Lots More Photos

I've had a very crafty weekend. On Saturday was our Scrapaholix club. We haven't been for a little while so it was nice to catch up with some friends as well as meeting some new ones. The kit wouldn't have been my choice, although it did have a sheet of cork which was very cool, but you know me, I love a creative challenge so I managed to create this..........
For the rest of the day I worked on some other projects I'd brought with me. The gogo November mini kit........

I love this, the kit went so well with this photo.

I also made a couple of cards with some scraps of Early Bird I'd been wanting to use up.

On Sunday I dog sat for the day and spent the day in Kim's craft room. I was feeling decidedly Christmassy so I did this layout of my first Christmas.

I used a mixture of OA Very Merry, CP Joyride and BB December Details. I went for a baby pink theme to suit the 'first Christmas' theme.

I also did this layout of a photo from last year using BB December Details. (Sorry bout the bad photo!)

I created this little button tree inspired by the paper.

And finally, I had fun this weekend learning how to use Kim's new Cricut and Gypsy. It is so cool, I neeeeed one! I designed and cut this and Kim has challenged me to use it on a layout so watch this space.....all I need now is a bit of time to actually craft!!!

Christmas journal starts tomorrow, I can't wait! I have photos of the presents I've made ready to go in it and am hoping I manage to do lots of other Christmassy things to fill it with!

TFL xxx

Sarahs Cards Sketch

Can you believe that after the last post I managed to miss something out?!! I had a go at the sketch challenge on the Sarahs Cards blog and here is the result.
I used papers that I bought from Sarah a while ago, Bella Blvd 'Honey I'm Home'. I found this photo of me looking far too cheerful considering I had just woken up and thought it was a fairly momentous occasion that should be scrapped cos I'm certainly not like that in the mornings anymore!!

B xxx

Lots of Photos

Lots and lots to share, I've been one productive crafter!! I am loving this months Gogo kit, I'm managing to create lots of different looks from it.

This layout is for the academy, I'm doing them out of order just because of the way my inspiration has taken me. The prompts are about Autumn and week 2 is Autumn Love. My autumn love is my birthday and I especially loved the fact that this year it fell on Rememberance Sunday, it made it more special because it made me appreciate all those people who fought in the war and never even lived to the age I am now.
I also used my firework stamps as I always associate my birthday with fireworks as my birthday is so close to Bonfire Night.

This LO was entirely inspired by one of the Alpha tokens that said 'P is for Puppy,' I've wanted to scrap this photo of Stella and Dan for ages cos it makes me crack up every time I see it!

Another more secret Gogo project, a group of us have just started a new CJ so I have been working on a page in Jane's book 'Summer Days,' I can only show you a peek.

Next some stash, finally October Afternoon 'Very Merry' has hit our shores and just in time for the start of my Christmas Journal. I got the stickers, labels and papers.

And finally, I have been commissioned by a friend to make a book. She wanted it for a friend for christmas. It's ended up being quite a feat of engineering, the maximum length of a word for this is only really 5, 6 if it's got an 'I' in it! So 7 was very ambitious.

I used OA detours, she thought that something quite bright and colourful would be appropriate so I thought they would be just right. Can't wait to see her next week and find out if she likes it.

I am VERY excited about the new series of Gavin and Stacey starting tonight although I kind of don't want it to start cos when this series is done there will be no more!!

TFL xxx

Yummy

I had a lovely surprise today. At teatime there was a knock on the door and on my doorstep was Ellie from Mod Scraps! She was hand delivering an order that I placed yesterday cos she had realised that I literally live around the corner. Well you fellow scrapbookers will know how excited I was because I didn't have to wait until the postie came to deliver my goodies.

In my order were these two gorgeous collections by College Press. I have had some of their papers in kits before but they seem relatively hard to find so I was pleased to find these. I went for the stunning new Christmas range 'Joyride' which is adorable........

And some more from the Sweet Shoppe range which I needed to finish off a project.

These have already been cut into and I'm counting the days til I can cut into the Crimbo ones for my journal. Not long now!!

Night xxxx

Award

I don't usually 'do' blog awards but my big sis gave me this one that I really like so I thought I'd pass it on.

