LATEST MINI-BOOK CREATION

I know it looks as though I've been a crappy scrapper lately but there are some good reasons - which I'll save for another post.

Just to prove that I have had my paper and glue out here is the mini-book I created for my Big Sis' birthday back in October. I couldn't blog this any sooner as I had to wait for her to actually see it in the flesh and it has been waiting at Mum's (a halfway house for gifts not to be entrusted to Postman Pat) for a while.

You will know from my previous posts that so far I've done mini-books for The BGF and Mum so it was only natural that I should do one for my Big Sis. I toyed with themes, stitching (she's an avid (actually that word doesn't accurately describe it) cross stitcher (see her cross stitching blog here - just remember the back arrow to come back), birthdays, getting old (she is my Big Sister - I'll always be younger than her!!!) and finally decided on the pleasure and pain of sisterhood. A long trawl through the various quotation websites and I had ten quotes to put together in a book.

Mum had given me a stack of gorgeous My Mind's Eye "Bohemia" papers as a prezzie and I knew I wanted to use the pink and brown colourway to create a sophisticated look. What I discovered to my chagrin was that some 12x12 papers are not all that easy to use in a smaller format and it was far more difficult to put these pages together than the pages for The BGF's book which used 6x6 Smirk papers which are scaled to suit.

Anyway after many false starts and a serious case of misplaced mojo the book eventually came together and here it is...

Oh fiddle, the photo's I need are not on this machine hang on a minute....

... Sorry about that - here we go...


Remember you can click on the photos to enlarge them, just use the back arrow to come back to the blog.







The cover was painted with Acrylic, specially mixed to match the papers and then sponged with white and burnt umber to create the marbled effect. I haven't told the Mini Moonshines that I used their bath sponges - they washed out OK - they need never know!!!





The calendar stamp is by Imaginisce and is heat embossed to help it stand out against the mixed background.





The swirl is cut from Core'dinations cardstock using my trusty Craft-Robo.





The dark rose cardstock is again Core'dinations, embossed with the Cuttlebug Perfect Paisley embossing folder and then sanded back to reveal the core.





Do you remember me waxing lyrical about my Inkadinkado Bijoux Oiseaux stamps? Well here they are, stamped with pale rose pigment ink, heat embossed with Heat It Up Cranberry embossing powder and embellished with PaperMania Iridescent stones and a Hobbycraft feather. I'm really pleased with the result!











I may have mentioned that I'm not a big fan of peel-offs but these butterflies were perfect for this page. The stamps are from a gorgeous set I got in the sale at Waterstones, of all places, for a fabulous £3.00 instead of £18.00!!!





This is everyone's favourite quote and it was always going to be the last one in the book!


My sister loved her book and I know it wont be my last one - but I think I'll keep the next one for myself!

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING

Talk about raining cats and dogs - it is absolutely POURING down in Stafford right now. We're in the middle of a monsoon!

I'm staying tucked up inside though having already been soaked to the skin this morning during a spur of the moment trip to Cheadle (Staffs not Cheshire) to check out the goodies at Crafty Urchins. I'm afraid I couldn't resist the new-in Gem Stone Birds stamps by Inkadinkado (although I've got to say the french description "Bijoux Oiseaux" sounds much more romantic). The heavens opened as I was on the way back to the car, and of course I didn't have a coat or a brolly with me so I had a very damp and uncomfortable trip home in the car (I hope the seats dry out quickly, I had a very soggy bottom!)

I'm sorry I haven't blogged for ages but as I explained to my good friend Debs when she complained about it, my head hasn't been in a happy place lately and I haven't felt in the mood to put fingers to key board, so whilst I'm still basking in the slightly damp glow of a morning doing one of my favourite things (stash shopping) I'll post the pictures I promised of Mum's Special Birthday Surprise.

Mum, like me, is a big gardening fan and I decided to put together a book of gardening quotes for her birthday card this year. (Nothing to do with the fact that I LOVE doing mini books and was feeling at a bit of a loss after finishing the BGF's!)

I had picked up two scrapbooking kits in our local Home Bargains for almost nothing a few months ago and was itching to do something with them and this was ideal as the colour palettes worked well together. (I've had some mega buys in Home Bargains in the past you know, Fiskars border and circle punches for 99p. Yes girls 99p - can't leave 'em in the shop for that can you?

