Baby, baby, baby, ohhh,,,

My title was inspired by a recent episode of Glee I watched where the guys formed a Beiber tribute band. I have to admit I do kinda like this song, even though I do find him a bit annoying. So The Studio inspired me again to include frames and since I dug some out, I have not been able to stop churning out the layouts. This page is using pics taken from our friend's recent visit with their new baby. Arne was a real natural and took to the baby straight away. In this pic the misting looks a bit grubby, it is a lot better irl.

Sweet tooth?

Can you tell it's half term? I actually have some time for some scrapping. I wanted a multi-photo layout of our visit to Manchester. The title was inspired by the cupcakes. I turned this sketch on its side as most of my pics were portrait style. The other part of the challenge was a homemade embellie and so I made the flower with peach cardstock. Hope you like...

You've been framed...

A page about our family outing to midnight mass on Christmas eve. Wanted to avoid usual Christmas colours. Used a purple polka dot frame as per The Studio challenge. In other news...tried Yo Sushi! today for the first time. I thought I wouldn't like it as I don't like fish, but they had loads of veggie dishes. It was delish. Only problem is the food goes round on a conveyor belt and so you get tempted to eat more than you would normally. The miso soup was unlimited and that was really salty and yum. Would defo recommend it. Sadly did not have camera present :(

Cosy Christmas pj's...

So Twisted sketches wanted cosy I gave them my red fleecy heart pj's. One of my best Christmas pressies. Lots of stamping on this layout as I figured I have so many stamps and rarely use them. I even dusted off my embossing powders and embosser. Great fun.

Peanut butter cupcakes...

Had some American friends over so felt it was the best time to use my cute little cases. Used a recipe for the cupcakes from a Next cookbook, similar to this one. Then I used good old Hummingbird's chocolate frosting recipe. They were good.

Let's hear it for the holidays...

Has been a nutso week and am feeling so glad to have a week to chillax (as the *cool* kids say!) I have been neglecting my scrapbook room recently and now we need to reestablish our close bond. I have many projects in mind. I am starting a document 2011 and am part way through my January entry - exciting! So will share that v.soon. Went to see Never Let Me Go with the sixth form on Wednesday night as they are studying it for their English lit coursework. It was a very moving film and Grant acted Knightley off the screen (see above for the lovely ladies themselves!) All the kids said they preferred the book to the film, but it is usually that way when you study a book in so much depth. I leave you with a pic of my gorgeous valentines boquet, which my hubby got bullied into getting me, on valentines, by all the ladies he works with! There are some benefits to him working in a very female dominated profession! Love that he went for purple instead of the tradition red roses - much more me. Will post some scrapping later. TFL.

Inspiring weekend...

After a relentless week of parents evenings, a relentless non-abridged production on Hamlet and so much marking I got hand ache I felt I deserved a weekend soley of 'chilling.' We awoke ridiculously late on Saturday and headed over to Costco and some of our other fav hotspots in Leeds. The afternoon consisted of going to see this fab film at this fab destination. It was the perfect regal and old fashioned venue for such an inspiring story of friendship and overcoming your obsticles. Through teaching I have seen that if you place faith and confidence in someone then they rise to the occasion.I know I was a bit late getting on the band wagon for this. What did you all think of it?

In the sweet sunshine...

Had to enter this challenge as I love the song. Thought I was done scrapping my wedding pics - but have not even begun! I wanted the page to look tropical and bright. The photographer was getting annoyed at the lads as they kept pinching each others bottoms and she was getting impatient! Typical lads! The journalling at the side reads: in the sweet sunshine (which is the lyric from the song.) Thanks for the inspiration.

Love cupcakes?

