Still Documenting 2011...

So January has been a big catch up month and here I share my very blue, very exciting month of August.

 The month was 'awesome' as you Californians say. It included self timer fun along the Big Sur, rides on Santa Cruz Boardwalk, human pyramids on Long Beach, San Diego Zoo and San Fran in the mist.
What I love about scrapbooking is that on this cold and rainy Friday night I can relive the magic of that holiday in the sunshine!
It really was the trip of a lifetime!

October Document 2011...

So...ever playing catch-up it may look like I rushed these...but I wanted the emphasis to be on the colourful pics and I had so many exciting ones from October as it was a busy month with my birthday, a trip to London in half term and a Halloween party.
I don't know if I'll keep this project up for 2012 but it was good while it lasted..actually it's not over yet!

Scandinavian Saturday: The one with a scary detour...

Well I've been plugging away at my scrapping resolutions and believe this here layout meets resolution 4 Scandinavian style and number 8 border boost.
I saw the Scandinavian Style in the latest scrapbook magazine (the name eludes me now!) and decided I liked the natural colours mixed with red and black and the 'white space.' I have a fair few Martha Stewart border punches and so I wanted to have some fun with these too.

Now onto the story...
My regular followers will know that we had an epic road trip holiday in California in the summer. We flew into LA and then drove up to a wedding north of San Fran. On the way I had noticed in the guidebook a John Steinbeck museum - now I have been teaching Of Mice and Men for six years and can practically recite the novel off by heart, so I was very keen to see his hometown and also the artifacts about him. I also wanted to create a slide show for my surly Year 11's to try to interest them in the subject - always a battle with teens! But pics do seem to help!
So we stopped off. After the salubrious areas of Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Salinas was a real 'culture shock.' Literally you could imagine the tumble weed - it was eerily quiet and people looked at you funny and everything just looked a little worse for wear.
Our hotel was straight out of a Hitchcock film and had a really scary list of safety notices on the door, featuring some gems like:

• Don't answer the door to anyone claiming to be room service
• Phone reception immediately if you hear any suspicious noises

I wish I had taken a picture but my travel companions were not finding the whole experience amusing. In fact my husband tried to push the chest of drawers in front of the door to barricade us in. The windows and the door were pretty drafty and so we were on red alert all night as any scuffle or noise! But clearly we lived to tell the tale and I felt it was worth it as the museum was informative, well laid out and really helped me to imagine the context of his literature.
I like the simplicity of this layout and am glad I challenged myself to try something a bit different. Has anyone else tried or heard of Scandinavian style scrapping? And no it doesn't involve a flat pack or meatballs...

Fun with my new fiskars...

Picture the scene:
A cold, windy,  miserable winter evening.
Bored, so you're trawling fb looking for some goss.
And a certain Shimelle post alerts me to some fiskars punches ending soon.
So I get involved in a bidding war..
And come out triumphant.
Now I am having fun creating layouts with my new toys.
I admit I had to youtube how to use it.
But now I am a pro.
Sort of.
I wish it didn't make holes in the shapes it punches out so you could use them too.
Here's what I made:

This is a thrifty layout and here is how to copy it:-

1) I used a leftover kraft envelope and just cut five squares out of it.

2) Then I backed each square in map cardstock and even some leftover Christmas wrapping paper.

3) I matted the middle pic and then doodled a border on the other two pics.

4)I used letter stickers for the title.

5) I stapled on some ribbon (also left over from Christmas)

6) I used a border sticker

7) I stepped back and admired it!

So have a go - get out that square cutter.

I will count this as my recycled layout and I also designed a sketch for it before hand.
I love that I am meeting my scrapping resolutions cos I certainly ain't meeting my healthy eating ones!

Making whoopee...

Ever since I got the gorgeous new Hummingbird Bakery cook book I have been drooling over the whoopee pies and tried the Banoffe Pie ones here and so next up was the chocolate and peanut butter ones. I wanted to use my tasty new speculoos I got in Belgium - I even got a jar of it for one of my sixth form students who fell in love with it when I made my speculoos blondies here.
You can find the recipe for these babies here, I substituted peanut butter for Lotus Speculoos (available in Belgium and I think an equivalent is called Biscoff in America and Australia?) 

Top tip: Actually follow the instructions and put the batter in the fridge for a good hour - it made it sooo much easier to mould perfect rounds with as it was the texture of cookies rather than a cake batter.
My sixth form also got to sample these as an impromtu treat for winning a quiz as otherwise i would have scoffed the lot myself!
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Linking up with BruCrew Life's trick or treat Tuesday

Things I'm loving 2012!

Hi there...
Here are a few things I am loving so far this year.
1) Hands down the BEST cupcakes I have ever baked and tasted. An explosion of blueberry and lemon - really moist and topped off with a delish cream cheese frosting. I am making them for my friends wedding in feb and she raved about them on the trial. I will post about them next month with pics and ideas for decorating them - think glitter and butterflies!

Recipe here

 2) I got my nails done for my works do and then went and brought myself my own black opi shatter and recreated the look for New Years Eve. I love this stuff! It's so easy too!

 3) My nod to a healthier new me in 2012 has been these bad boys. They are so delish and help up my fruit intake - the new one has acai berry and that is a superfood - more of that please!!

4) I am a little bit addicted to The Big Bang Theory and think all of the characters are so clever and hilarious, I have a few friends they remind me of and this makes it even funnier. It's very clever and Sheldon just cracks me up! Do you watch it too?

 5) Being reunited with this man...he was away on a residential this week and at first I was really looking forward to it, but I did get quite lonely at night. I caught up with some of my girlie friends which was great, but I was *really* pleased to see him Friday afternoon!

What are you loving for 2012?
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Linking up with Paisley Jade

May Document 2011...

Whilst the computer cable is still on the way...I found this fuzzy layout which I hadn't blogged yet. I am only up to August and this is the May 2011 layout, which has been completed for a while but I have been waiting for a photo delivery.
May was the month of family reunions, my mom's birthday, joining the gym and a meal at the steak house.

Now January has so far been the month of finishing off Christmas treats (not diets), lots of web surfing, some exciting scrapbooking, crap telly (like Don't Tell the Bride) and lots of marking and school work already!
Groan!

Spot the difference...

The first three of my challenges are completed already, the only problem is...I left my camera cable in Brugges so have no way of getting them from the camera onto the laptop! I will share them soon though.
In the meantime a scraplift finished about a month ago. I was drooling over 'Miss Smith's' New Years layout (see below) and decided it would make a perfect design for one of our holiday pics. We met up with Arne's dad's piloting friends when we were in San Luis Obispo and had a great lunch with him on the coast.
I love. love, love the vibrant colours and the bunting - which I made myself.

Her original post is here.
Hope that you all have a creative weekend. We are off to Tampopo in Leeds tomorrow as they are doing a 40% off deal on their website - I love all these January sales!
xox

Scrapbooking resolutions...

I decided to get 2012 off with a bang I would make 10 Scrapbooking Resolutions to challenge myself in my crafting. I planned them in the car driving back from New Years at my parents.
So here they are - I hope that you will join in too!

1) Button-it-up 

2) Instax envelopes

3) Embossing

4) Scandanavian style

5) Chipboard chic

6) Design and use my own sketch

7) Clashing colours

8) Border boost

9) Recycled layout

10) Vocational scrapping

I am setting myself the month of January to complete this challenge.
What challenges are you setting yourself for the New Year?