LOAD Lainie :)

I am mega mega excited to share this with you..... I was asked to be a 'guest star' for October LOAD.

This time around as I may have said before, it is not being ran by Lain Ehmann herself but instead Leslie and Lynette have done a fantastic job of setting up daily prompts for all 150 of us to do something different for everyday in October.

Lain hasn't stopped doing LOAD but due to the commitments of True scrap she couldn't offer both this year, instead these 2 lovely ladies stepped up to the mark and took this huge task on for themselves.... and how thankful am I to them for that!

I have found these prompts as inspirational and ass kicking as any of Lain's LOADS and I've done a few :), they have had me thinking in new ways and most of all producing lots of pages that I am really happy with, i am a few behind at the moment due to Elsie being poorly for a week and having the kids home for half term but I will finish and upload them all eventually for you to see.....

So tomorrow is the 30th October, nearly at the end of the journey and it also brings MY DAY!

My challenge and my pages as inspiration for all of those lovely LOAD ladies.... im very excited but also nervous that it wont be up to scratch with all the other fabulous ideas that we have seen this month, I guess only time will tell.... and also being at the end means not as many people will see it, as LOAD ladies always dwindle towards the end as life gets in the way and people get left behind... as i have. 

Wanna see what my challenge for these girls is???

So this is the page I started with..... its a picture of Elsie from our family photo shoot back early this year. I originally did this for a layering prompt when I was signed up to a Jen Jockisch class through Studio Calico, altho it was all my own design. 

I definitely learnt a lot through that so if you struggle with layers its one to think about!

My challenge to the girls then is not to scrap lift this page of mine but instead to scrap lift their own work from over the month of LOAD, or before if they fancy.

as inspiration for them I also included a page that i made based on this one of mine:

As you will see each one contains a Heidi Swapp file folder, one of my favourite scrapping things EVER! but I have used them in different ways.... the first I cut in half I used one half as the main background (zebra stripe) and cut the second half, in half again and flipped it so that I had an extra layer (the pink layer) and the other half, I moved out slightly and had it as an extra layer under the Heidi Swapp Journal card (adore)..... in this second one I used it as it was meant to be used... a file flip out folder!

I decorated the front with lots of layered embellishments and a photo of my eldest son and his friend whilst they were away at school camp. 

This then opens to reveal a LOT of journalling about the story behind the picture and more photos. 

see here:

This is very different to the original but follows some of the same basic design structures. 

for example: the photo is matted, the file folder is the main background, under the photo there are a line of embellishment, the "boys" title and the tickets.

I hope this also makes the ladies look at their own pages in  a new way, we don't have to follow everyone else to get good ideas, we can recycle our own ideas to make new ones.... if you like a certain aspect of something use it over and over again in different ways, its going to work for you if you like it!

Thanks for dropping by today, I'll let you know how it goes! :)

Also if you decide to take on this challenge for yourself please link it up so I can take a look!!!!

take care, see you soon xxxxxx

hooray for tuesday!

WHOOP WHOOP!

today was Tuesday!, I had a day to myself for the first time in 10 days and it was heaven.

I wasted no time in getting into my craft room and to Carole's disapproval I had started my challenge by the time she joined me.

Im so pleased as i managed to complete 2.5 pages today and have a couple more from days past to show you too.... grab a cuppa this could take a while :)

This is day 19 of LOAD which was to scraplift someone from the LOAD flickr gallery. 

I chose to lift Lytia1 and this is her page.

It also incorporates Carole's daily challenge which was to have a patchwork heart on the page, i think she wanted something bigger!??!?! but I had to do it my way (not sure I can do any other way)

Im very pleased with the end result tho, and love this picture that my cousin took of the suspension bridge at night, my favourite thing in Bristol at night :)

This one is for day 20 of LOAD and the challenge for this day was to use washi tape.

Its the only piece of patterned anything on this very minimal page, another which Carole isn't keen on :) but I LOVE it :)

I think it really focuses on the photos, and also the title.... I had to add some colour didn't I lol

It also incorporates Carole's challenge to use white paper and have everything in a strip across the page...well almost.

LOAD 21 - something which has been hard to overcome..... I chose to do the easiest things for this challenge, which is a photo of my tattoo which I had done to remember my Nan. Not that I will ever ever forget her, but it keeps her with me at all times... she will forever be the wise old bird on my shoulder guiding me through life!

the title My Way recognises that this is how I chose to deal with my Nan's passing, it has helped me and always will i think.

I also added in Carole's challenge which was to use circle segments :)

LOAD 22 was to use a photo which had the back of people in it... I take loads of those kind of pictures, is that creepy?!?!?!? I find they tend to be more natural!

This one is of Lola and aunty Maxine, on the beach at Bude when we visited for Chris and Stephs wedding.... it was a very windy day :)

The lollipop flowers came from a Carole challenge which i am now up to date with :) and the butterflies were Carole's idea also, it definitely wouldn't be Tuesday if we didn't scrap together and have a  laugh.... today was no different after she almost made me spit lemonade over my layouts when she made me laugh!

I will miss it next tuesday when we are both busy so roll on the 7th November :)

multi tasking!

Ive not been too good at this lately, hence the lack of pages I've created, and I'm behind on both of my challenges.... but right now , at this very minute I am multi tasking, cooking dinner and blogging.. life as a woman eh!!!

just popped on to show you a page i managed to do this afternoon whilst hubby had elsie downstairs for an hour:

so the 2 challenges for this one were: 

1: use 4 tags on a page

2: scrap a sporting event

ummm....... 1.5 out of 2 isn't bad is it???

Ok so ballet technically isn't sport but it works for me :)

the 4 tags thing really had me thinking, i tried a lot of different things before settling on this idea, and once again it was thanks to Carole that I got here at all!

(the last page I tried working 4 tags into was BAD)

once I started it didn't take long to finish and I'm actually liking the result but the run up was long and hard!

I like that I could make Lola hold hands with herself in the photos and i like that it gives it a staggered effect rather than have them all in a straight line. 

let me know what you think?!?!?!

thanks for looking  xxxxxx

oh buttons!

116 buttons to be more precise!!!

after the initial shock of the challenge Carole set me, I got to work pinning button ideas.... I came across a hung picture of an 'E' made from pearly buttons and fell in love. However I didnt want to do an E, I wanted to do something for all of us, then the title popped into my head and i knew which letter i had to buttonise!

wanna see?!?!?!?

Doing this was very (weirdly) relaxing.... Im quite proud of myself as I didn't us any templates, I just laid the buttons out until they worked for me, and then i stuck them. 

I think it could use something else in the bottom right hand corner but I'm not sure what as I don't wanna take away anything from the 'U'...any suggestions?!?!?!

Before I go I just wanna say a big thanks to Carole who has been setting me challenges for over a week now, they have inspired me massively and i have done things this week that I would never have even thought of even attempting.... thank you Carole xxxxxxx

see you soon xxxx

feeling better!

So our sick house is back on the mend.... little Elsie moo has been throw up free for a couple of days now so things are looking up.

she still couldn't go to Zoe's today as they have to go 48 hours without sickness before they are allowed back so I'm really looking forward to Tuesday now, as I'm sure she is too!!

As you can imagine i haven't done much crafting over the past few days, but I have squeezed a couple of pages in whilst Elsie has slept and on an evening.

Im still going with October LOAD, even if i am a couple of days behind, and I'm also up to date with Carole's challenges too, so all in all I'm not doing too badly.

Im also very excited as Ive spoken to the chap from the house that we have rented out for retreat next month and he has assured me that all will be fine.... cant wait now, it has seems to be forever away for months and now its only 3 weeks until we go!!! Cant wait :)

So heres my last couple of pages, would love to know what you think??

This one was for day 7 of Carole's challenges and day 15 of LOAD.

