Made to Scrap

Fish Cake

2012-01-31T13:04:00.001Z

It's been a busy few days here as it was my Dad's 60th Birthday yesterday so we had a weekend of celebrations! Saturday I made this cake for his party that was on Sunday. My Dad is a keen fisherman but he rarely catches anything so as a bit of joke I decided to make him a fish cake!

I didn't want to do just a fish as I looked at them on the web and they looked a bit funny, like a fish on a plate! I came across a similar cake and decided that that would be better and you don't have to do the middle bit of the fish!!

My Dad loved it, he said it was the best cake that I have made but he would say that as it was his!!

I am determined to finish my Christmas journal and I won't let myself make any layouts until it's finished! Only a few pages to go now, then I can create!!
Thanks for stopping by.
Back soon! xx

Paddling

2012-01-23T17:41:00.001Z

Yesterday's challenge at The Studio was to create a layout inspired by a letter of the alphabet whether it's in the title or the journalling.

Here's my take on the challenge, I journalled words about the sea all beginning with S.

I took the photo of my feet in the sea at Tenby in the summer. I used sequin waste as a stencil with paint.
Back soon! xx

CJ 11-18

2012-01-19T14:09:00.001Z

Thanks for all your lovely comments from the SC Blog Hop and welcome to my new followers, thanks for following! :)

I have finally finished all my wedding invites so I've been slowing catching up on my Christmas Journal here's where I'm up to at the moment. Pages 11 to 18!

Day 11- We went and picked our tree and bought it home, here it is waiting to go in!

Day 12- I went to help at school making Christmas cards then I finished off my handmade decoration of a Christmas pudding, which I must say made a lovely addiction to this years tree! I've already been asked to make some for my sister next year!

Day 13- Went into Clifton to my sisters flat as they were meant to be having Christmas carols in the community gardens, we got all wrapped up only to find no one there!!! They did have a huge Christmas tree in there though, it was 50ft!!

Day 14- we had a dusting of snow, shame it wasn't more!!

Day15- This years Christmas tree all decorated!

Day 16- I stayed over at my brothers as I had to look after my nephew for the day.

Day 17- We went to the Tobacco Factory to see Cinderella, it was brilliant and so clever as there only 5 people in the cast!

Day 18- Had a lovely Sunday lunch with family and then wrapped up the presents!

That's where I'm up to at the moment, quite a bit more to do!

I've also been doing a lot of crochet as I'm making a blanket for my nephew that was meant to be finished for Christmas!! It's looking great though! I'll be back with some photo of how it is looking!

Thanks for by by!
Back Soon! xx

SC Blog Hop

2012-01-13T15:00:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to my blog as part of the Scrapbook Challenges Blog Hop, hope you are enjoying hopping! You should of come here from Carmen's blog.

I'm Anna, I'm a very creative person and love most crafts! The main ones I love most at the moment are Scrapbooking (obviously!) and Crochet and I also love to bake! I run my own online shop, The Make and Create shop, selling scrapbook embellishments kits which include some of my handmade embellishments!

Unfortunately this is my last sketch as a DT member for Scrapbook Challenges as my six month term is up, I've decide not to reapply as life's a bit busy at the moment! I've had a great time though and hopefully I will join in with the challenges and sketches from time to time.

We had this lovely sketch to create from, (there is also a double page version!):

Here's my take on it,

It turned out quite different from the sketch this time! I changed my photos around the other way as the photos I wanted to use worked better that way, isn't that the best thing about sketches, they are a starting point of inspiration?!

There are lots of great prizes up for grabs,

A Hop On Prize (for completing a layout based on the Blog Hop Sketch and posting to the 'Hop On' Thread in the forum)

For commenting on all DT blogs:

New Member Prize (One random new member who joins between 1/13 & 1/15):

How good are they?!!
I hope you like my take on the sketch and that I've inspired you to give it a go!

You're next stop is the lovely Cheryl's blog.
Happy Hopping!

5 Or More

2012-01-10T12:43:00.001Z

Sunday's challenge at The Studio was to create a layout using 5 photos or more. I don't usually use that many photos on one page so it pushed me out of my comfort zone but I found it quite easy in the end. It's great to do when you have lots of photos from one day or event and you don't want to make a double page layout so I might be using this more often now!

The photos I choose were from my sisters Birthday in November, my family all spent the day together so I had lots of nice photos from it!

With some of my Christmas money I treated myself to a couple of Crafter's Workshop templates, I haven't used them before but have always thought them looked great. I used the big flower one on this layout it has 4 different flower designs on, I used this one with white paint and I love how it turned out, I might just have to get some more now!!

Also last week Sketch 276 from Scrapbook Challenges went up I created this layout using it. This is my last proper sketch with Scrapbook Challenge as my term has came to a end and I decided not to reapply as I was finding it difficult to find the time for all the sketches and then it became a chore to do them which I really don't want scrapping to become. I should now have more time to scrap just for fun! To say goodbye I will be part of the Scrapbook Challenges blog hop though which happens this weekend so that should be good.

I've nearly finished all the wedding invitations now thank goodness!! I really need to spend time on my Christmas journal as it has been neglected I will finish it sometime soon though!!

Thanks for stopping by and leaving any lovely comments, they are much appreciated! xx

Published

2012-01-04T17:03:00.001Z

Happy new year! Hope 2012 is a good one for you!

Just popped in to share some exciting news:

I've had my layout called 'On the Bus' published in Scrap Street online magazine! The category was graffiti so I fitted right in with my canvas inspired layout! It's the first time I've had anything published so I'm quite excited! You can see it here!

I'll be back soon when I've made my way out of the piles of wedding invites!!

Thanks for looking! xx

Snowflakes

2011-12-29T17:41:00.000Z

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas, I did! Now you should have some new photographs and stories to tell in your layouts, I know I have!!

Anyway I have a couple of layout to share for Scrapbook Challenges it was my turn for last week's challenge. The challange was to 'get messy' and as you probably know I love getting messy with my paints and mists so this was right up my street! I created the challenge to use an old credit card or a piece of thick card with your paint. I did this for my background of my layout and then created my layout on top. I love the effect it gives.

A Christmas layout of my nephew from last year with his advent calender that I made for him. did you notice the snowflake I cut it myself like we used to do when we were kids, folding it up and cutting it, thought it looked quite effective though!

Next up is Sketch 275 is now up. I made this layout using the sketch, another one of my nephew is the snow from last year.

I'm up to my eyeballs in wedding invitations at the moment!! I finally getting there with them now, there is a lot of printing in them so it would be a big help if my printer would print the same every time!!!
Thanks for looking! xx

Christmas Journal 2-10

2011-12-22T19:16:00.001Z

As promised I'm back with some Christmas Journal pages it has taken me a while to photograph them as you have had so many grey days! Anyway here are page 2 to 10, hope you like it! Be warned there's lots of photos!

Day 2 - Warmth is about the warm weather we were having compared to last year when we had snow!

Day 3 - I was asked to do a Christmas fair at a play school with my Phoenix cards, there wasn't many people there so it was slow!

Day 4- Mince pies we made our first batch!

Day 5- I started making some Christmas cards for family and friends.

Day 6- We went to the Christmas market in Bath, we go every year.

Day 7- I went to watch my class that I help at school do their nativity it was brilliant! One of the boy drew this for it, how good is that cow?!!

Day 8- my sister came around for the evening and we made her Christmas cards, 50 of them! They were all really easy just using punches, how lovely is my new MS snowflake punch?! I've always wanted one!!

Day 9- I bought some new fairy lights, they are lovely!

Day10- We took my nephew on the Santa Express steam train, it was great to see his little face light up when he saw the train!

That's it for now I don't want to over load you! I must admit I am behind with it as I've been mad busy with the wedding invites.

If I don't get chance to pop back in before, I would like to wish everyone of you lovely blog readers a very Merry Christmas! Have a good one!
Thanks for stopping by! xxx

Presents That Mean The Most

2011-12-19T13:21:00.000Z

Yesterday's challenge at The Studio was to create a page about the best gift you gave or received I went for this photo of me when I was 6! I was given a doll and cot, I loved it and played with so much!! It doesn't have to be the biggest of presents that mean the most!

This layout is a bit different for me, I went for a vintage Christmas feel. I find it's good to experiment with different styles though!
There's a great prize up for grabs as always at The Studio, make sure you check it out, we would love to see your entries!

Here's a bit of sunshine to brighter up this nasty day! Sketch 274 is up at Scrapbook challenges. Here's my take on the sketch:

I painted a big circle on the cardstock and then had fun playing with scraps of October Afternoon papers! I punched a few butterflies and added some mini buttons too!

Back Soon xx

Scooting

2011-12-15T12:57:00.000Z

Just popped in to show you this layout I made using Sketch 273 from Scrapbook Challenges. We have a brand new forum now, it's not quite finished but when it's finished it will be great!

I used the gorgeous Sidewalk papers from October Afternoon, I love these papers the colours are lovely. I happened to pick up these Thickers when I got the papers and found they matched perfectly!

My nephew in the summer scooting his way to the park!

Back with more Christmas journal soon!
Thanks for looking! xx

Christmas Journal 2011!

2011-12-09T23:26:00.000Z

I gone for a different size of Christmas Journal this year it's 5"x 8" and I've gone landscape too. I'm really enjoying it being different! I kind of run out of ideas for pages doing the last two all portrait! Here's the front cover:

Here are some of the foundation pages, with some paint splatters! Different sized and shaped pages again, I love them different! This is a red envelope, never put an envelope in before but love it already!

I have only put one number in it as I knew what I would be doing for this date, the rest of the pages are number free so I can swap them around it I want to.

I've stamped on some of the pages too. this page as stamped snowflakes and the word believe!

And finally the first page- Advent my little advent calender are these Reindeer Droppings, you taste surprisingly lovely! I have one dropping a day!

Hope you like it so far!
Back with more pages soon!
Thanks for stopping by. xx

Who's Bugging You?

2011-12-05T14:04:00.001Z

This week at The Studio we had to use Christmas papers for a non christmassy layout. Here's my take, I used the papers from Echo Parks, Everyone loves Christmas range.

I took this photo of my nephew in Ashton Court a few weeks ago, he loves looking out for bugs and insects so I found a ladybird and gave it to him, he loves them! You do have to be a bit careful he doesn't squash them though!!!

I'll be back soon with the start of my Christmas Journal 2011!

Thanks for stopping by! xx

Merry and Bright

2011-11-28T21:55:00.000Z

Last week I got into the festive mood and made a Christmas layout, I love this photo of my nephew from last year so I had to scrap it!

I painted a square of white paint and then layered up lots of different embellishments from the Merry and Bright embellishment kit on to it.

Everything on the layout is from the Merry and Bright kit from the Make and Create shop. Here's the kit:

It's a nice bright kit for all your festive scrapping and it would be good for Christmas journals too! It contains lots of embellishments , including handmade, that you would find anywhere else!

I also started this years Christmas journal this weekend, I've gone for a different size and it will be a bit of a different style, quite simple as I won't have that must time in December as I have lots wedding invitations to make! I will show it to you when I done a bit more on it! I will also be using some of the Merry and Bright kit in my journal too!

Thanks for looking
Back soon. xx

Little Butterflies

2011-11-20T12:37:00.001Z

Sunday's challenge at The Studio was to scrap something your grateful for but not the usual things but something superficial. On Saturday it was the NSPCC coffee morning next door so I made some little butterfly cakes for them on Friday so my layout was about being grateful that the cakes turned out as well as planned when you are making cakes for a special event, as sometimes they really don't!!

I used the gorgeous October Afternoon Sidewalk papers, I love these papers!! I went for a pretty layout for this one!

I am now a trader for Phoenix Trading and it's going really well, the cards are so lovely and a good price too so they are really easy to sell. I took them to the coffee morning on Saturday too and they sold well there too! If you are interested there's a link to my website above and email me!

Thanks for looking, let me know if you popped by!
Back Soon xx

Cake Lover

2011-11-15T14:10:00.001Z

I made this layout a little while ago and haven't got around to showing it. It was a bit of creative therapy! I needed to do a bit of scrapping for myself so I could be free to creative whatever I wanted and I had these photo ready and printed on my desk waiting to be used. It came together quite quickly and felt good to do it too!

My little nephew couple of Easters ago now, he really loves all the cakes I make and this was him tucking in to a Easter Cupcake!

I kept anything on a angle for this on and on the edge of the page which I haven't really done that much. I used Echo Parks, Springtime Papers, I cut out some of the leaves and flowers from one of the papers and stuck them on. And you can't beat a few paint drops!!

Had a great day on Sunday with my family for my sister's birthday we went to Ashton Court and saw the deer which my nephew loved! I made my sister a nice big Chocolate fudge cake! She loved it!

I also had some great scrappy news, which I'm excited about I will tell you more soon!
Back Soon! xx

Precocious Cards

2011-11-11T17:06:00.001Z

Here's a couple more cards I made a few months back now that I never got around to showing you. I made them with the left over bits of the Pink Lemonade sampler I had from Precocious Paper when I was guest designer. Tessa has now got some lovely Christmas samplers in her shop too!

The cupcake poppy, floral ribbon and green ribbon are from the sampler I made some leave to go with the flower and stitched down the middle of them.

On this one the lovely tissue paper flower, floral ribbon and pink ribbon are from the sampler. I only needed to add a few bits!

I've been scrapping quite a bit this week but I can't show you that yet but I have got something else to show you so I'll be back with that soon.

