Twinkle Twinkle designer papers ....

Loving these papers, I've made this layout as  a baby page, but the backs of the papers are so different and i will be able to produce something completely different from them ....

Animal Expedition ....

Just time for a little bit of scrapping today and finally had time to use these gorgeous designer papers Animal Expedition. I've seen some gorgeous cards made from these papers, take a look on Pinterest if this is where you normally look for inspiration. Enjoy ....

Developing Our Skills ....

I've recently been updating the Scrapstars website, ready to announce next years retreat, but already a few ladies have beaten me to the punch and made their bookings. It was lovely to receive an email from a new delegate, what she said really rang true with me so i thought I would share it.

"I heard about your retreat from some of my co crafters at a local group I attend, the rest of the group were so impressed with the generosity of the kits and the exciting projects they came back with this year (and very jealous !) What struck me was the way they have been more adventurous with their projects and designs, breaking away from their usual style of working since attending. And still, even now, producing even more beautiful pages with the left overs from the kits they were given at your retreat".   

Its the last part that struck me as being so true (and it was nice to hear the rest) but we do have a tendency to stick to what we know, our own little comfort zone. That's one of the main reasons that i still attend classes and retreats, to further develop my skills and learn something new or just try something "outside the box" that otherwise I may not have. Happy crafting. 

Touches of Texture ....

Had these stamps for a while (with the launch of the new catalog) I have mainly bought them for all the textured backgrounds for mixed media scrapbooking, but I thought I would challenge myself today to make a card, yes don't all faint, it has been a while, but here you go ....

these are the little bee and dragonfly that i have used on my previous project, I added a little touch of "wink of stella" to their wings to give them a little sparkle.

Swallowtail ....

Promised my friend Sally-Jo that i would have this project finished by the time i see her again. We we're both messing around with spritzing and I wanted to use some gilding flakes I have had for eons and never used. We had worked on a piece of 8x8 card, so I promised SJ I would mount it onto something and frame it. I decided to go for black cardstock which I have embossed using another blast from the past Pillion Potpourri  butterfly stamps and a couple of small insect stamps from a new set, which I will share some samples from shortly.

Sign UP ....

If you've ever considered signing up to Stampin Up and even just being a hobby demo, in other words someone who only wants to order for themselves (or themselves and a couple of friends) gaining great discount and hearing about offers and new products before anyone else, This Month Only, SU have a fantastic offer for you. The starter kit is still only £99 and for this amount you can select £130 worth of products from the new catalog AND only in July, you will receive an additional 10 Ink pads, these giving you an extra £70 of value to your starter kit.

National Scrapbooking Day ....

While feeling inspired to use paints and inks after our Scrapstars weekend, I just went crazy on this background, having the confidence to know that if it was a disaster, I was only wisting a sheet of white card :) but I'm really pleased with the result and inspiration from attending classes with Julie Taylor ....

Summer Party ....

Here's a layout using a little bit of my Ephemera, and also using Echo Park, Summer Party papers.At the recent Scrapstars event one of the teachers was using a lovely wide scallop punch, immediately i knew I had to have one, but ended up sourcing one that was completely different lol. I still love the punch and have been itching to use it, so here it is on the layout.

Ephemera ....

Today I've been making my own Ephemera, when you consider all the punches and dies we own, why are we buying these little packets of Flowers, Butterflies and Leaves ! I made a simple background using the wet wipe technique a bit of spritzing and some "flicks" of paint (you could use water colours, and packaging technique, anything goes really). As you can see my background doesn't look very impressive but once it is die cut or punched, the results are great :)

Stampin Up girls ......

So a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hosting my Stampin UP buddies, we had a fun filled few days, yes they booked themselves in to the Premier Inn  up the road, so we could spoil ourselves with two consecutive days of uninterrupted crafting. We had great fun, a good old catch up and threw ourselves into our crafting. Sharon is always so organized and knows exactly what she is doing in order to prep for her classes, or making gifts and cards for up and coming events. Yvonne brought along her jelly plate, something I have been wanting to have a play with for some time, and she made back ground after background for a whole stack of cards, and also made a beautiful card for her daughters birthday. Jane sewed and challenged me to my second sewing challenge since I left school (a couple of years ago I made some rabbits, but it was a massive challenge for me), and now Jane wants me to sew freehand!  Ginnette made beautiful jewelry, and Sally Jo and I jumped around between everything LOL.

something SJ and I did between us,
 I wanted to mess around with Gilding Flakes

My effort at embroidery, my squirrel is
rather large ! 

Scrapstars 2 ....

Not to leave anyone out and also in recognition of the very talented delegates own work, here are just a few examples of the layouts the ladies made for their pre-retreat challenges. These are pages that people do at home on a theme set by me which we enter in to a little prize draw .... Usually one of the challenges is a little "getting to know you" type theme, and we have had all sorts in the past for instance irrational fears, hidden talents, and guilty pleasures. This year we went for "Heroes" and here is a small selection of the entries made ....

by Christine O'Kelly

by Isobel Kerr

By Caroline Lovett

by Chris Bardsley

Scrapstars ....

Another fabulous weekend, of fun, crafting, great company and lovely delegates and teachers who make the event such a pleasure to organize each year. I love this group of ladies so friendly and warm, and totally passionate about Scrapbooking (like me). :) we were blessed with fabulous kits using products from Simple Stories, Prima and Echo park to name a few and the classes were so inspirational as always with a variety of styles to challenge everyone and help us out of our comfort zones, From Interactive, to fussy cutting to inky and painty, there was something for everyone ......

Julie Taylor "I Am"

Kathy Rogers (interactive with slider on the front)

Morag Cutts shower me with love using Bramble Fox perspectives.

Busy Times ....

Oh my gosh, I need to get back into my blog habit, i feel bad for not keeping up to my posts. Busy times but i still always manage to fit in some crafting. I had the build up to Scrapstars my craft retreat throughout January - March and managed to squeeze a holiday in their too. We had a week in Cape Verdi (our first visit there). I was trying to avoid a long haul flight just for a weeks holiday, (which we often end up doing because of the times of year we seem to book our holidays), so I thought we would give Cape Verdi a try (which still ended up being 5.75 hour flight)!  I liked the little town we were next to Santa Maria, and our hotel was beautiful and really clean, but boy the wind drove me mad. Too windy for me on some days however, I did manage to sit in the sun a little bit more, well more than my normal whole week underneath an umbrella! Here's a picture ....

My gorgeous mermaid toenails that Robyn did for me. x

Snow Day ....

Love a good snow day, can't get out of the drive so a great excuse to sneak in my craft room. Better late than never finally scrapping my Halloween photo's with a bit of Graphic 45.

Sweet Soiree ....

bit more scrapping with some swipes of ink for background ....

also my first attempt at a large paper flower, very rough just done whilst watching telly :)

Star Wars scrapping ....

I just had to scrapbook these photo's after a trip I took to Euro Disney last year with some friends. I struggled to come up with an idea, but on reflection perhaps planets and stars may have worked (that can be an idea for another time). So this is what i came up with, quite a simple layout really but the photo's of our most hilarious meet n greet at Disney, will always make me laugh out loud :)

I used the stampin up star mask to stamp the black background card with white or craft (as SU call it) ink.

Harry Potter Scrapping .....

as you know my first love is scrapbooking and I love the huge array of products that are out there, if your looking for specific countries or subjects its worth checking out sunshine scrapbooking, here's what I made with some fantastic Harry Potter themed papers that they carry .....

The first one was inspired by Pinterest