It combines a grid layout from Carole and frames challenge from LOAD. 

I quite like it, it does look almost exactly like the pinterest page that Carole gave me

find that here

The pics are of Elsie in the garden back in June when Paul gave me an early birthday present, my new camera lens, obviously i had to try it out and Elsie was a willing subject. It wasn't until I had printed the photos and was looking at them carefully when I noticed all of her different faces!

It also appears I'm loving red and yellow at the moment :)

This page was day 8 of Carole's challenges and day 16 for LOAD

It incorporates the hand drawn and cut title that Carole asked for plus layers for LOAD.... I really enjoyed painting, layering up the colours, overlapping the designs to make this page pop... Paul thinks it looks like a comic book page?????

Hand drawing and cutting out a title of my own took me back to the first days of scrapping. When I started this addictive craft 8 or 9 years ago, we didn't have the selection of things we have now, there werent many alphabets, or embellishments, lots of things were hand made so this was very old school effect for me, one that I didn't find too difficult :)

I also chose to draw on some stars, they are my signature doodle, stars along with hearts, and as i wanted some more on the I thought I would just doodle them.

The design o the page follows quite closely to this one on Pinterest, as it is the one that Carole pinned for me to look at. 

Guess what tho..... I also learned how to use my sewing machine!!!! :)

If you look really closely you will see my dodgy, but not out of place sewing around the photo, I have Carole to thank for making me get it out and helping me to load up the bobbin (very exciting stuff) and she also helped me via Skype to get started.... quite difficult when you aren't in the room!!!

So now its set up on my craft table with everything else so that I can make good use of it, Im wondering why I didn't try to do this earlier! expect sewing on many more pages to come lol

thanks for coming by today.

see you soon xxxxxx

NOT a crafting Tuesday :(

I have a poorly baby girl.... Elsie has been throwing up since Sunday and its not nice, for her or me...

my washing basket is taking over my kitchen, you can imagine all the extra washing we have.. she is upset a lot and not eating or drinking properly, which cant be nice for her and is worrying me... and she just wants cuddles a lot which means I don't get a lot else done all day. not that I mind baby snuggles on the sofa :)

Today is normally my Carole craft day but as Elsie is sick she cant go to the childminders so she is joining us.... Im hoping to get a little bit of me time whilst she gets some sleep, fingers crossed for me please :)

I will show you what I have managed to do these past couple of days tho:

This page incorporates 2 challenges in 1... at the moment i don't have time to do each separately so this works for me.

The LOAD prompt was from day 14 and was to use a black and white photo...easy :)

The other challenge was Caroles and not so easy as she wanted me to sew on my page!

I must admit I quite liked doing this, the page itself and the sewing... I guess when times are hard and stressful at home its nice to do something that takes you away form it all and sewing is one of those therapeutic things! 

I have made the photo into a pocket, and behind I have hidden a tag with a note from school attached to it. the note from school says how well he is doing in his maths and how he managed to finish his work, plus extra and help others in one maths lesson. A proud mummy moment for me :)

This page practically made itself! it came together so effortlessly i was really happy with it.

This is just a page from Caroles challenges.

She insists that she will make me love christmas! I don't hate christmas but I just don't scrap it often, I already have a ton to do a this busy time of year so finding time is bad enough. 

So her challenge was to make a christmas page.... in OCTOBER!

I managed to find a christmas photo in my photobox stash... and all of these xmas papers came out of my scrap bag so I guess it was meant to be, and if im really honest I really enjoyed doing it, it didnt take long and i think it is effective. 

my fave parts are the '1' card, the snowman and the bauble banner.

right, Elsie needs me...she wants to draw

Ill see you soon xxxxxx

love a crop day....

so yesterday was crop day.... the one day a month where I am surrounded by people as crazy as I am... 

Ladies who love paper like I do, who oooh and ahhh over pretty things and sparkly stuff!!

