My Blessings

This is my last challenge over with the ladies at the Studio…and one of the hardest - no photos, which is something I don't do very often!  Since Valentine's day has just past I went with pinks and hearts and looked at some of my blessings in life.

I started the page with gesso, then cut 2" squares from lots of different papers - mainly American Crafts and Crate Paper.  I dug out die cuts, stickers, chipboard, wood veneers and decorated each of my little squares adding words that all mean something to me :)  It was great fun to make and very therapeutic, I liked that I could just pile the page high with different things that I like.  I think this page might have to go in a frame and become so wall art in our house.

There is lots more inspiration for those picture less pages over at the Studio, so here is the link.

Family Portrait

This weeks theme over on the Tando blog has been distressing, and distressing and vintage go hand in hand - so I dug out another one of my older family photos for the occasion.  I used Cosmo Crickets Tea for Two papers as they had that 40s/50s feel to them, and then used some of the October Afternoon ephemera items from their Farmhouse kit and K and Co flowers that matched perfectly.  The leaves, butterfly and key are all Tando creations and got covered in paint, distress ink and then crackle paint and more ink - there is some more detail on the blog about how I treated the chipboard.

I started the page with a Tim Holtz swirl stamp and some gold/brown ink - I stamped all around the edge.  I then made my own die cut shape out of the rose cosmo cricket paper, and wet the edges, crinkled and ruffled them, then sanded and inked them.  I made a smaller die cut and this one I edged with a strip of pink paper that I pleated.  Now on to the last layer so just a couple of matts for behind the photo and some lace and a journal spot.  I also added spots of liquid pearls around the edges of some of my papers (and after doing this page I learnt that the way to get a more spherical bubble of liquid pearl is to tap the paper- or flick it from underneath and just this simple step works really well - so that is a top tip!).  

Have a great weekend.

PGL

This is my page for this fortnights Studio Challenge which is to use die cuts.  I contemplated getting my silhouette out but decided  to dig out some dies I hadn't used in a while (I don't know why as I still love them) - these were Tim Holtz's tattered leaves and a Spellbinders rose die by Donna Salazar.

The page started with some brushes of Walnut Stain distress stain, and then a splatter of the olive green distress stain on either side of the brown.  To make the splats you just add a little extra water with a brush to the top of the distress stain, start by tapping the distress stain on a scrap paper and when the splatters look about right have a go on your page,  I cut out lots of leaves using some remnants of a Glitz Dreamer paper and also Cosmo Crickets Tea for Two papers.  I inked all the leaves.  Then stitched a little banner of leaves - this is soooo easy to do on a sewing machine as all you do is let the machine run for 2 or 3 stitches before feeding in the next leaf.  I mounted my photo on the blue cosmo cricket paper, and then stuck it onto the small pile of leaves I had piled on the brown ink. I added a kraft doily (using the spellbinders iron works die) and Teresa Collins Christmas washi tape (it is fab as you can't tell it is Christmas so you can use it the whole year around).  I then used the left overs to make a little pennant at the top of the page and added a few more splatters of Olive Green distress ink - I just took some from the stain and added a little water.  The alphabet is one of my favourite ones of the moment by prima.

The photo is one my son made me take (yes long may it last) as he was on his way to school to go on his 1st school trip away from home to PGL which is a big outdoors adventure centre.  He specially bought me a badge home to stick on the page which I have put somewhere very safe and hopefully I will shortly find that really safe place and be able to put it on the page ;).  When he got back I asked whether he had missed us, so he said 'Yes' and I said 'really?' to which he replied 'no' so he had an excellent time - and learned to like bacon!

If you want to join in the challenges this month and win some goodies then here is a link - there is also lots more inspiration on the blog too.

Woody, Jessie and Joe

This is a page I did for my Trends on Tuesday over at A Trip Down Memory Lane it's all about ripping and there is a little guide to doing it and some other fantastic sites with examples to visit....so here is the link if you would like to take a look.

You will notice that our summer holidays involved a dream family holiday....we went to Florida and did Disney.  You will also notice in the pages that my youngest absolutely adored having his photo taken with the characters.....it is up there as one of his favourite things!!!  So this was on our first trip to Disney Land and we came off the wonderful log flume ride and noticed Woody and Jessie popping out, so we had to queue and he got his photo taken with them.  I got it printed in sepia to add to that cowboy feel.  The papers are a real mix, the base is one of my favourites and it is Simple Stories Awesome collection (as well as the bingo card), the blue/green and yellow papers are all Cosmo Cricket tea for two and the woodgrain and horse card are part of October Afternoons Farmhouse collection.

So the page started with the ripping and layering of papers behind the rips, I then added a couple of strips of tissue tape above and below where I wanted my photo matt.  I layered up the photo with the Cosmo Cricket papers - which I inked, stitched and distressed.  I slotted in the bingo card and the October Afternoon Miscellany and added a wide band of lace just under the corner.  Stuck this all down and used some staples as sticking onto fabric without using loads of glue and getting messy is tricky!  I layered up a pin with a tando star and a maya road wooden button.  I recently got a couple of alpha sets from kaisercraft and this is the grunge one which I used for the title, I used white cardstock and tea dye distress ink and then mounted it on the yellow Cosmo Cricket paper.  The last bit was to add some flicks of brown cosmic shimmer mist.  I really enjoyed this technique - even ripping one of my favourite pieces of paper (I have decided to use my favourite pieces of paper rather than hang onto them!!! :)) and definitely something I will try again.

What boys do

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.

Surf Play and news

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

 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.

Woodland Walk

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

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

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 (:))

Scrap Rat July Kit

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.