Surround yourself with those that make you happy xx

It's not often I get totally bowled over by a paper collection...however this release from Kaisercraft has most certainly done the job! It's called Indigo Skies, is truly beautiful and combines stunning butterflies, soft denim, white washed woods, marbled stormy hues amongst other things. This collection is perfect for scrapping the girls...or the boys! And I couldn't wait to get playing!

I used a sheet of blue cardstock for the back frame of the layout, then trimmed a couple of thin strips off a sheet of white cardstock. I spritzed a little misting of Dylusions Ink Spray in London Blue and drew lightly in pencil round a tea plate to give me the outline of a circle to follow to create my wreath on the page.

I had chosen our Christmas Day 2016  Family Selfie to use on the layout and printed it in black and white as I felt this sat better amongst the blue tones and on the white ( I plan using the same pic in colour on some Christmas papers at some point)

Next it was time to cut out lots of bits and pieces to create the wreath.

So I chose 3 sheets of the papers to use. The butterflies are on the Chambray sheet and compliment the flowers on the Misty sheet perfectly. I also cut up some sayings from the Blue Moon sheet too. I stuck the various items down following the pencil outline as a guide, overlapping some areas and folding the wings back on the butterflies to give dimension.

I also popped on some sequins ( one of my favourite embellishments at the moment!)

I chose a wooden title saying Family that I found in my stash which I was going to paint, but I wanted a really deep sheen finish and decided to use some Gilding Flakes instead in Silver, this gave a really pretty finish. Some little flat backed crystals on the butterfly bodies finished the layout off perfectly without over doing the glitz!

Gosh, have I mentioned just HOW much I love this collection!!!

As I had cut out a few extra bits and pieces and had some left over I thought I would throw together a 2nd layout super quickly....so out came the spray inks again.....

I absolutely LOVE these butterflies.....so pretty!

And that Chambray paper.....well it just looks like someone has torn a pair of jeans up.

I LOVE it!

Do yourself a favour and pop some of these beauties in your basket when you are next in the shop or online, they are just so lovely to scrap with.

Later on this month i will be back with some cards I have made using the same collection.

Til then, Happy Scrapping!!

Warmest wishes

Anita xx

'Uniquely You'......... Serendipity by Blue Fern Studios

 I have been playing with some fabulous papers from Blue Fern Studios. This is the first time I have worked with these papers and I just cannot get over the wonderful quality of each sheet and the stunning designs on them, what a pleasure it's been ( I can see a new obsession brewing here!)

The photo's of our youngest were taken on a sports award night that she attended and was awarded Sportswoman of the Year. The photos were taken before the ceremony and so I will now also be having to scrap the photos of her with the awards too!

I started off with a sheet of Serendipity - Chronicle as the background and took a sheet of Serendipity - Imagination which I cut a random wavy edge around and also inked up the entire edge with a dark brown ink pad.
 On the right hand side I tore a line in towards the centre of the page and then rolled the edges back.  I chopped up the sheet of  Serendipity Calling Cards, chose the ones I wanted for this page and gently inked the edges. These were then used up for layering around the photos

In my kit I had a sheet of Bazill Cardstock called Lagoon and because of the small tints of blue in the actual papers, I thought I would use the cardstock to create some flowers to adorn the page. I punched out several flowers, spray misted the die cuts with water and allowed them to soak in for a while, before then scrunching each one up and putting to one side to dry for using later.

Once they had dried out I layered them up and stuck a nice big flat backed gem in the centre ( I LOVE a bit of bling!)

I don't know about you but I really love using chipboard embellishments on my pages, they are so versatile and can be left plain as they come or can be inked, painted, glittered etc to dress them up. I took these Blue Fern Studio Berry Stems dabbed them with an Aqua Acrylic Dabber and then gently sponged some tiny patches with some gold acrylic paint. I also added some little crystal bling on some of the berries.

I quite often like to add butterflies to my pages, so I printed out some onto white card and then coated with Sprinkled Sugar Stickles. 
I also used a beautiful chipboard Romantic Page Dangle which I painted in brown and over dabbed with some gold acrylic paint. Using some jute twine I criss crossed stitched across the torn section on the right hand side of the page and layered the chipboard dangle over the top, adding crystals, a butterfly and also another handmade blossom.

 I finished the page off by adding a few crystals here and there and also using a bottle of Mercury Glass Stickles , I used various round items as a stencil and dotted the Stickles in blobs around them.

I enjoyed using these products so much and cannot wait to play with them some more, if you pop over to Papermaze you can see all the products I have used , especially the beautiful papers in the Blue Fern Studios ranges.

Thanks so much for looking at this post, I hope you have a super scrappy week.
Warmest wishes
Anita x

Single moments make great memories.

