Laura's Layouts

iPhone Photos

2012-01-21T19:00:00.006Z

This month I've managed to make four layouts. There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day anymore. In fact, as I'm trying to type this, I have a baby climbing my legs and tugging on my screen...

Anyway, I took some photos with my iPhone, just to make things a bit easier and to actually get something uploaded. How am I supposed to look back at my blog in the future if there's nothing for me to look at?!

I've used the most recent Quirky Kit for all of these.

My Mother babysat Adam and me when John went to America last year. We went to the Cambridge Folk Museum and I decided that I was going to have some cake, no matter what. The chosen piece was lemon drizzle, which Mummy tried and decided was too sweet...

She also passed judgement on the people, the establishment... and gave me an excellent title "This is Cupcake Country". I don't understand people who don't like cupcakes, my Mother is bizarre! :) She did like the cups and saucers, though, a very eclectic collection, which just had to be photographed.

Now going back over a year to November 2010. I have scrapped this event before, but I wanted another take on it for the new 2010 album I've started to put together. D-rings from now on, none of that awful post-bound malarkey.

Anyway, Maria and I on the London Eye and at Gabriel's Wharf. Photos expertly taken by Susi!

This kit is brilliant and these pictures are awful, not doing it justice one little bit. :( I expect I'll never get round to taking a shot of the fourth layout. I need more Time!

Gosh! Layouts!

2011-10-23T20:41:00.004+01:00

I actually managed to make three layouts today. These two are from our trip to the Cotswolds at the beginning of last month. I used the most recent Quirky Kit along with some added extras.

We became very ill after eating dodgy cream teas, but it's very pretty and worth scrapping. I also finally used my new Artemio stamps for the first time.

We also visted Snowshill Manor, home of crazy collector Charles Wade. I love to hoarde stuff, but this place shows you what excessive hoarding looks like!

Learn Something New Everyday - whoops!

2011-10-23T20:39:00.001+01:00

I'll get these caught up with one day!

Learn Something New Everyday - 8

2011-09-08T09:36:00.000+01:00

"I've not stopped having emotional breakdowns, although I'm getting better."

Learn Something New Everyday - 7

2011-09-07T09:33:00.002+01:00

"We're doing the right thing with Adam's bedtime routine and it's OK not to run a noisy hoover round him if it makes him cry."

Learnt that one at Baby Group sleep clinic. Also learnt how to shut up a snoring husband, but until we actually try it out I won't use it as an LSNED entry!

Learn Something New Everyday - 6

2011-09-06T08:55:00.000+01:00

"Adam rolled over!"

OK, fair enough, that's really his LSNED not mine, but I'm using it anyway.

Learn Something New Everyday - 5

2011-09-05T08:54:00.000+01:00

"Adam can sleep through John snoring like a light aircraft, but can't sleep through me whispering."

Learn Something New Everyday - 4

2011-09-04T19:22:00.001+01:00

"Always buy the larger cotton wool baby balls. The smaller ones don't clear up large poos so well and you end up using twice as many."

Sorry about that one, but it's true!

Learn Something New Everyday - 3

2011-09-03T19:19:00.000+01:00

"Being a Mother means less Time to feel Sorry for Yourself."

I have food poisoning after eating a cream tea in Bourton-on-the-Water, so does John, but we still need to take care of Adam.

Learn Something New Everyday - 2

2011-09-02T19:17:00.001+01:00

"Hoarding is not always a Bad Thing!"

I realised this after visiting Snowshill Manor, which is full of fabulous clutter.

Learn Something New Everyday - 1

2011-09-01T19:03:00.004+01:00

I don't have the time to make the layouts for each day straight away, so I'm going to Blog each thing I learn so I have them written down. Might not have time to take photos of the layouts either :( but I will be getting them done over time.

Right, first lesson:

"It's impossible to pack light with a baby in tow!"

Scrap Map for August

2011-08-30T20:16:00.002+01:00

Here's my take on the Creative Craft World Scrap Map this month - getting in there at the last minute!

I'm also using this as the UKS wc entry.

Shimelle's Cyber Crop - From the Heart

2011-08-21T19:52:00.005+01:00

Here's my random love. I love my Red Spotty Mug. It's very special to me.

I didn't know I owned so many red spotty papers!

And that's all the challenges I had time for.

Shimelle's Cyber Crop - Go Retro

2011-08-21T19:35:00.003+01:00

I decided to go back to my childhood. We didn't have a polaroid camera, Daddy used a regular camera and cine film. Anyway, here is my mother, my Teddy and I posing in front of the Cessna that we're about to climb into. On Wednesday it'll be 30 years ago.

Don't know why I hadn't scrapped this picture with this paper before. Just as well I didn't!

Shimelle's Cyber Crop - Chop Your Paper

2011-08-21T18:49:00.003+01:00

This one didn't go according to plan. Not that I HAD a plan, just that the picture in my head was no way near to what actually ended up on the page.

I'd already bought a piece of Cosmo Cricket's Joy Ride for the express purpose of chopping it up and cutting out all those lovely circles:

So I did that bit first. Then punched out some smaller circles, larger scallops and some assorted butterflies and layered them up. That was fun. I even made buttons from little circles, doodled on them and covered them in glossy accents. Took the best part of the week as I didn't have much Adam-free time to scrap. When I had all the bits ready I looked at them and thought "Meh." No idea what to do next.

Happily, the UKS weekly challenge involved using some black and scrapping a celebration. These circly things feature black, so I chose a pic of Adam, cut that down as well and made this:

{Adam is now 16 weeks old. He grew out of his dinosur top weeks ago. Looking at this photo I find it so hard to believe that he was ever this tiny. He's STILL a tiny baby and has so much growing to do and yet he's now becoming a little boy with a personality. He's no longer the squishy alien in this photo! Today - Aug. 20. Then - May 3.}

It's not exactly what I had in mind, but I'm happy with it and it'll go nicely in his Baby Album.

Shimelle's Cyber Crop - Half Page

2011-08-20T20:43:00.004+01:00

This was a fabulous excuse to not cut into this beautiful piece of Sassafrass!

This is Bob during the Open University 2009 Summer School to Durham. He's demonstrating scale. When taking a photo of a geological feature you should always include a scale so someone else knows the size of the feature they're looking at. Bob is showing that this also works with ice creams and kiosks.

Close up on one of the lovely seagulls that Susi cut for me.

It's going to go into my Geology Album as a 'companion piece' to this one:

For both of these layouts I've used the most recent Quirky Kit - The Milk Bar.

Shimelle's Cyber Crop - Stickers

2011-08-15T08:40:00.004+01:00

I love stickers. I have lots of them. When I was little I used to collect them, especially fruit stickers, they were fun. Somehow, though, I just don't seem to use them enough on my layouts, so this was the perfect challenge. In fact, I decided to abandon patterned paper altogether and just use stickers - with a bit of background misting that looks much better in real life, it's very shiny and glimmery!

Some of the stickers are backed onto card and then cut out to make them easier to work with and to layer. I've managed to include:

October Afternoon - Thrift Shop
October Afternoon - 5 and Dime
October Afternoon - Ducks in a Row
Cosmo Cricket - Circa 1934
Cosmo Cricket - Early Bird
Cosmo Cricket - Earth Love
Echo Park - For the Record
Jillibean Soup - Monster Stew
Making Memories alphas

The journalling says that Adam is seven days old and we're heading out on our first trip in the pram - to the voting booths!

