Shimmering Fish 3D Card

Take a peek into the mysterious undersea world on this card. It's got layers!

This card was only a mock-up for a class I was going to teach. My plan fell through but this is still something I am going to teach in the near future, maybe informally to a small group of friends at first.

This is not the first 3D card I've made, but it is the first one that I have assembled flat. It pops up into a 3D shape but it also fits flat into a6x6 envelope. Sweet!

Art of Crochet Square 69

Another granny. I do love these! I am amassing a great deal of them though. :)

I [heart] my bag!

Another simple one, because I think the paper is great on its own. All I did was a little cutting around certain elements and some stickles to brighten it up. The two photos are matted on a finely-patterned paper from the same range (Basic Grey Euphoria) and punched along the edges with the Threading water punch. Simple.

Goofy Goober

This is definitely one to show his first girlfriend. :) This goofy picture of my boy was taken by my daughter while they were being silly. It's a good capture of what they are like together.

Basic Grey Euphoria and Bazzill scraps, stamped title hand-cut out afterward. Threading water punch on borders.

Blowing Bubbles

Another clean and simple LO with Basic Grey Indian Summer paper and Bazzill cardstock mats on the photos. I punched the bottom edges with the Doily lace punch but I think it gets swallowed up by the background paper. I didn't embellish this because I thought that the patterned paper really needed to be on its own.

Hmmm.... not sure about this one.

I'm not really sure this one worked... I wanted to have some "white space" to show the leaves but I think I went a bit nuts with the flowers in the upper left and it's a bit skee-whiff now. Ah well, chalk this one up to lessons learned. It's the last of my Basic Grey Indian Summer set.

Geraldton Wax and some fillers

sometimes when I spend a long time on a spray of flowers, I wait ages to put it on a card. I thought it best not to keep doing that, or I'd have badly damaged flowers waiting to go onto cards. Here's the Geraldton Wax spray, with two different filler flowers to fill in any gaps, mounted onto a Diane's Daughters background with some borders cut with wafer-thin dies.

The Geraldton Wax was a fun flower to make. It brought back some quilling skills and there was a lot of colouring involved. I need to get that right, I'm still not terribly used to doing colouring of flowers. We live and learn!

Scooter-riffic

Busy layout, this one... I have come to the end of my Hello Luscious paper for the moment... I have been going through my Basic Grey box to see what I had left and out came this- Euphoria!

I used some paper flowers from my bitty box, some die-cut leaves, some little tiny journalling bits inked around the edges, papermania alpha stamps for the title, and voila.

Pics of my kids on their scooters.

Art of Crochet Square 68

This white square with two centre colours is one of the four centre squares of the throw. I believe this is the third such square I've made, which means I'm well on my way into the third quarter of the throw, and yet we have had no further instructions on assembling the second quarter of the throw. Odd...

Fairy Goodie Bags

Here are the party bags that I gave out at the party to match the invitations. They're made from C5 envelopes, sealed, scored, and folded to make bags. While they were still flat I brayered some ink on and stamped the fairies again. I punched the top edges of the bags so that they made a nice edge when folded over and I added some patterned paper that came free on the cover of a craft mag as toppers.

The ones in the back row have little diagonally-folded squares of patterned paper because I put little planes into the boys' bags and they stuck out the top of the bag. I had to find an alternate way of closing those. Again, work of genius or epic fail? You decide.

Fairy Party Invites

I can't decide if this is a work of genius or an epic fail. These are my daughter's party invitations that she handed out at school. They are ATC sized and have all the party details on the back.

For the grown-ups out there, it looks a bit like the fairy is having a wee-wee and it's made itself into an exclamation point. Depending on how the stamping went on these cards, they do sometimes look like the exclamation point is attached to the fairy's body and well... no comment. :( Nobody at the party mentioned it so I guess it only looks bad if you have a dirty mind...

Do you have a dirty mind?

This invitation is made with cardstock from PayPerBox. The green is a lovely sparkly card with a golden sheen. Very Tinkerbell in my opinion. I stamped the fairies and message with Versafine. The stamp set is from Personal Impressions. They do so many sets nowadays I don't know if you'll find it... but it's a lovely set of fairy silhouettes. The wings have micro-fine white irridescent glitter on them. My daughter helped with that part and she had a great time.

