Long time, no Blog............

Hi everyone.  It has taken me a while now to get back into Blogging, because of all the hold ups etc., that have been going on in my life.  BUT, I am back.  My Craft room is coming along nicely, still need to get a floor covering sorted and then I'm set.

I have managed to get some photos of Kelseys 21st Album.  I am not going to put them on here all at once, but will spread it out a bit, otheriwse this post will take too long.

DADDY'S GIRL

Materials used:

All Papers are from Basic Grey 'Urban Prarie' collection

Base paper - Kettle

Patterned papers - Weather Vane and Lady Bug

Yellow and Blue Hearts Die Cuts - Thin Cuts Heart #3

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Flower stamp is a freebie from Craft Stamper magazine.  Again using Basic Grey 'Urban Prarie' papers and adding small buttons to the centres.

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Title - Die cut - [Daddy's] - Sissix - Man oh, man, from Blue card stock

         [Girl] - Sissix - Azure, from yellow card stock

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Heart and wings die cut - Sissix Scribbles #1. Die cut from funky foam sheets

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Dates - Sissix - Hot Pink Pyjamas Rubbons

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FLOWERS FOR YOU

Below is a photo that Tim [DS2] took of a flower in our garden.  He is a keen gardener and has been studying Horticulture at College.  We thought it would be good for him to keep a record of what he has been doing in the various Gardens he has been working in.  I think photography could be a second calling for him

ENJOY

Take care all, speak soon

Lesley

Click on this Heading to go to Scrapz-uk

Click on the heading of this post for some great Blog Candy till 20th July at scrapz-uk.blogspot.   Good Luck

Almost there

Still haven't managed to get Kelseys Album back yet to take some photos but hopefully won't be too long now.

BUT.........

The good news is that my roof is almost finished along with the converted loft space which will be [when finished] MY DOMAIN  MWAHAHAHAHA !!!  [sorry, couldn't resist].

I have tried to upload some photos, but after 5 minutes of 'uploading' the photo has still yet to appear.  So I will try and add them again tomorrow.

But, a quick question........What do you have on the floor of your craft space?  Vinyl, wood, carpet, laminate? 

I think I need some outside help,  OH says carpet because it will keep any noise down because of the bedrooms underneath.  What does he think I am going to do up there, band practice?  But, Carpet is a pain in the bum to clean if stuff gets spilt and to get glitter etc., out of.

I think a vinyl of some description because it is easier to keep clean and reasonably comfortable to stand on for longish periods [I am a standing Crafter]

I don't like laminate floors from experience.

Any input would be most helpful.

Will try and upload the photos tomorrow

Take Care

Lesley

OH BOY !!!!

I put up this sign on the scaffolding as a bit of a laugh before everything went pear shaped. 

Tempting fate I think.

Well, it has been AGES since my last post.  I hadn't forgotten, I have just been sooooooo busy I haven't known whether I have been on my bum or my elbow!!

A quick round up.............................

Trying to sort out Kelseys 21st Birthday Album, Organising her Birthday Bash and have building works done.

We have desperately needed to have our house re-roofed for about the last 5 years. Basically it was slowly caving in on itself.  We thought, while we are having the roof done, we would have the loft boarded [properly] and roof windows put in. 

Finally, the scaffolding went up on Friday 3rd July, beautiful sunny day. The work was going to start on the Monday.  Saturday 4th July, another beautiful sunny day.  Sunday 5th July, another beautiful sunny day.  Sunday night, about 10pm, the heavens opened and it didn't really stop for three weeks.

So what with one thing and another things have been a tad hectic to say the least.

I spent Friday and Saturday hacking out about one inch of Bitumen out of our wonderful concrete gutters.  I WILL sort out the leak somehow.

I have been trying to get some things back on target, hence the very funky sunday outfit.

Well at least the roof is insulated and vapour barriered !!  Just got to put up the plasterboard now as well as re-lining the gutters [note to self - must phone the roofing suppliers tomorrow morning]  Don't I have a wonderful, exciting life?

Anyway,  I finished Kelseys album.  I just need to 'borrow' it back to take some photos.

That's it for now.  I am going to sit down and eat my much needed dinner and relax for the evening.  Tomorrow the fun begins again.

Take Care all

Here comes Summer !!

Grey sky, blowing a gale, spots of rain and the sun trying desperately to peek through.  Good old British weather.  I have already rescued a sheet from next doors garden this morning after it took off like a parachute from the washing line. 


Can someone please explain to my other half and offspring that wearing flimsy t-shirts is not an excuse for putting the heating on when it turns a bit chilly!!  I refuse to put the heating on, afterall, thats what jumpers were made for wasn't it? 

