Posing and a Soiree!!

Where do the days and weeks go? I haven't had a chance to blog for a while ... busy with the shop and deadlines coming at me from all directions, and then it was the Jubilee weekend (more on that another time) and half term school hols but I'm grabbing a few minutes this evening to share this layout with you!

I started with this starting point by Shimelle and used mainly Echo Park's Paradise Beach collection. 

The photos were taken a couple of years ago at Salisbury Cathedral when H was in the mood for posing for photos (and believe me I made the most of it and took a zillion!!)

I used Smash calendar tape to add the date! I love these little tapes so much!

The little journalling card behind the title is also Echo Park Paradise Beach, as is the camera and the gorgeous sparkly pink letters are Dear Lizzy thickers

My page came together quite quickly, which is why I love Shimelle's Starting Points so much.

I'm also linking up tonight with Jennifer's Scrapbooking Soiree Link Party.

A great and fun idea to share layouts with other scrapbookers. Read all about it    here!

Thanks for popping in and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Turning Four!

I started this layout ages ago as part of Shimelle's on line crop weekend. I think the challenge was to scrap using grey and yellow, which would not be a natural colour combination choice for me but once I had added a splash of pink and brown I quite liked it.

Inspired by Jennifer who often scatters gems and pearls across her layouts I gave it a try with some little pink and yellow ones for this page.

As you can see it's dated 2007 .... I'm pleased  another photo from the pile of "Older photos of H To be Scrapped" is in my album and the memory recorded!

I've been lucky enough to be able to get along to a crop today and last weekend (2 different ones!) so have been quite productive with my scrapping. Just need to get them photographed now!

i hope you are having a lovely weekend!

Biddys Layout!

I hope you have all had a wonderful long bank holiday weekend!

My daughter was in a show with her dance school on Sunday so our weekend was busy with last minute costume preparations, rehearsals on Saturday and then the actual show on Sunday afternoon but I did manage to squeeze in a little crafting.

I seem to have a pile of "half done" layouts which all just needed finishing off so over the weekend I settled down and got a couple of them finished. 

Last year, whilst in Northern Ireland visiting family, my hubby and I got a rare couple of days away on our own in Donegal whilst H enjoyed some quality time with Grandparents! On the way to Donegal we stopped at the famous Irish Pub, Biddys O' Barnes, nestled at the foot of the Blue Stack mountains. I adore old traditional pubs like "Biddys", with it's original flagstones still on the floor and roaring open fires!!

I used mainly Echo Park's Note to Self papers, alphas and stickers. The brown woodgrain paper is from MME's Miss Caroline collection and I added some brown tiny letter stickers and used my EK Success punch to create the notebook border edge. All the papers are inked with brushed corduroy distress ink.

A fairly simple page but right now I'm all about getting the photos into my albums and the memories written down! 

Note to me: Add the date to this layout!!

I'll be back soon to show you the other layout I got finished!

Thanks for stopping by!

Shimelle's On Line Crop

Oh dear, long time since I last blogged.

I won't bore you with reasons why!

Let's just say life got in the way of my scrapping and blogging time!

Anyway, last weekend the lovely Shimelle hosted an on line crop. I was determined to find an hour or two to scrap. I decided to have a go at the first challenge which was to create a layout inspired by this beautiful page by Jaime Warren. Details of the challenge are here!

I loved the placement of the photo and the papers at the top and bottom and the clusters going off the edges .... so I took those elements and came up with this page:

I am making an effort to scrap some more of H's baby photos - this one is from 2004!

I used up some old Crate Mia paper for my background, MME Miss Caroline Fiddlesticks 6" x 6" paper, Echo park chipboard and some scraps of Crate Random paper and various stickers from my stash!

The scattered embellishments across the page is a new idea for me, but I do like the finished look!

Here's hoping I manage at least another one or two of Shimelle's challenges!!

Budget Challenge for Scrapbook Magazine

It seems like ages ago that I was first asked if I would take up the "Budget Challenge" for Scrapbook Magazine. Of course I said "Yes"!! The next available slot, they told me, was for issue 62!!

I made my 3 layouts using just £10 of supplies, typed up the text and e mailed it off to SBM back before Christmas. Then we had a long wait ... until last week when issue 62 was on sale. I was so excited as I opened up the magazine to see my layouts in print!

Two of my layouts featured my daughter so you can imagine her delight at seeing her photos in the magazine!!

These are the layouts I made using mainly Crate Paper's Random Collection

These photos were taken in the Butterfly House at the Natural history Museum in London.

I punched little circles and positioned them down the edge of the photos to create a scallop border.

More punched circles and punched butterflies make up the row of embellishments below the pictures.

For this layout I distressed the edges of the patterned papers, punched a few butterflies, added a "beautiful" sticker and a title and I was done!

The pink dots on the butterflies are from my pack of Thickers letters. I would usually use gems/pearls but my £10 worth of stash wouldn't stretch that far so I used the full stop instead!

My 3rd layout uses up the scraps of pattern paper that were left. I punched the edges with my bracket border punch and layered them up. I made 3 embellishments from punches circles with a button centre. The journalling reads "On our weekend trip we visited Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, a lovely place with amazing views, pretty cottages and great for taking photos!"

One of the things I found difficult with such limited supplies was only having one pack of letters for my titles and not being able to dip into different packs and sheets of alphas!!

Thanks for stopping by!

FREE P & P in my shop all this weekend!!

It's a FREE Postage and Packing weekend at S J Crafts!!!

To receive FREE P & P on your order this weekend simply enter FREEDELIVERY in the coupon code box & select UK Standard delivery.

Minimum order is just £5!!

UK delivery only!

Offer valid until 11pm Sunday 11th March!

Click here to shop now!

Enjoy!! :)

WOYWW #144

Oh dear, two weeks since my last blog post! Very naughty! Sorry, I have no real excuse apart from being very busy with the shop and preparing for forthcoming classes.

I do love Julia's WOYWW and I can never resist a nosy around all the desks so it's only fair that I show you mine too!!

So, here's how things were looking earlier this afternoon!

You can see that rather large stack of photos - my last order from Photobox! I have been going through it picking out some to scrap. This is how I usually start off when I'm making a new layout. I've pulled out some papers (the ones on my table are the new collection from Cosmo Cricket ) and then picked out photos that work with the papers. Sometimes I start with the papers and sometimes the photos. Next I've pulled out some embellishments from my stash that I think might use on my layout.

There's also my lovely new stamp set and punch that I recently bought at a friends Stampin Up party. I'm planning on using them on this next layout.

Regular readers of my blog will recall my "exploding basket" of stash - look, it's still there at the back of the table - still not sorted - and as full as ever!

Right, I'm going to make another coffee (yes, the one in the photo is long finshed!) and have a nosy around some more crafty desks and then finish the layout!