CJ in, CJ done!

I was frustrated again when I came home today to find the next CJ under the doormat with the 'Signed for' sticker (and tracker!) pulled off it. That is now the fifth one that that's happened to. I know we only pay a small amount more to have them sent 'Signed for', but we do that for a reason. We're paying for a service and we're not getting that. I just really really hope that a CJ doesn't get lost on my watch!

Okay, rant over! Anyway the CJ I received was the 'Cornwall' Our Own Photos CJ belonging to Heather. The photos I used were of the Eden Project.

The papers are My Mind's Eye 'Bloom'. Behind the big picture on the left hand side is another photo and in the mini book there are four smaller photos. I used another page from the dictionary ;) Only another 1202 pages to go!!

The jigsaw begins...

I finally found a big old dictionary in Oxfam this weekend and that inspired me to start the jigsaw swap. And once I started, I got a couple of pieces done.

Here is mine. I went with the theme butterflies and time flies. I'm going to put the finished jiggy on my bedroom wall so my piece uses the colours from my bedroom and I'm pretty pleased with it. I used a page from the dictionary with the definition of time on it and a big Heidi Swapp clock, a K&Co. butterfly and Rusty Pickle Sassy Flourish rub on. I have no idea if I'm on the right tracks. The other jigsaws that I have seen seem so elaborate but it's my style so here it is.

I used the same idea for Theresa's 'Bird' piece. The dictionary page with the definition of

'Bird' is my background. I've added a Tim Holtz idea-ology 'Soar' Adage ticket, Bazzil bloom and K&Co bird.

CJ-athon

This weekend I wanted to get all three CJs done and ready to post on Monday.

The first one is 'Our Own Photos' and I had Annie2006's 'Christmas' CJ.

The second one is 'All My Own Photos' and I had wickedangel's 'Seaworld' CJ.
The third one is 'Nip's Sketch CJ' and I had dizzyblonde82's 'Just Desserts' CJ.Phew! Marathon of CJs. Ready to post these and receive the next ones now though :)

A Boy and his Bike

This week's challenge on UKS was set by the Secret Stash Faeries. For the 30 team points we had to:

Use book title - 10pts

Use earth tones - 10pts

Wet/water photo or wet glue or glossy accents - 5pts

Secret journalling - 5pts

Well, I completely forgot about using glossy accents obviously (although I did use it to stick the button on- does that count do you think?) but other than that I met the criteria securing 25 points for the Scrap Sisters. Now a question for you - what would you do differently with the title to make it work better? I am not happy with the title and I've tried it else where but can't make it work. If I use the smaller alphas (like I've used for 'the story') I don't think it'll show up enough. Maybe they are too solid and I'd be better with thickers? What do you think? Thanks for your advice :)

Materials:

BG 'Granola' papers

Bazzil cardstock and bloom

Rusty Pickle 'Sassy Flourish' rub ons

Adorn it alphas

SLYMI Week 13: Scrap with Stamps

And here's my 27th of the month. The challenge set by Shimelle this week was to scrap with stamps. I used a few here. Today we went to Bucklebury Farm Park and fed the lambs so I scrapped those photos. This was a sketch I jotted down a while ago, but I didn't note who's it was I'm afraid. The paper is K&Co Wild Saffron and MME Bloom. I think it looks spring like.

Who says we don't scrap just because we don't upload to the gallery?

I noticed on UKScrap Smack this week that my CC thread friends and I have been smacked for not uploading to the gallery. What the post actually said was that we never scrap so what's the point being on UKS! Well I have news for them. I have scrapped 26 LOs this month and it's not the end of the month. I would like to know how many they've done! In fact, if you're reading this Anonymous please do tell me how many you've done this month. I would add that that does not include the three CJs that I'm doing this year. So now you'll be wanting some evidence I suspect?! Okay, well here's some then.


A whole world to explore. Photos of Connor playing with the fish in the pond. The photos are mounted on chipboard and the jigsaw chipboard pieces are covered in Sassafras 'Bungle Jungle'. The title chip and the smile-o-meter are K&Co.


'Bee' Happy

A LO journalling my hopes for Connor as he turns 2 and a half. They're hidden behind the photo but there's a little bit of journalling on the front explaining that my biggest hope is that he will be happy. The paper is Cosmo Cricket 'Girl Friday'.

