#303 - be inspired by stained glass windows

I was really looking forward to Scrap Happy's LOAD1018 - I love the community, the inspiration and the push to create every day. I had high goals and even though I knew I wouldn't manage a complete month (at least, it was unlikely), I did expect to make a bunch.

As I write this, it's the middle of the month and I've completed a grand total of ONE. Not exactly a "bunch"!

But as my understanding and motivational girls told me over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge team a day or two ago, one is better than none!

I know, I know! But a little disappointing all the same.

However, it does mean that I made this layout which matched WM#303 - be inspired by stained glass windows about an event that happened really recently. A gorgeous local country Schloss that we finally got to visit last month after two and a half years of wanting to.

I've been using a lot more patterned paper as backgrounds to my layouts recently so I've needed to come up with new ideas for embellishments and journalling. I kept the former to a minimum here because I wanted to use so many photos (so many from the day that I couldn't fit in!) and fell back on journalling on white card cut into strips - the original inspiration in fact for prompt WM#306 - be inspired by strip journalling which helps it to stand out against the full, floral background.

Some stitching adds texture and dimension without being too busy.

As always, I love it when you share too and if you've been inspired to create, don't forget that you can add your own creations to our Facebook group here. Please don't be shy! Tag your entry with #WMXX so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken. 

Or simply tell us in the comments where to find you... :-)

#94 inspired by doilies

And another week goes by. And not a lot of creative time but just enough today to make two layouts - go me! I've been alone since Friday evening for the first time for weeks and weeks and weeks which is a nice feeling and yesterday I kept myself busy painting my craft room and rearranging some furniture so you can expect a little peek of that on my blog sometime soon. So today was the christening of the new layout. Mmmm, not so sure but the room isn't finished yet so I will reserve full judgement.

But the two layouts? They made me happy. And isn't that what it's all about?

I asked you to fish out that pile of doilies that I'm sure you have in your stash. Or your doily stamps, papers, dies, tape, ribbons or anything inspired by doilies. And get creating.

I love this trend and have to stop myself using them too often. They make an appearance all over my creations and I pick them up in bulk from my bakery department. I'm not at all worried about acid free but if you were, you could just keep them away from direct contact of your photos.

I picked up a new pretty design and decided to match them up with my new June Counterfeit kit, Personality, which has been sorely neglected this month with all the chaos and little creating. But what a pretty kit so the addition of the doilies was perfect.

Personality lo#2 - please excuse the poor photo, it's late and the light is bad.

I was inspired by this Pinterest find (here) and made a border of confetti. Lots of pretty colours and hearts 

I used doilies in their normal form as edging but also as a photo mat and used doily tape too

I have used confetti a couple of times recently and Lynette asked me how I did it so I will put up a post on my blog in the next days - so simple but so much fun!

Hope you enjoyed prettying up your layouts with delicate doillies and we'd love to see your creations over at the Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#94

Challenge #94 week of 17th June 2013

Happy almost mid-summer's day everyone!

Hope you are enjoying the longer days before they turn again after the summer equinox on 21st and we start heading downhill to the end of the year with ever shortening days! Ha ha! Always make me smile to think that - I don't know about you, but we are just heading into the good weather here so it's always funny to think that the days are already getting shorter.

Anyway, things are pretty quiet round here and we are all busy I guess. And I know that I am still behind on some prompts so maybe this "easier" one this week will help us all out to get involved in a simpler way.

I was looking round my room when I saw my new doilies that I'd picked up recently from some foodie shop and thought how pretty they are. I now have quite a collection - much expanded by a wonderful selection from our delightful Leslie last year. They are truly treasured doilies and I try to make sure I only use them as and when they will be showcased to their best.

This is just a small number of those I have:

Don't they all look so pretty?

So this week, I'm challenging you to use up doilies on your layouts. Whether they are real, printed, die-cut or masked, find some way to incorporate pretty lacy effects into your designs. A perfect excuse for a girlie layout perhaps!

Here are a couple of examples of layouts where I've used this effect:

Have a great week everyone and don't forget to link up over at Flickr (here) with the tag WM#94.

Can't wait to see what you create.