September project for Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Gooood morning bloggaroos, and welcome to September! (Really?! Where is the year going? Next people will start to throw the dreaded "C" word around!)

The end of the summer holidays are in sight! Our lot go back to school on Monday, and I have to say, I'm really looking forward to having a little time to myself! Of course, this won't happen until Wednesday, what with work and husbands and all that, but still, counting the hours! lol.

On to my September project for Rhedd's Creative Spirit.

As I have been taking on more at work, and seem to have less and less time to get everything done these days, I decided to try and make my life a little easier. So I took a plain black A5 ring binder, and made a planner!

I started by covering the binder with burlap - my favourite material. next, I took a piece of thick card (the backing card from my pack of TH burlap panels, in fact. Waste not, want not!) and put together a cover panel.
I started with using some embossing paste through a TH stencil and then began layering pictures and ephemera. a metal word band tied on with twine, and some letters to spell out "Planner" also got added, and I used my gold leafing pen (Rust-oleum. AWESOME pens. They actually make things look like gold, unlike most other things) and went around the edges, and finally added a little faux stitching here and there.

And of course I added some small talk phrases, and finally attached a keyhole/lock embellishment to the side.

That was the outside done.

To cover up the folded over pieces of burlap on the inside, I cut some pieces of TH paper to cover the inside covers. (that's a lot of "cover" for one sentence, lol)

Finally, I used some thick card and collaged some scraps of TH paper onto it, to make a cover page for the planner. The great thing about using a ring binder, is that next year I can simply remove the 2015 pages, and add new ones.

And finally, the pages themselves look like this:

They were printables I found online, which mostly suited my purposes. The other side of the sheets was left blank on purpose, so I could do some journalling too if I wanted to.

That was my project this month, but I hope you'll come play too! The theme, as always is Anything Altered Art Goes.

And I'll be back mid-month to show off another little project, along with a tutorial, so see you then!

Have an awesomesauce (that's in the Oxford dictionary now, you know!!) day!

Sammy-x

January Challenge - Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Me again!

Naturally the first of the month also means a new challenge at Rhedd's Creative Spirit, so I'm back again this morning with a new project. As always Anything Altered Art Goes, and we have a brand new team waiting to wow you with their creations!

I decided to alter an A-5 ring binder to store dies in. I took the mixed media route, and though I'm only posting this now, I actually made it before the butterfly canvas, making this my first attempt at this kind of painty, inky, papery, mixed media goodness.

I started with a base coat of white paint, and then layered strips of paper over part of it. (Tim Holtz papers, though they're unrecognisable now, lol). I interspersed it with some washi tape and then went to town with my stencils and some home-made texture paste. I added some die-cuts, some wooden shapes from Fernli, a Prima angel and corner and some flowers too. I also added cheesecloth, which I'd roughly pre-coloured.
I also used several sprays and glimmer mists and the whole thing shimmers beautifully, though you'll just have to take my word for that, lol.

Isn't that angel lovely?

An angled shot to try and capture some of the sparkle...

I die-cut the swirls from textured cardstock, which added an extra bit of texture to the overall look.

I also added crackle paint to the area inside the frame, after spelling out "dies" with black stick-on letters.

So there it is, and this binder now houses my nesting dies (on magnetic sheets...).
Now I hope you'll go take a peek at what the new team has created for you all, and if you fancy dabbling with some altered art too (I know you do, you all keep telling me so! lol), then why not come and show it off?

Still hoping you'll have a splendiferous day!

Sammy-x

Say it with Flowers - Sweet Stampin' DT

Good morning all!

It's Saturday, which of course means a new challenge over at Sweet stampin', and this week the theme is Say it with Flowers. this was rather good timing, as I wanted to decorate a binder for my LOTV flower stamps.

I decided to use an as yet unused sunflower stamp, and teamed it up with some gorgeous G45 French Country papers, matted with core'dinations card.

A Hessian ribbon, some flowers and butterflies, and a die-cut corner as embellishments to finish it off.

Isn't that paper just gorgeous?

So, that's my flowers... There are plenty more to be found over on the challenge blog, and I'm sure you all want to come play along with this one, no? There's a £10 Ribbon Girl voucher up for grabs for the winner!

See you there!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Sammy-x

Buttons & Bows - CraftyHands DT

And a very good morning to you all!

Some of you may have noticed Blogger co-operated somewhat for me yesterday (and who said complaining will get you nowhere? lol), and I've started playing catch-up. It's a slow process though, so please bear with me...

Today, there is a new challenge over at CraftyHands, and the theme is Buttons & Bows.

