Happy Birthday Jason

This is probably my favourite Penny Black stamp at the moment - Feline Count.

Hope you have had a lovely birthday Jason!!

Scrapology - A is for Apertures

Scrapology had a fab challenge this month A is for Apertures.  This is the sketch -

As I had recently done a starburst layout for one of Anita's fab classes at Cardinal Colours I decided to do something a little different.  So I cut ovals into my patterned paper and framed the edges with loads of little punched vellum flowers.

These photos are from 18 years ago when myself and my god-daughter Milly were bridesmaids.  Milly from quite young was nicknamed 'Little Karen' as like me she loved all things pink and girly, I called her my mini me.

The patterned paper is American Crafts I Do - Amaryllis, which I have overstamped in a pale pink ink and a Fancy Pants swirly flower stamp.  The pink vellum has lovely pink glitter roses swirled over the top and is from EK Success Disney range.  I used a SU flower punch and Stickles Cotton Candy in the centre of each flower to hide the glue.  The butterflies were punched with an EK Success punch and embellished with Kaisercraft pearls.  The title is done with alpha stickers from Prima - they are so pretty with little crystals embedded into the letters.  I originally bought them for my wedding album but thought they were ideal for this page.

A close up of  a butterfly and one of the photographs

And my mini me is no longer mini, she is taller than me LOL!!!  I look forward to next month's challenge.

And it's my Birthday today, so here are the coffee and walnut cupcakes I made

Butterfly 1 and 2

This was the first butterfly that I stitched on my afghan

This one took just over a month to complete but I had to work on it most evenings - then I realised that my original plan to do a butterfly per month was probably a tad ambitious.

And butterfly no 2

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 115

This week we had a sketch to follow

And this is my card for the challenge

The backing paper is My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary, I had a small pad of these papers free with a craft magazine and are ideal for cardmaking.  The die cut frame is Marianne D Creatables - thankyou Wendy for letting me play with your new dies.  The image has been coloured with Derwent watercolour pencils and the roses have been glittered with stardust stickles.  The bunny and the bird were stamped twice and are raised up on foam squares.  The pink daisies and leaves have been made using woodware punches.

Butterfly Afghan

Until its demise I always use to get Quick and Easy Cross Stitch magazine on subscription.  In 2007 a project appealed to me as one of my favourite things to cross stitch are butterflies.

I decided to work on a larger piece of fabric than the original project and to stitch 18 butterflies instead of the 12.  I will repeat 6 of my favourite butterflies.  The plan is for the afghan to go in our bedroom which is blue, I think it will look nice on our bed.

So how is the project progressing which was started in January 2008 - well it got off to a good start!  The original plan was to stitch one butterfly per month and to have it finished in 18 months but that plan fell apart after five months.  So to date I have completed 10 butterflies and have started butterfly no 11.

Here is how it looks right now -

Over my next few blog posts I will show you the butterflies in detail and in future I will be able to share my progress with the remaining 8 butterflies with you all - maybe that will spur me on to make sure this WIP doesn't become a UFO!!!

WIPs, UFOs and NESY

When I am cardmaking and scrapbooking I tend to get on, start projects and get them finished straight away.  But I am not so good with other crafts like my knitting, tapestry and cross stitch.

Last night I was talking with other crafting friends about my UFOs (Unfinished Objects) and I referred to one of my long-term projects as a work in progress (WIP).   So what makes a project a WIP rather than a UFO - well for me if I get it out and work on it every now and then it is a WIP but if it gets put away and forgotten about or I procrastinate about finishing it then that is a UFO.

I have several items that are long term UFOs -

An Aran sweater that was started in 2004 or 2005, I only have the sleeves to finish but since suffering with RSI in both wrists knitting has been difficult.  I have bought some special gloves that are supposed to support the hands and wrists whilst knitting but haven't got round to trying them out yet - what am I like??

Three tapestry pieces waiting to be made up into cushions, I stitched these between 1994 and 1998 and I have all the backing fabric so why haven't I made them into cushions yet????

And this is the famous cross stitch round robin that Wendy and I organised a few years ago - just the mention of this round robin is enough to make me break out into a sweat and send my blood pressure sky high as it was fraught with problems.  I am sure it was because of this round robin that I now stay away from circle journals and other swaps in the craft world.

I have stitched the title and dates in the two empty boxes (just not got round to photographing yet) and it is now awaiting framing - will it go up for this Christmas or will it wait for another one?

Tomorrow I will show you my main WIP - the butterfly cross stitch afghan, this project is in danger of becoming a UFO but today I have dragged it out to photograph it.

And NESYs - well they are the Not Even Started Yet projects - yes I have a big stash of wool and patterns waiting to become jumpers and cardigans, I have tapestry kits and cross stitch kits galore and piles of mini books and albums waiting to be filled.  It is about time someone invented the 8 day week please!!!!!!!

Scrapology blog candy and monthly challenge

Scrapology are a new challenge blog and have some fab Halloween goodies as blog candy.  There is still time to enter their first monthly challenge A is for apertures and a chance to win a lovely prize.  My layout is still at the thinking stage but I will definitely be entering.

H - Marillion Album - Part 4

This was a very quick and easy layout to do.  I used a sheet of DCWV Rockstar which was kindly gifted to me by Sy (thanks Sy) and matted my photograph onto Bazill silver mirri card.  I then cut around some of the swirls with a craft knife and tucked the photograph into place.  The chipboard letter is a Brenda Pinnick one with a garish pattern on one side so I turned it over and painted it with silver acrylic paint and then gave it a coat of glossy accents.

H is what the singer Steve Hogarth is known as because there are two Steves in Marillion.  I am planning on doing a layout for each band member and will be taking this album to the convention in Holland next year - you never know I might get lucky and get some of the band members to sign their layouts.

The Cocktail Hour

Another layout using Pink Paislee - Bayberry Cottage (Sarah's Cards July kit)

Me enjoying a cocktail onboard the Black Watch

The blossoms are from my stash and the stamped swirl was done using a Prima swirl stamp

Relax

A layout about my annual trip to Champneys

The papers are Pink Paislee - Bayberry Cottage (Sarah's Cards July kit), the blossoms are from my stash and the flower centres are Prima e-bling.

In a month's time ........

...... I will be here

at the Chatsworth Hotel, Eastbourne for the Cardinal Colours Seaside Retreat.  All the details can be found on the Cardinal Colours website.  I am sure we are going to have a great time and learn lots plus it is right on the seafront so if the urge overcomes me to go for a quick paddle I won't have far to go LOL!!

5 days of pampering - blisserama!

Today I am off to here

Champney Springs in Leicestershire

This will be the fifth year in a row that I have enjoyed a spa break here - this place does me more good than all the junk that I get on prescription - it is a shame that I can't go here on the NHS but fortunately Richard is a real sweetheart and funds my annual trip.

Hopefully this will be the view from our bedroom

We have requested a room at the back overlooking the pond - I love to sit here reading and sending text messages home.

I'm going with Carol and Nicky as usual, this is us last year -

Me

Carol

Nicky

Just look at that pool, so inviting

Hmmm I am so looking forward to my booked treatments - a manicure, facial, massage, aromatherapy wrap and a head in the clouds treatment.  Those are the included ones I will see what is on offer before I decide on what extras I am going to have.  And the food is really fab too - there isn't a hint of limp lettuce leaves or carrot juice.  I am really looking forward to their wonderful Chicken Caesar Salad and the lovely homemade icecreams and sorbets - I rarely ever lose weight when I come here LOL!!

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 114

This week for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge the theme was feeling fruity.  At first I didn't think I had any stamps to fit this but when I had a look at one of my sets of clear stamps I found that I had this lovely one of the mice with the cherries - perfect!

The paper covering the card is October Afternoon and the sentiment stamp is by Hot off the Press.  The daisies have been made using different sizes of Woodware daisy punches, a hole punch for the centre and the leaves are the Woodware oak leaf.

Here is a close up of the daisies

Retirement card

I was asked to make a retirement card for one of Richard's work colleagues, I thought this Penny Black stamp was ideal for wishing someone a Happy Retirement

The stars are made using the Stampin' Up star punch and an EK Success button punch - I just pricked holes around the edges and then stitched the button to the star with embroidery thread.  The backing paper is from a set of Papermania paper that I bought when I first started scrapbooking (you know the packs, the ones you wouldn't touch with a bargepole now LOL, I'm using mine up now as wrapping paper and for cards).  The cardstock is from Stampin' Up.


And a close up of the watercolouring done with Derwent watercolour pencils

A quick and easy layout

 Tracie H has another giveaway today on her blog Life and Times of a 12x12 addict.  Today it is for Sassafrass felties.

Sometimes I don't want to do anything too complicated - just get the photographs down on a page.

I did this one to use up some of the bits and pieces I had left in a kit from June or July last year - Cosmo Cricket Early Bird.   It was fairly quick and simple until I started doing the punched flowers - since doing the floral punch art class at Cardinal Colours I can no longer stick flat flowers and leaves down, I have to get my moulding mat and tools out and shape them all - here is a close up of the flowers

Home for a week

This is the final layout that I have managed to get out of Sarah's Cards January kit (Bo Bunny Flutter Butter).  I am always happy if I manage to get about 4 or 5 layouts from a kit but this kit went on and on and I got 7 layouts from it and still have scraps for cardmaking.

