hi all

 

hope everyone had a great Christmas and are about to celebrate in the new year. No scraping done here this month with all the Christmas prep and sorting out the dinning table with my craft bits on i just haven/t had any time to craft. But looking at other blogs i found paper stories monthly sketch challenge.  When i looked at the sketch i knew that i ad done something similar a few months ago with two photos, so i thought i would enter it. 

so on this page i have used misting, some stickers. an envelope and digital hybrid pieces that i got from a local crop

RAK on Lou Collins Blog

Lou has a fantastic RAK on her blog please take a look at the give away and her fantastic creations Her blog is http://prettypaperandchipboard.blogspot.co.uk/

altered tray and card

so with Christmas around the corner. I've got most of my shopping done and intended to make some cards but haven't got any done yet. So i shall be busy this week getting things done. But i did have a chance to do the bramford challenge

Di was giving away some wooden embellishment trays, so Tracey grabbed them for us all to alter. Firstly i cut with a craft knife some of the wooden dividers so i could have a large square, one rectangle and 3 little squares. Painted my tray with fresco paint. Paper used is the pickled pear collection by Kaisercraft

 

 the resin frame i made from a mould and clay, wooden watch is by prima, watch hand, punched butterflies, a paper flower and die cut leaves. The cameo was originally orange so i painted the orange surround in black and glued to a jewellery finding. The bottle was stuffed with florist moss and the butterfly was from the stickers from the same paper collection.

the labels and LOVE are again cut from the paper collection and finally a decorative metal corner added to the piece.

Lastly a card, yes i do occasionally make them This uses prima papers, glimmer mist, tissue tape, die cut flowers and leaves, chipboard butterfly, metal findings from my treasure box and the sentiment is from a wendy vecchi stamp

Another light bulb bird/sunday stamper

I decided to have another go at making a light bulb bird, Due to having to give the blue one away when i see the bramford girls. We tend to swap our challenges and with that in mind i made another for me to keep.

Didn't have the same shape bulb, so i went with what i had. Changed the colours and the style of clock made on its front. Paint used is paperarsty fresco paint in claret and dolly mix.

Highlighted in distress ink preserves

 

Altered lightbulb challenge

 

So as you all know the bramford girls set an altered challenge a month. One of which i still have to finish which is a small shadow box/ But Nancy gave us a light bulb. Yes light bulb i hear you say, and for days i looked at it, pondered, put it to one side and looked at it again. Did a little Internet research ......... and finally decided to tackle it.

Originally i wanted to turn it in to an owl - that didn't work

Just by chance looking at some old paperarsty ding and dong stamps, I thought this may just work.

Firstly i covered my light bulb in tissue paper with rangers glue and seal. Made the hanger from wire and beads. Stamped the wing and bird head in grunge board and glued it to the light bulb and added more tissue paper to hide the edges and keep the grunge board firmly attached

 

Next i pained my bird with some ranger and paperartsy fresco paints. Once covered in layers of paint i stamped a clock on to tissue paper and adhered to the bulb using glue and seal. I then highlighted areas in distress ink (peacock feathers) added watch parts and some glitter glue. Another coat of glue and seal , and project complete.

Entered for : Tando Challenge - wings
                      Happy daze - brighten up the month
                      Artistic stamper monthly challenge - Anything goes

some layouts

Finally i took some pics of my recent layouts The first is my most recent and was inspired from a wendy mckee layout. I loved the papers she used  (echo park) and the sunburst behind the pic. So this is what i came up with. I have used a dienamics die to make the flowers, washi tape, a tag and some sewing around some of the patterned papers

 

 

 His layout is of our cat. Yes i finally scrapped her. I turned the photo to sepia. Used a Polaroid mount from Heidi Swapp, and the papers are all MME lost and found

 This layout uses pink paislee She papers, there lovely and bright and went with the photo's. Some splatters of ink and sewing to finish off the page

this one uses Kraft and some patterned papers from cosmo cricket and the stamped sentiment from studio calico. Totally love the simplicity of this page

 Lastly a page i did at bramford crop. Using a viva decor stencil and gesso to give a subtle background. Papers are from MME and the flowers are cut from T/H tattered florals ls which have then been misted with glimmer mist. Splatters of ink and clear dew drops added

Bramford girls challenge and Tando monthly challenge

last month jan gave us each a circular papermache photo frame to decorate. After spending many weeks looking at it i decided to make a Halloween themed hanger which fitted in well with the tando challenge of purple, green, black and orange.

