something exciting!

Good afternoon ladies....

Today is my anniversary, 4 years married to my hunky hubby and like anyone else we've had our us and downs but we have made it this far :)

we had a special lunch out without the kids yesterday to celebrate and today we are jus chilling with the girls. 

heres a piccy of the naughty cocktail I had yesterday whilst we were out:

it had a ridiculously long name but was basically triple sec mixed with blueberry puree and ice cream.... it was delicious and could possibly become my new favourite over the fridays freeze! 

As you can see by this photo I'm back onto using Instagram again, what a fab little app that is!

since upgrading my crappy HTC to an iphone this week I cant help myself but use its nifty little camera everywhere :) expect to see more of these....

OK so now onto the something exciting!

I was asked a while back to be a 'guest star' in this years October LOAD. This one is not being ran by Lain Ehman herself but instead b members of the Scraphappy forum and 1 in particular being Lynette who has done wonders for my self esteem this past month!

I must say i was completely shocked and overwhelmed when I was asked to be one of the 5 people making appearances in this LOAD and if you've been following my blog for a while you know that I absolutely love LOAD..it does wonders for me, this will be my fourth and being part of it is even more exciting. My challenge doesn't go live until the 30th October so I'm almost the show stopper but I'm happy with that, not many people might see it as some people don't make it very far in LOAD at all.... and for those that do see it and take part I'm hoping will enjoy it. 

Doing it was scary stuff!!!

I will be blogging about what i did a few days before it goes live so watch this space!

Today i will leave you with a few pages that I have done this week with the help and inspiration of Carole! let me know what you think xxxxx

This one is a pic of Lola and the childminder Zoe. this was another of the sketches that Carole and I did together, check out her blog here as im sure she will add hers soon xxx

This one too..... can you tell Carole and i have great fun on a Tuesday?!?!?! 

This pic is a fave of mine featuring Elsie Moo and hubby Paul... I loved the textured hearts and the twine too, i think they work really well with this otherwise simple but stunning page.

and finally for today a page containing Mike.

Just Dan to go then :)

I hate waste so after punching out my banner shapes using the SU punch i was left with some of the scalloped ones that I wasn't using, so instead of throwing them out used them to punch out the plain triangle pennants from the middles and used the negatives as extra embellishments! 

This must be the 4th or 5th layout that i have done of Michaels eyes over the years but they are just sooooo lovely!and they really do sparkle!

hope you have had a fab weekend..... and guess what???

with LOAD starting up again tomorrow you can expect to see more of me this month

take care xxxxxxxx

crafty tuesdays!

Good morning crafters :)

both of my girls are poorly sick today so a quiet duvet day at home for us.... as Elsie's asleep on the sofa i can catch up with you guys here real quick and show you a little of what i've been up to this past week.

Carole and I had our crafty day as usual this week! hooray we have our day back! and ok its changed from a Wednesday to a Tuesday but at least we get a day that we can share crafting. 

Its really weird when you meet someone who is completely on your wave length, Carole and I met through a Shimelle Laine class.... we visited each others blogs for a while, then found each other on face book and talked there, eventually we spoke on Skype a few times and then met up.... now I feel lost if i don't speak to her in a few days.... its really weird lol

living so far apart we don't get to see each other for real very often, sometimes we meet in Clarks village for a shop and a coffee and Carole has travelled up to my crop which was lovely but usually we just meet on Skype once a week to have a crafting day together. 

It usually ends with her telling me to get on with it, or me telling her not to be such a chicken when it comes to wet stuff :) and we always end up creating nice things, quite often when we don't have anything specific to do we choose a sketch and work on it together. 

This happened this week (altho I did have a ton of other craft commitments but sshhh)

Carole chose a sketch and we both did it.... this is my version of that sketch:

When Carole posts hers on her blog i will link you up as we NEVER end up with anything that looks in the slightest bit similar. this comes from Carole following rules and me being a complete rebel as she likes to call me! 

Find Carole HERE!!!

I did start by sticking to the sketch, but I didn't like it so I took it a part, played with it a bit and ended up with this... please have a look at how different they are, it never ceases to amaze me lol

 This is the second page that i almost finished during our crafting session:

I say almost finished as I had to leave to pick Elsie up from Zoe's and Lola from school so I didn't quite finish it in the time i had but i think its done now....altho i may add a small title to the journalling block when i get a minute.

Pics are of Paul, his cousin Graham and his uncle Nigel.

I took them in Bude last weekend when we visited for the wedding of Chris and Steph. 

this was the day after the wedding when the boys wanted to go for a surf.... they were very brave as i was freezing just stood watching, and even more so when i got soaked by an unexpected wave coming in but thats another story :)

I hope you've enjoyed these.... If any of you are interested, I'm making class kits for crop and any other people who may be interested. 

