Hi all
I'm back with a little something
We're having a party in August - to celebrate my 21st birthday and my parents' silver wedding.
We've made some bits and bobs for it and this week I made a drinks menu.

Just used stencils for the background and the lettering. It's not perfect, but it's nice and bright for our summer theme. 

A Soft Craft Make

Hi all,
Something a bit different today -
I'm sure we've all got a box full of fat quarters/fabric that we don't use. With me it's because I'm never sure what to make, and it has to be something of practical use.
So I'm happy when I open Creativity magazine and there's a soft craft project in there that'll make something useful.
This time, issue 59, it's a fabric journal case.
I wanted to make it because I like my things to be organized. This is somewhere I can keep a magazine and a notebook and everything be all together.
I will admit that I received Help from my mother.
She can sew. I can botch and cover it up with something.
She can understand instructions. I just get confused.
Alas, we deciphered the instructions (though I sympathize that write ups are incredibly difficult!) and here's the finished product.

It's also going to be useful when I go away, I can put a wildlife mag and sketching supplies in there, plus my camera filters.

FYI, I bought that magazine for the Red Panda on the cover. It was between that and BBC Focus and the Panda won. Both had dinosaurs inside.

Which brings me to my final, non soft craft related, point. 

I am going to have a go at making art with mixed media. I enjoy scientific illustration and I'm thinking of combining that with mixed media. 

Until next time...

Totally Gorjuss!

Hi all,

Just popping by to share a card I made for docrafts using their Gorjuss collection.

I love the 'Wonderland' feel to the collection. Instead of going with the colour scheme on the stamp set, I chose my own colours, giving the girl ginger hair and a blue dress.

Well, secretly I wanted her to look a bit like me...

A new mixed media layout

Yesterday I made a new layout using a lovely photo of my boyfriend, Nathan.

I'm one of those incredibly annoying people who are constantly fiddling with camera settings and taking too long to take photos and then taking a lot of photos... hence why he doesn't look too impressed.

This time I was messing around with 'creative control' on my camera (most bridge cameras have something like this) and used the 'film grain' setting for this photo and it's given a really nice effect.

For this layout I wanted to make it quite vintage and steampunk, so after a base coat of white acrylic I used the gears stencil by Scrapberrys with my home made texture paste. I seem to have got the consistency right now so the gears look really crisp. I sprayed the textured areas with Luminarte spray mist in bronze.

I ripped the edges of the page and inked them with a beige and then dark brown ink for a more aged effect. 

The compass was cut from the background paper and brought forward, it really suited the vintage theme.

For the embellishments I used Kaisercraft Mister Fox and Santoro Willow pieces. 

Now... all my scrapping is up to date for the moment - ish - I'm banking on my next docrafts kit to arrive soon as I have a great idea for another page. 

In the meantime I have more blogs planned and I'll be posting some cards, too. Stay tuned!

St James' Park Layout

Hi everyone
I was busy yesterday with another layout, using photos I took in St James' Park on our visit to London. I love this park because there are lots of different species of birds, and the ice cream is lovely.

Products used:

My Mind's Eye Find Your Wings & Fly paper/cutout embellishments/layered stickers

Dovecraft Bohemian paper/buttons

Santoro Willow wooden embellishments

Papermania Bare Basics mini bunting/Neon button

Hobbycraft mini alphabet

Sizzix Alterations chevron die

Webster's Pages sticker

P.s.

I was in the craft room and missed the first 6 Springwatch Blue Tits fledging. I did manage to see two leave, though. Lovely.

Will be posting another layout later. Stay tuned...!

Flamingo Layout

Hi all,

Wanted to share one of my favourite layouts.

I made this for docrafts using their Neon collection.

I'd had this layout planned for a while after a visit to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, but waited patiently for my Design Team kit to arrive before I made this - and I'm so glad I did - the collection really complements this photo of a Flamingo.

The background is made by drizzling PVA glue over the surface and pouring glitter over the top.

Find out more HERE

I might post again today depending on the Springwatch Blue Tits fledging - I've been glued to the live feed for a good few days now... surely they've got to go soon? Can I tear myself away from them long enough to go into the craft room? We shall see...

Made some cards!

Been card making this week.

Seeing as it's my auntie's 60th birthday next month I wanted to make her a big, bright, fun card.
Because the card I'm using is A5-ish size, I chose 8x8 paper instead of the 6x6 I normally go for, and the First Edition Neroli paper pad was perfect for this project. My 8x8 papers don't get used very much but I think I'll have to change that!
The shaker element was made with plastic packaging taped together. I initially used glue but that just made a mess... the sequins are from Poundland, and there's a good variety of different shapes like flowers and stars, not just plain circles, which is nice.

The next card is for my aunt and uncle's Ruby Wedding. I used a shaker element again because I love sequins.

And a final birthday card using the Papermania Botanicals collection.