Dare 46 is up....

.....the contents of....
WOW what a wide range of ideas and interpretations we had for Dare 46. I went for 'The Contents of My Imagination' which turned out to be a very strange, dreamlike place of fairy tales! This wasn't the layout I had in mind originally. At first I was going to have thought bubbles for everyone with their favourite things inside but I was inspired by Basic Grey Phoebe paper I had sitting on my desk. I had it in mind to make each one of us into a character that suited a part of our personalities but this was going to be secondary. The characters were such fun that they became the focus of the layout!
'The Tall Blonde One' is a boy of nature and a tall bean seemed very appropriate!
'The Boy with the Hair' loves all super heroes and even as I type he is being 'Ben 10' upstairs!
'Little Miss Acorn' hadthe option of being a bird, but the fairy one out and I think it suits her perfectly.
I was of course 'Momma Hen' with the Curly 'Whirly Tail'.

After initial fear of drawing freehand on the paper I went for it and found it very easy. The strawberries and strawberry flowers followed quite naturally from there.
Looking at the layout now I realise that I've produced a look that is very close to one of my favourite artists, Gyo Fujikawa. She illustrated my VERY first book, a nursery rhyme book and I always loved the Old Lady Who Lived in the Shoe. She had strawberry runners all over that page and I loved counting the berries!
Funny how these influences will out all those years later!!

Materials
Patterned Paper: Basic Grey
Other: Various QuicKutz Dies and Revolution Dies.

On Reflection......

The boy with the hair" was admiring his very fine self at the weekend as I leaned on the door jam chatting to him. I noticed that he looked like twins so grabbed my camera and took some shots. Being the off-spring of a scrapbooker I have to say the sprogs are VERY tolerant of their old Ma's photo taking!!As we have red walls this Basic Grey paper was the perfect choice. I kept it simple with the 'Reflections' title - backwards of course (chortle) cut with my QK Revolution. Scan is a little dark but you get the idea! So there you have it- instant twins without the stretch marks!!Publish

Ooooh New Clothes??!!!!

Found this lovely shop Nomads in Cornwall- well I found them online (as much as I love Cornwall - it's a bit far midweek!)
Not only do they sell lovely clothes, they are long enough in the sleeve for freaky tall me, they are a great price and most importantly they are Fairly Traded!
In fact I had a good nose around after finding Nomads and discovered the BAFTS website which is the British Assoc for Fairly Traded Shops. They have lists of shops that sell Fairly Traded goods- both in shops and online- rather cool and such lovely and unusual products too.

Scrap-a-go-go Day and Dare 45.

Dare 45 is up 'An Interview with...'
For this I asked my kids and 'Dh' what they liked about each other and what their fave thing to do was. All comments were positive and some made me chuckle. It was actually a ovely thing to record and I highly recommend that you be brave and ask your loved ones direct questions once in a while- their answers are most revealing and lovely to record for the future! Kind comments written down can also be waggled under people's noses should the need arise!!

Woo-Hoo my first kit from Scrap-a-go-go arrived today and mighty fine it is too- lots of lush Daisy D's papers and Hamly Studio overlays- I'm gonna have fun playing with that!
As the kit comes in a YELLOW pizza box I got and even more bewildered look from the Parcel man than usual!!!!

Layout Materials
Patterned Papers: La Foofala : Rusty Pickle
Other: Tags, Distress Inks, 7gypsies Stamp.

GORGEOUS!!!

Carolyn arrived!!! And she's beeee-autiful!!!! She's nestled up against Thumbelina and Seals!
So many different colours swirl around the outside of this clear bead including pink, violet, red and a yummy brown! *happy dance*

Inchies are FUN!!!!

They size doesn't matter well when it comes to Inchies size = cute, cute, cute!!
I had such fun doing these. I created the background first in a 6x5" sheet by layering ink, images and gaffer tape. I used lumiere paints to add some shine and then UTEE'd the whole sheet which really made the lumiere paints POP!
I then chopped away at the sheet creating (roughly) 1x1" squares- well measuring and straight lines ar not one of my strong points!! I then added small images from the Tim Holtz Distressables range which are the perfect size! After some 7gypsies transfers I added Glossy Accents to the surface of each Inchie to seal them.
They are a little wobbly after being blasted with a heat gun but they were such fun to do!

Scrap-a-Go-Go DT- SORRY!!!!

Girls of the Scrap-a-Go-Go DT I'm so sorry that I mentioned Ali and not you others *gets on knees* PLEASE forgive me!!! I love you all and love your work...but WHY do you have to use proper names on DT's I only know you by forum names- you confuse a girl!!!!!
I'm counting down to the 16th when my kit is sent out- Looks fab and the DT LO's (ALL of them!!) look lush!!!

Scrap-a-go-go GO!!!