I love it :)

I took my first set of class kits along, they went ok...... I have a few left if anybody wants one?? they cost £6 and I've titled it summer in autumn as they are bright summer colours with lots of layers and enough space for whichever photos you want to scrap.

message me if you are interested x

anyways, I managed to do a couple of my own pages yesterday, its great to be able to share my time helping others who are less confident with their scrapping abilities (even when they have no need to be) but I also love having the time to do my own stuff too.... its win win situation for me :)

I completed 2 pages both for Carole's challenge and i have managed to link them too my LOAD challenges too so that was a bonus for me... so currently i am up to date, except I haven't done todays page yet, but theres still time lol.

So here is the first page:

the next in line for Carole's challenge... she gave me a CARD! it had a pretty frilly heart on it and was done in lovely pastel colours, it was very girly and pretty (sooo not me) and i had instructions to use pastel colours on mine, I was allowed to leave out the frills, thankfully!

please see the original here

I loved the stacked heart, I had some A4 paper packs which I haven't looked at in years but I decided to use these today to layer up... I then chose a patterned 12x12 that i thought I would NEVER use and trimmed that down before mounting it on kraft. 

then I found the photo.... it looked a bit bulky and straight as it was so I chose to use my heart edger straight onto the photo, I think it works well :)

Then I tied in my LOAD challenge which was to add a cluster on the page.... I did this in the top section, which started with the scalloped circle and grew as I found more pieces that I wanted to add on.... im not sure if the white space is too much or if it needs anything else, but its done!

This second page that I completed was another based on Carole's Saturday challenge for me, 

find it here

As always with challenges i pick out the bits that appeal to me and make it work with my style of scrapping.... this was particularly difficult for me as I've done misted backgrounds before and its looked horrendous and ended up in the bin.... so this made it tie nicely in with the missed LOAd challenge i didn't do from day 11..... this was to revisit something that you were rubbish at and try again... I guess I had to!

As you can see it went wrong AGAIN!

I used a Dylusions mask to make the rough diamond shapes in the middle, but I remembered to cover the top and the right hand side, but completely forgot to cover up the left... hence the green edge to my page.... I would normally have thrown it in the bin, but instead decided i would keep it and make it work... I chose to add another stencil on the top and instead of spraying this part I rubbed through some black Stayz on ink to reinforce the pattern on the edge, I hope it makes it look like the green was there on purpose, had i not have told you otherwise :)

Once again (weirdly) I chose my photograph after I had done anything else so I think I was super lucky to have this pic of elsie that works perfectly with the green, and with the black zebra like edging , I then sifted through my stash to find bits to add on.... again its quite simple but what would be the point in all the misting if I covered it all up???

TIP OF THE DAY

I was asked at crop how I add embellishments on.... which oddly is something I seem to struggle with myself! or maybe I'm over it?!?!?!

My solution to this.... when I am looking for things to add on to make a cluster, or to add some interest to a page I always follow these steps:

1: go through my embellishment bag and pull out everything in a coordinating colour to my page.

2: apply some to the page, add in clusters to work out what works where... you never know unless you try, so try it all!

3: take away the stuff that really doesn't work, theres no point adding it on just for adding it on sake, you can save it for another project!

4: stick down what works for you, add in some extra words, I love this... do as much as you feel happy with :)

If you refer back to the first page of Elsie sleeping you will see I have a bottle cap, a bow and a butterfly, none of these things really go together if you think about it, but they all fit well within the layout itself.

Always remember that nothing you do in scrapbooking is wrong! if you like it then its right.... personal preference has a lot to do with scrapbooks, something I love you might hate, and something I hate you might fall in love with, you will never make everyone happy with what you do so be sure to make the person that counts happy.... and that is yourself!

Thanks for dropping in today.... hope to see you soon xxxxx

lagging behind!

Soooo it appears I'm falling behind a little.... oops!

with Carole's challenges and LOAD too, what a failure!

