Laura Rumble - Crafter

Well, I'm only guest designer at Quirky Crafts for the next fortnight :) Look, I got a badge to prove it!! We were given a set of digi's.  Bleurgh, I don't like digi's... but I did enjoy using these so maybe things are changing!  They are from Crackerbox Palace. I made an art journal page with a Spanish vineyard feel... I used gesso, pro markers, Indian ink, art bars, spray inks, water colour pencils and metal leaf. Thanks for stopping by!

And it is our birthday!  Well, our challenge blog anniversary.  Tons of prizes this week too!   Here are my makes... I love to use and reuse gift bags but I have a deep hatred for the cord handles that are all scratchy and itchy.  Simple solution = untie the handles, measure the same length of ribbon, thread and tie. Really simple but really effective.  Just make sure your knots on the inside of the bag are good and tight.  I've used lilac Happy Birthday, garden rose Happy Birthday and island blue Sentiment Birthday Ribbon. I hope you can join us for our birthday celebration challenge !

Another couple of layouts with my counterfeit kit... Rather clean and simple, rustic yet bright. This second one is inspired by challenge 2's sketch... I definitely picked up diamond shapes in the original kit so I've used them along with the new dotty ribbon I've fallen in love with! Short on words today! :)

This post is for Crafty Ribbons .  For the Counterfeit Kit Bloghop go to the previous post here . A while back I made a layout with tags.  It didn't turn out how it looked in my head (if you know what I mean?) so I had another go and this is the result... A tag with buttons ( here , here and here ) sewn on with 3mm ribbon, and topped with 3mm too. Plain white title - hop. A white tag with washi and a D for Daisy, topped with 3mm . An orange tag with gorgeous pansy ribbon , again topped with 3mm . There is a lot of white space but I like it.  At first I worried it was too much white space, but I've made peace with it!  I'm doing my thing. And there she is, Daisy Doo hopping across my layout.  This one definitely looks more like the original idea in my head. Thanks for stopping by.

I'm taking part in the end of month blog hop at Counterfeit Kit Challenge.  If you are hopping along you should have arrived from Lesley I chose to take part in challenge 3 = use vellum.  As I commented on the blog, this is more of a pleasure than a challenge.  I love vellum and had included two sheets in my kit. This page is about the good life...  which is flavoured with raspberry and white chocolate... and comes in the form of cake! And boy was it good! I've used ribbon from Cocoa Daisy kits, twine, and the awesome metallic vellum. Your next stop is Leslie (I'm in a Lesley sandwich!!) and don't forget if you get lost there is a complete list of the stops at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog.

Captured with my macro lens - the yellow is so vibrant! Sharing at Friday Smiles

Here is my desk at close of play yesterday... It is meant to be tidy.  I have incoming goodies that need to be made in to samples so I thought a clean fresh desk would be a good place to start.  Thankfully Mr Postie didn't bring the goodies today.  All I need to do is spend an appropriate amount of time tidying before looking at all the wonderful desks ...  You'll know if I succeed by the timing of my visit to your place!  :) Thanks for stopping by! p.s. I'm also up on the Crafty Ribbons Inspiration blog today if you fancy a peep! p.p.s Yes, that is a popcorn maker on the desk!!  :)

Here is my take on the scrap 365 sketch challenge.  I was really inspired by Jennifer Grace 's video.  I don't know what it is about watching people scrap but I just love it! I used a wordy background paper and circled a few poignant words. I rotated the sketch to give area of interest at the top and bottom rather than the sides. All of the materials for this layout came from my Counterfeit Kit . I'm managing to use a sticker or two per layout this month after discovering during July that I just don't use stickers! So there it is.  I like it, and I'm pleased to have a) finished the doily vellum and b) used some of the feathers that I thought I would never use!!  (They came in my bundle of goodies that Ashley purged and I bought a few months back.  There is so much lovely stash, but the feathers... I really thought I'd struggle to use them!) Thanks for stopping by!

I've got a couple of art journal spreads to share with you this evening... This one uses art bars by Derwent, gesso, Balzer Designs stencil and rubber stamps. Hey look!  I'm getting there with the words too!!  :) This one is the same process for each page uses opposing colours (if that makes sense?!) So where there is blue on the left hand page there is green on the right hand side and vice versa. The paint is applied with a pallet knife.  The rubber stamps are pencil erasers that I have crudely carved with my craft knife! Sharing at Balzer Designs linky.