Firstly i cut apart the frame so i could decorate the inside and the outside. This was the most tricky part as i didn't want to cut my fingers

 

 The paper used is from MME . The first circle has cogs cut from grunge board and painted. The hand is from a cheap Halloween decoration that i pulled apart. The clay embellishment i made from a silicone mould and coloured in black distress ink

 the second circle has a skull cut from grunge board and painted, A Metal corner distressed with paint and ink to tone down the brass colour. The bottle was covered in glue and seal, left to dry and the applied rock candy distress paint over the top. Label cut from an old set of book papers i had and some florist moss added for rhe bottle to sit on. The fabric was cut up from the same cheap Halloween decoration.

 the last circle used has a tando bird cage, which i painted and a stampotique character behind it. Made some trailing roses from circles and the leaves were cut from the tattered garland die

Everything was distressed with distress inks.
I'll try a post some layouts soon that i have done recently,

Mouse trap

 This was the bramford challenge a couple of months ago. Tracey gave us all a blank mouse trap and this is what i came up with. I have used prima paper left over from another project. T/H tissue tape, tiny staples. Prima misable flowers, metal cogs and a watch part. A button and T/H tattered floral die to make the flowers.

I then misted with sunflower glimmermist and a green glimmermist (forgotten its colour name) and a touch of dylusions black ink

Orange Jacket

This is a layout i did ages ago using MME woodgrain paper and simple stories awsome paper. Along with Paperartsy paint and crackle glaze, some of there mini stamps, and there flower and leaf die.

 

There is lots of inky paint splatters, distressed edges and sewing.

quick post

 

just a quick post. This is the guest book for the same friend at work that i did the table numbers for. The base of the book is from paperchase. I used the t/h bird cage die and tattered floral garland die.

 The middle page i used some old basic grey avery stamps and a tando bird cage along with the tattered florals die. Her theme is green, birdcages and birds.The other pages have headers like books i have done in the past.

Hope she likes it. Now off to the bramford crop!!!

its been a while......

but with school holidays its been difficult to do any form of crafting, plus the childminder has been on holiday for 2 weeks, so no spare time to even touch anything paper related. Anyway at last months crop at martlesham i got this layout done. A simple but effective. I use natural cheese cloth on this page spayed with OA mists and the splodges are done with crafters workshop template. The rest is layered with pink paislee paper, used a punch and some chipboard swirl with leaves. a tag  and made the flowers from tattered florals die. I have to say not my usual fuzzy layout but recently i have lost my scrapbooking mojo, and that day at the crop was quite difficult for reasons i won't go it to.  It may be a crop i no longer attend, if the situation remains uncomfortable

 Finally this week on Thursday i was able to get in the craft room. So a work friend asked if i could do her table numbers for her wedding. She has bought stuff off ebay but none of the suited her theme (bird cages, birds and green) So i used the T/H bird cage die, and a sizzix die to cut out the birds.The numbers were cut out on thick card with my circut using the base camp cartridge.

Paper is from and old K and Co paper pack. Painting the numbers was very messy I used two coats on both side of walnut distress stain and then walnut distress ink on the edges. I had very brown fingers, but the end result id good. Just got to make her guest book

baby shower book

This  is a baby shower book i made for a friend using the baby girl crate paper line. The book is from paperchase and covered with the patterened papers. Flowers also made from the paper using punches and dies.

 Each page has a headed banner and space to write message or quote.

Holidays - Letterbox tray -Tando and happy daze challenge

This is something i made a while ago and I'm entering it in to the happy daze and tando challenge challenge. I started by painting my chipboard tray with paperarsty fresco paint. Once dry it was time to fill the boxes.

The photo is printed on to canvas photo paper and placed in to the larger rectangle.The squares at the top of the frame are filled with some Websters pages paper and some hessian

 The stamps used to make the flowers are from an old fancy pants set, then embellished with buttons and the make waves that i stamped on acetate are from a pink paislee set. Shells and a small  set of keys make up the lower rectangle

 The lower square is covered in Websters pages paper along with a bottle and rolled up map and a small tag stamped with 'look' from a technique set

Yes its been a while since i last blogged but with school finishing for the summer hols, away on holiday ourselves and celebrating our little ones 4th birthday, i ran out of time to sit at the computer and blog. Yes I'm a bad girl. I will try a post a page i did at the papermaze crop at the end of the week

Bramford girls challenge - altered heart frame

Just finished this, so I'm going to say sorry to the girls for not getting it done earlier but life got in the way. I have to say i found this a little difficult, and couldn't think where to start, so i looked for inspiration on the net, and found an image of an altered frame that i liked.