This my sister's Birthday in a few days so we are having a family day on Sunday to celebrate which means tomorrow I'll have a bit of baking to do!
Have a good weekend. xx

By The Seaside

2011-11-06T12:22:00.001Z

Today's challenge at The Studio was to use hand cutting which was an easy challenge for me as my scissors are my best friend!! I don't even own a cutting machine! I cut everything on this layout (except the title) with my scissors! If you join in with this challenge you could win lovely goodies from Precocious Paper.

I cut the people out of a sheet of October Afternoon paper as I thought they fitted in really well, I used watercolour pencils to colour them in. All the other paper is OA Seaside collection too, I haven't used this range that much so it was nice to use it with suitable photos!
This is my sister and brother-in-law playing bat and ball on the beach in Tenby when I went away with them for the bank holiday weekend in August.

Thanks for looking!
Back Soon! xx

A Couple of Cards

2011-11-01T14:03:00.002Z

I had to make a card for my Mum's friends Birthday and I needed some inspiration so I used sketch 272 from Scrapbook Challenges, which was made by Carmen. It worked great for this card! I used the lovely Echo Park, Victoria Gardens papers for it.

It's quite exciting at Scrapbook Challenges at the moment as we are moving to a brand new site soon!

Here's another card, I made this one using my Old Type embellishment kit from The Make and Create shop. For this kit I teamed up with Little Musings. I made this card using the Little Musings doily and typewriter and other bits from the kit.

As you can see I still have a thing about using wiggly twine!!! I didn't realise they both had it until now!!
I don't usually like the cards I make that much but I must say I like these! :)

That's all for today, back soon with more.
Thanks for stopping by! xx

Postman

2011-10-26T16:21:00.000+01:00

This is the layout I used for Sketch 271 at Scrapbook Challenges.

I matted the photo on an airmail envelope and then I made my own little envelopes and wiggled twine across the page.

I gave my nephew a little toy Post Office for his Birthday, he loves stationary and things, he is taking after his aunty!! He loves to play with my punches, stamps etc so I thought he would like it. I had a Post Office when I was younger and really loved it! We set it up straight away and he had a great time stamping and posting letters so it was a hit!!
Thanks for looking! xx

Baby Mini Book

2011-10-21T13:15:00.002+01:00

It was my auntie's Birthday a couple of weeks ago and she has just had a new grandson. She carries around, (like any proud Nanny would!) lots of photos of him so I decided to make her a little mini book to keep the photos in. It's really simple I just used a few sheets of A4 Kraft card stock and folded them on half.

Front cover:

First page:

I have put pocket on each page so my auntie can easily add or change the photos just by slotting them in! like this!:

Next two pages:

I just tied it together with some green bakers twine.
Two more pages:

And the back cover.

And that's it, quick and easy and a really useful present!
More to share, back soon! xx

Altered Background

2011-10-16T11:01:00.000+01:00

Today at The Studio I set a challenge to create an altered background to use for your layout. You could use anything paints, inks, mists,stamps,stencils, you get the idea! I was inspired by the canvases that are around the place at the moment. A couple of months ago I made my first canvas and I loved it! It's not quite finished but when it is I will show you!

So I took what I learnt from my canvas and used it on card stock for my layout. I love playing around with paints and stamps! I painted the background first and then misted a bit of yellow, painted yellow colours on it and then went crazy, sponged, stamped,doodled etc!!

I could really get into canvases and I might have to do this on a background again too!
The photo is of my family on a imaginary bus! My nephew likes to pretend he's on a bus so we got the garden chairs and lined then up, he was the driver of course! He drove us everywhere, to the shops, visiting friend and to the beach you had to ring the bell to get him to stop!! I just got off at the beach to take the photo! The things we do!!!

I've caught up on all my orders from my shop now, this was the first layout I've made in a couple of weeks and I really missed it! I got that creative itch!! I've being feeling a bit rough lately though so haven't done much this past couple of days except some crochet I must get on with my nephew's blanket if I want it finished for Christmas!

I did make a little baby mini book for a present recently so I will be back with that soon.

Thanks for stopping by! xx

Colours

2011-10-08T20:46:00.001+01:00

Oh dear I've got a bit behind in blogging so it's time for a bit of an update!

I've been really busy, the new kit from my shop is selling really well so I'm really busy creating those! Also my new venture has taken off which is keeping me busy too! Dirty Dancing was brilliant, I loved it, it was just like the film, you must go and see it if like me you grew up watching that film!

Anyway on to crafty things! This month it's my turn at the Studio to set the challenges and find a prize so for last Sunday challenge I create this colour pallet for everyone to create with. I love these colours together!

This is the layout I created with it!

My lovely little mini I love this car!

The Prize for joining in this month is my new kit, it's called Old Type and it's vintage inspired.

The next layout was Sketch 269 for Scrapbook Challenges created by Emilia. I went for bright colours on Kraft for this one, I haven't done it for while!

My nephew and he little friend on his new trampoline, I couldn't resist when I heard his friend call it a Bounceoline, how cute is that??!!

I've got more to show so I will try harder next time to share!
Thanks for stopping by and for any comments you leave, they are much appreciated! xx

My First SC Sketch

2011-09-30T16:12:00.002+01:00

On Scrapbook challenges this week it was my turn to create a sketch so I created this: Sketch 268

It's very exciting being my first sketch for Scrapbook Challenges and the DT did a great job with it! This is the layout I made from it, I kept quite close to it for this one!

If you do play along and create something lovely please let me know, I love to see!

I'm very excited as I'm going to see Dirty Dancing at the theatre this evening. How many of you have watched the film over and over again? I certainly have!!

Thanks for looking

Back soon! xx

Circular

2011-09-27T21:50:00.004+01:00

It was my sister-in-law's 30th Birthday last week so I of course I had to make her a cake! I went very bright and colourful for this one!

I cut the stars out and attached them to wires so they would 'spring' out the cake! I made a coloured cake too, first time I've done this, it was pink/red marble, not that the marble worked that well!

The 30 are candles, they looked great alight!! My sister-in-law liked it so that was good!

Sketch 267 went up on Scrapbook Challenges last week too, here my take on it!

It's a bit different for me! Quite simple, circles, a couple of buttons and I hand stitched down the sides of the photos.

Sorry I haven't been around much, I seem to have a lot to get done lately, also started a new venture so been setting that up but more on that some other time!

Thanks for stopping by.
Back soon with more! xx

Lists

2011-09-18T12:59:00.001+01:00

Today's challenge at The Studio is to create a layout with a list on it so I decided to make a list of things my nephew loves at three, this photo was taken on his Birthday, unfortunately he is getting a bit camera shy lately so won't look at the camera!!

Here's the list, I made a similar layout on his 1st birthday and listed what he loved then so it's good to have another as it's quite good to look back on.

I created the layout using the lovely bright colours of the Celebrate Embellishment Kit from my shop, The Make and Create shop. Here's the kit:

I've got another cake to make this week for my Sister-in Law as she it's 30th Birthday this week, I'm thinking polka dots!! I'll pop back in and show you that and more scrapping of course!
Thanks for looking! xx

Felt Fish

2011-09-16T16:27:00.000+01:00

A couple of sketches from Scrapbook Challenges to catch up on today!

For sketch 265 I created this layout, a quick and easy one lots of mist and bubble wrap stamping! I'm really getting into painting and misting again lately, love it!

The photos are of my nephew, he has a great imagination here he is pretending to fish on the beach with a stick, amazingly he manages to catch a lot of fish too!!

I made my own little fish by cutting them out of felt!

Also another layout for sketch 266 at Scrapbook Challenges! I turned the sketch around for this one!

This layout is the story of my Dad looking for a stone Pineapple, (don't know why it had to be a Pineapple!!) for the top of the garden wall he finally found one but the only problem now was how to get it up there! He used to be a climber so he got out some of his climbing gear and made a pulley system! With a lots of hard work he finally got it up there!

I used one of Tessa's lovely Sweet Spots from Precocious Paper.

There's more scrapping to be done so I will leave it there for now!
Let me know if you dropped in!
Back Soon! xx

Tractors

2011-09-12T14:14:00.002+01:00

Today's post is all about Tractors, it was not intentional though!

At Scrapbook Challenge last week it was my turn to set the colour challenge, as you probably know by now I love colour and I'm not afraid to use it!! So I picked these lovely bright colours to create with!

This is the layout I created with the colours. I'm loving using paint again at the minute so naturally I had to used some nice bright green paint on here with a bit of red bubble wrap stamping too!

My little nephew driving a little tractor at the Farm shop that is local to us, well he would be driving if his leg was long enough to reach the pedal!! His Nanny had to help him out!
I did a bit of doodling on this, trying to make tyre tracks, I think they kind of work don't they?!!

Now on to the second tractor! The tractor cake I had to make went quite well in the end here it is:

It was for my nephew's little friend, his mum really loved it and I heard it went down well at the party so that was good!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend, mine was quite busy but lovely!
More to share soon! xx

Back to School

2011-09-07T21:28:00.001+01:00

I forgot to show you last Sunday's challenge at The Studio! It was, as it's now September, to create a school related page so I created this layout using a photo of my old primary school.

It has changed quite a bit since I went there but I still go there nearly every week and help the children with their art and craft as I did today! I really enjoy it.
I used some scraps of school themed October Afternoon papers!

A few paints drops and some wiggly twine (they are becoming quite frequent recently!) and there you have it!! If you join in you could win a $20 voucher for Ella Publishing!
I will be busy the next couple of days as I've been asked to make a tractor cake for my nephew's little friend, wish me luck!!

Back soon with more.
Thanks for looking! xx

Father and Son

2011-09-03T12:14:00.000+01:00

Hope you all enjoyed Tessa's great Blog Hop, there was so much inspiration along the way! Thanks for so many lovely comments that you left! Welcome to my new followers, thanks for joining!

I just thought I must show you this layout I made a little while ago and haven't shared yet. The layout was for Sketch 263 at Scrapbook Challenges, I flipped it over. I had a great time using up scraps for this one!

The photo is of my brother and nephew when we went to Longeat Safari Park for the day on Fathers day, my nephew spent most of the day on my brother shoulders!

I used one of my new handmade embellishments I recently added to my shop, The Make and Create shop, it comes in a pack of three like this:

Better go I've got some scrapping to do!! Have a great weekend whatever you get up to!
Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments it's much appreciated! xx

Precocious Paper Blog Hop

2011-08-29T13:00:00.021+01:00

Hello and welcome to my blog if you are joining me from the Precocious Paper blog hop! You should of come here from Lisa's Blog. If not here's what the hops all about, my lovely friend Tessa is turning 30 and we are here with this blog hop to celebrate her special birthday! It is sponsored by Tessa's lovely Esty shop Precocious Paper, there are 20 stops along the way and Tessa is also giving away $100.00 in product so make sure you join in! You can start the hop at Tessa blog here.

Tessa kindly sent me some of the lovely products from her shop to create with, I was given the pretty felt flowers and sweet spots, here's the layout I made with them.

The photo is of all my family as we got together for my Nan's 90th Birthday to have a tea party, I have listed how many children, grandchildren and great grandchildren my Nan has in the journaling.

How pretty do Tessa's flowers look?!

I stamped around the corners of the cardstock with a swirl stamp to make the cardstock pretty too!.

If you would like some Precocious Paper goodies to create with, you need complete the entire hop, leaving a comment on every designer’s post. You will then be entered to win the grand prize – the September, October, November and December Samplers! That’s a $54.00 value and dozens upon dozens of gorgeous hand-crafted scrapbooking embellishments. Follow Tessa’s blog to be entered to win a $20.00 credit to the shop, and if you follow Precocious Paper on Facebook, you could win another $20.00 credit. Tessa is also giving away surprise credits to blog hop participants, so make sure you leave a comment on this post too!

There are lots of other lovely embellishments from Precocious Paper so make sure you look at all the other items in the shop, you are bound to find something you like!
If you do buy anything please quote this code: AWBBHFREE when you're at the check out and it will get you free shipping and a free gift on orders until 5th September! (If you are ordering from anywhere other than America please spend over $5.00)

Hope your having fun hopping through the blogs!
Your next hop is to Heather's blog.
Thanks for stopping by and happy hopping! xx

I Love Crochet!

2011-08-26T10:28:00.000+01:00

It's official I caught the bug for Crochet, I'm loving it!! Here's a post just for my crochet! I must show you my finished baby blanket, I finished it about a couple of months ago now and I just given it to my cousin and their new baby and they really LOVED it!! I went to visit them the other day and he had it around him the whole time!!

Here it is, you may want to put your sunglasses on!

They loved the bright colours and the baby's mum even said it was the most beautiful thing he had! So it couldn't have gone down any better! Not bad for my first attempt at Crochet, if I do say so myself!

I've now started another couple of crochet projects, I've been busy making Granny squares! I am making a 2 blankets, one for myself and one for my nephew for Christmas hopefully!! They are both in Granny squares, I was going to make my nephew a ripple blanket (like above) but I started the huge row of over 200 chain stitches and decided it was going to be too boring making a big blanket like that especially just after finishing the baby one! I'm loving making granny squares, they are really satisfying as it only takes just over 1/2 hour to make one! I know I will probably get fed up them in the end too!
This is Rowan's in greens and blues, I'm keeping all the outside squares in the same green so hopefully it will all blend together and then you'll just see pops of colour in the middles! (The colours aren't very good in these photos as it's so dull here today!)

And this is my blanket, in pink,yellow, turquoise and light green, summery colours!

Both patterns are from the Attic 24 blog.

