Like Pebbles on a Beach

Hi. Sorry I haven't been around for a while I do have a proper excuse so bear with me while I catch up and get back to blogging business. Last week I had a knee operation and progress has been good but I haven't been able to do much blog visiting and commenting so I apologise I'm not ignoring you.

Anyhow, excuses out of the way I wanted to share a little project I squeezed in just before my operation. The weekend was warm and sunny so we took a visit to Deal where we ate the best fish and chips on the sea front. While looking out to sea I was dreaming up a project as unlike where I live Deal has a shingle beach not sand..........mmmmmmm pebbles.

I was humoured while I set about collecting some pebbles and even got some help with some brought for my inspection, were they the right shape, colour, size? So in return I made him a paperweight, the one decorated with the bicycle. Can you believe the Silhouette cut that! You might recognise the CK tape and yep, the tattered floral die cuts too. The other one has a bit of simple paper doily - my favourite I think. All were finished with a good coat of mod podge to protect them.

And I promised to show you a view of the messy half of my craft room, I'm ashamed to say it still looks like this but I just concentrate on the tidy bit.

.....and don't think I've forgotten the high hat too it's on my long list of things to do.

Bye for now

Mini Hexie Love

You may have noticed how I've been a little obessed with hexies lately (No!) well imagine my delight when I found a quilt card for download on the Silhouette that was made up of hexagons. Happy.

I made a couple of cards using it (sorry no photos I forgot! bad blogger) and then started thinking how perfect it would be to use the cut outs with fabric. The size I cut out are much smaller than the 1" ones I've been using for my quilt, you can see the difference in size. They measure 5/8" which is 1.5cm. Can you believe people make whole quilts using ones this small. How would you have the patience....

......so I had a little experiment and came up with this.

a mini hexie bag charm. Think I'm going to be making more :-)

Like a Craft Butterfly

Hi. Today I have a layout to share. I was playing with the photo booth option on the computer and thought one of the photos would be good for a layout to record my love of craft and how I seem to flit from one thing to another. At the moment I seem to love all things quilty. This morning I brought home a collection of quilting books from the library and my eyes lit up when a copy of Amy Butler, In Stitches had just been returned.

I'd seen and loved this sketch from Sketchy Thursdays. I immediately thought that one of my butterfly downloads for the Silhouette would be perfect. I used the half that I cut off as a frame for my journalling. You might also spot more of my Cath Kidston tape and one of my own printed canvas labels.

I quite liked using the sketch and I didn't spend long deliberating over which paper to use I just did it. The butterly printed card had been hanging around in my stash for ages and was the perfect match for the background paper.

With a sense of satisfaction and some scrapbooking done I can now get back to a bit of sewing.

Place Card Ideas

This week I've been asked to make some place cards for a ruby wedding anniversay celebration. I wanted to try and make something a bit different to a traditional place card.

So I gathered some supplies........

Red tissue paper, a die cut butterfly, some circle stickers, thin florist wire, cake decorating flower stamens, a red promarker and ribbon.

And this is what I came up with.

I'm loving paper flowers and I thought it would be a good way to include a bit of 'ruby' colour. This is version one I may tweak a few things what do you think?

This Moment Canvas

Hi. Crafting time has been in short supply this week. It may have something to do with  Pinterest ;-) 

However I did find time last weekend to do some creating with friends.

I used one of my many canvases and created a background with book paper, paint, sprays and stamps. I had no real idea about what was going to appear on my background and then I remembered the This Moment Camera I downloaded for the Silhouette.

I cut the image from plain white lightweight cardstock which looked much better after a bit of inking and stamping. By happy coincidence the camera apperture framed the sprayed dots perfectly. A bit of doodling and paper flowers were the final addition.

And if you're wondering about Pinterest I think I'm going to find it invaluable for keeping all my favourite things in one handy place. Things like the tutorial for making the napkin flowers

Source: dana-made-it.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Happy pinning

To doodle or not to doodle

Hi. In my journal post I mentioned that I'd used waste from cutting out shapes on my page but didn't actually explain how so let me put that right. If you feel nervous about doodling on a page then this idea might just help.

I created this bee by using the waste from the cut out as a template and stencilled the bee shape with some shimmering watercolour paint. When it was dry I traced the outline with a black pen.

I used the detail on the actual cutout as a guide of the other details to add to my sketch. If you don't have a digital cutter then you might own a die cut machine like the one I used to cut out these flower shapes from some grungepaper.

You can see from the paint around them that I've already used them as a stencil on another project but because the grungepaper is fairly sturdy they make a great template to draw around and that's what I did here with some doodled flowers.

Another idea for using cut out waste is to use it as a negative image as I've done here with the birds sat on a line.

I think sometimes to make the best of any cut out shape you have to get a bit creative.

This angel wing appears on a card I was asked to make but I wasn't quite sure how to feature the double wing shape. So after I'd opened up the software I got rid of the cut out parts on one side of the wing and cut it out. I added a tiny bit of glitter and folded the solid part of the wing behind the cut out part to give it a bit of dimension. Although this is on a card it would look brilliant on a journal page.

I hope I've given a few ideas I have to say I now love doodling. I'll be back soon to share some of my journal pages that I had a lot of fun creating over the weekend.

Happy Creating.

Absolutely Fabulous

Hi are you enjoying the lovely Spring weather still?

I've created a blooming tag inspired by recipe #34 at Chicken Soup. I first embossed the tag with roses and painted it with some pink craft paint followed by distress crackle in picket fence. The twine is twisted paper string which I coloured with shabby shutters distress ink and I made more of the paper flowers that I love so much finished with pearl centres.

