scrapbooking - for the love of paper

Free digi papers!

2012-02-07T11:43:00.002Z

Hi Scrappy friends, how about some free papers? A wonderfully generous lady called Mel has started making her own digi papers and is giving them away FREE!!!!

Aren't they beautiful and she will be making more papers that co-ordinate with these.

If you pop over to her blog HERE you can download them and the only condition is that you can't sell them.

I can't wait to print them out and start using them on my projects.

All Day Crop.

2012-01-29T19:57:00.017Z

On Saturday Bradfield Craft Club had an all day crop, we liked the idea of more time to craft without distractions (husbands, kids, the rest of the world!). Our Monday night crops are being stretched as some of us don't want to stop our playtime.
I thought I would share with you some of the pages and cards we made but please excuse the picture quality (I forgot to change the settings on my camera).

My 1st page (the stitching took ages).

My 2nd page using American Craft papers.

One of Joan's pages with stitching on and lots of cutting cutting out of the flowers.

Jackie's page (I loved this paper).

Sue used vintage lace on this page.

Another of Sue's pages (check out the gorgeous flowers).

This is the 1st page Sue made, with the vintage lace again.

Jean's page of her cruise.

Three bright and cheery cards by Jean as well.

Fontain's page showing off her school grades.

This is Helen's sweet kitty page (awww!)

Sarah's Disney holiday page.

Last but not least one of Sarah's 3 cards she made (with stitching too).

This all day crop was so relaxing and enjoyable with lots of chat, coffee and CAKE, I definitely think we will have more, I just need to see what I can get away with before my husband complains!

Friends Challenge.

2012-01-25T12:24:00.006Z

Last week I got together again with my good friend Helen for a day of crafting, chatting and eating cake! (the best combination if you ask me).
Below are our pages from the challenge that we set - to make a page with one piece of pattern paper as our starting place. I had two of these papers and thought it was perfect for cutting up, something both Helen and I like to do.

So here is my page (don't forget to click on the image for a closer look) I managed to find some papers from other manufacturers that matched beautifully.

Helen has used a plain background and misted a doily to match the paper and lots of cutting out!

Here is the paper that we used it is an old sheet of Fancy Pants called Simplicity, so pretty.

We forgot to think of a new challenge but one of us will come up with something so that we can play again for next months get together.

Off to browse Pin Interest, perhaps I will find inspiration for a challenge there.

Craft Bingo!

2012-01-24T12:11:00.011Z

Hey Crafty Friends, I am back as promised with Bradfield Craft Club's challenge, which this week was a little different as I thought I would stretch their creativity and keep them on their toes! I have been trying to give my crafty colleagues something other than my sketches lately, as the old saying goes... variety is the spice of life!

Here is the challenge I set.... craft bingo! I had seen this a while ago when I was browsing blogland and thought then what a great idea for a challenge. Basically they had to choose 3 items to include on their card/page from the grid either diagonally, vertically or horizontally.

Here is my page using Embossing, Metal and Green.

Joan's page using Ribbon, Flower and Green.

Helen's page using Embossing, Metal and Green.

My card using Orange, Ribbon and Metal.

Joan's card using Star, Ribbon and Blue.

Chrissie's card using Orange, Ribbon and Metal.

Jackie's card using Embossing, Blue and Flower.

Jackie's second card using heat Embossing, Blue and Flower again.

Linda's card using Flower, Stamping and Orange.

Hope you enjoyed seeing our bingo creations, back soon with a look at the pages my dear friend Helen and I made for our challenge with the starting point of one sheet of paper!

Hope you have a great evening.

Here's something I finished earlier!

2012-01-23T11:12:00.002Z

I was just tidying my desktop when I found this page that I hadn't posted!
I must have started it for a online challenge last year but couldn't have got it finished in time, so I shall show it to you all anyway.

(click image for a close up)

I have used some papers from the beautiful 'Fly A Kite' line by October Afternoon and the banner was simply made from folded over punched circles.

Back tomorrow with Bradfield Craft Club's challenge.

Cupcake Card.

2012-01-14T19:11:00.004Z

I made a card yesterday for one of my nieces and as it had to be posted to Vegas I thought I should make quite a flat and light card!!!!

And here is my card that I made and it is not flat and it is not light! But I really liked it and it is very girly so I paid the extra to get it to America.
As you can see it's not my usual card, it's much more complicated with a small card glued on the inside of a larger square card whose front was cut in half.

Here is the inside of the card with lots of co-ordinating cupcake papers and pink ribbon.

I have got several pages to complete so am off to do some scrapping. (bliss).

Thanks for stopping by.

A new kind of challenge.

2012-01-10T15:45:00.011Z

At the last meeting of Bradfield Craft Club I thought I would really challenge the members by changing from my normal sketches to a picture for inspiration!

I recently delved into the wide world of Pin Interest, found this photo and thought it would be quite a good image for an inspiration starter.

(source)

My page is quite true to the image.

Jean's double page.

Helen's photo was made for this challenge!

Joan used the colours as her starting point.

Jackie has gone digital with her page (doesn't that sea look inviting?).

Linda took her inspiration from the theme of the image by making a Happy Holiday card.

Jackie has a seaside theme to the card she made.

This weeks challenge that I gave out was Crafters Bingo! so in a couple of weeks I will be able to show you how we all got on with another challenging challenge!

Very Quickly.

2011-12-17T17:48:00.007Z

I know I haven't posted here lately but Christmas is taking up a lot of my time, as I am sure it is for everyone else! So here is the projects that some of the Bradfield Craft Club members did using the sketches that I gave out last month. The colours we played with were green, cream and another colour of our choice.

page sketch #17

My page - carrying on with my New York album.

Card Sketch #17

My card.

Joan's card.

Linda's card.

It only leaves for me to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as I have had to pack my craft supplies away to make room for a TREE!!!!

Sisterly Love.

2011-11-29T13:10:00.003Z

During a recent trip to Dover Castle my eldest and youngest daughters let me take photo's of their silly antics, I loved the outcome with the castle walls behind them.
When I saw the sketch #183 at Creative Scrappers it was exactly what I was looking for to show these photo's and created this page at the craft club meeting last night.

(click for a better view)

The papers I used were Sunday Market by My Little Shoebox, such cute and bright papers, ideal for cutting out the images for making embellishments.

Here is a close up of the top right corner with the sweet little bird. The journalling frame is from Erin Bradley Designs.

Craft Club Projects.

2011-11-29T12:56:00.009Z

Once again it feels like it was only yesterday that I posted Bradfield Craft Clubs projects, but here we are again with sketches and ribbon.

Sketch #16

My page.

Joan's page.

The card sketch.

My card.

Joan's card.

Jackie's card.

Stuck Challenge.

2011-11-25T17:09:00.002Z

Hi everyone and Happy Friday!
I love Fridays as it is my day when I have nothing on during the day except what I want to do, like visiting friends, a spot of gardening or like today catching up on a scrapbook page that I need to finish.
I have done this page for the STUCK challenge blog's sketch (which you can find HERE).

I have used Cosmo Cricket Pixie-Licious papers, I was amazed they went so well with the colours in my photo's as usually no matter how much paper I have I always struggle to find the 'right' colour/pattern for the page I am trying to make!

I am off now to search for the papers I need for my craft club challenges so that I can make a start on them over the weekend (running late as usual)!!!!!

A Busy Month for Cards.

2011-11-22T11:50:00.004Z

I had another card to make last night and as I do, I decided two is better than one so I used the same design but with two colour ways.

Now man cards are not my favourite type of cards to make but needs must and so I got out my

versitile ticket stamps by Inkadinkado and my star Nestabilities and got to work.

Once the blue card was finished I decided that the star wasn't big enough, so for this card I went up a size and was much happier with the outcome.

Now this card I made two of last week and gave one to a friend and kept the other in my box for those ocasions when I haven't time to make one.

Hope you are having a good week so far and thanks for dropping by.

Sketch Challenge Projects.

2011-11-15T16:09:00.010Z

Here are the projects that some of the members of Bradfield Craft Club made using the sketches I designed for them and the colours had to be blue, brown and pink.

Here is the page sketch

I had too many photo's for one page so used the sketch for the first page of my double layout.

Here is Joan's page.

This is the card sketch.

I made two xmas cards using the card sketch but they are slightly different.

My second card.

Linda's card.

Jackie's card.

Friends Challenge.

