A nice surprise

Today I had a lovely surprise when the postman knocked on my door. It was a goody bag from Scrapbook Inspirations because they published my email in the latest edition of the magazine.

Look what was in my goody bag! I wasn't expecting it at all but it was mush appreciated so thank you SI. What a shame they are not publishing anymore. Not sure what to do instead :(

Wicked!!

The cybercrop has at last been unveiled and I'm a 'Scarecrow'. What a great theme. Can't wait to see what the classes are. And our very own Steph over at Indigo Mill has been hard at work creating the 'Lion' kit. At least now I have an excuse for my hair being big for the next few weeks!!

Blogging for beginners.

Have you seen Shimelle's latest online class? It sounds like a lot of fun and it's all about blogging. I love how she describes how she now describes what she does for a living and I hope that she won't mind me quoting her here;
'...there is one thing I do not love. And that is explaining what I do for a living.
Keep in mind that ‘scrapbooking’ is not an understood word in this country, so ‘scrapbooker’ would be even crazier. And the frustration is found in exactly how simple scrapbooking can be to us: it’s photos we’ve taken and words we’ve written and pretty things we’ve arranged to remember our lives. No matter how fabulous that seems to us, whenever I start to say that aloud, non-scrapbookers tend to look at me as if I have three heads. '

How many people do you know who have done the same thing?? Check out her blog to find out how to describe scrapping without the three head syndrome :)

Safmat- so versatile!

I found another use for safmat (on sale at Indigo Mill right now!) this weekend with it being my Son's birthday. This time I printed his face on to it and stuck it on to white icing to make it look as though he was driving his birthday cake car :) So many uses.

What were you doing three years ago?

Isn't it weird that on any other day I wouldn't be able to answer that question probably. Not without looking in a diary to see if there was a hint. But today I can answer that without hesitation. At 10.18am I was giving birth to my son.

Yes, today Connor is three. I really don't know where the time has gone and it's only when I look back at the photos of the last three years that I remember just how much he has changed.

Connor October 2007

Connor October 2008 (and yes I take full responsibility for the hair cut and have not forgotten my promise never to cut Connor's hair myself!)

We've made it through the terrible twos relatively easily. Connor is undeniably Connor now. He is his own person. He is more and more independent. But he still likes his cuddles and I hope that in 15 years time I'll still be able to say that!! So Happy Birthday Connor, with all my love.

How cute is this album??

And it even matches my blog :) I want one, and Prima are giving one away. It must be fate. Check it out here.

The email, the bitch and the earache.

I have not had the best week it has to be said. I mixed bag of strange and somewhat bitter encounters have clouded an already busy time and my brain is fried. Throw in an earache and some antibiotics and you get the image of me right now.

But yesterday Connor and I went for a photoshoot. It was free. I had my makeup done and my hair styled. The studio part was actually pretty fun but the long day with a 2 year old wasn't especially, more so because of my being ridiculously tired than any bad behaviour on his part, and I was glad to be home and in bed by 8 pm.

I took this photo of Connor (just before the photographer came back into the room and told me I wasn't allowed to take photos in the studio (and I'd amassed loads by then because she'd been gone so long!!!!!). I've used the Indigo Mill October challenge and have a LO all ready to go for that and SLYMI this week, but I had no photo. Essentially the LO is the story of Connor at 3. I was going for a happy, smiley photo because that's what he is. But what I've actually caught here is still so Connor. This is his tired face. This is Connor zoning out for a minute. You'll notice the vacant look and the staring eyes. This look is the one that is usually followed by the words 'I'n not tired' (and yes I meant to put 'I'n' and not 'I'm' because that is what he says!). It does not work with the LO I have created, but it is a truely Connor photo nonetheless. So out comes the camera again today to try to capture a more alive still of Connor at 3.

