Retreat - Road Trip

Oh yes, I'm STILL scrapping Road Trip 2008! I keep finding parts of the trip that I've not covered and need to be in the album(s).

Jerome was one of those places that we never intended to visit, but we needed a post office and this was where we ended up. We hadn't researched the place before we went, so we didn't know it was "America's Most Vertical City" and the "Largest Ghost Town in America"! One of the places we put on our (rather long) list of places to be revisited.



Leaving the Wigwam Motel after a night listening to the trains chuffing loudly by.

The tears were actually accidental. I tore the paper a few times when distressing the edges, so I used that layering technique to fix it and I'm quite pleased with it.

The last picnic before heading back to Las Vegas and the flight home.

Retreat - Christmas Layouts

The Retreat this year was brilliant. I only went from Saturday morning until Wednesday morning, couldn't stay away from Adam and John for any longer than that. I managed to get 26 layouts scrapped and it turns out the worst part of that is getting all their photos taken, edited and uploaded. So I've decided to do a bit at a time, in themes and not bother with all of them. There were a handful that I really didn't like. Mainly ones from about 9pm onwards!

All my Christmas layouts this year match. I'm using Christmas Wishes by Bella Blvd. This layout is being used for the March Monthly Challenge on UKS.


Adam unwrapping his very first Christmas pressie. This is also March Week One Challenge on UKS.

Explore : Prompt 8

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.

Retreat Beer Mat Mini Book

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!

Even More from the Quirky Kit!

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!

Quirky Kit Layouts

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

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.

Project 12 - March 2011

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!

Bun on the Plate!

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!

March Week 1 - Spring Retreat

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.

Retreat Classes

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.

Mojo Jar - June Dip

This month I had "Scraplift from a Teamie's Gallery" - so I lifted from Maria.


I decided to scrap the "wonderful" chandelier that adorned one of the ceilings at the Retreat back in March! The amazingly freaky thing.

Sketchy Thursdays 4.15

This week was a layout for Sketchy Thursdays and for Who's That Girl. You should be able to read from the picture what my Right Now points are!


I've come to realise that I don't have many storage spaces for my 12x12s so I've decided to make a set of 8x8s as I actually have a spare album for them! Besides, I'm still having a good time stroking my October Afternoon Thrift Shop (yum yum)

Obviously, however, I'm still taking pictures of my layouts perched on the radiator.

Twisted Sketches #45

The lastest Twist is Laugh and this is what made us laugh at the Retreat - The Settle.  Whenever you wanted something it was probably on the Settle... I guess you had to be there!  So I've scrapped a picture of Susi on the last day, sat upon the Settle.

Sketchy Thursdays 4.8

Might be a little late with this one! I'd forgotten that I'd not done the main sketch after doing the Second Chance and the Blog Hop!

The Bijoux Belles at our first retreat taken during our class.

Sketchy Thursdays - Blog Hop

The next Sketchy Thursdays sketch is for Spring Challenge Blog Hop.


Loved this sketch. Banners seem to be in at the moment, even though mine are a bit on the wonk!

I saw this pair of secateurs in the garden when we went on our retreat last month and took a random close up shot of them.

Sketch Thursdays 3.11

This is my first attempt at creating a layout on fabric...


I've based it on a piece of fabric, which I inked a little and covered in green net, which doesn't show up! The photo is on fabric covered in grey net. I've also used ribbon and fabric flowers. Thanks to various Teamies for those!

Decided to add on some hard embellishments as well, especially after realising that pinning the photo layer on was easier than sewing!

The picture is me at our recent Retreat tucking into a Danish. The main elements of the layout are made from a Quirky Kit.

Sketchy Thursdays - 3.4

This is one of the layouts I made on the Retreat last weekend.

The photo was taken on a girls holiday to Ibiza in October 2001.

Retreated

These are a bunch of the layouts that I made our Retreat last weekend. I only took BoBunny papers, so they all match!

InterTeam Challenge during the Retreat, to scrap a black and white of another Teamie. I did Susi, who is, indeed, Super!

Hard at Work 2

The other side of the table!