Playing with patterned papers

Oh, how I love patterned papers! I love them in the shops and I have a startling collection of them now, but when it comes to actually using them on a scrapbook page, I get a bit nervous and go for a plain background (again!). So today I have been feeling brave and inspired by Shimelle's sketches for her class (and her brilliant use of patterned papers).

This was my first one today and although the class sample was beautifully simple, I couldn't resist all the bits and bobs - but I think it goes with the theme of the page .

This was my second page today, which was about revisiting favourites, so I have included bunting, which I love, but before I have made patterned paper bunting on a plain background so today I switched it around. I also managed to use some chipboard letters from Chatterbox which I've had for years and I finally found a word I could spell with the leftovers!

Last weekend's photography tutorial was about creating vintage photos. I had a go and I think it worked out alright, although I'm not entirely sure about the colours as the instructions were for Photoshop and we have PaintShop Pro, so I had to make it up as I went along.

Ir-resist-able

I've been having a play with Maya Resist and if you'd like to see how I got on then click here as it's my Saturday post for Bubbly Scrumptious! But here' s a sneak peek...

Rainbows and smoothies

I've been playing around with photos again, using my photos from Shimelle's class as starting points. I took the idea of taking a series of photos to tell a story and took some pictures when I went out for a smoothie with the blonde one. I didn't find the photos very exciting, but then I added a texture and altered the colour and I think they look far more interesting now. I'm going to print them out on canvas paper to continue the texture.

The texture I used on the photos can be found here on Flickr

We had the most amazing rainbow over the top of the house a couple of nights ago and I went out a took a whole series of photos which my other half very cleverly stitched together for me. Well, actually he had help as we have this great software called Autopano Pro 2 which does all the work for you! I didn't even see the double rainbow until we had created the finished image. The trick with Autopano is to remember to take all the photos around the edge of your picture - we've frequently tried this and found we've missed just one section in a corner.

Cutting and sticking

As it's Saturday again, it's my turn on Bubbly Scrumptious and I've been card making this week. Here's a sneak peek, but if you want to see more click here.

I've been really inspired by the great sketches from Shimelle's class and we've been asked to look at scrapping more than one photo this week. Here's a two photo page...

Oh, how I love charms!...

Rainy Day

I wanted to get the girls outside today to take some pictures in the rain and it started raining really heavily during teatime. Sure enough by the time they had finished and we'd got coats and wellies on the rain had almost gone. Still, I had a go at taking some pictures with the prompts from Shimelle's photography class from this week in mind.

One of the prompts this week challenged us to take photos outside our comfort zone. I usually take pictures of people, so I looked for some non-people subjects. I'm so pleased with this raindrop photo as the out of focus background can be seen upside down inside the raindrop.

The step-by-step technique from last weekend encouraged us to try adding textures to our photos. I've never even thought of this before and I really like the effect. I found a droplet texture on Flickr ( found here) and had a go at applying it to the photo.

Before...

After...

Sweetly handmade

I'm part of the design team for the Vanilla Sugar blog which is a sister blog to Bubbly Scrumptious, but instead of daily posts there is a monthly challenge which we will take part in with the overall theme of handmade decor and gifts.

This month's challenge has been to decorate a box, jar or tin.

I have been thinking about getting out my Fimo for a while as it's been at least a year since I've made anything with it (which is a very long time for me!) and so I've created this sewing tin...

Here's a close up of the millefiori cane I created and then sliced to cover the tin. Confession number 1 - I didn't have enough white so I used transparent white instead which wasn't my intended effect, but I'm pleased with the end result. Confession number 2 - I didn't make my cane quite large enough (don't ask to see the back!)

I created another millefiori cane using a log cabin patchwork design which I sliced and pieced together to make the Fimo quilt. Can you see my "quilted" hearts on the black cushion?

Here's a closer look at the other cushion too...

Come over to the blog and have a look at the other projects by the rest of the design team. There's a great range of projects to see.

Skies - Part 2

I have ended up with lots of lovely sky photos because I enjoy taking them so much ( and have a great "sunset" button on my point-and-shoot!). I wanted to put them into a mini book, but didn't want to take anything away from the photos. I've put together a chipboard binder with acetate pages, so the quotes I added can be lifted off to see the original photos as you leaf through the book. I filled the book with quotes, songs and bible verses about skies, using rub-ons and stamping with Staz-On Ink on the acetate.

One more thing, if you are browsing through the current issue of The Scrapbook Magazine then you may recognise the person who's done the budget challenge - me! I completed three pages for £10. It was a great challenge and I'm really pleased with the results.