Recyle challenge.....

The Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog is currently looking at Recycling.....

 I have to admit I have quite a hoard of little bits and bobs I come across which "Will come in Handy" for my layouts, so this challenge was right up my street.

I gathered these bits together...Fat face tag, Cath Kidston postcard, October Afternoon packaging, narrow ribbon loops from the inside of a tee shirt ,a rainbow strap saved from the bin from a kiddies handbag, a Summer tag from a new beach towel and a small metal heart from an old pair of school uniform trousers !

....and voila....

The retro camera image is a Sarah Hurley digi stamp available in her Etsy shop here and was absolutely perfect for my layout..

The October Afternoon packaging made a superb journaling card, and I simply layered everything up with foam pads.

 The Challenge is open till 30th  March.

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

Sketch challenge......

Feeling a bit twitchy, and wanting to use my Echo park papers again, I had a go at the March sketch challenge on the Scrap365 sketch blog here , which is open till the 15th march. 

The great thing I like about following a sketch is that the hard work of planning the look of the layout is already done ...so it leaves you free to pick and choose your papers to fit. 

I did stick to my 8.5 x 11 size so it looks quite different from the 12 x12 sketch, but it was nice being "Told" to use a small photo !

I'm also very bad at story telling/journaling , so  I gave it a go and found it wasn't as hard as I

thought :) Might be trying that again.....

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

Crop day.....

It was the Monthly Papermaze crop yesterday in Otley Village Hall in Suffolk....and although it was packed out  (lots of chatting and catching up to do, you understand...) I did manage to finish 2 layouts.

The first one with Fay on her Uncle Jesse's lawn-mower in Oklahoma, uses the adorable Basic grey Lucille collection.

The second shows Fay and Amy taking a small break at the Universal Studios in Orlando and uses mostly Echo Park - Take note papers. 

I did spend quite some time cutting all the elements from the patterned papers..no ready-made embellishments here! 

Except of course for the totally gorgeous American Crafts Thickers :)

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

Reuse and recycle...

That's the theme of the latest Card making challenge over at the Scrapology blog, and it's open till 15th Jan. 

Now, I am not a huge card maker but I do make the odd special one now and then , but the idea of using up some of the bits and pieces of packaging that I often squirrel away, was a good one.

So here's what I made using a Fat Face clothes tag, ribbon from some packaging on Christmas pyjamas, part of a crochet vintage doily, a pretty paper bag from Cath Kidston and some old shirt buttons....

 

There's still time to enter and there's a great prize on offer too....

See the original post Here.

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

Prom......

I think it is safe to say that I enjoyed the preparations for my daughter's Prom just as much as she did. We didn't have them when I left Secondary School.....  

We found the most gorgeous dress at an amazing price which did not break the bank, and had great fun with her very long hair, not to mention the eyelashes :)

The pre-prom pictures were taken in her friend's beautiful garden , and with such vibrant colours this layout came together quite easily using 6 shades of Bazzill and 3 border punches.

It was published in issue 69 of the Scrapbook magazine and had a step by step guide on how to make the background using border punches.

 

The beautiful crochet flower was from a fabulous kit made by Claire Salisbury, which she sells on Etsy  and can be found here.  In case you don't know Claire, AKA The Crafty Alchemist, or her work you can check out her very friendly blog , you'll feel very welcome and will be inspired by her creations.

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

New year giveaway......

Happy New Year Everyone...lets hope its a good one  :)

The super Scrapology team are kick starting the year with a fantastic Giveaway , so pop over there to be in with a chance to win some gorgeous new supplies...... 

Good luck.

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

It's a Giveaway......

My very talented friend Lou Collins is offering a huge Giveaway on her blog......pop over and have a peek....you'll be glad you did :)

Lou's Blog is here..

While I'm here, I can show the Christmas layout I completed at the Papermaze December crop. Vanessa always puts together a "Challenge Kit" for us to do with as we please....no example LO to follow. Everyone who had a kit put their names in a hat for a prize...sadly it wasn't me. 