It was February's Iron Cupake contest and obvs the theme was love. I racked my brains over it and decided to avoid the obvious reds and pinks and go for gold with a Romeo and Juliet themed cupcake. I called it "star crossed lovers" and had fondant stars shooting from the cake (the display one!) and gold edible glitter. Above were the winners for the night. I never got to try them as I was all cupcaked out as I always indulge in some of my frosting and then feel all sugared out! Doesn't the sign below remind you of scrapping??! Here are my babies. I used wrappers from Morrissons as they have a really good baking range now, my mom got me them for Christmas. My sign was written in gold pen and star shaped - it was a bit of a rush job and I have big ideas for it too! A close-up of the examplar one which they grade the appearence on. My sisters went on a baking course and saw the idea of winding wire round a cocktail stick to make a little spring. It was tricky to get the fondant star to stick to the wire as it had already dried. Here they were before I started decorating them. Naked. Sorry this post goes backwards (I always forget which order to load them up in) The sponge was chocolate and honeycomb. Just a basic vanilla sponge with a cup of blitzed crunchie bits and a tablespoon of cocoa and two tablespoons of maple syrup. Then it was chocolate frosting (but not very chocolately) and then added glitter and honeycomb crumbs. It was really tasty and different to the others. I came...in third place and so was quite pleased with that!

Life is good...

I turned this sketch sideways as it suited my pics better. Yellow and red is not a colour combo I have used before but I am pleased with the result. These pics were taken at new years and the vellum reminded me of confetti and streamers. I am excited at the news that some of the layouts get published - sketchy thursdays is so good to us!

Snapshot of my week...

The H had had a stressful day at school and so wanted to do something straight after work to take his mind off things. I instantly thought of the amazing Clock Cafe in Headingley that I used to frequent in my student days. Curly fries, smoothies and scrabble - what more can a girl want?? So we had a fab time and I have this pic ready to scrap for my fav games layout on TAAFOMFT! Last night was the first of the Come Dine with me's that a group of 7 friends are doing. Last night it was the Flin's turn and they prepared a tapas style evening. Above was the crowning glory - tirimisu (I know not v.Spanish but so delish!!) Our starter was assorted olives and breads with oils - love this! The chef in action... A classic Est pose! But the setting wasn't quite right and so Jon is quite blurred! We scored them out of ten for starter, main and dessert and then picked out of a hat the next person who will take their turn in a few months. It was a great night and we can't wait for the others.

Walking on sunshine?

Wow Yorkshire has been hit with some terrible storms. I thought that our car was going to blow away at the petrol station yesterday! Yikes! So as the antidote to all this grim winter weather I made a sunny and bright layout of a trip mini golfing we took two summers ago. This pic has been knocking around for a while and I was keen to scrap it as it was great memories. The title comes from the poem May you always feel loved which is the current challenge over at Scrap that Poetry! It is quite a slushy poem so would be perf to scrap about your special someone this valentines period. I, however, wanted to complete a fun and colourful layout. I thought that remember the sunshine was apt to get us through this chilly weather. We are headed to America this summer for my husband's best friends wedding and we really CANNOT WAIT! I love the states. I can't wait to go crazy in the scrapbook stores. Can anyone recommend any good ones in California?? Hope you all have a fab weekend and get on over to the challenge and have a go!

Zulu nation...

As promised I had great fun playing with my slr today during the zulu nation workshop with the kids I teach Their constumes were authentic (except they weren't real animal skin!) Pat your head and rub your tummy...but the choreography got harder than this... Huh!!! All in all a great day had be all. Although I was just as tired as if I had taught a full five period day!

Snow problem?

I had a bit of spare time tonight as I don't have any planning for tomorrow (for a change) as we are off timetable and I am going with my Year 7 form to participate in Zulu nation - music and dance!!! Woohoo! I will try to take some pics! So here is the layout (above as blogger is being difficult) I made using this sketch from stuck. I took inspiration from the circles at the bottom and used non traditional Christmas and snow colours. I am pretty pleased with it! I can't listen to forever young anymore without hearing Jay Z's rapping in my head. So I completed this layout using Get Picky's challenge. This is a pic of the hubster and I at a carvery with my mom. I used lettering cut from a newspaper to give it an eclectic feel. The heart is from a necklace and I have had it hidden away in a drawer for use on a layout for ages. So it's almost hump day and I am feeling h-h-happy!!!