Our Day

Here is the Prima class that I taught on the retreat using their Free Spirit collection which has lots of Sassafras echoes in it, and beautiful mellow colours.  I went with lots of layering and vellum and then a prima lightbulb hung on some string.

I then like to do some pockets to go with it - I printed out some black and white photos 6 by 8 - and slightly over exposed them, I then filled the pockets with some little bits from their journal card sheet and made a shaker using a Matha Stewart heart punch and a vellum pocket of stars.

I also challenged myself and the class members to journal lots about their day and so left a large space for journalling.

HMS Belfast

Another class from the ATDML Spring Retreat - this one by Ann Freeman...hers is a lot straighter than mine, I struggle keeping things straight or lined up, so I don't try to keep them straight now!  The papers are from Websters and their Our Travels collection (I love these papers).

Some more of our HMS Belfast visit and the polaroids were perfect for all those little shots.  One of the papers is filled with squares and lots of images that you can cut out like the compass and then the phrases 'out and about' and 'this way' so they are great to cut out and add as embellishments.

I'll be back with photos of the pages that I taught.

Funny Faces

As a Cybercrop is on the horizon for ATDML (there are a few kits left over but not many) I thought I would show you some of the pages I made from and for the Spring Retreat.  This one was by Karen Moss and using some beautiful Bella Boulevard papers and the gorgeous woodgrain card stock (which I believe you can only get at ATDML unless you order from abroad).

I love Karens style as there are loads of layers and foam dots, and the bright colours went really well with these funny photos of my son....who cannot walk pass a telephone without trying it out!  So here we are on HMS Belfast and he's taking emergency phone calls from an imaginary person and pretending to be shocked....and then slightly scared in the other photo where he is holding onto the railings!

So save the date the Cybercrop is on July 18th- 20th - loads of challenges and free classes so keep an eye out on the blog.

Love You with the Inspiration Elevator

Welcome to another month of Inspiration Elevator!

Our main purpose here at IE is to challenge ourselves, each other and YOU to take the creative process to the next level;  to inspire growth and change in our scrapbooking beyond the mundane.
You can see all of Inspiration Elevator's previous challenges at our blog and catch us on Facebook and Instagram (soon!) too.

This month's challenge is issued by the innovative Michelle Hernandez. Michelle's style is about telling the story with a clean and simple, yet artsy approach, an awareness of current trends, and garnished with her use of chipboard and often neutral colours. Here is her challenge for us, in her own words:
The challenge for June 15th is- make a public scrapbook page. You are making a page to go up at work or to give away to a family member to put up in their space. In your blog post you will tell us how knowing this page isn't going in a book or in your home changed your style. Did you go all out and make something that is 3D? Did you suppress your love of a particular color or product? How do you feel about the page being public- outside your regular audience of scrapbook lovers who read your blog or open your books at home?


My page is a Fathers Day gift for my husband and we popped (me and the kids) in a frame for him to have up at work.  I started with a prima brick mask and spritzed it and then layered up lots of my Crate Paper DIY shop papers, trying to pull out the colour of the kids clothes in the pictures.  I also used one of my clay frames that I made using air dry clay and some Martha Stewart molds to highlight the sticker that says precious.  I love the frames for that more masculine embellishment, rather than flowers!

Here's a complete list of this month's participating designers!  We encourage you to check out each designer's creation this month, then come on back and give the challenge a try yourself!

 Michelle Hernandez

Jayne Morgan
Wendi Robinson

Katherine Sutton

Lisa Moen
Lisa Spiegel
Ann Jobes

We have a couple of regular artists taking a summer hiatus and look forward to the return of Joanne Burton and Christa Uttley in the fall.
Meantime, if you've wanted to participate as a guest designer with Inspiration Elevator, just contact team lead, Ann at ann jobes at bell dot net
Now it's your turn to get creating about art you share publicly, and share your blog link at the IE blog. We would love to see what you were inspired to make!

