Fun and Creativity, My Vine, Mystical Unicorns and Giraffe countdown!

It has been a good few days, crop weekend is always fun, Jayne and Lori were down for the weekend and we had a good crop, I actually got the inside of my journal covers done, the next technique page woven and a layout done. I felt quite productive.
This is the layout I did at the crop.

Like Mother, Like Daughter!

I loved using Websters pages and I really want to get some more, I love the new Sweet as Cherry Pie.

My Vines

I am working on being more creative. I decided to have a go at making a vine of flowers, so I thought I would blog my progress in stages, so here are my first few stages.

STAGE 1 - I pulled out some carnations and leaves on wires and some craft wire.

STAGE 2 - I wound some of the leaves and flowers together, not in any particular way, just how I liked the look of them, then randomly wound 3 pieces of craft wire into the vine.

STAGE3 - I used a pokey tool to wrap the wire round to give it a springy feel.

STAGE 4 - I took a sheet of thin white paper and painted it in adirondack metallic acrylic paint. Once dry I cut it into 1/2 cm strips and soaked each piece in watered down PVA and wrapped it around the wire until it was all covered. I used this instead of wire tape, it felt good to make it myself and was great fun to do.

STAGE 5 - Next I painted over the whole vine leaving out the flowers of course, in the same paint, to cover the bits which the paint missed and to make the leaves the same colour.

Stage 6, I pulled the wire springs out so they were nearly straight, dipped them into the PVA water mix then dipped them into some green flock. I then did this again after the first coat was dry.

I will finish the vine and the steps in the next couple of days, I am having a fab time doing it.

This is a very rare photo of my smallest of naughtiest cat Pheobe being held by Vic. So cute and so unusual.

You may well be wondering about the Giraffes and Mystical creatures in the title. Well before we went to bed last night Vic informed me that our cat Rosie was her fav. because " there is something mystical and unicorn-ish about her" I laughed so much. The Giraffes is because Mum and I got Vic a Safari Park Giraffe Experience for her birthday and we are off to that on Wednesday. To say that she is excited would be an understatement. lol.

Well that's it for me today. thanks for reading.

Happy creating. Jay xx

Twin 1st Birthdays, ATC and 4 lo's, Yes 4!! LOL

Ok so here I am, I know it's been a few days but I got so into the Cyber Crop on SATC Forum.

The first layout was done for the 50's challenge by the lovely Sarah C. Our inspiration was 2 pictures the first of a 50's checkered floor diner and the other a diner menu again with the checkered look, so I decided that would be my main idea. I had never paper weaved before but thought I would give it a go weaving 2 sheets of bazzil to get my checkered floor feel, it seemed to work well. The only other stipulation was to ensure that you used a minimum of 3 photo's and I used 4. I had great fun doing this challenge.

18th CENTURY CHIC challenge by the fabby Karen.
This was one of my fav challenges, we had to think 18th century France, Marie Antoinette etc. I used a picture of my Great Aunt Betty, I never met her but I love this picture and I idolised one of her sisters (see Billie lo a bit further down.)

For this challenge we had to use 4 or more of the following choices: and be inspired by the 18th century.

Layering of PP's
Lace
Ribbon
Feathers
Pins
Hand
Stitching
Flowers
Buttons
Bling

I ended up using them all lol. I LOVE LOVE LOVED this challenge it really got my mojo going.

Next was Vicki's Challenge THE AUSTERITY OF THE 40's

This was our brief:

Picture the scene, you live in the 40's, in a time with very little supplies for anything...... that is my challenge to you. I want you to come up with a layout using the following criteria:

1. You can only use 1 sheet of CARDSTOCK

2. Only use SCRAPS of PATTERNED PAPERS

3. You can only use BASIC TOOLS

4. With regards to LETTERING - you can only use packs that are open, no NEW packages.

5. Make your own embellishments - you CAN use things you would find around the house for this - ie buttons, thread, safety pins, string etc

6. You can only use 1 colour of ink - this can be any colour you choose.

This was fun and I created a nice simple but effective lo, sometimes I drown in embellishments but sometimes it is nice to be reigned in to appreciate the simpler approach, fab challenge.

Amanda's VINTAGE EMBELLISHMENT challenge.

Our inspiration was simple:

You can make your layout any style or any theme that you like - the challenge is to use a vintage or retro item as an embellishment.

