Fruit of my scraps

My Gorgeous Boy

2012-02-19T09:24:00.000Z

The new sketch challenge goes live today over at The Studio Blog, so here is my creation and a copy of the sketch I worked from ;

There are lots of other fabulous pages over on the blog click here if you want to go and have a look and join in too.

The inspiration for my page was obviously the sketch! I choose an older shot of my youngest - I tell you having a brand new nephew in the family has made me dig out lots of baby photos and play with them - it also helps that my DH is sorting out all our photos into one all accessible place so I can quickly pop back in time and pick up the ones I have missed. I love this one as he is all snuggled up and just gorgeous!

I bought some dusty attic chipboard and haven't used much of it yet, so this was my excuse to get it out and have a play with it. I embossed both the butterfly and vine in silver and then went around the edge with an inkpad and sponge just to add a little metallic blue. The papers layered up behind the photo are October Afternoons Farmhouse collection - just using up odds and ends and strips, and I added one of their Rocket Age cards and some tissue tape behind them too (all the pieces were inked and distressed as usual). The photo is mounted on some MME Lost and Found print paper. The alphabet is a mix of some of the prima tiny letters and some of the velvet MME Lush chipboard which I did ink a little to make it not so bright baby blue. For the line of circles in the sketch I added some flicks of white chalk glimmer mist and blue patina mist. I then punched out some hearts using a poundland punch from a while back and a few tiny blue button stars were also added to the mixture. The silver oval is part of a costco kit and something that has been lurking in my collection for ages so it was good to dig it out. To finish off the page I added a stitched square around the edge.

I loved using the sketch - it always makes me scrap a bit faster too as I have less deliberating to do on where I want the paper, if you fancy a go here is the link.

UTEE frame over at It's A Creative World

2012-02-18T10:03:00.001Z

Just a quick post with a sneak of my new UTEE frame that I did for my post over at It's A Creative World today. They are really easy to make, though you have to avoid the slightly burnt UTEE fingers by being patient and letting things cool :D.

Penguin Love - We Scrap

2012-02-16T08:49:00.000Z

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentines...here is a love themed page from me, we have been out and about over half term and so far the kids highlight has been the Dr Who experience which we kept as a complete surprise for them, an they absolutely loved. It made up for us going roller skating, but when we got there we couldn't 'cos it was full - lesson to book ahead :) - so we did popcorn and a movie at home instead.

Here is another page with the North Shore kit from We Scrap. I have thought for sometime that I should document my sons favourite soft toy....which is now in a very well-loved state, so this is his penguin which he still loves :) so this was my inspiration.

I started the page with a circle - drew very lightly around a plate and then stitched around it 3 times in brown thread, and rubbed the lines out afterwards. I distressed and inked the edges of the Jenni Bowlin bingo cards, and then layered and distressed lots of the MME papers, made a little tag out of one of them too. The pink ruffle of paper is from the co-ordinations page in my pack, I sanded it and then lightly wet it and folded and gathered it together, sticking it onto tape and then I stitched it along the top. I also made my own little chain of hearts (I know MME do them in circles) but I used a little heart punch and then stitched through them, letting the machine run for a few stitched in between each one. I added some of the felt ribbon and another punched line (ek success abstract flower punch) and a spare doily. The alphabet is jillibean soup and I die cut the word love using the Ali Edwards font and welding it together on my robo. The finishing touches were to add the bunting and a Tim Holtz ticket.

Buddies - We Scrap

2012-02-13T08:32:00.001Z

Here is my 2nd page with the We Scrap North Shore kit, the picture was on my eldest's birthday and 'cos it was quite dark and inside I edited it in some photo software and then made it black and white.

The inspiration is an eclectic mix for this page - I have seen the little stitch patches on the sides of pages lots, and I love the stitched through letter look as well as kraft doilies, so I just wanted to have a go at all of that!

To make the page I dug out some of my Christmas presents for this page which include the Spellbinders iron works die, some gorgeous doily type shapes which I have also seen used on Christmas cards to (so got to remember that for next year). So I made some kraft doilies and inked around the edges with distress ink too. My other Christmas present was the the ek success abstract flower punch which I used on a strip below the photo. I started by mounting my picture on some white card to make it more polaroidish and then stitched around the photo and inked the edge. I layered up some squares of the paper, stitching and inking the edges as I went. I made a little journal block out of the lined MME paper and wrapped it in twine, then added some of the tags and flags, ribbon and bunting, stitching bits as I went. I also added some strips of stitching at either corner of the page and then finished it off with some flicks of Antique Copper Glimmer mist. The title is jillibean soup corrugated card and I added a few rows of stitching through that too (so a thoroughly stitched page for this one :))

And in other exciting news I have been asked to join the Studio Challenge Blog design team, which has bi-monthly sketch and themed challenges, my first page for this will be up on the 19th February. It is a great group of creative ladies to be a part of so I am really excited.

Candy Floss - We Scrap

2012-02-10T17:54:00.002Z

Here is my first page as Guest Designer over at We Scrap, I made it with the lovely North Shore kit, there is lots of beautiful MME goodness in it.

The photos are from a fair we went to last year (I only just re-found them!) and we have some lovely shots of the kids with the most enormous piles of candy floss - it's amazing stuff the way it fluffs up and then goes to nothing in your mouth. Thankfully neither of them could finish the enormous quantity of floss that they were given, but it was their first time tasting it and something they loved.

Inspiration - don't have a clear idea for where this came - I have seen lots of framed pages on my blog browsing so I thought I would have a go and the ticket paper worked perfectly for this, I liked the way the browns pulled out the lovely pink of the candy floss.

I started the page layering up the papers, using both sides, bit of distressing and fluffing of the edges to roughen them - even used some of my poundland sanding blocks! I made a paper ribbon below the photo by folding the paper up onto some tape, I then stitched through it to hold it. I cut the journal tag out of the papers and then made a couple of flags and used the funday name on the paper too :). I added some more twine and a tim holtz ticket and stitched around the edge. Bizarrely for me on this page the stitching was left til near the end which meant that I couldn't stitch around all the papers so I just did the odd bit of zig zag stitch but I really like the effect. I had a play with my twine and wrote the word candy with it, this took a little while. I started by lightly writing the word on the page and then covered sections of the word in glue - I worked out where I need to cut the twine and did it a section at a time. My finishing touches were a few flicks of white acrylic paint (cover the photos as paint is hard to get off them).

There is lots of inspiration going up in the galleries so here is a link for you to have a look. I will be back with more projects and details later on in the week as I have lots to show you.

Notebooks

2012-02-06T13:22:00.001Z

I have only had a small play with my Bind it All since getting it - mainly making books for my kids so that they can create their own Skylanders (very big in my house at the moment - I'll have to do a page on it so I can show you all - but it is a computer game that comes with little characters you put on a portal and then they turn up in your game!).

I picked up some woodgrain plastic covering sheets from the poundshop as I love that dark woodgrain effect (you can tell that the sheets didn't cost much, but they work fine for this project). I cut some mountboard to size for my covers and then covered them with the woodgrain plastic which went on really well without any bubbles. I then cut some pages to size and made all the holes, next the decoration. The wide squareish book I used a Fat Face clothes tag - they have these beautifully aged tags on their clothes at the moment with the piece of material stitched on the bottom (I actually used them rather than just keep them because they are lovely :)). I used some scraps of a brown ruler paper I have, and then made a rosette flower out of some scraps of October Afternoon Farmhouse paper, I used some Martha Stewart butterfly punches, inking it all with distress ink and a Tim Holtz ticket, and lastly some yellow twine to stick it all together. My intention for this book is that I use it a bit like an art journal though mainly with ideas or sketches or links that I find useful.

The second book is my Lists book - now I know there are some fantastic list makers out there, and I finally decided that I need to write down the things I have to do somewhere, so that I remember them and don't have to rush around trying to do them really quickly because I forgot! So it is nice and thin, and I can pull out the pages once they are done. Again I used scraps of paper for the decoration these are from the Crate Paper Farmhouse line, and an American crafts rosette, a bit of lace and cosmo cricket mini alpha. I think these might make nice presents for people too, so you may well see a few more!

Other news I have is that this month I am very excited to be the Guest Designer over at We Scrap - they have beautiful kits and lots of challenges - I will show you my creations later on in the week.

Project Life 1st 2 weeks

2012-02-03T07:57:00.003Z

Here is the rest of my Project life page if you've not seen it...having seen lots of beautiful Project Life pages I decided to sign up and got some of the WRMK page holders, I am doing a double page spread per month so here are my first 2 weeks. I had a play with my Silhouette and used the free Ali Edwards downloads to make the January and the big outdoors rectangles. It took me a little bit of fiddling to get what I wanted but I am really pleased with it as a silhouette novice!

The papers are my Amy Tangerine American Crafts ones, I love all the colours, so they were cut and stitched and layered and journalled on, I think this is the most writing I have every done on a page which I really enjoyed, here are a couple of close ups (and yes it is really hard to photograph the page in the wallets without getting too much reflection :D)

IACW Project Life

2012-01-31T07:29:00.001Z

Just a quick post to let you know that over on It's A Creative World I have posted my 1st Project Life page, here are a few sneaks of some of the pockets. I've used the Amy Tangerine AC range, and over on IACW I have posted lots of links and ideas and more information for you to have a look at if you are tempted to have a go. I'll pop back with the rest of my page later on in the week - can't believe that January is flying by so fast.

Birthday number 9

2012-01-25T14:20:00.000Z

This is a page I did to mark my eldest's birthday, I put some hidden journalling behind the photo on a Tim Holtz tag with information about his character and what he is like. The photo was an attempt at being arty but I really like it, it is slightly out of focus too but I still love it. The inspiration for the page was the Scrap365 monthly sketch, there is a new one up now and you can win a prize. I know I should bookmark things more but I saw a quilt with this kind of rainbow pattern on it and thought it would look good on a page too.

The papers are all Crate Papers Farmhouse, and I used some of their chipboard and paper embellishments too, an American crafts cake and some maya road green rose ribbons, twine and random buttons from my collection. I added some flicks of my new white glimmer mist rather than paint - I love how well it stands out on the paper - I was worried they might be a little watery but they aren't and they give a really good colour. The idea for the title and the number are all Ali Edwards ish - having started a bit of project life I like the way she puts things on her photos - hence the number 9 and love the handwriting font and you can download her font for free from creating keepsakes....so I loaded it into my silhouette and had lots of fun welding the letters together.

Other news This weekend over on WeScrap there is an online crop going on with lots of prizes and there are lots of challenges to join in on.

I am also proud to have become an Auntie again to a little boy who I am sure will feature in my pictures - he is absolutely gorgeous and I have already had cuddles with him and so did my kids.

Couple of clean and simple cards

2012-01-21T15:28:00.001Z

There were a couple of birthdays in our wider family....and one being a big one! I wouldn't say card making was my strength, but on these I went for the less is more approach and quite liked the way that they turned out - quite clean and simple (I also had a go at some arty shots of the cards below...which I just like so I thought I would show them to you :D). The first card has a square of dictionary paper, and one of my Martha Stewart butterflies which I pulled the wings up on, some burlap, an early learning centre butterfly and my Happy Birthday stamp from Handmade Hannah. The 40 year old one I played with my new Amy Tangerine stamps for the frame, and stamped 40 in the middle (I quite like that the 4 has some of the inky mess from the edge - but unfortunately I didn't manage to repeat it for the 0!), I stamped on a scrap of October Afternoon paper, and then mounted again on some old dictionary paper.