Now, some of you may recall my contemplating what to do with my LOTV sentiment and background stamps. I've lots of the A6 folders for the image stamps, but the A5s were feeling left out! Well, after weeks of searching, I finally managed to locate me some A5 ringbinders in Rymans!

I may or may not have bought myself a few of them... ;-)

So, I ordered some of the A5 clear sleeves from LOTV, and in the meantime set to decorating myself a binder. I chose one of the brilliant statement stamps to use on the front, and teamed it up with some LOTV paper from the Antebellum pad, matted on pink card.

Some pink ric rac and a gingham ribbon bow, black pearls (minus Jack Sparrow, I'm sorry to say) and a plethora of pink and black buttons and hey presto... One purty binder for my A5 stamp sets!

Naturally, I decorated the spine and back too.

And the stamps look so happy in their new home! I put a sheet of white paper in with each of the stamp sets, to make it easier to flick through and read them.

(I may well have a play with the inside cover some time too... There's not enough colour there if you ask me! lol.)

The rest of the CraftyHands team have prepared some delicious goodies for your perusal, so I strongly suggest you go take a look! And if you fancy joining in, there's a fabulous paper pad & ribbons up for grabs for the winner!

Because let's face it... We all loooove paper, no?


Oh and on another note... anyone else going to the Harrogate fair tomorrow?  I can't wait!! :-D

Have a fantabulous day one and all.

Sammy-x

A couple more stamp binders...

Hi all,

Don't forget to enter my candy!

I thought I'd swing by this evening to share another pair of LOTV stamp ring binders I decorated recently. These ones are to house my baby and couples stamps...


The baby one has LOTV papers from the Bear Necessities pad and the "Baby with Teddy" stamp, as well as some rub-ons and button/twine to decorate.

I can't remember which paper I used for my couples binder, but the stamp I used is "Meant to be". This time I used some organza ribbon and pompom trim, as well as a rub-on and some die-cuts to decorate.

I still have one binder left now, which is probably going to end up being used as a second girlie binder, as my girlie stamps have now overtaken the boys ones, and are bursting out of the binder!

I'm also looking for storage ideas for the A5 sentiment sets. At the moment they're simply sitting in my stamp box, but I love the convenience of putting them in binders. A4 binders are far too big though... Has anyone come up with a way of doing that for the A5s at all?

I'd like to enter these into the following challenge:

Stampin' for the weekend - anything but a card

Well, I think it's off to bed for me. See you all tomorrow!

Sweet dreams,

Sammy-x

New James!

Howdy folks,

I know, I know... I am awol for a bit, then suddenly two posts in one day! lol.

But I *had* to come and share my make with one of the brand new James the Bear stamps I picked up at the LOTV shop this morning. As a matter of fact, yes I did get one of each of the new James ones... And if that surprises you, you're obviously new to my blog! lol.
I also picked up some more mini ring binders for my stamps, as I've far more than fit in the ones I have!

So, after I got back, I set to decorating a binder for my animal stamps, with one of my new purchases on the front. I decided to go with the adorable "James laptop"...

And here he is:

Isn't he the second most adorable bear ever? (The most adorable being my baby bear, who escorted me to the shop this morning, but elected to wait in the car with his dad, lol)

And now I'd love to go make stuff with the rest, but I have stuff that unfortunately needs to get done first!

Oh, and I also picked up an extra James stamp, which I will be offering up as part of a candy for my birthday next month! Watch this space!

Have the very best of days!

Sammy-x

Good day all

Well, it's been a busy few days, what with making cards, accidentally ending up at the LOTV open day (oops!) and job interviews and such...

The open day was fabulous! The wonderful LOTV DT Lou was there, showing us how she does what she does, and I for one picked up all kinds of new ideas and things I must try (chalking!).  Thanks Lou!

Now, if you've been to the shop, you'll probably know they sell these adorable mini ring binders there, which are perfect for storing your LOTV stamps in... Well, I had one, but far too many stamps for them all to fit, so I grabbed some more while I was there. Then spent yesterday decorating them!
There's one for Boy's stamps, one for Girls, and a Christmas one. (And I have one spare for couples and such when I get some of them! Erm... Gonna need one for animals too! lol)

Anyways, I decorated front, back and spine, and this was the result (once again I must apologise for my rubbish photography skills...):

And all three of the stamps on the front covers are new ones I picked up Saturday too.
The DP are (Top to bottom): Holly Hobbie, MME and Grace Taylor.

My girlie folder is still looking a bit anaemic, and the christmas one could do with bulking out a little too, but the boy's one is full! lol.

Also, I had a job interview yesterday, and should hear back some time this afternoon... Fingers crossed!

Have a fabulous day!

Sammy-x