Sutton buttons!!!

I have come to the end of my Looking Glass kit from Studio Calico. There a few more layouts to show her over the next few days, but mostly it is done. I have absolutely loved it and I knew I would! All those vintage looking papers have been perfect for my vintage photo's and I have added some of my own ideas, as you should to any kit, to keep it unique. here I used lots of Woodware buttons in a dark red colour and a Basic Grey rub-on, half under and partly over the photograph. I added some elements of the Sassafrass paper that were hand cut, to give a bit of depth and texture too and apart from that is was pretty simple. This is for the Pencil Lines challenge over on their blog here. I used to enter their challenges all the time so at least I made one layout a week, but recently I had forgotten about it! So this is my first entry in many months!!

I thought yesterday was the last day for voting in the Scrapbook Apprentice challenge, but this teacher forgot obviously how many days there are in April and you do have today, so please pop over here and vote! (Actually I think the blog itself did say only 17hours left yesterday and that's where I get it from! Either that or I need stronger glasses!)

Off to get my hair done today and the man is coming to fix the oven door - again!!! He fixed it last Monday and then broke it again himself, so had to order new hinges! My freezer defrosted whilst i was in York last Friday, so I called him out to look at that and when he fiddled with it and pulled it out of it's space, it started working again!! £60 later and I could have done better myself! The bloomin' thing did not work when I moved it!!! Dare not put any food back in it just yet, 'til I am certain! TFLx

Dad

Here is one of my all time favourite photo's of dad, taken a while back in the seventies I think, in France, on a beach out of season! I used a pencil lines sketch to help me get started and then as usual, strayed off track!!! I got the idea of combining the blue and acid lime green from one of the Tinkering ink backing papers! The yellow just lifts the layout too! I like the retro papers and the map flowers! I wish I had more of those! The outside border of the card stock has several layers of machine stitching, but its not so easy to see on here. I now have a fear of leaving the edges of my card stock alone! having run amok with my edge distresser, I am trying to wean myself off it now! This added some interest without being too noticeable. The large green flowers were from a Scrummy stash cafe kit ages ago. I have been hanging on to them as I have a thing about acid green! My mum used to say "blue and green should never be seen!" But I think It works well here!

My next Scrapbook Apprentice challenge kit arrived today. I just hope I am around to use it!! If you have not yet voted, there are only a few hours left! Hop over here and take a look! The new papers are zingy and vibrant and we get to do more free choices, so I am really looking forward to it!

Ofsted is over for me! Fortunately, I only work part time! What a day to run out of Prozac!!! Anyway, serious crafting is on the agenda to de-stress - whilst getting up to walk around every hour of course and do my Osteopath's exercises!!! I cannot bear the pain in my neck sometimes, but apparently its all the shoulder's fault!! I think a drink or two may be in order tonight! Blow the low carb thing! Had a celebratory choc muffin (mini) at work today when I taught my last session! Off to lie down in a darkened room and hope the headache that is pending does not arrive!! TFLx

Mum

Another retro layout using some old black and white photo's of my mum. When i first saw the yellow in this particular monthly kit, I thought I wouldn't use it, but see how well it highlights the blue and lifts the black and white photo's! I am definitely not a yellow person, but have been using this lots! The retro papers and the exclusive Studio Calico typewriter stamp and typography were ideal too, as mum used to be a secretary before she had us children. I stamped on the vinyl flower with Stazon too, just to break up the 'flatness' of the flower. i stamped the typewriter and cut it out and mounted it on foam pads to add depth. The fab-rip strips that were from another SC kit also add texture to the two side edges. My journaling spots are still blank as I need to check with mum the exact dates and places these photo's were taken. TFLx

P.S. Loving my mini easel purchase from Germany, it makes photographing so much easier!!

Courting

I have really enjoyed scrapping these heritage photo's of mum and dad. They just seem to low with these papers! here is another! I used a collection of black and white photo's I reprinted from mum and dad. Again I used my Studio Calico Looking glass kit and the exclusive SC stamp that came with it, I love the little bird! The die cut background sits on top of a sheet of Bazzill and the edge from the Sassafrass paper is trimmed off and curled slightly using my finger nails to create depth and shadow. The journaling around the outside edge of the butterfly brown paper is a technique i have used before and I like the was it is almost un-noticeable!

had a lovely lunch yesterday for dad's birthday. Ofsted is looming this week, so crafting maybe thin on the ground until Thursday! Off to the osteopath later to get my shoulder sorted!! It has been agony! TFLx

P.S. %am alarm call tomorrow for anyone wanting any Studio Calico goodness! Check out the sneaks here!

