One Man and his (adopted) dog - Anita's August Class

I am still a bit behind in getting some of my layouts blogged.  This is the class that Anita taught back in August.

My Dad adores my sister's dog Toby and Toby loves his grandad too.  We used Basic Grey Marjolaine and gold Card Candy for faux brads.  The class featured lots of gutting of the patterned papers to get the most from them and matting all the layers with Bazill cardstock.  I have loads leftover to make cards with.  I added the title once I got home using AC Thickers and My Little Shoebox alphabet stickers.

Thankyou Anita for another fab class xx

Too Cute to Spook

The challenge this week at Penny Black Saturday Challenge is Too Cute too Spook.  Well I am a bit of a party pooper and don't celebrate Halloween but I do have one cute Halloween stamp that is most suitable for making birthday cards for some of my friends who are vamp fans.

I found some scraps of patterned paper that I used on a layout years ago, so I haven't a clue as to what brand they are but the spiderweb paper was perfect for the card -

I glittered the webs with black stickles and the sentiment was computer generated.

The image was watercoloured with Derwent watercolour pencils

I used this stamp a lot last year but this is the first time this year that Feline Count has come out of the drawers.

Sketch challenges at Cardinal Colours retreat

There were various different challenges to take part in over the weekend, including two lovely sketches.  I had packed some spare photographs for the weekend and one of my Sarah's Cards monthly kits and these are the two layouts that I did - sadly I have lost the sheet that had the sketches on it so can't show you what the sketches were like.

For both layouts I used the July kit - Pebbles Inc 'Happy Go Lucky'.   The first layout used some old photographs from 1992, it was my sister's birthday and I had got her a pink piggy cake from M&S but her little girl thought the cake was for her.  The title was punched using Martha Stewart alphabet punches.

The second layout uses a group photo plus individual shots of all the ladies who attended our crafty weekend at Debden in 2009, thankyou Wendy for letting me pinch the title from one of your layouts from that weekend.

I used the same kit for this layout and two different alphas that were leftovers from class kits.

Family Portrait - Anita's October class

As always another lovely class from Anita aka The Inky Blossom.  We used some lovely papers from Echo Park 'For the Record' collection.

Richard and I had a little photoshoot with the ship's photographer whilst on our Icelandic cruise and we managed to persuade my parents to join us for a couple of photographs.

Thankyou Anita for a lovely class xx

Penny Black Saturday Challenge week 173 - On the Move

This week's challenge over at PBSC is On The Move, I decided to make a couple of quick & easy New Home cards using this sweet mouse stamp.

The images were watercoloured with derwent watercolour pencils

Terrible Trio - October Scrapology challenge

The challenge this month on the Scrapology blog is B for borders and as always there is a lovely sketch to use for the challenge. 

I did the July layout for my Document 2011 album and used Sarah's Cards Ltd July kit - Pebbles Inc 'Happy Go Lucky'. 

Me with my two best friends - Carol and my mum - we are often known as the Terrible Trio (or the 3 wise monkeys) as we are always getting up to mischief when we are together.  The flowers are punched using the EK Success retro flower punch.  The swirls are cut with a Sizzlet 12" border die and the title is Sizzix Naturally Serif.  The paper butterfly is from Sarah's Cards and the doiley from Ribbon Box.

I used some of the leftovers from the kit to do the other July page for Document 2011

Events from July included our 16th wedding anniversary, taking Mum to see Blood Brothers, seeing the last Harry Potter and getting some lovely flowers from my FIL.

The challenge closes on 5th November so there is plenty of time to join in.

I have just realised that I haven't shared any of my Document 2011 layouts apart from February and July so I must get on and photograph those to share here.

Haukadalur - September 6x4 photo love

I have got a little bit behind with the 6x4 challenge so have jumped back in with the current challenge - September - 9 photographs.  Whilst on our Icelandic cruise I took lots of photographs with this challenge in mind.  I had so many photographs from our trip around the Golden Circle that I ended up doing a second layout using the page from July's challenge - 7 photographs.  So I now have a lovely double page layout using 16 photographs!!!

I used Sarah's Cards May kit for the layouts - MME Stella & Rose (Mabel) and Sunrise Thickers for my titles.

 

I didn't have any overlays or a large piece of acetate to make the see through pocket on the front so I had to improvise with a small piece of acetate and made a frame for it as it wasn't 12 inches wide.  I then hand stitched the acetate front to the base paper.

I then added eight photographs to the pieces of cardstock and decorated the tops using a Woodware tab punch.

My second page had a concertina element which held 6 photographs and some journalling.

The page opened one way to show photographs

And opened the other way to show the journalling

I am so pleased with how these layouts have turned out and now looking again at the photographs I am amazed at how close you are actually allowed to get to the geysers including Strokkur - haven't the Icelanders heard of Health and Safety LOL!!

So just August to do to get caught back up - I have the photographs all ready!

Christmas Birthday

The challenge this week at Penny Black Saturday challenge is Age is Just a Number.

I made this card for someone who has their birthday at Christmas using my all time favourite Christmas stamp

The patterned paper is from Sandylion Disney range and the snowflakes were punched from glitter cardstock.  The letters are AC Thickers.

A close up of the stamped image -

Marillion Weekend - UKS weekly challenge

Last week's challenge on UKS was to do a blue layout (no pink allowed), to have 3x3 things on the layout and to include an item that you wouldn't usually use for scrapbooking.  I decided to use one of the photographs taken of us with Marillion at their convention in the Netherlands back in March, I quickly found some papers to use (Bo Bunny Barefoot & Bliss) - the plan was to use 3 different patterned papers for one of my three things.  I then wasn't sure what to do next and was going to get my folder of sketches out when I saw this week's starting point on Shimelle's blog.  I had never done one of these before but it was perfect for my photograph.  My three items were 3 patterned papers, three ribbons (I counted my weekend wristband as one ribbon as it is made of ribbon) and three clusters of die cut stars (Sizzix nesting stars).  My item that you wouldn't usually use for scrapbooking was my wristband from the weekend, I cut the clasp off and it used as a piece of ribbon.

The title was cut using Sizzlet alpha' Wingo Zingo and the bottom of the cardstock mat was punched with a Martha Stewart border punch.

This little piggy ...........

........dressed up as Father Christmas!!!!

This week's challenge over at Penny Black Saturday Challenge is Down on the Farm so an ideal excuse to get one of my new Penny Black stamps inky (yes I know that I have too many PB stamps and don't really need anymore but they are just so cute I can never resist!!!).  Last year my cow and sheep Christmas cards went down really well so I wanted a new farm animal this year and this piggy was just perfect.

The patterned papers used are Hot off the Press and the sentiments are HOTP and Personal Impressions.  The holly was punched with a woodware punch.

The images were watercoloured with Derwent watercolour pencils, glittered with Crystal stickles and the small holly berries are Ruby Red liquid pearls.

It sweeps as it beats as it cleans

The weekly challenge on UK Scrappers a couple of weeks ago was to use an advertising slogan on the layout, have two photographs and use the colour turquoise.

I decided to look at advertising slogans first to see if any of them triggered some inspiration - when I found the old Hoover slogan - 'It sweeps as it beats as it cleans' I remembered these two photographs that I had of my eldest nephew with the toy hoover that I bought him for Christmas. 

I used a really old Sarah's Cards kit as it had lovely bright turquoise cardstock and some very vibrant Crate papers in it.

The title was punched using Martha Stewart alphabet punches and the photo anchors are an EK Success punch.