Bloomin' Lovely

Last week I paid a visit to one of my favourite shops Pickleberry Papercrafts where I tried..... but couldn't resist buying one of the new Tim Holtz Alterations dies. Now I'm not adverse to a bit of cutting but these dies make creating flowers really easy. They die cut grungepaper with ease. I'm impressed can you tell? So, since then I've been making lots of flowers all created with the tattered floral die.
The top flower is made from inked grungepaper, the left one cut from a mini deck of Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl range and the right hand side from cream linen cardstock. So you see you can get lots of different looks depending on the materials you use and how you style the flowers.

They look good on a card, this one uses more Material Girl paper and a bit of bazzill cut with a nestabilities label (No 1) die. I'm sure these flowers will be a feature on upcoming posts :-)

It was a lovely surprise to see that my altered matchbox has been chosen to feature in the samplers for the month of April on the Alter It Monthly challenge. I'm looking forward to taking part in the next challenge - thank you.

I'll be back soon with my April Calendar 365 challenge page. In the meantime I wish you all an enjoyable Bank Holiday weekend and hope that the sun makes an appearance at some time.

All Scrapped Out!

I know I said that next time I was here I'd share more of my new stamps but I've been a little busy this weekend with the cyber crop over on UK Scrappers. You may remember that I mentioned the mystery kit, well this is what I made. I scanned the party invitation and programme that my Nan had kept from the coronation party that my Mum went too all dressed up as Britannia. I did have a bit of disaster as I managed to chop off the bottom lace edge to use on another project before I'd decided to use this paper for the layout - oops! In true Blue Peter fashion though I found a similar piece, all but a different colour and stuck it back on. By luck the cardstock stickers that were included in the kit had a '1 - 9 - 5 - 3' in them you can see them in the top lefthand corner.
This was my original idea for the kit a low tech version of a digital photo frame. I chose some favourite family photos which can be displayed on the stand which I also made. I'm going to enjoy using all the scraps left over from the kit making some cards as it really was lovely paper - Sassafras Cherry Delicious, it even sounds nice!

I also took part in some of classes and challenges over the weekend. This layout was a challenge to use a holiday photo and either a water theme or technique. This photo was taken in The Maldives, so holiday and water all in one go but I did paint the background paper with twinkling H2Os in shades of blue. The photo is matted onto Core'dinations cardstock from the Whitewash Collection with torn edges. I machine stitched some net for a bit of texture and added the title using my new Vintage Market alphabet die, more of that next time.

Another challenge was to actually use some stash that up to now you have just been admiring. Well I had plenty to choose from - you too? I took a deep breath and cut into my prima paintable - eek! I survived and so did it so I went on to paint it with my H2Os. I thought it would be perfect to frame this lovely photo of my Nan, she was called Henrietta but everyone called her Hetty. I think in this photo she was quite young probably taken if not before around the time she married my Grandad. Of course I had to add some butterflies they haven't quite gone.....

There was more and I'm definitely all scrapped out but I feel like I achieved something even if it's reducing my stash pile. I've got to go I'm losing the ability to type..................think I need some sustanance.

Ever Increasing.... Butterflies

In response to my last post Sian made the brilliant suggestion that the butterflies would look great mounted in a frame. Well as it happens I had a frame that had been sitting around my craft room just waiting for some inspirational idea to come along...........What do you think?

It would make the perfect gift for a butterfly loving friend and the butterflies could be coloured in their favourite colours or to match decor or even stamped on some pretty paper.
Thanks Sian for your suggestion, all brilliant ideas gratefully received :-)

Last week at the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking show I bought an art doll stamp from B Line Designs. I'd been debating for some time as to whether to buy one or not but it was there right in front of me........so far I have only got around to stamping and colouring the image, she is still awaiting construction. I think the main body part would look good as a dressform on a card.

There were so many stamps to ponder at the show and my resistance was low, I'll share some more of those next time.Thank you too, to all of you who suggested a tutorial for the wreath - I'll get working on it. I'd love to share my idea with you and hopefully I'll have it ready soon.

An altered matchbox

It was great to find a new challenge blog this week. Alter It Monthly will be posting monthly challenges with a new challenge each month. To take part all you need to do is post a link to your project when you make a comment.

This months challenge is an altered matchbox. I used my new butterfly stamp from Stamps Away and the butterfly quote is from the Artistic Stamper. I wanted the butterflies inside the matchbox to look like specimens and I coloured them with promarkers and added a bit of stickles. The quote is inked and painted with distress rock candy crackle paint. This is the first matchox I've altered I think I may do some more.........

It's a Mystery.....

I've just ordered the UKS cyber crop mystery kit which is being put together by Mod Scraps which I was pretty happy to see as they provided the kit to the team I was in at the last cyber crop. Not only was I lucky as it was such a great kit but my project was voted the winner for my team. I made this wreath which now hangs on my kitchen door. Who knows what this kit will hold, when you order you have no idea - that's the mystery.

Fingers crossed for some inspiration let's hope I get something made.

Holiday Heaven

To those of you who are scrappers it will come as no surprise that while on holiday I snapped up this iron-on patch with a view to using it on a future layout. While out shopping in St. Johns I spied it in a shop window and thought it would make a brilliant ready made title. It's such a lovely blue too, a machine embroidered 'ANTIGUA'
....and here is the layout that I used it on. I started with the idea of making the layout really simple but I couldn't help myself adding bits here and there. I salute anyone who can scrap simple. I admire Alexa's scrapping style and if only she would start a blog I would be able to link to her to show you. However she has been contributing to 'Simple Things' over at It's a Creative World so you can go and take a look and be inspired by all the 'Simple' projects that have been going on.

For my layout I used cream cardstock and the paper is by Bo Bunny, Persuasion My Sweet from the Gift of Love line. I just love the colours. I was going to leave the space to the left of the photo blank but this where I couldn't help myself. First I added just the few lines of journaling, then I found the lobster block from Cosmo Cricket's Snorkel Elements and couldn't resist adding that too. I then remembered the Bliss ticket by Tim Holtz so on that went. Then I thought that the journaling should be backed by something but wasn't quite sure what - out came the corrugated card which I painted white. Lastly it just needed a little something so I punched some tiny blossoms.........and that was it.
So you see sort of simple or my version of it but isn't scrapping all about developing your own style whatever that might be?

My nearest and dearest have got used to me picking up odd things that I just know are going to come in handy for that creative moment. What crafty finds have you made?

A layout, a thank you and the perfect handbag.......

Yes, don't faint I've actually completed a layout. It seems forever ago that I did a bit of scrapping so I combined a thank you with a layout and scrapped my new handbag that my husband bought me for my birthday. He never asks me what I want for christmas or birthdays but he always chooses such brilliant presents. To my surprise he bought me a new Coccinelle handbag - Perfect!

I machine stitched the circles to resemble the stitching on the bag and kept things simple using just some canford card in bright red and buttercup which matches the colour of the bag. There is a bit of hidden journaling and the label tucked in behind the photo.

Hopefully this has kickstarted a bit of scrapping and I might even get some holiday photos scrapped.........on the other hand I do fancy a bit of embroidery.
If your scrapping needs a bit of a boost find some inspiration over at UK Scrappers where the next cyber crop has just been announced. Between Friday 23 - Sunday 25 April there will be lots of online classes and challenges to take part in. They can be a bit frantic but a whole lot of fun.