I've just completed day 2 of Carole's challenge and day 12 of LOAD yes its the 12th today but I didn't do yesterdays LOAD prompt as I found it hard to think of what to do, maybe I will catch up at crop tomorrow???

anyway here is todays page:

Todays prompt was to do a page about your favourite thing, technically this is not my favourite thing, but it is Elsie's :)

The layout itself was hugely created with the help of Carole's challenge, a page to scrap lift which came with rules!!! I could change the colours but i had to use a character of some sort on it!

NOT MY FAVOURITE THING!

heres the original on Pinterest if you fancy having a look

I didn't even attempt to do the rik rak in the middle, instead replaced this with strips of paper but i was under strict instructions to do the tree branch and the blooms on it, I hope your happy Mrs G!

In other news for today, its my hubbies birthday!!! Happy birthday MR C :)

He is 31 today, getting old I know, still he will forever be my toy-boy lol

I went out and brought him some steak, some onion rings and some breaded mushrooms for his dinner tonight as he requested.... his present form us is his game, but as it isn't out until November he had to make do with a chocolate birthday cake, some cards and lots of kisses from the girls.... best of all was Elsie copying everyone saying happy birthday this morning, she sounded so cute!

It also appears I'm getting new neighbours today!

As i was creating in front of my bedroom window this morning, whilst elsie slept, I could see lots of things coming and going from next door, and me being 'neighbourhood watch!' 

(obviously not just nosey!)

I had a little peek and it seems that the old lady is moving out to a smaller place as she's poorly and on her own and we are having a family next door, I spied baby girl toys and sawdust with straw so I guess we are having a baby girl next door and an animal of some sort! :)

Seems we might be making new friends very soon! 

anyways enough chatting for now, things to do people to see :)

take care xxxx

2 birds with 1 stone!

Or 2 challenges with one page! :)

So im still doing LOAD, we are on day 10 and I am up to date, very satisfying indeed!

I was talking to Carole last night about doing more classes, when she said to me that I didn't need to do more classes.... I guess i don't... or maybe i do... I did learn LOADS from Jen Jockisch layering class, I think it has completely changed the way I scrap and thats got to be a good thing, to evolve. 

But normal everyday classes I tend to do because it inspires me, to push boundaries, to try something new and it also makes me scrap photos that I might not otherwise even think about twice.

I told Carole that if I had someone to give me a prompt, or a sketch or a colour challenge or something to scrap lift..... anything to make me think about what im doing everyday then I would be a happy girl.

I wasn't fishing for her to offer to do it for me, I was just saying.... but Carole has made it her job to do this for me, so now on Pinterest we have a joint board where she posts me something inspiring and I do a page based on that, she is going to post one thing a day and we will see how that goes.

So today was the first day, Carole started me off with a bugger of a scrap lift! I struggled really bad with trying to do it as it was, so I took bits off and did it my way.... it worked a lot better when I was being myself instead of trying to do someone else's style.

The LOAD challenge for today fitted in very nicely with the lift Carole set me as it was to make a dimensional page with 3d bits to give it height.

here is what i did:

picture is of Lola, another from the Bude wedding but one that I love.

I added clusters of flowers and a large title to pull all the elements together. 

Its not my favourite page from recent but its another one for the album :)

thanks for looking today, see you soon xxxxx

Day 9!

Just a quicky cause its late (for me) and I'm tired.... but couldn't wait to show you these pages Ive done.

The prompt was to scrap about something we do regularly... I looked though my stash of photos and came across a few that would fit the profile, but then got to these pics and laughed, that is what made me choose them

The pics are of elsie poking her tongue in and out, we were on a trip to Noahs Ark zoo farm and had just been watching Lola feed the sheep, I asked Elsie what does a sheep do, expecting and hoping she would make a baaing noise and instead she made this face! it made me laugh so much that I had to take photos, but of course she wasn't wrong..... this indeed is what sheep do when being fed pellets off of Lolas hand!!!

This last page Ive squeezed in tonight! 

