Very Merry ......with Simple Stories.

Hello There, I am over on the Papermaze DT blog with my first posting for November.
I have used some papers from the Very Merry collection by Simple Stories this time and teamed them up with a photo taken in the lead up to Christmas 2016. (apologies for the poor quality of the photos, the lighting has been dreadful with such dreary and drab weather)
I had just got the Snapchat App on my phone and had great fun playing with the various filters on there that add some really cute and often funny features to your faces ( not to mention some random ones that are just downright bizarre!!!).
We were heading on a family trip out to do some Christmas shopping, but our youngest Daughter was busy elsewhere, so we sent her a Snapchat message of my eldest Daughter and I.

As with all collections from Simple Stories, there are various double sided sheets. Some are purely patterned each side but there are also some sheets of Journalling elements plus Vertical and Horizontal Elements and of course the various sticker sheets and Snap Cards.

I based the layout on a sheet of  Seasons Greetings
I also cut a couple of Vertical Elements out, one of which I used as a photo mat.

I then cut various flower and leaf clusters out from a sheet of Peace on Earth 
and placed them around the page in various places. I cut up a few random
rectangles and stacked them to look like presents and tied them up with some red organza ribbon.

Various papers blooms, glittered Ivy leaves, Sequins and MDF laser cut shapes were added just to finish off the page.

 I have several other Snapchat photos that I have had printed and I am looking forward to scrapping with those too!
 I will have to have a look and see what other Simple Stories Collections will work well with them.....there are so many various sets available at the SHOP covering all different themes that I am sure finding something suitable will not be a problem.

Hope you have had lots of scrappy fun so far this month and I look forward to catching up with you later in November,

Warmest Wishes
Anita xx

Sea Breeze from Kaisercraft

Sea Breeze ......from Kaisercraft

Hi There,
Anita here, kicking June off over on the Papermaze blog with a layout I have made using some of the beautiful papers from the 'Sea Breeze' Collection from Kaisercraft....and they are in my favourite colourway too!!

Kaisercraft quality is absolutely superb and each of the papers in all collections are double sided. There are several collections available over at Papermaze
I scrapped this 7 x 5 family selfie, taken on a trip on the Thames at Windsor about 4 or 5 years ago, we certainly had a chuckle that day.
I based the page on a sheet of Bazill Aqua cardstock and a sheet of Sea Breeze Refresh 
I inked around the entire edge of each using a Dew Drop Brilliance Pad in Pearlescent Chocolate , this gave a lovely shimmering tint to it all. I cut a sheet of Sea Breeze Swirl into 4 strips approx 1" wide, inked the edges and then created a rustic frame for the photo, adding brads in the corners.

I love using chipboard, sometimes I leave it naked as it is, but more often than not I like to paint it, glitter it or foil it. I had a lovely Blue Fern Studios Flourish and this time I used Glimmer Glam in Expresso Bean and sprinkled some brown glitter onto whilst still wet. I also had some lovely wood effect sequins to play with....and these were sprinkled in various places across the page.

One of the sheets in the Sea Breeze collection, Lake , is covered on one side with some lovely black blossoms. I cut a few out, layering some up and also some leaves and arranged them down the side of the frame along with some mixed blue blossoms.

I finished the page off by adding a few elements from the Sea Breeze Collectables and some printed butterflies.

 

Thank you for looking.

Warmest Wishes

Anita xxx

'Uniquely You'......... Serendipity by Blue Fern Studios

 I have been playing with some fabulous papers from Blue Fern Studios. This is the first time I have worked with these papers and I just cannot get over the wonderful quality of each sheet and the stunning designs on them, what a pleasure it's been ( I can see a new obsession brewing here!)

The photo's of our youngest were taken on a sports award night that she attended and was awarded Sportswoman of the Year. The photos were taken before the ceremony and so I will now also be having to scrap the photos of her with the awards too!

I started off with a sheet of Serendipity - Chronicle as the background and took a sheet of Serendipity - Imagination which I cut a random wavy edge around and also inked up the entire edge with a dark brown ink pad.
 On the right hand side I tore a line in towards the centre of the page and then rolled the edges back.  I chopped up the sheet of  Serendipity Calling Cards, chose the ones I wanted for this page and gently inked the edges. These were then used up for layering around the photos

In my kit I had a sheet of Bazill Cardstock called Lagoon and because of the small tints of blue in the actual papers, I thought I would use the cardstock to create some flowers to adorn the page. I punched out several flowers, spray misted the die cuts with water and allowed them to soak in for a while, before then scrunching each one up and putting to one side to dry for using later.

