Wednesday 30 April 2014

Creative Scrappers Sketch LO

Good morning Scrappers!

Another sunny day in this lovely corner of England.. an early start for me before I head off to work, so today I share with you my latest LO of my adorable dog, Digby.

For this I was tasked to create a LO using this sketch.. Creative Scrappers sketch 267. As soon as I saw this I knew it was one I wanted to have a go at.. so here it it.

I used come Glitz Design papers and mixed some Jillibean Soup PP too and added Glitz sticker arrows, hearts, long chevron sticker and the quote. I also used a sticker from Cosmo Cricket which you can just see poking out on both the left and right hand side of the patterned background paper together with the long sticker beside the chevron sticker. 

I used Cosmo Cricket Tiny Text stickers for the journalling and then finished it off with a flurry of scattered sequins and the corrugated card letters for the title. 






I do hope you enjoyed seeing my creation. Don't forget if you like what you see, do become a follower and add a comment to be in with a chance of a small prize which I will draw on the 1st of May.

Thanks for looking. 

Have a great day all.

Elaine
x

Thursday 24 April 2014

CKCB blog hop...challenges 1 & 2 combined

Good morning

By now you should have found your way here from Annies blog  who no doubt impressed you with her lovely project!

So..this month the first challenge was to find a blog from one of our talented team of designers and create a project that was inspired by it. My, my...what a task that was! I have to say there are a plethora of wonderful designs out there.. but eventually I settled on Skyline Paperie as my inspiration as I love the way it has the outline of rooftops and I had just the pictures just waiting to be scrapped!

Some of my regular followers will know that my dear husband is a London Firefighter...and this is a story of one of his jobs.

As many of you probably already know, there is a new London skyscraper called The Shard. It dwarfs other London landmarks and it is quite a feat of engineering..it now looks like this... and it towers above the London Skyline. 



However, one day, my husband had to go to, what was then, a building site where it was being constructed..and he and his crew had to go up it in a builders lift to familiarise themselves with the layout in case they ever have to attend it in an emergency...the only problem was that the lift was an OPEN SIDED lift on the OUTSIDE of the building!! You will be able to see the cage in this photo in the foreground.

Apparently it was very rickety and juddery as they wend their way to the top...but when they got there the view was spectacular. Especially as it was such a clear day. Whilst up there he was able to take these amazing photos, with no glass between him and the outside world.

So, as part two of this months challenge,we had to choose a sketch from a selection made by our designers..and in keeping I decided to stick with Skylines Paperies choice again...so I used this sketch as inspiration and created this LO with my Crime Of the Century Kit.




And here is my take on the sketch.. using the blog design as an inspiration.






As you can see, I used some vellum to make two 'porthole' style windows looking out at the London Skyline and used a sheet of Teresa Collins Memorabilia PP as the background which I then mounted on black CS.  I then used a die cut of the houses and added die cut fluffy clouds and some hand cut ones from some tape work sheer fabric and I added some aeroplanes in the sky with the title and a couple of little wooden figures to finish off. It is quite a simple LO, but I think you get the feeling of the story behind the photos. I will be doing some journalling on a tag and slipping it behind the photos to tell the story for generations to come.

I do hope you have enjoyed my tale..and you like what you see... If you have, then don't forget to leave a comment and become a follower to be in with a chance of winning a small prize at the end of April.

Now, please do hop on over to Lesleys Blog  And see what her creation is.. And if you get lost, please pop back to the CKCB blog to find your way again.

Have fun..and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Elaine




Friday 18 April 2014

Rocking My World Friday

Happy Good Friday everyone! 

Today is the day I reflect on the weeks happenings to see what I have to be grateful for.. and this week.. it's quite a lot... so here goes. 

Last weekend I spent a pleasant weekend at home looking after my latest B & B Guests who joined me from Liverpool. They were utterly lovely.. and I was pleased to be able to have them stay with me. 