The rest I've already posted, or they're from my sister's album so I'll upload them in another post. Oh, but I did finish 'aka The Very Sweet-Toothed Little fella' so here's that too :)

Tagged!

My friend Leigh tagged me on her blog. The tag meant that I needed to take a pic of me--no make up or hair brushed, but right then--so here it is.

Now I wouldn't want anyone else to miss out so I'm tagging Annette :) Enjoy!

Birthday Girl!

Today is Mother's Day and just so happens to also be my Birthday. I've had a lovely day. This morning we walked over to the French Market in town. There weren't as many stalls there today as there appeared to be yesterday but it was nice to wander around in the sunshine and look at all the goods. I was glad that I had my camera with me to take my mind off all those tempting snacks, especially the slice of custard pie- yum yum!
There were also toys...
And sweets...
And biscuits... And a boucherie...
And smelly things.
To get there we walked across the park. I spotted some Cherry blossom and managed to get a pretty funky photo of it.
And I took the obligatory photo of myself to scrap 'Me @32'. I combined it with this week's SLYMI challenge on UKS which was to use this sketch;




to create this:

Materials:
Paper Co cardstock
Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday paper Monday and Saturday
Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday Ready Steady Chip
Tim Holtz Ideaology Adage Ticket
Carolees creative mini etched alpha
Fontwerks green label
papermania red perals
American Crafts Flair button 'Peep'
American Crafts Thickers Daiquirai
MM shimmer alpha mini


And now I should go to bed and get ready to start my 33rd year tomorrow!

I posted with regret!

The sun is shining and all is well with the world! Don't you just love it when Winter suddenly becomes spring?? I'm just hoping that this year isn't going to go the way of the last two years where we have fantastic weather in March and April and then two days sunshine in the Summer. I intend to make the most of every day it's sunny just in case :)

Today was the first posting day for Nip's Sketch CJ over on UKS. I was very regretful when I took it to the post office this morning. I loved looking at it. The CJ is a great shape and I love the paper I used for the cover. Here it is:

Inside it are tabbed sections 'Starters', 'Mains', 'Desserts' and 'Bakes and Cakes'.

I have lots of fav recipes so I had to do a few LOs :) My starters are Curried Parsnip Soup (delicious!) and Goat's Cheese and Red Onion Marmalade Tart.

Under mains I've added Morrocan Lamb Tagine, and there should have been Cheese and Sweetcorn souflee, but I couldn't find what I'd done with it so I'll pop that in afterwards.

My fav dessert (and so easy to make) is Banoffee Pie.

And I've included Empire Biscuits in the Bakes and Cakes section. This is a WI recipe of my Grandmother's and they are melt in the mouth good. I took a batch to school with me on Friday in honour of my Birthday and everyone loved them, as everyone always does!

The tags are cut from Teresa Collins Recipe Cards. On the back of mine I put where the recipe originated and I decorated the front.

So it's winging its way to Terri now and I really hope that it makes it the whole way around the circle, because I adore it and hope to be able to stroke an even fuller CJ in the not to distant future :)

One last thing. This is a Sketch CJ, so obviously all of these LOs are based on the same two sketches. One is from Pencil Lines and the other from Becky Fleck. I don't want to show the sketches in case any of my fellow CJers accept my invite of a sneak peek, but perhaps some of you will recognise them as sketches you've used?! Anyway, thanks to Pencil Lines and Becky Fleck.

It's not a fabrication!

This week's SLYMI challenge on UKS was set by Julie Kirk (Nabview) and was to scrap with fabric. I saw some fab 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' fabric online and that gave me the inspiration for this LO. I've recently been doing some counselling sessions looking at what causes me to go for the biscuit barrel and we've been looking at parental messages amoungst other things. This LO records what I noticed about DS eating habits and his sweet tooth!
The journalling reads'The LL counselling has forced me to analyse my eating habits and the messages that I've already passed to you. There's no doubt that you have a sweet tooth. Most mornings the first thing that you say to me is 'Want lolly!' and when you are upset or have hurt yourself, you ask for chocolate. But not for long now that I've sussed it out.'