Shimelle's Cyber Crop - Grid

2011-08-15T08:15:00.005+01:00

Well, I'm still busily finishing off the Explore Prompts, but found some time on Sunday to do a couple of Challenge layouts. Much easier now that my Husband is back from the States and can keep an eye on Baby. Both very happy to be back together. :)

I started with the Grid challenge. I've never been very good at multiple photo layouts, but these days I'm trying to get as much scrapped as I can. The photos of Baby just keep multiplying, my time keeps decreasing and I still haven't scrapped huge chunks of my past that keep slipping further into the past

So I decided that the grid would be photos and the papers would be The Thrift Shop by October Afternoon, because they've been calling me for a while now to play with them again. The first thing I saw was this:

It's already in a grid and mine was half used, so I thought I'd pop out the remaining cards and use them on a layout with cut down photos. The backs of the journalling cards are all patterned paper and I figured I'd be more likely to use them as plain shapes than journalling cards. However, when the cards were all removed, I was left with a negative space that looked like a bunch of little photo frames with a small border of pattern around each one.

I abandoned the original plan and did this instead:

The tartan paper is from October Afternoon's Road Map collection, but the rest of it is The Thrift Shop. Very happy that I managed to use the leftover sheet rather than throwing it away. I'll make sure I keep an eye on all other negative spaces produced by popping out diecuts in the future.

Explore : Prompt 18 ~ Creating Stage A layouts

2011-08-14T20:14:00.004+01:00

This really didn't suit me. I expect that's because I barely have time to create a full layout in a day, let alone starting four and taking them to a semi-finished point. Besides, having areas stuck down and then wishing that the newly added section could go under that bit or that bit and not being able to was rather hampering.

I chose four pieces of WRMK papers from the White Out Collection.

Also totally forgot to take pictures of three of the four in their A state. Anyway, here are the three layouts that I've finished to Stage B:

This is the one where I'm most happy with the technique. I was able to add scraps of Cosmo Cricket: Garden Variety and I think it's worked out quite well.

All I could add to this was ink, journalling and the date / place tag. I'm not that happy with the layout.

This one barely features the chosen papers at all! That's probably why I like it so much! All I did to take it to Stage B was to add the dangly flocked spiders.

I'd write more, but the baby is yelping!

Project 12 - June 2011

2011-08-05T20:23:00.004+01:00

{click to enlarge}

Pictures this month include the hot day where Adam had to sit around in his nappy, Clive the Turkey at the Gog Magog Cafe, Adams first hairwash, Granfer helping with our decorating and the bunch of fathers at Fathers Day.

Explore : Additional

2011-07-29T20:55:00.003+01:00

This layout grew out of various techniques, suggestions, concepts etc covered in the Explore class.

Explore : Prompt 8

2011-07-29T19:57:00.004+01:00

Well, there might not have been any pressure to finish a project on this day, but this is what I came up with. I never usually use this many photos on one page. Chopping a whole bunch of them up into smaller pieces, however, has made them fit in a lot easier. I used the "group of nine" technique to display them, wrote on them and made sure that all the pictures are of me, just to ensure I am scrapping myself.

Used the "group of nine" here as well.

Explore : Prompt 9 ~ Document One Day

2011-07-28T20:24:00.000+01:00

I have chosen to Document Tomorrow. I've made a page in the Playbook to document it as I go along. There's no fun plans for tomorrow, so it's going to be a very normal day.

Explore : Prompt 7 ~ Memory Sparks

2011-07-26T20:21:00.001+01:00

With so little time these days I decided to just do one memory spark and put it I to my book. So I chose an innocent looking item and rambled off into the land of very personal and private memories! They're not bad memories. They're fabulous and hilarious and on-going. I just can't share them!!

A few scrappable ideas surfaced during the course of the sparking, so it's definitely a technique that had worked for me and one I'll use again. Hopefully I'll pick an item that's more public in its memories.

Explore : Prompt 5 ~ Friday Project

2011-07-23T20:18:00.006+01:00

I chose to make a layout with the map circle embellishments I made. Although I do scrap myself, I tend to do it with other people in the shot, so I made sure that I used a photo of just myself - a self portrait, in fact! Unless you think I'm not alone because "Frankie the Bump" is also in the picture.

Explore : Prompt 4 ~ Perfection

2011-07-23T20:09:00.003+01:00

My father took this picture. I've been hanging onto it for ages, trying to find a suitable way to scrap it. Now it's stuck into my Play Book. Perfection of Nature.

Explore : Prompt 3 ~ Maps

2011-07-23T19:50:00.003+01:00

Saved my circle embellishments for later, because I came late to the project I know what I'm making and saving them for! I didn't want to cut into maps from past travels, so I only had the one old map of London and a piece of patterned paper by October Afternoon.

Had great fun cutting up the map though, so I bought some from a charity shop this afternoon! I can have some chopping fun later on.

Explore : Prompt 2 ~ Adventure

2011-07-23T16:27:00.004+01:00

I chose an old postcard for this and didn't post it, mainly for ease in getting it done. Of course, I've also chosen the Whole World for my Adventure postcard.

Explore : Prompt 1

2011-07-23T16:09:00.003+01:00

I signed up on Thursday to Shimelle's Explore Class. I've not done one before, and quite frankly, I'm doing it to see what all the fuss is about! Oh, and to do something a bit different on the creative front. Not sure whether I'll be able to do it AND wrangle the Baby, but we'll see!

My 'Play Book' cover.

My first piece of journalling. I'm using old hotel stationery for the journalling sections. I always save bits like that and they hang around for ages unused. That was one of the suggestions, and a very good one!

I've taken the Self Portrait, but I send my pics to be developed, so I'll pop it in when it comes back.

Smash Book?

2011-07-08T21:03:00.004+01:00

I like the idea of Smash Books, but buying all the "proper" bits and pieces? Nah. Seems a little silly when you can use existing stash and a nice book from Paperchase. So here it is. Well, a little sampling of what I've done so far.

I bought some coloured envelopes and some decorative paperclips so I could display my photos. As they're originals, rather than digitals, this way I don't have to risk scrapping them and potentially ending up with layouts I don't like or grow out of.

The only photo I have from my Open University Summer School to Brighton. I still had part of the diary I kept, so I've included that as well.

Bits and pieces from our trip to York last year. I've included some October Afternoon stickers on this page. On the next few pages I've added in some photos that I know I'll find really hard to scrap, but ones that I love. This way they're somewhere I'll be able to look at. I've added journalling around all the photos that I put into the book.

Duxford and Fleet Air Arm tickets and flyers. This page has been embellished with matching Cosmo Cricket papers and stickers.

Bits and Bobs from a lunch at Loch Fyne and the Bits and Bobs from hunting pigs in Bath. Added in some more October Afternoon and KesiArt.

