February's Sarah's Cards Kit.

My February's kit arrived a week ago, the Authentique Splendid Collection.The quality of Authentique paper is second to non in my opinion. Although I like most of the papers included in the kit I must admit there are one or two that I might not have chosen if I was shopping for it myself, they're just not my kind of designs. One of them in particular is the "Brilliance". One side I like but the other side really isn't me but I challenged myself to use that side in particular on this LO of Molly making her Brownie Promise. One of the journal cards was too white for what I needed so I inked that up with some TH Distress Ink -Brushed Corduroy. I haven't filled the details of who, what, where as yet as I couldn't be bothered to then have to blur it all out to load on here !I also used some AC brown thickers for the title as the yellow alphas that came with the kit would have got lost on the background colour of the cardstock. Now that I've finished the page that paper has grown on me !

The second LO I've used the Magnificence paper together with the Studio Calico FabRips which I've rouched to produce the border under the photos. I made the rosette out of some of the Renown paper, adding some of the chipboard buttons that came with the kit as further embellishment to the page.
The photos are of Molly with her silver ( 2nd place) medal in her song & dance competition at a dance festival last October singing " You're never fully dressed without a SMILE" from the musical Annie.

Now to look for some more photos to match the rest of the kit !

1st Day at School !

Well the 1st day was a long time ago - 4 years ago to be precise that Molly started school. I was sorting some papers out and I have quite a bit of this " Off to School " range from Fancy Pants that needs to be used up. I originally bought it for Jack's photos when he started at his new school last September. Why I bought so much of it remains a mystery but no doubt it will eventually, be used up

Project Life January.

I've now finished the double page for January.I'm not doing mine as a day to day one, as I said before, my life isn't that full and it would be pretty boring if I documented, shopping, wash my hair,clean the house,ironing etc. you know the run of the mill things that everyone does day after day.So I've just included special days/events that are "unique" to the month - it's not everyday that Charlie gets the Head teachers award for his map skills, ( no sat nav needed when he gets older then)LOL.
To be honest I don't think I would wish to make a page a week, every week. I found it quite difficult to scrap this way if I'm honest. It took me longer to put these two pages together for some reason than it does to make 3 or 4 12 x 12 pages. The photos and journalling cards have been slipped in and out of every pocket before they found their permanent home !
Here's both of the pages side by side. It's so difficult to get a good photo though because of the glare that you get from the page protectors. I've also included both pages separately.

Project Life

Anyone that scraps can't help but come across all the internet posts on forums and blogs discussing this project that was devised by Becky Higgins some three years ago now but seems to have really taken off in the UK this year. I think the main reason for this was the fact that it was virtually impossible to buy the kit here, there wasn't a UK distributor and to have it shipped from the US really wasn't viable because of the high postage costs, the complete kit is very heavy. They've sorted that now as they have a Canadian company that are distrubuting from a UK warehouse.
I was a very lucky scrapper to get my hands on one of the original kits three years ago by the generosity of my neighbours daughter, who brought one over as a gift for me from Canada when she was visiting her parents. The same person that got me into scrapping in the first place on one of her previous visits. So a big thank you to Carol a. for the kit but most of all for encouraging me to take up such an enjoyable hobby.
I feel quite ashamed though because it's taken me so long to get this album going but at last I'm on the case!
Unlike some crafters out there that are doing this as a weekly project, I've decided to do this as a monthly one, highlighting the special things that happen during the months to come. Things that I probably wouldn't make a "stand alone" layout about but would like to record the memory. My life isn't that interesting on a day to day basis to have enough to document a weekly one to be honest.
This is my " introduction" page where I've briefly journalled how I came to be doing this.

January is a month in progress, the progress should be quite swift once I get the photos printed! I'm making notes of things that have happened during February so that I don't forget the little day to day things. I'm taking this as it comes so to speak.Depending on how busy a month I've had will reflect in how many double pages of journalling/photos I'll make. Some months will have more pages than others and could very well end up to be a weekly document, who knows we'll have to wait and see !

If you fancy a go yourself you don't actually have to purchase the official kit, you can use your own stash. American Crafts and We are memory keepers make a good selection of divided page protectors.
Do have a look at Becky Higgins' blog if you want to read more about it.

Birthday girl, flying and a Miss Grumpy !

I've been occupying myself with cutting and pasting over the last few days, far more enjoyable than venturing out in the cold weather and putting up with the snow.
Yes, we had a little more than expected over the week-end. It's been too cold to have melted in a lot of places round here,especially down my drive !!!
Here's a page of some more photos of Sophie's 1st birthday. I decided to put them all in a grid of varying sizes to try and get as many as I could on to a page.

Molly thinks that she's the bees knees dancing with the older girls from her dance school in their Modern Dance Group. They perform to the song by Annie Lennox Universal Child. Here they are rehearsing before they went on Stage at a recent dance festival.
I've used some Pebbles happy go lucky paper and misted round the white background cardstock. I was quite pleased with how the misting came out but I still need a bit more practise to stop the blobs though - only a couple on this project and they don't show too much!

Finally one of Emily in her new tap group costume. I've used the title of Miss Grumpy for this ! She can be a right little grump when we go to dance festivals, I think it's nerves,but she won't admit to that! Knowing how grumpy she can get I had asked her in advance if I could take a photo of her in her new costume.When I brought the camera out this is the look she gave me ( ha ha).One to keep I think, for when she's older and we'll reminder her how grumpy she used to get !!
I've used what was left over of the Pebbles happy go lucky from the "I can Fly" page for this one.

I got up this morning thinking it was Thursday and later realized it was only Wednesday so I have an extra day this week !! I think I'll take advantage of the extra day to use some more of the un-used paper that seem to be piling up at the moment.