Back to School

I was sorting through my albums yesterday and came across this LO that I did in September of Jack on his first day at his new school. I then remembered that I hadn't shared this on here.
I've used Fancy Pants Back to school range on this page.

I'm having a bit of a de-clutter day today so no scrapping but plenty of mess !

Pas de Deux !

As anyone that reads my blog on a regular basis will know, we have a little dancer in our family !
Here she is again, this time with her partner Miles after winning the gold medal at Luton Festival of Dance earlier this year, in the classical duets for the 9 and under age group. Pretty good I think considering they were only just 7 at the time and competing against girls that were already nine!
I kept this page pretty simple with just a couple of pieces of the My Mind's Eye Lost and Found 2 papers, some swirly bling and a couple of flowers layered up to give the page a bit of dimension.I also machine stitched a border round the edge just to finish it off.

I need to cut myself in half this afternoon and visit two Christmas Fairs at two different schools ! Well if you go to one you have to go to the other otherwise the kiddies get upset :)
I've also noticed that they've posted the final sketch in the three sketch challenge over at My Creative Sketches so I'll have to delve into my " photos to scrap" box and get my thinking cap on. Not until tomorrow though as I'm off the see Sian in the musical " The Wedding Singer" this evening.
Hope you all have a good week-end :)

Kaisercraft goodies!

I had a little spend at the crop on Saturday - little being the operative word!!! I bought these beautiful Chanteuse Collection by Kaisercrafts and couldn't wait to get cutting into them.
The first one is of Emily taken in the summer. The Frame paper on this is just so beautiful and I matted it onto some distressed Basic Grey pp to give it a bit of stability. It didn't look quite right with just plain bazzil behind it whichever colour I looked at. There was lots of cutting out in this page !

I also bought some lovely acrylic stamps too !
The wrought iron gate is a Prima one though but the cut out birdcage on the left side is a Kaiser one.The resin bird bath is also a Prima - love these little embelishments !
Here's a closer look at the stamps.

The second LO is of Molly, again taken in the summer on the same photo shoot !
I didn't want to embelish this page too much as I didn't want to distract from the beauty of the backing paper. So I only added a few cut out flowers and some Kaiser wooden flourishes that I inked to darken them a little, together with a couple of layers of journalling cards. I also stamped up the top of the left corner with a Kaiser stamp that was included in the kit at the crop on Saturday and added a small border to edge this corner up.

All the Kaiser products I've used can be had at www.merlyimpressions.co.uk

I went to a crop !!!!!

Believe it or not, for all the time I've been scrapping, I've never been to a crop !I've been to two retreats but never a crop. To be honest with you I couldn't quite get the attraction of having to pack virtually everything but the kitchen sink ( incase you needed it!)drive to where ever, and do what you could easily have done, in the comfort of your own homes, with all your supplies at your fingertips.
Anyhow a couple of weeks ago I was persuaded to go to the Merly Impressions crop day which was being held a couple of miles up the road from me.
I packed my tote with all that I could think I needed - took me a while as I kept remembering things that I hadn't put in !!!
Off I went with some new found courage - I'm not the best at walking into a room full of people on my own !
To cut a long story short I had a fantastic day and I can't understand why it's taken me so long to go to one.
The hall was spacious ( but I knew that, as I know the hall ) the shop was to die for - Merly Impressions,which made a bit of a dent in my bank balance ! the company was great, there was a fab kit and instructions for making two layouts that Chrissy had designed.The kit was made up of this collection with enough in the kit to make both layouts and tea, coffee and some yummy cakes were on tap.
I did make a couple of changes to this one by adding a few more flowers - well I'd already cut them all out so I wasn't going to waste them! I also added a corner stamp on the matting behind the photo as I couldn't wait to try out my new stamps( note I did say stamps, this one is only one of them ! ) that I had bought there !

I had a really lovely day, only got one layout done (note to self " must stop chatting ")but I did make up the other yesterday.
Can't wait now until January for the next one.

At last!!!

