Week 6: Sergeant entertainment

Last week I put some sassafras alphas on some acetate and sprayed them with glimmer mist. In the end I didn't like the colours so I left it on the acetate. When I looked at it a few days later I loved how the mist had dried on the acetate so I decided to use it this week.

I started with a cardstock base and then I put some acetate over the top and positioned the word 'sergeant'. Then I sprayed some glimmer mist over it. I allowed this to dry.
Next I wanted to use a technique that I'd seen on a LO on the Crate Paper website. I tore a strip of Crate Paper Toy Box 'Library' in half. I bent over the torn edges and stuck strips from a phone directory underneath it, turning them over too. I stuck some 'Build' paper on the cardstock and then arranged the patterened paper and phone directory pages on top of it. I used some thread to sew some of the torn edges together. I put some staz-on ink on some bubble wrap and used it to stamp some bubble wrap patterns around the page. I needed to tie the colour from the 'Build' paper and the threads in with the 'Library' paper so I used some 'Sports' to do that. It had the browns and greens in it and some red and orange too.

The multiple photos were taken in the nature reserve near us, where Connor entertains us day in day out. He loves to make us laugh anyway he can; singing and dancing, jumping out to make us jump, telling jokes and generally being cheeky so that's what I decided to write in the journalling with a dymo.

I printed the photos and then used a file to rough up the edges. I stuck some directly on to the page and raised some using foam squares. I used a few coloured staples too. Finally I added the rest of the title, and some chipboard embellishments from the 'Toy Box' collection. Supplies:
Crate Paper Toy Box Chipboard stickers
Crate Paper Toy Box 'Build'
Crate Paper Toy Box 'Library'
Crate Paper Toy Box 'Sports'
Sassafras cardstock stickers- script
American Crafts Thickers 'Sunrise'
Staz on
Dymo junior, black tape
Making Memories coloured staples

Scrap Factor Week 5: One photo

Good morning. Well, the Week 6 gallery has gone live this morning so I'm able to show you the LO I created for Week 5. The challenge was to create a layout using just one photo. I chose a photo of my friends' children that she took after our trip to the local nature park where we went for the Easter Trail. The children were given a chocolate rabbit for finishing and the children started opening them before Ruth was even in her seat. Given that it's only a 5 minutes drive from home she thought it would be fine and she would be home before they demolished the whole thing. But when she opened the car door she was greeted by Izzy with a pool of molten chocolate in her hands and William with chocolate everywhere. One of the responses to the photo on Facebook was 'I love the way William appears to have massaged the chocolate into his legs for good measure! LOL ;-)'. 'eek!' was pretty much what Ruth thought when she first saw them and once she'd captured the moment on her iphone for prosperity they went straight in to the bath.

I wanted to use some of the purple and silver foil that Cadbury's Easter eggs come in on this LO so I looked for papers that would allow me to do that. I love green and purple together so I was pleased when I found the paper from . Having position the paper and doilie I then used paint and mist to mirror the mess that all over the LO and around the photo. I positioned the foil around the LO too and added stickers and Cosmo cricket accents here and there.
And here is the finished LO.I was much happier with this LO than my Royal Wedding one, that's for sure :)

Supplies:
My Mind's Eye kraft cardstock
Brown acrylic paint
Tattered angels mists 'Creme de Chocolate', 'Deep Plum' and 'Turquoise Blue'
Cosmo cricket doilies and butterflies: 'Social Club' and 'Salt Air'
Sassafras cardstock Sweet Treats stickers
October Afternoon '5 & Dime' Label Stickers and Word Stickers
American Crafts Thickers 'Glitter Letter Stickers- Bliss'
Websters pages image&phrase stickers 'Trendsetter'
WeR Memory Keepers Vintage Blue 'Rainbow Connection' and 'Peachy Keen'
Crate Paper 'Toy Box' chipboard accents

Save this dog and win masses of prizes!

Kirsty Wiseman is organising a massive raffle. She says 'This is a raffle so huge, that by the time I have collated all the prizes, you need never buy a single craft item ever again, well....barely! Tell your friends, tell your family, raid the kids money box.......please, please find it in your hearts (and paypal accounts) to help raise money for Daisy Dog.

The story.....A facebook friend of mine, Janey Pye (cool name, right?), wrote about an incident relating to her Jack Russell dog, Daisy, on the 17th May 2011 but today, 18th May 2011 she received the devastating news that she either find £1600 for vet bills or have her dog destroyed. I mean, you just can't comprehend anything like that, can you? In the cold light of day, being given that kind of alternative is gut wrenching. The fact that Janey has no pet insurance is of no consequence to me or indeed many of my friends, the positive in me see's to it that I and whoever else who is attached to Janey must do all they can to help her. I know its not something we all can afford but some of us go through our daily lives praying nothing happens to our pet to warrant such a huge expense.




