A little bit of sunshine on a snowy day!!

Today I had grand plans to visit legoland. The weather forecast says sleet and -2 and with a son who's recovering from all sorts of nasties I'm thinking maybe not!! We shall see. So today I'm bringing some sunshine to blogland, courtesy of Sandra. Thank you so much :)

The award is 'for bloggers who inspire others with their positivity and creativity'! So I'd like to pass this award to:

Kathleen Glossop, Tessa Buys and Julie Dandy who've all inspired me to try some new things this month.

Don't forget that today is the last chance to win lots of goodies from the Birthday blog hop :) There's a reminder here.

Metamorphasis

'The Studio' challenge this weekend was this: 'scrap a life-changing event that's affected you. How has it changed you as a person?' I love this challenge. My most recent life changing event was the divorce so that's what I went for. You'll probably think I'm very strange scrapping my hen night in one week and my divorce the next (I know that my boyfriend does!) but I'm scrapping my life in no particular order and these are things I need to include :) The good, the bad, the ugly.

For this LO I took a photograph of my decree nesci with a dead rose sat on top of it and I tore my ex-husband off a wedding photo and tucked that underneath. I had a bit of a play with glimmer mist in this one and think I'm getting more confident with it but could still do with some pointers.

I also used an idea from my fellow Design Team-mate Laura when I realised that I didn't have enough letters to write my title. You can see what she did here.

The journalling about how the divorce changed me is hidden on the tag behind the photo.

Materials:
Page from book of quotations (Oxfam)
Tag (IKEA)
Autumn Leaves clear stamps 'elegant flourishes'
Adorn it Carolee's Creations 'Sleek black'
StazOn jet black
Jenni Bowlin Vintage Ledger (Indigo Mill)
Doodlebug Mini rub on alphas
Making Memories shimmer alphas
Scrap papers

Chinese Whispers Group 2: Round 2

Last Monday saw the next round of Chinese Whispers. I received two more lovely LOs to lift and I passed on my LO 'Sunshine Stroll' to Claire, which is a lift of Debbie's 'Where did my babies go?'. I flipped it and straightened and used staples instead of stitching. It's easy to see how the final LO will probably not look much like the original one in 8 rounds time isn't it?!

Linda Albrecht

Whilst I was looking for at tutorials recently I came across Linday Albrecht. Her blog is another which is full to the brim with crafting goodness, like this gorgeous project here.

And there's a tutorial on how to make the crate paper rose right here.

Scrappy Egg Cups

Congratulations to Tammy who won Deanne's Blog Hop RAK yesterday :) I have to admit to not having had a crafty week. I know exactly what I want to do with Kathleen's sketch and got as far as printing the photo out for it, but beyond that I'm lacking in energy after the surgery on Wednesday and having a poorly boy to look after since Tuesday night. Life!! So something I've been meaning to share for a while to fill the gap today...Have you ever noticed how many egg cups there are in the charity shops? Next time you pass one, go in and grab yourself a bargain. For these I've used scraps and embellishments that, again, I can't see myself ever using on a LO (you know you have them too!!). I cut thin strips of scrap paper to fit around the egg cup, inked it and attached it using double sided tape and then added the embellishment and a Cadbury's creme egg and hey presto! another cheap and cheerful recycled Easter gift :)

Tag Birthday Cards

Congratulations to Terri, who was drawn by Caroline this morning and won her blog hop RAK :)Don't forget that there are a couple of Birthday Blog deadlines today. Firstly, don't forget to show Kathleen your take on her sketch to be in with a chance of winning a $10 'Little Bit of Whimsy' voucher. And secondly, hop along to Deanne's blog and add a comment to be in with a chance of picking up a RAK. Good luck!!

When I was at Leigh's a couple of weeks ago I noticed that she had a lovely collection of slide frames in all sorts of lovely colours. She very kindly gave me some white ones to play with and I thought they'd make perfect embellishments on my tiny tag birthday cards this month.

They were very simple to make, quick and easy but pretty cute. I inked all around the edges of tag in the same colour as the cupcake I was planning on using. I cut sacking cloth slightly larger than the slide frame and attached it to the tag at an angle. Using glossy accents I stuck the cupcake to the slide frame and rubbed the words 'happy birthday' on. I then stuck the slide frame on to the sacking cloth. To enable the tags to stand up I cut a piece of scrap cardstock (coordinating with the cupcake colour) slightly smaller than the tag and scored along the width about 1 cm from the top. Having lined the bottom of the cardstock up with the bottom of the tag I stuck this top bit to the tag. The final step was to add eyelets and matching ribbon.