At last I've a few minutes to upload my scraplift LO that I was waiting for the Prima for.
I so enjoyed doing this page andI've lifted it as it was as it was just perfect. Many thanks to Rachael for letting me lift her beautiful work. I hope I've done it justice :)

Here's the original one made by Rachael.

and this is mine

Do pop over to Rachael's blog and have a look at her inspirational work.
www.elliottmess.blogspot.com

In the meantime !!!!!!!

Well I'm still waiting for my re-directed package of my Prima embelishments !!!
How long does the Post Office need to deliver a package 40 miles with a 1st class stamp which was posted on Thursday? There's no wonder that business and retailers are deserting them !!!!!

THEY'RE HERE !!!!!!!! As I was typing this the door bell rang - I'm such a happy bunny.
You'll have to wait a little bit longer for the posting though as I need to go into town in a few minutes but in the meantime I made this LO last night while I was waiting to finish the other with the missing bits !!!
Again using the Glitz beautiful dreamer range of papers & whot not's.

A closer look at the layering

I'll be back later to post the other LO,thanks for dropping by.

Some more Halloween !

Another two LO's from this years halloween photos.Sian went to Florida at half terms and she bought me back some bits that she picked up in the dollar and under bin at Michaels. One of the items was a pack of 5 sheets of halloween paper by Studio G for 97cents !!!!! Studio G is better known to us for the little stamps you can buy for 99p over here. OK it might not be to the quality of the more well know manufactures but it's not too bad. I used one of the papers for the background on this LO of Charlie in his "vampire" costume which he quickly corrected me when I said he looked lovely in his "Dracula" outfit !!!! Nanny is obviously un-educated to a 4 year old !!!

This one of Jack I used some of the Echo Park Apothecary Emporium collection.

I'm off now to finish a scrapbook lift of a beautiful page by Rachael Elliott. I was waiting for a couple of items to finish it off, one of those items have just been delivered so I need to get cutting! Hopefully, the second item I need will arrive with the letter post which doesn't come until around 2pm.
So do pop back tomorrow and hopefully I will have done it justice !

Halloween !

My lovely Halloween stash arrived yesterday morning. Some Echo Park papers, some Little Yellow Bicycle bits to add to the few embelishments that Sian brought back from Florida last week.
The first is Molly all dressed up as a black cat - I must have a word with Carys for future costumes - pink really doesn't fit in with normal halloween coloured stash but by using a purple background cardstock I think I've got away with it !!!

This one is of them all plus a couple of friends tucking into their food. Emily had come straight from a dance class so she isn't dressed up.

So that's another two done, just a few more to go so there might be a few more over the next couple of days.
Thanks for poping by and I do appreciate all your comments.

Pumpkin Cute

The boys were dressing up for their Halloween mini party of Saturday night when they invited a friend each for tea and a few games.So Sophie had to have a dress-up outfit too said her Mummy !! She wasn't very keen to look at the others though with all their spooky make up on and it took her quite a while to move from Daddy's knee, but she looked so cute in this little pumpkin dress.
I found these papers amongst the pile that I've had for so long that I can't even remember where I bought them ! I must go shoppiong for some more Halloween paper to do the boys from this year as well as quite a few photos from previous years that are waiting !!
As always click on the photo for a larger view and thanks for popping by.

Echo Park Victoria Garden

I had a lovely box of stash delivered the other day, the Echo Park Victoria Garden and some Glitz Beautiful Dreamer. The Glitz is for another day but yesterday I had a lovely day using the Victoria Garden.
The first LO is a photo of my grandson Jack with his little sister Sophie. They've both just had their bedtime bath so are sqeeky clean !!!
Jack is so protective of Sophie and she absolutely adores him.I'm not sure if she'll appreciate his care and concerns when she gets much older though. Having a brother that's seven years older than you and very protective won't be so appreciated when she becomes a teenager I don't think !!!

The second one I made is another picture of the girls at their wee-end at Harrogate. I had to scrap a similar picture as the previous one as they've both got their own albums.

Do click on the photos for a better view.
That's it for today so thanks for popping in.

Ready to Play.