Introducing...

a new baby! I am on a roll, I can't begin to tell you how good it feels! I have had these photo's hanging around for ages and I have grabbed one of my Studio Calico kits that have been waiting to be used and just run with it! I have filled an album and need to order some more to fit them in! This is a photo of my great aunt taking time to introduce my dad to his new baby cousin. I love his face on this picture, he is looking so intently! These papers were perfect for this layout and I am really having fun with all the hand cutting. I have done some on various layouts recently and I love it. The background is all stitched piece by piece using the sewing machine, just like I used to do applique work. The ribbon is pleated and stitched and some grass spikes are hand stitched using my paper pricking tool first. Used one of my Studio Calico kits and the little bird stamp was one of their exclusive ones. Kirsty's Patti's Pretties just add another dimension to the flowers, along with a few buttons.

Out for lunch today, for dad's 85th birthday, another sunny day here! Did manage another layout yesterday, but spent time on my friends son's 18th birthday invite, so time was limited! Got to work tomorrow, so no crafting 'til Thursday now. Good job I have done all these layouts! need to order a new album, filled the other one! TFLx

P.S. Just realised I forgot to add my journaling! Off to put that right now!

Seaside clothes!

Here is another of my recent layouts, I did a whole load more last night too! This one is another photo of dad as a child on holiday in Scarborough. What I love about this photo, and it always makes us giggle, is that grandads concession to summer clothes, was a pair of white canvas plimsolls!! Other than that, he still has his collar and tie and jacket on, just like they always did at that time! It seems so strange to us, but was quite the norm back then.

I experimented a little with this layout and used my apron lace punch on the top of the photograph and then added extra details to the layout with stitching and hand gathered ribbon. Hand cutting, tearing and doodling were also used. For this layout I also reverted to using patterned paper as my background, something I always used to do,but had got away from recently. It was also partly necessity, as I seem to have run out of Kraft card stock which has been my recent favourite!! This layout was scrapped with one of my old kits from Studio Calico - Iconic. I had been stock piling these for some heritage layouts and I think the evoke the sunshine feel I wanted. Got the stitching into the holes of the punch idea from the DT over there.

Here is another layout from a different era. This one is from the 1960's so I was trying to capture that vibrant feel, using the orange patterned paper as the background. This is hubby Ian, with his dad when he was very small. Taken from a slide we found lurking in a drawer, it has some marks on it, but still I think a fab picture! Again, the Iconic kit from SC with the retro adverts papers, reflecting washing machines of 1962 was perfect!
Ok, that's enough for now, got to take Barney out for his walk. Doing a bit of retail therapy later in York - Duttons for buttons here I come!!!!! TFLx
P.S. Kirsty, if you are reading this, why is my camera overexposing everything??? Help??? Please??? I think it is broken again!! It over-exposes, but has the little hand sign flashing saying it is too close to take a pic??? Me thinks it may be poorly!!! :(

Yay! I found my Mojo!!! "Seaside Stroll"

I began to think it would be lost forever! I got home from work yesterday and had a quick cup of tea and then decided not to turn the PC on!!!!!!! Instead, I went straight upstairs and started crafting! I dug out the remnants of my Studio Calico Iconic kit, grabbed a sketch to get me thinking and before I knew it I had completed 3 layouts and nearly a whole mini book with photo's I have been dying to get started with! By the way I don't think any of them look like the sketch I had in front of me!!! It was just a help to get me started! Thank goodness for Pencil lines!!! If your Mojo is missing, a quick trip over there did the trick for me!

The 'Scrap like you mean it challenge' over on UKs suggested you scrap at an unusual time of day for you and straight after work, when I am usually tired out, was a very unusual time indeed! The last thing I thought I would be able to do was be creative, but you just never know!

Bought this little chap in Germany! Another thing I managed to squeeze into my case to bring back! I have wanted one of these for ages and have had my eye out but never seen one, even in IKEA. This came from that fab shop call 'Idees' and cost about £2 so not bad at all. I have my layouts on it to dry whilst I carry On the next!

