SUMMER OF COLOUR CHALLENGE WEEK 1

Crikey this is going to be close to the wire, week 1 of the Summer of Colour challenge and I set too with my gelli-plate.  Selecting three paints, two blues and a green and then having much fun for a few hours painting and gelli-plating.

At the end I had several pages of A4 abstract art and some 12 x 12 papers.

The 12 x 12 pages are still unused, but I had great fun painting up the A4 sheets (which I'd cut into A5 sheets) with 'cute' sharks - I know cute really!

And here they all are!

And then set out individually - I had such fun with these - can't wait to see the next colour selection!

Hope you had as much fun with week 1 as me!

A LITTLE BIT OF WEAR CRAFTS

Now it has to be said that I have a slight weakness when it comes to mini books - as anyone that knows me will know.  I can't help it, pretty papers and constructing tiny books!  So you can imagine my utter giddiness when I spotted Jen's mini book for May can't you! Here is a link to the original blog post.

http://scrappyjens.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/may-mini-book-monthly-scrabook-kit.html

And here are the two colour ways that Jen had available 

A fabulous kit and I know that the blue one was limited stock when I last checked!

http://www.wearcrafts.co.uk/product/may-mini-book-monthly-scrapbook-kit-blue-option/

Here is the link to the pink one

http://www.wearcrafts.co.uk/product/may-mini-book-monthly-scrapbook-kit-pink-option/

So not only do you get all of the above pretty papers and they are seriously pretty - a certain thickness to the papers to lead to a luxurious book, but you get the all essential instructions to create a mini book for the grand price of £17.99 - I know - crazy right. 

So Jen sent me the kit and the instructions and I was giddy giddy giddy to create 

Now the instructions say - make a dummy one up first so you know what you are doing, bearing in mind I had never seen the original (other than photos) - but anyone who knows me also knows I can be a tad impatient so I set too with great gusto.  Jen's instructions were fab - I only made one error (and it was my impatience that cause it) but I loved the finished item anyway and it didn't detract from the book or it's effectiveness!! 

I love also the fact that it looks so different depending on the different papers that you select! 

An inside view

And from the top 

Now the joys as Jen rightly points out when you have instructions to create a mini book you get to use them over and over again!

Now never one to avoid putting temptation in my way, Jen ended up with some gorgeous, no let me say that again GORGEOUS, new papers recently - I just loved the hearts and the colours ways.  So I was uber giddy to get my hands on them.  Now I know what you are thinking 'Mr and Mrs' but I don't have any wedding photos to scrap this year.  Well initially I thought about getting some of my own wedding photos from years ago reprinted, then when I started to look through, whilst there is a decidedly wedding element to these papers, there is also a decidedly 'love' theme to them too!  

http://www.wearcrafts.co.uk/product/carta-bella-rustic-elegance-collection-kit/

So I set too with my mini book instructions and started to play! 

Can I just say that I absolutely love the end result.  There is no reference to wedding in this book whatsoever, so I can use it for photos of me and hubby with recent photos without a stress in the world.  (Can you see what I meant about gorgeous papers). 

The inside of the book!  

A view from the top! 

And I enlarged the original card dimensions from the instructions - that's the fab bit of mini books isn't it - an ability to tweak and play with them! 

I had the most fun with these - I really did, the only 'added' elements to the kit were a peach cardstock to create the bigger pull out page elements! (More room for photos that way). 

Now I was creating this on Saturday afternoon and I was as they say 'on a roll' so I rummaged again to look for a different colour way of papers!

Now earlier in the year Jen got hold of some fabulous Simple Stories Life Documented papers, the packs were lovely and in addition she also got some calendar pages.  Now one side has a month and a calendar sheet and the other side has some great patterned paper.  If you want to see the range check out the link below.

http://www.wearcrafts.co.uk/department/simple-stories-life-documented/page/1/

Again the gorgeous papers are a great quality so ideal for creating mini books!

So using exactly the same instructions I created another mini book! 

The inside - just to show you the versatility of the mini book and these papers!  Again I added a little plain cardstock to get some of the papers to 'pop'.  

A view from the top 

And the side 

So if you are in need of some inspiration and want something really versatile that can be used over and over again, I don't think you can do any better than that fabulous kit from Jen! 

And before you think these will take an absolute age to make, whilst the first one was a bit of a plod to get my head around the instructions (probably 3 to 4 hours), once I had I managed to create two further ones in an afternoon - I kid you not! 

And the question is will I be using the instructions again?  Well of course, it's only Sunday and I've got an afternoon free and the weather is lousy so more mini book making this afternoon! 

MORE LEGACY LAYOUTS - WEAR CRAFTS WAY

Evening all well I'm sharing some more of the legacy layouts I've made using the papers sent by the lovely Jen at Wear Crafts

I love the busy paper style of this page, I cut a wavy boarder out, then created a mat to the measure paper to make it pop!  A matted photo on white card stock, a photo and three hearts and it was done. Journalling at the top and bottom of the white matted card.

Next up a photo created my off cuts which I rounded the corners on, then layered up on a sheet of plain cardstock.  Popped on photo and added elements of glossy accents, it's easy to forget how effective these little dots are!