That is what is keeping me busy in the evenings as the nights are now getting longer!
Back soon with a special Blog Hop! xx

Trying New Things

2011-08-23T12:50:00.000+01:00

A couple of layouts to share today. First up is Sketch 262 from Scrapbook Challenges. I loved the sketch so kept quite close to it. I haven't used strips of patterned paper down the sides of layouts much and really wanted to so this was the perfect opportunity! It love how it looks, you got to love these Crate Paper Papers anyway, haven't you?!!

The photo are of our day out last month, we were looking for fossils on Kilve beach, and found some lovely ones without too much looking! There was even a proper group of fossil hunters with a guide that came to look at them!

The Second one is for Sunday's challenge at The Studio. We were challenged to scrap about what we were excited about so I scrapped about my Sister and Brother-in-law moving to Bristol, after about 3 years of trying to move they are finally moving! I can't wait to have them closer to home!

I went for a bit of a experimental style with this one, it's one of those layouts that doesn't photograph that well but you get the idea!

I misted with yellow Shimmer mist and stamped using my new gird stamp I've wanted a gird stamp for so long, it's great to finally get my hands on one! It will be used a lot more in future! I also used some new washi tape in red and grey. I really like this style so I will be trying more like this!

Thanks for stopping by, I'll be back with a crochet update soon! xx

Picnic Invaders

2011-08-17T12:59:00.000+01:00

Just popped in to show you sketch 261 from Scrapbook Challenges. It was a nice simple sketch that Natalie designed.

This is my take on it:

I scrapped photos from our holiday, we were enjoying a nice picnic by the river in the peace and quite until a herd of cows decided to come out of nowhere and cross the river and join us!!

I used a nice bit of copper mist on this as I thought it looked a bit like mud! When I just added some swirls, twine and little butterflies, simples!!

Back Soon! xx

Pirate Party

2011-08-14T21:44:00.000+01:00

Today is my little nephew 3rd Birthday, Happy Birthday Rowan! I was asked to make lots pf pirate cakes for his Birthday. The first lot were pirate cupcakes for his party with all his little friends.

They were a lot of hard work but really pleased with how they turned out in the end! Here's a little close up!

The next cake was a big pirate cake for his party today for all the family!

I wasn't sure about the face on this one as I thought the cupcakes had cute little faces, but it didn't work so well bigger! I punched out some gold circles to put around the board like gold coins!

He seemed to like it anyway!!
These cakes have certainly kept me busy this week!
I had a lovely time at his party today, luckily the weather was gorgeous so it was a garden party and barbecue which was lovely!

Thanks for stopping by, back with some layouts soon! xx

Book Inspiration

2011-08-08T21:33:00.000+01:00

I'm pleased to say I have made it on to The Studio Design Team for another 6 months! I love doing these challenges and it has now gone back to just layout challenges every other week so can't wait to get stuck in!

This weeks challenge was to get inspiration from books anyway you like. I had a look around for book covers to inspire me and as soon as I saw this one I knew I have to have a go at this!

I loved the images around the outside of the book and I decided to have go at it myself! I hand painted quite a lot of it, misted a bit, used a few die cut bits and stenciled the three big images. My Mum recently found a sheet of stencils of three beach themed images on that we used to have in the bathroom many years ago, when stenciling was in fasten!! She gave them to me to use and they were great for this, they misted and painted really well!

The photo is one I took from my few days aways and the journaling is about my love for the beach.

You must see what the design team did with this challenge as everyone took a different take in their inspiration!

Thanks for stopping by, please let me know if you dropped in, I'd love to see who's looking, I'm always on the look for new blogs to follow!!

Back Soon xx

Hard Graft

2011-08-05T21:34:00.000+01:00

Just popped in to show you a quick layout I made for the first weekly sketch of August on Scrapbook Challenges. You can see sketch 260 here.

I've wanted to use this 'under construction' ribbon and scrap these photos for ages so it's feels good to finally create a layout using both!

I've had a lovely afternoon with my nephew, we were very busy, playing, we went to the park and he got in his paddling pool! It's his Birthday next week so I have lots of cakes to make for it next week!

Have a good weekend

Thanks for stopping by! xx

A Kingdom of Flags

2011-07-31T20:09:00.001+01:00

I've just got back from a few days away in Devon, the weather was gorgeous so warm and sunny so I'm nice and chilled out now after my busy month of July!

My last challenge for Punky Scraps was to create a layout using a list of items. The list included photos of items not people, red, 3 circles, stitching, turquoise and staples so I created another page for my Tuscan Tales album!

We saw these flags in Siena, they are used for the Palio Horse race there every year. I used more bits from my Jet Set embellishment kit painted red around the edges and made my own little flags!

The last of the Sizzling Summer Sketches went up on Scrapbook Challenges I made an layout from the last sketch SS16 which was lovely and was made by Natalie. It was very arty so I had great fun creating this layout! I misted the background with silver mist, used green paint for some bubble wrap stamping, added drops of red paint and stamped some swirls straight on to the layout to go under the title and my journaling was written straight on to it too so I'm glad it all went ok and didn't wrong! I just added a little bit of red patterned paper and red alphas! Oo I've just noticed these two layouts both have the same red letters on them, they were made at different times though, promise! Just in case it looks like I only own 1 pack of Thickers, this is really not the case I have loads!!!

A bit of a close up of the background techniques! One of my fellow design team members loved this layout so much it is now featured on the forum which is really lovely!

The photos are of one of the painted Gorillas we have dotted around Bristol at the moment, this gorilla is in the community garden by my Sister and Brother-in-Laws new flat in Bristol. I took these photos of the gorilla called Kingdom, (it was painted by the one and only Timmy Mallet!!) a couple of weeks ago when they moved in, then a week later it was sadly set alight over night and got burnt so had to be removed, why do some people have it spoil the fun?! Luckily Timmy has now painted a new one with the same design so it has been replaced.

Anyway I have waffled on enough! Better go, still more to share so as usual, back soon!

Thanks for popping in! xx

Flowers and the Carrot

2011-07-24T20:40:00.001+01:00

More sketch challenges to catch up on! This first one was today's challenge at The Studio. Amanda created a lovely simple sketch with butterflies on you can see it here.

This is my take on it I liked the butterflies from the sketch so I decided to make a feature of them!

I used probably my favourite colour combination in scrapping of turquoise and pink and added some yellow which work wonders with it!
I cut out a butterfly shape and used it as a mask to paint around the edges so you are left with the outline of it.

The other sketch I did was another one of our month of Sizzling Summer Sketches on Scrapbook Challenges I used SS15 for this layout.

The Story of the Carrot! My nephew got a carrot from you fridge when they came to visit us on holiday and said it was to feed to the ponies so all day he carried this carrot around! We saw these cute bunnies they were only allowed a little nibble as it was for the ponies!!

Still got lots more to show you so I'll be back again soon!

Hope you've had a lovely weekend. xx

Kraft Love

2011-07-21T12:29:00.000+01:00

Couple of challenges to catch up with today. The next challenge went up on Punky Scraps, this time the challenge was to use a great sketch so I made another page for my Tuscan Tales holiday album with it.

I used more of the embellishments from my Jet Set embellishment kit from my shop that you could win if you join in with the challenges this month.

Next up I used another sketch from our Sizzling Summer sketches over on Scrapbook Challenges. I used a gorgeous sketch created by Jolanda, there is lots of inspiration from the DT for this one and they are all different, here's my take on it:

This is a photo from our day out we have a couple of weeks ago. I love how yellow paint looks on lovely kraft! I used October Afternoon papers, I cut the flowers out of the paper and raised them on foam pads.

I'll have lots more to share soon!
Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments they are much appreciated! xx

Summer Sunshine

2011-07-15T20:33:00.000+01:00

You may want to put your sunglasses on for this post!!! Sunday's challenge at The Studio was 'how do you spend your lazy summer days? I think there nothing better than sitting out, relaxing and eating ice cream!

This ice cream paper from Echo Park was perfect for it! A bright layout to suit the photo!!

Also I created another project for Precocious Paper with the Pink Limeade sampler. I decorated a cushion cover with the felt and fabric flowers and ribbon all from the kit, you can see it on the Perfectly Precocious blog here.

I went to see Vincent and Flavia from Strictly Come Dancing last night in Midnight Tango, it was brilliant and they danced amazingly, there was a standing ovation it was so good!

Busy weekend ahead so better go and sort myself out!

Enjoy your weekend!

Thanks for looking!

Punky Scraps

2011-07-12T12:12:00.001+01:00

This month my shop The Make and Create Shop is sponsoring the challenge blog Punky Scraps. I'm also a Special Guest for them for July.

If your join in with their challenges you could win this:

The Jet Set Travel embellishment kit from my shop!

The first challenge was to use crepe paper so I got some green tissue paper and glued the background and put creases into it I then sponged over the creases with green paint to highlight them.

I then used the Jet Set kit to make my layout. I created this as another page of my Tuscan Tales holiday album, my sister striking her tourist pose! Everything's from the kit apart for the crepe paper, letter stickers and patterned papers.

This is another page from the T.T. album that I haven't showed you yet. As we were in Italy we decided to make our own pizza the Italian way! There's quite a story about this about running out of flour and my brother-in-law bartering with the next door neighbour for some flour with a bar of chocolate and the neighbour didn't speak any English!! So I've written the story on the page.

Quite a simple page as I had so much to write on it, just a bit of mist, some hand stitching and I punched out the circles out of patterned paper as I thought they looked a bit like little pizzas!

I'll be back soon with this Sunday's The Studio's challenge.

Thanks for stopping by! xx

Precocious Paper Guest Designer

2011-07-08T17:18:00.000+01:00

Firstly I like to say thank you for all your comments on the blog hop and 'Hi' to my new followers, thanks for joining me!

This month I'm lucky enough to be guest designer for Precocious Paper. I was on Tessa's design team for 6 months and had great fun creating with her lovely flowers so it was great to be asked back this month!

I have July's sampler called Pink Limeade to create with, it is so bright and colourful!

As soon as I received it I got stuck in and created this layout. I also used a sketch from our month of Sizzling Summer of Skecthes on Scrapbook Challenges, I used sketch SS03.

We had a lovely day out on Sunday to a nearby beach where we took a picnic, on the way back we stopped at some tea rooms to have an ice cream and it had the most beautiful flowers in the garden so I took some snaps of them. The colour of these roses went brilliantly with Tessa kit so I had to scrap it!

The only things I added were letter stickers, mist,a couple of borders and some gems the rest is from the kit! I love this green flower, it has glittery net on it!

It's a nice bright and sunny layout to brighten up today as we are in the middle of having a thunder storm with such heavy rain!!

There will be more to share soon as I've got loads of scrappy things on this month!

Thanks for looking! xx

Scrapbook Challenges Blog Hop

2011-07-01T17:00:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the Scrapbook Challenges Blog Hop!
Hope your having fun hopping through all the design team's blogs, you should of started here at Brynn's blog and joined me from Yara's blog and if you haven't joined in from the start you are more than welcome to hop along!
Let me introduce myself to those of you on the hop, I'm Anna and a brand new member of the scrapbook Challenges design team! I'm very excited to be apart of the team! I'm young and I have a passion for creating, whether it's scrapping, crochet or baking cakes, you can usually find me creating something!! I run my own online shop The Make and Create shop selling monthly embellishment kits and other embellishments, including lots of my handmade embellishments.
I had this sketch to scrap from:

Here's my take on it:

A layout of my nephew and Dad on my Dad's Birthday, my nephew always has to help you with blowing out the candles! I stayed quite close to the sketch this time as I liked how it was! I handstitched around the white cardstock with green thread and then misted some green to tie in the colour.

There may be RAKs along the way, as well as the main prizes, they are:
** One person who leaves a comment on all the blogs in the hop, they will get the Salt Air Collection from Cosmo Cricket.

** One person who does a layout based on the sketch and posts in the HOP ON section of the forum, will receive a $20.00 USD Gift Certificate to Scrapbook.com.

**For inviting people to join the group one person will receive a mix of alcohol ink goodies from Ranger.

What great prizes they are too so please come and join us and play along!

Your next stop is Cheryl

Thanks for stopping by! xx

Sandy

2011-06-28T19:09:00.000+01:00

Sorry I've been missing in action this week I've been really poorly with what felt like flu. I'm still what over it now but feeling a lot better than I was thank goodness!

Anyway thought I better brighten up this little blog with a new layout, I made before I became ill. I used a Kraft mini kit that I will be adding to my shop soon.

Another layout to add to my nephew's ever increasing scrapbook! This is the car I had to make him out of sand when we took him to the beach, it had to have everything a car has so we had to use stick for the steering wheel, gear stick and hand brake!!
I did lots of layering for this one and I love the way the blue shimmer mist looks on yellow cardstock.

I used some blue sequin waste to add a bit of shine to it. Really pleased with this layout, I think it's one of my favourites!

Anyway better go, I've got a busy July with lots of exciting scrappy things going on so I better go and get on with something! I'll be back on Friday with a Blog Hop!

Thanks for looking xx

Village Fete Fun

2011-06-20T17:36:00.000+01:00

I've had fun playing with my new kit from The Make and Create Shop! The kit is called Village Fete and is packed full of pretty colours and patterns. I made this layout of our last years village fete, the next one is only couple of weeks away! I had a stall to see my jewellery there. I did a bit of pink misting and then stuck the large doily from the kit on to it, I had inked the edges of it in yellow before to make it stand out.

I ruffled the wide green ribbon and added the pretty pink flower trim on top and stitched it down in places to hold it.

This is the kit, you can see it here!

