Scribbles and Scrappin

Wishi Washi

2012-01-27T13:03:00.000Z

It's Friday so it's time for another Daring Cardmakers challenge! This week Jo has set us the task of making a card featuring washi tape. Here's my go at the challenge:

I do have quite a few rolls of washi tape to play with. It's great stuff for pretty packaging and just for having around to provide an instant pop of colour to your projects, I love it! I tried to carry on with the stationary theme of the tape and I picked out a label sticker, (Crate Paper) some grid patterned paper, (Pink Paislee) and then used the washi tape for my colour folding it over a piece of twine to make a little banner. The little scallopy bit at the bottom is actually a stand it's not part of the card. My shelf is all clean and polished which is not conducive to making cards stand up on it today so I had to use my little metal standimajig.

Pop on over to Daring Cardmakers to have a go at this weeks challenge and to see the stunning cards the DT have created.... www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

x Leo

Daring Card Makers - Kitchenalia

2012-01-20T10:00:00.000Z

This week we've been sent to the kitchen to look for inspiration for our cards. :)

I began with the super cute Modern Homemaker papers and went for a fun retro look. The main retro lady is from the October Afternoon Modern Homemaker sticker sheet as is the paper with the kitchen goodies on it. The floral paper is from the October Afternoon Sidewalks collection and the other pinky paper is a Sassafras one. I went for a pop up card and made the banner the pop up piece so as well as being a decorative bit that's the bit that makes the sticker pop from the card front. It looks like she's steppng out of the card to mop the surface the card's sat on lol.
I don't think I've ever made a 'happy new kitchen' card but why not? :-D
Check out all the lovely DT cards this week with their kitchenalia inspired designs and have your own go leaving a link so we can come and peek, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

x Leo

Daring Cardmakers - Miraculous Social Networks

2012-01-14T16:03:00.002Z

Hi!

I'm back to update my long neglected blog. I haven't had much time to do anything over Christmas and new year and to be honest I also needed a break from everything. I wish I could say I feel refreshed and ready to tackle the new year but I've been so busy catching up this past week I'm shattered! lol

Well here we go with another daring cardmakers challenge. This week we have a fantastic challenge from Zuzana to make a card inspired by the social networking sites we know and love {?}.
I had to really think about this one but then I had a brain wave as I'm still making one or two more thank you cards and this idea just popped in my head to use the Facebook like button.

I used lots of leftover bits of paper, a Sassafras boarder sticker and some October Afternoon mini market alphabet stickers. The felt flower is homemade.

Hope you had a lovely holiday time! Don't forget to have a go at this weeks DCM challenge, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com
x Leo

Daring Card Makers go Nordic this Christmas!

2011-12-09T09:59:00.000Z

Hi!

Here's my go at this weeks Daring Cardmakers dare set by Fran to make a Nordic themed/inspired card.

I started off with the red and white colour scheme collecting bits and pieces to use then set about laying them out on my card base. I started with all the embellishments at the bottom then decided just before I stuck them all down to flip it around and have them at the top kinda like they're hanging I guess but I'm not sure it's worked because my eye keeps thinking there's something missing? Once they're stuck down, (and stitched down in this instance) there's really no going back!
I made the little felt heart adding some stitches with embroidery thread but the crochet snowflake I cheated and bought from Paperchase. The red dotty paper is Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas and the kraft dotty paper is MME Kraft Funday. The greeting is ribbon but it's all stitched so it's got that lovely Nordic/stitched kind of look.
Pop on over to Daring Cardmakers to have a go at this weeks challenge, we can't wait to see what you come up with! www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com
xx Leo

Merry Christmas Card

2011-11-19T12:23:00.000Z

Well I've been getting on with some Christmas cards again this week. I made another following the challenge on Shimelle's Christmas crop to cut out an image from patterned paper to use as a motif. I used some lovely Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas papers to cut out the baubles from then stitched them together with my sewing machine to make a little garland. All the other papers are the Holly Jolly ones too, really lovely collection pack I'll be using all of it for cards this year! The greeting is a stamp from Kaisercraft pack of mini clear Christmas greeting stamps.

xx Leo

Water Water Everywhere - it's another dare...ing cardmakers!

2011-11-18T10:00:00.000Z

Hi!
Sorry I missed posting up last weeks dare I did manage to finish a card for the DT I just didn't get a chance to post it up on my blog but go an check out all the yummy jewellery cards from last week, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/2011/11/bejewelled.html

This week the theme is 'water' and here's what I came up with....

This weekend just gone I had a peek at some of the challenges on Shimelle's Christmas crop and made this card based on this challenge, http://www.shimelle.com/paper/1289/woven-christmas-card-tutorial-by-melissa-mann/ picking up on the paper weaving idea. Any excuse to get the sewing machine out works for me :) The watery bit is the snowy/ice theme that's still water it's just frozen, right? I used a real mix up of papers, the pink dot is Kesi'art the grey is 4heures37 and the blue is Lily Bee. The little embellishments are Pink Paislee from the Snow Day ephemera pack. I added them with 3D foam pads to help them stand out from the background a bit. I added the crochet doily because I was trying to give it a more cozy feeling but I guess it could've worked without it?

Anyway pop on over to Daring Cardmakers to check out this weeks dare and all the stunning cards from the DT to inspire you and have a go at a watery project! www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

xx Leo

December Daily in progress

2011-11-08T16:10:00.000Z

This weekend I got to dig in to my December Daily project. I've tried to get a few photos but between being without my regular camera and the dark evenings we've got now it's proving a difficult task!I tried my best anyway. Here's what I've got so far.
I decided ages ago on a 6x4 inch format because I had lots of blank postcards I wanted to use as pages. I've supplimented the postcard pages with pieces of cardstock, (doubled up to make them thicker) and acetate pieces.

The cover is made with a Hambly transparancy as the base the piece of kraft cardstock is a blank page I've left behind it. The full pile of goodies I used is on an earlier post bellow. I've mixed up supplies I already had with a few new purchases.

I'm keeping most of the pages quite simple because I've got a small format so I need to leave plenty of room for a photo and some journalling or maybe just one or the other.

Here's one of the postcard pages. I'm going to use the space on the left for a photo then the lines on the right for the journalling. The little postmark stamps worked out just right for the stamp space in the top corner. I've used my date stamp, (it's just one of those from the office supply stores) alongside it to date the pages.

I dug out my Smash book stash, some of the things like the note pages make fun little journalling prompts to fill in.

I'm adding some little kind of divider pages in between each of the daily pages. Some with little reminder like the one above, (time to make cards) then there's the little 'days to go' pages like the one below.

I'll pop back and show some more piccys when it's all finished - light and camera willing!
xx Leo

Daring Cardmakers November Flowers

2011-11-05T13:59:00.000Z

First off a big massive happy birthday to Daring Cardmakers! I can't believe it's been so long well done guys.
This week it's all about the flowers as we work our way through the flowers of the month in the first week of every month. This week it's the Chrysanthemum. Here's what I came up with this week....

I made the flower from scallop circles cut out with my trusty Nestablities dies. I just snipped into the scallops at a slight angle then layered them all up gluing them in the center and then modeled it into the flower shape bending the paper with my fingers. Really simple thing to do but I was really cuffed with how it turned out. All the papers are leftover bits I've got hanging around from my Quirky Kits. It's a mix of Studio Calico and Lily Bee I think and the greeting is a Pebbles duplicate rub on.

Head on over to Daring Cardmakers HQ to check out the details of this weeks dare and have a go yourself.

xx Leo

Fantastic Felties

2011-10-28T12:18:00.000+01:00

Hi!

It's Nat that has set the challenge this week over on DCM HQ and this week Nat would like us to make a feature of felt on our cards.
Now I've already admitted in my last post I've totally caught the Christmas bug early so yes I'm breaking out of my habit of rushing doing cards at the last minute and I've actually made a Christmas card, in October!
It's the stupid shops that have set me off with all the decorations, I'm a total kid in a candy store. In Paperchase they had some really cute kawaii decorations so when I grabbed my felt bag and set about making a card all I could think about were kawaii Christmas puddings! I think I'll have to do a set of them, maybe a bauble and a gift box and a stocking and a cracker?

I cut out all the bits of felt by hand and then glued them together. The eyes and mouth are just stitched on using french knots for the eyes. The dotty card is Kesi-art, the kraft card is Papermania and the alphabets are Thickers and October Afternoon minis.

Grab your felt and have a go! www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

Holidays are coming around again!

2011-10-27T17:01:00.001+01:00

Wow it doesn't feel so long ago I was pondering the starting of my December Daily last year and here it is coming around again already! Ok so I know I'm way early and I usually don't start still November but this year I've got so much on I figure I need as much of a head start this year as I can get.
I've been having a play putting my goodies together for my journal base. I started off picking the colour scheme, red and kraft, then I picked out the papers, {American Crafts Hollyday Cherry Nose and Santa Claus, Crate Paper Peppermint Ski Lodge and St Nick, October Afternoon Sidewalks Hide&Seek and Red Rover} along with some red, kraft and white cardstock.

I picked out all the embellishment bits and pieces from my stash just rooting out colours that would work.

I've got some postcard blanks that I'm going to use as my base pages and some pages I'm planning to make just from cardstock and maybe some envelopes. To go with the postcard idea I treated myself to some cute little postmark stamps - these are from Whimsy Stamps. I'm going to make them do double, {or triple I guess it would be} duty though too because I'll use them for gift tags and cards.
For the cover I've picked out a Hambly overlay then I've got some large book rings for the binding.
Can't wait to start putting it together! It's sat on my desk now looking all expectant. :)
Have you caught the Christmas bug yet?

DCM - Sketch Challenge

2011-10-21T12:48:00.000+01:00

Hi!
This week Kathy has set a sketch dare for us over on Daring Cardmakers, www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

I'm in the process of sorting out my kit scraps so I decided to make another card from leftover kit bits and pieces.

It's a real big mix up of stuff from Cosmo Cricket, Pink Paislee, Kesi-art, Sassafras, American Crafts and Elle's Studio.

I like using up leftover bits for cards because I'm not bothered too much about what gets covered over because the goal is to use up what I have in front of me so it's a nice simple process. Kathys' sketch made it really easy to work up a design too and there's loads more sketches to play with on the Sketch File Blog Kathy has here, http://kathyswafflesketchfile.blogspot.com/

Don't forget to have a go at this weeks dare, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

xx Leo

P.S I've got a giveaway going on to win the latest Quirky Kit, you've got till 25th Oct 2011. to enter it's on the CT blog, http://craftytemplates.blogspot.com/2011/10/win-hazelnut-coffee-quirky-kit.html

A Little Bird Told Us...................

2011-10-18T13:17:00.000+01:00

Over on The Daring Cardmakers it's Rein who has set the dare this week and has told us to make a card with a bird on it. So here's my got this week, better late than never right?

I had all these lovely papers from mixed up Quirky Kits sat on my desk to use so I set out to make a card just from patterned paper, so no card blank I just used the patterned paper chopped up. The base is a lovely Pebbles one so it's really thick and clunky just right for a card blank. I had to decorate the inside though too so there was somewhere to write on it. For the bird part I used a vintage postage stamp.

There's still time to make a card for this weeks dare and check out this week because there's a lovely ribbony prize up for grabs! www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

xx Leo

Daring Cardmakers October Flowers of the month

2011-10-07T10:00:00.001+01:00

Hey there! I'm back with another Daring Cardmakers card this week.This week we're being inspired by the flowers of the month again which for October are 'Calendula or Cosmos'.
As a starting point I used my own inspiration for this month - I've decided to make October 'the month of collecting'. I've planned another Create 10 class called 'The Collectors Diary' so all this stuff is swirling around in my inspiration consciousness and it's come out in this card. I used a vintage botanical drawing image printed onto patterned paper then just layered it together with a collection of different bits and pieces. The papers are Crate Paper and Kesi-art papers and the little rose trim is Maya Road.

Pop onto the Daring Cardmakers blog and have a go at this weeks challenge, www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

xx Leo

Konnichiwa........

2011-09-30T10:00:00.005+01:00

Or hello! I'm back with another Daring Cardmakers card. This week Lythan has set the dare 'Ooh la la and wunderbar!' The dare is:'As it is the European Day of Languages today I would like your card to feature a foreign language.'

