Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from April, 2016

Earrings

I've had my jewellery pliers out and have been playing... As you probably know I like to try my hand at every craft, and jewellery making is no exception.  This time I decided to incorporate my love of sequins, using beads and sequins from the SpiegelMom Scraps Shamrock Stars sequin mix. I'm really rather pleased with how they've turned out and want to try some more sequin based jewellery soon! Thanks for stopping by today!

FRIDAY SMILES

Linking up with Annie for Friday Smiles

cars don't move

It's national stationery week!  Who knew such a thing existed?!  I'm not complaining though as it's a good excuse to play with pretty things. I was alerted to the celebrations by an unsolicited email offering me free samples from a the shop HEMA to review.  Sounds way to good to be true but this morning a little parcel arrived! I've not had a really good play with them yet, but the verdict so far is all good.  The washi is slightly thicker and shinier than what I class as 'true' washi tape - but most craft tapes are.  The stickers are nice and thick and the sticky notes are sticky! My current favourites on the non-HEMA stationery front are these bunny paper clips... I'll be back with some layouts or projects using these new goodies just as soon as I can! P.s. just to explain the blog post title... at school I was taught the difference between stationary and stationery by remembering that stationARy cARs don't move. And pEns are stat

A-Z - S is for Shrimp

The Craft Barn alpha challenge continues... we must be nearly a quarter of the way through?  This fortnight the challenge was set as S with a shell. I had wanted to do a skylark for S - one of my favourite birds, but one I've not drawn before.  Well, that wasn't going to match with a shell!  I settled on Shrimp. I may be pushing the 'shell' part for some people.  But it does have a shell - a carapace, in fact - meaning a shell that covers the head and thorax which are fused as one.  Not your traditional shell, I agree, so understand if you feel the need to disqualify me! I found it so difficult to find photos of these creatures *ahem* not on a plate! But I did find a few and managed this little chap... Quite cute little things really! Thanks for stopping by!

Real Life

This post is as much for me to read and remember as it is for you guys to read!  I just want this waffle recorded so I remember... I took a complete break from Facebook for 10 days.  I'm just going to share a few thoughts about my facebook fast... I didn't miss it at all for the first three days. Then I only missed a couple of specific groups (scrapbooking of course!) and seeing posts from my brother, SIL, nephew and cousins. Then, a few days further on, I realised I was missing one other page. (I follow Dyfi Osprey Project and was missing the updates on nesting, mating and egg laying.) I noticed I had more time on my hands. I also noticed that it had no effect on my energy levels or night time sleeping patterns. I did sleep more in the daytime but I'm not convinced that was facebook/screen time related, rather that my 'doing' habits altered for other reasons. I also watched no TV - something I am keen to cut back on.  Did I miss it?  Well, yes and no.

Cousin Love

Well, this may be my favourite layout for a while... I love the subject matter, the colours and the 'ingredients' used!  Let me take you through it... the flowers are Jen Schow cut files colourised with Shimmerz .  The alphas are from Ashley Calder - the second O is a Q with her tail cut off!  The ribbon is recycled from a cake and the pins have sat on my desk for a few years!! The green thread that the flowers nest on pull out the green from the alphas and bring it all together nicely. The wonderful mix of sequins is " Lilac Twinkle " one of the April releases from SpiegelMom Scraps. Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet

I'm still enjoying my April like for ever kit, whilst I await the May kits arrival... These gold foiled papers are not getting old, I still love them!  I've also added in a white and gold note card (well, a couple of triangles of it!) as it matched so perfectly.  The cut file was screaming out for a shaker pocket so I obliged!  I've used a ziplock bag and my sewing machine to make a diamond shape about 1cm larger than the aperture. These gold mirrored words are lovely.  I still have one left 'charm' which I hope to use on a layout about goldfinch!  (The term for a flock of goldfinch is a charm.)  My only wish with the pre-made words is that they manufactured words like 'Bobby', 'rascal', 'chocolate' and 'messy' - they would be much easier for me to use!! Quite bizarrely I found that enamel dots from my stash worked better than the enamel dots that came with the My Mind's Eye collection!  Fortunately I have enough

Anyone for an Ice Cream cone?

A few years back Ali from Crafty Ribbons made some adorable ribbon cupcakes.  They planted a seed in my mind... what about a ribbon ice cream cone?  A few years have past, but the idea hung on and has now come to fruition... The cone is made by pinning Swiss dot ribbon in ' tan and white ' to a polystyrene cone. It always takes me a long time to decide what flavour to pick when I buy a cone, and true to form it took a long while to decide which ribbons to use!  I settled on Raspberry ripple and used a collection of pink ribbon in both grosgrain and organza Swiss dots. These were also pinned to polystyrene - I cut a ball in half to give me a scoop type shape.  As I pinned I twisted to give the look of ice cream from a Mr Whippy machine. I hope you like this creation...  I'm quite hungry now... off for an ice cream I think! Linking at Avenue 613 ,  Not Just Cards , Inspire Me Mondays,

Hello Happy Days

Here is a layout using Cocoa Vanilla Studios Life Is Beautiful collection and some extra embellishments from SpiegelMom Scraps . I've added in some felt-fetti hearts in aqua - the perfect match to the scrapbook collection, a doily and some of the beautiful glass slippers sequin mix. These 'glass slippers' sequins are, in my opinion, perfection!! And you know I love a bit of Cocoa Vanilla in my life! If you make a purchase from the SpiegelMom Scraps shop you can use the code Laura15 for a nice little discount. Thanks for stopping by!