Had a lovely but busy weekend, I spent the day with my family at Longleat Safari Park yesterday, had a great day and we had a annual family picnic which was lovely. I have loads of photos of all the animals we saw so I'm sure you'll be seeing lots of layouts from me to come using them!

Here the card I made my Dad for Father's day, it was a very quick one just using scraps but quite like how it turned out and he seemed to like it too!

Back soon with more!

Thanks for stopping by! xx

TT- Die Cut Challenge

2011-06-12T21:12:00.001+01:00

This weeks challenge at The Studio was to use die cuts which was hard for me as I don't use die cuts very much at all on my layouts, I don't even own a die cutting machine!

I dug the two sheets of die cuts I had out, one of them came with the pack of papers I bought for this album! Anyway this is what come out in the end, I clustered the die cuts in the corners. This is also another page for my Tuscan Tales Album, so I thought I would show you some other pages too!

This was a busy day of sight seeing in Siena and our rest stop on some back steps!

Check in, I managed to get a photo of everyone checking the bags in, I really like this action shot! I saved all the tags, tickets and anything else I could! So I used my boarding pass on this page and check out the 'airmail' bakers twine!!

This is the gorgeous villa and pool, it took us ages to find the right one but in the end we found this one and it was perfect, we couldn't of asked for more!

What a miserable day is has been today, heavy rain all day and we've even had the heating on it was so cold!! So today while stuck in the house I've been working on some new products to add to my shop soon!

Back Soon! xx

Cards and Gifts

2011-06-10T12:45:00.000+01:00

I have a couple of things I haven't got around to showing you today, that I made a little while ago. A few of weeks ago my parents asked me to make a wedding memory box and card for a wedding they were going to. The invitation was cream and purple with butterflies on so I went with that for a theme! Here's the wedding card:

And here's the memory box, I got the kraft box from Paperchase and then decorated it. I put the bride and grooms initials in glittery letters. It doesn't look very straight here but it was, promise!!

I then punched some butterflies out and stuck them on the bottom edges of the box.

I was quite pleased with how they turned out in the end.
This is another card I made recently for my friends Birthday, I made it all flat so it would go through the post okay! I used Crate Paper papers.

Better go, back soon! xx

I Went All Sketchy

2011-06-06T21:54:00.000+01:00

I'm back from my week away, did you miss me?! I had a lovely week in Devon, but the weather could of been better the first half of the week, it was cold, windy and moor drizzle!! Then the second part of the week I got a nasty cold so haven't been feeling very good and still have it now, I'm a bit fed up with being ill on holiday now what with an even worst cold last holiday! Nevermind it was nice to get away and I could lots of photos for new scrapping material! I also got some crafty goodies too which I wasn't really expecting, all for good prices too! That rose border punch was only £4! Bargain bag of buttons, a coupl of ribbons, kraft cards and the other buttons were a bit of a treat to myself! They have lovely printed designs on.

The Sunday (29th May) I was away was time for a sketch challenge at The Studio. A few weeks ago I had a little play at making sketches only using Word, they only could a few minutes and I was quite pleased with them so I emailed Amanda at The Studio with a couple and luckily she liked them too so we used one for this challenge!
Here's the sketch:

I love stars they are my favourite shape so thought I would add a nice big one on this sketch! I stayed quite close to the sketch in the end I printed out a big star and cut it out and used it as a mask to mist over then hand stitched around it to make it stand out. The only real difference was that I just added a little version of the sketch in the top corner.

Another layout for my nephew's album, this photo was taken on his 1st Birthday in his paddling pool, he didn't like getting his face wet!

It's really exciting seeing what everyone creates with a sketch I created and my first one too!

If you are inspired by my sketch and want to create something from it please let me know and link it up to The Studio, you could win this months prize!

I'll leave it there for now but I have more to share so will be back soon!

Thanks for stopping by and leaving your lovely comments they are much appreciated! xx

Paper Passion

2011-05-25T20:02:00.001+01:00

I've got a couple of layouts to share with you today!

A week's last Sunday (15th), The Studio challenge was to create a page with dimension, I really enjoyed making this layout, I don't add dimension to my layouts enough! I used loads of foam pads to raise the border, diamond shapes (cut from the PP) and a sticker from the wrapping that my bag came in.

I also my my own little felt roses to add a bit more height!
I had to make a layout about my Cath Kidston bag I got for my Birthday! I love these Crate Paper, Emma's Shoppe papers, they go with my bag so well!

The next layout I made yesterday, it was like Creative therapy! It was lovely to sit and create and play with paint to take my mind of things. I really love this hobby for that!
The layout came together really quick, the longest thing was waiting for the paint to dry!!
The photos are of my nephew painting the paving slabs with 'paint', really it was just water!!

I used some of my handmade embellishments from the 'Boys Toys Half Kit' from my shop!
I'm going through a thing of being addicted to white cardstock for my layouts again at the moment so I'm trying not to use it too much! I needed a hit of colour!!

I'm going away for the week on Friday to have a break away so I'll be back after that as I've got more creations to share!

Thanks for looking, have a good week! xx

Sad Times

2011-05-22T19:20:00.000+01:00

Sorry I haven't been around much but it's been a really tough week this week as last Sunday my gorgeous dog, Jack, died, he was hit by a car so it was fitting that my last post was a layout of him. It was a complete shock. Jack was such a lovely dog and I loved every moment of the 9 precious years we had him. He was special as he was my first ever dog, we got him as a tiny puppy. He helped me through some of the worst years of my illness and I couldn't of asked for a better, more loving companion, he always wanted to be close and would follow you where ever you went. The house doesn't feel the same without him.

I have some lovely layouts to remember him by, one of my favourite ever layouts I made was this one of Jack and I.

I never made as many layouts as I would have liked of of him though so I want to make more so I can remember all the happy times we had together.

Jack is and will be greatly missed.

Sorry for the sad post, normal service will resume shortly. xx

Picture Portrait

2011-05-11T17:37:00.001+01:00

Just popping in to show you the layout I made using Crate Paper's Portrait range. I love how the papers work really well on grey cardstock as I'm quite a fan of grey cardstock!! I thought this photo of my dog Jack went really well with the colour and as it's called Portrait it's a portrait too!

It about my dog's love of being close to you weather it's sat by your feet or putting his head on your lap, he loves contact!

I had a lovely afternoon helping out at school. We were pond dipping, they are lucky enough to have a pond in the school grounds. We caught about 7 newts which was really special and the kids loved it!

Back Soon! xx

TT - The Next Three

2011-05-07T17:57:00.001+01:00

As it's National Scrapbooking Day I thought I better show you some!! Hope you get some time to scrap today, I have already done a bit!

I have more pages from my Tuscan Tales album to show you today. I'm really enjoying it, loving the size and loving the papers, they really tie the whole album together.

The first page is actually the first page of the album! I printed a map of Italy from google and put an arrow pointing to Tuscany. I just used little scraps of all the papers to go around the edge of the page and used the letter stickers to make the dates of when we were there.

Second page- Take Off, a photo of the plane we boarded! I cut the planes and clouds out from some papers and made little trails from the planes with a black pen. (This photo of the layout doesn't look very straight but it is really!)

Next page -Our Friends for the Week, I had to do a page about these as they were used loads during the week!! Our hire cars that did loads of miles and our guide books, my sister gave us a history lesson from them about a place we were visiting nearly everyday!!

I used bright green paint on this one with a dry brush and added bright yellow flowers with green thread to tie in the colour, I love these bright colours together.

So that's all I'm up to at the moment but I have started on some more so there should be more to show soon. I have also made another Crate paper layout, I had to get the Portrait papers after using the Emma's Shoppe ones so I cut into that!!

Back Soon!

Happy Scrapping! xx

Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea!

2011-05-05T12:57:00.002+01:00

Just popped in to show you a layout I made last week using Crate Papers lovely Emma's Shoppe. I really enjoyed using this nice new range, it has much pretty colours and patterns.

Before everyone goes "Ooo have you been to Venice?", No, this is Little Venice in London!!!! When we went to London for the weekend we went on the water bus boat and it ended in Little Venice so we stopped to have coffee and cake at the boat cafe!

I tried a new technique of painting over a cut flower shape, really like how it turned out, I'll be using it more!
I made this flower by cutting flower shapes out of the different papers and layering then up, the middle one is a small flower with it's sides folded up.

I must show you the Afternoon tea I made for the afternoon of the royal wedding. I made everything on there, Coronation Chicken Sandwiches, Scones (with jam in the pot!) and shortbread biscuits! It did taste yummy, if I do say so myself!

I printed out little flags to add to it! This photo will be added to a layout sometime soon!

I loved the wedding, it was so great to see it and that dress was gorgeous! It does make in proud to be British seeing all those Union Jacks!

That's all for now, I'll be back with more soon.

Hope you're having a week good.

Thanks for looking! xx

A doubler

2011-05-01T12:31:00.000+01:00

I've been a bit lax on blogging this week I think it's all these long bank holidays, I don't know what day it is!!! I have lots to share so I will do better this coming week! I thought I better share today's challenge at The Studio first seeing as it's a Sunday, the challenge today is to 'make a double layout using at least 3 photos', here is my take on the challenge.

The photos were taken last weekend when we went to see my brother, SIL and nephew as they were on holiday in Dorset. It was so hot is was like summer! We had a lovely day on the beach and then had a barbecue back at the campsite. I wanted the layout to show the fun we had so I used lots of pretty colours and bunting, bunting's always a winner in my book! I used Echo Park Springtime papers, paint and embellishments from April's kit, Spring to life from The Make and Create shop. I must say I really like this double, I love these colours.
I do enjoy making double layouts but I do find they are quite a lot of work, that's why I don't make them that often! But there are some occasions then you have lots of photos had you need a doubler!
Here's a couple of close ups:

Right that's it for now, I will be back in the week with more!
Thanks for looking and taking time to leave comments, they are much appreciated! xx

Start of the Tuscany Tales

2011-04-22T12:55:00.001+01:00

I've finally got a couple of pages to show you from my Tuscany Album! It only taken nearly a year to start it!! I think finding that pad of papers really helped as they go really well with the sunny colours and it will tie the whole album together. I have done it in 8.5x11'' size, I have never scrapped this size before but I'm really pleased I picked this size as I'm really enjoying a change and they seem quicker to make! I'm also scrapping all the pages in Kraft cardstock which looks lovely with the warm colours on! I'm not scrapping it in order I'm just picking photos and I feel like scrapping so be warned you will see them in a funny order!

First up was a self timer shot in the swimming pool, my brother set up all our cameras on the side of the pool and quickly jumped back in!! It is lovely to have a photo of us all together.

Next Gelato, which is the Italian Ice cream, it comes in lots of yummy favours! We had one nearly every day of the holiday! This is my nephew enjoying his, mind you he couldn't eat it all so I have to finish it off for him!!

This lovely weather is perfect for scrapping these photos it really puts you in the mood!

There are more pages in the pipe line so I be back with those soon.

Hope you all have a lovely long Easter Weekend and enjoy the sunshine! I'm off out for the day tomorrow so that will be nice.

Back Soon! xx

Bubbles

2011-04-17T19:35:00.002+01:00

Today's challenge at the Studio was all about 'Play' whether it's a 'playing' photo or playing with new techniques on your layout. I decided to play with a new technique to match my photo. Here's what I came up with:

I wanted to make bubbles on the page so I tripped a little bit of blue shimmer mist into a shallow dish and added a little water and a bit of washing up liquid and mixed it up. I when got a straw and blow bubbles into it, just like my nephew was doing in the photo! I when laid the cardstock over the bubbles and let them pop into the page!

I was really pleased with how it turned out. I then added some paint rings on the cardstock too.

Yesterday was my Brother-in-laws brother so I made this quick and easy card for him.

I added a new kit to my shop today, a DIY Spring Mini book kit, it contains everything you need to create a lovely spring mini book. Here's what you get:

I've done a bit of scrapping today I started my Tuscany holiday album, yay! It's not quite a year after the holiday!! I'm really enjoying it as I'm scrapping in a different size but more about that when I've photographed the layouts!

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend

Thanks for looking xx

Candle Light and Crochet

2011-04-12T17:17:00.000+01:00

Few bits to share today, first up is a layout I made from Shimelle's Sketch this week. I've been wanting to join in for a while now so when I had a bit of share time I got to it! I used my new pearl shimmer mist on the background and used white paint for half of the rectangle, I've found using a kitchen sponge (like the ones you clean pans with!) works really well with paint and gives a nice soft effect.

I used my favourite colour combo of pink and turquoise again but added in grey and a bit of black to it. The photo is of my Birthday cake my sister made me for my Birthday, it was huge! These little cupcake sweet spot embellishments from Precocious Paper when really well with it.

Thought I would update you on my crochet project, this is how my baby ripple blanket is looking at the moment, these are all the colours now so I will start to repeat the blue next. There have been some mistakes but I have pulled them out and re-did it until it was right! I'm really pleased with how it's looking, not bad for my first project is it?!

I also heard that the baby's mum has seen a ripple blanket just like this and wants one! And I happen to be already making her one, how good is that?!

The Stitch and Creative Craft show I when to last week was disappointing this year not that much Scrapbooking there which was a shame so I only got a new paper trimmer and some bits and didn't spend much Birthday money!
I did pop into TKmax the other day though on the off chance that they would have some good scrapping goodies and got a bargain!! You have to keep an eye out in there sometimes there are great things others theres not and you have to be prepared to hunt for them!! This time I got this pad of We r memory keepers, I love all the papers and it will be brilliant for my Tuscany Album so I can't wait to get started now on it so watch this space!!

There's lots of different papers including some lovely glittery cloud paper! And how gorgeous are these letters?! I LOVE them!