2011-11-13T12:17:00.006Z

Now this weeks get together with my friend Helen had a Disney theme to it as our challenge to each other was to make a layout with a Mickey head sewn onto the page.
As we have both got a million (might be a small exaggeration) Disney photo's from our trips to Florida/Paris finding a picture that included the famous mouse was not a hardship.

click on the images for a better view

Here is my page, the photo is of my girls and the friends we went on holiday with having their picture taken with Chef Mickey.

The colours of my page were decided by the Mickey 3D sticker that I wanted to add to my layout.

Here is Helen's page again of her girls having their photo taken with Mickey at Halloween. I loved the little mouse heads that edge her pattern paper, apparently they were made using a special pair of scissors!

Here is Helen's Mickey (made using her Cricut machine).

Our next challenge is to use THIS sheet of paper as a starting point. But the trouble is that we both love the idea of cutting up the flower side but hate the fact that the reverse has a beautiful subtle pattern that would look great as a background. I will post the results when we have both finished our challenge so that you can see if we can get around the dilema!

A run on cards.

2011-11-08T12:34:00.006Z

I have had a few cards to make lately so I thought I would bundle them all into one post.

This first one was made for one of my girls who loves butterflies (it's not just me!)

A mans card for an uncle who is unwell, the inside sentiment says 'to wish you a speedy recovery'.

Another girly card made with a Lilly of the Valley image.

As I was making the previous card and I had another girl card to make I just made two of the same design just with different colours.

If you didn't already know Papermaze had a fire that gutted their store room and are now selling off all their remaining stock due to smoke damage. With a whopping 50% off!

So if you want to help them get rid of the old stock so that they can start again and get some bargains to boot check out their website HERE.

A page and card.

2011-11-06T12:36:00.005Z

I recently finished a page that originally was for a online challenge but life got in the way and it was never completed in time for the cut off date.
The photos show me, hubby and my eldest daughter breaking up our front wall to provide hardcore for a path (the wall had seen better days). My husband will always try and make something himself like shed bases, driveways and paths as he always likes to have a project on the go! I am usually roped into the process somewhere along the line and our daughter was persuaded this time to help with demolishing the wall.

The papers I used were a really old Fancy Pants line.

I did some cutting out of the flowers from one piece to make my embellishments.

The centre of the flowers are some Craftworks Card Candi.

I only had a small amount of paper left but not enough for me to warrant throwing it away so I thought I would make a card as well.

A close up of the flowers.

Hope you have had a great weekend.

Summer Lovin.

2011-11-01T13:13:00.004Z

I am not a very fast crafter my any stretch of the imagination and am always jealous when I read scrappy blogs and they show several pages that were done in an evening.
But last night at the craft club meeting I took a mini kit with me for a page I wanted to get done for the Get Picky challenge and to my shock I actually managed to get it finished !! So below is my entry which had a photo inspiration which you can see HERE and also had to use fabric on your page.

I love these photo's I took whilst playing with the settings on my camera trying to overexpose the focal points , I just love the effect.

A close up to prove the added fabric with a felt flower and ribbon.

Another showing some crochet trim (wasn't sure it counted as fabric, hence the felt flower!).

There is still plenty of time to enter the challenge or just visit the Get Picky blog to see all the designers fab pages.

Bradfield Craft Club.

2011-11-01T12:19:00.011Z

Last night the ladies of Bradfield Craft Club went against the traditional Halloween spooky beasts, pumpkins and trick or treating, we went for pretty paper, paper flowers and good company and had a fab time (even stayed out late!!!!)
It was such hard work to get all that crafting done (yeh right!) but we soldiered on and I took some photos of our homework as usual to show you what good girls we are!

Here is the page sketch I sent them home with a couple of weeks ago and the extra element this time was metal.

This page is mine (still trying to work through my New York photos).

Here is Joan's royal page!

The card sketch.

My card.

Joan's card.

Linda's card.

Now Jackie is on a mission I think with her Xmas cards because the next 3 are hers!

I have a rumbly tumbly so I'm off to make some lunch, thanks for stopping by.

White With 1 Challenge.

2011-10-30T09:49:00.005Z

You know I like to have a go at online challenges and this week I completed a layout for the White With 1 challenge blog, their recipe this month is black and white with paint or mists.

Here is the layout I did.

The bird cage is a template from the Crafters Workshop, it's such a lovely one, you can see it HERE

A close up of the butterfly that I stamped with a love sentiment stamp from Docrafts.

The hearts that I used for the butterfly trail were the waste from the title letters.

Thanks for stopping by and hope your Sunday is a crafty one!!!!

A Friendly Challenge.

2011-10-16T12:49:00.003+01:00

As usual when I get together with my friend Helen we share our pages from the challenge we set each other.
This month it was to scrap about our other halves, not something we usually do as they don't tend to lend themselves to pretty flowery paper and glitter!!!!
But hey, the men in our lives are cherished so we thought we would focus on them for a little while.
I forgot to take any macro photos so click on the images for a closer look.

Here is my page and it shows my hubby enjoying a cold beer after working so hard to get the wood pile filled up for the winter.

Here is Helen's page which tells the story of her partners struggle against illness and the good days that provide the welcome light at the end of a dark tunnel.

Now for next months challenge Helen and I will be focusing on a famous mouse!
Yes, you guessed it Mickey. We have both visited Florida a couple of times so have plenty of Disney photos to prove it, but we are being quite specific on the challenge which involves stitching so I will post the results as soon as we have had a chance to get together again.

A little late.

2011-10-16T12:25:00.010+01:00

I am a little late with posting the projects from the last Bradfield Craft club meeting, so here they are... The page sketch #13

My Page

Joans page.

The card sketch.

Jackies card.

Chrissies card.

Joans card.

My card.

Starting Point Challenge.

2011-10-10T11:58:00.005+01:00

I have really been enjoying the challenges over on Shemelles blog and the starting point this week was as simple as it gets , so there was no excuse. Go check it out for yourself HERE.

click for a better view

Here is my page and I used the fabulous American Crafts City Park line as it has gorgeous colors that just shout FUN.

Here is a close up of the top corner where there is quite a mix of different printable elements that I have collected over the last few months from freebies online.
There is just so many talented people out there that are so generous and give their work for free.

Here are just some of the ones I use.

This one is for tickets - source

Free digi kits - source

Free fonts - source

Free journaling spots - source

Hope you have a great day, I'm off to my craft club tonight so I am going to get some lovely scrapping in without the usual interruptions that I get at home (you know what I mean)!

Stamping!!

2011-10-08T09:39:00.002+01:00

Now, I don't do alot of stamping but I have seen many cards lately (in blogland) that have stems of grass and flowers as the focus and I really like the effect. So whilst in Birds in the Barn I saw a stamp set by Artemio and decided to have a go at using them for my dear friend Helen's birthday card.

I usually stamp in black ink but I was surprised how much I liked the coloured, subdued effect. I added some Stickles to the flowers (click on the image to see the card closer) and even used ribbon!!!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Shimelle's Sketch of the week.

2011-10-02T15:42:00.003+01:00

Over on Shimelle's blog she has lots of challenges going on but the Sketch Of The Week caught my eye.
It's a great looking sketch and I had just found some old photo's of my 1st born that went perfectly.

click image for a better view

Here is my take on the sketch, the background is a lovely spotty paper from Bobunny that matched the fabric on the sunhat and the pattern papers are all American Crafts Sweet Summertime.

If I get time I may have a go at Shimelle's Scrapbook Starting Point challenge too as I have yet to do that one.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sketch #12.

2011-09-27T12:41:00.008+01:00

I forgot to post the sketch #12 pages and cards so better late than never.....

page sketch

my page

card sketch

my card

Joan's card

Linda's card

More Summer Kit Pages and Cards.

2011-09-27T12:18:00.012+01:00

Here are the last of the projects using the summer kit I gave out to the Bradfield Craft Club, it was certainly a challenge as the papers were not something we would normally go for but I think you will agree we all did a fabulous job!

card by Joan

Card by Joan #2

Page by Joan

page by Sue

Page by Jean.

Does My Bum Look Big?

2011-09-22T18:20:00.006+01:00

I recently bought a range of papers from My Little Shoebox called Walk in the Park, they are such colourful and cute papers that I couldn't wait to use them. Then I found a photo that went perfectly with the outdoorsy theme and a sketch that I just loved as soon as I saw it.

