Paper Obsession

Happy Anniversary Mum & Dad!

I did this today at the Bromley Scrapaholix crop - happy anniversary Mum and Dad!

It is based on this week's House Challenge sketch on UKScrappers.. the finished article will have some stitching round the edge. I used Doodlebug 'Bumblebee Stripe paper, October Afternoon 'Report Card' paper and My Mind's Eye embellishments. The letter stickers are puffy AC Thickers.

When we were three...

Last week my laptop was away being fixed.. and I managed to get THREE 12x12 layouts done.. coincidence? Or a sign that I usually spend more time surfing the blogs than I do scrapping. As I couldn't print off any recent photos, I turned to my massive pile of 'to-be-scrapped' pictures.

This layout is of me, Gareth and Charlie, when the little 'un was just three months old, on holiday in the Isle of Wight. I was inspired by a page I saw in Scrapbook Trends, December 2009.

Supplies:

Cardstock - Bazzill Kraft

Patterned paper - BasicGrey 'June Bug'

Alphas - American Crafts Thickers (red felt and green vinyl); Doodlebug Loopy Lou (black)

Stamps - Hero Arts 'Decorative Birds'

Punches - Fiskars 'Threading Water' border punch; Woodware scalloped circle

Trim - Bazzill pom-pom trim

I stamped the birdies on to yellow patterned paper, then again on to pink and blue papers, just cutting out and sticking on the wings. I inked the bodies with orange chalk ink for a bit of shading. The little one is mounted on foam pads. I drew the legs on with black pen.

I'll be back soon with the other two layouts.. just need to photograph them in decent light.

Tomorrow it's the Bromley Scrapaholix crop - I always have such a dilemma choosing which supplies to take, and NEVER have exactly what I need when I get there! I guess if I planned a layout in advance it would help.. 

Have a happy scrappy weekend :o)

Banana Frog Guest Designer? Moi?

Well, yes actually!

I've been a fan of Banana Frog for ages.. so when Bev (Head Frog) announced on the FrogBlog last month that she was looking for new Design Team members, I just had to try my luck. And while I didn't make it on to the full-time Design Team, I did manage to be selected as one of their Guest Designers. Wooo-hooo!!!! See this post for the full line-up.

So CONGRATULATIONS to the new Design Team members and all of the other lovely Guest Designers - it's fantastic to get the opportunity to have a little bounce on the lily-pad! :o)

We got the house!!!

Well, we did it.. our offer was accepted and WE ARE MOVING TO EASTBOURNE!!!

I have yearned to live by the sea for sooooo long! I'm so happy that the boys will grow up here.. near their family.. near the countryside and the beach. We still have plenty of hurdles to overcome (especially getting Charlie into the school we want) but this is such a positive start.

And today, just to top off a pretty special day, my layout was featured - as promised - on the Gauche Alchemy blog. Here's a snippet of it:

Oh, the awful irony if we'd not got the house today...

The rest of the layout is on the GA blog here. Also featured was Helen Salthouse, the Scrapbooker of the Year competition winner, who displayed her talent with an amazing layout using GA kit bits. Truly fabulous!!!

Introducing... baby Emma

Here is Emma, my new baby niece.. isn't she a sweetheart!

Supplies:

Cardstock - Bazzill Basics

Papers - My Mind's Eye - free with Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine

Stamps - Banana Frog 'Build-a-Bloom' and 'Journaling' sets

Letters - American Crafts Thickers 'Gift Box'

Punch - Fiskars Threading Water Border Punch

Brads, ribbons - from stash

I started by stamping the pink cardstock with petal stamps from the 'Build-a-Bloom' set using Versamark ink. I then dabbed the flowers with chalk to make them show up as if by magic.

I made the butterfly by stamping on patterned paper and cutting out petals, sticking them on a little piece of card and adding a piece of white pipe cleaner.

Who wouldn't want to live here?!

Eastbourne... the beach on Saturday morning... Charlie, Harry and their cousins Caitlan and Kieran, having wonderful fun splashing in the puddles at low tide... all the reasons we are planning to pack up our lives in London and relocate to the south coast.

