News and a Link

I am delighted to have been invited back for another term at the Studio blog....and the team has doubled in size with lots of fantastic paper creators to give you inspiration, if you want to see who has joined us then here is a link.

Also I have just posted over at Created by ATDML about this

I reckon you'll know what I am talking about from that clue....so here is a link to the full post.

Baking Cakes

I created this page for the studio challenge blog, there is a sketch to use and I followed it fairly closely.  It is a proud photo moment too....as this was my first use of my piping bag for decorating cakes and I wasn't sure how they were going to turn out, but I was really pleased with the end result.

The papers are all from the Dear Lizzy range by American Crafts and are 'hundreds and thousands' (sprinkles) colours.  I used a plate to cut out the circle which I inked and stitched around, I hand cut all the pieces except for the small circle....anything circular in my house is at risk of being drawn around for a page.  The bunting is also part of the Dear Lizzy range, so I had fun detaching it from the large sheet and arranging it on the page.  I added a few flicks of green shimmer mist and sine Nartga Stewart butterflies, the cake embellishment is by American Crafts too.  My final step was a line around the page to frame it.

If you'd like to join in and see lots more inspiration then here is the link

Home Sweet Home

I haven't created any home decor items in ages, so when the challenge to use some bunting came up at the ATDML cybercrop I decided to create a little piece for our house.

I started by die cutting the letters on my silhouette and the tag was a free shape I could play around with.  I coated the Kaisercraft frame in white and then layered up some stitched pieces of Crate Papers Farmhouse Collection on the back of the frame.  I then added twine and threaded it carefully through my tags, sticking down the tags at the same time - this was a little fiddly trying not to move what you had stuck as you went.  I then stuck a button over the end of each piece of twine.  I added a few of the stickers and chipboard pieces to either side of the frame too - I love how quick and easy it is to embellish something using all the little stickers you get in collection packs, which is funny as it isn't something that automatically jumps into my cart when I shop (I mainly go for paper!), so note to self next time to have a browse through all the wonderful stickers.

Even my husband likes this, which is praise indeed from someone that doesn't appreciate the need for pretty non essential things around the house :)

Sweet Dreams and some Exciting News

This is an older shot of my eldest son, and I still love it - he is asleep on my shoulder.  The photo was quite orangey so I decided to print it in black and white.

For the page I used Websters Pages In Love range.  I started by drawing 3 circles in the corner of my page in pencil (I used the inside of a roll of masking tape...yes a compass would have been easier).  I then stitched around the circles 3 times and rubbed  out the lines. I punched some circles and then folded in each side - the easiest way to do this is to make a little square template to use on each one and then fold.  I will try and put together a little tutorial on this as it is really easy.  I put the folded circles in lines on the right hand side of the page and then used the punch circle waste behind my photo.  I also created a little folded flower from a strip of paper and doily edge punch (yep another on my list of tutorials to do - it is so quick and easy too), and made some leaves cutting out the shape with pinking shears and embossing some veins on them, then rubbing over distress ink.  I cut out some hearts added lots of stitching and then finished it off with the title and some flicks of white acrylic.  

This is the last page I did for the A Trip Down Memory Lane gallery, though there is a card too.

Saving the exciting news til last;  I am absolutely delighted to have been invited to join the Tando Design Team.  

If you haven't heard of Tando they are a British company that creates beautiful chipboard pieces from 3D objects to pieces for cards and pages, as well as a lovely range of masks.  I'll be back at the end of the month with a page I have just created, here is a link to the blog so you can meet all the other new members of the team and see all the inspiration and you can win some goodies too to celebrate.

http://www.atripdownmemorylane.co.uk/catalog/gallery.php?cid=10&rid=1

3 young cousins

I just realised I have a little group of pages I haven't shown you yet, I have another page and card from the beautiful kit that Mel and Jill put together at A Trip Down Memory Lane to show you over  the next few days.  This page was made with the In Love collection by Websters pages.