This is the sketch from STUCK?! challenge blog, it just cries out to be scrapped.

click on the image for a closer look
Here is the page I made based on the sketch using lots of cut out images from the papers and a long title.

My journaling card was too big so I cut it down and made some 'grass' from a strip of paper that I pleated and added some more cute characters.

A close up of the embellishment at the top.

Thanks for checking in on my little corner of blogland, I'm off to catch some Z's. Night!

Sarah's Cards Challenge.

2011-09-20T10:50:00.003+01:00

Wow it seems like forever since I was able to enter the challenge at Sarah's Cards but I loved the sketch and was determined to get a page done with some of the papers that I bought from her shop during the summer.

Here is the sketch.

Here is my page using some of the papers from American Crafts City Park line and yes some hand stitching!!
The flowers and balloons were all cut out from the patterned papers I really look at patterned paper now before I buy to see if it is cutoutable (my new word) to make embellishments that co-ordinate.

Do you like the sweet little clouds, my friend Helen has cut me different sizes on her Cricut for me to use as templates and I have embossed them.
A great idea that Helen gave me was to use card stock with glitter patterns (as apposed to plain glitter card) for my title letters and I am thrilled at how they look.

If you would like to have a go at Sarah's Cards challenge go to her blog HERE the closing date is 30Th September so there's still plenty of time.

Summer Kit Layouts.

2011-09-19T12:34:00.010+01:00

So you saw the cards I posted earlier this week that members of the Bradfield Craft Club made using the kit I gave out at the beginning of the summer, below are some layouts that were made as well.

click on the images for a closer look.

A reminder of the kit contents.

This is one of my pages.

Another of mine.

The last one of mine.

Jackie's page.

Jackie's page #2

Jackie's page #3

Jackie's page #4

Jeans page.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying our creations.

Friends Challenge.

2011-09-18T12:04:00.008+01:00

Well, as promised here are the pages that my friend Helen and I made for our challenge and the subject this time was to scrap about yourself. It's not something either of us do very often as we are usually the people behind the lens in our families so it was a real challenge.

Here is my page of me the bookworm, I absolutely love to read supernatural books which all started with the Twilight series and my favourite author now is Kim Harrison.

A close up of the top corner, I used my new Martha Stewart heart doily punch which is my new favourite so expect to see more of them.

The little flowers were made from two punched retro flowers using book paper and the centre is some dimensional paint. All the stems and butterflies were all cut from a piece of patterned paper.

Here is Helen's striking page about her new love - Odie, out on a walk in the country park near her home. The embossed and sanded black background really showcases the border punching and makes her title pop.

I loved the flower at the top of Helen's page made by cutting a flower in half and gluing it back together with one petal less, helping to layer it better.

Here is a close up of all that punched border use and did you notice the felt title? The bobble lace adds a little touch of cuteness.

Our next challenge is to scrap about our other halves, another subject that's not often scrapped by us (men are not as cute as little girls or furry friends)!!!!

I will back tomorrow with some scrapbook pages from the summer kit.

Summer Kit.

2011-09-14T12:59:00.017+01:00

Hi all, well the summer is over and kids are back at school so it's time to show you some of the projects us ladies from Bradfield Craft Club have done using the kit I gave out before we broke up for the hols. I won't show it all at once as downloading the photo's takes forever, so today I have some cards to show you.

Here is the kit (remember to click the image if you want a closer look).
As you can see there is plenty of bits and pieces and lots of papers to challenge everyone.

Here is a card that I made.

The following cards were made by Linda with a little help from a friend visiting from New Zealand!

Now here comes the cards made by Jackie and how different some of the papers look when they are distressed.

I am joining my dear friend Helen on Friday for scrapping, chatting and eating toffee yum yums so I will be back soon to show you our challenge which this month is to scrap a picture that has yourself in it.

I'm Back!

2011-09-07T16:10:00.002+01:00

I sooo missed crafting whilst we were away in America and couldn't wait to get some gluing and sticking done as soon as the girls went back to school on Tuesday.
I had a go with my glue gun (had it a couple of months but just got it out of the packaging) and made some rosette flowers using my new Martha Stewart scoring board that I almost bought in this country but found it in Walt Mart in the US with 40% off!
I managed to get a couple of punches too in the US and of course some patterned paper cause I haven't got a lot of that!!!!!!
Anyway hope you like my 1st page after the summer break and hopefully will post again soon as I have plenty to catch up on, haven't done a challenge for ages so I will be checking out my usual challenge blogs to see what they are up to.

P.S don't forget to click on the image for a better view as blogger does no longer seem clear to me (or do my eyes need checking out?)

A couple of cards.

2011-08-15T23:25:00.003+01:00

I try and make two cards at a time these days as I always seem to run out and as I am cutting one piece of paper, I may aswell cut two and make identical cards and have a spare for another birthday.

click on image for a clearer view.

So today I got some inspiration from a wonderful cardmaker called Therese Calverd who just happened to use this cute puppy stamp (that I have aswell) on a card, so I lifted it. Obviously I didn't have the same papers or flower etc. that she used but I just improvised.
Now one card has been posted to a wonderful aunt of mine and the other is safe in my almost empty card box but I have found some fantastic inspiration in Bloggland lately that has really got me longing to make more cards when I get back from my hols.

Thanks so much for dropping by.

Bag Love.

2011-08-07T17:20:00.004+01:00

I had a go at making a crossover bag today, I have had the pattern and fabric for ages and decided that I wanted to have a new bag to take to Florida with me.
The bag is lightweight and padded and I even put a couple of pockets inside!!
If you click on the images you can see the pictures clearer.

Do you like the funky fabric? Found it at Ikea a couple of years ago along with some other designs which are destined to be bags as well.

Here's a closer look at the pretty birds and flowers ( there are butterflies as well!!! ).

Now you are really going to be impressed! I made a co-ordinated button to match!

I've caught the bug for this bag and two of my girls want one each for school so you know what I'll be up to when I don't post for a while although I have some cards to make so might be back soon with a post for them.

Thanks for dropping by.

Balloon Card.

2011-08-03T16:10:00.002+01:00

It's my brother-in-laws birthday this week so yesterday I made a 'man card' BLURGH! I could not think of anything to put on it (this is usually the case when it comes to men's cards) and I am still waiting for some star Nestabilities that I ordered to arrive, which were bought with men's cards in mind.

But then I remembered I had a balloon Sizzix die from waaaayyyy back and I was a happy bunny, I cut out the balloons, stamped on them and then covered them in 3D glaze. The background cardstock was run through a Happy Birthday Cuttlebug embossing folder and I added a few gems to tie in the blue colour.
Luckily my next card to make is for one of my aunts so back to girly theme YEH!
Hope you all are have a terrific summer, back soon I hope.

Another Freebie!!!

2011-07-27T13:32:00.002+01:00

For those of you who have delved into digital or hybrid scrapbooking / cardmaking here is a freebie for you, a fab kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs called Everyday.
To download this kit you have to visit Ali Edwards Blog HERE, scroll down till you find the image below and follow the links to SSD, entering the code she has given at the checkout and then you will get an email for the kit.
You do have to register with the Sweet Shoppe Designs site but it's quite straight forward so why not give the kit a go and start your digital journey if you haven't taken the plunge yet!
Even if you only use the papers in the kit (they are gorgeous) you can use them over and over again and you will never run short of a piece that you need!

Happy scrappy day to you all.

Free Font!

2011-07-26T21:24:00.004+01:00

Just thought I would share this find with you , Creating Keepsakes blog have a free font for everyone called CK Concave. They release one each Friday but is only available free for 1 week.
It looks really fun and you can download it FREE and they have instructions on how to load it into your fonts file on your computer. I've managed it so it must be easy!!!!
Did I mention that it's Free!! BUT ONLY TILL FRIDAY!!!!

Just follow this link and scroll down till you see this image.
Thanks for dropping in.

Sketch Challenge #11.

2011-07-19T13:41:00.014+01:00

Bradfield Craft Club had their last meeting for a while as we take a break over the summer holidays. But I have sent them all home with a mini kit to play with until September so there is no rest for the wicked!!

Here is the page sketch #11 and the extra element was to add a hand made embelishment.

Here is my page.

Joan's

Jackie's

The card sketch.

Jackie's take on it.

and Linda's

Here is a page of Joan's that she made using sketch #10.

and here are a couple of pages completed by Jean.

Sending You Hugs.

