Memory book and box

So with my new cammie I wanted to make everything and do it all well and do it all at once!! my impatience shone through :} I had to compromise and start just one project so I thought I would make my daughter a memory book. I thought it would be quick and easy, how wrong was I?
It wasnt just the finding photos to use it was discarding the ones i wasnt!! I have enough on stand by to make another 2 books!!! Then the choosing of embellishments and colours...well its taken me aabout a week to get it to some sort of order, whilst I was unable to craft I was running ideas around in my mind and rejecting some right off and trying some and rejecting them until I ended up with the completed project....

The box was handmade by my hubby as I made 2 and they were both a disaster and I threw a big big tantrum so hubby took some card and made me this box....I made the flower from 6 scalloped circles and my trusty pokey tool, I stuck a gem in the middle to bling it up and used lilac distressed ink to give the white card a hint of colour. The pink frame I cut on my cammie and used one in the book and one on the lid. I used some purple satin ribbon for interest and some peel offs for the corners. I used the same gems on the corners as in the middle of the flower.

When you open the box you see this....

It is a memory book made from hardboard that I bought in the sales for £3.00. I painted every page with a gold paint for a base to work onto....

The flowers were cut on cammie and are from the sil store, I just used some brads from my stash to bling them...The embellishment was from a cd that I imported to cammie and made print and cuts from.

I wanted something on the front to make my daughter want to open up and see whats inside....hopefully this will grab her interest!!

The first picture I wanted to use was one from her childhood and so I did a page with teddy and a dolls house that I have used several times and is similar to one she had as a child...this led onto this page..

My 3 boys and Nicky!! They looked so sweet in this picture and the youngest is now 26 so a very old photo of them...the saying limited edition love was relevant because I always told my children that I will always love them but that didnt mean I liked what they did!! But we are a close family and I know they will never be alone because they will always have eachother.....

I then put this picture in to show what a spectacular woman my daughter has become a few flourishes and a nice sentiment and that side of the page spread was done...

As I had used a light purple on the other part of this spread I chose to use a blue to co ordinate rather than another purple incase it clashed....because it was the favourite picture of my daughter that most  agree on how fab she looks in the photo I thought I would remind her that  everything is possible and this sentiment felt perfect for that picture....

This was the next page and the backing paper was great for this photo as the people in it are Carly, Kevin and Nicky 3 best friends together...they have lived together, they go out together all the time and they holiday together,hey they even worked together for a while...but the point is that they travel all over together...the three of them have at least 2 holidays abroad together each year and they have for the last 10 years...whatever else is happening in their lives they always have a shoulder for eachother and I think they would be happy in a world with just them three hehe

I put this opposite the page with her friends because this photo was taken when she lived with them and so is a memory of their friendship...I cut a few butterflies and added them to this page...by now I was really struggling for inspiration...this is what I came up with next

My daughter will not like the fact that I put this photo in...it was taken the first night she went out after splitting from her long term partner and so it is still a memory...not all memories are good but sometimes you are stronger for having over come certain challenges life throws at you and indeed her life is so much better now than it was...

The sentiment here says:Summer is filled with breaking the rules, standing apart , ignoring your head and following your heart.....I think this sums up my daughter quite well

hehehe I had to throw one in didnt I??? The sentiment says: If friends were flowers Id pick you...well if I hadnt put a photo like this in then my daughter would have wondered what had gone wrong heheeh

Finally a photo of her and her current partner!! Hopefully they will be together a long time as he is such a nice person and they are sooo alike in their ideas and principles thye are a good match and I hope they have a very happy life together...

Here is the last page where I put photos I wanted in this book but had nowhere else to put them...

Not the best memory book in the world, but it was my first attempt and I just wanted to add more and more but I stopped myself as the card maker in me came out and I thinkl before I make another of these it would be an advantage to do a little more scrapbooking to get the page lay outs better..

Thank you for looking
Love debby xx

Im sooo disappointed!!

I am sooo disappointed...there was my breand New Cameo all set up and ready to go and pow.....we have the biggest heatwave in years...2 weeks ago we were on flood alert and now its soo hot that it reached 30oc in my garden...as many of you will know with my heart problems I find extremes of weather very difficult and in the heat I am having real problems breathing so I have been unable to do the playing I so desperately wanted to.

I tried cutting some scalloped circles to make into flowers but so far have managed a paltry one!!! The weather forcast is for the heat to abate alittle over the weekend so im hoping that I can soon get to play...

love debby xx

My Cameo arrived today

I am so happy...my Cameo arrived today!! My darling hubby set it up for me immediatly and after half an hour of it arriving I was doing my first cut with it......I didnt do anything exciting just a square frame and a snowflake that came free with  the software but it cut beautifully.....

I used the blade that I had in my SD for my first cut because I knew that blade was fine and I didnt want to put in a blade I didnt know for the first cut because if it hadnt cut well I would have thought it was the machine and probably held it against the machine forever"!!

I also used the mat that I've been using so no problems with a too sticky mat ...I gave the cameo every advantage I had after hearing some horror stories of what went wrong for others....