Koochie Copey

Meet Koochie Copey. I don't remember whether I blogged him or not, but Koochie is a crocheted version of a toy owned by a character in a TV show called Bob's Burgers.

It became sort of an in-joke with a friend of mine, and eventually another friend too, so there are two Koochie Copeys in existence, both made by my fair hand. The second is not yet finished. I plan on making a third eventually but my crochet to-do list is getting a little long.

There are some basic rules to making amigurumi (little crocheted doll characters) and I just followed them and crocheted, making notes as I went, and out came this little guy. His bottom is a cheap tupperware-like lid, and he's stuffed with poly fibrefill.

The scrapbook page is made with bazzill cardstock and paper and stickers from the Basic Grey Hello Luscious range. The title is stamped with Papermania alphabet stamps and hand-written journaling is below.

"Things could be better, Koochie... things could be better."

If you often find yourself thinking that things could be better, perhaps you need a Koochie Copey.

Check out Bob's Burgers!!!

Cyber Crop class 3 done!

I've done the third cybercrop class at ATDML - here it is.

I didn't have the paper that the lesson uses but I took the sunburst shape and drew it on the back of the patterned paper I did use which was Basic Grey Fusion.

Cyber cropping update

Hi there, here's another page based on the double LO class in the ATDML cybercrop. I took on board the embellishment clusters and the cluster of photos, but I wanted a single LO, so I squashed it all in. :)

Cyber Cropping today

Hey! Guess what!

A Trip Down Memory Lane is having a cybercrop today. Check out their blog to join in!

The first class was issued last night at 7pm. I have just done it now.

The kits for the cybercrop sold out before I even knew they were for sale, so I am using all my own stash for the classes, which is good because I need to do some stash-busting.

This LO was made from scraps from the Basic Grey "Hang 10" collection and lots of green Bazzill. Flowers from my bitty box, mostly Primas but it's a mixed bag nowadays. Some e-bling and QVC stick-on pearls.

Bocca Della Verita

It's an odd one... a friend and I were at Clacket Lane Services and she saw this thing and was like a little kid at Christmas! We were running all over the place looking for 20p coins so we could put our hand in the plastic guy's mouth and get a fortune.

It's kind of creepy but fun nonetheless. :)

Go on, have a guess... it's Basic Grey Hello Luscious!!!! Co-ordinating stickers and my QuicKutz Star Minis alphabet for the title, cut from Bazzill cardstock. No surprises there!

Spring is Here

If I had this one to do over, I'd probably have matted the flowers onto some off-white card before mounting them on this card. They are looking a bit lost!

I apologise for being a bit lax on the Floral Punch Craft front of late. My usual Tuesday-night punchcraft sessions have been taken up by other things these past few weeks and I haven't had time to make anything, let alone photograph or blog! I did a few though, and they will be upcoming.

The Spring Is Here arrangement is available in Floral Punch Craft II by Leone Em. I bought my copy at Cardinal Colours in the UK. Tools and punches are also available from there.

On Balance

I took these cute pictures of my son and daughter using a balance beam on our way to the park in Forest Gate, East London. They are stuck together like glue, these two. Victoria really doesn't need help balancing. She goes to Tumble Tots and has been since the age of six months, so her balance and safety awareness are very finely tuned. She just likes to hold her brother's hand.

As usual for the moment, the paper is Basic Grey, Hello Luscious! I used some of the co-ordinating stickers for this one. I punched the photo mats with a fiskars threading water punch. The journaling block is stamped with a dovecraft stamp that I've used many times before, and the title is die-cut with the QuicKutz Star Minis alphabet. I don't have many alphabets for my QuicKutz, and this one has got a great deal of use over the years. It's convenient to carry in my scrap tote and it's good to know it's there when I need it. Definitely an old favourite.

Crochet Bags!

Once in a while you find a fantastic yarn that inspires you to use it sparingly, but effectively, in a project that is going to get a good outing. This is the second time this has happened to me.

