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.

Census Day

OK hands up.  Who was dreading filling in the 2011 Census form

Just sat here and filled it in.  Got very confused whether to put DS1 onto it or not as he is away at University during term time.  But all sorted now thank god.  Thanks Lynn and Mark.

Have been talking to my dad today in Yorkshire, [we are researching our family tree/history together], he tracked down the school records of the infants school that he used to attend in 1944/45.  It turns out that his father [who died in 1943 in a Japanese POW camp] and his Grandfather attended the same school as my dad.  His mum went to the same school as well. 

Well, this is my first post and hopefully not the last.  I will try and post a picture next tim, of the album I am working on for mums birthday.