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

Mother's day book

I haven't been very crafty recently so I thought I'd share some projects that I haven't had a chance to share before now. Here is the Tag book I made for Mum for Mother's day this year.



My favourite tag is this one. The journalling reads 'Mothers and daughters are closest when daughters become mothers'. I thought that that was a lovely quote and apt in this case. This is my favourite photo of Connor and I.

The whole book opens up to reveal the word mother. I used Maja Road Chipboard with bazil basics card stock to create the tag book. Thank you to Voodoo Vixen for the inspiration and instructions.

I'm a Drama Queen

Yes, it's true. I'm a drama queen. Looking forward to my first UKS Cybercrop. Will have to get organised though. At the moment my stash is all over the place. I have so many projects I want to get finished, perhaps that will be a good time to do it?

Excitement, excitement, excitement!

What a week! There has been so much happening and it's flown by.

Firstly, I had an offer accepted on a house- yay. And it has a pretty entrance so the photos for the moving LO should be nice. Lol!

Secondly, I had an email today from Silly Monkeys to tell me that I'd been short listed to be part of their design team!! I'm really chuffed about that.

And lastly- the UKS Cybercrop information was released :) I'm a drama queen! Anyway, off to make some button fairies now. More tomorrow.

Quackas' CJ: Poetry

Well, here is the promised CJ post! I have completed my first CJ entry and I hope I won't disappoint :) I really tried to have fun with this and to not worry about it being someone else's book too much. At the end of the day, it's supposed to be my entry, in my style and I hope that that's what I've created. I actually did the RHLO first. It's a poem that I wrote in 1992 when I was 16. It's a school girl's take on love but I still quite like bits of it :)

Because I wrote it when I was young I've tried to give it a 'young' feel with the pastels and buttons.

To balance that out my second LO is an Emily Dickson poem that I love. It's a grown up's poem, on a grown up page. The ribbon paper is fab and meant that I didn't have to add too many embellishments to make the page look complete.


I hope that you like them Karen!

Birthday!

It's 12:18. It is no longer my Birthday. But I actually had a pretty nice time tonight. We went to the dogs in Reading and I won a little bit of money. I don't know why I like going really because I hate to lose money and because I hate to lose money- I never bet :) Tonight I did though and it was 6/1 so I won some money. Anyway, I wanted to share my LO before I go to sleep. I wanted to capture the colour that comes from all of Connor's toys. That and the colour that he brings to my life. I notice it a lot at the moment. I am pleased with the LO. I love the colour!

My CJ

Finally got to sit down to share my CJ with you all. I sent it on its way at the beginning of the week and I received my first one yesterday too :) I've already done my DLO in Karen's 'Poetry' CJ and I'll share them with you later in the week. But today I'd like to share my CJ. Here are the covers, the LO and all the sundries I sent to Sarah. I'm not sure what I think about the outside of the CJ. I chose the paper because it had lots of travel/journey words but the colours are a little dull. But then I've tried to make up for it by using super coloured paper inside. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else does in it.

Playtime

Not much time for blogging this week! Have been having fun though :) On Thursday I went to The Scrap Cafe crop and discovered that Lorraine has a Cricut! OMG! I want one :) Cut the circles for this LO and some cars for my CJ. I will post some photos of my CJ later.

This LO is my weekly challenge for UKS. We had to include a freindship theme, metal and circles. I'm really pleased with the LO. The paper is fantastic and I love my new foam thickers and the autumn leaves journalling stamp I won at Papermaze too. Think they work well with the photo- which I also love.

Feeding the ducks

What a gorgeous day it turned out to be after a wet start (although some of you might have missed that since my day starts at 5.30am every day!). A perfect day for being out and about and feeding the ducks :)

Today's LO I'm sharing with you is my UKS weekly challenge which had to be nature based, use green, use a sketch provided and have a recycled element. It shows my Mum and Son feeding the ducks. They love to feed the ducks together and, as the journalling says, Connor quacks all the way to the pond which is very cute. I'm pleased with the LO, but wish the photos were better quality. It really pays to use a good quality photo paper. The paper is Basic Grey Phoebe and I've just overlaid ribbons and threads where they were on the page to give it dimension. It's nice to add some pink to LO, as it's something I don't get to do often being the Mum of a boy.

I've been looking at houses to move to today. I can't help seeing life in LOs though. As I walk up to each house I'm thinking about what a photo might look like of us walking over the threshold and is there enough natural light in the house etc etc. I'm pretty sure I can't choose a house on that basis!

Prom night pals

Here is the promised LO! I really love this Bohemia range and think it works really well with the photo- a bit of glamour. The LO is based on Pencil Lines Sketch #74. No time to write anything else tonight.

Materials:
Bohemia 'My Mind's Eye' Paper (both sides)
Bohemia blooms with Making Memories velvet brads
Making Memories Shimmer Black Alphabet
Fab ribbon and thread selection from Lorraine at The Scrap Cafe.

Thursday Thinking!