2011-07-18T12:35:00.002+01:00

I made a card yesterday for a dear neighbour, friend and fellow scrapbooker who lost her husband over the weekend.

I tried to keep away from my usual bright colours and wanted to give it a feminine feel and found these papers in a 6x6 pad (I think they are Papermania) and used three of them to cut out the flower and leaves to layer up. She loves nature so I added some butterflies made from vellum and also printed the sentiment on vellum.

For those of you that know Pam I know you will want to join me in sending her all our best wishes for the difficult times ahead and let her know that she has plenty of friends who will give her a hug when she is ready.

Page sketch #10.

2011-07-17T09:23:00.003+01:00

Bradfield craft club had a wonderful day trip to Capture The Magic store yesterday, making the most of their sale and then off down to the pub for lunch and laughing!!!!
Helen brought along the page she did using my sketch #10 so I took a quick photo so that I could post it on here with mine.

Here is said sketch.

The extra element with the sketch was the colours pink and blue, Helen had just the photo's to match with the theme and sketch. She also had a go at misting and check out all that hand stitching!

Here is my page - 'Body Painting'.
I've been wanting to scrap these photo's for ages, as the originals were not very good I scanned and Photoshopped them and then didn't have the heart to reduce their size to match the sketch so kept them big.

Back in a couple of days with sketches #11 and the projects done using them.

Thanks for stopping by and hope the rain doesn't spoil your Sunday.

Creative Scrappers Sketch Challenge.

2011-07-12T23:05:00.006+01:00

I just loved Creative Scrappers sketch #163 and having a go was a must, the design team are so inspirational ( check them out HERE ).

Here is the sketch.

Here is my take on the sketch and as you can see I turned it to suit my photo. (To get a better view please click on the image).
I used only Basicgrey 'Sultry' line for the papers.

Here is a close up of an embellishment I made.

I made a smaller embellishment at the top and added a droplet gem for the body of the butterfly. The flowers are cut from the paper called Vogue.

One last close up.

Now you must check out Creative Scrappers if you love sketch challenges, there is a new sketch every week so you're bound to find one that calls to you.

Card sketch #10

2011-07-12T09:01:00.005+01:00

My girls are often after cards for their friends so armed with my card sketch #10 I thought I would make a couple to put away in the box I keep my handmade cards in. Both cards were identical as I try to make two cards at a time rather than one as I can never seem to have enough cards to choose from in my box.

I wanted to keep it simple and clean so I just added some embossing and glitter.

and here is the sketch I designed and used for the card.

Back soon with a couple of layouts using my page sketch #10.

Friendly Challenge.

2011-07-08T09:48:00.002+01:00

My dear scrappy friend Helen and I challenge each other when we meet up to craft and this time it was to add stamping to our pages which we both admitted to not doing very often.
Helen has stamped 'Hello Kitty' around the corner of her stitching to add subtle detail and I loved the idea (will be using it on future pages thanks Helen!).

Helen has stamped 'Hello Kitty' around the corner of her stitching to add subtle detail and I really liked the idea (will be using it on future pages, thanks Helen!). I love the colours she has used and the papers compliment the photo's beautifully.

Now to mine, I went a little stamping mad as I had just acquired some new stamps that came free on issue 4 of 'Simply Homemade' magazine ( tree, bird, flowers and journalling frame). They are from Nitwit Collections and are sooo cute I felt the need to use them straight away, I also used stamps for the word Kew in my title and the stitching top and bottom is stamped.

Yesterday when Helen and I met up to play with paper in her craft cabin (not jealous) we had a lovely time scrapping, chatting and eating. I thought our next challenge could be to scrap a page about ourselves as we both tend to be the ones that take the photo's of our families rather than star in them so we thought it would be suitably challenging.

Sequins all around.

2011-06-21T13:34:00.010+01:00

Back again with this weeks challenges from Bradfield Craft Club and below are the sketches with the extra element being Sequins!

Here is the page sketch - another double.

Here is my take on it.

Here is Joans - she used the second part of the sketch for her inspiration.

The card sketch.

Jackies card.

Lindas card.

Joans card.

This is a page done by our newbie Jean from a previous sketch.

Owl Card.

2011-06-18T10:40:00.003+01:00

A quick post today to share a cute owl card with you.
The owls are cut from some American Crafts paper called Craft Fair. I just love AC, their papers are always bright and cute. The cloud paper is My Little Shoebox called Flying High and the tree was hand drawn and coloured in with Promarkers.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Sketch Challenge #9.

2011-06-07T22:32:00.004+01:00

Evening all, I promised earlier that I would post the next sketch challenge that I made for the members of Bradfield Craft club for anyone who would like to play along. As they say on Radio 1 "the only prize is pride" but I will post your page/ card on here if you link to your blog post with your take on my sketch/es or email me a photo at kerry.bruce@btinternet.com before 20th June.

Without further ado here is the page sketch which you can see is a double but you can do both pages or choose one and of course you can flip it anyway you like.

The extra ingredient this week is sequins.

and here is the card sketch and don't forget those sequins!

Would love to see what you do with my sketches so don't be shy, play along if you get a chance before 20th June.

Craft Club Projects.

2011-06-07T13:09:00.009+01:00

Hi there, quick post today to show you what we have been doing for the sketch challenges that I set two weeks ago at Bradfield Craft Club.

Here is the page sketch #8

My take on my sketch.

Joan actually did a double layout but somehow I only photographed one side (sorry mum!).

Card sketch #8

My card for this week.

Joan's card.

Jackie's card.

Linda's card.

I will be back later to post this weeks sketches that were given out on Monday, so if you fancy playing along with us check back here tomorrow.

Sarah's Sketch Challenge

2011-05-29T22:01:00.003+01:00

It's that time of the month when I enter the Sarah's Cards sketch challenge by the skin of my teeth (nothing changes much around here).
My youngest daughter took this photo of me with my middle daughter and their cousin who was staying with us for a few days last year and even though it is quite out of focus I really liked how she captured us all looking happy with great big smiles (apart from the cat who hates being picked up)!
I would tell you to have a go with Sarah's wonderful sketch challenge but as the closing day is tomorrow you may not get time (there is always next month's challenge) but still check out her blog HERE as the designers are truly inspiring.
Thanks for stopping by.

Monday's meeting

2011-05-24T11:07:00.012+01:00

How did that time fly? Seems only a few days ago that I was posting the last Craft Club projects and here I am again having not had the time to do any scrapping just for me. But my garden looks a little tidier although gasping for water, we haven't had more that a couple of millimeters of rain in about 6 weeks!
Anyway back to business, this weeks extra element with our sketches was stamping (nice and simple).

The scrapbook sketch last time was a double page.

here are my two pages, you will have to excuse the fact that I forgot to photograph them together (duh).

Joan's two pages.

Jacqui decided that one side was was all she needed.

On to the card sketch.

My card.

Joan's card.

Chrissie's card.

Linda's.

Last but not least is a page by our newest member of the club Jean who used an old sketch.

Club Post.

2011-05-13T21:12:00.013+01:00

Quick post today as I already posted this once and then Blogger had a seizure and deleted blog posts from the past two days!!!!
Anyway here are the sketches, pages and cards from this weeks Craft Club meeting, the extra colours were white, blue and yellow.

sketch#6

my page

Helen's

Joan's

Our newest member Val

card sketch#6

My card

Helen's

Joan's

and the next four are Linda's!!!!

Two Scrappy Friends Challenge.

2011-05-10T13:21:00.004+01:00

Last Friday I met up with my dear friend Helen to go craft shopping at the Two Birds In The Barn and then to spend time in her scrap shed chatting and crafting.
The last time we met up we challenged each other to scrap small photos and Helen out scrapped herself!!! Please click on the images for a clearer view.

Not only did she create this spooky inspired page...............

but she made it a double! Showing her family holiday at Disney Paris watching the Pumpkin Parade.

Here is my SINGLE page, my cat Molly went through a stage of stealing our other cats biscuits and believe me she does not need any more food!

Before I left Helen's we agreed for our next challenge to each other would be to include stamping on our page, as we both have stamps in our stash that are feeling a little neglected!

Walking Billy.

2011-05-05T09:07:00.006+01:00

Hello fellow crafters, I have managed to complete a page for the challenge over at Butterfly Crafts this month and I used some photos of my DD walking our neighbours dog. They were all 6x4 photos but there was alot of dead space on them so I cut them all down and cut some squares of patterned paper from BasicGrey.
The challenge was to use the colours blue, pink and yellow and I made some flowers I had never made before and was realy pleased at how they came out.