It's been an exhausting week. On Thursday evening we went to stay with Gareth's parents in Eastbourne, still without an offer on our house, to view some properties and also a nursery school for the boys.

We viewed four houses on Friday but there was one in particular that we both set our hearts on. It's a 1930s-built semi, in desperate need of repair and modernisation, but potentially a wonderful family home that will suit us for years.

I felt moved to do some scrapping this afternoon and produced this.. so that I will never forget how I'm feeling today.. the day before a potentially HUGE turning point in our lives. The journaling tells the story in a nutshell.

Terrible lighting, so here's a couple of close-ups..

Supplies:

Cardstock - Bazzill Basics white

Patterned paper - Basic Grey 'June Bug'

Letter stickers - American Crafts Thickers 'Rain Boots'

Stamps - Banana Frog 'Journaling' and 'Tiny Teen' alphas

I'll keep you posted...

Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside..

Here's a picture Charlie did for me on Friday in nursery. I was moved almost to tears, embarrassingly enough! 

I was at the Bromley Scrapaholics crop yesterday and managed to (almost) complete a layout telling the story of Charlie's picture... pretty fast work for me! ;o) I used the cover layout of February's 'Scrapbook Trends' magazine for inspiration (OK, it was a shameless scraplift)...

Supplies:

Cardstock - Bazzill Basics (white)

Papers - October Afternoon 'Report Card'

Stamps - Banana Frog 'Journaling', 'Pharmacy', 'It's All About Stars'; October Afternoon 'Ducks in a Row' set

Letter stickers - American Crafts Felt Thickers 'Playroom'

Various buttons, Dulux paint chip card, ribbon

It's great to be able to share a layout at last!

xoxoxoxoxox

It's been a busy few weeks.. To cut a long story short, we have decided to move to Eastbourne - and soon! Having made the decision just two weeks ago, our house went on the market yesterday. We have one couple who are very interested but we're waiting to see if they can come up with a reasonable offer. All being well, we hope to go down to Eastbourne next weekend to view four or five houses and - fingers crossed - make an offer ourselves!

The whole story of our sudden decision to relocate is the subject of a layout I've done for Gauche Alchemy, using a selection of bits & pieces from their 'Ball and Chain' kit and two of their mixed media colour kits. It will be featured on the GA blog on 8th February as part of a post by Julie Kirk. I'm not sure if it's any good.. in fact I think I have probably laboured on it and fretted over it waaay too much - the pressure got to me!! But hey, it is what it is.

Cute puppy, lots of thanks and some giveaway news

Details below...

I have been overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of my crafty cyber-friends this week. So I would just like to say a big THANK YOU to those who have left me lovely comments about my competition success. At the risk of this turning into an Oscars-style speech, I also want to show my gratitude to four lovely ladies in particular...

ScrappyJacky, for emailing me her brilliantly helpful lesson plans for scrapbooking classes she runs in her local Children's Centre, and giving me lots to think about before I embark on my own scrapping classes in the near future.

Helen from France, for emailing me instructions on how to make a wonderful fabric Christmas Tree collage - I was so impressed with the one she showed on her blog before Christmas I just had to know how to do it... maybe by next Christmas I'll have my own to show off!

Kirsty Neale, for giving me some super-easy instructions on how to make felt from a woollen jumper (and then make me regret my hasty decision to send my boys' old Monsoon woollies to the charity shop). This was prompted by my comment on her blog post about some fabulous things she'd made, including a very cute felt iPod cosy.

Julie Kirk, for sending me a gorgeous bag of Gauche Alchemy colour kit goodies to help me finish off one of my layouts for Scrapbook Magazine... and for giving me a wonderful opportunity to do a layout specially for the Gauche Alchemy blog {more will be revealed soon...}

While on the subject of Gauche Alchemy, they are currently having a contest for readers to pick a suitably gauche name for their black colour kit.. comment on this blog post with your suggestion and be in with a chance of winning a prize!

xoxoxo

Once I've tackled my upcoming project deadline I'm thinking of holding a little giveaway-challenge-blog party type thingie. I've had an idea for this swirling round in my head for a week or two.. when it's all come together I'll make an announcement here.. and hope that at least a few of you would like to play along!

I'll finish with another picture of that very cute pup.. we chanced upon her on a walk on the South Downs near Beachy Head on the 2nd January, sitting in her high chair-cum-bike seat enjoying the fresh air and the sea view. I'm not normally a doggie person but, well, she just melted me!

At last... I can share some scrappy news!

Well, I didn't actually win the coveted title of Scrapbooker of the Year (huge, well-deserved congratulations to Helen Salthouse), but I was one of the nine runners-up! Congratulations to all the other runners-up too, their layouts were all fantastic!

now my copy of Scrapbook Magazine has finally dropped onto the doormat - and I've seen it in print (layout blogged here) - I can share my little snippet of news.

The editor, Lee Jepson, also asked me if I would like to submit an article on using black & white photos in really colourful layouts - naturally, I said I'd be delighted! The article is due in at the end of January and will be published in issue 45, on sale 25th March. Now I just have to knuckle down and get it done.. three layouts and 750 words... no problem!??? Eeek!

x o x o x o x

In other news...

While at the Children's Centre with Harry this afternoon I got chatting with one of the staff members, John. The Children's Centre puts on various classes for parents, such as Flower Arranging and Yoga, while looking after the children in the creche. Fantastic for giving mums a break while enabling them to have fun learning new skills.

I asked John if he'd be interested in letting me run some simple scrapbooking classes for beginners.. once I'd explained what scrapbooking was, he was indeed very interested! I just need to come up with a plan and go in for a chat to talk through the details. I probably won't be paid much, if at all (although they will of course pay for materials), but it could be lots of fun as well as a brilliant learning experience.

So many exciting things happening, what wouldn't I give for a few extra hours in the day?!

Poppy lying in wait under the bird-table... in vain as usual

Happy New Year! Two little projects to share

Well, we survived the Christmas season, happy and virtually unscathed. We had my parents over from South Wales for the big day and then traveled down to Eastbourne for New Year with Gareth's parents. It's been so busy I'm afraid my little blog fell by the wayside for a while.

I have a ton of Journal Your Christmas pages to share but rather than post them all here, I have uploaded all I've done (so far) to Flickr, along with descriptions and details of supplies used. My JYC photo set is here if you fancy a look - or just click the link to the left to go to my photostream!

Meanwhile, I have a couple of small projects to share - first, another of my UFO's (UnFinished Objects) which is now Finished. It is a small canvas, covered in patterned tissue paper from IKEA using Mod Podge, as described by Kirsty Neal in the 12 Days Christmas workshop.

For several weeks, this was how it remained, until I had a sudden flash of inspiration just before Christmas and finished it off in just over an hour. My inspiration was this piece of ribbon, bought at the wonderful Knitting and Stitching Show back in October.

Using my Cuttlebug and Spellbinders Birds die, I cut two medium-sized birds from blue felt. I then hand-cut three hearts from red felt and stuck the smaller ones on to the birds with the third one to go in between them. I added a pink and a blue brad to each birds for eyes.

Next I stuck some red and white gingham ribbon around the edges of the canvas as a frame for the birds. Finally I stuck on the birds and the heart in the middle, using Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear Adhesive (it's brilliant stuff!).

I was going to add the word 'Peace' in letter stickers but NONE of my sets of stickers had more than one letter E so I gave up.. I might come back to it some time but I quite like it as it is, for now at least!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

My second little project to share was an unexpected - and much appreciated - Christmas present from Gareth. It was a 'Make Your Own Heart Decoration' kit from Accessorize, containing everything you need to make a cute stuffed heart - felt, floral fabric, ribbon, buttons, gems and wadding, as well as thread, needles, pins and a plastic thimble.

I sewed it all together while curled up on the sofa on Boxing Day, watching 'Flushed Away' and eating choccies. Bliss! It looked lovely on the Christmas tree and I can imagine making lots more out of scraps of fabric to give as gifts, maybe stuffed with dried lavender or other herbal smelly things.

These kits are now selling at half price (£3) in Accessorize - a nice pressie for someone crafty perhaps?