Am I the only person who doesn't pack away their winter wardrobe in preparation for sunnier days?  My woolley jumpers and thick socks stay on their shelf and or in their drawer all year round, ready for days like this.

Anyway, enough of all that.  I have been busy making some more layouts for DD's 21st Birthday Album.

LETS DANCE

Kelsey and her best friend decided that they would like to do Ballroom Dancing.  So after numerous lessons in Various dances they took their first exam.

Their tutor normally partnered all the girls in front of the examiners.  Little problem, that Kelsey towered above her tutor.  So her husband was roped in to do the honours and partner Kelsey for the exam.  Even at 5'10" he was still only a tad taller than Kelsey, who had reached 5'9" at the age of 11.

The girls both passed the exam with Honours !!

Papers and flowers from stash

Library card a freebie download from http://www.creaturecomforts.typepad.com/

Title - Sissix - Catty Corner die cuts.

I enlarged the Honours Award from the certificate, printed and covered with 3d glaze, then mounted onto a nesties scalloped circle die cut from gold card.  Mounted on layout with foam pads to give it a lift.

Doing the Cha Cha

Kelsey and Jade, mucking around before the exam.

A GROWN UP NOW !

I couldn't do an Album without recording the day Kelsey moved into her own place could I?

The title comes from something Kelsey said when we had finally unload everything from the car and it was time for me to leave and go home.

After lots of hugs and a few tears, she looked at me and said

"I've got to be a grown up now !"

I painted a block of white onto the centre of the Card stock with Acrylic Paint

Backing Card - Papermania Kraft

Patterned papers are from paper bags.

Flowers from Stash

Brads - Papermania

Sequin waste and broken glass stamps - Tim Holtz

Corners - Sissix Decorative Accentt 655221

Check List stamped with Studio G - Alphabet Stamp Set

Key and Key hole - Tim Holtz Grunge Die Cuts, emossed with Distress embossing powder in Walnut Stain and a bit of Copper Glimmer Mist spray.

Title - American Thickers.  They were originally pink, so I coloured them with Fired Brick Distress Ink and grunged with a bit of Soot Black Distress Ink.  Although they took two days to dry completely !! [Is this because they are foam I wonder?]

All important Check List.

The much loved and much worn purple Doc Martens.  Looking a bit worse for wear now, although still really comfy, so I am told.

Stash Flowers and Tim Holtz embellies.

Colour changed and grunged American Thickers foam letters.

21st BIRTHDAY INVITE

Kelsey does not want a big party for her 21st, she just wants family and a few friends round for a BBQ. 

This is the invite I have made to send out.

Pre-made card from Hobby craft

Patterned papers from stash [very old]

Ribbon from Stash

'She's gonna be' done on computer in Word Art, printed onto white card.

Glittery '21' - Sissix die cut - Twang, mounted on die cut shape - Nesties Labels 4

Photo taken when Kelsey was about a year old.



 Well, thats it for now, thanks for looking and all your previous kind comments

Take Care

Lesley

Come fly with me

Hi Folks,

Well another bright and sunny day here. Kelsey has finally moved into her new flat and started her new job.  Fingers crossed that she enjoys both.

I've been busy making another LO for her 21st Album. 

In her last year at school she had the opportunity to go on  a backpacking expedition to Brazil with her school and World Challenge.  She had to raise £3000 to cover flights, travel, insurance, food, accomodation, equipment, etc.,

Her fund raising included, Quiz Nights, an Indulgence Evening, Boot Fairs, Odd Jobs etc.,  Her main fundraiser was a sponsored Wing Walk !!  It took a lot of organising but she did it in the end.  The club that helped her was the 'Tiger Club', their logo is a flying tiger.  So we got an orange boiler suit, made stripes with masking tape and spray painted black stripes.  It looked pretty good.

There were so many photos taken that day, it was hard to choose which ones to include on the LO.  In the end I made a double LO with tons of photos.

I chose a selection of photos that detailed what happened before during and after the flight.  I then made a little flip up album to attached to the LO.

Materials used on first page

All the papers used were from On a Whimsey from Fancy Pants Designs

Backing Paper - Rainbow

Spotty Paper - Happy

Stripey Paper - Twirl

White velum used for Banner and mounted on Foam Squares to make it float.

Letters - Die cut with Sissex Ida Lous Flower Pot

The photos are held down with a cord wrapped round a button at the top and the bottom of the flip up album.

Each of the flip pages will poke through a slit in the page protector to let them be flipped through, along with the bottom button.

On the reverse of each photo page I added some journalling about the day.

And a little bit of journalling on the photos.

Quote Tag, Butterfly wings, Crown and Flower Journalling spot all by Fancy Pants Designs.

I couldn't decide which photos to use so I let Picassa do it for me, and created this collage.  A great way to add many photos to a LO.

Materials used on second page.

