Doing a Jenni Bowlin

At the weekend we visited a flea market while all others about us were losing their heads in the melee of Christmas shopping. And in the crisp clearness of Saturday lunchtime, with our breath before our faces and our toes crunching up in the cold, we came across a stall tended by a little old lady and her daschund, wearing matching quilted, bejewelled navy coats. She was selling vintage fashion items (what a fool I felt for not having my camera with me that day) - brooches, clothing patterns,  stockings, earrings... and buttons.

The Husband quickly ducked out; any opportunity to avoid having to look at, think about or touch buttons is leapt at by that man. I was left to rummage, happy if a little colder for having taken off my gloves for the express purpose of more effective rummaging.

I found many things I would have liked to take home. In the end, only one item found its way into my bag:

in the fashion indeed.

please excuse the lighting; it's black outside today

Just as Jenni Bowlin boasts vintage button finds, now so can I. I expect I'll look at them for a while, before using some on wedding layouts. And then, back to the little old lady and her daschund, for the next purchase.

A Blank Canvas

On Monday I said I would share a few more things from the market, so here I am, with my first real foray into mixed media canvases.

Up until last week I had three small (A6-ish) canvases sitting in a drawer, since forever probably, and although I knew they were waiting patiently for the right time to be unfurled to the world in their proper state, I was a little impatient with myself for not being ready for this magical time to occur.

Last week the time came. I laid out inks, sponges, brushes, paints, stamps, glue and a few other miscellanies and got messy. Here's what I came up with:

... and now I've released them to the world, where they can fulfil their destiny.

While I've got your attention, I'd like to announce quickly that following a short delay, March's scraplift challenge is up and running at the True XOXO Girls blog - pop on over if you feel the need for some layout inspiration. If you do end up lifting any of the gorgeous pages there, including mine (let's just take another look at it)...

....then you'll be in with a chance of winning a luscious prize from Candy Shoppe Designs. I know their kits, and I can tell you they are DELICIOUS.

Exploding Box (better late than never) and ***Other News***

A few months ago I constructed the base for a mini-album of sorts - the exploding pyramid box. Well, I've finally finished it. After deciding finally on the contents, I had to run a technological assault course of buying new printer ink, cleaning the printer nozzles, backing up my files, reinstalling Windows, updating all my links and drivers, and building up the computer again to get it to the point where I could actually print the photos I wanted, in the way I wanted. I'm the other side of that now, and despite my brain hurting a little and my patience being tested a lot, am back into the swing of the papercrafing thing.

Here is the exploding pyramid box. I've left the outside blank, except for a short title (yep, that's the person it's for):
And I've kept the embellishments on the inside quite simple, sticking to flowers and buttons:


As I said in the earlier post about this, the two papers I used were Sassafras Lass Life is Beautiful Woodland Whimsy Paper Garden (outside layer) and Scenic Route Garden Grove Brookhurst Street (inside layer). I'm now off to post this to my Nan in time for her birthday.

Other News

Well, first of all, I'm going to be published again in SNR Magazine. Second submission, second acceptance - not bad. If I keep this up I'll have a permanent free subscription :-) This time they've chosen to publish my layouts 'Me' and 'Slide Away' (the yellow and blue page).

Second, I'll be posting my 100th post in five posts' time, and to celebrate that I'll be giving something away - so keep an eye out for news of this in the coming couple of weeks!

Embellishments!!!

Emerging from my sewing frenzy last week I felt out of sorts with the world of paper. I have a few projects I need to work on this week but I couldn't seem to get into the right frame of mind to start any of them last night - you know how it can be sometimes, when it's hard to find that creative place...

So I decided to break myself back in gently. I grabbed a handful of random stuff and just started glueing. In the end, and in about 3 hours (if that's slow, I was also watching a film), I made 24 embellishments!

Things I used were circles of card, punched and bought flowers, patterned paper, buttons brads, gems, epoxy stickers, bottle caps, chipboard, paper clips, crackle paints and - check these out, they're my favourite, especially with the crackle paint - wooden pegs. A close up:

Watch out for more embellishments on the way. I'll warn you, they're addictive!

Pretty in Pink

Today was a close friend's daughter's christening in London. I wanted to make something special for baby Rosetta, or Rosie, something that she wouldn't get from anyone else. So I purchased a box frame, a few embellishments, and prepared to go pink.



First of all, I painted the outer frame in a dark pink and the inner frame in a lighter pink. Then I cut a square of patterned paper (I can't remember what it is or where it's from, I've had it so long) to fit in the recess. I cut a big letter 'R' for Rosetta from pink cardstock, and a slightly smaller one from a sheet of paper from the Basic Grey 'Bittersweet' collection.


After sticking down some flowers and buttons I adhered the letter to the background with foam pads so that it stands out.


Two of the embellishments I bought were a tiny basket and a bunch of tiny pink roses. I arranged these in the bottom corner of the frame, keeping one aside for decorating the letter. I tied the rose to the letter with some pink ricrac.


And added some buttons to finish of the decoration of the letter. To decorate the frame, I simply stamped a line of flowers along one side.



I finished off the frame with a tiny wooden pram, stained white. That's it. I hope mummy likes it. And I hope it'll stick around long enough for Rosetta to know it!

Thanking a Man

This is a card I made for one of my fiance's students. As a thank you and goodbye present, the student brought in some good wine, which deserved a thank you card. I used pages from an old book to create the bunting, and flyer for a music event that someone handed to me on the street.

Hey, Baby Girl

Another set of cards for friends and family. This time, for a new baby girl:


I'm keeping it simple because I'm making in bulk. I made 10 of these, for example. To complete the collections I just need to add some female birthdays, some blanks, some get wells, and maybe a housewarming or two. And all by the end of this month!

Back to Basics

The next installation in my mini-album rampage is called 'Nature and the Girl'. It's a light-hearted record of a visit to Kew Gardens, London, and my slight apprehension of the great outdoors (which, of course, is a long way from the controlled environment of Kew Gardens!).
I used cardboard - an old cardboard box that was happily decorated on one side (thanks, Ikea, for selling nice-looking but flimsy storage solutions). I painted the other side green, very roughly, so some cardboard still showed through. And then I panicked about Christmas colours... but the autumn colours in the photos inspired my choice of papers and just about brought it back from the brink of Yule.

I kept to one style of journalling throughout, to give the mini-album coherence and consistency, and threw in a few chipboard letters here and there to brighten things up.



I made all the flowers from scraps of paper, fabric samples, buttons and brads, enjoying more and more the rough, haphazard effect.

The papers I used were from the Cosmo Cricket Early Bird range, as were some of the embellishments, and the bird stamps were from Inkadinkadoo.

And it all came about because of the colours in this photo:

We Went Ape!

Once, when we still lived in Norwich, my brother came to visit us and we went ape in the surrounding forest. It was so much fun - climbing and swinging and zipping down wires! I've finally made a page to commemorate the occasion, called 'If You Go Down To The Woods Today':


The paper I finally used was from Sassafras Lass, called 'Say Timber', and it was a real collage of tree and forest things. I made sure I cut around the little rabbit's ears a bit so they weren't obscured by the other pieces of paper.


I added to the mixy, messy, random design by backing the photos with numerous scraps of paper and adding a lot of embellishments. I made my own buttons, since for reasons I won't go into here I only have a few real ones: I did this by punching a circle from some card, punching two holes in the centre, and then covering it with Glossy.

Last of all I stamped some images - a swirl and some great clouds and birdie (that Sassafras Lass Head in the Clouds collection again) - and cut them out, using them in relief: