Say hello.

You may recall last month I won some lovely Portobello Road goodies  - you can read about it here.

So here's a layout I created using the lovely goodies;

It tells the story of how on a day out in London last year, we discovered a line of pink telephone boxes.  The girls of course wanted photos and being of the mobile phone generation a little explanation was required as to why such things could be useful!

I still have loads left which will be great for the photos taken during this years jubilee celebrations!

My first 2012 page!

So its May and I've scrapped my first photo of 2012.  You may recognise the photo - it got a mention in my January month in numbers post here.

It tells the story of how the youngest decided one Sunday morning that her farm animals needed to have plaster casts applied.  This involved tearing up tissues, spraying with water and slapping on the animal! You gotta love her style!

I have been pondering for a while whether to do 2012 album along the same lines as 2011.  I was reluctant to commit to a format until the 2011 album was complete.  Whilst pondering I have been taking Shimelle's Cover to Cover" online class which has given me lots of food for thought in terms of album organisation.  As I wrote the other day, the 2011 album did become a chore towards the end.

So after all this deliberating I have decided to let my 2012 album run without any set format.  It will probably contain a whole mix of page formats etc but will run chronologically.  Because I have now organised my photos by month and am going to print them each month, I will not "worry" that I am going to miss anything - it may take me a few(?) years to get all the stories down but that doesn't phase me like it used to.  It makes me happy to know where I am going, however long it takes.

A current trend

I've not only been organising my photos and albums, I have been scrapping too.  Organising my albums by year has enabled me to identify any gaps, so when I feel the urge to scrap I can pick up an album flick through and decide what to scrap.

So with that in mind, I decided to scrap this photo from 2010.  Its one of my favourite and was taken on my hubbys birthday.  We had been away for the weekend without the children and arrived back on his birthday - lots of smiles all around.

This is based on the May sketch on 'The Studio' challenges blog here.  Hexagons are very much a current trend and seem to pop up everwhere at the moment.  I cut mine using my slice.  I also managed to use some letters by using three different sets to do my title.  And don't worry I have journalled - its on the tag thats tucked behind the photo!

Some interesting bits

A few weeks ago I purchased some "interesting bits" from Julie Kirk - you can read about them here and find them in her etsy shop here.  Mine were on a yellow and green theme.  So anyway the other day I pulled them out and decided to make a layout.

The only things on the layout that are not from the kit are the alpha's on the title, the tag to the right of the photo, the stamped grid and ink splashes!  The photo has been in the "to scrap" pile for some time.  It is from a visit my children made with my brother in law and partner to the Roald Dahl museum, which I have blogged about before.

There are still loads of the kit left for me to create some more "interesting bits"

A visit to see the Queen.

Well not quite but we did visit Buckingham Palace last September and this page forms part of my 2011 album.  

I went with my parents and the oldest one and we had a great day. We thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend a visit.  You get a great audio which is very informative without being boring and my daughter enjoyed the children's one too.  Although you are given a timed slot, once you are inside you can go at your own pace and are not rushed along.  You are not able to take photos inside, but are free to take shots outside.  Kate's Wedding dress was also on display - one of the reasons we wanted to visit - which was simply beautiful.  However we could not get over how tiny her waist was!   All in all it was a great day out and afterwards we met up with my brother-in-law and his partner for a late lunch.

My other September page was completed some time ago, and records the start of new schools for three members of the household.  You can read about that here.

I'm currently working on my November pages - just the divided protector pages to do.  Then December and then I'm finished!

A favourite photo

They always say if you need something doing, ask a busy person!  Well that's me at the moment and I'd rather you didn't ask, as I not sure I could possibly squeeze anything else in.  Fortunately it has not all been work and I have managed to include playing with paper!

This is one of my favourite photos of my youngest, taken in 2010 on her sisters birthday.  This layout was inspired by the layout on the front of the latest issue of Scrap365;

I'm considering putting this in a box frame - very brave of me as I usually don't like displaying my own work.  Next time we go to ikea I'm going to look at their frames to see if any are suitable.  I have a very similar photo of the oldest one so I could put them together.

This layout came together very quickly as last week I had a major sort out of all my stash.  All my paper and cardstock is now sorted by colour and everthing else has been sorted by type and labelled.  I realised that although I had very good storage, I was not using it effectively!  So now when I scrap, I can select everything very easily, meaning I am actually creating rather than trying to find something!  It has certainly worked as over the two days I created four layouts which is a world record for me!

How's your week going?  Mine - not quite entirely as planned.  Friday whilst out enjoying my day off with friends, my computer at work decided to give up the ghost.  Totally!  Not to be left out, my computer at home I use for work also decided to join in.  Fortunately both have been to computer A&E and now are working but it has meant I have had to swop all my work days around and venture up to London twice this week instead of the normal once.  In the great scheme of things not a great disaster but I am a little creature of habit and feel all about when my normal routine is not followed. 

However on Sunday I did manage a little creativty and pushed on with my 2011 album - is she still not finished I hear you cry!  Well almost.   Here are my October pages;

The final page is based on one of Shimelle's page sketches - here

Which also links to challenge 9 on her scrapping weekend - to use an old challenge as inspiration!

So I am reaching the home straight now - only November and December to go! 

Long time no see!

I know, I know its been far too long and I have missed you but not much been happening around these parts, hence the lack of posts.  I have recovered from the virus I mentioned earlier in the month, however it seem to drag my mood down and I couldn't motivate myself to do anything crafty (well if I'm honest anything at all!).  Now I know that if I do get my craft on, it makes me feel better but sometimes a black mood swoops over me and I seem unable to do what I know is good for me.  Does that ever happen to you?  Then I find the longer I'm away from my craft desk, the harder it is to get back.  Thus starting an unproductive vicious circle which can be hard to break.

However the lovely warm sunshine over the weekend, seemed to be enough to lift my mood a little and I competed this page.

It is in response to lesson four of Just One Sketch, where Miss Smith encouraged us to concentrate on a monochrome colour scheme.  The good news is, after this page I felt my mojo begin to rise from the ashes, and feel April will be a much more productive month!

In need of an energy boost!

Not much happening around these parts at the moment.  I have had a virus for over a week now, which has zapped all my energy and booted my mojo out of the window. Just about fed up with it now and counting the days down to Easter as we are going away.

However before the lurgy descended, I did do this layout using Shimelles 4x6 photo love  April prompt which uses four photos.

Now I'm not a huge fan of lots of photos on layouts - you will probably have noticed two photos are about my limit.  However I did want to record my oldest daughter's endevours  as she learnt to sail.  My in laws run a sailing school and so are obviously quite keen for my girls to learn.  The oldest has been quite reluctant but last summer decided to give it a go and thoroughly enjoyed herself.  I'm so glad she managed to overcome her fears and give it a go.

If you lift the flap, it reveals a further photo and the journalling.   These are photos from the last day, when they have to do a compulsory capsize in order to get their certificate!

Hopefully my mojo will return soon and normal craftiness will be resumed shortly!

Just One Sketch - Mirror image

For the third lesson of Just One Sketch, Miss Smith encouraged us to use our sketch in mirror image.

So just to remind you here is my original sketch;

And here is my take on the sketch in mirror image.

Just love this photo  - my youngest is in the stripy top and her friend Tilda!  They were both enjoying a pamper session whilst we were away for New Year.  You can't it but they also both had their feet in foot spas as well.

The next lesson is all about colour.  Hopefully I will be able to work on that one soon.

Happy Birthday

to me!  Yes today is my Birthday and I'm 42 years young.  I'm spending it quietly at home - it is my day off - fighting off a cold. 

As it is my birthday, I thought I show you a layout from my 40th Birthday celebrations.  I was lucky enough to enjoy a private capsule on the London Eye with my close friends and family, with champagne and canopies served.

This is the photo that they take during your flight.  As you can see we all crammed in.  If you lift the photo, it tells the story of the day.  My husband organised that whole day as a surprise - I was told the day before I was going on the eye but thought it would be just my family and certainly didn't imagine it would be private capsule!  Although I didn't realise until after the day, the management of the whole thing had  proved quite stressful for him.  Not least because it couldn't actually happen on my birthday because of various guests being unavailable - I of course did not know this and was a little peeved not to actually be going out on my actual birthday.  We were also meant to meet up before hand at my brother in laws flat for drinks but he managed to book a business trip to New York, meaning hubby had to do some last minute re-arrangements to find a suitable meeting venue.  All this done without me finding out!  

In the end everything was fine - it was a lovely, lovely day.  The weather was perfect - blue skies and you could see for miles.  However I don't think hubby will be organising another surprise soon!

Time for Tea on Sunday Telling Story

Time one again to join with Sian in telling our stories.

