Mummy's Little Helper.

I am running around chasing my tail lately so although I have a scrapbook layout to share with you today it was actually created last weekend and I am just getting around to posting it!
I have dug out some old papers and teamed them up with the November 1st challenge over at Stuck? Sketches.

Here is the sketch.

Here is my layout featuring our lovely, cuddly pussycat. He is helping me by laying along my warm ironing board so that I could take a break from my favourite pastime!!

My title was made up from different alpha's and placed on the tags as in the sketch.

This scalloped bunting (banner) was cut from the patterned paper. I cut a whole load of stars using my Nestabilities and arranged them to my liking.

To play along with this sketch check out the details over at the Stuck? Sketches blog HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and I will be back tomorrow with a double pager!

Hugs. xx

Family Time and a Design Team Call.

With November charging along I am chasing my tail with so many projects in the pipeline, but have stopped in today as it's the reveal of Sketch N Scrap Inspired By Challenge for this month.

Here is the cool sketch that is based on a layout by DT member Marie-Christine.

I have created a double pager for this challenge as I have several sets of multiple photo's to scrap.

Here is the page that was based on the sketch and I replaced the hexagons with stitched arrows.

This is the second page with the rest of the photo's in the set showing my family enjoying walking in our local woods and fields.

The stitched arrows were randomly placed until I was happy with the number and colours.

All the paper I used for these pages was from the Teresa Collins Family Stories line, the frame and flower were just cut from one of the sheets.

I added some more arrows onto the second page in the small gap that remained after all the photo's were placed.

One last embellishment.

I know you are going to enjoy playing along with us with this sketch, so to see the rest of the DT's takes and Marie-Christine's original layout pop on over to the Sketch N Scrap Blog HERE.

Design Team Call!

Sketch N Scrap is excited to announce we are accepting applications for new design team members!  If you love creating with our sketches then please consider applying.  We are in search of creative, fun, reliable designers of all styles and experiences who are open to creating BOTH cards and layouts using our awesome sketches! No experience is necessary and international members are welcome to apply!  

Click HERE for details on the DT call.

I am so grateful you stopped by and hope to see you again very soon. xx

Wild Thing.

Hi crafty friends just popping in quick to share a layout I completed over the weekend for the current sketch challenge over at Scrap365.

Here is this month's sketch.

Here is my page based on the sketch and features one of cats who is sixteen years old and started loosing her teeth! She only has one top fang left and this photo kind of makes her look a little fierce but she is actually yawning! 

My background was made with water colour paints, I would love to have a go at Gesso's but they are so expensive that I will have to make do.

Lots of my favourite embellishment - fussy cut pattern paper and some frames that were a freebie.

I love the idea of putting wording on a photo and the space available on this picture of Molly was perfect for adding part of the title using white rub-on's.

Well that's it from me today (told you it would be quick, gotta get on with Sunday dinner!) but there is still seven days left to participate with Scrap365. You can find the link to their blog HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Back tomorrow. xx

Friendly Challenge.

I hope your weekend is fabulous so far, with plenty of good things to do and great people to do them with.

My weekend started on Friday with a day out to see my dear friend Helen and to share the challenge layouts we had done.

We have a new system of deciding what our next challenge will be, it used to be whatever we could think of  that we hadn't done before. But I gave out six envelopes each recently and we put a challenge into every one, sealed them up and now we just get someone to pick an envelope for us each time we need a new challenge.

This time around we had one of Helen's envelopes and the challenge inside said

'Using punches and dies only, create a page. Any medium can be used and any embellishment'.

As it was Helen's challenge I will share her page first.

Her adorable page features a pet rat of one of her daughters. 

As you can probably tell from the title she had curly whiskers! Not a usual thing for rats to have but she looks so cute with them.

Helen has totally rocked the challenge with nearly all the elements of her page being die cut! 

She created the background with paint and cut hexagon's for the main design of her layout.

These butterflies were cut from balsa wood and the black bead embellies look so much like the rats eyes!

The beads and doily are the embellishments Helen added that were not die cut, but this cute banner is and the heart strip that disappears under the photo. 

Well done Helen for a great job of sticking so well to the rules.

This is my interpretation of Helen's challenge but I failed slightly by mounting one of  my photo's on a piece of pattern paper that I cut with my trimmer!!!! (Luckily Helen forgave me and we are still friends!).

Anyway these photo's of my eldest daughter (who loves to take selfies) were taken at Colchester Zoo and feature a large bronze lion statue that I think she fell in love with! Perhaps she kissed him to see if he would turn into her prince (because who would want to kiss a frog?). 

The title 'Kiss Me Quick' is the name of a song sung by Elvis Presley back in the 60's and I thought it suited the photo's.

The rosette flower was cut with a Tim Holtz die and the white leaves, flower and banner were also cut from various die's although I'm not sure of the manufacturers. 

These rectangles under my title are really old Sizzix dies as I promised myself to use some dies that I don't remember using before! I love the effect though so they will probably get another airing at some point.

