designs and they actually DO rub-on and so easily too (even the very old ones I have in my stash).

I have my eyes on this set in particular.

And what about the Conservatory collection? I'm still loving butterflies in my scrapbooking so this one caught my eye straight away but, really, all the papers in this range are particularly beautiful and perfect for using on altered projects especially.

And some new stamp sets from Autumn Leaves. Loving this Silhouette Blossom set.

All the new products (this is only a taster) can be found in their New Products section (unsurprisingly!).

Thank you :)

2010-08-09T12:42:00.000+01:00

To everyone everywhere for their heartwarming birthday messages yesterday.

Made a snap decision when I collected Josh from swimming to go to the pics, so me and him went to see Inception (was going to be the A Team but I couldn't be bothered to wait until 9.15!). Really enjoyed it, one of those 'huh?!' films but an enjoyable action film which made you think and gave us lots to talk about in the car on the way home.

Yesterday the Creative Scrappers sketch #116 went live, another fabby sketch.

Which I turned upside down cos it suited my photos better doing that.

Products used:

Patterned papers - Fancy Pants, Scenic Route, Sassafrass
Stickers - Sassafrass, 7Gypsies
Alphas - Doodlebug, Adornit
Fabric brad - Little Yellow Bicycle

Remember, if you join along with any of the sketches for the month, add your links to the blog and be in for a chance to win a prize. Have fun :)

Happy Birthday to me!

2010-08-08T10:39:00.001+01:00

Forty*something* today. Parents and inlaws coming around for Sunday dinner so off to make house presentable and cook roast chicken and all the stuff that goes with it.

Had a lovely day at crop yesterday and managed to complete three layouts and start a fourth. Will share later when photos taken.

Hope you all have a lovely Sunday :)

Feeling Good!

2010-08-07T09:15:00.008+01:00

I just fancied a quick play with digi again - I'm off to crop tomorrow and so will be playing with paper and glue then (oh and eating cake .... done a huge batch of baking today for taking cake to crop tomorrow, to keep my 'promise' from the school auction, for keeping here ready for Sunday - my birthday! - and some plain buns to go into a trifle for tea on Sunday). Just had a piece of the choccie cake ... divine even if I say so myself! (love my old Be-Ro recipe book).

This kit is sooooooooo cute! (yes, worthy of that many o's). It's the Feelin' Good kit by Girl Boy Girl Designs (with a couple of papers borrowed from the Life's a Beach freebie kit and Casa Mia kit) and is available exclusively to members over at Owl Tree Studio.

Fonts used are CKbedrock (title) and CKbuddies (journaling) and the tabbed journal clipping masks are by my own fair hand.

In case you haven't heard (maybe because you've been on an exotic vacation without internet or maybe you've been away from digi-land), Owl Tree Studio is officially open. In case you haven't heard enough from me about how much I am loving their products, here’s an official summary of what you’re guaranteed to get each month as an inside member:

1 Mega Collaboration Kit
3 Individually Created Designer Kits
3 Designer Bonus Items (examples include frame packs, brush sets, Alpha packs, etc)
16+ quick pages created by our creative team
2 project tutorials that walk you through the process of using our digital goodies for tangible crafts
Unannounced goodies throughout the month, including page templates

Check out the full August reveal to look at August’s products.

Starting in September, Owl Tree Studio be featuring a new guest designer every month and you’ll receive an extra individual kit AND an extra designer bonus each month. Exciting!

It may sound a little sensationalist, but for the money, there is no better value on digital design available online. Not only are the Owl Tree Studio designers incredibly talented and responsive to inside members, their products go through rigorous quality control testing to ensure that the products you receive each month are ready to be turned into beautiful layouts and art for printing. There are absolutely no strays or jaggies in their products (I would know, since I've seen all of them).

Their monthly product line is full of digital goodies you won’t want to miss out on. All of the Owl Tree Studio products are ONLY available through Owl Tree Studio and are only available for a one month period of time. If you see a kit you like, you’ll have to be a member of Owl Tree Studio during the month it is featured to add it to your stash.

The regular monthly membership rate is $9.95. However, if you ; sign up by the end of this week (August 8th), you’ll lock in the charter rate of $7.95 per month and your monthly subscription is guaranteed to never go up, even if the pricing does. Plus, because you're getting in so early, you'll also get the chance to give your input on future kits. It feels amazing to receive products that are created around your requests and needs.

What are you waiting for? ; Sign up now and join me inside the Owl Tree Studio members' area!

Inspiration at It's a Creative World

2010-08-06T03:11:00.001+01:00

I have been lucky enough to be asked to guest design over at the wonderful inspiration blog It's a Creative World over the Summer period. If you aren't familiar with the site, the talented ladies provide all sorts of home making and crafty inspiration, from baking to sewing, embroidery, altered art, gardening and more!

My second post went live yesterday, all about creating with digital collage stamps.

My first post looked at using premade digital templates to print out shaped photo collages.

Hmmm. There seems to be a theme here doesn't there? Bit strange for someone like me who considers themselves a technophobe. Well, if I can figure these things out then, rest assured, anyone can!

Another scrapping frenzy

2010-08-04T12:30:00.001+01:00

Paper scrapping this time. Spent the last couple of days scrapping up a storm for challenges over at Two Peas in a Bucket CHA Social event.

And without boring you with any more waffle, here's all the stuff I did! Erm, actually, I think I will split the share over a couple of day's worth of posts because there is quite a lot!

For the altered project challenge, I decorated another Maya Road container. This time it's for Chiara to fill with photos and messages and stuff for her friend who will be going to a different high school.

Products used:
All Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday papers and chipboard
Fiskars Apron Lace punch
Ribbon, twine, gems, button

This was for the challenge to be inspired by a project in your faves folder. I chose this page by findingnana. And what a mess I made originally. I had the bright idea to add the stamped journal block directly to the page. At the first attempt the image didn't come out cleanly, so I went to overstamp it and dropped the stamp onto the page! I had to take it all apart and build the whole page up again. At least the end result was worth it!

Products used

Patterned papers - Making Memories, My Mind's Eye, Little Yellow Bicycle
Die cuts - My Mind's Eye
Stamp - Autumn Leaves
Punch - Fiskars
Stickers - 7Gypsies
Alphabets - American Crafts and, erm, other!
Button, pearls and brush marker

I always wanted a sister myself so I am excited for the girls - not only for the bond and fun they share now, but for all the things they can enjoy being to each other and doing together in the future.

All the smaller hearts were cut out of a piece of patterned paper from the Sweet Love range by Little Yellow Bicycle. Gorgeous papers, all with a wonderful shimmery finish to them.

This next was for the challenge to scrap a family relationship. Again I chose the two girls. I know, but I have SO many wonderful photos of them, plus I was in the mood for lots of pretty papers.

Products Used

Patterned papers and felt die cut - Fancy Pants
Flowers, metal tab, journal spot, word tags - Making Memories
Epoxy love sticker - Creative Imaginations
Crystals - Prima, Basic Grey
Chipboard frame - K&Co
Chipboard letters - American Crafts
Sticker label - Jenni Bowlin
Clear phrase sticker - Cloud 9

LOTS and lots of old stash being used up here!

Final share for today was for the be inspired by a garden girl project. I chose this page by Shannon Tidwell. Honestly! I flipped the design and added my own spin to it, but I loved the blocked design, the bracket shape and use of scalloped edges.

Products used

Patterned Papers - My Mind's Eye, Making Memories
Alphabets - Adornit, American Crafts, Scrapworks
And lots of flowers, buttons, brads and bling!

This page also meets the challenge over at How Much is Too Much - I check this blog out a lot because I love the inspiration but I am not good at sticking to the numbers usually. This time I managed it!

I did struggle with the two ribbons I have to admit ... just squeezed a tiny bit of the second ribbon on the focal flower look!

Owl Tree Studio now open!

2010-08-03T15:47:00.002+01:00

Owl Tree Studio opened it's doors for business yesterday. It's a digital scrapbooking kit club and I just noticed that they have got an opening offer on the monthly membership - just $7.95 - that is good for as long as you remain a member. What a fabulous deal! Check out the blog for more details.

As I mentioned before, I've been lucky enough to join the Creative Team there and I just wanted to share a couple of pages I have created using the August membership products.

Now I'm working on some 'just for fun' paper scrapbook layouts which I will share in the next day or so.

Credits -

Casa Mia kit by Lina Tieu (I recoloured and removed the lines from the scalloped circle journal labels) and separated out the word 'sweet' from the 'home sweet home' title.

Neutral frames by Girl Boy Girl Designs.

Everyday Words by Wild Blueberry Ink.

Credits - Casa Mia kit by Lina Tieu (again I recoloured the scalloped circle journaling labels). I also isolated one of the hearts from the pink hearts paper and used the cookie cutter tool to create a small heart/circle embellishment.

Everyday Words by Wild Blueberry Ink. I recoloured the word strips and isolated the 'together' from the 'always together' phrase.

