Wedding album - final unveiling

Spent the day finishing off my wedding album as we're going to Horsham today to see relatives and I wanted to show them. Here are two of the layouts:

Butterfly: K&Co; balloon brads: Creative Imagination; ric rac & stickers: Doodlebug

Paper: BasicGrey Porcelain; flowers: K&CO; brads: Doodlebug; stickers: The Story of Us

My wedding album

So while I haven't been taking part in any challenges lately, I haven't been completely idle. I have been creating an album of my wedding photos.

My dress was silver-grey with mauve / lilac flowers so I've mostly used the colours purple, white, lilac and cream. For shots where the guests are featured, who wore many different colours, I mainly used cream cardstock and accented some of the more striking colours.

The civil ceremony was at Marylebone Town Hall in central London and the reception in a private room at Hardy's Bistro, round the corner.

I'll share a few more layouts this week. I still have a few more to create, including the run-up to the wedding and the honeymoon. It was a fantastic time.

Flowers: Prima; letters: American Crafts Thickers; paper: Doodlebug; stickers: The Story of Us

Flock paper: Doodlebug; vellum: Papermania; stickers: The Story of Us

Giving Thanks

Daring Cardmakers first challenge of 09 is to create a thank you card. A great idea, as I'm all for proper cards and letters of thanks rather than the emails and texts that you get now, if you're lucky.

My card uses some of the new supplies I got for Christmas: fairy stamp by Dovecraft (embossed on acetate) and Nature Table stamp by Elusive Images. I painted the mushrooms with Twinkling H2Os, added some varnish to highlight the red one, and then added some paper and epoxy flowers for texture. The cloud is painted with dimensional paint. Fancy Frills by Doodlebug.

More Journal Your Christmas pages

Having a few days off has given me the chance to catch up with my Journal Your Christmas pages.

Presents: chipboard-Stampin' Up!; stickers and letters - Doodlebug; font - Susie's Hand.


Christmas tree: letters - American Crafts Thickers; stickers and paper frill - Doodlebug.

Menu: cardstock - Bazzill; chipboard -BasicGrey; font - Susie's Hand.

Advent, Christmas do do list and mixed memories

In catch-up mode today as I created three layouts to get me almost up-to-date with Journalling My Christmas.

Prompt 5 was about the countdown to Christmas and how we celebrate / mark Advent. It's been years since I had an Advent calendar but I attempted to replicate one. I imagined I would mark out the little squares, cut them precisely and then put little hand painted images behind the windows.

Well, that was the intention...but I'm not very precise, or patient, and so I got bored with marking out the squares exactly and I ran out of hand painted images. Instead I used some cut-outs from old Christmas cards. The numbers were a challenge too because I soon ran out of "1" from the Doodlebug stickers I was using. Oh well, improvise is my motto!

Supplies: paper - K&Co; gold swirl - K&Co; letters - Making Memories; number stickers - Doodlebug and Making Memories.

Prompt six was to share your memories of Christmas both good and bad, perhaps dividing the page to show this. Initially I didn't think I'd had any bad Christmases. I've been very fortunate. But then I remembered how my dad was sometimes like the Grinch. I wish he hadn't been. I wrote some hidden journalling where you can see an arrow.

Supplies: paper - K&Co and BasicGrey Wassail; ribbon - Anita's; paint - Adirondack gold dabber; letters - American Crafts Thickers.

Finally for today, create your "to do" list - today's prompt. I am fairly organised at Christmas. I start making cards in August and have now got around 30 (I bought the rest) and I've bought all my presents online. I've still got lots to do though: I like to wear something new on Christmas Day so I have to find an outfit, and I haven't started the wrapping and card writing yet.

Supplies: paper - BasicGrey Dasher & Infuse; chipboard - Making Memories; journalling spot - Collage Press; ghost clock - Heidi Swapp; PC font - Lucida handwriting.

Off to a slow start journalling my Christmas!

