Paella!

I made this layout ages ago now - not for a DT or the magazine, just for me! I took the photo last November on a day out in London with the folks - this was actually in Covent Garden, and I loved the sight of such vibrant, summery colours on a cold winter's day so much that even though I didn't actually get to taste any of the paella, I decided I had to scrap it anyway.

For some reason, I did something I have never done before, which is to fail to measure my page properly before I started. It was supposed to be an 8.5x11ins layout, but I cut it too wide and didn't realise until I had stuck a whole bunch of stuff down so it doesn't fit into that size page protector. I'm not one to be phased by that sort of thing though, and it sits happily in a 12x12 protector until I think of something else! I think the papers are October Afternoon Nightlight (please correct me if I'm wrong!). I have to mention my friend Leanne here who totally inspires me with her scrapping style and was the inspiration behind my use of paint, applied with my fingertips in true Leanne fashion.

Aarghh! Just realised that when I photographed my layout, the little yellow asterisk has moved up the page and is not where it is supposed to be, next to the title. Off to sort that out now...

Back to work tomorrow, and guess what, its going to rain. Typical, after all the gorgeous weather we have had. That'll bring us all down to earth with a bang. But its only four weeks till the half term, and I know that's going to just flash by in a whirlwind of revision classes and invigilation. And its Ed's birthday tomorrow, so at least the first day back has something to look forward to :)

Catching up

So, on Thursday I posted some of my recent DT work for Papermaze, today I thought I would update some of the pages I have made for the magazine recently.

First up, we have a page I created along with a bunch of themed embellishments for the Just the Thing article that the magazine runs. It had to be spring themed in my case, so I went with these gorgeous Heather Bailey papers made by Autumn Leaves. The lyrics and title are inspired by one of my favourite Moody Blues numbers.

The second page was a challenge to use a particularly bright piece of paper from the Basic Grey Urban Prairie line. I used it as a backdrop to this photo of me and Ed out last year when I sprang a kiss on him. Yes, I was a bit drunk at the time! This layout was a bit of a pain in the making - I just couldn't seem to get it right, and ended up chopping it up with a guillotine a few times before I was happy...

Only one more day of my holiday left - I do feel like I've had a good break, but I also don't know where this last week has gone. I've been very unproductive and will have to make up for that in the next few weeks unfortunately. Back to work on Monday, but at least I have the second episode of Ashes to Ashes to look forward to - the plot thickens...

Some DT stuff

Thought I would share a few layouts that I've made recently for the Papermaze blog. Well I say recently, some of them are quite old now but I've been so bad at blogging I've never shared them on here!

First up, we have a layout inspired by the terrible snowy weather we had earlier in the year. The flowers were trying to start their growth and then got covered in ice. The papers were Dream Street I think, and I created some little springs out of them by cutting rough spirals by hand.

Next is this layout, using the same range of papers, about the Pottery cats my mum bought me. I'm a bit mad about cats, so what better than a money box shaped like one! They sit on the windowsill in the study/scraproom/spare bedroom so I thought they deserved a layout (and of course, the colours went perfectly with the papers!).

Finally, we have a layout I completed yesterday, All Bar One. Its just a random collage of photos from our night out on Valentines day this year. They were all bad photos, so this was the best way of displaying them - none of them too big or prominent. The papers are Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday, which is a gorgeous range.

What else have I been up to? Getting the garden tidied up for spring. Well, I tell a lie, I've been watching Ed get it ready for spring! I've also been doing a bit of spring clothes shopping. And I've been watching the first episode of Ashes to Ashes on Monday - yay, the conspiracy is back! Back at work on Monday, not so yay, but at least this time I feel like I've had a proper holiday to recharge the batteries, and some lovely weather to enjoy the time off. So it shouldn't be too bad...famous last words!

And breathe!

What a manic few weeks its been! Appallingly bad blogging again I'm afraid, but when you are desperately trying to get year 11 and 12 prepared for exams something's gotta give, and unfortunately my hobby was that something. No worries though, I've now got two weeks in which to scrap to my heart's content (as well as writing a 2500 word essay, but I'm pushing that to the back of my mind for now).

So, we West Midlands teachers only broke up for Easter last Thursday - that meant one very long term behind us, but a very short one to come. It also means that as my Easter hols fall later than most people's, I'm hoping that the weather will be better than normal (unlikely, I know).

What have I been getting up to since I last blogged? Well, other than working, I've been engaged in the serious business of turning 27. I have been 27 for approximately two weeks now. It was the first time I approached a birthday with feelings of trepidation. I'm now officially in my late twenties - I don't think I can hang on to mid-twenties any longer - and it feels like thirty is just around the corner. And thirty just seems ever so grown up to me. So I had a bit of an early mid-life crisis, but have now managed to get over it.

This was helped by the absolutely fantastic present I received - a Wii fit! This little baby is so much fun - me and Ed are ultra competitive so we have been hula-hooping and ski-slaloming like gooduns in a bid to get to the top of the leader board. I need to lose about 5 pounds to be at the ideal weight for my height - which for 5 foot 7 is apparently 10 stone - so I'm hoping I might be able to achieve that this holiday with regular Wii fit sessions. The Easter egg eating probably hasn't helped in this goal though. My theory here is that if I eat all the chocolate now, I can start with a clean slate. Or something like that...

I do actually have a few pages to share still, mainly because of my terrible blogging. I've had a couple of pages published in SI magazine, and another coming up (so there is proof that I have actually scrapped a couple of times in the last few months) and I also have a couple of layouts that are just made for no reason but to please me (the best kind). Here is one of them: