A month of birthdays...

January is a busy month for me. I have 6 birthdays, starting on the 1st and the last on the 31st... Lots of cards to make. Inspiration needed...

Oops, how much do those scales say...?

 Anyway, its not the new year yet, but I have made a decision and rejoined graze.com. I still have dicounts from last time round and I did lose lots of weight because I wasn't snacking! Will let you know how it goes!!!
Follow this link to get a free Graze box: http://www.graze.com/p/4HTK2W1

Less is Moore - Singing in the Rain and Forever Blowing Bubbles...

Ok, so this week is theme week at Less is Moore...

 

Mummy wanted a couple of thank you cards and I remebered these PaperMania stamps, so I thought it was a perfect way to do the two things!

The cards are from Craft Work Cards.

All stamps are Papermania.

The images are stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Promarkers.

My Mum loved them, I hope you like them too!

Christmas Cards...

It has been a while since my last posting. Life has been mad and random with Mummy in Addenbrooks and Albert in Papworth. He is home and waiting for bypass surgery. We are hoping to break her out for a couple of hours tomorrow!

But, life has to go on and the annual frantic Christmas card making session happened last Saturday, with me directing and BF doing the glittering (he was doing the corner rounding but couldn't make the punch work!)

Anyway, we made some mess and some great cards!

 

Kriz...

So, I was hunting around for inspiration and decided to try a layout from the Crafting Time team. I wanted to see how it works as a 12x12 scrap page before adapting it to ATC's (keep watching in January!).

I think that it has worked OK, but I still need to work on layering with Serif Craft Artist.

I picked the purple as it is Lucy's favourite colour...

Ingredients:

'Sweet Dreams' digi-kit

Less is Moore challenge...

One layer card - One piece of card folded in half with no additional layers and minimal embellishments, where the image is stamped or printed directly onto the cardstock.

The theme is Let it Snow!

I have never had the courage to stamp directly onto a card before, but I made the ATC Christmas tags and they worked really well, so I thought I would try and recreate it.

I masked up the square with tape and then stamped the snow man, greeting and snow flakes all in Memento Bahama Blue. The images are all filled in using ProMarkers.

I put a line around the square as I wasn't completely happy with the neatness, and particularly the left hand side! Hence the simple white ruffled ribbon... The bow in the same ribbon gives balance, and I am afraid I can't cope without a bit of bling!

This is the first time I have tried a challenge, so I hope it fits!

Challenge page - http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/

ATC Cristmas Tags

OK, so I ran out of gift tags!

I hunted around for some scraps to make some more with and could only find my box of ATC blanks.

They are white pearl, so haven't photographed brilliantly, but never mind! You can see what I was up to....

Ingredients:

White pearlescent ATC blanks

Dovecraft Frosty Friends clear stamps (characters and tree)

Fizzy Moon Festive Fun clear stamps (with love)

Memento Bahama Blue

Promarkers to colour

small blue crystals




 

Crafting that doesn't make mess!

My Best Friend

My lovely BF at my cousin Charlottes wedding this September.

A beautiful sunny day and all of the family together.

It was a wonderful day and great for us all to be there to celebrate.

Digital scrapbook page, 12x12, Serif Craft Artist

Mostly items from 'Swirling Memories' kit

A World of Possibilities...

I saw this headline in the newspaper and it inspired this mixed media altered page. I started with a blank sheet of white card and covered it with scraps ripped from the rest of the newspaper. I then overstamped the tree and bird from PaperArtsy. The inks are by Memento and the heat embossing in a Ranger/Tim Holtz colour. The ribbon is from my stash, as is the textured paper and the buttons. The birds, trees and sentiment come from an Inkylicious set. It will get mounted on an 8x8 card once it has dried out.                     

Beautiful card

I need an 18th birthday card for my niece for next week and I was looking for inspiration in my stash.

I found all of these lovely pinky papers as bits and pieces tucked in the bag that goes backwards and forwards to crops with me. They were all little bits left over from other projects.

First I inked the edges of  an 8x8 shaped card from Craftwork Cards using Memento Angel Pink and Lilac Roses.

I found the heavy acetate shaped sheet stashed with left overs. It comes from Glitz, from the Beautiful Dreamer range.

The papers are a mixture of 7 Gypsies, My Minds Eye and Glitz.

The ribbon is also from Glitz.

The roses and sparkles are from my stash.

Finally, the pale pink background paper is stamped with Memento Angel Pink using the bird cage from the Kanban Peacock set.