Scrapping in 2011

2012-01-17T13:33:00.000Z

The inspiration for this page came from seeing lots of reviews of craftiness in 2011...and as I didn't manage to get my done for New Years Day I tried to think of another way of showing some of my creative work (never scrapped it before!). I made this using the gorgeous Amy Tangerine kit that I received from American crafts (check out their Facebook Friday Pick competition). I printed my photos out (it did take me a while to resize my pages on 6" by "4 paper so that they were 2" by 2" and didn't loose their resolution! I decided to show the pages on a washing line, and as I like the polaroid shaped photos at the moment I decided to mount them on white cardstock with a small area underneath where I could do a brief journal about the page and what motivated me to create it or why it is a favourite.

So to start this age I lightly drew out where I wanted my washing line to go, and then used a PVA type glue (acid free) along the lines and stuck the string down, I then added a button at each end too. I made some little pegs on my Silhouette and cut them out in a couple of different sizes, then made a whole host of banners to hang on the washing line too. Before I stuck any of it down I added some flicks of orange, green and red glimmer mist, and used the Amy Tangerine doily stamp in a teal blue. I then just started layering my pieces along the line adding butterflies and buttons as I went. The title stickers were rectangular, and I cut around them, it isn't the neatest job as it was very tricky but it went with the home made creations theme of the page. So here are my favourite pages, quite a few were made as part of the Scrap Factor competition on Ukscrappers, one for a crate paper challenge, others for challenge sites like pencil line sketches and the color room, and some of my DT work for ScrapRat and Handmade Hannah.

Paper bead tutorial

2012-01-15T08:47:00.001Z

Over on Its A Creative World today I have posted a quick and easy, use up your scraps tutorial for making these paper beads. So here is one way you can use the beads, and there are lots more ideas on the blog. For the card I used some October Afternoon Fly a Kite and Sassafras Indie Girl papers. The doily stamp behind the flower is October Afternoon Farmhouse stamps which I stamped and used some white embossing powder on (thank you Hannah for reminding me about white embossing powder). The hello friend stamp is Amy Tangerine at American crafts and then there is a Martha Stewart butterfly and some dictionary pages in there too. For more details on how to make these beads pop over to It's A Creative World.

What boys do

2012-01-12T07:35:00.001Z

Thank you for all your comments and congratulations everyone, I love reading all your comments. This a summer photo which I took of my DS playing with his cousin....and doing what most boys do in a wood with sticks (tho theirs were log like) which is re-inact a sword fight!

I made a little journal pouch behind the title which details the day. For the page I wanted to make a polaroid style photo...but haven't managed to print any out that shape yet (will do soon tho!) so I mounted the photo on white card stock in a similar shape and wrapped twine around it. The papers are Cosmo Crickets Social Club (with a small off cut of the October Afternoon and ek success punch I used on my last page). I used lots of different punches my circle punch, book edge and abstract flower ek success punch, and I made a little bit of a stamped edge with a flower punch (the instructions are here). I layered up and stuck the photograph panel together 1st, stitched and inked all the edges, then I added some flicks of watered down white acrylic - I'm trying a dropping technique to make them more drip like rather than a flick. Once those were dry I stuck the photo panel down, then added some banners which I stuck and stitched in the top right hand corner. I cut out some tags that were on one of the Cosmo papers and mounted them on some burlap, and then stitched them into a banner - letting the sewing machine run a little between each one to space them out. I also piled my thread up on one side and stuck it with some clear drying glue, I left all the ends to make it look messy too.

American Crafts Facebook Weekly Pick

2012-01-09T20:08:00.002Z

I put this page in for the American Crafts Facebook Weekly Pick, I caught a post about it on Facebook and thought I would have a try, and didn't think that I would get very far. I nearly fell off my chair whilst we were driving to spend a weekend with the grandparents (no I wasn't driving!)...I never expected to be picked. The challenge is just to use any American Crafts paper - so Studio Calico, Pebbles and Crate Paper like mine are good too. This page uses Crate's Farmhouse line and I love the colours in that range. Today (yes today) I got a parcel in the post and it is completely stuffed with the beautiful Amy Tangerine collection lots of sheets of each one (so I can cut them up :D), lots of paper, stickers, alphas, fabric stickers, leaves, dimensional stickers...so I had to show you a few photos. It is a great challenge to have a go at and all you have to do is load up a page by Friday...each week. If you are looking for inspiration then check out their blog or their Facebook page there are lots of inspiring pages that fans have loaded up (the default on Facebook is to just show the American Crafts posts, so if you click on the Everyone button you will see all the pages people are loading up), why not load up a few of your own. So a massive thank you to American Crafts.

Gingerbread (and some exciting news)

2012-01-07T18:10:00.000Z

I know...it's the new year, but as I was shopping I came across a gingerbread house kit for a bargain price, and having wanted to have a go at one and knowing that my kids would love it I bought it. The gingerbread was all made, so all we had to do was ice and decorate it...all the bits were included. I was going for the drippy snow icing look (well maybe not quite so drippy :)) and even though it isn't that neat and tidy and perfect the kids loved making it and sticking the sweets on, and I discovered icing is a lot harder than it looks - I need some lessons. So we are now devouring the gingerbread house...and here are the 2 gingerbread men that the kids decorated.

Also I am beyond excited to have one of my pages picked by American Crafts for the Facebook Fan Friday event - you can load up pages using any of their products which also include crate paper and studio calico and pebbles and win prizes here is a link http://www.facebook.com/americancrafts

there are so many beautiful pages and projects going up on the site it is lovely to look through. Have a super weekend.

Sit a While

2012-01-03T12:54:00.000Z

It's been a long while - sorry - and I am itching to get back into scrapping again, as I got some lovely goodies for Christmas. We had a super Christmas and saw lots of family, and a fun new year with friends, and now it is back to the more regular routine which means more scrapping time for me too. So here is the only page I have managed over the last couple of weeks - I did do a thank you card too, just to play with the lovely stamp set that goes with this paper collection. The papers are October Afternoon's Farmhouse, I love the yellow grey combination and bits of blue and the doily patterns.

I started by cutting out some of the bunting and inking it too, then mounted my photo on some white card (inked again with tea dye) and stitched, I added some more OA papers being, and inked and stitched these. I layered them all up and added some Theresa Collins acetate which I also stitched. The doily ish band across the centre is my new ek success punch - abstract flower, I managed to work out the measurements to make the circular shape with it (if anyone wants them I can work them out and let you know), there is also some lace underneath. Most of the tickets and bits are from the October Afternoon miscellany pack for Farmhouse and also one of the cocktail stick little flyer packs they have. The brads are MME and the butterflies were made with my Martha Stewart punch, a few flicks of blue patina glimmer mist and a Cosmo Cricket tiny type alpha, and that completes my page. The photo is from May time last year, I realised I hadn't scrapped it and it is of our camping trip and all the kids on a farm gate just as we embarked on a geocaching adventure which became a little damp...there was also a classic moment where we went to see a beautiful picturesque view up the top of a steep hill....that was almost completely obscured by a misty rain!

I hope you have all had good holidays and wish you all a happy new year.

Hot chocolate

2011-12-24T20:28:00.000Z

My first instagram photo on a page! Quite so big the quality of the photo isn't soo good, but I love the grainy effect it gives. So for this page a complete mix of supplies...mostly Crate Papers Farmhouse (I love it :)) and some Tim Holtz tissue tape and my doily stamp. I started with the photo, and matted this on brown card stock and then inked and ruffled the edge. I cut out a few contrasting pieces of paper from the farmhouse range and inked, ruffled and stitched them. I used my EK success circle book punch down the edge of one. I also added a glassine pocked for journalling behind the photo (courtesy of another of Hannah's beautiful kits) and a K and Co journal tag (I just found the book in my stack...it had been lost for some time!). The green lace was from Art from the Heart's beautiful packaging and I added some twine here. Under the photo I used one of the offcut strips that are on the bottom of the farmhouse papers, and some prima lace too.

I meant to stamp my doilies before I stuck the paper down....however I didn't remember and couldn't get the papers off easily! So I masked the area and stamped them....but that left a large gap (don't ask) so I used one of the crate paper stamp edge stickers to cover it! I piled up some chipboard embellishments in the corners, and some of the paper ones....adding some stitched swirls of steam from the cups, I used some mini tags on the other side and decorated them...then a bit of tissue tape in the top corner with some vintage buttons and a few splatters of glimmer mist to each corner. There you go my 1st instagram page.

The photo is of my kids enjoying a hot chocolate at the end of the pier where my Grandma lives....when we visit they love to walk down the pier and stop for a drink...it's all covered and you can look out to sea - so it was lovely to catch this moment in a photo.

I want to wish you and your families all a fantastic Christmas

Cookies in a Jar

2011-12-19T22:23:00.001Z

Over at It's a Creative World I have posted a recipe and instructions for making cookies in a jar - they make great gifts and are easy to make (as you can see my layers aren't that great, but the jar was a little wide!). Anyway here is the link http://itsacreativeworld.typepad.com/its_a_creative_world/2011/12/cookies-in-a-jar.html

Christmas Tags

2011-12-19T20:12:00.000Z

I keep looking over at Tim Holtz 12 tags....and they are beautiful and I want to have a go, so that is on my list to look out for next year. However it did inspire me to created some of my own tags, and I have quite a few kraft tags left from my November Handmade Hannah kit...so here are 3 I managed to put together quite quickly. The papers and embellishments are from Hannahs October kit and are MME, with some Crate Paper Chipboard, and echo park journalling page for the sentiments - not sure where the snowflakes and snowman are from. Here are the tags in a little more details.

I choose the gingerbread chipboard piece to be the centre of this tag, and then started on the background. I used my Martha Stewart doily lace punch (still one of my favourites) and cut out and punched several strips of paper in the candy cane red and white. I inked the edges, then stuck them down and zig zag stitched along each side. I cut inked, stitched and ruffled a green mount for my gingerbread man and then stappled the saying underneath.

The snowman tag started with some watered down white acrylic paint, which I flicked over the tag. I then cut a small hill for the snowman and inked the edges, I added the stickers and stappled the sentiment - didn't even need to put any glitter on as the pieces are all glittered.

I've seen this Christmas tree over on WeScrap so thought I would put it on a tag. It is great for using up off cuts of paper, I literally just cut strips of paper and then rolled them around a skewer and stuck them together with double sided tape. They now resemble straws, so I then cut each straw down to make the triangular shape just taking a small amount of the end and building it up. I glued this down with a wet glue, and add a chipboard and stickled star to the top (think this is maya road). I used a scrap of my doily edge punched paper and put it under the tree and then two strips (again the remnants of the doily edge punching) on the bottom which I added some stickles dots to. Once the tree was fry I added some red gems and my sentiment.

It was a lovely change to have a go at making these and I was surprised how quickly they came together....and I already have plans for them.

Surf

2011-12-14T15:56:00.001Z

Another summery page....just as it gets cold! It is a surf shot of my DS from our holiday - lots of our photos are waterbased from that holiday. For this I used my spellbinders labels die to make some frames, and I also cut some out and used them as a mask of blue and orange glimmer mist. The papers are Crate Paper Farmhouse, I also had a go at using some Teresa Collins white printed acetate. So I started with the misting, and then layered up my frames for the background. I made some bunting and swirled my bakers twine using some clear drying glue and then added the little flags. I added a yellow square of Farmhouse paper behind the photo, inked and stitched it, then the acetate on top. With some of the offcuts of the label dies I layered them behind the photo, and the tiny blue bit is the journalling which pulls out from behind the photo. I also made a little tag at the bottom out of my off cuts of paper, a crate sticker and bakers twine. Then added some shells and other elements around the photo, I slid a little pile of punched paper there too (martha stewart doily edge lace), and the title is American crafts thickers - I used quite a bit of twine on this page to tie the elements together (almost literally :D)

Christmas Decorations

2011-12-13T15:55:00.000Z

Sorry everyone for not posting as often as I would like...I've been working on lots of bits, scrapping and otherwise. However I sat down last night and did another page which I will be able to share with you soon. As Christmas is getting very close I thought I would show you a couple of decorations that I have made. I saw a cotton spool decoration over on twopeas and this is my version using some of the lovely Teresa Collins papers and ribbon and twine. I also made a little angel - these angel decorations are part of my childhood as I always seemed to make one at some point on the run up to Christmas! They are really easy to make, you start with a semi circle of paper and then curl it into a cone, cut out a another slightly smaller semi circle for the wings, and you can add a doily semi circle too (stick these onto the cone at the back). I then wrapped some ribbon and lace around my one, and added a vintage button for the head - if you are doing it with kids then a circle they can draw the face on, some wool for hair and lots of glitter for the body and wings - you can make them any size. All the papers and bits of twine and ribbon were from Hannahs November grab box and are from Teresa Collins, the spool and button were the only bits out of my stash.

