Licking those challenges

Saturday, Nick & I saw the most fascinating sculptures at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It was the last gorgeous day of the year and we made the most of it. I'll be making a LO of our day out so will post the photos then. All I'll say for now is if it's within reach, you must make a trip out there. You won't be disappointed.

Sunday was a wet, windy and miserable day. Perfect for hibernation in my craft room. Decided to use the opportunity to lick some of the challenges that have come my way whilst blog hopping this week. This is Mum incorporates the Twisted Sketch and Colour Throwdown challenges. When I think of home, is a UKScrappers challenge for the cybercrop. And this time around the overall theme is Wizard of Oz. I know, perfect for friends of Dorothy. In the allocation of teams, I find myself a Tin Man. We have been asked to create a LO on what makes us think of home. Well, for me, it's a big snuggly sofa to layabout on. Give me a duvet and a sofa and I could ask for no more.

The text on the other LO is blurred - it's not rude (like you may have come to expect from me haha). It's just that it's cathartic journaling about recent events. The colours all work well together and are fortunately colour's I associate with Mum.

Better go off and design that sculpture LO now hadn't I? haha.

Birthday Card for Alison

My lovely friend Alison has a spooky birthday but does she tire of all the Halloween references? Absolutely not! She has a wonderful spirit always planning, looking ofr and joining in and creating fun and adventure. There isn't much of an age gap between us but boy she makes me feel old with her youthful energy haha (then again a fusty octgenarian would make me look old!).

And this is the card I made for her special day - all fresh light greens, yellows and blues. Hope you had a fab day hun :)

How on earth did I get so soppy

I've seen this style of two-fold card several times and fancied the challenge of making one myself. As experience has taught me, making these card variations is relatively simple. It's the decorating of them that can sometimes prove to be the stumbling block. It took mere minutes to make the card base itself with its cut out window. Then another hour faffing around trying to put it together with various design interpretations. I added something, then took it away. I added something else, then took it away. And so on and so forth. Finally I ended up with a soppy card. How on earth did I let that happen???? Haha.

Play Date Challenge 2

I enjoyed last week's Play Date Cafe Challenge and was delighted by some of the new blogs it directed me to. So, I've decided to play again. Three colours this time, all autumnal hues and shades that I like. It's an analogous palette plus a neutral so they harmonise together. I've opted for another card as these are the quickest to make. And look, yes I know, another flower! Cuttlebugged to within an inch of its life but a flower nonetheless. I included a ribbon and debated about whether it needed a bow but I've been adding those a fair bit recently. I need to break out of it and try something different. So for this card its left as it is. Less is more as they say, especially if you want to have more visual impact (mind I can't help but feel it looks like a garter belt. Trust me to give it a kinky undertone. Very DH Lawrence - flowers and garters haha)

Finally getting it out & playing with it

I've had a pack of grunge paper sitting in my craft room almost since the moment it hit these shores and have I done anything with it? Have I eckers like. So I did a little search on the Internet and found some tutorials on making flowers with it. It's been a while since my hands were covered in ink and paint. Even my craft sheet came out once I blew the dust off it.

The rose I haven't done anything with yet, I'll save it for any future project which requires such an adornment. The flatter flower was more suitable to go on a quick project such as a card. And as I haven't joined in with the Monday Mojo challenge, I went and had a look at their blog & decided my embellishment could be incorporated perfectly. I chose lighter colours such as yellow and pale orange so that the flower would stand out in contrast, keeping it as the focal point.

Yes the flowers were fun to make, yes the craft room looks like a bomb hit it (& so do I come to think of it) but will I find them addictive and carry on making them? Difficult to say. At the moment, I'm thinking no but I always find myself eating my words haha. Time, as they say, will tell. Now I wonder what else I can make with grunge paper?

Loving London and its Cultural Collections

Back in August, Nick & I took a mini tourist break in London to soak up some of the culture. On my return, I knew that if a reminder of the holiday was ever to be made, it had to be soon. Leave it for a few months and suddenly, the album would be yet another one on my "Someday Maybe" list.

I dug around to see what blank albums I already had (given that I seem to have collected a fair few over the years) and came across this spiral bound one, which seemed just about the right size.

Again, I opened up my InDesign software and placed photos and text together. There's no journaling in the layouts as I have kept it simply as a pictorial reminder. No need for thoughts, feelings or even factual snippets. The art, my dears, simply speaks for itself haha.

I set the printer to work, printing out onto the requisite papers, snipped, chopped, hacked and glued. Added some postcards I'd bought (where photos hadn't been permitted) and there we go. Another holiday album to join the stack. And though it took a fair amount of time and effort to produce this, by keeping the LOs similar, it cut it down immensely. The task of a whole 24 page album each with it's own uniquely designed page would be way too much just for recording a weekend away.

Mmm the simple pleasure of Mini Books

The fabulous goddess that is Kirsty Wiseman, bowled me over at the Harrogate show a few weeks back when she produced a handmade pressie just for little ol' me. I absolutely loved it. Simple yet very effective. Two leather coasters, holes punched into them with co-ordinating paper all bound together and voila, a gift for me to turn into something of my choosing.

So I went ahead and chose the topic, simple pleasures. I brainstormed a whole list and went on a google hunt for the images. I came up with a layout using Indesign, wrote out all the text - printed out all the pieces, grabbed my pattern papers and then, in a blur of glue and scissors, I had my complete creation. A perfect coffee table book from coffee table coasters.