Credits -

This third page was created using the August Collab kit. Love the bold, vibrant colours and fun elements and that frame is so useful!

This is the page that I created the quick page from too.

Check out the August product reveal to see what $7.95 will get you ... though there are also going to be so many more bonuses throughout the month such as tips and tricks, more elements, inspiration and craft projects too.

Digi Scrapping frenzy

2010-08-01T01:19:00.002+01:00

Working on my digi skills, figuring out how to make quick pages, templates, clipping masks and so on. Have had lots of fun playing :)

I took part in the portfolio challenges over at Sweet Shoppe Designs in July, some of my creations are below:

All are made with products from Sweet Shoppe Design (various) and Owl Tree Studio (Life's a Beach freebie).

Also finished my pages for the A Trip Down Memory Lane August gallery which will be going live in a week or so. Lovely, bright papers from Echo Park - great fun to work with!

Woo hoo me - at Owl Tree Studio!

2010-07-30T12:38:00.002+01:00

After picking myself up off the floor and working on the fabulous kits provided, I can now breathe deeply and sit and blog about a wonderful new site for digital scrappers and a wonderful new opportunity for me! Owl Tree Studio, is a new digital scrapbook kit club and I have been chosen to be on the Creative Team! I am so excited and huge thanks to Tiffany for choosing me.

For starters, there is a beautifully bright, breezy and refreshing FREEBIE KIT available at the Owl Tree Studio blog, all you have to do is sign up for the newsletter. And there is a wonderful alpha to match also available at Jen Balding's blog.

Here is my layout (including a couple of elements from the kits available to August subscribers).

The design team has put together an incredible August lineup (while you check it out on Facebook, go ahead and like OTS so you stay up to date on all things OTS and important) and the creative team has put together some incredible quick pages, blog posts, scrap challenges and page templates for you to enjoy.

As we get closer to opening day, the Owl Tree Studio crew wants to give you an opportunity to try them out for FREE.

That’s right...F-R-E-E!

On Sunday, August 1st, 2010 Owl Tree Studio plus each of the three resident designers will be giving away free memberships to Owl Tree Studio. You can enter to win as many times as you want between now and July 31st, 2010 at 10am (EST). Everyone’s contest rules are different, so you’ll have to visit each designers’ blog to find out exactly what you have to do to enter their portion of the giveaway.

Enter to win a free membership from the official Owl Tree Studio blog by:

Following OTS on Facebook - 1 Facebook follower will win a free 1 month membership

Follow OTS on Twitter and ReTweet:

"Follow @OwlTreeStudio & RT this for a chance to win a free month of great digital scrapbooking goodies http://bit.ly/aib6cA #digiscrap"

- 1 Twitter follower will win a free 1 month membership

Join the mailing list (and get a free beach themed digi kit) - 2 mailing list subscribers will each win a free 3 month membership

Sometimes, the studio owls get a little over excited and rumor has it one commenter on the Owl Tree Studio blog contest post might win a 1 month membership as well.

Follow OTS on Facebook; and Twitter AND join our mailing list for the biggest chance of winning, then visit the incredible designers’ blogs to pick up more chances to win through the designer contests!

[Fine print: Winners will be selected using Random.org. You can only win one time. If you win, you will have to sign up as a paying member to continue accessing the OTS members’ area AFTER your free membership period ends].

Creative Scrappers yummy sketch #114

2010-07-26T11:37:00.001+01:00

You have got to give this one a go, it's one of my faves so far, the page came together so quickly! Remember to link your creations to the Creative Scrappers blog to be in with a chance of winning the monthly prize.

I added in an extra photo, but other than that, I've used the sketch as is. Why change something great?

Products:

All items American Crafts with the exception of:

Paper flower and paint - Making Memories

Quote sticker - 7Gypsies

Stick on pearls - Papermania

Up, Up and Away

2010-07-14T05:56:00.000+01:00

Just down the road from us is a field where lots of hot air balloons take off over the Summer. It's a great sight (even though we're pretty blase about it after so many years). However, some times, when they don't quite catch the thermals, things can get pretty hairy with them barely skimming the trees in the garden or even the roof of our house.

There are all sorts of brightly coloured and patterned balloons so I thought I would create a fun page to match.

All credits Libby Weifenbach at Sweet Shoppe Designs

Paper Clips: Stitched Frame Templates

Desmond and Molly Jones kit

Flip Flop Tan mini kit

Pork Chops and Apple Sauce kit

Sweet and Sassy

2010-07-11T12:00:00.001+01:00

That's Chiara! Growing up SO fast, she just had her two orientation days at high school last week and totally loved it! I'm really pleased. Mia is going to be such a lost little soul at primary school though.

Sketch #112 is now up over at Creative Scrappers. Loved it! Again my interpretation very literal. Very hard to see from the photo, but the background cardstock is a blinging Ivory and the SEI patterned papers are foiled/shimmery too. Very pretty and girly.

Patterned Paper - SEI, Making Memories, Prima
Cardstock - Gemstones
Chipboard - SEI
Alphabet - American Crafts
Stitching template - Bazzill

Sunshine Days

2010-07-10T22:21:00.000+01:00

It must surely have been the hottest day of the year so far, though thankfully for the village carnival, the clouds helped make the afternoon out on the field more bearable for everyone. Well everyone that went (eg all the family except myself). I was on taxi duty taking my mum to Derby train station so she can go off on another little jaunt (this time to Leeds). Five minutes onto the bypass and we came to a standstill. For an hour. First train missed and only got there with minutes to spare for the one an hour later. Excrutiatingly hot in the car. Even so we were grateful to be in the traffic jam rather than be the cause of it.

Rabbits got out of the run again today (did I mention the fun we had the other night in the dark trying to find them after they got out?) This time Mia opened it up to stroke them and, quick as a flash, they hopped their way out again. Luckily Len managed to get them back pretty quickly.

I've played with the Libby Weifenbach digital goodies again today. Some photos of Mia enjoying the pool on one of the hot days we have ~~endured~~ enjoyed so far this year.

All credits Libby Weifenbach

Flip Flop Tan Mini

Love Shack Alpha

Paper Clips Cluster Templates

Paper Clips Stitched Frame Templates

Paper Clips Strip Templates

Digi Delights

2010-07-10T02:51:00.001+01:00

Kristine Davidson over at Creative Scrappers gave a shout out to the team to find out who wanted to play with some digi yumminess by Libby Weifenbach. Now I have dabbled with digi in the past and have to say that I should do more of it - I love that I can be creative without either having to (a) tidy up my mess of a desk following a paper crafting session or (b) get my nice clean desk all messy again after I have spent ages tidying up after a paper crafting session! Yep, love paper crafting, tidying is another matter!

Anyhow, I digress ... Libby's stuff is found over at Sweet Shoppe Designs (already in my digi faves folder). I originally chose just a couple of kits to play with, but after contemplating, perusing and contemplating some more, I added some other goodies into the mix, including lots of different clipping templates. As a not too experienced digi scrapper these are hugely helpful in creating fun pages by giving a quick and easy way to add shapes and layers to your projects.

All credits Libby Weifenbach

Desmond and Molly Jones kit

Paper clips cluster templates

Paper clips circle templates 2.0

It's past bedtime now, but I can't wait to get back and play with some more of the goodies I got.

Basic Grey Bonanza

2010-07-08T23:36:00.000+01:00

The DT gallery for July is now up over at A Trip Down Memory Lane. I played with products from both the Cappella and Max & Whiskers ranges this month. This is a couple of close ups ... to see all four layouts, one card and altered item I created, as well as all the other lovely DT creations, visit the gallery here (remember to click on both pages).

Summer Lovin'

2010-07-03T11:50:00.001+01:00

Keeping in with the sunshiney weather we are lucky to be experiencing here in the UK (okay, fingers crossed I haven't just jinxed it), I am sharing a couple of pages I created for A Trip Down Memory Lane gallery in May, these two are using the beautiful Rusted Sun collection by Fancy Pants.

For this first one, I cut apart the glitter transparency title and used it across both sides of the main photo - this not only frames the focal photo but also adds movement across the page. I doodled scalloped edges on the background cardstock and cut around for an extra whimsical touch.

Patterned paper - Fancy Pants
Glittered transparency - Fancy Pants
Cardstock - Bazzill
Chipboard alphabet - American Crafts
Pen - American Crafts
Stamps - Art Warehouse (circle sentiment), journal block unknown
Stamping Ink - Stazon
Other - stick on pearls
Font - Fineliner script

I stamped a circle sentiment to frame the 'a' section of the title to add interest and cover up unwanted white space in the photo.

This next page is a simple design but with lots of added layered embellishments for interest. I stamped the bracket shaped journal blocks direct onto the background cardstock by masking the areas around them and also each other. The oversized photo corners are created by cutting up a VERY old leather frame.

