Birthday Card from a tutorial

This is the card I created for my post over at It's a Creative World....I haven't ever been that impressed with my cards, and I like things inky....well Emilie Chamel has some fantastic tutorials.  As this card was for my brother I masculined it, so more blue and a button rather than a flower.  I don't have any paint dabbers so I used a sponge, acrylic paint and a kaisercraft label sheet to make the main label shape.  Next was the tissue tape across the middle, then I made the green flag - adding some ink from my distress pads to my sheet and water, and then smearing the flag through it, I then used a diamond stamp and weathered wood distress ink for the background and the word celebrate is a rub on.  I added an October Afternoon Flag, and some flicks of patine glimmer mist, some blue ranger pearls and I really like the card, which I don't often say, so I think I may have found a new inky card style!

Woody, Jessie and Joe

This is a page I did for my Trends on Tuesday over at A Trip Down Memory Lane it's all about ripping and there is a little guide to doing it and some other fantastic sites with examples to visit....so here is the link if you would like to take a look.

You will notice that our summer holidays involved a dream family holiday....we went to Florida and did Disney.  You will also notice in the pages that my youngest absolutely adored having his photo taken with the characters.....it is up there as one of his favourite things!!!  So this was on our first trip to Disney Land and we came off the wonderful log flume ride and noticed Woody and Jessie popping out, so we had to queue and he got his photo taken with them.  I got it printed in sepia to add to that cowboy feel.  The papers are a real mix, the base is one of my favourites and it is Simple Stories Awesome collection (as well as the bingo card), the blue/green and yellow papers are all Cosmo Cricket tea for two and the woodgrain and horse card are part of October Afternoons Farmhouse collection.

So the page started with the ripping and layering of papers behind the rips, I then added a couple of strips of tissue tape above and below where I wanted my photo matt.  I layered up the photo with the Cosmo Cricket papers - which I inked, stitched and distressed.  I slotted in the bingo card and the October Afternoon Miscellany and added a wide band of lace just under the corner.  Stuck this all down and used some staples as sticking onto fabric without using loads of glue and getting messy is tricky!  I layered up a pin with a tando star and a maya road wooden button.  I recently got a couple of alpha sets from kaisercraft and this is the grunge one which I used for the title, I used white cardstock and tea dye distress ink and then mounted it on the yellow Cosmo Cricket paper.  The last bit was to add some flicks of brown cosmic shimmer mist.  I really enjoyed this technique - even ripping one of my favourite pieces of paper (I have decided to use my favourite pieces of paper rather than hang onto them!!! :)) and definitely something I will try again.

VW Camper Van

Welcome to the Tando blog hop, if you've just happened upon it here then you can start here and there is some Tando goodness on offer if you leave a comment on all of our blogs :)

The focus for today is mask, and I used 2 Tando masks for this one - the Random circles which I covered in mushroom paint, and then the Sequin Waste mask which I used with my new texture paste...I love how deep the texture is with it.  I started with the masks, and added some misting and a few splatters of ink.  I then started layering up the papers - these are from Basic Greys Shine On Collection.  I distressed, stitched and inked all the pieces and my photo.  I then cut out some of the circles with my circle punch and hand cut the smaller ones and added them to the page -with more stitching.  A few buts of washy tape and a brad, with the title (which I hand drew the stitching on) and I was done.

I really enjoyed making this page as I normally start with an idea in mind (which can have been floating in my head for ages) and this one I started with the products I wanted to use and then the photo.....and just went with it, kept adding more until I was happy.  Do you ever do that or do you start with an idea/sketch in your head 1st?

For the next stop on your hop please visit the wonderful Irit to see her mask inspiration - here is the link

Here is a list of all the links in case you get lost along the way.

Tando Creative

Caro

Gez

>>>>>> You are here>>>>Katherine

Irit

Joanne

Kaz 

Karen

The ultimate chocolate cake

I was sent some beautiful Cake Walk and 9 to 5 papers by Mel and Jill at A Trip Down Memory Lane this month.  You can see some beautiful creations in the gallery here.

So this is the 1st of 2 pages (and a mini book) that I made.  I tried something a little different as I didn't crumple up any of the papers - so it looks a little flat to me, but it was good to try something new.  I made a little patchwork of papers behind the photo and then zig zag stitched it on, I also added a second photo edging it with lace and stapling on a little tag.  I added lots of flicks of white paint, and used the yearology stamps and white embossing powder for the months.  The title is the Ali Edwards font and I cut this out on my silhouette.

Onto the photo - having seen amazing cakes on the web, my cakes aren't;  but they are made with love and my kids are incredibly appreciative of them even when they don't quite work.  So this was for my eldest and he named it 'the ultimate chocolate cake' it is chocolate cake, with melted chocolate poured over it and then slices of mars, crunchie, rolos, maltesers, dairymilk and smarties stuck on the top.  The down side is that all that chocolate makes it very hard to cut......but it does taste good :)

I'll be back with more of my creations later on in the week.

How High?

Whilst we were on our hols I cam across My Minds Eye Follow Your Heart Papers - I had come so close to getting them before and once I saw them  in the flesh I had to get a few - even better that they were on offer.  This page was made with Val Mangans sketch over at the Studio - there are lots of other gorgeous pages to inspire you to.

