Mothering Sunday Creations

At the Littlegreen crop last Sunday Jo was making a beautiful framed piece of artwork for her mum for Mothering Sunday. It is absolutely lovely and I am sure her mum loved it.

For my mum I made a purple card as it is her favourite colour. A very simple card with a stamped image and watercolour pencils but hopefully she liked it.

 For my mother in law a nice pink girly card.

 

My boys spoilt me on Mothering Sunday which was lovely. They also bought me an apple tree for the garden which I am looking forward to choosing a spot for (although I am going to wait until after my youngest's party on Monday as we will have lots of children running around in the garden!) I hope all you mums out there had a great day too?

Crop Layouts

I didn't manage to get photos of many layouts from our crop as the camera batteries died on me and the spare set were flat too (I wonder who put a flat pack back in the bag?!?). The few photos I did get were great though. Here are a few photos of pages from the class.

Debs is sure that her neice won't like this photo but I can't see what's not to like? She is beautiful and the photo goes so well with the page, the colours are amazing with the papers and notice the flower on her top which ties in with the flowers on the page. Brilliant!

Next we have Su's take on the page which again the colours go amazingly! Su is going to add her title later so I look forwards to seeing what she adds. I love the journalling around the edge of the page. Nice to see someone with a lot to say!!

Next we have Viv's take on the page and again the photos go brilliantly... she didn't know there was circles on the page, but they compliment her hula hoops brilliantly.

Sneak Peak

I thought that those of you who are coming to the crop on Saturday might like a sneak peak of the layout we are doing. If you want to do the class please let me know or if you are a blog reader who would like a class kit sent to you please let me know and I'll give you more details.

 

The class is a single page layout using 1 landscape photo or 1 or 2 portrait photos. I have used 2 portrait photos but the layout is flexible as regards the photos you use. You will need 6”x4” photos if you are using 2, if you are using one you could probably use 7”x5”. The class will teach you two great techniques, a paper folding technique and a ribbon flower technique. The colours are kraft, brown and orange. And my photos have clear blue skies in them too which go really well.

As well as the usual tools you will need to bring…

If you have a score board or trimmer that scores please bring it along (if you aren’t doing the class but have a score board someone could borrow that would be really helpful)

Bone folder (or similar for scoring)

Double sided tape

3mm redline tape (the really sticky stuff) or another strong glue

3D foam squares (or the 3D foam tape if you have it)

A pair of compasses with a pencil

If you want to let me know what your title is in advance I will sort out the letters for you into your kit. Titles will need to be short (mine is ‘roar’!)

Cre8tive Cards 3

These are the photos from the February Cre8tive Cards class. I hope you like :)

Firstly a paper weave heart for Valentines Day with a beautiful stamped background (the image unfortunately doesn't do it justice)

Secondly an origami flower in a choice of two colours

Next our technique 'Kissing'... well it had to be seeing as it was nearly Valentine's Day! The four corners of the card were all created with the same stamp and an ace stamping technique. 

And finally our Cre8tive Fold card which didn't have a single fold in it!

A cool shaped slider card... pull the point at the bottom and a secret section pops up at the top. Cool!

Sneak Peak

For those of you who are joining us for the Basic Grey Page of the Month Programme this year here is an image of the first two kits. I hope you like them :)

Editing Photos

I got into a discussion with some of the ladies at the crop on Saturday about how I make my photos lighter. It all started because the lady opposite me had snowy pictures and her snow looked somewhat grey. Anyway I said to her that I use Microsoft Office Picture Manager to lighten my photos. It is really easy and seems to work on most photos. I usually use it when I am photographing cards or layouts to make the colour more true. I thought I would share how I do it here in case it can help anyone else. The software was on my pc so I would think most people have it. So here is what I do...

1. In Windows Explorer click on the file you want to open (only click once)
2. Right click and you should have a drop down menu
3. About half way down it says 'Open With'
4. If you move the mouse over this it will then open another drop down menu
5. On my menu the second item down is Microsoft Office Picture Manager
6. Select this and it will open the photo you have selected.
7. From the menus at the top left click 'picture' and then 'colour' from the menu that drops down
8. On the right there is now a box which says enhance colour. Click on this box and then click on anything in your photo that is white
9. Your computer will work out how all the other colours should look adjusting the colour that should be white back to white.
10. See below for a before and after shot. Note the piece of paper on the left. If I don't have anything white in my photo I will put a piece of paper in shot for my white and then crop it out when I edit my photo. The paper goes from grey to white and the rest of the photo is brightened up too.

I hope this can help some of you. Let me know if it does and also if you don't understand anything!

Free Ribbon!

I thought it was about time we did another prize draw so if you place an order for £30 or more online during February you will be entered in our prize draw to win over £30 worth of ribbons. I will make sure the winner gets a really good selection. All you have to do is place your order and you will automatically be entered in the prize draw (and of course you will get free P&P too!) Happy Shopping!