Sarah's Cards May challenge - use paint

Well this was a real challenge for me as I don't usually do messy crafting and even though I have some paints I rarely use them.  I took my inspiration for this layout from an old UKS cybercrop class that was in my to do at some point file - sadly I can't find it on UKS to link to it, but it was called Cat Among the Pigeons and was from the Murder, Mystery Cybercrop (Feb 2009).

So with gritted teeth I covered the worktops in the kitchen with newspaper, got out my bubblewrap, paintbrushes and acrylic paint and went to work -

I drybrushed around the edges of the cardstock, then covered my bubblewrap in paint and squidged that onto the cardstock - I must add that I was nearly hyperventilating at this stage with the messiness of it all.  I then painted my chipboard letters and some chipboard from a Sarah's Cards kit.  Once the paint was dry I then gave all the chipboard a coat of glossy accents.  I have also used Basic Grey rub ons over the painted areas.  When my first lot of journalling went wrong I had to get the paint back out to paint over it in the bottom corner!!  So yes I like the layout - it is quite different from what I usually do - will I rush to use paints again??? Ask me once I have had a lie down and a stiff drink to recover LOL!

Cards for charity

I enjoy making my own cards and for a number of years now have sold them for charity.  During my time working for St John Ambulance they were a great way of raising extra funds for our Badger Set but now that I am no longer working for St John I sell my cards for another local charity Children with Cancer Fund.   I try to make sure that I have always got a range of female and male birthday cards plus a small stock of get well, sympathy, thank you, anniversary and good luck cards.  Every now and then I get asked to make a specific batch of cards and this is what I have done recently for a lady who orders cards from me a couple of times a year.

She wanted some new home cards -

Some female birthday cards

And some sympathy cards

I had to do 14 cards in total - I do hope that she likes them.

ATDML May Sketch

I love using sketches and as soon as I saw this one on the A Trip Down Memory Lane blog I knew I had to do it.

This is my interpretation of the sketch.  I used Sarah's Cards April kit and used some photographs from our Arctic Circle cruise last year.

And a close up of the cluster of punched flowers -

Still missing you both

It is two years ago since my dear gran passed away, it still feels like only a short time ago.  I still miss going to visit her and sharing all my news with her.  It is due to this wonderful woman that I am so crafty.  She patiently taught me how to knit and sew and always encouraged me to craft from a very early age.  She never minded me making loads of mess and she loved to look at my albums.

This is one of the last photographs I have of her when she was last well enough to go out to a family party. 

And this is my gran with my dad, not sure of the year exactly but it is probably 1943 or 1944.

It is also 10 years since my grandad died and last year for a weekly challenge I did this layout - I have kept the journalling private about how much I miss them - the photo of the cake lifts up to reveal my journalling. 

This photo was taken at their Diamond wedding anniversary party - I am so glad that we had the camcorder and Richard recorded the party so I have them captured on video and can watch whenever I am missing them.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Week 102

I haven't done one of these challenges for over a year now and back then I had to email my challenge as I didn't have a blog.  This week's theme is DOTS, so I decided to get on and make my Father's Day cards.

This one is for my Father-in-law, the paper is Dovecraft and the stars were made using a SU star punch and the EK Success button punch.  The sentiment is Stamps Away.

Thanks for looking!

My friend Carin (2Angels) is very sweetly sharing some blog candy that she won - you can see it on her blog here!

Anita's April Class

Another lovely class from Anita - we used Basic Grey Cupcake for this one and it is a shame that all the stickles on the layout doesn't show up very well.

This layout is for my niece Milly's album, I did her an album for her 18th birthday and left a load of page protectors empty so that I could make other layouts for her.

As usual I have made cards with the leftovers -

Penny Black cats

And a close up of the watercolouring

Penny Black hedgie

And a close up again

Thanks for looking!

