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

Journal Swap

I made the pages below for the first round of a journal swap.  The flowers and leaves are paper pieced.  The flowers are made with a rose scrapbook paper and the leaves from a painted background I made. 

Stamps: Dylusions, Stampotique and Hero Arts

Paint/Ink: Dylusions, Golden, Ranger and Stampin Up markers

It took a while to get started as I couldn't be as messy and carefree as usual.  Also I found it difficult to get a background card that didn't go all bobbly when wet.  I ended up taking pages from a 7 Gypsies journal.  Overall I'm pleased with them and will be sorry to see them go.

I need to get a move on as my next swap is due to be with the recipient on 6 April - good job I have an idea.  Now I just need to get off this pc and get started.

Hope you are having a lovely week.

Anne x

Better Late Than Never

Here are a few other layouts that I don't think I have shared on my blog.

This is my favourite photo of when I was little.  I must have been distracted by the camera and missed my mouth!  No idea what I was trying to eat.  The papers are from an old We Are Memory Keepers kit from QVC and are more pastel in real life.  The Sketch is from a Page Maps book.

Not sure where this sketch came from, though I remember turning it on it's side.  The papers are 12" x 2" and I added the fancy border as it seemed a bit plain without.  This was our cabin on the Cruise Ship Aurora.  Papers are from my scrap basket.

This layout came from a Shimelle Starting Point.  I have loads of paper so I'm not sure why I decided to use two papers I don't like much (they came from a bargain random mixed box) I used the A and B sides of each piece for the squares.  The papers and stickers are from Cosmo Cricket and I really like the finished layout.  These photos are of everyone watching the band playing at the start of our cruise.

This layout is based on a class in Shimelle's fab Hitchhickers Guide to Scrapbooking Class.  Great way of using up scraps of pretty paper.  Whilst on our Cruise we visited St Petersburg.  You can't tell from the photos but it threw it down.

The classroom and bedroom at the Crab Apple Crafts Retreat in November.  I think this is another Shimelle layout.  Papers from the February Scrapagogo kit.

This photo looks like I am protecting the guilty by blurring their faces :-D  but in reality it is the just the camera flash refusing to turn off.  I think this is another layout from the fab Hitchhikers class at Two Peas in a Bucket.  Check out their video classes as many are free.  Papers are from Simple Stories 100 Days of Summer range and the stickers are from October Afternoon.

Last one.  This needs some heartfelt journaling which I think I may hide on the back.

Have a lovely day.  Anne x

Another Starting Point

Below is an older one of Shimelle's Starting Points.

This is my version.  Very pretty girly pink papers that reminds me of when I used to quilt.  The papers are all from Authentique with Tim Holtz and My Minds Eye letters.  I fussy cut the flowers from a sheet of paper.

For my birthday we had afternoon tea in Stratford followed by a mooch around the shops.  There was so much cake that I couldn't eat it all, which was just as well as there is a limit to how far Weight Watchers points will stretch.  Must be working as tee shirt is now too big and when I first saw this photo I thought 'who stole the mellons'!  Not sure I should write that on my layout just in case it is saved for future generations. LOL!

Gosh two blog posts in one day.  Think I need to lie down in a darkened room to recover :-D

Love Anne x

Shimelle's Starting Point

I was really pleased to see Shimelle had a new starting point.  Even though I usually use completely different papers starting points just seem easier for me than sketches.

Here is Shimelle's starting point and below is my layout.  I may make it again using a square photo on the left.

I thought I would stuggle with journaling on such a big area, but in the end I wished I had a little more space.  Sorry about the rubbish photo but the inside of our house always seems dark even with bright sunshine outside.

Anyone know who made the background papers?  I bought the only two sheets in the shop and got a bit happy with a friend's punch on the B sides so the green, yellow and patterned papers are just scraps.

I hope you had a lovely relaxing weekend. Anne x

Deco Swap

I joined a deco swap thinking I could do some messy inky journal type pages.  Then I got the themes.  I was expecting vague themes like 'happy' or 'flowers' but instead got 'a stamped background with a flower in the middle inking the edges for a vintage look' and another theme is oriental!  Yikes not inky mess grungy then!

Took a while to do these but I am very happy with how they turned out.

Next theme is a bit easier but my oriental stamps haven't seen ink for years so the third one will be difficult.

I have been mainly doing pages for round robins so I can't share my pages until the books are back with their owners.  I have also done some scrapbook pages which I will share in the next few days.

