Precious Pictures...

Since storytelling Sunday is all about stories gather round, get comfy and listen...

My favourite classes to teach at school are often the smaller groups.
The nurture groups.
The ones who are not reaching for the stars academically.
And often don't have many (if any) positive role models in their lives.
Why do I like teaching these groups so much?
They have heart.
You get to know them a lot better as there are less of them.
You have to show them you care or you lose them.
So you use little quizzes (they love my Friday celebrity quizzes), sometimes treats and mostly anecdotes to win them round.
So last week we were studying a poem about a hurricane.
I asked what they would save from their houses in a natural disaster.
First answer,
"my computer games miss."
"Hmm nice try, but I honestly don't think most people would care about plasma screens and play stations - they can be replaced."
"My family then."
"My mum," chipped in the Burly Boy.
"I said it had to be a possession - an object." I reminded them.
"Money?" Cheeky One tentatively put forward.
"No," Trendy Boy interrupted knowingly. "Insurance will cover this."
"Photo's then, memories?" Suggests the only girl in the group.
"Bingo," I smiled.

So my 'precious' this month are the baby books I have made for The Belgian.

My mum did fill in a baby book for me and this is precious and I love to read the funny stories about my first birthday and first Christmas (where apparently all I was interested in was the selection box - no changes there then!) But there were lots of pics still to be scrapped and I had a mini album to fill.

I asked the in-laws for some pics of The Mini Belgian and I scrapped them in a little book - which is the only scrapbook I have ever made which he will proudly show to any visitors. When we entertain little kids too they love to look through it.
Also a scrapbook I made from my youth - more info and pictures of which can be found in this post.

These are all photo's that are irreplaceable.
In the days before digital.
These photos and albums are definitely very precious.

Remembering Remembrance Sunday

Our family tradition was always to go to the cenotaph in London to watch the remembrance day parade. I found this old photograph and decided that it needed scrapping. The journalling reads:
"There are a few things I love about this photo. Firstly we are waiting in the freezing cold to watch the remembrance day parade and that is a family tradition we always loved. Secondly the green jeans, the multi-coloured jumper and baseball cap are 90's fashion all over. Lastly I have my nose stuck in a book and not just any book one of The Babysitter's Club books. I loved those books and got the whole series. It's always the little things that you remember about a big day."

Do you have any family traditions like this?

The One Where I Jumped off a Cliff...(Metaphorically like!)

My friends and I at St.George's secondary school

 Don't you love telling stories and reminiscing?
This summer I got to hang out with my family and an aunt who I hadn't seen for decades nor ever really spoken to and so we loved telling stories and learning about each other.
So this month Sian's theme is too cool for school and it made me think of this random story...
Are we sitting comfortably? I will begin...

Throughout Primary and Secondary school I was friends with two sets of twins, I think it is true to say that you can tell which twin is oldest and youngest by their personalities and one is always the 'crazy' one. Naturally, being me, I was drawn to the crazier one in both sets of twins.
Which brings me to my story...
Kim (one of the twins) was quite mischievous and it seems that whenever we are together we end up causing some kind of trouble. We were in the same class together in Year 4, which makes us about 8 at the time of this little episode. We were lined up waiting for lunch.

Those who know me now will know two things about me:
1) I am criminally impatient
2) I love my food

As this story will attest neither of the above have changed much since I was little.
We were getting antsy as it was chips day and we wanted some. We had a rule at our school that you had to queue up outside of your classroom and the dinner lady would come and collect you for your sitting of lunch.
So Kim dared me to shout - "come on Aldren!"
Now MRS Aldren was the fiercest of all of the dinner ladies. She was HEAD dinner lady. She was a scarier version of Mrs Bucket from the popular UK comedy Keeping up Appearances.  She valued good old fashioned manners - like please and thank-you and waiting your turn.
This was a very risky dare.
This dare came with terrible consequences.
Therefore it was too tempting and I went ahead and hollered - "COME ON ALDREN!" Just as she rounded the classroom corner and I was caught red faced, in the very act of addressing the HEAD dinner lady rather rudely. I hadn't even said *PLEASE*!
Now my memory at this point goes hazy and it ends up with me sat in tears at the deputy head's table with my plate of fish and chips in front of me and a lot of explaining to do.
He asked the silly question of why I had done it.
Through snot and tears I stammered,
"Because K-k-k-kim told me to."
"Now Melanie if Kim asked you to put your chips in that bin over there would you?"
"N-n-n-oooo!" I was horrified at the suggestion.
"Why not?" Cue smug teacher face.
"Because I like chips!"
Such simple childlike logic.