Click on the picture for a better view.

A close up of the flowers.

Butterfly of course!

If you would like to have a go at the challenge hop on over to Butterfly Crafts HERE, the closing date is 14th May.

Snap Happy.

2011-05-01T11:53:00.006+01:00

I think some of my enthusiasm for taking photo's has rubbed off on my eldest daughter! This layout documents how she was less than happy about coming to Kew Gardens last year until I said as a bribe that she could use the new DSLR camera and I would use the old compact!
Well there was no stopping her once we got to Kew and she had a great day snapping away at anything and everything.

Here is a little close upof the corner where I am trying to get to grips with grouping embellishments on my pages, some people make it look so easy!

Thanks for popping by.

Get Picky sketch challenge #7.

2011-04-24T11:09:00.003+01:00

I found another challenge site for me to drool over, 'Get Picky' and their sketch this month was great, you can see sketch#7 and some beautiful inspiration from their DT HERE .

Here is my take on the sketch and I have used the gorgeous Abbey Road papers by My Minds Eye.

The photo's are of my two youngest daughters wrapping video and audio tape around my kitchen, through chairs and draw handles and anywhere else they could hook the tape onto. My kitchen looked like a very messy spiders web and I couldn't use the room for 1 1/2 hours! I was finding bits of tape for days afterwards but hey they had such fun!

Again my photo is not clear on here but if you click on it you'll get a much better picture, so if there are any clever girls out there who know what I am doing wrong with the uploading of my photo's please let me know.

Thanks for popping in on me again, off to plant some more veg seeds in my greenhouse.

My Happy Girl.

2011-04-21T16:55:00.004+01:00

I'm trying to get back into some sort of routine for my scrapping as I really miss entering the challenges online, but the holidays and the weeds in my garden are conspiring against me.
This page was started at the craft club on Monday and as it was for the Inspired Blueprints challenge (which closes tomorrow) I thought I would make an effort to get it finished.
You can see the sketch that had to be used HERE.
For some reason the photo's on my blog are not coming out very clear but if you click on them they are ok (go figure)!

Thanks for checking in on me and hopefully I'll be back soon.

Sketches number 6.

2011-04-19T21:46:00.003+01:00

Here are the sketches that I designed for this weeks challenge at Bradfield Craft Club.The extra element is the colours Yellow, Blue and White, inspired by the lovely spring days we have been having this week.
You are very welcome to play along with us, if you would please leave a comment on here with a link to your page or card. If you can't link you can email a photo of your creation to kerry.bruce@btinternet.com by the 9th May.

This is the scrapbook sketch.

And this is the card sketch which leaves a lot of space for your creative juices to flow into.

Have fun and I am looking forward to seeing what you can do with my sketches.

We all love a bit of Glitter!

2011-04-19T10:06:00.013+01:00

The extra element for this weeks projects at Bradfield Craft Club was glitter. Now that the sun has made an appearance glitter gives cards and scrapbook pages that extra sparkle.

This is sketch #5 that we used for our pages.

'Flower' by Joan.

'Will somebody give me a push please' by Jackie.

'Hello World' by Helen.

'Fun in the Snow' by me.

Card sketch #5.

'Have a Great Day' by Jackie.

'For You' by Linda.

'Happy Birthday' by Helen.

'Happy Birthday' by me.

I will post the sketches for this week later, so if you would like to take part in our challenges pop back tomorrow.

Free Colour.

2011-04-06T12:39:00.011+01:00

Whoops forgot to post Linda's card!

Hi all, welcome to my blog and today I have Bradfield Craft Clubs projects for you to see. There was no colour chosen for this week's challenge so everyone was free to use whatever they fancied be it bright (that would be me) or muted. So to start as usual is the scrapbook page sketch #4.

Here is my page.

This one is Jackie's.

This one belongs to Joan.

The card sketch #4.

My card.

Jacqui's card.

and Jackie's card.

So I have posted this weeks sketches below if you fancy joining us and the other element to be added is GLITTER, we all love a bit of glitz on our pages and cards so don't be frugal.

We would love to see your creations using my sketches so don't be shy leave a link in the comments to your blog or email a photo of your project to me kerry.bruce@btinternet.com.

Monday night crafters.

2011-03-22T13:29:00.011Z

Another thouroughly enjoyable evening spent crafting with friends at Bradfield Craft Club with a bit of chat thrown in for good measure.
The last time we met I gave out the sketches that I made and challenged us to use thread on our creations, below are the sketches and the pages/cards that we made.

The page sketch.

Joan's page.

Linda's page.

My page.

The card sketch.

Jacqui's card.

Linda's card.

Joan's card.

My card.

and here is one I made earlier using the same sketch but already sent off.

Looking forward to our next meeting in a fortnight's time which will be 4th April, the year has shot ahead leaving me behind, so I might not be here much as I must concentrate on my garden and allotment, but in an Arnold way "I'LL BE BACK".

A Thorough Soaking.

2011-03-11T17:59:00.002Z

Twisted Sketches had a great sketch this week and it inspired me to scrap a large photo I had of the family in Florida. We had gone on a ride in Animal Kingdom which involved us all sitting in a raft whilst it plummeted down some rapids, it was hilarious watching everyone getting soaked, but walking around in soggy clothes for hours was not so appealing!!!

If you want to check out the sketch and have a go, you can follow this link but you only have until 14th March.
The next challenge I might have a go at is the sketch at Sarah's Cards as I missed last month's. Thanks for stopping by. XXX

Happy Thursday!

2011-03-10T13:23:00.011Z

Here are Linda's submissions for last weeks sketch challenge.

Linda's page.

Linda's card.

It's time to show off our projects from Bradfield Craft Club again and this time along with my sketches #2 which you can find HERE the colour element was red.

My page

Jackie's

Helen's

Joan's

My card

Jacqui's

Jackie's

Joan's

Below are sketches #3 which have the extra element of THREAD, so if you fancy playing along don't forget to send them to me ( kerry.bruce@btinternet.com ) or leave a comment with a link to your blog post and you can be another online member of our little club along with Jeannette and Helen.

Make sure you send them to me by 21st March ( date of our next club meeting). Can't wait to see what you produce with my challenge.

Scrapbook sketch #3

Card sketch #3

Super Fast!!

2011-03-05T19:19:00.002Z

Well here is the page using the photo I posted here yesterday, I have never taken pictures, processed and scrapped them all on the same day before - wow, it was so pleasing to do that.

I was really pleased how the page turned out, with it's bright colours and simple layout. When a page goes together quickly and turns out how I wanted it, I really get the urge to do more straight away. Alas home life at the weekend is a little hectic but it's craft club Monday so am looking forward to having a couple of hours of pure crafting.

I'll be back in a couple of days with the projects from Bradfield Craft Club and hopefully another page.

Red Nose fun!

2011-03-04T16:08:00.003Z

I've been having fun with my new found knowledge from the Photoshop course I'm attending along with my dear friend Helen.
How to turn a photo black and white (or any other colour) but making one part in colour focus.
My youngest daughter asked to buy all three RED NOSES that are out this year and of course my little brain immediately thought scrapbook page opportunity!!!! Of course I let her buy all three and within 30mins of getting home from school I had her photographed and was playing in Photoshop!

Here is the end result.

I opened the aperture right up on my camera so that she would be slightly out of focus and made the bright noses center of attention. Now all that's left is to print them out and SCRAP!

I will of course show you the page when I've finished, paper stash here I come!

A quick card.

2011-02-23T11:26:00.003Z

Made this card yesterday for my nephew who loves dinosaurs, the image was a freebie from a card mag years ago and I thought it was perfect for him. Just goes to show that keeping all your stash for years can sometimes come in handy!!!!

The design for the card came from the current sketch challenge over at CPS card sketches which I have been a fan of for a long time but this is the first time I have managed to get a card done in time to join their challenge!!

If you love to make cards check out their blog HERE and join in or just to check out the DT cards for inspiration - you won't be sorry.

Chicken Soup recipe #28.

2011-02-20T15:23:00.004Z

Now this is a first for me - a challenge site called CHICKEN SOUP!! So I thought I would have a crack at it as the inspiration picture was way out of my comfort zone!

Here is the inspiration picture. Lots of shabby chic (scary).

