My Christmas Star

No tree this year as we're still building, but we do have this tiny tree - so I hung my Christmas Star on it!

Road Trip - Milkshake

I'm thinking that I should probably use this blog more, put up more of my paper LOs here rather than just the digis. I seem to have gone through a phase of only doing paper LOs when they're required for competitions and challenges, rather than making them for myself.

Well, last week I discovered a way of scrapping and studying at the same time - listening to podcasts from the Colorado School of Mines!

So I've been getting some road trip layouts done. Here's one:



My father looked so guilty to be drinking a strawberry milkshake from Wendy's! I think he enjoyed it rather more than he let on, though. ;)

Casa Battlo

Made this for the Scrummy Stash Cafe's latest challenge. The challenge was to come up with a different way to do journalling. Mine is written round the buttony-flowery things.

Christmas Wrapping

Font - British Writing
Shabby Christmas - A Work in Progress

The Build

Another digi for another UKS challenge - the only regular scrapping that I'm doing at the moment is on my December Daily Album.

Theme was for new beginnings (in this case the new bits being added to our house), to use white flowers or ribbons, to follow the sketch and to use stamping. Obviously my stamping isn't the regular ink stamping, it's faux digi stamping, but that's counted in the past!!

Zoobaloo by Nicole Young Designs

Flowers A Chance of Rain by Bon Scrapatit

Font - Santa's Big Secret

Gaudi Afternoon

Made for a UK Scrappers Challenge. Round photo, literary title* and a hand-made embellishment (a little tricky as a digi, but I made the button from scratch). The kit is Blue Lagoon by Sweet Blossom Designs and the font is Santa's Big Secret.

Blimey it was hot on Friday afternoon. We sat in Park Guell, rolled up our sleeves and had a lovely cup of coffee. Today we're back in Blighty wearing extra layers and shivering!

* Gaudi Afternoon by Barbara Wilson

A Bundle of Digis

A picture of the Excalibur hotel as we drove past on the way out of Vegas.

Scribble King by Nicole Young
Font - Tags Xtreme 2


And at the other end of the trip my father had a bottle of Arrogant Bastard Beer - this is me with the bottle!

Gratitude by Summer Driggs
Font - Birth of a Hero


John asleep last Christmas. I know! A layout that isn't holiday related!

Sugary Sweet by Simply Sweet Designs
Font - Tangerine

Odd

My entry for the Scrummy Stash Cafe this week. Had a class to follow this time, I didn't have all the bits, so a lot of this is making it up as I go along!



I've mainly used Crate Paper, with a little bit of Scenic Route and some lace cardstock.

Picture taken in Silver City, New Mexico. One of the oddest places I've ever been.

Carriage

The challenge this week at the Scrummy Stash Cafe was to scrap your favourite artist/band/song. I wanted to scrap Counting Crows and luckily I was able to do so by using their song Carriage! Yay! Still filling up my USA album and getting challenges done at the same time.

Picture taken in Tombstone, this was our carriage tour guide. I loved Tombstone, it was such fun and I wish we'd had longer there. We only went there as an afterthought.

Pima

My father loving his planes in Pima, Tucson!

A Work In Progress Festivity Kit

Chillis

{click to get the right size}

I've made this for the UKScrappers November Week 2 Challenge.

We had to use the sketch they provided, use rik rak, brads and the colours pink, white and green. I had to go digital with it because I don't own any rikrak at the moment.

Shabby Princess - Love Kit, Festival Kit & Express Yourself
Brads from A Work in Progress Festival Kit
Font - VKS Choice & Script

Meteor Crater

Made for the latest Scrummy Stash Cafe challenge. I've been wanting to practice doodling, so this was a good chance to do that.

Used Crate Paper stuff and some Thickers.

Even more holiday digitals!

Silver City, New Mexico


Very odd place, but attractive at the same time.

Nicole Young Designs LA Lady Kit
Font - Linda's Lament

Mesquite, Nevada


Fall Splendour by Kim B Designs / Christie Lemon / Desert Designs
Font - Lunacy More

I love that all the supermarkets have stacks of large pumpkins outside, inside... just brilliant.

YES!!!!