I do remember that Kim was getting a similar grilling and had to write a letter apologising, which went like this:

Dear Mrs Aldren,

I'm really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really sorry.

Love,
Kimberley

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Here is a picture of us taken earlier this year - I have clearly now forgiven here for leading me astray!

Linking up to Sian's storytelling Sunday

Monkeying around...

So before I give my snore inducing marking a quick go to get it over with before Shimelle's online crop - yay! I thought I would post one of my A4 layouts inspired by Shimelle's Starting points. It is another 'retro' layout of our camping trips as kids. One of our fav activities was trying to catch the monkey on the fair rides - if you caught it then you got another go! This photo shows me concentrating more on posing for the camera than on catching the monkey - perhaps why I never caught it and got my free ride. But it was fun trying.

Supplies used: washi tape, foam letter stamps, American crafts stripy cardstock, embellishments from Cosmo Cricket Salt Air - I love this range!

Now roll on the crop....

The one about camping in Carnac...

I am linking up with Sian's storytelling Sunday - if you want to join in just link up to her post. 

We were very lucky growing up in that every summer we packed up our car and headed off to France for a week or so on holidays. One of the most exciting parts of the trip was waking up at the crack of dawn to catch the ferry - somehow as a child this made it a real adventure for me. Looking back camping couldn't have been the biggest rest for my mom but we loved it. The camp sites always had pools and adventure playgrounds and so we could have all sorts of water slide fun.

On a recent visit to my parents I was robbing my mom's photo collection as I wanted to start documenting some of these stories. In fact my mom has decided to start recording her life story - is this what happens when one if over 60? I find it a bit morbid - but I guess it's where I get my love of journalling and recording memories from! So I found a slightly blurry but very cute picture of us all on one of the most memorable trips.

The one where my granny and grandad from South Africa came. I had met my granny a few times but aged 8(ish) we got to go on holiday with my grandad and meet him for the first time.

Some memories of this trip:

• My grandad was a big Margaret Thatcher fan and would often discuss politics - which always went over our heads!
• We loved playing cards in the evening and my grandad taught me how to play rummy
• My grandparents couldn't get the hang of using 'francs' and so would just hold out a hand full of change to the shop keepers
• The tide went out one day and so we filled out buckets with cockles. My granny was most annoyed as a French lady was trying to give her a pate recipe - but she couldn't understand a word of it! I am not the biggest seafood fan, but I got carried away in the moment and was ill the next day.
• One of the funniest moments was when my grandad went down the fast water slide for kids and got stuck halfway down and these little French boys went down after him and just climbed over him and carried on leaving him lodged in.
• We travelled in our old school white Mercedes Benz - you know the one with the seats in the back? The thing that always baffles me is that on this trip there was four adults, four children and lots of luggage, tents etc and yet we travelled in just this ONE car. I do remember that one of us got to lay across the luggage in the back and this was the most coveted seat in the house. I guess it was pre-health and safety and some of us were quite little!

Now onto the layout. I am not entirely happy with it. I think I just threw everything at it and hoped for the best, but looking at the finished product I may start all over again. But since I told the story I will share it for now....

I am having some technical issues - so I will just post this for now. 

What is one of your favourite childhood memories?

The king of the swingers baby...jungle V.I.P!

What was your favourite childhood toy? 

Did you collect cabbage patch dolls, Polly Pocket, barbies, beany babies or My Little Pony like me?

Well all these toys were fab, but I had no pics of them and when I think about mini Mel she was always on the swing - whether it be in the garden or at the park. 