So to help Daisy (and Janey, and Tom - Daisy's big brother... who suffers with aspergers and would simply not exist without his beloved pet, Daisy) I wanted to rally around every craft person and store I knew to donate prizes for a very grand raffle. Janey never asked me to do this and when I raised the question on my facebook page this afternoon towards my friends, many of them their offered support immediately. Nobody questioned it and so the aquarian in me set sail. Their support gave me the push, so I am grateful to them muchly.


The Prizes....So far we have the following pledges (with a potential 65 shops, manufacturers, crafters pledging more)

A Craft Robo - anonymous donation
£35 stampin up voucher from Rachel Booth
A handmade bag from Darcy Wilkinson
A private commissioned drawing of your pet/child 12x14 worth $50 by Jay Korbijn
A MME 12x12 pack, stamps, and embellishments from Dies to Die for
A selection of stamps from Personal Impressions
A £25 voucher from Hobby Craft
A donation from Studio Calico
£50 worth of product from Clever Cuts
A selection of craft supplies from Brenda Pinnick
A selection of stamps from THE Donna Downey - I know, right?
£40 worth of stash from Mei Flowers
£36 worth of stamping product from Artistic Stamper
£50 word of Crafting CD's from me
A handmade cushion from Jaki Morrison worth £20
100ml bottle of DKNY perfume from anonymous donator
£30 worth of product from Marion Emberson of Sugar and Spice Crafts
£106 worth of product from Tonic Studios
A photoshoot for the south of the country from Paula Pascual (worth £100)
A photoshoot for the north of the country from Kirsty Wiseman (worth £100)
A ton of digi product from Vicki Parker (worth £40)
A generous prize from Letraset (prob Promarkers and Aquamarkers.... im working on them!)
A specially commissioned Canvas by Dyan Reaveley at Art from the Heart worth £75
Ive twisted someones arm for a donation from QVC
Im working on Create and Craft
5 x digi stamps from Just Inklined

There will be MORE AND MORE prizes added.....this was what I could only obtain in an hour on 17th May 2011

Go to Kirsty's website and buy a ticket now. Only £2 xx

Scrap Factor Week 4: Story Telling

For me the whole point of scrapbooking is telling a story and to that end the photos that I use are really important. Sometimes I let the photo tell the story and write very little journalling actually. The Week 4 challenge in UKScrappers' Scrap Factor forced me to focus on the journalling but I also wanted to make sure that my photos and embellishments told a story too.

I know that the Royals aren’t everyone’s cup of tea but I’m a fan. I love the pomp and ceremony. I love the international attention that they bring. For this LO I used a series of photos to tell the story of my trip to London to be a part of the Royal Wedding. I chose photos that remind me of things that happened and photos of the key events. My photo of the kiss was from quite a distance and there are flags and cameras in the way of my shot, so for that one I took a photo of the TV screen but the others are photos that I took on the day from my front row vantage point. I was so glad that I’d made the effort to go and was very proud to be standing ‘On the Nation’s red carpet’. To create the area for my journaling I cut out a shape on scrap paper to use as a mask and then sprayed Glimmer Mist around the edges. My journaling is meant to be a little tongue in cheek because of the challenge being about story telling this week. It reads ‘ (Once upon a time…) there was a Berkshire girl who met her Prince Charming whilst studying at University. They became engaged and set a date to be married. Meanwhile in another part of Berkshire and excitable woman decided that she wanted a front row seat for this wedding and so she set off up to London with layers of clothes a sleeping bag and a bean bag the night before the wedding. Deciding to set up camp beside some South Africans, two Canadians and some fellow Brits our heroine quickly made friends with her neighbours and began soaking up the atmosphere and sharing the free flowing champagne. Breakfast followed a few hours’ sleep and the champagne drinking began again. Excitement levels rose and good humour reigned. Police came by with lunch bags; her Majesty’s armed guard marched up The Mall, and the Band of the Irish Guard played their way down the avenue. All around her, Union Jacks were being waved as guests made their way to the wedding. Even the road sweeper was greeted with cheers. Our leading lady was amongst those who helped the Lance Corporal position his men equally by counting as he swung his spacer between each man. Oh how she laughed! As Princes Charles, William and Harry left Clarence House and The Queen made her way to Westminster Abbey in glorious yellow, the excitement rose again. And finally there she was. Kate Middleton with a veil of Chantilly lace and lace from her neck all the way to her wrists, smiling and waving and bringing tears to our protagonists eyes. She loved the service and the prayer and joined in with the hymns throughout the services. She loved the clatter of hooves that announced the arrival of the newlyweds in the carriage.’ And next to the photo in the bottom corner I’ve noted my favourite moment of the day: the promise of a very modern monarchy to come. I also added rub ons and stickers to the photos for added story-telling and an arrow that says ‘right here’ to show where I was on The Mall and I included some lace to represent the lace of the wedding dress too.

