Recycling

It's been so busy here. Our priest is away for a month over Christmas and the New Year (I didn't think that was allowed!) leaving minor chaos. He's one of those incredible people who keeps 200 balls in the air at any given time, without mentioning to anyone what he's doing - which is fine and admirable when he's here, but a massive waste of everyone's time trying to work out what ought to be happening when he's not around. I think I'm the only person around who minds much. Everyone else just goes with the flow, and if things go wrong they just shrug. I wish I could be like that - I care too much!

Last week I was helping Eileen while she was cleaning the Vestry for the visiting clergy. She found boxes of partially-used candles, all misshapen and melted together. I found some more in the rubbish bin when I went to empty it. Rather than chuck them all out, this pyromaniac here took them home, melted them down, separated all the icky bits and made some new candles to give to our Advent Bible study group. They loved them, and I loved making them - only playing with paper beats the fun of messing about with candle wax. ;-) I may not be paper-crafting, but it takes something drastic to drag me from doing any crafting at all.

There are a couple missing from this photo, and I still have three more to make for Christmas stocking fillers. Aren't they pretty?

I think this qualifies for Stampavie's "make a gift" challenge, and maybe Creative Card Crew's "anything goes" challenge. Let's see!

Mum's birthday

My wonderful Mum, far away in freezing England, is a big fan of all my crafting stuff. She's like my DH: she shows a polite, muted, very British enthusiasm most of the time, then occasionally she gets quite excited about things, so I know she really likes them. My owl book cover got this reaction from her, the colour in particular. Good thing I had some off-cuts left from the Creative Memories papers I'd used, to make a really special birthday card for her.

I just hope it gets there in time, and doesn't get stuck in the snow like most of Britain's deliveries seem to be at the moment. It happens nearly every year - a little bit of snow, and the country throws up its collective hands in panicked submission, and everyone stays at home. Other countries seem to manage. I've never worked out why snow is such a shock to us Brits. Sigh.

Colour Create's challenge this week is "green, grey and white" with the optional extra of "silver or acetate". Stampavie want "snow", House Mouse are requesting a matching envelope, and Simon Says Stamp have given us this sketch:

And here is Mum's birthday card. The Copic-coloured stamps are from House Mouse of course (there are some footprints inside too :-) ) and the border is made from Kanban's Garden Vistas: Autumn Silhouettes which I seem to be using on everything lately. The sentiments are patched together from 3 Lili of the Valley stamps, and the silver card was distressed using my new distressing tool which I swore I would never get - an old emery board did the same thing, surely? Yes it did, but at the expense of my thumbnail every time, so I succumbed - SO much easier! The felt snowflake stickers are from Little Yellow Bicycle, with brads from American Crafts and Stickles Star Dust. The inks are Artnic Evergreen and Encore Silver, and the notes are hand-drawn.

Treat box

A few weeks ago, the corner bookmarks which I made for the September Scrap Whispers blog hop were noticed by my prayer group. They thought they were a wonderful idea, and I offered to make some for them.

I made a set of four for our organist - then gave them to her before I remembered to take photos of them - gah! They were made from the Kraft paper so generously sent to me by Glenda in Tasmania, and some pretty cream and brown Bo Bunny paper with music staves on, all inked in brown. I wanted each to be labelled with the four readings: Old and New Testament, Psalm and Gospel, but I only had scraps of Kraft left so I couldn't run them through the printer, and you're not exactly going to find stamps with those labels on, in your LSS.

I suddenly remembered another tip from Glenda, about using the printer to create "rub-ons". You create your labels on the computer (I used WordArt) and then reverse the image so that the text reads backwards. Print it (normal quality, not best, because that smudges) onto acetate, very carefully lay it wet side down onto the paper, then without moving the acetate, rub over the back of the image using the stick that comes with rub-on kits. It worked! It wasn't as crisp as printing or a rub-on, but the slightly blurred edges looked just right on the inked papers. And of course you can use any colour your printer will print. Yay Glenda!

