Scrap Jacked

I missed out last month- but there was no way I wasnt going to have a go at Scrap Jacked this month!

After much deliberation I decided to "Jack" this gorgeous LO by Vicki!

Tattered Inspiration

Last night I played with my first ever "Tattered Inspirations" Kit and I loved it! Carol- your creativity is amazing! I had so much fun with the kit and this LO came together so quickly becuase everything is so well coordinated in the kit!

Crafty Sketches

This is the first time I have had a go at a Crafty Sketch! I really dug into some old photos for this LO of Tom and Steve!

And this is the sketch it was based on.

Scrap the Girls- February 2011

This month's Scrap the Girls challenge was a sketch challenge! Here is my entry- using some yummy hand made flowers from Marg Oliver!

This is the sketch my LO is based on.

Handmade by Suzanne- Feb Sketch

Whilst I had the photos and paper's out, I create a "doubl-sh" LO for the album by scrapping the individual photos of the kids going back to school, to match the Stuck Sketch challenge. Made sure I featured my 2011 word on the banner too!

I used the Handmade by Suzanne Feb sketch

Stuck?! Sketch... February 2011- #2

Here's my entry for the 2nd Stuck Sketch for February- based on this sketch.

"First Day"- Scraphaven class

Last Friday and today I taught this Layout as a class at Scraphaven! Thanks to all the lovely ladies who took the class- the LO's all turned out fabulous and I hope your Kids and Grandkids loved them! My next class is on Friday 18th March- there is a very girly girl layout- and due to popular demand I'll be spending tomorrow creating a boy version too! Check back here soon for some sneak peaks!

Kraft it Up- February

Whilst I was on a scrapping roll yesterday I completed this layout for the Feb Kraft it up challenge, which this month was a colour challenge- Blue, Orange and Black + kraft.

Stuck?! Sketch... February 2011

And the scrapping drought is broken!! Spent some lovely time yesterday at ScrapHaven and created this LO for the Feb Stuck?! Sketch.

I gave the sketch below a mirror flip to create the layout about the kids getting to meet the hosts of Saturday Disney back in December.

Card Making

Thinking I may have to call myself a "cardie" instead of a scrapper coz I seem to be making more cards than scrapping! LOL!

Here are 4 cards I made last night for 4 special ladies, using some Cosmo Cricket material girl papers that I had in my stash.

I didn't get any of the January challenges done- but I am making a solemn vow to myself that I will spend the last day of January getting all the mojo-blocking things in my home sorted so that I can declare January "scrapping" month and get back into some of my favourite challenge blogs!

It has been along time between blog updates- not because I am a slack blogger, but because I am a slack scrapper! I haven't scrapped a LO in months! Last weekend I created a card for one of Meg's friends birthday using Bella Blvd papers. And yesterday I broke the LO drought, and created 2 LOs. Cant show the full LOs yet as they will hopefully become class LO's at Scraphaven, so here are some sneaks. "A Girl's best friend", using Kaisercraft "Candy Lane" range and my trade mark fussy cutting! And a back to school style LO using MME Alphabet Soup papers.

Hopefully I have broken the mojo drought and you'll be seeing LOs coming thick and fast!

Christmas Decorations

Since 2000 I have been making a special handmade decoration to attach to the gifts of my very special family and friends. Over the years these have varied from cross stitch pillows to glittered letters, baubles and even the paper stars like my previous post.

This year I went with some origami balls called "Kusudama". What I didn't do though- was properly estimate the amount of time each one takes (almost 3 hours from beginning to end!). So far I have made 13 and still need to make another 4, and each one has 60 squares of folded paper (yep- do the math- that's over 1000 squares of paper!). I used an old copy of "Great Expectations" and am hoping that Charles Dickens wont object!!

If you are interested in having a go at making one you can find the instructions here (but take my word for it.... if you are going to make them Christmas.... START now!)

My presents this year are all wrapped in brown paper with string and the recycled book pages.

Christmas Star Tutorial

I have had lots of facebook messages in the past 24 hours since I posted a pic of the paper star on the Echo Park facebook page, requesting a tutorial- so here it is!

For this star I used 1 sheet of Echo Park "Christmas Carol" from the Merry Christmas range.

Step 1- Cut the sheet into 4" (10cm) squares. You will get 9 from a sheet and we will use 8. Step 2- Fold the square in half to form a triangle

Step 3- Fold in half again.

Step 4- Starting at the 2 open edges, cut a horizontal line approx 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the page, stopping approx 1/4" (0.5cm) from the folded edge. Repeat the cut 1/3 down from the top point.

Step 5- Open the triangle back out to a square.

Step 6- Starting from the middle, roll the two points together (rolling it over something makes it easier!) and glue. You can use double sided tape, glue dots, hot glue gun.... whatever you like to use- but it does need to be a strong adhesive. (Give consideration to which side of your double sided paper you want to be the prominent side. I wanted the musical paper to be the most prominent so I rolled it first. If I wanted the stripes to be the most prominent I would have flipped the paper over.)

Step 7- Flip the page over and adhere the next 2 points together.

Step 8- Flip the paper back over and glue the last 2 points together. You should have 2 rolls going in one direction, and one roll going the other direction. Repeat for all 8 squares.

Step 9- Glue the 2 middle rolls together- in this case making sure that the pattern is going in the same direction, so one music roll adhering to one striped roll. Step 10- Glue the bottom 2 points together. Repeat to create 4 sets of 2.

Step 11- In the same way as step 10, glue 2 sets of 2 together in the middle, again making sure that the patterns are going in the right directions. You will now have 2 halves of the star.

Step 12- Now glue the 2 halves together, making sure the patterns are continuing around the whole star. Glue the middles first, and then glue the centre (overlapping the 2 halves' points)

Step 13- Make a hole at the top of one of the points and thread some stranded floss, string or ribbon through it to make a hanging loop.

And there you have a star!

You can experiment with different papers and sizes of squares which will give you a different finished star size.

If you make one of the stars please leave me a comment with a link to a photo of your star- I love to see how they turn out!

Christmas Stars

Last night I ran some demo's making these stars at the Scraphaven Christmas break-up!

They are made from a single sheet of scrapbooking paper, and once again I have used the Echo Park Christmas paper (cant half tell I love this range?!!)

Christmas Gift Bags

45 minutes before I was due to leave for Black Forest Region Guide Leaders Christmas dinner tonight I decided that the plain white gift bags I was putting their gifts in was just not up to my standard! So I quickly decorated them! And here are the 5 quick steps in takes for you to make them at home!

Red Cardstock- cut to size of bag and border punch the edges.

Echo Park paper- cut to size and ink edges.

Add white thickers for name

Cut out ornaments from Echo Park paper, doddle on them and stick them on- mounting one with foam tape! Voila! 8 Gift Bags decorated in less that 45 minutes!

Scraphaven Class- 10th December

It's been a long time between posts- and a long time between scrap layouts! I've been busy making my annual christmas decorations (which I will share with you if I ever find the time to get them all finished!! )

Tonight I am teaching at Scraphaven in Sunbury- and am hoping the lovely ladies will enjoy creating this layout using the Echo Park christmas range! For the ladies who are booked, bring along a black fineline marker and your photo. (I used a 5x7 landscape, but we can easily adapt the page to suit whatever size and orientation you bring!).