The Tree Walk

I'm a bit late in sharing this post with you, I made for the Yellow and Black theme on the Tando Blog...though it is more brown and yellow with a little bit of black!

I started with 2 sorts of yellow paint and a credit card, and then smeared it in a rough square on my card stock, I also sprinkled some glitter into it.  I then set about making my squares and layered up lots of offcuts of papers from Crate Paper and American crafts, I used punching and distressed the edges and added doilies.  I then used lots of little bits of chipboard to add a focal point to the non-photo squares and again I painted these in the yellows - I used 2 flowers, and then a little butterfly that I added some silver glitter to and a button which I added bark lines to with a gel pen.  I then journalled around the edge of my square.

The photos are from the Tree Walk at Kew Gardens - it's a super walk if you don't mind heights.

My Blessings

This is my last challenge over with the ladies at the Studio…and one of the hardest - no photos, which is something I don't do very often!  Since Valentine's day has just past I went with pinks and hearts and looked at some of my blessings in life.

I started the page with gesso, then cut 2" squares from lots of different papers - mainly American Crafts and Crate Paper.  I dug out die cuts, stickers, chipboard, wood veneers and decorated each of my little squares adding words that all mean something to me :)  It was great fun to make and very therapeutic, I liked that I could just pile the page high with different things that I like.  I think this page might have to go in a frame and become so wall art in our house.

There is lots more inspiration for those picture less pages over at the Studio, so here is the link.

On Top of the World

This fortnights challenge over at the Studio blog is to take some inspiration from this pinterest photo.

So my page and inspiration might take a little explaining!  I went a little laterally and started with a different sort of mask - this was another one of the new goodies in my Tando pack and is called Burning Rubber which is 12" by 3".  I rotated it a few times and scrapped texture paste through the mask.  Once this had dried I then added some splashes of distress stains, adding a little water to make some of it drip.  I then layered up with a mixture of Dear Lizzy papers trying to pull some of the rich colours from the photos.  I then dug through my stash and layered up some October Afternoon word stickers, an Amy Tangerine layered sticker and some leaf ribbon too.  Lots of stitching and distressing of my papers, and a glassine pocket for behind the photo with an October Afternoon sticker at the top. I  then added some gold in the form of the gold sequins, and my title which is a mix of Glitz and American Craft thickers.  So lots of layers and details like the masks.

The photo is from a camping weekend where we walked up a massive hill with the kids, and it just felt like you were in the clouds as you could see for miles around.

There is lots of inspiration on the blog today and if you want to join in with us then there is a prize too...here is the link.

A couple of Cards on Tuesday

Catching up again and this time with some cards.  The first I made for the Tando blog, I had a go at an easel card which I love 'cos they are easy to make but just look a little different.  I used a mix of Crate Paper and American Crafts to decorate it - love the Dear Lizzy masons jars still and I used my Teresa Collins stamps to add the sentiments in the middle.  I then inked up a Tando star gold and tucked it behind the jar.  For the base of the easel I cut out a babygrow and wrapped it in twine, then adding a little star button which I embossed.

I'm still experimenting with my card making, and this card is a kind of random mixture of things that I would use on my scrap pages....in fact it is a lot of the left behind bits - I had a go at spritzing on a card, then layered up a doily, some embossed vellum, another mason jar as well as a sprinkling of sequins and little pearls.

Love This with Tando

It is Hearts and Swirls week this week over at the Tando blog so I dug out my Dear Lizzy papers and had a go at a heart filled page.  I started with the Tando heart mask and used 3 different colours of chalk ink, I then hand cut loads of hearts, stuck and stitched some of them down as a background, next layering up a doily and some flowers adding my photo to the middle.  I painted a Tando heart shaped button and then spritzed it with yellow mist, adding a pin behind and some twine to it, and then my journalling underneath.  I used an old Brenda Pinnick acetate style alpha for the word love and then my trusty pack of multicoloured simple stories alphabets.  

The photo is a phone photo taken underneath the Cutty Sark on one of our holiday days out...I had a bit of a play with some of the photo effects and played with over exposing the photo and adding some blue...but I love this shot of us all together.

For lots more inspiration check out the Tando blog here.

Always Performing

Well after a small computer 'ahh is it going to work again' it is all fixed and I am back to the world of blogging (and it was one of those computer things where nothing much had to be done so maybe it was dust or something just wasn't quite clipped in well enough but it did manage to make it un-useable!)

Here is my page for this fortnights Studio Challenge which uses a sketch by Val Mangan based on one of Chantelles pages - I do have several of these photos in different poses, so I could make a double page of it, but 2 is perhaps enough! :)  I used lots of Crate Papers DIY shop, a bit of layering and stitching and my favourite viewfinder (is that the word for it) die cut - I did save the other half!  I am really trying to use the things I stroke more....like the polaroid die-cut from Studio Calico too.  I'm loving little glassine envelopes for the journal pocket behind the photo at the moment, and I bought some new doilies in Waitrose (you can just about see it) and I inked it with Tea Dye distress ink, a scattering of sequins, then a mix of alphas from American Crafts and Carta Bella, the writing on the the Carta Bella stickers was white and didn't stand out enough against my page so I went around the edge with a black gel pen - I really like the hand made look that gives to it too.

Here is a link to lots more inspiration over at the Studio Blog and I hope you all have a super day.

Also I have a post up over at Created by ATDML looking at stamping a bit more on pages - here is the link.

Love this Boy and the twine challenge

Hello on a sunny morning and here is my page for this fortnights challenge over at the Studio Challenge blog, and the challenge is twine!  My Mum and I split a pack of American Crafts twine that we came across in TK Maxx and it was perfect for this challenge as there are so many colours.  So the twine on the page, I often use twine to wrap around things, so I wrapped the hearts in twine and then with little glue lines hung the hearts from my photo.  I did also make some twine flowers which will have to appear on another page as despite having me in the photo, so fully justified on having a few flowers on the page....they just didn't go!

The page is a mix of American Crafts Dear Lizzy and also Amy Tangerine's Yes Please collection, I layered up lots of different size papers and inked, stitched and distressed them.  I am also enjoying using vellum on my pages again - funny those loops in scrapping, I embossed it with my cuttlebug swiss dots folder (one of my go to embossing folders) and added that as another layer.  Nearly forgot the start of this page, so I used some texture paste and Tando's Random circle mask, which I let dry.  Then in my experimenting I added some gesso over the top with a palette knife, let it dry....then the chalk inks - I discovered this on Ingvlid Bloms blog, just using coloured chalk inks over gesso to make a cloudy sort of pattern...so easy and beautiful, so I went around the edge of the mask over the gesso with different colours I had pulled from the papers.  Next in an art journally style I stamped with the AC acyrlic grid stamp, doing the rolling stamp thing.  Then a little stamping with some very old Autumn Leaves flourish stamps, and then all the papers and hearts and twine.  I also cut out one of the Dear Lizzy mason jars and filled it with sequins, used some Teresa Collins word stamps and my new smash date stamp.

The photo is from our holiday back in half term, just near a climbing wall - I had a play overexposing it on the computer and making it black and white, and really like the way it turned out.

Happy Snaps

Ages ago I showed you a picture of my son with a silver bowl on his head (here)...well here is one of the more sensible shots!  

The papers are a mix of Fancy Pants Trendsetter and then a beautiful Ombre background from American Crafts Dear Lizzy.  I started the page by taking out the centre of the woodgrain paper so I could save it for another project and then added the Dear Lizzy paper to it, distressing the edges, I also damped the paper and pulled it down on a couple of edges and layered some paper and a punched piece and secured it all with a button.  I made my own bunting with some hand cut triangles and then some of the longer flags that come in their embellishment packs.  I made a little rosette flower with my sizzix die, then used a mix of embellishments from Crate Paper Cake Walk, Simple Stories butterfly sticker, Studio Calico wood veneers, Glitz washi tape, a Teresa Collins photo sticker which is attached to the journalling behind the photo and Prima's alphabet stickers.  It's quite a pink page for me, but with my niece wearing a bright pink cardigan I thought I could get away with it!

If you would like some more Fancy Pants inspiration then check out the gallery over at ATDML - here is the link.

Boats

Here's another page I did with my kit from ATDML - I had been admiring the beautiful Cameo die cut on Mary Ann Jenkins' blog and despite hunting the store I couldn't find it so sent me the link (thank you Mary Ann).  Once I had the die cut I then spent lots of time backing the die cut with lots of different patterned paper from the Maggie Holmes collection by Crate Paper.  I also used some of the tags and ephemera - love those large butterflies and a little wood veneer boat too.  The alphabet is from a Girls Paperie pack and the Ribbons are Amy Tangerine's American Crafts - the colours went perfectly.

The shots are from a little lake we visited and the kids loved going out in the boat and having a little explore, it was in the base of an old Quarry...you notice it was a lot earlier on in the year as despite the sunshine they are all well wrapped up.

The Studio Blog Hop

Welcome to the next step of the Studio Blog Lift Chain, you should you have come here from Hilde's blog and this is my lift of her layout.  It's really exciting as each of us has only seen the page of the person before us in the chain - so I am looking forward to seeing everyones creations.