I didn't quite make the pale colours as I took my ideas from the little flowers on the cups. (I think my brain automatically focuses on bright colours no matter how small)! But I did shabby the edges of my paper and did some layering, it's a lot for me!

Spot my new little bird die I got on Friday, stamped him up to make him blend in.

I put some of my title on the photo using white rub ons.

Go check out the recipe #29, it's all about film and bold colours - may find time for this one too!

Twisted Sketches.

2011-02-20T15:08:00.004Z

I started a layout for the Twisted Sketches challenge at the Bradfield Craft Club last week but didn't get it finished in time, but thought I would show you anyway.

Here is the sketch.
My page.

and some close ups...

Got more challenges to do and cards to make, my life seems to be ruled by deadlines!!!!

Burning the Midnight Candle.

2011-02-20T14:38:00.007Z

I was working on a challenge for STUCK last night and was enjoying myself so much that I carried on way past midnight, long after hubby had gone to bed. I think going to the Stitch and Creative Crafts show at Braintree Friday really made me enthusiastic to scrap more. I got three pages finished this weekend, which must be a record for me as I am a very slow scrapper so I will post the others later.
So here is the layout I did for the Stuck sketch challenge (still time to enter). I love the colours of the Fancy Pants Aged Floral line and still have some that I might make a card with later.
Below are some close ups of some parts of the page.

I wanted the subtitle to be subtle so I used rub ons on acetate which I have been seeing around quite a bit lately.

I didn't have any buttons that quite matched so made my own using a Sizzix die I've had for years and hardly used.

These little flowers were cut out of the pattern paper and the little hearts were from the Martha Stewart edge Punch leftovers. I was going to throw them away but accidentally dropped them on the top corner of the page, liked the effect so much I stuck them down and punched some more out for the bottom corner!

As the girls had lacy flowers on their dresses and the sketch had a bow on the top of the photo I thought I would make a layered flower from some scrap sheer fabric and tissue paper.

Thanks for popping by and why don't you have a go at the Stuck sketches they have two a month so plenty to choose from!

Kerry's Sketches #2.

2011-02-16T10:37:00.005Z

I really enjoyed creating sketches for the craft club, so here we are with the 2nd ones and I hope you can play along too.

If you create using my sketches please email a photo of it (kerry.bruce@btinternet.com) or leave a comment with a link to your blog and I will show them here with the craft club ones.

The colour element this week is RED (a little, a lot or somewhere in between) and you have until 28th Feb to get them to me.

I really hope you play with us and look forward to see your creations.

Bradfield Craft Club and Guest.

2011-02-16T10:10:00.008Z

These past two weeks have flown by and here are the cards and pages from my first attempt at making sketches that I not only gave to Bradfield Craft Club but also posted them here for anyone else to have a play.
I am pleased to say that Janette contacted me to say she had posted on her blog her take on my page sketch so as promised I have also posted her page here as our club guest. If you would like to visit Jan's blog to see more of her crafty creations just follow this LINK.

So here is the page sketch.

Jan's page.

My page.

Joan's page.

The card sketch.

My card.

Jackie's card.

Joan's card.

I don't know what is happening with my camera at the moment I don't seem to be able to get a photo that is in focus, I might try using my older camera to see if that helps for next time. In the meantime I apologise for the poor quality of this post.

I will be posting this weeks sketches later so check back and play along with us.

I have posted Joan's page from last month's challenge as she was on holiday but brought it in for us to see.

Park Walk.

2011-02-05T16:06:00.002Z

Here's a quick post to show you a page I started at the craft club on Monday and finished just a little while ago.
I'm sorry about the photo quality but the British weather seems determined for us to take low light photo's and then try and mess about with them on the computer! So the colours are a bit subdued but I'm sure you creative people can imagine brighter colours!!!

The papers I used are all from S.E.I. Doodly-Doo Boy range, soooo cute especially the snails that I cut from the Snips and Snails paper sheet.

I am being summoned by DD to help with her art homework so must sign off now. Thanks for dropping in on me. XXX

Playing with sketches.

2011-02-04T13:28:00.003Z

When I set sketches for the ladies at Bradfield Craft Club I would scour the blogs and challenge sites for suitable ones and then print everyone a copy. Now I'm not very computer savvy but I thought I would have a go at making my own sketches, so here are my first attempts.
I had more trouble sending them from Publisher to Word and this blog than I had making them but hey we're here now.

This is card sketch#1.

and here is page sketch#1.

Now that I have produced my own sketches I thought I would post them here and invite you to have a go with them at the same time as the craft club that I run.

So if you fancy putting the sketches through their paces (or just one) the extra element this week is to add eyelets to your creation.

If you manage to finish before 14th February you can email me with a photo of your page/card to kerry.bruce@btinternet.com and I will put it on this blog along with the ones produced by Bradfield Craft Club.

Alternatively you can leave a message in the comments section with a link to your page/card.

I would love it if you used my sketches so don't be shy and if you use them in the future please let me know as I would still like to see your take on them.

Hope you have a great weekend.
Kerry. xxx

Bradfield Craft Club.

2011-02-01T13:40:00.009Z

Here we are again with the projects from the craft club and along with the following sketches the extra element was the colours brown and yellow.

This sketch was from the Pink Paisley blog.

The card sketch was from the CPS blog.

Here is my page.

Jackie's.

Linda's.

Pam's.

Linda's card.

Jackie's.

Joan's.

Blog Love!

2011-01-23T15:33:00.003Z

You have to check out this blog by a fantastically talented lady called Nancy. I came across a card she posted on Two Peas and found her blog and took an hour going through her older posts right back to 2008!!!
She makes the most adorable cards and also posts the occasional scrapbook page so if you like this card of hers then you should go take a peek at her others - you will spend ages there so make sure you haven't got to make dinner or go out before popping over!

Got the Blues.

2011-01-18T16:36:00.004Z

Only the colour blue thank goodness! Just a quick post before I head off to my photography class, just wanted to show you a card I made last night for a friends birthday next week (wow ahead of myself for a change!).
I am trying to use up some of my scraps by using them to make my card,s so this card used up some of the small but lovely bits I had in the box. I had my sewing machine already downstairs but thought I would use it to make holes instead of stitches to make the borders.

Here is a close up of the flower which took ages as it kept springing open so I had to sit holding it whilst I watched a bit of 'One Born Every Minute' to let the glue dry.

Anyway must dash, thanks for dropping in and please leave a comment to let me know what you think of my card and have you got lots of scraps just piling up waiting to used?

Bradfield Craft Club.

2011-01-11T21:22:00.008Z

I'm glad you've popped in as I have the projects from this weeks Bradfield Craft Club to show you. The sketches we used this time were both from Pagemaps, you can always find gorgeous sketches and inspiration from their blog and they have their second book out now and I had a peek at it at Helen's last week and it is stunning, well worth a look if you like their sketches and designers. The added ingredient was sequins.

Here is the pagemap we used it is from Dec 2010.

The cardmap is one of their latest.

Here is my take on the pagemap.

Joans.

Pam's.

Linda's 1st scrapbook page, Yeh!!

My take on the cardmap.

Linda's.

Back in 3 weeks as we have a couple of our ladies jetting off to sunnier climes (can't understand why).

Sketch Challenge @ Sarah's Cards.

2011-01-09T14:38:00.007Z

Happiness is : when I get time to enter the sketch challenge at Sarah's Cards. As per usual it is by the skin of my teeth as closing date is tomorrow but I work better under pressure!!!!

Here is my page for this month and I really loved these photo's of my aunt and uncle's family so I chose some of my favourite papers that I've been keeping back for some special occasion. The papers are from Scenic Route and I cut out the flowers from the paper to make my embellies, I really enjoy cutting up pattern paper that has big bold flowers etc.

The sun is actually shining today!!! so I took some close up photo's to show the page's detail.
These cute brads are from Dovecraft and were the perfect colours to match the papers.

A flower and some leaves were cut out and layered on a frame for my title I made using my trusty Nestabilities.

I thought I would do a banner but fancied doing hearts for a change.

Another flower and leaves above the photo.

Monday brings Bradfield Craft Club's 1st meeting of the new year so I will have a post showing what we have been up to for our last challenge.

Course Challenge.

2011-01-08T21:28:00.009Z

I posted a couple of days ago that I was getting together with my friend Helen for a day of scrapping and chatting and we always set a challenge for the next time we get together. This time Helen thought it would be a great idea to document the photography course's we are both doing at evening classes.

