Gosh! Layouts!

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!

I'll get these caught up with one day!

Learn Something New Everyday - 8

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

Learn Something New Everyday - 7

"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

"Adam rolled over!"

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

Learn Something New Everyday - 5

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

Learn Something New Everyday - 4

"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

"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

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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.