~ On Display: Banana Frog ~

Banana Frog recently came up with some new sets and they landed on my doorstep and I had a play with them. I created this sketch for June's Sketch Focus: 

This is my LO: 

Made use of Studio Calico June 10 main kit for this LO. The butterfly mask in the background is from my own stash. Stamp sets used here are from Banana Frog's Swirls and Butterflies, Totally Tropical, Tropical Taste, DeLouis Ville, Budmo Jiggler (large & small). 

The journaling spot is from Tropical Taste. The butterflies are from Swirls and Butterflies.

The flowery swirls are from Totally Tropical.

Finally the title was created from Budmo Jiggler both in the large and small size. Luv the mini size.... very appropriate for cards.

Check back on the 30th where Banana Frog will be having a blog hop. TTFN!

~ On Display: Banana Frog ~

Some new Banana Frog stamp sets landed on my doorstep and I had a play with them. I created a mini LO (6x4") using Totally Tropical and DeLouisville sets:

Totally Tropical

DeLouisville

Here's my LO: 

 

This is a 6x4" LO. I do a lot of them to post to my parents overseas where it's easy to store in a normal photo album. I used the corner stamp and added the flowers to embellished it. The title was created using the DeLouisville alpha set, which is fast becoming my favourite alpha set. LO created using Scarlet Lime May10 kit. 

Bev has also came out with a new Mixed Sentiments set and this is just perfect for cards! 

Here's my card: 

I made use of the corner stamp again and glittered the flowers with sticklers. I used the sentiment from the new set. 

Luv the sentiment set... can see myself using it often! TTFN!

~ Sketchy Thursdays: 6.10 Challenge ~

Here's the sketch for this week's challenge:

Here's my LO: 

LO created using June's Studio Calico kit. Stamped images from Unity. Date stamp from Banana Frog's Delouisville set. Photo of my boys busking in Birmingham Town Centre to raise fund for Christian Aid. They played for an hour and did receive generous donations during the time they played. There were a fair number of fiver notes being given!

TTFN!

~ Woot! ~

I was asked recently to be a guest designer for The Studio and the challenge was to scrap my country's flag colours & black. Well, my country's flag colours are red and white which incidentally is the same as England's and since I'm living here, I shall represent both countries. Here's my LO: 

Photo of us taken at my SIL's wedding reception. I can never get my boys to pose nicely for photos but hey, that's them and I wouldn't have it any other way! Made use of Studio Calico May kit with extra bits from my own stash (notably the BG Basic White background paper). Couldn't resist the TH bird cage as well (which I finally got my hands on). Alphas in the background are from Heidi Swapp mask. Happy bingo card is a digi printout. 

TTFN!

~ Sketchy Thursdays: 6.03 Challenge ~

After a haitus from scrapping, I finally caved in and made a LO based on this sketch:

Absolutely adore this sketch... guess all the messy bits attracted me! LOL! Anyway, here's my LO: 

Made use of Studio Calico May kit although some bits came from other kits too. Luv this photo of my boys, taken using the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone. Lots of stamping too, using Unity's Brave Girl stamp set. 

Hopefully this will mark the start of more LOs to come... been incredibly busy lately and that leaves me with little time for crafting. TTFN!

~ Banana Frog Hop! ~

If you're here from Debbie's blog, welcome! This month's is Banana Frog's birthday and there are some great prizes to win (if you have checked the BF's blog). So the theme's this month is on 'birthday'. I've in store some projects relating to it!

Kids love wearing birthday badges. Not surprising since it publicise their birthdays.    One can easily buy a badge with any sentiments on it these days. Bearing that in mind, I thought I create one using one of the new stamp set that came out recently.

I used Fairytale Princess for this project. The word 'Birthday' came from Retro Greetings set (one of my well-used stamp set). 

The base is punched using a 3" scalloped punch. A piece of scrapped patterned paper was laid over it. Then the relevant images was stamped, coloured with Copics and attached using foam dots. To wear it, simply attached a brooch pin at the back. Voila, that's it, a simple and rather unique birthday badge for your li'l princess!

Let's not forget if you have boys (like I do) so I created another one just for boys. I made use of Charming Prince stamp set. 

Background was sprayed with a silver mist. Stamped images coloured using Copics. A quick and easy birthday badge for a boy

I also made a quick mini LO (6x4") for my display frame. I love doing mini LOs as they are very quick to finish and easy to display and store! I bought an Ikea flip-over frame with 6 pages (which equates to 12 pages) some time ago and it was left in my cupboard for years until last year when I decided to do something about it. It struck me that I could do a 6x4" LO whenever I've a new photo. It will be displayed in the frame. The only time the LO is removed is when it's being replaced with a new LO. Any old ones are simply stored in a 6x4 album (any normal photo album, which can be easily altered of course!) So far, it has been successful and guests who visit, love looking at them. Here's my LO: 

Photo of my other half on his birthday. Photo size is 4x3". This size allows you to use up any leftover scraps. As the space is easy to fill, it can be done in less than half an hour!

