Daffodils

Last week I treated myself to some stuff from Craftie-Charlie.. it arrived on Saturday and I'm so pleased. It's all stuff I've been uhm-ing and ahh-ing over for a while, particularly the Kaisercraft cherry blossom collection. ahhhhh.... 

Spent the morning on a page using a photo I took over the weekend of some daffodils along the main road in the sunshine. 

I've seen a lot of layouts on Pinterest that use frames, and as I'd just bought some, I used one with my daffodil photo. Another thing I've seen more of recently is painted backgrounds... I had a practice with my watercolours and thought it looked fab. I used heavier paper from a sketchbook so it didn't wrinkle when wet. I also recorded this in timelapse, and the video is at the bottom of this post. 

Products used:

-Reeves watercolour paint

-Recollections The Sweetest Thing paper

-DCWV coloured paper stack printed vellum frames and arrows

-Crate Paper chipboard frame

-My Mind's Eye 'Find Your Wings and Fly' layered stickers

-adhesive gems

-Webster's Pages stickers

-Grace Taylor die cut shapes

-American Craft thickers

-coloured ink pads

-E-Z rub ons 

-Papermania metallic butterflies

-coloured brads

I started vlogging!

I wanted to start making crafty videos. My first one is how to get started with scrapbooking!

Enjoy...

Handmade embellishments

Hi everyone! Hope you're well.

News this week - I got into the Docrafts Project Design Team! I'm so pleased with myself, and the team have made me feel so welcome. Look out for my makes on docrafts.com!

I'm also going to try my hand at 'vlogging'. Introducing the basics of scrapbooking, including tutorials, some timelapse stuff, and trying out new products and techniques. I've looked at other scrapbook videos, so I know what NOT to do (not explaining what products are being used, not explaining how to do things, etc). I figured I'd put what I'm learning at university to good use to make some videos.

On Wednesday, I may have spent some money ordering myself supplies online. I hope it'll be here today! But in the meantime, I've been making my own embellishments. I was inspired by what came up on my Pinterest feed and I wanted to have a go. It's a great way of using up any off cuts and bits and bobs that have been sitting unused for a while.

Here's a picture of all the embellishments I made -
I only used papers from my 'scraps' folder, and die cut them into circles, plain and scalloped.
I cut up the cover of the Teresa Collins 'Daily Stories' paper/sticker pack, and used the stickers too to make my designs. I tried to pick colours from my scrap folder that co-ordinated with these.
 The black tassel on the top right is from a clothing label. I really do keep everything!

Here are my favourites, close up

The smaller circle here was made by sticking washi tape onto white card and then die cutting it.

Now, to wait in all day for the postman...!

(Edit: Postman brought me nothing but one of those silly Amazon Prime letters.. pfft.)

Been unable to craft properly over the past week or so.... my mum redecorated our craft space and she's done a fab job!
I also took the opportunity to rearrange some things...
Maybe these photos can be inspiration for other small craft spaces?

Gonna get on with some scrapping now.

Happy Saturday! I'm crafting on my bedroom floor at the moment because my mum is decorating our craft room. 

Made a couple pages this morning using pictures I took of Nathan when we went up to Lakeside a couple weeks ago. I got some duck pictures as well, but my boyfriend is cuter than a couple of Great-Crested Grebes. I wasn't planning on using these pictures, but they came out really well. I was standing on a hill and zoomed in to take the picture in the first page and it blurred out the background... who needs a DSLR, eh?!

One thing I struggle with sometimes is page titles. I go on Pinterest but nothing quite fits...

Then I thought about what Nathan might think when I'm taking his photo.. he doesn't mind coming out with me while I take pictures... but I'm sure he'd rather be inside!

With this first page I tried to get a 'distressed' look to match the backing paper. I inked up the edge of the lined paper and used the rest of that sheet as a backing for the photograph. I ripped the edges but it still wasn't distressed enough... so I screwed it up and then stuck my photo to it and curled the edges of the paper around my photo. 

Papermania Nature's Gallery paper, basics cork alphabet, Chronology metal gears and pocket watch embossing folder, gems

Prima paper (free with the latest Scrapbook Magazine)

Studio Calico veneers

Tim Holtz tag die

K&Co borders

Hobbycraft tiny alphabet

Teresa Collins brads

I took the next photo for this specific layout, I'd seen it on Pinterest and wanted to recreate it. I used Photoshop to turn parts of the photo black and white, then cut it into strips and moved the coloured part down to emphasize it.

Kaisercraft collectables

Recollections The Sweetest Thing papers

Papermania chalk arrow and speechbubble,  craft collection trim, buttons.

A Day In Nottingham!

Went to Nottingham on Thursday and it was a nice day out.
Last time we went I don't think we enjoyed it that much but this time we ran out of time to look around everything! We did get noodles, and cake from Patisserie Valerie, though. Fab!
The weather was as grey as grey can be, so I didn't take many pictures. But I did take a nice selfie of Nathan and I so I made a page using that.
I was planning on doing something with background stamps and the like but the papers that came free with the latest issue of Scrapbook magazine worked so well with the colours in my photo, so I used this floral paper instead.
I used one of the stencils I bought to stencil 'love you' at the bottom, in tacky glue. I removed the stencil and poured glitter onto it. It doesn't show up well on this photo but there's some close ups further down.

Products used:

Prima vintage cigarette papers (free with Scrapbook magazine)

Teresa Collins daily stories backing paper, and Essentials stencil

Nail glitter (bought on eBay, it's lovely because the little bits come in different sizes)

Kaisercraft collectables

Prima flower

Buttons

Heart die cuts and buttons (from a swap)

XCut swirly embossing folder and ornate frame die

Update!

Hi everyone, it's been a while...! or a couple weeks.
I've been busy the past week or so because I was offered a trial for the docrafts project design team! I was sent some basic products and I ended up making two scrapbook pages and a card. I'll post photos once I've heard back from them with whether I'm in or not... It was a challenge, but it was a challenge  that I really enjoyed, so... fingers crossed!
Also, Issue 88 of Scrapbook Magazine arrived today and guess whose layouts are on the 'letters'page?

It also says on that page 'free gift for all UK letters featured'... Not heard a peep about that! Hmph.

Still, it's lovely to see my makes printed for people to see.

I was going to get back into scrapbooking for myself yesterday, but on Thursday I ordered a couple things online and I wanted them to arrive before I made anything new so I could incorporate them into my makes.
I selected 'Economy delivery', which said 'up to seven days'. It was dispatched yesterday and arrived today. Fab! (and why I always go for the cheapest delivery option!)

I love the new Nature's Gallery Papermania collection. I like scientific illustration anyway so to be able to use designs with it on on my pages is great. I just got the double sided paper for now to keep me going but I'll probably get the decoupage at some point, too.

The ribbons, well, they're adorable. I have a soft spot for pastels.

And a set of stencils because I want to add more depth to the background of my pages and use different media and with these I can use felt pens, spray inks, watercolour, anything! 

It was my mum's birthday on Thursday so we all went to Nottingham to celebrate, so I'll do a page on that (though it was cloudy so didn't take many photos)

Now I'm gonna get in my craft room and start playing! 

(I use too many exclamation marks. But scrapbooking makes me happy!

See, I did it again....!)