Naturally Beautiful.....Cherry Tree Lane.

  Hello There, this is my first attempt at making a decorated book.
 I have been working with Kaisercraft's beautiful Cherry Tree Lane Collection which has a wonderful vintage feel to it and combines with the age old art of letter writing, sending telegrams and old fashioned typewriters plus natures finest blossoms. This really is such a pretty collection!

I started with an old book that I had bought from a boot sale back in the summer and leaving the very first and last page out, I folded back 2 pages at a time, folded in half to the centre of the book. I carried this on right throughout the book and then gently inked the edges with an old ink pad.I also stuck the first and last pages down flat onto the front and back inside covers of the book.

Next I set about cutting pretty elements out from a sheet of Cherry Tree Lane - Letters (perforated) 
This is a heavier weight than the standard sheets and is indeed perforated into several sections 
                                   

 

I used the floral elements at the top and bottom of the book on alternate sides and then tucked various other letters, postcards and other ephemera in various places.

I used a sheet of Cherry Tree Lane - Leather to make a couple of Rolled Roses, you can see a youtube tutorial here 

and then added a few other paper flowers, along with some scattered punched out sprigs.

And to finish it all off I also added some wooden buttons and some pearly swirls, lace and and a pearly spray. I really quite enjoyed creating this, so I will probably try another one sometime with another collection.

Warmest Wishes

Anita xx

Because of your Smile ....Kaisercraft Porcelain

Hello again,  Today I am sharing a couple of layouts I made for the April DT at Papermaze  using some of the beautiful papers from Kaisercraft and their Provincial Collection
The first layout is of our youngest daughter, when she was still only a baby. She adored my parents Irish Terrier called Paddy and he used to follow her about and keep an eye on her.

I used a sheet of Porcelain for the background of the my page and then cut out various sections of brickwork from a sheet of Cobblestone, the saying also came from the reverse of the same sheet.

I raised the entire edge section of the brickwork onto foam pads to add dimension to my page.

I then cut out a few clocks from a sheet of Hedge and popped onto the page, some were whole clocks and others are only parts.

I also cut out a few flowers from the Hydrangea sheet. I really like the textured appearance of the cobblestone paper and its versatility to virtually *mould* it to fit whatever size/shape photo you choose to use.

For my 2nd layout I decided to try and use up some of the scraps left from the first page . I based the page on a sheet of cardstock.....but then felt it was just too plain for my liking ( I am a bit of a nightmare at leaving *white space* on a layout and I find it really hard....so I rummaged around and found various lids of different sizes.

I dabbed these with a white paint dabber and them stamped them randomly onto the page and allowed to dry.

I then scattered out various different flowers and clocks left over from the other page and added some punched out leaves, white mesh ribbon and some card candi that I raised on tiny foam pads.
I finished the layout by popping on a couple of paper roses

Thanks for looking, have a grrrrrrrreaaaaaaaaaaaat  week! xx

The *C* word.......

Hello There...

I hope you have had a wonderful weekend? I certainly have been lucky enough to! I have been away on a long weekend crafting retreat with 11 of the most lovely ladies that I am also lucky enough to call friends. Have had a super creative time and lots of laughter and yummy food with perfect company.

I have got some things to share, but i need to photograph them properly and then I will pop them on here.

But for now I thought I would try to catch up a bit on some previous layouts that I made....so I will start with this one that made using 'A Christmas Carol' papers, from Graphic 45 and photo's of my cheeky nephews and nieces xx

Thankks for looking xxx

Santa Baby.....2009

I made this layout using Echo Park's 'Seasons Greetings' papers. And then I die cut some swirls and findings using some Sizzix Bigz dies by Tim Holtz.

I used some silver mirri board to cut the shapes and then dabbed with alcohol inks, using terracotta and the mettallic gold.
I then punched 3 large circles and 3 large squares, stuck the squares in the centre of the circles and folded the excess of the circles back over the edges of the squares.
I then repeated and punched  6 small of each. I finished them off by popping crystals in the centres.
The photo is a few years old and is of Chloe ( posing for a Christmas card photo lol) I used some gold glitter AC Thickers for the title. xx

Here Come The Babes

the Blossom Babes that is. We were mostly all team  mates in a team on UKS and have been together several years, unfortunately when things changed to social groups on UKS things drifted somewhat and it lost a lot of what we enjoyed it for so we moved away from there....but we still stayed together!! Along the way we have grown and we now have our special honourary Blossoms too :)
I am lucky enough to be able to call ALL of these lovely, special, kind hearted souls my friends. Every year we all get together for a crafting retreat in Essex in the beautiful setting of Debden House. Some of the girls I get to meet each month at our local crop or classes, but some of them we only get chance to get together with at Debden. We do however all keep in touch online. This is a photo taken at this years retreat, sadly we were missing 2 of our regulars, Jill and Gilly ( and girls, we really REALLY did miss you, it was not the same without you both there....roll on 2013!!!) When I saw the colours in the photo I knew it would be a good one to use with these lovely papers.