I'm so happy right now. Well done America, you made the right choice. The polar bears and fruit flies thank you.

Discover

My entry into the Scrummy Stash Cafe challenge this week. I've used more new travelling papers for this layout. Teresa Collins this time.

Fatty Batty

The 2008 Halloween Pumpkin! :)

Halloween Scream - Vicki for Scrap n Art
Font - Lunacy More

Some American Holiday Digi's

Santa Fe


We stayed at the Canyon Motel & RV park in Williams. They had lots of old railway carriages dotted around the park that were fitted up to stay in, but we just stayed in a regular cabin.

Fall Splendour Kit by 1905 Designs
Font - Loosydings (to make an overlay on the paper)
Font - VKS Revolt

Albuquerque Old Town



Hearts and Flowers Kit by Vicki's Blog (plus Add-on)
Font - Font Garden Jayne


Grand Canyon - North Rim


Main picture was taken at Bright Angel and the sunset collage was taken at Point Imperial.

Pencil Lines #105.

Papers - Jenny's Scrapbook Place
Ribbon - Flower Scraps
Fonts - Laura & Dear Love

Pumpkins!

I carved my pumpkin last night (pics to follow) using the tools and stencil book that I bought while I was in the states. SO much easy having proper scoops and saws rather that trying to do it all with a kitchen knife! Next year I think I might try for something a little trickier, maybe get more that one pumpkin.

In the meantime, proper pumpkin carving by Linda Elbourne. Perhaps I'll be as good as her one year if I try my hardest and have more pumpkins to practice on. :)

Today I'm going to get stuck in to my Halloween papers and scrap some of those Tucson scarecrows.

Hamlet

Another week, another entry for the Scrummy Stash Cafe! This was a challenge to use up your scraps - although, having cut scraps from scraps I now have even more scraps... ah well.

I'm well aware that this sculpture doesn't really scream "Hamlet!" I scrapped the Midsummer Night's Dream sculpture back in August and that was a bit more obvious. Just the Macbeth one to do now.

Stratford

I made this for the first challenge on Cleo Crafts blog. I took it in evening sunlight, so it's cast some long shadows!

Whoops!

Made this for the current Scrummy Stash Cafe challenge - to use checks / grid.

Well, you can see that the ribbon has checks. The paper is Sassafrass Lass and has a grid on it - but the evening sun has pretty much washed it out. :( 'Tis there, though, you must trust me on that!

This was the day that John fell bottom-first into a rock pool on a cold day in Cornwall. Took a lot of begging to get him to turn round for the shot. He looked a lot wetter in real life.

The flourish is supposed to look like a splash, but has come out looking like a flower - meh!

October Week 3

This is my take on the weekly challenge at UKScrappers. Did it as a digi as that was easier than getting out all my stuff when the spare room is slowly filling up with boxes.

Outdoor photo - done
Use sketch - done
Use autumn colours - done
Use ten of something - done, ten gems

It's Falling kit by Bon Scrapatit.

Back from the USA!

I only managed to do a bit of stash shopping while I was away, my father doesn't really 'get' scrapbooking, so dragging him round scrapping stores would have been a bit of a nightmare.

One was bad enough! We went to Making Memories Unforgettable in Tuscson. Wow! I've never seen so much yummy scrapping goodness in one place. All those papers! Companies I've never used and companies I've never heard of. I could have spent hours and a fortune in that place - and if my father hadn't been with me, then I would have. :)

I tried to take a picture of my stash, but the weather is awful and the house is too dull and the flash on the camera is playing silly buggers - so I've made a bunch of links instead. I decided before I went that if I had the chance I would buy Halloween-related products. We don't go in for it so much here in the UK and it seems harder to find decent Halloween papers/embellies. So this is me, stocking up!

Fall Leaves and Angry Jack by Reminisce
Hallow Bats by Glitz
Arachnaphobia by SEI and some Die Cut accents by SEI
Nightlight - Pumpkin Orange & Wings in the Night by My Minds Eye
Harvest Moon - Haunted & Pumpkin Patch by Art Warehouse at Creative Imaginations
Trick or Treat - Spooky Borders by Samantha Walker at Creative Imaginations
Haunted - Nevermore , Eerie & Macabre by Cosmo Cricket
Fall Leaves Grand Adhesions by K&Co

Up until that point I assumed I wouldn't be able to find any stores, so I'd been buying stickers. They had nice ones at the Grand Canyon and some Kokopelli's at Albuquerque Old Town, so I expect I'll end up using them on minibooks. Also saved some beer bottle tops to use as embellies.

