Sketchy Thursdays 6.10

I've decided to try and combine some other challenges with the Weekly Challenge that is set on UKS and to not stress too much about getting the WC (as we call it) done fully each week. I usually try and cover all the bases to get the points for the Team, but I often end up with layouts that I'm not 100% happy with.

So this is the first of the combined efforts and I've combined with Sketchy Thursdays! I'm still not 100% happy with it as I decided to use my own handwriting on it (to make a difference, to not keep using up those darned pricey alphas...) and I've never liked my handwriting. Still, makes it unique!

I am happy with the background paper, however, which started off as an 8x8 piece of white that you get slipped into page protectors in new albums. I abused it with stamps, Distress Ink (and Reinker in a spray) and then some more Distress Ink. Then I covered it all up with the Crate Paper! Oh well, it was fun and very messy.

This is another photo from Duxford last month where Daddy and I were stood under the flight path with all of the other crazy fools who don't want to fork out the money to go to the display properly. This plane was so close its wingtips didn't fit in the shot...

Sketchy Thursdays & The Mill Pond

The local cheapy shop is suddenly stocking a whole bunch of American Crafts products and on Saturday I bought myself one of their albums that came with some of the Travel range. This is one of the lines that I bought pre-Road Trip so I'd be ready to scrap it when I came home. I'd actually run out of it, although I'm not the biggest fan of AC papers, so I thought some more wouldn't hurt.

Of course, it's the cheapy end of their ranges and is single sided and thinner than the papers I originally bought. This makes me want to pop them away and ignore them! So I've attacked them straight away and done a couple of layouts from them using as -yet-unscrapped Road Trip photos.

This first one is for Sketchy Thursdays 5.6 - The Scenic Route.

Valley of Fire State Park, Daddy and the beautiful hire car!

I then went right outside the box with this one for The Mill Pond's latest Write It Challenge. The task was to incorporate your title within your journaling and try something different with your title and or journaling that you personally have not tried before. Well, I've certainly done that! I've never done such a large title and I've certainly not stamped and cut out such a lot for a title before either. My journalling is between the lines of the title:

I'm not happy with the large balloon, but I'd stuck it down before I realised that I should have folded a piece of paper and just done half a balloon (like paper dolls). I rectified that for the tiny balloons and you can see the lines up their middles! I do enjoy making that grass, although it is time consuming.

A close up so you can see the journalling / title / grass and balloon.

I'm not sure the journalling is visible in the picture, but the gist of the story... Mark is a friend of my Dad's and we knew he'd be at Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta. We hadn't arranged to meet up, but after the mass ascension on the second day we were there he just found us on the field! It's a BIG place and it was amazing how he managed it. A little bit of home in the middle of America.

Official 2008 Balloon Fiesta Gallery.

EDIT: I won!

Sketchy Thursdays 4.1

Here I am in Niagara on the "Journey Behind the Falls" tour in 2006. I've even found my entry ticket to include on the layout. Hoarding everything does finally pay off!

No patterned paper in sight and yet this took ages and used so many different supplies. I've taken to writing what I've used on the backs of layouts so I can remember what came from where. I might not have enough supplies to stock a shop like some of my friends (who know who you are...), but I'm getting more items now from more places and I want to be able to recall which bit came from where!

The tag says "A roaring watery kind of noise" which is a line from Red Dwarf. Bonus cyber cookies if you can tell me which episode it's from! Anyway, it sure was roaring and watery and I needed that fetching yellow mac.

Twisted Sketches #42

The Twist this week is Flight. I guess this is technically "landing", but we were just flying. I'm in the basket with my mother and I think this is the early 90s, but I'm not too sure about the date. We're at the Lorraine Balloon Fiesta in Metz, France which is held every two years.

As I've just discovered the joys of Distress Inking and embossing I'm doing it on every layout that crosses my desk. I just need some more inks now as distressing with one does look a little odd.

Gotta Craft Kit

I treated myself to the latest Gotta Craft Kit this month and as soon as it arrived I ripped right into it! Decided to scrap pictures of Melman as he deserves papers covered with hearts.

This one is Melman at Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight. I even gave in and used one of the big homemade buttons that my teamie Sue made. Oh, and the orange ribbon came from teamie Janet. So I am getting some hoarded stash used up.

I used a sketch for this, but as I'm currently playing catch-up I have no idea which one this was.

This one looks a whole lot better in real life and it even amused John. We had fun in Paris taking this picture. It really looked as if the statues were reacting to something down by their feet!

In used an old Sketchy Thursdays sketch for this.

It's a Grey Day...

... with shadows and black for the June 17th Colour Challenge!


I had to take this picture leaning up against wall as we're so short of decent light in this place at the moment.

Bunny Hunting Day of Green

The Green Day at the Colour Challenge. John goes hunting for rabbits at Forde Abbey in Dorest over Easter weekend. Thanks to his dilligence we won a creme egg!

Paris & Cones

Used the new papers that I bought in Pocklington on the day we picked up our new-old table. I've not used My Little Yellow Bicycle before and they're scrummy! The ones on this Paris layout are Love Letters.

I'm quite fond of this, so I bought a 12x12 frame for it. We don't have pics of ourselves anywhere, so this will solve that problem.

This next one is from an Easter walk with my parents. Mother collected a bunch of cones for a display. John wouldn't take the one with the lichen on away from its environment.


The flowers are some old cheapy things that I don't like any more. I almost threw them out, but decided to repaint them to match the layout.

Many Patterned Papers!

Been on a run of creating paper layouts recently. I bought myself a bunch of Jillibean Soup papers because they looked scrummy and were calling out to me.



This was my first attempt at it and it does look better in real life. The pictures have darkened a bit too much. My folks feeding birds at Portishead earlier in the year. My Dad was throwing bread at my Mother so the seagulls flocked around her!



Hall's Croft in Stratford, one of the Shakespeare houses.

Real Layouts!!!

I did these a couple of weeks ago, and then took the pictures last week, finally remembered to add them to my Blog!

This one is another of the Road Trip pictures. The ice box that we carted round with us for the fortnight and it kept our cheese cold.

Me! Still a face I pull when I'm sulking...

The Palace Hotel

Just a paper layout for fun!

The Palace Hotel in Silver City, New Mexico. They had a very attractive lobby with this logo/artwork on the wall, which just had to have its photo taken. It's a rough take on Pencil Lines sketch #122.