Materials
The Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric (spots and food)
MM spiral bound journalling page
7 Gypsies journalling spot 'Notes to self'
Tim Holtz idea-ology Adage ticket 'Love'
Hobbycraft gems
Carolee's creations mini etched alpha
Fontwerks red labels
The Very Hungry Caterpillar paperback book (Charity shop)


I still need to get a couple of extra photos for it. But I was really pleased with the result. It's more cluttered than I usually like, but I think it still works just about. It took me quite some time to do :)

A new favourite!

Just a quick post tonight (and a break from the unveiling of my Sister's album) because I have done my favourite layout EVER with the new Sassafras 'Bungle Jungle' range and a gorgeous photo of Connor...

Materials:

Sassafras 'Bungle Jungle'

Jenny Bowlin Mini Bingo Card 'Grow'

7 gypsies 'Top Ten List' journalling card

Basic Grey buttons

LP from charity shop

Ribbon from stash

Papermania arrow

Basic Grey rub on

Making Memories Alpha shimmer mini

Glossy Accents

American Crafts Thickers 'Puffy'

Doodlebug 'Loopy lou'

The Mojo Returns!

For some reason (probably because it had all my photos and useful programmes on) the laptop breaking meant that I lost my Mojo and hardly did any scrapping at all last week. Yesterday though I went to The Scrap Cafe crop in Caversham and found it again- yay! I took with me the Cj that I have to post on its journey on Monday and the rest of my sister's album.

The CJ I have at the moment is Jem's ''08 days out and about'. The photos I scrapped are from a Canal Walk. It looks lovely and spring like and there's a gorgeous photo of a duck and her babies. I was going to go bright and colourful with lots of BG rub on flowers but in the end I decided to go muted but pretty so that the rich colours of the photos came out more strongly (in theory). I was really pleased with the finished LOs and hope that Jem will be too. I can hardly bring myself to close the CJ and squash the butterflies (which seem to be a bit of an obsession with me at the moment!).
I don't want to bombard you with too many photos in one blog, so I'm going to show you my sister's album LOs a handful at a time.

The introduction page to commeorate '1979' has pages from her favourite books, some journalling to show things that happened in the year (Mr Ed dying for example ;) ) and her name. I'm going to add a few bits and pieces to it to finish it off but am pretty pleased with it as a first page of the album. I was inspired by Mini Owner over on UKS, who submitted this for our challenge a few weeks ago. I've copied the PP but using things that are relevant to my Sister.

My favourite LO so far is the one of my Sister and my Dad- 'The first man a girl loves is her daddy'. I used the gorgeous BG 'Ambrosia' range and hand cut all the butterflies (see, I told you I'm obsessed!). I think the strong colours look great with the photo and am really pleased with it. I used a Becky Fleck sketch from her pagemaps site.

Another favourite (and again uses a Becky Fleck sketch) is 'Little Sister'. It still needs journalling but I'm struggling there. I'm sure inspiration will strike (fingers crossed).

Then there is 'Yum!'. Here I've used the fab colour on B&W technique to bring only the food to life. I have had this BG paper for ages and didn't have a clue what to do with it but I think it works well here. I love the 3D effect I was able to create.
And the last one I'm going to share today is 'The Aunt'. I used a sketch for this one too (no prizes for guessing who's it was!) and got the papers at MJs crop the other week. These are some of my favourite photos of all time and I think that the LO lends itself well to them.

March Madness

I absolutely can't believe that it's March already!!! Where did February go? So, this is the month when my bank balance looks at it's worst for the whole year with the majority of my family's birthday falling in it. This year is particularly bad since I also have annual rental insurance due, a final gas bill (£295- are you sure?), and car tax due. On top of that I've just had the news that my lovely laptop will cost £400 to repair- boo hoo! And March is the month that I turn 32. I still can't believe that that is my age. I don't feel any older than I did when I was 18. Some would say that I don't act it either ;)

Leigh and Toni have both made my day today by awarding me this;


I will consider my top 10 favs when I get my laptop back (hopefully tomorrow) and back up all my favourites and get ready to say goodbye to it :(

I haven't taken any photos of the LOs I've been working on recently so there's no new craft news from me. I will get some photos taken over the weekend though.