Round and Round in Circles

This weeks Sketchy Thursday's sketch is another great one, with many fun circles. I loved the DT work and I got a lot of inspiration from them for this LO.

I do apologise, this photo of the LO is awful, you can't see much detail at all. The background cardstock is square, honest, it's just it warped when I misted and paint splatted the centre of the card, and it didn't photograph well.
So, the sketch,

I have masked 6 circles in the middle of the background cardstock, then finely misted and paint splatted with cream paint. I have then removed the masks and drawn roughly around the circles. Some of the circles have been cut out, the edges have been distressed and then I have stuck some school graph paper behind them. On top of these circles I have then layered embellishments, or used the circle as a journalling space :) Here are some close ups,

 I have hand cut this steaming mug of coffee from felt.

The stacks of circles and embellies are made using a mixture of felt, card, paper, fabric, lace and buttons.

I am quite pleased with this LO, I prefer it in real life to how these photos make it look, but never mind, I blame that on my poor photography in the dull light.

I shall leave it at that this evening, I have more scrapbooking to do  :)
Bye for now,

Blog award and holiday pics :)

Hi, I don't have anything crafty to show you today I'm afraid, but I thought I'd pop by to blog a lovely blog award and some holiday pictures.

A few weeks ago, actually, just over a month ago (sorry Becky), I received a blog award from the lovely Becky Brombley at the Craft Jar. She has a lovely little blog, and creates a gorgeous mixture of things, from cakes to cards and many things in between, I only wish I had more time to go over there and comment a lot more often than I do. So, please do pop over and see her and her lovely work.

Now, as a recipient of this award, I need to tell you 7 things about myself. Arghhh..... right ok then, here goes,

1. My oldest proper memory (I think!!) is visiting my Brother in hospital when I was 4 and buying him a packet of the magic stars chocolate sweets from the hospital shop. I think it's an accurate memory, although no-one can definitely say that it is accurate, but I like to think it is.
2. Marmite. You either love it or you hate it. My opinion, I HATE IT!! :)
3. I also don't like rice pudding (which is odd as I used to eat it a lot when I was younger) or baked beans (which isn't helpful when you are trying to do a really simple meal when camping).
4. I love notebooks and pens, when I was younger (well until relatively recently actually) I would buy a notebook and pen from anywhere I went with a gift shop. I wasn't interested in toys, take me to a zoo or somewhere and I'd come away from the gift shop with a pen and notebook, and sit scribbling.
5. I hate being told off or shouted at. Luckily it doesn't happen often, but when it does I hate it.
6. I want to travel, and I hope I will in the future. There are so many places I'd like to visit, in the UK as well as abroad. When I get the opportunity to travel, I know I will, I just keep thinking of all of the photos, scrapbook pages and memories, oh it'd be great :)
7. I don't have a lucky number, colour, object, anything, and I'm not particularly superstitious. I count magpies if I see them and work out their meaning from the rhyme, but then just turn around and forget about it, I don't believe in it all.

Wow, so there are my 7 things. Quite random, I've just sat here trying to think of vaguely interesting things and that's what has come up, really very random, but hey ho :)

Now to pass it on to 7 people. There are so many blogs I follow, and I really do love scooting around everyones blogs as they're all so interesting and unique. One thing I would really love is more time, so I could actually get around and comment on people's work, I've really struggled recently, you're all just producing too much great work for me to keep up!! :D :D So, here's my 7, I love looking at these peoples inspirational work.

1. Miss Smith of Curiouser and Curiouser.
2. Lisa of Artfull Scrapbooking.
3. Anne of hobby d'un jour.
4. Georgia of Starting to Scrap
5. Tessa of Perfectly Precocious
6. Anthea of Our Life Story
7. Leah of A Musing to Create

Take a look over at their work for yourself, such amazing talent from them all :) Thanks again Becky, it meant a lot to know you enjoy reading my little old blog :)


So, now for some pics of our weekend break camping in Norfolk.

It was the first time we had used our new tent, and we really appreciated the large living area and the fact we could stand up, even James could stand up in it!!