A new CJ begins

Connor will be three on Saturday. I have no idea where the time went!! Anyway, having now completed both all my own photos CJs (meaning that I have the first two years of Connor's life scrapped in 8x8 ready for when he turns 18 ;)) it's time to start the third year. Ali has again kindly agreed to host this one. I started with Tracey Lihanne's 'You, me and them' CJ and her two boys are just scrummy.

And this award goes to...

me ;)

Thanks Julie for giving me the award last week, even though I keep scheduling posts without remembering to take photos of my work to add to the post ;)

So the award goes like this:

'Ok so it is in fives ... Just fulfill the normal courtesies of contacting the giver and 5 recipients .... then list 5 things you are addicted to ...easy really but if you don't have the time ....or cant do links ...I really understand ...just accept the award which is sent with love.'

I'm going to stick to the 5 scrap related things that I'm addicted to (the rest is a whole other story ;) ). Right now I'm addicted to...
1. Journalling spots and stickers- I don't mind what brand they are, I just love them all; Jillibean Soup Sprouts, Fontwerks Stickers and Crate Paper journalling stickers.
2. Monstrosity- the latest range from Sassafras lass is one of my favourites and I can't get enough of it.
3. Glossy Accents- this has been on my list of addictions since Annette introduced me to it a couple of year ago now and hasn't left it yet. Great stuff!
4. Prima- Prima have had a great design season this time around. Their blooms and embellishments are just gorgeous and I can't get enough of them!! Steph has chosen some lovely pieces so check them out.
5. Safmat- as I first revealed last week, safmat is quickly becoming one of my favourite things to add to a LO. Can't find a rub on with the words you want to use on it? No problem, just print it on to safmat :)

Want to know what I'm talking about?! Just click on the links to see them all in the Indigo Mill shop.

But enough about me!! I'm passing this award on to:
Annette
Nat
Claire W
Deanne
April

Party Weekend

Over at Pencillines this weekend there has a been a party. There is loads of stash to giveaway and all you have to do is comment before midnight tonight. Better get your skates on :) Oh and part of the weekend, Shimelle is giving away a digi download that is pretty nice so pop over here to check that out.

It's a bit of a shame really.

It's been brought to my attention that anyone can read what I write on here, and anyone can turn my own words around and use them against me. This knowledge made me feel almost naked. You'll have noticed that I've changed the address of my blog and this might explain why. I've also been thinking long and hard about my scrapbooking and my blogging.

Why do you scrap? For me now it's almost like a diary of events, feelings, thoughts; a sort of how it is now. I always wrote a diary. I don't often open up to people and writing a diary was my way of getting the thoughts out of my head I suppose. Some people don't like their partners to do that, however, so I stopped and I think that scrapbooking has gradually taken its place. Scrapbooking started as a release of my creativity I think, and a way of showing off the photos of my gorgeous son. As I've become more and more confident about scrapping everyday things and with journaling so too has my scrapbooking evolved into something much more cathartic. Now it's a way of recording what I'm thinking and feeling as well as recording events and asides. ‘I’m not a robot’ would be case and point.

So I've been thinking about stopping the blog so that I can still scrap in this way, without the rest of the world knowing my innermost thoughts and feelings. But then I think of all the inspiration I get from other peoples blogs and I want to be able to give some of that back, so stopping the blog doesn't work for me. Perhaps I should change the style that I scrap in and not give so much of myself away? But then what purpose does scrapping serve? Then I just end up with albums and albums of photos of my son with not much journaling and nothing for me to look back on and say ‘Oh was I really thinking that? How silly!’ And so I've come to a decision. I will continue to scrap for myself, in a way that suits me and I will continue to share what I've done and why on my blog. I will get a thicker skin and try not to let the new found knowledge upset me anymore.

Safmat styley

These are the photos that didn't make the cut. It all looks too green and autumnal. This is a scraplift of a digi LO done by Anna Bowkis. The journalling/title is printed onto safmat that Steph at Indigo Mill kindly sent me (and you can buy it here!). It's great fun and easy to use. The only thing that I would say is that it takes longer to dry than you'd think and since it needs to be rubbed down, take care that it is dry otherwise it'll smudge. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out though.