I started off with my misting and used the studio calico circle mask (I cut out a circle the same size as the Studio Calico mask so that I could over lap them, and I also used the mask as a stamp and printed with the misting ink).  I then chopped an inch off each side and used some of the MME paper as the background (yes I did gut it so it is only a frame of blue paper).  I added some corrugated card gesso prints, and dry brushed some gesso around the page, then I cut out the circles - for the large one I used the mask as a template and the smaller one is the inside of a roll of double sided tape.  I inked and distressed the edges.  I cut out some of the hexagons from the range, made some banners, added washi tape and staples.  I used MME Lush letters for the alpha....however ran out of 'h' so that is a 'b' and the inside of an 'o' - tried to make a feature of it!!

The photo is from my sons climbing party - he and a few friends loved it - they had 3 walls to practise on before going to the big wall....where the challenge was - how high can you go.

Favourite Photo

I wanted to do a post on a trend I haven been noticing called Ombre.....so the full post is here over at Created by A Trip Down Memory Lane.

So a little bit more about the page.  I started with the parquet flooring die cut that was a free download a while back in the silhouette store.  I used some co-ordinations paper for this so I could sand it a little.  I chose a mix of October Afternoon papers to make the graduated colours behind the die cut and carefully glued and cellotaped it down...adding a couple of rows of messy brown stitching to hold it some more.  I cut out some of the house from OA's Farmhouse page, distressed the edges and added some gesso, I then layered up a tag, a chipboard silhouette covered in walnut distress ink and then added a layer of wide lace behind where I wanted the photo.  I mounted and inked the edges of the photo and then to draw attention to it I added a couple of circles of garden twine.  I did stick this down with a wet glue but as it is quite coarse I also stapled it to make sure it held.  I added a banner in the graduated colours and a peg, layered up all the elements, spritzed some little roses from the pound shop with glimmer mist to make them more orange and added my title backed with some tissue tape.  I then added flicks of navy ink too and some random dry brushes of gesso. I loved making the page and getting messy!

The photo is my Mum's favourite shot of her and her Dad, and when she reads my blog she will realise that I will pop it in a frame and give it to her :)

Polyphoto

Here is the last of my vintageish Graphic 45 pages for ATDML....This is from a polyphoto of my Dad, I love the shots and all the different expressions you get from young children in them, and the scanned image enlarged well when I printed it out.  It's been great digging out some of the older photos and making a start on a heritage style album and actually write down all the details and names of family members and a little of their story.

For the page; I started by using a doily as a mask and some white chalk glimmer mist, though the effect is rather subtle!  I layered up lots of the blue baby papers behind the photo.  To get the scalloped edge on the green pieces I used my corner edger - you can line it up and make a great scalloped edge.  I also used my doily edge punch and a little martha stewart butterfly punch too.  I only did a little fussy cutting for this page using the flowers and clock, and used some of the baby stickers like washi tape on my photos at the bottom and top.  I mounted the title on some lace and a strip of paper, adding my journalling below.  I added a few flicks of cosmic shimmer  mist and some old buttons that I have in my collection.

The new collection of gallery goodies are up too using October Afternoon papers - but if you want to see lots of Graphic 45 inspiration then click here.

Top 5

Back from our holidays....which you will find out more about over the coming months from all the photos (I have a pile about 2" deep!! and that was me being selective).  I also invested in some washi tape of which there is lots on this page, and some new Teresa Collins vintage findings stamps - they are the words....just beautiful love them.  

The page is for the first of this months Studio Challenges....there is loads of inspiration on the blog so here is the link to all the other pages.  The challenge is to use numbers as a focus and since my holiday pics weren't printed when I started this I decided to go for a photo less page and do my top 5 high lights from our holiday.  The papers are all echo park from the This and That Charming range and some from the Note to Self range.  I cut my papers and distressed the edges  with the sanding block and then wrinkled and pulled them out.  Whilst we were in the states I found some bargain Tim Holtz grunge board block alphabets so I covered the numbers is smash book washi tape and the blocks in Tim Holtz tissue tape and then went around the edge of each bit with black acrylic.  I also did this with the title but that is a MME chipboard alpha I covered as it just wasn't the right colour.  Under the papers I dry brushed some gesso and then did a bit of spritzing and made some dribbles with patina glimmer mist.  I used my stamps and added some burlap and lace.  At the corner and the top of the page I made some little tabs out of washi tape, stamps, paper and then EP stickers, the final step was a couple of flicks of black glimmer mist and stamping the date.  I tried to add lots of layers and bits of interest as there wasn't really a photo, the text I printed out on normal paper and just inked and crumpled it, I used a typewriter font too.

Now I am back I am looking forward to doing a lot more hopping around all your blogs, and if you want to join the challenge here is the link.

Scrapology...and scraplifting one of my pages :)

A litte while back I was asked whether the ladies over at scrapology could scraplift my page - it's such a fantastic honour.  Today all their pages have been put up on the blog and the challenge to use the sketch that Val Mangan created (and I based my page on) and to use some hexagons, so if you fancy a challenge and lots of fantastic inspiration hop over here.