Rock & Roll Music

Let's go back in time to Christmas 2006. We were spending that Christmas at the in-laws and Uncle Gez and Auntie Abi bought the kids a microphone, a guitar and (Noooooooooooooooooo) a drum set! The kids loved the presents and spent several hours "entertaining" us all by forming a rock band. Well they did enjoy themselves although I can't say that Uncle Gez and Auntie Abi were too popular with the other adults that day lol.

All of the kids' albums are full and indeed overflowing except for Dylan's so I have been trying to remedy that by concentrating on LO's of Dylan. He asked if he could chose a photo for his next LO and I said yes so he chose this photo from that Christmas when he was taking his turn as the singer;

I made this LO for the Sarah's Cards Ltd challenge this month and started by making my own guitar mask by tracing a pp from the DCWV Rockstar collection. I sprayed the blue card with copper Perfect Pearls mist;

I then used papers from DCWV Rockstar, Crate paper Toybox, and We R Memory Keepers Teen Angst, chipboard from Scenic Route (painted, inked and stamped) and letters from Lily Bee Memorandum. I hope you like it but more importantly Dylan loves it and thinks the misting is "Awesome!" lol.

Happy New Year to you all xxx

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Create

I have spent a lovely couple of hours playing with paints and inks again all inspired by a challenge to make a decorative letter (as in of the alphabet not Dear Sir lol). I thought first of making a letter door sign for one of the kids but I have one each to do for them and I wanted to use their whole names. I put the door signs to one side and picked up some 6x6 chipboard thinking I would cut out a letter for my craft room from it then decided I would mount the letter on it instead. I do feel sorry for poor Shendy she keep setting these fab challenges and I go off on a tangent and never quite follow her instructions lol.

Here is the finished project;

I stuck the reate chipboard letters on the 6x6 then painted the whole thing pale blue. Once dry I used some metallic paint rub in grey/blue to rub over the letters so they stood out more added some stamped swirls and a saying and then painted the letter in rock candy crackle paint;

I cut the C from Tim Holtz Kraft resist and coloured it with the grey/blue metallic paint rub and added some twine, beads and a tassel. Finally I coloured some butterflies from the Kraft resist and coloured them with some of the other metallic paint rubs and stuck it all down.;

Goals for 2012

I completed another Art Journal page today using alcohol inks again and journalling my crafting goals for 2012 so now they are down and official I better get them done lol;

Dandan's girl

The challenge over at Scrapology this month was F is for Filters. Thank fully we were allowed to use Tissue Paper as well as I did not have time to go buying coffee filter papers lol. I scrucnched up some tissue paper then smoothed it out and sprayed it with pink and gold mists. The creases gave a lovely marbelled effect :)

I pleated strips of tissue paper and stuck them behind the circular paper to make a pretty edge;

I love this picture of my DD with my Dad on my birthday this year she is such a Dandan's girl it makes my mum a bit jealous lol. I used a CCW kit and the buttons, doily and felt flower are from Purple pumpkin.

Holly fairy

I was so surprised and pleased to find that I had won the November Creative Craftworld sketch challenge. My prize was a guest DT spot for January my first ever yay and the December kit full of gorgeous Bo Bunny papers and buttons and ribbons. I used the lovely kit for my layout for this months Sketch challenge using this sketch;

I had to choose carefully which papers I used as Kari received this lovely Holly Fairy outfit for her 3rd birthday in May so although I wanted to use the christmas papers to go with the photos I didn't want them to be overtly christmas. I think I managed by using only the holly paper from the kit;

Our boy

I have a set of photo's of Dylan from his pre-school photo's in 2006 that he is so cute and adorable in and as I seem to have less layouts of Dylan than the other monkeys I decided to use one in a LO even though I have already used one of the photos from this group previously. As the photo's are fairly large I followed the 15th December Stuck sketch;I cut some of the pp from behind the second layer to use to make the flower and swirls so they all matched in and covered a button in one of the pp's with a 3 showing as Dylan was 3 when the photo was taken :)

Life according to Alex

Alex may be the youngest in our family of six but that does not mean for even the tiniest moment that he doesn't know what he likes and what he wants. He is very determined, stubborn and has a definite opinion on everything! With this in mind I wanted to record some of the funny and sweet things he has done this year that I love but might be forgotten in years to come.

