Strumpets with crumpets

Finally a layout (please excuse the dodgy photo of it!) and the strumpets in question were serving crumpets at this years Glastonbury. Most suprisingly it didn't rain, quite the opposite in fact - it was soooo hot. In search of food we found ourselves at the crumpets food stall and I indulged in one with peanut butter and banana topped with honeycomb - delicious.

So back to my layout, the stall was decorated with lampshades and various undergarments so to echo that I included some lace and leopard print. I also drew and cut out a lampshade and punched some holes to lace some ribbon.The stall also had one of those wooden painted scenes to have your photo taken featuring strumpets but I didn't think I was tall enough to put my head through the hole so I saved myself the embarassment and took a photo of the sign and decoration instead.

Here is our temporary Glastonbury home

The campervan area is at the top of a hill and this is the view of the trek down. The crowds are gathering ready for Rolf to kick off the 40th anniversay weekend.

Friday's viewing: Rolf Harris - Corinne Bailey Rae - Willie Nelson - Snoop Dogg

Vampire Weekend - Dizzee Rascal (with guest Florence) - Gorillaz (lots of guest appearances)

Photo at the Pyramid Stage during Vampire Weekend

Saturday's viewing: Reef - Jackson Browne - Seasick Steve - The Dead Weather

- Shakira - Scissor Sisters (special guest Kylie) - Muse

Photo taken at the West Holts Stage during The Bees

Sunday's viewing: The Bees - Slash - Ray Davies - Jack Johnson - Faithless

- Stevie Wonder

Photo taken during 'We Come One' by Faithless at the Pyramid Stage

The sun is just setting. There is something magical at Glastonbury when it starts getting dark and the sky lanterns appear floating across the sky, the whole crowd singing in unison..........a brilliant time had by all.......looking forward to next year, fingers crossed for tickets.

Say It With Flowers Gift Box

I often make gift boxes to give small gifts in and as I had a couple to make I thought I'd share with you how I made them. My gift box measures 10cm but you can use this technique for making any sized box and mine only used two pieces of cardstock and 1 piece of 8x8 patterned paper. As I make quite a few boxes I invested in a Coppernob scoring board but there are lots on the market to choose from and easy to make. I find that punching a small half circle in the lid section adds a professional finishing touch.



You will also need a piece of acetate and two nestabilities dies I used two from the labels 1 set.

Once you have cut your lid and bottom sections next you need to cut a piece of your chosen patterned paper so it fits on the inside of the lid (as below). Stick it temporarily with respositionable tape or as I used a piece of doubled over masking tape.

You want the paper to stay in place while you cut out the aperture - use the smallest of your chosen dies.

Next you need to cut a frame from the patterned paper using both of your dies, placed one inside the other. The thickness of your frame will depend on which dies you have chosen.

You should end up with two pieces which look similar to this

Cut your piece of acetate to cover the aperture but so it also fits the inside of your lid and stick down using DST removing the pattern paper first. Don't worry if it looks messy that's why we cut the first piece of paper to cover it you need to sandwich the acetate between the lid and the paper.

Stick the cut out frame on the front of the box lid framing the aperture and also the piece of paper on the inside. Next make up your box lid and bottom. I like to use tacky glue for this part and I also like to line the bottom section of the box with paper but it's not necessary.

Tip: use one of the offcuts from the first stage to make a matching gift tag.

Embellish the lid as you wish - my box is decorated with flowers and I made an extra one to fit inside the box which can be seen through the acetate.

Here is another version in green teamed with Amy Butler paper

I hope this tutorial has been useful - have fun creating

Birthday Best

I recently discovered this new digi stamp at Squiggle Stamps.

Isn't she cute, meet Miss Evie Patches. The monthly theme is birthday best so I thought I'd give her a party with some birthday bunting. I resisted the urge for a song title ;-)

Her flower patches reminded me of the Cuttlebug scalloped circle die so I included some in my design and added some finishing hand stitches too.

The flower centres have a distressed look with sanded coredinations and the larger scallop wraps around the card. Miss Evie has been given a bit of dimension by using sticky pads under her elbows and hair.

