Ollie LO :D

Evening everyone :D

I have another LO for you this week of my gorgeous Pupster who is now named Ollie :D

I bought him and Rolo tags with their names on this week ready for him coming to live with us, which inspired this weeks layout :D

I started by printing the photo on to canvas paper - downside to this is it doesn't photograph well as it has a glossy surface.

I ripped a hole in the Cosmo Cricket paper and used a distress tool around the edges of the frame and around the outside edge of the paper.

Next I used Crushed Olive and Wild Honey distress inkpads and covered the whole paper Tim-style blending the colours together as I went.

I then spritzed with Cosmic Shimmer mist and diluted Spiced Marmalade re-inker.

I tore random holes in the paper and distressed these too and backed with a cute paper which looks like balls bouncing (Rolo is obsessed with balls do Ollie won't get much of a look in with any I don't think LOL).

Inspired by the paper I used a circle of chipboard, painted it a deep red and added the stripe to look like the balls on the paper. I also took a smaller circle, punched a hole and covered with silver inka gold. when dry and buffed I wrote his name and the date with a fine tip pen - because its a hard nib it looks like an etched tag :D (I planned it really LOL)

I used the cut off strip from the paper and an embellie from a co-ordinating strip and layered them up in the corner.

I then randomly stamped it with a Scrolls Work stamp #2547 mesh, and Olive archival ink.

It turned out quite a cheap and cheerful layout not using any proper embellies but I love its grungey simplicity:D

Hugs'n'snogs.

Julie xx

Cybered out....

didn't get much done today because I have had a stonking headache all day that I can't shift and didn't feel like doing much :( I didn't do bad though and got £3050 for the thimbles :D

So heres the rest of my creations
Classes


Pall Mall by Angel crafts












Pentonville by Countrycrafter



I'm going to revisit this because I haven't done Carolines class justice with my LO as I was rushing!!! - wish I had known they were going to extend the deadline LOL






Challenges



































Thats all folks LOL :D


Hugs'n'snogs
J xx

I just wanted to add congrats to my friend Sue for finishing her second London Marathon - I still think she is mad though LOL

There seems to be a bit of a breakdown ....

on the UKS CC front so I will show you what I have done so far LOL

Classes



Bow St by Gertie










Angel Islington by Angie











The Strand by SarahY











Oxford St by Bexter












Click the pics for the class pdf link :D - I have removed the links from the pics as it was stopping the pics being enlarged - sorry!!!! click the titles instead :D

Challenges

Rebekahs Birthday blog hop

Hiya everyone and thank you for visiting me on this special occasion, I feel totally honoured that I was asked by Rebekah to contribute:D

(Happy Birthday hun by the way :D)If you have visited me already you will know that my style is vintage/grunge.
This has evolved a whole lot more since my visit to the trade show at the NEC, and meeting Tim/Suze/Claudine :D
I was totally entranced by their amazing demos and had to think how I could combine them with my scrapping on my return.
I have to say I'm a few £'s lighter and I have a whole new addiction but OMG its so worth it LOL

When I started scrapping I loved bold modern designs, but now I am definitely a vintage girl. What I will say is that with a bit of ink, distressing and messing most things can look pretty vintage and grungey - sometimes without me meaning them to be LOL, in the end I had to accept that's my niche :D

The first technique I want to share with you was by Suze and she did it in her melting pot - mine hasn't arrived yet and it has taken me a long time to decide it was something I needed.
But now I can't wait to try beeswax and more :D

Right so I'm going to explain how to make embellies from UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel - which is just coarsley cut embossing powder) on a heat proof craft mat with rubber stamps.







Start off by getting together your stamps and any perfect pearls you want to add to the melted utee, I also added a couple of buttons as an experiment :D

Ink your stamps with versamark ink or coloured ink if you prefer so that they release easily from the utee

I coloured my utee as I only have clear with alcohol inks,now this bits really important particularly if you have a melting pot - do not add alcohol inks to melted utee like you would with the dye inks!!!! you can however colour them when they are powder and leave them to dry so the alcohol evaporates and leaves the ink behind - make sure you mix it well to get the colour through the powder


Take your versamark pad and squidge it on your heat proof non stick mat (squidge is a technical term LOL), and I would advise you also put something heatproof underneath as when I first tried this my cutting mat ended up with a bump in it :o - I just put a melamine chopping board underneath




Sprinkle the dry utee over the versamark ink and start heating, I start at the edges and work inwards as I want the centre to remain hot. when its melted heat it again as you want more powder to stick to the hot utee, add more, powder and melt again.
you can also sprinkle in some perfect pearls if you want

EDITED TO ADD - start with a thin layer and build up as it will just blow away with the heatgun if not on a sticky surface :)


When you have a good puddle in the middle stamp it, leaving the stamp there.






When cool remove the stamp and carefully peel back the utee - this leaves a lovely feathery edge :D You need to be gentle as its very fragile

because your mat is non stick it just wipes off so don't panic when you see the mess :D
I then rubbed in distress stickles and perfect pearls to highlight the image.




To attach to your project I would use a clear adhesive like glossy accents so that you can't see it through the transparent uteeIf your still not convinced about utee or don't own a heat gun ( you know who you are Birthday girl ;-) LOL ) then check out Dyans you tube video here of her demoing at CHA.
It's such a cool product, well not really...... well you know what I mean LMAO :D

I have also used Image transfer using Claudine Hellmuths sticky backed canvas ( you can see her demoing it here) on the blue corner mat using Prima paper - its really easy and you can use scrapbook paper, magazines, wrapping paper or anything photocopied (inkjet won't work).
It does stay a little bit tacky so you can use Claudines Multi medium on top to seal it, this also makes any little pieces of paper you might have missed disappear ;-)

The canvas is lovely and thick and frays nicely, and as you can see is sewable/stitchable ( are they even words??? LOL )

So that's my project, I hope you like it and find it inspiring :D
I used Prima Pastiche papers from Happy Daze, with a selection of prima flowers inked with Ranger distress ink in Fired brick and a prima pebble. I also added vintage lace, a piece of a vintage music score and used my sewing machine.
Edges were distressed and inked with Frayed burlap distress ink




















Now for the really fab bit :D
If you leave me a comment by 31st March you will be in with a chance of winning a set of Basic Grey stamps donated by the Craft Emporium - cool huh :D

AND if you leave me a link to your work inspired by my project you will have a second entry in to the draw - it could be stamping, playing with utee and alcohol inks, image transfer, sewing or just scrapping :D - Good luck everyone :D

The Next blog for you to hop to is the lovely Ania who will posting her project tomorrow morning (Sunday 21st) - now that's one to definitely check out :D

If you've lost your way hop back to Rebekahs place to get back on track :D

Hugs'n'birthday hoppy snogs,
Julie xx

I've been playing :D

I made two tags in the style of Tim LOL
I used distress inks, distress powders, cosmic shimmer mica powders, Perfect Pearls, Basic grey stamps, Prima stamps and Tim Holtz stamps :D

I'm loving this look :D









I also decided to alter a LO I did for a challenge on the last UKS cyber crop - I never thought it looked finished so I have grunged it up a bit :D I'm much happer with it now :D

Before











After













Thanks for looking,
Hugs'n distressed snogs,
J xx

Playing with a sewing machine

I did this on Monday night but have been under the weather all week so haven't been up to do anything :(
So here it is :D

The photo is printed on acetate and was one I didn't end up using when I made my nieces Christening present .
The wings where photoshopped on by my lovely friend Leanie, and then I added Sakura glitter pen to highlight them.


I bought a little sewing machine from Netto with some of my birthday money and this was its first outing LOL
It takes a bit of getting used to as I have a full size machine which operates very differently ( although this did come with a foot pedal so I might try that next time )
I created a border around the edge of the paper firstly then randomly stitched swirls along the lines of the butterflies



I also bought some Cosmic shimmer Mica powders so gave the whole thing a good spritz with that :D










I cut the butterfly mask from some masking magic sticky paper that I bought years ago when I first started stamping - it did curl a little when really wet but it did what I was looking for.

I tried a pearl acrylic paint round the edge at first but you couldn't really see it on the patterned paper (which is Prima by the way). I then tried a bit of distress ink around the edges, again this didn't really show up so I ended up using Twinkling H2o's in the end.

I also added them to the butterflies I cut out of the PP and the Prima painterly flowers.

I added lots of Prima and Zva bling to finish off

Ok, heres a fabby freebie from Dan for all those with a Cricut and SCAL :D I'm sure that will be very usefull for anybody in to steampunk or grungey work :D

And another fab giveaway on the Prima blog, this time its the gorgeous new release stamps!!! One day I have to win something, surely LOL :D

Hugs'n'snogs
Julie xx


OOooo edited to add this gorgeous tutorial for a really cute button bracelet - I feel these might become a firm fave of mine :D

New DT Layouts :D

This is what I was working on last night ...

I kinda got carried away with the gorgeous Cosmo Cricket Earth Love in this kit from Happy Daze and didn't use any of the embellies on this first page LOL The paper is just gorgeous and quite retro so I used this pick of me over watering my mums roses LOL :D
I added a doodled edge and doodled stitches to finish it off.








The second LO uses the embellies ....mmmmmmm Jenni Bowlin buttons..... yummy :DI used a piece of cream cardstock to my kit from my stash
I inked the edges then used Ranger crackle glaze on them, when dry I added more brown ink.
All the pieces of paper are cut randomly with a pair of scissors and inked and the flower centres are cut from the PP.
I used Safmat from my stash for the printed title - not to self, it works much better and doesn't smudge if you print it on the safmat not the backing paper ;) it took 3 attempts to realise that Doh!!!!
I also used my cutie Prima tassel stamp with Versa magic ink.

If you are feeling generous and want to help a worthy cause check out this Class for cause on the Prima blog, think I might sign up for this one :)

Now how average do you feel?? check out MLIA dor some funny, probably totally untrue statements, some make me giggle :D

Hugs'n earth lovin snogs ;)

J xx
P.S don't forget Milly ;)

Woopsie!!!

it is now 22.50 and I have just realised the lovely pan of lentil bacon and cabbage soup I made has been on number 1 on the hob since 18.oo!!!! woopsie!! LOL oh well, no use crying over burnt soup - at least my Circulon pans are easy to clean LOL!!!

Its week 41 of Scrap Like You Mean it and its Shimelles birthday today ( Happy birthday Shimelle:D ) in honour of this, this weeks challenge is.... scrap a birthday :D
So I scrapped a really cute pic I found last night of my Great Niece Emmas first birthday (shes 14 now BTW LOL)I used my Sassafras Me likey papers (available at Happy Daze) some ribbon and buttons from my stash Brenda Pinnick chipboard letters and a cute little Doodlebug cupcake brad :D











Thinking of making Chrimbo prezzies this year??? Check out these Cookies in a jar - yum, yum, yum :D I'm quite tempted to have a go at these, they are really cute :D
And according to Tigs on UKS Asda sells appropriate jars for £1 each ;)

For fans of Kwai check out Parasol - a free downloadable mag from A print a day - don't be put off by the scarey cover!!!
There's a lovely tutorial for fabric flowers on page 50 which I really want to have a go at :D

I have finished two LO's tonight from my next DT mission page kit - yes that's Two LO's from one page kit!!! and I still have some paper left over :D - I did add an extra piece of cardstock though :)
I'll take photos tomorrow and share them with you ;)

Hugs'n'uber busy scrapping snogs :D
J xx

P.S. don't forget to keep sending balloons for Milly ;)

First DT project :D

This is my first ever DT project using the lovely MME Andrea Victoria page kit available here for just £5.25 :o from Happy Daze - I still have loads of bits left to use too :D

Its the first time I have worked on a kit like this and just used what was in it, I'm used to just grabbing what I want out of my cupboard but I really enjoyed it :D
When I first saw the photos I loved them but wasn't sure how to make them work with my style, but I loved how it turned out :D
I used my cricut Home Decor cart to cut out the frame, branch, birds and flowers out of the cardstock, but made sure I started further in the sheet so that I could cut out the frame to use as a backing for my distressed paper.
I cut down the full sheet of PP and wet the edges then roughed them up with my file, then inked to give my usual grungey look.
I tend to use colourbox chalk inkpads because I like that they show up even on dark cardstock.
I think inking the edges give the PP shapes definition against the busy background.
I LURRVVE primas as you know and was delighted to see the Camelot roses as I don't have those ones LOL
I grouped the prima pearls and gems together to resemble berries - I always think things look better using the rule of odd numbers, just more pleasing to the eye :)- and also used them as centres for my Cricut cut blossoms.
Originally I was just going to put the photo straight in the frame, but it looked a bit boring, so I cut it down and created a grunget distressed PP fram withing the frame I just wet the edges, then rolled and distressed with a file, then inked of course LOL

The only thing I added of my own was the "mum" letters stamped with a little Prima alpha set which I love :D









I'm really pleased that it still looks my style :D

Hugs'n' snogs,
J xx

Edited to add just for you Angie heres my WOYWW - Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday

LOL this is pretty tidy for me to be honest :D I can actually see my cutting mat and I give it a quick wipe last night LOL :D