So I made another batch for another lady in the prayer group, and this time I took pictures.

Creative Card Crew's challenge this fortnight is a different one. They are challenging us to create a treat box or goodie bag. Perfect for giving my bookmarks out in! I used my Silhouette's pillow box cutting file, which I'd never tried before - and it looks fantastic! I'm definitely going to be making more of these. And once I'd got the Silhouette attached, I tried out one of their tags as well. And made a bunch of those. Hehee! This crafty stuff is addictive!

My final creation fits in perfectly with Bizzy Bec's Store Blog challenge which this month is simply Christmas.

And here it is:

 

The paper is Bo Bunny, and the card-stock is by Heidi Grace. The ribbon is from Stampin' Up!

Cream, green & blue Christmas?

Well these are not conventional Christmas colours, I'll admit, but in a funny kind of way they work really well together. Even the delightfully summery Basic Grey Wisteria papers manage to look festive here. Sort of. Maybe?

I've combined Basic Grey's recipe of 4 different embellishments (gold ribbon, gold mesh, white brads and white snowflakes), 3 patterned papers, 2 images (Stampington's Holiday Cube: Santa and the gold lettering background) and 2 sentiments (from Studio G), with Simon Says Stamp's "let it snow" and Stampin' for the Weekend's "winter", Colour Create's "robin egg blue, sea foam green and cream, and winter", and this sketch from Creatalicious Challenges which should also include distressing:

So what do you think? Is it Christmassy enough?

All pink!

Oh this is pink. This is VERY pink. Sometimes I get the urge to make something impossibly girlie and frilly - not often, but when I do I seem to go a bit overboard. But you can be over the top with a card for a brand new, precious baby girl, can't you?

My challenges are Bizzy Bec's with "cute and sweet", Charisma Cardz with "babies", Quixotic with "no square or rectangle", Simon Says with "sparkle" and Stampavie with "monochrome".

Wow. All that sugariness is furring my teeth up just looking at it. It's doilies and brads from Bizzy Bec's Store, vellum and my Paisley and baby stamp Cuttlebug embossing folders, Stickles (of course!) and my butterfly punch from a Hong Kong flea market. Not forgetting some bits of ribbon from my stash, Smooch ink, Nestabilities oval die and a sentiment stamp from LotV.

I'm off to brush my teeth.

Scrap Whispers Challenge #83 - It's a summary

This week, the Scrap Whispers Design Team challenges you to create a "Summary" layout. We want to see a summary of your year, a month, a comparison or an event....

I chose a calendar of my November which is completely packed with stuff. I found it interesting to scrap a month out of my life, because one day I know I'll look back at that and wonder whatever it all meant! The other day I was looking back at a diary from years ago and wondering what all the abbreviations meant. At the time, I was convinced I'd always remember - hehee.

This is just Bo Bunny paper, hand-cut vellum and ribbon and brads from my stash.

So what will you come up with?

Scrap Whispers November Blog Hop

It's the 15th again, and that means... our monthly blog hop over at Scrap Whispers. This month our lovely leader Georgina has come up with such a beautifully complicated-looking card, but it really isn't! It's very simple, but it is definitely designed to impress, and you could win a fabby prize just for entering.

Here's what you have to do:

• Check out the Scrap Whispers blog site for the tutorial
• Create your own inspired version and link it up
• Hop through all the blogs, and leave a comment on each of them

There's no particular running order this time around - just drop in on all the DT's blogs. Here they all are:

• Kelly
• Helen
• Nilsa
• Georgina

I enjoyed making this card so much that I made two! AND I have a little pile of bits on my table for another one - which has NOTHING whatsoever to do with my measuring wrongly, nothing at all.... {whistle} I'm planning on going through my scraps and finding random rectangles for yet more, because I think it's another superb way of using up scraps. Don't you?

