Spring Clean

Well I know its not spring yet but as I had a fairly free weekend I thought it was time my conservatory (workroom) had a good clean.  It took me all day saturday and I was absolutely bushed when I had finished but I was really pleased with the result and its inspired me to start crafting again.  So on Sunday I did some sewing to complete a couple of orders that I had and then I decided to have a play with my distress inks and have a go at making something that I had seen when I visited the Craft Den back in November.   With a few alterations I am very pleased with the finished result and have decided to use it for my scrapbooking class this week at Vanilla Crafts (our first one back since the Christmas break) 

I cut the shield shape from grungepaper and then used my white paint dabber on the swirl stamp, when the paint was dry I used 3 colours of distress ink to colour the grungepaper.  I then stamped the flowers in black archival ink, mounted the shield onto black card and cut out leaving a small border, mounted the photo (Bradgate Park in the snow) onto black card and placed in the centre.  The large flower was made by glueing a page of a magazine onto the scraps of grungepaper then cut out using the tim holtz flower sizzix die. I then tinted them with the same distress inks, curled the edges and placed a brad in the centre.  The numbers are cut using my large sizzix letter / number dies in black card and then glazed with glossy accents.  Calendar tag attached to the bottom of the shield and ribbon inserted for the hanger.  It measures approx 8" square.

I really enjoy getting messy with Tim Holtz products and I hope you like it the finished result as much as I enjoyed making it.

New Year

Happy New Year

Yes I know we are half way through January but this is my first post of the new year.  Things were so hectic in the run up to Christmas and then just when I had time to relax down I went with the dreaded lergy and spent most of Christmas and New Year in bed with flu.

Now fully recovered (well almost) and feel up to crafting again.

I've took the bull by the horns and started my own Scrapbooking Crop after being badgered by a few ladies at Church who wanted to have a go.  We held the first one last Saturday 15th January and took over my sister's conservatory as our crop room (because it is a lot bigger than my craft room).  There were 6 of us and I made up a kit using papers from Kaisercraft's Spirograph collection, Bazzill Cardstock and Pearls.  I did 2 layouts to give them an idea.

We had a good time and they've all booked up for next month so I need to get my thinking cap on.

Here's the two layouts that I did as samples







The Photographs were from this years holiday in Bude, North Devon