Laura Rumble - Crafter

"Van!"  It's the in word here.  It sometimes comes out as "Man!" too.  It is always said with excitement. I cut in to the triangle paper in my Like For Ever kit.  I didn't think I had a favourite from the patterned paper sheets but it turns out the triangles is my favourite.  I might need more sheets! I attempted to mix up some paints in the same colours.  My duck egg was OK, my green was a little off.  Anyway, packaging technique, splatters, inks, acrylics... all good messy fun. When it came to start putting it all together I layered the triangles on some vellum.  It just subdues the mixed media enough to let the triangles show off a bit. I made a batch off mixed media backgrounds in one go.  I doesn't take any time to set up and clear away a mixed media station on the floor, it's much quicker than trying to clear space on my desk.  I just put a wipe clean table cloth n the floor and wipe with baby wipes when I'm fini...

Good Morning!! Today I'm sharing the first layout made with my June Like For Ever kit called 'Stripy Straws'. The first layout from a kit is sometimes a little hard for me - just to start cutting up the pristine papers... it hurts!  And what if I cut a piece from one that I might need a whole sheet of later?  I got over this by telling myself it is just paper and scraplifting the freaking rad Adele Toomey.   I cut a whole bunch of 3" squares - or 7.6 cm - and overcame the first cut fear! I played around with the interchangeable stamp and got very inky fingers.  I have now figured out if you keep the handle down and stamp off a few impressions you are then not handling a completely inked stamp.  I'm still not brave enough to add stamping straight to a layout, I know I would mess it up! I have mixed feelings about these hair clips... that is what they are - hair clips.  But I guess they work on a page too, I just don't like them being sol...

I made a quick card using the left over purple paper from my June counterfeit kit ... I added a couple of Elle's Studio hearts and some ribbon from Crafty Ribbons .  The grey ribbon was white.  I altered it with half a drop of India ink mixed in to some water.  Have a small test on an off cut first but most ribbons take colour really well. Thanks for stopping by

Linking up at Annie 's

I've been having a little experiment with some off cuts of vellum.  I made them in to tiny envelopes stuffed with buttons and sequins, to add to my layouts. A little bit of stencilling in the background - paint mixed to match the shade of the mint green sequins. I tried to include every colour and pattern I used in the main cluster in the little side cluster. Here you can see the vellum envelope along side a picture of Naughty Bun. I used an iridescent mist for some splatters and thought I was done.  Looking at the page it was screaming at me for some black... nervously I used some black India ink for some more splatters. Papers from Like For Ever kits (April & May.) Buttons and pink dotty ribbon from Crafty Ribbons.

This post first appeared on spiegelmomscraps.com as a guest post. For my first guest post for Spiegel Mom Scraps I decided to make use of the gorgeous sequins.  I used two mixes - you can find all the sequins, mixes and plain, here . I recycled an old fabric sample swatch for this little meditative fabric mini book.  I didn't want a very neat finish so I just used a zig zag sewing machine stitch around the edges of my fabric and left a few loose threads on show. When I had my page blanks sewn I pulled out a couple of stencils and some modelling paste.  I picked through the words on the stencil and made my own sentence... It reads, "release yesterday and the day before that surrender today and tomorrow. find art and beauty" When my modelling paste was dry I went through hand sewing a few sequins on each page.  Where possible I added a sequin on both sides of the fabric so none of the stitches were showing on the reverse side of the page. Whe...

Our outdoor rose dropped her petals... Linking  up at Annie 's

I'm back with the second layout from ' What's going on Vivienne? ' my counterfeit kit for June. This one uses my forged patterned papers. Unfortunately they took too much away from the photo so I layered some vellum over them to push them back a little bit. I seem to have gone all out with the embellishments.  It's not usually my style... I've used some Evalicious stickers and wood, some wood stars from a pocket pal (I love being a Like For Ever subscriber!) a sprinkling of sequins and a few other bits that were on my desk. I have some white and gold label stickers that I have tucked in here and there. And a flair, also from Evalicious I think.  I love to buy flair but find it quite hard to actually use them!  I'm not allowing myself to buy or acquire any more until I have made a big dent in my current stash. Here is a look at the remains of the kit... Not much left.  The tissue will go in to my tissue bag.  It was heade...

Today I'm sharing a fun layout I made using the contents of my counterfeit kit What's going on Vivienne? (Yes, we are ignoring the brown ink smudge on the far left of the page.  Grr!!) I used this forge /experiment as my base... which is off cuts thrown on to a patch of wet matte gel, and then squirted with iridescent mist. And I let the journalling cascade down the page, following the mist drips... I'm not a great journaller.  I've done courses and tried different things, but I just don't think I'll ever be one whose words flow.  It will always be hard for me.  This piece of journalling though, it's perfect to me.  It says exactly what was happening.  I hope I never forget the sound of his laughter. I used pretty much all the kit leftovers in my layering.  I tried for a two layout kit and I got it pretty much spot on.  (This is the second layout I made but I'm sharing it first, just to confuse things!)  Of course ...

Today I am sharing the three papers from Vivienne that I forged for the Counterfeit Kit Club . First up the geometric square-triangle-chevron paper .  This pile of bits... became this strip of paper... Then I moved on to the triangles paper . I had a little pile of offcuts left over and thought these would make a slightly off the wall interpretation of the b-side of this paper . With the help of matte gel and a knackered old paint brush (I won't use my best brushes for gel)... I made this.  Now to call this one a counterfeit is pushing it, but it was inspired by the original.  Shame that I covered most of it up in the end.  But you'll have to pop back tomorrow to see the finished result!

Well I've been meaning to join in with the Counterfeit Kit forgers for the last few months but it just hasn't happened.  This month I am determined even if it just for one or two layouts. Here is my kit based on Vivienne by Basic Grey. I've called it "What's going on Vivienne?" as I think most of you will look at this and say what is going on?!  I know, very small amount of paper, and nothing else!  But I have plans... and I think the colour palette is pretty spot on. So I hope to be back with a couple of layouts featuring some counterfeits very soon!

I was fascinated by these gorgeous purple flowers.  The stigma (I think!) was almost furry - velvet like - and the yellow pollen against the purple petals was stunning! Linking up at Annie 's

Please excuse my lack of proper blogging - my health is fairly rubbish at the moment.  I'm trying desperately to keep up my Friday Smiles - I know they are good for me.  I'm also trying hard to keep up my Craft Ribbons DT work, which is what I'm popping in for today... It is challenge day and this fortnights theme is 'Rainbow'. I've used; 15mm polka dot in red , orange satin , 3mm grosgrain in lemon , swiss dots grosgrain in royal & lime and light orchid & purple , 3mm satin in key lime and rose bloom , swiss dots organza in purple & white . Hop over to Crafty Ribbons Challenges to join us for our rainbow challenge!

Is there a 'smilier' flower? Linking up at Annie's