Scrapology - December Card Challenge

This month we at Scrapology you are challenged to create a Christmas card using  what ever method or materials you wish. 

For my card I downloaded a vintage postcard from the Internet as the focal point of my card. The image was printed onto photo paper and then matted onto card and patterned paper before fixing to a white card blank. I embelished the card with gold peel off stickers, a fir cone metal charm, some ribbon and a Christmas spray which were decorating a chocolate box last Christmas.

Pop over to Scrapology to see all the team's cards and to find full details of the challenge.

Scrapology - December Layout Challenge

This month on Scrapology we are scraplifiting a layout by Miki Krueger.  For my layout I used a very recent photo taken just last month at Sea Palling on the North Norfolk coast. It was a lovely sunny day and I snapped this photo of my daughter walking along the shore.

The papers I used this month were from the Simple Stories Vintage Bliss and Sn@p! collections. To make my photos 'pop' I mounted it on black cardstock and also added black in the embelishments. A handful of buttons were added and some stickers from Simple Stories.

Here is Miki's orginal layout ......

 .... and Lynn's sketch.

Don't forget to hop over to the Scrapology blog to see all the team's layouts and to join in the challenge.

Scrapology - November Card Challenge

This month on Scrapology Paula Pascual has provided a lovely card as inspiration for the card challenge.

For my card I used papers from Simple Stories Vintage Bliss paper collection.

I layered two pieces of patterned paper onto a 5"x7" white landscape card blank and added a punched strip and butterflies hung from bakers twine. The sentiment was a sticker from the same collection and I finished off the card with a little bit of machine stitching.

Here's Paula's original card.........

..... and Lynn's sketch.

Pop on over to Scrapology to join in the fun.

Scrapology - November Layout Challenge

This month on Scrapology the team has been inspired by a lovely layout by Australian Scrapbooker Michelle Logan and as an added challenge have all incorporated chipboard in their layouts

For my layout I used a photo of my daughter riding the carousel at the Needles Park on the Isle of Wight. 

I used a mix of patterned papers on my layout from Crate Paper (cream base), Websters (brown spot), Bo Bunny (brown swirl) and Dream Street Papers (memo). I also added a page from an old book behind the photo. The chipboard swirl was from Fancy Pants. 

I embellished the layout with a crochet doilie, a tag, a brad, a button, a mini postcard downloaded and printed from the Internet, a paper flower and some heart pins. 

My title was cut on the Craft Robo using a cutting file from the Silhouette Online Store and I used some Simple Stories alphabet stickers for my journalling.

For the circle on Michelle's layout she used paint and inks. I decided to create a circle of plat backed pearls using a Crafters Workshop 'Dots all Around' stencil to make sure the pearls were placed evenly. 

Here is Michelle's gorgeous layout ....

... and as usual the sketch.

Hop on over to the the Scrapology blog for full details of the challenge and to see everyone's layouts.

Scrapology - October Card Challenge

This month's card challenge on Scrapology is seasonal. The team challenges you to make a card using Autumnal Colours. 

I made my card using a 4x6 journalling card from Simple Stories Harvest Lane collection.

The journalling card was matted on cardstock and a piece of paper from Scenic Route and then onto a card blank. I embelished the journallign card with a few brads and a wood veneer bird from Studio Calico and then added some glossy accents to the leaves and some faux stitching with a black pen.

Scrapology - October Layout Challenge

The end of October is fast approaching and I haven't yet posted my October Scrapology layout and details of the challenge. Lets put that right.

For the month of October the design team chose a layout by Laura Vegas as inspiration and challenge blog readers to use Laura's layout, buttons and our sketch to create a layout. 

For my layout I used a photo of my daughter taken a few years ago among the autumn leaves at Wrest Park.

I used patterned paper from various companies including BasicGrey and October Afternoon. The leaves and title were cut on the Craft Robo and the scalloped border strip was created using a corner punch. I raided my stash for lots of buttons including some pretty wooden buttons and they were all stitched or threaded with twine.

Here's Laura's original layout ...

.... and the sketch.

Hop on over to the Scrapology blog for full details of the challenge and to see all the other gorgeous layouts created by the design team.

Scrapology - September Card Challenge

This month's card challenge on Scrapology has been set by design team member Sheena. Sheena set the theme NEW BEGINNING. 

I decided to make a New Home card for my niece and her husband.

I cut a house shaped card (using a cutting file for the Craft Robo found in the Silhouette Studio) from Bazzill cardstock and paper from October Afternoon's 'Fly a Kite' collection and added flat backed gems and letter stickers to embellish it .

The rest of the design teams cards and full details of the challenge can be found at Scrapology.

2013 Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt

This summer (particularly whilst on holiday last month in the Isle of Wight) I've been taking part in a Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt devised by Rinda on her blog Gallo Organico. 

