It's a Creative World

Messy hands at Halloween!

We have another Winner!!!!! JENGA wins the Scrapping Angels kit donated by Anna @ Scrapping Angels.Please email your addy to [email protected]Thank you to everyone who left a comment :)And of course the fun is not over yet! Everyone who has donated, sent in a LO up to the end of today and leaves a comment on todays post will go into a big lucky dipper prize draw to win a goodie bag from Scrapbook Inspirations!!!!My children like nothing better than getting their hands dirty, so I thought I would give them a couple of opportunities to really get stuck in and get creative on a Halloween theme.

First on the agenda – Halloween shortbread.

We used a very straightforward shortbread recipe:

225g butter
125g caster sugar
350g plain flour, plus extra flour for dusting
a pinch of salt

Cream the butter and the sugar together in a large bowl. I let the children take turns at doing this, before giving it a final go myself. Sieve the flour and a pinch of salt into the creamed mixture, and combine the ingredients to make a doughy mixture. Again, rubbing the flour into the fat and sugar is wonderfully messy and this is the part where we usually have arguments as to who has had the longest turn!!

When all of the ingredients have been completely rubbed in together, gently knead the doughy mixture for a few moments, and form it into a smooth ball. Wrap it in clingfilm, and put it in the fridge for 15 minutes. Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 4, 180 degrees C, 350 degrees F, and grease a couple of large baking sheets. When the biscuit mix is ready to come out of the fridge, sprinkle some flour onto your work surface, and your rolling pin, and gently roll out the mixture to about a 1cm thickness. We used Halloween cookie cutters bought this year and last year at Tesco, and took it in turns to cut shapes from the dough. Keep reforming the dough ball and rolling out until all the mixture has been used up. The biscuits need to go into the oven for 15 minutes, but check them at around 12 minutes because if your oven is on the hot side, they'll probably be done! They just need to be golden, and more on the golden side than the brown side (I write from experience on this one!!!) When the biscuits are cooked, take them out of the oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack for as long as they need to cool down. This is the part where you might want to have something else to occupy the children, as mine wanted to decorate the biscuits as soon as they were cooked, and they really do need time to cool otherwise the icing won't stick properly. I had my dear husband, a very large pumpkin, and a pumpkin carving kit at the ready, and while the biscuits were cooling, the girls helped their dad to prepare the pumpkin ready for him to carve - another extremely messy job!!

The girls had great fun scooping out the stringy bits and seeds, and it took just long enough for the biscuits to have time to cool. I bought a four-pack of writing icing, and let them do their own thing.

Here are the finished biscuits - we still have a few left to enjoy today!

And the results of the pumpkin carving? Using the Tesco pumpkin carving templates, a friendly ghost on one side, and a fiendish face on the other:

We also found time to make these orange chocolate lollies using this Supercook kit.

H*A*P*P*Y H*A*L*L*O*W*E*E*N to all our readers! Don't get spOOked!

Mix it up!!

Hi Folks!!!

And we have another lucky dipper prize today for our Scrap Your Boobs campaign. Its an A4 sheet of Zettiology rubber stamps donated by 3D Jean and the winner is Hazel Harris. Please email us your address at [email protected] and we will get your prize to you!!! And a big thanks to our very generous sponsor!!!

Woo Hoo we are giving away another prize today. It's a Scrapping Angels kit donated by the lovely Anna @ scrapping angels! There will be a draw tomorrow so leave us a comment to be eligible for the prize!!!

It's Tuesday again and today we are bringing you the last in a series of LO classes!!

Mixing patterned papers :)

We are so lucky to be joined once again by the very talented ~Angie~ who has created these fab LOs as examples of mixing different patterned paper line on a LO.

Crocs Rock I've been trying to scrap this photo since I got my first pair or Crocs earlier this year. When I started to think about how I could use a mixture of papers from different manufacturers, I went straight to my box of scraps. This seemed to be a great place to search through for papers that might go together. Having found a few different patterns I cut the pieces into strips,inked the edges, and lay them across the cardstock base. I like the way the different papers create a bold interesting background. Usually this would overwhelm a photo, but as the subject is only a pair of shoes I feel it doesn't matter in this case. The finished layout is quite layered....I used some Hambly overlay, and Heidi Swapp Ghost letters so all the time the papers can be seen through from underneath.