Creative Craft World - Bright & Bold

2011-06-23T08:53:00.004+01:00

Another Creative Craft World challenge entry. Will try and add more details later, when Baby is sleeping!! :)

Later: Right, he's not sleeping, he's screaming the house down thanks to his first jabs. :( I bought the Alphabet Soup {boy} papers because Adam has a play gym / bouncer with wild animals on and I thought I'd get plenty of use out of it. Never considered scrapping his socks instead!

Have finally used the last button made by my Teamie Sue.

Creative Craft World - Travel

2011-06-23T08:50:00.003+01:00

Quickly uploading a challenge entry for Creative Craft World! Will come back and sort out details later - maybe...

Later: Adam now sleeping off his jab suffering. Poor mite. :(

I used a piece of DCWV as a background, but it's a wussy piece of paper and has curled up all over. Can't stand paper that does that, but it doesn't look too bad in the end.

John and I stayed at The Colonial Inn in 2005, but I've only just opened the hotel soap! So I decided to scrap it.

SLALT!!!

2011-06-12T16:35:00.000+01:00

Not sure what I was going for with this. But I got it scrapped, had fun doing it and that's the main thing!

Two minutes later...

2011-06-12T13:47:00.000+01:00

This is why I don't have time for "proper" uploads! :)

I end up with a baby on my lap. At least I managed to scrap though, my points are creeping steadily upward for June. I'll be very impressed if I manage our Teams 300 target, but I might get close.

Layout!

2011-06-12T13:37:00.001+01:00

No time to fuss with a proper upload, so iPhone pics and emailing will have to do.

Made from the latest Quirky Kit, I couldn't bear to cut up the background pp - House of Three / Pink Paislee : Daily Junque, Tickets - so I left it all intact and just added to it. Actually that makes scrapping easier (although it does seem lazy) at the moment with a demanding baby to deal with!

The Next Generation

2011-06-01T21:38:00.002+01:00

I scrapped! WooHoo! I did this at the on Bank Holiday Monday for the latest UKS weekly challenge. 6x4 photos, history (I went for future history) and use a punch - which I have!

Collectormania 2011

2011-05-30T16:02:00.000+01:00

Adam is only four weeks old and yet he's already being dragged to conventions! Still, there was a damn good reason for it, David Blue was signing and I couldn't miss that. We even managed to be at the front of his queue, which was good as we were in and out leaving Adam no time to fuss.

Baby

2011-05-09T12:51:00.001+01:00

Why is my leg getting warm and damp?!

Granfer & Frankie

2011-04-30T07:23:00.000+01:00

Weekly Challenge - April Week 3

2011-04-18T15:12:00.003+01:00

No patterned paper, no brads, buttons or blooms, one or three photos and not a 12x12 square. Check on all counts! Must try harder to catch us out, Sue! ;)

This is John's half-eaten plate of haggis and mash. I'd never eaten haggis before and found the concept way too disturbing. John, however, managed to convince me to try some and this is how much he'd eaten by the time I gave in and had a forkful. Well, haggis is bloomin' delicious! So I had to take a photo of the first haggis I'd ever had.

Sadly, I had no camera, just my iPhone and the dish doesn't look all that apetising in this state, but the idea is to record these special moments, and I have.

The Latest Batch

2011-04-18T14:11:00.003+01:00

Much easier to do a whole load in one go than do a post for each layout. In each case I've cut into new paper collections.

Outside the Opera Garnier / Our balcony

Melman in Paris. I felt that Melman deserved some Steampunk Debutante! Used an October Afternoon sketch for this one.

In the Park in Edinburgh

I was very impressed when I noticed that the die-cuts in this collection matched up to the Buck Naked chipboard that I already had. Of course, I then read on the bottom of the die-cuts that they're meant to go together!

An old Pencil Lines sketch was used for this.

Outside Dartmouth House waiting for everyone to assemble for photos.

I already had some Material Girl, but with the Crafting Kit you also get the stickers, journalling tags and strips. They were all new to me, so I added some in.

PageMaps Sketch.

Melman Went To Scotland!

2011-04-16T21:03:00.005+01:00

Thought I'd kill some time waiting for the baby by making some simple layouts of Melman!

Pencil Lines #230

Having tea at Scotland Street School, Glasgow.

One of October Afternoon's Thursday sketches.

Edinburgh Castle, Science Centre in Glasgow and meeting the statue of Greyfriars Bobby.

Felt quite productive making these, getting multiple photos scrapped in graphic style seems to be the way to go at the moment.

Easter

2011-04-16T10:15:00.002+01:00

The CCW Saturday Scrap Map for this week.

John at Forde Abbey, hunting for rabbits to win us a Creme Egg! You had to follow the map, find the bunnies and then use the rubber stamp (bolted down to each rabbit!) to mark on the map that you'd located the bunny. Once all the bunnies were found, you got your creme egg.

Yes, it was a game for children and no, we didn't care that we were adults. :)

Duxford

2011-04-15T15:14:00.003+01:00

My layout of the day for yesterday. Propped this one up on John's easel to try and get a better shot of it. Tried.

{My favourite plane, the Vought F4U Corsair. Also the Breitling Wing Walkers, a shot of the Balbo & Daddy and I in the beanfield}

Based very loosely on a page map sketch. I wanted a jumping off point to help me with scrapping so many photos at once, not something I'm terribly good at!

Had to do this just to use that gorgeous aeroplance paper. I love Cosmo Cricket, maybe it shows?!

Meteor Crater

2011-04-14T15:39:00.004+01:00

Made use of a discount code last week and bought myself some boy-themed BoBunny, Blast Off! Figured it won't hurt to have some boy papers, even if the boy in question is now a couple of days overdue and starting to make me uncomfy.

The papers came really quickly and they're stunning. I wanted to cut into them straight away, but I was a little lacking in space related pictures. However, good old trusty Road Trip 2008 helped me out with these photos from Meteor Crater.

Had a quick play with my new alcohol inks to make a spacey nebula-like mat for my photo and I took the journalling directly from my Road Trip diary.

Chippy

2011-04-12T20:58:00.003+01:00

This one is for the latest Creative Craft World Saturday Scrap Map where the challenge was to use shapes. I've stuck with the bracket theme from the sketch and used some different bracket shapes as photo mats and journalling block.

Photos from the fabulous Chippy Doon The Lane in Glasgow that we visited last year. Great chips and marvellous toilets! Pretty good pictures, too, considering I took them with my iPhone!

The People's Palace, Glasgow

2011-04-10T14:57:00.005+01:00

This is my last layout / project using the Counterfeit Kit. Sitting at my table and scrapping is just getting harder and I still want to prep some more baby pages if I can. The Kit isn't really suitable for baby stuff, so this is it.

Certainly going to be playing again in the future though, this has been fun!

I cut all the flowers out from a couple of sheets of For the Record and I did it in bed yesterday with my feet up! (See? I'm not even scrapping at my table anymore!) The background paper is MME: Meadowlark, Dawn. I coloured some of it in a bit, doesn't really show in the photo. Flowers look better in real life too, they're mostly layered up on foam pads.

Right. It's nap time again!

So Cute!

2011-04-10T14:46:00.005+01:00

Somehow I managed to plan this layout without having a picture in mind to go with it. I'd cut the frame for my "Beautiful" layout and then just dumped the negative part down on the bit of red cardstock. The next day I saw it lying there and just had to turn it into a layout.