Patterned paper - Fancy Pants
Label Stickers - October Afternoon
Word Tickets - Tim Holtz
Letter Stickers - Adornit
Phrase Sticker and rub-on - K&Co
Leather scalloped frame - Making Memories
Stamping Ink - Stazon
Stamp - unknown
Border punch - Fiskars
Others - buttons and brads

I added interest to the centre of the sun by embellishing with buttons and brads (the large green concho framing the largest button is another very old embellishment, by Scrapworks).

I'm off now to take advantage of said sunshine by getting as much laundry as possible outside drying! Hope you have a much more fun day planned :)

My Little Shoebox projects

2010-06-29T13:30:00.001+01:00

Along with (zillions) of other hopefuls, I applied for the My Little Shoebox DT. And along with (almost zillions) of those hopefuls I was disappointed. Hey ho, nothing ventured and all that.

These are two of the projects I created for the submission.

The first is a cake tin I found at a ridiculously low price at Home Bargains (and am kicking myself for not buying up loads as they are just perfect for teacher pressies - a bit of decoration and add some muffins and it's good to go). Anyway, I digress. I created a layered scene inside the tin and added hanging bits above and below.

The scalloped circle was cut out using my Craft Robo, very handily the largest I was able to cut was just the perfect size for the tin!

I created 'blocks' of acetate by folding strips and attaching to the back of the different elements, each layer having blocks of different thicknesses.

Quite a few of the elements (birds wings, windows, hearts and so on) were highlighted with Glossy Accents too.

The second project is the card element of the submission.

I created a box fold style card with acetate aperture. Lots of cutting, layering and bling.

And the back is decorated too with space for the written message. (Sentiment stamp Hero Arts.)

Creative Scrappers

2010-06-28T19:44:00.004+01:00

Sketch 110 went live yesterday. Another wonderfully easy sketch to work with. And lots of more fabulous pages by the DT can be viewed over on the Creative Scrappers blog.

This is my interpretation. Can't really call it an interpretation to be honest. I'm rather literal when it comes to working with sketches - which is why a great sketch that doesn't need much tweaking is right up my street!

Some fun photos from an after school visit to the local River Gardens. The colours in the photo weren't great (black/white school uniform combined with green grass and blue and yellow play equipment) hence changing the photos to black and white. Not something I do too much of because I really like the reality of colour photos - well for the most part anyhow.

The page also works with the colour combo over at Color Combos Galore this week (148).
Patterned papers - My Little Yellow Bicycle, American Crafts
Alphabets - American Crafts, Doodlebug
Journaling spot - Maya Road
Butterflies - Papermania
Rub-ons and chipboard - My Little Yellow Bicycle
Inks - Ranger distress ink and archival ink
Die cuts - Nestabilities
Other - bling, buttons, brads

Lots of bling, brads and buttons. Yes I sewed them all on individually. Whilst watching the England/Slovenia match. Well, at least it wasn't a total waste of my time ;)

I used some more of the Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia range (I had pretty well everything sent to me as part of a prize package from Memory Makers magazine just before it ceased publication). I added some of the circle rub-ons to white cardstock, die cut them using Nestabilities dies and (along with everything else) applied a liberal helping of distress ink to the edges. The gorgeously intricate die cut butterflies are a vinyl material and by Papermania.

The proof is in the pudding

2010-06-16T14:44:00.004+01:00

For real and metaphorically.

Finished the pages I talked about yesterday. Two had previously been shared - one needed journalling in the little booklet and another needed the journalling block typed out and overlaid on the original one (I had photo'd it as it just began to rain and the ink got smudged).

These are the other four though. All started ages ago - at least a year - either on holiday or at crop.

A real mix of manufacturers on this one.
Patterned papers - Making Memories, Cloud 9, Sassafrass
Alphabet stickers - Little Yellow Bicycle, Adornit
Phrase sticker - 7Gypsies
Rub-ons - Doodlebug
Journal Block - Creative Imaginations
Scalloped edge scissors - Fiskars
Buttons and brads

The journal tags were created by using a font called CBX Tags (from a fonts cd collection). I used WordArt and created a fill and line in slightly different colours to give some interest to the labels. Printed and cut them out. If I had figured out print and cut on my Craft Robo I may have been able to make this task easier! The fonts are Cookie and Adorable Illusion.

This next one uses an absolutely gorgeous paper from Fancy Pants. I really struggled here, I find these full on pretty backgrounds quite hard to work with as I hate covering up the pattern! Instead I just added flowers and brads to it with some scraps of patterned papers around the photograph.

The Live Laugh Love die cut is attached to a strip of patterned paper using dimensional foam so it slots in and out to make the journaling easy to access, but the foam tape means that the die cut sits just at the level I want it to on the page.

Patterned papers - Fancy Pants, Making Memories
Die cuts - Fancy Pants, Pink Paislee
Word stickers - 7Gypsies
Flowers - Prima, Making Memories
Ink - Chestnut Roan chalk ink
Brads, pins and butterfly punch for detail

You can tell this next one was started an age ago - lots of dimensional paint dots which I used to do loads! A mish mash of wonderful Heidi Grace papers, stickers, chipboard and die cuts on here.

Patterned paper - Heidi Grace
Die cuts and word stickers - Heidi Grace
Flowers - Heidi Grace
Label sticker - Jenni Bowlin
Paper frill - Doodlebug
Crystals - Prima, Making Memories, Papermania
Die cut felt - Fancy Pants
Font - Barbie

The number 7 was cut out several times on my Craft Robo, layered and attached with foam pads, with added Stickles.

And finally a page using the wonderful Prima Indeed papers (again!, I just used this range last week for my Creative Scrappers sketch page - 'tis so gorgeous though). Poor Mia was so overwhelmed on her first day of school and only big sis Chiara could console her.

Patterned paper - Prima
Cardstock - Bazzill dotted swiss
Alphabets - American Crafts, Making Memories
Flowers - Prima

The large green scalloped circle was punched from some Prima packaging.

And these are the for real ...

Cakes made by Mia (just a little help from myself). We made double the normal sponge batch from the Be-Ro book and used some oversized cake cases to make these gorgeous butterfly buns - fresh cream no less too. There were 12 when made last night. There are now 4. I think we need to do more baking tonight!

On a mission ...

2010-06-15T10:50:00.004+01:00

Have got six layouts on my desk that just need finishing off - final touches, journaling, that sort of thing.

Determined to get them done this morning! And have blogged so I am comitted to it.

Be back later with pics :)

ETA four down, two to go. Yep, I know, I'm sloooooow!

Creative Scrappers

2010-06-13T12:16:00.004+01:00

My first creation as part of the Creative Scrappers Design Team is now up. It's a fabulous sketch to work with and I just LOVE all the wonderful pages the others in the DT have come up with. Here is the sketch:

This is my page

Lots and lots of Prima on here. It was so tempting to go with all purple, but I do love adding colour contrast to my pages and so went with the lovely bright green for the extended photo mat and butterflies instead.

I added a couple of strips of crumpled and twisted purple vellum underneath the tulle to add to the texture and dimension. And the tulle really IS white, must be something to do with using flash and getting shadows which shows it a dull grey colour :( I also sprinkled that all important fairy dust over it (aka Stickles) to give the page even more shimmer and shine.

It would be great to see you playing along - there is a prize available, so check out the blog

Couple of must sees ...

2010-06-09T11:05:00.005+01:00

Just a quick post as I am busy today ... but you got to visit both Creative Scrappers for the latest sketch #107, it's a fab sketch and ALL of the DT pages are so wonderfully inspiring!

Remember to complete at least one layout over at Creative Scrappers from sketches 106-110 inclusive to have a chance to win a prize from the monthly sponsor.

Also the DT gallery for June over at A Trip Down Memory Lane went live yesterday. We were all given a selection of Bella Blvd ranges and it's great to see the different and wonderful projects and pages which were put together by the team. Visit the gallery to check them all out - remember to click through on to each page - there are three pages in total. I did 5 layouts and 2 cards. I love the stickers and cut apart sheets - they really make embellishing and titling a page so very easy! Check out the shop for the Bella Blvd products. Even better, they have a sale on! Oh - another thing, check out the blog for more inspiration and a Scrapping Bingo prize challenge :)

Here's some sneaks of the pages I created:

More from Virtual Stamping Night

2010-06-07T13:59:00.004+01:00

These are the last few cards I created for Virtual Stamping Night over at Splitcoast Stampers last weekend. Time was of the essence, so these were definitely more simple. There was a time limit of 45 minutes per card anyhow.

This first one was for a challenge to dig out a very old, dusty and forgotten flower stamp.

Stamps - sentiment Hero Arts, flowers Penny Black
Inks - Memento, Promarkers
Patterned paper - Chatterbox
Other - Nestabilities die, Fiskars apron lace punch, pearls

Stamps - Hero Arts
Inks - Versamark, Memento, Distress inks
Patterned paper - Basic Grey die cuts from card making kit, including chipboard butterfly
Other - clear embossing powder

This next card was for a challenge to create a baby shower card and matching decorated envelope. Massive search through stamps - almost complete lack of any baby themed ones at all with the exception of a small pack of Studio G stamps, so I resorted to these oh so cute papers from the Little Sprout range from Fancy Pants.

