Slushy stuff!

 I received the most beautiful flowers from my sweetheart for Valentine’s Day. Though I must give him credit, he often buys me flowers, the dark tulips and white roses were a lovely combination.

I was very stuck on this layout to start with: I didn’t want to detract from or overpower the flowers, but I wanted a dramatic and romantic piece too. I thought I might use a little piece of the DCWV 12x12 photo stack red roses paper, but in the end I went big with it instead and I’m glad I did. I like the fact that this piece evolved: I wasted paper cutting pieces I didn’t use in the end, but it’s all part of the process. I also considered at one point using the whole of the paper cellar die-cut hearts sheet, but it looked very pretty cut up as a photo mat. I only wish I’d realised earlier it was self-adhesive as I struggled to try and glue it neatly…silly me!

I don’t get too hung up on journalling if I just have a little to say: sometimes the title is enough. For some reason I stamped the writing straight onto my LO when I’d nearly finished everything else, instead of doing it first: brave? Or stupid? Haha. Either way, it worked, and the fact that I used an inky grungy font anyway meant it wouldn’t have mattered if it had been a little messy. The writing is quite subtle and blends into the background somewhat, but this is what I was trying to achieve. To me, it mimics the words, “the closer I look…” because you have to look a little closer to see.

I was inspired by the Feb week 2 team challenge on UKScrappers, and also by the  SJ Crafts february challenge so I put together a combination of the two. Thanks for the lovely inspiration!

Two Girly Cards

This is the kind of girly I can cope with - no fluffy bunnies or anything too cutesy! I'm sharing a couple of cards- one quick, one that took a bit longer. The more time-consuming one, I made last year. It was the first one I made with my Tim Holtz birdcage die- now a firm favourite. Though I made it before I started blogging, I was always in the habit of snapping my favourite cards in case I wanted to go back for inspiration later. Sometimes its hard to give them away! But obviously as this one was personalised, it wasn't too hard to part with.
I actually used a freebie paper from a magazine for the background. You never know when they might come in handy so I never throw them away (who am I kidding? I never throw anything away!) So I used the TH birdcage and vintage market alphabet dies, the bird and letters are cut from the First Edition desert blooms paper stack. The hanging charms and flower are from Making Memories. A lot of input from my trusty promarkers, especially the Coral.

The second card was a cutting-and-piecing quickie for the 52-week card challenge. The paper is all from the DCWV 8x8 Street Lace stack. I love the lace and net look of these papers, very vibrant but a little bit saucy and naughty. The stack also has green, turquoise and cream papers as well as the pink, all have the black lace theme going on. I'll definitely be using this stack up quick! My black versacolor inkpad got a workout too, and my fingers were pretty sore after all that cutting!

Altered Mini Album Tin

This mini scrapbook-in-a-tin is yet another thing I've had for aaages and not known what to do with!

I’ve decided to do a bit of a step-by-step on this project rather than just snap the finished piece so folk can see what i did. I used the following:

*Book pages (I used some pages from a 1950s science publication – I collect old science textbooks and journals – they were already coloured with age and I like the added provenance they give, even though only I know they are there. You can use a page-effect paper, or age pages using inks).

*Woodware scrapbook in a tin (pages are ~12x12cm). 

*Stamps- Kaisercraft clear alpha stamps –“Grunge” font; Pink Paislee “daily junque” clear stamp sheet. *Black VersaColor inkpad. *Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante 8x8 paper pad. *Tim Holtz idea-ology fragments charms. *Making Memories jewel charms. *Ranger alcohol ink “Stream” 

*Inkssentials Glossy Accents.*Brown & gold ribbon, buttons. I love buttons!

1. Rip up your book pages. I found using genuine old pages meant they ripped nicely, absorbed glue well and folded nicely over edges/corners. Glue to the lid of your tin to cover it. If your paper is new and won’t get round awkward edges, try Tim Holtz tissue tape on the sides. Leave to dry.
2. Ink with the teal alcohol ink as much or as little as you like.  Stamp directly onto tin with daily junque stamps and spell out “time flies” with alpha stamps.
3. Stamp the clock with wings onto a separate sheet, ink the clock and add glossy accents.
4.  Add the brown ribbon, buttons and cut-out lady from the Steampunk Debutante papers.
5.  When the glossy accents is dry, add clock to layout. I used thinned-down clear glue, which reduces wrinkling and I also applied it over the clock to help it blend to the page. Because its thinned-down, it won’t leave a shine.
6.  Cut around a metre of gold ribbon (check length by wrapping it round as many times as you would like). Make 2 mini tags by gluing images from the Steampunk papers to the Tim Holtz fragment charms. Leave to dry and cut around the charm. Poke a hole through and thread onto ribbon. Finish the ends of the ribbon by knotting a jewel charm onto each end. Tie around your tin.

Done :) I haven't decorated the album pages yet, but when they are done they will be here too.

I have submitted this piece for a challenge here: Simon Says Stamp & Show
this blog is a great place for lovers of altered art and grungy crafts!

