THE GRADUATE

My page today is of my daughter and her Graduation in 2012 - how quickly the years go - it really does seem only yesterday she was having her first day at school and I was in tears having to leave her in the hands of others.  Now she's all grown up - the words of that old song Sunrise Sunset really are very poignant.

I think Scrapbooking can bring with it a real sense of nostalgia - I'm a person who sadly lives in the past and it doesn't really do me any good - I need to look to the future but I find that difficult.  That's probably why I like to scrapbook - I can get lost in the past again for a while.

My page has been inspired by the Let's Get Sketchy sketch - 

I've used the lovely Kaisercraft papers in from the Memory Lane Collection together with other added bits and bobs, the butterfly from SU Bold Butterfly Framelits and the tags from an SU punch. The title stickers are called Thickers from American Crafts.

I'm also adding this into Kaisercraft's own challenge of a Tic Tac Toe box - I've used the bottom row.



 

ME - NOW AND THEN

Inspired by a couple of challenges that have asked for us to scrap ourselves I've done this page. I have done a page about myself before but that was about 10 years ago and to say my style has changed since then is an understatement!

I've used a piece of Basic Grey Periphery for my background and various bits and pieces from my stash.  I have been away from scrapping for a while and have really missed it - my stash is now very slowly growing with lots of lovely goodies to use.  

I'm putting this into the following challenges:

Challenge Yourself - 





The Studio Challenge Their theme is You.





 

BUTTERFLIES - IN THIS WORLD

I'm using this new set I've got my hands on again - I always seem to love sets once they retire - what does that say about me? I'm behind the times maybe!  

My cardstock base is one of the new colours from SU - I think it's called Pineapple Punch.  I've used some of the new DSP Share What You Love which has been torn and inked as a background. I've also used SU Kinda Eclectic - another retired stamp set.  I've stamped the large sun from this set behind the butterfly and a retired butterfly punch to punch out the mini butterfly.  The sentiment is from a very old SU set - I'm not sure of its name.

There is a touch of the Copper Thread behind the butterfly and some new twine.


I'm adding this to the following challenges:

 Double D Challenges butterflies 
Try Stampin on Tuesday - sketch
Time Out Challenges - Warm 




 

A SIMPLE THANK YOU

A simple thank you card from me today using a lovely little set from Penny Black stamps called Enjoy.  I've also used a retired Spectrum Ink Pad from Stampin Up - these were great inks - it's a shame they are not around any more - they have a choice of five inks in them and when you push them together you get  a rainbow effect on your stamps.  I've had this ink over 10 years and it still inks really well.

 I stamped the image onto a piece of white cardstock and then ran it through the crimper.  The edges were also inked with the ink giving the different colours all around the edges.  I used an SU banner punch for the sentiment and simply sponged the edges.

The inside is stamped with the word Friend from Stampin Up's Jar of Love.  The flowers have been stamped again but this time the other way round on the ink so the colours are different.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Addicted to CAS - Rainbow 
Less Is More - Friend 



 

A TRIBUTE TO DAD

The Challenge over at Try It On Tuesday is entitled For The Boys.  I chose to do a Scrapbook Layout for this one and, as it was Father's Day on Sunday here in the UK I did a page for my husband - the best Dad to our two children - not children any more though.

I used some of the gorgeous Kaisercraft paper for the 12 x 12 and some papers from a small block of 4x4 I had in my stash.  

Gifts from the kids for Dad for Father's Day were goodies to do with Fly Fishing - his favourite pasttime - so while I was at it I also did a page just for him - best type of fishing as far as I'm concerned is where the fish swims free.  I love the way hubby managed to capture the image of the fish underwater being released back into the wild river Test in Hampshire.

 

IN THIS WORLD

I always seem to be a bit behind the times when it comes to Stampin Up sets - I seem to fall in love with them after they've retired!  This is what happened with In This World - a set I've only just started using and I love it.  It gives me the chance to do the sort of cards I really love - which is lots of layers, inking and vintage style.

I started off with a piece of ST Cardstock in Pool Party - with some retired DSP which has been torn and inked up in Soft Suede.  I stamped the butterfly image and the key from In This World and used the dots from Painter's Palette.  The door was inked sponged and cut out and added on top of some Burlap Ribbon.  The butterfly was cut out of Bold Butterfly thinlets and the small butterfly punched out with a retired SU punch.  A touch of ribbon and thread is added to the butterfly.  The words are from the set and were stamped and cut out and added on dimensionals - very fiddly.