Materials:

Ikea tags

Ribbons from stash

Sacking cloth

Slide frames

Doodlebug simple sweet alpha rub on in various colours (From Indigo Mill)

Ink

Jolees Boutique cupcake embellishment

Buttons and Bows

'The" Studio' challenge this weekend (if you needed more inspiration) was this: 'Use either buttons or bows on your page - or both for extra 'brownie points'!' So here's a face you're likely to see a lot of in the coming months. This is my new puppy. I collected him this weekend but this is a photo I took when I went to meet him for the first time back in February. Such a cutie pie :)

Under the knife

Today I'm going under the knife for some minor surgery. I wonder if I can find someone willing to take some photos ;) It's got me thinking though- what do you do when you're in a situation where you'd like a photo that you can't take yourself? Do you feel embarassed to ask people? Do you just ask the nearest person? Do you go without? Would love to know!

A Summary

Although I will have lots of projects to share with you over the next few weeks as a result of the blog bash, this is my last official blog bash post and it's a summary of projects and giveaways :)

Please do let me know what you got up to over the weekend. Do you have a favourite of the projects you created? Are you still catching up on sleep?

Designers

• Me :) A folding out LO with hidden journalling
• Lis Beautiful Utee heart
• Kathleen Fabulous sketch challenge
• Amarylis Great Tim Holtz flower tutorial
• Julie A challenge set by me based on Julie's great blog
• Helena Gorgeous distress ink LO step by step
• Sandra An inspiring comic book challenge
• Ifa The prettiest little book every
• Laura Embossed flowers in use!
• Maria Stunning altered Ikea frame
• Steph Beautiful LO using Bazill stitching
• Caroline Mini album from recycled bags
• Christiane Gorgeous butterfly box
• Victoria Vintage look lovely LO with hand cut flowers and leaves
• Nic Challenging you to use your favourite three things on just one LO
• Lorraine Tiny accordian envelope tag book
• Winnie Challenging you to use black or white and one colour only
• Lesley Delightful domino tutorial
• Stephanie A scraplift challenge taken from Stephanie's blog
• Julie Utterly fabulous Utee techniques
• Ania Notebook tutorial
• Shimelle Free for all birthday themed printables
• Annette Cute decorated chipboard
• Kate A fantastic free Birthday themed digital download
• Claire W Beautiful feminine accordian mini book
• Fabi A funky old lace LO
• Tracy Funky standing LO with the cutest mouse
• Rosie The most decorative Tea bag holder I've ever seen
• Audrey Totalt gorgeous LO with interestingly cut papers
• Tessa Absolutely stunning canvas
• Anna Fanfare flowers for every occassion :)
• Elina Amazing hidden mini album within a stunning LO
• Nat More gorgeous altered canvases
• Deanne Loo rolls with a purpose!
• Toni Leanne A great scraplift challenge
• Claire Charming chunky beer mat mini book
• Anna A final sketch challenge from one of the best

Giveaways

• £10 Indigo Mill voucher- Show me your LO here by 31st March
• A signed copy of 'Paper, Scissors, Death (Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mysteries)' by Joanna Campbell Slan- Leave a comment here or here by 31st March
• $10 'My Little Bit of Whimsy' gift voucher- Show Kathleen your take on her sketch by 26th March here
• O'scrap chipboard alphas and Cosmo Cricket Tiny alphas- Show me your creation here by 31st March
• Sandra's RAK- Show her your creation here by 15th April
• Ifa's book and some extras- Leave a comment here
• Laura's embossed flower giveaway (now closed)
• Steph's Bazill template and floss card giveaway- Show her your creation here by 3rd April
• Caroline's RAK- Leave a comment here
• Papermaze Prima giveaway- A pack of prima goodies for five lucky commenters if you comment and/or leave a link to your own project here
• Nic's RAK- leave a link to your LO here by 31st March
• Leigh's necklace giveaway- Comment and/or leave a link to your own project here by 31st March
• Craft Emporium Basic Grey stamp set giveaway- Leave your comment here or here by 31st March
• Shimelle's freebie Birthday printables
• Shimelle class- Leave your completed project here
• Kate's fantastic free Birthday themed digital download
• Fabi's RAK- leave a link to your LO here by 15th April
• Rosie's RAk- Leave a comment here by 31st March
• Audrey's RAK- Leave a comment here (US participants only)
• A pair of Perfectly Precocious flowers
• Nat's RAK- Leave a comment here
• Deanne's RAK- Leave a comment here by Friday 26th March
• Toni's RAK- Leave a link to your lift here by 5th April
• Pencil Lines Sketch Book- Leave a comment about your blog hop experiences here by 31st March

Newbie CJ

I'm hosting a newbie circle journal (an album that is sent to ten people over ten months and returned the original sender with 10 beautiful LOs in it) over on UKS called 'Around the Houses'. It's an open CJ and I have 8 lovely ladies eagerly awaiting getting going. I just need two more people to make up the numbers so if you've been thinking of joining one, or know someone that is please send them over to the newbie thread where we'd love to chat to them.

a MASSIVE thank you.

