Scrapology Card Design

I'm guest designer over on the Scrapoolgy blog for this month

The card challenge was to recycle something - use packaging or twigs or leaves. I decided to do something a little Christmassy with twigs collected from the garden.

I dried them out in the oven and then painted them with gesso. Then I used some old pizza box and removed the top to reveal the corrugated bit and then painted this lightly with gesso.

I layered lots of papers and then arranged the twigs and finished off with a bow.

Its finished off with a stamp from SU and a bow. Quite a simple and easy card

Lesley
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December Scrapology Challenge - Monochromatic ( Guest Designer LO )

I was so pleased to be asked to be a guest designer for this month for the Scrapology challenge blog. I knew whatever the technique or theme was going to be I would have to do something wintery or Christmassy as I just love this time of year.

The theme this month is monochromatic and we had to lift this gorgeous LO from Pam - have a look at her blog HERE and this is her LO

To do my LO I gathered together lots of white bit and bobs and then cut some trees, snowflakes, branches and frames with my spellbinders and other dies. I did a little embossing on the frames to add some definition. I carefully painted all the embellies with perfect pearls to make them stand out a little more. I punched around the edge of the page with a Martha Stewart punch around the page and then placed this on another piece of cardstock on foam pads. I've used more perfect pearls on the trees, snowflakes and all around the edge of the page.

The photo is of my granddaughter a couple of years ago

Thanks for looking and please have a go at the challenge. There is a fab prize from Jill at Cardinal Colours

Lesley
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Some LO's to share

This is using Authentique Papers and was from a class at the Creative Heart and Soul Retreat by Tracie Hudson. Love the colours of these papers

This one is my granddaughter on her 11th birthday having a girly makeover with her friends.

This was another of the cybercrop classes on UKS and again is my granddaughter when we on holiday in the Lakes this summer

And another Cybercrop class - loved this way of using up your scraps. Its a rare photograph of me and my husband taken again by my granddaughter

Well its back to my mini book orders now 2 down and 4 to go

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Fancy Pants Class

This was a class at the recent Creative Heart and Soul Retreat at Antsy Hall.
We all had a fabulous time and roll on the next one in Feb

Papers were all the fancy pants hopscotch range and I loved the paper pleating technique - its so much easier to make paper do what you want when its wet

Photos are of me and my husband on holiday with my daughter, her fiance, Abby and Oliver. My granddaughter took the photos of me and Mike. A budding little photographer I think

UKS Cybercrop

I've had a fabulous week doing some classes and challenges from the cybercrop on UKS.
This was a far more relaxed event than some of the previous allowing people to take their time with their work and pick and choose which classes and challenges to do.

I have been so lucky and won three of the classes.  I have to say I was gobsmacked.

The first was - The Name of the Rose by CoventryAnn.  This was a lovely class and I knew I would do a page for a memory album I am doing for my ex sister in law after the recent death of my X mother law. Although we had been divorced for many years she was nana to my children and we always got on very well and I will miss her so much - she was one of those women who never ever had a bad word to say about anyone

I loved hand making flowers again on this LO I really don't do it often enough
My prize for this one is a large kit from Creative Craft World. I'm really looking forward to receiving it

Next was a class by AliTS - The Adventuress - a Charity shop Bodice ripper.

Lots of inking and misting on this and I had to colour the branch and the twine to match. I mixed lots of colours to do the leaves and had great fun getting very messy

The photo is of my own little adventuress swinging through the trees on an assault course

The prize for this one was a surprise from AliTS - I wonder what it will be


and finally  An Autobiography by Ifa

I very rarely like any photos taken of me or scrapbook about myself. Ifa was so right in everything she said about journalling - who will know that I haven't used the latest papers or products but wont they want to know a bit about the photograph and wont my family want to know about me.  More journalling from me from now on

I loved this photograph of me taken at the Creative Heart and Soul retreat in March by Anna Bowkis.
My prize for this one was 2 classes from Shimelle

And finally don't you just love it when someone de-friends you on facebook.  Good news in my book because at least you know where you stand and they probably weren't really a proper friend and life is a lot easier without them

Lesley
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Creative Craft World Challenge

I decided to enter this challenge as my lovely friend Heather was guest designer after winning the challenge last month - hoping she will show me her prize at the next crop we attend together.

The challenge is over at Creative Craft World Challenge blog and they do have some great challenges and examples. This was one of their scrap maps and I do love working from a sketch. Have a look at Heather's example on the blog its fab

Here is mine - its my granddaughters dog Tana and being a Labrador she just loves water and diving under to pick up stones or whatever is thrown in for her

I used Prima Papers and lots of fussy cutting

This was the sketch

Thanks for a great challenge

XXX

Things with Wings

This is my entry for challenge 4 in the Cupboard Trilogy blog.

The theme was anything with wings and as I love butterfly's on LO's it seemed an ideal challenge for me.