As you will probably see our results are quite different, I created a page with a single photo of me "behind the lens" and documented with journalling about the courses and what I hope to achieve after completing them.
The colours are a bit muted due to indoor photography on a grey day so you will have to take my word for it that the colours are very bright. (just how I like it).

Helen's project was a bit more creative as she decided to make a word book. She wanted to show the photo's that she took for the assignments during our 1st photography course.
Here is the front of the book and don't those letters look great embossed and then sanded, I just love how she used a different pattern for each letter.
Check out below for the other pages in her book of learning.

Writing this blog has reminded me that Helen and I didn't agree on a new challenge, so if you read this post Helen - put your thinking cap on!!!!

1st page of 2011.

2011-01-03T13:35:00.002Z

At last I got to do some scrapbooking! Yeh!
My craft stuff was taken away upstairs to make way for a big tree!! and all I could do was blogging - very frustrating when what I really wanted to do was get my hands on my punches and paper that didn't have a xmas theme.
So here we are with a page that I started at the last craft club and finished the other night (I think it's the longest I've ever taken to complete a page).
And to buck the trend- a nice summery page although the photo is a bit dull looking due to the dull weather outside which is not conducive to taking photo's indoors!

I managed to use papers from several different manufacturers that I have had for a while but I was quite pleased how they matched the flowers on the paper nicely.
The photo is not of one of my girls for a change but of a friend of the family and I just loved all the lovely bright colours of the lei around her neck, so I focused on them for the colour scheme for the page.

I have a day at my dear friend Helen's house on Friday and have got to go and finish the page for our challenge but will be back at the weekend with pictures of our projects.

Thanks for stopping by and hope your New Year brings you lots of crafting goodness.

Bradfield Craft Club

2010-12-17T11:23:00.007Z

Mondays meeting was our last before xmas so we had a few nibbles whilst we crafted and these were the cards and pages we brought in from the last sketch I set. Apologies to the card makers as they are out of focus and I didn't realise when I took the photo's but you can still see them - just about.
Here is the sketch for the scrapbookers and is from My Little Sketch Blook. The other element to the sketch is Black, White and one other colour of their choice

My page.

Joans

This is the card sketch and is from Twisted Sketches.

My card.

Joans.

Chrissie's.

Linda's.

Busy,busy,busy!

2010-12-04T18:47:00.004Z

So it's that time of year when all of a sudden scrapbooking has to take a back seat and Christmas gets all the attention!
Again I managed to get a page done for Sarah's Cards sketch challenge by the skin of my teeth (cut off is tomorrow). But I always enjoy their sketches so I make a point of trying to get a page done using them if I can.

Here is this month's sketch.

And here is the page I made using the last few scraps I have left of the Earth Love line by Cosmo Cricket. The page shows my middle daughter dressed in her school uniform on the first day of secondary school.
I apologise for the bad lighting on the photo of the scrapbook page but I had to take it under lamp light as it was already dark outside but if you click on the image you should be able to get a better picture close up.

I thought I would share a couple of cards with you while I was here that I made recently.

Of course one had to feature butterflies!

Thanks for checking in and hopefully I'll be back soon.

Twisted Sketch 74

2010-11-20T15:34:00.002Z

I just love Twisted Sketches they are always fun and a little bit different. So I decided to have a go at sketch number 74 which had an animal twist (I wish I had time to do every sketch). Here it is below and if you want to see what the design team made of it you can check it out here.

As you can see I turned the sketch on it's side and I used some gorgeous American Crafts paper called Blue Skies, so bright and cheerful. I forgot to take some close ups of my page but if you click on the image you can see it enlarged.

I'm off now to print out their latest page sketch (76) which has History as it's twist. I'll be looking back at some of my teenage photo's (how scary will that be) to find some inspiration.
Thanks for visiting, back soon with some cards I made today.

Bradfield Craft Club.

2010-11-17T13:44:00.006Z

This weeks Bradfield Craft Club comes to you with the letter P. No I haven't been watching too much Sesame Street but the P stands for Pagemaps. I do love their sketches so much and I am waiting patiently for their new book to be released over here, before Christmas hopefully (hint, hint).
Anyway here is the Pagemap sketch for the layout that I chose and the additional element was ribbon (I thought we would have a little bit hanging around in our stash somewhere).

Here is my take on the sketch.

and Joan's.

and Pam's.

Let's not forget the card sketch.

Linda's take on it.

and Joan's.

Nature's Wonder.

2010-11-09T13:10:00.003Z

I follow a sketch challenge blog called STUCK! This month's 1st sketch was lovely and basic so you can really let your own style take over.

The sketch.

Here is my take on the sketch. I used Cosmo Cricket Earth Love papers which are so perfect for my woodland photo. The tree in the photo is called Old Knobbly locally and is old and gnarled but has a certain beauty about it, my three girls are climbing it but my youngest is giving me grumpy looks as she can't get any higher.

A close up of the cute owl sticker in the corner and the little birds that were cut out of the paper I used.

If you want to check out all the Stuck! DT layouts and have a go at their challenges you can find the link HERE.

Bradfield Craft Club.

2010-11-02T13:48:00.006Z

Here are the pages and card that were made for the challenge I set a couple of weeks ago with the extra ingredient of the colours blue, green. yellow.

The sketch is one of Valerie Salmons form her blog Got Sketch.

This is my page.

This is Joan's

Here is Pam's

Also another of Valerie's sketches.

only I managed the card this week.

Sarah's Card's sketch challenge.

2010-10-29T11:30:00.004+01:00

Another great sketch challenge over at Sarah's Card's this month so I had a go using an old photo of me (for a change).

The sketch, which I turned anticlockwise.

My page, which I used some gorgeous papers from Cosmo Cricket called Something Special, Something New and Something True. Some stitching to give a bit of extra detail and the journaling is hidden behind the photo.

Here is a close up of the flower in the corner which I made at Bradfield Craft Club last week. It was a first attempt but came out quite well so I will definitely be making more.

If you want to enter a page using this sketch at Sarah's Card's I think it is open until Monday 8th November. You can find all the details HERE.

Inspired Blueprints Sketch.

2010-10-25T19:10:00.003+01:00

Do you remember this sketch that I posted a few days ago? It is from Inspired Blueprints and I managed to get the page done for it and posted in their gallery to be in for a chance to win this month's giveaway.

Here is my layout and as you can see I stuck quite close to the original sketch ( sometimes it just works out that way). The photo is of my DH making me a mowing strip out of some paving blocks and the journaling says " where would we be without Gary's ability to fix, make and redesign almost anything he puts his mind to".

and a little close up of the details, the border punch was borrowed from my friend Helen when I was over hers last week so I'm not sure what it's called but it is one I haven't got so I made the most of being there and used it for this page.

The papers I used were 2 sheets of this Scenic Route Designer Scrap Strips and the brads are Basic Grey.

I really love using these scrap strips papers and I acquired quite a few different ones from the Scrap Shed earlier this year. It means you have lots of different papers in little pieces to play with and the back is a full page of a co-ordinating pattern. I think other paper companies do them aswell so I might search out some others when I finished these ones although I may have 3 or4 more to scrap yet!

Friendly challenge.

2010-10-23T11:26:00.006+01:00

My good friend Helen and me got together yesterday to chat, scrap and eat cake but we also compared our pages that we both did for a challenge we set each other.
The challenge was to use two sheets of the same patterned paper - Scenic Route Designer Scrap Strip.

Here is my page and I used a quote about daughters which is one of my favourite quotes, I think it's because I have three daughters!

A close up of the cute little birdie that came from a sticker sheet I got from my local Paperchase shop, they have the sweetest stickers.

Helen's page incorporates lots of lovely hand stitching and shows her and her sister when they were little.

and a close up of that stitching and of the equally cute butterflies.

Helen and me are doing a photography course together so Helen suggested that our next challenge could be to document our return to the world of school and homework!

We will be back soon with our challenge and some of the photo's from our newly learnt photo skills.

Bradfield Craft Club.

2010-10-19T11:06:00.010+01:00

As promised here are the pages and cards from this weeks club starting as always with scrapbooking and the additional challenge was to add buttons to their page. (nice and easy).

Another sketch from the wonderful PageMaps.

Here is my page.

Joans.

The card sketch, again from PageMaps.

My card.

Joan's.

Chrissie's.

Linda's

Jackie's.

Blog Love.