As I have so many lovely purple pumpkin buttons after winning a $50 voucher in their pre-christmas giveaway I decided to use them and follow the December sketch;

I loved making this LO and am so happy with how it worked out. I used a monkey button for my little monkey, a Dino button as he loves Dinosaurs, and a Bee button as he is so funny playing at being a buzzy bee. I also used a doily, vinyl heart and a couple of tickets and a couple of spotty buttons;

A couple of close ups of the lovely Purple Pumpkin clusters;

The journalling reads;

Things Alex said or did in 2011,

"I not a little boy I a baby!"

"Mastadon's like milk and apples"

All cutlery is not created equal if you choose it for me I will put it back and get something else. Ditto for plates and bowls!

I may have to have cutlery but hands rule!

I like to wash my hands but only after wiping them on the sofa

I am a bit of a parrot

I am baba, Kari is bebe, Dylan is guys and Joel is dole. I can say Mastadon, Dinosaur and Crocodile though.

"Do you remember what I said about ....?"

Bedtime is not bedtime without Mickey, Nake, Dinosaurs, Turtle and Car.

I'm right, You're wrong end of conversation!

more Christmas cards

It was such a mistake to post about a Christmas card I made for my secret santa on facebook as now parentals expect cards! Aghhhh did they not get the memo the past 5 years or so that I do not do christmas cards? It is the one area of christmas I am proper grinchy about I have so much to do with all the present buying, wrapping, cooking, and shopping that I don't have the time or patience to make or write cards that will get thrown away by the new year. Anyhow I made a card for my parents and the MIL and that is it no more and while I was making them I would make them with leaves for the Scrapology challenge. I made one in red and green and one in blues;

The background is all sparkly courtesy of Perfect Pearls mists but doesn't show on the picture *sigh*

If the wind changes you'll stay like that!

This is the 1st December sketch on Stuck sketches isn't it a beauty?;

This is my take on it;

The pictures are from Christmas 2008 the last christmas before the 3 monkey's became 4 and I wanted a nice photo of the kids. As you can see from the first photo they sat there looking as though I had just thrown all their toys away not like they had just opened ten tonnes of presents each lol. I asked them to smile or something and so they put their heads together, giggled madly and this was what they did when I picked the camera up! I have never got to the bottom of who decided to pull silly faces but my suspicions are with the eldest!

Papers are from Glitz- Beautiful Dreamer, Love nest and Hoopla and the gorgeous pin you see was sent me and made by the loverly Anita. Thanks for popping by x

Bird House

Today we were set a quickie challenge to make a bird house and here is mine all snug sitting in the tree;

I used Websters Pages papers and trims and beads and lace from my stash. The lace goes through the roof and out through the bottom where it is tied so that once untied you can lift the roof back off. The kids post little messages to Santa and he reads them christmas eve :D

I punched a lot of strips of paper to make roof tiles;

Positioned the paper on the back carefully to get this cute tree in;

and used a trim that looks like snow (imho) along the roof and around the hole;

Hope you like it I will be making more of these as I think they are very cute :D

Inspiration

Yesterday I sat down with some photo's I wanted to scrap and a good sketch but found myself lacking in inspiration to choose papers. The problem was I had these great christmas pictures of my 3 eldest before the little man was born but my daughter is wearing a BRIGHT pink dress and so none of the christmas papers suited the photo's and anything that did match the dress was too girly for the boys!

I decided to leave it and play with my Art Journal. I used Gesso to prime the page and then with a sequin mask to create some texture and then coloured with Raspberry, Butterscotch and Copper mixative alcohol inks. I loved the idea of using some bright not really matching colours and was pleasantly surprised with how well the alcohol inks worked on a journal page;

I used some bubble wrap to stamp on the page with Wild Honey, Worn Lipstick and Black Soot distress inks and then coloured some paper with picket fence distress stain and used the same inks to stamp some images. Once the stamped images were stuck onto the page I wrote my journalling which you cannot see in the photo but shows up fine irl and reads;

Inspiration - today I got stuck with my scrapping so I turned to my journal. The great thing about this is there are no rules it is all "play". Someone may not like what I have done but they cannot say I did it wrong. Clashing colours, disjointed theme it doesn't matter.