It was in a clearance bin at Teasels, a yarn shop near Bakers Arms in Leyton/Walthamstow (debatable, but I think it does come under Leyton) in East London. It was a wiggly yarn with many colours, but the main colour was a teal, with inclusions of cobalt, rose, some gold, a little green and some white. I wanted something small so I didn't risk running out of the stuff, so I found a pattern I liked it Carry-Alongs, a crochet bag book that I got from Wendy for my birtday. I liked a stitch pattern in it but not the entire bag itself, so I took the stitch pattern and made it into a little bag, alternating the really cool yarn with black DK for contrast.

I played it by ear, remembering to make little flaps to sew round the plastic circular handles. It was too small for me, but it was quickly snapped up by my little one, and as you can see, she loves it.

Thank-you to the author of Carry Alongs for the pattern of stitches that show off my yarn so nicely.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the bag went down so well when I showed it to people at the social club that I am now making a few for gifts. Wow!

Friendship Bracelets

This time, the subject of the page is a "bloggable" item as well, so you're getting two entries for the price of one (which is absolutely free, so it's really not that good a deal after all, is it, but I digress). The two hands are my daughter and her friend, wearing bracelets that I made out of number 10 crochet thread and some plastic pearly beads. I wanted to have a go at beading and this was a simple enough project to do. I made a bracelet for my daughter and then her friend saw me making it and wanted one too so I made her one. It was on one of our Thursday night play-dates. If you want to see the bracelets closer-up, you can click on this page and it should enlarge it for you, but I don't know what kind of detail you'll get.

The page itself is Basic Grey Hello Luscious and Bazzill cardstock, edges punched with the Martha Stewart doily lace border punch (one of my favourites), some die-cuts from my sizzlits, and another appearance by the accordion flower. I also put on a layered flower made from the wafer-thin dies. I can't remember which one, but it's light blue metal. Marianne D's, perhaps? My title is stamped on with Papermania and hand-written. The journaling block is a dovecraft stamp, and I added liquid pearls to the bottom of it to reflect the beads in the bracelets.

Twilight Picnic

Okay, Vampire fans, don't get all excited. The Twilight Picnic was the school's theme for World Book Night. The kids brought sleeping bags, pyjamas, a teddy and their favourite book and all sat together drinking hot chocolate and reading. Recipe for disaster if you ask me, the hot chocolate was too hot and all that stuff had to be schlepped to and from the school by the poor parents in the rain for the sake of one hour of sitting and reading. The first problem was solved by there being some cold water on hand to top up the hot choc with to cool it down. The rest of it remained but when we saw how they enjoyed it, I think most of us would have carried the lot down to the school again.

More Hello Luscious and Bazzill, some of the stickers that came with the Hello Luscious pack, and that is really about it. Title is stamped with one of my three Papermania sets again. Nice simple layout, keeps the attention on the photo, where it belongs.

The line at the top is just a shadow, it's not a different colour or anything.

ConCenTraTion...

This is a page made with my newest Basic Grey set, Hello Luscious. It's also got some swirls cut from Sizzlits dies in Bazzill Java cardstock scraps I had lying around. The little ribbon banner is a Nestabilities die, but not the nesting kind. I borrowed it from Wendy on our "National Scrap Day." We decided to take the "book" out of National Scrapbook Day and try to do something useful with our stash of scraps. We spent a few hours die-cutting and I'm very pleased with the result!

Anyway, back to the page... Hello luscious paper, the sizzlit swirls, the Nestie ribbon banner (which will display the date when I remember what it was)... the flower at the top is a circle of accordion-folded paper with circles on both sides to hold it together. The title is a Papermania stamped alphabet, stamped onto patterned paper and cut out. I love this alphabet stamp set because it is so chunky and shows off the patterned paper so well.

The photos are of my son doing his homework while his sister is in drama class.

Graffiti Giggles...

Ok, ok, I know, graffiti is no joke. It's not art, it's criminal damage. I'm all for painting if you buy your own flippin canvas and don't use public (or private!) property. But this one really did make me smile.

