What's In A Title?

The blog title is my take on my favourite quote from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novel, when Bella realises she is in love with vampire Edward. My version is slightly less impressive than that in the book but never the less true:


"About three things I was absolutely positive, first I was an obsessed crafter, second, there was a part of me - and I didn't know how potent that part might be, that thirsted for beautiful craft materials, dies, stamps, papers, cardstock etc, and third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with scrapbooking and cardmaking"







Thursday 29 December 2011

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

Today we had a guy round plastering the ceilings in our hall, staircase and landing. Hubby told me to keep out of the way as there was alot of plaster dust around so I shut myself away in my craft room, popped my ipod on and lost myself in crafting. First I did the layout above showing my husband in his new McLaren sweater on Christmas morning. I used a Simple Stories Christmas kit that I bought before Christmas for all my festive layouts.



When I'd done the layout I thought I had better make some little cards for my workmates. We all give cards on birthdays so I need about 30 for the whole year and to buy them would cost a fortune so I always make lots at the beginning of the year using up lots of scraps left from the year before. The design I pinched from my friend and workmate Val, who made me a gorgeous Christmas card using three Spellbinders tag dies. The front and back of the card are stuck together at the top so the bottom makes a little easel flap to stand the card up and has a small "Happy Birthday" greeting inside. Five down, only 25 more to make - oh joy!!




Tuesday 27 December 2011

Document 2012




In 2010 Caroline and I did Shimelle Laine's Document 2010 and with alot of encouragement and nagging from each other we managed to complete it. In 2011 Caroline and I bought the Simple Stories yearly kit and used that to document 2011 and again, with alot of encouragement we both finished it, well all my photos are in, layouts for each month have been done, just needs a bit of labelling before I forget what the photos refer to.




This year I decided to follow the format I've used over the last couple of years but make a front page for the album and monthly titles using a cute 2011 Newton's Law calendar I was going to throw away. I had to fudge March cos I remember saving the page for something and tucking it away for safe keeping but as usual, "safe keeping" means "can't remember where it is". I used some new spray ink and a mask that I bought in a sale before Christmas to make the frame to sit Newton in on the front page, attached lots of buttons and a red strip at the bottoms with holes punched in it and added some pretend stitches. The montly page titles were 8.5" x 6" (portrait) pieces of cardstock, the Newton image from the calendar , a strip of ribbon and 3 buttons. Each of the page titles have been stuck on the top, left hand side of a divided page protector that displays 6 6" x 4" photos on each side, the title takes up two of the photo slots.




Wednesday 21 December 2011

Tickled Pink



This photo of Penny was taken at the Scrapstars Retreat in September and uploaded to the Scrapstars Facebook page recently. When I saw the text on her t-shirt I wanted to create a layout with the photo and a Mr Tickle image cos I love the Mr Men.

Sunday 11 December 2011

Webster's Pages Black Friday Kits

I bought the two Black Friday kits from Webster's Pages a couple of weeks ago and they arrived last week. I am over the moon with them and have already been using some of the lovely goodies in the kits to create a Christmas layout. I originally thought the postage was a bit steep at $46 on top of the $50 for the kits but when I checked my bank statement the two kits and postage only came to £52 so I think I have got a real bargain and they took less than two weeks to arrive which is great for this time of year.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

That's It, Western Romance All Used Up






I have now (finally) used up all the bits and bobs left from the Western Romance kit by Emma Trout from the Scrapstars Retreat. I can't believe I managed to do the original layout plus five additional layouts with the contents of the kit. There were a few tiny, tiny, tiny bits left and I had to force myself to sweep them up and into the bin or I would have been tempted to see if I could squeeze another layout out of them, sometimes you just have to let it go!




The Love Letters layout at the top was a real challenge cos the bits of patterned papers you can see are pretty much what there was left, they were so tiny I had to stick them to the envelope and build the layout outwards. I also had to do some misting cos I didn't have enough coloured paper left to fill the design out. I've only just been converted to misting, by the lovely Emma Trout so I'm not very good at it but practise makes perfect I suppose. I have used lots of little pieces of leftovers to make the spiral cut and rolled flowers and snipped and rolled small strips to make the spiky fringed flowers and added some clear bling and pearls to the groups of flowers. I was trying to find a nice piece of cardstock to pop behind the photo of my hubby and as I was going through my scraps box my daughter popped her head around the door and asked if I wanted the tag off her new jeans, eureka!! Mounted the photo on the tag and added it to the layout to finish it off.




Tuesday 8 November 2011

That "Doh!" Moment

Yet another layout created with the left overs from Emma Trout's Western Romance kit from Scrapstars - strange feeling of de ja vu here, think I've used this line in the last gazzillion posts. This really does use up lots of scraps, even the very tiny scraps have been rolled and made into flowers to get the most from every piece. I used a We Are Memory Keepers Sew Easy tool to make the holes to stitch in. I found it didn't go through the paper and cardstock very well no matter how much pressure I put on it so I had to poke the holes with a pokey tool. I used the needle supplied with the Sew Easy tool but found I had to re poken the holes again cos the needle is huge and was too big for the little holes. I would have swapped to a smaller needle but I'd taken my needle box to work to sew up some scarves I've knit. The title box I made from my new labels 4 Spellbinder set that jumped into my basket in Hobbycraft, Leeds at the weekend, well there was a £5 off voucher in the Hobbycraft magazine so it would have been rude not to! The photo is of the lovely Kirsty Wiseman and I pinched it off of one of her Facebook posts, she is such a laugh.

I have another layout almost finished, just waiting for a photo adding, and guess what? Yep, it is made with the very, very, very last scraps from this kit. I have had to throw in an envelope to bulk out the tiny scraps of paper and most of the scraps were too small to stick to the base sheet of cardstock for fear of leaving gaps so they are all stuck to the envelope but I love it, I will post it tomorrow once I've popped a photo on it. Have a great day.




Sunday 30 October 2011

A Touch of Frost and Cute As A Jenson



Still trying to use up all the bits of paper left over from Emma Trout's One Wish kit, the top layout is made up of lot of the scraps and although you can't tell from the layout, many of the strips of paper are tiny and only just hide behind the surrounding papers. The photo is of my daughter's best friend Maddi, at that Blackpool waxworks again. I've done some journalling and tucked it away on a tag on the right hand side of the photo. I decided not to go mad with the embellishments on this layout as the last few and the next one are embellishment heavy so I wanted a cleaner look. Decided to use some really old, clear, plastic snowflake embellisments from Heidi Swapp as masks to spray with some glimmer mist. I've added one of the snowflakes to the layout with a brad and used some old thickers for the title. Still got lots more scraps left, think I can get at least one more layout out of it.


The second layout was an excuse to gaze at the gorgeous Mr Jenson Button, my gorgeous F1 motor racing hero (who came 2nd in the first Indian Grand Prix today) and also to have a good play with the new Martha Stewart double embossing button punch. I bought this punch from an ebayer in the USA as I couldn't seem to find any over this side of the pond. The papers were part of a kit I bought a few months back and the temperature gauges and the stars seemed to go with the Jenson theme. I think I might have gotten a little bit giddy punching the buttons but I enjoyed playing with my new punch and that's what it is all about.



Wednesday 26 October 2011

Beautiful You

Another layout made with the leftovers from Emma Trout's One Wish kit from Scrapstars. I really wanted to try the paint dabbing technique she taught at the retreat so I got out a couple of stencils and some of the left overs andthe result is above. I think it all goes together, it's stuck down so it's tough if it doesn't - lol!!!! I still have enough paper left to do one if not two more layouts with it. It's become a bit of a challenge to see how many layouts I can create before the papers are all used up, I might even get a card or two out of it.

Monday 24 October 2011

The Dame Edna Experience

This is the second layout I have done using the left overs from the One Wish kit by Emma Trout from the Scrapstars Retreat. The papers are from Webster's Pages Western Romance range. The photo was taken by my daughter of her friend Maddi at Tussauds in Blackpool recently. I love the colours of the papers, the blue gems on the cowboy boots match the colour of Edna's dress, Maddi's denim jacket matches the other greeny-blues papers and the colour of Edna's hair matches the purple in the papers.


Saturday 22 October 2011

One Wish

This is another class project from the fabulous Scrapstars Retreat in September. This project was created by the wonderful Emma Trout using the gorgeous Western Romance paper range by Websters Pages. Inside the little glass bottle there is a wish for my daughter Louise, can't tell you what it says as wishes are supposed to be secret. Louise didn't even mind posing in a cowboy hat for the photo to go inside the little CD case on the layout. There were alot of part sheets of paper left in this kit so I added a couple of sheets of white Bazzill and managed to do another two more 12 x 12 layouts with the left overs. Neither have photos on them yet, might have to see if Louise continues to be co-operative and pose for some more photos. Right, off to find another retreat kit to finish. Trying to take my time with them, doing extra layouts with the left overs before moving on to the next kit.

