Yum

I loved these pictures of Erin-Rose and knew I wanted to scrap them at some point.  She looks so cute with her little hat and chubby fingers chomping on her sandwich - a far cry from her Daddy who didn't eat 'normal' food until he went to university!

I took my colour inspiration from this picture

 which I found on Pixels and Paper challenge blog and have entered it in their challenge this month.

Birthday cards

For some reason I am completely forgetting about my blog and another month has passed with no entries even though I am making cards, mini albums and doing the odd scrapbook layout in between clearing my craft room of unwanted and unloved papers and other bits and bobs.

This card is a great way of using odd scraps of paper and I've made quite a few to use over the coming months.  I got the idea from that fabulous site, Pinterest.

It's ever so easy to make and fits in to a C6 envelope although mine will need a large letter stamp.
The basic instructions are below.

Take a sheet of cardstock - I used white because it complimented the papers I wanted to use.  Trim 2.5" off the 8.25" side.

Score at 1.5", 3", 5.25" and 8" and fold like this:

Burnish the creases.

Now choose your patterned papers.

Stick them to your card as shown below and add a greeting.  On this card I only decorated three panels but on the first card I did all five - it's up to you.

Now decorate - I used punches and dies and made some pretty matching flowers for mine.

A simple but effective card.  I also made some cutting the A4 card in half lengthwise so I could get two cards out of one sheet - the scoring is the same but you will need to adjust the length of the patterned papers.  I haven't taken a photo of them but I will do and post later.

And here they are:

with matching envelopes.

For Gracie ...

I haven't really felt like doing any scrapbooking for awhile but I have enjoyed making mini photo albums and today I'm showing you one that is just about finished.  It started out as a way to use up some old papers and as I was making this album, I knew I had to give it to Gracie.

Now most of you won't know who Gracie is - she is my daughter's girlfriend.  They have been together over two years and at the beginning of January, moved into their first home together.  Six weeks later, Gracie was playing rugby as she normally did on a Sunday when she had an accident.  A freak accident which ended up in her having her right leg amputated above the knee.  You can imagine the shock and horror for her and all the family but Gracie is just getting on with things.  She came out of hospital on Friday and is just so positive about her new life - not the life she imagined but one that will hopefully be as equally fulfilling.  If you want to read more about Gracie she has started her own blog and here is the link:  https://grapeygrapes.wordpress.com/

The papers just beg for Gracie to tell her story and I want her to write down her thoughts and feelings as the weeks progress so that she has something physical to look at when she is having a down day and she can see how far she has come.

This is the front cover and it conveniently says on it "My story"!

This is the inside

the left side has lots of photo mats and journalling tags

and the right side is a waterfall effect with places again for lots of photos and journalling.

I thought this sticker went well on the spine :)

It's not quite finished - I want to decorate the front a bit and do a closure/fastener of some sort on it and I have ordered some but they haven't arrived yet.

I got the idea of this book (which measures 8.5" x 4.5" x 1") from My Sisters Scrapper and there are lots of her videos out there on YouTube.

70th birthday card

I was asked to make a card for someone who has a variety of interests including knitting, reading, sudoku and jigsaws amongst other things.  The person who requested the card asked if it could revolve around jigsaws but include some of her other interests.

This is what I came up with.

I chose to do a stepper card as it's an easier way of incorporating lots of bits without detracting too much from the main bit of the card.  About a hundred years ago (or at least 15 years) I bought some blank jigsaws and I have never used them - they were still in the original paper bag.  I stamped and embossed the flowers on the front, coloured them in and then clear embossed the front to make it shiny like a real jigsaw.

Because the knitting bit at the bottom of the card was quite dimensional I had to make a box to put the card in.  It was far too fat to go in an envelope and because of the way I'd stuck the pictures of book covers and the sudoku puzzles, it was way too wide as well.

Now comes the hard bit - what do I charge? 

Almost six months ...

Gosh, I can hardly believe I haven't been here for nearly six months.  How did that happen?  I have no idea but suffice to say, I need to get back in to this blogging lark and to start off with I'll show a few cards I've made recently.

First is Holly's birthday card

I love these new dies and stamps.

I wanted to do something different for the inside so I did a concertina greeting.  It didn't turn out quite as I wanted but Holly thought it was fun so that's all that matters.

I am so in love with this stamp too - it's perfect for colouring in with Promarkers as I have in this card and the one below with a matching envelope.

Another one using a butterfly background rather than a vellum one.

and finally this one has been watercoloured

Hopefully I'll be back again soon with more cards or even the odd scrapbook page.

Trolley Dolly

Sue's August sketch challenge is up and it's a super one this month.

I loved this picture of Erin-Rose and couldn't wait to scrap it and the sketch was perfect.  I made a journalling card instead of using two photos.

Erin-Rose is one!

Tomorrow, it's our little cherub's first birthday - how quickly the time has gone.  It doesn't seem 5 minutes since Chris, Holly, Gracie and I got the news that a baby girl had arrived and we raced to Asda to buy some pink clothes before going to the hospital!

She has grown into such a cutie and she is so clever - I can see we are going to have our hands full in the coming months.

Ages ago we bought this mouse to put away for her first birthday

so I wanted to make a card in a similar vein and my lovely friend Sue, said she would send me some mice she cut out on her Cricut so this is the end result.

I added some fabric to the inside of her ears and front and  a bow to match the dress I have made for Erin-Rose and that was it, a very easy card, thanks Sue :D

I also made a gift tag using a smaller mouse Sue also sent.