MY BFF's a GD!!!

You may remember that my BFF Suzy won the July Scrapology challenge, the same month I was the Guest Designer.

Well, this month, Suzy is the Guest Designer at Scrapology after they sort of 'head-hunted' her!

And best of all, Madison is in her LO and what a fabulous LO it is too!!!

Well done Suzy :)

OOPS!

Looks like I've been AWOL again! So what's happened since my last visit to this dear blog...

Madison started walking & now has a very pretty pair of purple shoes, with 3 little hearts on the bottom! How clever of her to put her feet like this for my photo! Especially as she fell asleep like that! LOL

Madison now has 10 teeth however I don't think any of them apart from the bottom two at the front have come through in the order they should!
Kyle has just turned the grand old age of 9!!!I was very proud of him because his birthday was on Remembrance Sunday this year and as a cub scout, he took part in the Remembrance Parade in Crewe!

Every year, I take a photo of him holding up his fingers to show his age, only one more year of doing it though or the socks & shoes will have to come off! Above is a rare photo of him & below is a normal photo of him - well, you know what boys are like!
I've finally seen a Rheumatologist and as usual, consultants don't like giving a proper diagnosis so I was told it's 'Highly Likely' that I have ME/CFS as well as the Fibromyalgia :( So now I'm waiting for physio & occupational therapy appointments as well as a trip to the Chronic Fatigue Service.

And Andy is putting up with us all - bless him!!!

As far as crafting goes, I've been plodding on with a Crochet Bag, knitting scarves, scrapping in real life & digitally, making cards for birthdays where I can - oh no, I better get on with the dreaded C******** cards too lol - and I've signed up for an Art Journal Circle Journal on UKS, which starts in Jan 2012.

Speaking of UKS, I hosted my first solo challenge on there in October - here are my 2 example LOs - using a different size photo, halloween colours & a stamp thats never used!

I was interviewed by Lisa Griffin, a fairly new DT member in ScrapaGoGo Land - the interview was posted on Kyle's birthday - you can read it here if you want to know more about my scrapping history!

The Chinese Whispers CJ in GoGo Land has come to an end but never fear, I will still make use of my kits - I've signed up for 2 more!!! These are the 10 LOs I've created over the course of this first CJ. Chinese Whispers are the best type of CJ's - I love being able to use my stash for a LO that I get to keep! LOL

Thanks for stopping by :)
x

One Year Old!!!

WOW! Will someone please tell me where the last year has gone???

This last year has flown by - there have been ups & downs, ins & outs, but with the cutest, prettiest face to look at, its really been a good year!

Yes this little lady is now the grand old age of ONE!!! 12 MONTHS! Yikes!!! lol

Love you Madison, so so much...

Isn't she the cutest???!!!

This photo was from one of those free photo shoots where you go and the photographer gives you a free print in the hope that you will order something else. Well we did, but you'll have to wait until I've scanned the other photos first!!! lol

My BFF's a Winner!

The winner of the Scrapology July Challenge, that you may remember I was the Guest Designer for, was only my BFF Suzy - no nepotism involved! Honest!!!

It certainly is a fab LO, but then she always produces something fantastic!

Congratulations Suzy :)

Haircut 101

Upon seeing the fabulous paper from My Minds Eye 'Stella & Rose - Hattie, Happy' collection in my April GoGo kit, which just begged to be cut into & decoupaged and then seeing this LO from Sheena Rowlands, I just had to get the scissors out!

The photo was of me, taken at the grand old age of 5! It was a school photo taken on a Monday after I had decided to cut my hair on the Saturday afternoon! Yep! You read that right! I was cutting chunks of my hair off and putting it into an old shoe box while pretending that each bit of hair was an 'ingredient' in my recipe for tea. My mum was hanging out the washing and helping me with suggestions of another vegetable to put in, completely unaware that I had a pair of scissors in my hand! I can still remember her face when she looked in the box and then at me! Hence the rather short fringe and flicked hair, it was the best the hairdresser could do to tidy up my hair! lol

And of course, while the kit was out, I completed this LO too - photos of Mickey & Costa as kittens, chillin' in one of their usual spaces - Costa in the sun while Mickey was often to be found in a box! Bless him!

Haslington Crop UKS Weekly Challenge

Once a month, I have a day (well, 6 hours) of 'me' time when I go to a local crop in Haslington. I have a fabulous time EVERY time - lots of laughing, lots of coffee, lots of cake, lots of fantastic company and sometimes a bit of scrapping! We decided that we would host a weekly challenge over on UK Scrappers and that week has arrived.

