December 1st....

...means it is time for the next Cupboard Trilogy Challenge.

This month's challenge is....

Glitter, cool wintery hues, snowy photographs & other wintery exploits for the scrapbookers, or if you don't have that type of photos then load them up with wintery embellies & of coarse, as much as I hate to mention it Christmas can be included should you wish.

So whether you go traditional, contemporary or completely different, we need to see or  at least 'the illusion of '  snow, frost or ice .... cool blues, lavender & pale pinks, white & dusky greys .... 

As always have fun with the theme 

So here is my layout using photo taken from the front of our house last winter.  The snowflakes are from the SU Snowflake Soiree set, embossed in clear and then inked over with a brush.

Here is a card I made using the same technique.

I know everyone is busy at this time of year but it would be great to see more people joining in with the challenge...especially if like me you still have some Christmas cards to make.

Birthday Card

Here is a birthday card I recently made and sent to a friend.  I really liked this one so I made a second copy too!

It uses the postage due stamp set from Stampin Up along with the matching postage punch.  It was stamped in versamark and embossed using white powder on white card.  I then used brushes to ink over the stamp to add colour and make the stamp visible.

Another Birthday

Today is my daughter Katherine's 20th birthday.  I have no idea where those 20 years have gone and have to say it isn't making me feel any younger having a 20 year old daughter.  Here is the card I made for her using the SU postage due set and more triple time stamping.

TCT Challenge

This months challenge over at the Cupboard Trilogy Challenge blog is Autumn / Halloween.   If you are a scrapbooker with newly taken Halloween pictures this is the perfect challenge to get them scrapped.  Alternatively you can just use Autumn colours on your card, layout or other project.  Here is my layout.

The photos were taken at Universal Studios in Florida.  We went the their Halloween Horror Night and it was very, very scary and noisy.  Trying to dodge chain saws and other horrors in the dark was definitely an experience!  The photos were taken during the day - didn't want to stay still long enough at night to take a picture!

Happy Birthday Dad

Today is my Dad's birthday and here is the card I made for him. I used the Open Sea stamps from Stampin Up

and this is the inside.

More Triple Time Stamping Cards

I am getting addicted to these triple time stamping cards.  They are so easy but very effective.  Here are a couple I made yesterday.

For the first one I used the flower and leaf swirly from the Creative Elements SU set, a butterfly from the Papillon Potpourri set, punched out with the matching punch and the happy birthday is a singe stamp called Beautiful Birthday.

For the second one I used the En Francais background stamp and then more stamps from the Papillon Potpourri set.

Christmas Cards

Over the last week I have made a start on my Christmas cards.  Here are a sample of the ones I have done so far.

For those of you that know Stampin Up products I am sure you will recognise most of what has been used!  I am really enjoying using their products at the minute, love the easy colour co-ordination.

The first one is a small card - just under 4" square. The card was bought already cut to the shape. The bauble is from the Ornament Keepsakes stamps and cut with the matching framelit.  I added a little bit of glitter for a bit of sparkle.  Card, paper and ribbon are all SU and the message on the bottom is from the SU Greetings of the Season set.

The second card uses another SU paper from the Festival of Prints Designer Series Paper Stack.  The stamp is from the gorgeous Lovely As a Tree stamp set with little extra glitter.  

I came across a technique last week called Triple Time Stamping that a fellow member of the TCT design team had used.  From google I found a video tutorial and had a play.  This card uses the SU set Snowflake Soiree, a couple of shades of blue inks and matching card.

The inside looks like this:-

For my final card I adapted the Triple Time technique to just 2 layers again using the Snowflake Soiree stamps. The centre stamp is a single stamp from SU called Frosty Friends and I added a touch of colour with my Copic pens.  The Merry Christmas was another stamp from the Greetings of the Season set.

Final Chinese Whispers

Here are the last 2 layouts for this years Chinese Whispers.

The second one was very different from my normal style but I really enjoyed doing it although did end up rather messy!

TCT Challenge 4

As it is the first of the month again here is may layout for this months challenge over on the Cupboard Trilogy Challenges

This months challenge is to create something with the theme of 'Things with Wings'.  Well I always love butterflies and it was a chance to use another photo taken at the Butterfly conservatory in Niagara.

I found a 6 x 4 acetate in my stash with some butterflies on so decided to layer that over the photo.  The butterflies on the top right are some gorgeous Prima ones I have had a while and thought this was just the excuse to use them.

There are some beautiful design team examples on the blog and the challenge has been opened up to any paper craft items (including digi layouts) so if making tags or other items is your preference we would love to see you join in.

The Cupboard Trilogy Challenge 3

As it is the 1st of the month it is time for a new challenge on The Cupboard Trilogy Challenge Blog.

This month the challenge is as follows:-

~ Tic Tac Toe ~

You must choose just 1 of the lines & create your card, scrapbook LO or digi page with the 3 different prompts on your chosen line.
Choose by going up & down, side to side or diagonally in any of the 3 lines. 

Bright     Colours	Flowers	Ribbons
Buttons	Lace	Eyelets
Die Cuts	Glitter	Pastel   Colours

I chose the left column of Bright Colours, Buttons and Die Cuts and here is what I created...

Once again photo was from our holiday earlier this year and I thought this bright floral paper worked with the photo.  When I started I was aiming for the top line of the grid but struggle to incorporate ribbon so changed my mind!

Another challenge from the Cupboard Trilogy challenge blog

This months challenge on The Cupboard Trilogy Challenge blog is embossing.  This can be any sort of embossing you like and the design team have come up with all sorts of different ways of tackling this challenge.

Here is my layout...

It doesn't show up very well but there is an embossed border round the edge, just created by scoring.  

The butterflies were created by stamping a Judikins border stamp in versa mark and adding copper embossing powder and heating.  I then used a Martha Stewart punch to punch them out, folded the slightly in the centre and stuck then on using a small glue dot in the centre to give some dimension to the wings.

We had a great response to our first challenge and it would be great to see even more entries this month so please join us.

Latest Chinese Whispers

Here are last months 2 layouts for the Scrapagogo Chinese Whispers.

The first one was mostly using the May Scrapagogo kit. The flowers were created using Stampin up stamps and punches.  The flower charm,  letters and lace were lying around in my stash!

The second layout is mostly Stampin up with the exception of the letters which were a couple of different sets of Thickers I have had for a while.

There are still a couple of weeks left to take part in the Cupboard Trilogy Colour Palette challenge if anyone is interested - see my last post or click on the link on the left.

The Cupboard Trilogy

A little while ago I came across a Facebook group call the The Craft Cupboard which Jane Songhurst set up to allow crafters to buy and sell to each other.  There are also a couple of sister groups for challenges / chatting and selling handmade items too.  There is a wonderful group of crafters in there and it is great to have a place to chat with people with similar interests as well as buying / selling craft items.

From this a Challenge Blog emerged and a few weeks ago Jane asked if anyone was interested in being part of a design team for monthly challenges,  I decided to apply and was lucky enough to be accepted onto the scrapbooking team.  There is also a team of card makers and digi scrapbookers too.

Today is the first challenge.

The challenge is to use at least 3 colours from the following colour palette with black and white also being allowed.  The full details can be found Here

Here is my layout:-

The photos were taken at Magic Kingdom on my elder daughters 10th birthday.  She will be 20 this year so a little while ago now!

I started with some plain white Bazzill, got the sewing machine out and stitched around the edge to give a border.  I then sprayed it with some inks (ending up with more on my hands than the card!).  As the sewing machine was out I used it to stitch the ric-rac onto some plain ribbon to give a 2 tone effect.  A few strips of a hambly acetate sheet, a couple of blooms and some lettering and it was done.

I hope some of you will join in with the challenge.

Various Cards

Last week was our monthly crop and I decided to make some cards for a change.  Here are a couple I did.

Happy Fathers Day

Here is a Fathers Day Card I made a couple of weeks ago but thought I would wait until today to upload.

The verse reminds me of walks along the beach with my Dad on family holidays.

Layouts this time

These are some layouts I did at our local crop last month.

An old photo!

These photos make it look like a lovely sunny day - well looks can be deceiving as it was blowing a gale and 10 minutes later it was raining and no it wasn't warm either.  But this group of swimmers go in the sea all year round so even though it was only March they are used to cold temperatures - rather them than me!

When I uploaded the picture of this layout onto my pc I realised that I have already scrapped this photo!!

Some more cards

Here are some other cards I have made recently.

Some Cards

More recently I have gone back to doing more card making.  For these cards I used one main image (a penny black stamp), my copics for colouring and then a set of stampin up papers I had received as part of a ribbon share (as extras!), to create 2 similar cards.  The sentiments are also created from Stampin punches and stamps.

Wind beneath my wings

I made this card for a challenge on the The cupboard trilogy challenges blog.  The challenge was to interpret the words from the song wind beneath my wings to create something.

On looking through my stamps for inspiration I found one that to me just summed it up so I used it to make this fairly simple card.  Hopefully it fits the criteria.

May 2012 Chinese Whispers

Here are the layouts done for last months Chinese Whispers

Catch up part 7

Here are some more older layouts done for Chinese Whispers.  I think the first one is one of may favourite recent layouts.

Catch Up Part 6

Here are 3 more class layouts from the last Gogo Getaway.

The first one was by Rebekah Day.

This one was by Nicola Kerridge

and the final one was by Janice Warren and in this one we made our own wash tape.

Catch Up Part 5

Here are 3 class layouts from the March 2012 Gogo Getaway.

This class was by Sam Ball.

This was from a  class by Sheena Rowlands.  The tags were created by using laser printed images and acetone (I think!).

and the final one for today was a class by Janice Warren.

Catch up part 4

Time for something different.  Here are some ATC's I have done recently.