Another of my counterfeit kit layouts... Used up some more of the million alphas I included :) I also used the acetate sheet... but wimped out of cutting it and just used it whole.  It's super simple, in fact, just the acetate and two pieces of card plus a sprinkle of glitter enamel dots. Simples! Thanks for stopping by x

Another layout made with the contents of my counterfeit kit ...  This one is for Quirky Crafts Challenges whose theme is food and ribbon - two of my favourite things! I started with my splattered kraft and added some brand new dotty ribbon from Crafty Ribbons .  It has now been released so I can share - it's been hard to keep it to myself.  It's silly how something as simple as white sheer ribbon with multi coloured dots on can make me so happy!!  I also added a puffy sticker. I used another handful of alphas.  I painted them to match the coral dots on the ribbon, which happened to match the cardstock, which happened to match the sorbet in the photo.  I love it when things come together!! And here it is all together... Thanks for stopping by

This was the view out of my window a couple of days ago.  The photo doesn't quite capture how the white clouds in the middle were glowing.  Sharing with my friends at Friday Smiles

So it would seem I'm leaning towards layouts that are heavy on one side with lots of white space on the opposite side at the moment.  Without realising it, I have made my last three layouts to this general rule - photos, words, embellishments on one third of the page and nothing in the other two thirds. I've also been following the  No Scrapbooking Police blog series about and I can tell you it is brilliant - if you scrap, read these posts and be freed! So I'm completely OK with the amount of white space I'm leaving - I know it isn't 'in' or 'on trend' but I'm just doing my thing. On to the layout; I've used supplies from my counterfeit kit, and taken inspiration from Ashley Calder and Scrap Your Scraps' challenge.   They challenge you to make a project based on something you've pinned on Pinterest.  I pinned this image...  of cute altered paper clips.  I have approximately 6000 paper clips but apparently only one...

I had quite a few left over bits and bobs and snippets from my Counterfeit Kit from July.  Strips of paper, random shapes, tiny rectangles... I cut them up to around 3cm long strips and separated them in to two piles. Then I cut my 12x12 in to four pieces.  I removed the smallest piece and re-spaced the remaining three to give my 12x12 with a couple of small gaps - those gaps were to be filled with snippets! I pondered putting them in the same order top and bottom but in the end just went with a randomness of colours.  I raised the middle panel up on foam dots to give some dimension and a lovely shadow line. I popped the photos on foam squares too, and finished off with a multi coloured title. I've just spotted my eye is missing a tittle - I will have to add that on before I file the layout away!  There is always a chance that it is stuck to my elbow or calf... you crafters know what wandering stickers are like... Linking up at the Playground Th...

In my stash I have a whole bundle of silk embroidery pieces.  They were given away with cigarettes - in NO way do I endorse smoking, in fact I've probably offended a few smokers in the past with my attitude towards cigarettes.  Just don't smoke folks! - back in the 1930's.  I have been hesitant to use them, they are really special and really old, and I want to stick them to paper?  But when the pansy ribbon was released I knew I needed to pull out a pansy silk and scrap them together. I added some pansy ribbon to a selection of tags and rectangles of card... And used kraft for my backing card.  The photo is of Old Georgie Boy, matted on a pile of old envelopes and tags. We found George sitting on the garden table munching pansies.  Because obviously the humans put flowers up out of a rabbits reach to exercise their minds, so they work out the puzzle of how to reach them to eat them.  By the way the solution to the puzzle was hop up on ...

I've been struggling with my art journalling.  Surely if I call it journalling there has to be words?  I don't have any words.  So maybe I'm just art-ing in a book? The process... smooshing the page across left over ink, splattering on more ink, cleaning the stencil on the page, colouring up some texture paste and passing it through the stencil.  Scribbling with art bars and washing them in to add more colour.  Stencilling white paint through the same stencil. I did then write something along the lines of 'feeling pressure to add words... I guess I gave in' near the spine on the right hand page.  I sprayed with water to make it run a little bit and it ended up almost washing it away completely.  I thought this was quite funny :)  I won in the end! Some close ups... I am pleased with the texture I'm getting.  My problems lies with word demons and, if I don't use words, how do I know when it is finished??! All advice gratefull...

I'm playing along at Counterfeit Kit Challenge again this month. The kit to forge for August is from Studio Calico... My notes about the kit said; white, kraft, teal. yellow, stars, white with gold dots, coral-y, black and white words, feathers.  circles, postage stamps, clouds, mask, transparent, diamonds, doilies, wooden alphas. yellow and white fringe, pink twine. vellum, watercolour paper. There were a few extras listed for sale along side the kit, vellum and watercolour paper took my eye, I added them because when you make your own kit you can also make your own rules!  :) My papers include yellow, teal, kraft and coral.  I added a gold dot vellum and a cloud transparency.  I searched for anything 'doily-like' in my stash and this half sheet of gold foiled vellum is it - absolutely nothing else!!  I added a star mask too. I didn't think one set of alphas were enough, but I may have over done it!!  I'm not expecting to u...