April Class

Here is the layout I have done for the class at the next crop:

Papers used are from the lovely Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe range and the stickers are all included in the kit too.  Title is a little bit obscure to suit my picture and the fact that there is a sewing theme and a cotton reel! so you might want to change that to suit your photo - time to get your thinking caps on!  Next crop will be on Sunday 17th April.

Thanks for looking :)

Challenge Tag

Had a nice play yesterday making my challenge tag - the word for this one was SPEND as I went to Hobbycrafts at the NEC on Friday and there I did indeed spend!

On this tag I have taken a new approach to my inking - usually I pick three similar colours and ink the whole tag with the palest colour, ink about an inch in from the edges with the middle colour and then ink the edges with the darkest colour, then I blend them all together using the palest colour again on top.  Here I went for pot luck and picked out five handles from my bag of distress ink foams and used those colours randomly all over the tag, and then blended them together with a medium shade ink - I am really pleased with the results!

The colours I used were Milled Lavender, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick, Tea Dye and Pumice Stone - usually none of which I would have used together.  I inked them randomly on the tag, blended them with the Worn Lipstick and then used plum perfect pearls over the top for the sheen - again picked randomly from my *ahem* small collection of perfect pearls - and again a colour I wouldn't normally have used on these inks.  Then for the challenge I used:
S - Stickers - the little birdies labels
P - Punch - the Martha Stewart vine leaves which are inked with Peeled Paint and Brushed Corduroy
E - Embossing - the tree which is inked over with Peeled Paint
N - Number - the Number 2
D - Diecut - Here I have used two new sizzix dies that I bought on Friday - firstly the big bird which is a sizzix die and the wing is from a Dylusions stamp set and the birds nest and birdy are from a Tim movers and shakers set - the nest is actually a birdcage but I trimmed it down to look (I hope!) like a nest.  All die cuts are inked with Brushed Corduroy, Pumice Stone and Spiced Marmalade to match with the tag.

The stamped image you can see underneath was an accident - I started the tag off using a Glitz background stamp (again a new purchase on Friday) to make a totally different tag but changed my mind (as I so often do!) half way through - by then though I was on a roll and the light was fading so I didn't want to start a new tag - yesterday it was a lot paler so I thought I would get away with it but been photographed today in the daylight today has made it a lot clearer! Oh well. Oh and I finished the tag off with bling for the birdies eyes, glossy accents on the number and some hemp for the string.

Also this week I have knitted two scarves and done my class for the crop next month - it uses the fabulous Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe range - check back later this week as I am waiting for better weather to photograph it.

Thanks for looking :)

Challenge Layout

Here is the layout for my latest challenge:

You wouldn't believe the blood, sweat and tears that has gone into such a simple layout! Anyway I have been faffing about with this one at the last couple of crops but finally got it finished at the crop last Sunday. As it fits in with my challenge theme of "What did you do last weekend" it can be used as that - I used the word CRAFT so Circle is the compass mask, Ribbon is along the top of the frame, Alphabet is the word Journey, Frame is the Journey frame (this was what caused the most distractions for me as I didn't really know what to do with it apart from put it on the layout as is) and Travel is the whole theme of the layout.

Phew - another one done! Off to think about my challenge tag now. If you would like to join in with my fortnightly challenge the details are on the post below.

Thanks for looking :)

Next challenge

Well nobody joined in with me over the last two weeks did you!  It honestly wasn't that complicated but you know me (well the girls from the crop do!) I have to have a bit of complication in there to make it worthwhile - so your challenge this week - should you choose to accept it is:  Think about what you have done this past weekend and try and think of something that has five letters in it - such as my son went to a football MATCH, I spent a day at my CRAFT club, did you SCRAP, watch TELLY, go to a PARTY?  anything along those lines, then with each letter in your word use the following list to see what you need to use on your card, tag and/or layout:

A – Alphabet
B – Bird
C – Circle
D – Die cut
E – Embossing (either dry or heated)
F – Frame
G – Glitter
H – Heart
I – Ink
J – Journalling
K – TicKet
L – Leaves
M – Mask
N – Number
O – Orange (colour)
P – Punch
Q – Quote
R – Ribbon
S – Stickers
T – Travel
U – Umbrella
V – Verse
W – Wings
X – Xperiment with a new technique
Y – Yellow (colour)
Z – Car (showing my age here remembering Z Cars!)

