Wow! It's been a while

I was going to delete this very neglected blog, but then I had a browse through lots of my old posts and enjoyed having a nice stroll down memory lane. 

I've just posted this picture on a Shimelle on-line course web site and thought I would add a copy here.

The photos are from August 2015 and show a public footpath near our home.  There were fields of broad beans and corn on one side a free range pigs on the other.  I'm amazed it took us 27 years to walk this path.  The wood is tiny and hidden away in the middle of lots of farm fields.  We also walked past old farm houses, one of which had an ancient fuel pump in the garden.  At the end is an old quarry, that's now a lovely lake for wildlife.

The papers are old Simple Stories Destinations papers.  The page is a bit brown, but it matches the busy pocket page opposite as that includes red and kraft,

Have a lovely week x

MemoryLane
A few weeks ago we spent a lovely morning in Ross-On-Wye.  Paul went to an autojumble - bit like a car book sale for car parts - and I had a mooch round the shops.  It's a really lovely shopping centre full of lots of lovely independent shops and perfect for buying small gifts.

In the afternoon we took a trip down memory lane to Monmouth.  We used to go every month when we lived in Wales.  I haven't been back for about 15 years so it was interesting to see what had changed and what was still the same.  Lovely town but mainly the same shops as any other town.

Here is a layout I made of the photos I took of the main street in Monmouth.  I was pleased to see they still had a tiny market.  The layout is from Shimelle's UKScrappers series called 'and now for something completely different'  This is her August layout.  UKScrappers is free to join and this class is free too.  As far as I know you don't have to be in the UK to join.

UKScrappers are having a birthday celebration with lots of free classes and an on-line crop.  I'm in the Scolars group and decided to purchase the mystery kit.  The contents are gorgeous and I will do a blog post, after the deadline, with details of what I make.  For now the contents are top secret.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Anne x

MyNewNoteBook

First a proud mum request :-D  It's my son Mike's birthday today and he has challenged himself to get his eBook in the Amazon top 100 today. Here is the UK link to the eBook please click the link even if you don't buy the book. More details and the US Amazon link can be found on Mike's web site

Now back to crafting.  I was reading Kate Crane's blog and decided to try making my own version of her inky little book.  I made a few pages but they just didn't work for me - too green! 

Instead I made my book with scrapbook papers, stamps and rub-ons.  I used fours sheets of scrapbook paper cut into 6"x4" pieces.  I dug out my beautiful, but much neglected, sewing machine and in no time at all had this lovely little book.

I cut two of the 6"x4" pages into three to form the pockets.  Sewed along what would be the top side of each pocket and then placed two pieces together and sewed round attaching the pockets to six of the pages.  I didn't use any glue.  The pages are a bit rough round the edges and the stitching is wobbly and just cut off at the ends to keep it from looking too neat.

I stamped randomly with a selection of stamps including Tim Holtz, Dylusions and Club Scrap.  The papers are from American Crafts and Lily Bee.  I used an old partially used sheet of 7 Gypsies rub ons to add a bit of extra detail to the pages.

 Here are the finished pages.  Click on the photo for a closer look.

This photo is close up showing some of the stamping.  I will add more and some doodling as I go along.

Finally here is my favourite page.

I plan to use the book to record three nice memories of each day, along with a bit of doodling and a few photos.

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the Olympics.  I'm going to see the Basketball on Wednesday and I'm really excited :-D

I watched a brilliant video from Shimelle that was included in her Cover to Cover class.  I originally bought it separately from TrueScrap1.  Several of the layouts are inspired by Shimelle's blog and classes.

I started with 9 older patterend papers from American Crafts and K&Co

Adding in three partial sheets from the same collections.

 

A selection of letter stickers from American Crafts, LilyB, October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket.

 A few stickers and embelishments.

I cut up all the full sheets of patterned papers; using the ideas from Shimelle's class.  I have some big boxes, 12" wide strips and samller boxes.  The layouts will give you an idea of the type of dimensions I used.  If I did it again, for my scrap style, I would like more 12" strips. 

Here it is all cut up and for some unknown reason it makes me so much happier than the full sheets!  Possibly because I like using up scraps and used to love making scrap quilts.

 Here are the B sides.

The first pages I made where of photos from an owl evening.  I had been meaning to make this page for ages but didn't know what papers to use.  The photos are not great quality and hubby had acidentally put his camera on the 'majic' setting - which seems to make everything orange.  However, It was a great evening so I wanted to include the photos in my scrapbook.  The first makes me laugh as hubby is licking his lips as if he wants to eat the owl!  This was an amazing evening that I would recommend to anyone who likes birds.  The owls are suprisingly light and one flew to our arm and we held others.

Here is the co-ordinating page.  The evening was a gift for my birthday last year, taken just before my birthday this year.  As explained above my hair was not that orange!

This is the starting point for the next layout.

And the finished version.  No idea where or when this photo was taken.  I've written about how hubby loved and kept his 'tash' for 25 years and how much I hated it!

