Festival girl

Well the children don't go back to school 'til tomorrow, so there's no chance of me getting any scrapping done yet....but in the meantime here's a page I finished just before Christmas. I love these pictures of Jessie at Greenbelt the other year, and wanted to create a really colourful, festival feel to the page.

I used paper piecing to create both the background and some embellishments for this layout. First I used Fancy Pants 'Summer Soiree' Paper for the background and cut along the sun's 'rays' with a craft knife. I then stuck a variety of patterned paper pieces behind the holes and machine stitched along the joins, adding ric-rac for extra interest.
To create the girl and rainbow embellishments, I stamped them onto different scraps of patterned paper and then cut out each section, before glueing them back together.

I stepped right out of my comfort zone layering stickers and alphas and journaling boxes...but I loved making this page!

'Festival Girl'

Supplies: Paper & Cardstock – Fancy Pants, Creative Memories, We R Memory Keepers, Love Elsie, Junkitz; Stickers – Cosmo Cricket; Alphabets – American Crafts Thickers, Sticker Trendz; Journaling box – K & Co.

Sketch club challenge @ the Christmas Craft & Crop

In every spare moment I've been getting ready for the Christmas Crop ...and here are the designs for the sketch club challenge. I've loved making these. I kept the sketch simple as I wanted it to be suitable for card-makers too - and I think it worked! If you would like to see the actual sketch look here.

'Snowy friends'

Supplies: Paper & card - Creative Memories, Papermania; Snowflake border punch - Martha Stewart; Stamps - free with 'Papercraft Essentials' magazine.

 

'Frosty the Snowman'

Supplies - Card - Bazzill bling; Sticker - Penny Black; Ribbon - from stash; Gem - Paper cellar; Snowflake border punch - Martha Stewart; Small snowflake punch - Creative Memories

'Probably ...'

Supplies: Carstock - Creative Memories, Bazzill bling; Paper - Basic Grey; Letter stickers - American Crafts 'Thickers', Stickopotamus, Words & Crafts; Brad - American Crafts; Snowflake border punch - Martha Stewart; Small snowflake punch - Creative Memories; Snowflake die - Sizzix; Ribbon - from stash.

Sneak Peek

Only two weeks to go before the Christmas Craft & crop!!! I thought I'd post a quick sneak peek of the acrylic album. If you'd like to book a place, do email me and I'll send you a booking form x

Christmas Craft and Crop 2011

It's that time of year again! The Scrap Happy 'Christmas Craft and Crop' is on Saturday November 19th at Keene Hall in Galleywood, Chelmsford. Whether you are a scrapper, or a card maker, or a bits'n'bobs crafter...this will be a fantastic day.

Running from 10am til 5pm (with half day options available), you can make the day your own! Spend the day scrapping your own projects or use the time to get your Christmas cards made. Alternatively, book into the classes and enjoy the take'n'makes and demonstrations running throughout the day. Have a look here to find out more, and do email me for further info or to book a place.

Books on the go - The Big Book of Scrapbook Pages

Wow - what a fantastic book! (You can find it on Amazon here.)

On my friend Clare's recommendation, I snuck this into my Amazon trolley when no one was looking...and it's fab! There are so so so many beautiful layouts in here and I've been marking pages with post-it notes so I can go back and have a play later. If you love scrapbooking (and if you're in the UK you're probably still missing Scrapbook Inspirations and Scrapbook Trends), then do get your hands on this book:) 

To journal or not to journal???

The big question about this layout was whether or not to add any journaling. I'm a big fan of getting the stories down, especially in the children's albums...but as you can see, on this occasion I opted out. The photos look great but in actual fact Tom didn't have such a good afternoon. Before the races, the children have a choice of about thirty activities dotted around the field...and the real story is that it all proved too much for Tom and he had a huge stroppy meltdown. The happy photos at the end are thanks to the miracle working of his teacher.
So there is a story to tell, but I chose not to tell it. I really do believe in 'warts and all' journaling...but in years to come does Tom need to read that he had a bad day and it was embarassing for me having a wailing son in front of all the other parents? I thought not! I'm sure those of us who had happy childhoods also had 'meltdown' days but our memories filter out some of those bits. I'm happy for Tom's memory to do the same:)

'I ran in a race'

Supplies: Paper and cardstock - Creative Memories, Bazzill, SEI, The Girls Paperie; Stickers - American Crafts 'Thickers', Cosmo Cricket 'Tiny Type', My Little Shoebox 'Mini Alphabet Sticker'; Journaling boxes - October Afternoon, Echo Park; Bunting punch - Woodware

And at last...I have used my new 'bunting' punch on a layout!

Time flies!

Well, time flies! I can't believe I am now the Mum of a ten year old! It's fun (yet scary) to watch her become more independent and grown up. And to think that she has only one more year left at primary school!
Anyway, the challenge for me was what card to make for an "in-betweenie" - not too babyish, but not too grown up. Favourite colours blues and purples...but NOT pink!
I remembered some old Rusty Pickle paper lurking in my stash that seemed suitably 'doodly' and found some cool badges in Paperchase...and this is what I came up with....

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill Bling; Paper - Rusty Pickle; Badges - Paperchase; Stamps - Sizzix; Punches - woodware; Die-cut numbers - sizzix 'bigz sassy serif numbers'

I coloured the paper using my pro-markers (fantastic pens btw). I used pliers to remove the pins from the back of the badges, and then attached them to the card using sticky foam pads. The card then opens to reveal a big glittery '10' cut using sizzix dies.

I am now thinking of all the other cards I could make using badges...so watch this space!