Very excited this month because for the FIRST time I am buying a kit! Not just any kit- it's a Scrapa-go-go kit and it's looks yummy! I was lucky enough to get my name down for one of the single March kits that Lorraine does and wonderful it looks too. Cannot wait (although I HAVE to!!) until the 15th of March when it will be winging it's way to me!! They have one of my fave scrappers Alison McGovern on their design team another point that tempted me to join in the fun!!
Check out the ScrapaGoGo site and drool over the kit too!

Dare 44- TEXTURE!!!!

Dare 44 is up and it's TEXTURE. I loved this picture of 'the tall blonde one' collapsed on the floor- with such long legs and with so many of us in the house the floor is usually covered in sprawling sprogs! This is kinda funny because my Mum used to complain about my sprawling tendencies and those of my brother when he visited. She complained that we had sofas so why didn't we use them??!!
I emphasised the textured elements of the layout by keeping everything else very simple and paired back. Brown paper (from an envelope!) was pleated and sewn onto the layout- I had intended to sew for added texture but in fact I HAD to sew as brown paper is immune to any sort of glue!! Very frustrating!! Squares were torn also stitched on.
The title was created from Stampboard due partly to a discussion with my pals about how we had Stampboard stashed away and WHAT did you do with it!! It was the impetus I needed to dig it out and have a play! I have to say the Distress Inks (shades of blue) went onto the Stampboard a dream and then I had a great time scraping into the chalky surface to reveal the bright white contrasting surface beneath for a textured border to each letter.
Stampboard is OUT IN THE OPEN now and will be experimented with again!! I LIKE IT!!
Dymo tapes for that grungy 'boy' look was added to complete the layout.
Get on over to the Everyone is Speshal site to see everyone's take on Texture!

Butterscotch Dreaminess Ahhhhhh!!!!

Take 300ml of milk and one packet of Butterscotch Angel Delight make two thirtysomethings VERY happy!!!
"Dh" and I had been reminiscing about kids food and how everyone NOW is so anti-colourings and anti-sugar and anti-this-and-that that it's a wonder we ever survived with our 1970's diet. I remember when Bird's custard was BRIGHT yellow whereas now it's a kinda pale buttermilk shade. Mucron medicine was actually palatable (sinus sufferer here!) because it was so full of sugar that it would crystalize!!
Recently at school the headmistress has decided that break is to ONLY be fruit or veg, no crisps or biccies allowed. Slight problem in that my children are not big on fruit and veg and to be honest I'm MORE concerned about getting some calories into their fast growing bodies! Obesity is NOT a problem for my three striplings whereas keeping them fed with something with a bit of bulk has become a huge political issue because cereal bars might contain nuts and there are nut allergy sufferers in the school.
I would be mighty worried if my children had a severe allergy but there has to come a point where the parents and the child itself needs to take the responsiblity for their care. I suffered attrocious hayfever as a child (still do) and I had to limit what activities I did at certain times and places because of it. Playing in cornfields, grassy meadows and evening jaunts were NOT possible for me but it eiether go without or be laid low with massively swollen eyes and breathing problems. I understand nut allergies are potentially deadly but then so are bee/wasp allergies and some peoples asthma and wasps are not erradicated are they??

Anyway rant over- and it IS directed at the nannying attitude of schools, not individuals- makes me mad as heck!!

So I made the BEST PUDDING IN THE WORLD for 'DH' and I last night-Butterscotch Angel Delight, with Hundreds and Thousands sprinkled on top for that full 70's throwback feeling.
And it tasted like heaven *swoon*
I think we may have a convert in our midst though as 'The blonde one' had a taste and was rather taken with it, deciding that he'd like some next Publishtime I buy a packet...*grumble* less for us!!!

A Trip Down Memory Lane.

I was very excited to be asked by Mel to design for ATDML for their March Gallery. She sent me some of the wonderful new Basic Grey papers the Perhaps and the Scarlett's Letters range- just lush! The soft browns and sand colours of the Perhaps range with it's gently swirling designs is one of those ranges that can be used for SO many layouts. I had this 1980 picture of my Mum and me at my Brownie Camp. The colours were brown and yellow which could have looked a little garish except for the lovely 'Perhaps' paper which made all those colours tone together beautifully. I wanted to add a little movement to the static photo so I used two curves mounted on lightly darker cardstock then raised on foam tape. The curves move your eye across the layout and form a great background for a title.

My niece and I had our piccie taken at Christmas and even though I am 6" tall I was the shortie!! I love the teenage 'look' I'm being given here- I also had my head patted *sigh*. The grungy Scarlett's Letter paper was perfect for this LO as my Niece is a bit Emo!!

When I was looking for an Altered project for my third Basic Grey design my eyes fell on my rather grotty looking Ikea wooden drawers. They needed a freshen up and this pink and green 'Perhaps' paper was just perfect! I painted the drawer fronts in MM green acrylic paint and then drew around the front on each drawer onto the back of the patterned paper. I trimmed each front piece so it fitted the drawers and stuck it in place with double sided tape. I added Dymo tape labels so I could organise all my stuff! Really quick way to refurbish your storage.