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Review: Hand Lettering A to Z by Abbey Sy

I've been wanting to try my hand at "proper" hand lettering for a while - I often get complimented on my handwriting but when it comes to lettering for journalling or cards I'm never quite as happy with the outcome as I hope to be. So when the lovely folks at Quarto Publishing got in touch with their Autumn catalogue I was thrilled to see how many titles they had on the subject. Hand Lettering A to Z by Abbey Sy is a gorgeous place to start. Abbey's instagram is absolutely lush (follow here here ) and I particularly love her Bangkok photos as we've just returned from there, so I was super excited to be able to have a look at her book. The book takes you through a range of hand drawn fonts, plus has additional chapters on embellishments and a gorgeous gallery of inspiration. See how beautiful? So exciting. I was so excited, in fact, that I totally ignored her advice to get a sharp pencil and a proper table to work at. 'I can do this in
Recent posts

A bright Malta layout with stitching

We had such a lovely time on our recent trip to Malta - and I got lots of photos that I'm enjoying making into layouts and mini albums. This one was taken at the gate to Mdina, where the first season of Game of Thrones was filmed. I didn't realise at the time that Luke was being silly behind me!   I used the Mr Huey double yellow mist from the latest Like For Ever kit to make a sunny background, and stitched sunbeams using the yellow ombre thread from the mixed media add-on. The ephemera was from last month's "In Bloom" kit, but I thought it was so lovely and bright it matched perfectly - I've been dying to use those feathers on something lovely!

A 3D butterfly layout

There were some sweet butterflies in the ephemera for the Like For Ever "Carefree" kit - I originally planned to mix them up with the stitched butterflies from the WRMK Sew Easy template I got in the mixed media kit, but once I started adding these 3D white butterflies in I fell in love with them - I love how it looks like they're about to fly off the page. I punched the butterflies out of white paper stock and floded them in the middle to make them look like they are coming off the page. Under the photo I layered several different papers and added some ephemera. I'm really pleased with how it's come out - especially as I wasn't sure about making a layout on coloured paper background, I was definitely pushing myself out of my comfort zone!

Like For Ever "Carefree" kit

This month's Like For Ever kit is called "Carefree" and it's gorgeous ! I think it's my favourite so far. The papers are from Elle's Studio Sunny Days and Fancy Pants' Millie & June and Life is Beautiful collections. Both sides are gorgeous - for the first time I wish I'd ordered the extra paper pack. What I DID order was the mixed media add-on which had a fabulous stitching template and some lovely ombre silk thread. I also got the stamping add-on which was a gorgeous collection of tiny stamps by Lia Griffith . I love Lia's website and I intend to make lots of her crepe flowers to decorate my wedding venue next year. The ephemera this month is Fancy Pants' Life in Beautiful. Technically I think it's Spring themed, but as Summer this year has been non-existent and there's been plenty of April showers in July I think that's perfect! I particularly love the bicycles and balloons, and the florals are really strong i

Cocktail hour (a 6x8 layout)

A super-cute small layout for my summer album to share with you today. I used the Like For Ever "In Bloom" kit, with a dab sticker from Simple Stories' "You Are Here" collection. The photo was taken from a lovely cocktail bar we found down on the Valletta waterfront. I think I'm definitely getting better at layering papers! 

Oh, hello! A very quick card...

Wow! I can't believe there was a gap of almost three months between my last post and the one before it. Today I wanted to share with you this really simple card made with Like For Ever's "In Bloom" kit. I used four layered squares of paper from the kit, and then added this cute typewriter from the ephemera, stuck down with a foam sticky pad to give it a 3D feel.

I'm back! And a Like For Ever photo layout

A colleague of mine (in my real job) mentioned the other day that she hadn't seen me blog for a while - ironically because I've been so busy making lots of beautiful things! But she was right - I should share them with you, particularly as I've recently subscribed to the Like For Ever kit club. Here's a cute 12 x 12 layout I made with last month's "In Bloom" kit - my third with them. The kit included lots of gorgeous bits from Illustrated Faith, My Mind's Eye and Simple Stories. I really loved the ephemera this month - it was from Simple Stories' Carpe Diem collection - and also the Illustrated Faith enamel hearts. There were also some Bella Boulevard bold and beautiful alphas but I didn't actually use any of those at all - in fact I didn't use as much of the kit as I hoped, I still need to curb my hoarding instinct and just use the papers! I've made much more with this month's kit, however, as you'll see in blog posts over