You Spin Me Right Round On this layout I didn't want to overdo the paper,I wanted quite a clean look, so I found 3 papers with a similar feel to them. Two of them I simply placed in opposite corners, and the third I used for the arrow and to mat one of the photos.

Sweetie Pie This time I wanted to create a vivid fun layout, using lots of bright colours and patterns. I started with the Doodlebug flowery paper, then found other papers that co-ordinated with it. I wanted to use quite large pieces which I layered under the photo. A spot of doodling around the edges of it all adds another fun element. I love this layout- so bold, and it was great fun to put together. I don't think I'll ever be afraid of mixing papers again!

And Di has used different patterned papers to create this fab LO!!

I hope this will inspire you to get out your scraps and start mixing papers!!

haPPy creATing!!

Caz

xx

Just old fashioned scrapping...

A BIG "Hi" to you all from Di (in Sunny Johannesburg, South Africa this weekend).

This morning we have a prize winner and its Heather from Scotland!!! Please contact us at [email protected] provide us with your address and your prize will be on it's way to you!!!

Do I have to remind you that I am an 'old fashioned' scrapper? I used to make scrap books using post cards, menus and loads of stuff cut out from magazines. Well, guess what, I still like to do that!!!!

Recently I spent a week in a beautiful place called Hermanus watching the whales. I was there with my niece Joanne and her boyfriend Richard. Jo asked me to help her make a little momento of the holiday for Richard (who lives in Wales). Now Jo has never scrapped before so we reverted to the old fashioned style!

This is what we made for Richard:

And this is what we started with:

For the pages: cut 2 pieces of cardstock into 6 by 6inch squares.

For the back cover: cut a 6 by 6 inch square of cardboard.

Fot the front cover: cut a 6 by 6 inch square of corrugated cardboard and peeled away some of the brown paper to reveal the corrugated bit.

We used brown ink for the cardboard and green pages and black ink for the red pages.

This is what we collected to fill the album:

We collected brochures, menus, bills, and of course photographs!! We cut WORDS from old magazines.

The Front cover

The back cover:

Some of the pages:

We had lots of fun and it did not take long! I have decided that I am going to make an old fashioned scrapbook of IDEAS, using stuff torn from magazines! I think it will be great fun, simple and therapeutic .

Oh and just a reminder that you still have time to scrap your boobs!

And another reminder to keep those donations pouring in. You have been so generous and every single pound helps.

Thanks for visiting us at IACW with love from Di XXX

Children's Christmas crafts

One of the most Special ways to remember Christmas is to make something each year with a child. :0) Here are a few ideas from Joy and Angela.

Sweet Stockings

Materials: Stockings cut from paper (one normal, and one negative image), more patterned paper, adhesive, hole punch, ribbon, lace

Step 1: Cut the Stockings with a die-cutting machine or with scissors, using a pattern. Note - the second side should be the reverse image so that when you lay them together, the edges line up. (The brightly painted table is my messy play table!)

Step 2: Punch Holes along the edges of the stocking (both sides touching).

Step 3: Tie a bit of the end of Ribbon at one end of the stocking. A child can lace it through the holes.

Step 4: Add a patterned paper top to the stocking, and then glue on a lace fringe.

The stockings can be used as ornaments or to hold small items (like candy canes). Or, you can make a larger version to hang up. :0)

Joy xxxx

Hand Print Christmas Trees This year is the first year I have been able to make something for Christmas with DS, and we had lots of fun getting paint and glue everywhere! He is 18 months, so just shows you can do crafts with Children from an early age!

We covered his hands in various shades of green paint and made 24 hand prints on some light weight cardstock. While we waited for these to dry, DS painted himself and a sheet of card in gold and painted some red in a triangle to make a base for the Chrismas tree.

When everything was dry, I cut around the handprints and then we stuck them down with glue in the shape of a christmas tree. DS then painted "Baubles" on the tree by dabbing a paint dauber over the paper. I cut a star shape out of the gold painted card and we stuck this on top. Finally we added a piece of multicoloured wool as tinsel.

We had great fun making this and getting messy!

~angela~

We really hope that you enjoyed the creations we made with our children. We would love to see what your children come up with.

