Spring Blog Hop with It's a Creative World

I am very excited to be part of my first ever blog hop so a big welcome to It's A Creative World's Spring Blog Hop . If you have come mid-way through then click on It's A Creative World and it will take you to the start of the hop and see a wide variety of crafty inspiration (there are prizes on offer on some of the blogs too).

I have a couple of Spring-ish items to show you, the 1st is a page that I made using the lovely October Afternoon Farmhouse collection.  Since we just broke up from school and are embarking on our Easter hols, this page seemed a good place to start.  In the holidays we like to visit different places and on this occasion we had a great visit to Tower Bridge, you get super views across London and learn about how the bridge was built and there were Victorian games and a gallery of images along the bridge too (my eldest and his Dad both won a small prize for fantastic bowling on the bridge too!!  My eldest was suprisingly very good at it).  We stopped for a quick photo half way along.  

How I made my page; I layered up lots of the Farmhouse papers behind the photo and distressed, ruffled and inked the edges.  I used lots of small bits of paper in the layering just filling in gaps around the photos.  I used my EK success abstract flower punch for some border edging and also their circular book page punch too.  I added some checked washi tape and die cut a little doily for the right hand corner with the spellbinders ironworks die (still one of my favourites).  The alphabet is a mix of a K and Co wood chipboard one and also some cosmo cricket mini-type.  I added some flicks of blue and brown glimmer mist, used my date stamp and added the journalling, and a course some stitching :).

The best part of this post is my feature on my GORGEOUS niece (who might read this :)).  My sister asked me to help make an Easter Bonnet with her which I was more than happy to, and having asked my friend Dawn at our craft group she suggested covering the hat part with flowers.  So this bonnet started with me glue gunning lots of foam flowers (from the pound shop) to the bonnet with the help of my niece.  We then added hay around the edge, some roses that were on her Mum's wedding cake, various stickers, some blue rabbits on string that came off a present and some little Easter Nests.  She got to wear this to her Easter Parade at school yesterday and here are some pictures......from a proud Auntie :)

Here are the links to all the blogs in order just in case you need them....

Laura- http://bubbaboobits.blogspot.co.uk/

Doda http://www.dodadidit.blogspot.co.uk/
Gabrielle http://gabrielle-price.blogspot.co.uk/
Eleanor http://highlandhousekeeper.blogspot.co.uk/
Erika http://snappycrafts.blogspot.co.uk/
Ifa  http://ifazainon.blogspot.co.uk/
>> you are here >> Katherine http://www.fruitofmyscraps.blogspot.co.uk/
Dolly http://dollysdreamings.typepad.com/
Mandy http://6ichthusfish.typepad.com/
Leanne http://craftaholicleanie.blogspot.co.uk/
Kerry http://www.socksandscrapbooks.blogspot.co.uk/
Tracey http://tj-runningwithscissors.blogspot.co.uk/
It's a Creative World http://itsacreativeworld.typepad.com/its_a_creative_world/

If you have got to the end of all this then your next visit is over to Dolly's blog to see her beautiful creations :)

Generations

I am up on Amanda's blog again today with more vintage inspiration (it carries on everyday this week so do go and look my page is one of 2 layouts today).

My inspiration for this page was to dig out all things vintage and have a play.  I have been meaning to scrap this photo for a while (I am the unhappy child on my Mum's lap...I actually love that you end up keeping photos like this as you couldn't see what the shot looked like til after you had developed it!).  So this is 4 generations of my family all together.  I started the page with a watercolour wash, I was trying to match the colour in the Crate Paper Portrait greeny piece I had.  I layered up strips of the Portrait papers and some old dictionary paper too.  I then added the October Afternoon family flash card, the page of the dictionary that talks about generations and some lace behind the photo.  I tied some string and then added some of the chipboard and die cuts from the portrait range, along with some OA type written phrases.  I added my vintage curtain rings on the diagonal and filled them with the green watercolour pain, I then added some flicks of paint and vintage buttons.  The title was cut out on my silhouette using the Ali Edwards font (I did cut it a bit thin, but managed to get it out :)).

So here is Amandas blog link, so if you want some inspiration and giveaway head over.

My Sunshine On a Rainy Day

This is a page I did based on the MME sketch over on their blog, you have to use mostly MME products and since I am loving their new papers I thought I ought to use up some of the older ones 1st :)  This is a picture from a trip into London and the kids wanted their shot in front of this massive sculpture - I should have written down what it was for, the day was one of those  ones with a mixture of rain and bright sunshine, which is echoed in the title....though the main reason for the title is because these 2 bring lots of joy into my life and regularly give me something to smile about.

I cut out the title on my silhouette and used part of it as a mask and then cut it in yellow to make the sunshine stand out.  I lightly glued the title down with a re positional  glue and then spritzed the whole sheet with some tattered angels chalk mist, I added a few extra splashes at each side too.  Once dry I then outlined the letters with a white gel pen.  The papers are mostly from the original lost and found range, though the yellow is from their quite contrary range. I cut and stitched and ruffled all the sheets and added a torn glassine envelope behind the photo in the mix, I also inked all the edges.  For the photo I had it in both colour and black and white so I cut out the colour section and stuck it on top of the black and white to try and make the boys stand out a little more.  I then layered up the banner with lace and papers, made a rosette flower and added some of the brads, and also added the sunshine at the top using twine and my sewing machine.

In other news I have posted a calorie free cake over at It's a Creative World today, and also all this week and next Amanda Jones is running the vintage series on her blog  and you get a look at some of my storage today, as well as lots of other great ideas.

One of My Favourite Things

This is my page for the new challenge over at the studio blog, the inspiration was this pin

photo credit: Sarah London Textiles 

I used the colours and also the idea of pattern and the layers of colour, but I choose to use hexagons.

The photo is from the most recent snowfall that we had, I absolutely LOVE snow (I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea) for me it makes the world look even more beautiful (before it's gone soggy and mushy) and I love all snow based sports.  Fortunately my enthusiasm for snow has been passed onto my kids so here is a shot of my son and I laughing at the bottom of our local best hill (it is also the one I sledged on as a child too).  We were laughing so much as my parents have recently bought these flat boards, and both I and my Dad struggled to keep them facing forwards, so about half way down the slope we spun around and then I had to steer looking backwards as you have to be careful of the river and trees at the bottom of the slope!

The papers are Crate Papers Pretty Party and Farmhouse collections and American Crafts Amy Tangerine.  There is some crate Peppermint Swirl chipboard, some glassine envelopes and lace.  For the title I partly printed it out on the computer using an old typewriter font (print it out on some plain paper first then gently adhere your papers over the top and pop it through the printer again.  The flocked chipboard is MME, not sure about the glittery snowflake which came in a Handmade Hannah Christmas kit.  I also did a little stitching using embroidery thread too, just as I love all the layers of colours in the pictures.

The challenge goes on til the end of March so if you feel inspired to have a go then do join in, I love seeing what you all create (you can click here to go there).

In other news the Vintage Blog Series has started today over on Amanda Jones blog so there is lots of inspiration there too.

Hope you all have a lovely Monday.

Mothers Day Card

Another pink card that I put together last night....but I think I am actually happy with it :)  This is part of the Pretty Party pack I won from Crate Paper and I got a 6" by 6" pad with it.  I know these pads have been around for a while but I haven't really used one and I have only just realised how fantastic they are for cards :D (I know a bit late) as in this one I get 2 of each design and as they are mainly aimed at cards (tho I have used them on pages) I don't feel bad about cutting into 12" papers for a card!! :) (am I the only one that feels that way?)

So this is my card for my Mum, I did lots of stitching and inking and distressing as usual, and had a little play with the zig zag settings on my machine.  I use the spellbinders label die and also the ironworks die to cut the scrolled rectangles and the small doily shape.  There is some Martha Stewart paper tape (very similar to washi tape) behind them and behind the stamped tags.  I used different colour box inks to stamp the phrase, some twine to wind around the doily and then a maya road chipboard heart that I coloured with the ink pads and a wooden peg.  I even played around taking the photo of the card using some of the larger 12" papers for my background :)

I hope you all have a lovely mothers day and I will be back tomorrow with a page that I did for the new studio blog challenge.

Scrapology Card Challenge

Somehow I missed posting this earlier in the week, here is a card I made for the card challenge over at the scrapology blog this month.  The challenge is to use a digital stamp, something which I have never done before, but it was actually really straightforward and great as you could size the image to fit on the card, it would be great for decoupaging too (but just one step at a time).  We were sent a stamped image from Charmed Cards and Crafts to use, so here is mine.  I used it for a birthday card for my niece as she loves pink and princesses :)

The papers are kaisercraft - Miss Nelly, and I used a small doily for the background too, so it didn't get too pink.  I coloured the images in using my distress inks.  I just added some distress ink to my craft sheet (non-stick baking mat) and then added a little bit of water until the colour was the right depth for me, then painted it onto the image.  I also did the same with the stickles - added it to my craft sheet and then watered it down a little.  The flowers are made from a mix of the papers and some old book paper, and I cut out some leaves from the book paper and painted these green too.