Hope you are enjoying the hop. Bev is ever so generous this month so if you fancy any Banana Frog stamp set, here's your chance to win it. Simply leave a comment and a random draw will take place on Monday. Good luck! Your next leap is Nat! Happy Hopping! TTFN!

~ Growing In Unity: Day 5 & Friends with Flair ~

It's a Unity day today. Last day of my Growing in Unity week, one which I had a blast, playing with Unity stamps. It's also Friends with Flair day today as well. And it's gonna be another maniac day for me too, with dental appointment and violin rehearsal thrown in! I guess that's what being a mom is.... your kids' schedules takes over your life!

Thankfully, found some time last nite to scrap and with a new stamp kit, Brave Girl. A box chocked full of new stamps was delivered yesterday, much to my delight! Here's my first LO: 

Made use of Scarlet Lime April's kit for this LO. The base is Basic Grey Basic White paper (boy do I hug the Basic ranges). LO based on a sketch at Butterfly Craft. I used quite a fair bit of stamp images from Brave Girl... gonna be one of my fav scrapbooking sets!

LO created using a Studio Calico May kit (which incidentally arrived this week). This is based on a sketch by Sketchy Thursdays (I rely on sketches a lot these days as I've got limited time for crafting and dun wanna be fluffing about). Although the kit is entitled Brave Girl, I found them equally versatile for use on male LOs too. 

The photos used on the LO were taken on my iPhone using a Hipstamatic app. Now if you have an iPhone, you need this app! It makes your photos look rather 'vintagy'. What I love about it is the ability to change lens, films and flashes to create a certain look in the photo. Or simply shake the phone to get a random look. It makes taking photo so much fun! 

Thanks for dropping by. And if fancy winning a Unity single stamp set of your choice, drop me a comment. The winner will be drawn this weekend! It's gonna be a fun weekend as my boys will be basking (playing their violins) in Birmingham town centre on Saturday for charity. They are helping out Christian Aid and I'm praying for sunshine! Whatever you are doing, hope you have a good weekend! TTFN!

~ Butterfly Crafts: May Visual Challenge ~

Found some time to scrapbook and used this sketch at Butterfly Crafts.

Here's my LO: 

SB kit: Scarlet Lime April 10 

Stamp: Unity's Brave Girl scrapbooking set

TTFN!

~ Sketchy Thursdays: June GDT Challenge ~

Here's the sketch:

Here's my LO: 

I flipped the sketch laterally as it fit my photo better.

SB kit: Studio Calico May 2010

Stamp: Unity's Brave Girl scrapbook set

TTFN!

~ Unity's Friends With Flair ~

Happy St George's Day (not that it's widely celebrated in England) but my son's school is holding a Disco and I'm involved in it! At least they are celebrating it with a special meal too. Surprise that it's not a public holiday. Unfortunately we don't have 'Independent Day' here. 

Been scrapping a fair bit this week as I joined an online class and have been putting the techniques learnt to good use. Here's a few LO done with Unity stamped images thrown in! Most of these LOs have been done in conjunction with sketches from either Sketchy Thursdays or Creative Scrappers (info can be found in previous posts on this blog).

My latest LO done last nite using sketch #100 from Creative Scrappers. Stamped the swirly image on the  background and included a poinsettia and a Xmas tree.

Another LO using Unity's scrapbooking kit and some images from KOTM sets.

A journaling stamp from Unity's scrapbooking kit. That is one of my fav stamp image. Heart and swirl came from a template in the online class.

Another stamp image from the scrapbooking kit which I used as journaling lines. 

Finally, a Xmas card using Unity's Xmas images: 

I do a few Xmas cards each month to ensure I have enough cards at the end of the year. 

Thanks for dropping by and have a great weekend. If you've reached here, you know what to do...


You found the blinkie! Just leave a comment for a chance to win 25 random stamps from Unity! Good Luck. I'll draw a random winner on Saturday. Check back here or the SCS Unity forum. TTFN!

~ Creative Scrappers: Apr challenge, sketch #100 & Create 10 Day 6 ~

I'm slowly prodding along with my online class. I'm determined to ensure I complete them as it's a shame  not to. Anyway, I combined Day 6 class with a sketch from Creative Scrappers:

Here's my LO: 

Made use of Scarlet Lime Mar10 kit (it was getting a bit neglected). Did a Xmassy theme for this LO as the photo was taken last Christmas. Raided my Xmas stash to fill in the bits. Day 6 class was about dressing up embellishments and I did, using stamps and Promarkers/Copics!

Onward to the next class... TTFN!

