Jedi Towel

The theme for this week over at the Tando blog is 'It's a Man thing' - so I had to use this photo of my son.  We bought a surfer towel to keep him warm on the beach, and the only colour it came in was brown....he was really excited and delighted about the towel, much to our surprise....and then we realised it was like a Jedi cloak, so this is to document his love of his 'Jedi Towel' (it has also doubled as a great monks costume in a school play....never knew a brown towel could have sooo many uses!).

I started the page by tracing round the random circles mask with a gel pen, then I coloured it in with the peacock green cosmic shimmer mist - just squirt a little bit into the cap and then paint away.  The papers are all from Echo Parks This and That Charming range, I cut a few into circles too to fill some of the wholes in the mask.  I also used some tando bunting which I embossed with a cuttlebug woodgrain folder, and I used one of the arrows from a grab bag - I roughed up the edges and then covered it in red ink and perfect pearls as well as some sepia glossy accents.  I used the negative of the title that I cut out (it took me ages to decide on how and where to put the title!).  As always the journalling is tucked away behind the photo.

To see more inspiration check out this weeks posts over on the blog

Cawnpore, India

Some more graphic 45 loveliness and one of my favourite photos....I think it was taken in the early part of the last century.  My Grandma is in there, her Dad was a steam train driver and so went out to India with the railways which is where she was born.  Sadly I never knew her, though I did know both her sisters well.

For this page I started with some misting on my cream sheet with a prima clock and swirly circle mask. I gutted one of the Graphic 45 papers, and inked and tore the edges of it a little, and then added some paper lace to one corner, using my doily edge punch and lots of tea dye distress ink.  I again cut a few pieces from the papers including the tea pot and post card and a stamp layering them behind my photo.  I inked up a tag and made a pocket and this contains all the names and a little family history.  The alphabet is Websters pages and a little glitz one and here is a vintage mother of pearl button in the corner too.

For more inspiration with these beautiful papers you can check out the ATDML gallery this month - here is the link.

Wrapped Up

I got sent some beautiful Graphic 45 papers from Mel and Jill at A Trip Down Memory Lane for my kit this month.  I have often been a little intimidated by them, as everyone does such beautiful projects with them (just check out the gallery) and they are pieces of art in themselves.  Anyway I did manage to cut them, and it was great inspiration to dig out lots of older photos for my family album....you will notice a theme to my pages!

So this is a shot of my Mum we reckon she is about one and all wrapped up.  The inspiration for the shaped piece came from some Jenni Bowlin packaging - I used this as a template for the green cut piece behind the doily and then made my own bigger version.  I did this by cutting myself a strip of 12" by 2" and then folded it in half.  I cut a 45 degree angle at the not folded end, and then the wave shape at the top of my page from one corner to the point in the middle.  I then cut out the shape and when you open it up you have a template for the edges of the die cut style shape.  The reason for cutting the corners at 45 degrees is that you can now draw diagonal lines, from corner to corner, on the piece of paper you want to cut out and then line up the template with those diagonal lines....and just draw around the template.  Mine aren't always perfect but a little edge ruffling covers that.  I did a fair amount of fussy cutting too for the page as the papers lend themselves to it, and I layered up some of the pieces and used silicon glue too.  I also used a doily and some tea dye distress ink around the edge of the cream paper, as it looked a little too stark without any ink on.

Here is a link to the gallery so you can see everyones work

Splash

We have a great sketch from Val over at the Studio, sketches make me so much quicker at scrapping!  I love this shot of the kids as it is a real action shot and you can see the water leaving the cup!

I'd seen a pie chart shape over at the silhouette shop and decided to have a play with it as a circle was the main part of the sketch, I added some stars and some text to the pie char too, and inked and stitched around the edges.  I followed the sketch quite closely with the banners, and layered up some of my cardstock stickers and my Martha Stewart style washi tape.  The papers are mostly from Crate's Farmhouse collection, though the newspaper print is by My Minds eye.  I also had a play with one of the lovely Tando arrows which I covered in red ink and glossy accents.  A few splashes of paint too to add to the water in the picture.

Here is a link to the Studio if you would like to join us and see all the other amazing pages.

Collecting Pebbles

Here is a page that I really enjoyed making....it started off as a go at the parquet flooring type pattern I have seen, but most of that got covered up!  I'll do another page with that on at some point.  I used lots of October Afternoons 9 to 5 collection for this, and just added lots of layers - I also had a go at stappling a zig zag of ribbon which worked really well, you just fold and staple at different angles and the blue went really well with the waterproofs! (yes another one of the wet Isle of Wight shots :)).  As I had 2 photos that I really needed to include I added a smaller one to the top left, again layering it up with little bits of paper stapled on, one of my paperchase arrow paper clips and then some tissure tape (and some die cut letters I had left over and a button).  Around the main photo I made a kraft tage with the word stones, and my journalling is in a glassine envelope behind the photo.  I also cut out a burlap heart and pinned it on with a MME brad.  I made a little layer of circles and tags to the right hand corner of the photo - most of those were punched out one of the 9 to 5 sheets, and added some more tissue tape.  The title is a mix of a prima mini alphabet sheet and the word I die cut on my silhouette using my favourite Ali Edwards font.  As I cut it out of a stripey paper I went around the edge with my gel pen to make it a little more defined.  The final step was some cosmic shimmer mist flicks across the page.

So this page continues to document the pebble collection of my kids, fortunately photos seem to be a great way of meaning that we don't have to have all the pebbles at home with us !

Can you guess?

I don't think you will get the theme of todays post over at ATDML from this photo....however it is one of my favourite pages of late...here is the link

Skimming Stones

I had a look at the airmail trend that I have seen about at the moment over on the A Trip Down Memory Lane blog - here is a link to the post).  I used some lovely vintage 7 gypsies pages from a range called postale for this page.

I started using a number stencil and piling white gesso across it, whilst that was all drying I cut out my papers, and inked and stitched them.  I also chose a black and white and a smaller colour photo for this page too.  I used some of the offcuts of papers to make tabs at either side, and made a little layered punched patch under the colour photo using my Martha Stewart doily edge lace punch, and folding and layering the paper up.  I cut a strip of the airmail paper for the banner, and then wrapped the top part of the paper around the garden twine and then stapled it on.  I then used glue and a stapler to attach it to the page.  The alphabet is a mix of some cosmo cricket tiny type and also a cartabella alphabet sheet.

The photo is another one from our wet holiday on the Isle of Wight - in between the showers we went to alum bay and as on all stoney beaches we have a go at skimming pebbles which they are getting lots better at.

Tags

I made some tags for the Tando Creative blog this week, at my local craft group we have taken to exchanging tags/toppers instead of ATCs so we can use them on cards or pages.  I loved making these and getting all inky and messy as usual (that blue cosmic shimmer mist stays on my hands for a little while :))

So the first one - I used my Tim Holtz mini stamps for the quote, and a piece of old map, torn dictionary page, my AC Chaps chevron stamp, some garden twine and the Tando Compass.  I covered it in gold ink and then shook silver embossing powder across the top as sometimes you get some really lovely colour combinations when you use a coloured ink....I discovered this by accident when I made a UTEE frame.  I also added some more gold over the top to give the compass it's dull golden feel.

The next is one of my favourite chipboard pieces....which will appear on a page soon - hot air balloons.  I used a clear embossing powder and AC Chaps grid stamp to create the resist and then I spritzed it with green cosmic shimmer, and inked around the edge with some brown distress ink.  I also tied some garden twine.  The background is the Tando Harlequin mask and I used red and orange glimmer mist, then layered up some simple stories papers, more dictionary and I used my simple stories yearology stamps.  The quote was from a stamp I borrowed at the aforementioned craft group....but I can't remember who made it!

The last tag is actually a kraft tag, I started with the Tando sequin waste mask, and some deep blue cosmic shimmer mist, but it didn't look right so I spritzed a lighter blue mist over the top, and was pleasantly surprised by the subtle effect.  I then painted some of the chipboard stars in yellow and sprinkled glitter over the top.  I stamped out my title and put some sequin waste on too.

There is loads of great inspiration over on the blog so here is the link.

Inky Birthday Card

The theme for the month over at Tando is travel....so I dug out my unused yet beautiful Tim Holtz map stamp (I am intending to stamp more often :) and stamped that to the corner, then I ripped a piece of Graphic 45 paper (it was an off cut) and some dictionary, inked and then stuck and stapled them on.  I covered the compass in brown ink and glossy accents - I am loving the look it gives chipboard at the moment.  I also inked a some tea dye distress ink through the sequin waste mask and added some tissue tape too.  I printed out the Happy Birthday on the computer, and again inked and stapled them, then added a few flicks of mist and some small dots of the ranger pearls in white and green.  It is another card very much inspired by the beautiful cards of Emilie Chamel....she has fantastic tutorials on a Friday.

If you would like to join us in the challenge and see all the lovely work from the team then click here

Birthday Love

I found this in my draft posts....so thought I would share it with you.  I made this card with the lovely Websters Pages In Love collection that I got sent my A Trip Down Memory Lane.  A really quick card to make, I punched out some hearts, and made a small banner from some of the offcuts from my pages. Everything got inked and crumpled a little, and then stitched or stapled onto the card.  I added a birthday rub on for the sentiment and then some flicks of black glimmer mist just to finish it off.

The Needles

The challenge over the Studio for the next fortnight is to try and new technique on a page.  I love trying new things, and was browsing through the pages of Scrap365 and saw a page in the gallery where someone had used drips of alcohol ink on acetate....and I have some alcohol inks but haven't really used them, so I dug them out.  I created a wash effect with my paintbrush and the inks and a bit of thiner on some acetate, I then added some drops of blue and it made these beautiful drips...so easy.  I decided to keep the page quite minimal as I didn't want to detract too much from the alcohol ink!  I cut around the piece of acetate, and just added a few circles of paper from Fancy Pants In Love collection and Authentique and there is a dictionary page circle in there.  I made a small banner with some of the lovely Lily Bee Buttercip papers, and stuck some small punched hearts.  The title I created on my silhouette using the Ali Edwards handwriting font.

The photo is from our recent trip to the Isle of Wight....and doesn't show how windy and wet it was!!!  I have a picture of me and the kids stood infront of the needles too which I will have to scrap - that one shows us looking windswept!

If you would like to join us and see all the other amazing creations then click here

The Studio Blog Hop Winner

Here is the result from my floral giveaway, and it makes the winner Wrightboysmum

Congratulations, and thank you to everyone for joining us on our hop.  I'll be back tomorrow with this months challenge from the studio.

The Studio is 3 today

Today the Studio Challenge blog is 3 years old, so in celebration some of the current team are posting out favourite 3 pages, so here are mine...

This is one of my favourite white space pages, and I love the photo of my son when he was little.

 I think this page is another favourite because of the photo and all the fun we had in the snow, I also tried out some free stitching for the 1st time, and I love snowflakes cut out of glassine :)

This is a favourite because I really enjoyed making it, lots of paint and some mists, I think it is the 1st page where I really played with lots of mist and paint, I also love that camera paper still :)

There are lots of exciting challenges coming up and you can still join in our Olympic Inspired blog hop...and enter in for my blog candy here and lastly a massive thank you to everyone that joins in with us, I love seeing all your creativity.