New Year, New Uniform

Bloom & Grow! Guess I wasn't fully done with it. Lots of hand-cutting and foam squares used on this one, plus the old stamp-and-cut-out trick I used on a previous one. I have made two virtually identical ones, one for Cameron's album and one for mine. This year, his school changed name and uniform!

Crafty Gal

Goodbye Bloom and Grow, it's time for Hello Luscious! I had to treat myself to the new Basic Grey Collection Pack. I made good use of the stickers and the more Christmassy coloured papers for this one, as it depicts Victoria colouring in some Christmas cards for her classmates.

Torn edges are inked with a Niagara Mist VersaMagic Chalk pad. the punched border strip is a Fiskars Effervescence Border punch. The title is from the stickers that came with the papers.

Harvest Festival

There's still some Bloom & Grow left after all that. Here's some more of it gone. To embellish the page, I drew a circle on it with a dinner plate and stuck on some trimmings. The title is stamped with a papermania alphabet.

Cafe Day

I had to make two of these too- one for Cameron's school album and one for mine. This is the day that Cameron invited me and Victoria to the school where his class was setting up a cafe for the day. The kids took orders, delivered orders, and cleared up. It was very cute. In the picture, Cameron is wearing an apron! I'm sure his future girlfirends will love this photo.... *evil grin*

FPC Friday - Missing!

I have some flowers done, as it happens... but I'm quite busy preparing for other things at the moment and I haven't got round to making these into a card and photographing it.

Instead, this FPC (Floral Punch Craft) Friday, I am going to ask:

Has anyone tried Floral Punch Craft as a result of reading my blog? Is there anyone out there reading that enjoys Floral Punch Craft and comes to see what I've done, that hasn't spoken up before?

Do let me know. Also, if you are familiar with Floral Punch Craft, please feel free to issue me a challenge or ask a question. I'm no expert, but perhaps I may be able to help anyway. You never know, right?

I will endeavour to have my Teardrop Flowers ready for posting next week.

Sorry about that!!!

Grow.

Ah, here's a sheet of Bloom & Grow paper again, with a stamped title cut out of a scrap I had left over. The ovals are my 7Gypsies stamp again. I had enough photos to cover the page so I had to keep it brief. :)

Art of Crochet Square 65

This is exactly why I need to blog these as soon as I've done them. I can't remember what this stitch was, but it was a new one! It was one pattern and then the next row was different, then it alternated. It made a lovely pattern. I don't know how visible it is on here though. It's quite a thick, stiff fabric too. Great for rugs or really thick blankets.

Walking Together

What? No Bloom & Grow? Is it possible I have run out?

Luckily, Cardinal Colours was on hand to provide some very inexpensive, autumn-coloured paper. Combined with some neutral flowers, a Fiskars border stamp and some cleverly chosen bazzill, it was a doddle. Leaves are die-cut from a Sizzix die borrowed from Karen. Flower and button punches by EK Success.

You will be seeing these photos twice more. If it's school-related and has both of my kids in it, I need to make three layouts-- one for my album, and one for each of theirs. So far, this is the only one that I've had to do three of. It's of them walking to school together.

Cupcake

More Bloom & Grow paper!! I must be coming to the end of it now, right? We'll see... I used a Martha Stewart border punch this time, and I had intended to stamp little cupcakes on the page but it never happened, and it's in the album now, so never mind! :)

Another Year 3 page

Bloom and Grow again! And more felt flowers! The title was drawn backwards on the reverse of the paper and cut out and outlined. The little ovals are a stamp from 7Gypsies. I love it- perfect for little notes.

This one is going in Cameron's school album.

Victoria's First School Photo, another LO.

This is a second outing for this photo of Victoria at Nursery. The one you saw before was for my own personal album and this one is for her school album.

As I've done my son's school album, I've noticed that there's a pattern to the pages I make. There's the individual school photo, the group photo of his class, his various events throughout the year, and a page or two for certificates and bits and pieces. This was very useful information when I started Victoria's.

I recently spent a day trying to get caught up on the school albums and I'm happy to say I was successful! Since each year boils down to a few pages, it's easier than it sounds.

This page is Bloom & Grow again. When I buy a pack of paper, I usually use it all up. Stay tuned for the Basic Grey Hello Luscious collection, coming soon!