Meeting Santa

First LO with my gorgeous Gottacraft kit for December. I have only used a teeny bit of it here but with the misting and the doily and the yoyo flowers I felt just the little bit of PP and the journalling and title stickers and bling strip were enough.

Pictures are from Christmas 2004 when Phil's Aunt arranged for "Santa" to visit her house Christmas Eve. Unfortunately all the pics of Dylan were blurry but there were these nice ones of Joel and Kari so Dylan will just have to put up with being blurry lol. It suits him really as he never stands still for 2 seconds!

They bragged to all their friends that Santa visited them Christmas Eve before he delievered all the other presents lol it is a great little memory to pass to them for when they are older :)

All smiles

I have finally finished all my christmas crafting making presents for the parentals and so whilst the monkeys sat colouring "stained glass" decorations (stamped some christmas stamps on acetate and then they coloured with promarkers on the reverse) I made this page;

I have wanted to scrap these pictures ever since I got a copy from my mum a couple of months ago. They show my eldest with me in the summer of 2001 when he was only 18 months old, we were staying at my mum and dad's as Phil was away training for an upcoming tour and I just adore all the smiles and laughter in the photos :) Kit made using AC Country Trails from a CCW kit and some MME Funday embellies.

A little bit of altering

In September I went to Ally Pally stamping show with my mum, it was the first time we had been and we really enjoyed it. Amongst the 2 or 3 things I bought (lol) was a plain wooden idol to be altered. I started off by painting it with bronze acrylic paint and painting a chipboard hinge from Dusty Attic with brown paint and then a thin layer of crackle glaze to give it a leather look;

I decided I wanted to make a little present for my Nan's 21st birthday (I won't tell you how many years she has been 21 but her eldest great grandchild, my son Joel, is 12 in January so you can guess lol) and chose a photo of my parents and a childhood picture of me and one of my brother for the inside.

I cut a panel from the Tim Holtx Kraft resist butterfly paper and coloured it with distress inks and coloured 3 extra butterflies to cut out;

I then made a flower for the front, stamped a harlequin pattern and inked the edges and added the flower, hinge, 2 butterflies and some gems to finish the front;

Inside I inked all the edges and stamped a clock on one side and birds in flight on the other. I then stuck the panel in and added the main photo and leftover butterfly. I added the last two photos and a title and all done;

I am fairly sure my nan will like it that is if my mum doesn't end up pinching it for herself roflmao.

Making giving a gift card a little more interesting

Phil and I have 6 nieces with a nephew on the way :) We don't see any of them very often due to Phil's work, our constant moving, and living around 200 miles away. For 2 of our nieces I was totally stumped as to what to get them for Christmas and so resorted to a Gift voucher (naughty auntie).

Here is what Toys'R'Us gave me, hmm not very Christmassy and not very girly so an improvement was needed. I measured the gift card holder and it was 4" by 3 1/8" (sorry it's always going to be inches with me even though I was taught metric in school roflmao).

I found a nice girly image for each of them one a Crafts and Me stamp by artist Jasmine Beckett-Griffith called Pink Lightning (the larger fairy) the other looks like a Gorjuss stamp but it was given as a freebie in a promarkers class I did so I am not certain;

I cut a piece of card for each gift card measuring 9 3/4" by 3 1/2" and scored across the short length at 3", 7 1/2", and 7 3/4";

I folded the score lines to form a "matchbook" and using Broken China Distress ink coloured the two ends on each piece of card and then stamped with Dusty concord on the larger end;

On the back of the shorter coloured end I attached 2 thin strips of foam tape and attached the short end to the inside of the middle section to form a pocket to hold the cards;

Using my nestabilities I cut out some 3" by 4" shapes from patterned paper and attached the stamped images to them and added the girls names. These were then attached to the shorter coloured end and the longer end tucked in behind them so that when you have it closed both the stamping and giftcard are hidden but when you open the "matchbook" you see the message;

So here they are finished something a little more interesting, pretty and girly than what Toys'R'Us provided me with and very quick and easy to put together;

Thanks for popping by hope you like my little demo and apologies for the poor photo's along with most of the UK I am suffering from a lack of sun today!