I rally really love it, and was so unexpected... I haven't looked at these photos for at least a year, but now that I have relocated all of my crafting stuff to the bedroom (again) they were a lot easier to get to. 

I was actually showing Carole my stash of pics and decided to pull a few out, ended up finding this one and the urge to scrap it along with the tissue issue story!

I had a few struggles with it, but I adore the finished page

thanks so much for visiting today, see you again soon xxxxxx

sooo cold!

Afternoon!

I dont know what its like where you are, but here its really really cold and very very wet today, the kind of weather that makes me want to stay in my pjs and curl up in a blanket on the sofa for the day and not go outside.... However with 4 children its never that easy, the school run is a pain in the butt :) i managed to avoid the wettest part as I got home before it really tipped down but I'm not looking forward to 3 and having to collect them..... yuck!

I have been a good girl tho and instead of slobbing on the sofa, I have had a very productive morning.

I have made them a lasagne to have for their dinner tonight, its fat club so i wont be having any.. and will make myself something much healthier when i get home.

I have also baked their fimo models that they made on our outing to Cadbury Garden centre on Saturday, they will be surprised :)

AND... Ive managed to make a page too, wanna see???

What a perfect topic for such a horrible day... I'm even considering putting on my heating for the first time since summer!

Pics are of Lola on the beach during our weekend in Bude, she really did love the beach and wasn't at all worried that i was cold, and windy, she just wanted to play!

The sketch was our LOAD challenge for today (day 8) and as always i changed it a bit to suit me, but I actually quite like it... I did really want to make paper airplanes to replace the balloon sticker but I failed miserably so if any of you know how to make tiny paper planes please let me know, i think they look fab but mine were rubbish!

I also haven't shown you my page from yesterdays prompt... here it is:

for this prompt we could basically do what we liked :) so I looked on the net for a sketch which took my fancy and I found this one on creative scrappers via their facebook page.

I liked the simplicity of it  and the fact that you could add more layers where you fancied!

Pic is of my mother in law with Elsie, they are looking out over a lake which had Geese living in it... however Elsie called them ducks which was how the title came around... and obviously i had heard it before as a childs game, not that I would have a clue how to play it but i've heard of it and thought that it would make a perfect play on words.

Thanks for dropping by today...see you tomorrow with more LOAD or today if im very lucky :)

xxxxxx

celebrating life

Hey :)

I am currently whispering this in a very husky voice.... since this morning I have become unwell, my tonsils are swollen and my throat is very sore and as always when I get a sore throat my voice goes stupidly stupid!!!

Anyways im just popping on to show you a page that I have made for a friend, today I was asked to make a layout as a birthday gift for my friends younger sister. they tragically lost their brother in a car accident earlier this year and Gemma wants Emily, the remaining twin, to have an everyday reminder of the special and fun times they shared together. 

here it is:

I was asked to do hot pink, and given the words to write on it... the rest came from my heart....

 I did not know George as a man... I remember George as the chubby, loveable little 5 year old that I once knew and he was always happy... in these pictures he is very happy and i wanted this page to be all about celebrating his life rather than thinking about him no longer being here. 

Im hoping this will help Emily to be happy for the times they did have and think of all the moments they shared, as twins theres got to be millions!

Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow xxxxx

early start!

Good morning lovelies!

you have probably guessed that I am once again LOVING LOAD! :) 

Every morning I check to see what the prompt is straight away so my brain has time to think about it a bit before I sit down to scrap... well this morning I didn't give myself much time to think as I was up at 5:30 with Elsie as was Paul... so as we were both here, he snuggled with her on the sofa and I got straight to work on todays page. 

here it is:

Its very very GREEN!

The prompt for today was to do as we wished, but i was inspired by the lady that they featured today as she had taken an old sheet of used up Thickers and found words that it still made and used those on pages.... I chose to do this with my favourite sheet of alphas ever... the monstro red alphabet by sassafras... no matter what page you add it to it adds life, and fun... I don't know if this is because of the bold red colour or the shadowed element of it but thats how it makes me feel. 

