Autumnal arch.

The theme for this weeks Gothic Arch is "Autumn". http://gothicarches.ning.com/

Whenever I go out walking at the moment and come to a pile of leaves I just have to walk through them for the crunching sound. Childish I know but I don't think I'm the only adult to admit to it!!

There's also a large conker tree nearby and the conkers are just starting to fall off the trees. I always collect huge bags full of them with the idea to create something crafty but every year they stay in the bag until the following year. They're just crying out for a crafty idea but what? Any ideas are welcome!

Water coloured paper bag book.

Yesterday I attended an all day workshop in France hosted by the group Scrap a la Fraise.

The theme was "watercolour paperbag" and as well as learning a new way to create a paper bag book, I learned how to create my own backgrounds by simply watercolouring over gessoed brown paper.

For me and my neat, but carefully controlled distressed style, it was quite uplifting to just let go and throw it all together without spending hours trying to decide which paper goes with this and where exactly I'm going to place that embellishment.

I was pleasantly surprised with the results and vowed to use this style of 'shabby chic' in more of my projects.


The insert pages are made from cork floor tiles - another first for me - and simply gessoed over.

I can't take credit for the photo's I used as they were 'stolen' from my girls facebook pages. I absolutely adore the photo's they take of themselves and with friends as they're so free and spontanious. If you ever want to have pictures of your children I certainly recommend just giving them the camera and letting them get on with it!

Check out the blog for the group http://scrapalafraise.canalblog.com/

Autumn colours.

Here's a quickie!! An inchy to celebrate all the colours of autumn which are changing daily in the garden and forest.

It's for Inchy by Inch where they're also celebrating the season.


http://inchybyinch.blogspot.com/

An arch bow.

A bit of digital dabbling!

A digital gothic arch - for this weeks challenge - Bows!

http://gothicarches.ning.com/

Dress-me!

Laura went to secondary school for the first time yesterday. It was quite sweet to see her two big sisters helping her to pick out her clothes, dress her and even how to wear her bag or rather how not to wear it! They were both eager that she should look the part now she's in school in the city!

Also, the two older girls are keen to start making their own clothes which scares me a bit as it's been a very long time since I did any of that.

The ATC "Dress me" was made for Wednesday Stampers "Dress" challenge. The background is Distress inks and the stamps are Inka.

http://wednesdaystamper.wordpress.com/

Sunny tag.

During a break inbetween the madness that is "back to school", I created this tag which I'm sending to a friend. I've fallen in love with these twinkling H2o's and really wish you could see the way they shimmer and shine. The stamps are from "Gel a tins" and "Paperartsy".

Summer in Sweden mini book.

I've started the mini album from our summer in Sweden. Well, actually the book itself was made during the Mara I attended in Frodinge. I've started as I mean to go on and created it in a shabby chic style with plenty of distressed elements. The stamped image gave me particular joy as I'd used the wax candle method of distressing the card (rubbing parts of brown card with wax then painting over with acrylic paint and rubbing off with sand paper). I then stamped over with a purple Stazon not being too careful, to add to the effect.

This sets the tone for the rest of the album and on Wednesday Stampers this week it's an open theme - perfect! So here it is in all it's glory waiting to be completed.

http://wednesdaystamper.wordpress.com/

Asian inchies

These are my Asian inspired inchies for the "Inchy by Inch challenge blog.

http://inchybyinch.blogspot.com/

Inchies are a great way to use up those scraps and can take minutes to create, so if you're interested in having a go at these small wonders, take yourself off to Inchy by Inch to take part in their weekly challenges. They need more support and a few more participants would be very much appreciated.

Gothic Arch Tag challenge no. 3

Gothic Arches is having a birthday and to celebrate they're setting various challenges with some great prizes. This is my entry for their challenge number 3 which is to create an arch on a tag. I've done it in the nick of time too as the deadline is tomorrow!!

The tag background was coloured with distress inks and overstamped with some gorgeous "Gel a tins" stamps which were coloured with Twinkling H2o's. Sadly the picture doesn't pick this up too well but they really do shine. The arch is a stamp by "Paperartsy" and is also painted with the same H20's.

http://gothicarches.ning.com/