I wasn't entirely happy with this layout if I'm honest and I thought that I would struggle in voting. I really appreciate everyone who voted for me, thank you.

Supplies:
My Mind’s Eye Stella Rose- Hazel ‘ Mother’ Ledger
My Mind’s Eye Stella & Rose Label Stickers- Hazel ‘Lovely’
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist ‘Chalkboard’ Charcoal
Making Memories ‘Once upon a time…’
Webster’s Pages Fabric Tickets ‘Trendsetter’
Webster’s Pages ‘Leaders’ patterned paper
Prima Marketing e line designer rhinestones
Prima Marketing ‘Athena Flowers- Powder Puff’
Prima rose leaves
Glitz designs rhinestone flower
Glitz designs Peek.A.Boo ‘scarlett’ transparencies
Bubbly Funk chipboard crown
EK Success Label Lingo ‘Zen’
October Afternoon Word Stickers ‘Campfire’
October Afternoon ‘Rub on Transfers
7gypsies 97% complete ‘Photographie’ & ‘School (Ecole)’ stickers
7gypsies Rubbings Ink ‘Family’ and ‘Family Matters’
Crate Paper stickers ‘Restoration’
Crate Paper alpha labels ‘Portrait Collection’
Adorn It with Carolle’s Creations Run on alphas
Papermania Rub On transfers ‘New Baby Block’
Rub on Sentiments from Royal &Langnickel ‘ Birthday sentiments’
K&Co. K.ology ‘Hannah’ Rub on Transfers
Scenic Route ‘Travel Mini Words’ colour rub-ons
Royal crest from an old map
Map page showing The Mall from an old A to Z
American Crafts Thickers ‘Lullaby’ Charcoal
Sassafrass ‘Script’ mini alpha stickers
East of India Mini Union Jack flags cut in to bunting
Queen & Co Charms ‘Kissy Fit’

Blog hop winner.

Thank you all for dropping by for the blog hop. There's a really interesting discussion giong on at UKS about scrapping Royal Wedding stories. Have a look.

Well done to Jackie. You were randomly selected to win our blog hop prize. Please email scrapagogo with your details.
The gallery has opened for Week 4 voting on UKS. Here's a sneek peek of my LO using my Royal Wedding photos.

Scrap Factor Week 3

This challenge instantly made me think of some photos I took of Connor on Easter Sunday. We were walking the dog when Connor picked a dandelion. Unlike most children he didn't start blowing and counting to tell the time. Instead he started singing in to it. He said that it was his microphone and he was quite disappointed when the wind took some of it away (although then a whole new game developed as Connor blew the dandelions and Bailey the dog caught them in his mouth!). The journalling tells the story.

I chose the lyric from MC Hammer's song 'Hammertime' because Connor was holding a dandelion clock but instead of telling the time, he's singing in to it. I thought it would like the 'time' factor with the 'musical' factor (if you can call Hammertime that!). The patterned paper is simply torn and stuck onto the Crate Paper 'Toy Box' paper. I positioned the photos and then covered them whilst I misted an area on each side of the photos (top left and bottom right). The larger blobs of mist were achieved by squirting into the lid of the mist and then flicking it out over the layout. Next I rubbed on, inked and stuck on clocks from various manufacturers and cut out cogs from the Cosmo Cricket paper to layer on top of the clocks. Some are stuck directly on to the paper flat and some have foam squares behind them to give them some height. I was really pleased with how the colours lifted the rest of the LO. I also added UTEE to a couple of chipboard cogs and added them to the LO. No nature based LO is complete without the odd butterfly though so I also rubbed and stamped a few of those on. Finally I added a date at the top of the layout and of course the title.

Thank you to all of your who have sent me such lovely messages and who have voted for me. I hope that you'll visit the UKS 'Scrap Factor' gallery again too.

