Laura Rumble - Crafter

Well, I had a birthday.  It was quite a good one for me.  No tears, and two meals downstairs with family.  I have been suffering since though - lots of sleep, a blanket and a massive woolly cardigan as I have completely lost control of my body temperature.  I'm being positive and trying my best not to whinge, I did manage an awful lot before the M.E. started ripping me apart.  Because I've not been great there are a few things I haven't blogged... On Saturday I was up on the SpiegelMom Scraps blog with these science themed shaker cards... I whipped up the cut files in the Silhouette software and added SpiegelMom Scraps exclusive sequin mixes behind.  ( Links can be found here ) Perfect for my science teacher friend! And on Sunday I had one of my scrapbook sketches used for the like for ever Sunday Sketch Challenge ... I have a few sketches up my sleeve and hope to make like for ever some more too.  It is a new passion I have disc...

A question for you...  what do you do when the cows start walking on the train track?  I don't know how you deal with these situations but we made some flags to warn Thomas and his friends... Arthur knows to be carefully because the flag is flying... And Edward knows the farmer is around in is tractor. Arthur knows when to stop and when it is safe to go again. I know, a little crazy but very cute, don't you think?  Little one loves his train track and always brings a rucksack full of trains with him.  He has a stop and go flag set at home but we needed some flags for here at Granny, Grandad and Laura's house.  They are really simple to make - half a drinking straw, between 2-3 inches (5-7.5 cm) of ribbon and some double sided sticky tape.  I use the strong red-backed tape as I know with this tape little fingers will not destroy the flags in 2 seconds flat!!  All my ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons. Have a fun day, a...

As part of an add-on to June's like for ever kit I got a pack of gelatos.  I have very little experience with them and wanted to have a jolly good play, try out a whole bunch of techniques before I put them anywhere near a scrapbook layout.  I videoed my process... Here is my test page: My surfaces were pre-gessoed.  One has a whole load of used strips of washi tape stuck on (I hate to waste the prettiness!) with the gesso over the top. Here are my thoughts;  I didn't rate the two tools in the kit.  The brush shed a load of hairs, more than I was expecting.  Call me snobby but I like a good paint brush, one that doesn't drop hairs all over my work!  The foam tool was OK-ish but you would need one for each colour and quite frankly I preferred using my finger or a baby wipe.  The colours are good - blood orange, banana, squid ink and acqua dolce.  Aqua dolce is very pale. As for the other colours, big thumbs up!  I might...

I often drool over look at the cards at Muse and have good intentions of making a card and joining in.  But you know good intentions and actuality are not necessarily close... however this week I managed! The card to gain inspiration from is: by Jenni Murray .  I immediately knew how I wanted to CASE the card.  I pulled out my vast sequin stash and started colour matching... and this is how it ended up... It is very clean and simple, but you know me - that is my favourite style! Thanks for stopping by!

I'm usually struggle with original titles... not this time!  I've used my Lottie Loves Paper kit - I had to have it as it contains Cocoa Vanilla!! I share a partial process video too.  Partial because the light got too dim so I stopped.  And then went back.  Four times!  Adding or taking away or tweaking a little...  But it is worth a watch!  You get angry hands as I can't find a place for the yellow piece of ephemera that I love, you see me mess up my stencilling, you see me make a flickable paint from an Inktense pencil and you see me thickening up my texture paste with talc. I don't have loads of different colours of texture paste.  I have a Spun Sugar Dazzlerz which is beautiful and very easy to colour.  You can add any kind of liquid colour (paint, ink, watercolour pencils etc.) to make a custom colour.  The only trouble is the Dazzlerz is the perfect thickness for using with stencils and when you add a bit of liquid to...

Carrying on with the layouts I made on NSD, this one has my heart... My nephew says the funniest things, this one needed to be recorded. "Bobby came home from the childminder and announced he had had a carrot and a beer for lunch!" I worked on a few challenges set for NSD - one was for SpiegelMom Scraps - use inks, stencil and stamping.  One was for For The Love Of Pretty Paper - use rubber stamps to make your own embellishments.  I stamped a pint of beer (from a take away coffee cup!) and a carrot.  I also used ribbon which made it eligible for another challenge!  I was all about the challenges over the NSD weekend.  (It made me very productive - I still have a few more in my drafts folder to share with you!) Most of the products are from like for ever's May kit, with some SpiegelMom Scraps thrown in fro good measure.  I have major issues with the wood piece as favourite is spelt wrong... Other than the American spelling I adore this lay...

Aah, neon.  My old friend!  I will never grow tired of you... when I am a pensioner I will still love you!  This is a layout made for NSD using my sketch for like for ever . I really enjoyed designing the sketch and have decided to make more!  I'd love you to let me know if you use my sketches for inspiration - you can tag me on instagram (@beadsbuttonsandbirds) or facebook (facebook.com/laurarumble) I pretty much pulled out all of my neon supplies... neon sequins from like for ever, neon enamel dots from freckled fawn, neon stickers and post it notes from HEMA, neon washi from all over the place! And I finally used the last of the neon alphas from Heidi Swapp from a good 6 years ago!!  When I get near the end of pack I put the left over letters through an anagram finder to see what words are available.  I was very chuffed when this word popped up.  I am an arctophile, a collector of teddy bears. Thanks for dropping by!