Have a lovely weekend. Anne x

Flag Card

I adapted a paper strip idea I saw in a magazine to make a flag card.  It's a great way to use up scraps of scrapbook paper.

Use one inch strips for the blue area and half inch strips for the cream.  I drew a rough pattern of the blue cross on the card so that I could make sure the other strips went underneath to cover up the loose ends.  Trim round the edges at the end.  The triangles are slightly bigger than the half inch strips.  All pieces have been edged with vintage photo distress ink.

Anne x

Proud Mum Moment

Here is another scrapbook layout.  This is about my son who had his book published recently.  Blagman was his nickname when he was a student.

I used Simple Stories school type paper.

Have a lovely day, Anne x

Lovely Memories

Each year we grow the same varieties of tomatoes my grandad grew.  The home grown tomato smell brings back lovely memories of my time spent on his allotment when I was little.  I wish I had a photo of him in his huge green greenhouse made out of old window frames. 

Below is a page I made about my memories.  The smudge bottom right is a fingerprint.  Apologies for the variable lighting on the photo.

What smell(s) evokes memories for you? 

The smell of moth balls and cigars remind me of working in a bank and the smell of moth balls and BO remind me of an office job!  Nicer smells include baking smells that remind me of my lovely gran.  Burning smells remind me of our garage as Paul is often welding in there.  Once you get thinking it's amazing what memories smells evoke.

Just off out for lunch.  Have a lovely day.  Anne x

Time ATCs

I had fun making some ATCs for a Time themed swap.  I used the new Portobello Road papers and stamps and have a serious crush on the 12 x 12 scrapbook - shame it's not a ring binder.

Stamps and 6 x 6 paper pad from Papermania

Time to relax stamp from Papertrey Ink

Chicken or Egg?

Here is another page from my inky 7 Gypsies journal.  I took the plunge and drew the chicks freehand.

Image by Deviant Scrap

Gelly roll glaze pens

Dylusions ink sprays

Crafter's Workshop stencil

I am trying to use up some of my ever increasing stash.  This week I have made 2 journal pages and 4 ATCs but have also acquired 5 sheets of 12 x 12 card and two sheets of patterned paper - I think I am a lost cause!

I am learning to play the keyboard and my current song is 'air on a g string'.  I'm trying to be good and do more practice this week.  It's hard as there are 101 other things I would prefer to spend my time on.  I need to borrow a nagging parent for an hour each day to make me practice ;-)  Not so bad once I start playing; but the first step is as hard as getting out of bed...

Have a lovely week, Anne x

Balls

This fun page was made in my 7 gypsies journal.  I use this journal to mop up spare ink from other projects.  The hair, coat, tie, socks, wings and balls are paper pieced using scrapbook paper (hair), pearl card (wings and socks) and watercolour paper that I have sprayed with ink. 

Spray inks, stamps and gelly roll black glaze pen from Dyan Reaveley at Art from the Heart.

In my last job I spent my whole time juggling, and trying not to drop, an infinite number of balls of stuff.  Now I am taking a break from paid work I have forgotten what balls are :-)

Have a great day, Anne x

Smile Round Robin

I have been working on a round robin or circle journal.  Here are my first pages.  My theme is 'smile'.  The opening page features a photo of me as an Art from the Heart fairy and a bit of writing about me.  It's always difficult to know what to write; but luckily I quickly ran out of space.  The hobbies bit reminded me of job applications!  The background, inspired by a background on Kate Crane's DVD, is painted with Dylusions paints and Ranger Dabbers.  

I love red, hot pink, orange and yellow so had to make myself use different colours on the other pages.

The second page is made from old K&Co Hopscotch scrapbook papers and the die is a Tim Holtz one.  My idea is that each person will write their name, date, etc. on the dress form and put a head photo on their dress form.  I have two pages like this and will add a title later when I can see how much room is left at the top.

This pieced border is Bious B Zoo Hot scrapbook paper and is inspired by the journal classes I took with Dyan at Art from the Heart.  The stamp is Linda from Stampotique and the words were typed on a pc.  I also used a flower stencil and glaze black pen.

My final page uses the scraps of Hot paper and more Stampotique stamps.  The page is more straight in real life, but this was my first attempt at taking photos with my iPad and overall it worked very well.



All supplies are from Art from the Heart except the alphabet stickers from Crab Apple Crafts and the DVD from Craft Stamper Magazine.  The K & Co pad is so old that I forget were it came from.

I enjoyed making these pages and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone else's art work. 

