Crafty Challenges

I've been enjoying being crafty this week and last week so I've got quite a few bits to share!
First up was Sunday's challenge at The Studio, this week the challenge was 'as it's my birthday week(not mine Amanda's!!), I want to see your birthday pages or mini albums! I always struggle to make birthday pages that don't look 'cheesy', so I'm looking forward to stealing all your ideas!'

I had some great photos to chose from of my nephew's Birthday a few weeks ago!

I love this photo of him as he looks like he's having a great time! He loved to sing along when ever anyone sang Happy Birthday to him even though he can't say the words properly yet!! I painted over some stars to leave the outlines of them. The music paper is actually Christmas paper but you can't tell that it is!!!

I also made this layout of my nephew, the photo was taken a whole year ago now! I do love this photo though it's so cute!

I launched a new kit on my shop on the 1st it's called 'Back to School' and is full of bright colours. So I made this layout with the kit I used some ribbon ric rac, stars, dictionary paper, my handmade felt pencils, arrows and handmade journaling cards. For the layout I used a Pencil Lines sketch, No.199.

The next two things are from The Studio Cybercrop I was hoping to do them before I went away but I ran out of time in the end.
The first one was a challenge to make a card using Cosmo Cricket papers so I made this with some lovely Delovely scraps!

I love the bright colours of the papers on white they really stand out.
The next one I did was a layout from a lovely sketch from Becky Fleck of Page Maps. My nephew again, I didn't realise they were all of my nephew, sorry about that!! He started playing around with a brolly but it wasn't even raining! I made my own little umbrella for it!

There were some great classes in the crop and I plan on doing some more soon! That's the beauty of Cybercrops they are always there to go back and look at! The winners have started to be announced now over on the blog there are lots of lucky people winning prizes!! Wish I could of won some of them!

I've been working on the Christening invites that I have to make, I've made all the bits for them now just got to assemble them! Thanks for your comments they are much appreciated and as always thanks for looking!! xx

Wedding Favours

I have lots of wedding themed things to show you today. I was asked to decorate a guest book for family friend, their colours were ivory, gold and green. I used some material on the bottom with frayed edges then layered it with gold angel hair paper, lace some green ribbon and some wedding ribbon. It is quite difficult decorating something for someone that you don't know that well, I really hoped they would like it and they were trilled with it so that was good!

This is what I did inside the first page, I keep it quite simple.

This was the card I made for them, I used one of my handmade lace flowers on it

I was also asked to make some cupcakes for the party the day after the wedding. I swirled the tops with butter icing and then made some little sugar paste flowers so put three flowers in a line on the side and then sprinkled them with some gold glitter dust! They went down very well, everyone commented on them and asked who made them!

While we're on the wedding theme I have a couple of wedding layouts that I don't think I have shared with you yet. The first one was a challenge for The Studio that went up the weekend I was away. The challenge was to use to horrible papers you have hiding in your stash! It was quite a challenge as I felt so uninspired by them but once I got into it I enjoyed making something that I like from the nasty papers! 

These are the two paper I didn't like, I found I had quite a few, don't know what I was thinking when I bought them! It is funny though as people like different things so some of you might like them, but I didn't!

I thought this photo of my sister on her wedding day would go with the papers quite well. I punched flowers from the lighter of the papers and inked the edges, then I cut the swirls out of the other paper to go with them. I then took bits of the darker paper and rubbed some ink over it so it wasn't such a nasty colour! I'm quite pleased with the result and it really makes you use your stash!

The next layout I made for inspiration on how to use my Very Vintage kit from my shop. The layout was based on a Pencil Lines sketch, I had been wanting to do a layout like this with the lines, for a while so the sketch helped me out! It's another photo from my sisters wedding, of the bridesmaids, yes one of them was me! My brother managed to capture us laughing at something.

I used buttons, lace, decorative ribbon, lace flowers and the tag from my kit. I also used my Basic Grey papers on this I love the lace paper and the background with all those colours in it, I was saving it for something special so decided this would work well on it.

I have no idea why this photo is in the middle but I can't seem to move it!!

That's it for now, hope you enjoyed my wedding wonders!! I have been enjoying creating this week so there will be more layouts to share soon. 

Sick Note!

I made it back from my holiday but unfortunately I was really ill for most of it! I was exhausted before I went away and got run down so got poorly. I have had a really bad cough, cold, ear ache, head ache and tooth ache (first from my sinus problems then my wisdom tooth decided to grow!) the list in endless you name it I've had it! It still hanging on now but I'm starting to feel a bit better. The weather wasn't that good for the week my uncle cottage is by the sea in Devon so we saw a load of this...

sea mist! This was quite good, it was a lot worst at times you could hardly see anything!