I saw it by the Leytonstone High Road station entrance today.

In case you can't read it, it says:

I moustache you a question but I'm shavin it for later.

I got a giggle out of it. Writing something amusing on the wall is better than just writing a word, or your name, or racist gubbins. It is, however, the lesser of two evils. Don't write on the walls, people... unless the owner of said wall has paid you to do so.

Thursday Nights

Bit of glare on the photos, sorry about that...

On Thursday nights, Karen and I take it in turns to buy dinner stuff and the kids get together at her place after school. They have about 3 hours together-- 4 if we're not on the ball-- and they leave and get home in time for bed. So it's a great opportunity for them to play, since Karen moved out of the area.

The paper is BG Hello Luscious, the CS is Bazzill. The border punch is Martha Stewart, the title is done with the BG Hello Luscious stickers. I still have to do the journaling in the spaces next to the photos. I may add an embellishment or two but I'm not sure about it. It's a simple LO really.

Art of Crochet Square 67

Ah, the ribbed square. Seen it, done it... it always rolls up. It won't matter when it's sewn into the entire throw though, so no big deal. :)

Victoria's First School Uniform

I'm quite keen for her to start school. I don't think it makes me a bad mum. I just want six hours a day to myself, is that too much to ask?

As soon as we accepted the offer of a place at her brother's school, I went straight to the uniform shop and picked her up some gear. We tried it on over her clothes in the park and she loved it!!

I made two identical pages this time, one for her album and one for mine. If I use the huge paper packs I got from QVC, there's always going to be enough of the same paper. I'm slowly but surely using up this part of my stash. If most of the pages I make are school-related, I'll use it up twice as fast!!

The patterned paper is DCWV, the stamped title is Papermania. This is the third alphabet set of theirs I own. It's great! These stamps are never far from my scrap tote. The cardstock, as always, is Bazzill. Borders punched with my Stampin Up set.

Victoria loves her uniform!

The Christmas Chapter

I don't know what it is but I don't take full advantage of Christmas photos. I tend to just want to get them over and done with.

I used Bazzill Chiffon cardstock as my base for all the pages.

Then I cut strips out of the more Christmassy looking Hello Luscious papers. Anything with green or red went in the mix.

I hand-wrote the titles in my doodly way.

Sometimes, I used a border punch to liven things up a little.

Sometimes matting the photos, sometimes not.

Seven pages later, Christmas was in the bag! Until next year...

First day of Nursery

Again, apologies for the picture quality. I've been having camera troubles of late and I've been using my mobile phone camera to take pictures of my pages. Success depends largely on luck and lighting conditions.

This is the page of Victoria's first day at nursery that I will be keeping in my album. Her school album is very easy and quick to do as some pages are included, so I am just whacking the photos in sometimes. This one was all for me!

I used a sheet of Basic Grey Hello Luscious paper and Bazzill cardstock in Chiffon and Java. I also used three different border punches, two Martha Stewart ones and a Stampin Up one. Sometimes I go a bit crazy on the border punching. I like it. :)

Room With a View

This is really hard to see, sorry about the picture quality...

This page is from the Cardinal Colours Retreat in September 2010. It was a quick one, made with one sheet of Bazzill and one sheet of double-sided basic grey and some paper blossoms.

In the picture is the one we call LondonKaren. She came along with me and she'll be coming in 2011 as well. The top two pictures are pics of our little group's cropping area (4 of us) and the view out the window. It was great, I can't wait for September!

Friends...

Sorry the photo's not so great. This one's a bit of a mixed bag!

I'm having a "use it up" year and this bg paper is Brenda Pinnick, the letter stickers are leftovers from a basic grey collection and I'm not even sure which one it is, the flowers are mostly Creative Memories. The trim is off the market, and the white panel is edged with Stampin' Up border and corner punches.

This is Karen, me, Sarah and Wendy at a scrapbooking weekend at Debden House.

Art of Crochet Square 66

Here it is again, the first ever square revisited. I think I'm doing better than I did when I started. One of these days I'll look at the three of these all next to each other and see the difference in my work.