CSI Case File #4 'Explore Always'

Hello,

second post for today :0)

Again, I need to apologise for the quality of the photos but having waited for 3 days to photograph this layout I really couldn't wait any longer as the rest of the week is going to be busy, busy, busy!! So, just got to go with the rubbish English weather :0(

I loved this colour palette - hooray, no more purple!!! This challenge was right up my street as I have developed a real penchant for paint, ink and sprays.

So here is my layout:

The papers are from MME 'Stella and Rose' 6 x 6 pad. The Aqua acrylic paint has been combed to give the striped effect and then I added a darker green to make the teal colour. I misted with a yellow chalk mist and Twilight Blue Cosmic Shimmer spray. Glittered letters are from MME 'Lost and Found'

The leaf stamp is from WRMK - silhouette and detail stamps.  Stamped with acrylic paint and then Archival. I don't know where the crocodile came from, but I love him!

The frame has been cut with Spellbinders dies

The bird is another of those WRMK stamps and the little bit of fabric  brad you can see is from American  Crafts

The butterfly is yet another WRMK stamp set!!! The letters are Tattered Angels and have been swiped with an Aqua Paint Dabber. The circles are cut with Spellbinders dies.

I wish you could see this in real life as it looks so much nicer!!! Thanks for stopping by,

Ali x 

Creative Scrappers #192 'Barbecue King'

Good 'craft'ernoon!!

I am feeling really pious today as I have been up since 6 cleaning the house and shampooing carpets!! Still need to walk the dog and clean the car interior and then everything I planned to do is done!! Yay...guilt free crafting afternoon coming up!

So, very late in the month, but I did do the CS sketch but have been waiting for some sunshine (or at the very least some light) to take photos. Still no joy so just had to go with it :0)



Decided to stick with the sketch, which I don;t seem to be doing these days, but it was fun and perfect for the photos of my Dad last summer. My brother and I have birthdays within 4 days of each other so we always meet up en famille at my Mum and Dad's in Suffolk for the day. This year, Dad did us kebabs, Cypriot style.....delicious! I grew up in Cyprus so love, love, love this kind of food :0)

Everything is Pink Paislee 'Hometown Summer' - still ploughing through this kit!

some stitching with my new machine...still learning :0)

Oh, not quite everything...a Tim Holtz journal tag has also made it  onto the page!

Thanks so much for stopping by, have a lovely day!

Ali x

and the winner is.....

Hello everyone,

sorry I am a bit late with this post but couldn't find the right random number generator!!! Finally discovered it should be random.org after searching through other blogs :0)

So random.org has chosen....Laura Mooney :0)

Laura please email me at aliparris@btinternet as soon as you can with your address so that I can post your prize out to you. Whilst I am on the subject of RAKs would someone please tell me what RAK stands for!!!! lol, I have no idea what this acronym is that I happily type in my posts...ha,ha,ha.

***edited post: Thanks Carri for letting me know it stands for Random Acts of Kindness....makes sense when you know!!***

Anyway, congratulations Laura and thank you to you and everyone else who has joined me recently - you truly have no idea how happy you have made me,

Ali x 

a few cards to keep my hands busy :0)

Morning,

 DD#2 loves to craft so I often give her 'collections' as well as all the things I no longer want/need. DD#1 used to craft but with all the other commitments eating into her time she has given it up for the time being - plus she doesn't have the same passion as DD#2 and I, otherwise she would find the time, right??? :0)

Anyway, because DD#2 gets all the treats I said that I would make all the cards she needs for the year. I forgot to photograph last month's selection so here are the ones she needs for February:

Valentines, DD#2 Birthday Card and one for a friend's son.

Cuttlebug Folder 'SwissDots' ; Bakers Twine; Tonic Heart Punch; Card from Craftwork Cards

October Afternoon bits and bobs, Fabric Heart cut with Sizzix  Jewellery Heart Die

Super Easy! Five cut on Cricut; Stamp Hero Arts Birthday; Star Teresa Collins 'Celebration'

Thanks for stopping by,

Ali x

Frosted Designs Sketch #33 'Tea at the Ritz'

Hello,

love this sketch from Ashley at Frosted Designs, just gorgeous :0)



another lo for my BF's album. This photo was taken when she took her Mum to tea at the Ritz for her 60th birthday.....lucky things!

Papers are MME Fine and Dandy, the teapot is Pink Paislee and the cake has been cut on the Cricut and  studded with  Stickles and Liquid Pearls.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day,

Ali x 

Another Blog Hop at Frosted Designs :0)

'We Love Cake' CSI Case #3

Hello

another lovely challenge this week from CSI. Colour palette is still not one I would choose but that's the idea to move me away from the same old same old!!