When my grandson Jack changed schools this year we were all a little concerned at what he was going to make of the fact that sports was a very high priority within the schools curriculum. Jack has never taken to contact sports, he hasn't shown any interest in " playing football" as most boys do,had no interest in watching it on TV and if you asked him who Wayne Rooney was I don't think he would have a clue !! Tennis, yes and for his age he's a very good player but contact sports no-way!
Having an Uncle and three cousins that live & die for Rugby, one of the cousins even playing for Wales Youth, still didn't interest him.It was them that bought him the rugby ball he's holding - notice how clean it is !!
Anyhow he had to be kitted out with the full kit to start at the beginning of term so his Mum had to document this in a series of photos! I'm pleased to say that when he came home after his first game of Tag Rugby ( apparantly they don't play proper rugby at this age)he loved it and couldn't wait to phone his cousins and tell them all about it. The next game he got punched in the eye ( not very seriously) and even that didn't put him off ! If I'm really honest I don't want my little boys to play rugby as there's a strong possibility of them getting hurt !!
I've used some of the newly released Fancy Pants Off to School papers and embelishments for this LO.
As always, click on the photo for a better view.

Challenge Time !

This is the 2nd month of the big challenge over on My Creative Sketches, you'll find them here
There's a prize every month so if you've missed the 1st of the 3 sketches for the big prize don't worry as you'll still be in with a chance for the monthly one.
This is the sketch for this month :

I've used some Pink Paislee Bayberry Cottage papers for this LO.I added a spray of feathers to my hand made flower spray. I think I need a bit more practice at making these sprays, this is my first attempt and nowhere near the standard of Gabriella Pollacco's hand made sprays ! Pop over to her blog here to view the video on how to make them if you fancy a go yourself.Her work is absolutely stunning so it's well worth a look.
The girls along with four of their friends went to Harrogate in Yorkshire in August to have a go at the Krypton Factor Assault Course and the photo was taken on the Saturday evening when they all went out for a meal after successfully finishing the course. Nothing like living it up when you're away on a girls week-end to enjoy your meal with champagne is there?
I do have some photo's of them, shall we say a bit less glamourous than this one, waiting to be scrapped too.

Click on the photo for a more detailed view

a couple of close ups of the flower vines !

Bad Blogger !

I'm getting to be a very bad blogger ! A bad scrapbooker too as I haven't scrapped for a couple of weeks until last night.Life just got in the way at the start and then last week-end something happened and I felt like giving it up altogether! Suffice to say, the incident was quickly dealt with on Monday morning by a third party but it didn't make me feel any better and it took me all week to decide whether I needed to be part of the crafting forum world and to get my paper & glue out and carry on! Forums can go their way and I'll go mine - to play with my paper & glue !

Here's a page I did last night. Sian and family had a day out at Warwick Castle during the school holidays and this is a photo of Charlie in the stocks.I've used some My Minds Eye Limited Edition 2 from the Breeze collection for this page.

My Minds Eye & October Afternoon.

No, not on the same layout I might add :)
At last I've had a few minutes to scrap, so here's a couple I put together yesterday.
First is of Sophie, who is now on the move, it's clear the decks time now!! It didn't take her long to put one knee in front of the other after getting the strength to get up on them.
I've used some leftovers from the March kit from Sarah's Cards for this one which is the October Afternoon Modern Homemaker.I also used the MME sketch from their newsletter

This one I've used the beautiful My Minds Eye Lost & Found 2 Breeze collection of the boys with their Mum taken last year.

Been busy sewing !

No, not on any layouts but dance costumes, ready for the 2011/2012 run of the All England Dance Festivals which kicks off at Royston a week on Sunday.
All done now so I was able to get back to scrapping this morning. I could have cleaned the house but decided there was far more important things to be getting on with than housework.
Anyhow, back to scrapping. Over at the My Creative Sketch Blog there's a fab three month challenge with some fabulous prizes up for grabs. This is the sketch for month one

and this is what I came up with this morning. I've used mainly My Minds Eye Stella & Rose patterned paper with a few cut out bits from Websters Pages. Flowers are various ones including a couple that came from Primark, got to love that shop !! Metal embelishments are so old that I can't remember who's they are, but pleased I'm getting to use some of them up !
Photo is of DD1 and her hubby on their wedding day in 2003.

Do go over to the blog and have a go, well worth it not just for the prize but the DT have some fab inspirational LO's for you to view too.

