Chocolate!....need I say more?

Good morning!

Did you miss me last week?  Very absent I know, then here I am two days in a row!

It's a very fleeting visit today with.......a card!  I was skimming over my blog yesterday and realised I haven't posted a card for ages, so thought I'd better rectify the situation immediately.

This one should be well on it's way across the pond to my Sister-in-law, for her Birthday, which was unfortunately a few days ago, but I always blame the postal service (regardless of when I actually send them!).

I've had this Bugaboo image a long time, but together with the included sentiment, it's still one of my faves.........

Papers are from Echo Park and colouring is with Copic's.

The card layout was inspired by a previous sketch from The Deconstructed Sketch, and here's another look at the little sentiment which could be my 'mantra'!

Have a great day, and I'll see you again tomorrow!
Till then, take care,
Jayne.x.

Time for a Sketch!

Well Hello!

It's Wednesday which means it's time for a new sketch over on the Two Scrapbook Friends Forum.  We know how much everyone enjoys a sketch, so no excuses, join in the fun for a chance to earn buttons towards your next gift certificate for the store.

Without further ado, here's today's sketch.

Note to self: Choose shapes a little more carefully, knowing that being no Photoshop expert, you will eventually have to 'freehand' any 'swirly' die cut type of patterns!  Make the most of this one as I can guarantee it won't be making another appearance any time soon.

I have a sample for you, and as my last couple of scrapbook pages have been fairly detailed, this one is clean and simple all the way.

I think these photo's do most of the work for this page, but if I'm honest, I did try to add a little more on there, but nothing seemed to work, so CAS it is!

Have fun with this one.  Feel free to change up that swirly shape for whatever works for you, and don't forget to upload your creations to the Forum and Gallery.

Enjoy your day,
Jayne.x.

A Monochromatic Crafty Challenge

Good morning, I hope your week is starting out OK.

Today over on the Two Scrapbook Friends Forum, as well as our ongoing Online Crop, we have a brand new Crafty Challenge for you........and I'm delivering the goods.

So, I may have given you a little hint in my title, as to the theme of today's challenge, but just to be sure we're all on the same page, I'd like to see a project showing a monochromatic colour scheme.

Your creation may be a card, scrapbook page, or any form of altered art, as long as there is only one dominant colour.  I will allow a neutral to be included i.e white/cream etc. and even a single accent colour if you feel the need, so long as there's an obvious monochrome look to the finished product..........see I'm going easy on you really! :)

I have a sample for you of course, a scrapbook page, where I went for the traditional 'Black and White'......can't go too wrong with that I guess.

As you can see it's definitely 'Monochrome'!  The only touch of colour appears in the editing of the photograph.

Papers are from Bo Bunny and the title is Maya Road chipboard covered with some of the patterned paper.  There's lots of layering, and the date is recorded with the trusty Dymo.

I die cut a couple of butterflies and used mini clothes pins for the body, together with a layer of sheer fabric for extra dimension.

The banner is also made using a die cut, together with a circle punch, some zig- zag stitching and brads.

Finally, the large flower is cut using the Slice and layered with a handmade felt center.

I hope you're feeling inspired to choose a colour and stick with it.  I can't wait to see your projects, but don't forget to upload to the Two Scrapbook Friends Gallery and Forum, to be in with chance of earning buttons.  We all know that buttons turn into gift certificates for the store, so what are you waiting for?

Have a wonderful day and I'll see you soon,
Jayne.x.

National Scrapbook Day Online Crop with Two Scrapbook Friends

Hope you're having a good day so far.  I'm a little late posting on here, but there's a reason for it.
In honour of National Scrapbook Day on Saturday 5th May, Two Scrapbook Friends are hosting a week long On-line crop filled with fun, prizes and of course a few challenges along the way.

The crop goes live at 3.00pm today (hence my delayed post) and you have until midnight on Sunday 6th May to upload your beautiful creations, and be in with a chance of winning some goodies.  All you have to do to be able to play along, is become a member of the Two Scrapbook Friends Forum (if you're not already) and get scrapping!

So now that we have all the deets out of the way, let's get down to business.

Each of the DT are issuing a challenge and this years theme is focusing on techniques.........a little nudge to encourage you to try something old, new, or just forgotten on your project.

My challenge, I'm thinking is pretty simple and will 'have you in stitches'!

Are you with me?

Yes SEWING.  Machine or hand but definitely not faux!  This challenge requires the real deal, so it's all or nothing baby.  Your project may be a scrapbook page, card, altered item or any paper related craft, so without further ado, here's mine.

A layout entitled "A Perfect Day".

I love this line of papers from My Minds Eye......'Follow Your Heart', so versatile.

Instead of machine stitching, as I have on most of my pages/cards recently, I decided to go back to the old hand sewing.  The letters for my title are cut from a piece of canvas (using my Slice) and then I stitched through the center of each one.

I added a couple of banners to the top corner wrapped with a little twine.  The hexagons, which are a really popular trend right now, are individually cut from a sheet of the paper, then glued or randomly 'popped' onto the page.

Journalling is printed using Word and one of my favourite fonts 'Batik Regular', onto a die cut (again using my Slice), with another banner, a button and a few dew drops.  Before I show that photograph though, I have to share a little story.

