cocoa daisy cyber crop weekend...

afternoon!!

with hubby and bezzie away I had to do some sort of crafting right??? keep myself busy :)

so whilst blog hopping this morning I found out that Cocoa daisy had a cyber crop going on this weekend so I quickly registered for the site so that I could play along. here is my first page from the first challenge. the challenge was a sketch one, with an added extra of making a layout about something that was hard for you. well coping with Elsies arm when she was first born was definitely a challenge so chose to make a page about that.

I hope she will read it when she grows up as it has some words of wisdom for her hidden in the journalling xxx

the scan isnt great sorry.... but you kind of get the gist of it :)

xxxxx

Shimelle challenge 2!!!!

The triangle theory!!! 

where three embellishments are used as points around the photograph to make the eye travel around the page freely. 

I have heard of this before and used it a few times but its not a rule that I follow consciously or for every page that I make. maybe I should?!?!?!

the page is titled... garden girl and pic is of Lola in my grandads garden making a cheeky face next to the tulips that she grew :)

my triangle points are my title..... big and bold and by Sassafrass!! love them lots x

the flower, with the slightly off centre brad :) done on purpose obviously....

and the hidden journalling tag.... I was going to write straight onto the page but it would have made more of a block down one side rather than form a triangle. 

the journalling reads:

the scoop.....

you were given free bulbs from Cadbury. we did not know what they were but you wanted to plant them with Grandad anyway.

a few months later these beautiful big tulips appeared!

thanks for looking... hopefully be back with more later xxx

Happy national scrapbooking day!

OK so it was yesterday but what's a day between friends?? :)

I had a busy day yesterday and was visiting my nan in the hospital again last night so didn't get chance to even look at my scrapping, so today I hope to make up for it.

I have decided to play along with Shimelle Laines NSD blog, as I love her style of work and she is a fab inspiration too. So my posts today will be showing you what I come up with using the prompts and challenges from Shimelle.

The first of the day is called baby bath, and is a pic of my baby girl Elsie in the bath, being washed by her daddy with the help of her big sister Lola.

 the challenge was to use patterned paper as the base of the page. no cardstock!!!! 

not too much of a problem for me as I love these papers by Tim Holtz. very easy to use. 

also used a basic grey doilly paper from the eskimo kisses range and surprised myself by painting some glim glam on the edges of the blue mat, after I messed up the edges with my notebook punch!

thanks for looking

be back with more a bit later xxx

Live from my ipad2!!!!!

So I decided not to listen to the hubby sand to trust my instincts and my friends instead, and went an hunted down an ipad2. It's taken me a week to track one down and get it but I am very happy that I did. Love it a lot, can access all my things where ever I fancy and by linking it up to the net via my phone is even cheaper :)

Just thought I'd try a post out to see how I got on. Been taking a couple of pics with it today and playing with some photo editing apps so will upload those now.

Hope you've all had a good day and don't forget to scrap a little tomorrow as it's national scrapbooking day!!! Have fun xxx

Ok so I can't figure out how to upload those..... Will work it out and get back to you xxx

Pretty Polly!

hey!

This week has not been a great one in my personal life....my nan, my rock was taken into hospital on Sunday after many months of being poorly and the news was given to us yesterday that she has very bad cancer. it is everywhere and spreading fast.... I am taking each day as it comes, some times I am happy thinking of our memories of times shared together, other times I am very sad to think that I will be losing a very very very special lady in my life. 

I was very grateful to have this challenge come along this week, as it has given me a chance to escape from thinking about the bad stuff and concentrate on creating something for all of us to remember.

I am also thankful that I am a scrap booker, because now my children who may be too young to remember their great grandmother in years to come, will be able to look back and see the amazing times they spent with her.

anyways the link to the challenge itself is here:

challenge 1

and here is my entry

Pretty Polly

I thought of this paper as soon as I saw the challenge. its a new range to my shop and is called Me Likey by Sassafrass. I just had to use it.... then I remembered that I had these pics of our recent trip to Bristol zoo, Lola feeding the brightly coloured Lorikeets. they work perfectly.

So Keilly and other lovely talented ladies at The Ribbon Reel challenge blog... thanks for this weeks challenge. it has helped me more than you will know

xxxxx

wedding fever!

so.... the big royal wedding was Friday.... I'm not normally a royalist at all... I dont really have an opinion on them at all to be honest but it was hard not to get caught up in all the wedding hype.

I did watch it all the way through. loved the dress, they both looked fab, the guests were weird and wonderful... Posh could have smiled at least but hey ho she wouldn't wanna wreck her image now would she!!! I am definitely no fashion goddess by any means but OMG... Beatrice could have looked a lot less moose like for the occasion!!! what was she thinking?!?!?!?! surely her sister could have had a whisper in her ear and said, you know what maybe you should leave off the moose hat??? save her all the embarrassment afterward????

anyways.... this put me in the mood for some wedding scrapping, haven't done any wedding pics ion a while and I have a million still to get through so what better time to slip a page in about our very own special day?not so grand or that for the prince and his new princess but perfect none the less. we did get married in a castle afterall :)

so I did a page..... based on the Kirsty Wiseman Wednesday night challenge sketch which I follow on facebook. see the link below for info.

the sketch!

and hers the page I came up with:

Smaller Details.

I based my page on Kirsty's sketch, and it all came together by accident if im honest. 

Pics came together first, and I chose them by looking through my pics box to actually seek out some that had small enough things on them that I could cut out with my 2" square punch lol. I usually only print my photos in 4x6 size and I was being lazy and couldn't be bothered to print new ones off in a smaller size so found things that I could use as they were.

