A new start - Project Life pages

Wow, it's been ages since I've written a blog post. Things have been busy and complicated as family life usually is. I agree to do things and then other things happen (poorly children etc) and everything can spiral out from there. So, time for a new start.

I've got lots of things to blog about but this page seems a good place to begin. I love scrapbooking but have been feeling a little uninspired so I decided to give the Project Life style pages a go. I have tried in the past and I did not like how they turned out. I signed up for a "Pocket Pages" class on the True Scrap website, which I found quite interesting to get me started. 

I was also very inspired by the pages from Magda Bolinska. Her pages are fabulous and vibrant and I love the use of paint.

So here's my first go. I mostly used supplies from a "Day in the Life" kit from Cocoa Daisy. The page came together really easily and I like how it looks. I will definitely try a few more PL style pages.

I am currently taking some time to ponder where I am going to be taking my artwork as I'm not sure magazine writing has long term potential. I've taken a few months off writing at the moment, but having said that, a little peek of one of my projects is on the front cover of the latest issue of Scrap365.

It's the star in the bottom right hand corner! I'm on the front cover - woohoo! It feels like my very own Mike Wazowski moment... 

Playing Poohsticks - a textured page

I've finally finished this scrapbook page which I started sometime last year.  I created the textured background using some die cut card and moulding paste and then coloured it with watercolours. I did a whole batch of backgrounds like this and then I have been slowly working back through them.

I used one of my Cocoa Daisy kits to finish the page, including these woodgrain alphabet Thickers (perfect for a page about playing in the woods).

The kit included the twine, sequins, woodgrain notecard and wooden veneer "page". The packet of embellishments in the kit was sealed with a tiny bit of woodgrain washi tape and I think it looks great on the top right edge of the photo.

Scrapbooking an Imaginary friend

My little boy has an imaginary friend. Yesterday I asked him to count how many people were in our family. He answered "1...2...3...4...5.......and my friend astronaut,6". As "My friend Astronaut" seems to be part of our family it is only right that he makes an appearance in a scrapbook! 

The boy has a great imagination and tells lots of stories about adventures he has with his friend Astronaut (who is also 4 I have been told), but his drawing skills aren't quite up to recording what Astronaut looks like. Luckily we had a big sister handy who could document him for me.

I finished off the page with various space themed stickers and rub-ons I had handy in my craft stash.

I am very happy that the astronaut has made his scrapbook debut.

Studio Tekturek pages on Scrap365

I have two scrapbook pages on the Scrap365 blog today using some lovely patterned papers from Studio Tekturek. This is one of them, why not pop over to Scrap365 to see the other one...

2013 - A few of my favourite things

As it's nearly the end of 2013 I thought I would have a little look back at my favourite things of this year....

My favourite scrapbook page

This was inspired by a tutorial video from Creative Jumpstart 2013. I am very excited that Creative Jumpstart 2014 will be starting tomorrow. I love the comic book look of this page

A Breakfast fit for a superhero

 My favourite new craft

I have had fun starting to discover felting this year (and I only managed to stab myself in the finger twice! ). Father Christmas even bought me a lovely new needle felting brush mat, so I won't have to felt into a sponge and peel it off afterwards anymore. I think Father Christmas may have had advice from my Mum.

A celebration postcard

My favourite photo

I took this photo while we were on holiday in Paris and I managed to get all three kids looking at the camera and smiling - hurray! How did we achieve this? My other half was standing behind me and licking my head to make them laugh!

Can you see a resemblance...

My favourite song

My favourite song this year is "Little talks" by "Of Monsters and Men". I love all the different instruments used in this and I think it is definitely a "jangly" song ( This word has been used to describe other music I like).

My favourite kids craft

This was the most fun. Paper plates + paint+ salad spinner = spin paintings!

Spin painting

My favourite book

A perfect blend of modern policing with a large dose of fantasy.

Rivers of London

 My favourite quilt

A pirate quilt for a pirate themed nursery, with my own pattern for the paper pieced boats.

A pirate quilt

 My favourite film

Star Trek:Into Darkness - A fantastic sci-fi film with the added bonus of Mr Benedict Cumberbatch!

And a New Year's Resolution to finish the year... I will try to finish all the online craft workshops I am halfway through!

Happy Days

I made this page using my Cocoa Daisy kit from September. This kit had the perfect colours to go with photos for redheaded children! 

I used a Crafter's Workshop stencil and Distress Inks to make the background.

I had to add a little stitching...

The fun thing about using a kit is that you end up with items you may not usually have bought, like these cuties cut from a sheet of paper. I think they look at home on this page.

Castles and Layers

More cardboard box castles here, but this time they are on a layout.I created this page for a layers challenge on last week's Cocoa Daisy online crop. It has layers of moulding paste, watercolours, papers, stickers, chipboard and stitching.

I used a Crafter's Workshop Brick stencil with moulding paste to make this background.

I continued the layering theme by layering up Maya Road letter rub-ons for my title.

A journalling challenge

Lisa Saunders set a journalling challenge over on Cocoa Daisy and so here is my page with a thankful theme and lots of journalling. I collected the bits and pieces for this page a little while ago and added the moulding paste but this challenge helped me to bring it all together and with a lot more journalling than I would have included before.