Cooking - It was such good fun cooking for ourselves, it was the first time we have really cooked whilst camping

Some lovely group shots from the hol, we all thoroughly enjoyed it and I think it shows in these pics (maybe except some where James just wouldn't smile nicely :D

James especially enjoyed playing on the beach, as you can see, we all had our feet buried at some point :)

I love this photo mum took, that jumping pillow was such great fun and it was great for posing action shots :)

These are a selection of the many photos I took of the beautiful sunsets. It was World Photography day on Friday, so I had to get the camera out and snap away. All of these were taken at varying times on Friday evening :) It was brilliant to finally get a chance to try the slow shutter speed effect on water :) I was quite pleased with the result.

One of the best bits was being allowed to have camp fires on the camp site.We had a camp fire on 2 of the 3 nights and it was such good fun, although I can still smell it in my hair!! :)

I hope you liked the pics, and I'm so sorry it's been such a great big long post. Well done if you got this far :D

Bye for now,

Travelling with TPV

This week TPV wants you to travel with us.

My LO is all about my love of steam trains, which has developed over the years as I have grown up surrounded by them. My grandad really loves them, so we have had many trips to preserved railways to see them, and regularly go to see them travel on the mainline railway tracks on special journeys.

What can you create with a travel theme? Maybe a bon voyage card, or a scrapbook page about a special journey?
Come over and join in with this challenge, look what one lucky participant will win....

Look at that lovely vintage collection from The Paper Trail, I just love the colours in it :)

So, I'll see you over there :)

Now for some close-ups,

I am quite pleased with this LO, I loved putting all of the layers and elements together, and I liked the colour scheme. :) I hope you like it too.

I am currently sat here absolutely devastated as our laptop will not turn on this morning. We have photos on there that haven't been backed up or moved onto the home computer!! Mum has gone to a local shop to see what they can do, so I'm just waiting to hear, hopefully it'll be good news. All I want is for it to turn on one last time so I can copy all photos across :( Arghhhh :( Sob sob :(

Bye for now, :)

P.S. I am back from our weekend away camping. We had an amazing time, possibly the best camping trip I've ever had. We all really enjoyed it. I took lots of photos which I shall share with you in a couple of days, but if you can't wait till then, pop over to my mum's blog where she has put some of our holiday pics :) I also have a blog award from a lovely crafter to blog about and give out, so I shall be back at some point soon to do that too:)

Also, don't forget the 7th Sept, remember that date, TPV's blog anniversary starts that day, I have started my projects for it and it's going to be a blast, so make sure you're there :)

It's Results day!! and a celebration announcement

Hey all,
I just thought I'd write a quick note on here to tell you my AS and A2 results. I've just been into school to collect them. I was slightly nervous for these as I have my expectations high, but thankfully I achieved my hopes and am not devastated. I achieved an A in AS biology, an A in AS psychology and an A in A2 level mathematics :) I am pleased with that, and thankfully it looks like I'm on track to possibly achieve the grades I need to go to my chosen universities. I just need to continue my incredibly hard work and hope :)

We are off camping this weekend as a family. It'll be great to go camping us 4 as we haven't done that for years. James has grown up a lot more since, so hopefully it may be a bit more relaxed and enjoyable. I just hope the weather isn't too bad for us.

So, the announcement.

TPV IS TURNING 1 YEAR YOUNG IN SEPTEMBER. WE COULDN'T LET THIS SPECIAL BIRTHDAY PASS WITHOUT A FUSS. SO, WE'RE GOING TO......

.... AND CELEBRATE IN STYLE!!! WE HAVE A WEEK FULL OF CELEBRATIONS, INCLUDING...



a fun blog hop,

a fabulous sponsor,
Facebook giveaway,

FIVE daily challenges,

and many great prizes!

So........Save the date - it all starts Sept 7th!

 

HAVE YOU REMEMBERED THAT!!!!!!