Smiles

2011-12-06T20:18:00.001Z

I made this page using the Prima Build-a-Page sketch for this month....it had a banner and lots of lovely shapes so I had to have a go. This is a photo from our half term trip to Dover Castle...which was quite breezy and here I am with my boys at the top of the tower.

I used Prima's Pixie Glen papers, and then a few left overs of Flights of Fancy (the butterflies and the text paper). I started making the background sheet - I made my own templates out of card and then adjusted it to fit the size I wanted (just by cutting it smaller!), then I distressed and inked and stitched it. I made a smaller thin strip of the same shape from the flights of fancy paper to add another layer. I mounted the photo on some white card and inked it with tea dye distress ink, and then transformed one of the Pixie Glen journal cards with some dictionary paper and some words that are on the back of the papers, I inked, distressed and stitched them. I used my spellbinders label die to cut the journal shape, and added some liquid pearls and distress ink to this. I cut out the banner and did a double layer and then stitched this to the page, curling and distressing it, I then added some liquid pearl scallops and buttons with some string dangling down from it on the top of them. Next for some of the Prima flowers...and since I was on the page I dug out the pink ones and added a few of the smaller paper prima flowers, you can't see that clearly but I added some thread behind the buttons in the centre to give them a messy stitchy look. I also added in one of the beautiful glittery prima birds. The final embellishments were some butterflies from the Flights of Fancy paper, and my title stickers....and then a few splatters of paint and mini pearls. So quite a girly page from me which I loved making!

More Felt Flowers

2011-12-01T22:10:00.001Z

I've been making some more felt flowers from some super tutorials I have found on my blog browsing. They would make great Christmas gifts for friends, family, teachers - there are 2 different flowers one easier, one harder so do pop over to the Its a Creative World blog to have a look - there is also loads more inspiration on there too :)

You're So Sweet

2011-11-28T15:53:00.001Z

I delved into some more of my Crate Paper Farmhouse collection for a photo of my DS on holiday and his cheeky smile - we are sat in the town square and they had been playing all sorts of hiding games and just messing around before we got some evening snacks in.

I've seen a few pages with rows of banners underneath - can't find any links to say where I saw them, but that was my inspiration. Also part of the November challenge over on We Scrap was to use some material on a page, so I decided to use up some more of the massive piece of Burlap that I have. I cut a mixture of flags and crumpled and inked the edges. Next I added 2 lines of green stitching, and then zigzaged in and out with yellow thread, adding a brown button on either side. I mounted the photo on white card stock, inked around the edges. Then I started to layer up the pieces behind the photo starting with the doily and acetate from one of Hannah's grab boxes which is also where the cake, flowerk, doily piece and journal piece came from. I used my Martha Stewart Doily edge lace punch on a couple of pieces of left over card, , added these and some of the stickers and die cut pieces from the farmhouse collection as well as the American Crafts cupcake. The title is from the Farmhouse chipboard .... and one more credit goes to my sister-in-law as the red crochet flower you can see under the blue and green on is one she made for me. I added a few splats of paint and some tiny buttons and the journalling ticket behind the photo.

Traditions

2011-11-21T14:47:00.003Z

We Scrap have a November challenge and one of them was for a photo-less page, so I decided to have a go using some more of the papers from my Handmade Hannah Christmas Box. I used the Teresa Collins number piece for the background and then added some brush strokes of gesso...and then sprinkled some glitter over the top, which you can't really see in the photos. I made some smaller tags out of kraft paper, and stitched around the edge and added some ribbon to the middle. Each tag represents a tradition at Christmas in our house from decorating the tree (another Michelle tree), advent candles from my Mum - which I made out of the pearls, and then cut a flame. Nativity productions represented with a star covered in glossy accents and then some more glitter, wrapping presents decorated with a paper bow. Going to Church on the day itself - not having a stamp I had to draw this and then added some liquid pearls for the snow, then spending Christmas Day with the family - I stamped and cut out the word then added some little hearts decorated with glossy accents. I made a little rolled banner to journal the tradition. When it came to the title...I had run out of t's so I used the inverse of the sticker and then filled it with stickles glitter glue. Here is a close up of a few of the tags and details.

Christmas 2010

2011-11-21T14:47:00.001Z

Another page from Hannahs beautiful grab box Christmas kit. I decided to make a page with a mix of shots from the Christmas period mainly as I didn't have enough really good ones to make a page, so I have my DS as a sheep in his nativity, one of my eldest in the snow and another one of the presents we unwrapped on our first family Christmas celebration (we normally end up with 2 celebrations as we live far apart).

For this I made a frame using a snowflake stamp that was in my previous grab box and some black memento ink. I lightly drew the outline of the square and then stamped along the inside and outside edge using a piece of scrap paper to protect the kraft card to make my frame. I used my gesso tub to draw the circles and then cut out the paper and photos. I used pinking shears to cut the mounts for several of the circles too. I had a go at making Michelles lovely and beautifully easy Christmas trees for my 1st circle and I used a mixture of embellishments and photos in the rectangle shape. I hand wrote some labels for the pictures. Then had a go at making a poinsettia style flower to keep in with the Christmas theme, though I think it needs some perfecting - it the same method as my rose tutorial, but just with a more poinsettia shaped flower. I used the lovely flock alpha and added some stickles and one of the snowflake stickers too. I've still got another page to show you, and lots of bits left over so I think I will make some cards and Christmas decorations too.

Stitched Christmas Tree tutorial

2011-11-21T08:00:00.000Z

Here is my tutorial to show you how I made the Christmas tree embellishment on my page from Handmade Hannahs Christmas kit.

You will need

Christmas tree die cut, or your own design
needle
2 colours of green embroidery thread
funky foam or an old mouse mat
buttons or other embellishments

1. Diecut/design your own Christmas tree, then using a piece of funky foam or an old mouse mat place your tree on top and pierce holes around the edge of the tree with a needle. I do this as the foam makes it easier to make the holes, and it is easier to stitch after you have made some guide holes.

2. Using the lighter green thread sew all the way around the tree.

3. Once finished, tidy up the ends and stick them to the back of the tree using some tape.

4. The next step is to add the zig zags of thread. Using the darker thread, start by coming up through one of the holes near the base and then take it across the tree and underneath one of the outside stitches, then go across to another stitch and so on. As you get more threads across the tree start weaving them in and out.

5. Once done take your thread back through one of the outside holes and secure it on the back with tape.

6. The final part is to add some more decoration to the tree, I chose some small buttons, though you could tie little bits of ribbon, or weave ribbon through, add glitter or beads. You could use this tree embellishment on cards and tags as well as scrap pages.

I hope you enjoy making them.

Now I am 6

2011-11-17T17:21:00.001Z

Here is the page I did for Novembers colour challenge over on the crate paper blog. The papers I have used are Farmhouse and a bit of the Random collection too, the colours were fuschia, orange and navy blue. As you all probably know I have been doing Shimelles Pretty Paper Party and the inspiration for this page came from there too. There was a great page by Rahel Menig where in the centre she had a mini-book that opened out a bit like this. I started with making and layering up some banner pieces and then lightly glued and them down and stitched a couple of rows of stitching across. The centeral photo matt is a piece of 12 by 5 and then I folded it into 3 sections, I mounted my photos on it, on both sides and saved a section for journalling (and the piece for sticking it to the back).

I layered up die cuts and used my punches and placed small bits of paper behind the photo piece as well as lace. I added a piece of dusty attic chipboard to the front and inked it with brown memento ink and then added some glitter using a quickie glue pen. The final steps were to add some flicks of colour from my shimmer mists in orange, blue and fuschia.

And the best bit of news is that I got picked as the winner - soooo happy :)

All is Quiet

2011-11-15T15:44:00.001Z

Here is my first page using Handmade Hannahs Christmas grab box (goes on sale Wed 15th November), it is packed with beautiful papers, tags and embellishments and a lovely flocked alphabet. The only bits I added from my stash were the thread, buttons and stamped alpha.

These pictures show the calm before the full eruption of Christmas in the house, the tree is decorated, the stockings are laden with presents........ then the celebrations begin. The page started with a great technique my friend Shelia showed me, you use a wax candle and then rub it over your paper with an embossing folder underneath (brass rubbing really) you then paint over it with distress stains - this one is vintage photo, and you can get a nice wax effect...so I rubbed over a woodgrain folder, but didn't leave it there with just the wax showing....I traced over the wax with my silver stickles to give the woodgrain effect.

The papers are Teresa Collins and I ruffled, inked and stitched these (I was also quite frugal so the worded paper is cut in an L-shape to fit around the main paper). I made up a piece of paper ribbon with the diamond check paper, I put pleats in it, and then added some of the lovely velvet ribbon and a brad to the end. I also drew on a scallop and stitched over it with my sewing machine, then hung the stars from there. I mounted the photos on white card and inked the edges with tea dye, then I set about making the Christmas Tree which I will save for another post and write up some instructions (as it would make a nice card or tag embellishment too). I created a pocket behind the main piece of paper and used a tag for my journalling - I stuck another one of the words on the top of the tag and added some more velvet ribbon. I stamped part of my title, mounting it on foam pads and then used the beautiful flock alphabet for the main word. So that is my page - it is a beautiful kit and I have lots more plans for it.

Happiness is best shared

2011-11-14T07:45:00.001Z

A while back I was really excited to be asked to join the challenge blog It's a Creative World and it's my first post today (big smile). This is the page I have posted with some instructions for making the patchwork shapes and more detail about the LO (it's great for using up your paper scraps) - do hop over and have a look and let me know what you think here is the link - It's a creative world patchwork page.

I need a Carry

2011-11-11T08:02:00.001Z

This is a photo of my DH having to carry my DS as we were on a stoney beach and they kept getting in his crocs LOL.

For this page I used quite a few bits from my beautiful Handmade Hannah grab boxes, the doily is from the embellishments box, the date stamp is from her shop (I love it as you circle the date and add the year). The Papers again are mostly from grab boxes, crate paper Portrait (designed for weddings but it is so versatile I love it) and there is a small scrap of glitz and American Crafts too. The Rose embellishments are from the Portrait collection, and the chipboard is maya road and I managed to fit in a glassine pocket for my journalling. The alphas are Echo Park for the record and the glitter one is American Crafts, the other stamps are MME. So those are all the little bits.

I started this page by using a Crate Paper die cut to fit my photo in and then I backed it with some of the green Portrait paper and edged it with scalloped scissors. I cut up my papers and started layering them how I wanted them to look, once happy I inked the edge with black memento ink and then ruffled the edges. I layered them all up and then sorted out the glassine pocket by folding the top over and stapling some string that could hook around the teal brad. Then I started layering the embellishments, I made some flags to go down the edge of the page and added bits of book paper to these, then I slotted in the doily and added a 3 embellishment combo which includes a snowflake :) I ruffled and added a rose to the other side of the picture and a seagull pin I got in a quirky kit. I then stamped my chipboard banner, 2 are stamped with a newspaper print in broken china distress ink, and then the centre one has the Boy stamp. I covered them in PVA to add a different texture to them and then added some book pages to the 2 print ones, and finally smeared some liquid pearls over the top to give a bit of shimmer. I threaded through some twine and added the title and some more little blobs of liquid pearl.

