Layout - Find your Happy Place

This is the page I made about the ADML retreat last April.  I haven't done a double layout for a long time!  It was quite difficult to photograph the whole thing in one LOL.

The papers are from stash, but I am fairly sure that the two main background papers are from Marion Smith.  I used a Kaisercraft die along the edges of the chequered connecting panel.  The journalling panels are either Kaisercraft or Bo Bunny and the Art quote stamp is from Deep Red.  I die-cut the title with a stitched alpha form Dienamics.
The photos are of the amount Karen and I pack into the car, the crop room and a group photo :-)  Looking forward to doing it again this year!!!

Heart balloons birthday card

This is a rescued card .... I had embossed and distress-inked the background, die-cut a butterfly design and assembled with a peel-off sentiment.  But the more I looked at it, the less I liked the look of the butterflies against the inking.  It sat around the craft room for a while, as I tried to think how to fix it.  Then this unbranded heart balloons die dropped through the letter box....

I use repo Herma, so was able to pull off the butterfly die cut.  But I couldn't remove the sentiment without damaging the background, so I decided to cut the balloons in gold mirri to match it.  The bow to finish off the end of the balloon strings is a Sue Wilson die, quite fiddly to make up but it looks lovely :-)
I like it much better now :-)

Peacock box

I have a huge stash of wooden items to use up and so I decided to decorate a box for Sy's Christmas present - I had forgotten I hadn't blogged it!

I took all the hinges and clasp off the box and put them safe to one side.  Then I primed the box with gesso and painted with a teal paint from Cosmic Shimmer.  The stencilling, which isn't - ahem - quite perfect ...... never mind, was done with silver acrylic paint, I can't remember the brand of stencil.  It wasn't quite wide enough to go over the entire box, but I liked the borders at the side, just needed to find something to give them a 'finished' edge.  A strip - or four - of nailheads did the trick, making certain they would stick permanently by using cosmic shimmer glue on the integral adhesive strip.  A coat of varnish to protect it and left to dry  overnight.
Tine to re-assemble the box.  Now bear in mind that this was the Saturday morning before heading off to the crop where I was going to give the gift.  I dropped the last tiny screw on the floor.  Could I find it?  I had to find another blank box with silver screws and discovered that all of them except one had brass fittings LOL.  I have now bought a whole selection of tiny screws, in various finishes, to make sure that never happens again :-)

Cocktail Hour

This is a layout done at the Littlegreen retreat in Arundel at the end of January.  A whole page started and finished at one retreat, imagine that!!  Actually I managed to complete 10 pages and work on 7 partial ones, a good total for me.

This page is about our friends coming to visit and deciding to make cocktails.  To save on trips to refill glasses, Gary and John decided on Pina Colada by the pint :-)
Papers are from stash, although I think the woodgrain background is probably Kaisercraft.  I cut the title twice on the Silhouette, using the darker orange as a 'shadow' under the lighter one.  The leafy swirls and the pennants are die-cut, Cheery Lynn and Die'sire respectively, with the pennants also cut twice for a shadow effect.  The journalling lines are done with an SU stamp.
I wanted a beachy tropical feel, but didn't have any suitable papers, so I think this has done quite well LOL.

Silhouette birthday cards

Quick post today .....
I had a little play at the crop, with some shmooshy distress ink backgrounds, over-stamped with a black silhouette image.

The gears are from Paperartsy, the flower heads from Nellie Snellen and the seedpods, fairy and stars are all from Lavinia stamps.  The sentiments are both from Stamping all Day.  Adhered onto a thin black mat, then onto a white card blank.  Very pleased with these :-)

Layout - #selfie

It's not often I get a good photo of myself........ but this one of DH and I at Wakehurst Place came out rather well and the title was obvious LOL.  I originally made this page with just the photo, a little stamping and splattering and the title.  But it seemed a little too plain, so I added the die cut frame.

Made the world of difference!
The paper is from stash and already had most of the random mottling on it, I added the splatters and cog stamps, which are a little more subtle than I intended, but never mind :-) 
The title is cut on the Silhouette, the font is Segoe script which comes with Windows and welds together really nicely.

Geometric shapes - card challenge

Over at Kool Kitty, Nat has set the February prompt for the challenge.  This month it's geometric shapes - yay!
Here is my circle based card:

I used distress oxide inks through a Clarity stencil, in pink/purple/green combination, directly onto a card blank for a CAS card.  Then I stamped the SU sentiment and the Dali Art butterflies.  All went well until I removed the masking tape - it tore the card - eek!!
What to do?  I cut around the stencilled image to form a sash, laid it onto a new card blank, but then decided that it just looked too plain.  So I cut a trellis circle with a Tonic die and put it under the sash.  The corners of the card were rounded to echo the circular theme.
I actually like the way it has turned out much better than my original plan :-)