Baker Fun with my little Sweetpea

Hello, hello, I'm here with you again to share another layout with the beautiful Sweetpea collection and my very own li'l sweetpea :)

I have had a bit of a rekindled romance with Distress Inks of late!! It is all your fault Sanna Lippert, ever since your brilliant tutorial I just have to keep playing :)

I picked out Fired Brick, Shabby Shutters and Scattered Straw to use as the colours are perfect with Sweetpea.

I used the Collectables, and the gorgeous rub ons, they are super sticky so make sure you put them where you want them! As you can see I didn't, but, I quite like the look....so I am going to tell you it's part of the design ;)!!! I am in love with the banner stamp from the set, I can see it making many appearances!

I also used diluted Peacock Feathers and Spiced Marmalade to 'flick' some splatters onto my page. I am in love with tags at the moment and made some with the 6 x 6 pad. I cut them free hand and then punched a little circle in a coordinating paper, another punch with my crop a dile and a little bit of twine....et voila!! The gorgeous little bird comes from the Collectables and the 'confetti' is the waste from a punch!

A  Collectables banner, cut up and stitched this time.

Thanks for popping in today,

Ali x 

Anniversary Card

A super quick post and howdy doody :)

My BF asked me to whip up a card for her in-laws 60th Wedding Anniversary. With such an amazing achievement I decided an OTT card was required to mark the occasion!!

So out came the Spellbinders, the Stickles and, of course, the Silhouette!!

Here is the result:

The fern wreath was cut on the Silhouette and then Stickled in Diamond ......appropriately enough!

American Craft Thickers,Anna Griffin stamp and a couple of Spellbinder Dies. I even dug out some little blooms :)

Thanks for popping in today,

Ali x 

First Bath

Now when I first saw the new colour challenge at SCRAPFriends I really wasn't sure that I was ready to go 'wintery' but then I realised that with orange being one of the colours I could still find bits and bobs that are knocking around on my desk....well I say knocking around...I am a place for everything and everything in it's place kind of a crafter....so what I do is pull out a 'kit' and use that until I get bored and then it all gets put away or thrown in the bin!!

Anyway, I am digressing, here is my layout of DGS' first bath using the yummy colour palette that is decidedly not wintery! LOL

and some close ups :)

Lots of little bits from Simple Stories, American Crafts. The little dots are made from some stuff called Crystal Lacquer that I had given to DD#2 but she isn't doing much crafting so I pinched them back! Talking of things retrieved from DD#2 I had also given her a load of embossing powders that I no longer used....or so I thought! Check out my forged 'buzz words' all shiny and bendy (???) I even dip dyed some of them :)

Thanks for popping in today,

Ali x 

Desktop Mini Album

Want to know how to make this little cutie??

Then hop on over to the Merly Impressions blog and follow my step by step tutorial ;)

Thanks for popping in today,

Ali x 

Thank You Feather Much!

I was watching YouTube whilst crafting last night and Wilma Furstenberg created the most gorgeous little feathers. She cut the shapes on her Silhouette and then dipped the tips into gold glitter :)

I am generally neither a feather or glitter girl but I fell in love instantly and hot footed it to the Silhouette store!!

Here is the result:

After I had cut the feathers I also had a stencil....yay! Studio Calico papers, Distress Ink 'Old Paper' and a little bit of washi :)

Thanks for popping in today,

Ali x

Game On

Hello, hello hope you all had a happy weekend :)

I am joining in with the Scrap Our Stash challenge today....a fabulous sketch and to use game pieces on your layout.

This is another of those photos that I have scrapped in the past, decided I don't like the lo, and then ripped the photo off before it hits the recycling bin!!

It is of me and my brothers back in the day.....I think it was my brother's 30th so about 16 years ago!!

The journaling reads: You drive me up the wall and round the bend, sometimes I loath you, but mostly I love you!

Pebbles stamp, SC cork arrow and wood veneer

October Afternoon game spinner that I never knew how to use...till now! Simple Stories stickers

Here is the sketch:

Have a happy week and thanks for popping in,

Ali x 

New Family

I am backtracking a bit and finally catching up with DGS' life scrapbook, so although this photo is now five months old (where does the time go???) it has been sitting patiently waiting for the right moment to hit my desk!

I saw the CMS challenge #44, a beautiful colour palette, and knew that this was the time for this little photo to get scrapped! The twist in this challenge is to use fabric. A few weeks ago I spotted a leaf mulch sack whilst shopping....a very handy thing indeed....but not for gardening!! LOL

There is a little artistic license going on here as I did paint it cream, to go with the colour challenge, but the hessian sucked most of it up!!

The papers are Studio Calico, October Afternoon and my new Project Life ones :)

The 2 comes from Crate Paper's The Pier Ephemera pack. The heart stamp is American Crafts...the original Dear Lizzy!

Simple Stories stamps, American Crafts number button (it came squewiff!) Pink Paislee chipboard number...and the inevitable SC wood veneers :)

Here is the lovely soft colour palette:

Thanks for popping in today,

Ali x

Sketchbook 365 'Love This View'

It's another doozy of a sketch at Sketchbook365 this month.

