No bootcamp, but lots of scrapping.

I have a poorly Ella, she has tonsillitis poor thing, so no school! This means that I have been unable to go to bootcamp, which is not good as I ate a HUGE piece of coffee cake at the weekend. On the flip side, Ella has been sleeping a lot, so I have put my time to good use in my craft room (can't do housework just in case I wake her, well that is my excuse & I am sticking to it). I have been working my way through some more of the Let's Scrap National Scrapbook Day Challenges. I have managed four more pages, all using Let's Scrap sketches, two for the challenges.

The first of my layouts had a long list of things the page must be include, it is my second attempt at this challenge, the first attempt you will see further down. My layout had to include the word "first" in the title, have some sort of texture, I used fabric and ribbon, it also had to have three patterned papers and a hand drawn border and finally a quote. I think I have remembered it all. The photo was taken at my Sister's wedding last year. The ribbon is the same ribbon that we used on the wedding invites. I love the layout other than my handwriting, which reminds me I forgot something, we also had to journal around the photo.

My next layout is the layout that I started with the above challenge in mind, but I did not re-read my notes before starting, so I missed half the list. Ella looks so small in the photo, it was taken on her first day of school. It was only at the end of 2008, but she has changed so much.

My third layout is using a sketch especially designed for the Let's Scrap National Scrapbook Day celebrations.

I really like this sketch I can see so many different ways that I will be able to use it. I have gone for simple (as always) this time, but I ma thinking that when I next use it I might change the shape of the squares. The photo on this layout is of Ella on her 7th birthday, hence the title 7even. I have hidden some journaling behind the photo, I don't have to see my handwriting then. I took the photo on the London Eye, which is what Ella wanted to visit on her birthday. We all had a great day in London.

My final scrapbook layout is of my niece Maddie, she is so easy to photograph and I have never taken a bad photo of her. I took these photos of her at Easter when she came to stay with us. Ella idolises her and follows her around like a puppy, it is very sweet and Maddie is brilliant with her. We spent most of Easter outside which was great. I might enter this page in the Let's Scrap weekly challenge, which this week is to use punches.

Finally the surprise, I made a card!! I follow Ann Freeman's blog and think she does amazing layouts, well this week she posted a card, at the same time my neighbour gave birth to a gorgeous baby boy. So using Ann's card for inspiration I made a card for my neighbours. I am really pleased with how it has turned out. Big thanks to Ann.

So there we have it, even though Ella is poorly, I have managed four layouts, which is another four towards my 100 goal.

Birthday Cake

So I managed it, I made Ella's birthday the day after the street party. Had a little wobble as I realised that in one of my "let's tidy up & get rid of stuff" moments that I had given away the book that has the cake recipe in it that I have used for all of Ella's past birthday cakes. After a quick flick through some other books, I found a new recipe with a slight twist. So with a new cake recipe that I have never used with an added twist, I went forth and made a chocolate marble sponge.

I will be making this cake again, it tasted lovely. The chocolate just adds a little something to the plain sponge and the marble effect looks great. Not that you saw it once I had covered it in turquoise icing.

There is a great cake shop in town that mixes icing to whatever colour you want, which saved my hands being turned turquoise. They also sell edible glitter, that is always a hit with little girls. I did cheat with the gymnasts that I made to go on the cake, I used fimo, instead of icing. I just find the process a lot easier and also Ella gets to keep the gymnasts.

I started by shaping the head, I find that this helps with the sizing for the rest of the figure. I used two black seed beads as the eyes.

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I then make a body and attach the arms and legs.

I also find that a cocktail stick helps keep the head attached to the body and will also add a little strength to the figure.
My next clever moment is a garlic press, it makes great hair!

I used something to prop up the gymnast while she was in the oven, it helps keep their shape, until you have cooked and cooled them.

And then there is the final cake all completed. I think Ella liked it, she has asked for the gymnasts to go in her room and today she had a piece of cake as her snack for school.

As a weekend goes it was very busy, but it was fun. The street party was a great success, people are still talking about it and a couple of photos from the day even made it into the Gazette. Ella's party went very well, all the little party goers went home happy and my darling seven year old is beaming.

So what am I up to now that I have all this time on my hands, well I have gone back to boot camp, I am hoping that in just over a month I will look fabulous for our ten year wedding anniversary. Let's Scrap are celebrating National Scrapbooking Day, I have done a challenge for them, which is all very exciting and will put in my next blog. I also need to do a serious amount of scrapbooking layouts, as I only managed four last month, which is terrible.

Oh well, I am off to have some lunch, if nothing else boot camp makes me hungary.