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 :)