The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

On Saturday, Roberts Birthday, we went to Bluewater.

I had a appointment for a facial at the Elemis spa-room in John Lewis and once finished realised I'd forgotten my make-up. A lovely lady on the Bobbi Brown counter gave me a quick make-over so I was ready for our night out.

Following a lovely meal at Loch Fyne - fantastic seafood platter - we went along to the cinema where I had  tickets in the gallery for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which inspired this layout.

I started with a plain piece of white bazzill and inked the edges.

A piece of bubble wrap was dabbed with Tim Holts distress ink pads in Milled Lavender and Faded jeans, the placed onto the white and pressed lightly. I then added splatters of Cosmic Shimmer and Tattered Angels glimmer mists.

Random strips of paper from the BG Kissing Booth collection were cut and inked then placed onto the cardstock. A recent app on my iphone for a photobooth made the perfect photograph for this layout, especially as we took it whilst waiting for the film!

I tied a thin piece of white organza ribbon around the strip, matted onto paper, then stuck it on at an angle. The journalling block was punched with a large scallop from another of the Kissing Booth papers, I chose this bit as it had "25" on it which was the correct date which I ringed with black pen.

A few flowers from my stash were added with pearl and jewel centres along with a spray of gems.

The title is stickers from the BG collection pack which I have edged with fineliner.

I love the way this alphabet came in three different styles.

The Birds are from the element sticker sheet, inked edges and mounted onto 3d foam pads.

I have been browsing many magazines and blogs lately and have used various techniques/ideas that I have seen. I cannot remember where/when so please let me know if the idea is/was yours and I'll gladly credit you.

As for the film????

I haven't laughed so much in a long time, it was absolutely fabulous and I would recommend everyone to see it - it's ageless (unless you are under 12 when you need to be accompanied by an adult!)

TFL

xxx



Lemon Drizzle Cake

I asked Robert what type of birthday cake he would like and he wanted as the title suggests.

I found the following recipe on the internet and set to work - Lemon Drizzle Cake

First challenge - make lemon curd - easier than I expected.

Next, bake the cake - problem - only have a 9" springform tin not 8" :(

Well, I made it but am not 100pc happy with it.

I think it would have helped if I had the correct sized tin - note to self - buy one!

However, here it is:

The filling is Marscapone swirled with the home made lemon curd.

I dusted the top with icing sugar but you can still see where it stuck to the plate when turning it.

The recipe, once the lemon syrup is added, makes for a very soft cake so not easy to handle, it also darkens the edges making it look a tad burnt but I assure you it's not.

May try them as cupcakes???

The cake stand is my latest purchase from Pampered Chef - so glad I did as they are retiring it this month!

Taste test to come, just off to eat dinner first.

Again, Happy Birthday to my beloved Husband

xxx

Fly me to the moon

Its Roberts birthday today and this is the card I made for him.

A 6x6" CWC card covered with a Basic Grey Marjolaine paper.

The stamps were recently purchased in a sale just for this purpose, Robert loves astronomy so they seemed apt.

The background was stamped onto white cardstock then I used my brayer and some Big'n'juicy ink pads to colour it. I also used Copics in areas to enhance.

I dotted the sky with icicle stickles to represent stars and the ground with distress stickles for sand.

The letters are from a sheet which I have added randomly then edged wit a fineliner.

Below is a close up of Astronaut Tilda, I had to add a smile - I hate to think of them with no mouths :(

Note to self - READ labels before applying glossy accents!

As you can see I've used Crackle accents instead!

Happy Birthday Robert xxx

Battersea Park Fun Fair and Tree Walk

I was thinking the other week about my childhood and remembered being taken to the Circus on Clapham Common every year. I think it was Billy Smart's.

It was probably triggered by watching Water for Elephants.

I spent ages on Google trying to find some photographs without any success unfortunately, but whilst looking found the following of Battersea Park.

They bought back more lovely memories as I recall being taken there too.

My sister tells a lovely story of the Rotor which, as it slowed down, ripped her knickers to shreds.

I remember too the Grotto which was artifical caves which you walked through and the one that sticks in mind was walking over a volcano which had millions of jewels in red and orange to similate lava.

The fun fair closed following an accident with the big dipper, scary really as we had been on it the night before! but the tree walk remained open for many more years.

Along the avenue beneath the walkway were loads of candy striped tents selling popcorn. candy floss etc and some too where you could make pictures using paints on a centrifugal wheel.

I am hoping to scrap these pages soon as we have the Cardinal Colours Crop in March and our annual retreat shortly after.

If you remember any of these things, do share your memories, I'd love to hear them!

TFL

xxx

Arrival of Baby James

 Following on from my Patchwork page for baby James, this is the second one for his album, which I made at our February crop day (see previous post).

I used the same set of papers and based my layout on a pagemap.

The paper had a lovely embossed and thermographic glittered circle at the bottom so I used it as a feature on my layout. I cut around the image so the photographs which measure 3x4" fit under the edge. 

The left border was cut with a punch belonging to Lynn, thanks for the loan! :)

I cut a butterfly using a Marianne die twice and layered it up, 3 pearls were added to the body.

