The Cloisters

As part of the kit that Scrapbook Magazine supplied to me, there was a sheet of these clever frames which really do appear to be 3 dimensional.

I had lots of photos of an Abbey we visited last year in France and I thought these would lend themselves very well to a traditional feel.  I decided to create my background as a wall onto which my pictures could hang.

I cut strips of paper from the kit and fixed them along with some lace to the background.  

Once dry, I added lots of texture paste through a word stencil and a brick stencil.  Once the paste was dry, I used paints and inks to blend everything whilst adding in my accent colour of purple to pick up on the lovely lavender that was planted in abundance in the Abbey gardens.  A little stamping of various images and some evocative words placed strategically here and there gave more interest.

The key and pen nib were treated to a little acrylic paint and I added some crackle paint to the metal frame nib frame for a rustic feel.

I finished the page with some dusty attic music, painted black, a vintage watch face and a couple of butterflies ... oh and the lovely angel wing.

This layout is a total departure from my usual style but when you are given a kit and a specific remit, it pushes you to find a new creative path.

I hope you like this layout and thanks for visiting to take a look.

xx

Easter Bonnet

Can you believe Easter is almost upon us?  The start of this year seems to have gone by so fast.  However, as I sit looking out this morning, the snow is falling and the ground is white so the prospect of spring flowers and hill top walks seem a million miles away.  That's British weather for you!!!

So, looking forward to Easter, the TioT challenge this fortnight is Easter Hats and Bonnets.  As a non-cardmaker and with my kids too old to dress up in suitable outfits for a scrap page, I was mulling over how I could meet this challenge.  My stash has a lack of anything I could remotely link to this subject so I was facing a dilemma.  

But, luckily for me, I have a very artistic hairdresser and we usually chat about out arty endeavours during my regular appointments.  At the end of last week, I was telling him about my quandry and he planted the idea of a car bonnet.  That was the inspiration I needed and as soon as I got home, I set to work on coming up with how I would interpret this idea.

I covered a large tag with black cardstock and ran it through my Big Shot to emboss it with swirls and birds.  I downloaded my image online and then used glitter Gelly Roll pens and Distress Markers to create my Easter design on the bonnet. 

I added some tissue tape and some chicken wire (Dusty Attic) and wound wired natural florists raffia at one end.

The photo was mounted onto white cardstock which I added pink sparkly doodle around the edge before fixing down using two black photo corners (and glue).

I wrote the title onto masking tape, coloured the letters with the Gelly Roll pens and then plattered them with indian ink.

The bird was from a florists wholesalers.

I hope you enjoy my take on this subject and look forward to seeing all the great work everyone comes up with for each challenge.

I have also entered this tag into Challenge 51 - Easter Bonnet over at Out of a Hat Creations.  I hadn't found this blog before but it looks like a lot of fun so I'm diving in!!

Enjoy your crafting ...

xx

Closed

This layout is based on Wheal Peevor tin mine which is one of the many abandoned mines to be found all over Cornwall.  Their shape makes them very striking against the skyline so I decided to enhance this further using Lightroom.

I used my Gelli plate to create my background paper by adding the black and white pattern and the  purple and pale grey bands.  I then used an Artist Cellar stencil with molding paste (Golden) to create two panels in opposite corners.  Once the paste was dry I rubbed Viva Decor paste and gilding wax into them to give them colour and shimmer.

I printed the poem onto tissue paper and glued it to my layout with Mod Podge.  I have to confess its a lot easier if you have a set size and place for tissue paper items as my first couple of attempts resulted in torn paper!  Large areas of tissue are certainly tricky customers!

Anyway, once it was down, I moved on by stamping the window onto vintage map paper which I tore and inked with black soot.  The hinges which were cut from grunge paper, painted with black acrylic paint and rubbed with silver Inka-Gold.  The barbed wire (Dusty Attic) was painted black and touched up with a little copper Inka-Gold for a rusty effect.  The Owl is from PaperArtsy Hot Picks which I stamped and coloured with pencils.

I cut the flowers from vintage book pages using the tattered florals die by Tim Holtz.  I inked it up with broken china and black soot before adding a black crystal brad.

The black crystal swirl is by Prima and I added this with the stamped journalling ticket and my flower.  I perched my crows and added a key (Seven Gypsies) to complete this page.

This was the second of my three layouts which I entered in the National Scrapbooker of the Year 2013 competition in which I was a runner-up.

I am entering this page into Challenge 43 - Swirls at Fashionable Stamping.

Have a great week.  xx

Santa Card

OK ... starting to enjoy this Christmas crafting lark and Christmas card making more specifically!!  It's more of a surprise to me than anyone else.   The only snag is that I've left it rather late in the day either to get necessary supplies or to have the time needed to really get going - oops!!  (Note to self:  start earlier next year!!)  Big thankyou at this point to David and Brenda at Craft Obsessions for hunting out my order at short notice and nearly crashing their website in the process!! Thanks guys!! 

So onto this little card.  I covered my card with a lovely script paper which I overstamped with some flourishes by Dusty Attic.  I used some vintage music paper which I stained with Festive Berries and Gathered Twigs distress stain which I then flicked with water to give it texture.  I then embossed a more complicated flourish design over this with Gold Sparkly (Cosmic Shimmer) which is hard to capture with the camera.

The image was down loaded, edges distressed, curled and inked with a little more Gathered Twigs (what a great brown it is!)

The poinsettia is a mini Tim Holtz Alterations die cut from vintage paper and inked with deadazzles for the centre.  The leaves are cut from Glassine paper which was scrunched and inked with alcohol inks.

Anyway, can't stop ... got another card to make!! xx

Pumpkin Carving

For those of you who regularly visit my blog this page will be a bit 'deja vue' and you are right, this is second time lucky for my pumpkin carving page!  


I've been working on creating blended layouts recently where my photos fall into the background so the page becomes like one big canvas rather than having elements layers onto the page.  It's quite a tricky and time consuming process but I love the end result.  However, in trying to do the same with these photos, I realised it is almost impossible with multiple photos with very different colour schemes.


So to cut a long story short, whilst I thought the end result was not the best I've achieved, I thought it did work ok.  However, the photograph exposed all it's weaknesses and when I asked my family for their honest feedback ... well it wasn't exactly great!!  So, I've dismantled it, binned it and removed the post (my mother always told me to leave my disasters in the kitchen so I'm metaphorically doing the same with that page!)

This layout is more along the traditional lines but it does work better on this occasion - I hope.  It's not so much fun scrapping the same photos twice and I'm ready to move along, so I'm off to see how my next blended creation is going to turn out!

Hope you are all having a creative week ... x

Seashells

We visited Lulworth Cove recently and took a clifftop walk.  The weather was perfect for walking and the views of Durdle Door were breathtaking.  

After the walk we strolled to Lulworth beach and bought some fresh fish from the little shop that sells some of the local catch.  I took this photo as we looked back up the lane through the village.

I created the background paper by layering and painting old sheet music and book pages which I then stamped and inked.

The filmstrip is an alterations die which I have cut from co-ordinations paper and sanded back heavily and added picket fence distress stain.  I used a paint colour selector card which I stamped with different mini stamps all by The English Stamp Company.

The street lamp is by Dusty Attic and the butterfly is by Lost Coast Designs.  The cottages are by Crafty Individuals.

Keep smiling ... the sun's out at last!!

x