Love Cath Kidston!

Those of you who know me, already know this! But I love Cath Kidston and have made several things using her fabric. This is a page dedicated to photo's I took of the shop on Stonegate in York. I loved the window display of painted wooden boxes and would love to create something like that in the scrap room if poss, anyway, a page is all I have done so far!!
This page used more of my Cotillion kit from Studio Calico. The polka dot paper was perfect and the scary Jenni Bowlin large butterfly rub on worked well on here too. I made a paper bead for the butterfly body and added two Maya Road pins as the antennae. This month's frame stamp that came with the kit is a god send! I love it. I have used it here to frame journaling and part of the rub on that was left over. The making memories die cut paper is also fab! You can use it as a mask for Maya mists too! ANother layout due tomorrow, I am on a roll now! TFLx
P.S. have just found out there is a Hobbycraft opening this next week in Hull!! Wow! Will definately need to visit. I wonder if they need any new staff????? LOL!

Pagemap special

If you know me, you will know I don't normally do 'clean lines' scrap booking, but yet I am a fan when I see it done! I think "why don't I scrap like that??"

With the help of a pagemap sketch I decided to give it a go, using some more of my Studio Calico "Cotillion" kit. I have to say, I have made another four layouts tonight and so this kit is now history, apart from a few pieces, but I have loved working with it!

The photo's I chose for this layout are some that have been hanging around for ages. One of the nearest places to shop for me is York and suddenly one day, I decided to take along my camera and snap away. It's true what they say, that when you are familiar with things, you don't always appreciate what's on your doorstep!

I am in love with this basic Grey alphabet and I enjoyed the subtle stitching too. I think the timber framed buildings in the photo's go well with the dark background and yet again I used that mini frame stamp and it fits the yellow Woodware square punch outs perfectly! I used 3D foam pads to give them height. I had to really sit on my hands, to stop myself from carrying on and adding more, but as an experiment for me I was happy! What, no twine??? I must be slipping! Lol! TFLx

Masquerade!

A few years ago we went to a masked ball and I came across this old photo that just had to be scrapped! It's amazing how a mask can alter your appearance!
I have been building up a bit of a backlog with my Studio Calico kits as I have been doing mini albums and not layouts so much, so after my super clean up of the craft room yesterday, I decided to crack open my most recent kit "Cotillion" and aid the mojo with a couple of page maps and voila, after one done with a page map I was off!
A few details to notice - as I said before I am not a butterfly girl but this exclusive patterned paper was crying out to be used with my Martha Stewart classic butterfly punch. I threaded them on my new fave item "Bakers twine" and they add movement to the layout.

The little frame stamp that came in the main kit this time, I just love it to highlight little details. More bakers twine tied through the clear buttons on top of the middles from some of my basic grey alphas from the title. I loved this alpha set and can see me buying this again!! Polka dots and me are a definite match made in heaven! Stitching as usual to complete the layout.

I must add that the white Bazzill was a bit out of my comfort zone to, but I ran with it and like the result! Watch out for the other three layouts I did , yes, that is correct, three more! I told you my mojo returned!! Lol! Check back tomorrow! TFLx

Uni update

Well here we are, one week to the day since we took DS1 on his big Uni adventure!! I can't believe it's a week already! What can I tell you so far? Well apparently he has discovered; if you buy ready meals, you can get pasta meals from Morrison's for £1 and if you eat them straight from the tray you only have a fork to was up! He has not yet decided whether it is better to wear all the clothes he has, before tackling the laundrette! The Internet connection is pants and very shortly there will be a laptop chucked out of the window!! Uni consists of cheap beer and not going to bed before 4am! Also, he has tackled the reality of life head on when someone was sick in the shared toilet on day one!!!! Maybe he will appreciate what he has when he gets home!!!
What I have to be grateful for; apparently he is the only one who can still see the carpet in his bedroom. He is determined not to go overdrawn even if it means not eating!! Oh the joys of University life, and they haven't started working yet!!

San Marco distressed mini!

Lots of people seem to have been recycling corrugated card into beautiful shabby chic works of art, so I decided to give it a go for this vintage look album cover, for a challenge over at Bubbly Funk. I have finally come to the end of my Venice photo's from last year, with a mini album showing photo's of the Place San Marco with it's gorgeous buildings! I felt they warranted an album of their own! We mistakenly queued up for the roof of the Basilica and got some fabulous shots, so as luck would have it I ended up with some great views! The close ups of the mosaic on the facade gave me the inspiration for the mosaic of background papers edging that page. Here are just a few of the pages. My new Martha Stewart punches came into play, using the punch out as well as the holes left behind! I threaded some butterflies on to bakers twine above one photo and doodled inside the cut hole of the hydrangea punch outs, creating a background flower on the black page beneath! Yet another mini I hear you cry!!??? I have done nothing else this month!!! Lol! TFLx

The wind of change

I know I must be liked thousands of other women out there, who have just waved goodbye to their first child, but it feels very odd and I can't put my finger on why. I have not cried or sobbed like many thought I would, I have not missed him in the sense that I go into his empty room a lot, I just can't settle somehow. Deep down, if I analyse my feelings, it's probably to do with my role. Like loads of mums out there it's a realisation that this part of your life is coming to an end and another part beginning. I still have another son at home, so it's not as if hubby and I are staring across an empty table towards each other, although we did tonight as it happens. For a while now, I have been redundant in DS1's life, but I realise it's not that, it's the volume in the house that's changed. He was the noisy one and last night DS2 said "it's just too quiet"

I am happy for him that he is not worried about leaving us, albeit a little bit smug that I must have got something right!!! I am excited for his whole new start, I just need to learn to live with the quiet and until I do, that silence is deafening!!! TFLx

P.S. Was quite productive in the craftroom last night, made myself feel better!