**~~**~~**~~**~~**

The winner of the kit supplied by Kirsty Wiseman is Rach. Please email us at [email protected] with your address. Thank you so much to Kirsty for putting this kit together with her own fair hands.

Today we are offering a fabulous handmade bracelet created by our very own Trish. Everyone who has made a donation to our Just giving prize up until the end of today will go in the lucky dipper.

Christmas Tree Decorations.

Today Caz and I are doing fabric Christmas tree decorations, I love Christmas and find bits and bobs to do all year round so its not a last minute rush. These birds I made back in July for my tree, I love felt as it is so versatile and doesn’t fray, I used red felt, gold thread, gold sequins, green thread and polyester toy stuffing. The candy canes are for hanging in my kitchen, which is having a Christmas foodie theme. They are very easy and quick to make, all you need is two pipe cleaners, I used red and white, twist them together and bend the top round to form the hook. Caz has made these gorgeous lavender filled tartan hearts for her tree; she used pinking shears to help stop the edges from fraying. These will smell and look gorgeous on her beautifully decorated and lit tree. I hope you have enjoyed today’s post; don’t forget to email us with any pictures of the items we have featured here. Today we are also doing a prize drawer to win a fab kit from Kirsty Wiseman just leave us a comment on today’s post and we will draw a winner on Sunday. We have exceeded the target for donations that we had set ourselves and are really grateful to all of you that have donated on our just giving page, Thank you, and a HUGE thank you too to all you lovely brave ladies that have scrapped your boobs and sent us the pictures. Trish xxx

Quick & Easy Buttons!

I love buttons, all sorts, mostly I seem to collect them (well, they do look so pretty in glass jars on my shelf!) but sometimes I actually use them too! The ones I use the most are actually the ones I have made myself, that way you can get a perfect match to your layout, and it's very easy and cheap to do.

I have included a couple of examples here to help inspire you, I really hope you have a go because it is a great way to use up scraps and a nice little crafty thing to make up on one of those evenings when you don't have much time to spare but still want to get creative.

In this layout I made buttons to perfectly co-ordinate with the patterned paper using clear page pebbles. I bought a few packets of these when I started scrapping years ago but never used them, then I realised they could be used to make fake epoxy buttons! Just stick your page pebble directly on to your patterned paper, burnish the back of the paper with a rub-on stick to make sure it is stuck down properly and then carefully cut out the pebble.

To mark the holes it is easiest to draw round your shape on a piece of scrap paper and cut that out, then fold that template into quarters to give you some guidelines. If you then punch circles out of the template you can check if you like their position and go ahead and mark them onto the back of your button.

You can punch the holes with a cropadile or a normal eyelet punch, it's much easier than you think!

I made this pile of buttons in less than half an hour, they are now all ready for me to start scrapping! I bought a pack of Basic Grey papers ready to scrap last years Christmas photos, and it came with a sheet of tags which knew I wouldn't use, so I cut up the tags and covered some Bazzill chips with them to make co-ordinating buttons. You could just as easily cut your own shapes out of cardboard, or use one of the larger die-cut machines like a Big Shot.

To finish them off I sanded the edges which went well with the vintage papers, but inking them also looks really effective. You can also set eyelets into the button holes for a really clean look.

In this layout I used Bazzill chips again but painted them with acrylic to give a perfect match to the cardstock I used and then drew on some simple detail using a white marker pen.

I really hope you have a go at this, a great way to add some fun to your layouts and use up those scraps :)

Charlotte x

Need Inspiration?

The girls at It's A Creative World are so thrilled by the number of entries into our 'Scrap your Boobs' challenge and all the donations to our Just Giving Page. It's not too late to contribute to either, you have until the end of October.

Making Embellishments from Fun Foam.

Hi there, it’s Angela here with another altered art type project.

It is handy to be able to make your own embellishments, especially when it is from a cheap material.

For this you will need:
A heat gun
1 A5 sheet of Fun Foam
rubber stamp
shimmery paints (eg Twinkling H2O’s, Stewart Gill paints, Daler-Rowney’s Irridescent Mediums)
Paint brush
Metallic rub-on wax

Cut your piece of foam slightly bigger than the stamp that you want to use to make your embellishment.

