Laura Rumble - Crafter

 I was really drawn to the fabric in this month’s box of loveliness.   The pattern and the colours were spot on.   I decided to pull out my Mum’s old cross stitch threads and embroider on top.   Part way through I realised that this wasn’t going to make a very good blog post as I had no idea what I was doing nor any clue as to how to describe it!   I did a combination of stitches... probably some made up, probably not using very good technique and definitely not using great tension! I remember sewing as a child both in primary school and with my Mum and Nan.   My Mum had a big Reader’s Digest book that had little diagrams of different stitches.   I used to pour over the pages.   I’ve asked her to pull the book out again so I can have a refresher...   I wonder if it will be as captivating now as it was then.   I remembered the technique for chain stitch fairly well along with running stitch and back stitch.   I always have to lo...

I don't know about you but I get overwhelmed when ALL of the new collections come out at once.  It's especially bad after Creativation when American Crafts releases what feels like 100 collections at once.  There also seems to be a supply thing and if you don't buy straight away you miss out forever .  I wonder cynically if that is all part of the plan.  Then there is Cocoa Vanilla and Pink Fresh too... mustn't miss out on them either.  This time I decided I would place one order for all things under the AC umbrella.  Lottie Loves Paper is my shop of choice and I had a good browse and made a list.  Then I crossed off most of the things on the list when I realised how many sheets of paper that would be!  I settled on 5th & Monaco (paper pad, ephemera and stickers), Paige Evans (one sheet of the pastel diamonds) and Maggie Holmes (four sheets of paper and the sticker sheet).  I was so excited by 5th & Monaco and yet it has ...

Hey guys!  I am here with my Stick It Down layout today. I kept pretty much to the sketch this month except for the sizing - and honestly that was a mistake!  Here's the sketch... I have used supplies from my Cocoa Vanilla stash along with cardstock and vellum from Papermill Direct.  The cut file is a new one from me and is available over at Pretty My Page as both a download and a pre-cut. ( Download here .  Pre-cut here .) I added some sewing.  I love the look of French knots but I always need a refresher on how to form them! Now, that mistake I mentioned... I intended the layout to be 12x12 but as I was nearing the end I realised that rather than intended white space it just looked like I had left a great big gap to the right of my page.  It was easily solved by chopping down to a 9x12 layout.  As I say in my video I mix in all sorts of sizes in my albums so I'm fine with it not being 12x12.  If I don't have a page protec...

Sharing a layout I made over the weekend for one of the Lottie Loves Paper challenges.  (The challenges are still open here !)  I had a bad weekend healthwise so this was a simple layout made with shaky hands. The cut file is called Love Puzzle from Pretty My Page.  You can buy the download here or the pre-cut here . The cut file does the heavy lifting on this page.  I cut it on white and backed it on black for maximum contrast.  I picked my path through the maze (there are two ways you could go) and added lazy sewing in blue thread.  Lazy sewing is using one stitch per straight instead of the usually multiple stitches of about 6-10mm. I embellished minimally with puffy heart stickers and a stamped tag for the title.  That was the sum total of my weekend!  I consoled myself by looking at the 100+ layouts made by my scrappy friends and am so full of ideas now that I may just burst! Thanks for stopping by!

Here's my second guest layout for Lottie Loves Paper's Cyber Crop.  Join in with the fun here . Here's the sketch I was working to: As you can see I've switched the squares for rectangles. And gone all out for layers and dimension. Again, supplies are Pink Fresh Studio bought from Lottie Loves Paper. And again, I have taken too many close ups! Here's the video: I totally adore how this layout has turned out. A large part of that is down to the photo of my Mum. Thanks for stopping by!

Hello!  Happy Monday! Here is my layout for Stick It Down.  When I drew up this sketch I had the layout in mind so I pretty much copied the sketch exactly... I used my Silhouette Cameo and sketch pens to create the love you patterned paper strip, the Y and U, and the top peek-a-boo section.  I then switched to a cutting blade and cut them out.  I also cut out an O to use as a template to trim my photo.  Whilst I had the Silhouette up and running I cut a stitchnig template for 'love' on a 12x12 background.  I make my stitching templates by switching the solid line of text to a dashed line.  Also, as I am a lazy impatient bad hand sewist I go through and delete every other dash.  This makes the stitches larger and takes a lot less time to complete the sewing! The hardest part of the layout was choosing which colour heart stickers to use... I opted for yellow, a deliberate swerve of my instinct to use green.  I'd use green o...

I had good fun scraplifting Missy Whidden via Scrap Squad and Scraptember . I used papers from Sticker Kitten plus a couple of vellum die cuts from Cocoa Vanilla Studio and gold puffy stickers from ???  (I have no idea, they were part of a Lottie Loves Paper kit last year.) I adore these little blue tits. I did some hand sewing and whinged about it a LOT! Thanks for stopping by!

I love to scrap with no idea of what is going to happen... no themes, no sketch, no image in my minds eye. Because sometimes something like this happens! I love the vellum backed cloud top. I didn't enjoy sewing it but I'm glad I did, the texture is great. Supplies are from Jillibean Soup Shades of Colour, along with some sparkly sequins from SpiegelMom Scraps. You can't beat some good colour mixed with white cardstock and sparkles! Here's the vid!

I pulled out my white grosgrain Swiss dots ribbon and set about making a rainbow layout for Crafty Ribbons... You can watch it all come together here: Supplies: Swiss dots grosgrain ribbon in colours exclusive to Crafty Ribbons

This project started with one idea, circled through a couple more ideas and ended up being one of my favourite creations so far this year. I started with some heart confetti cut on my Silhouette Cameo and Rose Gold Red Vibez from Shimmerz.  I was inspired by my friend Mary to have a good at a bokeh-type background.  You can see how in the video posted below. That was just playing with no plan in place for the finished piece.  I decided to go the ribbon route and make it a DT piece for Crafty Ribbons.  I picked a few ribbons and dyed them with the same spray. I then decided it needed some green, and what better than some silk leaves... I also added silk twists to the centre of my vellum flower.  I'd have used french knots if I knew how to do them ;) I used the following ribbons from Crafty Ribbons:  Organza Swiss Dots ; Seam Binding ; Silk Ribbons . Here is the process: Thanks for stopping by! Crafty Ribbons are runnin...