I got this idea in my head right away to make the background with all different ways to say 'hello'. I just used alphabet stamps to make the words all over the card front then added the stickers and the tag to finish. One of those really simple cards to think of but in practice it took about half an hour to stamp out all the words and resulted in very inky fingers but lots of fun :)

The stickers, paper heart and tag are all from American Crafts. The stamps are Banana Frog Tiny Teen and the twine is Pink Paislee.

Pop on over to http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com to have a go at this weeks challenge!

xx Leo

Daring Cardmakers 'How Many Candles?'

2011-09-16T10:52:00.000+01:00

This week Kathy has set the dare and we have to make a card using at least one candle. Myself and the rest of the team also got to try out some Funky Hand papers from the new 'Happy Happy Birthday' cd. Funky Hand are giving away one of the very same cd's this week if you take part in this dare so head on over to The Daring Cardmakers to check out the details and have a go!
Here's what I came up with this week:

When I set about to make the card I found out I only had small scraps of white card left in my stash eek! So I had a look around for some other things I could print the papers onto. I have a packet of white paper doilies and I do love a bit of an experiment so I thought I'll have a go at printing the papers on the doilies. I used small dabs of Pritt Stick to temporarily glue the doilies to a sheet of printer paper and then popped the sheet in my printer and printed the papers over the top. Once the sheet had printed I peeled them off the sheet.

I got some really cool patterned paper doilies but I also got the pattern left on the paper too as a bonus!

I printed the other papers, (pink and orange stripe) on one of the scraps of white card I had left and used dies and hand cutting to cut out the shapes from them. The flowers are Sassafras Foldies and all the alphabet stickers are American Crafts. The little doily sticker under the candles and the heart sticker are American Crafts too from the Amy Tangerine remarks sticker book. I used real birthday candles tied up with twine and glued on.

Head on over to have a peek at what the rest of the Daring Cardmakers team came up with as we all had different paper to use, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

Daring Cardmakers 'Flutterby'

2011-09-09T10:59:00.001+01:00

Here's my card for the first Daring Cardmakers dare from Keilly who has set the challenge of creating a card inspired by this image on Pinterest. The card also had to include butterflies.

I had the idea to go for the botanical style. I started off with the scrap of paper with the roses(?) on it's a Websters Pages one. I then added the newsprint paper in the background and the card is from a Jenni Bowlin memo block. I thought it kind of looked like a collection of butterflies, like those old Victorian ones. The butterflies are from Etsy; I got lots for Quirky Kits in bright colours and the lady who makes them sent me some more samples, some of them I guess are moths as well as butterflies but I think they're pretty all the same :). The label stickers that make up the greeting are October Afternoon I cut out the shape with my pinked circles Nestabilities from a scrap of Crate Paper, (Portrait I think?). I just added a bit of stitching underneath.

Ready to have a go at this weeks dare? You've got from now until next Friday to have a go check out all the details here.

Daring Cardmakers 'Feeling Krafty'

2011-08-26T11:36:00.001+01:00

This week it's the turn of Fran to set the dare. If you've not checked out Fran's blog yet it's a real treat - full of gorgeous pretty cards!
Fran has set us the challenge of creating a card with 3 'natural' elements. I'm already a huge kraft card fan, (great colour as a base and these ones I used are made from 100% recycled paper so that is another fab plus) so I began with a kraft card base then had a look around for other 'natural' items to use. I love these guinea fowl feathers they're so pretty with their natural little dotty pattern so I decided to use one of those. I also had some new stash to play with; some of the lovely 'Happy Days' from Echo Park. It's bright and fun with a 50's kitschy twist - my favorite kind of twist! I also got a little bit of the Amy Tangerine American Crafts - just the stickers. I'll be getting some more for the next Quirky Kits so I'm being good and waiting to use more of it then.

I don't know if the woodgrain sticker counts as 'natural' enough so I also added a little wooden heart embellishment and some wool felt making a matt with it for the sticker.

Head on over to Daring Cardmakers to get cracking with your own card and remember to add a link to your blog so we can come and see what you've made! www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

DCM - Inspired by Banksy

2011-08-19T11:17:00.001+01:00

This week on the Daring Cardmakers it's the turn of Samm and here's what shes's cooked up for us!

It's my turn to set the dare this week and my challenge is

'Inspired by Banksy'

If you're not aware of who he is, then pop on by Banksy.co.uk and take a look at some of his amazing street art across the world - you could also try a Google Image search on "Banksy" to find lots of fabulous ideas for your card.

So now is your chance to dig out those stencils, use that paint, throw in a few ironic sayings and give your card some 'street life' and show us what you've created.

So here's the card I came up with after lots of head scratching!

I started off with the idea of taking apiece of existing art work and doodling on it just like Banksy does adding his artwork as kind of like a comment on his surroundings..... but I couldn't get it to work in practice it just looked too random. I had to get my head out of literal Banksy style and get back to focusing on how I'd normally make a card but just adding a little bit of Banksy inspiration. I started off with the graffiti idea and used a Tim Holtz texture folder to give the white card a brick pattern. I then made a heart stencil and sprayed through some black ink and then added some water spray on top to make it run a little bit. I then added a bit of washi tape and the greeting then went about distressing it a bit more. I used the edge of a piece of card and scraped over some white paint to give it a bit more texture and sprayed over some white ink. I also rubbed some of the black ink back with a baby wipe. As a last touch I added the resin flower just to give it a focal point and I love the contrast of the bright red against the black too.

Have a go this week, it's a real challenge, maybe it'll help you break out of your comfort zone a bit, it did me! Check out all the details, www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

Daring Cardmakers So Kawaii!

2011-08-12T11:15:00.000+01:00

Hi!
This week it's my first turn at setting the dare over at The Daring Cardmakers.
I had a think and wanted to come up with something that was a little different and as I love anything kawaii I've set the dare to make a card using kawaii as inspiration.
Here's the cards I made this week:

I used some Kawaii Fruit cuts outs from Kitschy Digitals, funky foam cut out with a Nestabilities die and little bit of Sassafras Me Likey paper and some Paperchase stickers for the first card. The pink polka dot paper I've used on both cards is actually a Christmas one - the Echo Park everybody loves Christmas. It's not really Christmassy on this side but it's a fab bright colour! The little ice cream on the bottom card is a stamp from My Cute Stamps and the badge is from Paperchase. I fixed it on with a little bit of foam pad so it can be taken off the card. The embossing on the card is a Cuttlebug Folder.

Are you ready to create a card that's so kawaii? Head on over to Daring Cardmakers to see what the rest of the design team cooked up and join in yourself, www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

Daring Cardmakers 'Flowers of August'

2011-08-06T11:32:00.000+01:00

Wow, how weird is it to be in August already? It's weird to me anyway. Looking out of the window this morning it looks more like October, brrrr.

Anyway it's daring cardmakers time again and this week the challenge or prompt or dare (however you want to think of it) is to to use the flowers of the month as inspiration and the flowers of August are poppies and gladiolas.

I have a big love of poppies so I was instantly drawn into wanting to use them on my card. I also wanted to have a play with my new goodies I've just treated myself to and it just so happened that in one of the goodies I found a poppy! I got some of the cute Sassafras Foldies embellishments. The Sunshine Broadcast papers are super lush I got some for the August Quirky Kits so I've been having a play and wanted more so I treated myself to some of the Foldies and some other bits and pieces. I grabbed a couple of sheets of a new paper range from My Little Shoe Box 'Audrey' at the same time that caught my eye (and I thought) worked well with the whole pretty girly look of the flowery Foldies.

I added some glossy accents to the poppy and the cameo to make them stand out a bit against everything going on. It started off simple but I had a load of scrap paper pieces out on my desk so I just kept grabbing them and sticking them down, I can't bare to throw away cute patterned paper no matter how small the pieces are!

Pop on over to see what the rest of the design team have been up to & to get busy yourself with this weeks dare, daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

Have fun!
xx Leo

Daring Card Makers - Cute as a Button!

2011-07-29T12:32:00.000+01:00

It's Sharon who has set the challenge for us this week and the challenge is to make a card using buttons as a main design element. I also had a double challenge this week as I needed to make a Christening card for my cousins three little ones. I've not got a massive supply of pastel pretty baby kind of colours in my supplies and the card needed to work for both girls and boys so I decided to go for yellow and blue. For the button element I decided to make some trim with buttons on. I used some calico and tore a strip then just stitched the buttons on. I made a big long length of it so I'm thinking of making a box for the card and wrapping some more of the button trim around it.

I might also add on the names onto each of the bears I'm not certain yet but it would be nice to incorporate the names somewhere I think?

Well hope you join in with the challenge this week. Pop onto the Daring Cardmakers blog to see what the rest of the design team have been cooking up! http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

xx Leo

Daring Cardmakers - Wish you were here?

2011-07-22T11:04:00.000+01:00

It's Daring Cardmakers time again and this week Lynda has set the challenge to come up with a summer holiday inspired card. Lynda mention caravans and it just so happens I had caravans on the brain this month! I pinned a really cute one on my pintrest board for my July inspiration so that also settled my caravan choice. I set about carving a caravan stamp from an eraser. It's something I've done before so I've had a little practice at it, (also like making lino stamps) but it is a really easy thing to have a go at and very addictive! You just need a lino cutting tool and an eraser. I sketched the design on the eraser first and then carved along the details and then carved out the shape from the edge. To test it you have to ink it then if any bits show you don't want you can carve them off.

I loved the simple naive kind of design so I kept the card design simple too. I enjoyed stamping them so much I ended up doing two cards and the caravan stamps carry on around the backs of the cards too!

I just added a little bit of washi tape and a heart stitched on with my sewing machine.

Are you playing along with us this week? Check out the Daring Cardmakers blog and play along, www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

xx Leo

Daring Cardmakers - Pintrest Inspired

2011-07-15T10:00:00.024+01:00

Time for another Daring Cardmakers challenge! This week the design team were set the challenge by Nat to make a card inspired by the image of our own choosing from the Pintrest site. Well this one was pretty simple for me as I love Pintrest but when I came to pick my image I was totally overwhelmed for choice! I went all around pintrest typing in the search box things I loved then ended up on some pretty blogs I found via some of the images then pinned a few bits then went back onto pintrest and eventually.... I ended up with this image:

Source: papernstitchblog.com via Crafty on Pinterest

It's got a lovely fresh and clean feel while still being fun and colourful plus it's got a little bit of vintage in there so all together perfect to me!
So here's the card I've made inspired by the image above......

I used scraps of patterned paper and cut out the circle shapes using a Nestabilities pinked circles die then stitched them into garlands with my sewing machine. The greeting bit I've hand-stitched on to card with some Pink Paislee twine. I was umming and arring whether or not to put anything else on there but I decided to hold back and just keep it simple.
Pop along to The Daring Cardmakers blog and have a go at this weeks very 'pin tresting' dare!
xx Leo

Inspiration Monday

2011-07-11T11:39:00.000+01:00

Wow, can't believe it's Monday again already that seems to have come around very quickly this week! eek! Well I've had a look around Pintrest for a image to inspire this week and I've settled on one from my own board this week:

Original image from www.marthastewartweddings.com

I just loved this idea initially of using the vintage brooches as a bouquet - (that's why I pinned it!) but when you look more into this image there's loads more to gleam from it - the colours - mixing up lots of different types of flowers and materials - just lovely! I love the idea of mixing in daisies with roses so I defo think that is going to inspire a project some time this week.

If you make anything inspired by the image this week show me show me! lol

xx Leo

Daring Cardmakers - 'Suitcase'

2011-07-08T11:50:00.000+01:00

It's Friday! It's time for another Daring Cardmakers card. It was the turn of Rein this week who has set the following dare:

it's Rein here this week and my dare is

"SUITCASE"

I'd like you to use a suitcase in any way you like on your card.

It could be what you put in your suitcase when you're off travelling, or you could incorporate any sort of suitcase; old, new, shiny or battered into your design.

And this is what I've come up with this week...........

Funny story actually I made this card this morning about 15mins ago because I've been so busy this week with so many things rushing through my head I forgot it was Friday! Who forgets it's Friday?! I think I need a holiday! lol I grabbed my leftovers of For The Record by Echo Park because I knew I had a suitcase sticker on there so that was good to go. There's a scrap of October Afternoon paper on there too ( the crossword one). I wanted it to look more grungy so I went for a spattering of white ink, (Mr Huey Calico White). The camera is a stamp - I thought it went well with the whole travely themed birthday card. The happy bit is Thickers - got some bargain ones in the Sarahs Cards sale, these little size ones are fab for cards.

