Julys entry for the Paperparadise challenge, my first non-human layout!! This is the sketch we had to use for inspiration........
I really struggled with the orange colour scheme but nothing else would have worked so I had to stick with it! I did the journelling in blue to balance with the sky in the top photo unfortunately it looks pale in this photo but it is brighter in the top one.


As described in a previous post of these photos...I get to watch the most beautiful sun-rises over my house whilst I am at work!!!
This journelling block reads.. I love looking at my house from work. I think of my little family fast asleep under the stars.

TFL xxx

Grunge Board Rocks!!



Check this technique out!! I can't wait to get my hands on some of this now that I've seen the posibilities on u-tube!!

Hi Peeps!

Mark and I have been busy wallpapering our bedroom as Mum and Dad are coming from NZ on Wednesday, and with a house full of mess they deserve a little sanctuary of their own!! We did it in a record 3 days, finished it Saturday evening and then straight up into the attic to sort out boxes for a car boot sale!!

So it was a 5am start this morning and I had to drag myself out of bed!!
I met Sue B from the PP forum in person at my stall, it was lovely getting to know her by face and not avatar! I talked half of Grimsby into buying my old scrapbook mags but refused to sell the Laura Ashley holder they were in. I mean a girls gotta hang onto something right! Besides half of the fun is refilling with more mags!!






I have nearly finished the dastardly orange Layout, hopefully tonight I will put it to bed.......before I collapse into my own !!!!
Love to you all xxx

Inspirational have just featured this blog and oh my is it full of pretties!!!

I always knew there was a reason why I collect so many items of broken jewellery, clocks and china and this is it!!
Check her out here

I think I learnt to read using Dick and Jane did you?

I love her altered clock she uses these flat wooden ornamental decorations the same as lilybeanpapiere uses. Do you think Santa could deliver them for me!lol!!

Schools out for Summer!!

A Thankyou card for Georgias teacher who has looked after her for 2 years.
Georgia is understandably anxious about moving up with the big kids and leaving the nursery environment behind. She's also excited because the big kids eat their lunch in the canteen not the classroom!! I can picture it now...no eating she will just be people watching all dinner hour!!



The head teacher is retiring this year and she has been such a strong leader for 9 years, preventing this small school from closure and receiving excellent reports from the inspectors. She will be sorely missed, her door was always open and she always had a polite world and a compliment about their child to say to every Mum.




On a funny note: I showed Georgia a new eye mask that I was given to help me sleep during the day time. It's very luxurious and made out of velvet and satin. When I told her it was made out of satin she said "how cool, does that mean you can see the planets and the stars in it!! Satin not Saturn get it!! We had such a giggle pretending to put it on and look down at different planets from the sky!!


Space-explorers-are-us!!

Catch up.....

Do you remember the Library project I mentioned earlier on, .......well having collected over 20 boxes of donated craft supplies!!!! Sue and Tracey from Paperparadise presented it to the children on Wednesday. The quality and volume of donated items is amazing!! Stamps, 12x12 papers, inks, ribbons, beautiful toppers....you name it and it's there!!

Thankyou so much to the Grimsby Crafting community and the ladies from my work and women from all over the internet (who posted stuff to Sam) for all of your hard work in having a clear out and making the effort to deliver the goods to Sue. It really is very much appreciated. xxx

This is what the photo when it eventually goes in the paper will look like!!



This week I taught them how to stamp with stazon and use watercolour pencils or felt tips on a CD to create watercolour effects. Here are their results...



....pretty fantastic for first timers don't ya think?


Georgia had her first dancing exam on Saturday and we made it with one minute to spare. I was practically pushing her out of the car as we pulled up to the school!!


Chloe, Georgia and Aimee (cousins

Aimee, Georgia and Ria (friends)

Fingers crossed we will have some photos with medals very soon!!!!

Being a Kiwi you can imagine my delight when I realised that my neighbour had a flowering New Zealand flax in her garden. I asked her permission to photograph its majestic flowers and was delighted to discover she also has an Australian Bottle Brush bush!! These plants are as common as muck at home but when you haven't seen
any for 15 years you suddenly appreciate their beauty.




No crafty news this week I am doing lots of overtime, wallpapering our bedroom and cursing at an ORANGE layout in between!!!!

Love Ruth xxx

This one is for you Nana June xxx

Dear Nana June

We are thinking of you today whilst you are in hospital.
We hope you get better soon.

Love from Georgia and Ben

xxx

This layout was made for The Paperparadise June forum challenge we had to use this sketch, I think it may be a Becky Fleck one?





The background is printed on canvass paper and using as little ink as possible to create a faded look so that it didn't impose on the elements. I am not entirely happy with it but I made it in less than 24 hours which is unusual for me and the deadline is TODAY so I had no choice but to just had to get on with it!!





The rosette was the hardest because the paper was so stiff and I had to hand sew it on, which took about 3 attempts! Still at least I made the deadline!!!

TFL xxx

You know the scene from when Harry met Sally..... well..these are one of those!!! Oh Yes..Oh Yes!!!!!!!! PRIMA JOURNELLING STAMPS!!!! I so wanted these for what feels like forever!! But as Sue said they were worth the wait!!



I have used them in the corners of this LO.


The paper has been ripped and inked and the insides turned over and stamped with Gesso before applying distress inks and stamping on top. The numbers represent the stages of learning how to crawl and then walk and the clocks how quickly time flies when you have a new baby!


Detail of eyelets


K& Co chipboard alphas have never looked like this before, they WERE extremely cute!

I bet Brenda Walton the designer would have kittens if she saw them this colour!!

I stepped out of the box a bit and tore all around this Lo it is very asymetrical, but now I am wondering whether I should get back in the box and mount it on Black cardstock after all? I could really do with some serious opinions on this one!!

With a Black Cardstock Mount????
#
Without...........?????????


Please if you visit this Blog leave me a comment I really do value other peoples opinions (and it's not very often I ask for those!! LOL!!) xxx

I have been wanting some of these cute OWL stamps for ages.....so long now that they have probably gone out of fashion!!

The card is made into a triangle and sealed at the top, the little tag should hang down the back but I flipped it over for display purposes.



Georgias' friend is turning 7 and last year I made her sister a map book, so I thought I'd better do one for the other sister. Realising I was running out of time I remembered I had a left over pack from the After School Club, so I decided to use these and make a pocket book instead.










This is the one where you fold the 12 by 12 in half and then fold the edges into the middle crease creating four columns, then you turn the paper around and repeat, the cuts are made up the first and the the third crease and the from the top down in the centre one, ensuring the last square is left intact each time.

I didn't have any recent photos and rapidly losing light I went outisde for a quick photo shoot at 7 o'clock!!

Luckily I still had all of my embellishments at hand and had the book made within a couple of hours.

TFL xxx

Flowers and stalk(ers)!!

We have an abundance of gorgeous blossom trees near us and the girls love collecting posies, but the blossom is all gone within a few days so I was very fortunate to get some lovely photos of it this year before they picked it all off!!

My all time favourite photo (until the next one!!) was altered with some programme thingy to make it slightly dull and grungy. Don't ask how just find a different blog with someone who knows what they're talking about!!

I used a sketch that I found on Spinnvilds blog and copied it like a faithful puppy!! I wonder if she has figured out that she has a stalker?



I used K&Co papers, lots of distress inks and BG letters that were painted with a custom made shade of green and stickled with that bright green that everyone buys at christmas and then never uses again!!

The pink blossom transparency is cut from some packaging that came with a box of toiletries from Xmas 2 years ago!! You know how you collect these things and think "one day I will use that" Well the day has come!!!!

TFL xxx