I have to tell you 5 random facts about me so here we go:

1. I once came 56th in the Great British Irish Dance Championships.

2. I am the youngest of 4 children by 13.5 years and was the (happy) result of my Dad's failed vasectomy!!!

3. I love to watch darts and I don't know why (maybe I have some strange attraction to men with beer bellies and big gold jewellery!)

4. I have been an auntie since I was 3 years old and have neices and nephews old enough to drive me to the pub and buy me a drink!!!

5. My fave sport is Formula 1, I am completely addicted and miss it now the season is over.

So now I have to pass this on to 5 of my fave bloggers:
1. My good friend Anna
2. Claire who is a great scrapper and whose blog I love.
3. One of my very favourite scrappers Laura .
4. Emma who I have just 'met' online and lives just down the road.
5. And SJ whose blog is bursting with inspiration and funny tales!

Off to do some Crimbo shopping.
xxx

That Time Again

So the first day of my chill out weekend has gone exactly to plan if not better. I started with a bit of scrapping and then decided I wanted to get out for a bit so I nipped to the Range and bought some white cardstock and some Acrylic covers for my Christmas journal.

When I got back this had arrived to make my day even better.........
It's not out til Monday but I pre ordered it and it came early, so not only did I have endless scrapping time but also the company of four of my favourite boys! It is AWESOME, so colourful and clever and the boys are more gorgeous than ever.

So I decided as there is less than a fortnight left of November (how did that happen?) I'd better get on with my Christmas Journal. I don't join in any classes for this, just do my own thing, I'm no good at keeping up with prompts I just end up feeling under too much pressure. So I'm really pleased with what I got done, it came together pretty quickly. I've used OA Good Cheer but hopefully the new Very Merry will arrive soon so I can add a bit of that in too.

I decorated the acrylic by stamping snowflakes on the back with white Stazon and added snowflake rub-ons on the front.

I wanted it to be a bit more ecclectic this year as it's my second year doing a journal I thought I should be a bit more adventurous so I've varied the shapes and sizes of the papers.

I used my scallop punch.

Used die cuts and cut around them to shape the pages.

Used a template.

More die cuts.

I have a few pages that I still wanna do but am gonna borrow some different edge punches to do those. I have also added in some OA journalling cards into the binding, they have lovely patterned backs so make good pages.

And the back cover was done in a similar way to the front.

I love it and can't wait to get filling it now! I also did a layout which is still drying so I will share that tomorrow. Am hoping to spend tomorrow finishing a Christmas present. I might have to watch the Circus again too!!!!

Night xxxx

Buzzing

I've had such a fabby day today I am really buzzing from it. I always enjoy Fridays in school because we have a really good routine and it is always enjoyable. Today as usual we spent the first hour in the computer suite which went really smoothly (possibly because we had 6 missing!!)

After break I was really chuffed when the teacher said she was gonna let me teach a session, my task was to teach the children to read the word 'the' it's quite a tricky one for them to learn because it's not phonetic but we used a really great activity for them to learn it and they seemed to pick it up well. She said I'd delivered the lesson really well and I really enjoyed it.

I also managed to find time whilst I was doing some jobs to have a chat with a couple of members of staff that I get on really well with which was really nice. Being off work for so long really makes me appreciate the social contact of being in a work environment. They both had some really encouraging advice for me and it's really building my confidence for the interview, I'm almost excited!

I've also been really proud of myself this week as I've made it into school despite having very little voice and a bad cough. Not a big achievement to most but only 6 months ago something like this would have had me laid up for days and certainly not allowed me to keep working. Anyway my reward for my hard work is a lovely relaxing weekend so I can fight this cold off. I'm gonna do lots of scrapping. I have two Christmas pressies to finish, a Gogo kit to sink my teeth into and I might make some decs too, bliss! Add to this a dose of Strictly and maybe a spot of shopping and I think that sounds like a rather lovely way to spend the weekend!

Anyway, enough about me, what are you lovely peeps up to this weekend? Hope whatever you do is enjoyable xxx

p.s. Thank you for sticking with me through a rather self indulgent post!!! xxxx

October Academy

It's taken me a bit longer than usual this month to complete the Gogo Academy modules, infact I still have one left that I just can't find a photo for, but I am determined to do it so I may do a photo less layout instead.