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Kirsty's Flip Flap Scrap Page







This is the second project that was taught by Kirsty Wiseman at the wonderful Scrapstars Retreat in September. It is a layout with a mini album that folds out from the centre of the page and gives you lots of spaces to put photos. I wasn't sure how I felt about the papers when I first saw them, yellow and grey aren't my favourite colours to scrap but by adding some black to the mix I absolutely love the result. Deffo one of my favourite projects of the weekend. I filled the album with photographs taken at the retreat. Kirsty brought some punches to the class and she had a Martha Stewart Double Embossed Button punch that we used to punch lots of buttons to use on the layout, I used them in the centre of some of the flowers on the front of the layout. I loved the punch so much and couldn't find one in the UK so I have ordered one from the USA, hoping it comes soon cos the buttons it makes are gorgeous, so much easier to carry a punch in my tote that a box of buttons.








Wednesday 28 September 2011

Scrapstars




This past weekend was the September Scrapstars Retreat in Leeds run by my mate Caroline. She put so much effort into planning and organising this event and I loved it. It was alot of hard work, lugging boxes of stuff about, moving tables and lots of running around but it was so worth it. We did 8 fabulous classes and there wasn't one I didn't love. The teachers were Emma Trout, Rachael Elliott, Kirsty Wiseman and Lida De Witte, all in the photo above with the event organiser Caroline

. We did some gorgeous layouts, a canvas (above), a mini album on a page, a suitcase containing a selection of mini albums and an amazing distress ink storage trolley. The suitcase and ink storage trolley were the creations of Lida and she just continues to amaze everyone with her "off the wall" ideas which are always a real wow!


The highlight for me was winning some "teacher artwork", a gorgeous plaque created by Rachael Elliott using Websters Pages papers layered up. I have mounted it onto 12 x 12 cardstock and framed it and it now has pride of place on my craft room wall. I will post a photo of it at some point.


The retreat was held at the Ramada Jarvis Parkway in Bramhope, Leeds, opposite Golden Acre Park. The bedrooms were comfortable and ours had a lovely patio out into the gardens and the hotel staff couldn't do enough for you and were so friendly and polite. Caroline's lovely hubby brought boxes of Krispy Kreme (???) donuts in on the Saturday night and there were bowls of chocolates on the tables throughout the weekend, chocolate sweets and biscuits in our refreshement area and one of the ladies had a birthday so there was lots of birthday cake too. The make and takes were fabulous and the teachers demo'd different flower making techniques with some very unique flowers being made.


I am determined to finish every class kit over the next few weeks, which will be a first for me as I have dozens and dozens of unfinished kits from past retreats going back about 6 years so I have plenty to work on if I go on a stash diet until the new year.


I want to say my own personal thank you to Caroline for the amazing weekend and allowing me to be, in her words, "The I.T. Department". I had a blast and can't wait to do it all again soon.

Sunday 18 September 2011

Holiday Mini Book














I've not had time to do much crafting recently but when I saw a video of a lady making this mini book on Youtube using gorgeous Websters Pages papers I wanted to make one of my own. It is quite cardstock intensive, I think it took about 17 sheets of black 12 x 12 cardstock plus about 8 sheets of white 12 x 12 cardstock. I used a full pack of Fancy Pants Beach Babe patterned papers and some of the glittered embellishments and letters included in the pack. There are so many tags and pages to put photos in I am hoping to get all my holiday photos in it, Kathy said there is room for over 60 photos and I've added extra tags to it so looking forward to filling it up.



I'm taking it to Scrapstars next weekend where some of the ladies have seen the video and want some assistance in assembling it. It's going to be a great weekend.


The link to the video is http://youtu.be/ZyrkbT9hD4k and there is also a video showing how she actually made the pages and put it all together. A huge thank you to the very talented lady who created the mini book, it is wonderful.