Scrap Whispers #82 - Scary movie

I finally found a way of doing a Hallowe'en LO without actually celebrating Hallowe'en. I've been looking at all this beautiful paper in my favourite greens, purples and oranges, and haven't had a way to use it - until now! This is from Basic Grey's Green at Heart collection, with shapes cut using my Silhouette, American Crafts lettering, and lots and lots of white and silver pen. And I have to say, it's one of my current favourites.

So your Scrap Whispers challenge is to scrap about a scary movie, or something that scares you. Over to you!

All white?

A quick card for today: for Simon Says (white), Cute Card Thursday (tissue paper), Sketch Saturday (sketch), A Spoonful of Sugar (snow/snowflakes), Stampavie (tag). Good mileage on this one!

I had my usual struggles photographing white, and it's raining today. Perth's reservoirs are only at 34% so we need it goodness knows, but I wish it could have waited about another half an hour!

Anyway, we have my Paisley embossing folder from Cuttlebug, much-scrunched tissue paper saved from the house move, the image is from Edupics coloured with Copics and Stickles Star Dust. The snowflakes are from my stash - I think they came from Paperchase - and the sentiment is a Studio G one. Brads from American Crafts and ribbon saved from a box of card blanks, and everything is inked with Platinum Dew Drop. Cute huh?

ETA: And now the Stickles is dry - and my snowman's mouth has all smudged! That's a lesson for me. Stickles on HP printer ink doesn't work. Ah well, you live and learn. He's still smiling, but only just!

Scrap Whispers Challenge #81 - bright colours

This week Scrap Whispers is back with a new game, but we're losing one of our DT members. Leah has decided that juggling a new baby and DT work is just too demanding (I don't blame her) and has reluctantly stood down. Leah, THANK YOU for all your hard work, and we hope you'll still come back and play when you can.

Georgina's LO is, as usual, a special one. Beyond that I'm telling you nothing about it, hehee. It will get scrap-lifted on down the list of team members, with each person keeping secret her LO and the one she lifted. At the end, just before Christmas, the development of each team's designs will be judged and prizes awarded. It's always so interesting to see how the changes flow.

Meanwhile, we're having our usual weekly challenges with a fabby monthly prize. And this week's challenge is simply to create a card or LO with bright colours. There, that's an easy one to get you started on the new game.

Have a look on the Scrap Whispers blog to see what the DT have come up with?

Pretty bright, don't you think? Now these challenges can be combined with others (except the main game of course!) so this is also for Sketch Saturday, A Spoon Full of Sugar (embellish), Whiff of Joy, Charisma Cardz (Christmas), and Stampavie (orange - great fun, I'm certain I never made an orange Christmas card in my life!)

Card-stock = DCWV, paper = Basic Grey's Green at Heart, Whiff of Joy's Willow coloured with Copics, sentiment = Inkadinkado, snowflakes = Studio G, Diamond Stickles, and gems and ribbon from stash.

Transparent

I enjoyed this "transparent" challenge from Cute Card Thursday, even though all I did was a plain window. I combined it with this lovely sketch by Heather at Basic Grey Challenges.

to make this:

It's all Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses again, with Stickles and Artnic Dusky Rose ink. The image is Miss Claus from Sugar Nellie, coloured with Copics and Stickles, and I stamped on the window with a Studio G Christmas greeting in Staz-On ink. There's another semi-circle on the other side of the window as well.

Oh and while you're over at Basic Grey Challenges, check out last week's winner {doing a little dance around the table}! I can't wait to pick out my selections from Simon Says Stamp!

Punches, pearls, petals and pins

I'm still working on my Christmas cards. I actually have enough for this year, but I set myself a very public challenge in January not to buy any more Christmas stash until I'd made 50 cards {hits forehead with hand}. Yup, I probably should have counted up first {sigh}. But it's kind of nice working on these at my leisure, knowing that I'm not under pressure, and I have enough Christmas stash to keep me going for several years yet. It's surprising how far a few sheets of paper go when you're making cards.