SEPTEMBER 7th

 

 

SO, I HOPE YOU'VE GOT THAT DATE SAVED, BECAUSE IT'S GOING TO BE SPECIAL AND YOU'LL WANT TO BE A PART OF IT :)

IF YOU HEAD OVER TO TPV AND GRAB THE CODE FOR THIS BLINKIE, THEN POST IT ON YOUR BLOG, YOU COULD BE IN WITH THE CHANCE OF WINNING A PRIZE. SEE, WE ARE STARTING AS WE MEAN TO GO ON!! SO HEAD OVER HERE AND GRAB THAT BLINKIE :)

So bye for now, have a great weekend :)

Sketchy Thursdays and a new technique

Hello all,

I am back, well actually I've been back for a few days, but haven't been on here to see you all. Camp was good fun, I have some nice memories and a couple of pages to create, although as I seemed to fail to take any photos I shall have to look at the others photos or try a photo-less page :)  (I really mean failed at photos, I took about 5, and they were only of 1 activity!! That's how busy the week was!)

So, I've been trying to recover sleep, and was very glad to have my own bed back, they always seem extra comfy and inviting after a week on a roll mat :D I have also been crafting and running riot on the roads in my first driving lesson, but I'll tell you about that later in the post.

I have been scrapbooking, and using this weeks brilliant sketch from Sketchy Thursdays. I love it, and it was great fun to play with. Here's my take,

Anyone noticing a common colour theme occurring in my layouts at the moment?!! If you look here you'll see what I mean. Lots of yellow and green popping up, I haven't a clue why. I shall get out of this rut though, I have a few girlie LO's planned in my head which I shall have to make soon :)

Anyway, the sketch

It was good fun making this LO, it's taken quite a while even though it doesn't look like it should have. Here's why it took so long though. Do you see the bracket shaped area of embossed circles? Well, I wanted to try out a new technique I had seen in Vol 13 No 7 of Australian Scrapbooking Magazine (an amazing magazine may I add!! ), so I did, and here are step by step photos of how I did it :)

I chose my cardstock, and used a Heidi Swapp Bracket mask to help guide me and produce the desired bracket shape. I have stuck the self adhesive mask on to the back of my cardstock and found the embossing folder that I wished to use and an embossing tool.

Position the depressed side of the embossing folder under the cardstock, using masking tape in various positions to secure it. Using the embossing tool, emboss the cardstock into the depressed side of the folder, to leave the desired pattern.
Reposition the embossing folder, overlapping the pattern slightly so you can be sure that the embossing will line up and look correct. This takes some time to ensure it is in the right place, and also a lot of masking tape I found :)

Repeat this, repositioning each time, until the entire area is embossed. Then when you turn the cardstock over you should have something that looks like this .....

I then hand stitched around the shape to make it stand out (which also took quite a while)

I am pleased I tried the technique and I like the finished result, but next time I may stick to a smaller area!!
Here's a few close ups of the LO :)

As I mentioned above, I had my first 2 hour driving lesson on Monday. I didn't feel as nervous as I thought I would, well that was until I actually got the car moving!! Steering was a complete surprise, I couldn't quite believe how much you really have to twist the wheel, it never looks like anyone twists it THAT much when I'm a passenger. I stalled once, but it was when stopping so it wasn't too bad. I found stopping quite difficult, and remembering the sequence of events, but it was my first lesson and it did start to get easier after 1 and a half hours. Can you remember your first lessons? Any interesting stories to tell?

I have a little giveaway advertising. I have mentioned Miss Smith on here a few times as I absolutely adore her work and style. She celebrated her 200th post a few days ago and is doing a very interesting giveaway with a little twist. She is giving away a little something to everyone, that's all I shall say, so hop over and take a look at her giveaway. I shall definitely be joining in, it looks great fun.

Hope I haven't bored you with what has ended up a rather long post. Enjoy the rest of your week.
Bye for now, :)

P.S. Another thing. TPV have put there next challenge up today. How does it look?

I'll see you over there, lets see how creative you can be with threads :)

Colour combination at TPV

This week, over at TPV, we have a brilliant colour combination for you to work with.

How about this as a great set of colours?

We would like your project to be primarily these colours, although you can use small amounts of other colors, neutrals, etc.

I found these colours quite daunting at first, so if you are too, please stick with me. They aren't colours I use very often, especially not together, so I embraced the challenge and gave it a go. Here is the resulting LO.

