Twilight Addicts Weekend Away

Challenge 6 for last weekend's cybercrop at A Trip Down Memory Lane was to scraplift a layout by their design team from the May or June gallery.

This is my scraplift -

Papers - Jillibean Soup 'Apple Cheddar Soup' and MLS 'Destination'
EK Success and Martha Stewart butterfly punches
Echo Park alphabet stickers
Butteflies punched from various scraps

Inspired by this layout from Dawn Evans

Thanks ATDML for another lovely challenge.

There is still time to take part in the ATDML cybercrop - the challenges close at 6pm on Sunday but the classes are still open for another two weeks.

Flutterby Bracelet - June's Monthly Make

A bit of a late dash in with my entry for the Monthly Make.  I have had this bracelet kit from Spoilt Rotten Beads for ages and had attempted to make it ages ago - got to the end and didn't like the huge knot that you got from tying all three strands together as it was too large to hide in an adjacent bead.  I later found a triple hole metal bead that was just perfect for hiding the three knots in.

Even though the bead is larger than I would really like, when you are wearing it, it really doesn't notice on the underside of your wrist and actually looks like the bracelet has a clasp.

I can see myself making some more of these in different colourways!!

Quick & Easy Christmas Mini's

This week's challenge for the 52 card challenge is to make miniature card (smaller than 4x4).  I can't believe that we are now on week 26 - half way through the challenge already!!

As I am so behind with making my Christmas cards, I decided to make some quick Christmas cards.

I stamped directly onto the card blank and then coloured in with Promarkers, the sentiments are Personal Impressions.

Peek-a-boo

Challenge 4 in ATDML Cybercrop was a sketch challenge

I used some more photographs of Vern & Rodger from our Meadow Barn weekend, this time with Alun & Lisa and some Jillibean Soup papers which were leftovers from a retreat class.  The title is AC Thickers.

The large stars were diecut with Sizzix Framelits and the smaller stars are an EK Success star border punch

Read All About It!!

Challenge 4 in the ATDML cybercrop was to make journalling a feature of your page.  I tend to include a little journalling on most of my layouts but rarely do lots of writing on a page.

I found some photographs from our canal holiday in 2009 on the Mon' & Brec' canal in Wales.  We accidentally got our boat stuck trying to reach the southern end terminus of the canal - on their own these photographs are absolutely meaningless so they were perfect for a page with lots of room  left to tell the story of how we got stuck!!

I used papers from my January kit - Pebbles 'Fresh Goods', the ledger paper was perfect to journal on.  The title is AC Studio Calico Thickers coloured with a Berry Red Promarker.

A close up of the journalling

I really must start doing more pages like this with a lot more journalling on.

We Love Rodger & Vern

Class 5 for the ATDML cybercrop was this lovely layout by Karen Moss.

I adapted it slightly so that I could use two photographs from our March visit to Meadow Barn with The Twilight Addicts.  My friend Jessie always takes Vern on holidays with her and this year he was joined by his friend Rodger the monkey.  It is traditional that everyone has to have their photograph taken with Vern and of course Rodger joined in as well.  Keep an eye out for more layouts with these two little scamps as they appeared in a lot of photographs that weekend!!

I used leftover papers from a retreat class - I think they are Jillibean Soup.  I used a mixture of AC Thickers and Jillibean Soup alphabet stickers for my title.  I ended up doing straight line stitching around the edge of the layout as my OCDness would not allow me to do the lovely wonky stitching that Karen had done for her class layout.

Hang the flags out

The challenge this week at Penny Black Saturday Challenge is to Fly the Flags, as luck would have it Challenge 2 for the ATDML cybercrop was to use bunting so I have been able to do both challenges with just the one card.

I used Basic Grey Cupcake and some bunting stickers from Echo Park.  The sentiment is Personal Impressions and the sentiment frame is Stampin' Up.

The stamp is from T for transparent set Critter Party and was watercoloured using Derwent pencils.

Card class

At the moment I am skipping all the mini book classes as I am not really into mini books.  Though I might go back at a later date and have a go as there have been two lovely classes posted so far.  My next class was a card class by Karen Cole.

As I am really behind with my Christmas card schedule this year I decided to make Christmas ones.  Again more stash-busting going on and I used just scraps of patterned paper leftover from kits and classes.  A real mixture of papers used including Fancy Pants, Prima and Basic Grey.