Verona holiday mini

This album has been kicking around my stash for ages! It was a Basic Grey half pint album and came in the first ever Studio Calico kit that I subscribed to over a eighteen months ago! I had covered the shipboard with the papers from the "Sherwood Forest" kit, but never got around to filling it!! Well now it is completed! Another one of my holiday mini albums, with the photo's from our day trip to Verona were perfect.
I have been making mini albums and using unusual postcards in them for a while now, but this time I had bought a panoramic card that was super long! So the half pint size of the album was perfect, although I did have an overhang, that I cleverly disguised with some stamp edged card stock from my recent travel kit, creating a tab. The alphas also came from recent kits. Journaling completed, I have just realised this is the 54th mini album I have written about on this blog! Wow! I am turning into a mini album queen!! Fortunately they are not always for me to keep! Lol! TFLx

Baby mini album

Last night I put the finishing touches to a concertina mini album I have made as a christening gift for a friend. It is a book in a box for her to complete with photo's, details and journaling. I used some papers from my July Studio Calico kit which included the K&Co alphabet papers that are perfect for this.

The original idea came from a craft magazine that my mum gave me when she got home from France. I just took it and ran with it! I made up my own pages with things I wanted on and used my own papers, but the pram idea on the front is similar to the original.

The accordion album was one from Autumn leaves that came in a tin from their Foof-a-la range, but one I had decorated the album and added chipboard and buttons, it would not fit in the tin!! Needless to say, I had to use the Crafter's Companion Ultimate board to make a box and lid from Bazzill card stock.

I used primary colours mainly and all the stamps are bu Studio Calico. Just need to send it off now! Hope she likes it! TFLx

A challenge and a half! "Fly Away"

Over on the Studio Calico blog, Ms Kirsty Wiseman set a fiendish challenge to do a layout without patterned paper or embellishments, 'Just paint, mists, card stock of any colour, punches and pens', to get back to the basics of scrapping, photo and journaling!! Well this is a tricky one!! Having opened my new SC kit today, which contained Maya mists and a Martha Stewart butterfly punch, I decided to give it a go!!

I'm not normally a 'butterfly' girl and have to say, with having sons, the opportunity to use them comes up rarely, having said that I had a flash of inspiration to use them together tonight! Back in June, when it was hot, DS1 decided to get out our old six foot paddling pool and he and his brother had a whale of a time! I had my new camera and had taken a series of shots of them playing in the water, but had not yet scrapped any of them. It was on one of these shots as they stood side by side, that I realised they were all grown up! Both about the same height, much taller than me! and both mature men with deep voices. As you all know, DS one is about to 'fly away' to Uni so the journaling on this page just flowed. Still not sure how I'm going to feel come Sunday!

27 shots, printed as index prints, then cut out and each punched with my new Martha Stewart classic butterfly punch. I hand drew the title on white card with my journaling pen and cut out. The masked background was sprayed with brown and cream Maya mist and a touch of iridescent pearl. The scallop circles used for the flower were edged using a paint dabber in hazelnut. I must admit, I am quite liking this page, even though it is not my usual style! The background cardstock is Bazzill dotted Swiss. TFLx

P.S. look closely at those butterflies, each one of the 27 is a different photo! The one at the top right is the one that prompted the journaling!

Recipe card mini album

Well, I've been meaning to make this for a while and seeing as my son leaves for Uni next week, I thought I had better get on and make it!! Yesterday afternoon, I spent my time typing out all his favourite recipes that I make that are fairly simple and quick to do. Now I am not kidding myself that he will be cooking all the time, but as he has a GCSE in food tech and has been working for 7 months in a pub kitchen, I thought he just might!!
When I got these Cosmo Cricket Early bird papers in my Studio Calico kit a few months ago I knew I would have a go at this! I had a Bo Bunny naked 6x6 chipboard album and extra pages waiting in the cupboard and I thought the D ring album was the best, so he can remove individual recipe cards to take along to the kitchen. I covered each page with the patterned papers, then typed up the recipes on computer, printed out on copy paper and inked the edges using a toning Tim Holtz distress ink in 'shabby shutters.' I knew they would get splashed so I decided to cold laminate them with the normal school book backing plastic as the chipboard was too thick to go through my laminator.

Anyone with boys knows you have to keep things simple! However, I could not resist the chipboard shapes on the cover as he loves his toast!! So Voila! Here he has all his favourite recipes in one place and there are a few spare pages to add more! I called it his best friend! It's over to him now!

Did you notice the fun I had with the truth or dare spin the bottle embellishment??? I would not have used it as it was, but decided there may be an element of fun if I altered it to include some tea suggestions!!! My son is not good a varying his ideas so I picked a few of his favourites here, some quick some not so quick!! Also, because every student lives on rice or pasta, I decided to include amounts and measurements for this too! TFLx

P.S. This was also a bit inspired by Jane Deans album in a recent issue of Scrapbook Inspirations, also one here on the Maya Road blog check it out too!

Venice tourist mini album

Here is the completed mini album I did for my son, as a record of his day trip to Venice when we were in Italy. (I love the Making memories Cork alphabet!)
I used a Paperchase blank album with an elastic closure, as a base and then cut some patterned paper pages from my Studio Calico kit to alternate with the black pages of the original book.

I removed the original wire and added a larger wire from my BIA to allow for the thickness of all the photographs.

I decorated the pages with some of the embellishments from my kit. I love the Making memories pins!

Here are just some of the pages in the album.

Some pages have journaling cards on them, for him to record his thoughts on the whole day. TFLx

P.S. I finished my commission for Scrapbook Inspirations magazine last night phew!