Anyway better go, see you again soon!

Thank you for your comments they are always much appreciated! xx

A Bit Of Baking

2011-04-09T17:42:00.000+01:00

After few days of rest recovering from last weekend I was ready to get creative again! I missed not scrapping so I made this layout of my little nephew. He loves to help me when I'm baking and the best bit for him is getting covered in cake mixture licking the bowl!!! I couldn't believe how much mixture he got all over him!

I used OA Modern Homemaker papers for this I love the bright colours. I cut out the baking elements from a sheet of the paper and raised them up from the page using foam pads.

On Thursday I was busy decorating little cakes for the children at school as they were having a end of term Easter cake sale. I made some pink and yellow icing and used some micro (smaller than mini!) eggs for the top. They turned out quite pretty in the end and I'm sure the children enjoyed them anyway!

That's all for now but I've just started something scrappy so I'll be back with that soon!

Hope your enjoying the spring sunshine!

Thanks for looking. xx

The Places We Go

2011-04-05T17:24:00.000+01:00

Sunday's challenge at The Studio was to scrap a place that needs something to you, good or bad! I picked these photos of our recent trip to Clevedon. We used to go there as children a lot with my Nan and Grandad, we always had to walk along the front, I used to walk along the top of the sea wall and Grandad would also hold my hand. We always used to say that Grandad's car only knew the way to Clevedon! So when it was Nan's 90th Birthday there was only one place you could go!

I splattered the cardstock with white paint and inked it with distress ink. I wanted to put the story on this layout so need quite a bit of space to write. At times I struggle when I want lots of journaling on a layout so I wrote what I wanted to say first and worked it into the design. I used a couple of papers from Echo Parks Spring range for it.

I managed to get my hands on some washi tape I've been after some for ages, then I came across a new craft shop in Bath and they had lots! I used some of the bottom one on the layout above! I think I will have to go back and get some more in different designs!

I had a lovely Birthday and weekend away in London, but it was so busy I'm worn out now everything aches! My sister made me an amazing Birthday cake!!

Saturday we went along the canal on the water bus which goes through London zoo didn't see that many animals though! then we had a quick look at Portobello market, it was a bit busy but good to see.
Sunday we to Richmond park which was lovely, it's huge! We had a drive around to see if you could find any of the deer that live there and we came across these lovely little fellows!

And I'm now the proud owner of this gorgeous Cath Kidston bag, yay! I've always wanted a Cath Kidston bag but never found the right one until now! It was Birthday present from my brother and sis!

I also got quite a bit of money that I'm going to spend on some scrapping goodies! I'm going to a Stitch and Create craft show on Friday so hope to spend some there!

Back soon with more!

Thanks for looking! xx

Spring Kit

2011-04-01T13:07:00.000+01:00

I've added a new kit to my shop today, it's called 'Spring to Life'. It's full of the joys of spring! It good for Easter too. I've also been busy making up a DIY Spring mini book kit that will be in the shop soon.

I made this a Mother's day card for my Nan from the kit.

I'm going away for the weekend to London to see my Sister and Brother-in-law to celebrate my Birthday! So that should be good!

I'll be back with Sunday's the Studio challenge on Monday.

Thanks for looking! xx

My Last Designer Friday

2011-03-25T21:13:00.000Z

Lots to share today as it is my last designer Friday on the Precocious Paper design team. I'm really sad that my 6 months is up as I've loved designing with PP products and being part of the team but it's not all sad as Tessa has kindly asked me to be guest designer in July so I've got that to look forward to!
Anyway this week I've been really busy creating with April sampler kit called Little Emmy, it's a gorgeous kit in really pretty colours.

For my first project I got my sewing machine out and made a shopping bag. I made it from scratch and made it a size a liked!

I attached 2 of the ribbons along the bag and then added the fabric flower from the kit and two of the felt flowers and a leaf. I also added some little beads around to match the colour of the flower. I gave my bag some pretty stitching, along the top and along the ribbons it's pink and along the handles it's light blue! I love how it looks, shame it doesn't show up that well on the photos!

Next it's a doubler!! I thought the flowers would be lovely for my Nan's 90th tea party photos, I had quite a few photos and the flowers are so lovely that they deserved a double layout, I don't make a lot of them but sometimes I think they are called for and they look nice in a album every now and then!

Quite a bit of misting and lots of borders!

Love this round lollipop flower!

After making these I only had 2 flowers left! I had the lovely pink silk flower that matched this years album perfectly it's just so happened this years album is pink! I used the pink organza ribbon that I has left over from my bag to ruffle along the material and added some paint, a border, some lace, a chipboard frame that I covered in patterned paper and the flower, simple of effective! I haven't done anything to decorate my albums before I always intended to but never got around to it so I'm pleased to have one done!

So that's it and after all that I still have one flower left! I loved using this kit, go and get yourself one before they sell out!

I've been loving this gorgeous Spring weather lately that's nothing nicer than Spring sunshine and all the pretty flowers!

Thanks for you comments I love reading then, they brighten up my day!

Back soon xx

Ruffles and Reading

2011-03-20T20:51:00.000Z

It's been a busy week and I haven't been feeling the best so I haven't been doing that much when I wasn't busy but I do have a couple of pages I thought I would share with you!

Today's challenge at The Studio was a sketch with a twist to use ruffles on your page. Here's what I came up with!

I decided I was going to use material on my layout to make the ruffles I just pushed it through the sewing machine so it bunched up, I pleased with how it worked.

I took the photo at the farm shop up the road from us I loved the way the chickens were sat on the fence in the sun!

Go and check out what the other ladies created, it's amazing how different all the layouts are from the same sketch!

I tried to have a bit of a sort out of my papers last weekend but didn't really get that far so I started making this layout instead! It's one of those layout that really doesn't photograph very well, whatever I try I can't seem to get it straight! You get the idea anyway!

Lot's of scraps of paper and machine stitching on here! I sewed around the photos in blue thread and along the papers in white thread. I also stamped some random letters around the page with my little letter stamps.

I have also started my first crochet project, which is exciting! I am making a baby ripple blanket, it's going quite well but more on that when I've got a bit more to show!

Hopefully I'll be back soon with more, I have quite a lot of crafting planned for this week!

Hope you've all had a good weekend!

Thanks for looking xx

Biscuit Anyone?!

2011-03-12T16:26:00.000Z

I created this layout with my new kit from my shop , the kit is called Welcome Home.

Everything is from the kit apart from the letters and the strips of patterned paper around the edge, oh and a few paint drops! I cut the green gingham material with my pinking shears to make it look like little table cloths behind the photos! I cut strips of the red crepe paper and cut the doily in half and put those behind the photos too. I used some of my handmade embellishments on it too the net flower and the heart circle, I love the touch of denim in the kit, it's like putting on your comfy jeans!!

There's nothing I like doing more than being at home baking so the photos are of biscuits that we call 'Butter Crunch'. I wrote the recipe on the recipe card along with what they remind me of.

Everytime I bake them I'm reminded of when my mum used to make them for camping trips when we were kids, we used to go camping a lot!! Everyone loved them then and they still do now!

I forgot to show you the card I made for my Nan's Birthday, very bright and flowery!! I got a bit of a thing about used these flowers on cards lately!!

I might go off and do a bit of scrapping now!!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend.

Back Soon! xx

Ages

2011-03-08T13:56:00.000Z

First I would like to say a big thank you for all the lovely comments and a big welcome to all my new followers from the blog hop, I can't believe how many I got! I hope you all had fun hopping around!

The winner of my giveaway that followed and commented is:

Ελευθερία said...

"wow!!! love the colours, the layers...and the misting is wow!!!!"

If you could email me (makeandcreate@ hotmail.com) with your address and your choice of colours you would like your embellishment pack in I will put it in the post to you!

Sunday's layout challenge at The Studio was to scrap your age. Here's the layout I made for it:

I liked doing this challenge as I don't scrap about myself enough really I always think there's other people to scrap about before myself! It was even difficult to find a nice recently photo of myself as I'm always the one behind the camera!! So I did a mini photo shoot with myself to get the photo!

I used a gorgeous bit of lace cardstock to mist over with yellow and pink shimmer mists, I love the way the two colours mix on the page so it looks orange in places! I used a Precocious Paper pink satin flower as the main embellishment I just added some gems in the centre to give it a bit of sparkle! I thought it didn't need much more embellishment as the background looked so pretty!

I had a busy weekend my sister and brother-in law were down for the weekend as we had a big family tea party for my Nan who is 90 today! I baked the cupcakes for it!

My Nan wasn't sure she wanted a party, if you can't celebrate being 90 when can you! She really enjoyed it in the end though and loved having all her family around her. My aunt made and decorated the cake, my nephew looks really to pounce on it!!

March's new kit was added to my shop yesterday it's called 'Welcome Home' you can see it here.

I'll be back soon.

Thanks for looking! xx

The Studio Blog Hop

2011-03-04T17:00:00.005Z

Hi everyone!!

Welcome to The Studio Challenges blog hop! You should have arrived here from Amanda, but if you haven't you need to go back to the start of this list..

The Studio
Amanda Jones

Anna -You are here!

Heather

Lisa

Nadia Cannizzo
Teresa
Val
Brenda
Fabi
Natalie Hearn
Rossella
Tessa Buys
Irini Liolia
Julie Dix
Julie Tucker-Wolek
The Studio

We hope you feel inspired along the way, as we have this beautiful sketch, kindly designed for us by the super talented Anna Bowkis - Founder of Pencil Lines. Each design member from The Studio has created their own layout, card or off the page version based on this sketch.

Here is my interpretation...

I love the shape of the sketch so I decided to make it a bit smaller and cut it out some waste paper and used it as a mask to mist over, I then hand stitched a border around it. I also made ruffles with net and fabric. I made my layout with the 'Ture Love' kit from my shop, The Make and Create Shop. Everything I used except the title and pearls is from the embellishment kit.

We would love to see your take on the sketch, please link it in the comments of The Studio blog.

Our main sponsor for a prize on the studio blog is Scrap With V.

In order to be entered for the main prize you must be or become a follower AND comment on ALL blogs along the way.

There will also be some other prizes along the way which our Design Team have kindly donated.

So here's my prize, how would you like to win some goodies from my shop?! All you have to do is write a comment on this post and become a follower of my blog to be entered. The prize will be a selection of embellishments including ribbons and handmade embellishments in the colours of your choice!

The Blog Hop starts today, March 4th and runs through Tuesday 7th March with the winner of the main prize to be announced on The Studio blog.

Thank you for visiting and taking part in our blog hop!
We hope you found some inspiration along the way.

Your next stop is Heather.

Jump

2011-02-26T15:38:00.001Z

Last Sunday's challenge at The Studio was to use frames, I quite like making my own frames when I fancy doing something a bit different on my layouts! I used more of the lovely Echo Park papers for this layout of my nephew having great fun jumping in the hay bales at our local farm. I decided to frame the whole background to start with, I used the sewing machine to sew it on. Then I made another frame for the photos from the red stripy paper and layered up other papers.

Here's a couple of cards I made this week. First one a nice bright card for my friends Birthday.

This one was for my brother and sister-in-laws 4th wedding anniversary. I like making a card for them each year with what the anniversary stands for so this year it's linen and flowers so I made some fabric yoyos for the linen and added flowers to the centres.

I always make the card in the colour scheme of the wedding to which was green! I also used a new border punch that I bought this week on it, it was only £8 and it's really pretty!

I'm really pleased with how this card turned out, they seemed to like it too!

That's all for now should be back with more to share soon!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend whatever you're doing! xx

Missing In Action!

2011-02-21T22:15:00.000Z

Oh dear I've been neglecting my poor little blog, sorry about that but I'm back now! I've been really busy with my shop so I haven't had much time to scrap but I did have a couple of DT assignments to do for this week so I had to!!
A few things to catch up on which I think I'll do in 2 parts.
First up was the first card challenge on The Studio. The challenge was to use 13 of something, as it was an interesting challenge I thought I would join in too! This is the little card I made quite simple but it has 13 little flowers and 13 little gems on it!

Last Friday was my turn to be part of Designer Friday for Precocious Paper. Tessa sent me some lovely spring fabric flowers. I love the pink and turquoise together it's one of my favourite colour combos so to change it up a bit I added a bit of purple to go with it!

I used two of Tessa's flowers on this layout of me and my sister. I thought that 2 big flowers would over power my photo though so I took the bottom two layers of the turquoise flower off to make it smaller I then used one of the layers to use else where to tie the colour in.

I used some of my purple shimmer mist which was nice as I haven't used it much, also added pink drops of mist on the top of it.

My passion for twisting and looping twine at the moment spend to ribbon!!

Speaking of Precocious Paper it's nearly it's 3 year anniversary so Tessa is running lots of specials this week.

So make sure you check it out and grab yourself some prizes and bargains!

Back soon with part 2 of the catch up!

Thanks for looking. xx

Colour Challenge

2011-02-07T19:47:00.000Z

This Sunday's challenge at The Studio was a colour challenge with a twist. We had to use yellow, green and blue to create a layout about love. I love this colour combo, I don't usually use yellow as a main colour so I did here and love how it turned out. I did a bit of blue misting on the background and I made little clusters with embellishments.

I love the mixed title on this too, I don't mix alphas that much but I should do it more often as I like how it looks.