My take is of my DGS on our morning walk with the dog. He loves trees!! He gets so excited when there is a slight breeze and the leaves sway :0) 

On this particular morning his little legs were going ten to the dozen so I took a photo of him and then pointed my phone up to see what he saw....no wonder he loves it :) 

Don't faint, but I am once again giving the non white background a go and this time I love it!!! Maybe it's because it's not patterned....who knows!

I really put my Distress Stains to use on this one. Don't you just love it when you rekindle a romance with a long forgotten scrappy friend? I also found these sweet little transparent stickers from Glitz Design :)))

I am thrilled to bits with how the leaf die coped with some Balsa wood.....and my homemade enamel dots!

I diluted some Alcohol Ink with water and colour washed the tag as well as dying the string and flicking onto my page. All credit for digging these products out has to go to Lizzy who reminded me during one FB chat that I even own these items!! OCD does not go well with OAP!!!

Thanks so much for popping in today, I hope to see your take on the sketch in the gallery :)

Ali x 

Sketch Challenge at Merly Impressions

This month at Merly we have a smashing sketch challenge for you to play along with.

 
perfect no matter what your style is :0)

I have turned the sketch 90 degrees, mainly because I had a landscape photo!

I have used the fabulous Sweet Pea collection......sigh...I just love it!!!

As you would expect this collection has amazing 12 x 12's but the 6 x 6 pad has both shrunk down versions and additional speciality papers....so I used a bit of both :0)

The collectables and rub ons are gorgeous.....evidently!

 My Silhouette loves the Kaisercraft card stock!! I cut the title on white and then decided to Pro Marker it. See that little bird stamp, that's in the collection too :0)

A little bit of Color Shine Tinsel, some lovely Kaisercraft pearls in 'Chino' and some of the fabulous stickers and the job is complete :0)

Do pop along to the blog and see what the other girlies have been  up to and whilst you're there have a play!

Thanks for popping in today,

Ali x 

Happy Holidays

I have been having fun rifling through some old photos from when I was a LOT younger!

Here is one taken in 1979 (I think) on holiday in what was then known as Yugoslavia.

I have used the fabulous new sketch from Sarahs Cards and some of the new stamps that I bought with my win last month :)

The stamps and a lot of the other bits are from Simple Stories and the rest is Glitz Design and a little MME thrown in for good measure!

Here's a peep at the sketch if you would like to have a play:

Thanks for popping in today,

Ali x 

Beautiful Boy

I am trying to get as much scrapping time in as possible.....although most of what I am doing I can't share with you!!!

Still, I can share this little layout that I did for a challenge at The Memory Nest: use chevrons with red as a pop of colour.

I have been playing with those DIY Thickers and glitter .....yummy!!! Amazingly there is no shedding either :)

Short and sweet!! Thanks for popping in today,

Ali x 

3 Things......

Oooh there is a gorgeous challenge at White with 1 at the moment ....white with pastels and masking :)

I have been using a lot of primary colours of late.....probably because it's the middle of our Summer and those strong colours just zing!!

So it was a joy to be able to pull out some softer tones.

this photo is about 40 years old in Cyprus and is of me and my two younger brothers!!

I am gutted that the sun chose not to come out to play today....so my page does look somewhat dull :( It isn't in real life, but sadly you won't get to see that!!

The Studio Calico veneers represent the things we were doing at the time. Riding our bikes, sailing at weekends and flying back to England for a holiday with my Grandparents.

Lots of layering. I pulled out various sheets from a selection of my 6 x 6 pads. There is a journalling card tucked into a glassine bag.

This lovely stamp was hiding in a folder....it will be coming out to play again! The 'wordy' ones are the usual culprits i.e. Ali Edwards and MME :)

Thanks for popping in today,

Ali x 

Special Friend for Merly Impressions

I was lucky enough to be given the Sweet Pea collection to play with this month.....honestly, I don't think Kaisercraft have ever made a more beautiful bunch of stuff!!

I have a little layout over on the Merly Blog today. I would love for you to pop on in and let me know what you think of it :0)

Here's a little peep:

Tempted now???? LOL

Thanks for popping in today,

Ali x 

Step Out of Your Comfort Zone Take 2

After doing the KraftItUp challenge with Lizzy, and I have to admit, enjoying it so much (!) I thought I would try something else that doesn't involve a white background and tiny photo!!

DGD was in a dance show a while back as a beautiful ladybird, dancing to the Ugly Bug Ball :) They had a professional photographer at the dress rehearsal and parents were able to buy the prints. One of the Mum's got the number wrong on her order and ended up with this photo of DGD in various sizes!!! She kindly gave them to us but this 10 x 8 had got stuck to the paper envelope....never mind said Mamma...I'll scrap it...so I did!!

I didn't know where to start with this size photo so I went to 2peas to look for inspiraton.....do you think I can find the layout to credit the talent???? No!!! So whomever you are, thank you and sorry for not sharing your beautiful layout.

More Distress Inks through stencils...I can't stop!! Do you like what I did with the stickers??? It reads across and down.....well I thought it was clever!!! LOL

Silhouette cut title (what else?) 

The banner on the right is covering all the paper pulls :) Lovely, lovely Simple Stories 'Vintage Bliss' ....one of my faves!

Thanks for popping in today,

Ali x