Bunny Girls

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


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

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

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

Promarker initiation

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

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


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

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

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

More yumminess

From Hero Arts on the horizon

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

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


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

A blast from the past

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


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


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

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

Toot toot for me :)

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

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

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



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

Treasure the Joy of Family

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

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


and this is my page



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

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

Lots of yumminess

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

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

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

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