~ Sketchy Thursdays: 4.15 Challenge, Who's That Girl #7 & Create 10 Day 5 ~ ~

Combine 3 challenges into 1 LO, can't help it now that the school term has started and it's back to routines again. I welcome the opportunity to scrap except I only have limited time to do so. Anyway, here are the challenges: 

Sketchy Thursdays Sketch 4.15 challenge. This is the sketch: 

Sketchy Thursdays have combine challenge with Who's That Girl and they have a prompt: 'Right Now' 

Right Now - while the core of who you are doesn't change, I find that my interests and activities tend to evolve from one year to the next.  Take a moment to capture the things you are into RIGHT NOW. 

Create 10 Day 5 class is about 'Journaling the Day'.

Here's my LO. I took bits from each of the 3 challenges to create this LO: 

Made use of Scarlet Lime March10 kit (it was getting a wee bit neglected). The scraps were from my card scraps (that part came from Create 10 class). For the journaling, I wrote about what my role was right now, my interests and what I like to do.

Having fun combining challenges. On to the next class...a little behind at the moment. TTFN!

~ Sketchy Thursdays: May GDT sketch & Create 10 Day 4 ~

Woke up to a sunny Sunday and decided to spent the day crafting instead... sorry, as much as I luv to see the sun in this country, I'm no sun worshipper and you won't catch me sunbathing at all!!! Let's just say the fear of getting wrinkles and sun-damage skin weigh heavily on my mind! Besides, I devoted the last two weeks to my boys and it was time to claim a bit of 'me' time to myself. So hubs brought them out and entertained them. 

I started with Day 4 of the Create 10 project. There was a template to use and to create a fabric flower. I teamed it with a sketch from Sketchy Thursdays to produce this LO:

Here's the sketch:

And my LO:

Made use of Studio Calico April kit. For Create 10 Day 4 class, made use of the shirt template to create a bunting. In place of fabric materials, I substituted for lace to create my flowers (I'm a lace hoarder and got loads of them as opposed to fabric). For Sketchy Thursdays challenge, the theme was celebration and to use the colour green. Well, this LO is about celebrating Spring... when it came, we lost no time in heading to the beach!

A closeup of my lacey flower

I'm having a whale of a time doing the Create 10 classes. TTFN!

~ Creative Scrappers: Apr challenge, sketch #98 & Create 10 Day 2 ~

I'm having fun with the Create 10 classes and I did Day 2 which comprise of using a heart template coupled with embellishing hearts using ribbons. I kill two birds with one stone, I made use of a sketch by Creative Scrappers: 

Here's my LO: 

LO done using Studio Calico April kit. Luv that paper which incidentally is a SC paper. I covered the hearts with scraps of ribbons. The hearts/swirl template came from the class. 

Another fun LO to do. Off to finish the other classes... TTFN!

~ Sketchy Thursdays: Spring Challenge Blog Hop & Create 10 Day 1 ~

After much hesitation (just the fact that I'm so short of time these days), I enrolled with Crafty Templates Create 10 class. A class that contains 10 projects for 10 days. So far, what I like about it is that fact that techniques are taught, not just mere scraplift of a LO. So I started with Day 1, took the techniques and produced a LO based on a sketch by Sketchy Thursdays.

I played with a Spring Challenge Blog Hop sketch on Sketchy Thursdays. The blog is part of a group of blogs involved in a Spring Blog Hop, only for this week. Here's the sketch:

Here's my LO incorporating techniques from Create 10 Day 1 and the sketch: 

LO created using Studio Calico April kit. 

A closeup of the handmade flowers, sprinkled with a bit of sticklers and a gem in the centre.

I placed a large lace on the paper and sprayed it with Cosmic Shimmer. This resulted in a lacey background. My bunting, stamped and cut out.

Had fun making this LO. One of my fav I reckon! TTFN!

~ On Display: A Trip Down Memory Lane ~

I'm this month's Guest Designer at A Trip Down Memory Lane. I was given My Little Shoebox Lil' Critter papers to play with. Have to admit that when I first saw them, I was taken aback as they weren't the kind of papers I would go for but after a few days of ponder, ideas started flittering about and I came up with these: 

A LO using photos of a recent Easter Egg Hunt that I organised for the kids. 

Another LO, making use of a critter as an embellishment. Photo of my boys taken in Singapore. They were fascinated by these stones that were stuck to the ground and meant to be walked over barefooted so as to stimulate the feet. Typical, my boys started making a game out of them as in who could walked over them as fast as they could!

For my cards, I cut out fruit images from the patterned paper and teamed it with stamped sentiments (from Unity).

A tag with sentiment from Purple Onion Designs.

Despite the initial setback, I certainly enjoyed playing with the papers in the end. It certainly stretched the imagination! TTFN!