Stamps - Hero Arts, Studio G
Inks - Versamark, Stampin' Up, Distress inks
Patterned paper - Fancy Pants
Other - clear embossing powder, Making Memories dyed tags, Fiskars apron lace punch, Nestabilities dies, buttons, twine

This was the very last card I squeezed in before the deadline. So ultra simple.

Stamps - Hero Arts
Inks - Memento
Patterned paper - Basic Grey
Other - Nestabilities, Prima flowers, pearls

Virtual Stamping Night

2010-05-31T21:26:00.014+01:00

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

2010-05-27T16:17:00.007+01:00

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

2010-05-26T15:15:00.008+01:00

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

2010-05-25T14:14:00.003+01:00

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

2010-05-21T19:32:00.007+01:00

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 :)

2010-05-21T13:19:00.009+01:00

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

2010-05-14T18:42:00.006+01:00

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

2010-05-14T10:42:00.004+01:00

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!

2010-05-10T17:05:00.006+01:00

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

2010-05-05T22:44:00.004+01:00

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!

2010-05-03T17:42:00.007+01:00

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!

2010-05-03T09:06:00.003+01:00

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 :)

2010-05-02T20:16:00.005+01:00

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

2010-05-02T17:12:00.004+01:00

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

2010-05-01T10:21:00.007+01:00

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.

Exhall-erating!

2010-04-28T21:32:00.007+01:00

Oh my! Talk about a dreadful pun!

Big thanks to Claire and Tracie for inviting me along to the Exhall (Coventry) crop. I had a really great welcome from everyone there - and I am telling myself it wasn't ALL due to the provision of chocolate cake!

The two layouts (and bonus card) I taught featured bold and fun patterned papers from the Crate Paper Seasons collection.

Flowers from the Same Garden was a bit fiddly and time consuming, but fun too! Playing with mists (simply sprayed the background) and cutting out the bold flowered patterned paper to create photo frames.

The larger one is embellished with bobble trim sewn around for added detail and dimension.

Lucky Bunny was a bit easier and focussed on using shapes and embellishing using a variety of textures, including die cut felt, embossed acetate and shrink plastic coloured with alcohol inks. The journal block was created by drawing around a Nestabilities label, adding loops to the points, cutting out and double doodling for a whimsical effect.

The kit was generous enough to leave plenty for a bonus card project. The centre of the flower was created by covering a circle of cardstock with double sided tape, stitching the end of a 12" piece of ribbon to the centre, twisting, sticking and stitching into place in a spiral shape. Easy and effective, perfect combination really!

Such excitement ... off to crop tomorrow!

2010-04-23T10:15:00.005+01:00

It has been MONTHS since I have gone to crop anywhere. Quite a while ago I was asked to teach at the Exhall Coventry crop and the date has finally come around.

I've nicked the sneak peek collage put together by Claire (Weetabix on UKS) - the kit has been sponsored by Sarah's Cards and is the wonderfully bold and vibrant Seasons range from Crate Paper.

I'm teaching two layouts and have done a bonus card with the left-overs. Special thanks go to A Trip Down Memory Lane and Sir Stampalot too for getting extra bits to me in time for the weekend.

I'm really excited about meeting the people down there (and a little bit nervous too, but that's a good thing, right?) Am hoping the lure of my special chocolate cake will soften them up nicely :) Saying that, off to do the baking right now.

For the love of cards

2010-04-22T21:48:00.007+01:00

I do make them, you know, sometimes. Usually I get a blood rush to the head and do a lot (usually when it's the 2peas challenge week), but mainly I'm a 'make 'em when they're needed' kind of card maker.

This pretty, girly card, was for Mia's birthday. The image is from Wild Rose Studio. It's packaged as a Christmas stamp, but some pretty colours and bling to cover the snowflakes and it's just purrfect (sorry!) for a girly girl birthday. I coloured the cat grey to match the balls of fluff we have at home.

Patterned papers are predominantly Making Memories (I absolutely adored the Noteworthy range and have quite a few papers from that stockpiled) and look, that purple paper is some VERY old Chatterbox. So very pretty. I absolutely adored that range and, yes, there is quite a bit of that in my stash too!

I used Nestabilities (scalloped and plain rectangle), Fiskars Apron Lace punch, Sizzix flower die (cut out a felt flower) and a circle punch (to create the shrink plastic button stamped with Love words). The sentiment is from a beautiful set from Hero Arts and the image is coloured with Distress Inks. I need more practice, but I do like the water colour effect of working with these.

I've discovered a wonderful site, The Daily Dare, which lists LOTS of challenges (just perfect for kick starting the crafting gears) and this card happens to meet quite a few this week:

ABC Challenge - S is for Sparkle
All That Scraps - Sewing
Creative Belli Blog - Die cut shapes CBC89
Fab 'n' Funky - Get it all out (neglected stash!)
A Spoon full of Sugar - birthday
Creative Card Crew - birthday
Scrap Creations - 3 different embellishments
The Crafty Pad - stitching
Allsorts - stitching
Split Coast Stampers Ways to Use it Challenge WT267 - Mixing patterns

And now ... digital delights

2010-04-18T17:25:00.007+01:00

I'm a dreadful procrastinator. Always have been. With life stuff as well as scrapping. Those last minute 'nerves' always seem to get me fired up though.

It was Mia's 9th birthday last week. She had been so excited (even more so because she was getting some long awaited bunnies for her birthday).

We had a lovely little party planned, just my two girls and four of Mia's friends. Off bowling followed by McDonalds, ice-cream, jelly and cake at home followed by a treasure hunt in the garden.

The year Mia was born it was Easter weekend on her birth day, so even though the dates for Easter do change year to year, we usually celebrate with an Easter themed party for Mia. It's great to just buy an Easter egg for the party 'bags'. And, of course, the egg hunt always goes down a treat!

Anyhow, back to the procrastinating ... as ever I had left it to the last minute to get things ready. To speed the process up a bit, I decided to 'do digi' and, to honour the arrival of Mia's own little Easter Bunnies, I trawled the net and found a wonderful digital kit called Honey Bunny by Dani Mogstad at Sweet Shoppe Designs. I used this super cute kit to design and decorate the party/treasure hunt bags, prize tickets and cake boxes.

The cake boxes were made from a variety of patterned papers and cut using a great design, made bigger to fit the bigger wodge of chocolatey birthday cake, from a free template by Marie H over at UK Scrappers (if you have a need for GSD files and you aren't already registered with the Craft Robo template section over at UK Scrappers, it is well worth the effort as there are some fabulously talented people who share their goodies and knowledge there).

Some of the prizes didn't fit into the eggs, so I made tickets to fold and put in them instead. And Mia won a large Easter egg at the Easter fair a couple of weeks ago. Since she doesn't eat chocolate, she offered it up as a special prize at her party. She had a tub of Pringles in lieu :)

And finally, a picture of Mia blowing out the candles on her birthday cake (based on the one I made last year which she specially requested again this year).

For years I have cheated and bought novelty chocolate shapes from Thorntons to decorate the birthday cakes and also they will ice the little plaques with your own message too. Easy peasy! And that chocolate cake recipe is just wonderful. Also easy peasy. And easy peasy to make gluten free too!

Stamping delights

2010-03-25T18:09:00.006Z

Managed a quick (okay, not so quick, no crafting I do is quick) card today before spending the day out and about with Mum (garden centre, coffee shop, Sainsbury's, the excitement of my life is overwhelming).

This card features Hero Arts stamps:
Dots and flowers background stamped and embossed in white, distressed with Vintage Photo distress ink.
Antique brocade cling stamped with distress ink and butterflies punched out.
Panel background created with distress inks (broken china, peeled paint, shabby shutters).

Botanical Tulip digital download (Hero Arts at Two Peas in a Bucket) coloured with markers and triple embossed with UTEE.
Sentiment from the Thoughtful Messages clear design set, mounted on oval punchies (Stampin' Up).
And, of course, the faithful Fiskars Apron Lace punch.

At the garden centre I bought a new Sizzix embossing folders set - I had only been admiring that large embossed background on a card in an online gallery this morning before going out!

At Sainsbury's my mum bought me some yellow tulips (just one of THE perfect spring flowers) and a fruity/creamy/meringue from the bakery section (well she bought herself two fruit tartlets and they had a buy two get third free offer on the cake counter hence my good fortune). It's sat hidden in a box in the fridge ready for when I get the munchies later on tonight.

Have just cooked chicken nuggets (homemade you know!) chips, peas and sweetcorns for the kids (including two visiting additions) and after my cuppa I will be back into the kitchen again - chicken/lemon/rocket risotto for me and DH tonight.

Shopping for Stash

2010-03-24T16:55:00.005Z

From older stash right here at home.