I happened to have 2 sheets of the design as i love them so much so finding a few words wasn't difficult, and I actually have the word 'music' 3 times left to use on a particularly party page i think :)

These words also jumped out at me and they went perfectly with this photo of Elsie from when we went to Bude. as you might have already spotted I did have to do some maintenance to make this title work, I had ran out of the letter 'n' so performed surgery on a letter H and chopped its top off.... I don't think it notices too much and it helped me tremendously...maybe you could do that with some of your alphas.... a typical way I change letters is to use a 3 as an E or a W as an M! so easy to do and mostly unrecognisable!!

Ok so i have a busy day today so am getting started now...... see you all very soon xxxxxx

superwoman?!?!?!?

hello again!

I loved Suzie's comment that she has left below... and I have actually just private messaged you Suzie on fb to explain how I manage to do so much and keep on top of everything else.

Yes I have 4 children but I think its important to have time to ourselves too.... If I did everything for them 24/7 and nothing for myself I would go crazy! and thats not pretty believe me :)

Like i told Suzie, my stash lives downstairs on my dining room table and only usually goes away when we have visitors for dinner, so I have total access to it at all times. this means even when Elsie is running around I can still walk past and take a look now and then and tweak things without sitting and thinking about it constantly. 

I also don't put housework at the top of my priority list...Im probably gonna get hounded by a million people for that but its just not the most important thing to me in life. 

My children are fed, well dressed and well looked after. they never miss out on anything and I spend lots of time playing with them, however I like to do my own stuff when I can too.

I NEED to scrap, its not because i want to but it seriously keeps me sane, for an hour or 2 a day I'm not just mum...I can be me and do stuff that I like.... housework does get done when the children are home, and its impossible for me to craft. I usually do most things before they go to school so that I don't have to run around like a headless chicken when I get home. I tend to prepare meals in the morning before i do anything else so that I know dinner will be ready and they will be fed if I don't feel like doing it later on. 

I hoover, clean and do washing like any normal SAHM I just do other stuff to. 

I dont think that makes me superwoman or anything special...actually maybe it makes me sound a little bit mad for putting crafting so high up on my priority list but do you know what, I wouldn't change it... I love it and I love making special keepsakes for my children. 

So if i don't hoover for one day, the world is not going to fall to pieces... I'l just do it tomorrow.... and to let you into a little secret.... I never tidy toys away when the kids are awake! what a pointless job when they are gonna wanna play with them 5 minutes later! they stay out all day and go away when they go to bed! so if i have visitors yes my house may look untidy but its lived in...def NOT a show home :)

Right now thats off my chest.... I can show you what else i have made whilst Elsie is STILL asleep!

a second page for todays prompt of using wood elements.

this time i chose to use a woodgrain chevron patterned paper as a basis for my layout, I knew i wanted this shape and the photos to be in the middle but the rest just happened as I went along. 

I used to try and copy Shimelle's style of making 3 little groups of matching elements, but its gotten more apparent to me lately that it just doesn't work for me.... I cant do matching stuff, it looks weird when i do it... instead I do groups but of other stuff, it makes me much happier and thats what its all about :)

right Mo's awake, time for lunch xxxx

keeping on top!

Good morning bloggers :)

Today was an easy prompt for me, and as Ive done it already i thought I would post as not to have a backlog later on in the week :)

The prompt for today was to use wood on your page, here is what i did with that.....

I started playing about with this page yesterday, i had the strips cut out from previous pages... see the massive last post :) 

I knew i wanted to keep this simple and emphasise the photo but I didn't know how to finish it until I saw this mornings prompt.

I immediately grabbed my embellishment bag and searched for woodgrain washi tape... which I don't have :( all donations welcome lol :)

then instead I had a little look through to see what I DID have.... and I remembered these letters. They are so cute, i remember when I first got them into shop, i couldn't get them in fast enough, as soon as they were in they were gone again!!! and it didn't surprise me, they are lovely!

