H is for Hand stitched

 Hello folks!  Just taking a sneaky break from my revision to share this page I made for this months fun hand stitching challenge over on Scrapology.  We are scraplifting a page by the talented Delaina Burns.  If  you have time do pop on over to Delaina's blog... she is inspirational.

For my page I used papers from the Graphic 45 Secret Garden range.  For the hand stitching I marked out the holes with with my WRMK Sew Easy tool and stitched with blue thread.  It took a long time but I'm really pleased with the results.  I was at a fantastic retreat with some wonderful friends when I made this page and Linda showed us all how to make the flower embellishments with some punched flowers and dunking them in UTEE in the melting pot.  Great fun!  I finished off the page with some die cut leaves and swirls and a chipboard sentiment also from the Secret Garden set.

I hope you'll have a chance to join in with this months challenge.  I would love to see what you create.

Ciao for now!

Sandra xx

Sheena's Flower Power stamp set

 Hi folks!  Hope you are all fine and dandy.  Just a quicky today and it's full steam ahead prepping for our twins, Ben & Isabelle's 8th birthday party this Sunday.  It's a seaside theme, as you can imagine there is still tonnes to do.   

 Hope you were able to catch some of Sheena's fabulous show recently on Create and Craft.  You may have  caught a glimpse of this sample that I made.  I love using acetate on my projects and stamped the sentiment (from the Only Words stamp set) in the middle of a large piece using white chalkies.  I used flitter glue to stamp the leafy swirls and covered it with green glitter.

I cut the circle frame from Centura pearl card on my Cricut.  I cut 2 of these and sandwiched the acetate in between cutting away the excess around the edge. I then punched a couple of holes near the top and tied on the ribbon for hanging.  I stamped the flowers, from Sheena's fantastic Flower Power stamp set, and painted them with mica paints ( I have a mixture of H2O's and Cosmic Shimmer).  For the centre of the flowers I squeezed a huge blob of dimensional glue gel and tipped on some pearly seed beads.  I also sprinkled on some crystal glitter to the centre of the flowers to fill in any gaps and add that extra sparkle.  I finished off the piece with a few pink crystal gems around the leafy swirls. 

Those of you interested in my studies...... I got 100% for my latest Biology assignment.  Whoop Whoop!

Ciao for now!

Sandra x

R - is for Ripped, Scrapbook page

Hello folks :o)  Apologies for being such a bad blogger.  I have been busy busy as always.  Looking forward to the Summer when my exams are over, but for now I must keep on studying and get on with revision too.
Here's a page that I fussed and fretted over while I was making it and now it's done, I love it..!  It's created for the '"challenging" challenge on Scrapology called R- is for Ripped. (and I don't think they're referring to any 6 packs)

We're scraplifting a page by the wonderful Morag Cutts... so if you can bear to rip your paper up, please join in with us.  There's always a great prize up for grabs and this month is no exception.

I got stuck in to my Teresa Collins Fabrications Canvas kit for this page, using the papers, sentiments (tucked in to the little envelope I made using the orange patterned paper)  and die cuts.

I die cut the butterflies, which I stencilled over with black ink and added glitter and gems to before adhering to the page.  The leafy swirls are die cut from white card which I coloured to match using alcohol markers.  I finished the page off by handwriting the title/journalling.

I hope you can join in with this fun challenge.  The design team did an amazing job with this one, so if you need a little inspiration head over here.

Ciao for now!

Sandra xx

A mini book... masses of photos!

 Hello folks!  Well I have been a busy bee of late and managed to squeeze in two fabulous crop weekends with wonderful crafty friends (*waves to Maggie and all the Bournemouth crop ladies* and *Jill and all the ladies at the Spring Cardinal colours crop*)

 I wish I could bring this little book round to show you as it folds and flips beautifully.  It's one to be handled.  I saw this delightful little book on Rosemary Merry's blog and shared it with the Bournemouth girls.  You can watch the tutorial here.  It's made from one double sided 12 x 12 page.

 We spent a lovely time stamping and colouring  the Hanglar and Stanglar characters.  All the mini books  were so unique it was great seeing them coming together.

 I used Sam Poole's fabulous Art Houses  and Art Phrases stamp sets.  Just perfect for the words needed for my mini book.

 The little ladybirds were punched out of coloured paper and I drew the detail in with a fine liner.  These ladybirds are teeny tiny.  To give you an idea of scale the mini book closed is about 6 x 4 inches.

 There's loads of space to add photos, journalling and embellishments.

Are you still with me....?  Only a few more photos to go.  I couldn't decide which photo's to go with, so I did the only thing and girl can do and picked them all  :o)

The photo corners are just ivory centura pearl card that I die cut with a Quickutz die.

Here's the whole project opened one way.....

.....and then the other.  I hope you enjoyed the leisurely stroll through my mini book.

Ciao for now!!

Sandra xx

P is for Peeking...a Halloween layout Mwahahaha!

Hello folks!  Please excuse my lack of posting I've been incredibly busy again.  (Summer exams looming)  I was itching to share this fun layout with you.  There's a great challenge over on Scrapology this month.  We're scraplifting our very own and very talented Lynn Cooper who designed her wonderful page for a class held at the Cardinal Colours autumn 2012 Crop.  I was thrilled to attend the class and if you scroll down you will see my original version on the page.  I wanted to create something completely different and with the 'peeking' elements brief in mind.... I thought creepy hands pulling back the page would do the trick.

The papers I've used are from a We R Memory Keepers pad.  I drew around my hands onto green felt, available here, and I inked the edges and added detail with a fineliner.  I drew some nails onto black cardstock, cut them out and tripple embossed them with UTEE.  The cobweb and spiders I cut on my Cricut.  I covered the cobweb and one of the spiders with black glitter and the other spider I tripple embossed.

I also cut the cat on my Cricut.  I inked the edges with white ink and filled in the detail with a white fineliner.  I added glossy accents to the eyes. The little bat is also cut on the Cricut, I just gave him googly eyes. I hand cut the title from one of the patterned papers.  I couldn't find a grave stone that I liked so I drew my own on some grey card.  I stamped a stoney/crackle design (one of Sheena's new stamp sets to be launched on Create and Craft next week.) on the grave stone.  Not sure how well you can see it on these pic's.  If you click on the first one it may pop up enlarged. 

Here's the page I created on Lynn's class.  TOTALLY different.  For more inspiration from my fellow teamies and a peek at the prize that's up for grabs, head over to the Scrapology blog.
Ciao for now!
Sandra x

My little Art House

 Hello folks!  The Art Houses stamp set has been released over in Sam Poole's Creative Studio and I'm excited to share with you this little house that I created. 

This did start out life as a four sided building (I stamped the image in a row 4 times, leaving tabs along the end pieces, to add the glue, I scored along all the folds before inking with antique linen and tattered rose distress inks)  but the  little box wouldn't fold up correctly because of the angle of the roof.  So I chopped one of the sides off and it worked a treat. From the discarded piece I cut out the crown, shaped it and adhered it to the front panel with dimensional glue gel.  I also added glossy accents to the crown and key plate.

(Excuse the hands but I thought it would be fun to show you how small the piece is)  I adhered some roses and wire swirls with hot melt glue and the little piece was finished.  Not sure if I needed to add some glamour dust to the roses or not.  What do you think? 

Sam is going to be back on Create and Craft on 23rd March.  Don't miss the show as she always brings us such inspirational demos and samples.

Ciao for now!

Sandra x

Butterflies are self propelled Flowers

Hello folks!  Exciting times on the Sheena Douglass DT as our boss is on Create & Craft tomorrow with some fabulous new goodies.  We were sent the Luminarte Primary Elements to play with.  These are pots of pigment that we can add to all sorts of mediums to create our own colour.

I added some pink azalea pigment to some Artist Spackle and scraped it over the beautiful Bon Soir stencil onto a wood veneer panel.  I dusted a little crystal glamour dust while it was still wet. 

I covered the card with some green netting and attached the wood panel using gem topped brads.  The butterflies (from Sheena's Flying Colours stamp set) were stamped and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  I mixed the pigment into some of the bind and resist, that comes in the Primary Elements set, to create the paint that I added to the butterfly wings.  I inked around the edges and shaped them before adhering to the card.  I used my white chalkies to stamp the sentiment onto the acetate.  The final touch was to add crystals to the little bodies of the butterflies.

My fellow DT are showcasing some amazing samples using the Primary Elements.  Be sure to check them out.

Don't forget to catch Sheena on Create & Craft at 11am on the Craft Clinic, and 3pm & 6pm with Paint Fusion.

Ciao for now!

Sandra x