Blogger Award

Thanks to Liz for awarding me with this Creative Blogger Award. What a lovely idea.

I now have to list 7 crafty things I have done. So here goes:

1. Scrapbooking has got to be my top choice of crafty things I do.

2. Card making comes a close second. I never buy greetings cards for anyone any more - everyone has to suffer my hand made creations!

3. Knitting has taken on a bit of a revival for me at present. I did lots of knitting from about 16 years of age well into the 1980's, since when it has been a bit less frequent. My latest knitting creations being my cupcakes.

4. Dressmaking has always been a big interest for me and I have had my money's worth out of the sewing machine I got on hire purchase from Alders in Bromley with my first wages all those years ago!

5. I started cross stitch when my babies were born and this became a bit of an addiction for some years, especially when they were small. Not much room on the walls for anymore cross stitch pictures now.

6. I have made small items and blankets in crochet, but I prefer knitting. I refreshed the my knowledge of crochet recently when my daughter wanted to learn. I remembered enough to help her with all the stitches. We created some flowers, and she went on to make other items.

7. I have been creating my family tree with the help of Genes Reunited I have been interested in tracing my family's history for some time and collecting photos and information. Just over a year ago I finally got around to making sense of it all and recording it. I combine this with my scrapbooking, by making layouts of the lovely old photos and memories.

I would like to pass this award onto two very creative, crafty people - Anita and Karen.

Amore

Remember my Romeo and Juliette layout? I also made this one from another photo from the same photo shoot.

This layout was based on the style of one of the talented Gabrielle Pocllaco's layouts. Mine uses papers and stickers from My Mind's Eye. The title was a chipboard title which was pink, I sanded it and painted it with Acrylic paints. I have added ribbon, lace, pearls and gems together with a whole load of different blossoms. The journalling was printed onto the patterned paper in brown ink before cutting the circle.

Here is Gabrielle's original work of art:

Scrapping with Friends

Here are the gift I received from my talented friends during our weekend at Debden.

Linda decorated leather pencil holders for everyone, see her blog for more details. Mine had this delightful Kraftin' Kimmie dancer stamped, coloured and decorated. Karen provided the pen in the pot, she had had them printed with the date and event details, such a lovely reminder of our time together.

This delightful note card box was decorated by Anita, the next three photos show different views.

Jill made these boxes with her Cricut and decorated them. They were filled with chocolates.

Jackie made these chocolate wraps using her Stampin' Up punches to make this sheep.

Sue made this great little fridge magnet, decorated with stamped and coloured images.

I also had some chocolates and an Easter egg, but they no longer exist!!!

Just look at all we achieved - so many cards and layouts.

Debden, Loughton

52 walks with my camera in 2010 - week 15

Last weekend I went to Debden House, Loughton for a scrapbooking weekend with my Blossom Babe friends. We had a lovely weekend, no cooking, cleaning or washing up. Lovely food served up three times a day, and time to scrap and make cards all weekend. The only complaint is that the time went too fast. On Saturday I did my 'walk with my camera' around the grounds of Debden House. We always stay there the same weekend every year and we were surprised to see how behind the plants and trees are this year, an estimated month behind due to the hard winter.

The sun dial in the garden behind the house.

A view of the garden.

The grounds and some trees in full blossom.

There are several of these stone benches around the grounds.

This photo is taken from the grounds looking back at the main house.

The grounds and Karen taking photos for her 52 in 2010 walk.

I wonder where this path leads to...

The Cottages

The Studio

Log - 52 Walks with My Camera in 2010 so far:1. Bexleyheath, 2. Woodbridge River Front, 3. Hall Place, 4. Chislehurst, 5. Bluewater, 6. Theatre Land,7. Leeds, 8. Orford, 9. Snape, 10. Chatham,11. Nottingham, 12. Twickenham, 13. Woodbridge. 14. Red House. 15. Debden House.

Scrapaholix April Kit

Romeo and Juliette

This month's kit from Scrapaholix contains Kaiser papers and Core'dinations Card stock. The technique is using Artisan Elements from Pink Paislee. These frames are fresh from CHA and we have two frames to play with in this kit. They are made from vinyl and are soft and flexible. I coloured the centre from one frame for this layout with chalk inks and wrote on it with a permanent marker.

The photo is one of a series of Catherine and her boyfriend who posed for a friend, Tabitha's 'A' level photo shoot of Romeo and Juliette. I added ribbon flowers, butterflies lace and ric-rac from my own collection. I cut the title using the Cricut and the Lyrical Letters cartridge.

Queen of Hearts

While at Debden I worked on this layout for the Pagemaps Couture Cardstock Contest. Take a look at their blog for further details.

The photos are of Emily my daughter when she and her friends dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland to go and see the new film last month. This is her version of the Queen of Hearts! I used the storybook cartridge for the Cricut, lots of black cardstock. The papers are Magnolia. The border punch is from Martha Stewart. The heart buttons, the black buckle and ribbons are from my stash.

I had great fun with this sketch and here it is:

I took the sketch with me to the crop so I could work on it, and Linda and Angela also had a go. It's amazing how different they all turned out.

Have Your Cake

... but don't eat it!!

I made these calorie free treats for my friends at Debden this weekend. Thought they would make great novelty pin cushions. So I have sent away for some novelty pins too.

I started out by doing a search of the Internet to find patterns and purchased a few downloads. This gave me a few different ideas to work from. Some of these are Julie Williams who has a delightful blog called Little Cotton Rabbit. Julie's instructions refer to some video clips for techniques. I mainly used Julie's patterns.

If you like butterfly cakes, CakesKnitsandCosies includes these in her instructions, along with cup cakes and currant buns. Tess Young instructs on swirl cupcakes. Norma Lynn Hood makes crochet cake sachets. Alison Young also makes knitted cakes in many varieties. Please contact me for further links.

The whole collection!!