It's better Together

This is the page I've done for my 1st post over at Tando, I used the lovely diamond mask (and some blue distress ink on a sponge rubbed across it) and also the birds and bird cage.  For the effect on this I painted it roughly with gesso and then sprinkled silver embossing powder over the top, next I heated it all up to melt the embossing powder and it makes the gesso bubble a bit too.  I covered the birds in the Lily Bee papers and went around the edge of them with white paint too.  The page is a mix of Authentique Journey and Lily Bee Buttercup papers....and it is base on a fabulous sketch over at Once Upon a Sketch with the theme of friendship.

I cut lots of strips of papers (and as the Authentique papers were from a 6 by 6 pad they don't go all the way behind the photo).  I stitched and inked them as usual, and added some sequin waste - I am loving the texture that it adds to my pages at the moment...bit like my rediscovery of twine.  I lightly drew on my page the shape of the circle.....in a very precarious way as I couldn't find a plate the right size so I stuck the point of my compass in some chipboard and held it really still as I drew the circle.  I then went over the line with some clear PVA type glue and wrapped the twine around. I added a couple of Lily Bee flag stickers to one side of the circle too. The alphas are a mix of October Afternoon and then I cut the word together out on my silhouette, my journalling is hidden away behind the photo.

The photo is from our rather wet holiday on the Isle of Wight and a rather lovely tyre swing on Bembridge beach, my kids spent ages being spun around by any adult that would :)

Studio Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the Studio blog hop...most of you will have come from  Jules blog but if you have just happened upon my blog you can start the hop here and see all the prizes and inspiration.

My take on the Olympic theme was to use rings and circles on my page....I have managed 5 different sorts like the 5 rings

buttons

Tando circle mask

punched circles

coffee cup ink stains

prima bling

My photo also has a sporting link as it is from when we went to support friends running the London Marathon earlier in the year, and this is the key part of the support team, who held the banner and waved lots.

 I started with my background sheet which is actually fairly pink from the This and That range by Echo Park.  I scraped over some white gesso and once dried I layered up my circle mask over it and sprayed green, orange and brown. I had a go at making some paint drips with my mists, and I don't know why but the cosmic shimmers seem to work best out of my mists for spraying in a big blob and then letting it run down the page, I also love all the glimmer that you get in the drips.  Whilst this was all drying I layered up my photo mats which are mostly from the Dear Lizzy papers by American Crafts, I stitched and distressed and inked the edges.  Once the paint was dry I used a doily as a stencil and rubbed distress ink through so you got the outline of it, I then stuck on all my elements.  I next inked up some old dictionary pages and layered them on, then the coffee  stains - which were the stains left from stamping the lids of my button pots onto the page, and the smaller one was a little tea cady (so anything I could find and use really)

I also have a little floral giveaway too, so if you would like to take part then leave me a comment, you have until Friday 3rd August :) (I also included a couple of flowers I made and some glassine bags and a doily...just 'cos I love them)

The final stop on the hop is back to the

  Studio blog

thank you so much for joining us all and I hope you have picked up lots of inspiration on the way, and if you do an Olympic inspired page then link it .

Just in case you get lost...here is the list

The Studio  http://thestudio.amandajonesdesigns.com
Daphne  http://dapfniedesign.wordpress.com
Valerie http://paperandcookies.blogspot.com
Anna http://madetoscrap.blogspot.com
Jules  http://www.scrappingmojo.blogspot.com/
>>>>>>you are here>>>>> Katherine http://fruitofmyscraps.blogspot.com
Back to The Studio  http://thestudio.amandajonesdesigns.com

New Home Card

This is my first card for Tando Creative and the challenge for this month is texture...to see what more of the design team have come up with and to join in with us click here. 

I love adding some texture to my projects and just chipboard adds an extra dimension to a project.  The key is from the mini keys set by Tando and they are all beautifully detailed, I covered it in metallic green ink (I thought it was silver!!!) and then embossed it with gold powder.  I mounted the key on some burlap which I painted with some white gesso.  The title is a free typewriter font you can get here and I inked the edges of the card with tea dye distress ink and then stapled the title on.