Every year we take a camping trip with a large group of friends during the first weekend in August.  This year saw our largest party with eight families joining in the fun - 12 adults and 17 children!  As you may imagine catering for such a crowd is like a military operation, but it is all part of the fun and we all muck in together.  The ages of the children range from 6 - 10 and so if we can we do like to spend our days on the beach, as it keeps them all entertained at relatively low cost. 

This year was no exception and although the weather wasn't brilliant we manged two days.  One of the most important elements of our day trip are regular cups of tea!  With the thirst of 12 adults to quench, a couple of flasks will not suffice so now we take a portable gas burner in order to brew up.  Obviously there are the inevitable arguments discussions who's turn is it to make the tea, but eventually someone volunteers.  There is nothing quite like a cup of tea on the beach!

Funnily enough my inspiration for this page comes from Miss Smith who is a great tea drinker.  In the March addition Scrap 365 she had a page published.  You can read about it here.   The article was encouraging you to use paint on your layout, which I did by dipping the edge of a credit card into white paint and making the grid.  I really enjoyed doing this and I think it may be one of my current favourite layouts!

I hope you enjoyed by tale - do hop over to Sian's blog where you will find all manner of stories to entertain you this Sunday.

Still Plodding on!

As regular readers will know I have been creating a 2011 album which I didn't really start working on until nearly the end of the year.  In February I challenged myself to get the July and August pages done and I'm pleased to report I succeeded in this challenge.

The first page shows my youngest at her leavers concert for the infant school she attended.  The journaling tucked in the pocket tells of how emotional I was (I cried all through!) as my baby was moving on.

As usual - two middle pages.

And the final page shows my oldest's birthday celebrations.

In order to get these done, I am keeping the layouts fairly simple which is not my normal style.

The first August page shows the annual camping trip we go on with 5 other families each year.  Its one of my favourite layouts in the album.

Again the divided pages.



And the final page, documenting our trip to Cornwall.

So March will see me turning my attention to September and October.  I think I am beginning to see the end in sight!

P.S - many of you have asked if I am doing a 2012 project.  Well I am - not quite the same format.  The photos are all sorted - I hope to put it together in the next few weeks.  Lets hope I can keep up with this one!

Shed Life

When my girls are asked "where do your Granny and Grandad live?", they are quite likely to reply " in a shed at the bottom of the garden".  Now before you start phoning social services, the photo shows that it is a mighty fine shed.

A log cabin to be precise.  Inside you will find a small living area with kitchenette, a tiny office come craft room and a bedroom with en suite facilities.  Mum and Dad also have a two bed-roomed apartment in Spain - 10 minutes from Alicante airport.  They divide their time between here and Spain.   They moved to be with us in 2007.  It was my other halfs idea as they either seemed to be in Spain or with us, so their seemed little sense in keeping a property here that they hardly used.  I can't say it is always easy but in the advantages far outweigh the dis-advantages.  My girls absolutely love it and they help out with the holidays when I'm working.  One of the nicest things is that in the evening we all eat together, sharing our stories from the day. Slowly overtime they have built up a life here, making new friends and its hard to imagine a time when they were not with us.  It is also good to know that as they get older, they are near and hopefully will be able to stay independant for as long as they want.

This story was bought to you as part of Sians story telling Sunday.  Do pop over to her blog to read her story and read the other stories being told today.  A great way to spend a chilly and snowy Sunday.

Just one Sketch

So like many of you I signed up for Miss Smiths Class "Just One Sketch". I thought it would be great inspiration in what is normally a quiet month.  Well January has not been as quiet as I would have liked and I have stuggled to find anytime to find time play.

But last weekend I made a start.  Firstly I looked through my layouts to find any comman thread and discovered that I seem to have a style developing!  In no particluar order my pages usually include;

• one photo - usually 6x4
• plain cardstock base
• layers of PP underneath my photo.
• clusters of embleishments around the corners of the photo
• use of ribbons/buttons to add texture
• title horizontally above photo.

 So based on my findings, I drew my own sketch.  When I scrap I use sketches alot as they get me going but I've never considered drawing my own before.  

And heres the resulting page.

As you can seen I followed the sketch in the main.

Next on the agenda is taking the sketch for a spin!

Half way through the year.

Over the weekend I managed to complete my June pages from 2011 album - so that means I've now reached the half way point!  


The first page shows my daughters taking part in the walking Carnival Parade - unfortunately the weather was not kind and it absolutely poured with rain!

