WOYWW 108

I am very excited that today is Wednesday!  Wednesday means that my little girl is off having a ball at nursery while I catch up on a few jobs, including of course, WOYWW.  Today though, Wednesday is special for another reason - tonight is the launch of Kirsty Wiseman's MIMM class which starts with a live on-line demo in some of the techniques we can use in our art journals (and anything else later on too).  With my new passion for inks and sprays and paints and messy play, I'm really looking forward to tackling a proper journal.  As such, I felt I should share both spaces this week, my craft room AND my art room.

Working in the art room during broad daylight works well and I'm loving having a sink nearby but daytime play is rare.  Last night I cracked on with the pirates, however, the light is very overhead so I ended up working in the shadows and the result was 4 pirates with decidedly orange skin!  I have just redone one of them and I'm waiting for it to dry to see if that works any better.  You can see the orange and the new tanned version in the pic and also to the left of the pic, all my MIMM goodies including, obvs, the Moleskine itself (wrapped in the pink tissue paper - (loves!)).

My craft room, with a box of new stash (don't tell hubs) and THAT layout still being tweaked.  Must finish it today or it won't go into the round up for the month on 2Peas. Lots of stuff to put away after the crop last week but the pirates and the MIMM come first this week.  Oh and I mustn't forget teacher presents...gah!

For more craft inspiration, whatever your pleasure, please head on over to Julia's blog with her guest poster Jan and her lovely Cath Kidston inspired makes.

I'm off to see what sort of tan my pirate has...

Bye for now! xx

One in the "not love" pile

This is one of those layouts that I like but I don't really love.

I wanted the sparkly letters to blend rather than really show up but I think perhaps they blend too much.  I am using up some really old stash with some of these layouts though so that does make me happy.  The pink strip under the photos is a really wide organza ribbon that I twisted and it looks better in real life and gives some much needed texture.  I also threaded a little of it through the felted leaf embellishment to connect the 2 parts.

The photos are just random autumn walk ones where I just happened to catch my youngest neice and B at the right time.  I can't believe how much B's hair has grown in the last few months from when these photos were taken.  It's one of the other things I love about scrapping in that I look at photos more often than I would do ordinarily and so I notice many more things.  If this was pre-scrapping, I would order the photo, get it back, look at it and then put it back in the envelope, probably not looking at it again for years.  I definitely interact with my photos a lot more now and for many reasons, especially my depression, that's a really really good thing :-)

Bye for now
xx

This, I like.

(That is, rather oddly, a direct quote from Lady Montagu to myself and hubs, on choosing the name of our daughter a couple of years ago - random fact!)

Anyway, the crop today went very well.  I managed to complete 5 whole layouts - Hurrah!  There was a new lady sitting across the table and it was rather strange, but quite nice, to be able to offer some words of comfort on really gripping the cropping bug and being aware of what to pack etc.  Like me, she had been buying stuff for a while but had only recently really started producing pages.  I was really chuffed when she admired some of my layouts and said that the layered style was definitely where she wanted to head.  Out of the 5 layouts, I really like 2 of them, like 1 of them and feel just about okay about the other 2!

So here, without further ado, is the first of the one's that I really like.  It was the first one of the day and uses a sketch by Shimelle (surprise surprise!) that she posted just last week.

I actually used Halloween papers here (the orange central strip is bats!)  And how cute is that little spade?  Yet another of the little finds from The Works :-)

I grabbed the first landscape photo I came across when I saw the sketch and as it happens, it is L's first foray into rockpooling in Newport beach.  It really made me smile when I remembered how much he loved it then and how I had just done that layout recently about how much he loves it now.  It was pure coincidence that I picked up this photo but it was nice to think that although so much changes with children, some things can stay the same if you take the time to notice them.  Yay for scrapping!

Bye for now! xx

Another one I'm not sure about...

So remember a while back I mentioned about a layout I was working on and it wasn't working (it wasn't the colour one from the other week, that was ANOTHER one...).  This was a sketch from Shimelle that was used as part of the UK Scrap Factor competition and I thought it was really cool and unusual but I just couldn't seem to make it work.  Eventually I flipped it and it looked better but still not right.  I was about to put it away when my circles fell the other way up and it was an immediate improvement.  I do like the overall layout but I was hoping for something as awesome as Shimelle's - how daft is that?!  The woman is a genius, a pro and has been scrapping for many many years.  I'm a PAHM who's not naturally creative and I've been scrapping part time for about 18 months!  Anyway, here it is..