Last year I used these gorgeous papers from the Bontanica collection by Kaisercraft, apologies for the photos, they are not very sharp and really do not do the layout or the plaque justice. Lots of fussy cutting on the layout and the addition of lots and lots of Crystal Stickles ( such a shame you cannot see the sparkles in the photo)

The photograph of me and my lovely Hubby was taken whilst on holiday in August 2015 and we visited the Norfolk Lavendar Farm....what a beautiful place. And at last it gave me chance to use my rainbow umbrella that I purposely bought as a phto prop about 3 years ago LOL!

I used the left over peices of paper to cover and decorate a wall hanging plaque and I added a photo of some pretty special ladies I know and have the absolute pleasure of calling my friends xxx
I added some paper blossoms and raised the oval section with the lovely saying on up on foam pads and then liberally used the Crystal Stickles again.....I LOVE Stickles!!

A Little bit of Lemoncraft

Hello :) I thought I would share a layout that i have made using some gorgeous papers by a company called Lemoncraft. They have released some beautiful ranges and they are all very much in the shabby chic range of designs. The papers are all double sided and this presents the problem of which side to choose??? They are all gorgeous! I thought they worked well for me to scrap this photo of Chloe and a friends lovely little dog, Dylan, taken in the summer of  2014.

I used a sheet of card-stock to back the layout on and cut away a border from the paper of about 1cm.
I am a bit of a magpie and love all things of a sparkly nature, so this heart shaped dazzler was perfect for popping on the page....along with some small doilies, paper hydrangeas and flat backed crystals

I used a 12 x 12 harlequin mask to make a pattern on the page with some homemade texture paste ( made from baby powder, PVA glue and water) This smells soooo good and I always love a bit of texture and depth on my pages. Sometimes i add a bit of acrylic paint or glitter into the paste too.

I also popped some small pieces of cheesecloth onto my layout, tucking them under flowers and torn edges. Again this is another way to add some dimension, but without actually really adding any bulk.

I am looking forward to playing with some other ranges from Lemoncraft, they all look beautiful.
Thanks for looking xx

Happy Birthday our beautiful girl xx

Well Monday saw our youngest girly Chloe, celebrate her 14th Birthday.....where DID that time go??? Anyway whilst I was on a fabulous crafting long weekend away with some super talented and lovely friends I made my little lady an 8" x 8" birthday card.....and I am glad to say she loves it :)

Lots of sparkles and glitter and bling..... a Hobby house topper in an adorable design...

......and blossoms and beautiful die cuts ( Thanks Linda)

Happy Birthday Gorgeous Girly....please PLEASE don't grow up too fast! Love you baby girl xxx

U.....Use up your stash....March at Scrapology.

We were lucky enough this month over at Scrapology to lift a wonderful page by our gorgeous DT Member Sandra Dry We were challenged to Use up our stash, so i broke out some really REALLY old stash from my boxes, it's Scenic Route 'Sonoma' and its a good few years old now LOL!It was one of my very favourites of theirs and I still feel sad that they shut down as a company....a sad loss to the scrapping world to be sure!

The photo of my lovely little family was taken whilst on holiday in Buckinghamshire back in 2011, when we visited Clivedon National Trust , its a really lovely place to visit if you are in the area.

I just cut out and layered lots of the flowers and popped on a a few half pearls and crystals, folded some edges back and added lace to finish the page.

Here is Sandra's beautiful, original page that totally inspired us....

and here is the sketch we followed and would like you to also if you choose to play along.

If you pop over to the Scrapology Blog you can see the rest of the DT's beautiful work and also the fabby prize up for offer....we would love to have you play along with us......so go get your stash out and get sticking!!
                 Warmest wishes....Anita xxx

X is for (e)Xplosion.....Feb challenge at Scrapology

My goodness.....February already!!! So here we are with another super challenge from the DT over at Scrapology! This month we have lifted a fabulous and fun layout by Corrie Jones, whose blog you can visit here!
So....the challenge is to create an explosion of embellishments.....it can be any kind of embellishments you like .....I chose sequins, crystals, glitter domes and wood veneer hearts.
I scrapped 3 pics of my eldest gorgeous girly at her prom ( I shall still add some journalling at some point)

I inked and painted through a mask to create the background behind the photos and coloured in a beautiful stamped image by Saturated Canary using Promarkers and added Stickles and Liquid Pearls and then just added a splattering of embellies and finished with a title od AC Thickers ( in my fave colour lol)

Here is Corrie's original and inspiring layout that we lifted...

and here is the sketch that our lovely Lynn created for following .

So....there you go....a fun new challenge to join in with and if you visit the Scrapology blog you can see all the beautiful and varied DT examples....plus see the lovely prize up for offer this month.....what are you waiting for????? Go *explode* everywhere :D

Two Hearts.......Scrapology January Challenge.

