Scrapbook Layout...........

Something you don't see very often from me, a scrapbook layout. I actually made this one for Kiki's book some time ago, but totally forgot to take it down to London, so it has been hanging around in a drawer for the best part of two years. I found it the other day, and surprisingly - very surprisingly, I am my own worst critic - I still like it. You can see one corner has got a bit bashed in the drawer, but I have flattened it out, and kept it where I can see it so that next time I go to London, hopefully, I will remember to take it with me.

She was four when I took this photo.

I stitched around the gingham piece, then stamped in a lilac ink some flourishes from Autumn Leaves, and dotted a few dewdrops around. The flowers are punched, with buttons in the centre. It must have been before my obsession with threading buttons started, because all the buttons are naked!

Come to think of it, the layout of the page would make a nice card....wheels are turning

Don't forget you have until the end of this week to enter a card into my Promarker colouring competition, scroll down for details. The prize is worth a try....

See you tomorrow

Scrapbooking.........

A picture heavy post today - since I haven't been near my craft desk for over a week now, I am sharing some of the scrapbook pages from the book I made for my daughter Alexandra. I am not really a scrapbooker, but enjoy doing the odd project. These pages were done 18 months ago, the book was a surprise for Christmas, she loved it. Looking at the pages now, I would probably do them a bit differently, but all things considered, I was pleased with it.

Here's her page of her university graduation, I used her university colours, the font used was the Stamped cartridge, the small sentiments are rub-ons and the photo is a bit blurry for some reason........

this is her school days page, with those photos that kids have taken each year, the apples were cut from Doodlecharms, I chalked them in red and covered them in glossy accents....... the tiny photo inserted in the D of the word DAYS was taken on her first day at school. Another Cricut font, roly poly from Plantin Schoolbook this time.


This next one tells a story, she had a beloved koala bear toy called Bobby, that her dad brought back from Australia. My mum taught her to knit, and she made Bobby a little yellow scarf. At the end of our first transatlantic flight to Florida when she was just 5 years old, disaster struck and Bobby was lost. All she had left was the little yellow scarf.......the child was distraught. The next day we let her choose any toy she wanted, and she chose the penguin, which she called Ronald Regan (yes, she was only five!). Ronnie wore the scarf, but it wasn't Bobby...... The next time Mike went on a business trip to Australia, he bought back a replacement Bobby, but he just wasn't quite right, a bit too tall, not quite so fluffy......she still talks about her loss! So this page is all about that, I dug the two replacements out of the attic, and took a photo of them for the page. The koala was cut from either zooballoo or animal kingdom, the silhouette lettering is done with the George cartridge


And this page has a photo she took of herself with her mobile phone, when she was camping at Glastonbury (a music festival). I loved it, and had to use it in her book. The cork tiles list all her interests, I stuck them on in quite a random way, I didn't want them marching in a straight line across the page........

and here is Kiki on Saturday in her bridesmaids outfit - the tiny bridesmaids had flowers and butterfly trails in pink and silver painted on their faces, very different, and so pretty.......

Here is Max getting ready to help Daddy cook the barbecue lunch after his baby brother's Christening..... he is at the age when he gets his pronouns mixed up 'Me are very handsome today Ma' he said when dressed in his new clothes for the special occasion......

and here is baby Beatrix, isn't she adorable?

last, but definitely not least, here's the newly Christened little Milo, who was just faintly bemused by the whole thing

So a real family post today, I was so busy taking care of Monty that I didn't take a photo of that little chap, sorry Monty, but we did have fun didn't we?
Back to the craft desk now, see you tomorrow

Wedding Layout, my birthday cards and a deal for you....

First of all, a very special birthday wish, for a very special lady and friend, Anice, the owner of Funky Hand is having a birthday today, and boy, is she celebrating, read on to the end of the post to see how......................................