They are from the My Minds Eye Miss Caroline collection, such pretty patterns and colours aren't they. The bingo card was from a sheet of Simple Stories paper, the butterflies punched out with a Martha Stewart punch and the title is using AC Thickers.

I was totally inspired by an idea on a layout I saw well over a year ago by a fab scrapper called

Davinie Fiero

she used circles and squares together and I LOVED the effect.

Anyway, all that is left to say is that I just LOVE these girls....they are the best.....and I count myself very blessed to know them xxx

Tiny Dancer *Prima Fairy Belle*

 OK, I am officially IN LOVE with this range of papers from Prima!!! which is bizarre to say the least as I am really NOT a fairy kinda girl, but I really REALLY have fallen for these ones.
And I just knew straight away that I had to scrap these pics of Chloe, when she was just a little herbert bless her. She used to go and watch Lauren at her ballet class and was desperate to go to classes too but they would not allow little ones to start until they were 3! So a few days after her 3rd birthday she was raring to go and I took a few shots of her....just look at those precious little feet....so teeny awwww. This is one of the layouts I made at our recent Blossom Retreat.
I used a REALLY old sheet of Basic Grey Vagabond 'Vintage Paisley' and then a torn edged sheet of Prima Fairy Belle En Pointe which I sewed onto the BG sheet.

 I used some silver glitter AC Thickers for the title and changed the colour by gently dabbing with various colours of Alcohol inks.
I also used some teeny alpha stickers.

 The chipboard flourish is by Dusty Attic and I sprayed it with Cosmic Shimmer Mist and added a few little sparkles with Crystal Stickles.
I printed out some butterflies from Swirlydoos and used Stickles Rock Candy and Icicle to decorate them and also the fairy.

The flower was made from chiffon and I singed the edges, then added Stickles and crystals. I used a MS deep edge punch which I also sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer Mist. I used various little blossoms that were originally white, but I sprayed them with the mists too so they co-ordinated with the page.

I really enjoyed making this page so much and it was lovely to use some of my older photos that were taken before I had a digital camera.
I have DEFINATELY got to get myself some more of the Prima Fairy papers though....watch this space!


Warmest wishes Anita xxxxx

Follow your heart!

A few weeks ago, when these lush papers hit the UK, I just HAD to have them and made a couple of layouts straight away. Now I LOVE most of the more recent MME ( My Minds Eye) papers and these are definately no exception. The Follow Your Heart ranges come in 2 colourways, the blue range is called 'Be Amazing' and the pink range is 'Be Happy'. I love them both and really enjoyed scrapping with them.

This is my layout using some of the 'Be Amazing' range. The pics were taken in Sept last year, on our 19th wedding anniversary ( I met Dale on his dinner break from work and we had a picnic by the local pond ;) )


The sheet of 'Honey Blue' paper in the range is covered in beautiful hexagons of various colours and patterns. Rather than use them all as whole hexagons I thought I would partially pop them behind the centre circle of the layout to create a different border. I even used the cut off strip ( turq) that you normally throw away ( it has the manufacturer and paper name on the back)

And the teeny little banner that says Follow Your Heart was on the same throw away strip! Too nice not to use eh :)
Then I just added a few pearls, some garden twine and punched some butterflies with a Martha Stewart punch.
I LLLLOOOVVVEEE these papers....have I already mentioned that???
I will blog my pink page in my next post.

Thanks for looking, have a super Sunday...xxxxx

Scrapology December Card Challenge

Chrissy from Merly Impresssions is our card sponsor this month.

She has set the challenge to use leaves on our cards...whether it be leaves, leaf shapes or leaf colours ( I just LOVE the colours in the autumn leaves, don't you?)

Here is my card for the DT this month.....I have to say it turned out a bit differently than the one I pictured in my head LOL.



I used 2 different leaf punches to make the wreath and then added some flat backed gems, a Craftwork Cards sentiment and a lovely K&CO brad for the top( because I am rubbish at tying lovely ribbon bows!!)