The challenge last week on the KI Memories blog was to use product from older ranges in a new project. For some reason KI Memories isn't that easy to find in the UK any more. I don't know why that is now, it hasn't always been like that - I know because I have a pile of the older papers as evidence!

For this page I used papers from the Bloom collection as well as a couple of embellishments. Some of the butterflies were cut from a patterned paper, others from punches and the largest one in the title was created by cutting around a (K&Co) chipboard butterfly. I even went diving into the boxes of older alphabets. Rub-on letters. I remember when I couldn't do a page without using rub-on letters. And these little pink ones from KI Memories went on as smooth as ever. The large glittered chipboard letters I dug out of another box. I think these were by Making Memories.

And the journaling stamps, I think these were about the first set (or high up there on the list) of clear stamps I bought. I didn't keep the packaging but I have a feeling they are Li'l Davis (yes, I said they were old!). I wanted a larger space for journaling than one block provided, so I stamped it once, stamped again onto scrap paper, cut out and then used that to mask the first stamped image and stamped a second image on top - although of course the second image actually looks like it is behind the first. Oh I used the Fiskars Apron Lace punch (again) and spritzed with the Radiant Rain Teal Zircon (again). Nothing like getting your money's worth out of stuff LOL!

The card is created using Hero Arts stamps. I bought the Truly Appreciated set (bargain from Ebay - okay this veers from the shopping from stash theme I know). I love the extra large sentiments and also the little images that are on the sheet are really useful too. Here I stamped one randomly onto the background and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The butterflies and flowers are also Hero Arts stamps, which I coloured in using Sakura Stardust pens and a watercolour technique (yay for Create and Craft, I never knew you could watercolour with these, but you can and the effect is gorgeously sparkly).

I also used a Nestabilities label die, KI Memories Bloom paper, KI Memories Pop Culture sticker strip and a selection of stick on pearls and gems. I love using bright colours. So cheery.

I'm back ... and all of a flutter!

2010-03-21T17:13:00.009Z

Oh heck how predictible is that title for what I am posting? You will see!!!

I've not blogged for so long. That's what comes with having a boring life (like woo hoo when it's supermarket day) plus being too lazy to photograph what I've been doing to share anywhere.

Anyhow. I want to get back to the land of the living, including the land of blogging. Just to share things, though I will generally not bore with lots of personal stuff.

Except to say that YAY good news is that Chiara has been accepted for high school of choice. So ends another six months of anxiety (and this time I didn't put a second option, nor the local education authority option *gulp* so, yep, this was a good result). Apparently there will be a different system for when it is Mia's turn because she has a statement of special needs. Just when I had got the hang of it.

So onto scrappy stuff. I've been neglecting my craft desk rather too much lately and want to get back into the swing of things, which means I am trawling the net for challenges to take part in. Hence this post because I found one on the Bo Bunny blog. To use green, aqua, cream/white. So perfect for me because it fits right in with their Flutter Butter range which I absolutely adore. So much that I am sharing three pages using this range. Confession, the first one Such a Girly Girl is the one I created for the challenge, the other two I did at crop sometime last year, but the Full of Promise page was sitting in a to be finished pile (something else I want to get motivated to sort out).

The papers in this range are so pretty and I'm pleased to say that my new local scrapbooking shop stocks Bo Bunny so I have lots more papers ready to use. I'm hoping they will have some of the new ranges in soon too.

Such a Girly Girl records how much Mia loved pretty dresses at that moment in time. She still does to an extent ... certainly more so than Chiara ever has.

I spritzed the cardstock background with Radiant Rain Teal Zircon and used Vintage Photo distress ink to blend and add a softer look. Used the Fiskars Apron Lace punch liberally (on the accordian fold flower too, see?). The sheer journaling spots are Maya Road, bracket sticker October Afternoon, Prima crystals, letter rub-ons Scrapworks and tiny letter stickers Adornit. And lots of hand stitching. Was doing this late at night and the sewing machine is just too noisy for then.

This next page uses an older photo of Chiara. She suffers dreadfully with lack of confidence despite me always telling her different. She's pretty bright, determined and beautiful. Wish she would see that for herself.

I used Bazzill dotted swiss cardstock background, scalloped edge from a DCWV cardstock pack, American Crafts chipboard letters, My Little Shoebox tiny alphabet stickers, Hero Arts stamps, brads of various sources including MME and Autumnn Leaves, lots of stick on pearls and my trusty photo corner punch by EK Success. I love this punch!

Finally, a page featuring myself *gasp* and the guinea pigs. They are so cute!

The gorgeous butterfly stamp is by Hero Arts, the journaling card Cosmo Cricket, journaling notepaper Making Memories, felt letter stickers American Crafts and ... yes ... I told you I love that corner punch (I stamped and embossed using a Hero Arts stamp to add some subtle interest to them).

You can see the difference between crop pages and at home pages that's for sure! I love doing the busy pages but generally when I am at crop I stick to plainer layouts. Not really because of lack of product (you should see how much stuff I take with me) but because I don't concentrate on scrapping as much whilst out at crop, I love socialising more!

Cybercropping

2009-11-14T19:31:00.004Z

Taking part in the challenges and classes over on UK Scrappers this weekend. Unfortunately the gallery server is overloaded so I am just uploading my project photos here for now. More info later. Excuse not so good photos, I took them all at an angle to overcome flare from the flash, it being so dark early here nowadays.

Some more stamping stuff

2009-10-27T16:54:00.006Z

Phew! Chance to get my breath back! The stamping challenges over at 2 Peas were such fun, I completed LOTS over the week.

For this I used papers by Basic Grey Sultry, stamps by Penny Black (flowers) and Hero Arts (sentiment), ribbon by Stampin' Up. I applied markers direct to the stamp (I've never been confident with this and it took a couple of goes before I was okay with it) and shaded the edges with vintage photo distress ink. The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed with an antique linen embossing powder. To finish, I simply embellished with stick on crystals, Stickles and felt photo corners die cut with Sizzix.

This was for an acetate challenge and I included a felt flower coaster (from Matalan if I remember correctly) as the main element. The background was embossed with the Cuttlebug swiss dots folder and edges machine stitched. I stamped the flowers (Hero Arts) direct onto the acetate and attached the acetate to the backing by way of threading the buttons through all layers. The sentiment was layered onto a punched scalloped circle and a couple of heart topped pins and punch out butterflies finish it off.

I have finally discovered (or should that be succumbed) to a couple of the Sugar Nellie stamps. I chose this one (and another called Catch a Falling Star) for their simple lines, figuring they would be easy to colour for myself and my kids! The ones on these cards have been paper pieced. The square card uses Scenic Route Laurel papers, Sizzix die cut felt flowers and features a pocket inside. The long card uses K&Co papers and ribbon from Stampin' Up. Sentiments are all Hero Arts. The hearts were utee'd and applied with a foam dot for extra dimension.

*cough* *splutter* too much at this house. Josh was ill last week, Mia went downhill rapidly on Sunday after going to a party. Her fever was at 40.5 degC yesterday, but what was most worrying was that she had slept constantly, not had any liquids and I couldn't get any medicine down her - neither Calpol/Nurofen for the fever nor the Epilim for her epilepsy. After speaking to pharmacist, NHS Direct and GP we were directed to Children's A&E where we had to don masks (suspected swine flu) and put in an isolation area. A nightmarish 3 hours ensued with us almost at the point of having her have suppositories for paracetamol and IV for anti epileptic medication. Such a trial. Thankfully her fever is not so bad today, took another three hours this morning to persuade her to have the Epilim and Nurofen and I dare say it will be another battle again tonight. To top it all I have got some signs of a bug now too.

Oh ... but I did spend a lovely hour or so doing a beading project with Chiara. She made a necklace for herself and I made a necklace and earrings for my mum. Will photo later. I also finished all the ironing, thought I better get it done before I was too ill to be bothered.

Gammon, mashed potatoes, carrots, peas and parsley sauce for tea. Off to get it ready now. Yum!

Stamptoberfest

2009-10-19T09:24:00.005+01:00

That's the name of the 2 Peas in a Bucket week long event full of stamping challenges, started 17th October and finishing 25th October. Get over to the stamping forum to check out all the different challenges (which can be combined generally). There are lots of raks and a major huge prize from American Crafts. I only found out about it last night and it was late so have just done the one card so far.

This is a scrapling card (2.5x4.25" ish). I used a digital stamp by Hero Arts (dictionary page - which I can see will be very useful)) I printed this onto glossy cardstock (a 4x6 photo paper) and then blended peeled paint distress ink onto it. After drying I stamped the Stampendous leaf image and embossed in copper then blended some frayed burlap distress ink over. I cut the sheet down and used three small blocks as a background for the sentiment (Hero Arts). I don't know the make of the little frame stamp as it was bought second hand). Ribbon is Fancy Pants and gems by Papermania.