On Saturday we visited the Point to Point races. I didn't have a flutter but we saw lots of friends and aquaintances there.. which was nice. 

There were wall to wall 4 x 4 vehicles and Hooray Henry's but it was quite a specatacle. Best of all.. it was only 1/2 a mile from the house so we could walk there. 







On the way back we stopped and looked in the farmers lambing barns... and saw this...  it isn't a great photo.. but it captured the moment... the Mummy wasn't too pleased we were there so we left them in peace pretty quickly!








Monday.. well that was a bit of a shocker! My Dear Mum (84) had managed to slice the top off three of her toes! She has diabetes so it is pretty serious.. but luckily she called my sister (who lives round the corner from her) and she took her to A & E and they got her fixed up. She's not out of the woods yet..but it looks as though she's on the mend but we won't know for about 6 weeks the outcome. I'm grateful that my sister was able to be there for her. 



Tuesday I went to work and the weather was glorious! So much so I took a lunch-break.. and went and sat beside the river having bought a 99 from the ice cream van! A great way to spend a lunch-break!


Wednesday passed uneventfully...so I should be grateful there were no dramas I guess.

Thursday was another lovely day. On the way home I stopped and took the photo below of these gorgeous spring lambs... I am so grateful for where I live.. and warm days.




So that's about it... I hope you too have had a week to be grateful for ... may you all have a happy Easter and spend happy times with friends and families over the bank holiday weekend.

Take care..why not pop on over to Virginias Blog to share your 'Rocking Your World Friday' blog too.



Thursday 17 April 2014

Some exciting news!

Hey all.. I just popped on to share some exciting news!

I've been picked as a winner on the Scrap 365 April Sketch challenge blog. Here is the announcement
on their blog!

This is my winning LO which I originally shared with you last month. I didn't win the major prize..but I'm happy to have won a free magazine. Maybe next time I'll go one better!


Happy days.. and thanks to the designers of the CKCB blog that inspired me to try out water colours in the first instance!

5th LO with my April Kit

Morning all

It's promising to be another lovely day here in Kent and I, for one, am really looking forward to it! 

Today I bring to you a LO that I made with my Counterfeit kit, which also fitted the brief of the weekly challenge over on UKS. 

My task was to create a LO documenting 
1)  change in my life
2) Lots of white space
3) Use something at least 4 years old.

I started off with finding a sketch to use.. this one is from  Creative Scrappers Blog  here. Their website os full of inspirations.. trust me.. I know! I am a regular visitor! 


Here is the sketch... at first I wasn't sure if I was  that keen on it..but then I got stuck in and it flowed for me. 

In the end I used some old, large, white sequins from my sewing box (never knew what to do with then) as my 'item over 4 years old'. As I have only been scrapping for about 3 years that was a tough one for me! 

Anyway.. here is the end result. 

I used meeting my husband as the 'Event that changed your life'. I was just 14 and he was 16 when we met and we have been together 39 years! Who said love at first sight doesn't work? This is a photo of him back then.

I think you can work out the white space for yourself! I added some start as that is what he is to me.. altogether now.. aww! 






Monday 14 April 2014

New craft space.


Morning all!

Over on the CKC Blog, they challenge you to clear out your stash! Well I have done just that... three pizza boxes went winging there way to friends Grandchildren, a charity and to a lovely lady that took two whole carrier bags of magazines for the elderly at her church..no photos to show you of them..but I'm sure you believe me when you see how tidy my craft room now is! 

As some of you know I have recently re-sited my craft room.. I did a blog here about the first craft room I 'commandeered' in my home..but the size was extremely limited and, due to some inappropriately placed beams in my 17th Century cottage, I was always bumping my head!

So here is my new craft room relocated to a mezzanine over my bedroom. I still bump my head when I'm standing though.. but I can whizz around all that space now on my wheeled chair.

Now I'm not going to describe all the photos, I am sure you can work out what things are, but here are a few photos to give you a 'flavour' of my space. If you want to see more of how I store things please see the original blog of the first scrap space. 