Some favourite layouts

Not had a chance this week to take any photographs of my recent crafting so going to just put some of my favourite layouts from the last year here.  I did Shimelle's Scrap Like You Mean It challenge last year - there was a challenge each week which varied from a sketch to follow or to use a certain embellishment.  So here are some of my faves from SLYMI -

This challenge was to use a self portrait - I spent ages trying to get a decent photograph of myself to use.

This challenge was to do a layout about yourself at this precise moment in time -

This challenge was to put flowers on your layout so I made my own using ek success and martha stewart punches.  The layout is about how much clothes Richard was wearing on our Arctic Circle cruise last year - you know it is cold when Richard is wearing this amount of clothing LOL!

Weekly challenges on UKS

I don't always do the weekly challenge every week but was keen to do this week's as Judith from my Twilight addicts social group had set the challenge.

For the challenge we had to use green, use a question as our title and include metal and doodling.  So this was a challenge to me as I rarely use metal embellishments and I am not over fond of doodling.  But I gritted my teeth and this is what I came up with -

The photograph is my eldest nephew Antony striking a pose in his new sunglasses and Bart Simpson jacket.  I am trying to scrap more of my older photographs so was pleased to finally do something with this one from 1991.  I used Sarah's Cards January kit which was based around Flutter Butter papers (Bo Bunny).  Whilst I had the kit out I decided to carry on and do another layout and had these photographs from the same day in 1991 -

This is my niece Milly having fun with Antony - she use to love to pull hair and Antony didn't seem to mind much.

So in the spirit of using my kits instead of them just sitting in a box I moved on and did a third layout, using  a more up to date photograph this time -

This is from our lovely crop weekend away to Debden last September.  As usual we always have a little photoshoot in the gardens.  This is me with Sy, Sarah and Wendy who I crop with every month.  And if you are wondering why the title 'beanie babes' well Cardinal Colours use to be called Jillybeans so our social group for crop chatter was called 'The Beanie Babies'.

Well I can't believe it - 3 layouts in one afternoon, that is most productive for me LOL.  I also made some cards and finished a class layout but I will save them for another day.

Monthly classes at Cardinal Colours

On the first Thursday of every month I go to a scrapbooking class at Cardinal Colours taken by the very lovely and talented Anita MacDonald.  It is always a fun evening with a nice bunch of ladies and I always come away with another lovely layout for my albums.

This layout was done at the March class and was done on acetate (which was very difficult to get a decent photograph of).  As always I had plenty of leftovers and I am currently trying to make cards from all my class leftovers instead of just stuffing them into my scraps bag.

Here are the cards that I made with my leftovers - I just needed to add some watercoloured stamped images and some additional cardstock from my scraps bag.

A retreat class and lovely leftovers

This is a layout that I did at Sarah's Cards retreat back in March - it was a minibook on a layout by Jen Naulls.

I filled the book with photos from our canal holiday on the Mon & Brec' canal last October.  I was amazed by how generous the contents of the kit where and once I got home I set about using the leftovers.  With the addition of plain cardstock I got this layout -

And this double layout -

Close up of LHS

Close up of RHS

And I still had enough leftovers to make all these cards too

I don't think I have ever got so much out of a kit before - there are only scraps left now!

Marillion weekend 2011 - here we come!!!!

I am the happiest bunny in the world at the moment.  As many of you know R and I are nuts about the band Marillion.  Every two years they do a convention for their fans and it is usually held in Holland at a Centre Parks.  We have never been on a convention but since 2008 we have vowed to go on the next one (we were too late to book on the 2009 one).  So today I have just made our booking and we are going to Holland in March next year - I can't wait!!!!!!!!  After the convention we plan to stay on in Holland and visit our friends the Jansen family - there are many of them I haven't seen since I was 13 years old so I really am looking forward to this trip to Holland.

