A Nice Suprise!

When I got home from work on Thursday there was a parcel for me in the post that contained an American Crafts Amy Tan day book as a thank you for being published in issue 68. The suprise was that I had forgotten that I had actually sent them a layout! It was great to see my layout in the magazine and might encourage me to send some more in! After a great day yesterday crafting all day at a crop I now am inspired to create more.

It’s been a while…..

I’ve hardly done any crafting at all recently but I had to make a 30th birthday card today for my nephews fiancé. Here it is

I used silver mirror card and hot pink card with a few flowers butterflies and gems and of course some pink tulle.

Hopefully this will have kick started my mojo as I have lots of Christmas cards to make!

Hello–it’s been a while!

Well, it’s over a month since I posted here. After Scrapbook Sisters closed and we helped our daughter move up to London to start University there seemed to be little time or inclination to craft but I have completed a couple of things so here they are;

A card for one of the last card classes

 

A top I made

A monkey card for my brother-in-law

A new home card for Holly and Liam

A layout on the letters page of The Scrapbook Magazine

A birthday card for my nephew

A Recipe Folder for Holly

Sorry about some of the rubbish photos – after a nice little break in my beloved St Ives I shall be back refreshed and inspired – hopefully!

Closing Down Sale

Scrapbook Sisters is closing down . Please take a visit to the shop everything is reduced apart from Digi Stamp Discs. Open Friday and Saturday 10 -4

Scrapbook Sisters Card Challenge

This weeks theme is “Things With Wings”

I had a mini “altered art moment” with this card. I started with some Tim Holtz resist kraft paper which I covered with white paint and then rubbed back. I stamped the wording and the dragonfly on tissue paper and stuck it to the card with Claudine Helmuth Matte medium. I stamped another dragonfly on acetate which I cut out and stuck to just the centre of the first one so that it’s wings are free – again I stuck this with Matte Medium – so much easier than silicone!. Finally I stamped around the edge and added a few gems. Now I’m going to see what else I can stick with Matte Medium…..I thing it could be my new favourite thing!

Penny Black @ Allsorts Card Challenge

The theme for the July challenge at Penny Black @ Allsorts is Summer Blooms – I didn’t have any Penny Black stamps that fitted the bill so I used the Nature’s Dance stamp – which is a bare branched tree with a bird and I added lots of punched flowers to it.

Clock This!

A bit of a cheesy title I know but the theme at Scrapbook Sisters Card Challenge this week is “CLOCKS” – so here is my card;

I used a stamp from Cherry Pie Art Stamps, which I stamped in Stazon and then edged the card with blue Distress Ink. I then heat embossed the whole thing with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel. When it was cool I manipulated the embossed paper to make the enamel crack and inked it lightly with Tea Dye Distress Ink to highlight the cracks to give the “faux cracked glass” effect. I added die cut flowers from calico fabric and book pages which I inked and then I added a few pearls and a little tag to finish it off. The backing paper is by Webster's Pages and it’s so pretty it’s a shame to cover any of it up.

The Studio–Sunday Challenge

I loved the sketch so much at The Studio Sunday Challenge that I just had to enter.

From this sketch

Less Is More–3 of Something

This weeks challenge at Less is More is to make a single layer card with 3 colours, 3 stamps or 3 words etc.

Creative Scrappers #216

Here is my layout for this weeks Creative Scrappers Challenge

I used the White Out range from We R Memory Keepers and some little chipboard arrows from Maya Road
Here is the original sketch

Gold–Less is More

This weeks theme at Less is More is “GOLD”

I was not entirely pleased with my first card as although I used detail embossing powder I felt that the banner lost some of the definition when embossed.

So I started another card and the phase that stuck in my head, because of this weeks theme, was “a gilded cage” so a chose a different birdcage for my second card.

One Stamp

A little late but here is my DT card for this weeks Scrapbook Sisters card challenge. This weeks theme is “One Stamp”.

I used a very old Penny Black stamp that I bought ,many years ago when I first started card making and I coloured it with Copics.

Anything Goes

This week at Scrapbook Sisters the card challenge theme is “Anything Goes” and this week I have made 2 cards. I couldn’t decide which one to use as my design team card so here are both of them;

Some of the ladies in the Wednesday morning card class wanted ideas on how to use the dress form die cuts so I made this card as one idea. I made my own template for the dress and the chandelier stamp was a free stamp from Craft Stamper.

Here is my second card, with lots of stamping;

It doesn’t show up very well in the photo but there  script stamped in Antique Linen Distress Ink behind the butterfly and stamped everything else in Dusty Concord Distress Ink. It was then finished with some purple card, a few gems and some seam binding tied around. I do like the combination of cream, purple and Kraft cardstock.

I also finished the inside;

Less is More–week 73

This week at “Less is More” the theme is paper piecing. – lucky me, I love paper piecing!
I used the cute little bird on a wire stamp on a plain white square card and then I stamped it again on several scraps of different coloured papers – nice and easy!