Here's another one! This time I stamped the background with Versamark and then dusted with copper perfect pearls on a dry brush! A subtle shabby chic effect.
Been playing with camera this morning, still not happy with it! It seems to overexpose things! I was also having the hand flash up on the screen all the time telling me it was out of focus! Whatever the distance I tried or the setting!!!
I also upgraded my Patti Picklicious layout as I was not happy with it and had forgotten to add my Patti's Pretties!!!!

Sorry! Another overexpose picture!! I'm getting cross now!
There are more, but I had better save some for tomorrow! Off to play!! TFLx

Mini magazine file

Here is a little project I made out of a A5 magazine file for cards or general bits and pieces on your desk! I spotted the cardboard blanks for these in The Paper mill shop and immediately thought of their potential when covered! I used some pretty SEI dill blossom papers and used a different paper on each side, well they are two sided so some I just turned over! I then hand cut the flowers from another sheet of matching scrapbook paper and finished it off by decoupaging the flowers on one side. I inked all the edges with my trusty dark brown ink pad and then I was going to add card stock stickers to the spine. You could use these for your clear stamp storage or just general desk clutter!! I can see me making a good few of them!!

Easter decorating - german style

When we arrived in Germany last week, my SIL had all her Easter decorations out, makes my little table centre look very poor! I just love how they consider Easter to be so important and they all decorate their houses. Even the garden was decorated and as you drive along, you can see plastic eggs hanging in a lot of peoples trees and shrubs! It has given me more ideas for next year!

Last year, I spray painted some twigs white and hung my Easter decorations from them, but in Germany, they seem to buy willow or some sort of blossom branches that they put in a vase of water and then you get the greenery budding out between the Easter dainties! I bought some Easter decorations in the supermarket to use as templates to make something myself next year!

Urlaub

I have been on a little holiday in Deutschland! Spent some time with my SIL and her family, just DS2, hubby and I. We booked into a local hotel and spent some time sight seeing and relaxing and enjoying the lovely sunshine! We drank beer and had BBQ's and fooled ourselves into thinking it was summer! Today we have come down to earth with a bump! It is freezing!

My nephew is four today and should be having a birthday party as we speak, happy birthday! His older brother who was seven recently was so amazing with his English and was able to hold many conversations with us! Amazing! That's the time to learn!

We did some shopping and I bagged lots of craft bargains; we did the tourist trail around Bremen so I could get lots of pics; we watched Werder Bremen win a very close UEFA match on the TV against Udinese; (We were hoping Man City had won so that Werder would have played over here and we could have gone to watch but unfortunately they didn't.)

So here is a selection of pics to reflect our short stay! More will follow when they get scrapped!

P.S. The diet started today!! :(

No more Quarkini's for us!! (More about them later!) TFlx

P.S. the postman brought me stash parcels today! Yippee!!!!

Scrapbook Apprentice sneak peeks!

This month the theme was creative stamping. We were sent some stamps and ink and told to get creative!!! In accordance with the rules of the competition, I am not allowed to show you the whole thing, but thought I would share with you some of the techniques I have used on my two cards and layouts in case I don't make it to the next round!!

If you have not voted yet, please head over there and vote now! TFLx

Dad's Magnolia tree

Mum reminded me to take my camera to hers on Easter day as she said the Magnolia tree was in full bloom. It was superb, although the ground frost the previous night had done its best to brown it! I think these photo's are going to look good on the Studio Calico bamboo type paper in my Fortune Cookie kit, when I get around to it! This tree is special for several reasons. It was my fathers retirement present when he left teaching after many, many years, also, our beloved family pet dog is buried beneath it. This may be the time to introduce Suky to you.

The mongrel dog we had for 17 years, that arrived at our house on the end of a piece of string, as the last puppy in the litter of our friends beagle dog, that nobody else wanted! The princely sum of 10s was paid and she became a major part of our lives! She was a Heinz 57 variety, the result of an encounter of our friends beagle, with the Vets escaped Dalmatian dog!!! She had one black eye and two big black patches on her back and then lots of pseudo Dalmatian spots underneath. She was so good tempered. I remember when we were looking for barney, mum said 'you will never find another Suky' but we did!! I think their faces are very similar! here is the last photo of her shortly before she died. I was 21 and could not remember life without her, as she had been there since I was 4 years old. These two photo's are ready for my layout I have planned, but still not completed. TFLx