I finally got round to starting Journalling My Christmas this evening - and had three prompts to catch up with.

The first was to create my Manifesto, the reasons why I want to create a journal and what time I will devote to it.

I made mine a bit tongue in cheek. The journalling reads:
I did indeed intend to spend 15 minutes a day journalling my Christmas but it's already Dec 3 and I haven't even started! My job gets in the way: I didn't get home until 8.40 last night. Oh well! I may fall a bit behind on the prompts but I'll get there in the end.

I used Ladybug candy coated paper by Doodlebug and Santa's body is a Christmas card from last year. Letters by American Crafts Thickers.

Yesterday's prompt was the weather. What sort of weather do we hope for at Christmas? What do we usually get? I used a photo from the last time it snowed - I think it was in March this year. The journalling reads: Snow would be nice of course but not very likely. Usually it's cold and grey, and that's fine with me. It's cosy indoors and a winter walk outside bears the promise of red cheeks and steaming hot chocolate. But no rain please....
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Patterned paper, letters and stickers by Doodlebug. Large letters by American Crafts.
Finally today's prompt was about Christmas cards. Do we make them ourselves? When do we send them? And so on. My journalling reads: When I was new to card-making two years ago, I made 55 cards. All different. It nearly killed me. This year I've made around 20, just for our nearest and dearest. Yes they're all different - but a few look like this example, made with my new Cuttlebug. A strange old Lovis family tradition is to keep all the cards you get sent and display them again. Well, it certainly makes you look popular.....
Supplies: ribbon by Doodlebug, letters drawn with Stickles.

Snowmen

Rainbow Lady's challenge is Snowmen, which for me was quite a challenge because I didn't have a snowman stamp or any die cuts.

There was nothing for it but to make a trip to the nearby Range where I picked up some cute Dovecraft and Crafty Bitz die cuts.

I ended up making three cards. The top one was J's favourite. The swirls are a Hampton Arts stamp and the letters by Doodlebug. It's a gatefold card, so when you open it there is another wintry scene to view.





In the other two I put the Cuttlebug to good use with the snowflakes embossing folder. I also used my wood cut ivy wheel stamp (Stampin' Up)for the first time. That's going to be great for scrapbook pages.

Sweet

I was looking for a challenge to while away a dreary wet Sunday and hit upon Craftaway Sunday and their latest challenge "sweet."

Like Rosie in the comments, I don't generally attempt anything very cute or sweet. I don't know why. Anyway, in memory of the summer that ebbed away and ended officially last night, here is my card that recalls summer with ice-creams and pastel colours. I hope it fits the bill.

The papers were free in a magazine and the letter stickers are by Doodlebug.

Happy birthday Arty Girlz

The Arty Girlz blog is one year old so their latest challenge is to show birthday cards.

My card uses black & white paper by Doodlebug and giant brads and epoxy greeting by Making Memories. Scallop shapes cut with a punch by Stampin' Up!

Song Sung Blue

Arty Girlz latest challenge has the theme "Blue". I love blue, such a soft refreshing colour; yet very few of my cards are blue.

I used a vintage image, some background paper by Stampington, hearts by Doodlebug and quote by K&Co, and both stamps by Artifacts with ink by Stampin' Up.

The Orange Page

I've been acquiring orange embellishments for a while now but realised I never get the chance to use them because we never wear clothes in complementary colours! Then I found some pictures of me and my mum from 1995 when we went to Challaborough, in South Devon, to see Joyce, my mum's friend for many years. She had just won a prize for her caravan's garden.

Cardstock by Bazzill; patterned paper and large flower by DCWV; paper frill by Doodlebug; transparency by Fancy Pants; journalling spot by Collage Press; letters by Making Memories (rub-ons); paper clip by Making Memories.

Oh My!

Two scrapbook layouts today. In the Sunday Times yesterday my mouth was drooling at a picture of Eggs Benedict, one of my favourite dishes of all time. I resolved to laminate it and use it in a LO. And here it is.

The paper is by Rouge de Garance and Stampington. Chipboard letters by EK Success (painted and sprinkled with glitter). Paper frills and heart brads by Doodlebug. Harvest pins by Fancy Pants.

The latest weekly challenge over at UKS calls for a photo of self, journalling, ribbons and a bloom. I used a picture of me at the top of Vesuvius, the volcano which spewed a lethal sulphuric cloud into the air which hung over, and eventually choked, the people of Pompeii (not a lava river, as people often mistakenly think).

Supplies: patterned paper and letter stickers by BasicGrey; chipboard letters by DCWV; various ribbons and blooms. Journalling spot: Collage Press.

Spring - there's more

It seems very apt today, as the country is lashed by wind and rain, to post a layout I created yesterday on Spring!

It combines my two loves of stamping and colouring. I used white embossed paper by Doodlebug and yellow hand-made paper from Hobbycraft. The stamps were the following: the new and very gorgeous wild meadow themeplate from Elusive Images (buy at Graphicus), hyacinths by Hero Arts and a Christmas stamp by Joanna Sheen (the bird). I've made a card with the wild meadow stamps too and will share that tomorrow. I did the colouring with a combination of inks, chalks and paint.

I had earmarked some new chipboard letters from EK Success which I bought in the US recently. They're white and very swirly, and I was going to paint them. However - quelle horreur - they are so elaborately curly I couldn't make out which was the "s" ! I have both the uppercase and the lowercase alphabets but I couldn't work it out. They really ought to include a guide to the letters inside.

Anyway, in the absence of those letters I used the great standby of letters I bought in the bargain shop (I won't call it a pound shop because some things, like these letters, are more than a pound!).

Buttons from Craftime and swirly gold accents from HOTP.

I photographed the daffodils and the primroses in the garden last week. I've now got some splendid blue hyacinths (the white are a long way behind) but it's a bit too rainy to take pictures today.

"Four of the Best"

The final DCM challenge of the year is to create a card using the four most popular dares of 2007: buttons, ribbons, cut and frames. You can use as many of these as you choose.

I managed to use two of the dares, (or three if "cut" equals tearing!), buttons and frame. I created a card for a man's birthday using a stamp I had for Christmas, cyclists by Elusive Images. I chalked it and attached it to a card blank I had already stamped with a swirls stamp and to which I had applied some Stampington papers randomly. The birthday greeting was with a stamp by Anita's. The buttons are from Craft Time. The picture quality isn't great - I had to use a different camera.

I've also been busily scrapping. "Nice Antlers" features two pictures of me from our riotous and very enjoyable team Christmas party in Munich. I was given the antlers by Secret Santa and they proved a big hit with everyone having their picture taken wearing them. The papers are by Doodlebug, the brads and poinsettia frill by Queen & Co, and I painted the arrows using Twinkling H2Os. The font is Jokerman.



The review of 2007 idea came to me courtesy of Memory Makers magazine. I printed off some of the milestone pictures of the year and created a layout using papers by Basic Gray (Perhaps) and My Mind's Eye, adding some embellishments including heart shaped metal frames from Making Memories, and chipboard letters by K&Co.

Birthday cards for glam laydeez

I've been at a bit of a loss to know what to do with the Doodlebug black & white papers I bought a few months ago. I haven't been inspired to use them for a 12 x 12 layout but I used them in a mini book and now I've used them on a couple of birthday cards.



This one has red highlights. The shoes stamp was free with a magazine. I embossed it with red tinsel and stamped the greeting with a Hero Arts stamp. The Tres Chic / Fabulous Shoes peel offs are by Anita's.



I'm still playing around with shrink plastic. This card, a variation in pink, has a handbag (same set of free stamps) stamped on black shrink plastic. I just love the way it shrivels up, and you think all is lost, but then it straightens out again. I got the mottled effect by first stamping over the top of magic mesh, and then removing it.