Well if you'd like to play along with this weeks dare get yourself over to Daring Cardmakers and give it a go! www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

Inspiration Monday #5

2011-07-04T15:40:00.000+01:00

Here's this weeks inspiration Monday image I've picked out from Pintrest.........

Original image source

Love this pretty garland, how lovely would this be to hang greetings cards from! I also love the fact it's been made with washi tapes - I have a major cute tape addiction!

Daring Cardmakers - July Flowers

2011-07-01T10:15:00.001+01:00

As it's the first week of a new month we have the birthday flowers of the month to take inspiration from this week. The flowers for July are the Larkspur and Water Lily.
Here's my card this week:

I used the Larkspur as inspiration, it has long lupin like flowers so I had a go at making that kind of shape as a branch but I wasn't getting anywhere with that so instead I focused on just one of the flowers from a close up picture and used it as inspiration to make a paper flower from handmade white paper. I used a smaller green flower to make the middle bit and squished it up then covered it in Glossy Accents and popped a couple of seed beads on top. The bird image is a vintage book page I found on the internet and printed off. The bow I made from calico misted with Cosmic Shimmer mist. The background is a Making Memories journalling note thingy and the sticker is Crate Paper with some Adornit alphabet stickers on top.

Pop onto Daring Cardmakers to have a go at this weeks challenge, there's a prize giveaway this week too! http://www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

Inspiration Monday #4

2011-06-27T12:48:00.000+01:00

Here's the Inspiration Monday image I've picked out from Pintrest to take inspiration from this week....

original image source

Love this image, the colours, the summer feel, everything!

If you make anything inspired by this weeks image let me know & leave a comment so I can come and see.

xx Leo

Something Old, Something New

2011-06-24T09:49:00.000+01:00

The theme for this weeks Daring Cardmakers challenge has been set by Lythan and it's to create a card featuring something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Here's what I've come up with this week......

I love collecting vintage bits and pieces to use in my crafting so that was the first part of my stash I raided and picked out a vintage doily and a book page. I also had an old IKEA pillow case in my fabrics pile so I picked that out then decided to go for a kind of shabby chic kind of thing. For my new bit I picked out the last stash I invested in some K&Co Smash tape and paper tabs. The borrowed bit was tricky I was going to use one of my grandmas vintage photos, (well a copy obviously) but I couldn't get my printer to play so I had to think of something else. It's rather tenuous but the paper at the back of the card is one piece of Sassafras Mix & Mend and I cut out or 'borrowed' a scallop piece from the middle to use as a layer. I did the same with the doily cutting out the middle bit to use as one of the layers. The pillowcase fabric I used as a little banner. For the blue I added a blue rose brad, (American Crafts) and a blue pearl in the felt flower.

Play along with this weeks Daring Cardmakers challenge, leave a link so we can come and see what you've been creating! http://www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

Work Desk Wednesday

2011-06-22T18:49:00.000+01:00

Hi
Just got in front of my desk for a little crafty play so thought I'd take a quick snap for workdesk Wednesday........

I'm working on my card ready for Friday's Daring Cardmakers Dare Gallery. Here's a close up, can you guess what the theme is from this? Bet you can't :p

I'm really enjoying being part of the team over there it's defo keeping my creative juices flowing because it's a fab push to make something every week. Pop on over to Julia's blog to carry on your magical mystery tour of work desks!

Inspiration Monday #3

2011-06-20T12:00:00.000+01:00

Another Monday so here's another image to get inspiration from this week. I've had a rummage through Pintrest and picked out this image:

original image source

What's not to love? Great colour and texture and pattern. I love how the colours are bright but also subtle in the image. I'm feeling painty this week too so I'm defo going to take inspiration from the messy painty layers, yum!

Let me know if you make anything inspired by this image this week...

Let's Rock with the Daring Cardmakers

2011-06-17T11:21:00.002+01:00

This week Kathy has set us this dare:

It's Kathy here with this week's new challenge:
Rocking All Over the World
This week I'd like you to make a Wobble Card - these are cards which have a curved base so that when you tap them they rock, or wobble from side to side.
Now what you put on your card is up to you, BUT if you're up for a bit more of a challenge, how about adding something of a pun, and giving your card a "rocking" theme too?

And this is the card I've come up with this week,

I wanted to make a little rocking boat on the ocean. I started making the base card with the rounded base and then cut out the wave bits from card and then covered them with felt and glued them on top of the card. I then thought it needed more texture to get across more feeling of movement so I added more pieces of fabric and papers and then stitched with the sewing machine all over the top. I had to cut my card up and make another base card though so I could cover over the stitching at the back, I just used more of the same colour card glued it over the back and then re-cut it out. The little boat I made with washi tapes and deco tapes and used fabric for the sails. The pirate flag is just a bit of deco tape wrapped around a pin that I popped down the middle.

Are you ready to rock? Join in with this weeks challenge and we'll come over to your blog and take a peek! http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/2011/06/lets-rock.html

xx Leo

Inspiration Monday #2

2011-06-13T09:00:00.001+01:00

Time for another Inspiration Monday image. Today from my Pintrest I've picked out this image as my weekly inspiration:

original image source is flickr.com

I love the colour combination here the 'muddy' green, brown and turquoise and also the crochet we've got going on here, I just can't get enough crochet doliies just lately. Let me know if you've created something inspired by this weeks image. I'll get creating and post something up later in the week.
xx Leo

Smashing Sunday

2011-06-12T13:44:00.002+01:00

Today I've been making some more pages for my altered journal and I've been playing at altering the cover of my Smash book. I loved the embossed pattern on the cover already so I just figured I'd try to bring it out more and used some inky spray and mists and rubbing over with inkpads. I also added some of the Smash tape down the side of the fabric. I'm defo going to end up adding more I'm sure.

I'm just going to fill it with lots of random things I love. If I try and make it too themed I know I won't fill it because I get distracted too easily so it's just going to be a complete mix. It'll be a great place to experiment with ideas and use some of the stationary/vintage bits and pieces I love collecting that don't get used in my scrapbooks. Some of the pages inside are really cute and inspiring.

I'm half way between the wanting to fill it up right now and wanting to save it for another day so I'm compromising and just adding little bits. I can see it being something that is constantly changing and being added to and covered over, kinda like a crafty diary more than a scrapbook/journal.

I've been making some more altered journal pages:

These ones need sewing up yet:

It's almost full up now. I took out some of the inner pages from the journal to take up the bulky pages so there's gonna be around 30 pages in there in total when I'm done. It's a big task but it's making my scraps pile go down tonnes!
Looks like it's going to be a very fun journally crafty couple of months!
xx Leo

DCM - Father Christmas

2011-06-10T11:24:00.000+01:00

Now I love Christmas cards don't get me wrong but Christmas cards in June is a little too much for me. It's my brothers birthday on Monday and I always try and think of a fun idea for a card to make for him so when I saw Jo's dare for the Daring Cardmakers this week this idea almost straight away popped into my head.

The little Santa I cut out of a Cosmo Cricket paper tag I had fun browsing through my Christmas stash leftover from last year. I mixed in some other leftover bits and pieces of paper there's Lily Bee, Crate Paper and Bazzill card. The stickers are October Afternoon and Echo Park and Thickers - it's a real mix up!
If you want to play along with this weeks Daring Cardmakers challenge head over there now and check it out. We've got another giveaway this week of some lovely Echo Park papers! www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com

xx Leo

Journalling

2011-06-09T21:26:00.001+01:00

A number of things came together to make me start a new project this week. This post by Julie gave the push to get out one of empty notebooks and make a start on filling it. I pinned this journal to my Pintrest then went on to read about the 'remains of the day' journals and then I had this image from Inspiration Monday to give me a kick to start something. So putting all this together I've started a new journal. I picked out this book off my shelf, it's one of the books I got as a present I'd been saving 'for best' - the best time never really comes along until you give it a push though right.

Sid the (not so little anymore) monster came to see what I was doing and decided he loved this book too so I must be onto something.

He just loves anything stringy and dangley plus I think he wants his dinner, that's defo his I want my dinner face........

Anyway back to my book. It's something I've been meaning to start for a while, I'd forgotten I'd wrote this a couple of months ago till I was flicking back through my ideas book:

So it must have been swimming around for a while. I also wanted to make use of some of my paper leftovers I've really been making it a misson all year to use up offcuts as much as possiable. I used this as a starting point and pulled out a bunch of paper scraps.

I used the Inspiration Monday image as my starting point for the first page picking out the colours:

Lots of machine stitching going on, I've had my sewing machine set up for a while now I just can't seem to want to put it away. I basically collaged the paper pieces together and stitched over the top. Once the page was done I glued and stitched it in my journal.

I couldn't tidy away without making the next page:

I'll have to keep this up till I've used all these scrap pieces then I can get onto the fun of filling it up!
xx Leo

Inspiration Monday #1

2011-06-06T10:25:00.000+01:00

Well I did try to start a regular post on Fridays but now Fridays are going to be taken over by DCM posts so I've come up with another regular post idea, 'Inspiration Mondays'.

I like many many crafters have fallen for the charms of Pintrest and have been pinning all my ideas and inspiration for kits, colour combinations, general fashion and cool craftyness but now I need to start using some of them! Since Monday is the day of the week where inspiration is needed most I figured I'd do a regular post on Mondays with an inspirational image taken from my Pintrest board ideas. Today I've gone for a fun bright summery colour combination.....

original image source, Countryliving.com

There's so much to love in this image, from the colour combinations of the cherry red, turquoise and pink to the pretty polka dot embossed bowl with the scalloped edge. Feeling inspired? If you make something let me know, I'll have a play and post something up later in the week.
xx Leo

DCM- Flowers for June

2011-06-03T10:00:00.001+01:00

It's Daring Card Makers time again, blimey where has that week gone?? This week the challenge is:

This week we return to our First Friday of the Month series of Flower challenges.

The flowers for June are:
Roses and Honeysuckle
so we'd like you to take one or both of those flowers as your inspiration for your crafting.. With flowers like that to base your cards around we know we're in for a treat this week and we can't wait to see what you come up with.

So here's what I came up with:

I'm making up a nostalgicy kitschy 50's seaside kind of kit this week and I think it has rubbed off in my cardmaking because when I've gone digging in my scrap bag for goodies to use I've picked out similar nostalgicy/50's colours & patterns. I'm not sure why I like this card, I just do. I had some leftover pieces of card so I cut them into 6x4 and set about making a set of notecards. I cut the teacup out from fabric first. I set out with the idea to use the rose stamp in the background but it fitted on the teacup so I just stamped it on there to make it look kind of more vintagey. The rest of the card is just layered up paper scraps and deco tapes. I added the embellie at the end it's made with mulberry paper, a scallop of paper and bakers twine.

Go have a peek over on Daring Cardmakers Blog to see more goodies ---> http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/

Daring Cardmakers Passion for Fashion

2011-05-27T10:34:00.001+01:00

Hi!

So here's my first go at playing along with DCMers as a DT member! I'm really excited to be part of the team and looking forward to making some new bloggy friends so hi if you've never popped in here before! I'm Leo, short for Leonora but everyone calls me Leo and it's way easier to type too ;-).

I've got a bunch of leftover fabric bits and pieces on my desk this week so I grabbed some of those to make an embellishment with stitching it together with my sewing machine. I used some paper off cuts in the background and to make the shoes with just sketching them out onto paper and cutting them out. I popped some PVA glue over the tops of them to make them a bit more substantial as embellies. The flower I made with rolled tissue paper and glued it to another paper flower before adding it to the card. The title bit I cut out of some patterned paper, I think it was a Jenni Bowlin one - it was just a little off cut but it had the 'fashion' word on it so I had to use it and just chopped out the word, added it to a label and then just popped the rest of the off cut of the paper underneath.
xx Leo

Create 10 Embellishments

2011-05-26T12:22:00.000+01:00

Hi!
Are you coming along to play with Create 10 Embellishments? Classes kick off tomorrow over on CraftyTemplates. I've really enjoyed making my book, {sneak peek bellow}. We're looking at loads of different ideas for embellishing and most of the ideas make use of leftovers and small bits and pieces, which I love because I love to make use of every little scrap :)

xx Leo

WOYWW

2011-05-18T13:08:00.001+01:00

So here's my workdesk today.