Most of the stash for this came from a Summer kit last year by Stephanie Dymant.  The strong pink was a great match for B's cute wetsuit which is why I bought the kit but it doesn't really fit with the rest of the holiday in Wales that it was supposed to be used for!

I'm trying to use up some older stuff so here I used some Anita's Dimensions flowers and some rub on letters from an Easter Do-Crafts kit, I think it was something to do with Honey and Hugs.  The title there refers to B's huge grin at spending time with Daddy (you can't really see her face that well but it is a corker!) and yet he doesn't think she is much of a Daddy's girl at all.  Given half the chance she would be though!

And talking of Dads, this was the card I made for all the dads in our family - my own Dad, Management's Dad, my step-dad, and of course Management himself (although his said "Daddy").  The papers are from that naughty pack of MME that begged me to take them home from Hobbycraft the other day.  180 sheets for £25 in grubby male style?  Yes please!

I'm off to one of my all day crops tomorrow and with Kirsty Wiseman's class starting next week, I hope to have lots of thing to share in the next few weeks :-)

Bye for now xx

Time to share some more layouts

Well I just couldn't get my head into posting this week and I have no idea why.  Bit of a virus going around the family leaving us all washed out, especially after such a busy couple of months that we are now winding down from.  Anyway, I have a few things to share, in fact I've lost track of what I've posted on here and what I haven't!  I still haven't managed to get a photo of the layout I'm not sure about but since then I've started another one that I can't make work!  I think I have a problem with colour as I've used the sketch from the double page layout that I loved the other day and it just looks.. wrong.  I've done a couple of layouts where I think I've carefully chosen the papers etc and then its not right at the end.  Any advice on this would be really appreciated.

Anyway, here is the final project from Emma Trout at Scrap-a-Mia.  This was her Make and Take which is pretty awesome really.  I just need to get the right photo to go into the little box and it will go up in our hallway.

A close up of the music paper covered "house".

And the other side.

And then here is a layout from Paula's class that I was working on last week.  I struggled with the title and journalling on this one as I used a couple of photos that I just liked, not that told any particular story.  They were taken at Beaulieu like so many of our other photos and how many layouts can you have that are about that one place, or are called Cute! Beautiful etc.  So it reads "She's Just a Girl.... but she's my girl, and she has special powers to melt my heart and give me a physical ache when I think of her."

I don't normally stitch on my layouts at all, and this is the first time I've hand stitched.  Obviously I changed it a little bit from the original class sketch but I actually quite like it.  I've got loads of embroidery floss from my cross stitch days so it would be good to make more use of them.

Maybe I'll take a picture of my half finished layout and see if someone else can tell me why it looks so wrong. In the meantime, I have a couple of Father's Day cards to finish that should have been posted this morning, oops!

Bye for now xx

4x6 photo love for May

I think this might be my new favourite layout!

I used Shimelle's "4x6 photo love" sketch for May so we're using 5 photos which is a help to anyone who has loads of photos of the same thing and yet can't bear not to scrap them all!

I couldn't resist using my new wave punch on this layout and I also got to use some dies that I bought last year and haven't touched.  I've been saving the gorgeous aqua woodgrain paper and this was the perfect time to use it.  With all the letters and 3 sheets of patterned paper used, it is probably one of my most expensive layouts ever but there are scraps left over and I didn't use a single "e"!

In keeping with the video of ideas from Shimelle, I painted on some Glimmer Mist around the straight edges.  Except that mine is so subtle that it is pretty much invisible!  I used Dazzling Diamonds, which is the first mist I ever owned, as I didn't want to add colour just glimmer.  I painted the lines and then added some to the clusters but I don't think I will bother with that colour again!

Ample journalling room gave me space to witter on about how much I loved watching the kids poking around in the rockpools, whatever the weather.   The beach at Newport in Pembrokeshire is wide, hard, sandy and quiet so you can drive your car onto it and set up camp for the day with as much stuff as you like.  This is brilliant when you have children and an elderly relative with you and it also means that there is plenty of sand to play on without being near the water.  The rockpools are what the children love best though and we spent many happy hours there pottering about looking for ever bigger crabs or more and more unusual specimens. We can only assume it will be the same again this coming summer.  And that's totally fine with me :-)

Bye for now

Lisa-Jane
xx

WOYWW 105 - the great PiF reveal!

