My inspiration book

It is my turn to post on It's a Creative World, so I thought I would post a link here for you.  Here is one of the books I made a while back and you can see some of the contents of it over here :)

WOYWW - 3rd Anniversary

I saw that it was the 3rd anniversary of Whats on your Workdesk Wednesday and it reminded me I haven't  joined in for ages...so I did a quick tidy (yes it was incredibly messy and still not that great) and took a photo for you.

So here is my desk, with my sewing machine tucked on the side...you can see lots of debris from some recent projects including the plates I used to make a circle on a page, and a pile of Crate Papers Pretty Party there, some paint dishes, tape and a Union Flag ready for the weekend (though this has King George on it).

I thought I would add this photo too just 'cos I like all the colours....I have been trying to keep the negatives from punches and seeing whether I can use them anywhere else....I'll let you know.  I'll show you what I created with these papers at the weekend.

Hope you are having a lovely Wednesday and here is the link if you would like to join in.

100% Boy

Here is my page from my Trends on Tuesday post over at A Trip Down Memory Lane.  I had a go at using negatives, and the lovely Crate Paper Random collection with a little Farmhouse thrown in.  The picture is of my son just sat on the edge watching some roller skating in a school hall, and I caught his attention to get the photo.

I started the page with some more scrapes of gesso (I now have an old credit card style card to do the scraping rather than the cardboard).  I also added some watered down flicks in either corner.  I cut a yellow strip of the Farmhouse paper and die cut 4 stars which I then stitched together to make a little banner under the photo.  I stitched all my pieces of paper with black cotton this time so it stood out, and inked the edges.  I added a few more stars and used my favourite abstract flower punch by ek success.   The title fits with my son, as he is definitely a boys boy, though in his own words he does play with tom boys too.

Here is the link to the post as it gives some more examples of negative space I found on my blog hopping.

A quick pop in and a link for you

Another quick pop in and post.....it is another Trendy Tuesday over on the A Trip Down Memory Lane blog....so here is my sneak peak to a new page, and a clue to what I was looking at :)

here is the link

A Snapshot

The challenge for the rest of April over at the Studio Challenge Blog is to use your favourite things...so I did use lots of favourites, and had a go at being really inky and messy as I am loving that at the moment. 

The shot is from a camping trip last year where the heavens opened as we were walking up a hill, so we all nipped into a little wood area, and whilst the kids were climbing trees we got them to stage a photo for us.

The papers are from Echo Parks Charming collection (which I am enjoying).  The page actually started with me die cutting some chevrons (which went a little wrong as they were meant to be in a frame but my paper wasn't quiet in the right place so the frame was missing on one side), before I got to use the chevrons I did some misting.  For the mists I used a prima square mask which I lay on the diagonal and then spritzed with some blue patina and light brown glimmer mist, and then some of the zingy green cosmic shimmer.  I also added some drips of ink around the page too.  I then stuck the chevrons on behind the photo, and once in place I added some gesso just smearing it across them with a card to add some texture.  I then started the layering with little bits of paper and journal cards, and a doily.  I used some of the EP stickers as I liked the film strip - I used the small black dots from this on the page too.  I painted a dusty attic branch and hung some cameras from it with green twine.  Added some washi take and metal embellishments, then used the EP stickers for the title as well as a type writer font too which I printed on white paper.

I really enjoyed playing with lots of different items for this page and getting all inky - if you want to join in with us then here is the link,

Birthday Cards

For my post over at A Trip Down Memory Lane I had a look at tabs that are quite trendy to use at the top and bottom of your pages (and a fab use of the odds and ends of paper that you are left with).  I decided to see whether they would work on a card too, and this is what I came up with.  I used some of the Crate Paper Farmhouse collection and some garden twine, punches and stamps.  I secured my twine behind the tabs and then stapled it across the card, and hid the end again at the bottom behind the tab.  I stapled some Martha Stewart butterflies along the twine and added Happy Birthday using some silicon glue.

This is the card that I made for my nieces - I cut out the 5 using my silhouette and then layered up lots of strips of kaisercraft papers behind the die cut.

We've got a busy weekend with a swimming gala and a dance/singing performance but I should be back on Sunday with a page.  Hope you all have a great Friday.

Game On

I recently picked up a pack of the This and That charming collection by Echo Park - I had been on the blog hop and see sooo many beautiful projects that I had to get some!  The photos are from our trip to Tower Bridge (I know more) and they had some traditional games spread out along the walk ways which my kids loved having goes on.  I tried to make my page into a kind of pin board with the twine and clips, and went for a 4 areas kind of page.

I started with working out what bits of paper I wanted to use and how big they were, then used this to work out where I wanted the paint to go (which is watered down gesso).  I dry brushed some lines behind the photo matts and added some flicks of watered down gesso in both corners.  Once that was all dry I started sticking down my paper layers which I inked, stitched and distressed.  I also added a glassine bag with a spot for some more journalling.  Next I made the tabs for each corner - the bottom one was done using the EK Success abstract punch....I meant to cut out some little circular doilies with it, but got my measurements wrong, but still like the result so incorporated it into my page.  For the top one I added one of the postage stamp stickers that comes in the kit.  I made some banners and added some more bits of paper, and some of the offcuts from one of the border stickers.  I used another one of my paper chase arrow paperclips too.  Once that was all done I added the jillibean title with the green EP stickers, and then started my trail of twine across the page, wrapping it around brads as I went.  I added a bit of journalling on the page to fill one of my 1/4s too.