I just want to give myself a little toot!

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 

What a blast!

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

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!

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 :)

Quickie share

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

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

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?

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 pages

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!

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

January goodies and CT call at Owl Tree Studio

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!

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