Where the heck did January go???

So the new year's resolution to blog more didn't quite work out then?! I can't believe that it's almost the end of January already. I have had a productive month however, scrap wise if nothing else ;)

Last weekend a UKS friend (Lis) and I went to The Living Rainforest for a photo shoot. I nearly didn't take my camera but I'm so glad that I did. The photos were stunning and I couldn't wait to scrap them. The first I fired off pretty quickly using a Pencil Lines sketch from a while back. The second was in response to Shimelle's 'Scrap like you mean it' challenge on UKS, in which she provided a sketch for us to work from. I was really pleased with how both of them worked out.

This week's challenge on UKS was set by Blooming Pages. We had to scrap an animal for 10 points, use stitching for 10 pts and use black, red or yellow for 10 pts. I had a fabulous photo of Connor after his face painting last week. The perfect paper I had used for my sister's cat LO that I gave her framed last year. I still had some odd bits left though so I cut out the paw prints and stuck them around the edge. The hardest part was incorporating stitching on what was a fairly simple design. I spent ages stitching around the letter 'C' but it just looked stupid so in the end I settled for two stitches to hold the 'C' in place in the title!! Almost a cheat but not quite.

The other two pieces I've been working on this week are the pre-crop challenge that is based on

as our inspiration and the LO for the Scrap Sisters challenge on the 16th February. Don't want to unveil either of them just yet though so watch this space.

This weekend I have a CJ to get ready for posting on Monday and various pieces that are in my head at the moment, just calling out to be put to paper!

Shimelle is a star!!

I was doing so well, wasn't I?! Although I've not been posting on my blog I have been hard at it scrapping wise. I was thrilled this morning to have an email from Cheryl at SI asking for one of my LO and am going to pack that up to send tomorrow.

It's been an exciting week on UKS too, with the unveiling of the 'Murder, Mystery and Mayhem' cybercrop. I've been assinged to the FBI and have been enjoying the challenges so far. I didn't manage to resist the kits though and had to buy both Bubbly Funk and Shimelle's.

Speaking of Shimelle, she is doing a free mini class to say thank you for the wonderful experiences she's had as a result of what she calls the 'crazy scrapbooking thing'. I think that it's very her! I've only met her once at the Skraptacular retreat but she is a lovely warm and funny person and her giving this free mini class is fab! I'm really looking forward to having a go. Thanks Shimelle! (For more information, click here:) )

Happy New Year

Well, I have been a little absent recently! Since Boxing Day I've been back in the scrapping mood and have messed up what was a tidy scrap room but have created 9 new LOs. I'd forgotten how calming and all consuming scrapping was and can't wait for my Snapfish delivery- hopefully tomorrow. I will share the LOs with you another time (mainly because I'm living in hope of getting some sunshine in which to photograph them ;) ). Today I'd like to show you my CJ entries. I did two just before Christmas to finish off the 10 month adventure. They were Roo's 1968 and Sarah's Fairytale females. I don't seem to have taken photos of the Fairytale females. I did Snow white. For 1968 I did a review of the year. I was fairly pleased with the results;

Weekly Challenge UKS

Off to Devon tomorrow so did the challenge tonight. It's not one of my best but it's another 40 points for the team!!

May08 Week 3 Team Challenge by the Alphabetties
We are the Alphabetties, so the theme for our challenge is the alphabet.

You can use a song title, children’s rhyme or any other clever way you can think of to include the alphabet.

We have drawn a diagram (see below) for you to base your LO on and we’d like you to use an ‘abc’ of embellishments …

A = alphas, acetate, accents or arrows, for example
B = buttons, brads, bling or blossom, for example
C = chipboard, circles, charms or chalks, for example

read on to page 2...
So, to sum up …
Alphabet theme -10pts
ABC of embellishments – 10pts (5pts for using only 1 or 2 of them, full points for using all 3)
Use the drawing – 10pts

We hope you enjoy our challenge.