Hope these provide a little inspiration, if you are fancying some new stash, why not pop along to the Wear Crafts website and take a look at all the goodies that Jen has available!

Happy Scrapping!

SIMPLE STORIES - SELFIE RANGE FROM WEAR CRAFTS

Oh Jen sent me a lovely pack of papers recently, really bright and positive and said have a play and enjoy.  Well my mojo has been somewhat lacking recently so I opened the pack up last night and had a play and before I knew it I had 4 layouts done and dusted, meeting lots of the challenges on UK Scrappers as well - so win win!

First up this one which met a monthly challenge set on UK Scrappers, I really enjoyed playing with the layout, the photo of said 14 year old peering through a class bench at Chatsworth!

Next up - I used a plain background and then added some of the positive elements, this is following Mini Owners Challenge this month - fab sketch as always!

Then I decided to have a play with the black and white roses, which I fussy cut (Jen would be proud) and then painted/coloured in the elements to create this layout.   This was the mood board for June 2015 on UK Scrappers.

And finally the week 2 challenge on UK Scrappers this month had a fab sketch that matched this gorgeous paper!  Photo of said 14 year old, inside one of the exhibition chairs at Chatsworth, he said it was very warm inside and would have been ideal if it had had a reading light inside!

So there you go layouts that got my mojo going again - yay!

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 24TH OF THE YEAR

We are hurtling towards the mid-point of the rocking posts for 2015 - where is the year disappearing to?

Well the first positive of this week was the tea party I threw for my sister, now this is the point to shout at me - because I did not manage a single photo!  I was so busy pulling it together that I never even thought!

I came home for 2.40pm and not a sandwich or bun existed, by the time everyone arrived at 7pm, we had double chocolate muffins, raspberry and white chocolate muffins, cinnamon muffins, fluffy scones, fruit scones, smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, roasted red pepper and cream cheese sandwiches, potted beef sandwiches, ham sandwiches and coronation chicken sandwiches.  Add to that a gallon of tea (well not literally) and we had a lovely happy tea party, chatting catching up and having a lovely evening.

Other positives include the WW girls who pulled out all the stops to make my sisters birthday extra special, she was well and truly spoilt and ever so slightly overwhelmed with it all - it made me smile!

Saturday brought a team building day for said 14 year old, orienteering and raft building - apparently he had a fabulous time and it has been said how much everyone enjoyed it!  I received a lovely email from one of the teachers who attended saying what a pleasure said 14 year old was to work with during the orienteering task!  It made me feel very emotional it has to be said and how lovely for her to take the time out to write and let us know!

Sunday saw us down at the Arena watching Clarkson, Hammond and May Live - a thoroughly fun afternoon - we were not disappointed, great banter, awesome cars, some amazing stunts - simply fantastic!

We had to search the silver car when we got home - I'm reliably informed by said 14 year old that it's a Mclaren!

My boys!

Monday arrived all too quickly and I was back at work busy working away.  Tuesday arrived and it was a mighty strange day, starting with my car exhaust deciding it didn't need to be attached any more, a phone call to hubby, AA, garage and Mum led to me having to take the day off to sort it out.  Thankfully the AA did a temporary fix, the garage sorted it and my Mum kept me company whilst I was waiting for it to be fixed.  We had a lovely natter in town and even had lunch together something we very rarely get to do these days.  When I got home I decided I needed to do something positive, so I set too with the Summer of Color paints I'd selected and got my gelli plate and sat creating. I then had great fun creating this bundle of fun during the evening - they make me smile!

I've also managed a few scrapbook pages that I gelli printed but haven't done anything with them yet!

Then on Wednesday I got home from work to find a letter from school indicating that said 14 year old had won an award that he was being presented with at school next week - grinning from ear to ear!

And finally Thursday the lovely lady in the opticians who helped me select new glasses, unfortunately I do seriously struggle to see when I've not got my glasses on so she helped me find glasses that would suit me (apparently) and then I selected them.

So there you go, lots of little positives this week to be grateful for, good for the soul!

If you fancy joining in, pop a post together, pop back and link up and we shall come and visit.

WOYWW

Oh it's an age since I joined in with this, but thought my desk warranted a giggle as it were so here it is!

I know there is technically no room to create, I've got my Summer of Color challenge (the blues and greens) on the table, a mini book made using a kit from Wear Crafts bottom right, a load of stamps on my chair, baby wipes (needed for gelli plating yesterday) glue galore - I really will have to have a good tidy later!

AND TUESDAY ARRIVES

Good morning, well what a strange Monday I had, I'm enjoying being back at my old work place but I am finding it mighty strange with my two old work colleagues no longer being around.  I'm sure I'll get used to it but I'm finding that I'm being pretty silent for the day and so finding it harder to be chatty and socialise at night as it were - does this make sense to anyone else?

Anyway I digress, I'm hoping by sharing a few posts I might get productive on the scrapping front again as my mojo has simply upped sticks and moved and I've no idea where it is at the moment!

First up a layout taken at Harewood last year - quite a simple one for me in retrospect!

Then luminere at Chatsworth last year - had a fab evening!

Leaving Harewood last year

And finally a family celebration meal out!

Hope you are having a happy scrapping day!