Here is an old photo of my grandma and her friend.  I think it would have been taken at Blackpool.  It makes me laugh as here she is on the motorbike but she never ever wore trousers and if you look closely she even has a skirt on in the photo. 
A note of caution doillies tend to tear so you have to commit quickly when you add letters stickers.

This next one is just a starting point so far.  I also have three card starting points using the same background card and flower paper.  The patterned papers seemed to be wider than the StampinUp card and when I tried to shave off a tiny bit my trimmer just chewed it up.  So I've cut it up and will share the cards when I finish them.

Still loads of pieces left.  Not sure yet if I will keep going or add them to my rather bare scrap box.

Yesterday we braved the rain and went to see the Olympic Torch.  We had planned to go to Newtown but decided that we were not brave enough to cope with The Wanted's teenage fans.  It is nice to note that the man (Jim)  who we saw carry the torch has done a lot for children's sport over the last 50 years.  Our photos are rubbish but it was a great atmosphere and fun to be there.  Later we went shopping in Lichfield. 
Have a lovely day. x

Inspiration From Glitter Girl And Your Story Matters

I seem to have been missing in action again, except 'inaction' would probably be more appropriate.  Here is a layout inspired by the Two Peas in a Bucket Glitter girl video on using stickers.  It's a great way to use up stickers that you don't really like - for me it's cloud shaped stickers and also group photos that are not great mainly because people don't like having their photo taken.  I had to sneekly take some photos from a distance while they were not looking.

 Here is a close up of one of the sticker blocks. 

I used October Afternoon papers from Sidewalks and the background is from Family Homemaker.  Most of the stickers are from the Sidewalks Collection.  I used American Craft thickers and the title is inpired by the 'Your Story Matters' class.  The background is too busy to add journalling, so I added a bit to the boxes and will do a co-ordinating page with more writing.

And finally this is the view from my front door at about 10am today.  I was going to make the photo brighter but it really was this bad.  You can see the rain falling from the gutters to the right of the photo.  The sky went gray and we had horizontal, vertical and diagonal rain.  It was worse than this, with rain coming vertically off the side of the car, but I had to wait for the window cleaner to move as he was taking a photo too.  It was so bad that I had two window cleaners and the postman all sheltering in my home for a while.  No gardening today, so the bush I am chopping down lives to see another day.  It's been quite sunny this afternoon - no wonder we Brit's talk about the weather a lot!

Hope you had a lovely day.  Anne x

LOAD 512

I signed up for LOAD (layout a day) May 2012.  Last time I only made about 4 pages as I had a really busy month.  Yet again it's fallen on a busy month so I will see how it goes.  This is my first page - all about me - and shows photos from 2006 when I was on my way out for a night out with the MBA crowd.  The small title 'Learn Discover Grow' is very apt for everything I learnt and experienced during the time I studied for my Masters Degree.

The page is based on a Shimelle.com layout.  The journalling is on the light brown stripes.  Not the best balanced page but I didn't want to cover up all the sayings on the background paper.  The papers are mainly Simple Stories with Making Memories flowers and brads.

I've also finished another two journal pages so will share them on Wednesday when they have reached their destination.

In case you are wondering the shield is for hubby's car winning the concurs competition (overall winner for the sixth time) at the annual sunbeam alpine owners club yearly get together.

Have a lovely day.  Anne x

Pretty Paper Party

I am really enjoying the challenges at Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party. Using her suggestions I selected the following papers:

This is the front veiw of the papers

This is the back of the double sided pages.

These are the two pages I've made so far:

These are some photos from my garden.
I had a trial run at the hair dressers before my son's wedding - what can I say Dallas doesn't suit me - I looked so much worse than this photo. I ended up with straight and sleek for the wedding. This photo makes me smile though.

Many years ago I used to write web pages as part of my job. Now I am going round in circles trying to get blogger to do even simple things - like get my photos in the right order. I guess a little knowledge is a bad thing and things like Blogger have made me rather lazy.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. Anne x

Cruise Food

Last year we went on an amazing Baltic cruise and as expected the food was amazing.

This page is made from another of Shimelle's starting point challenges.  Thanks to Shimelle I am really starting to get into scrapbooking and I think this is about page 23 - I wonder how many pages you have to make to call yourself a scrapbooker?

This is Shimelle's starting point...

...and this is my finished page.

Apart from the red paper under the words all the rest came from this £1 pack of paper pieces I bought from Crab Apple Crafts or the 7 Gypsies background paper.  I am challenging myself to see what I can make with is pack of paper and have already started another page which I will share when complete.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend.  Anne x

Shimelle's Starting Point Challenge

I am a bit of a miniturist at heart so usually find 12 x 12 scrapbook pages a bit overwhelming; but I enjoyed doing this page. I based it on Shimelle's challenge and turned the sketch to fit the photos. All the papers are from Scrapagogo's January 2011 kit, except the gray behind the photo which is the only wedding type paper I used. I used prima flowers and stars from the kit - wedding theme was stars.

So far I have only made about ten 12 x 12 pages; but I have enough papers for at least 200 :-)

Anne x