The Tree Walk

I'm a bit late in sharing this post with you, I made for the Yellow and Black theme on the Tando Blog...though it is more brown and yellow with a little bit of black!

I started with 2 sorts of yellow paint and a credit card, and then smeared it in a rough square on my card stock, I also sprinkled some glitter into it.  I then set about making my squares and layered up lots of offcuts of papers from Crate Paper and American crafts, I used punching and distressed the edges and added doilies.  I then used lots of little bits of chipboard to add a focal point to the non-photo squares and again I painted these in the yellows - I used 2 flowers, and then a little butterfly that I added some silver glitter to and a button which I added bark lines to with a gel pen.  I then journalled around the edge of my square.

The photos are from the Tree Walk at Kew Gardens - it's a super walk if you don't mind heights.

Refresh your Craft and Soul - The little things

 Hello and welcome from  Jacky's   blog, or if you have just come straight here then check out the start of the blog over at www.jennifergracecreates.com .   Jennifer invite me to her Refresh your Craft and Soul blog hop and it marks a weekend of lots of giveaways, inspiration and fun over on her blog so do check it out.

So with the theme being refreshing and cleansing I went with an outdoors shot of my son amongst the bluebells (we love a cycle into the woods when they are out and to snap a few pictures).  It's just a little favourite moment and I tried to keep the page really simple.  I started with some blue gelatos on the white card stock making some swirls and then I used a water brush to blend it all in.  It wasn't quite the right blue for me so I think added some blue patina glimmer mist over the top, and some flicks of dark blue cosmic shimmer mist as I love the sparkle....I even added some more golden sparkle which is another glimmer mist...so there is lots of subtle sparkle there.  I went with just one sheet of patterned paper - it's by MME and I distressed the edges, then used a prima wooden square (again quite simple but goes with the wood theme).  If you follow my blog you'll know that a while back I was sent some air- dry clay by Baker Ross and made some ornaments - for this one I use a heart cookie cutter, and then a small circle cutter to make the main shape, then a wood grain acrylic stamp and some alphabet stamps to add the texture and word.  I then painted it white and picked out the word 'Love' in silver, adding some blue ribbon.  The only other items I added was a sticker by Simple Stories and then a few gems from Hobby House, the alphabet is a thickers set by American Crafts.....and then I stopped there...trying to keep it simple.  

I hope you've enjoyed the page, if you comment on all the blogs in the hop, finishing at www.jennifergracecreates.com to let Jennifer know you've been all the way around, then you'll be in with a chance to win a refreshing prize pack featuring Glitz 77 and My Mind's Eye Izzy items, total worth over £25! All entries must be received by Monday the 9th of June at 10.59pm BST. 

Your next stop along the hop is Linda Auclair.

You are my Sunshine

Here is a page I made using some of my kit from A Trip Down Memory Lane, and a beautiful Sunburst stencil from Tando and then some of the clay pieces I made with Baker Ross air dry clay and Martha Stewart molds.

I started with the Sunburst stencil and gesso, I was really lazy and didn't let the circles dry so I very carefully titled the stencil when I came to the bit where the 2 circles overlapped.  I layered my photos up and then balanced the photo matts with the title which is a Simple Stories card from their Charmed Life Papers, the yellow zig zag paper is from Simple Stories DIY shop.  I then added some more embellishments from the Charmed Life range (the black board paper is by MME) and made a little journal pocket behind the photo for the journalling.  I used some of the clay stars - I used a Martha Stewart mood and some of the white air dry clay from Baker Ross.  It's really easy to work with and you just push it into the mold and flatten the back, then carefully remove it and leave it to dry. I coloured the stars with some yellow mist, so they glimmer a bit too and scattered them around the page as well as adding one to a circle near the photo as a little embellishment.  

Now the story....well I got some beautiful flowers and chocolates for Mothers Day...and the box was obviously the right size to climb into!  

I am up today on the Tando blog too, so you can have a look at another page over there.