Happy New Year to you :) And what a fab way to kick off the new year...... with a super new challenge from Scrapology This month the DT have been challenged to create layouts using Badges ( button badges) after being totally inspired by a fab layout by Michelle, you can find her blog here http://momma-paparazzi.blogspot.com/
Here is my DT offering....in my favourite colours of course LOL!

I used various papers, texture paste and a mask, acrylic paint, wooden hearts, bling, blossoms, stickers....and of course a couple of button badges.

I really REALLY enjoyed making this page and hope you would like to enter the challenge. If you pop over to Scrapology you can see my fellow teamies DT stunning creations.....such talent and such lovely ladies xx
This is Michelle's original layout that inspired us.

And here is our lovely Lynn's sketch for you to go by.

So....there you go. If you would like to play along and be in the running for a wonderful prize, then pop over to the blog and please use the sketch as inspiration....good luck everyone xxx

S....is for Splicing over at Scrapology this month...and the DT have all had fun cutting and slicing into photo's after being inspired by a super digital layout that was created by Miki Krueger. You can see more of her lovely work here

Here is my layout for the DT.....after binning my first 2 attempts ( I kid you not!!) I gave in and decided to cut a thin slice from several different photos all taken on the same evening at my sister's annual Halloween party ( which also doubles as a birthday party for our lovely Mum). We had a super fun evening with us all dressed up...we had everything from a zombie cheerleader, sugar skull zombies, a ghostly convict and Poison Ivy to a complete zombie family wedding, comprising of the bride and groom, Mother of the bride, 2 page boys and a flower girl!

I added some buttons, bling and a mix of doodlebug alpha stickers and some AC Thickers

Here is the original digital layout of Miki's that we scraplifted...

and this is the sketch that we followed.

As always there is a lovely prize that you could win, so why not pop over to the Scrapology blog and see what the rest of the lovely DT have created.....also we have our 2 new members who bring along digital and A4 designs to the mix. We would love to see you play along with us and look forward to seeing your designs....Good Luck everyone and thank you so much for visiting my blog
 xxx

Scrapology November Challenge...lifting Michelle Logan

This month over at Scrapology we are lifting the work of the very talented Michelle Logan. I really enjoyed playing along, but I am not a fan of too much *white space* so used patterned paper and also added extras to it here and there to fill in the blanks lol. The photo is of our youngest, taken when she was aged 6 on a visit to the beautiful Michelham Priory down here in East Sussex.

The technique/challenge is to use Chipboard this month, along the the supllied sketch, so please feel free to pop over to Scrapology, where you can also see the fabulous work of my fellow teamies on the DT!....there is also, as always, a super prize up for grabs. So pull out your stash and get creating :). We look forward to seeing what you design xxx

S....is for Starburst.......Sept at Scrapology

This month over at Scrapology we have scraplifted the talented Sandie Edwards. Sandie's blog 'Delightfully Crazy' can be found HERE.

Here is my entry for the DT this time....please do pop over to the Scrapology blog and have a look at all the fab examples by the DT once again

  

Here is Sandie's beautiful original page......

                                           and here is the sketch that we all had to work from.

Lynn and Linda have offered a super prize of a kit.....so why not have a look at the DT ideas and hopefully they might inspire you to have a play and enter the challenge....if you do GOOD LUCK!

Warmest wishes Anita xxx

M is for Mixed Media over at Scrapology

We are scraplifting our very own design team member LINDA this month by creating a page using many different mediums together on one layout.
 I REALLY enjoyed playing with this page and adding all the various layers of paint, mists, webbing spray etc

 We started off with a 12 x 12" peice of greyboard, which was painted with Gesso.

 

 I then used a harlequin mask and some Sparkle Medium in Turquoise ( thanks Linda)......
and then just went wild with Cosmic Shimmer Sprays, some sprayed, some dribbled....silver webbing spray, large chuck glitter flakes, sequins, crystals, blossoms, buttons and headed pins. I also added some denim and organza scraps.....gosh I DID enjoy all the mess and sparkle.....and discovered in the process of creating this peice....that a little really DOES go a long way.....a LONG LONG way....but it doesn;t matter does it....because everyone likes a bit of sparkle in their lives ;)


The photo is of my 2 gorgeous girls, taken in the springtime in 2011, at Abbots Wood, when we were out on a walk looking at the Bluebells.


  If you pop over to Scrapology you can see all the beautiful designs that the DT came up with, they truly are stunning.....and each so very different! We would LOVE to see you enter this months challenge....you have plenty of time to join in the fun and get messy/sparkly/inky/shimmery :D. Warmest wishes ANita xx