Scrapbooking update

I have been plugging away at my scrapbooking. I have been wanting to finish an album that I started away back on our trip to Canada (2003). Kind of an incentive for getting back into my boys pages that I really want to do. A few pages later and an album that fell apart and I am done apart from the journalling. Stay tuned for some pics of my favs once I have done this.

I am also very excited about some new things that I have found that are going to help me get my photos in albums and actually get some of our baby (who is nearly two!) printed.
Despite simplifying my pages I realised that I was never going to get caught up and will be forever stuck in baby photos when I have some great shots itching to be scrapped and journalled now. Thanks to loads of surfing the net and checking out whats new I have put it together and feel good about scrapping again

Watch this space!

Fathers Day coming soon

Usually last minute my fathers day cards are all sorted thanks to a great night at stamp club (we made an awesome suit card from the new papers coming soon) and this one using inspiration from the Hostess set Occassions for all in the Stampn Up IBAC 2009-2010 p20. I don't have the set so going with my style put together a few things to create the look. It started with the ribbon. Using my colour swatch cards (see here for info) it was easy to match the colours

Colour: tangerine tango, so saffron, close to cocoa
Stamps: vintage labels, all year fun, background sampler, circle of friendship (SU), storytime alpha (CDS)
Finishing touches: ribbon(unknown), vintage brads (SU), faux stitching

Owls the new in thing

I love the look of cards and pages with owls that seem to be the new in thing. I found a couple of great ones in the mags I have been reading and decided to have a play and see what I could come up with using what I have (seems to be my style). It was lots of fun and I loved the end result. So will Riley as he loves hooting everytime he sees an owl.

Colour: kraft, various, chocolate chip
Stamps: storytime alpha (CDS)
Finishing touches: googly eyes, round tab punch, decorative scissors

Into my boys cards

Thanks to a loan of mags (thanks Shona) and a night out scrapping with a friend (thanks Jo) I have finally got on to doing my boy cards. Armed with a bit of inspiration and a few bits and pieces thrown into my crop bag I was surprised by the end result. This card is for my nephew over in Canada. It is made nice and early so hopefully I will get on to sending it in time, which seems to be my downfall at the moment.

I started with the superhero stamp from Pink Cat Studios Billy stamps. I had put in some of my boy pages and the stars one seemed to fit. I intended to have squares of the same size but cut them too big and so added the smaller blue ones to break it up. I have been wanting to get the label dies from spellbinders because I like the look but it is still on my wish list. So this label is actually stencil cut from a label that I got on some clothes I purchased recently. I love stitching but not always the time involved especially getting out my big machine for zig zag. So thanks to a tip from one of the mags I read I had a go at faux stitching zig zag. Finished it a treat!

Colour: kraft, pumpkin pie, ballet blue, going grey
Stamps: billy (PCS)
Finishing touches: faux stitching

Just for fun

Seems I find inspiration everywhere I look. This one comes from a denim skirt that I saw on a friends daughter. She was wearing it over striped orange and pink stockings Loved the colours and the design so in keeping with my style had to have a go at creating something from it. I used the same technique to create the denim look as on this card. I dug out the different flowers that I had and my mini sewing machine and I was away. In the end I couldn't help adding the stiching around the flowers. It was one of those one off cards that was just for fun as I don't have much chances to give away girls cards.

Colour: rose red, night of navy, pumpkin pie, taken with teal
Stamps, stripes (own design), sanded (SU)
Finishing touches: flower stencils, 5 petal punch (SU), daisy punch, buttons, threads

August Stamp Club Challenge

I normally leave my challenges to the last week and sometimes the night before but I having got more organized I have been getting on to them earlier and earlier. This time it was to create a masculine card. These ones came about from inspiration and I just had to try them out. The first was from one of my sons shirts, they have several with camouflage on them. The second was from a bible cover that I saw. I have to say that this seems to have become very much a part of my style and a personal challenge. See something and try to recreate it using what I have. It ultimately leads to a desire to create the stamps that I need.

Colours: basic grey, going grey, red, white
Stamps: birthday whimsy, oh so lovely (SU)
Finishing touches: felt, vintage brad (SU), red thread, red embossing powder, distressing tool, colour spritzer

Colour: pumpkin pie, chocolate chip, old olive, white
Stamps: small pieces, baroque motifs, friendship blooms, vintage labels
Finishing touches: stitched ribbon, designer label punch, colour spritzer tool

Long overdue baby card

While I have been getting my birthday cards completed and in some cases ahead of myself I have been meaning to make and send a gift and card to a friend for too long. I finally got onto it and this is what I came up with. I started with the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #79 I wanted to use my favourite baby stamps from Clear Dollar Stamps the Patchpals
I love doing girls cards. Now I need to get onto all the boys and male cards that are coming up

Colours: rich razzleberry, old olive, pale plum
Stamps: patchpal giraffe (CDS), whimsical words (SU)
Finishing touches, polka dot ribbon rich razzleberry, plum pearls (kaiser)

July Stamp Club Challenge

Our challenge for this month was rose red and one of the flowers that we did at stamp club last month. Not having much if any in the way of papers in rose red I wanted to create my own so started from there. Having gone through some of my bits and pieces I came across a piece of ribbon that I had kept despite being tiny and wanted to use it (even though it wasn't stampn up). So the initial inspiration went on from there. What was to be fairly simple turned into one of my play times where I try lots of different things before I am happy with it. I was quite pleased with the end result. If you want to see what the others came up with check out the link here.

Colours: rose red, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip, pink pirouette
Stamps: background sampler, vintage labels and big and little pieces (SU)
Finishing touches: scallop punch, rhinestone brad and linen thread (SU),stitching, ribbon, tag punch