You have plenty of time to join in with the challenge and we would love to see what you create. Why not pop over to Scrapology and see what super cards the DT have made and have a look at the amazing prize that Chrissy has kindly donated for the lucky winner.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Glorious in Green.....and so proud of our girlie!

This is a layout I made a few weeks ago and had forgotten to blog. Its based on a sheet of Bazzil Dotted Swiss and usess papers by My Minds Eye and Pebbles. The aqua braid is a length of original 1970's braid I have been itching to use some more of it. the piccy is of the girls, back in May at Abbots Wood in Arlington.


I used my large circle punch and punched out lots and lots of circles from the double sided Pebbles paper, I then fold some of them and placed them round the photo to make a dimensional frame.

The bird was an acetate shape that I just dabbed with 2 different alcohol inks and then hung on a metallic thread and popped on a flower and teal pearl.

Using a few of the punched circles I folded 2 of the sides inwards and then placed them side by side to create a dimentional border. And then, because it all just seemed too white and clean....I inked the edges of the whole page lol.


And I simply must end this post with a HUGE WELL DONE to Lauren! We have always been so proud of both our girlies....but today Lauren got her GCSE results ( which she has taken a year early!) and she has done really well and got some super results....we are thrilled for her and so very,very proud......
Well done Sweetheart....we knew you could do it. Good luck in year 11. Love Mum and dad..xxx

'Smile please' and a fabulous weekend away.(photo heavy)

I have just been away for our annual retreat with a group of very lovely, talented and inspiring ladies....not to mention the fact thay they are really good friends. We have scrapped, made cards, eaten, laughed and laughed some more...till we ached at times and it was absolutely brilliant!
Between us we made 69 layouts,18 cards, and various mini albums....so not a bad weekends production. I thought I would share my creations over the next few days.

here is my first one. 'Smile Please'
Its based on a sheet of Kraft Bazill which I laid a fancy doily on and sprayed using 2 colours of Cosmic Shimmer Mists ( gosh I just luuuuuurve those things!)

I then took some cream lace and some pale pink chiffon roses( from a £1 hairband from Primark...don'tcha just love a bargain!!) and laid them on some newspaper and sprayed them to co-ordinate with the background colouring.

Now, not wanting to waste the now pretty newspaper, I placed a torn section behind the photo and used the rest to punch out some flower layers using various size Retro flower

punches....and a half pearl for the centres

I then sprinkled a few pearls and crystals about and printed out some butterflies and stickled them and added a few prima flowers. Then finished it off by shimmering the AC thickers title.

oooops, I forgot to say I embossed some gold mirri board, painted it with cream acrylic and then buffed the paint back off when it was dry to create this distressed border.

I am really, REALLY pleased with the results of using the newspaper....it would have been a shame to just throw it away. And yes, I do know that the newspaper isn't acid free and isn;t the best thing to put by my photo....but you know what? I don't mind too much...I am sure it will last ok in my album for a few years :)


Here are a few shots from the weekend. As you can see we were busy beavering away and here are some of the girls looking at our results. Believe me, if you had seen the tables about half an hour before this photo was taken you could hardly see a bare inch of space....the whole hall was overflowing with totes and stash till it came out of our ears LOL.

I will leave you with a few photos that I took very early on saturday morning. Lynn and i went for an early morning walk in the gardens....it was frosty and very pretty ( and VERY cold on sandal clad feet LOL)

The frost on the monkey puzzle tree was amazing, such large crystals.

I think this will appear on a layout at some point :)

What a bizarre ice formation....looks almost like a horny/horned ice slug LOL!

Have a super day whatever you are up to!

Warmest wishes Anita..xxx

Happy Birthday Jill!

Today is a very special day :), its our lovely friend Jill, of Cardinal Colours, birthday.....so here is hoping you have a very special day Jill and an extra special weekend ;)

Here is the card I made for Jill, hope she likes it :)
After seeing these fancy edged circles on a few blogs I really wanted to have a try at making them myself, I was pretty sure I knew how to and had a play( which worked :D ) and I also scouted about and found various instructions all shown the same way. Basically all you do is cut whatever circle size you want and then go all around the edge with a corner punch ( preferably a Martha Stewart one) being careful how you line them up and 'Voila'!! No big secret, no hard job, but you get some really lovely page embellies to use. So I just made a small version and created this card.



I then just added some blossoms, bling, punched leaves, ribbon, a glass pebble and a sentiment...oh yes and a butterfly that I Stickled and then sprayed the whole card with some Crafters Companion Spray and Sparkle. I popped some silicon under the butterflies wings to make them stand up
So....once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JILL......hope its a good one.......Lots Of Love Anita...xxxx

Ooooooooh! Young man!!....and a VERY quick card.

