A lot of cutting

I loved cutting my own shapes for the cuddle bunch LO so thought I would have another go at some hand cutting last night. I have these photo's of Kari on her 2nd birthday that I wanted to scrap but as I couldn't get them down from 4 it had to be a DLO this made the whole shape thing a little more complicated!

I started by choosing Basic Grey 2 scoops pp for the DLO but as I only had one sheet of each colour I had to get inventive! I cut the Butter pecan, Sprinkles and Mint Choc Chip papers in half and added a piece of scalloped dark blue cardstock also cut in half. I then stuck the blue cadstock to the Butter Pecan pp making sure that the papers lined up and then stuck the Sprinkles pp onto the blue card again lining it up.

I turned one of the pages over and hand drew half a bracket shape and cut it out, I used the cut out to trace on the other page so that both sides would match up. Once I was happy that they shape lined up perfectly I stuck the Mint Choc Chip paper under the Sprinkles and trimmed to 12" as I ended up with pages nearly 13" deep. I trimmed the sides so that the scallops were no longer showing through at the sides and then rounded the corners.

Once all the pp's were done I attached the photo's and journalling card and used stickers from the 2 scoops range to embellish the DLO. I kept the embellishments fairly simple and minimal as there was so much going on with the papers.

I wanted to get this lovely picture of my littlest man Alex scrapped. He looks so serene and thoughtful it was a very rare quiet moment for him. I hand cut some more wavy rectangles from papers in the April Gottacraft kit and then distressed them with sandpaper. I inked the backing card and the middle of the pp's as the distressing didn't show up as well on the paler pp. I tied the 2 chipboard buttons in the kit with some fibre added a journalling card and used lots of different alpha's for the title.

CJ round 2

I actually did this on Wednesday evening but forgot to update my blog. I used BG pp and made a pocket to hold the recipe and method cards if you haven't tried Whoopie pies you should my monkey's love them. I haven't made them in a while I might do some over the weekend if my knee stops playing up :)

Trying new things

I am so lucky that my husband has hobbies, he has his Xbox and he has recently started doing Triathlons so he goes out running, cycling and swimming. All this means he completely gets the pull of a hobby and how sometimes you just can't do anything else but your hobby! Yesterday was one of those days, I had done my latest CJ the night before (still need to post that eek!) but after my postie finally bringing me my april Gottacraft kit on Tuesday I was itching to cut into it.

I had a little trouble deciding on photo's to go with the papers but eventually settled on the pictures of my big three having their first cuddles with the little guy. I had wanted to cut my own funky shape for a LO since doing the gorgeous card from MJM's kit here and so I cut off a strip of the green paper and just cut a wavy rectangle from it freehand then distressed and inked it. The rest of it came together quite nicely and the only title I could use was my little nickname for my babies "The Cuddle Bunch" hope you like it all the elements are from the kit apart the Thickers, pompom ribbon and blooms from my stash;

After that I wanted to continue being creative with an idea I had a couple of weeks back but still hadn't attempted. I had the idea of doing reverse decoupage after seeing some reverse applique, I have never seen this done before which doesn't mean it hasn't been I am sure I am not that innovative but this wasn't inspired by anyone elses work it was all me. Instead of taking a motif and building it up with layers I took 3 sheets of pp and cut large shapes from the centre of each with each layer's shape getting smaller so that it is 3D but like the inside of a pyramid IYKWIM.

I used so much foam tape it is unreal but each layer is raised so it is about 1/2" thick and will not fit in Alex's scrapbook as it is too thick lol which is ok as Phil loves it :) He has said it is his favourite of all my scrapping and he wants to get a frame and put it on the wall :D

All PP are Basic Grey Baby Boy and all the apertures and shapes are hand cut, the flowers are made using pp from the same range and the only addition is a bit of fusion felt dragonflies.

Old photos of my 2 older boys

While I was continuing my spring clean yesterday I found some old school photo's of my big 2 boys and as they were so cute I couldn't have them hidden away again so today I scrapped some of them. This first one I am not quite happy with it it feels as if it needs something else but I am not sure what so please please help me out here :)

My Best Friend

This one I left quite simple as the cardstock I used was embellished around the edges. I used my sewing machine to make the paper pieces into a "quilt" and sewed on my title. I am debating sewing around the photo too but am leaving it as it is for now.