I used two different Prima swirls stamps for the background and the shaped diecut is a Nellie Snellen die.  The sentiment is by Stampin' Up and is made to fit the scalloped SU punch perfectly.  I finished off embellishing with some snowflakes punched from pale blue glitter cardstock and some gemstones.

Thanks for a fab class I can see myself making a lot more of these!!

Winston the Cat

The challenge set last night was Stamp your Feet - to use stamping on either a layout or card. 

I made this layout about how my friend's cat who use to hide on top of her wardrobe and then jump down on top of us whilst we were sleeping.  At the time I was going through a phase of writing silly poems so I dedicated one to Winston.

I stamped a border round the cardstock with a pawprint stamp from a See D set.  I then used Studio G alphabet stamps to stamp out my silly rhyme about Winston

The Muck Magnet

This weekend I am taking part in the cybercrop that is being held on the A Trip Down Memory Lane blog.  It started yesterday evening and runs until Sunday afternoon but there are really generous deadlines for completing the classes and challenges so no need to rush your work.

The first class yesterday was this layout by Mel.  I didn't purchase any of the class kits instead I am going to try and do a bit of stash busting this weekend.

This is my version of the class using Pink Paislee 'Amber Road' - these were in a 2009 kit from Sarah's Cards and now I only have scraps left to make cards with.

Mr P isn't very amused that I have used this photograph of him LOL!!  The large butterfly was cut with a Spellbinders die and the scallop below the photograph is some velvet ribbon that came with the kit.  The title is a mixture of Crate Paper and Word Play alpha' stickers.

Right nose back to the grindstone I have more classes and challenges to take part in!!

Nature Will Find A Way

I haven't done a UKS weekly challenge in ages but when I saw last week's challenge I knew I had the perfect papers and photographs for it.

The challenge criteria was - 3 or more photographs, a colour combo of greens, lilacs and purple and a theme of outdoors or nature photos.

This is my layout using Basic Grey Wisteria

These lovely flowers were photographed by my Dad at Qaqortoq, Greenland - despite the long harsh Arctic winters and very short summers, the place was abundant with wild flowers and apparently five types of orchid grow here - it is amazing what nature can do!!

Melissa

As always we did a gorgeous monthly class with Anita at Cardinal Colours.  I used this lovely photo of my niece Milly.

We used MME Follow Your Heart - Be Happy!  You can seen Anita's class page here

Thank you Anita for another great class xx

Happy Father's Day and Happy Birthday Ian!!

This is the card I have made for my wonderful Dad

I used a digistamp from the Dexter collection by DigiStamp Boutique and coloured it with Promarkers before cutting out and mounting onto an embossed pearlescent cardstock circle.  The sentiment stamp is by Stamps Away and the paper is from Wild Rose Studio.

Have a wonderful day Dad and I will see you later xxx

And a big hug to my friends out there who no longer have their Dads with them for this Father's Day (((hugs)))

It is also my Brother's birthday today - Happy Birthday Ian!!

Another Red, White and Blue birthday

This week's challenge at Penny Black Saturday Challenge is Red, White and Blue.  I have been making quite a few male cards recently - they are not my favourite to make, so the 'for sale' box needed stocking up!!

The stamp is called Hedge-word and the papers used are all from my scrap box.  The sentiment is Wild Rose Studio and the oval punches are from Stampin' Up. The red pearls are from Sarah's Cards and the border punch is from Martha Stewart.

Happy Birthday Mr P!!!!!!!!!

It is Richard's birthday today and for a change he actually has the night off work but we have a funeral at lunchtime to attend and then a dentist appointment in the afternoon, so all festivities will have to wait until the evening.

This is the card I have made for him

This stamp is my latest Penny Black purchase and I love it - I can see me using this one lots!!  The top sentiment is a Personal Impressions 'Tinchie' stamp and the larger round one is Lilli of the Valley.  I stamped the image twice and layered up the teddy and the balloons.  The balloons were also coated with Glossy Accents to make them lovely and shiny.

This card is also my card for week 20 of the 52 card challenge, the prompt was Rainbow and I am sure my rainbow of balloons fulfils that criteria!!

So think of us later when we will be stuffing our faces with Domino pizzas, birthday cake and quaffing pink fizz LOL!!

Butterflies and flowers

The card challenge this month at Going Buggy is to make a card using one colour. 

This is what I made using a Stamps Away stamp.

It doesn't show very well but the butterfly was stamped twice and raised up with pinflair gel.  The cream cardstock was embossed with Garden Swirls (Craft Concept) embossing folder.  The sentiments are both Hero Arts stamps.