Now my biggest problem is deciding what my first real project should be for Cammie the cameo..and dont worry Silly Babes is still here and ready to go...I think hubby has designs on her but shes still my babes, my first love affair with cutting machines!!

Thank you for visiting my blog

Love Debby xx

Im having a new babes!!

I cant believe it.....my wonderful hubby TOLD me to buy the silhouette Cameo this week....and I am now nervously awaiting the arrival of my new babes. Its been 2 days since I ordered Cammie and Im pacing up and down waiting but it said 3-5 days delivery i think ill need a new carpet by the time it gets here.

I also think now I have that responsiibility Ill have to grow up and actually write my blog properly instead of in my jokey way...I have even been making some files whilst I wait....who knows what the cammie will bring to my life but as Im mostly housebound and very limited on what I can do as to wether its a good day or a bad day health wise Im hoping it will bring a little sunshine into my life...

As you know I have been working with the silhouette SD for about 2 years now (silly babes) and have yet to tell her shes being replaced....but horrors..hubby said 'put her on ebay' I have now educated him that sil babes is a member of the family and will still be used alongside Cammie!! I asked him to make me a desk in the living room so i could put sil babes there but I think he thought that was going a bit to far and he said a resounding NO...I just have to work on him a little more then i will have my new desk for sil babes..
I will let the whole world know when babes gets here...just incase you didnt guess I AM SO EXCITED

Thank you for reading my ramblings

Love debby xx

Witch frame

When I was on holiday recently we went into a gift shop and looked around, there was the usual plastic boats and sticks of rock and plaques to hang up when you got home....Well I found 2 plaques that I liked but only had enough change on me to buy 1...I then decided when I got home to make my own afterall I have my silhouette so it would be easy peasy!!

I then visualised what I wanted and off I went to craft, the first thing I discovered was that I had RAN OUT of black vinyl (oh the shame!!) so I had to put the project on hold until I had a delivery of vinyl and the company I use are so good that it was here the next day post free....

I then had to remember just what I was doing .. not always easy because I have so much nonsense in my head half the time..and ended up with this

The green background smiley people faces was one i had downloaded from a blog hop from Coreen silke and it seemed to me to evoke the halloweeny witchy type look i was after.

The witches hat and broom were both downloaded from the silhouette store  and were already on my computer I think I must have used them last halloween or they were in the bargain store...

I layered the vinyl for these before I put them on the frame....They both cut like butter through my babes and I was very pleased with how they looked.  Then came the fun fun fun part looking for suitable fonts to use after a few trials with different fonts i used 'ale and wenches' for the first part and Freebooter script for the word broomstick I cant load any more pictures today to show you in detail because my blog wont let me its having a hissy fit!!
Hope you liked what you saw
Thank you for looking
Love debby xx

Native Indian Card

I bought a Native Indian stamp a few years ago from create and craft tv in a half price sale it also had a set of dragon stamps with it, which is why I bought the set in the first place because hubby just loves dragons, I have no idea why he does all I know is that we now have 2 glass cabinets full of dragons!!
When the stamps arrived I immediately fell in love with the Indian head stamp, (it was one of 6 stamps in the set!!) and I used it and used it until all inspiration with it ran dry!!

This week I managed to persuade Hubby that I needed a new brayer and some inks which spoilt as I am I got what I wanted...

So time to play..................................

I started off with my big juicy ink pad Foliage and was going to brayer the background but life being as it is my arms didnt want to play and so instead of a nice even background i ended up with a splodgy one but I liked it and thought I could do something with it....and then I remembered my Native Indian stamp!! A quick look amongst my stamps and yay I found it...

I thought that the background needed something else to tie in the Native feel and looked through my stamps and found a darling one I had bought last year at a craft show and havent really used much but it was a simple line of flowers and bullrushes. Perfect. I inked it with the same ink pad (foliage) as the background but moved it along the pad a little so it had slightly stronger shades of colour.

I then stamped my Indian Head and carefully cut it out and coloured it using my Promarkers, as you can see I used strong colours to make it vibrant. I then got out my trusty glitters and used gold and red glitters to enhance the headdress.

I was very lucky with the dreamcatcher as I had seen it earlier in the week in the silhouette store as a new item and thought it would be great for this card. As it is an intricate cut and my blade is nearing the end of its life I didnt think it would cope with the cut on card so chose to do it in vinyl and it cut beautifully...but I think if I was doing this card again I would maybe cut the dreamcatcher in a less harsh colour of vinyl like maybe charcoal or even grey, its just that I was waiting for a delivery of vinyl and it came in the afternoon..typical!! Still I was happy with the results from the black...

I then needed a verse or sentiment to go on the card and I wanted one that would be  cohesive with the Native Indian so my search began!! I trawled the internet for authentic poems or songs from Native Indian sites and came upon a few that had sayings from prominent tribes or people and I found this one supposedly from Chief Seattle which I really liked..it says Take Only Memories leave Nothing but Footprints....it somehow rang with me!! I used my babes to sketch the writing and cut the layers for the label.

