Deanne's November 15th Sketch

Loved working with Deanne's new sketch ... although it did take a li'l while to get everything to come together. I really wanted to shabby everything up for this one, so I had a bit of a play with some different techniques.

I used papers from Fancy Pants Crush line & the ledger paper is Holly Jolly. I sanded the edges of all the papers & for the journaling mat I used a distressing tool (remember the Making Memories distressing kit???) to shabby up the right hand edge - I created the torn notebook effect on the left edge by making holes with a cropadile & then tearing out from the holes to the edge ... then I inked it all up!
The photos were cut leaving a white border, roughed up with the distressing tool & then inked. I machine stitched the ribbons in place ... check out the printed leaves twill - it's Cosmo Cricket ... from the Mr Campy line.
I inked the chipboard flourish with olive pastel chalk ink (love chalk inks) & then aged the edge with chestnut roan chalk ink. The 'stems' were painted with crackle paint & then aged with chestnut roan too. I added a twist of rusty wire (scrapbook safe stuff that I've had lying around for 3 years!!) & the blossoms are made up from Prima Artful Collage, Kaisercraft (taupe)& self adhesive pearls (I used Blush)
I broke out the acrylic paint & my old foam stamps for the title ... haven't used them for ages either! If you got the september embellie kit, you'll have one of these fabric tabs (to the left of the bottom left photo) too - i just swiped with a bit of ink to make it look less 'new'

Di's Sept #4 Sketch

Here's my DT card for Di Hickman's Card Sketch this week (Sept #4). As always, really easy to use. I've used scraps of Fancy Pants Holly Jolly & a Maya Road chipboard butterfly, coated with Doodlebug flock ... full of yummy texture!
I've not crafted so much lately ... been busy in the garden & building my new 'green' blog. More on both fronts soon.

Christmas Cards ... All Year 'Round??

Yesterday, I mentioned Deanne's new Christmas Card challenge blog & I just had to submit for the DT. Of late, I'm finding that I just don't make time for any personal projects so the only crafting I'm doing is for various DTs ... & I'm loving it! LOL
I'd love a place on this DT - Deanne is offering just what I need right now ... A chance to create Christmas cards using my own stash. The last thing I need is more stash & I'm all about using what I have right now ... and making the most of my scraps - perfect!
Anyway, the deal was to create a card using the blog banner as inspiration. I guess you all know that I don't do things by halves, so I have e-mailed my submission in (containing one, newly created card) & these are the other four, also inspired by the blog banner (which is lovely! LOL)
In case you were wondering how my 'creative process' works ... this is the gist of it:
The inspiration for the first card was the colours (the buttons are a blue, which doesn't seem to have photographed particularly well!) taken from the banner - & the 'tree' theme. The second uses the same basic colour scheme & a simplified version of the banner's layout. Both cards were created from various HOTP Personal Shopper scraps that I might not necessarily have put together otherwise (the blue papers I would probably have used for 'icy pastel' cards).
The third card loosely uses not the colours themselves but a version of them (pink/burgundy replacing the red & a brighter lime green) & making the stripes (from the banner's border) the focal point.
The final card replicates most of the banner's elements, much in the same way as you might with a sketch. I have used the same bright papers ... so more funky than the banner, which is soft & pretty IYGWIM? I have sanded the edges of all the elements on this one & replaced the tree trunks with buttons. For cards #3 & #4 I used Fancy Pants Holly Jolly - I have tons of scraps left over from cards & layouts, so you could be seeing them again! LOL. I'm finding the Scrapworks Rub Ons invaluable too - I have sooooo many6 colours that, so far, I seem to have the right ones for every project I do!
I'm not sure that I can share the card I submitted - but Deanne is going to make her decision real quick - so I'll be able to share by the end of the week - one way or t'other! LOL In the meantime, you seriously need to check out Christmas Cards All Year 'Round, bookmark it, add it to your reader or subscribe to posts ... or all of those options & get ready for October ... I think it's gonna be a whole lotta fun!

This Girl Gets Around A Bit!!

