Two posts in 2 days! It's a miracle

Morning all.. 

Well that's a shocker! A second post from me in as many days! Caused mainly by the fact I am off work with a really sore throat so I have not only had time to finish my tissue box cover I mentioned in yesterdays post, but to blog about it aswell! 

So without further ado.. here it is.. as promised

First I took the MDF wooden cover and covered it in plain white tissue.. the sort you get in a shoe box..nothing fancy! I adhered it with plain PVA glue and left to dry. 

I then chose a very pretty cocktail napkin and separated the layers and stuck all the layers on individually smoothing with the glue brush as I went. 

Once dry, I dry brush painted the whole thing in a white chalk paint to soften the effect. (I aim to place this beside my bed so I wanted a soft romantic feel to it.) 

I then used the small offcuts to add extra dimension by sticking all of them onto a sheet of inexpensive white card and then fussy cutting them from the card.  Once dry I then stuck them on top of the butterflies etc that were on the hardened napkin. I added a ''fence' die cut at the bottom and trimmed it at the top with some of the pretty lace I got in my stash swap from Australia that I mentioned yesterday. 

Finally I layered some cheesecloth on the top of the box and added a cluster of embellishments on two corners.  I chose some roses, a tassel, a girlie handbag, a heart and some pearls and stuck it all on with a hot glue gun. 

So.. a quick post, as promised. I hope you like my overtly feminine, romantic tissue box cover.. and I hope it has inspired you to do something similar.. it really is the easiest technique with minimal skills required.. good luck! 

Elaine

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Time flies!

Mt goodness

Where does time fly by to?

Mine has been stolen by my new house in the rural Kent countryside! I, madly, bought a renovation project and I have been spending every spare minute and hour over there. I feel it'll be worth it in the end though... the main focus of my attention has been the garden, while my poor husband has been tackling the main house. This has left very little time for crafting, but I've still managed to squeeze in a few layouts.. here is my latest one which is of my dear Grand-daughter, Amber, just after her birth. 

The paper manufacturer is unknown I'm afraid as I used an old couple of pieces from my stash and it, unhelpfully, didn't have the makers name.. but regardless, I think it works well for a baby girl photo with the dash of pink in it. The rosette flowers are from a recent stash swap I was involved in and these white crocheted flowers were sent to me by my swap partner all the way from Australia, as was the beautiful lace trim along the bottom of the photos. The pearl flourish has been sitting in my stash for years!! So good to finally use some old stash!

Here is a picture of the stash I was sent... wasnt' I lucky to get an overseas partner? I got some different things to normal so I was extremely pleased with the end result.

I also managed to make a second baby layout, featuring Amber again, this time with her, very proud, Daddy just after she was born, while still in hospital. 

The papers are Kaisercraft Pitter Patter Baby Girl range and I've no doubt you'll be seeing a lot more of that in the coming months!! lol

As this is a big catch up post, I am showing you a glimpse of a 'work in progress' box that I am also currently working on.. it is an MDF tissue box cover that I have covered in pretty napkins. I plan on dry brushing some paint over the top to lighten it and embellishing it with butterflies and bling. If you wnat to see what I've done with it, do pop back again soon as I PROMISE I will be sharing it as soon as I finish it! 

Finally... I'd like to share some pictures of my English Cottage garden.. and (you will see) a glimpse of my newly built craft cabin!! It's not finished yet.. but it's another 'work in progress' and no doubt there will be another blog post about that soon! 

Pretty roses that change colour as they open!

Take care... and do call back.. one day I will be a regular blogger again..but my priority has to be this at present! 

White Peony

Foxgloves

Beautiful Lupins

 Thanks for popping by!

Elaine
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Exploding cupcake box

Well today.. I'm bringing you something completely different for me... and, I confess... I love it! 

Next week is my daughter in laws birthday.. and as she recently gave me the new light of my life, my grand daughter Amber, I thought I would make her an extra special 'card'.

Then.. just when I needed inspiration, I found this blog post on one on the Facebook Groups I have joined. This led to a link to The Crafty Spark Blog that is written by Lea.. who is most obviously a  very talented crafter! She gave me the idea for this exploding box that I have revealed here. 

In her post she gives instructions how to make this box, so I won't repeat it again.. pop over there and have a look for yourselves. Thanks Lea for being so generous in sharing your talent. 

First I found two sheets of soft cream card and used this as my base and then I used a pale green sheet as the second coloured card. The patterned papers are two pages from my Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit for the month of June, 'Everything Is Coming Up Roses'. I've had these in my stash for a long time so I have no idea of the maker I'm afraid. However, the soft neutral tones are just what I had in mind for this box and as I also wanted to prepare a colour challenge for The Great Scheme of Things blog, so I used these (at last)! 

I then made the cupcake wrapper from some more paper that I stamped with a Stampin' Up polka dot stamp and topped with organza, pinned with pretty pins onto a bubble wrap 'cake'. 