I would also like to enter;

2 sisters - Anything Goes

Joyful Stamper - Anything Goes

Sketch of the Week

Shimelle’s Sketch of the Week includes a piece of patterned acetate. When I started to look through my stash I thought I was going to fail at the first post but I eventually found a patterned acetate from Prima. 

Because of the acetate this is a double sided layout. Here is the first side ( I have put white card behind so that it can bee seen clearly);

 

Here is the other side;

I used Prima paper with a little bit of Jenni Bowlin on the first layout, American Crafts Foam Thickers and other bits and pieces from my stash.

This is the sketch;

Diamonds

The theme this week at Scrapbook Sisters Card Challenge is “Diamonds”. I’m not really the sort of person who likes a lot of bling so I decided to go for stamped diamonds.

I used a diamond stamp on to kraft cardstock with creamy brown chalk ink and then I used Basic Grey swirl stamps to go around the edge with a Cocoa Brown Memento ink pad. I used an old alphabet stamp set to stamp the greeting on to woodgrain paper and then finished it off with a Marianne die cut. It makes a change to make a card for a man – now I have one in my card box for an unexpected birthday.

Something Shiny

The theme this week at “Less is More” is to include something shiny in your card.

I have used a Memory Box die for the tree branch and the bird is a Sizzix die. The wording is from a very well used set of Papermania greeting stamps and this is one of a very few which hadn’t been inked. A very quick and simple card and not much stamping which is unusual for me.

Bunting and Beachuts

I love to add bunting to my cards and scrapbook layouts so when this weeks card challenge at Scrapbook Sisters came up I was very happy to add bunting to my DT card. I was even dreaming of bunting in my sleep last night!

I used a Papermania stamp of beach huts (another one of my favourite things) and hadn’t anticipated quite how fiddly it would be to colour but I got our my watercolour pencils and I persevered.  Although there is bunting in the stamped image I added some more paper bunting cut from some English Paper Company paper. I quite like the simplicity of the card, the image is so busy I thought it might get lost in a fussy card.

Creative Scrappers Sketch 212

A quick post from me this morning as I head off to work. Here is my layout made using Basic Grey Sultry 6 x 6 papers and a Jenni Bowlin die cut cardstock for this weeks challenge at Creative Scrappers

Here is the original sketch.

 

Less Is More–One Layer, One Colour

The challenge this week at Less is More is to make a one layer card – I went one step further and made a one colour card. I originally started stamping in blues and greens but I liked the simplicity of using brown Memento ink on kraft cardstock.

I used a Basic Grey flourish stamp from the two Scoops range, a bird from a free stamp set from a magazine and a wording stamp from American Crafts. I hope you like it.

Showcase

My recent card for the Less is More card challenge made the showcase this week which I’m pretty chuffed about as there are some great cards entered each week – so here it is again.

Red, white and blue

The theme this week for Scrapbook Sisters Card Challenge is “Red, white and blue” – easy to do while you are still  fresh from celebrating the jubilee this weekend. Here is my card;

I used star and fancy square dies to make this simple card with an acetate aperture.

Anything Goes

Here is my card for this weeks challenge at Scrapbook Sisters. It’s a nice easy theme this week – “Anything Goes”

And the inside;

I used 2 different sets of My Minds Eye stamps to make the card and the papers were free with The Scrapbook Magazine.

Less is More

This week at Less is More the challenge is to make a shaped card. Just to be different ( and because I had a template)  I decided to make a hexagonal card.

I used a set of Dear Lizzy stamps from American Crafts which I coloured with pink and green Copics – I didn’t want to be too predictable and go for red, white and blue.

Creative Scrappers Sketch 209

My mojo seems to have come back so I’m making the most of it and joining a couple of challenges. Here is one for Creative Scrappers and I love the sketch.

The journaling describes how these photos look like we are on a tropical island at sunset but we are actually in Hayle in Cornwall – all things look different when the sun shines!

Stuck on a colour combo?

It was only when I had finished making my DT card for Scrapbook Sisters that I realised that it was in the same colours as last weeks card which was for the Two Colour Challenge. This week the challenge is to make a card with squares. Here is my card;

I have used three different sized butterfly punches to make a grid of nine squares and then added a few little butterflies flying away. The ribbon is actually a silver organza ribbon although it takes on the colour of the lilac background here.

I have made another card since this one as that too is lilac and purple – perhaps I should get out the lime green or red cardstock today and have a change?

More Class Layouts

When I say more class layouts what I mean is more layouts from class not particularly layouts that are “class” – well I've been a busy little bee and here are a few layouts that I started in class at Scrapbook Sisters and have finished at home. I have not always copied the class layouts but I have taken inspiration from them and altered them to suit my photographs or my style.