Unfortunately there is no window but I have very good daylight lamps and occasionally I move into my conservatory if I need some real daylight.

So here goes! 

Cutting and sticking station

My desk and shelves with two carousel storage units


Card scraps in the magazine holders and brads, rosettes etc in the drawers. Both of the totes rotate too.

Themed embellishments

My Scrapmabob in the foreground! Love it!

My small card scraps and my Thickers storage

My ribbon stash and some full sheets of CS
My 'collections' and kits in large plastic filing 'boxes'

So there it is! Hope you enjoyed seeing my space. Don't forget to comment and become a follower if you want to be in with a chance of winning a small prize at the end of April too.

Have a good day all. 




Sunday 13 April 2014

Happy day LO

Hi there

Today I am here to share with you a LO that I have made using part of my CKCB kit and also some additional paper that I added. When I compiled my kit, I definitely didn't use enough full pages and I have only scraps left.. and this photo called out for something more meaningful than a plain sheet of cardstock for the background. I hope you don't mind me adding extra papers in? 

The LO was made with a page from Teresa Collins, Memorabilia range and I added washi, bling and brads from my CKCB kit. As it is such a simple page, I really needed to add hardly anything.. so please excuse the simplicity. 


The sketch I used was inspired by my UKS friend, Sue, over on her blog, Me and Mine. Each month she runs a sketch challenge and just recently I was lucky enough to win and she sent me a wonderful prize... so here is this months sketch.

As you can see, I did a fairly faithful replica of the sketch..but I could see how my photo would work without any alterations. 

I also found a challenge over on Texan The Crafty Scrapper blog that challenged me to add black into my LO's so I have linked back to them too. Thanks for the inspiration guys! 

Do let me now what you think, and for those of you that comment and become a follower, there is a small prize draw at the end of April. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Wednesday 9 April 2014

4th LO with my Crime of the Century kit

Morning all.. a very quick post from me today as I rally should be getting ready for that day job thing! 

Here is the 4th LO I have made with my kit.



It is based on the weekly challenge over on UKS where we were tasked with making a LO that included pets.. or animals, circles and the title had to be from a West End Musical.. or song from a West End Musical. 

As you can see I chose a song from Grease.. which perfectly describes how I feel about all of my dogs.. I have three... but this is about one dog.. Digby Doodles.. so as you can see I doodled around the page too. 

I hope you like.. don't forget to become a follower to be in with a chance of winning a prize in my draw at the end of April.

Thanks for stopping by 

Monday 7 April 2014

3rd LO with my April 'Crime of the Century' Kit

Hi again.. here is my third LO of the day..but don;t worry it is likely to be my last.. unless I suddenly get creative and make another LO before the end of the day.. lol

Here is a LO based on my CK Kit.. which I have linked as you can be in with a chance of a prize!


I used this sketch from the Creative Scrappers blog  as my basis and used several of the elements that I had already included in my kit. 


The photos I chose were ones I took in March of daffodils in my front garden. I created a frame in iPhoto of the top left 'tete-a'tete' daffodils and softened the edges in white before printing off. 

I used flowers, rolled, stamped chevrons, sheer tulle and sheer flowers with some glittered brads as part of my evidence from my kit and this is the result.


I also chose to combine it with this mood board over on SJ Crafts blog that insipred us to use Spring colours amongst other things .. I think this fills the brief don't you?



The complete LO looks like this below .... do let me know what you think and then I will pop on over to your blog to comment too. 





I also chose to include a 3D flower, a journalling block and a paperclip (which I attached some washi to) so it all complied with the rules for the Scrap Our Stash April challenge. Do check out their awesome Blog where the inspiration appears in abundance!

Thanks for looking and I look forward to seeing you back here soon! 

Elaine






2nd LO with my April kit

Hi again


Here is my second LO using my April 'Crime of the Century' kit.. so called because it co-incided with my 100th blog post and it is based on a CSI case over on the Counterfeit Challenge Blog.



