Finished my Oil Pastel Lion picture and wanted to share so here it is:

Lion Pics to share

Hi Peeps, Really sorry I haven't posted in some time. To be honest I haven't been all that Crafty since my last post. Family life has kind of got in the way, I'm trying so hard to get our house the way I would like in amongst teaching youngest to Skateboard, doing reading with Middle Son and helping Eldest out with homework and then having Driving lessons for myself. And as I don't have my own personal scrapping space I tend to find it hard to get it all out only to find it has to go back pretty soon after :( Been seeing some fantastic projects people have done and feel inspired so hope one day I can get back in to it.

How ever I have been going to Art Group on Tuesdays still and completed my Lion Pencil Drawing. Think the head looks perfect but feel I went wrong with proportion sizes for the rest of the body, but considering I haven't really drawn anything since leaving school its a good first attempt :)


I'm now working on a Lion Oil Pastel Picture, First time of using Oil Pastels properly and I am impressed with the results so far and can see me framing this piece :)

This is a photo of the work I had done so far last week on it:


And here is how it's looking at the moment, nearly there.:

Sorry the Photo isn't great and I have a boat in the way lol it was put on the shelf and then I decided I wanted to take a photo but couldn't be bothered to get it down as the board its on is really heavey.

Boland2008's photostream

I Went to Bristol Zoo last weekend and it was a great day out, it was my middle sons birthday and I took some photos If you would like a peek then they are here along with some other shots from days out. Please note they are all animal shots. My Shots of the boys and family go on my facebook page.

Really thinking about taking a photography course as I would love to be able to use my camera to its full potential and be better at taking People and Landscape shots.

Boland2008's photostream on Flickr.

Wow it's been a while since I last blogged, I am very sorry to those that read my blog. I hope everyone had a good Christmas. I have almost finished my Daily December, just some journalling to do, so hope to post pics very soon.

I haven't really done a lot of crafting lately I have been busy focusing on trying to get our house less cluttered and more homely.

But here are some bits I have done over the last couple of months:

First of all is my Lion Picture, a Neighbour told me about an Art Group she goes to and invited me to come along and now every Tuesday I go and this is what I have been working on, Its coming along I'm copying a Coloured Photo from a Magazine.


Next up are couple of Journal pages, this one I used my Ink Sprays and some flower and Alpha Stamps and the Journalling reads: You got every right to a beautiful life, come on

Who says, who says you're not perfect
Who says you're not worth it
Who says you're the only one that's hurting
Trust me that's the price of beauty
Who says you're not pretty
Who says you're not beautiful, who says?

From the song Who Says by Selena Gomez -


Then this Journalling page started off with lime, green and light purple Acrylic Paint and ended with some, Guesso, Black Acrylic Paint and some ink sprays. The end result wasn't how I had it pictured in my mind but hey ho, when I finished the quote "Don't let the fear of striking out Keep you from playing the game" and then I used a Octopode Factory stamp.

Afternoon all,
Hows everyone's preparations going for Christmas?
I'm not feeling overly festive this year, it just seems to be one thing after another going wrong, But I think were ready. Still got the Tree to put up which will be hopefully done tonight.

Any way today I decided to have ago at some Reindeer Cakes and my oh my they do look cute even if I do say so myself lol.

Some one over on UKScrappers asked for a simple cupcake recipe and their were quite a few. One being a Cookies and Cream Cupcake recipe using broken up Oreo Biscuits which sounded yummy so I decided to do Broken up Oreo Biscuits too:

Another recipe that was posted was this:
2 eggs, 75g SR Flour, 25g Cocoa Powder, 100g Sugar and 100g Margarine and looked like this once all combined and mixed.

I then put about two Tablespoonfuls into each case on top of the Oreo biscuits.

They weren't in the Oven all that long before they were done :)

Then came the decorating, I iced the cakes in Chocolate Butter Icing and then added Pretzels broken in half for Antlers, Chocolate Button with a cherry on the top for the nose and some White Chocolate Chips for eyes.

Here are my 12 Reindeer Cupcakes Finished.

Thank You to ladies over on UKS for posting the recipes and thanks to posters on Visualize Us for the inspirations. :)

Journalling Page :)

Techniquely this is my third Journalling page as my second page is uncompleted at the moment.

