Wot Summer

An e-mail from Carolyn hoped I had had a good summer, I replied "Wot Summer" and so an idea formed in my head.  Sorry to say this isn't a photo from this year as it's been too wet and I haven't taken any lol.  This was a very wet and stormy day on holiday in Crete a few years back.  I may still have time to take one though as this weather can't last can it?

Anyway as you can see we have clouds and raindrops.  I have used the Claudine Helmuth Stamps with a matching foam stamp.  I pressed the foam stamps into a few sprays of Dylusions and stamped over the top.  Love the effect - looks like rain. 

The bottom panel is masking tape coloured in with Promarkers - a bit fiddly but I like it.

This is the raindrops stamp and my new diecut leaves.  Hope you like it.

Final Pages

 Well, finally I have finished the pages, although I could still add quite a bit to the book with the addition of tags with journaling and maybe some photographs on them.  A bit of ribbon on the tags might also add some interest.  As you can see I have changed this page as I really didn't like the previous one that I did.  This is a technique I learnt from dina Wakeley and I love it.

 To the right is My "MUM" page and I was so pleased that the photo I chose when cut out fitted exactly on top of the mushrooms.  You will gather that it is mostly Dylusions sprays and stamps that I have chosen to use, with the odd Paper Artsy flower and free Craft Stamper butterfly.

 This is my "AUNT" page and it was noway big enough to put pictures of all my nephews and neices so its hands pointing to their names.  Maybe this is where tags would be handy to include their pictures inside the pockets.

This is supposed to be me as a monster to my dear daughter-in-law.  I am really a nice MOTHER-in-LAW.

 And finally the future and the continuation of our Family Tree.  This is a scan of my first great grandchild due around New Years Day.  Lots to look forward to and so many happy memories in the past.

As you can guess this picture should have been a bit further up.  It's my "NAN" page and I had this idea that I would do The Mad Hatters Tea Party.  As I have four grandchildren it fitted perfectly and I am really pleased with the result.  The background was a masking tape technique from this months Craft Stamper.  Brilliant and so easy.  Love how I had a photo of Jess with the "White Rabbit".I have really enjoyed making this book and I will be doing more of them as I have loads of Takeaway Bags yet to use.  I hope you have enjoyed looking and to those of you already making your own I know you are loving it too.

Art Journaling

As promised here are a couple of pages from my Art Journal which I hope you will join me and create one of your own.  It is made from take away bags so each page has its own pocket for photos etc.  The front of each page will be designed by you.  I am doing seven stages in my life i.e. daughter, sister, wife, mum etc. There are up  to eight pages to do so its a matter of choosing your theme i.e. favourite holidays, places to visit, food, people hobbies etc.

We will be using various techniques for decorating the pages and various mediums.  I hope I can do a different one for all seven.  I have managed to up to now but I have two to do yet.....  Well I hope you all like what you see and that I will see some of you during the summer.  Take care and if I don't see you have fun.

The Boy With Beautiful Curls

Oh how time passes by so quickly.  One minute they are babies with beautiful curls and the next, well you can guess, still beautiful but bald!!!  Oh well he is now forty six years old.  Anyway as you can see I have used black and white photos, tones of one colour - turquoise - and an abundance of circles.

Still using up all those doilies I bought a few months ago.  These photos were given to my Mum by my sister and I had never seen them before so I took photos of them and used my camera to create the different sizes.  Quite proud of myself.

I used two shades of Bazzil Basics cardstock  and three different papers and the usual Distress Ink Pads, a couple of quirky frames and some of Tims Tissue Tape.  As I suggested if you use coloured photos maybe a black and white or brown and ceam theme would work better than a more coloured one.

All I have to do now is work out how many circles I punched out and what size.

Diamond Jubilee

Seems ages since I lasted blogged or did a page for that matter.  Well it was well before I went on holiday and that seems ages away now, almost due for another one - if only if was married to a rich man.  Anyway I was asked if we could do a Jubilee page - so here it is in all its glory.  As you can see there of lots and lots of union jacks, some embossing and a few diamonds.