Thank you for taking the time to visit!!
Love debby xx

Krafting Kelly and Tina Fitch

Well I was soo very lucky on friday when I managed to catch Kellys very first Webinar and very successful it was too.. I learnt how to make letters stand away from the base and can think of a few things this would be handy for and am already designing a project with this in mind. It was the first time i had attended a webinar and found it very interesting as a medium for learning....I may have to attend some more....

After the webinar I went to facebook to see if any of my family had been on and managed to go to Tina Fitchs page just as she was starting a tutorial on how to weld to a frame and make a topper or how to weld to a frame and make a card!! As the tutorial was written I used my snipit tool and saved the relevent bits so i could have it for reference. I needed the reference as it took me 2 whole days to get it!! Once I had done it I realised just how easy it was and that i had been a bit of a dunce but woo hoo Im sooo proud that i did it..here is my card i made using the file I MADE using tinas tutorial....

I cut the card in blue, it was just the first thing i found in my stash!! I then backed the holes with green card as it was a free flower from the sil store that i used i got a flourish from my stash and used that as a stalk!! A very simple card but im very proud of it as I MADE THE FILE MYSELF am i shouting loud enough!!!!!

Thank you for looking
love debby xx

Anniversary card for my parents

July was the month my parents married and they have had such a very happy marriage,yes theyve had their rows over silly things and soon sorted themselves out again, but my fathers stroke 6 years ago was a major change in both of their lives. As my dads carer my mum sometimes gets down but thats only to be expected because as i now know having the sole care of someone is a lot of strain on you, and I admire my husband and mother for the patience and care they both devote to me and my dad..

So it was time to design and make a card for them. My mum loves Poppies and so i started looking through my stash and on my cds to find Poppies and the only ones i could find were blue poppies which didnt seem quite what i wanted...

Hiding amongst my cds was a Debbi Moore shabby chic collection where I found a lovely design sheet and i felt that it would be beautiful and that my mum would like it so here it is

I cut the card shape from a pealised card 250gsm and layered the front circle on with foam pads. A few sentiments and some bling and it was done. I managed to import the arched shapes into my sil and do them on a print and cut so all in all a very quick card once i had made the file for ss.

Thank you for looking
Love debby xx

July card challenge

Once again it was my turn to set the card challenge for the Silhouette plus forum...This month it was decided between Myoriah (Beth) and myself that we would use a free file from the silhouette store and ask that the more experienced users would alter it in any way and the newbies could use it as is....this teaches a few things for all users...newbies might not know how to find the free files that are not readily advertised by silhouette but are there for our use should we want them. It also gives the more experienced amongst us to play with a shape and maybe learn new techniques which they maybe have been meaning to try but havent gotten round to doing, it also then gives insight too newbies of the possibilities of each file they have and that by having a few files if they look differently at them they can change what they have into something else the possibilities are then endless...

So the file i chose was a 3 tiered cake with candle and decoration inside the cake....lots of bits to play with...
here is the first card i made:

The 3 other cakes i downloaded from http://cajoline-scrap.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/FREEBIES in jpeg format..she has some wonderful kits that she gives freely and i have a very nice selection from her pages...I imported the jpegs into the sil software and did a print and cut and cut each cake 3 times so that i  could decoupage them. I then cut out the 3 tier cake file twice in contrasting colours and laid one ontop of the other. I cut 4 squares of card on my silhouette to make sure they were uniform and layered the decoupage on each one. A quick happy birthday was sketched with the silhouette and a very quick and easy card even for a beginner!!

My second card for the challenge :

This one was made by offsetting the cake several times and cutting the layers with white and gold card.Layering like this can be very popular and with the silhouette it is so very easy to achieve once you work out how much space you want to offset. I cut one of white card and one of gold card the same size and simply layered them to give the interest of the gold coming through the top layer, and then started the offsets. I stuck at 3 offsets as i thought this looked right for me. I used a cream card that i had in my stash and put the design onto pale pink spotted paper so that the background gave the card a soft look. Once again a very easy card for a beginner to try and they can then master the offset feature of our fabulous machines, a much underrated feature of the silhouette i think!

Finally I came up with this card:

I wanted to add a very fun card to the equation, to show that challenges dont have to be serious but can and should be fun. I had the idea of someone jumping out of a cake but didnt want the usual scantily clad woman and decided to use a man instead! As the card was being placed on a forum I didnt want to offend anyone so chose not to use nude or revealing photos (not that i have any of those HOnest!!) and thought Fogle would be funny and right. He comes from a cd called Elves with Attitude from http://www.jemsdesigns.co.uk/

The background paper was from a digi kit from craft artist and daisytrail, I thought in my wisdom he would look great with fireworks in the background and after much searching i found i had some all along. I removed the candle from the file and then cut 2 copies, one in white and one in brown card. To enhance the cake and bring it back out i stuck on some peel offs in the middle layer that ive had in my stash for years, they were tiny little stars and i never found a use for them before now!!

Thank you for looking
Love debby xx