Scrapping Tonight

Every Wednesday in August, the girls and I do a craft workshop based on nature. Last week we made corn dollies (must remember to photograph our effects!), and today it was mini mosiacs, using nature to inspire and for making stamps.
The girls thoroughly enjoyed the morning, and I ended up being Paxton Pitts photographer, LOL.




Finally we painted our finished piece.




My neighbour sent round one of these.


Shopping List

1kg of marrow, peeled, deseeded and chopped 2cm pieces ( from the garden or a neighbours garden!)
750g preserving sugar
1 red chilli deseeded ( I used a green chilli that we had grown in the garden)
Ginger piece
2 lemons
2 - 3 jam jars ( I used recycled jars but I also recommend and use Lakeland jars.)
Optional but highly recommended : Strong English Cheddar, crackers

Do remember to stop by for the Crafty Friday project and a HUGE giveaway!
Thanks for stopping by,
Anna x

I am really loving Echo Park Summer Time collection. I ordered a craft pack from 3 Jolly Scrappers a while ago and only managed to play at the weekend.



I used photos of Lilly jumping and twirling for me that I had done for my shutter speed assignment at Karen Russels photography workshop. The photos summed up Lilly's carefree attitude, and were perfect with the Echo Park papers; even the diecut titles were made for me!


I kept my layout simple, and embellished with chipboard, stickers and rubons. Used Such Sweet Tierney buttons to make button flowers. (check out this post for a Such Sweet Tierney giveaway)



I cut out some clouds from the paper strip sheet; love clouds! used a mix of rubons from Heidi Grace and Fancy Pants to embellish my page and one of the photos. All the chipboard ellements are cardstock diecuts from Echo Park that I have mounted onto chipboard and used 3d pads.



Supplies : Echo Park Summertime pattern paper. Papermania cardstock, Echo Park chipboard, Heidi Grace and Fancy Pants rubons, Such Sweet Tierney Buttons.

Check back tomorrow for our Crafty Friday Project list. This week we will be getting crafty in the kitchen.
Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Today is my turn to blog over at Nikki Sivils. I played with her new collection Tree Love, which I am totally in love with!. The colours are just perfect for the photos I took of the girls in the fields, just before the farmer started Harvesting.
When Autumn/Fall arrives I will be scrapping with these papers all over again!

In the UK its a very busy time of the year for farmers, and living surrounded by farms we watch Harvest season with joy! I am a born and bred townie, living in the country for the past 5 years has been a life changing experience, and I am loving it! Love the slower pace, love the scenery, love that my girls wake up to fresh country air every morning, love that we have great walks on our doorstep for our new addition to our family, Suki our English Springer Spaniel.

 
 
 
This photo is of my eldest daughter, and I just knew the colours from Nikki Sivils new line would just be perfect. A simple layout of layers and carefully placed embellishments are all this layout needed. I am so happy that Nikki has introduced alphabet stickers to her new lines, I am an alphabet hoarder.
 
Nikki's fab diecut sheets are so versatile and I used my trusty scalloped punch to punch out the heart tree diecut on my layout.



I have used the same simple design for my layout, but have added a 1/4 sheet of the shaped paper and a felt strip. I love to add dimension to my pages, so most of the diecut shapes I have added will have some 3d love!



Have I told you how much I love the diecut sheets! I cut out this cute Beaver and the tree from the "Tree Love" diecut sheet.



Supplies : Nikki Sivils Tree Love papers, Nikki Sivils diecut sheet, Nikki Sivils stickers, Queen and Co felt border, Such Sweet Tierney button, twine


Check out this sketch I did for last months sketch challenge, to achieve a similar design. I have just chosen to make my paper strips much wider; the beauty of sketches!
I can see me using this product line over and over again, so much fun. Roll on Fall, or Autumn for my friends over the pond.

Time to head to my scraproom and pull out some Blueberry Hill for my Lavender Field photos!
Do pop on over Nikki Sivils blog and say Hi and check out all teh other isnpiring projects by the design team!

Thanks for stopping by,
Anna x

Don't forget to enter yesterdays draw for some handpainted buttons from Such Sweet Tierney! Closing date 13th August midnight GMT

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

I "heart" lavender, ask anyone who knows me, how much I adore the stuff! My first house was a Victorian double fronted house with gardens either side. I had a lavender path either side of the path to the house, much to Karens dislike; she would run up the path not a happy bunny, as the bees hummed working away on my lavender!
My accent colour for my wedding was lavender, and the guest bedroom was hues of lavender and white. I would pack up home and move to Provence at a drop of a hat just to be surrounded by a summer of lavender fields.
So when Karen Aldrin sent me this link to Hitchin Lavender Fields, I was in heaven! A photo opportunity if I ever saw one, and a moment for me to breath in fields of lavender scent and wish I was transported to Provence. Thursday was the day. I drove down to Karens house with the girls to meet up with Karen and her daughter and we headed off to Hitchin. Both Karen and I are doing Karen Russells photography workshop and the only brits on the course, so we have to stick together, LOL. It was great to actually work side by side on an assignment with Karen who has the same enthusasism for photography as I do and also has the best props!

