Terry's Retirement Card

On Thursday this week my work friend Terry is retiring. He was a sergeant for 30 years then retired then came back as a civi. He has been my rock, the office comedian and is always singing about Jeremiah the bullfrog so I made this leaving card using a free frog stamp from the front of the latest issue of Papercraft Inspirations. I used Stampin Up papers, ribbon and brads and made the flowers from punched scalloped circles. I included a couple of torn strips of music paper to tie the frog up with the song and punched some leaves out of music paper.

Oh Christmas Tree

This is another page for the baby album. I have been trying to use up some of my old patterned papers and these Websters Pages papers have been kicking around for about a year. I got a huge box of Websters Pages stash direct from the manufacturer in America. Great bargain, got over £120 of stuff for about £60, shame most of it is still in the box it came in. I really need to use more of it, perhaps I should journal my Christmas next year. I did lots of fussy cutting and added some Glossy Accents to the baubles on the tree so they became 3D. I also went a bit mad with the glitter glue.

Halloween

This layout is another for the baby album of my friend. I used Graphic 45 Happy Hauntings papers from a 12 x 12 pad, cutting one of the pages into a frame and layering up lots of hand cut images from one of the other pages. I don't usually cut people out of photos but I wanted to try it and I think it works well in this layout. I made a couple of rosettes to add some depth to the page, tucking one behind a panel of hand cut sunflowers.

My Fifty Shades

At the recent Scrapstars Retreat one of the pre retreat challenges was a layout based on the hit book Fifty Shades of Grey. It could have 50 shades of the colour grey or none at all or be directly about the book or not at all. This is my entry, a layout about my lovely hubby Grumpy. Actually he would be more suited to a layout themed around the seven dwarves, Grumpy, Dopey, Sleepy...get the idea? I really struggled with a title then driving home from work one evening someone on the radio was reviewing a new play, could have been Full Monty musical or similar and said "more James May than Christian Grey" and I had my title. Don't think hubby was too impressed but when he gets rid of his model railway and teddy bears I might change the title (not)!

The Pink Layout

Today I had a snow day, although there wasn't actually any snow, but I had a day at home with nothing to do other than craft, yay! I finished off a couple of layouts including this very pink one, which is a scrap lift from a stunning layout by Louise Collins which she designed for the recent Scrapstars retreat but it couldn't be used as the papers were no longer available in the required amount. The papers are by Prima and I have to say if I had just been handed them without seeing Louise's layout I wouldn't have known what to do with them. The photo is of my daughter, as usual. She will very occasionally pose for photos and this one is from August 2011 when she needed a close up on a white background for her uni ID card.

Today layout

This is my finished layout from the second Scrapstars class by the amazing and very inspiring Louise Collins. I learnt so much from this class as we did some ink transfer and added texture with scrunched patterned paper and made all our own flowers from doilies and vellum. I added some dabs of acrylic paint because I bought a gorgeous "sandal" coloured dabber from Kate at Bellaboo, the retreat's on site shop, and liked the colour so much I was dabbing it everywhere, layouts, hands, clothes!!!! I really like all the techniques and I will be doing a similar layout soon but spinning it with the textured bit at the bottom and the blue bit at the top to give the illusion of sand and sky.

Adorable

This layout is from a class taught at the Scrapstars Retreat in Leeds earlier this month.  The class was taught by the very talented Louise Collins.  I have added a few extra embellishments and a bit of stamping.  I am not usually a painty kind of scrapper but I really loved making this layout and I will certainly be using more paint in my layouts in future.

Mother's Day 2013

This is the card I made for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day.  I went a bit mad with the glimmer paper and stickles, I'm sorry, I couldn't help it, they made me do it.  Stampin' Up! are giving away some packs of silver glimmer paper with qualifying orders and I have a few packs.  It comes in silver but it colours really well with a few squirts of coloured mist.  Here I've spritzed it with a bright pink mist and the heart and penant were cut from the silver paper but I gave them a spritz with a dark grey mist just to give it a stronger colour.  I also spritzed some white flowers to got at the top.  I've added stickles around the heart doily, had to, because I put glue around the edge of the doily and it lifted some of the pink from the glimmer paper underneath and leaked through the doily.  The stamp is from Lili of the Valley.

Getting All Owly

I was in a very owly mood today so I made an owl card for my brother's birthday and using some left over scraps of the papers I made two little female owly cards for my card box at work.  The stamps and papers are from the Leanne Creatief range.  I have a few of these owl stamps and I really love them.  I tend to stamp about a dozen of each, colour them in then tuck them away for when I need a topper for a special card or two.