Lightbulb Moment

My second Scrapaholix layout has got quite a story to it. As regular readers will know, my nephew and 2 nieces took me to see Peter Kay for my birthday. We had a great time and took some really funny photos. This is an arms length one I took of the four of us before the gig started.
And the title?? Well, part of his routine was about mishearing song lyrics and he has always sworn that Sister Sledge sing 'Just let me staple the vicar' when infact they are singing 'Just let me state for the record!' When I saw the song title 'We Are Family' on the sheet of journalling tags, the whole layout just fell into place.

Don't you just love it when that happens? xx

Circa 2011

Last week I went to our Scrapaholix club for the first time in a few months. We had such a great time with lots of laughs and a fab kit. When it came out I wasn't sure about Circa 1934 so I only bought a couple of sheets but I was so pleased with the layout I did with it that I was glad to see it in our kit.

Being black and red it's really suitable for evening photos, something I often find difficult to find the right papers for.

Lots of detail to make it look a bit vintage and ecclectic.

Back soon with the other layout xx

Two Men In A Boat

Just a quick post to share this layout that I did with the January kit from Scrapagogo. It's absolutely gorgeous...as ever, and this is the first layout I have done with it......
The photo is small and dark but so special, my lovely boys enjoying that childhood favourite, making a boat from a box!

Simple but effective to show off a treasured memory.

TFL xx

Need It!

Have been enjoying some more CHA sneak peeks and wow, Crate Paper have really come up trumps this year. Check out these.....

Such stunning examples from their DT.

LOVE these buttons, but think I would want to just leave them on the card and stare at them!!

Think I'm gonna have to buy the collection packs.....

Emma's Shoppe

Portrait is just too beaautiful.

And Toybox is gonna look fab with some photos of my handsome nephews. I was almost relived that I didn't like the fourth collection, it could've gotten very expensive!!

xxx

How Cute????

A couple of weeks ago I think I mentioned that my cousins bought me a gorgeous book for Christmas of knitting patterns for 'Mug Hugs'. Well I absolutely LOVED it and have been knitting flat out ever since. Anyway, a chance Amazon search brought the rest of the collection of these books to my attention, more on the rest of them later but my favourite one so far is the one I made these little guys from.....
Crocheted Finger Puppets.....too cute for words! These are quick little projects that take the tiniest amount of wool, plus they are perfect for the Foundation Stage classroom. These are going to form little nursery rhyme/song sets for a leaving present when I finish my placement but I can't wait to make them for school, baby cousins, and eventually for my own classroom.

Love it! xx

Still going with the festive scrapping! Enjoying the few bits of Christmassy stash I bought with my secret santa voucher.

This one's a mixture of Basic Grey Jovial and a sheet of gorgeous Jillibean Soup Snowman Kraft. I had to document that we had a white Christmas....I've waited long enough for one!
TFL xx

2010 Part 2

So I'm back with the second half of my Yearbook 2010.

July...Kerrie was 21 and had a wicked fancy dress party, Clare turned 40 and we got not one but two Krispy Kremes in Bristol!
August....Lots of prep for starting uni, a new wardrobe and a trip to Castle Coombe.

September.......Started uni and had my first trip to Silverstone and saw a F1 car on the track.

October.........Max was 10 and the Gogo Getaway.

November.......My Birthday, Chewie arrived, our trip to Cardiff to see Peter Kay.

And the one you haven't seen yet. December.....too much to fit in so a few snapshots and a note to point you in the direction of my Christmas journal!

I have loved this project, I must say thanks to Nicola Kerridge for organising this in the Gogo Clubhouse, it is such a brilliant keepsake of the year. After completing this it has really spurred me on to do something a little more involved for 2011 so I am gonna have a go at Document 2011, for each month I will have a pocket for memorabilia, a layout of a key event and a dived page protector with some other photos/journalling in. I can't wait to get started.

How are you going to scrap this year??? xx

2010 Part 1

As I have just finished my 2010 Yearbook I thought it would be nice to share it with you guys in its entirity. So here is the first half....
January......Lots of snow and quiet crafty time.

Feb.........Mollie's 2nd Birthday, lunch at Cosmo, catsitting, Emma and David's engagement.

March......baby Will arrived, nights out and a visit from my Fairy Godmother!

April.......Easter hols, new phone and Jakey's 13th

May......Birthday month (expensive month!!) and wedding dress shopping with Em.

June.....wow rollercoaster month! Really great half term full of fun, Jake's op, looking after Max, Sarah's birthday.

That's the first half, watch this space for the rest xxx

A Snapshot of December

December was such a busy month, so many lovely things happened, so when I saw this amazing KI Memories calendar paper in my Gogo kit, I knew just how I would use it. In photoshop I made the photos of a few key December goings on just 3.5 cm square and laid them out on the right squares. This layout was the very last thing I did with the kit because all it needed was teeny scraps, and the last few random embellies.
And now there is nothing but scraps left of that kit but in this layout I have a great memory of that Month and the kit too!

