A look back over the summer!

I have had a pretty up and down summer this year, not managed to have a holiday but spent time with my friends and family up north, got my creative on and had a beautiful garden. I have had some fab crafting competition wins and been featured in a few magazines which i am really proud of as i have really just begun crafting :-) I have also had some rotten health issues that today are absolutely driving me mad! I have no energy and have not managed to get out of bed today (even though the past week i have only made it as far as the couch) So i decided today would be a fab day to look back at the good things and maybe perk me up a bit!

Here are a few pictures taken while in Hull at my Aunties and around the Yorkshire coast.

A reminder of the yummie food i can have on my diet as i have fallen off the wagon the past 2 weeks but tomorrow i am back on it :-) 

Some of the loves of my life :-) The people and fur babies that make it all worth while <3

Piccies of my garden and the beautiful sunflowers, my home town, some animals and insects i've rescued over the summer and the storms which have been pretty intense this year, but i have loved every min of them.

Finally some of my blog post creations and pretties i've made for projects or for fun and to share tutorials with you all. I promise there will be lots more to come from me over Autumn and beyond once i shake this episode off which i am hoping will move on sooner rather than later! But i do have restriction friendly posts coming up :-) 

Have a look though your phone and smile about summer! 

Enjoy the rest of your sunday everyone 

Emmie xxx

Tutorial- Home made Acrylic dots

As you can tell from my recent posts i love to make my craft supplies and recycle! Well i have millions of plastic pony beads i will never use as beads and wanted to find another use for them. I had been looking at some acrylic dots to use on my crafting pages but they are soo expensive for what they actually are! Anyways the light went on upstairs and hey presto an idea came to mind. i had made suncatchers before by melting lots of beads together in a cake tin in the oven and they came out amazingly. so i thought why not mwlt the individually spaced out instead of all close together.

All you will need to make these is a selection of hard plastic beads, some greaseproof paper, a baking tray, light spray oil and an oven.

I got 15 bags of these at the car boot sale for £1.00 absolute bargain.

Spray the paper with a light oil to stop them sticking to it, they can be a little tricky to remove from the paper. Spread them out so they do not melt together unless you want them to to make flowers etc. 

In the oven they go for 15 mins at Gas mark 6, you will get a little smell of melting plastic but it's not a strong, overpowering smell.

Remove from the over and hey presto acrylic dots for crafting for pennies! I picked these colours to use on my Autumn scrapbook project that i shall be starting today.

Have a fab day everyone Emmie xxx

Scrapbooking challenge Setting up :-) Autumn 2014

Woooo hooooo at last i have managed to get into my room and pick out some of the things i will need for my scrapbooking. I find that if you have a basic kit ready to go it makes it so much easier and gives you more time to concentrate on your page than spending half your time looking for bits and bobs.

I always use an a5 folder for my scrapbook as it's a lot cheaper and a lot easier to store also. I got my latest one for 50p from a car booty with zillions of plastic wallet pages to. I just decorate the folder however! It takes me back to being as school decorating folders, ahhhh memories.

I also chose loads of autumn coloured cards to use as my main pages and will just chop them in half with my paper cutter to make them a5. Once again having these pre cut and in the folder makes it so much easier and it really will save you valuable time that you can spend actually crafting.

Having lettering stickers ready in the colours you want saves loads of time to but i also will be die cutting some letters to use with my new Marrianne Design letter die, I absolutely adore the range, it's fun, quirky and have a huge selection of different designs.

Finding embellishments that you can use is also advisable, here i have dug out a selection of rub ons, sticker frames, edging tape, gems and pearls. These will make your page pop and look uber pretty! 

Here are a mix of different textured papers and cards to use to mount your piccies on, you can have loads of fun with these by distressing the edges with sandpaper, inks and punches to make them stand out.

More bits and bobs to make the pages pop :-)

Pick out a mix of things you can use on your page like buttons, die cuts, punch cuts, tags, wool, twine, ribbon, beads, sequins, basically the really fun stuff that makes your scrapbook a really personal project.

Lastly the basic tools you will need to create your mini masterpieces of memories. I will also be using my inks, stamps, die cutting machine, heat embossing and so on but i will use them as and when i need them. But having all this prepared and ready really does make life a lot easier and gives you lots of inspiration before you have even begun.

Well i am off to build my first page oooo which one shall i pick?? Is anyone else doing an Autumn scrapbook? Let me know if you are i would love to see what you have created.

Have fun Emmie xxx

Tutorial Inches card :-)

Today has been the first day i have really noticed Autumn is on the way not just weather wise but looking around the garden i am spotting lots of brown leaves blowing around. This has inspired me to make an Autumn card and use some of the bits blowing around to decorate it. I have been going to try inchies for ages and i decided there was no better time to get on and make some as i wanted to do a card tutorial over the weekend, this has also got ideas going for my new scrapbooking adventure also.

What you will need.......

1 Sheet A4 card in black

1 Sheet of A4 card in brown

Backing papers

Small square die

Bigshot

Liquid Pearls

Double sided tape 

Double sided foam pads

Tim Holtz dies

Memento Inks

Twine

Twigs

Dry sticks

Wool 

Embossing folders

Sticky Gems

Letraset ProMarkers 

Scissors

Butterfly Punch

Ruler

Scrap of White card

Folding bone

Firstly take your A4 sheet of black card and fold it in half then take a folding bone and run it down the fold.

Use the small die and cut 12 squares from the brown sheet of A4 card to make your inchies and emboss 4 of them with different folders.

Take your card and select some backing paper, i chose some burnt orange mulberry paper. Trim it to 19.6cm x 12cm ready to place on the front.

Next measure the black card to make sure the backing paper is central.

Take a pencil and mark these measurements to make sure the panel is central.

Layer up the back with double sided tape and get ready to attach to the black card following the pencil marks.

Fiddle around and decide what spacing you want to use for your squares then stick your foam pads on the die cut squares ready to stick.

The measurements i went with 0.3cm on the outer edge, 0.6cm on the vertical lines and 1.3cm on the horizontal lines. I started with the middle row and worked outwards.

Next the fun bit of decorating the squares, i have left the embossed ones blank to add texture to the card. In the garden i found lots of little brown leaves, dry twine and dry grass heads i wanted to add to the card. I also wanted to use some of the toppers i had made a few days ago.

I cut this with my Tim Holtz Alterations Bigz flowers die using mulberry paper and distressing the edge with the Memento ink to place on one of the squares.

Next i wanted some stamping on the card so i decided to partially stamp on to the scrap of white card, colour with Letraset ProMarkers and cut to fit.

I thought these were cute so i bunched them and wrapped them in green wool finished off with a bow for that bouquet look.

I decided to cut one of the leaves with the butterfly punch to layer up with a larger butterfly punch. I do love my Woodware craft punches, i use them for most of my projects.

How cute is this?? Cut from a bay leaf.

I also snapped some dried twigs and wrapped in twine secured with glue. The best one to use for this was my glue gun to make sure it wasn't moving. I attached a little leaf onto the twine to give it a little extra Autumn feel.

Arrange all your bits and attach when you are happy with the layout. This is my first inchies card i have made and i am very pleased with the outcome of it. I will deffo be doing this again for the festive season, ooooo the ideas are flowing already.

Hope you all like it Emmie xxx