Heavenly Crafts

Well, we went away to the Lake District last weekend.  As might have been expected, we didn't get there until late on Friday evening and then it rained most of Saturday, which meant that the walk in Grizedale forest never actually took place! Of course, we might well have braved the rain if hubbie had brought a coat along, but he actually listened to the weather forecast (you know, that forecast which he is always telling me they never get right!) which said it was going to be lovely and sunny.  Well is was lovely and sunny - but back home, not the Lake District!!!!

This weekend should be fun though.  I am off to Carnarfon for a line dancing weekend.  I've never been on one of these weekends, although I am, sad to say, a keen line dancer, so I am really looking forward to it.  Of course, I will have to take my camera with me, for all those photos of the castle, the sea, and maybe the line dancing, plus my laptop for all the photoshopping I could be doing in the free afternoons!

You may recall that I mentioned a while ago The Studio were having a design contest.  Well, I never got through many rounds, but the final round has just been completed.  If you fancy picking up some free kits, why not go and take a look:

http://www.digitalscrapbookingstudio.com/gallery/g1322-ndc-2011-3a-round-4.html

The kits in the final round are really something and well worth downloading :).

As for there Layout Artist contest I entered, I actually made it by the skin of my teeth into the fourth round!  Wonders will never cease!  We were given a really spooky kit to work with, Midnight from Deli Scraps by Min which can be found HERE.  This is what the kit looks like:

and this is what I came up with:



Whilst the kit has some lovely papers and amazing elements, it was totally not my style at all as I never, ever do anything spooky, or Halloween, no ghosts, goblins, witches and stuff  So the dry bones in Ezekiel came to mind and so that's what I went with.  Please take a look at the layout gallery and see what everyone else came up with and it would be really good if you would vote for me ;).

The gallery can be found here and the voting poll is here.  You do have to register in the forum to vote and voting is only until midnight EST tonight.

I;m in the process of designing a kit for The Studio Megakit challenge and so far, I have six papers finished.  I still need to get some elements done and also come up with a name for the kit (which I find the hardest thing to do!) but watch this space as it will be offered as a freebie in the next week or so.

In the meantime, happy scrapping!

Well, here I am , back again with another post, wonders will never cease!

Unfortunately, I didn't get through to the next round of the Designer contest, but I did get through to the next round of the Layout Contest and here is my layout for this week's entry:

I was actually really pleased with this but as to whether it gets through to the next round?  Who knows!  The voting poll is now up so if you are able, it would be really good if you would click on a couple of buttons and go vote for me!  The link is here so why not go along and have a look?  Even if you don't vote for me, there are some stunning layouts over there.  If you haven't already registered at The Studio, you will have to register in the forum to vote though.

Anyhow, I then decided to enter the hybrid contest, which is something new for me, never having done a hybrid layout before.  Mind you, I suppose making cards is, to a certain extent, somewhat similar, although I tend to do more stamping/punching/die cutting and embossing than using digital items.  I ended up using the kit we were given for the layout challenge, Early Morning Light by Piggy Scraps Designs, and this is what I came up with:


Everything except the brad was from the kit.  The layered flower was made using my Tim Holtz tattered florals die (which I love).  The photographs were taken at Wightwick Manor, about 25 miles from us, although I have just realised I have mispelt Wightwick in the layout.....Well, as long as no one knows where it is, nobody will spot this, right ;) ?!!!  The funny thing is, it looked like the wrong spelling when I made the layout, I checked up and it said it was ok.......I guess my brain must have been asleep at the time!

Finally, I have also continued with designing in the Second Chance contest, which is for those who didn't make it through the previous round, and this is my kit below.  I had yet another mental block when posting it to the gallery, so never mentioned exactly what was in the kit.  You know, if I had a brain, I'd be dangerous!  Anyhow, here is the kit:


It contains:

• 6 papers
• 4 flowers
• Plastic flower
• Tattered flower
• Stone ornament
• Flower overlay
• Flower scatter
• Tag and staples
• 2 Staples
• 2 ricrac
• 4 brads
• Vellum
• Cluster
• Circle Frame
• Rectangle frame
• Grass
• 2 leaves
• Ladybird (two colours)
• Cloud
• Sun

You can find it in the gallery here and the download links are:

Paper


Elements

If you do download it and make anything with it, I'd love to see it :).

Happy scrapping!

Well, I did mention these in my last post so I suppose I had better tell you all about them!

Firstly, the layout contest.  Well, we were given a kit to work with, and it was gorgeous!  It was Early Morning Light by Piggy Scraps Designs:

You really need to go check it out as it is beautiful and is currently on sale at $2.50 as well!  I've linked the preview to the shop so you can have a look ;).

Anyhow, all we had to do was create a layout, so this is my effort:

The posting deadline was midnight last night (EST) but because we went to St Andrews, I managed to get mine in on Friday.  Voting is now taking place, so if you would like (and you know you want to!!!), please go to the gallery and vote.  If you vote for me that would be even better, as currently I only have one vote and that was mine!  The gallery is here, and the voting poll is here.  I probably won't even get to Round 2, but I know I always learn so much by entering these contests, and it is fun, albeit stressful when I can';t decide what to do or keep changing my mind!

I have also entered the Designer contest and for this,we were give a swatch to work with:



I love the colours but found the fact that there was no green a real hardship - I ended up with blue leaves instead as you can see!!!




My kit is previewed at The Studio here where you can also find the download links, but you can download it direct by either clicking on the preview above or here.  Go check out the gallery as there were lots of entries to the contest which means lots of freebies!

I'm not expecting to get any further in the contest (although it would be really good if I did) but I always learn so much when I enter design contests.  This time, for instance, it was a case of playing around with brushes to create the patterned papers and to  make some of the elements.  I also played with the filters in PS CS5, which is why one of the flowers is slightly different from the others as I applied a filter to it.
Happy scrapping!

Well, I know I am always saying this, but time flies, doesn't it?  You try and get yourself organised, you blink and before you know it, over half a year has gone by and it's nearly Christmas again.....

What has been happening since my last post?  Well I've done hardly any designing (apart form a mini kit - see below for more details!), although I have been making lost of bible verse tags and really started making cards in earnest.  Here's a quick peek at some of them:


That was a new home card for my son and his girlfriend as they moved to a new flat a few weeks ago.  I'm developing a passion of Tim Holtz embossing folders and dies, as you can see!

Then lots of families form church have been having babies, so of course, that means a baby card (or two)!






And then a few other cards:




Sorry for the poor quality and the unusual background.  I put the cards on a wicker chair in my office meaning to get around to extracting the card from the photo but just haven't had time.

I've made lots of other cards too, but haven't photographed them yet.

Anyhow, we have been having a busy time of it recently.  Our daughter is off to Plymouth University so we had to dash to Plymouth the weekend before last, having only received final confirmation of her place on the Thursday evening, in order to go flat hunting,  We booked an appointment to see one from the motorway services and four hours later, she had signed the lease!

Then last weekend it was back to St Andrews to take up clothes, computer, books and so on for my son who is returning for his third year.  He's actually not going back for another 2 weeks, but he got the keys to his flat at the end of last week and wanted to get all his stuff in so al he has to do is go back by train in 2 weeks time.  We then had a very eventful journey back with a tyre blow out on the M6, a very friendly AA man and an emergency dash to a tyre place to get three new tyres!  Definitely one of my most expensive weekends away!

Then when we got back, I had to finish my kit for the "Next Designer Challenge 2011" at The Studio.   I;ve also entered the Layout contest as well, but more on both of these in my next post!