Love Snow with October Afternoon

The third page I made with my kit from ATDML using October Afternoon's Under the Tree, I went with an older snow picture as the papers really work well for those snow scenes.  I started with some strips of paper, and then I decorated each one slightly differently.  I distressed the edges and added a little lace on the snowflake paper, then stamped and hid my title amongst the red.  I created a little ribbon of twin and added snowflakes on the blue, with little pearls in the centre.  I created a banner with another snowflake and some washi tape on the chevron paper.  I made the photo into a polaroid, cut out a snowman and added some of the embellishments from the October Afternoon ephemera pack, as well as the wood veneer word "joy" from the Simple Stories Claus and Co papers

Have to Wear the Hat

I know Christmas was a while back, but in the scrapping world you are pretty much always in catch-up, so I thought I'd show you some of my Christmas pages (I am hoping for some snow this year to, as I love snow pages...and snow too :)).  I started this page with several circles from the October Afternoon "Under the Tree" collection that I got sent by Mel and Jill from ATDML for my kit.  I layered them at the top of the page, then used the papers to create a photo mount, then some washi and lace as well as a doily, gold thread and some bells from the ephemera pack that comes with the papers.  I also used a Kaisercraft Christmas Basic sticker and woodgrain heart to complete the page.

I'll be back with some more Christmas pages, also this weekend is our first Virtual Crop of the year and I creating a year in review type page for 2015, some of the kits are still available to if you'd like to join in with a kit pop along to the shop.

Museum Love and Day Trips - free classes

Here are the 2 pages that I made for my Virtual Crop Class over at ATDML - you can download the instructions for free from here.  I used the Public Library papers by October Afternoon, and the slightly vintage feel went well with some of my photos from the Natural History Museum (yes I love that place - not only for it's contents but also because the building is so pretty!).  I had a play with creating an ombre effect with the papers too, and a resist technique on the alphabet.

For my second page I used diamonds - there are lots of pages with this sort of design on, so I don't know where the idea originated from to credit it, so here is my version.  I hand cut embellishments to decorate the diamonds - with my boat and cloud, I also did some layering to create a bit of texture too.

Inspiration Elevator - Grandad

 Here is my page base on the challenge over at the Inspiration Elevator this month - there is loads of inspiration on the blog hop and you can catch us on Facebook  and share your creations there; we'd love to see how we have inspired you!

This month we are thrilled to welcome back as a guest designer with our team, the artistic and genteel, Scarlett Salomone. Her creative works are as lovely as she is!

This month's challenge is issued by the talented Wendi Robinson. Her first time to issue a challenge for IE and it's a great one! Here is her challenge in her own words:

LOSS... One thing we as scrapbookers do is post about lots of happy things, wonderful moments, things that make us smile, and things we want to remember. Too many times we avoid scrapping the not so memorable, or sad times. Most of us have experienced a loss of some kind, whether is be a loved one- sometimes it's expected, sometimes the loss comes too soon and unexpected. Other times we lose a pet, a job, feel like we've failed at a situation, or loss of a friendship. This time, let's scrap those harder moments that come into our lives. Scrap about a LOSS of some kind.

For my page I scrapped a photo of my Grandad - this is probably from the 1940s when he was a young man.  I remember him for Saturday mornings where he taught us how to watercolour, made the largest omelettes, and evenings when he looked after us and we had massive card games and watched the Waltons, in all that he was also a devout Christian and Sunday School teacher which he loved - so even though it is a loss to not have him about anymore he has had a massive impact on all of my family and our lives.

Wendi Robinson

Katherine Sutton

Lisa Moen

Lisa Speigel

Ann Jobes

Jayne Morgan
Michelle Hernandes

Guest Designer: Scarlett Salamone

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Here is the page that my previous 3 photos were meant to fit on!  It is full of October Afternoon Midway and also a fantastic free silhouette cut file by Nicola Nowosad - I love the piecharts and they went perfectly with the October Afternoon papers - it was a little fiddley backing the pie charts and sticking it all onto the page, but I love the result. I used lots of stickers too - some Simple Stories DIY Shop triangular banners and then OA stickers on the top, a prima wood veneer and sequins.

I love the photos from this ride as it is such a traditional fairground attraction and the weather and sky were just beautiful...somewhere amongst the throng of people is my husband and son spinning around!

Things that make you go Ahhhhhh!

I actually took some scrapping away on holiday with me and here is one that I managed.  The photos were originally for another page - as an additional 3....but I couldn't fit them all on so popped them on a page of their own.  They are all from one of those big swings - and it is one of those rides that just makes my stomach go - hence the title!

I started with a spritz of October Afternoons pumpkin mist, and then layered up papers from the October Afternoon Midway collection - with a doily underneath.  I kept it all very minimal - just added a flag and punched some hearts, and then a few stickers and buttons....you would think that this page took no time at all - but somehow I can spend ages pushing pieces of paper around!  I also added a few drops of perfect pearls too just to add a little bit of glamour!

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A different October Afternoon range today - this one is Midway - it is one of my all time favourite lines, I love the bright colours and designs...I bought the whole pack of papers, and only have scraps left (which obviously I couldn't throw away) - so my stash refreshed by ATDML - this is what I came up with.