I inked the cardstock using a Maya Road mask, stitched the paper onto the cardstock, made the butterfly, laid out all the crochet, flower, bird and leaf parts... then realised that I hadn't really thought it all through!

Finally went with this picture solely because I'm wearing a green t-shirt and I'm outside, so I sort of match both colour and theme! Even managed a suitable title. Quite happy with the way this turned out.

Maze Book of Me

2011-04-08T13:18:00.007+01:00

Hot on the heels of me thinking that my mini book skills aren't up to scratch I decided to make a Maze Book! Glutton for mini embellishment punishment, obviously. I do love the folding, cutting and sticking that goes into a Maze Book though, so I enjoyed putting this together.

This one I've made to try and get some of my baby / childhood pictures scrapped before my Baby arrives and I end up just scrapping him instead.

I've had to take the photos with a cushion on my lap as I'm stuck to the sofa today with my oversized hippo feet up on a stool. They aren't happy tootsies today. :(

I've used 4 Heures 37 papers for the covers and Echo Park for the insides. I've not written on the tags yet, there are a couple of pictures that I want to ask my parents about first, then I can do some more journalling. There's plenty of slots of I want to add more as things occur to me.

I used to be cute! What happened?! I'm playing with my toy helicopter, although I always called it a "helicopterdopter". I think that butterfly may need some work, it's a bit plain.

Stamping and ProMarkering fun. I don't do much of that, but yesterday I realised that I do have some bird stamps and thought I should include them in the Kit.

A Basic Grey June Bug bird stamp.

Coming home from Nanny & Grandpa's on my birthday and seeing my new bike for the first time. My father took this reaction shot, but I don't have any pictures of the bike.

Another butterfly that needs a bit of bling - and me in a leotard! Horrors!

Hurdles. In the photo it's vaguely possible to see the frightening second year teacher, Mrs Hoyle, and the lovely Headmaster, Mr Davies.

In the swimming pool on the last day of a holiday in Spain. I swallowed too much pool water and spent the entire flight home being sick. It wasn't the greatest experience.

There. Fuzzy, but photographed. I think I could do with a nap now.

Retreat Beer Mat Mini Book

2011-04-08T09:25:00.008+01:00

I honestly don't know why I bother with Mini Books. I can never seem to make them look as they do in my head. Perhaps it's because I haven't the knack to use tiny embellishments well or creatively. Anything under an 8x8 seems to go a bit squiffy.

But I have all these beer mats to use and I do enjoy covering them, even if filling them up is a little beyond me. So, I used the Counterfeit Kit to make it, hoping that the manufacturer mixing might help me. I don't think it did and I'm pretty sure I could do better than this, but I'm not sure I really know where I'm going wrong.

Perhaps I could do with a gadget that punches holes in chipboard so I don't have to poke holes with a compass! Occasionally I think about getting eyelet setters, Big Bites and things like that, but so far I've avoided the serious tools.

Ugh. I'm moaning. I blame the bad night of no sleep thanks to the baby kicking!

Maria in the Deli, Susi setting us up for the Caught in Crystal class and a page of journalling.

Everyone off to the Craft Shop for some serious stash shopping, outside the house getting ready for our Group photo session.

Maria, Sue and my Bump - with very fetching pink PJ bottoms!

One of the handmade flowers from a Quirky Kit that I've been stroking for ages. I put it in my Counterfeit in an attempt to use it up, and I have. :) There's still another one left for stroking!

Beautiful

2011-04-06T21:32:00.002+01:00

The vase of daffodills that was on our table when we went to our Retreat in March. There was a box of Milk Tray as well, but we ate that! Jen took the picture, I can't put pictures together like she can.

First attempt at using my Counterfeit Kit to make a layout. I'm fairly happy with it as it's not something I would normally do, the mixing up of so many manufacturers.

Cake Baking & 1976

2011-04-06T20:51:00.003+01:00

Kept at it with the Quirky Kit for a couple more layouts!

I wanted to know why Mummy's fruit cake was always so much better than mine when we use the same recipe. So I watched while she made one. Better quality ingredients and more moisture is the key!

Got out the good old Circle Circus again for this one. This is me in 1976 and I'm wondering now how I can possibly be about to have one of these when I still feel like I am one!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - April

2011-04-05T16:23:00.003+01:00

My first time playing along and this is what I've pulled from my stash. Turns out I don't have many items with birds on, but I've included a few. I did have all the For the Record papers, so I've just put them in there rather than counterfeiting them.

Not a big fan or user of ribbons, so I'm using this as a chance to use up some of the little scrappy pieces I have.

As I normally scrap by manufacturer (unless I'm using a kit) I think I might find this a little tricky. For instance, I've pulled the three For the Record papers that are included in the Real Kit, which means I will be using those three pieces up and the rest of the For the Record collection will be sitting there, not being used up.

I'll go back to the rest of the papers some day and three of the sheets will be chopped up more than the rest, they won't have had equal use.

OK. I'm aware that I'm strange!

Ring o' Roses

2011-04-04T15:10:00.003+01:00

This week's UKS challenge was minimalist. To use no more than two photos, no more than two different sorts of embellishments, circles and a line from a song for the title. My title should be "o' Roses" not "of Roses", but this was just a bit easier when using a tiny type alpha.

Peckover House, Wisbech

Again with the current Quirky Kit. I'm getting plenty of use out of it! The flowers are cut from the Cosmo Cricket fabric, which I glued onto cardstock and then cut out. Can't take credit for the idea, it came from the QK Ideas Blog, which I can't link to cos it's for subscribers only!

So, fabric flowers and brads are my two embellishments.

Lots of circles thanks to a circle of Stampin' Ups Circle Circus.

Even More from the Quirky Kit!

2011-04-04T11:07:00.007+01:00

I've given up trying to get decent photos without PSP, so these are just propped up on my desk, complete with scruffy desk backgrounds.

When this picture was being taken I knew the layout would have to be called "Tosser" ~ sorry Sue!

We were lucky enough that our Retreat fell on Pancake Day, so Susi bought ready mixed pancake batter and we all had a go at making pancakes. Sue was the only one brave enough to actually give pancake tossing a go and it worked!

These are the flowers that John bought for me the day we had a positive pregnancy test. Seems like five minutes ago and now I only have days left!

I used netting on this, thinking that it might tone down the brightness of the cardstock, but it didn't! Still, the photo had come out in very bright green and yellow, so it probably doesn't matter. Inked the CS using a technique I found in the free Craft Stamper ezine, which has worked, but left me with a large pile of inky post-its. Fun though!

More From Wicken Fen

2011-03-31T19:39:00.004+01:00

Still chopping up the fabulous Quirky Kit! Today I decided to make a couple more layouts from my trip to Wicken Fen with the Parental Units last month. This way I get a bunch of layouts that match each other.

My Mother proving that she's still fun, despite being a Grandmother-To-Be, just don't call her Granny!

I wanted to use the Cosmo Cricket Material (Sunrise pattern from Early Bird), so I turned it into a folded ribbon.

I made four of the flower embellishments, so they're all used up now.

