Sketch Time.

Over at Scrap, Paper, Scissors blog a couple of weeks ago their new DT member Tracee used a sketch from Pagedrafts .com that I instantly fell in love with and decided to do a page based on it.
I am a great lover of sketches anyway but this is a sketch blog that I didn't know about but will be visiting again.

Here is the page I made with the use of Tracee's sketch choice. It shows some photo's from a Scissor Sisters concert that I went to last year at Newmarket Race course.

This is the fab sketch from Pagedrafts.

When I looked through my papers I couldn't find any papers with the right shade of blue, but luckily I had some mists that were perfect. So using a star mask that I made myself out of  Nestabilities and some acetate I sprayed some white Bazzil with blue and black ink, moving the mask around to get some layers. 

I also really wanted some scissors on the page and as I didn't have any dies or embellishments in the shape of scissors I went onto the internet and got a clipart picture. After playing around in Word I managed to make two strips of scissors to run down both sides of my patterned paper.

 

One last close up.

 

Tracee has put up another Pagedrafts sketch up on the Papermaze blog this week so I may have to have a go at that one too as it's another doozie.

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week. 

This Makes Me Happy.

I am really enjoying having the time to scrap at the moment and have managed to get quite a few pages done this week compared to my usual amount. Last night was another opportunity to get some scrappy time in, so I thought I would sneak in a page for Sarah's Cards October challenge at the last moment.
Please excuse the quality of the pictures today as the Uk is really overcast at the moment so I tried to position my layout under a lamp to take the photo! (saying no more).

 

Now if you can't tell what the photo is of  (I took it whilst hanging out of my bathroom window) it is a House Martin swooping in to feed it's chick, who you can just see poking it's head out of the nest.
The estate I live on used to be a prime nesting site for Martins until about 10 years ago when they just stopped using our houses to build their mud homes on.
This year though we had a pair of these elusive birds nest on our house again and we were so pleased to have them, whether it is because we built a pond in our garden or just pure chance I don't know but hopefully they will be back next year.

Here is the sketch for the October challenge over at Sarah's Cards that I used.

I know this little bird house doesn't resemble a House Martins nest at all but it goes with the theme of the page so I put in on anyway and because it's cute!

Another couple of close ups of the page and this one shows the fabric I used instead of paper as it was the perfect shade to match the nest and it has great texture too.

There is only a couple of days left to get your entry in to Sarah's cards if you want to have a go at their sketch challenge and there is a voucher for the shop up for grabs!

Back soon hopefully.

Crazy Fun!

Wow, this is my second post today! I really had a lovely time yesterday scrapping into the wee hours and getting a couple of pages done for challenges that I wanted to enter.
The weather in the UK today is typically British and can't make it's mind up as to rain or shine but it's also turned really cold, so I am spending another couple of hours this afternoon scrapping so hopefully there will be another post here in the next couple of days (steady on Kerry!!!).
Anyway the challenge over at White With One this month is White, Yellow and Stars and I had the perfect photo's to use.

The photo's show my girls and their friends having their first ride on a banana boat in Ibiza - they had so much fun and came off the ride a bit crazy with excitement, hence the title.

I really wanted to have a big sun on the page so I used stars cut with Nestabilities as the sun instead of the usual circle and cut the rays from different shades of yellow.

The banners are from the talented Erin Bradley and I added some stamped stars around the edge.

Here is a little close up of the star cluster at the top of the photo.

Still a few days left of this challenge so if you have the ideal photo to why not have a go?

 

 

Scrap the Girls.

This months challenge at Scrap the Girls blog is more than one photo, staples, flowers and two different alpha's and I'm trying to be good and use up some of my page kits that I had made for myself earlier this year. So among them was several photo's of my cousins wedding, teamed up with some pretty Basic Grey papers - my starting point.

please click for a better view

I think this may be only the second time that I have used doilies on my pages and I used two different sorts - the round one is obvious and the other is a rectangle one along the bottom edge.
The two different alphas are from two different Basic Grey paper packs, I just coloured the date ones to black using my Promarkers as I felt that it looked better.

The large flowers were cut using some Nestabilities dies and the leaves are cut from a Sizzix die.

Here on the banner is where I used my staples to attach them onto some ribbon.

There are still four days left of the challenge so if you are planning on scrapping a girly page why not have a go at Scrap the Girls challenge, all the details can be found HERE.

Up, Down, Round & Round.