All the papers used were from On a Whimsey from Fancy Pants Designs

Backing Paper - Catch a Wave

Spotty Paper as first page

Stripey Paper as first page

All the Journalling spots, quote tags, Butterfly Wings, Crown and Printed Lettering are from Fancy Pants.

I highlighted a couple of the photos on the collage with a frame.

This small photo on the second page of the LO has lines that lead to the banner on the first page.  So it looks like the plane is trailing the banner behind it in the sky.

All the papers have been in my stash for over a year, waiting for the right photos.

Thanks for looking

Take care all

Lesley



21st Birthday Album

Are you all enjoying the sun?  It is VERY warm here today, too warm for me, but then can't have everything can we?

Well, my baby girl is going to be the grand old age of 21 in June.  She has a new job and a new place to live from the end of next week.  So I guess I will be spending this weekend painting and decorating her new bedroom.

I have been slowly making her a scrapbook album.  It's slowly getting there and will be finished for her birthday [I hope]. Sooooooooo many photos to choose from though.

HELLO BABY !!

My baby girl.

The pink spotty paper is from my stash.

The floral and the butterfly papers are basic grey.

Ribbons and buttons from stash.

The yellow tag behind the photo has journalling about how long Kelsey was when she was born and the midwife measured her twice.......she was a tad under two feet long!!  She is now 6 foot tall.

Under the scalloped flap there are ten smaller photos of the night she was born and when she was introduced to her big brother.



CHILLIN'

Paper is Basic Grey Cupcake-Sprinkles

Letters are Thickers highlighted with White Stickles

Tag, buttons and ribbons from stash.

Ice Cream embellishment is and made.

I put a stiched circle round the main photo to highlight her face.

Her face was an absolute picture, with every lick and mouthful

But she would not give up and seemed to get the hang of enjoying it in the end.

HAPPY CAMPERS

Papers were free from Scrapbook Magazine.

Flowers cut out and mounted on Foam Squares.

Tree truck cut from card and the top layer peeled off, then inked to highlight.

Journalling strip cut into seperate words and edges inked.

Journalling reads,

Warm weather and a trip to Nannys = a washing line, an old sheet and a bit of Nanny Magic.





I hand cut the title letters and inked the edges, they were mounted on Foam Squares at different heights.

DIVA

Black and white cardstock

Photo collage made with Picassa

DIVA letters die cut using Sissix Notepad using Hollographic paper and mounted onto black to stand out from White.

Small letters die cut using Sissix Skittle Dee Do from black card.

Embellishments die cut using Sissix Sizzlits Sparkle using hollographic paper with a Clear gem in the centre of each one.

She was a Diva even when she was a toddler.

SNOW FUN

Vellum Square behind main photot edged with Martha Stewart Snowflake punch.

Small Photo and journalling square mounted on Nesties Lacy Squares cut from pearl white card.

Large Snowflakes punch from White Glitter Card with Woodware punch

Small Snowflakes punched from White Glitter Card [punch unknown]

Photos and journalling square were outlined with Double sided tape and glittler added

Large Snowflakes mounted on Foam Squares to add a bit of dimension

The letter were a TK Maxx bargain. 

White American Thickers then covered in clear glitter.

Got to have glitter when there's snow.

Well thats it for now folks.  There will be more soon

Take Care and enjoy the sunshine

Lesley



House warming gift

Happy Sunday to all,

Very sunny here in Kent, but a VERY chilly wind.  But at least the sun brightens our day doesnt it?

Kelsey [my daughter] is moving out soon to start her new job so I made this for her.  I got the idea from a talented lovely lady at nicksartystuff.blogspot.com. THANKS NICKS !!

I added a few extras that mean something to Kelsey and us.

Started with this wood wall hanging thingy that I found in a Charity Shop, and based it out with white Acrylic Paint.  Then it went from there, stamped over the surfaces with various text and other stamps.  Added some papers from stash, and it just grew

and grew

I made a little book which contains the text below

A Piece of String - To tie things together when everything seems to be falling apart.

A Rubber Band - To stretch yourself beyond normal limits.

A Button - For your lips, so you'll always think before you speak.

A Penny [or two] - So you will never have to say "I'm broke".

A Knot - So when you reach the end of your tether, there is always something to hang on to.

A Marble - In case you ever feel like you are losing yours.

An Eraser - So you can make all your mistakes disappear.

A Lamp - So there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

A Hug and a Kiss - To remind you that someone, somewhere really cares about you.

Have a great day everyone and take care

Lesley

A little bit of useless information about me

I am trained and qualified to build one of these:

And to operate and use one of these:

Me and my little gang

L>R  Nick.  Jules.  Debs.  Me.  Thomas [No.1 son]



Waxy Workshop

I went to a workshop on Saturday just gone at Pickleberry Crafts in Faversham.  Bees wax, a melting pot, paper, lace, stamps, coffee, cakes and choccies.  What more could a girl ask for?