Quirky Kit Layouts

2011-03-31T11:39:00.008+01:00

The first couple of layouts using the latest Quirky Kit. Another one is on my desk for this afternoon. I'm enjoying my plan to get a layout a day done while I still can.

Maria and Susi enjoying a Tea Cake at the Deli in Olney.

I decided that the best way to get started was to attack the kit as much as possible and cut into as many bits of it as I thought I might need. Otherwise I know what I'm like, I'll just use ordinary rectangular pieces because I don't want to muck up the patterns.

Knife in hand I cut out the detail from the Good Living sheet, it was just crying out to be cut into, so I did. The signpost part I've lifted up on foam squares and I decided that I needed to make one of the signs point towards Olney! Even (reluctantly) used one of the adorable resin birds.

I was on a roll by this point, so I made up some flowers with Red Tomato, Charme, Brooch, some netting and one of the AC rose brads. The kit came with two sheets of Kesi'Art alphas, so I used some from both packs, rather than hoarding. The black and white houndstooth is material, which makes the layout rather touchy-feely in real life. I stitched that on at the bottom to keep it in place.

My Mother's Incorrect Footwear

My parents took me to Wicken Fen in February for some exercise. Almost didn't happen as it turned out my Mother had left her wellies and walking shoes at home. However, a nice man from the National Trust told us that it was possible to reach the first Hide on the new, mud free, boardwalks. So we were able to go birdwatching and look at squirrels.

This involved more attacking of the papers!

I cut the Webster's Page Die Cut in half, cut out a few of the circles from Amazing Views and Epicea and used the woodgrain side of Bouleau. Stampin' Up Circle Circus on the flowers, one of the resin flowers and the last resin bird - yay me for not hanging onto it forever.

Right. Time to go work on another! I want to use up some of the Cosmo Cricket material today, it's the Sunrise pattern from Early Bird. Yum!

Chip Time

2011-03-29T17:04:00.004+01:00

The title for this was supposed to be "Time for Chips" and that was when I realised that my Thickers had no O, so I had to change it!

We went to this chip shop in Olney last year during our Retreat, this year we went twice! My teamie, Sarah, suggested that I save a chip fork for future scrapping purposes and here it is.

Since taking this picture I've made a fish for the top left hand corner. Suddenly had the urge to colour something in. Might update this later.

Photo was taken by Jen.

Beer Festival 2010

2011-03-29T16:45:00.005+01:00

I made this at the weekend as I realised I still had lots of the last Quirky Kit to use up and the new one was on its way.

Quite happy with how this came out. I took the photos on my iPhone, so they weren't the greatest quality to begin with, but certainly better than nothing. The kit was a good mix of masculine colours as well as the lovey dovey pinks, which was perfect for this layout. Greys and blues for John and pink for that fabulous pink and yellow cheese - made with port, if you were curious!

I suppose this year the Festival will be rather dry for me, but they do have fabulous cheeses and a family marquee, so no reason to stay away! :)

Another Weekly Challenge

2011-03-29T16:32:00.003+01:00

Still having issues creating straight photos, no matter how hard I line up the camera!

The only summer themed papers I had were the thin substandard AC ones, so I used them despite being a paper snob! They aren't so bad as long as you layer them up and make the page heavier. I even managed to throw in a little October Afternoon and Echo Park, so not all bad!

The criteria this week are as follows:

5 points for including blue - plenty of that!
10 points for Summer themed photo - taken at Summer School in 2009, our last day and a visit to Rumbling Kern.
5 points for journalling - check
10 points for a home made embellishment - I made a flower / circular thingy, not entirely sure what to call it!

Quirky Kit

2011-03-29T15:53:00.003+01:00

The March / April kit arrived this morning and I have chopped into it straight away rather than holding on and stroking it. No time for stroking, must crack on!

Suddenly started raining and the light has gone, so pictures will have to wait until tomorrow.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge

2011-03-28T21:30:00.002+01:00

Grr... why do I discover fun things to do when I'm about to Pop and can't play with them?!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge.

Although, now I think about it, I seem to remember them mentioning this on the Paperclipping Roundtable a while back, I obviously just didn't take in at the time how inspirational it really is. Darn.

Spot the Mistake!

2011-03-28T20:55:00.000+01:00

This is why I'm never keen on the cheap American Crafts album kits from the cheapy shop.

Do you see the problem?

Well, half the alphas don't peel off with sticky backs, but that's not it...

There's no O.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Lolly

2011-03-26T10:15:00.000Z

The theme this week at Creative Craft World is "All Things Girlie", which I'm not, so I went with a cute picture of me as a child. Lolly is my childhood nickname.

I don't own an awful lot of pink or feminine scrapping stuff, but I do have some American Crafts Dear Lizzy. This is the kind that comes with the album kits that they sell in T K Maxx, the thinner variety that is single sided and tears as soon as you look at it. Have to say, I'm not a fan, but the albums are great and most of the American Crafts embellishments are perfectly fine. Besides, £7 for a 12x12 album, embellies and some paper? I'm not complaining about that! ;)

The circles on the sketch have been transformed into lots of large flowers and I've layered up some Primas and AC flowers on top of them. Jazzed up the flowers with Artemio stamps and, dare I say, the large blue brad is by Laurence Llewellyn Bowen?! In my defence, he was another cheapy from T K Maxx and the brads aren't bad, although the paper sucked!

I did manage to semi-distress some of the AC papers without it tearing and I stitched down one of the corners that refused to stay stuck. Punched some Martha Stewart butterflies out of Sassafrass Lass (woo! I mixed Companies again!!) and made my own journalling spot from some more S. Lass.

This week I used Distress Ink in Tattered Rose.

Well, that's it. March is all but over and my GDT spot at Creative Craft World has ended. I've had a great time this month and look forward to doing future sketches ~ depending on Baby, of course!

Doctor Who - Impossible Astronaut Prequel

2011-03-25T16:13:00.001Z

Project 12 - March 2011

2011-03-25T11:24:00.008Z

I haven't even looked at the official P12 sketch for this month. Sue gave me a Crate Paper mushroom at the Retreat because I didn't want her throwing it away and I was sure I could do something with it. She gave me a matching piece to go with it and this is what I've come up with.

I cut out some holes and popped our faces inside. I used the circles from the hole making as spots, which means this is probably a toadstool now, not a mushroom. First official use for my new Circle Circus stamps from Stampin' Up. Made myself some grass for the toadstool to grow in and added some of the cute characters from the other piece of paper.

Various photos of the Bijoux Belles, the lovely hot chocolate I had, Maria glaring at me in the Deli and Janet enjoying one of Sarah's cupcakes!

I already had the Little Sprout stamp set, so I added on some extra mushrooms, an owl and a tree.

{click to enlarge}

Two pieces of patterned paper, a sheet of cardstock and a piece of scrappy white paper. Oh, and some left over lined paper and a title from an old Quirky Kit. Pretty minimalist!

I Get A Kick Out Of You!

2011-03-24T19:34:00.009Z

Ugh. I really need to get Paint Shop Pro onto this laptop. I took these pictures in decent daylight today, which has washed out the colours and I can't get that colour back just using Picasa and Picnik. The colours of Circa 1934 are so much better than this photo would have you believe.