There we have it, another friendly challenge that was fun to play along with as always. We hope you enjoyed seeing our interpretations, we have a sketch to follow for our next one which will hopefully be in a few weeks.  

Thanks for stopping by today. xx

Happy Mail.

Hi there scrappy friends, I'm so happy because it's FRIDAY! This is my favourite day of the week as not only have I not got work but I usually get to do something nice with friends or family.

Today has it's good and bad points, it's the reveal of the November challenge over at Challenge YOUrself (definitely good!) but it is also my last one as I have stepped down from the design team (most certainly not good!). I am hoping to start a new venture next year so thought I had better make a little time in my schedule. I have totally enjoyed being on Lynn's awesome team this year and hope to still play along to keep myself scrapping about 'me'. 

So onto the challenge for November - a sketch to kick start your mojo.

We would love to see your interpretation of the sketch BUT remember that YOU MUST be in the photo as that's what these challenges are all about!  

So here is my layout based on the sketch and it features me showing off some happy mail. We all love to receive crafty goodness through the post and if it's a prize - even better! I used the pretty papers that I received in the box from My Creative Sketches, fussy cutting the frames to use in place of the circles in the sketch. 

I also added the piece of ribbon, wrapped around the layers of papers and tied in a bow.

I layered pieces of the papers on top of some vellum, tucking some of the frames in between at the edges.

A scattering at the top of the page of some of the MME buttons in the box.

I managed to make my title from some old Basic Grey letters. and added some chevrons for a bit of colour and interest at the bottom of the page.

I hope I have inspired you to play along and if you hop on over to the Challenge YOUrself blog HERE you can see the rest of the DT's interpretation of the sketch. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today. 

I will have some more scrappiness to share over the weekend. xx

Spring Selfie.

It's always exciting when you create a page using a sketch from a challenge blog and end up winning the prize. I certainly don't enter a challenge for the prize, the challenge has to appeal to me or the page I create will not generally have my heart in it. 

So when I saw the September sketch over at My Creative Sketches I knew I would enjoy using it and I wasn't wrong! The fact that the page I created won the prize for that month made me very excited!

To see the original page I created click HERE.

When the prize arrived from My Creative Sketches I was literately drooling it was so pretty!

This is happy me with my goodies!

A closer look.

To celebrate I've created two pages with the stash (so far!) one of which was using the October Sketch Challenge over at My Creative Sketches.

Here is the page I created and as you can see I stuck to the sketch with the added work on the background. The papers are of course the ones in the prize package.

In the prize box there was a couple of packs of My Minds Eye embellishments which I used some of here to pretty up the six circles.

I was very brave and actually stamped some leaves on my background! Something I rarely do as I am too afraid to mess up! The butterflies are some 'really, really old' rub-ons from American Crafts.

One of the pretty flowers took pride of place next to the photo.

Well that was the first page and I will share the other one on Friday as I am using it for a DT assignment.

I am also entering this page in the current challenge over at The Studio as this month they are challenging us to GET MESSY!

Now, me and messy don't normally get on so I have been just a little adventurous with the background. I have used a home-made triangle mask and misted, although it's tricky to see the pattern  as it was bright sunshine when I took the photo's. There are also splats of ink and of course all the stamping of leaf bunches.

If you would like to play along with these awesome challenges below are the links.

My Creative Sketches.

The Studio Challenges.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I will be back on Friday. xx

Sharp Shooters.

I think Autumn has finally arrived here in the UK today, drizzle and cloudy skies! Yesterday in comparison was the hottest Halloween on record at a blistering 23 degrees when the average for the UK is 6 degrees!

But I think the turn of the calendar is also the turning point for the weather so to keep my spirits up I have a girly page to share with you today that was created for the 1st sketch of the month at Sketch N Scrap.

This lovely multi-photo sketch was designed by the talented Lisa Hidy.

This is my take on the sketch (after I turned it on it's head!) using my favourite American Crafts line Polka Dot Party.

I just adore the flower paper that is perfect for fussy cutting, I'm sure you have seen them a lot but I made sure I had plenty of sheets of it to last me until a rival for my affections comes along! 

 I thought my title (after I cut out all the letters!) was not 'shouty' enough even though it was glittery. I was going to outline it with black fine liner but then if I didn't like it afterwards I would be disappointed. So 'un-shouty'  I left it!

I layered some washi to sit my 'un-shouty' title on and added some stars and stickers around the page until I was happy. 

If you would like to play along with us at Sketch N Scrap all the DT takes and the details of how to submit your layout can be found on the Sketch N Scrap blog HERE.

This month we have a brand new sponsor! We are excited to welcome Rainbows & Scrapbooks as our November sponsor!

Rainbows & Scrapbooks is offering a $20 gift certificate to their Etsy shop to one lucky winner! But that's not all! All Sketch N Scrap readers can get FREE domestic shipping on orders placed during the month of November at  the Rainbows & Scrapbook's store!!!!!  How cool is that??!!!  Just enter the code Rainbows2 at checkout!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend. xx