Hi Guys, I'm sharing a DT layout for SpiegelMom Scraps featuring the gorgeous Glass Slipper sequin mix.  The patterned papers and cut files are from the wonderful Cocoa Vanilla Studios. To be honest the cut files are so gorgeous it doesn't take much to make a lovely layout with them!  Without doubt Zoe Pearn is my favourite designer. I went for the layered approach and backed some of the apertures with patterned papers.  I added a few foam adhesive squares to pop up some leaves and flowers. I then went through and stuck some Glass Slipper sequins down and added a few Moonshine Delight too.  I tried to place them on all the different levels of die cuts.  This mix of sequins really catch the light and having a bit of sparkle on all the different levels accentuates the dimension of the layout. If you are feeling the need to add some Glass Slippers from SpiegelMom Scraps to your stash use the code Laura15 for a little discount....

Hi Guys,   I’m back with another DT piece for Crafty Ribbons Challenges .   This week’s theme is LACE AND RIBBON picked by ME! I’ve made a sweet little bracelet... I have used: 3mm satin , 3mm organza and Etienne lace all from Crafty Ribbons. as well as: jewellery findings picked up from a bead fair a few years back! I hope you'll join us at Crafty Ribbons Challenges this week!

Today I'm sharing another NSD layout... This gorgeous cut file came from Juliana Michaels , and I adore it!  This is the first time I've cut vellum too and it won't be the last.  As well as this 'main piece' from the cut file you get all the butterflies too - I hope to use them soon but energy is sketchy at the moment! All the bits apart from the enamel heart, tissue paper and thread are from the like for ever May kit. Rather wish I had 10 of these Paige Evans buttons!  Ribbon from Crafty Ribbons. Love the white on white!! Thanks for stopping by...

Sifting through my draft posts I found this little gem... Crafty Ribbons launched a load of new colours in their button range and I set to work making a very colourful notebook. This is what I started with.  It is a very thick sturdy board front - it needs to be thick as I will be adding a fair bit of weight.  It was rather orange too so I added a few coats of gesso to neutralise it. From then on it was just playing with buttons!  I lined up different sizes to minimise the gaps and suck them down with pin flair glue gel.  A glue gun would also work a treat but as I've said before - I can't be trusted with a glue gun! It's quite important to have the edges as flush as possible so the buttons don't get caught and ping off.  Having said that, I made it a few years ago and all the buttons are still in place. Anything goes as far as a pattern - I went rainbow but you could do an initial, a heart, a star, sports team colours... You can find...

Once a friend said to me I needn't waste time with faffy gift wrapping for him.  Since then I have wanted to wrap every present for him extra faffily!! This year I had a friend fail and he got his present three and a half weeks late.  I am rather fond of this gift wrapping... It's not too faffy but it is enough to show a little thought and effort.  No bows because he is a boy (apparently this is a rule!) but a nice piece of black grosgrain over some white tissue.  Then I went to town with my HEMA stickers picking the long neon yellow one as my feature. I don't particularly mind if he doesn't like the wrapping - it makes me happy - and he'll love what's inside as it is what he asked for!  Win win as I see it!!    edit: he did  approve :D

Comfort zones... wonderful things!  But this time the challenge was to go outside of your comfort zone.  I soon realised my 'non-comfort zone' was patterned paper.  I am so happy to create without any patterned paper, just using all the other pretties available, that I didn't realise it was a big deal.  I challenged myself to make a layout only using patterned papers... I kept my snuggly blanky though... white cardstock background! I also went with like for ever subscriber Heather Bee's challenge of scrapping a photo of yourself with lyrics from a song as the title. I picked a song by JC Chasez (my favourite one from N Sync!) and hand cut the letters in the Pink Paislee/Paige Evans collection. I tacked the letters lightly with a dot of glue and then ran them through my sewing machine to make sure none could escape!  I like that they are not thoroughly glued down as they leave little shadows and add a little texture. And do you know what?...

Hi Friends, I'm here today with a SpiegelMom Scrap DT layout.  I was inspired by a recent layout from 'SpiegelMom' herself, Jody .  She had made a segmented shaker pocket, and this is my take on that... I don't have a fuse - my tool of choice is usually a sewing machine - but this time I opted for card and foam tape to divide my pocket in to three sections. I used plenty of SpiegelMom Scraps products, and I'll point them out as we look through the close ups.  I placed a doily underneath my title - it gives the title a nice place to sit whilst adding subtle detail and texture.  My string of bunting is made with yellow bakers twine and secured with a couple of mini clothes pegs .  I didn't like the plain wood with the yellow so I coloured the pegs with a gold pen. I wanted to hide my journalling so I used a glassine bag , shipping tag and some more twine . My sequin mix is the beautifully happy Sunny Smiles . My flair n...