Online Crop with Shimelle

Shimelle was hosting a crop on her blog last weekend and I have been inspired to join in.  Details are here. 

Challenge 1

The first challenge was to take inspiration from a very pretty scrapbook page by Jaime Warren.  I chose the vertical placement, single photo,  embellishment clusters on either side and scattered embellishments as my inspiration points.  It was also a great opportunity to use my new Tim Holtz camera die, although my close up of this has made me aware that I need to clean my camera lens!

Challenge 2

The second challenge of the day was to create a page using three or more paper collections and this was right up my street because my style is generally to mix and match my papers and embellishments rather than stick with one collection.

I used Basic Grey Picadilly Bread Box as my background and then added strips of Classic Studio Calico {Woodgrain One}, Pink Paisley NanTucket CrabCakes and a strip with the word 'together' on taken from a sheet of paper from a very old K & Company Poppy Seed paper pad pack.  I also used a shaped s.e.i. border strip raised up on foam tape along the top.  When I thought I was finished I noticed the top background panel didn't look quite right but I managed to rescue it with a few drops of Frequent Flyer Sprinkler from OA.

Thank you Shimelle because I am still feeling very inspired to scrap and off to choose another Challenge to start this evening.

A bit of a catch up.....

So I was very disappointed when I saw the quality of the photographs on my last post.  I shall not be taking any important photos with my new iPad from now on, I think the camera is really only there for things like Skype, which is proving invaluable with my daughter now working in Lanzarote for the Summer.

Oh and hi out there to Mum & Dad who have now gone all technical and linked to my blog {waves}!

First of all a couple of welcome visitors to my garden recently.  They turn up every day looking for food and for a swim in our pond!  I am keeping my fingers crossed they consider our garden a good place to nest.

And some more garden goodness that made me smile when I looked out the kitchen window.  I just had to grab my camera and get some shots of Spring.

  

DH and me waiting to see....Barry Manilow - well we were in Vegas so it had to be done!!!

My gorgeous boy!  Funny how I can never get Thickers to stay put ... except here where I placed them down with the intention of moving them about and you guessed it, they stuck fast.  But I think I just about get away with it!  Inspiration from Shanna Noel.

A layout I did a while back but I was quite pleased with the result and I wanted to share.

This is from an idea by Shimelle where you make the layout first and then find a photo/s to fit.  Genius!! 

Another from Shimelle's idea of create the layout and find a photo that fits.

This is a scraplift from Lisa Truesdell.  As soon as I saw it I just had to have a go.

I know this was on my last post but it wasn't a very good photo and M&D would like to see a clearer version I am sure!

Sorry for so many images but I did need to catch up!

Four recent layouts

Hello I apologise for my silence since my last post but I've had lots of stuff happening including preparing my daughter to begin her life as an international holiday rep; she is currently on location in Lanzarote and I am trying to get used to her not being here, which is very hard after 19 years I can tell you! I have also had a rush into hospital with appendicitis which left me a bit dazed for a while, particularly as it was eventually decided not to operate this time after being nil by mouth for a couple of days In hospital awaiting surgery.

Anyway I am really here to share some of my recent layouts as whatever happens I always have some scrapbooking on the go in my craft room. I am blogging with my new iPad so not quite sure how this will turn out so here goes.

 

This is an unashamed scraplift from Allison Waken. As soon as I saw her stunning layout I knew I had a stack of photographs that would be perfect tochoose from a road trip in California last year. This is one of my favourite layouts ever and I think it is going to be on the wall for a while before it goes in my album

This is a fun layout with a retro theme. Goodwood is a really good day out and Goodwood Revival is on my list of things to do some time too.

 

Hmm I seem to have got this off centre but anyway this is a pre-digi photograph of my mum with my daughter. This is a Scraplift from a layout on Amy Parker's blog that has been sitting in my Pinterest folder since last summer.

 

A very green layout for our trip to Dublin with loads of journaling.

So that is all for this post as I have found this quite a slow process on my iPad as I'm having to learn so much as I go. Thanks for dropping by and I shall be back soon to share some more of my backlog!

 

 

JANUARY 2012

I decided to call this post January 2012 as it's the only one I've done this month so it covers a few subjects. 

Scrapbooking

Some gorgeous photos we found of Steve with his Dad on the beach when he was little.

 

 

 

A memento of my hair-raising bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge.  I don't like cycling at the best of times but noone told me it was going to be a 9 mile trip from San Francisco to Sausalito.  I couldn't stop on the bridge as that would hold up the other cyclists behind me.  I'm glad we went back to beautiful Sausalito a couple of days later to see it without the stress.  Bike The Bridge is not an attraction I would personally recommend although Steve thought it was amazing.  Hmm Venus and Mars comes to mind!  And really, those hats!