This card shows my love of crafting and what got me into it - I love the inking and when I first got my Big Shot it was a revelation.  Global Design Project  #143 have asked us to show what got us into crafting and this has all the elements for me.

I'm also including this into the following challenges

As You See It Challenge - FRESH - this was a fresh stamp set for me 
TGIF Challenges - Doodle - I doodled on the door adding inked bits for shading 




 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS - SKETCH CARD

It's Tuesday again and that means time for another Hand Stamped Sentiments.  Here's our sketch for you this week.

This was actually quite a difficult challenge for me and the first card I did I didn't really like.  It was similar to this but the choice of background card stock just didn't seem to work.  I tried Very Vanilla instead and was much happier.

I've used an old SU set here called Riveting which I've had for a good many number of years but never wanted to part with it - as soon as I saw the circles on the sketch I knew I had to use it for this card.

I've also used some of the lovely new DSP from SU called Share What You Love - this was very kindly gifted to me by a member of my Facebook Group The Joy of Sets in a RAK group that we have running - I was overwhelmed to receive such a fabulous gift from one of the members Margaret Reuter and these colours are so my colours.

I've added a piece of the lovely new twine too and the sentiment is from Feather Together.


I hope you come and join in with the challenge - pop by the rest of the Design Team and see what inspiration they have for you.

Til next time...Happy Crafting 

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TGIF CHALLENGE

I was recently gifted some of the gorgeous new DSP from Stampin Up called Share What You Love and am having fun making cards just with this DSP and not the matching stamp set - well I presume there is a matching stamp set - I haven't yet seen a new catalogue!

I thought I'd have a play with Beautiful You from SU as I haven't used this set in such a long time - when it first came out I think it was everyone's go to set.  On my Facebook Group The Joy of Sets it is definitely the most popular set with more project examples than any other of our albums.  Why not come and join us - we celebrate SU current and retired as well as other stamp companies.

I'm using the sketch from TGIF Challenges #tgifc163 this week which is:




I turned the sketch around for my card.

I've used one of the sheets of DSP both ways - in other words this shows you both sides.  I wanted it to look as though the girl was running through a field of flowers.  I cut her out with the Stitched Framelits and also made a frame for her.  The pearls are the matching pearls for this paper, as is the twine.  I coloured her in with the blender tool and So Safron, Old Olive, Powder Pink and Island Indigo inks.

SHARE WHAT YOU LOVE....

I was so overwhelmed to be RAK'd a sample of these gorgeous papers from a member of my RAK team on my Facebook Page Joy of Sets recently.  How generous is the lovely Margaret Reuter! 

I decided to use some of these lovely papers for the challenge over at Global Design Project this week #GDP142.  They gave us a sketch to work with 

I used a retired embossing folder from SU for the background dots and some of the lovely green twine.  The little flower was fussy cut out of some of the matching papers and added to the Stitched Framelits with some Share What You Love Artisan Pearls. The sentiment is from Watercolor Wings. 

These are definitely my kind of colours and there may be lots of examples from me using this lovely Designer Series Paper.



 

CHRISTMAS HAS COME EARLY

Christmas has come early on my blog today with a scrapbook page I've done for a couple of challenges.   One is for my own challenge on my Joy of Sets Facebook Group which I run - each month we hold various challenges including a Sketch Scrapbook challenge to encourage members to get back into or start scrapbooking again.

The background page I used I've actually had for over 14 years - in my craft cupboard - I bought it when we lived in Texas and have never used it - I  think that's long enough for it to sit unused - It has the words of The Night Before Christmas on it.  The extra papers are retired Stampin Up DSP.

I'm also including this in Time Out challenges for their theme of Holidays.






 

STICK IT DOWN

This great new challenge blog Stick It Down caters for both scrappers and card makers.  I've already joined in with one of their scrapbook challenges and this week thought I'd have a go at their card challenge too. Here's their sketch for us to follow.




I run a Facebook Group The Joy of Sets and we have a RAK (Random Act of Kindness) group within the group.  I was overwhelmed this week when one of the members sent me a load of goodies in with my RAK card as a thank you for running the group.  How generous - she sent me some of the new Share What You Love DSP from Stampin Up's new catalogue as well as some other cardstock and embellishments.  I chose to use this for my card today.  As I don't have the matching stamp set it's nice to show the paper taking centre stage - I've used a little stamp from another non SU set.

The paper is extremely thick and has a slight shimmer on some of the pages.  This is one page and its reverse side.  The twine is part of the same Suite.  It's very busy but I don't think the little ladybird gets lost do you?



 

CATS

I am a bit of a mad cat lady - as well as two of my own I also foster for my local cat's protection.

I realised I hadn't captured my latest cats on a page and needed to rectify that.

I used a variety of papers for my page - the 12 x 12 is from BoBunny Love and Lace and some of the background papers are from Kaisercraft.  I chose to do a lot of the journalling by hand to explain my cats.  Can you see my little black one Jet is sticking his tongue out at me - cheeky little thing.  They are not the best of friends but they do tolerate each other - this is about as close as they get - they are sitting on our Hot Tub! 

I'm putting this page into two challenges - A Facebook Group challenge which asked for us to use Sequins - It's called For The Love of Pretty Paper and is a UK scrapbook group.

I'm also adding this into the Paper Players challenge which is asking for Animal Antics. 





     

LET'S SCRAP

Another couple of pages from me today - the time flies when you have layouts to do - a lot of the time is spent putting things on and off the base until I'm happy enough with it to add glue!

My first layout is for Sketches In Thyme and their challenge for June 1st.




My children, especially  my son, has an annoying habit of taking Selfies if you happen to leave your phone unattended. I say children - look at them they are 27 and 24!!  They are hilarious though and it certainly brightens up my phone feed - I never know what will be on there next.  I've used some retired Stampin Up papers here to co-ordinate with son's jumper as this was a Christmas jumper!  The washi tape is also retired SU.  The sentiments are from Kaisercraft.

My other layout is of hubby and I a few years ago on our first trip to Tuscany, Italy.  We love Italy and as I sing opera it is one of my favourite places to go to and we did get to see Puccini's house.  This was our first visit to Tuscany though rather than one of the main cities and it was out of season and very peaceful.  I've used Kaisercraft papers here - some of it from their Snap Picture Perfect set.

This one is for the Let's Get Sketchy challenge for June 1st.

DOOR HANGER

I'm using some old Cherry Pie Art Stamps here for my project today - I say project because it's neither a card nor a scrapbook layout.  Its a Door Hanger.  It's going to hang on my door so hubby knows if things are going well in the craft room or not lol!  It's reversible so I'm hoping the one showing the most is the one where I'm not stuck for ideas.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Try It On Tuesday - I was delighted to be chosen as one of their Top Five last week for my destination Tag 

And also Retro Rubber who asks us to use stamps older than one year and this week it is Anything Goes.  My stamp is a Cherry Pie Art stamp which I purchased in 2007!  Definitely older than a year!





 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #291 - SCRAPBOOK LAYOUT

Time for another challenge over at HSS this week - this is what we have for you to whet your appetite



I chose to do a Scrapbook Layout for this one as I really didn't have a lot in the way of stamps with a fish theme other than Jar of Love and the little fish.  For my page I've used some of Kaisercraft's papers called Beach Shack - I've used a total of four designs here all cut in various sizes to create the background.  The shell papers are also from the same design.  This actually took me longer than I thought it would lining up all those papers.  The letters are from a die cut set which I purchased in my local store.  

The picture is of my husband and son last year when we went to the Greek Island of Skopolos - also known as the Mammia Mia Island as it is where they filmed the movie!  

I hope you check out the rest of the Design Team to see what inspiration they have for you - we look forward to seeing all your great projects.





 

CSI - CASE FILE No 255

Another scrapbook page from me today for the CSI challenge - I'm getting to understand this challenge more now and not feel quite so daunted as I first did - realising I can take parts of it not all of it!




I've taken inspiration from the colours, hearts, dots, ribbon, topic of food (my daughter is on the beach having a bbq) and I've even stretched myself and written a Haiku.  Admittedly I had to Google that and see exactly what was involved and I think I've matched the brief pretty well.

Traditionally, haiku is written in three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line. 

• A focus on nature.
• A "season word" such as "snow" which tells the reader what time of year it is.
• A division somewhere in the poem, which focuses first on one thing, than on another. The relationship between these two parts is sometimes surprising.
• Instead of saying how a scene makes him or her feel, the poet shows the details that caused that emotion. If the sight of an empty winter sky made the poet feel lonely, describing that sky can give the same feeling to the reader.

My poem reads - Emma By the Sea, Winter Barby on the Beach, Emma's Happy Place

I've used some of the lovely Kaisercraft Beach Shack papers here - the background one was made wavy by an old tool I still have which waves the paper - I can't remember what it's called.  The dots are from Stampin Up Kinda Eclectic - the Welsh stamp is an old one as this was taken at Aberystwyth when Emma was there at University. Wales is our home country and very close to our hearts so the hearts were a natural addition.