The 21 items on Rinda's blog were to be photographed by 21 September so as we are nearly there I thought now would be a good time to post my photos (no apologies for a photo heavy blog post!). Without further ado, heres my photos so far:

1.   Open air market - Part of the Cowes Food Show showcasing lsle of Wight local food and drink producers

2.   Theatre for performing arts (not a movie theatre) A sundial (substitute) - Sundial at Victoria Fort, Isle of Wight

3.   City Hall, Capitol or other similar civic building - Cowes Harbour Commission building (I hope this counts as a civic building)

4.   Airplane - The Red Arrows at the close of Cowes Week

5.   A sunset - Cowes

6.   Someone or something taking a nap - A very snoozy owl having a nap at The Owl & Monkey Haven, Newport, Isle of Wight

7.   A sign that is intentionally or unintentionally funny - outside a pub in Cowes

8.   A tower - Appley Tower, Ryde, Isle of Wight

9.   A photo with someone or something that is clearly out of place or doesn't belong - a lost/found mushroom (lip gloss) on the beach at Bembridge. 

10.  A bench that is outside - The bench at Osborne House in memory of John Brown the Scottish personal servant and favourite of Queen Victoria for many years.

11.  An animal in a zoo, aquarium, nature preserve, etc. - Hungry little marmoset having his lunch. at The Owl & Monkey Haven, Newport, Isle of Wight

13.  A fence - Fence at the Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary.

14.  A stained glass object or a mosaic - Part of a mosaic detailing the history of Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, from its foundation in 1135 to the more-or-less present day, situated along the alleyway leading to the castle.

15.  A fire truck or police car - Ride on Trumpton Fire Brigade Engine on Sandown Pier.

16.  A windmill - Bembridge Windmill, Isle of Wight. The only surviving windmill on the Isle of Wight

18.  Your local pub/bar, coffee house or tea shop - Our local pub, The Crown.

19.  A fisherman - Fisherman at Victoria Fort, Isle of Wight.

20. A dinosaur - Wooden model made by my daughter.

I still have a few more photos to find, but hopefully I'll get these photo taken this week:

12.  A cloud in the shape of something (please specify what you see)

17.  Candle(s)

21.  A photograph of you with an artistic tool or craft supply

NB Unfortunately I didn't manage to photograph the remaining items. 

Summer Holiday Crafts - Day 11

Our final craft project of the summer holiday was inspired by a post Paper Craft Panet (via Pinterest) 

Lara decorated clothes pegs with pinwheels (windmills).

First Lara painted pegs with acrylic paint and then decorated these with pinwheels from 2-1/2 inch square pieces of double sided patterned paper and buttons. 

Perfect for keeping school work, etc all together.

Summer Holiday Crafts - Day 10

I'm a couple of weeks late posting the last few Summer Holiday Craft projects but better late than never.

Our Day 10 project came from Punkin Patterns blog (via Pinterest). On Punkin Patterns Vanessa Lynch made a cute purse from a couple of sweetie packets. Lara loves Rowntrees Randoms so we used Randoms packets.

The first job was to buy a couple of packets if Randoms and eat the contents. Easy! 

Next we turned the empty sweet packets over and Carefully remove the backs with a pair of scissors leaving the top piece fully intact.

We then Cut two pieces of Vilene Lamifix (iron-on transparent film) slightly larger than the sweet packets and very carefully following the instruction for using the Vilene ironed this onto the front of the sweet packets.

We then trimmed the surplus Vilene from the edges of the sweet packets.

Next we cut two pieces of fabric the same size as the sweet packets.

The edge of a zip was then sandwiched between the edges of the sweet wrappers and the fabric and stitched.

After this we folded the purse so the the lining was touching and the wrappers were touching and sewed all round the edges leaving a fairly large section unstitched on the lining for turning. The purse was then turned and the opening in the lining stitched up by hand.

And voila! The finished purse.

Summer Holiday Crafts - Day 9

Todays craft was something I had been looking forward to for ages and I knew Lara would love it too. I found a video tutorial for 'Popcorn Tie Dye' on http://www.craftychica.com (via Pinterest) and I bought some dye and a white T-shirt.

Lara started by pinching small balls of the t-shirt fabric and securing them with elastic bands.....

Lots of elastic bands! The t-shirt ended up looking very bubbly like this. This is where the name popcorn technique gets it's name

We then took the t-shirt outside for the messy bit. We put the t-shirt into a bucket of Ocean Blue Dylon hand wash dye.

Lara stirred the t-shirt in the dye for 15 minutes and then we left it for a further 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When the 45 minutes were up the t-shirt was removed and it was a gorgeous blue colour. I have to admit we were a little nervous at this stage because until the elastic bands were removed we wouldn't know if the tie dye had worked. We hoped we wouldn't end up with a plain blue t-shirt.

Before removing the elastic bands the t-shirt was rinsed in cold water until the water ran clear.

When the elastic bands were removed we were thrilled to see that the circular shapes were clearly there. Hooray !

And here's the finished t-shirt after it had dried and been ironed. Lara loves it!