Place this on a heat resistant surface, and heat with the heat gun until the edges of the foam start to curl up (this should only take a few seconds).

Stamp your rubber stamp on top of the foam, pushing down firmly for a few seconds.

When you lift up your stamp you should see an impression of the stamp on the foam.

Now to make this stand out, I painted it, using a dry brush and some Irridescent medium, sweeping the brush over the image, not being too careful about it. This gives it a more rustic look.

I then highlighted some areas with gold irridescent medium, and used some metallic wax to make the image stand out more.

I then cut around the image, but you can leave it as it is.

Here is another example:

Fun foam can be sewn on or attached using your regular choice of adhesive. There are many different things you can do with this, making an impression with random textured things that are around your house.

Have fun experimenting!!!

~angela~

And a BIG Woo Hoo for our prize winner "queenofstash (Debra) ". If you could email to us your address your prize wil be on its way to you! ([email protected]) .

Debra won a pair of gorgeous earrings kindly donated by Jaq at A String of Beads

Working from a sketch

Welcome to another Octobers Tuesday LO class!

Today we are going to be looking as scrapping from a sketch.

Sketches are very versatile because you can use as much, or as little, of the elements on your page, or turn it any which way you want.

The IT place to find sketches is Pencil Lines. An inspirational blog run by a FAB group of ladies who create the most awesome work every week to inspire their readers.

And here at It's a Creative World we are very honoured to have been given an exclusive sketch for our class by the lovely Anna!!

Hi , my name is Anna Bowkis, I live in a small village in Cambridgeshire with my hubby and two girls. I have a very fond love for sketches and a year ago I came up with the concept of Pencil Lines, the sketch challenge blog. Every week we have a new sketch for our readers and a guest designer. Our readers gallery is very popular, and one lucky reader each month recives a RAK form one of our sponsers. This month is our first anniversary, and we have lots of sketches, prizes and RAK’s to give away. I have made this sketch especially for “It’s a creative world” readers and hope you enjoy creating. Thanks for having me as a guest this week, its been such fun! Hugs Anna x

And this is what we have done with it.........

Charlotte!

Angela!

Caz!

And here are a few more examples of LOs using PL sketches from the lovely Joy!

And of course it wouldn't be IACW without a great prize giveaway! Today we are offering you a gift from the amazing collection over at A String Of Beads. All you have to do is leave us a comment before midnight tonight and we will do the prize draw tomorrow :)

haPPy creATing!!

Caz

xx

Thanks for visiting!!

WOO HOO, we have reached our fundraising target!!!!! You ladies are just awesome and the support you have shown for a great cause is just amazing. Keep those donations coming in and get you BOOBIES SCRAPPED!!!!!!

There are still loads of prizes to be won this month so visit often :)

Andrea!

In the Doldrums ???

Hi again from Di with another idea to get the creative juices going.

I have been through a real “mojo less” period, and sometimes I just want to play. Because I am retired, I am on a pension, and therefore a BUDGET. Like you I have stash that I have actually FORGOTTEN about. So this is also an oopportunity to "Use Your Stash".

Cheap and Cheerful Décor:
Sometimes I just want to sit down and play, with no expectations of what I am creating. That’s when I create stuff to adorn my “studio”.
So get some old cardboard, patterned paper, as many embellishments as you feel like and play.

My Studio
Just some patterned paper, paint, chipboard letters brads and ribbon.

About me:

And more just about me!!!

And finally a little "welcome"

I treat these as ’throwaways”. If they adorn “My space”for a few months, that’s fine. But they are in my face reminding me of who and what I am. They contain some positive thoughts that I can focus on whilst working. I used some paper that I have loved for a long time but have probably “over scrapped” LOL. You will find that you are not inhibited by the colours of photographs. (If you decide to include a few photographs, print them in black and white, sepia or antique.)

This works for me. We would love to hear how YOU approach kindling your inspiration (We hope you come to IACW!!!! LOL.)

a BIG Thanks for your very generous donations to our breast cancer awareness campaign. A special thanks to the folks who accepted my little challenge and donated this weekend. You will see that we have almost reached our target!!!

And a reminder to get your "Scrap your Boobs" layouts in before the 31st October. Please email them to us at [email protected] THANKS!!!

Thanks for visiting and love from Di XXX