This is the widebeam boat Hannah that we hired from the Bruce Trust last year on the Kennet and Avon canal.  I used some of the lovely new Martha Stewart punches I recently bought.

Tracie has a fab Prima giveaway on her blog - take a look at Life and times of a 12x12 addict

Ship for Sale??????

This month I am just scraping in with my layout for Sarah's Cards monthly sketch challenge as the closing date is tomorrow.

This was the sketch

And this is my take on it, I flipped the sketch around to put one large landscape photograph at the bottom of the layout.  Richard took this photograph of the Black Watch when we were moored at Spitsbergen, it struck him at the time that it looked like the ship was in a junkyard as he couldn't get a decent photograph without getting in all the stuff that was on the quayside too.  I have used Heidi Grace Maple Crest Papers and have tried to make the papers and card look quite shabby.  I initially wanted to put ripped packaging under the photograph as I have seen it used effectively on other layouts but one of the reasons I scrapbook is to preserve my photographs and I am sure the packaging is not acid and lignin free.  So instead I ran some kraft stampin' up card through my ribbler to get the same effect and then distressed and inked the edges.

Thank you for looking.

A Girl & Her Dog

For our monthly challenge in the Twilight Addicts group on UKS, Judith challenged us to have something old, new, borrowed and blue on our layout.  The borrowed element had to be something that you wouldn't normally put on a layout.

This is what I came up with -  my lovely sister Lucinda and her sweet doggie Toby

Old = the press studs were from my gran's button tin and the kit is a fairly old one from Sarah's Cards Ltd, Bo Bunny Flutter Butter

New = the stamped flowers - they came free with the August edition of Craft Stamper

Borrowed = I borrowed the idea of using press studs for the flower centres from Craft Stamper

Blue = the flowers and the patterned paper

A close up of the stamped flowers -

Mum's Birthday

Yesterday it was Mum's birthday, so I thought I would share her birthday card with you

And a close up of the flowers

I had made this card earlier this year when we had a mini cybercrop on The Snug, of course since doing the floral punch art classes at Cardinal Colours I will be able to make much nicer roses in future.

Afraid of Sunlight - Marillion Album - Part 3

Earlier this year we did a mini cybercrop within the Twilight Addicts group on UKS.  Ali challenged us to pick a favourite song and link it back to the Twilight saga - of course it was a no brainer that I was going to pick something by Marillion and I chose Afraid of Sunlight - that seemed most appropriate for a layout that was going to be about vampires. 

I used Basic Grey Scarlett's Letter and the title, swirls and flowers were all cut using Sizzix dies.

The video for Afraid of Sunlight

No One Can - Marillion Album - Part 2

Another layout from my Marillion album - this time it is for No One Can

The cardstock is Papermania and the blossoms and crystal/pearl swirls are from Prima.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Week 112

This week at Penny Black Saturday Challenge we had to follow a recipe - one circle, two papers and three flowers.

I made this card using some leftovers from a class taken by Anita M at Cardinal Colours, I think the papers are Basic Grey Eva

I made the flowers myself using a woodware sun punch and L-Em.com stamen punch as taught at the Jane Gill class that I took a couple of weeks ago at Cardinal Colours.

As I had made a load of these flowers I decided to make another card as I still had some of the patterned papers left over, so came up with this one

I used small wedges of rolled card strips to tip the flowers around the central one at angles, it works pretty well - here is a close up

The leaves were made using a woodware oak leaf punch and I used a sharp tool and moulding mat to add the veins and shaping to them.

This is the class that Anita did back in either April or May - I always save my scraps from the classes for my cards

You can see some of Anita's fab work on her blog Inkyblossom

Themed albums - Marillion Album Part 1

How do you organise your albums?

I organise mine by theme so have albums for holidays, Christmas, family stuff, nieces and nephews, wedding etc.

My latest project is a Marillion themed album - well it had to happen at some point didn't it LOL!!!  It is very much a work in progress as I only started it last year but I want to get a move on with it so I am trying to do a layout per month.  So far I have only done layouts linked to their lyrics, but have layouts planned about the band and gigs that we have been to.

You have already seen this layout and this is the very first layout that I did for the album

I used Basic Grey Wisteria and photographs from a cruise that we did round some of the smaller Scottish islands on the west coast.  I can't tell you where this island is as we were sworn to secrecy by the locals - it was beautiful and so quiet and peaceful.  The lyrics to Fantastic Place are here I just melt when Steve Hogarth sings 'Put your arms around my soul and take it dancing'.

Over the rest of this week I will show you some of the other layouts that I have done for the Marillion album