Pendragon, Stroud and Christmas cards

Well what a busy couple of days we have had - stayed up till 3am watching the election results come in and was able to sleep soundly as our Lib Dem MP retained his seat.  Then up at 9am to go to Stroud, nr Gloucester to see Pendragon in concert.  I am a recent fan of this band - R has been listening to their music for over 20 years but only got to see them in concert last December when we went to Leamington for their Christmad gig.  So when I spotted that they were doing a very short UK tour this May we jumped at the chance to go and see them and the one that worked the best with R's roster was Stroud.  We never mind clocking up the miles to go to a gig and we can usually find a Premier Inn to stop over in close to the venue.  We arrived with time for a soak in the bath and a meal before heading into Stroud to find the Sub rooms.  A beautiful venue with very friendly staff and very helpful - as usual with a standing gig I had to go in the wheelchair but it was no problem as even though it was a really old building the whole place had been made chair accessible.  The manager gave us a guided tour as it was our first visit and then introduced us to Boris the doorman on the entrance/exit that we had to use for the lift/chair accessible entrance.  Pendragon did not disappoint, it was a great gig - nice and loud, lots of good banter between the band and crowd and I had sore legs, feet and arms this morning so I must have had a good time 'dancing' in the chair.  Unfortunately as R was working today we had to have an early breakfast and get back home.  The unpacking is done so I suppose I should now get on with some crafting.  I have been asked to make 14 cards for a friend - I made a good start on them last weekend so ought to try and get them finished this weekend so that I can post them  next week to her.

Last weekend was a crop weekend and my friend Sy came down from London to stay on the Saturday.  We had an enjoyable day eating Krispy Kreme doughnuts (a first for me, but doubt I will eat them too often as Sy did happen to mention that some of them contained a heart attack inducing 20g of fat!!!!!!), crafting and then watched New Moon whilst eating icecream.  I made a few Christmas cards - I try every month to make some as I have over 100 to send myself each year and I like to make some to sell for Children with Cancer Fund a local charity that I do secretarial work for and I try to do a little fundraising for them each year.  Here is a small selection of some of the cards that I made -

All of them are made using Penny Black stamps (one of my favourite brand of stamps) except for the snoopy one - I just love that stamp and think I will use that one rather a lot this year for my cards.

Monthly Crop

Once a month I go to a crop at Cardinal Colours.  It is always a lovely day and if I am lucky and don't spend too much time either chatting or eating I actually get to create some layouts.  This month I got three layouts done - you have already seen the layout which I did for the sketch challenge.

I only took my April kit (which is gorgeous - I love all the butterflies) with me to the crop so both of these layouts have been done using that kit.

I used photos from our Round Britain cruise that we did in 2007 on Boudicca.  The top layout is me in the bar for pre-dinner drinks with Bob and Barbara who we shared our dinner table with and are still in contact with. I used a sketch that came with the kit for this one.   The bottom layout is the beautiful and fascinating Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

Sarah's Cards April Sketch challenge

I try most months to do the sketch on Sarah's Cards blog. This is what I have done for the April sketch, using April's kit.

As usual I showed it to R for his opinion - his thoughts on this one is that there is too much cardboard showing LOL!

A close up of the bottom half of the layout -

And I have discovered now how to add several pictures with text inbetween them - you have to go to settings and change post editor to the updated edition and then it will put your photos where your cursor is!

Testing, testing

Just having a little play around to see how easy it is to add pictures.

The first layout is one that I did in February for a challenge on Cardinal Colours. You had to do a layout on love, so I did this about my love of the Twilight books.

The second layout is one I did at Sarah's Cards retreat in Warrington in March, a lovely class by Liane.

Now can anyone tell me how I can add a picture, then some relevant text and then another picture. At the moment all my pictures are together and then the text underneath and I can't figure out how to put text inbetween the pictures!!

Hello - I'm here (kicking and screaming)

Well for ages I have said that I wouldn't have a blog but now it appears that the world and his wife have one and I don't!!! So I have finally succumbed now and got one. Things will be a bit hit and miss here to start with as I am still working at the moment but after July I should be able to blog on a regular basis, for now I will mainly use it to show you the current crafty stuff that I am creating.

So ta ta for now and fingers crossed I will remember that this blog exists and will remember to upload to it.