Whodunnit?

Another page which has been complete for months apart from the journalling!  In November 2011, we went to a murder mystery evening with our friend Sarah and her parents, plus a couple of her parents' friends.  The theme was a Mafia wedding and we all had to 'dress up' accordingly, so we went for combinations of black, white and red between us.  DH, Sarah and I guessed the murderer's identity, but while we stepped outside for DH to have a ciggie, the parents and friends changed our team answer and then handed it in!  We were gutted!
The page is made from a combination of scraps laid out in an Art Deco fashion, over what must be one of the first papers I ever bought, back in 2004 :-)  The border at the base of the page is die-cut using a Nestie lace border die, from a Bazzill gold cardstock which is sadly discontinued - I am hoarding my last scraps of it!  The journalling is done on safmat, laid over a piece of pearlescent gold Stampin' Up card.  I robo-cut the title and subtitle.
One of my favourite LOs from my 2011 album :-)

Third Time Lucky - Sarah's Cards October sketch challenge

I am entering the sketch challenge over at Sarah's Cards this month, the details are here:
http://sarahscardsltd.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/october-sketch-challenge.html

This page shows DS1's driving test pass certificate!  He passed on his third go and I am very proud of him - also he is now able to pick me up after an office girlie night out, which is very handy LOL.

The papers are Basic Grey "Two Scoops" - I bought lots of this when it came out, but had got a bit fed up with it, so it was nice to find a good sketch to use some of it up!  The title is robo-cut and the border is done with a punch borrowed from Scrappy Sarah at the Cardinal Colours crop last weekend - I thought it was very appropriate since DS1 is such a star for passing the test!  I stamped a journalling spot from Stamps Away.

Cardinal Colours weekend crop - "One of a Kind" class

I went to the Cardinal Colours weekend crop in Stone Cross at the weekend.  As usual, I had a great time, a big thank you to Jill and the team :-)
I chose to do one of the classes, a layout taught by Linda, details are here.  We punched, cut and layered to produce this beautiful page.  I especially like the 'shadow' effect of the butterflies, done by placing a black butterfly under the coloured one.  It was also the first time I had used a Martha Stewart punch around the page set, there is just one little mistake there ..... never mind ..... LOL.
Thank you Linda (and glamourous assistant Lynn!) for a great class!

Steampunk-ish triple frame

I bought this triple frame at one of those little warehouse shops which has a bit of everything - can't remember what it was called - when we went to York last year and it has been hanging around ever since, waiting for inspiration.
The lightbulb moment came when I was tidying my desk (something which doesn't happen that often!) and a whole pile of scraps from the Bo Bunny 'Timepiece' range came to light.  I put one torn piece against another, decided I liked the effect, and went from there!
The frame originally had the glass at the bottom of the recess, but I wanted to have some space for a dimensional collage, so I stuck the glass to the front of the frame with 'red' super strong tape.  Of course this can be seen through the glass, so I made a border of faux nail heads to cover it.  I liked the effect of a little shelf and decided to get some little bottles to go in the square frame.
The mosaic tiles are there because the frame is slightly chipped at the top - where we dropped it when unloading the car! - so I put a couple of tiles at the chipped spot and added others in various places on the frame, connecting them with black faux.nailheads.


The lower collage uses rosettes made from TH dies, a Dienamics flourish, a sentiment stamp, some pearls and an owl charm.


The square collage has the sentiment stamp, die cut with a deckled oval Nestie, edges inked.  Then some clustered pearl elements (can't remember the brand) and three tiny bottles, filled with polished glass chips. I had great 'fun' getting those chips into the bottles, the air was blue!


The upper rectangle collage is the one which started the whole train of thought, these were the two pieces of paper I put together.  I stamped a sentiment three times, the steampunk heart is stamped and embossed using a Technique Tuesday stamp,  Some pearl trails and a couple of charms complete it.

Not a cheap project this one, despite the collages themselves being made mostly from scraps and stuff I had hanging around - I did have to buy the bottles.  The frame itself was £8 and it took far more nailheads than I had thought it would - between 8 and 9 packets in total, so that's about £17 just in nail heads!!!  Probably would have thought of something else if I had realised that before I had started!

I love it in spite of the expense :-)

H is for Hexagons - Scrapology September challenge

Just sliding in under the wire for this challenge, the closing date is tomorrow!  You can find the Scrapology September challenge here.

I used some old papers here - the base layer is from the DCWV luxury stack, which I bought online and hated from the minute I got it, it's really too shiny for me.  But as a base layer it isn't doing too badly!  I cut an inner square from some old snow swirl paper, which I think I may have bought on one of my trips to America, so that's either 2004 or 2007!  The hexagons are punched out of a Craft Creations paper from a couple of years ago and matted onto Bazzill (Admiral?), using a Creative Memories punch.