It's such a pretty image I think she'll be a feature of more cards to come.

Nice and Girly - perfect

I seem to have so many creative ideas buzzing around my head at the moment it's a job sometimes to get them all out and put them into action so I've started making a list!

I enjoy looking at challenge blogs too and one of the latest I've found is Bunny Zoe's Crafts

It's a monthly challenge and this is their first and the challenge was 'nice and girly' and what could be nicer than this digi image by Pure Innocence. Although it had to be girly I wanted it to be a bit different so I combined some orange with the pink.

My card ingredients:

Paper - Sassafraslass ' Daydream'

Digi image - Girl with heart by Pure Innocence

Dies - Cuttlebug label 1 and Alterations tattered floral

Embossing folder - Cuttlebug roses

'Perfect' sentiment and butterfly - K&Co Amy Butler Lotus Tea Box Die Cut Ephemera

Ribbon and buttons - haberdashers

Name That Tune

My song title collection of cards is progressing :-) Here are my latest additions made using my new nestabilities labels 8 die and Tim Holtz alterations embossing folder. Je Suis Un Rock Star with Ethan image by Polly Craft
Rebel Yell featuring Punk Merris Friday Freebie at Sj's Little Musings

This card doesn't feature a song title but I thought I'd show it to you anyway - a 60th birthday card. Yes, that is the tattered floral die - AGAIN!

And for those of you wondering - here are the truths to my recent post.......

• I have never cycled the London to Brighton - so a little fib
• I love marmite - again a little white lie
• It is true I don't have any fillings. I am very lucky and I think the fact that I've had the same dentist for 35 years has something to do with it, that and regular visits to the hygenist.
• It is true I have seen a humpback whale. It was fantastic to see, whales launching themselves into the air before crashing back into the water. I happened to be on holiday at just the right time when the mothers bring their calves to the coast of the Domican Republic to feed after giving birth.
• I don't have a degree in Civil Engineering only an ONC so my last little fib.

I hope you are having a good weekend and it's a little warmer wherever you are than it is here. I'm still waiting for the British summer to begin and I'm sure I shouldn't be wearing a winter jumper!

Unbelievable

Now I've chosen that post title I have that song going around my head, you know the one, EMF, 1990. No? I think maybe that song title thing has gone to my head :-) but it's definitely unbelievable that this is my 4th daily posting in a row.

Swiftly moving on, I said I would be back to share the butterfly hanging decoration I made so here it is. A similar idea to the other one but with paper die cut flowers rather than fabric and a stamped quote rather than the image. I prefer this one and my friend likes it too. At the weekend Sian awarded me this. I didn't know whether to be flattered or offended LOL but I thought it would be a fun way of passing on a couple of TRUE facts about myself. Of course the others are big whoppers and as they say - you decide.

• I've cycled the London to Brighton bike ride.
• I hate marmite
• At the age of 40 I have no fillings - and yes, I do go to the dentist regularly
• I have a degree in Civil Engineering
• I have achieved my ambition of seeing a humpback whale in it's natural habitat

I'll be back to enlighten you (if you're interested that is!) in the meantime I think maybe Sonja might be good at this - no I don't think she is good at telling fibs just very creative ;-)

Pretty In Pink

The challenge this week for the Pollycraft Monday Challenge is Iet's have a sing song. I enjoy using song titles for scrapbook layout titles so I suppose it isn't that much of a leap to use them on cards. Once I started thinking I had a whole list of song titles compiled I think I'll have a whole series of cards soon not just this one.

More interesting than just 'Happy Birthday' don't you think? The image on this card is from Pollycraft and she is coloured using promarkers. The embossed label is using nestabilities label 1 and swiss dots embossing folder. I stamped the background paper with a flower stamp and added a couple of pink heart shaped buttons and some punched flowers.

I can't wait to get started on my 'song' series of cards :-)

Birds of a Feather

This month at Alter It Monthly the theme is Birds of a Feather. I have a really sweet bird stamp that I thought would be perfect - but how to use it?

