Friday, August 26, 2011

On Proud Mum!

I am so proud of my two girls, it was GCSE results day yesterday, a long awaited day in our house! Emily at 16 has done all of her exams but they seem to like the younger kids to start taking some of their GCSE early so Rebecca did Media and part of her RE.
They both did so well that I had to share it with you....
Emily achieved
A* Drama and Art/Design
A English Language and RE
B English Literature, French, Maths, Core Science, Additional Science and General Studies

She needed to get B's in all her subjects, she is going on to study Drama, English Literature, English Language and Psychology at A level. I have to admit I don't envy her doing all that, the lecturers have said she will hit the ground running in September with those subjects!!

Rebecca achieved
A first part of her RE
C Media

She was a bit disappointed with her C grade but I think to do a GCSE in year 9 and get a C grade is brilliant!
They are both a lot cleverer than I ever was at school that's for sure, they must get it from their Dad lol

TFL
xx

Monday, August 22, 2011

New Sketch Blog Gone Live!!!

Today is the day!!! The new My Creative Scrapbook sketch blog has gone live, this months sketch is great fun to use and the prizes are amazing, so why not come over and join us.....you know you want to! lol


Here is my interpretation of the sketch, I have used some Prima Madeline papers and some gorgeous little flowers that I found (Prima ones) at a new craft shop that has opened up a few miles from me.


To provide a frame to the page I simply hand drew a pencil line around my central design before I had stuck anything down then removed all the papers and embellishments and added machine stitching along the line. It is only a simple addition to the page but it draws your eye to the centre and holds it on the page.





Can't wait to see you over on the sketch blog!
TFL
xx

Sunday, August 14, 2011

MME Sketch Challenge

As most of you who read this blog will know one of my all time favourite manufacturers is MME and when I saw the sketch challenge over on their blog I had to give it a go. My pile of MME papers is huge so I had plenty to choose from to create my page, I ended up using a combination of some of the Stella and Rose ranges (think they have been  my all time fave from them so far)
This was the sketch, you can find all the details here.

I really enjoyed putting this page entitled "you are such a blessing" together, lots of  MME papers are perfect for distressing because of the texture and weight. I didn't need to use any embellishments other than a few brads as I hand cut lots of flowers from the patterned paper and layered them up to embellish my page.


To give the flowers a more 3d effect I laid each one onto a soft spongy surface and pressed the rubber end of a pencil into the middle which made each petal curl up. On the larger flowers and leaves I slightly creased each petal down the centre.

TFL
xx

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Do You Love Sketches? Exciting news!

I have got some exciting news to share with you from My Creative Scrapbook, if you love sketches and amazing prizes you are going to love this!!

New blog reveal August 22nd 2011 at www.MyCreativeSketches.blogspot.com come and join the fun!
We are so excited to announce our new Blog will reveal on August 22nd 2011, so check back so see our first sketch and design team layouts and the prizes you can win......we have prizes, prizes and more prizes to give away.
Here is a sneak peek............shhh don't tell......of one of our prize packages......NEW CHA product from Grants Studio's


We just can't wait......see you on the 22nd!!

TFL
xx


Wednesday, August 10, 2011

I Love You This Much

I have got so many patterned papers in my craft room that half the time I forget what I have got, I was having a look through yesterday and found these lovely Prima Madeline papers.
I did a lot of hand cutting again on this page, I know a lot of people find fiddly cutting a really difficult, my top tip would be to use a small pair of curved manicure scissors. It makes it so much easier to go around all those little details, I find using a craft knife or straight scissors is hopeless.
I have cut around the floral border and then trimmed the outside slightly so that the background paper shows slightly around the edge. I have raised parts of the floral border up using pin flair gel to add extra depth.

I love using Tim Holtz tissue tape it is so easy to shape and is very forgiving allowing you to move it if you get it wrong when you first stick it down. I drew around the green circle in pencil before I stuck it down and then simply followed the pencil line with the tape pleating it as I went along.
The cut out photo of Rebecca wasn't quite big enough for how I really wanted it to look.

Today is the last day of my holiday sadly so I think I will definitely be doing some scrapping, Rebecca is jetting off to Turkey on Sunday for 10days (I'm not looking forward to that) and wants to make a card for the friends she is staying with so it will be nice to have some mother daughter creative time.
TFL
xx

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Just A Few Photos!

Well I have started to go through the 1800 photos that I took in France so I thought I would share a few of my favourites with you, don't worry I won't subject you to too many!!
This photo was taken on our way to Rocamadour which you can see in the background, it turned into a gorgeous hot sunny day and Rocamadour was amazing, don't know how they managed to build it right on the edge of the cliff!
One of our favourite days was when we canoed 13km down the Dordogne river, we started off early and had the river pretty much to ourselves which was great. We all really really enjoyed it and could have gone on for a lot longer (despite the blisters on my right hand from paddling!!) I was pleasantly surprised how these photos turned out, it wasn't easy trying the take a photo while balancing in a canoe and holding on to my paddle! It also meant that I wan't concentrating on where Emily and I were going and we managed to run aground at one point lol. All good fun.

I love this photo of the girls, just about sums them up lol, it was taken in Sarlat which was a gorgeous town with amazing old buildings, apparently it has been used as a film location many times.
Emily is Harry Potter mad at the moment and read 3 of the books while we were away!
In the front garden of the gite there was a lovely big tree which made the perfect location for photos, it let just enough sunlight through. I managed to persuade them to let me take their photos there, I took loads but these are two of my favourites.

Justin even took a few of my under the tree and surprisingly I was actually quite pleased with them!
My little family, this was another photo taken at Rocamadour, we climbed up the zig zag path to the Château at the very top of the cliff and on each bend there was a little shrine. 
Another one taken at Sarlat, our first visit had been on Market day when the whole town was just heaving so we went back for a second time just so we could have a proper look around without fighting through crowds all the time.
A lot of our time was spent by the pool at the gite, it was so lovely to feel the heat of the sun all the time, I was definitely meant to live in a hot country!

As you can imagine I have got loads more photos but I won't bore you with them! I have ordered some so they will start appearing on my pages soon enough.
My Creative Scrapbook have got an exciting new project being launched soon, if you love using sketches you are going to love this! Keep an eye on the MCS blog for the big reveal in a few days time!
TFL
xx

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Normal Service Resumed!

Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few weeks, we have just got back from 2 lovely weeks down in France. We had an amazing time and had some gorgeous really hot weather which I was desperate for, somehow I managed to take 1800 photos which are uploading as I type!! Fingers crossed I should have 1 or 2 that I can scrap lol. I will share a few when I have gone through them, might take me a while.
I think the only thing I have missed about home has been my scrapping, I didn't spot any scrapping shops but I did manage to pick up a few scrapping bits like French lace and a gorgeous zip (my family thought I was mad!).
While we were away the My Creative Scrapbook August kits were revealed so I can share my creations with you now. I worked on the Limitied Edition kit which is simply gorgeous!!




I love this photo of Rebecca, and these papers were just perfect to compliment the colours in the picture. I raised the photo up on a piece of chipboard so that the string of pearls would sit easily around the edge and create a frame.


Gosh I was a chubby baby!
The kit came with a packet of K and Co water colour die cuts which were great for adding lots of little details to the page.


This is one of Emily's official prom photos taken by Wozoncanvas, they very kindly put all her photos onto disc for me so that I could print them off for scrapping. This is the first time I have scrapped a photo of her with her lovely boyfriend Will. they make a really sweet couple. I cut the centre out of the Melissa Frances paper and added it onto a sheet of bazzill and then added a punched border around the edge to soften it off.




I loved this lace effect paper and made the perfect background for a vintage page, this photo is my Grandma and my Aunty I think taken during WW2 to send to my Grandpa who was away with the Navy. I added lots of layers to this page, I added chipboard behind the photo again so that the lace would lay properly on the page.


When I went to Ally Pally I bought a packet of Prima jounaling cards, I loved the cards but I loved the box they were in just as much! I decided to use this kit to alter it and make a little box for Emily to keep all her prom photos in. I gave the outside of the box a coating of acrylic paint and crackle glaze before I started and then just added elements from the kit. I just LOVED the little Melissa Francis resin white oval frame, it is so cute!


I wanted this kit to go on and on but this was the last project that I created with it. I wanted to create something where the gorgeous Melissa Frances brooch pin could be used so I created a birthday card.

I am really looking forward to getting back to scrapping and hopefully I will have some more projects to share with you soon!
Thank you for popping over to visit my blog :)
xxxx