Our challenge consists of making a LO with a group of photos or photos of a group, to include the letter H in the title, to include a star (as our crop only started this year!) and to follow this sketch from Page Maps.


It took me a while to find suitable photos but eventually I remembered these photos of Kyle carefully & patiently standing all his Crazy Bones in lines - it was only when he did this that I realized just how many he had! Yikes!


Now due to having a distinct lack of time, this LO was only completed a few days ago - I got my February Studio Calico kit, sorted out which papers I was going to use and then... nothing! No time = no LO! But then one evening, I just threw everything at the page and hey presto! It was complete!!!

I hope you'll find the time to pop over to UKS and look at the gorgeous LOs my fellow croppers have done & maybe join in too :)

Pinch Punch

The 1st of August 2011 can only mean 1 thing... my BFF Suzy is celebrating her eldest son turning 18!!! Happy Birthday Nick :) & Happy Birth-day of Nick to Suzy & Simon :)

However the 1st of the month also means its ScrapaGoGo Chinese Whispers CJ time - it was a bit of a rush this month but I'm still pleased with this LO using the June kit - based on a LO sent to me along the Chinese Whispers line and the title is similar to this LO from Sarah Youde. The journalling reads 'After a fall off his bike, Kyle only had hugs for Lumpy - my teddy! Of course, he was only on loan! He always is!!!'

A Boy & His/My Teddy

And a couple of close-ups because I'm trying out taking close-ups!!! LOLAs I typed this, I realized I haven't blogged any Circle Journal LOs since March's! Oops! So without further ado...

Gone (using ScrapaGoGo May kit)

The Masks (using the April GoGo kit)

Another of my recent LOs was of Madison's first smile - caught on camera on Day 2!!! I used more of the lovely Cosmo Cricket Pixielicious range I love so much!

First Smile

Do you like my 3D butterfly? I know it doesn't take much, but I am rather impressed with it!
I punched it out of the purple spotted acetate, which I then used as a mask for the Wild Honey Distress Ink before securing the acetate butterfly on with variegated thread from WRMK Sew Easy range.

Scrapology Card Challenge - July

Over on Scrapology, the lovely SJ of Little Musings set the Card Challenge of 'Anything but square' & the design team used her digital stamps. I was Guest Designer again and used a mix of digital stamps in Photoshop Elements to get the picture I wanted, before setting it out on A4 so I could print it and use it for decoupage.

I created a picture for myself rather than a card to give away. I like the picture too much :)


I used Tree Carving, Layered Liam & Layered Lillie. SJ includes a coloured version of the stamps as well as a blank version. I used the coloured version, just changing the girls top to blue. I added text to the heart 'A-squared' for me & Andy. The joy of being able to use PSE :)

Oops, I realized after I'd stuck everything together that as the heart is carved 'into' the tree, maybe I should've inverted the heart by creating more background layers instead & cutting the heart out!


Oh well, c'est la vie! I still like it & most things I make usually have an error somewhere, just to prove I'm not perfect!!! LOL

July - Scrapology Guest Designer

That would be me!!! :)

I was over the moon when I was asked to be guest designer at Scrapology for July :) This month, M is for Masks and this sketch from Liz Qualman.

I flipped the sketch because in the photo, Kyle was looking slightly to the left so it looked better for him to be looking towards the centre of the page.
So without further ado, here is my LO...

I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but I'll buy a mask, have lots of ideas how to use them, but then rarely use them because I forget about them - obviously I have too much stash!!!

I used a hexagon mask that I bought back in March, from 'That Special Touch' and sprayed it with Lemonade Mister Huey's. I also used the mist with a sponge at the bottom and with the mask again in the top right corner, cutting out the hexagons and backing with paper. I like this - may do this again soon!


The eagle-eyed amongst you may have spotted the green paper with the red dots - this was from using the Swiss Cheese punch on scrap paper then using Red Brick Distress Ink. I like this too - can see me using more of my border punches as a mask! :)

And another close up... So what do you think, I'd love to hear from you. And don't forget to pop over to Scrapology & take a look at the Design Teams creations - you could even take part in the challenge & get those masks out of storage!!!

Scrap Factor entries

I was having a sort out of my photos of layouts & looking back on here to see what I've posted when I realized I haven't shown off any of my digital LOs... I hadn't done many before when I decided to enter the Scrap Factor competition over on UK Scrappers - using digital LO's! So without further ado...

Entry requirements were for 5 layouts with criteria given for three of them...

