Tic-Tac-Toe at TPV

This week, TPV's challenge is a brilliant Tic-Tac-Toe grid. These are so much fun to work with, and it's great to see all of the different possible combinations. Just pick a row, column or diagonal and there you go, your 3 components. Pop here to see the challenge and the design teams amazing work :)

So, to the grid, these are your choices

For my project this week, I decided to use the middle row, and here it is,

A card (obviously!!), a water theme (well, that's obvious too) and buttons (I LOVE those cute novelty buttons, they suited this card brilliantly, isn't that little rubber duck adorable?!!). The bottom section of the card is stamped faintly with a bubble stamp, then I have raised it slightly and drawn faux stitching.
This week, there is an amazing prize on offer. A $20 gift certificate for Freehand Scraps, a gorgeous kit company (and I mean gorgeous, I have only just discovered this company, and wow, look at those kits, soooo nice :)

And how about this, your getting a sneak peek here at the August kit!! This is one of the kits you could purchase using the voucher :) To see other kits, visit there website, they're so nice, unfortunately they are that nice that many of the past kits have sold out :(

So, pick which row of the grid you will use, and I'll see all of your lovely creations over on the TPV blog, just link your project up, I'll be sure to visit, plus you may win that prize :)

Bye for now,

Enjoying free time :)

Hi everyone,
As the title suggests, I have quite enjoyed a bit more free time this past weekend, and as a result I have a few things to show :)

First off, the cake I have been mentioning this past week. It was my Aunt's big birthday last week, so we had a family get together this weekend. She absolutely adores polar bears, so what else was there I could create for the cake!!

I was quite pleased with the polar bears, but it took a lot of squashing them up and screaming before I got them to look like this. I originally wanted them to look more realistic, but that just wasn't going to work, so I thought cute and cuddly had to be the next call, and luckily it worked :) She really loved the cake, and has kept the polar bears :)
I am linking my polar bears up to Passionately Artistic, a linking pool site which is a great source of inspiration and a place to find interesting projects.
Now onto my other crafts of the weekend. I have finally created another digi page. I haven't made one for ages. Here you go.

I have used Sketchy Thursday's sketch 7.21 to create this LO, I loved the block of photos, and it fitted perfectly with these photos of the 5 of us :)

That's it from me, I shall be back in the next few days with this weeks TPV challenge, it's a great one so keep your eyes open.

You still have time to enter this weeks challenge 'Grid pattern or colours of the rainbow'.

I'd love to see you over there, sharing all of your talent, plus who wouldn't want the opportunity to win the gorgeous prize this week.

Look at that mini book kit, just gorgeous. LOVE those sweet little knitted cherries :D

Bye for now,

Summer's here

Hi all,
Summer is here, school has finished :)
We spent this morning having 'summer olympics'. It sounds very competitive and sporty doesn't it. It was competitive, but sporty, well ..... it was basically like a year 2 sports day, but with older kids!! Sack races, egg and spoon race, obstacle races, we had it all, and it was a great fun way to end a very busy and tiring year. I am really looking forward to a bit of a break this summer, a bit more crafting, maybe some more she art and of course, scrapbooking. I shall be doing work though, it's impossible for me to not!! I have lots of reading material, and I want to get a little head start for the difficult Biology course next year, plus I'd like to start organising work experience, and plans for my long summer next year before university :)

I thought I'd share with you today a she art canvas. Remember a few months ago I told you I'd created 3 she art canvases, well I only ever showed you 2!! So, without further ado, here's the 3rd!!

(Click to view larger, sorry the colours aren't very good, it's brighter, and I haven't painted my hair green, the glare has changed some of the colours)

This is me :) I made this to sit on my picture shelf in my room. It is very special, and has the role of reminding me of my GCSE's and achievements, and to keep me ploughing on forward if I ever lose pace. I am really pleased with it, I found it harder to create this as I was basing it on me, I  had to try and make me look good didn't I!! :) Also, fringes are quite hard!! Here are some close ups :)

Sorry I'd forgotten to post it, that just proves how hectic life has been.

I think this may be it from me for a few days, I think a good lie-in is due tomorrow, and I have a few things to get done.

Bye for now, I'll be back in the week :)

I'm back

Hello all,

I am back from my amazing week in Wales. It really was amazing!! We didn't have a single drop of rain the whole week, the activities were enjoyable and the free time with my mates in the evenings was brilliant fun. We got back Friday evening, I am still shattered from the late nights and busy days, but it was worth it :) Wales is a gorgeous place, I can't believe we haven't explored that area as a holiday before, but we shall have to now. Here is one of my favourite photos from the week.

Yes, this really is Wales, and oh yes, it's a dandelion again :D Some of you may know it as a constantly wet place, I guess we just had a very lucky week. This was taken whilst laying in a meadow, sunbathing, after carrying out one of our coursework assignments on the nearby dry stone wall. I'm glad I had sun cream on this day, I didn't want to get burnt even more than I had the day before!!

To relax, and enjoy a task that wasn't identifying lichen on a tree, I created a scrapbook layout at the weekend. Here is my LO, I have followed Sketchy Thursday's GDT sketch and used the three requirements which were
• A summer topic
• The colors red, orange and/or yellow
• A journaling spot

The summer topic is quite obvious really, as are the colours, and the journalling spot is nestled behind the two flowers, but I have also printed my journalling on strips.
Here is the sketch

I am quite pleased with the LO, although there is one thing I don't like, I don't like the 'summer', there is too big a gap between the 'summer' and 'portrait', but pva glue isn't forgiving and I couldn't change it without ripping too much paper.

