That's entertainment!

Do you ever find yourself getting bored at a wedding? Sometimes it can seem like such a long day and you often have to wait ages to get any food - a big breakfast is definately a must! One thing I decided when plannig my wedding was that I wanted our guests to have fun between pictures, food courses and the speeches so we came up with some ideas to entertain them and this is what this layout is all about.
We entertained guests with:

• nibbles and some very embarrassing home videos of my sisters and I singing Spice Girls ( I did not okay this - it was my dad being a pain)
•  A Mr and Mrs Quiz on each table with questions about both of us
• Little quiz boxes on each table
• A pinata full of sweets and prizes for the kids - although my The Belgian got first pop at it and almost took me out - a great start to marital bliss!

Here are some close-up shots of the layout...

It was a great layout to use up scraps - even the purple heart ribbon that we used for invites and favours. I think I used a Shimelle sketch of the week for inspiration on the composition - but I can't find it now! I also used up cute little scraps cut from 12 by 12 sheets and also plently of washi tape.I swoon over my blue star washi tape - don't you love it?
Purple and turquoise were out wedding colours and so I took a slight departure from this using purple with browns and oranges - not a colour combo I had ever used before but it just seemed to work really well.

Do you ever find that weddings can drag? What ideas for entertainment have you seen at weddings?

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For more of our wedding layouts see here, here and here

Lily Bee Monday Sketch Challenge

This sketch really caught my eye for a few reasons:

1) I love starbursts at the moment and later next week I will show you an epic layout I made using a starburst.

2) I love stars and recently purchased a big Martha Stewart star punch which I got to use on this layout.

I used the Victoria Park  6 by 6 to create the star bursts and then also the stars and journalling strips. I love this range as the colours are great - bold pink and turquoise - and the patterns are really easy to use - polka dots and my personal fav the bird cages. 

I edged everything in black and then covered it all in a liberal dose of bling - stars and circles. I even hand stitched on a tag as I am playing along with Shimelle's LSNED and my new technique was hand sewing. I am quite pleased with it and think I will have to try a few other tags like this.

 The pictures are from my trip to Thailand in 2007. They are poor quality as they are just saved and printed from facebook and the pics tend to be a bit pixilated - but I've lost contact with some of the girls I went with and the others just don't seem to understand the importance of sharing all their pictures! These were the days before I even had a digital camera - let alone an SLR!

I am pleased with this layout and feel that the star burst, bling and other little details mean that the poor quality of the photos doesn't matter so much and it was still an event that I wanted to scrap as I'm not sure I'll ever get to go to Thailand now I'm all married and broke! Haha!

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Linking up with Lily Bee Design

You might need somebody too...

Above is the proof that I still do scrap 12 by 12. My California 2011 album and my wedding album are still in 12 by 12 and so when I want a challenge (as I now find it!) I pull out one of the pics I haven't scrapped yet and give it a go.
I used a Shimelle sketch as her sketches really fit with my way of scrapping - lots of clashing prints and lots of little bits and bobs and border stickers and washi tape.
I called this layout 'Adopted Parents' as this couple from church were like our Leeds parents when we first got together and they mean a lot to us as couple.
I liked that the layout had lots of space for journalling as I wanted to explain the connection:

A close-up of the title work and the picture.

I was really pleased with this layout and it was great to use up lots of little bits and pieces and try out some of new washi tapes too.
I have a few more 12 by 12 layouts to share with you soon - so look out for them!
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Inspired by Shimelle's July Glitter Girl video and sketch

Simply loving London in 2012...

Although Yorkshire now feels like my home - London will always hold a special place in my heart.
Growing up in Hertfordshire London was only every thirty minutes away by train and slightly longer by car. Some of my childhood memories are of playing on the animal statues in Brent Cross shopping centre, doing the Selfidges run, falling in love with the giant teddies and the kiddie Land Rovers in Harrods toy department and watching street entertainers in Covent Garden. I have created two layouts paying homage to the city that I love.