So this is my attempt at the layered page prompt for Shimelles pretty paper party, I concentrated on lots of layering as well as keeping it fairly simple in colour (not something I often do). Hope you like it.

One Sunny Afternoon

2011-11-08T07:29:00.000Z

This is another page using the Scrap Rat November kit, and I tried a grid style page for this one (which is very hard to photograph with out the gridlines looking a bit wonky as you have to be absolutely straight - so apologies). I lightly drew the lines on with pencil and then stitched over them adding the odd bit of zig zag too. It's quite a stitching page - my first time stitching photos (normally I don't touch the photos), I used up various pieces of paper that I had already cut into to make the squares and inked and stitched around them. I made my own embellishment heart and stitched around this (I did machine stitch it 1st but it didn't look right, so I then hand stitched in the machine stitch holes).

I used one square for my journalling, then added some of those 3D circles baubbleish embellishments - they are 2 circles creased down the middle, and stitched through the centre (I lightly glue then stitch them) and I used the prima alphabet in this square too. Next one along and I had my pinking shears out to so some edging and used one of the flock rubons, down to the next line a Happy sticker from echo park mounted and edged with my pinking shears and stuck on 3D foam and a little flower and gem.

A few more shots from our canoe trip of everyone in the boat having lots of fun...still couldn't work out whether it was the kids or the adults who were more excited about getting out on the water :)

In the trees

2011-11-05T07:08:00.001Z

Another page using my Scrap Rat kit, it is a shot of my DS on the tree walk at Kew Gardens. I'm still using lots of the prompts and things I am learning from Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party, so I tried clustering and have used a photo that is smaller than 6 by4 too.The background is Echo Parks apothecary range. I did flick a few bits of the peacock coloured cosmic shimmer across the page too to add some green. I used my bind it all to give the notebook edge to the newspaper backing sheet, and then added layers of the echo park Times and Seasons papers behind the photo and stitched and ruffled them. My pile of embellishments consists of some of the times and seasons stickers, and prima flowers and birds. I placed a small piece of the news print paper in the frame...as I realised my off cut had the word son in it, I also added a flocked rub on to the corner. I cut the bunting from the Crate random paper, and then die cut some stars with my cuttlebug and added gems to the centre and ran three rows of wiggly stitching across, then I added the title and just to emphasise it a bit more I stitched a few lines at the top and bottom, journalling to the side - so a fair amount of white space on a page for me

Family

2011-11-02T07:39:00.000Z

Here is my 1st page made using the gorgeous November Scrap Rat Kit - it was lovely opening the box and seeing all the goodies and this month has lots of my favourite colours in it - the blues and teal green and some news print and that's just the papers. As I am doing Shimelles's pretty paper party I had to have a go at the patchwork prompt she gave us, plus with the photo and the title (which came off a stamp) it all worked so well! This is a shot of all of us on the tree walk at Kew Gardens...beautiful views but quite high up. I started my page with a wash of peacock blue cosmic shimmer and added a few splats - to make it go further I used a fair amount of water on my brush. I wanted to try the diamond star shape, which I have seen on a few quilts, so cut out several diamonds in 2 sizes from different pieces of papers. I then stitched around them. I added a small group of flock rub ons in the corner of the photo - they are lovely and furry. The flowers were in the kit, and I made some leaves out of the papers - I scored veins on them and inked them with green distress ink and some brown memento ink. I die cut the family title, used the alpha stickers for the rest and then a couple of the other Echo Park stickers in the pack.

Surf Play and news

2011-10-28T16:19:00.000+01:00

Another one of my pages based upon the prompts from the Pretty Paper Party over at Shimelle's - the prompt was Kraft + 1 - so mine is kraft and yellow....and looking at it now it looks quite honeycomb like!! So a mix of papers here - some Cosmo Cricket Social Club, Jillibean Soup, Echo Park and October Afternoon (the hexagons were inspired by the Cosmo Cricket website - and funnily enough kind of fit with Shimelle's prompt today). The hexagons are 2.5" and I made a little template (not perfect and cut them out, then sanded them with my pedicure tool :) I stitched around them and added some extra stitching on a few. The background to my kraft is a wash of cosmic shimmer yellow and some orange too (I taped my paper down when I did this so it didn't crinkle too much and painted it on with a brush). I arranged most of my pieces and the 2 photos and then stuck some of the hexagons down with 3D foam, next came the embellishment adding - which really is a random collection of things I had from American Crafts, studio calico tags, cosmo cricket, shell from the beach, some bakers twine. The alpha is American crafts and the brown is Lime Twist.

The photo's are from my summer holiday....I have LOTS still to scrap and most of them are on the beach :) I love both these pics - the body boards were a great investment.

I also have some exciting news - It's a Creative World is starting up again and I get to join a wonderful group of ladies and inspire you all with different projects and ideas. You can pop over and see the Design Team and some of the projects already created so you can see the sort of inspiration that will be in the posts.

A brother is a friend given by God

2011-10-26T09:46:00.001+01:00

This page has one of my favourite photos of the moment, my boys up a tree. This page has a mix of lots of different bits of inspiration, I am doing Shimelles pretty paper class and there is a prompt on distressing and wrinkling your paper which is right up my street, so lots of ink (no paint, and some fabric as lots of the distressed samples on the prompt had fabric so there is some net on my page too). The colours are from the colour pallette this week over at the colour room - I mainly used the green and blue and added hints of the other colours. The other major bit of inspiration for this was from a class they were showing for free over at Miss Arts paper school and by Stacey Cohen - she created a shadow box frame for her page and then added ruffled paper on the inside, so here is my take.

The papers are Pixie Glen by prima, and I gutted the centre piece and then using my doily lace edge punch I punched several strips 12" long, inked the edges with tea dye and then folded them around the edge of the frame. The papers behind the photo are a mix of the Pixie Glen, then some Glitz and a piece of map from a ScrapRat Kit. I inked up some Prima canvas shapes with broken china and tea dye distress ink. The tree is by Tando, and I covered it in ink and then embossing powder (silver and white) I then added some brown ink over the top which made it a similar colour to the tree the boys were in. The title is a mix of cosmo cricket mini alphabet, the word friend is from K and Co and was Handmade Hannah's grab box. A couple of prima stamps, and some netting and here are some more shots.

How Wonderful

2011-10-21T16:48:00.004+01:00

Here is my page for the 3rd prompt in Shimelle's pretty paper class and it was to use some concentration (well mine is a bit of a large concentration) and to take on a colour challenge - so this is for pallette 80 over at the colour room. I have used a mix of papers to go with the colours and some off cuts in my stash - the main piece is DCWV luxury stack and is lovely and pearlescent..another paper I look at and love but am not sure how to use! I splattered some red and blue ink over it and then layered several bit of paper. Amongst the paper there is K and Co - ancestry and jillibean chicken noodle soup, october afternoon fly a kite and WRMK (that is the title and the blue strip). I inked all the pieces with my favourite tea dye distress ink and added some stitching. The shots are old ones of my boys in the park, but I found them tucked in with some blue paper so obviously intended to scrap them with some blue. I cut some bunting out of burlap and some orange paper, I added some die cut blue stars and buttons then cluster embellished some stars around the page. I added twine and a crate paper portrait sticker, and here's my page - I'm loving the course and delving through my stash and off cuts.

Can You Stand Up?

2011-10-19T14:01:00.001+01:00

This is my first page that I have made from the prompts Shimelle has been sending out - and is based on one of the sketches by Julie Kirk. I used some of my August Quirky kit for this page, as the sassafras sunshine broadcast range seems to fit so nicely with those beachy photos. The shots are from our holiday and of my DS and his friends trying to surf on body boards....and funnily enough it dosen't really work but it was quite funny watching them try and enjoying themselves. I used some of my off cuts in all the layers of paper down the side - there is some October Afternoon - Fly a Kite as well as Sassafras indie girl and more sunshine strips. I added some zig zag to some of the strips and ribbon and lace and buttons, I also fan folded some paper to add a little dimension. The title is a mix of alphas, authentique, cosmo cricket and a kraft range (can't remember the brand). The doily shape piece is from crate papers peppermint Christmas range, I wrapped it in string and stuck a prima pearl in the middle. A little bit of bling, some stapled numbers and flicks of brown shimmer ink and this is what I came up with. Amazingly I got this done in one night (doing other things to) - I think the prompts make me more focused and there are some great sketches to use too....so here is a way for you to use up some of those strips of paper sitting in pizza boxes.

Pretty Paper Party and Grab box news

2011-10-18T15:09:00.000+01:00

I have joined in with Shimelle's pretty paper party (as I LOVE paper)....and the first challenge was to show how you stored your paper (now I am not a tidy crafter, so I am only showing you the paper....not the desk or the floor!!!). So I start with the most recently paper organised bit....I sorted all my cardstock into colours on one side, and then the other contains packs of paper rangers - kept them in ranges rather than colours.

This shot shows one of my off cut stashes....I am ashamed to say I have 2, but hopefully with the prompts I will use some more of my scraps up.

I also keep some ranges of paper in those lovely 12" plastic bags with their offcuts, and the odds and ends of previous kits.

However I do also have a few pizza boxes with either kits/recent orders or scraps or just to use as a spritz catcher!

The other news is that Handmade Hannah is having a grab box day tomorrow - Wednesday morning - Hannah has put together some beautiful kits of embellishments and they are either £10 or £20, to get all the details join her facebook group and you can find out more details on her blog

Laugh Often

2011-10-15T16:09:00.001+01:00

This is still one of my favourite collections of echo park papers (For the Record) and I'm nearly through it all now too. I'm still not absolutely sure about this page - don't know why but I LOVE the photo - it is a shot of my DS in the before mentioned canoe on our local lake, and I have no idea what he is giggling about but it is a real belly laugh and makes me smile everytime I look at it. There are a few other papers in there, like the blue dot glitz paper, and the crate paper doily, and the ticket and pin which all came in my Handmade Hannah kits. I made the fan flowers a while back, I like them as they feel quite masculine, and the swirl is from the for the record sticker sheet. I had a go at some lacing and used some blue embroidery silk - I pre-punched the holes with a needle and then stitched all the lacing. I did have a go at some more spritzing which came out a bit too bright for me (well my intention) however I wasn't able to turn the page over this time!!! (:)) so just went with it. The title I die cut on my robo - on the word laugh I added an American Crafts fake stitch edge to the letters too - the word often I had to very carefully remove from the sheet - couldn't work out any way to make the font thicker - but I am just learning.

Christmas Cards :)

2011-10-12T14:16:00.001+01:00

I know I am ahead of myself...my Christmas doesn't normally start til the end of November/start of December, but I have this great mini book kit from Handmade Hannah and I just had to make some cards - I still have more paper left to do other things with too :) I tried to do a mixture of cards and since I mostly scrap there are a few of my scrapbook ideas in there and things that I have/will use on pages too.

Firstly my Christmas Bauble...I traced around the crate paper chipboard piece to make the shape, then cut it out 3 times, and folded in the middle. I created a mount for my bauble with a little stitching and my deckle edge scissors then lightly stuck the bauble down just in the middle, then stitched down the centre and pulled the layers up - the benefit of these shapes are they will go flat for posting, but can fluff up when they arrive.

Next - I have seen lots of this kind of arrow patchwork background around at the moment, so I had to have a go (going to try it on a LO too), I made a template and cut the pieces out of several offcuts of paper (great offcut user upper) then stuck them on some kraft paper and stitched along the edges, I added the chipboard snow globe to the centre and wrapped some twine around it and glittered the snow with stickles, the tag is from echo park.

