Sarah's Cards Challenge - Time for a Change.

Hello everyone and welcome to my humble blog on this grey and rainy Tuesday. I have been busy making soup this morning and have left it bubbling away whilst I post my page for the Sarah's Cards January sketch challenge.

 

Here is the sketch and what a fab one this month, I couldn't resist the clear star.

 

 

 Sarah's Cards has one of their super sales and I managed to pick up a whole bunch of MME On the Bright Side papers! You should seriously grab yourself some of these papers (if there are any left) the colours are gorgeous and there are loads of wood effect paper in the range.

As you can see I substituted the star for a clock face that I made using some acetate and rub on numbers.

 

 

A close up of the clock and a cute brad in the middle that I found hiding in my stash at the bottom of the drawer.

 

I have started collecting washi tape and love finding new ways to use it, so the other day I came across someones page that used their washi under the subtitle. So I thought I could pinch the idea as I had some tape the same colour blue as the street lamps in the photo.

Ok now there is only two days left the the closing date for this months challenge at Sarah's Cards but I'm sure you have time to have a go!  Check out the inspiration HERE.

 

A Scrappy Friends Challenge.

 

How many photo's did you take over Christmas? The tree, decorations, excited children opening pressies and all the other fun stuff that goes with the holidays has to be recorded. So what better challenge for myself and my wonderful friend Helen than to scrap a page using some of the photo's that were taken over the festive season!

We met up on Friday to share our creations and catch up on life in general - kids, pets and of course scrapbooking.

 

 

Here is my layout that I made for the challenge. The photo shows my girls after they spent about three hours making paper chains for their den.

 

 It's not often I make rosettes but I felt they would be perfect for this layout. and I added some glitter brads to the middle for that touch of sparkle.

Yes I went completely mad and made miniature paper chains for my layout and yes it took me a long time! But once I got the idea in my head I just had to make them and luckily I had some quilling papers that had just the right colours.

 

 

 Helen's super cute layout is of her girls enjoying the comfort of their new onesies, there is quite a craze for them this year in the UK, although my husband said he wouldn't wear it if I got him one for Christmas (must be a girl thing!).

 

 

Did you count the sheep? No! well there are only two so no fear of falling asleep. Helen's new found pleasure of shrink plastic has produced these cute winter sheep and there are owls on the page too as those are the creatures that girls onesies are based on.

 

Here is one of the shrink plastic owls taking up position near the title, the stamps that Helen used were from Papermania.

The next challenge that Helen has set us is to use this stamp set on our layout, aren't these images soooo cute!

Can't wait to get started, I think lots of paper piecing will be involved.

 

I hoped you enjoyed seeing our challenge this month and if you have used this stamp set on your pages I would love to see them and get some ideas!!!!

 

 I hope you have a great weekend.

 

 

Sketch To Scrapbook Page.

Now you know I love working with sketches and sometimes I stick close to the design and other times I twist and turn my page elements to suit the photo's and my overall taste.
Today I have a page to show you that I started using Shimelle's sketch that she has posted on her blog.

Now the photo's I was originally going to use were portrait but then I changed my mind as they didn't really match my papers (sometimes it's quicker to change photo's than to rummage around trying to change papers).

 

I have added quite a few elemements to my page that don't apear on Shimelle's sketch but that's the fun of simple sketches - you can add to it without thinking you have strayed too far from the original.

 

Instead of hearts I have butterflies (I think Shimelle will aprove!).

 

 

Along the edge of my page I added some of the elements from the sheet of stickers that I bought to go with the papers.

Off now to work on a challenge that my friend Helen and I have set each other - to scrap a photo that was taken over the Christmas holidays. Hope you have a fun day too.

Stuck Sketch Challenge.

Hi scrappy friends I have a page to show you that I did for the Stuck Sketches blog for Jan 1st challenge. I loved the simplicity of it and knew it was a sketch that was perfect for some photo's of my eldest DD.

 

Here is the wonderful sketch and I kept very close to the design as I loved it so much.

 

The papers I used are from Bella Blvd and are part of the Lovey Dovey line.

For a change I have used some Kraft for my background paper.

 

These little brads with letters that spell out GIRL were originally silver and I coloured them with my Promarkers to make them go with my page colours better.

The title letters and these numbers were also re- coloured with Promarkers.

 

A last close-up, this one of the focal flower that I made and the ripped papers instead of a banner as shown on the sketch.