FPC Friday - Waratah

This flower is called the Waratah, and it's from book 9. This one took me quite a while to do and I need to make this again quite soon because I made some key mistakes that i need to teach myself how to fix!

Understandably, the centre took the longest to make. It's a lot of fun though. In the book, the instructions are on one page, to be continued toward the back of the book. In one sitting, I did the first page of instructions and then later in the week I did the second page. Once the centre is done, the rest of it flies by! The leaves on this one have been glossed with Glossy Accents, but I think this gloss may be too thick for doing leaves. I have a clear paper varnish that I will try to use next time. That should add the shine without losing the detail of the veining on the leaves.

The card blank is from an old QVC kit. I'm glad I'm finally finding a use for them!

Autumn Leaves

Just my little girl frolicking in the mainly yellow autumn leaves at the park. This is a simple layout with the Bloom and Grow papers by MME and some felt flowers. The title is doodled by hand. The heart has a touch of dimension because I coloured it lightly with a brush marker.

Art of Crochet Square 64

What can I say? I think you've seen this one before. :)

Sitting Pretty

Another page made entirely of Bloom and Grow by My Mind's Eye. I cut some strips at the bottom of the paisley sheet and rolled it to expose the green on the back and then placed some dotted paper underneath.

If Bloom and Grow is a typical MME collection, I will be buying more. This was versatile and a joy to use.

The Rainbow Connection

Sometimes words are the best embellishments.

Scrapology Card Challenge for May

The Scrapology card challenge for May is up! It's a sketch from Zoe Pierson. I took some of Zoe's card classes at the Cardinal Colours retreat in 2010. Her style can be described as Cute and Clean and I've tried to make this type of card today. Usually, I have torn and inked edges in my work, and quite complicated or fiddly techniques used.

Today's effort is following the sketch and theme quite closely. The motif is from a stamp set by Blonde Moments, the sentiment is by Rubbernecker Stamps. I used three layers of patterned paper from the Craftwork Cards Vintage Rose paper pack and plain white card for the stamping. The sentiment was scribbled over in pink and the remaining un-scribbled areas were scribbled in the light green. I used Whispers brush markers for this. A dab or ten of Pinflair adhesive gel and that's one finished card.

London Sky Ride

I knew from the start that this would be a multi-page effort, so I thought the best way would be to keep it very simple and use the same papers and colours throughout to give continuity.

The papers are Bloom and Grow by My Mind's Eye. The flowers are felt, from my goodie bag from the Cardinal Colours retreat last September. The cardstock is one of my favourite staples, Bazzill Java.

For futher continuity, I used one border and corner punch throughout-- from Stampin' Up.

Not every page I make is one of those ones that takes hours, follows a sketch and uses about a billion embellishments. As much as I love those pages, I can't do it for every layout. Most of my layouts are everyday events, or I have many photos for each event in which case they end up being "chapters."

In the case of these "Chapters," I will be posting them all at once.

Scrapology Challenge for May

Hi!

I am pleased to report that my effort in April's Scrapology challenge made me the winner!!! Hooray!

I'm continuing with a good thing by participating in this month's scrapbooking challenge as well.

The theme was "V for Vines." I didn't have one of those pre-made Prima-type lovelies to hand, so I just cobbled one together myself. The leaves are from the wedding department at Hobbycraft, inked with some brown ink to make them darker, and the flowers were cut from patterned paper, layered and curled. All patterned paper is DCWV, all cardstock is Bazzill. Phrases were also cut from DCWV patterned paper. The journalling block is stamped (Dovecraft) and the title is stamped using a Papermania alphabet set and then cut out of Bazzill.

The photo is of my two babies eating dessert after behaving exceptionally well at the pub.

FPC Friday - Simple Blossoms

These were lovely to make, and I learned a new character-shaping technique. these are called Simple Blossoms and they are made with a little bone-shaped punch and the mini sun. The leaves are supposed to be made with the Ashley punch but since I don't have it, I cut a "flower" punch into its six segments several times, and attached them onto tiny stems and voila, my leaves. I gave them character as well so they are more lively. I will definitely be making these again.

But don't I always say that?

Art of Crochet Square 63

Another repeat but a welcome one. I enjoy changing colours so this one keeps me busy and uses up some of those little leftovers I have hanging around. I like this square. I might use it in future throws. It uses a double-treble crochet (us: triple crochet) and as such it's quite a tall stitch. It would be most suitable for a lighter throw because the tall stitches make it a little more airy.

