Las Dalias Flea Market.

Hi and welcome to my humble blog where today I have the last layout for Scrap Our Stash from me as I have stepped down from the Design Team due to home commitments. 

The sketch challenge this month has a tie dye theme as we have teamed up with Child's Play Challenges.

Here is the sketch and the stash element is to use two different alphas plus sequins or enamel dots.

In keeping with the tie dye theme I made my own background with crepe paper and lots of water. There is a tutorial if you would like to see how it was done HERE on my previous post.

The finished background when dry was much lighter and I found some papers from  various manufacturers that coordinated with it beautifully. The alpha's consist of some die cut and some rub-on's.

I recently treated myself to some pastel coloured sequins and scattered some around the page.

The flowers were all fussy cut from Echo Park's 'For The Record' line.

Here you can see the tie dye effect a bit closer, this was the first time I had played with crepe paper in this way and I was really pleased at how it looks.

The details of this challenge can be found at Scrap Our Stash HERE.

The Child's Play Challenges blog can be found HERE.

I do so hope that you get chance to play along with us with this fun challenge and I look forward to seeing your take on both the sketch and the tie dye element.

Thanks for dropping by and hope you are having a great week so far. xx

Tie Dye Tutorial.

I had a DT page for Scrap Our Stash to complete this month that involved the challenge of tie-dye as we are teaming up with Child's Play!
When my blogging Friend Wendy shared her tie-dye page with me I talked her into making a tutorial too as our techniques are quite different!
You can check out Wendy's tutorial on her blog W2, HERE.

When I read the challenge assignment I wracked my brain (took all of about 23 seconds) and come up empty of ideas for tie dying on a page so I searched the endless book of knowledge that is the internet and found a children's paper mache project that used a faux tie dye technique and thought I could adapt it for scrapping!

So I gathered my essentials-

White background 12x12 thick paper.

Misting bottle.

Paint brush.

Crepe paper in stronger colours than I wanted as the end result will be less bright.

First - on a protected surface I wet my white paper using the mister. (so far so easy!!!).

I then ripped my crepe paper into strips about 1 1/2 inches wide (but it can be any width). Not as easy as it sounds because the crepe paper stretches but I think that helps with the final effect!

Then I placed the first strip at the top and misted it thoroughly. 

The crepe paper needed a little help from a paint brush to get it to lie flatter on the background paper.

Here is a close-up .

Then it was just a case of using the other coloured crepe paper strips in the same way leaving a small gap between each strip. This did not need to be neat, as in the case of tie dying there is always a ragged edge between where the string was tied and where the die managed to take hold.

I took off the crepe papers after just five minutes and I was delighted with my tie-dyed paper.

At first the colour was very bright but once it dried it was much lighter.

I will be sharing the layout I made using this tie-dyed paper on 25th June so please come back and see the finished page.

Hope you enjoyed my little tutorial.

What new technique have you found lately?

Hug's.

Kerry. xx

Shaping Up - A Friendly Challenge.

Hiya scrap friends!

Loving this summer weather, sitting outside in my friend Helen's craft cabin yesterday, doors wide open and chatting away about anything and everything was a real treat.

Typical British weather though - brilliant sunshine for a few hours then it started to rain! But don't you love a summer rain shower to freshen the garden and to listen to the patter of it on the cabin roof?

I am always glad of a bit of rain in the summer as we live in a dry part of England and my garden and allotment can always do with it. But although it was raining at Helen's when I got home - not a drop to be seen and I live only about 12 miles away! So I will be going out to water my pots in a little while!

Before I go I have mine and Helen's friendly challenge to share with you. This month it was all about shaped patterned background paper! I have several in my stash and I decided that I needed to use them or lose them so I challenged Helen to use up one of her's too! 

I had about six circle ones in different levels of brightness but chose to start off with an easy one! I think this one is an old Bella Boulevard one (but don't quote me on it!) Just to shake it up a bit I decided to cut through it and place the two pieces on opposite sides of the white card stock (I live life in the fast lane!).

I am really enjoying putting bunting (banners) on pages at the moment so I made one using an assortment of patterned and plain papers.  

I recently treated myself to some thin cork and had fun cutting out some shapes for this page.

