A Glitzy Spooktacular

Hi all, well here I am again to share some more Glitzy goodness with you in the form of 2 spooktacular layouts with yummy Glitz Designs
As the Halloween season approaches I thought I would do a layout to record my Halloween celebration. The celebration stretches right back to pagan roots and is a time to celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of the next, in effect it is the new year celebration as well as a time to celebrate our ancestors and of course the rich harvest to see us through the dark winter months and it is known as


Samhain (pronounced sow-ein)

I love the mix of Purple and black for Halloween so what better line to use than Glitz Designs Plum Crazy, one of my all time favourites ... to date! Purple is such a hard colour to get right with papers and I think Glitz designs just hit the mark with this collection. Ok enough waffling this is my list of ingredients for my layout;
Glitz Designs Plum Crazy paper; Diamonds, chair, polka and stripe
Glitz Designs Plum Crazy journaling cardstock stickers
Glitz Designs Plum Crazy cardstock alphas
Glitz Designs Paisley flourish rub ons
Glitz Designs black damask rub on
Glitz Designs Distressing stamps; set two
Glitz Designs teeny alphas; round black.


I ripped the piece of chair paper in half roughly along the diagonal and distressed it all ... liberally! Using the text side of the paper it went across the base of the diamonds paper (also distressed of course!)


Before I adhered the lilac text paper to the base I worked on it. I used the alpha stickers to create my title but didn’t want them the strong plum colour that they are so I took some of the sticky off the back (by repeatedly sticking each letter to my jumper) and used the alphas as a stencil. As I had run out of some of the letters I cut around their outline on the sticker sheet so I could use the negative, I quite like the ethereal quality I got from mixing up the positive and negative alphas. I then used one of the distressing stamps and some black ink to stamp over my title and built up a ‘black mist’. Tip; to avoid getting a straight edge from the stamp I only applied ink to the centre, avoiding adding ink to the stamp edge. Once I was happy with the build up of black I removed the alpha stickers (remember Glitz Design stickers are really super sticky so really work at covering them in fluff before using this method!)


I then added a piece of the Damask rub on, this I ripped to avoid harsh edges, a little paisley flourish and then cut out the centre of two of the journaling card stock stickers to add later.


My photos are of my Halloween hearth, candles, crystals and offerings of food and wine, these I layered onto some distressed pieces of the polka paper


Lastly I added some ribbon, a strip of the stripe paper as a detail, some staples, the tiny alphas and my journaling which is a little bit of Samhain Lore.

And now I’d like to take you from the past to the present with all the colours of the autumn season.


Little Pumpkin

I love this photo of my cousins little boy over in the states last Halloween on his Pumpkin search. I’ve mixed it up a little with my supplies for this layout and here’s the list;
Glitz Designs Vintage Love papers; love letters and polka
Glitz Designs Kismet papers; brown and stripes
Glitz Designs Kismet journaling cardstock stickers
Glitz Designs Maya papers; damask and stripe
Glitz Designs Maya rub ons
Glitz Designs teeny alphas; brown round


I decided to use the 11’’ x 8.5’’ format for this layout for a change as I really wanted to focus the design around the photo. I layered up a strip of vintage love letters onto some kismet brown then these two onto the vintage love polka. All pieces were distressed and inked, that part of my design didn’t change!


I then added a torn strip of Kismet stripes paper, some ribbon for texture and then cut out the round journaling block from the Kismet stickers so I could keep the very fine line of the outer circle to use as well, so creating 3 circles from the one sticker.


Next I set to with my scissors and the coloured sides of the Maya damask and stripe paper and cut out some autumn leaves. I then inked the edges to define the shape and curled them with my fingers. (You could of course use punches or dies if you have them!)


I layered up the photos and the leaves, using silicon glue to give my leaves movement and added more ribbon for texture.


I added some leaves to the top corner of the photo for balance, added the teeny alphas and finally the Maya rub on birdie ....as it just seemed right :)

And that’s it my Spooktacular Glitzy offering for this month. Thanks for stopping by and whatever you get up to this Halloween may I wish you the warmest of Seasons greetings and Happy Crafting
Love
MJM x

Stamping up a treat ....

.... and no tricks :)

Hi all, it's my turn to share a project of the day over at the Lily pad ... this is what I've made ...


Oh so simple and cute for all your Halloween treats, want to know more about it? Hop on over to the Banana Frog blog for full step by step instructions :)

Thanks for stopping by, I'm sorry this is short and sweet I'll be back soon to chat more, I hope you're well and happy and until soon as ever Happy Crafting.

Love
MJM x

It's a creative world

Hi all
Sorry this post is late, I am nursing a poorly Oliver Pickles at the moment :( I just wanted to pop in and drop this off


It's Simple Things day over at It's a creative world and the word this month is Memory ....


....remember these? For more on my project and to be inspired by the other creative girls pop on over to the creative blog and enjoy.

I hope you're well and happy and until soon Happy Crafting

Love
MJM x

Do not open until December 25th

Hi all
It's my turn to share over at It's a Creative World today and I thought I would bring out an oldie but goodie, well it only gets out once a year LOL
Here it is




An interactive memory advent calender that will fit in with your Christmas decs and if you'd like to know more, like how I did the text transfer or stretched the paper to paint, pop on over to IACW and read my far more detailed post over there as well as getting Christmas inspired by some of the other creative girls on your visit .... well it would be rude not to :)

Now while I'm here I want to ask ... how are you? It has been an age since I sat and wrote a real life blog, it was way back at the end of July so I must rectify this soon, if for no other reason than to share some pics of my woofs, they are well and bonkers as normal!! Life just seems to be going so quickly doesn't it! I know the battle cry as we get older is time goes fast but oh boy! this year them upstairs certainly have ther fingers pressed on that super fast forward button don't they!

And while I find myself chatting can I just say a huge thankyou for all the lovely messages I've had in various cyber places I frequent about the Serif POW shows on Create and craft, I do really appreciate you all taking the time out to find me and leave me some love :)

Ok rambling now, I'll save up the rest for a real life post ... very soon I promise!

I hope you're all well and happy, until soon Happy Crafting!
Love
M x

PS do you remember I mentioned retreats a couple of days ago? Well I've just been officially announced for the Scrap-A-Mia retreat in May, check out the side bar for details .... I am so honoured to be with such an AMAZING line up of teachers (if not a little nervous LOL)

Spooky goings on over at the ranch!

Hi all

Just a quickie to say go on over to the Purple Cows ranch for some spooky inspiration for Halloween, there are loads of projects (and not just for halloween) all with absolutely FREE PDF downloads with full instructions for your inspiration!! Bargain :)

Yours truly has had some spooky projects published recently


The haunted castle


Halloween lanterns


A Bat Mobile (not of the car variety :))


and a real leaf wreath!

So why not visit the Ranch, do some downloading and be inspired all for FREE courtesy of Purple Cows!

I hope you're all well, I'm back tomorrow with some Xmas creativity so until then Happy Crafting

Love
M x

PS new class/workshop dates added to my sidebar .... fancy a retreat? Sparkle retreats has just been announced and I'll have another announcement soon :)

Scrapping outside the album with Glitz Designs

Hi all

Today I’d like to share a piece of home decor with you using the yummy Distressed Couture collection from Glitz Designs. There are so many gorgeous Glitz papers and products I feel it is a shame to hide them away in albums. I love the new trend to display scrappy creations around the home and with the trend to upcycle things combined this is an ideal project.


The ingredients I have used; Glitz Designs Distressed Couture paper collection, Distressed Couture dress form stamp, Glitz Designs paper layers, Glitz designs Whatnot, Glitz Designs frame rub ons and Glitz Designs clear frosting

I quite simply used strips and rectangles of papers from the Distressed Couture collection, distressed the edges liberally, (this works brilliantly with the double sided paper so you get to see both sides) added aged mahogany distress ink and got out the sewing machine to stitch my layers together while adding some texture detail.


The layers of paper were then adhered to the base of the piece which is a stripped piece of corrugated cardboard box (this is where the upcycling comes in! I love stripping cardboard boxes and using them for my crafting)


The focal piece of my scrappy creation is a double Distressed Couture paper heart, distressed of course! Matted on to a stripped corrugated cardboard heart, which is layered onto a Glitz frame rub on (Glitz rub ons are second to no other rub on out there in my opinion!) and all this rests on a slightly distressed Glitz paper layer.


The addition of some lace and velvet ribbon stapled on adds to the shabby chic feel and the Glitz Dream Whatnot lends that oh so trendy Alice in Wonderland look to the piece. The finishing touches come from some Glitz frosting twisted to a flourish, the distressed couture dress form stamp embossed in black, a bit of bling and a kilt pin with charms from my craft box.

A super simple but stylish project that looks great on a small artists easel displayed for all to see. I recently taught this class at a retreat using the Glitz Plum Crazy range and that looked great too so why not have a play with your Glitz supplies and see what home decor you can create with all the yummy products, talking of which there is a whole host of new Glitz goodies about to hit the shops and they really are to die for delicious, so keep your eyes peeled, even here in the UK as I happen to know of certain places that have their orders placed and I will let you know as soon as it arrives on these shores!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you’re all well and happy and until soon Happy Crafting!
Love
M x

Froggy colour focus

Hi all

It's part one of the October colour focus over on the Lilly pad today and here's my offering


Lillian Kathleen

I got so carried away in the moment of creating this layout that this month I don't have step by steps for you but I'll try and break it down so you can see what I did!

The layout is of my nanny as a little girl, her name was Lillian Kathleen and my niece was named after her Lilly Kirsty. I have used the Mastryoshka dolls stamp set, the rosecube alphas stamp set and the it's all about elegance stamp set. The papers are 7 gypsies and I've used distress inks in old paper, antique lace, tea dye and walnut stain.


I cut the swirl from some 7 gypsies paper and then stamped the Mastryoshka dolls onto some of the remaining patterned paper. It gives them an interesting look and adds a bit more interest than stamping onto plain paper.


Once I had all my main elements ready I worked out an area on the background to stamp a random pattern, using different colour inks, using the medallion stamp from the mastryoshka set to add some more interest to the background of the layout. Before adding the photo I used the border stamp from the same set to stamp onto the photo to tie everything together. Once all the main elements were in place I added my journalling which was a mix of making memories tiny alphas, Rose moka tiny alphas and handwriting. The number is stamped from the rosecube stamp set and then I stamped the frame from It's all about elegance for my title block.


I, of course, distressed edges as I went and inked things generously :) The last addition was some prima flowers in the colour pallette I've used for the rest of the layout.

Maybe you'll be inspired to tell a story today using your Banana Frog stamps. whatever you do, thanks for stopping by, enjoy the inspiration from the rest of the froglets in the colour focus post and as ever until soon Happy Crafting!

Love
M x