So here she is swinging away.

Reaching for the stars - hence...

 This layout was stash lite as I used lots of my scraps. I got my trustee (and much negelected) Slice out to cut out various shaped stars. I then inked them to make them pop and pinned some down with brads. I must admit I did scraplift this idea from the latest Scrapbooksetc magazine. 

 This layout is more graphic than my usual style and I had to be very careful not to smudge the inks - I am usually a very messy scrapper! 
I must admit I can't pass a swing to this day without having a go. Perhaps I should have joined the circus!

Completed for this gorgeous blog.

Daddy's girl...

Since I found this pic at my parents house I have wanted to scrap it. I like the dynamic between us and feel it captures a time when she idolised her older sister and I thought she was a daddy's girl. I found the perfect words on a vellum sheet. I cut out the houses from some new cardstock I got on sale at TKMaxx - gotta love that place! It's strange as I have been using orange in my layouts a lot recently. I journalled round the edge and didn't opt for a big title - another recent preference. It is quite simple, but I wanted the photo to be the main emphasise. Hope you like it Gemmy! x

Retro scrapping alert...

So as mentioned in my earlier post, whilst at my parents we decided to empty out some old boxes in the attic and I found all these exciting old diaries and scrapbooks. After having a good giggle at my melodramatic diary entries and old valentines and love letters (and it isn't it tragic that in this digital age love letters are becoming obselete!?) I realised exactly why I scrap. I scrap: * to remember all the little moments * to laugh at awful haircuts and tragic 90's fashion * to remember the stories behind the pics * to look back fondly on key moments in my life * to capture trends * to record my feelings and interests Below are some examples of my pages. They are stuck into books... I like the stamped border and my doodle style title. These are the books:- I forgot that I asked all my school friends to write about me and I in turn wrote about them. I really enjoyed looking back on this as there were stories and things I had forgotten... My 16th birthday party. I am glad I kept the invite and one of the cards (from a crush!) I like how creative (and resourceful) I was using wrapping paper as the backing paper. I made a profile of myself as different ages in my teens. It was interesting to look back at my taste - not always great reading! Ha! All my birthday parties - pics and even memorabilia like napkins and invites etc. This is a great record to have of all my old friends. So there you go...sometimes I wonder why I scrap. If it is a waste of time. (Even though I LOVE doing it and find completing a layout very satisfying.) But I am sure my future kids will love looking at their geeky mum and what she got up to in her teen years. A lot of the scrapping in very crude and my supplies were limited so I toyed with the idea of rescrapping them, but my little sister wouldn't let me even consider it. I guess it is a study into the evolution of my scrapping style if nothing else.... Why do you all scrap?

It's a beautiful day...

I have been battling with his graduation pics for quite a while. Nothing was working right. I am *quite* happy with this, but do feel it still needs more. I like the understated title though. A childhood pic proved useful for a challenge using a poem about March and flowers blooming. I am happy with this layout, I have had that flower cardstock for AGES and was glad to finally use it for something! I edged my thickers in gold to make them pop. If you have some lovely Spring pics get on over to scrap that poetry to take part...

Some "soup"er pages...and a travelling teddy...

The weekend is in sight and not a moment too soon! I made these pages over the last few weeks and have only just got round to finishing and photographing them. Firstly the travelling teddy arrived from New Zealand and here is my friend's baby having a cuddle with it. Anyone want him next? He has already been to france, Luxembourg, Australia, New Zealand and now England. A layout with some paint rings using a tin lid as a stamp of our halloween pumpkin soup.

The new kit I got over Christmas made these pics of our trip to London's West End to see Stomp a bit jazzier. I painted the chipboard letters to make them really stand out.

Last, but not least, a layout of my fav starbucks hot chocolate using a variety of scraps and leftovers and a paint frame. I used the sketch at the scrappiest as inspiration.

V.excited for this weekend as my sister Mara is coming to stay and we are going to hit up a new cupcakerie and milkshake bar in Manchester. Yay!

