Grunge paper rose brooches

I have finally got round to trying out my grunge paper, and it works really well :)  These are tree presents for some of the ladies in my family - I used the TH tattered flowers and leaves dies for this, used a spritzer with distress ink and perfect pearls in to colour the grunge paper (I had to mix the yellow and blue for the green leaves but it worked ok).  I then stamped a texty stamp on all the components and inked around the edges of the flowers and leaves.  I used the rose technique, where you cut one slit and then put 2 leaves on top of each other, I did this for all three different sized flowers to make them 3d, I used PVA to stick them together.  Then I curled the petals and leaves, and used a glue gun to stick all the layers together.   I did stitch the centre beads of one of the brooches, but then realised that the glue gun held them just as well so glued the others.  The last step was to add some rocky candy for a bit of shimmer and to add a safety pin to the back.  Here are some close ups

2010 minibook

Just a quick blog, and apologies for not having been around much lately!  We have been having some building work done and it has meant that we have been painting and decorating and that I have had no space to scrap.  However I did manage to get my Christmas minibook done for my Grandma, I wanted it to be bright so used some DCWV pictures, and a selection of photos from this year.  

White Horses

This is my LO for the Sarahs Cards Sketch Challenge this month.  I was lucky enough to win their summer challenge, so got to have a go at being a guest designer for their challenge.  This is one of our holiday photos, the sea looked great as there had been a big storm the night before.  The papers I used are Basic Grey Kioshi - loved the muted colours for this one, and a couple of prima pastiche ones.  I edged the circle with a MS lacey punch (cut into strips and stuck to the back of the circle) - I used coordinations so sanded it a bit too to get the stormy blue colour showing.  I crumpled my papers and made a crumpled paper ribbon, and then also had a go at some more of the water distressed flowers (see the side bar).  The title was made with some stamping and pound shop foam letters.  Here are some more close ups.

Bobbing Along



I thought the October Afternoon summer range would be perfect for some of our holiday snaps.   So here is my DH taking my DS and DN out in the dinghy.  I had a go at a mixture of techniques with this LO, I have been wanting to find some paper to do the paper curling technique, and the wave one lends itself to this as it is stripey on the back...I added the an offcut of the stripey side of the paper to extend and emphasise the stripes some more.  I also had a go at making some of the fan flowers, and had a go at making them Tim Holtzish by cutting one edge with my deckle edge scissors (I am still trying to use them rather than let them catch dust :)).  Used my favourite MS double loop punch, stamped a title and cut out the flag banner from the OA papers, added journalling and a tag, and here are the close ups.  I took some photos of the flowers as I was creating them so I can put a little tutorial on here too, but there are lots about on the web anyway.

I used a cocktail stick to make the curls, and tried to keep them uneven

Some close ups of the fan flowers with the deckle edge

Hanging Out

This one of our photos from earlier in the year when we went to visit Port Lympne animal park....so not shots of the animals or the jeep safari we went on, just one of my DS on the monkey bars :).  I used My Minds Eye little boy blue papers, and inked with the lovely walnut stain distress ink.  I quickly soaked a piece of paper under the tap and made a crumpled paper ribbon, then used a technique from Gabriella on the Bo Bunny blog to make all the water distressed flowers.  I used the My Minds Eye paper and them also some chocolate box co-ordinations which I sanded then soaked - I inked the other paper, layered them up and stickled them.  I only have a couple of flower punches which don't really look like the ones in the tutorial so I just used the deckle edge scissor technique she suggests.  They were great fun, I ended up soaking them a little under the tap as where is an empty mister when you want one :)  The rest of the flowers are from a prima pack, the pearls are liquid pearls I dabbed around, and the alphabet is a papermania one.  Here are some close ups.....