Once they had dried out I layered them up and stuck a nice big flat backed gem in the centre ( I LOVE a bit of bling!)

I don't know about you but I really love using chipboard embellishments on my pages, they are so versatile and can be left plain as they come or can be inked, painted, glittered etc to dress them up. I took these Blue Fern Studio Berry Stems dabbed them with an Aqua Acrylic Dabber and then gently sponged some tiny patches with some gold acrylic paint. I also added some little crystal bling on some of the berries.

I quite often like to add butterflies to my pages, so I printed out some onto white card and then coated with Sprinkled Sugar Stickles. 
I also used a beautiful chipboard Romantic Page Dangle which I painted in brown and over dabbed with some gold acrylic paint. Using some jute twine I criss crossed stitched across the torn section on the right hand side of the page and layered the chipboard dangle over the top, adding crystals, a butterfly and also another handmade blossom.

 I finished the page off by adding a few crystals here and there and also using a bottle of Mercury Glass Stickles , I used various round items as a stencil and dotted the Stickles in blobs around them.

I enjoyed using these products so much and cannot wait to play with them some more, if you pop over to Papermaze you can see all the products I have used , especially the beautiful papers in the Blue Fern Studios ranges.

Thanks so much for looking at this post, I hope you have a super scrappy week.
Warmest wishes
Anita x

Loved Always .........

Hello....... a post I made a few weeks ago has just been up on the Papermaze blog using the lovely papers from Prima, Tales of You and Me range.
I have been wanting to scrap this photo of my wonderful parents and both of our lovely daughters for a long time. It was taken 4 and half years ago after having a lovely meal out to celebrate our eldest daughters 17th Birthday. Sadly we lost my Dad a few short months after this was taken. I am so grateful that being a scrapper means I probably have so many more photos of precious people than I would if I didn't do this wonderful hobby!
This layout, card and tag are all made using 1 whole sheet of paper and cardstock and then just the left overs from my previous layout and mirror which can be found HERE.

I randomly cut a wavy edge around the entire sheet of paper and gently inked it, placed it on the cardstock and also inked the edges of that too. I had a strip of leftover paper and popped that across the centre of the layout and sewed along the top and bottom edge using twine. I used a beautiful chipboard flourish from Dusty Attic, which I covered in Stickles 
I also added various blossoms, a couple of brads and also some Dew Drops sprinkled about.

I used the left over lace to frame the photograph and then decided I loved the colour of the Stickles so much that I would add sparkle to everything that didn't move!!! So the lace has raised dots, the blossoms have liberal splatterings and the bodies of the butterflies are Stickles too!

I was then left with literally just a few little scraps of paper, so not wanting to waste them I made a 6 x 6 card and also a little gift tag.   I couldn't put the Stickles away without using it again now could I??

I have really enjoyed using this range to create with, it's pretty and very versatile. Prima have recently released a few new collections and you can find them here at the shop.
Happy Scrapping....... Anita xx

Happy Birthday our beautiful girl xx

Well Monday saw our youngest girly Chloe, celebrate her 14th Birthday.....where DID that time go??? Anyway whilst I was on a fabulous crafting long weekend away with some super talented and lovely friends I made my little lady an 8" x 8" birthday card.....and I am glad to say she loves it :)

Lots of sparkles and glitter and bling..... a Hobby house topper in an adorable design...

......and blossoms and beautiful die cuts ( Thanks Linda)

Happy Birthday Gorgeous Girly....please PLEASE don't grow up too fast! Love you baby girl xxx

X is for (e)Xplosion.....Feb challenge at Scrapology

My goodness.....February already!!! So here we are with another super challenge from the DT over at Scrapology! This month we have lifted a fabulous and fun layout by Corrie Jones, whose blog you can visit here!
So....the challenge is to create an explosion of embellishments.....it can be any kind of embellishments you like .....I chose sequins, crystals, glitter domes and wood veneer hearts.
I scrapped 3 pics of my eldest gorgeous girly at her prom ( I shall still add some journalling at some point)

I inked and painted through a mask to create the background behind the photos and coloured in a beautiful stamped image by Saturated Canary using Promarkers and added Stickles and Liquid Pearls and then just added a splattering of embellies and finished with a title od AC Thickers ( in my fave colour lol)

Here is Corrie's original and inspiring layout that we lifted...

and here is the sketch that our lovely Lynn created for following .