I will release one per month and it will include everything you need to make 1 page including instructions (you will also have leftovers to include on other projects)

The first one I have done will go on sale at the next crop on the 13th October and costs £5.50

I have limited numbers of these as stock can only go so far but if you are interested in purchasing one please let me know and I will add you to my list.  

thanks and bye bye for now xxxxxx

got your sunnies on???

Afternoon!

So my sunglasses question relates to the brightness of the page im about to show you :)

I was massively inspired by a page done by Christine Middlecamp on the pop of the page class that im taking. It was bright, funky and full of layers... I think I have managed to acheive the same look with mine:

The photo is of my tattoo that I had done last month in memory of my Nan, the wise old bird that she was :) and I did this because Shimelle on day 5 spoke about whether we were planning people or spontaneous, well I am definitely a planner. I have lists after lists of everything possible. this tattoo took me over a year to get even tho i knew what I wanted within a short space of time

I may have another to post a bit later, as Ive remembered that I did a few pages at crop this weekend and ive not taken pics yet, so maybe i will see you later xxxxxx

a fave of mine!

Evening ladies, and possible gents?!?!?!? :)

Im here to share really quickly with you a page that I made at 5:30 this morning. I have been trying really hard with my new layering skills and thinking about all the things that I m learning in Jen Jockisch 'pop off the page class'

So as I couldn't sleep, and everyone else was still sleeping, I had an hour to myself to put something together and that I did, here it is:

To get started on this i used the day 4 prompt from Shimelle Laine (LSNED) which was to do with out surroundings, and as I spend most of my time at home I chose home as my keyword. 

When I was putting the page together I used all scraps from my brown patterned paper scrap bag 

(apart from the 12x12 base piece.)

I pulled out pieces that sang homely to me. what I mean by that is I used the patterned paper that had books on it, found at home.... rulers, used at home..... and the bike overlay was just the cherry on the cake :)

I added a few extra layers and embellishments with little bits and pieces here and there to catch the eye I also used string tied around the photo and mat, the idea came from a page in the pop off the page first lesson and was by Rahel Menig.

I think it adds the perfect finish and ties it all up nicely :)

Im really proud of this page and think it was one of my faves that ive made.

Its been pinned and repinnned on pinterest by people who dont know me, and that makes me happy!

Altho I make my layouts to please myself and to go into albums for my family to keep, its lovely to be liked and recognised by others too. 

Right I'd best go before my head gets to big to fit through the door! lol

I have crop tomorrow so its gonna be a busy one, lots to do as always!!!

see you soon xxxxx

a page, a card and a pic!

So im going to indulge you with all 3 things tonight :), so unlike me i know lol

but today has been a bit of a biggy!

Its my mums birthday, happy birthday Mum, hope you liked your card, and flowers and dinner :)

talking of card, thats number one thing on my list for you to see:

I made this yesterday, even when I felt rough with food poisoning! and im quite proud of it if im honest! I dont usually do cards, its not really my thing but I really enjoyed this one and actually quite like it. I used a pin on my pinterest board as big inspiration and added my own spin to it to recreate this for Mum on her special day. 

the second thing to show you tonight is my latest page. I used Shimelle's day 3 prompt as inspiration for it.... and a Challenge from Shimelle's challenge list also to start me off. 

Day 3 prompt was keep moving forward, i first thought i would do a photo of Lola's feet when she was younger but it wasn't calling to me...so instead i took the prompt literally and as I'm doing a class on layering to improve my skills I did a lot of my own layering and my own ideas to come up with this layout, there for moving forward with my scrapping!

anyways enough gassing, here it is:

It uses a picture of Elsie on her first birthday, I love it because ti shows off her quite large teeth, also known as goofy goofers! :)

I chose the shimelle challenge to put things in a straight line across the page, I then added the pink cut off strip from one of the patterned papers and only stuck it down at each end, i then used this as a bar to tuck layers under and over. I used repeating patterend circles and other shapes to bring it all together and the glittery alpha to give it a bit of glitz :)

let me know what you think!

now onto my third and last 'thing' for you to look at!

I havent told you yet, but as well as doing Shimelle's class and Jen's class Im also signed up for a free inspirational thing called Big Idea Festival over at big picture classes. 

Everyday for a fortnight they are giving you a challenge with possibilities of winning a prize. I entered the card above for day 1, as it was simply to make a card that you are going to give to someone, that i did!

and todays was fab..... a list of fun photo opportunities for your family. there were 25 different things in this list and you just had to choose one and upload it to the site. 

I am keeping the list and must admit to doing a few of those today but I will jus upload my favourite for you, here it is:

its 4 pictures of Lola making letters with her hands, and I've stitched them together to spell the word love!

