Is it Really 27th June!?!?!

I have not long been home and was preparing to go out again, after a bit of blogging! Sitting in the loft extension which has a flat roof and wondering what all the loud banging was on the roof! Looked out of the window to see very large (marble size) hail stones crashing to the ground! The grass was quickly covered in what looked like snow! I don't think I have ever seen weather like it! This kept going for some time.























Photos show 1. A hand full of fast melting hailstones. 2. The leaves were smashed off the trees. 3. Front garden & stream of water running down the hill. 4. Back garden. 5. & 6. Shenstone Park.

Exciting News & My first effort

I was very flattered and excited to be invited to join the Mojo Holders Design Team earlier this week. I have been busy working on my first lay out.
The talented scrapper chosen for this weeks inspiration is Nancy Van Den Berg, I have admired her work for some time. The layout selected was called '5 months' - here is her adorable lay out and the sketch, followed by my layout:

The photos I chose are of my daughter Catherine, dressed as a Spanish Dancer for one of her parts in the Disco Inferno Show - the fancy dress scene at the Bob Hope Theatre this weekend. She was trying on her costumes for a photo shoot in the garden. I can't wait for my chance to see the show tomorrow night. I have worked hard helping at the Liz Burville Performing Arts Centre with the costumes, although I have not had so much time free to help this year as I usually do.

For my layout I used a sheet of Bazzill, and a selection of Cosmo Cricket, Early Bird papers - Apron Strings, Brunch, Farmers Market and Elements. I also used AC leaf, Thickers, fabric, alphabet stickers. and a selection of blossoms and gems.

Fabulous Rainbow Colours

No challenge today, just a link to some great digi kits by Tia Bennett's work on Two Peas. Just for fun and because I love colour here are some rainbow shots I have collected together along the way this month. This colourful parrot was outside on of the shops at the Craft Centre we visited at the beginning of the month in Essex. The school shop sign belongs to ASDA!

Repair in my sun umbrella after the moth had chewed it while stored away in shed over the winter.

Emily's watercolours before she opened them.

Playing with Paint

Today’s challenge from Shimelle's Month of Colour is to make something with acrylic paint—in any colour—and share a link. See Shimelle's blog for a tutorial on 'Playing with paint'!

I use acrylic paints with chipboard letters. Here area two lay outs where I painted the letters before treating them with other techniques.

These chipboard letters were painted white acrylic and then stamped with black swirls. I added a layer of Glossy Accents to polish them off!

This LO uses a variety of different Basic Grey papers and is a scrap lift of a LO by Gabrielle Pollacco (having trouble linking to her blog today, but the link is on my list and it's called 'Such a pretty mess'.

The word 'LANE' is created with chipboard letters painted with acrylic paint, then stamped with swirls. The word 'Wisteria' was added with Basic Grey Wisteria alphabet stickers. The whole LO uses Basic Grey Wisteria and several sheets of Bazzill. The photos are of the set of Wisteria Lane, Universal Studios, CA.

Disco Inferno Photo Shoot

Catherine had a rehearsal today for the summer show. This was the last session before they move out of the Liz Burville Performing Arts Centre and into the Bob Hope Theatre Eltham tomorrow. There are more rehearsals after school and the show starts on Thursday and runs until Sunday, one show Thursday and Friday evening, then two shows on both Saturday and Sunday.

After the rehearsal, Catherine dressed up in some of the many costumes she needs for the show and Emily took photos in the back garden. Here are some of Catherine's favourite shots.

Lots to scrap here!

Crafting in Earth Tones

Crafting in earth tones is the challenge for today from Shimelle's Month of Colour.


Here is a layout using earthy tones with Crate Papers from two different lines - Little Sprout (Willow and Grove) and Static (Gravity and Torn) plus die cuts and rubons. I used Party Block font Sizzlets for the title. The photo shows my daughter Emily in a recent fashion photo shoot, the photographer is her friend Nadine. More of their photography can be seen on Deviant Art Web site: Nadine or Emily.

I used a sketch from the Mojo Holder Blog, number 109 designed by Lizzy Wurmann.

Inspiration with Kristina Werner

In addition to the Month of Colour Challenge today, Shimelle added a link up with guest Kristina Werner and her 'Color Inspiration Challenge'.