I've joined a Newbie Circle Journal! I'm not sure what I've let myself in for with topics amoungst the team such as 'Super Women' but it's bound to challenge me and I do like a challenge. My first challenge is to come up with a definite theme. I had thought of making a book for my sisters 30th next year all about 1979 but I've been advised that I won't want to give this CJ away! My next idea was to make a recipe book with everyone's favourites in, and this is something that I may come back to (I already have a picture of my favourite starter- see!). But yesterday I was driving up the M3 after dark and there were a surprising amount of blue glowing backs of cars! It made me a little sad to think that these children are missing out on the fun that was childhood car journeys, playing simple games like i-spy but also more complicated and longer running ones like 'Pub Cricket' that I can't really remember the rules to, but remember being a lot of fun. I would hate to forget to teach that to my children and that got me thinking that I should ask my Dad for the rules and then include it in a Car Games for Kids CJ!! Now I just have to check that my CJ team have some games that they could include.

Tonight, I have to say, I am loving Bohemia. I bought a great collection from The Scrap Cafe on Saturday and have put together a yummy page that I will share with you tomorrow using the Pencil Lines sketch #74, which is another beauty. I've also nearly completed my weekly challenge for UKS but need to print the main photo at Boots because the quality isn't good enough. It's all very green in Reading this week, I have to say!

Little Tike on a Trike

This is based on Mojoholder challenge #52. It shows my son on his trike, which he LOVES at the moment. I cut the stars from cardboard using a Big Shot and used Thickers for the title so it was a really quick and easy LO. Pleased with it though.

Fauquier High School Layered LO

I wanted to make up one LO to record my year in America but that involved a LOT of journalling. I found the Scenic Route Lined Paper and used this for this purpose. Using acetate, I added a second layer with my report card decorated with some blooms and more scenic route paper, a third layer with a pocket enclosing my graduation announcement and a top layer with a photo of my year book photo, some scenic route charlotte quincey paper and MM blooms. I'm really pleased with the result.

Pencil Lines #73 Totally Tom

I have been to my crop in Caversham today. I actualy achieved a lot and am pleased with all the LO I've done today. The first I'd like to share with you is my take on Pencil Lines Sketch #73 which I thought was just gorgeous. The photos is of my 8 Year old second Cousin. The materials I've used are Basic Grey papers- Romani and Phoebe and alpahbet- Perhaps, with DCVW textured cardstock and Makes sense supplies chipbase from deluxe designs.

Scrummy Stash Competition: Easy like Sunday Morning

This LO is for the Scrummy Stash Cafe Competion this week which was to 'get back into shape' or rather, use a repeating shape and is based on a day with my BF and DS. It was a really warm day for February and we spent the day feeding the ducks, pushing DS on his trike and playing in the park.

My repeating shape is the dragonfly in case you didn't notice that :)

Products used here-Dragonfly paper bought from Hobbycraft but not sure whose design

Cardstock DCVW

Embellishments from Craft for Occasions with added wire and beads from ebay

Inked edges with Versa Colour

Diecut alphabet from Basic Grey Perhaps range made glossy with Ranger Glossy accents

Off to see my cousin and her children today so hope to get some nice piccies out of that visit :)

Summer Loving

Pencil Lines Stetch #72 is a really good one. I combined it with the UKS weekly challenge this week. I origianlly used white cardstock behing the green but I didn't like it so changed it to burgundy to match the other bits of the LO. On the whole a pleasing LO though, and I love that I got to use some of my thread ribbon that I got free from the lovely people at Craft Obsessions.

Have been up all night with Connor's teeth playing him up and have to go to school to do some planning today, even though it's half term.

Hopefully the day will pick up though! Happy Tuesday everybody.

First draft with white cardstock:

The Weather Girls

This LO is another one of my favourites although I only created it this weekend. I love that I have the confidence to try new things all of a sudden and think that my LO are coming on in leaps and bounds as a result.

Here I've used Basic Grey papers and tags from the colour me silly range and chipboard painted in acrylic and RangerGlossy Accents. I love the wet look and will def be using it again.

Mojo Holder Challenge #51: New year New chapter

I really liked the Mojo holder sketch this week and thought it worked perfectly with my new year page. I've hidden the journalling because it's a little bit more private than usual, with my hopes and dreams for the year on it. Love the spring colours of the Basic Grey LilyKate collection and they worked well with my photo which I took using the self timer being unaware that I had a little person lurking in the background!

My Love-Hate Relationship with Chocolate

And here is my take on the design, especially for Valentine's day. Happy Valentine's everyone!

Why not try this sketch?

Here is my latest sketch. It's a really busy page but enables you to include lots of photos and journalling (or quotes etc). I would only use a few colours in this layout so that it's not even busier! Why don't you give it a try and please send me your designs so I can see how inventive you've been. Happy Scrapping.

Papermaze KI Memories Challenge 'From the mouth of babes'

The challenge from Papermaze was to use some of the new line from KI to create a LO. After looking at the collection I chose the KI Memories Pop Culture Lace Cardstock - Hangman Navy as my starting point. This lead me very quickly to the decision to scrap my son's first words because he pronounces them in such an amusing way. The title is cut from the letters of the lace cardstock and I also used them to journal the words that Connor said first, mounted on red to make them stand out more. I like the effect and will definately us KI Memories lace cardstock again in future.

PS: I received my cardstock really quickly from Papermaze!