Creative Craft World - Bright & Bold

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

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.

Retreat Layouts 2

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.

February Week 2

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.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Our View

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.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Kiss

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

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

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.

Quick Layout

{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!

Scrap Map Saturday

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.

Bees and Day Trips

I used a PageMap sketch from the first book for this. Suddenly occurred to me whilst trying to use up older stash that I really should scrap the picture of bees with the Garden Variety papers that feature bees. Yep, obvious.


Also a good way to use up all those left over Zs that I had lying around.

Our Team has just finished a 12 Days of Christmas swap and I wanted to use the goodies that I received (thank you, Sarah!) right away, rather than filing them away in my paper box.

I'd never seen glossy cardstock before and it would have been way too easy to just keep stroking this, but I've been brave and cut into it. Same goes for the paper, the little flowers, butterflies and leaves were just begging to be cut out from one side of it - so I did.

Being a bin-diving paper hoarder, however, I did have to punch out extra scallops, butterflies and flowers from the left overs, so I do have some odds and ends to use up. I also gutted the cardstock as I couldn't bear to leave such a large chunk of it covered up.

Also managed to use a bunch of brads, which I seem to collect and never use, and a Maya Road chipboard strip that I've had for ages and never used. Probably because I got them in a kit in the days before I discovered inking and glimmer misting.

Houghton Mill and Peckover House. Day Trips that I went on with the Parentals last July when John was on a jolly (I mean, working...) in the States.

A couple of layering close-ups:

Jan Week 2 - City Walls

My take on the UKS weekly challenge for this week:


John climbing about on the York city walls last August.

My Mojo Came Back!!!

Over the past few days I've been doing layouts just for the hell of sticking bits of paper to other bits of paper. Never mind contest entries or UKS weekly challenges, just cos I want to. It's been months since I've felt this inspired and, quite frankly, I'd better enjoy it while I can, April 12th isn't all that far away. Eeek!!


Holbrook, AZ. The Cozy Cone... I mean the Wigwam Motel, lit up by neon at night. I used a sketch from the Page Maps Book for this one.

My father watching the birds at the Welches Dam RSPB reserve back in July last year.

Scrap Map Saturday

My entry for Scrap Map Saturday over at Creative Craft World. My father at the top of Glastonbury Tor.



My mojo is slowly returning to me, so I've decided to try and use up some of my bits and pieces rather than cutting straight into new purchases. I wanted to double mount this picture, but didn't have enough pieces of a large size, so the background is actually lots of small strips layered up and then cut down to size.

I've even started to use my Thickers, rather than just looking at them!

Project 12 - July

Once again I've had to take photos in less than perfect conditions, which is a shame, because I'm actually really happy with the way this Project 12 turned out. Best one in my album so far.

{click for full size}

I left some gaps for stuff I don't necessarily want plastered over the net, they're filled in now.

Paris Again and The South Bank

This first one I've made as a Companion Piece (oh yes, I watch too much Project Runway!) to Paris Monmartre
. There were quite a few offcuts that I wanted to use up rather than refile in my paper box and potentially forget all about.



I also used the negative image that I accidentally created when inking a doily for a layout that I seem to have forgotten to post. Anyway, I kept the inked paper as I figured I could use it at some point!

I can see now that it is massively missing journalling, so I may have to sort that out.




These are some of the elephants that we saw on the South Bank (we're in London now) after our trip to Macbeth at the Globe. The little elephants were on a paper of zoo creatures that I original bought because it has giraffes on, but now I've used the elephants and the lions!

Paris - Montmartre

The using up of Scraps gave quite a boost to my Mojo. I suddenly came across papers that I'd forgotten, or used to love and hadn't realised that I still had bits left, or that I'd been hanging onto for particular projects and had kept putting off. This is one of those.

I saw these papers amongst Jo's stash and thought they'd be great for some of my Paris photos. Just never quite got round to it. Anyway, tidying up gave me the kick to do it and here it is:

Scrap, Paper Scissors

Here's the layout that I made for the Saturday Sketch on the Scrap, Paper, Scissors Blog. I made a special effort in taking the photo... outside on one of John's small easels!

My parents, with their granny-grabbers, go blackberry picking. I should have been blackberry picking, but instead I took a lot of close up photos of interesting things in the hedgerows.

I've been trying to use the old stash to thin it out and get myself some space in my paper box. I can't break out of that box, I don't have the room! So I used my final full sheet of the gorgeous Wild Saffron.

Two of the butterflies have been painted and the other has been Distress inked. They've all been Stickled.

This Castle Hath a Pleasant Seat...

The UKS weekly challenge involved using a Shakespeare quote. Well, of course, it had to be Macbeth. What else is there?! So I went for this quote:


The picture is John writing his postcards in the cafe at Edinburgh Castle. This took ages (to me anyway!) over three hours. Just finished it in time to watch the England v Slovenia match in the World Cup.

Paper Snob?

I did these two layouts last month when I thought I'd see if I really was a Paper Snob! I made a layout using some cheap American Crafts products that I bought from the home store round the corner. Now, don't get me wrong, I do like a lot of what AC does, enjoy their Remarks stickers, cardstock, Thickers, Flair, blooms, buttons etc. On the other hand, I tend to not like their papers. Maybe it's the design, or the colours.

Until I bought this cheap kit I hadn't realised that AC seem to have two types of paper. Thicker, double-sided papers and much thinner single-sided papers. They also must do a slightly inferior type of alpha as well. I made this first layout mainly using the bits that came in the kit. There were some odd photo matts in bizarre shiny card, as well as the thin papers, and non-sticky alphas. I had to re-glue the title down twice because it wouldn't stick.

There was nothing wrong with the Flair or Remarks, but in the end, I wasn't happy with this layout. So I thought I would scraplift myself and use some papers that I love with all my Paper Snobby Heart - October Afternoon's Thrift Shop - and see if what I came up with was something I preferred.


To be honest. I'm not entirely sure which one I prefer. I think I like them both. I suspect I chose the wrong subject matter for the second one. When I saw that old London map paper, I couldn't wait to use it, but the only pictures I had of London were these few of Alex, which I took at the British Musuem (circled on the paper!) on my iPhone.

Of course, as it turns out, the second layout uses AC Thickers in both the title and in some of the chipboard embellishments!

I think I still am a Paper Snob, I do prefer working with thicker, double sided papers with gorgeous prints, but I know I can use the other sort as well.