Wednesday 24 August 2011

At Low Tide - Scrapping Wednesday



It's Wednesday again, ahhhh I love my day off. Spent most of today messing about in my craft room. Completed the At Low Tide layout using some of the papers in this months kit from Sarah's Cards. The colours seemed to shout out "beach" so I lifted part of a layout from the booklet of layouts that come with the kit, sorry, can't remember which one of the Design Team ladies created the layout, sorry. I found a few shell embellishments and some beach pebbles at the back of a drawers so I inked the shells and added them all to the layout. I also found some starfish embellishments but they were a baby pink colour so I coloured them with rusty red coloured acrylic paint and then inked them a bit with some distress inks. I added some bling and a tag with the date and place the photos was taken, 31/07/11 Hornsea Beach.


The card I made using one of the new Molly Bloom stamps that I bought last week. I love them, they are so cute. It's my mothers birthday at the beginning of September so just for once I am early making her card, usually it's a last minute scramble to get it finished. Shame I haven't done the same with my brother's birthday card cos that's a couple of days before my mother's and I haven't started it yet - oops!




Wednesday 17 August 2011

Scrapping Wednesday









As I have probably mentioned on here a million times I don't work Wednesdays. Actually, let me be more specific, I don't go to my paid job on Wednesdays. Recently I have found myself spending most Wednesdays working around the house, following around after everyone else but not today. Today I was determined to spend the whole day, from getting up around 8.30am to Mr Grumpy coming home at 6pm, in my craft room doing some crafting. I was waylaid this morning by my daughter asking me to help her put the last coat of paint on her bedroom walls so that took me up until lunchtime, a quick break for my favourite low fat, tomato and red pepper humous with 6 water crackers (dieting again!) then locked myself in my little craft room.



I wanted to do something with the latest montly kit from Sarah's Cards as the kits are starting to stack up now as I never seem to have time to do anything with them and the next one is due to be posted out in a few days time. So I dug out this old photo of my now 18 year old daughter (A'Level results tomorrow, OMG!!) and got to work and created the bottom layout. She always wanted it to be "Teddy's Turn", I'm sure she didn't like going on the springy things herself!



The top layout "Icebox Bear" is a joke layout for my husband Phil, aka Mr Grumpy, aka The Teddy Bear Collector. He has over 300 of them all over the house, it drives me mad, but I'm sure I've said that before so sorry to bore you. My hubby loves the Birds Eye bear, I believe he is called Clarence. Every time an advert comes on featuring Clarence he asks me when the bear will be available to buy, like I'm the font of all knowledge! Anyway I saw this photo on the internet and couldn't resist printing it off. I saw these papers in a sale and snapped them up cos I knew exactly what I was going to do with them. Actually, what I was going to do with them was use them as backing papers for some Christmas cards (I like to start early) but when I saw the papers and the photo on my desk at the same time I couldn't resist creating this layout. To try to make the papers go a bit further as I'd only bought a few odd sheets, I gutted some of the patterned paper and I have to ask....why are craft knives so flipping sharp? I not only managed to slice the paper but my finger also which bled profusely, so much so that I spent several seconds swearing under my breath whilst biting down on the end of my finger to try numb the pain and stop the bleed, taped it up with a bit of tissue and some low tack masking tape and got on with the layout. Hope you like them.

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Meet Me At The Gate

Still out of my comfort zone, scrapping photos of nature with not a person in sight. I took the photo outside a churchyard in Hornsea, East Yorkshire a couple of weeks ago when I went over to my parents to practise using my camera.
I wanted to use up the last few pieces of the mini Bellaboo kit I bought a few months back. I've done two layouts with it so there was only one gutted piece of bazzill, a smaller piece of the teal striped paper and a few small pieces of teal and purple patterned papers left. As usual I went a bit mad with the flowers and butterflies, using punches and the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and a large Mariane butterfly die. The best part of doing this layout was trying to photograph it, it was really windy and I put it on the driveway in the best light and it kept blowing away, got it eventually.