I also made a blue version of the card -

Mythical Creatures

The May card challenge on the Scrapology blog is Mythical Creatures.

I have made two cards for the challenge, the first using one of my favourite Penny Black Stamps, that sweet vampire kitty - Feline Count!!

I am also entering this card to the Penny Black and More challenge to use all My Favourite Things - at the moment this is my all time favourite Penny Black stamp and I am just loving using Promarkers.

My second card for the challenge features a sweet fairy stamp from Lili of the Valley - I have only recently started using this range of stamps and they are lovely, I can see lots more being added to my collection in the near future!!

The sentiment is also from Lili of the Valley, the flowers were punched from a pink glitter vellum by EK Success and the flourishes are a mini die from Cheery Lynn.

There is still a little bit of time left to enter the challenge as it runs until 15th June.

Red, White and Blue birthday!!

As it is the beginning of the month, this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge is a Case it challenge with a lovely card from Kath for inspiration.

This was my take on the challenge -

It is also suitable for this week's Jubilee theme for the 52 card challenge.

Supplies used -

Penny Black T for transparent 'Critter Party'
Bazill cardstock
Backing papers from scraps box
Martha Stewart border punch
Ticket stamp - My Mind's Eye Dilly Dally 'Adventures'
Birthday stamp - Hero Arts
Bakers Twine from The Ribbon Girls
Stars - Creative Memories and EK Success punches

Too cute to spook

The May sketch challenge at My Creative Sketches is to use this lovely sketch -

This is my take on the sketch.  I used a photograph from my niece's 21st horror themed birthday party -

Supplies used -

American Crafts Dark Kraft cardstock sprayed with Mr Huey's Classic Tan and Opaque White
Title - Santa's Workshop sizzlet alphabet
Patterned papers - My Mind's Eye 'Haunted' (Thankyou Jules for these lovely papers xx)
Blossoms and gemstones - from my stash

There is still time to join in with the challenge as it doesn't close until 14th June.

It's the Rules - W is for White Space

I have been pretty quick off the mark this month with the Scrapology June sketch challenge.  I went to the June crop yesterday at Cardinal Colours, my first since January and managed to get 2 layouts and 2 Document 2011 pages done.

This is the sketch that we were given to use this month -

As I had a two tiny photographs to use I did a 8 1/2 x 11 layout using leftovers of AC Amy Tangerine papers from a retreat class.  These photos I have had on my pinboard in our boxroom for years - whenever Richard has new work photos taken for his security passes, he always poses sensibly for the first 3 and then pulls a stupid face for the last one - his work get two sensible ones and I always get presented with one sensible and one silly one!!  I have been meaning to scrap one of these sets of photos for a long time and as soon as I saw this sketch I knew they would be perfect for it.

 

Supplies used -

AC Amy Tangerine papers

Bazill cardstock

AC Thickers

Creative Memories black alpha' stickers

EK Success star border punch

There is still plenty of time to join in with the Scrapology challenge - it closes at the end of the month.

May - My Month in Numbers

It is time once again to join in with Julie Kirk and share My Month in Numbers.

The month started off with a lot of stress over my monthly online order with a well known high street supermarket.  Usually my order goes really well, there is the occasional item missing or damaged but usually just one quick call to customer services sorts it all out, but not this month!!  A total of 22 items worth £52 pounds were missing from the order.  It took 2 calls to get the problem sorted and the items re-delivered the next day - only for me to find that I had been charged another £52 for the items, making it 3 calls in total to customer services.  On the advice of a few people, some who work for said store as they had not offered me any sweeteners to stay a loyal customer, I made a complaint.  Result was a £15 voucher off my next shop and a promise to investigate what went wrong as I should have automatically had the missing items credited and should not have been made to wait over 24 hours for a re-delivery.

Had a lot of excitement trying to get booked for next year's Marillion Weekend in Port Zelande, The Netherlands.  I was lucky after only a 2 hour wait I got my booking confirmation email.  Only 280 days till the 3 days of madness begins.

It has been a busy crafty month - 20 blog posts, 7 sets of wine glass charms, 5 memory wire beaded bracelets, 6 stretchy bracelets, 1 mini book, 18 cards and 5 layouts made.

My dear nephew Harry celebrated being 18 and loved the Kindle that we got him jointly with my parents. 

I baked 100 bitesize quiches and 28 coffee cupcakes for his party the following weekend

Take a look at Julie's blog to see what everyone else has been up to with their numbers!!