Some exciting news...! eeeep!!

Eeeep!!  It's been very difficult keeping this to myself but I'm very happy to be able to tell you that I'm joining The Stamp Attic design team!  I'm absolutely thrilled to bits!!  There are some amazing crafty peeps designing for The Stamp Attic and it's a little intimidating(!) but it's such a great excuse to spend even more time messing about with crafty things galore :-D like I needed an excuse ;)

I'm really excited to share my first project for The Stamp Attic with you; I'm just showing a sneak peek here with a link to the post at The Stamp Attic blog - go check it out and if you like it, leave me some love in the comments there pretty please :)

Thank you! And... eeeeeep!!!!!
I've also posted a project at The Scrappy Tree today using some of my favourite colours (yep those sunset ones again) so you can find me there too today to say hi to :)


Happy weekend folks! xxx

Spring Distress tag - TST

My post at The Scrappy Tree today :)  

Hello and happy Friday! I have a tag to share with you today using the new Spring Distress Inks - loving these colours!  I used all three on the tag, Squeezed Lemonade, Peacock Feather and Shaded Lilac.  

I stamped the background image first from the Tim Holtz Remnants stamp set using black Archival Ink and then just added Distress Ink and water in layers on top.  I also added some ink splats with broken china and scattered straw Distress Stains, and shaded around the edges with aged mahogany Distress Ink to give it a border - I liked how this made it look almost rainbow coloured.

 I stamped the 5c stamp onto card and punched out the circle with a 1" circle punch, and then coloured these with each of the new Spring colours.  I outlined them with white Posca pen to make them stand out and then stuck them down with foam pads so they were raised.

I coloured some crumpled ribbon with broken china Distress Stain to match the tag, and the caption is a saying I found on the internet by Ralph Waldo Emerson which I printed out on my Dymo.

Thanks for visiting us today, hope you have a great weekend and get to have some creative fun :)

Gayle xx

Matchbox swap

Recently I took part in a matchbox swap hosted by the lovely Zuzu :) - this week my matchbox arrived, and I know that the matchbox I made has arrived safely at its destination so now I can share them both with you :)

Here's my effort (a la Andy Skinner stylee!) which went to Anne ...

And the inside...

And this is from my swap partner Catherine:

Isn't it beautiful??  And here's the inside...

This is my first matchbox swap; on reflection I think I should have used a bigger matchbox!  But I liked it cos I thought it was cute :) and it gave me a chance to use that Andy Skinner technique which I adore :)

Absolutely in love with flutterbyes, so am delighted with my matchbox from Catherine :)

Happy weekend!

Gayle xx

Ten things on the 10th

This has really snuck up on me this month, I feel like I've lost the beginning of May somewhere! :)

It's been a crazy week of ups and downs in our house, so my ten things this month are all about appreciating the simple things that make me happy...

1. seeing my wedding ring and being reminded of my lovely husband and our wedding
2. hugs from my family
3. seeing the sun shine
4. being snuggled up in my duvet
5. reading my Kindle on the train
6. planning adventures abroad
7. having my Kitty sat on my lap
8. getting inky in the scrappy room
9. having a glass of white wine
10. taking pictures with my camera of all of these lovely things :)

Thank you for visiting my ten on the 10th :) you can visit Shimelle's blog for more lists of loveliness :)

To my baby

I'm writing this hoping that tomorrow you're going to wake up feeling much better.  I spent today putting food in your mouth, pouring water onto your tongue, and holding you tight so you didn't walk into things and hurt yourself.  I'd do it for anyone I care for, and also people I've never met before, so of course I do it for you :)

With you, as with them, it breaks my heart.

Feel better my baby, my life will be a sadder place without you. xxxx

Tags ahoy!! At The Scrappy Tree

My post at The Scrappy Tree today :)


Today I have two more tags to share with you, and a chance for you to get taggy with us for National Scrapbooking Day tomorrow!

These tags were inked up with spray inks and lots of water with some flourishes in brown StazOn and then embellished :)

This first tag uses some Tim Holtz stamps and a few SEI travel themed die-cuts, and is outlined in black and white Posca pen.

The second tag has a Kaisercraft clock rub-on in the centre, some Crafty Individuals acetate wings, some Tim Holtz sprockets and game spinners and a sentiment stamped with those little letter stamps you can pick up in the craft shop :)  also outlined in black and white Posca pen (love love LOVE these!)

And now your chance to join in! We know a lot of you will be busy tomorrow taking part in challenges for National Scrapbooking Day and we thought we'd join in Scrappy Tree style!  We challenge you to create a tag during the day tomorrow, and by the end of the day add a link to a picture of your tag in the comments of tomorrow's Scrappy Tree post, or send a pic to thescrappytree (at) hotmail.com (end of the day means midnight on Saturday in California!)

Yes there will be prizes :) we'll announce these later in the week, and also on Saturday we'll introduce a separate week-long challenge with the opportunity to swap your project at the end; watch out for tomorrow's post for details of how to take part!

Have a great scrappy weekend and thanks for visiting, hope to see you tomorrow!

Gayle xx

Welcome to the t'pouch...

My post this week at The Scrappy Tree :)


Welcome to your weekend and the world of the t'pouch!  Last weekend I was lucky enough not only to attend a great class at the Stamp Attic with Hels Sheridan, but I also got to spend time with Stamp Attic owner Wendy.  What a lovely weekend! Lots of chat, plenty of coffee, and some inking to boot; who could ask for more!

As before I made cakes to take with me to the workshop, and once again I forgot to take pics LOL but I took a pic of the raspberry brownies before they ever left the baking tin (or the house!) and here they are...

I can't even tell you how gorgeous and gooey these were, I shall be making them again!  I also made a banana marble cake, but to be honest those brownies, oh the brownies!!

So I travelled up on Saturday afternoon and spent the evening with Wendy and her family, which was wonderful :) we ate, we chatted, we got vocal at the telly while The Voice and BGT were on: great fun!!  And I visited Wendy's craft room which is truly a cave of wonders!  Wendy's having a little revamp at the moment so no pics LOL

On Sunday we went to the Stamp Attic and met with Hels and the other ladies (and gent!) taking the workshop, charged ourselves up with plenty of coffee, cake and other goodies, and proceeded to ink and glue like our lives depended on it!

This was a tag class with a difference; tags on tags on tags in a pouch!  You can see Hels' blog post here for more information on how we made and embellished the tags and t'pouch (tag pouch), and Wendy has also blogged here with pics of all the tags made in class :)  And here's my effort!

Lately I am totally obsessed with tags and inking, so this class was right up my street!  (see, I did say on Friday I'd be right back on the tags after that card post LOL).  Was also really feeling the sunshiney colours this weekend, and at the time I didn't realise it but this is also Hels' Sunday stamper theme so it must be getting to that time of year :)

On a different note, in case you missed Julie's post last week you can see it here; it's important to us to make sure we can support causes that are near to our hearts.  We'd love to hear your comments :)

Happy scrapping!

Gayle xx