So for my card my son went to a PARTY so I have to use a Punch, Alphabet, Ribbon, Travel and Yellow and here is my creation:
 

Bit simple but I managed to make this and another one like it (with the name Alex on it though!) both in an hour - such a relief I get stressed when I leave things to the last minute!
 
Will be back soon with my layout - I have done one but not photographed it and its too dark now (this is a scheduled post from Monday night) and I can't do it today as I am off on a jolly to Ikea and Primark - whooo hoooo!!
 
Hope some of you will join in with me this week :)  thanks for looking.
 
 

Yet another layout this week!

Obviously I am on a bit of a roll at the moment!  Another fairly simple layout for me - still obviously getting back into the groove of scrapbooking at the moment!

Again this is based on my time challenge - I looked at the clock at 13.43 so
1 word title -this was so tricky as I didn't want to go with bounce or race although hop might have probably been more apt but I went with fly and used my new Tim Poker Face embossing folder that turned up on my doorstep yesterday - have no idea how that happened! along with some Dylusion wings and making memories chipboard to make up my title piece.
3 embellishments - these are the new Tim mini rosettes that also turned up in the same lovely parcel as the texture fades (the fact that I used these and the new die on the same day as receiving them is a small miracle for me!)
4 patterned papers - Crate Paper School Spirit Collection: Geometry, Grade Card, Pep Rally, and Ruler
3 stamps - the two Dylusion wings and the inverted hat used on the bunting both from the Doolally Dorris set.

Also used XCut and Woodward punches for the leaves, Santa's Workshop alphabet, glossy accents, buttons, twine, staples and Bundled Sage, Fired Brick, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Broken China, Mustard Seed, and Peeled Paint distress inks.

The layout was also originally based on a March 2011 page map however once I cut out the picture to remove all the background clutter that happens on a school sports day the page map no longer really worked - I kept the papers the same (because I had already cut and stuck them together!) and the three embellishments but then felt it needed something extra when finished so I added the bunting - I figure that as I have already completed my challenge twice already I could bend the rules on this one!  After all these challenges I am setting are to get me scrapping layouts and it certainly seems to be working!  Have already decided on my next challenge and made 2 birthday cards with it but I will show these on Tuesday 22nd when I set the next challenge on here officially.

Thanks for looking and hope you all have a great weekend - we had a football match and birthday party yesterday and little one has two birthday parties today so it's all go here!

Another layout for my week one challenge

Have done another quick layout for my week one challenge - I was that inspired by my time recipe!

Sorry for the poor picture quality!  I am currently at my portable craft table in the lounge whilst watching Star Wars with the children (obviously I am not watching it as avidly as they are! tee hee).

For this layout the time was 13.27 so:
1 word title - Legoland (isnt that a cool font!)
3 Embellishments - the sizzix birdie, the legoland button and the two (classed as one) legoland driving licences
2 papers - American Crafts Craft Fair - have used the front and back of one of the sheets to give me the brown strip which was edged with one of Tims on the edge dies
7 stamps - Studio G HappyOMeter (a set of 3 individual stamps), Compass is TPC Studio Travel Journey, the stamp PHOTO OP is by K&Company Happy Trails, the Ticket stamp is from Tims Odds and Ends set and the text on the bird is from his Going Somewhere set.

I was going to redo the right hand side as I dont like the placement of the HappyOMeter but have just put some tissue tape under it and am going to call it a day.  Layout is based on a sketch by Allison Davis - link is below.

Am now working on my next layout... whoo hoo mojo is back!  Thanks for looking.  If you are interested in playing along with my challenge the details are on this post: http://sunshinegirlnicola.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-new-challenge.html

What on your work desk Wednesday - 92

Hi, I am back in my craft room and scrapping again!

This is my second double layout in as many days!  Obviously it's not finished yet and let's be honest it might take me another two months but hey ho it's progress!  Unfortunately during my session today I have broken two nails and eaten two kit kats - scrapping is a dangerous game isn't it!

Can't wait to come visiting some desks tomorrow (it will have to be tomorrow as I am out on the school trip to the Space Museum in Leicester today (I am more excited than my 10 year old son!) and I am banking on being too tired to surf tonight). 

If you want to know why I am showing my desk to the world pop over and join in all the fun at Julia's.

Thanks for looking :)

My new challenge

Ok it's a known fact that I have been struggling to do scrapbook layouts for a while now, however after making my 12 days of ArtsyCrafts tags I think I could make a tag (or two!) everyday!  So, in order to use this creativity usefully (after all even I don't need hundreds of tags!) I have decided to set myself a challenge whereby I make a tag and then from this try and a make a card and a scrapbook layout too whilst I am still feeling creative.  Bernice reckons the best way to go is by using recipes - I am still a bit skeptical as I have tried recipe challenges before but found them too difficult - but then that is what it is all about really isn't it - a challenge!

