A New Layout

It seems like ages since I've had a chance to create another layout, my new stuff has just been sitting there and I don't know what to try first! I've had a look through the Tim Holtz book for inspiration and it's certainly done that.
I've got an old photo of my dad when he was just a little boy and thought I'd have a go with the distress inks.
I love buying scrapbook papers, and remove all of the white pages that come with the inserts and never use them, So this layout is quite different for me as I usually have pretty paper and flowers.
I've used black soot and vintage distress inks over the top of the time mask and a crafters template.
The lettering is my new alphabet sizzlit die by Tim Holtz (of course), called 'Carnivale'. I've been looking for these shaped letters for a while and I really love them. I've got the Tattered florals bigz die coming in the next few days and I know their going to look amazing made out of grunge paper.

Mel

Distressed fingers

My fingers now seem to be permanantly distressed with ink and have that "vintage" look to them - great on paper, not so great on my skin!

More bookmarks have been made and I have even made one for myself.

I'm trying to decide whether it would be worth making a few to sell for charity and how much would they be sold for? My daughter is raising money for a school charitable exchange trip that she taking part in next year to Tanzania and the group has to raise £60K. I dont suppose my new bookmarks will raise too much of that total - but every little helps! (which reminds me to get on and make some Fathers Day cards...)

I also had time to have a play with some of the techniques that the lovely Mr Holtz" mentions in his "Compendium of Curiosities" book and was really pleased with the results.
Anyway, here are some more photos of my bookmark-making process and completed items!

I Love Tim Holtz!

I absolutely love the Tim Holtz vintage / shabby chic style and products and now that I've made one bookmark (on Sunday) I'm off.....

Last night I made Casey (my daughter) her own personalised book mark using luggage tags, grunge paper, grungeboard elements (Stripes), distress inks, vintage music paper, acrylic paint, stamps, ribbon, a metal word tag, corrugated card, handmade paper and stickles glitter glue.
The whole process only took about an hour from start to finish - topped off with a layer of modge podge to seal the lot.

Grunge paper/board is a fantastic product. You can screw it up, ink, stamp, paint and punch it. The wings on Casey's bookmark won't get damaged in her book because they just bounce back to their original shape. I wish my Slice machine would cut it but I expect it will cause problems - I'll have to ask Mel to cut some up using her Sizzix machine instead!

I've decided to make a friend a bookmark for his birthday (which happens to be today) to see how it goes down and since he's an avid reader - it's hopefully a suitable gift.

Too much working and not enough crafting going on as far as I'm concerned!

Chance to use new stash

I shouldn't complain - the weather has been fantastic - too fantastic to be inside messing about with stash bought at Colemans last week.

The moment came on Sunday when the rain came down and I managed to sneak upstairs to have a play with my newly purchased items.
I have been promising to make a book-mark for my husband for quite a while now so decided to try out the Tim Holtz grungepaper, grungeboard elements, new stamps and distress inks along with other bits and pieces. I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out and so is Malc!

Now I have to make them for the rest of the family.....
Will I ever be able to get this ink off my fingers????

L

New Stuff

Mel & I took a trip to Coleman's in Rushden yesterday to seek out new products to try.

We came away with Cosmic Shimmer mists, grungeboard elements, grungepaper and new sissiz dies as part of our stash! Its great to try new products and techniques! The problem was that the sun was shining so no scrapping got done - we enjoyed the weather instead.

Will let you know what we thought of the new stuff once we've had a go.

Our first post on our first blog!

Well, here we are - our very first post!

This afternoon we took the kids geo-caching in Milton Keynes - one fail and one find! Not the most beautiful of locations to date but hope to find some more soon. Thinking of making our own "calling cards" for the "Giant Pumpkins" team so may have to buy another stamp (oh dear)!

Made a fantastic bubble mixture to play with in the garden:
12 x cups water
1 x cup fairy liquid
1 x cup cornflour
2 tbsp baking powder

Worked a treat and got good 5ft bubbles!
See our slideshow for the pics!

Lou & Mel x