Lake District Scrapbook Pages !

Hello there ! 
Well, I have a good reason this time for my lack of posts - the traditional week away with my family to the Lakes ! We go every year and just love it and I managed to take some lovely photos this year as I treated myself to a gorgeous new camera about a month ago so had lots of fun experimenting with it ! 
That is not what I have to show you today though - I haven't been back long enough to craft and have only just cleared the enormous pile of washing and ironing !!! A few years ago when I began crafting I was a scrapbooker and looking back at what I produced in those days is quite interesting ! I have always worked in a style which uses soft colours and edges towards vintage and I love nature so that theme is always a strong feature. What always surprises me is how your style develops and of course you learn new techniques and inevitably do become a better crafter ! 
These pages that follow, were done in 2008 after our holiday ( quite a wet one I seem to recall with sunny spells ! ) and I thought I would share them with you to show how you can make very simple scrapbook  pages using embellishments that are downloads from the net to enhance your photos .

I probably wouldn't produce anything like this now as my style has moved on with current trends and they are very basic layouts but they were very inexpensive to produce and capture the essence of a lovely holiday. 

Rosie and I are big fans of all the beautifully illustrated Beatrix Potter children's books and along with a colour theme of greens and blues ( for the lakes and fells ) I used the little characters from her books to link the pages of the scrapbook. I also added some of her quotes and drawings  (this is a  personal scrapbook - remember that if you intend to reproduce and then sell on, that there are copyright laws ! )

I have use designer papers but if you look closely you will see that I have overstamped these. I also printed some of the images onto vellum just to add interest.

Thankfully my photography has improved slightly too in the last four years ( this may be due to the new camera though !!! ), but it's nice to look back on some lovely memories ! 

The stunning scenery of the Lakes is very hard to beat but it's nice to make up a scrapbook of your holiday snaps - so much nicer that just putting them into a photo album and choosing a theme makes the album " flow " when you look through along with a colour theme that links the pages too ! 

Hope you have enjoyed my little trip down memory lane and thank you for taking the time to visit !

Happy crafting ! Hugs Jane x

Framed Photograph !

Hello ! It seems that getting back into the crafting groove has proved a little harder than I first thought ! It's not that I haven't been crafting or teaching; I have just struggled to complete anything - until now !!! Beginning lots of projects at the same time has always been my downfall as I completely loose the plot and then nothing gets done ! 
The project I have managed to finish however, is actually a decorated frame for a wedding photo which is a first anniversary gift for a very special couple who's wedding we attended last year in Scotland. I don't have permission to publish the photo so I have substituted one of my lovely daughter and her handsome boyfriend instead - the colours of the flowers were to compliment the wedding photo but look equally good with this photo taken at Burford House Gardens near Tenbury Wells.

The frame measures around 35 x 45 cms so I printed the photo large onto A4. The wedding was in the Spring and the flowers were divine - all spring bulbs in pale yellow and greens which were very highly scented so I went with that colour theme just adding some butterflies stamped in grey to give an accent to the scheme (this picked up the black of the grooms jacket too).

Here is a little more detail :

The flowers are die cut and layered and the heart has been embossed in white. The little pearls are the exact colour that the brides attendants wore - such a pretty colour. The heart echoed the sweetheart bodice shape of the bride's gown - I tried to link everything together !

There are two stamped layers in a pale stone and olive green and everything else sits on top of the stamping - I have also added in some die cut scrolls and the lovely little butterflies were stamped and then trimmed out.

It would have been very easy to go over the top with this project as I had lots of space to play with but I think that less is more here - after all the object is to enhance the photo , not to overwhelm it !

This kind of project is a part of my business which I am in the process of developing ; it's just a stage on from a wedding album for those who don't want a fully fledged scrapbook. Quotes and other options are available on request via the e-mail address on my profile above ; I would be very happy to discuss your requirements !

Thank you to all my lovely visitors for still continuing to check out my blog for postings and I'm so sorry they have been rather sporadic ! Must try harder C- !!!!!!!

Hugs Jane x

Sorry it's Been So Long ...........

