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...

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!

McFlyday Friday...

Get on over to scrapping the poetry to join in the lastest challenge using Robert Burns' poem - Love is red, red rose...

Sunshine...on a rainy day!

Get yourself over to scrapping the poetry to see the fab creations inspired by Emily Dickenson's poem. Here is my take on the challenge - so take part, there is a great prize up for grabs. This weekend I have mainly been: Obsessing over the X-Factor. Especially Matt Cardle's amazing performance - I have backed him from the start. How about yourselves?

Rocking the weekend...

So Wednesday was my birthday and I was really spoilt. I will post the piccies of all my lovely pressies a little later. It's been a right week and so I am now gorging on my birthday chocs and watching How to Lose a guy in Ten Days - a real classic! I think Kate Hudson is a great comedy actress. I realised I hadn't posted my page for this weeks STP challenge. Skip on over to their blog as it is the anniversary and there is a yummy sketch to use and a poem with lots of possibilities. The poem is all about our strength and mine is my family. This picture is from our wedding day and is just my family - who did most of the planning and organising. I chose bright and funky cardstock to make the photo pop. My funky new fonts are from TK Maxx - a real bargain.

Have fun with the sketch and let me see what you created. Pop by later to see my lovely birthday pressies...including lots of cupcake stash!

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.

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!!!!

First love and a nifty website...

Who was your first love? Some spotty faced boy who held your hand in the back of a biology lesson or the man you said "I do" to across the marriage altar?? My first love was sadly not my husband (although I often wish looking back at some of the others that he had been!) so I couldn't have taken this poem and scrapped about one of the others as Arne is not keen on that!! I do have a sneaky little book with pics scrapped of all my old crushes and teen year boyfriends and I will one day show it to my daughter(s), but for now it is well hidden in my scrapping room. This was in fact the poem that Arne's sister Zara read out at our wedding. I decided the best way to get it on the page was to use one of my fav websites - wordle.net and create a beautiful word cloud with the verses. It is soooo fun and you can choose the colours and the layout. I used it as my photo mat:- I painstakingly sewed all these buttons onto the ribbon border. The photo is bordered with silver heart wrapping paper - I always stash all ribbons and wrappings for LOs. The title is a combo of stickers and lettering from an SEI set and then stickles round the edge. I wanted this page to be quite simple and to focus on the word cloud and the black and white photo from our wedding.

Ahhh what a great layout to create a few weeks before our first anniversary!

The other DT members scrapped about kids, dogs and even Twilight so I cannot wait to see what you all create. There are some cute prizes to win too - so get involved you have until July 14th! x

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??!!

H-H-H-H-Holiday!!!!

Can anyone tell I am excited for half term? Another tough half term is finally over. We have many exciting plans like a secret city break plus treasure hunt (don't I have the best hubby??!) My old school friend is coming to visit on Thursday and Friday too - yay!!! So lots of fun trips planned and hopefully some scrapping. I am currently working on a circular layout - a new thing for me...so watch this space! Don't forget that the blog challenge at Scrapping the Poetry finishes on the 31st May and an exciting new challenge will be up. My first challenge as a member of the DT - exciting huh??! Have a fab weekend guys! x

Exciting scrappy news...

Woo hoo!!!! I have *finally* been selected to join a design team. Not sure I can say which yet...but watch this space and I will fill you in on more details. I got the email as school in my free period and was smiling all day. I shared the news with my colleagues and they looked at me like I was nuts! Non-scrappers just don't get it!! STM latout to come later...

Footprints in the sand...

Just back from parents evening. Brain is a mush. Too much talking. Bad pics of actually a very good layout...but didn't make the light tonight!

Completed for Sarahs cards...