I topped this with some ribbon roses and then set about embellishing the box. For this I used more Stampin' Up stamp sets, and then heat embossed the stamped images. 

I then finished off with some flowers on the external flaps and added pearls to set them all off. 

Finally I made a small (very simple) card to slip inside the pocket on the front flap. For this I punched a scalloped flower and cut it in half, I used a scrap of the stamped polka dot paper and I topped the 'icing' off with a pearl 'cherry' and added pearl pen 'sprinkles'.

I do hope you like my take on Lea's box.. I think my Daughter in Law will love it.. don't you? I know I'd be delighted to receive it.. let's hope she does too! 

Elaine

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Aint love grand

Here is another LO from my CKCB kit... this time for my sons 30th birthday album again. 

then I chose my sketch.. this time from Sues blog, Me and Mine 

I love the simplicity of Sues sketches, which she designs herself, and I find they always inspire me.. so...keep up the good work Sue.. and keep 'em coming!

Well, just a brief blog from me here as I have to get off to work.. but I do hope you'll pop back soon form more reveals. 

Elaine
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Layout from my CKCB kit

Morning all

Today I am bringing you a LO made with my Counterfeit Blog Kit 'Everything is coming up roses'. This delicious photo of my new Grand-daughter Amber makes a good start on using up those lovely Kaisercraft Sweet Pea roses papers. 

I am also entering this in to the Kraftplus challenge blog May challenge.. which is to be inspired by this mood board here. 

I think you can see the image that inspired me the most was the bouquet of flowers... such a pretty image. 

The idea is to set your LO against a sheet of Kraft, it can't just be matted onto Kraft.. I then chose a sketch.. and as it was National Scrapbooking day on Saturday, there were lots of challenges over on Facebook, and this one in particular caught my eye from one of the groups that I belong to.  

I am also entering it into the Scrap Our Stash challenge. We have to use things that use the letters of the word EMBOSS. So I have used.:
E: Enamel dots
M: Mist
B: Brads
O: Orange flowers
S: Stickers
S: String

I took my CKCB kit and then selected the papers to make this LO. 

I do hope you like...

Thanks for popping by... see you soon.

Elaine
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CKCB May kit

Good morning from a chilly, yet dry, Kent.. and drum roll......... 

This morning I am bringing you a new Counterfeit kit inspired from the CKCB Blog from an old Jenni Bowlin kit from 2011! Now, I confess, it didn't on first inspection 'float my boat' but on closer inspection I noticed some paper in there that had large roses on it.. and a sheet of what looked like Sassafras paper that I (still!) had a sticker sheet of too... and that got me started.. sometimes that's all you need isn't it?. 

I am aware it isn't a faithful replica of it..but I'm happy and it will use up some of my older stash too! Hurrah! 

So.. here goes.. here is my kit 'Everything is coming up roses'. I started with some of my favourite rose paper of all time.. Kaisercraft, Sweet Pea range... and picked out random sheets of co-ordinating papers from loads of collections.. a real eclectic selection. 

From then on I chose the embellishments to go with it all and I am sure to add lots more this month... as it is National Scrapbooking Day here in the UK I am off to a crop this mornig from 10am to 6pm so I have all my challenges, sketches etc ready and I am set! Woo Hoo.. never been so organised! Bring it on.... 

I'll be back later to share my LO's but as this is my 200th post on my blog... I promised I would have a small giveaway for new followers of my blog. Sadly this generated only one new follower... but you are very welcome Jenny Hart (check out her lovely blog here)... and if you contact me I will happily send you your prize!

That's it for now.. have a great day all.. and .... have a great NSD! 

BBL

Elaine

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Good morning from sunny Kent

This morning I have woken up to sunny skies and sunshine all the way.. after such a wet and miserable day yesterday (and it being the first of 5 days off for me) I can only think the sun shines on the righteous! LOL...... 

Today I am bringing you a LO created for a challenge over on UKS. It is a small group of us that take it in turns to select a sketch and then prepare a LO based around it. 

In this case, we were asked to use this sketch here. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I find scrapping with more than one or two photos a real challenge... so I was really quite pleased that I was going to have to stretch myself so. Thanks to the designer of the sketch whoever you are.. great sketch but I cannot give credit as I don't know where it originated from.

First job was to find a collection of photos that needed scrapping that all went together. I chose to use photos of my youngest sons passing out service when he 'graduated' as a firefighter in early 2011.  As regular followers know I am making an album for his 30th birthday in November so this will be an addition to that. 

Next I took my Counterfeit Kit, 'Halfway to Halloween' that I made for the CKCB challenge blog and came up with this. 