I've been rather lucky on 2 Peas in the past, having won a set of American Crafts Goodies, a Basic Grey cardmaking kit and a set of stamps, kudos to them and the generous challenge hosts for not discriminating against international peeps!

Shopping sprees galore

2009-10-17T18:23:00.003+01:00

Heck. I need another (expensive) hobby like a hole in the head. But the jewellery making classes have been such fun. A pity it's only for five weeks and next week is the last week, sob.

It's a beginners class, so only pretty simple stuff, but all so effective! Anyhow, as well as the specialist beading shop in town I did a trip to Hobbycraft (the local shop didn't have any crimping pliers) and me and Mum went to town on filling the basket with beadie goodies which are all now awaiting to be strung up. I was tempted to buy a beading book but held back and got a couple from the library (all they had) plus I am sure there must be just STACKS of inspiring ideas out there on the www too.

Off soon to see my Dad to give him his birthday card and pressie. Inspired, as ever, by the incredibly talented Jennifer McGuire, I played with some new Hero Arts stamps (from my blog prize win). I used the design block dots and flowers together with distress inks and a clear embossing resist technique (as featured over on two peas in a bucket fall stamp camp week 2 class).

The distress inks I used were faded jeans, peeled paint and frayed burlap. Because these are the only three colours I have LOL! I then stamped on the chipboard letters using the woodgrain stamp. I didn't quite dry the initial inked layer very well which resulted in the embossing powder taking over at the edges, I quite like the way this adds an even more distressed effect though. Love happy accidents :)

Other great finds this week .... found out the wonderful revamped village chippie does gluten free frying. Yippee! (also vegetarian frying for those that are interested). So anyone travelling along the A6 in Derbyshire look out for the Ambergate chippie!

And a new local scrapbook supply shop in Hulland Ward. A bit on the expensive side, but it is stocking the lush Bo Bunny ranges (amongst others) and it is so nice to see things in the flesh so to speak. I bought some of the Tis The Season and Kitchen Spice ranges plus added another couple of papers to the Flutter Butter pile already in my scrap room. Nice to support local enterprise, eh?!

2009-10-09T09:09:00.003+01:00

Busy times!

Been scrapping, cropping, jewellery making, cat rescuing ...

Not all in one day but all in one week.

I will take photos of creations and upload over the weekend.

Been up since 6am this morning (I am not a morning person) as Chiara has gone on a Y6 trip to London - Houses of Parliament, Natural History Museum and then off to watch Wicked at the Theatre - exciting day for her! Not due back until gone 1am so a very long day (for us both).

Mia had her speech and language review yesterday. Did the first task easily then floundered on the second and was giving up by the third :( More ideas to focus on for the next period - working on getting her to compartalise new words into two categories instead of one so that she has two chances of finding it in her head when she needs it. Eg a knife would be 'something that is sharp that you use to eat with'. I know, seems simple. For most it is. Mia's brain doesn't work like everyone else's though. And for in class, her 1:1 assistant will be working with small flash cards of who what where when etc, that are kept on the desk and Mia will have to pull the appropriate cards towards her when she has understood that bit of the lesson. This is so the TA will be able to tell which bits of information she has missed (due to the frequent absences she has, she often misses stuff that is said but we never know what she has missed until the relevant question comes up and then, of course, she doesn't know the answer). Hopefully that will help fill in the gaps at the time of learning and help her with doing the activities based on the information afterwards. Oh and I know now who her 1:1 support will be and I am THRILLED! I am sure Mia will be too. I don't know if it is widely known in the school yet so I am not going to spill the beans. But, to be honest, I would not have been disappointed with any of the staff as they are all so lovely!

Oh, and this was the cat that I found under the dining room table the other day. My cats were not at all happy (in fact Polo was in full attack mode which surprised me as he is so laid back). So ginger was kept in the conservatory overnight, fed lots of little meals and generally kept safe. He was a full tom so the conservatory is rather smelly now ... a task to tackle at the weekend :( I put a poster in the shop and leaflet dropped the nearest block of houses. No joy, so I took him to the vets to check for microchipping and quick once over (he was generally healthy, mucky ears, a broken tooth and a couple of war wounds on his ears, but no fleas, sores or obvious injuries). He was very cowed though, hissed a lot but never once struggled or scratched when handled. I am sure he will be a lovely boy once fed and calmed down. The vets are going to re-home him. I sobbed when I left him, soft thing that I am. I hope he gets a good place to live.

Woo hoo to the winners!

2009-10-02T16:08:00.003+01:00

As drawn at random by my daughters.

Early bird prize goes to Alex

and the second winner is Scrapping4fun.

Can both the winners please reply to my email with their details so I can pass them on to enable the goodies to be sent out to you.

Huge thanks to EVERYONE who came and joined in the fun, spent time looking at my projects and then saying such nice things. I have loved every moment of this!

Waiting ...

2009-10-02T14:45:00.004+01:00

For my girls to get back from school so they can do the drawing for the Stampin' Up blog candy ...

Here are the comments all printed out and sorted into the appropriate batches (night owls and everyone else).

School finishes at 3.30 so expect an announcement before 5.00!

And this afternoon I have been playing a little again. Now the deadline has passed, I have taken the liberty of adding in a few extra embellishments (buttons, brads and gems) and a couple of sentiments stamps (non SU as I don't have any, but I can see that is going to have to be put right!). I also did some heat embossing, SU do supply Versamark, clear and white embossing powder and heat gun, all of which are what I used here.

I wanted to work with the products on some non-Christmas themed cards. The star, swirl and flower stamps lend themselves especially to other celebrations.

The star is a really fun stamp and I love that punch matches exactly. Saves on cutting out for sure. And the swirly stamp makes such a great stamped background.

I love this shade of green (green is my favourite colour anyway). Paired with white it makes for such a pretty, yet serene, combination. I made a matchbook style card so that, when opened, it displays the feature bracket to best advantage. I heat embossed the flower onto the green cardstock with clear embossing powder for the background, and again but using white embossing powder to cut out for accents. I love this! And I am so upset to be almost out of that green patterned paper, the one with the tiny snowflakes that can pass for flowers.

It was a fabulous opportunity to create with these products, so a huge thanks to Stampin' Up for their generosity in supplying these to me ... and also for offering up blog candy too. I was sent a new catalogue alongside the products and I have a lengthening shopping list. Must haves so far are the scalloped oval and scallop edge punches, designer brads - flowers, heat and stick powder and the circle of friendship stamps. Oh yes and the oval greetings to match the oval punches. Sigh. Times like this I wish I worked!

Thanks and apologies

2009-10-02T08:29:00.002+01:00

Thanks to everyone who visited and left such nice comments about my projects. You've all made me feel warm and fuzzy.

Apologies though for the delay in announcing the blog candy winner.

I wasn't well last night so will be working on it today and will announce the winners later on.

I am going to do some more creating today too ... using things up saves tidying things away doesn't it?

See you later

Woo hoo! Launch time is here!

2009-09-30T23:59:00.001+01:00

These were the lovely goodies I received! Lush or what?!

Anyhow, now the deadline has been reached so I have to put down scissors and get blogging. Sad really because I had got plans for so many more things, but I am just not the fastest crafter in the world and I got a bit carried away with one of the projects which cut down on the time available elsewhere.

I have to say I am a Stampin' Up Novice. But, wow! the quality of the products is just fabulous. I couldn't really pick one item out above all the others. Apart from anyone who knows me knows that my one true love is patterned paper. And these didn't disappoint. I loved that the patterns ranged from timeless to more modern and the brown and green really worked well with the red. I can't wait to get more time to play with everything.

I did three cards, two altered items and one scrapbook page.

The altered items - the chalkboard I stamped on the wood frame (no smudging, yeah!) and then simply added a little paper and stamped some images to embellish. I stapled the ribbon to the back of the board using a heavy duty staple gun (very useful!).

The wish lists item is packaging from some drawer liners. The inside has a pocket for containing letters to Santa.

For the scrapbook page, I stamped tone on tone on the red and green cardstocks, unfortunately the photos don't really show that detail too well. I love that the papers and inks co-ordinate so well to enable the tone on tone technique like that.

Remember to comment for blog candy, see the post below (or below that!). And also check out Lousette and Jenny for their fab creations too :)

BTW I will be creating more projects because there is so much stuff left over and I have enjoyed playing with them so much. So keep an eye out in the next day or two (I think I have to go to Sainsbury's tomorrow, which is a long job as I go with my mum, so hopefully Friday I will be able to play again).

So far ...

2009-09-30T19:59:00.003+01:00

Three cards
Two altered thingies
and
one messy desk
LOL!

Blog Candy details

2009-09-30T18:30:00.002+01:00

Well I'm back from jewellery making classes. Got a nice big box of goodies waiting to be played with so I need to get cracking for that midnight deadline!

Whilst I have been out, Lousette has blogged about the blog candy, so, hoping she doesn't mind, I am copying out what she has written on here too! I know, very cheeky of me, but Lousette is such a kind person I am sure she will be fine with it.