So to start off, my first challenge to myself is to look at the clock.  Then using the 24 hour clock I decided to use a word title for the first digit, a flower/brad/button for the second digit, colours/papers for the third digit and stamped images for the fourth.

So I first looked at the clock at 12.29 on Saturday and from this I got to use: a 1 word title, 2 embellishments, 2 colours and 9 stamped images (hope you see where I am going with this!), and from this recipe I created this:

The one word title is James, the two embellishments are the frame and skull (skull is made from friendly plastic this time), the two colours I used were spiced marmalade and vintage photo and my nine stamped images were made up using 1 harlequin stamp once and the skull and crossbones stamp eight times.

Then I looked at the clock on Sunday at 08.34 (yes honestly I scrap that early if I can!) and from that I made the card in the previous post whereby I had no title (0), five flowers and three brads (8), three colours which were Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet and Worn Lipstick (3) and I used three of Tim's new haberdashery stamps and one of his new reflection stamps (4).

And then to see if my mojo challenge would work I looked at the clock again to get cracking on a layout.  It was 13.34.  Here is my layout (yes I have done one and it's a double one too!!!):

Here I have used a one word title "Colours" (isn't that fab - saw it used in a furniture store on a poster and made a mental note to one day use it as a title!), my three embellishments are the football, three patterned papers (these and the footballs are from the Kickin It set from Nitwit Collections) and four stamps - Fabulous - Heidi Swapp, 100% boy and Enjoy the Process - Autumn Leaves and the little football dotted around is by Lily of the Valley.  I know it's not one of my best layouts but to be honest I am just glad I have got some mojo back to create a layout and that I have also managed to reduce my photo pile by four!  The layout is also based on a March 2011 Page Map.

All in all I very impressed with myself and think I might now go and make another layout using the same criteria!

If you would like to join me in my quest to be more creative then give it a go and please link up here so I can come and look at your creations.  Remember if it's 12:34 in the afternoon when you look at the clock you use:

1 word title

2 embellishments

3 colours/papers

4 stamps or stamped images

I am not a task master so your 2 embellishments can be made up of more than one item if you prefer and your stamps could be one stamp stamped out four times or you can use four stamps lots of times - there are no real hard and fast rules to this I just want us all to get creative!

Have fun :)

What a lovely Sunday

Have spent most of the day making a card:

had great fun messing around with inks, Tim's new stamps and my bigshot.  This card is based on the sketch over at Friday Sketchers so I am entering it into their challenge this week.

Talking of challenges I really need to get myself motivated to do more scrapping - I think I have made a total of 8 layouts since January 2010 and that includes 4 layouts for classes at my crop and this needs to change as my pile of "to be scrapped photographs" is getting far too big!  So I have begun to set myself a series of challenges which involve making a card, a tag and a layout based on just a few criteria.  If you would be interested in joining me then pop back here on Tuesday where I will launch Lets Create Tuesday to hopefully get our creative juices flowing.  I am aiming to set the challenge once a fortnight so please come over and join me if you can.

Thanks for looking :)

Its been a funny old week

Firstly a big hello to Debbie R and Madie for following me - thank you so much :)

Well I had an absolute blast last Friday at ArtsyCrafts - two people I wanted to meet up with were ArtyJen and after almost two hours we discovered that we had been sitting together at the same table during the first class! and then also Madie who again I discovered was sitting next to me (again after almost two hours!) at the second session! what are the odds of that then?  Anyway I also met up lots of other people I already knew and also made some more new friends - all in all a fabulous day!

This is the configuration box I made with Tim:

Isnt it fabulous!  I added the little mushroom, melt art, tattered flower and friendly plastic this week, and it now has pride of place alongside my birdcage on my lounge bookcase.

Here is the house I made with ArtsyCrafts:

Doors Closed

Doors open

and here is the inchie I made to go in Tim's book:

I was so glad that I took part in this as he was genuinely touched by the thought and hard work that had gone into producing this. 

Since that Friday we have spent a few days in Manchester visiting the MOSI and Lego Discovery Centre and then I have finished off a few projects this past week (the Configuration box being one) and also have a relatively clean and tidy house to boot!  Rather a productive week for me :)

Thanks for looking.