Here are my challenges for this card. Stampavie are asking for Christmas, a Spoon Full of Sugar, Simon Says and Creative Card Crew all want punches this week, Charisma Cardz say "matching pair" and Truly Scrumptious request pearls, pins and petals as well as this sketch:

My card and matching envelope:

White on white is a beast to photograph, so please excuse how rubbish these shots are. I've used Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses papers and scraps for the snowflakes, the image is Sugar Nellie "Winter Wonderland" coloured in Copics, the snowflakes and stars are die-cut using my Cuttlebug and pearlised (honest) with Adirondack pearl ink by Tim Holtz from Ranger. The stamped snowflakes and the fur trim is Sticklesed with Frost. All edges have been inked with a Platinum pearlised ink, the brad is a pink pearl and the pin has a pearl tip too. I didn't add any petals but the scarf and umbrella have flowers on so I hope that counts. Phew!

You'll have to take my word for this, but they're a lot prettier in real life than on these photos.

Scrap Whispers challenge #80 - Wish/Dream/Journey

Have you ever looked out of your window and seen something that made you do a double-take? That's what happened to us when we arrived at our house in the UK. Then we wasted the next hour and half just watching, captivated.

Do you remember the mother deer that I saw back in June, lying on the lawn in our garden with her flanks tightening every few minutes? I thought she looked as if she was in labour, and a week later, the neighbours confirmed that they'd seen a baby, and even showed me its "nest" in the hedge between our gardens. On my last evening there, I popped in for a cup of tea with the neighbour on the other side, and she told me how she'd rescued the baby when it ran into their chicken wire fence the day before, and got its head stuck.

I was completely charmed of course, but still unprepared for our welcome on this trip.

 

What a stunning sight! Mum and her triplets - she had three! - just sitting on our back lawn, right under the open window that I'm dangling a camera out of. They're just nuzzling together, having a quick rest, not fussed at all. After a while, they got up, poked around the flower beds, chewed a few plants and wandered off down the garden. The two sitting together began prancing around like lambs, and sparring like the adult males do. That photo of mum and baby under the cypress tree has to be one of my all-time favourite shots. How completely beautiful.

So here we have Creative Memories papers, with my new corner photo punch from EK Success, and Webster Pages journalling cards. The tree stamp (if you look closely, you'll see there's a stag under the tree!) is from Inkadinkado "Utopiary" and the deer stamp is from Shimelle Laine's Banana Frog range. The chipboard lettering is from Heidi Swapp and Bella!, inked in white and Sticklesed in copper.

This week's Scrap Whispers challenge is to use any or all of the words Wish, Dream or Journey in your title. Does that inspire you? Got something in mind? Link us up to your creation, and you'll have a very good chance of winning this month's prize, because so far there's only been one entry. I suppose getting the kids back to school and settled into their new year has kept most folks pretty busy. The new place to link up is now at the top of the blog on the right hand side, or click here.

Here's the prize you could win - "Like Father, Like Son" from Fancy Pants! How cool is that?

Come on, let's play!

Give thanks

Yet another, and possibly my final autumn card for this year!

Simon Says "give thanks" (so of course I will!), Stampin' for the Weekend wants Hallowe'en (which I don't do) or fall, and Basic Grey is asking for autumn/harvest. And this precious Sugar Nellie image, which was a present from Georgina about this time last year, was perfect for the job.

As I didn't have a sketch to follow I was able to go free-style, so I also used my new Kanban Autumn Silhouette stamps. Colour the image in with Copics, add a bunch of Basic Grey scraps punched with my dollar store leaf punch, a few Stickles Diamond sparkles and a Lili of the Valley Sentiment, and there she blows in the autumn winds. Adorable.

One Christmas card, 6 challenges

Our little Henry has really worked hard for these challenges - 6 of them. I think that must be a record for me. I really wasn't sure whether this distressed look would work, right up to when I stuck it down. But I'm very happy with how it's turned out.