Another layout today, I am rattling on with the pages. This one is one of my favourites , the music notes are a cuttlebug die, and the sentiment is cut from the Plantin cartridge at 2.5" with the italic feature, the grey letters are american craft thickers, I like using a mixture of fonts and styles on scrapbook pages and cards

This is the first time I have used the welding feature on the gypsy, to fuse the letters together, and it worked! Here's a peek at the handmade cards I got for my birthday, first one made by Bev, my neighbour here in Florida,

Second from Kath, my good friend and teammate on Funky Hand and Polkadoodles



From Ruth, my teamie and friend on Funky Hand and Polkadoodles. Ruth leads an incredibly busy life and always manages to help others, send cards etc.............that funky hand team is the greatest!




From Carol, my friend and neighbour here in the USA


and from Allison, teamie and another pal from Funky Hand - it's her birthday this month as well, happy birthday Allison. Over at Funky Towers, november is a busy month for us, we have a lot of birthday girls in the house

Thank you all so much, I love them all, I know that there are a few more in the mail that are making the hop across the Atlantic, so will post them on here when they arrive.

How about this for a fantastic deal - Anice, the owner and designer of the Funky Hand CD's is 41 today - happy birthday Anice, and to celebrate, she is giving a 41% discount on anything in her store. Shipping is free to anywhere in the world, so and grab yourself a bargain, use the coupon code 41TODAY to get the discount

A Very Special Card................

Ta da..............fanfare...............this is the card that Kiki, my sweet little granddaughter who was five in August made for my birthday, which was yesterday. She did it all by herself, and even though I know that I am quite ridiculous when it comes to my grandchildren, I have to say that this is a fantastic effort for such a little girl. I think mummy helped draw the heart on the cake, Kiki was responsible for the other decoration (which I am sure is a strawberry)

Thank you Kiki, you are my most special little girl and I love my card

After the realization dawned on me that I have only three weeks to do a 20 page 12 x 12 wedding album, I have been working at full speed on it for the past couple of days. This page shows Lucy, the bride with her sister Nicola. I had all sorts of photos of the girls which were not really that good, so I chopped them into 1 1/2" squares and mounted them onto a strip of white card, which I stitched in pink. I added flowers (Martha Stewart wedding confetti from Michaels) to the sprays of the rectangle of pattern paper, and added another hand doodled spray in the bottom left corner of the plain pink card. The sentiment is chipboard alphas from DCWV. It looks quite pretty I think........

It has been so long since I had time to do any scrapbooking, that it took me a while to get into it again, then I remembered that I just treat it as a giant card, and that helps me get the proportions right most of the time
Did I have a nice birthday? Lovely! I went out for lunch with friends, and out to dinner, so I am rolling around with enough ballast in me to float a cruise ship. I also had some very yummy gift certificates, Michaels and Macy's - how well my friends know me :)

In the Garden - Layout

I made this double page layout to take photos of Kiki, which I haven't even snapped yet! There is a lot of detail on the pages and it's a bit of a new style for me. Cute Card Thursday want a garden theme - here it is. It's not a card of course, but I could never make anything else as 'gardeny' as this. Click on the photos for a close up view.

Underwater Swimming Layout

Max had swimming lessons when he was about 5 months old, and loved it. He is on his second course now, and at 11 months has learnt to grasp the bar at the side of the pool, and launches himself off on his own! Very different to his grandma, who can't bear to put her head under water - well, I can't talk under there can I? These photos were taken by the instructor with an underwater camera, and I love this layout. The chipboard waves around the edge were by Technique Tuesday, I swiped ink pads in different shades of blue and aquas all over it. The letters were cut using the sissix, and glossy accents applied so they look wet. I added dew drops to represent bubbles. To get a close-up view, click on the picture.

Skydiving Layout - For Blog Candy Contest, Scroll Down

These are photos of my daughter Alex. She went around the world in her gap year, and this was taken in New Zealand when she did her first skydive. Luckily I didn't know that she was doing it, or I would not have slept for a month worrying about it. She said it took a huge amount of nerve to jump out of that plane, even though she was in tandem with an instructor, but she did it. I gave her a scrapbook at Christmas, and she sat there looking at it with tears streaming down her face - it was very gratifying! Anyway, I am immensely proud of all the things she has done, and the scrapbook is an ongoing project.