Yes, I appear to have spelt (spelled?!) February incorrectly...

Decided it was about time to Scrap the Bump. One of the elements has "I get a kick out of you" on it and I decided that would make the perfect title, even if it is a bit small!

A quickie of Alex the Lion to cut into some other Cosmo Cricket that I'd just been stroking!

Bile Beans!

2011-03-22T12:02:00.005Z

The plan is to attempt a layout a day between now and Arrival Day. To get the creativeness in while I still can and enjoy this me time while I still have it. Also to cut into the newest papers, or papers that I've been stroking for too long. I managed to chop into the Tim papers straight away and I've done the same with these.

Shiny new Echo Park For the Record.

Took the photo from York City Walls and I made most of this layout before I even realised that one of the little cut-outables had "York" on it! I'd like to say it was planned, but it wasn't!

For more information on the history of Bile Beans click here or here.

Weekly Challenge Time

2011-03-22T11:55:00.004Z

Another week, another challenge over on UKS.

Two photos, Stamping, Bunting and using up scraps. The paper actually came from Susi, so it's actually using up her scraps, but I'm sure that still counts. Also used up scraps of BGs Lime Rickey and Liberty by Scenic Route. The cardstock is scraps as well.

Last years summer barbecues. I got rather drunk at the first one and discovered I was pregnant a few days later! The second BBQ was a sober affair.

New Tim Papers

2011-03-22T11:41:00.002Z

I'm weak-willed when it comes to stash offers, so when I saw an offer for two Tim Holtz paper stashes that came with a set of Salvage Stickers and a Distress Ink in a colour I don't have (Tea Dye), I had to do it. Really I should be saving for Frankie and not spending baby money on stash, but paper keeps, right?

At least I cut right into them rather than stroking them for so long that I didn't get a chance to use them this side of the Impending Arrival.

This one is Retro Grunge. I'm not sure about the large prints on them, but the smaller versions are very usable and the backs are in nice plain (distressed) colours, so I will probably end up using the backs more than the fronts. I do need a decent journalling pen though, none of mine really show up or work well on this shinier type of paper.

Had great fun inking the tag!

The City of Truro at the National Railway Musuem in York. This is Crowded Attic and even features a little steam train on one of the papers, so that had to be included. This is my favourite of the two ranges, but I'll get plenty of use out of both.

Using Up Kits

2011-03-19T15:37:00.005Z

Just a couple of layouts using up some more of the leftover kits from our Retreat classes.

{Fancy Pants - Love Birds}

John on our Balcony in Paris. He might look happy, but it's a long way up and it's very cold out there. As soon as the picture was taken he hurried back in. Fair enough, we were using our balcony as a fridge!

{Nikki Sivils - Sweet Cherry Pie}

Duncan and I in the back garden playing in our lawnmower boxes.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Paris

2011-03-19T10:20:00.003Z

The theme this week at Creative Craft World is one landscape photo.

Oh, good grief! This happened last week! I need a photo in a size that I haven't got and can't get. Well, I was all ready to chop down a 6x4 picture to make it more landscapey, when I realised that I always panic without thinking things through.

In the 1990s I had a camera that took landscape photos alongside normal photos (and another size that I can't recall). I wanted that camera. I loved that camera. My Dad said it was a silly camera and eventually I'd not be able to get the film for it or the novelty would wear off. He was right, of course! But before I gave up on my expensive toy I did take some landscape shots. I've not scrapped any of them before as I only have one copy of them and no idea what happened to the negatives.

So, here's my first layout using a truly landscape photo:

I pushed the landscapeyness even further by making it a 6x12 layout.

Almost chose a landscape shot of Grand Canyon, but I'm still loving my shiny new Rouge de Garance Gustave papers and as they feature architectural elements of the Eiffel Tower and this photo has the Eiffel Tower in it - small, but it's there - I had to go for this.

Then I went a little Eiffel Tower crazy! Used a Prima mask to add a little Distress Ink (Vintage Photo) tower to the left side, although it doesn't show up well in real life, let alone this photo and also a little piece of the Parisian ephemera that comes with the K&Co Maison paper pad.

It's very unlike me to mix Paper Companies on on layout. I do try, but I have a habit of keeping them together, so mixing K&Co with Rouge de Garance is quite startling!

Bun on the Plate!

2011-03-16T10:38:00.004Z

Here I am in the Olney Delicatessen and Tea Room eating a delicious tea cake!

Using up some of the Echo Park paper from the Retreat Class, along with an old doily.

Thanks to Jen for the picture and Maria's friend for the title!

Melman at the London Eye

2011-03-16T10:06:00.004Z

I have a new laptop, it doesn't have Paint Shop Pro on it yet and if I can't find the disk it never will! Anyway, I now have to edit my layouts using Paint (which is a lot funkier on Windows 7 than on my old laptop), Picasa and Picnik. I think that will probably do for now.

This week the challenge was to use white space, one photo and bling. Used my new Rusty Hinge distress ink as well, which works beautifully on giraffes.

Retreat Layouts 4

2011-03-12T17:36:00.003Z

Finally, the using up of Lily Bee - Vintage Poppy. This is the very last of my final Sarah's Cards kit from last year. I mainly scrapped our Isle of Wight holiday with the kit, so chose some more pictures from that trip to use with these scraps.

John being brave on a high wooden bridge.

Another case of what was in my head not coming together on paper. I was goingfor something a little more like the Edinburgh Castle layout I made in June, but it's failed rather badly. I might have to add something to it later when I'm feeling more inspired.

After these two layouts I had planned on using up some of the gorgeous Up, Up and Away by Kaisercraft, but my mojo and ability to sit failed me. So I prepped some baby pages for Frankie's arrival. I managed six (I think) and will take their pictures in the future when they're finally complete.

Retreat Layouts 3

2011-03-12T17:30:00.005Z

Oh yes, even more Road Trip! Although, to be fair, as the plan was to use up scraps and most of my scraps are Road Trip related, it's hardly a surprise.

This time I'm using up MME - Breaking Free.

The extremely windy Elephant Butte! Managed to use the planned butons this time... and Sue's mini alphas. Thank you Sue. :)

Pima. The tour guide made us have this photo taken.

Retreat Layouts 2

2011-03-12T16:54:00.003Z

My next pre-prepped kit was MME - Round and Round to get some more of my never-ending supply of Road Trip pictures scrapped.

A bit basic, but does the job. I'd planned all sorts of things with buttons before I came away and then totally went off the idea. All the buttons returned home with me!

This was an attempt to include some tourist information leaflets. I'd dragged so many home from America only to leave them in a folder and never look at them. Again, this is a bit on the basic side, but my excuse is that I just couldn't sit fussing over it for too long before having to get up and sit on the recliner in the sitting room! In fact, I did the stitching in there. Annoying puffy feet.

All the final pieces of Round and Round gathered together and plopped down! I'm pretty fond of this one and I even did some fiddly cutting out.

Retreat Layouts 1

2011-03-12T16:45:00.004Z

My plan for the Retreat this year was to only take offcuts of my old papers, do a bit of pre-Retreat planning, add some embellies and create my own mini kits. It worked to a certain extent. I did get bits used up, but between the planning and executing stages I changed my mind about how I wanted things to come together. Unfortunately, by that point, all my stuff was at home and I was in deepest, darkest Olney! Never mind!