This event did take place whilst I was on holiday so I dutifully left my place in the sun and spent an hour and a half watching and taking pictures on the televison.  But as you can see I could have been there!!!!!! Also I didn't get wet.  So the pictures are a little grainy but that captures the rainy day I think.  Also must thank the BBC and their World Service - amazing.

Now you may be thinking you are fed up with the Jubilee and haven't any pictures.  Well this page can easily be adapted to a celebration of your own.  Silver Weddings, 21sts, anything really.  I do have a bunting stamp that isn't a union jack and also if you would like I can run you some pictures off that I took.  It was a fun page to do and I did enjoy a bit of embossing for a change.  See you all soon, bye for now.

Tree Hug

This is one of the reasons I am so behind this week.  Ashleys 21st - it's supposed to be raining happy birthdays which are all over the card and on top of the umbrella which is made from honeycombe paper.  He did like it! but had his eye on some others that I had made, cus there are four more birthdays later in the week.  They are based on the union jack and "keep calm and enjoy your birthday".  So he had seen them and was expecting to get one but he was sadly dissappointed.

Anyway the picture on the right is of the tools you require to make the roses we are doing this week, so if you could bring them with you it would be most helpful.

 Left is the page, I really hate the title which I did in such a hurry.  I have scraplifted part of the page from I think Scrap 365.  Anyway it's kind of painting with spray inks and a few splashes, a couple of bits of paper, a doily and some half circles in print.  Add a few embellishments like roses and butterflies - done!  Please try and decide what colour you are going to do your roses before you come as it might save a little time, or they can be left white and just touched by a bit of colour which looks nice.

Close up on right of the roses.  Below is a close up of the butterflies.

little doillies

Hi there,  are you all sick of the rain now?  Can't get a lot done up the allotment and it's so cold that the seeds I have planted are not growing.  So have spent quite a bit of time crafting - well it's better than ironing isn't it.  Trying to finish my eldest grandson's album off as he is 21 in a couple of weeks.  He did get the album for his 18th but there were a few pages left to do and of course only just got round to it.  This will be the last page in his book.

 I have finally found some doillies so might be using them lots as I have about 300 of them.  I saw a page in a mag using them for stencilling so this is my take on it.  I had quite a few photos all similar so thought it might be different to cut out the figures and get them all onto the page.  I am really pleased with the result.

 I have coloured the main doillies with distress ink, although I guess you could also spray them or paint them.  Of course I don't expect you to cut up photos if you don't want to so you will need probably two or three to arrange on the page.  I have a quote going all around the edge "It's nice to be important, but it's important to be nice". A great little quote and I can't remember where I saw it now and it was only last week...........

 Thought you might also like a peek at an album I am doing for my nephew for his 50th.  It's very difficult to do things like albums for blokes as you can't really put a lot of flowers in it, so I have decided to use paints and spray inks and stencils.  It's coming together quite nicely at the moment.  The page on the left is lots of splodges of paint, it was very bright to I calmed it down with gesso all over and then added the doillies.

This one is a few sprays of ink and part of a Dylusion stencil around the edge done in red pen.  Well that's me done for today, need to get some lunch and back to the grindstone.  See you soon.

Spash of Paint

Thought we would have a bit of splashing around with paint, well a bit of dripping really!  Also, the butterflies are from a new technique in Tim Holtz nnew book so I thought we could give them a go too.  This is a place we visited last year when we went to Beverley in Yorkshire for the weekend.  I saw this place on the map so off we set for a visit - it is near Bridlington.  The gardens are really pretty and there are quite a very topiaries in the midde of flower beds.

First off you have to make your paint a bit runny and then drip it on from the top edge and let it run down the page.  I tried not to get too messy doing this.  Sorry about the colour of the brown butterfly, it really does look a bit more interesting than this - looks like a moth. 

The butterflies are stamped and die cut and are layered with a coat of rock candy crackle paint which is left to dry,  then distress stains are used to colour them

Finally I did some stamping with distressed stains and I was really pleased with how that turned out.  Finished off with a bit of stencilling.  Hope you like it and I will see you all next week.  You will note that I have posted really early, this is because I'm buzzing off for a long weekend and hope it doesn't rain too much.  See you all soon.