Digitals!

First up is my Father in a tree:



This one was made for the UKS weekly challenge. It'll be our turn in November, so I got this done before I go off on holiday.

All papers and elements from Free Digital Scrapbooking.
Stitching using FG Jayne

Next we have my Father and John outside the Jane Austen Centre in Bath this past August.



Mel's Lightbulb Moments - My Old Handbag
Font - FG Jayne

This picture was taken in the grounds of the MacDonald Bath Spa Hotel, also in August this year. The grounds were certainly the best part of this hotel!

Vicki's Blog - Autumn Dream
Sweet Blossom Designs - Autumn Dream add-on
Stitching using FG Jayne

Finally I found a picture of Nutmeg that I haven't printed out yet! This is really the last one I have of her. I just had to make this into a LOLcat! =^..^=

Mel's Lightbulb Moments - Cats & Daisies
Font - Impact

Vista & Kitty

{Loch Fyne, Scotland}

My take on the latest PencilLines sketch, #103. I really enjoyed this one as I got to use up so many bits and pieces that had been hanging around for ages - a random button, remnants of ribbon, Sassafrass scraps that I just can't bring myself to bin, the end of a white cotton reel (must buy more!), and finally alphas.

Alphas are darned tricky to use up towards the end of their lives, so I ran the letters than I had left through an anagram solver and one of the words it came up with was "Vista" - so I went with that. It also came up with "Tiramisu", which would, of course, have used up more letters, but as I had no Italian pudding pictures to hand I went with "Vista"!

As I was on a scrap-using roll, I made this from more bits of Sassafrass, odd buttons, old DCWV cardstock, and the same alpha set:


I think this is the last of my pictures of Nutmeg. Any others will be duplicates.

=^..^=

Birthdays

This is my entry to the latest Scrummy Stash Cafe challenge - Birthday Bliss.

The journalling explains how my friends and I live in different parts of the country now so we celebrate our birthdays on whichever day we can. This birthday meeting was in January - someway between Martina's in November and Hannah's in March!

*hug*

Made this for Pencil Lines #102. My Dad and OH in the Cambridge Botanical Garden. Used bits of Doodlebug, Crate Paper, Bazzill and Prima flowers.

Pigissimo and a RAKscrap Challenge

Shabby Princess Spontaneous Delight Kit and Clementine font.



This was made for the RAKscraps Autumn RAKn Party using a template and kit (Birthday Bash) supplied by Neverland Scraps. Font is Encandar.

OK, don't get me wrong, it's very nice of these companies to supply their kits free of charge so we can do these challenges and learn something new, but their kit and their template came bundled with not only a "Terms of Service" note, but also a 'digital flyer' about accepting Jesus as Lord. I honestly have no problem with people having their own opinions, regardless of me being an atheist and earth science student, but I don't need to have these views included in a scrapbooking kit.

That would be like me bundling a kit telling people all about the geological history of the planet and how God is fictious and how Science Works! I just wouldn't do it. What's the point? It has nothing to do with scrapbooking.

Golden Lily

This pig is Golden Lily and she is made out of the September Mega Kit from RAKscraps.


She's for their MegaKit challenge:

Use at least 2 papers and 3 elements on your page - yep!
Let's see some foliage or leaves in your layout/ in photos! - plenty of that!
Scrap with more than 3 designers' contributions:

Bunchie (paper)
Lily Belle (brads)
Beibel (paper)
KK Designs (paper)
Belanna (paper)

ZZZZzzzz

My take on Vanessa's class for the Scrummy Stash Cafe. I'm not completely happy with it as brackets and wiggly journalling aren't something I'd usually do, but it's good to shake it up a bit.

Early Pumpkin!