These colours remind me of Basic Grey's Ambrosia papers, and some of the recent photo shoot pictures of my daughter Emily. So I decided to set to work with these items. Here is the resulting layout:



I used Ambrosia papers in Mandarin, quince, smoke, zest, and rind. Three different sticker sheets from the same range - Alphabet stickers (adapted to make numbers), Wilma mini monograms and elements. I used a new butterfly stamp I spotted at Sharon's Card Crafts - the small scroll butterfly. I stamped this onto acetate and onto zest paper.

Light, White Crafting

The challenge for the Month of Colour today is to craft in Light or whites. Shimelle said: "Create something with shades of white and cream, make a page with a white background, scrap the photos you took for last week’s matching photo challenge…or whatever you fancy in light colours!"

So first I looked back at scrapping on white backgrounds, something I don't do very often. I found this double lay out I made after Catherine's school prom last Summer.

The second page is of Emily in a Disney T shirt. It is a design I created for the Crafty Pastimes, DT Gallery.

The next two were made in classes designed and taught by Rachel (Taniwha) at a Crafty Pastimes crop. Both designs use white space in a very clever way. The only papers are cardstock.

The above LO is a photo of my nephew Jamie his back garden. They were digging a hole to put their pool in and Jamie couldn't wait!
Below are three photos my father took of me playing with his chess set.

Crafting with Blue

On 23rd May we took a group of teenagers from the hospice to the Sealife Centre at Brighton. later this month we will have the same group of children into the hospice for a craft session, and we plan to make mini scrapbooks with them to record the memory of the day out. So as today was blue crafting day for the Month of Colour challenge, I thought it would be a good time to make an example. I can't show the inside pages as they contain photos of the children.

The next photo was added on 27th June after the craft session with the youth group at the hospice. It shows a selection of the albums the children made, several had already taken their albums home before I took the photograph. They had great fun getting to know the QuicKutz the Bind it all and the Sizzix.

Red, Rose & Pink Crafting

Today we were challenged to work with red, rose and/or pink, for the Month of Colour challenge. I have done two projects for this challenge, one red and the other pink.

Here is a mini (6X6") layout I made today using a photo from our Blossom Babes Crop, which took place earlier this year. I used Basic Grey, Colour Me Silly papers, Pink Paislee and Provo Craft letter stickers. The photo shows the last time the frog was spotted, in my embellishments tote!

I also altered this Crate Paper cardboard drum. I wanted to create a pretty place for my daughter to store all the hair pins and nets. Catherine uses many hair accessories for her dance lessons and performances. I also used Crate Paper (Katlin Collection) paper and die cuts to decorate the drum. I cut the flowers using a punch, inked ad shaped them and added gems. The string handle was replaced with ribbon, threaded with a selection of pink beads.

A day for cool pastels

Lovely colour theme for today's photo challenge by Shimelle for the Month of Colour. I was busy working today so these are a few blossoms from the garden, and two baby quilts.

A Day Out in Essex

Had a great day out today, we drove to Blake House Craft Centre in Braintree, Essex and arrived just in time for coffee in the converted barn. Then Emily and I had a rummage in a lovely shop called ...And Sew On Fabrics. We purchased some quilting fabrics and plan to go back again soon, they run classes too.

We also spent some time in Bijou a delightful little shop selling dolls houses, miniatures and collectables. We met Linda who was very friendly and gave us a lot of tips which will help Emily with her goblin making. Emily had a doll's house which she has not had much time for over the GCSE and AS period, but she hopes to spend a bit of time working on it again this summer.

Then we went on to Bradwell and by the time we arrived it was lunch time, so we stopped off at the Green Man for a delicious meal.







We strolled around the village then walked to the oldest church in England, St Peter's Chapel (649 AD). There was a wedding about to take place so after taking photos of the church and area we sat and waited for the bride to arrive. She was driven to the remote spot on a flower decked float pulled by a tractor!

Earth Tones

Today Shimelle's Month of Colour Challenge was to photograph all things, indoors and out, in earth tones. Here are my photos taken on our day out and about in Bradwell and Braintree today.

Goblins

My DD Emily has been making goblins, here are some of the photos, they are not finished yet but here are some early stages of the process....


To see more of her images see her spot on Deviant Art

All Things Light and White

Today the Month of Colour challenge is to take pictures of all things light and white: