Punky Scraps August Challenge

It seems like forever since I last got my scrap stuff out. I missed last month's DT challenge because I was meeting myself coming backwards and time just caught up so I was determined not to do the same this month or Nat would be cracking the whip. 

The August challenge is up and here is what I created

I was inspired by the shoes on the challenge photo to create a layout of my battered old converse - yeah no cutesy babies and puppies here!

Punky Scraps Challenge #42

This week we have a get picky challenge for you. Full details are at Punky Central

and this is my take on it using the Basic Grey Picadilly papers I had on my table on wednesday.

Crap light makes for crap photos so I've scanned and stitched it but not very well I'm afraid as I've just noticed the left side is wonky and it isn't wonky on the actual layout.

Book Tree

It's my turn over on It's A Creative World today. I made a tree out of a book.

All the details about how I made it and a link to the tutorial is over on the It's A Creative World post

Meet Fred

Fred is our resident house elf or at least until Christmas Eve.

He is The Elf On The Shelf and has been quite a godsend this year. It is his first year with us and I discovered him at just the right moment as our 7 year old was starting to ask a few awkward questions and his random statement of 'I know Santa isn't real so you can stop pretending' sent a tear to my eye. I did start to put doubts back into his mind about his statement by asking who eats the mincepie and carrot we put out and then I asked him to watch the video on the Elf website. He seemed to go back to the innocent little boy again so I figured if we can get another year or two of magic back then it would be money well spent.

Anyway the elf appeared on the morning of 1st December along with the accompanying book explaining his rules about needing a name so the magic could start, how he reports back to Santa each night and appears in a different place each morning and the big rule of NOT touching him. So far this has worked and he hasn't dared touch him.  I suggested calling him Gary after the late Gary Speed but his little mind was set immediately on Fred. Why I really don't know but Fred it is.

So far he has appeared in a number of places each morning and so far he has only come back to the same place once (yes you get what I mean by that lol).  The last couple of mornings he has appeared in positions that would indicate a bit of a party going on at the North Pole and he feeling a little worse for wear.

Fred was my inspiration for our Punky Scraps Christmas challenge. Full details are at Punky Central.

I used Hipstamatic pictures, the background was stamped with a stamp from the Cocoa Daisy November stamp kit using the Tim Holtz winter distress ink pads. I covered a chipboard christmas tree in some red and white spotty paper from My Minds Eye and added some bling, the journalling blocks are Websters Pages and the lace is some I had in my ribbon jar.

Cushion Love

This month on The Craft Garden blog I have set a recipe challenge.  Full details can be found here

My layout is about a cushion my youngest son claimed as his own the second it entered the house.  He can often be found hugging it.

I used some sewn cardstock by We Are Memory Keepers, a piece of fur, various flowers, ribbons, buttons, flower centres and I also made some flowers using twine.  I entered this layout into the design team call for The Twinery. I don't hold out much hope of being successful but I enjoyed making the flowers so I thought why not try?

Punky Scraps Sketchy Challenge

This week on Punky Scraps we have a sketch challenge.  The details of the sketch and yummy prize are over at Punky Central

My take on the sketch is this

The backing paper is Prima Alla and everything else is Websters Pages apart from the orange pompom flower from Basic Grey and the camera die cut which is Amy Tangerine. Oh and a few splashes of various mists.

Punky Scraps Challenge 33

This week the challenge over at Punky Scraps is a two parter to take inspiration from.

We were given a quote and a photo by Nat




Now I don't swear - well not the f word or other really big ones - so I do apologise if anybody is offended by the quote. 

However it really did strike a chord with me. Having had a few really bad days with the little one and his aspergers outbursts (mainly due to frustration because his thought processes are very different to normal people) I read the quote again and thought yes I really need to do just that.  I am the worlds worst for over analysing absolutely everything and sometimes it is difficult for me to move on from one of his meltdowns. I am still wound up but he is nice and calm and the perfect child most people see his as again. Mind it took 4 hours the other day for him to reach that stage and all over something really silly in my mind but in his it was very big. Even the tallest, ever patient, big brother had reached a stage of losing his temper with him. 

