Froggity Blog Hop

Hi all

Well here we are half way through the year eek! I hope the sun has been shining with you all and to celbrate acyually seeing the sun this year the Blog Hop theme for the froglets at Banana Frog is Summer, click on the link if you missed out so far and catch all the froggy inspiration on the hop!

So I was sitting in the garden and thought 'when is a boring garden table not a boring garden table?'



When it's been Banana Frogged LOL



For this little project to jazz up my table I used the new Totally tropical stamp set and some summery coloured stayz on.



I started in the middle with the big corner stamp and stamped around the centre of the table. I like mixing my colours of ink on the stamp, this one was done with yellow and pink round the edges



Then I stamped around the outside edge of the table.



I then added the delicate flourish of tropical flowers using yellow and teal ink. I added them in the gaps between the corner stamps around the centre and around the edge of the table.



Then to finish off some lovely Pink flowers.



I continued to build up the design ...



...and voila, my table is not so boring, in fact I feel totally tropical when I sit out in the garden now and I feel some accessories coming on ... keep an eye out for next months colour focus to see what I came up with :)

Thanks for hopping by and your next stop is with the lovely and oh so talented Audrey. Enjoy the rest of the hop and I'll see you soon oh and don't forget to tret yourself in the frog shop you could win a whopping £50 worth of stamps of your choosing!!
Love
M x

Ps Friday 12 noon I'll be launching the Pick of the week on Create and craft tv if you feel so inclined to tune in :) It's a great product and I am having the best time playing with it!!
M x

A quick catch up!!

Hi all

Well it's been a while hasn't it! I was doing so well with my scheduled posts and thought I was so ahead of the game then someone shouted 'scream if you want to go faster' and my world started going full tilt LOL Busy, busy, busy but it's all good and I'm just holding on tight to the roller coaster that is my life at the moment and enjoying the ride :)

So I thought I should pop in and do one of my 'live' posts. I can't believe the 2nd of June was the last one eek! Where have I been? Sadly enough I just had to get my diary out to remember LOL with teaching and telly and hubby to and fro at silly o'clock day and night my poor brain is addled.

Hubby is as busy as me, I think my car could find it's own way to the airport, I just wish people would book him on flights at a normal human being time, I'm rather tired of seeing 4am LOL. (and was rather surprised to know there were two 4 o'clocks in one day LOL)

I've done 2 more shows on Ideal World/Create and craft since my last visit. I NEVER thought I would actually say I'm enjoying telly ... but I am :) Everyone there is so lovely and makes it so easy. Of course it's meant I've had to create lots of Purple Cows samples and over time I will share them with you as they get published over at the ranch :)

I've also been teaching. Mid month I was at the Scrapping angels retreat and had a fab time with all the ladies. I will share my Glitzy classes with you soon and I would share photos of the classes but can't find the pictures I took (I'm working between 2 computers and 2 hard drives at the moment!!) :( However I do have pictures of last weekends workshop at Bee crafty.



I work shopped my pop up pirate ship (in my web gallery and shop!) A tall order but all the ladies were up for the challenge and we had a blast, they created some great projects!

I've been on 2 product training days too. I was on my way to one of them and got stuck in traffic!



I couldn't resist that photo LOL

The first training day I was very honoured to be in the company of Julia Andrus, a crafting goddess with an amazing story and an amazing company Eco Green crafts and I have to say products that I LOVE!!! The acrylic paint is like nothing I've ever used before and I urge you to get some and have a play! That day inspired this



Live today on the Banana Frog blog with step by step instructions, hop on over (after you've finished reading my waffle LOL) and check it out!

My second training day was fab too and I'm playing with a 'new to me' product, I will share soon, I promise, when I'm allowed to ... I am super excited about it though and it will be something you won't expect from me :)

Now I've written this down it doesn't look a lot, what HAVE I been doing LOL but that's it, the quick catch up on life in my world so I guess all that remains to say is ...

and finally ...

My boys are a constant source of entertainment and of course unconditional love. Ollie is growing up fast and really is the yin to Stan's Yan.



Although not quite big enough to get on the settee himself yet, he mithers me until I put him up there much to Stan's disgust .... goodness knows what will happen when he CAN get up there by himself!!



But they are cute together at times ... were does one end and one begin??



And this was just after Oliie's favourite new past time .... emptying the water bowl! He seems quite partial to an indoor swimming pool, I think I may buy him a paddling pool LOL!

Well that's it my crafty friends, enough of my waffling! I hope the sun has been shining with you and that you're well and happy. I'll be back soon .... honest :)
Thanks for stopping by, happy crafting!
Love
M x

It's a creative world with a shakey page!

Hi all!
Today is my turn to share over on the It’s a creative world blog alongside an amazingly talented bunch of crafters! Pop on over and soak up some inspiration!

