About Me

My photo
Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
I have been crafting since May 2008, when in desperation to find an unusual birthday card for my Mum, I gave up looking in the shops and decided to have a go at making my own. I soon realised that crafting is addictive and I haven't brought a card since. In 2011 I completed my certificate in papercrafting as a result of the work I did as part of the course I started entering challenges on line and in magazines. I applied for design teams and also started making samples for Ooh La La Creations for their shows on Create and Craft. I have now completed my Diploma in professional crafting and most recently been runner up in the Papercrafter of the Year 2013 a competition run by Papercraft essentials magazine, I don't have a particular style I like to use elements from lots of styles and techniques, although I do love all things vintage. In 2014 I started to move more towards scrapbooking to take care of the huge family archive of photographs that were stored in my attic. I have continued cardmaking and Scrapbooking through 2015 and 2016 but have also become interested in off the page projects. I hope to be able focus on these in the future.

Monday 25 April 2016

Photo Inspiration at Ooh La La Creations

Hello everyone and thank you for all the entries in our Words Words Words challenge. To check if you are one of our top three pop over to the  Ooh La La Creations Challenge blog and take a look.

This fortnight I get to choose the theme and I have gone with this photograph for inspiration. I snapped it last summer at a garden centre near my dad's house.


So thinking caps on and lets see what you can come up with.

I used papers from the Say it with Words CD to make this red white and blue card inspired by the colours in the petunias. You can purchase a copy by clicking on the link and going to the Ooh La La Creations craft shop.





I wanted to do something a bit different so I took the car theme and made this card for a friend who has recently passed her driving test.

I used silver mirri card to mat and layer the patterned papers and added a die cut car to the design and some flowers and ribbon from my stash. The L plates I obtained by searching for full sized ones for sale on teh web and using an image from one of the searches I found to make my mini versions.


Inside I used the same papers and an image from the Paula Oakley collection CD.


I repeated the same image on the back of the card.


Monday 11 April 2016

Words Words Words at Ooh La La Creations

Firstly, Thank you to everyone who supported me in the 10,000 steps challenge. As a result I feel a whole lot fitter (or would do if I didn't have a stinking cold right now) and Cancer Research received a good donation from the sponsor ship.

Thank you to everyone who entered our last challenge there were some beautiful entries. Check over at the Ooh La La Creations Challenge blog to see if you were a winner.

For the next fortnight our challenge is 'Words Words Words'. You can enter any sort of project it doesn't have to be a card. I used the Shawn Jenkins collection CD (still one of my favourites from Ooh La La) 




You can purchase a copy from the website by clicking on the image above 
Whilst you are there check out the free downloads. 

I have made a lot of cards recently (we have a massive number of birthdays in March in our family) so I wanted to make something a bit different for a change. 


I love this particular backing paper from the Shawn Jenkins CD and decided that I would use it as a background to one of my favourite quotations from Sai Baba.

I used an old plastic picture frame that I initially tried to gild but it didn't come out very well. Not wanting to throw it away I painted it with a coat of white gesso then sanded it back. The gilding that came through the paint looked like old wood. 

To add to the shabby chic look I printed off some of the borders from the CD and stuck these onto the frame. I had some metal corners which I also painted and stuck these to the corner of the frame with a hot glue gun I then gently sanded them back so some of the brass metal showed through.


The large flowers were printed off from the CD and I cut them out and shaped them and used card candi as the centres before coating in a clear varnish so that they held their shape.

I then added other flowers from my stash that matched the pretty colours of the background paper.


Once assembled I left the glue to dry and then spritzed the whole frame with a solution containing pale gold mica powder to give a shimmering effect to it. Then left it to dry over night.

Once it was all dry I gave it three coats of spray and shine varnish allowing it to dry between coats.

I had never tried anything like this before but I really enjoyed doing it and it helped pass the time on a really rainy Easter Sunday.