Travelling back in time

In February my friend Vicky had a special birthday (I made the Phoebe bag for her) and to celebrate that birthday she decided to have a 1940's themed party. It was a great night with everybody really getting into the spirit of it. My Mum found me a tea dress on sale in Cath Kidston and I bought a 1940's style wig off eBay.

I found the perfect papers to scrap the photos, Cosmo Cricket, the colours are perfect. I also used a idea that was on the Trip Down Memory Lane blog. Mel had designed a layout that reminded me of a patchwork quilt. I love the idea, so I have borrowed it. I am really pleased with end result and I can't wait to show Vicky.

Easter holidays are proving to be very busy and the sunshine is proving a great distraction from crafting. My scrapbooking output has dropped a lot. I am hoping that my 100 pages is still doable. I do have other projects on the go that I will hopefully have completed for next time I blog.

Hope you are all enjoying the sunshine x

A finished bag

Here is my finished bag, I finally finished it last night. I have gone for darker colours which are more me and I have also freestyled (a term I learnt from the crop). It took me a few hours but I finally started to really enjoy making the flowers and I think I will be making some more to add to some layouts. I have a thing about buttons at the moment hence there being a few on this bag, I just love them and they are so easy to sew on.

I have another bag in my craft room that is crying out to be decorated, so I am sure that I will be doing more.

I think that now I have finished my bag I should do some more scrapping, I am starting to fall behind with my target, but this sunshine is so lovely, who wants to be inside when it is so gorgeous outside.

Amazing what a little sunshine can do.

The sun is shining and it seems to make such a difference, I spent most of yesterday in my garden, planting the plants that we bought at the weekend. I had forgotten how much I like being outside, so that is why this is going to be short, as I want to go make the most of that lovely sunshine.

I thought I would show you the really simple card that I made for my sister to take to a christening. I used to make cards all the time, but I much prefer doing scrapbooking now. I don't mind making the odd card or party invites for Ella.

I have lots of things in the pipeline that I am sure that can have a little or a lot of craftiness, we are trying to organise a street party for the Royal Wedding, I am seeing lots of union jacks in my horizon. Let's Scrap are celebrating Scrapbook Day and I have put myself forward to organise a challenge (a little scary) and Ella is going to be seven and we have her birthday party at the end of the month. Oh! and it is the Easter holidays.

So lots to keep me busy and lots to blog about, see you soon x

I thought you did scrapbooking??

I can't believe my last post was on the 12th March, it is now April!! I am pleased to say that during that time I have been being crafty, just not had the time to blog about it. I have also managed to become a year older and have a lovely weekend away with my family.

So, what craftiness have I got up too, well I have finished my noticeboard, hooray! I think that it has turned out OK, even though it was not as simple as I thought and cost me a little more than I planned. I could have just bought a new noticeboard, but where would the crafty fun in that?

So here is the mirror before I started. I really liked the frame and it only cost me £9.99. If I could have found just a photo frame I would have used that.

Here is the frame once I had taken out the mirror, it came out really easily, it had just those little metal clips holding it in.

Here is the mirror with it's first coat, I turned it over so that if I ever want to use the mirror I have the option. This first coat was one of four that I did using the Crayola  magnetic paint. The paint was at least five years old, so after the fourth coat the mirror still wasn't magnet, I am putting this down to the age of the paint.

So a trip to B&Q and some new paint and four more coats I ended up with.....

Can you spot where after all that, I broke the mirror putting it back in the frame? So gutted, but I am thinking of adding some flowers maybe to hide it.

So as well as my new noticeboard to go in my craft room I have also made a rubbish bin to take to crops. Unfortunately I forgot to take it this month, but I am really pleased with myself. I did it without a pattern and the help of my Mum, shock horror. Maybe I can do this sewing thing, then again maybe not, what do you think?

Finally onto the title of this post. "I thought you did scrapbooking?" is what my husband said to me last night, this is while I am sat on the sofa with an unfinished project from this months crop at Eclectic Keepsakes. This month Karen had designed a lovely bag with handmade flowers on it. We had to make the flowers, so while I think I may have cracked the sewing thing with my bin, handmade flowers prove that maybe I haven't. I can't show you my finished bag, because I haven't finished it, no surprise there really. I do plan to finish it though, I have a feeling that it might take all week though. So this evening and the next I will be doing my bag.

I have done some scrapbook pages though, I am again without a printer, so many of my pages are without photos. The Range near my Mum and Dad have a great clearance aisle, I have got some new pads of paper for half price! One of these was baby girl themed, I thought that I might finally start on scrapping some of my DD's baby photos. One completed page is a photo of my Mum which was taken when she was three. The stitching on it took me all week, but I love the finished LO.

So what next, well I have some more frames to paint and lots of scrapbooking to do and a bag to finish and let's hope I don't leave it so long before I update again.

Mojo is back

I have had a very productive crafty week, as I type the second coat of my new magnetic paint is drying, two more coats and I will hopefully have a new noticeboard to hang in my room. I have also completed four layouts, one of which is a double so I have five to add to my current total of twenty nine completed. Maybe a year total of one hundred is not so far fetched.


I have become a little addicted to reading blogs, it is just so easy, especially now that I have an app that takes me to my favourite ones with just a quick press of a button. I have been introduced to a blog called Chicken Soup, every Friday they post a recipe to help with your loss of mojo, something to help inspire you. Well for the last few weeks I have looked but I have not produced, this week is different. This weeks recipe was a song by They might be Giants, which goes

"Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
Who watches over you
Make a little birdhouse in your soul
Not to put too fine a point on it
Say I'm the only bee in your bonnet
Make a little birdhouse in your soul"

With this song now going round & round in my head, I completed my first layout inspired by Chicken Soup and here it is.

The papers are from We R Memory Keepers, as are the stamps that I used to stamp the pink paper with, I found them while having a good rummage in TK Maxx a couple of months ago. I also used a sketch from Eclectic Keepsakes.

I have also used another sketch from Eclectic Keepsakes this week. While I was doing this page, it was so cold and gloomy, today is a totally different story, it has been sunny and warm, we have had doors open and even sat in the garden watching Ella practice her hand stands. Maybe I should scrap some more pages asking where summer is.

Then my final two pages are sketches from Let's Scrap  the first one is for this weeks challenge. I have scrapped another photo from our holiday in Florida last year. Five more to go and I will have completed the album. I really enjoyed doing this one, it is something a little new for me as my layouts tend to be very flat and this one required depth with all those lovely bright circles.

This page I started at the crop last week, but I kept making mistakes, the lovely lady who I sat next door too (unfortunately I can't remember her name) got me out of several pickles. So finally I have finished it. 

So there is my productive crafty week, here's to the same again next week x

Happy Birthday Eclectic Keepsakes

I had another great day at the crop on Saturday, Eclectic Keepsakes had it's first birthday. So as well as the lovely cupcakes that Karen makes, we also had birthday cake. As usual in the morning we did our own layouts. I had taken three double page layouts to do, in kit form. I did this as I usually end up chatting & I don't complete anything. This month my organisation was my downfall, the Karens had a sketch to do on the day, so I didn't have anything to use to put the sketch together. Never mind I am still learning, so in future as well as my kits I also need to take a small stash of something.

The afternoon class was designed by Denise, she had put together a beautiful layout using My Mind's Eye papers. I am still having printer trouble so I didn't take any photos. I have a half finished layout that once I find the right photos, I will post on here. The papers are so lovely and delicate, I am thinking maybe some black and white shots.

I have finished two layouts, so the scrapbooking mojo has returned from half term, hooray!

This layout I did using the Eclectic Keepsakes sketch from last month, it is another page for our Florida album, I am slowly getting there, it's only been a year since we went.

This is a closeup of the frogs, I used a Quickutz die to cut them out and I have added googly eyes, always a must on a frog.

The layout below is for the Let's Scrap weekly challenge, I have used photos I took at the beginning of last month, I altered the colour a little so that they looked better with the great papers from My Minds Eye. We had a lovely time over at the woods near us, Ella had a great time climbing trees.

So with these two layouts, I have three more pages to add to my 100 total, hooray! Tomorrow is my B&Q trip with my Dad, so hopefully by the end of the week I can post a photo of my lovely new noticeboard, fingers crossed.

Two little girls

Two little girls, well one big and one little are excited in our house this morning. The big girl (Me) is going to crop day, hooray. Little girl (Ella) is going to the cinema for a friends birthday and then having a sleepover :D

My scrapbooking mojo has returned, another hooray! I finished one layout yesterday and started putting three others together to take to the crop. The only preparation for the crop I haven't done is find two 6x4 portrait photographs. I am hoping that when I get my hands on the lovely papers that we are getting to use, the photo thing won't be an issue. I wouldn't mind but we have thousands of photos that we have taken, maybe that's the problem, too much choice.

While the scrapping mojo was on half term I started to work on my noticeboard. I have painted four coats of the special magnetic paint onto the back of the mirror. Unfortunately my five year old paint doesn't want to work, no magnets are sticking :( So on Wednesday I am off to B&Q to get some new paint, this time I don't intend waiting five years to use it.

Happy Saturday x