Or a late pumpkin, depending on how you look at it. This was last years pumpkin. It's supposed to be a dead manga character, you know, with the crosses for eyes? Hopefully I'll find some proper Halloween papers in America so I can make some real pumpkin layouts. For now, it's digital pumpkins.

{click to enlarge}

All papers and elements It's Falling by Bon Scrapatit.

My Self Portrait

Thought I'd try something a little different today.

All papers and elements from Jenny's Scrapbook Place - Old Flowers
Font is Dear Love, part of a whole load of fantastic fonts by Douglas Vitkauskas.

Waterloo & Kings College

Yesterday I joined up with RAKscraps who have a forum site very much like UKS, but just for digital scrapbooking. Thought it might be an idea to have somewhere to get digi ideas and show digi layouts as well.

There was a couple of free mini-kits with their September Newsletter, so I did this one with Funky Fresh by Kiss This Designs. The main font is Revolt.



That's another one of the Bath Pigs - Waterloo. He stands outside Bath Abbey. I love that the colours in this kit match him perfectly.

The next layout I made is not of a pig, which is astounding as I'm on such a pigroll at the moment. :) This one is of my Mother (she the small person standing in the corner of the frame) in the Fellow's Garden at Kings College, Cambridge on one of their garden open days.



This is also created from a RAKscrap kit, Woodland Song by Jan Hosford. The font is Rage, although I have to say it doesn't look ragey at all. I was aiming for it to appear as though the font had been stamped on.

Pigs as Far as the Eye can See...

First pig tonight is Carmina.

I think she was probably one of my favourites.

The next pig I have for you is the night side of Pigs Will Fly - the link only shows its day side, but I think the night side is much more attractive.

Carmina
Shabby Princess Vintage Florals kit

Pigs Will Fly
Stars made in PSP9
Kimmys Keepsakes Jump paper
M Shefveland Overlay Painted Edge 8
Font Vtks Revolt

More Pigging Layouts!

Pig of the West! Bonus points on offer for guessing the joke...

Shabby Princess - Fall collection paper & Express Yourself papers and elements


Turns out that this isn't Happy Pig at all. On creating the link for itI discover that it is, in fact, Suidae Sulis who stands together with Happy Pig. The onsite labelling makes it appear that they're the other way round. Of course, they have had problems with people messing with the pigs (including one who was set on fire!) so perhaps they've been switched over.

Luckily it's "only" a digi LO, so I can always do another. I'd have been rather annoyed if I'd glued it all down in paper...

Most of the papers/elements are by Elizabeth McFarlane and Free Digital Scrapbooking.

San Marco

This is for Vanessa's Multilingual Challenge at the Scrummy Stash Cafe. I've managed a bit of Italian journalling as well because I thought the title was a bit of a cop-out as it's just the name of a building!

Still using up my Crate Paper, Blue Hill.

King Bladud's Pigs

This is the first of what will probably be a whole bunch of pig layouts. The pigs are part of an art installation around the streets of Bath. This one is the Pig of Paradise.

All papers and elements from a free kit at Scrapbooks Gone Digital by D Philips
Font is Inked God.

I really should be studying....

{click to embiggen!}

Not as happy with this one as the last one, but I'm busy ripping CDs to my iPod and thought I'd digi while I did it. I really am going to put in a solid hour with my books now.

Products used (bear in mind that I used Luminence layering):
Nicole Young - paper
Shabby Princess, Harvest Spice - paper & stitching
Shabby Princess, Promise - journalling block
ScrapGirls Freebies - Poppy Passion banner
Rina, Grandpa's Cabin - buttons

Bath Spa

Another digi, well, I've not done a digi for a week or so, but I still keep collecting free downloads from various places. This one is made from various parts of the Aspiring Designers "Zoo Spirit Collaboration". Try as I might I can't find a link to the actual ADS, they all seem to mention it and never link to it! Still, this is the link to the start of their BlogTrain where I started to pick up these bits.

The ones actually used in this layout are:

Scrappin Cop - papers
Mags Graphics - scalloped tag
Aby Scraps - rafia bow
J Burkhart - flowers
Nancy's Nook - golden corner
LBCreations - ribbon
Pinku Pixie - Border

The font is Inked God, which is the current font of the week over at UKS.