 I did have a different title in mind to begin with but as always I was missing one important letter and it could not be fixed by substituting others, so instead i changed my title... I am very happy with this new one tho... I think it lends itself nicely to the seeds themselves and to my beautiful Lola. 

I then chose to add the large flower embellishment as it was too bare even for me.... Im not sure if it distracts from the photo too much or not, but its there now, it works with the colour scheme and I can finally tell Carole I used a flower on my page! she will still moan tho cause its only 1 :)

take care for now...see you soon xxxxxx

LOADSTER :)

And so it has begun again.... LOAD!

I do love it and it hasn't failed to get me scrapping again this time around in fact I'm all up to date with it and with 3 hours left to myself I'm wondering what i should do next?!?!?!

So I am spending ten minutes catching up with you guys.... thought i would share a few of my latest with you, see what you think:

Ok so this is the first... I started it before LOAD began but completed it on the first day... It was a mix of 3 or 4 layouts from other people and as i couldn't decide which one i wanted to do i mishmashed them together and ended up with this.

The picture itself is of Mine and Paul's initials in the sand at Bude, when we visited for the wedding of Chris and Steph.

Bude is such a calming place, we love it and have made some massive decisions whilst there... it was where we decided that we would get married before coming straight home and booking the castle, and other important things that shouldn't be discussed on blogs :)

The whole initial thing in the sand happens every time we visit... except when we first went it was always my maiden name and now its changed.... every time I take a pic too :)

LOAD day 1 - the challenge was to use a photo of ourselves and also to use a song title on it.

I kind of ended up throwing different papers at it just to see what would work.... since taking the Jen Jockisch layers class I have become a lot more confident with it all and it comes a lot more naturally than it used to. The bingo card symbolises my luck in finding my hubby, and I only didnt call it 'Lucky' because Paul chuckled and got a big head when I mentioned it...! bloody men!

So it ended up being, you're still the one, which i quite like.

This pic was again taken at Chris and Stephs wedding in Bude as Paul and i were sharing a little cuddle whilst the girls were being occupied by other people....

LOAD day 2 - To follow a starting point given to us by a guest star :)

I started by copying the point exactly with how the layers worked, I also gave myself an extra challenge by asking Ali to pick out a few papers to use which worked to my advantage as I had no clue where to start really.

I then chose the pictures.... ended up with 8 i think! and used the layers as pockets to store the large tag which holds the majority of the photos and Dans certificate from camp.

I managed to use the rest of the camp photos that I had which was great!!!

LOAD day 3 - A colour challenge

We were given a link to a blog which gives out colour challenges... I chose this one.... please take a look it can be very inspirational!!!

i love this photo of Lola taken at the wedding.... they had the reception in an orchard, it was beautiful and very relaxed, they had cameras hanging everywhere to get some natural pics and Lola loved this!

I called it Mini Me as thats how i look most of the time lol... always behind the camera and she was taking a photo of me taking a photo of her...so cute!

LOAD day 4 - Moving forward /a journey!

We could choose what we wanted to do today as long as it had something to do with a journey.... I chose the kids pics from when they restarted in September. What with Daniel starting senior school and Lola starting proper school this was a big year for us.... more to come next year when Michael joins Dan!!!

I took these on their first day, and yeah they were messing about but it wouldn't be them if they weren't making stupid faces!!!

LOAD day 4 - part 2!

As today is my peaceful day i have had plenty of time to scrap, so I did a second page for todays prompt.

Pics are of Elsie in her new wellies!

Winking all the way...she loves it lol and i couldn't resist taking a photo of her in just her nappy and boots.... she's so cute!!!

It looks really wonky here but i promise its not in real life, just bad photo editing!!! a very simple page but I wanted the focus t be on the photos which i think it is... you cant miss them to be honest :)

anyways enough from me for today..... hope you've enjoyed todays gallery!!!

see you soon xxxx