Ah well there's always next year :)

My layout features my girls from 2000, back in the days when we had photos taken to put in Christmas cards for friends and family who didn't see them regularly....Before the "facebook" days of course.

The only addition to the kit was the American craft thickers.

........and a photo from this year..... !

Thanks for stopping by

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a bright and happy New Year xx

Karen x

Papermaze Christmas Blog Hop......

Welcome to my blog and the Papermaze Christmas blog hop........

You may have arrived here from Carol , but if you didn't, the complete list of blogs taking part is shown at the bottom so you won't miss any! don't forget to leave a comment here as well as all the other blogs for a chance to win a December Scrapbook kit from Papermaze.

 You have from 1st- 8th December to leave your comments.

 

This is the great value December Kit priced at only £10 . Details of the contents can be seen here .

 

 

For my Christmas themed projects I decided to stick to the  traditional red and green colour scheme and picked out these papers from the Christmas Eve Chowder   range by Jillibean Soup. I added some red gingham ribbon, decorative pins, red dew drops, red mini brads, green crystal stickers and Black Bazzil card stock.

My 8.5 x 11 layout is called "Waiting for Christmas", It shows my daughter and her cousin at an amazing shop at Snape Maltings in suffolk, which we visited in October half term. To say it was fully loaded with everything anyone would ever need or want at Christmas time, is an under statement ! We were there browsing for ages, and the 2 girls really felt like Christmas was just around the corner :)

 

 

With the double sided patterned papers that were left over, I made  a simple Star Garland.

All you need is a punch or star template, and a sewing machine.

 punch out the stars in groups of 3

 Feed each stack of 3 into the sewing machine, leaving a small gap between each set

 open out the layers along the stitching line, to make a 3D star

 hang up.....

and admire your efforts !

You can of course use any shaped image you like, and mix and match them along the garland. I haven't embellished my stars at all, but you could add glitter, inks, bling, ribbon or anything you fancy and really go to town to coordinate with your Christmas decorations.

I hope you are enjoying the Hop....please visit Lisa next for some more Christmas  inspiration.

Thank you so much for visiting.

Karen x

Here is the full list as promised,

 

Papermaze blog - http://scrappaperscissors.blogspot.co.uk/

Wendy - http://wendymckee.blogspot.co.uk/

Carol - http://www.kraftypieces.blogspot.co.uk/

Karen - http://apapergallery.blogspot.co.uk/

Lisa - http://scrappyfairies.blogspot.co.uk/

Lou - http://prettypaperandchipboard.blogspot.co.uk/

Anna - http://mycreations-anna.blogspot.co.uk/

Back to Papermaze again - http://scrappaperscissors.blogspot.co.uk/

Simple Symmetry......

I didn't set out to create a symmetrical layout , I'm usually thinking vaguely about visual triangles, or rules of thirds which don't lend themselves to symmetry !

 I wanted to continue using the Sept Papermaze kit supplies and wanted to keep things simple....So here's the result..

The wooden hearts and thickers were the only additions to the kit, oh and a touch of brown chalk ink.

The photo was taken by my eldest daughter while we were staying in Oklahoma with my sister in the summer. Nigel is a rescue dog and has found numerous clever/naughty ways of finding and finishing up the cat's food, one of which involved climbing up onto furniture, window sills and the ironing board!! Amazing since his legs are only 3" long :)

  He absolutely deserves his "Legend " Nickname.

I still have loads of papers left from the kit....and 9 more dogs to scrap!

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

Kit and crop.....

I made it to the Papermaze crop  on  Saturday, armed with nothing more than the September Kit - (now sold out but shown here.) Since I got up late and hadn't got anything organised :)

So, after a good deal of chatting ,eating cake and nosing at what everyone else was doing I completed this layout....using Websters Pages and Papers,wooden ticket and flowers by Prima, Tando chipboard butterfly, Kaiserkraft cream pearl swirl, My Little Shoebox white alphabet stickers- coloured with chalk ink.

I even started a second layout...but that will have to wait till next time :)

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x