Two wedding layouts using MME - Love Me Do.

I prepped the butterfly at home using Faded Jeans ink, Faded Jeans stickles and GA. I then buggered up the layout by using my new Chipped Sapphire ink on the title after I'd stuck it down. I managed to ink the alpha, the paper, the butterfly AND the photo.

Luckily, I've not played with the photos so it doesn't show up too badly! Actually, neither of these came together exactly as I'd hoped.

March Week 1 - Spring Retreat

2011-03-12T16:16:00.005Z

I managed to scrap this photo of our first retreat whilst on our second retreat. The challenge arrived just at the right time, I'd taken lots of offcuts of Junebug with me and had planned to piece them altogether in a mosaicy / quilty way. This just meant it was given some structure.

I now realise that I need a square punch (thank you Susi!) and a Sew Easy (thank you Sue!), but this is no time to be indulging in new stash... or is it? The excessive use of GA doesn't show up in the picture, it's a lot shinier in real life.

Anyway, Spring in the title, scrunched flowers, a splash of yellow and squares. All included.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Springtime

2011-03-12T10:03:00.005Z

This week at Creative Craft World the Scrap Map Saturday theme is "spring / seasons".

Thought at first it might be a problem as I didn't seem to have many pictures from Spring (or autumn, or winter...), certainly not eight of them! I don't have photo printing capabilities at home, I always send them out to be printed, so my photos are always sized at whatever options I'm allowed on Photobox.

Then it occurred to me that, obviously, sketches are jumping off points, they're for kick starting your mojo and sending it off to scrap. My mojo came up with this:

{Forde Abbey in Dorset, Easter 2009}

I cut one photo into six pieces, displaced them a little and filled the gaps with daisies and my journalling. Also made my own background with Distress Inks (mustard seed, peeled paint & faded jeans) and a Maya Road butterfly sheer sheet.

Once I'd done that I didn't want to cover up my background any more than I had to, so I added a teeny title.

Then I had to go away and play with the Sheer Sheet as I'd not used it before and it's FUN!

Retreat Classes

2011-03-11T21:05:00.005Z

Thought I should at least get one entry up tonight about Retreat #2 before my muscles decide I can't sit here any longer! So, I'm starting with the classes that we took with Sandie Vincent last Saturday. I've not played about in PSP trying to sort them all out, quite frankly, my arse cannot be arsed!

{Nikki Sivills - Sweet Cherry Pie}

I used pictures of Baby Me for the first class, desaturated so that they (hopefully) match the paper a little better.

{Fancy Pants - Love Birds}

Again with the Baby Me pictures!

I then became overwhelmed and exhausted. Making a little person is quite tiring and upsets your insides. Anyway, I didn't do the final class when everyone else did. I was guided through it later that evening when I was feeling a lot better. This is the result:

{Echo Park - Little Girl}

I had another Baby Me picture all ready for this one as well, but in my absence from class, Jen printed out these fab pictures of the Bijoux Belles cupcakes that Sarah had made for us. Quite a few of the others used this picture too and it matches the papers a lot better than my original choice would've, so yay!

The classes were great fun. I learnt some new skills and all the paper ranges were ones I'd never come across before and probably would never have considered buying. Being outside the comfort zone was a new experience as I'd not taken scrapping classes before.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Fun?

2011-03-05T10:00:00.004Z

My first layout as a Guest Design Team member for Creative Craft World - and I choose to scrap a picture of me in a bikini!!

The theme this week is 'circles'.

Oh yes, don't I look miserable! I never really grasped why going to beach is a fun thing to do. Sand gets everywhere. Of course, now I go to the beach, turn my back to sea and study the geology of the cliffs. Much more fun than beachballs. Although, I suppose I'll have to take my baby to the beach at some point. Maybe I'll suddenly discover the fun?

This is the very last of my Cosmo Cricket Snorkel paper, had so little that I punched the smaller circles from the larger ones and teamed it up with Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety to make it go further.

I Distress Inked the background with Broken China and Faded Jeans, then Glimmer Misted over the top. Still a bit of a newbie when it comes to Misting, but I'm pretty happy with how this came out. Doodled on the circles (yes, I cheated and used a Template!) and the journalling lines.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Love

2011-02-26T15:03:00.005Z

The theme this week was diagonals. I had what I thought was a good idea... and then I became a little side-tracked and forgot what I had planned to do.

I used my new Artemio stamps that I bought in Paris at the beginning of the month and then was going to stamp the hearts so that the text was diagonal inside the hearts... as you can see, that didn't happen. Still, once the hearts are stuck on at jaunty angles the text is diagonal to the page, so it sorta worked!

These were some of the wedding photos that I'd a hard time deciding how to scrap. They're either a bit fuzzy, or there was too much background or we're pulling funny faces. Trimmed down and grouped together like this I think they actually work. Perhaps there's something to be said for multiple photo layouts?!

Oh, and I seem to be the Guest Design Team member for March *blush* - thank you Creative Craft World!

Frankie

2011-02-24T09:59:00.004Z

A couple of screen grabs from the 3D scan we had done on February 14th at Bourn Hall. He's right up against my wall with very little fluid, so he looks odd and squishy!

Holding his feet. Very little else to do!

February Week 3

2011-02-22T14:16:00.003Z

John drinking beer, painting the sash windows and in a box!

This is what you had to do this week:

1. We want you to scrap using primarily black and white - done
2. Use three pictures on your layout - done
3. Use a different single four letter word - done

February Week 2

2011-02-22T13:31:00.003Z

The WC for last week. It was a close call getting it done as my Parentals had been visiting in the week and I almost forgot to do it. Still, that's what lazy pre-baby Sundays are for - scrapping! Getting it scrapped doesn't necessarily equate to getting it photographed, but here it is:

This week the instructions were as follows;

At least 3 pp's - done, I actually used four of my new Rouge de Garance papers.
Border punch - done
Multiple photos - done, using three pictures is quite a lot for me.

I love these papers and spent ages trying not to cover up some of the details that were underneath once the pics went down. So I did my usual trick of gutting the paper, which meant I could use the details of Eiffel Towers arranged into a cog as an embellishment. Also cut the paper so that the lamp showed up and the tower leg could overlap.

Used Glossy Accents on the lamp, but then John pointed out that the light should really be white, so I painted it. He was right, of course, looks much better white!

The photo on the right shows (sort of) the searchlight on top of the Eiffel Tower.

Wicken Fen

2011-02-21T16:37:00.001Z

{click for full size!}

Frankie isn't even here and already his Nana is embarrasing him...

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Our View

2011-02-20T11:02:00.005Z

This week the challenge on the Creative Craft World Blog is to use chipboard on your layout.

I've used chipboard Thickers, a chipboard bracket and tag by Maya Road.

This is my first layout from our recent "second honeymoon" trip to Paris showing the views that we had from our balcony.

I bought the papers in Paris, first time using Rouge de Garance and these are from the gorgeous "Gustav" line featuring the Eiffel Tower and architectural plans of the Tower.