Thursday 4 August 2011

A Bit of Nature

I think this is a first for me, I think all my layouts have people in them, this is possibly the first with just a bit of nature in it. The papers are Bo Bunny Vicki B that I bought in a recent on-line sale. I wanted to use this scolloped page but alot of the flowers in the pattern were pink and my wildflower is more of a lilac colour so I coloured the pink bits with a lilac pro marker and I think it looks better now. The flowers are made from lengths of ribbon with a running stitch through them which was then pulled tight and a brad added to the middle. I've put a journalling card behind the photo but it's on a brad so it swings out. The photo is one I took last week in Hornsea when I took my camera out to try take some photos using what I learnt from the fantastic Kirsty Wiseman photography class the weekend before. I had a great day snapping beach scenes, flowers, bunting, boats, sheep, you name it I snapped it, poor hubby just tagged along carrying my camera bag, bless him. The flower has a bee or similar on it and it you look closely you can see it's big eye which gives it's face an almost cartoon-like appearance. I am not one to normally shove my face near anything with a buzz and a sting but I like the effect of this one so it was worth it. The photo of the layout was taken indoors on my little compact camera cos once again Summer has vanished and it's chucking it down so the lighting is a bit on the poor side.



Thursday 28 July 2011

BFF



Caroline and I went on a photography day with Kirsty Wiseman last Sunday and not only had a fabulous day, laughing and chatting with friends but we also all went from knowing only how to work our DSLRs on automatic setting to being able to work in semi automatic, ie in apperture priority or shutter priority. Our lovely friend Kathy took this fantastic shot of Caroline and I outside the Open University in the middle of Leeds. I love the colour of Caroline's top and the colour works well with these Pink Paisley, Butterfly Garden papers. As you can see from the sidewards on shot of the layout there are lots of 3D embellishments. I had to add the sticky ribbon on the two opposite sides cos I was inking around the edge of the page with distress ink on a sponge when I dropped the sponge on the layout - ahhhhhh!!!



Saturday 23 July 2011

A Couple of Mini Cards



Not had time to do any scrapbooking today but I did manage to sneak off to my craft room for half an hour and use some leftover papers and a couple of stamped Lili of the Valley images to create a couple of simple cards for my workmates birthdays. The cards are small, just under 4" square and unlike the larger cards I usually make, don't have an insert with a greeting on, I just stamp "Happy Birthday" onto the inside of the card. It's easier this way as I have thirty odd workmates. Going on a photography day with Kirsty Wiseman in Leeds tomorrow, looking forward to learning how to use my camera better and getting together with the girls for a good old chin wag.



Thursday 21 July 2011

You Did What?

You did what? I don't know if you can see the journalling but it says " I told Louise she couldn't have a tattoo. The next day she left the house with brown hair and came back like this!" I think my 18 year old thought she could shock me, I just said "nice hair" and left it at that. The papers are 3 Bugs in a Rug and I believe they are from the Lazy Summer range. I bought three odd sheets in a sale and managed to make this layout and two birthday cards using up the left overs. Because Louise's hair is reddy pink the colours matched nicely. The flowers on the left are cut using the new 3D Fringed Flower from Sizzix, I tried 3 different effects including curling the petals, simple layers one of each in three sizes and thick layers using three of each size layed on top of each other. The mushrooms on the page are hand cut and I've shoved some foam tabs behind a few of them to give a layered look. The butterflies were cut from a sheet of glitter butterflies in Bellaboo's Bubblegum Hills monthly kit. The papers in the kit were by Kaisercraft.

I found out today that Bellaboo is going to be attending Scrapstars Retreat in Leeds in September, I believe it's only 9 weeks away but the excitement is mounting. It will be lovely to actually meet Kate in person and get to buy some of her stunning range.

Wednesday 20 July 2011

Happy Together





Been working on this for weeks, the basic design, the circle and the spiked cut outs are a lift from the Fancy Pants gallery and was done by a talented lady called Guisppa Gubler. Once I'd got the circle cut and the pattered papers and cardstock stuck down I couldn't decide what to do with it next so it has just been laying about in my craft room, waiting for me to spill Pepsi Max or some ink on it. A couple of days ago I bought the Tim Holtz Tattered Rose Sizzix die and thought I'd have a play at making some grungy flowers, so I made three using that die and another Sizzix one with two flowers on and a few similar but smaller punches. Of course none of my current layouts would be complete without tons of butterflies, well five anyway, I don't seem to be able to scrap without them at the moment.






I wish the sun would come back, trying to photograph layouts when it's grey and overcast is not good, if you stick the flash on it washes out the image, if you don't it comes out looking dark and flat. Caroline, Kathy, myself and another lady are doing a class at the weekend with Kirsty Wiseman where she is going to attempt to get us away from the Automatic setting on our DSLRs and using them more like a pro, that should be a laugh. Hopefully we won't get stabbed or mugged as we wander around Leeds looking for interesting things to photograph.