It's Not Nice

This is one of the photos from our Isle of Wight holiday this year...it was very wet, and I didn't realise that the paint stripes I added to the background look a lot like rain too!  We were camping with lots of friends and one family decided to arrange a treasure hunt for us around the island, and this also involved going into the towns and buying items.  My kids had been given ice cream money, and as it hadn't been sunny or warm there wasn't much call to use it so they were very keen to go out and do some spending.  They were both captivated by all the brightly coloured rock, and my youngest bought a beautiful fruity flavoured rock lolly....however he was very disappointed to find out that it was actually a minty/fruity lolly which wasn't what he wanted!  So he put on a sad face for me and then gave it to his brother to finish.

This is my first play with the lovely Simple Stories paper range, it has one of my favourite pieces of rainbow coloured chevron.  I love all the hessian and denim in the papers which work well for boys and girls.  I used the edge of the credit card I use for paint to make the stripes on the background and then layered up my papers which I stitched and distressed.  I added a pocket behind the photo for my journalling and punched out some star confetti with my pound land punch.  The title is also from Simple Stories, and to make the word nice stand out a little more I just went around the edge with a gel pen.

News and a Link

I am delighted to have been invited back for another term at the Studio blog....and the team has doubled in size with lots of fantastic paper creators to give you inspiration, if you want to see who has joined us then here is a link.

Also I have just posted over at Created by ATDML about this

I reckon you'll know what I am talking about from that clue....so here is a link to the full post.

Baking Cakes

I created this page for the studio challenge blog, there is a sketch to use and I followed it fairly closely.  It is a proud photo moment too....as this was my first use of my piping bag for decorating cakes and I wasn't sure how they were going to turn out, but I was really pleased with the end result.

The papers are all from the Dear Lizzy range by American Crafts and are 'hundreds and thousands' (sprinkles) colours.  I used a plate to cut out the circle which I inked and stitched around, I hand cut all the pieces except for the small circle....anything circular in my house is at risk of being drawn around for a page.  The bunting is also part of the Dear Lizzy range, so I had fun detaching it from the large sheet and arranging it on the page.  I added a few flicks of green shimmer mist and sine Nartga Stewart butterflies, the cake embellishment is by American Crafts too.  My final step was a line around the page to frame it.

If you'd like to join in and see lots more inspiration then here is the link

Home Sweet Home

I haven't created any home decor items in ages, so when the challenge to use some bunting came up at the ATDML cybercrop I decided to create a little piece for our house.

I started by die cutting the letters on my silhouette and the tag was a free shape I could play around with.  I coated the Kaisercraft frame in white and then layered up some stitched pieces of Crate Papers Farmhouse Collection on the back of the frame.  I then added twine and threaded it carefully through my tags, sticking down the tags at the same time - this was a little fiddly trying not to move what you had stuck as you went.  I then stuck a button over the end of each piece of twine.  I added a few of the stickers and chipboard pieces to either side of the frame too - I love how quick and easy it is to embellish something using all the little stickers you get in collection packs, which is funny as it isn't something that automatically jumps into my cart when I shop (I mainly go for paper!), so note to self next time to have a browse through all the wonderful stickers.

Even my husband likes this, which is praise indeed from someone that doesn't appreciate the need for pretty non essential things around the house :)

Sweet Dreams and some Exciting News

This is an older shot of my eldest son, and I still love it - he is asleep on my shoulder.  The photo was quite orangey so I decided to print it in black and white.

For the page I used Websters Pages In Love range.  I started by drawing 3 circles in the corner of my page in pencil (I used the inside of a roll of masking tape...yes a compass would have been easier).  I then stitched around the circles 3 times and rubbed  out the lines. I punched some circles and then folded in each side - the easiest way to do this is to make a little square template to use on each one and then fold.  I will try and put together a little tutorial on this as it is really easy.  I put the folded circles in lines on the right hand side of the page and then used the punch circle waste behind my photo.  I also created a little folded flower from a strip of paper and doily edge punch (yep another on my list of tutorials to do - it is so quick and easy too), and made some leaves cutting out the shape with pinking shears and embossing some veins on them, then rubbing over distress ink.  I cut out some hearts added lots of stitching and then finished it off with the title and some flicks of white acrylic.  

This is the last page I did for the A Trip Down Memory Lane gallery, though there is a card too.

Saving the exciting news til last;  I am absolutely delighted to have been invited to join the Tando Design Team.  