Here are a couple of close ups

Bye for now, I shall hopefully be back at the beginning of next week to show you a cake I've made, that's if it goes ok!!

My first TPV layout

This week is the turn of Team B over at The Paper Variety, so it is my first week as a DT member :D

This week we have some photo inspiration for you, a concept I don't really think I've tried before, but it was great fun to do. It helps a lot that the photo we are giving you has tonnes of inspiration, as you can see from all of the interpretations the DT have taken.

Here's my layout, using the image as inspiration

I have taken a lot of inspiration from the photo. The painted stripes in the background are the same colours as the puzzle pieces, I have used book paper to make my ruffle, and have gone with a theme of black and white stripes.

This week, the prize is a gorgeous kit from Nikki Sivils. It is the Beatrice Collection, and here is a picture of the yummy looking kit. Aren't the colours lovely?

So, lets see what inspiration you get from the photo. Make your paper project, and pop over here to link it and be in with the chance to win that lovely kit. I look forward to seeing your work :)

Here are a couple of close ups of my LO

It is quite different to my usual style, but after deciding to do the bright painted background, it seemed to suit the LO to keep embellishments and layers quite low. I have used a dry paintbrush to paint the background stripes, so I could leave the texture visible and not get solid blocks of colour.
Have you also spotted the stitching? Mum got a sewing machine for her birthday a few weeks ago, and we have both fallen in love with it. So, I have used it, and used it a fair bit:) It's brilliant, I need to improve my straight lines, the bottom edge has had to be covered up as the line was awful!! :D

Thanks for looking, I hope you like it :)

Christmas in July

Hi everyone,

A little post from me today, to show you my layout for this week's TPV and Sketchy Thursday's challenge. It was team A's first challenge this week at TPV, 'Christmas in July'.

I have decided to join in, as I have plenty of photos from last Christmas to scrap and a new(ish) pad of paper to tuck into.

So here is my LO

I am quite pleased with this LO, as well as following the TPV challenge I used this weeks sketchy Thursday's sketch.

I have kept the bunting in the same position, but rotated the body of the sketch and swapped the small photo and the circle embellishment around. This sketch was great to use, such a lovely composition. :)

Here are a few close ups

I visited Oxford university last Wednesday, it's a beautiful city and the university is as lovely as expected. We all enjoyed walking around, visiting a few colleges and the Psychology department. I think we are going to go back for the September open day, so we can look around a few more colleges and maybe browse a few of the shops :)

I am off to Wales this week, it'll be my first trip to Wales and I am really looking forward to it. We are going to a field centre for a Biology trip, it'll be a week of surveying the rivers, dunes and doing many practical experiments.

I am coming home on Friday, so until then, bye from me :)



So excited....

.....and if you look here you'll see why!!!!!!!


..........Yes, that is little old me in the list of 'The Paper Variety' new DT members. Yay!!!
I'm so thrilled to be part of the team over at the paper variety, this is my first DT post, and I am thoroughly looking forward to it.
I only found the challenge blog a few weeks ago, and whilst looking through some of their brilliant past challenges, spotted they were having a design team call. So I thought it was worth a go, but wow, to be here now telling you I was accepted onto the team along with 9 other fabulous paper crafters is just amazing.
So, to Suzy and Abby, thanks ever so much for inviting me in to the exciting world of being a designer, and to Jackie, Kylie, Nicole, Pam, Sue, Cassie, Jamilie, Rachel and Sandi, congrats for also being selected, I cannot wait to work with you :D :D

I am part of Team B, so my first project will be shown next week, but Team A will be showing their fabby work tomorrow, so pop over and take a look at the next challenge when it shows. I'd love it if I saw many of your names and work appearing on the inlinkz :)

Thanks for looking, I shall be back later this week as I intend to play along with tomorrows challenge, just a hint, find those Christmas photos :)

Bye for now,

Birthday thanks

Hellooo everyone,

Long time no post, I know ........

'Anyway, I shall now be enjoying a bit more freedom, I shall not be having to do work every night, so expect to see me here a bit more :) '

... and what happened to the 'more freedom' I spoke of in my last post. I can't believe how hectic my last 2 weeks have been. Photography course assignments, 2 university open days, lots of little bits at school, a global student forum conference, that's where my two weeks have disappeared!! I'm not complaining though, they have been a good 2 weeks, just no relaxing time at all.

First of all, it was my birthday on Friday, I'm now 17 :D I had a great day, I had to go to school, but my friends made it fun, tying balloons to my bag, so EVERYONE knew it was my birthday, people I'd never even spoken to before were saying happy birthday. I had some great gifts, clothes, money, a new D-ring scrapbook album (they're brilliant, I've not really looked into them before, but now my pages have become more layered and embellished, the post albums just don't have enough space)

So, yesterday, I finally had some freedom and time to relax and craft. So, as the good girl I am, I set to making my thank you cards for my friends. I made them to follow this weeks LIM challenge, which is Shades of Blue, and here they are, well, one of them.

I have used Mum's Waltzing Mouse stamps, in 2 shades of blue. I just need to finish the last few, and then I'll have a set ready to fill out.

So, as I said, I've been exploring universities the past few weeks. I've been to look around 2, Bath and Bristol, and it's all so exciting :D I really loved Bath, the course looks really good and the campus is lovely. I shall keep you updated as I visit more and make all the big decisions :)

Ok, well I think that's all for now, I shall be back in the week :) Thanks for visiting :)