This card is my husbands favourite - he prefers plain :) I die cut the word Joy and stuck it on twine, to hide where the twine goes it is sandwiched between the scalloped edge paper borders and the hole I cut in the card. I added some of the bauble paper behind on the card too, and some glitter (it is for Christmas)

My final card uses the strip of presents on the echo park journal block and I cut out some of the presents too. I played with my craft robo and die cut the scalloped circle shape out (free download from ukscrappers and created by MaryAnne - thank you). I drew on some extra stitching with my black gel pen and of course glittered Father Christmas. I hope that has given you all some inspiration :)

Sometimes I like watching you play

2011-10-10T07:26:00.000+01:00

There have been a few pages involving me recently and my DH took this shot of me - and I like it (maybe it's cos I have my back to the the camera LOL). I am sat watching my kids and their cousins having a go in a Canadian canoe at our local lake, I was in charge of supervising the kids on the bank and feeding them whilst the boys took them out in the boat.

I am still trying to perfect my misting, so this is the 2nd go at misting (I should show you the back of the page :)) - I masked a strip down the middle and then used a doily mask and spritzed some yellow and green - I wanted a subtle mist effect - still not quite perfect but I am learning. I then dug out my prima pixie glen stamp and cut a circular hole in a sheet of paper and stamped out a circular image, I also did 2 smaller 1" circles (used a punch) and stamped those in the diagonally opposite corner with some tattered rose distress ink. I used up some more of my Scrap Rat August papers for this - Echo Park Victoria Gardens, and cut out lots of the roses, then added some rectangular pieces and a a doily - and a journal tag giving the details behind the photo. A few Martha Stewart butterflies (they have to be one of my most used punches), some liquid pearls and stickles - and a quote off the echo park papers and this is what I came up with. The title is part hand written and the other part authentique stickers. So quite a girly LO for me, and a good bit of white space I have resisted adding anything more as I'm not sure what to add....so here it is for now.

The Scraprat September kit is out now, so click here to go and see it (there are canvas shapes and crate paper chipboard lots of lovely things) and click here to see what the design team have come up with.

You are a Star

2011-10-05T07:44:00.000+01:00

I had a go at an inky LO of my eldest, this is shot from a while back when he met up with his cousins and played in the local woods. He is a star - he is thoughtful and considerate, he looks after his younger cousins really well, he always wants to do what is right (even if he is cross about and doing it he needs to do the right thing for himself as much as everyone else). So on that basis the LO has quite a lot of stars on it - I die cut them using a cuttlebug die and then lightly attached them to the page and spritzed with cosmic shimmer mist, and I flicked a few drops over too, then I added some gesso stars too, using the same templates and spreading gesso over them. Lastly I stitched around a few too.

The papers are prima's pixie glen range, which are soft blues and pinks - they have a patterned side but on the other are smaller 6 by 6 squares and journal blocks and strips, so I cut out several pieces from the B side. I inked and ruffled the pieces, made a fan folded strip of paper and punched some....and did a laced section. The flowers I made using the rose tutorial out of some of the mulberry printed papers in the range, the chipboard swirl is by tando and I ruffley painted it with white acrylic. I also used some fabric resist pieces again from prima - the bird, clock and heart and inked them with distress ink. I also tucked in a pin and a metal frame. The alphabet is an authentique mini and some more of my pink paislee distressables - I'm loving them at the moment as you can make them any colour you like, I inked it darker at the bottom just to try a different effect with them. Finally I added some little bits of liquid pearl and some mini star buttons, lace and crystal decorations of my sisters wedding cake!

Christmas Mini :)

2011-10-01T13:55:00.002+01:00

I know - I'm sitting in my summer clothes typing this post on a very warm....summerish day and posting about a Christmas Mini. Hannah has put together a beautiful Christmas mini kit (there are only a couple left) over in her shop Handmade Hannah packed with MME papers and Crate Paper chipboard pieces and other goodies. This is the first of my creations with it (I still have more than half the kit left). I hadn't scrapped any pictures from last years Christmas (don't know why) so I cropped and printed them out in 3 by 2 and black and white. The basis for this album is a card kit my MIL gave me - the card was square but I fancied making it in a circular shape, so same principle but different shape. The basis of the album is to cut out 4 circles, then fold them into quarters, cut along one of the quarter lines into the centre, and then on the quarters on either side of that cut you need to fold them in half again (this helps the album fold up - you'll see in the photos). Having done this to all 4 circles you are ready to go.

I cut the circles in the kraft paper - you can use a plate, a circle cutter, a compass...and I made all the folds but didn't stick it together 'til I had decorated the pages. I then cut out 1/4 circles from the MME papers and stitched and ruffled the edges. I put all my journalling on the bottom 1/4 circle (the one with the fold in the middle) and added photos and chipboard elements to the top 2 sides. I added a little of my own bling to this section to make it look like a string of fairy lights.

You have to stick together your 4 folded circles together once you've made them 3d (basically you overlap the 2 folded quarters and stick them together) so the gap inbetween them is perfect for some more journalling and one of the echo park journal cards you get.

I added a line of stockings to this page, you can lift them out the way to get a better view of the pictures. I wanted my album to be decorative as well as containing all the memories.

This one has some flag bunting and a chipboard frame and you can see the tag too.

And finally a row of buttons, and a few glittered house embellishments

The back I kept fairly straightforward after all the decoration inside - and when the album is open it doesn't get seen, so just the chipboard Merry Christmas.

I added some bakers twine to use as a tie to hold it all together or all open. This could work as a special card, or Christmas decoration - I'm going to leave mine out as part of the decorations this year for family to take a look at. Hopefully the thought of winter and Christmas has cooled you on this beautiful day :) and you can see Hannah's album here.

Beach Games

2011-09-28T13:42:00.002+01:00

I decided to have a go at the color room challenge again this week, here's the pallette.

I'm still working my way through my summer photos - still got lots of beach shots to scrap. This LO mostly consists of the remnants of my Handmade Hannah mini book kit - and grab boxes. So the papers are MME Sunshine with a little Crate Paper portrait thrown in too. I had seen a technique on Ingvlid Blome blog where she used a mask as a stencil and I assume painted in the middle - well that is what I did - I added a few bits of paper first and then I drew around and adjusted my prima corner mask in black gel pen, then I painted the middle with some glimmer mist. I used the remaining mist to splatter the page. I re-layered all my paper that I didn't have to draw on and inked and ruffled the edges and stuck it down. I ruffled my piece of burlap on a piece of double sided tape and then zig zag stitched it through my sewing machine, and added a few buttons and a pin. I used my maya road doily to make another bakers twine wrapped embellishment and a few of the paper die cuts from the Crate Paper toy box range. This is my first title that I cut on my silhouette - I am finding my way around the software and after a bit of playing I managed to cut it with a shadow piece of paper, as my papers didn't stand out as much as I wanted I doodled the word Beach on top and then painted it with a slightly watered down bit of glimmer mist, the rest of the title is authentique mini stickers.

So here are my kids playing on the beach - the faces of concentration - I personally always have a bit of a nightmare with beach bat and ball - the beach needs to be empty or else I can't play as otherwise I hit someone!! Amazingly I don't think they did at all :)

Lego

2011-09-26T07:23:00.000+01:00

This is a LO from Handmade Hannah grab box, I've used some of the crate paper toybox and portrait papers and also echo park country drive. The die cuts and stickers are crate paper portrait and toybox and the alphabet is pink paislees mistables. I started this with my shot of my youngest playing with his new lego fire station - lego is big in my house and this was his birthday present from us and there were LOTS of bags, but he happily sat down and started building it all. I layered my papers up and marked the area where I put them in pencil. Next I used my prima brick mask and sponged gesso (also in Hannah's shop) onto the paper, once dried (I did help it along with a heat gun) I then added some splats of red glimmer mist (this is also what I spritzed onto the lego title). Whilst it was completing it's drying I inked and ruffled and stitched the edges of my papers - I put the photo in one of the toybox die cuts and stitched some zig zag on that and added a year sticker tab. Once dry I put my papers back where they were meant to be, and then started adding the embellishment die cuts, and some pompom ribbon and a maya road doily. I stuck the fire engine and helicopter and number six down with foam pads to give a little more dimension here are a few more close ups - with all the die cuts this was quite a quick LO for me...and I still managed to get some paint and mists on it :)

Rose Flower tutorial

2011-09-23T08:06:00.000+01:00

This tutorial is another mix of things that I have seen on the web, but it dosen't really require anything more than paper and scissors and glue...you can add some distress ink colour if you like too.

So here are all the bits you need, a scrap of paper, scissors, glue and some distress ink which is optional.

Cut out 4 rough circles getting smaller

Make 5 triangular snips into the circles for the petals - dosen't matter how even you are or if one petal is narrower than the other.

To round off the corners just snip them off and this gives you more rounded petal shapes

Ink the edges, for this flower I have used tea dye distress ink, the ones on the LO were using broken china.

Using a cocktail stick curl each of the petals under except for the smallest flower

The smallest flower becomes the bud centre, so you pull the petals up and twist them a little - I use a bit of glue to try and make it stay together

Then add a bend upwards at the base of each of the petals so the flower takes on a basket like shape

Add a dot of glue to the centre of the largest flower and layer up the flowers, off setting them as you go.

Use the cocktail stick to hold the flower together until the glue starts to stick it

I also pull up the petals a little bit more and shape them

You can then add any glitter or rock candy to make dew drops. Hope you have enjoyed it and please link me in if you have a go at this as I would love to see your creations.

I also have some exciting news as my LO Toastin' that I did based on the color room pallette is one of their featured LOs...really excited.

Vintage Photo Frame

2011-09-21T14:51:00.003+01:00

Hi everyone, just a quick post to let you know that my tutorial and also one from Alexa using gesso are over on the scraprat blog today. I covered the frame in one of the vintage atlas pieces you got in the kit, and then added some crackle glaze ink and a few embellishments - there are step by step instructions so do go over and have a look.

Toastin

2011-09-19T16:07:00.000+01:00

This is my first LO that I have done using the color room palette, here are the colors.

This LO is a shot of mine and my friends kids toasting marshmallows on the bbq whilst we were camping in France this year. The papers I have used were from the quirky kit, and are sassafras sunshine broadcast and American Crafts peachy keen. I ruffled and layered up and stitched my papers, I had a play with my new ek success punch to create the torn book page border, and inked and crumpled that too. I cut out some swirls with a Tim Holtz die and then coated it in gesso and inked over in distress inks. The flowers are made the same way as on my charm boy LO, and a tutorial will follow shortly. I gathered some netting on a piece of double sided tape and placed it under my papers, and a piece of ribbon below that. I added some chipboard clouds and swirls of bakers twine stuck down on glue. I made a little butterfly embellishment using my Martha Stewart butterfly punch, and layering on a 1" punched circle, I then mounted this on white cardstock and cut around it with scallop edge scissors. I then wrapped bakers twine around the circle and stuck the butterfly in the centre and a pear shaped pin behind.

I did get in the sea

2011-09-17T11:56:00.000+01:00

This is my proof that I do occasionally go in the sea....it has to be hot for me to get in the sea, and I love body boarding too. I used the August quirky kit for this page, and had a play with my new gesso and a new spellbinders rose die too. I started by using a prima mask with the gesso, I made me own piece of card and used it to scrape and paste the gesso on the mask, I then layered up my pieces of paper. The papers are mostly sassafrass sunshine broadcast, American crafts peachy keen and the text is GCD studio soul food. I also added in a section of doily, the ribbon came in the kit and I cut this in half and layered it up as it is really thick. My new purchase was the spellbinders rose die and I had seen a tutorial over on such a pretty mess that I had to have a go at. I made the flowers out of some of the American crafts paper and manuscript paper, and then added a twine swirl to it all and sponged on some bits of gesso. Here are some close ups.

Strawberry Flower Tutorial

2011-09-15T07:14:00.000+01:00

A long while ago....I had a request for a tutorial (from Hannah of Young and Crafty) to show how I made these strawberry flowers you can see the LO here. The flowers are based on a picture I saw on the studio calico fabrips packet I had....and you will notice that I stitched the ones on this LO together, but they don't need to be stitched as I had to do all the other steps to keep them together anyway.