If you haven't heard of Tando they are a British company that creates beautiful chipboard pieces from 3D objects to pieces for cards and pages, as well as a lovely range of masks.  I'll be back at the end of the month with a page I have just created, here is a link to the blog so you can meet all the other new members of the team and see all the inspiration and you can win some goodies too to celebrate.

http://www.atripdownmemorylane.co.uk/catalog/gallery.php?cid=10&rid=1

3 young cousins

I just realised I have a little group of pages I haven't shown you yet, I have another page and card from the beautiful kit that Mel and Jill put together at A Trip Down Memory Lane to show you over  the next few days.  This page was made with the In Love collection by Websters pages.

I wanted to have a go at an oversized photo, though I didn't have much luck printing it out as a 12"....so I had to settle for 6 by 8 - next time I will try and get a print to fill the page and make sure my camera is on the correct setting :)  I am still enjoying using negative space on my pages so I cut a thick band of paper and then die cut the 3 young cousins....a take on the 3 wise monkeys.  I layered paper and doily behind the die cuts to make them stand out more, and stitched around the 3 with black embroidery thread.  With the photo filling so much of the page my embellishments were strips of the paper that I ruffled, folded and stitched on - Websters have those lovely strips at the bottom of the pages that you can cut off and use as paper ribbons.  I also added a banner of hearts and one of the journal spots too...the last bit was a few flicks of black ink.

So here are 2 of my nieces and my son, I love the photo as it captures a bit of each of their characters all in one go....those that know my son will not be surprised that he is talking, or that my middle niece is giggling, and my smallest niece is holding onto doggy and looking seriously to one side to work out what she is meant to be doing.

There is lots of inspiration up in the gallery so I shall leave you with a link to it.

I have a good Bowl

I made this page and used it for my post on chevrons over at Made by ATDML.  I found a zig zag in the free shapes on my silhouette so went about cutting it out in several different colours from Crate Papers Farmhouse collection (I still love this range :))  I stuck and layered up all my pieces of paper and then stitched around the edge (which also helps hold it on really well as there were so many bits).  I then die cut some stars and tried to carefully match them up with places on the chevron pattern so they were camouflaged - this took some time :D  I think an easier shape would have been a circle or not to have them overlapping lots of different colours and patterns!  I also stitched a little banner of stars too for under the photo.  Again my silhouette for the title - don't worry I didn't staple them on to the photo I stapled them before I stuck them down and then just inked the edges.

So that was the construction of the page, the inspiration mostly came from this page  as I loved the camouflage effect, I will have to have another go as I've just seen this which is totally gorgeous too.

The photo is from the cricket club last year and the title is a quote he came back with from it - he was very proud to be told he had a good bowl, and having watched him play cricket again recently he has obviously listened and learned a lot about bowling from the club.

Also my post on trends is up over at ATDML looking at triangles.

Catching the News

Here is my page for the studio challenge - you have a selection of beautiful pastel colours to draw your inspiration from, pink, a golden tan, grey, black (ok not pastel) and duck egg blue and I decided to include them in another messy page.

For the colours I chose Websters pages In Love collection, I'll have some more pages from this range later in the week as I was sent them from A Trip Down Memory Lane.  I also took inspiration from the circles (and a link to a Dyan Reaveleys video my friend Virginia pointed me in the direction of!). I started with my overlapping circle mask, and sprayed with brown, blue, green, black and white mist over the page. Once I had done all that spraying I used the other side of the mask to make some prints on the page too - like in the bottom right hand corner.  When this was dry I then painted gesso around some of my plates and an holding masking tape role, I then spritzed a little more with the brown glimmer mist as the gesso was a bit too white.  Next was to start placing my papers - I am down to off cuts of these papers as I've used  them on a few other projects, so I cut some strips and rectangles, stitched and inked them up.  I also added some dictionary paper which I glued and then covered the edges with gesso too.  I made a paper pleat for the right hand side of the photo and added some lace on top too.  At the moment I am enjoying using twine on my projects, so I added some loops with a Martha Stewart butterfly at the end, then a  little stamp with some MME stamps a mix of prima and AC thickets for my title, the journalling and all done.

The photo - on Sundays my Mum and Dad get a whole selection of papers in, and so when we get together for Sunday lunches there after lunch most of us dip into the papers.  I hadn't realised that my son has obviously observed this too....and it made me smile when I caught him on the sofa with the paper!

Here is a link if you want to come and see the rest of the pages the DT have created and also to join in with us.