I had a little tidy up because my space was getting a bit too cluttered with random bits. When I collected together these 'random bits' and sorted out the junk I found I had quite a lot of cool 'desk treasure'.

Have you ever gone treasure hunting on your craft desk/workspace, what have you found? lol

Find more desks over on Julia's blog, http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

xx Leo

Daring Cardmakers - The Darling 'bugs' of May

2011-05-17T17:10:00.001+01:00

Here's my go at this weeks Daring Cardmakers challenge, The Darling 'bugs' of May. The challenge is to make a card with some kind of bug on it.

I set out to make a hello/thank you card to pop in a guest designer package I've put together for Julie so it had to be something fun and quirky too. So putting the two ideas together hello card and bugs I thought of how spiders pop out, (seemingly from nowhere, how do they do that?) to say hello. Well, they don't say hello but you know what I mean right? lol.
I made the spider from fabric and stitched on the details then I had a look around my desk for stuff to use in the background and grabbed a few bits, I thought the crocheted doily looked kind of like a web....

Then I just kept adding more bits of ribbon and paper stitching them on with my sewing machine.
Pop onto the Daring Cardmakers blog to see the other fun cards & join in, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/
xx Leo

Daring Cardmakers - The Flowers For May

2011-05-11T14:36:00.001+01:00

Here's my go at this weeks Daring Cardmakers challenge. The challenge this weeks is to make a card inspired by the flowers of the month of May the Hawthorn and the Lily of the Valley.

I know both flowers are white so I had in mind a white based card right away. I made some Hawthorn inspired blossoms just using white card and some buttons. I cut the petals out of card then folded them around my fingers to give them some shape. Then for the centers I threaded some embroidery floss through the button holes and coloured the ends with a sharpie.

Check out the cool cards & have a go over on the daring cardmakers blog, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/2011/05/flowers-for-may.html

xx Leo

Downtown Tea Party Sneaks!

2011-05-01T14:05:00.000+01:00

I'm working on some layout ideas today using the upcoming 'Downtown Tea Party' Quirky Kit.

I was just popping this one aside while it dried and took a quick snap. I've been experimenting with paints and spray mists.

I used a bit of crochet doily as a mask. I used white as a base on this one then used Candy Pink Cosmic Shimmer and it made it much more opaque but still translucent, love it!
Defo calls for more paint/mist experimenting I think.

xx Leo

DCM - By Royal Appointment

2011-04-30T17:33:00.000+01:00

Here's my go at this weeks Daring Cardmakers Challenge. The challenge was to make a card with a royal or patriotic theme. You can check out the challenge here, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/2011/04/by-royal-appointment.html
I picked out the red, white and blue patriotic colour theme and added some bling for the royal because those royals have some serious bling!

Papers are a mix of Sassafras and October Afternoon. The white is just plain white embossed with my Cuttlebug.
xx Leo

Some of my favourite cards

2011-04-21T16:22:00.000+01:00

I've just been browsing through my blog looking for card samples and I forgot how many cards I've posted up on my blog over the years so I though it would be fun to post some of my favourite ones together. It's funny too to see my style hasn't really changed as much as I thought it had, (it starts from the oldest to the newest). Have a go on your blog it's fun, I just used the 'post a photo from this blog' option on Blogger and it comes up with all the photos you've posted up then you can browse though them.

How has your style changed over the time you've been blogging?
xx Leo

Finish Up Friday

2011-04-15T18:36:00.002+01:00

This Friday I'm still working on finishing up my Crafty Templates card samples for this month. It's been my birthday this week and so I was kind of arm twisted into having 3 days off. I did some rushed ones before my birthday but I wasn't happy with all of them so today I've been fixed to the desk trying to catch up where I left off, eek!
I'm not sure I'm going to bother with tidying this Friday I'll probably still be working until late but I'm still calling this a 'Finish Up Friday' post as what I am doing essentially is finishing up some projects :-D

I really like this card from this months set I'm doing right now. I always end up with small off cut bits when making cards so I wanted to think up a simple way of using them up to make a card....

I love cards like this, ones you'd be able to give to anyone so you can make them up in advance and just by changing up the colours you can make them different every time.
xx Leo

Finish Up Friday

2011-04-01T17:48:00.002+01:00

So I've been trying to find time to blog and I figured I need a regular feature to push me to it. Today I was tidying around my desk and I thought I really should be trying to use some more bits and pieces I've got leftover instead of just adding to my scraps bag. So I've combined the two ideas and come up with Finish Up Friday!

Every Friday I'm going to {try} to add a regular post that makes something using up what I have out on my desk then pop on my blog and load it up. Fingers crossed it'll give me motivation to not let my blog get all neglected and cobwebby, yuk.

Ok so today I'm going to start off with the first Finish Up Friday post.

Here's what I've got piled up on my desk this week:

A Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe pad, (I've mostly just used the off cuts I shoved back in here) and stickers, Echo Park For the Record stickers and leftover paper scraps, Jenni Bowlin Dot alphabet stickers, Sassafras Indie Girl Journal Stickers and some other random off cuts of paper/card and bits.

I had a request to make a mothers day card so I started with that and decided to make a couple of cards.

Finished Card

Then another card as I still had some off cut bits to use...

Finished card

Still had little bits of paper leftover so I used them to decorate the envelope too:

Feel free to join me in the quest to tidy on Friday and finish up by making use of those leftover little bits!

xx Leo

Stamping with markers challenge

2011-03-12T11:50:00.000Z

I've used the Moxie Fab Stamping with Markers Challenge for this card. I thought I'd make a background for my card with the stamps and markers rather than do the usual coloured in stamp image as the main element on my card. I stamped the rose stamp all over the base card using brown ink so the outlines wouldn't stand out too much then added colour with Promarkers.

I've added tulle and more of the lovely Echo Park For the Record stickers. The boarder sticker is a Crate Paper one and the alphas are Kesi'art.

xx Leo

Cards Update

2011-03-10T14:07:00.001Z

So I've finished the cards I was playing with yesterday. I made two inspired by two challenges. The first one for the Moxie Fab World paper piecing challenge:

I stamped the images on some lovely new papers from the Echo Park For the Record collection. The background is more of the Echo Park papers and one Pebbles paper, the green dot one. I've added a crochet doily and some tulle for texture. The stickers are Crate paper and Kesi'art.

Next I've made a card for this weeks Daring Cardmakers 'Jonquils and Daffodils' challenge. I went with the yellow side of the challenge and tried to restrict myself to yellow. I've used a mix up of American Crafts and more of the lovely Echo Park papers and Kesi'art stickers.

xx Leo

Work Desk Wednesday

2011-03-09T17:04:00.000Z

Yep it is a new post!
Been totally bogged down with work lately so I've had zero time for blogging but I'm going to try and contribute some more from now.
I thought I'd get into the blogging again with a 'What's on your work desk Wednesday' post. So here's my desk today:

I'm busy putting some cards together for pleasure and some work ones too. I thought if I mixed up the two it'd make the work ones not seem so much like work and it's working. Ba, I've typed work too much in this post!

I'll update with the card finished I'm ~~working on~~ creating right now. :)

Carry on your work desk snoops over here, http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

xx Leo

Work Desk Wednesday - holidays are coming!

2010-11-17T12:05:00.000Z

Here's what I've got on my desk today, I'm making holiday decorations and goodies!

I've been devising a gingerbread house made of card so you can see the prototype I made in the background there. I made all the templates so that will probably be a future CT project. I've also got a journal on the go and I started an embroidery last night while watching TV - and I saw that Christmas ad - defo gets me in the holiday spirit even if it is still only November! :)

xx Leo

Carry on your work desk journey from Julia's blog here, http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

December Daily Completed album!

2010-11-10T17:14:00.001Z

Well I've (almost) finished my December Daily album. I say almost because I'll probably add some more to it - I've really enjoyed making it! It's beginning to feel almost like Christmas!

I thought it would be easier to see as a video so rather than upload loads of photos I've had a go at making a little video...

I've used leftovers to make the album and then goodies from the Hey Christmas Cupcake Quirky Kit to decorate. The cover is just a piece of fabric doubled over and stitched together. Once stitched together it was folded over and holes punched in the side. The eyelets have been added with my Cropodile, (using the page protector holes as a guide) and then I just popped the book rings through to make the binding. They look big book rings now but from doing a couple of December Daily albums I know the albums soon get fat so it's worth preparing ahead and going for a chunky binding. ;) On the inside of the cover I've added some cardstock for stability and then neatened up the edges with the deco tape from the kit. The inside pages are leftover page protectors cut up to fit, some were multi pocket 12x12 ones and some were 6x12 ones that have been trimmed down. The rest are cardstock pages. My layout is 3 dates per page and one page for the 25th. I've started the dates at the end of November to cover some Christmassy things going on just before December. Using the book rings means I can add some more pages, keepsakes or full size photos in between the pages if I find later on I need more room. I also like to add handmade cards received to it so it makes it easier to pop those in too. :)

xx Leo

December Daily Part 1

2010-11-07T16:34:00.001Z

I've tried to cram some December Daily album making in this weekend. I told myself I wouldn't start anything Christmassy for myself till after bonfire night and I was so itching to begin December Daily I started on the 6th!
Well I've had a few ideas milling about for how I wanted to approach it this year. One of the main 'problems' I had last year was not having enough time to fill it out each day and falling behind with it. The one I made the year before was much less formally laid out so I thought of doing a combination of the two. I need the dates on the pages to be there to encourage me to complete it, knowing it's there with a space to fill makes you need to fill it. I didn't have time for everyday last year and some times ended up going back a week filling it in. So this year I've thought of making a page for every 3 days instead of every one. I also want to start it a little bit early to fit in fun things like light switch ons and pre-December Christmassy stuff so I'm going to start on the 28th November and work up to the 31st December making 1 page for every 3 days and leaving the last page for the 31st and to round up. That makes 12 pages, or 24 I guess if you count both sides.
I've got my pile of goodies ready........

Everything is from the Hey Christmas Cupcake Quirky Kit. I've also used some page protectors I had leftover, they're the American Crafts ones with separate 6x4 pockets. I chopped them down to make them a bit smaller and added the dates, 3 on each page. It made the largest pages 11x8.5 inches which dictated the size of my album.

I've not done the cover yet but I've made a start on an embroidered panel for it.

As the title says another thing I'm planning this year is making it more diary like with lots of journalling and little pictures and doodles here and there.

So that's kind of as far as I've got. I'm putting everything down here so I can look back next year!

Workdesk Wednesday

2010-11-03T10:49:00.000Z

It's a gloomy workdesk Wednesday today. It's just gone really dark here. I was up at 7am and it was loads brighter I guess the rain is going to kick in anytime now. Anyhoo here's my desk today:

Well I've been up early mostly sketching out ideas today. I'm planning another Create 10, Create 10 at Christmas and I've been trying to fit in planning as much as I can, (that's kind of why my blog's been quiet for a while too, no free time!) I absolutely love creating at Christmas, there's so much to do! Baking tree cookies and treats, making decorations, making gifts, gift wrapping, wreath making, making table dressings, so much crafty fun! Well thinking about all the things I make every Christmas I thought that would make a fun set of classes. :)
Well that's what I'm up to, I'm coming along to see what you're up to today while I have a coffee/jellybean break ;) Pop along to more work desks on Julia's blog, http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/
xx Leo

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T11:04:00.000Z

Have a fun Haloween time today.

I got the pattern for this pumpkin from the Martha Stewart site, http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/pumpkin-templates#slide_3
Loads of cool patterns on there to use if you're up to some pumpkin carving today!
xx

Yet another work desk Wednesday

2010-09-29T12:23:00.000+01:00

Hi
I totally forgot it was WDW today until about 10 mins ago. I was getting all my card kit stuff out in front of me to sort out the DT kits and I remembered I was going to take a piccy of it all this week. I can't believe it's been a week already since I was thinking everything would have arrived by today.
So here's what I'm looking at today:

It's almost a sea of kraft, lol! I went for a mix of kraft brown with bright fun patterns in the papers and a quirky font to add messages. I've got a kit to make samples with in that brown paper bag and something that shouldn't be on my desk, my cup of warm Ribena, eek! Drinks and paper don't mix I better move that quick. I'm trying to keep drinking, got a horrid throat/chest chill thing trying to take me down, I bet everyone is the same this time of year when the weather changes.
I love these little card blanks too with the messages already on and those cute mini kraft tags although looking at those did make me think I've not got a ribbon to put in the kit, I might pop some twine in to work with the whole kraft thing. I picked out some large blank tags too so when people are using the kit they can use up any small leftover bits to make some gift tags.