For this I used a sizzix die - the circles are about 2cm in diameter, size of a 1pence piece, though it would work for any size circle. I used some white paper, brown distress ink and a yellow button and tape.

You need 4 circles for the petal and then one for the base.

Ink 4 of the circles around the edges, I used tea dye distress ink.

With a pencil curve the petal around the pencil

Cover the bottom of the plain circle with double side tape or glue, then start to add the petals.

Once all of the petals are added you can curve them up a little more

Add a yellow button to the centre, thread it through with some string and stick it using a dimensional glue - like silicon so that it doesn't crush the petals. For strawberry leaves, I spritzed some card stock to the colour I wanted and then cut leaf shapes out using pinking shears, then I used an embossing tool mark veins on and then inked the edges and some of the embossed area with distress ink. I hope you enjoyed that and if you do make any do leave me a link as I would love to see them.

Charm Boy

2011-09-12T08:18:00.000+01:00

This is another LO from my scraprat kit, and a shot of my DS on holiday. He is a very charming boy, he met some girls in the jacuzzi....I was assuming they were 7/8 but when I met them they 14/15 and he hung out with them at the pool and the evening movie - made me smile! I got my mists out for this LO, and started by using my circle mask on the white cardstock and the green mist. I also misted some of the large scalloped pink paislee ribbon with a mask over the top in blue, and then added some lines of zig zag stitching. I used a large rectangle of the green victoria gardens paper as it matched the green in my photo, and some of the vintage atlas - I inked and distressed the edges, and added a little more stitching. I made some bunting out of the manuscript paper and added the first part of my title to this. For the mistable chipboard letters I just rubbed over broken china distress ink. I made the flowers (this is probably tutorial worthy - I do have a little list of things I should show you :)) by cutting out circles and then 6 petal flower shapes and inking and curling them up, then made the leaves out of some spritzed paper and an embossing tool to get the veins. Here are some more shots.

Catching Waves

2011-09-08T15:33:00.000+01:00

We have lots of summer shots of us all body boarding, it did end up getting a little too rough for the kids to go in and board, but the adults enjoyed it then. This is another LO from my Scrap Rat Kit using the MME, Breeze paper, and some Echo Park, Victoria Gardens and Pink Paislee resistables. I started this LO with mounting the photos on some white card and then arranging them on the green papers to work out how large the rectangles needed to be. I then cut some of the large and medium resistable fabric to go under the photos. To create the blue edge I punched some 1 inch circles and masking taped them and the fabric inside a pizza box to act as a mask on the the fabric and then spritzed them with some home made broken china mist. Once this had dried (which was fairly quickly I then went over the line with some blue stickles). I worked out where my papers and photos were going on the MME paper and did a little bit of cutting with a craft knife in the top right and bottom left hand corners...also I realised my papers would cover a beautiful butterfly so I cut out the area of paper that would be behind my green rectangles sand cut out the butterfly which I glittered and stuck on the page. I added some white acrylic prints using some corrugated card, and stitched and ruffled all my papers. I made some toothpick flags out of the off-cuts of paper and spritzed my mistable title with the peacock blue mist, and then flicked a few bits around the page. I curled and ruffled and stitched all my bits of paper, and gathered the mistable fabric so it rippled, added a few of the brads and this is what I came up with. I will try and do a little tutorial for the mistable flower that I made - just need a sunny day :)

Is It Cold?

2011-09-05T07:22:00.000+01:00

Here is my 2nd scrapfactor class LO, if you would like the pdf then head over to Ukscrappers (or click here if you want to go straight to the post), and if you do have a go then leave me a link as I would love to see what you create. This is a shot from last year, my kids love going in the sea...thought this photo was taken in May and I'm not sure the sea was quite as warm as he expected. Most of the papers for this LO were from a Handmade Hannah grab box and are echo park country drive, though there is a little cosmo cricket social club in there too. I used corrugated card and bubble wrap to do some printing, and made a ruffle with some seam binding and a flower out of book paper...there are full instructions and a list of what I used in the pdf, so I hope you enjoy creating with it.

Camping in the Gower Mini book

2011-09-03T08:21:00.001+01:00

Here is my mini album made from the beautiful kit at Handmade Hannah. For the album I decided to use some photos from our May holiday to the Gower Peninsular in Wales. For the basis of the album I used the A4 kraft paper and cut it in half..which made for a bit more fiddling to get the 6 by 6 paper to to cover, as I had to trim it down to 14cm :) For the front cover I watered down some white acrylic paint and gave a wash, and then flicked some. I used one of the tags for the title, and then mounted it on some of the paper, which i inked and stitched around, then I added a pleated border using my doily edge punch (I cut some strips of white paper/card and inked with tea dye distress ink and then pleated it around the card). I added a button and pin...and that was my 1st page.

So I'll let you flick through the album now without too many more words - I love all the envelopes in the kit, as it has encouraged me to journal lots of bits that would have been forgotten otherwise.

I like the window in the kraft envelope as it makes it become a mini-page. I made a patchwork of paper for the 2nd page (note I am fairly thrifty with my paper, and where it isn't seen have been known to cut it out... so the patchwork isn't across the whole of that page, there are 4 full sized rectangles, then 2 small oddments down the side of the 1st picture)

I stuck the flower on one of the acetate tags...you could colour in the other side or ink it too. These photos are off some of the geo-caching we did on holiday. On the first page I also had a go at a resist technique....I stamped my woodgrain image across the background in some white stazon, and then coloured over the top with the tea dye distress ink which gives a subtle bark effect to the page.

I got some shimmer mists, and for my treasure shot I misted the background using a prima mask and some brown mist.

I doodled a border around the plate spinning photo to match the tag - this was our circus skills day at the heritage centre.

I used up quite a few odds and ends of paper on the glassine envelope and folded the top over and stapled a loop of string to catch the button.

Another day....another cache ....and a little bit of paint.

For the last page I used one of the acetate photo frames over my picture - I just secured it in the corners with some clear drying glue.

Just a small decoration on the back - I used my big bite to punch the holes through (did draw them on in pencil before :)) and then threaded them with string....and that was my half term holiday :) Hope you enjoyed having a look.

September Kit Pages - Son Shine

2011-09-01T10:32:00.001+01:00

This LO is a shot of my DS on the beach on holiday - complete in all his sun gear and new hat....so I called it Son Shine made from the goodies in the Scrap Rat September Kit... it's packed with goodies ( my favourite kit yet) - My Minds Eye, Pink Paislee, Echo Park, Authentique and those vintage bits. If you need some inspiration then check out the Design Team Gallery, I am going to post my pages over the next few days so that I can give you a bit more detail about what I did with all those goodies (and so it isn't the most mammoth post!)

For the LO I used some of the Sunshine MME paper as the base, and layered up a couple of the echo park pieces of paper...they were white and grey so to warm them up I coloured them all over in tea dye distress ink (this is what I also used to colour the title - just rub it over and the white resist on all the letters shows up). I used my Martha Stewart doily edge lace punch down the edge of these 2 pieces of paper and ruffled and stitched them, I also added some of the trim inked with tea dye distress ink behind the punched pieces. For the photo I used the MME Acetate overlay which I stuck in the corners with 4 dots of clear glue. I also inked and tore some of the manuscript paper and added this behind the papers and the gold backed playing card. Next I started to plan my stitched swirls and I lightly drew them on in pencil and then pin pricked the holes, rubbed out the pencil and stitched the swirls. I made a flower out of the mistables trims and painted on some brown tea dye (just used a paint brush a little tea dye ink on my mat and some water). I stitched it into a flower and added some watered down stickles and a brad with some punched flowers for the centre. I added a couple more bits of stitching, one to the manuscript paper and some cross stitches to the trim. I made a coffee stain using a glass and some distress ink in the top corner of the page, and then some Martha Stewart butterflies which I layered and stitched down the middle. Hope you enjoyed that :)

Bloom and Grow and some peaks

2011-08-31T09:45:00.001+01:00

I did this LO as a survival one for scrapfactor but didn't get to use it - thankfully. Another mix of papers on here - the ledger piece is MME, and the others are a mix of MME Jack and Jill and echo park for the record - this is a real use up your stash with the strips of paper. This is one of my favourite shots of my young man out and about - he's growing up so fast. The flowers are die cut with the Tim Holtz tattered rose die and then I water distressed them, layered them up and stuck buttons threaded with yet more string through the middle. The lace flowers are literally some lace that I stuck around a small 1inch circle that was covered in tape - you pleat it as you go around and they come out really well. For the circles I used a collection of plates in various sizes from around the house. I made the scalloped bit around the edge of the circle with a one inch circle punch....you will notice that it goes up to the flowers as it wouldn't have worked to go all around the circle :) so the not quite joining up right bit is hidden away. The leaves are cut out green cardstock inked and then wrapped around some flower stems and the alpha is a glittered American Crafts thickers set. A few dots of paint and my martha stewart doily lace punch - still love that pattern, some doodling around the scallops.

Also here are some peaks of the September Scraprat kit which gets revealed tomorrow. It's beautiful and full of lots of lovely goodies and beautiful papers.

Aim, Fire

2011-08-26T07:29:00.001+01:00

Another grab box LO, this is done using some more Crate Paper - Portrait, Echo Park - Country Drive and Glitz papers, toy box embellishments and a maya road doily......and some twine :) I finally found a site (which I can't remember) that had a method for sticking twine and string like things in wavy patterns on your LO - so here is the tip - use some wet glue that dries clear in a tube with a fine nozzle - I found a scotch acid free glue in a tube in my local shop, mark lightly in pencil on your LO the swirly path you would like the twine to take, then squeeze out line of glue - just small bits at a time. On my LO I did the right hand side portion down to the doily in one go, then carefully lie the twine on top. The nice thing about the scotch glue is it dries fairly quickly - and is very much like PVA just with a nice nozzle :) The other twine item I had spotted on my blogging journeys was Hannah's flowers - I cut a small circle out of card and then placed glue on it, and twirled the twine around, placing a button in the centre - they are so easy to do and work really well on boy LOs too as they aren't overly flowery (not that that stops me).

This LO is some shots from our holiday in May where we all had a go at archery - twice it was so good.... the journalling is on an echo park block behind the photos. The inspiration for this LO was from the archery boards - I cut the circles out using a mixture of plate and compass, then inked, stitched and distressed the edges. Before I put the photos on I flicked the paper with some water down white paint, and then once dry stuck my photos and all the embellishments on. The title is girls paperie - ecclectic - the Fire didn't stand out enough in the biege colour so I covered it in firebrick distress ink - took quite a while to dry. So here are some close ups, and some close ups of the flowers.

Nestled in the Woods

2011-08-22T07:20:00.000+01:00

Here is my first page using my grab box stash, this is a shot of my youngest in some woods near his grandparents house....of course up a tree :) I liked the nature elements of the prima paper and the colours seemed to fit well with the picture....the other thing I noticed on this paper was that Prima give you a little block of colours, along the cut off strip, that co-ordinate with the paper which I think is a great idea and can make it easier matching everything together. I started the page by cutting around some of the leaves and bird nest so that would be able to pop over my picture. I mounted the photo on some white cardstock and then used some prima stamps to stamp around the edge - to co-ordinate with the paper stamping around the edge, and inked it with tea dye distress ink and then ruffled the edges. I then layered up the glitz papers that were in my pack and matched with the prima colour blocks, stitched and inked and ruffled them and used a cocktail stick to curl down the right hand corners. Once I knew how large these pieces were I think carefully cut a chunk of the prima paper out so I could use the other side - the dotty yellow/brown piece and inked and ruffled that too. I then spritzed using my broken china distress ink mix on to the prima paper - just a little bit of blue.