I had loads (and I mean loads!) of offcuts from a framers. The particular one I chose to use is the middle of a photo mount so I suppose it is 'altered'. They are perfect for mixed media type work and being quite sturdy can take quite a lot of paint, pasting etc. I wanted a vintage feel to my finished hanging decoration so I covered the base in a book page and painted with cream acrylic. Next I stamped a few flowers in sepia and aged some lace ribbon. I built up my decoration with some die cut flowers from fabric and book pages and of course added my stamped bird image.

I liked doing it so much that I made a butterfly themed one for a friend but I'll share that later in the week.

Why not join in with the challenge you have until the end of the month so get creating.

Ribbon and Bling.....

.... all be it a subtle bit of ribbon and bling for the Pollycraft Monday challenge. I discovered their fantastic digi stamps this week so I thought I'd join in with this week's challenge. A tiny bit of blue ribbon, lace edging and bling from stickles, pebeo touch and glitter die cut snowflake.

A Tale of a Knitting Bag

For some time now my Mum had been looking for a knitting bag and I had big plans to make her one for Christmas.......well Christmas came and went and still the knitting bag hadn't appeared. So the plan moved on to her birthday and I'm pleased to say I actually made it in time - just!

I bought the fabric at the Stitch and Craft Show back in March and it seemed the perfect opportunity to make something pretty using it. The bag is based on an Amy Butler pattern but because of the long base it's a perfect fit for knitting needles and is roomy enough for a few balls of wool too.

I did receive a comment from my ever understanding other half who remarked 'Don't you think you should make yourself one of those too?' whilst looking at my various knitting projects strewn across the coffee table. Well, I might just do that it could take until Christmas though but I do have some lovely fabric that I've been saving for just the right project ;-)

My Mum is a crafty person too as you've probably guessed by the knitting bag so I made her a crafty card. The image is a free download from Sj's Little Musings, I made a little addition and drew a cushion for her to sit on. The flower I die cut from some paper that I stamped with a dress making stamp from Paperartsy and the green one is die cut from felt. I handstitched around the edge of the card which seems to be a favourite technique at the moment for my cards and I actually took a deep breath and used (yes actually cut) some paper from my Material Girl stash.
I'm happy to say she liked it :-)

Pink Gem Challenge

Today I have a card to share which I made for the Pink Gem Designs challenge blog. I used the free digi image available on the blog - meet Tia the kitten. The challenge was to use ribbon and buttons. I love the colour combination of red and turquoise and thought it would create a bright summery look for this card. I mounted my coloured image onto a nestabilities scalloped circle and I handstitched the outline for a bit of detail. The addition of ribbon and a button in my red/turquoise colour combination were the final touch.

Sew Many Ideas

Say hello to Stanley.........or as he's been rechristened in our house 'Bob'. If you are familiar with Cath Kidston then you'll almost certainly recognise him. I got the template from my Make It book full of Cath Kidston projects. I'd already cut him out ready to sew before my knee operation so all I had to do was put him together. I chose a duck egg blue linen background to show him off and for the back of my cushion which I made as a super simple envelope type I used some red gingham. I suppose I should have used some spot print fabric or some of the cute mini stanley fabric......... After I'd finished him I wished I'd given him a jaunty neckerchief a la 'Dangerous Dave' - maybe next time. This little project has kickstarted a couple of sewing projects which I hope to share over the next few weeks. I feel inspired to make an apron after visiting the Anthropologie website there are so many to choose from I want them all and they have such wonderful names.

I thought I'd leave you with this photo, the roses are finally coming into bloom do you think that means summer has arrived.......

May 365 Challenge

May already in the 365 Calendar challenge...........
For May I used some scrapbook paper as the background painted with a bit of acrylic around the edges in green and pink. Over the top I stamped with the sequin waste stamp from the Artistic Stamper in worn lipstick distress ink, you can also buy the lace stamp there too. Of course I had to feature tattered floral flowers as they are a favourite at the moment and I hand cut the leaves to match out of inked book pages.

I have no idea what June will look like at the moment the pages are blank! Sonja has put me to shame as she is ready to go even after a somewhat epic stamping journey. Note to self - must try harder :-)