The story is that my husband, also a firefighter, and he snuck into the ceremony room before anyone else (and especially the 'brass') was really allowed to and we took some great family photos before the rest of all the crew and guests came in.. ensuring we didn't have lots of random people milling around in the background. So, as we had the room to ourselves they started messing about, pulling faces etc! So naughty...but just typical of these two.. and I wanted to record the moment... I am actually rather pleased with it.. and it is a lesson to me that I can 'do' more than a couple of photos at at time! lol

Now, as some of you may know, I am coming up for my 200th post.. so if you would like to become a follower of my blog.. just click the button beside the (rather wordy) blog post! (Sorry... got a bit carried away) and become a follower too as I will be having a small giveaway for you.

Thanks for stopping by, do let me know you've visited! 

Elaine

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Altered Photo frame/tray

Evening all from my corner of England where it has been warm and sunny..but a bit breezy..so it was the perfect day to hide away in my craft room and finish an unfinished project!

So... here it is.. a new photo frame/ altered wooden house shaped tray.

First I covered it in gesso then layered up the following: Pink tissue paper using pva glue, Paperartsy Sherbert chalk paint and then I dry brushed some white chalk paint over the top.

I left it all to dry in between each stage. Then I cut the polka dot paper and cut to fit.. doing the same with the photos.

Then I added all the trims, lace, twine, buttons and bows etc.  I then used some word stickers to fill in all the other sections as I didn't want photos in all of them.

Finally I thought it was missing something, so I decided to cover the whole of the roof with buttons.. that got rid of a lot of my pink button stash (at last!) 

Anyway.. here it is.. do hope you like.

I have a LO to add later too.. so do remember to pop back soon.. and remember I'm coming up for my 200th post so I will be doing a random drawer of my followers..so if you're not a follower...do add yourself and you may have a little treat in store! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Elaine

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LO NO 6 from my April CKCB kit

Morning all

Today I bring you another LO made with my CKCB kit 'Halfway to Halloween' inspired by the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog.

This time, I picked the lighter colours from my kit and made this springtime LO with an extra sheet of stickers that I hadn't originally included... but it's all about using up your stash isn't it?

I used this sketch from the Stuck?! blog which I find invaluable each month. Such great sketches!

I combined it with a challenge over on UKS where they asked us to create a LO based on Spring.. which I have done here.

Just a quick blog from me this morning as I have to get to work.. but do let me know you've visited... I am having a small giveaway at the end of the month as I will have reached my 200th blog post!! Woohoo. 

To become a follower couldn't be easier.. just click on the link on the right and hey presto! 

Have a good day all!

Elaine
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Altered cocoa tin

Evening all... Three posts in one day..that must be a record for me..lol

Tonight I am bringing you an altered cocoa tin..and the bonus is..it stills smells of cocoa! Lovely!

First I made a master board to cover the tin. I first painted the background CS with watered down pink Paper Artsy chalk paint. Then, I split a very pretty cocktail napkin into the three layers. I added PVA to the dried paint layer, then stuck one of the plain layers to the CS, added another layer of PVA and then, finally added the patterned layer of the napkin on the top with another layer of PVA on top of that. When it was all dry, I added a very, very thin layer of gesso over the top to tone down the pattern...(which was really quite purple at this stage.) I was pleased with my master board and want to share it on The Mirror Cracked blogspot.

I covered the cocoa pot in a layer of tissue paper (rescued from a pretty parcel some time back) and ensured the bare edge of the tin was well and truly covered. Once it was all dry I wrapped the board around the tin and covered it with more glue.

I then stuck a layer of lace around the top edge. Once it was all completely dry, I made a cluster of paper roses on a white leaf,  one large lilac one, one mauve one and one small white one...and finished it off with a tiny green rose bud and two pearl trims.

So.... I am now the proud owner of a new brush pot to store my brushes... So simple and pretty and in keeping with my idea for a country style craft room in my new house... 

Finally.. why not become a follower of my blog? I am approaching 200 posts and am going to have a small giveaway when I hit the bog 200! so.. hit the 'Follow' button on the right.. and keep watching!

Elaine
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LO no 4 CKCB

Afternoon all

Another LO from me here for the CKCB Challenge blog. 

Here is another LO I made with my April kit, Halfway to Halloween. 

The fourth so far (well actually its the fifth but I can't share the other one with you yet as I am entering it into a dated challenge)

So here it is.. I confess I added some more of the Echo Park Summer Fun collection pack than I had originally included.... but its all about using up your stash isn't it? 

Regular followers of my blog will know I am making a gift album and this is another LO for that. If you are not a regular follower of my blog, please ensure you add me as I am coming up to my 200th post.. and I will be having a little giveaway.. it's simple to do, just click on the link to the right and you'll be more than welcome! 

Anyway, I wanted to use this sketch from the  Scrap Our Stash Blogspot where they offered up this lovely sketch by the very talented Laura Whitaker. 

First I rotated it left and used the strip from the collection across the top. 

I then picked various PP's from the collection and finished it off with some chips from the sticker sheet and some additional washi tape. 

Its another page done and I am so pleased with the end result. 

Do let me know what you think and, don't forget, click to become a follower and you could soon be the recipient of a little prize!

See you soon, 

Elaine
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