Cousins

This picture is of my grandson Jamie taken with his three Greek cousins in Athens last week.  I managed to get it thanks to his Aunty Kerry and Facebook.  My main idea is to try and use up some old card and underneath this is a vile shocking pink (why did we ever buy it?). Anyway it now has a nice piece of paper over the top and some bits off another sheet underneath the torn areas - yes, it's exactly the same paper some has blue paint over it and the piece behind the photo had fired brick distress stain on it.  After the painting and stick down of the photo is is pretty much just embellishing.

A die cut birdcage and bird and a stamped bird, a couple of used stamps and some flowers.

 a close up of the bunting which is supposed to be the Greek flag and the Union Jack.  I had to make the Greek flag up which was quite difficult in a triangle.  lol

Finally a close up of the stamped bird, skeleton leaf, and the swirl.  I think I'm loving this page as I have wanted to do one of Jamie and his cousins for ages for his album so loads and loads of thanks to Aunty Kerry for putting some pics on facebook, and of course I am not biased but it is one beautiful picture.

Lots of things

It's been such lovely weather and there are so many things to do outside, but I can't put it off any longer so here I am showing the latest creations.  First off the pic on the right is the card I created for my Mum, it folds up like a book and ties with a ribbon.  The words on it say "I smile because you are my Mother, I laught because there is nothing you can do about it".  I think she liked it.  I have done it in the journaling style of backgound, with spray inks, paint, stencils etc.

 Here is a bit of a closer look with stamped flowers, butterflies covered in glossy accents and flowers.

 This is my take on Tim Holtz monthly tags.  This is March with mosaic butterflies and an embossed background.  His background was actually stamped so as I didn't have the stamps I embossed instead.

 I went to Kathryn's class a couple of weeks ago and we did the picture part which is actually a canvas which also had a hanging ribbon at the top.  I wanted to make a page of it so the ribbon is now down the edge of the page with several other additions of ribbon, lace and tape.  I covered the hanging holes with the butterfly and the three tiny flowers at the top.  I am quite pleased how this has now turned out.  I did like it before but I am running out of wall space to hang things now.

 This is Wednesdays page.  It is a double pager and altogether I have 19 photos, plus journaling and souveniers of the day.  If you have lots of photos of a day out, holiday, party, birthday or wedding, this is the one.  This photos are hidden in booklet form on each page.  My photos show a trip we made last year to Southend where we also went on a paddle steamer up the River Medway and back .  It was a lovely sunny day but a chilly wind whilst on deck - still there was a nice bar below decks!!!!!

Last night

What an enjoyable night it was.  Some of you chose really patterned paper and others went quite subtle but they all looked wonderful, including Marilyns "shabby chic".... I like it!!!!  To be fair though she was very excited to be telling us about the Queen and to actually be scrapping a pic of her with her grand-daughter well what can I say .... well done Marilyn.  I'll start on the next page later so watch this space.  See you later......................

Altered Patterned Paper

 I have been experimenting with patterned paper and stencilling, but really patterned paper doesn't work too well.  In this pic I used Tim's Springtime embossing folder sprayed in turquoise and highlighted in Viva Inka gold.  Picture below shows the stencilling all around the edges.  These are the new stencils from Dylusions.  Left is the completed page with the flower made from recycled wet wipes.  You will used plenty of these when wiping ink and paint off my new babies, and of course they will perfectly match your paints and inks.  Ha ha!

Well what do you think?  Yes it is me - haven't changed a bit have I?

 Just to show you I have done a bit of work this week in my journal.  It's been quite a week in our house with one thing and another and I might just title this page "TURMOIL"  I really love all the colours and my special flowers lol.

 Below are my pile of wet wipes ready to be cut into flowers.  Might give one to two just a bit more spray to liven them up a bit.

 Something new is lurking in my craft room.  As you know one of my other passions if my allotment.  Well I bought one of those plastic greenhouses last year, but during the autumn the high winds blew it over and broke one of the legs, even though the whole thing was secured into the ground with 10 massive tent pegs.  So a small space has been converted for growing my seeds.

Broad beans on the left, and below sweet peas, onions and cabbages

Sorry, I did change the view of the pic above but it has decided to revert back to its former self.  Do you like my new watering can?  I took my Mum to Woodlands a week last Saturday and treated myself.  Cute eh! and matches my craft chair.