So....there you go....a fun new challenge to join in with and if you visit the Scrapology blog you can see all the beautiful and varied DT examples....plus see the lovely prize up for offer this month.....what are you waiting for????? Go *explode* everywhere :D

S....is for Splicing over at Scrapology this month...and the DT have all had fun cutting and slicing into photo's after being inspired by a super digital layout that was created by Miki Krueger. You can see more of her lovely work here

Here is my layout for the DT.....after binning my first 2 attempts ( I kid you not!!) I gave in and decided to cut a thin slice from several different photos all taken on the same evening at my sister's annual Halloween party ( which also doubles as a birthday party for our lovely Mum). We had a super fun evening with us all dressed up...we had everything from a zombie cheerleader, sugar skull zombies, a ghostly convict and Poison Ivy to a complete zombie family wedding, comprising of the bride and groom, Mother of the bride, 2 page boys and a flower girl!

I added some buttons, bling and a mix of doodlebug alpha stickers and some AC Thickers

Here is the original digital layout of Miki's that we scraplifted...

and this is the sketch that we followed.

As always there is a lovely prize that you could win, so why not pop over to the Scrapology blog and see what the rest of the lovely DT have created.....also we have our 2 new members who bring along digital and A4 designs to the mix. We would love to see you play along with us and look forward to seeing your designs....Good Luck everyone and thank you so much for visiting my blog
 xxx

Scrapology November Challenge...lifting Michelle Logan

This month over at Scrapology we are lifting the work of the very talented Michelle Logan. I really enjoyed playing along, but I am not a fan of too much *white space* so used patterned paper and also added extras to it here and there to fill in the blanks lol. The photo is of our youngest, taken when she was aged 6 on a visit to the beautiful Michelham Priory down here in East Sussex.

The technique/challenge is to use Chipboard this month, along the the supllied sketch, so please feel free to pop over to Scrapology, where you can also see the fabulous work of my fellow teamies on the DT!....there is also, as always, a super prize up for grabs. So pull out your stash and get creating :). We look forward to seeing what you design xxx

Aug at Scrapology...S is for Shabby Chic

This month over at Scrapology we had the pleasure of lifting a beautiful page created by Sandrine Dawes, you can see her BLOG here 

  Here is my layout I created for the Scrapology dt this month....I used gorgeous papers by My Minds Eye and just added a few flat backed pearls and some vintage lace.
The photograph was taken recently at some stunning poppy fields a few miles away from home....truly a beautiful sight.

 

This is Sandrine's stunning original that we lifted.

If you pop over to the Scrapology blog you can see the rest of the design teams work, there are some truly beautiful variations of the page.

Once again there is a super prize on offer, this time kindly donated by Lynn and Linda . We would love to see you join in this months challenge.....get scrapping!

Warmest wishes Anita xxx

An old favourite of mine.

I thought I would share an old favourite of mine with you. I made this page just over 5 years ago and it still remains high in my list of faves.I used various bit and peices of papers on it, some odd bits of organza ribbon,  stickers, a jewelled button,fluffy fibres, blossoms, brads, chipboard letters and number....and ooooodles and oodles of GLITTER!!!

The large chipboard letters were covered in Glossy Accents in small sections at a time and then dipped into glitter, I squeezed some shapes with the GA for added effect. When it had all dried I then poured a thick layer of GA over the top, this not only sealed in the glitter and stops it migrating across the page protector in my album,but it also gives the letters a gorgeous thick gloss

I really love this photo of Chloe, taken on her 7th birthday....doesn't she look cheeky! Jeeez where HAS the time gone???

Dream Big!

Just a quick post tonight, feeling rather pants with a painful throat and earache :( This is a layout I made a month or so ago, using MME Lost and Found II papers. I really REALLY love the glittering on them and the elements that I cut from one of the sheets.One of my nephews making daisy chains on the grass bank next to Battle Abbey ( doesn't he look like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth lol)

Right, just going to take some pills and crash out on the settee for a bit I think. Hope you have a lovely weekend xxx

L is for Lace...April at Scrapology.

Be it paper or fabric, over at Scrapology, the DT challenge you to use lace on your layout. This month we are scraplifting a beautiful layout called 'Cherished Memories' by BettyLou1 from Scrapbook.com

Here is my DT offering for this one. I used papers from 7Dots Studio, doily stamps from Stampin Up, stickers from Echo Park, some glitter card for the photo mat, a variety of blossoms and some seed beads.



The beady swirl actually ended up a lot thicker than I wanted :(. I dribbled a swirl of Tacky Glue and dribbled the seed beads onto it, it just decided to spread out a bit LOL. I then sprinkled on some irridescent glitter for a little extra sparkle.



I couldn't decide whether to use paper or fabric lace, so ended up using both! I punched out some paper lace using a MS punch and then took some cream Broderie Anglais lace and sprayed it with various Cosmic Shimmer Mists.