Our hire car - a V8 Ford Mustang convertible - the business!  So the way to see California!

My Dad's 80th Birthday Party

My dear Dad was 80 years old on the 19th January and my older brother and his wife hosted a party for him in their lovely home in Buckinghamshire.  All the family were there and it was just the nicest day you could imagine.  I must thank my sweet sister-in-law Julie for all the work it took to organise it so well.

A real family gathering

The spread was amazing, to which my personal contribution was the cupcakes and the birthday cake; the famous Rainbow Cake.  I was so pleased with the outcome and glad I decided to splash out on the Wilton gel colourings to get the beautiful, vivid effect inside.  Admired by all and it didn't half taste good too, even if I do say so myself!!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

I have pledged a Monthly Make for 2012

I signed up for this at Annie, the Felt Fairy's blog at the beginning of the year and, apart from the layouts above and the baking I have done, I found the time to make this dear little felt owl which was from a free template at Bugs and Fishes by Lupin blog  I loved making it but feel he needs a friend or two now to keep him company!

Thanks for looking.

December 2011

I was determined to get a post in for December 2011 meaning I have managed to blog once per month since I began in September.  I know this isn't brilliant but it's a start and I do fully intend to blog a little more often next year if I possibly can. 

Anyway I have been busy scrapping over this nice long Christmas break.  The firm I work for closes down for 2 weeks which in some ways is lovely but we do have to take the time out of our own holiday  This doesn't really seem fair to me as I like to travel during the year but run out of days off far too quickly!  These layouts are quite random, going back to 1984 and coming up to this year.  My DH has been scanning our pre-digital photos onto the computer for me and I just can't get enough of the old ones.

That's us in 1984 - fresh faced and fancy free!

Amazing Alcatraz back in September this year.  I wonder if I always stand on that side of him?!

My darling little 15 year old?!

Another oldie from the 80's.

I caught this photo of DD when she was little, nursing Tiny Tears on her ELC chair perched on her bed!  We always say it must have been madness!!  She laughed at the photo so hard she has put it on her Facebook page to confirm what her friends already think!!

The adorable houses in Alamo Square, San Francisco.  Shame the sun was in the wrong place after we'd made the effort to get there.  I think I should spend some time getting to know my camera better to see if I could have taken more impressive photos in the circumstances. 

Wishing you all a very Happy Scrappy New Year!

I Scrapped!

The weekend before last I was lucky enough to have a whole long weekend to scrap with good friends from my crop.  We have an annual trip to the seaside and get up to all sorts of fun and silliness and I even came away with some layouts, which is always a bonus!  All of the following are in some way scraplifts but I realised after I had printed out the originals that I had no idea of tracking where I had got them from, so I cannot give credit where credit is due.  Having now realised the error of my ways I realise I need to keep a note of this information in the future so please forgive me if you recognise any of the work and I promise to do better in future!

 First up I was pleased to be able to use multiple photos here as I took so many on our cable car trip.  The papers used here were a mystery kit of Lily Bee Harvest Market papers and some embellishments supplied by Gaye, who organises our retreat.  It was incredible to see how many different ways the same products were used by everyone.  I loved adding the slightly altered yummy Amy Tan felt camera to my layout.

 

 

 

This is an almost copy of somebody's layout (so sorry I don't know who to credit!).  The layout did the rounds with several other people using it to do a layout of their own too, so thank you whoever you are.  The paper strips cut to look like ribbon were such a great idea.  I promise to credit it if I come across the original again, which I have been searching around for with no luck as yet.

Leaves cut from Elizabeth Park Twig (love that range) and misting done with October Afternoon Sprinklers.  I have decided they are my favourite misters as they are the easiest to use with no messy drips or dribbles - great colour range available too.  The photos are really quite old of the children and not great quality but I am so happy to get them into my album.

Now this one I do know was from a Nichol Magouirk video over at Two Peas.  I loved the idea of doing multiple photos from my daughter's first six months.  They are all pre-digital so cropping the size meant I could cut out all of the unwanted bits from the photos.  I am so going to do another similar one of my son.

 

 

October 2011 Holiday

I haven't been around to craft or blog for a bit as I've been busy visiting the US with my DH.  I'm attending a fun retreat with some of my scrapbooking friends in a few weeks time so I need to get some projects sorted and I'm going to be spoilt for choice with what photos to use.  In the meantime here is just a tiny selection of the photos I took and I leave it to you to guess some of the places we visited during our wonderful holiday!

Starting here

Beyond cute!  My personal holiday highlight!

LOTS of this!

And ending here!