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.

How Wonderful

 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?

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

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

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 :)

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

 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

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 :)

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.