I had a paper flower left over so after having a play with the Silhouette I cut out a frame and a bird on a branch by House of Three.

It's hard not to be tempted when visiting the online Silhouette shop and I downloaded these two files at different times but it struck me that they would look perfect together and make a great card.

I cut all the elements for the 'party chica' onto plain white cardstock and coloured them using promarkers and for her sunglasses added a touch of glossy accents. The other file was 'fabulous stacker'.

.....absolutely fabulous.

Happy Mother's Day

Hi. Where has the time gone since my last post? In between craft sale preparations, having a birthday, work, shopping, trying to tidy up and dealing with the post holiday washing pile a week went by in a blink of an eye.

I did find time to peruse the Silhouette site and found these fab little envelopes.

And so to this weekend. Today in the UK we are celebrating Mother's Day so to add to my list of things to do I'd decided sometime ago to make a bag for my Mum. I found the perfect colour fabric in the form of some linen napkins in a charity shop.......but I don't think you'd guess that is what it is made from, would you? I know for sure she'll like the colour. For the card I downloaded some pretty birds on a wire and cut them out of some textured self adhesive paper along with the sentiment.

I also spotted this jug which I thought would be perfect for my Mum to mix a sangria in now that she can look forward to warmer days and evenings in her garden. I printed out a recipe and popped it inside. If we should return to the cold and chilly hopefully the rose and peony scented candle will remind her that Summer will soon be on it's way.

And today to complete my Mother's Day meal I'm making this so let's hope it is 'golden'.....

Nigella doesn't normally let me down so fingers crossed.

Chicken Soup and a Winner

Hi

How are you on this Valentines Monday morning? I feel in a bright mood as I'm delighted to say that the sun is shining. In my garden the bulbs are starting to appear and that can only mean one thing............. Spring is on it's way.

Today also marks the first day of the free e-course I signed up for at Kim Klassen. Registration for the Photoshop Skinny-Mini stays open until 16th February so if you fancy giving it a go sign up what have you got to lose - Nothing! I'm hoping to pick up some basic skills and knowledge to set me on my way to creating beautiful photos. Well I can dream.

This is the inspiration this week at Chicken Soup

I created a card inspired by the white woodwork and floral print mugs

As a finishing touch I added one of the paper flowers I've been making with the addition of a button centre tied with some jute string. I cut the frame on my Silhouette using some pretty floral print paper and inside the frame I used some embossed kraft brushed with some gesso. 
And lastly I have the winner of my birthday blog giveaway to announce........

........................... Congratulations Sonja as your latest blog post said 'you've got to be in it to win it'! Make way for some stash coming your way.

I Love Sock Monkeys

When I saw this weeks free shape from Silhouette I knew I had to make something using it.

You see sock monkeys make more than one appearance in my house. There is one who looks down on me from high on a shelf in my kitchen.

......and another in my craft room wearing some funky looking spots.

Maybe it's time I added to my collection.............. or I could just make another card or maybe even a layout featuring my existing duo.

I do have some socks left over from when I made this pair of monkeys so if you have any other ideas on what to make let me know.

Create

Hi. Have you had a creative weekend. Mine started on Friday when I spent the day chatting and eating cake with some friends with a bit of creating thrown in. I downloaded some cute birdhouses for the Silhouette which we decorated in our way. With the addition of a door I can see these making great little beach huts.

In fact my friends were so impressed with the Silhouette they had to buy their own so in between the eating cake, chatting and creating we had a shopping excursion too. I hope you like it girls. Looking at the Silhouette blog I was interested to see that there are some new lines being introduced and fabric interfacing is one of them. I think there are going to be some tutorials coming up on how to cut fabric so I'll be keeping an eye on that.

For my February Monthly Make I thought I'd do a bit of papercrafting and a bit more getting to know my Silhouette.

I cut out one of the pennant shapes that comes with the studio software and used some of my neglected material girl paper to decorate. 

I can see real potential in these with all kinds of uses............I just need to make a note of them so I don't forget.

The little dog you can see keeping watch is by Total Pap. I should really take some photos of the windows they have done locally as they are amazing and much nicer to look at than an empty shop window and there are a lot of empty shops!

Happy creating.
 

Hello Dolly

Hi

Do you remember the doll swap I signed up for? So far I've had visits from two dolly friends to have their body decorated (best not mention that!), their face created and most recently I had a new arrival for a hair appointment. 

Meet Dolly.

Dolly belongs to Sonja and I did check with her first if she wanted to keep tabs on Dolly's progress so Dolly says 'Hi Sonja I hope you like my hair?'. And as all good hairdressers do I'll show you the back view too.

Dolly is packing her bags and getting ready for the next step of her journey while I await the arrival of a new doll.

This week I've been getting to grips with a new addition to my crafting kit - a Silhouette. I'd considered getting one some time ago and then reconsidered but after seeing how much Sandra liked hers and finding one at a bargain price I took the plunge. And now? I'm so pleased I did. I've been amazed at what it can achieve. Here are a few cards I've made using it.

This card uses the free shape for download last week - a dressform. (yes, that is more Glitz paper you can see!)

I couldn't resist this Keep Calm and Carry On sentiment.

This Happy Birthday sentiment comes free with the software. I put it together with a card blank by Craftwork Cards they measure 8x8 and I love working with them. This one is inked with distress inks and stamped with a leaf stamp around the edge. The watch stamp was free with craft stamper last month and once stamped I finished it off with a bit of glossy accents on the watch face. Some die cut tattered leaves and a couple of flourishes to finish. 

I have to say that I've had fun learning how to use it so far and I hope to learn lots more. I'll keep you posted.