These are the challenges:
Colour Create: purple, aqua and white
Creatalicious: white only except for the image
Quixotic Inspirations (recently changed - check out the new format!): Christmas is coming
Whiff of Joy: Distressing
Scrap Jazz BC October Card challenge: a holiday card featuring unconventional colours, an element "popped" off the front, and a fabulous inside as well as the outside
Cute Card Thursday: this sketch:

And heeeeeeeeere's Henry!

And the inside. The card blank looks pink in this photo, but it's actually a frosted white:

All I've used on here is plain ole white scrunched-up paper, and white card run through the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, Paisley and Lace Christmas Tree embossing folders. Henry is coloured with Copics and gel pens, and inked with Artnic Amethyst and Color Box Verdigris inks on and old piece of washing-up sponge. My elderly emery board was pressed into major service, and I used American Crafts brads.

Scrap Whispers Challenge #79 - black-and-white

Another post on the same day? Wow, betcha never expected that.

I had to show you this though, because I absolutely LOVED doing this week's Scrap Whispers challenge, and I bet you will too. So.... ready?

Your challenge is... to create a LO or card where EITHER the image/photos OR all the papers and embellishments are black-and-white. But not both. Good one huh? Hehee!

OK, you've probably worked out by now that it was me who thought of this one {grin} but I had no idea just how much a of a challenge it would turn out to be. I thought Ha, of course I can just use my usual coloured papers and embellishments but with a black-and-white photo, no problem. Then I changed my mind. What kind of a challenge is that? Out came all my black-and-white embellies and papers all over my table. OK, I had a few, not an awful lot except ribbons - bucket-loads of those. Which is ironic because I ended up not using any ribbon at all. {face-palm}

But choosing the photo was interesting. My first thought was a bright, colourful photo, but the one that jumped out at me was this hazy, smoky winter view of one of the prettiest parts of the UK's Surrey Hills.

And here I'm showcasing my new doilies from Bizzy Becs, and this absolutely darling Cuttlebug owl embossing folder. I'll be honest, this LO is my current favourite!

So which way round will you do it? Black-and-white photo, or black-and-white papers and embellishments? Link your creation up to the Scrap Whispers blog, and you'll be in to win our fantastic monthly prize.

House Mouse in monochrome

These days I seem to have time only to craft on a Friday, after I've got the bedding washed and out on the line, and have run the vacuum round the house. What happens to the rest of the week I wonder?

Well this week was a little busier than usual, because the church work began half a day late, and I spent all yesterday on a magical mystery picnic tour with the ladies' choir I've just been accepted into. I was introduced to it by Glad in church, and it's such a giggle, even though we worked out I'm the youngest by 17 years! I had my first rehearsal last week, and this week was a performance - one of the songs without music - so it was a challenge. OK, that's where half my week went, learning music.

But this afternoon I managed to sneak a little fun with Monica and her mum on this card. This week's theme at House Mouse is "monochrome", and I used this sketch from Sketch Saturday which I flipped horizontally:

I used Kaiser Craft papers, paper and stickers from the Rebecca Sower Spring kit, Prima flowers, American Crafts brads and ribbon from my stash. The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley, and the image is House Mouse of course, coloured with Copics.

New Scrap Whispers round

The last Scrap Whispers game was superb! Well I would say that, wouldn't I, because my team won - yay! Here is the winning sequence of LOs, starting with Georgina's, which all the team leaders began with:

I created this, changing the elements but keeping the design pretty similar:

Next it went to our digi queen Kimberly, who simplified it with this delightfully cute LO:

Mary was up next with her impressive interpretation:

Telah's adorable kids stole the show on her version:

And Mindy's bright double LO finished the round:

The whole team (even I!) got to choose one of three fabby prizes. Well done team, you did me proud!

And on November 1st we're back with another game, and more fun. If you want to join in this new round, please send Georgina an e-mail at gh26@sky.com even if you played in the last game, so that we know who's in. New players are always welcome, and keep an eye on the blog for some exciting announcements coming up!