Hello ! 
It's not been a good few weeks in the Goldman household and I'm afraid my crafting and my blog have had to take a back seat but life beckons and it's time to move forward and get back into the driving seat !!! Thank you for still visiting - I really appreciate it !
I have a couple of very similar cards to show you today using the lovely DSP Twitterpated ! I love making these tatty vintage/retro inspired flowers and this DSP lends itself well to the style. 

I used a flower stamp to shadow the hand made flowers and I really like the effect; I stamped in a shade of green similar to the background card. 

The flowers were punched out and then scrunched, inked and layered. For a card of such simple concept it was amazingly time consuming and quite labour intensive as we found when one of my ladies made hers in class !

This card is made from a sheet of A4 - just score 10cms from one short edge and use your bone folder to get a nice crisp fold - it makes a nice substantial card without being overly large ! Here is a smaller card in the same style -

These flowers take a lot of work to get right and if you just punch out the shapes and layer them up flat your card will lack interest. This is a good example of how a bit of inking and tweaking can add that extra detail to your work.

Here is Suzanne's card; she chose such a pretty colour scheme and was thrilled with the finished results - I love it ! What I like the most is teaching people to craft; it's so lovely to pass on such a skill and watch people's creativity and confidence develop.

Thank you so much for your visit today - happy crafting ! 

Hugs Jane x

Twitterpated Summer Scrap Book Page !

Hello ! As promised, I return with the afore mentioned scrap book page ! I actually started as a scrap booker and it was my daughter Rosie who was into card making. I gradually started making cards and tags and now I'll pretty much have a go at most thing paper ( except origami - no patience !!! )
This was one of the make and takes at the training day last weekend but I don't do speed scrap booking and didn't finish on the day ! Also, I'm not very good at copying a layout though it was a nice one and super for a demo. Being me I had to change it up a little (well, a lot actually - it's looks nothing like the original layout !), but I am pleased now I have fiddled for over an hour, with the end result !

The layout features lots of new lovelies from the new Summer Mini catalogue including the gorgeous Twitterpated DSP. The original layout was nice and simple but of course I had to add lots of frillies !!!

I think the colours of this DSP are really well thought out and are quite unusual and they work well for a Summer layout which was the theme of the page; the photo is not my backyard but a show garden I photographed at the RHS Tatton Park flower show last year ! I have added lots of detail to the layout in particular with inked edges; this easy technique can make all the difference to your finished work as it gives definition. This is vital when you are working on 12 x 12 inches of layout

I had a lovely new " Paper Dolly " join my class this week and having never made a card ever in her life produced this .... which I just had to share with you ....

Such a pretty card - I see I shall have to up my game to keep ahead !!! 

Thank you so much for your visit today - have a wonderful weekend wherever you are and happy crafting ! 

Hugs Jane x

Sail Away - Two of a Kind !

Hello ! A little late for a post ( am supposed to be creating tea !!! ) but thought I'd show you a couple of very quick cards I made today using the a la carte stamp Sail Away. I've had this sitting in my box for ages unused but had a perfect chance to get it out as I had a birthday card for a friend of my husband to make and a card for some lucky friends who have just taken delivery of a gorgeous sailing yacht - it gets better - which will be moored up on Windermere ! We are going to visit when we go up in the summer for our regular holiday and I can't wait to see it !
These are two of a kind cards which I don't do often and they are very simple and quick to put together; not my usual style but designed with the recipients  in mind ! They would also make ideal starter cards for a workshop.

I have shaded this very simply with blue inks and worked on watercolour paper so my inks seeped nicely - here's a little more detail ...

This second card was made in 10 minutes and is beyond simple but we all know how much it would cost in the shops ! I've said it before - invest in tools and lovely card and paper and you can make cards for any occasion at the drop of a hat !

I have a scrap book page to show you soon which I started to make at the training day last Saturday - but of course I was too busy chatting and didn't get to complete it ( I can't roll out three make and takes in less than an hour and socialise at the same time !! )

If you have any questions about the projects shown here please contact me via the link on my profile. Have a wonderful weekend - wet and windy here again in the UK !!!!!

Hugs Jane x