The photo is of my DGD and my youngest cousin as DD#2's engagement party. These two cheeky little monkeys always steal the show and this event was no exception :0) Whilst no-one was watching them they helped themselves to goodness knows how many croque-en-bouche!! Makes for the prefect scrapbook page!

The light is shocking here today so it is not making photography easy. The  papers are Melissa Frances  and Websters Pages. If you are familiar with them you will know they are not this washed out!!!

American Crafts brads. Junkitz metal rings (when did I get these???)  sheer white ribbon and a doily (ish) heart re evidence

Journalling written as instructions as evidence

Thanks for stopping by and sorry for the rubbish photos of what is really a pretty page,

Ali x

'Life's Little Moments' SIT #66

Hi all and a special hello to my new followers :0) I am so excited that you have chosen to join me!!!

My layout for today is inspired by the sketch over at Sketches in Thyme and is for my BF's album. It's of her DH and sons - then and now :0) I do struggle with 'boy' pages, I guess because I don't really need to do them very often!! I also don't have that many male friendly papers, lol.

Papers are MME So Sophie. The title has been cut on the Cricut.

Here is the sketch that started the process:

SIT always have 3 sketches that run for the whole month so give them a go :0)

Thanks for stopping by,

Ali x

'Me and You' Pencil Lines #265

Hello all,

a real quick one as I forgot to post this earlier in the week and the Pencil Lines challenge finishes today!!

Yet another lo for BF's scrapbook - nearly there now :0) This one is of her and her DH in Rome.

Papers are Websters Pages 'Trendsetter' and really old K & Co. Stamps are 7 Gypsies 'Venice' and the title was cut from  the Cricut. The circle and the dib dab bits by the title are a Lake Mist Paint Dabber.

And here is their sketch:

Hop on over to their website to see what the sketch will be on Sunday..... they rarely fail to please ;0)

Thanks for popping in, have a lovely rest of the weekend!

Ali x 

Frosted Designs Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the last port of call on the Frosted Designs blog hop :0)

If you have been following the hop you should have come from the very talented Eli's blog click here. If you want to start from the beginning and see what you have been missing click here

The challenge was to use acrylic, vellum and transparencies in a winter design and when I think of those things I always think of white (don't ask me why, I honestly don't know!) So, in homage to Frosted Designs I decided to make an album  for all my white winter photos, entitled 'Frosty' :0) Although I would happily do the whole thing in white it wouldn't photograph very well so decided to add in black and grey. As I write this there isn't a sniff of snow in the air - in fact, the way things have been in the south east of the UK in the last few years we could well be getting it in June!!!

So without further ado, here are the photos of my project (yes, I am going to make you look at the photos before revealing the magic word!!!) it's ok it's not all of the photos, there are quite a few pages in this album and although I photographed them all I have picked out just a few for the blog!

I'm not sure that you can see it all that well but the snowflakes have been cut in pearl card and acetate on the Cricut.

This is the back side of an acrylic tab page.

Lovely sparkly dots on this vellum from Create and Craft and a big Petaloo flower. The chipboard heart and button are from Woodware and the journal stamp is from my stash.

I saw the idea for a doily pocket on Pinterest. The pullout tag has been stamped  with MME stamps (they have just arrived from sale shopping and were sitting on my desk!) and swiped with Adirondack Lake Mist paint dabber.

I made this vellum pocket by unsticking an envelope and using it as a template. I really like the white swirls on this stuff - would you believe I bought this pack of vellum about 3 years ago and have never really used it! 

This vellum page has simply been stitched and then had die cut hearts stuck to it with an Ali Edwards stamped banner.

This is one of my favourite pages :0) I had tidied up and was going to bed thinking about what else I could do on my pages and then remembered I had some black ink - so got out of bed to do some splattering! I have used Archival Ink to stamp onto the vellum.

I really like how this page came out too! More of the MME stamps and paint dabbers. A wooden heart that I painted with Lake Mist paint, a velum circle and a rose from iamroses.com. I ran the Bazzil through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder.

I think that will do to give you an idea of how it looks! So now onto the main bit of business...........drum roll.... ..........the word you are looking for is......TIME. All you have to do now is email Diana at danica4us@yahoo.com with your completed sentence and the very best of luck!!