I think its pretty cool and have already flagged the picture to print so that I can scrap it :) I love the concentration on her face and getting her to make all the letters itself was very funny, the 'e' took forever and you can see how hard work it is on her face lol

It was quite a challenge trying to stitch the pics together, if you use a mac you will know what i mean, but eventually i found the perfect app and when I did it literally took seconds to do, im so pleased!!!

just incase you need to knwo the app was called Collagelt pro. it cost £2.99 and was well worth it, I can feel a whole ton of sewn pics coming on :)

ok so Mr Clarks out playing real life zombies for the night so im gonna go chill out with my boys and watch what i want to watch on tv :)

have a  good one xxxxxx

Day 3.... learning!

Todays prompt is about feet and moving forward, in person, in life in everything!

Ive been thinking about this all day and journalled about it this morning, I think its time I got my ass back onto the sw wagon, im not getting any slimmer or fitter eating crap every day and its not as if i dont cook good meals, because i do, its the other rubbish that I put into my mouth, so I guess this is my kick to myself to start eating right again, time to shed some pounds once more!

Ive done it before and can do it again, just have to get my head in the right place, often more difficult that it might seem!

anyways todays page has to do with yesterdays prompt, which was learning / teaching, who has taught us things in life that we will never forget. 

I of course journalled about my Nan, who i miss so much every day, but who taught me so much about life, people, everyday stuff. 

I however am not running my journalling notes alongside my scrapping themes and im taking a different aspect of the prompt into my pages, so todays is about Lola.... and how she learns through play.

This is a pic of Lola dressed up as the Queen whilst at playgroup with Zoe, the childminder. 

It was during the week of Queens Jubilee and they had a little party to celebrate and were each given books about the queen and jubilee. 

Lola has had so many influences in her life already, as we all do as children, Zoe is one that will be missed now that Lola is starting proper school. 

The layering aspect and layout idea itself came from the pop off the page class that im also taking. this is still lesson 1and the third page I've done from it so far. 

I used Kim Stewarts page as inspiration to cluster the layers together in one direct area of the page. 

I quite like how it has turned out, and its so not me!

right off to enjoy the sunshine whilst it lasts

have a fab day xxxxx

day 2

September 2nd and that brings another page from me!

This time I have combined both classes into one layout and I think it has been pretty successful, I like it anyways :)

I chose to use Wilna Furstenburg's page as inspiration for this page, I loved the layers getting smaller and smaller until they met the photo, I also took words from Jen Jockisch seriously as i only used scrap papers that were in my studio calico kit box, and right on my desk waiting to be used. 

I also used Shimelle's day 1 prompt as a theme for my page and chose a picture according to that theme of adventure.

I love how Elsie's face is so excited and really lit up by seeing this baby chick that Lola was holding. It made the rush to get out, and actually going out so late in the day on a spur of the moment whim so worthwhile. 

The large journalling tag can be taken out of its little hole and read if necessary and I added a few extra embellishment layers to keep my momentum going :)

I even stamped too lol

so anyways, its been a long day, I was putting lamb in the slow cooker at 3am as i forgot to start it when i went to bed! so now I'm gonna kick back and relax in front of rubbish on the tv, or maybe i'll read the next Shimelle prompt and be inspired all over again? watch this space xxxxx

September classes

Woohoo!

Its September :)

Im back into classes mode again and as not to let anyone down I'm signed up for more than 1 again this month.

the first of which being 'pop off the page' by Jen Jockisch and is being held over at the studio calico blog, its to teach me how to layer better, adding more things on to pages than I normally would. to be fair thats not difficult as I'm really rubbish at is usually. sometimes find it hard to add any embellishment at all but hopefully this class will help me out.

The other class I have signed up for is another by Shimelle Laine and is called 'Learn something new every day', but now i've typed that long title once it will now be referred to as LSNED :)

I have got to work on both, being the first of september and the eager beaver that I am i couldn't help myself and both are very different. 

Day 1 of Shimelle's class, as far as i can see at the moment was just to write in a notebook about your last big life adventure and what you think it was??? I have gotten so far as to write the sentence that we were told to copy but I haven't finished that off yet..... I don't know what my last big adventure was???? have i even had any big life adventures???? having children? getting married?

or something as simple as the spur of the moment trip to Noah's ark zoo farm that we took the girls on last week? i have no clue and don't want to sound silly for doing something wrong so haven't written anything down yet. I'm sure more will be clearer soon.

As for Jens class, I have a page to show you :) wanna see??????

As if you ever had a choice?!!? lol

So do you see a difference yet??? notice all the extra patterned papers? all the embellishments that are usually very absent in my pages, and do you like it more or less???

I prefer it, I think? i had a great time chucking different elements on the page making it similar and following the instructions to Jens page but also tweaking it quite a lot to make it my own.

And i love it mostly because of the photo.... the only one missing is Elsie, she was there tho I promise but sometimes its easier to leave her in her buggy once you manage to get her in it :)

right, think I'm gonna go study the next class section before bed.

hope you've all had a great September so far

see you soon 

xxxxxxx