I wanted to have a go at an oversized photo, though I didn't have much luck printing it out as a 12"....so I had to settle for 6 by 8 - next time I will try and get a print to fill the page and make sure my camera is on the correct setting :)  I am still enjoying using negative space on my pages so I cut a thick band of paper and then die cut the 3 young cousins....a take on the 3 wise monkeys.  I layered paper and doily behind the die cuts to make them stand out more, and stitched around the 3 with black embroidery thread.  With the photo filling so much of the page my embellishments were strips of the paper that I ruffled, folded and stitched on - Websters have those lovely strips at the bottom of the pages that you can cut off and use as paper ribbons.  I also added a banner of hearts and one of the journal spots too...the last bit was a few flicks of black ink.

So here are 2 of my nieces and my son, I love the photo as it captures a bit of each of their characters all in one go....those that know my son will not be surprised that he is talking, or that my middle niece is giggling, and my smallest niece is holding onto doggy and looking seriously to one side to work out what she is meant to be doing.

There is lots of inspiration up in the gallery so I shall leave you with a link to it.

I have a good Bowl

I made this page and used it for my post on chevrons over at Made by ATDML.  I found a zig zag in the free shapes on my silhouette so went about cutting it out in several different colours from Crate Papers Farmhouse collection (I still love this range :))  I stuck and layered up all my pieces of paper and then stitched around the edge (which also helps hold it on really well as there were so many bits).  I then die cut some stars and tried to carefully match them up with places on the chevron pattern so they were camouflaged - this took some time :D  I think an easier shape would have been a circle or not to have them overlapping lots of different colours and patterns!  I also stitched a little banner of stars too for under the photo.  Again my silhouette for the title - don't worry I didn't staple them on to the photo I stapled them before I stuck them down and then just inked the edges.

So that was the construction of the page, the inspiration mostly came from this page  as I loved the camouflage effect, I will have to have another go as I've just seen this which is totally gorgeous too.

The photo is from the cricket club last year and the title is a quote he came back with from it - he was very proud to be told he had a good bowl, and having watched him play cricket again recently he has obviously listened and learned a lot about bowling from the club.

Also my post on trends is up over at ATDML looking at triangles.

Catching the News

Here is my page for the studio challenge - you have a selection of beautiful pastel colours to draw your inspiration from, pink, a golden tan, grey, black (ok not pastel) and duck egg blue and I decided to include them in another messy page.

For the colours I chose Websters pages In Love collection, I'll have some more pages from this range later in the week as I was sent them from A Trip Down Memory Lane.  I also took inspiration from the circles (and a link to a Dyan Reaveleys video my friend Virginia pointed me in the direction of!). I started with my overlapping circle mask, and sprayed with brown, blue, green, black and white mist over the page. Once I had done all that spraying I used the other side of the mask to make some prints on the page too - like in the bottom right hand corner.  When this was dry I then painted gesso around some of my plates and an holding masking tape role, I then spritzed a little more with the brown glimmer mist as the gesso was a bit too white.  Next was to start placing my papers - I am down to off cuts of these papers as I've used  them on a few other projects, so I cut some strips and rectangles, stitched and inked them up.  I also added some dictionary paper which I glued and then covered the edges with gesso too.  I made a paper pleat for the right hand side of the photo and added some lace on top too.  At the moment I am enjoying using twine on my projects, so I added some loops with a Martha Stewart butterfly at the end, then a  little stamp with some MME stamps a mix of prima and AC thickets for my title, the journalling and all done.

The photo - on Sundays my Mum and Dad get a whole selection of papers in, and so when we get together for Sunday lunches there after lunch most of us dip into the papers.  I hadn't realised that my son has obviously observed this too....and it made me smile when I caught him on the sofa with the paper!

Here is a link if you want to come and see the rest of the pages the DT have created and also to join in with us.