Happy New Year

Hello and Happy New Year.

I wish you all a very happy 2019. I hope all your dreams come true and it turns out to be a great year.
Some of what I am about to post was made in the final run up to Christmas 2018 and New Year.
The first two pieces of work are wall decorations designed by Adele Griffins. All white work. They took me a couple of weeks each to make. I really enjoyed making something bigger after all the Christmas cards. I had to use A3 parchment to make each one.

Below, are two gift bags. The round cameos are 3D. I used these for a small gift to give to my class members. Once again I had to use the bigger sheets of parchment. each bag is lined with a piece of coloured card. Those are the pieces I made at the end of last year.

 Next scraping. This is the first page I have made not only for this year but for a few months. Its a photo of my Christmas tree.The close up shows the vellum paper designed in gold holly. I sprayed the page with spray and sparkle before adding the photo.

Last of all, the first cards for 2019! I couldn't make up my mind whether to use a light or mid green backing card, so I made two! They are called half fold cards designed by Adele Griffins. The greeting in painted used gold ink. 

So, this kicks off another year of blogging. And crafty makes. Who knows what I will make in the coming year. I think there may be more scrapping ahead and parchment is my passion. I enjoy sharing what I make and you can leave questions or comments on here or Face book or twitter.  I hope you enjoy looking and maybe get inspired to have a go yourself! 

Keep safe and keep spreading the love.... every smile makes the world a brighter place!

Until next time.......

last post of the year!

Well, MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all and I hope you all have fun and lots of love from your friends and family, but I'll pass on wishing for the white Christmas if you don't mind! The Christmas patterns can be put away for another season.
First a pattern designed by Judith Maslen, the fairy on the tree. I added some glitter on the baubles and tiny gems to the branches. I have popped on a close up.

Her dress is not embossed but coloured with white blendable pencil from the back

Next is the same card but has a gold gel pen cross hatched section and the other is stitched with gold glittery thread. I can't remember the designer and it is from a Pergamano book of Christmas patterns.

this is a close  up, so you can see what a difference it makes when you use thread.

Another design by Judith Maslen. Coloured with blendable pencils and glitter added around the oval and on the tree.

Next a Pauline Loweth design. I love this one. I added some glossy varnish onto the holly leaves and  berries. Lots of cutting for the grid work but work it.

 Last of all a design by Judith Maslen which she kindly gave free on her website. Very cute and quick to make.

well, folks, thanks for looking and your comments on here or Facebook and twitter have been very positive and  encouraging. That is wonderful and its nice to know people enjoy seeing what I make. I look forward to adding to the blog again next year. Until then, keep safe wrap up warm and enjoy the Season of Joy!

freezing

Hello and I hope everyone is  keeping warm! The weather certainly turned cold and wintry! Woke up to a good frost this morning, and the sky is clear  night so I guess tomorrow morning will be the same.
I have a few parchment cards to show this time. All of them Christmas. Well, it will soon to time to send out greetings cards :) The first one is made of normal and lilac parchment. The baubles spell out NOEL and are 3d.

Below is a fave design by Judith Maslen.

Below is another by Judith Maslen I made this twice, once for a class and another to give to a friend. It also shows how the same design can look so different mounted on different card and colour and coloured in a different tone of colour. I added flat backed gems to the tree. again different colours. Also used a bow maker to add the finishing touch of ribbon.

Above is a design by Pat Murphy. It dates back from 2001. A very cute card. I used glitters in the halo and on the edges of the wings. Below, is another design by Judith Maslen. A simple design but very pretty.

Below is the last card. A design by Christine Coleman. coloured with blendable pencil.

So, that is all I have to add to the blog this time. Keep warm everyone and keep safe. Spread the love   I hope to see   you all again when I post again. Please feel free to leave a comment here or Facebook or twitter.

the Bewitching month!

Hello, the month of Halloween is here. Hate to be a party pooher  but, I don't like it. I hate pumpkin pie and trick'n' treat is something I wish our friends across the pond had kept over there and not exported it to here. But, that's just my point of view. The weather has been wet and windy and wild.
So, time to show the craft bits I have made.
First lets start with scrapbooking. My mojo has been very,very slowly returning. I have to once again thank Pol Prince for cutting some cut files for me.

This is Chloe a Graduate from Lancaster Uni this year. Myself and her other Nan, very proud Nan's too. I had two sheets of paper of the same design so I fussy cut one and  used it to 3D  the floral frame. Its simple and clean and fresh I think. I used a pro marker to colour the title

Next is Harrold. Granddaughter Chantel's dog. Just had a dip in the lake at the park. I wanted again to let the photo do all the talking on the page so kept it plain and simple

Chloe again, yes the tassel was worth the hassle!

So, now parchment, I only did one post last month. So, there are a few to show. First ,a Mary Kerr design I used red parchment to back the work and red card under that.

Above another super Mary Kerr design, this is a rocking card because well, it rocks! Painted with wet and dry method.

Now below and above same Anne Quinn pattern, but two different colour ways. Again a rocker card. So many ways you could make this, Make just the flower and add to a square card.   make a white flower and add green leaves. Maybe make the petals red and white why not? the petals are put into a blob of silicone glue.Which raises them up to 3D and it the centre, use  your choice. White one is gold micro beads and red one I used a glitter.