I am very glad I embraced this challenge, as these colours are so much more fun to work with than I'd first thought. I am really pleased with this LO.

So what about the prize this week.
This week we are sponsored by...

...who are generously giving the winner a  $20 gift card. Look at the TPV challenge post for more details.

So, please head over and take part in this weeks challenge, I'll see you there :)

Here's a couple of close ups of my LO.

I've been doing a lot of crafting for others recently, and this is no exception. I created this LO as part of a friends birthday present, and I'm pleased to say she was absolutely thrilled with it. Once again, the photos used are from a photo booth session I did recently with my friends, so the photos hold a lot of memories and cause giggles :)

I hope you like it, I'll be back on here properly when I'm back from camp, speak then :)

A page full of memories

Today I have a scrapbook page to show you. It isn't following any sketches or part of any challenges, it is a page for scrapbooking sake. I quite enjoyed doing a page without any sketches, as I am slightly worried that the more sketches I do, the least likely I am to be able to make a page from scratch, and this was proof to myself that I can still manage it.

This page was created as a keepsake for a new friend. One of my good friends has had a girl to stay for the first 2 weeks of the holiday that she loosely knew through both of their parents. She has come from Sweden, so it has been our job to show her England and ensure she has a good few weeks. I've met up with them both many times, and had a really great time. Today she went home, so to ensure she remembers us and as a thanks for a great few weeks, I created her the following layout.

 She really liked the LO, she found the title amusing as it sums up the few weeks quite well, a mad time :) Here's a few close ups :) (Please click on the images for a better view, blogger seems to make them look very poor quality)

The photos are of a photo booth session I did with my group of friends last Friday, which we all really enjoyed, it was a great laugh and I am really pleased with the results :) I added lots of embellishments, paint splats and layers to this page, then slipped it inside a page protector to keep it safe.

I am off away for the next week on a guiding trip. It should be great fun. I shall be absent from here all week, although I have my TPV project scheduled, so please do pop over here to find out what exciting challenge it is this week. It's definitely my favourite yet and I'm really pleased with my project, so do pop back :)

Bye for now, have a good week :)

A Juicy Fruity Summer

Hi,

Well, I thought it was summer .... until today. It hasn't been too bad, it's been grey and drizzling finely for most of the day, but I'd still rather be enjoying sun. Although, this is England, and this is our typical summer!!

Anyway, I'm here today with some fruity crafts.

First up, a card for this weeks LIM challenge which is

FEELING FRUITY

I am really pleased with this card, it is definitely summery and warm. I have made the watermelon slice myself, from layers or fabric, felt and card, and using nestabilities, 2 circles and a scalloped circle. I have then used Gunmetal stickles to create the seeds. I have kept the other half of the circle to create another of these embellishments for scrapbooking :)

Staying on the Watermelon theme, I have also made these, what do you think?

I made them for a friend as part of her Birthday gift. Her birthday was back in May, in the middle of exams. We had a very late birthday party for her a few days ago, when she was presented with her very late birthday present. She straight away put them on and they hung just below her short hair style, and I must say I felt very pleased with them, they looked great on her :)
I've recently started to have a play with FIMO, after buying a great little book on how to make tempting treats from the modelling clay. It's quite an interesting medium to use, I guess I was expecting it to be a lot more pliable as I am used to working with sugar paste, but it's great fun. :)

And staying on the sugar paste theme (anyone would think I planned it to flow like this!!!), I have been cake decorating again.

It is my another of my friends' Birthday today, and I went on Monday to decorate a birthday cake with her. We hadn't a clue what we were going to do on the cake, so just decided to have a summery feel, and started from there. This is what we ended up with.

The strawberries are created using a heart cutter, which was then moulded into more of a strawberry shape, and the flowers are circles, with little snips in, then moulded and made to look like a flower :) I was quite pleased with it, considering our limited time to plan and create. She really enjoyed watching me create, it was great fun to teach her, and she loved the cake, bless her :)

Ok then, I think that's all for today, so much fruit!!!  I have a layout to share (no fruit this time), so will be back at the weekend :)
Bye for now,