My project is an interactive scrap page. You’ve heard of shaker cards right? Well this is a shaker page and I had so much fun with my Purple Cows laminator and alcohol inks creating it so without further ado this is how it turned out



Sun, sand and sea?

And this is how I created it!



First off I cut some masks in the shape of waves and layed them inside my Purple Cows hot pocket



Then I went to town with my alcohol inks, splodging and splattering and generally getting messy, that’s the best bit of crafting for me!



And while I had all my goodies out I filled another pocket with some inks so I could create some embellishments … look at that pattern of colours … yumsville!!



Once the inks were dry I sprinkled some glitter into the sea lamination for extra sparkle and laminated my two pockets. Cutting out seaweed shapes and fish I created my own bespoke embellishments.



After building up my 12 x12 to look like a sea bed I added a pile of sequins, micro beads, and laminated fish and seaweed in the centre of it.



I then stuck the sea lamination over the top of it, trapping in all the shaker bits. I built my layout up over the top, using some fish embellishments as accents on the outside of the lamination ...



... as well as some Seaweed around the bottom. With some Hessian, ribbons and my photos I finished of the layout and journalled the story of my little nieces trip to the beach where she loved the sand and the picnic but was just not convinced by the sea!

I hope you feel inspired to create your own interactive scrap page. Pop back often to the IACW bog to be inspired by the creative girls and I’ll see you soon, there and here! Until then happy crafting
Love
M x

1 Glitzy cheeky face and a Daddy's girl!

Hi all, today I want to share with you my 2 latest Glitzy creations using the fabulous new lines from Glitz Designs! All the new lines are so yummy and being spoilt for choice I decided to be guided by my photographs.

My first layout uses a photo of my cousins little boy. I haven't actually got to meet him or his sister yet as they all live in the States but via facebook I can keep tabs on them all and 'steal' all the family pics :) I've wanted to scrap this photo for ages and the Glitz Kismet line is the perfect choice to do just that!



1 Cheeky Face

My Glitz shopping list for this page is:
12x12 papers : Kismet floral (x2) Kismet brown and Kismet numbers
Glitz Designs clear distressing stamps (D2343)
Glitz Designs Save the date stamp set
Kismet journalling cardstock stickers
Kismet rub ons
Kismet Glitzers
Glitz Designs red block teeny alphas
And all I added from my stash was some Vintage photo distress ink.

This was one of those layouts that, for me, made more sense working from the inside out, I knew what I wanted to do with the photo so I started there and let the rest fall into place.



I cut a mat for the photo from Kismet florals, I love the colour combo of this line. Blue and brown go really well together and the pop of red works perfectly!



I wanted the photo to be framed as if it was bursting out of the page so I trimmed a frame from the blue side of Kismet florals (one of my loves of Glitz is the double sided papers!) and ripped out the centre, rolling back sections to reveal the floral side (another love of mine is the quality of the papers, they are heavy weight and stay where you put them!) I then used the star frame from Kismet numbers, again ripping out the middle, for the outside of the layout and cut a thin irregular frame from the centre I had ripped out to 'anchor' my photo frame on the layout.



To add a little extra interest to the bottom left of the layout I stamped with the Glitz ditress stamp, this pattern is feintly in the cream side of the Kismet brown paper I used for my base. And while I had the ink out I stamped some numbers from the save the date stamps onto some of the blue paper, cut them out and distressed them.



Before sticking down my photo assembly I added a journal block to sit under it, these cardstock stickers are not only great quality heavy duty cardstock but they are super sticky so position carefully before committing!!



I love, love, love Glitz rub ons, again the quality is the best I have ever used and one of my favourite things to do with them is to apply them to acetate, cut them out and use them as embellishments. I did that with the Kismet rub ons bird and bee and also did the same with the Kismet Glitzers flower stickers, transparent stickers with bling on them, so different!





With my embellishments cut out I added them to the layout on foam pads for extra dimension and finished the layout off with my journalling and the Teeny red block alphas which co ordinate with the Kismet range perfectly!.

And so moving on ... fathers day is coming up so I wanted to scrap a picture of my Dad and came up with one of my favourite pics of us together



Daddy's little Girl

Ok it was taken a while ago .... quite a while ago LOL But I didn't want to make it a vintage layout (no cheeky comments thanks!) and I didn't wanted it to be all the colours we associate with male layouts. I think the Glitz Maya line was the perfect choice to avoid all the obvious! (with a little distressed couture thrown in for good measure!)

Here's my Glitz shopping list:
12x12 papers; Maya patchwork, Maya polka, Maya Navy, Maya stripe and Distressed Couture blocks
Glitz designs Polka dot rub ons (black)
Maya Titles cardstock stickers
Maya accents cardstock stickers
Hot Mama Alphas
Glitz Designs Pink block teeny alphas
Maya Glitzers
I added a bit of ribbon, white cardstock and a couple of staples from my stash and used my sewing machine.



Maybe it's my brain at the moment, maybe I'm inside out! but again this is how this layout worked for me! I started with the photo and it's mat, which was a heart within a heart (the inside one from Maya patchwork and the outside one the text side of Distressed couture blocks, I love the news print!) I cut out the photo, losing the unnecessary background and mounted it on to white card, cutting it out and doodling to add a funky cartoon feel.



I wanted to 'ground' my hearts on the page so started to build up strips of the yummy Maya paper behind it (with liberal lashings of distressing :)) I added a small piece of the polka dot rub ons to the top left to add interest and used sections from Maya patchwork to build up the stripes on the right adding ribbons between the layers.



To measure time I added the ruler from Maya titles and used this as the place to add my journalling.



With the base assembled I stitched all the way round the 12 x12 using my sewing machine and also used a zig zag stitch between the layers of maya patchwork and to pick out some detail on the heart.



After adhering the heart I added my title with the Hot mama Alphas. I ran out of small case d's so I cut around the outline left on the sticker sheet and used that! The teeny pink alpha blocks work perfectly with my colours and adding the bird from Maya accents pulled the sections of the layout together.



My finishing touch was to cut a small section from 2 Maya Glitzers frames to make crowns for me and my Dad!!

So that's my Glitzy offering for now, the colours in both these layouts make me happy, so what will you create with some Gitzy goodness that makes you happy? Don't forget to check out the Glitz Blog regularly for extra daily inspiration from the talented Glitz girls! Thanks for stopping by and until soon Happy Crafting
Love
M x

Banana Frog sketch challenge!

Hi all! Every month over at the Lilypad the DT are set a challenge which takes the form of a colour focus or a sketch. This month's challenge was a sketch from the lovely Audrey



The results go live twice a month on the 4th and 24th of the month and today my offering is included in the post so I thought I would share it with you here with a little step by step.



Ice Cream

This layout is a veritable Banana Frog fest of stamp sets and was inspired by the sun actually shining (well it was the day I made it LOL) so to the ingredients



I have managed to use 5 stamp sets in my page Bensfolk, Round in circles, Make a chain, Cupcake greetings and Build a daisy. I also used some summery coloured Basic Grey papers and some yummy Cosmic shimmer spray.



I flipped the sketch and kind of flipped it again! I liked the long strip across the page and the the strip down the page so made these the main influence for my version. I masked the centre of some urban prairie white paper with some photocopy paper just ripped to create an irregular edge and cut out some doodled clouds out of card.



Then sprayed with some blue cosmic shimmer mist



While that was drying I stamped out the elements to create my sun embellishment. The centre is the large solid circle from the round in circles set and one of the dotty rings round it. This is one of my favourite stamp sets ... I think I've said that before LOL I just find it so versatile! The rays are one of the petals from build a daisy. Once they were stamped I cut them out leaving a little white margin to lend to the slightly cartoon feel my layout was taking on.



I decided to, yet again, add a bit of my own stamped pattern paper (you know how I love to do that :)) for the main strip across the page and set about working out how to make some ice creams ... easy really with the cupcake greetings cup cake and a little triangle from the ever useful make a chain set. I worked out where my photo would cross the paper and marked it so I didn't have to stamp all over the paper and set about stamping 'cones' in the visible areas.



Next with the aid of a little bit of card for masking I added the ice cream topping courtesy of the top of the cupcake stamp.



Then with my trusty pro markers in hand coloured them all in in candy colours. While I was stamping and colouring I also stamped out a few extra ice creams on to some white card to cut out for embellishments later.



The composition needed a frame, well to my eye it did :) so I used the dashed line from make a chain to add some faux stitching around the outside of the 12 x12. Because the strips of stamps in this set are thin and made of acrylic you can bend them how you want to on the acrylic block and create a real doodled effect with your lines.



Finally I stamped out my title using Bensfolk alphas. I love this alphabet and it was one of my first froggie stamp sets long before I had the honour of becoming an official froglet! I trimmed the individual letters into tiles using a decorative click blade in my Purple Cows freestyle mouse and then inked them to add definition.



To build up the layout I used strips of coloured paper across it with just the end of them distressed to reveal the white core to lift the layers and put my photo onto a distressed mat on foam pads to add even more lift.



I arranged all my elements, added my journalling and a stamped sentiment from build a daisy finished it off.





I really enjoyed this months froggy challenge and my sun shiney page makes me smile. So why don't you join us this month and see what you can create with your Banana Frog stamps ... and if you do don't forget to share :)

Thanks for stopping by, don't forget to check out how the other froglets interpreted the sketch. I'll see you soon and until then Happy Crafting!

Love
M x