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

JournalSwap

Is it just me or do swaps always seem easy when you sign up?  I'm full of enthusiasm and ideas but as the swap starts my perfectionism takes over and I find it difficult to even get started. 

After months of being on the naughty step - due to late posting - I am finally up to date and starting to enjoy this journal swap. 

Here are my pages from the last three months.  I used the ink, stencil and stamp backgrounds left over from the Dylusion cards shown on my last post.  The borders are hand drawn with posca pens.

Karin is my favourite Stampotique stamp because she has such a forced smile on her face.

The one on the right reminds me of me hiding away at home taking a year off work.  At the moment I just want to carry on having a nice quiet easy life.  Unfortunately, I'm too young to retire so I've had to stop relaxing and start looking for a nice new bill paying job!  Wish me luck... 

Twinkie is another favourite stamp as he looks like he is dancing very badly - like someones dad at a wedding.

Have a lovely day. 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

A few more journal pages

I have been working on a few more journal pages in my little moleskin. I love Dy's new Dylusion border stamps. Not sure the gifts work but I stuck them on before the girl! The Octopode tree is cute and the wording says 'What would you like in your stocking?'.
I think the next one is far too true...
The right hand page had blue/green ink that had seeped through and looked awful. This page has a bit of mica and is now one of my favorites. Oh those were the days when I did dressmaking in a size 10 for me! The dress form stencil was free on a magazine. Stampotique stamps.

Finally two sayings from Tim Holtz and great Dylusions border and leaf stamps.

Where did the weekend go. I had most of last week off work but I'm still playing catch up. Have a lovely week.

Anne x

Where have I been?

I wish I could tell you that I have been somewhere lovely, but the truth is I've probably been working or playing FarmVille far too much!

This is the first card I've made in ages and it's called 'spot the stamping' as I made it for a stamping list and only manged to stamp the sentiment. This is my first play with the Time Holtz birdcage die and I chopped off the top to make it fit.

I have done quite a lot of messying around in my journals and I just love it. I often go back and add a few squiggles or colour in with my favorite red glaze pen. This is my favorite page this year. The 'lady' is from Octopode and the sentiments are from Dylusions. Dyan had the idea on her blog to use one word, one sentiment and an image. I did a few at Christmas (see below) and really enjoyed it so I've done a few more pages of sayings.

I made up a page on the pc of sentiments I like and the image is from Viva Las Vagas Stamps.

More Octopode, AFTH letters and computer generated words. Background is Dylusions sprays over random torn strips of paper - yum.

These are some pages I made around Christmas time. I like this one but the dark patch is a bit too heavy. Backgrounds are mainly Ranger daubers.

This is a bit darker in real life - sorry my photography skills are so lacking. Trees are from AFTH.

These pages make me smile.

I hope you have a lovely week.

Anne x

National Card Day

In honour of National Card Day I decided to get my finger out and use up some of the lovely stuff covering my desk.

Here are a couple of simple cards cased from an idea on the Hero Arts web site. Great for using up those odds and ends of paper. On the yellow card the black and yellow card is really pearl white coloured with copics and the pink background card below is done in the same way. They both use my new Tim Holtz stamp and the papers are edged with black ink to tie them all together. I've also seen this idea with stamped backgrounds and a big flower and ribbon across the middle. Good way of using up odd coloured flowers.

Last here is a photo of my son with his new puppy Rosie. he's just back from honeymoon so we all went out for an Indian meal and now I am too stuffed to move!