Met up with the lovely Sparkles from the DoCrafts forum and the fun teacher Jenni Boxall.

The project was supposed to be an accordian booklet of techniques, but mine kept sticking together when I folded it, so now it is a wall hanging.

Some of the wax techniques we learnt were:

1] Waxing over stamped images

2] Paper flowers and lace

3] Stamping into melted poured wax

4] Paper Napkins

5] Heat embossing into wax

6] Decoupage with wax

7] Applying perfect pearls onto warm wax

8] Stamping into brushed melted wax

I just couldn't get the hang of number 3 .  My stamping into melted poured wax ended up looking like a blob of melted cheese, not nice as I don't like cheese.

So, when I got home I scraped that bit off, remelted the wax and dunked a big blue flower into it, sprinkled the wet waxy flower with fine glitter, a quick brush of blue and gold perfect pearls.  I like it a lot better.

All of the six chipboard squares were covered with Tim Holtz papers before we worked on them.

Stamped images with Distress Inks, then painted melted wax over the top and smoothed out with heat tool

Paper flowers and lace dipped into melted bees wax.

This is the board that had a re-do at home.  Large paper flower, dunked in melted wax and a liberal amount of fine glitter was sprinkled onto wet wax then perfect pearls while the wax had set but was still warm.

This was a paper napkin that had been stuck with wax over the top of some ledger paper.  Bits of the left over napkin was used to add some texture at the bottom.

Wax painted over some backing paper, heated a little with a heat gun then stamped into with a music score stamp.  Then the corner was heated and stamped with a butterfly stamp.  An old gold colour of perfect pearls was dusted over the music stamp and a blue colour was put over the butterfly.

Melted wzx was applied to the base.  The butterflies were cut from a paper napkin and put on top of the hot wax.  Heat gently with a heat gun and the butterflies 'sink' into the wax.

I then stamped into the warm wax with a butterfly stamp and some gold leaf flakes rubbed into a few areas of still warm wax.

I think thats about it.

All in all it was a fun day.  Looking forward to the next workshop.

Happy Sunshine Day

What a beautiful day in Kent.  Hope it's the same over the UK.

Did I mention that I like books?  Well I do, a lot.  I have just found out how much.  Sometime this year we have to have our house re-roofed [is that actually a real word?], anyway, the loft space needs clearing.  I have started to do it gradually.  It's going to be a mission with a purpose though, because when it's done, the loft space will be converted and I will have my very own space. 

It's amazing how much stuff gets shoved in the loft over 30 years of marriage.

Empty boxes, gone.  Old childrens toys, sorted and gone [well kept some to be honest].  Old childrens clothes, sorted and gone.  Then we get to the books.  Oh dear, I never realised how many books I had.  I couldn't pack the boxes and bring them down the ladder, they were too heavy.  So, I had to get them down a pile at a time and then pack them.  DS2 did help for a while, but his attention span is about the same as a goldfish.

So, now the boxes of books are in the shed [which I had to clear out before I could get my books in].  Twenty four boxes and crates with an average of 30 books in each.  I have approximately 720 books !!.  Now, these are just hardback books, no novels etc., all non fiction, history, reference, pictures etc., 

This is my pile

I really think that when the roof and loft is sorted, I need to have fit some shelves and have my own library.

Happy Mothers Day Ladies !!

I hope you have all a lovely day and been treated like Princesses.

It's been very quiet here at home.  OH has gone off to a Motor Bike Boot Sale [I didn't know Motor Bikes had boots, but then what do I know].  DD came back from Hastings this afternoon and has now gone off to work to get all the unsold Mothers Day Cards off the shelves and reload with Easter Cards.  Just had a conversation with DS1 [who is at Uni in Wales] and he's feeling pretty glum.  Struggling with the academic side of Uni.  Unfortunately he takes after me, learns better with hands on and not text books.  DS2 is glued to his computer games.  So, all in all a very quiet day in the Matty household.  Even the cats have disappeared for the day.

I toodled off to Mums this morning with her Mummys day flowers and her prezzie for her birthday, which is tomorrow.  I made her a mini album, with baby photos, from when I was a baby with my Great Grandmother through to mum and dad being first time Grandparents etc.,  Each photo has a hidden tag behind it with info such as who, what where and when on it.  I also put a condensed family tree inside the front cover and a couple of poems dotted on a couple of spare pages. Hope she likes it.

I used Basic Greys June Bug papers.  Made the little lace flowers and punched all the little paper flowers.  The roses came from Hobbycraft.

Going to try and post a video slide show of it, so fingers crossed.