I love this photo of my nephew Rowan has it's a rare moment with a serious face, usually when you point a camera at him he pulls a cheesy grin! It's nice to see him without the grin so you can see just how lovely that face is!
It was the first challenge with the new layout team so it was also my first post on the challenge blog too! There are great layouts from the other girls on the team so go and check them out! The layout challenges are now every other week as in between we are now introducing card challenges. We have also reopened the Studio Forum which I'm really excited about as I loved being part of the old one, if you would like to join in with the chat it's here, would love to see you there!
This month if you enter the challenges you could win a 3 month subscription to this...

That's all for now I'm busy with orders from my shop so nothing else to share at the moment!
Thanks for looking and leaving comments they always brighten up my day! xx

Playing in the Park...

2011-02-04T14:11:00.000Z

.... get it Echo Park!!! Just thought I've pop in to show you that layout I made with my new Echo Park. I love this Little boy range it's great, really bright and colourful so will match any colours in your photos. Perfect for my little nephew Rowan! In these photos he was pretending to be a monster in his dinosaur dressing gown saying 'I'm coming to get you'! Luckily I caught him just as he was roaring at me!

I finally got my hands on some lovely bakers twine that I've wanted for ages I got quite a few colours so you can expect to see more of it from now on! I've got a bit of a thing for twisted and looped twine lately!!

I'll be back again Sunday with my layout for Sunday's challenge. Got to go as I'm busy with orders for my shop which is nice! Have a good weekend. Thanks for stopping by! xx

100th Post

2011-01-31T14:52:00.000Z

I can't believe it's my 100th post already, it's quite a milestone! For this special post I have lots of bits and pieces to show you. First up my layout for Sunday Challenge at The Studio, this week Amanda created a lovely sketch to use you can see it here.
And here's the layout I made from it of, our family picnic in October.

The challenge did have a little twist to make a handmade embellishment, which wasn't exactly hard for me!
I made a rolled flower with brown crepe paper. The flower and leaves are also included in my Autumn Leaves kit from The Make and Create shop.

I also said I would show you how I made my front and back covers of my Christmas journal so here goes. First of all I cut out a piece of card the size of my journal from an old pizza box and painted it white. Then I punched some stars out of some scrap white card and placed them on the cover randomly and paint around the edge of them in red paint.

I then moved the stars and put them in beween the painted stars and misted over it.

Then removed the stars so it looked like this...

I thought the whit looked a bit bright so I gave it another light coating of mist over the top so it looks like this all finished! Quite pleased with how it turned out!

The other thing I need to show you is a layout I made with the 'Snow Bright' kit from my shop. This layout didn't go to plan as I used the star sequin waste as a mask and it all turned out a bit pink!! I should of masked off the rest of the paper, I was tempted to throw it away but I'm not one to give up on anything! I challenged myself to rescue it so I masked out the bit where the sequin waste was and misted over the pink to tone it down a bit!

I them embellished it up, I think I managed to rescue it in the end!

Yesterday was my Dad's Birthday so we had a big family lunch and I made him a cake of course! Rowan just had to get in on the blowing out candles action!!

This is the card I made him from my bag of scraps.

That's all for now I have more to show though as I finally cut into my lovely Echo Park, Little Boy papers, I love them and already have more layouts planned, perfect for little nephew layouts so will be back with the one I've done soon!

Thanks for looking xx

End of Christmas Journal 2010!

2011-01-26T21:09:00.001Z

Finally here's the last part of my Christmas Journal, it's taken longer than I hoped but I wouldn't give up on it as I enjoy it and it's great to look back on. Hope your not too bored with seeing it, I like to think all the pages are different anyway!

Day 24- Christmas eve - cake A day of prep for Christmas day and I decorated the cake. I actually decorated two cakes this year, ours this one and I also made a smaller one my sister and brother-in-law too!

Day25- Christmas Day- A family filled day full of lots of presents and yummy food! I really like these Thickers, I've been after some bright red ones for a little so when I saw these in a sale I had to have them along with some other obviously!!

Day 26 - Boxing day- another family filled day filled with more presents and more yummy food!!!

Day 27 - Gifts, I like doing a page of some of my favourite presents from this Christmas.

Day 28 - a chill out day, everyone when home so a quiet day not doing much! I watched a film and you've got to do a bit of Christmas puzzle, with the choccies on hand!

Day 29- I hit the sales (only went in a couple of shops!) I did get a bargain cashmere cardigan for half price though!

Day 30- My brother, Mark's Birthday. Spent the day with him had a lovely walk along the beach in Weston and coffee and cake. I made him a cake too!

Day 31- New years eve- I night in front of Graham Norton and Jules Holland!! Great fireworks too! More great new sale Thickers!!

End page - A nice quick sum up of December, until next year!

All that's left in to show you the front cover I made my own covers out of a pizza box and used mist and paint. I might show you how I did this again as I took stage by stage photos.

Over all I'm really pleased with my journal, made completely from scratch. There are always some pages that you like more than others but I can deal with that! I loved used all the different papers and all the different size pages too. I think next year it's time for a change of size I think I've done everything I can with the 6x4 layout!! It is quite nice that last years is the same size as this years but I think I've used all my ideas for this size now! Maybe time to go a bit bigger!

Anyway that's it all over for another year, hope your still awake after all that!!

Thanks for looking! xx

Healthy

2011-01-24T13:54:00.000Z

Sunday challenge at The Studio was: 'With the new year upon us, a lot of people have been focusing on their resolutions for 2011. With that in mind, we'd like to hear about a LONG TERM goal of yours. Do you have a big ambition? Let's create a layout reflecting on these goals as a reminder of what we one day hope to achieve.'

Here's the layout I created:

There are quite a few things I want to do in my life at some point but the most important one to me, after many (too many to mention) tough years of being ill is that I really just want to be happy and healthy.

I got my paint out again for this one! All the papers are October Afternoon from different collections. You can check out what all the others design team's goals are here.

Over the weekend I managed to finish my Christmas journal so I'll be back with that soon.
Hope you all had a good weekend. Thanks for looking. xx

Sweet

2011-01-21T20:11:00.001Z

It's Designer Friday today on Tessa's blog for Precocious Paper and it was Amanda's and my turn create something! Tessa spent me these lovely sweet spots in pink and black. I decided to go with a boy/girl layout as the colours work well with them. I took this photo of my nephew, Rowan cuddling his Nanny (my mum!) I turned the photo black and white so the colours didn't clash with the sweet spots, I don't really scrap that many black and white photos so it was something different for me! I used some Black Magic cardstock and sanded a rectangle down so the light pink showed through. It's a shame you can't see it that well in these photos. I have a pack of this cardstock that I really should use more often, it was quite hard work sanding it down through!!

I added a few borders, ribbons and a journaling strip to the bottom of the photo and added a title. Then added some pink cross stitches and gems dotted around it and there you have it!

I still have some sweet spots left but they have cupcakes on them so you know what type of layout I'll use those on don't you?!!

I added a new kit to my shop today it's called Snow Bright, great for all those snowy photos that we've all got hanging around. Tomorrow's the last day left to apply to be February's Guest designer so please get those entries in, I would love to see them and you could get a free kit to play with, there's a sneak peek of it on the blog!

Thanks for your comments they mean a lot.
Back soon xx

Perfect

2011-01-18T13:14:00.000Z

I just thought I pop in and show you my layout for Sunday challenge at The Studio. This week the challenge was to scrap about what you like to do in your 'me time' so for me it had to be to put my favourite tunes on, sing along at the top of my voice and scrap, you can't get better, prefect!

I had fun with paint and sequin waste for this one I got some star sequin waste and painted it and used it like a stamp, the best bit is the paint washes off and you can use it again, just like a stamp! I'm really pleased with how it turned out, might have to use that again!

I must give Tessa a mention, you must go and check out all the new items Tessa has added to her shop, Precocious Paper. There are lots of new items and they are all lovely! There's some great valentines flowers and lovely sweet spots, that I was lucky enough to be sent to create with. She is now doing sampler kits too so if you haven't had any of Tessa's flowers before that would be a great place to start!
I'll be back on Friday with the layout I've made with Tessa's Sweet spots.

Thanks to those of you that have applied to be February's Guest Designer for my shop The Make and Create shop, please keep them coming in and tell your friends to too! I would love to see more entries, you have until the end of the week to enter.

Hope you're having a good week. Thanks for stopping by. xxx

CJ - Pages 13-23

2011-01-13T12:32:00.001Z

Here's an update on my Christmas Journal. I'm quite pleased I've managed to get quite a lot of pages done so I don't have that much more to do now!

The missing page - Day 5- Bath Christmas Market.

Day 13 - 115 Cards - the amount of Christmas cards I made and sold this year! Handmade embellishment from my shop.

Day 14 - Our new decoration for our tree this year was this lovely painted bauble.

Day 15 - I hung up the first 2 rows of Christmas Cards that we had been given. Embellishment from my shop.

Day 16- Our Christmas tree I gold embossed a chipboard tree for this page which worked quite well!

Day 17 - Our decorations the same ones that come out every year but it wouldn't be the same without them!

Day 18 - Snow day, we had about 3 inches of snow over night, we had friend over for the day. This page is on one of my snowflake transparencies.

Day 19 - Visiting, went to see my Nan and put up her decorations and then went to my auntie's for lunch.

Day 20 - Singing carols around our village triangle, very christmassy with all the snow around I did wear about 5 layers of clothes though!

Day 21 - How much? Went out for a meal with my Mum and Dad. Dad ended up having one of the most expensive meals he's ever had, it wasn't even that nice so complained and got the desserts for free. We won't be going there again!

Day 22 - Spotty, spent the day looking after my nephew Rowan who had Chicken Pox! He was is quite good spirit though so he had a PJ day and we had lots of cuddles! This is his cheesy camera face!!

Day 23 - Baking spent most of the day baking, we ran out of mince pies already! And I had my hair cut!

So that's where I'm up to at the moment I'll be back soon with the last installment!

I've got a busy couple of days, going to help in school this afternoon and then going to the Panto with the whole school tomorrow so wish me luck!!! xxx

Cupcake Mad

2011-01-10T12:35:00.000Z

My package of new stash finally arrived after me waiting impatiently for it! I didn't waste any time when it arrived and started cutting into it straight away! I was really pleased with what I got in the sale it seemed a lot of the money! I got some of the new Little Boy range from Echo Park, a few of their Every one loves Christmas range too to finish off my Christmas journal, some October Afternoon (of course!) Modern Homemaker, some cardstock some small OA letter stickers (they are so useful!) and a sheet of their journal stickers and two packets of Thickers, not bad eh?!

So I made my layout for Sunday's challenge at The Studio with it. This weeks challenge was to scrap your Passions, I wasn't sure what to do as I have quite a few but in the end I went which my love of anything to do with cupcakes!! I collected up some of my cupcake decorated items I have and could a photo of them.

I went with the layered look for this one.

I even stamped cupcakes on the spotty paper! Don't you just love those lovely pink glittery Thickers?!

I also made this get well card I wanted it to be bright and cheery so I used bright colours quite simple but I quite like it!

In other news I'm running a Guest Designer call for February for my shop, The Make and Create Shop, you can see all the details on the blog. All you have to do is sent me your favourite layout a link to your blog and a bit about yourself and you could get February's kit free to play with! It's open to anybody anywhere so I would love to see your entries!

I've been trying quite hard to get my Christmas Journal finished it's getting there so I'll be back soon with more from that.
Hope you all had a good weekend. Thanks for looking! xx

A couple of projects

2011-01-04T14:43:00.000Z

I hope you're all enjoying the start of the new year and are ready for all the exciting things that might happen to you this year!

I have a couple of projects to show you that I didn't get around to showing you before Christmas.

I made this present for my Mum and Dad for Christmas morning. I made the shortbread myself and then decorated them with melted chocolate and chocolate stars! I put them in a big clear card bag I had, I'm luckily enough to own lots of this big bags as they were kindly given to me a while ago and they are so useful!

I then made this quick and easy tag for the top and stapled it on. Mum and Dad loved then and I must say they tasted pretty yummy too! It was very busy before Christmas but I'm glad I took a bit of time to make this for them as it's a bit more special than something you buy in the shops!

The other thing I had to do was decorate a wedding guest book and a memory box. A family friend asked me to make them for a wedding she's going to. This is the cover of this guest book...

And this is the inside. If you haven;t guested already the wedding colour scheme was red and white!!

I kept it all quite simple to match their wedding invitation. And this is the top of the box. I embossed some hearts and covered them with red chalk to make the embossed bit stand out.

I also added more hearts to the corners of the base of the box.

I haven't been doing much lately as I haven't been feeling very well but I did put in a nice order of scrapping stuff with some Christmas money so I'm really looking forward to that as I haven't had much new stuff for a bit, I will have to cut into that when it gets here!

Thanks for popping by, hope you've having a nice day. xx

Last Post of 2010!

2010-12-31T16:43:00.000Z

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and are getting ready for a night of celebration!! I had a lovely Christmas here are a few photos of it! **Warning long post!!** This is all the presents under the tree waiting to be opened, there were loads!

Jack had a lovely time with all the paper from them again!

Yummy Christmas dinner, Terence the Turkey was very tasty!!

Here's the Christmas cake I made and decorated. I must say it's tastes nice too!

There was still snow about on Christmas day, yay!

This little chap had a lovely time on Boxing day opening all his pressies, he love them all! He's still a bit spotty though as he had Chicken Pox just before Christmas so he still wasn't very well.

I got some great present too! I got lots of bits and pieces including this I am determined to tackle crochet in 2011! My mum has already taught me the basics as she was a great at it so with the help of this book too I should be well away!

Then everyone went home after Boxing day so spend a few days not really doing very much, it was nice not to have to do anything and have a good rest!