I also found some pastel sequins and got some green, yellow and blue ones to go with my summer pages. You can see the blue ones here.

Helen also chose a circle shaped paper to play with which is the perfect choice for the sweet photo of her eldest daughter (who is now 19!). The papers that went with it are so cute with the woodland animals and trees.

Helen uses circles to cluster her embellishments on and I have now stolen that idea as you can see in my layout! She has been using this technique for years and I have now decided to adopt it but first I will admit to where I got the idea from - thanks Helen!

Helen is a woman of many talents - some of which I don't think here is the place to mention them! But one of these talents is making adorable crochet flowers and the glitter brads look so cute in the middle of these ones!

I do hope you enjoyed this month's friendly challenge and Helen has chosen our next one which is to use Fimo clay! I have used it once on a page - I cut out a heart and stuck it on - go me! So I am going to try and find some more exciting ways to use it for this challenge. Pinterest here I come!

Love it that you stopped by. Have a great weekend whatever you are up to. xx 

  

Real Friends.

Having fun with another double page, this time I created it using the June sketch challenge over at Life. Paper. Scrapbook.

Here is the sketch.

Here is my double page.

As you can see the left page is based on the sketch.

These fun papers are all from Fancy Pants Trend Setter line, even the corrugated card.

A close up of the right hand page. I put the journaling inside one of the die cut stars.

The stars were cut using Nestabilities.

The gold stars that are dotted around are simply some gummed childrens performance stars and they were the perfect size for this page.

This sketch challenge runs until June 23rd. Check out the awesome DT examples HERE.

Thanks for stopping by. xx 

Happy Birthday.

Just sharing a quick card that I made using Sketch N Scraps 5th June card sketch.

Here is card sketch #27.

Now I know it looks nothing like the sketch! As I was making the card it just evolved into this!

I stamped the background in three blocks using a bubble wrap stamp.

I knew I wanted to put the word 'HAPPY' in place of the banners (just to be different!) But then I couldn't fit four on the card, so I left it at three!

For the strip and sentiment I went with twine and a banner but I put it the opposite way to the way I was doing the sketch!

There you have it, my card sort of using the Sketch N Scrap card sketch!

I hope you will join in with this challenge and to see what a better job the Card DT did with the sketch check out the post HERE. (now you know why I'm not on the card DT!!!!!)

Love you all for stopping by. xx

  

Do More of What Makes You Happy.

Goodness how the month is flying by! 

The fifteenth of the month is of course the next layout sketch reveal over at Sketch N Scrap and I am happy to be sharing the page I made with the new sketch.

Here is Kelly's super fun sketch.

This page was a pleasure to make as it just seemed to flow and come together without me stressing over the detail, probably because I love having fussy cut embellishments to make!

Not only were the flowers cut from a sheet of scrapbook paper but I also stamped some extra leaves and fussy cut them too.

I replaced the banner on the sketch that went horizontally with a tag which will be where my journalling will go.

We have Chic Tags as our sponsor this month

For all the details of the prize draw, the challenge rules and to see the rest of the DT layouts using Kelly's sketch all you have to do is hop on over to the Sketch N Scrap blog HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Have a wonderful day. xx

Everyday is an Adventure.

Today I am sharing my layout that is revealed over on the Scrap Our Stash Blog. The current stash challenge is to create a monochromatic page.

1. Your layout should be different shades of 1 color. 

2. You can add black, white or Kraft --- but 75% must be shades of 1 color. 

3. STASH ITEMS: You must also add 5 (or more) DIFFERENT premade/prepackaged embellishments of your choice on your layout. You can use as many of the items you want BUT you will need to list 5 different items. (example - 2 paperclips, 4 buttons, 1 washi tape, 1 twine).

Here is my page and all the patterned papers are from a Pebbles Basics pad (nice and easy!). I chose this photo that my eldest daughter took on holiday last year as we were all wearing blue clothes (not intentionally honest!).

Here are the five items I added.
1. wooden butterflies and bicycle.
2.... two project life cards.
3. washi tape.
4. photo corner stickers.
5. glitter dots.

I added a little bit of hand stitching.

I misted the white cardstock at the top with a sunburst mask.

Here you can see the wooden butterfly, one of my favorite stash items. I use them quite sparingly as I only have a few left.