First a photo collage to show some of the fun we had in London last week for the games.
1) Indulging at the All Star Lanes in Holborn - check out my review here
2) We got the golden *ahem pink* tickets to Handball - more about it here
3) Delicious Mexican street food at Wahaca on Southbank
4) The Belgian having to pedal to turn the fountains on
5) The big swing ride on the Southbank
6) Us on the swing ride
7) Deep fried oreos at Camden Market - so calorific but soooo good!
8) Frozen Yogurt in Harrods
9) Reuniting with my little sis before she jets off to Canada

And now for the scrapping - a homage to the street entertainers in Covent Garden. A great chance to rest your weary feet after a busy shopping day and have a laugh at the same time. I used mainly the Cupcake range by Basic Grey.

The second layout is of the Jubilee so I stamped the title - God Save the Queen. I used the Portobello Road stickers of the Union Jack and some Lilybee Victoria Park range papers. I used Jen's video tutorial from Two Peas as a sketch for this blog as I was attracted to the washi tape strips across the topand the use of buttons for dimension.

P.S I am being guest featured on a *gulp* fashion and lifestyle blog today. Check out Jacy's blog it has some great stories about inspirational women! Go and check it out!

Messy Mondays: Finger painting on pages

Ready for more techniques with paint?

So in the last month I have shared tips for misting with you, using stamps with paint, creating borders with paint and stamps and lastly creating your own backing paper with paint and stamps.

Today I bring you a technique which you probably learnt when you were about three - finger painting! Although I used different sized pencils to create the spots - the little rubber on the end of the pencil works particularly well for this.

This layout is all about our trip to Universal Studios and uses a few pics which I wouldn't have scrapped on their own. I also stamped the title down the side and used Amy Tangerine's stamps to create the journalling spot and then decided that I preferred to leave it blank as an embellishment.

I also tried a technique that I have seen on pinterest and other crafty blogs recently which is wrapping chipboard circles in washi tape to use as an embellishment.

I used one of the Sunday Sketches over at Studio Calico and instead of the confetti or misting I decided to try out this polka dot technique. It worked best with these acrylic paints as I tried it this week with water based poster paints and it was too watery and diluted to create the same impact.

What trends are you loving at the moment?

P.S Later on this week I will be guest posting on Sumo's Sweet Stuff blog sharing how to create a cute canvas for your wall

Jelly Belly World Layout...

Since our first taste as kids we LOVED Jelly Belly jelly beans. I think we first tried them at the delicious food hall in Selfridges. My favourite flavours have always been lemon, coconut and of course root beer. For authenticity I have always loved the watermelon flavour and how it's green on the outside and redish pink in the middle - yum! We even joined the Jelly Belly club too and used to get sent little bags of samples of new flavours before they were released.
So when we were in California for Lewis' wedding last summer and saw a leaflet for Jelly Belly world in Fairfax, just a few miles north of where we were. So once we got the wedding over and done with we zoomed up there and it was worth the detour.

The tour was FREE and you got plenty of sample - see photo below - our favourite part. It was interesting to see all the different steps that went into it.

I went for lots of polka dots and bright bold colour.

The cafe even had jelly bean shaped food and although it was a cute novelty, it was pretty bland pizza!

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The layout for this page was inspired by a starting point of Shimelle's

What is your favourite flavour Jelly Belly? 

Does anyone actually like the chocolate pudding one?!

A treat from the Carmel bakery...