I used a 12" border stamp from Hero Arts to go around the edges of the frame, wasn't sure how that was going to turn out, but I really like it.  The title is robo-cut and the snowflakes are done using a Martha Stewart punch, both out of Bazzill Bling in Diamond.  The snowflakes were made into 'bunting' to follow the sketch, by using white embroidery thread attached to brads at each end.

I am very happy with this one :-)

Sunflowers

A couple of weekends ago I went to the Paperarts UK retreat in Swindon.  Great fun, very hectic, with six classes to fit in!
This is one of them, taught by Rachel Elliott.  Not my normal style at all - you all know I don't *do* flowers! - but it was my favourite out of all the classes.  The papers are Prima, I think 'Sunkissed', and it was all about layering and fussy cutting.  The papers are used very cleverly - the base layer had the entire centre gutted out, then white cardstock over the hole, then the gutted part on top of the white as the next layer.  Somewhere in there is a bit of lace, just peeping out from under a layer - that was stitched on, which I have never done before and I think I will do it again, looked much better than trying to glue it.  All the flowers and butterflies were fussy cut out of the sheets and tucked under the photos, or layered on top.  The little date tag is slightly offset in the photo, I have since moved it to the centre, where it looks better .... thank heavens for repo adhesive!
The photos are of a visit to my Nanna, with my sister and her kids, I plan to put this into a box frame and give it to Sis for Christmas.

CAS birthday card

A clean and simple birthday card - I actually made this back in August, for DH's birthday, but forgot to blog it.
Not a brilliant photo I'm afraid -light is awful at the moment and there is no space on the table to set up the photo studio!
I took a 6" pearlescent white card blank and made an interrupted frame from peel off lines and sentiment.  The heart is done with a Cheery Lyn die and just plonked down - er, I mean artistically placed - in the centre.  Very simple, but it does look really nice!

Mango Madness

I have so many pages needing just some journallng to finish them off - so I finally printed all the journalling blocks out onto Safmat and am now working my way through them!
This page is about DS1 buying me some mangos "to make chutney with".  He really wanted to try growing the seeds!  So I made him help chop the ingredients and then he set about cleaning the stones.  20 minutes later, the first stone still had bits of mango clinging to it and there were three more to go.  It occurred to us that actually, the stone is just a protective shell around the seed, so we tried splitting it open - and out popped a perfectly clean seed.  All that effort had been unnecessary!
The layout is based on a UKS challenge sketch.  I stamped swirls and cogs around the edge of the smooth bazzil, the central square is from the 7 Gypsies Venice collection, as are the small square blocks and the teabag-folded embellishmant.  The leafy flourishes are die-cut using two sizes of the same Cheery Lynn die and the title is robo-cut (font: Slugfest).

Exterminate

DS2 encounters the Daleks at the Dr Who experience!

The background paper is from Craft Creations, it's an all-over splotchy design and I stamped the swirls and gears around the edge.  The other papers are from my scrap box, I think the mustard-y one is an old Basic Grey, the cogs and gears paper is another Craft Creations one - I tore and inked the edges of both.  I ran some bronze cardstock through the big shot in a dotty embossing folder, then robo-cut the title and embossed the letters in the same way using a wavy design folder.  A few eyelets in places and a bit of journalling to finish. 
I really like this one, not my usual colours but I think it works!

Decorated Frame

I haven't blogged since May!!! A combination of real life getting in the way, and severely depleted mojo has resulted in my not doing much crafting at all, except for half finished LOs at the monthly crop and some half finished decorated boxes. There's a theme there somewhere......

 

But I had to finish this frame - it's Krafty Karen's birthday present!

This is quite an 'upcycled' project!  Several things came together for this - the Prima almanac kit I got at the Trip down Memory Lane retreat had the large flowers and the pink paper. DH had returned from his parents' house with some picture frames he 'thought I could do something with'. The butterfly is from an old necklace, the stamped quote is a paraphrase of a Marillion song (Happiness is the Road) - Karen loves pink, flowers, butterflies .... and Marillion! The turquoise stripe paper was also bought at ATDML, I think it's from My Minds Eye. The smaller flowers..... well..... I bought those. Yes, I bought flowers. Only used half the pack, so Karen, guess what your Christmas pressie will feature..... LOL.

This project is also the first one where I have used my cordless glue gun, to attach the flowers and butterfly. I have never previously got on very well with glue guns, but after I had finished the flowers, I found myself standing in front of my craft desk, gun in hand, thinking "what can I glue next ......" whilst looking round the room!

Pink birthday card

A birthday card for my work colleague, who loves pink .... and flowers .... and butterflies!