The book is a Papermania chipboard mini book and all the papers are from two Inspirations scrapbooking kits. I hope you like it. If you click on a photo it will open up full size in a new window, just remember to use your back arrow to get back to the blog.


This is the front cover, painted with acrylic and embellished with co-ordinating papers cut with QuickKutz Cookie Cutter Nesting Labels and a layered up bloom made up of a de-constructed gerbera, chipboard flower, Prima Crazy Daisy, American Crafts Greenhouse acrylic flower and a flower brad.

The close up shows the detail of the layered bloom and a charm which has been tied with embroidery floss to the book ring binding.




The main paper mat on this page was run through a Swiss Dot embossing folder to mirror the pre-embossed border sticker I cut up and used on the tag. I was pleased with the way the Fiskars Threading Water (scallop) border punch and Papermania scalloped border stamp worked together on this layout.

Two very subtle pages with minimal embellishment, just some Gisella Graham gingham ribbon, buttons from Dunelm Mill and a layered up bloom.

Close up showing layered bloom, tag and charms attached with DMC Desire Wire.

I love the Cuttlebug Birds and Swirls embossing on the following two pages and was lucky to find some co-ordinating Papermania spring time brads to complement the theme.

Do click on this photo to enlarge it if you want to see the detail. I wanted to show the double page spread so that you could see the landscape scene. The clouds, tree trunk and leaves are October Afternoon Home Sweet Home stamps whilst the blackbird is a See-D's Springtime Collection stamp that has been heat embossed. The ladybird is an E-Z rub-on by Royal & Langnickel. The tree was cut from green paper using scallop edge scissors and the cherries were cut from border stickers which came with the kit with a dot of Dimensional Magic to add gloss. Just remember the back arrow to return to the blog.

I love the lilac and green colour scheme on these pages and used the scallops again to keep continuity through the book.

A real splash of colour on these pages thanks to Prima Crazy Daisy flowers with contrasting eyelet centres.

Anita's Dimensions stickers really set off this last page, which is probably my favourite. I'm a real sucker for butterflies and butterflies with sticky-uppy wings what could be better?

I'm already planning my next mini-masterpiece which will no doubt feature my new Bijoux Oiseaux stamps. Watch this space...

FINISHED!

Sorry I've not Blogged for ages - it's been A BAD WEEK - not feeling too good, migraines & generally feeling below par - I can hear you thinking "Huh - hangover after the BIG NIGHT OUT more like" but I promise it isn't. (I only had a G & T - more T than G this time, a glass of Champers, and two small glasses of white wine) I didn't even wobble on my sparkly party heels let alone have that glazed expression Mr M has come to know and ridicule!

Any road up the good news is that I've finished THE BOOK - just as well as it's The BGF's birthday on Monday. Here are pics of the cover and the finished project bound and embellished. Needless to say I'm REALLY pleased with it.

So what do you reckon - think she'll like it? I think there are about 40 VERY ENJOYABLE hours work in this project so I'll have to tell her that when she gets fed up of it hanging around I'll have it back. I think I'd cry if it ended up in the recycle-a-tron.

So it's back to everyday scrapping now, I've got five layouts on the go, the problem is I've enjoyed working in small scale so much I'm a bit daunted by 12 x 12! I'm working on the March challenge layout for Butterfly Crafts (Favourite book), must pull my finger out and make some progress on it - so far all I have is a photo! (Mind you that's better than the other four layouts which are all well on towards completion but have no photos at all) I think I'm doing this all wrong...


Got to go as it's Catch Up Thursday with my friend D, our weekly tea and gossip forum. Bye for now...

Oh yes - just in case you wanted to know...

