Tuesday 25 February 2014

Oh So Lovely.

Scrap Our Stash has a super sweet sketch this month and today my page is up on the blog.


Along with using this sketch the stash challenge is to use -
A) Heart patterned paper
B) One or more premade/packaged Hearts
C) One or more premade/packaged Arrows.

Although I have three girls I don't scrap much pink and so this heart paper in lovely bright yellow was just up my street.
The photo is staring our elderly cat Molly who just loves a cuddle from our youngest daughter, I think because she will constantly stroke Molly the whole time she is on her lap.
 


These are the stash hearts that I used.

My little arrow is a wooden one that I covered in lovely gold washi tape and adorned with one of these cute sequin stars.

I do so love a bit of hand stitching so when I saw the stitched hearts in the sketch I just had to recreate them on my page.

I know the month is a short one but there is still a few days left if you want to play along with this sketch challenge. The details and the other DT examples can be found on the Scrap Our Stash blog HERE.

Scrap Our Stash is being sponsored this month by Frosted Designs - you've got to be in it to win it!!


Next month (which is only a few days away!!!!) Scrap Our Stash have a Stash-A-Thon to help with using up your scrappy stash and getting those pages done! All will be revealed soon!






Monday 24 February 2014

Lady Muck.

Hi everyone and it's a happy Monday! The sun is shining, I have the house to myself and I have a layout to share!
Today's is based on a wonderful sketch at Creative Scrappers.
This one called to me whilst searching for a two photo challenge.
Here is my layout and I was feeling the need for bright and girly so I grabbed my  Pebbles Seen and Noted papers - so cute.
A few years ago we got a new computer chair and our cat Molly decided to make it hers! My daughter wanted to sit on it so she thought that if she wheeled the chair around that Molly would want to get off! Nope! Molly was quite content to be rolled around the house like she owned the place.
I fussy cut these flowers from the papers and the glitter foam heart strip added another layer.
More fussy cutting, washi and sequin goodness.
My glitter foam title - so fitting! 
There are a few days left to play along with this challenge as it runs until February 28th. All the details can be found on the Creative Scrappers blog HERE.

Thanks for stopping by, I very much appreciate it. xx


Sunday 23 February 2014

ROAR!

Today's page is all about a boy! I know, are boys even allowed on my blog? This one is as he is my little nephew and he is such a sweetie. Last year he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of seven and as a person with a sweet tooth I am so in awe of how he is coping with the limit's to his diet now.
Anyway the page is based on the February challenge at Two Scrapbook Friends.
Here is the sketch and there is also a requirement to add a die cut to your page.
Here is my page staring the little guy and I remembered I had some REALLY OLD BasicGrey paper collection with dinosaurs on! I pretty much kept to the sketch and I was surprised on how much I enjoyed a non girly page for a change!
I added some brown water colour paint behind the photo/papers and someone at my craft club said that the dinosaur had had an accident!!!!
The larger dinosaur in this trio is the die cut and the other two were cut from one of the patterned papers in the collection. Did you notice I inked the edges of my page? Not a doodle in sight!
I was looking through my letter stickers and found these that I had never used, but the colours on them were perfect for my page. I mounted them on some cardstock and added some dimensional pads to lift them a bit.
Some brads that I think were from the same collection were added around the page.
Oh and the story behind the photo is that we were at a zoo a couple of years ago and  Matty was exploring underneath the huge dinosaur and he didn't realize that a recording of a 'Roar' went off every now and then! You know how the story ends don't you?
Yes, the poor guy screamed and ran! The rest of us could help but laugh, what meanies!
Hope you enjoyed my masculine page and if you would like to have a go at this challenge all the details and the awesome DT pages can be found on the Two Scrapbook Friends blog HERE. 
Thank you for looking in on me. xx


Saturday 22 February 2014

Park Fashion.

The school half term holidays are coming to an end and next week is back to early mornings and packed lunches. You love having the kids home from school but are equally pleased when the house looks tidy during the day for a few short hours until they are home needing snacks and dumping school bags on the chairs! Enough chat, let's get back to scrapping. :-)
Today's layout that I am sharing with you is based on a picture prompt challenge at Scrap the Girls.
This is such a different kind of prompt that I really wanted to see what I would do with it.

I picked this photo of my girls and their friends posing one early morning at a park in Florida that we had got to before the crowds! So there is a large expanse of grey road with just the girls for colour just like in the prompt. (just think of the girls as the bricks! )
Then I cut up my AC papers into rectangles and staggered them on the page before adding my other elements.


I love these white glitter thickers but they looked a bit lost on the white background so I painted the bottom half in blue and added some Stickles to re-introduce the glitter.
I am really loving adding doilies to my pages lately and this one was topped with a pretty jar cut from the papers with a piece of string tied on and a friends quote that I typed out.
These banners were fussy cut from another piece of patterned paper, I love it when you can do that!
I hope you liked my take on the challenge prompt and if you want to join in all the details and the DT takes can be found HERE on the Scrap the Girls Blog.
TFL. xx



Friday 21 February 2014

In Search Of Spring!

I have just got back from a walk to the library, firstly because I had some books to pick up/return, secondly to get some long needed exercise and lastly I wanted to take my DSLR out for a play in the sunshine!
Yes we have sun instead of rain today and  I took advantage of the dry spell to check for signs that spring is here (or not!).
Armed with my DSLR (I dusted it off first) I walked the 3 mile round trip through the woods and then along the Stour Estuary on the return journey Eye-Spying Mother Natures tells of spring.
If you would like to see my journey in pictures please carry on scrolling.
Not a cloud in the sky!
This is a good start to finding spring!
Snowdrops - we could still get some of the white stuff!
Just me and twittering birds. They were too busy looking for bugs to sit still whilst I got a picture of them!
This little fellow on the other hand was quite happy to sunbathe and have his photo taken!
This tree trunk was doubling up as a squirrels breakfast table.
Wild crocus.
The daffodils are tentative!
The geese taking advantage of the floods!
Handsome chap.
My journey home along the Stour Estuary. Unfortunately the tide was out at this time of day so not as pretty as seeing a great expanse of water with the sky reflected in it!
And of course you can't go for a walk around Mistley without encountering one of these regal swans.
Well I'm home again and back to housework (blah). I think the consensus is that although Mother Nature has woken she has not quite got out from under the duvet! Maybe in a couple of weeks we will see more signs that the year is in the grip of spring.


Let The Fun Begin.

Helloooo scrappy friends, another page for you today and it's another double- that's two in one month!!
This time I worked with the February 1st sketch at Stuck Sketches.
Such a pretty sketch don't you think?
The first page of my double I used the Stuck sketch turned sideways.
Here it is as a double, unfortunately if I make the image bigger it's too big for my blogging space but if you click on the image you can see it better.
I had fun with one of my stitching templates to try and capture some movement on the pages.
The photo's are of my little brother (why act your age when you can act your shoe size!) and our children playing on an electric scooter.
The stitched arrows.
To join the two sides I placed some large arrows across both pages to draw the eye from one page to the other.
This quote was on a Sn@p Card that was too big for the space so I just cut out the banner - perfect!
P.S. that's a wig my niece is wearing in case you were wondering!
Well that's my page for today I hope you liked it.
If you want to play along with this sketch challenge at Stuck all the details can be found on their blog HERE.
By for now. xx


Thursday 20 February 2014

Rough & Tumble.

Oh what fun it is to play with paints and inks and stamps! Scrapology have an awesome sketch challenge this month and I went crazy with my page. I had the perfect photo's and time to really let my hair down!
Here is the sketch and the name of the challenge is X is for (e)Xplosion!
Here is my page featuring two of my cats Demi and Ginger who love to play rough! So funny to watch them and sometimes cringe when one or the other has got their teeth around the others throat!
I watched a paint technique last week using water colours and acetate to create a totally unpredictable effect and had a play at the weekend crop. You don't know how it's going to look until you have placed paint onto paper. I loved it as I can sometimes do with being more spontaneous!  Perhaps I will try and find the link again to post here for you.
The spidery grey splat is from blowing through a straw to disperse the paint (I told you I had fun!), I even stamped straight onto the page!!!!! There are scattering of sequins, stars, punched hearts and even some waste from my Silhouette cutting (the little diamond shapes).
Now it's your turn to have some exploding fun with this sketch challenge!
They also have a card challenge at the moment too so go check it out HERE. 

 I am also entering this page into the Little Red Wagon Challenge #225 - Anything But A Card.... But with Paper.
They are a weekly challenge blog and I usually miss the deadline with my slow scrapping! They have an awesome Design Team so go check out their blog and have a play!
Almost the weekend! 
I hope you find time to play with paper and glue.
Thanks you for looking in on me. xx

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Game On!

I suddenly realized that February is a short month and I wouldn't have time to post my pages for this month's challenges one day at a time! So this is my second posting today, phew!
One of my favourite challenges is at Sarah's Cards, a fabulous UK craft shop that unfortunately is nowhere near where I live (I think my hubby would say that's a positive!!).
Anyway onto the challenge -
Here is the sketch for the challenge.
This is my take on the sketch and I was in a creative mood over the crop weekend I was at so I recreated the circle in the background with some double masking and lovely lime green shimmer mists.
The photo is of some of my family a few years ago when we all got together at my home just before Christmas.
I was using Pinwheel by Lilybee and this line of papers has a sheet called 'cart wheel' and I used the images as embellishments on my page with added spotty brads.
I highlighted my misting with doodled lines and used these funky Thickers called 'Fountain' for my title.
I know that time is running short but details of this challenge and the DT inspiration can be found on the Sara's Card's Blog HERE.
Thanks for stopping by. xx





See That Girl.

Sometimes you find a challenge blog and it calls to the scrapper in you or has amazing challenges or has awesome DT inspiration! Well Scrap & Music was my new find that had all of these attributes! So I was eager to join in the fun with this month's sketch and music challenge.
Here is the sketch - gorgeous!
The song lyrics you have to choose a title from are Abba's Dancing Queen.
Here is the page I made based on the sketch and my title is 'See that Girl'.
The photo's are of me at about six month's old! (What a cutie I was!!!!).
I have been wanting to make a cloud mask for month's and last weekend I had the time to play with my heat tool (a soldering iron with pointy attachment) and made it in time to use on this layout with some texture paste tinted with blue.
I also put a water colour wash on the background in pink and orange to match the flowers.
I couldn't resist putting a butterfly in the same place as the one in the sketch!
I know that some of you will love this challenge too so you just need to go check out the details and the fabulous DT inspiration right HERE on the Scrap & Music Blog.
The challenge closes on the 22nd February so you might want to get your skates on!
Thanks for stopping by, see you soon. xx