Everywhere you look at the moment there are Union Jacks emblazoned on everything (I was tempted by a pair of Union Jack shoes last week but thankfully realised in time that the potential for wearing them again without looking silly was quite limited!)  I recently found a little pack of papers in Hobbycraft that were the perfect size for cards and some of the designs will be suitable for other non-Jubilee themed occasions as well . As my sister's birthday is on June 4th I couldn't let it pass without a little nod to the Jubilee on her card this year.

Let's hope the nice weather continues as my sister is celebrating her birthday with a family party and there are also village festivities for the Jubilee so it will be a busy fews days (perhaps I need those shoes after all??)

Here are a a couple of layouts and a card made with the May Gottacraft kit, it's now sold out but you can buy the Lily Bee papers and stickers in the shop.
 

And finally a card with some punched and layered butterflies.

Have a great weekend x

The monthly kit from Gottacraft is available now, it contains papers from Lily Bee Design's Buttercup range. This is the first layout I've made with the kit, the photo is my niece dressed up as an explorer for my Sister's jungle-themed Baby Shower.

The zig-zags were made from strips of paper and which I cut and then folded to make the shapes. There is a great tutorial here on how to create them.

I have also made a card with some of the papers, I cut the frame using my Silhouette as well as the butterfly. I finished it all off using a thin glue pen to draw a frame around the card before sprinkling on glitter.

Thanks for stopping by x

Sian's Storytelling Sunday

It's time for Sian's Storytelling Sunday again, this month I have a layout about my Granny as my picture. The reason behind making this layout now is that it will be 25 years ago on the 15th May that she died. Such a long time ago but in some ways it doesn't seem very long at all since we spent time together. I was a teenager when she died and it was very sudden. I can still remember the feeling of utter shock when it happened even now.

But this post is about the positives of her life, about the things that she taught me and perhaps traits in her personality that I may have inherited. She was an immensely practical lady, she could sew, knit, bake, build things from bits and pieces and loved tending her garden. Some of my earliest crafty endeavours were assisted by her, learning to knit, using her hand-cranked sewing machine to make clothes for my dolls, making free-hand tapestries on old pieces of linen using scraps of wool and then mounting them onto home-made wooden frames. I would visit her house at the weekend and cook lunch for us all (some of the same recipes I still use today).

She was fiercely loyal and protective towards her family, and was always ready to step in to help if needed. She could be stubborn and was a little set in her ways and wasn't at her best in the mornings (and I'm not saying which of those traits I may have inherited...!)

Conversely some of things she did have helped me in other ways, I know I will never smoke, I will look after my teeth and I will never remove caterpillars from cabbage leaves by squashing them between my fingers!

Not all of her endeavours turned out successfully - her recipe for homemade orangeade using Andrews Liver Salts and orange squash is not one I will be repeating!

I'll be taking some time later to check out other peoples stories via Sian's blog, I can't wait to see what's in store...

Well it's the weekend again which is great, but it doesn't look like this one is going to offer much weather wise though which is a little depressing! I've had a busy week but with a nice start, my newest Nephew was born on Monday and he is an adorable little chap. I'm sure he'll be featuring in my pages very soon......
 

This is a layout using MME from the April ScrapRoom kit. The page is about my DD who has loved to read from a young age (and was pretty much self-taught) She likes to write now almost as much as she likes to read, maybe one day she'll be published - who knows! I've had the little clothes pegs for years and have seen them used on some layouts recently. I've turned round so they don't stick out of the page too much which is something I'd never thought of before - I'm glad I've finally found a use for them!

I have been using quite a lot of black and white photos recently, this works well for me as it means that I can use whatever papers I like without having to worry about matching or toning the colours in the pictures. So here is another layout using the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan papers, and for this layout I made a background by sticking strips of the papers onto a circle which I then framed with a scallop shape cut on my Cameo.The jars were cut out from one of the patterned papers.

Have a great weekend, fingers crossed the sun stays shining for us!

I usually scrap pictures of people rather than things but I had a photo of a beautiful orchid DH gave me on Valentines' Day which I wanted to scrap.

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 The papers are from Dear Lizzie Neapolitan which came in the April Scraproom kit. I cut the background shape in two sizes, brushed paint around the edge of the smaller one and then added hand stitching around the edge.

The orchid is still alive and well and looking lovely - and has lasted far longer than a bunch of flowers would have done!

Shimelle has been hosting a weekend of scrapbooking inspiration over on her website, and one of her challenges that caught my eye was about inspiration points. She had taken a layout and then taken some elements of it as inspiration in her own page. So I had a go too (although I think mine may be more scrap-lifted than inspired but there you go!)

 

The papers and other bits are from the April ScrapRoom kit and are from Cosmo Cricket 2went Thr3e. My points of inspiration were the butterflies, the inking and the title. I decided to make a page about the special bond between my DS and my Niece, who thinks he's fantastic. I've pointed out to him that when she get's older she probably won't be so keen so make the most of it now!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend x

We're well into April now and a new kit is now for sale at Gottacraft but as I haven't shown them before here are a couple of layouts I created using the March kit which had MME Miss Caroline papers in it.

On the second layout I did some hand stitching around the circle and some swirls on the pre-printed panel at the bottom of the page.

Thanks for stopping by x

The April kit from the ScrapRoom arrived earlier in the week and I haven't had a chance to use any of it until today. I have used the MME Follow Your Heart 'Be Amazing' kit first. (I don't think I'll ever be one of those people who can't bear to cut into their papers, I love cutting them up!!)

One of the papers had hexagons on it so I cut a few out to put around my title. The transparency which I guess is meant to go over a photo I attached to the page with a couple of buttons and then I've used it to tuck my tag in to.

Enjoy your weekend x