A strip of lace from my stash was added and topped with another new die from Memory box, the button strip, which I have stitched into place with some white embroidery thread.

I added a few random "buttons" too along with a few pearls.

A close-up of the lace.

Thanks for looking.

xxx

Second Scrapology crop day.

This time last Sunday, Lynn and I were gearing up for our second crop day.

After much shopping, arranging, re-arranging and planning we were set.

Everyone had a mug filled with goodies including a hot chocolate sachet, marshmallows and a flake - true winter warmers.

Here are some of the ladies hard at work...

I made raspberry ripple cupcakes.

Served alongside the healthy option...

I managed to play too, watch this space!

Follow this link to see some of the lovely pages made that day.

Thanks to all that came and for the lovely feedback, hope to do it again soon!



Scrapology February Card Challenge II

On the decoupage sheet from Crafty Purple Frog, there are two images, this is the second one.

I used some left over paper from a layout - Bo Bunny's Garden Girl - to create the background onto a CWC on the edge card.

I folded the decorative edge back and added stickles to the edge and Candi.

On the inside I added a strip of the Garden Girl paper along with an element from the die-cuts sheet.

Here you can see the layers of the decoupage.

I added a layered flower to finish.

Plenty of time to enter the challenge, hop over to the Scrapology Blog for more details.

Mad Tea Party - Scrapology February Card Challenge

We are lucky to have Amy of The Crafty Purple Frog sponsoring us this month who specialises in digi decoupage images of Ching-Chou Kuik

I chose the Mad Tea Party for my card.

I love to do decoupage anyway so this was a fabulous challenge to do.

I used a CWC 8x8" card in purple, cut a panel with a Martha Stewart anywhere punch to create the lace effect then mounted it onto black. Layers were created with black paper, purple mulberry paper with gold stars and the decoupage image.

I always use photographic paper to print on as I think it gives a better finish.

To embellish I added two roses from a strip over a purple feather & a jewel stem.

A couple of diamante swirls and dressed buttons finished the effect.

Here is a close up of the decoupage

Hop over to Scrapology blog to see more details of the challenge and the other DT cards.

The challenge runs until 15th March so plenty of time to get creative.

TFL

xxx

A new arrival (& smaller version of the sketch)

I was asked to make a card for a colleague who's just had a new baby.

I so enjoyed making the patchwork page for James that I decided to make a smaller version for this.

The paper are the same range as my layout for James but are cut into 2" squares to fit an 8x8 CWC card.

Again I used bunting for the name and added random stitches and dressed buttons.

Congratulations Russell and Karen on your new arrival - he's just gorgeous!

Another P please Bob! (for Patchwork that is)

Couldn't resist the title - hopefully some of you will remember Blockbusters TV show?

I really enjoyed this challenge, this syle of page really works for all occassions.

My niece had her son last October and I promised to make a scrapbook for her as I did for her daughter, and all the great nieces/nephews so far!

I had been shopping Lynn recently and found this a pad of 12x12 papers called Up & Away by Mindy Terasawa. They were just what I had been looking for to start this project, so here is my first page.

I cut some of the papers into the 3" squares as before and once I had inked the edges, stuck them onto a 12x12 cream sheet.

The papers included a sheet of assorted tags and an alphabet too.

I cut around the letters, inked the edges and added to the tags with 3d foam, then added the bunting with more 3d pads. I used bakers twine through the holes in the tags, looping it along the way.

Some of the papers are thermographically glittered as you can see below, just gorgeous!

 I cut a round tag and added below the photograpgh which is 13x14cm and mounted onto the reverse of one of the papers.

A selection of buttons from my button box were threaded with the same twine and added.

And of couse, the random cross stitches onto the page.

For full details of the challenge and fabulous prize on offer hop over to Scrapology blog - some great work by our amazing DT this month too!

Thanks for looking.

xxx

Paris 2011 - Scrapology February Challenge - P is for Patchwork

This month on Scrapology, we are scraplifting a page of S-J's which she taught at Cardinal Colours crop last September called Paper Patchwork.

This is my version....

I used a 6x6 paper pad from Merly Impressions called Bonjour by Kaisercraft.

You get 2 sheets of each design plus pages of elements and tags at the back, the picture doesn't really show the beauty of these pages, some are embossed and foiled.

With a sheet of natural cardstock as a base, I cut 16 x 3" squares of paper from the pad and arranged them on the page. As we had just been to Paris for a long weekend, the theme fit perfectly so I used images/words of the Eiffel Tower/Paris on the squares. The photograph was mounted onto a pink background and then random "X" stitches added with DMC thread.

I used a tag and cut out some butterflies to mount onto it.

This bottom square had a taller tower so I cut around it so it flowed onto the square above.

I cut out the bird and put him in the frame with 3d foam.

Back to my favourite torn roses for embellishment along with some leaves, stickled to make them icy to tie in with the photograph.

This is the pad I used.

Here is our sketch and S-J's original layout.

Why not pop over to the Scrapology blog to see the fantastic designs by the DT and brilliant prize on offer from Jill at Cardinal Colours - Thanks Jill!.

TFL

xxx