I matted a scrap of pink patterned paper onto some pink cardstock, centred it onto the card blank then made the interrupted frame and sentiment using silver peel off lines.  I also put another frame around the pink paper.

Then I stamped and embossed the rose bouquet using Pomegranate embossing powder from Stampendous.  This is one of my oldest stamps, bought back in 1993!  I die-cut around the image (Nestie deckled oval) and then die-cut a doily oval (Dienamics) fronm the pink card.  They fit together perfectly!

The butterflies are done with Martha Stewart punches - the largest one was punched twice, once in white for the base and then in pink for the upper raised wings.  Since the top butterfly is only stuck at its centre, I use a strip of 3mm superstrong ('red') DS tape to make sure it stays where it should!  The butterflies were then finished off with tiny pearls.

My colleague has it displayed on her desk :-)

Shades of Aqua

I am just a little bit behind with blogging........ LOL.  This is the card I made for DS1's 24th birthday at the start of May!
The card blank was covered with papers from The Scrap Box...... which never seems to get any emptier, really must have a concerted effort to use up more scraps :-)  I stamped and embossed the quote and sentiment using Zing Metallic Teal embossing powder from American Crafts.  The quote is from Clarity stamps and the sentiment from Stamps Away.
I punched out the sentiment with a scalloped circle, and die-cut round the quote with a Nestie label ...... label 25, I think.  The woven circle and leafy flourish are also die-cut, using Dienamics and Cheery Lynn dies respectively.
Quite pleased with the way this one turned out.   Did DS1 like it?  Who can tell...........!

Another neutral card

I seem to be in a "brown" phase at the moment ........ LOL.
I had embossed the front of a card blank, but didn't like the colour, so I glimmer misted it, then cut the blank in half to use as a mat on an A5 card instead!  The backing panels are from scraps, with edges inked.
The Discovery stamp is from Crafty Individuals and the birthday sentiment from Stamps Away - both were stamped and embossed in chocolate brown.  I die cut the woven circle (Memory Box) and swirl (Dienamics) from scraps of Bazzill Bling, either Blank cheque or String of pearls, not sure which!  The circle and the main image are raised on 1mm foam for some dimension.

Butterfly card

Here is the reverse colourway of the butterfly frame I used in yesterday's card (cutting file downloaded from Crafts U Print).
The card blank started life as bright white and glossy - I applied various distress inks and then over-stamped a swirly flourish (Indigo Blu).  The central panel is a paper from Glitz Design from the French Kiss (?) collection, I rounded the corners to echo the shape of the card blank and inked the edges.
I punched out the gold butterflies with a Martha S punch and added pearls.  The butterfly collage stamp is form Crafty Individuals, stamped and embossed in Chocolate Brown.
Some pearls and a peel-off sentiment finish it off. 

Butterfly frame and elegant lady card

This is the birthday card I made for my sister - posted today, fingers crossed it gets there tomorrow!  It was quite hard to photograph, so here is one pic with flash and the other without :-)

I started by cutting a piece of gold cardstock to the width of a large (5 x 7?) embossing folder and to a height suitable for an A5 card blank.  This left a blank space at the base of the piece which would not be embossed.  After running the mat through the Bigshot in the folder, I border punched the base and added a ribbon.  Then I matted it onto bronze shimmer cardstock.

The butterfly frame is robo-cut, using a downloaded cutting file bought from Crafts U Print.  I cut it in ivory shimmer cardstock and the bronze, then swapped the centres around to give two different versions - the reverse colourway will feature on a card in the very near future!  I punched out the smaller gold butterflies with a Martha S punch and attached to the frame, with some tiny pearls on top.

The stamped image is an elegant lady from Stampendous - stamped and embossed in Chocolate Brown, with a few pearls dotted here and there.  I cut around the image, inked the edges (carefully!) and positioned it on the mat.  The sentiment is a peel-off - I hesitated between copper and gold, went for copper because I thought it would look better with the bronze, but am now thinking gold may have been the way to go........!