 

There is still plenty of time and another sketch to play with at Stuck, so check out their blog HERE.

 



A First For Me Too!

Sketch N Scrap have announced their first ever blog hop and being part of their design team means my blog becomes part of the excitement! It's very nerve racking for me as it's the first time my Lil 'o' Blog has been involved in a blog hop, so make sure you join us on 7th February as there will be a bonus sketch challenge and prizes being given away by the design team members!

 

Feel free to grab our Blog Hop Blinkie to remind yourself and to let your scrappy friends know of our special day.

Sketch N Scrap #25.

Yesterday (I'm a day late posting - bad girl!) Sketch N Scrap posted their second sketch for January and it's another corker! (does anybody say corker anymore?)  I had such fun with this layout as I found the perfect papers for not only the sketch but the photo's as well.

A lovely simple sketch that leaves you room to add your own style.

 

Here is my page based on the sketch above using some more holiday pic's.

 

I love this saying so made sure I squeezed it onto my layout.

 

 

I used a vine leaf Sizzix die with some punched flowers under the photo's as I thought they looked kind of wave like.

 

The prize up for grabs this month is from A Flair For Buttons so dash over to the Sketch N Scrap blog for the details and please play along with us as we all love to have friends to scrap with. 

Hello Mojo!

I have been neglecting you I know and I have no excuse to give that changes anything, but mojo and I had a falling out and she left leaving no forwarding address!!
So to try and win her back I went in search of some inspiration and found it in the form of a sketch challenge at Paper Secrets. One look at their sketch and mojo was knocking on my door again wanting to play!

 

Here is the wonderful sketch that got my mojo excited and the added challenge of using washi tape.

 

Here is my take on the sketch and instead of the vertical pieces of paper I used an alphabet stencil and sprayed paint (love getting messy) because the photo's of my DD are from her 1st year at school. The papers are MME and the washi tape that I bought in the Paperchase sale went really well with the gold papers.

 

Here you can see where I covered a plain brown frame with the washi tape. There is also one behind the photo.

 

 

You can see my sprayed letters, I loved the effect I got where the edges of the letters are not straight because the paint got underneath the stencil a bit. 

The brad in the flower is a really old Basic Grey one that I found when I cleared out one of my craft drawers!

I promise to be back soon as I have another page to show you - go mojo!

 

Here's One I Finished Earlier!

I knew that during December I would be crazy busy and that my craft stash gets put away each year to make room for a 'tree', so I kept a layout back to show you when there would be little activity here on my little blog.
It was done using this sketch that I designed for Bradfield Craft Club at the beginning of December.

 I only have Microsoft Publisher to design my sketches with so they are always very simple and minimal but I only use sketches as a spring board anyway, and everyone has their own style they can run with.

 

Anyway here is the layout that I came up with, the papers I used were inspired by the colour of the sunset in the photo. The sand writing was done by my eldest DD and then she took this gorgeous photo of me walking into the sea with the writing in the foreground. I'm so glad she has taken an interest in taking photo's too as she takes some beauty's.

The papers and the banner are all digital from different designers but go so well together.

My usual glitter title and these gorgeous felt stars are from a company called Stickopotamus.

 

Now that I have no more pages made I have to pop off and find some great challenges to enter as I love a good sketch challenge. So thanks for popping in and hopefully I will be back soon. 

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you, here's wishing 2013 is everything you could hope for and more.
For me a New Year means another chance to have fun with family and friends and record those memories in albums for all to see and reminisce.
To start off the fun I have the January 1st sketch challenge at Sketch N Scrap to share with you!

 

I'm really enjoying being on the design team for SNS as the sketches are totally up my street and January's is no exception.

 

  You really must excuse the quality of the picture as December was so grey and miserable weather- wise that getting a decent photo of my pages was out of the question.
Another fun filled holiday page with lots of colour to go with the bright photo's and my love of American Crafts papers is in evidence here.
Doodling is one of the techniques I am loving at the moment (I can't draw for toffee), I haven't got a steady hand at the best of times and making my drawing and outlining free hand gives it a whimsical feel.

 

I am also enjoying paint splats and buttons on my pages lately (good job as I have large stash of buttons!).

 

A last little close-up and an invitation for you to come and join us at Sketch N Scrap with the January sketch challenge. The prize this month is from A Flair for Buttons so pop over to SNS for all the details HERE. We would love to see you all play along with us.