I used a free silhouette die cut by Nicole Nowosad - and as I only have a little silhouette I couldn't do the whole page cover thing which she does so beautifully on her blog, so I decided to cut it and use it at each side, I then backed some of the circles (this was fiddely as it is a fine cut) - and then added sequins and stickers and a Simple Stories burlap banner.  It is a shot from Butlins and an amazing swing ride that they had - the kids loved it!

School Days

My kit from ATDML this month was October Afternoon, and as I had the papers out and to hand during the Cybercrop a few weeks back, I made some pages with it for that too.  I started with some mists and a stencil and tore some A4 paper in half to create the area I wanted for the mist.  I used the Public Library range of papers, which is lovely and full of vintageness - so I layered up lots of strips of paper behind the photo and hen embellished with some of the stickers - like the pile of books and the little 'Learn' flag, and made myself some buying by cutting out the numbers and then stapling it on twine.  A few wood veneers - the apple went perfectly with the theme and then the arrows to draw attention to the little title.  I've had this picture printed out for ages, but not used it, so they were the perfect papers for it.

I'll be back with more October Afternoon later on in the week - you can also find another page appearing on Created by ATDML today here.

Post holiday and Cybercrop

I was very slack and didn't carry my blog on seamlessly over the my holiday (lots of photos from that to scrap).  So just before I went away there was the ATDML Cybercrop - all the classes are up on the shop website under the 2014 Cybercrop heading (this one is Waterloo).  There is stacks of inspiration, tutorials and ideas so even though you can't join in the challenges - the classes are all there - I know I will be having a go at a few more over the coming weeks.

So here are some shots from my class - I did a double and single page LO all using October Afternoons Farm Girl collection.  For this page I used loads of patterned papers, along with stitching (I love that circle pattern - my favourite paper I think!) and then I made a little lace button flower too.  The photo is an instagram - I like the frames that you get...and having recently got a Canon Selphy I can now print them out really easily and get them quickly.

Here is my double page spread using a mix of 6 by 4 and 4 by 4 shots - I just cut my 6 by 4's down to 4" square photos rather than do that all on the computer.  The theme for this class was using water and I used distress inks to make some watercolour circles.  Having moved into using some pocket pages in my scrapping it was nice to have a go at a double page LO - something I haven't done in ages!

Christmas gift ideas with Tando

This months theme over at the Tando Challenge blog is 'sparkle' so I made a couple of quick and easy gift tags for wine bottles.

I cut my tags out of kraft paper, and on the first used some glitter paper to make rolling hills of snow and then embossed a Tando post box with a glitter embossing powder.  I stamped some snowflakes and the Merry Christmas and then used a loop of red ribbon which is stapled behind the button, and the button stuck over the top with glue.  For the other tag I started with a few strips of washi tape across the middle and then a strip of silver glitter paper.  I punched a scalloped circle and single circle, using some foam pads for the top circle and then added one of the Tando reindeer to the top - I simply covered this in brown distress ink.  I punched a snowflake out of the bottom corner of the the tag and then stamped and attached the ribbon as before.

There is still time to join in our challenge and there is chipboard goodness up for grabs, here is the link.

Christmas cards and playing with a new product

I was sent a tub of ThermoMorph to review - it is a mouldable plastic that you heat up in boiling water and then you have some time to mould it before it sets hard - you can remelt it by popping it back in the water.  ThermoMorph comes in a big jar - I have hardly made a dent in it, and consists of lots of tiny white balls you place them in boiling water and they turn clear and then clump together and become very sticky.  Using some tweezers you get out the mix and then checking it is cool enough you can mould it, you have to mould it fairly quickly as it starts to go hard fairly quickly once it is out of the water.

So I started using my silicone moulds and made some flowers - I soon realised that less is more, as this is not a self levelling liquid, you can cut a little bit of the excess off around the edge if you are quick, but the best way is just put less in the mould.  I then had a go at rolling it, again fairly quickly and I used some star cutters (which I did have to trim around the edge of with scissors as I couldn't get mine to cut all the way through), and then scissors and a pencil and was able to curl some strips too.

The exercise after that was colouring the white plastic.  I tried some water based paints with little success, I then used alcohol inks, and had a little experiment with glitter - again whilst it was fresh out of the water and still sticky and malleable.  So I guess you want to see the results.

I used one of the stars and gold alcohol ink with a drip of yellow into the middle

I was quite liking the gold, so went with that and also tried red and blue which was one of the challenges over at Jennifer Grace's blog this weekend with her Frosty Festivities

Here are some of the cards I made with the cabochon flowers.

I really liked colouring them gold, and it took really well.

This one I coloured red and then brushed on some gold.  I also tried colouring them with pro markers and this worked well too.  If you are wondering about the papers they are by October Afternoon and called Make it Merry.

You get a huge quantity in the tub which is great and you don't really need any fancy tools to use it, it makes cabochons really well, and very quickly.  They colour excellently with alcohol inks.  I guess my  negatives are trying to work out a way to keep it a little more malleable for longer and perhaps having it available in smaller less expensive sizes too, for someone that just wants a go.

Here is a link to where it is sold on amazon, and if you check the reviews you will see other bloggers who have reviewed this product and you can compare our results and experiences there too.