Thursday 14 July 2011

Prom Girls

I haven't scrapped or blogged for ages so I put this layout together today showing my daughter on the left and her best friend just before they went to their end of 6th Form prom last month. The layout started as a scraplift of a Websters Pages layout by the super talented Rachael Elliott but went off at a bit of a tangent. I wanted to try out making lollipop flowers and yoyo flowers after seeing them being made on YouTube so I set about cutting up some silky cream cami-tops that I haven't fit into for years and also some black netting that once lived on the bottom of a dress my daughter bought then butchered cos the netting was itchy. The red material is from a sample swatch pack a friend was given when choosing linen for her wedding reception. As usual I went a bit mad with the butterflies, well when you pay alot for punches you need to get your money's worth. I used a red Promarker to colour some clear bling and used a Bazzill gem template to place them.


Wednesday 29 June 2011

Strike A Pose







Another scraplift from the Fancy Pants gallery, this time the original is by a very talented lady called Vicki Chrisman, hope she doesn't mind me posting her Vintage layout here. I copied the position of the papers, my favourite papers at the moment, Happy Together by Fancy Pants then die cut some flowers and leaves using sizzix dies and then trimmed the flowers to give a "tattered" look and shaped then with a large balled embossing tool and made some greet flowers using florists ribbon and added a butterfly cut from using a Marianne die. The photo is of my daughter's best friend Maddi, who is a dance student and always looks stunning.





Saturday 25 June 2011




I seem to have lost my mojo a bit recently so I decided to do some scraplifts to use up some of the patterned papers taking over my craft room. I have lots of Fancy Pants papers so I went to their website and printed off some layouts from their gallery. From some left over Happy Together papers I put together 5 page kits and two from left over Love Birds papers. Together with a couple of page kits using the Stella & Rose monthly kit from Sarah's cards I had eleven page kits to be going at. I completed the "You Had Me At Hello" whilst watching the qualifying for the Grand Prix. I have scraplifted this from a layout of the same name by Ronda Palazzari. I have a bit of a thing at the moment for shaping flowers now using my McGill flower shaping tool kit, which comprises lots of big balled tools and makes the paper flowers lovely and rounded and gives them a more raised look.

Monday 13 June 2011

Dad's Month

June is my Dad's month, it's his birthday and Father's Day in the same week. I made the above card for him for his birthday using one of the new male stamps by Lili of the Valley and a nestability die. I don't seem to have done much scrapbooking this last week but I hope to catch up on my 3 days off this week.

Monday 6 June 2011

Our Day

This is a layout from a class at Sarah's Retreat in March this year. The papers are lovely Websters Pages papers. Lots of cutting out of the images on the papers, some fancy punches and a flower and some netting and Bob is definately your uncle!!

Sunday 5 June 2011

Scrapstars - Who Is Going????



So who is going to Scrapstars Retreat in September? It's about 15 more weeks to Caroline's amazing retreat in Leeds. She has got so many fabulous things planned for the weekend, 4 amazing teachers, competitions, some great prizes. I'm really looking forward to the weekend. I am lucky that I get to see and hear what she has planned whilst it's in the planning stage and her attention to detail is second to none so be there or be very square.

Further details are on www.scrapstars.co.uk

Gorgeous Gardener



What's with all the cloudy weather in Yorkshire at the moment? The rest of the country is basking in glorious sunshine and we are under a near-constant cover of clouds, the Cullen family from Twilight could move here without much fear of sparkling!!! It's making taking decent photos of my layouts a problem but that's life I suppose.


I created this layout today. The papers are from the Sweet Threads range from Basic Grey and the kit is the June monthly kit from Bellaboo. (www.bellaboo.co.uk). When I got the kit I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I used to love all things Basic Grey cos their papers were grungy and lovely to work with but the patterns on these papers are so "in your face" I was tempted to shove the kit to the back of my kit box and ignore it but, having started buying kits for the challenge of getting creative with something I haven't chosen, I decided to have a go at least. I cut the big flowers out of a strip of one of the patterned papers and added the flowers to a lattice strip I cut from kraft paper using one of my Martha Stewart punches, I wanted it to look like a lattice fence panel so after punching one side I turned the paper around and matched up the holes so both edges had the scolloped edge. I chose the photo of Louise in the garden cos the colours of the grass blended with the greens in the patterned papers and the pink background paper cos it's girlie. I added a couple of strips of the other patterened papers for contrast and a strip of blue ribbon and then added a strip of one of the sweet threads over the top. I cut and added some extra leaves on foam pads and curled the leaves that were attached to the flowers. I punched some large butterflies with another Martha Stewart punch, inked the edges with some distressing ink, doubled them up, added some bling and attached them to the layout along with a few buttons I had left over from another kit. Some letter stickers and a flower label finished the layout off nicely. The papers have grown on me now and I'm about to start a second layout using them.








