A True Friend challenge

One the right hand side of my blog you can see links to some of my fave blogs and sites. A True Friend is one of those listed and is great if you're an animal lover. And even if you're not, you'll love the layouts made by the team there.

Regular challenges get posted up here and I decided to try my hand at the current one, which is to create an animal-based page using a quotation of some kind.

I decided to work with another photo of super-fluffy-cat Oscar, as you can see. I made the page in Adobe Photoshop (ancient version) with papers and elements from Retrodiva, Raspberry Road Designs and Jessica Sprague.

Hope you like it!

Just a note ...

... to say hallo to everyone who has been kind enough to visit my blog, and especially to those of you kind enough to stop long enough to leave a comment! If you're a blogger, you'll know just how good it feels to get blog mail!

Thought I'd post up a photo today. My trees pic is one of those I've posted in the UKS monthly photo competition gallery. I just like the shapes and colours and bendy bits (you can tell how technical I am, can't you!!!). I snapped this while walking Tok in a field at the back of the woods near home.

Tried something new today!

Thought I'd try uploading a customised header - just to see if it worked. I think it almost did, except that I seem to be stuck with the original background for the header that came as part of the template. If anyone can tell me how to remove the unwanted border bit I'd be very grateful! Meanwhile, now I kind of know what's involved, I shall create another header to replace the current 'first attempt' as I'm not really that happy with it.

I've added Katie Hadfield's blog to my site today. If you've not visited her http://www.digiscrappingqueen.com/blog/ then do as she's full of inspiration. Her store ain't bad either (but be warned, addiction can be costly ££££ LOL) http://www.the-lilypad.com/store/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=6

My pic for today is a thumbnail (because I've not got a full-sized version here to upload) of the lovely Tallis. He is a very photogenic boy!

Today Part II

I couldn't resist coming back and posting again. You can't say I didn't warn you!

This page features one of my nephews, Richard. I'd had these photos of him hanging around for ages, but I'd held back from using them because the backgrounds in the pictures were cluttered and dark. I decided that the best way to de-clutter was to literally cut out the background debris, leaving just the lad. A brave step from one who doesn't like waving scissors around too much, but it seems to have worked.

I've used buttons from my stash, punched out and chalked stars, rub-ons, adhesive lettering and rubber stamping all on the same page. Plus a blossom (to hide an unavoidable ugly bit of photo), brad, braid and a charm (the latter, I think, plundered from an odd earring). In real life all these items give the layout real texture and dimension - which the photo itself doesn't necessarily show to best advantage.

I was pleased when I found the papers as I felt they echoed the design and colours of Richard's pyjamas brilliantly.

Oh, and I've hand-written that journalling. I cut a curve from a piece of scrap card and used that to guide my script.

And for today's trick

I was intending to upload a photo of one of my scrapbook pages, but I got waylaid by this photo. It made me stop and think about how fabulous nature is, and what great creations she has come up with. And right on my doorstep, too. I took this photo in the woods next door - the source or the vast majority of my photos these days. Might make a nice photo base for a greetings card ...

I might be back later with another post .... and another photo, this time of the promised artwork. You have been warned!

Tok's turn

Now this may not be the best photo in the world, but Tok insisted that it was his turn to feature on my blog - and who can resist a big, soppy Vizsla! Certainly not me - I'm a pushover, as my husband will tell you.

The edging on this LO is a mix of rubber stamping and hand-drawn doodles - the gold stands out more in real life. I used scraps of paper for the various strips and some die cut circles, both from part of a Back Porch Memories kit which I used to subscribe to. They do some lovely stuff, as you will see if you visit them:

http://www.backporchmemories.com/

The circles are mounted with 3-d sticky fixers to give some dimension, and the ribbons are stapled on.

I took these photos of Tok (full name is Takacs, which is Hungarian, and is a bit like our name 'Smith' over here - very common!) when he was snoozing in the back of the car on our way back from a leisurely pub lunch a couple of years ago. He was recovering from an operation at the time, or I doubt he'd have been quite so sleepy!

Spotlight on Oscar

Yes, this is Oscar. He's big, black and very fluffy. Although he should be bald, when you see just how much fur he sheds around the house. You could stuff a mattress with his sheddings, I'm sure!

I created this digi layout using a fab kit from Dawn Inskip. It's called A Grand Day Out, and like all Dawn's creations, it's lush. You can find Dawn's creations here:

http://www.pickleberrypop.com/shop/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=42

You will no doubt be subjected to further pages featuring Oscar. After all, he really is one handsome cat!

Colours of the rainbow!

And now for my pastel pick .... I found these flowers growing in the woods while I was taking the dogs for a walk. The colours of the petals are so delicate ....


I'm thinking this might just qualify for the red, rose and pink day - just look at that tongue!

OK. Here's my contribution to the white section - a wonderful head of cow parsley in the woods right next door to where I live.

