Twisted Sketch #150

I've been having a major sort out of photos - trying to make sense of a lifetime's photos, especially old pre-digital ones, and making plans about what to scrap or not.  In this meandering through the kids' lives I found these photos of my DD which fit perfectly with the two photo sketch with the twist of  'Flowers' which was my challenge this week.

Head over to Twisted Sketches to see the original sketch and my fellow teamies beautiful layouts on this theme... and this is mine.

Materials used:  Patterned paper from MME Miss Caroline range; Alphabet stickers by Amy Tangerine for American Crafts and October Afternoon; Flowers by Prima, Basic Grey, Sarah's Cards and from stash; Brads by Basic Grey, Making Memories and from stash; Handmade pennant with Sassafras paper; Ribbon to match the bonnet from stash.

As soon as I saw the yellow on the bonnet I knew I had the perfect flower and the rest of the layout just went from there!  Thank you for visiting my blog.

Try Something New - May Week 1

I've had a bit of a bumper week on trying new things.  Sadly the rain put pay to my guided walk round the Medieval churches in the city of London but we compensated with a trip to that temple of Mammon - Westfield!

I haven't been here before, not being much of a shopper and it was a vast space which could suck your cards dry in a few minutes if you were minded to spend!  I invested in a new top but that was the extent of my extravagance.

I was also fortunate to be taken out to lunch - I have been to two different Jamie's Italian in the past few weeks - once in Guildford - where I ate squid ink pasta (another first, and then at Westfield.  Both meals were fabulous and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Another culinary first this week - I cooked oxtail!  I have not ever eaten this before but found a recipe and it turned out nicely - the family thought so too.

Handcutting - my first love.

I adore handcutting, although with the proliferation of die cutting machines, it looks rather less impressive than it did when I began scrapping.

Today I was finishing off layouts which I have half done over many years and then put aside, mainly for journalling, or because I was out at a crop and I didn't have the item I wanted.  I am useless at being disciplined to finish my layouts so they sit in a pizza box and just occasionally I try to finish some off.

Today was one occasion, as I promised my friend Gaye that I would work on half done projects until the next crop!   Now I am not entirely able to keep my promise as I have layouts to do for Twisted Sketches, but at least I'm trying.

This is one of my finally finished layouts.

It's a rare foray into the world of 8.5 x 11, some handcut scallops, some white rubons and a white journalling pen and that's the lot.

Stealing other people's Pinterest projects!

I was cropping with some friends recently and one of them (Sandra) is a real Pinterest afficionado with many wonderful things pinned for inspiration.  She printed off some of these inspirations for scraplifting purposes and me being nosey, had to have a little look at them, and then a little copy!

Bless her, she let me scraplift her project, and we had lots of fun playing with papers that are similiar but different, very different photos etc.

Anyway, the original layout was The Green Hat by Justem and is truly adorable and well worth a little detour - who knows? you will find so much loveliness that you may never come back!

This is my version...

Papers are from Lilybee - four ranges - Picket Fence, Buttercup, Happily Lost and Memorandum. I decided to go with ovals rather than the original circles as the boys were at rugby.  Old rubons, some washi tape and a brad were all the embellishment it needed when I'd had such fun playing with the Cricut (thanks again Debbie) to cut the number border and the title.

This link will take you to Sandra's lovely blog 'Homely Pursuits' to see her gorgeous version of this layout - thanks for sharing your Pinterest!

Thank you Ronda Palazzari

On a recent blog meander, I came across this book called Art of Layers by Ronda Palazzari - her blog is an awesome arty treat for any papercrafter.  Anyway, I HAD to have the book and ordered it immediately.  Well it didn't disappoint - at all!  Not only is it chock full of delicious projects, it also has fantastic photo instructions and loads of little extra ideas.  I cannot count the number of times I've dipped into it since it fell onto my doormat and each time I've noticed something else wonderful.  The final icing on the cake is that it uses recognisable and recent and lovely products which means that they are still available if you want them!

So my first foray into one of these techniques was paper patchwork - and this is the result.

Ok, I didn't exactly sew on them as my sewing definitely falls into the amateur class, but I love the effect it gives, not to mention using up scraps which is my raison d'etre!  I cut the blank shape on the Cricut - thanks Debbie :) and then covered it.  You could equally make a sheet and then cut out a shape from it, but I'm too much of a control freak for this.  I also made a mini book to showcase my photos as I had too many even for a double layout.

I will certainly be back with more projects from this lovely lovely book.  Thanks for looking.

A couple of scraplifts

Some more of my recent playing has revolved round scraplifting some of my scrapbooking heroes.  Firstly Kinsey Wilson whose blog I love to look at for inspiration.  This is her Design Team work for Studio Calico's City of Lights Kit here  and I had to take some inspiration from this layout.  OK, I've strayed far from the delicate pastels of her layout, but I just loved the sections of buttons and applied them to my layers of brown for a Center Parcs layout of DH being daft!

My stash is considerably lighter after this layout which weighs a ton! The papers are mainly old too and come from my scraps box, along with vellum and a serendipity square which I had from a swap many moons ago.  A dash of washi tape just to make it 2012 and my layout was done, and no! I didn't sew them all on - though I have done in the past!

The second one comes from Creating Keepsakes from last autumn and I'm only sorry I can't locate it to give the lady her due credit (if I find it I'll update), but be assured this is scraplifted from that source and again, I loved the idea of masking off patterned paper and sewing.

Again, all the bits are from my scrap box and are old, I can see Chatterbox paper for one!  I added mini ricrac, a few handcut hearts and a button for embellishments, and the alphas are a mix of old Basic Grey chipboard and Lilybee Buttercup.  The title reads 'So proud of where you're going and proud of where you've been' and the journalling describes how my DS2 moved from his year of home schooling into high school.
Thanks for looking.

All in a weekend's work

I had a bit of a scrapbook this weekend and managed to do a few layouts.  It's not often that I stick to a single manufacturer's collection in a layout, but this time I did two!  Both are using ranges by Authentique that I bought from Gottacraft recently.  The first is pretty and pink and not my usual thing but it was perfect for a layout I wanted to do about my sister's wedding, and one photo in particular that I had been musing over for ages - I love the photo, she looks so pretty.

In my usual thrifty fashion, I managed to find an offcut of  Bazzill that matched so I didn't have to cut into a new one lol, and apart from the chipboard alpha by Chatterbox, brads from Basic Grey (ancient! and Making Memories, a bit of twine and the little padlock charm, everything is from the Delightful range of papers and they are so beautiful.  I'm glad I have some left to play with.

The second one uses the Loyal range, and I blitzed out and invested in the stickers as well.  I've used quite a few already. I also had a little play with some new masks I bought at Ally Pally - the woodgrain one didn't work too well with a Distress Stain, but the brick one covered up my mess, and I used an inkpad and sponge to get a better coverage.  The letters are from MME I think, and are flocked and delicious.