Have a lovely week, Anne x

Pretty Paper Party

I am really enjoying the challenges at Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party. Using her suggestions I selected the following papers:

This is the front veiw of the papers

This is the back of the double sided pages.

These are the two pages I've made so far:

These are some photos from my garden.
I had a trial run at the hair dressers before my son's wedding - what can I say Dallas doesn't suit me - I looked so much worse than this photo. I ended up with straight and sleek for the wedding. This photo makes me smile though.

Many years ago I used to write web pages as part of my job. Now I am going round in circles trying to get blogger to do even simple things - like get my photos in the right order. I guess a little knowledge is a bad thing and things like Blogger have made me rather lazy.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. Anne x

Bungee Man

I made this page as part of a two page spread at my first scrapbook class at Crab Apple Crafts.  Looking through my photos January was a dull month and the only photos I took where of this little bungee man.  My sister bought it for me for Christmas.  He was made of bird seed and sadly didn't last long.  This page makes me smile especially as it looks like he is loosing his pants ;-)

As I'm not working at the moment and am doing quite well at using up craft stuff I already own, but let me loose in a craft shop and even when I set myself a budget of just a few pounds I still come home wondering why I have bought some of the stuff e.g. alphabet stickers in colours I don't like!  Oh well I guess I will get better over time.

Have a great week.  Anne x

Cruise Food

Last year we went on an amazing Baltic cruise and as expected the food was amazing.

This page is made from another of Shimelle's starting point challenges.  Thanks to Shimelle I am really starting to get into scrapbooking and I think this is about page 23 - I wonder how many pages you have to make to call yourself a scrapbooker?

This is Shimelle's starting point...

...and this is my finished page.

Apart from the red paper under the words all the rest came from this £1 pack of paper pieces I bought from Crab Apple Crafts or the 7 Gypsies background paper.  I am challenging myself to see what I can make with is pack of paper and have already started another page which I will share when complete.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend.  Anne x

Bluebell Woods

I used Shimelle's sketch of the week for my bluebell page below.  I always wanted to live near a bluebell wood and after living here for over 20 years I found I had one just at the end of our street.

Here is her sketch. 

Hop on over to Shimelle's blog for a video of how she put her page together.  I'm looking forward to seeing your page.

I used some of my ancient 'too nice to use' papers from Stampington.  The sticker says 'laugh and the World laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone'.  I probably have something more suitable; but it makes me smile and I like to add in unexpected twists.

In using up my stash I am getting to know my silhouette machine and used it here for the title and ric rac border.

Enjoy your day.  Anne x 

Introducing Miss Hettie Hedgehog

(AKA Shimelle's starting point challenge)

I am having fun with Shimelle's latest starting point challenge.  The challenges are great; especially for a beginner like me.

Above is Shimelle's version and below is my background.

This is my page made from my Scrapagogo kit.  I have started tweeking it already and the horizontal stripe now goes over the two side photos.  It's very minimal, but that is how I tend to work.  As I can't find any other pages with a diagonal photo placement I expect that I have broken a few rules :-)  I like triangles, but mainly I did it to cover up the light switch on the bottom photo. 

I think it needs a little something top right as I find 'white' space difficult and it needs some embelishments.  Please share your ideas for embelishments as that is the part of scrapbooking that I find difficult.

In July I was lucky enough to be given a baby hedgehog to release into my garden.  I bought her a lovely house, but she doesn't want to live in it.  She visits most nights for her tea (chicken dog food) but sometimes lies in until after my bed time.  She is completely wild now so we just spy on her from the patio windows from time to time.  She is now a lot bigger and quite fluffy.

I hope you will have a go at one or more of Shimelle's challenges.  For some lovely eye candy go to her web site and take a look at what all the talented scrapbookers from around the World have made with this sketch.

Have a lovely evening.  Anne x

Quick Card

This is a quick card I made for a wedding anniversary.  The white heart is on pop dots.  Coloured with gel pens and pro markers.  The backing papers are ones the recipients bought me.

Have a lovely day.  Anne

What a Lovely Day

My niece had a beautiful vintage themed wedding: complete with ceremony in an old Hall, vintage clothes and a street party reception. They had homemade food, bunting, tressel tables, a tea urn, old photos, etc. It was a lovely memorable day.

I am very much a beginner with scrapbooking - though you would not think that if you could see my stash of scrapbook goodies. The wedding layout is based on the one below that I made at my first scrapbook class at Crab Apple Crafts.

Have a lovely weekend. Anne