A challenge entry today for the fab Sketchbook365 blog that I follow, it is an easier sketch for me this month and I even managed to make it into a double page!
I had made up page kits for myself for when I go to the all day crops in Bradfield, but I had forgotten all about them until today when I came across one with multiple photo's and the gorgeous October Afternoon 'Sidewalks' line inside.
I bought the papers on my last trip to Papermaze and had forgotten I had them after putting them away with some photo's (you can still get them HERE).

Here is my page and you will need to click on the image to see it better as this is as big as I can get it on blogger without chopping bits of it off.
The photo's are of my two youngest daughters enjoying time on their trampoline in the spring.

 

My usual group of close-ups.



This is the November sketch that is up on the Sketchbook365 blog and I made the left hand side of my double page the one closest to the sketch.

The challenge is open until the 14th November with some Kaisercraft goodies up for grabs, so you still have plenty of time to have a go too! 

Ready for the Prom.

I have a page to show you today that I made using sketch #18 from the Sketch-N-Scrap challenge blog although I have not stuck entirely to the sketch as I only had two photo's instead of four. Also I turned it around because my photo's were landscape but I think you can still see the sketch base.

So here is my page and as you can probably guess it is of my eldest daughters prom night, she is pictured in the light blue dress and standing with some of her friends who all travelled in a chauffeur driven car to the school.

 



As per usual here are a couple of close ups.

 



 

 

This is the sketch that I used, I really enjoyed making this page as it's quite flowery and feminine to go with all the beautiful young people in the photo's.

Oh, to be young again!

Sketch-N-Scrap have just revealed their sketch #19 and it's quite an interesting one so I might pop off now and find some photo's and papers to have a go at it.

Kitty Love.

Now as you probably have seen lately from my pages we went on holiday to Ibiza with some friends who also have 3 girls (and 1 boy) and not only do they all get on wonderfully they share a love of kitty cats.
Both families have cats at home and when we went on holiday the children couldn't pass one in the street (if it was not adverse to 7 children descending upon it!) without giving it lots of love.

Here is a page showing one of the most gorgeous and friendly cats that we came across in a local village, he got called Ginger (original I know!).

 

This is the sketch that I based my page on, it is from ScrapFriends Blog which has some great tutorials and inspiration go check it out Here.....http://blog.scrapfriends.com.au/ 

 

 

My usual close ups.

There is still plenty of time to play along with the sketch challenge and you must just love that sketch!
I am off to search for a title for a page that I am doing of my eldest daughters prom photo's my first stop is going to be Scrapbook.com's quotes pages as this is the best place I have found to find help with titles that are evading me. Check it out if you get stuck too.
Back soon with that finished page hopefully.

Lots to show you.

I am just getting around to posting a few projects from last week as I have been a little busy with meetings / work / lunches with friends and all that is life in general!
So here we go.........

Here is a page I created using a PageMaps sketch from September, I gave it out as a challenge to Bradfield craft club a couple of weeks ago then promptly forgot to take my camera to get the photo's to show you of the other projects done using the sketch.

 

My usual close up photo.

I went to spend the day at my friend Helen's on Friday and she had made a page using the sketch as well and as I had remembered my camera I can show you her take on it. Helen had recently bought the bicycle die and when I saw the sketch I thought of her and she was happy to play along with our challenge.

You might have to click on the photo to get a close up of the bike as Helen has put glitter glue on it to give it a lift.

 

Here is the sketch we used.

 



Next up is pages from a challenge that Helen and I set each other which was pink and turquoise (chosen by our daughters). My page is another one for my Ibiza holiday album using mostly American Crafts papers.

I have been seeing a lot of die cut wording on the Internet lately so I cut the word 'cave' out of the card that my smaller photo is mounted on.

Here is Helen's page using a darker colour of cardstock for her background that really makes the lighter colours pop.

The stars she used are stamped, heat embossed then cut out, aren't they cute and I love the confetti that came from the pieces of paper left over from her border punching.

One of the reasons I went to see Helen on Friday was because it was her birthday (not that I need an excuse to spend a day scrapping and chatting at Helen's) but as it was her special day I made her a card. It is so different from my usual style of cards but I really enjoyed the challenge.

and of course the close up of the flowers that were cut using some Spellbinders and the leaves were from a Papertrey Ink die.

Phew, I promise the next post will not be quite so long, I will be back in a couple of days with a page that I almost got finished whilst at Helen's. Until then have a wonderful weekend.