September Challenge Sketch

The September challenge has just gone up on Sarah's Cards Blog and this month the challenge is a sketch by Jen.
Here's the sketch

I've adapted a couple of bits on it, such as the position of the title and I've only used one photo rather than two.This is another one of the photos we had taken when we had a " shoot" with Cheryl Johnson of FeelGoodPhotos.com She's captured the boys so well in all of the photos but I have to say, this is probably one of my favourites.
I've used the recently released Breeze from the My Minds Eye Lost & Found 2 range of papers. I just love the whole range of these papers.Other bits & pieces are from my stash.

Crate Restoration !

I've finally got to use the last of what I had left of the Crate Restoration kit on this LO of my MIL last year with my grandsons on her 90th birthday.Not only has the photo been waiting over a year to get scrapped, but Crate Restoration was from the October 2010 kit from Sarah's Cards - Oh dear ! nearly it's 1st birthday !!!!
I did have plans to do some scrapping last night but my plans were thwarted after I took the ironing back to DD2 (yes I'm a lovely Mummy, I help out with the ironing)I ended up with a lodger for the night - Emily asked to come and stay the night.Needless to say that no scrapping was done, just chatting and watching x factor !

Paint!!!!

I've always admired some LO's with splashes of paint on them others I've thought " Oh what a mess". Having decided to add a little something to this LO of Charlie collecting his Easter goodies, I tried the paint flicking technique!! I'm not sure which catergory it belongs to really....the " Oh what a mess" one or " that finishes it off nicely" camp!!
I've used some more of the August kit from Sarah's Cards, Pink Paislee Hometown Summer.

Scrapping on a Saturday Night !

I finally cut into the August kit from Sarah's Cards last night. Can't believe that the September one will be here in a couple of weeks.
I took some photos of Sophie the other day as she'll be 8 months old on Tuesday - how time flies !
I love multi photo LO's but when it comes to actually putting them together I come to a bit of a blank.I was quite pleased at how many photos I was able to get on this page without making it being too cluttered looking.
I cut her name from one of the papers, I couldn't think of what else to do with it ( ha ha )

Haven't done any crafting today as my daughter and two granddaughters invited themselves to Sunday lunch as Daddy was playing golf all day. Now they've gone home I'm off to have a look through my stack of photos !

Two totally different styles of Layouts!

Using up some waste from the other two LO's I made this layout with the Echo Park For the Record kit. Most of it has now gone except for a couple of half sheets. Cutting into papers to get certain elements out of the design uses more paper I think than cutting them in straight lines so to speak !I had a lot of the flowers left in smaller bits to use up - shame to waste them, so I cut them all out and layered the left side of this LO with them !
Photo is of Molly busy colouring in the goodies that they give children while they're waiting for their lunch at the Rainforest Cafe in London.

I then decided to make a tearing & inking LO, totally different style to the Echo Park LO, using a bit of a mixture of Websters Pages, again bits left over from previous work. I do hate waste,it's no wonder that my stash doesn't seem to go down in quantity very much !!!
There's lots of layering on this LO and I've used some punches to make the flowers & butterflies and added a bit of bling. The photo isn't mine, believe it or not it was taken by a professional photographer at the Dance Festival earlier this year. The white balance on it is totally out and I have tried to improve it as much as I can in photoshop but my knowledge of Photoshop isn't that great ! But it does record her Perfect Saute ( a ballet technique)that she performed when it mattered ! It actually looks as if she's on pointe ( ha ha she wishes ! ) but she's actually up in the air.

Some more Echo Park.

Rather than clearing it all away and forgetting about what is left in the April kit from Sarah's Cards I thought I would carry on using more of it while it was all out -everywhere!
The photos on this LO are not the best,in actual fact they're quite dire ! They were taken on my camera phone and my phone isn't the most up to date all singing all dancing one by any stretch of the imagination! Guess who forgot to take the real camera with her when we went up to London to see the Wizard of Oz in February half term !!
I need to make another two LO's with the same photos at a later date. That's the problem when each of the grandchildren have their own albums !

Do you like Sketches?