Then we have the middle divided protector pages;

And finally the last page, showing my youngest taking her brownie promise in the mayors parlour.  I love how the mayor is making the brownie promise sign as well!

For this page I used a sketch from the creative craft world blog.


So onto the second half of the year!

The sound of silence?

There is a strange sound in our house this weekend - silence!  Both the girls are away.  The oldest has gone on a PGL (outdoor activities) weekend with the school and the youngest is on her first brownie weekend.  Not sure I would enjoy it every weekend but it does make a pleasant change to able to be conduct a conversation with hubby and actually finish it in one go!  We are away to London later today to meet brother in law and partner and some of partners french family(who speak little English and we speak little French!) for dinner and then theatre which should be fun.

Anyway I dropped in to share a layout I did the other evening.  When I first started my blog you may remember that I used to post my "Monday memories" - it was the photo from the calender that sits on my desk which changes every Monday.  Whilst I haven't posted a "Monday memory" for a while, I obviously still turn the calendar every week. So when these photos turned up, I decided that I wanted to scrap them.  So I did.

This is my hubby and youngest taking a step back in time. We took a trip to the national trust village of Laycock, which has been used some of the Harry Potter films and also where Cranford is filmed.  In the house, one of the rooms was set up as a little studio with clothes and props.  So they both dressed up and Frederick my brother in laws super talented partner took the photos.


I really like this page - its the first one I've done for a long time not using a sketch as inspiration.  I also did it really quickly.  Once I had decided the placement of the patterned paper and photos, I just stuck them down and then let the rest evolve.  Normally I place everything and then take a long time to commit to actually sticking - sometimes even leaving for a couple of days.  However more recently, I have being better at just sticking it down - its only patterned paper after all.  What is important is getting the memory recorded.


Hope you all have a great weekend whatever you are doing!

Game On!

After enjoying a lovely Sunday lunch at Simon and Fred's (my brother in law and partner), Louisa decided we should play checkers. However rather than use a traditional game board, she decided that bigger was better.  Much more fun to use the checked rug for the board and cocktail umbrellas for the pieces! (you gotta love her style) It was Daddy against Louisa but we all gathered round to watch and give advice when needed.  Good old fashioned Sunday afternoon fun!

This story was bought to you as part of "Story Telling Sunday".  Click here to enjoy some more stories.


Have a lovely Sunday!

2011 Album - April Pages

So far this half term we have enjoyed making dens, loft sorting,  a scrummy sunday lunch, a little shopping and today spending time with friends. Phew so much already and still loads more planned. I've realised that this is the first holiday this year that I have spent at home and I'm loving it.  Just be able to take our time and not follow any schedules is great - I am definitely going to have more holidays at home it 2012!  


Anyway I thought I would show you some more pages from my 2011 album that I worked on last week.   April was a very busy month for us, and I had loads of photos to choose from!  So  much so that I put in two lots of divided page protectors.

Here is the first page, showing our family celebration at Easter;

Then will follow the two divided pages - I'm just showing you one - but both sides;

Then the final page giving a glimpse of our Euro Disney Adventure.

Again to tie the two 12x12 layouts together, I've used the same backing sheet and  same patterned paper.

So thats Jan, March and April completed.  Next on the agenda is February.

Discovering Scrapbooking.

When did you discover scrapbooking? 


Do you remember - was there a single defined moment in time.  Probably not.  I don't really know how I came to be knee deep in patterned paper but at some point whilst lurking among the craft magazines at WH Smith I picked up Scrapbook Inspirations (RIP) and from then on was hooked.  I do remember I bought the magazine for many months, before actually completing a page!!  I just didn't know where to start.  But obviously I did start, and now a few years on I can't imagine stopping.  

Would you like to see my first ever page?  Well actually it is two pages - yes a double layout!  (Since then I've only ever done one other DLO)

There are many things on these pages that I simply don't do now or don't like. However I do see the beginnings of my style - ie clustering the embellishments around the photos - I still tend to do this now.  I have read that some people go back and redo their old layouts which is not something I would choose to do mostly because I have hardly got enough hours to scrap the photos I want to let alone re do old ones!!  But mainly because, when my daughters look through these albums, they are not interested in the style, the choice of paper and the design. No they want to see the photos, read the details and talk about their memories. After all that is for me the reason for all the pretty paper.

So do you remember when you started scrapbooking?  Are you brave enough to show your first layout?