If you would like to play along with us at Scrap Our Stash all the details and the other monochromatic layouts by the DT can be found Here.

Thanks for stopping by. xx

Inspired By - Me!

Sketch N Scraps Inspired By Challenge this month features a sketch made from a page I created! 

How exciting to see what the rest of the DT came up with out seeing my original layout!

Here is the sketch that Kelly designed based on this layout of mine.......

As you can see Kelly made an awesome job with the sketch - it totally takes in all the elements I had on my page.

I had been seeing quite a few diagonally divided pages lately and so I decided to start with some fun patterned papers that went with my photo.

I added chevrons in lovely girly colours to match and placed some round stickers onto cardstock before punching them out with a Martha Steward punch.

Some wooden embellishments, ink splats and a word sticker for some interest at the bottom corner.

I really hope you liked my page and I have inspired you to play along with us with this month's Inpired By Challenge.

Check out the awesome layouts the rest of the DT created with the sketch (remember they didn't see my original page just the sketch!).

Details as always can be found HERE on the Sketch N Scrap Blog. 

Thanks for stopping by. xx

Steak Night.

Hello you lovely people, welcome to my little piece of blogland!

Today Challenge Yourself  has their June reveal! This month we are scrapping about ourselves and a man/boy in our lives.

Here is two happy people (me and hubby) enjoying a night out in the pub on Steak Night!

These papers I used are some REALLY old ones from a company called Polar Bear Press. They are very pretty but not too girly if you know what I mean!

This gorgeous crochet flower was made by my mum and looks fab with a simple brad in the middle.

I used a Martha Steward punch to make this simple banner out of circles folded in half.

Using the same punch as the banner I punched out one of the flowers in the patterned paper to make a simple little embellishment that was quick and effective.

Check out the awesome prize offered by our sponsor this month, Paper Issues. For all the details on how to play along and be in the draw for this prize check out the Challenge Yourself Blog and see what the rest of the DT have created with this month's prompt of - Oh Boy! 

Thank you for taking the time to visit me and hope your weekend is a crafty one!

AND THE WINNER IS....

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who played along with Sketch N Scraps Birthday Bash, it's great to see so many of our fans joining in with the fun and frivolities!
As for the two challenges on my blog, (the tic, tac, toe and the glitter challenge) I was astounded to see what wonderful pages you all created from my prompts.

I always like to do the prize draws the old fashioned way so each of you that entered my challenges had your names placed on strips of paper (for those of you who entered both challenges your name was entered twice). Then my eldest daughter was asked to pick one of the folded pieces out of the hat - ok I didn't have a hat, it was a bowl!

DRUM ROLL IN THE BACKGROUND!

The winner is 

JULENE MATTHEWS 

Congratulations Julene, to claim your prize email your postal address to me within the next 14 days to kerry.bruce@btinternet.com

Thank you once again for playing along with us at Sketch N Scrap. xx

My Bestie and Me

Good morning, good afternoon or good evening, depending which one applies to you! 

I am pleased to share with you today Sketch N Scraps first layout sketch challenge of JUNE!

Sketch #58 by the super talented Lisa Hidy.

Here is my take and for a change I thought I would scrap some really old photo's of me (the tall one) and my best friend Tracey from about 20 years ago! We were quite the tomboys back then and jeans were the preferred item of clothing! 

I couldn't decide which photo to leave out so changed the sketch up a bit and used three photo's instead of two.

I used a PL card for the base of my title and used the coloured card from the other rectangles to make my title letters. I had seen some wooden hearts with two tones and coloured one myself to go inside the middle of the fussy cut camera.

As we were not girly girls I thought I would girly us up with these papers from American Crafts and add some fussy cut flowers. I thought of adding glitter but that would have been going too far!!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my page and I have inspired you to come play along with us at Sketch N Scrap this month.

We are glad to welcome Chic Tags as a Sketch N Scrap sponsor!!!!
Chic Tags is a delightful Mom and Pop shop located in central California. They specialize in paper tags for all your craft needs!  Chic Tags will be offering up this BEAUTIFUL prize package of their new line Cloud 9 to one randomly selected winner (open to US participants only).

Thanks for stopping by. xx