I find sketches very useful when you're having a bit of a blank moment and I'm sure many scrapbookers experience this at some time or another.
I'm sure most scrapbookers have also got a few favourite sites that they visit on a regular basis to fill the need. Well, there's a brand new site to add to your list - have a look here where you'll find this super sketch to get your creative juices flowing and a chance to win some gorgeous goodies into the bargain, can't be bad can it ?
Here's the sketch

and this is what I came up with using the Echo Park For the Record range of papers. The photo is of Charlie who has the most amazing length eyelashes. How come that it's always the boys that have the lovely eyelashes and all the girls have to eventually succumb to using long lash mascara in an attempt to get theirs anywhere near a decent length?

So if you fancy a go at the sketch pop over and have a go.......you've got to be in it to win it so they say !

Some more My Minds Eye with Prima !

I'm still on the mission of using some past My Minds Eye papers from my stash! On this LO I've used some Stella & Rose Gertie with some lovely Prima flowers. The photo is my eldest daughter when she reluctantly posed for me when I did an on-line portraiture course recently.

My Minds Eye Blog Sketch Challenge

Over the week-end I was catching up on some blog visits and saw this sketch on the MME blog

As this photo of Sophie was in landscape mode I turned the sketch 90deg to the right and this is what I came up with. Everything on this LO has come from the newly released Lost & Found 2 Blush collection.

Challenge Time !

Each month over at Sarah's Cards' blog (scroll down to the post on the 10th August) they set a challenge. This months challenge was to do a layout using 5 different papers.
I started out with a photo of Charlie when he fell on his arm on the trampoline and for a few days we were not sure if he had broken it or not, thankfully he had only badly bruised it. The challenge was to use five different papers for the LO and I chose the My Mind Eye Quite Contrary Little Boy Blue collection - told you I had quite a nice stock of "old" MME. I've made a conscious decision to use these papers instead of stroking them !!!

Once I made this LO I found I quite enjoyed this challenge of using five papers so went ahead and made another one with a sheet of 3 Bugs in the rug Chloe range, which I used for the cut out flowers and some Echo Park Little Girl for the background and the borders down the bottom. The photo is of Sophie having her first taste of " real" food and took to it like a duck to water!

Well that's it for today. I'll be back tomorrow with another LO using some more of the new Lost & Found 2 papers from My Minds Eye !

Some more My Minds Eye !

Here's another LO that I put together last night using some more of my recently bought My Minds Eye Lost & Found 2.
This is Sophie my little grandaughter who was 6 months old last month.

The Old and the New !

Most people know by now that I have a great affection for My Minds Eye paper. One of my favourite manufacturers.
Needless to say I've got quite a collection that needs using up so last week I decided to use some of the very old " stock" that I had for these photos of Jack way back in 2007. He used to love playing with empty boxes when he was a toddler.
This LO is pretty clean and simple to what I usually put together. Not sure that I could make too many though but I do quite like this one.

I was in heaven the other day when the e-mail came through from Sarah that the new Lost & Found 2 had arrived at the shop so I just had to have a little shop - little being the operative word !! What do you leave out of your order when the whole lot are so beautiful?
Anyhow the minute I saw them I just knew that they would be the ideal papers to scrap these photos of Molly at the All England Dance Final last week.

Need to have a look at some more photos now for the rest of it.

Peek-a-Boo !

This photo of Emily was taken in 2008 playing peek-a-boo with a huge bunch of balloons ( Molly had another bunch)whilst everyone else was clearing up after my SIL's ( her uncle) 40th birthday party. I've avoided scrapping it until now as there's so many colours in the balloons and it was difficult to choose papers. When I saw this months kit from Sarah's cards it had just the right paper in it not to " clash" with all the other colours in the photo. I cut the orange shaped cardstock on my cricut and used some Safmat to print the journalling on the botton of the photo.

Another Kit LO

Used some more of this months kit up yesterday.
I caught Charlie trying to read Sophie a story a couple of months ago. I thought it was so sweet of him. Bearing in mind that at the time he wasn't even four and couldn't actually read anything it was really funny listening to him making up this story from the pictures in the book.
I had a lovely time playing and making different handmade " flower"embelishments on this LO with the help of a few punches.