Sun, Sea and Sand

Here are some of our holiday pictures....my kids love the beach and can dig in the sand for ages, redirecting channels of waters, building castles to see how long their defences will last against the sea - keeps them happy for hours.  I tried to keep the colours on my LO sandy, just picking up the blue from the t-shirts and water.  I used DCWV luxury stack for the shaped card (cut out the pattern myself) and then edged it with some more paper and my crinkle scissors.  Used quite a lot of distress ink - walnut and broken china, some prima lace and paper mania stickers, liquid pearls and stickles too, and some more of my tiny star beads :)  Here are some more close ups.

Glass Flowers

Finally after getting my melt pot I decided to have a go at the Papertrail blog tutorial on glass flowers by Laura.

I didn't manage to get a really even coating of UTEE with my melt pot but soon realised (after a few burnt fingers) that it was nearly impossible and didn't matter....all you need to do is heat it up with your heat gun afterwards (on the non stick and heat proof mat) and then put all the excess utee back in the pot to remelt. So once I got the hang I then made some MS butterflies.and on her suggestion also dunked the paper roses layer by layer (from the rose tutorial) in too. Now I just need to create a LO for them all :) It's a great tutorial so go have a look.

Kite Flying

I picked up some large die cut papers and thought this cloudy shaped one was perfect for my kite flying photos. The papers is crate paper, the bird houses are from jillibean cabbage soup, and the other papers are october afternoon and cosmo cricket. I put some hidden journalling behind the photo - I am a really bad journaller so included more details hear, I made some more windmills, and then cut a couple of different papers up to make the kites, and put 2 of the triangles of the kite on foam to make it more 3d. I then stitched the tails, and the 1st three I tied some thin ribbon around the stitches to try and make it look authentic :) Again I used my MS double loop punch - love that one, and a Tim Holtz ticked, there is a little bit of inking in there too. I tried to keep the page fun - it is the 1st time we have flown our dragon kite and to my surprise it worked really well.

Jumping Waves

My 1st blog in ages, we did have a very long and lovely holiday in France for the whole of August so it feels like ages since I have scrapped....so to get me going I decided to have a go at the Sarahs cards challenge to create a summer LO and use some distressing. The papers I have used are October Afternoon - Fly a Kite - just love all the colours. I distressed most of the edges of the papers. I used a Martha Stewart Fan punch to create the fan edge, and inked the orange paper with red distress ink to make it feel more summery and hot, I did a crumpled paper band by damping then folding the paper, popped some wool on the top and stamped out the 1st part of my title. I also had at these little circle flowers, a tutorial is on the sarahs cards site . The last part was to add some Faux stitching - this is a shot of my DS and one of his good friends having a go surfing on a body board and jumping waves, the shot was in May so the water was still to cold for most adults to go near but they loved it.

Hope you all had nice summer breaks, I'll post more often now :) Here are the close ups.

Having Fun - Weekly Challenge

I've had this LO done for a little while, it is for the Urban Faeries weekly challenge on ukscrappers this week. We had to make our own backing paper, so I cut and then stuck punched and embossed lace eding around the border....which I had inked. So that covers, distressing,lace (though I added some more) and embossing, and my own paper. Then summery colours - I did a bit more inking around the edges of the other papes, and had a go at a crinkle cut border around my photo. The brown lace is prima and is lovely, I added a few flowers, a Tim Holtz tag, and some pearl dots near the flowers but they don't show very well! The title is partly stamped - again part of the challenge to stamp, and then I used the alphabet in a box from sizzix for the fun part. The papers are jillibean cabbage soup, some costco stuff and Wild Saffron by K and Co. Here are some more close ups, come and join us and have a go at the challenge.

Brimham Rocks

My latest LO and entry for the Ukscrappers monthly challenge. I had to use a new technique and 7 photos...so the new technique is the flower, and the 7 photos are hidden below!

I did need a little bit of help photographing the inside! I used October Afternoon papers, fly a kite, some prima eline crystals, and I think some tattered floral roses snook in there too. The alphabet is a sizzix one (I discovered unopened on my shelf - shocking!) alphabet in a box, and my trusty Martha Stewart double loop punch has been used to edge lots. Here are some more close ups.