Friday Smiles

Linking up with Annie for Friday Smiles

April Showers Brooch

Hi Guys,   I’m back with another DT piece for Crafty Ribbons Challenges.   This fortnight’s theme is NOT SQUARE OR RECTANGULAR picked by the lovely La Vikinga! I’ve made a fun brooch... I have used metallic edged satin 3mm and a few shades of grosgrain 3mm all from Crafty Ribbon .  I've also used cloud felt die cuts from SpiegelMom Scraps . I hope you'll hop over to the Challenge blog and join us!

A-Z: D is for Dove

This fortnight's letter at the Craft Barn is D... brilliant, I already know what I want to do I think to myself.  I can get back on track and link up with plenty of time to spare.  Ah, but there must be pink on the page - well, I couldn't find any pink ducks, (or pink does, or pink daws) to draw. Dove, though, are surprisingly pink!  There were a few species to pick from, but I plumped for Jambu Fruit Dove - isn't he beautiful?  Amazing feather colouration.  I do love my birds! Linking up at The Craft Barn. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Extra Alphas!

I have a fair few alpha sets that are part used.  I use wordsolver.net to make words with what is left over.  It's a great tool, and comes up with words I would never think of.  Of course there are left overs left over from the left overs!  So I got my mixed media on... I randomly stuck down my spare alphas - I did make sure not to spell anything, rude or otherwise! - and then covered them with  thin layer of clear gesso.  This helped them to stay stuck but also gave me a good base to add a bunch of wet Shimmerz products without damaging the paper. I used the 'packaging technique' which involves putting your ink, mist, watercolour etc on to plastic packaging and then smooshing it on to the paper to transfer the ink.  You get great random splodges with natural soft edges - something which is hard to do with a paint brush. I added some sequins - both yellows but from two different collections.  The larger ones are from  believe in you and the smaller from spr

Happy Boy

Hi Folks, sharing a quick, clean and simple layout today... I seem to be collecting quite a few colourful cottons and as I don't sew that much I want to try and work them in to my scrapbooking.  I also found myself hoarding these gold glitter circle stickers...  I think they are Maggie Holmes, they came in a like for ever kit last year. Why not combine these two favourites and throw in some gold rush metallic sequins too?! I loved the look of the gold glitter circles nesting on the thread and wondered if chunky cork stars would look as good...  well, they did to me so on they went too! I gave my shaped photo a nest of thread too, a simple gold glitter title and then a gentle splattering of Shimmerz in colours to match my threads. I have a process video too if you'd like to watch... I have used Gold Rush sequins , various Shimmerz , and Chunky Cork Stars .  You can use the code Laura15 if you stock up at SpiegelMom Scraps to rec

Friday Smiles

Linking up at Annie's for Friday Smiles

Cactus...

Cactuses... they are everywhere at the moment.  I don't get it!  (And flamingoes too, why?!)  The latest scrapbook kit from like for ever had a few in and rather than putting them straight in the donate pile I vowed to use them... I'm no going to lie, I pulled everything catus-y and put it on one layout!  The background is a page from a colouring book.  The title is written with a water brush and then sprinkled with Brusho.  I can see myself doing a lot more of this type of thing now I have a few more Brusho colours. Piling up those cacti ephemera!!  There is even a pineapple cut in to three and spread around the page disguised as cactus! I kept the glueing to the middle of the paper so the edges lift up and leave shadows. And I popped my photos up to make them stand out a bit more. So, big tick!  I used all the cactuseses - I really should have looked up in the dictionary how to refer to them before I started writing this! Thanks for stopping b

Play Time

Hi Guys!  I have recently discovered Brusho's and this is my first layout using them... If you've not heard of them they are a very fine powder that activates when they touch water.  I sprayed my background with water and tapped on some powder and this amazing-ness happened!  It's like magic, all these colours and patterns appear before your eyes! I worked on 12x12 watercolour paper and used Sea Green Brusho.  I matched some plain coloured card from my stash with some SpiegelMom Scraps sequin mixes - Bermuda Triangle and Sunny Smiles. I adore the tiny gold stars in the Sunny Smiles mix! If you make a purchase from the SpiegelMom Scraps store you can add the code Laura15 to get a 15% discount! Thanks for dropping by today!