I used some of the American Crafts Dear Lizzy papers for my page as one of them has a star chart which was perfect for this page as we met Charlie Walker (astronaut) at the Kennedy Space Centre last summer.  So this page was the perfect excuse to dig out all things starry and rockery - hence some Tando stars and an October Afternoon rocket.  The photos aren't great as we were inside but you got a chance to ask questions at the end of the talk - my eldest loved it (my youngest had a snooze :)) and so I said why don't you ask a question.  So 'cos I just love the space stuff we worked on a question, and then I got to hold up my hand as he still wasn't sure about asking...then just at that last moment he said, I'll do it, and the shot is of the microphone man waiting for him to ask the question and the title is our question.  Charlie said that there were many amazing things about space - the views of Earth being a massive highlight for him, but his favourite thing was being able to fly and feel a little like superman....which is pretty cool!

So the challenge for this fornight is to lift any of the layouts along the way, please link up your creations at the side bar of The Studio blog (link) for a chance to win a great prize from chipboard company Tando

Next on the hop is Anastasia 

and just incase you get lost or want to start from the beginning here is a list of all the links

The Studio -http://thestudio.amandajonesdesigns.com
Anna - www.madetoscrap.blogspot.com
Chantelle - http://chan3boys.blogspot.com.au//
Daphne - http://dapfniedesign.wordpress.com
Hilde -http://www.hildeaaslund.blogspot.co.uk//
Katherine - http://fruitofmyscraps.blogspot.co.uk
Anastasia - http://astero-en.blogspot.co.uk
Petra - http://www.mittkreativakaos.blogspot.co.uk
The Studio -http://thestudio.amandajonesdesigns.com

Couple of Clean and Simple cards

Here are a couple of bunting filled cards I made with the rest of my ATDML kit...really clean and simple - I also used the Simple Stories speech bubble stamp that I picked up at the retreat - it comes in a really nice set with cameras and arrows, all sorts, so I pegged it onto my washing line.

For the 2nd card I cut out a house from the Yes Please collection, then mounted it and added a small banner beneath - I also dug out some American Crafts stamps and tried some multi coloured chevron stamping which I want to try on a larger scale...I am really keen to try and use my stamps more on my projects and it's really easy with cards...next to try some more on my LOs!

Baby Chicks

This weeks theme of the Tando blog is Spring Colours....perfect timing really when you consider that the bluebells have finally appeared with the sun.  I used some papers from the American Crafts Dear Lizzy collection - you can propaply tell with the mason jars...and had a go at lots of punched layers (inspired by an article I read by Wendy Mckee).  I simply covered the chipboard in some chalk inks that went with the colours of the papers, they cover really - for the star embellishment I used a chipboard button for the base covered in blue ink, and then added a circle of paper and a chipboard star - I just inked the edges on this one.  For the butterfly embellishment, I punched a circle and wrapped some string around, then just inked the edges of the chipboard butterfly and that was the topper.

The photos are from a trip to a farm last year where my kids got to hold some baby chicks.

And the colour challenge on the Tando blog this month is purple, blue and white - and there are prizes on offer.  I was browsing through a copy of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities and decided to make some tags - covered them in distress ink, and then splatters of water.  I then used a mix of Teresa Collins and Prima Stamps....I inked the Tando compass with gold ink and sprinkled it roughly with silver embossing powder so there were patches not really covered and embossed it.  I added a little pile of cotton behind the compass as well as some dictionary paper.  I'll add a sentiment later, but thought it makes a fairly masculine card.

Also just to remind you that Tando have a DT call on at the moment - they are a fantastic British company specialising in chipboard and masks...you can find all the details here.

A Room With a View

The next fortnights challenge over at the Studio Blog is layering........which is something that I love.  I used a picture taken from my room over a frosty line of roof tops - it is hard to see from the page, the sunset was just beautiful and I tried to echo that in the colours of the papers - so used lots of Studio Calico HeyDay collection, along with some Dear Lizzy papers too.

I started with my parquet flooring style paper as the main matt (I love woodgrain :)), and then distressed the edges and ripped one a little layering lace and papers behind it.  I then cut a few journal tags, and several layers for behind the photo, ruffling, inking and adding lace.  The clouds are from Tando and I covered them in some texture paste to get that lumpy cloud feeling, and then made some banners of punched hearts which I stitched together.  I cut out a little mason jar from the Dear Lizzy papers and added a camera wood veneer - the word photos is from the October Afternoon Mid Way collection.  I stamped the title with Kaisercrafts typewriter stamps and then added my journalling in the bottom corner and a few flicks of white paint.

If you would like to join us this month in layering things up on your pages then here is the link,