Too much chocolate - a sketch challenge

Time for another sketch challenge over at Sketchbook365 and this time the sketch is based on a layout by Birgit Koopsen (check out her gorgeous blog)...

 I rotated the sketch by 90 degrees and went from there. I love these new camera sheers by Maya Road.

I am gradually rediscovering my stamps, particularly inspired by fellow design team member Emilie Chamel's stamp only layouts - they are fabulous. These are some circle stamps by Basic Grey, from their Lime Rickey collection, which is my all time favourite collection from them.

Now I have a huge collection of washi tape I am looking for ways to use it. Here pieces of tape made up the borders.

Check out the Sketchbook365 blog for more fantastic interpretations of this sketch and if you play along there's a chance to win a great prize from Pink Paislee. The deadline to submit your page is 20th June 2013.

A stencil and some embossing powder

I had an idea to try to use a stencil with a Versamark inkpad and embossing powder. For my stencil I used an old piece of die-cut card stock. This was my first attempt. It hasn't come out particularly clearly as I meant to put white embossing powder on the page but sprinkled clear powder on instead - oops! So I wiped it off and started again but the page was still a little sticky and the design didn't come out completely clearly. Fortunately for this page, with a seaside theme, I think it has worked rather well (a bit reminiscent of breaking waves).

I finished off the page with a bit of machine stitching. I have a confession... I was really impatient and didn't swap in the old needle I use for sewing on paper, I just used the new one already in there - naughty me!
I really like the fine detail that the stitching adds to the page.

I think I will definitely try again with the stencil and embossing powder.

Wednesday Love : Live Music

Time for a little mid-week happiness and this week it's all about live music. Last Friday my friend and I went to Cardiff to see Mcfly. It was so brilliant! I love going to see bands play live and I have a vast collection of tickets, and memorabilia from the various shows I've been over the years. O.K., so here comes the strange bit - I have never scrapbooked any of it.

I love being at a gig, with that all-encompassing experience of the music and the lights and the people , with the bass and drums thumping in your chest and beams of light streaming over the audience. I can't begin to get my head around capturing that on a scrapbook page. My friend took this great photo above, which would be a fantastic start to a page but then I stall and can't imagine what to put with it. Maybe a Project life style page with loads of photos would work??

Have you ever scrapped photos/tickets from a gig? I'd love to see your pages.

For more midweek happiness, here's my favourite Mcfly song at the moment, which hasn't been released yet but sounds amazing live...RED

That yellow coat

Buying this yellow coat for the Boy was one of my best purchases of the past year. It makes him so easy to find when he goes charging off away from us. When I saw him standing by those yellow leaves I knew I had to take a picture!

I love using yellow patterned paper for a background this one is by American Crafts from their Shoreline collection.

I'm also continuing to use up my stash of Sassafras Lass products, with a border strip and large arrow sticker on this layout. And continuing my love of button badges, here's another one from Paperchase. I always remove the pin from the back of a badge to help it stick on to a page better and sometimes the front of the badge will pop off from the back. Sticky foam pads work well to stick the badge top down.

A new skirt

I have really enjoyed the recent TV series "The Great British Sewing Bee". It made me remember how I am not very good at dressmaking. I usually get in a flap over patterns followed up by a phone call to my Mum to help decipher the instructions. (All this from someone who studied Costume Production  at college - oops!).

I made myself a skirt last year from a kit I bought at a big craft fair at the NEC. It was a bustle skirt kit from Clothkits and I fell in love with this fabric with the viewmaster reels on - It's so lush (as we say round here!). It was also on special offer for the fair (Clothkits are quite pricey). This fabric is a cotton linen fabric so it has a really nice weight to it.

I followed the instructions and made myself a bustle skirt which got lots of lovely comments when I wore it to a party, but I didn't find it particularly comfortable (probably due to my own dressmaking skills rather than the design). The bustle skirt is made from sewing two straight rectangles together so it was easy to unpick and be left with two large pieces of fabric. 

I found a great pattern for a reversible A-line skirt in the March issue of Sewing World , which is the one with my fabric eggs on the front cover. I had just enough fabric to cut out the pattern for the skirt. It was supposed to be reversible but I used a white polycotton as the lining instead so I had enough fabric to complete the under skirt layer too. 

This skirt is much more practical to wear and, as I am getting a bit fed up with jeans, I think it could get a lot of use this summer - and later in winter with tights and boots. It fact I like this so much I have already bought some more fabric for my next skirt. You can see a sneak preview of the fabric here - it's quite quirky!

Love that smile - a multi photo layout

I had a go at a multi photo layout following a sketch as part of the Creative Crop for National Scrapbooking Day over on Big Picture Classes. This was the sketch from the challenge by Donna Jannuzzi.

I had a selection of photos of the Boy from different days out last year which I really liked but didn't have a particular story to tell for each one. Putting them together on one layout has worked really well.

This was a fairly simple layout to put together, mostly using papers and stickers from Amy Tangerine's collection by American Crafts. I added some "you are awesome" stamps amonst the text in the background using my new American Crafts Dear Lizzie roller stamp.

Wednesday Love: A sunny bank holiday

We had a fantastic sunny day out at our local Agricultural Show on Monday. It's a family tradition that we go to the show every May Day bank holiday and we have been when it has poured with rain and when it was so cold we all had to buy woolly hats, so it was a rare treat to be there in hot sunshine - along with nearly everyone else in the county!

We saw lots of different farm animals - the Boy thought it was really funny that they seemed to all be staring at him! The kids went on a bouncy castle and we won some cheap prizes on the Hook a Duck stall...

We had lots of sweet treats to keep us going - smoothies, ice-cream, doughnuts and candy floss.

We had a "wheely" good time!