Just HAD to share these pics of my darling man with you! Over Christmas with us being ill he decided it would be nice to have a break from shaving and let the stubble *be free*....well I am not normally a lover of stubble I have to say( unless its back to the 80's with the George Micheal designer look lol)....it prickles and makes my face sore( when he gives me a kiss....NOT when I grow it on my face I hasten to add!!!) anyway, after about 10 days he had quite a beard growth, so, jokingly I dared him to grow it for a month JUST to see what he would look like with a proper beard ;)
Well it grew....and grew and went from the harsh prickly to being quite soft a fluffy and I quite liked it( I rather like Gerard Butler( phwaor!!!) in the film '300' and liked to think that Dale was starting to resemble him a bit he!he!he!.....but I did draw the line at buying him a Spartan outfit lol. If you don't know what Gerard looked like in it google it....he is rather lush ;) ) Anyway, his *fluffle* started getting unkempt and out of control and he decided he had had enough......so along with a new haircut from moi off came the facial hair too. Gosh, I swear its taken 10 years off of him!! I feel like i could be dating his younger brother ( except he hasn't got one lol) So, begone the '300' look....cos I like my 'young man' :) i think I *may* need to do a layout about this.

One of my lovely Aunt's is staying with my Mum and Dad for a couple of days and it was her birthday on friday. I had originally made her a card using my Cosmic Shimmer mists....its my first proper attempt with them, but I think she is more of a 'clean' look type of card person......so I ended up making this one instead. Sorry the photos are not very good, they were taken last night and light in my kitchen isnt very good.

I used my Martha Stewart triple butterfly punch and CWC greeting, plus a few little crystals....I think this has to be THE cleanest card I have ever made....not a swipe of ink anywhere!!!

Right, well I best get off the internet for a bit I guess.....there is a whole pile of ironing with my name on it and I need to just finish off a scarf that I have made for my Sister.

Hope you all have a super Sunday

Warmest wishes Anita..xxxx

Truly Beautiful!

Well I think she is anyway...and I know I am biased!
We had a little stylin' session one afternoon and Chloe wanted her hair put into ringlets if possible....she sure looked cute, so we shot outside for a little photo shoot.
I thought the photos would work on these lush papers by Bo Bunny ( I just ADORE BoBunny.....I may have mentioned that in the past???LOL)






These papers are from the Peacock Lane Collection and are just sooooo delicious
! I have used 1 sheet each of Peacock Lane, Dot and Tweet...and with a little bit of cutting out, some punching ,a little sewing and a sprinkling of gems I ended up with this :)



I LOVE it....and so does my little Curly Wurly Princess!!!

Warmest wishes Anita..xxx

Flutterby Wishes...

Hello there :)....I hope you are having a great weekend so far? Well, better than I have been having anyway LOL. It started last night....after spending the whole day sorting out stuff for a garden sale and totally shifting all the furniture round in the lounge( and hurting my blinking back!!) I then went on to accidently flood a fair portion of our kitchen :(. I started to run the water in the sink for the washing up and popped in the lounge....then I got side tracked.......ooooops!

A little while later I walked back into the kitchen......to see water and bubbles streaming out from the cupboards under the sink...all across the worktops and dripping down through each set of drawers....and all across the carpet :( :(....!"!??!*!!

....and so BEGAN THE MASS EXODUS OF ALL ITEMS FROM SAID CUPBOARDS!!!!!!
Today the carpet is still sodden....BUT the cupboards are nice and shiny inside....NOT impressed and very angry with myself....Ho!Hum!!!! And it was wet and horrid this morning so no garden sale either.....and now the nicely shifted round lounge is full of boxes and bags of *stuff*....so maybe we will try tomorrow....weather permitting.

Anyway, enough of soggy things....I thought I would share a card I made the other day with some left overs from a layout. Its bits and scraps of Scenic Route, some bazzill, a prima blossom, some bling and some lush lime lace from my lovely blogging friend Sarah ( thanks Hun :) )

The flutterbys are double layed and punched from cardstock and a layer of vellum, their bodies are made from wire and beads and the left over wire is twirled to make the antennae.

DON'T FORGET YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO GET YOUR ENTRY IN FOR THIS MONTHS CHALLENGE OVER AT SCRAPOLOGY......AND THERE IS A FABULOUS PRIZE KINDLY DONATED BY JILL AT CARDINAL COLOURS......GO ON...YOU KNOW YOU WANT TOO!!!!