I've just got my Sass catalogue out too I'm thinking of adding a little bit more colour in and there's a fun tartan paper in there I'm thinking of adding in.I don't know why but I just love tartan and kraft for Christmas cards, is that just me or do you think it works for Christmas?

Pop back to Juilia's blog to peek at more desks today, http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

xx Leo

Work desk Wednesday

2010-09-22T11:30:00.002+01:00

Hi!
Well the huge scrapbook I've been working on went out on Monday so that was a huge relief and it's freed up a little bit of time to indulge my own crafty fun this week. I ended up making 30 layouts then used some of those cool American Crafts multi pocket page protectors to slip in the rest of the photos between the layouts - can defo recommend those if you have tons of pictures to fit in one scrapbook.

Anyway so something I'm working on all this week is running through the latest Create 10 class project, you can see quite a few peeks of the project on my desk today. This time it's a minibook and if you're playing along with us we'll be making a little bit of the minibook through each of the 10 days. It all starts next week so this week I'm just running though the stages and taking photos to add in to the class pages. If you do want to play along it's all free this time and you can check out all the details here.

I hope everyone has fun with it anyway, I know I am at least making it now :) Other thing I'm doing this week and next week is sorting out the Christmas card kits. I refused to do them while it was warm it's just not good ordering Christmas stuff in July! I went for some of the new American Crafts ones, there's a peek of my design sheet right at the back with them on, there's defo lots of cute Christmas stuff to look out for this year and a good mix of traditional too. I didn't go for it this time but Pink Paislee have a lovely traditional Christmas set coming around next month, very whimsical and Victorian if you like that look over the bright and cute patterns. I got some other cute Christmas things from Etsy too and I'm waiting on my order from Lily Bee Designs that should be arriving any time this week, fingers crossed! It should be all ready to go together by next work desk Wednesday so I'll be able to share a peek then.
Catch up with more work desks up on Juilia's blog here, http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/
xx Leo

Scribbles 'n' Scrappin

2010-09-07T11:02:00.001+01:00

So why did you call your blog what you called it?
Scribbles 'n' Scrappin came from my notebooks. I was twiddling my thumbs trying to think of something that wasn't taken as a blog name and then my eyes drifted over to my stack of notebooks. I have a thing that I think I picked up in art school where we had to forever sketch out our ideas before we put actual brush to paper. I used to hate it at the time but it's grown into a life long habit. Before I can scrap or do most craft I scribble down my ideas first. I suppose it is a good habit to get into because when inspiration strikes it's not always possible to drop everything and start creating so you can reach for your notebook and put everything down ready to work from when you can.
I have thrown lots of notebooks in the recycle bin but I have kept others and like to trawl back through trying to glean new ideas. Some of them are so haphazard I'm not sure anyone would be able to make any sense of them but me!

All the notebooks I've had I've made myself, you can grab some of your fave patterned papers and embellies and have fun creating. I made up some extra books to put in my etsy store last week. You can have a peek here. This one is my fave I used some pretty chipboard from American Crafts I've just treated myself to:

That chipboard and the sketches are coming in handy for the *massive scrapbook project I'm doing at the mo. I did this page at the weekend, one of 10 that I finished in 2 days, I haven't scrapped this much since the last UK Scrappers Cyber crop!

I hope the lady likes it when it's done. I've had to really draw back my style, no messy painty inkiness but I'm still managing to get a bit of me in the pages. I added some of the butterfly garlands I've been making.

I've also had to teach myself to make photo corners again so I can add the photos in a not so permanent way. I did want some removable glue so I could add the photos but they could be peeled away from the pages easily but I haven't had any luck finding any, I'm sure it must exist? As always any help much appreciated.

xx Leo

*see last post

Ever Get Scrapping Brain Ache?

2010-09-06T15:54:00.000+01:00

So I love scrapbooking but I've got serious brain ache from my current project. I'm helping out my Grams making a scrapbook for her friends' 70th and while I'm really enjoying it - {especially looking though the cool heritage photos I just love} there are a lot of photos Grams has come up with.....

....so I'm getting serious scrappers brain ache. If anyone has any known cure I'd love to hear it. If you don't hear from me for a while you know what I'm up to. Anyway it's putting everything else I'm doing kind of on hold, at least it will for the next couple of weeks...

xx Leo

Just Another Workdesk Wednesday

2010-08-25T16:46:00.002+01:00

Hi!
Lots of stuff going on today. First I was having a play with my new toy earlier. I got this Martha Stewart punch and stamp set. The stamps slot into the top of the punch for storage and the punch matches the stamp design so you can stamp and then punch out the shapes.

It's quite a clever idea but I'm not 100% satisfied with it. After I had a play I worked out that it's easier to punch out the shapes first and then stamp over them. I tried the instructions on the packet and found it too fiddly to match up the punch to the stamped image. The stamps aren't the best quality in the world so I probably won't use them that much.

I did make a garland I think is really pretty using the punched shapes and a vintage thesaurus. All you do is just pop punched out shapes under your sewing machine foot as you sew, it's quite fun. :)

I think I'll make another one and incorporate some other bits and pieces in it, maybe some vintage postage stamps.

Other desky things I'm up to today is getting the design teams kits ready to send out. These are card making kits, I've just got the ribbon matching up to do.

These papers are lovely I will defo recommend them. They're a mix up of My Minds Eye 'Alphabet Soup' and Cosmo Cricket 'Togetherness'. The Alphabet soup papers came in two designs, boy and girl but I went with the boy ones because they're not totally boyish they're actually quite neutral I think. They've got a lovely vintagey circus thing going on which I'm loving at the mo.

I added the little robots too, I think they're really cute!
Well that's almost it just got one more thing - the brooch draw from last weeks workdesk Wednesday - if your name is Rachel M and you love lime green I've got a brooch for you....

Mail me your addy at enquiries@craftyprincess.co.uk and I'll pop it in the post for you.

Happy crafting guys, whatever you're up to today! You can carry on your Workdesk Wednesday fun on Julia's blog here, http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/
xx Leo

Indie Girl

2010-08-24T10:45:00.000+01:00

I've been really loving playing the the new stuff from Sassafras. I've done lots of cards so far so I fancied a change and decided to have a play with the lilibee Indie Girl class so I'm all signed up and raring to go. Hopefully I'll be able to start it at the weekend. Anyone else signed up to play along?

Speaking of new Sass I'm currently waiting for loads more of the new goodies, can't wait for them to turn up so I can have a stroke I went for both the Count Me In and Mix and Mend lines as well as the chipboard. I'm putting most of them in upcoming kits. There's a September card kit called 'Circus' and then the next Quirky Kit 'Rock 'n' Roll Star' that's due at the end of next month. I added a peek of it to the CT blog yesterday......

It's going to be really fun can't wait to play myself! Those ribbons are amazingly vivid in real life, neon taffeta = super yum lol! So that's what's keeping my creative brain busy right now, what are you up to?
I'll stop by tomorrow for Workdesk Wednesday
xx Leo

Work Desk Wednesday

2010-08-18T12:10:00.001+01:00

I missed last week so I thought I better make an effort to get something up this week. Here's what I've been working on....

I'm making brooches from different fabrics and using embroidery. This 'L' one I've finished now,

This one's for me obviously but I'm making some other ones that I'll maybe put in my etsy store. I'm really loving playing with needle and thread it's another fun way to 'draw' I guess but using fabric and thread.

Here's another one I'm working on, a cute little sail boat scene.

Thanks for stopping by today. Hey, would you like your own monogram brooch? I'll make one to give away. If you'd like to win one add your favorite colour and initial to your comment and I'll pick one comment out at random to win and post it up next Wednesday - it'll defo work to push me to make a post next week too!

Carry on your work desk travels on Juila's blog here.
xx Leo

EDIT - Draw for the brooch has been made so I can make it up tonight and reveal it tomorrow (Weds 25th Aug) xx Leo

A little treat = yum new goodies

2010-08-10T17:01:00.001+01:00

I decided I needed a scrapping treat after using up loads of leftover stash this past couple of months so I made myself up a kit over the weekend.........

I really love these papers, hoping to get some more of them for Quirky Kits! I accessorised them with these cute birdie brads, some of my fave badges and some Japanese masking tape, super yum! I'm going to add a few vintage buttons and some Thickers in from my stash then I'm good to go. Now I just need to find some time to actually do some crafting for myself! Will report back when I've had a play - if I can bare to cut in to it!
The vintage holiday album from the post bellow is almost done I'll pop some piccys up of it when I do them tomorrow. I've really enjoyed making it - it's surprising how many more ideas you can come up with when you confine yourself to the contents of a kit, makes you really think out of the box.
xx Leo

Workdesk Wednesday

2010-08-04T16:23:00.002+01:00

Eek I missed last week, almost missed this week too since we're more than half way through Wednesday but never mind. To be fair I've only just sat at my desk to do some crafty work so it made me think to take a quick snapshot....

As you can probably see I'm working on a little album, it's for the Quirky Kits design team. The album itself I made with the packaging from the kit then the pages are made using a mix up of leftover card/paper from my stash then they're going to be decorated with stuff from the kit. It'll go on the CT blog when it's all done.

One more addition to my desk since the last wdw, I made some mini desk bunting. It's being used to hang stuff from too using mini pegs.

I'll pop around and visit some more desks while I'm working. You can visit some yourself or carry on your travels from Juilia's blog here.
xx Leo

Quick Card

2010-08-02T18:40:00.000+01:00

Quick card made with one of my latest card kits, details are on the CT blog. I'm mega busy doing kits things right now. I'm experimenting with having some antique linens custom dyed next weekend so I'll try and get lots of piccys of that to share. I'm not sure if they'll work or not so it'll be one huge experiment :D
Ooh and look what I picked up over the weekend......

They're from an old line from Making Memories called 'hullabaloo' but I've never seen them before so I'm off to look up to see what else I can find - these patterns and colours are so me! :)

xx Leo

Workdesk Wednesday

2010-07-21T13:28:00.001+01:00

OK I made it back for this weeks Workdesk Wednesday!
Had no excuses really today because I've been up since 6:30am this morning working so had plenty of time to squish in a blog post. I'm totally rubbish at early mornings and I'll be totally crashed out by 7pm but hey ho.

Doing something 'fun' right now even though it is work still. I got my first shipment of new CHA goodies for the store yesterday so today I'm having a good look and sorting out what is going where. Right now I'm picking out card that will match the papers to make the August CT card kit. I'm not sure whether to go for creams or to pick out the bright limes and pinks in the papers. At the mo I'm thinking it needs the limes!

Got lots of more fun Sassafras goodies in the shipment. Want to peek at a couple? Love these glitter alphabets!

And these Whimsies are going to make awesome calenders!

Oh and I got my clear stamps sorted! If you were here when I was pondering what to do with my stuffed stamp draw then thank you for the suggestions. I went with the folder idea and got clear pockets then all the pockets fit nicely in a mag file.

They'll have to spill into another one if I get anymore - if- yeah right lol!

You can pop onto Julia's blog to visit more workdesks here, http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/
xx Leo

Yikes busy busy busy!

2010-07-19T14:44:00.001+01:00

Been too busy and crazy here to find time for blogging of late but I'm spending the next few minutes catching up. I left off the last time with the last of my not so usual storage in my craft space. This one is Cuttlebug storage..........

It started off life as a window box but now it's Cuttlebug storage! I found it in the now defunct Woolworths. I thought it was really cute but I didn't really want it as a window box but thought it would be great for storage and it worked out nicely when I got home that it fit in Cuttlebug plates and folders perfectly!

OK so one of the reasons I'm well busy this week is that Create 10 has started and there's lots to sort out there. This time last week I near had a fit when my computer decided to die on me taking all my Create 10 classes with it! Luckily I managed to get my work back but it was a tense time! Lesson of the day, always back up what you're working on at the end of the day....