Supplies:
Crate Paper 'Toy Box- Library'
October Afternoon 'School house: Ruler'
October Afternoon 'The Thrift Shop: Collector's Item'
Cosmo Cricket 'Cogsmo Cogs- Twist & Shout'
Prima Marketing Flocked Rub ons 'Reflections'
Kelly Panacci (Sandilion) Rub ons 'Time'
Cavallini Papers & Co., Inc. Butterflies Rubber Stamps
Heidi Swapp Chipboard ornaments 'Clocks'
Studio Calico Rub-ons butterflies
Heidi Swapp clear stamps 'Clocks'
Tattered Angels 'Chalkboard' Mist Peacock
Tim Holtz Idea-Ology metal coggs
Chipboard coggs
UTEE
Prima Marketing Inc. Alphabet
Sassafras mini alpha

National Scrapbooking Day Blog Hop

Good Morning and welcome :) If you've hopped over here from ScrapaGoGo then don't forget that you are looking for a highlighted word to add to the list of words that you need to work out the answer at the end of the hop. You'll need to use the first letter of each word you find along the way and rearrange them to tell us what the word is that we're looking for. And don't forget that you can increase your chances of winning one of our 10 prizes by commenting on each blog that you visit. So what are you all doing to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day?

The fine weather has broken here today and we have thunder and lightening. Connor told me when he woke up that he wants to go fishing with his net to catch fish for his supper (it's 7.15 am as I write this- talk about forward planning!). I told him that I thought it was raining so he went away and came back to confirm that it was indeed raining. He said, 'That's good. Now we have to stay home all day'. Bless! Such a home body. But I digress. Rainy days are a great excuse for scrapbooking. It's a rare weekend for us when we don't have plans so it might well be that Connor and I sit to do some crafting this afternoon :) I think that I'll use some photos that I took of the boys messing about in the bluebells.

It's less than a month until GoGo 2 You in Surrey and it seems a long time since we designed the classes for it. I know that Janice and Lorraine are busy getting the information together for everyone who's joining us but I thought I'd share a sneak peek of my class. I really enjoyed creating this LO and I hope that everyone who's booked to come will enjoy it too. There are still a few places left for GoGo 2 You in Cheshire later in the year. I'm really excited about my classes for GoGo Getaway in October too, although so far I've only taken the photos I plan to use for them.

I read an article earlier about National Scrapbooking day and they talked about the process and how it all begins the moment a scrapbooker picks up her camera. I'm sure that I'm not alone in thinking that sometimes the process starts before that. I know that on occasion I've chosen specific clothes for myself or Connor to wear so that the photos will go with my favourite papers. And it's not unknown for me to stage an event in advance so that I have the photos in plenty of time. A classic example of that was my Royal Wedding party photo. We did have cucumber sandwiches, cups of tea and cupcakes with union jack flags in using the posh crockery and we did string up the bunting, but it was about a week before the wedding itself ;)

Photos are so important for a layout aren't they. Sometimes I download photos from google images for my layouts and I thought I'd share a layout I created earlier in the week with some Royal Wedding photos from the internet. I did get rather caught up in the whole event! I've done a second LO with my own photos and lots of journalling so that my memories are captured for ever but I couldn't resist this photo of the couple sharing a private moment despite the billions of people watching.

I had better not ramble on any longer as you're just at the beginning of the blog hop, but please do leave a comment and I'll pick someone randomly to receive the ScrapaGoGo prize and as an added bonus, if I hit 100 followers today I'll randomly select one of my followers to receive a pack of 'Social Club- Doilies and butterflies' from Cosmo Cricket.
Thank you for stopping by today. The next blog you need to visit is Sheena's Scraps and Scribbles. Enjoy!

Scrap Factor Week 2

Thank you again to everyone who voted to keep me in this week. I really enjoyed this LO. The advert that I went for in the end was this one:
The advert I chose was a PSP advert. I loved the black and blue combination and all the pretty swirls. I actually did the LO and then couldn’t decide on a photo to add. In the end I went for this photo of Connor, 7 days old. I think that the butterfly symbolises new life and the blue is great for a boy. The swirls and flowers are joyful.

For the LO itself I used a variety of layers to build it up. The first layer was of acrylic paint. I used a wide brush to get some nice big strokes of white.
Next I stamped some swirls on top of the paint before using some black rub on swirls to mix with them. The top layer is white swirls and flowers- also rub ons.
The butterfly I found in my stash was perfect with blue and black colourings.
I couldn’t find a flower that worked for me though so I cut the cardstock from under the photo and cut six petals from it. I inked them and stuck them together, punched a hole in the centre and pushed artificial flower stamen through the middle. Supplies:
Core.dinations Gemstones Cardstock Moonstone
Fly stickers
Staz on
Autumn Leaves elegant flourishes acrylic stamp
Basic Grey rub ons 1665 & 1265
Papermania Hampstead glitter transfers
Fancy pants rub ons French Market
Artificial flower stamen
Acrylic paint
Dew drop graphite black ink

My layout for Week Three's music challenge is fun, or at least I enjoyed making it :) Here'a little sneak peek.
And there are no prizes for guessing which photos I'll be using for this week's storytelling challenge either after spending Thursday night camping along the Mall and Friday immersed in National pride, pomp and ceremony :)