Bokeh

It's been a busy old week here, and I feel I've neglected my blog a little, so to avoid beginning to slide down the slippery slope of blog abandonment I thought I'd share a quick post of something a little different......

I've been admiring "bokeh" photography light effects for ages, and the other day whilst Mr T was tinkering on the computer and I was sat at a loose end I decided to have a little go - I was quite pleased with the results!

Here's what I started with, a painted jar filled with fairy lights.........pretty!

And here's the effects I achieved playing with bokeh:

Classic round bokeh, I had made some different effects with different sizes of blur but this was my favourite:

Heart bokeh <3

A jar of hearts, so cute!

Star bokeh:

A jar of stars - everyone should have one!

Sharper bokeh:

And so went a fun hour or so playing around with my camera trying something new :)

Be back soon with some scrappy stuff, thanks for looking as always xxxx

Before I forget......!!

With all the excitement of the retreat, I almsot forgot to show you the last page I created with the February kit from Sarah's Cards, featuring the gorgeous Glitz Love Nest papers. Doh!

So with much ado...here's my last page, A Winter's Tale....

Inspired by the work of fellow team member Rachael, I decided to design a page with a central round shape.

I knew I wanted to use both sides of the “Block” paper but my design wouldn’t allow for any paper wastage, so set about carefully cutting a circle shape that I had marked out from the centre using a craft knife. I was then able to use the pattern on the other side by flipping the circle shape over and placing it back into the space it had been cut from. As there were one or two small gaps where the paper edges met, I punched out circles from the brown Bazzill and used them to create a scalloped border which covered any mismatched areas.

The little journaling cards made lovely matts for some of my photos. I created some flower embellishments using patterned paper and circle punches, adding a small pearl from my stash to the centres. The snowflakes and rhinestones were also from my stash, but completed the icy feel I wanted for my page.

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend - we had a relaxed one here spending time walking through a lovely park with Mr T's little girl and a trip to the cinema last night. It was an exciting trip to the cinema for me, as we had the "Gallery" experience at the Odeon, where you sit in sofa-like two seater chairs that are really comfy and you can curl your legs up on, and you get unlimited nachos with toppings, popcorn and soft and hot drinks. Very good value for money - which I think matters to everyone at the moment!

We saw Battle: Los Angeles, and I have to admit I thought I'd be bored as I'm not one for "boy" films with guns and armies lol, however, it was actually about alien invasion and whilst I quite enjoyed it, Mr T thought it was crap!!! No pleasing some people eh?! ;)

Catch up with you all soon xxx

A Right Pair of Charlies

During the retreat, there was a sketch challenge for the delegates, so the DT decided to join in just for fun with some of the lovely new stash from CHA.

Cue some of the gorgeous new papers from MME's Hattie and Gertie lines and some Stella & Rose acrylic stamps, and a pic of Mr T taken with no other than Charlie Chaplin (lol) along the South Embankment during our trip to London, et voila.......

 Gentleman indeed.....lol.....

 Like the little roses? Made 'em myself I did :)

New punch put into action to create the frilly doily edging!

It took me all weekend to finish - I can't believe the other DT girls found the time to make two or three pages ;)

And speaking of sketches, this month's sketch challenge is up on the Sarah's Cards blog....it's a really versatile sketch to kick start your scrapping, plus there's a chance of bagging a £10 voucher for the shop; perfect timing for the new CHA arrivals :D Get on it!!! xxx

What a Hoot!

So, as I might have mentioned (ahem!!), I spent last weekend at the fab Sarah's Cards retreat - and here is the class I taught to three lovely classes of ladies all day Saturday. My feet were like beach balls and my back was in agony by the end of it, but it was well worth it!

My class focused on the technique of creating your own embellishments with felt and sewing - and in good teaching style I was armed with laminated, step by step flashcards to guide the attendees through the sometimes murky and frightening world of blanket stitch! But I also looked at how to make banners and bunting in a flash, as they are everywhere in the design world at the moment!

A close up of the banner:

And here's the bunting:

When not busy teaching, running make and takes and other behind-the-retreat-scenes business, I must admit to taking full advantage of shopping in the fabulously stocked shop we had set up. Here's a few snaps of what I bagged -
 

I was actually reeeeeeaaaally good - there was so much beautiful paper on offer from all the new CHA releases, but as I have paper coming out of my ears and not a lot of room for maneuver, I decided to try to stock up on something that will utilise my existing paper stash - namely punches, stamps and mists!! (well that's my excuse anyway!) Some totally irresistible sheets of Sassafrass did make it into my basket though as I thought they were super versatile and can't wait to make my own embellishments from them :)

Needless to say the mists, stamps and punches have all been exercised well already, will share some photos of the projects soon :) As a result, I am having a paper free day and am catching up on some of my crochet instead, whilst watching films and snuggling up to Mr T :) Perfick!!!

Have a great weekend all! xxx

Flower Rosettes

Wow, what a fortnight ! Firstly, my birthday celebrations and a lovely day in London, and then the fabulous Sarah's Cards retreat. It was a fantastic weekend, the design team are a fab bunch of girlies and we always enjoy getting together, and it was awesome to meet all the lovely, lovely delegates, some of which I've met before and are already lucky to consider as friends. Roll on November for the next retreat...places have already sold fast but a few are still available here.....

Sad side of all this is I'm unable to, at present, share ANY photos with you, either from London or the retreat....late Thursday night, when I was busy editing and printing pics for the weekend away, my main PC with all my photos and that is connected to my printer succumbed to a scummy virus and died :( Gutted! Thank goodness I have my laptop for Internet access, and Mr T, aka IT Techie fix it guy, thinks he can recover all my data and rebuild the machine..... just as well as all my photos from the past two years and all the wealth of teaching resources and lesson plans I created over my three year degree are on there too. Eeek! Fingers crossed. However, I've pinched this pic of the DT taken at the weekend from fellow member Vanessa.....so all is not lost!!.......

In creative news, inspired by this tutorial, I had a go at making some flower embellishments today, one of which ended up being turned into a super-quick card!






If you fancy a go, check out my how-to here on the Sarah's Cards Blog.

Have a great week all xxx