The blue's

A friend of mine asked if I could make a card for her son who is turning 18 ... immediate response was no. Boy cards - too hard! What on earth would I put on an 18 year olds card.

After some persuasion I said okay. He is into diving and she wanted some waves with bubbles. I can do that. It is not particularly trendy ... if you know what I mean, like graffiti 18 year old trendy, but he is not that kind of kid, so it should go down just fine.

An actual layout

So you may have noticed that I haven't updated for a while, heck, you probably stopped coming round here a long time ago.

It is not that I don't want to blog, I just have nothing to share. In years gone by I would craft ferociously, taking every little spare minute I could find to make things. Not so much anymore.

I like to think about crafting, I like to look at what others make and think how cool it would be if I could make something too, I like to shop for supplies, I like to sketch down ideas that come to me, I like to surf blogs and look at pretty pictures ... but then when I look at my watch and see how much time I have wasted on this here 'puter I have to dash about and vacuum the floor, or wash the dishes, or feed the kids, and well .... then I have to go to sleep and it starts all over again the next day.

I tend to do well when there is a deadline and I have to get myself motivated, but with no deadline ... well I tend to be a tad lazy. Hence, nothing to post.

Last week I was asked to make a layout for a cyber crop, and that is like a dealine isn't it, so I actually got my head in the game and made something. Something that is not for a magazine and that I can share with you.

As we have just celebrated the Queen's diamond jubilee, we have been spoiled with bunting all over the place. Totally festive! Bunting is big in crafting too, so I decided to use that as a starting point for a layout of Hailey's tenth birthday.

Made myself a wee sketch ... as that is just the way I roll. I find it hard to just start crafting, I kind of have to have my sketch done first.

It looked like this:

 ... but as often happens the actual end product doesn't turn out exactly like the sketch. The bunting hanging over the photo wasn't working so I ended up layering some the paper banners instead.

Managed to use my new Memory Box Tessatina border die (so delicate - I love it) ....

 
... as well as the fab block alpahabet dies from Papertrey Ink.

 ... as well as the very lovely new washi tape I just recently purchased (not so easy to find in the UK, but I found lots of fab ones here) and that awesome weekdays stamp from Hero Arts and Studio Calico.

I also used a Karla Dudley digital element, but only used the word enjoy and then added my own text as I wanted this text to be my journaling. LOVE Karla's handwriting and digital elements - she is so talented!

That gorgeous doily stamp is from Waltzing Mouse stamps, used it with Vesafine Smokey grey ink.

Stunning portraits

As a scrapbooker and lover of all things visually pleasing, I was blown away by the beautiful portraits of children taken by the talented photographer Lisa Visser. I stumbled across her blog by chance after I saw a post on facebook of a picture she took of a friend's daughter. Go and have a look at her blog here

If only I could take pictures like this to scrapbook I would be a very happy camper indeed.

Hero Arts

Hero Arts - definitely one of my fave stamp companies. I am sharing a card today that I made a while ago with their Silly Scape background

The way I coloured the buildings was very much influenced by the way Jennifer McGuire coloured these buildings on a card she made for PaperCrafts magazine (some time last year maybe .... I can't remember when, but it was quite a while ago). I loved her bright bold colours, perfect for copics.

The message is compter generated and printed straight onto the card - the embossed background is made with a Stampin' Up! embossing folder - Square Lattice.

Been so long

Let me start by wishing you all a very happy New Year. May 2012 be propsperous and filled with lots of stash and cool crafting.

I seem to hardly get time to come on here these days, and Christmas time is always particularly hectic. Apart from all the normal festive running around, Matthew and I decided to host a Christmas Eve party at our home. The first time we had so many people around at once, but turned out to be great fun (especially when taking the punch and it's effects into consideration).

I wanted to make this party a little special, so instead of simply e-mailing or calling people to invite them, I thought I would make some proper invitations. Time being of the essence, crafting them was not an option, so I reached for my most trusty software - CorelDraw (Oh how do I love thee). It took me about a half an hour to put these together using some dingbats and cool fonts, 5 minutes to print them off on nice textured cardstock and voila ... quick and easy invites that look good as well.

Getting there

You know I have told you that we are re-decorating the dining room, well it is nearly done. Can you hear that audible sigh of relief. By comparison everything else now looks seriously dated and I don't have to be a fortune teller to see that there is a lot of painting, stripping and above all hard work required in the future.

I have tried very hard to find a picture of the dining room before we started the painting etc. As a scrapbooker you would think I would have at least one, but then you would be wrong. What the ... ? I mean really. So I dug out this rather old picture of Hailey (dressed up in some sort of outfit of course) where you can see the wallpaper and blue carpet in the background.

 ... and this is where we are today. What a difference hey. I am so loving that new floor! No more patterned wallpaper either - woohoo! Floor should be finished by this afternoon and then I can move furniture back and resume some semblance of a normal life.

To celebrate I shall bake some cheesecake.

Next week my Aunty Olive is turning 100. I mean who gets that old! She is sharp as a tack and apart from some aching bones, fit as a fiddle. Check out this old duck, here she was 98, doesn't she look amazing! The other old duck is my mum, and of course Simone. These women are a true inspiration to me. I have never ever in my whole life heard my Aunty Olive complain about anything. She just doesn't pollute herself with negative thoughts, and it shows! An inspiration.

I can't be in South Africa to celebrate with them, but I did make a card to send off. It is not earth shatteringly amazing, just nice and plain like I know my aunty Ollie would like. She has a thing for sweet peas, so I finally got to use my PTI sweet pea stamp.

... and the winner is

Thank you all for you great comments! The winner of the blog hop was announced yesterday and details can be found on the Scrap365 blog. Karen - CONGRATULATIONS!

Head on over there too for details on the great subscription deal Traplet are currently offering - you don't want to miss this. Only £3 for the first 3 issues for all UK subscribers.

I am afraid though I have to post and dash as I am knee deep in paint at the moment. Oh how I wish I could say it is artist paint and that I am working on a canvas, but alas I am still painting walls, ceilings, skirtings and doorframes. It is like my worst nightmare come true. I am on my last 3 walls, thank goodness.

Once done I will share. Get this, the colour of my walls was inspired by scrapbook paper (the lovely Bliss collection by Crate). I wanted the exact taupe colour of one of the papers, so matched my swatches to it. I think I might frame some of the other papers in the collection too. I am not sure exactly how yet, maybe some sort of collage, but I love the colours of that collection and seeing as whatever I frame will now be a perfect match to my wall ... well why not. Instant art.

That reminds me .... long ago I made a huge scrapbook page for my wall. I am talking probably about 4 or so years ago. Here is a photo - it is old now, but you can get the jist.

With little Hailey, to give you an idea of size.

It is framed and hanging in my lounge. Now to make something new for my new dining room.