The flowers are made from the glitz papers using the rose tutorial, and I added some leaves and rock candy stickles to them. I also found a bird stamp which I coloured with some pro-markers and cut out, and punched a mini butterfly from some left over paper - then doodled the wings (loosely copying the prima ones) on to it. I used some of my crate paper die cut sheet for the photo corner and the boys will be boys piece, and the brown envelope that came in the box hides my journalling. For the envelope I used the crafty individuals woodgrain stamp - I cut a small rectangle for the mask and then stamped over the envelope and hand-wrote Notes on it. I added a small tag and some seam binding. The alphabet is glitz (came in my last grab box) - little bit of glossy accenting on the butterflies and here are some close ups :)

Butterfly Birthday Card

2011-08-20T12:47:00.000+01:00

Here is a quick birthday card that I made using Hannahs grab box - there are still a few boxes left and they are packed with lots of different patterned papers from echo park, prima and glitz and embellishments - doilies, twine,pockets..lots of goodies. I love butterflies - so I stamped up my crafty individuals butterfly in brown stazon on some of the glitz paper then cut around it. I used the back of an echo park journalling card for the mount, and stuck my butterfly on. I had some old wire from a wedding favour (if you use wire clippers on a paper clip it could work too - must try that) and I curled some antenna using a cocktail stick, stuck those behind my butterfly and then added a few gems for the body. Once that was all done I put some stickles in a blob on the wings and with a wet paint brush brushed the stickles across the wings - so you just water down the stickles a little bit. I then bent the wings up a bit (tho I know they will flatten when I post the card - might have to leave instructions for my friend to 3d them again :)). I added some twine across the bottom of the card (there has been a blog hop at the twinery...and there are lots of twine ideas so if you need some inspiration click here). I hand wrote 8 and the happy birthday - and hopefully she'll enjoy the card...and the present :)

My boys and grab box news

2011-08-16T21:01:00.001+01:00

I had this LO tucked away and was reminded by the news of more Handmade Hannah grab boxes of which I am a huge fan....tomorrow morning they go on sale at 8am (Wednesday) - so get one if you can they are packed with lots of lovely items. This LO compiled from lots of goodies from my last box consists of a rare shot of me...and my boys in the bluebell woods, we cycled in just before the bluebells faded in April. The papers are mostly Echo Parks country drive tho there is a little MME too. I made the flowers from some poundshop organza - I cut some circles and then melted the edges VERY carefully over a candle, and layered them up, either stitching or bradding (new term) them together. There are some DCWV green chipboard pieces in there and prima pearl swirls. For the circle I used a plate and then punched out some circles which I cut in half - once these were all stuck in place I then stitched over it a couple of times. A few flicks of paint and some punched out butterflies using a Martha Stewart punch, a little doodling and a girls paperie alphabet, and nearly forgot the sun and clouds - and all put together. So I encourage you to grab a box and have a play :).

Woodland Walk

2011-08-15T08:51:00.000+01:00

Good Morning everyone, back from my hols now and this is my first LO class for UKscrappers. You can go over to the site and download the pdf to create this LO. The papers are Cosmo Cricket Social club with some jillibean soup and october afternoon in there too. I did a white wash for the background, and some paint flicks then lots of machine stitching a little hand stitching for the suns rays and made some rosette flowers - so lots of different techniques you can have a go at. Do let me know if you have a go at this class at all or play around with any of the techniques as I would love to come and have a look. The link for the class is here - have fun.

You love to Climb

2011-08-09T11:08:00.000+01:00

This LO is another park shot from Mothering Sunday, this park has some super climbing frames and with a bit of a hand we got both of them up the frame and ready to pose for a photo. The papers I have used for this are from Cosmo Crickets Social club. I created the diecut from one of my stencils and then edged it with blue paper which I cut around with scalloped scissors. There is quite a bit of stitching on this LO, I wanted to have a go at some free stitching (which I think means taking the foot of your machine - if it dosen't - that is what I did). I stuck some hessian having frayed it a bit on the page and then stitched around it. I layered up lots of different strips behind the photo and added the stitched lines across the edge of the die cut. I've seen lots of little flags so with a cocktail stick, some paint and old book pages and a stamp I made myself some. I also added some blue paint splots that I sprinkled some embossing powder on and gently heated. The title is jillibean soup corrugated card and cosmo cricket mini alphabet. I covered the corrugated alpha in blue paint and then dry brushed green and then white paint on the edges, a few buttons and this is the result. Not so much time for crafting at the moment, but lots of photo taking of my kids - I'll have a big photo order soon :)

Also if you want some inspiration then there are classes to do on the home page of ukscrappers each week during the summer all in pdfs that you can download.

Stars

2011-08-05T08:00:00.001+01:00

I made my DS pose for some photos and here is one of them...I have some funny faces too that I will have to scrap.

I used a mixture of papers for this one - not sure where the die cut sheet came from I think it is MME, but the other papers are Cosmo Cricket Togetherness and October Afternoon - Fly a Kite with a jillibean soup journalling circle. The stars are cut with a cuttlebug set of dies, and the rocket is by sizzix. With the offcuts from the stars I cut I used it as a stencil to paint stars on the paper. There is a bit of bubble wrap print and some printing using corrugate card. The scalloped edge to my papers was done using a corner rounder punch - you take the guard off and then it works as a great edger. I used some of the circles from the die cut background sheet on this too. The other punch I have used is Martha Stewart double loop punch for around the photo. I used lots of black gel pen on this and doodled around the stars and circles, and then for the word 'stars' I just added some white gel pen dots. No flowers on this LO, but I have some more string....with knots tied in it....there really are lots of uses for it on a LO (:))

Smiler

2011-07-31T21:32:00.000+01:00

This is a photo from last year, I did this LO a while, back but hadn't posted it (I was saving up LOs for my bottom 2 in scrapfactor so I have a few stashed away :)). It is my DS sat by the beach on our holiday in France, we went out in the evenings to go and eat chi chi and beignes in the town square in the evenings and watch the entertainment. I used My Little Shoe Box Green papers for this. I hand drew and stitched the wiggley circle around the outside of the photo, and cut and layered up different papers (and added boggley eyes to the snails as they needed some). I hand drew the other stitching on this LO and made my journalling spot with a coil of pink ribbon. The alphabet is from a Brenda Pinnick kit. Thank you for all your lovely comments on my blog :) Hope you are getting the chance to enjoy the summery weather.

3 LOs from a very HAPPY girl

2011-07-25T17:39:00.002+01:00

I am soooooo HAPPY to say that I won the Scrapfactor competition over on Ukscrappers....never thought I would ever get this far and I am still wearing a very large smile :) Thank you to everyone for all you encouraging comments and support on my blog - it has meant a lot to me and inspired me too :) So here are my final 3 LOs - there is lots of detail over in the ukscrappers gallery and so I don't make this post toooo long I will spare you too many. I made this mostly with crate paper papers, and behind the photo is another photo and some journalling. It is all based around the fact that my DS loves to bring rocks home from the beach, and his first rock was too big to carry all the way back over the dunes, so we managed to persuade him with a photo of the large rock (as seen below) and a collection of crystal and fossilised rocks. The stamps are a lovely crafty individual set - I made the fishing net out of string (still finding more uses for string in my LOs), the alphabet is Tim Holtz vintage market.

My next LO is for my sister - I will frame it for her as this is my niece and it is a beautiful shot that she took of her. I love butterflies so thought I could get away with lots on a girly LO, the flowers are the tim holtz rose ones - there are lots of tutorials and one on my sidebar which links you to Linda Elbourne. The title is giggles and curls because we had recently been camping with her...and she has a mass of curly hair that I had been instructed to tame by my sister and every morning all you could hear was her and my DS giggling....still not sure what it was all about but they enjoyed themselves a lot.

My 3rd LO is a very boy LO - I dry brushed white acrylic paint and did lots of bubble wrap printing. I crinkled papers and stitched around them and added a subtitle - which is the bit that makes me smile about boys walking...the minute they see a small ditch or stream they have to go and jump over it several times...even if it is slightly out of their way :)

Below is a peak at a flower that I have made - it is a mixture of lots of bits and pieces I have picked up in my flower making and the LO and a tutorial that shows you how to make the flowers is over on the scraprat blog.

Out of the Box - baby suitcase

2011-07-18T13:29:00.000+01:00

The challenge last week on scrapfactor was a bit out of the box - you had to capture the essence of scrapping by preserving precious memories and telling a story, but it didn't have to be a LO. I have a suitcase with baby treasures for both my boys, all their tags, the newspaper from the day they were born, balloons, cds..and I decided to preserve them in prettier and more documented way. I made the suitcase from pizza boxes and I coated it with book paper and watered PVA, then painted the outside brown and spritzed it a bit. I decorated the inside and made a pocket to hold some photo tags of '1sts', and used Woodhaven papers, some sassafrass and prima bling - and I used the folded flowers too.

For the tags I used lots of printable vellum and some Memory Stor papers - and these all include 1st - 1st swim, 1st pictures, 1st Christmas and 1st steps and then a card detailing lots of information noted when he was born.

I decorated the outside and added the hospital tag from his cot.

I wrapped up each item in string and made tags detailing what they were...so the items in the box include, 1st shoes, 1st hair cut, baby tags, outfit home from the hospital, newspaper for the day they were born and cd that was number 1, the balloons my Mum loves to get and baby scans .

This week is a 3 LO challenge...so I have 3 peaks. Do go over to the gallery and have a look at what has been created.

Scrap Rat July Kit

2011-07-16T17:04:00.000+01:00

Here are the rest of the bits that I've made with the July kit so far - above is a Thank you card which I used my Martha Stewart butterfly punches on the vintage book pages you get in the kit - I used the doily lace punch on some of the paper bags you get to add a frill to the rest of the card.

This is a LO with some more of the bubble photos we got whilst we were away, I also made one of the firework flowers (see the side list of tutorials) from the october afternoon blog. I love the shape of the studio calico tags (yes I have made templates :)) and all the phrases you get on the cosmo cricket paper that you can cut and stick on.

For this LO I started with a wash of blue watercolour paint, and then started layering up my papers. I used an oragami flower tutorial to make the bluebells - quite fiddely but I was pleased with the result - I used 1" square of paper to make them. I made a gathered ribbon with the fabrips and added a few of the cabachon flowers. For more inspiration hop over to the gallery and have a look at what everyone else has been making.

Next months kit looks great...and here is one of the sneak peaks there are a few more on facebook.

Capture the Moment

2011-07-13T08:24:00.000+01:00

Here is one of the LOs I did with the July scrap rat kit - it is an old one of my Grandad and me :) I love all the extra vintage embellishments that you get with the kits - like the old printed pages and playing cards and the wooden bingo chip in the corner. For this LO I added quite a few acrylic paint prints - using various lids and jars. The tag behind the photo is one of the huge pack of studio calico tags you get in the kit and another great product is the fabrips - which are tearable sticky bits of fabric - this one has the houndstooth pattern on it. I stitched and ruffled all my bits of papers and made some swirl paper roses and leaves, adding in a few of the cabachon roses in the kit too. I stitched some of the title using the MB_Peony font as my guide and finished off with the little alpha letters. To see lots more inspiration hop over to the gallery and see what everyone has been creating. I'll post some more tomorrow.