You know you've been married a while when:

You've completed your layout and you're giving it one final look over before it disappears into the album, when, you look at the journalling date and think "I don't think that is the date of our Wedding Anniversary?".

So then you have to go and ask your husband "What is the date of our Anniversary?".

You then realize you've got it completely wrong (!) which means you have to re-type, re-print and re-stick the new date over top!

But of course, I was going for the random layered look all along! :)

So that's all from me, I hope you'll get a chance to join in with the festivities as we always love to see what you create, but most importantly have fun.

Enjoy your day and I'll see you next week (unless I make the effort before then!).
Take care,
Jayne.x.

Sketch Day!

It's Wednesday which means it's time for another Sketch Challenge over on the Two Scrapbook Friends forum, and yes, you have me to put up with again, for today's effort.

So without further ado, here we go with my third sketch..........

What more can I say, except.....circles.....and lots of them, but feel free to use your creative licence and change them up for embellishments, or whatever really.

Now, my layout using today's sketch is not exactly my usual subject matter........no cute kids, hubby's or even general family members, but it's something that just had to be scrapped.  Quite an important factor in my life......or at least anyone that knows me would think so!

Here goes........an 'Ode' to 'The Iced Cappucino'!

Yes, I can see my family members right now, nodding their heads in agreement, with that look on their faces that says 'Yep, she has a problem!', but I'm sure there are worse things in life.

I don't actually use circles that often, but I felt the need for a little collection of them on this page.

There's also an accordion flower created using a border punch and scoring board.........

I actually competed this layout at a crop on Saturday at my favourite store (Two Scrapbook Friends of course!) and whilst I was driving there, inspiration struck........I need a straw.........a genuine 'Timmies' straw!  So after a quick visit to the nearest location, this took pride of place on the page.........

Stitching and a piece of trim adds a little more texture, and we're done..........

I do hope you'll get a chance to play along with today's challenge and remember to upload your creations to the Gallery and Forum.  Every entry can earn you buttons toward a gift certificate to the store, and I for one am always thrilled to see anything using one of my sketches!

Have a great day, happy scrapping and I'll see you again soon
Jayne.

Christmas in April!

Hello there, how's your Saturday going so far?

I meant to get this post on here yesterday, but got carried away at the indoor playground with my girls.  I tell ya, if I wasn't feeling my age before, this convinced me!  15 minutes of crawling around on all fours, I had to admit defeat....my knees were killing me and my back was that little voice in my ear saying "OK you do know how old you are right, and that you're gonna pay double for this tomorrow?!"

I always listen to the voice in my head (!) so I sat down and had a coffee......much more civilised!

I've been quite productive on the scrapping front this week, so I thought I'd hop on here with one of the layouts I did.

It's not my best, it's not exactly current.....the photo's are approximately 6 years old, and the subject is Christmas, but it's one of those that I've kept on the back burner, waiting to eventually scrap.

So here we are, with my Christmas Angel (well one of them at least!).............

As you can see it's a pretty simple page that was put together fairly quickly (you can probably tell that too!).  The layout was inspired by a sketch from One Page Sketches For Scrapbooking by Allison Davis.  Papers and chipboard embellishments are more than a year old, from Cosmo Cricket's "Mitten Weather" collection.

It's hard to see part of the title, but they're clear epoxy letters.........

I've also added a little hand stitching, together with some more chipboard elements.

.......and there you have it.

Have a great weekend....I think we lost our sunshine!
I'll see you next week,
Jayne.x.

One of those days!

Not for me today actually....happy mood again!

This is just the theme of today's card.....I've certainly had a few days like this believe me!

The current challenge over on the Saturated Canary Challenge Blog is April Showers, so as this little lady has been coloured and sitting very patiently on my desk, waiting for you know who to finally put her on a card, I thought I'd better.
It's time to 'Cheer Up'..........

As the title suggests, the name of this digi is 'One of those days', and you can find her as also previously mentioned, over at Saturated Canary.

She's coloured with Copic markers and I've added a little distress ink around the image too..........

Papers are some of my favourites right now from the Authentique 'Gathering' collection, and the card layout is inspired by a previous sketch from The Deconstructed Sketch.  I've added a little bakers twine together with a couple of delicate tea roses ($1.50 bargain from Michael's!).

There's also a bargain butterfly (Dollarama) which I blinged a little with tiny pearls, and some machine stitching.  I'm not sure if you can catch it in this shot, but I forgot to mention there's Glossy Accents added to the raindrops in the image too.

That's it for today, so have yourself a good one and I'll be back on Friday.
Take care,
Jayne.x.
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Challenges entered:
Saturated Canary - #15 April Showers
Rubber Redneck - #69 Colour Roundup
Stars and Stamps - Colour Challenge
Crafty Sentiments Designs Challenge Blog - Use a Digi
Scrap-Creations - April Showers
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Stitching real or faux
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - #23 Ribbon or Twine
Incy Wincy Designs - #142 Digi's Only
Karen's Doodles Challenge Blog - #102 Something Spring
Lollipop Crafts - #76 Spring Fling
The Hybrid Chick - #17 Spring
Cardmadfairy's Digi Days Challenge - April Showers
Delicious Doodles - #17 Loads of Layers