Party time....

So last night we went to a Mexican party at our church. I was impressed with Arne's costume, but they had run out of ponchos in Headingley - must be all the students who like to dress up for nights out. I was loving Arne's fake moustache and my freckles. Sadly we didn't win the prize as the "Mexican" Fiona and Shrek were too good!....

Our effort was little more low maintenance...

In scrapping news I have been wanting to make a double page from my nougat layout (see previous post) with the other pics from the Maltese festa we went to on our summer holiday. So here it is....

I tried to tie the two together by using the same border punch and colour scheme. I made it look as though an explosion of confetti was coming out of the main pic. I used this sketchy thursdays sketch to help me to scrap so many pics of a layout. I distressed all the pics as I am kinda obsessed with distressing pics! The journalling at the bottom describes what we got up to on the festa - like following the band, people watching and pondering in the beautiful church.

Hope you've all had a fab Saturday!

More Maltese memories...

I have been working on these layout the past few weeks and am glad that I was helped along by some great challenges. I am slowly working my way through our holiday pics. The page below is about the nougat stalls which lined the streets of the Maltese festa (it will be a double page - the other side will follow soon.) I have used all of the concepts for Mission to create the doily one had to be my Martha Stewart stamp as I didn't have any. Cream is not a colour I would usually scrap with but I enjoyed contrasting it with the bright red, sparkly thickers and the vibrant polka dot material. I enjoyed Deborah's prompt as I used to use envelopes a lot for hidden journalling, but had somehow forgotten about them. So thanks... My second layout is one of those rare holiday pics that actually features BOTH of us! It has the capital city Valetta in the background which makes a nice backdrop. I used my new turquoise glimmer mist and a mix of different alphas. I am loving my new grey thickers- it is the BEST font! I tried clashing prints which i am always a bit scared of. The twist was to use buttons and I was going to use them to corner my pics, but went for my new funky star brads instead.

In other news - I had my first skype conversation with my little sis yesterday. She is loving Turks and Caicos - although the mossies are loving her a bit too much! Luckily she is still pale as a vampire - so I am not too jealous!

Watch out for the cookie monster...

So I finally had some luck at Iron Cupcake Leeds. The theme was macho men and so my first idea was Mr Muscle Lemon Mousse cupcakes. However I saw the idea for the cookie monster on google and so went for that instead. Here i am with my scrapbooked sign: A close-up of the cakes. I initially made the top with food dyed dried coconut and it lookedl like the right texture, but it tasted awful! My sister and I couldn't even swallow it! So I kept that one for the photo op and then just did buttercream icing. The cupcakes were layered vanilla and cookie dough and then a nutella and coconut layer. I forgot to get a photo of the cross section of it.

The winner - he had actually made the burger from cupcakes and the chips were made from shortbread. His attention to detail was superb although the taste didn't deliver I didn't feel - too much icing and food dye.

I also liked the paintballing ones and felt they were cute and a good idea.

I didn't try these as it didn't appeal, but I liked the idea of them.

My sister Mara came up for the weekend (more on that and the Harrogate craft show later) and she made Yorkie ones.

Although I got no prize for coming third it was a lot better than when I came 15th out of 18 for my mint cupcakes. There were 21 entries so I was pleased with that. Next month's theme is halloween - any ideas?? I was thinking pumpkin maybe?!

Let the good times roll....

A long overdue page about my first car - Harry - the love of my life!! My cute little bubble car. The journalling is all about how I named him after my lovely driving instructor and about the few crashes I had after passing! I used several different papers and cut into them so they didn't overwhelm the finished layout.

Had to showcase something creative as I have been laminating little gold stars all night to try to coax some of the nightmare classes I am timetable to teach this year. Geroan!

A snapshot of my summer...

1) Making a farewell crumble with our freshly picked blackberries...this is the last time we will see Gem (my little sis) and her husband Byron as they have flown off to Turks and Caicos to work for a year. Check out her blog I am not jealous at all! 2) A lovely castle in Luxembourg where we were visiting the in-laws (always an interesting experience!!) This is where our camera came to its end!

3) My first ever football match I have been to...Club Brugges...the hubsters pride and joy. And they lost...booo!!! Or "ohhhhh!" as the Belgian do it!

4) How cool is this teapot?? We had high tea in Nottingham as I caught up with a friend who is teaching in Hong Kong this year.

5) The complete highlight of my summer was Malta - how cool are these buses?? I have made a layout already and will post it soon.

6) My drink of the summer...mint milkshakes! Yum!

7) I have been working on a mini book for my hubby. I know the pics are rubbish see no.5 for the reason why!

8) And these are some of the books I read this summer. Can you spot the ones I have to teach for a-level? I can thoroughly recommend all of them.

I am feeling nostalgic as it's back to school on Monday and another summer has slipped away...but not unnoticed...in fact I need a holiday just to recover from this one!

Summer specs...

Only in summer....do I wear spotty sunglasses! I had a lot of fun with this page with lots of layering and cutting and inking. How cute are the icecream brads? My fav new technique is rippling the ribbon to add more texture and dimension. Another magpie moment I used the fabric tag from a t.shirt and stamped on it and put an eyelet in the other side and then tied some twine through it.

Completed for this challenge about our summer reminders. Mine are icecreams and sunglasses...yum!

Show and tell...

I had a big scrap session last night when the hubster went to play footy. I put Grey's Anatomy Season 2 (I am totally addicted to this show, do any of you watch it??!) on my laptop and made a whole...4 layouts! I must have my mojo back!! I hadn't taken part in Scrapping the music recently and love their current song by The White Stripes. The line which caught my attention, and which reveals me as the geeky teacher that I am, was "show and tell." I felt it fitted well with this pic from our holiday in Malta when we took a tour bus round the Island. I used my American crafts kit that I got for a steal at TKMaxx (gotta love that place!!) and my new glittery thickers (swoon) I even used the map from our tour as I always horde all my holiday bits and bobs and forget to use them on a layout. Aren't the buttons cute I cut out a few of the circles and then glued them onto the buttons.

Sorry for the blurry pics - still using my camera phone. I think since we overindulged over the summer it will be a while till we get a new one :( So you may have to put up with blurry ones for a while!