Stampers 10 Challenge

I recently set my stampers 10 ladies a challenge, following our last evening when we made a 6 x 6" scrapbook layout, which the ladies all enjoyed making, some of the ladies had never scrapbooked before, so they were a little daunted.
The challenge had 3 parts
1. A 6 x 6" scrapbook layout
2. Only using 3 colours
3. and of course they had to use at least one Stampin' Up product.

Kate rose to the challenge & here is the layout that she made following her very exciting Ladies driving challenge.

This was Kate's first scrapbook layout

Kate & her Mum in the tank

Kate was the only one to enter & has won £15 to spend on goodies from the new catalogue, Well done Kate

Lovely weather for a Bank holiday

Well as per usual on a Bank holiday it is crafting weather, which has given me sometime to finish some projects that I've been working on & some techniques I have wanted to try, so we've also had the melt pot out to try some embellishment making with some stamped images that are just soaking as we speak.

I have had a project in my mind for a few weeks using large chipboard letters & a rectangular canvas. The canvas is 6" x 12 " so you can see how big the letters are. I bought the whole
A ~ Z last year & use them as templates for my scrapbooking & home decor projecets. The canvas is painted in a matt vintage cream acrylic. When I was chatting with my fellow Su creative coach's earlier in the week we were talking about a new technique to make up glimmer mists using Su products................. & I can now tell you that it works really well.All you need are some re-inkers from Su in your chosen colours, Stampin' Up shimmer paints & some rubbing alchol or Isopropyl alcohol & a small mister bottle & finally a pipette. Getting the Isopropyl Alcohol was a tad trickier than I had reckoned on & eventually managed to track it down to an independant hardware store in the painting section.

• Using the pipette half fill the mister with the Isopropyl alcohol
• Add a couple of drops from the re~inker ( the more re~inker the deeper the colour )
• Then add the shimmer paint to make the small mister bottle 3/4 full
  
• Shake well before each use as the different products will separate
  

I used this mister to spritz the canvas
{ be careful as the mini sprays are only mini in size & they have the ability to spray a huge area, especially if you dont want them too }

I covered each of the letters with pages from an old book & when they were dry I inked the edges using the sponge daubers & close to Cocoa ink.
Once mounted I used some 3d paint in copper to accentuate the corners.

The other project that was started a couple of weeks ago is covering my latest American crafts scrapbook, I usually use material but its not that easy to cover them tidily with material & not having any glue show through, so I decided that I would now try using scrapbooking papers.
This is my "scrapbooking me" album so it had to reflect my style & personality a little.

• I used the vintage vailla matt acrylic to cover the raw edges of the chipboard & a little way in as it would then be a little more forgiving if I mis cut the papers as i'm prone to do.
• I used tombow glue to stick the scrapbook paper to the covers & one of the papers had fabric tape measures that I cut into strips to edge the album.
• When all of the covers inside & out were dry I coated them with diluted tombow PVA to seal them & protect them from ripping or staining.

The melt pot project was one that I found on a blog or you tube, but typically I cant find the link to add it to this post,

• You stamp your image onto plain or patterned paper & cut it too size
• Place the piece of paper into the melt pot & sprinkle with UTEE
• heat up the melting pot
• When all of the UTEE is melted carefully remove & place on the non stick craft sheet.
• Wait until it's completely cold & then soak in lukewarm water until all of the backing paper has disolved & you are left with a flexible semi translucent embellishment to use on your layout.

The original embellishment was too thick so I reheated in the melt pot & the ink smudged slightly, a learning curve I think, but I'm impressed & will use it in a project I have in mind during the week.

Randomness from a long weekend

Well the weather wasn't up to much in Norwich...... except for good Friday which was beautifully sunny & that was the day I had to work over the weekend, every customer that came into the shop commented on the beautiful weather ........... After the twentieth comment we were getting seriously frustrated as the floor we work on has no windows.
So it was an ideal weekend for some crafting Cardmaking on Saturday & scrapbooking on sunday.

Cardmaking

A Couple of wedding cards, the same card in two different colourways.






A scrapbook page for Abi ~ Last year one of her favourite pastimes was trying on Clothes in the City clothes shops & posing for photo's she took herself, I didn't know any of this until I found the pictures that she had downloaded onto my laptop as hers wasn't working.

The little bird says " A little bird told me .........."



This little bird says "Your happiest when trying on clothes & taking pictures in the changing rooms"

Scrapbook page ~ Corfu town 2008

Last October we went to Corfu, one of the days out we had was in Corfu town it was a bank holiday and there were street parades & a carnival atmosphere. The pictures on this page were taken from the fort in Corfu town............. The views were amazing.

These dogs live on the beach all summer as all the tourists feed them & the restaurants 7 bars put out there scraps. In the winter they are rounded up and put in a pound & released again durng the summer.

Stampin Up ~ Seaside

When I was looing through the current Stampin up catalogue to choose my demo kit one stamp set in particular caught my eye & kept creeping further up my wish list.

Seaside
I love the beach & walking by the sea is one of the places I go whenever I need to re-charge my batteries, so its no wonder I was drawn to this set.

Scrapbooking ~ A learning curve

I have recently been inspired By the very talented Jane to do more scrapbooking, its something that I have wanted to do more of for a long time but have never been so inspired. Going to Janes house is lovely as she has scrap pages hanging in all of the rooms & they are so cool not to mention inspiring.

I did start a scrapbook two years ago of a family holiday in Brittany, but a couple of months after the holiday my father in law died and it was painful to have all of the holiday pictures out as it was the last family holiday he came on.





Well today I have completed a whole page, but as I say it was a learning curve & today I learnt a very important lesson, I started this layout last night & left it on the desk in my Stamping studio, which is the same place I dry my hair.
Well you can imagine the rest ........... I managed to blow my whole layout away before I had stuck it all together.

The petals are Stampin up Pick a Petal stamped on Yoyo Yellow card with Pink Passion ink. The Chipboard flower is also stampin up & is triple embossed adding a layer of colour each time, the two colours used are Yoyo Yellow & Only Orange.
The paper is by Sassy Frass lass and really lends itself to one of my favourite photo's.

1st Mini book

After looking at one of Janes Mini books on Friday night I was determind to have a go, I bought all the bits a couple of weeks back after all of the new Bo bunny stock arrived at work so I had no excuses. I was very pleased with the way it all turned out. All of the photo's were taken on location in Corfu.
















Well I am totally hooked, sorry I should say inspired to make more Mini boks on different subjects.
When Abi saw this she didn't want me to give it away, as it was my first one I wish I could have kept it too, but I didn't have time to make another one to send to my Mum as a mothers day card.

Friday nights alright for scrapbooking

Friday night was the start of Janes Stampin up career, good luck & thank you for a lovely evening. Scrapbooking is something I would love to experiment with. I started a scrapbook 2 years ago of our family holiday in Brittany & so far I have only managed to complete 3 pages.
Hopefully with Janes inspiration & knowledge I may actually finish a scrapbook.