Paper Obsession

Butterfly obsession

I'm hooked on butterflies at the moment! Here are a couple of cards I made - inspired by a beautiful card I saw on 2 Peas. Must add the credit but will need to find it again to do that.

Loving the Cuttlebug!!! Used the Swiss Dot embossing folder and the butterfly cut & emboss set for these two cards, along with BasicGrey Offbeat/Urban Prairie papers, Banana Frog Simple Greetings stamps and the Fiskars Threading Water punch.

Another thing I am LOVING at the moment.. Core'dinations cardstock. I got a pack of 80 sheets of 4.5"x6.5" card in 'Mother Nature's colours', 20 sheets of each colour, from the Big Stamp & Scrapbooking Show last weekend. It is gorgeous to use, and because each sheet is so small I'm not afraid to just USE it. I hate cutting into a big sheet of pp or cardstock if I only need a small bit.. seems such a waste! These little cards are a great size for sticking in the Cuttlebug as well as for matting photos etc.

More cards coming up, when I have photos ready.. also more pics of Charlie and Harry's mini-books to follow soonish.

Three (totally different) new cards

Been spending a bit of time making cards this last couple of weeks while on holiday from City & Guilds Digital Photography course. Here's one I made from some scraps of felt, heavily inspired by a card by Kristina Werner in the gallery over at 2 peas in a bucket. This U.S. based website is FANTASTIC, always really inspiring for cards, scrapbook pages and digital scrapping supplies. Plus, they are running several FREE monthly classes for the whole of this year in celebration of their 10th anniversary.

Anyway, here's my version of Kristina's card:

Last Sunday I treated myself to a day out at the Big Stamp & Scrapbooking Show at Alexandra Palace and did some SERIOUS stash shopping! In the last couple of weeks I have become a little obsessed with stamping and I was very keen to find some particular stamps by Hero Arts. I didn't manage to find everything I wanted but I was inspired to buy some gorgeous spiky flower stamps by Tracey Dutton at Lavinia Stamps. What Tracey can do with a brayer, a few stamps and some inks is utterly awesome!

Anyway, for what it's worth, here are a few of my first attempts at using spiky flower stamps. I envisage lots of fun using these in different ways!

Finally, I bought the Cuttlebug cut & emboss Butterflies set a few weeks ago. Haven't used it much yet but I love it! Used the script embossing folder on this green butterfly and added it to a square white card covered in pink lace cardstock by KI Memories. Added a few sparkly gems to some of the flowers. Think it still needs something to finish it off, but not sure what at the moment.

Looking at these three photos I think I can safely say I don't have such thing as a signature style just yet.

Pay it Forward!

Today I received a beautiful gift from my blogging and scrapping friend Sarah, as part of an initiative called Pay It Forward. In a nutshell, I promise to send a small, hand-made gift to the first three people to comment on this post. These people then promise to do the same via their blogs. I commented on Sarah's blog and she sent me this lovely tote bag decorated with little hand-made felt flowers and embroidery. I am chuffed to bits! A big thank you to Sarah.

I'll be taking the bag to the Big Stamp & Scrapbooking Show at Alexandra Palace on Sunday to fill with lots of lovely new stash! My birthday's coming up so I'm spending birthday money/treating myself in advance. I have a few little ideas for making Pay It Forward gifts of my own, so all I need are a few supplies... and a few commenters to send them to! So if you are reading this and fancy taking part, please leave a comment below. I would be so delighted to send you a little gift!

Charlie's little book - March 2009

I've been trying to do a bit of catching up on my boys' 'little books' for 2009. So here are some photos of Charlie's page for March. I am using the gorgeous Basic Grey Offbeat papers for this book and sticking to a simple layout. Makes it quick and easy to complete a page!

Above: double page spread

Above: Left side close-up

Above: journalling card which is behind the photo.

I'll do a separate post for Harry's little book as there are quite a few pictures to include.

A fun-packed Easter weekend

My parents came up to visit this Easter and we had a very busy time, taking the boys out to all three of our local parks as well as Gambado indoor play centre in Beckenham. We had a rather damp Easter Egg hunt in the garden on Sunday morning which was great fun. Charlie and Harry adore their Grandma and Grampy - we don't see them often enough as they live in South Wales, but the boys always have lots of fun when they are around.

Here are a couple of photos from the weekend.

Above: Harry feeding the ducks

Above: Charlie and his Grampy at South Norwood Country Park

I've been trying to catch up on the boys' 2009 Little Books.. need to take some photos of my latest pages so I will try and upload them tomorrow.

Freedom... for two whole weeks!

Today I handed in my Digital Darkroom portfolio and workbook... on time (...just)!
Despite my determination that this term I would be super-organised and have it all done well before the deadline, somehow I still needed to stay up til 5.40am to get it all complete.

Why does this course demand so much time?!
I have honestly done little else with my free time for the last three or four weeks.
Not that I have a great deal of free time.. I guess that's half the problem.
The other half of the problem being that I'm not satisfied with just doing enough to pass.
No, it has to be as near perfect as I can manage.. and that takes way longer than it should.

My portfolio contained 12 images, six on the theme of Dramatic Landscapes and six on Time Travel. I will set up a couple of photo albums to put all the pictures in, but just for now here are two of my favourites.

Above: Black Hut at Rye Harbour - I added the stormy sky using Photoshop.

 

Above: Charlie aged 10 months - I converted to black & white and erased his vest to show the blue colour in the layer underneath.