For the layout, I was tempted to use one of those cloud papers as a background, but thought that was a bit 'obvious', so chose these circles, and echoed the circles on the paper to frame the layout. I drew the word 'daredevil' with a cricut pen in black, then cut it out. The circles were done with the cricut, or were templates by technique tuesday, which I inked. Louis, you asked for more layouts - this is for you x

A Jeans and Sweater Kind of Guy - Baby Layout

I had these really sweet photos of Max, taken when he was not quite sitting up by himself, and rolling over on the bed. I thought of calling the page 'going...going...gone' but the baby jeans and sweater outfit he was wearing seemed to dominate, so it ended up with this title. I cut the title letters twice, then chopped them around and stuck them back together again, fiddly, but worth it.

Little Feet Scrapbook Layout

Someday I'll walk through puddles,

take a stroll or run a race.

Someday I'll walk across the street

or maybe walk in space.

Someday I'll scale a mountain

or join a marching corps,

someday I'll walk a tightrope

or explore the ocean floor

Someday these feet will do some things

that only heaven knows,

but for now they're happy

just to wiggle all their toes

The baby feet are cut from new arrival, the silhouette circle is from george. I love this layout, the black and white photos of Max's feet were taken when he was about six weeks old. I found the lovely poem on the internet.

I have had a lovely award from Rima - thank you so much Rima. I am supposed to nominate 10 favourite sites, but have decided to give this award to everyone who visits here, and makes such nice comments about my work. You all make my day!

The Three of Us - Layout

This is a double page layout of Edward, Lidia and Max. I used paper from Nana's Kids as a background, the '3' is cut from George, the other glittery green letters are from a pack I picked up in the dollar bins in Target. On the first page, I put vellum over one of the cropped photos, and cut a circle out over Max's face. I used flowers, as I reckon this may be the last layout that I can use flowers on for this little chap - he is growing so fast and will not thank me for 'pretty' pages. This layout fits in with a challenge over on ArtyGirlz, where the brief was to use green.

Max Bedtime Story Layout

I have these really sweet photos of my son Edward and his wife Lidia reading a bedtime story to Max. He seems very interested in Millie Moo, so I cut the cow out of Animal Kingdom at 4", and the sound MOO at 3". I computer generated the words around the main picture. I wanted this layout to be bright and zingy, and I think it's achieved that, they will be pleased with it - I hope!

Little Brother Layout

I'm discovering that having a blog is hard work!
I've been busy all day
making wedding cards
for a customer - I'll post
them soon, in the
meantime, here is a
layout that I did last year. it was before I got my
Cricut, and I used vinyl letters that I bought
in an office store, I know there may be archival question marks about using these, but they look
good, so I don't care. This was one of the first layouts I ever made, and remains one of my favourites - back to black, white and red again. The funny thing is, unlike most women, I hardly ever wear black or red. Black makes me look about 120, rather than the 40 something I am optimistically (and deludedly) aiming for, and red makes me look like an animated chilli, so I don't know why I am so fond of the combo for cards and layouts.

This is one of my favourite scrapbook layouts. Prettier in real life, I wanted to do a wholly monochromatic page, using the black and white photos of my little granddaughter Kiki and her cousin Dolly all dressed up as flower girls. So the whole page is black, white, grey and silver. The flowers and hearts were cut from george, and the title from mini monograms and jasmine.

Kiki is addicted to the little rides you get in town centres, and I had so many photos of her on them I decided to put them all into one layout. The little train is from Joys of the Season, the little cars are buttons. I found a photo small enough to put her face in the train window, so she looks as though she's the driver.

This obsession with rides came to a climax last summer when Mike and I took her to Drayton Manor Park, a small theme park close to where we live. She just could not believe that she could go on as many rides as she wanted, and turned into a theme park junkie. She watched the teenagers on the coasters, and started throwing her little hands up into the air and waving them about every time she climbed onto a baby ride!