FPC Friday - Two from book Six

I've taken photos of this bouquet from two angles because they both show off different aspects of the flower. Bear with me....

The pink flowers in this bouquet are called Geraldton Wax and are from Book Six of Floral Punch Craft by Leone Em. The smaller white clusters are from the same book and they are called Minute flowers, I assume because they are quite quick to make.

The small yellow fill-ins are from the Floral Punch Craft DVD, which is like an introductory class. If you would like to learn the skills required to make the flowers in the books, this is a great way to go about it because the DVD is like a mini class taught by Leone herself. In the DVD, she shows you how to make these little fill-in flowers and also another flower. It's well worth the price! In the UK, you can get your copy at Cardinal Colours while they last. They also have all the tools you need in your Floral Punch Craft kit, so if you buy the lot you can sit by the TV or your computer and make the flowers right along with Leone!

Just to help you out, here's a list of what you will need:

Floral Punch Craft DVD

Small Balloon Punch

Small Flower Punch (like a circle with six scallops)

Medium Hand Punch (yes, the shape is a hand.)

Corner Flower Punch (it punches five tiny flower shapes out of the corner of the paper)

Character Shaper

Shape Mate

Double-Ended-Etching-Tool (DEET)

Angled Tweezers

Reverse (closed) tweezers - the kind you squeeze to open

pointed-end fine scissors (decoupage scissors)

Moulding Mat

PVA glue

Finger shield

These items are very inexpensive, so don't be put off by the length of the list. Jill at Cardinal Colours has kindly bundled the moulding mat and tools together for you, so all you need outside of that is the glue, punches and DVD. The paper used is ordinary copy paper. Almost everyone has it lying around the house, just grab some and get started! After you punch the shapes, you can colour them using whatever method you wish. As long as the paper is dry when you start shaping it, you'll be fine.

If you try Floral Punch Craft as a result of reading this blog, please leave me a commeent. I would love to know I've helped someone to find this very rewarding craft.

And as always, stay tuned for another FPC Friday!

Art of Crochet Square 62

Another repeat pattern, another different choice of colours. the background (repeated colour) is the same as the last one, but the different coloured strips are, well, different. I love this square. It's a little bit bobbly when you make it, but it soon straightens out when incorporated into the throw.

After School

A quick and simple one, this. Just the last of my Bloom & Grow paper scraps with a Martha Stewart border, some hand-cut leaves and stems, CM flowers with pound-shop centres, stamped arched title and hand-written journaling on the inside.

Done!

Victoria's First School Photo

This may look a little familiar to you. Yesterday's page looks just like this one, more or less! It's a mirror-image layout and it's made with the same papers and the same stamps. The leaves on this one are Woodware Birch leaves, which is a punch I actually own!! I use it a lot for Floral Punch Craft. :)

As you can guess, I will be putting these photos in next to each other as a double-spread of sorts. I hope I can do this each year. It's nice to see my babies growing up next to each other.

I didn't know they were taking photos at nursery or I would have put something better on her for the picture. She wears any old thing to nursery because she just loves to paint!

Strawberries already!!

Here comes summer! And here comes a strawberry-themed prize package!

This is a prize draw being offered on The Ribbon Girl blog. To enter, all you need to do is visit the blog and follow the instructions. It's worth it- look at all this lovely stuff!!!

Cameron, Year 3

Now that the kids are in school, I make two scrapbook pages for each of their school photos. This one is for the family album, as opposed to their school albums.

This year, Cameron's school colour changed from dark green to royal purple. I like it. I went to a purple school myself, although we didn't have uniforms.

The scrappy stuff: The bg paper is My Mind's Eye from the Bloom & Grow collection. The flowers and buttons are made with EK Success punches. The title is stamped with a Papermania alphabet and the 3 was hand-drawn and doodled. the journaling spot is stamps away, and I borrowed the leaves punches from Karen. I think they are Woodware.

Occasionally, I will go over to Karen's with a wodge of green cardstock or scraps thereof and just cut loads of leaves out for use on my scrapbook pages, so if you see any green sprays of leaves or vines, most likely Karen is behind it. So thanks Karen!!!