I love this chip board piece from American Crafts and I think it works so well with some papers from Cosmo Cricket's Summer Love collection behind it.

I included journalling around the edge of the page, by the photos, on a ticket and on the wooden hexagons too.

I have really enjoyed following these challenges as it is a great starting point for layouts. The challenges are well worth a look with lots of fantastic inspiration from a very talented design team.

Sunbathing - a stitching challenge

Here's another page I made for the Cocoa Daisy online crop and this time it was a challenge from Emily Pitts to use sewing on a layout. I sew on my pages quite frequently and so I tried to go with the idea of it being a challenge and I learnt a new decorative stitch.

I started off by adding some colour to the background. I love patterned paper, but I like it even more when I've added a bit of paint or texture to it. This time I used a Studio Calico hexagon stencil and coloured in some of the shaped with my Neocolor watercolour crayons. Then  I blitzed them with a water spray until the colours started to run and left it to dry.

Part of the challenge was to include a stitched title. I used some Thickers alphabet stickers as a stitching guide and made holes around each letter with a pin before putting the letters back into the packet for another day. You can see here that I stitched on some sequins too.

So here's my new decorative stitch. It's called fly stitch and I watched a video on Youtube to learn how to do it. I think it works really well as the sun's rays and definitely adds something to the page.

A fabric challenge

The pages for the Cocoa Daisy online crop continue with this page for the challenge from Martha Bonneau to use fabric on a layout. I may have one or two pieces of fabric (!!!) in my craft room and so I took a charm pack with me to the crop at the weekend.

If I had been at home then I would have cut the squares neatly with my rotary cutter and stitched them on the sewing machine. However, as I was away from home, I ripped the fabric into squares and hand stitched them onto the page. This took longer but I love how it's turned out. It definitely adds a cosier touch to page about snuggling in sleeping bags.

I was very pleased to find a pack of Cosmo Cricket S'more Love chipboard in a sale recently as I have been thinking about buying some just to have this little tent to go on a camping page.

Cocoa Daisy Crop - A recipe challenge

Last weekend was the Cocoa Daisy online crop. The deadline for the challenges is this Friday and so There is the whole week to play along. You don't have to have a Cocoa Daisy to play along, but I thought it would be a great idea to play along to start using my lovely kits I've already received. I took the kits with me to my local crop on Saturday and found the challenges very inspiring.

This is my first page and it's for Challenge #2 by Mandy Koeppen. Mandy gave us a recipe to work with, which was:
- a splash of colour
- a pinch of sequins
- frills, fluff or feathers
- a spoonful of stamping
- a couple of slices of frames
- vellum or transparency
- wrap it up with twine
- cardstock, title, journalling and layers
- up to two freebies if you like

Here's some twine around a frame.

I combined vellum and a frill by pleating a little and tucking it onto the page. It's tricky including frills and sequins on a boy page, but I'm happy how it turned out.

Here's my splash of colour. It's Neocolour crayons over gesso.

And a spoonful of stamping too.

I think I've followed the recipe and I really like the finished page.

Burying Mr Dinosaur

In the middle of all the autumn wind and rain here, I am merrily scrapping summery sunshine photos. This photo was taken on a really hot day on a Devon beach - ah Summer, I'm starting to miss you!

I used two of my favourite techniques at the moment on this page. The first one is watercolour paint on stamps...

The next technique I'm loving is a bit of embroidery with some simple backstitch, with a sewing template made by cutting shapes out of scrap paper. I think this chevron design works particularly well.

Cosmo Cricket - Part 2

Here is another layout I've made with my prize pack from Cosmo Cricket. I started out with some more of the gorgeous 8x8 Creative Girl papers and I thought I wanted to put them on this pale yellow background but it didn't look quite right. I brushed on some watered down gesso across the middle of the page and around the edge and it all started to come together.

I love adding texture to my pages and this time I used light modelling paste which I pushed through some star shaped sequin waste. I used a little piece of the sequin waste itself too, just to the left of the photo.

I also added a tiny piece of net to add a little more texture.

I coloured the Cosmo Cricket wood charms from the prize pack with my watercolours and stuck them down, along with some uncoloured wood stars and sequins, on top of the lines of machine stitching.

I love the little group of embellishments in the bottom right hand corner. I got to use a tiny piece of the oh-so-sparkly self-adhesive glitter sheet. Glittery goodness!

I love Cosmo Cricket!

A few weeks ago I was really excited to win a prize on the Cosmo Cricket blog when they were celebrating their lovely new products. This was the parcel I received in the post - so many lovely things! It included an 8x8 pad of their Creative Girl patterned papers, 2 sets of wood charms, tiny text stickers, self adhesive glitter sheets, a project hanger and a "Show Topper" lid.

The page above is the first thing I have made with the lovely new products. I really like the papers as they are light and quite neutral in colour (apart from that gorgeous pink) and so they make beautiful backgrounds.

I stitched my title by drawing around some alphabet stickers on scrap paper and then placing the paper on the layout before piercing the stitching guide with a pin.

Here is some of the self adhesive glitter sheets peeking out through a punched strip I made using a craft punch...

I love how this camera stamp came out (from Cosmo Cricket's Sweet Disposition set) after I painted some watercolour onto it...

Come back again soon to see what else I've made.