This Create 10 is really practical as well as being fun because I've written classes that explore techniques that use up scraps of patterned paper, tools that we don't use much and long forgotten about embellishments.
Here's one thing I made for class #2......
All made from leftovers and my trusty Cuttlebug :)

Anyway best get on, got to get back to being busy! I'll try and make it back for work desk Wednesday ;)

More fun storage

2010-07-09T17:36:00.000+01:00

Thank you for the stamp storage ideas, they gave me some great ideas and I've settled on plastic pockets in a mag file, then I can free the draw just for inkpads - going to get them sorted next week.
OK keeping with the storage theme this week here's more storage snaps.

This is where everything goes that hasn't got a 'proper' home. I rescued the cake plate from certain doom in an attic clearance.

Love the pretty 50's pattern. It's very handy because it's moveable so you can take it to your desk space and also you can just chuck things on it and they look kind of pretty so it's working with the whole 'decorative but functional' thing I try to stick to. The tins are from IKEA and are full of cotton reels. The little tubs are also from IKEA they're very cute and stackable, they used to be in the children's bit, I'm not sure if they still have them there or not. They're great for little embellishment bits and chunky things like chipboard. The noteboard we made in Create 10 class last time. The jar is full of fabric and paper flowers, that was from Dunilm Mill {minus the flowers!}.
I think I'll share one more bit of storage in another post then I'll move on from storage. A while ago I found a fun way to store my Cuttlebug stuff and again I found something decorative and repurposed it, it's defo a fun thing to try.
xx Leo

Workdesk Wednesday

2010-07-07T11:17:00.000+01:00

Hey! Happy Wednesday :-D

I'm back for another round of WOYWW on Julia's blog. Ok so here's what I'm looking at on my desk today........

I just got this fabric delivered so I was stroking. I ordered a few different ones for a kit I'm working on and I think I like them all, what do you think?

Rest is the usual clutter, got another pile of leftovers ready for making cards on the left, a little book I've got to photo for the CT blog, that's my next job after posting this!

OK so I've been running with the storage theme this week on my blog and just to prove I'm not totally organised I have one big problem that I need to share. Under my desk is a set of drawers and they've got to the not shutting stage so they need sorting out BUT what do you do with these??

Clear stamps and inkpads? I've tried putting them in a folder with laminated pages but they just peeled off and got lost so I now I just keep them in the packets and chuck them in the draw but it's too full now - soon I'll have to resort to not buying any more - shock horror! Please help with your storage ideas, someone must have a great idea I can borrow ;-)

xx Leo

Fun things to do to keep your creative space looking... well.... creative!

2010-07-05T20:57:00.002+01:00

Following on from my previous post about storing stash I just wanted to share some fun easy ways of dressing up your creative 'junk' to make it slightly more eye appealing. I'm not a total neat freak, (honest!) I think it's easier to make stuff around you look pretty so that it can be left around but looking decorative, I guess kind of like a purposeful decorative object but it's more of a practical one. Ok examples....
Plain, (used to be) white mag files. I have a load of these around to keep things in. They're functional but they can also be pretty just by adding a lick of paint.......

I love these colours - I added a couple of new ones recently to add a summery vibe, (yellow and pink). They're Dulux 'Grecian Spa', (turquoise), 'Banana Dream', 'Sexy Pink' and 'Chocolate Fondant' if you were wondering. You can change how your space looks by adding a different colour every now and then. Practical but decorative too, why not? Have fun with your organising!
OK so how about stuff that needs to be out all the time? Like say desk clutter, maybe the trusty old glue stick it's functional - yes but it's fairy uninteresting on the eye.

Just by grabbing a couple of decorative tapes and a scrap of paper you can make it all prettified!
Tada.......

Now it looks super cute, even when it's rolled on to the floor, which is usually what happens in my case. Clutter doesn't have to be boring!
Once you have a look round your space for things you can 'craft up' it can get fairly addictive, maybe you can see something now that could be spruced up? Go on have a play!
I'll leave you with an oldie but a goodie. It's something I've had now for a long time and I think I have blogged it before. If you have a load of threads and needles, maybe you just keep them handy for sewing a quick button on a card etc. then this is an idea to keep them organised but in a cute 'prettified' way.....

It's made from a jam jar, an empty clean one , of course! Make a padded top for it by stuffing a ball of fabric with, well stuffing, I think I used cut off bits of felt for mine. To make a ball just cut a circle of fabric out, sew a running stitch around the edge of it, fill the middle with your stuffing and then pull it tight. Glue this to the top of your jam jar lid. Glue a length of ribbon or trimming around the edge of your lid. Tada! That's all there is to it. You can then use the top for your needles and the bottom for your thread. I can't tell you how handy this is and it's another one of those things you can leave out without it looking too much like junk.

There is one area of my creative space that I've not got sorted out yet - it's my ever growing stash of clear stamps. I might have to share on Wednesday.
Happy crafting!
xx Leo

Work Desk Wednesday.....

2010-06-30T12:06:00.000+01:00

Hi!

Got super secret Create 10 class stuff going on on my desk at the mo which I can't share much of, just a ickle bit of a peek.......

So I thought I'd share peeks of storage stuff instead. This is how I store my scrapbooking stuff, it took me a while to figure out a good way of organizing it because I have to fit other stuff in here too and it doesn't always stay organized but I've found if you have a sort out around every month it keeps neat and organized otherwise it just tends to grow out of it's space! So if you're working in a small space that's defo a top tip to keep it manageable.

OK so this is a long tall unit, I got in in a sale in Tesco I think it was about £19. It was just the right size to fit in the space I had for it.

Top shelf, scraps of fabric and photos ready to scrap...

Next shelf, papers and cardstock. I try and only keep a small amount at a time. The sweetie jar is just there as a quirky 'book end' they don't actually get eaten!

Then there's the space for other organised bits and pieces and my current scrapbook album. It's almost full this one so it'll be moving soon.

Then finally there's a shelf for ribbons and other bits. The basket was packaging for a prezzie I got, it just fit in that space so I could re-use it.

So how do you keep organised in a small space? Maybe you've got a top tip to share?

Peek at more 'workspaces' today on Juila's blog here.

xx Leo

'Office Tabs' Tutorial

2010-06-28T17:30:00.002+01:00

I've noticed this fun little office style stationary is eeking through into ready made scrapbook embellishments just recently.

I think they're really cute but my mission since this May has been to use things I have already so I took a good look at some 'office tab' embellishments and worked a way to make some from leftovers.
All I used was paper and card leftovers, a corner rounder and my paper trimmer......

Cut a piece from the scrap paper that measures 3x2.5 inches. Score and fold it in half along the longest length.

Cut off two corners from the folded edge.

Round off the top corners with your corner rounder.

Tada, really simple right? You can then have fun decorating them up......

I've given it a texture with an embossing folder then cut a shape from more card and cut a tiny heart from a tiny leftover piece of American Crafts Dear Lizzy fabric paper. The stamp is from a Banana Frog set called 'Documenting'. Everything I had hanging around on my desk. I've recently been rediscovering my dies and punches. I never really used them enough before. It's fun to dig into your tools to see what you can make from scratch.
Here's another one.....

Same stamp set and a flower that's been hanging around my desk for ages!

It's a fun creative thing to try anyway.
xx Leo

Work Desk Wednesday

2010-06-23T13:56:00.004+01:00

My desk today...............

Looking fairly tidy for me! Mostly due to the fact I've not been using it much. When it's amazing weather it makes you so much more thankful for WiFi!
I've got a pile of papery leftover bits with card blanks and a photo ready to be played with. These camera necklaces I've just been photographing and adding in my Etsy shop, (here if you want to have a look). These were really fun to make and a nice break from making paper things. I'm going to make a fun initial one for myself. I love having a nosy on Etsy so if you have a shop leave a link in your comment and I can come and peek!
More desks to nosy at on Juilia's blog here.
I'm supposed to be posting more boys cards but I've totally lost them, looked everywhere. I think what I've done is put them in a 'safe place' but crikey knows where that is! It can't be just me that does that. I'll keep looking and they'll probably turn up.

OK edited to add a close up photo, they're made of layers of felt with seed beads and lots of tiny hand stitching :) xx Leo

Man Wrap

2010-06-19T18:51:00.001+01:00

Man wrap comes in one colour 'manilla' because basics will do just fine, is easy to use and comes with minimal decoration.

Actually joking aside this is one of my favorite ways to wrap up prezzies with brown paper and bakers twine. I got my dad an extra prezzie, a book about one of his heroes David 'Bumble' Lloyd. He's the 'off his head' one on the Sky cricket commentary team. He is rather funny actually, I'll be tuning in to hear his shenanigans on Tuesday when England play Australia. Hopefully the England cricket team will put in a better performance that the football team!

Another 'man' card to share

2010-06-18T17:43:00.001+01:00

A fathers day card for this year.

Used Tim Holtz 'Woodgrain' texture fade for the background edged with an edger punch. The stars were cut on my Cuttlebug and then inked to colour them in silver and brown. Some of the stars have patterned paper in the middles of them. To finish the title has been added using American Crafts chipboard Thickers.

xx Leo

Work Desk Wednesday & birthday card

2010-06-16T20:54:00.000+01:00

Here's what's on my 'work' desk this Wednesday :)

I'm working on a project with one of my Quirky Kits, this one's already gone and sold out so I need to hurry up and get going working on some ideas. It's basically just scrapbook pages I'm making but mini ones in 3x3 size and then popping them along side each other in a page protector. The embellies I made looked all squashed inside the page protector so I decided to stick them over the top instead. Anyway it's a work in progress.
Check out more workdesks on Julia's blog right here.

I've also made another 'boy' card. I'll upload the one I've done for fathers day tomorrow when I can get 5mins and I've got a couple more men/boy card ideas to share. With this one I finally made use of those candy canes! It's for my bro's birthday. I thought I'd go for fun bright circus colours and picked out colours of the candy cane. It's not your typical 'mens' card but I figure it's a birthday card - it should be fun and bright!

It's a mix of Basic Grey, (papers) October Afternoon, (papers and alphabet stickers) and Cosmo Cricket, (tag and alphabet stickers) goodies. Candy canes from my local newsagent, ribbon from Ribbon Oasis.

xx Leo

Let's hear it for the boys week #1

2010-06-08T16:11:00.001+01:00

These next few weeks I have quite a lot of 'boy' occasions to make cards for. I bet my card draw isn't the only one lacking in suitable cards for men so I figured why not devote a week, {or at least 3 or 4 days worth of a week} to cards/gifts suitable for those funny bloke folk.

Today to share I've got a prezzie I've made for Dad for fathers day. I made him one as a Christmas gift a couple of Christmas's ago and he really liked it so he's got another one......

It's a minibook for music and lyrics. I made it from old denim jeans and stitched paper and other fabric strips on top then grunged it all up with paint and spritzed ink.

Because it's made of fabric it also folds up so it can be stuffed in a pocket, something I think that's much appreciated by the bloke folk since they don't tend to use handbags....

Next project to do - cards, one for a birthday on Sunday and another to go with this gift. Hmmm.....

xx Leo

Just a note

2010-06-02T11:35:00.001+01:00

I've been making more note cards this week. I'm still limiting myself to using what I have already but it's actually a much easier way to craft because there's less time thinking about what to pick out. I'm also reusing packaging to make the note card bases and I've got a pile of off cuts for the purpose too. I love the nice dark kraft colour of this packaging though too. For inspiration I turned to this weeks challenge on the American Crafts blog. This week the challenge is to pick something inspirational from the American Crafts blog and scraplift it. That's not much of a challenge really as the blog is full of yum stuff, check it out here, http://www.americancrafts.typepad.com/
I picked out this project and this project and here's what I came up with.....

I used lots of lovely American Crafts papers from my stash leftovers a piece of the lovely Dear Lizzie Fabric too and Thickers. There's also a fun Cosmo Cricket tag, I think it's from the Girl Friday line and I think it works with the American Crafts Dear Lizzy and Letterbox lines really well? After that I made two more...

Used some Flair and some miniMarks on the one on the left and another one of those Cosmo tags mixed with more American Crafts papers.

Decorated Envelope Minibook

2010-05-27T12:47:00.002+01:00

Ok here's the decorated envelope minibook I did yesterday afternoon....

