Cards by a very young fizzi~jayne....

My Mum was having a clear out and came across a couple of cards that I made her when I was young.  With Mother's Day coming up this weekend I thought I would share them with you, have a giggle at these....

It looks like I was after a cat. I never got one!

I remember getting a flower pressing kit for a gift and I used this for the flower

and inside I constructed a pop up trophy! Not sure about the dodgy looking handwriting though, eek! 

I like to think that my cards and creative skills have improved!

My ambitions to start my own company must have started early, look at the "branding" on the back of the cards....

I didn't know my Mum had kept them. It has been fun to look back and the memories they have sparked, thanks Mum x

fizzi~jayne x

Pssst... If you still need to get something for your Mum for Mother's Day, the last date to order from my shop is 1st March 2016.

A day out of the craft den ~ Liberty in Fashion....

Last week I had a day out of the craft den to catch up with Laura from Bugs and Fishes to see the Liberty in Fashion exhibit at the Fashion and Textile Museum.

It was so interesting to see the prints and styles over the decades and I was pleased I could take pictures to show you....

The garments were beautifully displayed in front of impressive prints and artwork.

I loved these peacock feathers they used for this display, they were real and looked stunning.

I was drawn to the bold prints and colours.

I would so wear this dress!

It was lovely to see the sketches and mood boards used by Liberty....

There is also a display on  "The Art of  Pattern" showing the Liberty textile collections by Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell 

This beautiful, old Singer was in the shop, look how prettily it is displayed!

The exhibit is on until th 28th February 2016 so there is still time to see it.  I also recommend the cafe, the choice of cakes are amazing (I may have had one for breakfast!).

Afterwards we jumped on the tube to the V&A's Childhood Museum in Bethnal Green which I have never been to.  First stop was of course the cafe, which has a fizzi~jayne tick of approval!

It was a lot of fun to wander around and look at all the old toys, especially the ones I played with during my childhood, it's strange to think they are in a museum.  I'm not that old, the museum celebrates everything to do with childhood from across the decades and include items as recent as Harry Potter.  Everything was behind glass so it was hard to get great photos but who remembers these craft kits....

I don't think the one I had was called Nancy but I definitely had a French knitting spool like this

and check out these children's sewing machines....

The Museum of Childhood is free and it is well worth a visit.  They currently have an exhibition about Britain's Child Migrants which was really interesting but very moving and we needed some cheering up after that so we went back to the cafe for some cake (yes it was my second serving of cake of the day but who's counting!).

They have an exhibition of Bagpuss and the Clangers from 19th March 2016, so I hope to be able to go back to see that.

fizzi~jayne x

Psst... Before I go, I am looking for guest bloggers to share craft tutorials and techniques on here next month. Interested? Contact me with your idea.

National Storytelling Week ~ using scrapbooking to tell my story....

Last week was National Storytelling Week, which I only found out was a thing towards the end of the week.  I wanted to find out a little bit more about it and it turns out there is an actual Society for Storytelling which has been going for 24 years!  It's mission is....

 "....for the promotion of the oral tradition of storytelling, the very first way of communicating life experiences and the creative imagination". 

My niece and nephew love stories and when Auntie Fifi visits they always get an extra story at bedtime!

Anyway, this got me thinking about a craft I have not done for a while, scrapbooking.  You may be wondering where the connection is but bear with me. Scrapbooking is a creative way to tell a story, your story. It's about getting the photos off your computer and sharing your memories.

I have wanted to put together a scrapbook of our wedding since we got married over 6 years ago. So with Valentine's day this weekend what better story to share with you?!....

What I used 

• CraftArtist 2 Professional (PC)and Letters Photo edges digikit
• Card to match my colour scheme:
• Champagne cut to 20x20cm to fit a 8x8" scrapbbok.
• Candy pink cut a square 15.6 x 15.6cm and use off cuts for die cutting
• Mint green cut a square 16.4 x 16.4cm and use off cuts for die cutting
• Glorious Gerbera Dies by Xcut
• Marianne Design Creatables Dies-Anja's Vintage Swirls 
• Green ribbon
• PVA glue
• Ball tool, you can use specific ones for papercraft but I use these Sugarcraft Modelling Tool Kit
• A craft mat, for example a parchment perforating mat or mouse mat
• Crystal Stickles
• Victorian Velvet Distress Ink

What I did...

I chose to do an 8x8" size, traditionally scrapbooks were 12x12" but they certainly don't have to be. If you are new to scrapbooking and are daunted by filling a large page, this size is ideal.

I used CraftArtist 2 to import my photos and add artistic edges.

If you have not tried digital crafting CraftArtist 2 is straightforward and designed to be used with PCs but you don't have to use software to scrapbook.  

Top tip - if you use your original photographs make sure your adhesive is acid free to protect them from discolouring and disintegrating.

My design from CraftArtist 2

For the background I used a photo of the floral display my mother-in-law created in the church. By using the software I was able to use the transparency to soften it for the background.

The text I added was a poem that I found when researching readings for the ceremony and I came across this one. It's such a lovely poem and described how I felt perfectly so I wrote it in a card that I gave to my hubby on our wedding day. (Sorry if you now need a sick bucket!).

The final image measured 15x15cm and I mounted it onto the pink card and then onto the green card to make it stand out.

I punched a heart design into the printed image before mounting it onto the pink card so the colour shows through.  With scrapbooking don't be afraid to cut or punch into photos.

Gerberas were my flowers for the day, they are such happy flowers, I made my paper flowers by cutting them out with the dies in the green and pink card.

The dies set allows you to make various sizes, so I made one large and two smaller gerberas. I used four of one petal size and then two of a smaller size to create one flower.

Once I cut them out I layered the petals glueing in the centre as I went.  Each layer was slightly offset for a more realistic gerbera.

Using my ball tool I pushed the flower into the mat using a circular motion in the centre of the flower, this adds dimension.

I used creative license to create a gerbera in pink and green!

I added Victorian Velvet distress ink around the edges and added Crystal Stickles to create the middle. I also added a little sparkle on the petals to look like dew drops.

I added a little flourish using the Marianne Creatables dies.

And here is the final page....

You may notice I have also used a green ribbon in the background.  I used this ribbon on our wedding invitations.

I've only done this one page so far, but now I've started my wedding scrapbook I have lots of ideas to create more pages.

Scrapbooking is a great way to showcase your photos and memories so I hope this has inspired you to get your pictures off your camera.

fizzi~jayne x

Disclaimer: The Amazon links in this post are affiliated.

It's February already?!....

January has flown by and the year so far has been busy; planning the year ahead, filing my tax return and making new products.

Work has started on one of my goals to grow my business online by making new products and I have recently listed new goodies for Valentine's Day....

Find all my new products in my Folksy Shop

My designs aren't too mushy but made to make someone feel loved and appreciated. 

One of the stamps I used for some of my cards took me back to my childhood as it reminded me of the retro label maker I had back in the 80s (I'm probably showing my age now!).

You Inspire Me

You Are Awesome

You Are My Sunshine

A Funny Valentine

 I also added a coaster design....

You Are Just My Cup Of Tea Coaster

February looks like it is going to be a busy one as well with more new products being made for Mother's Day, a #CraftBlogClub challenge to start and I'll be attending an Enterprise Nation seminar as well as an inspirational trip to the Liberty in Fashion exhibit.

fizzi~jayne x