A Day to Remember........

Project 5 was next in line to work on.

This one uses the beautiful Kaleidoscope collection and seeing the pink I decided that these Disney pictures would work well. It's always hard planning which photos to use in advance!

I swapped the first two papers used as borders around so the hotter pink was inside and changed the middle section to Decoupage from the same collection.

Once I had cut my photos I matted them onto the Palette paper. I then cut the floral pieces from this paper and added top left and bottom right along with the ruler paper - also in the kit.

I stamped and cut a tag from the set included and shaped it onto the page. a couple of leaf swirls were trimmed and added behind along with some lacey, glittery pieces that Sandra had cut but didn't use.

The larger butterflies were stamped and cut then coated with Crystal Lacquer - not used this before but I like it a lot. It is thinner than glossy accents and seems to dry faster.

Behind the photo's are a strip from the hot pink which I punched and also the cut off strip from one of the sheets.

The smaller butterflies are a pair from Stamping Up which were also glossed and layered.

Day 2 for Ted started with a little trauma as I found the following when I arrived!

It was very unfortunate that he chose to stay up longer than me on Friday night -

Luckily, Jan found him bound with ribbon in the biscuit basket.

He decided to wear a moustache as a disguise for the rest of the day to be safe!

Mr PG (Peter George) Tipps was found hanging around the clock having been silenced and blindfolded!

Foxy, however, seemed to be unaffected by this - a little suspicious methinks!

xxx

Wall Art Frame

Project 7 was a BTP wall art frame.

After inking all the edges with Distress ink in Purples and blacks, I covered the panels with the sheet of Limelight Vibrant paper that came with the kit.

I then chose to use Violet Crush Dainty paper to rip and add to the ends, this colour scheme fits well with room I had in mind.

I had decided to off-set one of the panels so tore it to match.

The frame was covered with the Lily paper and backed with some more of the Dainty.

I bought a new tool kit from Merly Impressions with some fine filing tools which worked perfectly to get into the detail around the edge.

I cut the photo using an oval die as it was too small to fit the aperture without showing white edges - I may change it later to a larger one - not sure...........

I cut some leaves with a Tim Holtz sizzix die and Memory box rose leaves, then made some roses - my favourite at the moment! - with the Dainty paper. A few punched fronds were tucked in here too.

I had forgotten, of all things, my glitters - disaster!!! But, Sandra to the rescue, I gave the roses a dusting.

Sandra also let me use her new Heartfelt Creations die to cut the flowers above - liked these so much I had to order it.

The photo above shows the dimension of the roses and leaves.

I also added a couple of Memory box butterflies layered with white cardstock and Dainty papers.

Below is the gorgeous original created by Chrissy -

Meanwhile, Desk Ted did some stitching on a layout.........

Then found time to hang out with his friends Mr P G (Peter George) Tipps - an old acquaintance - and new friend Foxy. 

They seemed to be getting on well :)

The big day arrived..............

Desk Ted and I got up early and headed up the A1(M) via the M25 to Wyboston Lakes.

Off to the spa for some rest and relaxation, a massage and Elemis facial (no cameras allowed!)

Then checked in to our room which was light and airy.

Next stop was the scrapping room - my home for the next 3 days!

That's my seat bottom left :)

Onto to the projects..............

I started at the beginning with Project 1 (from a beautifully presented book) but I was not 100% happy with the results so will share that one later once I have finished tweeking!

Project 2 was designed by Ali Parris - here is my version.

I added some roses made with a 6 petal punch and die cut leaves to my page as the elephant is called Tea Roses.

You always forget something and on this occasion it was glitter - a disaster for me - so luckily Sandra and Denise obliged me with some!

The title was letters from the sticker sheet in the kit which I coated with Glossy accents.

Here is Ali's lovely original -

More to follow :)

My name is..........................

Our second challenge was to make a name badge.

As always, I can't keep things simple :)

I started with some mountboard cut with a Tim Holtz sizzix die and painted it hot pink and black.

A thick layer of Kroma Crackle mixed with green paint was added and allowed to dry.

It was a little too green so I gave it a spritz with some black shimmer mist and inked all the edges.

It was getting there but still  not 100% happy I sprayed it with glitter.

I made some roses with a six petal punch then dipped then into UTEE using a meltpot plus some die cut leaves, a swirl and some stems. This made them really solid and unlikely to break.

All were fixed with a hot glue gun once I had decided on placement.

For my name, I used a Sizzix alphabet cut in pink and black which I used as a shadow.

Once in place they were coated with glossy accents.

The crackle shows up quite well here.

Finally I glued a pin to the back and added ribbons but, it was very heavy so I added a lanyard too!

I am very pleased to say that I won first prize for this of some extra pennies to spend in the shop!

Thanks Chrissy and team for choosing my badge :)

Merly Impressions Retreat 2014 - The journey began here.............

Last year we were given an A4 folder (BTP project) and our first challenge this time was to bring it back finished.

I had already started it last year using 75c papers from Kaisercraft and lace but developed it further using paints, crackle medium, distress stains, inks and stamping and that was just the start!

I added a die-cut swirl and cogs covered with gilding flakes.

My name was the left over pieces from another project which I will share later which also involved a melt pot, hence the roses which were made using silicone molds.

The whole front was then sprayed with Crafters Companion glitter for added sparkle.

The inside is covered too but just with paper.

Next installment tomorrow :)

Lynn's card

Finally some time to blog and catch up.

This is the card I made for Lynn's birthday at the end of May.

Its 8x8" and covered with wrapping paper used for her presents, I thought I would coordinate them :)

I punched a frame with a new deep edge Martha Stewart set I got recently.

The image is an Uptown Girl by Stamping Bella which I coloured with Copics to match the papers.

I raised this with 3d foam and drew a line around the edge.

I added a few die cut and punched flowers to the right side and a bow on the left.

As you can see below, her presents matched :)

Hope you had a fabulous Birthday Lynn.

xxx

Scrapology June card challenge - Box it up!

 We are really "en-trend" this month with our card challenge as box cards really are the "in thing"

I chose to make a floral version as below -

The papers are from Craftwork Cards from ages ago and the flowers are all punched an layered with cakecraft stems anchoring them together.

I added a punched butterfly to one flap, 

a greeting to the opposite,

and of course more die cut fronds and flowers to the central one.

Below are some instructions which we found on Pinterest that Tina Wetter kindly agreed we could feature.

So.............plenty of time to enter, why not pop over to Scrapology now for more details?

T is for Trellis - Peony

For our June challenge at Scrapology, we have revisited a favourite designer Gabrielle Pollacco.

My version has the sketch rotated 90 degrees.

The papers are Bo Bunny Country Garden which I cut to 11" square and matted onto some blue bazzill.

I then used a WRMK sew easy and blue DMC thread to stitch around the edge, but, not content with that, proceeded to run 2 lines of machine stitching in white around too.

I tore the cardboard and disressed it with white acrylic paint and added the photos edged also with paint and mounted onto a paler blue bazzill.

The trellis was bought at Alexander Palace recently from Anna Marie Designs, cut and adapted to fit in two places. Die cuts and punched fronds were added with some paper roses leftover from a project I made a while back. I added a little journalling block which I stamped. This is another elephants from the 2010 parade -  I am slowly working my way through them.

My clock face is a Tim Holtz Bigz die, the letters are from the Bo Bunny sticker sheet which have been outlined in black.

Off-cuts of dotty ribbon and other borders from the sticker sheet were added along with some die-cut swirls.

This is Gabrielle's beautiful original and our sketch.............

There is still time to enter the challenge, check here for details.

xxx