TFL xx

One To Look Out For

Anyone else keeping an eye on the Winter CHA peeks?? I think this is gonna be one of my fave collections in 2011 and extra bonus, it's Echo Park so it'll be really affordable. It has everything, newsprint, polka dots, flowers, black and white, colour, bright, muted, vintage.......Love It!
Cute huh?

Can't wait! xxx

This Year I Will......

Once again, it has been a while! I have had a big week, first starting back to uni on Monday with a whole day of ICT pretty much turned my brain to mush! Then on Tuesday at my placement I had my first ever formal observation. I was soooo nervous but it went really well (apart from a child taking my pen, running away with it and almost drawing on the walls!!) and put me at ease (a little) for next time, which is a good job because my tutor is observing me in a couple of weeks time.

Anyway, I have finally got around to making and scrapping my resolutions. They aren't so much resolutions as goals for the year but hey, it's just a good time to set these things isn't it, and I always find putting them in writing really helps. Maybe one of them should've been to blog more often!!

Before I show you this years I thought I'd remind you of last years. My goals were:
1. Return to work or study- This was a pretty uncertain one when I wrote it as I had just found out I had only got a waiting list place. But we all know how that one turned out in the end.
2. Continue to enjoy my hobby and get more work published and more design team work-Well with a distinct lack of mags to submit to the publishing thing didn't really happen but I had various bits of DT work so I sort of did it!
3. Get lots more experience in school- Definitely achieved this one! Plus my uni placement has extended my experience to Nursery aswell now.
4. Take more photos- Done!
5. Do all I can to stay well- Well I'm pretty sure 2010 has been my best year since I got ill so I'm managing eveything well.
So all in all I did pretty well but I am careful to set realistic targets (especially after years of vowing to learn the drums, even the years when I was so poorly I could barely lift my arms!!)

So what about 2011??

I'm off to a good start with at least 1 of these, but more on that later....

So what's in store for you in 2011???

xxx

And There's More......

Another quick update with the Christmas journal. I have caught up to Christmas day now and I'm not doing every day so there's not much left to do. Here's a couple more of my fave pages...

Two of my uni friends enjoying my cakes at our shared lunch....
The last day of term in school, I can't take photos so I copied a picture that one of the children did for me, scaling it down really small and used it to illustrate the day. The journalling was more important on this page.

Think this is my fave page so far, shame it didn't photograph too well!

Tom opening his secret santa...

Of course I had to celebrate the fact that there was snow on the ground on Christmas day, even if it wasn't fresh!

Hopefully will get some more done soon and will be back to share it!!

B xx

New Stash for the New Year

So that's it then, the festivities over for another year and back to normality. I had a great time but it is quite nice to be getting back to normal, back into a routine of some kind. I've not been doing masses of scrapping, I can't really work out what I have been doing?? But I have managed to aquire some new stash!!

On Monday I popped in to check out the sale at Hobbycraft, it's usually so expensive I don't bother but I found a few bits in their sale last year plus I wanted to look at the wool so I went for a nosey. There wasn't much but I found all these bits for just 99p and most were reduced from £3/£4, not bad!
Today the postie brought my goodies from Papermaze, shame I hadn't waited cos apparently they have a sale on now but hey ho! I got a mix of October Afternoon papers and yet another sheet of Cherry Hill label stickers, think this is my third lot.

I bought a little bit of Christmassy stash cos I took some pics that I can't wait to scrap.

I couldn't resist these pretty bits and pieces.

And with all the wedding albums I'm gonna have to do I bought these romantic themed papers by Echo Park, they are LUSH! Can't wait to cut into these and have a feeling they won't last for the wedding albums!

And I actually have managed to create something. In Decembers gogo kit were two pockets by KI Memories, as I had lots of photos of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I thought by using these pockets I could include a lot more photos into an album than I would be likely to scrap.

I'm really pleased with these two layouts and they look wicked side by side (and much better in real life!)

I have had some really exciting news this week but I have to keep it under my hat for a bit, watch this space!

TFL xxxx

ETA: In reply to Emma's comment, that's not a stamp in the background, just used sequin waste as a mask.

Finally One I'm Pleased With!

Isn't it typical that when you have time to scrap your mojo gets up and goes awol??? Well that's exactly what's happened to me this holiday. After searching for some inspiration yesterday, a little idea began to grow and I finally managed a layout I was really happy with. The photo is terrible but if I waited for some decent light it may have been sometime before you got to see it!
I had to include a close up to show the stencilling I did using sequin waste. I used More Mustard ink for the circles and then iridescent paint for the stars. I'm really chuffed with the result, just makes the layout a bit more interesting.

I love the way those Thickers look all layered up too!

Happy New Year xxx