Supplies

Mini Book PaperMania
Cardstock Core'Dinations
Patterned Paper Trimcraft Smirk Collection
Lettering Funky foam die cut with Sizzix Sidekick and Sizzix Slobbery Kiss Dies
Paper flowers Prima (Crazy Daisy, Lily & Halley; Heavenly, Green)
Silk Flowers WH Smith
Felt Flowers American Crafts - Greenhouse
Plastic Flowers American Crafts - Greenhouse
Stamps Trimcraft Smirk Collection; October Afternoon - Home Sweet Home; tiny flower - PaperMania Spring clear stamps
Ink Whispers; Ink it up; PrettyColor
Embossing Powder Ranger
Pens Whispers; Sharpies
Chalks Dovecraft
Acrylic Paint Royal & Langnickel
Brads Dovecraft
Eyelets Dovecraft; PaperMania
Ribbon Trimcraft Smirk Collection; HobbyCraft; Wilkos; Anita's and from stash
Felt Ribbon PaperMania
Tassels, beads From stash
DesireWire DMC
PaperFrills Cut with CraftRobo
Chipboard Tags Trimcraft Smirk Collection; WH Smith
Chipboard Arrows American Crafts - Playhouse
Brads Dovecraft
Eyelets Dovecraft; PaperMania (set with Crop-a-Dile II Big Bite)
Bling PaperMania
Buttons Dress it up
Wooden Heart HobbyCraft
Metal Tag, cardstock bow PaperMania

BIG NIGHT OUT

I'm getting this in early as I have much to do today. It's Mr M's Annual Black Tie Dinner tonight so I'm off to the salon this morning to get a new 'do. Don't know what I'm going to have done so I'll spend a frustrating 1/4 hour looking through the pattern books, only to end up with a different take on my current bob. Of course I've been growing it for about 3 years now (why do fringes grow so fast and the rest not at all (Life's Great Mysteries #43)) so I could pull my usual stunt and go back to short short... but maybe not this time.

Tah Dah... I've finished all the pages for the book and just have the covers to do now, so here are the last pages:

This page is made up from a single sheet of patterned paper which already had two photo frame circles printed on - the larger one made the perfect journaling spot for the quote, whilst the smaller provided a frame for the layered up flower (American Crafts Greenhouse felt and plastic flowers, Prima Crazy Daisy and a flower brad) The bow is a PaperMania embellishment which I think was a freebie on the DoCrafts Creativity mag.

I love the doodling round the scallops on this layout. One of the great things about working in this mini format (rather than the 12 x 12 I usually work in) is that you can use tiny scraps of paper to good effect - the tiny cupcake would have been lost in a large format but adds to the whole in smaller scale.

This is the last page (literally) and I think it's my favourite.

I love the calm muted colours and again the use of the tiny blue heart scraps as tags. My only regret is that I forgot to heat emboss the stamp so it doesn't stand out as much as the previous ones - but I think I can convince myself that it works with the muted tones.

Moonshine Minor has just reminded me that I needed to be on my way by 9.00 so I'm off. (It's NOTHING to do with the fact that he wants to go on Club Penguin of course. Love you little man!)

MORE FRIENDSHIP PAGES

So long since I've been on - but so much crafting done! Been working flat out on the Friendship Book and have a few more pages to show you...

I love the more muted colours in these two layouts and I'm especially pleased with the heat embossing on the stamp - it has really added some dimension to the image.


(Just thought you'd like to know that I am now sitting in cloud of blue as I have actually uploaded the above picture four times and am getting really fed up with the crappy formatting tools on this blog!!!!! Oh for an undo button! Aaaaaargh)

By cutting up the various papers in the stack I've been able to do lots of mixing and matching to find complementary papers that work with each of my colour themed pages. I had originally planned that all the pages would be v. girlie and v. pink, but soon realised that by carefully choosing different co-ordinating parts of the designs and using my favourite paper piecing technique, I could achieve a more varied and interesting look.

I'm really enjoying layering up the embellishments and mixing up the various brands to achieve a detailed look.





(The BGF will love this page as pink and orange are one of her favourite colour combos - doesn't do it for me - but I can have lots of fun teasing her about it!)

When I bind the pages together the two facing pages will use the same colour scheme. You can see here the two "yellow" pages and a "green" page which will go with the rock chick page previously posted. I'm working on the facing page for the good egg quote above and hope to have it finished tonight. (Mr M is working away for the next two days, and as long as I don't get roped in to a movie night with the boys, I should be able to get all the pages completed).



I have also been seriously sidetracked by something I'll tell you about next time... great fun and a real money saver too.