SmileRoundRobin

In January I sent off my circle journal out into the big wide World - well mainly round Wales - but you get the idea.  Here is a link to my introductory pages.  Now it's back in all it's gorgeousness, the swap is over, so  I can share the pages I made in everyone journals.

My first page uses Dylusion stamps and some discontinued printout houses.  I paper pieced all the leaves using paper I had painted and inked.

The lovely quote is "There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it"

As usual I had no idea what to do for page two.  The theme of trees was a bit of a challenge for me, so I decided to do a scrapbook page of the bluebell woods at the end of our road.

The next page used lovely paper from my monthly kit.

I think this was my favorite theme as it was the easiest!

I used my silhouette to cut the title.

Also used my silhouette to cut buckets.  The jars are from American crafts.

My current passion is making yoyo flowers.  I didn't like them when I was a quilter, but they look lovely on scrapbook pages.  Very easy just cut a circle of cotton fabric, do a running stitch near the edge (don't turn under a hem or it will be too bulky) pull up the thread and attach a button.



The quote is "Flowers that bloom in the Springtime, fade in the early fall. But the lovely flower of friendship, never fades at all."

Here is a close up of the flowers.

I keep using my favorite papers for this swap and I love the Graphic 45 background flying pigs paper as it is so quirky.

This time I used the flower border I was saving for a wedding page.

I doodled the song words between the rows of music.

I bought the heart in Aberystwth for a wedding page, but had to use it here as it looked a bit plain without.  Guess who bought the set of six types of wood shapes from Create and Craft?!?!?

Here is a close up of the figures made using a Tim Holtz die and Dylusion stamps.

I love the saying and it is so true of my friend Sara.

Finally a close up of my metal flower heart.  I'm still looking for another one, but so far the only one I've found was bigger.

This swap was great fun and really challenging.  It helped me use up lots of new papers and things I would likely have kept as they are 'too nice to use'.

 

I've been taking the tiles off the wall in the bathroom and chopping down bushes in the garden.  I think I must have a destructive gene as it's great fun and I can't wait for the rain to stop so that I can fill up the green bin, with my latest victims, yet again.

 

Have a lovely week, Anne x

MyNewNoteBook

First a proud mum request :-D  It's my son Mike's birthday today and he has challenged himself to get his eBook in the Amazon top 100 today. Here is the UK link to the eBook please click the link even if you don't buy the book. More details and the US Amazon link can be found on Mike's web site

Now back to crafting.  I was reading Kate Crane's blog and decided to try making my own version of her inky little book.  I made a few pages but they just didn't work for me - too green! 

Instead I made my book with scrapbook papers, stamps and rub-ons.  I used fours sheets of scrapbook paper cut into 6"x4" pieces.  I dug out my beautiful, but much neglected, sewing machine and in no time at all had this lovely little book.

I cut two of the 6"x4" pages into three to form the pockets.  Sewed along what would be the top side of each pocket and then placed two pieces together and sewed round attaching the pockets to six of the pages.  I didn't use any glue.  The pages are a bit rough round the edges and the stitching is wobbly and just cut off at the ends to keep it from looking too neat.

I stamped randomly with a selection of stamps including Tim Holtz, Dylusions and Club Scrap.  The papers are from American Crafts and Lily Bee.  I used an old partially used sheet of 7 Gypsies rub ons to add a bit of extra detail to the pages.

 Here are the finished pages.  Click on the photo for a closer look.

This photo is close up showing some of the stamping.  I will add more and some doodling as I go along.

Finally here is my favourite page.

I plan to use the book to record three nice memories of each day, along with a bit of doodling and a few photos.

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the Olympics.  I'm going to see the Basketball on Wednesday and I'm really excited :-D

Deco Swap

I used to like making tiny things, then I discovered scrapbooking and now feel at more home making 12 x 12 scrapbook pages.  Trouble is now tiny things are difficult! 

The pages below were made for a deco swap on the theme of summertime and are both just 4 x 4 inches in size.  The top one is coloured with copic and pro markers and has 4 layers of decoupage.  The decoupage just shows as a thicker black line on the scans below.  The black dot in the sky is just on the scan - I hope!

The beach huts were watercoloured using aqua markers.  On both pages the deck chairs are paper pieced and raised on 3D foam.

All the stamps are from Hobby Art.  With the exception of the sun they are all from the same rubber stamp sheet.

I hope you are having a lovely Easter.  Anne x