What was I thinking????

I have had a gorgeous week in North Devon, the weather has been amazing. This is our third year in a row that we have packed the car with everything, including the kitchen sink.
As you might know I was worrying about how I was going to spend my evenings and I had asked for suggestions (thank you Laurie & Sandi), I packed a small amount of supplies and printed off the prompts from Shimelle's Explore Class. I am not sure what I was thinking, I got nothing done!! All that fresh air and hours on the beach, made sure that I was in bed by nine thirty every night.

Yes that's me, bodyboarding! When you get the right wave that carries you all the way back to shore it is an amazing feeling.

As for Shimelle's class, I am very behind but I hope to change that this week, I did manage to send myself a couple of postcards (much to my DH's amusement), they were waiting on the doormat when we got back this morning. I used some free postcards from a lovely pub that we visited last week, must admit I wasn't sure about the whole postcard thing, the last postcard I sent was ten years ago on my honeymoon, so writing one to myself felt a little strange, but I liked seeing it on the doormat, so maybe I might send myself a few more. Must remember to use second class stamps next time :)

Hopefully by the end of this week I will have some crafty news, but it is the school holidays so we shall have to wait and see. I am off to go spend the last couple of hours with DH before he has to go back to work, if only holidays lasted a little longer :)

Trying Something New

We are on a massive countdown in our house, my DD has three days left at school (hooray!) and as a family we have three days until we go on holiday. I can hear you saying "what does that have to do with trying something new?" Well we are going to a lovely place that has no access to internet, this is brilliant as it means that my DH will not be able to take his work with us (big hooray!) and it also means that I have to find something to occupy myself of an evening, hence trying something new. I can't easily scrapbook, so I need to find something to do, I am thinking of trying knitting or crochet again, but in the past that has not worked out so well. Any suggestions would be great.

Also on the theme of trying something new I have just paid for my first online class. I am hoping that I will be able to fit it in around our holiday and the school holidays, will let you know how I get on, am currently waiting for my first email!

I have been trying to branch out with my scrapping, I love the sketches at Let's Scrap but a girl needs to try something new (look at me sticking to the theme of this post). I have just done two pages that are totally all me. I have kept them quite simple (not trying something new there), but I have cut papers, inked & stamped.

This page uses My Minds Eye papers, I also managed to get the coordinating stamps in the sale. I kinda like having no title for once, but it does have journalling.

This is the LO that I tried to download last post. I have let the papers do all the work, I think that they make a great frame for this photo.

I have not gone completely cold turkey on Let's Scrap, let's be honest who can resist a challenge? Last weeks challenge was to replace a letter in the title of your page with something else. I replaced the O in together with a flower.

Here is the full LO, this is one of my favourite photos of my little family. I really liked this challenge, it enabled me to get those stamps out.

This weeks challenge was to use stitching on a LO. Love stitching, it is something that I can do of an evening sat on the sofa. I used Fancy Pants papers (another challenge on Let's Scrap is to use Fancy Pants), I have never used them before so I made a sneaky purchase.

And this is my entry for the Fancy Pants challenge, not sure if I am able to enter both LO's, will just have to wait & see.

I am trying to finish a couple of LO's before we go away, again on the trying something new theme, I have followed another scrappers blog to Once Upon A...Sketch, the ladies on here do some amazingly beautiful layouts. They have some fab sketches on there to use, I am not sure that I am brave enough to post anything on their site, but I am brave enough to have a go. Will post my LO's next time.

So yes I am branching out, still scrapping but trying to move out of my comfort zone. Definately need to find something other than scrapping to occupy me over the holidays, think I will do a search now, fancy something to make. Let's hope the weather improves for our holiday. See you in a week :)

It's a family affair

Last weekend was the Eclectic Keepsakes crop and this month I had company, my Sister Liz tagged along. Liz got married last year and in my excitement in the run up to the big day I found a scrapbook wedding album and kit. Liz had an amazing photographer for her big day, who took hundreds of fabulous photos and Liz wanted to finally start on her album. Liz has never scrapbooked before, so it was a learning curve for her.

As always the ladies at Eclectic Keepsakes made us feel very welcome, it was a small session this month, I think that lots of the ladies were on holiday, with this in mind Karen decided not to do the class, which worked in our favour as we got to do more work on Liz's album (she has ALOT of photos).

This is Liz working on one of her pages, together we worked on eight pages and I have instructions from Liz to carry on, it will be a work in progress over the next few months. I think that Liz enjoyed herself, she said that she would come again which is a good sign. It was just nice hanging out with my baby Sister and doing  something that I love.

So I did none of my own layouts at the weekend, but I did make cupcakes for my Dad's Birthday, I used a recipe from a blog that I found mentioned in a book. The blog title is The Caked Crusader and if you love making cakes or if you just love cake you should check it out. I made Spiced beer cupcakes with honey buttercream, I was drawn to this recipe as the caked crusader used Adnams, which my Dad loves. The recipe was a hit with my Dad :)

So last weekend was all about family which was lovely, I know that my Mum and Dad love it when we all get together, I am glad that we could make their weekend.

Final June Total

Welcome to July and if you are like my daughter you are on count down to your holidays (she has two & half weeks to go). I have been luckily enough to sneak in some holidays early this year, two just this month, with that being said I have managed to do twelve! yes twelve layouts this month. I also managed a birthday cake for my niece, luckily for me she wanted exactly the same cake as Ella, so I was able to reuse the figures that I used for Ella's cake.

Back to my layouts, while I was away I missed the adtml crop I am hoping that I will be around for their next one. I have in my own time attempted a couple of the challenges & sketch. I really enjoyed Mel Hand's challenge, which had an interactive opening section. I had never attempted something like this before and I really enjoyed the challenge.

I didn't have the magnetic closure for the flap, I used ribbon instead, I also didn't have the Fancy Pants papers that Mel used, I used My Minds Eye. The photo below is with the interactive section closed.

The next photo is with the section open. I made the flower (love them) and the other embellishments were a freebie off a scrapbooking magazine ages ago.

Below is the sketch challenge from the ATDML crop.

And here is my take on the sketch, I did something new for me and attempted to use glimmer mist. I am still trying to get to grips with it, but I guess the more I practice the better I will get (exactly what I was telling Ella earlier), so expect to see more glimmer mist in future layouts. I used some gorgeous Kaisercraft papers, which when I got them I hadn't realised that I had ordered the 6x6, so this layout is perfect for the smaller paper size. Another "made by me" flower and some left over alphas from the last crop I went too and there we have it.

My third layout used a sketch from the sketches 2 scrapbook app. This app is so user friendly and so convenient. I used more of the Kaisercraft papers.

I would show you my fourth layout, but the computer is not playing ball, so it will have to wait for next time. Nearly forgot, the exploding box that I posted last time for the Let's Scrap weekly challenge won, hooray!

This weekend is the Eclectic Keepsakes crop, woo hoo! For a new twist I am taking my Sister, Liz with me. Liz got married last October and wants to scrap some of her wedding photos, this will be her first time scrapping, so I hope that she enjoys herself. It would be great to have another scrapper in the family. I will tell you how we get on in my next post. Hope you have a great weekend x

The wanderer returns

I am having an amazing June, hence the lack of posts.
My DD recovered enough for us to gatecrash her Dad's business trip to New York during half term. We love New York, I had the best three years there at the beginning of my marriage and my DD was born there. We had an amazing trip, we shopped, saw the sights and played in plenty of parks. I had planned to post about my crafty finds there, but I have so much to jam in that I will have to save that for another day. I have managed to get four LO's of our trip done and I have a couple more floating around in my head.

This first LO is of us girls at the top of the Empire States Building.

Next is Ella travelling in style (we used Daddy's airmiles).

This LO uses a photo taken at South Street Seaport, we managed to have a dinner together. These three LO's all use Let's Scrap sketches.

Last NY LO for now uses a sketch from an app on my phone called Sketches2scrapbook. I love this photo of all three of us, it was taken on Liberty Island. It is not very often that I get to have a photo of all three of us & especially one where we are all smiling & all looking at the camera.

A couple of days after we returned home from NY, my gorgeous Husband took me to Rome to celebrate our ten year wedding anniversary. I have a list of places that I would like to visit & Rome was one of them. We had an amazing time, Rome is a beautiful city, we were also spoilt because we got to stay in a very posh hotel on the outskirts of the city. Have a look if you feel tempted, I would gladly go back for a second visit. We took loads of photos, so I am sure that I will be posting some Rome LO's soon.

My fun filled June does not end there, my lovely Sister managed to get tickets to see the new Dermot O'Leary show being taped. She knows how much I adore him, so I couldn't believe my luck, the show is OK, but those four hours of oggling were amazing, he is even better in real life!! My being Starstruck does not end there, my DD is a huge Glee fan (I am too), for her birthday we managed to get her tickets to go & see them live at the O2. We had amazing time, the Glee cast were brilliant, it was a fantastic concert and we sung & cheered like you would not believe.

Some of the amazing cast.

Finally this weeks challenge on Let's Scrap is from Roulien Stahnke, Roulien has challenged us to make an exploding box. This has totally occupied me for the last two days (don't tell DH), I really loved the challenge, as it is something that I have never attempted to do before. I used We R Memory Keepers 72 & Sunny papers.

The box lid was actually the last piece that I made, I wanted to make sure that it would fit :)

This is my box from the side, I used a brad in each corner just to strengthen the lid. I also kept the outside quite simple, maybe my next box will be more blinged ;)

This is my box unfolded, looking at this now I think I should have taken photos before I stuck it all together & then you would get to see each layer at it's best.

I did put some photos on the other side.

My attempt to show you the various layers, will remember for next time to photo before assembly.

So there is some of my June, I have yet to show you the LO's that I did using some classes & challenges from ATDML and there is also the fab shops that I found in NY (yes I managed to do some craft shopping). There is always tomorrow, I promise to not leave it so long before my next post, then it might be a bit shorter & I won't have so much to cram in. Hope you have a good evening x

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.

To freestyle or not to freestyle? That is the question

I had another lovely day at the Eclectic Keepsakes crop on Saturday. As always Karen M had made some very yummy cupcakes (diet went out the window) and Karen C had designed a gorgeous layout, using Mind's Eye Lime Twist papers,  for us to do in the afternoon.

I really enjoy going to crops and I always want to make the most of my day scrapping. This month I actually managed to finish something! In total I have six pages to add to my total for the year, hooray!

In the morning I did a layout for a Let's Scrap challenge. The challenge was to include the word "time" in the title. I entitled mine "Over Time", the journalling reads "your teeth will grow back. It seems as soon as one grows back another starts to wobble. Between ages 6 to 7 I have lost count of how many teeth the tooth fairy has taken." My Sister took these lovely photos of Ella for me. I am starting to get used to that toothy grin, just as well as the tooth fairy came to visit again last night.

The other layout I completed used the same sketch from Let's Scrap. I used the photos that I took the other week at the new playground at Highwoods. Ella loves it there and has no problem with me taking lots of photos. I am finding my pages a little plain, but I am not brave enough to take that next step and be bolder. I am hoping that, that will come with practice.

After a quick lunch (I was starving) Karen showed us her gorgeous layout, which used some lovely papers from Minds Eye. This is where my freestyling quandary starts, do I follow Karen's gorgeous layout (shown below) exactly or do I make a couple of small changes? Just in case you are like me and haven't come across the term freestyling (I hadn't until I started going to the crop) it is when you take somebodies layout and do your own thing with it. The ladies at the crop like to take the mickey about it, it is a standing joke.

Well to start with I still have no working printer so I used a single photo that I had in my stash, rather than Karen's three. I also used different wording using those fab wood grain alphas. I also didn't add the rosette but you will see why in a bit. So here is my finished freestyled (only a little).

I loved Karen's orginal layout, but I think that it is nearly impossible not to freestyle just a small bit for a couple of reasons, firstly we all have different tastes, I am not as brave as some and tend to go for quite simple layouts, but I love that the crop lessons take me out of my comfort zone and I now have some lovely layouts that I would never of been brave enough to come up with. Secondly we all have different photos, our subjects vary greatly. Thirdly we all have different stories to tell. 

So using the leftovers from the above layout (they were too lovely to put away) I did my sixth layout. I carried on Karen's cloud theme and also used those lovely alphas again. I also used the rosette from the original layout, also adding two more. I am very pleased with myself and I have also now added the Tim Holtz rosette die to my wish list.

So there we go, I had a very productive crop. I also came home to discover that someone had finally done my challenge, hooray! I was starting to think that I would have no takers. 

Yesterday I went shopping with my Mum and I bought a dress pattern, so there is a new project on the horizon, I just need to find some lovely summery material.