Taking stock...

So tuesday gave me the chance to try this Twisted Sketches sketch and to scrap some of my holiday pics - double whammy!! The twist was tree and well these stocks are made from wood and I think the cardstock looks like wood too! I am loving the overall effect and am pleased with the colour scheme and the way it all came together. I edged it in yellow acrylic paint as I always like pages to pop with a border. This is one of my fav magpie moment homemade embellies - the flower. The petals are made foam packaging and then the bud is a yellow button and topped off with a rhinestone.

These are my fab new stamps that I used for the title and I think it adds to the feel of the layout.

I relied most heavily on Lisa's sketch as I really liked the scallops and all her little journalling spots. Tomorrow is hump day and a step closer to back-to-school madness so I am scrapping as much as I can whilst I have the spare time! xox

Stripping in Malta...

So in a desperate attempt to get my mojo back and start scrapping my holiday pics I had a go at this challenge. I have been wanting to try a page like this for a while with lots of strips of paper and ribbon and it was made even easier as I had a new kit specifically about travel to use. I was also inspired by this fab layout by Jen Naulls. I liked the title done on three lines like this with the name in the middle cropped for emphasis. Here is how I spent my bank holiday monday....

On a gorgeous walk round Ingleborough Waterfall trail. It was good to get out and go on a nice long hike. My personal highlight was the hot choc and homemade carrot cake at the little cafe half way round. I had a baking spree at the weekend and made some simple vanilla cupcakes with a variety of different types of frosting for the kids I teach at church. All of the frosting was the hummingbird vanilla buttercream recipe but I added other ingredients. Yellow was lemon rind, juice and a few drops of yellow food colouring topped with a blueberry, blue had coconut and a few drops of blue colouring and pink was just vanilla with pink colouring and sprinkles. Amazingly both the boys and girls favoured the pink!!!

The picture is a bit hazy as it was taken on my camera phone (as they all are now our real camera is broken!!) You should have a go it was really easy and simple..and yummy....

Bank holiday blues...

SO I still haven't really "rested" in my summer hols and this week will be spent catching up on all the prep I was meant to do over the summer. On Saturday I had my good friend's wedding and they asked me to speak at it about a week ago - eek! What a typical Mormon wedding - last minute.com!!! So I prepared a talk all aobut the groom - Tim - as we have been really good friends for eight years. I turned up the day before to help get everything set up and they told me I was speaking about the bride - Vicky - who I have known about three years! Ahhh! So I had to quickly rewrite my talk, it was all fine on the day and I got lots of laughs and told some good stories about both of them. I liked the closing thought that I found:- May your love always be added, and never subtracted, May your household multiply, me never be divided. So here are the pics.... It was a picnic themed reception complete with baskets, gingham, hay bales and little blackboards - how cute hey?

Me getting broody with the cutest little baby in the world!

Lastly the classic pic of me and my old housemate Dr.Anna. I just got a new phone and it actually has a decent camera (which is lucky since our camera broke on holiday :( ) And I was messing around with the photo editing. I am pleased with it though and it will mean we don't have to shell out too soon for a new one.

So I have bank holiday blues as it's almost back to school, I am panicking about lack of work over summer, we are broke from all our travels and I feel I have lost my scrapping mojo! I did complete two layouts of our holiday in Malta so will try to post them soon. Apologies for the lack of scrappy goodness!

What have you all got planned on your bank hols??

No place like home??

So back from part 2 and 3 of my summer hols seeing my sis and her hubby for a weekend in Reading. She has the most exciting job offer for Turks and Caicos and so they are just upping and leaving for a year! It was a farewell, but also a claiming of her apple green kitchen aid - perfect cupcakes here I come!!! Then we were onto Brugges to stay with Arne's grandparents and then a three hour drive down to Luxembourg to visit the rest of his family. Lots of road trips to little castles in Germany and a purchase of a fab plastic tablecloth. After our all day drive today from Dover to Leeds, entertained by texts from the other English teachers who were at school with the kids getting their GCSE results, I was so glad to see signs for Otley loom. Home sweet home...shame I had already made this page! So this page uses this challenge and a picture I have always liked from my exchange symester at Georgia uni. The journalling is all about how I kept in contact with my family and friends via email whilst I was away from home.

I embellished with lots of rub ons, layering and stickers. I am pleased with the title of stamping and misting and feel it gives the page a home spun feel.

This post is probably a blur as I am sooo tired and my contacts are all blurred!! But have a go at the challenge you have until the 31st of August and home is always a fab subject to scrap about! I will be getting back to blogging soon and will try to return some of the comments.

Honey I'm home...

Don't you love the polka dots?

It was utter bliss...wish we could have stayed longer....need sleep now....good to be back to my scrapping room though! xx

This kiss...

So I *almost* done scrapping my wedding pics just a few more to go (actually the WHOLE reception still to go!!!) I used the studio challenge on masking and decided to use lips to go with the title, which was inspired by Faith Hill lyrics from this challenge. I masked the title too with silver glimmer mist. I had a few issues peeling the stickers off and they ended up taking a layer of the paper with them - but in the end it made a good effect and I edged it in black and filled it with polka dots.

I cropped the picture and then distressed the edges - my usual style.

I filled the lips with the journalling and included a few more quotations from the song. I focused on the "you may now kiss the bride moment." My dad is the Bishop in our church so he married us which made it even more special.

The little picture at the bottom was matted with pink paper and then stamped with my fav polka dot stamp to tie in the whole theme.

This is probably my last post for at least a week as we are off to Malta in the small hours tomorrow. Cannot wait. Got lots of ironing and packing to do. Hope you are all having a great summer holiday filled with scrapping and fun. xoxo

To "temple" the sting...

As I am sure you are all aware I have a penchant for hand cutting lettering and so made this title from cardboard. I wanted the lettering to be gold as the Grand Palace in Bangkok is very gold and grand. I finally settled on inking the letters in gold and then embossing in clear embossing powder. So I had my pic and the title but I didn't have any inspiration except the Bunnybow shaped cardstock. So lucky for me Tiffany's blog came to the rescue with a fabbie sketch with lots of circles (my fav shapes!) and then this layout all came together brilliantly. I sewed lots of buttons and brads on to give the layout dimension. I also pritt padded the title to make it stand out even more.

I used my fav new method for titling random papers and stamps. I then filled any spaces with rub ons of flowers to give the layout a really blooming appearence.

Different colours to my usual purples and turquoises...do you like?

It must be love, love , love, da na!

Welcome along blog hoppers...here is my layout for this months Scrap that Poetry using a strange little poem by Edgar Allen Poe. I have taught Poe's short stories to my sixth form students but not his poetry. I used the line "to love and be loved" and scrapped these photo's of my sister and her hubby and my hubby and I that were taken at a recent family BBQ. I like the symmetry in the pics and decided to use the purple and green colours for the layout. I hand cut my title, but then felt it didn't stand out so backed in on white card to make it pop - this is always a time consumming task!! A distressed, handmade flower to seperate and embellish the pics.

I decided the finished layout was quite plain for my standards but didn't want to overembellish as the lettering was quite busy so I made I sewed on a button border on top of my ribbon border to really frame this LO. In fact when I get along to Ikea I think I will frame this layout. Where is the cheapest place to get 12 by 12 frames? I want to invest in quite a few to display my creations.

Now hop on over to the other dt members like Kelly, Angie, Michelle, Heidi, Nikki, Tessa, Julie, Jessica and Shazza! Hopefully the answers will be revealed! Have a fab day and week...only three more sleeps till my holiday! Woo hoo!!!!