This definitely took me out of my comfort zone as I rarely show the cards I make, and rarely use pink and princesses!  I hope you enjoy it.  There is even more gorgeous inspiration over on the blog so click here to have a look.

Awards and Birthday Card - We Scrap

I realised I hadn't posted this card that I made with the WeScrap March kit which has lots of MME Funday papers in it.  I did a wash of the background with the peacock colour by cosmic shimmer, I then die cut the doily using my spellbinders ironworks die, I punched a flower shape out of several papers and then stuck them back together, a Martha Steward butterfly and button - so really quick and easy.

Also...this is a thank you post for some fab awards you have given me of late :)  I have been really late in saying this so apologies.

So 1st up is the Leibster award (awardees please don't feel you have to take up the award as I know lots of people will probably have received it, but I just wanted to link you all and say I enjoy all that you blogs :D)

What is a Liebster Blog Award you ask?  Here are the details…

The origins of the Liebster Blog Award are unclear but "the word translates from German as "darling" or "beloved". It's given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers in order to generate some traffic for them.
 

Here are the guidelines for the Liebster Blog Award

1. Acknowledge the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2.Give this award to 5 other bloggers, who must have less than 200 followers, and let them know through a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog
4. Best of all- bask in the glory, have fun, and share the love!

so a big thank you to Becky and the afternoon scrapper

and I would like to pass it on to

Dawn who has just started blogging and is doing a fantastic job (I'm enjoying her blog lots), filling it with craft and cookery :)

Virginia my teamie on Ukscrappers who does the MOST amazing art journalling - you need to go and look :)

Christa who I know from WeScrap and she just does beautiful pages...what more can I say.

Hannah another friend from Ukscrappers who is studying hard at the moment but she makes beautiful cards and pages.  I just love her designs

Michelle who makes some of the most beautiful cards and paper goodies, I always love what she has created.

The other award I have been lucky enough to receive is the Versatile Blogger so a big thank you to Marie

The conditions of accepting this award are

• To thank the person who gave it to you and include a link to their blog.
• Select 15 blogs that you have either recently discovered or follow regularly.
• Tell them you have nominated them for the award.
• Tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

here are seven things about me:

There are loads of blogs that I love to visit piled high with inspiration - lots of them are on my sidebar...so I am going to do some sidebar updating to make sure I include all the new ones I find in leu of the 15 blogs I enjoy.

A bit about me :

1. I love sci-fi stuff.

2. We go camping for holidays...but this year is our dream disney one!

3. I studied history.

4. My artwork was mostly described as interesting at school (I always took that as a negative!).

5. One of my favourite colours is purple.

6. I love the smell of spring (you know first thing in the morning when everything is fresh and the sun is just starting to shine and it smells of spring).

7. I love snow... and enjoy sledging, building snowmen and snowball fights almost more than my kids.

Can my Photo be here?

My son pointed out that I hadn't done that many pages of him (as the last couple have been of his brother!)...so I dug through the photos and used this one from a half term trip into London.  He is such a sweetheart as he appreciates my need for photos, so he now chooses things he wants a photo with, or a place he would like a photo, this was one of them, in the middle of a fairly large granite sculpture!

I used Shimelle's starting point for this page which is the squares of paper and the horizontal ribbon strips.  The papers are from my goodie bag from Crate Paper and they are their Pretty Party collection, these papers are from the 6" pack.  The paper strips are a mix of their stickers and my Martha Stewart double loop punch, the alpha is cosmo crickets brown tiny type and then some of the crate sticker sheet.  There is a dusty attic chipboard swirl which I covered in brown ink and then added some white perfect pearls so it glimmers a little.  I am using up a massive pile of glassine envelopes and behind the photo is my journal pocket (a crumpled glassine envelope) and then I cut a strip and added 3 buttons to it at the bottom of the page.  A little bit of stapling and some Tim Holtz tissue tape, a few flicks of paint and of course the sanding and stitching.  This time I just sanded and I didn't ink as I liked the white effect.  I went for a bright backing paper as I have used lots of white and kraft of late and I wanted to use a bit more colour, plus this greeny/blue is one of my favs in clothing so I thought I would try it out in scrapping too.