And here's my take...'There's no 'i' in team'

Shimelle's Class: Write it Down

I loved all the classes that I did over the weekend of Skrapztacular. I did the 'Write it Down' class with Shimelle and took an intake of breath when she showed us the area that we'd be journalling on, along with everyone else :) She talked us through the LO with great instructions and then taught us how to write our thoughts down in steps. In the end if was easy to write down my thoughts about Connor, and the time when this photo was taken of him.

Ready, Steady, Scrap!

Well folks, it's all done! It's taken me ages to decide on the finishing touches but I'm happy with the LO. It's just a shame that I can't share it with you all :) It's in the September Issue though so watch out for that one.

Right, now it's time to share the projects from Skraptacular. There are a few. Mum and I arrived about 9am on Saturday 3rd May. She went straight into a class so I got into a simple LO to get me started.

My First House

I used more of my K&Co wild saffron for this LO. I made the 'Home Sweet Home' sign from lolly pop sticks and used a bloom from the UKS swap. The swirls are Bazill Basics.

I then did another simple LO using more K&Co but this time Baby Boy.

it sleeps


This one records the fact that Connor didn't sleep! 'It sleeps' is what my husband and I used to say to each other in utter relief when it happened :) The alphas are American Crafts Thickers in foam. The tag is K&Co and the Zs O'scrap.

I did a couple of classes for the remainder of the day (which I'll share at a later date) and then a challenge.

The challenge was to scrap someone else's photos. I was lucky enough to get three beautiful pages from Penny. I really wanted to do the photos justice and I spent hours on the LO. I was really pleased with it. I was really pleased with Penny's LO she did for me too based on my photos of a trip to Prague. In the end we both won the challenge :)

The Eyes Have It by Me

Prague by Penny

And here we are getting our prizes :)

Scrapbook Inspirations Commission and the CJ arrives

Technically it's the start of a new week, and I still didn't catch up on my blog. Oh well. This week has been a quiet one for scrapping following completion of my wedding LOs. I got an email from Shimelle on Thursday asking if I was interested in a 'Ready, Steady, Scrap' commission for SI Magazine- hell yeah! Free stash and paid for scrapping. Got to love that! Cara then emailed on Friday to say she was sending it SD and it would arrive on Saturday but it didn't :( I emailed my fellow participator to see if she'd got hers and it turned out to be Sam, who I sat next to at the Skraptacular retreat earlier this month. What a small scrap world it is! Anyway, hopefully it'll arrive tomorrow- very exciting.

The challenge this week was to use the sketch they'd attached (10 points), use ribbons (5 points), use stamping (5 points) and do some doodling (10 points). I almost forgot to do it so did it very quickly tonight but was fairly pleased with the result.



This is 'My Big Acheivement' and celebrates my becoming Head Girl back in 1994. It uses more of K& Co Wild Saffron and a tag, with the photo attached to the back. The stamp I used is Technique Tuesday.


The blue alphas and the min alphas are both from Doodlebug and the blue square is from fontworks.



I cut a couple of slits in the paper and stuck envelopes behind to house my application letter and my Head Girls welcome from Foundation Day that year.

Simple, but I like it and I used my Fastenator for the first time too.

Yesterday Julie (Nabview)'s CJ 'Saying Yes' arrived. It's beautiful but I don't know where to start. I'm going to have to think a bit about this one. It might be a good time to show you my last CJ effort though. It was Audrey's 'Strong Women' CJ. I wanted to choose someone from the world of science since I am a scientist and after a lot of research and findings (did you know that Rosalind Franklin discovered the doble helix for example and not Watson and Crick??) I went for Marie Curie. My pages are here:



Again the pages use K&Co Wild Saffron paper, which I've inked. It also uses K&Co felt flowers from the same range. I printed out pages of her notebook and stuck them on using foam pads for texture. The rub on words are me braving the rub on world and surviving it.



My favourite feature on the second page is the journalling block 'Daily Dose'. It ties in well with the theme. And the finishing touch was of course my tag for the back of the book;



And now I must get to bed ready for the start of another week. Have a good one all x