I kept some of the envelope showing through on the cover and used cut out pieces of patterned paper and some trims, fabric flowers and stickers.

Some of the inside pages, just the photos to add in.

Some of the pages I made into pockets by trimming off the top of the envelope page then made little tags with off cuts of card and the shapes decorating the top are nestabilities diecuts cut in half then glued on back to back.

xx Leo

Work Desk Wednesday Again

2010-05-26T16:17:00.005+01:00

It's workdesk Wednesday again! Well not added much to the old blog this week, not been up to much crafty stuff this week the weather has been far too good! Rain has resumed though today so it's a good excuse to have a little play.

Still some things from last week left on the go and been pushed to the back of my desk, that's so bad right but I bet we all do it! I've always got a few things that are half finished hanging around. I'm just about to start making an envelope mini book. I had a few leftover bits and pieces from kits in the store so I put together some little project kits including this one. I've kept one for me though and I'm going to put one together as a cute little birthday gift instead of a card. I should be finished up soon so I'll pop a piccy of it finished up. They're very easy to make just a case of getting a stack of envelopes and gluing them on top of each other using the flaps.

The flaps act as little hinges on each page. You can keep some of the envelopes open to pop little bits inside or cover them over completely with patterned paper.

Still haven't done anything with those candy canes!
xx Leo

What's on your Workdesk Wednesday

2010-05-19T18:01:00.001+01:00

I keep seeing this posted up on Kathy's blog and since I was looking to be easily distracted from work to do today, today I'm playing along for the first time :).

My desk is completely messy, it almost always is although it usually gets a tidy up every now and then, usually when there is no more room for a fresh 'pile' of 'stuff'.

Today I've got a few things on the go. I'm working on some colours and patterns for a new project and have scribbled some ideas down in my notebook. I've got three projects made from Quirky Kits I've almost completed, some embroidery and a not so mini minibook. There's also my broken bow ring that needs mending when I have time, it got wet and fell apart, bit of super glue should do the trick I'm hoping.

I found those candy canes a few weeks ago and thought they'd look cute on cards but I've as yet to think of a way to use them so maybe I should make that a project to finish for next Wednesday?

xx Leo

Use it up

2010-05-10T15:03:00.001+01:00

I'm trying this year to use up leftovers as much as possible. One thing I have found is that leftovers tend to have a habit of accumulating - with the good intention that they will get used someday - into a larger and larger and larger collection. Because of this I am now trying to use leftovers more as they're made rather than squirrelling them away. It does have an added benefit that you're not searching around for the right bit of paper to use, it's a go to the latest pile and start using kind of gig. One of my favorite things to do is to makes cut outs and shapes from leftover papers or draw on them and cut out drawings I particularly like. It's defo a fun thing to have a go at. I started adding to my depleted pile of notecards this weekend with these 'Fancy Dress' cards.
These first two I made with templates I'd done for Crafty Templates:

After that I started just drawing on the paper. This was my fave one....

So yeah, scribbling on patterned paper leftovers, defo something to have a play with.

xx Leo

Linby the templates are in the May subscription set, so you need to click on template subscriptions but if you want just the dress sheet let me know. xx

Pull up a Chair & Chillax

2010-05-06T11:52:00.000+01:00

Browsing through the Moxie Fab blog yesterday I came across the 'Three Cheers for Chairs' challenge. It's so quirky I had to have a play. You have to make something paper crafty that features a chair/chairs. I wasn't sure what to do but I did have the idea in my head to make an easel card because of this weeks DMC challenge so that's what I ended up with. The chair I just sketched out on a piece of card then cut it out and added a bit of colour with Promarkers. The cushions I sketched on to some Prima patterned papers and cut them out then added them on top. That's pretty much it. I added AC Thickers for the title and the alpha stickers are October Afternoon Mini Market stickers.

I wasn't sure how to spell out 'chillax' it's one of those funny slang words that everyone says and nobody spells!
xx Leo

Millinery Operation

2010-04-30T16:07:00.003+01:00

I do love fashion - so it makes sense that it's double the fun for me to combine fashion with crafting and create some fun stuff. I'm going to try and instill the fun-ness in you too if you're reading this so you can go on and make some fun fashion. Here's what I've been making today.........

If you want to make your own here's a quick how to......

You'll need some strips of leftover fabric, a plain hairband, some pretty Prima flowers or other embellies you like, some net and a needle and cotton.

First you need to make a 'tube' with your fabric so take one of your strips of fabric and folding it inside out stitch down one edge. When it's long enough to cover your hairband sew the edge across and trim the end. Leave the open end open.

Next you need to turn the fabric the right way around. The easiest way to do this is using a pencil to push the fabric the right way around. Thread the tube of fabric over the top of your hairband and stitch the open end closed.

Take another strip of fabric that co-ordinates with your other fabric and sew a running stitch down one edge. Pull the thread to gather your strip into a circle and then stitch the ends together keeping the fabric taught. Take the net and sew your rosette over the top using a few stitches in the centre. Trim the net around the rosette leaving a small edge.

Take some flowers and glue them in a cluster on top of your rosette. If you wanted to you can seal the flowers with clear varnish or glossy accents. Finally glue this to your hairband.

Pretty simple right? Really addictive too you can go really crazy making all different kinds of fun fashion accessories. :)

xx Leo

Week in the life 2010

2010-04-21T16:43:00.001+01:00

This past week has gone by in a big whiz! I'm hoping I'll be able to keep up with this next week because I'm going to try and document it for a week in the life. I didn't need to buy anything extra and I wanted my book to be small so it can go inside my year long 2010 album so I had a snoop around to see what I could find. After a spring clean the other week I found an old postcard book, with the invention of email these things are hardly useful anymore but I'm kind of a stationary collector so I guess that's why I have blank postcards! Anyway the small size made them perfect for a book and it turned out {luckily} I had exactly 14 left, 2 for every day!

The book is bound with paper scraps and cover made with things I had on my desk, mostly October Afternoon 'Thrift Shop' papers and a little bit of kraft card. I've used a date stamp and some Banana Frog stamps to add the days on.

I'm thinking of adding journalling to the front of the postcard and then just covering the back and extra postcards with photos and mementos. Will have to see how it progresses, these things are usually pretty organic once they get going right?

xx Leo

Flair week challenge ~ wedding card

2010-04-08T12:02:00.001+01:00

Been super busy this last couple of weeks but I've had to jam in a little bit of crafting time because I wanted to make a wedding card, wedding is tomorrow, (Friday) so I didn't have much time to think of something so looked online for a challenge or some ideas and found the American Crafts Flair challenge. I'm a bit of a Flair collector so it seemed perfect! I wanted to use some of my new American Crafts Dear Lizzy goodies too. I picked out the American Crafts Dear Lizzy Spring 'Lazy Ladybug' patterned paper and because it was a wedding card I went for the 'Romance' Flair and picked out two from the 'love' pack. I also used some 'Salutations' fabric Thickers, they go with the romance theme I think?

The card I made out of white cardstock first and I added a little depth to it to take the chunky embellishments.

The flowers were made with more of the same paper, (used the reverse side) with pearls in the centers and then some added tissue paper flowers and pearl buttons.

Then because it does have depth I had to make a box for it. It'll make it more of a prezzie too as it's going to have some pennies inside.

I wasn't sure about leaving the front so plain but I think it works because there's lots of detail inside?

xx Leo

Create 10

2010-03-19T14:19:00.002Z

OK here's a peek of the scrapbooking I did the other day for Create 10. This one is for project #2 it's going to be all about how you can use the smallest amount of leftovers to create a page with :)

I've been planning all these projects for ages so I'm really happy I'm finally getting them done and I'm really looking forward to Create 10 kicking off! Sign ups for the workshop are live now on the CT site here.
Got a card to make this afternoon so I need to crack on with that it's for tomorrow so not got much time, yikes!
xx Leo

Shabby Chic

2010-03-16T16:15:00.000Z

Hey
If you have a peek on UK Scrappers this week you can check out and download a fabric scrapbook project I made. I love love texture so I made a page from fabric and picked out some vintage photos to use. I've got a great collection of vintage photos from my grandparents and I'm definitely going to make more time to scrapbook more of them this year.

The theme was vintage so I went for a shabby chic look and used some vintage bits and pieces including some vintage buttons which you can grab from the store here. Don't you just love pretty vintage buttons?

I'm busy working on a special project at the moment for a new workshop called Create 10. It's going to be so much fun. It's basically a collection of 10 scrapbooking projects to either build up into a collection to follow at your leisure or follow in the 10 days and really challenge yourself. I've been planning some of the projects for a while and now I'm having fun putting the pages together. It is a bit scary though too I hope people like them! I'm trying to pick up on current trends as well as look a little bit forward and show future trends too. So should defo be fun!

xx Leo

Postmarked American Crafts

2010-03-08T17:14:00.001Z

My blog hasn't had an update in a while I know I know. I've been a little bit ill, for like the whole of February so that's just gone by in a blur. I'm still not 100% but I've been convalescing with an enjoyable afternoon of cardmaking.
I decided to have a go at the challenge over on the American Crafts Blog because it sounded nice and easy. All I needed to do was decide which of the yummy American Crafts stash to use! In the end I went for two cards and picked out some subtle colours for one and bright fun colours for the other.

Card Top: Card blank America Crafts, Patterned papers, American Crafts Blue Skies and Letterbox : Ribbon and rub on are also American Crafts : Shale Promarker to colour in the flowers and edge :Vintage fabric

Card Bellow: Card blank, American Crafts : Patterned paper, American Crafts I Heart You and Amplified : Kraft cardstock is Bazzill : fabric from my stash : America Crafts I Heart You ribbon : American Crafts Thickers, Lullaby and Darling : American Crafts miniMarks 'Wonderful'.

Reuse, recycle and create

2010-01-25T17:58:00.000Z

Finally I'm able to get started with the first page in my 2010 album. I had a think about how to get started and looking around found some goodies I'd save from Christmas that 'could' be used for crafting. I'm sure most crafters have these moments where we save things that look like they could have a crafty second life. If you do it's defo a good starting point for a page I think. I picked out some packaging that as well as being pretty has a decorative shape. I'm going to use this shape as a template for my page. Along with the packaging I picked out a photo to use and some card to use as my base.

I've used the packaging to make the page shape, drawing around it across the top and bottom. The page size is dictated by my album so I measure that first and cut a page to fit. I've borrowed th colour scheme from the packaging too which has helped me to pick out the paper. This paper is one from the Collage Press Joyride collection. I've matted my photo on to pink card and inked around the edge of the page with silver ink. I'm not sticking my photo on my page yet I'm going to play around with it first before I stick it down.

After a little bit more decorating my page is finished. I've used some alphabet stickers and made some embellishments with lace. It's now ready for the album. To add it to my album I just punched some holes in the shaped page. A shaped page could also go on top of or inside a page protector.

On the back I've used a label stamp and added some journalling.

Crafting for all group recap: Use something from your craft goodies or around the home as a starting point for your page. Cut your page into a shape other than a square. Have fun!

xx Leo

2010 Scrapbook Stage 2

2010-01-09T16:02:00.001Z

Today I made a start on the second stage of my 2010 scrapbook. I wanted to make dividers for each month inside my album so it looks more like a journal. If you want to follow along this is what I did next.

I love freestyle scrapbooking so I went along with that style for my dividers, you can taylor how you make yours to your own style. First I used one of the page protectors inside my album as a template. I'm using a very neutral kraft coloured card for my dividers so I can decorate them as I go along in the year. I cut the pieces of card so it was slightly longer than the page protector then freehand sketched out the edges in pencil. I want to make tabs on each page so I sketched that on too.

Next I sketched over the top of the pencil using a Sharpie marker pen. Then used a date stamp to add the date to the tab.

The page was then cut out and the holes marked on using the page protector as a guide.

Because this one is January I want to decorate it right now so I picked out some patterned paper, chipboard stickers and alphabet stickers to use and built up the design. You could just cover over your dividers with patterned paper if you wanted to although it is fun to make a design.

I'm using things I had leftover from Christmas for this first page so you could raid your leftover Christmas stash or cut up Christmas cards etc. Anything with snow would be good for this time of year.

Once that's done the holes are punched in and it's into the album.

If you're making dividers for your 2010 scrapbook you need to make 12, one for each month. Keep them in a similar style and use plain card so if you cover it up completely as you go along decorating your album it won't matter so much.

