stamp away!

Afternoon...

Its been raining cats and dogs here again today, which is a bad thing if you're kids on school holidays but a good thing if you like crafting and have not a lot else to do but watch the rain and make pretty things. 

here is what i made today:

I used papers from my studio calico kit and also a sketch of theirs from this month. 

I also used my new stamp, which was a birthday present from my lovely friend Carole xxxxxxx

When i was dressing the bottom left square i had already stuck the title down when i decided that I wanted a circle behind it..... i didn't fancy pulling the whole thing up, altho it did cross my mind, so instead i ended up putting distress ink on the edge of a cup and using that as a stamp to get my circle image. i think i quite like it :)

thanks for looking today, gotta dash, but hope to be back soon 

xxxxxxx

yay for the sun :)

Its back, that big shiny yellow thing in the sky.... you know the thing we sometimes see called the sun! 

i love it, it makes me happy, i hate being cold and love being warm, even too warm :)

Also something to smile about is that its Thursday so the girls have gone to Zoe's, they are going to the zoo.... lucky devils, and the boys have gone to my aunties to earn themselves some money by chucking stuff in her skip for her. 

so today is MY day, peace and quiet and nothingness....its heaven. well for half an hour more anyways as thats when i collect the girls :)

I spent the morning doing shopping, and dropping the kids off where they needed to be, and have spent a couple of hours scrapping and generally messing about on the pc. I was going to just sit and watch more of the olympics but its super shady in my front room and it was a shame not to see the sun when its making such a nice appearance. so I chose to scrap with my back in the sunshine, whilst listening to kisstory..... yes i am OLD!

so the reason I'm here, I've done a couple more pages:

Firstly one that I made for my friend Gemma, whose little brother George sadly died in a tragic car accident 7 months ago. 

It was hard to do, I didn't know if I would do him justice, or if she would like it or not, but i got there in the end and Gemma is very pleased with it and thats all I care about.

I am currently awaiting photos from Georges twin sister Emily, as she would also like one to put on her wall. will keep you updated on how that turns out, hopefully as well as this one:

You'll have to excuse the poor quality of the photo, I hadn't checked how it had turned out before Gemma had taken it, its  a bit blurry but still readable.

I used all 5 photos that Gemma emailed to me, and I aged them on the mac, I could have just turned them sepia but it was too dark and I wanted to keep a hint of the colours in them. 

I also cropped the images down so that I could arrange them nicely on the page.

I asked Gemma to send me some ideas for what to write on it, as its hers, not mine. so incorporated all of these things on her page. I think it looks lovely and is a wonderful way to remember someone who shouldn't have been taken from us so soon. 

R.I.P George xxxx

the second page I completed this morning as I'm still working on my sketch a day class.

This was day 20, cause I'm running a bit behind but Im getting there and I'm sill enjoying it which is the main thing :)

Day 20 - messing about on the river

Ok so technically not a river, but whats a mass of water between friends?!?!? :)

I liked the title and was going to use it whatever so there! lol

Pics are of us on the lakes at Centre Parcs me and the kids enjoying the pedalo whilst Paul sped around on the hydrobike! 

we all had fun on our last day away.

ok, so its almost time to collect the girls.... I'll see you soon xxxxx

me again!

Tired, bored, uuuggghhhh aren't words enough to describe this week.

Went out with the old work girls on sunday night for a meal, ended up having 3 large cocktails, and woke up Monday morning with a little hangover, more of just a headache so could have been coincidence I guess?!?!?!? or maybe Im just getting too old to drink??? :) 

Thats started my nightmare week, im tired, emotional... bored of being stuck in with the kids in the rain. 

I have boys that don't want to go and do anything and girls that are hard work to keep in all the time, lose lose situation..... we did manage a trip to the ducks and the park on Sunday for the girls, that was lovely, bit of fresh air by the sea is always good. but that was cut short due to the weather. 

I have had to find things to fill the time, without being too far away from the girls when they play, so guess what I've been doing?!?!?!?!  you know me too well :)

I've actually been putting myself out there a bit on my facebook account anyways, trying to sell some of my work to those that don't scrap. 

So far im on my third customer who wants a personalised page made by me :)

Its a confidence boost to know that something I have done is good enough to hang on someones wall, yet Im still so scared and lack in confidence that Im gonna mess it up and they will hate it.... hopefully at some point this feeling will go away.

I have also signed up for a table at Cadbury Garden centre this week..... they are having a craft sale, during their craft weekend in October so have booked myself a table in hopes that I can sell my work to members of the public that dont know me. Scary stuff!!!

I dont know how I will do or how to prepare but it will be good for learning I guess. 

So if you know anyone who would like to receive a scrapbook page to hang on their wall as a gift or if you are non crafty and fancy a piece for your wall please contact me.... im never too far away :)

anyways enough gassing, here are my latest pages:

This was my very first commission.

Done for an old friend as a trial run for my new venture. 

He emailed me some pics of his new Daughter Isla, and this is what I came up with for him. I'm waiting for him to receive it in the post to find his final reaction but from pics he is impressed so thats great news for me. 

Day 17 - Hanging with Dad

Pics are of Paul swinging Lola around by her legs...she enjoyed it, it would have made me sick!

this was a very quick page, made using lots of pink scraps, im on a mission to get rid of a ton out of my scrap bags as they are now too big to fit into my case properly! 

It didnt take long and is very simple but it does the job :)

Day 16 - Poorly Shifu

in the wrong order I know but im too lazy to change it :)

I found this sketch really difficult to get my head around, i don't know why as it was very basic, but it took me forever and as im determined to work through all of the sketches as they are given to us i think it prevented me from moving on. so again this uses a lot of scraps and with a  kind of that will do attitude.

pic is of Lola when she was really poorly, we had to take her into hospital as she was really sick. this pic was taken after our hospital trick when she was determined to play even tho she looked and felt horrendous. I scrapped it not because i love the photo, but because it shows her determination and her strong will.... she reminds me of Nan in so many ways :)

Last but not least a page featuring Mike.

I feel bad for doing mainly pages of the girls, and i swear some people think I forget I have the boys too but they dont let me take pics very often so its easier as I have more photos of the girls to work with :)

Anyway I had this one of Mike which was taken whilst Lola was having her hair braided at Centre parcs. whenever i take a pic he always pulls weird faces, something we all did at some point tho im sure. 

The sketch and page idea itself came form the scrap365 magazine. I loved adding in the layers and added the splash of ink across as a finishing touch as it needed something. 

right, pork is slow cooking in the oven, and smells amazing so best get on with the rest of our dinner! 

have a  fab day everyone

see you soon

xxxx

popping on :)

afternoon!

just a quick one today, as the boys have gone to their dads and currently the girls are bird watching at the back door so I have a few spare moments to write this...

Even quicker note: have you seen the olympics??? we are currently 4th! how cool is that??? even amongst all the controversy we are doing good, well done GB!

here is a page that i finished today, it comes from yesterdays sketch which at first scared me a bit but now that its done I really like it, what do you think???

To use die cut shapes on my pages is most unusual for me but it called for the little black cat and mice, which i cut using my cricut. 

they filled the spaces nicely and meant I didn't need to stick any other useless embellishment on. 

Pics are of Paul and the girls having fun without me whilst I was away at Bubbly craft retreat back in May. This is one of the first pages in a long time where I haven't used colours form the photos, thats my usual starting point but It would have been too difficult to do with this many different pics. I did go for subtle colours so that nothing overpowered the photos themselves, very important :)

right bird watching is over, time to read Elsie a book or 5!

have a fab day xxxx

crafty healing

morning!

so today is a very and day for me, I think my depression is back with vengeance and its driving me crazy. If anyone of you suffer from it you will know how bad it can get. I can physically see myself being miserable, and horrible to everyone around me yet I can't control it, it sucks!

yet i need to try and think positive, its Thursday, and on Thursdays the girls get a break from me and get to do fun things at the childminders. plus it gives me chance to chill out and do something to try and relax. 

Elsie was up at 4:30 this morning which made me even more irritable than normal, so I'm still a little tired and should probably be getting some sleep whilst I can but theres no point, I shall lay there awake for hours and achieve nothing. 

Instead I turn to my old faithful friend, scrapping..to try to drag my ass out of this hell hole! 

So far so good, Ive finished my first page of the day, a catch up from yesterdays sketch and I actually really like it :) I also got to laugh a bit as Daniel was watching Despicable me in the front room whilst I scrapped in the kitchen, and having watched it so many times with Lola I know whats happened without watching and it always makes me chuckle.

I also had a good text from Clifton photography to say our very expensive, but very lovely family photos are back.... hopefully we will get to pick them up later this afternoon. 

anyways back to business:

Day 14 - Mucky makeover

Pics are of the girls after Lola wanted to put her make up on last week.... as you can see they looked more like clowns than models but they had fun, or Lola did whilst Elsie sat nice to have it plastered on her face lol. 

Once again I've managed to do a double page, I'm getting better :)

Just another quick picture for you:

This is my owl tattoo that I had done on the weekend, this was just after it was done hence the blood :)

I had an owl to symbolise my Nan, it tore me apart when she died and this makes em feel like she is always with me, my wise old Owl always looking over my shoulder (its on my right one) making sure I do things right. 

I wonder what she would think if she were still here??? actually no need to wonder, when I've been down in the past she tells me to move my ass, get on with stuff and that its all in the mind...lol yeah it really is all in the mind, but its getting over it thats so hard! 

never mind, thats life I guess, never straight forward

bye bye for now

xxxxxx

PS: Carole, I love it so no need to feel guilty because you found the picture of it on the net. its beautiful xxx

olympics taking over my life!

So who else is caught up in the olympic hype???

It is on all day everyday in our house....Im not usually one for sport, but Im right into it at the moment, shouting at the tv and all sorts!!!

So as you can imagine scrapping has taken a backseat again, but today I found some time and did some catching up on my sketch layouts. 

As i started writing this I also realised I haven't posted since day 8 and today was day 13 so you have a lot of boring stuff to read :)

lets go:

Day 9 - Prima Diva

So you've seen pics of Lola doing ballet, well these were taken on the same day but are of Elsie during the same lesson. She didn't actuality take part properly but she did wear her tut and copy them raising their arms etc etc. she even tottered around the studio for a little while which was when i got these!

She was giving me diva looks as if to say "ha ha, I'm doing this if you let me or not!"

as it was the teacher remembered us from last year, not sure if thats a good or bad thing, but hey ho... she allowed her to wander around as she wanted which was quite a lot :)

You may recognise the papers from the page i did of Lola, as they all came out of my scrap bag, its great how little snippets can be turned into pieces that cover up the whole page.

Day 10 - Kayak games

These are some pictures of Dan whilst he was away at camp. luckily the school took photos of them doing all the activities and allowed us to buy them all on a disc. I was a very happy bunny :)

These show Dan and how 'team' doing games on the kayaks. they didn't learn how to row them as such but just seemed to play team building games on the,. it still looked like fun!!!

I was very pleased with myself and this page as its a double and it didn't take me very long to do, which is unusual as doubles usually throw me right off. 

Day 11 - Basket cases

Now I'm not to keen on this one.... the blue floral paper is not my usual style and the lettering cut from a paper sheet isn't usually my thing either, so this is very outside the box and one I'm not very sure I will try again in a hurry lol. 

The pics are of the girls playing with my wet washing basket in the garden, as if they haven't got enough toys in and outside the house!

Day 12 - Aslan's Army

More pics from Dans week away. in these they were pretending to be in Narnia, he was in Aslan's army, hence the 'lion' in the photos! and they had to try and regain the castle from the white witch. he looks miserable in the photos but only because he was told to look in a bad mood apparently lol. 

I again am not sure about this page, i like the map paper and if i hadn't used it now i don't know when I will have. just not sure I like how it all goes together. never mind :)

Day 13 - Window wildlife

Now this is very much NOT like the sketch we received this morning. It was supposed to be inch squares of patterned papers and photo mixed, but I knew I didn't have enough photos that I wanted to crop down to an inch big so had to look into other options. 

I went for the easy way out and made random mosaics out of photos that i cropped to 4x5 inches. After mounting them piece by piece onto a green mat it didn't take long to add the other pieces to it. 

It looks pretty boring but all the journalling tells the stories I had to write down :)

Ok so its now 8:48pm..... and I haven't watched any sport in over an hour :)

Time to go and catch up on the swimming, lets see whose got the gold!

catch you later xxxx

Day 8

Good Morning!

Im in such a good mood this morning, its sunny sunny sunny, the girls are out for the day so today is MY day..... and Kisstory tunes are playing on the radio, it doesn't get much better!

Its only 11am and I have already done a load of washing, washed up, put out the recycling, delivered the girls to the childminders and completed 2 scrapbook pages..... i am on a roll!

here are todays offerings:

Day 8 - Give us a wink

This is todays page that is based almost exactly on the sketch. I loved the ribbon accent on Ryas page earlier this week, she is another lady who is doing the sketch class... I thought it looked amazing on hers so decided to use the same technique here, im quite pleased with how it turned out too :)

The page is about how Elsie loves to wink, at anyone and everything. its hilarious to watch a baby winking, she even doe sit at the men!!! such a floozy lol

Day 8 - Elsie in a box

A second offering for today, altho not very much to do with the sketch. 

I absolutely loved this die cut paper by Websters pages, and I love the photos of elsie being a jack in the box, so it was natural for me to want to show both of these off without much embellishment. 

I wonder what Carole will have to say about this????

Right I'm off to find something else to do with the rest of my day off..... see you soon

stay safe xxxxx