Yesterday was my brother, Mark's Birthday so I spent the day in Weston-Super-Mare, we had a nice walk along the beach and then had coffee and cake.

Then in the afternoon we lit the candles on the cake I made him and it would have been rude not to taste a bit!!!

I thought I would finish my post with a couple of layouts. This one was Sunday's challenge at The Studio to use a sketch.

It was a great sketch to use, I don't use circle all the much on my layouts but I always like using then when I do! I got my paint out too on this to make paint rings under the stars I cut out of PP.

I'm very excited to have be let back on the team at The Studio from February so you can't get rid of me that easily!! I would have really missed it if I didn't have the challenges to do. Things will be changing slightly at The Studio from February, I'm excited to have a new role as I'm team coordinator for the Layout Team which will be good. There will also be a new Card Team and Project Team too!

This layout I completely forgot to show you, I made it with my Festive Frost kit from my shop. I used the doily from the kit as a mask for behind the photo. Everything else apart from the spotty pp is from the kit. (By the way the layout in straight in real life but it was difficult to photo with the border around it!!)

I stitched around the photo in silver thread from the kit too and tied little bow every now and then, I love how it looks.

Well that's all for now I will see you all again in 2011 doesn't that sound scary it doesn't seem like the millennium was that long ago!! I haven't got any plans for tonight just a quiet night in front of the TV!!

I plan to keep on creating in 2011 so I hope you will stick around to see what I create next, I'm quite exciting to see what the new year will bring to my scrapping!

Happy New Year everyone, hope enjoy your evening whatever you get up too! Back soon with more, thanks for getting to the end of this very long post!! xxx

A Very Festive Post

2010-12-24T16:03:00.000Z

Just thought I would update you with my festive things! I made these place cards for my Quick and Easy Christmas project for The Studio, you see can my instructions for them on the blog here. They will be brightening up our festive dinner table tomorrow!

Here pages 6 to 12 of my Christmas journal, page 5 is missing as I haven't finished it yet!! I will show you it again when it's done!
Day 6 - The festive lights in the new shopping area in Bath, very nice twinkling snowflakes!

Day 7 - I spend to afternoon in helping the children at school learn about electricity, not very christmassy!

Day 8- A wriggly nativity, I went to watch the children's nativity at school. I was asked to make some donkey masks for 4 little boys to wear. That's the photo of them, they did look a bit funny but they looked better on stage! The play was brilliant, they did really well. I used one of my handmade embellishments for my shop on this page

Day 9 - I had another singing lesson. It was a year ago that my sister and brother-in-law gave me the money to have the lessons so I thought it would be nice to include it. My singing teacher had my singing in Italian!! Not as bad as it's sounds when you get your head around it! Another embellishment form my shop!

Day 10 - I made some more Christmas cards, this was my card for the challenge at The studio.

Day11- I baby sat my little nephew, he was a little angel for me, no trouble at all and went fast a asleep after a read him a story. The blue circle, snowflake is another handmade embellishment from my shop!

Day 12 - Picking our tree we went to a local place where they grow them and you can pick which one you want and they cut it down for you!

I haven't done much more of my journal as I been busy decoration a wedding guest book and memory box for someone who asked me to make it for them, it had to be finished now as they have just booked a holiday and won't be back before the wedding! I will show you it soon. So I need a big catch up on my journal I know what I putting in it so it's just finding the time to do it, hopefully after Christmas I can catch up with it, I will be going up to New Year with it like last year.

I forgot to show you my sister's Christmas Cards, she decided she just wanted a black stamp on a white card, not very festive but they were quick and easy and they did look effective. I had to make 50 of them in 6 different designs the stamps are by Papermania, would you believe!!

The big tree had a little gold star on the top!

Right better go and ice the Christmas cake!!

I wish you a very Merry Christmas, hope you have a lovely time and I'll be back with more after the big day! xxx

Designer Friday

2010-12-18T14:21:00.000Z

I've got lots of projects to share with you today that I made for Precocious Paper as it was mine and Amanda's turn for Designer Friday on Tessa's blog.

First up is a layout I made with Tessa's lovely rolled satin flowers. They went brilliantly with this wedding photo I wanted to scrap. I used Cosmo's Delovely papers which matched them well.

I added some gems and pearls to the centre of the flowers and did a bit of hand stitching and cut a few flowers from the papers.

Next up I decorated this photo frame with some of Tessa's fabric yoyo's, I love these flowers they are one of my favourites! It just a cheap Papermania Frame which you can get for a couple of pounds, they are great for decorated in whatever way you want! I sprayed a bit of pink mist in two of the corners and made some more leaves to go with the ones that came with the flowers. I just cut out some leaves shapes from green paper and stitched down the middle of them and I then added some ribbon loops to bring out the pink of the flowers.

I love the end result, it would make a great gift for someone but this one won't be going anywhere as I love it too much!

I also made this wreath, I got the plain wreath in a supermarket for £1!! I added some of Tessa's lovely Christmas flowers, some gingham bows and some felt snowflakes to brighten it up a bit.

That's all for now, I will be back with the next installment of my Christmas journal soon, I've been really busy lately so I haven't spent much time on it lately!

We have a lovely lot of snow here that we woke up to this morning, I would say there's at least 3 inches, everywhere looks so pretty and there not much traffic on the road which is nice! Hope you've got lot's where you are and are enjoying it!!

Thanks for looking xx

First Few pages

2010-12-13T16:09:00.001Z

I know I've been a bad blogger and I haven't updated you with my Christmas journal pages so I thought I better put that right and show you some pages! I just seem to be so busy lately trying to get things done before Christmas and having Christmas card orders. Anyway I have been trying to keep my journal up to date and I haven't done too bad so far, I have got a busy week this week though! Here are pages 0-4 as I didn't want to overload you all at once! First page I like to do and introduction page.

Day 1: Advent this is my Advent calendar for this year, every year my mum gets my some small choccies as my advent calendar so I decorate the box and number the chocolates!!!

I just noticed that a small star is on the photo in this photo, don't know how that got there!

I'm only using the front of the page this year and left the backs of the previous pages blank.

Day 2: Had to be about the weather the icy weather we have had and we had a fresh bit of snow that morning.

Day 3: Poinsettias, every year we have to get my Nan one as she loves them but we don't really like them that much!!

Day 4: was our annual mince pie make we made about 50 to put in the freezer ready for the festive season! This year we brought a new Christmas tree shape cutter for the tops as well as the normal star we use!

This page was on one of my transparencies.

I'm loving my little tags for the number of each page, they look great. I'm using all different Thicker numbers, the ones that you get in a pack and rarely use!

That all the pages for now but I will back with more soon! I hope you like how my journals looking, I'm quite pleased with it but there are always some pages you don't like as much as the rest!

This weeks challenge at The Studio was to make a Christmas thank you card, here's the one I made using the lovely October Afternoon!

Better go and get on with some of these jobs I've got to do!

Hope you had a good weekend.

Thanks for looking as always! xx

Start of my Christmas Journal 2010!

2010-12-05T16:47:00.000Z

I'm back with as promised the start of my Christmas journal! I'll show you the prep and foundation pages I did for it today, I haven't finished the covers for it yet and I haven't photographed the first few pages yet but I will do soon! I still need to catch up a bit with it too!
These are the journaling cards I made for my Christmas journal, I just used scraps of Christmas papers I had left over from last years journal and some white card.

Here are the fountain pages of my journal, I have done it in 6x8'', all the pages are different with different shapes, sizes and some are plain card stock, some are patterned paper...

...and some are transparencies that I made them myself with a bit of acetate, stamps and ink! I'm quite pleased with how them turned out!

Each page has a small tag on the bottom half of the page, this is where the numbers will go, they are in a different position from the last and next page so you should be able to see the edge of the ones that are to come. I haven't added the number yet as I wanted to be able to move some of the pages if I wanted to, to make it fit better with my photo etc.

I also added, along with other items, these handmade embellishments to my shop, they are great to use in your Christmas journals, I'll definitely be using them in mine!

So that's all of my journal prep so far, the finished pages will follow!

The challenge for this Sunday at The Studio was to make a layout without a title, not something I usually do but it is good when you can't think of a title for a photo like I could with this one!

The photo is of my brother and sister-in-law just before they had my nephew, I king of used the heart for my title and made a bit more of my journaling to fill the space the title should of filled! Not a very good photo of it, it's hard to take photos of layout when there's snow on the ground isn't it?! The snow is mostly gone here now though which is a same, it's just left a lot of ice! Here's a close up!

At The Studio for the month of December, as well as the normal challenges some of the DT and some guest designers are doing 'Quick and Easy Christmas Projects' so make sure you check them out as theres and great ideas. There will be one from me a bit closer to Christmas too!

Hope you've all enjoyed your weekend. Catch you later!

Thanks for looking! xx

Zebra Print

2010-11-30T22:45:00.000Z

I didn't do that must scrapping last week and the scrapping I did do was DT stuff so can't show you just yet! I was trying to get some jobs done and get some new things sorted for my shop but more on that later!

I had a very busy weekend as my sister, Claire and brother-in-law, Andy were down for the weekend to celebrate my sister's 30th Birthday, which was a couple of weeks ago now but she was away so this was the first time we had to celebrate it as a family. I had been thinking for a while what cake to make her and in the end I went with Zebra print icing!! She has just come back from safari in Africa and saw loads of animals so I thought it might go down well!

I also made this little elephant out of icing to go on the top.

Claire loved it! We had a lovely family meal and a slice of cake and some bubbly for afters!

This is the card I made for her, just some random Thickers, (great way to use odd letters up!) and some punched stars but she loved this too!

We had a lovely weekend. We got a light covering of snow of Friday evening and it is still about now I keep wishing for more! We did get a few flutters today but not that much, need more I love snow it makes everything look so pretty.

The challenge for The Studio this week was 'It's our Sunday sketch challenge this week! I've created a sketch for you, and the challenge along with it is to use a monochromatic colour scheme'.

We had a lovely sketch to use but I did find the monochromatic bit quite difficult as I like using lots of different colours in my layouts but i did my best with a lot of blue!

I'm added some new embellishment to my shop tomorrow, not in a kit form but something a bit different so make sure to check them out tomorrow, I would love to see you in the shop!

I can't believe it's December tomorrow already, I'm not as ready for it as I hoped! I haven't done too bad through as my journals ready and waiting to be filled. I will be back with a post about that soon and maybe a couple of pages from it too!

Hope your enjoying the snow where you are, keep warm! xx

Precocious Paper

2010-11-21T18:34:00.000Z

Friday was my second Designer Friday for Precocious Paper. Amanda and I had 2 projects each up on Tessa's blog. I made these two layouts for it using Tessa gorgeous flowers. The first one is a photo from when we went to the arboretum for our family picnic last month. It's a gorgeous old tree and the sunlight was shining through it and making it glow.

I used lots of mist on this one and one of Tessa lovely sewing pattern flowers, these flowers are go useful they go with anything and look great at the same time!

This second one is of my cupcakes when I was trying out two tone pink icing. i used one of Tessa's Cupcake Poppies on here as it went so well with the theme!!

It's also Sunday again today so another challenge went up on The Studio blog. this weeks challenge was 'Have you started (or finished) your Christmas shopping? This week your challenge is to scrapbook about shopping! Maybe you'll scrap your shopping list, pictures of your favourite purchases or journal about how much you detest heading to the supermarket.' So I decided to go with Christmas shopping as we went this week not that we got anything but I love seeing all the Christmas windows and all the decorations and gifts and the Christmas lights too! I especially love going Christmas shopping in Bath so it's such a pretty city and all the decorations make it even more pretty and it makes you feel full of Christmas cheer, can you tell I love Christmas!!! I think they must of thought I was a bit strange taking a photo of their shop window but it had to be done, the things we do for scrapping eh?! Go and check out what the other great DT members did.

And it just so happens that this layout features another sew pattern flower!! I've been enjoying doing a bit of Christmas scrapping, I used lots of detail on this one.

You must go and check out all the new Christmas items Tessa's just added to her shop too, they are all gorgeous!

I've spent time this weekend putting my Christmas journal together, I'm just using bits and pieces of Christmas paper that I had left from other Christmas journals, cards and scrapping! It's a mix of different size pages too, I'm pleased with how it's turning out though! Need to get some scrapping done this week as I've got challenges etc, needing to be done and I want to leave time for my journal in December!

Hope you've enjoyed your weekend whatever you got up too!

Thanks for looking xx

Christmas Come Early

2010-11-18T20:03:00.000Z

I thought I would share with you a couple of layouts I made with my Christmas kit from my shop it's called 'Traditional Cheer' Here's the kit:

It's full of Christmas embellishments in traditional red, green and gold. I used lots from the kit for this first one. I used the sequin waste to mist over, it's good as a mask as the mist just wipes off it! I ruffled the red crepe paper and used a piece of the gold crepe paper for the back of it.

I painted the chipboard gingerbread man in red and when gave him some detail in white paint. I used the festive cord, put a bow in it and threaded 2 of the pins through it. I also used my handmade flower embellishment, 2 felt stars a felt snowflake and one of the festive words!

The next one is of my dog Jack, he loves Christmas for the wrapping paper, he waits until you open a present and then takes the paper and rips it up!

I used the red happy Christmas ribbon, the felt snowflakes and another one of my handmade embellishments.

I had fun ripping up Christmas papers and using white paint!

There is even another Christmas kit due in the shop tomorrow!

Back with more soon xx

Lucky

2010-11-14T14:53:00.000Z

It's Sunday again so time for another challenge to inspire you over at The Studio! This weeks challenge is we want you to think about how lucky you are! Do you consider yourself 'lucky'? What is your idea of luck? Create a project about YOU and what being lucky means in your eyes.