Wednesday 1 June 2011

A Cracking Day

This is the last layout I completed today. I bought the April Bubblegum Hills kit
from Bellaboo which contains papers from Kaisercraft's Lime Twist range. I found it a challenge to do something with the shaped, foiled page as it has lots of detail on it already, the bunny and eggs and flowers etc. I printed off some photos from Easter showing me smashing a huge Easter egg into bits with my pink craft hammer. I cut a circle the same size as the inside of the circle on the page using my Expression cutter then added the photos to it, cutting the edges off so it made a circle shape then cut around one of the eggs on the paper to tuck a photo under. After sticking the photos down I added the ribbon with a bow to hide a bit I bodged when cutting the photos, cut some butterflies from a glitter sheet in the kit and added the title with the incuded chipboard letters. There are still alot of papers and goodies in the kit to do a few more pages and perhaps a few cards.

Picnic In The Park

Another Wednesday layout. This layout shows Monkey having a drink and a gorgeous double chocolate muffin in St James Park, London when we went down for the weekend a few weeks ago. Of course I was being good and didn't have a muffin (ha ha, liar, liar) but Monkey said his was lovely. The papers are more from the May monthly kit from Sarah's Cards which is choc full of Stella & Rose papers and other goodies from My Minds Eye. I have cut alot of the patterned papers up for planned layouts so for this layout I used lots of odd bits of paper and cardstock that were left over and as usual I went mad with my Martha Stewart butterfly punches. I am loving this kit, it has so much in it, going to be able to do lots more layouts and all for less than £20.


Guess Where We Went?

I love Wednesdays, my mid week day off work. Today I finished off this fun layout about our trip to London a few weeks ago. First time I've been to London and first time I've done a "fun" layout, it's not very artistic but it makes me smile. I bought and downloaded a digital kit from Dawn Inskip, printed the images off and layered up some spotty paper from the May monthly kit from Sarah's Cards with some white cardstock (my favourite), added some pretend stitching around the pieces of cardstock/paper and stuck the digital images down alongside some small photos of us in London. As I said, not very artistic but I love it.

Sunday 29 May 2011

Admit It...I Am Cute!

I signed up for the monthly kit from Sarah's Cards kits last month and my first kit came through last week and is the Stella Rose collection by My Minds Eye. I had bought some of this range of papers at a retreat in March this year so I now have lots of it. I sat and looked at the papers and tried to think of what photos I had that had some orange and/or green in them and I came up with this cute photo of Matilda, one of our late guinea pigs nibbling grass in our garden a few years back. I went mad with my Martha Stewart butterfly punches and lots of bling to go on them, made a tag for some journalling and made some paper bead leaves.

Monday 23 May 2011

Stash Diet













I've been on a stash diet this month....allegedly!! I could not resist buying the Happy Go Lucky mini kit sold by Bellaboo (http://www.bellaboo.co.uk). The papers are from My Minds Eye's "Lime Twist" range. As soon as the postman handed me the pizza box with the Bellaboo label on I went straight to my craft room, opened the box and got scrapping with a photo I'd printed off when I ordered the kit. I love the kits from Bellaboo, especially the mini ones cos you get lots of stash for not alot of money, this one was £10.99 and had two sheets of bazzill, five sheets of MME papers, ribbon, twine, a die cut butterfly, 5 Prima flowers, some webbed weave and I got a bag of lovely buttons in with the parcel too. The photo is of my daughter and her friend in 2009 in their prom dresses and the colours of the dresses went really well with the colours of the papers. I blinged up the wings of the butterfly die cut and wrapped some of the twine around it's middle. I struggled to get the webbed weave to stick to the page with glue so I had to add a couple of stitches on each end of the weave to hold it in place. I love making photo corners so added a couple of these to the photo. I am really happy with the layout, just hope that the butterflies don't get squashed when I pop it in my 2011 album.