I think I actually squeaked out loud yesterday when I realised that my PiF had arrived from Lisa.  It was such a great thing to be involved in, exchanging handcrafted gifts with people who were strangers before last Wednesday but from now on will hopefully be friends.

So here is my desk for the week, part way through sorting scraps, buttons and ribbons, and part way through a layout about B.  I just need to add some stitching as it was part of a class - typical me that I changed it a little bit from the example we were set ;-)

And here is my lovely gift from Lisa, this wonderful door hanger which is now inside my craft room door (to prevent little fingers investigating....)  The flowers are gorgeously shiny and the colours are just beautiful.

And here is my effort, not quite as I would have liked but this is all new to me.

It came out a bit brighter than I anticipated despite my best efforts to grunge it up but there is a lot of me and a lot of love in it.  The music paper, hearts and vellum butterflies are things I use often on anything that is for me (like my notebook).

So there we go, that was the week that was.  Check out more desks on Julia's blog 

Bye for now xx

The name badge

It was just a name badge for Scrap-a-Mia, nothing to get stressed over really, yet it had me in knots again, just like last year.  Some people are so creative and mine just felt pathetic in comparison last year but I did actually learn a lot.  This year was much the same except that this time I knew there would be some incredible creations. Last year we all got sent different chipboard shapes to play with.  This year we had different mediums but the same scalloped oval shape.  Mine was made from Ten Second Studio metal which is basically extra thick tin foil that you can colour and emboss etc.  I had a few disasters with it, embossing on the wrong side, ink that wouldn't adhere, ink that went a foul colour etc.  I was really stressed as I really wanted to do a good job with it this year and show some evidence of crafting development and it looked worse than the year before.

I was thinking that I would need to make something that wasn't a name badge to wear and then I remembered that I had seen something on a blog somewhere which didn't register at the time sadly.  I'm so sorry that I can't remember where I saw the idea and I can't credit it but I think it was someone from WOYWW.  Someone had kept their child busy with making a pen pot from a tube and I thought I could perhaps do something like that.

I started with this rock salt canister which I stole retrieved from the kids junk modelling box.  It's pretty sturdy and has a plastic bottom which makes it easier to upcycle than a loo roll tube.

I cut it down on the slope (not really that obvious from the photo) and painted the top and bottom edges for a neat finish.

Then I chose some lovely paper which I have loved for ages but found it tricky to use on a scrapbook page and I rolled it around the canister, marking where to cut on the slope, and adhering it with double sided tape (the extra strong one in my ATG).

Then I cut the foil into butterflies on my die-cutter and had a fun time tarting the whole thing up with gems and skeleton leaves.  I distressed and inked inside the rim with a make-up sponge to give it a good finish and added a couple of bows.    You can see the close up of the butterfly here with all its many layers of embossing and inks.  Thankfully the ink only properly adhered in some of the creases so it looked quite grungy and funky in the end.

For the name part (which I almost forgot as I got carried away with my embellishment!)  I used a tag (from Tesco or somewhere like that) and searched for some suitable letter stickers.  I came across a pack of Motifications which I had bought way back when, not realising what they were.  They're adhesive on both sides so you can add flocking or glitter or embossing powder.  They are pale pink (hence me buying them when I had B!) but luckily I had some flocking powder from some goody bag or other from years ago.

So.  I made something purple.  LOVE.
I made something out of a paper I love that was going to waste.  LOVE.
I used some old products.  LOVE.
I recycled something.  LOVE.
I used new techniques.  LOVE.
I had something completely and utterly different to everyone else, that looked good.  LOVE.
It is useful forever, not just for that one retreat.  LOVE.

And more than anything, I loved it and I was proud of what I had made.  HUGE LOVE!

Don't forget it is WOYWW tomorrow and it is PiF day for the 2nd anniversary.

Bye for now xx

4x6 photo love for April

I am really loving the challenges over at 2 Peas, including the 4x6 photo love that is run by Shimelle.  Each month she produces a sketch and layouts for standard sized 4x6 photos, with the number of photos corresponding to the months, hence April was 4 photos.  We have a month to complete them to be in with a chance of the prizes so I am cutting it fine today as is closes tonight.

I used up some American Crafts paper that I wasn't sure about, and some of the Twitterpated range.  I also used, as you can see, a whole load of Thickers on the title.  Normally I would hyperventilate about using so many precious letters but I am trying to actually use my stash and not just keep it and stroke it :-)

There are quite a mix of embellishments here - a Sassafrass cloud, a Dear Lizzy tree,  Papermania buttons, a Jenni Bowlin ticket and the first of many of those stick pins I mentioned yesterday from E-Bay.  I got 90 pins for £2.75 - result!  Of course they are not Jenni Bowlin quality, but who cares for that price?!

As April has 4 photos, one of them is under the title flap.  This layout is about B trying desperately trying to get L's Fruit Flakes off him after she had eaten all of hers.  They started off sitting side by side and ended up turned completely around as she was climbing all over him and he was gently turning away.  They were so sweet and so funny that I thought I could get away with some cutesy papers.  The photo that is hidden under the flap is how they ended up.  The title comes from a family saying that originally came from some nursery school or other.

I'm really pleased with this for a couple of reasons, the main one being that I made the flap!  I could have just put the whole thing in the page protector and left it at that as several others are, it just means that you have to slip them out before you see the interactive bit.  This time however, I used Shimelle's tutorial to make a split in the protector so I could feed the flap through and you don't need to take it out to open it.  It all came together really quickly (other than the embellishing parts!) so I'll definitely use this technique again when I have a lot of photos to show.

I also thought I would share my notebook with you as Gem asked about it the other day (sorry Gem, I mean't to reply sooner).  I made it to take to Scrap-a-Mia last year and it is where I keep all my jottings of ideas and lists of things to create etc.

It is just a cheap spiral bound notebook made of kraft card which is a bit unusual and I wish I could remember where I got them from now.  So often cheap notebooks are covered in that thin shiny paper in bright colours but these ones here were great for tarting up.  I used some of my very favourite things on it - vellum, butterflies, Dear Lizzy music paper, pink gems, and that lovely little envelope embellishment.   I used Ranger Crackle Glaze on the chipboard corners but it didn't adhere well at all.  I have yet to find somewhere where it does stay put :-(

And the back view.  I used Stickles on the butterflies' edges to add a bit of sparkle.

Now I must get on with my PiF for WOYWW which hasn't really progressed at all, oopsie!

Bye for now
xx

Returning from Scrap-A-Mia

Oh my goodness I am so tired.  My head is full, my purse is empty and my hands are an inky mess but I had SUCH a ball!

We all signed this huge canvas that one of the teachers, Celine Navarro, misted for us. Creative Moments are going to keep the canvas as a reminder of the fantastic weekend.

The venue was here, the New Place in Wickham, which is in between Portsmouth and Southampton.  We were in conference facilities just behind this beautiful building but the grounds are lovely.

Two of the classes involved misting in a big way which was fantastic as it was something new for me.  There were so many colours and brands and masks to try that would be impossible at home but boy did I get in a mess!  I have a couple of mists but I've always been too scared to try them.  I used them once ages ago and I got in a mess but Dina Wakley was great and helped me to embrace the random effects and the mess.

 The strangest project of the weekend was a 3D construction with Michelle Mogford-Jackson which involved a LOT of cutting with a craft knife.  We got messy again here with Luminesce paints and Stazon inks.  It was an ambitious project and I hope I can finish it because it looked fab.

And I'm afraid that's it for today.  No finished projects to share, just a a couple of sneaks to tease you with.  Hopefully I will have a couple of completed things to share by the end of the week if I can manage to recover my brain.  I think it is in my craft bag somewhere....

Bye for now
xx

WOYWW 101

Good morning Wednesday!

SO much going on this week on my desk, and look, no JYC (see previous post...)

So, starting at the top working clockwise, my two trimmers and my half packed bag ready for Scrap-a-Mia this weekend (almost did a little wee then).  Cup leftover from last night's hatchet job on the badge which is on the craft mat with various inks.  I've inked it, embossed it, sanded it, sworn at it, wiped it, blah blah and now I'm staring at it, lost as to what to do with it now.

Next to that we have some gorgeous purple and teal papers for a class tomorrow night.  Spent ages choosing stuff for this last night as it's not exactly my style.  I did paint and heat emboss those little dragonflies there though which made me smile.  Good to get back to some old techniques sometimes.  On the edge there, in danger of falling off, a pile of paper to be filed away, and then a basket for the layout I'm thinking about.  Lastly is that glorious die cut paper with some French style papers for a very special but very emotional layout about our angel baby.  It needs to be done but I want it to be great - do you have photos / memories like that?

So that's it.  Much to be done before the weekend, so best crack on.  But first I'll have a sneak at some other crafty desks over at Julia's.  See you there!

PS.  Lost 5 lbs at Slimming World on Monday - go me!!!!!

Bye for now
xx