Blog Candy Blog Candy Blog Candy

There will be two prizes, each one consisting of a punch, a stamp set and an ink pad ... does that sound good or what!

The first prize will be an early bird prize. To qualify you need to visit this blog between midnight tonight and 1am - only one hour ladies, so this one has good odds indeed. Leave a comment, and if you are also a blogger we ask that you mention the challenge on your own blog, link through to here and then paste your blog link in your comment.

Don't worry if you are not a blogger, simply leaving a comment will still put you in the running for winning the prize.

Second prize will run from 1am until 12 midday on Thursday, so if you missed the early bird, or shall I say night owl draw, you still have a chance of winning a prize.

Same rules apply, leave a comment, bloggers leave a link ... and then I will choose the winners later tomorrow evening using a random number generator.

This is just getting better isn't it.

Remember, both Lousette and Jenny will also be giving away two prizes each, that is six in total, so be sure to come along and play.

Good luck everyone, I will talk to you later.

Drumming fingers ...

2009-09-30T12:25:00.003+01:00

Nervously waiting ... for my box of goodies.

Luckily I have things to do today to take my mind off things a little.

I've hoovered, washed the pots, tidied around, fed all the animals (only 2 cats, 2 guinea pigs and 2 fish, but still).

I've tidied my craft desk (not the rest of the room mind, just a clear area at my desk to work on) and put out new clean messy mats to work on too.

I've had a scout around my 'odds and ends' cupboard and brought down an array of things that I may want to decorate with the Stampin' Up supplies.

And now I am out to a jewellery making class myself followed by school pick up and then taking the girls to a jewellery making class. So, like I said, plenty of things to keep me occupied during the wait.

Oh yes, more news on the blog candy later, got to go though just now.

pssst .....

2009-09-28T21:49:00.004+01:00

Apparently the very kind and generous people at Stampin' Up are also going to be providing blog candy for the blog hop on Wednesday. More details tomorrow :)

I'm so excited ... and I just can't help it!

2009-09-28T18:21:00.003+01:00

Deep breaths. Need to stop hyperventilating.

I am one of three lucky crafty bloggers who are going to be part of a blog hop for the new Stampin' Up releases being launched this Thursday (1st October!).

I can't believe it. Did I say I was excited?

Along with the talented Lousette Ashton and Jenny Cocks, I shall be sat at home on Wednesday afternoon eagerly waiting for a box of goodies from Stampin' Up. We get a few hours (eeek) to create some projects of our choosing and then upload them for a reveal at midnight Wednesday.

It's so exciting! Oh, yep, I already said that didn't I?!

I have to admit to being rather nervous too, being in the spotlight like that, and am hoping to do justice to whatever luscious goodies I get sent.

If you're not already familiar with Stampin' Up just follow the link to find out more about their products and how you can get hold of them yourself (click on the find a demonstrator tab).

More deep breaths. Almost felt calm there. For a minute. LOL!

Remember to bookmark this blog and those of Lousette and Jenny and come back Wednesday night for the big reveal.

Oh, I forgot to say, I am pretty new to stamping myself but have been scrapbooking for a few years now (if you don't know who I am, I go by the online name of fruitysuet). I love creating and have started to use stamps in my scrapbooking a lot more recently. I love that you can make your own customised embellishments to fit whatever colour or theme of page, as demonstrated on the two pages below which I did at crop last week.

See you Wednesday!

Happy Anniversary us :)

2009-09-20T23:37:00.003+01:00

I dragged myself out of my sick bed to go to the Hobby Horse crop this week. It must be a year since I have been, things have just constantly conspired against me getting there. Me being ill, kids being ill, parties, visits, Len working and so on. But this month I was determined to be there! I'm so glad I made the effort. It wasn't too busy so was nice and relaxing, had lots of space to spread around in (anyone who has seen me scrap in real life knows that I like to spread!) And, of course, great to meet up with people again. The one for October is early, so I'm hoping to make it two in a row and get to that one too!

I did four layouts (all except final finishing touches and journaling) which is pretty good for me seeing as I don't normally get started scrapping until lunch time. I will try to find the energy to finish them and get them photographed and shared this week.

Have discovered Facebook. Serious problem. Addictive games. Enough said lol! Josh thinks I am seriously sad for going on there. A bit rich for someone who lives for Runescape I think.

Oh and it is our 23rd wedding anniversary today. Mum reminded me Friday night, no worries I thought, we haven't acknowledged it really for a while, so it wouldn't matter that I hadn't bought anything. Girls told Len and took him shopping yesterday whilst I was at crop. I got some beautiful flowers and a couple of dvd's. I was warned, thankfully. So I sneaked out to Tesco last night to go and buy something. Only to find that 24 hour opening doesn't actually mean that. Drove around and found a 24 hour petrol station (where 24 hours obviously means 24 hours) and got him a big pack of Guinness and a big bar of Cadbuury's whole nut. Okay not overly inspiring, but well received and will be enjoyed for a while to come (the kids don't like whole nut choc so he can enjoy it all himself). Oh and, of course, a hand made anniversary card.

2009-09-14T19:50:00.007+01:00

Every time I figure I am going to start being more committed to blogging, life gets in the way!

I have been scrapping, done quite a lot over the Summer actually. Just I haven't been bothered photographing much of it yet. Now that the kids are all back at school it might be something I get around to soon.

The pages I have taken photos for have been for DT work. I played with yummy 7Gypsies papers for A Trip Down Memory Lane (September Gallery) and also was honoured to be chosen to be the Guest Designer for Creative Scrappers this week. I was introduced to the site by Debbie Nicholas and love the work by the creative team over there. A great selection of sketches to inspire too (again part of the not yet photographed pile!). As well as the page I did for the reveal, I changed the sketch around a little bit for this page.

Products used:
Patterned papers - Creative Imaginations, Jenni Bowlin, Making Memories, Fancy Pants
Cardstock - Bazzill
Die cuts - My Minds Eye, KI Memories
Chipboard - American Crafts, Die Cuts with a View
Not sure what the stamps are as I bought them secondhand and they came without packaging.

Tomorrow is another hospital appointment with Mia. Clinical Physchology this time. Not sure who needs it more, Mia or me! Hopefully they will be able to help us both on the road to coming to terms with Mia's condition. Not something I have mentioned on here before. I am finding it really hard to cope with the diagnosis we have been given for her. On the positive side, the Education Authority have accepted out appeal and awarded Mia a Statement of Special Needs giving her 20 hours individual teaching time a week. I truly am thankful to the doctors and teachers who have worked so hard on getting to this stage.

Chiara has moved into Year 6. Final year at the village school. On Friday we received the notification from the Education Authority of which secondary school she is earmarked for. Alfreton. Sigh. Our garden is in catchment for the 'local' school which the children from the village go to (and which is still over 3 miles away) but our house is in catchment for this other school which is over 7 miles away and which I do not want my children to attend AT ALL. Hopefully when the final letter comes through Chiara will have been allocated a space at our preferred school without having to go to appeal. The fact that she has a brother there will help a little. Unfortunately it's a six month stressful wait to find out.

Both girls had a lovely time shopping for school clothes before term started. The school has a dress code (okay it has a uniform but it is very loosely enforced, so as long as you stick to the traditional school colours you're pretty well okay).

Chiara was very keen on a more fashionable look!

Oh and I have joined Facebook (which I had been resisting, but I googled Mia's condition again and there was a group for it on FB so I had to join to check it out). It all looks rather confusing so not sure how involved I will get with that. Especially given as there seems to be some game on there which I just know I would get obsessed with given half a chance! I signed up to Twitter too, really again just to check out what other people are doing - I really do need to do something interesting with my days just so I have something interesting to say on these places.

I am trying not to fall deep into a new obsession

2009-08-25T01:03:00.003+01:00

Stamping.

I have resisted in the past, mainly because I am a messy mare when it comes to crafting and you can pretty much guarantee that I will drop the stamp (obviously inked side down, just like when you drop toast butter side down every time!) or smudge it, or get an incomplete image. Whatever, accuracy and clean lines really are not my forte.

But the Hero Arts site has got me hooked and I am spreading my wings a little and venturing further afield looking at card inspiration. I am amazed at how much work people can put into such a small area. And neatly too LOL!

I have a couple of friends who are especially talented card makers Andrea and Jane. Ooops and Debbie (how could I forget you?)

The one thing I especially struggle with is colouring in. Really. Sounds such a simple thing to do. But for me, it isn't. I guess it is just a case of keep on trying. And finding the right white cardstock to stamp and colour on. What I have just doesn't handle watercolours very well at all. Anyhow, Hero Arts challenge this week is to colour in an image. So this week might see me actually try and crack this colouring in malarky.