And then I couldn't stop!!

So once I'd braved using the sewing machine on the LO I shared yesterday I used it again and again. It's a bit like my problem with rub ons and stamps, where I was terrified of ruining finished LOs by doing the rubbing or stamping wrongly and once I realised that that wouldn't happen then there was no stopping me. So now I know I'm not going to trash every LO by using the sewing machine, it's my new fav thing ;)

Each year since my Son was born I've dressed him up and had Christmas cards done. With the lovely weather we had last week I thought it was a perfect opportunity to get out and get this years done in the bright light. These photos are the result of some bribery with cadburys and some tickling. We had a great time though.

Materials;

Around the Block 'Mr Frosty' paper

Accent beads from Indigo Mill

Papermania snowflakes

Jillibean soup corrugated alphas

AC thickers

Becky Fleck sketch Feb 09

There's also some yummy stash being given away here :)

Prima build a page

October sees a new sketch from Prima here. Thanks to Julie and some really really inspired product production on the part of Prima this season, I am loving working with Prima and had to join in with this one. So here it is...'for the record'. I have never ever been brave enough to get the sewing machine out on a Lo before but I did for this one as I wanted to do something new and different. I quite enjoyed it!!

Materials;
Prima stem and homespun bittles
Oxfam record
Jenni Bowlin Mini bingo card and journalling spot
Doodlebug alpha
Dymo Junior
MM blue staples
October Afternoon patterned paper and label
Kaiser Crafts rub on date

Under construction (again!)

Last night I was playing around with backgrounds and accidentally deleted everything. Luckily I'd only just downloaded the blog when I changed it's address so I didn't lose all the posts, but everything else is going to have to be rebuilt. Excuse the dishevelled look in the meantime :) Thanks!

So, what if he scrapped...?

So you may remember last week (or was it the week before?), I told you about one of Shimelle's posts entitled 'What if the boy scrapbooked?'. That was during a discussion (can it be a discussion, if I'm typing it and talking to myself in my head??) about what to call Tony on here. As you've pointed out to me though, he outed himself and Tony it is!

But have you ever wondered what might happen if your partner scrapbooked? Well, I was lucky enough to find out last night. Let me take you back a week though. Due to the 384 miles between Tony and I we often talk on MSN of an evening to catch up on the day. Last Wednesday I logged on to video conference, only to be told that he was in the middle of something and needed 10 minutes. One hour and forty minutes later, Tony came back to talk to me!!! He did say that he'd been making something for me and he was very excited about it so I let him off, but I had no idea how much forgiving he actually deserved.

Today the parcel arrived with Tony's creation in it. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. But I didn't expect this;
Isn't it amazing?! I was almost speechless and 'thank you' just doesn't seem to cover it. I think it's incredible for someone who's not scrapbooked before, or even heard of it (or so he says) to produce this. Even to find all the yummy bits that he's included on the LO is wonderful, let alone sticking them all down in such a great way. So this is what happens when my boyfriend scrapbooks. And whilst I love it and all the time, thought and effort that's gone into it, I won't be encouraging this hobby. I don't fancy sharing my stash after all ;)

On a CJ mission part 4

I'm sending this CJ back to its owner Liz in Jersey and I hope that she likes it. Her photos are from Yosemite National Park and again, they were fun to work with.

On a CJ mission part 3

Mountain Paradise included some lovely photos to work with. I struggled with this one though as the photos were too nice to trim, but used up most of the page so the LOs are simple and uncluttered in the end.

On a CJ mission part 2

Next up was another sketch CJ entry, this time into Terri Ann's 'Seasons'. My favourite season is hands down Autumn and I loved taking photos for this one.

