Parrot Fashion

A few weeks ago I had a lovely little getaway with some of the girls from my UKS team. A lovely bunch they are too. We had one or two classes during the weekend, and this layout is from a class by the lovely MJ (who runs Every Moment Matters). I adapted it somewhat, as MJs was a double page (I never do those) and I had more photos to fit on. However the brilliant touches with the stiching, squares and tied ribbon border are all courtesy of the lovely MJ :).

The picture is one of many from my visit to Birdland. Trust me you'll be sick of seeing birds soon enough!

Secondly, I've been CASEd in this week's challenge on Gingersnaps! I am feeling very honoured that two very talented ladies chose my work to emulate. Pop over to the Gingersnaps blog to have a look at what they did :).

That's all for now, thanks for stopping by.

Katy x

Hybrid maze book

I do like making little hybrid mini albums as they are super quick to finish. To make this one I created the journaling pages using Photoshop and a feather brush. I reduced the opacity on the brush to blend it into the background. The papers are some old Basic Grey Offbeat ones.

The album is of a day trip we took to Birdland in Bourton-on-the-Water - fab day out, loads of gorgeous birds (penguin feeding time was the highlight of the day!). And now I have all my memories recorded while they are still fresh in this little teeny maze book.

I won't put the instructions here- if you Google maze books there will be plenty of tutorials out there. It's basically a little book constructed by folding one sheet of 12x12 - well worth seeking out if you've never made one.

Thanks for popping over. See you soon I hope.

Katy x

UKS Challenge

My scrapbook page for last week's UKS challenge.

The challenge was:

-Scrap something you love (my beloved pooch)

-Use something old, new, borrowed or blue (my papers were my latest purchase - BG Max & Whiskers - and I used blue cs)

-Write journaling (yep)

-Use stamps, inks or paint (lots of stamping here - the journaling block is a Hero Art stamp, the box with the date a 7 Gypsies stamp, the small letters are alpha stamps and the big Thickers are stamped with a Prima stamp that looks like a newspaper sheet, the round circle is a stamp too.)

I like this one; that's a well cute pic of my dog. The journaling is about how he chunters on all the time!!! He makes an amazing range of odd noises.... bless him!

K x

Gingersnaps Challenge - better late than never!

This is my entry for the Shades of Blue Gingersnaps challenge. I found this little drawer set in a pound store and it happens to be just the right size to hold the foam pads for my Inkessentials blending tool. I’ve altered it (appropriately) with Distress-inked panels decorated with a fab bird stamp from PaperArtsy.

Materials…
PaperArtsy Flora and Fauna 4
Technique Tuesday: Home stamps (frame)
Fancy Pants stamps (‘create art’)
Stamper’s Anonymous: Urban Tapestry (dotty texture)
Mini drawer unit
Gesso
Black and brown acrylic paint
Distress Inks: Tumbled Glass; Broken China; Faded Jeans; Rusty Hinge; Wild Honey; Shabby Shutters; Peeled Paint
Archival Ink: Coffee
Ink applicator or Cut-n-Dry foam
Water brush
Dymo and transparent tape (or use Safmat or rub-on letters)

1 Gesso the drawers then when dry paint with a layer of black paint then brown paint. Leave to dry.

2 Cut white card to fit the drawers and colour with all three blue Distress Inks. Stamp the dotty background around the edge in Broken China. Stamp the bird in Coffee ink and then stamp just the leaves from the bird around the edges.

3 Stamp the bird again three times and paint with the Distress Inks and a water brush. Cut out the leaves and birds and add to the inked panels. On the top panel stamp ‘create art’ left of the bird. Tape panels in place with strong tape.

4 Stamp the Technique Tuesday frame five times onto blue inked card, cut in half and stamp with the dotty texture and then the small branch as shown. Add a Dymo label to each panel and stick to the drawer fronts.

Hope you like it :). The other girls have made lovely stuff too, so do pop on over.

Katy x

Poor neglected blog!

Oh dear I have been neglecting this bloggie toooooooooooooo much, but I have been very busy and also not making a whole lot unfortunately! Today a quick card I made for a very lovely person for her birthday. I love this owl stamp, it has such a cute look on its little face! The stamp is a Papermania one and the branch is from Hero Arts. I just paper pieced the owl so a really simple card.

It must be love

How soppy is my other half over our dog? The answer is very, very soppy. Here he is giving the little monkey a kiss when we were out on a spring walk back in March.

I was waiting for the right papers for this LO and these MME ones seemed to fit the bill. I was in a silly mood when I made this so bottom left you'll see a squirrel saying 'nuts about you'! He's a stamp (as is the owl) from a Hampton Arts set I got in Micheals in the US last time we were there.

I've been neglecting the blog recently - just seem to have lost all will (and ability) to craft at the moment. If anyone has borrowed my mojo would they kindly return it???

Will try to be back for WOYWW as I didn't manage it last week...

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Katy x

Gingersnaps - Wings

Here's my entry for today's Gingersnaps challenge theme, which is 'wings'. Nice easy one this, so no excuse for not playing along!

My project is an altered noticeboard to hang in my craft room on which to write all my projects pending and notes to self (memory like a sieve...). I got the noticeboard for about £1.20 reduced in Morrisons supermarket. I forgot to take a picture of before, but trust me it was truly minging!

Of course although I made this over a week ago I am still waiting for OH to put it up for me... Why am I not surprised???

Here's how I made it in case you'd like to know ;).

Materials...
Prima frame stamps (sorry I don't know the name - they are frames and borders but I chucked the packaging)
Prima stamp: Notary (script)

Hero Arts stamp: Silhouette Grass

Tim Holtz stamps: Slight Alterations

StazOn Ink: Timber Brown

Distress Inks: Broken China; Tumbled Glass

Glimmer Mist: Gold

Brilliance Ink: Gold

Paper flowers

Cream and white card

Ink blending tool

Pearls

Chipboard letters (Thickers)

Krylon pen: Gold

White acyrlic paint

First of all, I sanded the inside edge of the original picture in the top part of the frame and then created a border with gold Krylon. Then I used a baby wipe to apply a wash of white paint to the wood. I then left this to dry. When dry, I stamped the corners with StazOn.

I coloured a piece of cardstock with the two blue Distress Inks then over-stamped with the Tumbled Glass using the Notary stamp and one of the Tim Holtz background images from Slight Alterations. With the Notary stamp, I inked in up really randomly in the middle of the stamp so I didn't get edges on the stamping (i.e. I stamped an incomplete image each time).

I then stamped the Silhouette Grass, varying the height so it didn't look too uniform. I followed this with the corners and butterflies from the Prima set.

I stamped the butterflies (including the ones on the corners) again onto cream card. After cutting out, I added them with Silicone glue so the wings are lifted as if they are flying off the page.

I finished by painting all the heads of wheat and butterfly centres in gold Glimmer Mist (this makes them catch the light but is still subtle). I embellished with pearls and paper flowers. Finally I stamped a border in gold and added the lettering along it.

I look forward to seeing your creations over on Gingersnaps :).

Katy x