Bedtime story LO

I have decided to post bigger pictures, what do you think?

This is another very simple Little Girl page. The backing paper is already colour-blocked and I cut smaller squares of the lettering paper for the centre of each square - these papers are so old, from our trip to Long Island in 2004, it's quite a relief to use them up :-) The swirls are a Prima pearl corner, cut up into pieces.

The title is cut on the robo and then run through the bigshot using a roses embossing folder, looks very effective, though it hasn't photographed very well, unfortunately!

One thing I would change if I use this design for a page again - I would ink the edges of the squares :-)

Spots and stripes

It took me three attempts to actually finish this ....... at the Cardinal Colours retreat I found that I had forgotten to cut out the question mark in the title. So for the next weekend away I carefully cut it out and packed it in a safe pocket in my tote - or so I thought, actually I managed to leave it buried somewhere on my desk at home! I cut out another one and the weekend after, at the crop, it finally got put onto the page. And when I got home that evening I found the previously cut one on my desk........ :-)

The main title words (and q-mark!) are cut on the robo, put into embossing folders and run through the Bigshot - the "spots" has swiss dot embossing and the "stripes" have herringbone! The red pennants have been embossed with spots and dots and the turquoise ones are cut out of Bazzil swiss dot. I cut a frame for the photo and put it on at an angle, which not only adds interest but also nicely covers up the unwanted passerby in the picture!

Beach LO

Another Little Girl page :-) It is quite difficult to make a scrapbook for someone else - no clues as to what or where the events are, names of people are a mystery ...... you get the idea. LG's mum sent over a whole batch of photos, some were in Cornwall, some in Ibiza, and I think there was a third beach in there somewhere judging from the shooting dates on the picture ...... I picked out a couple of pics and made single LOs with them, then lumped the rest into this one generic beach page :-)

The papers are Basic Grey (Two Scoops) and the title is cut on the robo from Bazzill (Erie). I doodled dots around the edges of the paper blocks to make them pop from the background and then drew lines between all the blocks. Shouldn't have done those lines freehand! It didn't look good at all ...... so I bought some ric rac at the Cardinal Colours crop and stuck it over the lines LOL. And actually, I think it looks better - I do love it when hiding a mistake results in something good I would otherwise never have thought of - a "serendipity" moment :-)

Distress Ink cards

I did these at the crop last weekend, using the "mask off with post-it notes and distress ink the resulting aperture" technique, as featured in Craft Stamper a few issues ago. I have previously done and blogged some of these, really like this effect!

The stamps are some of the new silhouette ones I bought at Ally Pally from Lavinia Stamps. I am rather disappointed in the bamboo one though - it ripped as I took it off the backing sheet, so I had to stick it carefully to the block with the two halves together...... it has stamped OK, but I am really annoyed about it!

The inks are a combination of Antique Linen, Dried Marigold and Fired Brick. The centre card has a soft ink edging to it, because I made a little mistake when applying the ink to the aperture and it ended up where I didn't want it - so the whole edge had to be smooshed to hide it LOL.

I think my favourite is the owl :-)

Dressing Up LO

Back over to the pink side ..................... :-( LG's mum usually sends me a selection of pics (after much nagging!) and I pick which ones to use, but this is one she asked specifically to have included. Though I think I would have done anyway, it is a lovely pic of Little Girl and Big Sis. Again I have kept it simple, a Fancy Pants circle matted onto some Bazzill Sweetheart cardstock, punched flowers with gem centres and American Crafts thickers for the title. It took ages to evenly space all the little flowers around the edge!

Pink and flowers and glitter............ all the things I don't like in one page LOL. Fortunately the rest of the batch of photos are all water or beach themed, so I can go heavy on the aqua and blue!

This is the Life LO

A bit of a change from the usual Little Girl pages - nice to get away from the dreaded "pink" LOL. The paper is Daisy D, the frame is cut from Bazzill metallic Onyx. The swirls are either Prima or Zva black crystals and the silver mesh I found lurking in a box :-) Oh and the title is done with American Crafts thickers.

Splash LO

Little Girl having fun in the pool :-) The papers are both quite old, in fact the spotty one is one of the first ones I ever bought, when we went to the States in 2004! The title is cut with the robo, out of Bazzill dotted swiss and I have used some of my vast collection of eyelets down the side.

Seaweed LO

Haven't blogged for a couple of days - have been struck down by this dreadful cold and it's been all I can do to drag myself into work :-( It seems to be shifting now though, thank goodness!

I got quite a few Little Girl pages done at the retreat, I have deliberately been trying to keep them simple so I can keep up to date. This LO has a diecut (SEI-Moravia) on a sheet of Bazzill, the lettering is Basic Grey (Two Scoops) and the title was cut on Sy's robo which she brought to Debden with her ...... I must ask her to send me the font, it's one I don't have, I think it is called Monster Paparazzi. There is even a little doodling, something which is normally right outside my comfort zone - I doodled dots over the "seaweed" as it didn't stand out from the background very well originally!

Punch crazy LO !

OK, it's a cliched title ...... but I like it :-) This LO is about the Cardinal Colours crop I go to every month.

I drew round a Bazzill large scalloped circle onto some paper (My Minds Eye) and cut it out. This went onto a sheet of Bazzill Aqua cardstock. The inner circle was cut using a large circle die, then I cut around the edge of the resulting aperture to make a frame. The pattern is made up of Bazzill Juneberry and Bluegrass punched out into diamonds and circles. I put more diamonds at each of the scallop intersections and then doodled dots all around the scallops. The title is an American Crafts Thickers alphabet, I thought it needed to be "joined" somehow so I punched out the wave shapes. The scrolls in the corner are made using a Woodware punch, as is the frame at the top corner - I punched a small scalloped circle, then carefully punched a larger one around it to make the frame. A bit of journalling and it was done.

Another weekend, another Retreat

This weekend was our annual retreat at Debden House in Essex. We drove up on Friday, came back on Sunday afternoon and I have spent all Monday recovering, having booked the time off work in anticipation of being absolutely cream crackered :-)

I got 12 LOs done over the weekend, bar a couple of titles and embellishments, and I am almost up to date with Little Girl's album. Mostly I forgot to take pictures as I went along, but I managed a couple and here is the first - Sy, Karen and I going for our monthly meal out after a crop, on this occasion to the Indian restaurant in Polegate.

The gold borders are cut with a Nestie lace border, though I have actually used the negative side of it. Then I added gems and two other borders in purple, using EK Success punches - Moroccan and, um, the swirly one whose name escapes me :-) The medallions are stamped and embossed and cut out (Artemio stamps, asian accents I think). From the same stamp set came the border around the central diamond. I stamped and embossed the title using a Banana Frog alphabet (Doobie?) and punched out the letters using a scalloped oval punch. It's all very purple and gold and hopefully at least vaguely Indian :-)