Thank you so much to everyone who was involved in the blog hop yesterday. To all the wonderful designers who allowed us to hop on to their blogs and share their ideas; to all of the readers of my blog who took part in challenges and left comments on other peoples blogs and to the people who donated things for me to giveaway- THANK YOU!!!

I have lots of projects to catch up on from this weekend. Don't forget that in most cases you have until 31st March to add a link of your project to the comments box either on the relevant entry on my blog, or the blog where the suggestion came from origianlly to be in the draw for giveaways. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you've done with all inspiration this weekend and tomorrow I'll do a summary of everything. Thank you all once more for helping me celebrate my Birthday this year x

10pm: Anna Bowkis

Anna Bowkis set up 'Pencil Lines' with weekly sketch challenges and it's gone from strength to strength. So much so that this year Anna has released the first 'Pencil Lines' sketch book that you can buy here. I'm delighted that Anna has joined us today with a sketch challenge for us to get our teeth in to and hers a sneak peak of how she used hers. Pop over to her blog to see all the details:

*Giveaway*

You could own copy of Anna's Pencil Lines book just by adding a comment to this blog entry about your experiences this weekend. I'll randomly select someone after 31st March and have the book posted to you.

9pm: Claire Bell

Welcome to the party, Claire Bell aka Silvercustard :) Another Indigo Mill DT member, Claire has all sorts of good ideas. Look at these cute little Christmas goodies boxes for example.

She's another womble (recycler ;) ) and you'll love the project on her blog today. Here's a sneak peek x

8pm: Toni Leeann Fox

Toni Leeann has been studying hard all week but has managed to take some time out today to give us a scraplift to attempt on her blog. Go check it out :)

7pm: Deanne Evans

My next talented lady is Deanne. She is of Quirky Boots fame and I love her etsy shop products! Just look that this glorious coffee cup sleeve:

We are living in hard time when we need to think about recycling for the good of the planet and our pockets. Well noone can accuse Deanne of not doing that! Just check out her project on her blog and you'll see what I mean :)

6pm: Natalie Macdonald

From one DT to anoNat is another of my DT colleagues from Indigo Mill. This is one of her LOs that's in my 'To Lift' file. It's a fab interpretation of a 'The Studio' challenge. Nat's blog is 'My Scrapping Habit' and if you head over there now you'll find a little a little room decor inspiration :) Enjoy!

5pm: Elina Koutsouradi

We're on a bit of 'The Studio' DT roll at the moment because next up is Elina :) I love Elina's style too and she recently did a tutorial on 'The Studio' blog on how to make these earrings (and other things) from scraps. Aren't they great?!

This sneak peek doesn't even begin to do Elina's LO with an edge justice so hop over to Elina's blog and see it in all its glory!

4pm: Anna White-Sharman

For the next inspiring project you need to hop along to Anna's blog. This is a sneak peek of what you might find there.

Anna is a fellow 'The Studio' design team member and I love her casual style and doodling. This is one of my favourite of her LOs and you can see more like this on her blog 'Made to Scrap'.

3pm: Tessa Buys

I'm a huge fan of my next VIP Guest. Tessa is one of my DT team mates at 'The Studio'

but she's a busy girl and is on several other DTs too. Not only that but she has her very own etsy shop and it's full of floral fabulousness. Just look at these!

And now on to the party piece. Hop over to Tessa's blog 'Precocious Paper' to see what she's got lined up for you today. I know you're going to love it because I've seen the finished project and I can't wait to get started.

*Giveaways*

If you post a link to your finished project here or on Tessa's blog by 31st March 2010, one randomly selected person will be sent a pair of flowers of his/her choosing from Tessa's store. Have fun!

2pm: Audrey Yeager

Audrey is one of my more recent finds. Again, I love the depth and texture she gives to her LOs and her journalling is superb. I hope that she'll inspire you too. How can you not be inspired by LOs like this though?
To see what Audrey's got for you today, hop over to her blog 'Audrey's Reflection'.

1pm: Rosemary Guthrie

Rosie, another Indigo Mill DT member, has a wonderful blog full of cool things! I loved this LO recently

Having picked up my puppy yesterday I'm going to be lifting this very soon if Rosie doesn't mind :) Anyway, get yourself over to Rosie's blog for another inspiring project!

12 Noon: Fabi Ormerod

Fabi my talented DT teamie on 'The Studio'. Fabi's LOs are fresh and always have lovely little touches and things that you don't spot the first time! This is one of my favourites:

Fabi has a fabulous blog entry and it's another lovely LO for us today so you can hop there now :)