Whilst washing up I came up with this little saying as I already knew I wanted to have a bird in my page and I'm all ways telling myself this when getting up in the morning:

Get Up Take A Deep Breath

Listen to the Birds Sing

Today Is A New Day

I had been going through my scraps box the other day and found a bird on branch negative and liked the idea of using it so decided I used texture paste and created this little fellow :) Before it dried I pressed in a Pink Rhinestone for an eye. I mixed in a little Sky Blue ink Spray into the paste and mixed together to make the bird blue :)

I sprayed Jade and Lime Dylusions Ink Spray around the edge of the page and sprayed the middle with Fushia, Hot Pink and Pomegranate Dylusions Ink Sprays.

With my swirly vine template I gessoed some vines on top, then stamped leaves from Dylusion's Round The Edge Stamp Collection around the edge of my page and painted some of the leaves using Kaisercraft Grass Green Acrylic Paint.

and then with some Burnt Orange Dylusion's Ink Spray and some card which I covered I stamped the Circles Stamp from the Dylusion's Round the Edge Collection and cut out some individual circles and stuck them to the page and to make them stand out a bit more I painted Sky Blue Dylusions Ink Spray around them.

A little Layout Class for you all :)

Hi Peeps, thought I'd share a layout tutorial with you all today.

I have loved taking part in Shimelles's 4x6 Photo Love and this tutorial has been inspired from her classes.

You will need

• 9 Landscape Photos
• 2 Portrait Photos
• 2 sheets of 12x12 Cardstock
• Scissors/ Knife
• Ruler
• Adhesive
• Embellishments
• Alphabet Stickers

Instructions

Step 1 - To get started lets prepare the Card Stock, take one sheet and cut a 12x6 strip and 12x2 strip.

Step 2 - Score along the middle of the 12x2 strip and fold in half so it looks like a 12x1 strip

Step 3 - Take your second sheet of Card Stock and with the strip you have just folded stick the bottom with the bend on the left but lining up to the edge of the Card Stock.

Step 4 - Now with the piece folded stick on top the 12x6 piece but again making sure the edge of the bend lines up with the Card Stock. It should look like this:

Step 5 - Now to place the photos. Place 3 Landscape Photos on to the front of the flap and then 3 Landscape Photos on the back of the flapped piece.

Step 6 - And like Shimelle's October 6x4 Photo Love Class lay 3 Landscape Photos to the left side

Step 7 - For the two Portrait Photos Stick only 3 sides, leaving the left side unstuck like in photo:

Also make out of the left over cut Card Stock 2 Journalling cards 4 x 4.5 these will slip in to the pockets you have just created using the Portrait Photos.

Your layout should like this when Flap Opened:

When Flap Closed:

Step 8 - Then it's time to embellish your Layout and a add a tittle and your journalling to your cards which can also be decorated.

So there you go its a scrap attack lol you should have a layout which opens up to reveal more photos or you could even replace one of the Portrait photos with Journalling card if you wanted your Journalling to show. The possibilities are endless lol.

Here is my layout completed:

Here are my Journalling cards in all there glory.

and they look like this once poked in to the Portrait Photo Pockets :)

I made these little butterfly layer embellishments aren't they cute :) I will post a how to of these at the end of the post :)

I used a Echo Park's Flutterby paper from the Country Drive Collection as I felt it was fitting as I was in the Butterfly Team on the Retreat :) I cut out some strips and cut out some individual butterflies out some of which I mounted on to 3D foam pads and stuck down and on to the strip and added Holographic stickers on to them to give a bit of sparkle.

For the little butterfly Toppers I used a cut out butterfly from the Flutterby Paper, a Button, Small bit of Ribbon, Some Holographic stickers and a small cut out Hexagon out of the Bee's Knees paper from Echo Park's Country Drive Collection, 3D Foam Pads and Double Sided Tape.

Step 1 - Take the Hexagon and ink the edges with a Black Ink Pad.

Step 2 - Take the strip of Ribbon and stick to the Hexagon with Double Sided Tape

Step 3 - Stick the button Down again with Double Sided Tape on to the centre of the Hexagon & Ribbon.

Step 4 - Then 3D foam pad stick the Butterfly in to the centre of the Button.

Step 5 - last of all stick a middle sized and small sized round Holographic stickers on the the butterfly.

Please leave comments and let me know what you think of the class and if you decide to have ago send me a link so I can take a peek would love to see them :)