Scrap Whispers Blog Hop

Hellllllllllllllllllo, hello, hello, hello, hello and WELCOME to another Scrap Whispers Blog Hop!

This month's tutorial has been written by your very own blog host {bowing left, right and centre} and if I say so myself, is rather nice! I watched the advent of the Kindle, and the iPhone electronic book apps, and experienced a slight worry that the printed page would die out, but thankfully books are as popular as ever. And they don't take batteries. ;-)

So, do you fancy making this pretty dust jacket, a complement to any book-lover's Christmas stocking?

Go for it. Show us what you can do!

If you came straight here, swing over to Scrap Whispers first, and take a couple of hours out to make a masterpiece. Link your creation up to the Scrap Whispers blog (or e-mail it to Georgina at gh26@sky.com if you haven't got a blog) then follow the links through the DT's blogs and leave us each a nice comment. Your next port of call is the lovely KELLY.

Enjoy the hop!

I left autumn behind in the UK

I'm an autumn girl. Always have been. I love the autumn more than all the other seasons: the colours, the crunchy leaves, those blue and gold, cold, crisp days, and even our west country coastal storms when the sea roars and the wind flings rain and seaweed at the windows, and we cuddle up in front of the TV with the heating on for the first time. Two years ago I was lucky enough to spend most of October in the UK's beautiful south with my family, and we all delighted together in the leaves turning, long walks through the woods and up hills - and even the earliest snow in Mum's lifetime. Nature put on a particularly good show for me, and I took photos as if it would be the last autumn I ever saw.

Because other than that, living in the perpetual Singapore summer for the last five years we've missed autumn again and again. And I've really missed it. When we left the UK last week, the weather was just starting to get cold, wet and windy, the annual signal to the trees that they can start putting on their magnificent clothes. After we'd flown back to Australia's spring. Spring-ish. Ho hum.

But nearly all the challenge sites have had an autumn theme over the last few weeks, and I'm revelling in it. Not that I've had the chance to craft until today, but I've been drooling over everyone else's creations. And today I managed one of my own. I don't think I'll ever get tired of Basic Grey's Indian Summer colours.

This one is for:
Basic Grey: Sparkle
Stampavie: Autumn colours
Stampin' for the Weekend: Autumn inspiration
and Friday Sketchers with this sketch:

 And my card:

Here we have a Sugar Nellie image coloured with Copics, a sentiment from Lili of the Valley, Prima and punched leaves, and brads from my stash. The brads, leaves and the leaves on the image have all been Sticklesed (I might just patent that word hehee) with my favourite Diamond. They do sparkle, honest. But it's a dewy sparkle rather than a frosty one. Early autumn I'm thinking. Maybe around next week.

Am I letting my imagination run away with me....?

Bizzy Becs

Have a look at this?

Bizzy Becs, my newly-discovered "local" (haha!) Aussie on-line crafting store, has opened a new blog - and to celebrate they have this fabulous lucky draw blog candy to give away.

Anyone world-wide can enter. Just click on the link in my side-bar. ------------------->

We're back

DH and I have been in the UK for the last 3 weeks working on renovating our little house for when we move home. We flew back to Australia yesterday, and have been spending today catching up on sleep and laundry. (Why is it that even when you have access to a perfectly good washing machine, you still accumulate laundry so quickly?) Spring in Perth has been sunshine, wind and showers, very much like the weather we left behind in England's beautiful autumn. I got one load hung out and almost dried before the showers out-weighed the sunshine. Ironing next I guess. {sigh}

So I've done nothing creative since mid-September, except hold the vacuum cleaner underneath DH's drill as he chased walls and put in ceiling lights. He did think my outfit for this was very creative: an over-sized face mask, a pair of safety goggles and... a shower cap. Well he told me to cover up! Luckily there is no photographic evidence of this, hehee.