Anyway MOVE ON is what I must learn to do and not just in this situation but in other situations too which really mean absolutely nothing at all. I'm a terrible grudge bearer and I think trying to live a bit more by this quote might help with that a little bit too.

So here is what I made with those two fab pieces of inspiration

Woohoo

I'm really happy to announce that I got myself a place on the It's A Creative World team.

My first post over there is due in the middle of November.

Punky Scraps - Get Picky

The last challenge for September on Punky Scraps is a get picky challenge where the other team pick criteria for our team to use. The full list is over at Punky central together with all the fabulous design team inspiration.

I will admit that I left this until the last minute because I was a bit scared of the monochrome part of it having never done one before. I went through my papers though and taking inspiration from the picture criteria used a orangey brown sort of hue. I ended up sticking a bit of black in there aswell.

I think I got everything. The canvas caused a bit of trouble because I couldn't get a toning colour no matter what I tried so I eventually went for a prima sequinned flower centre (on the tree branch) that had a canvas back. Yes the canvas is there but you just can't see it lol

I think I went a bit overboard with the glimmer mist. Never mind.

I used some Basic Grey Out Of Print, WRMK Travel, some chipboard shapes (bird and branch) and letters that I had and have no idea who made them, some of my handmade crocheted flowers and some black prima flowers.

The photo is one that has been propped up on our mantelpiece since I printed it off a while ago. It was taken last October of middle man and little man when we were at Center Parcs at Whinfell Forest.

Punky Scraps Challenge 28 Sketch

This week on Punky Scraps it is a sketch challenge.  The sketch is over at Punky Central along with lots of inspiration for you from the design team.

This was my take on it

When my husband took the boys camping in the summer they went to a viewpoint and the photos scare the hell out of me.  This one in particular looks like one nudge and little man would send middle man rolling down the hillside.  I reckon if he had the opportunity to he would but who knows lol?

PunkyScraps Challenge 22

It's Friday again so that means getting a bit punky.

Every second week of the month we are getting sketchy and this is the fabulous sketch we were working from



and my take on it

Please do pop on over to the Punkyscraps headquarters to see what the others have done and we also have some guests this month too.

Punky Scraps - Tissue Paper

This week the challenge over at Punky Scraps is to use tissue paper

Here is what I created.

I used black and pink tissue paper scrunched up under the photo and layered some circles and stapled them together in the cluster at bottom right.

I would love some constructive criticism on this because I really feel there is either something missing or too much in that bottom right corner. My mojo isn't doing me any favours at the moment.

Please stop by the punkyscraps blog to see this months prize, details of how you can win it and also the fantastic examples of my design team colleagues and the guest designer.

Punky Scraps & Days 8 9 and 10

First up is this weeks Punky Scraps Challenge

It is a photo inspiration

Perfect for all those 80s photos I have in the loft but they are impossible to get to without embarking on an expedition of mountainous proportions so I took my inspiration from the 3x3 grid and came up with this.

It is one of the only layouts I have ever done on A4 and it wasn't planned that way.  This piece of corrugated card was an insert in a pack of photo paper and I had put it to one side meaning to cut it up into shapes.  When I was looking for a piece of cardstock for my base it spoke to me (well not really spoke but you know what I mean lol)

Onto the 30 day June challenge and days 8 9 and 10

Day 8 was sunset

I have loads of sunset pictures but I wanted to play properly and use the sunset from the actual day.  I ended up using my phone so the photo is very grainy

The clouds look rather menacing

Day 9 was fresh fruit

This was what my son took to school with his lunch

Day 10 is animal.

I took this quick phone shot of the heffalump sat on my feet most of the time aka Daisy dog

Punky Scraps Sketchy Time

This week over on Punky Scraps we are working from the following sketch:

this is my take on it

I think the most used thing (apart from facebook lol) on my phone is Hipstamatic.  I was snapping away while my son was dodging the jets on a local fountain and must have hit something by mistake. It changed to the salvador lens which gives a sort of mirror image double exposure type picture so I ended up with these pictures that are different but I quite like them.

Precocious Paper April Sampler

I was lucky enough to be chosen as a guest designer over at Precocious Paper and Tessa sent me this gorgeous package which was the April Sampler.

Here is what I did with the sampler.