First up... A LO about ME - Yikes!!! I used the Smitten kit which was available from a Scrapbookgraphics blog hop & kept the LO very simple. Those that know me will know that I don't 'do' pink yet there's a LOT of pink on here for me!!!

This is Me

Second... a Double LO - I've done a few DLO's in real life but doing it digitally completely took me out of my comfort zone - but I'm pleased with it! I used Sir Scrapalot's kit 'Snow Much Fun' - which was beautiful but not the traditional colours you'd expect to see on a wintery LO.

The End of the Snowman

Third... a LO without photos! Easy! I wanted to do a LO with all the nicknames Madison has already acquired... Took me a long time but when I look back at it now, I can see why - its too busy!

What's Your Name?

Then 2 more LOs - any size, any theme...

So firstly... whizzed together using Sir Stampalot's Spookilicious kit & Echo Park's digital Halloween Alpha.

Candy

and lastly, my favourite... 'a Model ?' using a kit from Dawn Inskip called Snapshots, which was just perfect for this LO.

A Model?

I didn't get through the 'auditions' for the competition but I enjoyed doing them & I certainly learnt a lot more about Photoshop Elements. I've done some more digital LO's since but I'll save those for another post. I also think I need to be a bit bolder on my shadowing - maybe I'll go back to my very first digital LO's and practice on those!!!

WOYWW 104 - Woohoo!!!

Happy Anniversary Julia!

Congratulations to Julia for keeping this fantastic idea blog idea going - for TWO whole years!!! (Not that I've been participating that long) - check out Julia's extremely tidy desk here!!!

In preparation for this special WOYWW, I had all good intentions to get my workdesk clean & tidy and not just the small scrapping space I usually have - the whole desk, the shelf above it and the units beneath that were slowly becoming hidden by the stash mountain! Hmmph!!! Its that thing called TIME again that always seems to be against me!!!

Anyhow, I think maybe a better title for this week would be...

WHERE IS MY WORKDESK WEDNESDAY???

See what I mean??? Yikes - thats bad - but to be fair, I'm at the sorting out stage so it doesn't always look like that! Honest!!! LOL

I'd also tidied our utility room at the weekend and unearthed the metal garden bench (a miniature bench!) that you can see below - see the dark green - thats it! (not that it looks like a garden bench but trust me, it is) - it's now sitting behind my Expression with my cartridges, notepads & ATG - the best part is that the cutting mat for the Cricut will slide nicely underneath it - so no more having to move stuff from behind the machine to be able to cut!!! Result!!!

I thought I'd try this little storage unit below for all those part-used bits & bobs from various kits - so far so good - I just need to decide where I'm going to put it on my desk now!
Another reason why I decided to have a sort out was my new addition - another Cropper Hopper storage unit (indicated by the arrow) - I already have one for all my cardstock - you can store sooooooo much in there!!! Now I'm left wondering whether to get another one for my Patterned Paper!Anyway, it looks like I'll be spending any free time on Thursday finishing off - I will be taking a photo - to remind me how organized I like my desk which will hopefully mean it'll stay that way!!! Yeah, right... whom I kidding!!!

But I need it to be sorted so I can pack on Friday evening for the monthly crop on Saturday I go to - the one day each month that I can claim 6 hours of pure crafting, chatting & laughing!!!

I'm back in the Land of Technology!

Thank goodness!!!

Connection achieved at approximately 14.30 yesterday & I feel like I've been reunited with an old friend!!!

Don't you just love technology (apart from when it all goes wrong, of course!!!)

I'M SO HAPPY!!!
(& yes, I'm so sad too!!!) LOL LOL LOL

WOYWW 102 - with NO Internet :-(

All of a sudden its Wednesday again!

Last week I didn't blog, because I couldn't! NO INTERNET!!! After deciding to move providers, Plusnet were keeping us connected till the 20th, Sky are connecting us on the 19th (tomorrow thank goodness!) so we weren't going to be without!!! Hmmph - that was until BT stuck their oar in and cut us off on the 5th - 2 weeks without - I truly feel like I've lost a limb! How soon we get used to having all this fabulous technology at our fingertips!!! So this post goes out from a quick visit to my parents to use their connection!!!

Anyway, back to WOYWW... you'll see the start on my latest LO for the GoGo Chinese Whispers - I'm using the back of one of the die-cut sheets from the April kit and have sprayed/misted it with Bonny Blue & Lemonade Mr Huey Mists from Studio Calico. Just waiting for it to dry before I crack on with it… whenever that will be!!! It may still be there next week - who knows!!! LOL

Head over to the Julia's, creator of WOYWW to see what its all about!