Keeping my album organised like this I'm hoping it will encourage me to fill some in each month and not be tempted to leave any gaps as the months go on.

I also added this cute tag to the inside. I think it will be nice to tie bits and pieces inside the album as I go along.

So for Crafting for all ers playing along your next mission is to make some dividers. If you didn't want to divide your album up by months you could pick other subjects to organise your book into. Next week we'll be starting the first page inside the book!

Oh, I also added a bit more to my cover because I thought it looked a bit too boring. My plan was to keep it quite plain but I just couldn't get along with it. I think it looks much more interesting now.

xx Leo

2010

2010-01-06T12:13:00.001Z

Yikes, how scary is it to think we're into 2010. Last year almost just swept by for me so I'm starting this year with a plan. I had lots of fun filling in my December daily album during December although I have to admit I found it difficult to get a page done every day. I also started other projects at the beginning of last year with the intention of carrying them on through the year but didn't make it past March. With all this in mind I've made it a resolution to this year definitely make a scrapbook journal throughout the year and I've made it as easy as I can think of.
One of the main factors I've come across with these year long projects is time so I need to have a schedule to make me produce the pages but one that's not rigidly fixed. The simplest way I could think of is to do one page around the beginning of the month and then one page at the end of the month. Sounds simple so far? I also found getting the album ready and dedicated to one project quite a pull to make it complete so I set about making the album ready. I'm not going to add much to each of the inside pages at this stage because I want to use things I find along the way, (it's also a great excuse to purchase some new goodies as I go through the year!) and make each of the pages completely unique not following any particular style or colour scheme.
I've started with a blank 6x6 American Crafts ring bound album and I picked out some American Crafts papers, chipboard Thickers and Jenni Bowlin stickers to decorate it with.

This is what I ended up with.

The next job is to make dividing pages for each month and since I'll need two pages for each month I need to make sure there are 24 sides or pages inside my book. After that it's down to filling up the first page!

Happy new year!

xx Leo

P.S For any Crafting for All group playing along I think Pat is going to be keeping a link in the important info bit in the group. I'll update when I've made up the inside bits but for now it's about getting a blank album you want to use ready. xx

Catch up & Cards

2009-12-22T12:50:00.001Z

I'm completely snowed in today, it snowed heavily over the weekend and the temp dropped right down so everywhere is now covered in ice. Also add to the mix I've ended up with the classic Christmas cold. Whisk it all up and it's the perfect recipe for staying indoors and catching up with some stuff. I've been busy with my December Daily book and I've just taken a few snaps of some of my faves from the last few days.

Had some stem ginger left from the Christmas cake so I chopped some up to add to the gingerbread - defo makes it extra delish you get a hit of chewy ginger when you get a bit it's mega.

Made lots of tree cookies this year as some of them went out to different places. A mix up of sugar cookies and gingerbread.

I left most of my cards to the last minute so I decided to go for something simple I could reproduce lots of times over

Ended up using a Crafty Template, one of my faves from this year the Christmas jumper. Used a variety of different papers I had in my stash so everyone got a completely different jumper.

This page was a page protector so everything showed through to the other side so all I did was mirror everything I'd done on the other side for this side. I thought it worked out quite well!
Took a quick piccy of my cards before I posted them out. There were quite a few of them to make so I kept it really simple but I liked them. I actually enjoyed making them this year!

Got a toppling pile of prezzies to wrap up so I'm going to make a start on that this afternoon along with mince pies and hot chocolate with whiskey (for my cold! not a massive afternoon whiskey drinker, although it is the season! lol)
Merry Christmas
xx Leo

December Daily, the 3rd

2009-12-03T17:52:00.000Z

Today I started making the experimental Christmas cake. I mixed in a pan figs, sultanas, dates, apple the juice and zest of two small oranges and 200ml of ginger wine. It's sitting and maturing till tomorrow. Used October Afternoon stickers, paper and some found items.

December Daily days 1 & 2

2009-12-02T17:07:00.003Z

It's only 23 days until Christmas! I've begun to fill in my Christmas journal. I'm not following any prompts or have anything fixed I'm just journalling Christmassy things I see and do from now until the big day.
Day 1

The first page is a page protector but I wanted the photos to 'float' so I put one inside and then stitched it in place with the sewing machine. The tree photo is stuck on top.

Day Two

I got a lovely surprise in the post too this morning. A huge big box full of October Afternoon goodies from Lyn at The Craft Emporium! Lyn sponsored the mystery kit prize at the Cyber Crop on UK Scrappers and I was lucky enough to be picked out to win. Thank you so much Lyn it's fantastic and it's going to good use in my Christmas journal! xx

Challenging myself on a rainy day

2009-11-23T16:53:00.003Z

This Sunday was so glum weather wise the only thing to do was whack the heating up high and get down to some crafting. I had a look for some inspiration and I decided to do a couple of challenges. First one was this weeks Daring Cardmakers challenge, which I haven't done in a while and this week discovered it's decidedly tricky! We have to make a card with at least 3 things on it that have the same first letter as your initial - I'm Leonora so for me it's L. Now can you guess what I used?.........

OK this one is (faux) Letterpress stamped background, Layers and Letter stickers. A bit tenuous maybe? OK next one is a bit more literal then.....

This one is another faux Letterpress stamped background, lace, label stickers and a lollipop! If you're wandering what I mean by faux letterpress I used my Cuttlebug and embossing folders with paint rolled onto one side (the side that when you open it out is facing you) and cotton paper, that helps the paint release without breaking up the paper, any paper that's fibery would work just as well. Jam it all together, roll it though your bug and you get a cool faux letterpress effect. Had lots of fun playing with that.

Next I did a scrapbook page and got inspiration from the sketch challenge on the Sarah's Cards blog that I got emailed. I only just realised while I was photographing it, the bright colours must have been my reaction to the horrid dark rainy weather! lol

I used some lovely Prima paper from the Paradise City collection and off cuts of Basic Grey Nook and Pantry and American Crafts Letterbox. The base card is American Crafts, I absolutely love AC cardstock the colours are so lush. This one is Lemon I think - I'd call it pow in your face yellow, love it! :-) The letter stickers are a mix up of Prima chipboard ones, Making memories and Jenni Bowlin. The flower embellie is a Prima one too but I pulled it apart and layered some of the papers up in the middle of it then finished it off with a vintage button. Add on a bit of stitching and some sloshy white paint and that's it.

I'm off to invent a cake recipe now that has everything in we have in the cupboard, I know I've got marshmallows and cocoa powder so it might involve those two. Going to snuggle up and watch Americas Next Top Model tonight and indulge in hot chocolate and cake! lol

xx Leo

Christmas Album Part Two

2009-11-07T14:11:00.000Z

Here we go with the second half of my December Daily Album starting with page 15.......

Page protector with fabric stitched on, Thickers and a frame made from a kitschy digitals kit printed onto shrink plastic and shrunk down.

Stuck down American Crafts envelope with woodgrain tape and October Afternoon stickers

Page protector with a sassafras sticker and a Jenni Bowlin journalling card popped in then stitched along the side to make two pockets in the page protector.

18 a Heidi Swapp large playing card with an October Afternoon sticker and a date stamp

19 page protector with a October Afternoon journalling card inside and stitching along side it to make a pocket. Embossing and Pink Paislee alphas for the date.

20 a page protector with a tag from a Quirky Kit inside. I stitched down the edge of the page protector then trimmed it down. The date is a Jenni Bowlin chipboard button and Thickers.

For 21 a cut down (6x6) piece of Basic Grey Doillie paper and Thickers

A post card from a Quirky Kit for 22 with a date stamp

23 Bazzill dotted swiss card with an American Crafts glitter chipboard embellie, the pin and these black letters I've been using I got in a swap so I'm not sure where they're from.

The 24 page is not so Christmassy because this is mums birthday so we always do something a bit not Christmassy. It's a trimmed down paper bag with gaffer tape and buttons.

And 25 is a larger page protector that I trimmed down and re-stitched together to make it fold out and give extra space. For the date I added glitter to some felt Thickers.

That's it for now. :) xx Leo

Christmas Album Part One

2009-11-06T12:45:00.002Z

My December Daily Christmas album is finished, at least for now anyway. It's just waiting for December to roll on. :) I've photoed the pages to share the first half today and then I'll edit and do the second half tomorrow. My main inspiration came from looking at things I'd already got and thinking up ways to use them. That dictated the size of the album I made up, sizing it to fit the leftover page protectors I wanted to use. I didn't have many tags for each page so I looked at what I did have and one of the things that jumped out at me most was stamps. My main idea for the look of my book was to make it quite textural but soft so I really wanted the stamps to look like snow and that thought prompted me to get out my {very} old embossing powders and have a play with those. I've got some puffy white embossing powder and some lovely glitter ones. I'd forgotten how much fun embossing powder is! When I was embossing on the page protectors I used lots of little bursts of heat so not to melt the plastic. I've also recycled lots of stuff and used up last little bits of stash to make pages with.

Anyway pages.........

First page a page protector with a Sassafras sticker, Thickers and October Afternoon mini alphas and an embossed stamp.

Page 2 stuck down American Crafts envelope with woodgrain tape, a Jenni Bowlin journalling card and cut outs from American Crafts Merry Mint paper

Next page is a piece of Creative Imaginations felt with a felt Thicker and more of those October Afternoon mini alphas

Thicker on red Bazzill with the corners rounded, might add a stamp around the number on this one.

Jenni Bowlin Bingo card with a Elle's Studio tag attached with an eyelet

Page protector with October Afternoon stickers and American Craft Merry Mint glitter chipboard. The paper email slip is just popped inside for now.

More of the red Bazzill card, this time sandwiched with canvas with an embellie made with jenni Bowlin Crepe paper ribbon and an October Afternoon diecut.

Page 9 is a glued down kraft envelope with gaffer tape bindings.

The date I added in with a date stamp and embossed it with silver glitter powder which will not photo but it's much more glittery irl.

Page 10 is a piece of canvas with more of the same felt as before but in brown, that's just stitched on.

Another page protector for 11 with an embossed stamp, those same alphas and a American Crafts Flair embellie.

The 12th is a page protector with Hambly and October Afternoon rubons.

13th is a piece of packaging from some Jenni Bowlin buttons covered with paper. The label is October Afternoon stickers

Page 14 is another glued down envelope with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

OK that's part one I'll post up the rest tomorrow.

xx Leo

Pumpkin Cake and Christmas album

2009-11-02T12:01:00.005Z

Finally got around to making the pumpkin cake over the Halloween weekend and it was delish! It went down really well on Saturday and I managed to hide a tiny piece to photo for my recipe scrapbook, one tiny extra piece I was hoping to enjoy myself........

Then this happened...........

Well I did say it was really yum..... needless to say I didn't get to eat the last piece! I think it serves me right really, because BB cat is so used to the camera now I'm sure she thinks she has to be in every photo...

I read through a few recipes online, most of them read like carrot cake but with pumpkin so I ended up making it just like that with a few small changes. I scooped out all the fresh pumpkin and then blitzed it in the food processor instead of shredding it because it was really ripe and soft. The cake I made with wholemeal flour too, I think it adds to the yummy texture and there's loads of moisture in the pumpkin so it can get away with it. Spices I used were nutmeg (1 tsp) cinnamon (1 tsp) and ginger (1/2 tsp). Cream cheese topping for me doesn't need messing with so it's just cream cheese, lemon juice and a couple of teaspoons of icing sugar. If there are pumpkins still in the supermarket going cheap it's worth a go at making some, I'm defo going to be making more.

------------------------------------------

Now we're officially into November I think it's ok to start doing some Christmas stuff now. I made a start on my daily Christmas album. Last years was made up of quite chunky stuff like corrugated card so I felt like making something a bit softer this year. Started out with the page protectors that I had spare from another album then made an album to accommodate them. It's a simple one I made with a card spine, cropodiled and eyeleted and a sewn fabric cover. I was going to leave it just with the fabric but I ended up stiffening it with card because I wanted it to stand up on my shelf.

To go along with the using what I've got/recycling theme I also made some pages with stuck down envelopes and pieces of an old canvas bag. Not decorated it too much yet inside, need to spend some more time on it.

Will add some more piccys when I've done some more. xx Leo