My internet access was limited and patchy, but I picked up an e-mail from The Craft Stand to say that I won September's card-making challenge. That made my day! This is the post showing my Poor Henry card, and here is the other one.

And the inside.

I get a $20 voucher to spend in the store, so I'm just off now to check out their latest stock...

Scrap Whispers fun challenge - if you're happy and you know it

"If you're happy and you know it... Create a happy layout - a happy day, a smiling face, something that makes you smile."

Hehee! And I know just the photos for this one! They weren't taken at the same time, or the same ball-pit, or even taken by me - in fact I was in a different country at the time. But MIL sent them to me and I grinned and grinned. I was reminded of that Simpsons episode with Maggie in the ball-pit ("the babies are looking unhappy sir" "Add more balls")

Here are Basic Grey Kioshi papers and as many different letters as I could find, coloured with inks, Stickles and Copics.

What can you do with this one? Isn't it a great challenge? Post your creations at Scrap Whispers.

Scrap Whispers Challenge #78 - around the camp fire

"Use this theme as your inspiration - maybe use fire colours, add some kind of wooden embellishment to your page, scrap about something warm, photos of toasting marshmallows, use lyrics from a popular camp fire song, tents, fishing - its up to you."

I think my Scrap Whispers LO this week requires some explanation.

My problem is, the only time I ever sat around a camp-fire was when I was a Brownie Guide. And it wasn't even a real camp fire, just a few logs, a pine cone or two and some scrunched-up red cellophane on the floor of the new Brownie Hut. (I mean, can you imagine two dozen excited little girls and real fire? Exactly. Besides, it was probably raining outside. It nearly always rained on Brownie night.)

So to keep us from running amok and to kid us that we really were warm enough, we used to sing this song, all sitting on the ground with legs out-stretched.

“My ship sailed to China with a cargo of tea
All laden with treasure for you and for me
They brought me a fan, just imagine my bliss
When I found myself going like this, like this, like this, like this...”

And the left hand would make the fan movement, all through singing it again, then the right hand would join in for the next rendition, and then the left leg and finally the right leg – except that it never got that far because we usually collapsed in giggles by then.

Did you ever sing that one? Ah... {sighs nostalgically} I still remember the smell of the Brownie Hut - the newness of plaster and wood, intermingled with dust and Dettol and possibly just a little wee...

Anyway, that was my inspiration for this LO, and the fact that it was jolly hot in the Chinese Gardens. Best I could come up with.

Did you have real camp fires? Lucky you. Let's see it then!

Scrap Whispers Blog Hop

Yes, it's the 15th again (almost the 16th now for me and my Aussie friends) and that means the Scrap Whispers Blog Hop!

The rules are simple. If you've come here direct, then go back to Scrap Whispers to start, and see Nilsa's delightfully fun and simple tutorial for making a corner bookmark. Link your version to the Scrap Whispers blog, and hop through all the DT members' blogs, leaving a comment on each.

Your order should be:
Scrap Whispers
Rosey (here!)
Kelly
Leah
Helen
Nilsa
Georgina

And here's what you'll be making. I was thinking of them as a gift, not for myself at all, but then I had this idea of creating a set for my Bible. I used the Kraft card-stock that Glenda so kindly sent me, and a combination of SEI and Kaisercraft scraps. The sentiments are stickers from Creative Memories, the little stamp is from Tim Holtz, and the only other things are my corner rounder and lots of inking. So simple and satisfying to make, and nearly all out of scraps.

You have to use flat embellishments, because anything bulky will mark the paper, especially the very thin paper of a Bible. With hind-sight, before I stuck the paper to the card-stock, I would have added ribbons sticking out of the tops, and join the ribbons together and glue the other ends into the spine to keep them together. You can learn from my mistake!

This is my elderly, battered, faded Bible with all its mismatched, yellowed bookmarks.

And with my new bookmarks. An improvement, don't you think?

And now it's your turn. Go to Kelly's blog next, then have a quick peak through the other blogs first and get some ideas, then show us what you can do. Have fun!