I like this, I don't do many A5 cards but this has turned out well.  I just hope my sister likes it too :-)

Steampunk-ish "canvas"

I have had this in mind for aaaaaaaaaaages, and now I am done with the pink and glittery for a while (mops brow) I am feeling quite scrapped out, so decided to make a start on this. It is (more or less) the class taught by Anita M at the Cardinal Colours retreat last September. Anita made a gorgeous canvas, as you can see in the above link, but I wanted it behind glass and dust-free LOL.
The papers are from Bo Bunny's Timepiece collection, as are the clock diecut in the centre, the title strip, the mini frame and the journalling box in which I have put the date. Oh and the two fob watches too. Anita's original had flowers on it...... I substituted rosettes and then raided my steampunk charms box for everything I thought could go on. The watch faces in the centre of two of the rosettes are clip art downloaded from The Graphics Fairy - some great stuff on there!
I added as many crystal swirls as I could reasonably fit on, some robo-cut gears (downloaded file from UK Scrappers forum), attached a key and mini fob watch to a chain and hung it from a brad.
The stamped cogs-and-gears heart is a Technique Tuesday stamp - lovely crisp impression, even with embossing powder, as here - Stampendous Chocolate Brown.
The hardest part was getting DH to scan the photos ............ he would so much rather have been playing with his own toys, er I mean machines ...... I painted the box frame (bought from The Range) in gold acrylic paint and assembled the completed picture.

Some close ups of the details:

I am really really pleased with this and even DH has been heard to say...... Not bad ........ :-)

Nearly Four Now

I always ask Little Girl's parents to take a picture of her the day before her birthday, so that the last page in the album can be as up to date as possible.

This is a nice simple page, I used a diecut from stash, matted onto cardstock, then added flowers, punched butterflies and die-cut swirls.  The title is done with American Crafts Thickers.

It's a nice finish to Album Four ........ now we start the nagging for photos all over again for Number Five ,,,,, the Final Album!!!

A Walk on the Cold Side

I wanted to do a page in 'ice cream' colours - chocolate, strawberry and vanilla - and this photo fitted perfectly.
I cut papers from stash into squares - four 5" ones and one 6" one for the centre - and placed them on a background sheet.  Then I used a punch for the decorative strip and added the photo.
The flowers (Craftwork cards) had been bought the previous week at the Cardinal Colours crop - I knew they would be perfect for this page.  The centres are done with two sizes of punch and a tiny pearl to finish.
I punched out several butterflies, using Martha Stewart punches, in all three colours, then die-cut the woven circles (Memory Box) to layer them up.  The tiny butterflies in brown are scattered in between.
The title is made with some twill stickers I found in stash - they are lovely to use, I'm glad I "re-discovered" them LOL.

Swimming with Dolphins

DH grabbed his camera whilst Little Girl was paying with the dolphin and managed to get a shot just as she looked to see what he was doing!

Apart from the background paper, this page is done using just 6" sheets - cut up and layered so the joins are hidden. All the papers are from the Bo Bunny Timepiece collection (yes, I still love it!). The title is made with some stickers from stash - I was running out of time at this point and didn't want to faff around with the craft robo LOL.

Looking at it now, I think I would have liked to put some more detailed embellishment over the striped paper, but the album has been handed over now, so too late! But still, it's not too bad, I think I will use the same format for one of my own album pages at some point - I have an awful lot of 6" paper pads :-)

Little MIss Mischief

A nice simple page :-) I probably wouldn't have normally scrapped these pictures, since there is no obvious theme or story to tie them to, but DH took the photos knowing how desperately I had been asking Little Girl's parents to send me some, so I used them. Then I got a last minute deluge of photos sent over, but that's another story.......

I pulled out three blue papers from stash, cut out the panels and inked the edges, then stamped swirls in two different blue inks in the corners. After assembling the panels and the photos, I decided the page needed a frame, so I used a border strip punch (EK Success). I wanted the title to look like a Mr Men/Little Miss book, so hunted through my font collection to find one that matched and robo-cut it (font: Elementary).

Superstars

Little Girl's Nativity play :-) I actually got some snippets of information from her Mum, so there is - wow - journalling on there! The pictures were taken on a phone and are not the best one could hope for, but I managed to crop all the audience heads out and they don't look too bad LOL.

The music paper (Hot off the Press?) is one of the oldest papers in my stash - I loved it so much in 2004 that I bought 8 sheets at Jo-Ann's in Long Island ...... still have some to use up ...... The title is done with stickers from stash, I think possibly either from the same shopping trip or our 2007 visit to Texas!!

I punched out the stars in metallic black and copper cardstock, the corner ones with a Creative Memories punch and the smaller ones with a woodware one. The journalling block is stamped and embossed with a few pearls on it.

Castles in the sand

Little Girl and Big Sister at the beach :-) The photos were quite neutral so I decided to go for brighter papers (Kaisercraft?) including purple to pick up Big Sister's jacket. I liked the 'waves' on this paper!

I put the main paper onto some purple backing card at an angle and stamped all around the edge in a metallic purple ink, it doesn't show up much in the photo unfortunately. I also doodled around the edge of the central square. Then I added two strips cut from co-ordinating papers. Having laid the photos over the top I felt it still needed something so I made a windmill.

The flourish is die-cut and the title robo-cut (font: Monster Paparazzi).