Weekly Challenge - April Week 3

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.

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!

Cake Baking & 1976

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!

More From Wicken Fen

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

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!

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!