Shining Smile

The last one is actually the first one I did and is for the April week 4 weekly challenge on UKScrappers. The challenge was quite involved this week we had to;

Use black and/or white

Use metal

Use 11 of something

Use ribbon

Use something miraculous or wonderful

I used Cosmo Cricket Lil Man pp, thickers, and ribbons from my stash. I made the "cogs" using grungeboard coloured with Fibre Scraps EZ Tintz in tea stain which I then heat embossed using a versamark pad and Personal impressions Turquoise sparkle powder which gave them the rusty look. The black metal brackets are Dingbrads by Around the Block.

A lovely crafty day

I had a lovely day today (well as it is past midnight I guess it was yesterday really lol) I was reading through some of the blogs I follow and saw the Saturday Scrap Map on the Creative Craft World blog and instantly knew the sketch would suit some photo's I had of my 2 big boys playing footie with hubby until the little man decided to pinch the ball lol.

Before I started and scrapping though I decided to go for a little stash shopping well hubby encouraged me so who am I to argue? I got some lovely new bits and bobs and spent way too much money heehee but used the fab Cosmo Cricket Lil Man papers for the LO. I am totally in love with the range and will be having a lovely online window shopping browse through their other ranges sometime soon me thinks but no more actual spending for a little while :)

Here is my bash at the CCW scrap map what do you think?

I was left completely inspired by the sketch and as I also got some thickers today (won an auction on ebay and got 10 packets of different thickers for £21 inc p&p) decided to scrap my 2011 red nose day pics of the big three. They made me laugh so much this year, the last time we had red nose day they could go in normal clothes no need to dress up but this time they were told to "wear something funny". My eldest at first wanted to go as a toilet!!! not quite sure where that came from but I managed to persuade him that it would not be a suitable costume for doing schoolwork in so all three of them decided to go as Zombie schoolkids with ripped up school uniform that was due to be thrown. I think they looked fab but am still confused as to how it was funny lol. The title comes as they are all big Michael Jackson fans and their poses remind me of the video :)

Lastly I wanted to use these beautiful papers and chipboard stickers I got today in a page kit and chose this gorgeous photo of my daughter with my mum's best friend Dawn who has always been Nana Dawn to my monkeys. I cut the flowers out and stenciled a Tim Holtz mask and cut that out and finally covered a chipboard circle and distressed and inked it. I wish the flourish stencil showed up a bit better in the photo it looks better in reality but I love the page anyhow :)

Spring has sprung

A few weeks ago I posted some pictures of the flowers in my garden. It has been a constant delight going into the garden and seeing what new flowers have sprung up. It all started with the Daffodils which popped up while it was still fairly gloomy and brightened the garden up considerably, then the garlic hyacinth sprung up everywhere around the garden carpeting the borders in a beautiful shade of blue. Then my favourites the Tulips started to appear, first red then plum, then pink and finally the orange ones. There are also some small purple flowers that I am not sure what they are possibly Verbana but I am not sure.

I thought that was that for flowers until yesterday when some gorgeous huge purple Iris's appeared along the fence. I have some sneaking feeling they may have travelled here from next door but I am not complaining :)

We have never had a proper garden before we have only had patches of lawn and a patio area so this is all new to me and it is so nice to have plants that I can't kill lol. So today I did my first LO of my beautiful garden flowers. I have taken so many pictures I will do a couple more or maybe a mini book but this is the first :)

UKS April week 3 challenge

So the challenge this week was hard really really hard. It was set by Sue who you can find here and the requirements were;

* scrap with any shape but square
* use no brads, buttons or blooms and no patterned papers
* include one or three photos
* use pinks/purples or oranges/browns colour palettes

So here is my effort, I went with the pink/purple theme as I thought it was enough of a challenge without trying to find something which fit orange/brown. I used a picture of my DD on a visit to a local farm last summer. My cricut did a lot of work for this LO cutting the card into a fancy shape and cutting out butterflies, hearts, letters,a swirl and a journalling tag the same shape as the base card. The letters were inked up and I love the distressed look it gives them without being distressed which wouldn't sit well on this LO. The very pale lilac shapes and the backing card were all inked at the edges with the same pad. The butterflies were glittered although it doesn't show too well in the picture. I finished it off with a chipboard sentiment which reads natural beauty.

I was very tempted when I finished at 10.30pm to go get my DD as I know she will love this LO but I thought better of it lol Thanks for dropping by and why don't you have a go?