A green photo for a green day - complete with lovely butterfly just to set things off. Who'd have thought grass could be so beautiful?

One of last week's colour challenges was to think blue ..... we've had some fab blue skies latesly and this snap was taken in my mum's garden. I just love that magnolia!

Monday again ....

OK. So it's not Valentine's Day, or anywhere near, for that matter. But we could all do with a bit of love every day, especially at the start of another long week! So today's image is of a Valentine's card I made for Kelvin this year.

The main body of the card is cut with my Cricut Create, and the aperture has been inked with a black inkpad. The ribbons are just stapled into shape and then glue-dotted into place.

I've used self-adhesive sticky gems to outline a section of the heart, and added rub-ons to strips of card (again with inked edges). It's hard to see from the angle of the photo, but inside, there's a small punched-out hearts that mirrors the main aperture. It's mounted with sticky fixers to give it a 3-D feel.

Simple to make but looks quite classy, if I'm allowed to say so!

Daisy, daisy .....

I thought you might to see what yesterday's altered daisy looked like before it fell into the hands of Photoshop. I snapped this shot in a field not far from where we live, when I was taking one of the dogs for a long walk-and-sniff.

Several people have asked me where I got the record from that I used in the layout shown in yesterday's blog. I think they were worried I'd stolen one of my husband's precious classical albums and that divorce might be pending as a result!

Fear not: the album in question was provided by Cleo as part of the class materials. However, you should be able to lay your hands on vinyl very cheaply at your local charity shop. You could try the technique with a single if you fancied a smalled canvas size.

I've also been asked what glue I used to stick the various elements with. Good old double sided tape, is the answer. If you want weightier things on your creation, Diamond Glaze or something similar might be a little safer.

My other photo today shows the inside of the flip-up book which forms part of my record layout. It isn't really finished as I'd like to add some journalling about my husband and his brother when they are growing up. But you get the feel, I hope, for how it might look.

It's a record!

Well, it's true, this is a record! (Saves on cardstock LOL!!!). I made this layout in a class run at PaperArts, in Stroud, by the fabulous Cleo Jarvis, who recently took over the on-line shop Bellaboo. You can find her site here

http://www.bellaboo.co.uk/

It's such a simple idea, but so adaptable too - now I have a use for all those old albums my husband has stashed away (he buys them for the lovely artwork on the record sleeves). I dare you to try the technique!

I've not done this to mine, but you could easily drill / cropodile a hole in the top and turn your creation into a wall-hanging.

And before you ask me what that's flower is doing there, let me explain. It's another of Shimelle's colour prompts. I played around with the colour and saturation etc in Photoshop just for a bit of fun - and that flower is the result!

Inspired by Shimelle

I made this digi page in response to one of Shimelle's Scrap Like You Mean It challenges, which are posted each week on the UK Scrappers web site.

Because it's a white page on a white background, it doesn't really show up properly in my gallery on UKS, but it works better here!

Stitches and alpha from Chirpi.

It's Friiiiiiiiiiday!

And now for something completely different. This is our lovely puppy (nearly a year old now, but not when this pic was taken!) Tallis. The layout is inspired by one of the classes in the recent UK Scrappers cyber crop. It was one of those pages that hung around on my desk for ages before I managed to find the time to finish it, but I'm really pleased with the result. The card sticking out of the photo at the top pulls out to reveal some journalling about the different names we have for Tallis.

Time for cards

I have found myself making more cards than scrapbook pages in recent months. Often, I'm in so much of a hurry I forget to take photos of them before sending them out, but here are a few that I did manage to capture on camera.

The first card uses papers from the Papermania range. I've embossed the sentiment with a Cuttlebug folder and my original Sizzix machine, played with my Treading Water Fiskars punch, and added a blossom from my charity shop-sourced stash.

The next card along - well, your guess is as good as mine as to what I've used! I wanted to produce something that wasn't the standard blue-for-boys, pink-for-girls type card. Hope I succeeded.

The 65 card was made by request and looked better and blingier (is there such a word?) in the flesh. The background was created using a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The purchaser of the card and the eventual recipient were both, apparently, chuffed with the result. Phew!

The 50 card was another commission. I cut the numbers with my Cricut - one of the first things I did with it. The ribbons are mostly sari ribbon from Ribbon Oasis, and the flower gems are from Papermania.

Welcome to my [blog] world ....

Thanks for taking time to visit my new creation!

I'm hoping that having a craft-specific blog will make me take more photos of the cards and scrapbook pages I make, and share them.

It might make me improve my standards if I know people are actually looking at what I've made!

So, let's get started!

My first picture is of a digi page I created for the Chirpi Challenge a while back. It features my fab friend Dawn, a bottle of bubbly and sunshine - always a great combination.

I hope to be able to work out how to do more clever stuff here in time. It might take a while!

Meanwhile, thanks for stopping by!