I based the layout on my Great aunt Billie who I adored and always aspire to be like. I used a spinner instead of hands on the broken clock face to symbolize timelessness. I had so much fun creating the frame, I cut it out of foam board, crumpled and inked strips of old book then used a papier mache style application around the frame until totally covered, I love how it turned out. My vintage Item was a stone cameo that belonged to Billie.

I was so inspired by this challenge.

This was for Vicki's ATC challenge, I am really into ATC's right now so I really loved doing this, this ATC is called I love.... and was inspired by the fact that I love so many things.

Thanks for looking at my work, I found the SATC Cyber Crop so inspiring, thanks to everyone who put in the hard work organising it. I still have the 80's challenge to do but will post it in a few days.

Sunday was fab. I went over to my brothers for the twins 1st Birthday. The Grandma's met for the first time, which was really nice and I met one of Emma's brothers Christopher too, a really nice young man.

This is a picture of a bee who settled down for a rest on Vicki's dress, I think it thought it was in a field of flowers lol.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY BENJAMIN AND JACOB.

AWWWWWWWWWWWW!!

NANA B and BEN

JAKE and DADDY Eskimo kissing. This picture was so heart warming and it was also Steve's first fathers day too. I have over 1000 pictures from the day (left the sport mode on the camera lol). I am gonna pic my favs, and put a slideshow up later in the week.

Thanks for reading and I hope you are all well in blog land.

Happy Creating. Jay xxxx

A Layout, Some Atc's and a 2nd birthday party.

Ok so I have been Cyber cropping again, this was my layout for the first challenge on SATC forum. The layout is of me when I was around 1 years old, I was cute back then lol.

I also finished a set of ATC's I was working on, building a layer of stamps up with waterdown PVA glue and then when they were finished a layer of Sepia Accent. I called them MACHIN as that is what the stamp are known as. They are named after Sir Arnold Machin, sculptor at the Royal College of Art, who modeled the plaster cast of the profile of Queen Elizabeth II which you see on these stamps. My mum and dad collected them before I was born and now they are part of my art. (Yep I am a geek and I love it lol)

Also on Tuesday I went to my first family Party with Vic's family, it was our Nephew Kristophers 2nd birthday. All Vic's sisters, thier partners, nephews and her Mum in one room, I was quite nervous until we got there, everyone was great, I really enjoyed myself.

Here is the Birthday boy arriving.

Here is little Oscar.

and Robbie.

daniel and...

.. Jamie.

And here is Christopher with his Thomas cake or as our Emma calls it (Urgh it's a train with a face LOL)

That is me so far this week. I have My nephews Ben and Jakes 1st Birthday Saturday and then it is Daniels 2nd Birthday the following week, so lots of baby birthday fun to be had.

I am off to be creative, I guess I should really make some cards lol.

Happy creating Jay xxx

My Journal page 1 and Fun in the sun!!!

Here I am again, could I be getting better at this Keeping up with my blog lark lol.
My first art style Journal is about techniques I have learned, so here is my first page, inspired by Grunge board.
I am really enjoying it..... hmmmm what will my next page be?!

OUCH!!!! Woke up this morning with a very burned chest.

So the reason for this is that the weather for Friday said maximum 16 degrees and overcast by lunch! ERMMMM NOPE!!!!

Vic and I spent Friday in Aberdour, neither of us had been before and I have to say, what agorgeous place.

We went to see the Castle and church. First stop the Church, such a pretty little church in gorgeous grounds.

Then to look at the Castle and Gardens, Stunning! we shall be going back.

We were so lucky with the weather although, if I had known I may have worn sun cream! DOH!

I have to say it was worth the sunburn, beautiful.

We then made our way down to the sea shore after walking through the quaint little town.

The beach was gorgeous and clean, we will be regulars to this really lovely place.

Well thats all from me today, I am of to be creative, then some big brother. So glad to see Sophia gone. Wonder who will be next!

hugs Jay xx

Altered ART

For a long time now I have wanted to play in the Altered art domain but I never really had the guts to give it a go, then a couple of days I dug out all the stuff I had bought a year or 2 ago and never touched. I decided I wanted to create an art journal. All this was inspired by an ATC challenge on the Scrap That! Forum. I love the Atc's and it gave me the inspiration to have a go in the altered art direction. Here is the cover to my Journal, I am really proud of it for my first try. I had so much fun, wetting and inking, Ironing paper, using wax and aging and distressing, love it.