What are your plans?? Yes that means you...lurkers! Lol!

The fruit never falls far from the tree...

Soooo excited to see my first DT LO on this great blog. I started this blog just for fun at Christmas as my lil sis had one and you know what girls are like...always want what they don't have. I never thought I would get so involved with the online scrapping community. It's been great though and really inspiring. My competative side means that making a LO for a challenge is more fun than just because. So tbh this poem baffled me at first and I was struggling to see how I could create a LO from it, but then I realised the main message was about selfless love and you don't get more selfless than parents. I felt since the title of the poem was The Giving Tree I needed to include a tree (something I had been planning to do for a while!) The backing paper was daubed to create the apple-like polka-dots. The tree was made of corrugated card that was originally used to package up my lush new whittard plates. I painted it wth acrylic paint and then cut apples from a Saffrass page. I also embossed some apples from a stamp I got at a little postcard shop in Holland. The awesome gold leaf brads were a christmas pressie from my sister Gem.

The title was also made from card. I painted it green and then gave it a light misting.

The cute pic of mini-me was backed with my fav Martha Stewart border punch and then edges with a red stamp pad. I thought that the fact I was clutching my free Natwest piggy bank fitted in with the theme of the page. Isn't the crayon bottle top lush?? I got a pack of 6 for a bargaintastic 50p at the Great Northern Craft Show (or whatever it was called!)

I was really pleased with the homespun feel of this LO. I am glad that the poems have inspired me to scrap some of my older pics as they all need scrapping before I have bubbies of my own!

SO ladies go check it out - you have until the 13th June. The DT are REALLY generous with leaving love on your blogs - which always makes it more worth your while. Or am I the only one who LOVES blog love??!!

We all live in a yellow submarine...

So I couldn't resist scrapping this delish sketch as it was full of my fav shape to scrap with - circles. I chose a "vintage" pic of my sisters, gran and I at the model village near Oxford. I cherish any pics with our gran as she lives in South Africa and so we hardly ever get to see her. The title was inspired by our yellow sundresses and lollies. I love my face in this pic! I was pleased with my uber layered flower. I even topped it with a button and a gem. I inked all of the circles to make them stand out and to give the impression of depth. I matted the photo on some foam from packaging and like the border it gives and how it makes the photo * pop *

An extreme close-up of the flower. Wish I had a better camera.

I doodled round the edge of the page with fake stitching. I usually ink the edges of a page, but wanted to try something different as i had inked a lot on the page.

These aren't colours I usually scrap with, but I enjoyed working with them. My new fav thing to do it to make suns with circles. I punch out loads of contrasting circles and matt a piece of cardtock on top so they peak out. I guess it looks like a scalloped edge - but is the cheats way of doing it.

Looking at it now I am pretty sure the ribbon isn't straight. But I do favour the "shabby chic" approach and never use a ruler to scrap with. That would be too much like maths and I always

* hated * maths!

The post title reminds me of another childhood memory. We always used to sing that song in the car and then say "except Alli whose drowning in the sea" or whichever sister was annoying us at the time - usually Alli! Aren't kids funny? And mean!!

So give me a holler...let me know what you think....

Just the two of us...

So as I wait in anticipation for the hubster to get back from footy and whisk me off to the Imax to see Alice in Wonderland I put the finishing touches to my scrapping the music layout and snapped it (sadly the sun is setting and so it's not great light quality!) I love, love, love this song and it will always remind me of camping trips in France as one trip that was just the girls on dad (the summer we joked that my parents were seperated as we had diff holidays with each!) this was the only tape we had in the car - Will Smith Just the Two of Us - and I loved it even after one hundred plays. Dad did not feel the same. So this is a pic of my sister Mara and i being water babies in Brittany. This was not that holiday as I was about four in the pic and that holiday was when I was 14. It's not a great quality snap, but it has great sentiment attached as I loved those trips. I used blues and yellows and tried to make the embellies look antiquey(sp!?) and vintagey. I distressed and inked all the edges and made the flower from old book pages. I love the big spotty brad and the misted/masked title. Enjoy!