Project 12 January 2011

2011-02-17T20:16:00.003Z

{click to enlarge}

Continuing with the Project 12 again this year, well, in theory anyway! The paper was cheap from TKMaxx, a total bargain and I've never used WRMK papers before and they're not bad.

This layout covers the Baby Bump, John in the box that all our White Company baby stuff came in and our end of the month Second Honeymoon trip to Paris.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Kiss

2011-02-17T20:07:00.003Z

My entry for the Saturday Scrap Map challenge on the Creative Craft World blog, this week with the theme of Love.

I've used some of my new stash from the gorgeous Jan/Feb Quirky Kit and a photo of Mummy and I on a ferry! I love that jumper I'm wearing. :)

Jan Week 5 - Belles

2011-02-07T16:22:00.005Z

I promise I did this weekly challenge in time! I just put it somewhere safe for the GA to dry - and forgot all about it. Still, that's better than my usual trick of dumping something on top of wet GA and spreading it everywhere.

From the huge choice of options I went for a theme of friends, and the techniques of doodling, hand written journalling, distress ink and one stamp. Sketch used.

Pictures are Susi and Maria, fellow Bijoux Belles, on our visit to London and The Eye. Maria is tucking into a Screme Egg - the halloween version of the Easter treat.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Our Wedding Day

2011-02-07T16:08:00.005Z

This week the Scrap Map challenge is on a love theme, so I have chosen to scrap my wedding. As you can see, we had a big guest list... :)

I've used some of the Penny Lane that I used in my wedding album (which still needs to be photographed and uploaded, must get round to that), distressed some coredinations and used a whole piece of lace cardstock (thank you, Sarah!) without cutting it up! *gulp*

The thickers were dull, so I stickled them a couple of times, they look a lot goldier in real life.

Duncan

2011-02-03T22:25:00.001Z

My childhood friend and closest thing I had to a brother.

This is how I'll remember him.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Memories

2011-02-03T19:42:00.003Z

My latest entry for Scrap Map Saturday at Creative Craft World.

This is Melman back in November when we went to London to meet up with Susi and Maria. We went on the London Eye. I nearly cut into a gorgeous sheet of October Afternoon - Thrift Shop for this, but then I remembered that I had a map of London that I'd saved for scrapping purposes. So I glued the map to some cardstock to stiffen it up, making sure the South Bank was exposed so I could point to the London Eye.

This week we had to add flowers. Not the most floral layout in the world, so I punched some flowers from the road names on the back of the map.

When I was making the layout I forgot what day we'd been to London and meant to go back and fix that before taking the photo, I see now that I forgot!

Paris

2011-02-03T11:56:00.003Z

Home from our Second Honeymoon / Pre-Baby Holiday. We didn't do an awful lot, but that was the whole point of going to Paris. We'd done so much of it already that there was no pressure to see everything. Just as well because I ached, especially after the first day when I didn't really think about my reduced lung capacity and we walked from the Hotel to the Musee D'Orsay. Normally that would have been an easy walk, but not now with The Bump and my expanding feet. :(

The view from the hotel room on the first night. Looking out at Chatelet / Theatre de la Ville. In the other direction we could even see the Eiffel Tower and a searchlight on top of it. On the following nights it was too foggy

The Bump in the Hotel room.

John on the Balcony, suffering the heights and the cold. He came in as soon as the picture was taken!

We had a shopping day and ended up at the Galleries Lafayette. All rather posh, but we did buy Frankie a snail glove puppet from the Toy Department and had lunch in the cafe. Pretty good view from cafe - one way over the Opera Garnier and the other way looked right at the Eiffel Tower.

There was skating outside the Hotel de Ville. Took photos, but obviously stayed off the ice!

Only ate two crepes, which was very restrained and one night I even had a salad while John had steak frites. Being so central with the hotel was great, so many brasseries close by, the boulangerie was handy for getting breakfast and the supermarche was only a few minutes away.

Now I need to leave a glowing review on TripAdvisor for the hotel. :)

Quick Layout

2011-01-26T17:56:00.001Z

{click for the full, fuzzy glory!}

Did this in an hour or so this afternoon. Will write about it when not on iPhone!!!

OK. This is my Mother last August eating my tomato ice cream. We were at Wimpole Hall during the tomato festival and they were selling this intriguingly flavoured ice cream. I was all ready to start licking when I realised that freshly made ice cream will have raw egg in. At that point I was just a few weeks pregnant and all the warnings were loud in my mind. So I had to do without and Mummy had to eat it for me. This was the first time I'd had to reject something because of the Baby.

Thanks to my Teamie, Sarah, for the paper!

Circa 1945

2011-01-25T15:55:00.005Z

I've been stroking this paper for a while, but it was time to take the craft knife to it.

Two photos stuck together so that we're sat side by side on the train with the Giraffe in the middle! At the last minute I remembered to stick the ticket onto the layout. I'm very good at keeping stuff and thinking "when I scrap this event I'll use this ephemera" and then forgetting all about it. I have loads of bits in folders, but all the good pictures have been scrapped. :(

Still, this time, I remembered!

I'm about three weeks pregnant at this point and paranoid about everything, but the sickness has yet to attack. I look happy rather than queasy!

In Bath on December 27th. All the shops we wanted to see were still closed after Christmas, so we ended up just having a nice lunch in Cafe Rene. At least, it used to be called Cafe Rene and isn't anymore. Can't think of its proper name!

Both are very loosely based on layouts in the first PageMaps book.

Delayed WC

2011-01-25T15:44:00.003Z

And by that I mean "weekly challenge" and not "water closet". This is from last week and I forgot to upload it.

Melman in Scotland last year.

The challenge was:
To alter an old piece of patterned paper - I turned an old piece into a border strip with a punch and some ink.
To use a piece of chipboard - the flower. ALthough now I look at it again, the thickers are chipboard too!
To use a piece of ribbon - giraffe print.
Draw your own sketch or use a website to pick one - I chose this one from the Pink Paislee Blog.

Scrap Map Saturday

2011-01-25T15:20:00.005Z

My entry for the latest Scrap Map Saturday on the Creative Craft World Blog.

I'm finally cutting into the beautiful Meadowlark Dawn, which I bought for making monochrome layouts and have only been stroking. Also managed to use the KI Memories lace cardstock that I didn't want to chop up for my wedding album, so have now used in full. The trim is from an old Quirky Kit and after getting so many cheap Thickers I'm making myself use them up, rather than overstuff my alphas folder and never use them.

Lighting continues to be bad, so I've propped it up on John's easel near a door.

Santa

2011-01-17T17:15:00.002Z

Made this for our inter-team mojo jar challenge. I wasn't doing them whilst I was mojoless, but now it's back and I'm playing again! My challenge was to make my own embellies, so I've made some buttons from matching papers and Glossy Accents.

These were my third attempt. The first ones were destroyed when I put my diary down on them whilst they were drying and the second batch were ruined when I put my ribbon jar lid down on them. I really am hopeless at remembering I have GA drying.

My DH rescued this third batch by hiding them from me!

Oh, and this LO is also for Susi, who says I scrap my Dad more than I scrap my Husband... which is probably true because Daddy poses when a camera is pointed at him and John doesn't!