Life lesson 101........Always stop to smell the flowers!

Hello again, hope you're all experiencing a happy sunshiney day like we have here.....beautiful!

Yesterday the family and I enjoyed a sand between your toes and ice cream in your tummy, on the beach kinda day, followed by a fish supper by the water - does it get any better?  Much fun had by all.

Today however, looks like there's a little work on the horizon as my hubby is power washing the deck as we speak........I'm thinking there will be stain and paint brushes involved a little later, so I may just stay right here or retire to my crafty closet and hope no-one notices!

As I'm making the effort to catch up on my lack of blog posts recently, I thought I should post a layout from a couple of weeks ago.  This one was the result of a Two Scrapbook Friends "5 For 5" challenge which translates to 5 Designers being given 5 scrappy items to play with and somehow work their magic.

You can check out the full reveal of everyone's creation over on the store blog here, but as far as my efforts go, I decided on a layout this time round.

Here's a snapshot of the five items we were given:

........a retro style photo frame, one stencil, 3 mini fabric covered camera's, a piece of jute/hemp and one sheet of patterned paper.

Here's my page, which could possibly win the award for the longest title I've ever used!

Here goes:

The plaid patterned paper is obvious there......I just added a piece of Kraft Core cardstock to the center.  There's also the retro photo frame, under which I layered a little cream burlap.

There's stitching of course.......

and a little wood - can't seem to create anything these days without a little wood!

 I like that the key adds to the title perfectly, so I have to do the obligatory mention for my crafty girlfriend.......thanks Carola.........for donating to my stash!

I spritzed the fabric camera's with a couple of shades of mist and ink to blend in nicely, and added a few brads to the centers.........

The stencil I was given was a chevron/tire track kinda thing that has a million pieces to push out.  As I was doing this I figured it might be cool to use the actual pieces as opposed to the stencil itself.........so that's what I did.

Three hours, half a dozen buttons and some very inky, sticky fingers later I had myself six pretty little flowers.........oh the dedication to my craft!

Not bad!  Plus I get to use the stencil again whenever I please.

Nothing went to waste on here as the teeny circles are actually the centers of the fabric camera's also.

Well I think I've covered everything there.  You can of course find these products at your favourite local scrapbook store.....Two Scrapbook Friends, so go get your craft on!

I'll see you Monday.....more crafty things to show.

In the mean time, I'm off to avoid any heavy duty work me thinks!

Have a great weekend and I'll see you soon,
Jayne.x.

Happy Easter Weekend........and a little book that has nothing to do with Easter at all!

Well hello there, I hope you're all enjoying the start to your long Easter weekend?

My other half has actually had to work today......hmmmfff....so much for 'family time', but can't be helped so we'll be painting eggs, baking and snuggling up to a movie later........probably everything he wouldn't like to do anyhow!

Thought I'd post today because I've been slacking this week I know.  I've had a valid excuse with my stitched hand at least, but still there are things to post, nonsense to say etc.

I'm way behind with posting today's creation, as a couple of weeks ago the Two Scrapbook Friends DT were issued another '5 For 5' challenge........you know the ones where all 5 designers are given 5 items to work their magic with.

Here are the 5 items we were given this time around:

.....a couple of brads, a tag, some twine, kraft heart stickers and one sheet of 'Photo Freedom'/'Project Life' type of patterned paper.

So what to do with this little collection?

I intended on a layout but the paper stumped me right off, as I'd just worked with this type of collection for my last DT kit and felt I didn't really have any more photo's that would work that well.

So Plan B.....let's do what comes naturally......ramble!

A few ramblings actually, all put together in a neat little book.  Here goes:

Most of the product went onto the cover of the canvas book which was a super cheap Michael's bargain bin buy.....(phew that was a mouthful!).......$1.80 I believe.

A brad is added to a flower and a few of the heart stickers added to the circle tag, which is cut from the sheet of paper.

I inked up an embossing folder and ran the tag through, then added a little doodling to change up the appearance.

I then proceeded to cut the rest of the paper to pieces, and use throughout the book.

Pages 2 and 3:

The Dymo labeller was put to good use together with Washi tape, and there's also a bottle cap that seems to fit nicely.

Pages 4 and 5:

Photo's here were found on my phone and were taken using the 'Pocketbooth' APP.  I think I've mentioned before how much I love this APP......obviously my kids do too!

I added more Washi and a few different wooden veneers to finish things off.

Pages 6 and 7:

More wood veneers and this time some are glittered too!

And that's about all folks!

I hope you get a chance to check out what the rest of the DT created.......yummy as always......the links to their blogs are over there on the left.

Have a wonderful weekend.  I may make an appearance on Sunday as I still have one Easter card to post, but I guess I actually have to make it first!

Take care,
Jayne.x.

5 For 5

How's it going so far this week?

I don't know about you, but I'm just not into this -27 degree temperature thing.......just a tad too cold in my book!  It's almost enough to put me of my Timmies Iced Caps for a while......almost.

Anyhow I did mention a couple of days ago that it is 'un'officially 'card week' here on my blog, so guess what I have for you today? 

Nope, not a card, but a whole bunch of them.  There's a reason I have more than one of course, so bear with me and I'll share the deets.

Over on the Two Scrapbook Friends Forum, members of the DT quite often run a challenge called '5 For 5'.  This is where the first 5 gals to sign up after said challenge is announced, are sent 5 items via snail mail, with which they can do whatever they please (within reason!)

On a predetermined date, each person will post a photo of their astounding creation and this is where we 'ooooh' and 'aaaaah' over each of them (really we do as they're always pretty cool!) and marvel at how the same 5 items can be manipulated into 5 totally unique creations.

Anyhow, to cut a long story short and get to my actual point here, the Two Friends decided to turn the tables on their Design Team and issue a '5 For 5' challenge to them..........wooo hooo, love it, bring it on!

So here are the 5 groups of embellies we were sent, together with a sheet of PP all from the Walnut Grove collection by Pebbles Inc.

The rules are that we can add whatever we like from our own stash as long as we use some, or all of each of the embellies.

So, I got to lookin' and a thinkin' and I looked and thought some more, and as much as I wanted to use all the stash, I wasn't quite sure how I was gonna accommodate a 'Hello', 'Hello Friend', 'Thanks' and 'Hello' all nicely on one finished product!

Soooooo, I did what any normal person would do in this situation........I cheated! (sort of)

I cut the heck out of some pieces, and also just happened to have sitting in my own stash, my very own package of the same extremely cool sentiment 'tags'.  This meant I could stretch things into a nice little gift set.

Most of the challenge product went into embellishing the outside of the box like so.

  

This collection works beautifully with Kraft card stock as it has a nice rustic/country feel to it, and I was super impressed to find the reverse of the red patterned paper has a gorgeous 'script' print on there.  This is what I used to cover the chipboard bracket........very versatile.

The inside of the box contains a set of 6 handmade cards predominantly using more of the paper, and various Spellbinder dies.  I did use scraps of paper from my own stash to add a little variation, plus you can only stretch one sheet of PP so far and six cards is pushing it just a little!

Here's the set.......

 

Not bad!

You can get your hands on this line of product from Pebbles, over at the TSF store.  You might also want to check out the goods from my fellow teamies, over on the TSF Blog (or the links to their blogs are over there in the left sidebar) as each one is pretty cool and inspiring in it's own way.  If you're local, all will be on display in the store too.

Well that's about it from me.

I'm hoping to finish another cool little card ready for tomorrow's post, so fingers crossed I'll see you then.

Have a good one and keep warm out there, 
Jayne.x.