Amongst other things we were tasked with creating LO's that showed a dream holiday, using 'something sheer', patterned paper and to use crystals. 



This LO uses all of those elements. The photo was taken on holiday in Turkey in 2010.. which was a dream holiday for us as we love dinghy sailing in warm waters. These photos are of my dear husband showing off his skills. I was really pleased with the photos as I was in the boat next to him and getting these pictures of him moving was very difficult. I certainly 'trashed' more photos than I kept!



I used this sketch from the Stuck?! Blog


Flowers weren't really appropriate so I swapped them for stars.. as he's a bit of a 'star' to me.. awwww... 



..and here is the LO I came up with. I used various sized crystals, pearls and gems for the water droplets and some punch outs from a Martha Stewart fan punch for the water sprays. Most of the papers were scraps I had included in by CK kit which I have linked as there is a small giveaway for my followers at the end of April.  Do pop over and have a look.. and remember to leave me a comment to be in with a chance of the prize. 


Thanks for stopping by!

1st LO using my Crime of the Century kit

Good morning everyone... here is my first LO made with my April kit, Crime of the Century. 

Using a sketch that was presented on UKS last week, I made this LO that had to include stars, chevrons and a square phot. As you can see I failed on the square photo front as I wanted to include the whole dress in the image.  

I used K & Co papers, punched stars and cut chevrons and added some sheer fabric behind the photo with some organza ribbon and added flowers and a button from my kit too with added tiny sequins beneath the title that I coloured using Pro-Markers.







Thanks for looking... don't forget to become a follower to be in with a chance of a prize at the end of the month! 


Wednesday 2 April 2014

100th post and CKCB April Kit

 Evening all..

Woo Hoo! Welcome to my 100TH POST! So please follow along and there will be a little surprise gift drawn at random from my followers at the end of the month!






So… here is my take on this month’s kit from the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog... appropriately called 'Crime of the Century''

To be honest.. this challenge threw me a bit as I wasn’t entirely sure about what to choose due to them deciding on a new format. Their challenge was very much a new idea as we had a CSI ‘case’ to solve.

This entailed ‘inspecting’ a photo and following the ‘clues’ to your choice of papers. From this I ‘investigated’ into my stash and found the ‘evidence’ you see before you! 







After the brash colours of my February Hearts and Flowers in red, dark greys and black.. and the brightness of the colours in my March ‘Great Expectations’ kit I was pleased to be able to change tack again and have a soft, muted range of colours to choose from.



For a change, and to  keep things ‘mysterious’ I started choosing my kit from my embellishment stash rather than my patterned papers and I dug deep into my ‘evidence’ pile to find this range of candi dots, buttons, wooden embellishments, bling, bakers twine, ribbon and other bits and pieces. I 'suspect' they will get a lot of use...no groaning now!




I then investigated more 'evidence' and chose the softer hues of the colour palette and opted for pale blues and soft green with teal highlights as the patterned paper and I chose soft cream and white as the background cardstock with a couple of aqua pieces for good measure. 

The list of ‘evidence’ also included some ‘clues’ as to the items that we should be including.

These included ‘something sheer’ so I chose some vellum, tulle white flowers and some lace and netting. They also suggested ‘something puffy’ and for this I intend to add some cloud die cuts- you don’t get a lot more puffy than clouds do you.. and some lovely soft bloomer ribbon too. 

Taking a look at all the evidence… I am actually quite pleased with the way the kit has come together..especially as I was quite ‘scared’ at the ‘crime’ I had to solve…lets’ just hope you don’t think my kit is a ‘crime!’  

The evidence I will present over the coming month will include LO’s incorporating ‘dream holidays’ and ‘sleep, light and inspiration’. I am no doubt the choices of my ‘case’ will undoubtedly lead to some dreamy LO’s… so do remember to pop back from time to time to see how the mystery is unravelling and don’t forget to follow me to be in with a chance for a small prize!  

Thanks for looking!