I pulled out my scattered straw, mustard seed, aged mahogany and black soot distress ink. Some of the new prima stamps, wendy vecchi, paperarsty, kaiserkraft, 7 gypsies, pink paislee and tim holtz stamps and set about collageing my frame. (this took ages). I then went about adding my embellishments. The 2 squares are stamp board stamped with images form papaerartsy and wendy vecchi and then scratched. A pen nib, pink paislee button, and grunge board letters. Crackle glaze added to stamped image and cut book plates from grunge board added. The tag hangs in the middle, with a Wendy vecchi sentiment and a key. I have to say the pic doesn't do it justice

Altered Letter K

The bramford challenge was supplied by Janet. She gave us all a letter, the initial of our first name.For days i looked at this wondering what i could do. When i finally got the idea by searching for owl images on the Internet, and found an owl popping out of a tree trunk.and tried to recreate this on my K

Firstly i distress stained my K and then went about making my owl and tree trunk with crate paper, and a metal cog and some watch parts. I then added the smallest of flowers and leaves from T/H tattered garlands die and some bling

Guestt book and card

A work friend is celebrating her 40th anniversary by renewing her wedding vows. So I've made this card and a guest book. She never had a guest book when she first got married so i decided to make her one. She loves the colour black which is why i went for BG Little black dress collection

Here's the front of the book

And the middle page containing a poem. The wedding is next weekend 

Altered bra/ papertrey ink

A work friend is dong a sponsored walk/run for breast cancer next month . They give you a bra that you have to wear for the event which they want you to decorate. So this is what i came up with. The flowers are cut out of felt using 3 nesting flower dies from papertrey ink, and a the poinsettia leaf die also from papertrey ink

tried gluing them on but it didn't work. So out came the needle and thread. I'm sure she is going to look really good in it

HEXAGONS - my minds eye challenge and scrapagogo crop kit

Hexagons appear to be popping up everywhere. So with the new my minds eye paper i got from the scrapagogo crop kit and some from my own stash . I came up with this layout. The punched strip is from a fiskars/american crafts punch and the brown trim i got from a local craft shop

The chicken wire stamp is from waltzing mouse stamps and the splodge from papertrey ink grunge collection

The frame is made from a technique tuesday elements set which i have used as a template The rolled flowers are hexagons cut in a spiral and rolled up, plus some extra hexagons cut from the paper and layered. The be happy element was in the kit and the letters are from prima

The Bramford challenge and tando creative challenge

This months challenge was to alter a children's book and was given to us by Janina and the idea was from one of the new scrap 365 magazines. I have to make a confession though, i started my book some weeks ago and it was very different to the finished product below, and after much deliberation i started again. So off to the oxfam shop i went and picked up another ladybird book for all of 49p.

so the papers used were from websters pages and there probably 2 yrs old, i had then stashed away and pulled them out for this project. I took of the cover of the book with a craft knife. Stuck my first page of the book with the second, the third and forth page together and the back page is all of the pages stuck together.

The cover and the back were covered in patterned paper, T/H book plate added and flowers cut from the patterned paper and adhered with 3d glue (which i adore at the moment)

the first page is another 2 pieces of P/P cut and stitched and adhered to the pages. The house is cut from P/P and inked and embellished with copper wire and a butterfly. The next page i rolled over and laced with ribbon, and finally i found words to a butterfly poem on the net and used my alphabet stamps from Making Memories, stamped on to paper and adhered them to the page with 3d glue.

My final pages finishes of the poem and again a flower and butterfly cut from the P/P . The back page i have turned in to a niche. Basically i adhered the rest of the pages together and cut out rectangle with my craft knife. Cut out a piece of P/P for the front and back. Applied terra by viva decor through a mask and layered my photo and on top of hessian and P/P. Added embellishments to this page and some more copper wire and a tag. I love how this has turned out i must just say i started with the back page first.