If you subscribe to Becky Fleck's PageMaps newsletter, you'll already have seen this card. My first for Becky, making me an official 'friend of PageMaps'. How cool is that???
Some of the details are lost in the smaller pic - but if you click on it to enlarge, you can see the ribbon detail & BG white rub ons - gotta say I love this card!!
Pop on over & visit her site to sign up for the newsletter, download current & past maps or just to drool over all the yummy stuff that this month's friends have provided. You'll find the card maps here.

Next up is March #1 card sketch for Di Hickman's weekly challenge. There's a new sketch every Wednesday, so if you aren't already taking part - why not make this the week that you join in. Di has recently added a few new features to her blog: Friday Freebies; Theme Thursdays and Tutorial Tuesdays as well as the sketches, loooooads of inspiration, reviews and more. There's a newsletter you can sign up for too!

Finally, last Saturday's Journaling Junkie challenge, set by 'Celeb' scrapper Janna Wilson to stash your journaling. This is my fave pic of DS1 (which he hates! LOL) taken when he was 17 - can you believe that was 5 YEARS AGO????
Loved doing this page & it's a mish mash of new & old: Lace cardstock that Auntie Jane brought back from the US on her last visit (I'm gonna have this in the webshop soon!), an odd sheet of BG that's about a million years old (probably 3 or 4! LOL), Fancy Pants Fashion Sense felt (currently 25% off!), Maya Road clear ribbon (luuuuurve the birds trend - I shall keep it going well after it's no longer de rigeur!) & a 'goth' stamp set I recently acquired. I outlined the solid gaps between the letters on the lace cardstock, it's subtle but makes it 'pop' I think! If you want to know about the hidden journaling, it's all here.

That's me done for today. I'm working on a few bits for online classes at MCC so I should have some more to share next week.

Di's Baaaaack!

Di Hickman is back from CHA - which means it must be wednesday & time for another sketch. February #2's sketch is here and I wanted to share my take on it with you. I have to say I'm in love with these papers - I have used them on soooo many projects of late: cards, pages and some altered stuff too. These ones are actually baby papers but in the right combination, you'd never know and I finally got to play with some of that friendly felt that the DT at Crop 'Til You Drop have been raving about on the blog - it's all on special offer right now too.
The heart and birds are hand cut from the felt. For the birds, I layered the wings on and used a micro dot gem for the eyes. The feathers were added with glitter glue - which I've had for about 3 years and had never used (think I'm gonna get me some stickles now! LOL)
Anyway, I have just got in from teaching a class & I think I'm gonna have a go at an early night! Don't forget to enter the OWOH giveaway here - you'll find another at the shop blog here too! You only have until 10am tomorrow morning!!

Magic Moments

I really don't like to take photos after dark but this layout is for Challenge #5 over at 52 Sketches ... 52 Weeks and the deadline is today! LOL. I used Fancy Pants Crush papers and incorporated another challenge or two into the bargain - Ha! Told you I'm back!!
Arty Girlz challenge this week is to use frames, so I incorporated a button frame around the main picture and Colour Your World have 'Scrap Hearts' as their current challenge - I have used a patterned paper with an all-over heart design and a couple of chipboard hearts - so I guess I have that one covered too! The Effer Dares current challenge (#83) is to make up your own dare - I chose 'Use Black & White Photos' for mine - it seems I never do that any more!
I did have some news to post today - but it's getting late & the day has kinda gotten away from me. Lots of stuff coming tomorrow! LOL

Sweet Pea

I've not had much to share lately as I have been mostly creating for my online classes and various Design Team pieces. I made this card for a friend's baby girl, who had her first birthday party today!
I used the Fancy Pants Sweet Pea papers again (love them, love them, love them) but had to cut my own scalloped heart as I'd already used the die cut one on a DT piece. This was such a quick card to do but I just love this colour combination. The button, ribbon, 'birthday girl' sticker & heart gem are from my stash (which is going down ... a bit! LOL) & I added A Muse micro dot gems to the crown - don't know how I managed before I got these gems - self adhesive & sooooo easy to use!

I'm setting the challenge this week at Blog 'Til You Drop - so pop on over after 6pm to see what we have in store for you!