Below, is a Linda Williams design. I used blue parchment has the backing and white gel pen to add dots for snow. the star is 3d which you can see on the close up!

 Next, is a design from a Pergamano  supplement that was in the Parchment craft mag. Sorry off hand I cannot remember the designers name.

Below is a design by Margaret Knight. The design is simple but nice and to add that bit extra I used a bubble dome  in to which I added some glitter. So, now it's a shaker card.

 Last of all, two designs by   Tina Cox. first one design is next with 3D poinsettias.  with a brad at the centre of each flower. Then the last one is a charming card which was a nice one to make.

So, that's my efforts for this time. I hope you are all well and enjoying the autumn colours if not this awful weather. Remember to spread the love and remember Good things will happen when you least expect so stay positive and smile.

Please feel free to leave a comment here or on Facebook or twitter. feedback is always good :)

See you all next time! 

september

So, here we are at the start of Autumn, the weather is cooler and the leaves are beginning to turn colour, soon be Christmas! Like always I have been busy crafting. First I thought I would show the scrapbooking.
        I have said before my family have been up here and helping, well doing, the decorating. I have put up a picture of the double lay out so you can see how it looks side by side and then, I added the pages separate. I used the same paint we used on my walls and I cut out some of the detail on the wallpaper.

Next is the parchment. There are three rocker cards. The Robin is a design by Mary Kerr and I coloured the robin using the wet and dry technique. I used blendable pencil first because the oils in the lead protect the parchment from the water needed to use watercolour pencils. You have to be careful putting water onto parchment it can buckle if you get it too wet, so only use a damp brush.

The next card is the same design by Anne Quinn but one is made using only normal parchment and some gold micro beads in the centre and the other I coloured the parchment with a red and green pro-maker. Pro-markers are alcohol  ink. Getting coloured parchment is getting to be hard work has lots of the colours have sadly been discontinued. On the red one I used a mix of light green glitter and gold beads

                 Next is a design out of Parchment Craft Magazine which is by Linda Williams. I used a navy parchment to back the white design. There was lots of cutting out inside the circle. I added tiny dip dots on the navy to look like snow, For that I used a white paint.

 

I added a close up, because in the main photo you couldn't really see the gold writing around the circle and how the star is made 3D

So, that's all I have for this time. I will leave you with the thought I saw on twitter..

...

  that you need to be happy and be who you wanna be. if others don't like it then let them be. Happiness is a choice life isn't about pleasing everyone.

So be happy people and spread the love!

See you next time!

time flies

Good Evening. Well, its been a wet and often chilly August up
 in this part of the North West. Today's been wet and quite cold.
I have a few things to show that will bring blog posting for this month to a close.   First of all parchment. The first card is a pattern  designed by Tina Cox. Quite simple to do but a fairly modern design and quite fun, they use little toppers for the main design I used some eyelets and brads to attach them.

This third card is a design by Mary Kerr. Lots of cutting, I added a little glitter to the hats. Instead of stippling with a single needle tool on the fur for the hats I used a small ball tool. I find that gives more the look of fur. For the berries I have used liquid pearls. But you could use glitter glue or paint and dip dot. A green parchment is used to back the main design which is done on plain parchment.

 Next is scrapbooking. Photos taken on a picnic at Ennerdale Water. We had worked hard decorating and the weather turned out nice so we thought we deserved a break. Behind the one photo there is another hidden, It shows a bee feeding on jam and I added the story that explains it all.

Again the picnic, Marc my son-in-law with the dogs.

Last off all photos of the dogs taken at the picnic. Leo is mine and the other two belong to my eldest daughter and her hubby.

Well, that's all I have to show you right now. I'm sure there will be more Christmas cards made soon has the season of cheer is edging  nearer.

So, until next time, take care and spread the love.

cooler August

Hello all, I hope you are enjoying the cooler weather. I know I am. Are you following the European Games? I have been watching the diving  and enjoying that lots.
I have a few things to share this time. I have had my family up here and they have been busy decorating two rooms for me, so crafting went to the back seat for a while. We also took time out to have a picnic at Ennerdale Water My scrapbooking mojo is on the way back too. And I managed some work in my art journal.
First of all a page show casing Chloe one of my granddaughters. I had several  packets of flowers open, I had used one or two out of each packet  and so I decided to get as many packets empty as possible. I have been keeping this sheet of paper until I got the right photo for it. I added a close up so you can see the lovely Bramble Fox perspective "Beautiful". I printed off lots of photos this morning so I have lots to work with now the mojo is back.

Next is parchment, A pattern by Tina Cox.

Below is a design by Christmas Coleman.

Last of all my art journal. I tried a Indian girl in a owl head-dress Not a full success, but I enjoyed it It's been coloured it pencil and a flat back gem added to the head dress.

A close up shows it a little more, and I used a little gold gel pen too.

Next, the witch. Plain old HB pencil. I couldn't sleep and doddled away for a while and this appeared on the page!

Well, that is all I have to show you this time.  

 I have been reading a book by Jodi Picoult. It's fiction but she added an interesting thought before a chapter. She wrote. maybe bad things happen because it's the only way we can keep remembering what good is supposed to look like. Interesting thought. I guess we can all help by being the best person we can be. Spread the love folks and I'll see you next post.