Anyway, I have been blog hopping to various links and challenge sites (I need all the inspiration I can find when it comes to card making) and found Caardvarks. Oh my! Lots of lushness. And quite a lot of non stamping, more scrappy style cards which I am more familiar with. In an effort to break out of my mojoless state (haven't done anything crafty since coming back from holiday at the beginning of the month - though I did half a dozen layouts whilst we were away) I have attempted the challenge this week over there. Well it tied in with what I was going to create for a birthday card for Chiara's friend as it happened (I know, not really the way to tackle a challenge). Hot pink, black and white. Just perfect for a pre-teen fashion conscious girl!

It is a VERY simple card. I sort of spend an equivalent amount of time on a card as I feel the appreciation of the receiving party will warrant. So close family and friends get the nicer, more detailed cards, but others, especially kids outside of the family, get more simple offerings.

The card features a badge I had bought in Claires Accessories specifically for the purpose of being used this way. A bit of dotty paper, a scrap of hot pink Rouge de Garance patterned paper and a punched scallop and it was done.

Giveaways at Making Memories

2009-07-30T21:44:00.001+01:00

Just a quick reminder, Making Memories are still giving away lots of goodies, visit their blog and comment for a chance to win something luscious :)

More Goodies and Giveaways

2009-07-28T23:24:00.002+01:00

Like I said, the scrapbooking world is filled with goodies for CHA. I have seen LOTS of lovely things on my blog sightseeing tour (yep, that list of manufacturers on the side bar of this blog comes in really handy at times like this!).

Bella Blvd has a great giveaway package - ALL of their new releases to a blog commenter AND A FRIEND if you go and make a comment too! Just hop on over to this blog post, do lots of drooling (I just LOVE the die cut stickers) and then leave a comment, mentioning that I sent you over (Suzanne Torr if you don't know my full name).

Here's hoping that one of my lovely friends or followers gets lucky with me (ooer, but you know what I mean!).

CHA Excitement!

2009-07-28T21:35:00.002+01:00

Lots more reveals around the scrapbooking world.

Lots of fun stuff to drool over.

And lots of fun giveaways to be found.

Making Memories has lots of giveaways over the next day or so - head on over to their blog and keep refreshing so as not to miss out on your chance to win some goodies :)

A big Hero Woo Hoo!!

2009-07-28T11:25:00.006+01:00

Thrilled almost beyond words! Check out the Hero Arts blog :)

My scrapbook page made the winners list!! And check out the fabulous winning card by Lousette Ashton - wow or what?! Congrats Lousette.

I used a lot less patterned paper than I usually do, which was a huge challenge for me!

Products used:

Patterned paper - Prima, K&Co and My Minds Eye
Plain cardstock - Bazzill
Metal frame, metal rimmed tag - Making Memories
Brads - HOTP, Queen & Co, Autumn Leaves
Adhesive crystals - Papermania
Stamps - Hero Arts (Thoughtful Messages, All Occasion Messages, Dolls, Hello Birdie and A3321 Cherish and S1838 Florentine Scroll Background (both older stamps)
Inks - Ranger, Versamark, ColorBox
Clear Embossing powder
Butterfly punch
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder

Brief how to:

Cut part bracket shape from subtly patterned cardstock (I used a piece of Crate Paper as a template). Stamp swirl background with Versamark and heat emboss with clear embossing powder.

Cut patterned paper to size and attach photo.

Place both these pieces onto kraft cardstock, leaving equal margins.

Stamp scallop border onto blue cardstock and emboss with white embossing powder.

Cut to shape and layer two slightly different lengths to hide the join between the patterned paper and stamped bracket shape.

Stamp sentiments (or journal) around the edge of the kraft cardstock, adding gems for detail.

Layer onto green cardstock then teal cardstock (both colours tie in with the patterned paper).

Stamp the scalloped frame onto two pieces of cardstock. Punch out using a scalloped circle. Layer punched circles over the centres.

Add a stamped sentiment to the centre of one (dotting the 'j' with a gem). Stamp an oversized brad and set with embossing powder (I heated the brad after stamping, sprinkled with embossing powder then heated again). Attach slightly offset to the second layered flower.

Handcut stems and leaves from cardstock, attach to the page and zigzag stitch over for interest. Attach the stamped and layered flowers.

Punch out a small butterfly from green cardstock (to match the photo corners and create a small visual triangle of that colour) and stamp with a teal ink. Attach to page and add a gem to the body.

Create two large photo corners. I used a green coloured metal frame by Making Memories cut down. Emboss using embossing folder and sand to define the embossed pattern. Attach to the page.

Gut a small metal rimmed tag and attach patterned paper to the back. Stamp with a small image and hang from the bottom photo corner. Add the other two brads.

Last day of school .... teacher gift day

2009-07-23T11:10:00.009+01:00

Hooray, finished the teacher gifts. Bit miffed as I think DS nicked two of the cookies. Coupled with the fact that the cookies I did failed (thankfully the ones the girls did were a big success). However, this meant that one person had to be 'knocked' off the list (not a person who actually teaches either of my girls). A bit disappointed but it was 2am when I realised and I wasn't about to start baking again then!

Anyhow, we handed the gifts out this morning, they were well received, the boxes looked pretty but I think the fact that the girls did the baking last night after coming back late from the school trip was the thing the teachers liked the best. Hope they enjoy them with their cuppas at break/lunch time!

I spent ages trying to perfect the template. It still could have done with tweaking a bit, but time was marching on and it folded up fine. The flaps at the bottom were not strong enough to hold the box shut with the weight of the cookies. I didn't think they would be, but I'm not skilled enough of a paper engineer to have figured out how to do the closing at the top. I think the twine tied at the top into a bow looks pretty though and it did give the tags somewhere to go (NB photos taken before the girls had written on the tags, but after they were written, they were tied into the bow on the top of each house).

I used Hero Arts stamps - scallop border and scallop 'for you' stamps from the dolls cleardesign set, the thanks sentiment from the thoughtful messages set and the little bird and you're special sentiment from the hello birdie set.
Butterflies were stamped using Conversation Dots then punched out.
The little row of hearts is from a Studio G stamp set.
Patterned paper is a mix from Around the Block, Scenic Route, Cloud 9, Papermania, Imaginesce, Dream Street and Tinkering Ink.
Chipboard bird Maya Road (used as template)
Cuttlebug swirls embossing folder

How to:

Draw around template on reverse of stiff patterned cardstock.

Cut out and fold.

Use circle compass scissors to cut out the circle aperture.

Stamp sentiment onto acetate (I gently heat set with embossing heat gun for speed) and attach behind aperture.

Stamp same sentiment onto co-ordinating plain cardstock. Punch centre portion out with circle punch and then use a larger scallop circle punch to punch around the scallop. Adhere the scalloped frame to the front of the birdhouse using a glue pen.

Fold birdhouse together, using strong double sided tape to hold in position.

Cut out rectangle for roof. Use scalloped edge scissors at either end. Fold in half and adhere to roof.

Stamp the scalloped border multiple times onto co-ordinating cardstock (I staggered the design and stamped the border three times either side of a centre point).

Fold and attach to top of roof.

Use Maya Road bird as template to cut chipboard bird, emboss using embossing folder. Swipe/edge with ink for definintion. Add small gem for eye. Attach to front of birdhouse using foam pad for dimension.

Cut 'grass' from green cardstock and attach to bottom of birdhouse. Add gemstone flower to bottom corner.

Stamp script design onto cardstock and punch out butterflies, attach above the aperture and add pearls to finish.

Cut tag from chipboard, shape, add hole reinforcer sticker and punch out hole.

Stamp with sentiment, bird and hearts. Colour in hearts.

Add small strip of patterned paper cut with scallop scissors, define bottom edge with black pen.

Write message on reverse of tag.

Insert cookies into cello bags.

Punch large scalloped circle, fold in half, stamp with bird and sentiment.

Staple to top of bag.

Put cookies into birdhouse.

Secure with twine, tying into a bow at the top catching in the tag using a jump ring.

Teachers pressies for this year - first one

2009-07-21T19:43:00.003+01:00

Okay so I think I have been a bit ambitious. I have made (several) prototypes to get the template right and now just put together the first one. I am going to add a few punched butterflies and also do a tag for each one for the kids to write on. So I can see a couple of late nights to get them finished (nothing new there then). Also tomorrow night after school (well, later as the girls are both on a school trip to Bridlington) we will be making cookies together to put a couple in cello bags to go into each house.

Patterned paper - Around the Block
Stamps - Hero Arts
Bird - used Maya Road chipboard bird as a template
Embossing folder - Cuttlebug
Ink - ColorBox

The cookies in the photo were a prototype too! We made three batches to compare recipes, have chosen our favourite and will do three batches, one double choc, one choc and one white choc. Hopefully there will be enough for one of each cookie for each birdhouse. Having counted up I have got to make 9 houses, so minimum 27 cookies. Oh and I think there must be a national shortage of white choc chips ... Sainsbury's didn't have any, Morrisons didn't have any so it took a trip to a third town to Tesco to finally track some down!

Okay. Back to creating!