WOYWW 100 - on Thursday!!!

It did it again didn't it? It came round too fast again! Maybe now these bank holidays are out of the way & Kyle is back at school, we can get back to normal again - at least until the end of the month!!!

WOYWW has reached the Century mark - very close to the 2 year anniversary now - for more info, visit Julia's Stamping Ground.

So I forgot to take a photo & then when I did remember, it was too dark to get a decent shot! So here is my WOYWT instead!!!

Everytime I get a new border punch, I put a punched piece of paper on this green card which usually hangs above my desk - as my punches are stored in a drawer, this means that I can see what I have and I find that since I've done this, I use them more!

There are some American Crafts Thickers on there too from the Studio Calico kit I got in April - the one's that Suzy & I received were both damaged and replaced by SC along with other items that were damaged. You can also see a pack of Studio Calico wood veneer butterflies which Suzy bought for me as they were rapidly becoming a rare item in shops over here - Thank you Suzy!

Just showing on the bottom left corner is the A4 sketchbook I bought yesterday to use for my Soul Restoration 1 class I signed up for with Brave Girls Club. How on earth I think I'm going to find time for it... it's taken me all week to finish the LO that was on my desk last Wed!!!

GoGo Chinese Whispers - 2 for the price of 1 !!!

Regular readers may remember I'm part of a Chinese Whispers Circle Journal over in ScrapaGoGo land... I completely forgot to blog my LO at the beginning of April so now you have 2 to look at...

Just the 2 of Us - using March's kit, is of Andy & I on my favourite bridge, Luzerne, Switzerland in July 2007 - we were smirking slightly as I was balancing the camera & trying to take the photo AND not drop it in the water!!!


and

Catching Butterflies - using February's kit - Madison in mid-snoore/snooze!!!

WOYWW 99 or rather What WAS on my desk on Wednesday!

Another one of those weeks means that WOYWW is a Wednesday photo of my desk but posting on Friday! WOYWW 99 already - I can't believe how quick Wednesday came round - must be to do with all the bank holidays at the moment, it really throws me - I can never remember what day it is!!!

I'm working on a LO using the April ScrapaGoGo kit - this was one of those kits that I took one look at the preview and thought NOOOOOOOOOOO - its so not me!!! But when I saw some of the LOs created by the Design Team it soon made me change my mind!

After all, the initial reason for signing up for a monthly kit was to push me out of my comfort zone and this kit certainly fits the brief!!!

Looking at this photo has made me realize that I've been working in a very small space and everything is starting to encroach on my workspace! Must be time for a tidy up again!!!

But that won't be happening until after the Royal Wedding!!!

Flowers & Chocolate!

Don't you just love having lots of notice to do things???!!!

One of my mum's neighbours asked if I could make a birthday card for a friend of hers who was turning 100 in May. She had looked in card shops but couldn't find anything she liked as they mostly looked like they were sympathy cards!!! I thought loads of time til May, so I said Yes. Then I discovered on Saturday afternoon that the birthday was actually Tuesday, as in tomorrow!!! Thank goodness for Cricut machines! Here is the final result after cutting from Mothers Day Bouquet cartridge and a lot of inking!

I also managed to have a play with the coffee filters and made these flowers, as mentioned here - I only have a 2" scallop punch, so they are just one size but they are very easy to make - I'm sure they will appear on a LO soon!

My BBF bought us some bunnies for Easter - here they are...
I have never seen the cuddly Lindt bunny before but it is just gorgeous - for Madison of course! The 3 little bunnies were inside it - they are for Andy. There was a box of bunnies for Kyle (not pictured) and the larger chocolate bunny is DARK CHOCOLATE - ALL FOR ME!!! Ok, I have shared some of its ears, but thats my limit!!! LOL Thanks Suzy - very yummy!

Thankful Thought No. 4

Today I am thankful for this wonderful lady being in my life...

I have had the pleasure of knowing her for almost 3 years now but I feel like I have known her all my life. She is the true friend & confidante that I always knew was 'out there' for me. She understands my pains, my heartaches, my happiness, my wants, my needs, everything - she understands ME!

She is & always will be my Best Friend Forever.

Love you Suzy xxx

Thankful Thought No. 3

At the moment, I'm extremely thankful to Jessie J for putting 'baby music' at the beginning of her Price Tag track - whenever its on, Madison will whip her head round until she finds the source of the music. Then if its the video, she will watch it contently to the end. We have it on our phones & we sing it too - each time it will calm her down!