I will be sending one lucky winner some bits to make their own mini:

A chipboard album

6 x 6 pad

lace, ribbon, yarn

buttons

die cuts

stamped journalling spots

and of course an envelope and some vellum to make their own vellum envelope :0)

All you need to do is become a follower and leave a comment on this post and I will choose someone at random on Friday 27th Jan 9pm UK time. Open to everyone no matter where you live :0) 

Thanks so much for popping in and I really do hope that you come back soon. Have a great day,

Ali x 

Frosted Design Team Call

Hello,

for anyone looking to be part of an amazing team, please see the details below:

We are looking for papercrafters of all kinds! If you can make scrapbook layouts, cards, altered art items, home decor items or like mixed media.... we want you!! One of the best things about Frosted Designs (in my opinion) is that we celebrate all kinds of crafters! We are not just a scrapbooking blog or a card blog. We want to let everyone share their skills and with 3 challenges going on all the time, there is something for everyone! We would like to fill some positions on all three of our teams. Let me tell you more about each one....

Fabulous Friday Teams: We have two teams of ladies that make up our Fabulous Friday teams. The focus of this team is to use up supplies you already have laying around the house that may have been neglected and forgotten about. For this team, you should be willing to do any of the following: scrapbook layouts, cards, altered art, home decor and mixed media items!

Sketch Along Tuesday Layout Team: This team makes scrapbook layouts that are inspired by the sketches we give them.

Sketch Along Tuesday Card Team: This team makes cards that are inspired by the sketches we give them.

No matter which team you prefer, the requirements for all of our designers remain the same....

1. Be willing to commit to a six month term. Your term would start the beginning of March and go until the end of August.

2. Create a project every other week for your assigned team.

3. Share a step by step tutorial 2 times during your 6 month term. (This can be with photos or video)

4. You will be required to comment on some of the projects that are entered into our challenge each week.

5. Keep an active blog that is updated frequently.

6. Post our challenge and your project on your blog on reveal day and link back to the Frosted Designs blog.

So if this floats your boat - give it a go!! More details at Frosted Designs

Good luck!

Ali x 

Sue's Album 'Australia'

Getting to the last few for BF's album now - her and her family are coming round for lunch and a photo session next Saturday for the final two pages :0)

Misting, ink splatters and stickles ......there appears to be a theme developing in my layouts! Papers are  Cosmo Cricket 'Garden Variety' (another bit of old stash used - yay!)

Thanks for stopping by,

Ali x 

CSI Case File #2 'Dream Big'

Hello all,

I am sooo excited about the new CSI challenge site and as soon as I saw that Case #2 was up I went straight to it! Loved the colour palette, except for the dreaded purple (well ok, lavender!)

I fiddled around for ages with lavender papers but no matter how I try I just can not bring myself to love it. Bearing in mind there were 5 colours that had to be used, I am not sure why I honed in on the colour I least like - maybe, subconsciously, I was forcing myself to go out of my comfort zone. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I ditched the papers and took out my Cosmic Shimmer as I had the perfect reddy pink.

If you haven't visited yet, have a look at the new challenge here

So, here is my layout (with the tiniest bit of lavender!) along with my 'evidence'

 

Colour palette - check!
 Photo is of DH and DGD in the garden. DGD had phoned for a chat and when I told her we were sweeping all the leaves up and cutting down the tree she wanted to 'help'. So DD#1 brought her round for an afternoon of Autumn family fun :0)

Here is the dreaded lavender, not sure you can see from the photo but it has been embossed  with a brick folder. The crochet flower is from iamroses.com and the die cut circle is Marianne Designs. The circle is October Afternoon '5 and Dime' and the Damask paper is Glitz Designs 'Hoopla'

The journaling had to be about dreams. I have used Ali Edwards stamps within my handwriting. The sticker is Gliz Designs. Flourishes were another requirement so I used part of a border stamp from Pink Paislee 'Daily Junque' The paper is from Glitz Designs 'Hoopla'

Another element of the challenge was to use sheers (I am assuming that is what we call acetate????)  so I die cut a Pink Paislee acetate sheet 'Sweetness' using the Tim Holtz butterfly die and then punched a Martha Stewart butterfly to go on top. The Glitzer sticker is also sheer with diamante already attached to it from Glitz Designs. The brad, which is yellow in real life. is from My Minds Eye 'Lost and Found'

I used a grid mask from That Special Touch to represent an architectural element and misted through it  with Cosmic Shimmer 'Lava Red'

Flowers were another element to be included these ones are soooo old! The sheer one is from Heidi Swapp and the dotty one is Petaloo (I think)  The butterfly stamp is Ali Edwards and the glittered photo holder is from an old box of Crate Paper 'Mia' die cuts.

I can not believe how much my scrapbooking is evolving since finding this site, and the best bit?? I am using up my stash!!! Still a long way to go before I can buy any new stuff, still I am sticking to my word of 2012 and UTILISING :0)

Thanks for stopping by, have a lovely day!

Ali x