Paperarts On Tour

Paperarts are holding their first ever retreat from 21st - 23rd September 2012 in Swindon at the Brook Madison hotel. Sue, Irene and Rachel are planning an amazing weekend with some great classes, challenges, food and of course lots of shopping!
I will be teaching there along side Michelle Mogford, Sandie Vincent,  Lisa Saunders,  Elaine Rolfe, Helen Beaton and Penny Kafai. I am so excited to meet up with everyone and the hotel looks gorgeous.
Check out all the details here.
TFL
xx

Front Cover

I was asked to create a page using the free papers that are included with the current issue of Scrapbook Magazine and was really chuffed to see that my page has been used for the front cover.

I did add some stickles to the page after I had taken these photos just to make it feel a bit more Christmasy.

TFL
xx

Oh Christmas Tree!

A month or so ago I decided that I would like to get a flash to add on to my camera ready to use at Christmas,I always take lots of photos but often the lighting just isn't good enough and the photos are ruined by lots of shadows. I found out that a friend was upgrading all her camera equipment and was selling a flash, after a few sweet words to Justin I was the proud owner of a new flash!
I have always taken photos of the girls decorating the tree but this year I was actually pleased with the photos that I took! Having the extra flash has made a huge difference and I can't wait to use it over Christmas.
We were decorating the tree but the girls had to try the decorations for size!!

I love this photo, they got a bit carried away and fell over just as I was taking their photo! lol

Rebecca took some lovely photos of Emily and I....

not sure about the new earrings though!!

TFL
xx

Something New

One of this years big scrapbooking products have been the Smash book, I was asked to have a go at creating my own version for Papercraft Essentials a little while ago. I have never kept or made anything like a smash book and when I started making it I approached it very much as a scrapper, more concerned with how each page looked as opposed to getting the information into it. That soon changed and I actually found it quite liberating! I thought I would share a few of the pages that I created.

Hannah, over at Handmade Hannah puts together some great kits and I bought her September kit which was perfect for creating this little book. I decided to use a Pink Paislee album as the base for my book and decorated the cover using lots of squares of paper which I stitched and distressed.

I love these Tim Holtz envelopes...
I filled mine with lots of my favourite quotes for future referrence.

 A pocket full of special memories...

Over the years the girls have written me lots of little notes, I have tried to keep most of them they make such lovely reading and some of them are so funny. Emily was desperate for a puppy when she was 9 and wrote me lots of letters about how much she wanted one and when we decided to get Archie she wrote even more!

This is me right now... (well when I made the book!)

I love the photo of Justin (he hates it as he has lost nearly 2 stones since it was taken lol)

My gorgeous girls....

This was the state of my craft room after I had created it! Pretty tidy for me actually, usually every surface is covered.

TFL
xx

Prima Printery

Ever since Prima brought out their Printery range I have been umming and arring as to whether I needed to buy it or not. I was trawling on-line scrapping stores last week and found the range reduced at Paperarts, that made my decision for me and I had to have it!

I started this page last weekend and I have been slowly adding to it all week but it is at last finished!! I am such a slow scrapper lol.

The Websters Western Romance eyelet trim went perfectly with the Prima papers.

Another great find when I was trawling the Paperarts site was this gorgeous hessian trim, I absolutely love it and it is great for adding that extra layer of texture to a page.

I cut a slit into the background paper and carefully distressed the top edge and then slotted the paper ruler into the slot.

TFL

xx

My Creative Scrapbook Main Kit

Back again! Three posts in three days, that has got to be some kind of record for me lol. I am back to share what I created with the Main Kit from My Creative Scrapbook. Pam put together a great mix of manufacturers for this kit from Echo Park to Bo Bunny along with some gorgeous embellishments.

Every month a layout is chosen to be turned into a sketch and Pam chose my page this month which I was really thrilled about.

I loved that out of one kit I could create both clean modern pages and more vintage pages.

The Echo Park chipboard made the perfect addition to a Christmas gift box.

I also had a go at creating a festive milk carton.

And a card!

Finally here is the gorgeous kit..........

TFL
xx

Festive Wreath

As well as all the paper kits that My Creative Scrapbook do Pam also puts together a flower kit each month and this month I was the very lucky design team member who got to play with it!! I decided to create a festive garland which I had great fun putting together, all you need it....

Flower kit
Willow garland - I bought mine from my local florist.
Ribbon
Hot Glue gun
MME chipboard banner from the Main kit
Gardeners string

I intertwined the two petaloo vines before I secured them onto the garland which made life a lot easier.

I threaded the chipboard letters onto the string and then peeled off the backing from the hoops and secured the string in place temporarily on the adhesive. To make each letter really secure I added some hot glue across each piece of string and onto the chipboard.

When it came to fixing the chipboard banner into place it was much easier to hang the wreath on the back of a door so that I could see exactly how it was going to look before I tied each side off.

I have just got to find somewhere appropriate to hang this now!
TFL
xx

Kit reveal day!!

Kit reveal day!!! All the kits have been revealed over on My Creative Scrapbook so I can now share with you what I have been beavering away at over the last few weeks.
I have to admit I am not a fan of themed papers but I really enjoyed working with this kit which was full of a great mix of papers from manufacturers including MME, Simple Stories and Melissa Frances along with some gorgeous embellishments, the Prima Christmas vine is my absolute favourite!
I wanted to create a non festive page with the kit, I love this photo of Emily that I took in September at Saunton Sands........

I wanted to use the vine and resin frame together, the frame was so cute and the flowers so gorgeous I decided to try and frame one of the flowers. I popped the end of the vine through the frame and then cut out a piece of patterned paper to back the frame securing the vine in place.

To secure the strips of ribbon I stuck them down with a bit of repro herma and then machine stitched them into place.

I cut around the holly design on this piece of paper to create pockets to hold my design.

I did quite a bit of fussy cutting on this page, the holly was just asking to be cut out!

Finally here is the gorgeous Limited Edition kit..........

I will be back tomorrow to share some more pages and festive creations.
TFL
xx