Today Vic and I decided to make a 2 piece ATC set, she did LOVE, I did HATE, I really enjoyed it. This was mine. I really enjoyed working together on a project.

Last but certinly not least, check out this WICKED!!! BLOG CANDY!!! at Jan's Blog. what a give away!!

Thanks for popping by, I am off to play with more crafty stuff.

Happy Creating.

Jay xx

Big Brother; Cyber Cropping; Nephews, Starbucks, Subways, and Lisa Laughing lots....

Ok so I had a fab, really crafty week with Scrap That and thier fabby Cyber Crop, I got quite a bit done, it was great fun. Here are a few of the Challenges I did.

This Layout was for Michelles Recipe Layout, I really loved working with a recipe, what a great way to inspire a layout without a sketch.

I really loved using the glass slide over my brief journaling.

This was my version of the make and take treat bag, Vic and I are thinking of converting this concept for wedding favours.

So thursday has arrived and Silence hits the house until we hear Davina's voice launching this years BB. I actually really enjoyed it and I think thier may well be some worth watching Characters this year.

Here is a Random picture of cherries, Mum had been on a fruit buying spree and I do love my Cherries so I just had to take a picture, ideal for all this gorgeous Cherry paper that is coming out, I am in love with the new Cherry themed Websters pages paper.

Speaking of being in love, one of the challenges on scrap that! was to do a set of 5 ATC's, these are my first, I sort of did 10 address ones a few years ago but basically this is my first proper set, called Summer Lovin..........

........ However I REALLY enjoyed doing them, so I just decided to keep making them, I am totally addicted, lol. The pictures are not great but I love this set, I called it Sarcasm.

This set only has 4 in it as I have already swapped 1 lol. but that was so fun to do, I cut up an old tape measure for it.

This layout was for Jill's no patterned paper challenge. Fabby fun.

I love this picture and so wanted to find something to use that Prima felt Voila on.

So onto Friday. Vicki and I headed off to Glasgow, to spend the day shopping with Emma and the twins, we met My Bro a couple of time too, which was great. We shopped til we dropped, clothes, toilettries, novelties etc, great fun, it was fab to spend time with Emma and Vic and Emma get on really well which I love.

Here is our Mandatory US shot for the day.

Here is Jake in his Cheeky Monkey hat.

And Ben in his.

We had the Also Mandatory Starbucks! I had a caramel Latte YUM YUM!!!

They are Teething so Ben is really enjoy his Keys lol.

Jake seems to want to see how many keys he can get into his mouth at 1 time lol.

We had a fab day and I was sad to say goodbye, I do wish I lived nearer.

Mum had been out with friends in Edinburgh so we decided to play a prank on mum on the way home. I am 36, I need to remind you this because my mum bless her!!!!!!!! still likes to tell me what to do or should I say try's to these days, don't get me wrong, I am sure she thinks it is for my own good but SERIOUSLY!!! lol. 1 of my mums pet hates is the thought of me with piercings, I have tattoos but piercings she does not like and her real knightmare would be me with a lip ring, so Vic bought 2 fake ones, we put them on and texted mum pictures of them. We met mum off the train and you could see that she looked like she was going to burst, trying not to saying anything.

After a few minutes I took it out and she shouted at me for being so cruel, then sighed in relief but I was to busy laughing. Poor mum!!

The next Day we set off to spend some time with Vics sister Lisa, then baby sit our nephews Oscar and Jamie. Oscar is such a darling baby. Jamie is a typical 9 year old lol.

Me with little Oscar. He loves camera's.

Brotherly love.

Lisa has gorgeous tame squirrels living in her garden, as you can see they pop up to the windows and say hi.

I took this second one from the trampoline in the garden, they are so tame that they come even when your out in the garden.

Mr. Squirrel. I love this picture.

This is 1 of about 300 pictures of Jamie on the trampoline, I put the camera on sport mode and away we went, I took them from indoors so I was quite pleased how they came out.

This however is Jamie and I wrestling, he likes that Aunty Jay knows about American wrestling (nice one Bro! lol)

During Sunday Morning Lisa friend and 3 of is Children came round.

After they had gone home we all went to subways for lunch (Thanks Lisa xxx)

Then we made our way home, what a fab time I had this weekend, great fun and great company.

Jay xxx