The photograph is of my granddaughter who minutes before this photo had been up to her knees in the river with her dog

Did quite a lot of fussy cutting and layering

Scrap a Sketch LO

This is my LO this month. I think a lot of the team have found this quite a difficult sketch to work with and there have been some very different interpretations.

I knew I had to go vintagey with it and chose a photo of my mum, grandma and great aunt. The papers are Prima

I cut and embossed the corner and the swirl and the lacing was done with embroidery thread












The title used American Crafts alphas placed on a cut out banner from the paper and I gathered some lace to go behind the Prima flowers

And finally the sketch chosen by Lisa was from Dusty Attic

Another weekly challenge

I do try to do the weekly challenges on UKS both to get points for my team and it gets me scrapping different things.

This weeks was set by the Bijoux Belles and was to use a sketch, shades of pink, scraps of paper, bling paints, inks or misting


My LO is of three of my scrapping buddies who I go to Lochhouse in Scotland with (shame that Donna is missing from the photo). Anyway Dee, Heather and Suzy really are special friends who share the same hobby and always make me smile and laugh. Roll on next month when we all meet up again

UKS weekly challenge

This weeks challenge was set by the EK crop run by my friend Suzy.  For a while I've been unhappy with my LO's - nothing seemed to work properly - but then I suppose we all go through that.

The challenge was to use the sketch, chipboard, ribbon or washi tape and stitching

The sketch was challenging but just what I needed. Papers are mainly from fancy pants.  I used distress ink to colour the chipboard title and to do the ink splattering.

Photo is of my youngest son in 1987 when he was about 20months old. Even so small he had excellent hand eye/ball coordination. He looked at this photograph and said he had a better tennis swing then than he has now

This is the sketch used

Thanks again for a great challenge
xx

My Creative Scrapbook Blog Hop

My Creative Scrapbook are holding a blog hop until Friday - pop over and have a go

There are four kits each month - my favourite this month is the Limited Edition - just my style

Scrap a Sketch - Smile

Its seem to have been so long since I posted or even completed a LO. August has been such a busy month. We have been away for quite a bit of the month - in Scotland and the Lake District.

This months sketch was set by Barbara

I knew I wanted to use hessian or burlap as the Americans say but the butterfly shape did not work so I changed it to a heart.

I machine stitched the edge of the heart before carefully fraying the edges. The smaller hearts were made by mounting the hessian onto card before fraying the edges. Most of the elements are matted onto black cardstock for definition.

The photo is of Abby who wouldn't smile showing her teeth until Uncle Andrew came along and made her smile naturally

Scrap a Sketch

Well its that time of the month again for our little group on UKS to upload their LO's. This months sketch was from Scrapfriends and chosen by Heather. I wasn't sure at first but once I started to work with the sketch I loved it, that's what I love about the group, being challenged to do something a little different.

I think it might just be a sketch that I may use again.
My LO is photos of my granddaughter who is really an outdoor girl - she loves, and will walk for miles, horse rides, will tackle any assault course and has recently competed in her first triathlon. Can you tell I'm a proud Grandma

My next LO is one from Creative Heart and Soul class by Tracie Hudson. There were 3 LO's in the class but I sort of combined them all into one

The Cupboard Trilogy Challenge

This is my go for the challenge over on the Cupboard Trilogy Challenge Blog

The challenge was to use this colour palette, such a gorgeous combination of colours

Hope I've managed to get them right - anyway here is mine. The photograph is one I took of  my granddaughter for Cheryl Johnson's online portrait photography course. I love the way the light catches her face through the branches. The papers are from the Prima Songbird collection, with lots of lovely bits to cut out, so I was in my element fussy cutting the branch and birds at the bottom of the LO

Scrap a Sketch June

This month it was Dee's turn to choose the sketch for out little group to scrap and she chose this one from PageMaps. The first thing I liked about it was the stitching - I love stitching on LO's at the moment

This is my LO - my granddaughter on a recent trip to a local farm. The papers are from a recent My Creative Scrapbook kit

My Mini Book

We take it in turns on our team on UKS to run a little challenge for the rest of the team ( I still need to do mine)
This was Dee's and she created this fantastic mini book with full insrtructions for us to do.Why dont you pop over to her blog and you can download full instructions Here
I decided to do mine on some of the places I love too - its been a labour of love with lots of hand stitching but I'm pretty pleased with the way its turned out

and a few close ups of some of the pages -
I called mine home and away as although I love travelling its always lovely to come home and I do love my home

Portrait Photography Workshop

I'm currently doing a 4 week photography work shop on how to photograph people by Cheryl Johnson
This week was to use an adult model - my wonderful prospective daughter in law Helen obliged. It was hard to tell who was the most nervous but we did end up enjoying the session. I found it easy to choose my location for the shots but not so easy to direct, but we muddled through and I'm quite pleased with these