This is also my entry for this months tando challenge

attempting a new style

I have to this is my favourite i have done so far. One because it a completely different to the layouts i normally do and because i challenged my self to use so many different techniques.
I have used my minds eye lost and found 2 papers and layered gesso on the page along with a viva decor mask. Drips of brown studio calico ink. The window is a memory box die. The flowers are made from T/H min tattered floral's and the pine cone die to make the rose. The bling i have coloured with alcohol inks Other embellishment include, buttons. tags, mini Melissa Frances frame and finally tearing paper and stitching

Recent layouts

here are some recent layouts i have been working on. The first one uses some old echo park papers that i have made in to a patch work and stitched , Used maya rd transparent doilies and stickers from the same paper collection. My title is made with the new T/H word play die and i splatted the page with dylusions ink A vellum pocket placed behind the photo and a tag. Still have journaling to do and decorate my tag

second layout is my interpretation of the papermaze crop kit. When i clapped eyes on the papers i knew the photos i wanted to use. Instead of 4 photos on the kit instructions i used 3 and snowflakes instead of stars and stitched around the edge

Scrapagogo altered xmas gift

I have been recently attending the scrapagogo crop as is only a few minutes away from home and goes on till late in the evening anyway at the December crop they gave us this naked wall hanging to alter. As you can see from the picture above it comes in 3 parts. A rectangular shape and 2 oval shapes with a perspex dome. As you know i just love the lost and found papers from My Minds Eye and s i have used these again for this piece. I had some great pics of our little one and hubby on our holiday in Norfolk. So i printed them on canvas paper and used an oval template to cut my photo's. Added metal embellishments in the frame and on the edges, paper flowers and leaves plus a Melissa Frances rub on and little frame. To attach the pieces together the kit came with rings but instead i used the tim holtz ones and his extra long brads and used his texture hammer to give them a battered look. Love the way its turned out just need to add some beads to the bottom of the piece.

I hope to show you a couple of layouts iv'e been working on soon. One being my interpretation of the papermaze crop kit and the other again using the lost and found papers and flowers ( which is unusual for me) plus i have used gesso, a mask, ink and my sewing machine - I'll promise to show you this soon.

unfortunately i didn't take a pic of last months challenge as i was in a rush to get it done. It was 11/2" cube given to us by carol, and i have to say i found it a really difficult challenge. Anyway this month i gave everyone a frame from poundland. I'm glad i found these, plenty of space around the edge to add elements and a square in the middle to add a pic or image. Firstly i sanded down my frame so that i had a key for me to apply the white distress stain. I then layered it with paperartsy paints, primarily the blue shades, Used a mask and stamps to add texture. The stamps used were from paperarsty as well. I then used portfolio pastles to color in the image building up the colours and using a water brush to blend the colours together. The letters are from tim holtz and then i finally used my new sewing machine to add texture to the centre image

Xmas layout

The December crop kit at otley is always a challenge. Papers and embellishments provided, but no sketch. Once i saw the bakers twine i knew exactly what i wanted to do. Firstly i watered down Jenni Bowlin red paint in a mini mister bottle and sprayed on the 12x12 sheet of cream card stock. Put two eyelets on the page and strung through my bakes twine. There was a mix of authentic and my minds eye papers alongside some T/H kraft paper. So i used the strips and made a banner, punched out circles, used two papertrey ink stamps and happy die. A small Melissa Frances frame, tag, bingo card and red bakers twine i had in my stash added to the layout. The photo is of our little boy opening his presents that were in his stocking, and the sheer excitement all over his face

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I know i haven't posted anything for ages, but with Christmas and the family catching the dreaded cold and the D and V bug there hasn't been alot of time to craft or blog. I have rushed to get things done which meant some of the family missed out on handmade cards - note to self start Xmas cards early. Amy way i thought i would show you what i have done. First of all the bramford challenge. We were given blank door hangers from Tracey and then we picked a name. So my hanger is for................. (not telling), But I'll give you a clue - she totally loves anything Tim holtz and even has his signature.
I started by using distress stain and inks to colour the front of the hanger, Stamped a background from waltzing mouse stamps, made a frame from chipboard and covered in MME papers. Made a grunge board flower and two buttons for the centre. Leaves are a stamp from wendy vecchi as well as the sentiment. Bottle is from maya rd and accented with lace, ribbon and bead.

The back was painted and distress inked, Tim holtz stamp used, leaves and button as embellishments I hope she likes it

I made this for my friend at work. It was a secret Santa. Bought the frame from the range took the glass out and embellished it with MME papers and butterfly cut from a sizzix bigz die and a paper flower

And i place the frame in a Kraft gift bag to which i made a wreath using T/H tattered leaves and mini tattered leaves, buttons and stickers