2010-10-18T09:54:00.002+01:00

Today's Blog Love is a sketch challenge blog called INSPIRED BLUEPRINTS who have new sketches posted on their blog on the 1st and 15th of the month. You can upload your challenge pages to their gallery or just have fun creating a page using their sketch of course.
I have joined their site as I intend to have a go at this sketch as the design team has inspired me with their gorgeous layouts.

Here is my favourite designers page created by Jennifer Yates, it's so cute and colourful.

I'm off now to get ready for tonight's Bradfield Craft Club meeting so I will be back in the next couple of days with the photo's of our challenges.

In the nick of time.

2010-10-10T19:05:00.005+01:00

I have been meaning to get this page done for the sketch challenge over at Sarah's Cards for weeks now and kept thinking " I've still got plenty of time"!!! Well the deadline is tomorrow and here I am posting it with just a few hours to spare!
Anyway the sketch was a bit of a challenge (I suppose it's meant to be) not one I would have chosen to use but I am pleased with the end result.

Here is a couple of close up's.

I will try harder to get the next challenge Sarah sets done a bit sooner than the last minute. I think she sets them a couple of days after this one is finished so check out her blog soon if you fancy having a go at her challenge but there is always some great inspiration to be had all the time on the blog so go HERE to have a look at the designers work.

Candle Card.

2010-10-08T12:45:00.002+01:00

I made a card for my friend Helen at the weekend, I can show it to you now as she has received it.
I loved the effect made by my new Cuttlebug embossing folder (been wanting this one for ages) simple yet so effective.
As Helen is more of a pastels girl I tried to tone down my usual tendency for bright colours but I was pleased with the end result, I even put some ribbon on!

I am trying to get a page done for the sketch challenge over at Sarah's cards but I am stuck with the title and it's getting frustrating as nothing I try looks right. The deadline is the 11th October so I had better get cracking but hopefully it will be posted here tomorrow.

Autumn Colours.

2010-10-07T13:52:00.009+01:00

This week at Bradfield Craft Club we had Autumn colours as well as the usual sketch challenge as we seem to be travelling headlong into October and all the gorgeous oranges reds and browns that are appearing everywhere outside.
So to start off with the page sketch is from Kirsty Wisemans blog and I chose this one as it seemed to be a little different to any I've seen lately. I could imagine those stars changing to banners or xmas baubles. Anyway here is everyones take on the sketches.

my page

Joan's layout.

Pam's page.

This is the card sketch from CPS card blog.

My card.

Joan's card.

Jacqui's.

Jackie's.

Saturday Sketch.

2010-10-02T20:52:00.003+01:00

Well Wendy has posted my layout for the Saturday Sketch on the Papermaze blog so I can post it here aswell now. This was the sketch I was sent (quite a while ago I am embarrassed to admit) and I returned the layout this week.

Here is my layout, I have stayed true to the sketch this time because the photos I had worked better that way. The papers I used were old ones -two sheets of Scenic Route Designer Scrap Strips that I got in the Scrap Shed sale earlier in the year so I don't think they are available now but there are some others HERE that are lovely and still in their sale.

The background paper is actually white but the day I took the photos it was grey and foggy so not the best lighting for taking pictures so please forgive the quality but you can click on the image for a closer look.

Thanks for dropping in on me and if you have some pennies to spare Papermaze have got a special offer this week as it's their birthday - 25% off selected papers, a different manufacturer each day so check out their website everyday to see if your favourite papers are on offer. You can find them HERE.

Blog Love.

2010-10-01T12:39:00.003+01:00

As promised another Blog Love for you today. This one is the blog of the Pebbles Inc company who do gorgeous papers and accessories and their design team come up with beautiful cards and layouts.
Check out this layout below by their design member Laura Vegas, lovely bright colours and such a simple design that looks fab but does not detract from the photos.

I recommend you check out their blog for yourself HERE it will become one of your favourites. They even post great sketches with examples by the DT members so you could be seeing me using some of them soon.

Let me know what you think as I love sharing my blog finds with you all.

Sneak Peek.

2010-09-29T23:24:00.007+01:00

I have been busy scrapping lately honest but the pages are for challenges so I can't post the whole layout but thought I would show you a few sneak peeks. This page is for the Saturday Sketches on the Papermaze blog but I'm not sure when it will be appearing.

I thought I would use some sequins to jazz up the letters.

A butterfly of course, using my new Tonic Studios punch from Papermaze.

And more little butterflies with added bling!

I'm hoping to add another Blog Love feature before the weekend so check back soon.

A quick scraplift.

2010-09-27T10:02:00.005+01:00

I was blogging yesterday (as I always do) and came across a layout by the talented Anna and thought her layout was just right for a quick scraplift, as I had limited time for crafting (between ironing and cooking) I tried to keep it as simple as possible.
I loved the edge punch Anna had used and I have put it on my wish list which grows quicker than I can buy!

The photo I used is of my eldest daughter and our budgie Charlie and I used some REALLY old papers from S.E.I called Winnies Walls as the colours matched those in the photo.

Here are a couple of close up's.

The gorgeous brad came in a set by Doodlebug called Boutique Brads Tangerine assortment which you can see HERE but the picture just doesn't do them justice.

You can check out Anna's blog HERE.

Bradfild Craft Club.

2010-09-21T10:54:00.010+01:00

It's that time again where I post the creative goings on of Bradfield Craft Club and this week I challenged the members to include embossing with the sketches I provided.

The page sketch below I fell in love with as soon as I saw it on the Imaginisce Blog this month and had to give it a go.

Here is my layout

here is Pam's

This is Joan's

The card sketch is an old one from Twisted Sketches, they alternate between card sketches and scrapbooking sketches so there is always plenty of inspiration to be had.

Here is mine
.

This one is Jackie's.

Here is Jacqui's.

Chrissy's 1st card

and her 2nd.

Last but not least, Joan's card.

Kiddy Cat.

2010-09-17T23:23:00.000+01:00

This is a page I made a while ago for The True Friends blog which for reasons I don't know have stopped blogging! So I thought I would post these photo's for you to see.
The original challenge was to scrap about your pet with the family and as you can see it stars our very physically challenged (lazy) cat Molly!

She loves nothing more than snuggling up with my girls on the chair in their play room, getting cuddles and generally being pampered. I just love the photo of her laying on Sammy's back whilst she watches the tv. It looks like my DD's asleep aswell but she just didn't like to have her photo taken and she couldn't run away as it would disturb the cat!

Here are a couple of close up's .

When the girl's went back to school Molly missed them terribly and would wander around meowing pitifully, so sometimes I just HAD to sit down and have some cuddles with her!

Off to bed now so I am bright eyed for some scrapping tomorrow. Yeh!

Spread your Wings.

2010-09-14T10:37:00.000+01:00

I had treated myself to some 3 Bugs in a Rug papers called Spread your Wings which were reduced as they are an old line but are so cute I decided to use them straight away. Normally I would not use my new papers for a while, I like to browse through them in my stash until they are superseded by some other must have papers. Plus I had lots of the papers from the line so I didn't feel I was using them all up at once.

This layout I had almost finished when I was at my friend Helens last week ( see, we do get a little bit of scrapping done).

I had even started this one too but only finished it yesterday, the red polka dot paper is some Jilli Bean basics line but realy went well with the other papers.

I had a card to make for my daughter's friend so I made it with some leftovers and the image of the girl was drawn by my eldest daughter and coloured with promarkers.

Thanks for stopping by as I know it's been a bit slow around here lately but I promise to try harder.

Are you sitting down?

2010-09-10T20:44:00.000+01:00

Now usually the Bradfield Craft Club has a few cards and scrapbook pages to show you but this week was our first meeting back from the summer break. On the last meeting I gave everyone a mini kit consisting of a couple of sheets of MME Pretty Please paper some cardstock and a few bits and pieces I thought would go with the papers. We were also allowed to use white cardstock, card blanks and stamping.
We could also do as many cards/ scrapbook pages as the kit would allow so get comfy because there are alot to see.

Me page 1

Me page 2

Maggie

Sandy

Joan page 1

Joan page 2

Jacqui.

Pam page 1

Pam page 2

Jackie.

Me.

Joan.

Chrissie.

Jackie.

Linda!! and......

Linda!

Didn't we do well with such a small amount of stash? But we all enjoyed the challenge.

Back to sketches and some embossing for this weeks challenge so check back to see how everyone gets on with that.