Home Grown

2011-07-11T08:18:00.000+01:00

This was the 3-2-1 challenge for Scrapfactor - 3 different papers, 2 photos and 1 piece of black cardstock. The photo I choose was from our haul of raspberries and strawberries...which my kids help me pick (well actually mostly help me eat as not many make it to the fridge!). I worked on a strawberry flower (and already had a request for a little tutorial....which I will do :)) - I made them curling some circles and then threading them together. The leaves are made out of spritzed paper - I mix all my distress inks in the spritizer til I get the colour I want, I cut them out with pinking shears to give the edge and then dry embossed the veins on. The strawberries are embossed (swiss dots) and sanded and then glossy accented in the sepia on, I also did some little paper swirls too. I cut out the red (die-cut looking) shape - it's crate paper's portrait line) and then I stitched and added a scalloped edge border which I also inked with tea dye distress ink. I added a few more bits of papers behind the photos and some stickers (crate paper, portrait and echo park, for the record stickers). I made a journalling spot and added a pearl bead swirl and some jenni bowlin chipboard buttons. A few spots of paint and a glossy accented martha stewart butterfly and a touch of lace.

This week the challenge was to be out of the box, and my peak doesn't quite show the full extent of how out of a box it is. We had to treasure some special memories - didn't have to be a LO but it had to capture the essence of scrapbooking and preserving memories. There is some lovely work in the gallery on ukscrappers so go have a look. You can also play along with the challenges and win prizes if you go have a look in the scrapfactor forum.

Some pages and cards

2011-07-06T22:51:00.000+01:00

I haven't yet shared the pages I made for Scrap Revolution, so here they are; my first page was made using some beautiful Websters Pages...I had heard how lovely they were, but not used them before - they are gorgeous :)

Next is a card I made using Jillibean Soup chicken noodle papers, the flower is Maya Road, and I painted and used wax crayons on it

This LO was made with Theresa Collins Board walk papers, I did a bit of alphabet masking for this. For all the details on these pages hop over to the scraprevolution blog.

What a Mess

2011-07-04T08:05:00.000+01:00

Our challenge last week on Ukscrappers Scrapfactor was to re-scrap a photo from one of our early LOs. I choose this lovely picture of my DS eating ministrone soup and coating himself in it at the same time. So here is the original LO too - using DCWV Family Stack, vellum and gel pens.

For the new LO I had a go at a couple of new techniques, the 1st was for the background. I had seen a LO with a lovely bubbley effect and remembered a paint technique we used at nursery school...must have been locked in my memory as I enjoyed it so much. All you do is get a small shallowish dish and mix up paint,water and washing up liquid and then with a straw you blow bubbles into it so that they rise above the edge of the dish. Once happy with your bubbles you then place the paper on top and it gives you a lovely bubbley print. I used red and yellow paint for mine. The papers I have used for this are from Crate Papers Portrait pack, and the yellow in there is from their restoration collection. I stitched, ruffled and layered the papers, added a piece of dictionary and cut out the definition of mess. Most of my embellishments are stars - I used the cuttlebug set of 4 star dies for all my stars and stitched them down the middle. The flower with the star centre is a firework flower which I found on the october afternoon blog. I glossy accented the star in the middle. I stitched some of the stars and added buttons and stickers too. The alphabet is Heidi Swapp and the red is from Echo Park, For the Record.

This weeks challenge on Ukscrappers is the 3,2,1 challenge - 3 sheets of patterned paper, 2 photos and 1 piece of black cardstock. Here is a peak at mine, head over to the gallery and look at all the beautiful creations, and you can play along too with the chance to win a prize on ukscrappers too.

Blog Goodies

2011-07-03T21:53:00.001+01:00

Just a quick note with some blog goodies on offer....the new Scrap Rat blog has launched here, pop over for LOs and tutorials and at the moment there is a giveaway of a Cosmo Cricket Odds and Ends Collage Kit all you have to do is leave a comment :)

Another giveaway is Gabrielle Pollaccos huge pile of goodies, there are more photos on her blog and some gorgeous LOs too :)

Scrap Rat July Kit

2011-07-01T07:57:00.000+01:00

Here are some peaks of some of my work with Scrap Rat's July kit - there are lots of lovely goodies in the kit and you can see my work and the rest of the teams work on their site so why not go take a look

Dr Watson

2011-06-28T14:45:00.000+01:00

This is one of my favourite LOs and I used it for my survival LO this week on Ukscrappers. The picture is of my DS dressed as Dr Watson for his school production of Olivia. He did a great job and really enjoyed it - he's not a huge out going character so I was so impressed and proud of him as he practiced and acted out his part.

The LO is made using some Memory Stor papers, I used the Tim Holtz (TH) clock mask and spritzed it with my own combination of distress inks mixed up. I inked the doily and ruffled all the paper edges. I die cut some cogs from silver mirror card and then inked them with brown stazon to make them look old. I used the TH swirl die and leaves die, the flowers are prima which with some buttons stitched on. A maya road chipboard bird covered in paper, and some metal embellishments from a large kit, the marcasite one is from my Grandma's button tin! A little bit of lace and I stamped some TH images for the tickets and dragon fly. I used the TH alphabet for the title and crackle painted it and dropped some perfect pearls on it too...and tied the first letters with string.

Once again, thanks for voting and why don't you hop over and see this weeks LOs in the gallery.

Delight

2011-06-27T15:42:00.000+01:00

This is my LO for scrapfactor - the challenge was not to use any patterned cardstock, so I used everything else in my stash instead. The shot is one of the early ones of my father and I...I have been assured by him that his moustache is not a handlebar one...as stated in the journalling :).

I started this page with my bazzill kraft paper and a square of hessian, and stitched around the edge in cream thread. I also splattered a little white acrylic paint around. I mounted my photo on some pink DCWV paper, and inked the edge of some cream lace with tattered rost distress ink. I added a doily and then started with all the embellishments - lots of prima flowers layered up with buttons stitched through them, some chandellier crystals, a Tim Holtz tag, and a Martha Stewart butterfly that I pinned on. The cabachon roses are earrings, and the pink rose ribbon was a headband, the chipboard bird from an American Crafts kit. The title I stitched and used a running stitch so it is a two tone.

It was a nervous weekend for me as I was in the bottom 2 - so I have another LO I will share tomorrow (one of my favourites) that I used for voting for that. Fortunately I made it through so thank you to everyone that has been voting.

This is my sneak peak of this weeks LO, the challenge is to rescrap a photo you have used before...and I found another flower tutorial to have a go at too :) please go and have a look at all the beautiful LOs in the gallery on ukscrappers.

Express Yourself

2011-06-20T14:33:00.000+01:00

This is my ukscrappers scrapfactor LO for last week, the challenge was to use texture, so lots of sewing and some tissue paper, felt and string to add lots of texture to it. I use Echo Park For the Record papers, and started by putting a wash of watered white acrylic on the background and then stitched lots of lines across the page. I made a tissue paper strip by stamping and then sticking tissue paper on a sheet of acetate (I cut it to go around the photo too so the LO wasn't too bulky). I cut, ruffled and stitched the other sheets of paper, and place a poundshop crocheted coaster behing them. I splattered some ink across the LO too (I had a bit of a disaster as the ink ended up looking pink on the white paint, and I tried to make it redder by adding more, and the blobs just got bigger and still pink.....so a few doily stickers and I couldn't see it anymore!! :) I painted and cut out a piece of text from a book for the express title using Heidi Swapp chipboard letters. I stapled the 3 pieces of string and threaded them through one of the cardstock elements and added a couple more felt roses.

The shots are of my DS expressing himself to the kite that he is following up in the sky - he has a huge range of expressions and faces you can often see how he is feeling just by looking at him

Now onto the challenge for this week which was no patterened paper..so I have used lots of other things. Please go over and have a look in the gallery and look at all the lovely work that has been created for this week, and you can join in and play along to win prizes.

Flowers with a zig zag centre

2011-06-18T12:12:00.000+01:00

I had seen these flowers around a few times and had been searching for a tutorial and yesturday I found one, so had to have a go. I found it on the craftionary site here (I have put it on my side bar too). The flowers are quite straightforward but very 3d - so to make them flatter I twisted the bottoms and cut off most of the points, and then I added a few stamens too. They will still be quite bulky on a card or a LO, but they are lovely - they would work really well for home decor projects or something you can be a bit more 3d on. I used an old dictionary to make them and I used 2" squares of paper (that's all the technical info). Have a lovely weekend.

Lets go Fly a Kite

2011-06-13T13:50:00.000+01:00

This is my last weeks entry for Scrap factor and the theme for this one was movies/tv, so I took my inspiration from Mary Poppins and the song Let's go Fly a Kite - I found it soo hard to choose a photo and theme for this one, but really enjoyed making the LO once I got going. The papers are Cosmo Cricket Social Club, I made some cloud masks and did a little misting (using some broken china distress ink in a spritzer), I cut out some clouds and then fake stitched (pin pricked and joined up the dots with a white gel pen) the coulds and main paper pieces. Lots of ruffling and I made some rosette flowers and litte blooms, a maya road bird covered in paper, and string tails for all the kites. The alphabets are part cosmo cricket and part Brenda Pinnick from a Christmas pack I have...I didn't have enough 'e's so I altered an 'a' to make an 'e' :)

This weeks theme is texture so please pop over and have a look at all the fantastic work in the gallery, here is my sneak peak.

Blowing Bubbles and EXCITING news

2011-06-06T13:54:00.001+01:00

This is my LO for the week 7 scrapfactor contest - it was based on a sketch. I used Crate Papers portrait papers which I bought with some spending money I won from Handmade Hannah, the alphabet is girls paperie and again I bought that from her shop too :) Here is the sketch

For this LO I did lots of crumpling and layering of papers to match the colours in the photo. I die cut several circles for the pannel down the side and stitched down them. I piled up some of the crate paper embellishments in the corner and made some grey felt floweres to go with it, I also used glossy accents to pick out some of the bits on one of the doily die cuts. A little bit of stitching, some bling and string and this is what I came up, it is a shot of my DS playing with a bubble set our kids were given when we were camping - kept them busy for hours!

Onto this weeks challenge which is to take your inspiration from a movies, so this sneak peak will leave you all guessing what movie - it's one of my childhood favourites :) Hop over to the gallery and see all the lovely work everyone has created for this week, and you can play along too and win some prizes.

Last and by no means least is some very EXCITING news is that I have been selected to be on the Scrap Rat DT - their kits are lovely if you haven't seen them go and have a look and they have a great list of ladies I will have the pleasure of working alongside.

Scrap Revolution

2011-06-04T21:55:00.002+01:00

As some of you will know I have had the privilege of doing some creating for Scrap Revolution this month, so I thought I would post you some peaks at the projects I did with the stash that they sent me. Above is my Surfs Up LO peak using some Teresa Collins papers (click on the Surfs Up link if you want to see the whole project).

This is a LO called Dreamer which I did with some gorgeous Websters papers - I can see why everyone love thems them. (again click on the Dreamer link to see the full project)

Last but not least this is a little peak at what will be coming next with some lovely Jillibean soup papers so do go over and have look :)

Along the Zip Line

2011-05-30T09:01:00.000+01:00

Here is my LO for the multi photo challenge on UKscrappers for this I used Echo Park - For the Record papers - I inked and ruffled them up, I also added a scalloped scissor border and then a doily lace folded border around the main sections of paper. I cut out a filmstrip using my sizzix die and resized some of the photos to go in it. The flowers are from a Gabrielle Pollacco tutorial and I made some leaves to go behing them. I hand stitched some swirls and added some paint flicks and prints and butterflies and this is what I came up with.

This week is a sketch challenge so go and have a look to see what everyone has created at ukscrappers

UTEE Beads

2011-05-25T16:20:00.000+01:00

I am guest designing for scrap revolution this month and they sent me some lovely goodies in the post so pop over and have a look at their blog to see some of my creations. Here is something that I created with what I had left over - the flower is a maya road chipboard piece painted and dipped in UTEE, and I made the beeds from Suze Winebergs tutorial - they are Jillibean - Chicken Noodle soup papers and I cut a strip 6" by 1" in a triangle and then rolled it around a pencil to make the bead, once glued and dried I dunked it in some clear UTEE. I did reheat the UTEE with my heat gun after dunking in the melt pot to get rid of bubbles and give a more even coverage of UTEE.