A new little addiction :)

I am loving getting very messy with my Art Journal and did the first page yesterday a bit at a time in between the 6000 other things that needed doing around the house and with the monkeys!

I decided to just concentrate on learning how to use Gesso and going bold and bright with primary colours. I used my new brickwork mask and splattered some mist on the page which came though from under the paint. A bit of stamping with glue lids and a favourite saying and then painting some white blocks for the journalling. I loved that the white went over the other paint but that the mist still showed through it and so outlined the bottom and right side of each journalling block with the mist as well.

Art Journal cover

With my birthday money (thank you Nan and Grandad and FIL and step-MIL :D) I bought a book to use as an Art Journal and some new goodies specifically for it. Yesterday evening I made my cover, I am not sure it is exactly how I wanted it but I am looking on this as more of a learning experience that expecting it to look wonderful like the ones you see in blogland right away.

I am going to continue my little chipboard journal with the aim of having that as a handbag book so I can jot down things that happen whilst I am out and about. I have now gesso-ed my first page of this journal and am waiting for it to dry before I go attack it with paints rofl.

Best of friends.

Best of friends, that is certainly apt for my second child Dylan and my brother Marc. All 4 of the kids love their "Uncle MarMar" but Dylan is a little shadow when Marc is around. I had these photo's from Christmas 2004 when Dylan was a little over 2 yrs old with Marc and as there was a fair amount of background in the photo's they needed cutting down.

I used the MME sketch for the latest challenge;

as I already knew I wanted to use the gorgeous Lost and Found II papers and stickers I had;
I flipped the sketch and moved the title across to beneath the other strips so that the lovely word box wasn't covered on the paper. I sprayed the card with some Copper perfect pearls mist and added some brads a cute little purple pumkin button and two colours of MME twine twisted together. The two narrow strips are from the bottom cut off sections of the papers they are too cute to waste in the bin :D

My Dad

Since doing the book for my dad for Father's Day this year I have a few photo's left over that I have wanted to scrap. These are two of them and I was struggling to decide on a setting for them, I knew I wanted to use the Glitz papers (Vintage Blue mainly with the birds cut from a Dance in Sunshine paper) and some distress inks to give a nice aged look but couldn't make up my mind how to lay it all out.

To my rescue came the sketch challenge from Scrap 365 magazine. The magazine is new but in my opinion looks very promising and I would recommend giving it a try to any of my scrappy friends.

I am really happy with the way the sketch worked with the photo's and am pleased with the finished layout. Thanks for popping by x

Altered door hanger

Friday evening I went to a craft evening and made a greenery centre piece with holly and pine cones and pine and a door stop. We also started a door hanger but ran out of time to finish it which turned out quite well as it meant I could go to town a little altering it with my inks and paints and stamps.

First the hanger was painted in pine green mixed with white to lighten it. I then dotted some of the green (without the white) onto the hanger and brushed it in roughly giving a marbelled effect. I then painted the word Cherish in the original green and the two hearts and pegs in crimson;

Once it was dry I stamped on the hanger with picket fence distress stain and the red distress ink from the winter's special editions collection. I also inked all the edges with Walnut Stain distress ink;

I dabbed some of the picket fence distress stain on the hearts and then wiped with a dry baby wipe to lighten the effect. I then stamped some swirls onto the hearts in Walnut Stain distress ink which does show up very well irl.

I also die cut the bird from the Caged Bird Tim Holtz die in grunge paper and coloured it with the distress stain and then covered the biord, wing and Cherish word in rock candy crackle paint;

Once the crackle was dry both bird and Cherish were coloured with Walnut Stain ink and the wing glued on and an eye added. my crackle paint always seems to come out in clumps so I need to practice (this is what we tell hubby anyhow lol);

Once everything was fully dry it was all stuck together with strong glue and the pegs under the hearts are now holding my kids certificates they recieved from school Friday for good work :)