Other news is that Amanda Jones is having a vintage blog series starting on the 19th March with lots of inspiration looking at all things vintage (I've done a little bit towards it and am really excited to see it all :))

Star Gazing

I re-discovered this holiday snap the other day in our mammoth photo sort out.  It makes me smile cos we were walking back from an evening sampling the ice creams in a local town on holiday, and as you walked along the beach and there was a little platform with a telescope.  My youngest is only just about big enough at this stage to reach the telescope and pull it down, so instead of being able to look at the ships and the shoreline all he can see is the stars!

These papers are all from Creative Craft Worlds June kit (I know a little while back), and they are Fancy Pants Small Things collection.  The papers went so well with the colours in the photos and I love that orangey red zing that's in them too, which is why I dug them out.  I started by cutting and layering and stitching all my pieces, and then I inked and layered some of the flowers in the kit too, added buttons, and made a little set of banners (and added some Teresa Collins acetate behind them).  I die cut the doily with my Iron Works spellbinder die, and managed to slip a glassine pocket behind the photo for the journalling tag (again zig zag stitched).  The final touches were the string of pearls (which was tricky to stick!) and some splatters of black ink and tiny punched stars and pearls.  I went with sticking my title on the photo (not something I have tried before), and used AC chipboard thickers and a prima mini alphabet for this.

1st Cuddle

I think I may have mentioned that my nephew was born....which is what prompted me to dig out some of my kids baby photos.....so here he is on his first page.  I love this photo for the look of adoration my son is giving him as he carefully holds him (my hands are in there for the head support bit :)).

Inspiration; This page is for the Studio Challenge...which is to use chevrons, so I did this with 2 of my papers and then with the white embossed AC Chaps stamp (which is only a line of arrows - so that should explain why my chevrons are not that uniform).  The rest of the inspiration comes from pages I have seen like Lisa Truesdell over a twopeas and the MME paper, where you draw lines coming out of a central point on the page.  

Cutting out the paper to fit in these lines was a bit tricky and took some time and measuring.  Once that was done I extended the lines in pencil onto the kraft cardstock where I added the white embossed stamping (using just a plane piece of paper to mask the areas I didn't want to stamp) and some flicks of white paint.  Once these were all dry I then stitched along each of the lines to emphasise them.  The papers are all American Crafts Amy Tangerine from my recent AC package. I was trying to save them to just use on project life but I reckon I have enough for lots of pages too.  I decided to add some layers behind the photo and for this I used a glassine bag (which I ended up tracking down from a stamp shop!) which I embossed  with the swiss dots cuttlebug folder, then layered up some off cuts of paper and brown twine onto it and added a journal card inside.  I added lots of the Amy Tangerine die cuts too, and inked them and ruffled them as usual, and used my new date stamp.  The alphabet is a mix of a prima and AC thickers.

If you want to have a go at this challenge then hop over here

Other News; I have also done a post on It's A Creative World...involving this page, but with some of my favourite challenge and inspiration sites, there are loads of links for you to browse through at your leisure but if you want to get some more inspiration then have a look here.

Brand New - Guest Designing at Scrapology

I was really excited to be asked to join in the fun on the scrapology website as their guest designer this month.  My page is based on the sketch and the only other thing you need to include is some glitter...which you will see more of in the close up photos.  So other than these 2 things the rest of the inspiration for this came from the birth of my new little nephew- this isn't him, but it made me dig out some old baby photos of my kids, as I haven't really scrapped them yet.

Being a baby page the Prima Pixie Glen papers worked really well for me, and have seen lots of lovely fussy cutting on other blogs I decided to cut out some of the border elements on the papers such as the clock and umbrella.  The butterflies are from one of Primas older Flights of Fancy lines....and I have pretty much used up all the butterflies on that paper now, so I used some of the left over to make the rose flower - my tutorial for them is here.  I cut and inked some leaves out of green card stock, and added some little white roses which are the sort you get in packs in the 99p shop and I like collecting them.  The lace is from Prima and so is the little alphabet which I inked with tea dye distress ink.  Alongside ruffling and inking the papers I also stitched a rectangle around the photo - to match a paper layer in the sketch and I choose the crate paper Portrait background as this had a scalloped edge, again like the sketch.  The only other bits I have done is add a photo blur edge on the picture and a few spots of blue patina and white chalk glimmer mist (I added the blue as the white didn't show up too much, but I like it too).

Do pop over and see what the DT has done and join in the challenge as I would love to see what you create.  There is also a card challenge later in the month to look out for too.