So on the return leg of our California trip we stopped off in Carmel for the day. It was an overcast day and so our beach pics were not as stunning as we'd hoped. We wondered all round, along the beach and enjoyed using the self-timer on our camera to get a few 'group' shots.
We stopped off at an exclusive looking bakery. My husband said he didn't really want anything and so he waited outside with our stuff. My sister and I were licking our lips and chose some tasty pastries and cakes for ourselves. At the counter a bowl of colourful gingerbread biscuits caught my eye and so I requested one for my 'husband' who was waiting outside. A very camp shop assistant informed me that unless I was married to a dog they wouldn't be appropriate. My sister and I couldn't stop laughing at the thought that we had almost brought a dog biscuit for Arne! I expressed my surprise that people would actually buy biscuits for their dogs and he shrugged his shoulders and said,
"Welcome to Carmel!"

So I have used a sketch from an old copy of Creating Keepsakes to make this 'epic' double layout. It took me months to complete it and to make sure it was all balanced. I used stickers and lots of punched out butterflies to embellish the layout and give both sides unity.

Would any of you buy a biscuit for your dog from the bakery?

Linking up to Sian's fantastic storytelling Sunday.

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

Falling in love again...

I was stalling scrapping this picture as it is my fav from the trip.
I think cos it was quite impromtu and we both look happy.
We had just been to see LA Galaxy play and stopped off for a burger at our fav Five Guys Burger and Fries joint! Seriously we need this in England it's so good.
I have been very inspired by butterflies recently, I used my Martha Stewart punch and cut some from some old birthday paper that I kept for this purpose.

I hand stitched round the edge - not a technique I used a lot. It took a while but I liked the finished effect.
The reason for the title is that I always find with the stress of both of us teaching and lots of commitments with church we don't get to spend much quality time together so whenever we have a holiday or mini break we effectively fall in love again and rediscover the romance and enjoy one another again. Is it just me or does everyone find this??
I have been using purple recently as I was inspired by Julie's purple phase. I always loved scrapping with purple, but recently had gone off it. I enjoyed the challenge of using it with a new palette like beige, cream and green. So thanks Julie!
I have just been trawling the charity / thrift shops in my lovely little town. I always forget what a great resource they are, especially when it's a tight month! (which is every month!) I got some black skinny jeans for £3.50 you can't beat that can you? They fit like a glove!
What are you up to blogland?

Taking in the view...

Some self-timer pics. A much needed pit stop from the sweaty car. Mara was asleep and feeling sorry for herself in the car. Check out those hills. Inland San Diego on the way to Julian was the hottest and most desert like weather we encountered.
Completed using Shimelle's sketch of the week. I like circles.

Santa Cruz scrapping...

As the rain drizzles down bleakly in West Yorkshire this colour pallet stood out to me. Summer beckoning from afar. It reminded me of lemon tops, candy floss and fun fairs. So perfect for scrapping our day out at Santa Cruz Pier.

The studio October challenge

My summer layout

 Now play the spot the difference with the below layout from October Afternoon I pinterested it about  month ago and have been gagging to scraplift it ever since. Just check out that cute patchwork grid and the splatters. I had to watch a youtube (I have lost the link) vid to learn how to do it. I ended up using paint and an eyeshadow brush then did the splatters with glimmer mist - just flicking the wand.
Before our holiday I swatted up on my slr reading mags, blogs etc to see how to get really good pics and I was really impressed with the composition, angle and colour of the above pic of the ferris wheel.

The October Afternoon inspiration layout

I hope you like it as much as I do.

San Diego Zoo - going wild for photo love!

How do you fit nine whole photos on one layout?
With a little (or rather a lot) of help from Shimelle I have accomplished it.
 I will show you the steps towards it...

1) Pick a base cardstock and then staple, sew or double sided tape half a transparency

Then back up your photos so that you have two on each side and top them with some embellishment

These animal pics would have been too bland for a layout on their own

 The finished page with the little pull outs peeking out...

The staged final layout. Don't you love the little monkeys?

I will definitely be using this idea for future layouts as I always take too many pics and needed a technique to include them, but still have the best shot as the main focal point.

P.S San Diego Zoo is a fab day out and I would totally recommend it if you find yourself with a free day in S.D!

Summer scrappin' had me a blast....