The pics of my 'things' were perfect for this as I was able to show off the details that went into making our day special but without doing a massive page on each. altho it would be very possible to im sure. 

the colours were obvious, our wedding theme was lilac (pauls favourite colour) and cream the base paper screamed at me as I came across it in my box so had to make it work for me.

then I had originally chosen a full sheet of purple from my 12x12 selection, but then as it was only going to be a small part of the page I checked my scraps bag and in my purple part were these perfect finds. the circle had already been cut, obviously left over from another project so I didn't even have to work for it. I just roughed it up a bit and the same went for the strip.

the only bit of effort really that went into this page was the hand cutting around the flocked flowers at the bottom, but I love doing that so it wasn't such a hardship.

and well worht it for the final result which I am loving a lot!!!

thanks Kirsty for your inspiration.

xxxxxxxx

a few new pages.....

morning peeps....

need to keep myself occupied this morning as I'm waiting to hear from my nan who is very poorly. I wont go into details but after speaking to her this morning I feel she needs to go into hospital but shes very stubborn and wont go, Im just waiting for the call to say she has given in and is going in. Not that I want her in hospital at all, but at the moment I think it will be the best place for her. 

Over the past week I have done a few pages, I've also had another amazing delivery of new stock to launch at the 12 hour crop, its getting kinda close now, I cant wait.

I did have to make a few little purchases of my own from the shop stock as there were obviously things in there that I NEEDED!!! and I have used a couple of bits and pieces from that already.

Im one of those people who when they get something new I have to use it on a page straight away, I find it really hard to understand how people can buy new things and then put them away still in their packaging, without even taking it out to play with, and then forget that they have it?!?!?! why would you bother to buy something if you didn't want to rip it open and use it something immediately???? but who knows, maybe I'm the weird one?!?!?! lol

So today I thought I would share with you a couple of the pages I have done... and explain the process of thought that went into them.

a page with no name!!!

Ok so here's the first... and weirdly for me it has no title..... with such a nice picture of my sons I didn't think it needed a title, so stuck with a quote that I was given in a pack from the lovely Rosie Guthrie! thanks babe xxx

it says if you cant read it

"to the world you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world."

this is a perfect quote for my boys as they are always there for each other no matter what, there is only 10 months between them so they were never really aware of not being together, they still share a room, they share clothes, games everything they even have the same friends. 

I understand that one day this will change and they will branch off to do their own thing but I am sure they will always have each others backs. its lovely to see.

anyways, I started this page knowing that I wanted to use a large picture.... and knowing that I wanted my page in black and white.... then when I pulled it together just black and white looked a bit boring so I introduced the orange to it which I love.

I used my new heart punch on a scrap of black paper and played about with where it could go, then it ended up where it is now, then it need some journalling space on, so I actually tried drawing some lines on in black pen, but I hated it, so this is actually the reverse of the white paper piece that it started on :) ssshhh!!!

then I decided to use orange strips, so I cut very thin strips from the paper that I was already using (which was also a scrap piece.)

I stuck them on, and they looked a bit wonky where they were cut so thin, but I think this kind of adds to the messy non perfectionist look of the page. 

then whilst I was wondering what other elements I could add to the page I found the quotes sheet, it actually began life with a frame around it but the frame didn't work with my page so I cut it off and just went with what I had.... it must have been fate as the lines I had already stuck down were in the perfect place for the quote lines. AMAZING!

It actually sat on my table, staring at me for a few days then because it needed something extra but I couldn't put my finger on what it was...then on Tuesday when my friend Paula came to visit, I was showing her my newest stock delivery and I pulled out the overlays...as soon as this one caught my eye I knew I had finished the layout. and I think it finishes it wonderfully even if I do say so myself :)

I wonder how long it would have sat there looking if Paula hadn't of been brave that morning..... very proud of you babe for getting on that motorway and conquering your fear xxxx

Explore!

Then there is this page.... the second and last of the pages im gonna show you today.

I came across a fab sketch on the pencil lines blog see here :

pencil lines sketch 235

 I was looking for some inspiration and just thought I'd have a nosy, although the sketch itself didn't shout at me, when I looked through the designers pages and what they had done with it I instantly knew I had to do a page like this.

I chose elements from a few of the designer pages, and was inspired to use my spray inks aka glimmer mists!

and also to do some stamping, which is unheard of for me.... and also sneaked a bit of journalling in there too. 

I am always asked by people at the crop how I come up with different pages all the time.... well I guess I cheat!!! sketches are a great way to get inspiration when you're mind goes blank, and lets face it we all get those times. I wont even say days cause mine can last for months!!!

I guess I usually always scrap in the same way tho, I mostly start with a photo first..... if a picture really NEEDS to be done then it comes to the top of my list.... then I pick out colours from in my photo to choose papers. I generally use a plain card stock as a base and add patterned papers to it. this involves getting out the range of papers etc that I have in the colours that I think will work and choosing ones out that I think might look good, then I narrow it down to a few to choose my final ones from.

it helps that im quite anal and have my box of papers sorted into colour ranges.... and my plain card stock separate to my patterned papers. makes life so easy tho that I can just pull a handful out and know that they are all one colour.

then I play about with where my pics will go etc etc, obviously sketches help make this process easier.

and then I go to my embellishment bags and boxes and go through to see what I have in there that might finish it off nicely. this usually involves the same process as the papers, where I get everything out that might look OK then I push them around the page until it works for me. it might take a while but its fun and it usually works.

lastly I do my title or journalling.... my alphabets are also sorted, but not into colours, just into what they are, size, if they are glittery etc as I usually know what kind of letter I ma looking for.

I must admit I have a bit of an alphabet obsession and have tonnes of them, a girl needs to have them all incase there is something you NEED to put on!!!!

anyways I think I have babbled enough.... my washing machine has finished so time to get back to the housework before I can enter my scrap room and get playing!!!!

have a fab day xxxxx