Before I got really ill I did enjoy the weekend as my sister and Brother-in-law came down to the cottage. We went to Salcombe on Saturday and did a bit of celeb spotting! We saw Matt Dawson from question of sport and ex England rugby player!

On Sunday we went to Dartmouth and did some crabbing!! It was the best crabbing ever! We were only crabbing for about half an hour and we caught loads! See there's only dangaling from the line!!

We have a whole bucket full, they were trying to climb out!

My Dad was the crabbing king, every time he lifting up his line he had one! I caught about 6 which I was pleased with we beat my sister and brother-in-law anyway! All the crabs were a really good size too, we caught a grand total of 27 crabs!!! I will have to scrap about this soon!

I did manage to do a little bit of crafting while away, I hand cut 30 butterflies out of patterened paper for the christening invites I have to make. It was quite a good thing to do laid on the sofa!

I've now just got to ink the edges of them all!!
I was feeling quite inspired while away though so I have lots of scrapping ideas to try out!


The weekend I went away was the summer Cybercrop at The Studio. I did a class on how to make 2 simple embellishments with just cardstock and patterned paper. The first one was pinwheels...

... and the second one was roses...

If you would like to see my tutorial of how to make them it's here.
There is still time to join in with the Cyber crop, you have until the 4th September, there's great prizes to be won, if you join in with my class you could win one of my kits from my shop! The Make and Create Shop. Dont forget there's a new kit out 1st of September!!

On the blossom layout I used these...

...a new pair of decorative scissors that found in a local shop, they were only £2.50!! They are great as they have a big pattern to cut, as some of the other decorative scissors have tiny little patterns that you can't really see and they are a lot cheaper than a border punch!!

Sunday's challenge is now up at The Studio. Today challenge is 'Scrap about a local landmark, and what it signifies to you. Maybe it's the first thing you see when you step out of the house, maybe it's a monument in the centre of town. It doesn't have to be something that other people would consider significant. Enjoy!'

I scrapped about our Post Office across the road, I have lots of memories of when it was a busy little shop and I used to get my little bag of jelly teddies from there!! It's a bit sad now though as it's now only a part-time Post Office with no shop but it's still a popular landmark to our village and it something I see when ever I leave the house so we still say 'we live opposite the Post Office!
I even used a stamp cut from an envelope and I made my own little envelopes they were so easy to make but I think they look quite good! I watered down some red paint to make the spots but I didn't leave it to dry properly and I smudged the first spot of the left of the photo so I had to think of something to cover it up so the rope hides it luckily! Don't tell anyone though!!!

I have more to show you so I be back soon. Thanks for looking!xx

Don't take the Mickey!

I still haven't caught up with things on here, I've been too busy, must try harder!! So I will now try to caught up a bit better now!

I was really busy last week preparing for my nephew's 2nd Birthday. I believe he is now 2 years old, it's gone so quickly! Anyway my brother rang me and asked if I could make a Mickey Mouse cake for his Birthday that was on Saturday. I did some searching on the interent and had a good think about how I was going to make it, I wasn't sure how it was going to work out!

I printed off a head shot of Mickey and then made a template of the cake tin I was going to use. Then I copied the picture and drew my own mickey to fit the template and then cut out the face shape. I used this face template to cut out the icing. I was really pleased with it in the end and I had great fun making it!! My nephew loved it and kept saying 'Mickey cake', he loves cake!

Everyboby loved it and everyone was impressed I made it! I have even been asked to make his best friends birthday cake in October, so my next challenge to make in 'Pepper Pig'!!!

I love this photo of my nephew blowing out the candles on Mickey! Yes, I had noticed there is a ear missing here!! He had a little party for his little friends in the morning and they tucked into it!!

Here's one of the cards I made for my nephew, quite pleased with this one, I'm loving the layers!

This is my layout for Sunday's challenge at The Studio. the challenge was to use 5 or more different patterened papers We are still sponsored by the lovely Cosmo so I used more Delovely, I think I used all the patterened papers they were! I cut some droplets out of card and used them as a mask to mist over and then cut some more out of the PP. If you join in with this you could win some lovely Cosmo for yourself!

On Saturday we at The Studio are having a Cyber Crop. it will be a day full of fun with special guest designers and LOTS of prizes to be won! I am doing a class about making your own embellishments, well, how could it be about anything else!! The Make and Create Shop are sponsoring this, you could win one of my kits! Make sure you remember to check it out it is going to be great!

Here's a couple of layouts that I made for my inspiration section on my shops blog. I made this one using the bunting, ric rac, bow, ticket, journaling spot, rope, starfish, beach hut, word, coiled rope and round felt embellishment all from my 'All Aboard' kit. I think this is my first layout on red cardstock and I quite like it!!

This layout is of my nephew with his 'cheese' face on! I used the frame, button and felt embellishment from my 'Summer Splash' kit. I like the mixed letters title I used on this one, I only did it because I didn't want to use 3 e's from one packet of thickers!!

I've been asked to make some christening cards for a friend of my Sister-in-law. I had a meeting with her this afternoon and she loved the sample I did for her so that was nice and easy!

Hope you're all still with me, bit of a long post, sorry!!

I'm off on holiday for a week on Thursday we are going down to Devon to my uncle's holiday cottage. I hope the weather will be ok!! I have quite a bit to do before then so if I don't get back on here before then, I see you when I get back! Don't forget to check out the Cyber Crop at The Studio on Saturday, especially my class!!! Thanks for looking xx

Potty!

It's sunday again so that means my next challenge is up at The Studio! This week's challenge is 'for those who fancy creating something a little different! I don't know about you, but I'm always on the lookout for inventive and pretty ways to store crafty items. Your challenge this week is to alter or create from scratch a pretty storage item for your craft space'.

We are very kindly being sponsored by the lovely Cosmo this month so we had Cosmo goodies to play with, I love the DeLovely papers as they are so bright and cheerful!

I had this boring pen pot on my desk for a while now and it really needed brightening up!

This is what I did to it!

I painted the edges of the pot in bright pink and then covered it with some delovely and then I used a border punch to put a border around the top and cut lots of flowers and some leafy bits out of other sheet of delovely and stuck them on both sides.

It really does brighten up my desk now!

Another thing I had to catch up with was this.

The lovely Tessa sent me this lovely award. Thank you Tessa and thank you for all the advise you gave me about opening my shop it was great!

You have to list 5 things you love at the moment so here's mine:

1. I love the fact I have opened my own shop and have had orders!

2. Making cakes and trying out new icing techniques out!

3. Spending time with my nephew as he's now got such a little cartacter and makes me laugh!

4. Caramel, yummy!

5. all my lovely cyber friends who have been really surportive and left me lovely comments! I love comments!

These are the 5 people I'm sending this little bit of sunshine on to:
Valerie

Jenny

Sara

Clare

Sarah

I will be back soon with some layouts that I haven't got around to showing you yet!

Have a good Sunday! xx

Misty Eyed

I've had a great response to my shop, lots of people have been very kind and left me some really lovely comments which mean a lot and I now also have orders to do!! I need to catch up on things so I thought I would for now just show you my lastest layout for The Studio, I must show you because I love this one!

The challenge was Masking! Find something creative from around your home to use as a mask for misting, inking or painting on your layout. I had to think about this one, I didn't know what to do! I have been collecting by my bed(!!) a small pile of tags and labels from clothes and bags I have bought so I decided it was about time a used them! I placed some of the tags on my background and misted over them with red and yellow shimmer mists. I then flicked some paint around over it to mess it up a bit! I love getting messy with mist and paint!! I added some of the real tags on to the page too. I love the fact you can't really tell which tags are real!

I made a holes in the background where the real holes on the tags would have been and tied string, thread or ribbon onto them, I also stitched around some of the misted tags so they stood out a bit more.
I took the photos when we went to London's 2012 Olympic park viewing platform, in the shelter they had lots of these little boxes of art, to add a bit of interest to a building site!!

I didn't even used any patterned paper! I didn't think it needed any. I do love how it turned out though!

Better go and get on with my orders!!

Thanks for looking, I'll be back with more soon. xx

My very own shop!

Today is an exciting day, as I have just opened my own little shop! The Make and Create shop, I always wanted my own shop! I am now selling my own unique embellishment kits, there have a good selection of different embellishments and you even get some of my own handmade embellishment in them too! Each kit will be different so you never know quite what you will get and they are at a reasonable price!

There is also a **giveaway** at the shop, you could win one of my kits, all you have to do is follow my shop's blog and tell your friends about it by putting a link to my shop on your blog. Please go and check it out and let me know what you think!