A lot of the sixth formers I teach tease me about my scrapbooking and some even follow my blog (hi guys!!) so I have started calling it art journalling as I think scrapbooking sounds geeky and amateur. I basically scrapbook so I can moon over all of my travels and relive the trip over again when I make the layout.
I have a California layout to share with you.
So the first thing....inspired by this weeks Sketchy Thursdays sketch... pictures of my sister, Mara, and I in Santa Cruz. We LOVED it here and found a delish bakery (layout to come later) and chilled on the beach and spent the evening on the Pier where they have a huge amusement park. I love this backing paper and the colours all came together really well. I love the sunset picture too - I think Mara is responsible for this!

In other news our good friends the Bensons have moved to our town after a year in Germany - whoop! She was my housemate for a year, the year I first met Arne and we got married two weeks apart from one another - to make sure that she didn't miss my wedding! We took them to the Yorkshire Dales Ice-cream farm today and had a delish lunch, the best part of which was the thick milkshakes - mine was chocolate fudge brownie - hello!

 This is their cute daughter enjoying the milkshake too!

 Here she is on the swing loving it too!

 And we met another friend of ours from church who enjoyed pushing the baby on the swing. She is such a cutie!

So we are excited to have them around and to do lots of fun things with them!

Hello Big Sur!

So the kids were back into school today - only Year 7 and Sixth Form. I was with my new year 7 form all day and they were asking so many questions and looking a little like rabbits in the headlights - bless! I am looking forward to actually teaching soon and meeting my new classes.
I made the most of a free evening as I don't have a busy day at school tomorrow and am still with my form doing admin things most of the day so I got my scrap on.
Please excuse the rubbish pics - light wasn't great but I was keen to blog it. Also we finally got our own laptop on Saturday - yay! To end all the squabbles over my school one and let him play Champ Manager in peace whilst I can use the laptop to watch DVDs and listen to music whilst I scrap in the scrap room - bliss! However, it doesn't seem to have photoshop so I couldn't crop or enhance them.

The pic was taken along the Big Sur and is a fav of mine as we both look nice and it's a good pose I think.
This layout is loosely based around Shimelle's Sketch of the week. I misted round the mat rather than doing the spray paint line.
Hope everyone elses back to school was stress free!

Sitting on a gold mine?

This was the trickiest 4 by 6 yet, I cannot see how the next three months will go with even more pics!
I decided it was time to scrap my pics of our overnight stay at the cute little town of Julian. We were using Lonely Planet and whilst in San Deigo read about an inland detour we could take. We thought that this sounded like a good idea as we had mainly been staying on the coast. When we first arrived in Julian we thought it was a real one horse town and not worth the two hour detour , we also struggled to find accomodation for the night.
Luckily we found a cute inn called Apple Tree Inn and had al fresco stone baked pizzas across the road with a live country / blue grass band. It felt really authentic.
The next day after browsing the farmers market we found a cute little ranch that offered lots of activities. We went for gold panning and spent a few hours at it. This is what I have scrapped about.
We went to Ikea on Wednesday and I finally got me an easel for staging my layouts. I struggled to think of a colour scheme as we were all wearing different colours etc but went for green, gold and read. I stamped the title and bordered it in gold spotted ribbon. Then I matted the photo with gold acrylic paint. I rewrote my journalling three times - first on the original layout, then on a brown paper bag but it was only once it was written on white paper that it stood out enough. I was getting really bored of writing the same thing over again!

 The first inside secret section. A close-up of the panning and a medium shot of me panning for gold. I painted the chipboard embellishments gold to go with the theme.

 The inside page. I used more close-ups of the panning and cut the advert for the ranch out from a little booklet I picked up. I also journalled about the guy who taught us how to pan.

 Overall I am *quite* pleased with this layout. I think I would use this idea again if I had lots of pictures of one event.

Happy weekend! Back to school Monday - boo!