On a CJ mission part 1

Already my CJs have started to make their way home and make me feel guilty for not having finished the ones that are sat on my desk, so the mission began. First up was the sketch CJ 'News of 2009'. I scoured the local news for something quirky but there just wasn't anything that took my fancy. And then I realised that one of the really big stories of 2009 hadn't yet been covered and so here is my entry 'Swine Flu'.

I am not a robot!

Back in September Nic set a little sketch challenge. If you missed it you can see it here. I used the October 'Monster Mash' kit for my interpretation. The robot patterened paper really took my fancy but my son is not really into robots yet. But then I remember something that my ex husband used to say to me and the LO evolved from that.

I distressed the robot paper by running the edges between my thumb nail and finger and then inked it. Once I'd stuck it down with double sided tape I ruffled the edges up with my fingers again to lift it from the page. The journalling reads;
'Someone told me that I am a robot, programmed to do only what I want to with no regard for anyone else's thoughts or feelings. When you hear things often enough you start to believe them but you know what? I am not a robot'.

Materials added to the 'Monster Mash' kit:
Green ticket from Indigo Mill
adt Boys Will Be Boys puffy stickers from Hobbycraft
American crafts thickers
Dymo junior
Ric rac

Warning, Warning, amazing giveaway alert!!

Check out this stunning blog candy on Jak's blog!!!

Scrap Like You Mean It Week 39

Written on the pub blackboard this week is the information that it's 14 weeks until Christmas- shock horror!! And we're up to Week 40 of SLYMI too. Last week the challenge was to scrap your handwriting. I took this one literally and took a photo of me writing the story of my handwriting. It reads;

'My handwriting is by no means the prettiest in the world but I kind of like it. The reason that I like it is beause I worked so hard to get it. As a child I had awful writing- like a spider crawling across a page. One of my junior school teachers, Mr Simpson, was alwaysc complaining about it. Then one summer I started to write. And I wrote and I wrote until I got to a handwriting that I liked- this one! And then I stopped. Out with the spider scrawl and in with...my handwriting'.


I've used the Indigo Mill kit again for this one (see how many LOs you get for your money?!) and added a few odds and ends to it.


Materials added to October kit from Indigo Mill:
October Afternoon Shapes
daisy d's rub on
Lace
Ticket (also from IM)
Doodlebug alpha
Papermania alpha

Pumpkin mash anyone?

This LO was another that I made from the Monster Mash kit from Indigo Mill. When I was in Germany the other week I noticed a pumpkin patch from the car and made sure that we pulled over for me to take a closer look. I love orange in nature. It's definately my favourite colour for flowers and I love the oranges of the trees in Autumn. So the pumpkin patch really excited me- all those oranges!

This LO was already getting pretty crowded so I wanted to include the title in the journalling. It reads 'When I spotted this pumpkin patch at the side of the road I just had to stop and take a photo or two. This is the pumpkin that you wanted to take home for tea'. I used a gel pen to add a frame around the cardstock and inked the second orange paper to lift it from the orange below. The two oranges are part of the same, double sided, piece of patterned paper. I stuck the brown cardstock on and then cut out the area behind. I cut it too deep through the brown cardstock though and had to add a ribbon to cover it. I used a little bit of the same ribbon as a corner to bring the LO together and the buttons for the same reason.

Material added to the kit:

American Crafts Thickers

Basic Grey buttons

Ribbon

Kit creation 'Conker face'

I love the autumn and walking around outside, kicking up leaves and picking up conkers. I was delighted when I picked up this conker and discovered that it had a face! It had to be scrapped really. I tried to create the haphazard distress of autumn (if you know what I mean) with the torn corregated card and the layers of paper strewn on the page. My trusty dictionary is still getting many an outing you'll notice and it's still got life in it yet!