Here's the layout I created for it:

I don't know if I lucky or not but I'm blessed with lots of good things in my life and that's lucky enough for me! I had fun with this one, I splattered the card stock with some pink paint and then layered up! I didn't mind where anything went I just stuck it on I folded most of my paper strips and then embellished it with some lace and trim, buttons, bling and a few cross stitches.

And it just so happens it's my big sister's 30th Birthday today, she's currently on holiday in Africa so I must say a big Happy Birthday Claire, I'm lucky to have a sister like you! Looking forward to the celebrations in a couple of weeks time, what cake am I going to make?!

The next one was the first one I did after not doing anything last week so it felt good to do it, I didn't know if I could still scrap after a week off!!! My nephew Rowan being a pop star, he loves singing, maybe he gets it from his auntie!!

I love these bright colours on black. Look at those sparkly stars!!

The third one I need to show you was my layout for winning the sketch on Sarah's Cards, I got to join in with the DT this month by creating a example of the next sketch. I used my favourite manufacturers again October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket!
I received my parcel of my free goodies from them this week so I'm lucky to have some lovely new papers to play with, I will take a photo and show you when the weather improves!

Aren't I lucky to have a very photogenic nephew that I get to look after and spend time with every week?!

So I'm very lucky at the moment!!

I have more layouts to share that I can't show you quite yet so I'm be back again soon.

Thanks for popping in and leaving your lovely comments! xx

Bang

2010-11-08T12:18:00.000Z

Yesterday's challenge at The Studio was to make a layout about friendship but it had a twist you can not use any patterned paper! Here's the layout I made for it:

I had to scrap these lovely photos of my nephew, Rowan and his best friend, they are adorable with each other, Rowan loves to give his friend, Alexa kisses!! I used some paint and patterned material instead! I cut the butterflies out of cardstock and drew a swirly pattern on them with a white pen, you can't see it that well here but it catches the light.

Friday night we went to see some fireworks with Rowan, he was so excited! It was a real shame it rained the whole time we were there though. We were pleased when the fireworks finally started so we could go home after them! Rowan did manage to stay awake just long enough to see them, he didn't mind the bangs at all but he was fast asleep by the time we got back to the car!!

The firework were great though, got some great photos!

I didn't really do much last week I just had one of those weeks where I didn't feel like doing anything so hopefully this week will be better as I need to get creating again!

While I'm here I must say a very Happy Birthday to my lovely friend Beki, hope you having a great day Beks!

Hopefully I'll be back soon with what I create! Thanks for looking! xx

Spooky

2010-10-31T16:51:00.000Z

Happy Halloween! Hope you are enjoying your weekend whatever you got up to spooky or not!

Just I thought I would show you my layout for today's challenge at The Studio. As of this month, at the end of each month at The Studio we will be having a sketch so it was the first one today! You also had to make it have a Halloween theme or if you don't celebrate it any other holiday theme. Here's my take on the sketch, I flip it over!

I don't really celebrate Halloween but seeing the pumpkins like this is a nice autumn sight. when I was younger I got really frighten by all the pumpkin faces and I still dredge seeing them now so that has put me off Halloween! I don't even own any Halloween patterned papers so I picked out some Halloween type colour papers and distressed the edges and then drew some cobwebs with a white pen to make it more spooky!

I made my own little flower with some wordy paper and distressed that too! If you join in you could win some vintage goodies from Amanda's shop Scrap Rat.

I did join in a bit with the celebrations this year though, as I made these creepy cupcakes! The green doesn't look that green here but it is a bit stronger than that. It's a shame I didn't have any black food colouring as they would of looked even better with black cobwebs on them!

They are in red, black and purple silicon cake cases!

I've been busy getting the new kit together for my shop, it comes out tomorrow!
Also made our Christmas cake this week which puts you in a festive mood, it looks good too!

Thanks for popping in and for leaving comments they are much appreciated!! xx

Starry Eyed

2010-10-26T20:41:00.000+01:00

Friday was the day my first Precocious Paper project went up on the blog. I had lots of lovely goodies from Tessa to play with and couldn't decided what to use first! In the end I went with the gorgeous bright stars, I love stars! I thought they would go really well with the photos of the Mickey cake I made and they did! So here's what I made.

I used some die cut star paper as a mask and misted over it with silver shimmer mist. I haven't used my silver mist that much before as it doesn't show up that much on quite a lot of stuff but it worked really well on the black, I love how it turned out.

I must say this layout has to be one of my favourites!
If you would like to see Tessa's lovely stars you can here, they come in other colours too!

Sunday was challenge day again at The Studio, this week the challenge was a real tough one! Amanda was scared she would scaring us all away!! It was Are you ready? Your journaling must take up at least 50% of your scrapbook page."
This was difficult for me, as you probably know by now I like quite a lot of white space on my layouts. I had this photo with a funny story behind it so it had to be told. I tried writing the story out in a big block first but with that and the photo on one layout I didn't know what to do with it as it could up so much space! I decided to write it in smaller blocks so it would give me more to play with.

I made it more pretty by putting borders under the blocks of writing and adding trim and other embellishments.

Here's a card I made for a friends Birthday this week, I felt like making it quite pretty!

That's all the crafty things I have to show you at the moment. I have made 50 Christmas cards for my sister too but I haven't got around to photographing them yet, luckily they were nice and simple!

Back soon! xx

The Big Smoke

2010-10-23T15:06:00.000+01:00

I don't know where this week has gone!! I caught my Dad's cold so yet again I haven't been feeling very well this week, how many colds can you have one after another?!

Anyway need to have a bit of a catch up with whats been happen so here goes! First up was the last Challenge at The Studio last Sunday it was a bit different this week. Amanda said ''My house is slowly but surely being taken over by scrapbooking supplies. I'm sure a lot of you feel the same way. It's not physically possible to use them all at the rate I buy them, so I'm always looking for new ways to use things up. This week, I want to see you all WEARING your stash! OK, I don't expect you to make paper ball gowns (although you can if you wish!), but a little something like a piece of jewelery, hair accessory or brooch shouldn't cause you too much trouble :)

So I made a little brooch with some lace and ribbon from my stash. I made little lace flowers with the pink lace and looped the ribbon.

It does look quite nice on a purple jumper! Or it even brightens up your winter coat!

My weekend in London was lovely, we did lots of site seeing. On Saturday we went to the Thames Barrier which was great to see, I seem to have lots of photos of it, it is odd looking though!

Dramatic skies!

Then we went on across on the ferry to the other side of it, this is the view from the back, you can just see The Dome or The O2 as it's called now, in the background. The weather improved too!

We then went to Greenwich, we saw the Naval college and went into the mess hall which was amazing.

The whole of the hall, ceiling and walls had painted scene on them. I could lots more photos that I will scrap at some point!
We saw the Greenwich Mean Time, where the time comes from! There were many jokes about 'in the mean time' going around!

On the Sunday we went to Hampstead which was lovely to look at and then we had walk in Golder's Green park. We found that there was like a small zoo there, lots of different animals, these were my favourite though, deer, look at that face!

That was a lot of photos so I think I'll leave it there. I'll be back soon with tomorrows challenge at The Studio (it was a tough one!) and my first Precocious Paper DT project.

It's not a nice day here today so I'm not doing much, I'm off to do something crafty now!

Thanks for looking xx

I won!

2010-10-14T14:34:00.000+01:00

Do you remember my layout called Sunny days in my last post that I made for the Sarah's Cards sketch challenge? I only went and won the challenge, didn't I?!! What a lovely surprise, very exciting, and I can now get some free goodies to play with, yay!

I've got a couple more layouts to share with you while I'm here. I made this layout for my shop blog using my kit, Golden Leaves.

I used my new copper shimmer mist on it, it's lovely really shimmery! I like the different textures of this kit.

I saw this fungi had grown in our lawn a few weeks ago, so had to take a photo of it, it's looks a good autumn site.

I made this layout a little while ago but I don't think I've shown you yet. A few weeks ago I felt like getting messy with paints and mists to try out different techniques using them. I had a great time using paint brushes, splashes, brush strokes, an old glue stick lid for the rings, some cross stitch aida fabric (make a great pattern!), piece of card to make paint lines and sequin waste for the mist.

I did have a different layout in mind for it but it didn't work as well as I thought with it so I did the other layout on a different background and left this background. I was thinking what I could out on it not to cover it up too much so I came up with getting my nephew to do some painting to take photos of it and use his painted hand prints!! He didn't mind he loves painting!

It kind of looks like my nephew could of done it while he was painting!

I just added some Thickers that I had added paint splodge to and that was all I put on it but I think it works quite well!

I'm off to London tomorrow to see my sister for the weekend which will be nice, it does always seem like we go on the coldest of weekends!! I will have to get my long coat, hat and gloves out I think, if it stays like it is today, I'm sat here with the fire on!!

Keep warm! I'll be back next week.

Thanks for all your comments, it's great to know I inspire others with what I do! xx

Pleasures

2010-10-10T16:02:00.000+01:00

I managed to do some scrapping over this weekend, yesterday I finished my layout for the sketch challenge at Sarah's Cards. I had fun making this layout, it not a sketch I'd usually go for but I'm really pleased with the result. It's good to push you in creating something different. I made a mask for the first rectangle and misted it with yellow mist and then hand stitched around it. I then added some drops of the mist to the left hand side of the layout. I then added more rectangles and then I stitched the bottom one too.
I love this photo I took of my Dad and nephew when we were out for the day in May so I had to scrap it!

I used some embellishments from my ' Summer Splash' kit from my shop. I used from the kit the yellow ribbon, a chipboard frame, the green sequins and a bit of the pretty material for one of the bottom rectangles.

It's Sunday again so there's a new challenge up at The Studio. This weeks challenge was 'Guilty pleasures... everyone's got at least one, surely? What is yours? Feature it on a scrapbook page and tell the world!
Now I'm not sure I really should be confessing to this but my guilty pleasure is the boy band Mcfly!! Lots of teenage girls love them but I secretly love them too!! Their songs are great to sing along too! So here's the layout I made for it.

I used Cosmo papers for this one.

The Pepper Pig cake went down really well everyone was commenting on it and it even tasted nice too!! Here's the card I made for the Birthday girl.

That's it for now I'm off to do more scrapping!
Hope you're enjoying your weekends.
Thanks for looking! xx

Extra, Extra!

2010-10-08T20:07:00.000+01:00

This week at The Studio was my week for the Wednesday Extra. I was having a think what I could do for it and was running out of ideas that haven't been done already! While I was looking around for ideas I had a flash of inspiration and thought that I haven't seen anyone try paper weaving in scrapping so I thought I would give it a try! It's quick and easy to do but looks good and it uses up lots of scraps of paper that are lurking in your stash! Here are the layouts I made for it I wanted to do 2 really different layout to show different ways of using weaving on your layouts.
I'm sure most of us did paper weaving at school at some point so I put together a little tutorial to remind you how to do it if you want to take a look it's here.
For this first one I made a big patch of paper weaving with the lovely Cosmo Togetherness papers, they seem to be a favourite of mine at the moment!!

The second one I made small patches of weaving with thinner stripes of paper. This is one of these layout that really does look better in real life!! I've taken loads of photos of it trying to get a better photo of it but it doesn't get any better than this!

I really like this layout in real life, it's a shame it doesn't look that great here, never mind, it looks good in the album!

If you do give it a go I love to see it, put a link in the comments.

Today I have spend the day up to my ears in pink icing!! I was asked to make a 'Pepper Pig' Birthday cake for my nephew's best friend. I don't know if you've ever seen what Pepper looks like but she's a funny little character! Here's the cake I made!

I spent quite a while on it today to get it to look right but Pepper doesn't really look right anyway!!! I'm quite pleased with how it turned out in the end, I really hope Alexa likes it!

More scrapping planned for the weekend so I should have lots to show later!
Thank you very much for your comments, they brighten up my day!!

Have a lovely weekend whatever you get up to! xx

Very exciting

2010-10-04T19:38:00.000+01:00

I have to share with you my layout that is featured in no other than Pagemaps! The girls from The Studio were kindly asked by the lovely Becky Fleck to make examples for October's Pagemaps. We all jumped at the chance! We each have our own sketch to play with. I was very excited to be part of it as I love Becky's sketches and I was disappointed by the sketch I got! This is the layout I made from it:

You can check out all the sketches and layouts here. Was a bit of a shame my name is spelt a bit wrong though!!

Next up Sunday's challenge at The Studio was 'We'd like to challenge you to create a page featuring your home. Maybe your favourite spot, the flowers in your garden, or even the leaking pipes under the bath. Just make it an authentic snapshot of your life right now!'
Here's the layout I made for it:

My front door! I journaled the things that make it home to me like sitting buy the fire on a cold winter's night and my own bed!!
My mum bought my a great present the other day...

...lots of doilies and in 4 sizes too!! So I had to use one of them on my layout!
I had a great weekend it was busy but lovely too! We had our family picnic at Westonbirt arboretum The weather wasn't too bad it didn't rain so we were lucky!

It was lovely seeing all the trees that were turning lovely colours.

I took lots of photos of them!

On Sunday we had our family photo shoot which went ok, he took lots of photos so hopefully there will be some nice ones out of them all! Then we had a big family Sunday roast as it was my aunties Birthday, which was lovely.

I've got more to share so I'll be back in the week. I've even being enjoying a bit of scrapping today so I'll be back with that too!
Thanks for looking as always! xx