This is the original, beautiful layout by BettyLou1, so pretty isn't it!

And here is the sketch we all worked from and is the one we would like you to use if you decide to play along with us.

As always, we have been very spoilt by Jill from Cardinal Colours, she has once again donated a fabulous prize for the winner. Its Core Impressions -Vintage Brights Collection.

Vintage Brights is an Exclusive collection of Jenni Bowlin Studios designs embossed on Core’dinations, the only sandable Colour Core Cardstock. The Vintage Brights Collection is the perfect compliment to the JBS Front Porch and Tangerine Dream lines. The assorted pack consists of four embossed patterns in five colours totalling 20, 12" x 12" sheets.
What a fab prize!
So, all you have to do is create a layout, using our sketch and some lace on your page....and you have until the 5th May.

Warmest wishes Anita xx

Lifting myself! G is for Glitter...

Here is my DT scraplift for March ( it felt a bit odd lifting myself LOL). I just ADORE these lush papers from BoBunny, they are from the Snowfall collection are are so, so pretty. The glittered designs and colours are completely lush and with a bit of fussy cutting and the addition of a few blossoms and some extra glittering I hope I have done the papers justice.


The photo is of Lauren,, taken in last years snow that we had in January.

Here are a couple or so close ups :)
The hydrangeas are velvet and made by Petaloo.


The Bo Bunny papers have some beautiful patterns and elements on them and rather than use whole sheets I picked out and cut a few bits and peices from them. Extra glitter and sparkle was added using Stickles and other glitter glues.


We look forward to seeing your entries in this months challenge over at Scrapology, where the theme is G is for Glitter and there is a sketch to work from.
Once again there is a fabulous prize, very kindly donated by Jill of Cardinal Colours.

Come on ladies, shake ya glitter!

Scrapology November Card Challenge

Over on Scrapology the card challenge for this month has been set by and sponsored by none other than Joanna Sheen. She and her team have challenged us to use an image from the gorgeous House Mouse collection.
Here is my card for the DT.
I decided to make it into a small easel card and added some Stickles, GlitterDust and Glossy Accents along with a sentiment from Craftwork Card.


Just a little close up.....he is such a cutie isn't he...passed out on the buttercream LOL.
Why not pop along to Scrapology and check out the vast gallery of DT creations for this month ( and Joanna's card too!) and also you can find out how to enter the challenge yourself and see what prize is up for grabs from Joanna.

Warmest wishes
Anita..xxxxx

Happy Mothers Day! ( photo heavy!)

Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely Mummy's out there :) I hope you have all had a wonderful day today. Warning now, this is a VERY photo heavy post so you may want to drift away now lol. It starts off with the card I made for my own lovely Mum. It was inspired by a design ( which was MUCH more elegant than mine lol) by Jak Heath. I used my die from Marriane Creatbles and then made the rose myself( after seeing so many lovely ones all over the web) using the retro daisy punches....I am really pleased how it turned out.

And this is my super duper card made especially for me by my very own little crafting herbert,Chloe. I think she made a lovely job of it...don't you?

We popped to see my lovely Mum and then, as it was such a lovely day, we thought we would go to Bexhill seafront for a stroll. I took my camera as i wanted some new photos. I took this one in my parents front garden just before we set off.

Once we were on the promenade at Bexhill...and after chloe had skated for a while, I asked the girls to let me take some shots of them......I SAID I would like some NICE photos of them........

this is what happened!

and again!!!!!!!.........little minx's!

so then I thought the only thing to do was to grab em and smile too! And get Dale to stand behind the camera with a stern 'do as you are told' face...he!he!he!

Then thought a 'just the 2 of us' photo might be quite nice :)

Dale and Lauren then decided they were a bit chilly and sat in the car, whilst Chloe and myself strolled further long the seafront and found the beach huts and chalets.

I loved the peeling paint in this one....and Chloe's smiling face....of course!

Chloe decided to take a turn behind the camera....I have cropped quite a 'chunk' of me out of this piccy( and believe me...i AM a big ol chunk!!) lol.

I loved this one of her and know JUST the perfect paper that I shall scrap her on.

We then turned round and headed back along the front towards the car. The huts and chalets really need a new lick of paint and some repair work, but I have to say I think it added more character to them seeing all the worn, distressed areas on them. We shall definately go back down there again on a warmer day for some more photos.

Yep, she just couldn't resist the chance to prance about and pull funny faces again....she just cracks me up!

We ended up having an ice cream, which nicely rounded up a lovely afternoon.

I hope your day has been a lovely one too!

Warmest wishes Anita..xxxxx