The bird cage is also stamped in Lilac Roses and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

The background flowers have been stamped in Versamark, Memento Angel Pink, Lilac Roses and Rose Bud. Some have also been heat embossed.
The birds also come from the Kanban Peacock set. They have been stamped and embossed, then cut out and attached with sticky pads.
The final touch (apart from the gems!) was to add more sparkle with a Wink of Stellar pen.

Not sure how this will go down as an 18th birthday card, but I like it!!!

ATC Match Box

This is a project I have been working on for a few weeks (in amongst everything else I have been playing with!).

It is based on a 7 Gypsies match box kit.

To start with, I stamped up the base with a PaperArtsy stamp with 4 leaf designs. I inked the whole stamp with one colour and then splodged a square of another over it to break it up, but still echo the squares.

The cover of the box was stamped flat and then put together afterwards.  The thumb print was a happy accident (there are no mistakes in craft, and I didn't think a butterfly would really work here!)

I kept the colour pallette simple so that everything linked together. The ribbons, buttons and steam punk scissors come from a selection at Its Crafting time, as did the match box and most of the inks.

Oh, and Annie - Puss always like to help at some stage!



Pyjama Day 2011

It is such a shame I can't show you the photos of the kids in their mad PJ's and onesies

(the cowsuit is still my favourite!), but here is the work of an inspired grandparent that made us all go ahhh...

Digital Scrapbooking

My lovely BF's brother got married this summer in the park at Milton, Cambridge. They did everything themselves, with the help of friends and family. The bride even designed and helped make her own dress!

I have some wonderful pictures of the day, and have just started experimenting with digital scrapbooking, so here are a couple of my attempts.

oops, Easter

I have been having fun with my camera (it really didn't want to work!) and I have now found these slightly mad cards that I designed for making with my crafters at school (you know who you are!).

I hope you like them!

OMG!

So, the trip to Birmingham was successful! Lots of stuff for the scrap club!

That Monday Feeling...

You know its going be a long week when...

• you already can't remember what day it is
• there is no food in the house because you went to two craft workshops at the weekend
• the cat is ignoring you because you forgot to feed him
• it is 7.15 and you still haven't organsied any dinner (see earlier note...)
• you know what lessons you are teaching tomorrow (given that today is Monday and tomorrow is Tuesday) but haven't brought anything home to plan them with
• the chocolate on the top shelf is looking like dinner
• you are absolutely sure that you have only had one small glass of wine, but the bottle is more than half empty...

Its the weekend!

So, its Friday night and I am shattered! I have far too much marking to do, moderation that needs to be done by Tuesday morning, and I am spending the weekend at two craft workshops...

Even the cat has found something better to do!

There went the Easter break!

As fast as it arrived, the Easter break is nearly over! Only one more day to finish all the marking, planning, cleaning and organising that I should have been doing over the last two weeks!
Never mind eh?! Lots of crafting has been done...

Made these two using new Kanban 'Peacock' stamps, courtesy of Nina at Crafting Time (nr. Cambridge).
The sorry card was very grovelly as I had a major apology to make...

Day 2 with Alcohol Inks...

So, day two has now finished and I have completely fallen in love with Ranger Inks and Tim Holtz bits! My hands are stained in purple and green and my t-shirt is sprinkled with mica powders...
The two sessions where run by Jennie from the Artistic Stamper at 'Its Crafting Time' outside Cambridge, run by Nina.
Day one, we created journals using shiny paper, metal, foils and inks.

Day two, we have created the most amazing collection boxes.

(This is Jennies example)

I have never seen so much stuff all on one table and each of us working in such a small space just because we were slowly hording stuff into (un)tidy piles all around us.

Thats Nina at the back!

 My mess...

After a very green day yesterday, I went purple today. The colours available are lovely and the different techniques brilliant. Even a Virgo like me coped with the mess and disorder (still can't quite cope with random stamping though!).

Any way, we got to play with some new products aswell. I liked the dabbers a lot as they are not so messy - but I did love the sprays because I could get great colour and effects.

A work in progress!

  

        The finished article!

I will definitely be playing with this again soon. Roll on the next crafting class...
Head over to Jennies blog for the techniques... http://www.theartisticstamper.blogspot.com/

A day out with alcohol inks

So, this is my first ever post on my first ever blog! I have built it after spending a lovely day making a journal with alcohol inks and shiny paper. Will add photos once I have learnt how to do it!