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Monthly Makes for January

I've been relatively productive this month, taking part in scrapping and card challenges on the UKS forums. I also decided to join in the Monthly Make for 2012 on the Felt Fairy's blog (see badge at the bottom of my blog). This month I have made my first ever ATCs, for a swap, and a card that I can now put up because the person I sent it to should have got it by now!

ATCs represented a completely new challenge for me: being creative in such a small space. When I scrap, I tend to leave space rather than fill pages up too much, but being able to fit everything I wanted onto a little card was a challenge for sure. I made a series of 6, entitled "Secrets in Lace", and 5 have been swapped; I kept the first one as I thought it might be nice to hang on to my first ever ATC. I'd be happy to make one-offs or more series if anyone wants to do a swap, just let me know.

 This card was really fun to make, it came out more like a scrapbook layout than some of my cards, but it was for a lovely friend so I wanted to spend a bit more time on it, hence I've used more techniques, more layers than I usually would: inking, stamping, die-cutting, collage. I liked the contrast of the girlie pastel dress and bunting against the aged feel of the stamped background.
Now I'm on a roll with my cardmaking I'm starting to enjoy it more, like I used to when I first started. I think taking inspiration from scrapping has really helped so I'll try and keep up with the 52 card challenge for the rest of the year!!

Kitschy Kitchen

Recipe album kit by Melissa Francis: Kitschy Kitchen...the name says it all!

I found this cute kit in my stash after having bought it ages ago- typical me! And as my favourite recipes are mostly scribbled on scraps of paper and chucked in a kitchen drawer I thought it was about time I did something about it. 

As well as the album, I’d bought some of the coordinating bits: tags, cardstock stickers and extra recipe cards: they definitely added a little something. As an experienced crafter I felt afterwards that I could have easily made this album up myself with a couple of D-rings, some chipboard and a few papers, which would have been cheaper and given me more creative freedom (the covers come already printed), but I like how it turned out and that’s the main thing! 

I added some of my own ribbon, a frame sticker and a paper doily to the album to personalise it more. I’m not usually one for kits, but this one was fast and fun so maybe I’ll try a few more…

Scrap-Happy!

 I've always been into papercrafts, but started scrapbooking in earnest about a year ago. Due to time constraints, I haven’t managed to complete that many layouts, but I've had real fun putting pages together, preserving photos in a way that will be lovely to look back on in years to come! The two layouts here are from photos about 4 years old but scrapped at the end of 2011. I have included vintage styling in both, but the effect is completely different! 

With neutral colours and lots of stamping and distress inking, the Mad as a Hatter layout looks like an old piece. There is hidden journalling and another photo behind the main picture: I love to include interactive elements in pages. On both pages I've used Graphic 45 and Tim Holtz products. Both brands are great for vintage-look/ distressed-look pages, Graphic 45 producing exquisite papers, and Tim Holtz specialising in altered art products. I wanted a dramatic look for the Love Story layout, so while the page elements are still mainly in a neutral colour, a black textured background was used, with red accents to compliment the photo. I've also included some mushy journalling about my friends in the photo!

I didn’t want to fill up my posts with product and technical info, but if anyone would like information about the specific products or techniques used, I’m happy to share. Also, this is the first time I've photographed my scrapbook pages, so I'm still getting used to that and the photography isn't great! Still, you get the idea. Now I’m off to think up some scrappy ideas for the collection of Graphic 45 papers I bought recently, gorgeously entitled Steampunk Debutante!

Dressing Marilyn

For Christmas I received, after more than a little hinting, the beautiful book "Dressing Marilyn: How a Hollywood icon was styled by William Travilla", by Andrew Hansford. I'd seen it in a bookshop, rifled through and thought "Ooh, lovely pictures," but when I started to read the book it opened up a whole different world.

The golden age of Hollywood was all about its stars; big names, big movies, the transition from evocative black-and-white to glorious Technicolor. But how often do we think about what goes on behind the scenes? How many average movie fans have even heard of William Travilla? Yet without him, Marilyn Monroe could have faded into obscurity long ago. Without the couture of Travilla adorning her curves, maybe Max Factor wouldn't have decided she needed a striking platinum blonde do to complement her wardrobe? Without that white Travilla dress and that scene from the Seven Year Itch, what iconic shot of Marilyn, if any, would replace it?

I'm still in the process of reading this book, but for me the most interesting part has been the introduction and biography about Travilla, his life and early work. When one looks a little deeper into the stories behind these dresses, one realises that while it is certainly a glamorous career to dress the likes of Monroe, Jane Russell, Elizabeth Taylor and so on, it is not all silk, sequins and fairytales. There is little in the way of bohemian fancy-free artistry here: each garment is a precision-engineered piece of technical wizardry, keeping Ms Monroe's famous assets in check. The lovely thing is that these parts are photographed as well: an inbuilt girdle here, a steel bone there. And it was not until the structure of the dress was perfect could the sumptuous fabrics and exquisite artistry be brought into play. 

As a fan of Marilyn Monroe, this is a great book. But as someone with a love of the styles of the golden age of Hollywood and a fascination with both the technicality and beauty of costume, it really is exceptional.