Anyway, these are the ones I have done. Week 1 was Pet Peeves, I struggled to find a photo then I stumbled across this baby pic of me looking really cheesed off which I thought was just right. I spotted the flies and bugs of the CC earth love papers and got inspired for the title which I was really pleased with.......
Week 2 was to scrap your hero, I didn't even have to think about this as I was lucky enough to meet my hero, Anita Roddick, on several occasions and have a fair few photos. She is definitely a subject I want to scrap about in more detail....... (sorry about the colour it looks a little washed out)

And week 3 was about the songs on your playlist. Someone has asked me if I hid my list cos I was embarrassed about my playlist but it is just because we had these little envelopes in the kit which I hadn't used yet so seized the opportunity.......

Right I really need to try and get some sleep, not holding out much hope with my cough and the brewing storm (was gonna say wind but thought you might think it was a different type of wind!!!!)

TFL xxx

I Did It!!!

I'm having a lie in so I thought I'd update you lovely people of blogland. I have no voice and a bad cough so I didn't have a great nights sleep, sorry as you can tell I feel like I must justify my lie in!!!

It's been a really busy week, with lots of crafting and some big news. Firstly the news, I have just found out I got an interview at uni. I am so excited!! It's one week before Christmas so it'll be nice to get it out the way. It will be quite a rigorous day, with reading, writing and numeracy tests and a group interview but I'm quite confident. I've started some prep and all my experience gives me some good background knowledge too. So keep your fingers crossed for me and I'll update you in a month.

Onto crafting, I have been so busy, getting all my Christmas crafting finished as well as some scrapping, unfortunately I'm terrible at photographing my work at the moment so here is just a bit of it.

Firstly my Butterfly Crafts layout, the challenge was to scrap something that makes you happy. Here is my LO......

And a close up......

Another LO that I did using CC Nutmeg (again!) I do love that collection.

I really like this photo of me and Dad and the autumnal papers seemed to suit really well. Here's a close up but sorry about the sideways photo. I must thank Kirsty for the use of her Martha Stewart punch, I'm so glad I have one on my crimbo list!!

And then the November Gogo Kit. I wasn't sure about it til I saw it in the flesh, but the wonderful Janice and Lorraine have never dissappointed me yet with their fabulous choices and this month is no different.

This LO has a bit of a story behind it. When I got glasses my brother christened me 'Speks' and my neices and nephews caught onto it and have called me 'Auntie Speks' for the past 2 years. My neice calls me all sorts of names including 'Speckles' 'Spectacular' and 'Spectacles' so when I saw this in an opticians window I had to get a photo........

The 'eye test' style paper was too perfect for the picture.

I made the most of all the different letters in the kit for the title.

Anyway, lots to do today so I'd better get up now, I promise I will take some more photos and be back real soon with more updates.

B xxx

Butterfly

Just a quickie to let you know that Challenge 23 is now up over at Butterfly Crafts. Go check it out and I'll be back later with some more detailed shots of my LO.

Happy Monday xxx

Back Online

Sorry I've been MIA, blogging was first on my to do list yesterday but I was without internet all day. I've been pretty busy, lots of crafting, so lots to share.

Firstly a layout using new Bella Blvd, it's so gorgeous, they've not put a foot wrong with their releases this year. The little houses were perfect for this pic of our trip to St Fagans in the summer........
Here's a close up of the cute little houses......

I've been on a mission to get my homemade Christmas pressies done. I'm determined to really enjoy December and not have loads of things to do to get ready so I'm getting it done now. I am so chuffed with these decs that I've made. They were really simple just ribbons tied around a polystyrene ring. I added some bells that I bought from Asda. I'm so chuffed with them I can't wait to give them away, they're for the staff I work with in school.......

This week I discovered the new Papermania Bare Basics range, which is really cool and not too expensive. I bought these two frames and made them look like this......

Asides from all the crafting, I've had an otherwise quiet week. My birthday celebrations left me with very low energy levels so I've been taking it easy to recover. Luckily I felt better by Wednesday morning, which was good because in the afternoon I went into school and we walked the whole of Key Stage 1 to the local war memorial. It was fairly uneventful apart from when one little girl decided halfway through our minutes silence to ask if Jesus died in the war!! Bless!

So I'll leave you with a sneak of this weeks Butterfly Crafts challenge which will be on the blog on Sunday......

Have a great day xxx