Lilly was a willing model for the day, and soaked up the beauty of her surroundings, picking bags of lavender for me, and watching the bees at work.

please note, photos have been optimized for the web



And now some Sunflowers; they just make you want to smile, don't they!



A not so cooperative model, bless



And a photo shoot behind the scenes! Karen taking photos of her daughter, and Lilly the prop girl!



Finally a little collage of a few favs from the day; thanks to Picasa.

all these photo are SOOC click on photo to enlarge, no idea why its so small!

If you live in the East Anglia Area or Hertfordshire, I highly recommend a visit to the Lavender and Sunflower field. We came home with 3 huge bags of cut lavender, and some gorgeous sunflowers, as well as a great half day out, all for the pricely sum of £7.00!!! Now thats a bargain. I will be making some lavender bags I am sure, as well as some lavender shortbread. Saved my lavender plants from the chop right now, and I got to practise my photography.

I have used the Coffeeshop rounded corner action on my photos, love it and its free!

Ooo check back tomorrow as I have a great giveaway for those playing along with Crafty Friday! Check out yesterdays post for the first tutorial.
Have a great Saturday and thanks as always for stopping by!
Anna x

I am sure most of us have memories new and old, as a child gazing into our Mothers/Grandmothers battered biscuit tin filled with buttons! This battered biscuit tins from years gone by was filled with treasures for us kids, and I still love looking through my mother in laws battered biscuit tin, brimming with beautiful bone buttons from her days as a wedding dress seamstress.

With my love of buttons still very much with me today, our first Crafty Friday project is a button project. I have hundreds, maybe even thousands of buttons, so the girls and I sat down one afternoon and made some button men!
Go grab your buttons from this post and lets begin:

• Start by making the legs of your button doll.

• Insert needle with embroidery floss through one hole on sixteen 1/2" buttons (aprox diametre measurement).

• Knot a small loop about 1/8" long on upper end of leg.
• Insert needle through remaining hole in reverse direction . Knot and trim ends.
• Repeat for other leg!
• For the arms preparing as above with 15 buttons

• Now lets make the head and hat.
• You will need the following:

• Insert needle through one hole on one 1" and one 1 1/2" button and a bead. This is the head and hat.

• Insert needle through 4 smaller buttons and 1 slightly larger button. DO NOT CUT THREAD
• Now to start putting all our limbs together.

• Insert needle through loop on upper end of each arm and one hole on remaining  12 1" buttons on body.

• Insert through loop on upper end of each leg
• Insert needle through remaining hole in reverse direction on body, back through arm loops and holes on neck, head and hat.
• Knot ends again 1-11/2" from previous knot, creating a loop for hanging.

• Finally trim all ends.

Cute eh!



Please share your creations here on the Crafty Friday facebook page, I would love to see what you make.
If you love buttons with a difference, then go visit London at Such Sweet Tierney.

Back tomorrow with photos from a beautiful day at Hitchin Lavender Farm. Layout photos will be on the 8th August for my Nikki Sivils blog post.

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Each year, the Bowkis family all gather at our house for one heck of a party! There is a golf tournament for all the men, and then back to ours where family and close friends join us for food, drink, face painting, bouncy castle, BBQ, Pinata, and a sing song on Rock Band (although not this year). We also remember all those that are no longer with us.
Its a beautiful weekend, with lots of laughter and not so many tears now, lots of memories spoken and photographed;  it will be spoken about until the next one in 2011, the same saturday in July year after year.

Here are a few memories from the weekend.

and bingo!

I have managed to get quite a bit of scrapping done these last few days with the new Nikki Sivils papers, and I am totally smitten by Tree Love! Will have some scrapping to share tomorrow.

I am pleased to announce that I have finished 1 ruffle skirt! Its by far from perfect, and lots of little mistakes have been made, that are frustrating; like the plain pink ruffle seam is at the front, grrr, and doesnt look as ruffled as the others, but I have actually finished a sewing project, and Lilly has already modeled it for me and she loves it! Result!! Thank you Karen for the perfect colour matched Monsoon cardy!!



I am now raring to go and start Izzy's skirt now, and then make a bandana with a cute flower thing as well, to finish their ensembles off.



This weekend was a mega busy one for me, as we hosted the annual family summer party. I believe it was a success and many hundreds of photos were taken, of which I will share tomorrow.

Also Sunday, Lilly had her yellow snr. belt grading and she passed, and is now the proud owner of a gold belt. We are so proud of her.

I am currently trying to uplaod photos to photobox as they have a 30 free print offer on to the first 2000 customers. I never seem to get uplaoded in time so fingers crossed!

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x