Materials added to the kit:
7 gypsies 'Y is for Year'
Basic grey rub ons
Daisy ds rub on
Scenic route rub on
Kaiser crafts self adhesive gems
American crafts Thickers Giggles
Jillybean soup journalling sprout

Hoffest kit fun

Hoffest is like a German harvest festival, or at least I think that it is. We came across a local hoffest when we were in Germany and popped along. All the farms in a row had come together to put the hoffest on. There was a live band and everyone was sat around big tables chatting, eating, drinking and listening to the music. There were activities for the children like pumpkin painting and it was a lovely relaxed evening. The whole thing was very homely with the harvest products all around so I wanted to recreate that feeling by creating a patchwork quilt feel. To do this I cut the papers in to 3x3 squares which I stictched together using embroidery thread. Lots of stickers and some journalling add interest to the LO and photos and I hope that it captured the whole atmosphere.

Materials added to the kit:
October afternoon Cherry Hill labels and stickers
Adorn it mini alphas
Kaiser crafts rub on dates and numbers

Something to write home about

I've been thinking about how to name 'him' :) A while back Shimelle talked on her blog about why she calls her now husband 'the boy'. Basically it's to give him some privacy and it's not something I've had to think about until now. But I am here. And I am thinking about it. The man? The myth? The legend? Tee hee- maybe! I'm going to ponder it some more but for now he can remain 'him'. A little rude, but gifted with the use of words I am not (whereas he most definitely is so perhaps I'll leave it up to him to tell me what I should call him on this thing!) so for now it'll do.

Anyway, a while ago he said that he hoped he'd become the subject of my LOs sometime soon. And so he has. This is the first of many LOs featuring him I am sure. Entitled 'Something to write home about', here it is;
I used the last of my papers and alphabet from the Indigo Mills October Monster Mash kit for this one and added;
Dictionary and book of quotations from Oxfam
Prima artisan flowers
7 gypsies label stickers from carte postale
Chipboar butterflies
7 gypsies 'Year' stickers
Glitz frosting
doodlebug designs simply sweet rub ons
Carolees creations tiny etched natural alphas
Prima say it in crystals
Sassafras cardstock stickers Fawned of You Too
Jenni Bowlin Memo Pad- black
Sequin waste
Melissa Francess Designer stickers
Tim Holtz keys
Prima felt stem
Tim Holtz tickets
Teresa Collins calender paper
Making memories velvet sayings
Phew! What a lot of stash!!! Hey, perhaps 'Something' would work as a name ;) Suggestions on a postcard...

Monsterously good kit!!

My second LO created using the October kit from Indigo Mill is 'Big boy's pants'.
This one tells the story of how Connor woke up one morning and told me he wasn't wearing nappies anymore. I painstakingly cut out the monsters to go between the two photos and added some stickers and ribbon to give the LO a bit more depth.

Materials added to the October kit:
Jillybean soup journalling sprout black
Doodlebug Just my type alpha
October Afternoon Road Map stickers

Monster Mash Up

So as I already mentioned, Steph sent me the 'Monster Mash' October kit. It's on sale now from the Indigo Mill shop. It has masses of papers, embellishments and goodies in it and I've loved working with it. This week I'll be sharing my LOs that I've created with the kit.

I could not wait to get my hands on the 'Monstrosity' range from Sassafras and I was not disappointed! The monsters are pretty cute! The photos I chose for this LO were taken in August. We were leaving the house when Connor spotted a slug and said 'Take my picture Mummy; he's my friend'. No sooner had I taken his photo than he said 'I'm going to stamp on him now!!'. Hence the title 'What a monster!'. The actual paper from Sassafras was a little busy and blocked for me so I cute a few monsters out to use on the LO. I tore a piece of patterned paper and inked the edges and then stuck it on to a piece of cardstock. The monsters are tucked in to this torn area and raised on 3D squares to make them look as if they are coming out from the page. I'm loving the report cards from Jillybean soup.

Materials added to kit;
October Afternoon: Road map stickers
Jillybean soup journalling sprout black
Ric rac
Buzz and bloom chipbaord shout outs small